Posts from — June 2007

I expect nothing from mainstream Jewish organizations when it comes to victimology. Nothing. We never, never, miss the chance to insist that the Jews of Potomac, MD and Scarsdale, NY are in the same boat as all of the historically oppressed.

So I expect nothing of the mainstream Jewish organizations. But you would think at least here, the far-right would do the broken clock thing and get it correct by pointing wherever the Christian right did. But no. Suddenly they start ticking to the same syncopated drummer as the other Jewish organizations.

JTA reports,

An Orthodox group is backing hate crimes legislation.

Agudath Israel of America announced this week that it is urging the U.S. Senate to pass a bill endorsed earlier this year by the U.S. House of Representatives. Current hate crimes law deals only with crimes committed against those carrying out a federally protected act, such as voting.

I would point out how the laws are not fair, and bring proof about how current hate crime laws are not applied evenly when, say, white people are specifically targeted by minorities, which absolutely happens.

But I don’t have to argue that the hate crimes won’t be instituted fairly. I don’t have to bring proof. Because people are being quite brazen about their duplicity.

The JTA reports,

The new law would expand hate crimes to include all criminal acts that single out minorities and vulnerable populations, and expand such populations to include gays, women and the disabled in addition to racial and religious minorities.

Why not just call this bill the “Hate Crimes are Extra Bad, Except Towards Regular White People, Then It’s No Big Whoopâ€? bill? A crime against someone because they are white will entail less of a punishment than a crime against someone for being anything else.

Do you think white Christians are going to miss this slight of hand? Do you think they won’t resent stacking the deck specifically against them? How is this nonsense going to lead to anything good? If you think I’m pissed, how do you think they are going to feel?

Watch every Jewish organization support this stupid bill. Watch j-bloggers pretend the issue at stake is that hateful crimes against, say, gays are “not okay.”

For this we have a rare moment of unity?

Hat tip: Jspot

There was a time when the B’nai Torah were quiescent Jews strongly tied to the Mussar Movement.

Apparently, that stuff was for the Diaspora.

YNET reports,

In recent years, the renowned Lithuanian Ponevezh yeshiva in Beni Brak has been engulfed in a violent struggle between two rival factions over who will control the institution. The conflict began after the yeshiva’s legendary head, Rabbi Elazar Shach, became ill in the late 1990s and had to be replaced.

Two camps immediately emerged as contenders for the throne: The first led by Rabbi Beryl Poversky and Rabbi Gershon Edelshtein (the heir-to-be of 95-year-old Rabbi Elyashiv), and the second headed by Rabbi Shmuel Markovich.

In the most recent incident related to the power struggle, the yeshiva’s administrative director, Aharon Gertner, was arrested Wednesday after police claimed he attempted to assualt menbers of Rabbi Markovich’s faction with an ax.…

To my haredi supporting friends…let me aks you a question. Do you really believe that these are isolated incidents? Do you not see a problem here? The violence is occurring at the top of the (supposedly) most prestigious Lithuanian-style yeshiva in Israel.

If this is the behavior by the elite of the B’nai Torah, isn’t it time you concede that the right-wing ultra-Orthodox community is a basket case?

Hat tip: Failed Messiah

A. Pinsker writes in the NY Press about her experience dating a
baal teshuvah, and what that meant in terms of her own half-Jewish identity. She writes,

I found a path back to spirituality that I never really owned as a yoga teacher. The book, The Jew in the Lotus, tells the story of all those who come to the Dalai Lama asking for spiritual guidance; his response was, “Look to your own faith.�

The question for me became, was it mine to have?

One day I summoned all the courage I had, and I asked our rabbi and trip leader if I was Jewish or not? “You have a Jewish soul,� he told me. I breathed a sigh of relief. Good, I’d always thought so. “You are a part of the Jewish people but not part of the Jewish religion.� That was exactly how I had felt growing up.

This is not a bad explanation, and I have long felt it about (paternal) half-Jews who identified with their Jewish side. The idea that the father doesn’t count at all has long seemed irrational and counter-intuitive.

But of course, I would reject the idea of a Jewish soul (because I don’t understand what that means), but rather, differentiate between halachically Jewish versus being part of the Jewish community even when not halachically Jewish.

Of course, I was told by haredi kiruvniks that according to Torah Judaism, my gentile cousins were not in fact my family members.

You gotta love the haredi kiruvniks.

Cross-Currents has a great article deploring the behavior of Israeli teens in Poland. No, really.

Jonathan Rosenblum writes in “Negating the Past, Dishonoring the Present,�

The egregious behavior of secular Israeli high schools students in Poland – long a source of embarrassment – has now reached such a crescendo as to threaten Polish-Israeli relations. The May 25 Jerusalem Post quoted the Polish ambassador to Israel, “[H]igh level relations are not in danger, but the image of Israel in Poland is.� And the Israeli ambassador to Poland went even further saying, “the relationship between Israel and Poland is in danger.�

The latest in a long-line of scandals involving the behavior of Israeli teenagers on visits to Poland was triggered by a report in the Polish paper Prezekroj accusing Israeli teens of tearing apart their hotel rooms, playing soccer in the hallways of their hotels in the middle of the night, engaging in the lowest imaginable behaviors, and of humiliating the flight attendants on Lot Airlines, the Polish national carrier. The Prezekroj article was, unfortunately, not the first such report to surface in recent years.

The most charitable explanation for the behavior of the Israeli teens is that they were undergoing some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder after the jarring experience of visiting so many mass graves and concentration camps[...] That explanation, however, is too charitable by a considerable margin. At the very least, it would suggest that something is dramatically wrong with Holocaust education in Israel if what the Israeli high school students witnessed in Poland so shocked them that they lost all sense of boundaries.

Rosenblum offers an explanation for the Zionist teens abusive behavior from the greatest living Jewish writer, Ahron Appelfeld, who is not particularly appreciated by Israelis.

A few years back, Appelfeld accused Zionism of having followed the path of modern ideological movements in its negation of the past – in this case, the history of the Jewish Diaspora. The result, he said, is that many modern Israelis have “amputated their past� and left a “black hole of identity� in its place.

Appelfeld went so far as to accuse modern Israelis of having internalized the anti-Semites’ critique of the Diaspora Jew to the point that everything “that obliges them to remember that they are Jews makes them flinch [and] aroused disgust in them.�

Whatever the cause, this has to stop, and it has to stop now. We cannot have Zionist punks threatening international relations between nations and communities. This is as absurd as it is obscene.

Gawker opines the knishery would make a great new bank branch because, “Despite an endorsement by Heeb magazine, there’s no way this is still a viable business.â€?

Heeb’s editor Rebecca Wiener hits back, and suggests perhaps they should at least get the name of “our beloved knishery� correct when fantasizing about its demise.

As Heeb notes, the name is “Yonah Schimmel,� not “Yonah Kimmel.�

Learn it, Shmeggeges.

And a Kvetcher Exclusive on New Special Knish (Probably) Coming This Weekend: Mozzarella and Wild Mushroom. So get your lactaid pills.

Update: Gawker corrects name and deletes mention of Heeb. Too late. Owned…so owned.

American Conservative published an interesting article by Philip Weiss, who was pushed out of The Observer after it was purchased by Jared Kushner, a Chabad supporter.

Weiss writes,

My writing was becoming increasingly anti-Zionist. I visited Israel for the first time last summer, and in the West Bank, I met a South African who told me conditions were worse there than they had been under apartheid. When I got back, I posted a photograph of Arabs forced to worship outside the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem because of heightened Israeli security, and a reader of my blog launched an “investigation� and called the photographer, evidently thinking I’d doctored the image.

I knew that Zionists were lobbying The Observer, writing to my editor and the new owner. Peter once said he got more e-mail about me than anything else in the paper. One of these e-mails, copied to me, said there was a “cancer on The Observer.â€? That was mild. Others commented as “Phil Weissâ€? and purported to confess my bitterness over bad book reviews I’d gotten or said they had loved having sex with my Christian mother-in-law. One wrote that he wanted to “cut off your head and s–t down your neck.â€?

One day Peter mentioned that the new owner had passed along one of these complaints and reminded him that the pro-Israel community was one he cared about. Peter said that he defended me, though he asked, “You’re not a Holocaust denier, are you?� “Of course not,� I said. “Good, I thought so.�

Ugly stuff, suspecting an anti-Zionist of Holocaust denial . But Weiss came late to this game, and has important gaps in his knowledge that are disturbing. He conflates Chabad with “the hassidim,� and presents their position on the West Bank as normative of Chassidim, when it is a minority Chassidic viewpoint.

Still, some of his ideas, while hardly original, are not expressed frequently, and are not popular public discussion points.

“The Jewish community had defined Jewishness as attachment to Israel, and it was not coming to grips with the effect of that attachment on the Arab world or the United States.�

Yeah, well…I worry about that also.

This is pretty disturbing stuff. As we know, many clerical abuse cases in the frum world have first been exposed on the Internet. But this time, it’s a Jewish blogger himself who was victimized.

Radloh of Seven Fat Cow explains why he declined his settlement offer, and reveals both his molesters’ identities, and his own.

Vilnius’s not-very-popular Rabbi Krinsky isn’t seeking power and communal infrastructure. Never! He’s just “mammish mesiras nefesh!â€?

Hirshel Tzig made a composite of his pro-Chabad comments on a new post, “Setting the Vilna record straightâ€? to show how reasonable it is for Chabad to take over the Vilnius Jewish community against their wishes and against their traditions.

I would like to analyze some of these comments, as well as others from his earlier post that Hirshel did not see fit to repost.

Mottel writes,

“Let me tell you all, don’t believe me . . . Go fly out to Vilnius and spend time speaking to the local Jews in Lithuania. If you need internet I can recommend a good internet cafe for you to e-mail me your results from. As well, throwing in Moshiach matters has Zero connection to the story at hand. We’re speaking about a very small community here, where two shuls are not needed . . . but in any event Rabbi Krinsky runs things from the Chabad house which is a de facto shul.

In other words, if you want to dispute the community’s contention that Chabad has no right to take over, you have to go to Vilnius yourself first and see if that’s the case. However, if you want to believe us that this is really what they want, you don’t have to go to Vilnius, you can just believe us. Ana wrote,

“For the record, in many towns in Lithuania there was a majority of Chassidim (Like Rokishok), and their decendents are still around today. In Kovno a few old ladies came over to me and told me with pride that they shtammed from Chabad!)�

Hirshel actually saw fit to print an argument on his own post claiming that it wasn’t clear at all that Chabad wasn’t an integral part and parcel of the normative traditional Vilna Jewish heritage and experience. Let us be clear, the majority of Vilna was NOT Chassidic, and certainly not Chabad. This is absolute drivel. Do not listen to this sort of revisionism without laughing in the person’s face.

Hirshel himself writes,

“There’s no need to bring any “what part of lita was Chabad?” into this conversation. “

Of course not. Because if you do, the answer is YOU DON’T BELONG THERE!�

Milhouse wrote,

“I like the claim that Burshtein “shares its traditions and customs”. What traditions and customs? Before Krinsky came to town there was no yiddishkeit at all. Every single shomer shabbos in Vilna is the result of Krinsky’s work. “Local leaders continued to look for a rabbi, a Litvak like them.” Is Burshtein really like them (what “them”?), a mechalel shabbos and chazzer-fresser?â€?

In other words, the minhagim of this community does not need to be respected since they are not religious after 70 years of Communism. Chabad is perfectly entitled to step in and ignore their communal history.

Now, compare this to the 2004 article “Quarrels keep Vilnius synagogue closed,� in the non-Jewish Lithuanian newspaper The Baltic Times, and tell me who seems more reasonable and more respectful of the Lithuanian Jewish community?

“VILNIUS-The only practicing synagogue in Vilnius was closed on Aug. 30 for the third time this year due to unresolved arguments between the Jewish Community of Lithuania and the Chabad Lubavitch organization[…]For generations, members of the Vilnius Jewish community were known not only as followers of Gaon, the renowned commentator of the Talmud and the Torah, but also as strictly opposing the Chassidic movement.
Therefore, during the interwar period, Chassidic followers had almost no property in Vilnius that they could nowadays reclaim.
Finally, in 1994 Rabbi Krinsky established Chabad Lubavitch, the first Chassidic community in Vilnius[…]
According to the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Krinsky started calling himself chief rabbi about three years ago on the Internet and in the Lithuanian media, despite the fact that no elections were held to elect him.
Still, the Jewish community refuses to recognize Krinsky as their rabbi. Over 500 Litvaks signed a document strongly disagreeing with the Chassidic rabbi’s candidacy.
“We have suggested that our rabbi and Krinsky could take turns in celebrating mass. However, he did not want any compromises,” said Alperavicius.
In February a group of Krinsky’s followers gathered secretly to elect a new council representing the Jewish community. The documents were later sent to the Ministry of Justice for registration.
“Where and when in the world did one organization [Chabad Liubavich] have a right to re-elect the leaders of another organization [Gaon followers]?” wrote Milan Chersonsky, editor of the Jewish community newspaper Jerusalem of Lithuania. “Fortunately, their intents failed because the Ministry of Justice realized the legal null of the documents.”
During the Litvak congress, while supporting traditional Gaon followers’ positions, Litvaks from 13 countries signed a resolution declaring that the actions of the Chubad Lubavich leader are a matter of great concern.

Full story.

Rabosai, our brothers in Lithuania wish to follow their ancestors, and resist Chassidic aggression, ESPECIALLY Chabad, even as they are publicly mocked, and their wishes and history denied. Suddenly we are supposed to believe that this ancient epicenter of resistance to Chassidus – ESPECIALLY Chabad – is in need of Chabad leadership.

Listen to these Chabadniks’ insanity, as it demonstrates they don’t have a leg to stand on, or they would say something that actually made sense.

Right, Hirshel?

In this week’s Ask the Fundamentalist, Ben in Austin asks our favorite Ohr Somayach column “if a person is held responsible for actions he takes in the dream world.�

This isn’t an easy subject for me to bring up. Many of you, probably more than I’d like to admit, attempt to enter a dream state in a dangerous fashion. Some of you probably think that if it works, it’s okay. Well…it’s not.

Dark Light explains,

“It’s worth mentioning that our sources also describe similar experiences that are induced through impure techniques involving magic, witchcraft, demons and other elements of “the dark side�. Of course, even just the use of these methods is forbidden and punishable, regardless of the content of the experiences they engender, because of their association with the “other side�.

I realize that I generally restrict myself to subject matter involving the conscious state, but I feel it is my duty to personally ask all of you to please, please, cease and desist utilizing witchcraft and demons for achieving higher spiritual states.

Kosher dream directing only!

Dark Light is an NCSY recommended Yeshiva.

The JTA reports on

“the power struggle between those in the Vilnius Jewish community who support Krinsky and backers of Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, a Litvak rabbi who came to the community in 2004 and shares its traditions and customs[…] Meanwhile, local leaders continued to look for a rabbi, a Litvak like them. They found Burshtein, a St. Petersburg native and former refusenik who estimates that he was detained by the KGB some 40 times before immigrating to Israel.

Burshtein was elected chief rabbi by leaders of the country’s religious Jewish communities. His installation at the synagogue sparked an eruption, beginning with fisticuffs in the shul between pro-Krinsky and pro-Burshtein factions during Shavuot services in 2004. The fracas was covered extensively by the local and foreign media.

Burshtein later reportedly was roughed up by Krinsky supporters. Krinsky and his followers were barred from the synagogue; they countered by holding vigils in the courtyard for months.

The community took Krinsky to court, the rabbi retreated to his Chabad center and the synagogue was closed for more than a year.

It reopened in August 2005, and morning and evening services are now held daily — without Krinsky, who presides over his own services in a first-floor room at the Chabad center that after two years he still describes as “temporary.”

At stake in the power struggle is which side will benefit from the long-awaited restitution of Jewish communal property, which in Lithuania eventually will include at least 200 buildings and an estimated $60 million in compensation for property that cannot be returned.�

In targeting Vilna, the home of their ancient antagonist, the Vilna Gaon, Chabad seems motivated by money, power, and a desire for revenge through domination, and the symbolic ironic triumph such domination of Vilna’s Jewish community would represent.

And still, even now, Vilnius’s Jewish community valiantly resists and struggles, while the Orthodox Union and the Agudath Israel is silent. The Agudah I understand — they are only interested in haredi communities. The normative Litvish Jewish communities have nothing to do with them.

But the Orthodox Union? How dare they remain silent!

I would beseech all Chabadniks to remember that Vilnius is not yours. This is very bad form on your part, and we are all watching you misbehave there. Why not respect that not every Jewish community needs to be Chabad? Why not leave the capital of Lithuanian Jewry’s religious leadership to Litvaks?

Full background on Failed Messiah.

Update: The Anti-Tzemach weighs in, dismisses Litvish Jews who want to retain ancient communal norms and traditions as “Cossacks.”