Desperate Letter From Girlfriend of Darklight Recruit
I received the following email from a woman concerned about her boyfriend’s attendance at Ohr Somayach. Well…she should be concerned. She should be very concerned.
I’m writing with regards to your post “Checklist for Steve Brizel” on Ohr Somayach.
Please do not use my real name. While I can’t answer all of your questions, I can give you a few answers and share my impressions with you.
My boyfriend arrived at Ohr Somayach [time frame deleted]. His life has already been turned into a living hell. He actually enjoys the classes, finds them interesting, and is very impressed with the quality of the rabbis. It’s what goes on outside of class that bothers him and me. From what he’s told me, it comes very close to a brainwashing cult. There is no Internet access on campus, except for two computers that are broken and only allow access to web-based email accounts. I can understand them wanting to block porn downloading, but do not see the logic in blocking access to newspapers or sports scores or things like Facebook. They are clearly trying to isolate the students from the rest of the world as much as possible. Students are discouraged from reading newspapers, except for local Charedi ones.
He also feels that he was misled as to what the school would be like. They told him there were lots of activities outside of class, there was a gym, they had sports teams. They have none of that. They are in yeshiva from 7 in the morning until 11 at night and have no time for anything else, even jogging.The students beyond first year all wear the standard yeshivish garb and long beards. Many went to top universities and had good jobs that they have since abandoned. Expressing a desire to return to the workforce or law school/med school is seen as a weakness. Another goal is to get the students married off as soon as possible. They’ve already told my boyfriend to break up with me, because I am not frum enough[...]His parents are really worried. He had a good job, was well-educated. We’re all worried he’s going to turn into some sort of zombie!
Despite NCSY finally adding Modern Orthodox religious study options for public school Jews after a mere three decades (wtf?!?) of haredi options only, the haredi relationships are intact, and with their own expansion, growing. Please tell parents that NCSY is absolutely sending public school teens to Ohr Somayach/Neve, and other places like them, and they are recruiting public school students to various programs directly from the public schools themselves, through the JSU. Look at the problems the haredi ones create even for fully grown adults. Then imagine what it does to naive eighteen year olds coming straight from public high schools…
You imagine. I don’t have to imagine.
15 comments
sigh….this act is getting old…
“An orthodox man in Brazil cheated on his tax returns - DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS TO NCSY or this will happen to you!!!”
Yes, that’s exactly how you sound.
RLK,
Let me ask you a question. Why does NCSY need to ally themselves with Ohr Somayach/Neve and other RIGHT-wing Ultra-Orthodox organizations? Why? Would they not be succeeding in their mission if they didn’t send kids into that level of haredism?
Seriously. Explain it to us.
Why? Why not drop them?
RLK- I disagree. Usually DK is speaking in generalities, in this case he is demonstrating that he isn’t the only person who feels that the right wing of Orthodoxy lies to get kids/adults into yeshivot.
My question for this guy is, why doesn’t he investigate other yeshiva options? There are plenty of yeshivot in Israel, and most of them share rabbis, if he’s really so uncomfortable, then he should look around. If, instead, it is just his girlfriend who is uncomfortable, then I think that we have another issue altogether.
I think the guy resents the bait and switch, but does not share his girlfriend’s and perhaps his family’s general concerns.
Thank you for posting this DK.
What has happened to your friend the assimilaision blog?
it is down.
So have you gotten past the whinning stage to the take back the community stage yet? How about writing those letters warning about the dangers of JSU to every Federation, JCC, and public school that JSU is working with?
Make a serious two page letter with quotes from others on the evils of dark light and the dangers of Evangelical cults. Email it to every Jewish newspaper and JCC. Email addresses are available online.
We can take back the community but we have to start the campaign already.
Write to congressmen that it breaks down Church/state by letting them into public schools. Cite some cases where Evangelical missionaries were kept out.
To Arms!
Stanley — I am not sure. Maybe Aish reached out to him? I suspect they did. I would if I were in their shoes.
letters already,
There are some positive developments going on at NCSY. I would like to believe they hear me a little bit, and do not not dismiss all of my concerns in their entirety (even if they demonize me personally), because they see the many liberal and secular readers who comment both here, but especially on Jewschool, and see that they tend to share my concerns.
And it is easy to destroy. But NCSY isn’t really my main target. They do good as well as not so good. I can always increase pressure. I would like to see if perhaps at some point, they will talk with me directly. They have refused to do so as of yet.
But at the end of the day, NCSY reports to the Orthodox Union, who has a very capable and reasonable spiritual leader, Rabbi Weinreb, who is ultimately running the show, and he has been given an additional contract. It could be that he is watching over and influencing these developments.
While I believe my concerns are valid and important, they aren’t the whole picture, as NCSY is not monolithically haredi, and the Orthodox Union simply isn’t generally haredi. The whole picture is more complicated. I would prefer not to deliver body blows. This is too close to home, even if it isn’t home itself.
I would shut down places like OS and Neve Yerushalayim tomorrow if I could, but I can’t. But NCSY…they work with these horrible places, they do some recruitment for these horrible places, but they are not the same as these horrible places, and they are (finally) quickly adding other non-haredi places.
Considering these factors, I am not interested in causing them serious harm. Just applying pressure.
If NCSY would just stop sending public school teens to the haredi BT places and Touro…it would be such a different situation.
“They are in yeshiva from 7 in the morning until 11 at night and have no time for anything else, even jogging.”
This is BS pure and simple. I studied there and I jogged or rode my bike almost daily [except Shabbos]. There are numerous breaks throughout the day.
Furthermore, if he’s not happy there then he can leave. No one is forcing him to stay. This girl [assuming this is a legit letter] is full of baloney.
I can understand if she doesn’t like the fact he’s there. After all, if he becomes observant and she isn’t their future together isn’t looking good. But no need to make stuff up.
DK, Stanley, and all our other friends, weee’re back, better than ever! We now have two bloggers on the site, and we hope to have more. Plus, you can always contact us if you want to do a guest post. Thanks for all the support.
The anti and the assimilaishionist
zzzzz oh man i care so little i almost passed out
Too bad we can’t make you care a little less, Fran.
I’m sure ur site traffic will do that for fran
Oh noes!! They’ve banned the internets!!! They are completely cut off from the outside world. Oh, apart from email. But who uses that to communicate? Not having on site access to sports scores is clearly the work of a cult.
Yeah. They should allow Facebook and ESPN and everything. That’s bound to make it easier for everyone to get a turn at the few computers that are available. Hell, you could probably check your email in minutes rather than waiting in line for hours for someone to add all the fantastic new facebook apps. It’s almost as if the place is a yeshiva and not an internet cafe.
Poor guy. His life is a LIVING HELL!!! Well, apart from the classes which he really enjoys and speaking to the rabbis that he really respects which apparently takes up his entire day. But the rest of it, that’s a LIVING HELL!!!!
Hmm. Maybe they told him to ditch his girlfriend simply because she’s a hysterical simpleton.
I was at Ohr Somayach and know they have a football team. They have nearby basketball courts where students play. There are constantly students, biking, walking, jogging and working out.
Students at Ohr Somayach are not put into a system of 1st year, 2nd year and so forth. They may leave or stay any amount of time. It is their choice and money that keeps them there.
Most of the students who are there for more than a year do not wear long beards nor do they all dress the same.
Oh, please, Yoel. They dress increasingly yeshivish to show how much they’ve ‘grown.” Yeshivish doesn’t necessarily include a long beard, so no wonder you used that as a false proof of moderation.
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