Posts from — October 2007

There is, as many of my readers probably know, a tradition in Judaism that at any time, there are thirty-six righteous men. One of the stranger parts of this tradition is the expectation that they are usually hidden…their righteousness and importance unknown.

It seems to me that this tradition is itself a warning. That the people in power within the Jewish community are often not the most morally worthy candidates, and that the infrastructure of traditional Judaism is moved by other forces besides righteousness.

The disparity at haredi institutions between what is preached and what is practiced is worse in the baal teshuvah communities, where skepticism must often be relearned. I have found that many staff members at institutions which preach humility, downward social mobility, and even poverty to baal teshuvahs are beneficiaries of significant wealth, and therefore, communal power,

This is hardly a secret in the haredi world. But it is so utterly nauseating, it is amazing to me that there aren’t many more BTs who visibly recoil in utter disgust when this is finally understood, at least in the U.S., where such things are much harder to hide, because everyone speaks English, and the wealth of institutional leaders and macher families is less hidden.

Many frum skeptics spend a lot of time on the net talking about hashkafa and philosophy. I think it is the former BTs who spend disproportionately more time talking about the corruption and nepotism. We aren’t used to such behavior like the haredi FFBs, or even the MO. And the haredim rule their world like a suspicious Bedouin tribe.

Some BTs try to explain away this problem, and try to swallow it when others claim that these are flawed individuals, that they aren’t really frum. If they were really frum, they wouldn’t behave like this.

They are really frum. They just aren’t tzaddikim. The frum world is not run by tzaddikim, who are very few compared to the average frum. The frum world is run by those with money, power, and connections, i.e., nepotism.

The secular world is relatively much, much better about such things. It is like comparing England to tribal Iraq. Why would any of you want to switch to tribal Iraq?

The following was briefly posted before I took it down. “Fran” and others have noted that it should remain public, and have insisted I was wrong to take it down. I have decide they are probably right, so I am reposting it.

Out of frustration that goes back months, to the censoring of Baruch Lanner information on NCSY’s Wikipedia page, I turned a fragment of a private hate email from Fran into a post yesterday, and justified it that “Fran” is relatively anonymous. But he/she may not really be completely anonymous, as some NCSY staff, volunteers, and perhaps even a few campers are monitoring this blog, and may know the other posters.

So I took it down, and I apologize for posting selections of Fran’s private email.

However, Fran remains in moderation for now.

The AP reports via Haaretz,

16:29 Palestinian convert to Judaism sentenced for helping brother plan attack (AP)

And deletes reference to being an “allied agency” of NCSY. Back to,

“The mission of Jewish Student Union is to get more Jewish teens attending public high schools to do something Jewish! That’s it! It’s that simple!!!”

Bullshit.

Apparently, a couple of frum bloggers are discussing NCSY. Frum bloggers discussing NCSY means they will have about as skeptical an eye as an Artscroll “history� book reviewing the policies of Gedoylim. Still, in the comments, some interesting things are never the less seeping through.

Like this one – from a woman who felt the worst was expected of her. Who felt this way from NCSY staff, because she didn’t go the Touro or Stern College route. And when you don’t do dual curriculum (if you must do college), this happens:

“I feel like, through NCSY’s lens, I am a success story vis-a-vis frumkeit as a result of their influence, but in spite of my own personal choices. Each time I run into a former advisor I am treated to the same pleasantly shocked expression while my appearance is digested. As much as I appreciate that my reality is at statistical odds with the reality of most former NCSYers who chose secular institutions of higher learning, it still HURTS when confronted with the ASSUMPTION that because I did not go to Stern or Touro that I must have relinquished my spiritual identity (which I obviously did not).�

This is the vile youth group you have let into our public school system. These are the people you are trusting with our teens. Everything I have been saying that I learned from NCSY’s own documents and from NCSY’s own stated policies. And such policies are echoed by others anecdotally as well.

Hat tip: Ezzie

There are a couple of new blogs challenging Big Kiruv that deserve monitoring, and not just by Big Aish. One is the Kiruv Awareness Network. This scholarly blog approaches issues in traditional Judaism most BTs would find repellent if they understood their widespread intensity, like this post, on “Attitudes and Laws toward the *OTHER*.” Absolutely disturbing stuff. Like this beauty from the oh-so-moderate Zionist leader, Rabbi Abraham Issac HaCohen Kook.

In the book “Orot,” Orot Yisrael chapter 5, article 10 (page 156), Rabbi Kook wrote: “The difference between the Jewish soul, in all its independence, inner desires, longings, character and standing, and the soul of all the Gentiles, on all of their levels, is greater and deeper than the difference between the soul of a man and the soul of an animal, for the difference in the latter case is one of quantity, while the difference in the first case is one of essential quality.”

In addition to other posts, see the links section for important rebuttals to various “proofs� and infamous charlatan/machers in the Big Kiruv business.

Another blog I think is important is “The Journey Off: A frum girl’s journey off the derech,â€? which warms even my cold heart. It’s touching, personal, and from a woman’s perspective, which is great, and desperately needed. And I find a many of her posts interesting, and quite relevant. Like this post, which noted,

I have one frum relative - a 2nd cousin whose family I am actually pretty close with. He’s also a baal teshuva, having become frum through NCSY and then going way beyond. He’s spent the last couple years in Israel, learned at the Mirrer.

He got married the other night[…] It was the first Orthodox wedding my father has ever attended. He had some warning about what it would be like especially since hearing about the rapid engagement process (my cousin got engaged about two weeks after meeting his now wife) but he was still quite surprised about some of the details, such as the mechitza that divided the room for everything, including the dinner, dancing and even my cousin’s parents.

The BT couple was engaged after two weeks, and everything was segregated at the wedding even to the parents of the bride and groom.

Now that’s an NCSY success story!

When you don’t go to Touro or a dual curriculum school (assuming you are going to college at all, which one should not assume), you end up with hanging out with a bad crowd, instead of accountants, lawyers, and guys planning to move to Israel as soon as they graduate and do daf yomi. You usually just do.

Look at Chaim. Chaim is was probably a nice guy, but he went to Columbia, and now look at him.

The NY Times reports,

Chaim Lazaros, 23, a student at Columbia University and an independent filmmaker, founded Superheroes Anonymous to bring to New York as many superheroes as he could for interviews and to record them for a documentary he is making about the movement.

“I found these people on MySpace,� Mr. Lazaros said, referring to the social networking Web site, “and I knew I had to tell the story.�

Hat tip: MK

It can’t always be pleasant to be in Dr. Goldman’s shoes. As the leader of the Jewish intactivists, he is surely the target of some rather unpleasant vitriolics. And yet, he keeps his cool. I admit I find him quite reasonable.

This was in a recent interview in the Boston Globe:

Q. The Bible says circumcision originated as part of God’s covenant with Abraham. Forgive the flippancy, but what’s your beef with Abraham?

A. I have no argument with religious Jews. They’re not part of our audience. They’re going to interpret that [text] literally and do exactly what it says. Taking on the fundamentalists - in Christian religion or Muslim fundamentalists - I don’t think there’s much chance of them changing their views.

It should be noted that while many intactivists believe underage circumcision should ultimately be outlawed, Dr. Goldman does not advocate such measures.

Ezzie, a popular right-wing Modern Orthodox blogger who enjoys good relationships with select truly modern and even secular bloggers (though not me), is a fundamentalist. This is what he terms an “excellent� post by another one of his fundie friends.

“I was sitting next to the parents of a girl that Fudge had met during her brief involvement in NCSY (the National Conference of Synagogue Youth), and whom she had kept contact with for a short time afterwards. I hadn’t heard anything about the girl, who went to Public School, for a few years, and had (to my discredit) already mentally written her off as another casualty of the American Jewish Holocaust.â€?

This is not a “Holocaust.� You are insane. This is people leaving. People have a right to leave. This is not a crime against humanity.

See comments section – Jewish Atheist lets him have it, and Ezzie actually defends PsychoToddler’s term.

I think it is important to have this discussion. Not because we are going to get anywhere, we are not getting anywhere with these people. But it shows how fundie the RWMO people really are. And as Godol HaDor has frequently noted as has Tzemach Atlas, this must not be overlooked. These guys are a real problem.

I would argue they are the biggest problem in terms of domestic Jewish fundamentalism. The right-wing Modern Orthodox are the most dangerous, as you let them get closer than you should, and then they stab you in the back, kidnap your children, and sell them to the haredim for a few shekels, or even for free, in hopes of gaining their always elusive approval.

Pictured Above: A concentration camp of the American Jewish Holocaust known has Harvard. Ezzie and his partisans try to rescue victims and bring them through the heimeishe underground to safehouses such as Touro, where public school survivors need not worry their pretty little heads on such things as challenging secular academics.

But bangs his own thumb!

Michaelson writes an essay in the Forward that in part I found excellent. Some really great points on tackling Jewish engagement. But he also makes some serious mistakes.

And then he swerves into far-Left land.

First of all, Michaelson claims,

“Steinhardt, an atheist, has spent a decade funding synagogues and religious institutions — and now he complains that they aren’t reaching atheists like him. Why is this a surprise? What’s needed is a belief in culture: artists, arts organizations, magazines, independent publishing, cultural education.�

This is complete nonsense. Even outside of Birthright, Steinhardt spent much of his largesse on cultural institutions like Makor, Hillel, and Jewish music festivals.

“No think-tank of white, straight men over 50 is going to create a Jewishness for smart, diverse, often multi-faith young people who shape their lives in the age of the iPod.�

I understand the “over 50� jab, but I do believe there were important women in Steinhardt’s organization and among his consultants, but if that wasn’t the case, fair enough.

But you are upset that there were too many white Jews, Jay?

What exactly do you think this is, a government sponsored initiative where “underrepresented minoritiesâ€? must be present in order to even start the meeting? Where “diversity” is trumpeted above all else? This is actually at least in part about promoting endogamy. At least in part. And the fact that there are gay Jews does not obviate that concern about Jewish continuity.

And we are dealing with the future of Jews. Not the future of South East Asians or Blacks or Hispanics.

Look in the mirror and deal with it, Jay. Hey, you don’t mind if I call you “Whitey,” do you, Jay?

I Like Jay Michaelson, and I think he is a smart guy. But when he gets on stage, he plays to the same, small fringe time after time. For instance, when I went to a Zeek release party, Jay instructed us to close our eyes and meditate on a string bean. I am sorry, but this is not for everyone. This is not for many people. This is not even for many JewBus.

Jay Michaelson creates exactly the type of “self-congratulatory bubbles� Michael Steinhardt is sick of pouring money into.