Even for only a “half-hearted defense of AptriProcessors,” this is absurd.

Tamar Fox writes that,

We should also not forget ways in which the Rubashkins have been generous in the past. This includes donating kosher meat to various Jewish institutions, and exporting members of their small community to even smaller communities that otherwise wouldn’t have had a minyan for the High Holidays.

With all due respect, WHO CARES?!? If they would export their minyan back to Russia (for good) then the American Jewish community should be grateful.

Rubashkin — just another post-war haredi success story.

The Gedoylim Offer Salvation!

One of the many things not taught either in liberal Judaism or Modern “Orthodoxy” (Remember! A little Torah is sometimes worse than no Torah!) is to trust the Great Ones to protect you from spiritually damaging information. This is a popular concept in right-wing ultra-Orthodoxy. So popular, in fact, that a post on this very subject is touted as the most popular editorial ever online for the haredi Dei’ah V’ Dibur, which has strong ties apparently to the Israeli Yated Ne’eman.

In “Why We Censor,” DVD notes,

Yet the spirit of the Western world, in its media, in its science, in its art, in its politics, is a challenge to the authentic Torah spirit from the floor to the rafters.

Learn this. It says it all. This is the Harediban mentality.

What is their solution?

FOLLOW THE GEDOYLIM!

Whoever wants to, is free to go it alone. He or she can plunge in to the treacherous waters of the modern world alone, and try to reach the truth heroically alone. It is a big task for an individual.

The rest of us will take shelter under the banner of gedolei Yisroel. As in the generation of Chanukah, so too in our generation — the gedolei veziknei hador cry out to us all: Mi laSheim eilai!

Whoever wants to reach Hashem should join them!

When even the staid AP newswire starts making quips at Big Aish’s expense, well, you know their inappropriate behavior is pretty blatant.

The AP writes about Big Aish’s “café” that,

AishCafe’s flashy Web presence makes it look more like a gambling site than the religious experience it is.

There are interactive animations, clickable icons and even a mock iPhone to lure in Jewish college students. And, like gambling, it could pay to play.

Check out the British woman speaking on the site as well.

These people are in the wrong business.

It isn’t anything we don’t already know, but, the NY Times reports,

Roubini argues that most of the losses from this bad debt have yet to be written off, and the toll from bad commercial real estate loans alone may help send hundreds of local banks into the arms of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. “A good third of the regional banks won’t make it,” he predicted. In turn, these bailouts will add hundreds of billions of dollars to an already gargantuan federal debt, and someone, somewhere, is going to have to finance that debt, along with all the other debt accumulated by consumers and corporations. “Our biggest financiers are China, Russia and the gulf states,” Roubini noted. “These are rivals, not allies.”

The United States, Roubini went on, will likely muddle through the crisis but will emerge from it a different nation, with a different place in the world. “Once you run current-account deficits, you depend on the kindness of strangers,” he said, pausing to let out a resigned sigh. “This might be the beginning of the end of the American empire.”

Isn’t it only a matter of time before we face at least galloping inflation from the conditions we have created? When we talk about impeaching Bush, Republicans roll their eyes like we are far-Leftists. But one day they will wish they had done just that. They will wish they had removed this maniac while he was still in office, in order to escape being tarnished by the horrific damage he did to this country for decades to come.

A Chassidic man and six other men are facing indictments for beating the shit out of a woman and threatening to kill her for refusing to move out of the community after leaving ultra-Orthodoxy, and for talking to men.

While the right-wing ultra-Orthodox ban careers and secular education, apparently, Baruch HaGedoylim, there is money to be made in brutalizing women. The ringleader of this modesty vigilante was apparently paid $2,000 for his role in this vicious beating.

What neighborhood does this modesty vigilante group feel comfortable attacking woman and threatening her to leave?

Maalot Dafna. Home of the Dark Light.

All the haredi leaders in the vicinity connected in any way to these Harediban criminals should be asked to publicly condemn the violence that took place. If they do not, all institutions they are connected to should be asked to disassociate from these rabbis. If the institutions refuse, then the yeshivas, synagogues and day schools they are connected to should be bulldozed.

Hat tip: NCG

Hopefully, management will take control of these crazed penguins, but the truth is, you know you are hitting home when the frummies start violating Godwin’s Law. I suspect a lot of them are Chabadniks, because, 1) The Rubashkins of Agriprocessors are a Chabad affiliated and supported business, and 2) Chabadniks are notoriously thin-skinned when it comes to criticism. Big Aish and of course, OU types simply don’t behave this way unless they are very young. Even Dark Light type fundies don’t act like this. They just scream about how Evolution is a scam and we can’t understand the reasoning behind some stupid, stupid new Gedolylim ban because WE AREN’T ON THEIR MEDREGAH!!!! Idiots. Anyway, I wrote the following:

Listen up, penguins. Some of us came here way before you people, when you were still shlugging kaparos (oh, right, you still do that, sorry) and cursing the “treife medinah.” And OUR ancestors fought hard for workers rights and conditions, so if you think we are going to shut up because you call us “Nazis,” well, you are in for a rude shock.

We will gladly end the supply of kashrut rather than allow these shenanigans to continue in the name of kashrut. Got it?

So why not just clean up your act?

For those of you confused by all the commotion, it’s pretty simple. I got upset about the disproportionate frum presence at the upcoming Heimesh B’ Heimesh Blogger Convention, and it was picked up by others, and Haaretz wrote about it. Then all hell broke loose.

Aussie Dave felt that Failed Messiah should not have been invited because he is an “anti-Judaism blogger.”

After defending the choice to exclude those outside of this narrow band of frum, Aussie Dave insists no such exclusion took place in any way, and insisted that the fact that “Anyone can register” is proof that the convention is ecumenical. But…there were no claims that people couldn’t register if they weren’t Kookniks…anyone can register for the Agudah convention on Thanksgiving weekend also…but that doesn’t make it a general Jewish convention, now, does it?

ck of Jewlicious is trying to heal the warring camps, but peace is so not happening. Frankly, the Left-wing Modern Orthodox should just move out of the way and let these white hats reveal how exclusive and arrogant they truly are.

The Muqata, who judging by his anger, perhaps misinterpreted my constructive comments about his dork graphic takes some obvious shots, writing,

There are blogs that harp almost exclusively on many issues that plague the Jewish and Israeli world. Be it bashing Rubashkins, exposing dangers to the Jewish community from within, or kvetching in general.

In case you missed it, let’s try one more oh-so-subtle-dig (you know how subtle the frum are),

To build a readership one needs a lot more than negativity. To interact with the JBlogosphere, no one wants to see a mega-kvetcher.

Of course this dude is friends with Ezzie and is going to the Beyond BT shabbaton.

Looking forward to seeing you at the JBlogger Convention next week (you can view it via the web as well), or at the SerandEz/BeyondBT melaveh malka on Motzei Shabbat in Queens.

You know, why don’t they just call the Beyond BT shabbaton The First International Jewish Weekend Ever since it’s pretty much the same as the Nefesh to Nefesh convention?

To clarify what should be obvious but what Ezzie’s pack of heimeshes fail to comprehend, I am not upset I wasn’t invited to be a panelist. Shmarya isn’t upset he wasn’t invited to be a panelist. We are upset that you chose a very ecumenical name when you are catering (pandering?) to a predominantly religious-Zionist based community. That is the issue. Address it, or shut your traps. No one actually cares about the content of this lame-o excuse for a blogger convention. The only thing that is of interest is how you misrepresented it. This is much more interesting than anything else that will come out of it.

…that Shamrya and I were cited in the New Vilna Review in the article, “Is There an Orthodox War Against Modern Orthodoxy?.”

This is a Boston-based publication, and I suspect the name is in part a deferential reference to the Vilna Shul in Boston as much as the “Jerusalem of Lithuania.”

There is something you should know about Big Kiruv, and it requires understanding an axiom of the black hatter-kiruv mindset.

The haredi believes that a secular or liberal Jew is going to hell. Perhaps of equal importance, he believes they he be greatly rewarded if he convinces someone to “become frum.”

So he will lie. Remember yesterday’s blatant lie from Big Aish? Why would they print that? Because they deem it beneficial towards cultivating baalei teshuvahs over the long haul. How does that justify lying? Because it is “pakuach nefesh” — saving a life or a soul. Just as you are allowed to save someone from the czar’s army, so too you are allowed to lie in order to get someone to wear a black hat on shabbos. And so too, places like Neve Yerushalayim and Ohr Somayach will lie to their students and to their families. So and so “just needs a few more months” in yeshiva/seminary.

Modern Orthodox Jews do not generally accept this mentality. But you should understand why Big Aish and other ultra-Orthodox kiruv-institutions are so frequently dishonest and deceptive. They believe that they are permitted to lie to you. At least, they pretend to themselves and each other that they believe that. And they are just smart enough to know that naked ultra-Orthodoxy is not an easy sell. Not at all.

If you were in their shoes, you would also be tempted to lie, deceive, and mislead. A lot. The only difference is, you might not actually do it.

The biggest problem with Big Aish is not that it is the most radical kiruv institution. Clearly the Dark Light and Neve Yerushalayim are even worse.

Rather, Big Aish is consistently dishonest. For the sake of drawing people in and saving their souls, Big Aish lies. We will never convince Big Aish that it is wrong to lie to secular and liberal Jews. But what we can show is that their lies will, over time, cost them.

For their Tisha B’ Av message, Big Aish, always drawing dubious parallels from the secular world, drew from the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Our Sages of the Talmud teach us that we are in exile because of the hatred of one Jew to another. The only way to correct that flaw is to repair ourselves in that realm.

Perhaps the answer to our suffering and long exile is to see other Jews as members of the same team and family.

Perhaps each time God puts us through another round of suffering, His proclamation of “Again,” He is waiting for us to stop identifying ourselves as an individual Jew coming from his separate background and upbringing. “I’m modern Orthodox.” “I’m Reform.” “I’m a Hasid.” “I’m secular.” “I’m Conservative.” “I’m yeshivishe.”

Those characterizations polarize the nation and make it impossible for us to function together as one team. As individual groups, we cannot accomplish what we can accomplish as one team. We are held back by that same baseless hatred which creeps in when we are not one unit.

Perhaps God is waiting for all of us to proclaim in unison, “I am a Jew.” Plain and simple.

Even more importantly, perhaps God is waiting for us to stop seeing others as “He’s modern Orthodox.” “He’s Reform.” “He’s a Hasid.” “He’s secular.” “He’s Conservative.” “He’s yeshivishe.”

Perhaps the answer to our suffering and long exile is reaching the point where we see other Jews as members of the same team and family. Jews and nothing else.

This is a complete and utter lie. Big Aish seeks to make people become as close to ultra-Orthodox as they can get them to become. Additionally, once there, do you think Big Aish would allow you to attend a liberal Jewish wedding with mixed dancing? Would Big Aish’s rabbis would allow you to have a non-Orthodox rabbi perform your ceremony?

Big Aish is less tolerant than any of the non-Orthodox groups Lipman is citing as examples of groups that need to be more tolerant.

Now, I understand that Big Aish is bound by the halachic system, and more intrusively, by an ultra-Orthodox interpretation of it.

However, to then also pretend that Big Aish respects the Judaism of others outside of that paradigm is a blatant and deceptive lie.

Seeking to convert other Jews to your way of thinking is not respectful of their Jewishness nor is it inclusive, tolerant, or unified.

In fact, it is a great example of Sinat Chinum according to this very essay that Big Aish published.