Posts from — January 2008

Oh, Haskalah Central is packing heat this week. There is a treasure of a Forward article on the Spinka situation and the chassidic culture from which he descends, and Allen Nadler writes it the way it should be written. Nadler has to be a Litvak…only a Litvak would write jokes like this, I would bet you serious cash that…yup, sure enough. Check his bio at the end of this other article.

A classic Hasidic adage assures that it is within the Rebbe’s power to bestow believers with “offspring, long-life and sustenance.�

And speaking of “sustenance,� at least one contemporary Hasidic Rebbe is allegedly also blessed with the power to grant sophisticated money-laundering and tax-evasion services to his supporters.

Nadler has another zinger.

“His Honored Holiness our Master, Teacher and Rabbi of Spinka, Shlita� — was busted by federal agents in Los Angeles on December 19, along with his gabbai, or personal assistant, Rabbi Moshe Zigelman, and four co-conspirators, on charges of having defrauded the American government of almost $35 million

Nadler examines the culture of the Chassidism in Romania, which is where Spinka comes from.

Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin — who, you’ll recall, was also the very man suspected of putting out the hit on Oksman and Shvartzman in the Mayseh Ushits. Following his release from prison in February 1840, Rabbi Israel fled Tsarist Russia to the Austrian-ruled Rumanian district of Bukovina, there to establish the wealthiest and most unabashedly materialistic dynasty in Hasidic history. As the Israeli scholar David Assaf has richly documented in his magisterial biography of Rabbi Israel, this Rebbe inaugurated a uniquely opulent style of Hasidic leadership that spread like prairie fire to Hasidic courts all across Rumania, modeling itself after the decadent lifestyle of Central Europe’s most debauched royal families. Rabbi Israel unabashedly demanded enormous sums of money from his Hasidim (presumably without offering kickbacks or illegally inflated tax-receipts). He wore outrageously lavish, silver and gold-laced outfits, favored royally decorative walking-sticks, was serenaded to sleep by his personal orchestra and was transported in a gilded chariot said to have been drawn by a dozen white stallions (some say six Arabians, while others argue three Rumanian nags). And he infamously was fond of declaring, as a kind of personal motto, “All the money in the world belongs to me.�

How close was Spinka?

“Less than a hundred miles east of the palatial courts of the Hasidic dynasties established by the Ruzhiner Rebbe and his heirs, lies the tiny Rumanian hamlet of Spinka…”

The full article also addresses the Romanian chassidic courts who fought the “opulence” and corruption of these type of Romanian rebbes.

It seems the U.N., in its quest to have Africa in its entirety circumcised (because it helps prevent AIDS much, much less than condoms do), is relying on methods that seem not-so-voluntary. Not so voluntary at all.

afrol News reports,

The government has planned to train enough medical personnel for the operation and that uniformed men - police, soldiers and students - will be the first to be circumcised.

And what if they don’t want to be circumcised? Does this affect their job security? Does this affect their financial aid for schooling? What happens if they refuse to be circumcised?

Well, it appears to be Dov Bear week here at The Kvetcher. Anyway, I missed this post – Dov Bear fingers those responsible for “romanticizing� the haredi lifestyle to Anglo-Jews.

None of the three organizations he lists are strangers to us.

fundiewatcher claims that,

The victim is a Princeton graduate, religion major, raised LWMO, who believes in the Breslov truth. He has been sincerely living an externally haredi life, but this shows that one cannot be haredi and still want tolerance, civil society, understanding, secular knowledge and other western values.

The Haredi life is against western values and there are many Yeshivish and RWMO who mistakenly think that they can have the best of both worlds.

For the victim to protest for tolerance, wearing the Torah-true garb of a chassid undermines the haredi world. You cannot have it both ways.Don’t blame this on a few extremists. No haredim want to be retrained to follow American tolerance and civil society.

fundiewatcher also added,

“His folks are LWMO [Left-wing Modern Orthodox] and still are.”

The NY Post reports,

About 150 residents of a pricey Brooklyn apartment building were forced to evacuate yesterday when authorities found something not kosher - an unsafe, illegal matzo factory, fire officials said.

Two grain silos used for baking matzo were discovered in the basement of the posh building on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, said FDNY Deputy Chief Joe Woznica. He said grain becomes “highly explosive” when processed.

“Residents were living with two large bombs in the basement,” he said.

The formerly commercial building had been converted illegally to rental loft residences, and was cited for several code violations, authorities said.

Residents were forced to stay somewhere else or go to a temporary shelter set up at a nearby school.

Hat tip: Seven Fat Cow

Haaretz reports,

“An American immigrant was attacked and beaten Sunday night in Beit Shemesh by a gang of ultra-Orthodox zealots, in what appears to be an escalation of tension between religious groups in the city.

T., who is himself ultra-Orthodox, was kicked, beaten and threatened with further violence in an attack that landed him in the hospital. T.’s car windows were also smashed. T., who asked to go unnamed, has been active in trying to stem the recent tide of Haredi violence in the city.

“A bunch of goons, maybe 20 or 30 guys, attacked me - it was like a pogrom,” he told Haaretz. “They kicked me, beat me, and then just left me there. ”

A spokesman for the Beit Shemesh police said the case is currently under investigation.

“We have a few leads,” spokesman Shmulik Ben Rubi said.

Yeah, right. Nothing ever happens to the assailants. The haredi community always protects their guilty.

Congrats to Emes v’ Emunah for breaking the story, and to Dov Bear for details of the attack. This story was first reported by these two bloggers. Not by Haaretz.

Rabbi Harry Maryles reports,

“an innocent man was severely beaten in Ramat Bet Shemesh. I just received a phone call from a source informing me of this. Why was he beaten? What was his crime? It was organizing a peaceful protest against exactly this kind of violence a couple of months ago. His car was vandalized. The windows were smashed. And he was beaten to a pulp!”

I would just like to note that it is imperative that we stand up to exactly this type of haredi-bashing. I recommend the following: deny that there was any violence, but only speak in terms of, “If there was violence…”

Insist that the people utilizing violence against those attempting to thwart the wishes of the Gedolim are individuals, and by no means representative of the general haredi will.

As much as possible, try to shift the focus to the reasonable demands of the haredi leaders, and attempt to cast the Modern Orthodox resistors as selfish and not really religious.

Whenever someone compares increasing haredi violence (usually against the Modern Orthodox) to Islamic fundamentalism, fall to the ground and bang your fists on the floor and scream like a three year old denied a cookie.

If all else fails, write a screed against blogs. Remind the faithful that your community is a victim of a vast haredi-bashing conspiracy.

Update: Don’t miss Dov Bear’s haredi bashing piece where he demands that people actually “do something” about the haredi right to beat up Modern Orthodox Jews who get in the way of heimeshes who just want to live a (daas-)Torah lifestyle.

Further Update: The vicious beating by the haredim appears to have been ordered and executed by a breakaway group of Breslovers. What shock…the assailant fundamentalists are a wayward group of chassidim. See Dov Bear’s exclusive.

Identity: The man beaten is Tuvya Stern. He is apparently not Modern Orthodox, but rather, a Left-wing Ultra-Orthodox Jew horrified by the violence and antics of the haredim. He is a hero.

You have to feel bad for the Jewish Press writers. Some (by no means all) of them are actually lucid. Some of them secretly read real periodicals…not like the Jewish Press. But these Jewish Press writers service the heimeshe velt. You know…ignoramuses. So how do you call for your predominantly moronic fundamentalist readership to take a more responsible energy policy?

Shlomo Greenwald writes on The Jewish Press Blog,

We know what owing favors to Arab countries in the Middle East often means–sacrificing America’s strong support of Israel. Now what would happen if this year sales for cars that get better gas mileage increase 3 fold or more? And what would happen if 100,000 Jews this year bought or leased a hybrid or otherwise more fuel efficient vehicle? The trend would be off and running, those kinds of cars would start becoming more mainstream, and sales would increase next year, as well.

I’m not suggesting anyone spend more than he can afford. But if you can afford it, wouldn’t it be another great way to help support Israel?

Notice how tentative Greenwald writes…only IF you can afford it…no call for mass transit, no call for increased legislation in such matters, or federally sponsored research and development…just a call for maybe getting a hybrid…IF you can afford it. For popularity purposes.

I suspect it is possible Greenwald knows and accepts exactly how bad things are because of our oil addiction…but he has to appease his tax-hating Republican Frum-mobile gas guzzling readership that hates anything “liberal.�

Look how Greenwald subtly suggests the frummies should reconsider their anti-intellectual stand against anything environmentally inspired. He tries to pull a Jedi mind trick.

“It seems to me that an increasing number of Orthodox Jews would scoff at requirements or incentives for automakers to create cars with better gas mileage, or for measures to ensure alternative fuel sources. Indeed, at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit taking place now, environmental concerns are the hot topic.�

Did you see that “indeed� pivot? Go, Greenwald!

Heeb’s humor editor tackles the question, “Is Heeb secular?” In…where else? The Forward! If you want Deutsch’s perspective on one foot, it is,

And Heeb magazine? Well, it is certainly Jewish, insofar as it’s all about you-know-who, but secularist? That would imply that Heeb has some sort of overarching view of the role of religion in Jewish life and culture, and that definitely isn’t true.

Deutsch, by the way, is himself an Orthodox Jew.

As we know, Giuliani is banking on a win in Florida. He certainly targeted Florida as his best bet for a variety of reasons, but let’s be honest. One of them is that there are a lot more Jewish voters there than in the other states.

So in his interview with Ami Eden and Ben Harris, he was asked,

Why do Jews (even some Jewish Democrats) like you?

The Mayor responded,

“It may just be familiarity with my policies and my programs and the success that I had in NY and my long-term support for Israel…�

Full Podcast