The internal riffs they cause in Jewish families after convincing a person in a slow and patient manner to “do tshuva” are the same as those caused by any other religious group that preaches repentance to their own or outsiders.

They should be allowed to set up their Missions, oh excuse me, “Jewish Centers” or “Chabad Houses”, where ever they want, but others have the right to find it undesirable and unsafe to be around in a world filled with hatred and terror against Jews. Of course impeding the terrorists is vital.

Just as an aside:

I just spoke to my sister about the author you referred to. Her reading of “Dead Man’s Path” by the same author, is that tradition and modernity are best managed through coexistence.

“Maybe you can explain the difference to me.”

Um, I haven’t read the book so I can’t. In any case, it’s irrelevant. Whatever sophomoric conclusions you may draw from a compelling piece of literature need have a practical application for the purposes of this discussion. The practical applications of what you are suggesting — I think — are that Chabad shouldn’t be able to practice their religion anywhere that there are other people, lest they put them at risk. Well that’s just silly. Why stop at Chabadniks? Why not members of any religion, since every religion in the world has had violent opposing factions at one point or another? Why not tell Westerners not to travel in certain areas, lest natives get hurt in their path.

The answer has to be to impeding the evil-doers (I’m taking back the phrase!), not the innocents. How we do that can be a constructive, and ongoing dialogue; what you are suggesting can not.

I would go further and argue that the presence of the Chabadniks in the financial center of Mumbai resulted in the death of secular and non-Jewish people, but even I think that’s pushing it. They have minyan in Jersey City Financial Center which I have complained about as creating an unsafe terrorist attraction.

I just finished reading “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe and I can’t distinguish between the Chabadniks and Mr. Brown, the benevolent Christian missionary whose presence in the protagonist’s tribe in Nigeria eventually caused it’s destruction.

Maybe you can explain the difference to me.

That’s pretty callous, chutzpah.

“Better gay than haredi” I always say.

There are so many non-reported cases of “shaken baby syndrome ” and “sudden infant death” that go uninvestigated because of their public protests against autopsies, that they might as well just put out garbage cans for their infant’s bodies to be dropped in. They are going to be pregnant again in a few months anyway.

Missionaries of any religion know they are at risk of harm when they choose to go out and prostelyze. Is that heroic? How you answer that question depends on whether or not you agree with the brand of religion they are preaching.

Yeah.

We’re headed nowhere good.