Category — Aish

So Aish'd up...

The Orthodox Union reports,
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Despite a website that does little to induce confidence or detail the NCSY/JSU’s Israel Experience Program at Bar Ilan University, the reality appears to be quite different than I reported.
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The Jewish Tribune reports,

Hundreds of yeshiva students and residents danced with a new Torah scroll down the narrow cobblestone paths of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter last week to inaugurate a building donated by Canadian philanthropist and businessman Leslie Dan.

The facilities will contain Aish HaTorah’s interactive museum of Jewish history. Located opposite the Western Wall, Aish HaTorah has taught Torah to mostly unaffiliated Jewish youth since 1974.

and then notes,

Ironically, the building, built during the Ottoman era, was previously used by an American missionary to convert Jews during the 19th century.

Oh, yes. Very ironic. You see, when it’s Christians seeking Jewish converts, it’s missionary activity. But when it’s Jewish missionaries seeking Jewish recruits to ultra-Orthodoxy, it’s not missionizing at all! Rather, it’s…education.

Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat remarked,

“This requires education. Hence, the role of the building is significant,” he said.

Rabbi Salomon over at Big Aish discusses a very big and important controversy that everyone should spend loads of time worrying about. I am, of course, talking about whether or not one may shake hands with a member of the opposite sex.

This is emblematic of why Big Kiruv is such a problem. They drive people nuts over nothing.

At the end of Hirhurim’s five part series on this controversy (I kid you not), he quoted a famous rabbi who scolded a very religious student on a related matter, saying,

“‘Don’t act like an idiot’” (i.e. it’s not a problem).”

If only Big Kiruv would take that advice. But then again, they’d be out of business.

Who else is promoting the handshaking nonsense? NCSY. And they are in our public school system. This is the kind of nonsense we are tolerating in order to “engage” the “unaffiliated.”

It’s a deal with a black-hatted devil.

I saw “A Serious Man” last night with Halfsours, who contributed ideas to the following.

Do not believe Big Aish. “A Serious Man” is a wonderful film, one of the very best intensely American Jewish movies, perhaps the greatest (excluding documentaries…apples and oranges).

The wise, Orthodox rabbi is certainly not “defamed” as Aish asserts. Not at all. It is he who has the best answer, not the Reform-ish and Conservative-ish rabbis. But his wisdom isn’t accessible, for authentic tradition itself is perceived as utterly fossilized.

It is liberal institutional Judaism that is portrayed as ineffectual to the point of being lethal.

Big Aish slammed it. Big Aish only slams great Indy pictures. Remember what they did to “Borat”?

Why does Big Aish react this way?

Because quality satire is a grave threat to Aish and many ultra-Orthodox people. It is in their interest to pretend that secular world — in it’s entirety — is stupid and depraved.

If the former is too much of a stretch, then they pitch the latter.

Big Aish prefers to restrict its supremacy to Harry Potter films, or even better, the likes of Paris Hilton.

Serious secular culture, and one preferred disproportionately by Jews, is perceived as a much greater threat.

Hat tip: Failed Messiah

JA notes,

Aish knows first-hand how effective missionary techniques can be. Truth, reason, empiricism, all irrelevant. Because Aish knows that with missionary work, the important thing is which organization gets the most face-time with you.

Hat Tip: Off the Derech

David Linn lashes out at Christian missionaries’ “deceptive, slick marketing.” My response is on Jewcy.

Failed Messiah has the story. A new website, Jerusalem University Online, is a deceptive Big Aish front for recruitment of college students to ultra-Orthodoxy.

Aish controls their page on Wikipedia. If you think getting the PR nonsense out of a Wikipedia’s various NCSY pages is impossible, just try Big Aish.

Never the less, Big Aish reveals exactly what about the non-English speaking Rabbi Moshe Hillel’s resume entitles him to be Rosh Yeshiva of Aish HaTorah, the largest non-Chassidic ULTRA-Orthodox outreach organization for American Jewry.

This is Moshe Hillel’s “biography” section of the page.

Moshe Hillel Weinberg was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Kiryat Sanz neighborhood. His father, Rabbi Noah Weinberg was the founder of Yeshivas Aish HaTorah. [1] His paternal grandfather, Yitzchak Mattisyahu Weinberg, was a grandson of the first Slonimer Rebbe, Rabbi Avrohom Weinberg. His paternal grandmother, Hinda, was a direct descendant of Rabbi Jacob ben Jacob Moses of Lissa, author of Nesivos Hamishpat. His mother, Rebbetzin Denah Weinberg founded a EYAHT College of Jewish Studies for Women, a full-time learning program in Jerusalem, Israel for unaffiliated, college-educated and professional women from English-speaking countries. They were married for over 50 years, his mother still living in Kiryat Sanz.

Maybe, Rabbi Weinberg himself has done very little on his own — but you gotta admit — his Mom has done some notable things. And isn’t that what it’s all about?