Category — Blogger

I always thought that Luke Ford’s crush on Amy Klein was cute. Amy was in my circle of friends when she lived in NY, and I certainly could understand why a fellah would have a thing for her. But I had no idea how intense it was. Intense as in, say, a personal story about it by Amy in the f’in New York Times!

Amy Klein writes,

… Ford and I settled into an uneasy relationship: He wrote nasty and stalkerish things about me, and I ignored him.

But it wasn’t easy. His blog’s popularity ensured that when a potential suitor or editor searched for information about me online, Ford’s posts were the first to appear.
[…]
Time and again I heard friends say with alarm: “Hey, Amy! Did you know there’s this guy on the Internet who writes all these things about you?”

“Yes, I know, he’s my cyberstalker,” I would say with resignation.

Although in truth it was oddly flattering to have someone obsessed with me, even someone like Luke Ford. We humans are egotistical creatures: We look through other people’s wedding albums searching for pictures of ourselves, so of course we can’t help but feel flattered by someone who follows our every movement, and even writes poetry about us. Under the title, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Amy Klein,” Ford wrote (quoting the Four Seasons):

Oh, I used to love to make you cry.

It made me feel like a man inside.

If I had been a man in reality,

You’d be here baby, loving me,

Now my nights are long and lonely.

And I ain’t too proud, babe.

My friends, suitors and editors were worried, but at this point he had been writing about me for years and never approached my residence or called or even sent me an e-mail message. “Don’t worry,” I told them using my favorite “Hitchhiker’s Guide” reference. “He’s mostly harmless.”

Needless to say, Luke Ford himself has been pretty excited about this article, even pretending that it was more negative than it was.

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.

In response to my post on the banning of Extreme Godol Hador from the Hirhurim blog, Rabbi Student noted the following in comment three of that post:

1. I have banned XGH a number of times over the past year or two and he keeps coming back. Most recently, I banned him at the end of July.

2. As a general rule with some exceptions, I do not allow heresy on my blog or in the comments sections to my post. Note that I do allow exceptions. Reshimu does not yet have a set policy on this in general but I have been given permission to maintain my current policies on my section of Reshimu. I answered XGH about this on Hirhurim repeatedly. I only lashed out at him for a very specific reason and after numerous attempts to stop the discussion.

3. I have no interest in frum skeptics and while I wish them well as people, I do not want the types of discussions they carry out on my blog. Those discussions detract from the experience of the vast majority of my readers.

4. As to my using unorthodox (and un-Orthodox) venues, I have never indicated any opposition to doing so and I am surprised that it is even an issue worthy of discussion. Although, of course every case has to be evaluated on its own merits.

Prior to the announcement that Hirhurim has joinied forces with Tzemach Atlas, Luke Ford, and others in a new group blog, reshimu, Rabbi Student took a strange last dig at an old nemesis on Hirhuirm. He banned eXtreme Godol Hador, the most popular of the current frum skeptics blogs. He seems to be quite upset about it, and I just want to let him know that surprising as this may seem, not all of us are in tow with Rabbi Student. In fact, XGH once commented on this here blog, and I let it pass without even a threat. Anyway, according to XGH, Rabbi Student defended this decision to ban him with the following words of praise,

“Like it or not, you are a nihilist. You believe in nothing, stand for nothing, and only get pleasure by trying to tear things apart with your oh-so-clever attempts at logical pigeon-holing. And then you protest in your innocence that you are only searching for truth. No one believes you except your self-affirming skeptical friends. Please take your cynicism and hit the road.’�?

I know for a fact that Rabbi Gil Student has utilized non-Orthodox sites for kiruv “conversation” purposes, and find his sudden inappropriate public assertion of XGH’s supposedly purely nefarious motives a cheap way to silence legitimate questions. Considering where he is going now, this is even more difficult to understand.

Hirhurim was about to announce his intention to close his blog in order to bolster Reshimu when he banned XGH from Hirhurim. Perhaps he is sending his new partners a message. It seems more likely to me that a person like Rabbi student did think this out, as he is a bright and calculating person (I don’t say that in a negative way…this is true of any leader worth his weight).

Still, XGH has not taken this lightly, and has attacked Rabbi Gil Student in numerous posts, and has also attacked the intolerance of RWMO (right-wing Modern-Orthodox) and LWUO (left-wing ultra-Orthodox) leaders. Best of all, there are a lot of Rosh HaShana/Teshuvah tie-ins. And since he has been banned from having his opinions heard, I feel obligated to amplify his defense and counter-attacks.

Let’s take a look.

“that’s exactly the kind of remark which makes me sick of the so called ‘faithful’. As if they are so pious because they refuse to question their beliefs! As if they are so holy because they refuse to use their brains! As if they think God (assuming He exists) will reward them for acting like a**holes! And God will punish honest skeptics for not being able to force themselves to believe in Him! (that last one was aimed at chaim b). And on top of all that, they are so freaking two faced it’s unbelievable.�?

XGH asserts that Rabbi Student will allow heresy if money is involved.

XGH asks, if I am so wrong, what are you afraid of?

The proof of this is that the skeptics NEVER censor anything. Why? They don’t need to, because they are not afraid of rational discourse. However the believers ALWAYS are censoring things. Why? Because they are AFRAID of rational discourse, because they always lose. I lost all respect for Gil when he started censoring comments. Of course he can censor trolls or pritzus, but he cuts off any discussion when the skeptics start winning. He wants to post his DH apologetics, but then he doesn’t want to debate whether the DH is true. What a fraud.

XGH notes that his buddy Dov Bear finds Hirhurim annoying also.

I hesitate to write this post because I’m genuinely scared of the possible consequences, but what the heck. One of the things that has always annoyed me and DovBear is Hirhurim’s holier than thou attitude, refusal to link to our blogs, and general demeanor that DB and I are just ‘blogscum’, and he is too pious to link to us.

OK, we didn’t like it, but it’s true that Hirhurim was always an extremely respectful blog, while me and DB tend to rant and rave sometimes, so we let it slide. He was a little hypocritical back then too, feeding me and DB the juicy stories and inside information that he couldn’t post himself, but OK, that’s fairly normal in the media world. Different outlets have different standards and all that.

XGH calls on Skeptics to do Teshuvah. Of sorts. Step one is Blame.

XGH also offers Teshuvah for Believers, including:

I am sorry for committing the sin of arrogantly asserting that my sub sect of my religion is the one true sub sect.

I am sorry for committing the sin of arrogantly asserting that my religion is the one true religion.

I am sorry for committing the sin of falsely accusing skeptics of being arrogant and only running after their taavos [desires].

I am sorry for committing the sin of intellectual dishonesty.

I am sorry for committing the sin of pushing skeptics further away from Judaism by falsely accusing them of nihilism.

I am sorry for committing the sin of pretending to have answers when really I have doubts.

I am sorry for committing the sin of hypocritically bashing the right wingers for calling me a kofer [heretic], but then turning round and bashing those to the left of me with the exact same accusation.

Anyway, XGH, you shouldn’t let the RWMO hardliners get you down any more than you should let the RWUO hardliners get you down. Do you lose sleep when a Chassidic rebbe says something off the wall? No. Ain huchie numi (So too, here also).

Update: Rabbi Student responds in comment three.

A blogger named Samurai Mohel has taken issue with my most recent post(s) about NCSY on Jewschool. Despite his preference for name-calling, he does not appear to be haredi, something that is immediately clear because he actually links to the post he is attacking, as opposed to haredi defenders who attack the article or blogger in question but do almost never link to it, lest they lead you to sin or forbidden information. Also, it makes it easier to look like you won the argument, at least to those who don’t believe there is any debate in the first place.

Anyway. Let’s look at Mohel’s actual rebuttals, which though explained only a little, in between Mohel’s very great and justified outrage at me daring to question NCSY’s role in public school high school education and their wonderful role in helping to get our kids (but only a minority! And fuck the minority!) to attend haredi institutions. And of course, Mohel is upset at my unbelievable “idiocy” and “stupidity,” which is only lightly *proven*, I suppose, because his readers all know that anyone who has issues with any kiruv organization or any aspect of kiruv clearly is a third class retard and probably had problems before they began to question kiruv organizations.

Most NCSY kids will not go on to Haredi institutions and many who do might actually want to because they find them more philosophically compatible. Many of the adult Baal Teshuvas I met also wanted religious extremes. Many joined Chassidic groups. That was their choice.

Most NCSY kids will not go to haredi institutions. So what? I am worried about the ones who do. I would also like the numbers for those who do, but NCSY has refused to reveal that annual number. Which makes me concerned it is not a low number at all.

Additionally, I do not believe that the public schools are the right place for recruiting even a minority of students into fundamentalism. It doesn’t take a majority for me to determine that this is a problem. That is simply not what public schools are for, and not something most liberal and secular Jewish parents understand is happening. There is nothing on the JSU or NCSY’s site that suggests this is considered an acceptable option that they will facilitate and even push, depending on the counselor.

Mohel mocks my concern about NCSY’s expansion into the public schools, noting,

And next they’re taking over the world! First the public school club. Then America. Then the world. Then Mars! Then the last remnants of sanity in David Kelsey’s rotted brain! Then Alpha Centauri! Then DimensionX. There’s no stopping NCSY! Warn your kids! Warn your dogs! Warn your talking plants! Their “Dean�? is coming after you!

In fact, this rebuttal makes no sense. I didn’t make any reference to a “next�? anything, except to voice concern over what is fact. The fact is that NCSY is in our public schools. All the name-calling and strange assertions of some insane conspiracy theory does not change this fact.

NCSY is in 170 of our public schools. But since this is no threat, just offering choices and education, I know Mr. Mohel and all the frummies will reciprocate. Since they value open-mindedness so very much.

Just as you are in our schools, you must allow us into your private Orthodox High Schools for our own “clubs.” And when I say us, I mean atheists, Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, and especially, Apikorsim.

Don’t worry, only a minority of your kids will become hardline atheists. Most will just have a healthy exposure to agnosticism, to the conflicts between literalism and scientific method, and a better understanding of Documentary Hypothesis. Stuff like that. It will help craft Jewish identity.

Fair is fair. And there is nothing to fear. Right, Mr. Mohel? No reason for paranoia or hysteria. Let us come speak to the frum kids at your schools and at after school programs, just as you come to our schools and speak to our kids.

Let’s start with the school kids in your synagogue attend. No? Then get out of our public schools, or at least, shut up.

Assimilaishion is a new blog tracking Aish HaTorah’s misdeeds and reaction to Aish HaTorah elsewhere on the web.

It sounds like he had a rough ride. They should really stop messing with people like they do.

Want a fresh new spin on Apikorsus? See Safkanut.

Isn’t Tisha B’ Av a bitch? For Failed Messiah’s latest news on the wonderful world of haredism, please go here instead!

Luke Ford has a thing for Amy Klein. So he gives it the ol’ grammar school try, and pulls her ponytail whenever he can.

This one deserves a yelp.

Amy wrote,

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenberg, who joined the congregation in March, was formally welcomed last month at the Orthodox synagogue’s annual dinner. He is replacing Rabbi Aron Tendler, who stepped down in March 2006 after 22 years at the synagogue when rumors re-surfaced about “inappropriate misconduct” while teaching at YULA in the 1980s.

Luke Ford writes,

“I don’t think this is accurate. What sunk Aron Tendler was not rumors of “inappropriate misconduct” while he was teaching at YULA in the 1980s but telephone recordings of Tendler engaging in phone sex from the Shaarey Zedek office with one of his former YULA students…�?

Well, then.

American Conservative published an interesting article by Philip Weiss, who was pushed out of The Observer after it was purchased by Jared Kushner, a Chabad supporter.

Weiss writes,

My writing was becoming increasingly anti-Zionist. I visited Israel for the first time last summer, and in the West Bank, I met a South African who told me conditions were worse there than they had been under apartheid. When I got back, I posted a photograph of Arabs forced to worship outside the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem because of heightened Israeli security, and a reader of my blog launched an “investigation�? and called the photographer, evidently thinking I’d doctored the image.

I knew that Zionists were lobbying The Observer, writing to my editor and the new owner. Peter once said he got more e-mail about me than anything else in the paper. One of these e-mails, copied to me, said there was a “cancer on The Observer.�? That was mild. Others commented as “Phil Weiss�? and purported to confess my bitterness over bad book reviews I’d gotten or said they had loved having sex with my Christian mother-in-law. One wrote that he wanted to “cut off your head and s–t down your neck.�?

One day Peter mentioned that the new owner had passed along one of these complaints and reminded him that the pro-Israel community was one he cared about. Peter said that he defended me, though he asked, “You’re not a Holocaust denier, are you?�? “Of course not,�? I said. “Good, I thought so.�?

Ugly stuff, suspecting an anti-Zionist of Holocaust denial . But Weiss came late to this game, and has important gaps in his knowledge that are disturbing. He conflates Chabad with “the hassidim,�? and presents their position on the West Bank as normative of Chassidim, when it is a minority Chassidic viewpoint.

Still, some of his ideas, while hardly original, are not expressed frequently, and are not popular public discussion points.

“The Jewish community had defined Jewishness as attachment to Israel, and it was not coming to grips with the effect of that attachment on the Arab world or the United States.�?

Yeah, well…I worry about that also.

Not that you haven’t been supportive, you so have. But if you got a little more to give…send a message to Hillel to move a way from Dark Light.

Vote here.