Category — Chabad

Vilnius’s not-very-popular Rabbi Krinsky isn’t seeking power and communal infrastructure. Never! He’s just “mammish mesiras nefesh!â€?

Hirshel Tzig made a composite of his pro-Chabad comments on a new post, “Setting the Vilna record straightâ€? to show how reasonable it is for Chabad to take over the Vilnius Jewish community against their wishes and against their traditions.

I would like to analyze some of these comments, as well as others from his earlier post that Hirshel did not see fit to repost.

Mottel writes,

“Let me tell you all, don’t believe me . . . Go fly out to Vilnius and spend time speaking to the local Jews in Lithuania. If you need internet I can recommend a good internet cafe for you to e-mail me your results from. As well, throwing in Moshiach matters has Zero connection to the story at hand. We’re speaking about a very small community here, where two shuls are not needed . . . but in any event Rabbi Krinsky runs things from the Chabad house which is a de facto shul.

In other words, if you want to dispute the community’s contention that Chabad has no right to take over, you have to go to Vilnius yourself first and see if that’s the case. However, if you want to believe us that this is really what they want, you don’t have to go to Vilnius, you can just believe us. Ana wrote,

“For the record, in many towns in Lithuania there was a majority of Chassidim (Like Rokishok), and their decendents are still around today. In Kovno a few old ladies came over to me and told me with pride that they shtammed from Chabad!)�

Hirshel actually saw fit to print an argument on his own post claiming that it wasn’t clear at all that Chabad wasn’t an integral part and parcel of the normative traditional Vilna Jewish heritage and experience. Let us be clear, the majority of Vilna was NOT Chassidic, and certainly not Chabad. This is absolute drivel. Do not listen to this sort of revisionism without laughing in the person’s face.

Hirshel himself writes,

“There’s no need to bring any “what part of lita was Chabad?” into this conversation. “

Of course not. Because if you do, the answer is YOU DON’T BELONG THERE!�

Milhouse wrote,

“I like the claim that Burshtein “shares its traditions and customs”. What traditions and customs? Before Krinsky came to town there was no yiddishkeit at all. Every single shomer shabbos in Vilna is the result of Krinsky’s work. “Local leaders continued to look for a rabbi, a Litvak like them.” Is Burshtein really like them (what “them”?), a mechalel shabbos and chazzer-fresser?â€?

In other words, the minhagim of this community does not need to be respected since they are not religious after 70 years of Communism. Chabad is perfectly entitled to step in and ignore their communal history.

Now, compare this to the 2004 article “Quarrels keep Vilnius synagogue closed,� in the non-Jewish Lithuanian newspaper The Baltic Times, and tell me who seems more reasonable and more respectful of the Lithuanian Jewish community?

“VILNIUS-The only practicing synagogue in Vilnius was closed on Aug. 30 for the third time this year due to unresolved arguments between the Jewish Community of Lithuania and the Chabad Lubavitch organization[…]For generations, members of the Vilnius Jewish community were known not only as followers of Gaon, the renowned commentator of the Talmud and the Torah, but also as strictly opposing the Chassidic movement.
Therefore, during the interwar period, Chassidic followers had almost no property in Vilnius that they could nowadays reclaim.
Finally, in 1994 Rabbi Krinsky established Chabad Lubavitch, the first Chassidic community in Vilnius[…]
According to the Jewish Community of Lithuania, Krinsky started calling himself chief rabbi about three years ago on the Internet and in the Lithuanian media, despite the fact that no elections were held to elect him.
Still, the Jewish community refuses to recognize Krinsky as their rabbi. Over 500 Litvaks signed a document strongly disagreeing with the Chassidic rabbi’s candidacy.
“We have suggested that our rabbi and Krinsky could take turns in celebrating mass. However, he did not want any compromises,” said Alperavicius.
In February a group of Krinsky’s followers gathered secretly to elect a new council representing the Jewish community. The documents were later sent to the Ministry of Justice for registration.
“Where and when in the world did one organization [Chabad Liubavich] have a right to re-elect the leaders of another organization [Gaon followers]?” wrote Milan Chersonsky, editor of the Jewish community newspaper Jerusalem of Lithuania. “Fortunately, their intents failed because the Ministry of Justice realized the legal null of the documents.”
During the Litvak congress, while supporting traditional Gaon followers’ positions, Litvaks from 13 countries signed a resolution declaring that the actions of the Chubad Lubavich leader are a matter of great concern.

Full story.

Rabosai, our brothers in Lithuania wish to follow their ancestors, and resist Chassidic aggression, ESPECIALLY Chabad, even as they are publicly mocked, and their wishes and history denied. Suddenly we are supposed to believe that this ancient epicenter of resistance to Chassidus – ESPECIALLY Chabad – is in need of Chabad leadership.

Listen to these Chabadniks’ insanity, as it demonstrates they don’t have a leg to stand on, or they would say something that actually made sense.

Right, Hirshel?

The JTA reports on

“the power struggle between those in the Vilnius Jewish community who support Krinsky and backers of Rabbi Chaim Burshtein, a Litvak rabbi who came to the community in 2004 and shares its traditions and customs[…] Meanwhile, local leaders continued to look for a rabbi, a Litvak like them. They found Burshtein, a St. Petersburg native and former refusenik who estimates that he was detained by the KGB some 40 times before immigrating to Israel.

Burshtein was elected chief rabbi by leaders of the country’s religious Jewish communities. His installation at the synagogue sparked an eruption, beginning with fisticuffs in the shul between pro-Krinsky and pro-Burshtein factions during Shavuot services in 2004. The fracas was covered extensively by the local and foreign media.

Burshtein later reportedly was roughed up by Krinsky supporters. Krinsky and his followers were barred from the synagogue; they countered by holding vigils in the courtyard for months.

The community took Krinsky to court, the rabbi retreated to his Chabad center and the synagogue was closed for more than a year.

It reopened in August 2005, and morning and evening services are now held daily — without Krinsky, who presides over his own services in a first-floor room at the Chabad center that after two years he still describes as “temporary.”

At stake in the power struggle is which side will benefit from the long-awaited restitution of Jewish communal property, which in Lithuania eventually will include at least 200 buildings and an estimated $60 million in compensation for property that cannot be returned.�

In targeting Vilna, the home of their ancient antagonist, the Vilna Gaon, Chabad seems motivated by money, power, and a desire for revenge through domination, and the symbolic ironic triumph such domination of Vilna’s Jewish community would represent.

And still, even now, Vilnius’s Jewish community valiantly resists and struggles, while the Orthodox Union and the Agudath Israel is silent. The Agudah I understand — they are only interested in haredi communities. The normative Litvish Jewish communities have nothing to do with them.

But the Orthodox Union? How dare they remain silent!

I would beseech all Chabadniks to remember that Vilnius is not yours. This is very bad form on your part, and we are all watching you misbehave there. Why not respect that not every Jewish community needs to be Chabad? Why not leave the capital of Lithuanian Jewry’s religious leadership to Litvaks?

Full background on Failed Messiah.

Update: The Anti-Tzemach weighs in, dismisses Litvish Jews who want to retain ancient communal norms and traditions as “Cossacks.”

Rabbi David Eliezrie, Chabad’s national liaison to United Jewish Communities, writes in this week’s Forward that,

We need to build on the positive, not the negative. It’s clear that the old principles that molded Jewish identity are not working with the new generation.

Look at any recent communal Holocaust Memorial Day observance: As the older generation passes on, younger Jews are not replacing their numbers. This generation does not see the relevance of these tragedies in the same way.

You can’t reach them by simply saying, “You know they really hated the Jews and tried to kill all of us.� Not only does it not inspire them, it might also cause more than a few to bolt from the community, figuring that being Jewish isn’t worth the price. Just look at the high intermarriage rate among children of survivors.

Is the intermarriage rate for children of survivor’s relatively high? What data is Rabbi Eliezrie referencing? Does anyone know?

If so, it is yet one more proof and inspiration for the mainstream Jewish community to say “Never Again!� to the Holocaustism which is foisted upon us and is debilitating in so many way.

One of my favorite religious blogs, Avakesh, has turned out to have a relationship with Chabad, even though he is not a Chabadnik.

Avakesh writes,

I am a fellow traveler of Lubavitch and frequently daven in a Chabad Shul. I also study Chabad seforim along with other chassidic works. I absolutely agree and have personal experience that the Rebbe was a great man, probably the greatest that I met[...]In many ways I am suspended in between. I have an emotional attachment to Chabad and share a history, even with the Rebbe. My personal relationships within Chabad preclude frank questioning for I do not wish to offend and I am enough of an outsider that I might offend. On the other hand, I came up through a very different educational system. I also know enough to question effectively.

I enjoy many of Avakesh’s writings, and have often wondered what his background his. Now I guess we know a piece of the puzzle. Certainly having different lenses will increase a person’s wisdom and perspective.

Having said that, I never regularly davened at any Chassidic synagogue, and once even stopped attending a synagogue on Friday nights because a rabbi instituted singing yedid nefesh, a Chassidic custom. Even though they fired him (on parshas Korach, how awesome is that?!?) they continued to sing this song at the wrong time (Friday night), and in my humble opinion, in the wrong place.

My place.

I don’t usually attack Chabad. I leave that stuff to this dude. But they are making a push for a certain historic Left-Wing Modern Orthodox (LWMO) synagogue, as they have for other historic LWMO synagogues.

There are only a few LWMO synagogues in existence, and they are precious. These are sanctuaries of traditional Judaism, not platforms for aggressive kiruv. All have been targeted by Chabad in one way or another. Let me be clear – with all due respect – your advances are not appreciated.

These shuls are special, and desperately needed. They are the remnant of traditional Judaism, before the haredim came, before the Conservative Movement wreaked havoc on Eastern European Jewry, and before the Modern Orthodox began their long march right. Some of them (the LWMO synagogues, not the right-wing Modern Orthodox who do little for anyone outside of the Zionist Entity, and of course, kiruv, like all frummies) do wonderful work, such as hosting the only kosher soup kitchen in Manhattan at the Chelsea Shul. Who else is going to do that? The right-wing Modern Orthodox? The “post-denominational� minayanim? Please – many at these institutions have no personal concern or even a concept of poverty in the Jewish community.

These LWMO shuls must be respected. These should not be treated as soft targets for takeover. These are fine synagogues. Good synagogues. The best. They don’t need any frumming up.

They don’t need any straightening out.