Category — Charedim

A vast, fahfrumpteh conspiracy!

Off the charts. Where do these guys think they are? Aleppo?

Failed Messiah has the story.

CNN reports,

The French National Assembly announced Tuesday the creation of a inquiry into whether women in France should be allowed to wear the burka, one day after President Nicolas Sarkozy controversially told lawmakers that the traditional Muslim garment was “not welcome” in France.

I would also suggest outlawing black hat wearing in the summer and winter months for underage kids, in order to send a message to the frum that society frowns on fundamentalist child abuse. Remember when they first started when Beyond BT used to have post after post pretending how our objection to dressing penguin was because we critics are all a bunch of punk rock teens with that “spikey hair” and “pierced eyebrows” who “look down” on everyone who aren’t “non-conformists” like they are? Yeah, they dropped that one like a pasul esrog alright.

“Learning, Growing!”

Josh Waxman proves that the quarter story is, in fact, of Christian origin. Which makes sense, since there aren’t that many rabbis in Houston in need of a quarter, and fewer Jewish bus drivers in those parts. Something clearly shmekt nit frish, but Weinbach, of course, couldn’t be bothered to question it, anymore than he questioned the story of a Turkish rabbi who rode a rug across the Mediterranean Sea, nor the Steipler Rebbe’s critical role in an Israeli raid on Iraq’s nuclear facility — a year later than when it actually happened.

Rabbi Weinbach is an example of how ultra-Orthodox Jews intentionally accept maysehs without critical analysis or research. We have caught him in his casual lies over and over again, and it is symptomatic of right-wing ultra-Orthodox culture.

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The Protest that Brought Down the Dirty Chaplain

When Jews do something wrong, and the media calls them on it, the tendency is for reactive and corrupt elements of our community to scream anti-Semitism in order to silence their critics.

Rabbi Leib Glanz is a man who has twice (that we know of) betrayed public trust in order to advance the wishes of his specific sect of fundamentalist Satmar Chassidim who are notorious for their contempt of others, and for fucking the system in a myriad of ways.

As many of you are probably aware, the haredi Agudath Israel was drafting a letter in SUPPORT of this shyster, which denounces the “the tenor of media reports” over Glanz’s infamous Bar Mitzvah bash. The resourceful Failed Messiah managed to get his hands on the list of supporters.

It should be noted that the Orthodox Union (OU) did NOT sign on to this nonsense, and I think we should give them points for refusing to do so. Once again, the OU has balked at the nonsense of the haredim.

Below is the video that played an essential part in derailing attempts to preserve Glanz’s position as prison chaplain. The Jews reached out to the bicyclists because of his role in scuttling bike paths on the Williamsburg Bridge. You will see that they recite Kaddish and sing the shabbos tune “Sholom Aleichem.” This is a warning. Your attempts to frame justified moral outrage as anti-semitism will not work. There is a lesson to be learned here. I know that these protesters had planned another visit to the Chassidic section of Williamsburg the following Shabbos. My advice to Satmar: lay off the bike lanes.

Congratulations to all involved with the protest. You have sent a message. Glanz is finished. At least for now.

The chaplain Leib Glanz, who arranged the lavish prison bar mitzvah, is the same person who lobbied against the bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge. He does not need to be “suspended” for two weeks. He needs to be run out of town! What country does this guy think he is living in? Keriyas Joel?

Enough is enough. Tonight, both bikers and concerned citizens of New York are going to protest outside Leib Glanz’s home. This flyer went out — I am not responsible for its spelling errors.

A scam artist chassid had a lavish bar mtizvah for his son.

In prison.

The NY Post reports,

A wealthy inmate was allowed to host a lavish bar mitzvah behind bars for his son at the downtown lockup known as the Tombs, The Post has learned.

The proud papa, Tuvia Stern, is a financial-scam artist who jumped bail and spent nearly 20 years on the lam.

City Correction Department officials permitted him to use his own caterer, who supplied kosher food, china, forks — and knives — for about 60 guests who partied and danced the hora for six hours in the jailhouse gym.

And you, dear taxpayers, helped flip the bill.

The city threw in its own present — overtime pay for the correction officers staffing the soiree.

This guy is incredibly talented. I’ll admit that.

Perhaps it is a sign of the seasonal redemption, because what could be sweeter for The Kvetcher than when the Ethical Monotheist leader, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, tag-teams the American ultra-Orthodox spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran with no less than Right-wing Modern Orthodoxy’s best, Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb?

Ben Harris has the story on the JTA.

Rabbi Shafran wrote a deplorable essay defending Bernie Madoff, of all people.

After all, Madoff apologized.

…what I admire about him has to do with his owning up to his crime.

Think about it. The man knew for years that eventually his scheme would come apart and that prosecution loomed, yet he took no steps to flee, huge bribe in hand, to some country lacking extradition treaties. Idi Amin, we might recall, died of old age in luxury. Madoff’s millions, moreover, easily could have bought him a new face and identity papers; he could have spent his senior years tanned and well fed among the sunbirds of Miami Beach.

Instead, though, Madoff chose to essentially turn himself in and admit guilt. He apologized to his victims, acknowledging that he had “deeply hurt many, many people,” and adding, “I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done.”

Rabbi Weinreb responded,

Shafran argues that Madoff’s initial intentions were good, but that he became “inextricably trapped” in his own machinations. From the Jewish perspective there is no such thing as “inextricably trapped” — there are always choices — and he had numerous occasions, indeed daily opportunities, to end the scandal and thereby at least mitigate the losses of his victims.

There is another dimension to Madoff’s treachery. As a Jew, and as one who identified himself strongly with Jewish causes, he created a chillul HaShem, a profanation of the name of the Almighty, of historic proportions, reflecting disastrously on the reputation of all Jews, Judaism, and the Jewish God. Shakespeare’s Shylock and Dickens’ Fagin fade as symbols of supposed Jewish avarice and greed in comparison with Madoff and his misdeeds. Furthermore, reaction to his crimes not only sullies the name of Jews the world over, it endangers them everywhere. It provides confirmation for the most venomous anti-Semitic propaganda. For this, forgiveness is impossible.

Even 7FatCow, which usually demonstrates no morals to be outraged and no code to be violated, was horrified.

Failed Messiah (former BTs are usually more inherently moral than former FFB haredim who run out of venerable downtown non-glatt Jewish establishments without first paying their bill and will be arrested the next time they visit the premises, just try me) declared Rabbi Shafran “America’s worst rabbi.”

To be fair, Rabbi Shafran has apologized.

Big Yasher Koach to both Rabbis Weinreb and Yoffie for speaking up.

Rabbi Mendel Weinbach wants to know how you would handle the following.

Question: The irreligious son of observant parents was determined to have prayers and kaddish said in honor of his deceased mother, and hired a minyan of Jews to perform this service in his home. When the leader of the group noticed that the mourning son was not putting on tefillin like everyone else, he politely invited him to borrow his tefillin and join the service. The son adamantly refused to do so and the entire minyan left the house in protest. Was this the right thing to do?

Answer: There is a case to be made that they should have stayed despite the son’s refusal because it was in honor of his observant mother that they had consented to come. On the other hand, the son’s flagrant demonstration of contempt for religion did warrant a protest.

Without revealing the position taken by a prominent halachic authority in this matter, it would be interesting to hear what our public has to say about this matter.

I think for refusing to wear tefillin, the son should be publicly whipped, his apartment “donated” to a yeshiva, his secular whore of a girlfriend dragged by a mehadrin Egged-bus around town, and just for good measure, a Modern Orthodox girl should get bleached.

What do you think the proper “protest” should be?

Meir Porush recently lost his recent bid for the mayorality of Jerusalem. Which is a shame, because this haredi candidate has a real eye for talent and integrity.

He recently defended the man convicted of manslaughter of his own child in glowing terms.

“The defendant is a good man, I can’t say a bad word about him,” said Porush, adding that he was “marked for great things” within the ultra-Orthodox community.

Porush told the court that he has been acquainted with Valas and his family for six years, and that Valas was one of the “finest yeshiva boys” he had ever encountered.

What a wonderful mayor Porush would have been…well, maybe next time.

Traditional Judaism is a pretty tough spot for gay men. So Big Aish has a helpful hint for the gay Jewish community. Stop being gay. And this is a common suggestion in many fundamentalist Christian and Jewish circles.

And according to Big Aish, it’s quite clear how to accomplish that.

I didn’t have to “change” anything. The definition of teshuva is returning to one’s true self, one’s soul. The sexual attraction I felt to other men was not my true nature; it was an attempt driven by my yetzer hara, my baser self, to satisfy unmet needs, a symptom of missed developmental opportunities and distorted perceptions.

The healing path for men struggling with these attractions focuses on the underlying causes. We build trusting relationships that satisfy our healthy need for male bonding in a non-sexual way. We reclaim our rejected masculinity — renounced by us in fear and anger — and re-enter the community of men. Through these actions, we reshape our perceptions, seeing ourselves as the authentic men our souls have always been.[...]

When these needs are met – when men are no longer mysterious, other, unattainable — the sexual attraction to men decreases. As I found my own masculine power within me, the need to seek and consume another man’s masculinity weakened. And in a pattern typical of this healing path, I found that feeling better about myself as a man led to healthy, normal heterosexual attractions.

Does traditional Judaism really believe this?

If so, shouldn’t this strategy also cure heterosexual desire as well? Just have “trusting relationships” with women that “satisfy our healthy need for female bonding in a non-sexual way,” and we’ll no longer want to have sex with a woman. But…it doesn’t work like that.

Is it possible for a gay person to live as a straight person? Or to not live as a gay person? Or to limit some aspects of expression? These are different questions, and important ones for the Orthodox community to wrestle with. But to dismiss that some people are inherently gay is absurd, and ultimately, cruel.