Response to Suri Davis, Editor www.thefivetowns.com

This was from the Friday Newsletter of thefivetowns.com - you can visit the site to see the full posting, below is a letter I wrote to the editor Suri Davis.

“RIVKI AND YOEL

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Dear Friends:

I received both of these submissions this week.

I would like to say "coincidentally", but you know

I don't believe in coincidences.  Take the juxta-

positions as you find them.

Would love your thoughts.

-Suri”

Dear Suri,

As my editor and host of my column I must correct some misconceptions from the above introduction that you gave to mine and Rivki’s columns. First of all, I did not submit that piece. That is a posting you lifted without permission from my blog www.therantingheeb.blogspot.com which went up several weeks ago. I did submit a different column on the same subject that you did not publish. That submission was a response to an article in the Jewish Week that quoted me about the story.

Secondly, the way you present it, places me as the counter argument for the positive post high school Israel experience that Rivki so eloquently described. That is wrong and misleading. After the incident described in my posting I remained in Israel for 2 years and the rest of my experiences there were some of the best of my life. I made lifelong friends and studied under wonderful rabbis and scholars. One of my children went to Israel to study after high school. We are a family of ardent Zionists and have been on multiple visits to the Holy Land. My wife and I are proud that we have siblings that live there and our connection to Israel is ingrained in our blood.

Context is key, claiming that Rivki’s eloquence together with my calling out an abusive rabbi a juxtaposition is disingenuous, misleading and personally hurtful to me. While this may be a way to “sell” stories it is wrong. I want our readers to know and understand that I was speaking out about specific accusations of abuse by one rabbi who runs an Israel program. In no way am I discouraging anyone from sending their child to Israel after high school for a year of study, I encourage it and believe it is life changing and forever binds that child with the historic homeland of the Jewish Nation. Any other implication is wrong and needs to be remedied on the pages of your site.

Respectfully,

Yoel Moskowitz 

PS - I asked Suri to publish this letter but she would only do so with modifications that would have changed the tone of my response, I declined. She has also since posted a commentary about my Rav Bina post in which she concludes with the following pearls of wisdom:

"Parents know what they are doing when they send their children to Rav Bina.  They are asking Rav Bina to make their kids more of a mentsch.  It is boot camp, and it is his yeshiva, and he doesn’t have to apologize for it.  The kids that feel that the heat is too hot will leave and go elsewhere."

Suri, you showed a certain bravery by publishing my story even if it was taken from my blog and not the story I submitted. But you've shown cowardice with the above equivication. While the emails you got about what I wrote might have been negative, my inbox is full of encouragement for the bravery I showed by coming forward. Yeshiva education is not a boot camp and public humiliation and abuse is wrong even if the one doing it carries the title rabbi. With now multiple accusations against Rabbi Bina including physical abuse, it is time to pull your head out of the sand and show some guts.

Has The ‘Tough Love’ Rebbe Gone Too Far?

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Rav Aharon Bina has headed a popular Jerusalem yeshiva for diaspora students for many years. But charges of emotional abuse continue to dog him.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Yedidya Gorsetman and Gary Rosenblatt

For those in the Modern Orthodox community who send their sons to yeshivas in Israel for a year or two of post-high school study, it’s long been an open secret that Rav Aharon Bina, rosh hayeshiva of Netiv Aryeh in the Old City of Jerusalem, has a unique — many say bizarre — pedagogical style.
Supporters call it “tough love”; critics call it abuse.
Credited with transforming many troubled American students who had been branded hopeless by other educators, and taking motivated young men to a higher level of learning, the 63-year-old rabbi is praised by several leading American rabbis as having been a wonderful educator for more than three decades. And his yeshiva, supported by prominent philanthropists, including businessman Ira Rennert, is a major — and approved — feeder school to Yeshiva University.
But a significant minority of former students, employees and colleagues maintain that Rav Bina is controlling, manipulative and emotionally coercive in ways that would never be accepted in other schools. In what has become known throughout Israeli yeshivot as “Bina Stories,” he is said to regularly yell at, humiliate and insult students in public; threaten to expel them for seemingly no reason (and make good on that promise with a few every fall, sometimes without first notifying the parents); press psychologists he hires to share private information about the students he has sent them; and tell those in disfavor that they are cursed.

The situation is so well known that a several years ago a disgruntled former student created a blog and invited others to share their experiences — and many did. It was called IHateRavBina, later changed to the Bina Abuse Blog, which has posts from more than two dozen former students and parents over a span of three decades sharing their personal stories of disturbing encounters with Rav Bina.
The blog re-emerged recently, and includes a long post from Joel (Yoel) Moskowitz, 47, of Long Island’s Five Towns, who recounted several disturbing episodes from more than 30 years ago, when he was a student of Rav Bina at HaKotel, a Jerusalem yeshiva Rav Bina headed before heading Netiv Aryeh.
Having lost his mother to cancer and seen his father remarry shortly thereafter, Moskowitz said he was shocked when Rav Bina, in class one day, suddenly declared that if a man remarries after his wife dies, it shows he never loved his first wife. Later, seeing that Moskowitz was distraught, Rav Bina said to him, “If you took it personal, then you’re a bigger idiot than I thought you were,” the former student recalls.
“I want to be quoted by name [on the website] and I chose to speak out,” Moscowitz says, “because I hear that this abusive and damaging behavior by Rav Bina is still going on and [I know] that victims tend to blame themselves.”
He adds that his experience helped turn him away from Jewish observance for a time. And he finds it “inconceivable” that the rabbi’s actions are known and tolerated by Jewish lay leaders and yeshiva high schools in the U.S., “reminiscent of all the other instances of the head-in-the-sand attitude in the Orthodox community toward abuse, albeit emotional and not physical.”
Even the rabbi’s most ardent supporters acknowledge that he sometimes speaks and acts as if out of control, and some have described him as “crazy,” “wacko” and “doing things no rebbe should ever do.” But in the next breath they defend him as a warm, remarkably caring man who has had a very positive impact on the overwhelming majority of the thousands of students he has taught.
Sandy Eisenstadt, a New York businessman who has been an avid supporter of Rav Bina for the last 25 years since his two sons studied with him, likens Rav Bina to a drill sergeant.
“If you’re thin-skinned, he’s not for you,” he said, comparing the Rav Bina experience to becoming a Navy Seal or U.S. Marine. “You know what you’re in for. Otherwise don’t go. You have to ask yourself why more students are coming to his yeshiva than any other. And most love and adore him, and have become wonderful Jews.”
But some are wondering why, indeed, Netiv Aryeh is so popular, with an estimated 110 first-year and 60 second-year American students. Is it because of, or in spite of, Rav Bina’s personality? And why do families, deeply concerned about the emotional, educational and spiritual well-being of their children, continue to send their sons to study with Rav Bina when his controversial reputation is so well known?
A Slap Or A Shove
The level of concern about the rabbi’s behavior escalated in 2009 after Andrew (not his real name), a student at Netiv Aryeh and graduate of the Frisch School in Paramus, N.J., says that Rav Bina slapped him in the face four or five times during a meeting in the rabbi’s office. Andrew’s parents lodged complaints and were told the rabbi would apologize for his behavior. But the rabbi claims, through intermediaries — he declined to be interviewed for this story — that it was a harmless shove or poke to the shoulder.
What led to the encounter was the fact that although Netiv students are not allowed to leave the premises at night, Andrew had gone out to a bar with friends on Ben Yehuda Street, the pedestrian mall and popular hangout for American students in Jerusalem, and was spotted by a madrich, or counselor, from his yeshiva.
The next morning he was told he was expelled.
Andrew later explained that at Netiv, expulsion meant a student could remain in the dorm and eat in the cafeteria, but could not attend classes. To be readmitted, one had to meet with Rav Bina and “you had to beg him to let you back,” he told The Jewish Week, which often happened, but the result was that “you were going to be watched more closely.”
Andrew decided he would meet with Rav Bina, apologize and hope to be taken back. “I had made great friends, was learning a lot and did not want to leave,” he explained.
When he arrived at the rabbi’s office, he recalled that about nine other students were there for the same reason, on “parole” and seeking readmission.
He said they waited for many hours until, at 2:30 a.m., Rav Chanan, one of Rav Bina’s sons and his top assistant, emerged from the main office to say that Rav Bina needed to sleep. The young men came back in the morning and waited for “five, six hours at a time” to be called in, according to Andrew, with brief breaks to eat.
This went on for “two or three days,” he said.
“Occasionally Rav Bina would walk out of his office and yell at us, telling us that we weren’t good people and that we were nothings.” Andrew said he tried to go back to his morning seder [class] once but the rabbi in charge told him to leave.
Eventually the boys on parole were called in to Rav Bina’s office, one at a time, and during his meeting, Andrew said he apologized for his behavior and said he had made a mistake, but the rabbi said he was being dishonest. “You’re a good actor and a liar,” he says Rav Bina told him.
He alleges that Rav Bina rose from his chair, walked behind him, grabbed his shirt and asked, “What are we going to do about this? What are we going to do?” Then, Andrew claims, the rabbi lifted his hand and slapped him “across the face four or five times.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t speak,” he says.
The Rav Bina version, culled from intermediaries, is that he was concerned about the young man’s drinking and was just trying to shake him up, out of concern.
Whatever transpired, whether Andrew was slapped in the face or, as Rav Bina claims, shoved in the shoulder, the young man notified his parents back home that he was on probation and would only be accepted back if he agreed to three conditions: no more Ben Yehuda visits; he would have to sit in the beit midrash [study hall] and learn all night on Thursday nights, as is a regular if not prevalent practice at many yeshivas; and he had to be willing to see a therapist at his own cost if Rav Bina thought it was appropriate.
Andrew’s mother was uncomfortable with the situation and called John Krug, The Frisch School guidance counselor who is also director of alumni affairs for Netiv Aryeh and unofficial spokesman for Rav Bina. He sought to reassure her that Rav Bina was “a very good person but just has a different way of doing things,” as she recalls.
Krug has said that Rav Bina is often misunderstood, noting that people who are “passionate about what they do are going to arouse emotions in other people. In today’s world, with its [emphasis on] political correctness, sensitivity has taken a place on the front burner.”
Andrew’s mom said Krug told her he would see to it that Rav Bina would apologize, which did not happen.
She also met with Ilana Scheiner, the executive director and American representative of Netiv, who began the conversation by praising Rav Bina and his positive impact on his students.
“Then I told her what happened” to her son, the mother said. “’He may have gone too far,’ she told me. ‘In general he’s very effective.’”
Andrew said that after word got back to the yeshiva that his mother was questioning Rav Bina’s behavior, he was treated with suspicion, and felt increasingly ill at ease.
He ended up transferring to another Israeli yeshiva, and looks back on the Netiv experience as contributing to the fact that he is no longer observant.
Now a sophomore in college, Andrew said he was disillusioned by what he encountered. “We learned in yeshiva that if you embarrass someone it is like killing him, and yet Rav Bina likes to publicly humiliate people.
“I’m off the derech [religious path] now,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is how you treat people as a rabbi in the Old City of Jerusalem?’ This is not for me.”
YU Connection
The complaints Andrew’s mother made became known at Yeshiva University, since Netiv Aryeh is one of 24 men’s yeshivot and 20 women’s seminaries in Israel that are part of YU’s S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program. Each year about 600 high school graduates begin their YU education with a year of study in Israel, for which they receive college credits, before continuing their undergraduate studies at YU, here in New York.
Scott Goldberg is director of YU’s Institute for University-School Partnership and part of a team of educators and psychologists that visits the Israeli yeshivot periodically “to review their educational programs to satisfy our need for confidence” in the academics and the quality of the yeshiva program, he said.
In 2010, Goldberg was part of a team that visited Netiv Aryeh and, “having been made aware of complaints” about Rav Bina’s behavior, met with the rabbi and other administrators, as well as educators and students who were there at the time.
“We asked pointed, tough questions,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Jewish Week after declining to be interviewed in person, “and received what we judged to be straight answers. We learned that changes had been made and that specific programs and procedures had been put in place to not only monitor the situation but to ensure the safety of all the students.”
Goldberg did not respond to The Jewish Week’s request for details about the nature of the review or the changes that were put in place.
Andrew and his mother say they were never questioned about his encounter or how the yeshiva dealt with the complaint.
Goldberg said that since the 2010 meeting with Rav Bina, neither he nor YU staff members in Israel have heard of any new grievances. He added that were they to learn of “a credible new complaint, we would certainly look into it immediately and respond appropriately.”
Similarly, Rav Bina’s supporters acknowledge that he has acted inappropriately on occasion over the years, primarily in terms of berating students publicly, but they insist he is a changed man and that they know of no recent accounts of the rabbi acting in a belligerent manner.
But the complaints persist and are not difficult to come across.
Peter (not his real name), a 19-year-old currently studying in Israel, attended Netiv Aryeh this past fall but transferred after finding the environment too authoritative.
He maintains that Rav Bina can be extremely controlling and manipulative of his students. Peter recalls a friend of his being chastised by the rabbi after the student decided to play football on the night of his father’s yahrtzeit.
“Why do you hate your father?” Rav Bina berated the student, according to Peter, and later told the young man he had to see one of the school therapists at his own cost.
Several psychologists called on by Rav Bina to meet with students have refused to do so because they say the rabbi insists on finding out what was discussed between client and therapist, a professional taboo.
Peter also notes that Rav Bina would make fun of and bully certain students in public. He regularly “disregards a person’s feelings and just does what he wants, whether its correct or not.”
Ben (who gave permission for only his first name to be used), left Netiv Aryeh halfway through his year there, in 2006, feeling “very depressed.” He says he was bullied and publicly humiliated by Rav Bina, who referred to him as shaygetz (a derogatory word for gentile) because he had been caught reading a book on evolution. Ben said his social isolation reached the point where his classmates would not count him in a minyan.
Aaron (not his real name), a recent alum of Netiv Aryeh and current student at YU, said he was uncomfortable with how Rav Bina spoke to students, making seemingly instant judgments about their character based on appearance. Picking on certain students, he often would refer to them as “gay,” or say they had a “goy face,” or were fat or would come down with AIDS or that God hates them.
“Rav Bina would regularly tell people they are addicted to drugs, mistreat their parents and are going to beat their wives,” Aaron said. One student caught drinking early in the year was from then on referred to by the rabbi as “Alan the Alcoholic.”
“Rav Bina would single out specific kids in class and say things like, ‘You look at porn and you will for the rest of your life. You told me that; I know what you do. Get out, pack your bags.”
Such students were told by the rabbi they were being sent to cherem (a form of censure or excommunication) and had to transfer to a yeshiva in the south of the country, in the isolated community of Mitzpeh Ramon, often without their parents being notified.
That control apparently applies to yeshiva staff as well. One former Netiv Aryeh rebbe described the environment of the yeshiva as one of “constant emotional abuse” during the four years he was there. He said he was one of a number of teachers forced by Rav Bina to go to one of the school therapists, and that the sessions were not kept confidential.
Deeply Admired
Supporters of Rav Bina, including rabbis, lay leaders and illustrious former students of his, offer up a very different portrait of the man they deeply admire, while acknowledging his excesses.
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side, says that “whoever Rav Bina is, and whatever his way of teaching and reacting may be, it is well known in the community that he is, on the whole, a person who deeply loves his students and cares very much about their development.
“He may be guilty at times of what I would consider ‘tough love’ and talks freely, perhaps going overboard and embarrassing people, but all of the situations I am aware of are where he cares deeply about the students and wants to keep them on the straight path.”
Rabbi Lookstein, whose son was a student of Rav Bina two decades ago, said he can think of no other Israeli rebbe who is flown in to the U.S. to officiate at as many weddings of former students as Rav Bina, an indication of the devotion and affection his students and their families have for him.
“I know from personal knowledge that he teaches students to be baalei chesed [kind people], to give of themselves to the community and to individuals,” Rabbi Lookstein said. “That’s the Rav Bina I know, and if sometimes his speech is too quick and too strong, he’s a human being who can make mistakes. And that is the essence of the man.”
Asked about the critical statements some former students of Rav Bina have made, Rabbi Lookstein said, “I’m not familiar with blogs,” adding, “When I talked to him recently, he said he was spoken to by a professional from another institution and that he has tried very hard to avoid this kind of speech.”
Rabbi Heshie Billet of the Young Israel of Woodmere has known and been close to Rav Bina for more than 40 years.
“I have attended several Netiv Aryeh alumni Shabbatonim,” he told The Jewish Week, “and am impressed by the huge turnout of alumni — single and married, recent alumni and alumni from decades ago — who come for an inspiring tefillah [prayer service] and for the opportunity to say Shabbat Shalom to Rav Bina.”
Sandy Eisenstadt, the local businessman who described Rav Bina as a kind of rebbe-drill sergeant, said he is “totally devoted to teaching his students” to be upstanding Jewish young men. “He is not politically correct, his style is not traditional, he acts in provocative ways. But it works with most students, who love and adore him and who become wonderful Jews.”
Would the rabbi’s behavior be tolerated at an American school or yeshiva?
“Probably not,” Eisenstadt said, adding, “Maybe not anywhere else.” But he said that students and parents know what they are signing up for, and that the overwhelming majority of them are very pleased by the results.
Eisenstadt solicited 11 lengthy testimonials from grateful parents and recent and older students of Rav Bina, including rabbis, each describing their teacher as deeply considerate, personally concerned with them as individuals, and not at all like the “scary” personage they had heard about before coming to his yeshiva.
Ari Berkowitz, who spent the last two years at Netiv Aryeh and is currently living in Israel, awaiting the start of his service in the Israeli army, wrote: “In my years at Netiv Aryeh, Rav Bina has time and again dispelled my initial fears and proven what an incredible human being he is and how much love and care he has not only for Judaism but for each and every one of his students as well.”
Unlike most people, Berkowitz noted, Rav Bina “often does not make a good first impression; however, the more one gets to know him, you realize how kind and caring he is.”
The other writers also noted that what they had heard about Rav Bina in advance of meeting him made them cautious, but that he proved to be warm, insightful, compassionate and devoted to each of his students.
‘Red Flags’
Could the same rabbi be so kind and attentive to some students and controlling of others?
One American rabbi, who asked to remain nameless here, said the negative stories he has heard over the years are “very troubling” to him and that he is certain at least some of them are true. But he said Rav Bina “has helped so many” students and “puts more care into each kid than anybody” that he himself continues to recommend the yeshiva, except for “emotionally fragile” young men.
Dr. Michelle Friedman, a Manhattan psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who directs the pastoral counseling program at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, says she has heard a number of disturbing stories about Rav Bina over the years.
She has written professionally about what she calls “the power and peril of rabbinic charisma,” and speaks of the need for a rabbi’s self-awareness about his or her control over congregants or students, as well as the importance of establishing boundaries.
She questions why parents who are “so concerned about the quality of the food and laundry service” at Israeli yeshivas where they send their children are not more involved in choosing the right psychological environment.
“You’re sending your child thousands of miles away for a year in late adolescence for an intense, isolated experience,” she said, and yet she finds “an unquestioning reverence for what goes on there. It just amazes me.”
In regards to reports about Rav Bina, she asked: “Why are we so accepting? Are we so fearful of critiquing authority? Do parents think, ‘he’s doing a great job, and if we criticize it we’ll be on the outside,’ so they just say nothing?”
Friedman says the hazing analogy, comparing Rav Bina’s technique to an army drill sergeant, doesn’t hold up.
“The assumption is that hazing is somehow necessary for the end product,” she said. “But what about the fallout and destruction wrought by the hazing? What about the impact on the other students who witness it and remain passive? Maybe they figure, ‘he’s a great rabbi, I better not say anything.’”
A number of the students interviewed here said they had heard about Rav Bina’s unusual behavior but were advised, as one said, “if you keep away from him you can have a positive experience” in the yeshiva.
Another said his parents were taken with the Old City setting, the assurance that the students would be safe, with strict curfews, and the reassurance that so many other American students were attending.
The mother of “Andrew,” the boy who alleges Rav Bina slapped him, said that on meeting Rav Bina in the U.S. when he was recruiting, “he came across as eccentric but very grandfatherly.
“We talked to many boys who went there, and they told us, ‘just follow the rules” and steer clear of Rav Bina.
“How we didn’t get it, I just don’t know,” she said ruefully. “We should have seen the red flags.”
How parents make choices is critical for Michelle Friedman. “Maybe the rabbi has a good heart. But if he were, for example, driving a car recklessly, wouldn’t we say something? In this case his words and actions can be dangerous and are antithetical to his Torah. Why don’t people challenge that?”
Yedidya Gorsetman is a senior at Yeshiva University where he is a features editor of The Commentator, the official student newspaper.
Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of The Jewish Week. Ben Sales, former editor of New Voices, contributed to this report.

Are You Doing A - OK?

I have a soft spot for youthful exuberance. I love to see people get passionate about things. Those of you who’ve been reading my column might understand why, as I’ve been known to stir things up myself. Of course my passion is mixed with the cynicism that can only come with having lived long enough to have some hindsight. While middle age may not be too late to show fervor for a good cause it might come with a little more apprehension. But I’ve found a cause we can all rally around and while I have misgivings as to the long term success of such a noble endeavor (because frankly I don’t think we’re as good as we think we are), I can always hope.

A new neighbor of mine, a young working mother, Leora Mishaan, came up with AOK –Acts of Kindness. To me the concept of AOK sounds like a cross between the movie “Pay it Forward” and those auto insurance commercials that show a chain of good deeds being done by one person to the next. Leora’s goal of course is to get us to be better people by doing act of kindness. Talk to Leora for five minutes and I guarantee you that you will not have met a person with a more bright outlook and with more optimism than hers. Her sweetness permeates every word that she speaks and she has a charisma that won’t let up. While I cannot predict the future, Leora strikes me as the type of person who won’t let a little matter like say, real life, ever extinguish her assurance that everything can and will be just great. And she has reason for the fortitude, she expected a handful of people at the AOK kickoff event, she got a few hundred.

I’m not that surprised. Besides Leora being a dynamo, this neighborhood is chock full of charitable organizations, good neighbors, welcoming hosts, concerned citizens and a plethora of programs where one can volunteer to do some social good. Leora, urges us to take it a step further, it’s not enough to cut our checks or donate food to the food bank, or to do our once a month delivery of Tomchei Shabbos – we also have to be good people. We have to hold the door for others, smile at passerby, say hello to strangers on the street or let someone in ahead of us and so on.

The antonym of kindness is cruelty according to dictionary.com, but I don’t think that lacking kindness makes you cruel. We are all very busy people, preoccupied with our own lives and sometimes just too overwhelmed to notice that we missed an opportunity to do some good. Leora is looking to tap into that part of us that finds it easy to excuse our apathy. In a conversation with her I told her that despite all the great things done in the Five Towns, we still have a deserved reputation for some arrogance and that it’s not just act of kindness that we need but also a conscious effort not be annoying and to improve things like, obeying traffic laws. I gave her an example; there is an exit out of the CVS parking lot onto

Washington Avenue

, it is directly across from Bank of America. I pass by it every day on my way home from the LIRR. Directly across the street is a huge sign that instructs that there is NO LEFT TURN. If you need to make a left onto Washington from that lot there is another exit that allows it but this one clearly states that you can’t, if you’ve seen the area you understand why. Nine times out of ten that I observe people leaving through that exit, I see them attempting the left hand turn. My friend Leora points out to me that this stems from people being busy and wrapped up in their own lives, they easily forget or don’t pay attention or she says perhaps there is some emergency that requires them taking a short cut. I find her judging people only favorably to be sweet but likely naïve, we make the left turn there because we want to. We double park on

Central Avenue

because we want to. We make U-turns when it’s busy because we want to. We drive and use our cell phones because we want to. We honk with impatience because we want to. Consciously changing that is much more difficult than increasing our act of kindness because it requires behavior modification – not easy on any level.

I suppose that behavior modification should start at the top, from our leaders. Look, I’ve never seen one of our rabbis making a wild U-turn on

Central Avenue

but how many times have rabbis in our community chosen the language of confrontation when there has been disagreement? I sit on the executive board of a communal organization that helps families get through the financial crisis, at a meeting with some rabbis to form a rabbinic advisory group, we were told by one rabbi that if a certain Conservative rabbi sat in the group he would not. Is he doing AOK? Not in my book. Or how about the rabbi, who wrote an article in a community newspaper after the community wide Yom Hashoah program and said that he is “disturbed that Yom Hashoah commemorations have been hijacked by non religious speakers and writers of novels?” Is he doing AOK? What about a rabbi sitting on the Vaad Hakashrus while also being a principal in a business that is certified by the same Vaad? Is he doing AOK? I can go on but I think you get my point.

We are the products of our own environment and we need to change from the top down. Leora, G-d bless her is worried about the bottom up and overall we want so badly to follow her lead. If we want her great work to succeed, we need our leaders remind us through WORDS and ACTION that kindness is a state of mind as well as benevolence. If we show tolerance to all those around us, ESPECIALLY those we disagree with, programs like AOK will be with us forever. If we just continue to just pay lip service to kindness all that good won’t be worth the ink on the checks we write.

Are You Frum?

I was recently introduced to a friend of a friend on the LIRR and in the course of the conversation she asked me if I was “frum?” I was not wearing my kippah thus I was label ambiguous. (I recommend reading a previous post entitled “The Yarmulke Conundrum.” - See below). It is not the first time I’ve been asked this question and I am always perplexed by it.
To be fair, I think the question is usually asked to convey a sense of affinity. We all take comfort in socializing with those we have commonality with. I have an ethnically diverse portfolio of friends and acquaintances, but I admit that my closest friends tend to be American and Israeli Jews. On a recent extended overseas trip I looked to find Anglos, Israelis and Jews to socialize with. It was not because I had something against the locals or their culture, I did not, I was looking to share the experience of being an American and a Jew in a place where there is few of either. Thus, in this context I see the search for those like “us” as perfectly normal and acceptable.
So why am I particularly confounded when asked if I am “frum?” Is the questioner not asking me to see if we share the same background? Isn’t the questioner asking me if we have much in common? Perhaps! I am a Jew by birth, I am/am not frum by choice. Therefore, if you ask me if I’m frum, you are asking me what my life choices are. I may or may not be willing to answer those questions. 
Another factor is, define frum? To some people I am extremely devout to others I am no where near that. So when the question is asked of me I certainly need context so I can answer it properly. I will concede that the term “frum” usually connotes Sabbath observance and keeping kosher – at least that’s what I think people mean when they ask the question. But even if you accept that definition for the context of the question, I still have a problem with it. Am I a Sabbath observer if I occasionally use electricity? Am I kosher if I eat tuna at a diner? What about those that observe the Sabbath and eat strictly kosher but never daven and put on tefillin? I suppose there are those that will say my nuance is extreme, they would be correct, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. If a person self labels himself as frum then I guess he is on some level. 
On the one hand it is very important for us to find a comfortable, spiritual home but at the same time include those that don’t practice or agree with the way we do. If you want to seek affinity with me on my level of observance meet up with me in Shul. If you don’t go to mine or I don’t go to yours we likely have a different opinion on a lot of things. Yes I know that we will have a lot in common too but there are nuances there. 
We have backed ourselves into a corner of labels. We use terms like “frum,” “The Torah World,” “dati leumi,” “balabatish,” “kippah serugah,” and “Yeshivish” among others to classify ourselves. We separate those that cover their hair with those that don’t, those who wear a black hat and those that don’t. We are obsessed how others observe and how they present publically. 
We need to find our affinity with each other based on the legacy handed down by our forefathers. But which legacy? A legacy that puts distance between us even in the most subtle ways, or one that brings us closer together? “Are you frum?” is a subtle message that those that aren’t, don’t have much in common with me. It is no different than when someone I meet for the first time asks me if I am a Jew. While I am proud to be one, I find the question offensive. If it’s something I want you to know I’ll tell you, that’s why all those official forms that ask for your ethnicity also give you the option not to furnish that information. Let’s start unifying as Jews and stop separating by levels of observance.

Do Women Count?

Spirituality is a personal issue and far be it from me to judge where you get yours from. I just spent Yom Kippur in Boro Park together with my father at a Shul under the leadership of a cousin who is a very charismatic Chassidic Rebbe. I would describe the experience as being on spiritual cruise control. I didn’t find spirituality so much as it found me. Much as I loved the experience I couldn’t help but notice that this was strictly an all male affair. And I respect that, I really do.

I also respect a growing movement of observant women who choose to take a more active role in religious life as a means of vitalizing their spirituality. I think it’s a good thing when people want to take on more responsibility than they previously had.  Predictably, every inroad these pioneering women make though, meets with criticism from those who you would expect. I was at a lecture this past summer given by Rabbanit Chana Henkin, the Dean of Nishmaat, an Israeli Yeshiva that trains women to become Yoetzot Halacha, literally a Jewish law advisor. When the question and answer session began, one brave soul asked her, “why just advisor, why not go straight for rabbi?” The Rabbanit answered basically, that it’s too soon.

I don’t know if I will see a major movement towards women rabbis in Orthodoxy in my lifetime. Religion is always the last bastion of change and when it happens it is awfully slow. But I am seeing a paradigm shift in how Orthodox women participate in Jewish life and I like it. I’ve heard scholarly lectures on Torah given by women that would put plenty of male scholars to shame. The fact that women have intelligence and capabilities that is equal to and that often far exceed their male counterparts is a proven fact. I really don’t care if we call them rabbis or not, that’s semantics. What I do worry about though, is the effort to try and retard the advancement of women in Orthodoxy.

Take women’s tefilla groups. We used to have an active one here in the Five Towns. Let’s face it, the Five Towns is not the Upper West Side, so my guess is the reason it’s not so active anymore is a combination lack of interest by the female population here and a lack of rabbinic support. That’s a shame. I’m no Halachic expert but I don’t get the resistance to broader participation especially when it’s backed up by scholarship. Yes I know, the scholarship that allows for these changes is not accepted by the great rabbinic minds of our generation. Just imagine if this group had the support of one or two Orthodox rabbis in the community. By now that tefilla group would be bursting at the seams and would attract like minded people to move to the neighborhood.

Perhaps all these rabbinic minds can find a solution to the aguna problem (chained women). In the modern world a clear majority of agunot are in their situation because some recalcitrant husband refuses to give a Get. One popular solution is for there to be a pre-nuptial agreement. Not too sure that works with all the great rabbinic scholars but it’s a start. But what about the women who get married without the pre-nup? A few years back Rabbi Emmanuel Rackman OB”M, not exactly a religious lightweight, came up with an innovative solution. Through intricate research Rabbi Rackman postulated that a woman would never have married her husband in the first place had she known then that he would deny her a Get if and when the time came. Thus, the marriage can be nullified under a law that invalidates deceptive contracts. The problem was not one other noted rabbinic scholar backed him up. Imagine if one or two did.

I understand the resistance from a purely dogmatic approach; I just don’t understand it from a spiritual one. What disrespect to G-d and Torah is it if women seek greater participation? Especially if they agree to do so in a segregated room so as not to be accused of immodesty?

Not too long ago there was huge kerfuffle here when an area Orthodox shul had as its scholar in residence Rabbah Sara Hurwitz. My understanding of the opposition to her appearance here is that it had more to do with her title than with the fact that she is a woman. After all she was “ordained” by an Orthodox rabbi who under immense pressure had to promise he won’t “ordain” any more women at his Yeshiva or he would face religious sanction. Semantics again. His Yeshiva graduates women every year who for all intents and purposes got the education and training to be a rabbi they just call them something else. The irony here of course is that these same women are so sensitive to religious sensibilities, so “frum” in today’s parlance, that it’s insulting that they are sidelined.          

I’m a live and let live kind of guy. If a woman finds spirituality in baking challah, all the power to her. I just want women who desire a more active participatory role within Orthodoxy to have it. I don’t expect full acceptance but I would love a sort of détente that doesn’t marginalize women’s religious participation. The bottom line is that people who oppose these advancements wouldn’t attend the shul that would allow them under any circumstances anyway. We Orthodox may not ever count women towards a minyan, but make no mistake, now more than ever – women count.

It's Not Class Warfare

Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king – Bob Dylan – Infidels 1983

Well, at least I know that people read my columns. Last week I wrote about how the money culture allows a disproportionate minority of wealthy individuals and large corporations access to power and influence over policy. I’m not alone in my rage over it and my allies cross all ideological divides. John McCain, whose name is attached to the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill and Newt Gingrich who took it on the chin in Iowa from Mitt Romney’s Super PAC are but two.

Yet the overall response I got from readers was that I seem to be some kind of class warrior, I beg to differ. It is not the wealthy I am concerned with, it is a whole other group that I call the “Moneyed Elite.” More on them in a moment let me first address my supposed class warfare. I’m for lower taxes across the board and the main reason for that is because almost half the households in United States don’t pay any taxes at all. This places an unfair burden on those that do pay taxes. I am in favor of trimming the federal budget but it must be done across the board, defense, entitlements and every other sector. I find the “Death Tax” a scam where the government gets paid twice for money earned and taxed already. Yet I find that those that earn most of their living off of dividends, earned interest and capital gains pay too little in taxes. The loophole that allows private equity executives like Mitt Romney to be taxed at capital gains rates borders on criminal and when he eventually releases his tax returns it will be a major campaign issue. Corporations have become experts in tax avoidance and corporate CEO’s compensation is tied to often artificially inflated stock prices.

The small to mid-size business owners who employ most of the workers in this country are squeezed. Salaried professionals are penalized for being paid on the books via payroll while corporate bigwigs are not taxed on perks like travel and housing. The only people who get a pension anymore seem to be elected officials and municipal union workers. That’s not class warfare, that’s insanity. We have a broken system and we need to fix it. Does that mean I foment class warfare?

The Moneyed Elite are a relatively new breed. They have been created by 40 years of deregulation, loopholes and a system that places the shareholder above all. By making the shareholder reign supreme corporations shift away from any social compact that created them in the first place. The obligations of a corporation to its employees have given way to the bottom line of shareholders. The problem is that the typical shareholder does not really benefit from this emphasis. The benefit goes to the portfolio managers and investment bankers who invest your money, hedge fund managers and yes the super rich investors who buy stock in bulk. Just look at your 401K, IRA or stock portfolio over the past few years and you will know exactly what I’m saying is true. In the meantime, those bankers and hedge fund managers got paid outsized bonuses and increased the divide in income between them and everyone else exponentially. All the while, they use their windfall gains to finance political campaigns and influence policy. That is not class warfare, that’s insanity.

Pick up a newspaper or turn on the news on any given day and you will read stories of petty thieves and minor tax cheats paraded by prosecutors to show that they are fighting the criminals. However, not one, I repeat, not one, Wall Street executive who created bogus securities from junk mortgages that they paid the rating agencies to classify as AAA has even been indicted. The chairman of Goldman Sachs was quoted in Der Speigel as saying that crisis was the fault of greedy homebuyers who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford. In actuality the homebuyers were the proverbial kids in the candy store who had free money thrown at them by – Goldman Sachs (and others) and sold to your 401K and IRA as a safe investment. At the same time they pushed that crap on your portfolio, they bet against those investments with their own money. Their reward? Corporate bailouts and barely a crimp to their annual bonuses. That is not class warfare, that’s insanity.

We need to fix a broken system and we need to do it soon. The problem we face is that come November we will have a choice between more of the same or more the same from before that. I have no interest in class warfare and I hope the well off amongst us get to keep their money. I just want to live in a democracy where the majority still rules, not where less than 1% of us in reality does. 

Rethinking Obama

I’m not a pollster, but I’m willing to bet that if Jewish Americans were polled, the economy would be the number one issue they will be concerned about when voting for president in November. Israel might be a strong second or even third issue on Jews minds. I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing. Frankly, Israel despite all her enemies and perpetual state of conflict manages to fend for herself quite well. Furthermore, her relationship with the United States has matured to a point of co-dependence. Perhaps I am naive, but I find it highly unlikely that any president has the capacity, political or strategic, to do major harm to the bond between these two great nations. 

Much has been made about the chilly relationship that President Obama has with Prime Minister Netanyahu and that causes supporters of Israel to paint Obama as less than sympathetic to the Jewish State. President Obama’s insistence early in his term that Israel freeze settlement building as a pre-condition to negotiations definitely put Israel in a weakened bargaining position in future talks. His outreach to the Muslim world without balancing it by reaching out to Israel stung the Jewish community. And Obama’s mentioning the 67’ borders with mutually agreed land swaps as a basis for a peace agreement with the Palestinians did not give the impression of the role of steadfast ally the U.S. traditionally plays. The president’s critics feel he is not taking the nuclear threat from Iran seriously enough and his talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt seem naïve and possibly harmful to many.  

On the flipside, while President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world may not have paid diplomatic dividends, he can be credited with encouraging and supporting the Arab Spring. Aid to Israel in his administration has never been threatened or used as a club like George H.W. Bush and even Ronald Reagan did. His call for the 67’ borders with land swaps is not much different from various agreements proposed by Prime Ministers Barak and Olmert. Intelligence cooperation between the two countries according to Israeli sources has never been stronger and the “bunker busting” bombs denied by George W Bush’s administration to Israel were sold to her by the Obama administration. Let us not forget the many pro Israel Supporters and Jews in his administration including newly named Chief of Staff Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew and staunch supporter of Israel.

For those whose memory is short, George W Bush, possibly the best friend Israel ever had in the White House, denied Israel’s request to attack Iran’s nuclear facility. The current group of republican presidential candidates save Ron Paul, are strong supporters of Israel, but is it useful for one to call Palestinians already recognized by Netanyahu and almost all Israelis, “a made up nation?” Is it really better for Israel if the guy in the White House only follows the Likud line?

I think it’s important that voters who care about Israel keep an open mind and evaluate the overall picture of the candidates rather than make decisions based on exaggerated criticism of one’s Israel policy. Despite the repeated promises of candidates for president, when they finally got into office, none ever moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The reason of course is because reality trumps politics every time. Say what you will about Obama’s Israel policy, but overall the relationship is as strong as ever and the president owes no apologies for how he treats Israel. While I prefer a warmer relationship between the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu I’m willing to guess that whatever chill emanating from their contacts stems from both sides, after all they are ideological opposites. Oh yeah, the open mike incident where Obama was less than kind in his personal assessment of Netanyahu to President Sarkozy of France illustrates his frustration. While that doesn’t make it right it was a conversation between two allies and should be evaluated in that context.

While a candidate’s stance on Israel is very important to me, my ultimate decision will be based on who can help get us out of the economic mess we find ourselves in. Obama may have inherited a bad economy but it remains to be seen if any of his policies have helped. While the Republicans have not selected a candidate yet, the three likely finalists have to convince me and others that they can do better. Thus I look forward to a spirited campaign and an open debate about where we need to go from here. While economically, our choices might be between bad and worse, as far as Israel policy goes I’ll sleep just fine if Obama gets another four years. I plan on voting with my pocket book, either way Israel will be just fine.   

Not Enough

Extremism is a funny thing. Almost always, the group the extremists claim to represent act horrified by the combativeness and language of these fringe rioters. Often, mainstream leaders will denounce these radicals and claim that they do not represent the majority of people in their group. For the most part, this is true, but here is where it usually ends.

I recall after 9/11 how media outlets clamored over each other to find Imams who denounced the terrorism perpetrated in the name of their religion. There were plenty, especially Imams based here in the United States. What was left out was how many Mosques tolerated militant preaching and encouraged if not outright terrorism, then hostility towards the United States, Israel, the West, Christians and Jews.

Speaking with many people regarding the radicals in Beit Shemesh and the Hilltop Youth in Judea and Samaria the response is not much different. I have heard that they are a minority of Haredim or just a bunch of kids from the settlements. I read the statements of the Rabbinical Council of America and Agudath Israel denouncing the violence. I have seen statements from Rabbis and leaders both political and religious condemning these cowardly acts. My response, not enough!

I was pleased to see that locally, the Five Towns Jewish Times for the most part denounced the radicals and their use of violence and Holocaust imagery. 5TJT caters to a right of center crowd and these statements especially from the editor were an important step in reining in the lunatic fringe. However, sometimes in publications like 5TJT it is just as important to see what’s missing as it is to see what’s there. Take last week’s column by Rabbi Aryeh Zev Ginzberg http://www.5tjt.com/local-news/12865-the-real-yerushalayim who just returned from a trip to Israel. It was a beautiful article about some of the great gedolim who recently passed on, their legacies and how we Jews can honor that. What was missing from Rabbi Ginzberg’s submission was the chilul Hashem being perpetrated in the name of these gedolim and their religion in Israel.

Rabbi Ginzberg has no problem criticizing another local Shul who invites a female scholar to address the congregation or Yom Hashoa programs that allow “non-religious historians and writers of novels.” For criticism of Modern or left of center Jews, he has plenty of invective, for crimes by Haredim, none.

Last week’s issue of 5TJT also ran a column by Rabbi Yair Hoffman http://www.5tjt.com/local-news/12864-the-honor-of-women who’s Halachic musings usually show that he is a master of multiple sources to make his point. Last week’s posting used the first 2 small paragraphs to give a cursory denunciation of the violence in Beit Shemesh and then went into ripping former Knesset member Yossi Sarid, a columnist for Haaretz and a self proclaimed secular leftist who took a swipe at all religious Israelis. Wow Rabbi Hoffman, you’ve got guts.

The reason radicals are successful is not because they are supported, it is because they are tolerated. Nobody really likes crazy people who take things too far, but many people like the purpose they serve, which is to make the rest of the warriors look tame in comparison. Rabbi Hoffman at least gets kudos for giving us 2 paragraphs of criticism; Rabbi Ginzberg gets an F for showing zero guts. The time for action is now, not after things are taken too far. We need to hear from the Ginzbergs and the Hoffmans and then we need to plaster the Haredi neigborhoods with Halachic rulings from Haredi rabbis putting in cherem any of these kooks. Instead we hear faint denunciation and widening the chasm by chastising those who don’t like us anyway.

End the Money Culture

There are few things that grab my attention as much these days as the money culture, its direct link to power and influence and the fact that it will likely not change anytime soon. This week it was reported that Morgan Stanley earned about $22 million in an electricity price fixing scheme which cost New York consumers $160 million. Their punishment? a fine of $4.8 million, no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, no criminal charges.

Union employees of the Port Authority have gotten approximately $600,000 worth of free tolls through company EZ Passes even for when they are off duty. Metropolitan Transit employees get free rides, sometimes for life while service is being cut and fares continue to rise.

Much has been made about how President Obama will raise $1 billion for his reelection campaign, wait until you see how much Mitt Romney raises from Goldman Sachs alone. Speaking of Goldman, they are reportedly on the war path against Obama because the Dodd Frank bill is impeding their ability to scam clients.

The impact of super pacs has yet to be determined but I predict that the republican nomination for president will be hard fought and lengthy even with Romney seemingly unstoppable. It is distressing and scary. With the exception of Ron Paul and Obama circa 2008 most political contributions are gotten from the big boys, the little people’s shekels are welcome but carry no influence or access. To play in the political arena still means prostituting for cash, no exceptions. Since real cash can only come from big players it’s those guys who get the access and the influence. Thus the rules of the game will likely remain in place no matter who gets elected.

So long as Goldman Sachs and the rich elite continue to blame the housing crisis on greedy homebuyers and congress and not on bogus securities they created with the assent of the ratings agencies, we will never really find an equitable way out it. The far right’s mouthpiece, Rush Limbaugh still spews the lie that banks did not create the crisis, congress did. And in one of the ultimate ironies, President Obama is running against the “do nothing” congress ala Harry S Truman after spending the last three and half years trying to make nice with them.

We face existential threats to our democracy and free market and we seemingly will only have a choice between bad and worse come November. For the poor and those in need of government assistance, a republican victory means Captain Slash will take over the White House, for the middle class and small business owner, Obama’s reelection means a continued stagnation of the free market and limited growth.

What is needed is nothing short of a revolution in how we gain and access power, what we will likely receive is more of the same. It has been proven that dissent is not tolerated too well in this democracy either; OWS shut down by police in every major city, Tea Party protesters forcibly taken out of town hall meetings. We can’t even scream loudly enough to get anyone to listen or to do anything about it.

Our hope lies in the strong fundamental foundations of our democracy and the resilience of the American people. America has always been the center of innovation and beacon of light to other nations. The money culture has skewed that role of leadership the US has played in the world and that needs to be repaired. American exceptionalism may sound like a slogan for right wingers but ask the immigrants who come here everyday what it means to them. Ask our World War II allies and even ask our defeated enemies whom we propped up and saved if America is exceptional; the answer has to be yes. The war in Iraq may be considered a mistake by many but ask the protesters in Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Egypt where they got their inspiration from.

America’s best days are not behind it if we can find a way to control the damage, reform our system and find a way to revitalize our free market while caring for our unfortunate and hard hit. Not only do we need it to get us moving forward but the rest of the world needs it too – no exceptions.

Jews for Jesus

Christianity used to scare me. Growing up in what was then an ethnically mixed Boro Park Brooklyn, I was told by my neighbor at age 3 that I killed his Lord. I was told stories of blood libels, pogroms, the Inquisition and of course the Holocaust, which my father had gone through. The Cross meant hatred towards me and the slurs thrown at me as I walked my neighborhood with my yarmulke on, came from the Italians, Irish and the occasional Hispanic, Christians all.

Having gone to Yeshivas and Zionist summer camp in my youth, my exposure to gentiles was limited. Only in college did I really start to learn about other religions and cultures and only when I joined the working world did I really start to interact with gentiles. Of course I learned that the world has changed from the one I learned about growing up. Christian based Anti-Semitism is much less prevalent today. Nostra Aetate which repudiated "Deicide" charges against Jews for killing Jesus was the start in a long process of reconciliation between Catholics and Jews. Pope John Paul II's Polish heritage allowed him to witness the worst of anti Jewish hatred in his youth during World War II, it made him especially sensitive to Jews and Israel and under his leadership the Vatican established diplomatic ties with Israel. He was also the first Pope to visit a synagogue as well as the Western Wall in Jerusalem. When he passed away, my father who is a teacher in a Jewish school told his students that "his" Pope had died, a tribute to a man who did much to help retard Christian hatred of Jews.

More recently, Jews have had an uncomfortable alliance with Fundamentalist Christians who have embraced the State of Israel. The discomfort stems from Fundamentalist belief that the Rapture will only come when Jews return to Zion but will then need to accept Christ as their savior or forever be damned. Like most Jews I'll let the Gods fight amongst themselves on that point, in the meantime I'm appreciative of the support.

Like many, my affinity for my Christian brethren has caused me to be shocked and horrified by the atrocities being perpetrated against them by Islamic extremists in the Middle East and other Muslim countries. Maronite Christians in Lebanon have been brushed aside by Hezbollah. Coptic Christians are being killed regularly by Islamic mobs in Egypt. Christians are a prosecuted minority in every Arab country they live in and have been leaving en masse rendering the Middle East "Christianrein." Statistics show that the Christian population in the Middle East has steadily declined over the past 30 odd years in conjunction with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Of course, Saudi Arabia the "moderate" ally of the West, has laws banning the open practice of any other religion, meaning Christian businessmen or foreign soldiers need to pray in secrecy so as not to "offend" Arabian sensibilities, but more important not to break their law.

Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000 placed many of her Christian allies in mortal danger. Israel did take some of these refugees in but could have done more. The silence from the Jewish community today about the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries is deplorable and must change. We cannot expect the world to decry Anti-Semitism if we remain silent about the murder of innocent Christians. Jews and Israel must use their powers of influence to guarantee basic human rights for our Christian brethren wherever they are. The new government in Egypt has indicated that it wishes to renegotiate some of the terms of the peace treaty with Israel, if so, Israel must put ending Christian persecution in Egypt on the negotiating table as well.

The pro Israel lobby must remind the Congress that the United States is still 80% Christian and that any aid given to any country must come with guarantees of protection of all minorities. Jews who helped fight for the Jackson - Vanik amendment which restricted trade with the Soviet Union while it persecuted Jews, should demand similar accountability from Muslim nations who persecute Christians.

I have heard Jewish leaders lament that we don't have an issue like "Soviet Jewry" to unify us and rally around. I disagree, there is no bigger Jewish cause today than the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. True, we still have Anti-Semitism to deal with and the safety and security of Israel is of paramount importance to us, but the persecution of any minority, be they Armenians, Kurds, Baha'i or Christians should be utmost in our minds. We must speak out and we have the moral authority as victims and persecuted to stand tall and demand justice.

We spoke out about Darfur, we protested against the murder of Muslims in the Baltic War, we bemoaned tribal slaughter in Rwanda, can we stand by silent as Christians are murdered? We can't and we mustn't and if we have to take the lead in raising consciousness about that issue so be it. As Jews we cannot be silent as human beings we are obligated to act.

End the Madness Raise Your Voice

American Jews need to begin demanding of Israel the same that it demands of Israel’s enemies. I refer specifically to an environment of tolerance on the part of the Israeli government to radical settlers who attack IDF bases and destroy Arab mosques and homes and to the religious coercion being perpetrated by extremist Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) thugs with the aid and tolerance of Israel’s right wing coalition. The Judean gang are given the benign name of “Hilltop Youth” and the Haredi group in Beit Shemesh, Ashdod and Meah Shearim are acting with implicit approval of the Grand Rabbis whose lack of condemnation of the violence is deplorable.
A good first step will be for the government of Israel to label the “Hilltop Youth” as terrorists, allowing for stricter security measures to be used to get to the bottom of and breaking up of the operation. If Israel wants to be treated as a truly egalitarian and free society these crimes must be given moral equivalence to similar acts done to us. A Palestinian arrested for the defacing a synagogue would face a military tribunal and all that that implies. A Jew defacing a mosque, is tried in an Israeli court with a higher barrier to conviction than its military counterpart. The youth already have a legal defense fund set up with volunteer lawyers to defend them. This is no rag tag group of mislead youth, this is a strategy being employed by the settler movement, if not directly then with a wink-wink acquiescence of settler leaders.
Equally disturbing is the ugly behavior of the extreme Haredim. While they may be a minority of the Haredi community, they have the full protection of a government coalition that includes their parties and a right wing prime minister whose legitimacy depends on their support. Bibi Netanyahu continues to make statements denouncing the actions of the lunatic fringe but he needs to lean on his allies to pressure their communities to stop.
We can no more condemn the silence of the Arab countries’ defense of Palestinian atrocities if we don’t denounce our own. We cannot preach about the radical madrasas in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia if we cannot control our own yeshiva bochurs. And we certainly can’t deride the religious police of Iran if Israel effectively has the same in some of their cities.
There are some heroes in Israel who for sure take a stand and speak out against this violence and anti-Jewish values behavior. Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, himself a settler frequently denounces the Hilltop Youth. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, founder and Rosh Yeshiva at Gush Etzion is another also Nachman Rosenberg of Tzohar, a Modern Orthodox organization that helps people prove their Judaism so they can marry as required by Israeli law, through the Chief Rabbinate.
If the Grand Rabbis of the major Hasidic sects remain silent, if the Roshei Yeshiva of the great institutions of higher Torah learning remain silent, they are guilty of complicity. If the political parties that represent these people do not loudly denounce them, they too are complicit. Most importantly, if we American Jews, supporters of Israel do not raise our voices then we too are guilty.

Nervous System

With greater frequency we are finding that science is able to explain so much about human behavior and why childhood trauma can affect a person’s physical and mental health throughout their life. In a new and exciting book reviewed here: http://www.salon.com/2012/01/02/how_stress_is_really_hurting_our_kids/?source=newsletter we are told that here in the USA we are not doing nearly enough to protect our children and how our attitude towards children and parenting is affecting not only individuals but society as a whole.

One of the most intriguing points was a comparison of the trauma faced by children in previous generations to the ones we see today. The key point of difference seems to be that familial and tribal connections of times past inoculated the young brain from much of the kind of stress we see today. The strong hand parenting of earlier generations as compared to the relatively benign structure of modern parenting gives the advantage to previous generations. Further, greater amounts of poverty and over exposure to information are the reasons we are seeing so many more diseases and illnesses that were rarely heard about just a generation ago. All of this is connected to the nervous system which ultimately has a physiological effect on the immune system. 

Religion would explain this as the breakdown of the family and all of the social implications that go with it. I prefer to call it the blueprint vs. the machine effect. A designer or engineer will create something using a blueprint model, perhaps using previous inventions incorporated into the design. Eventually, the machine is made. However over time, the machine is refined, is replaced by a better invention or evolves into whole other machinery. The phone and the automobile might be good examples of that. Well, humans are no different. God is the engineer and he drew up the blueprints. Where I differ with the religionists here is that I believe God left the rest of the work to us. Sometimes, we do a good job and sometimes we fail miserably. But the important thing to remember is that it’s in our hands to fix. True, we might go back to the engineer or architect for advice but ultimately the hard work is done with the labor force.  

I think we need to realize that what God gave us is awesome thus every action and word we use has an implication. To those like me who believe in God, the science is just the proof of His blueprint, the ills and the gains are what we do with it. Ultimately, we use the Godly blueprint to make our own creations but it appears we are not using the data of our experience enough to perfect it. We can end wars, conflict, poverty, trauma and all its effects but time and again we fail at it. Our tendency seems to refer to just the original blueprint and not all the changes and corrections made to it since then. Too bad! We can do so much but rather than take one step forward we often just take two steps back.  

There are things we cannot prevent in bringing up our children as individuals. What we can do is learn from the science how our behavior can be modified to correct much of what ails us and use it as a society to do what we can. Much is being made about personal liberty today but more and more the science is proving what God told us all along when he created us, which is that what we do as a family, a tribe, a village or a race matters. We are responsible for one another and now more than ever we have the science to prove it.

The Ranting Heeb: Rush is Still a Big Fat Liar

The Ranting Heeb: Rush is Still a Big Fat Liar: I had a chance to listen to Rush Limbaugh while on a rare midday drive. He was ripping into the democrats and President Obama as you would e...

Rush is Still a Big Fat Liar

I had a chance to listen to Rush Limbaugh while on a rare midday drive. He was ripping into the democrats and President Obama as you would expect for proposing a new home refinance program for homeowners under water. He ranted about how Obama will say he's spending $1.2 trillion on the program because the banks were dishonest and suckered people into taking these high priced mortgages. "It was the government that is responsible for the crisis," said Rush. WOW! We are 4 years into the crisis and we are still arguing who is at fault.

Tell a lie enough, people will believe it. Assume that the Community Reinvestment Act - enacted during Jimmy Carter's administration to make sure that banks don't discriminate in lending - is the reason for the mortgage crisis; who forced the rating agencies to rate the crappy mortgages as AAA? Also Rush, who created the securities that put sub-prime mortgages on top of sub-prime mortgages and sold them as AAA? More importantly Rush, tell your listeners the name of the law enacted by either party that forced banks to lend to borrowers with bad credit, no liquid assets and no income? Huh Rush? Can't hear you. Because there is none.

I'm a mortgage industry insider having owned my own mortgage company. There are not too many innocent parties in this crisis, the government included, but to blame it all on them is disingenuous and dishonest. Of course we are talking about Rush Limbaugh here so that goes without saying. Sorry Rush, I used to be a sort of fan because much of what you say has some merit, but this is beyond the pale. Until we fix business AND GOVERNMENT nothing will be fixed in this country.

I'm guessing that if this is the direction my party, the Republican party, will try to win the upcoming election, then Barack Obama will be reelected. Under these conditions that may just be the better outcome.

A Good Start

I was heartened to see that the front page of The Five Times Jewish Times included 2 articles, including one from the editor that seemingly condemned the Haredi nuts in Beit Shemesh. It is the right call and shows an inclusiveness that is not always apparent in that publication. Considering that the same issue includes a front page story that is trivial and divisive, it shows a tolerance that should be commended. The trivial story I refer to is by Rabbi Yair Hoffman who takes issue with an article written by Rabbi Michael Broyde that allows non-religious celebration of New Years and Valentines day. Trivial because the 5TJT readership is not likely to celebrate New Years or Valentines day, and divisive because those of us that do celebrate those holidays do so with completely secular motives. Rabbi Hoffman would serve his readership and the Jewish community better by musing on the Halacha of embarrassing fellow Jews and harassing children in the public arena.

I would also like to point out that while editor Gordon denounces the extremism he uses a poor example to highlight why the story is no big deal. True Mr. Gordon, Iran is still developing nuclear missiles and the Assad regime is still slaughtering Syrians in unprecedented numbers, but a better example might have been to compare the extremists to the religious police in places like Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Iranian missiles are getting plenty of attention and so is Syria. What we need to be doing as Jews is highlighting the difference between us and those extremists in other religions. We need to compare apples to apples, religious coercion is the issue and Jews just don't march to that beat. We should be letting the world know that our ultra religious extremists are a fringe that is condemned even by our - hardliners.

While the 5TJT front page is a good start the pressure needs to be kept up. The current Israeli government while condemning publicly the violence must take greater action to end it. The embarrassment to Judaism and Israel is real, Mr. Gordon points out that now those that hate us that will now say there is no difference between us and them, he's right and we must consider how our behavior is seen by the rest of the world.