"...I accuse the very great rabbis, the leaders of our people, because of internal strife..."

February 16, 1923 - Rosh Chodesh Adar 5683 Edition

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The following article appeared eighty seven years ago, February 16, 1923, in "Dos Yiddish Licht", founded by the saintly Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l for the purpose of strengthening the observance of mitzvos, and to arouse the public concerning kashrut of foods, which at that time was very neglected, and sadly is not any better in our day and age.

The author was the great gaon and tzaddik, the "Shlucha D'Rachmona" of his generation, the "architect" of true Torah values in America, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l, the founder of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and Torah U'Mesorah.

(Translated from the Yiddish above)

"And if I say: I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name then there is in my heart a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot" (Jeremiah. 20:9)

I use the above prophetic words as a preface to my article concerning kashrus, because this article will not bring honor to me. On the contrary, I will be attacked with ridicule from all sides. But what can I do? A fire is burning within me, and within a thousand Jews like me... A fire, which cannot be extinguished.

The kashrus question has recently been discussed in the Yiddish press, but only one side of the question, viz. concerning the unscrupulous butchers who sell treifos without a hechsher or with a false one. The press has remained silent, however, concerning the second side of the question, about the treifos being sold under rabbinical supervision and under rabbinical signs in butcher shops.

The press is silent about this problem, perhaps because of the honor of the rabbis, or, perhaps, because of other reasons. The honor of the rabbis is dear to me too. But, the honor of the Torah which is lying in the garbage, and the honor of the truth, which is trodden under foot, are dearer to me. Where there is chillul Hashem we do not impart honor to a rabbi, I, therefore come forward with an accusation.

I Accuse!

I accuse many rabbis, who grant hechsherim, who knowingly or otherwise, or out of neglect, permit non-kosher meat to be sold under their stamp of approval both wholesale and retail; the seller is an unscrupulous person with Torah sanction.

I accuse many rabbis, who although they themselves have no part in the hechsherim, nevertheless, know about them and still remain silent. There is a sort of mutual reciprocal agreement to keep quiet about each other's false hechserim. Perhaps it is because they wish to avoid chillul Hashem. They forget, however, that where there is chillul Hashem we do not impart honor to a rabbi.

I accuse the very great rabbis, the leaders of our people, because of internal strife. These disputes are not for the sake of Heaven; if one says that something is prohibited the other must say it is permissible, if one says something is contaminated the other must say it is pure. It is impossible to bring order to the chaotic kashrus situation, especially the chicken and meat markets.

I accuse the rabbis because of whose negligence; the laws of chalav akum have virtually been forgotten. I know that there various heterim for this, but they apply only when it is impossible to get chalav Yisrael. In our situation, however, with a little effort, order could be brought to this chaos, and "if one can be good, why should he be bad?"

I accuse our Orthodoxy, for sleeping the sleep of Choni Ha'maagil, who slept seventy years. They are completely unaware of what is happening around them and how our strongest ramparts are being smashed by our internal foes. They are unaware that all our holy traditions are being trampled underfoot, that our three thousand year old heritage has all but completely disappeared. Yet, Orthodoxy sleeps, but how much longer?

Do you know that all of the fortresses of Judaism, which have heretofore protected us from destruction, the only one left is kashrus, that other mitzvos are observed very laxly even in Orthodox homes? And now kashrus too is being smashed, yet we sleep, but how much longer?

Don't you see what has become of your youth? Don't you know that Jewish children have become tramps, gamblers, gangsters, candidates for the electric chair, and all kinds of "ISTS", only because they have been raised on neveilos and treifos, yet you sleep, but how much longer?

Don't you know that going to the mikvah every day to purify yourself will be to no avail? Not even all the waters in the world can help, not with sheretz tamei (a carcass of a creeping thing) in your hand, but inside of you! And when you daven every morning and evening, or when you learn your daily shiur, don't you know that the breath that emanates from your mouth is the breath of sin because it reeks of neveilos and treifos!? Yet you sleep, but how much longer?

When you wash your hands for bread, or when you make Kiddush on Shabbos, and your table is bedecked with all sorts of delicacies, and you say with each bite, in honor of the Shabbos, you are angering Hashem when you break bread. Yet you sleep, but how much longer?

I know that you will reply, "Jacob is small and poor" But look what Jacob's brother on East Broadway has accomplished, how he erected a fortress through the poor laborers, a fortress against Judaism, because he has united forces. Yet you sleep and do nothing, but how much longer?

Gentlemen! Do a little soul searching and see how far you have strayed; remember that our parents have sacrificed their lives for kiddush Hashem; they allowed themselves to be burned in order to uphold our holy Torah, whereas you are not required to make any sacrifices; with but a handful you can save the situation. Yet you sleep, but how much longer?

Fellow Jews, have you no fear for the great and terrible Day of Judgment? In that day you will no longer be able to come up with excuses or with a shrug of the shoulder.

And I ask you "how much longer?" And I say, "you sleepers, awaken from your slumber!"

Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz

One Lying Gentile + One Lying Jew = 2 Criminals!

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer DUBLIN March 20,2010

– Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland on Saturday in a letter apologizing for the sex abuse scandal here — a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see if it also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved cover-ups.

The church is only beginning to come to terms with decades of child abuse in its parishes and schools. The scandals first emerged in Canada and Australia in the 1980s, followed by Ireland in the 1990s, the United States this decade and, in recent months, Benedict's German homeland.

Victims' rights activists say that to begin mending the church's battered image, Benedict's message — his first pastoral letter on child abuse in the church — must break his silence on the role of the Catholic hierarchy in shielding pedophile clergy from prosecution.

That includes abuses committed decades ago under the pope's watch, when he was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, as well as the pontiff's role in hushing up the scandals.

As leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger was responsible for a 2001 Vatican edict that instructed bishops to report all cases of child abuse to Vatican authorities under strict secrecy; it made no mention of reporting crimes to police.

"Is it not time for Pope Benedict XVI himself to acknowledge his share of responsibility?" said the Rev. Hans Kung, a Swiss priest and dissident Catholic theologian.

"Honesty demands that Joseph Ratzinger himself, the man who for decades has been principally responsible for the worldwide cover-up, at last pronounce his own mea culpa," Kung said.

Benedict, who served as archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, has yet to speak about the hundreds of abuse cases emerging since January in Germany.

These include the Rev. Peter Hullermann, who was already suspected of abusing boys in the western German city of Essen when Ratzinger approved his transfer to Munich for treatment in 1980.

There, Hullermann was allowed contact with children almost immediately after his therapy began. He was again accused of molesting boys and was convicted in 1986 of sexual abuse. He was suspended this week for ignoring a 2008 church order not to work with youths.

Dirk Taenzler, director of the Federation for German Catholic Youth, said his members were appalled by the revelations of abuse in church-run schools and choirs — and wondered why the pope had yet to address his fellow Germans.

"Everyone is suffering from the church's bad image," Taenzler said. "It is an issue in every congregation and everyone is trying to cope."

Benedict's successor in Munich, Archbishop Reinhard Marx, said the pope's letter to Ireland "will of course affect us. The pope always speaks for everyone. It is not ... for specific groups or countries. That word will also be important for us."

Marx said the pope should not be expected to take responsibility for abuses committed by individual priests. "We expect the pope to take a stand on everything every time, but we are responsible for what happens here," he said.

In the United States, where several dioceses have been driven to bankruptcy amid abuse lawsuits, activists called on the pope to be candid about his own failings — and for bishops to be held accountable.

"So far the church hierarchy has been very short on accountability. They've had to be pushed to come clean about their responsibility for anything," said Dan Bartley, president of Voice of the Faithful, a Catholic lay group that lobbies for reform within the church. "He needs to call for any bishops involved in the Irish crisis to resign. But unfortunately we're not expecting that."

Ray Flynn, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, said the pope has been slow to speak publicly about the church's abuse crisis because he lacks media savvy, not because he wants to stonewall critics or doesn't care about victims. "He is a very quiet, unassuming, non-pretentious man," Flynn said.

"He's got to be transparent, forthcoming, right out front and point the finger where the blame is," he added. "I think the truth will set you free, and that's what people want."

No country has been harder hit by the child-abuse scandals than Ireland, a nation of 4 million that has paid out more than $1 billion to some 13,000 victims. Victims' advocates say they are tired of hearing church apologies that contain no acknowledgment of how bishops under Vatican direction let child molesters operate with impunity.

"What we probably will get — I hope I'm wrong — are a lot of expressions of regret and sorrow and apology about the horrors of child abuse in the past. I've heard that so often now," said Marie Collins, one of Ireland's most prominent campaigners for victims' rights.

"I want to hear apologies for the actions of the church hierarchy."

Collins, 63, was repeatedly raped by a Dublin priest, Paul McGennis, while in a children's hospital in 1960. Irish bishops knew at the time about McGennis' pedophilia — even confiscating his collection of nude photos of children — but didn't bar him from the priesthood until 1997, shortly before his conviction for abusing Collins and another girl.

Such cover-ups have undermined much of the Irish hierarchy including its leader, Cardinal Sean Brady.

On St. Patrick's Day, Brady apologized for his failure to tell police about evidence he gathered in 1975 from two altar boys molested by the Rev. Brendan Smyth. Smyth kept abusing children until he was finally convicted in 1994. The scandal triggered the collapse of the Irish government.

Three Irish government-ordered investigations from 2005 to 2009 documented the abuse of thousands of Irish children by priests in their parishes and by nuns and brothers in boarding schools and orphanages. Irish bishops did not report a single case to police until 1996 after victims began to sue the church.

Some church scholars say Benedict has sought to encourage a church crackdown on abusers and are hopeful that Saturday's message might offer a fresh start for the church worldwide.

"If we do take serious and proper steps, the house can be cleaned and the church will improve for it," said the Rev. John Wauck, a commentator on Vatican affairs.

"I think that's something to look forward to with hope. I imagine the letter will be quite hopeful and forward-looking," Wauck said.

"I will be attacked with ridicule from all sides. What can I do? A fire is burning within me, and within a thousand Jews like me!"

The UOJ Archives - August 5, 2006

"I will be attacked with ridicule from all sides. But what can I do? A fire is burning within me, and within a thousand Jews like me... A fire, which cannot be extinguished." .... Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l, the "architect" of Torah in America, written in 1923.

" Lishmoa lillmod u'llelamed, lishmor v'laasos u'lkayem es kol divrei talmud torahsecha b'ahaava".... from the Ahava Raba in our daily tefillos.

Lillmod k'dei l'lamed...We learn our holy Torah to be able to pass it on to our children for the generations. We learn the holy Torah, kdei likayim, in order to fulfill "all" of the learning of your (our) Torah with love!

Judaism is a religion of practice; Hashem did not gift us with the Torah to study for knowledge sake and then to discard the practices that separate us from the other nations of the world. We are to serve God so we can be better people for it.

The Torah is a prescription medicine for life, it was meant to be a cure-all for the illnesses that all humans suffer from. It was not meant to be a tool to hurt people, it was not meant to be used and abused to make money for our personal gain at the expense of the weak and the downtrodden. It was certainly not meant to punish the innocent with harm that will endure for a lifetime.

Rabbonnus was meant for the morally and ethically superior people in the mold of Moshe and Aaron; to lead us away from our temptations and human frailties. It was not meant for people to capitalize on it to create institutions from public funds to enrich their personal fiefdoms.

As Moshe and Aaron "suffered" for being great; Moshe not being permitted to enter Eretz Yisroel and Aaron losing his two sons to a fiery death, we demand accountability and moral purity from our "leaders." Our leaders are NOT to be given a pass when their mistakes cause great harm to the masses. They, by their positions, are to pay a very dear price for their foibles. So much more so when their sins are either intentional or out of ignorance!

Yes, there's a fire in me that I can not extinguish, nor will I. We are hemorrhaging internally. The bleeding is getting worse as we continue to ignore the patient...all of Am Yisroel! Our "doctors" are out to lunch and causing death and destruction to the people destined to be a light unto the world. They are mocking God by pretending to take care of the patients entrusted to them; but instead are injecting them with a spiritual poison.

Why have we not learned? How many more fake Messiahs do we need to learn that we have been taken by the Moshiach hucksters who have seen him in a dream or a vision?

Why have we not learned that the people that predict the date of his arrival are cruel opportunists using religion as a form of crowd control to the ignorant?

Why have we not learned from the utter failure of a particular Movement to bring authentic Judaism to the masses, and instead turned their organization into one big global soup kitchen?

Why have we not yet learned that "kollel" is for the mitzuyonim, the best and the brightest, and l'maan Hashem let's force the others to get up early and go to bed late learning Torah...but must earn a parnassah for their family?

When Rav Bick z"l cried out "the yeshivas are producing inferior humans", the Torah world went into a feeding frenzy; "what can you expect from a person who was a product of Y.U."?

Why have we not yet learned that we must reconcile science and Torah; When science contradicts Torah, Torah wins. But if we can reconcile the new scientific findings WITH the Torah, if we don't, the intelligent b'nei Torah among us will question the validity of the entire Torah?

Why have we not learned that the chitzonyus, the exterior, the l'vush, the clothing, is absolutely meaningless if our hearts are not pure. We can not clothe ourselves one way, when our actions are in total contradiction to the way we appear.

Why have we not learned that we were m'kabel the Torah at Sinai, which includes the Neviim and the K'suvim...all the rest that came later was NOT incorporated in our Torah. The feel-good writings of the various people are not Torah, they are theories of individuals, albeit many individuals. Z'miros does not take the place of learning. D'veykus and Tzimtzum are not theories that were given to us at Sinai. Being m'dabek to a human is Christianity and is not part of Judaism. To idolize a person is to violate the basic precepts of the Torah. "Tzimtzum" is in direct contradiction to the way the Torah describes the sheshes y'mei breishis.

And NO, I do not believe for one second that metziza b'peh is an integral part of the milah. The vast majority of frum Jews would never permit their child to be subjected to that distortion of the emes. No, I do not believe for one second that Avraham Avinu performed metziza b'peh on himself - as per Rabbi Yisroel Reisman! Some people who know better made a horrible judgment call when they decided to become the spokesmen for Satmar and that entire group of illiterates and peasants. Children are getting ill and dying and we're playing politics. Shame on you!

There is no common folk. All Jews are very special. For people that find it difficult perhaps to study Torah the conventional way; there is Art Scroll, Torah Tapes, Daf Yomi on the Internet....etc. Singing songs does not constitute learning Torah although it feels good. We have suffered throughout time from charismatic leaders who caused much pain and destruction to our people. When their views conform to the Torah it becomes acceptable, not the other way around.

Let's not forget that a few short years ago Rabbi Aaron Kotler zt"l would not permit a shtreimel in the Bais Midrash of Lakewood. Let us not forget that Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l would not permit his talmidim to wear their arba kanfos (tzitzis) over their shirts. What do you think he would say if a bochur walked into the yeshiva bedecked in 80 pairs of tzitzis?

As far as R' Elchonon's actions; the concept that talmidei chachomim are infallible has let us down time and time again. R' Michoel Ber Weissmandel zt"l was writing letters to the U.S.A. about the horrors going on in Europe as R' Elchonon kept going back, time and time again after his fundraising trips to America. He clearly knew what was at stake, and chose death over life for himself and his talmidim. He was photographed in the U.S.A. in the summer of 1939 (see The ArtScroll), when there were no questions in any person's mind about Hitler's plans for the Jews, and he chose death for himself and his talmidim.

So I can not sit idly by as this fire is consuming me, but I will not let it destroy me...." V'heenei boer b'aish, v'hasneh aneinu ukal". I see the Establishment yawning as the sex abuse issue goes un-addressed in a meaningful way. Yudi Kolko is still employed by Lipa Margulies and the Establishment is singing z'miros. Since I have now secured the attention of the media, I will conduct my own Jewish global warming experiments, and will keep turning up the heat until the "climate is right" to fix the ills that are destroying us. There will be another informative article in the secular media on Monday.

Wake up from your slumber dear Yiden; I am pleading with you!

Why have we not learned yet that there are people who really care about Yiddishkeit, and genuinely love klal Yisroel even when there's no "profit" to be made?

I'm here to stay! If you don't like it, add another hechsher (third) to Empire chicken!

Will the real "scandal" please stand up!

 

The Ferd Hypocrites at Agudah:

Purim Teireh from the Moetzes

By Tropper is Troubled (again)

Oh so true: Will the real "scandal" please stand up!

True up-to-date scenario: There has been a great scandal brewing for the last two years at least! A very suspicious Orthodox rabbi has been up to no good. Agudath Israel of America have been very wary of him, not quite sure how to deal with his charisma, independence, popularity and influence. He is changing the rules of the game in Orthodox Judaism by creating new standards. He heads a controversial yeshiva in the New York area. He is helping favored and favorite women by manipulating Halacha to meet his ends and needs. He was warned many times in the past to stop his suspicious activities but he has big financial backing and lots of chutzpa, so he just carried on as he saw fit. He was finally outed and revealed in public to help a woman in his congregation gain a milestone in her life by going against the norms of Orthodox Judaism. He granted her favors and gave her a job. She obliged by doing his bidding. She thinks he is a great rabbi and he thinks she can service his most important needs.

Who is this man? Hey, that’s easy, it’s Leib Tropper right? Nope! You mean it’s not that Tropper guy loved to bits by rabbis and women alike who wanted to create new vistas in Orthodox Judaism and then got caught literally with his pants down when he was recorded on audio and video having explicit hot ‘n heavy phone and hotel sex with a woman that worked for him in exchange for helping her get a coveted Orthodox conversion to join the Jewish people, it was him, right? Nope! Hey wait, isn’t it Tropper that the Agudath Israel of America rabbis is finally condemning as an outcast and danger to Orthodoxy, right? Nope! They’re finally seeing the red light of this Tropper red district rabbi who was condemned by half the world’s Orthodox rabbis already, was booted off his multi-million religious organizations and out of his communty, and we’re just waiting for the Agudath Israel of America rabbis to think deeper and come out with a unanimous public condemnation of the lowlife? Nope! So it has to be Leib Tropper that they are condemning because he’s brought only shame and disgrace and a vile global media watched chillul Hashem scandal upon the Orthodox world that has rocked the foundations of Orthodox conversions all over the world and faith in the wisdom of all the rabbis who supported him, and now, finally, the Agudath Israel of America are vomiting out and purging the sickening Tropper drek in their bowels to cleanse themselves and prove that they were men of justice, vision, morality and upholders of Torah values, right? Nope! Hey, so what’s going on???

Dream on silly!!!

Last week Agudath Israel of America released a statement from its vaunted “Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah” condemning, no not Tropper the menuval shebemenuvalim -- the vilest of the vile, but look at this, they’re attacking Modern Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale because he had the audacity to “ordain” a woman in his congregation raising her from the self-designated neologisms of “Maharat” to “Rabbah” none of which is at all clear. Now Avi Weiss, together with his Modern Orthodox Young Turks colleagues Saul Berman (he’s been teaching women Talmud his entire life), Shlomo Riskin (who educates female “Toanot” in Israel) and Ephraim Buchwald (who cavorts with hundreds Reform and Conservative female rabbis and temples day in and day out as they co-sponsor his NJOP programs) who in various ways have launched a variety of plans to “save the Jews” from assimilation and oblivion by seeking out and implementing “equality” and “egalitarianism” of all sorts yet still sticking within Modern Orthodoxy wherever they can find it. No one says that these guys are tzadikim necessarily or that they represent the role models that Charedim in the Yeshivishe or Chasidisha world should follow.

Avi Weiss does his own thing at his Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT) and God bless him, he is a fine man trying to cope with some of the most serious challenges of modernity and the struggles that the Modern Orthodox face in THEIR world, of having to cope with life among Reform and Conservative Jews and that kind of competing left-wing religious ideology. Avi Weiss is competing not with the right wing Charedim but with left wingers to the left of him and he pushes the notion that women should be recognized as “leaders” in Modern Orthodox communities. Don’t go to a Modern Orthodox synagogue if you don’t agree with or like this. Just like you should not go to a Chabad shull if you feel that they are pushing “the Rebbe is Moshiach” line too much! Etc. To each his/her own. In America there is freedom of religion, so far!

After all, Stern College and all Modern Orthodox day schools teach Talmud, Meforshim, Halacha in depth to females. Rav J.B. Soloveitchik ZT”L endorsed this when he gave one of the first Talmud classes to girls at Stern College . He and his wife guided the flagship Maimonides Day School in Boston based on such Modern Orthodox enlightened educational notions and policies for girls as well. If you’re Satmar or from Lakewood , don’t apply. In case you didn’t know, the Modern Orthodox in America also have mixed dancing at their social events, they have low mechitzas, they don’t drink chalav yisrael only and are not makpid on yoshen, they have co-ed Jewish day schools all the way through high school, they all attend colleges when they graduate they become professionals like doctors, accountants, lawyers, IT professionals, investment bankers, etc, and most are Religious Zionists and if not they are very pro-Israel. They dress very modern, go to the movies, have TVs, computers, Internet and the whole nine yards of technology in their homes, most of the married women don’t cover their hair, girls wear pants, boys have longish hair, they wear knitted kippot, and they support both liberalism and Liberalism. What makes them Orthodox is that they keep Shabbat and Chagim including Yom Ha’atzmaut, kashrut, all the mitzvot as their rabbis teach it and study the Torah, Talmud and Shulchan Aruch etc. They have an ideology they call “Torah Umada” that is their cup of tea. They have their institutions like YU, YCT, in America Har Etzion, Kerem BeYavne, and Bar Ilan in Israel and many others. They ordain their own rabbis and have a vast communal and social network that does not need or rely on its Charedi counterparts for anything.

So why would ANY Agudah rabbi DREAM that ANYTHING he would say, even if he broadcast it on national radio 24/7 would make ANY difference to the world of Modern Orthodoxy of which Avi Weiss is a leading light at this time?

And even let’s assume that from the Agudah’s point of view that Avi Weiss is 101% wrong in deluding himself that he can “ordain” women to be called anything he will make up, but what CREDIBILITY do any Agudath Israel of America rabbis have when they have utterly and totally failed to put THEIR OWN HOUSE in order first and take care of their own internal problems and rot, starting with the most recent catastrophe in their midst the appalling Leib Tropper sex scandal that they have chosen to IGNORE in the good ol’ “tradition” of the proverbial ostrich head in the sand “sha shveig” – “see no evil, talk no evil, hear no evil” – even when that evil is eating up all their credibility capital and causing the plague of crap to fall all over their house of ill repute from the horrendous sex scandals released by the Tropper chillul Hashem radiation bomb!

Here is the full text of Agudah’s “condemnation” of, no NOT Tropper, but of Avi Weiss, by its full ruling council. Printed once in the HAMODIA (Community. Pg. C8 March 3, 2010) and YATED NE’EMAN (March 5, 2010. Pgs. 53, 58). Judge for yourself the absurdity of what’s going on and how it’s so easy for them to attack Avi Weiss and not utter a squeak to condemn Tropper the menuval shebemenuvalim:

“Statement of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America / Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah Rules on Rabbi Avi Weiss

The following statement was released this past week by the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisroel of America :

10 Adar 5770

Rabbi Avi Weiss has conferred “semikha” upon a woman, has made her an Assistant Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale where she carries out certain traditional rabbinical functions, and has now given her the title of “Rabbah” (formerly “Maharat”). He has stated that the change in title is designed to “make it clear that Sara Hurwitz is a full member of our rabbinic staff, a rabbi with the additional quality of a distinct woman’s voice.” These developments represent a radical and dangerous departure from Jewish tradition and mesoras Hatorah, and must be condemned in the strongest terms. Any congregation with a woman in a rabbinical position of any sort cannot be considered Orthodox.

[Signed:] Rabbis Ehrenfeld (chasidishe wimp, window dressing on this Judenrat), Feigelstock (stroke disabled, hence Schechter’s favorite), D. Feinstein (covers from bro Reuv), Feldman (Shechter’s lackey), Raful (Schechter’s puppet), Kamenetsky (currently broke), Kotler (bigamist; 1st wife won’t let him go, so he weds a 2nd one, with Schechter’s help), Levin (is this the best the Mid-West can do?), Perlow (Shechter’s shadow and yes man) (and last but not least) Aaron Schechter (chief orchestrator and manipulator of this massive distraction and many others like it to cover for his own and Tropper’s rotten tuches! Phe!)

So this is the biggest scandal of them all:

What a hypocritical and stupid bunch of pusillanimous so-called “leaders” the so-called "Agudists" are (they only bring shame upon the name of their illustrious forbearers) who don’t have the simple guts to deal with the rotten Tropper monster under their noses that they DO have control over and condemn and cast him out like the piece of hellish drek that he is, and instead they (meaning the sly foxy Schechter, distracting everyone from the real Tropper rot) pick on a distant target way off in the Modern Orthodox world that neither cares nor does what the phonies baloney big mouths at Agudah spout as hot air and blowing into the wind.

Shame on you Agudath Israel of America for being such public hypocrites. You do not deserve to be the “leaders” of Klal Yisroel! Resign! Let us hope and pray that Moshiach comes soon and dumps all of you into the garbage cans of history, the sooner the better!

UOJ IS THE ROTO ROOTER GUY!

The Post That Captured The Blogosphere! The UOJ Archives August 18, 2006

You buy a house in a good neighborhood and your toilet keeps backing up. Not every day, but just enough for you to realize that your sewer system is a problem. But you're busy, raising a family, making a parnassah, and all the other activities that occupy your time 110%.

So your sewer problem is there, any fool would realize that if your toilet keeps dumping zevel in your living room every few months, you have a sewer problem. In order for you to deal with the problem you must take a real hard look at the root cause of the damaged system. Then you come to realize that the whole neighborhood has shit backing up into their bedrooms, dining rooms and living rooms as well.

You call a meeting with your neighbors and decide to buy thicker carpets and have the zevel piped in under the carpet so you don't have to have the crap hit you in the face. You make many melave malkes, conventions and dinners and take the stench with you...because ultimately the stench is you! But now you're in a room where every one smells like shit and you think it's perfume or so they tell you. You now go out and buy knee boots...hoping the charra will not dirty your suit or legs. At the dais of these dinners, you begin to believe that they caused the stench by stuffing your sewers with their bull"shit", so if you called a plumber, they will profit from your sewer problem, because they own the plumbing company.

They continue to stuff up your sewer system with newsletters and proclamations, and their propaganda slowly convinces you that really you don't have a sewer problem at all. It's imagined.....and let's blame the sewer company for selling you inferior pipes.

"It's the Goyim stupid"......or people that act like Goyim. And you know what? The plumbers that brought you the news that you have a problem at all, are shgatzim. They use nivel peh, are m'challel Shabbos, they fix sewers on Shabbos...what qualifies them to tell you that your sewer is broken?

Never listen to a plumber who uses nivel peh; call your posek, he'll tell you what looks like shit, smells like shit, and has destroyed your lives with these toxic fumes that have penetrated your being, is really nothing more than a tradition that all of us inherited from our ancestors.

What to do? All your life you are living in this community, but now this big bad plumber has uncovered for all the world to see, that there really is a huge sewer problem.

SHIT EVERYWHERE!

The Roto Rooter guy insists that the sewer is irreparable; only a total removal of the sewer "system" will remove the problem that has destroyed your home.

It must be replaced with brand new pipes and must be installed by reputable plumbers. He apologizes for his frustration and his use of "over the top" language, but has learned from experience that good people don't pay much attention to soft-spoken plumbers."

"Imagine" he says, " If I came to your home in a suit and tie, and spoke the King's English, would you really believe that I'm a plumber?" "Would you really believe that its me, and me alone, that can tear out your broken sewer and replace it with a brand new working system that is able to flush out the drek before it becomes a problem? I will install a warning system...we'll call it a black hat alert, the shit detector will sound a siren way in advance, way before your sewer begins to crumble."

"And you know what? It's FREE! I'll do it at no charge. You see I love the people that live in this neighborhood, I JUST HATE THE SMELL! This used to be a beautiful neighborhood, until the drek peddlers moved in.

Your choice my friends, go Roto Rooter, or suffer with the farshtoonkena drek that represents the toxic smell that is destroying your neighborhood.

Go Roto Rooter at no charge, or choose the likes of the mushchasim that are called Fraud Yisroel Belsky, Lipa Margulies, Pinchos Scheinberg, Simcha Kaufman and last but certainly not least, Yudi Kolko....

A Reader Writes.....

Dear UOJ:

Hi. I'd like to thank you for creating this most important and essential blog.

I read in an earlier blog about Shimon Grama being an accused child molester, but I haven't seen him mentioned since. I have been directly effected by him as, I imagine, many, many other children have. Is there some way to post something on your blog about him and perhaps call out to others who have suffered abuse from this horrible man?

Here is the blog post I am referring to and the link to the particular blog:

Agudah watcher said...

Chaim Dovid Zweibel reads UOJ before he washes nagle vasser. He understands the power of this one family and the fear that a lawsuit is coming with Mr. Pasik or without. The head of the Pirchei, Shimon Grama, is an accused child molester, was kicked out of yeshivas and summer camps and interfaces daily with hundreds of teens. Go figure. Is there an honest man in any frum organization?

This is the link:

http://unorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2006/01/new-address-unorthodoxjewsblogspotcom_04.html

I thank you for any help you can provide.

A HISTORIC DECLARATION!

Reuvein Feinstein - a man is what he does and who he allies himself with; therefore you are a menuvel b'rishus ha'Torah for your affiliation with Leib Tropper and EJF!

When Jewish historians will tell the sordid tale of EJF, it will be the story of Reuvein Feinstein and the myriad of ignorant, peasant rabbis that bought into this scam; they will be the real villains, more than the low-life Leib Tropper. Tropper will be a footnote, as Avi Shafran will be for his purveying of lies and deceit, when the real story of the Agudath Israel rabbis will be told.

But if not for Feinstein trading on the good name of his father, Rav Moshe z"tl; Reuvein Feinstein would be shoveling shit from the Staten Island Ferry to the shores of Battery Park in lower Manhattan.

He has said nothing of significance that will survive his death, he has written nothing that will be remembered for its wisdom -- he will be remembered for his attempt to destroy the very foundation of "Who Is A Jew" -- by accepting a $3 million dollar payoff to "sanctify proselytizing gentiles", no different than Rabbi Alexander Schindler of the Reform movement.

Alexander Schindler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Alexander Schindler (1925-2000) was a rabbi and the leading figure of American Reform Judaism during the 1970s and 1980s.

Born in Germany, he came to America with his family at age 12. He was one of the last European-born leaders of American Reform Jewry.

He served as president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (since renamed the Union for Reform Judaism) from 1973 to 1996.

His best-known, and most-controversial, pronouncements were his call for Jews to accept Patrilineal Descent (recognizing as Jewish children of Jewish fathers) and "outreach" to non-Jews. He intended this to include general proselytizing to non-Jews, but in practice this applied to non-Jews married to Jews.

He served as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations".

RABBI ALEXANDER SCHINDLER DEAD
By CHARLES W. BELL - DAILY NEWS - RELIGION EDITOR

Thursday, November 16th 2000, 2:15AM

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, a longtime Reform leader who encouraged women to become rabbis and non-Jews to convert, died yesterday at his home in Westport, Conn. He was 75.

The cause of death was listed as heart failure.

He retired four years ago as president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which represents about 850 Reform synagogues in North America, after 23 sometimes tumultuous years.

Schindler was a major figure in late 20th century Judaism, and a bold one - he once suggested, "only half in jest," moving the Jewish Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

He broke with centuries-old tradition in the late 1970s, when he developed an outreach program to woo nonobservant Jews and non-Jews seeking a religious identity.

Schindler argued that instead of excluding Jews who had married outside the faith, synagogues should welcome their non-Jewish spouses. This, he said, would preserve Jewish traditions and rites that otherwise might become lost to assimilation.

He also broke with an ages-old tradition of defining Jews only as children of Jewish mothers. Schindler successfully campaigned to include Jewish fathers. This since has become the standard for many American Jews.

He once distributed tens of thousands of special cards to students and others, giving them free membership in synagogues and even Sabbath meals with Jewish families.

Born in Munich, Schindler fled with his family in the early 1930s. He became a U.S. citizen in 1943, and the next year joined the U.S. Army as a ski trooper. He took part in three European campaigns and was wounded in action.

When he returned home, he decided to become a rabbi. He was ordained in 1953 and quickly moved up the ranks of the Reform movement hierarchy.

At the time of his death, Schindler was president of the international Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture and a vice president of the World Jewish Congress.

An Israeli forest of 500,000 trees is named for him.

He is survived by Rhea Schindler, his wife of 44 years, five children - one daughter, Judith, is a rabbi - and nine grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Temple Israel in Westport.*

Charedi/Ultra-Orthodox Judaism frowned on the BT/Baal Teshuva movement until sometime in the late 1980's - when they saw Noach Weinberg cashing in on his ATM machine with no limits -- They frowned on the Russian Jews until Rabbi Meir Kahane made it fashionable -- and the US government contributed millions of dollars to emancipate as many people as possible from behind the Iron Curtain. And now these ignorant peasant thieves jumped on the Giyur/Conversion bandwagon when Tropper pick pocketed Tom Kaplan for millions of dollars and passed out that money freely to any rabbi with a black hat or a turban that showers once a week whether they need to or not.

Feinstein was the knowing facilitator of this scam, he knew too well that his father's family name name on this document would make it easy for Tropper to do the legwork and bring others on board without even questioning the motives for holding intermarriage weekends. Worse, once someone attended a free weekend, they easily were able to get their children into a Chabad school - with full Jew status - conversion and circumcision or hatafat dam brit down the road, maybe! And what person with a drop of Jewish blood (all descendants of Avraham Avinu) would turn down a free weekend at a luxury hotel?

Rabbi Elyashiv and all the other Alzheimer senior rabbis from Israel were fed the scam via their feeding tube, through the ilk of Nochum Eisenstein and other like parasites - in most cases these rabbis have a difficult time even imagining that they are still alive, never mind that a fraud of this magnitude could even be dreamt up; yeah, intermarriage is a very bad thing, good idea Tropper/Feinstein, let's save the Jews from this plague.

But nobody asked guys like me; we knew Tropper, he's been banging any naive BT or other unsuspecting vulnerable women for years now; the Tendlers did it for free, Tropper collected a fee.

And let me not forget the other smiling Agudath Israel rabbi; the guy up to his eyeballs with Solomon Dwek; the IRS had a caravan of FBI agents pull up to the Philadelphia Yeshiva last August, hauling off truckloads of records. How much was Shmuel Kaminetzky paid to "lecture" at the EJF conferences? None of Tom Kaplan's tax returns reflect a payment to Kaminetzky or the Philadelphia Yeshiva as did the $3 million dollars to Feinstein's Staten Island swamp. We know that Tropper's Horizons/Kol Yaakov returns reflect a $3 million dollar slush fund; did Kaminetzky lecture for free?

EVERY RABBI LISTED BELOW IS FOREVER PART OF THIS SCAM - IGNORANCE IS NEVER AN EXCUSE - THEY CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED FOR ANYTHING - EVER!

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:

Leib Tropper has formally resigned from all his positions~!

http://www.Troppergate.com --- run by an insider in Monsey is reporting that Rabbi Leib Tropper has formally resigned and told a select few, one of whom told him.

The Spinka Rebbe Jailhouse Rock - The Bubba Mitzvah Dance Hokey Pokey!

Purim Fever

One Of The Nicer E-Mails Sent - Subject - "A Plea From Klal Yisroel"

EDITED!

"Hello- How are you?

May i ask what is the purpose of your 'Unorthodox movement"!?!?!

Don't you think there are enough people out there who are pointing our the problems our community has. Aren't there enough out-side people who underline and highlight every weed in our patch of roses. Why do you feel like you're doing a sevice to people by belittling and shaming the orthodox? Why do you think anything good can come out of an organization that's a pure lashon hara?!?!? The way your articles are written make it quite clear you're not in this l'shem shamayim. Yes, it's true there may be problems in certain communities and with certain individuals, but orthodoxy as a whole is beautiful and i'm sure as a whole orthodxy brings a nachas ruach to the RBS'O. Nothing good can ever come out of ignoring one of mitzvos is our holy Torah. So, as a loving member of klal yisroel- i'm telling you off because you're doing a lot of damage to yourself and a lot of damage to everyone who reads your articles. You won't have a very pleasant existence in Olam Haba- if you've been the cause of spreading loshen hara to hundreds of thousands of people. They say gehenim really hurts. I'm begging of you to take this seriously.

May Hashem give you the strength to make the hard, bold but correct choice.

And may you use the mind and kochos you were given to bring nachas ruach to Hashem yisborach to make up for all the pain you've caused Him.

Haltzlach.

Sincerly, "

*

What should I answer this nice lady?

UOJ - President and CEO of The Unorthodox Movement!?!?!

Let's be nice -- so your comments should address her like this:

Dear Nice Lady,

Another Unorthodox Jew With An Opinion!

"To punish me for contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

Although I'm a typical loner in daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community, of those who strive for truth, beauty and justice, has prevented me from feelings of isolation.

People flatter me as long as I'm of use to them. But when I try to serve goals which they are in disagreement, they immediately turn to abuse and calumny in defense of their own interests.

Arrows of hate have been aimed at me too, but they have never hit me because somehow they belonged to another world with whom I have no connection whatsoever.

God gave me the stubbornness of a mule and a fairly keen scent.

When I was very young, all I expected from life was to sit quietly in a corner doing my work without the public paying any attention to me. And now see what has become of me.

Many crackpots of the world frown on my work, but they are of interest to me. A favorite pastime of mine is to reconstruct their thinking process; I feel genuinely sorry for them.

Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions."

Shut down Tropper/EJF/Horizons/Kol Yaakov PERMANENTLY: A 12 Step Program!

By Tropper is Troubled:

A serious poster on Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn's Da'as Torah blog has called it like it is by asking the most solid Halachic questions (shaylos) and comes up with the most obvious answer:

"Tropper - Why the Rabbis were silent: Anonymous said...First of all, this is not about one community. Second of all, the pulse of the community is beaten by us, not by the Rabbonim in the shuls. Third of all, Purim is coming up. We need a resolution. Those who live near Grove Street or Maple Avenue need to know where their children can go to deliver mishloach manos. As a family with teenage daughters, we need to know if Kol Yaakov bochurim should be allowed to dance in our house this year. When bochurim go shteeble hopping, do they go to Kol Yaakov? Do we drop by the purim shpiel? What if a shidduch is red with a Kol Yaakov bochur? Without any answers or at least progress reports, I think the de facto answer will be to isolate anyone having to do with Kol Yaakov..."

This is what it's come to. The above was in response to the interview in the 5 Towns Jewish times by Rabbi Ribiat of Forshay in Monsey NY : "Leib Tropper - Why the Rabbis Were Silent: 'If True - A Venomous Snake in our Midst'" January 24, 2010.

The masses of Torah Jewry are about to take the law into their own hands.

They must.

They HAVE TO protect their daughters, and sons, who can easily be "role played raped" as Tropper told Shannon Orand he could do, by Tropper or one of his henchmen.

The dangerous Tropper cult is practiced in OUTWARD frumkeit and chumras but INWARD sexual depravity and sex-crazedness. They think that sexual misdeeds are just "opportunities" up the rung of the next act of "teshuva", they are morally meshuga and the Jews of Monsey where the Tropper wolf's lair is dug in are the most worried because they have werewolf Tropper and she-wolf Leba with fangs dripping on YouTube for the world to hear and see on their doorstep.

The time for fun and games is over.

Word has it that the people at Agudath Israel are going to continue stonewalling, they are going to act dumb and dumber and have bozo articles written by Avi Shafran to have the wool pulled over the oilem goilem's eyes, but they can forget about it.

Just listen to the underlying fear in the tone of that heartrending shaylo from a Monsey resident. Amcha is calling.

It's going to be a people's revolt against Tropper and the rabbanim are going to look like a bunch of frightened castrated caged rabbits imprisoned in Tropper's basement.

What do you do when you a have an unmasked werewolf and rabbinic dracula like Tropper posing as the "rabbi next door"? Ever seen a werewolf or dracula movie? You have to be brave and defang him, (just don't show him a cross r"l or maybe that is just what apikores Tropper needs to be shown he is a false messiah like Yoshke)

It's not a joke and no one is laughing!

Behind the scenes the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America is in deadlock over how to react to the Tropper scandal.

Since the ruling Moetzes is controlled by a troika of old-time octogenarian talmidim of the late R Yitzchok Hutner led by Aron Shechter of Chaim Berlin yeshiva and abetted by Aron Feldman of Ner Israel with the supposed Agudah head Yakov Perlow of Novominsk bringing up the rear, and of course they can count on Dovid Feinstein brother of Reuven Feinstein to protect their interests, and Shmuel Kaminetzky is probably dithering somewhere in the middle because in the past he was the only one who stood up to Shechter in the kidnapping affair of Isaac Hersh and he also backtracked from the forged "kol koreh" against LIPA the singer, so maybe now too Kaminetzky is knocking his head against the wall that Shechter does not want to cut his losses and Kaminetzky may be the only lonely voice pleading that Agudah say something more clear. He will have no problems dumping Tropper once and for all and not have that darned place in Monsey Kol Yaakov associated with his late father's holy name.

So what do they think these Agudist Moetzes mighty men? That people don't know what's going on? Or that America is like Meah Shearim and you can stop people from reading and writing on blogs? Or that freedom of the press does not apply to Jewish newspapers that can get some good mileage out the Tropper/EJF sex scandal? Just how dumb do they think people really are?

Maybe they are trying to save the name of the near defunct EJF organization by passing the buck to dumbo megalomaniacs like Suchard of Gateways according to some reliable rumors. But they are clearly out of date and out of their depths here as this scandal will never go away until Tropper's own rabbis, not the BADATS that already wiped its hands of Tropper years ago, or the RCA that condemned him the minute the scandal became public, but these same dunder heads at the Moetzes must show what they are made of and not act like Nixon's cover-up squad.

The Über-Agudists are the ones who got the millions from Tropper, like Reuven and Dovid Feinstein and those who have been in cahoots with Tropper for decades like Aron Shechter must now do the avoda of the kohen gadol and send the Tropper se'ir la'azazel and be done with him once and for all, or else risk a massive destruction of every last vestige of respect that anyone has for so-called "gedolim" who cannot even go by the simple logic of "if it talks like a duck and walks like a duck -- it's a duck" and get rid of the Tropper monster duck once and for all and not act like a phony Sanhedrin of shotim gemurim.

In light of everything, the fact that there is irrefutable proof that it is none other than Leib and Leba Tropper's voices on those tapes committing those abominations and depravities, as well as much else that is both common knowledge and behind the scenes knowledge about Leib and Leba Tropper:

1. Leib and Leba Tropper must be put in CHEREM immediately! There are enough good rabbonim to do so. Tropper must PERMANENTLY give up all positions in the rabbinate. No more "rosh yeshiva" of anything no more "rabbi of this and that" and all the titles he collected like a tin pot dictator. Preferably the Tropper family must leave Monsey and settle in place like Switzerland (Tom Kaplan can buy them a chalet near a minyan) or in Florida (they have friends there) as PRIVATE CITIZENS stripped of all rabbinic rank, power and influence!

2. EJF must be shut down PERMANENTLY!

3. Kol Yaakov yeshiva in Monsey must be shut down PERMANENTLY!

4. Horizons outreach program must be shut down PERMANENTLY!

5. The Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation must be shut down PERMANENTLY !

6. Menachem Lubinsky of LUBICOM must be boycotted PERMANENTLY for the damage he facilitated by acting as EJF's PR and propaganda czar.

7. Tom Kaplan and his wife Dafna Recanati, the enablers of Tropper/EJF/Horizons in these last years, must be kept out from the Orthodox and Charedi community (they are not religious Jews in any case and don't care much about wanting to be religious) and not one more cent must ever be accepted from them by anyone in the Torah world, PERMANENTLY!

8. No more funds should be accepted in the Orthodox and Charedi world from Guma (he should have a refuah sheleimah bekarov) and Jamie Aguiar, and Guma's mother Ellen Kaplan Aguiar and the Aguiar family or their Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation -- PERMANENTLY. They were also originally Tropper's enablers with the EJF scheme.

9. Rav Reuven Feinstein must be put on notice to STOP his support of the immoral and corrupt Leib Tropper AT ONCE and NOT harass and instigate problems against those from Rav Sternbuch's side who have had the courage to speak the truth when it was not popular. Had R Reuven Feinstein heeded the advice of those from the BADATZ he would not be in the sick situation he is in now. He only has himself to blame. When you sleep with the dogs you catch fleas.

10. Aron Shechter of Chaim Berlin yeshiva in Brooklyn must be put on notice that the world will NOT tolerate his tyrannical irrational and damaging support for Tropper that must stop once and for all and cut of all contact with Tropper PERMANENTLY. Shechter's disciples are called upon to protect Shechter from himself and from the dragging Chaim Berlin into irreversible shame and disgrace. Shechter is in remission from cancer and he should have a refuah sheleimah bekarov but he would be well advised to stay home in Brooklyn and end his days in happiness surrounded by his family and zombie talmidim and stop his delusions of protecting sickos like Tropper and Michael Hersh. Shechter has already caused lots of damage by his stubbornness in protecting his crazed BT disciple Michael Hersh who sent his own son to the island of Jamaica with Shechter's blessings and support. Maybe the earthquake in Haiti was a sign from Hashem against that. What if Isaac Hersh would be now on Haiti under ten feet of rubble, would that make Shechter and Michael Hersh happy? Who knows.

11. The Jewish Press newspaper should be boycotted, and Dennis Rapps Esq its legal counsel who wrote all the pro-EJF/Tropper drivel and lies in it should become persona non grata in the Torah world, for their appalling shameful support of Tropper at every twist and turn and glorifying EJF from its inception and helping to bring about the ensuing international Chillul Hashem disaster by giving Tropper/EJF legitimacy! At least if anyone really has to, buy the English YATED because its editor stuck to his guns and boycotted Tropper and EJF in spite of pressures on him, and the Yated now publishes a weekly column by Rav Moshe Sternbuch of Yerushalayim who is the first and so far only gadol and posek to 100% oppose and fight Tropper and EJF for years.

12. And finally, Agudath Israel of America must speak out STRONGLY to condemn and shut down any vestige and trace of Tropper and his organizations. The Agudists are so dumb for not seeing what's going on here. Wake up Agudah and smell the Tropper poison-laced coffee, before Klal Yisroel starts organizing demonstrations against all of you, running away from you, and the worst fate you deserve, just IGNORING you the way you are ignoring the festering and still spreading Chillul Hashem of the Tropper/EJF cancer.

Wake up, before it's too late!

It may already be too late, so much damage has already been done by your Agudist ilk and brother Leibel Tropper der menuval shebemenuvalim, as Rabbi Rothkopf referred to him in Yerushalayim recently when students at YU in Israel asked what should be the reaction to the Tropper sex scandal!

Every corner of the Jewish globe is aware of this scandal as each day goes by more get to know about it, and only you, Tropper's Agudist rabbis can bring it to proper closure by putting Leib and Leba Tropper & Company (vechol abizraihu) in Cherem and shutting them down PERMANENTLY!

Or else face the wrath of history as you too and the whole Agudah world become disgraced for your cowardice, greed and cover up of the Leib and Leba Tropper/EJF sex scandal -- and members of Agudah will be called upon to resign from this disgraceful hypocritical organization, once founded by Giants of Torah Jewry now infested with meek mice who fear predatory cats like Leib and Leba Tropper more than they fear Hakadosh Baruch Hu and the Emes (Truth) !!!

OY - Father In Heaven - We Are Guilty Of The Grave Sin Of Lashon Hara - But We Can't Help It! - What's The Shmooze Up There?

Among Friends

http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/23832/among-friends/
Leib Tropper spent his way into the rabbinic elite—and, even after his fall, those other rabbis are unwilling to condemn him

By Allison Hoffman - Tablet Magazine | 7:00 am Jan 19, 2010



CREDIT: Photoillustration by Tablet Magazine; Tropper photo from RationalistJudaism.com; background photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

In May 2007, Leib Tropper arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, to preside over a grand conclave of prospective converts to Judaism sponsored by his Eternal Jewish Family organization, which offered “Cadillac conversions” to non-Jews as part of an effort to seize control of the conversion process outside of Israel. Buoyed by a $4.8 million infusion of cash from the billionaire Thomas Kaplan, an oil and mining mogul who is currently president of the board at the 92nd Street Y in New York, the fast-talking rabbi with global ambitions and a smooth line of patter had offered would-be Jews a special treat: an all-expenses paid weekend of discussions on topics like “Becoming Part of the Jewish Family” at the Arizona Biltmore, a spa resort on 39 acres at the foot of Phoenix Mountain that is part of the Waldorf-Astoria chain.

While offers of Ayurvedic massages and luxury accommodation may seem at odds with the somber, discouraging face that ultra-Orthodoxy has traditionally turned to prospective converts, Tropper, by most accounts, did not seem particularly interested in relaxing halachic codes to accommodate the modern world. A biblical literalist, he played an active role in an effort by a group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis to ban the books of another rabbi, Nosson Slifkin, who believed that the world is older than the Jewish calendar—that is, 5,770 years. In 2006, among his other duties, he took it upon himself to retroactively invalidate the conversion of a woman who subsequently dared to violate ultra-Orthodox codes of modesty by wearing pants.

As a newcomer to the fraught business of conversions—and, according to people who dealt with him, someone who could at times be an abrasive individual—Tropper appears to have been willing to augment his personal power at the expense of his conversion candidates, a vulnerable group whose well-being is supposed to be protected from oppressive behavior by millennia of explicit rabbinical teaching and practice. To his students, he presented himself as a learned teacher who could help them reach the God they yearned for. In the billionaire Thomas Kaplan and his multimillionaire nephew Guma Aguiar, Tropper found a pair of patrons who, in exchange for access to the leading halachic authorities in New York and Jerusalem, would help the rabbi reinforce his newfound influence over the conversion process with lavish spectacles in American cities like Phoenix and Boston as well as at the luxurious David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem. In addition to paying for food, drink, and hotel rooms at five-star hotels, Tropper also used Kaplan and Aguiar’s millions to curry favor with some of the most elevated rabbinic authorities in the world—including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, one of the ultra-Orthodox world’s pre-eminent scholars, and Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar.

The world of spa vacations at the Biltmore was a long way from Tropper’s home base in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Monsey, New York, where the rabbi ran a small yeshiva, Kol Yaakov, that specialized in “returning” non-observant adult Jews to Judaism. For more than two decades, Tropper—who was born into a rabbinic family on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and educated in Jerusalem—instructed returnees to Judaism, called ba’alei teshuva, on the laws of Torah in a modest brick-and-stucco house outfitted with a basketball hoop in the narrow parking lot out back. He got his start at Ohr Somayach, one of Monsey’s largest adult yeshivas, but splintered off to start Kol Yaakov in 1981 with help from a late New York couple, Louis J. Septimus and his wife, Edythe, for whom the school’s building is named.

The backing provided by Kaplan and Aguiar, Kaplan’s now-estranged nephew, was on an entirely different scale. The largesse provided by the two men over the years—at least $8 million, according to financial documents filed with the IRS—gave the rabbi entree into the insular world of the Israeli rabbinate—a cloistered group of men who, with the approval of the Israeli government, determine who can and cannot be considered a Jew, whatever their level of religious observance. By the time Tropper got to Phoenix, he could offer their imprimatur to reassure nervous hopefuls that he was the one conduit to becoming “a real Jew.” “If we ever make aliyah, there isn’t going to be any question of my Jewishness,” one Tropper graduate, Lucia Schnitzer, told the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix before the 2007 Biltmore weekend. “If my daughter wants to marry a Kohen, there isn’t going to be any question.”

In the past month, Tropper has been undone by the emergence of audio and video recordings that seem to indicate he tried to use his position to coerce a student, Shannon Orand, into having sex with other men in exchange not just for her conversion to Judaism but for cash. According to a student who answered the door at Kol Yaakov on Sunday, he remains in charge of the yeshiva, but Dovid Jacobs, Tropper’s former right-hand man, told Tablet Magazine the rabbi has been removed from his positions at both Eternal Jewish Family and its parent organization, Horizons Bais Achiezer, which have separate offices a few miles away from the yeshiva, in the neighboring town of Suffern. Tropper did not respond to requests for comment.

In the weeks since Tropper’s downfall, none of the rabbis who facilitated his meteoric rise in the Jewish world—men whose lives are devoted to the pious observance of God’s word—have stepped forward to publicly condemn Tropper for his violations of ultra-Orthodox codes on modesty and extramarital sex, let alone for his apparent willingness to use his position of religious authority to exploit the single mother of two young children for sex. The deafening silence parallels the response from the Roman Catholic Church after allegations of widespread child abuse surfaced in 2002; in diocese after diocese, bishops chose to protect the abusers, and settle generously with the victims, rather than forthrightly condemn what any parishioner would rightly see as an abomination in the eyes of God. “A community is measured by how it responds to something like this,” said one ultra-Orthodox rabbi. “The right-wing yeshivishe world is in damage control.”

As recently as November, when Tropper’s son got married, the list of rabbis who either attended or sent blessings included Elyashiv, and Reuven Feinstein, the son of the Rav Moshe Feinstein, who died in 1986, the most respected ultra-Orthodox halachic authority of his time. In addition to his impressive lineage, Reuven Feinstein is a widely respected figure in his own right and the head of the Yeshiva of Staten Island—which received a $3 million gift from Kaplan and Aguiar’s family foundation in 2008. Tropper gushed on his blog after the celebration, “The chuppah looked like a who’s who of the Torah world!”

In the wake of Tropper’s resignation from EJF, in mid-December, Feinstein declined to condemn Tropper’s activities or distance himself from EJF. Indeed, Feinstein issued a statement indicating he would increase his work with Eternal Jewish Family, to ensure that the organization would “continue to be guided by the highest halachic standards.”

To some, Feinstein’s circumspect response to the Tropper scandal was reminiscent of his silence on two other recent scandals involving sex and the abuse of rabbinic authority, both of which involved members of Feinstein’s family, [the sons of his sister and brother in-law, Rabbi Moshe Tendler]. One, Mordecai Tendler, was dismissed in 2006 from his post at a synagogue in Spring Valley, near Monsey, after a congregant accused him of seducing her into an affair with threats the she’d never find a husband unless she slept with him. A few weeks later, Tendler’s brother, Aron, resigned as principal of an Orthodox day school in Los Angeles amid allegations that he had “inappropriate” relations with female students.

Feinstein, of course, wasn’t involved in either of those incidents. But Feinstein’s willingness to take strong public stands on abstract questions of morality—including some as minute as whether or not men can return handshakes proffered by women (they can, to avoid embarrassing the other person)—only underscored, to some, his unwillingness to say even a single word about much more obvious abuses of Jewish law and halachic authority by eminent rabbis within his professional and family circle. (Feinstein did not return a message from Tablet seeking comment.)

It remains unclear what the future of Eternal Jewish Family will be. Kaplan has served as the organization’s chairman; his attorneys told Tablet last week they don’t know whether he will remain in that role. The group currently has a caretaker leader, after the rabbi initially announced as Tropper’s replacement—Elya Wachtfogel, head of a yeshiva in the Catskills hamlet of South Fallsburg, New York—subsequently released a letter saying he had not, in fact, taken the position. “The rumors which were spread of late regarding the EJF organization, alleging it is under my direction, are in error and baseless,” Wachtfogel said, in a handwritten declaration. Nothing further about Tropper, or his transgressions, was said.

If the silence of the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate is meant to keep members of their community in the dark, and shield the authority of the rabbinate from shame, it has been countered by outraged discussion on ultra-Orthodox blogs, whose commenters have been following the money that passed through Tropper’s organization—and venting their anger at the ongoing silence from the halachic establishment.

One anonymously written blog, The Unorthodox Jew, called on Feinstein to shut down “this house of prostitution.” A commenter on the blog called for a letter-writing campaign to “as many Orthodox-affiliated Jews as possible, alerting them to the unworthiness of our so-called ‘gedolim’”—a Hebrew term used by ultra-Orthodox Jews to refer to their leaders. “King Lear should be obligatory reading in the ultra-Orthodox world, along with All the King’s Men,” wrote another person. At another highly critical blog, Daas Torah, a commenter wrote: “The chillul hashem”—insult to God—“of Tropper’s scandals is only getting worse with time like a festering untreated cancer.”

One of the few religious authorities to speak out publicly on the Tropper case has been Aba Dunner, the executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis, a group that publicly opposed Tropper’s incursion onto its turf even before the scandal; last week, Dunner published an op-ed in the Five Towns Jewish Times, a New York-area paper catering to Orthodox readers, in which he accused Eternal Jewish Family of conducting a “bounty hunt” for new Jews, by allegedly paying local rabbis to funnel intermarried couples into its fledgling conversion courts.

“Tropper is a fraud,” Dunner wrote. “The organization he created is in his image and is therefore a fraud too. The creators of that image are fraudsters and hucksters who are trying desperately to keep the line to Mr. Kaplan’s millions open.”

Same Here Malka B.

The Intelligent Pigs

***Breaking News - January 14, 2010 Thursday, January 14, 2010 2:13 AM EST - From Israel***

The Supreme Court judges just freed Avrohom Mondrowitz. The terms for his bail are being negotiated while the State's prosecutors decide whether to file an application for a second appeal. The judges did not read their decision but it should be published on the Internet later today***
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R' Shmuel Kaminetzky at podium - R' Reuvein Feinstein to his left

The Smartest Domestic Animal in The World
Dec 16, 2008 - Chris McLaughlin

A roadblock humans have in deciphering intelligence in animals is that we can't help but assume the smartest ones must resemble us. Clearly, nobody told that to the pig.

How is intelligence measured? After all, even people can be intelligent or extraordinary in many ways. Some excel at math, and some are gifted linguists. Others fail in the academic arena entirely, and shine as masterful artists. One way to measure intelligence is based on the ability to solve problems.

The associations people have made with the word, ‘pig’, are less than glamorous. In fact, there are downright negative connotations attached to the word, which is why we use it to insult people. But, let’s put aside our preconceived ideas of what we think a pig is, let’s take a look at who they really are.

Pigs have been touted as the smartest, and the cleanest domestic animals in the world. The phrases, “sweat like a pig” or “smell like a pig”, may come to mind. But, consider that pigs don’t have sweat glands, and therefore, can’t sweat (except on the very ends of their snouts). The lack of sweat glands means lack of odor - affording no credibility to either statement.

To compensate for the lack of a natural way to bring their body temperature down, pigs seek out water or mud. Pigs rolling in mud may look uncouth, but they are actually being quite smart. The mud not only keeps them cool, but keeps biting pests at bay, and prevents sunburn.

As Smart as the Primates

Intelligence research was done with pigs in the 1990s. One of the experiments was to train the pigs to move the cursor on a video screen with their snouts. When the pigs used the cursors again, they were able to distinguish between the scribbles they already knew, and the scribbles they were seeing for the first time. The pigs learned this skill as fast as the chimpanzees.

EJF PRESS RELEASE [Read Agudath Israel - Kaminet$ky/Fein$tein]:

New York - Your interview with Rabbi Aba Dunner, the executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis (January 7, 2010), unfortunately twists the truth about Eternal Jewish Family International (EJF) and is, to say the least, insulting to leading Gedolei Yisroel. Any real search into the truth behind Rabbi Dunner’s charges will lead to discredited sources that are using the recent personal scandal of the founder of EJF as an excuse to disparage leading Torah scholars and the organization.

Rabbi Leib Tropper, the organization’s former director, has resigned and no longer has any role in the organization. EJF continues its worldwide activities under the leadership of the Gedolei Yisroel

Here are the facts about the scandalous charges Rabbi Dunner made:

Who approached whom and why did the arrangement sour?

Rabbi Dunner was the one who approached EJF for assistance in funding the Bais Din activities in Europe under the direction of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, the head of the European Bais Din. This was consistent with EJF’s mission to promote universally accepted conversions in intermarriage, as per the dictates of leading poskim, including Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l who ruled that in the case of a baal teshuva and a potential ger tzedek (convert who accepts Torah and Mitzvos as a way of life) hat such conversions are to be encouraged. In its four-year existence, EJF has affiliated with a network of 19 Botei Din in this country and provided support to the dayanim in the form of conferences and seminars.

EJF made a significant grant to the CER to expand the activities of the Botei Din in Europe. It soon grew suspicious of the questionable use of the funds by Rabbi Dunner who is employed by the CER and whose responsibilities included the activities of the Beis Din. EJF asked Rabbi Dunner to refund the balance of the money that had not yet been spent or at least to place the money in the trust of Dayan Ehrentreu. Rabbi Dunner refused and in fact continued to bill EJF for “Bais Din expenses” even after the money was spent. (We expect that Rabbi Dunner will surely donate this money to charity as he suggested to rabbonim who received reimbursement for their expenses to attend EJF conferences.)

While Rabbi Dunner mentions the 25-member Standing Committee of the CER as the basis for his recent support in opposing EJF seminars for intermarried couples, it turned out that he had never received that body’s approval to go forward with the original EJF –CER arrangement. He managed to circumvent the same body that he is now using to discredit the EJF.

What is the halachic basis for the seminars for mixed couples and who in Europe supports it?

The seminars are really kiruv seminars for couples where one spouse is well on the way towards becoming a baal teshuva (or may already be) and the other enroute to becoming a ger tzedek. It is consistent with the kind of chinuch that the Gedolim have ruled is fully permissible and even to be encouraged for a prospective convert and the baal teshuva spouse. In fact, this past week EJF sponsored a seminar for nearly 30 couples in Munich that was under the auspices of Dayan Ehrentreu, the leading halachic posek in Europe. The Dayan lectured on such subjects as taharas hamishpocho (family purity) and kashrus and met with each of the couples.

Rabbi Dunner’s opposition to EJF was based on the support by the CER Standing Committee (later joined by an unsigned statement by the London Bais Din of which Dayan Ehrentreu is a member). The Standing Committee issued a resolution against the seminars and in essence against their own Av Bais Din. For some unexplained reason, none of the senior rabbonim was in Moscow when the decision was taken by the CER Standing Committee to issue such a statement against the seminars and EJF’s role in Europe. When Dayan Ehrentreu did attempt to board a plane for Moscow to attend the session, he found that for the first time in his life his visa was mysteriously invalid.

Reacting to the derogatory remarks against Gedolei Hatorah, including Dayan Ehrentreu, sharp letters of rebuke against this bizoyon of kovod Hatorah (insult of the honor of Torah) have in recent days been issued by Harav Yosef Chaim Sitruk, president of the CER, Harav Moshe Lebel, the chairman of the Rabbinic Committee of CER, and Rabbi Yihya Teboul, the Chief Rabbi of Lyon, France. It should be noted that the seminars were endorsed by Rav Aaron Leib Shteinman, shlita, even as Rabbi Dunner claimed that Rav Shteinman was opposed to the seminars. The Rosh Yeshiva, in fact, told Dayan Ehrentreu and numerous other witnesses, including Rabbi Dunner’s own brother, that he was categorically in favor of these chinuch seminars. He reportedly told Rabbi Dunner: “What’s wrong with the seminars? They (EJF) don’t do the geyrus.” But Rabbi Dunner used his version to obtain the resolution from the Standing Committee.

Has the organization inappropriately exerted pressure on Botei Din to grant questionable conversions?

Even Rabbi Dunner was at a loss to cite specifics. EJF does not do geyrus. They are done by independent Botei Din who make their own decisions on the qualifications for geyrus. All the 19 Botei Din in North America, Dayan Ehrentreu’s Bais Din, and numerous Israeli Botei Din operate independently and after a careful evaluation of each case perform geyrus according to Halacha.

How is the organization reacting to the scandal of its former director?

The director of EJF involved in the regrettable personal scandal has resigned and has no role in the organization. EJF has added the highly regarded Rabbi Chaim Blum to its staff to assist it with expanding its rabbinic leadership and key personnel in its offices in the US, Europe and Israel. Its remarkable achievement in affiliating with a network of Botei Din and advancing order to the chaotic geyrus scene is to say the least a formidable accomplishment.

Five leading Gedolei Yisroel (Harav Yosef Sholem Eliyashiv, shlita, Harav Aaron Leib Shteinman, shlita, Harav Chaim Kanievski, shlita, Harav Yitzchok Scheiner, shlita, and Harav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, shlita) have recently written Mr. Tom Kaplan, the Chairman of EJF, urging the continuation of the work of the organization. The three heads of the Halachic Committees (Harav Reuven Feinstein shlita – USA, Dayan Ehrentreu – Europe, and Harav Shmuel Eliezer Stern –Av Bais Din of Harav Shmuel Wozner – Israel) have urged the Botei Din around the world to continue their work under the EJF.

The organization’s activities have not been limited to geyrus support programs. It has partnered with numerous well-known kiruv organizations (Gateways, Ohr Someach, Lev Leachim, Hidabroot, Arachim and Nefesh Yehudi) to encourage Jewish youth to marry Jews.

We are extremely disappointed that Rabbi Dunner has chosen to exploit the regrettable circumstances of the scandal to discredit Gedolei Yisroel and the Eternal Jewish Family. It is our hope that all Jews who seek the truth and who cherish kedushas yisroel (the sanctity of the Jewish nation) will appreciate our efforts to set the record straight.


Rav Dunner Responds to EJF Attack
No Punches Pulled
Published on Monday, January 11, 2010 -
By Rabbi Aba Dunner

GO TO THE WEBSITE BELOW TO READ THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GEDOLIM FROM EJF!

A small quote:

......."Tropper is a fraud. The organization he created is in his image
and is therefore a fraud too. The creators of that image are
fraudsters and hucksters who are trying desperately to keep the
line to Mr Kaplan's millions open. The chareidi world feels
diminished and tainted and wishes they would go away and the
chilul Hashem would stop"................... ♦

http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5595