"There are amongst us people who, notwithstanding their care with mitzvos, pursue fine foods and expensive vacations; they boast of their clothing and furniture; they are swayed by the triviality and bad of unfiltered smartphones and internet. Those who are engaged in these pursuits have turned from the lifestyle that was always a characteristic sign of the chareidi Jew: a modest life centered around Torah, service to Hashem, and kindness to others; a life purposed on being close to Hashem. All Jews are responsible for one another; we must all repent on this direction.Certainly, in this time of danger, we must act with great care for the health of our communities. It is, however, also a holy obligation on us to uproot this spiritual danger from amongst ourselves and to return to being a holy nation to Hashem. We turn to the Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbanim – the eyes of the community – and to all leaders in every community: Seek ways to inspire your yeshivos and shuls to return to what was; not to allow the Jewish nation to descend into the trap of a life of materialism. Through this we will remain a nation of princes and holy people, in the full meaning of the words"
Sol Werdiger is ready for the big game...
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| Including You Werdiger |
Under normal circumstances, Sol Werdiger, founder and CEO of Outerstuff — the popular youth sports apparel manufacturer — is a gregarious presence on Super Bowl weekends. He has attended every championship game of the National Football League for more than two decades — and he has always used the occasion to connect with local Jewish community members who can look forward to a festive Shabbat meal as much as the rowdy big game on Sunday.
“We try to take advantage of it and turn it into a full Shabbat experience,” Werdiger, the chairman of Agudath Israel’s board of trustees, said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Thursday. “We’re a frum family and we’re in the sports business — and we’ve been going to the Super Bowl now for almost 25 years.”
But as Werdiger heads down to Tampa on Friday for what will be the 55th Super Bowl — a highly anticipated matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — he has no plans for any such revelry due to the pandemic. “This year we’re not going to make our own minyan,” he said. “I’m going to walk to the local Chabad.”
“Instead of having a full kosher catered event at the arena itself, I’m sure we’ll be eating in our hotel rooms before we go and when we get back,” Werdiger added, noting that his sons and some grandchildren will be flying in only for the game. His wife, who normally tags along to help, is staying home. “Most of the people that I normally go with are not going,” Werdiger said. “It’s going to be a little bit different this year.”
Werdiger, who lives in New York, sounded somewhat discouraged by the prospect of spending Shabbat alone, but he seemed more disappointed that he wouldn’t have the chance to support some of the local vendors and caterers he makes sure to seek out for Shabbat festivities. Instead, he told JI that he would likely make a donation to a Tampa day school or Chabad House. “We usually try to find a local yeshiva or institution that we donate some tickets to,” he said. “They can raffle them off to make some money.” But that wasn’t possible this year either, “because the allocation of tickets, I don’t have to tell you, was almost non-existent.”
Attendance at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa is capped at 25,000 people, approximately 7,500 of whom are expected to include vaccinated healthcare workers invited by the NFL. Werdiger has also already been vaccinated against COVID-19. “Had I not had the vaccines I think that I probably would have been a little bit nervous,” he said. Still, the NFL’s health and safety precautions, he said, were reassuring. “I sit in a suite with the NFL people and they sent me a kit to get tested,” Werdiger told JI. “I have to send it back to them. I have to follow all kinds of very strict NFL protocols. It’s going to be an experience.”
He has many to draw from. The sports apparel entrepreneur is a gifted raconteur known for his colorful Super Bowl stories. Asked to recount one, he drew an experience from a decade or so ago, when he was leaving his Miami hotel on a Saturday morning, en route to a local synagogue. “I had my yarmulke and I was carrying my tallis bag under my arm,” he said. As he left his room, Werdiger ran into “a very famous” quarterback whom he declined to name. The quarterback was between jobs, so he asked Werdiger to bless him. “I was taken aback,” he recalled. “I’m not the rabbi to give a blessing, but I did a little heebie-jeebies and I gave him a blessing and that was the end of that.”
Four months later, however, Werdiger got a call from the same quarterback. “He says, ‘Sol, I got your number from the NFL offices. I called to thank you. It’s unbelievable, your blessing. I got the biggest job of my life,’” Werdiger remembered. “He became the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles.” Werdiger assumed that was the end of that, but he soon found that word of his reputation had spread. “When I came down to go to synagogue next year at the Super Bowl,” he said, a line of players stood waiting for him. “They said, ‘We were told that Saturday morning at nine o’clock you come down and give blessings.”
“You don’t know how many people you touch,” Werdiger mused. “We’ve had plenty of people over the years come through our suites, come through our Shabbos meals. At some of the events that we have, we have families and kids that come, and kids literally spend months preparing to say something at the Shabbos table.”
“They probably aren’t Sabbath observant, but they look forward to spending Shabbos with us and my family and my kids,” he said. Though Werdiger is, by his admission, “not a huge sports fan,” he added, “I always said there’s a reason that God put us into this business that we could try to do some good and spread the word and make a Kiddush Hashem.”
No such encounters will occur this weekend, but Werdiger is hopeful that next year things will return to normal — from an interpersonal as well as a business standpoint. “There’s no tailgates this year,” he said, estimating that jersey sales would most likely be reduced by half because of the reduced turnout. “There’s usually hundreds of thousands of people coming through the event and a lot of sales being done that way.”
“I’m sure we’ll sell a lot of Brady jerseys,” he said, referring to the Buccaneers’ 43-year-old veteran quarterback, Tom Brady, who is guiding his team to the championship game after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots. “But the Kansas [City] Chiefs is still a stronger market,” Werdiger said, because the Tampa Bay area has less retail. Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs’ 25-year-old star quarterback, led his teammates to victory in last year’s Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49ers.
Was there one team in particular Werdiger will be rooting for on Sunday? He paused for a moment and then gave his answer. “When you’re in this business,” he said, “the team that sells the most is your favorite.”
10 comments:
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/featured/1946688/hafganos-hundreds-of-chareidim-protest-religious-persecution-due-to-corona-in-jerusalem-video-roundup.html
Sol's not pounding the pavement with my boys in the Holy Land but Tampa is the next best thing. Not only is the Superbowl a spreader event, but these vaccinated putzes are still spreading the machala even though they don't personally get sick, so this is the one vaccine I can tolerate.
As the country begins the once-per-decade process of redistricting following this past year’s Census, Agudath Israel of Illinois sent a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, laying out concerns.
The Orthodox Jewish community in greater Chicago – comprising 30,000+ households but only 30 of which are card carrying Fressers – is currently broken up across 3 separate districts. The letter expresses hope their community be consolidated into one district & thereby be better represented. They also ask the governor to ensure the community is not further broken up.
“Our concern is WE COULD BECOME POLITICALLY IRRELEVANT under an 'unfair' redistricting process,” said Rabbi Shlomo Soroka, Director of Government Affairs, Agudath Fressers of Illinois.
https://thedailyrecord.com/2015/02/03/after-neuberger-case-a-new-voice-for-victims/
Levaya of Shmuel K's bro Sheftel Neuberger is this morning, apparently taken by the virus after running the secret illegal minyanim at Ner Yishmoel during the pandemic
Sol knows where the good food is - with the Lubavs. Because the Beled Ruv opened a Chassidishe yishuv in Tampa which he makes no mention of.
YTV Menahel Rav Jacobson
https://yated.com/my-take-on-the-news-204/
My Take On The News
By Tzvi Yaakovson
Yated Israel Bureau Chief
Jan 27, 2021
Memories of Kaminetz
My American uncle was brought to his final rest & I felt obliged to brave the threat of the virus to attend the levayah at Shamgar. It didn't take long to realize I wasn’t the only person to feel that way.
My grandfather, Rav Binyomin Zev Yaakovson, had 6 children. There's a famous story about him with the Tchortkover Rebbe. My grandfather, as rep of Vaad Hatzolah & Keren HaTorah who raised funds for many yeshivos, was close to many gedolim. Many great rabbonim contacted him for assistance with various matters. He once asked the Tchortkover for a brocha for children & the rebbe asked, “How many children do you want?”
“The same as the number of shevotim,” my grandfather replied.
Years later, after his children had married, my grandfather met the Rebbe again & reminded him of the exchange. “And how many children do you have?” the Rebbe inquired.
“Six,” my grandfather replied.
“Chazal tell us tefilla of a tzaddik accomplishes half of what's sought,” the Rebbe said.
One of my grandfather’s sons was my father, R' Moshe Menachem Yaakovson. Another was R' Mordechai Amram Yaakovson, Mashgiach in various yeshivos in Bnei Brak & mechutan of the Steipler. A 3rd son was R' Shlomo. Another son was R' Yisroel, who's served for many years as Mashgiach in Ponovezh. Another member of the family was Rebbetzin Miriam Bess, who lived with husband, R' Avrohom, in America for many years; the couple moved to Yerushalayim toward the end of their lives. R' Gershon Bess of Los Angeles is their son. The eldest sibling in the Yaakovson family was R' Dovid Yitzchok, who recently passed away at 98.
At first, my grandfather was rov in Hamburg, where he was Agudah's Moreinu Yaakov Rosenheim's right-hand man. From there to Munich. When the Nazis came to power, he relocated to Denmark as rov of Machzikei Hadas. When the Nazis entered Denmark, my grandfather & community escaped to Sweden, where he established the Lidingo school.
There were no yeshivos in Denmark, so my grandfather sent his sons to learn in other countries. R' Dovid Yitzchok learned in Kaminetz, where he was close talmid of R' Boruch Ber. Until the end of his life, Kaminetz was alive in him; he often told fascinating stories of R' Boruch Ber. He related when R' Boruch Ber received an aliyah, he became so emotional he was barely able to utter the brocha.
R' Dovid Yitzchok returned to Denmark & later traveled to America to learn in Torah Vodaas & then Ner Yisroel. My father likewise spent time in Ner Yisroel after he learned in Gateshead. R' Dovid Yitzchok & my father considered themselves talmidim of Rav Ruderman.
After his marriage, Dovid Yitzchok settled in Detroit as a school principal. He later moved to NY, where he served as Menahel in Torah Vodaas. When his children grew older, he moved to Bayit Vegan. He supervised seminaries for the Ministry of Education, where he was the only Chareidi in his department. A dedicated follower of Rav Shach, he also taught in a Yerushalmi seminary. (His mother, my grandmother, taught in the same seminary. In Germany, she worked alongside Sarah Schenirer & R' Shmuel Deutschlander teaching girls.)
ביזנעס איז ביזנעס
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/activists-spread-picture-of-psychologist-suspected-of-sexual-abuse-657646
the menuvol lives 8735 Bay Parkway
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-steve-richman-board-of-elections-sexual-harassment-20200901-cxr3lqjnabek7fwey674mgt7me-story.html
A top NYC Board of Elections lawyer is being probed for sexual harassment, a source with knowledge of the situation revealed.
Steven H. Richman, who serves as a city Board of Elections general counsel, faces probes from both the city Department of Investigation and the Manhattan DA’s office, the source confirmed.
“It was a sexual thing,” the source said.
Richman has requested a leave of absence, which the board’s commissioners granted Tuesday. It extends through Sept. 25, at which point he could ask for an extension or potentially return to work.
He has served as the board’s general counsel since Jan. 1999 and served as a member of the Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee, according to his LinkedIn profile.
City Conflicts of Interest Board financial disclosure forms show that as of 2018 Richman had between $5,000 and $49,000 in debt on each of the six credit cards he listed on the form.
The Board of Elections and DOI declined to comment. The Manhattan DA’s office did not immediately respond.
Two other sources said this is not Richman’s first brush with charges that he mistreated a coworker.
His former assistant Sylvia Ancrum told the Daily News on Tuesday that he “didn’t want to work with me” and she suggested that there was a racial component to the situation.
“It was a very uncomfortable environment,” she said. “He really wasn’t satisfied with me.”
Ancrum said at the time, in 2008, she complained to managers and an equal opportunity rep, who reminded her that the job was a political post.
“Everyone knew,” she said. “It was something very hard to deal with, but I had to make a decision for my family. I didn’t want to lose my job so I just took the nonsense.”
In a complaint she submitted at the time, she reported an unidentified prank phone caller tarring her on her office phone as “an affirmative action Negro.”
Pekuach Kessef!
"60 Minutes" anchor Mike Wallace outed as molester
grew up at Temple Israel of Brookline
https://nypost.com/2021/02/06/new-book-reveals-worst-about-famed-news-anchors/
At “60 Minutes,” Ira Rosen witnessed a Mike Wallace signature meltdown
Rosen, 26 in 1980, was on assignment investigating union violence in LA. The jr producer sweet-talked a federal agent to go on camera with anchor Wallace. But in transit, the source bailed
Sr producer Al Maraynes broke the bad news as he drove Wallace from the airport, with Rosen in the back seat
“Mike went crazy,” Rosen writes, grabbing fistfuls of documents from Maraynes & hurling them in his face as he struggled to keep the vehicle on the road
“Wallace cursed Al, told him he's a failure who's demoted on return to NY. It was the most astonishing verbal abuse ever”
Shell-shocked Rosen asked Maraynes how he withstood the rage
“I tuned him out,” he said wearily. “If you listen to him, you'll go crazy”
The incident was blueprint of Rosen’s next 40 years
“I’d rather work with a talented a–hole than a nice person without talent,” Rosen writes in “Ticking Clock”, out Feb 16, memoir of his career @ 60 Minutes & ABC’s “20/20” + “Primetime Live”
Lucky for him, the news business is stacked with talented a–holes
When Rosen joined 60 Minutes, Wallace, then 62, was legend for hit exposés & tough interviews to hold wrongdoer feet to the fire. CBS sloganized “The 4 most feared words: Mike Wallace is here”
“Sadly, it applied to those working with him too”
Wallace taught Rosen the ropes of investigative journalism & interviewing-showmanship — while spewing constant invective & belittlement
In public & private, Wallace “defined life by much trouble.” He loved loudly quizzing Rosen about his sex life when they were at dinner & wrecked Rosen’s wedding by whispering dark comments to the bride's father (“Does she know what she's getting into?” he sighed deeply. “I'll tell you — wait, chuppah's starting”)
At the office, he was notorious for “Neanderthaling” women, snapping bra straps & slapping bottoms. When one reacted with a furious smack in the face, Wallace was perplexed “What the hell's her problem?” he asked
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