rabbi has left a new comment on your post "R' Bomzer censured by Vaad for Conversion":
I am an Orthodox Rabbi of an Orthodox shul with over 200 families. A year ago I performed a wedding of a wonderful and observant couple who lives in my community. The bride was converted a few years before she met her husband by Rabbi Bomzer. Among her papers of conversion, was a letter where she was asked by the Beis Din to sign a statement accepting upon herself all of the mitzvot including Rabbinic and Torah Mitzvot. I was impressed at the specificity of the listing of the mitzvos and saw that it was obviously an added protection for her that the beis din was responsible enough to ask her questions verbally as she reported to me about the mitzvos and whether or not she accepted all of them and of course she did and to go the extra mile of having her sign it on paper. I asked her about the process of the beis din and I am satisfied that it was completely done according to halacha.
She did not pay $10,000 dollars as was suggested here somewhere and it was obvious to me that this was a serious process. Today, a little more than one year later I know for sure that she is observant, she covers her hair with a tichol and she attends the mikvah regularly and her family is shomer shabbos and kashrus. I have no reservations whatsoever eating at her home and I am absolutely certain that this guir is complete and legitimate.
Additionally other colleagues have told me when I asked about Rabbi Bomzers giur that it is accepted by most and especially by Rabbi Kotlarsky of Lubavitch and many many others. All of them told me that the paperwork they have seen included this formal acceptance of the mitzvos and all of the gerim that we have seen or heard about have been observant Jews.
I do not know why this terrible letter was put out and I do not wish to get involved in the politics of Rabbi Tropper vs Badatz etc. But it should be stated that he does get the kabolos hamitzvos in writing and that many of us in practical Rabbonus do accept his giur and have seen that all the gerim that we have seen have been observant yorei shomayim frum yidden.
I posted it on another thread but I think it more appropriate here:
ReplyDelete...When I first read the Pashkevil Roni/Tropper sent to rabbi Eidensohn
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2009/01/r-bomzer-censured-by-vaad-for.html
I wondered, after all these years the vaad was complaining about rabbi Bomzer and Rabbi Bomzer just ignoring them, why out of sudden they decided to go publicly after rabbi Bomzer ?
The pashkevil also mentions a Brazilian woman and I was wondering who is that mysterious Brazilian woman who got all those choshuv rabbonim all stirred up? Did rabbi Bomzer really convert Fernanda Motta who obviously needs chizuk in her tznius practices?
But now the enigma was solved, the mysterious Brazilian girl who got all those choshuv rabbis excited is Guma’s wife! Apparently Roni/Tropper who saw his goose with the golden eggs going to his arch-enemy rabbi Bomzer got so worked up and got some gelt from his master Tom Kaplan to get all those rabbis issue an edict against Rabbi Bomzer for converting a Brazilian woman who the pashkevil does not say is the wife of the EJF co-chair.
We actually can get a glimpse into Roni/Tropper’s psyche where are some of the roots to his fixation with rabbi Bomzer are coming from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixation_(psychology)
I posted it on another thread but I think it more appropriate here:
ReplyDelete...When I first read the Pashkevil Roni/Tropper sent to rabbi Eidensohn
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2009/01/r-bomzer-censured-by-vaad-for.html
I wondered, after all these years the vaad was complaining about rabbi Bomzer and Rabbi Bomzer just ignoring them, why out of sudden they decided to go publicly after rabbi Bomzer ?
The pashkevil also mentions a Brazilian woman and I was wondering who is that mysterious Brazilian woman who got all those choshuv rabbonim all stirred up? Did rabbi Bomzer really convert Fernanda Motta who obviously needs chizuk in her tznius practices?
But now the enigma was solved, the mysterious Brazilian girl who got all those choshuv rabbis excited is Guma’s wife! Apparently Roni/Tropper who saw his goose with the golden eggs going to his arch-enemy rabbi Bomzer got so worked up and got some gelt from his master Tom Kaplan to get all those rabbis issue an edict against Rabbi Bomzer for converting a Brazilian woman who the pashkevil does not say is the wife of the EJF co-chair.
We actually can get a glimpse into Roni/Tropper’s psyche where are some of the roots to his fixation with rabbi Bomzer are coming from.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixation_(psychology)
Dear Rabbi,
ReplyDeleteIf this giyoret is as sincere a yirat shamayim as you attest (and I am sure that she is), you will certainly do the huge mitzvah of taking her to the local RCA/BDA Beit Din so that her conversion will be accepted in Israel.
Alternatively you might contact Rabbi Seth Farber of ITIM in Israel for direction.
Rabbi Bomzer's conversions are not accepted by the Chief Rabbinute of Israel, the RCA/BDA, the Montreal Rabbinute, the EU Rabbinute as well as Bedatz.
How will this poor woman be able to marry off her children and grandchildren?
YOU MUST ADDRESS THIS NOW!!, before her children grow up and all of the Rabbis who were involved are still living.
It does not matter how many of "you in practical Rabbonus" accept who or what. NO observant Jewish family wants to have grandchildren who are not Jewish in Israel, Europe, most of the US, Canada etc.
If the woman did indeed, as you say sincerely convert a "few years before she met her husband" then you might have no problem getting her giyur accepted, even if this involves repeating her conversion and mikveh.
But honestly, dear Rabbi, it really does not matter what you or any other of your colleagues think. It is the Gedolim who decide who is a Jew and what the standards are for giyur.
And if you, Rabbi have decided to defy the standards that are laid out by the Gedolim, in accepting what has been ruled unacceptable, then you have separated yourself from Orthodox Judaism.
Right now, Bedatz, the Chief Rabbinute of Israel, the RCA, the Montreal Rabbinute, the EU Rabbinute which represent the vast majority of Orthodox Rabbis worldwide have all agreed to adopt one standard. And Rabbi Bomzer does not meet this standard which was stated explicitly in the letter referenced above.
If you do not help a sincere person to be accepted according to the standard of the majority of Orthodox Rabbis, then it is you who are putting a stumbling block before the blind and you who are failing to "love the stranger".
If you are Lubavitch, then disregard all of the above. The leadership of Lubavitch, as a sect has elected to disregard the rulings of Orthodox Rabbinical organizations and has voluntarily separated itself from the mainstream of Orthodox Judaism.
Among her papers of conversion, was a letter where she was asked by the Beis Din to sign a statement accepting upon herself all of the mitzvot including Rabbinic and Torah Mitzvot. I was impressed at the specificity of the listing of the mitzvos...
ReplyDeleteImpressed?? This is total nonsense and is largely a 20th century innovation. That rabbanim are requesting such a degree of specificity only serves only to push sincere people away from the conversion process. It is an ahistorical chumrah.
It's inspiring to hear a story of a person who has gone through a conversion process and sticks with it.
ReplyDeleteSadly, it's a rare treat to hear such a testimonial.
Tragically for the righteous convert who Rabbi Bomzer ministered to, he performed so many other conversions that were halachically subpar that it brings into question all of his conversions.
I hope that you will encourage this person as Shmuely has suggested, and please report back on this blog if her conversion is ultimately upheld or not.
For the rabbi to be beleived let him put his name and the name of the convert, so that one can test the authenticity of the story.
ReplyDeleteAnd even if there are occasional good conversions by this man; if he has a a large number of covnersions where he does not require kabbalat hamitzvot (and a "paper" is meaningless as explained further) then his covnersions are dubious at best and worthless at worse. In addition: to those cases which he takes an exorbitant price, then those covnersions also null and void as ruled by HaRAv Sternbuch of the BAdatz!
After all this "defense", what remains is that Bomzer (while initially (like 18 years ago or a little bit later) may have been doing the right thing) has degenerated into fake gerussem, to the extent that the *rabbanut harashit* who isn't necessarily interested in extra chumrot, has stated that his conversions are either not recognized or have to rechecked and in most recent times stated that his conversions cannot be accepted for the checked and found how he does not demand kabbalat hamitzvot (a piece of "paper" is meaningless if the person who is a "Candidate" is not ready to keep shabbat, kashrut and taharat hamishpacha as Rav Chayim Oizer Grodzenski rules in achiezer 3/26). And the story of guma aguiar and his wife jmie highlight the danger that his practices represent when at the end he covnerted a person known to all to be mechaleles shabbos befarhessya (and stated so publicly) and at the end a gift of 50,000$ was accepted!
It is schmegegge and childish , which rabbi has a better conversion, mine is better and bigger than yours. It depends on the converts if they want to be observant they will be and if they do not want nobody can force them
ReplyDeleteOnly someone with delusions of grandeur and a lot of cash like Tropper can think he can set up network of spies and control the converts' life.
A case in point, my sister knows of giores who went to very strict beis din (actually they are on the EJF list), they demanded that they will be seprated for three months and actualy provided a place for her to stay. She told my sister that during these three months they had more frequent sex than they had when they lived together.
Tropper is way ore dangerous than rabbi Bomzer, Tropper is bringing mamzerim to the world by nullifying conversions for things like not covering hair sometimes or if the girl wishes to go to nursing school in Touro College (Orthodox college).
ReplyDeleteIf the couple separate and do not have a get and the woman continues to sleep with Jewish guys they are on safek eshes ish and if she has future children they are safek mamzerim.
Another thing, Ronny/Tropper tries to paint the fact that Guma left him in way that makes him look good which bring to mind this analogy: A husband is beating up his wife (a subject Tropper should know something about) then the wife leaves him and husband says “you see I am good and she is bad, if she was not bad she would not leave me” in other words chutzpah
"It depends on the converts if they want to be observant they will be and if they do not want nobody can force them ".
ReplyDeleteYou are right that nobody could force them to be observant; but someone who everyone knows that he/she willnot observant then the covnersion is null and void! as ruled by Rmf and RCog!
In addition: even if it is not certain that the eprson will not be observant, but if the likelihood is that the person will not observant, as you say, that no one can force them, then it is not appropriate to covnert them lechatchila! as many here claim that seeknig converts is not appropriate how much more so when it seems likely that the person will not observe.
BOmzer's conversions, at least in the last decade and more, are known to be filled with those scenarios. Respected Rabbis (like Rav Moshe Solovetichik and more) have put their name to declare and warn that his conversions are not accepted.
Monsey T,
ReplyDeleteTropper does not just disqualify gerut for not covering the hair per se; he may perhaps disqualify it if the candidate fooled him and lied to to him in ways where she blatantly deceived him. In that case there might not be mamzerim at all. In fact he is saving the couple (if the husband is serious) from a serious violation of living with a non jew!
In contrast, Bomzer brings in goyim in klal yisroel and casues man to live with non jewish ladies and later intermarry amongst jews which is from the most gravest violations in our tradition.
'Tropper is bringing mamzerim to the world by nullifying conversions."
ReplyDeleteA union between a Gentile and a Jew cannot produce a mamzer.
"If the couple separate and do not have a get and the woman continues to sleep with Jewish guys they are on safek eshes ish and if she has future children they are safek mamzerim."
1. If a Gentile woman sleeps with a Jewish man, the children cannot be mamzerim.
2. None of Tropper's conversions have yet to be accepted by the Chief Rabbinate in Israel.
The RCA/BDA has agreed to adopt the rulings of the CR and Bedatz as have the Montreal Rabbinute and the EU Rabbinute. The majority of Orthodox Rabbis around the world would not consider Troppers "converts" to be Jewish, so if he himself possuls them, it is doubtful that there would be anyone left in the world who would consider them to be Jewish since he is the only one who considered them Jewish to begin with.
3. Certainly, in the case of mamzerim, there are plenty of opinions to rely upon in possuling Tropper conversions.
4. If the couple separates and the Gentile woman whose conversion Tropper nullified sleeps around even though she does not have a get..... That alone would be plenty of grounds to nullify her conversion no matter who had previously accepted it.
"the majority of Orthodox rabbis around the world would not consider Troppers "converts" to beJewish...":
ReplyDeleteA blatant LIE! Show me *one* written statement by one Rabbi declaring in writing that they have not accepted Tropper's convert as a whole as Jewish. At most one organization claims that it may lead to gerut mefukfakim; NO RABBI declared that his converts are not considered Jewish! by none of the organizations you mentioned. In fact, many rabbis in some of theorganizations you mention participate in EJF!
The one who got this title by many rabbis from ALL circles (MO as haredi as RAbbanut) is none other than Rabbi BOmzer! who for the past decade or mroe has his conversions as a whole either requiring a case by case checkup or completely renounced! And to make it clear: this comes even from MO rabbis (who many of them convert candidates with caution and care and are aghast at his practices in the last decade).
"Show me *one* written statement by one Rabbi declaring in writing that they have not accepted Tropper's convert as a whole as Jewish"
ReplyDeleteyou saw the Bedatz letters???
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2008/02/bedatz-letter-regarding-ejf-signed-by.html
How much more assur can you get??
None of your converts have been accepted in Israel and this means that none are accepted under the RCA's GPS, the EU Rabbinate, the Montreal Rabbinute and any of the other Rabbinical organizations that have have decided to remain part of mainstream Orthodox Judaism.
Save the Jews of Yemen
ReplyDeleteThere has been a continuous Jewish community in Yemen since the times of the First Temple, more than 2500 years ago, but today the survival of that community is in grave danger. Last December, Rabbi Masha Al-Nahiri, 30, was brutally murdered shot to death, leaving his wife and nine children. A few days later, the home of Masha Yahia was firebombed as well as having a grenade thrown at it. They were home at the time he and his wife and children had to flee for refuge, suddenly homeless. I was personally in his home for a Shabbat as he lives between the two Jewish communities in a remote area. President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, who has always treated the Jews as respected Yemenite citizens, announced that he could no longer guarantee the protection of the Jewish community.
The Yemen Times reported that President Saleh had given his directive to protect the Jews and move them to safe places in the district of Sana’a, but those directives have evaporated and there is no longer a promise of government protection. This is due to the tribal nature of a land that has stood still in time!
"We are no longer safe in our houses or in the streets due to intimidations we are subjected to by some extremists who are protected by influential figures in the governorate where they live," reported one of the leaders of the Jewish community who insisted on anonymity (this is a tribal area). He told us, “Jews in the Amran district are unable to go to the market to buy their commodities unless they are disguised.” He pointed out that their jobs have been terminated as they cannot perform in the work place due to threats against them. "What is worse is that we don’t have any resources we can provide to our families, even the minimum standard of living is wiped out. Our situation has been rendered absolutely disastrous."
Today, there are fewer than 450 to 500 Jews remaining in Yemen, and even in the best of circumstances, their lifestyle has been sparse and primitive by western standards. The girls amuse themselves with made up games such as running after and catching a chicken. The boys play basketball with a balloon for a ball and no basket. The meager clothing they wear is washed in a tub with a rock instead of washboard. Water is delivered by truck so they can have a cold shower. All their drinking water is purchased. For their Sabbath meals, they have no wine or grape juice, kosher tuna fish as a gift from someone in the States is cherished like the finest caviar in Europe or America. The fuel for their stoves is dried cow manure, precisely as it was in Talmudic times. Their toilets are a hole in the floor. Many of the roads are dusty donkey trails.
Anyone can do an internet search on any English Yemenite newspaper their you will find plenty to read, Concerning the murder of the Jewish citizen Masha Al-Nihari, Khaled Al-Anisi, secretary general of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, also known as HOOD, volunteered to defend the Jewish citizens in Yemen as a minority.
The people there are now in fear for their lives Al-Anisi added that Yemeni Jews are afraid of the threats they receive from extremists who are protected by sheiks. "A well-known man protected by Kahlan bin Mujahed Abu Shawareb intimidates Jews in Amran,” he said. “He threatens them and he hasn’t been arrested so far despite the President's directives to arrest all those who harm Yemeni Jews. There is something going on in secret which we don’t understand in this respect!"
At this time we are begging for your help we need money desperately to resettle everyone anywhere that they will desire to go. Please make your tax deductible charitable donations out to the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America. The money is needed for shelter, food, clothing, and medical care. Anyone who desires more information on how to help may contact Ruven Schwartz at walter.schwartz@ccsicandy.com.
The checks can be personally given to Rabbi Sabri at K4 Pizza in Far Rockaway opposite kosher world. Rabbi Sabri he is the son of the Rabbi still in Yemen!
Please mail checks as well to:
Bet Midrash Shalom Teman
2915 Bayswater Ave
Far Rockaway, New York 11691
They can also be me mailed
Ruven Schwartz
1135 Dickens Street
Far Rockaway N.Y. 11691
you saw the Bedatz letters???
ReplyDeletehttp://daattorah.blogspot.com/2008/02/bedatz-letter-regarding-ejf-signed-by.html
How much more assur can you get??"
I read this letter. This blog seems to gather people who make chollents and fruit salads. The letter does not state that those converted are not jewish! Show me where the letter states this! The letter states that according to thier opinion onwe should participate in such an organization; and there may be gerut "mefukfakim", questionable; that does NOT mean that they consider all their gerut to be goyim!
"None of your converts have been accepted in Israel"
I do not think this is 100% accurate,
But in any event: " and this means that none are accepted under the RCA's GPS, the EU Rabbinate, the Montreal Rabbinute and any of the other Rabbinical organizations that have have decided to remain part of mainstream Orthodox Judaism.": is a blatant lie! because many and most of these would be msader kiddushin to a good gerut by EJF (while many/most would be messader kiddushin by those made by bomzer in the past decade). For instnace, many MO are not yet recognized by RAbbanut and yet many other RCA and other organizations would be messader kidushin of their children's gerut.
This blog gathers b"h a lot og chollent makers but you do not have to be mehader on this!
"and there may be gerut "mefukfakim", questionable; that does NOT mean that they consider all their gerut to be goyim!"
ReplyDeleteI thought you a better lamdan than this. You should know that your safek gerus creates safek mamzerim which is worst than vadai mamzerim
"because many and most of these would be msader kiddushin to a good gerut by EJF "
Mira, Tropper implies that there is bad gerut by the EJF, Surprise! We all thought that EJF converts are better and bigger than all the other converts and they are really tzadikim gemurim. We thought only rabbi Bomzer has bad converts.
MOnsey T,
ReplyDelete[...]
"gerus mefukfak" may not be the same as "safek gerut". It may and it may not. WE may have: ger vaday, safek ger, gerut lechumrah! Gerut mefukfak belongs more to redo gerut lechumrah. And even this may sometimes not be necessary, as the pikpuk may on a lechatchil level and not on a bedieved level!
Of course i never implied that all gerut by ejf are gerut galore! and even tropper may agree that some are no good! and therefore he revoked some of them (As bomzer would do in his good days where he warned his covnerts that if they do not keep he would revoke the gerut). Those gerim would not have siddur kiddushim even by tropper!
[...]
"None of your converts have been accepted in Israel"
ReplyDeleteI do not think this is 100% accurate,"
It was a simple "yes or no" question, Roni/Tropper.
Are ANY of your converts currently accepted as Jewish in Israel???
(The correct answer will be either "yes" or "no").
A year ago, your answer was "no".
Speaking of embellishments, you mentioned chulent and fruit salad:
"This blog seems to gather people who make chollents and fruit salads."
Moroccans make Adafina. I will post a recipe if you want.
This week, being Parshat B'Shelach, the Adafina is also traditionally a "fruit salad"; we always add dates, but for Tu B'shevat, we also put apricots, pomegranate molasses, and prunes. The sweet fruit really complements the lamb breast, the rice and the wheat puddings (kuclos) that are cooked along with the Adafina.
These is a little bit of the Torah Imecha it seems many believe can be outsourced via permitted intermarriage.
Dat Torah!
ReplyDeleteWhy again the double standard? Why do you think you are right in cutting parts of my message that you feel is offensive to your chollent bloggers (B. an AH) and allow comments that are offensive to me?
Guess what the answer is....you are a ...just as they are!
Roni,
ReplyDeleteWhy do you always divert attention whenever a question is asked that you do not like to answer?? It's very transparent.
The question is very simple,and the answer will be with a simple "yes" or "no":
Is even ONE of your "conversions" currently accepted as Jewish in Israel???
Here is multiple choice answer to make it easier for you:
a. Yes, one of my "converts" is accepted in Israel as a Jew
b. No, none of my converts have been accepted in Israel as Jewish to this date.
I think that we all know that the answer is "b", none of EJF facilitated "conversions" to permit intermarriages are currently accepted as Jewish in Israel.
(Valid as a new post:)
ReplyDeleteTHE REAL SCANDAL: Revenge against Gumar Aguiar and covering their backs for having sanctioned the taking of tens of millions of dollars from Guma Aguiar for years is why the ten rabbis signed this letter when they realized that Guma had dumped them/EJF to get a conversion for his wife from arch-rival Rabbi Bomzer.
Ever since poster Roni/Tropper has joined the discussions on this blog with his bloodthirsty and vitriolic attacks against anyone who dares to question Tropper/EJF he has unrelentingly made Rabbi Bomzer the source of all evil because he has performed lenient conversions.
Regardless if one agrees with either the Rabbi Tropper's or Rabbi Bomzer's prescription for doing conversions, from the outset this letter of censure against Rabbi Bomzer was presented as a fait accompli without either Rabbi Bomzer being asked to give his side of the story or any other context except that which poster Roni/Tropper and the words in the letter signed by the ten rabbis, that includes Rabbi Tropper's signature on it, to the left.
The owner of this blog, Rabbi Dr. Eidensohn/da'as torah has been brave and open enough to accept the letter and post it here without any conditions or comments but a lot has happened from Monday, January 12, 2009 that has shed deeper light on this letter of censure and its near-probable origins.
Some of the big questions are very basic but vital:
What got into Rabbi Tropper that he had to finally organize such a letter dated כ"א אלול תשס"ח corresponding to 21 September 2008 against Rabbi Bomzer when he has been after Bomzer's blood for many years? Why now?
What drove Rabbi Tropper to finally get these rabbis to sign together with him as a group, why couldn't Tropper just write a letter himself or just with the help of Rav Nochum Eisenstein who is the leader of the Vaad HaOlami whose letterhead this letter bears?
Why did these other rabbbis feel they had to join Rabbi Tropper at this time when so many other Modern Orthodox rabbis are doing no different that Rabbi Bomzer all the time? Why pick on Rabbi Bomzer now (כ"א אלול תשס"ח)?
There were also other questions as to why Rabbi Nochum Eisenstein who had always been a strong backer of Rabbi Tropper had suddenly in mid-2008 distanced himself publicly from EJF and even when he came to one of the last EJF concerts, his name was left out, conspicuous by its absence?
Even this blog carried a post Eternal Jewish Family - Rav Nachum Eisenstein where are you? (November 1, 2008) that asked:
"Last November [2007] Eternal Jewish Family held a major event in Washingston. The participants included...Harav Nochum Eisenstein, (Va'adl'Inyonei Giyur, Yerushalayim)... Next week [2008] - a year later [after Rav Sternbuch & the Bedatz issued condemnations of EJF and Rav Eliashiv had their convention in Argentina canceled in February] - Eternal Jewish Family is holding a much more modest event in Philadelphia. The participants are scheduled to be...Why is there no mention of Rav Eisenstein - Rav Eliyiashiv's representative for geirus - who was prominently involved in previous conventions? Would greatly appreciate any information - including whether the failure to mention Rav Eisentein was just a error and that he in fact will be there."
Also in that post it was noted that:
"It is interesting to note that the Dei'ah veDibur website has also had nothing to say about EJF and its upcoming gathering in Philly nor has it publsihed any comments from the Bais Din LeInyonei Giur of Rav Eisenstein unlike in the past when they trumpeted upcoming EJF events with pride. The Dei'ah veDibur site is VERY haskafically correct and they have always given rav Eisnestein's coments and press relaeses pride of place. So their silence about the upcing Philly meet-up is not insignificant."
Finally, when EJF did release some info about the EJF November 2008 Philadelphia meetup, it was noted in a post on this blog: "EJF - Conference in Philadelphia (November 20, 2008):
"YWN reported: This is the official publicity release of EJF regarding their Philadelphia conference held November 2-4. Strange that they would just be releasing 2 weeks after the event - as opposed to last year when it had massive coverage in the major chareidi publications. Also Rav Eisenstein is not mentioned - even though he was there according to Hamodia and the Yated [see RaP's comments at bottom of post]...Rav Nochum Eisenstein reported to be at latest EJF conference -- but in a roundabout and very brief way -- the name "EJF" is not mentioned, that raises more questsions about the true relationship (or lack of it) between Rav Tropper/EJF and Rav Eisenstein/Va'ad Ha'olmai l'Inyonei Giyur. Here is how the latest editions of the YATED and the MODIAH reported on Rav Nochum Eisenstein's presence at the EJF conference and they did it via a press release from the Philadelphia Russian Kollel that has no official connection with EJF."
So what was keeping Rav Nochum Eisenstein not just so busy, but distracted and conscious enough to position himself quite a few steps publicly removed from Rabbi Tropper and the cockamamy EJF, besides visiting a mini-kollel for Russian Baalei teshuva, when his main focus is in the global threat of weak and false conversions and theretofore he had stood shoulder to shoulder with EJF?
Well, as we have only very recently learned, something big had happened and its name was Guma Aguiar who was involved in an ombroglio with Rabbi Tropper over Rabbi Tropper's demands for Guma Aguiar's wife Jamie to get a strict EJF-style conversion.
Jamie refused and they evidently then went to seek the help of the Chabad rabbi of Ft. Lauderdale whom they had known, Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc "...'Guma has a heart of gold,' said Rabbi Lipszyc. In recent years, he's funded much of Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale's dynamic growth..." as it was reported on December 9, 2008 on Lubavitch.com : "Young Energy Magnate Promises 'Taking Care of Chabad A Priority'.
Events have moved quickly since then. While Guma and his wife with the doubtful conversion have now officially moved to Israel making Aliyah distributing millions to Nefesh BeNefesh and being hailed as heros by Religious Zionists, see Oil Tycoon Cashes In on Spiritual Dividends in Jerusalem (01/28/09) and Aguiar: We've Got to Climb the Ladder(01/29/09) and Guma Aguiar - $500,000 to March of Living (February 4, 2009) on the other side of the world in Florida, USA, Guma Aguiar's uncle Dr. Tom Kaplan has launched two law suits (Tom Kaplan wants director of Kaplan Foundation removed (January 26, 2009) against Guma's management of the Kaplan family's Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation that's controlled by Guma and his mother Ellen also accusing Guma of "false messianism", in addition to a legal fight between Guma and his uncle Tom over the other business assets they shared in Leor Energy that was sold for almost three billion dollars, see Uncle's suit claims nephew misspent foundation money to promote claim he is 'the Messiah'
Suit: Director misspent money of foundation.
So there was a reason that Rav Nochum Eisenstein was stopping any official contact with EJF and Rabbi Tropper in public and went into near-seclusion when the toxic topic of EJF was raised, just by reviewing the above events, as we have been told by poster Roni/Tropper, Rabbi Eisenstein was probably the only other rabbi besides Tropper who was privy to what was really going on behind the scenes at EJF with how EJ's lay co-founder and official Co-Chairman Guma Aguiar and who had pumped tens of millions of dollars into EJF from the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation, was about to betray and humiliate the whole EJF mission statement that they help gentiles hitched to Jews get super-duper-holier-than-thou conversions and here EJF's own co-founder and active Co-Chairman and the one who had written all the checks and underwrote all the free concerts for hundreds of rabbis and for wining and dining interfaith couples at swank hotels and resorts was HIMSELF living with a gentile woman from Brazil all the time, as he openly admits to knowing her from the days he was yet an Evangelical Christian, and having children with her all while she refuses to go along with Rabbi Tropper's (and presumably also Rav Eisenstein's) demand that she go through an EJF-style conversion and then Guma and Jamie jump ship seek help from Chabad Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc in Florida who with the help of Rabbi Bomzer performs a lenient conversion for Jamie Aguiar enraging Rabbi Tropper and Rav Eichenstein and making a total mockery of EJF and a shambles of its carefully crafted PR image (especially to the Charedi world) that had the audacity and hypocrisy to call for the conversion of gentiles hitched to Jews in mass proselytizaion style (even intimating that billions should come and do it in infomercials online) when it could not even get ONE of its own, and its own co-founder and Co-Chairman and the one who wrote the checks from the Kaplan mother foundation at that, to do it with his own Brazilian gentile wife!
What an absolute and catastrophic blunder for EJF and and rebuttal of Tropper's reputaion as a leading Kiruv worker who could pull rabbits out of hats, make Jewish spouses become great Baalei teshuva and get their gentile prtners to convert-mehadrin for their Jewish pratners when he couldn't even do it with Guma Aguiar his admitted close disciple and biggest co-backer.
How could all the rabbis who had eaten from the hand of Guma Aguiar's business acumen and generosity from the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation and who had collectively taken tens of millions of dollars from Guma Aguiar's business work do to protect themselves now that was going to be scandal about Guam's refusal to go along with EJF and that they went to Chabad and Rabbi Bomzer for his wife Jamie to get a lenient conversion when their good name and credibility once Guma Aguiar was proven to be a traitor to the much-hyped EJF agenda was made known to the world as is happening now (no wonder poster Roni/Tropper spends his time here denigrating and distorting everything, he knows what's at stake so he wants to portray people here as stupid and not as "learned" as Tropper.)?
How would the EJF rabbis protect themselves against accusations of hypocrisy and greed and why were they asleep at the EJF wheel and not warn the rabbinic world to take greater care with Guma Aguiar's Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation since Guma and his wife Jamei were throwing the rabbis of EJF's demands back in their faces?
So, rather than taking the blame for losing Guma Aguiar and apologising to the rabbinic world for misleading them, Rabbi Tropper switches the focus, in keeping with Tropper's standard red-herring defense methods that remove all responsibilty from him for years of covering up and colluding with Guma Aguiar and instead pinning everything that went wrong YEARS LATER on his nemesis Rabbi Bomzer who not that he is right either, but guess what, surprise surprise, Bomzer does what he has been doing for decades, perform lenient conversions, but Bomzer is only blasted out the water with this letter when Tropper needs a cover for the Guma-Jamie disaster.
Note too how the letter against Rabbi Bomzer was NOT made public since September 21 2008 when it was finally signed and sealed and was kept in waiting for a times like the present when Rabbi Tropper has come under strong criticism for his/EJF's/Kaplan's/Guma's plans to reach out and convert gentiles hitched to Jews and who had already been warned to stop and about the folly of his ways by Rav Moshe Sternbuch - Kiruv for non-Jews (August 10, 2007) (original), the Bedatz letter regarding conversion (November 18, 2007) (original), and the Bedatz Letter regarding EJF signed by Gaavad (February 14, 2008) (original).
So that while all these warnings have now come so brutally true for Rabbi Tropper and EJF, including Rav Eisenstein and his Vaad HaOlami now have to do damage control and desperately try to come up with excuses and rationalizations and scape-goating of false demons like Rabbi Bomzer (who was doing what he always does) they scrambled to come up with a letter denouncing Rabbi Bomzer that among others mentions the case that on "4 Adar I 5768 [10 February 2008] he 'converted' a Brazilian woman in violation of all Halachik procedures" that clearly fits in with the time-line of Guma's fallout with Tropper/EJF and Guma's new move to Florida and chumming around with the Chabad rabbi in Ft. Lauderdale.
So yes indeed, there has been a lot going on at EJF since that terrible day on "4 Adar I 5768 [10 February 2008]" A FULL YEAR AGO, when no letters were written to anyone denouncing Bomzer, and at that time too, Tropper and EJF were getting their warnings to stop from Rav Shternbuch and the BADATS, as then Tropper and Rav Eisenstien must have been scrambling desperately for what their excuses and exit strategy would be to explain to the world why they had duped the rabbis at EJF concerts that at the head of EJF lay leadership sat a man like Guma who was married to a egntile who refused to convert all while he (Guma) was writing all the checks to feed and host the praticipants at EJF concerts and underwrite the rabbis and many of their mosdos and why they had not reported about Guma's hypocritical double life all the while that Guma was doling out those tens of millions of dollars to the rabbis from his Lillian Jean Kaplan Founadtion that he founded in 2002 and that he still controls and which has now become a focal point of a family war as his uncle Tom fights an uphill battle for accountability and control.
It should be noted that most of the ten rabbis who signed the anti-Bomzer letter were covering themselves as much as Tropper was. Most of them are either on the EJF "International Rabbinical Board" and/or also on the official EJF Batei Din list and are surely as red-faced and humiliated (the natural reaction and not like poster Roni/Tropper's irrational self-righteous ludicrous and insulting justifications) and they too must have seen that by coming together as a rabbinic posse against Rabbi Bomzer to try to lynch him with this letter (it is disgraceful and unprofessional that as leaders of batei din they did not sign in the name of any Bais Din at all, some just noted the cities they came from that's meaningless) as they signed on a letter from two anonymous "P.O.Boxes" with Rabbi Tropper and Rav Eisenstein to save themselves from humiliation and public disgrace for having been Tropper's partners and enablers and kept to a conspiracy of silence since the years from EJF's founding until this letter was made public on THIS blog that they had not warned others about their failure to censure Guma and admit that the BADATS and Rav Shternbuch were correct all along at the very instant they knew that they had failed with Guma himself on such a grand scale.
Why did it have to take posts and discussions on this blog in the last two months for poster Roni/Tropper to make this anti-Bomzer letter public to a wider audience?
The reason must be that it was going to be a last line of defense for the time when they as EJF's official rabbis were going to be caught with their pants all the way down to the ground and caught red-handed for taking tens of millions of dollars from the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation that Guma Aguiar still controls and now having to come up with an "explanation" for their hypocrisy and plain poor judgment, so that this letter doing a character assassination job on Rabbi Bomzer is their best shot.
They should all resign from EJF for the fraud it perpetrated earning it the title of "Eternal Jewish FRAUD" and go hang their heads in shame for the cowardice and trickery they performed in hiding the truth about their own failure at EJF that was already clear with Guma and Jamie's going over to the Chabad rabbi and getting Bomzer's help for a conversion they later had to denounce. They must have been really panicky and desperate to go for such ahalf-measure for surely they know that this letter does not amount to bag of beans since whoever will still use Bomzer for conversions will not care what this letter says and whoever is against Bomzer doesn't need a letter signed by ten unknown out-of-town second-tier Haredi rabbis with very limited influence and small followings. So at the end of the day everything stays the same and Bomzer is not stopped but Tropper and EJF are still left with the reality that they botched up big time and failed with Guma and Jamie Aguiar making hundreds of rabbis look like idiots tekn for the EJF ride of their lives.
Now Guma and Jamie are in Israel and a whole new slew of problems with them are about to unfold if Guma's uncle Tom is to be believed, and still Rabbi Tropper refuses to take responsibilty for the failure to convert Jamie and let the rabbinic world know by denouncing the Guma Golem he created with his own efforts to try bring gentiles into Torah Judaism that just exploded in his face as Jamie Bomzer's convert told him to take a well-deserved hike, to which Rav Sheternbuch and the BADATS could righfully state: We warned you not to do it and now look what you have done. Clean up your "converting the gentiles proselytization act" ASAP or you will face more serious censure.
Jersey Girl,
ReplyDeleteIf what is said above is correct and R' Eisenstein and his B"D recognize and even support EJF and their conversions. Then any conversion they have done will be recognized in Israel, the EU, all Chareidim in Brooklyn, LA, and Baltimore. I am assuming by extension the OU and RCA.
Simply ask the Rosh Yeshiva at BMG if they accept any conversion done by R' Eisenstein's B"D, and they will answer yes. They are the ones who have been fighting Rabbinute and the Conversion Authority here to raise their standards. R' Sherman, the one who cancelled all of those thousands of conversions and essentially brought conversion in Israel to a stand still, was one of R' Eisenstein's guys.
So while you may disagree with EJF, as long as they have R' Eisenstein and thus by extension R' Eliashiv backing them, their conversions will be considered valid by just about everyone that matters.
There are many reasons why r' Tropper's converts will never be accepted by the rabbanut.
ReplyDeleteOne of them is that r' Tropper did huge disservice to his converts by taking r' Sherman side against r' Druckman and the Religious Zionists. The religious Zionists rabbis in the rabbanut are not going to approve conversions from someone who invalidate their conversions.
Whatever the internal wars in the rabbanut are, the religious Zionists rabbis there still hold a lot of power.
While it known that r' Tropper detests Modern Orthodox and religious Zionists he should not fight them on his converts expense.
However, as long as r' Eisenstein still holds from r' Tropper he will accept them but they will never be able to have their teudat zeut say 'Yehudi'