AMI magazine recently devoted their cover story to the issue of Agnuna. Included was a gushing fluff interview with R. Jeremy Stern - the head of ORA.Views expressed directly or indirectly in the article were very supportive of ORA and the feminist agenda. There was not only no attempt to provide the full picture as to the halacha dealing with aguna and ORA conflicts with halacha - but ORA was presented in the best possible light. Rather surprising for a magazine which views itself as representing all Orthodox Jews.
I received the following from a well known dayan who requested that I post it. I could not find any evidence with a google search that this is a real organization - so I am assuming it is a spoof. The ideas however genuine
Ami magazine takes pride in publishing explosive and abrasive articles that contradict recent Mishpacha articles. When Mishpacha published an article about the Lev Tahor cult showing it for what it is, Ami countered with a front page article showing what type of sincere people this cult is.
ReplyDeletehttp://5tjt.com/cults-and-the-war-of-the-jewish-magazines/
A few weeks ago, Mishpacha had Dayan Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein, the head of the London Beis Din on their front cover. Dayan Lichtenstein has responsibly, and halachicly resolved many hundreds of long, drawn out, divorce cases. He also has a very clear negative opinion about Mendel Epstein, Aryeh Ralbag, vechaveiriheim and their thuggery. Ami magazine had to counter with their piece endorsing the ORA cult.
http://www.mishpacha.com/Browse/Article/4952/Stand-Up-and-Be-Counted
Both AMI and Mishapacha magazines have long been on the left-wing spectrum of the chareidi world. AMI even moreso than Mishpacha. Is there any link to the article or can someone make an image of it and upload it? Or at least a general summary of what AMI wrote? Did they even address the halachic aspects of these issues, even if they got it wrong?
ReplyDeleteAMI Magazine is now the propaganda mouthpiece for the anti-Torah, divorce on demand feminist ORA organization.
ReplyDeleteThe series of pro-ORA propaganda articles in the July 8, 2015 edition of AMI Magazine even included a photo of ORA adviser Hershel Schachter from YU wearing a black hat and conversing with Rav Elyashiv ZT"L, to convey a very deceptive impression that ORA somehow complies with normative Chareidi Jewish law.
Nowhere in AMI Magazine's propaganda articles were cited any traditional halachic authorities from past eras, that allow the ORA agenda of coerced divorce on demand, especially in the present situation when many wives are moredes operating in non-Jewish courts.
Jeremy Stern, ORA's demagogue propagandist, made a completely unsubstantiated claim that "batei din across the spectrum refer cases to us...in Brooklyn...in Lakewood...in Monsey".
Can Jeremy Stern name even one Chareidi Bais Din that is referring cases to ORA, or that gave ORA authorization to force even one GET? The Orthodox community should demand that ORA announce which non-YU Batei Din in Brooklyn, Lakewood, or Monsey have agreed to work with them. If ORA cannot do so then ORA should be exposed as liars.
Those who are concerned about preserving halachic divorce and preserving Jewish families should relay a respectful message to AMI Magazine's advertisers that AMI Magazine's advocacy for ORA is totally unacceptable.
One Lakewood rav has reported that a few Lakewood stores have removed AMI magazine from their shelves and will not sell it in the future. May this trend continue until AMI Magazine ceases all support for non-halachic divorce.
http://thepartialview.blogspot.co.il/2015/07/ami-magazine-reports-om-fight-for-agunos.html
ReplyDelete"Ami Magazine featured the fight for Agunos as its cover story. In the
editorial Rabbi Frankfuter writes he did so on instruction of the
Munkatch Rebbe from Boro Park. The Rebbe is known for his involvement in
Pidyon shvoyim.
"While the Judge in the Rabbi Mendel Epstein case has not issued a
sentence, the Rebbe felt that publicizing the fight for agunos will give
a better understanding of what was going on and hopefully have a good
effect.
"Ami interviewed controversial Rabbi Jeremy Stern from the ORA
organization, many on the right do not agree with its hashkafa and
tactics".
What did Mishpacha write Dayan Lichtenstein said about Epstein and Ralbag? Magazines tend to not directly write against specific individuals.
ReplyDeleteAll these 'heimishe' magazines and most newspapers live off their 'advertorials' / payola pieces. (That includes a surprisingly higg number of 'rebbe' and RY stories / and pictures.)
ReplyDeletePartial proof is that any respectable news story will present both sides of an issue.
The Mishpacha article did not provide a quote from Dayan Lichtenstein about Epstein and Ralbag. However, he has made his position clear in other venues.
ReplyDeleteAMI magazine is in the same ranks as MISHAPACHA magazine as being "for hire" operations. In past years we have noted that "Mishpacha-magazine-for-hire" was always keen, and still is, only slightly less in-your-face than they used to be of pushing every last story about how far-off amazons and jungle bunnies were keen on "converting" to Yiddishkeit with no concern what such controversies mean for the destruction of the Jewish People.
ReplyDeleteSo now it should not be any big surprise, that AMI magazine-for-hire, really just a split-off from the English Mishpacha after the AMI's cheif editor was tossed out of Mishpacha for some internal fights, and then decides to make his own fake "heimisha" magazine.
One just has to recall how AMI's editor was crowing how the BElzer Rebbe called him in to push the cause of Belz and how Rav Dovid Soloveitchik the BRiskre Rosh Yeshiva supposedly picked AMI and its editor to be his "spokesman" to save the Jews from the now-fallen rabidly secular Netanyahu-Lalpid-Bennet axis.
So no big surprises her and this could not have happened to "nicer people" who are just out to make $$$$ off gullible readers who are hungry for all sorts of junk-journalism.
But the actual REAL story is not that AMI now wants to give ORA some good PR, at a good price and for a good PR fee no doubt, the REALLY BIG story is the huge rise in DIVORCE and breakdown in Sholom Bayis that is happening at break-neck speed in the Frum world, and THAT is the "rich vein" that the AMI's cynical editor and his co-chief editor, his wife are mining for all its worth. And that is why they can not just get the attention, but get away with "hosting" anti-Halachic scoundrels. May as well write up stories about the fake Batei Din that were used by Rivky Weiss in their war on not just Yoel Weiss but on the entire Bais Din and Frum worlds.
Terrible things are going on, and there are many cynics wearing long beards and up-hats with Frum-sounding verbiage that are taking advantage of the modern Churban.
Just another thing to mourn during the Three Weeks and cry on on Tisha BeAv!
I understood that Frankfurter quit editing Mishpacha so that he could start his own magazine and make his own profit rather than working for someone else.
ReplyDeletemaybe no cover at all.?
ReplyDeleteNat asks: "Did I leave anything out?"
ReplyDeleteYes, a sheitel, and below that a lady's head, and after that a "goyisha kop"!
Really? That's not the impression I get when anyone talks about why he was let-go/left Mishpacha.
ReplyDelete"respectable news story"
ReplyDeleteIn the Charedi media? Gotta be joking, man!
Is he related to Howard Stern by the way? There was a story recently that Howard Stern's daughter has become Orthodox.
ReplyDelete"the REALLY BIG story is the huge rise in DIVORCE" The huge rise in divorce is not happening in a vacuum. It is being greatly facilitated by feminist organizations like ORA who enable women to impose forced divorce on demand on their husbands, in violation of halacha. The Chareidi Reformadox who operate AMI are now reaping financial profits by selling magazines that destroy Torah family law principles.
ReplyDeleteExposing ORA's feminist, anti-Torah, anti-male propaganda machine - In the recent conversation with Jeremy Stern of ORA published in AMI magazine:
ReplyDeleteJeremy Stern: "We're not representing the agunah".
ORA Website:
"Agunah Advocacy, ORA's dedicated caseworkers formulate and spearhead an individualized action plan for each agunah...".
"Join us in protesting get-refusal by participating in a rally against a recalcitrant husband....Jewish communities traditionally ban recalcitrant husbands"
(NO women are currently listed as recalcitrant wives on the ORA website, nor does it appear any recalcitrant women were EVER listed on that site.)
Jeremy Stern: "The type of cases we take on are when there's been a psak from beis din that a husband is either violating halacha by refusing to come to beis din or is chayav to give a get ..."
"Even while the Baltimore Beis Din said that Friedman had not committed any wrongdoing and that actions against him were wrong, ORA insisted upon demonstrating against Friedman and also against the Washington Beis Din for refusing to intervene against Friedman."
( Epstein-Friedman divorce:
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2014/05/epstein-friedman-divorce-actions-of.html )
Agreed! But the breakdown in Frum life is NOT because of "feminist organizations like ORA" -- in fact most places in the Chasidish, Yeshisvish, Charedi world, when infidelity, sexual acting out, sexual abuse, and breakdown of Sholom Bayis occurs, it is NOT because of "ORA" or "feminists" -- rather, their problem is endemic, bot as a pandemic and epidemic, in all Frum societies everywhere because they are not living in a social or cultural vacuum! EVERYONE is surrounded by the surrounding culture that comes crashing in through technology, Iphones, tablets, laptops etc AND everywhere else, on the streets, in stores, among people, all the time everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWe live today in a very sexually open and free world where there is no shame about ANYTHING sexually-connected anymore. Like like living surrounded mosquitoes, you are going to get bitten, because they will bit through the netting and get into your house under the door and cracks anywhere. There is no escape! Only survival!
And for Frum Jews that means survival by means of the Torah, the Shulchan Aruch, the Halacha, Mussar, Haskofa, the Tanach, the Talmud, and yes, for some the Tanya etc.
That is the crux and when there is breakdown in the Torah system, you can't say that it's because of "feminists" or "ORA" because they aren't in the Frum lifestyle equation. Rather, what has happened is that what the Torah, in all its senses, HAS NOT BEEN INTERNALIZED AND INTEGRATED TO BECOME PART OF THE FRUM SPIRITUAL/PERSONALITY/CHARACTER "IMMUNE SYSTEM" AND THUS THERE IS A BREAKDOWN, because Middos and Hashkofas are not at work and influencing the Frum Jews' characters and personalities and minds and morality.
Instead, people may "know" lots of Torah and even "do" lots of actual Mitzvos, Chumras and all, but their inner personalities and morals have not been touched and hence they become easy prey to sexual temptations that are as easy as reaching out to eat a bright red strawberry and munch on a juicy grape.
Again and again we see just how correct Rav Yisroel Salanter was in fighting for Mussar (ETHICAL) education, and how true he was when he said that "It is easier to learn the whole of Shas (the entire Talmud) that it is to break/improve one Midda (negative character trait)"! We seem to think that "reform or conservative Jews" worry about "ethics" and "manners" while as FRum people we are somehow Patur and can act like Behaimas and indulge all our Taivos (lusts) as if there were no consequences. ---> That is what is causing the breakdown and not "feminists". Oh yeah, one more thing, today people, both boys and girls are SPOILED ROTTEN and they have no clue just how hard and serious a job it is to STAY married. They think that after their parents spend hundreds of thousands on them for weddings, luxuries, even kollel, trips to Israel, or gorgeous apartments and expensive housing, that they are now "king and queens" whose every whim must be met or else, but when they found out that being married is all about having a few full time jobs, making your spouse truly happy, having kids and raising them, all hard slave labor, paying bills, and even having a job or making use of time productively these new kids are functionally illiterate and then they run to get divorced as if that is going to be a "solution" to their problems when it is only digging the pit deeper and they spin from bad to worse. And we are talking about Charedi kids in all places, not the secular college-educated people who have no clue even how to get married in the first place.
It is bad, and it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Pnai HaDor, K'Pnai HaKelev!
To claim that "The Breakdown In Frum Life Has NOTHING to do with 'Feminists" is to bury one's head in the frum sand. Most intelligent non-Jews know that feminism has greatly contributed to family breakdown, but Mr. RaP seems aware of that. The growth of feminist attitudes in the frum community, both among men and women, is 100% a reflection of a breakdown in hashkafos.
ReplyDeleteI believe major rabbinic authorities such as Rav Avigdor Miller ZT"L have stated that many or most of the divorces nowadays are unnecessary. The statements of these rabbis uproots your thesis Mr. RaP.
Spoiled brats, infidelity, and self-centeredness may definitely contribute to the breakdown of some marriages, but according to senior dayanim I've spoken to, most frum divorces involve the wife's claims of "maus ali" which is not a claim of infidelity or sexual abuse. Nor does halacha require Jewish husbands to divorce their wives in such cases as "maus ali" , but you would never know this from reading ORA's slick propaganda.
I believe that many marriages are being unnecessarily destroyed by feminist activists such as ORA who assist and encourage women to impose forced divorce on demand on their husbands in violation of halacha.
I went to a lecture last night, full room of men and women, where the speaker announced that "the wife is always right" and then turned to the women and said "right ladies?!" - as if he were Oprah.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of feminism in that foolishness and it causes all kinds of marital problems.
Is that true?
ReplyDelete"the wife is always right" - This is exactly the kind of militant, in your face feminism that prevails in many parts of the frum communities.
ReplyDeleteThese types of pandering feminist "rabbis" provide women a blank check to simply ignore Jewish law and ethics, while ruthlessly cracking down on the husbands, resulting in a multitude of unnecessary divorces and broken families.
But Mr. RaP, who's been drinking the feminist Kool-aid, would have us believe that the frum divorce plague has nothing to do with feminism.