An open letter to Chabad/Lubavitch HQ

 I am sorry to report that we seem to have uncovered a deep fault in the Chabad/Lubavitch worldwide organization. Many of us grew up hearing amazing stories about the great work that Chabad centres do around the world. How they help Jewish travellers in India, provide communities for Jews who would otherwise have none, rescue and de-program misguided Jewish teenagers from cults, set up orphanages in Eastern Europe, etc… The stories are endless and, until now, have created a glowing picture of Chabad as truly being “Hashem’s Army.”

In our campaign to help the twin boys, Benji and Sammy Schlesinger be reunited with their mother, Beth Alexander, after a decade of obstruction by Rabbi Jacob Biderman of the Lauder Chabad Campus in Vienna, Austria, we learned a lot about how the Chabad shlichim (emissaries) work. When we see the massive conferences in New York where the shlichim come together from every corner of the planet, we are encouraged to think of Chabad as one large family under the authority of 770 NYC. Apparently, this is absolutely not the case.

We assumed that informing Chabad/Lubavitch HQ, and other Chabad Rabbis in different places, about how Biderman used his position to help erase their mother from the lives of two little boys who were obviously confused, depressed and suffering, would result in at least some interest from Biderman’s fellow Rabbis as to how he could do such an outright chillul Hashem. We are shocked by what ensued.

We are a group of more than 6000 supporters of Beth. Ordinary people from all walks of life, mostly Jewish but not all, and from all over the world. We only want two innocent Jewish boys to experience the love of their mother before it’s too late and they grow up thinking she doesn’t care about them. We don’t want revenge or money. We just want justice for two children who have no voice in the corrupt and hostile environment of the Lauder Chabad Campus.

We received a number of replies from Chabad Rabbis and/or their wives. We were informed that every Chabad centre is autonomous. Every Chabad Rabbi is responsible for raising his own funds among the community he “serves” and works however he sees fit. Who knew? Many of us learned something we didn’t know before. However, no Rabbi or Rebbetzen wanted to get involved. Not to make a phone call, ask some discrete questions, or interest themselves in any way in the plight of defenceless children.

And yet this was not the most shocking part. Not one reply was honest enough to admit that they don’t want to rock the boat and cross a powerful Rabbi in a rich Chabad community. After all, how many of them are as successful as Biderman in Vienna who has his own K-12 school campus? Instead, we got lectures in how we perhaps don’t know the whole story, there are two sides to every coin, etc...

Believe me, we know the whole story. And even if there was something we don’t know, what could possibly be so heinous as to bar a mother from attending her children’s birthday parties in school? Refusing her any information about their wellbeing or progress? What could Beth Alexander have done that allowed Rabbi Biderman to lie to the courts on behalf of her ex-husband? What sort of a monster would the mother have to be for a Rabbi to break one of the 10 Commandments? One look at the videos on the You Tube Chanel “Help Beth” would reassure anyone that the extreme measures Biderman took to separate the boys from their mother, was unfounded and downright cruel.

Now we know that Rabbi Jacob Biderman decided to follow the money because caring for the welfare of two children in his care above his own personal success, would not get him his school, would not pay his personal expenses, would not provide a house for his family to live in, and – most shockingly – would not necessarily gain him the respect and standing among the other shlichim who can only dream of the resources Biderman has at his disposal. But at what cost? According to Jacob Biderman, destroying the lives of one Jewish family is not a high price for the Jewish world to pay.

This is the problem with Chabad/Lubavitch. They hide behind the good name of the organization that is based on the righteous work of some of its members, whilst in reality, it’s every man for himself. And if one Rabbi threatens the good name that brings in the money worldwide, all they want is to hush it up.

But perhaps I am being too harsh. Many of us suspect that the reason they harp on about two sides to every story, etc… is that it absolves them from dealing with the uncomfortable thought that some Rabbis among them are corrupt. For some Rabbis, like Jacob Biderman, the money might be their top priority. That their beloved Chabad might be supporting “Rabbis” who are not worthy of the name, may be too hard to contemplate. Better to make excuses and not open that potential Pandora’s box.

Now we understand that Chabad is not Hashem’s Army at all. It is a loose collection of communities run by individuals with no accountability to the organization whose erstwhile good name they can exploit should they so wish. From now on it must be known that Chabad just means Jewish, and like, the whole of Am Yisrael, there are good and bad souls among them.

As such Chabad no longer means anything. Your Rebbe must be turning in his grave.

 

Rachel Selby

Jerusalem