Rav Sternbuch - Change - Yes, you can

R' Tropper - is he good for the Jews?

While we have had some discussions about the validity of R' Tropper's approach, we have not really focused on the consequences.

R' Tropper is using geirus as a tool in kiruv. When he finds that a baal teshuva is stuck because he is married to a non-Jew he switches hats and works to have the non-Jew become a Jew. Thus he reasons it is a win win situation. The Jew becomes fully observant and his wife becomes Jewish. Their children now will add to the Jewish population instead of destroying it. The only down side, he reasons, is that the age old practice of not proselytizing needs to be bent a bit. Any problems with this he reasons are made up for by requiring the convert to adopt an Orthodox life style. Seem like a nice neat package. Why should anyone be upset with it.

Let us list the reasons.

1) He has removed the age old stigma to intermarriage. There is absolutely no consequences of intermarriage. If you ever want to legitimate it he is standing there with open arms. Of course since not all Jews want to be Orthodox - therefore he contributes to the intermarriage rate by allowing everyone to chose a non-Jewish partner without the slightest guilt or consequence. Consequences unknown. But we can reasonably assume that more Jews will intermarry with R' Tropper looking the other way - then will return to Judaism with a converted bride.

2) Let's assume that not everyone that R' Tropper converts will stay frum. Because he has such high standards and is makpid on kabbalos mitzvos - all of his converts will definitely become Jews. However the statistics from the past tell us that at least half will back slide. They will then become irreligious Jews. If he wasn't so meticulous then when the convert goes back they were never Jewish in the first place. If he wasn't so meticulous then the back sliding converts will be genuine non-Jews.

3) The consequences of having converts who are genuine Jews and were married in a genuine marriage - but who give up observance is very simple - mamzerim. Rav Moshe solved the mamzerus problem from the Reform and Conservative by saying their marriages were non valid. Similarly their converts are not valid. Not so R'Tropper's converts. However everyone of R' Tropper's converts is a potential producer of mamzerim.

4) An additional consequences in back sliding will be on the communities and families.

This is similar to the statement about Sedom. They had horrible laws - which weren't enforced until an honest judge Lot came along. It is specifically because he is makpid on keeping the laws that he is causing problems.

In sum. For R' Tropper to come along and introduce a change in the dynamic of the Jewish community he needs to show that what he is doing is beneficial. It is not enough to say that when he converts people they were frum. Rav Chaim Ozer had such a view and then 20 years later radically altered it to say that a decent beis din should not do conversions. Similarly Rav Moshe Feinstein knew all the hetirim but personally had nothing to do with geirus. What are the two, five and ten years statistics on Rabbi Troppers' converts. What is their impact on marriage and children?

Update on EJF and Aguiar - RaP

THE 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. [remainder of post as comment on this post here ]

Abuse - Parents didn't report uncle

Nana reports: YNET

אתמול האריך בית משפט השלום בירושלים את מעצרו של הדוד, תושב מאה שערים, החשוד כי ביצע מעשים מגונים ומעשי סדום באחייניו. היום הוארך גם מעצרם של ההורים, החשודים כי לא דיווחו על ההתעללות שנמשכה שש שנים. האב סיפר בחקירתו: "התייעצתי עם רב, והוא אמר לי לא להסגיר את אחי

Save the Jews of Yemen

[DT: I would like to see some official haskomas regarding this organization]

Jersey Girl wrote:

There 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! [...]

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

Guma Aguiar - $500,000 to March of Living

Cloud Computing Journal

JERUSALEM, February 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The International March of the Living today announced one of the largest private donations in the organization's 21-year history, a $500,000 gift from Guma and Jamie Aguiar. The 2009 March of the Living at Auschwitz, the largest of Nazi Germany's concentration camps, will be held on April 21st, marking the 70th year since the Third Reich launched the Second World War.

Only one week earlier, Mr. Aguiar stirred international headlines through an historic $8 million donation to the aliyah (immigration to Israel) organization, Nefesh B'Nefesh, instantly establishing him as one of the Jewish World's leading philanthropists. [...[

Aguiar, founder of Leor Energy in 2003, was lauded worldwide for his stunning success in identifying one of the largest North American natural gas deposits discovered in decades. "Mr. Aguiar has a prophetic sense of vision and purpose, demonstrated precisely at a time when philanthropy is facing serious challenges," said Dr. David Machlis, Vice Chair of the International MO

Lashon harah?

Reuven sent you a message.

"Hello, as a Rav and a mechaber of seforim, I don't understand how you can run a "blog" that becomes a forum for all types of lashon hara?"

Rabbi Bomzer defended

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.

Guma Aguiar - RaP's commentary

Recipients and Publicity comment to post "Guma Aguiar of EJF - raised as Christian":

Guma Aguiar of EJF & Nefesh BeNefesh controversy: False messiah or hero?

Clashing media depictions from America and Israel about Guma Aguiar's philanthropy and his agenda

First off, thank you for the good wishes from poster Roni/Tropper and his willingness to debate and be frank about many issues relating the still unfolding EJF-Guma Aguiar saga and his wife Jamie with the doubtful conversion from Rabbi Bomzer and the Chabad rabbi. We have all learned a lot and benefited from Roni's/Tropper's seemingly obvious first-hand knowledge about the Guma-EJF-Jamie-Tropper situation.

But it is now time to move on, not be mired and sit with the old slogans and accusations and the old points that have been repeated a hundred times by now. We need to take stock and move on because from the very bosom and heart of EJF, its still official Co-Chairman, has arisen one named Guma Aguiar who until a few days ago was only an elusive mysterious name and person in the background of the EJF story and controversy, but who now, with his "Aliyah" to Israel and having given a huge donation of a few million dollars to the Nefesh BeNefesh organization (that has support from Christian Evangelicals in America), hyped by the ultra-Zionistic Arutz Sheva media outlet, 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 having declared an agenda of "starting" with bringing 100,000 new "olim" of all stripes to Israel, all this must be noted and analysed. [...]

[Rest of post is in comments section "Guma Aguiar of EJF - raised as Christian":]

UNRWA admits IDF didn't hit school

Arutz 7 reports:

During the Cast Lead operation in Gaza, IDF tank fire near a United Nations school in Gaza was blamed for the deaths of dozens of civilians who had taken refuge in the building. The incident became one of the most highly publicized attacks in the war, and led to heavy international criticism. However, recent reports suggest that the incident was not accurately portrayed by senior U.N. Officials.

John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, spoke to the Toronto Globe and Mail last week and agreed that no shell had actually struck the school building. Ging said he had never claimed that the school itself was hit, and he blamed Israel for confusion over where the strike took place.

Shortly after the alleged attack, Ging harshly criticized Israel for firing near the school, saying he had given the exact coordinates of the compound to the IDF and suggesting they had failed to avoid hitting the building. While admitting that Israeli fire had not hit the school compound, Ging insisted it made little difference. “Forty-one innocent people were killed in the street... The State of Israel still has to answer for that,” he said. [...]

Rav Sternbuch - Next step

Guma Aguiar of EJF - raised as Christian

RaP forwarded

Arutz 7: Amongst the famous names in Israel rubbing elbows at a cocktail reception launching the 6th annual Jerusalem Conference on January 26, Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher spoke with oil magnate and philanthropist Guma Aguiar, the chairman of this year's conference, about using his personal gain in order to transform the Jewish dream into a reality, and using discoveries which changed his life and the lives of thousands of Jews throughout Israel.

Email readers, click here to watch video interview with Guma Aguiar

"The dream that our parents, grandparents, and great-great grandparents had…it begins with a profound trust in G-d and is accomplished by gathering the Jewish people from the Diaspora to their homeland," Aguiar told Fleisher, in a joint interview broadcast on Israel National News TV and Israel National Radio. "Unless we have the dream of having a Temple that we would be able to serve our G-d with all of the [commandments], then ultimately, what are we doing here in Israel? That's the reason why my family came to the Holy Land. That's the reason why all our forefathers longed set foot in Israel. Based on my studying of our Hebrew scriptures, it is clear to me that our focus must be focused on sacred matters here in Israel. This inspiring endeavor will strengthen the Jewish state and, please G-d, hasten the redemption."

Aguiar has come a long way toward these understandings. Despite having been born Jewish, Aguiar was raised as an Evangelical Christian, encouraged to participate in Christian youth groups and church events throughout his young life. At the age of 26, Aguiar moved to Houston, Texas with the determination to find oil beneath the soil. Seeking out a Christian congregation to join, he encountered Rabbi Tovia Singer who has devoted his life to helping Jews in the church return back to the truth and beauty of the Jewish faith. Rabbi Singer is the founder of Outreach Judaism and pop ular talk show host on Israel National Radio.[...]

Bialik & Sefardim

YNET wrote:

Long-held notion that national poet hated eastern Jews stems from statements wrongly attributed to him, say researchers

"The national poet of Ashkenazim only," "A well-known Sephardim hater," and "a famous racist" are only some of the sentiments – often expressed in talkbacks as well – aroused by the name Chaim Nachman Bialik. The national poet himself has been dead since 1934, so he is not here to defend himself. However, the notion stems from a statement attributed to Bialik: "I only hate the Arabs because they resemble the Sephardim." But it turns out that Bialik never said those words, but rather editor and translator Aryeh Leib Smiatzky.

Smiatzky included the statement in his book "Bialik on Atar" as a joke, and some researchers later claimed that literary circles hostile to Bialik attributed the words to him in a bid to besmirch him. Notably, none of Bialik works includes any mention of hatred or patronizing towards Sephardic Jews. [...]

Guma Aguiar - philanthropic activity

Chabad Lubavitch global network

Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc announced today that Guma L. Aguiar co-founder of Leor Energy, an oil exploration and production company based in East Texas, contributed an additional half million dollars to Chabad Lubavitch of Fort Lauderdale. The center will be renamed “The Guma Aguiar Family Campus.

Guma has a heart of gold,” said Rabbi Lipszyc.In recent years, he's funded much of Chabad of Ft. Lauderdale's dynamic growth. "He's now agreed to make his most recent contribution public because he wants to show the world that this is how Chabad responds to the oppressive darkness of terrorism, by taking action and growing.”Aguiar, 31, told Lubavitch.com that, like the rest of the world, he was stunned by the news of the terror attacks in India. Groping for answers, Aguiar considered Chabad’s place in the world. [...]

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Haaretz reports

An American businessman and philanthropist has recently donated $8 million to Nefesh B'Nefesh, the organization announced on Sunday. Guma L. Aguiar, who joined the Nefesh B'Nefesh board this June, made the gift to support the organization's work in helping Western Jews immigrate to Israel and integrate into Israeli society.

The money, which was donated in several installments during the second half of 2008, is "being used to help meet the needs of thousands of recent newcomers," Nefesh B'Nefesh explained in a statement.