Schlesinger Twins: An aspect of the debate between Rabbi Kennard and Rabbi Schochet

Guest Post:

There is currently a debate taking place from opposite sides of the globe between Rabbi Kennard ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kennard ), the Principal of Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne, Australia, and Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzchak_Schochet ), Rabbi of the Mill Hill Synagogue in London.

The discussion started when Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence announced his returning to London thereby leaving his post at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, the largest of its kind and one of the biggest shuls in Australia. Rabbi Kennard wrote a piece in the Australian Jewish News encouraging the decision-makers the Great Synagogue to consider non-Chabad Modern Orthodox Rabbis for this position.

Rabbi Schochet took it upon himself to respond to this article and wrote how Chabad Rabbis take on their community "akin to marriage": http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=28949

This prompted Rabbi Kennard to respond with his article titled "Chabad is not the only way" and noted the silence from every Chabad Rabbi around the world with regard to the "custody case in a European city where the Chabad director insists on remaining neutral in a conflict that pits good against evil" (The Schlesinger twins in Vienna).

Rabbi Schochet in turn responded with an accusation of misinterpreting the facts, which Rabbi Kennard denies and provides the sources. It is interesting to note that Rabbi Schochet omitted to refer to the aforementioned custody case.< The debate has reached a standstill in that Rabbi Schochet has refused to contribute to the AJN because he accuses them of bias ( http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=29128 ), yet I have tried to comment on the colive debate but have been moderated. Looking at the one-sided nature of the comments on both of those articles, it looks like many other people have been moderated on colive too.< I encourage Daas Torah to bring this discussion to the fore and for everyone to read both sides of this discussion at:

https://www.facebook.com/RabbiJamesKennard

http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=28949

http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=29128

I believe the Daas Torah blog to be totally unbiased in its moderation of comments and look forward to reading people's thoughts.

White House escalates attacks on judge in deportation case: ‘Egregious abuse of the bench’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5203530-white-house-trump-deportation-judge-attack/

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday stepped up attacks on a federal judge that ordered flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to be turned around, decrying him as a “Democrat activist” despite originally being nominated by a Republican president.

The judge is demanding information about several deportation flights that left U.S. soil Saturday and whether they violated his order. The Justice Department insists it complied because the flights had left U.S. territory by the time the judge’s written order was issued. It has since cited national security concerns as a reason to not be more forthcoming with details of what happened over the weekend.

Trump has called for Boasberg to be impeached over the ruling. While that is unlikely —impeaching a judge would require a majority in the House and 67 votes in the Senate — Trump’s attack still drew a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Trump administration ends "segregated facilities" ban in federal contracts - Bringing back the Good old days?!

 https://www.axios.com/2025/03/18/trump-end-segregated-facilities-ban-contracts

The Trump administration has announced the federal government will no longer unequivocally prohibit contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.

Trump-Putin call seen as victory in Russia

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjevg23enggo

Why are some in Russia claiming "victory" after this two-hour phone call?

Probably because, by the end of it, Vladimir Putin hadn't been pressured into making any major concessions to Ukraine or to the United States. On the contrary, he had - in effect - rejected President Trump's idea of an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Instead of pressuring Moscow with the threat of even tougher sanctions and penalties, to get Russia to sign up to its plan, the US administration reacted by praising the Kremlin leader.

Not only did Moscow not agree to an unconditional ceasefire, President Putin set his own pre-conditions for peace.

They include an end to Western military aid to Kyiv and intelligence sharing with the Ukrainians, as well as a halt to mobilisation in Ukraine. Such conditions are widely viewed as a way of securing Ukraine's capitulation.

It's hard to see Kyiv agreeing to any of that.

Stranded NASA Astronauts Return: Celebrities Speak Out

 https://www.newsweek.com/celebrities-speak-out-stranded-nasa-astronauts-2046978

Wilmore and Williams' journey to the International Space Station (ISS) began on June 5 when they boarded Boeing's Starliner crew capsule. They were expected to spend about a week in space, however, after their vessel encountered technical issues, the Starliner was sent back to Earth without them and their return home was delayed. They were then reassigned to SpaceX—the astronautics company founded by Elon Musk.

Since then, their return has continually been pushed back, and it's become a topic of political discussion, with President Donald Trump blaming former President Joe Biden for their nine-month stay. That claim, however, wasn't true since Wilmore and Williams were already scheduled to return on a SpaceX flight before Trump pushed for Musk to get them.

Cuts 'absolutely going to crater' Social Security, says former commissioner

Justice Roberts rebukes Trump Due Process - Who needs it?

Measles Is Harmful, Contrary to Flimsy Social Media Claims of Long-Term Benefits

 https://www.factcheck.org/2025/03/measles-is-harmful-contrary-to-flimsy-social-media-claims-of-long-term-benefits/

Measles is an extremely contagious vaccine-preventable disease that can lead to death or disability. It also wipes out immune memory for several years after an infection. As an outbreak in Texas continues to expand, social media posts have claimed without sufficient support that measles infections are beneficial later in life against cancer and other diseases, an idea health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has echoed

The Facts Behind the Delayed Return of U.S. Astronauts - More Lies

 https://www.factcheck.org/2025/03/the-facts-behind-the-delayed-return-of-u-s-astronauts/

The return of astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore after an extended stay on the International Space Station has been the subject of competing claims about the actions of the Trump and Biden administrations in bringing them home.

White House adviser Elon Musk, whose SpaceX company aided the astronauts’ return, said he had offered last year to bring the two astronauts home much sooner but the Biden administration declined for “political reasons.” NASA and space experts, including the two astronauts themselves, dispute that the decision was based on politics.

Several leaders at NASA said they were unaware of Musk’s offer to bring the astronauts home sooner.

NASA officials said Trump’s involvement did not expedite the mission that would bring the astronauts home.

Inside Trump's Supreme plot on immigration

 https://www.axios.com/2025/03/19/trump-plot-supreme-court-immigration

The DOJ official summarized the Trump administration's legal attack plan this way:

"We really do want to push the court — ultimately the Supreme Court — to take a stand. ... We're trying to get clarity. And we're not putting all eggs in one basket. It's why we're seeing all efforts to remove people."

And, the official said, "We have other plans."

One of those other plans could be a doozy: stripping U.S. citizenship from naturalized Americans.

Civil libertarians are horrified by what they see as a large-scale assault on free speech and due process by an administration that's bent on granting authoritarian-like powers to Trump.

Impeaching judges who disagree with Trump

President Trump’s Poker Face Is Bluffing His Own Base

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-trumps-poker-face-is-bluffing-his-own-base/

This sudden change of heart makes me think of an old poker adage: “If you’ve been at the table for 10 minutes and you don’t know who the sucker is, you’re the sucker.”

But Trump’s approval numbers are still in the high forties. I’m by no means the first to point out that he has a unique ability to remain popular with a steady chunk of this country; even at his lowest approval rating—mere days after fomenting a violent attack on the Capitol, if you can remember that far back—34 percent of the US still “approved” of him. A third of the country! Even jovial, now-amateur-portraitist George W. Bush got down to the low twenties, and he was the guy everyone wanted to have a beer with.

While one in three Americans proudly goes around repeating that slogan and wearing the merch, Trump is buying a $114,000 electric car from his billionaire bestie and telling us all to “shut up” about the price of eggs. Musk might have lost as much as $100 billion recently, but he’s still the richest person in the world by almost that much again. And what does Trump get, besides a car that in his mind only goes 15 miles? Another “donation” of $100 million.

I know we’re not supposed to condescend to the MAGA faithful. Or suggest in any way that the people who helped elect him aren’t smart. They are not stupid. They are not racist. They are not deplorable.

You know what they are, though? The suckers at the table.

A fateful moment looms as Trump’s team seeks to bypass the judiciary

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/18/politics/trump-deportations-judge-executive-power/index.html

Trump has long advanced the belief that the presidency confers ultimate power, even though this conflicts with the principles of a nation built on revulsion of rule by an absolute monarch. “I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president,” he said in July 2019, during his first term. Article II of the Constitution lays out the duties of the presidency – but it does not confer unfettered executive authority.

People don’t normally reach the heights of the West Wing without understanding the basics of history and American jurisprudence. So the comments by Miller and Homan seem to hint at a second-term corps of officials keen to fulfill Trump’s dreams of kingly might.

“Where it gets scary and this is what was so frightening about the interview is when he starts saying ‘I don’t care what the courts say – we have the right to do it anyway’ and he wouldn’t even commit to following even a Supreme Court order’ – that’s why we are so obviously in a constitutional crisis,” Brettschneider said

The End of the South Florida Dream

 https://www.newsweek.com/end-south-florida-dream-2039443

Buying a place on the South Florida coast has been a dream for millions of American retirees over the past decades and a main driver of in-migration to the state.

But now, a combination of factors—including a slowdown of the Florida housing market, rising HOA fees and higher property insurance premiums—is turning this dream into a nightmare for many Sunshine State homeowners.

Many are being forced to sell their homes and relocate, whether within or outside the state, while local lawmakers warn against a rise in homelessness among seniors in South Florida.