EJF: Kiruv or Geirus?/ RaP

RaP:wrote:

EJF is now going all out in its alliances with Kiruv organizations as is evident from its scheduled events from November 2009 to May 2010, (as of Nov 10, 2009). The point to note is that almost all these events are being set up and run on a normal basis by the kiruv organizations themselves who do this constantly as part of their programming and scheduling of events to "reach out" to new students and educate them in Yiddishkeit as they try to mekarev them to full Torah observance. But this cannot explain or excuse EJF from sticking out like a sore thumb and a black sheep because EJF is NOT and has NEVER been a kiruv organization. It has always trumpeted its goal of helping couples get conversions for gentiles where one partner is hitched to a gentile and help the gentile partner become an EJF-style ultra charedi convert to Judaism under Rabbi Tropper's authority and supervision forevermore. In this regard EJF has always had a controversial proselytizing agenda by reaching out to GENTILES that is in a direct conflict of interest with pure kiruv where the agenda is to reach out to JEWS and make them more Torah observant. Obviously something has gone horribly wrong as EJF has managed to penetrate kiruv organizations and compromise them at a time when they need hard cash to keep going something that Tropper can provide through the good graces of Tom Kaplan but which creates more problems than it solves in the long run. Simply put: WHO LEADS THIS ENTIRE EFFORT, EJF WITH ITS UNABASHED PROSELYTIZING AGENDA OR THE OUTREACH ORGANIZATIONS WITH THEIR PURE KIRUV AGENDA?:

For November 2009:http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/events/
For December 2009:http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/events/2009/12/
For January 2010: http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/events/2010/01/
For February 2010:http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/events/2010/02/
For March 2010:http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/events/2010/03/
For April 2010:http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/events/2010/04/

Rav Reuven Feinstein: Haskama to EJF

Mekubal wrote:

A translation:

I have come to review the primacy and to boldly clarify endorsement according to my acquaintance all halackhot of the organization according to halacha as expounded according to Poskei HaDor ZפL and to be destinguished for a good life Poskim of our time Shlita. The organization Eternal Jewish Family which I support and stand as the head of the Vaעad Halacha composed of Talmidei Chachamim Yirat Shamayim, which their desirable intention and deeds. You managed Eternal Jewish family they are the minority of the minority which heed the instruction of the Gedolim of our time Shlita and correct what they need to correct and are prepared to listen to and to receive instruction of the Gedolei Yisrael Shlita.

The semminars for mixed couples they are conducted according to guidance and instruction and rulings of my master father teacher and Rav ZפL and according to the Poskei HaDor Shlita, Maran HaGaon R Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and HaGaon Rav Vozner and Maran HaGaon Rav Yitzchak Yosef.

You should continue to sanctify the name of heaven and to lift up the glory of heaven until the coming of our righteous redeemer.

What is very obviously present. That EJF has been in need of correction and that they have(to a certain degree) taken it.

What is very obviously missing, approbation for their outreach. He endorses how the seminars are run, he does not endorse how people are brought to be there.

More importantly someone should contact R' Reuven and determine two things:

1) That this letter actually originates from him. I have four reasons to doubt that it does:

A) The grammar demonstrated here in his writing is on a considerably lower level than that of the his voice recording. It is very rare for a person to be able to speak better than they can write.
B) Even on the EJF website the image degradation(as this is a fax0 is not consistent. That is typically one of the fingerprints of Photoshop(as someone who professionally works with Adobe products).
C) The language is odd, it goes from speaking to a person to speaking about an organization to speaking about a person with very jarring shifts.
D) We have seen forged letters from the above mentioned organization before.

2) If this letter is indeed authentic a clarification should be sought between his recorded message and this. He is quite obviously contradicting himself. Those contradictions need to be reconciled.

R' Tropper: Is the transcript of Rav Reuven false?

It is interesting to note the rapidity with which R' Tropper comments about the "inaccuracy" of material on my blog. He has longed claimed that my purpose in posting material concerning him and EJF is only because of my obsession to attack him - and it has nothing to do with the validity of the questions. Given R' Troppers view of me and his accusations that I lack integrity and perhaps the competence to understand the halachic literature, I am anxiously waiting for him to accuse me of fabricating this transcript and to charge that Rav Reuven never said those things and I am only posting it to try to embarrass him and Rav Reuven Feinstein,chas v'shalom.

In short I challenge R' Tropper to claim that this material is a lie. I would love to hear him say - that since he has been meeting with Rav Reuven at least once a week for a long time that he knows exactly the views of Rav Reuven and of course diligently follows the views of Rav Reuven - that it is inconceivable that Rav Reuven has said the words that I reported in the transcript.

Alternatively I would like to hear how R' Tropper justifies his actions - which he claims are done under the guidance of Rav Reuven Feinstein - which are appear blatantly at variance with the views reported here in the name of Rav Reuven.

In sum, either the transcript is false and is full of lies or R' Tropper needs to explain why he doesn't listen to the views of his halachic authority or he alternatively needs to explain how Rav Reuven fully agrees with his progam of conferences in California, Arizona and the Lavie Hotel despite saying he doesn't.

Sen. Lieberman:Likely Moslem terrorist act

Crisis in Israel -United States relations

Haaretz

Relations between Israel and the United States are in crisis. This is the conclusion that stems from the difficulty in arranging a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The White House wanted Netanyahu to sweat before being granted an audience with the president, and wanted everyone to see him perspire.

The delays in finding a time to meet, and pushing it to a late hour - after the news programs on Israeli television - make Netanyahu look as if Obama threw him a bone. In such circumstances, it is no longer important what will be said at the meeting, and the extent to which there will be an attempt to present it as an achievement. The prime minister of Israel was humiliated before all.[...]

Cellphone converted into medical microscope

NYTIMES

MICROSCOPES are invaluable tools to identify blood and other cells when screening for diseases like anemia, tuberculosis and malaria. But they are also bulky and expensive.

Now an engineer, using software that he developed and about $10 worth of off-the-shelf hardware, has adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes.

"We convert cellphones into devices that diagnose diseases," said Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, who created the devices. He has formed a company, Microskia, to commercialize the technology. [...]

Justice: Harvard Prof Sandel #6

Wife abuse at the Shabbos table

YNet

Charedim

ח קורמן, מי שעומד בראש ארגון חרדי המטפל באלימות במשפחה, טוען כי
במגזר החרדי יש נשים מוכות - לא פחות משאר המגזרים בארץ. הוא סבור ששולחן
השבת משמש כאמצעי השפלה בידי הבעל המתעלל, ומסכם: "היום הנשים החרדיות כבר לא לבד"

Proving you are a Jew

NYTIMES

One day last fall, a young Israeli woman named Sharon went with her fiancé to the Tel Aviv Rabbinate to register to marry. They are not religious, but there is no civil marriage in Israel. The rabbinate, a government bureaucracy, has a monopoly on tying the knot between Jews. The last thing Sharon expected to be told that morning was that she would have to prove — before a rabbinic court, no less — that she was Jewish. It made as much sense as someone doubting she was Sharon, telling her that the name written in her blue government-issue ID card was irrelevant, asking her to prove that she was she.

Sharon is a small woman in her late 30s with shoulder-length brown hair. For privacy’s sake, she prefers to be identified by only her first name. She grew up on a kibbutz when kids were still raised in communal children’s houses. She has two brothers who served in Israeli combat units. She loved the green and quiet of the kibbutz but was bored, and after her own military service she moved to the big city, which is the standard kibbutz story. Now she is a Tel Aviv professional with a master’s degree, a job with a major H.M.O. and a partner — when this story starts, a fiancé — who is “in computers.”

This stereotypical biography did not help her any more at the rabbinate than the line on her birth certificate listing her nationality as Jewish. Proving you are Jewish to Israel’s state rabbinate can be difficult, it turns out, especially if you came to Israel from the United States — or, as in Sharon’s case, if your mother did.[...]

Conversion confusion in Israel

YNET

Many converts wishing to get married face objections by chief city rabbis, religious councils who refuse to register them, claiming they 'do not observe mitzvot' [...]

R' Leib Tropper & Modern Orthodox/ R' Slifkin

This is not an endorsement of R' Slifkin's views. I am simply posting it as a summary of how this saga is playing out from a non-chareidi point of view. It is not as R' Tropper likes to say that I have a personal vendeta against him or his absurd claim that I have manipulated the Bedatz and Rav Sternbuch to attack him in order to defend R' Slifkin. There is a more fundamental question being addressed here, why is it necessary - in the pursuit of universally accepted conversions - to create major divisions amongst the segments of the Orthodox Jewish socieity?

R' Slifkin

One problem, which unites such disparate forces as the Badatz of Jerusalem and the Roshei Yeshivah of YU against EJF, is the charge that EJF encourages proselytization. This has been discussed at great length by R. Daniel Eidensohn on his blog Daas Torah. [...]

Irwin Katsof's campaign against gossip

Words Can Heal is a national campaign to eliminate verbal violence, curb gossip and promote the healing power of words to enhance relationships at every level. Words Can Heal has captured the imagination and commitment of an unprecedented coalition. Our board includes top governmental leadership, Wall Street’s most influential CEO’s, America’s leading clergy, Hollywood celebrities and community leaders of every stripe.

Life sentences for juveniles

Newsweek

Iraq doesn't do it. North Korea considers it a cruel form of punishment. But in the United States sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole is legal.

But on November 9, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up two cases involving juvenile offenders in Florida who claim their life sentences for rape and robbery violate the cruel-and-unusual-punishment clauses of the Constitution.

There are about 2,500 juveniles (ranging in age from 13 to 17) currently sentenced to life in prison in the United States. No other country in the world currently has adolescents serving this sentence, reports the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic. [...]

Rav Sternbuch:Loving kindness of Avrohom

EJF:Seminar to promote intermarried conversion

Ro Ta No

Eternal Jewish Family Holding Seminar for Intermarried Couples Seeking a Universally Accepted Conversion Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 08:26 am

The Eternal Jewish Family is presenting a seminar to educate intermarried couples who are seriously contemplating or seeking a universally accepted conversion. The theme of the seminar is "When a Family Commits to Join the Jewish Family." It will be held at the Marriott Baltimore Hunt Valley Inn in Baltimore, Maryland, December 29-30th, 2008.

It is critical that when the commitment to become a full-fledged member of the Jewish people is made, the conversion meets all of the requirements of halacha. Then the union will be recognized by all rabbinic authorities across the globe. Couples, their children and their children's children will have the confidence to rely on this Universally Accepted Conversion.

The two-day seminar is similar to the successful seminars for intermarried couples held in Oxnard California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Montreal, Canada. Similar seminars were also held in Israel. Those who wish to attend should be currently seeking a universally accepted conversion, or have sought conversion which has been problematic.

Couples must be referred by the rabbi that they are working with and in most cases the rabbi himself joins the couple at the seminar. The seminar will educate couples on what it means to embark on such a serious and life-changing journey. Couples must be in the early stages of seeking a universally accepted conversion to attend.

The halachic conversion is vital for a family to be fully integrated into the Jewish lifestyle and community. Couples who do not obtain a universally accepted conversion may have problems being accepted into Jewish communities. This includes being unable to register their children in Jewish day schools.

EJF has helped many Jewish couples learn what's required to obtain a universally accepted conversion. The decision is not taken lightly - not only does it involve a serious commitment - but it can take a few years to complete.

Speakers at the seminar sessions are given by some of the world's most sought-after educators and lecturers and includes prominent Orthodox thinkers and lecturers. There will also be people who have gone through the experience of obtaining a universally accepted conversion to Judaism who will share their experiences of how they have sought to live an authentic Jewish life.

Speakers include:

Rabbi Leib Tropper, Rosh Yeshiva Kol Yaakov/Horizons and Chairman of the EJF's Rabbinic Committee

Rabbi Mordechai Neugroschel - a leading lecturer for Arachim, an outreach organization that has set the bar for creative and innovative approaches to educating unaffiliated Jews

Rabbi Mayer Schiller, noted thinker and lecturer

Rabbi Doron Kornbluth, author of the best-selling Why Marry Jewish? Surprising Reasons for Jews to Marry Jews

Rabbi Daniel Assor, a former Protestant minister and leader of the Jews for Jesus movement.

The cost for couples approved for participation is only $99 per person ($198 per couple). Scholarships are available and babysitting services can be arranged upon request. Please inquire about an extra room for those that wish to comply with Jewish law that only those who are halachically married should stay in the same room.

To sign up, couples should contact the rabbi who has been working with them on a UAC or sign up online at http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/site/programs/seminar_application.

Maharal: Public derogatory speech is not lashon harah

Meiri:If not said in a concealed manner - it is not lashon harah

Meiri(Shabbos 33b): Even though lashon harah is the foundation of a number of sins and something which our sages spend much effort in severely attacking – there are two conditions in which lashon harah is permitted 1) This is mentioned in Erchin (15b) that derogatory words which are said in the presence of the one being talked about are not considered lashon harah. The gemora questions this and says that lashon harah said in the presence of the one being criticized is surely impudence and lashon harah? This is explained with a statement of R’ Yose that he never said any words about another person and looked around to make sure the person wasn't there. In other words if the person speaking does not refrain from saying the negative words before the one he is speaking about – there is a leniency and this is not considered lashon harah. For example if the speaker directly complains about the other person or calls him a thief and others such negative statements in his presence – the speaker is not considered speaking lashon harah. That is because he wants the person he is criticizing to hear what he is saying. 2) This is also mentioned in Erchin (16a) that whatever is said in the presence of three people is not considered lashon harah. That is because the speaker is saying the negative things with the full desire that his views reach the person he is speaking about. That is because all matters that are known to three people is not considered concealed or a secret. Therefore the speaker is not considered to be saying lashon harah.

Irwin Katsof forms new alliance

Just received the following statement from someone who identified himself to me but doesn't want his name revealed and he claims to know the true facts.

The facts of the [following] article were all wrong. Irwin has no connection to guma never had a conversation with him and does not even have him contact information. Iriwn is not a billionare and he does not know rabbi tropper. This is a typical example of someone reading the news and then spreading the rumors without actually caring about the facts. That is fine and accepted in todays world but on "daat torah" website???

RaP wrote:

In an important development, it was reported that Irwin Katsof the former top fundraiser and marketer of Aish HaTorah now reputedly a very wealthy man himself (some reports have stated he may be in the billionaire bracket) has now teamed up with Tom Kaplan's estranged nephew and foe of Rabbi Tropper, Guma Aguiar.

Irwin Katsof became a legend in his own lifetime by attracting incredible financial wealth and political recognition for Aish HaTorah and glorifying its now deceased leader Rav Noach Weinberg. He was so successful that he left to run his own business conglomerate The Doheny Group In a recent controversial news report, Katsof brought the Governor of Texas and an elite power elite from Texas to do business with Guma l

"Records obtained by CBS 11 show the governor's airfare and trip costs for he and his wife were paid for by Irwin Katsof, a financier for energy companies around the world. And the man who presented Perry with the Defender of Jerusalem award, Guma Aguiar, owns a company that made billions of dollars in the Texas natural gas industry. Aguiar also created the award given to Perry."

The alliance between Katsof and Guma spells more serious trouble for Rabbi Tropper. Katsof is world-class expert at manipulating politicians, creating events, generating wealth and burnishing images and he is just as committed to unlimited outreach to secular Jews as Guma is, and he has more wealth than Rabbi Tovia Singer.

Avodas HaMelech: Public knowledge & lashon harah

Justice: Harvard Prof Sandel #5

Testimony of dogs sends men to jail

NYTimes

A dog's sniff helped put Curvis Bickham in jail for eight months. Now that the case against him has been dropped, he wants to tell the world that the investigative technique that justified his arrest smells to high heaven.

The police told Mr. Bickham they had tied him to a triple homicide through a dog-scent lineup, in which dogs choose a suspect's smell out of a group. The dogs are exposed to the scent from items found at crime scene, and are then walked by a series of containers with samples swabbed from a suspect and from others not involved in the crime. If the dog finds a can with a matching scent, it signals — stiffening, barking or giving some other alert its handler recognizes.

Dogs' noses have long proved useful to track people, and the police rely on them to detect drugs and explosives, and to find the bodies of victims of crime and disaster. A 2004 report by the F.B.I. states that use of scent dogs, properly conducted, "has become a proven tool that can establish a connection to the crime."[...]

Ezagui case & Chabad

Home Page See Federal Indictment under documents

Ezagui Case from Pidyon Shevuim Trust on Vimeo.

Aish HaTorah:Does G-d care about intermarriage?

Aishe HaTorah

Belinda and I struggled with the idea: Does God care if we intermarry?

"What are we waiting for?" Belinda asked, buoyant yet somewhat confused as we sat facing each other. For weeks we had been talking about the prospect of getting married.

I held back. I was not supposed to marry a gentile, I thought. To do so would be a betrayal of my family, my ancestors, my tradition. Yet it would sound racist if I told her that.

Then I realized: It would sound racist to me as well.

I needed time to think, to read up on intermarriage, to figure things out. Belinda, who is Chinese, and I had been dating for a few months. Never before had things felt so "right," and yet there was an underlying sense that something was very "wrong."[...]

EJF, R' Tropper and Chabad

This post is a bit complicated. I don't have time to translate the Hebrew material or to organize it. Don't waste your time if you have not been following the discussions. I am not claiming the charges are true or taking sides.

First read the letters from these two links

• לקריאת המכתב המלא, בפרסום ראשון - לחץ כאן

• הרב התלונן: המיליארדר איים לחסל אותי

Then read the main article on Haredim site

Kiruv skills save Black marriages for $500,000

Mother Jones\ /Senator Lieberman's praise in Congressional Record

Stephen Baars has a few impediments to connecting with his current audience. Among them: He's a redheaded white guy. He's a rabbi. And he has a British accent.

None of these was a big problem when Baars was offering his "Bliss" marriage enhancement seminars to suburban Jews in Bethesda, Maryland. But in 2006, much to his surprise, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded him a five-year, $500,000-a-year "Healthy Marriage" grant. His federally mandated mission: to bring down the divorce rate in Washington, DC, whose population is more than 55 percent black and 20 percent poor. So for the past two years or so, Baars has been running ads in local papers and on black radio stations to entice couples to drop by his office in a gritty area just north of the Capitol and "create relationships that win!"

On a warm Thursday night in May, Baars, dressed in a gray suit and yarmulke, is sitting alone in his third-floor conference room, awaiting some bliss seekers. He understands that achieving his federal grant's goal is "a tough nut to crack." "When you're dealing with that degree of poverty, it's very hard for people to take this seriously," he says. "I read many black magazines," he adds—but even so, the cultural disconnect can be daunting. "Twenty or thirty percent of the people who come here can't deal with it."[...]

Rav Moshe:Sanctions against intemarried couples

Whether to given an aliyah to a bar mitzva boy whose father is not Jewish?

I was asked by a rav whether a boy who was born to a Jewish woman who is married to a non‑Jew is allowed to be called up to the Torah on his bar mitzva? I replied that even though it is obvious that the boy is a Jew in all respects – according to the majority of rishonim which established the halacha and consequently there is an obligation to teach him Torah and to educate him in doing mitzvos – but in fact if his mother is still living in sin with the non‑Jew and she isn’t concerned with the prohibition of the Torah and her son is being raised with them – then as for the sake of the Jewish community (migder milsa) he should be prevented from getting an aliyah on his bar mitzva and there should be no celebration in the synagogue. Similarly it is better not to accept him as a student in the day school for this reason of the welfare of the Jewish community.

Only when the mother leaves the non‑Jewish father do we need to be concerned for the Jewish nature of her children from the non‑Jew and be concerned with educating them properly. In such a case it would be proper to give him an aliya and to make a celebration on his bar mitzva.

However if there is concern that other children will be negatively influenced by accepting him into the day school - then it is prohibited to accept him also according to halacha [and not just because of migder milsa]

שו"ת אגרות משה אורח חיים חלק ב סימן עג

אם לקרא לתורה ביום הבר מצוה שלו לבן ישראלית מנכרי י"ח שבט תשט"ו.

נשאלתי מרב אחד אם יניחו לבן הנולד לישראלית הנשואה לנכרי לקראו לתורה ביום הבר מצוה שלו, והשבתי שאף שפשוט שיש להבן דין ישראל לכל דבר לרוב הראשונים שהלכה כמותם ויש ממילא חיוב ללמדו תורה ולחנכו במצות, אבל למעשה אם עדיין אמו ברשעתה עומדת ודרה עם הנכרי ומופקרת לכל האיסורין ומתחנך הבן אצלם יש למיגדר מלתא בכל האפשר שלא יקראו אותו לתורה ביום הבר מצוה שלו ולא יעשו איזה שמחה שם, וכן היה טוב שלא לקבלו ללמוד בהת"ת מאותו הטעם למיגדר מלתא, ורק כשתפרד האם מהנכרי יש ללמדו כדין ולקראו לתורה ולעשות שמחה ביום הבר מצוה שלו. ואם יש חשש שיתקלקלו ילדים אחרים עי"ז שיקבלוהו בהת"ת אסור גם מדינא. משה פיינשטיין.

R' Nochem Kaplan: Jewish education

Chabad Lubavitch News


Let me first say this: I believe that the quality of Jewish education today is better than it was a generation ago. But the demands of the times are much greater. Children must feel that education speaks to them, encourages them, interests them, and excites them so that distractions from the outside don't take priority. We're still falling short here. The world today is an exciting place. If you just log on to the internet, the distractions are enormous and pervasive, so you can't expect a child to go back to learning by rote—it has to be something far more involving than that.[...]

Tosfos: Public knowledge is not lashon harah

Chofetz Chaim (clall 2) goes into great detail to try and disprove the simple understanding of Bava Basra (39b)/Erachin (16a), Tosfos and the view of the Rambam. These sources seem to say that the essence of lashon harah is speaking gossip in a concealed manner - not just saying negative things about others. Thus if it is said in a way that it will become public knowledge then there is no prohibition of lashon harah. This is apparently closer to the peshat of Vayikra (19:16).

Erachin(16a): Disparaging remarks said in front of three people is not considered lashon harah. What is the reaon? Because your friend has a friend and your friend’s friend has a friend [and thus it is considered public knowledge].

Tosfos (Bava Basra 39b): Negative words about another person that are said n the presence of three people is not prohibited as lashon harah - either to say or to repeat it to others This is clarified by the statement said in Erachin (15b) There this statement is said in the context of R’ Yossi statement in which he said, “I have never said something and looked around to see who was listening.” That means he wasn’t concerned if the one he was talking about was there. [That proves that saying negative comments in the presence of three people is not considered lashon harah – Rashi].

Rambam(Hilchos De’os 7:5): Speaking lashon harah is prohibited whether the person being spoken about is present or not. Those words which will cause harm to another person - either physically or financially when repeated by others or even if it upset him or frightens him – is considered lashon harah. If these types of words are said in the presence of three people then it can be assumed that they have become public knowledge Therefore if one of the three repeats the negative words which he had heard on another occasion – there is no prohibition of lashon harah. However this is only permitted if he did not intend to spread the news and cause it to become more known.

EJF innovation - Women's mentoring symposium

Hat tip to RaP. His commentary is in comment section

November Dayanim Conference to Include Mentor Symposium

A WOMEN'S MENTOR symposium will take place November 8-9 in tandem with the annual Dayanim Conference at the Sheraton Meadowlands in NJ. By holding the mentor symposium concurrently with the dayanim conference, distinguished rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva will enhance the program by providing their perspective and responding to questions regarding the expectations of the batei din. The symposium will address the role of the mentor in guiding candidates, assisting them in meeting the requirements of their officiating bais din, and ultimately helping them integrate into a Torah community.

The participating women are either recommended by various batei din, were previously involved in kiruv, or aspire to be part of the EJF mission.

In addition to the formal lectures, the symposium is an opportunity for the mentors to share experiences and to learn from each other's diverse backgrounds. The EJF mentor symposiums have proven to be extremely informative, helping to create a network for people with a common goal: to work alongside the bais din in helping committed intermarried couples build a Torah home. Approximately thirty mentors are expected to attend. For more information please contact Rochel Weinstein: (845) 357-1022 x106 .
=====================================
The following appeared in the The Jewish Press October 30, 2009 Page 8.

Hamodia Community 10 Cheshvan 5770 | October 28, 2009 Page C29
Eternal Jewish family: The Lillian Jean Kaplan Jewish Pride Through Education Project Presents

A Symposium For Women Mentoring/Tutoring Conversion Candidates

An opportunity to network with other mentors from Around the world, and receive chizuk from gedolei hador. Topics to be addressed:

Developing Jewish Character and Its Role In Conversion
Open Question and Answer Forum
Challenged of Educating Intermarried Couples Sincerely Committed to Building Authentic Torah Homes
Q & A Panel Featuring Leading Dayanim from Around the World
Informal Mentor Networking Session
Perspective of Geirus Candidates and Mentors Divrei Chizuk

Sunday, November 8 - Monday, November 9, 2009 Sheraton Meadowlands, East Rutherford, NJ
EJFI sponsors travel expenses and hotel accommodations. Participation is based on approval only.
If you are an interested mentor or tutor, please contact us for an application.

Yemen: End of the Jewish community

Haaretz

About 60 Yemini Jews have been secretly flown in to the United States since July, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, adding that 100 more were scheduled to arrive in the coming months.

Earlier in the year Haaretz reported that the U.S. government was taking part in efforts to extricate Jews in Yemen as result of the physical harassment they had suffered from their Muslim neighbors.[...]

Re-endorsing Caterer who lost certification

1) LASHON HARAH ALERT

Assertions made by any poster - should not be assumed to be true until checked with authoritative rabbis. They are allowed only for the concerns that they raise - so that people can be alterted to investigate so as to avoid harm.

Acceptance of a post is not assurance that it is accurate or in proper context. Even notices said in the name of major rabbis need to be checked out to see that they were actually authorized by those rabbis.


Just received the following letter

Recently, the head of a kashrus supervision agency asked me for marei mekomos for not reendorsing a caterer who lost his kashrus license for deliberately violating policy and halocha.

Below is what I have come up with so far. I would like to find more contemporary applications especially involving hechsheirim. Please let me know if you have anything to add or if you know who might.

Ikar that a yid is more chomer than a goy and svora: SA 118 taz sk 2

Ikar that when caught must be removed and only takanah etc.
SA 119 15-17 vn"k shom

Ikar heter (shoel umeshiv) and that it is to be used with discretion Darkei Teshuva here, 117. Also see earlier DT leading up to that.

Of contemporary teshuvos that mashgiach can't possibly watch someone choshud 24/7 and doesn't help dayan Weiss- shu"t minchas yitzchok chelek 3 siman 95 (talking about shaala with goy but talks about yid....)

Thank you and AGSH

Naomi Remen: "Our stories are all we have"

Turkey is no longer Israel's ally

JPOST Daniel Pipes

"There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as he accuses Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government - for six decades the West's closest Muslim ally - since Erdogan's AK party came to power in 2002.

Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a long-time bastion of secularism and advocate of cooperation with Israel - abruptly asked Israeli forces not to participate in the annual "Anatolian Eagle" air force exercise. [...]

Abusive use of religious noise

JPOST

While recent rioting in and around Jerusalem's Old City has left religious tensions between the capital's Muslims and Jews simmering, a new dispute - this time concerning the volume of prayers, more than the prayers themselves - is resonating in outlying neighborhoods.

Jewish residents of these areas, all of which are in close proximity to Arab neighborhoods in the capital's east, have begun to complain that the adhan, or Islamic call to prayer, which is broadcast five times a day from loudspeakers inside local mosques, has become an intolerable nuisance, particularly when it blasts through their neighborhoods at 4 a.m. every day.

"It's as if they took the speakers and put them inside my bedroom," Yehudit Raz, a resident of the northeast Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "And it's not from one mosque or two mosques - we're talking about tons of speakers going off, one after the other, every morning." [...]

Fears of Modern Orthodox Geirim

An anonymous commentator wrote:

I converted with a MO beis din, well actually two MO dayanim (definitely MO NOT conservadox/traditional/or anything of that nature) and one yeshivish dayan, in a mid-sized, but long established, out of town community twenty years ago. Since that time I married, am raising kah several children, wear a sheitel, and am pretty indistinguishable from the rest of my "middle of the road" slightly to the right of MO community.

I admit that there have been times when I've cringed at some conversions (not by my beis din) which I've seen. That being said, though, I am shaking in my shoes over what is lying in wait for me when my children reach shidduchim.

It seems that geirus has turned into nothing less than a witch hunt in recent years. That long-standing conversions are now going to be under a microscope seems very wrong, and something that is likely to prove a great embarrassment and emotionally traumatic for many totally sincere converts. It frightens me that the chareidi world, which does not accept MO as an acceptable hashkafa, is going to determine MY status and that of my children as well.

Add this to the other items I've seen, such as an opinion that the geirus of somebody could possibly be invalid if a dayan does not believe the universe is less than 6,000 years old, a position which was taken by no less than Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan back at that time and by dozens of those now well known in kiruv, and everybody who was converted by MO must be in great fear now.

Emotionally, it takes its toll - I always felt accepted, warmly accepted, but now it is all too clear how many don't really, at heart, want us. It is so terribly terribly painful. I did my part - I've embraced halacha, I've embraced this people, I've sacrificed to pay tuition for the children, and I have done my best, but it feels like hands are grasping to take it all away. How can Hashem let this happen to us? How is it permissible to oppress many sincere geirim in the name of ferreting out a few doubtful conversions?

Bedatz: Pappenheim & Kraus - rejected

בחדרי חרדים | בחצרות קודש - 'תולדות': "פפנהיים וקרויס מתחזים"

EJF's aggressive new relationship with kiruv

5 Towns Jewish Times

For 100 Jewish youth from the former Soviet Union, many of them students, Shabbos Bereishis was an opportunity to plant deeper roots in their commitment to Judaism. The occasion was a Shabbaton sponsored by the Russian American Jewish Experience (RAJE) of Gateways and Horizons/Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) at the Stamford Hilton. From the inspirational song and dance at Kabbalas Shabbos led by Rabbi Avrumi Jordan to the moving havdalah by Rabbi Yisroel Cherns, it was an important Shabbos in the lives of the youth.

For RAJE, this was a key event in their ongoing programs for youngsters from the former Soviet Union. Every Sunday nearly 400 youth gather in Brooklyn for several hours of lectures and programming. The change in the youngsters, say the devoted mentors who are part of Gateways, "is nothing less than sensational." For Horizons/EJF this was the next chapter in an aggressive new partnership with kiruv organizations that in addition to Gateways includes Ohr Somayach, Arachim, Lev Le'achim, Hidabroot, and Nefesh Yehudi. Similar seminars have been held in cities throughout Israel, in Baden, Austria and Odessa, Ukraine. It is part of a program to assure that youth build strong Jewish ties, most importantly by marrying Jewish. [...]

RaP: EJF's conflict between kiruv & geirus

Jewish Press: An Emerging Gold Standard For Conversions (Jun 14 2006)

Editorial Board
Posted Jun 14 2006

As reported this week on page 3, Israel's Chief Rabbinate has begun to formalize - through an agreement it entered into with the Rabbinical Council of America - its historic effort to tighten the process of conversions in the U.S. and throughout the world. The Jewish Press has also learned that the chief rabbis - in addition to addressing the immediate issue of RCA conversions - are working with a new organization, the Eternal Jewish Family, to develop and implement what would amount to a Gold Standard for conversions. EJF, funded by the Lillian Kaplan Foundation, is in the midst of a series of conferences around the world with the participation of the chief rabbis and other leading halachic and Torah personalities in an effort to establish standards that will lead to universally accepted conversions...[...]

RaP: EJF as viewed in 2006

RaP: The Jewish Press from June 2006 [posted on this blog in 2007], a full year before this blog started really focusing on the EJF conundrum reveals and conforms a lot including all the "rationalizations" that Roni/Tropper kept on hammering over and over again.

In fact this could be called the standard EJF self-justification script when EJF was openly launched. Obviously at that time already Tropper knew he would have to answer for his new innovations and therefore he carefully laid out the whole script and battle plan. In hindsight, lots of it becomes self-contradictory with all the unknown variables that came flying there way: the Uproar over their excitable partner Rav Nochum Eisenstein's insulting the RCA and YU rabbis at the early EJF convention, the written declarations of Rav Shternbuch and the entire BADATS against EJF, and the final blow the disgraceful and ugly fall-out between Rabbi Tropper & Tom Kaplan with Guma Aguiar.

This makes for interesting reading even now and reveals a lot that is self-explanatory for anyone who has been following these events:

Billionaire claims police brutality

R' Ovadia Yosef: Report dangerous driver

Amnesty demonizes Israel with lies

Haaretz

The blitz continues: After the Human Rights Watch and Goldstone reports (which were only the two most prominent among many, including some homemade ones), Amnesty's rocket, "Troubled Waters," has landed. The gist: Israel is drying out the Palestinians.

Any libel involving discrimination against Palestinians immediately makes headlines and is repeatedly broadcast in Israel more than anywhere, usually without fact-checking and sometimes without even a request for a comment from the authorities. The news editor knows, for example, that there are around 300,000 settlers and not 450,000 (if only there were) - guzzling rogues that they are of the Palestinians' water (some may say the blood). The motive for the Israeli media's extensive coverage of lies that besmirch their country is not very different from the motive of the foreign organizations themselves: undermining Israel's moral standing in its own eyes and those of the world. [...]

JPOST

Israel is under fire yet again for supposed human rights contraventions. Hot on the heels of the Goldstone Report, which at the behest of the UN Human Rights Council charged Israel with war crimes against Gazan civilians in Operation Cast Lead, Amnesty International this week accuses Israel of depriving the Palestinians of the most basic and vital of all commodities - water.

Both reports assail Israel for supposedly robbing Palestinians of fundamental liberties and provisions. This simplistic premise underlies the approaches of the UNHRC, Amnesty and a whole host of similar organizations whose verdicts, as National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau noted, "are a foregone conclusion before any fact-finding effort is ever under way."[...]

Rav Sternbuch:Noach & Moshiach

Rema #7 Slandering for sake of peace

CNN questions Obama's attack on Fox

Baltimore Sun

Cancers can vanish without treatment

NYTIMES

Call it the arrow of cancer. Like the arrow of time, it was supposed to point in one direction. Cancers grew and worsened.

But as a paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association noted last week, data from more than two decades of screening for breast and prostate cancer call that view into question. Besides finding tumors that would be lethal if left untreated, screening appears to be finding many small tumors that would not be a problem if they were left alone, undiscovered by screening. They were destined to stop growing on their own or shrink, or even, at least in the case of some breast cancers, disappear.

“The old view is that cancer is a linear process,” said Dr. Barnett Kramer, associate director for disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health.

“A cell acquired a mutation, and little by little it acquired more and more mutations. Mutations are not supposed to revert spontaneously.”[...]

Abuse: Elior Chen extradited to Israel

JPOST

Elior Chen, the self-styled rabbi who allegedly influenced some of his followers to abuse their children in order to "correct their corrupt souls," was extradited to Israel overnight Tuesday.

Police are expected to request a remand extension on Wednesday morning.

The 29-year-old Beitar Ilit resident fled to Brazil more than a year ago after a terrifying affair of child abuse in a haredi family in Jerusalem was exposed. [...]

From Judaism to Islam & back again

JPOST

Sometimes embracing a faith is easier than living with the people who profess that faith.

This was a lesson well-learned by "X," a young woman who was born a Jew, converted to Islam but last week stood before a rabbinical court in Jerusalem and declared her fidelity to Judaism.

Once she had made the decision to embrace Islam, it was easy enough for X to make the shahada: "There is only one God and He is Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."

But it was altogether a different story when it came to living with Muslims. The cultural differences were impossible to bridge. [...]

Goldstone:A critique of self-apotheosis/Rosenberg

this was sent to me by a number of people /See Haaretz for additional analysis

EJF mixes kiruv & geirus - RaP