Who is Rabbi Avi Shafran? : An interview with Baruch Pelta

 On the Mainline

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

An interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran about Moses Mendelssohn, Torah im Derech Eretz, Da'as Torah, Science and Torah and the Slifkin affair.

Here's a guest post consisting of a very interesting interview with Rabbi Avi Shafran conducted by Baruch Pelta. Below is the interview transcript. I will post another post shortly which will give some of the background info regarding the Mendelssohn article published in the Jewish Observer nearly 25 years ago, which may or may not be known to readers (update: see this post for some of that background, as well as links to the relevant articles).

This interview was conducted in Rabbi Shafran’s office at Agudath Israel of America’s Rabbi Moshe Sherer Headquarters on August 28, 2009. Rabbi Avi Shafran is the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America. At the time of this interview, Baruch Pelta was an undergraduate student in Judaic Studies at Touro College. He is currently a graduate student in the same subject at Brandeis University. He blogs at Baruch's Thoughts.

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'NY Times' slammed for refusal to acknowledge Black anti-Semitic attacks in Crown Heights 20 years ago

JPost reporting on Jewish Week Article

A former New York Times religion reporter has written a blistering attack on the newspaper’s failure to attribute a riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, 20 years ago to anti-Semitism. The violence resulted in the murder of Australian Yankel Rosenbaum, a Lubavitch hassid, on August 19, 1991.

Ari L. Goldman, who covered the story for the Times in 1991, wrote in the current issue of New York Jewish Week: “Over those three days I also saw journalism go terribly wrong. The city’s newspapers, so dedicated to telling both sides of the story in the name of objectivity and balance, often missed what was really going on. Journalists initially framed the story as a ‘racial’ conflict and failed to see the anti-Semitism inherent in the riots.”

Philadelphia Mayor strongly criticizes black teenage violence

Flash mobs in American cities - organized by internet

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R' S. Z. Auerbach:Embarrassing others viewed as rodef/murder in halacha

UK violence raises questions about American unrest

AP

A black man killed by police. Mobs of looters. Cities charred and shaken. The riots in London mirror some of the worst uprisings in modern U.S. history.

And there are more parallels: Stubborn poverty and high unemployment, services slashed due to recessionary budget cuts, a breakdown of social values, social media that bring people together for good or bad at the speed of the Internet. And finally, there are a handful of actual attacks, isolated and hard to explain, by bands of youths in U.S. cities.

As Americans look across the Atlantic, a natural question arises: Could the flames and violence that erupted in Britain scar this country, too?

Police, elected officials, activists and regular citizens offer varied answers, reflecting the unsettled mix of race, class, lawlessness, and the chasm between haves and have-nots that may lie behind the unrest. [...]

Autistic spectrum kids & their love of trains

NYTimes

Like many children with autism spectrum disorders, Ravi is fascinated by trains and buses, entranced by their motion and predictability. And for years, these children crowded the exhibitions of the modest New York Transit Museum, chattering about schedules and engine components and old subway maps.

“This is really their element,” said Ravi’s mother, Juliana Boehm, who brings Ravi and Oliver, his 8-year-old brother, who is also on the autism spectrum, to the museum almost weekly. “If I suggested another activity,” she added, “it may have provoked anxiety.”

Now, the museum, and others like it, are moving beyond accommodating the enthusiasm for trains and buses among children with autism and trying to use it to teach them how to connect with other people — and the world. [...]

Rabbinic leadership lives in constant fear of being labeled too lenient

The Sifi (Devarim 17) says on Devarim (1:16) Don't be afraid of any man. Perhaps a judge will say I am afraid that the defendant will kill my son or burn down my barn...Therefore the Torah says not to be afraid of any man because judgment is for G-d.

This is cited by Chinuch #415, Rambam(Sanhedrin 22:1). Aruch HaShulchan (C.M 12) cites the Rema that today the practice is that if a ruling might cause danger to a judge he can withraw from the case even if has already poskened. But if there is no danger just verbal abuse he can not withdraw.

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I recently had a conversation with a rabbi who is a major talmid chachom and involved in the community i.e he fully knows  reality. He also has strong connection to many of the gedolim. He is widely respected and is viewed as an establishment figure. He never rocks the boat in public but follows the standard chareidi viewpoint.

Someone had just given him a copy of my book on child abuse.He had called me to express gratitude for my book to let me know  that he felt it was necessary and that it was well done.

We talked a while  about the issue of child abuse. I mentioned to him the Aguda position and the nasty editorial in Ami magazine. I said that I felt that their requirement that rabbis had to moderate going to police - even at the expense of the welfare of the children - has no justification in halacha. He agreed without any hesitation. He added that he did not think abuse was being handled properly by the rabbis.

I was surprised at his candor on the issue, so I asked the obvious question - so why aren't the rabbinic leaders following halacha. Why are they taking positions which are against the halacha? 

His answer was simply and blunt- they were afraid.  they were worried about being labeled a shaygetz - a liberal who is lenient regarding mesira - by other rabbis

Then he added - it is necessary for the rabbinic leadership to be pressured by the masses to do the right thing. They are not going to do it on their own and but they would welcome being pressured to do the right thing.

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Thus despite the denunciation of bloggers, advocates and the press - it seems there is some recognition not only of the good that they do but also the indispensable role they play in necessary change.

Prayer, & Bug Juice, at a Summer Camp for Jews of Color

  Be’chol Lashon's Goals

Vision: A Global Jewish People

Imagine a new global Judaism that transcends differences in geography, ethnicity, class, race, ritual practice, and beliefs. Discussions about “who-is-a-real-Jew” will be replaced with celebration of the rich, multi-dimensional character of the Jewish people.

Jews around the world face serious demographic challenges. Worldwide, the number of Jews is stagnant. Decimated by the Holocaust, Jews now comprise only 0.2% of the world's people. We believe the Jewish population, through pro-active efforts, could grow to 20 million by 2020, and 40 million by 2060.

We seek to overcome the significant organizational, cultural and ideological barriers to growth in the Jewish community. A more expansive Judaism is particularly engaging for younger and unaffiliated Jews who want Judaism to reflect the global community in which they live.

Mission
Be'chol Lashon (In Every Tongue) grows and strengthens the Jewish people through ethnic, cultural, and racial inclusiveness. We advocate for the diversity that has characterized the Jewish people throughout history, and through contemporary forces including intermarriage, conversion and adoption. We foster an expanding Jewish community that embraces its differences.

NYTimes

 Such is the mission of Camp Be’chol Lashon (“In Every Tongue”) here in the hills of Marin County about 35 miles north of San Francisco. For the past two years, it has provided the commonplaces of Jewish summer camp, right down to poison oak and bug juice, to an emerging population of Jews of color.

“If there’s Christians of all colors and all kinds, and Muslims of all colors and all kinds,” Amalia, 11, said over Shabbat lunch, “then why would Jewishness be any different?”

One of her fellow campers, Josh Rowen-Keran, 14, who was born to black and Korean parents and then adopted by an interracial couple in the Bay Area, sounded similarly nonchalant. “Being Jewish isn’t looking a certain way,” he said. “I could look at anyone and not know if they are or aren’t Jewish. You can’t know till you know the person.”

Yet what strikes these children as the same old same old, an American-Jewish community of multiple hues and heritages, has arrived as a seismic change. Religiously and historically, Judaism has generally placed little emphasis on evangelism and conversion.[...]        

How did child abuser Avraham Mondrowitz escape justice?

Tablet Magazine

Most people have never heard the story of Avrohom Mondrowitz, which has received only a smattering ^[1] of headlines ^[2] in the Jewish media. A charismatic and eloquent member of the Ger Hasidic sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews, the 63-year-old claimed to be both a rabbi and a Columbia-trained psychologist. Though he was neither, for years he ran a psychology practice out of his basement, as well as a school for troubled youth. He is also alleged to be one of the worst sexual predators in Brooklyn history.

In 1984, Mondrowitz was accused of sexually abusing four Italian boys. Since then, the number of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims has been estimated at close to a hundred—making him, shockingly, an average pedophile. But given the shame and secrecy surrounding sexual abuse, and his broad network of contacts, the number of alleged victims could actually be much higher. Moshe Rosenbaum, one of the activists who first aired concerns about Mondrowitz in the late 1980s, estimates the number to be 300. If Mondrowitz were to be convicted of so many crimes, he would be the worst sexual predator in the Orthodox community on record.

But that would require a case to be brought against him—which, for a variety of troubling reasons, has never happened.

This fall, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, will hear ^[3] oral arguments pertaining to the release of documents about Mondrowitz. Michael Lesher, an attorney representing several of Mondrowitz’s alleged victims, asked the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office for the documents under New York’s Freedom of Information Law in 2007. A trial court initially ruled in favor of Lesher’s clients, but that verdict was overturned unanimously last year on appeal.[...]

Judge sentenced to 28 years for jailing youths for kickbacks

Forbes

Former Luzerne County (Pennsylvania) Judge Mark Ciavarella has been spending his time doing odd jobs for a car towing service while he awaited sentencing since being found guilty on felony corruption charges.  Well his painting days are over and 61 year old judge is heading to federal prison for 28 years…a life sentence.

His sentencing brings to closure a dark time in the history of the city of Wilkes-Barre, PA, which is in Luzerne County.  He was found guilty back in February of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of for-profit prisons for juveniles.  Ciavarella who left the bench over two years ago after he and another judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of sentencing youngsters to prisons they had a hand in building.  Prosecutors alleged that Conahan, who pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing, and Ciavarella received kick-backs from the private company that built and maintained the new youth detention facility that replaced the older county-run center.[...]