Kiruv VII - Aish HaTorah - what makes it tick?

Recipients and Publicity commented on "Kiruv VI - an embarrassingly shoddy attack on Aish...":

AISH HATORAH AND CONTROVERSY ARE NOT NEW TO EACH OTHER!

While Aish HaTorah is arguably the most successful young adult kiruv program in the world (not inclusive of Chabad, or of NCSY with is for teens), starting from a handful of students in the mid-1970s its empire has been built up by its founder, guide and rosh yeshiva, Rav Noach Weinberg, from a dream he had and a handful of students to a worldwide multi-multi-million empire that has recruited billionaires, and the likes of Hollywood directors and moguls like Steven Spielberg and has spawned programs that have promoted the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Bibi Netanyahu and Micheil Gorbachev and many others.

It is well known that in the USA, Rav Elya Svei, the rosh yeshiva of the Philadelphia yeshiva, had often levelled public criticism's of them and that it was part of a rivalry of Hashkofas between the very yeshivish Rav Elya Svei and Rav Noach's brother and Aish's mentor the more eclectic Rav Yaakov Weinberg, late rosh yeshiva of Ner Israel in Baltimore MD.

The Haredi world in America is never sure what to make of Aish HaTorah and how to react to them.

Essentially Aish stays clear of all major yeshivas and their leadership in America.

They have there own internal leadership system with the most successful Aish rabbis (meaning those who have raised the most millions or better yet, tens of millions each for Aish) and they answer to no one but Rav Noach Weinberg and a few carefully chosen close assistants that act like a "ruling council" based mostly in Aish Jerusalem. All Aish rabbis have their own internal conference in Jerusalem at least once a year and they all the skills and tools of the modern technological and business age.

The Aish HaTorah phenomenon ties in with the second phase of the age of kiruv in the world. The first Golden Phase of Kiruv from the early 1950s to the 1980s was an idealistic age with Baalei Teshuva returning for idealistic reasons and few old-time Aish rabbis come from that time, but they are a tiny minority.

Most Aish rabbis were hand-picked and groomed from the 1980s onwards, they are Yuppies - with a "Y" - (short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuppie Generations X-ers (a term used to describe generations in many countries around the world born from 1965 to around 1982) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X who are "operators" and businessmen with the attitudes of investment bankers and hedge fund speculators, products of the rise of the age of the "Masters of the Universe" types, as described in the Tom Wolf novel "The Bonfire of the Vanities" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonfire_of_the_Vanities when Wall Street greed and materialism were the order of the day and the age of the Hippies (with an "H") was finally buried.

Aish HaTorah understands the age of materialism and the shallowness that is the outcome of the comfortable lifestyle and it has adjusted its calling card and signal to that frequency and thereby gets its audience's attention, but at the same time, many of its cadre of activist rabbis also come from this same milieu and while that may make them superb kiruv professionals, but to some looking in from the outside they can come across and are seen for the shallow, power hungry, manipulative and GREEDY lot that they often are.

So that rather than knocking the writer of this article and saying "well there go the secular again" try to stop a minute, take what it says with a grain of salt and not get so self-righteously upset that only looks like a smokescreen for honest debate and analysis, and tune in to the inner core of what is being said and it is not a flattering picture because the truth in this case is not flattering.

Now of course making people frum is a great thing and it is what kiruv is ultimately all about, but it is known among all reliable kiruv circles that Aish HaTorah plays loose with lots and lots of things to achieve its own goals and it is well-known in the kiruv world that Aish will facilitate with shady conversions if they have to, and it cannot be otherwise because they are so connected to the intermarried young generation X-ers and many of them are just not Halachic Jews. Like for Chabad, and for Rabbi Leib Tropper and his EJF, it's tough for Aish because so much BIG money, prestige, power and jobs are at stake!

So it's a tough call for them and for the frum world that is expecting positive fruits from all this kiruv activity and hallabaloo, but to resort to knee-jerk defenses of Aish on this blog is not required because Aish has it's own websites and propaganda machines that are supported by tens of millions of dollars that are meant to go to kiruv and "outreach" so let's see how they react it and not shed crocodile tears for them.

There is much more to be said about Aish and how it has both helped and corrupted the world of kiruv. They want to have their cake and eat it so that sometimes that can lead to indigestion and vomit.

To be continued...

Kiruv VI - an embarrassingly shoddy attack on Aish HaTorah from Jerusalem Post

Jerusalem Post just published a very egregious example of a poorly done expose. It deals with the supposed "brain washing" dished out by Aish HaTorah and accuses it of intellectual dishonesty and failure to make any lasting impact of the lives of participants. The basic theme is that "I was strong enough in my lust for sex and secular values so that I was able to survive unchanged by their best efforts to break me."
The author also asserts from her personal experience that Orthodoxy is tiresome and an unrealistic lifestyle for normal people. I was shocked that a supposed newspaper reporter would naively generalize her feelings to the rest of mankind - in the name of objective reporting. She can perhaps be excused since she is only an intern - but what happened to the professional judgment of the editor who approved this hatchet job? If she is reading this, she is invited to visit some Orthodox Jews - who still have managed to retain not only their intellectual faculties but also their enjoyment and excitement of Judaism after many years of living in the real world.
I am only mentioning this article because it is an example of the secular/non-Orthodox propaganda which labels presenting alternatives to the secular world as brain-washing or producing cults. It is also a reminder that while the issue of how to deal with intermarriage in kiruv is problematic - it does not detract from the tremendous work that these organizations are doing and the dedication and talent their workers manifest.

You've been Aish'd...

by Danielle Kubes , an intern at The Jerusalem Post before returning for her final year in humanities and philosophy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

With a brand-new, floor-length skirt swishing against the linoleum tiles, I walked into school the first day of 11th grade to confused stares. Where had the graphic, midriff-baring T-shirts and sweatpants gone?

Three weeks of my summer vacation had been spent traveling the West Coast of the United States with an Orthodox outreach youth group. Alongside Grand Canyon hikes, I had been immersed in Halacha (Jewish law), and becoming "modest" seemed like a natural step.

How did a 15-year-old girl of the 21st century, who gave no thought to slipping tank-top straps, underage clubbing and kissing boys in camp cabins, end up considering covered elbows and knees a necessary virtue?

High school and university campuses have noticed this phenomenon for years: Their friends come back after school breaks from Orthodox outreach programs clutching Artscroll siddurs, imbued with a penchant for Zionism and an aversion to intermarriage.

"They've been Aish'd," is the commonly whispered comment, equivalent to "They've been brainwashed."

The number of Orthodox outreach programs for non-Orthodox youth, like those of Aish Hatorah and NCSY, have exploded in the past decade. According to the Aish Hatorah Web site, it alone entices more than 100,000 people in 17 countries to its programs annually. Many of the programs offer several week-long trips combining learning and traveling in Israel, Canada or the US. They are ridiculously low-priced, often up to five times less than other tour groups.

The participants pay through other means, though; they absorb a particular brand of Judaism that seems to be an extra ingredient in the twin hallot eaten every Friday evening.

"They overload you with free stuff, and then you work because you want it. You'll do anything," says Sarah, a participant on two Israel programs and several long-term programs in Canada by Aish Hatorah and NCSY.

IS JUDAISM so compelling, so inherently true, that as soon as youths discover it, they cannot stay away?

In fact, Orthodox Jewish laws are exotic and offer a reverse way for youth to rebel. Drugs, drinking and sex are all passé rebellions by now. But how many young people actually refuse to touch the opposite sex? These organizations are offering an exciting way to be different and get attention.

Still, it's a tiresome lifestyle to maintain - and after the programs end, most participants don't. As valuable as the Orthodox lifestyle may be, the methods used by these organizations are eerily cultish and the results often short-lived.

The organizations present their Judaism as the uniquely accurate one, the Halacha that the non-Orthodox have merely forgotten but that all their ancestors invariably followed. Their assumption that all our great-great-grandparents grew up in an Eastern European shtetl contributes to divisiveness among Jews, for it fails to acknowledge that Halacha has had a variety of interpretations across different times and cultures.

A fellow participant on my trip was ignored by advisers when she remarked that for some Sephardim, the only halachic requirement was to be more modest than one's neighbors, and that the stringent laws that guide current frum fashion (good-bye collarbones, elbows and knees) were unnecessary. Outright dismissal of alternative views may drive sales of skirt manufacturers, but it is not beneficial to learning about the history of Judaism.

SOME PROGRAMS make participants adhere closely to Orthodoxy, and others just introduce them to it. But all are extremely effective at what they do by using rudimentary indoctrination techniques .

They remove participants from their normal environment and place them in a new, vulnerable context. Traveling is a mentally exhausting experience in any case. How much more so that is in Israel, where one suddenly finds oneself part of the majority - an intensely emotional experience that these programs capitalize on. Foreign ideas suddenly seem reasonable: Instead of lecturing someone with mostly secular friends to stop eating pork, it is easier to just stop serving it for a month in a completely Jewish environment.

Within such an environment, participants are made to feel guilty about a lack of observance. The organizations criticize the secular lifestyle as hollow so that young people, always in search of identity, undergo a crisis of confusion about which path to take.

A FALSE dilemma is presented: Be secular and remain in impurity, where life is merely a game played for fun - or move toward a purpose and filled with holiness.

When presented so simply, which road seems more attractive?

The organizations transmit these teachings through trip leaders who often succeed in making observance seem fun and relevant, at least for the duration of the program.

But the teachings are superficial and the Orthodox world they present bears not a trace of dissatisfaction: Never did I ever hear a speaker or trip leader discuss any problems within the Orthodox world. Apparently, as long as they follow proper Halacha, everybody is happy and fulfilled, with neither depression nor repression, money nor domestic problems.

The female trip leaders imparting the message of how wonderful Halacha is are born Orthodox, with a sweet, never-been-kissed, perky charm. Unfortunately, they are unable to relate to the secular world, where they have had no experience. Instead, they drivel out the same stock responses on subjects like why to refrain from touching boys: Everyone has heard "your soul is a diamond that should be kept in a special case" a hundred times.

Metaphors like those sound wonderful and make superficial sense, but falter in the face of hormonal reality. The counsellors shut their ears to truthful comments such as "I want sex as much as he does." Their simplistic response is: "But as a female, you really want him to love you and hold you instead."

By addressing issues from an archaic, non-scientific, pseudo-psychological perspective and refusing to believe that at times women can be just as sexual, forceful and unemotional as men, participants are left with beautiful-sounding concepts that prove unworkable upon return to the secular world.

PARTICIPATION IN these programs is similar to a summer romance, which is removed from reality through a heady mix of sun and beach. It lacks imposing obligations. Everything moves fast and intensely, yet rarely lasts.

"They make you some kind of fake family, that's why you feel all religious there. And then you get home and see your real family... and that's the way you have to live," says Sarah.

Many absorb Halacha like a sponge. But a few weeks back into one's regular routine in the secular world, the rational reasons for not touching boys, praying before meals and refraining from electricity on the Sabbath fade as fast as a dream.

Running into those who have remained Orthodox, unrecognizable from only a few years earlier, is an uncanny experience. They often work for outreach organizations and are as unsettling to me as Evangelical Christians.

As for me, was I "Aish'd"? Well, I'm spending this summer in Israel, but I'm wearing jeans.

Conversion - more Blacks are converting to Judaism

Conversions to Judaism among African-Americans are growing in a way that could affect the presidential election.

Christian Science Monitor reports [referred by RaP]

Atlanta - Like many of the growing numbers of Protestant blacks in America and Africa converting to Judaism, Elisheva Chaim grew up believing she had a "Jewish soul."

As a black woman and a Baptist in the South, that was a peculiar, somewhat troubling realization. But when she turned her doubts about Christianity into a search for answers, the truth became evident: She had to go deeper than the Old Testament. She had to convert.

"It's odd to see black people convert to Judaism, and even Jewish people look at me strangely, I'm not going to lie," says Ms. Chaim "But once everybody sees that I can recite the prayers in Hebrew, their attitudes change."

Though primarily an intensely personal journey, the black conversion movement comes at an important time for Afro-Judaic relations in the US.

Sen. Barack Obama is lighting up connections to the black-Jewish alliance of the 1960s while at the same time trying to calm Jewish fears over his Muslim middle name and ties to pro-Palestinian activists. This could have critical implications in key states with large Jewish populations such as Florida and Pennsylvania.

Yet more than anything, experts say, black exploration of Judaism is part of an increasingly complex faith puzzle in America. Among other things, it's testing a growing interest among some Jews in expanding a religion that doesn't proselytize.

"We're in a kind of make-your-own-faith world now, and the fact that blacks may be moving to Judaism is actually less surprising than it might otherwise appear," says Bruce Feiler, author of "Walking the Bible."

Numbers are hard to pin down. Besides well-known conversions such as that of the late entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., black Jews remain an unfamiliar part of the American religious landscape. Yet Lewis Gordon, director of the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, estimates there are as many as 1 million blacks with Jewish blood in the US.

Another recent study by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco estimates that there are as many as 150,000 practicing black Jews in the US today, with synagogues across the country reporting increasing numbers of blacks either exploring or converting to Judaism.

"Obama's candidacy, African-Americans choosing to be Jews, Jews marrying people who weren't born Jewish ... is all part of the great American story of freedom and choice," says Gary Tobin, president of the IJCR in San Francisco.

The reasons are complex, experts say. Americans in general are looking outside their own denominations for answers, with 40 percent of Americans switching from the faith of their upbringing, according to a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Among Africans, the conversion movement – 100 Ugandans took part in a mass conversion earlier this month – is an attempt to explore the Jewish heritage believed to have trickled down through North Africa and into the continent.

"It's about liberation from slavery," says University of Maine political scientist Amy Fried. "During Passover seders, you're asked to think of it as if you, yourself, were being liberated."

But growing up both black and Jewish can be confounding, and this has sent many searching – not just for spiritual truths but for family secrets. New York filmmaker Lacey Schwartz is currently working on a documentary called "Outside the Box" about her own journey as a mixed-race girl growing up in a white upper middle-class Jewish family in Woodstock, N.Y.

"This is about the changing face of America," says Ms. Schwartz. "But as for myself, I feel more at home in the all-black community than in the all-Jewish community. In the black community, there's a lot of diversity and a lot of understanding of that diversity. In white Jewish communities, the environment is much more mono-cultural."

Since Jews don't proselytize and some rabbis actively discourage conversion, diversifying the religion and the culture is proving difficult.

"The closest Jews gets to outreach tends to be inreach," says Brad Greenberg, the founder of The God Blog at the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles. "How people are experiencing Judaism is different today. There's a lot of debate now about whether Jewish converts can help improve the longevity of the religion."

In Brooklyn's heavily Orthodox Jewish communities, New York Assemblyman Dov Hilkind doubts whether conversion trends will affect campaign tactics. He says it's traditional Jewish communities that are giving Senator Obama a hard time while exploring the more hawkish Republican nominee, John McCain, for his position on US and Israeli security concerns.

"A lot of people are nervous about [Obama], and he needs to address this, "says Mr. Hilkind, who predicts that more Jews will vote for McCain than the 37 percent who voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980.]

On the other hand, "I think there is a great desire ... to reestablish the very powerful and successful alliance between the African-American community and the Jewish community," says Jennifer Rubin, a freelance writer who blogs about Israel at Commentary.com. "Obama will appeal to that."

Yet for many recent black converts, politics, culture, and history have little to do with their decision. For Sivan Ariel of Atlanta, who grew up in the US Virgin Islands, the spiritual search began with memories of a grandmother she believes was Jewish. The most comfortable place in the world for her today, she says, is a synagogue.

Renegade kano'im - Denounced by Toldos Aaron Rebbe, shlita

I had previous written on the problem of renegade kano'im who have created a great chillul HaShem

The Toldos Aaron Rebbe, shlita - as reported in BaKehila - strongly condemned them.

He stated that he knows what genuine zealotry is and mentioned Rav Amram Blau zt"l.

"Concerning Rav Amram one saw that in reality that all the cracks in the wall of Yiddishkeit caused him great pain. His protests were an expression of his love of Jews and his fear of G-d. It hurt him that another Jew would sin and that pain - caused by his concern for others - brought him to protest. In contrast, the kano'im of today are motivated by the desire to destroy. They wake up in the morning with the single concern of what they can destroy that day. Their heads are not focused on serving G-d or how they can increase the honor of Heaven. They spend their days obsessed with wall posters and slander of others. There are no great men and leaders of Israel that they don't slander. This is not kana'us! This is the lowest form of degenerate personality.

Someone who truly want to be concerned with G-d's honor knows that before any activity it is required to first ask a posek and talmid chachom to clarify if this particular activity is permitted by the Torah or not. We are Jews and therefore our path has to be that of the Shulchan Aruch. These hotblooded young men mistakenly think that their acts of destruction magnify the glory of G-d. I am telling you that this is not the path of kana'us! That is because true zealotry comes only from the motivation of truly loving Jews. When a Jew is hurt by the sins of another Jew he is not allowed to make any public response without first asking the guidance of gedolim concerning possible actions and he must submit to their views. However we have never seen before the approach of these modern zealots. These men are immersed in their evil ways and their sole concern is how to cause damage.

נער הייתי וגם זקנתי. ראיתי בימי חלדי קנאים אמיתיים. למדתי את יסודות הקנאות אצל אבי זצוק"ל, יצאתי להפגנות רבות יחד עם ר' עמרם בלוי. הם היוו דוגמה אמיתית לקנאות אמיתית. על ר' עמהם ראו בחוש שכל פרצה בחומת היהדות כאבה לו. המחאה באה מתוך אהבת ישראל ויראה ה'. כאב לו שיהודי אחר חוטא ומשום הוא הביע מחאה. לעומת זאת 'הקנאים' של היום פועלים ממידות מושחתות. הם קמים בבוקר וחושבים כיצד ניתן להזיק היום, ראשם לא מונח בעבודת ה' או במחשבה איך מרבים כבוד שמים. הם עוסקים כל היום רק בפשקוולים והשמצרת. לא היה גדול ומנהיג בישראל שהם לא השמיצו. זו לא קנאות. זו השחתת המידות בצורה הגרועה ביותר. מי שבאמת רוצה לקנא את קנאת ה', יודע כי לפני כל פעולה שעושים יש לשאול קודם רב ותלמיד חכם ולברר האם דבר זה מותר על פי התורה או לא. אנחנו יהודים וכל דרכנו היא על פי שולחן עורך. לאברכים צעירים יש דם תוסס והם חושבים שבפעולות אלו הם מגדילים את שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולם. אני מודיע לכם לא זו דרך הקנאות, קנאות אמיתית באה רק מתוך אהבת ישראל אמיתית. כשכואב שיהודי אחר חוטא וכמובן לא לפני שמדברים לפני כל פעולה עם גדולים לשמוע את דעתם. את הדרך של הקנאים כיום לא ראינו מעולם. אנשים השרויים ברשעות ודרכם היא לילך ולהזיק.

Kiruv V - Orthodox and Reform meld - the slippery slope

Recipients and Publicity in his continuing series on the dynamics of contemporary kiruv

KIRUV TODAY: WHERE ORTHODOXY AND REFORM MEET!

Or

THE AGE OF ORTHODOX AND HAREDI KIRUV MEETS REFORM AND CONSERVATIVE KERUV!

Or

1980s to the present: A dangerous turning point in the history of Kiruv Rechokim and the Baal Teshuva Movement and Revolution.

Just in passing reference to Chabad, it would be worthy to note that with the mere existence of Chabad husband & wife shluchim/shluchos teams, lets assume that there are about five thousand of them in the wide world and if each couple brings in just one secular couple a year into their sphere of interest, not a far-fetched idea, then that makes five thousand new couples and ten thousand new "recruits" a year, and if even a quarter are not Halachically Jewish, then that means that all over the world, Chabad is responsible for pulling in 2,500 people into Jewish religious life who require Halachic conversions PER YEAR, and if one multiplies that over ten years that amounts to 25,000 people in that category which brings the entire matter to critical mass, and if one just doubles the figures assuming that Chabad rabbis and rebbetzins can each pull in more than one couple a year, that means that in the last ten years 50,000 people are involved in Chabad and Orthodox life who had not started out life as Halachic Jews, so that one clearly sees that what is happening is that with the success and spread of Orthodox kiruv, as practiced by Chabad or Aish HaTorah or NCSY or any group active in the field, many tens of thousands of non-Halachic Jews are being drawn in, just based on the UJA's groundbreaking and eye popping National Jewish Population Surveys (NJPS) www.ujc.org/njps of 1990 http://www.jewishdatabank.org/NJPS1990.asp and 2000 http://www.jewishdatabank.org/NJPS2000.asp (the 1990 report was so bad that they had to doctor the results of the 2000 report, but that is another subject) and that it is therefore beyond any shadow of a doubt that KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT OF REACHING OUT TO JEWS ONLY IS OVER, the "NEW" KIRUV IS ALL ABOUT REACHING BOTH JEWS AND THE NON-HALACHIC JEWS ATTACHED TO THEM. (That is why Rabbi Leib Tropper and his "kosher" EJF efforts are so cutting edge and relevant and when the BADATZ finally got to smell the coffee and wake up and sent notices out to Recipients and it received Publicity that ehrliche Orthodox rabbis were not to join in the EJF worldwide effort to welcome in non-Jews to Orthodoxy conversions no matter how "appealing" or "right" things mayy seem from a so-called kiruv perspective.)

And this brings us to the main topic of this post, that it can safely be stated, based on both the admissions of those in the field and the statistical and social realities, that the BROAD RANGED AGENDAS of BOTH the huge Orthodox/Haredi/Hasidic kiruv organisations and movements and those of the REFORM movement, with the Conservatives running a close second ARE THE SAME, in that they are:

(a) NOT to be repelled by the thought of having to reach out to non-Halachic Jews and even gentiles thereby rejecting them from mass strict Halachic conversions as required by Halacha itself of course, but on the contrary to

(b) REACH OUT and "MEKAREV" the non-Jewish and gentile spouses or children of non-Halachic Jews and provably gentile mothers, and even easing up on welcoming any gentiles who drop by a for "coffee and kiruv".

So that this is what it adds up to:

What the Reform and their Conservative allies are doing DE JURE (officially), the major kiruv movements are doing DE FACTO (unofficially) and at times even approaching the de jure efforts of Reform and even, believe it, being in the same boat with the same students and sharing the same synagogue spaces, such as when Orthodoxy's Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald's huge NJOP program http://www.njop.org/ runs programs for the last twenty years in almost every Reform, Conservative and even Reconstructionist synagogue and venue, not caring about Orthodox venues or what his Orthodox kiruv co-workers may think about it all!

It must be noted that Reform goes even further, that it has decided to outright proselytise gentiles not personally connected to Jews or Judaism in any way in order, they rationalize, to increase the numbers of Jews. This is like allowing a bunch of alcoholics to run a liquor business in the hope that they will bring in "more sobriety and more business" or like offering free bread and cheese to mice in the hope that they will join the human race in not being pests. All very distorted, yet taken very seriously in Reform and Conservative circles.

The Reform call it "keruv" with an "e" faking dikduk correctness, but the Reform and Conservatives are now as much into "keruv" as the Orthodox and Haredim are into the less correctly spelled "kiruv":

The official Reform movement site http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:R53f-qHU8NYJ:www.urj.org/outreach/+keruv+Reform&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us states openly:

"Union for Reform Judaism / Outreach

Reform Jewish Outreach serves a diverse population: men and women; interfaith and interracial couples; converts, those in the process of conversion and religious seekers; Jews of color; people of all sexual orientations; single adults and blended families; rich and poor; young and old and in-between.

As Reform Jews, we are committed to actively welcoming all and building vibrant, inclusive congregational communities. We seek to perform the mitzvot of ahavat ger (loving the stranger) and keruv (drawing near all who are far). The William & Lottie Daniel Department of Outreach and Membership, together with the URJ-CCAR Commission on Outreach and Membership, has a dual mission:

*to empower and encourage individuals and families, including interfaith families, to make meaningful Jewish choices in the context of membership in a Reform congregation

*to assist Reform congregations in their efforts to become sacred communities that welcome the full diversity of Jews and their families and those seeking to join or come closer to the Jewish people, through effective recruitment, engagement and lifelong retention of members"

And that gets one thinking, hey, if Reform is so positive about this stuff, instead of preaching the old doctrines of "Berlin is Jerusalem" and their notoriously schismatic Pittsburgh Platform (1885) opining that:

"3. We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the Jewish people for its mission during its national life in Palestine, and today we accept as binding only its moral laws, and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization.

4. We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.

5. We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israel s great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state."

But see, today they talk of "keruv" and are actually envious of Chabad's and other Orthodox groups outreach that they must ape that, because in any case, most kiruv in the first stages does not expect anything different than just hanging out with the rabbis and attending some generalized classes and having a good time at Shabbat dinners "across America" or whatever.

The Conservative's Dr. Gary A. Tobin's "Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can Revitalize the Jewish Community" (San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers, 1999) and in http://www.jewishresearch.org/PDFs2/ShmaFamilies_4_03.pdf he concludes

"...The American image of Jews as either central or eastern European, largely Ashkenazi descendants from Fiddler on the Roof does not reflect the complexity of the American Jewish family.

Those who are subject to nostalgia often long for some particular time and place, and associate it with some particular mythology of “how life used to be. ”Moreover, the Jewish community as a whole continues to cling to an ideal that may not even be desirable. Maybe bringing non-Jews to be part of the Jewish people, for example, so that we grow and prosper rather than diminish is desirable rather than horrifying. Perhaps we should embrace the growing diversity rather than be afraid.

If the Jewish organizational and institutional structures — our synagogues, community centers, federations, and the vast array of human service and educational institutions — are going to do their job in helping the Jewish community to be vital and strong, they should embrace who we are, rather than lament who they think we used to be or think we should be. For, indeed, we live neither in the 1950s nor in the time of Abraham. We live in the 21st century, and we should deal with the reality of who we are—now."

The Conservatives also have a program called "Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs: Our Mission":

"The Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs is an organization of approximately 270 Conservative/Masorti Jewish men's groups consisting of 25,000 individuals across North America and the world. The FJMC involves Jewish men in Jewish life by building and strengthening Men's Clubs in the Conservative/Masorti Movement.

Our objectives are to train and develop leaders to build and strengthen Men's Clubs; to create and implement programs to involve men in Jewish life; and to be an active and influential participant in the Conservative/Masorti Movement."

And one of their biggest aims, is what else, "keruv" http://www.fjmc.org/keruv.html , naturally, with things like "Congregations with Keruv Programs and Consultants":

"What's a Keruv Consultant?

The Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs Keruv Initiative seeks to provide guidance and comfort to those within our congregations who are intermarried, whose children are intermarried, or who have extended family of another faith

Keruv Consultants are experts in the implementation of the FJMC Keruv programs, as defined by the FJMC Publications, HEARING MEN'S VOICES - VOLUMES FOUR & FIVE, Building the Faith & Let's Talk About It.

The issue of intermarriage confronts us as a community and within our own families. Given the fact of the dual faith marriage, how do we reach out to encourage these families to adopt a Jewish lifestyle, indeed to increase their involvement in Jewish life? Where do we begin as a congregation and as individuals to transform ourselves to make this outreach a success? should this be a priority at this time? With the publication of ''HEARING MEN'S VOICES: Building the Faith'' in 2001 there has been an outpouring of interest at program after program led by men's clubs in synagogues throughout North America"

and this is backed up with articles from the Baltimore Jewish Times "Conservatives Grapple With Intermarriage":

"The high stakes were not being glossed over.

"The bad news is, the way things are, there probably won't be a Conservative movement in 50 or 100 years," said Stephen Lachter, noting that the 2000 National Jewish Population Study saw the percentage of Conservative Jews slip below that of Reform ones. "The good news is that those of us in the Conservative movement have the power to change that."

Later, he added, "We are all Jews by choice. We make choices about our Judaism every day. It's not unusual that people move along. They take an introduction to Judaism course. They take a basic Hebrew course and then they convert to Judaism. That happens in our synagogue and I assume it happens elsewhere. You need to provide people with information. But you have to do it in a positive, effective way"."

and the Washington Jewish Week "consider best approaches to reaching out to intermarried families":

"...a new Conservative movement initiative to guide congregations in welcoming intermarried families.

The keruv think tank and training program last week in Baltimore was the second seminar organized by the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs to help rabbis and lay leaders address a range of issues arising from intermarriage. (Keruv means "bring near" in Hebrew and is often used to refer to inreach and outreach.)

The seminar included sessions titled "Broaching Conversion to the Non-Jewish Partner" and "Developing Strategies for the Non-Jewish Spouse," as well as advice in areas such as the proper language Jews should utilize to talk to a non-Jewish son- or daughter-in-law...

But Simon stresses that the keruv project is not sanctioning intermarriage, but merely reacting to the large percentage of Conservative Jews with intermarriages in their own families -- and encouraging those who are intermarried to raise their children in the synagogue.

In addition, non-Jewish spouses who feel welcome are more likely to explore conversion, say Simon and local Jewish leaders who attended last week's conference.

"We need to figure out a way to welcome [the non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples] into our shuls or lose these people," said Stephen Lachter, past president of the Adas Israel Men's Club and a keruv consultant who attended last week's seminar...

"As a result of having the kind of policy we're talking about, [and] without setting any kind of precondition, these individuals ultimately decided to embrace Judaism," Weinblatt said.

Lachter called the keruv initiative "the most profound and important thing going on in the Conservative movement today."

"What else could be more Jewish than to treat people in a caring way?"."

The important thing to note is that both the Reform and Conservatives have taken over and now embrace and welcome the language AND THE ACTIVITY of "keruv"/"kiruv" OPENLY, OFFICIALLY with unashamed keruv/outreach to those of doubtful Halachic Jewish status as well as to to pure gentiles, so that then it is really no different to the often HIDDEN, UNofficial yet also unabashed mekareving that Orthodox, Haredi and Chabad rabbis and kiruv workers are doing when they too lure and welcome into their midst the same people that that the Reform and Conservatives are now "keruving" out to.

This is a dangerous turning point in the history of Kiruv Rechokim and the Baal Teshuva Movement and Revolution.

In the first stage of the Golden Age of Kiruv from the 1950s to the 1980s when Reform and Conservative were still cock-sure of themselves and did not care if their youth joined "fringe groups" (and even if they did care, there was nothing they could do about it in any case), but from late 1980s and especially from 1990, when the frightening truths about intermarriage and Jews and gentiles welded and melded and wed to each came to the fore in the shape of the 1990 UJA sponsored National Jewish Population Survey in the USA they panicked and began their "keruv" initiatives to all and sundry and it was at that time, combined with the results of Reform's decision to accept patrilineal descent as being enough of a criterion for Jewishness that then meant that one could no longer take for granted the "Jewishness" of anyone who claimed to be Jewish, and with the rise in intermarraige across the board, THE AGE OF KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT WAS OVER, and thus began THE AGE OF ORTHODOX AND HAREDI KIRUV MEETS REFORM AND CONSERVATIVE KERUV that has been ongoing from the late 1980s into the 21st century.

Thus the very real squabbles and battles over conversions, which are valid and which are not, and how far kiruv workers should be involved in the process has become a key issues all over the world. In Israel, the struggle involves rabbinical organs inside and outside of the official state of Israel's legal and legislative structure in both the Halachich and secular legal domains due to the political realities of living in the political state, but the issues are just as critical and burning in North America, the UK, Europe and wherever large groups of Jews are to be found facing the assimilation, intermarriage and conversion issues of the day.

The following analogy may be a little sharp, so please pardon it, but the word "kiruv" or as spelled "keruv" share the same root as the word "kirva" and alas also "kurva" and as much as "kirva" may refer to the elevated spiritual state of "kirvat Elokim" of being close to God, yet in another context and degrading sense there is also the word "kurva" in Hebrew and Yiddish which means "prostitute" since it is also a form of "coming (too) close" but of the wrong type of "closeness" that while it may give momentary pleasure also carries with it risks of disease and degradation and even death. Similarly the Biblical word "zona" can mean healthy "sustenance" and denote positive nutrition such as with breads as "mazon" yet it shares a root, if used against morality of "zona" a woman who "sustains" a man sexually with fleeting carnal pleasures for the wrong reasons and with degrading results that are paid for rather than attained in a moral and legitimate way.

The Reform and Conservative's "keruv" must be seen as the dark side of Orthodoxy's Kiruv in order for the Orthodox and Haredi kiruv rabbi and professional to retain a correct perspective and a clear conscience that they are not swimming in the same cesspools that the Reform and Conservatives created for themselves in the first place.

Thus it's clear that THE challenges for the Orthodox erhliche and Halachicaly uncomprisng kiruv rabbi and professional is to cut through the haze and the maze that now links Reform and Conservative "keruv" with Orthodox and Haredi "kiruv" OUT THERE IN THE FIELD, in the so-called "real world" where "East meets West" and how to split this atom requires the brains of an Einstein, the wisdom of a Solomon, and the prophetic spirit of Eliyahu Hanavi in CORRECTLY bringing the hearts of JEWISH fathers and mothers and JEWISH sons and daughters together but NOT to cause spiritual Chernobel-like meltdowns that will hurt everyone who comes close to the radioactive and toxic mess of the inevitable interplay between bad kiruv and conversion decisions..

To be continued...

Kiruv IV - Chabad - kiruv experts who don't follow the rules

But seriously folks, Chabad knows outreach

Andrew Silow-Carroll (editor in chief of the New Jersey Jewish News)

A few months back, I attended the inauguration ceremonies for Arnold Eisen, the chancellor of the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary. In a symposium preceding the main event, a distinguished panel of scholars discussed the future of the movement and American Judaism. Someone mentioned "Chabad," and the roomful of rabbis and professors broke out into knowing titters. Dr. Alan Cooper, the JTS provost, rode the titters into a wave of laughter when he repeated the old line: "Chabad is the religion closest to Judaism."

There's nothing new about Chabad-bashing. The Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement is mocked by fellow Orthodox for its messianism, by non-Orthodox groups for its aggressive proselytizing, by late-night comedians for the wacky "mitzvah tanks" that roll through Manhattan streets. And there's nothing funny about Chabad's cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and its cynical use of religion and politics to dominate the Jewish revival in Eastern Europe.

But considering the ubiquity of Chabad, and the warm reception it gets among many marginally affiliated Jews, the movement becomes a living Yogi Berra line: No one takes them seriously - they're too popular. Husband-and-wife pairs of shluchim, or emissaries, are dispatched from the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown to establish Chabad centers wherever there is a rumor of Jewish life. As far as their late rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was concerned, Bangkok is Boston is Basking Ridge, if it means bringing even a touch of Yiddishkeit to the Jewish margins.

Shluchim have begun operating Hebrew schools that are increasingly popular among Jewish families who might have no other Jewish affiliations. Chabad's successful outreach activities include well-run summer camps, unintimidating bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies and dozens of informal community events around the holidays.

Still laughing?

A few weeks after the Eisen inaugural I was invited by some Conservative rabbinical leaders to discuss challenges facing their movement and synagogues in general. I focused on Chabad. I described the movement as a challenge in the positive sense: a challenge to others to explore what Chabad does well and how its model can be replicated in non-Chabad synagogues and institutions.

So what's Chabad's secret? It offers ease of entry. People taking baby steps into Jewish life are intimidated by institutions that seem to demand a deep commitment at the outset. Although individual Chabadniks are committed to "Torah-true" Judaism, the shluchim celebrate individual mitzvot, individual acts of belonging. One is fine, two is great, three's a mechaieh. No one joins Chabad on the installment plan. In fact, people tend not to "join" Chabad at all. Chabad houses tend not to have memberships. Chabadniks will say that the message is that individuals are valued for their participation, not their contributions to the building fund.

Chabad is pluralist. I know, I know - theologically, Chabad has about as much respect for non-Orthodox, indeed, non-Chabad streams as Ann Coulter has for liberals. But shluchim operate their centers on a come-one, come-all basis, putting up fewer barriers of behavior and biology than even some Reform synagogues.

Chabad is friendly. Oy, is it friendly. I always compare the Morristown college to the old IBM in the way it is able to churn out ambassadors who so fully and consistently reflect the mission and values of the institution. I often can't tell various shluchim apart - not because I am a dolt or a bigot, but because so many are so similarly warm and good-natured.

Finally, Chabadniks are PR whizzes. They were early adopters of all the latest technologies, have an enviable dominance of the Jewish Web and manage to keep their branding cutting-edge.

When I presented these ideas to the Conservative rabbis, they bristled - but not because they don't see value in an open, pluralist, easy-entry, cleverly marketed Judaism. Rather, they recognized the structural differences that separate them from Chabad. One of these is accountability to a kehilla, a community. The American synagogue is a self-governed partnership among stakeholders and rabbis - employers and employees. It's a delicate dance, but in the tension between a rabbi's authority and the congregation's diverse needs, most synagogues reach an accommodation that reflects the values of their membership and movement.

You can't fire your Chabad rabbi. As a result, his flexibility and creativity often come with a whiff of condescension.

And one rabbi's flexibility is another's lack of standards. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, recently wrote a column criticizing Chabad for offering to perform bar and bat mitzvahs with few if any requirements. At typical synagogues, such requirements include religious school attendance, a commitment to study and worship, and a level of synagogue skills. Chabad "is the place that you go when you do not want to join a synagogue or subject your child to a meaningful course of study," wrote Yoffie.

The challenge for non-Chabad rabbis, then, is to bring some of the Chabad spirit into their programming without sacrificing their own and their movements' standards or identity or the expectations of their longtime and most committed members. [...]

Kiruv III - Antisemitism reduces kiruv?/Kiruv is not formal Yiddishkeit

Jersey Girl comment on "Kiruv II - Paradigm change for outreach workers":

"THE AGE OF KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT IS OVER"

The US economy is very bad. Anti Semites the world over are blaming the Jews (and Israel) for rising fuel and food prices.

Lately everywhere I go, I see swastikas and hateful grafitti toward Jews (ie gas station, bank, clothing store, synagogues, schools, bus benches etc).

Anti Semitism is definitely on the rise in the US as evidenced by the growing numbers of cemetery desecrations and synagogue vandalisms and arsons throughout the US.

While I CERTAINLY do not welcome increased anti Semitism, it does tend to solve the problem of non Jews who want to be Jews filling up kiruv programs.

Not only have I noticed that many of the outreach synagogues have emptied out lately, but I think that this may unfortunately include many Jews who would rather just "blend".

I predict that Klal Yisrael is not going to have to worry about legions of Gentiles who want to be Jewish. We have to instead focus on retaining and inspiring our own children to want to continue to live according to Jewish tradition and to marry other Jews.

Yeshiva education is averaging, at I believe 16k per child this year, I think that it is time to stop providing tuition assistance to non Jews in hopes that they will want to convert and instead use the resources of the Jewish community to address the tremendous responsibility of educating Jewish children.

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Recipients and Publicity has left a new comment on your post "Kiruv II - Paradigm change for outreach workers":

KIRUV WAS NEVER FORMAL YIDDISHKEIT.

And hence, that is why kiruv is so different to formal religious life and ritual and can be so successful as it introduces people to Yiddishkeit without stressing them BUT ALSO can become the subject of abuse for a lessening of Halachic standards. Kiruv is thus a two-edged sword and it takes great skill and responsibility to be used correctly and for the correct aims and results that will lead to a Kevod Shomayim and not to a Chilllul Hashem.

To Jersey girl, kiruv/outreach never was and still is not based on "outreach synagogues" when in fact as any kiruv professional knows synagogues, of any denomination, are the LAST place you want to send someone that needs all the initial stages of kiruv/outreach work! And that is why in kiruv it is the outreach CENTER, in the form of PROGRAMS and SEMINARS, preferably in board rooms, (hopefully NOT bedrooms!), hotels, seminars that may or may not use the SOCIAL HALLS of synagogues such as NCSY programs.

The most successful kiruv program in America is run by Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald's National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) http://www.njop.org/ with its highly successful "Crash Course in Judaism" and "Crash Course in Hebrew Reading" each in five or six one and half hour lessons only.

In 20 years NJOP has been at the forefront of Orthodox kiruv, and with that as the symbol of the controversy about how Orthodox kiruv rabbis should deal with the decline in Halachic standards by others around them, as will be explained below.

NJOP's official posek is the well-known and popular American posek, Rabbi Dovid Cohen who is the Morah De’asrah of Gvul Yaavetz in Brooklyn. He is also the posek of Aish HaTorah in America as well as the shoel umeshiv of AJOP conventions, the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (now "Programs") and of OHEL. In a well-documented effort, with the help of Rav Dovid Cohen, Rabbi Buchwald was able to obtain a "heter" for NJOP to run its programs in Reform and Conservative synagogues even though Rabbi Buchwald and NJOP are under (Modern) Orthodox auspices, and even though in 1997 the Agudas HaRabbonim went balistic and made a public declaration that Reform and Conservative are NOT Judaism, clearly aimed at NJOP's ploy, yet because Rav Cohen obtained the signature of Rav Zelik Epstein of the Shaarei Torah yeshiva in Queens NY one of America's senior Rosh Yeshivas, NJOP has been able to keep up its alliance with Reform and Conservative synagogues on the condition that they not run religious services in them and just host meals to "celebrate" Shabbat in the "Shabbat Across America" programs.

The problem runs far deeper because there have been many cases of issues relating to conversion that result from this form of "outreach" and the consequences are still ongoing. The matter has not received the serious attention it deserves.

Bottom line, unlike Jersey girl's assertions, kiruv of all shapes and sizes as well as increased interest in Judaism and demand for conversions is on the rise, and the role of anti-Semitism in America is very small at this time.

Jews are too-well cocooned to feel any real hate towards them. They are in a fool's paradise as usual...

To be continued.

Outreach (kiruv) programs & intermarried couples II - InterfaithFamily comments

Ruth wrote regarding "Outreach (kiruv) programs & intermarried couples -...":

Hi, I'm the editor at www.InterfaithFamily.com who commissioned this article. This story came about because of a comment on our blog, which said in part:

"Today, there are literally tens of thousands of people who did not grow up Orthodox who have chosen to become traditional observant Jews as adults. And today, even many intermarried Jews have been swayed by these trends. Today, if you walk into virtually any Chabad house, Aish HaTorah, etc., you will find intermarried Jews or children of intermarried. Today, there are even people who are intermarried who have chosen to become Orthodox...."

I thought this was a great point. Since both Orthodox kiruv and interfaith marriage are having a big impact on the Jewish community now, what about the people who are affected by both? I asked this experienced and professional reporter to interview Orthodox kiruv rabbis in her area, and they responded honestly and with compassion.

I'm still interested in publishing more about the experiences of children of interfaith marriage who were raised Orthodox or who have become ba'alei tshuvah.

Our site is here to encourage people in interfaith families to make Jewish choices. We don't define what that is. A lot of the people on our site are Jewish by patrilineal descent (the Reform movement decision on this was 1983, by the way, and you can read it here--everything is on the web!) We are interested in all the approaches people take toward making sure that children of interfaith marriage can have access to their Jewish heritage.

Kiruv II - Paradigm change for outreach workers

So far I am just nodding my head in agreement - very cogent articles

Recipients and Publicity has left a new comment on your post "Kiruv - The end of kiruv as we know it!":

GRASPING THE CHANGE IN THE KIRUV PARADIGM.

It would NOT be an exaggeration to say that all Orthodox kiruv rabbis and workers deal with either students who are either the children of intermarriages or who are themselves intermarried, perhaps multiple times.

In a way there was a paradox that for about thirty years, from the 1950s through the 1980s, while society was in turmoil, that the turmoil of the world was itself a cause for the rise of the revolutionary Baal Teshuva Movement when tens of thousands of mostly young Jews from all walks of life began the trek back to Orthodox life and abandoning their secular/Reform/Conservative/

traditionalist roots, and to their parents' dismay openly followed Haredi and Hasidic rabbis with long beards much like others around followed gurus and swamis. But they were MOSTLY Jewish kids with a Jewish mother AND a Jewish father.

But the last 25 years have been different, from the 1980s until the present the numbers of Halachic non-Jewish who thought they were Jews, with most not understanding the ins and outs of the Halachic points, started to be part of all outreach programs and it could not be avoided.

Anyone who reads the statistics of intermarriage knows that outside of the Orthodox world intermarriage now stands at about 90% and it is a miracle if one Jew marries another Jew, whereas 25 years ago the official intermarriage rate was "52%" (what is "2%" in terms of numbers here?, I am not sure).

While the local rabbis and busy kiruv workers know this from reality now, that they must deal with intertwined issues of kiriv and geurus (outreach and conversion) the "higher ups" have developed "grand strategies" of sorts, and that is why the example of Rabbi Leib Tropper is so fascinating, and what he is doing is not unique to him.

Rabbi Tropper is a purist who wants only the highest standards of Yidishkeit. He started out in kiruv as Rebbe in the original Ohr Somayach in Israel when it had the purist (and some would say simplistic goal) of turning intellectual Baalei Teshuva into regular yeshivishe lamdonim, but Ohr Somaych split four, perhaps ven five, ways over this issue:

1) Rabbis Nota Schiller and Mendel Weinbach moderated the original fervor and opted for a slower yet serious pace for the curriculum (remember, Baal Teshuva yeshivas were a new invention at that time).

2) Rabbi Noach Weinberg (the original founder of Ohr Somayach) set out to establish the Aish HaTorah that was not based on Ohr Somayach's intensity, easing up on the atmosphere, and as can be seen on Halachic standards when it comes to having non-Jews in their programs online and off.

3) Rabbi Leib Tropper went in the other direction, feeling that both Ohr Somaych and Aish HaTorah had lost sight of their main mandate of basing everying ONLY on intense Gemora learning and rapid paced transformation to being a Ben Torah (not a bad goal but not as attractive to the nasses as Aish HaTorah's appeal, as is evident.)

4) Rabbi Rosenberg broke from Ohr Somayach and founded Machon Shlomo as an elitist Baal teshuva yeshiva.

5) Ohr Somyach franchised out its name and in turn branched out to Canada, South Africa, the USA where its Monsey NY namesake became a broad-based institution encourging gradautes to mostly go to work as do most yeshivas in America but not like Rabbi Tropper's Kol Yaakov yeshiva also in Monsey that stresses only the learning element, even though it does have an outrecah "Horizons" program.

There were and are other yeshivas but while in the past almost all students came from Halachically Jewish mothers, matters are now much cloudier and its harder to know which boys will turn out to be non-Halachic Jews. The same goes for girls' kiruv programs.

Rabbi Tropper is a venturer because with his EJF program to welcome in by doing outreach the non-Jewish spouses of interfaith couples under "strict" Beth Din auspices (actually fueling the flames of the process, as it were) he is doing a classical juggling act, that on the one hand he is trying to preempt and ward off attacks from the Haredi world he admires and respects and needs but at the the same time he is caving in to the interfaith flood at the gate and in this he is no different to ALL other Kiruv workers out there today trying to cope with the flood tide of interfaith students (meaning students from mixed marriages or intermarrieds themseleves, or those with non-Halachic conversions), and instead of calling a spade a spade and seeing the writing on the wall, that THE AGE OF KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT IS OVER and maybe even walking away from it, he tries to to finesse it (Dr. Tom Kaplan has lots of money and what else is there to do for a living if not helping millionares find solutions to their intermarried problems?), and that is why he was slapped by the BADATS who then sent out letters of warning to all those Recipients and asking for Publicity that Rabbi Tropper's agenda and methods were not part of the solution but were more part of the problem.

Ditto for Chabd out there in the field and ditto for Aish HaTorah and even Ohr Somaych who, like Nero fiddle while "Rome" burns, in the name of "saving" the Jewish people, when they are undermining them instead with the hanky panky, not-so-secret welcoming of non-Jews into the arms of Yiddishkeit and then think that that they are doing a great Mitzva. Tricky stuff indeed.

To be continued...

Kiruv I - The end of kiruv as we know it!

The following post was sent in by

Recipients and Publicity as comment to "Outreach (kiruv) programs & intermarried couples -...":

As someone with a lifetime's devotion to both the art and study of Kiruv Rechokim (also known as Jewish Outreach) and the Baal Teshuva Movement (also known as the Baal Teshuva Revolution) it is very evident that the practice and institution of Kiruv/Outreach has now changed forever.

All the real-life drama and confrontation over conversions in the Orthodox world attest to this because until now the main struggle was between the Orthodox and the Reform & Conservative movements.

But once the Reform movement openly accepted patrilineal descent 30 years ago (around 1978) it created a de facto schism with Halacha because until then they had a nominal official acceptance of, and paid lip-service to, albeit hypocritical, a public posture that to be Jewish meant to be born of a Jewish mother and to require "some sort of" conversion. But THAT was no longer required once they ruled for themselves that having just a Jewish father was enough to qualify one to be "Jewish"!

While the Conservatives have not done this yet, they are headed in the smae direction, they have done all the same preliminary steps that Reform did before they got around to legitimating patrilineal descent, and the biggest signpost along the road to the meltdown is the Conservatives willingness to (a) accept female students into the previously all-male JTS (which a century earlier was actually a very modern Orthodox institition in many ways) and (b) to ordain the women students as rabbis. This radical cave in to feminism resulted in a schism within the Conservative movement and it led to the breakaway Union of Traditional Judaism (UTJ) led by former JTS professor Weiss-Halivni (now at Bar Ilan).

Therefore the Reform and Conservatives have self-destructed and done themselves in so that the Orthodox need not battle them, and thus the real wars are among the Orthodox themselves, manifested more than anywhere else in each faction's attititude to geirus/conversion and its sister-ship kiruv/outreach, because as we see in today's world of the 21st century, there is turmoil in both how to mekarev (to do outreach) and how to megayer (to do conversions) and they are inter-related in many ways and on may levels, most of all in the real world of real lives as we see from all the problems and issues facing Orthodox outreach rabbis and outreach workers.

When exactly to pinpoint the change of eras from a time when Kiruv meant reaching out to Jews ONLY is not an exact scince,

But it has been coming to a head recently because up until about twenty years ago it could be asumed that most Jews in America were the products of both a Halachically correct mother AND father. This formula changed forever once Reform in America snactioned, accpted and practices the validity of patrilineal descent as enough of a criterion for being "Halachically" Jewish.

There has also been a rise in the movement of "Jews by choice" of gentiles who decide to "be Jewish" without conversions, and the arrival of the mixed marriages of Jews from the former USSR, the Falashas in Israel and the controversy they have stirred in the Orthodox world as well as never ending claims by so-called Conversos, Anusim, (they are still "conversos" and "anusim" after 550 years?) and all sorts of "10 Lost Tribe/s" claimants to being "Jewish" not to mention Hollywood's fascination with pseudo-Kabbala-Judaism. Soon the whole world will qualify to be "Jewish" if all the arguments are accepted which will then lead to the dangerous logical fallacy that "if everyone is Jewish then noone is Jewish" -- not even truly Halachic Jews -- and that will be, and it is already, a huge challenge to the existence of Jews according to Halacha (and in this I understand and agree with Dr. Eidensohn's [the owner of this blog] deeply-held concerns.)

Outreach organizations that are connected to the Orthodox, Haredi and Hasidic world will not be able to dodge the bullets forever. But that they resist facing the music is not a surprise.

Kiruv people think that it's odd indeed that the "the kiruv/baal teshuva revolution" is being challenged, something like the French Revolutionaries who were challenged by those who sort to impose more order and stability and respect for the rule of law in Framce (just a rough example).

There is a lot at stake for them. Especially big money, jobs, livelihoods, and the very art itself because like all human-based professions there is great pleasure and, yes, undeniably, much power, that is often wielded by the Kiruv workers as they lure and recruit and welcome secular Jews and their less-than-Halachically Jewish-families and loved ones into their spheres of influence.

To be continued...