Seminary Scandal The Fantastical RICO by Rav M. Tzadok

I've been torn on how I want to address this subject, simply because the subject matter is so complex, and there are so many facts that I simply do not know at this time, such as whether the sexual acts were consensual or not. However, I think that we can safely say that consensual or not Meisel's actions were deplorable. His actions have shamed himself and the entire Torah world. For that he most definitely should be held accountable. He committed and awful Chilul HaShem and and perhaps even permanently destroyed the connection of these young women with Judaism, the very inverse of the reason that they came to the Israel to learn in the first place.

One cannot say that the RICO claim is not without certain merits. Surely concerned parents, especially those who hold the Chicago Beit Din as their Rabbanim, should be allowed to withdraw their daughters from the seminary without financial penalty. Their concerns are not without merit and they are simply following the direction of their Rabbanim, something that should be honored by Orthodox Jewish institutions. That the parents have not been able to regain their deposits is a profound shame and a black mark upon Judaism.

However, two wrongs do not make a right. The Shulhan Arukh writes regarding those that go to secular court for their monetary disputes, "It is forbidden to go to judgement before non-Jewish judges and their courts, even if they rule like the laws of Israel, and even if both parties want to bring their case before them it is forbidden, and every one who comes to judgement before them is a rasha , a blasphemer, and has raised his hand against the Torah and Moshe Rabbeinu A"H." While the halakha does give certain exceptions to this, it is clear at this point that none prerequisites for those have been met in order to bring a lawsuit of this magnitude.

Further RICO suit constitutes at its essence an essential motzei shem ra. RICO requires that there was a criminal enterprise meaning that, the defendants either actively and knowingly with criminal intent took part in illegal activities or conspired to do so. While Meisels may have intentionally used the seminaries under his control to gain wealth and feed his own sexual appetites, I boggles the mind that other individuals, much less that Israeli Beit DIn, conspired with him to both feed his sexual appetites as well as defraud these young women, or their parents of their money.

Paragraphs 23 through 73 alleged that these seminaries were not in fact seminaries, but rather used Jewish education as a front for human sex trafficking. Further that once this came to light an Israeli Beit Din, which according to the 1953 Law Regarding Jurisdiction of Rabbinical Courts, has the same status and same legal responsibilities as a non Rabbinic Court in Israel, joined the conspiracy to commit fraud and human sex trafficking. There really is no substantive difference between accusing any secular court of engaging in fraud, racketeering and human sex trafficking, and blaming an Israeli Beit Din of the same.

Not only is this RICO claim written like bad fiction, it is simply bad fiction. Before guilt can be determined in US law three aspects of a crime must be firmly established, motive, means and opportunity. Certainly all three can be seen with Meisels himself. However, what motive did the teachers, the staff, and the Israeli Beit DIn have? Further since this is a RICO case, there also has to be shown actual criminal intent. What we are being asked to believe is that such a large group of people, knowingly and willingly worked to solely benefit a single individual both monetarily and lustfully, while pretending to go through the motions of running a sham Seminary, where the girls were not taught Torah but groomed for their night with Meisels. The absurdity of it simply baffles the mind. I have to wonder if they didn't pick their lawyer from a late night infomercial.

They are asking us to believe that the entire staff of four seminaries, and a legal organ of the State of Israel, knowingly and willingly perpetuated a fraud for a number of years simply for the financial gain and sexual gratification of a single individual. They claim that all of these folks are deviants and evildoers to such an extent that they would do such a thing. Why? Because they want their deposit back so that they can send their daughters to a different seminary!!!

Certainly, as the Beis Yaakov system has its own managers and overseers that monitor what goes on in any school that bears their name in Israel they too are going to be dragged into this. So the women and Rabbanim of the B"Y system then also have to have been knowingly and willfully perpetuating this scheme of fraud and human sex trafficking, while risking a nation wide institution that they have spent their professional lives painstakingly building. Again I have to ask where is the motive?

This RICO case is start to finish an antisemite's dream come true. It belongs more on the pages of Stormfront then it does in the halls of Justice in the United States. There simply is no way that so many individuals and institutions and be so horribly maligned as this necessitates without Judaism as a whole being tarred and feathered. Yes there is a things such as spiritual abuse, it happens, it is horrible, and it needs to be dealt with. Abraham Lincoln once wrote in a latter to Albert G. Hodges, "By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life, but a life is never wisely given to save a limb." I must ask, is the money, however hard earned, however carefully saved, so important that reputable institutions, some of which that have been at the forefront of the fight against child sexual abuse(which this case is not, by the way. An 18yr old woman is either a consenting adult or the victim of a rape), should be destroyed in order that it might be regained?

These allegations smack of the flights of fancy that paraded themselves around as legitimate lawsuits and criminal complaints in the 1980's, when Satanic Ritual Abuse was taking place in a daycare near you. It was not until a full decade after that damage had been done that the public awoke as if from a dream and was horrified at the destruction of lives, and institutions it had allowed. There the blood thirst for the guilty, allowed even otherwise rational prosecutors, one of whom would eventually become the 78th Attorney General of the United States, to overlook the crucial necessity of a motive in determining guilt. We cannot allow that to happen here.

We can only hope that the plaintiffs will rethink their current course of action and rectify the horrible mistake that they are now making. While their various grievances may be justified, their course of action is not.

--

הרב מיכאל צדוק אלכהן

Rivky Stein & Yoel Weiss: 12 Questions for Rivky Stein and her "Beit Din Zedek of Marine Park & Mill Basin"

Guest post by RaP

1) Now that you confirmed and came together on August 6 at the "E72nd" Street address in Brooklyn, why didn't the "beit din" papers you sent to Yoel Weiss state that address clearly on all the documents it sent him in the first place, and if it was a mistake, why didn't they issue a clarification?

2) If the "E72nd" Street address was always the "right address" why was the non-existent address at "E77nd" Street continuously and deliberately typed on all the original documents that were sent to Yoel Weiss by the "beit din" and why did you keep on repeating the wrong (alternate) deceptive address at "E77nd" all the way through, even as the meet-up date on August 6 approached?

3) Why did you choose the address of a Chabad house at "E72nd" Street as the "official address" of your "beit din" if no Chabad rabbis were involved? Or were they? How was a group of strangers coming for a "get" ceremony let in to the premises if as that Chabad alleges it did not know of any "beit din" -- can you explain this entire perplexing "arrangement"?

4) Were ALL the original three "rabbis" -- Chaim Taub, David Binyamin Abales, Yehoshua Goodman --on the documents you sent Yoel Weiss present on August 6 at "E72nd" Street? If yes, which ones were there, and if not, why not? Can anyone confirm this reliably and can someone please confirm the backgrounds and credentials (yeshivas where they learned, type of semicha they hold etc) of these supposed "rabbis'?

5) Why couldn't Yoel Weiss reach any of the original three "rabbis" for months after he had received the documents with his name on it, nor could he reach any of them on the day they supposedly gathered August 6, why was that?

6) You claimed one of the original rabbis was "sitting shiva in Israel" who was he and why couldn't you provide a phone number to reach him?

7) Who were the other "rabbis" that you assembled as "alternates" for the "beit din" at "E72nd" Street on August 6 and can this be confirmed by anyone reliable?

8) Why did the pro-Aguna ORA organization eventually publicly deny any connections with you and your "beit din"?

9) Why did The Jewish Press a pro-Aguna paper abruptly withdraw its endorsement of your "beit din" without further explanation?

10) Why did you permit a reporter from the New York Daily News (Blau) to become involved in negotiating on your behalf on August 6? Did you or the "beit din" authorize him to do this? Who (rabbis or poskim, besides your mysterious "beit din") has approved your use of the media as a tool to attack Yoel Weiss?

11) The name "Uziel (Uzi) Frankel" keeps on being mentioned in relation to you and the "beit din" who is he and what role does he play in all of this?

12) Do any rabbis in the neighborhoods of Marine Park and Mill Basin, or does any reliable genuine bais din or poskim or gedolim approve of and use or even know about the "Beit Din Zedek of Marine Park & Mill Basin"? If not why not?

Seminary Scandal: Use of conspiracy theories to destroy - ISIS Leader ‘Al-Baghdadi’ Is claimed to be a ‘Jewish Mossad Agent’

In light of the absurd and dangerous RICO complaint filed in the Seminary Scandal which claims a bizarre conspiracy theory against the seminaries and various rabbi including Dayan Gartner - I thought it important to note that the Arab world uses this tactic regularly. The head of ISIS is claimed to be a Jewish agent of the Mosad sent to destroy the Arab world. Similar conspiracy were claimed by various Moslem groups that the World Trade Center destruction was done by Jews who were trying to discredit Islam.

Top Info Post   Simon Elliot (Elliot Shimon) aka Al-Baghdadi was born of two Jewish parents and is a Mossad agent.

We offer below three translations that want to assert that the Caliph Al-Baghdadi is a full Mossad agent and that he was born Jewish father and mother:

The real name of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is “Simon Elliott.”

The so-called “Elliot” was recruited by the Israeli Mossad  and was trained in espionage and psychological warfare against Arab and Islamic societies.

This information was attributed to Edward Snowden and published by newspapers and other Web sites: the head of the “Islamic State” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has cooperated with the U.S. Secret Service, British and Israel to create an organization capable of attracting terrorist extremists from around the world.

Seminary Scandal: Now a federal class action lawsuit in Chicago

Court House News    CHICAGO (CN) - A rabbi in charge of four Orthodox seminaries in Israel sexually assaulted girls in his charge, and threatened to ruin their marriage prospects if they reported him, the girls' parents claim in a federal class action.

Gary Miller and six other named plaintiffs sued Elimelech Meisels, Rachel Slanger, Peninim of America, Yaakov Yarmish, Tzvi Gartner and four subsidiary Jewish seminaries in Jerusalem, on Monday in Federal Court.

"From approximately 2004 until the present date, defendant Elimelech Meisels engaged in a fraudulent and unlawful scheme to induce Orthodox Jewish parents from across the United States to send their daughters to various seminaries in Israel that he controlled under the guise of educational and spiritual development," the complaint states. "In truth, defendant Meisels' true aim was to fraudulently and unlawfully take thousands of dollars from each of these parents and to induce these girls, by telephone, mail, wire and other means, to travel thousands of miles outside the United States and away from their parents for the purpose of sexually assaulting these vulnerable young girls."

Orthodox Jewish children are traditionally sent to study the Torah for one year after high school in Israel. For girls, their attendance at a seminary "profoundly shapes and influences their marriage prospects within a quasi arranged marriage system known as the Shidduch (translated literally as Introduction) system," the complaint states.

"This influence is so important that it causes Orthodox Jewish parents to save money for years in hopes of being able to afford the annual tuition that regularly exceeds twenty thousand dollars ($20,000)."

The defendant seminaries, part of the Bais Yaakov class of seminaries, are classified as Ultra-Orthodox, and girls are expected not even to physically touch a man outside of marriage.

But the parents say Meisel was not the devout rabbi he held himself out to be.

"Defendant Meisels, like many other sexual predators, preyed on the vulnerable. He did this by developing mentor-mentee relationships with girls and exploiting these relationships to lure the girls into late night coffee meetings and other private settings and then sexually assaulted them," the lawsuit states.

"Once the sexual assaults were complete, upon information and belief, defendant Meisels would intimidate his victims by telling them that no one would believe that a rabbi and author with his reputation would have done such a thing.

"Moreover, upon information and belief, defendant Meisels would threaten his victims that if they shared their story with anyone, he would draw on his vast contacts within the Shidduch system to ruin their reputations and ensure that no viable candidate would want to take their hand in marriage.

"It was widely known within the administrative staff of the seminaries that defendant Meisels was regularly taking students to late night private meetings - a fact itself that is forbidden and known as 'yichud' according to the Orthodox Jewish law and tradition. However, certain still unknown co-conspirators within the seminaries were also aware that defendant Meisels was sexually assaulting the girls and assisted defendant Meisels by actively and passively concealing the assaults."

In July this year, a Jewish religious court, the Chicago Bais Din, heard testimony from several of Meisels' alleged victims, and issued a ruling stating that it believed students at the defendant seminaries were "at risk of harm," according to the complaint.

"News of this decision sent shockwaves to the prospective parent bodies of the Seminaries," the complaint states. [...]

Seminary Scandal: A letter from a supporter of the Israeli Beis Din to his son

The following is a letter written by a knowledgeable supporter of the Israeli Beis Din which he sent to his son to explain the view of the IBD towards recent activities of the Chicago Beis Din. The son who shared it with me said I had permission to post it here to help clarify what is going on from the perspective of the Israeli Beis Din.

====================================

My dear son,

In response to your questions about the dispute with the Chicago Beis din, the world might be different, but the fact remains that the perpetrator is out and has been out for weeks and weeks already. The seminaries have a completely new owner.

If it true, as the IBD has heard, that some principals and senior staff were derelict in their duties:

a) It is horribly unfair and a rish'us to just say - as the Chicago beis din has said - that they will hold onto any evidence and refuse to show it to the IBD

b) The IBD is favorably impressed with the heads of the seminaries - especially the lady heads. To say the seminaries are still unsafe is preposterous. Going into the future, they are safe. No one can know what will be in the future but safe is safe. There is no reason at all to think it is not safe. Is anywhere "safe 100%"? Is Hadar 100% safe from their men teachers? BJJ? Greenwalds? 100%???????? Aiyn davar kazeh.

I remind you that Rav Shafran is one of the WORLD's TOP dayanim, and has dealt with similar matters over the years, extensively. Besides being experienced he is incorruptible, and no one's fool. All the dayanim feel the same way as he does about the seminaries’ safety. However there is someone here trying to close the seminaries - and, as they wrote in their letter to Rav Feldman (the BD letter)—such an action is unheard of!!!!!!

Even though it is clear that the seminaries are now safe, the IBD is making sure it stays that way by giving hora'os and hadrachos in the coming 2 weeks to all seminary heads. They MAY be making MAJOR changes in some of the seminaries. OF COURSE the IBD is doing a broad range of research and talking to professionals--that is what they have been doing for 10 days now, when not responding to silly, false, terribly horrid accusations. Contrary to vicious allegations, the IBD is relying on these professionals and instituting their recommendations.

What needs to done to help the situation? Someone needs to convince Chicago to stop acting like troublemakers. They need to remove themselves from the matter as they had planned to when the shtar was signed. They need to stop still hoping that the seminaries will close and that X will be there to pick up the pieces. Let professionals deal with this, not Rabbis with an agenda.

Despite the blogs innuendo, Yarmish is a gem of a person. He is a businessman. He is ehrlich. He is clearly NOT a mechanech which he readily acknowledges. He will do whatever the IBD tells him.

Pious mutterings (bebakashas selichah) are not worth much. Regarding your question why Chicago didn't sign the shtar – it was simply because they weren't baalei devarim. It’s that simple. They told the IBD to take care of the case. Only the actual baalei devarim signed. The IBD put a hold on the money, forbade Meisles from ever entering or having any more shaychoos. He subsequently sold the seminaries, and now the IBD is fully convinced that the seminaries are safe. There is NO REASON to think that they are not. The IBD had the koneh sign on, putting himself fully under the jurisdiction of the IBD for everything they do.

What more can a BD do?

They said from the day of the 2 e-mails—they will continue doing what their responsibility is, and HaShem will take care of all the silliness (or He will decide not to). They have an acharayus--the shtar is mechayev the IBD as well. Rav Shafran was very emphatic about this point--and believe me, he doesn't "need" this case. They are now doing what they always said they would now do --להוסיף שמירה על שמירה

 Tattie

Rivky Stein & Yoel Weiss: Yoel is "heartbroken" when Rivky's "Beis Din" fails to show and he can not give his beloved wife a Get

Update: Added audio recordings of Yoel asking for verification that the 3 original judges that he requested are there - and being given a runaround.

 Today the drama that we have been looking forward to for weeks played out. It is 20 days since Yoel offered to give Rivky her get that she has been screaming to the world that she desperately wants and ran around to all the secular scandal sheets and created an incredible chilul haShem. The get that she has collected thousands of dollars from fellow Jews claiming she was raped, kidnapped, enslaved by her hsuband. A get she demanded in conjunction with a $480, 000,000 RICO claim against her husband.

Yoel all along has remained calm, denying all her claims and suffering the abuse from the newspaper article, the Facebook campaign, the television reports and of course the YouTube video that Rivky put out detailing in disgusting detail assertions related to intimate aspects of their marriage, claims that he and his family were criminals and that she has suffered inhuman abuse from him.

On her website, she provided "proof" in the form of her RICO claim. But perhaps most damaging to Yoel's reputation and what convinced most people that her story of horrific abuse was true - were the documents from her Mill Basin Beis Din declaring that they had issued 3 invitations for Yoel to show. The beis din documents claim that upon his failure to appear before them - they poskened that he was obligated to give his wife a get [this by the way is not in accord with accepted halacha] and that he was placed in cherem.

However as painstakingly detailed on this blog - there is no such beis din. Yoel in fact tried multiple times to contact the Mill Basin Beis Din at the telephone numbers listed on the documents. The psak of the beis din - after hearing only one side is as Rav Moshe Feinstein has stated - violates an explicit gemora and the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch.

Finally about 3 weeks ago, Yoel Weiss decided that it was time to tell his wife to put up or shut up. He made a simple but brilliant offer. He had originally wanted to wait for the RICO case to be resolved before giving the Get - which in fact is the accepted procedure according to Rav Moshe Feinstein and others. However convinced that the beis din was fake, he made an offer that Rivky had to accept. He would give Rivky the Get she demanded on the day after Tisha B'av (today) - but only if the Mill Basin Beis Din appeared and was competent to arrange the writing and giving of a Get. If the Beis Din was real he would give her the Get as promised but if it was fake - then she would be exposed to the whole world as a liar.

In fact Rivky showed up with a sofer to write the Get - but without the Beis Din. Yoel called the number of the supposed beis din and someone answered and  said not to worry that the dayanim are stuck in traffic. But he said that one dayan is sitting shiva and can't make it. When Yoel asked for the address of the dayan so he could be menachem avel - the person he was talking with suddenly ended the call.

All of this is recorded for those who want solid evidence. But as Abraham Lincoln said, You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time - but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

SHAME ON YOU RIVKY FOR CREATING SUCH A DISGUSTING CHILUL HASHEM!

Hopefully the newspapers and other reporters who reported Rivky's charges against Yoel with such relish as proof of the "disgusting" behavior of Orthodox Jews - will hopefully now have the decency and professional ethics to report this development - which clearly raises questions regarding the rest of Rivky's story..

Update: Audio Recordings

Daily News Reporter 

Yoily requesting the beis din to tell him when 3 dayanim come

Yoel had clearly stated that the absolute condition for giving the get was to have all three rabbis who signed on the cherem and seruv showed up  and were competent to arrange a get. The above recordings demonstrates that he called to determine that the 3 dayanim specified had come and was informed that they hadn't but that there were 3 rabbis. The condition therefore was not met.

Indian TV Crew Shows Rare Video of Rocket Launch From Gaza

NY Times   Shortly before a cease-fire went into effect in Gaza on Tuesday morning, a crew from India’s NDTV captured rare footage of Islamist militants quietly preparing to fire a rocket at Israel from a densely populated area of the Palestinian territory. [...]

The video was notable because journalists have captured few images of the stealthy guerrilla fighters in recent weeks and because it appeared to show Islamist militants using a residential area to provide cover while they fire at Israel, putting civilians at risk as homemade rockets fly out and potential retaliatory strikes come back in.[...]

Rivky Stein & Yoel Weiss: Wednesday 10th of Av: Is Rifky coming with the original Mill Basin Beis Din as Yoel required?

NO SUBSTITUTE BEIS DIN IS ALLOWED

 Tomorrow the 6th of August/10th of Av - Yoel Weiss has offered to give his wife Rivky a get if she shows up at the address of the Mill Basin Beis Din listed on the siruv that they issued him. But that offers is only if the same dayanim who signed on the siruv, write the get and obviously only if these dayanim are recognized as competent to write Gittin.  For some unknown reason, Rivky has  not responded to Yoel's offer - for 19 days so far -  that she agrees to his terms and will show up. 

However she has posted on her facebook page that she will show up with a gathering of Rabbis - no mention of the Original Mill Basin Three. She will be very disappointed if she insists on a Get without showing that her original Mill Basin Basin is a valid and an authoritative beis din.  Trying to shame Yoel into using a substitute beis din is not going to work. Hopefully things will go as Yoel planned and she will be able to receive her Get.

Google Maps Street View of 1278 E 72nd Street

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Guest post by David • 

Rivky Stein has posted the following statement, about an hour ago, on her facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Redee...

"Today is a day of great mourning for the Jewish people. May tomorrow be a day of great celebration!

Friends and supporters of Rivky: It is appropriate that immediately following Tisha B'Av, we are asking you to join us at a small, but important gathering at 1278 E 72nd Street in Brooklyn, which is the Beit Din of Mill Basin and Marine Park where Yoel Weiss agreed to show up for the intention of giving Rivky Stein, his estranged wife, a Get.

Please plan to be there by 11:45 AM. We have convened a gathering of rabbis. Yoel has boasted that he will provide the Get. We say: Bring it On.

Yoel Weiss: Be a Mensch. Give your wife a Get, with no strings attached. May we be privileged to witness this event."

The language seems clear that she is admitting the "beit din" "dayanim" were fake and that she is now "convening a gathering of rabbis" who are not the signors of the so-called beit din documents supposedly sent to Yoeli. This is a complete disregard of Yoelis offer made right from the get-go. It has to be the same beit din dayanim showing they are real and this wasn't a farce by Rivky Stein and her cohorts. Suddenly in her new statement she is demanding that Yoeli drop the condition this was always based on.

Stein's above statement is also soliciting as many people to show up to that address to support her. I think it is vital for Yoeli to also bring a large contingent supporting him there tomorrow (with recording equipment.)

[The original post on her facebook also said "Please note that if Yoel is playing games, it might be necessary to relocate to A SECOND location just 5 blocks away at 1278 E 77nd Street." This sentence was edited off [but is still visible if you click the "EDITED" link on top of the post.]

If the original beit din was a fake, then even she will have to admit he is under no requirement to give a Get as no beit din has been requested to give a Get or ordered him to. He is still entitled to have a beis din case between him and her to determine if a Get is warranted. A husband is not under any halachic requirement to give a Get unless and until a beis din orders as such after hearing testimony from both sides and considering the facts and determining the halacha based on that. And that certainly takes quite some time for a beis din to make a determination. Of course Stein is entitled to have a beis din case with Weiss once a beis din is agreed upon per halacha

Seminary Scandal: Do warning bells ring when you read this student's praise of Peninim Seminary/

The following is an excerpt from an article from the blog Where What and When - Time  To Think About Seminary    which deals with issues in chosing a seminary. The excerpt below is about the Peninim Seminary when it was run by Meisels. Do you find anything upsetting about what she says? Or perhaps it is just because Meisels perverted the good but there is nothing inherently wrong about the interaction of the staff with the students.

January 22, 2014

  Tzipora who attended Peninim Seminary and is leaving in a couple of days to go to shana bet (a second year), was very happy to share her experience with me. I was astounded by her enthusiasm. “It was really amazing. It was the best year of my life so far,” Tzipora says. “The principal and all the teachers really care about the girls. They put the needs of the girls first above everything else. For example, there was a big emphasis on the hashkafa behind the halachos of tznius. Many girls came to seminary with skirts that were not very tzniusdik. After being there for a while, and absorbing the hashkafos of the teachers, many girls wanted to wear skirts that met halachic guidelines. In order to make it easier for girls to follow through on their new commitment to higher standards of tznius, Rabbi Meisels set up a program; if a girl turns in a skirt that is not so tzniusdik, he will give her money to buy a new skirt.”

  Peninim makes it a priority that each girl creates a strong connection with members of the staff. “Becoming close to a mentor was important to me,” says Tzipopra , “and the seminary went out of its way to see that no one falls through the cracks. In the middle of the year the staff goes through all the girls, and makes sure that everybody has a connection to some teacher or the principal. Girls often go to the homes of the teachers for Shabbos meals or to sleep over.

  Tzipora explains Peninim’s focus on hashkafa. “There is no homework, and most of the classes are discussions about what we can learn from the sources and apply to our own lives.” Tzipora  marvels, “We spent a whole month learning about the meraglim and how to apply the lessons of the meraglim to our own lives. The teachers welcome questions and will stay after class as long as necessary to answer all the girls to their satisfaction.”

Tisha B'Av: Highly Recommended Videos

Open Orthodoxy and the Rebirth of the Conservative Movement

Cross Currents by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer 

Cross-Currents readership is all too familiar with discussion about Open Orthodoxy; every nook and cranny of Open Orthodoxy could be explored with a critical eye through Cross-Currents’ numerous articles on the subject, spanning a lengthy period of time.

Once the major issues of Open Orthodoxy had been fully brought to the table, it was decided that our focus and energy should be directed elsewhere, as the Orthodox public assumedly had been presented with enough information about Open Orthodoxy to be well-informed, if not saturated. More discussion about Open Orthodoxy seemed moot, and it was hoped and supposed that Open Orthodox leadership would constructively utilize the criticisms to recalibrate the movement’s trajectory onto a more normative path.

However, we were dead wrong, for as we turned our attention away, the nature and magnitude of the challenges presented by Open Orthodoxy increased beyond imagination. Over the past several months, the intellectual leadership of Open Orthodoxy openly embraced highly problematic positions regarding the origins of Torah She-b’al Peh; Open Orthodox rabbis around the United States engaged in new, more radical types of interfaith and interdenominational endeavors that could make one’s hair stand on end; and much more.

It was decided, as per the advice of senior rabbinic authorities, to issue a comprehensive article on the above recent and current issues, feeling that the larger Orthodox public must be aware of these startling developments, as Orthodoxy is now truly at a crossroads. This article would be intended for hard-copy journal publication, and would include a composite of all of the issues to consider, new and old. In light of the fact that Open Orthodoxy is successfully and rapidly placing its graduating rabbis in Orthodox shuls and schools across the country, bringing a different type of Orthodoxy to communities heretofore unfamiliar with it, and in light of the currently unfolding nature of several of the critical issues at hand, it was decided to release the article early as an online publication. [...]

Please read this article and consider the very potential far-reaching ramifications of the recent actions and current path of Open Orthodoxy

The Wolmark and Epstein Mamzerus Problem

Guest Post:
Unfortunately the ostrich syndrome has taken hold of the Klall and everyone has their head in the sand and nothing is being said or done about the phenomenal spread of ממזרות  thru the use of מעושים   גיטין 

I would like to state one principle which would enlighten many people to the severity of the situation. A lady who marries receives the status of anאשת איש  This status can only be removed thru a נט given by people who have a חזקת כשרות. We find the exact same paradigm by שחיטה. The only way a person can eat a cow that was נשחט was if the שוחט that performed the שחיטה  had a חזקת כשרות. If the שוחט lost his חזקת כשרות and went ahead and was שוחט    a cow there is no way that this cow can be eaten. If the meat was cooked in a pot the pot becomes Trief and is not allowed to be used. Now we can go back to אשת איש . As of Oct 13 Wolmark,Epstein, the 3 דיינים at the warehouse, and the םופר have all lost their חזקת כשרות. Any גיטין post that date in which they are involved are פסול. 

The retroactive issue is much more complex. A blog would not be the proper place to discuss this since it involves a great deal of literature, a more appropriate place would be a Torah Journal. However since Hellman has stated that on Aug, 2011 he participated in a similar event in Flatbush it is incumbent on the Rabonim of Flatbush to fully investigate this issue. If it is found that this was also a גט מעושה שלא כדין  then they must follow thru with the ramifications that those supervising that incident have lost their חזקת כשרות and all subsequent ניטין given by those in charge are void. This an issue of לאפרושי מאיםורא דאשת איש and the women who are the recipients of these invalid ניטין must be told they cannot remarry and those who have remarried must be told to leave their new marriage. All those who shirk their responsibility are עתיד ליתן את הדין

Moral clarity in Gaza by Charles Krauthammer

Washington Post  Israel accepts an Egyptian-proposed Gaza cease-fire; Hamas keeps firing. Hamas deliberately aims rockets at civilians; Israel painstakingly tries to avoid them, actually telephoning civilians in the area and dropping warning charges, so-called roof knocking.

“Here’s the difference between us,” explains the Israeli prime minister. “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.”

Rarely does international politics present a moment of such moral clarity. Yet we routinely hear this Israel-Gaza fighting described as a morally equivalent “cycle of violence.” This is absurd. What possible interest can Israel have in cross-border fighting? Everyone knows Hamas set off this mini-war. And everyone knows the proudly self-declared raison d’etre of Hamas: the eradication of Israel and its Jews.

Apologists for Hamas attribute the blood lust to the Israeli occupation and blockade. Occupation? Does no one remember anything? It was less than 10 years ago that worldwide television showed the Israeli army pulling die-hard settlers off synagogue roofs in Gaza as Israel uprooted its settlements, expelled its citizens, withdrew its military and turned every inch of Gaza over to the Palestinians. There was not a soldier, not a settler, not a single Israeli left in Gaza. 

And there was no blockade. On the contrary. Israel wanted this new Palestinian state to succeed. To help the Gaza economy, Israel gave the Palestinians its 3,000 greenhouses that had produced fruit and flowers for export. It opened border crossings and encouraged commerce.

The whole idea was to establish the model for two states living peacefully and productively side by side. No one seems to remember that, simultaneous with the Gaza withdrawal, Israel dismantled four smaller settlements in the northern West Bank as a clear signal of Israel’s desire to leave the West Bank as well and thus achieve an amicable two-state solution.

This is not ancient history. This was nine years ago. [...]

In Defense of Zionism by Michael Oren

Wall Street Journal   Mr. Oren was Israel's ambassador to the U.S. from 2009 to 2013. He holds the chair in international diplomacy at IDC Herzliya in Israel and is a fellow at the Atlantic Council. His books include "Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East" and "Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present."

 They come from every corner of the country—investment bankers, farmers, computer geeks, jazz drummers, botany professors, car mechanics—leaving their jobs and their families. They put on uniforms that are invariably too tight or too baggy, sign out their gear and guns. Then, scrambling onto military vehicles, 70,000 reservists—women and men—join the young conscripts of what is proportionally the world's largest citizen army. They all know that some of them will return maimed or not at all. And yet, without hesitation or (for the most part) complaint, proudly responding to the call-up, Israelis stand ready to defend their nation. They risk their lives for an idea.

The idea is Zionism. It is the belief that the Jewish people should have their own sovereign state in the Land of Israel. Though founded less than 150 years ago, the Zionist movement sprung from a 4,000-year-long bond between the Jewish people and its historic homeland, an attachment sustained throughout 20 centuries of exile. This is why Zionism achieved its goals and remains relevant and rigorous today. It is why citizens of Israel—the state that Zionism created—willingly take up arms. They believe their idea is worth fighting for.

Yet Zionism, arguably more than any other contemporary ideology, is demonized. "All Zionists are legitimate targets everywhere in the world!" declared a banner recently paraded by anti-Israel protesters in Denmark. "Dogs are allowed in this establishment but Zionists are not under any circumstances," warned a sign in the window of a Belgian cafe. A Jewish demonstrator in Iceland was accosted and told, "You Zionist pig, I'm going to behead you."

In certain academic and media circles, Zionism is synonymous with colonialism and imperialism. Critics on the radical right and left have likened it to racism or, worse, Nazism. And that is in the West. In the Middle East, Zionism is the ultimate abomination—the product of a Holocaust that many in the region deny ever happened while maintaining nevertheless that the Zionists deserved it.

What is it about Zionism that elicits such loathing? After all, the longing of a dispersed people for a state of their own cannot possibly be so repugnant, especially after that people endured centuries of massacres and expulsions, culminating in history's largest mass murder. Perhaps revulsion toward Zionism stems from its unusual blend of national identity, religion and loyalty to a land. Japan offers the closest parallel, but despite its rapacious past, Japanese nationalism doesn't evoke the abhorrence aroused by Zionism.[...]

But not all of Zionism's critics are bigoted, and not a few of them are Jewish. For a growing number of progressive Jews, Zionism is too militantly nationalist, while for many ultra-Orthodox Jews, the movement is insufficiently pious—even heretical. How can an idea so universally reviled retain its legitimacy, much less lay claim to success?

The answer is simple: Zionism worked. The chances were infinitesimal that a scattered national group could be assembled from some 70 countries into a sliver-sized territory shorn of resources and rich in adversaries and somehow survive, much less prosper. The odds that those immigrants would forge a national identity capable of producing a vibrant literature, pace-setting arts and six of the world's leading universities approximated zero.[...]