New York – Dear Daily News,
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Your lead story in Sunday’s edition of the Daily News, (http://goo.gl/WWAe0v) written by Naftuli Moster, dealt with a clever “letter of apology” that the attackers of Taj Paterson – “might have written.” In it, Moster claims that it was precisely because Paterson’s assailants grew up in an insulated world that the attackers learned to “hate” Taj Paterson.
Ironically, the piece was an exercise in the very topic it was purported to attack – racism and bias.
In his article, Mr. Moster blames a potential murder on “a yeshiva education” and lays blame of an ugly attack on an entire group of people.
This is the apogee of what educated people term bigotry and intolerance. Moster writes, “Implicitly, I was taught to hate “others,” supposedly because all others hate us.”
No, Mr. Moster, neither implicitly nor explicitly are the young charges of a Yeshiva taught to “hate others.” Please stop this vile attack upon a beautiful heritage that, for some reason, you have rushed to throw out. Mr. Moster please do not characterize Yeshivos as, “institutions masquerading as schools, but which really teach stereotypes and fear.” Yeshivos are schools. They do not teach stereotypes and fear.
Plainly and simply, your statements and characterizations are negative and vile propaganda – designed to foster hate.
The article attempts to connect the attack on Taj Paterson with the nature of their Yeshiva education. This appeals to the emotion – especially when a bloodied picture of the victim is appended to the “letter.” The article constantly repeat just a few ideas and uses stereotyped phrases.
Truly wishing to resolve an education deficit is one thing. Viciously attacking an entire community based upon that deficit is quite another matter.
The Hasidic community has by and large kept its moral ideals, educational philosophies, and traditions intact, through the use of an educational model that has allowed it to exist for nearly two and a half centuries. True, it could be tweaked – but please, please, Daily News, adhere to journalistic integrity and give the Yeshivos their due.
The Daily News giving Mr. Moster a constant platform to attack those of whom he obviously harbors a deep hatred for to the point where a lead story is “the apology the attackers might have written” is obscenely ridiculous.
Mr. Moster, based upon your philosophy, there should be no crime in the secular world. Why? The public schools have such a superior educational system and they teach so much tolerance. There are no violent crimes in public schools.
Sadly, Mr. Moster, there is hate everywhere, and you know full well that the violence and hate in the Orthodox world is significantly less than elsewhere. It is less, but it is not entirely absent, unfortunately. You know full well that it is a rarity. And yet if the ugly head of violence and racism appears in our community even once, the Hasidim are pounced upon.
For some reason, it is the Hasidic community that is always at the receiving end of ridicule and vilification by both the Daily News and its now favorite surrogate, Naftuli Moster.
Daily News and Naftuli, you must stop the propaganda. Whether you use it to promote the selling of papers or to pursue some perverse feeling of revenge or vindication is immaterial – promoting hate speech and vile propaganda in the guise of promoting the welfare of others is wrong.
Certainly, the Jewish community condemns the beating of an innocent man and those who did it deserve punishment. We live in a country of law and order and no one more than the Jewish community respects that.
Are there problems with the educational system in the Hasidic world? Yes, of course. But utilizing hate speech to promote propaganda against an entire community is wrong. Want to do something about education? Be constructive and help come up with an effective curriculum that the Hasidic community would embrace.
The author can be reached at [email protected]
Unfortunately alot of what he says is true. The idea of (eisov sone yakov)associated with any gentile, combined with jewish history of being oppressed including the holocaust murder of 6 million jews combined with isolation as a means to protect from outside influence that leads to assimilation is a fact. That being said, i dont have an answer what is the perfect way to survival of judaism im a modern world. There no answer
I really don’t see the problem with his article /op-ed, and there is no need to get excited over this..
Basically, if our education system produces an attack as this one, once every few years, let us look into the public school education system and let us count the attacks their system produces and we will compare notes…
I don’t think they are quite ready yet, nor will they ever be..
Yidden beating up a goy is a man bites dog story, and that oisvorf is looking to blame the human race.
What a pity on Naftuli
No teaching on hating gentiles, he knows it.
Yearning for attention
Nebech
Come on Rabbi Hoffman. This is pure nonsense. Stop skirting the issue. Bottom line is lets focus on this particular crime. This crime was commited because of the backwards mentality that all goyim are like the evil poritz in der heim. Any time they see a goy they think he is out to get them and start up with them. A secular education with a little history would teach people that most “goyim in the uSA don’t hate us. And we would act more civilly.
I know Naftuli Moster. He is a Teiere Yid, a man of yoisher and emes. In Engkish, we say he speaks truth to power.
I am from the Charedi world, Nafutli linking the beating to english education is pathetic and satire.. let’s see how is the crime rate by harvard educated Goyiom??
I don’t know if you can equate beating-up suspicious looking goyim with a poor education in Yeshivas. I don’t know if Yeshivas are up to par in educational excellency – but what Yeshivas did teach us was how to steal. Remember Youth Core, Bussing us to different yeshivas for the Lunch Program, etc. Then they wonder……such a good education,he went to the finest yeshivas and now is an outright thief. Dopes! – didn’t you realize you were teaching an innocent child to be a Ganiff – Remember how the Rebbe brought “rayes” (proofs) that you are
allowed to steal from the goy. Today they don’t know where the goy starts and the Yid ends. No wonder we have such an honest name in the business world.
Have a look at not yeshiva educated people and see how they behave? Not to justify the beating but it’s not yeshiva eduction related!
So he believes that the lack of secular education is the reason why crime in Orthodox communities are so high? This guy is hillarious.
Walk in to any Yeshiva and find me one boy who doesn’t know that slavery existed? he got to find that our at age 21, says something about him.
I have no clue who this Moster guy is. All i know that he is a serious trouble maker.
Rabbi Hoffman and anyone who has a mighty pen commanding the english langauge should unmask Moster for the phony he really is.
If anything, Moster is a typical example of someone with zero education.
If a person who was brought up in the Jewish community can turn against his own in such a vile fashion that’s proof enough that something is wrong. Most probably this Moster fellow was a trouble maker in yeshiva and they didn’t take care on his problems. They should of think about what our sages tell us הזהרו בגוי קטן.
Its a Shanda that a Chevraman like Muster who still wears a Yarlmulka should advocate and insight non-Jews against Jews to put his fellow Jews in prison.
Moster,throw away your Yarmulka so all can see who you really are!
The writer of this article on VIN is just as guilty as Mr. Moster, the only reason you assume that the guy who was attacked is innocent is because the alleged perpetrators where hasidic Jews, the so called victim is not denying that he was drunk and can’t recall anything of what happened that night, multiple eye witness testified to police about the victims behavior prior to him being attacked.
Sadly we have a long history of former shomrei torah umitzvos that have turned on their own, Pablo Chritiani comes to mind. People like him that have little or no self esteem, need to validate themselves and sadly this is is an easy way to do it.
My brother teaches in a hasidic yeshiva and the kinder are most assuredly taught everyone else is beneath them. Hate is taught from an early age in addition to distrust of anyone not like them.
I’m trying to make sense of what I’m reading – it’s hard to get it straight, but for now, this reminds me of what I read about the German Gestapo when many Jews sided with Nazis R’L and brought many Jews to death until the Germans decided to put them in “place”.
Siding and going with the media against your own brothers will never bring any good; no matter what “good” intention you have.
moster had a weak head didnt learn anything so he tries to blame it on anyone else, instead of going to school now & get a good secular education he is busy with a court case already 2 years with no sign of winning.
I find this letter deeply confusing, disturbing, and appalling.
Is it an apology, a confession, or neither?
This is not a genuine apology; it is a self-serving excuse. Mr. Patterson deserves an honest apology from his perpetrators, and hopefully will receive them after they had enough time to reflect on their actions. One does not need to speak the English language, be a mathematician, or a historian to apprehend that a lack of education is not even a de minimis excuse for senseless violence. Had Mr. Moster beaten up Mr. Patterson, this letter would have been a confession to the crime, as an excuse however, it is childish.
The mere fact that Mr. Moster is a former Hasid, does not qualify him to apologize or confess on behalf of other Hasidic men. Not all Hasidics are alike. During his childhood, Mr. Moster did not get a proper education, was 21 years-old when he first learned about slavery, and he only socialized with Hasidic men; as a result, he claims, was implicitly taught to hate others. As many Hasidic people do not agree with your current viewpoints, not many agree with your former either. Hate and violence is condemned in each community. However, as the Rorschach test demonstrate, different individuals will give starkly different depictions of the identical picture.
The picture is clear. An innocent man was ruthlessly attacked by two perpetrators. Such acts of violence are inexcusable and condemned everywhere. Yet, irrespective of race, color, religion, ethnicity, economic class, or level of education; as a people, a percentage resorts to crime and violence. Too often is hate or intolerance towards a group of people the motivating factor. In such situations, not only does the victim suffer, the entire community does. However, neither the victim’s nor the perpetrator’s community is to blame for the violent actions of an individual. There is no community that represents, teaches, or condones hate and crime.
Mr. Moster does not see perpetrators; he sees Hasidim. He does not see senseless violence; he sees a lack of education. He does not see a victim; he sees a black victim. While his history class on the Holocaust may have implicitly taught Mr. Moster to hate, his history class on slavery did not teach him the value of individuality irrespective one’s race or affiliation. This senseless violence against Mr. Patterson is not about slavery, holocaust, black, Hasidic, English, science, or math, it is a tragedy. Such crimes happen amongst the poorest and richest, the educated and uneducated, religious and non-religious; when they do, it is a tragedy.
If I was Mr. Moster, I would write an apology letter for using Mr. Patterson’s tragedy as a vehicle to further his own agendas. Although I too went to Hasidic schools and know how to write English, the history of the holocaust and African American slavery taught me the importance of resisting hate, the value of individuality, and what the consequences are of feeling superior to others. Therefore, I cannot write for Mr. Moster. The only thing we have in common is our Hasidic background.
Yair Hoffman, it is clear in your response that you believe Naftuli Moster is attacking the Orthodox Jewish community. But what he is actually doing is trying to make things better for the tens of thousands of yeshiva students who are stuck in a cycle of inadequate education and poverty. Another side effect of excessive insularity is ignorance. Saying that is not racist or even prejudiced. Try looking up what those words mean. Moster is shedding light on a serious issue as difficult as it can be for people to see that .
You say that yeshivas don’t teach hate. I went to a yeshivish BaisYaakov – not even a chasidish one. And I was taught that non-Jews hate Jews, that the Jews thought the gentiles in pre-Nazi Germany loved them too and look what happened. I was taught about Jewish persecution in great detail, year after year, whereas slavery was just a few chapters in History class in elementary school. People tend to hate what they don’t understand, and understanding starts with education.
Do you honestly believe that the poor man who was beaten into partial blindness would have met this fate if Mayer Herskovic had ever had a single black friend?
*To be continued
*continued
This kind of brutal attack is only possible when the attacker does not see their victim as human. When they simply label a group as ‘other’ and whatever they do is then fair game. It’s something we as Jews should be all too familiar with having been victims of it all too often throughout history.
It is understandable to feel defensive. A few misguided vigilantes does not represent an entire community, most of whom wouldn’t raise a hand to anyone, and Orthodox Jews do seem to get more bad press than other groups – sometimes unfairly. However we must acknowledge that it is a problem when children are growing up in America barely speaking English in some cases, with no understanding of who their neighbors are, what their history is, and that they too are deserving of respect and kindness.
*To be continued
*Continued
Naftuli Moster is doing a lot of positive things, but your suggestion that he come up with a curriculum the Hasidic community would embrace is unrealistic. First, the Hasidic community doesn’t make decisions – it obeys them. The Hasidic leadership makes the decisions and they are fighting tooth and nail to maintain the status quo. Unfortunately change from within is not possible. Only external forces will create change, which is badly needed and will be ultimately be extraordinarily positive.
Nebach this farbiterta Moser guy is going to have a box seat in gehenim where he’ll roast.
Be’H he’ll do tshuva first and then maybe, just maybe, he’ll actually do something positive.
Focus on the point Rabbi Hoffman is making, the analogy of Mr. MustRetard is completely flawed, Retard is saying, that because their is lack of a superior education in Yeshivas therefore these guys attacked Mr Patterson.. that analogy is completely childish, and stupid.
How many violent crimes, gang shootings, are committed yearly in the U.S. by Charedi Jews?? NONE, Vs., the many gentiles who many of them have Harvard University college education are involved yearly in many horrible deadly crimes.
The NY Daily News for even priting such an ignorant OpEd should be scorned.
Anyone who thinks that Moster is a well meaning person IS insane.
Anyone who supports Moster is the same hatemonger as he is.
Anyone who has a troubled child should make sure they get a proper Torah education with good Midos.Otherwise they will grow up being an inciter as Moster.
Any lawyer who takes up Moster’s case against Orthodox Jews will have the same downfall as Moster. They will be the laughing stock among lawyers.
Unfortunately Mr Moster is right. Both with his allegations and approache. The leadership of Haredi schools are corrupt and the government is not doing anything about it either because of corrupt politicians or because they’re afraid of silly accusations from schmucks like Yair Hoffman I.e. antisemitism; judge people individually and ‘no proof’.. So we need leider our own people, xhasidim to clean up the mess and tell everybody the truth; so that pressure may be applied with no guilty feelings.