New York – It took a firm conviction of reporting the truth, to take the courageous step of posting your Op Ed article last Friday “The Airav Rav is Alive and Well.”
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Kudos to Rabbi Aryeh HaKohain Katz, for standing up for the honor of the esteemed Gadol b’Yisroel, Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, and defending him against a group of zealots. It is troubling that no formal disapproval was voiced to the humiliation affronted to an elder Talmid Chochom of such stature, which took place so soon after we lost several major Talmidei Chachomim.
Oftentimes people see a wrong being perpetrated but find excuses to look the other way. People may be preoccupied but must realize that by not taking a stand they are condoning the act and supporting the perpetrator.
Many of the comments questioned VIN’s motives and expressed disappointment with the “attention” being given to this group of zealots by the article. They erroneously claimed that these zealots are insignificant in number and if ignored would fade away.
Unfortunately, zealots do not fade away; they are narrow-minded extremists who target, trample and obliterate those who do not conform to their self-serving agenda. Their agenda is not L’Shaym Shomayim, but rather to control, oppress, abuse and harass non-conformists in their midst. We must take a stand against such zealotry and their misguided principles.
We live in turbulent times and witness extreme events on both ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, our community has B”H grown exponentially and reached major milestones in establishing centers of Torah learning. Kollels, shuls, yeshivas, girls schools, chesed and tzeddakah organizations, etc. are flourishing. There are multitudes of morally upright people in our community, fulfilling Mitzvos and helping eachother; and there are so many prominent Rabbonim in our midst. Yet, on the other hand, we see countless of adolescents and adults raised in frum homes leaving the fold, causing deep anguish to their parents, families and friends. They have turned their backs to our community and denigrate us in the media.
How can this dichotomy be possible?
Since founding B’Derech, I have been counseling adolescents and parents facing challenges in the Chassidic community. In my opinion, this dichotomy, in part, can be explained by the fact that in between the multitude of fine frum people and prominent rabbonim, there exist pockets of zealots who wreak havoc in our community.
They appear to be ultra religious fringes, small in number and benign. Therefore, people look the other way when they act, frequently under cover using pseudonyms. They instigate prominent rabbonim to decree bans, persuade yeshiva administrators to become ultra right wing in rejecting students by fiat, dictate to people which shuls they can daven, and campaign for the promulgation of baseless chumras distorting the joy and serenity of true chassidus envisioned by the Baal Shem Tov– turning away so many noshomos from Yiddishkeit.
We just commemorated the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash which in large part was due to the zealots, who oppressed the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, to gain support for their quest to battle the Romans. Klal Yisroel continues to suffer because we prefer peace and look the other way from the zealots. We need to challenge these self-serving zealots and stand firm against their malignant ideology while championing Talmidei Chachomim, true Chassidus and Torah values. Yasher Koach to VIN News — Keep up your great work.
Ruchie (Rachel) Freier, Esq. is a practicing Charedi attorney, admitted in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, with offices in Brooklyn and Monroe. In 2008 she founded B’Derech, the organization advocating for Chassidic youth. Her dual role as advocate and mother, led to her recent nomination to the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Children & the Law. She can be reached at [email protected] or 718-259-4525.
All true but on the other side of the story the is also on the anti zionist yiden thousands of frum yiden and rabunim big talmidi chacuem who get curse and all kind of mean language here all the time why are that muter?
I missed the first article but–
These demonstrators are no different than children who jump up in front of the camera to make sure they are seen.
If they have no publicity, they will not be seen. They will stop–no point in demonstrating if VIN and other media don’t publish them.
and the lack of publicity will kill their egos.
also note–they only demonstrate in good weather–not in rain, snow, sleet, hail, cold.
only in pleasant warm weather.
Such a a nice advocate for our community, it is a shame that there are very few others like her since we discourage our girls from going to colleges and law schools. It seems to me that the only frum women lawyers I know are BT’s who became lawyers before they became frum. A shame.
Anyone to the right of me is an extremist, anyone to the left is an apikores.
They reap what they sow in this world. I have a close friend who’s a talmid chacham muflag, he knows shas and rishonim on his fingertips…totally not frum. Eats chazir on Rosh HaShanah.
He grew up Naturei Karta in Monsey.
You can’t expect to have normal kids when you tell them that they can’t associate with 99% of all religious Jews because they’re “apikorsim, agudistin yemach shemom”.
Go ahead, put a Palestinian flag on your door and see what happens!
Isn’t it fun to preach to the choir? Why, this way we don’t have to focus on our own faults while we dump on people who we have no chance of improving. We can remain self-righteous and smug as we pat ourselves on the back and cheer for our own tired and cliche-ridden ideas.
Rachel: You write they do not fade away if ignored. You should realize then that they certainly do not fade away if given attention. Even critical attention.
Wow! Thanks Ruchie for having the courage to say what needs to be heard! We Baruch Hashem have flourished as a Torah community, however the Yetzer Horah is having a field day pushing and misguiding people into extreemism and zealoutry causing people to lose focus for whom we are being frum for all together. Thats what we daven for when we say “Vehaser Satan Milfanenu Umeacharenu” .
Extreemism is all over, people are just afraid to speak out, it seems scary to speak against someone who has a position of leadership. The words “Daas Torah” is thrown around to promote personal agendas by those who have the power to use it. I speak from personal experience i’ve been burnt by “Daas Torah” that wasn’t. I consulted a leading Rav in my community & got approval for something & when someone else in the community with extreeme views didn’t want it they demonstrated their power to get it “asured” without any considerations of harm or loss caused. All in the name of righteousness. People do mean well but they forget to consult with Hashem if their righteousness is the righteousness that Hashem has in mind.We dont want to speak Lashon Horah,but wrong has to be identified to clarify Truth!
There are 3 problems with this article
1.it’s says zealots- there is nothing wrong with zealots (kanaim)
NETUREI KARTA ARE NOT ZEALOTS
2.to fight against all zealots I know plenty of real Kannaim who have the fear of Hashem in their heart.
3.righteous people should be shtelling dayis not ladies
Rash says perek aleph passuk yud gimmel where tells klal yisroel havi lachem anashim
Rashi writes would you think nashim alah mai tzadikim
(I am not a racist just on an important statement like this it should come from a tzaddik)
the destruction of the bais hamikdosh were for those that went to war with the romans, and in today day that means going to the isreali army. that is what the NK is protesting that we shall not aprove nachal charedi.
When Yehuda Leib Maimon, the Minister of Religion in the nascent state of Israel, publicly denounced the Brisker Rov, rabbonim in Israel and America staged very public protests. The reason this is not being done in this case, seems to be because these Neturei Karta look very frum, and the rabbonim are afraid of being being denounced by such frum-looking people.
Did anyone on this board see Jurassic Park? In the climactic scene, the dinosaurs who’ve just figured out how to corner and kill the innocent family turn around and attack their own kind. So with kanoyim anywhere.
Any individuals that hug and kiss murderers and would-be MASS murderers of Jews (i.e. Arafat and Achmadinajad) like the neturei karta do, are NOT only NOT kana’im for HaSh-m, they are Rasha’im gemurim, and ENEMIES of HaSh-m.
They should not be confused with the Satmar Rov, R’ Yoel, and his true followers.
Yes, -Rav Yoel z”l was very anti political Zionism, BUT he loved every Jew, and he wept when Jewish soldiers were killed. He was NOT AT ALL like these mushchasim who have sick, warped, hateful minds and are a big part of what is holding up the coming of Mashiach!
I agree with number 15
All our tzadikim were zealous.
DoYou have alot of fakers who use this fire for wrong things?
Yes you do.
But to go out and ban all zealots
Because of a few people is a decision only a true gadol betorah ubemitzvos can make
That excludes everybody else
ladies,men,monkeys whoever .
Now no one is calling her incompetant just not fit
To start such a war against all zealots.
Reply to number 20
All your proofs from nacho are true but they applied to each in that case not as a klal
Also nashim tzidkanious means
Kevoda bas melech pennima
Not fighting wars
Thank you for raising our awareness regarding our Leadership (rabbonim) being instigated into issuing edicts which are detrimental to our youth directly or indirectly via their representatives.
In a way, I am a bit taken aback.
Our youth, being fragile in their Yiddishkeit, fall victim to external influences, yet at the same time our Leadership also falls prey to external influences (e.g. being instigated).
In some sense, I can understand the youth. They are disenchanted & even pained with their environment so they seek solace. Their definition of feeling good about themselves may not make a whole lot of sense to us but at least I can see why they are attempting to find an alternative lifestyle.
However, for the Leadership to fall prey to external forces is something I cannot fathom. Every which way I tried I could not rationalize it.
The Leadership must take responsibility for this tumult. I believe that once our Leadership admits that they have issued edicts via instigation and not truly halachic, the rate of disillusionment of our youth will subside and I can even foresee many inching back yet so slowly as trust gets rebuilt.
Kol hakavod, Ruchie! Thank you for speaking the truth, even if not everyone is ready to hear it. Kana’us for Hashem is NOT the same as blind, self-serving fanaticism, and our community is in danger if we fail to distinguish between the two.