Thanksgiving Shabbatical

I'll continue after the big Holiday!  Happy Thanksgiving to All-Jew and Gentile!

Rubashkin and Chabad--Causes of Anti-Semitism

In the wake of the conviction of Chabad Rabbi Rubashkin on 86 counts of defrauding St. Louis's First Bank, the Chabad propaganda machine is playing the anti-Semitism card once again. This is not merely a case of someone who happens to be a horthodox Jew doing bad things. Rather, this involves a leader and financier of the worldwide Chabad movement, which thinks that because Rubashkin was charitable, his thefts should be treated as business as usual.

Chabad has formed a "Committee of Concerned Anash for Pidyon Shevuyim". This is literally a rabbinical call to redeem captives and is binding on all Chabad members. In fact, Rubashkin has been proven to be a Robbing Hoodstein, stealing from a bank and giving to the horthodox (minus ten percent for overhead). I'm wondering what the Dierberg family of St. Louis -- which owns First Bank and from whom Rubashkin literally stole millions of dollars -- thinks about this committee and its relationship to the Jewish community of St. Louis. The Dierberg family has been charitable in its own right, but uses its own money for its good works.

The problem is, of course, that while Chabad has a fantastic public relations machine (St. Paul would be proud of them), it speaks for a tiny group of Jews headquartered in Brooklyn who think that their late Rabbi was the messiah (some of them don't even believe he is dead, although he has been buried). It's incredible that the mainstream Jewish leadership welcomes them into the community.

It further puzzles me that the Jewish defense groups like AJC and ADL have said little (except when they supported his pre-trial release on bond). When are they going to realize that the only contact with Jews many Iowa or South Dakota gentiles have is with Rabbi Hoodstein and his band of not so merry men (and women when they are allowed out of the house or are not pregnant)?

Allowing the horthodox to set him up as a leader all Jews is just plain stupid. After every Muslim terrorist attack, our mainstream leadership demands that Muslim groups denounce the terrorists. Why isn't our mainstream leadership denouncing Rubashkin as a financial terrorist and as someone who slanders us a people?

You can Google Rubashkin and Chabad or click on the following:

http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=13459

http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=16487

http://www.forward.com/articles/116780/

Helping those who leave the Religous fold.

Christopher Hitchens is fond of saying that that there are no Christian, Jewish or Muslim children-only children of Christians, Jews and Muslims. 

How unfair that any of them are forced to be indoctrinated in religous dogma and have their lives chosen for them. 

Here is a link to a charity which helps people who want to leave their religous communities.  Its on my list for end of the year contributions.   I'm sending a check for the amount of the percentage of my Jewish Federaiton contribution which would have gone to Bloch Yeshiva High School.

 We need a branch in St. Louis to help children and adults who are in an abusive religious relationship.

http://www.footstepsorg.org/about.php

"Kotel (Western Wall" ) no longer feels like a place for all Jews."

A commentator complained about my interjecting myself into the men-only minyan at a large downtown law firm. The problem is a growing Horthodoxization of Judaism, now to the point where the Horthodox dictate custom and practice even at international Jewish sites like the Kotel, where the horthodox go to the extent of making it impossible for mothers to see their own sons' bar mitzvah. But of course women are equal -- just separate!


Debra Nussbaum Cohen describes the outrageous situation in this week's Jewish Forward:

http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/#story-1

I suppose one could argue that women are treated as equals in Orthodox Judaism: They have their separate place on the other side of the dividing line, so long as they keep their mouths shut and their tallitot off. But at least in Jerusalem there is room for them. In the downtown minyan there is No Room at the Inn! But they are equal, oh yes.

Women are Equal -- It's just that there is No Room at the Inn

Ellen Futterman's News and Schmooze column in this week's St. Louis Jewish Light has a hilarious piece about some Jewish lawyers in St. Louis trying to rustle up a minyan for daily noon-time davening. The service is held at the office of a large, prestigious, civic-minded firm, which forty years ago had the reputation for being exclusively gentile, male and white but now is a leader in diversity.

What's so funny? Well of course the lawyers are orthodox, and only men count towards the ten needed for the minyan. Women would be welcome (of course) but the room is very small and there is no space to have separate seating for the women -- thus no room at the inn. (I once read about a similar situation in a religious treatise and that event caused a big schism in Judaism about two thousand years ago).  But of course women are equal to men in Orthodox Judaism!

Sounds like, to paraphrase the words of Rabbi Groucho Marx, that this is a club that women might not want to join even if they were invited!

I'll post a link when and if it becomes available.

Rabbi Hyim Shafner: "There is a difference between Halacha and homophobia."

Orthodox Rabbi Hyim Shafner of Bais Abraham in St. Louis answered a reader's question on the Jewish Federation's Website regarding his position on homosexuality and Jewish law:

"When our personal fears and prejudices hide under the banner of Halacha, when we use the Torah as a spade to dig with in service of our own predilections, egos and anxieties, we not only do a disservice to the Jewish people but to the Torah itself."

http://www.jewishinstlouis.org/page.aspx?id=204510&page=7

Rabbi Shafner recently distinguished himself when he had the courage to challenge the opinion of Rabbi Zuvravin, head of the St. Louis Orthodox community (Vaad Hoeir), who headed a blue ribbon, expense paid rabbinical trip to Agriprocessors in Postville, New York which concluded that all was well with the Rubashkin operation.

Pioneering Woman Lawyer Represents Block Yeshiva High School

Shulamith Simon, one of St. Louis's finest lawyers, and the first women partner at a major St. Louis law firm is representing BYHS in the Nusach Hari suit. She is is observant. Presuambly this is one of "Shu's" many pro bono efforts.  Rabbi Munk and Goldson teach their students that its wrong to listen a woman sing but its apparently okay for a brilliant woman lawyer to try and bail you out of a tough spot. Here is a link to one of many stories about her recogintion in the community.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4185/is_20060411/ai_n16176295/

Apparently members of the frum community are unhappy that the St. Louis Jewish Light reported the story-but the Light had no choice after it lauded Shaare Emeth's taking BYHS under its wing by renting it  space and then found out that there were other reasons for the move.  Here are several other items which have gone unreported:

1.  The buyer of Nusach Hari's building has backed out leaving the congregation and its hard working, respected Rabbi looking for a new buyer. This has put added financial pressure on the shul. In essence, BYHS may have been able to stay if had paid the rent.

2.  Shaare Emeth demanded a large, up front, deposit from BYHS and when it failed to come up with the cash BYHS's move to its new home was delayed a few weeks.

3.  BYHS's leaders tried to embarrass Nusach Hari to giving it free rent by claiming they were doing a community service.

I've been unable to determine if the Federation has been asked to resolve the situation.