A Rant from Monsey II

Ezzie - My friend Mordy S. from Monsey e-mailed me with his second rant in as many weeks. His first one was very well-received, and I'm confident readers will like this one as well. Once again, please, read the whole thing. It makes a number of very important and sharp points throughout.

A Rant from Monsey II - Mordy S.

This was originally a comment left under the post entitled “The Other Side”. I decided to add some more thoughts to it.

As Oleh Chadasha and DAG pointed out in that post, though there exists no “diocese” in our religion, there is definitely a form of hierarchy that exists in every faction of Judaism. With regards to chassidim, we've seen how succesful those chassidishe hierarchies have been with their respective communities. Feuding leaders makes the news and sends a wonderful message to all Jewish communities.

Just today, many have already heard the news about the yeshiva bochur in KJ stoning the car of whichever relative of whichever hated rabbi’s grave they were visiting. I mean, I could go into a lengthy diatribe of all the chillulei hashem that have spewed forth from that community for the past 15 years, but that’s not the point. The point probably should be that all the chessed that they do and that the constant kidushei hashem that go on daily will never make the news.

But if the chassidim actually did spend some money on PR, whose brilliant idea was it to turn that thing into a mud-slinging political campaign? I know this wasn’t even originally the point of DAG or OC, since this is all really supposed to be about exposing the horrible things that are going on in yeshivas in different communities. But it does tie in to the overall misuse/irresponsibility of power and dissemination of falsified or unconfirmed info that seems to plague just about every Jewish issue that deserves some level of attention.

"So instead of addressing their problems in the proper and civil forum that has now opened, they'll fester for another 20 years until their kids become victims. And so goes the wonderful modern 21st century world of Orthodox Judaism we live in."

Just to make sure the blame gets evenly dispersed and the accountability is equally lacking, someone pointed out in the Canonist’s comments how the organizations to the left have chose to address some of these issues. It seems pretty clear to me that the organizations to the left understand the effects of negative press a little better than the right leaning organizations. (In my opinion it’s either due to their more educated PR staff, or just because they’ve been dealing with more of it for longer.) Most of the time, the left leaning organizations just seem to go ahead and reject any association to the party in question. If one media outlet claims that party is left leaning, the organizations are quick to place a different label on the party in order to avoid having to take a stance on the subject. “They claimed he’s a left-wing MO, while really our organization only represents the views of those of the Ultra-left-wing MO persuasion, therefore we are in no place to issue a statement of any kind,” ya know, something along those lines. And if they do care to make a statement, it winds up sounding something like “whatever the courts say is what we say.”

But like many have pointed out, conspiracy hold its own when referring to legal actions attempted. So stuff never even makes it through the Jewish web of who-knows-who in politics and which organization/wallet speaks the loudest to whichever suit is in charge. So the frum CEO, of whatever company, or the newest “godol hador” of the week thinks this is something that shouldn’t become public knowledge because he knows the cousin’s uncle’s brother’s nephew of the person who did it and “but he’s really such a nice guy and imagine what this would do to his family.”(Hundreds of other families? Chopped liver?) So he gets on the phone with whichever congressman/senator/county legislator/committee board member he’s just given a decent sized contribution to, and there you have it, no more case. It almost that easy folks! And another vicious cycle in Jewish history is formed. Meanwhile, the yeshivish BK hockers just get by with the age-old concept of sweeping things under the rug. And what a large rug it is!!! But I’m really curious how big the broom is…

"I mean, think about all the other issues that you still hear about in passing and do we wonder, “Hmmmm, whatever happened with that?” Then you realize that every time you hear about that particular issue it seems like it’s coming from the same nut job you stopped listening to like 15 years ago because somebody in some organization demonized him in some publication even though they never even met the guy."

One of the most annoying things now is that we'll probably never find out what R' Scheinberg really said. I mean, who's gonna go chase him down Sorotzkin just to ask him, "Hey Rabbi, did you really say it's ok to molest kids?" And I'm sure most of us are aware that information doesn't move as fast in Mattisdorf as it does in the blogosphere. Stories on the net get old after two or three days when they aren't on the front page of a blog anymore, or even when people have to scroll too far down the page. Things could take weeks before they reach from one end of Eli Hacohen all the way to Torah Or, and it could be by the time an issue has blown over and been forgotten already.

But what saddens me the most is that even if we sit here and talk about this, we all know deep down how all the important people are just gonna forget about it like every other issue and the few people who continue to push it after the "leaders" have already addressed the issue (read: covered it up) will be looked at like a bunch of schnuks who are just trying to incite more loshon hora/anger/hatred or something along those lines. I mean, think about all the other issues that you still hear about in passing and do we wonder, “Hmmmm, whatever happened with that?” Then you realize that every time you hear about that particular issue it seems like it’s coming from the same nut job you stopped listening to like 15 years ago because somebody in some organization demonized him in some publication even though they never even met the guy.

"Why do I so easily believe this stuff? Cuz I know people that it's happened to. A lot of people."

And now this lawsuit is going on right under everyone's noses and people who are actually affected by the issue will have also forgot about the fact that they now have a chance to speak out and REALLY address the issue that have been eating away at their entire lives for tens of years. So instead of addressing their problems in the proper and civil forum that has now opened, they'll fester for another 20 years until their kids become victims. And so goes the wonderful modern 21st century world of Orthodox Judaism we live in.

Personally, I believe that rebbe, and many others, have been molesting children ever since yeshivas opened in America. Why do I so easily believe this stuff? Cuz I know people that it's happened to. A lot of people. And all I can say is...

Thank God my parents didn't send me to those schools.