Who Is a Jew

The following is an artilce that appeared in JC. It continues the conversation about Tropper, EJF and conversions. But the funniest line is below in bold italic print. When I read it I couldn't stop laughing!

In applying stringent policies, the United Synagogue finds itself with some dubious bedfellows.

By Miriam Shaviv, December 30, 2009

Three children rejected from JFS, their parents’ conversions in doubt and their own Jewish identities in tatters. A legal ruling by a British court establishing “Who is a Jew” in a way at odds with the traditional Jewish definition. A community at risk of schism.

How did we get into this mess?

A scandal currently unfolding in New York, at first glance completely unrelated, may shed some light on the current farce.

Two weeks ago, devastating recordings began circulating on the internet of salacious phone conversations between a man and a woman. The man talks about the woman having sex with him and with other men. He also fantasises about rape scenes and discusses cash payments.
Although the tapes remain unauthenticated, it has been widely reported that the man is a certain Rabbi Leib Tropper, who just days earlier had resigned from the conversion agency he founded, Eternal Jewish Family, “to pursue other interests”. There has been no denial. The woman was Shannon Orand, one of his own conversion candidates. Last week Ms Orand claimed she had been told by Rabbi Tropper: “If you fulfil my needs, I’ll fulfil yours — and you need a conversion”.

What really compounded the scandal is that EJF, the organisation Rabbi Tropper fronted, was an enormously influential international pressure group calling for the strictest of standards in conversion, such that only converts adopting a Charedi lifestyle would be acceptable.

Not long ago, Rabbi Tropper nullified a conversion he himself had carried out because the female convert was seen wearing trousers (an irony, perhaps, in that he was allegedly willing to offer Ms Orand a conversion for removing hers).

Another EJF leader declared in 2007 that any rabbi who believes the world is older than 5,768 years is ineligible to sit on a conversion court.

Their biggest success came in 2006, when the Israeli rabbinate declared it would not recognise Orthodox conversions carried out in America, except by a tiny group of mostly Charedi rabbis. This was seen as a deliberate (and successful) attempt, spurred on by EJF, to disenfranchise Modern Orthodox rabbis.

EJF’s actions were highly controversial, exclusionary, extreme and schismatic — even before the current scandal. And therein lies the Anglo-Jewish connection.

A prominent member of Rabbi Tropper’s organisation is Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, former head of the London Beth Din. He has spoken at EJF conventions — most recently in November — and is chairman of its halachic committee in Europe. Moreover, he has been quoted on Charedi websites encouraging EJF to expand its activities into Europe — although the Conference of European Rabbis (whose beth din he also heads) recently passed a resolution strongly objecting to this potential interference.

Dayan Ehrentreu took up his position with EJF only after he retired from the LBD in 2006. Nevertheless, it is legitimate to ask why he was — and, judging by a letter he signed last week praising the group, still is — willing to associate himself with EJF, whose values are openly antagonistic to those of the supposedly centrist United Synagogue.

What does this say about his attitudes while still in office? Dayan Ehrentreu was, for years, a dominant force behind the policy on conversions for the London Beth Din. It was his ultra-strict approach to giyur that resulted in the annulment of the Orthodox conversions of Helen Sagal and Kate Lightman — ultimately paving the way for the father of Boy “M” to sue when his child, son of a Progressive convert, was rejected from JFS.

To what extent were these policies determined in New York and Bnei Brak? Dayan Ehrentreu would doubtless be shocked by Rabbi Tropper’s alleged immoral behaviour and nobody would accuse Dayan Ehrentreu of anything underhand. But his attitudes do not exist in a vacuum. The policies EJF has pursued stem from an expressed desire to impose Charedi standards for conversion across the world, obliterating any local discretion which might take into account the character and nature of local community cultures. In North America, this agenda was pushed hard by one zealot, whose religious pretensions — if the allegations are true — are a corrupt, hypocritical and scandalous charade. In Israel, it is pushed by a Charedi-dominated rabbinate with a highly political agenda.

Is this really a “gold standard” that United Synagogue members are comfortable with? Perhaps the real problem is not the Supreme Court imposing on us a Christian idea of Who is a Jew but the London Beth Din imposing on us a Charedi idea of Who is a Jew.

What's the Matter with These People?

From Friday's Jerusalem Post:

Police officers on Thursday morning were attacked by a haredi mob after being dispatched to the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood in Jerusalem to tend to a woman who was assaulted by the "modesty patrol."

When the law enforcement officials arrived at Rehov Admon, haredim began to congregate and throw stones at the officers.

The police car was slightly damaged, but no officers were hurt.
Reinforcements were dispatched to the scene.

The modesty patrol, an all-male vigilante group which has been active in the city's haredi neighborhoods, has been linked to numerous acts of violence over the years in their attempts to ensure the city's haredi residents conduct themselves in accordance with the conventions of their ultra-Orthodox lifestyle.

On Wednesday, a group of haredi men attacked a police car that was alerted to Jerusalem's Avodat Yisrael Street in the Mea She'arim neighborhood.

The group called the policemen "Nazis" and kicked the car, causing light damage.
No one was hurt in the incident and the suspects fled the scene.

You've Got a Friend

Saw this on Chaptzem:

What exactly happened to Motty Borger during the last few seconds of his life I will never know.

One thing I do know is that Motty loved people. He loved everyone around him and was a good friend who you could always count on for a quick sharp one-liner or a good hearty laugh.

I spent a lot of time with Motty throughout the years, he was there for me in my time of need, fully and completely without hesitation and without the expectation of reciprocation.

Motty was a true friend and I now miss him dearly.

There are many things that I do not know, but I know one thing for sure. I want to remember Motty exactly the way he was on his wedding day, happy, joyful and full of hope, looking eagerly into the future to his whole life ahead of him.

To this I say, "AMEN!"

Yael Trump

This video is amazng! Ivanka Trump is now an Orthodox Jew... Who'd a thunk it? Note the invitation in this video. It looks like a typical Frum invitation. And she changed her name to Yael. Doesn't Donald Trump care that his daughter converted to Judiasm? I guess not. He seems to be OK with it.

5770 - Does anyone really know what time it is?

As I was walking down the street one day
A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was on my watch, yeah
And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
A pretty lady looked at me and said her diamond watch had stopped cold dead
And I said

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to cry

And I was walking down the street one day
Being pushed and shoved by people trying to beat the clock, oh, no I just dont know
I dont know
And I said, yes I said

Background:
People runnin everywhere
Dont know where to go
Dont know where I am
Cant see past the next step
Dont have time to think past the last mile
Have no time to look around
Just run around, run around and think why

Does anybody really know what time it is
Does anybody really care
If so I cant imagine why
Weve all got time enough to die

In Tribute to a Local Hero

The following was posted in a comment on UOJ.

I am not in the habit of quoting from his blog. Not because I don't I approve of his goals. I do. But because I do not approve of his methods.

This comment deserves to be singled out. It is a tribute to someone I know who quietly and without pay does the work that few people are willing to do even for pay. I salute him!

"Until someone swims against the tide of denial, stops the flow, builds a dam, and changes the minhag child sexual abuse doesn't go away on its own."

Our Rabbi in Chicago, Rabbi Finkel told us the same thing. IT'S UP TO EACH OF US to stop the cycle of abuse. It's either your FOR it or AGAINST it. Once a victim acts on the sickness, he is NO LONGER A VICTIM, HE's A PERPETRATOR.

We took Rabbi Finkel up on his challenge to find meaning in our life. Many of us are on our way back or have already arrived. We were treated like GARBAGE by the community and the so called "Rabbis" because we were challenging the way things were done in Chicago for ages. We have our own Rabbi who went through the same treatment for turning the tide.

We are so proud to have stood up, and still stand up against all garbage thrown at us. The MORE DIRT THE RABBIS AND COMMUNITY THROW AT US, THE CLEANER WE FEEL. We won't continue the chain of abuse. Thank God he came into our lives when we finally hit bottom and strengthened us and challenged us to make a life for ourself.

IF WE CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU!! We know how bad off we were yet OVERCAME, YOU CAN ALSO!! Don't give up, you can do it. It might take a REAL RABBI to help you along, we found ours, we hope you find yours. They exist in every city, please find that man and give it a try.

STOP THE CYCLE! TAKE THE KNOCKS PEOPLE WILL GIVE YOU! IT MAY BE HARD! IT MAY HURT! BUT, WHEN YOU DO IT, THERE'S NO FEELING LIKE IT!

Rabbi Finkel thank you for throwing us a lifeline when we were about to drown. You should reap the benfits of your work and have Nachas from your kids and future generations. Working for no money shows the dedication and care you have for suffering souls. By us spreading your teachings, you have no idea how many people's lives you have touched.

SHANA TOVAH!

Putting our Best Foot Forward

Well our people have once again made the New York Times. Doesn't this make Judaism appealing? Read it and weep!

Religious-Secular Divide, Tugging at Israel’s Heart

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — On Saturday, as on every Saturday in recent weeks, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered before dusk on the terraces above the Carta parking lot just outside the Old City walls. In black silk Sabbath robes and fur hats, they lined up in rows, perched and waiting.

Suddenly their foot soldiers arrived on the street below, protesters who surged past the newly opened luxury Mamilla Hotel. Police officers mounted on horses rushed to meet them as hotel guests looked on, bewildered, from windows on the upper floors.

This summer, radical elements of the ultra-Orthodox community have been demonstrating and rioting against city authorities, welfare officials and the police. For Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, a secular high-tech millionaire trying to attract more business, tourism and professional types to the city, the timing has been inopportune, to say the least.

The tensions in this contested city usually run along an east-west, Jewish-Palestinian divide. But within the western, predominantly Jewish, section of the city, the cultural fault lines between religious and secular Jews run deep. Any change in the delicate status quo seems capable of setting off a riot, as Jerusalem’s most zealous Jews and liberals vie for the city’s character and soul.

“It is all part of the special human mosaic that makes up Jerusalem,” said Israel Kimhi, a director of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, an independent research organization here. But the recent turmoil “does not do much for the image of the city,” he added, arguing that a small but strident section of the ultra-Orthodox population has grown increasingly extreme.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as haredim, or those who fear God, went to battle in years past to ensure observation of the Jewish Sabbath, and tried to force the closing of movie theaters and roads. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, strictly observant Jews do not work, use electric devices, spend money or drive. There are no municipal services during the Sabbath in Jerusalem, and on the Jewish side most businesses are closed.

But after a 13-year lull in what local residents call the “Sabbath wars,” another round started one Saturday in June, when City Hall decided to open a parking lot. With the security situation in Jerusalem relatively calm, tourists and day trippers have been flocking back to the Old City on weekends, prompting a need for somewhere to park their cars.

At first, the mayor opened a municipal parking lot under City Hall. When that led to protests, he opened the private Carta lot under Arab management, and made it free of charge. The protests only intensified.

Yoelish Kraus, the operations chief for the Eda Haredit, the militantly Orthodox organization behind the protests, said the mayor’s mistake was announcing the opening of the parking lot at a news conference. As soon as there is a public sanction for violating the Sabbath, he said, “we
have to fight.”

The ultra-Orthodox make up about a third of Jerusalem’s Jewish population, and the adherents of the Eda Haredit are only a fraction of that. But with an average of 10 children per family, Mr. Kraus said, the community is growing fast.

The rabbinic sects of the Eda Haredit are the scions of Orthodox Jews who were in Palestine before the foundation of Israel in 1948. In the absence of the Messiah, they fervently reject Zionism and the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

The protesters called the police “Nazis” and spat at them. Special Force police officers dumped troublemakers into the fragrant rosemary and lavender bushes along the sidewalk. Protesters who tried to block the road were sprayed with pepper gas and carried off in a prison service van.
A small knot of secular counterprotesters sang songs at a bus stop while ultra-Orthodox demonstrators threw plastic bottles of water and pebbles at them. “The parking lot will stay open because we will not let it close,” said Nir Pereg, 29, a secular resident of the city, as his companions belted out a round of “Jerusalem will not fall.”

The Eda Haredit has also rallied around one of its members this summer, a mother who was arrested on suspicion of starving her 3-year-old son. Her supporters rioted in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and set fire to a local welfare office where she had met with social workers before being detained.

Fierce riots broke out on Sunday night after the police entered a central ultra-Orthodox neighborhood to remove the body of a murder victim from a hostel. The riot seemed to have more to do with a general hatred of the police than the killing itself, which did not even involve a member of the ultra-Orthodox community. For the first time, the police used tear gas and stun grenades and fired in the air to disperse the crowds.

The Eda Haredit called the police “murderers,” saying later in a poster that a young yeshiva student had been run over and badly wounded by a vehicle of the “Zionist Gestapo” force.

Violence then broke out again on Tuesday night, when a mob attacked a taxi driven by an Arab driver in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. The driver escaped, though the car was battered.

In a modest counterstrike on a recent weekday morning, eight non-Orthodox Jewish activists — six women and two men — got on a No. 40 bus heading from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot D into town. The women sat down in the front rows. The men went to the back.

Ramot D is an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood where rigid religious rules are applied. The No. 40 is one of several public bus lines designated as “mehadrin,” or strictly kosher, where the men sit in the front and the women behind. The activists view this draconian interpretation of the modesty code practiced by Orthodox Jews as discriminatory, and the policy is being appealed in Israel’s Supreme Court.

Stern black-coated male passengers muttered their disapproval, but the Rosa Parks-inspired act of civil disobedience took place peacefully, largely because the bus driver, an Arab, decided not to try to enforce the rules.

Some ultra-Orthodox women said they liked the separate seating arrangement. Others took advantage of the activists’ presence and moved to the front.