The Baltimore Police Department is investigating a disturbing incident that occurred on Tuesday morning on Yeshiva Lane, when a man attempted to run over a senior staff member at Yeshiva Ner Yisroel with a vehicle.
Sources say that at around 7:45AM, a staff member had just gotten into his car outside the Yeshiva, when a man deliberately rammed his vehicle into his car. The man managed to get out of his car and run inside the Yeshiva building.
The suspect then continued his rampage, driving at a high-rate of speed and began chasing another senior staff member of the high school with his vehicle. Eyewitnesses say that he missed striking him by inches, as the suspect drove at a high rate of speed.
Police responded in seconds, and managed to apprehend him and take him into custody.
Detectives are investigating the incident, and are not ruling out any motive.
The identity of the suspect has not been released by Police, but sources confirm that he is a former student, and the man he chased is Rabbi Simcha Cook, principal/Menahel of the high school
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I can only begin to wonder what Rabbi Cook did to that bochur. I am not saying the bochur was right -- that would be insane -- but I can easily imagine a world where Rabbi Cook would blame this all on the bochur and not consider (if just for a moment) that he has done things to others that were out of line in the past.
ReplyDeleteFor those who don't know: It's well known that Ner Yisroel has kicked out a fair number of bachurim from the yeshiva over the last few decades, and (I believe) Rabbi Cook advised other yeshivos of the reasons for said expulsions, even years after those students completely reformed and performed well in other yeshivos. Mind you, the difference of four years for a teenager who has made great strides can feel like a lifetime for him. Rabbi Cook knows that; we all do. But it just didn't cut it for Rabbi Cook. And reputations, and, far more importantly, years of hard work for people like me, were nearly lost if we would have given up.
What's worse, some students from that otherwise excellent yeshiva-- those who were fortunately spared because they had an easier time adapting to an out-of-town yeshiva environment or were simply not suffering from problems at home -- didn't have the knowledge or even the moral chops to refrain from spreading loshon hara about the students forced to leave that yeshiva, even decades after the fact. Their cavalier attitude exhibited extraordinary insensitivity, to the extent that even in-laws were informed of the trifling of a barely teenage boy decades after his misadventures, intensified long-forgotten anguish for no valid reason.
I would be more than glad to discuss my misgivings with Rabbi Cook, if he's open to it. I want to reiterate that no one deserves to be almost killed. What happened was wrong, and potentially criminal in nature. But perhaps its time for some humility and cheshbon hanefesh.
"what happened was wrong, and POTENTIALLY criminal"
DeleteHelllooo??? Potentially???
But otherwise I deff hear the general point you're trying to make..
This comment from Solomon Cohen is similar to the writings of anti-semites every time a Jew is attacked by a non-Jew.
ReplyDelete"You know, I'm not saying this was right to attack the Jew, but we have to have that conversation. You know maybe some humility to find out what the Jews did to cause such hatred. You know, violence is wrong, but you know, we have to ask ourselves what motivates a young man to want to hurt someone, especially the Jew, you know, could it be the action of the Jew?"
Maybe he was molested & was retaliating against the Ner Yishmoel Hanhala who are notorious for covering such things up?
ReplyDeleteDon't look at me as Tatty shipped me off to Philly during mesivta.
Your an animal to bring this up at such a difficult time. The is a time and place for everything!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous of2:47 --
ReplyDeleteYour comment reflects sloppiness or straight out dishonesty. That is, you either didn't read my comment in which I wrote that it is "insane" to suggest what the boy did is right, that no one deserves what happened to Rabbi Cook, that it was wrong and potentially criminal (depending on his state of mind). What I wrote, in fact, is in the spirit of the Rambam halacha in the beginning of Hilchos Taanis. Something wrong happened, those who dismiss it as mere happenstance and don't do teshuva are achzorim. I am offering my two cents, based on what happened to me. And I think Rabbi Cook would lose nothing if he did some cheshbon hanefesh. I would even agree to talk to him about it, if he'd be receptive to it.
Anonymous of 6:41 -- Believe it or not, there is a presumption of innocence in criminal matters, and I would suspect that this young man's mental state may be an issue given what he did.
Unknown -- As I intoned from the above-mentioned Rambam, there is no better time to bring this up than now.
When all's said and done, its easy to dismiss someone as an "animal" or an "anti-semite" or wrose. I am neither. Just a frum Jew who cannot help but note that I am not the only person who experienced what I endured in that yeshiva. Far from it.
I too was thrown out of the mechina several decades ago. For reasons I cannot understand, the supposedly wonderful graduates of that Yeshiva made sure everyone knew—including my in laws. They embarrassed me for decades over and over again.
DeleteInexcusable. Vile. Evil,