Monday, December 26, 2022

What really happened at Peninim Girls Seminary?

 

Rumors rumors, but what really happened?

It seems like a bunch of girls from the Peninim Seminary dressed up as Arabs and bought knives at Osher Ad Supermarket, the Israel version of Bingo, and then posted the reactions of people at the store on Tic Toc! 

Police were called and they were expelled from Seminary, and some say that they were banned from ever entering the State of Israel. 

The photo above is from the now closed Tic Toc account!


Now I admit that I really don't know for certain what really happened except that the above photo is genuine. (If anyone has more info please comment)

There were rumors that the girls got arrested, but that makes absolutely no sense, since any "genuine" Arab can walk into Osher Ad or any store for that matter and can legally buy any knife he wishes, without getting arrested. 

But what I would like to address is something totally different. 

First of all, I think that the Seminary should not have expelled these girls which could possibly ruin their entire lives. It was a prank, maybe an extreme one and a stupid one, but to expel them and ruin their future is cruel. For those who would argue that this is an extreme prank, and they deserve to be punished severely, I will get back to that later in the post. 

This brings me to another point altogether. 

These Seminaries go to the USA to recruit girls and they choose and handpick the cream of the crop, and then charge fees anywhere from $25,000.00 -$45,000.00. This doesn't include any airfare or spending money and doesn't include all the expenses that parents would have to incur to visit their children. 

To add insult to injury, the girls have to beg and schnoor to stay somewhere for Shabbos, but that's a whole other story.

So, let's take Peninim for example, they specifically chose these girls that subsequently took part in this prank, for their Seminary, so they must have been by-in-large "great" girls. They screened them, right? And if what I hear is correct, that they were expelled, then either the "screening" process is flawed, or the Seminaries are a bunch of thieves!

How so?

The Seminaries that expel the girls in mid semester for any reason, do not return the tuition! Yes, you read that right! They refuse to return the tuition. 

You could argue in their defense that, that spot was reserved for this particular student and now that the girl "broke the rules" and was expelled, the Seminary is now hard pressed to find another replacement mid semester, so they are out the $45,000.00. 

This argument is flawed on many levels. 

First of all, since the Seminary itself chose the girls, they should now share in the loss. Seminaries are a business and in business you lose some and win some.

Second of all, the parents of these girls, I'm sure are searching high and low for another seminary to accept them and this will cost them a pretty penny. The parents have no choice but place them in an alternate school, as bringing them home now would directly affect their shidduchim prospects. They would be able to explain away switching schools in mid semester but will not be able to explain having them come home. The total cost for the parents now will amount to over $80,000.00. (This is assuming they weren't expelled from the country).

I know for a fact of at least 20 girls from various different seminaries that were expelled for various different infractions, some minor, are roaming the streets either waiting for another seminary to accept them or waiting it out till Pesach when most girls go back to the states. The seminaries threw them out without giving the parents any prior notice. 

Aren't these Jewish children. no matter what infraction they may have violated?  So we now have to destroy their entire future and lives?

I'm sick and tired of these clips that have rabbis give a moment of inspiration... I say shove it! 

Where are you when Jewish blood is being spilled by Frum Rabbanim and administrators 

My humble opinion is that the seminaries should reap what they sow and never throw out a child unless she killed someone, period! I know that there are other parents in the seminaries who paid huge tuitions to get their princesses into these schools and are pressuring the administration to have girls that don't fit the mold, expelled. 

These parents are very selfish, and if it was their own daughter, they would sing an entirely different tune.  

Now let me address how a frum seminary girl brought up in a warm loving home in the USA would dress up as an Arab and buy knives to pull off a prank in a Jewish country at war. 

This wasn't one girl by herself doing this prank, I understand that there were four or more of them. So, four or more frum "tzneesdikeh" girls, Bais Yaakov graduates, hand chosen by Peninim to study in their institution, decided to dress up as Arabs to scare the daylights out of old ladies, old people, young mothers and their young children.  How in the world could this happen? What could possibly have gone wrong?

I will shock you with my logic, which I believe is 100% accurate!

This is the fault of the parents, the Bais Yaakovs they attended and the Seminaries!

 OUCH!

None of the above instill any love for the Jewish State!

For the parents, seminaries are just a conduit for a shidduch, it has nothing to do with Yiddishkeit or love for the majority of the Jewish people living in Israel. To them, just like the vicious antisemites, hating Zionists is not a crime. Some parents send them to have the "Israel Experience" but not because the Jewish State is a vital part of Judaism, to them the "experience" happens to be in Israel, they would have been just as happy if the Seminaries were Uganda.

The Bais Yaakovs do not teach, "chas ve'challila" how the Jewish State was established and do not foster any devotion or connection to Israel. This to the Bais Yaakovs, is pure apikorsas. They do not want to teach that the founders of the State though irreligious and some of them even anti-religious dedicated their lives to the cause of the Jewish people, and were able to establish a State that has more Torah learned there than any time in Jewish History going back to Yehoshua, but at the same time, they have no problem teaching them Tanach that discusses that most of the Shoiftem according to Rashi were evil and very problematic and they have no problem teaching them about the Jewish Kings, who were by-in-large ovdei avode zara, 

They do not teach on purpose that there were Gedoilie Yisrael like R' Moliver, R' Kalisher, the Netziv etc that joined Zionists to encourage Aliyah. They don't have any idea that the Gra, the Baal Shem Tov, the Chofetz Chayim were all for making Aliyah. And even those Gedoilim who were initially against the creation of a State, accepted it post facto. The Bais Yaakovs teaches about the Mayflower and about Pocahontas but doesn't G-d forbid teach the history of the Rav HaChalitz, or about Harav Avraham Yitzchok Kook z"l.  Sick!

Yes they teach about the Chazon Ish, the Steipler, the Brisker Rav and R' Chaim Kanievsky z"l but they don't emphasize that they regardless of their views they lived in Eretz Yisrael and would live nowhere else.

Now to the Seminaries who are now throwing out Jewish children like garbage. 

We are talking about Seminaries that are housed in Israel! 

They don't teach any history of Israel, none whatsoever! No hakoras hatoiv..none! G-d forbid they should teach the girls respect for the IDF that put their lives on the line for them every second of the day! To the girls the IDF is there for taking selfies with them. 

So why would anyone be surprised that girls who got a well-rounded Jewish education, cannot relate to the permanent residents of Israel. They cannot fathom, while walking in Machne Yehudah licking their ice cream cones or eating falafel, that Israelis are living in a state of war, they cannot empathize with Israelis that have shelters in their homes, to run for their lives. 

It's not their fault, they haven't been thought the most important statement in the entire Torah

ואהבת לרעך כמוך

As for the arrogant seminaries who throw out Jewish children they should be avoided at all costs, and I pray they close up! How many of these girls will no longer respect our beautiful religion, how many of these girls will be permanently damaged because of the reckless actions of these arrogant self-important administrators. Instead of taking advantage of these "teachable" moments they shun their responsibilities and actively ruin and destroy Jewish souls.

עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון

As for the other parents who put pressure on Seminaries to throw out other children, I say, "take out your own spoiled brats, bring them back to Fakewood, Shnoro-park, and the 5 clowns" Know that you have no guarantees how your children will turn out. One day your turn may very well come up

** Note: There are some seminaries that do teach Israeli history and a love for the State, but these are not the "heimishe or Litvishe"ones!The graduates of these students eventually make Aliyah!

18 comments:

Prof Ryesky said...

Perhaps the seminary management strives to find some pennyass pretext to expel EVERY student so that they can then dismiss all of the teachers, shut down the utilities, and keep all the money.

Anonymous said...

I'm on your website atleast 3 times a day- I generally agree with all your content and respect your views. That being said I absolutely disagree with your take on this story. There are families that are destroyed to to terrorism. Jewish blood spilled from these attacks- it is extremely extremely insensitive to make a joke like this as a prank- would you consider it a joke if they decorated their room as a gas chamber? Their prank was to jokingly scare people in a very sensitive topic. Again I understand what you are saying- and how today people very freely ruin the lives of children by throwing them out of schools etc....but this is crossing the line- especially when this is real everyday risk- if this was something that happened 100 years ago then it would be different- this is very insensitive

Anonymous said...

The biggest danger for the frum chareidi world is from within believe me HKBH sees it all

Anonymous said...

Stop sticking up for trashy girls!
Are you going to defend the seminary girls that sleep with guys in hotels!!! You have to draw the line somewhere, this incidence sheds light on other ares of there life that is improper

Anonymous said...

I have to admit, I’m an adult in my 40’s, visited Isreal many times, yet don’t feel any connection to “the Land” nor do I have any desire to make “Aliah”.
DIN, which book would you recommend that I read/study to get the connection you’re advocating?

Anonymous said...

Oy b'emes a group of sem girls who think sem is camp doing something that they didn't think through for even one second. Nothing to do with Eretz Yisroel, zionists or anything else. Just looking for some action -totally off and misplaced. How many times did girls call the fire department to camp just for the fun of it - out of sheer boredom and lack of anything Jewish with tochen to occupy themselves with.
And how about a camp administration - adults - who hired a police copter and staged a kidnapping just to break out color war while the youngest campers were scared to death?

This Arab stunt was stupid and could have had dangerous consequences, but this post is way off topic. They should be docked or fined and let back into classes.

We Want Moshiach NOW

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Chimish Rashi,
And Ramban.

Anonymous said...

Pninim is a rather inferior seminary, so these girls are hardly handpicked.
And by the way, for this empty woke progressive generation, how many girls have a clue what the Mayflower was ? Even less than the Zionist slanted arguments of your polemics. want to wager ?

Anonymous said...

Imho you can not throw out any kid from any school without finding them at least two options where to go. Period. It's very sad how schools and yeshives are only busy building themselves and not the students. Jets not forget these kids are teenagers and they will do very stupid stuff some times. And that is why and when we need true educators to step in

Anonymous said...

The Seminary is a business. The girls were not expelled for religious reasons or moral ones, but to protect the reputation of the business.

Anonymous said...

This is the same seminary where the rabbi got in trouble for shtupping his students.

Anonymous said...

In 2014

Anonymous said...

If the truth is so important why not do some simple research before publishing things about others.
First hand info.
1. Was not a bunch of girls was 2 girls
2. Was an Israeli girl that initiated this prank.
3. While some people did get nervous most realized that it was a prank especially since they were being videoed by another girl
4. There was never even a though to arrest them. The police just told them that it was not funny and they should cut it out
5. For the above reasons they are still very welcome in Israel
6. They were not expelled for this prank for EXACTLY the reasons you mentioned!
Again when talking about specific people or institutions please verify before you bash. Writing a disclaimer saying that you can't verify doesn't stop people from negatively judging as you well know
!

Peninim Graduate said...

12:05
It's been eight hours since you commented and DIN has not responded, so I will take the liberty to answer you.
You missed the entire gist of the post. I know that because of your defensive response.
The gist of the post was that the girl's seminaries in Israel are rip-offs and do not really care about the spiritual growth of the girls, and if a girl violates one of their "rules" than they are expelled. This post the way I read it, applies to all seminaries and is not about Peninim. Peninim is mentioned because these girls were from Peninim.
Having said that, your entire comment is disingenuous. Let me address your points

1.Even you admit that it was "three" girls as you write in your point 3 that one girl was videoing the prank. The girl videoing was also part of the prank
2. This statement is false, the girl is an American and her parents are American, they live in Israel. She is not the "Israeli" girl that when one has a conversation about and mentions an "Israeli girl"
3.That is not all the point, and there isn't another person in the entire world that sees it that way. And you yourself admit and write "while some people did get nervous" "Some people" who "did get nervous" could be an elderly lady that gets a heart attack!
4. DIN writes that he doesn't believe they got arrested. Did you even read the post or are you stam blabbering.
5.What are you talking about? For the above reasons? The reasons you gave are false. They are welcome in Israel, as DIN pointed out, that any Arab can buy a knife
6. DIN writes in the above post, the post that you probably didn't read, " (If anyone has more info please comment)" and you agree with him that they shouldn't have been expelled.
Then you chastise DIN for bashing the institution, You are probably living in a cave, otherwise you would have known that this story was all over social media, here in Israel and the USA on the IMA blog. DIN was actually very generous and sympathized with the girls.
The bottom line of the post was, that the institutions do not teach אהבת ארץ ישראל
and that's how it could be possible that girls would even think of a prank like this.

Anonymous said...

It is the responsibility of the school to work with the parents to find the girls another seminary before they are expelled. No Jewish child should ever feel like garbage. The principal of this school will be held accountable by Hashem if these girls go off the derech. I once told a principal that she was responsible for a girl going off the derech because she was expelled. I told her the story in a gentle polite way hoping that when she worked at her new job as principal in Israel she would not repeat her huge mistake.

Anonymous said...

Also to go along with everyone else’s comments Pninim will expel girls if they go against their rules but they will also allow them back in under a certain set of conditions. And don’t let anyone fool u into thinking that they don’t care abt ure spiritual growth and r in it for the money. Pninim gives so many ppl scolarships and even tho they have no money they r one of the seminary’s that go big with the trips, just a side note. I’m sure if u where to talk to the girl know she wld confess how stupid her actions were and how happy she is with pninim. Sometimes teen are hurting so much inside that they do things just to get the attention that they need and it works for a little bit until they realize that they aren’t being smart abt it. Point being is that Pninim cares abt their student and does teach u abt ahavat eretz yisrael, but teenagers will be teenagers until they mature. So please don’t write up a whole article abt something u know nothing abt and give a bad name to seminaries. Thank you

Anonymous said...

Pninim has nothing to do with this so let’s separate them both. I’ve heard from so many ppl that Pninim is a great school. So let’s not give it a bad rep because of this

Anonymous said...

I’m the girl who dressed up as an Arab and this article is complete bs
And we were not kicked out of the school or the country and wernt arrested