Hamodia Newspaper Forced By Court Order To Publish Engagement Of R. Shaul’s Chassidim

DIN: This news story is an example of why we are losing our youth by the tens of thousands. Is this Torah? Is this spiritual leadership? Is this the education that we wish to give our children? 

Shame on Hamodia! Shame on the Gerer Community!

 In an unusual incident which silhouetted the chasm between the two opposing factions in the Gur chasidus, the Hamodia newspaper was forced by court order to publish an engagement announcement for a member of Rabbi Shaul’s faction – and made no secret of the fact.

As is customary, the Hamodia newspaper announces all the new engagements on its front page, including the name of the choson and kallah and their place of study. However due to the current rift within the chasidus, the newspaper refrains from publishing the engagements from Rav Shaul’s community, even when they involve families who have members in both camps.

Last week, R’ Shlomo Elbaum’s son got engaged. R’ Shlomo is a lawyer and has represented R’ Shaul’s faction in numerous legal proceedings they have had with Gur. R’ Shlomo submitted an engagement ad which predictably was refused by Hamodia but he then decided to go to court to try and force the newspaper to publish his announcement.

The newspaper claimed in its defense that it cannot publish the place of study for students from R’ Shaul’s community as it is called “Penei Menachem” and this is an insult to the mainstream yeshiva which has the same name.

The court agreed that the yeshiva’s name should not be published and instead the yeshiva’s address should be placed in the ad. Thus, the Choson was described as studying in “The yeshiva at 2 Ohr Elchonon street.” Hamodia wished to stress that they had been forced to publish the announcement against their wishes and therefore added an addendum :’This announcement was placed and worded by the courts,” in a reference to the court decision.