Open Letter To Rav Kanievski From a Ger Tzeddak

Chareidi Violence in Israel - a Protest

Dear Rav Kanievsky, may you live long,

Shalom u-vracha.

My name is Nathan Lopes Cardozo. I am a child of a mixed marriage and made Giur in the Portuguese Spanish orthodox Community in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, when I was 16 years old. Today I am 74. I studied for twelve years in Chareidi yeshivot in England and in Israel, and for the past 40 years have lived with my wife, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren in Eretz Yisrael.

All of my children and grandchildren are religious, some of them chareidi and some deeply religious Dati Leumi. All of them have studied in yeshivot and seminaries. One of my grandsons is named after Rav Shach, z.l.

I learned to greatly revere my teachers at Gateshead Yeshiva, one of whom learned under the holy Chafetz Chayim. My Rosh Yeshivah learned in chavruta with Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman. These people were walking angels.

I have had the merit to meet your father z.l., the Steipler, many years ago—a most remarkable tzaddik and Talmid Chacham.

I converted because I was deeply impressed by orthodox Judaism, its awe of Heaven, its teachings, and above all its ethics. I was fortunate to have a very good secular education—and even obtained a PhD in philosophy, and yet I came to see that no tradition is as great as Judaism. It stands heads and shoulders above everything else.

All my life I have taught Judaism in various orthodox schools, yeshivot, seminaries, and universities. My love for Judaism has only increased over the years, and I am proud to be a religious Jew. I am often invited to explain the beauty of Judaism to those who are not orthodox in Israel and in the diaspora. I cannot imagine a greater honor, and I thank the Ribono shel Olam every day for this great privilege.

While I no longer blindly follow the chareidi point of view, I strongly believe that the chareidi way of life has a lot to offer. I’m deeply impressed by the devotion of its adherents and by their readiness to live a life of simplicity, sometimes under very difficult circumstances. I am sometimes envious of them, because I have not yet reached their level of piety. I do not know whether I ever will; it gives me sleepless nights.

I also know that among the chareidim live some of the greatest of all tzaddikim, remarkable people who show infinite love for all of humankind, and who go out of their way for their fellow human beings. Their institutions of chesed—lovingkindness—for religious and non-religious Jews are remarkable. I have lived in an ultra-orthodox neighborhood for many years and have seen this firsthand.

Even while there are many issues within the chareidi world with which I disagree, I also feel that this community has been unjustifiable attacked by the media, who do not understand that world, are afraid of it, and sometimes judge the chareidim unfairly by double standards.

I have never wavered in defending the rights and merits of this community, and I am proud of the community even when some of its members have attacked me for my views, or when I have disagreed with some of their policies or halachic rulings. I have always seen this as an unfortunate misunderstanding, a lack of knowledge, or merely the fear for anything new.

However since the beginning of the Corona epidemic, I have been put in an impossible position. Everything I stand for—and which the chareidi world as I know it stands for—is being violated in ways I would never have imagined. It is as if my whole world is falling apart, as if Judaism has become a farce.

I see, read, and hear how violent mobs of so-called chareidim bring all of our people into mortal danger by refusing to wear masks, violating the instructions of the government which is trying to save lives. By refusing to close their chadarim and yeshivot, they are putting their own students, their families and friends, and the rest of us in danger. When the police try to enforce the regulations they are physically attacked and called Nazis and other things I do not want to repeat.

Yes, it is true that the way in which some policemen behave is more than despicable, and that other groups who violate government regulations are not treated as the chareidim are, but is that an excuse to behave as some of the chareidim do?

And this behavior is seen on television by Israelis, and by the rest of the world. The Chillul Hashem—the desecration of God’s name—is beyond description.

While I know that large proportions of the chareidi world do adhere to the regulations, this substantial group of people violate everything we stand for. Are we not commanded to value life above almost all else? Are we not committed to create a Kiddush Hashem—a sanctification of God’s name—wherever we go? Should the chareidi community not be an example to all human beings—and at least to our own people?

And what I simply do not understand is that much of this is done in your name, Rabbi Kanievsky, and in the name of a few other chareidi leaders. I know that most chareidi leaders have instructed their followers to adhere to the government regulations. I find it hard to believe that you stand behind behavior that  violates the most fundamental values of Judaism: to keep people alive and healthy to serve God in righteousness and to bring them closer to His service.

I feel deeply ashamed when secular people ask me what is behind this behavior, and see me as part of it. After all, I too wear a beard and a black kippa.

Why is it that the chareidi community can’t see that this is the moment to inspire millions of secular Jews by exemplary behavior?

And yes, I too believe that learning Torah is of supreme value and that it may protect us from many things; it has sustained us for thousands of years. But when the chareidi community, which today makes up 12% of Israel’s population, constitutes almost 40% of the COVID-19 infections in this country, it is clear that learning Torah is not a protection against disease. It is now obvious that the community most committed to learning Torah learning is also the one most affected by this deadly illness!

How many needless deaths will follow from this willful disregard for people’s lives?

Should we not bow our heads before God and admit that this time we are wrong; that our learning does not protect us as we had hoped, for reasons known only to Him?

Or have I been wrong all this time in seeing Judaism as the most profound and elevating voice in this world, capable of creating a better and healthier world? 

Was I wrong in believing that we Jews were “chosen” to achieve that goal?

 Should I perhaps renounce my conversion and say that I no longer want to be part of this people because some of the most “religious” of them are now creating an unprecedented Chillul Hashem?

I know too much of Judaism’s greatness to believe for one moment that Judaism is a farce. Our tradition has influenced us as Jews—and all of humankind—in ways that have been a great blessing.

But I also know that more and more Israelis, who see the chareidim as representing authentic Judaism, will come to hate our tradition.

Rabbi Kanievsky, I do not know what your role is in all of this. There are many—often contractionary—things said in your name. I cannot believe that this comes from you. It may instead come from people surrounding you who misuse your authority.

I am just a simple Jew without any “yichus”, no bearing on the future of this country. But I ask you with all my heart to make an end to this terrible Chillul Hashem, and to persuade all these people to immediately cease their appalling behavior. I ask you to excommunicate or otherwise depose those who are responsible for this disaster, and to return the Crown of the Torah to its former glory.

And if this does not work, perhaps your only recourse is to resign as the leader of the Charedi community and no longer allow anyone access to you, as a protest against what is done in your name. This may very well be the only way to make it clear that you do not want to have any share in this. It will shock all those so-called chareidim as nothing else would, and perhaps bring them to their senses.

In the name of those of us who have dedicated or lives to Torah, I ask you to stop this Chillul Hashem in whatever way you can. If you cannot, we will see more deaths, and even civil war. The disaster which will follow could, chas ve-shalom, destroy our lives, those of our children, and of many generations to come.

May the Ribono shel Olam bless you.

In humility,

Nathan Lopes Cardozo

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The Cat that Didn't Let the Kid fall Out of High-rise Building

 

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Who Pressured The "Jewish Link" to Remove an Article that Exposed Legislation That Pushes LGBT Laws Down Our Throats

 

The Jewish Link published an article by Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter (below) that warned frum voters of two pending "anti-moral bills"  that would mandate LGBT abominations into our School Curriculums. 

 Guess what? ... The Jewish Link caved to pressure from Pro LGBT groups and removed the article ....  

"freedom of speech" when it comes to saving our children goes out the window. 

DIN has received info that Yocheved & Nathan Lindenbaum that recently hosted a "Thursday Happy Hour" on  "Eshel" an organisation that promotes and supports acts of abomination between consenting adults, may be  behind the censure ...

In fact one of the authors of a letter attacking Leiter's article against LGBT propaganda in the kindergartens, was none other than the Lindenbaums of Teaneck, New Jersey 

When DIN contacted the Jewish Link, they did not deny that the Lindenbaums were the ones pressuring them.

Not too long ago people would be embarrassed discussing their sexual desires and perversions and would keep it in the closet ... no longer..now they have taken over the media and fought to allow six foot guys, who wake up in the morning wanting to be a girl, to enter bathrooms of little girls and compete in sports with girls... 

the Lindenbaums have  a lot of time on their hands and because they are "Proud of their gay grandchild, Yitzy" they now want to force their sick agenda on the rest of us and on innocent naive children in schools, beginning in kindergarten

.. and I guess the best way to do this is shut down any opposing opinions.

It's one thing for grandparents to be proud of their grandchildren's accomplishments and aspirations and it's a total other thing to boast about their grandchild's sexual perversions, and reveal it to the entire world. 

Before the state Senate and Assembly meet on January 7 and 11, please urge all three of your state legislators (800-792-8630/LegInfo@NJLeg.org) to help kill two anti-moral bills—which both threaten to pass if we don’t speak out. One, A4454/S2781, aims to propagandize the LGBT lifestyle—to kindergarteners and up in the public schools. The other, S2545, seeks the transgenderization/homosexualization of the state’s long-term healthcare facilities. (For more details see http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/12/10th-of-teves-alert-making-lgbt.html, http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2021/01/why-rabbis-should-fight-lgbt.html.)

Tell them: We refuse to vote in the upcoming elections for those who exploit children, no matter how much government largesse they offer.

The “education” bill (A4454) seeks to escalate the existing mandate to teach LGBT indoctrination in New Jersey public schools.

By teaching children to respect, “welcome” and “include” even flagrant practitioners of LGBT acts, the schools themselves erode the natural revulsion for such transgressions, and even cultivate admiration for them, all under the fraudulent pretext of “education.” We’re not talking about extending compassion to those struggling with their Evil Inclination. This is the government forcing schools to indoctrinate children to “welcome” and “include” those who brazenly flaunt abominable conduct.

Clearly, to teach children such immoral ideas and attitudes is reprehensible, even if it would never affect a single Jew. More specifically, sodomy, which all of these bills seek to legitimize, is a capital crime (VaYikra 20:13, Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, Ch.9:6). In fact, that sin is specifically branded an “abomination” (VaYikra (Lev.) 18:22) within the enumerated forbidden relationships in VaYikra 18, all of which are categorized as “abominations”; it’s “an abomination among abominations,” as the renowned sage known as “the Maharal,” (Prague, 1520-1609) explains on the Gemara Chullin 92b.

Some secular Jews are prominent among the proponents of this and related legislation. We must clarify our unwavering, Torah-based opposition to anything remotely similar to these bills—and the extreme sins they seek to legitimize under the rubric of teaching respect.

As leading rabbis have publicly articulated since 1982, Jews are responsible for the counter-moral actions of their legislators, particularly those for whom they vote, especially due to the public chillul Hashem involved. We must not convey the terrible misimpression that Orthodox Jews care more about financial needs than spiritual threats.

Consider how many Jewish children within the New Jersey public school system, including Orthodox ones—especially those in special education classes—are being forcibly indoctrinated into respecting flagrant homosexual advocates, in direct contradiction to the Torah and what many of them were raised with. Further, allowing this nonsense to be taught in public schools will ultimately facilitate the push to teach it in yeshivas and Bais Yaakov schools.

In a war for the very souls of our children, we need to understand that the LGBT activist agenda is fundamentally not only anti-child and anti-parent, but anti-God.

Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter

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The Monsieur That Fed Jewish Orphans in 1941 in Marseillee

Reb Aaron Dovid Neuman, interviewed in his home in Williamsburg in 2013.

 “In the midst of all this chaos and upheaval, my family was forced to split up. Only after the war did I get to see them again. Meanwhile, I was sent to an orphanage in Marseille.

The orphanage housed some forty or maybe fifty children, many of them as young as three and four years old. Some of them knew that their parents had been killed; others didn’t know what became of their mother or father. Often you would hear children crying, calling out for their parents, who were not there to answer.

As the days wore on, the situation grew more and more desperate, and food became more and more scarce. Many a day we went hungry.

And then, in the beginning of the summer of 1941, a man came to the rescue. We did not know his name; we just called him Monsieur, which is French for “Mister.” Every day, Monsieur would arrive with bags of bread—the long French baguettes—and tuna or sardines, sometimes potatoes too. He would stay until every child had eaten.

Some of the kids were so despondent, they didn’t want to eat. Those children he used to take on his lap, tell them a story, sing to them, and feed them by hand. He made sure everybody was fed. With some of the kids, he’d sit next to them on the floor and cajole them to eat, even feeding them with a spoon, if need be. He was like a father to these sad little children.

He knew every child by name, even though we didn’t know his. We loved him and looked forward to his coming. 

Monsieur came back day after day for several weeks. And I would say that many of the children who lived in the orphanage at that time owe their lives to him. If not for him, I, for one, wouldn’t be here.

Eventually the war ended, and I was reunited with my family. We left Europe and began our lives anew. In 1957, I came to live in New York, and that’s when my uncle suggested that I meet the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Of course I agreed, and scheduled with the Rebbe’s secretary a time for an audience.

At the appointed date, I came to the Chabad Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway and sat down to wait. I read some Tehillim and watched the parade of men and women from all walks of life who had come to see the Rebbe. Finally, I was told it was my turn, and I walked into the Rebbe’s office.

He was smiling, and immediately greeted me: “Dos iz Dovidele!—It’s Dovidele!”

I thought, “How does he know my name?” 

And then I nearly fainted. I was looking at Monsieur. The Rebbe was Monsieur! And he had recognized me before I had recognized him.” 

-Rabbi Aaron Dovid Neuman, interviewed in his home in Williamsburg in 2013.

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South Koreans Singing Zmiros

 

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Larry King's Enormous Heart

 

by Rabbi Irwin Katsof

I met Larry King in 1995. Together with my production colleague Lou Rudolph, Aish Hatorah was attempting to launch an international satellite broadcast to bring awareness to the Jewish community about the plight of Soviet Jews. It was called “Help our People Know” and it was failing dismally.

Then a friend of Lou’s announced she had bumped into Larry King at the hair dresser at the Beverly Wilshire hotel and asked him if he'd meet her rabbi about a project to help Russian Jews. He said sure and minutes later we were racing over to the hotel. On the way to his room, I asked Lou, "What should we ask him?”

"Ask him to be the on-air host of the satellite broadcast."

I was petrified. I am going to ask Larry to host the broadcast of a small, and at the time, relatively unknown organization? We had 100 people signed up. Larry had one million plus viewers a night. You've got to be kidding. There was no way he'd agree to go on air with us.

We walked into his suite. I will always remember his warm, gracious welcome. He bellowed from his arm chair, "Rabbi, how can I help you?”

I muttered softly and in embarrassment, "Well we have this idea of an international broadcast to help Soviet Jews. Would you be the on-air host?"

"Of course," he replied. "What else can I do for you?"

Ten minutes later he had called Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chairman of Dreamworks and Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Paramount Studios and gotten them to agree to be the Co- Chairmen and to give us a sound stage at Paramount studios to produce the broadcast. As they say in Hollywood, the rest is history. The project took off and raised over one million dollars.

This was the first of many projects Larry would undertake to help the Jewish people and Aish HaTorah.

I cannot recall him ever saying no to anything I asked of him.

“Larry, we want to bring a group of leading American Jewish businessmen on a mission to Israel. Would you lead the mission?”

"Of course, Rabbi. Done. What else can I do for you?"

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Biden Rescinds Trump's Protection Of USA's Grid From China

 

President Joe Biden has rescinded a Trump administration protection of the United State's power grid from foreign adversaries, through one of his several executive orders signed shortly after entering office. 

The executive order responsible aims at carrying out the key parts of Biden's environmental agenda.

Section 7, subsection C of the order  suspends a Trump administration executive order for 90 days, called "Securing the United States Bulk-Power System", passed in May 2020 to protect the U.S. power grid from foreign access.

"The following actions are prohibited: any acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of any bulkpower system electric equipment," by persons or parties who may pose "an undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of the design,
integrity, manufacturing, production, distribution, installation, operation,
or maintenance of the bulk-power system in the United States," the Trump administration order reads.

The measure was taken to ensure that the U.S. defense power grid was not exposed to enemies of the U.S. who could exploit an opening in access to hurt the nation.

Biden's new executive order puts this protection on hold for the next 90 days.

"Executive Order 13920 of May 1, 2020 (Securing the United States Bulk-Power System), is hereby suspended for 90 days, the order reads. 

"The Secretary of Energy and the Director of OMB shall jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued," it continues. 

As Biden's order states, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Neera Tanden, will be in charge of replacing Trump's order after the 90 day period. 

Tanden is the president and CEO of left-wing think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP), which was closely entangled with the Obama administration, according to the Washington Post. Since 2009, CAP has reportedly sent delegations to China as part of a USEF program, the National Pulse reports. 

Biden's son Hunter also has alleged corrupt foreign business ties to China, which prompted an FBI investigation in 2018 into his foreign dealings and taxes.  

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MLB legend, Israel supporter Hank Aaron dead at 86

 Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron, one of the greatest power hitters in Major League History, also helped pave the way for other Black players to succeed.

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America’s ‘Great Purge’ (and Israel)

U.S. President Joe Biden and the small crowd assembled on the Washington Mall for his inauguration on Wednesday celebrated the event as “democracy’s day.” But in truth, the state of democracy in America today is nothing to celebrate.

The talking heads on TV, Democrats and a smattering of anti-Trump Republicans insist that the fault for all of America’s political woes lies with former president Donald Trump and the senators and congressmen who joined him in questioning the results of the election in several swing states. For refusing to set aside evidence of widespread election fraud, they stand accused of inciting an insurrection and so endangering the foundations of American democracy.

Trump was impeached for his statements at the Jan. 6 rally, and Democrat lawmakers are calling for senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to be expelled from the Senate for questioning the electoral college votes from states with widespread allegations of election fraud.

The accusers forget conveniently that Democrat leaders from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton have insisted since November 2016 that Trump’s electoral victory was “illegitimate” and that the job of good Americans was to “resist” his “regime.” They forget as well that Democrat lawmakers objected to the certification of the electoral college ballots in 2016. And when their objections failed to overturn the election results, a protest broke out in the visitors’ gallery of the Capitol. Several protesters were arrested.

No one in the media or in the coastal elite ever accused Pelosi and Clinton of inciting an insurrection, even as hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets demanding that Trump be overthrown.

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Munkatcher Boys’ Choir Sings Tribute to Donald Trump

Beautiful, now ask your tatties if you can leave the Eretz HaAmim and Tumah and move to Eretz HaKodesh

 Even without hearing the words, the pictures that animate the “Appreciation Song for President Trump” sung by a group of Hasidic boys clearly spell out the reasons for their appreciation for Donald Trump.

“With devotion so strong, you lead us like you know how,” they sing as a photo of Sholom Rubashkin, the former meat processing plant owner whose 27-year prison sentence Trump commuted in December 2017 appears on the screen.

“The economy is growing like never before,” they sing against the backdrop of a stock ticker.

“The peace that you bring, freedom back to its core,” they sing as a photo of Trump announcing a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates flashes by.

Set to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the song sung by boys from Camp Munkatch, a summer camp run by a Hasidic sect based in Brooklyn, is not the first written in Trump’s honor by an Orthodox singer or group. Last summer, Yaakov Shwekey, an Orthodox soloist, sang a version of one of his songs rewritten about Trump for a Trump fundraiser in Long Branch, New Jersey.

But it was the latest example —and one that came quite late, given that it was uploaded to YouTube the day the Trump presidency ended — of the fervent support for Trump among Orthodox Jews, the overwhelming majority of whom are thought to have voted for his reelection in November.

The Camp Munkatch song, sung equally in English and Yiddish, includes photos from significant moments throughout the Trump presidency as well as video from a trip the camp took to Washington, D.C., in 2019.

“We the children came here from the Munkatcher camp to so proudly say thanks to our President Trump now,” the boys sing as video shows them visiting sites in Washington. It even includes a reference to Trump’s pardon of Sholam Weiss, a Brooklyn-born businessman sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in 2000 in a major insurance fraud scheme, in the final hours of his presidency.

The boys end the song with a phrase from the Jewish prayer for kings.

“Shechalak michvodo levasar vadam,” they sing while the video shows Trump visiting the Western Wall. The phrase refers to God “who shares from his glory with human beings.”

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