R’ Pinchos Stolper Founder of NCSY Passes on at 90

 

We regret to inform you of the petira of Rabbi Pinchas Stolper zt’l at the age of 90.

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, internationally renowned pioneer in Jewish youth work, was widely respected as a lecturer, teacher, educator, author and thinker. Rabbi Stolper was the founder of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) which he served for 25 years as National Director – from its infancy through its seminal role in the international Teshuva movement.

During more than forty years of working with Jewish youth, he met and counseled thousands of young people. One of the world’s largest and most respected youth movements today, NCSY serves over 40,000 young people in the United States, Canada and Israel with fresh, innovative and creative educational programs.

Rabbi Stolper subsequently served as the Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union for close to 20 years.

A loyal and dedicated disciple of HaGaon Rav Yitzchak Hutner, he was a musmach of the Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin / Gur Aryeh Kollel, and held degrees from Brooklyn College and the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research.

A prolific writer and editor, he was responsible for over 20 volumes and hundreds of articles on Jewish life and thought earning him a broad following as a major Jewish thinker, innovator and leader.

Rabbi Stolper made it his life mission to disseminate the teachings of his Rebbi, Rav Yitzchak Hutner zt’l by writing sefarim that translated and elucidated Rav Hunter’s magnum opus, Pachad Yitzchak.

Rabbi Stolper was also credited with discovering the talent of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Rabbi Stolper subsequently hired him to write books for NCSY, thus catapulting Rabbi Kaplan’s career in Kiruv literature.

Rabbi Stolper lived in Chicago for the last several years. He is survived by his wife, Rebbetzin Elaine Stolper and his two children, Rabbi Akiva Stolper of Flatbush, former Rav of Congregation Ohr Chaim in Miami Beach and Rebbetzin Michal Cohen (wife of Rabbi Zev Cohen) of Chicago. He was predeceased by his daughter, Mrs. Malkie Kaweblum. He also leaves behind thousands of talmidim, who are talmidei chachomim, respected community leaders and distinguished baalei batim.

The levaya will be held on Thursday, May 26th at 9:00AM at Shomrei Hadas, 3803 14th Avenue. The kevura will be in Eretz Yisroel on Har Hamenuchos on Friday, May 27th. Shiva information to follow. Yehi Zichro Baruch.

DIN's Take on the Murder of 19 Children and 2 Adults in Texas

 

DIN readers are usually up to date with the news and know that 19 children and two adults were killed on Tuesday and dozens more injured in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The shooter was 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, who was subsequently killed. The gunman also shot and killed his grandmother before embarking on the shooting spree at the school. The students who were shot dead were between second and fourth grades, and between the ages of 7 and 10.

Of course the DemonRats are blaming the guns and so are many frum Jews. I am not privy of all the gun regulations now in effect and so I don't have an opinion on this until I do some research. But I do know that a gun stopped him and if there were some more adults on campus with guns this would have never happened. 

But I believe I have my finger on the problem and I have not seen anyone talk about it. 

I am on Social Media and Social Media no matter the platform, have ads. 

Facebook has a ribbon on the bottom of the page which lets you choose various functions from a menu. There is a "home" button where you can see all the posts from those who you made "friends" with. 

Then there is a "Gaming" button that lets you play games. 

The "games" are practically all violent. In some of the games you can walk down a busy street with random people walking around and you can just walk over to anyone and punch him in the face without any warnings. These fictional characters look very realistic.

In the ad promoting this particular game, you can see the guy playing the game, which shows a guy or gal controlling the character on the screen, which goes over to a young mother pushing a carriage with a child in it, grab the child toss it into traffic and then punching the young mother to death. The creator of the game not satiated with the violence this character just perpetrated on his victim, finds an elderly guy walking with a cane and proceeds to grab the cane and repeatedly beat the old man with his cane around his head and torso until he collapses.

Now what I just described is just the ad which is supposed to entice you to enter this game, it's not the game. Who knows what violence is in the game itself?

In another ad a young man walks around with a submachine gun and kills all police he sees.

I have just described the "mild" games. This is all on Facebook . Tik Tak is far worse because they have actual people committing violent crimes on random people and then displaying this for the entire world to see.

את חטאי אני מזכיר היום When I was a child growing up, I remember watching movies in which the character got killed. But until he got killed, you got to know him, you saw that he was a family man had one or two children, and may have had parents, and when he was killed, I felt really bad for him and the family that he left behind. 

Today's movies, open up with a scene where a guy murders 10 -20 random people in the first 2 minutes of the film. Children watching this violent movie have no connections or feelings to the people murdered and therefore have absolutely no empathy for the victims.

Most of the videos and movies catering to children and teenagers are loaded with violent content and I'm including cartoons. Remember most children today, don't play outside (except in Israel) they go to an empty home and immediately go to their gaming videos etc and play these violent games. They can even play with others over the internet with people in another state or country; they don't even have to know these competitors. Some of this children are experts in these games and know how to navigate the screen perpetrating the most violence that he can muster without getting his own character hurt . The winner is the one who did the most damage. 

Since they are playing with competitors that they don't even know, they have little or no social interaction with their "live" peers. No one even knows them even in their own school environment. They are for the most part loners. They are also very dangerous. 

I really believe that this is where "the dog is buried." 

A teenager watching or playing a game where he can just walk over to random people  and either torture or kill them in a setting that looks so real and believable, will lose all sensitivity and empathy for the people around him.

He will kill his own grandmother or murder his entire family without giving it a thought.

I believe this is the problem and until others see it this way, violence will continue unabated with or without gun control laws. 

ה' ירחם

I thought Following Yevamos was Confusing Until I saw this freak

 

What is happening pic.twitter.com/UFldAI2uy5

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 25, 2022

CNN's Blood Libel Against the Jews Takes Off in Full Swing

 

What CNN wrote is an outright lie https://t.co/ILFhVSnE83

— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) May 25, 2022

One of the ‘witnesses’ relied upon by @CNN, in their hit piece on #Israel, over death of #ShireenAbuAkleh. https://t.co/T2k3lqMeoI pic.twitter.com/My096w5vXK

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 25, 2022

Chabad Ignoring G-d's Message and Proudly Proclaim “We’re Returning:” to Ukraine

 

Even Pharo's sorcerers said אצבע אלוקים הוא "It's a finger of G-d"

 Hashem got Putin to go into the Jewish blood soaked countries, to make sure that Jews would finally get out , and  yet this open message falls on the Chabad's deaf ears. 

Way in the beginning when Putin was just threatening Chabad Rabbis were encouraging the Ukrainian Jews to stay.  It was only when Putin was nibbling at their heals that they asked the world for help and tried to get the Ukrainian Jews to leave..

The Israeli Government has said that all Jews from the Ukraine can make Aliyah. Why are Jews still there?

A message to the Chabad Rabbis: Enough already! Either stay in the Shvartza Crown Heights or come to Israel and do kiruv here! The Ukrainian Jews want to stay and live with the murderers of their relatives, let them stay.  Heed the signs from Hashem and come home!

Several months after the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, a special conference took place in New York regarding the welfare of Jews in Ukraine at which a decision was made for Rabbanim and Chabad shlichim to gradually return to their communities despite the ongoing war.

The meeting was hosted by HaRav Moshe Kotlarsky, director of the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries and Vice-Chairman of Merkos L’lnyonei Chinuch, and attended by businessman and philanthropist George Rohr, a major donor for kehillos and mosdos in Ukraine for the past 32 years, and prominent Ukraine Rabbanim including the Rav of Dneiper, Rav Shmuel Kamintesky, Rav of Odesasa, Rav Avraham Wolf, Rav of Kharkiv, Rav Moshe Moskowitz, Rav of western Ukraine, Rav Shlomo Wilhem of Zhytomyr, and others.

There are currently about 155 Rabbanim and Chabad shlichim serving in about 30 different communities in Ukrainian cities. Some of the communities suffered severe damage since the war began, especially the devastated city of Mariupol. Other cities still have many Jews living there, including men of enlistment age who were banned from leaving Ukraine and the elderly and handicapped.

Some of the Rabbanim, such as Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky, stayed in Ukraine throughout the war and other Rabbanim left Ukraine and led their communities from afar. The gradual return of the Rabbanim will enable them to preserve the remaining communities and redevelop community institutions.

The Kiddush Club

 

"This is why Jews need their own country"

 

Yesterday an antisemitic mob led by Ali Dawah surrounded and attacked me.

We refuse to be intimidated by such thuggery.

Am Yisrael Chai. pic.twitter.com/z05LNgB7nw

— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) May 23, 2022

Dayan Peretz Rottenberg Chased by Gerer Pogromists Shouting "Sheygatz ..Tinoifas" Taken right out of Satmar Handbook

 

'שייגעץ, 'טינופת': עשרות חסידי גור רודפים אחרי הדיין הרב פרץ רוטנברג, מאנשי הגר"ש אלתר שיצא מהמקווה. pic.twitter.com/z58obqMqJy

— שימי שפר (@Shimishafer) May 21, 2022

Son of the Gerer Rebbe R' Avraham Mordchai Alter Visits Skverer Rebbe to Get Support for the Gerer Pogroms

 

הרה"צ רבי אברהם מרדכי אלתר בנו של האדמו"ר מגור הגיע לביקור מיוחד במעונו של האדמו"ר מסקווירא ושוחח עמו ממושכות בנושא חג השבועות הקרב ובא. pic.twitter.com/pUYd0tSG7u

— יעקב מלמד (@yaakov_melamed) May 24, 2022

What's behind the Ger Pogrom against R' Shaul Alter

 Clashes between rival factions of the Ger Hasidic sect spread across the country over the weekend, exposing a growing and increasingly violent rift in Israel’s largest and most powerful ultra-Orthodox dynasty.

Street fighting erupted Friday in three separate places – the southern city of Ashdod, the predominantly Haredi city of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. Tensions spiked after followers of Rabbi Shaul Alter – the former dean of the movement’s flagship yeshiva in Jerusalem – reportedly hurled insults at Grand Rebbe Yaakov Alter, the movement’s leader and Shaul Alter’s cousin, as the grand rabbi was visiting his mother-in-law’s grave in north Tel Aviv the previous evening.

The fighting, which continued through Saturday evening, comes after years of acrimony between the cousins, who both descend from previous grand rabbis and have competing power bases within the movement.

While Shaul Alter’s followers have not officially set themselves up as a new movement, they have largely been independent since 2019 when a small group of dissatisfied Ger Hasidim declared him their leader, joining him at his Simhat Torah services in defiance of their nominal rebbe.