Jewish World in Shock as Ultra-Orthodox Admit to Wrongdoing
By Shaya Oddet
By Shaya Oddet
In a stunning reversal of a decades long policy, the ultra orthodox world has publicly declared that they will no longer deny, excuse, cover-up, minimize, whitewash, or rationalize the criminal indiscretions of their community. Beginning this coming Elul, community spokespeople have announced, chareidi society will be taking full responsibility for any and all transgressions by its members and leadership.
Ari Shamran, spokesman for the Nogudah, explained the change, "We decided it was best to stop pretending that Chareidim are so much better than everyone else, and finally admit what we've known all along, that we don't really behave any differently than the goyim. For many years, we were able to maintain that myth, but due to all the recent press coverage, we realize that such a story simply isn't plausible anymore, and we need to stop promoting it. It just makes us look foolish."
The head of the Nogudah, R' Shlomo Ferlow told the press, "What with a new scandal being exposed every few days, it's become far too difficult to attribute our misdeeds to a few rotten apples in the community. People just don't buy it anymore."
"We realize that many will find this decision difficult to accept," counseled Shamran, in the official press statement released earlier today. "But after weeks of agonizing deliberations by our gedolim, it was decided that this is the most da'as torah-ish course of action available to us."
As was feared, not everyone was supportive of the novel ruling. One Brooklyn resident, Chaim F. (not his real name) told us, "It's mamesh crazy that they're doing this. Can you imagine the chillul hashem that will come about when people hear about all the stuff going on?! And during Elul?! They really need to ask a rav before going ahead with this."
It seems that the change in policy was a result of not only the increased frequency of the crimes, but also due to the more severe nature of the acts themselves. "It's understandable if we have to whitewash a little tax evasion or the occasional Ponzi scheme," explained Shamran. "But do they really expect us to put a positive spin on trafficking in human organs? No, I'm sorry, but there are some things that even a Torah Jew just doesn't try to excuse."
Another critic, Yehuda R. of Monsey (not his real residence), was less than convinced by Shamran's explanation. "What's the big deal?! They can just say it was pikuach nefesh! Anyway," he said, wagging his finger in angry frustration, "I don't really believe he did it. It's all just a blood libel by the anti-Semitic media. It never happened. My cousin davens in the guy's shul. I'm telling you, there's just no way he could have done that. And besides, it was pikuach nefesh!"
But Shamran insisted the time had come for the community to face the facts. "It's one thing to cover up child molestation that's been going on for decades. It's quite another to refute a two year long undercover FBI investigation." He held up his hands in a gesture of mock surrender. "Yeah, looks like you finally got us," he said laughing. "What took you so long?"
"I think it's a good thing," remarked Mrs. Miriam L., a Lakewood housewife (not her real occupation). "It's about time. I found it much too confusing always having them tell us contradictory things. One day they'd give a speech at the Nogudah Convention exhorting us to always be careful never to make a chillul hashem, and then the next week, they'd be explaining why they don't think child molesters should be brought to justice. How's a da'as torah following person supposed to make sense of it all?"
Despite the many prominent rabbonim who declared their support for the new policy, some rabbis still urged caution. "It's important for people to understand that this is not a p'sak," said R' Moshe Richtig, head of Yeshivas Torah v'Tzedakah. "This is a very complex issue, and anyone who is faced with a situation where they might have to admit to something inappropriate should probably consult their posek first."
Most people in the media were unsure how to take the news. Bloggers in particular were a bit concerned. "I suppose it's a positive development," said the writer known as XGHRWMO. "But it's also a bit troubling. If they really adopt this policy it's going to have a drastic effect on the blogging community. What will we have left to mock? Fake interviews with ex-frum people? I really don't want to go back to writing about the documentary hypothesis," he said, clearly alarmed at the prospect.
Others expressed concern about how the policy would affect their day to day lives. "I know money laundering is a problem, but does this mean I'll have to start paying my workers on the books?" asked the owner of a plumbing supply store. "If I do that I'll probably only be able to afford sending my kids to camp for one month. Do you have any idea what that would do to their shidduch prospects?"
"Does this mean we can't cheat on the regents anymore?" a yeshiva bochur inquired. "They weren't referring to that kind of stuff, right? Mistumeh, that's not really stealing anyway."
But some in the community weren't at all worried how the new policy would affect them. "After all," one storeowner explained confidently. "They never said we have to start abiding by the rules. Just that we should stop denying that we're breaking them. As long as we're careful not to get caught, I don't really see why anything has to change."
33 comments:
Love this. Hedyot, I didn't know you have this in you. Some of your posts are so overly *earnest*, I want to pat you on the arm and say, "there, there." But this is great! Where've you been hiding your sense of humor?
Is this a purim post ?
Breaking News: Richard Dawkins admits that atheists are all a bunch of drunks, drug addicts, whore monger and mass killers. Atheism may not solve all of mankind’s problems.
Breaking news; Richard Dawkins admits that Richard Dawkins is Richard Dawkins, Atheists are all a bunch of Atheists and that drunks, drug addicts, whore mongers and mass killers are drunks, drug addicts, whore mongers and mass killers - regardless of their claimed convictions regarding Deity.
Pierre
Anonymous -
1) Please don't feed the trolls.
2) Use a pseudonym. I will be removing posts that are signed as anonymous.
So if an atheist kills 20 people and eats them
http://jewishphilosopher.blogspot.com/2008/07/atheists-in-their-own-words.html
that does not reflect badly on atheism. But if a rabbi doesn't pay his taxes OMG!! Judaism is bad!! This proves it!
Talk about double standards and bigots.
Methinks, those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
"Not his real residence" - haha.
What is it with the frummocks that they are always so afraid of publicly taking a position on something?
What's with atheist bloggers who are afraid to tell anybody who they are?
Methinks, those who live in glass houses ...
The core problem is poverty. Large families, few marketable skills, idiosyncratic modes of dress, lack of language skills and a feeling of inadequacy and discomfort in the secular world all contribute to make the problem difficult to solve. New ideas would be helpful, especially those proposals that don't require charedim to give up their way of life.
So my question is this...if you were charedi and chassidish, 40 years old, 6 kids, no parnassah and no capital what would you do to get your life in order?
> The core problem is poverty.
No. Poverty is the result of the core problem. The core problem (well, one of them) is a worldview that caused an educated, productive, and engaged people to choose a lifestyle and worldview that resulted in these behaviors and attitudes.
In your last post you said "I don't deny that it is a criticism of the chareidi person... who supports, defends and benefits from a system that enables corruption, hypocrisy, nepotism, and criminal behavior; it's a criticism of the chareidi who subscribes to the widespread societal attitudes that underlay those behaviors… when I let loose, it's not based on any animosity but on a sincere feeling of being bothered by what I see as corruption and injustice in the name of religion... for the past few decades the chareidi world and its leaders have turned a blind eye to the widespread financial impropriety that is commonplace in their society.” Here you give the impression that you are criticizing not charedi life as such but their attitudes towards non Jews and the need to play by the rules and not engage in improper dealings.
Now you say "The core problem (well, one of them) is a worldview that caused an educated, productive, and engaged people to choose a lifestyle and worldview that resulted in these behaviors and attitudes." I am not exactly clear what a worldview that caused a worldview that resulted in these behaviors might be, but I assume it is much wider than the issues of living rightly in a just society. You imply that your problem is with the more general charedi worldviews, and because you differ with those, the actual problems charedi people are facing, namely how to make ends meet when there have so few skills and employment opportunities is not one you want to address. I take it you would say let them change their worldviews and become uncharedi. Fair enough I guess. But I see no reason any charedi should listen to you nor any reason to think you have their best interests at heart.
If c'v you fell on hard times and someone came to you, and instead of helping you, as you are, solve the problem, criticized who you are at the deepest level of your self I doubt if you would feel he has your real interests at heart.
ej -
I don't think you, or anyone else, should listen to me, for any other reason, than that my ideas might have some merit. Ideas should stand on their own, regardless of who said them, or what the motivation of the person saying them are. If you want to focus your energy on proving that I'm biased or inconsistent, fine with me, that's your choice. I'd think that a true believer would much prefer to focus on fixing the problems in their society.
> But I see no reason any charedi should listen to you nor any reason to think you have their best interests at heart.
I never claimed to have the best interests of chareidi society at heart. But that doesn't mean that what I'm saying is any less true.
The community being poor is not the problem. It's the symptom. Sure, treating symptoms has benefits, but it doesn't address the core problem, and until that is solved, the problem will simply manifest itself in other ways.
> If c'v you fell on hard times and someone came to you, and instead of helping you, as you are, solve the problem, criticized who you are at the deepest level of your self I doubt if you would feel he has your real interests at heart.
You have no idea how I react to people who come to me for help, so it would be best to not speak about that.
In any case, the simple fact is that for many people in chareidi society, if they weren't so focused on keeping up with the Jonesenbergs, and were willing to make some hard choices, they would figure out a way to make ends meet. But as long as they are too prideful to get a job in the post office, or work as a janitor, or not spend a fortune on the bungalow colony or summer camp, or not support their kids in kollel, or stop leasing a new car every 2 years, or stop doing any of the myriad things they do which put them in such dire straits, they can't simply hold up their hands and helplessly say, "What am I supposed to do?!"
What got them to this point was the insistence on listening to their gedolim who told them that secular education was bad, that college was a useless waste of time, that hashem would provide, that they just need to have bitachon, and that they should just keep on having more and more children, regardless of if it was sustainable.
Now, after 20 years of mocking and scorning those who were yelling at them to stop digging their own graves, they have the chutzpah to come to those same people and expect them to generously help them out of the hole they now find themselves stuck in?
I won't pursue your latest remark that you "never claimed to have the best interests of chareidi society at heart." Nor am I going insist you are biased.
Where we differ on the facts are in 2 areas. I do not accept the claim that it is the unnecessary materialism of charedim or their extravagant lifestyle that is the cause of the problem. You are confusing the charedi poor with the charedi upper middle class and the charedi rich. The latter are doing just fine, and are one of the main reasons charedi life has been able to expand.
The median income in Kiryas Yoel is $25000 a year. With 6-12 kids even with food stamps etc. life is very tough. Nor are these types of people coming to you asking for donations. Israeli meshuluchim sometimes do go around, but even they tend to go where there is low hanging fruit.In general they only hit on people where they have reason to expect larger donations.
My question is what to do when you don't qualify for a job in the post office. Janitorial jobs are fine, but then there is this problem faced by all welfare recipients...since one will lose the welfare benefits sometimes the initial result of working is even less money coming in.
It is clear enough that the topic where will the money come from is of little interest to you, and I won't raise it again.
Hedyot: Now, after 20 years of mocking and scorning those who were yelling at them to stop digging their own graves, they have the chutzpah to come to those same people and expect them to generously help them out of the hole they now find themselves stuck in?
Huh? Who are these "same people" you are referring to? Whom are the charedim going to for help?
> It is clear enough that the topic where will the money come from is of little interest to you...
Correct. It isn't my responsibility to find solutions to the problems they've put themselves in. I'm just here to point out when the community and its self-righteous leaders act immorally and irresponsibly.
> I do not accept the claim that it is the unnecessary materialism of charedim or their extravagant lifestyle that is the cause of the problem.
Read Orthonomics and the outrageous letters to the editor that she reprints from the Yated and you might change your mind.
evanston -
Why does Hedyot owe anyone solutions? Is a newspaper reporter obligated to provide a solution every time he reports on a problem? One has to be emotionally invested about the best interests of the wider society to be bothered by corruption that he sees within it?
Why in the world would one expect these things of him?
–- The core problem is poverty. ---
The charedi community is not poorer than average. There is huge economic inequality there. While there is poverty, there is also a lot of wealth and entrepreneurship there. While you might attribute a cause of the financial fraud to poverty, you need to have money to launder it. The people who are laundering money through yeshivas are not the people who are “40 years old, 6 kids, no parnassah and no capital.”
The core problem is that frum people live in an environment where they are told to have contempt for goyim, so why would they abide by the goyim’s rules?
Honestly, while I think the question of how the chareidi community should deal with their financial crisis is an important issue to be addressed, I don't see why it is of any relevance to the issue in focus this week - that of the widespread attitude in their circles that cheating the government is only problematic due to chillul hashem concerns.
Maryd Young...The blogs in this part of the internet are essentially conversations between friends, people who though they come from different stripes care about Jews and want them to prosper. I feel the integrity of each group ought to be respected, and if one is going to offer advice it should be within the framework of that group. Telling Reform Jews the intermarriage rate would go down if they were more like Belzer chasidim is not helpful and shows a lack of respect for their integrity. The same is true with regard to charedim. My view is that DH is offering nothing positive which the community can accept. DH and many other bloggers disagree. They feel no need to say things that will be accepted. Their love is a tough love…here are the facts …accept what I am saying or shut the f…up and stop whining.
I feel those aspects of his post that are descriptive and true are well known and understood by everyone including the charedim. Charedi women know if they had given birth to fewer children the economic struggle would be diminished. This is not investigative reporting where new facts are revealed. Most everything he says of charedim, corrupt leadership, lazy people, magical thinking, lack of civic virtues can be said of poor communities around the world, including Arabs, the Palestinians, black Africa etc, around 5 billion people in all. Had we taken this line after the 1967 black riots in America our cities would still be burning. To the extent that these posts provide new and fundamental analysis of charedi life, I for one feel they are pejorative and incorrect. I point out that most common sense theories of economic development have not worked.
Unlike charedim where many feel they can criticize and make fun as they choose, blogs are different. I appreciate that DH treats me respectfully. I have had my say.
ej -
I do actually wish that chareidi society prosper, to the degree that they are able to do so without perpetuating all the many dysfunctions that are endemic to their society.
If getting rid of all the unhealthy aspects of their lifestyle and worldview might irrevocably alter their society to the point that it is unrecognizable to what it is now, it does not in the least bit bother me. Self-destructive and harmful behaviors are not things that should be preserved, even in the name of tradition.
Veganovich...I agree fully with 2 points that you made. I agree there is great inequality. (I said the exact same thing over at R.Maryles 6/31, to make a very different point.) I also agree the criminals last week were not poor.
I would also sign on to the thesis that there are so many possible causal variables we will only end up going around in circles if we talk as I did in terms of the core problem. But frankly so many negative things have been said about charedim in the last three days on this blog and in general around the internet that it difficult to confine the topic to one point. My thought was that poverty which I attribute to a shortage of financial and not human capital is what is stopping any progress.
One of the issues here is whether idealist solutions like preaching and teaching work. I would rather follow the money. For another time.
EJ asks a good question, although DH certainly is not obligated to provide an answer.
Two suggestions, both of which a friend once noted in passing.
1. We have a similar problem in secular academia. It is somewhat like a kollel. There are lots of people who would like to do research in a university --- explore interesting ideas with less responsibility for solving real-world practical problems. But society --- acting through both government and universities --- limits the number of such positions, and there is some competition for them. So America values literature, and lots of people read good books, but not everyone spends years and years in a university reading literature.
So perhaps the charedi community could change the numbers. After all, if one spent less time in kollel and more time learning practical skills when one was young, one could earn more money and afford to have more children and send them to kollel for longer. Like all of life, there are tradeoffs, and the current allocation of time between kollel and learning marketable skills might not be optimal.
2. In academia, some research has marketable value. There may be underexploited areas where detailed charedi knowledge might be useful in other areas. For example, charedi scholars might teach lots of things --- Hebrew, Tanach, halacha, Pirke Avot, even Mishnah or Gemara --- in Reform or Conservative day schools or religious schools. Of course, that would require a more tolerant attitude by both sides, and it would require the charedi teachers not to be a covert kiruv agents. Simply teach the material.
Just realized that Shaya Oddet is an anagram for daas hedyot. Omg, that's brilliant.
1) Forced sterilization of chareidi population might be a solution
2) Do what Iran did to curb overpopulation. Create government sponsored programs training couples on birth control to reduce population to manageable numbers
3) Stop funding them. Let economic desperation lead them out of their crap-hole and force them into the real world. And force secular education as an unavoidable solution down their throats
Bruce: For example, charedi scholars might teach lots of things --- Hebrew, Tanach, halacha, Pirke Avot, even Mishnah or Gemara --- in Reform or Conservative day schools or religious schools.
Uh, you wanna sell me some of what you're smoking? Or are you trying to write a new fairy-tale Utopia?
Yeah, what's with those anonymous atheist bloggers?...
> Yeah, what's with those anonymous atheist bloggers?...
When bloggers choose to remain anonymous, it's often because they fear the very real repercussions that might befall them and their family were they to reveal their identity. In fact, it's ironic that JP calls into question why they remain anonymous, when he himself has called for an active campaign to root them out and punish them!
However, when frum people feel it necessary to keep their identity a secret when sending in their letters to the editor saying nothing more controversial than "I loved last week's article!" or when they recommend some pressing issue in the community that needs addressing, it reveals something a bit more troubling about the nature of chareidi society and their need to never stand out from the crowd.
>When bloggers choose to remain anonymous, it's often because they fear the very real repercussions that might befall them..
I was actually just being a Smartuchas, since if JP was speaking to me, I identified myself in the text of my "anonymous" message, which wasn't anonymous if I named myself in it.
shalmo, We may bash our own but would never stoop to such language. you should feel free join us in the spirit of promoting a just society for all, but not in the spirit of a hate campaign. Take your nazi language elsewhere.
Any man who chooses to be a ‘rabbi’ (‘true teacher’ of Torah) or a ‘dayan’ (‘judge’), or a ‘mekubal’ (‘kabbalist’) should be doing so Voluntarily. Out of his pure love for Hashem and the Torah. And his Ahavat Yisrael.
If he refuses to do community work voluntarily, and wants and accepts payment for everything he does, such a man should not be heading a community. He should get a job and earn a living. He can collect milk bottles or clean the windows. That is what is called ‘earning a living’.
Torah is learned, studied and taught: out of Love. Voluntarily. But the ‘rabbis’ have turned the Torah into their ‘Profession’, from which they earn money.
We are commanded in the Shema to:
‘LOVE Hashem, your G-d, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and with all your soul and with all your might.’
‘VE’AHAVTA et Hashem Elokecha BECHOL LEVAVECHA uvechol nafshecha uvechol meodecha.’ (Devarim, Vaethanan, 6:4-5)
Is the ordinary man or woman PAID to pray to Hashem, or to say some words of Torah? No. Has veshalom! But the rabbis are. These men can give ‘lovely’ shiurim that they have rehearsed. But they would not give a shiur without being paid for it.
The true hachamim and rabbis of old, all actually worked at proper jobs and professions.
Wake up! Even a little child could have worked this out. These salaried men can never truly stand for the Torah, because in a case of conflict between a correct course of action according to the Torah, and the rabbi or rav’s pocket – his pocket and position will always prevail.
Pirkei Avot: (2:2)
“Raban Gamliel beno shel Rabi Yehuda HaNassi omer: yafeh talmud Torah im derech eretz, sheyegiat shenaihem mashkachat avon. Vechol Torah she’ein imah melacha sofa betailah ve’goreret avon. Vechol haoskim im hatzibbur yiheyu imahem leShem Shamayim……”
“Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabi Yehuda HaNassi, said: It is good to combine Torah study with a worldly occupation, for working at them both drives sin from the mind. All Torah without an occupation will in the end fail and lead to sin. And let all who work for the community do so for the sake of Heaven………”
Daas: Hilarous and witty post. Love the parody. Some great lines (not real locaion, not true profession. Hysterical!!! I want to readmore satire here. You are good!
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