The left leaning frum blogs are salivating about the story posted of a Satmar Chasid that through a twist of fate graduated from Yeshiva University undergraduate school. What a great story, finally a Satmar boy Bucks the trend of his chasidus he did something few young Chasidim do and went to YU to pursue a career and completed a degree in business management. It generated close to 100 comments on VIN and other websites with everyone taking potshots at Satmar how the insular community they worked so hard to create is falling apart in front of their eyes.
The story in itself is nothing new- this boy is not the first chosid to attend YU and wont be the last. There are chasidishe professors who teach at YU.
The bloggers paint a notion how accepting YU students are, they welcomed him with open arms, we are all inclusive to everyone. Meaning to say that since he is a Satmar chosid they really should have rejected him and distanced themselves from him. Did they forget how the Satmar Rebbe would let anyone into his home and give tzedaka to everyone even a yid with a kippah seruga! oh maybe he shouldn't have done that according to that thought.
Unfortunately the sinas chinom causes a simple story as this to be blown out of proportion and used to mock an entire Satmar ideology and kehilla.
This comment was posted elsewhere ..
ReplyDeleteI saw this story reported in several media sites, and I have a bit of trouble understanding why it is considered newsworthy. For one, there are quite a few chassidishe professionals. A chossid with a doctoral degree and a shrtreimel is perhaps not as common as a black bekeshe, but is also not a rarity. Peek at a Nefesh conference of frum mental health professionals, and you will discover at least 2 dozen college educated professionals who wear the full chassidishe garb, aside from many other very frum "right wingers". The field of law boasts several chassidishe lawyers, and the medical field has quite a number of chassidishe doctors. I saw the article, and yawned a big "Ho hum", just another dog bites man story.
Some comments here are disturbing. There is an image of chassidic communities as cults that are far more interested in advancing their particular agenda, without regard to the main goal of following a specific derech of avodas Hashem. There are imperfections (lesser or greater) to find anywhere, wherever on the spectrum a group or individual is found. It would be blasphemous to justify the wrongs. But to dismiss chassidus with the broad brush in some of the above comments is throwing out the baby with bathwater. Before trying to defend these comments, I ask only one question - What do you do to bring Kiddush Hashem to the world? When you have mended your fences accordingly, we will discuss what's wrong with chassidus.
I will only self disclose that I am mainstream chassidish, and I have my cynical opinions as well. However, I will not lower myself to broad brush any group who seek to be ovdei Hashem. The problem with "Open Orthodoxy" is that they seek to keep the label of Orthodox while cutting and snipping away at the mitzvos and basic tenets of emunoh. That is hypocritical, and we cannot tolerate it.