Friday, May 30, 2014

Novominsk Rebbe VS. frum bloggers

Novomisker Rebbe shlita
 Following he words of truth spoken by the Novominsker Rebbe shlita at the Agudah Dinner, naturally the critics came out in full force. (As expected when truth hits home it its hard to stomach it). The media went after NYC mayor Bill de Blasio for not responding to the remarks, since he was there during the speech and spoke immediately afterwords. The self hating NY Times was quick to attack the mayor as did the NY daily news.
The problem is the bloggers and young activists with no hadracha, publicly shamed the Novominsker Rebbe and the Agudah for standing by. They know better than the gedolim!

A Political writer for the Yeshiva world news and JP updates  tweeted this:
"Orthodox Jews are equally offended. Agudath Israel should've known better. Why did mayor choose this event" he followed up in another tweet "
 what I find more interesting is that Agudah is standing by remarks, calling criticism "crazy". This is not from the secular media this is our frum websites and blogs. On Vosizneias the yiddish sounding site the comments are calling the Rebbe senile (R"L). We must let the politicians and others know, that these so called activist, bloggers, self appointed spokespeople, and websites do not represent and were not appointed by anyone or organization of  the Torah orthodox Jewry. we will only be guided by gedolim and so will our representatives.
The Agudah responded to the criticism of the mayor,
“Rabbi Perlow did not disparage fellow Jews, but rather theologies that claim to be faithful to the Jewish religious tradition but are not. What he addressed were ideas and beliefs, not innocent Jews who may have been misled by the Zeitgeist and its blandishments.”

12 comments:

  1. Fotheringay-PhippsMay 30, 2014 at 12:35 PM

    The Novominsker said what needs to be said, but it shouldn't have been said at an event that was also aimed at secular and non-Jews. As a practical matter, there's no need to attract outside attention to this type of message, valid and important as it is.

    The Aguda Convention would have been a better venue.

    For some reason, this lesson seems to be very hard for people to absorb. Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva and maggidei shiur get used to speaking for the people right in front of them (or their intended audience) and don't seem to appreciate that other people are hearing their words and in some cases have a lot of interest in, and their own spin on, them.

    I was once going through a neo-Nazi website and they had a link to a shiur from R' Yissochor Frand.

    What happened to the Novominsker is essentially the same thing as what just happened to R' Nissan Kaplan and to a lot of others beforehand (e.g. R' Hershel Schechter et al).

    Chachomim, hizaharu bidivreichem ...

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    1. Fotheringay-Phipps - The Novominsker Rebbe is very astute and he knew exactly who the crowd is. He obviously felt that this is a better forum to get out this message than the Convention.

      My thinking is that he wanted this message to get out, and it obviously did. You never hear a firestorm after a Convention speech because they aren't as public.

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    2. Fotheringay-PhippsMay 30, 2014 at 4:53 PM

      I disagree with that. The Agudah is now in damage control mode and politicians who thought they could just show up at an Agudah event and slap some backs are too - they will have to be more cautious in dealing with the Agudah from now on.

      The NY Times running editorials condemning politicians for not condemning you is not a "good thing". (I appreciate that the NYT is never going to be a fan of true Judaism, but it's best to stay off their radar.)

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  2. Fotheringay-PhippsMay 30, 2014 at 12:39 PM

    On another note, your description of VosIzNais as a "yiddish sounding site" is very apt. It's been obvious to me for some time that the orientation of that website is not charedi at all. But a lot of people are misled by the name. Subtract that out and it's really no different than any other MO website.

    [I think it might have changed hands at some point.]

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  3. I really don't see the big deal. I didn't hear any "fiery speech" as reported on other blogs. He basically said that those who don't follow Torah will disappear. Well, if history is any judge, he is 100% right.

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  4. This is unbelievable. The Agudah finally veers back to its roots and purpose and they get criticized. Do these blogger and "pundits" have a clue why the Agudah was founded?

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  5. Jacob Kornbluh does not work for YWN.

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  6. Not entirely sure what the Novominsker was trying to accomplish.
    If it was to condemn the non-religious then the frum crowd didn't need to be convinced, the non-Jews don't know what the basis for the fight is and the non-religious don't give a fig about what the Novominsker thinks of them.
    So other than coming across as an intolerant ayatollah figure, what did he accomplish?

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    1. The Rebbe was speaking what has to be said dont be so sure the frum crowd does not need convincing. The open orthodoxy movement are very dangerous and we have to hear it from the gedolim. The Rebbe's job is not to educate the non religious he has to say what has to be said, Otherwise many frum will not be convinced. It is only because of the statements from our leaders that we strengthen our beliefs.

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  7. I don't see anything wrong at all to say the truth. There is a major problem with the frum bloggers who seem to always know better then are gedolim. Even the so called frum blogs, are anti gedolim. Usually if they are against something, you know the gedolim are right, not that they need my haskama, but I usually take the side the bloggers are against

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