Joe emails:
It looks like the glue that was Aron Tendler has finally lost some of its stickiness. The right wingers at Shaarey Zedek for some unknown reason lionized Tendler, even though he was short on most things, including but not limited to scholarly abilities – I think the right wing at SZ is a little less talmudic and more into borsolinos and when Tendler left, they saw a chance to dominate.
Now that he is gone, the youngish right wing does not want any part of the old system. They want their own rabbi who will actively work against the sort of MO tolerant feel of SZ. They want a minyan where outsiders will not feel welcome. I call it disfavoring tolerance for the sake of authenticity.
Something between 20-50 families have bolted with Rabbi Edelstein, a sort of scholarly nerdy guy who would qualify as the anti-Tendler in terms of brains (he has this in abundance) and personal aura (he will not get into the type of trouble that Tendler did – I do not think he would be interested in such stuff), and set up shop next to Valley Torah. A few money types left with Edelstein as they are family to him. The right wing wants their own brand, and SZ is not their brand. It remains to be seen how this will affect SZ.
