Shanda!

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Luke Ford

Joe emails: A reform jew is walking down the street and he looks in the window of the kosher deli. He does a double take as he is utterly shocked to see his reform synagogue’s pulpit rabbi eating lunch. He cannot believe that the rabbi would eat at such an establishment that kept to the anitquated rules of kashrut. He does not want to embarass the rabbi on the spot, but when he sees the rabbi in synagogue he confronts the rabbis and says “I saw you at that kosher deli, and I saw you eating there, i cannot believe it”, to which the rabbi responded, “I only had the fish!”

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My First Trip To The Shooting Range

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Luke Ford

I’ve done all my shooting outside.

Sunday, a friend had a birthday.

A few days previous, she emailed:

This Sunday December 13th, my b-day, release your rage, at an indoor range downtown at about 2pm. Its really cheap, too.

http://thelosangelesgunclub.com/index.html

If that is not reason enough, afterwards we are meeting up at my second favorite place in LA around 3:30.

House of Pies
1869 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027

So I skip the Dallas Cowboys game. “You want me to meet you at your place,” I ask. “Or do you want to scoop me up?”

“I’ll scoop you up,” she says. And she does at 1:20 pm.

She’s nervous. It’s her 41st birthday. In her car, she has on Garrison Keilor’s Prairie Home Companion. Cars are flying around unpredictably. It feels dangerous.

I keep checking the football score on my Blackberry.

Her phone buzzes.

“Please don’t answer that while you’re driving,” I ask.

“You’re one to talk,” she says. “I’m not going to answer it.”

We’re driving along the 10 East at 65mph and she’s picking up her phone to see who called. During that glance, we travel 100 yards.

We arrive at the shooting range after 20 minutes. I feel nervous driving to and around downtown LA. It seems like a separate world from the westside.

I bring my gun inside. I give them my driver’s license. I sign forms certifying that I don’t have mental problems. I give my thumb print. I get 50 bullets. We select our targets, put on our glasses, put on our headphones and go in.

It’s loud and smells of gunpowder. We’re both scared.

I load my gun, send my target 50 yards away, and start shooting.

After 50 bullets, I’m done for the day. I sit beside the TV and watch the football game.

I talk to her friends between plays. A few times I say things like, “If you let me do this dance, I’ll be completely secure and won’t need any attention for the rest of the days.” Or, “If you let me tell this joke, I’ll be…” Or, “If you’ll just let me show off about how much I know on this subject, I’ll be…”

Then we head for the House of Pies. I take off my yarmulke. I tuck in my tzitzit. I look around to see if any Orthodox Jews are watching. Then I go inside the non-kosher restaurant and resolutely refuse to eat anything.

When the waitress announces she’s going home for the day, I prompt my friend to leave a tip.

I get home at 6pm without having spent a penny! Not even on gas!

My man-whoring days are back.

Beth emails: Good blog. But, manwhoring? Please. When someone invites a guest to an event he or she is supposed to pay for it. But let’s not talk etiquette. Let’s talk about how your friend did this nice, correct thing, with as far as I can tell from what you wrote, no expectation of you (you’re supposed to reciprocate, BTW). That’s because your friend is a lady. I’ll go further, it’s because your friend is a woman. If it were reversed, could you honestly say you’d have had no motive, no expectation? I ask not because of any flaw I perceive in you as a person but because you’re a guy. In my experience, men always have an agenda when they do anything for their female friends. And another thing. Why is it that men can be as close as brothers with other men but women always want to scratch each other’s eyes out? This is why pretty much every friend I have is male or a lesbian. The only straight girls I count among my friends are the partners of my male friends. These guys might want to sleep with me but at least I don’t have to wonder what they’re saying about me when I’m not there.

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A Nasty Fight The Rabbis Wrought

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Luke Ford

The RCC put up this website MeirKin.com to pressure Meir Kin to give his wife a divorce through the RCC. The website lists Meir Kin’s home address.

Meir Kin is willing to give his wife a divorce through a Beit Din in Monsey, a Beit Din that many consider corrupt (though many people also consider the RCC corrupt with its bullying tactics to win kashrut supervision at places such as Noah’s Bagels).

The Orthodox pulpit rabbis of Los Angeles joined with the RCC in publicizing Meir Kin’s home address and in organizing marches outside his home.

So now the other side is fighting back. Here’s a website listing women who may be seeking to remarry without a proper Jewish divorce. It also lists home addresses.

So who’s responsible for this nasty turn? Well, the Orthodox rabbis of Los Angeles have much responsibility. They started the fight by publicized Meir Kin’s home address. They led marches outside Meir Kin’s home. They started punching below the belt. Now their opponents are fighting back with similar tactics.

Congratulations rabbis.

Tsipora responds to Kishke below: I would like to respond to the comment left by “kishke at the article: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=14245#postcomment regarding fighting the rabbis. here is my comment: Dear Kishke I’m unsure if youre a man or woman, a FEMINIST BITCH or BASTARD, but in any case you obviously are “pretending” to be oblivious to the facts of this case.. You have no excuse since you appear to have left multiple comments on the multiple articles of the Lonna Kin/ Meir Kin divorce battle and therefore had ample access to all the facts and all the documents that shine the light on Meir Kin’s innocence. Firstly, He already deposited a GET!!!! There is no such thing as “ANOTHER GET”. Secondly, did you notice that the RCC removed their SEIRUV? Did you notice that his name is off the Jewish Press seiruv list? Did it dawn upon you that they must of gotten new facts in this case??? Are you religious or pretending to be religious??? Jewish law dictates that it is forbidden to litigate in the Civil Courts. Sorry to burst your bubble but the cruel Lonna Kin had IMMEDIATELY filed in the Civil Courts, refused to go to Bais Din initially, and had him Gagged!!! Do you still have the Chutzpah to talk against him? She violates Halacha and after she achieved her goals in the secular court, she awakens by saying “I WANT TO GO TO MY BAIS DIN OF CHOICE AND OBTAIN A GET AT MY BAIS DIN OF CHOICE!!!” Unfortunately it dont work that way. Many women including myself are fed up with the lying “crocodile tears women” who ruin it for the bona fide women who are the true Agunot. See
http://evilelkie.tripod.com where another woman stood up to fight an evil ex-wife. Therefore kudos to the creator of www.mamzeralert.blogspot.com as these women need to know if youre orthodox then behave orthodox!!!

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Who Turned Kashrut Supervision Into A Cash Cow?

Posted on December 14, 2009 by Luke Ford

Kof-K led the way in the 1970s with making serious money from kashrut supervision. Then everyone else, including the OU, woke up to the possibilities of making big bucks from overseeing the production of food within the guidelines of Jewish law. The head of Kashrut for the OU now makes more than $500,000 a year.

Rabbi Avraham Teichman’s operation in Los Angeles grosses close to two million dollars a year from kashrut supervision.

The RCC grosses about a million dollars a year from local kashrut supervision.

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What Is Your Shul’s Vision?

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Luke Ford

What is Shalhevet’s vision? It is the one Orthodox high school school in Los Angeles where boys and girls receive the identical education. Its mixture of Lawrence Kohlberg and Orthodox Judaism is highly un-Orthodox. I’ve never met a Shalhevet student who did not love his school (Shalhevet is the only school I can say that about).

What is YULA‘s vision? It is a yeshiva. If there is a conflict between Torah and secular values, the Torah always wins. A yeshiva does not need to have a vision, it’s about Torah. Shalhevet is a day school and needs to articulate a vision.

Shuls need to articulate a vision. YICC is about high achievement among those Orthodox from birth. Beth Jacob under Rabbi Kalman Topp is developing an increased emphasis on Torah study. Rabbi Topp clearly toils in Torah. Bnai David-Judea stands for high ethical standards for its congregants, ethical business practices in the wider community, inclusiveness, women’s prayer groups, and such progressive causes as homelessness, global warming, pluralism and academic scholarship.

Ethics is clearly a higher priority at Bnai David than any other shul in Pico-Robertson. The shul is the least tribal of any Orthodox shul in Los Angeles. It is welcoming to converts. You look at its website BnaiDavid.com and it is about values and ethics. It is active in numerous community causes.

It started with Rabbi Philip Schroit, whose rebbe was Moshe Feinstein. The latest version of Bnai David started with Rabbi Danny Landes, who moved his minyan over from Beth Jacob. Rabbi Landes specializes in ethics. He didn’t have to build a shul. He didn’t have to fundraise for the shul. He was one of the founders of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He had tenure there. He didn’t have to kowtow to any donors. It was easier to be ethical. He didn’t have to make compromises.

His successor, Yosef Kanefsky, runs Bnai David. That makes it easier to be ethical. If Rabbi Kanefsky doesn’t get his way with something important to him, he might leave. He’s not stuck.

Rabbi Schroit grew up on New York’s lower East Side. It was 95% Jewish. Everyone spoke Yiddish. Rabbi Schroit did not allow anyone to donate more than $3,000 to Bnai David so they wouldn’t feel that they have power. He would take unpopular stands. When he’d raise money for Moshe Feinstein, he didn’t insist on a public ceremony to hand over the money. He didn’t chase honor.

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The Big Lie Of ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Luke Ford

From The Australian:

According to the historian, Molly and Gracie were removed from their families on the Jigalong Depot more than 75 years ago because of their “sexual activity with white men working in the area”.

The West Australian chief protector responsible for their removal, Auber Octavius Neville, had not been trying to “breed out the colour” by marrying off half-caste Aboriginal girls to whites as depicted in the film, Windschuttle said.

His claim was born of a review of state archives, where he found a letter to A.O. Neville in December 1930 by a Mrs Chellow, from Murra Munda Station near Jigalong, in which Molly and Gracie were accused of “running wild with the whites”.

“`Running wild’ was said to be a contemporary euphemism for promiscuity, which meant the girls were having sex with the white males in the area,” Windschuttle writes in the preface of his new work.

He told The Australian yesterday: “They didn’t say these girls were screwing boys, they said they were running wild . . . anyone from that era knows the meaning of the term.

“That is the big lie of the film. Neville did not use child removal in order to breed out the race.”

Windschuttle maintains that the Aborigines Act in Australia at the time of Neville’s tenure was not racist and was motivated by a genuine desire for child protection.

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Rabbi Leib Tropper – A Talent For Scandal

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Luke Ford

From Wikipedia:

In 2004, Trooper was the main force behind the ban of Rabbi Nathan Slifkin‘s books. Rabbi Slifkin explores in his books conflicts and resolutions between traditional Judaism and modern science. [3]

In 2006, Tropper revoked the conversion of a woman on the basis of her being seen wearing pants and not covering her hair, thus rendering her children non-Jewish, as well. [4]

In February 2009 it was revealed on the Daat Torah blog [5] that a letter [6] which in several ultra orthodox rabbis strongly criticize rabbi Herbert Bomzer, a modern orthodox rabbi, was forged by Tropper. After the forgery was discovered, some of the rabbis which their names were used in the forged letter released a statement [7] distancing themselves from it.

In October 2009, Tropper was sued by philanthropist Guma Aguiar for allegedly misappropriating funds given to Tropper by Guma for charitable purposes. The lawsuit followed an altercation between Guma and Tropper in a Jerusalem hotel. [8]

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What’s The Moral Upshot Of Orthodox Judaism?

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Luke Ford

I’ve been asking Orthodox rabbis if simply knowing that someone was Orthodox told you anything about their ethics.

The rabbis say no.

What if you knew the person davened three times a day? Does that say anything about their ethics?

The rabbis say no.

What if they really sway in their davening and beat their chests and really get into it, davening with great intention? Does that say anything about their ethics?

The rabbis say no.

What if they daven at ______ (and I listed off various Orthodox shuls in Pico-Robertson). Does that tell you anything about their ethics?

The rabbis say no.

“America has this secular-religious divide and Americans take this into their lives,” says one rabbi. “They consider religion and business different realms.”

What if you know that someone graduated from 12 years of Orthodox Jewish education? Are they more likely to be ethical?

The rabbis say no.

Scandals in business ethics in Orthodox Jewish life in the United States over the past few years have occurred primarily among the charedim. But that’s not because that group is less ethical than the Modern Orthodox.

A far higher percentage of charedim (ultra-Orthodox) are businessmen than the Modern Orthodox (who tend to be professionals). How many businessmen go to Bnai David-Judea for instance? A few. How many teachers and academics? Two dozen. How many doctors? Two dozen. How many lawyers? Fifty. How many accountants? Several.

At your typical chareidi American shul? There will be very few professionals because all the professions require extensive secular education and the chareidim are not into that.

The opportunities to cheat and make a killing are highly limited for doctors, lawyers, accountants. There’s not much incentive. The opportunities to cheat and make big bucks are much greater in business.

In World War II, fewer Orthodox Jews proportionately were in the professions. They were in business. A rabbi could come through and raise tens of millions of dollars. That doesn’t happen today. Orthodox Jews, consequently, gave far more charity 50 years ago than today.

Golda Meir came to the United States in 1947 to raise money to fight a war. In one meeting in Chicago, she raised $150 million. You couldn’t do that today.

When a shul selects a rabbi, does it primarily want an ethical leader? Or does it want a Torah scholar? Or a good fundraiser? A good CEO? A good speaker?

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The Loner In Blue

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Luke Ford

My mom sent along this photo and inquired if I was the bloke in blue.

I told her it was. “I always knew you were special,” she replied.

This is my mom’s favorite picture from my trip to Europe in September 2005:

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Orthodox Conversion Programs In Los Angeles Working Well

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Luke Ford

According to what I hear, all of the Orthodox conversion programs in Los Angeles boast better than a 90% success rate (when success is measured by its converts staying Sabbath-observant after becoming Jewish).

I’ve not encountered an Orthodox rabbi in Los Angeles who works with conversions who has more than a couple of regrets (converts who did not live up to their Jewish pledges).

I’ve never even heard of any rabbi in Los Angeles assisting with conversions because of bribes. According to what I know, all the conversion programs are run by the book aka according to Jewish law and are run with integrity.

Before the conversion controversy in Israel 18-months ago, the Los Angeles Beit Din converted about 100 people a year. Now it’s about 30 a year.

Rabbi Avrohom Union with the RCC runs the toughest conversion program in town, graduating about 30 people a year into Jewish status. This conversion is accepted around the Jewish world as is Rabbi Gavriel Cohen‘s but he only converts half a dozen a year.

Rabbi Cohen in Beverly Hills charges about $5,000 per conversion. The RCC and the LA Beit Din charge about $600 each (not counting tutoring).

Rabbi Gavriel Cohen emails: “Dear Sir: Please some corrections – if you calculate classes and fees of any beth din they come out to be between $3000 and $5000 which most of the time we come out charging less than either amount when the candidate is advanced in commitment and knowledge. We have done for free and minimal amounts for many of our services depending on the situation.”

Conversion to Judaism is not a money-maker for any of the Orthodox programs in Los Angeles. About the only consistent cash cow for Beit Dins (Jewish law courts) is kashrut. Many of the people coming for a divorce, for instance, are broke.

Who converts to Orthodox Judaism in Los Angeles? About a third of these converts have Jewish fathers and grew up thinking they were Jewish. About half of conversions have something to do with marriage. More people convert because they are already married to a Jew than convert to marry a Jew.

More than 90% of would-be converts who are not serious about observing Jewish law leave the process voluntarily within six months as they realize what Jewish law and Orthodox community demands.

About 25% of Orthodox converts in LA started with Reform and/or Conservative conversions and decided to get more traditional.

A small group of converts were adopted as children by Jewish parents.

Many people who try to convert are Christians who want to infiltrate Jewish life. It becomes obvious in their conversion applications and in their initial interviews. I don’t know of any Christians who have made it through an Orthodox conversion program in Los Angeles.

Christian clergy sometimes convert sincerely to Orthodox Judaism, but their conversions tend to take a lot longer because their Christianity is so deeply ingrained. One 19th Century commentator (R. Yosef Shaul HaLevi Nathanson) said that priests who convert should never speak publicly in shul because their speech is so shaped by their Christian backgrounds.

I’ve had a lot of first-hand experience with conversion programs in Reform, Conservative (Ohev Shalom in Orlando and AJU in LA) and Orthodox Judaism. They were all run with integrity. They were sometimes tougher than I thought necessary.

Some people have mental disabilities and still successfully complete the Orthodox conversion process in Los Angeles. Rabbi Abner Weiss converted several of these people. They remain observant Jews and part of the Orthodox community.

What percentage of Modern Orthodox day school graduates stay Orthodox? A little more than 50% in my estimation. So the conversion programs in Los Angeles are far more effective at producing Orthodox Jews than YULA or Shalhevet.

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