Jack Kemp was my teenage dream of a politician in the early 1980s but then he never blossomed. He never accomplished anything. He just went flat. He was a complete bust as Bob Dole’s running mate in 1996.
He grew up in the Wilshire area of Los Angeles, then a predominantly Jewish area of the city and felt a deep personal kinship with the American Jewish community.He was not only a friend to the Jewish community – he was a true brother for us.Many politicians, both Democrat and Republican, give lip service in support of Israel in order to attract Jewish voters.Jack Kemp, however, was totally committed to Israel and Zionism, and the State of Israel never had a better friend in Congress than Jack Kemp.
In fact, Jack had such an extensive knowledge of Judaism and Jewish history that he often quoted Rabbi Moses Maimonides in his speeches.Rabbi Maimonides was also known as the Rambam, an acronym of his Hebrew name, Rabbi Moshe ben (son of) Maimon.The Rambam, who lived in 12th century Spain, Morocco, and Egypt, was one of the truly outstanding personages of Jewish history – he was perhaps the most outstanding rabbi in history, as well as being the greatest physician in the world in his time, and a world renowned philosopher as well.His book, the Guide for the Perplexed is one of the most influential and widely read books in the history of philosophy.In fact, there is a famous Jewish saying that "from Moses (in the Bible) to Moses (Maimonides), there was none greater."
Rabbi Dr. Elliot Dorff is the rector at American Jewish University and a key member of Temple Beth Am (he’s a regular at the Library Minyan downstairs). Scores of Conservative rabbis were inspired to take up their calling by Elliot Dorff.
Rabbi Dorff has a big heart. He even hosted me for lunch one Shabbat in the summer of 2001. It’s one of my happiest memories as a Jew. We sat around and discussed the big issues with two couples — she was a Talmud teacher at HUC and her husband, I think was a Conservative rabbi, and then there was a female Conservative rabbi from Washington D.C. who was an expert in Jewish law with her husband who asked me the awkward question, what do you write about?
Well, young man, I write lashon hara. But all for the sake of Heaven. I deliver divine karma. It’s a weighty responsibility knowing when to wreck someone’s life.
Temple Beth Am is one of LA’s three big Conservative shuls. It is located on the south-west corner of Olympic and La Cienega.
Key members of Beth Am says nepotism was not involved in this new selection.
New SENIOR RAbbi TO BE APPOINTed JULY 1, 2009:
Rabbi Adam Kligfeld
Raised in a traditional Conservative home in Connecticut, Rabbi Adam Kligfeld brings to his work a commitment to Jewish ritual, his love for Israel and his enthusiasm for Jewish education, teaching Torah and creating community.
Since his ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Kligfeld has been blessed to work at Congregation Eitz Chaim in Monroe, NY. During his 8 ½ years there, Rabbi Kligfeld has made prayer and the Shabbat experience a focus of his work; he reinvigorated Eitz Chaim’s Kabbalat Shabbat service, turning it into a spirited Carlebach-style approach to davvening, and revamped the Bnei Mitzvah program in order to teach all students the ongoing skills for reading Torah and serving as shaliah tzibbur on Shabbat. Over a four-year span, Rabbi Kligfeld helped Eitz Chaim to envision, plan and ultimately implement their dream of constructing a brand new synagogue building, placed strategically in the center of several residential neighborhoods in Monroe. This has fostered growth, and an even greater sense of a local Shabbat community.
Rabbi Kligfeld is most proud of having organized three congregational trips to Israel and nurturing a strong culture in the shul for Israel advocacy. One highlight of his week is teaching a weekly class on Humash with Rashi’s commentary, a class that is now in its 9th year. Having been inspired by his own experience in USY and his service as USY International President, Rabbi Kligfeld re-established Eitz Chaim USY, making it an integral part of the life of the teenagers in his community.
Beyond his work at Eitz Chaim, Rabbi Kligfeld is active in the Monroe Woodbury Interfaith Clergy Council and the Orange County Rabbis Association. He also serves on the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County. In 2006, Rabbi Kligfeld was selected to serve on the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement.
Rabbi Kligfeld is a graduate of Columbia College, magna cum laude, with a degree in psychology and Jewish history.
Rabbi Kligfeld enjoys studying Torah and playing ping-pong with the teens in his shul, dancing the hora with the pre-schoolers at their Shabbat program, joining with the Yankee fans during their hakafah on Simhat Torah and, most of all, spending time with his wife Havi (daughter of longtime Beth Am members Rabbi Elliot and Marlynn Dorff) and two daughters, Noa and Ayden.
The Jewish Journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Rob Eshman, wrote an OpEd article on Rabbi Adam Kligfeld’s Senior Rabbi Search visit. Click here to read it.
LUKE SAYS: It seems to me and my readers that there is something seriously wrong with a rabbi who enjoys dancing the hora with pre-schoolers. On the other hand, that he enjoys studying Torah is a plus.
Can you imagine Reb Moshe or the Rav or Saul Berman or the Chatam Sofer saying that they enjoy dancing the hora with pre-schoolers?
Brenda Dickson emails: "you are illigally useing my name and 2 pictures to advertize. I charge $10,000.00 picture.take them down,or pay,the next letter you will recieve is a demand letter from my atty.if you want to pay for a pictire i will pick it, Brenda"
I decided to publish our private email exchange after he told he he had forwarded it around the web without my permission.
Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein wrote (and I leave intact his typos): "I read you piece on converst and judaism and it was well written and well presented. YOu featrue a response by someone called Yaakov who writes about examples. This violates the Torah’s requirement not to remind a convert of his status ever. He cites two modern day Rabbojim whom he saays are Gerim. Whether they are or not does not remove you obligation as the host not to publicise the fact.The people mentiond may well be very offended indeed by seeing themselves cited so. I would ask you to remove the reference at least to Rabbi Y Y Rubenstein."
I replied: "I read the piece. My only concern in this matter is journalistic. I have no concern about people being offended. You are probably a rocking rabbi but I am only going to remove a reference in this sort of thing if the facts are wrong."
He responded: "Could you tell me who converted you?"
I replied: "He, he, I won’t."
He replied: "The conversion should be easy to find out. I am though intrigued by what criteria you apply to your decision and why that outweighs Halocho in your mind?"
I replied "It should be easy… This is a great discussion… It should help me sharpen my thinking. I apply journalistic criteria to the question. Just as if you went to have surgery this week, you’d want your doctors to follow the latest medical technology rather than talmudic medical practices. Rabbis are public figures… Their feelings don’t matter to me when it comes to publishing elementary facts."
He replied:
Dear Luke,
Well actually you are wrong. I would want my doctor to follow latest medical practice if it did not offend or contradict Halocho. If you are an Orthodox convert, you should to. he same applies to Journalism.
I have forwarded this correspondence to the rabbi who wrote the piece and you will see below that I am trying to contact whoever converted you to let him or them read your views and unconcern for others feelings or the Halocho.
I reply:
Dear Rabbi,
I see that your concern with halacha is highly selective and does not apply to the halacha against reading others mail (as you forwarded my private email to others without permission). I do not want you to violate halacah unnecessarily, so I now give you permission to forward my emails to you to anyone you want. I may blog about this discussion then as you have decided to move it around.
As I think about this issue more deeply, I realize that I would never in personal conversation bring up someone’s conversion status unless the person had made it clear that that was fine. But if the person was a public figure and I was writing about them for publication, then I’d include the fact of the conversion if it was relevant to the article.
I love this exchange above because it is so typical of my interactions with many religious Jews. When the halacha is to their advantage they cite it. When the halacha gets in the way of what they want to do, they ignore it.
I am writing today to rabbi sauer of Los Angeles requesting a Din Torah.
I think you most foolish indeed in revealing your behaviour to those who read a page that uses the word “moral” in its title.
I believe the correspondence will suffice to demonstrate that you have three times refused to remove the offending piece.
I think a beth din and jewish court case will serve at the very least to demonstrate to you that your perceptions and behaviour are very far from the torah’s requirement.
Wow, three times I denied him!
I’m curious. Are you aware of any Beit Din that has punished someone for publishing the truth about public figures? I would enjoy reading up on such cases.
I’m curious. Isn’t there any teaching in the Jewish tradition about not being hasty to take someone to a Beit Din? Within a few hours of not getting his way, Rabbi Rubinstein informs me he’s taking me to a Beit Din.
"I’ll take you a Beit Din!" Is that any way for a Torah scholar to behave?
Who is Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein? Rabbi YY is one of the most sought out speakers in the Jewish world.
How do I know? Because Rabbi Y.Y. says so on his website. He publishes all sorts of glowing things about himself. He also includes numerous photos of himself looking inspiring and morally serious. I think I’ll blow a few of them up and put them on my wall above my computer and maybe it will make me a better person.
Rabbi YY is undoubtedly an eloquent speaker but he’s a lousy speller. His website is riddled with typos.
I will quote excerts from his website leaving the typos and bad grammar intact: "Rebbenzen Tzipprah Heller: "Listening to Rabbi YY speak is fun. The demarcation between one of his lectures and entertainment is that it is impossible for his words to fail to force all but the most unwilling listener to thinking deeply."
"Rabbi Berel Wein: Rabbi YY Rubinstein is an outstanding, provocative, informative and entertaining speaker. He always has something important to say and says it well. He is a fascinating person with a sense of humor and gift for reaching peoples minds and souls."
I asked two Orthodox rabbi friends for their views on this matter. One emailed:
If something is a well-known thing then I don’t see how there is an issue. Furthermore, there are people who make a big deal about their conversions, speak about it etc. I don’t live in England so I don’t know the case. In the example you quoted it was a relevant halakhic point. However, apparently it is not so well known and [a rabbi may be] embarrassed about his status. In the haredi world converts are not given such respect, and he apparently wants to be a teacher etc. in that world. As such, one is not supposed to remind him of his background. In most of the world, people are not embarrassed of the fact that they are converts. They are actually proud of it. But obviously [this rabbi] feels differently. Judging by his name, it is possible that only his mother wasn’t Jewish and maybe people thought he was a secular Jew but really he wasn’t even halakhically Jewish which is why he converted.
In any event, I think that if you went to Beit Din they would tell you to take it down, even though it is true, because of the special command not to remind a convert of his past status.
Another rabbi says: "I know YY, and bunch of people that grew up with him, he is a very nice fellow, and perhaps this pains him for whatever reason, this is a question of Ztar Baalie Chaim (causing pain to God’s creature) which even applies with regards to animals. Have compassion – remove his name."
Rabbi, if I had compassion on everyone who was troubled by my website, I’d have nothing left on my website. Rabbi YY needs to butch up.
I love how Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein describes himself in this bio: "Rabbi YY is probably the most sought after Jewish speaker in the U.K. He regularly speaks in the United States, Gibraltar, South Africa, Israel and Belgium. He is a regular broadcaster on National BBC TV & Radio and the "Terry Wogan Show" which is the UK’s largest Radio Show with 6.5 million listeners. Four years ago the "Independent" Newspaper cited him along with Tony Blair’s Mentor, as being amongst five people in the Britain to turn to for advice. He writes for "HaModia" and teaches at the Beis Yakov girls Seminary in Manchester as well as Ezras Torah Yeshiva. His main position, is Campus Rabbi for the North West of England serving over two thousand Jewish Students. His Book "Dancing Through Time" is available worldwide and his next book, "Where Time and Destiny Meet" is due for publication in the near future."
Undue modesty along with over-punctiliousness in matters of spelling and grammar are not among Rabbi Rubinstein’s faults.
Rabbi Safran is renowned as a charismatic and dynamic rabbi, educator, lecturer and author… He…headed highly regarded schools in Pittsburg, New York and New Jersey.
The scion of a distinguished rabbinic family…
Perhaps I should stop getting in trouble and start getting in touch?
I love how my email conversation with Rabbi Rubinstein developed. He opened with an email riddled with spelling errors. When I refused his request, he immediately went for the heavy guns to try to force me to bend to his will.
Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein emails me:
Sorry luke, I am not trying to cause you distress but i think this should be settled by the beth din.
Loshon hora as you may know is prohibited by the Torah. That is precisely its definition, telling the truth about someone to their detriment.
It is allowed under strict conditions if the intent is to protect or help. When character assassination is a lie, it is called Motzei shem ra and is unsurprisingly worse.
That is why alerting rabbi gil to this situation in the hope he could influence you was I believe allowed.
Telling loshon hora about yourself is surprisingly not allowed which is why I suggested you are making a mistake by publicising this dispute.
Reminding someone they are a ger is prohibited by the torah and is the conclusion of a debate between Rav and shmuel in the talmud sanhedrin 94a.
If you like, I can send you a link to a video of me giving a shiur on the subject. It is at an advanced level though with some yiddish hebrew and aramaic un translated but you still might enjoy it.
So the truth as the dictionary might define it requires weighing by the torah’s requirements before it can be used. Even in the non jewish world it is a dangerous thing.
You write you use journalistic criteria. I write regularly for 3 jewish newspapers and a magazine. I also write and present programmes for the bbc. In all of that writing as well as my two published books and the new one, I disguise the people whose stories I tell unless they tell me not to. This despite only using positive stories. Both in the Secular and jewish world, there is much scope to challenge your approach
.
Last point. I regret all of this.
In other circumstances we may have become friends and I may have been some help too.
I will only be asking the beth din to rule on whether you have violated halocho and should remove the piece as well of course as paying costs.
I would of course prefer that you changed your mind and made a friend.
In my view, here are some of the mistakes Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein made in this matter:
* Don’t go into the world seeking things for yourself such as this. Just let it go. Best for you, best for everyone.
* If you do seek something like this from a stranger, don’t immediately jump to calling the person by his first name and do pay attention to your spelling. An error-riddled email makes you, the rabbinate and the Torah look bad. It screams, I don’t take you seriously enough to care about how I write this request.
* When the person refuses the request, don’t quickly jump to asking about his conversion. This is asking for war, no matter how pure and lofty you believe your motives are. You should know better than most that once you are in a dispute with someone, you don’t bring up their convert status unless you are trying to goad the person into hating you.
* When the person repeatedly refuses your request, don’t immediately jump to taking him to a Beit Din. This is asking for war.
* Don’t share private correspondence with a third party without permission unless you are looking for war.
* When you realize you have made mistakes, don’t cling to portraying yourself as entirely righteous and aggrieved and don’t offer to "help" the person you just threatened to take to a Beit Din.
* Don’t describe yourself on your websites as the "most sought-after Jewish speaker in the UK" and other superlatives. They may well be true, but they make you, the rabbinate and the Torah look bad. Let other people praise you. You don’t need to publish their praise on your websites. Do take care to spell and punctuate your website correctly so that you, the rabbinate, and the Torah don’t look bad to the world.
I honestly want to pose you a question if I may. I watched the video of you sitting in the car the other day and it was really sad to see.
I am sorry your life has become as sad as you express it to be. I sincerely hope things go much better from you soon.
In our recent exchange you wrote,
"I read the piece. My only concern in this matter is journalistic. I have no concern about people being offended. You are probably a rocking rabbi but I am only going to remove a reference in this sort of thing if the facts are wrong."
At the same time you wrote,
‘It doesn’t bother me that there is a substantial case in Jewish law against converts such as myself becoming rabbis.’
My honest question to you is why do you claim here (the same claim appears on your Wikipedia page) that you are convert to Judaism, which obviously requires someone converting you other than yourself, when in fact you are not.
Your claim to be concerned about journalism and facts not being wrong so why do you claim to be what you are not?
More than 60 people attended a talk given by controversial Rabbi Ahron Cohen, in Oxford, despite protests that he should not be allowed to speak.
Rabbi Cohen is an anti-Zionist, meaning he does not support Israel as a Jewish state, and spoke on the subject Zionism is not Judaism — Anti-Israelism is not Anti-Semitism after being invited by the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford, MECO
The talk had to be moved at the last minute after the management of Wolfson College, where the talk was to be held, cancelled the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford’s booking.
From Dr. Marc B. Shapiro‘s first lecture on Rav Isser Yehuda Unterman for Torah in Motion: "The chief rabbinate [of Israel] in the days of Rav [Abraham Isaac] Kook and Rav [Benzion Meir Hai] Uziel and Rav Unterman was the supreme religious authority for religious Zionists. If you wanted to know what the halacha was, you went to the Chief Rabbinate. They were the Gadolei Yisrael (the Great ones of Israel). Matters have changed today. The Chief Rabbinate in Israel today is a complete joke. It’s been taken over by the chareidim. The Sephardic Chief Rabbi today [Shlomo Amar] is a great talmud chacham (Torah scholar) although no one assumes he is the gadol (great one) of the Sephardim. He is a talmid (student) of Rav Ovadiah Yosef.
"They put in an Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi [Yonah Metzger] who is not a lamdan (a scholar of rabbinic literature). He’s not a Talmud Chacham (Torah master). He is a crown rabbi. He’s a figurehead. He was put in by Rav Elyashiv and the chareidim as a means of destroying the chief rabbinate because the Chief Rabbinate used to have gadolei Yisroel who stood as a counterweight to the chareidim. But if you put in someone who’s a nobody. A psak din (a Torah ruling by a Jewish law court) came down by Rav Simcha Kook and others that [Rabbi Yonah Metzger] agreed to never run for Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv because they found his morality lacking. He wasn’t a reputable character. And he agreed not to run. But then he’s put in as the Chief Rabbi of Israel [for the Ashkenazim]. He wasn’t even a dayan (Jewish law judge).
"He’s not a religious Zionist. The Chief Rabbinate now represents no one."
"Rabbi [Norman] Lamm refuses to allow Rabbi Metzger to come to YU. I was sitting at a table and heard Rabbi Lamm say that he will never speak at YU."
"When I say he’s a crown rabbi, I mean that in Eastern Europe, you had two types of rabbis. You had rabbis required by the government to fill out marriages and divorces and you had a posek."
"No one goes to him for shailas (questions about Jewish law). You have plenty at roshei yeshiva at YU who can learn a million times better than him. He’s a figurehead. He goes to speak at places like the Park Avenue Synagogue. He’s not a gadol. He’s not even half of a gadol."
Metzger faced opposition for other reasons, as well. Detractors noted that, by comparison to most of his predecessors, Metzger had very little experience as a rabbinic authority. Metzger had never served as a religious judge (dayan), though his role as Chief Rabbi would require him to sit as President of the Rabbinical Supreme Court for five years, before switching with his Sephardic counterpart to be head of the Chief Rabbinate Council.[24] Outgoing Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron wrote a formal letter to the Chief Rabbinic Council complaining about Metzger’s appointment. In his letter, Bakshi-Doron described a 1998 rabbinical investigation into Metzger’s personal conduct and credentials, following the publicizing of multiple accusations of sexual harassment, forged signatures on wedding contracts, fraud and threatening other rabbis.[25] The commission of rabbis found Metzger’s explanations of his actions "insufficient" and ruled him "unfit to serve as a rabbi." The commission, which included Rabbi Shlomo Amar, later agreed to drop the ruling on condition that Metzger withdraw his candidacy for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, which he did. Bakshi-Doron was incensed to learn that, five years later, Metzger had now entered into the race for Chief Rabbi of the state. He called his appointment "a desecration of God’s name."[26]
I guess Rabbi Weil’s no-predators policy does not apply to chief rabbis. I can’t blame him for this. Once you stand for something, you’ll never be able to live up to all your ideals with perfect symetry.
Dr. Shapiro says in this lecture given in 2008 that the "heyday" of Modern Orthodoxy was in the 1950s and 1960s. "The theme of many of these lectures is the decline of Modern Orthodoxy… I don’t mean heyday in terms of religious observance. There’s much more observance today than in the 1950s and 1960s. But you had gadolim in the 1950, 1960s and even the 1970s who were identified with Modern Orthodoxy and you don’t have that today… One of the trends is the movement towards glatt kosher. The Modern Orthodox are fighting back. The three Modern Orthodox rabbis of Los Angeles — Weil, Muskin and Kanefsky — have now given approval for next week for non-glatt meat to be sold. This probably hasn’t been done in 20 years where the rabbinate permits non-glatt meat. This is Rubashkin meat… The OU will no longer sell non-glatt meat. It’s the first attempt by the Modern Orthodox to go up against the glatt kosher. Most people have assumed that glatt kosher is the only kosher. We’ll see if this takes on anywhere else. I find it hard to believe that the Modern Orthodox rabbinate will be able to push this issue."
"What really shows Rav Unterman’s courage is that in Eastern Europe he was a Mizrachi rabbi [this cost many rabbis in Eastern Europe jobs]. The majority of rabbonim were not Mizrachi. The Mizrachi were problematic because they cooperated with the non-religious Zionists… Many famous [Modern Orthodox] rabbis would be considered gadolim by the chareidim today if they had not associated with the Mizrachi."
"The Rav [J.B. Soloveitchik] writes about what gave him courage to reject his family’s tradition and join Mizrachi. The Holocaust was a great influence. He concluded in this case that God Himself poskens (rules) on the side of the Mizrachi.
From PopEater: "Kim Kardashian has had enough of the critiquing of her body and people talking about whether or not photos of her were retouched. In retaliation, she’s on the cover of Life & Style magazine baring nearly all, showing off her figure in a photo spread declared "100% Unretouched" in the hopes that people get over their weight obsession and get on with their lives."
Many of my friends are Jewish nationalists. They are interested first and foremost in what is good for the Jews.
I have no problem with this attitude. I don’t believe it is immoral. It is not popular. It doesn’t sound good in front of the goyim, but what is good for the Jews in my view is good for humanity.
I know of a lot of people who are black nationalists. They are first and foremost interested in what is good for blacks.
Other people such as La Raza seem to be latino nationalists. They are first and foremost interested in their own people.
How can I object to this? I can’t.
VDARE and the like seem to be first and foremost interested in what is good for white people. How can I object to that if I don’t object to those who are Jewish nationalists and black nationalists and latino nationalists?
I do think that putting race first is primitive. Jews are not a race. They are a people defined by a religion aka the most morally sophisticated value system developed. I think it is far superior to have your primary allegiance to a value system rather than a race. I’m not sure how much significance race has. I won’t be an ideologue such as Dennis Prager and declare categorically that race has no significance. As Dr. Sally Satel declared in the New York Times Sunday magazine (her article was helped by Steve Sailer), if she placed zero interest in her patient’s race, she would not be doing her job as a doctor. if different races have differing health issues, then there may well be some significance to race.
I email Holocaust revisionist Zan Overall: "You might find this rabbi [Mayer Schiller] interesting, he’s a white separatist."
He responds:
Thanks. I am not a white separatist, capitalized in quotes, however I am coming to see it is strange that other races and groups such as Jews are allowed to look after their own interests without apology but whites are not supposed to do the same.
Black on white crime is hugely worse than white on black crime but we don’t talk about that. (Do you remember the comedy skit where a liberal Jewish couple was giving information to a detective after being mugged by a black man and could not BRING themselves to describe him as black? Uproarious!)
Am reading the book My Awakening by David Duke. Take a peek some time. The first part of the book deals with race and racial differences. He is a very impressive writer whatever you think of his views. Check him out sometime. Zan.
PS The jokes on the Tonight Show about people In jail (now that I think of it always white) getting raped by big black Bubba have started to get to me. Am thinking of a placard like this to parade in front of NBC-Burbank:
HEY ! JAY! RAPE IN PRISON ISN’T FUNNY! CAN THE JOKES! (MAYBE THEY GET YOU HOT. IS THAT IT?)
(The last two lines are just to get his attention. Like the joke about the man who hit a balking mule over the head with a 2×4, not to hurt him, "just to get his attention.")
Zan, I went to LAPL.org (Los Angeles Public Library) to borrow this book by David Duke but surprisingly the library does not carry any books by Mr. Duke.
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
Raised in a traditional Conservative home in Connecticut, Rabbi Adam Kligfeld brings to his work a commitment to Jewish ritual, his love for Israel and his enthusiasm for Jewish education, teaching Torah and creating community./DSC_0374.JPG)
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