In Heaven’s Name: The Battle For Reb Noach’s Legacy

Gary Rosenblatt writes:

While Rabbi Weinberg was beloved for his warmth, teaching and many other skills, strong management of the fast-growing operation was not one of them, according to several people involved with the organization. He worked closely with a small group of loyal associates, whom he trusted, including Rabbi Rabinowitz, a former student of Rabbi Weinberg, and perhaps his closest aide. When Rabbi Weinberg died in 2009, confusion reigned in efforts to understand and disentangle elements of the financial operation, which had grown to the tens of millions of dollars. It includes an advisory board of governors, a board of directors and an amutah (an Israeli nonprofit), and the disorganization went on for years, observers said.

“Aish HaTorah was the car and Rav Noach was the engine,” said Rabbi Burg, who was brought on to professionalize the operation as the group’s director general in June 2015. “When Reb Noach died, the engine fell out and the car kept on going.”

Rabbi Burg, who was given high marks for his work with the Orthodox Union, its teen program, NCSY, and later as head of the New York branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, set about establishing best practices regarding transparency in the Aish HaTorah network. He hired financial executives who confirmed long-simmering suspicions that Aish International’s operation was deeply problematic. Seeking to increase transparency within the organization about a year before Rabbi Burg was hired, Rabbi Hershel Lutch, then-chief operating officer of Aish International, presented a financial report at an Aish HaTorah board of governors meeting. According to several in attendance, the report was the first clear disclosure to members concerning the financial relationship between Aish International and Aish HaTorah. Until that point, the board hadn’t realized that Aish International was not working exclusievely on behalf of Aish Ha Torah.

“We were trying to peel back the layers” of the operation, said Louis Mayberg. “But it was opaque. It became clear to me that Rabbi Rabinowitz was being intentionally misleading.”

Most of the donors came to believe that going back as far as 10 years, there were major discrepancies between the funds raised by Rabbi Rabinowitz in North America, and the amount of those funds that reached Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem.

Lutch resigned from Aish International to work directly for Rabbi Burg as COO-North America for Aish HaTorah, having concluded that Rabbi Rabinowitz was not representing Aish HaTorah’s true interests.

Rabbi Burg told Rabbi Rabinowitz he could no longer operate solo as a fundraiser. He stressed that financial transparency was being instituted and that Rabbi Rabinowitz would be accountable for all funds raised. As for Rabbi Rabinowitz’s claim that he was owed more than $800,000 in commissions, Rabbi Burg told him the donors first wanted to see bank and financial statements for Aish International and a breakdown of charitable donations made to Aish International going back to 2007.

Posted in Aish HaTorah | Comments Off on In Heaven’s Name: The Battle For Reb Noach’s Legacy

‘Free To Be Me’ And Other Stupid Educational Trends

I wasn’t wise enough to understand what was going on at the time, but when I was in grade school, I often had the sense that we were guinea pigs in various vacuous feel-good feminine experiments. The one I hated most was against competition. My teachers were mainly women and they were more interested in nurturing than competing, but only with my competitive fires burning did I do well in school. Without competition, I couldn’t be bothered to put in much effort.

Also, we never had any military history courses. That would have excited me and most blokes I knew.

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* My classmates and I had it drilled into our heads that we could be or do whatever we wanted if only we set our minds to it. This stuff goes back to the 70s, what with “Free to Be” and the like.

Most of the smarter kids knew it was BS, but a lot of people took it to heart. I’ve heard a lot of really unintelligent people forcefully assert that if you believe something enough it will happen. The few times I tried to correct them I was angrily shouted down.

That’s what’s really at the root of this self-esteem panacea: magical thinking. Your positive thoughts are supposed to bring about positive changes in your life.

I often quiz my children about what kind of stuff their teachers are telling them, and when I detect any of this garbage I explain why it’s wrong. Telling kids lies to boost self-esteem is more harmful than telling them uncomfortable truths.

I’m pretty sure transsexualism never would have been taken seriously without this anti-intellectual trend that came out of the 60s.

Whatever the case, it’s probably futile to fight magical thinking because it seems to be hardwired. That being the case, it’s better channeled into something harmless or constructive, like prayer or ritual. I’ve recognized it in myself, and while I consciously realize it’s false, sometimes the easiest course is just to observe the taboo, superstition or whatever it may be. An example would be thinking about something bad happening to one of my kids. I try hard not to, because doing so gives me a dreadful feeling that something bad will happen to them, even though I know that my thoughts will not have any effect, and might even help me prepare for the worst.

Posted in Education | Comments Off on ‘Free To Be Me’ And Other Stupid Educational Trends

Michael Oren: ‘Israel’s 1967 Victory Is Something to Celebrate’

For whom is it something to celebrate? For those who support the Jewish state. For those who want to destroy the Jewish state, it is something to mourn.

Different groups have different interests. What is good for the Jews is often bad for non-Jews such as Arabs and Muslims.

Michael Oren writes in the New York Times: “This year, Israelis are also celebrating the centenary of the Balfour Declaration because it formalized the international community’s recognition of a Jewish nation and our 3,000-year attachment to our homeland. But the Palestinians are mourning it — their leaders have even called on Britain to apologize. Today, as in 1917, they view Jews not as a people with rights to a national homeland but as a religious group and, throughout much of Islamic history, an inferior one at that.”

Every religious group regards other religions as inferior.

Oren: “Despite persistent Arab rejection of Jewish identity, the Zionist leadership recognized that the Palestinian Arabs were a people with sovereign rights.”

Land is a scarce resource. There are competing groups with competing claims for the land of Israel. Any Arab or Muslim who accepts Jewish claims to the land of Israel is a cuck. A proud Arab or Muslim would rather die than accept a booming Jewish state in their midst. If peace prevailed, Israel would even more dramatically excel its Arab neighbors who have an average IQ of around 85 (while Israel’s is near 100). The shame would be unbearable for the Arabs (or for any other people in their position). They’d rather die than cease trying to destroy those who excel them.

Steve Sailer writes:

My guess is that before the Six-Day War, a lot of American Jews didn’t emotionally invest that heavily in Israel, figuring it could be wiped out. Once it had proven immensely victorious, they became huge fans.

Similarly, I started reading the sports pages in 1965 when I was six. The upcoming UCLA – USC football game matching eventual Heisman Trophy winners Gary Beban and Mike Garrett was a big deal at the time. I can recall listening in with perfect neutrality, not having made up my mind which of these two odd acronyms to root for. When I tuned in on the my transistor radio in the second half, USC was up 16-6. But Beban threw two long bombs for touchdowns and UCLA won. This was very exciting and I became a UCLA fan (which paid off in basketball but not in football).

The Six-Day War gave the more conservative American Jews something to be excited about. Richard Nixon and Daniel Patrick Moynihan came up with a plan to make clear to pro-Israel American Jews that Israel’s success would be linked to America’ success in the Cold War.

Comments at Steve Sailer:

* I grew up with security guards outside synagogue every Saturday. On festivals there were police too. I never really thought about it, but for my bar mitzvah we invited a lot of non-Jewish family friends and they told us how weird it was to have security guards outside a house of worship. I guess they don’t think that now.

After the Sabra and Shatila massacre, security was bumped up in British synagogues. My mother remarked to someone that the community was feeling at risk. She responded (or so my mother tells me), that ‘of course you have to expect that, unfortunately’. My mother replied that since the massacre was carried out by a Christian militia with no direct Israeli participation then it would make as much sense for some angry chap to attack a church. Her friend found the very thought incomprehensible. I guess she doesn’t now.

It’s almost like spending decades rewarding angry Middle Easterners for terrorism incentivises them to do it more, but liberals and dolt rightists know that can’t possibly be true.

* Mentioning the USS Liberty is useful because anyone who does outs himself as an anti-Semite. There is nothing to be gained by rehashing this incident otherwise. Casualties from “friendly fire” are unfortunately very common in the fog of war. Just the other day the London cops shot a bystander in the head in the course of killing the terrorists. They should not have needed 50 shots to kill 3 terrorists but once the adrenaline starts pumping people don’t think clearly. It’s very easy to be an armchair general.

Posted in Israel | Comments Off on Michael Oren: ‘Israel’s 1967 Victory Is Something to Celebrate’

WP: ‘Harvard withdraws 10 acceptances for ‘offensive’ memes in private group chat’

I am glad to see a fellow Jew sticking up for free speech.

Law professor Erica Goldberg blogs:

According to the Harvard Crimson, Harvard has revoked the acceptances of at least ten students admitted to the Class of 2021. These prospective students formed a private Facebook group chat to exchange offensive memes. They mocked child abuse, made racist jokes, and endeavored to deride all of the stances that we, academics and students, promote and hold hear. These students behaved immaturely and offensively. What Harvard did in response was much worse.

Have you ever played Cards Against Humanity? It’s an unabashedly irreverent game whose purpose is to be as cleverly offensive as possible. The game uses cards to create inappropriate associations, on topics we are generally not socially permitted to mock – such as AIDS, the Holocaust, and dead babies. Even many good liberals love the game, precisely because the humor is so wrong, so contrary to our values. There is something appealing about the freedom to be irreverent and dark.

A major appeal of irreverence is its assertion of independence over strong social norms. Strong, prevailing social norms can feel oppressive at times, even if they are good norms, and the rebellion of breaking social taboos demonstrates that we can still think for ourselves. Joking also eases tension around difficult topics, issues that have become polarized, or events that our culture depicts only in black and white. I take the Holocaust extremely seriously, and feel great anger at how the world watched the Jews of Europe get exterminated. But I can enjoy a Holocaust joke in the right setting. The two are not mutually exclusive.

The idea that some topics are above humor is misguided. Humor is inherently subversive. By ferreting out the members of this private chat group, requiring that they present to Harvard every meme sent over the chat, and revoking their acceptances, Harvard has proven that there is an oppressive force to transgress.

Posted in Censorship, Harvard | Comments Off on WP: ‘Harvard withdraws 10 acceptances for ‘offensive’ memes in private group chat’

75% of black California boys don’t meet state reading standards

Los Angeles Daily News:

Across ethnicities and economic status, girls outperform boys on English in standardized tests

Three of four African-American boys in California classrooms failed to meet reading and writing standards on the most recent round of testing, according to data obtained from the state Department of Education and analyzed by CALmatters.

More than half of black boys scored in the lowest category on the English portion of the test, trailing their female counterparts. The disparity reflects a stubbornly persistent gender gap in reading and writing scores that stretches across ethnic groups.

Literacy Rates By Race

Posted in Blacks | Comments Off on 75% of black California boys don’t meet state reading standards