Sunday, October 16, 2005

Some nerve, he's got



Dovid Goldwasser is a name you heard of if you listen to the "stimulating" talk on the Nachum Segal show, or read the fascinating articles in the Jewish Press or Country Yossi. If you're like me you probably think "this guy is so full of himself it's a wonder he doesn't just explode". If that was his only crime דיינו , but here's what else he's done.

Reb Mottel Lifshitz was a Shochet and Mohel in Moscow all throughout the dark days of the Soviet Union. He was a Lubavitcher Chossid, a Talmid of the underground Yeshivos. Needless to say he had a fascinating story to tell. When he left Russia he somehow got to know Goldwasser who smelled a good book to add to his shining resume.

So the good Rabbi got the unsuspecting Mottel to give him the manuscript to have it translated into English. It had been published previously as a Yiddish book entitled "זכרונות פון גולאג" and was ready for the English version.

Here's what Mottel had to say when the book was published: (I have a copy of the letter in PDF format, which is difficult to post here)

"This book was not the brainchild and compilation of the author as he would like to portray"....

And despite countless requests to see the manuscript before publication he avoided showing it to any of my family members, Instead he rushed to print my work heavily censoring out (to my utter dismay) any reference to Lubavitch, their leaders, or the Yeshivah Tomchei Tmimim"......

"I do not take part in the attempt to erase the history of my dear Rebbes who stood by me in my dark days in Soviet Russia and its gulags."

What kind of a man would do something like that to a broken, old man?!

and he calls himself a Rabbi?!

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mottel should take him to a Din Torah poste haste!

Anonymous said...

Why was it necessary to refer to unrelated personal characteristics ("stimulating")?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I'm trying to get my money's worth here. Besides, he puts me to sleep, even with a 30 second Mishnah.

Anonymous said...

Let me hear all the bashers defend this now.

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, Chabad is controversial. I know that Chabadnik's gets all outraged, offended and defensive when they are slighted by the "main stream media," but these things happen for a reason. Chabad has isolated itself, and is thus isolated by others.
Instead of dwelling on that, do you have any ideas for how this can be changed, Hirshel?

Anonymous said...

zez or better yet zetz...,
you are missing the point entirely.

Anonymous said...

No, I just fint the point boring.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

so because they're controversial they can have their stories stolen and printed for profit? interesting logic.

Anonymous said...

ht, why dont you call goldwasser up and see what he says.....I imagine that a motivated individual could force/corner him eventually geeting get him to publically appologize, etc....

zezmir, what you don't realize is that chabad produces most jewish media and is the least isolated in the jewish world today. But you are probably refering to Frum propoganda...the heart and soul of lubavitch doesn't have time for this stuff...too busy doing really important things....

Anonymous said...

I am not defending it. I am only recognizing it's existence, and wondering how to address the root problem.
N, I used quotation marks to mean people such as the author above (Artscroll... The Aguda, etc.).
I still wonder what can be done to unite Chabad with the rest of frum Jwery.

Anonymous said...

to unite? with frum Jewry? too much needs t happen.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

People!
let's try to stick top the topic at hand and not have every thread morph into one big "Why can't we all be the same"? cry party, OK?

Anonymous said...

HT, you have entirely missed my point.
And I always thought there was such a thing as Am Yisroel...

Anonymous said...

What do you want from R. Goldwater ? He gave out lekach on erev Yom Kippur (as per the late Rebbe - it's a bifeirusher Jewish Press - JP of October 14,2005, p.47) !

Anonymous said...

He is a shtickel Chassidishe Rebbe. In the early days of his minyan (it was on Coney Island Avenue at one time) they davened Ashkenaz. Then somehow it switched to Sfard, now he wears a gartel as well, even though he claims to be a talmid of the Litvishe R. Simcha Wasserman zt"l. Once he even, in public, criticized a misnaged, who he alleged complained that he said over too many Chassidishe vertlech. He basically said tough on him if he can't take it.

He tells over Chassidishe maiselech (at times mistakenly attributed) and has his finger on the pulse of the young people - he gets large crowds for his Shabbos hagodol and Shabbos shuva deroshos which are held at a large local public school. He knows how to criticize certain phoniness that bothers young people like problems with Yeshivas and shidduchim. Nachum Segal and his chevra keep on pumping him up. Sof kol sof he is a modern Chassidishe Rebbe, who can speak a decent English and tell over Chassidishe maases. For people who are not big mevinim and don't have big hasogos, he can be seen as some kind of Rav/Rebbe. He does have some charisma.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I for one do not see the charisma part. I did however like the Leach distribution announcement in the JP!

Anonymous said...

i heard that he has a lubavitcher brother, and that he is a friend of lubavitch; i also seem to remember in a published story or column that he encouraged someone to go to the ohel and daven for a child? Maybe he is not the mad editor but rather he was censured by his publisher...this seems much more likely

Anonymous said...

I recall hearing him discuss the book a while ago on JM in the AM with Nochum Segal. Also, I recall, as part of the radio program, someone from the family of 'Reb Mottel' called in - I think it was a daughter from Crown Heights. The program probably is in the archives of Nachum Segal's show online at http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/jm Maybe someone can listen to it (I cannot do that here now) and report back to us. The problem is which program it is. If it labelled then it should be able to be found. If it's not, then it could be difficult. I took a quick look at the site and noticed three programs with R. Goldwasser on it. One is a tisha beAv program, so that is excluded. The other two are April 20, 2004, which looks like it might be the program I am thinking of, and January 5, 2005. If it's not one of them, perhaps Nochum can be asked if he can find which one it was via his records. Anyway, I don't recall the family member complaining on the air. Someone should contact R. Goldwater and give him a chance to respond to the allegations.
Tzig - also, you must admit that Reb Mottel himself didn't write the English letter of protest, as he isn't fluent in English to such an extent. Evidently someone else did. The question is how much the letter reflects the feelings of Reb Mottel vs. feelings of another person. Also it's possible that perhaps the family member hadn't read the book at first, when she was on the radio.

Anonymous said...

Also interesting is (in Reb Mottel's letter of protest, which appeared in N'SHEI CHABAD newsletter, September 2005) that he says that R. Goldwasser "simply invented an extensive amount of the story". So what is wrong with that ? That shows that he is a real Chassidishe Rebbe, by adding in a large amount of sheker to the story. And that shows us that that is part of most, if not all, Chassidishe maases - sheker and guzma. That is something that should be dealt with too - and not only among Chagas Chassidim. I hope tzig will concede and address that. Didn't the Rebbe say that history should be written 'emes la'amito' ? That would exclude distortions of various types.

Anonymous said...

i smell a "malach" in the last comment...

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

anonymous
so you're saying that by omitting large parts of true stories you're actually writing "emes leamitoy"?

and the Rebbe wanted this?

Anonymous said...

Tzig - avader nit - nein - nein - nein.

They are both sheker - adding in baloney and leaving out emes. Different types of sheker, but both sheker.

Anonymous said...

He has a website - http://www.rabbidovidgoldwasser.com

You can e-mail him through it. There is even a chat feature.

They have a little something on the book under discussion here (http://www.rabbidovidgoldwasser.com/comrade.html). It describes R. Goldwasser as Reb Mottel's "lifelong friend". Can someone explain to me how he could be his lifelong friend, if Reb Mottel was in Russia when R. Goldwasser was young ?

Seems that the one who made the website doesn't know English too well - e.g. "calender" and "the renown Torah personality" - hey - maybe R. Goldwasser grew up in Russia ;-)

Der Shygetz said...

Great post - just one minor comment - I had the zechus to know Reb Mottel sheyichye when I lived in Moscow and he is not "broken" by any means unless he has suffered health or other troubles since he moved to the US.

Pischwasser (pls do not censor this) does not reach up to Reb Mottel's ankles - he is just a nudnik who sounds off on radio and in high calibre publications like Country Yossi in exchange for a few dollars.

Anonymous said...

How about writing a history of Bnai Brak and leaving out the Chazon Ish ! Although I must add most Lithvishe books dealing with Yeshivos rabbonim etc in Bnai brak hardly mention rav Yankev Landau the shtot rav !

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

Why should they mention him, they couldn't wait for him to finally ....
א חוצפה! א חסידישע רב אין די עיר התורה! גיוואלד

Unknown said...

anyone that is in doubt if Reb Mottel is upset should call him on the phone... 718 774 7912. he is very very upset and goldwasser the puts has not done to make it right... there is a new blog out there:

www.goldwasserstory.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I don't know the ins and outs regarding recourse to secular courts, but it should be possible for R' Mottel to get an injunction restraining any further distribution of the book. If the details in this blog are correct then R' Goldwasser was authorised to translate the book, not amend it. What he has done (according to this blog) is probably a breach of copyright, and further distribution harms R' Mottel's sales and also brings him into disrepute.

I'm not a lawyer or a rabbi, but I would think this should be at least considered.