Mottel from Letters of Thought speaks:
"I find it funny that I, who spent considerable time there, am nogeia b'davar to give an opinion, but those who never stepped foot there and most likely never will (and if so, for only a short time) can give an opinion.
Let me tell you all, don't believe me . . . Go fly out to Vilnius and spend time speaking to the local Jews in Lithuania. If you need internet I can recommend a good internet cafe for you to e-mail me your results from. As well, throwing in Moshiach matters has Zero connection to the story at hand. We're speaking about a very small community here, where two shuls are not needed . . . but in any event Rabbi Krinsky runs things from the Chabad house which is a de facto shul.
Anon: The Lithuanian newspaper there was fed the same drivel that Yated was (The first chassidic community was set up in Vilna in 1994? Sheker v'chozov. For the record, in many towns in Lithuania there was a majority of Chassidim (Like Rokishok), and their decendents are still around today. In Kovno a few old ladies came over to me and told me with pride that they shtammed from Chabad!)
Let us get a few facts clear: The fight here has nothing to do with Nusach, Minhag, or the Gr"a. It is about money and restitutions. Period.
For ten years no one had a problem with Chabad . . . until money came into the picture. The government planned on giving the money to the Religious community, i.e. to the Rabbi. Rabbi Krinsky wouldn't capitulate with the powers there, so they brought in Burshtein as a Rav Me'taam - he may do good things, but he was brought in to get the money for the coffers of the Kehilla.
To draw in support, and to present a better image, they dug up the old hatchet and used the 'misnagid' card.
Rabbi Krinsky may be stubborn . . . it may be part of the problem . . . but it's his akshonus that kept him there for so long. Let me see one of you illuyim live in a third world country, shecht your own chickens for meat (bosor beheyma is a chidush there for speical occasions), import your milk, taken in an orphan and the like . . . all while running a school for ka"h one hundred children, sedorim for several thousand and the like.
A person, not a Lubavitcher, visiting once asked me for the inside scoop on the politics there.I told him, "There's no problem with people who go the shul and not to Chabad . . . The problem is the thousands of other Jews who go neither the shul nor Chabad." The other side threatens people, tells them to stay away from Chabad -or risk losing access to their soup kitchens, camps for their kids and the like. That's what's wrong about all of this . . . that the local Jews are cowed into submission and end up staying away from all Judaism."
See his pics from Lithuania.
NOTE: NO NEW COMMENTS WILL BE ALLOWED HERE, FURTHER COMMENTING SHOULD BE DONE IN THE ORIGINAL THREAD.
10 comments:
What did these supposed 'powers' want Krinsky to do and why would he not do it? Vague statements don't shed much if any light on the situation.
Furthermore why is there such an insistence on Krinsky's part to attempt to circumvent the local community and drag in government and US Embassy officials?
What exactly is being gained by saying 'we will not have 2 shuls'? Who gave anyone the authority to make that decree?
Attempts to make this look as if its a battle between 'good' vs. 'evil' seem to be falling flat.
How is this any different from the attempt in Prague to take over the Alt-Neu Shul?
Lets not forget that the great Maggid in his book Traveling with the Maggid (which ignores Chabad in Belarus) says that the tour ate a full meal in Vilna by CHABAD! (in his am haratzus he also finds it unique that today in Vilna its a Chabad center, forgetting Reb Mair Refoel and the whole other Chabad Kehilah there from the time of the GR"A)
You really picked a losing battle.
http://kvetcher.jewschool.com/2007/06/07/revisionism-on-circus-tent/
Tzig, I will beg of you not to put up any comments to this post at all, including this one.
DK
you're nitpicking. Silly of you.
Hmmmm
why not? explain please.
Hmmm is right.
Sadly there are people out their that would rather keep the Litvishe yidden deprived of Yiddishkeit and away from Chabad then have them eat kosher food, lay Tefillin and be brizanya'd by us.
In the end there is no point to all of this.
They can scream till they're blue about what we do, but the truth has already won.
The good that has been done there, and bezras hashem will continue ad bias goel tzedek, has already set in. Yidden now put on tefillin, bentsch licht, are brought to kevuras Yisroel and the like through Chabad.
Another Vilner Yid once told me that he couldn't understand this whole mess:
"When I was a kid under the Communists there was no such thing as Chassidim and Misngadim, we were all Jews and the Goyim hated us."
Rabbi Krinsky has changed the life there, no one there -not Alperavitch, Gurevitch, Burshtein or the rest- says otherwise.
It pains me that the politics there went so nasty, that the Rabbi wasn't able to stay clean from the muck . . .
But my friends in Vilna tell me things aren't as bad as they sound -the internet just makes things bigger.
Let these guys think what they will, the Gra himself knows who is doing things there al pi hatorah v'hadas . . .
Shmarya noted the following.
"Did Rabbi Krinsky ever organize memorial ceremonies for the Gaon? For Chaim Volozhiner? For any major Lithuanian rabbi?
No.
Did Rabbi Krinsky teach classes on the Gaon’s commentaries?
No.
Did he teach mussar classics?
No.
Did he teach Tanya and hasidut?
Yes.
In other words, he tried to turn the community into Chabadniks, and ignored their history."
DK
I understand you and Scotty have this thing going on, but you need to back off here. Neither he nor you know whether or not he organizes Yahrtzeit for the Gro or not, and that's totally beside the point, since the Jews knew close to nothing about Yiddishkeit. The point is that Krinsky was there since 1994 and is now being thrown out like the trash. I sure hope you have more common sense than Scotty does.
Because this is the only person commenting who has actually been there, on either side of the fence. Other comments should not be allowed to pollute the air when you put up such a post.
How do you know Krinsky doesn't go to the gr"a? I've seen him there.
Volozhen is in Belarus.
Does he teach gr"a? No . . . But since when was the minhag in Lita to learn gr"a? Our print of Tanya was also from Vilna, you know.
Luch that you are.
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