על דאטפת אטפוך - Poetic Justice!

My dear friends;

I'm sorry for doing this, for airing our "dirty laundry" here in public, and in English yet! but this charade has to stop. This week's meeting with the Satmar Rebbe is only one example of the exclusionary tactics being used by the organizers of the Internet event on כ"ח אייר, הבעל"ט. You can choose not to believe what I write here, if it makes you feel good, but I know it to be 1000% true. Many efforts were made to get the organizers to include Lubavitch in this asifa. They were all rejected. For all kinds of supposed reasons. All people involved got the run-around, and the end result was that we got the message. Even the Skulener Rebbe said it has nothing to do with him;  "איך בין אן אלטער איד און מען שלעפט מיר ארום". Those were his words. Even supposed friends of Lubavitch that are involved could do nothing. Lubavitch was not wanted here. Apparently some of the organizers, or do we say "THE" organizer from Gateshead/Lakewood, thinks that it's his klal yisroel and he decides who's in and who's not. And this week they made it perfectly clear to the Satmar Rebbe of KJ that they don't want Lubavitch there. That they're not part of Klal Yisroel, to paraphrase R' Malkiel Kotler. This is a kinus for part of klal yisroel, not klal yisroel. Not even all of the Ultra-Orthodox.

In case I wasn't clear enough, here's what happened:

A delegation that included the Skulener Rebbe, one of his sons, R' Matisyahu Salomon, R' Malkiel Kotler and the Viener Rov/Rebbe of Williamsburg went to the see the Satmar Rebbe of KJ this week. I think it was Monday night. They went there to convince him to sign on to the big Internet gathering. They need him, because if he doesn't sign on then his people won't go, and that means thousands of empty seats at Citifield. (which is normal there, from what I understand...) He doesn't want to go or send his people because he deals with the issue in his own way, he doesn't need some darshan for ladies (no offense) tell him what he should do to keep his kids safe. And most of all, if he doesn't call the gathering, he's not going. He doesn't play second fiddle to nobody. So he comes up with a lame excuse about 1866 Hungary, which everybody knows he doesn't believe, but they can't tell him that, because, you know, it isn't respectful. But how does he make that point? He asks them why one segment of klal yisroel, several thousand Jews with black hats, Lubavitch, namely, why they're not invited, why they haven't been asked to sign on to the kol korehs and get their students and fathers to come? So supposedly RMK said something like "they're not part of Klal Yisroel; that even though you daven in Chabad in Palm Springs I would rather daven B'Yechidus if I was in that situation."  So the SR used that to tell them, that just like he does that because he has a mesorah from his zeide and from the late Ponovizher Rosh Yeshivah, so too does he have a mesorah from his zeides.  And his mesorah goes back to 1866 Hungary, not 1946 Brooklyn. (could we have expected him to stand up and condemn that statement?...) And this is what we call "poetic justice." You Litvaks thought you were the ultimate guardians of Jewry? the Satmar Rebbe turned the tables on you and told you what he really thinks of your clean-shaven, sheitel wearing, Agudah-voting sorry selves.

I know, I know, it's Chabad's fault. They isolated themselves. Whatever.


And they're wondering if they should attend...

And they speak about Achdus?!

........מחרימים עדה קדושה

אלע, אלע, אלע

יארצייט - ר' אליעזר אדלער ז"ל - גייטסהעד

(Photo courtesy of a family member)


 ט"ו טבת  was the 63rd Yohrtzeit of Reb Eliezer Adler, z"l, founder of the Gateshead Kehillah, and grandfather of R' Elozor Reich. (Reich was the one who wrote the memoirs that were gathered in The book we featured here. Reb Lazer was a Chassidishe Yid from Stanislav who made his way to England sometime in the 1880s and eventually ended up in Newcastle. He was a young יתום who left Galicia so that he could support his widow mother. After a while he decided that NC was not serious enough about their Yiddishkeit, and he crossed the bridge over the River Tyne into Gateshead. The year was 1887. There he founded the Kehillah that is now home to many, many Mosdos HaTorah. He wasn't the first Yid there, but he founded a new kehillah that would be just like in der alter heim, and even better, because he was the one dictating policy there. Mr. Adler was adamant about maintaining his standards of Yiddishkeit and was steadfast in the kehillah remaining independent - even from the British Chief Rabbinate, refusing money and offers of help from the office in London. Only Shomrei Shabbos were allowed to be members there, and he would only take money from such people. The best available Rabbonim and melamdim were hired, and a very strict oversight of all kehillah functions ensued. We look at Gatheshead as some kind of Litvishe city, because of the Kolel, Yeshivos and Seminary there, but it never would've become what it did without the efforts of the Chossid Reb Lazer, z"l. There are even several Lubavitcher families that are his descendants!





( a פנימי book published by his descendants recently)

(Recommended further reading about the Gateshead Community)