(Yitzchok Pindros, Mayor of Beitar Illit)
Photo: Meir Alfasi, Shturem
Today is election day in Beitar, - they're voting for Mayor - and never has there been more excitement and anxiety in the little town over the Green Line. The current Mayor, Mr. Pindros, is (IIRC) an alumnus of Ponovizher Yeshivah, but a seemingly nice guy. There's a sizeable Chabad presence in Beitar, as well as many other Chassidishe Kreizen, such as Boyan, Karlin, and Slonim. As Mayor one cannot bring his old biases with him, so obviously he needs to tolerate Chabad as well. Most Lubavitchers there say that he hasn't done anything to help their situation there, and that they have shuls and Yeshivos that still have no adequate living space after all these years of promises. I don't know much about the situation there, so I won't be the one to decide. The other candidate is one Meir Rubinstein, a Breslover Chossid who's running on the Chassidic/Sefardic line. He has the support of such Kehillos as Breslov, part of Chabad, Karlin, and the Sefardic vote, while Pindros had the Agudah/Degel vote, which gives him the Gerrer and Misnagdic/B'nei Teyreh vote.
I have little interest in the vote outcome, I have bigger concerns, like Abish Brodt and RMBW. But what gets me is how politicians will do anything for a few votes. If you're a former Yeshivah Bochur and a Talmid of Moron, and you think that all "Chabatzkers" are Apikorsim, and that they're the "closest religion to Judaism", and that they have a Moshiach Shekker, why then would you come and vie for their heretic votes?! It's not like he's a former frummie who went bad, he considers himself very much a Ben Teyreh, even today, so is he ignoring the words of his Rabbeyim?! Not only that but to get those pesky Lubabs to vote for him look what he does, he puts a picture of the Rebbe on his desk for all to see!!! What has this world come to, have people no shame at all?!
"What has this world come to, have people no shame at all?!"
ReplyDeleteAs the tzadekes (pfaah!!) Ann Coulter once put it, "And that, boys and girls, is how the Jews have survived 2000 years of persecution; by being susceptible to pandering."
she said that?
ReplyDeleteI happen to like much of what she says....
Cmon Chabad people do business with Satmar, Mitnagdim sell and trade with YU people. Everyone sells to Reform jews , and everyone is not bodek anyones zizith when it comes to money and power and kavod.
ReplyDelete"she said that?"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/search?q=coulter+jews+survived+persecution+pandering&hl=en&start=10&sa=N
"I happen to like much of what she says...."
Ditto here. I have a limit to my heroworship, however...
He is a Silverman guy if you know what that is.
ReplyDeleteI do, and I believe Uri Zohar was made frum by him. All the more reason to doubt his motives. Silverman had no love lost for the Besh"t either, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI don't see what the confusion is. In Israel, alliances are made each election, creating different coalitions of need by convienence of the moment.
ReplyDeleteThat's the way it works in a multi-party coalition based system. Look at the national politics, Kadima and Labor with Yisroel Betaynu and Shas??? The relationship is - cheapest deal the lead group could get to make a coaltion versus those parties need to be in power to get resources fighting with their revulsion of the lead group.
I was in one community, the Chabad block supported Degel one local election, for general strengthening of the local religious environment, then supported Shas the next, which got Chabad a new school building (that the previous coalition wouldn't help them out with).
the entire beitar saga just shows what kind of litaphobic pigs chassidim are. pindrus put the name beitar on the map, travelling to america to raise $, making the town the pet project of gvirim, he was great. but to chassidim anyone who doesnt where a shtreimel isnt worthy of respect, so guess what, 'lets be kefuyei tova and throw him out, ha ha ha...'
ReplyDeletei have it on good authority that the father of chassidishe politicians, meir porush, went to the boyaner rebbe to ask for his support for rubinstein, as boyan is a bg force in beita. the rebbe said that 'hakaras hatov is deoraysah' and we have to appreciate pindrus.
porush, unfazed, went to th gerrer rebbe for help. said he 'a chassid who doesnt even listen to his own rebbe?' (porush is boyan!)
that is a truly great rebbe
Re: Ann Coulter. Yes, do google it, please, and read the whole paragraph. If you do so her meaning becomes abundantly clear, and you will see that those who strip it from its context and portray it as antisemitic are stupid, dishonest, or both.
ReplyDeletefollowing that wisdom; does that mean you always need to vote for the incumbent?
ReplyDeleteWhy was Porush so adamant about removing Pindros?
Milhouse,
ReplyDeleteNot to beat this whole Coulter thing to smithereens but that was kind of my point. I agree with you that the whole Deitch faux outrage thing was entirely overblown. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Ann answered the way she did specifically to bait the liberal establishment into the fit of splenetic pique they have so eloquently displayed.
The statement I quoted was from several years back. I couldn't find the original article posted anywhere but that money quote has been propagated around a bit. It's pithy and, unfortunately for too many of our brethren, spot-on.
Pindrus is not a Ponovizher, he went to Tifrach.
ReplyDeleteMeir Porush got kicked out of Bian for refusing the Rebbes orders to support Pindrus.Is derech Habash't not to listen to your own Rebbe???
Pindrus did an excellent job and was good with Lubavitch, but apparently the hasidic alliance managed to trump common sense.Pindrus was a tried and true doer who also managed to set up the Beitar Fund in America and guide Beitar through amazing growth, despite the weak socio economic elements there.
It remains to be seen what the results will be.
A reminder to people should be the very succesful mayorality of Motke Karelitz in Bnei Brak, where despite being close to the Litvishe crowd did a very decent job of running the city proffesionally.You have to understand that in the all-frum cities corruption and nepotism is rife and tax collections are very low.Bnei Brak had suffered for years being run by factional mayors who ran the city in to the ground fiscally and always had to be bailed out by the Goverment.They even went through a period where there was no garbage collection.
Unfortunately, the Chareidi population in Israel is not mature enough to elect proffesionals and are always looking for the factional politician
Camp Runamok, if you read the whole paragraph it becomes obvious that the Coulter quote was not intended to be "spot-on", it was intended as irony. As in fact are most quotes that begin "and that, boys and girls...", which is why I was pretty sure of what I'd find even before I googled it and read the rest of the paragraph.
ReplyDelete"the Coulter quote was not intended to be "spot-on", it was intended as irony."
ReplyDeleteFair enough. Yet, we see just that sort of effect going on; you wanna be mayor of Beitar, you gotta pander to the Misnagdim, Ungarish, Shpitz Chabad, etc. You want the Jewish vote in the US, you need to find some ways to fold yourself into the "tribe".
Reality imitates satire. You just cannot make anything up anymore
>>Ditto here. I have a limit to my heroworship, however...
ReplyDeleteNot Tzig--he is a Chabadsker. There is no limit to the heroworship of Chabad--we ALL know about that.
The picture didn't help him, and now he probably lost his old friends too. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/919126.html