Hirshel
History has shown that our brothers the so-called "misnagdim" are very astute to follow trends. After catching on to the trend that is popular at the time, they soon claim ownership. Our era is an era of extremes, we nebech have the OTD phenomenon with kids falling from all kinds of house and groups, and at the same time we have the height of zealotry; zalonim and aronim try to catch up to the others, Rav Shteinman party and Rav Auerbach's party are out to show who is more kanoi,who has more chumrahs. The misnagdim realized that the youth likes extremes so they are jumping to the forefront, as if they invented Kanoas and chumrahs. So far both parties are still licking the bones they get from the Zionist Government, but they act as if they are kanoim on issues like that the Rav of Boston is de-legitimized because he did not go along with the קנאות flavor of the day. Yesterday I saw this siddur of an original old time Litvak. He learned in Salaboka, like Mussar Slabodka, still saw Reb Yisroel Salanter and wrote alot to Reb Yitzchok Elchonan, someone he knew personally. He arrived to Cincinnati early and became a popular orator, saying that at least the 3-4 hours that he darshens the crowd sits and doesn't desecrate the Shabbos...He befriended Reverend Issac Weisz, the president and rabbi of the Reform Movement, who is cursed as Yemach shemoi by every frum Jew. But shockingly, the holy yeshivos in the Lita were collecting money from his congregation! and Weisz himself helped all the Roshei yeshivos! for a while he was even mad at their chutzpah to attack him and yet to come for him for money, but he still went with them to the wealthy to help them collect money! I don't think that this fact is mentioned anywhere in the Artscroll /Hamodia universe
Now I see why the Lita had so much Shekotzim: Koach Hapoel B'Nif'al.....
I hope my point is clear...
That's Agudath Israel Convention 93...
Rav Moshe Mordche Epstein and Rav AY Kook in NYC, 1924
Chabad's Oldest Outpost Lingers on in Casablanca
Muslims and their OTD/Radicalization problem
A Pilot and Holocaust Survivors are Reunited in Brooklyn
The link to the WNYC program about Muslims and their radicalization problem was inspired by this year's convention, which seemed to put some emphasis on our OTD problem. After listening to speeches about Achdus and underpaid Rebbis, we heard lots of talk about OTD, which by the way, is now to be known as XO, for X-Orthodox. This according to Eli Fink. Muslims have the opposite OTD problem. Their youth is being radicalized online, and our youth is going the other way, often quite radically, as well. Especially if you saw yesterday's news...So what we need to do is show our presence online. By our presence I mean normal, frum Jews doing everyday stuff, peeling potatoes for kugel and on Chol haMoed trips, raking leaves and making snow malochim. Stuff normal people do. That'll keep our kids from eating from the forbidden fruit. Seems like this is Agudah's will to be the solution to every problem pertaining to the frum community under the sun. Soon they'll be providing filtered internet and shoes for Pesach. G-d bless them, if they can do it, but it seems like they're stretching themselves way too thin here. Focusing on too many issues depletes manpower and money. Maybe if they focused on getting money for Yeshivos and busing, and little else they would do a better job at it. From the clipping in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle it seems like some things haven't changed. They did the same thing 90+ years at the 1st KG in Vienna. Except that back then there were no solutions, all you could tell them was that the gates of hell awaited them. I imagine they didn't bring Psychologists and mental health professional onto the dais back then, and didn't talk about hugging kids smoking on Shabbos either....
Gotta run...
