Tel-Chai Nation

So there's an item here about Jewish-Americans in NYC, but not only does this fail to consider the high crime rates common in the Big Apple today, it also doesn't clearly acknowledge some of the Judaist practitioners highlighted are taking a very ludicrous approach to the faith. Including an alleged Haredi rabbi:

In the heart of Manhattan, a short walk from Madison Square Garden, the basketball court of the local New York Knicks, is home to the Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. Already at the entrance, four (!) large pride flags adorn the wall, leaving no room for doubt – welcome to the first LGBT synagogue in the world, established 50 years ago, at a time when the community members were not so easily integrated into the Jewish world, and has since been used by local members.

One of the walls adorns a memorial plaque, not much different than one you will find in almost any synagogue in the world, except that this one commemorates members of the community who died of AIDS. The bathrooms are of course nongendered, and a surprise at the door left us speechless – a large bowl with condoms. Yes, you read that right, a bowl of free contraceptives in a synagogue. The reason – this, ultimately, is a population at risk. Nevertheless!

But you won't find the real surprise on the walls or in the bathroom; rather it is one of the community rabbis. Rabbi Mike Moskowitz is an ultra-Orthodox Jew. He studied for several years at the prestigious Mir Yeshiva in Israel and has been living in New York's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. His children study in mainstream ultra-Orthodox schools and yeshivot.

He became acquainted with the LGBT debate after a family member came out of the closet as transgender, and since then has been involved in the community. After writing articles, he received several halachic questions and he became a sort of "posek" (religious arbitrator) of these issues, first under a pseudonym. What questions, do you ask? Fasten your seat belts, the crazy roller coaster of New York begins: A transgender who wants to convert, how does he perform a circumcision? Is it permitted to participate in a pride parade on the 17th of Tammuz? (The answer: if it's a carnival to you – then no; if it's an event whose main purpose is a war against unjustified hatred – then not only is it permitted, but it is required that you do). Am I permitted to marry a person I am not attracted to? And more questions from a world that Halachah has almost never addressed.

A strange paradox is that the rabbi of the synagogue cannot pray in his own synagogue, because the prayer style there is Reform, and he is ultra-Orthodox. So, they organize an orthodox halachically appropriate minyan for him in a side hall.

Wow, for somebody supposedly ultra-Orthodox, he's little different from the Reform himself. What's really dismaying is how this so-called rabbi makes no attempt whatsoever to persuade the LBGT congregants why it's self-destructive to adhere to such ideologies, especially if they're going to desecrate their own bodies through Mengele-style surgeries. Indeed, one could easily say these gender surgeries that have become a sad staple in the USA and elsewhere aren't all that different from what the Nazis committed during WW2, and to see all this being practiced now would only do them proud at how many have been indoctrinated into accepting their perversions, often at the expense of childbirth.

The part about a relative "coming out of the closet as transgender" is also very PC, since what that aforementioned person did was obviously take up the lifestyle after admitting he/she was homosexual. They don't clearly mention what clan the Haredi rabbi's part of, but it wouldn't shock me if he was part of a fringe element that takes up ideologies otherwise considered anathema to mainstream.

Another point regarding Israel is the question of the younger generation. The older members of the communities, organization leaders, and rabbis are, as we said, very pro-Israel. But it's slightly different with the younger generation. Some of them have developed hostility towards Israel and do not want to be put in the same boat with what sometimes looks, in world media and social networks, like a dark and racist place. The leaders of American Jewry are very concerned about this estrangement and try to fight it, but not always successfully. By the way, Rabbi Ingber's community responded in an uproar, when about five years ago he decided to hang the Israeli flag into the synagogue. The community rebelled and some demanded that the blue and white flag be removed. Ingber did not give in – and dozens of members left the community.

And to think we wondered what was going wrong. Universities are doubtless part of the problem, along with school systems, teaching them to not only be self-haters, but also to be vulgar. Which leads in turn to lowering the bar on better standards.

The third point, the one they talk about with deep shock, is the issue of the Women of the Wall. For all Jews in Manhattan, including the Orthodox, the attack against the Women of the Wall every Rosh Chodesh is a punch in the gut. What barely reaches the headlines here and is of no interest to most Israelis, is perceived by them as an antisemitic event. They do not understand how Jews can prevent Jewish women from praying as they wish, at the holiest site for the Jewish People.

Here, it's not clear that ultra-Orthodox hoodlums are foremost responsible for much of that. But there is a valid point to make here that such behavior has caused serious PR damage and could've been entirely avoided if the Haredis responsible wanted to. And lest we forget, many of the most insular Haredis, regrettably, will never admit their MO's caused homosexuality when they're taught not to look at women, and censor imagery of the same.

Perhaps the most difficult and shocking data for Israelis in America is an assimilation rate of 80-90% among second and third-generation "yordim." This is a number that shocks everyone who hears this.

Why is this happening? It's quite simple. To be a Jew in Israel, you really don't have to do anything. Whether you like it or not, life here envelops you in Judaism – from Zionism, through the Jewish calendar, holidays, and vacations, to the Hebrew language. You never need to enter a synagogue even once in your life, and still remain Jewish. Therefore, when those Israelis come to America, they have no need to belong to a community that is generally based in the synagogue. "If I didn't go to a synagogue in Israel, why would I suddenly start going to a synagogue in New York?" the Israeli asks himself.

And so, when one has no belonging to the community, that "yored" is still Israeli and still Jewish, and usually still Zionist, but the next generation goes to a public school and then to college. He lives in a non-Jewish environment and naturally has a high chance of meeting a non-Jewish spouse. And if not him, then his grandchild. This is a huge tragedy that goes almost unnoticed.

The Israelis we met, who have been living in the US for about 20 years, but feel completely Israeli, describe exactly this experience. "After four years, I realized that there is no Zionism without Judaism," one of them told us candidly. For her at least the penny dropped at an early stage, for others it is often too late.

As expected, assimilation rates are also very high among the Reform and Conservative communities – about 60-70%. Only among the Orthodox are the rates lower and somewhat acceptable.

Something tells me the Reform, if anybody, aren't particularly concerned about assimilation at all, nor are modern Conservatives. And must it be noted that, when any of these movements practice LGBT ideology, they're not only perpetuating a form of assimilation at Judaism's expense, they're also legitimizing a form of self-hatred when the subject takes up the transsexual lifestyle? That's certainly what it comes off as, and so long as they continue that offensive approach, their alleged concerns over assimilation are unconvincing.

And going to schools/universities in today's USA is like throwing away all sanity, as it only turns people into ideological monsters. Leftism's destroyed much of everything this way, and could probably even explain why conversions to Judaism with a non-Jewish spouse barely exist now, if at all. So why the surprise over the issue of assimilation? All this just explains by extension why Judaism in the USA now reeks of phoniness.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, lgbt cultism, Moonbattery, msm foulness, New York, United States