A $430,000 Chilul Hashem

Guest post by Hayitochen:

I was most disappointed to read in last week's Jewish News about Elwood Shul and the Yesodei Hatorah college battling it out in the Supreme Court of Victoria, with the report that the Shul has already spent $430,000 on the case!

Both sides are supposed to be Torah-observant organisations, so how come they didn't do the proper Torah thing and go to a Din Torah?

Whilst I am unsure on who the religious authority currently is for Yesodei, it was established by a group of frum Jews headed by Rabbi D Nojowitz of Beth Hatalmud with the approval of the late Rabbi Chaim Gutnick and offers a Charedi agenda and curriculum. Similarly Elwood Shul, has always been Orthodox and currently lead by Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick, who heads the Melbourne Beth Din and Melbourne Kashrut.

How is it then possible that such groups defy the stern and unambiguous Halacha of not bringing our arguments  to the secular courts? Rashi states that this is a Chilul Hashem - which as we know is one of the greatest Aveiros and about which our Sages say that במקום שיש חילול השם אין חולקין כבוד לרב.

And what lesson does the average Halacha-abiding Jew learn from this? If Shuls (in this case one whose rabbi is the acting head of Beth Din!) and religious schools shun Din Torahs why should he be any different?

Additionally, one may ask, is Elwood Shul truly so flush with money? Can they really afford to squander half a million dollars fighting another Jewish institution? And what about Yesodei?How much have they spent on lawyers?

I  have no inside knowledge of the case, but from what I read and heard, the case is nowhere near the end. Isn't there anyone in the community who can knock some sense into both sides?

Aussie Echo post

Watch this Blog

I was just made aware of a new blog, AJN Watch, which has been setup to counter the perceived anti-orthodox bias of the Australian Jewish News.
As an observant Jew I must agree that the AJN certainly seems to do its best to highlight any negative issues that the community has and appears to emphasise stories when a frum individual is accused of doing something wrong. Case in point was the disgusting front page in last week's paper of a Rabbi who has been accused of wrongdoing. Despite a one's personal feelings this rabbi has not been tried and found guilty yet. Maybe the Jewish News and others know something we don't but I always thought that one needs to be found guilty by a judge before he is sentenced.
I also find it frustrating that the AJN journalists know very little about the frum community and often have incorrect reports, quotes etc in articles that pertain to us. I put this down to the fact that there do not appear to be any frum journalists (except for Yossi Aron who seems to be confined to one particular area of the paper) and also that the paper does not seem to care about our segment of the community. Until the Jewish News editors and management make a concerted effort to understand the frum section of the community I cannot see this changing.
The solution the writers of the blog propose is to purchase the Hamodia. While I do like this paper it has nothing to do with our local community. I certainly enjoy reading news about frum communities overseas but I would also like to know what is going on in our community. I know that there is a segment of frum Melbourne who care nothing for the less frum but most of us want to know what is happening in the Jewish community. Until there is someone who wants to invest in another newspaper for the Jewish community of Melbourne (or Australia) I cannot see the Hamodia taking the place of the AJN.
If I can offer a defence of the Jewish News (at my peril)...I am sure that we understand that the orthodox community is only a small section of the Melbourne Jewish community. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the journalists are not frum, the owners affiliate strongly with the Liberal/Progressive/Reform (whatever it is being called today) movement and the prevailing culture is extremely secular leads to articles in that paper which have very little Jewish content apart from the fact that they are about Jews or written by Jews. I cannot see this changing.
In any case I am looking forward to reading future posts on this new blog and honestly hope that the owner(s) can encourage a positive change to the Jewish News which will satisfy the majority of the Orthodox community..
=====================

We appreciate Aussies Echo's publicising our new blog but at the same time feel that his comments need to be addressed. So here goes:

Aussie Echo:
The solution the writers of the blog propose is to purchase the Hamodia. While I do like this paper it has nothing to do with our local community. I certainly enjoy reading news about frum communities overseas but I would also like to know what is going on in our community.

AJN Watch:
First of all, the Hamodia welcomes reports submitted by every single frum organization and shul. All they need to do is get someone to write about your organization and it will be published – including photographs. Unlike the AJN which cuts submissions to tiny threads and allows only a few words – if that – to be ‘yotzeh’.

OTOH, do you or any other frum Jew really need to know what is happening at the Temple, Betar, Kadimah, Skif camp or the Mt Scopus debutante ball? Will having this muktzeh machmas mius newspaper add to the Yiras Shamayim or Chasidus of children reading about these topics? Or indeed, letting them see a “Jewish” newspaper advertising chazir-treif and mechalel-Shabbos restaurants? Is this the price you are prepared to pay because you “would also like to know what is going on in our community”?

Aussie Echo continues:
I know that there is a segment of frum Melbourne who care nothing for the less frum but most of us want to know what is happening in the Jewish community.

AJN Watch:
Really? Even if the price for your inquisitiveness is that you and your community be abused and vilified continuously as well as exposing the family to anti-religious and anti-Torah content?
FYI, most of the segment of the frum community who don’t allow the AJN into their homes actually DO care about the less frum – but not at the price of bringing toxic trash into their homes. One can care about less frum people without taking such risks.

AE: Until there is someone who wants to invest in another newspaper for the Jewish community of Melbourne (or Australia) I cannot see the Hamodia taking the place of the AJN.

AJN Watch:
Eh? That is EXACTLY why the Hamodia was established. To be the newspaper of record for the entire frum community. But it needs our support. Otherwise you are automatically increasing the strength of the AJN and it’s chazzir-treif restaurants.

AE: “If I can offer a defence of the Jewish News … The fact that the overwhelming majority of the journalists are not frum, the owners affiliate strongly with the Liberal/Progressive/Reform movement and the prevailing culture is extremely secular leads to articles in that paper which have very little Jewish content apart from the fact that they are about Jews or written by Jews. I cannot see this changing.

AJN Watch:
No, of course it won’t change – unless the frum community asserts its powers. It can be done – but their needs to be a will and leadership of our rabbis and layleaders. At the moment this is sadly lacking.

"Charged"

While most members of the Australian Jewry were appalled and sickened at the sensationalism of the front page of last week’s newspaper, many religious Jews just shrugged their shoulders and stated the obvious: “Nu, what can we expect from our self-hating anti-semitic mamzerim”. After all, this is not the first time that the Jewish News has done all in its power to besmirch and slander the face of frum Jews and if nothing is done about it - neither the last time.

As one prominent rabbi stated: “The Zionists have Antony Loewenstein and we have the Jewish News”. While both are outstanding examples of Jewish self-hatred, the AJN in constantly attacking Loewenstein is also guilty of hypocrisy and duplicity.

For the so-called voice of Australian Jewry to so recklessly and idiotically supply fodder to every Nazi and anti-semitic website in the world is simply sickening - even according to their bottom-scraping standards. Check out the Jew-hater's websites and you'll find most of them gleefully linking and quoting from the Australian Jewish News - helping them confirm their hate-propaganda about Jews and rabbis being swindlers and thieves. If the AJN is aiming to increasing anti-semitism worldwide, it is indeed being very successful.

If Chabad communities all over Australia - as well as the orthodox Synagogues - had any pride or self-respect, they would place a ban on all advertising - communal, business and personal on the AJN both their own and of their constituents - until the accepted minimal standards. It is a colossal Chilul Hashem seeing "Stuermer'-style rabbinical vilification on one page and advertisements placed by religious/Chassidic organizations on another.

The AJN ought to be ashamed of itself, but the orthodox community should not sit back and turn the other cheek.