The Great Bear of Creedmoor

Those drug dealers are the sad grandchildren of those dispossessed of their heritage by the maabarot. The few charedi dealers in jails out there are not from EY; they’re from the fringes of US and UK communities. The ones helped by Chabad and the charedi askonim that back them are the ones whose grandfathers were geshmadded in the maabarot. Those dealers, by the way, are the very face of the medine in Hungary and Romania – in Romania, an official complained that EY once exported irrigation equipment, then switched to hi-tech and now criminals. He’s right – I saw it with my own eyes in Budapest and Prague where every illegal business is controlled by EY gangsters.

EY is far more dependent than, say, the US or Russia, on other countries. Other countries do not need it in any way as it is a small market, and others can do what its firms can do for far less. That is why any firm that does make it big in EY sells out or moves its headquarters to the US.

If the medine were given a shut-down order by the UN tomorrow, the only thing we would notice except refugees in our shuls is a Bamba shortage for a few weeks until Nestle switched production to another factory. Some smart-aleck refugees would probably stoop to selling their Bamba at $5 a pack to the very people who are volunteering to help them resettle.

The medine is tiny, and it has a very small elite that controls everything. That elite, which owns the press, in turn dumps on charedim in order to mask the fact that they are stifling their fellow chilonim by keeping an iron grasp on the real assets of the EY economy – and stifling the charedim by making it uncomfortable for them and even for the few remaining dati-leumi with standards to serve in the army.

I know far more people that tried EY out of real idealism, were disappointed, and ended up leaving and doing very well back home than losers here-losers there. The second type are the Nachlaot/Kikar Crack crowd and they, too, go back and forth.

There is no mitzva to live in EY at present. There is ABSOLUTELY no mitzva to take part in any of the affairs of the medine. The first is a misinterpretation of Torah. The second is a tenet of a philosophy called zionism which, like deformed, preservative, deconstructionist, bundist and every other dead or dying movement, is based on prikas oil. Rav Kook tried to metaher a sheretz. He failed.

However, there is a mitzva to help Jews from EY who end up searching for Judaism find it wherever they are, and not to tell them to go back to EY if they are floundering and living as shkootzim there. If it were not for that, I would probably davka forget how to speak Ivrit.

LOL do you think anyone in Monroe or NS or Willy would ever appear on TV in this way? Someone in Williamsburgh might have been willing to do so, but they risk a fight with the local kanoim if they do. The other 2 places would expel anyone who went on TV at worst, or control their every word at best.

Your only choices for a show of this type are Chabad, Breslov or one of the Hornesteipol Twerski brothers’ actual families.

That being said, I, too, am surprised she just did not do the show in Crown Heights, where she had already filmed before the show itself. I guess she wanted the background of BP.

Uneeq, I have some news for you. No one speaks Yiddish to create machloikes. We speak it to keep our old world alive in the new world and we are very happy when someone wants to learn it.

Most Yiddish speakers would be very happy if you asked them to help you understand Yiddish. No one except the occasional bad apple you might encounter in any bunch is looking to divide or to be condescending. If anything some Yiddish speakers would love to have one more person to pass the language on to.

Start by following along with the lyrics as you listen to a Lipa Schmeltzer song like Gelt, unless you davka want to learn only Litvish Yiddish – in that case get the old Avraham Fried Yiddishe Oitzros albums with the lyric books. If you want to hear what people in the street are saying, Lipa-lushen is best because today, mostly Hungarian and Polish Chassidim speak Yiddish on a daily basis. Lipa’s Americanized Yiddish is only a slight exaggeration of the way people speak today; Michoel Schnitzler and Yonason Schvartz sing very clearly as well and I would say they are singing in exactly the same Yiddish most people speak today.

Once you feel ready, find a shiur given in Yiddish and you will catch on very fast. Usually, you find someone who davka wants to help you keep up with the shiur and that person will help you if you even look puzzled when the magid shiur is speaking.

The Chumash Beis Yehuda helps you learn to read Yiddish.

And then, you can tell the occasional condescending menivel “Shygetz Aross” (or is that really Hungarian? :)))

My only identity is – Jew. The only place I feel at home is in a shul or Jewish neighborhood, regardless of where I am. Tel Aviv has many places that are so secular as to be non-Jewish (never mind the central bus station area), and parts of EY are not settled by Jews even with the medine.

I carry one passport and reside in a country other than the one that issued it. I am entitled to and will soon take another one from another place that I will not settle (I would like to and have many friends in that country, but it’s COLD up there and living there is expensive too).

ZDAD does it AGAIN! I really feel like I am arguing with a kindergartener here, or with an NK type who just wants attention.

Do you know what the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s REAL position on EY was? Do you really think he was a Zionist?

The difference was that the Lubavitcher Rebbe accepted reality and realized that there are Jews in EY whose lives are in danger if they are not defended properly, and that the best way to protect Jews was to have as much of EY as possible under very flawed Jewish rule. If he had believed that peace was possible by surrendering land, he would have advocated giving up even the Kosel. However, he understood the Arab mentality very well, and had the misleaders in EY listened to him, the world would be very different today. He did not believe in reishit tzmichat etc and argued very strongly against it. He also did not believe the medine had any kedusha at all – he sent people to bring kedusha to Jews in EY going back as far as when he made it clear that our yeshivas were to accept boys from Teiman and Morocco etc who were suffering at the hands of the tzioinim in the maabarot. (Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik, today the head shaliach in Italy and the rav hamachshir for a lot of our favorite wines was one of those Lubavitchers who did this kind of work in the shmad camps; he was practically a refugee himself at the time.)

The Satmarer Rov believed that the world would force the evacuation of EY or place it under UN rule with no harm to Jews. Wishful thinking and it is too bad that tzaddik goizer veHKBH mekayem did not come true in this case.

The only real disagreement was about Entebbe and whether it was a ness. By then, Reb Yoilish was very unwell and who knows what he really said or meant. That was about the time that the problems started, and once the Berach Moishe took control as best he could, the problems died down (proof that what we now know is true is true – the troublemakers were oisvorfen who needed a good potch.)

Reb Yoilish cried during the Six-Day War. The Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA never uttered the word medine.

clean characters like Mickey Mouse.

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Please see my prior post. The Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA did not consider Mickey MOUSE a clean character. Noiach did not either, and my friend who is an exterminator would most certainly agree. You disagree – fine, but we follow our Rebbe and you follow your daas Torah – elu ve’elu. For us not to know about cartoon mice, especially when we do participate in all the world has to offer on our own Torah terms, is a source of pride.

The Ginsberg children were brought up in BP, where there are Jewish toy stores or Judaica gift stores filled with toys on every commercial block. Why would their parents, who represent the Rebbe’s teachings in BP, bother with Mickey Mouse? It is like asking a balabuste in BP why she doesn’t use Gold Medal flour or can’t remember the name of some popular brand of margarine – why should she if Kemach and Gefen are available on every corner.

Even if the older ones know who Mickey is, it is like asking me if I know who Tebow or Lin are. Sure, I do – I know they are sports stars. I would not recognize a picture of either of them. I do not know their first names. I am not sure what team they play for, and I’m not sure what sport Lin plays – I think it is basketball but I really would have to double-check. For that matter, is Lin the right spelling of his name? I don’t know. I know Tebow plays football and got some attention for his beliefs. I am very proud I do not know more about sports – for me it is mental clutter.

They may well know that Mickey is a cartoon character, but that’s about all they know. They don’t count that as knowledge.

One of my biggest regrets is that I have yet to visit KJ; as an admirer of Reb Yoilish, at the very least I should visit his kever.

It’s just an NYC thing for me – when I am there I forget that NYC is part of a state and a country.

I have spent a lifetime total of 16 hours in Miami, three hours in Monsey (completely forgot that the Ribnitzer ZYA is buried there) and about four hours in Cedarhurst :).

Popa, yes, I agree – and the one thing I should add is that if you conduct yourself in a manner that makes them think you are looking for trouble, Satmarers will make sure you do not have a chance to make any trouble. It would not surprise me to find out that Zdad and family conducted themselves as if they were tourists looking at the locals the way I look at chayes and behemas in the zoo – and if so, I understand why they got such a reaction.

13th Ave is an outdoor mall and a tourist attraction. Willy, even Lee Ave, is a residential neighborhood. Even the other avenues in BP except New Utrecht and 18th, to say nothing of just about any BP side street, are very different from 13th Ave.

We can beat up abusers,

This is the only way to do it. Many of them are arrested and get light sentences. Rav Shtarkman’s 1000-pound beis din is the only deterrent to abusers.

we can beat up those who who dont pay taxes or pay their workers off the books

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WRONG! We are not allowed to act as enforcement agents for non beis din related crimes and we certainly cannot act as vigilantes for the government. Nonpayment of Jewish workers – yes, we should act. Anything else – that’s the government’s business and we who are straight pay taxes for government enforcement agencies that are supposed to weed out those who are not. Mesira is ossur lemehadrin in most cases. Abuse is one case where it is not, and so too might be reporting an investment scheme with Jewish victims. Otherwise, the only type of financial crime I would even ask a shyla about, is if I myself had to go to a consumer protection agency to get recourse against a frum seller for an item where beis din costs would be more than its value.

If anything, we should have lynched some members of the US government for letting Jews perish during the churban rather than allowing them into the US. That was the one thing the radical tzioinim did right (to the British) during the war.

The book should be renamed: “The Protocols of the Elders of Satmar.”

SEM – Send Extra Money

Natural methods are not like s’hin dalets as you said!

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They are worse. Those who engage in them without telling patients to see regular doctors are roitzchim.

You yourself said Lubavitchers are not Chassidim. So which is it?

Miami is the Las Vegas of frum Jewry anyway – what goes on in Miami stays in Miami (which is why I never stayed more than a night in Miami :)).

In any case, for us, Mickey Mouse is a mouse. Col. Sanders is also a corporate icon, and I assure you no one brought up in a Chabad household knows who he is unless it is someone who has eaten in the old mehadrin KFC in Mevaseret Zion.

Did he speak in English? Otherwise, that is just someone’s modern translation of vehamayvin yavin.

I don’t believe they don’t know who mickey mouse is, I didn’t watch tv growing up or now and still know mickey mouse its all over books backpacks, come on!

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The Lubavitcher Rebbe ZYA was against exposing children to cartoon pictures of treyf animals, stuffed treyf animals etc. While I know of some families who purposely or inadvertently make exceptions and let a stuffed bear or tiger into the house, mice are another story. For a child growing up in Crown Heights, a mouse is a treyf pest. For a child growing up in Kfar Chabad or Y-m, as well as here where I am, a mouse is the reason why treyf, noisy cats are very welcome in yards.

Remember also that this family is in Boro Park, where the father is the menahel of a very strict school.

Believe me, they do not really know who Mickey Mouse is (he’s the present occupant of the White House, right?) Even if they have seen pictures of Mickey Mouse, the character means nothing to them. My friends’ children here in Ukraine would not know about any of the local cartoon characters, even if their parents are locally born and remember them from their childhoods. If their parents are shluchim from abroad, they don’t know anything about American or EY cartoon characters either.

asher yotzor before, hagomel afterward.

Yawn. Chassidish in everyday haimish or yeshivish parlance does not mean Chabad. Chassidish among Chabad Chassidim means a family like the Ginsbergs that are strong in their beliefs and conform to Chabad practices of old.

Chabad is far more of a Chassidus than Satmar, which is a Chassidishe kehilla with rules based on the Chasam Sofer’s hashkafah and with very little connection to the Baal Shem Tov. Nothing against Satmar which I happen to admire; this is strictly a technical definition.

Creedmoor is not a Chassidus at all even though it is called Creedmoorer Chassidus. It has a rebbe whose only goal is to have his kanois subsidized by as many public bodies and insurance companies as possible. Its roots are in Szarkonosvary, a very reactionary kehilla that was established in a remote border region between Hungary and Mongolia in order to shield its inhabitants from even the slightest shred of ehrlichkeit.

No, Yiddish is a Jewish language, with words that are specific to the Jewish experience. It is no different than modern Hebrew, except that it is regionally exclusive to Europe. The tzioinim claim that anything that evolves in golus is not Jewish – and that to them also includes much of halacha. We don’t define Jewish according to their standards.

Once we convert a name, it is ours – once a non-Jew converts, he is a Jew. That name has been elevated, for whatever historical reason, and that is the end of it. If all we have for a Jew who needs rachamei shamayim is a clearly non-Jewish name, we use it – but it is also a great time to give that person a real Jewish name. And if that name is from Yiddish or Judeo-Arabic or Ladino because the person wants to remember a relative, so be it.

I think yeshivish will die out now that the Internet makes it possible to learn proper English. In any case, you do not have a written version of yeshivish (or hymish), except when Purim rolls around.

I used to think the same until I listened to the “nostalgia” channel on a certain Jewish music portal. Even tracks I remember from when I first became frum, which is about when recording technology started to advance rapidly, really don’t have the sound of today’s music.

However, indeed, it does make it easier for mediocre singers to force out a disk, and for better singers to force out mediocre disks just to stay in the limelight. With the radio stations and samplers, though, there is no reason to buy a substandard release or an album that is not for you. In the end, the substandard stuff falls to the clearance rack anyway.

It is very simple. As long as potential in-laws do not know the right color tablecloth to use on Shabbos, their children will be rejected by every shadchan and put on the open-secret “nebach lists” that circulate in every mikveh from Monsey to Baltimore and even in LA.

I tried to solve this problem on being a half of the Admou”r meCreedmoor. I asked the rosh kollel of the Federal kollel in Otisville if some of the yungerleit there could get me good deals on white tablecloths that I could sell to shadchanim who would in turn mark them up for resale to their clients. Instead, the rosh kollel tells me I should build a new venue for shidduch dates on this parcel of swampland he has outside Monroe. I told him I’d take the swampland off of him and build a pool hall there for oisvorfen and give him 20% of the take instead, because you don’t need a facility like that for a Monroe beshow. All of a sudden his pretty blonde therapist, or counselor, or whatever, came by, so he tells me in Hungarian, saygec arosz, sikca arann. I see him, I says a dank tzi gott far Federal koilel.

Then, there is this problem of complete ignorance of waist sizes among bochurim and their parents. This singer that just peygered, Whitney, or Britney, or whatever, was a size 2 all her life, because she used cocaine to maintain her figure. Now, if you want that my Federal kollel connections should sell your kallah some cocaine, that’s OK, but even in Creedmoor it’s really not recommended. You want to stop this size 2 nonsense once and for all? Show a bochur a shtick holtz, 2 by 4, that’s 2 inches by 4 inches, and say that a size 2 is the width of the 2 side of a 2 by 4. Since the bochur’s mother, who is probably wider than a sukkah door by now, is really the one who is so concerned about size 2, that will put a stop to such nonsense once and for all.

Now, as for a learning boy versus a working boy: you have to decide, you want your husband to learn when you get married, you want him to work and provide for a family, or you want him to make gescheftn and end up learning in Federal or State kollel? If you want the last, you better take a few courses in creative bookkeeping so you end up with the gelt when he goes away for a while. Also remember that you and your children will always be doing the laundry for him – washing all his shmutzig gelt through your accounts and trust funds. If you want the first, you have three choices – a very rich father in law who may also have learned in Kollel Fed, a life of food stamps and welfare, or working all your life. Remember that there are Federal advanced seminaries as well, and this is another way to provide for a kollel family. However, if you want to go that route, marry a real kollel guy and not a Federal kollel guy.

Rooshe is not the word. Nebach a choila is more like it, or meniveles if you want to be more strict. She is being used by all of these bashers; they gave her the incorrect info, which clearly came straight out of Haaretz’s supposed expose on Gur that ran at the same time.

Only a professional counselor can help her. I am too realistic to believe that we can proactively save every OTD neshume out there. This is one we need to let slip until she is ready to return with her tail between her legs, bereft of her 15 minutes of fame and saddled with a drug habit, a kid from some lowlife shygetz (Jewish or otherwise – bai inz der hyliger Ingarischer kanoim a yid ken ochet tzi zan a shygets/saygec) a bunch of piercings and a wardrobe full of cheap pritze dresses that she finally realizes are not who she is.

Copying a couple from a list:

Darchei Bina

Afikei Torah

Be’er Myriam

Midreshes Tehilla

Machon Raaya

Ateres Bnos Yerushalayim

Peninim

Seminar Y-m

I have no idea who these appeal to or what their perceived qualities may be. My Pell Grant seminaries change names as soon as the bank transfers hit my Panamanian and Belize accounts :).

Lubavitchers marry only within Chabad or, especially in EY, France and Canada a generation ago, to graduates of Chabad girls’ schools who may have their own (usually North African or Yemeni) minhagim but who are familiar with Chabad and willing to change. Even 2 generations ago, it was not completely unheard of for a Chabad bochur from Russia to marry a girl whose parents came from Yemen.

Ger marries only Ger, vehamayvin yavin. It is a tough life for someone from outside to get accustomed to.

Satmar and Pupa are meshadech to one another. Smaller chassidus’n are meshadech to the ones most similar to them. Rebbeish families marry into other rebbeish families – the Rebbeim of Satmar, Bobov, Belz, Vizhnitz and Lubavitch are all related through Reb Aron by marriage (all but Belz would be related to his children by blood). The Twerskis of Milwaukee, BP, Pennsylvania etc (Hornestipol) are all related to the Bobover rebbeim as well. I think the rule in Skvere is that only men who went through their system can live in NS, but a kallah from outside is welcome. Please check me on that.

The kallah always takes on her new husband’s minhagim (which I think is halacha).

Oh, and Creedmoor just does things Reverend Moon style – reams of marriage licenses followed by divorces depending on which benefits programs the phantom couple are registered for.

Great stuff, Yakov :)!

🙂 What would I know? The sems I know about are Bnos Burqa, Machon Cholere, Bnos Kanois (daytime) and Merkaz lePritzus (night sem).