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Rabbi Abraham Twershi, MD NOTED AUTHOR, LECTURER and THERAPIST

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Rabbi Abraham Twershi, MD NOTED AUTHOR, LECTURER and THERAPIST THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021~6615 Is published monthly except July and August by the Agudath Israel of America, 42 Broadway, New York, NY10004. Periodicals postage paid in New York, NY. Subscription $24.00 per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Observer, 42 Broadway, NY., NY. 10004. Tel: 212- 797-9000, Fax: 646-254-1600. 4 "Why Get Them Upset?" Rabbi Avi Shafran Printed in the U.S.A. 9 Quality of Life, Revisited, Rabbi Yael Chonon Wenger RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR I 3 journey into the Russian Darkness, Raymond Beyda EDITORIAL BOARD I 6 The Renewal of Shmitta Observance in Modern RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Chairman Times, prepared for publication by Avrohom Birnbaum RABBI ABBA BRUDNY JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI YISROEL MEIR KIAZNEA THE NEXT CHINUCH FRONTIER: HELPING CHILDREN WITH RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN LEARNING DISABILITIES PROF. AARON TWERSKI DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Z"L 22 Introduction, Nissan Wolpin Founding Chalrman 13 A Compelling Mission For Special Parents, MANAGEMENT BOARD Navominsker Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Per/aw AVI FISHOF NAFTOLI HIRSCH 26 Interview with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky ISAAC KIAZNEA RABBI SHLOMO LESIN 28 Rising To The Challenge Of Educating All Our NACHUM STEIN Students, Rabbi Chaim Aaron Weinberg RABBI YOSEF C. 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Batia Warhaftig advertised in its pages © Copyright 2001 April 2001 VOLUME XXXIV/NO. 4 ,,,, fr,"lble amount of ,ersy and broad ein the fewish µlted from an peared in the ¢of Moment ; a periodical a substantial ip comprised 'non-Orthodox ftten by Rabbi r:an, Agudath ica's Director II ,airs, the essay utistics and the f Conservative ust around the time Munawwar halachic observance to consider putting Mohsin, a Pakistani newspaper edi­ their affiliations where their convictions he Conservative tor, accidentally published a letter lie and joining Orthodox communities. criticalJ of Islam and as a result landed No one may have tried to i1nprison ~ii1ent has failed in a Peshawar jail facing a death sen­ me, but the angry and oddly personal in its goal of tence, I had my own unpleasant nature of the response from Conserv­ ?Jy encounter (relatively speaking, to be ative leaders, some Orthodox rabbis and sure) with hot and bothered reaction to an assort1nent of others was certainly the written word. striking. ~?misrepresents My offense was blasphemy of a laity as being decidedly more subtle sort than Mr. "V'LIMKALELEI NAFSHI SIDOM*" ed to halacha. Mohsin's. All I had dared challenge was the claim of the Conservative move­ ( (Anasty diatribe" is how Rabbi ment's leaders that their movement is Alan Silverstein, president of truly committed to halacha. But I did so the World Council ofMasor­ article came, not in an Orthodox periodical or an ti/Conservative Synagogues, character­ edictably, from obscure rabbinical journal but rather in ized the article, \vhich was neither a magazine popular among thoughtful re1notely nasty nor diatribe. ((Let us," he Yve leaders and non-Orthodox Jews. And so, while the announced hopefully, "marginalize stri­ ·· iso from parts reaction was nonviolent, it vvas quite dent voices like that of Avi Shafran." furious all the same. "Does [Rabbi Shafran] really think ox world. The The challenge, which Moment Mag­ that the masses of Conservative Je\'\TS are azine asked me to write, and published going to ... run out and join his little in its February 200 l issue, soberly shtibP." mocked Rabbi Jerome Epstein, summoned an assortment of facts, fig­ executive vice president of the United ures and quotations demonstrating Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, how the Conservative movement's pro­ who also accused me of hypocrisy for fessed theology is at stark odds with its having dared critique his movement actual positions. Framing the hard data while claiming at the sa111e time to care the criticism. was a declaration oflove for all Jews and * "1b those who curse me, let n1y soul be silent"­ a plea to Conservative Jews dedicated to fron1 the final paragraph of Shemone Esrci. 4 The Jewish Observer, April 2001 CLASS(LESS) PROJECT he angry reaction, sadly, was not limited to rabbis and editors. Ire Twas expressed too by a number of lay Conservative Jews-on Moment Magazine's on-line "message board," in Jewish "chat rooms;' e-mail lists and in other written and electronic venues, as well as in a host of flesh-and-blood gath­ erings of Conservative Jews. One imag­ inative 9'h grade teacher (Orthodox, as it happens) at a "pluralistic" school in Penn­ sylvania even made a class project ont of sending me outraged con1munications. Part of the animus was no doubt due to the unfortunately incendiary title the magazine gave my piece. Instead of my ,,, own choice, "Time To Come Home," Moment insisted on cro\.vning the arti­ cle with a large, bold banner headline I reading: "The Conservative Lie." All the same, the piece itself was about Jewish unity. tor" for "attack[ ing] co religionists over admittedly provocative, laying out as it A joint statement signed by every different religious beliefs" and suggest - did not only examples of the blatantly major Conservative organization in the ed that the anonymous scoundrel did so agenda-driven Conservative "ha/achic United States and Israel labeled my arti­ because of a "flaw deep within [his] process" but open adn1ission of the same cle "shameful" and people like me "fun­ genes" or perhaps because he lacked "a by a number of Conservative leaders. It damentalists." balanced psyche." also did not flinch from illustrating how Rabbi Steven Bayar, of Congregation A "Modern Orthodox" rabbi in the far Conservative law has drifted from the B'nei Israel in Millburn, New Jersey, ren­ same city delivered and published a Jewish religious tradition. dered his own judgment that I was appar­ lengthy sermon accusing me of using And so, in the roiling wake of all the ently trying to make myself "look good "denigrating language," "infighting," ugliness, the question might certainly be by making others look bad;' and confi­ and engaging in "vicious backbiting" - asked: Should the piece have been writ­ dently declared that I surely have not and suggested that I undertake a special ten in the first place? brought as many Jews closer to Jewish fast as an atonement. He also wondered Some-not only angry Conservative tradition as he has. (He went on to reas­ how the same person who decried and "Modern Orthodox" Jews but some sure readers of the New Jersey Jewish News falsehoods published about Orthodox traditionally Orthodox ones as well­ that he simply will not allow the evidence Jews (in an earlier issue of Moment) offer an unequivocal <(no." laid out in my article to bother him. 'Tm could now dare to point out unpleasant not going to lose sleep over it;' he said truths about what Conservative leaders TRUE CONFESSIONS contentedly.) believe and say. For his part, Rabbi Joel Meyers, exec­ And while at least one Conservative o be sure, the project was not utive vice president of the Conservative rabbi conceded that the article had been undertaken lightly. I realized its movement's Rabbinical Assembly, saw the "devastating"-and one of the move­ Tpotential to elicit ill will and data I presented as dear evidence that my ment's foremost experts in Jewish law understood that it would have to be clai1n to be an "ohev Yisroef' is nothing admitted that, in the words of Forward, written carefully, in a way that, while but a "guise:' He also claimed, as did the "some of his colleagues either lack a suf­ pulling no punches about Conservative signers of the joint statement, that I had ficient commitment to tradition or have theology or facts, would not personal­ taken quotations out of context. Neither a misguided historical understanding of ly insult well-n1eaning Conservative he, though, nor they offered any exam­ rabbinic law"-the bulk of at least the Jews. I think that the article-despite the ples (nor could they have). immediate reaction was decidedly neg­ way it was misread or misportrayed by An editor at the Baltimore Jewish ative.And-and, significantly, devoid of some-did properly tread that fine Times derided an unnamed "perpetra- any discussion of my article's substance. line, though I confess to wondering if The Jewish Observer, April 2001 5 the negative reaction would have been Whether Conservative readers would THE SECOND WAVE lessened had I included yet another sen­ accept what the article says or dismiss tence stressing that I v,ras critiquing a it out of hand, they will have been pre­ nd as it happened, the initial neg­ philosophy, not members of a syna­ sented with the facts, and what they ative reaction an1ong lay Con­ gogue, or had I elaborated on the A servative Jews a bit later, indeed respect I have for all Jews sincerely pur­ gave way to a surprising nun1ber of pos­ suing deeper connection to their her­ itive responses.
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