Let The Smack Talk Begin
Two new websites have launched in the last couple of weeks, one, called JDirt, which provides a venue for, well, anyone to publish their Jewish dirt, and the other, called Jewish Whistleblower, which is operated by the same anonymous individual who likes to decry Reb Shlomo in the comments section anytime we say anything nice about him. It’s so nice we can all find something to rally around — knocking down our fellow yids. But hey, it is in the great Abrahamic tradition of idol smashing so I guess it’s all gravy, as unhalakhic as it is…
Isn’t JDirt from the same guy who does JRants as they both share very similar layout and design…
I agree that this guy seems a bit–rant-y–but I think we need to be careful about being too afraid of “knocking down our fellow Yids.” It’s one thing to engage in needless smack-talk, and it’s another to speak up if one has been, say, sexually abused by a prominent figure in the Jewish community (or anyone at all, for that matter.) Fear of being accused of speaking lashon hara (it’s not, technically) and the general insistence that, “that thing doesn’t happen in OUR community” has caused a lot of people to keep quiet about abuse they’ve suffered, thus a) making it hard for them to get help and b) enabling the rapist/child molester/predator/etc. to run around and hurt other people. And that ain’t right.
It’s a good thing you gave them each links.
>Jewish Whistleblower, which is operated by the
>same anonymous individual who likes to decry Reb
>Shlomo in the comments section anytime we say
>anything nice about him.
Mobius, why do you make a saint out of a rasha like Carlebach? The guy was a child molester and a rapist.
And this comes from his supporters!
see: http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Carlebach_Shlomo.html
>Another story comes from Rabbi Goldie Milgram,
>43,
>…
>Rabbi Milgrom was 14
>,,,
>”He pulled me up against him, rubbed his
>hands up my body and under my clothes and >pulled me up against him. He rubbed up against
>me; I presume he had an orgasm. He called me
>mammele.
>It’s so nice we can all find something to rally
>around — knocking down our fellow yids. But hey, it
>is in the great Abrahamic tradition of idol smashing
>so I guess it’s all gravy, as unhalakhic as it is…
Since you’ve decided to issue a psak against my activities “as unhalakhic”, what is your basis?
Carlebach was a rasha pure and simple.
JDirt is completely different from what the Jewishwhistleblower blog does.
The point of Jewishwhistleblower is to advocate accountability and transparency within our institutions and leadership. To that end, we need to expose what is wrong.
Given what is happening throughout Jewish denominations now, how is what I do worse than our leadership:
1) Jewish Renewal – supporting Rabbi Mordechi Gafni
2) RCA – violating confidentiality of victims of Rabbi Mordechai Tendler
3) Reform movement – the mess they made with Rabbi Michael David Mayersohn
and so on and so on ……
>Since you’ve decided to issue a psak against my
>activities “as unhalakhic”, what is your basis?
This is my Halachic basis for what I do:
The Mishnah, Avot 4:4, reminds us that sequestering a hillul Hashem will always be unsuccessful: “Whoever desecrates the name of Heaven in private will ultimately be punished in public, whether the desecration was committed unintentionally or intentionally.” Hence, a conspiracy to conceal information about abuse will ultimately be made public, creating an even greater hillul Hashem. The greater severity of the hillul Hashem in concealing the information can be further supported by the Talmud, Yoma 86b, which maintains that “one should expose hypocrites to prevent the desecration of the Name (Hilkhot De’ot 6:8). Rashi explains that the reason for this disclosure is that people, thinking that this person is righteous, may learn from his behavior. Rambam is of the opinion that after unsuccessful attempts to correct the matter privately, public remonstration and broadcasting of the outrage is required. There is no concern about the hillul Hashem of exposing the offense.
(RCA Roundtable, Nissan 5752)
The stuff that whistle blower does? Like decide that friends of alleged villains are themselves villains? Like go after friends of friends? Like quoting out of context and, more to the point, missing the context and the point?
You mean, like making child molesters seem saintly by comparison?