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The Heretic: Burning Crosses Ultra-Orthodox Style |
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 by Shmarya Rosenberg, September 18, 2008 |
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TAGS:
“You'll never find a leftist who cares about suffering white or Christian peoples. Examples Afrikaner in the "new South Africa," whites under Mugabe, Loyalist victims of IRA terror, Sudetan Germans the list is endless. I agree that a lot of leftist agitation is due to hatred of the West, the white race and any non Third World political aspiration. However, not all.”
Who wrote this? An arch conservative? A white supremacist? A Nazi?
Rabbi Mayer Schiller: teaches advanced Talmud and white supremacy
The man who wrote those words is not a Nazi. He is, however, both an arch conservative and a white supremacist.
And he is also an ultra-Orthodox rabbi.
Rabbi Mayer Schiller teaches advanced Talmud at the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, Yeshiva University’s affiliated high school. But Schiller, who lives in the ultra-Orthodox bastion of Monsey, New York, is not Modern Orthodox – he is a Skver hasid and serves as spokesperson for New Square, the Skver-founded village.
Schiller is a supporter of far-right political groups worldwide, and advocates “peaceful” separation of the races. His racist views have been public for at least 15 years, yet neither Yeshiva University or New Square have removed Schiller from his jobs.
That may be partially because Schiller is a cagey racist, and he parses his racism finely. Schiller speaks of each individual, even those who are dark-skinned, being created in the “image of God.” But, Schiller continues, those same image-of-God-created individuals each belong to different groups based on race and nationality, and those groups, in Schiller’s view, are each good for different things and not for others. Those groups and races, Schiller avers, need to be kept separate – very separate.
Orthodox apologists for Schiller like to spin him as a talented teacher and a benign eccentric who paternalistically wants the best for black people, as long as that best doesn’t involve sex with white people. Real racists, this line of twisted thought goes, would not want the best for black people – no matter who those blacks don’t sleep with.
It is often thought that ultra-Orthodox racism, readily evident in ultra-Orthodox communities in urban centers like Brooklyn, comes from a geographic proximity to lower class black and hispanic neighborhoods. The idea is that, because ultra-Orthodox suffer from black and hispanic crime, racism is a natural (if incorrect) reaction. This is thought to be true even though that same crime disproportionately ravages blacks and hispanics.
Rabbi Efraim Luft: hates the electric guitarWhile that explains a part of the problem, it does not explain the whole. And there is no better proof of that than Rabbi Efraim Luft. Luft lives in Bnei Brak, Israel – half a world away from the ghettos of Brooklyn.
He heads something called the “Committee for Jewish Music,” which works in close cooperation with ultra-Orthodox “modesty squads.” These “modesty squads” are part Church Lady, part Ku Klux Klan lynching party, with a bit of Mob enforcer thrown in for good measure.
Luft has rallied the support of leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis here and in Israel in his crusade to ban African-influenced “primitive” music. He claims electric guitars, bass, and saxophones are “indecent,” and he has just published a broadside endorsed by those ultra-Orthodox rabbis titled “Rules For Playing Kosher Music.” The rules read like they were pulled from a 1950s Ku Klux Klan publication – because, for the most part, they were.
Luft approvingly quotes “The Southerner,” a Klan-linked notorious race-baiting tabloid. (You can read that article here with the offending source removed after bloggers first exposed Luft in 2005.) The Southerner’s editor, Asa Earl Carter, passed his Klan initiation with flying colors – he castrated a retarded black man.
Luft quotes sources like Creationists quote science: selectively and old. (Perhaps this isn’t much of a surprise – Luft is also a Creationist.) These sources are mostly from the mid-1950s and reflect the racism prevalent at that time, not any science or empirical data. But that has not stopped publications controlled by leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis from publishing Luft and citing those sources, and it has not stopped these same rabbis from endorsing what amounts to a ban on almost all music of non-Western European origin.
Rabbi Dr. Benzion Twerski: resigned and retired under pressure and threatsWhile these ultra-Orthodox rabbinic leaders were addressing the “important” issue of African-origin rhythms and “impure” music, a separate, small group of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn were attempting to launch a task force to deal with a truly pressing problem: rabbinic sexual predators.
The lead case on their agenda is a case of alleged rabbi-on-boy child abuse and coverup at the Satmar hasidic movement’s main Brooklyn yeshiva. Satmar is considered to be the most violence prone of U.S.-based ultra-Orthodox groups. The man chosen to lead this modest effort, Rabbi Dr. Benzion Twerski, a
scion of the Chernobyl hasidic dynasty, was threatened by neighbors
and, I’m told, by people linked to a Brooklyn-based modesty squad.
Among the more benign threats, Twerski was told that his grandchildren would not get good shidduchim (marriage partners) unless he immediately resigned from the task force. He did. And Twerski went the goons one better – he retired from public life, as well.
Twerski’s grandchildren can now enter their married lives secure and well matched, while safely dancing to Luft-approved “kosher” music.
Like the 1950s South, ultra-Orthodoxy relies on shunning, threats, and violence in order to maintain a status quo that cannot survive any other way, and it shares some of the same racism. But ultra-Orthodoxy won’t have a Civil Rights Act to clean it up. Either change will come from the inside – or, more likely, change won’t come at all.
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John Birch
Besides all this rambling all over the place, you know darn well that Schiller is an eccentric fringe character. This is like saying that Dennis Kucinich is the face of the US Congress.
Squirt
just what *is* the point of this post?
jewishwhistleblower
Shmarya, you may wish to consider adding to this article the following links/material:
1) Mayer Schiller - the Jewish Week whitewash
http://protocols.blogspot.com/2004_10_24_archive.html (13 posts down)
2) Racist Rabbi Luft's original article that you refer to can be found at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040726021909/http://chareidi.shemayisrael.c...
3) I've reproduced Yated's response to criticism (and other materials at)
http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2005/03/despicable-yated-neemans...
Opinion & Comment
Was the Criticism of Rock and Roll Racist?
To the Editor:
I was rather put-off by certain features of the article about music which appeared in last week's issue (parshas Noach).
The theme was certainly appropriate and the conclusions the author reached were important and worthwhile. However, the article in more than one place interjected a crude racial element to the discussion of non-Jewish musical forms (specifically, rhythms, beats, etc.).
In the section called "What is Rock Music?" the author cites several critiques of Rock N' Roll from the 1950s, among them from a publication called The Southerner ("It will erode the entire moral structure of man . . . all the white man has built through his devotion to G-d.").
In the article's next section ("Rock Music Conquers the World"), the author notes that "by the mid 1950s . . . [r]eligious groups, local governments, police authorities and white citizens councils began to denounce rock and roll . . ."
A quote (spurious?) from The Closing of the American Mind is offered by way of another book that rock is "no less than the savage and primitive rhythm of darkest Africa."
Of course, we know the close connection of rock to jazz, and we know that jazz (in its purest form) was created by Black Americans. We also know that many (but not all) of the originators of rock n' roll were black. We also know that "mainstream" rock has, primarily, been a creation of white "artists."
The case against rock music as a cultural trend can easily be made. Likewise, the case for making a rigid separation between it and the kind of music recorded by "Jewish" artists and "Jewish" recording companies is easily made. The maintain a havdoloh in order to keep us far from the ways of the most corrupt of the nations.
The essential issues here are unrelated to race. The author, clearly reaching for a red herring (which, unfortunately, he found) sought to interject race and racist ideas into his argument. These ideas are un-Jewish in their provenance and have no place in your publication. The author's approach in this respect should be repudiated.
Sincerely,
M. P.
The Editor Replies: Thank you for your thoughtful comments. Racism is certainly not Jewish. For example, anyone can become a Jew regardless of race, as long as he or she meets the requirements.
Africa was chosen and referred to as it was not because its residents are unequivocally black -- which of course they are -- but because they are unequivocally primitive. Africa and the savages who live there were chosen as symbols of primitivism not as symbols of a race. Thus, I do not think that the comments are racist.
The main point is the primitivism of the music and not the racial origin. This is music only in its most primitive, elemental level. It is the product of a sensitivity that knows only the body and its functions and not the higher faculties of man. It is primal sound that emphasizes the body, gashmiyus.
This is something that was also recognized by non-Jews 50 years ago when this stuff started, but today it is completely forgotten.
If similar critics were writing today, they could, unfortunately, apply similar remarks to virtually the whole Western world.
Morganfrost
Sorry, but I don't think those words are racist or, indeed, incorrect. I don't know the rabbi, and am not familiar with anything else he may or may not have said (so I will not attack or defend him personally), but the words you quote just aren't what you're making them out to be.
Schiller points out (correctly) that the folks on the political left tend to get very spun up about the rights of particular groups of people, and, as a rule, they seem to care very little about people who happen to be white, male and western. I did not read this as an argument that white, male westerners are better or entitled to more consideration than other people-- merely that leftists tend to have a knee-jerk disregard for people in that group. If anything, the rabbi was complaining about racism, not practicing it.
Seriously, Shmarya, you do have a good point now and then, but you can't run around loaded for bear all the time. Most frummies are fairly innocuous.
Ahavah
I agree that it's quite ironic that this ban on supposedly "non-jewish"
music and instruments effectively prohibits ancient and native near
eastern and north african music - real Hebrew music, that is - and
substitutes in its place white-eurupean music styles from catholic
controlled eastern europe. Its like they think if they can make people
dress white-european-catholic, eat white-european-catholic, and hear
only white-european-catholic music and white-european based teachings
then they can make their near eastern and north african heritage and
culture just go away. It's beyond racism - its denial in extremis,
pretending to be "white" when we aren't, sort of like "passing" and
getting away with it and then fantasizing it was always so. I find it
quite disgusting.
As for Twerski, I can't imagine why he thinks caving in to their
threats will solve anything - they know now that if the conditions were
"right" he would come out against them. His "place" with them will
never be secure now - they will always second guess him.
And worse, his name is beshmirched beyond all repair - I know I
have trouble keeping it all straight. Every time I hear "Twerski" I
think of molestation and corruption, and I'm sure that's true of many,
many other people as well. Who in their right mind would let their son
or daughter marry into the Twerski family name with those associations
glaring in everyone's face? The apples don't fall far from the tree -
we all "know" it, don't we? If people won't marry BT's children
because they might have been ben niddah, how much less would they want
to marry into a family with some sort of perversion tendency?
No, Bentzion's only hope for salvaging his family name was to
stay on this panel and make a name for himself by dealing firmly and
unwaveringly with molesters and abusers. In fact, you could argue that
Hashem put him in that position to redeem his family and his name by
doing exactly that.
But he chose not to. This will harm his kids future prospects
far more, IMHO, than anything the chereidiban could have done.
Shalom.
Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing do to. -Savielly Tartakover, GM.
MaxKohanzad
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Barbara Reader
Why would you ask Rosenberg a logical question? Haven't you read his other articles?
Anonymous
Rosenberg is the best author on this site. He's the only one lately who's been willing to dig up the corpses in our own back yard. A bit too into food, though.
Anonymous
Good article Shmarya, keep going - we need you to expose the corruption and rot that is the chareidi world. They are anything but innocuous. They are conniving, corrupt, money hungry conmen who will do anything to make a fast buck without having to work for it. And they'll throw in a bracha just to make you feel beholden and guilty so that next time round their con is even easier. Classic reciprocity techniques, but hard to fight.
E.B
There is not one utterance that the politically correct can not interpret as
racist, sexist, or [insert PC buzzword.] Part of it has to do with projection,
PC'ers are extremely racist/hateful and therefor, can extrapolate "hatred" in any action
or statement, no matter how benign.
Anonymous
EB, of course, is not projecting. He's actually asked people who he considers "PC" what it means to them.
Calling people what they want to be called...what an insane concept!
MaxKohanzad
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marcos.chimales
I think the only appropriate reaction I can imagine to this article is to go home and listen to every Masada album. Back to back. Loudly.
Bring me Saxophone and John Zorn. NOW.
scarletto
I grew up in the very Orthodox community of Boro Park. And as someone with friends from all walks of life, I find your rants about the "whole" unsubstantiated and frankly, uninformed. Why not give the Orthodox Jewish community the same benefit of the doubt you give other groups? As a child of Holocaust survivors and an historical member of the "chareidi" world, I can tell you that NOBODY in that community condones child abuse. And playing the racism card, not to mention connecting it to abuse, when addressing a community that continues to be a victim of racism every day of their lives is a pathetic, ill-informed and pitiful ploy.
There's good and bad in every community. Deal with it and grow up!
p.s. Just because you're disillusioned with Rubashkin and the offshoot of Lubavitch that has declared Schneerson the Messiah, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Way too easy to do. The strength lies in taking where you came from and building it into something meaningful for where you're going. As a descendant of the B'aal Shem Tov, and a modern woman, I know whereof I speak.
Shmarya Rosenberg
>>>I can tell you that NOBODY in that community condones child abuse.<<<
Tell that to the dozens of victims I've heard from. Each tells the same story of coverup.
>>>I find your rants about the "whole" unsubstantiated and frankly, uninformed.<<<
Let's see if we can process.
A man with widespread haredi rabbinic backing bans most forms of music, calling them primitive and linking them negetively to Africa and Africans.
Not one major haredi rabbi objects.
You think I paint that with a braod brush?
Please.
>>>As a descendant of the B'aal Shem Tov, and a modern woman, I know whereof I speak.<<<
It doesn't appear you do.