Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Penn Scandal: Aish HaTorah did not publish my criticism of their article

Yesterday I submitted my criticism of Aish HaTorah - The_Penn_State_Scandal article to their comment section-  it has so far not appeared. I assume it was rejected. See my post- Penn-state-scandal-learning-torah-from goyim

8 comments :

  1. Have they published newer comments than your submission? Otherwise I would assume it is still pending moderation. I doubt they have a full-time staff moderating comment submissions.

    With only a day having passed I would assume they still haven't looked at it. It is quite reasonable that someone may only look at and moderate comments less often than once a day. Perhaps even significantly less often.

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  2. I just skimmed through the comments. I don't think I saw a single comment, let alone yours, that points out the very obvious "pot-calling-the-kettle-black" nature of this article...

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  3. Steve you may be correct.

    I've sent critical comments to Aish about articles written there and they've published it. I've also partially retracted these comments and they've published that also.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they publish Daas Torah's comments with a response from the author of the original article at the same time.

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  4. they just posted it on facebook, you can post there.

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  5. Recipients and PublicityNovember 17, 2011 at 7:32 AM

    This is really not surprising and much credit for raising the matter of how Aish HaTorah functions and handles itself, that should be no surprise to those who know them and how they operate.

    Aish HaTorah functions as a law unto itself.

    They (meaning Rav Noach Weinberg Z"L) long ago figured out a successful marketing and fundraising strategy that would appeal to their target audience of young secular Jews who they aspire to recruit, and to the wealthy secular Jews who they aim to raise huge amounts of money from.

    Part of this strategy has been to isolate themselves and disconnect from the way other Haredi Jews think and function and to cut themselves off from the rest of the Torah world while at the same time keeping backdoor lines open, a balancing act they have perfected. They can appear as "frum" to the frum world while also appearing "cool" to the secular world. Also a neat balancing act they have perfected.

    Their fiercest long-standing critic in the USA was Rav Elya Svei Z"L (the Rosh Yeshiva of the Philadelphia Yeshiva) who was the strongest critic of their methods and of what and how they taught which he considered out of the Torah world's mainstream. Rav Elya Svei opposed Aish HaTorah and was also in constant disagreement with Rav Yaakov Weinberg Z"L (brother of Rav Noach Weinberg) who was a defender of and frequent teacher at Aish HaTorah. In Israel Rav Shach had also started to speak out against them towards the end of his life and they quietly backed off long enough until he passed away to do things their way regardless of what the Torah world thought of their methods. They raise so much money that they think it empowers them to act and do as they please.

    So you have touched on a raw nerve and this is but one issue running along an entire long fault line that pits and splits the way Aish HaTorah talks about issues and does its business of outreach and the way the rest of the Torah world thinks and views the world and issues.

    They are also very fierce infighters and operators who will go to great lengths to fight off any challenges to the way THEY think things should be said and done when it concerns their vital interests.

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  6. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/16/exclusive-charitys-donors-kept-in-dark-about-penn-state-sex-abuse-investigation/?cmpid=NL_FNTopHeadlines_20111116#content

    Rabbi Feivy Mendlowitz is circulating this article and asks that readers click on the comments section

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  7. These criticisms of Aish are over the top. Their site did not contrast Jews with goyim. They said Paterno did not follow Judaism (ethically).

    Aish did not say Jewish bystanders are innocent. None of us know what Aish thinks about that, and we are obligated by halacha to judge favorably.

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  8. I agree with Ben Dov. I think you totally misunderstood the aish.com article. It was merely a discussion of ethics from a Torah perspective, using a very big news story that is on many readers' minds. If you had disagreed with the halacha being taught, that would be an interesting comment, and Aish.com would have likely published it. But it is clear to me (and surely to them) that you completely misread the article. I wouldn't have published your comments either.

    Regarding your second point about the Orthodox world's child abuse problem, an insider at aish.com once told me that a large percentage of their readers are Gentiles - why would they want to call Gentile attention to this problem? Is it even muttar to do so in such a forum?

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