Is YU Hirschian?

 

Not really. YU is Litvish Judaism with lots of Zionism and enough feminism to emasculate the men but not enough to challenge the rabbis. See Zev Ellef's articles: Between Bennett and Amsterdam Avenues: The Complex American Legacy of Samson Raphael Hirsch, 1939-2013 and AMERICAN ORTHODOXY’S LUKEWARMEMBRACE OF THE HIRSCHIAN LEGACY,1850-1939.

Being more open to things, YU will have some talk about Rav Hirsch and some Chassidus, but even those are approached Litvish style, which means analytically and coldly. They are more open to careers in part because Modern Orthodoxy is very expensive with the million dollar houses and day school tuition at $40,000 a year per child. Nobody is encouraging fulfilling careers for men, just ones that make lots of money. Women on the other hand go into whatever careers they want. I know a Modern Orthodox woman who left Israel with her husband who quit his job to go study in a theater program in Colorado.

I once told a MO rabbi that it was nice that we are doing so much to improve the lives of women but I believe we need to do the same for men. He said, "I don't know what you are talking about," turned his head and walked away.

The lives of men aren't nurtured in that world any more than they are in the yeshiva world. There's the same pressure to become a genius and to 'learn more Torah,' as well as the pressure to move to Israel, which also can destroy your life. They have little sense of caretaking of the soul in either the MO or yeshiva worlds for they are after all Litvacks.

Hirsch was neither a Zionist nor a feminist nor a Litvack so YU can be a problem but so can be every other group. 

To be a Hirschian you will walk alone because what's left of the German community is either Modern or Litvish. The few people who describe themselves as Hirschians are usually Zionistic, sometimes intensely so. They rationalize that if Hirsch were around today, he'd be a Zionist. That's what you call delusional rationalization as most Zionists have replaced God and Torah with State and that's exactly what R' Hirsch said not to do. He also said to be cognizant of the dignity and purpose of gentiles. Show me a Zionist who does that. 

So, no, YU is not TIDE. You have to be TIDE on your own. Go for it. R' Hirsch will be by your side, and all the gadolim who praised Hirsch are by your side too because they understood that he was sent by Hashem to help people in their Judaism. 

But you won't be entirely on your own. You can have a foot in many communities. In the Israeli Haredi world you get the anti-zionism of Hirsch. It's a militant anti-zionism because Israel is a militant country but you ignore that part. You also get the religious intensity that was true of Rav Hirsch, although he didn't impose that on others. In the Chassidic world you get the sense of community, more of a focus on God, and a pursuit of happiness. In the Modern O world you get more of a tolerance for earning a parnassah. In the small Yekke world, mostly Wash Heights, you get the German Minhagim. And they all respect Hirsch so you keep that in your back pocket. 

 

The lunatics of Gateshead

Read this astonishingly obnoxious letter, but read also between the lines because you'll see a large part of what's wrong with the neo-Litivsh world. It starts with dishonesty as the fake warmth is followed by palpable hostility and an open threat. The empty greeting of "warmest greetings" is there only to butter you up for the kill. So, too, is the promise of talking in a "respectful manner," the favorite term of yeshivists, which is followed by absolute condescension. 

These anonymous rabbis who wrote this unsigned letter, whoever they are, see themselves as owning Gateshead. They want total control. What's the harm if a guy opens up a little Chabad house? I have seen many small Chabad houses in Litvish communities. They don't take over the city. They barely get a minyan. What they get is a person or two who is not receiving what he needs from the Litivsh world--he might even have been destroyed by it-- and he's helped by Chabad. Passaic is like that. Manchester is like that. 

Perhaps they feel threatened because a year ago several hundred men attended a farbrengen. (article from December 25, 2024). The photographs show mostly Chassidim (non-Lubavitch and Lubavitch). The bearded ones wearing fedoras and untucked shirts are Lubavitchers. There's a Modern Orthodox kid in blue jeans.  There are few yeshivish people in the room.

See them as Jews who are benefiting from Chassidus, not a threat to the Litivsh way of life, unless it exposes how barren that life can be.  Litvish people are so brainwashed against Chabad -- that includes the authors of this letter -- that they generally don't go anywhere near it.

The condescension in this letter is so palpable that you need another word for it. It's disgust, and reminds me of 1940s era Aryan ideology of you know who. We must maintain religious purity as if the Litvacks of Gateshead have it. 

And of course, everything they are doing is in reverent obedience to "the gadolim." Nearly every stupidity of rabbis and principals in our times is in effect blamed on the "gadolim" because really it is  stupidity that is projected onto "the gadolim." 

This letter displays arrogance, sinas Yisroel, tyranny, and dishonesty. It's gross which is funny because you can tell that the authors see themselves as dignified and upstanding men of Torah. Let us hope that the clowns who wrote it spent hours and hours in bitul Torah debating each point as they usually do. And let us hope they hired a writer because Lord knows they lack the education to write it themselves. But the writer doesn't know how to spell check as he signed off with "parners for and on behalf of the Gateshead Kehilla Committee." Parners? A mangled word for mangled rabbis. 

Is Barbra Streisand as rude as she seems?

More of Jews without mitzvos, especially the ones from Brooklyn

Is Barbra Streisand as rude as she seems?

Robert Blough

Former Pilot (1973–2013)

Yes she is worse. She considers herself royalty. I know an airline flight attendant who had her and her personal assistant in 1st class. The attendant walks up, smiles and says, can I get you something to drink Ms Streisand? So Babs gets a big frown on her face… she had the window seat… she turns her back on the flight attendant and looks out the window without saying a word. Her assistant proceeds to scold the flight attendant like she had done something wrong. She says, You do not speak directly to Mz Streisand. You speak to me and I’ll speak to Ms Streisand. It would have been nice if she’d taken Bab’s drink order through the indentured servant and then came back and dumped it on the pompous, arrogant biches head.

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Karyl Lawson

I had always been a huge fan of Streisand when I was young. I had all her albums, memorized every song she ever sang and used to force my brothers to sit and listen to me sing them…they were so tolerant.

One day my one brother and I were at garden park when I saw her walking along alone. My brother, knowing how much I liked her, encouraged me to approach her.

I took a deep breath, walked up to her and said, “hello, I know you hear this all the time but I need to tell you how much I admire your talent”.

Her response, “just leave me alone”.

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Shane R. Swensen Sr.

I witnessed the film crew’s distain for her while I worked as an extra on ‘A Star is Born’ in 1976. Every time Babs would ascend the camera platform to bark out orders the crew would hold up hilarious but very rude hand painted signs behind her.

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Heather Bradley

Have you ever met a famous person you admired but who ended up being a jerk in person? If so, who was it?

Barbara Streisand. Years ago, we stayed in the same hotel in Venice Italy where, over several days, I had many opportunities to observe her behavior. She was rude, entitled, and demanding. I was so disappointed because I had admired her for years and, initially, was excited to see her. None of us are perfect and we all have bad days but she never once showed any humility or grace. I have met quite a few celebrities over the years, some were warm and gracious and others not so much, but she took the cake. I continue to admire her talent but not the person. Sad.

Mamdani

Rabbi Sternbuch said the following: "An anti-Semitic Muslim mayor was elected in New York, and there are Jews there who are afraid of him. However, we must remember that Hashem is with us, and therefore that Gentile cannot do anything to us, and Heaven forbid that we should be confused and think that he can do us harm."

I like Rabbi Sternbuch. He has many good things to say, but he has no idea if the new mayor is an anti-Semite. I promise you the rabbi has never heard Mamdani speak and doesn't even know what he looks like. This is the effect of Zionism, assuming every Moslem is an anti-Semite, or that anybody who criticizes anything about Israel is the same. And it's also just hating gentiles in general. Litvish rabbis are all fools on this topic.

Similarly, Rabbi Kamenetsky, who I also like, supposedly said if a goy in Monsey walks by you and doesn't punch you, say Hallel.

Also a dumb comment. Has it happened even once in all these years? This is Jewish supremacy in action. Litvish rabbis are all stupid on this topic, except for Rav Soloveitchik and sometimes Rabbi Miller.

every single time?

 

Who was the rudest celebrity you’ve met?

I used to work for a place that made custom storage cabinets for your garage, and closet organizers. Our business was in Las Vegas, NV.

There was a gated community that was having new construction going on. You could access the community through a wide open back gate, but you had to report to an office to sign in.

A co-worker and I had those little fliers that you could hang over door handles promoting our business. We signed in like we were supposed to. The community had one day out of the week where those who did interior designs could come in to advertise their wares. So we were allowed to be there and hand out fliers.

As we left, the security guard motioned to us, and told us that one of the residents had complained…and had demanded that all fliers be removed from all doors. We had spent the better part of three hours hanging the fliers.

So we turned around to go back in. We decided to go all the way to the front and work our way back to the back gate and remove the fliers. We called the boss and let him know what happened.

As we drove to the front, a guy standing in his front yard motioned for us to come hither and “get our asses in gear, before he got pissed”. He then berated us as we took the flier from his door, and told us that he’d better never see us again, or else.

He pissed us off so bad we said, “Screw this. He can f**k himself.” We left, removing NONE of the fliers but his. The man was a total rat bastard.

And that, gentle readers, is how I met Jerry Lewis.

obsessed with intelligence

 We are so smart. You are so smart. Smart, smart. Always about being smart. It's too much.

00:35

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxWhAYyQAB6NBEpafN6Na-frn0rDqBE_xB?si=kzbWicp2PjIQuUOM

sang for their dying teacher

 

There goes those goyim again.