easy prey

...'s following is mainly ba’alei teshuva, newly religious Jews and those considering becoming religious, who tend to be largely ignorant and extremely dependent on charismatic authority figures — in other words, easy prey.

The manner in which this demographic is targeted, brainwashed, and often horribly abused by the Erev Rav and grifters who turned kiruv into an industry is a larger discussion. It’s also a big part of how they wage war on the Jewish people from within. An extremely high percentage of ba’alei teshuva abandon Torah observance within a few years, and are unlikely to ever come back, especially if they were badly burned and disillusioned. After all, they can say they sincerely tried the Judaism thing and it wasn’t for them.

So when “kiruv rabbis” like ... with a huge platform make outrageous statements, they are driving away thousands of Jews from Torah observance, and turning off many more whose anti-religious views will seem validated. One would expect brand-name rabbis to be extremely sensitive to their ability to drive away Jews wholesale, and how hard it is to bring any of them back — but they are oblivious, or just don’t care.

CHANANYA WEISSMAN

MAR 13