The mazkirus were exactly what the previous posting said they were. They were secretaries in charge of mail, driving, filing etc. Except for Rabbi Hodakov they were not given much responsibility.
R. Barry Gourary told me the following: Under his grandfather's regime Rabbi Hodakov and Dr. Mindel were back room people doing editing, translations, etc. In addition Mr. Gourary told me that his grandfather did have serious people about him. For example Chache Faigin Hayad was according to Barry Gourary someone "vos men hot gekennt gayn zum tish mit." Meaning that he was a serious individual. Barry Gourary reports that Chache and the Rebbe had many shouting matches and disagreements about policy YET the Rayaatz loved him and kept him in his position.
The RACHAL R. Chaim Lieberman was another very serious person who had a job there not because of a failed shlichus or the ability to speak English (after all YK was born in the US) and his driver's permit which he apparently sometimes renewed...
Other Rebbes also had serious gabboim, note the Satmar Gabbai - Yossel Ashkenazi, the Belzer Gabbai Sholom Fogel, etc etc. Next the real problem with the people close to the Rebbe was that not one was a Chasid ben Chasid, that is not one had any Messorah in Chabad and understood what Chabad was (of course the chief filer is the sole exception). But is it not strange that all the close people about the Rebbe were not Geza people. Were there no Russian Chassidim who could help the Rebbe?
Two reasons:
1. Ramon is a dangerous moron.
2. Why show up to a sexual harassment trial with a hottest chick on the block who is not even your wife? Actually proves the first point.
Let's not forget that Yoel had the "bretel" after the Rebbe's stroke and used it , not to gently prepare Chabad for the future, rather to do the exact opposite --- to deny the future and reality. Had he actually spoken and written in a normal manner, he would be the top honcho, but if he could do that the Rebbe would never have kept him around.
Yoel was the formulator of the whole Messianic nonsense and without his "prestige" it would have gone nowhere. Lubavitz needs to decide if they are a Chassiduth or an organization dealing with Jewish education and other social and cultural programs.
If they still wish to be a Chassidic group, they need a Rebbe and/or a Leader.
Tzemach Atlas: I had a conversation yesterday with a Shaliach. He asked me what years I was in Crown Heights. “Those were the good top years” he said, and he mentioned that he only got to Crown Heights in 1989, “beginning of end”. While I walked away I was thinking that even though I was around the Rebbe since 1981, the years were not "good" at all in my mind. For me a spiritual discipleship and any endeavor in this world is about mentorship or a direct human interaction. Some people might not like what I say but for me the Rebbe was always dead. If there is no direct personal contact, it is dead period. I am not surprised R. Yoel equated the retched dollar line with the cemetery. This is exactly how I felt.
It is not a coincidence that a minchag is a pivotal decisive part of the tradition; one might say that the entire Chalocha is just a justification for the things we DO. With the absence of personal contact and leadership not only Chassidus is not alive, spirituality is not alive.
I am undecided on this topic. Recently I have been reading some literature that promotes an uncompromising machismo as an ultimate ideal, negating “niceness” and conquering emotions. I have also witnessed the very opposite notion during the nineties men’s movement. There amongst the drumming and the fairy tales the gurus advocated abandonment of the numbness of the industrial man and reclaiming of the realm of feelings. Recently I was part of the conversation about a certain disciple of Reb Nissan. This disciple was aloof and emotionally unavailable to his kids. We concluded that perhaps it might have been detrimental to the spiritual wholesomeness of his children. While thinking about this person I also thought about TNLR as an unavailable, emotionally shot bustard (I do not know if this is the reason for TNLR’s fascination with Clint Eastwood). It occurred to me that he was also Reb Nissan graduate. I am far from having all the facts here but I am no less confused about the ideal path, the appropriateness of emotions and how it is explained in schools. During the recent conversation about Reb Yoel I could not help thinking about my former main complaint about the spiritual upbringing of Jews in general and BTs in particular. I was and am enraged about the failure of the system to perform what is for me its primary function, namely initiation into this cruel world. To accentuate abstract and detached seemed so dishonest and contrary to virtually all spiritual traditions. Perhaps ‘beat you in dozens’ Crown Heights kids get this through the ghetto osmosis. But what is the ideal?
1. The man has no credibility on any issue that pertains to anything practical, nor has he any clue about real-life-related. Would you ever dream of asking him an eitzoh as you would from a kluge mashpia? (Don’t answer this).
2. He should be the very last person to point his accusing finger at the people that have simply taken his very extremist views and ran with them. Instead, he should be pointing at these nuts and proclaim, “Reu gedulim shegidalti!” In any normal place anyone that was so wrong on a major public policy issue, would be expected to stay out of policy-setting debates. Why not ba unz?
3. The substance of what he says in the interview is also very naive and childish. If you have people amongst you that are doing things that are 'worse than yevsektzia', what kind of crap is this about 'love them but not their shitteis'? How about 'purge the impurity from your machane' instead? How about an honest analysis of was has brought so many people to a state where they feel they have a license to explain with smug certainty the precise meaning of all of the Rebbe’s statements that seem to present any kind of difficulty or are not easily nitfos behavono vehasogo? What was it that empowered people to cast away any feeling of bittul or self-doubt when approaching the keidesh hokodoshim of the Rebbe’s Teiroh? What was it that has taken away people’s ability to live with contradictions without a compulsive and ugly need to have an ‘explanation’ for every difficulty?
4. Also, what is this weird talk that 'our job is leharbeis dem Rebben's koveid'? Really now? Who gave us this job? The Rebbe? Was it the same Rebbe that has started the aggressive messianic campaign of 1992-94? Or is this simply another 'brilliant' public campaign courtesy of Reb Yoel?
Sad, really. The world would be a much better place if people would stick to what they are good at. In case of Reb Yoel, another few volumes of seifer hoerchin chabad would be a much better contribution than all of his worthless opining over the last 57 years.
Haaretz: Katsav draft indictment: Women tried to physically repel him. So there are no ten women and there is only one rape charge. This charge will not hold because it was reported long after the alleged event unless they have the physical evidence.
The question is in whos interest the draft was leaked? Haaretz reported just today: President Katsav to see draft indictment against him for first time:"Katsav's associates said Monday that his attorneys also made a commitment to the State Prosecutor's Office not to release details of the indictment until it is final."
I came across the latest Krinsky press release. Chabad Lubavitch Global Network: From Humble Beginnings, A Global Achievement. In a normal democracy these things are commented upon. The official entity is held to minimal standards but not the case here. One might say that nobody reads this anyway, OK then, why bother printing it? My point is that I understand what Yudel is trying to say and I know that from certain perspective his premise is accurate. But I also find the routine twisting of the truth repulsive. For example RAYATZ "relocated the organization's headquarters from Europe to Brooklyn" instead of "escaped from Nazi Europe" or actually "was extracted from the Nazi occupied Warsaw by a Nazi officer while thousands of his followers perished behind…"
The fact of the matter is that the growth in America notwithstanding it is out of line to issue such a release without mentioning of the irreparable losses to the plagues of Communism and Nazism. Taken out of the historical context Krinsky is operating with the warped vision of some basement startup that was able to put the product in a supermarket near you. Nothing mirrors the spiritual decay of Chabad today more vividly that those useless paskvils.
I am thinking of changing the motto of this blog to something more upbeat. Instead of dark and intestinal "cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you" perhaps "moron free since February 2002"? Any ideas?
Tony Montana commenting to mentalblog.com: Yoel Kahn takes on Meshichisten. Tzemach, please file under "Another mentalblog.com Movie Parody." THE NUTTY PROFESSOR
(with apologies to Jerry Lewis and, lehavdil, Eddie Murphy)
Professor Julius Kelp (Yoel Kahn), is an unkempt, introverted, socially inept chasidus professor with a heavy lisp and dredlocks in his beard who discovers an obscure incantation in a rare and ancient kabbalastic manuscript that turns him into Buddy Love, an extremely smooth, obnoxious, metrosexual bochur with a picked-out beard, four-button suit, and six-inch wide, orange silk tie with a giant double-Windsor knot. This newfound persona gives him the confidence to pursue a cute sem-girl he meets at Nosh World, Stella Purdy. At first she despises Buddy Love, but she finds herself strangely attracted to him.
The formula wears off at inopportune times, often to Kelp's embarrassment. He must rush back to the LaHa"K office in the hopes that no one (but Pinto and Chaim Shaul) will discover his secret.
Although Professor Julius Kelp knows that his alternate persona is an arrogant person, he cannot prevent himself from continually reciting the incantation as he enjoys the newfound attention that Buddy Love receives.
In the end his true identity is revealed during the Yarchei Kallah at Gan Yisroel - Parksville, as the Buddy Love persona transforms to Professor Julius Kelp during a speech. He admits that he has learned a valuable lesson, and Stella Purdy admits that she likes Kelp better than Love and they get married.
Ok, let me try to dispel some of common misconception I hear all the time. Namely that there is a ‘shidduch crisis’ and it is exceedingly hard to find a ‘nice Jewish girl’, etc.
1. Firstly, who needs a nice Jewish girl? Ask yourself brother, do you really want to deal with the hang-ups and the world through the rose glasses crap for the rest of your life? Definitely not!
2. There are thousands of Jewish girls who turn 18 every day. There are more women born than men, this keeps the fresh produce on the market shelves. Just like those cabbage heads under moist sprinkles they scream: please pick me!
3. Boruch Hashem for the divorces, there are multitudes of women who become eligible for trading every day, they reenter the supply chain with the sense of relief, hope and anticipation. Armed with 'assets', the result of the decades long toil by the discarded men, they are in fierce completion with the younger women. They compete for you!
4. Let me say it again, the supply is not scarce but there is a perception of the deficit that has been cultivated by Shaddchanim and other middle handlers. They act like De Beers with diamonds, intentionally and artificially creating the impression of restricted supply and sabotaging the market to prevent the natural unlimited resource from overwhelming the need for their services.
5. Finding a woman today is like shooting a friking fish in a barrel. I can’t think of an easier task. All you need is the confidence that comes with the realization that this is a totally buyers market. If you realize that you can have literally dozens of girls drawn to you like to a magnet. Sit back and enjoy!
The Katzav story, like so much else, appears differently here in Israel than it does overseas.
Firstly, Israelis (especially the media) are not concerned in the slightest with actual facts. Besides the president's name, no other names, dates or places have been publicized. Nor have any specific acts been noted. So except for those privy to investigative information, no one actually has any idea what the accusations actually are. None of this prevents people from deciding - with utmost conviction - that the president is either guilty or innocent, when no one even knows what the charges are.
Secondly, there certainly are some disturbing questions here. How did several supposedly unrelated women come to file similar charges? He is human so even improbable things are still possible.
Perhaps the multiple claims were set up by someone who is out to get him. There are a number of very likely possible culprits - political, criminal and personal.
Perhaps this was part of a blackmail attempt on the president to gain money? Perhaps blackmail by organized crime families (the president in Israel is the one who hands out clemency on sentences)?
Remember that it was Katsav himself who called the police with a recording of the complainant who demanded money from him to keep quiet, a simple extortion of the president.
One crime boss now claims that the prime complainant worked together with his cousin as a call girl for him and his associates. Why he is supporting Katsav and whether his story is true is up for debate.
The media now claims that they knew of Katsav's sexcapades years ago, before he was considered for president, but out of respect (for the democratic process???) they kept quiet until now. Why they are attacking Katsav now and whether their claims are true is up for debate.
I don't know what the truth is in this story. It is possible that Katsav is actually guilty of crimes mentioned, though I see this as highly improbable. It is also possible that he is being set up - and the culprits have very, very cleverly handcuffed everyone to keep themselves anonymous.
I am betting on the latter. It is most curious to note that 2 of the candidates to take over as president have for years been reported to be having a sexual affair with each other. One is married to a woman he has little contact with but has, according to persistent reports, been having a long-term affair with this other candidate. If reporters knew about Katsav's "sexual activities" and now regret not reporting it before the vote, then they should now be crowing loudly about the current candidate, whose off-hours activities they are fully aware of.
Bottom line: the media really does hate Katsav, but it is probably someone else who is calling the shots. And that someone else is running for president. And trying all kinds of tricks to get the job. And then the story suddenly becomes much clearer.
Thank you for posting these fascinating videos. I must say that I still find the strains of the Internationale stirring in a weird sort of way, even though I now recognize it as the anthem of a failed universalist totalitarianism, rather than anything that offered the people freedom and a better life.
At any rate, the style of oratory that Trotsky displays is indeed different from the style that we are now more accustomed to in the West. You have identified this style with a Jewish or perhaps an Eastern European style, and have identified the more subdued style as Anglo-Saxon. However, and I am going to offer you a McLuhanesque interpretation, the differences in style have more to do with amplification than with cultural differences between Eastern Europeans (or Jews, or Western Europeans) on the one hand, and Anglo-Saxons on the other hand.
Trotsky was speaking before large, outdoor audiences, using only his naked voice to carry his message to vast numbers of people.
If you look at photographs or the few extant videos of Theodore Roosevelt in similar situations, I think you will see very much the same style. Huge gestures, vivid facial expressions, and a shouted, almost chanted delivery. Here’s a rather subdued example:
Imagine Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, speaking in an open field under the cold November sky before an audience of 15,000 people. How could you make yourself understood, and emotionally move such a crowd?
It is no wonder that the great orators of the past spoke slowly, gesticulated with broad, sweeping gestures, and worked themselves to a high emotional pitch. They had to communicate their passion to vast crowds without the help of amplification devices of any kind.
Also, most of them were tenors, since the tenor voice naturally carries over greater distances better than the baritone or the bass.
Even into the era of amplification, the fiery style of oratory persisted. Think of Mussolini or Hitler, for example, shouting into the microphone.
(Parenthetically, it is interesting that many of the important political leaders of the 1930s spoke with pronounced regional accents. Mussolini had an obvious and non-standard Emilia-Romagna accent, Hitler had a marked Austrian accent, and Stalin had a strong Georgian accent. Franklin Roosevelt spoke with the accent of a member of the landed gentry of the Hudson Valley, and Churchill spoke with the accent of an aristocrat.)
The fireside chats that FDR produced on the radio showed the way to a much more intimate and quieter approach to speechmaking. He was still quite capable of delivering a stemwinder, but in general, his approach to oratory was more measured and restrained than that of many earlier American politicians. I found one video of Stalin speaking over an amplification system that is also more subdued than the earlier videos of Trotsky.
When you consider Ronald Reagan, you can compare his “Challenger” speech, a desk-side chat that is considered one of his greatest efforts, with his oratory at “Pointe Du Hoc,” the House of Commons, or the Berlin Wall. He does not rise to the emotional pitch of a Trotsky or a Katsav, but two different styles are displayed in these examples.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke in an old-fashioned, church-based preacher mode, and his oratory was more similar to what you would have heard in the XIXth century than the late XXth century.
Nowadays, with the intimacy of the television screen, we prefer baritones or basses to tenors. Think of how pitiful George McGovern sounded, or Dhimmi Carter.
"Everything the "maskilim" and communists tried to do in order to defame the honor of our Rabbeim is absolutely nothing compared to the defamation caused by the "meshichistin" because of two reasons: 1) the substance of the defamation: it never even occurred to the communists to degrade the Rebbe in such a manner. 2) when this defamation is done by Chabad chassidim the mockery and shame is even greater. Not only is this "shitah" a joke, it is against the Torah and is the complete opposite of what our function and shlichus is."
And then Reb Yoel continues:
Just like before Gimmel Tammuz 1994 people from all walks of life, not only Lubavitchers, would come to the Rebbe on Sundays to receive a dollar and ask for a blessing and witnessed outright miracles today too people from all walks of life come to the Ohel and are blessed with what they need. Some people make a special trip just for that. They land in Kennedy airport, go to the Ohel and fly back just as they came to the Rebbe before Gimmel Tamuz.
I have already addressed on this blog my profound distaste for the dollar line and how painful it was to watch and how I thought at the time it was an odious mockery of a personal relationship one should have with the Rebbe. I can not find a better illustration to my thoughts that Yoel's leap from the dollar line to the Montefiore Cemetry.
P.S. While on the subject of a Choizer: mentalblog.com: Lo and behold: what happened of that Sicho?
P.S.S. On the subject of Reb Yoel’s unimpressive arguments. Here is the man who has used his G-d given capital to invest in shady doomed ventures. First he provided ideological nurturing to the early Mashichism and now he is supplying the same damaging goods to underpin institutionalized lack of leadership.
P.S.S.S Is Reb Yoel off his genius mind to say that communists were not as degrading to the Rebbe as Meshichsiten? Didn’t communists want to shot the Rebbe in the head? But last I checked crucifixion is not the preferred method of adoration by the Yechi crowd.
Fascinating two part documentary abut my lanzman Leibl. With Sverdlov around 6 min mark. (note how the best orator of the revolution delivered his speeches)
In Mexico with Frida Kalo and Diego Rivera around 5 min mark:
David Evans, the publisher of Online Dating Insider reports from the iDate Conference a rumor that a new Jewish dating site is about to shut down: Troubles at New Jewish Dating Site? Although David doesn’t name the site I can bet a million rubles he is talking about JLove, the site founded by one of the former JDate executives. And this pretty much sums it up. The hideously clichéd name, the interface and the retched pedigree. Mr. Evans when you get out of the conference, please get in touch.
On a different note Woody Allen and Dick Cavet, pretty funny:
Support the President against the venomous accusations! (Amazing speech at mentalblog.com: Katzav to Duke it out.) Down with the accusatory terrorism unleashed by the leftist plague. Down with the Gulag of political correctness.
Samuel Blaum displays a new design of a traditional Arab scarf known as a 'keffiyeh' on the beachfront in Tel Aviv January 23, 2007. The design is in the Israeli flag's blue and white colours with Star of David design with two blue stripes. The designer says he hopes that the keffiyeh will bridge the cultural divide between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. Reuters - Yonathan Weitzman
A Yemeni Jewish family gather outside a hotel in the northern Yemeni province of Saada January 24, 2007. They are among a group of 45 Yemeni Jews who left their homes in the provincial city of Saada after receiving death threats from radical Muslim groups. (Reuters - Khaled Abdullah all photos)
No Arab garb will hide the beautiful green eyes of the Jewish mother.
Mazaltov to LUKE FORD on his new web site. Linkable posts, finally!!! Luke continues to be one of the most interesting voices in the Jewish blogsphere. Looking forward to following Luke Ford’s antics.
You start here at Sorbonne and it is literally less than 5 minutes to the old ESTP on Boulevard Saint Germain. ESTP building is a blend of Bauhaus and Art Nuevo, narrow orange brick with deep and high mortar joints.
Special College for Public Works
The building is demonstratively modern in the context of the boulevard.
But the pertinent point is the proximity to Sorbonne. It’s like OT from 770. Even if the Rebbe was matriculated in ESTP only is it inconceivable that he would not ‘hang out’, attend lectures, etc. virtually on the same campus.
A Book Store on the 1st floor of ESTP.
Blessing for Business in a kosher grill restaurant in Paris. (Choize, hah…)
AFP - Deshakalyan Chowdhury
Holy men Sadhu on the banks of river Ganges in Allahabad, India. Millions of Hindus are taking part in the 'Ardh Kumbh Mela' or Half Grand Pitcher festival which takes place once in six years in Allahabad at Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati. In addition to skinny dipping in Ganges it appears that smoking pot is the most important mitzvah.
Reuters - Jitendra Prakash
AP - Rajesh Kumar Singh
AP - Rajesh Kumar Singh
AP - Rajesh Kumar Singh
AP - Rajesh Kumar Singh
Reuters - Jitendra Prakash
Note the nails. Reuters - Jitendra Prakash
Gandalin: Not only the nails. His entire right arm is withered, paralyzed, and frozen in place with permanent contractures. The result of a vow to hold it up in the air without moving it while he meditated, for years. There appears to be a big difference between the spatial organization of these wild sadhus and the spatial organization of the Grand Ayatollah's folks. On the one side, a multiplicity which does not even seem organized at first view, and on the other, One-Ummah-One-Caliphate-One-Ayatollah.
On the subject of mentalblog.com: Totalitarian structures and podia. Gandalin writes: "With your interest in how photographs of chassidische gatherings reveal the psychosocial structures of power in the movement, check out these photographs, lehavdil, of the Perisan supreme leader at one of his recent farbrengens:"
