Legal Symposium: Men Only



In light of the most recent major scandal involving Orthodox Jews and assorted crimes from money laundering to kidney brokering, the Agudah decided that perhaps it was time to dedicate an asifa to yashrut, which they named the "Legal Symposium." Given that major frum publications have managed to ignore decades and decades of organized financial crime, it certainly is a step in the right direction to even acknowledge that a criminal case took place. The Yated didn't once mention the Spinka case, nor did its online counterpart YWN. I did not read the Yated at the time of the Los Angeles to Brooklyn money laundering arrests which hit the airwaves in a very similar way (1994 I believe), but I doubt those were mentioned either.

But, as I tell my kids, the longer you wait to clean up a mess, the harder it gets to clean it up. This pronouncement is normally made as I shoo them out of the kitchen when something sugary. Once the stickiness hits the soles of the feet, I'm stuck cleaning not just a section of a floor, but numerous floors, surfaces, and soles of shoes. I'm choosing to take the mere mention that not every single black hatted member of the klal is anything but meticulously observant of basic financial decency as a positive sign. The case of the bochurim in Japan has resulted in pronouncements that the women should take on extra stringencies in tzniut, so I think we can at least be appreciative that the asifa has a more direct connection between the crime and the solution. Of course, a large gathering isn't going to solve any issues. The entire house is a sticky mess and the cleanup project is going to be massive.

The asifa to promote a basic message that all 10 of the aserot hadibrot actually still apply in this day and age (and no, mesira is actually not one of the aserot hadibrot, although VIN and YWN commentors seem to have a different set of 10), featured a rather strange lineup of speakers indeed including the zealous Rabbi Avraham Schorr and the Spinka Rebbe who just pleaded guilty to a major criminal tax fraud and money laundering. I'm not quite sure what to make of inviting the Spinka Rebbe to sit in an honored position and declare that there is no longer a need to do things illegally. The entire speech struck me as bizarre. I don't want to get caught up in the speeches quiet yet. It seems to me that greater effectiveness could be achieved by inviting someone who has actually sat in prison (and hasn't re involved themselves in more criminal activity), or, perhaps even better yet, inviting that person's wife to address the crowd (from behind a mechitza if necessary) about what the fallout criminal activity is. Of course, if there is no real fallout, the situation is far worse that most are willing to face.

Naturally, the asifa was only open to the men folk. While there have been a fair number of "frum" women who have been hauled in by authorities for various types of criminal theft and fraud, including one women and her husband who were hauled in shortly after the recent major scandal in New Jersey, I have made the point before that (naive) women are the ones who get to pick up the pieces. When a male criminal meets his fate, he gets 3 square meals a day, while the wife is stuck with the weight of the home squarely on her shoulders.

I will continue to try and make the case that finances are the women's business too (presumably she is signing on the Federal 1040 and should know what she is signing) and hope that those who read my blog will help get that message out at the grassroots level because I believe it is a very important one. While criminal activity, especially organized crime, is largely a men's club, it is necessary to given the ladies a seat at the table in their own home, if not the community at large, to help provide some "checks and balances." If the community is actually serious about starting to fight this evil, they can't exclude half the population.

As it stands, the women are asked to work and provide support to a growing family during the initial stages of the marriage, but don't seem to have much of a role beyond that. In terms of the individual household, it is very important for women to have a voice in the family's finances. Women tend to bring a different set of needs and wants to the table. Women tend to focus on security and balance out husbands that might tend towards great risk. Introducing a more risk-adverse voice to sit at the table certainly is unlikely to cause great harm.

Ultimately, the mess that the kehillah at large faces isn't just a men' issue. Perhaps the Agudah just couldn't find an arrangement to accommodate both genders. But I hope that if the subject of yashrut is to become an ongoing subject, that the womenfolk will be invited to that table too.

Back to the speeches in the next post. I need to cut this post off before it becomes a small book.