Friday, March 05, 2010

The Circus Marches On

Think We Can Flood with 50,000 Letters? (I wish I knew how many readers I have. . . . nowhere close to 50K, so it will be up to you to spread the word).

Kollel Shomrei HochomosKollel Shomrei Hochomos
18 Heyward St.
Brooklyn, NY 11211

The lack of busha and the lack of rachamim for the Park Family and Ms. Peggy Park is astounding. This is a low, low fundraising technique. Saying kaddish and leaning mishnayot, fine. Organizing your own small learning group, be my guest. But continuing this immodest circus parade and marching it through the internet is not just inappropriate, but is cruel and lacks in tzniut.

On an organizational level, I think NCYI and the OU need to think twice about joining up with other organizations in the future. I'd really like to see them come out with some closing thoughts on this matter. There are many people that feel hoodwinked by the entire incident and even the Matzav and VIN comments are starting to split.

I'm penning a letter this afternoon. If you are joining me, please leave a comment. I think a single stamp is warranted to protest this circus.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand the pain of people seeing someone who is repetent being put to death by the state. However, if they want to give meaning to Grossman's repetence, it would make a lot more sense to me to do something for the Parks family, like setting up a scholarship fund in Officer Parks' memory, such a scholarship fund for poor kids who want to get a criminal justice decree or study wildlife preservation.

Anonymous said...

I also meant to add that another good use of funds would be to fight the death penalty, however it would not be productive to set up such a fund in Mr. Grossman's name.

Anonymous said...

You might have more impact if you write a letter, display it on the blog, and ask readers to email you with their names to sign. This is the approach Miriam Pearlmutter used on her blog when she wrote and delivered her letter to Mrs. Park.

Just a suggestion.

some thoughts on l'affaire Grossman said...

I appreciate and share your basic sentiments here, SL. However, I don't know if you will have much effect, however laudatory your actions may be.

That organization is a hard core Hassidic, heavily Hungarian organization. Note that they evidently do not have a website by the way. I would say that is because they are 1) old-fashioned, run by older people, 2) hold the net is treif, 3) are insular. So they are already coming from a different place, are of a different mindset than many here. I don't believe that the organization 'marched it through the net'. See above, they don't have an online presence like a website. It seems that certain news sites picked it up and reported it after seeing newspaper for advertisement for it, deeming it newsworthy after the whole hullabaloo surrounding the case, but I don't know that the organization put the news out online itself.

In terms of what you said re the O-U and NCYI and the case - I was more surprised re the O-U involvement than the NCYI. But you should realize that the O-U's position was not necessarily identical to the others involved. They may have just wanted a stay to re-examine the evidence, a la Alan Dershowitz, since some questions were raised. Other signatories were against the execution even if the facts were not in dispute, however. Re the NCYI, I would put it in a category similar to their advocacy for JP. Also, they also have been trying for years to show how frum they are, to escape their MO image from the past, so that makes them more open to stuff that comes from the right.

Basically it seems that Lubavitch through their Aleph institute started the whole thing, then brought in Satmar, then managed to get some non-Hassidic support, one way or another. But the bedrock of the whole campaign was Hassidim, many of whom have a view that one must support a Yid, whatever the case, ganav, rotzeiach, whatever. It's like he is part of your tribe, and all members of the tribe support each other automatically. Whereas other Yidden draw the line at supporting people who have engaged in seriously wrong behavior.

Neil Harris said...

I'm glad to see a constructive suggestion being made, instead of just ranting.
I'll write them.

Anonymous said...

This is just sick. You should see my take, I thought it was pretty funny!

Anonymous said...

i'm haredi and i dont plan on ever giving money again to shomre hachomos.
yes, the ou should really speak up and apologize.

Anonymous said...

An another 'fine' example of dysfunction in the Orthodox community.