Critical Thinking

I got a lot of Email from my readers, and even from my readers that support me and they questioned my post that I previously wrote on the topic of the way we "Frum chassidish people"  think and go about things. Some of them thought I crossed the line and was wrong.

Some of you thought that I am anti Semitic, anti Chassidim. Let me make this very clear and let me say this for the record.

I myself am a chassidisher yingerman from Williamsburg, my kids are chasidish, my grandchildren are chasidish and nothing hurts me more when there is negative of chassidsh people in the press. And that’s why, I need you to understand my motive for this post and my cause for this discussion and why I absolutely believe what I said and more importantly, why thinks have to change immediately.

Overall, our crowd happens to be very bright, business minded, smart and sharp. That is why there is a lot of success in our community, a lot of charity in our community and many accomplishments among us. The one thing we ARE missing though, is “Education” and that is the cause of many problems in the community and the cause why some issues are shoved under the rug.

Every one who ever took a college semester or graduated with any kind of degree will know that he or she received a couple of credits for “critical thinking”! Critical thinking or Thinking outside the box is a very big part of education and is something that is very vital to an education and to properly diagnose any issue.

I will give you a couple of examples on how the average chassidish man or woman thinks and on the same topic, how an average educated man thinks

Example #1

The daily news and the NY Post published the following articles:

Hasidic Father Of 7 Busted By FBI In Plan To Murder Business Ally

A Hasidic father of seven was charged Tuesday with plotting to kill a business associate with an overdose of sleeping pills in his coffee.

Jacob Vizel, 54, was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy for the intended victim and had been making payments for several years, according to court papers filed yesterday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

"I'm tired of paying," Vizel told an informant who was secretly taping the conversation for the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes said the defendant had been the target of a $12 million mortgage fraud when investigators recently learned of the murder-for-hire scheme from the informant.

The informant, wearing a hidden wire, taped several conversations this month with Vizel discussing how to get rid of the man, identified in court papers only as Joey.

Vizel said a man he knew had offered to kill Joey for money. "[H]e tells me, 'Give me $500 and I'll leave him in the basement'.... He choke him," Vizel said, according to the complaint.

Later Vizel mentioned that Joey used sleeping pills and suggested a different plan of attack. "When you want to bring him for coffee, you tell me and I give [sleeping pills] to you," Vizel said. "Insurance not going to do nothing. He took his own tablet."

The complaint said Vizel offered to pay the informant for putting the sleeping pills in the victim's coffee.

Vizel, an Israeli citizen who has lived in Brooklyn for 25 years, was ordered held without bail.

He has not yet been charged in the mortgage fraud scheme

As you know there are many media news outlets on the internet that cater to different communities. There is a local news media on the internet called http://www.vosizneias.com/ which serves our community, and they (rightfully so) reported on this story, and is their policy when reporting on a “Heimisher yid” they don’t publish the name .

http://www.vosizneias.com/67028/2010/10/27/brooklyn-ny-hasidic-father-of-seven-busted-in-plan-to-kill-business-ally

At the same time feel free to goggle this story and you will find approximately 10-15 other internet news venues that linked this article. Now look at (some of) the comments by the readers of VIN and some of the others, and you will understand what I am talking about.

On VIN you will find comments to the effect of. He is innocent! A Jew can’t do things like that! He is not a Chussid! It’s only an allegation! The media is blowing it out of proportions! Anti-Semitic, etc. On the other side look at the comments OF ALL other links and you will see people discussing the issue. What was he thinking! Why would he do it! What did he have to gain! How did they catch him! Etc.

Example #2

There was a story in Queens, NY this week that a child molester attempted to grab a child and molest. Within 24 Hours, Young Israel released an official letter alerting the community and took action.

Years ago, Joel Engelmann came forward and pointed the finger at Rabbi Reichmann, which abused him and molested him. What did Satmar Yeshiva do? They fired him and made him step-down. But as soon as the statue of limitation expired, they hired him back to his previous position and they denied everything.

Now lets take a look how these two stories were handled, the thinking behind their actions and the total results, and you will hopefully (if you are open-minded) understand exactly what I am talking about.

What they were thinking

Satmar Yeshiva kicked out Rabbi Reichmann after learning about his abuse. After the statue of limitation ran out they hired him back and in their mind they just proved to the whole world that the allegations are false and that’s why they took him back and at the same time “They” are not guilty either, hence they took him back and “investigated” and came to the conclusion that its all  false.

What they think we are thinking

In their perverted way of thinking, they feel that they proved to the public that it is not true otherwise they would never take rabbi Reichmann back! They pulled a quick one over us!

What we are really thinking

How dumb do you think we are? How gullible do you assume we are? If you diagnose what just happened it’s a no brainier!  You tried to cover your ass but you made it even dirtier. Now its clear that you knew about it, can live with the fact that kids were molested, and it is far more important to you the “name” of your yeshiva then the welfare of a child. BUT MORON! You failed! If you would do what Young Isreal did, you would’ve looked much better. Everyone knows that Young Israel had nothing to do with it, they protested it, they stood up against it, and they took action by letting the community know “We will not stand for it” – You, however, made it worst. You thought by taking Rabbi Reichmann back, people will think that you had nothing to do with it, and nothing happened! We are not stupid, we saw you held him back until the victim was 23 years old, and the following day you hired him back. Not only did you stand up for the abuser, but you also allied yourself with him by protecting him and promoting him.

Part of your crooked thinking is as follows! You think when rabbi Nuchem exposes the molesters in our community; he bad mouths the Chassidic community. WRONG! He boosts their value, he shows the whole world “We are better than you” we are not protecting anyone and if we have some bad apples. We will expose them and isolate them. Just like you should have done with rabbi Reichmann and send a strong message to the world We will not stand for it! But in your crooked way of thinking, you thought that this would put a bad eye on YOU! No, it would’ve risen your stock and it would've showed the world that this one bad apple does not reflect the community and we deal with it when we have a couple of rotten fruits.

When I came forward and exposed my former Teacher R’ Chaim Arye Braver of molesting me, I was called a liar and a cheater and every name in the book. there is always that first response You are a liar! It’s impossible he did that.

Why is this always the first response? Because we think that when you accuse a fellow frum yid of doing something bad, it automatically weakens my position as a frum yid! IT DOESN’T! It makes us stronger.

This is where your uneducated way of thinking shines through in bright red colors. If you would distance yourselves from these bad apples and tell the whole world we don’t tolerate such behavior, people would say Good for you! You are doing right by our children. However with your way of thinking, you thought OMG people will say we have molesters, so I will bring him back and deny that he ever did wrong and at the same time people will know I am clean. Wrong! People know that you are dirty now and you are whitewashing it and you made a bigger fool out of yourself while putting your school in danger of molestation.

THINK STRAIGHT AND YOU WILL SAVE A LOT OF SOULS WHILE BOOSTING YOUR OWN IMAGE