Rechnitz spoke at the Simchas Beis Hashoeva in Mir Yeshiva on Sukkos. The speech was an hour long, surely making this a real blast of a party.
Rechnitz is a wonderful person. Truly. I knew him and his brother many many years ago, and they are truly fine people. And he puts his money where his mouth is and supports organizations and causes he believes in, and he is very generous.
The Mir does not just let anyone speak, no matter how important of a topic they want to talk about. Rechnitz has been granted podiums in the highest places in the Jewish community, because of his support and influence in the community. But at the end of the day, he is just a person with his opinion, an individual with his own take on things.
Rechnitz spoke at the yeshiva event and he targeted Open Orthodoxy and liberal Jews as "fake news" and as the greatest threat to Judaism. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I don't know and I don't really care. What surprises me is that the Mir considers Open Orthodoxy a viable threat of sorts. There are probably more active students in the Mir right now, not even including the alumni, than associated with Open Orthodoxy since it began. Yet the Mir gave its most precious moments to talk about the threat of Open orthodoxy. I really don't know what Rechnitz is so concerned about from Open Orthodoxy and why the Mir considers it an issue worth talking about - besides for just the desire to give Rechntz a platform to say whatever he wants and continue to receive his donations.
Online, in social media and in talkbacks to articles about this speech, many were very critical of Rechnitz. I would say to them, just ignore him. he is one person with his own opinion and he is entitled to say and think whatever he wants. You disagree? go give a speech or write an article expressing your opinion. You are just as entitled as he is to do so. It is just the opinion of an individual.
I would note that the biggest in-speech clapping he received was when he commented about continuing to donate money to the Torah world. Nobody cares what he has to say, as wonderful a person he might be (and is). They just want him to continue donating, so he gets the ability to express his personal opinion in public because of that.
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Mr. Rechnitz and the Mir Yeshiva are absolutely correct about the threat of this new ridiculous denomination ('denominations' do not exist within Judaism). It is a threat because 'open' orthodoxy is oxymoronic. It cannot be orthodox and open! It is worse than the Reform movement because everyone knows they are a Torahless and liberal 'denomination', therefore, they are being more honest. Calling themselves orthodox but yet are the same as the reform make them 'liars' but more importantly, give a very wrong impression to the uninformed Jew who can easily fall prey to their chilul H'. They have been thrown out, thankfully, from the RCA and from all orthodox institutions in the United States.
ReplyDeleteas bad as they might be, and I do not deny or oppose anything you said about that, it does not turn them into a threat to judaism, let alone one of the biggest threats. They are a tiny group of people. maybe they are a bigger threat than I see, but I still dont think they are such a big deal
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