Rabbi Homnick responds to those who questioned his previous article.
Jewish Press- Furthermore, these postmortem debates force the author to escalate the rhetoric. If the veracity or accuracy of his claims are challenged, he must bring more proofs than he originally thought judicious to cite. The upshot is that the frictive parts of the message are exacerbated; much is lost, little is gained.
That said, in my recent article about my own experiences in Agudas Yisroel, my shaving of content to accommodate the newspaper’s word limit resulted in key points left open to challenge. As such, I feel obligated to clarify elements that readers have rightfully raised.
People question how I know the story about Vice President Mondale calling Rabbi Moshe Sherer in 1980 to complain about Rabbi Avigdor Miller’s congregants on Ocean Parkway wearing Reagan buttons. In the article, I explain that I was employed by Agudas Yisroel in 1977, but I failed to lay out in detail how I was still privy to inside information in 1980.
The answer is that in 1980 I was a maggid shiur in the Agudah shul in Chicago every Shabbos
morning. I was placed in that position by Harav Avraham Chaim Levin, zt”l, who shortly afterward was admitted into the Moetzes (Council of Torah Sages) of Agudas Yisroel.
I was a very enthusiastic Agudah activist. I went to Pirchei Agudas Yisroel as a child every Shabbos without fail. Rabbi Joshua Silbermintz was a figure of great veneration. From the first age that I owned a wallet, my Pirchei membership card was always featured prominently.
At age 11, I joined Camp Agudah as a camper, graduating to Masmid at age 15 under the tutelage of Harav Yisroel Belsky, zt”l. The bond I formed with him continued until his last days on earth. When he passed, Ami Magazine invited me to write a feature article about our relationship.
At age 17, my dream of becoming a counselor in Camp Agudah came to fruition. Several of my campers became big talmidei chachamim and Aaron Kotler became CEO of Bais Medrash Govoha. My first published article came at age 18 in The Jewish Observer, an Agudah organ; the subject was the recent Agudah Convention and the words of Torah spoken by gedolim like Harav Moshe Feinstein and Harav Yaakov Kamenetzky.
My first editing job at age 19 was at the Zeirei Forum. The first girl I dated worked at the main office of Agudas Yisroel, and the same Rabbi Yaakov Bender who gave me the Zeirei job set up the shidduch.
In 1980 at age 22, as a Kollel fellow in Telz-Chicago, it was only natural for Rabbi Levin to hand me that shiur in the Agudah minyan. I still proudly use the goblet for Kiddush given to me by the members when we finished a masechta, with my name engraved as the maggid shiur.
I was right in the thick of things during the 1980 election, and the millionaire donors in Chicago’s Agudah shared with me the goings-on from the inside. Thus, my contemporaneous insider account of the Rabbi Miller-Rabbi Sherer-Vice President Mondale drama.
I was asked by some: Was I accusing Rabbi Sherer of making policy decisions for his personal benefit? My jaw dropped when this question was raised. I knew Rabbi Sherer as a person of the highest integrity and his son, Shimshi, was personal friends with my cousin Yisroel Meir Homnick and me. No sane person who observed him up close would accuse him of pocketing a single dollar, much less being swayed in that way.
My critique – shared by many, Rabbi Miller’s students most prominently – was that he saw securing funds for Jewish education as Agudas Yisroel’s highest duty while my chaverim and I believed with Rabbi Miller that fighting the moral battles in society should be its paramount mission. So much so that Agudah should recuse itself from any matters concerning government funding to avoid any conflict of interest and to keep this holy union of charedi Jews as a pure flame of Torah with untarnished credibility.
Perhaps I idealized Agudas Yisroel too much and as such have consistently been let down by reality. I wanted to see a great rosh yeshiva running for Congress in America like Rav Meir Shapiro ran for the Sejm in Poland. I admit that I saw the advent of Agudas Yisroel in the early 1900s as a momentous historic achievement.
So basically, to sum it up, his source is hocking with an anonymous gvir in Chicago at a kiddush while he was a 22 y/o yungerman!
ReplyDeleteWhat rubbish!
The fundamental tension in Agudah has been there since the beginning as any Brisker will tell you. R' Homick seems like he wants to follow a non-Agudist mehalech whcih may have come as a shock to someone like him who was rasied on Agudah from a young age, but that doesn't mean he should make up stories.
i remember first hand when aguda dinner honored sen. joe lieberman ( who had done alot for the mosdos...yet was liberal morraly) rav miller zatzl called rav pam with a tayne..( rav shachne zohn zatz"l was in yeshiva tv that day )and rav pam respectfully listened and answered " der tafkid fun agudas yisroel is mechanech tzu zein yidishe kinder".. the 2 gedolim were both cohanim and eneded the brief call by bentching each other ( not the whole yevorechecha) the biur is .. that there is a machlokes rambam .. ravad if tochacha is principal oriented or goal oriented ... kshem shemitzva lomar.. for a good discussion on the 2 approaches see the RJJ journal
ReplyDeleteThey made their 5 million no need to bash Rav Homnick anymore.
ReplyDelete5 million -.. the matchers were the standard guys .. not sure if guys like dr. d etc.. who are big agudah ppl are giving 250 g ontop of the siyum hashas pledge.. also key is to look at the NUMBER of pledges compared to a obscure helpline that had a campaign the same day WITHOUT MATCHERS and had more donors & donations.. happy for aguda they need the money and it was a success but there is alot takeaways..
DeleteThe attack on Homnick was damage control ahead of the fundraiser. But no one is reading the JP anyways.
ReplyDeleteNice
ReplyDeleteSo Reb Avigdoe Miller, who was never part of the Aguda, believed that the Aguda should be a political organization, mandated to align the American government with correct morals.
The Aguda never accepted this view. Reb Moshe Feinstein did not accept it and neither did Reb Aaron Kotler. Both instructed the Aguda to work on internal Jewish matters, and Reb Moshe was especially involved in the sha'alos regarding funding. What is more, Reb Elchonon Wasserman spoke at the Knessia Gedola in 1937, complaining that the Aguda is involved in other matters besides chadorim and Yeshivos.
So basically, those who comment here and scream about the Aguda sellout, are screaming against Reb Moshe, Reb Aaron and Reb Elchonon. Their cynical claims about Aguda and money are geared against the greatest recent generations had. And they scream about 'morality'.
There is more to be said, but I will stop here.
Rav shneur ztl used to tell his mekuravim that the Aguda heads dont listen to him. Lets not rewrite history as if eveeything that went on in the aguda had the approval of gedolei yisrael who were on the moetzes.
DeleteOf course they did not listen to Reb Schneur, Reb Moshe was still alive then. Nobody said an opinion in the face of Reb Moshe.
DeleteRegarding money from the government, there were multiple sha'alos regarding working with the Catholics, and Reb Moshe paskened them, they were under his guidance. Nobody can claim that the system of working for money for Yeshivos was done behind his back.
The entire cynical view of money that some people have, is not shared by Gedolei Yisroel. They were willing to honor rich people, collect money, and change their schedules to ensure money is available for Yeshivos. Others relied on their efforts, and then decry their actions. Rav Shach did lots of things for money, as did all Gedolei Yisroel. None of them felt they were selling out for it, and none of them felt that we were selling out for it. We made deals, and worked things out with politicians, because that was the only option.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that something was done for money for a Yeshiva is not a problem.
Reb Avigdor Miller was a 'fringe Rabbi'. His mussar was appreciated by all, but his politics were always considered fringe.
ReplyDeleteHe has recently become popular, but not because more people are learning mussar. It is because people are getting closer to Goyim, following Goyische websites, and listening to Goyische sources. These sources then get kashered through 'Yeshivish' newspapers, and people have started to confuse evangelical christianity and lehavdil elef havdalos our Torah.
They take a ride on Reb Avigdor Miller, but that is a marriage of convenience.
The idea promulgated by the Reb Avigdor Miller fan club is ludicrous on its face. We have a mandate to keep and learn Torah and to teach it to others. We need to work on our middos, tefilla and Emuna. These are full time jobs. We need to help other Yidden do so too. We don't have any time or space to take care of the Goyim, we have no arvus for the Goyim, and we don't need their headache. The reform religion invented this ohr lagoyim mandate, it is not ours.
ReplyDeleteIf our surroundings are getting more and more corrupted, we have been taught throughout history how to deal with it. We draw closer into ourselves, we build stronger walls between us and them, we strengthen ourselves. It is unheard of that we should try and fix the Goyim to stop their bad influences. And there is a reason for that. When we start working with them and their ideals, we invite their influences inside our Botei Medrash. We are actively breaking down the walls between us and them, and who knows where that will lead?
We are Yidden, not conservatives! We believe in Torah, not the constitution! We do not protect civil rights, freedom, gun rights, or states rights! We use our right hand to say Shema, and put on Tefillin on our left. Nothing else is important!
If you were even nominally familiar with The Jewish Observer of the 1980s you would know that your viewpoint is not the Haksafa of Agudah Gedolim like Rav Moshe and Rav Yaakov.
DeleteYou lost all credibility with this ridiculous post.
DeleteYOu are right? What about lefties? They say Shema with their left hand
Deletehttps://streamable.com/png8mm
ReplyDeleteAnother response to the article
Why does this writer feel it necessary to use extraneous complicated language when simplicity would have sufficed? Is he attempting to regale us with his superior knowledge of long words to obscure the paucity of substance?
ReplyDeleteSounds like your jealous that someone else can also write.
DeleteNp, I can't write, I can play with fancy words to pretend I can write. Good writers don't need fancy words. Fancy words exist to mask the lack of meaning behind them.
DeleteWow, you clearly have a abysmal vocabulary. There is virtually no complicated language in the above article.
DeleteWhy would someone use the word 'veracity', when he could have used the word 'truth'?
DeleteAguda balei batim shop around within the moetzes for a daas torah that suits their need but if anyone argues hes automaticaly labeled as going against daas torah.
ReplyDeleteWont feel so guilty throwing out the membership dues return envelope after all the money they got although the calendar is worth a keep
ReplyDelete