Famous Author Looking For Participants From New Jersey
Dear Readers,
I received this e-mail from Hella Winston, the author of the Unchosen. I read her book, no surprises, but a very interesting read.
I am in communication with the author; she assures me that she has no other agenda other than to report the various experiences of people who are struggling with, or who have left Orthodox Judaism.The identities of the people will not be revealed.
She kindly requests that you e-mail me at: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com; I will forward them on to her.
Hello! I am writing to introduce myself, and to ask whether anyone
who posts here is from New Jersey. The reason I ask is that there is
a reporter from a New Jersey (Jewish) paper who is planning to write
a story pegged to my book, Unchosen, about the issues it raises. He
would like to speak with people who grew up strictly Orthodox
(chassidish or litvish) in New Jersey, or who live there currently.
He is interested in people's intellectual and emotional struggles,
as well as how they are treated by the larger the "community" if they
go public with their doubts and questions,leave altogether, etc.
One of the issues I have discussed with him is the way in which people
who openly question, or who "go off,"often get labeled as mentally ill, narcissistic, unable to control their lust, losers, etc.
But I don't think my thoughts are nearly as compelling
as hearing from people who have actually lived this experience.
If anyone here feels that they would like to be interviewed
for this article (the reporter has assured anonymity), I will put you in
touch with the reporter. (The Newark Star Ledger is also planning a
similar piece and is also looking for participants as well, but I
believe that will happen later in the month).
Thanks so much and I apologize in advance if anyone here feels that this post was in any way an intrusion into your privacy.
Hella Winston
I received this e-mail from Hella Winston, the author of the Unchosen. I read her book, no surprises, but a very interesting read.
I am in communication with the author; she assures me that she has no other agenda other than to report the various experiences of people who are struggling with, or who have left Orthodox Judaism.The identities of the people will not be revealed.
She kindly requests that you e-mail me at: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com; I will forward them on to her.
Hello! I am writing to introduce myself, and to ask whether anyone
who posts here is from New Jersey. The reason I ask is that there is
a reporter from a New Jersey (Jewish) paper who is planning to write
a story pegged to my book, Unchosen, about the issues it raises. He
would like to speak with people who grew up strictly Orthodox
(chassidish or litvish) in New Jersey, or who live there currently.
He is interested in people's intellectual and emotional struggles,
as well as how they are treated by the larger the "community" if they
go public with their doubts and questions,leave altogether, etc.
One of the issues I have discussed with him is the way in which people
who openly question, or who "go off,"often get labeled as mentally ill, narcissistic, unable to control their lust, losers, etc.
But I don't think my thoughts are nearly as compelling
as hearing from people who have actually lived this experience.
If anyone here feels that they would like to be interviewed
for this article (the reporter has assured anonymity), I will put you in
touch with the reporter. (The Newark Star Ledger is also planning a
similar piece and is also looking for participants as well, but I
believe that will happen later in the month).
Thanks so much and I apologize in advance if anyone here feels that this post was in any way an intrusion into your privacy.
Hella Winston
posted by Paul Mendlowitz | 8:05 PM
51 Comments:
Hey OU,
Sorry to sabatoge this thread with old stuff..
I just want people to see this...
A colleague of mine just e-mailed me a link to an auction that just went up on e-bay concerning the Lakewood brochure fiasco.
Take a look! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5651340820
Thanks for the post.
It's a joke
Winston has already prejudiced any findings.
Sechel,
Please explain.
UOJ'
wHILE SHE MAY MAKE VALID POINTS IN HER BOOK,SHE IS ASKING HERE ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD THESE PROBLEMS BUT NOT ANYONE ELSE.SHE SHOULD HAVE ASKED OPEN-ENDED QUESTION.
I agree with sechel.Objectivity is the name of the game.
Sechel,
Please be open-minded, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who have left the fold that were raised ffb.
Art Scroll & The Jewish Observer already publishes books and magazines on the other guys, we want to see the trend and understand the core issues why this has turned into a cancer.
Atleast I do.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
BTW, anyone see this week's full page ad and Open Letter in the Yated against the NYC Health Dept and Tom Friedan for their stand against MBP. Call 311, call an 800 toll-free number, call and give your donation to fight the NYC DOH. The fundamentalists are out in full force.
The open letter is a joke. The writer acknowledges that herpes is carried by all adults but totally avoids the medical evidence that this virus can and does act in a latent manner with all sorts of bad consequences.
A Must Read for the sane and intelligent among us.
WOW how SICK! Too many people get ALL their info from the Yated and therefore this is very dangerous. Obviously a letter to the editor will not get published as the Yated and The First Amendment are on different planets.
Once again the Yated uses - or abuses, rather - their power over the flock of willing sheep.
Pinny Lip-shits is an A-hole
Ah, good old reliable rag Yated, they make the National Enquirer look like the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Yes, but an A-hole that wields considerable influence, power, and control over the baa, baa shepselech in Lakewood.
This weeks Yated issue also features the full-page ad by Kotler mea-culping the extravagant Chinese Auction fiasco of BMG. How much is a full page ad in that rag anyway? 10K, 15K? For this they have money! For this they make dinners and buffets for your hard-earned cash. No pipette or K'Lacher Yad, they Meziza your wallet directly and siphon off your gelt. You wind up with something worse than Herpes simplex-1.
Tell you what. I think the Belzer Rebbe should become the mashgiach in lakewood and shake things up a bit. Here's the deal: You can kvetch de bank for one year and then if you ain't got the requisite brain power, you haul your hairy tuchis off to the work force and make an honest living (we hope).
There's no way in hell Kotlerpaid for the ad. They got PL by the balls.
Hey Boog,
You gettin more cynical and sarcastic than me, a pleasure to see.
Ha,sick sob's but you got funny stuff.
UO;
"cynical pleasure".
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Gut Shabbos.
BTW, my wife has noted my increasing cynicism and she's worried about my health. I take this too seriously.
I think she has a point.
Boog,
I'm sure if you asked a shaila from for example Eli Ber Wachtfogel, if women's opinion counts, he would tell you- "nashim daiton kallos", don't pay attention to them.( Hershel Schachter messed up once on this issue as well, I call it like I see it.)
I guess a "smart" Jew knows WHOM to ask WHAT.
A REAL smart Jew doesn't ask.
A Guten Shabbos
It's no wonder R' E.B. Wachtfogel's marriage dissolved.
Is it my imagination, or is this blog covering up for a certain "rabbi" who has made the news lately? I would think with all the ranting and raving about perceived problems in the frum world, this obvious example's absence from your blog proves you to be selectively indignant.
Anon, 2:35
No cover-up here.
I need to be damn sure I know all the facts before I participate in destroying an entire family.
In the past I have written an "open letter" to the rabbi you are referring to.
I am in the process of putting together a post on this issue, perhaps this motzei Shabbos, if I can get confirmation on one or two more issues.
Gross,
Wachtfogel is as crazy as it gets.
UO;
Are you going to argue with that first Tosfos In Maseches Chulin? I don't think so, especially in today's PC atmosphere.
But that tosfos, I believe, speaks to Nashim's abilities vis-a-vis abstract thinking and conceptualization which is an integral part of Talmud study and interpretation.
Nashim are superior in their intuitive understanding as perhaps expressed in the Posuk..."Kol Ahsher Tomar Soroh Ishtecha, Shomah B'Kolah.
I think if we listened more often we'd be in alot better shape.
A huge mailing went out in the Monsey community this week. I am told it went to 2,500 families. Another mailing is scheduled to go out to the rabbonim. This has been going on for years. It has reached the point of total insanity. There is a cult in New Hempstead.
Bo,
Don't give me the yeshivish b.s. on tosfos, o.k.?
The Talmud is rife with passages denigrating women.
Cut the crap.
Anon, 3:49
What's the contents of that letter?
The Rabbis in the Talmud were not perfect men and it is possible that some of their views and opinions were limited by the existing scientific theories and accepted social behaviors. I have a hunch that if the Talmud was written today and the Torah was given yesterday, the roles women play and the Orthodox Jewish perception of them, would be very different than it is now.
UO;Gross;
No "crap" intended, nor yeshivish b.s. I think I've shown my bona fides enough times, here, not to be je'accuse with your charges.
Don't look at these characterizations in terms of "better" "worse" but "different". Women have traits different from Men and vice versa.
That's not denigration but a fact.
Gross; 3:53 PM
This comment of yours:
"The Rabbis in the Talmud were not perfect men and it is possible that some of their views and opinions were limited by the existing scientific theories and accepted social behaviors."
This is the same piffle spouted by the Reconstructionist Chevra. If it is not out and out Kefira, it's very, very close.
It's one thing for us to rail, criticize, and condemn the double standards, hypocrisy, and perverting of Orthodox practices in today's milieu by segments of today's self-proclaimed "Shenerer Yidden" in our midst; it is quite another and beyond the pale to denigrate and equivocate to our own very low level the Gedolai Tannaim and Amoraim. Once you do that, you have no absolute and correct standard.
Hail Mary!
Boog,
I apologize brother. You posted as "BO", I thought you were some wise guy trying to give me the standard yeshivish middle finger.
Please forgive.
The gemora has viewed women as "inferior", not just different....for another post.
I agree with Gross, we may "dung zich" with a gemora, rashi or tosefos.
Posted as Bo, an oversignt. Was right before Shabbos and in a rush.
Boog,
Why have you singled out Reconstructionist Judaism as a comparison?
Regardless, I respectfully maintain my opinion and my right to form such an opinion. The Tannaim and Amoraim were on levels incomparable to ours but they were nevertheless, not perfect. A "perfect man" is a Christian concept and as Jews we believe that EVERYONE makes mistakes.
Gross,
Your original thesis that the gemora's writings and opinions were based on the knowledge & prevailing thoughts of the day, is my belief as well.
Gross;
I would never advocate or criticize your right to voicing your opinion regardless of my disagreement with it.
The point I was/am trying to get across is that we tread very dangerous waters when we attempt to equivalize and define the outlook and "blik" of our Tannaim and Amoraim down to our levels of incomplete understanding. It is very 'Mistaber' to say that in spite of changing social mores their certain constants would remain.
Boog,
Your yeshiva did a swell job on you.
Our understanding is more complete than "they" give us credit for.
Ha, Ha.
UO;
Don't blame it on my Yeshiva. I can think for myself, or at least I think I can.
I love it!Apikorsus,kfira,ignorance at it's best from UOJ and company.The Enquirer is Pulitzer material in comparison to this insignifacant blog.
Enjoy it, honeypie!
Tell your family and friends about us.
UO blogspot is Uncle Moshy for adults!!!!
Anon,9:20
Boog & I are really sensitive guys. It's really not nice to hurt our feelings.
Exactly,Boog,only people like you who can't make a leining and have nothing else to do with their lives are on this site.I'm just answering back to you lowlifes that are part of KOOOOOORRAAAAAAACH!!
Correct, anon. We won't go away as the Pasuk says:
U'Benei Korach LO Meisu.
I can "lein" you very clearly, you loser.
Learn how to correctly spell "insignifacant" so that when you fill out the forms for Section 8, WIC, V'Chulu, you don't make a Chilul Hashem. Remember we ARE the Am Hanivchar.
On second thought, maybe I should give you a pass this time around...You're probably Ois'gematered from trucking back all of the fancy furniture from the cancelled Lakewood Chinese Auction.
Boog,
You crack me up!
Wassupp with the one liners...starting to sound like Rodney Dangerfield's mishpocho.
Boog,you're not even Jewish.You're also an ASSimilated N.Y.yeshiva reject.You're not a talmid chacham or a mensch.You have no chavrusas and there's no way that you and virtually all the other scum on this site have the brainpower to learn in a yeshiva gedola.You can't even make it in JTS or HUC.Practically none of you have degrees beyond a B.A.You,my dear enemy,are the lowest of the low.I look forward to celebrating at your funeral SHAHEED!!!
anon 8:12.
What can I say. You've found me out.
You are correct on all counts.
I am undeterred and unfazed.
Consider, my dear ignoramus that Sometimes Jewish Nitzchiyus comes from the unlikliest of quarters:
Very soon we will read in the Weekly Torah portion: "Min Hamayim M'Sheesihu".
Consider me and this blog your ultimate salvation.
Shana Tova.
I will be vindicated when you give your wife a get and all your children intermarry.You don't talk like a Jew, you don't think like a Jew,you don't dress like a Jew(your kipa is probably the size of a coca-cola cap),you don't look like a Jew,which means for all intent and purposes you are not a Jew.You don't even know the 39 melachot by heart which means there's know you're a mechalal shabbos which means you're chaiv mita.I want the privilage of carrying out the sentance NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!IHATE YOU. YOU ARE MY ENEMY!!!I WILL FIND YOU ANDTHEN............
Anon, 10:08,
Hey Asshole,
NO IMPLIED THREATS HERE OK???
I even let retards like Y.Y. post here, so we can be thankful we're not him, but I will delete your crap in a second. STOP IT.
UOJ,it's no wonder that your wife wants to divorce you,but she's afraid of what you'll do to her.You've made her an emotional aguna.
There is no doubt in my mind that this Anon is a BT whacko.
UO;
Report this guy's ISP and threats to ICANN. They will investigate.
gross and boog are kipot zrukot.There's no way your children will stay Jewish in American society!
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