Pro Choice Funding Educational Package

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אל המקום אשר...

This is a letter to Rabbi Abba Cohen, also intended for major mainstream religious Jewish Organizations, in response to his plea asking all Yeshiva parents to reach out to Senators and House Representatives demanding fair and equitable treatment to provide funding for private schools and for such allocation be embedded in the Covid-19 relief packages..

My comments:

Dear Rabbi Abba Cohen, shlita

Calling our Senators in NY, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer is a ברכה לבטלה, basically useless.

We voted them in knowing their platform and agenda.

We knew their position or rather lack of leadership, in the case of Schumer with the Iran Deal.

Schumer was busy with an "Education package" in the Summer of 2015, too busy to focus on the Iran Deal.

https://shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com/2016/03/money-for-jewish-refugees-money-for.html?m=1

We were collectively silent and didn't protest the Iran Deal, while Neturei Karta protested in favor of freeing up a hundred and fifty billion dollars for Iran. They arrived, bussed in, transportation paid for, in very large numbers, to Capitol Hill. 

This rogue "Jewish Chareidi group" is well funded, technically sophisticated and  created a huge internet presence whereby they deceitfully  suggest that they represent the Torah position. (Unfortunately, there is nothing online from the mainstream Jewish Organizations, Agudah nor the OU to dispute this false narrative).

Soon thereafter, Fall 2015,  our Yeshivas received tens of millions of dollars. 

Quid pro quo for silence re: the Iran deal?  

In 2016, When a Republican candidate by the name of Chele Farley ran for Senate, a pro Israel, Conservative voice, Agudah didn't want to get involved. The excuse? We are not a "political" organization and can't endorse candidates. 

Honestly, Is supporting a candidate that reflects our Torah values, a political endorsement or a religious statement?

So now we reap what we sow.

Time to reverse course to discredit this unG-dly party!

The Democratic party especially in NY, the City Council and State Assembly,  have an unG-dly majority. They are treasonous, unAmerican. They legislate criminality and immorality into law reminiscent of the generation of the Flood  and of Sodom and Gemorra. 

If we call upon Schumer or Gillibrand it's like calling the wolves to protect the sheep. 

Let's not waste our precious time.

We voted them in. We encouraged our community to register as Democrats knowing fully well their "values" and interests are contrary to our own.

The strategy must change.

We must fight this unG-dly party for our very lives.

Only discrediting, leaving, disassociating and calling for and implementing the total elimination of a party whose DNA has been hijacked can be effective.

It's them or us and it is they who have set the stage and have written the ground rules. This battle is of their own making.

We must expose the fact that they, the Democrats under their current leadership have been infiltrated and influenced by evil forces. They are treasonous, supporters of anarchy, marxism, terror groups, antiSemites, immorality, and openly support those who advocate cancel culture,  erasing American history and culture.  They advocate unvetted immigration thereby allowing criminals and terrorists into our country. 

This hijacked "party" has legislated laws to protect criminals rather than American citizens.  These laws encourage crime rather than deter crime.  Statistics show homicides and crime statistics have risen significantly in Democrat governed states and cities across the country. Lives of all American citizens are in  danger and Heaven forbid this will only increase  unless it is dramatically and effectively challenged and stopped. 

Who is "law abiding" nowadays in NY in this topsy turvy world?

After all, our elected officials have  sworn  to protect the law and the law abiding citizens of this great Nation.

In NY, under Democratic leadership, looters and violent protesters are protected, and family oriented citizens like us, are the ones "breaking the law". 

Time for Agudah to take a stand for G-d and rectify the sin of allowing such an evil government to come into power. As a  Mamlechet Kohanim, a Nation of Priests and a Holy Nation,  we are instructed to teach the world about Universal morality, namely the 7 Noahide Laws.  Remaining passive is a sin whereby the consequences of being silent is that we reap what these G-dless politicians have  sown. 

The time has come to step up to the plate and address the underlying root cause of the situation we find ourselves.

The Democrats ideologically,  do not, and will never support school choice. They want to indoctrinate all children with their "distorted values", unG-dly values and cancel culture.

True, they were willing to pay for security and stem for private schools. It was a bone they threw us to keep them in power. We fell for it.

What good is that right now when their ultimate agenda is to steal the Nation's soul, the America we love, "One Nation, Under G-d, With Liberty and Justice For All"?

We have no chance of winning this fight unless we battle them at the very root and eliminate the cancer. We must lead the fight to challenge their "values" and agenda and disregard  juicy bones they send our way. Again, they, in their current form need to be discredited and eliminated as a legitimate party. There is no compromising at this point since they have crossed a red line.

We can change things around BeH! 

Tehillim - Psalms - Chapter 20

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16241/jewish/Chapter-20.htm

ג יִשְׁלַ֣ח עֶזְרְךָ֣ מִקֹּ֑דֶשׁ וּ֜מִצִּיּ֗וֹן יִסְעָדֶֽךּ

Tehillim - Psalms - Chapter 130

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16351/jewish/Chapter-130.htm

א שִׁ֥יר הַֽמַּֽעֲל֑וֹת מִמַּֽעֲמַקִּ֖ים קְרָאתִ֣יךָ יְ-הֹ-וָֽ-ה:

7 Israel, hope to the Lord, for kindness is with the Lord and much redemption is with Him. ז יַחֵ֥ל יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אֶל־יְהֹ֫וָה כִּֽי־עִם־יְ-הֹ-וָ֥-ה הַחֶ֑סֶד וְהַרְבֵּ֖ה עִמּ֣וֹ פְדֽוּת:

8 And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. ח וְהוּא יִפְדֶּ֣ה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל מִ֜כֹּ֗ל עֲוֹֽנוֹתָֽיו:

From Rabbi Abba Cohen

Dear Friends:

Yes, our yeshivos, Bais Yaakovs and Jewish day schools have been devastated by the effects of the novel coronavirus and, even with our most valiant efforts, our children's education has taken a terrible hit. It is a blow experienced by many private and religious schools, with the possibility of hundreds of these schools closing their doors.

Equally devastating is the effect the economic downturn is having on our families.  Loss of jobs. Loss of income. Families facing extreme hardship as they struggle to provide even the basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing and shelter. And, of course, the further hardship of not being able to afford the basics of Jewish life, such as tuition payments and charitable contributions to our schools.

But there is good news!

As early as next week, in the next COVID-19 relief package, Congress will be considering two Trump Administration-supported measures that could go far in alleviating this plight:

1.       Providing direct emergency aid to parents to cover education-related expenses, which would include tuition.  This could be accomplished through a federal appropriation to the governors of all 50 states, who would then distribute scholarship grants to families choosing private schools; and

2.       Providing an emergency federal education tax credit – the Education Freedom Scholarship – for corporate and individual contributions to scholarship granting organizations. These scholarships could be used for a wide array of educational expenses, including private school tuition, special needs services, and tutoring.

It is essential that we contact our Senators and Representatives to support these vital initiatives to help our schools and families. Time is of the essence.  They will be considered next week and the expectation is that the legislation will move quickly.

But I will be honest. This will not be easy. Some proposals are being circulated on Capitol Hill that would provide hundreds of billions of dollars for education in the next round, but completely cut out private schools and private school families!

All we are asking for is to be treated fairly and equitably in this time of crisis and emergency.

Please contact your Senators and Representatives today!

Hatzlacha,

Rabbi Abba Cohen

Vice President for Government Affairs and Washington Director

Agudath Israel of America

Please go to https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/widget/oneclick/9222

To contact your elected officials.

Thanks very much

ח״כ גדעון סער

״הסכנה היום אינה מסירת שטחים אלא איבוד שטחים״. דברי ח״כ גדעון סער היום בועדת החוץ והבטחון של הכנסת על ההשתלטות הפלסטינית הבלתי חוקית בשטחי C והצורך החיוני לפעול לסכלה.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eABRATNeQfdS9a958NtXjy5IugBiExE_/view?usp=drivesdk

Rabbi Pruzansky Aliya Essay

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Here is a thoughtful essay by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, formerly of Teaneck, NJ, who has just made aliyah. Barch Haba! Hatzlacha!

Last week my wife and I made aliya after more than six decades of life in the United States. We are officially Israeli citizens, which affords me the right to criticize the Israeli government without being told to move here if I want to have a say, and the right to denounce American Jews for remaining in the fleshpots of the exile. But I'm going to hold off on both for the time being...

It would be easy to make Aliya if we were fleeing persecution but that is not the case, notwithstanding that rabbis have always been among the most persecuted Jews, and usually by other Jews. But that is not why. It would be easy to make Aliya if America had become unlivable, a place without a long-term Jewish future, and one can make a compelling argument that the handwriting is presently on the wall waiting to be read. Nonetheless, when I announced to the shul eighteen months ago that we would be making aliya in July 2020, the United States was peaceful and prosperous, President Trump was cruising to a (narrow) election victory, and pandemics, economic collapse and race riots were not even on the horizon. That we left amid all this turmoil in American life is a coincidence and not the proximate cause of our departure. In any event, "coerced Aliya" (running from something) is not as salutary or enjoyable as "voluntary Aliya" (running towards something). We are in the latter category in fulfillment of the verse in Shir Hashirim (1:4), "Moshcheini, acharecha narutza." Pull me and I will run after You.

It would be easy to make Aliya if our children lived here – and two children already do, with grandchildren, but two still live in the US with grandchildren. We have experienced the range of emotions, of farewell and reunion, as can be expected. It would be easy to make Aliya if I was out of a job and had nowhere else to turn, but that would also be untrue. I could have stayed. It was a l'chatchila choice (ab initio, even granting the long time abroad), not a b'diavad (post facto).

Politically, it turns out to have been a lateral move. I went from one country (the USA) where leftists and anarchists are daily and violently protesting the government's failure to deal effectively with the Coronavirus and where the media elites despise the head of government to another country (Israel) where leftists and anarchists are daily and violently protesting the government's failure to deal effectively with the Coronavirus and where the media elites despise the head of government. Like I said, a lateral move.

So why make Aliya now? And the simple answer is: it was time. Personally, professionally, and ideologically, it was time to make the move that is the mandate and destiny of all Jews.

For one thing, the future of the Jewish people is in Israel rather than anywhere in the exile. If the events of the last few months (or century) have not demonstrated that, then nothing will ever be sufficiently convincing. The exile is drying up around us. More Jews live today in Israel than in the rest of the world combined. Moreover, after millennia of persecution, punitive measures, and harsh restrictions directed against Jews generally and specifically those who wanted to dwell in the land of Israel, today there is no Jew in the world living in a country from which he or she cannot freely emigrate and come live in the land of Israel. And if there are (Cuba?), there are just a relative handful. That is a divine gift.

It was time to be a player in the grand game of Jewish life rather than just a highly interested and vocal spectator. And I do not doubt that for all the dedication of rabbis, teachers and professional leaders in the Jewish world – and for all the vast investments in Jewish infrastructure that makes the United States such a hospitable and pleasurable exile – life in the exile is a holding pattern. We are trying to hold on to something – powerful in its own right and indispensable for almost two centuries – that cannot be sustained in perpetuity. We are not building as much as we are trying not to fall. We are walking on a ledge rather on solid footing. And now this is true not only spiritually but also physically and politically.

Few will deny that America has experienced two terrible traumas in the last five months, both unpredictable but both bearing an imprint that will leave a long term mark on American life. The Coronavirus pandemic exposed the greatest vulnerability in America today: the polarization that is itself an epidemic. The hatred of the President has reached self-destructive proportions, in which his legion of political and media enemies would rather see the country collapse further than recover even gradually. The tirades about Trump's failures to halt the pandemic or economic dislocation are vociferous, and inversely proportionate to the suggestion of any alternative plan or approach. It is particularly unctuous, which is to say typical of politics at its worst, to criticize every policy without offering even a hint of how you would have done it differently or better. So they do what politicians love doing – printing money and claiming credit for distributing it to the voters, and trying to WIN at all costs.

What is most damaging to American society is the growing notion among the elites – not the mob of racists and anarchists – that America was conceived in sin, nurtured in criminality and has no redeeming value. In the turbulent 60's, the elitist institutions protected themselves against the anarchists. Today, the corporations, media and universities join hands with anti-American anarchists to stifle liberties like freedom of speech, assembly and worship in the name of some higher dogma, and routinely purvey lies, untruths and distortions of reality – in order to both protect and encourage the anarchists and, it can't be denied, win an election. "Systemic racism," all the rage today, is an indictment without any possible defense (to defend against it is itself racist); it is a cudgel more than it is a complaint.

Opposing sides that no longer share common values, a definition of truth or reality or even rules of speech cannot interact. When one side of a debate is perceived by the other not just as wrong but as evil and immoral, public discourse ends and mob rule begins. That the mob now rules – anarchists destroying private or government property, assaulting innocent people in the streets, attacking the police, "canceling" those who disagree with them (the latter, woefully predicted by Orwell) – will only be tempered and then only momentarily if President Trump is defeated in November. And if he loses by a whisker, amid allegations of voter fraud abetted by mail-in ballots, harvested ballots, forged ballots, and on line voting in key swing states, then all bets are off and the hostility will no longer be unilateral. And if Trump wins, as is eminently possible given the lies people tell pollsters and the fear of expressing public support? There will be even more violence. Uneasy times are ahead.

Jews should especially take note of this because we are in the unenviable position of being perceived as part of the privileged white establishment by the minorities who are now protesting across the country but not by the privileged white establishment itself who see Jews as outsiders. Jews will have no natural allies in the coming struggle, which will come as a shock to liberal Jews who think their liberalism and historic support for civil rights inoculates them from the disruptions ahead. The liberal Jew of old –tolerant, open, respectful, and supportive of even anathematic views like the right of Nazis to march in Skokie – is a dinosaur, because that type of liberalism has disappeared. The Democrat party of old, the church (or synagogue) of most modern Jews, no longer exists. It too pays obeisance to the leftist mob, and is unsympathetic to Israel and to the Jewish ethos, not that most Jews realize it.

In the best sense, none of that is a reason to move to Israel, although it might be the tipping point in people's otherwise positive decision. Jews have an unblemished record of staying in the exile a bit too long and paying a heavy price for it. But more importantly, we all recognize certain basic truths about Torah and Jewish life. The long prophesied "Kibbutz Galuyot" (ingathering of the exiles) has not only occurred but is actually entering its final stages. Jews from over 130 countries today live in Israel. The return to the land of Israel, itself a biblical prophecy, is something that we now take for granted. Most Jews alive today cannot envision a world without the Jewish state of Israel. Even in quarantine (where I now find myself, in escalating tedium, life on hold), I realize that centuries of Jews would have given their right arms to be able to quarantine in the land of Israel.

It is not without its problems. As I am sure I will note in the coming years, many of the afflictions of the more modern, leftist, faddish elements of Orthodoxy, and its neo-Conservative offspring, exist here as well, along with the clamor for a more malleable mesorah and elastic morality. There is much to do here, especially in warding off the displacement of Jewish morality by Western morality. But these are the problems of growth, of building the future, rather than trying to preserve the past.

I feel blessed that I am able to be here, as I feel blessed to have succeeded in my careers in the exile. Even as a rabbi, I never hid the fact that Aliya was both a Torah value and an imperative, even if it was against my interest in saying so. I certainly don't disparage the USA or its people, or my Jewish brothers and sisters there. I was the beneficiary of prior generations who not only built the wonderful Jewish community of Teaneck but who constructed the edifice of American Jewish life that enabled survivors and refugees to rebuild Torah after the horrors of the Holocaust. For that, I will always be appreciative of America, its history, its aspirations and the haven it provided to Jews and others.

Nonetheless, we should not let our gratitude and nostalgia for the past cloud our vision of the present and future. With blessings from Israel!

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

Rabbi Kamenetsky Endorsing President Trump Gets Lots of Media Coverage and Attention from Across the Spectrum

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Yeshiva World News

*HISTORIC ENDORSEMENT:* In a rare statement regarding politics, HaGoan Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky gave an endorsement to President Trump for the upcoming elections during an interview with Yisroel Besser of Mishpacha magazine.

https://shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com/2020/07/historic-endorsement-in-rare-statement.html?m=1

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky: 'Worrisome' if Trump not elected

Leading haredi rabbi endorses Trump. 'G-d has become a dirty word in much of America, religion and religious institutions are their enemy.'

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/284437

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, a leader of American ultra-Orthodoxy, endorsed Donald Trump for the 2020 election in a rare statement to the Orthodox Mishpacha magazine.

https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/451747/leading-ultra-orthodox-rabbi-kaminetsky-endorses-trump/

Leading Orthodox Rabbi Endorses Donald Trump for Reelection

The 95-year-old rabbi says it would be 'worrisome' if the president loses, citing rising secularism as a threat

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/leading-orthodox-rabbi-endorses-donald-trump-for-reelection-1.9034163

Leading Orthodox rabbi endorses Trump for reelection

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky calls on followers to vote for president out of 'gratitude' and cites rising secularism as a threat

https://www.timesofisrael.com/leading-orthodox-rabbi-endorses-donald-trump-for-reelection/

R’ Shmuel Kamenetzky Urges All To Vote For Trump

https://matzav.com/r-shmuel-kamenetzky-urges-all-to-vote-for-trump/

Leading Orthodox rabbi endorses Donald Trump for reelection

https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/leading-orthodox-rabbi-endorses-donald-trump-for-reelection

Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky Says Vote For Donald Trump For Reelection

https://vosizneias.com/2020/07/29/rabbi-shmuel-kamenetsky-says-vote-for-donald-trump-for-reelection/

Top U.S. Haredi rabbi endorses Trump

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r1C3lJgbP

Rabbi Kamenetsky says Trump did 'good job,' warns against rising anti-religious sentiment

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/americas/1596083853-us-top-orthodox-rabbi-urges-followers-to-vote-for-trump

Top American Rabbinical Leader Unequivocally Endorses President Trump for Second Term

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/top-american-rabbinical-leader-unequivocally-endorses-president-trump-for-second-term/2020/07/30/

Leading Orthodox rabbi endorses Donald Trump for reelection

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/jta/leading-orthodox-rabbi-endorses-donald-trump-for-reelection/image_700f0a7b-fe66-5e35-bf21-90f51303e2b3.html

Etc...JTA is syndicated..

*HISTORIC ENDORSEMENT:* In a rare statement regarding politics, HaGoan Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky gave an endorsement to President Trump for the upcoming elections during an interview with Yisroel Besser of Mishpacha magazine.

*HISTORIC ENDORSEMENT:* In a rare statement regarding politics, HaGoan Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky gave an endorsement to President Trump for the upcoming elections during an interview with Yisroel Besser of Mishpacha magazine.

The Gadol said, "You see the _matzav_, the anarchy... it's frightening. G-d  has become a dirty word in much of America, religion and religious institutions are their enemy - we need _Rachamei Shamayim_. If Trump doesn't win in November, it's worrisome."

After being asked on his possible endorsement of the president, Rav Shmuel reiterated that "Yes, I think people should vote for him. He's done a good job. It's _hakaras hatov_."

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