Izzy Posen
@PosenIzzy
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Yiddish translator/consultant. Maths/physics/philosophy tutor. Research associate @HasidicU • Ex-chassidic. Master's in Physics and Philosophy. 🇬🇧 🇮🇱
London, England
Joined October 2015
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I just had an interview with a prestigious scholarship awarding body to help with maths teacher training. They asked for an example of a "diverse mathematician". I gave Emmy Neother, a Jewish woman expelled from her position in Nazy Germany in the 30s.
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So a Jew in nazi Germany is not diverse enough becuase my pupils don't know about the holocaust. So instead of using this as a teachable moment about the holocaust, I cannot use a female Jewish mathematician, literally faced with extinction, as a diverse example!
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The interviewer said, "she's white and we asked for someone who is diverse." So I said, I don't think that a Jew in Nazi Germany in the 30s is not diverse. Her response was, "You did say Germany, which is a white country, and your pupils might not know about the holocaust."
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I bumped into one chassidic Jew at the march and I asked him why more chassidim didn't come. He said they're scared to come out to central London, as every time they go on the tube they face harassment because they're so visibly Jewish.
#MarchAgainstAntisemitism
Proud to be alongside the huge crowds in Parliament Square to stand against antisemitism. Jews belong in Britain and have contributed so much to Britain. When we feel comfortable on Britain's streets, that's when Britain is healthy.
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@rivkahbrown
Hundreds of civilians dead on both sides and you celebrate?! Your ideological dogmatism has blindsided your humanity. This is shameful and heartless even for your low standards.
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I was having a walk yesterday just outside my home (my area has lots of Muslims and few Jews). This Arabic-looking guy comes up to me and shouts "Fuck Israel!" I wasn't wearing anything visibly Jewish, so I don't know if he was targeting me as someone who looked Jewish to him.
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I've just spent a week in court doing Yiddish interpreting in a sex-offense case. I've learnt that "do you want to come to the kosel (western wall)?" can be euphemistic amongst Israeli chassidish men for propositioning one another for sex. Was very hard not to laugh in court.
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My mother sadly passed away yesterday in tragic circumstances. She was young and healthy and full of the spirit of life. I loved her so much.
Please refrain from contacting directly during this difficult time (unless we're really close), but do send good wishes on here.
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@SC_Griffith
It's an axiom - the Axiom of Archimedes. Axioms are by definition statements that you don't prove, but assume to see what you can build on it. If you assume this axiom, you can derive very powerful results about the properties of numbers in analysis.
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The BBC keeps repeating that Israel bombed a "refugee camp" (Jabalia), without giving any context that this has been a built-up urban environment for decades, and is a refugee camp in nothing but name. "Bombing a refugee camp" conjures up all kinds of misleading imagery here.
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We were out there in Bristol this evening as things turned violent. Police were incredibly hands off, not interfering even as vans were being lit on fire and the windows of the station smashed. When things had calmed down a bit, riot police were handing out water to protesters.
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My next door neighbour is Muslim and we've had no issues despite them knowing that we're Jewish. Most decent people just want to live in peace with each other, especially people with whom you need to share a life.
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I speak the language of a westernised, secular academic, but inside of me burns the emotion and passion of a chassidic yeshiva boy. I used to try to suppress that side of me but I'm not going to any longer.
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8 years ago I hadn't seen a science or maths textbook. Today I graduated with a First Class Honours Master in Science (joint school of physics and philosophy) from one of Britain's prestigious universities. Follow your dreams and don't let anyone stand in your way!
@BristolUni
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For work I transcribe interviews done with Yiddish-speaking Holocaust survivors in the 90s. We do it for the linguistics side of things, but you cannot stay dry and cold when they recount the horrors of their experiences.
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Proud to be alongside the huge crowds in Parliament Square to stand against antisemitism. Jews belong in Britain and have contributed so much to Britain. When we feel comfortable on Britain's streets, that's when Britain is healthy.
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I told him to fuck off, saying, "What do I have to do with Israel?" He repeated "fuck Israel" again a few times and I told him that he was an antisemite. He kept following me for a while until I managed to shake him off.
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Not a single halachic authority throughout the 2000 year old history of Christianity's coexistence with Judaism has suggested that Jews are obligated to kill the world's Christians.
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Third, I have claimed that Judaism includes "a sacred command to kill all the world's Christians as idolaters (e.g. as described in Maimonides' Misneh Torah)."
As you know, Maimonides is perhaps the most famous rabbi in history. Moreover, the Misneh Torah (by Mainonides) and the
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Yesterday I finally had my graduation ceremony for my Master's of Science, in Physics and Philosophy, from the University of Bristol.
#BristolGrad
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I've been much more vigilant in my neighbourhood since October 7th, scanning all my peripheries at all times to see who might be a threat - like how some women describe walking at night. I avoid wearing any Jewish-identifying items here, as I know that would make me a target.
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It also turns out that a Hamas leader lives just around the corner from where I live, right next to one of my favourite neighbourhood parks.
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Many are very supportive of gay rights, equal marriage etc., but still don't want to have propaganda and flags pushed on them for a month. Having the flag of an ideology hanging above you wherever you go feels authoritarian and oppressive even when you agree with the message.
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@waitbutwhy
What mean is the regression to though? Presumably to the mean of the ancestral groups of the parents. Suppose the parents are from a group that has average IQ of 110), then the regression will be to the mean of the group (110), rather than to the universal mean (100).
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Yesterday I expressed my pain about being estranged from family for leaving orthodoxy. It reached a wide audience and garnered a large response. So here I want to expand a bit on the issues raised.
It's my birthday today, so be extra nice - but don't withhold fair critique.
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How is it that it's still acceptable for rabbis to advise religious parents to kick out non-religious children from home and to cut them off from family? I haven't been allowed to be in touch with family for 7 years. This is cruelty and pain that I feel every single day.
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The rise in antisemitism in Europe is the canary in the coal mine. Multiculturalism in Europe has failed. Too many people with incompatible cultures and values have come here in too short a time and have made too little effort to integrate.
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What's life like after leaving one of the most insular and religiously-controlling communities in the West?
#ThisOTDLife
: a THREAD 👇👇
Pics: me in 2015 vs me now.
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I'm going through a minor rough patch - nothing serious, just feeling a little down - any nice comments and encouragement is appreciated.
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That's my grandfather, my zeidy, the one leading the prayers against government interference in charedi education. His grandson, myself, took his education in his own hands and got himself a stellar secular higher education. Zeidy hasn't spoken with me for 7 years
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@ariel_haivri
We're part European. We're part European genetically. We're part European culturally. Our evolution and history over the last millennium are in Europe. Our language (Yiddish) was Germanic. Our name "Ashkenazi" means Germanic.
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The irony is that chassidim are usually non-zionists and many are avowedly anti-zionist, and yet they face the brunt of antisemitic attacks in times like these. The idea that it's "just anti-zionism, not anti-Semitism" is a lie.
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Yeshiva is like high school, but the nerds are the popular kids.
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I'm interpreting in court today (Yiddish-English) and witness seemed inconsistent when they said "hand" instead of "arm". In chassidic Yiddish "hant" (האנט) can be used both for hand and for arm. So important to have culturally informed interpretation!
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In memory of my dear Mummy ע"ה whose shloshim is coming up this week, I am offering a free slot of weekly tutoring for a motivated student, who would otherwise not be able to afford a good tutor. Please apply using the application form below:
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Just listening to holocaust survivor who grew up in Warsaw. Says that Jews spoke Yiddish but that the youth were already speaking Polish amongst themselves. I always saw the holocaust as the cause for the loss of Yiddish amongst Jews, but maybe it was happening anyway.
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Every civilian life lost is a tragedy, whether Jewish or Palestinian. But there's no moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Hamas indiscriminately and intentionally massacres and kidnaps civilians, whilst Israel targets militants, but sadly civilian deaths is unavoidable.
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These days I'm physically in London but mentally and spiritually in Israel. Part of me wishes I was there to help my people and to feel the love and solidarity.
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New video and series just dropped by yours truly: physics course in Yiddish. I've been working on this project for a long time and I'm excited to start presenting it to the world.
א נייעם ווידיא און א נייע סעריע: א פיזיקס קורס אויף אידיש.
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Yomtov times are always difficult when you're estranged from family. We cherish the happy memories, whilst mourning the family loss. We think of our loved ones from afar, and from our golus we wish them gut yomtov, praying והשיב לב אבות על בנים.
Wishing all a שנה טובה ומתוקה!
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This is amazing. An algebra book book written in Ashkenazic Hebrew, using Hebrew letters instead of Latin. Really weird to see ²א and ³ב and equations written right to left!
Current conventions in Hebrew is to use Latin. I'll do the same in my Yiddish courses.
Sefer Mosdei Chochmah, a comprehensive guide to algebra, Vilna-Horodno 1834. Printed with approbations of Vilna’s leading Torah scholars. In the list of subscribers, the Rashash - R. Shmuel Strashon (or “Strason” like it’s spelled here in typical Litvak style) is listed.
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Yiddish ad for Doritos, based on Ashkenazi folklore about the feudal landowner torturing his subjects. These ads are not to be seen between TV programs, but as productions in themselves, to be sent around on groups. Hence their length, and structure as a complete mini-movie.
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As part one of the Yiddish research projects I am currently working on, I transcribe interviews with Holocaust survivors. They don't cry when they talk about the horrors that happened to them and their families. They cry when they recall their happy pre-war memories.
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Instead of making a new day for Yom HaShoa, they should've made Tisha B'Av the mourning day for the holocaust. Why invent a new memorial day when we already have a day designated by tradition to mourning and remembrance?
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Traditionally on Purim you drink and your inner truth comes out. Here's mine. I want to be friends with anyone who is open minded enough to accept me for who I am even though we might not share beliefs and values.
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It's interesting that Pride and queerness used to be about opposition to cultural hegemony, but are now the very definition of hegemony in places like the UK. It is not radical or daring to wave a pride flag; it's actually boring, conformist and hegemonic.
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I just spent three full days in family court (through video conference) interpreting between Yiddish/Hebrew and English. Below is a short THREAD with some insights and things I've noticed: 👇👇
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Grief is not just for what you lost. It's for what you are missing today, what you will be missing tomorrow, next year, in a decade, in 2 and 3 decades. What you lost yesterday will be missing to you every day for the rest of your life.
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Was amazing standing yesterday with thousands of fellow Jews and allies in London in support of Israel and calling for the release of the hostages. The atmosphere was sombre and peaceful. I saw people all around me crying. We sang a song for peace.
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Impossible to comprehend what these people went through and the bravery it took them to pick up the pieces after. I grew up on stories of the holocaust from my youngest memories and yet when you hear it from a survivor, an eye-wittness, it takes on new power.
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I'm never going to be ok with systemic benefit fraud being entrenched in a community's economy, enabling a lifestyle far above one's means, allowing education to be neglected, whilst living a parallel life with very different values from the average taxpayer who finances this. 1/
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Got up from the shiva this morning. I think that acculturating back into ordinary, daily life will be harder than the shiva-sitting itself.
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My Mummy was torn away from us in a tragic accident young and healthy. There's no one to blame for that. Sadly unpreventable disasters happen. But leading up to that I was estranged against my will from my family and home for 8 years. That was a preventable, cruel, human decision
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Frum Twitter is hilarious and I don't know why. Are frum people funnier, or just frum people on Twitter?
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Shame on those who hurried to blame Israel for what was most likely a failed attack intended on Israel which misfired, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are killing their own people and blaming it on Israel. Lesson: don't believe Hamas propaganda.
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People be like, what you couldn't even speak English growing up?!
Yes, but do you know that I could write beautifully and fluently in Yiddish, Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew. Semi-fluently in Talmudic Aramaic and Modern Hebrew. How many languages are you fluent in?
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"And I got grey hair when I was 22 years old, from aggravation, from thinking what was done to people. Why? Why was that done? So many people shot! And so many burnt! So many Jews! And it is a.. people can't believe it, those who haven't gone through it. I went through all that."
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Academics, especially philosophers, have a responsibility to consider and discuss sensitive/taboo topics that we wouldn't expect wider society to do. Academic journals should publish stuff that the wider public may find disturbing. In academia no dogma should go unchallenged.
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Just got a new female kitty and looking for name inspiration. Bonus points if it contains some nerdy reference, or refers to some Jewish/Yiddish heritage.
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His father and three sisters died there. He describes the rabbi of the village crying, "Is there even a God in heaven?!" as he watched his wife and children being murdered in front of his eyes, before being killed himself.
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Mummy ע"ה's levaya (funeral) will take place tonight in Stamford Hill, London, at 10:45pm. It will start at our family home next to the corner of Fairholt Road and St. Andrew's Grove, N16 5EW.
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On a communal level we have to make it so that the shame of kicking out a child is greater than the shame of having an OTD child.
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It's coming up to 11 months since the passing of our dear mother ע"ה. In Jewish tradition, the end of 11 months marks the closure of one more period of mourning. Mother now has a gravestone (translation below), which articulates just a bit of how we feel about her.
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Yesterday I visited Buckingham Palace to witness the national mourning. I randomly bumped into a chossid from my native community who was there with his little kids. He told me "I enjoy your videos. איך האב ליב די רייכע אידיש" (I like the rich Yiddish). Made me very happy.
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Guess what, that guy was a teacher who beat me so bad when I was 13 years old, that I passed out and had bruises on my face for weeks. The irony!
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I was born in the wrong century. In my head, I'm a late 19th century maskil, somewhere in Eastern Europe. Perhaps I'm organising some science and philosophy classes in some remote shtetl. Perhaps I'm pamphleteering in Hebrew/Yiddish about enlightenment and free thinking.
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If you think you're good at something and you're passionate about it, don't let anything stop you from pursuing it!
Couldn't have achieved this without the constant support from friends, family and the wonderful organisations who helped me along the way:
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This week's front page of the charedi
@Mishpacha_M
magazine. For too long it has been accepted in charedi society to kick out non-religious kids from home and cut them off from family. This rabbi says: "Shame? To estrange a child that you gave given birth to is far moreshaneful!"
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Those accusing me of being hateful towards the Chassidic community should go argue with those accusing me of being an apologist for the community, and leave me alone to have sensible conversations with the sane moderates who know the world is more complex and nuanced than that.
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I've been asked by non-Jewish friends how best to support Jewish people right now. There are people in our communities, colleagues, academics, being apologists or even celebrating the brutal massacre of our people, innocent civilians, babies, the elderly.
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The guy I'm now working on describes how he and his whole family were taken from a village in Poland and were driven into the forest by Hungarian militia - some of them as young as 12 year-olds, with weapons, spurred on by the adults.
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Over 10 days they dug a massive ditch where most of the village and his family were just shot in, having literally dug their own graves. He saved himself by throwing himself in before he was shot and lying still as the bodies piled up above him until nightfall.
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Let me tell you an ironic story. I bumped into these guys this week. They're protesting the new bill that will allow the government to regulate yeshivas. They're familiar faces, some of them close family.
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What people What we
think apikorsim actually
look like look like
What people What we
think physicists actually
look like: look like:
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Biggest myth about those who go OTD is that they were all hurt or abused in the community. Many leave because they disagree with the lifestyle or disbelieve in the worldview. Unfortunately, the process of leaving can in itself be traumatic and abusive.
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Today is the shloshim, the 30th day, to the untimely passing of my dear Mummy ע"ה. I share some reflections here:
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I say it all the time, there are genuinely many really beautiful things about the chassidic community. But it also lacks self-awareness of its religious hypocrisy and about how much of its social structure has nothing to do with Torah or Judaism.
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My father and I have an annual, mutually drunk, Purim chat. I have never felt so much love, pain and anger in the same situation as I felt whilst speaking with him yesterday. I'm still processing.
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So I'm gonna be marking Yom Kippur this year in a way that I haven't done since I went OTD. I still have quite ambiguous feelings about this day and I'm trying to figure out my relationship with it.
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"It was such a bad time that I don't even wa- When I talk about it, it rips open my heart. And from then on in 1941, whenever I recall this, lying on the pillow in bed, and I think every single night about it. It doesn't go away.
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Tonight is the first anniversary of Israel's largest civilian tragedy, the Meron Stampede, where 45 people sadly lost their lives. This was the single biggest loss of life in the charedi community since the holocaust. May their memories be a blessing.
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This world has often been cruel to me. But it has also shown me incredible kindness. Choose kindness. It's the only way.
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@NoahCarl90
This is such an important map and mostly quite predictable. Really highlights that 'pro-immigration' vs 'anti-immigration' positions need to be much more fine-grained. Would love to see a similar map for the UK.
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(Click on image)
Spotted on Golders Green Road, NW London today:
A forty mile long convoy of mitzvah tanks is snaking to the north of the capital, with the aim of bombarding it with lethal doses of matza, wine and other Pesach necessities.
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I'm going to quote him a bit in translation. His name is Shloime Leib Erps from the village of Kretchnef (there's a chassidic sect in Israel from that village):
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I can respect people trying to defend their way of life and their institutions. But this is just a brazen lie and you shouldn't be able to get away with brazen lies. Most of us chassidish boys were physically abused in cheider. Defend it if you want but מדבר שקר תרחק
Correct, Senator. No corporal punishment at ANY school. As a yeshiva parent/former student, I’m not familiar with the use of corporal punishment at yeshivas, nor would I tolerate it
Sadly,
@nytimes
needs to continue its onslaught against Orthodox Jews & prop up their mudslinging
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We're coming up to the shloshim for my dear Mummy ע"ה. She was such a special woman who gave us so much love and wisdom. She went far too soon.
Mummy, we wish we had more time with you. We're incredibly grateful for what you've given us.
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'A spokesperson for the community said [...],
“Our Torah education is not only known for its safety and effectiveness but has a proven reputation of delivering a model of excellence."'
Buckle up and let me tell you a personal story: 1/
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I worry that every time there's an outside push to reform chassidic education, this results in a fierce, concerted campaign on the inside to double down and resist any change, making it even more difficult for organic, grassroots chance to take place.
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