Thursday, February 27, 2014

YU and the partnership minyan threats

Bah. Another Important Issue of the Day has come up and I still haven't completed my posts about the last one. The secret mission that has ruined this week ends soon, and then its back to your regularly scheduled programing but for now, here are my two cents on the letter Yeshiva University sent to the rabinical student who hosted a partnership minyan.

(1) YU had every right to do what it did. I disagree with the approach, but until I take over their Board of Trustees nothing I think really matters.

(2) Gary Rosenblatt blew this way the hell out of proportion. In his newpaper, he says YU threatened to hold back the smicha degree if the student didn't start toeing the school's anti-woman line. Though I agree that's implied in the letter, which you can see below, its not said overtly, and perhaps we're misunderstanding the message. In any case, there's no real threat. All YU wants is a promise that the kid will follow school rules. I didn't see any mention of any consequences.

(3) YU has actual musmachim who use microphones and lead conservative shuls. They have musmachim who disagree with the YU Roshei Yeshivot on every important mater of the day, and some of these disagreements are collected in official YU publications. None of them have had their smichah revoked. This means that either (a) YU is a typical anti-woman hypocrite who takes big dramatic stands on anything having to do with women that they don't take on any other matter; or (b) the kid's smichah is not in any danger. I think (b) is much, much more likely.

DB out

The letter: http://newsdesk.tjctv.com/2014/02/the-yeshiva-university-letter-thats-riling-up-the-modern-orthodox-world/
The Gary Rosenblatt article that made this seem like YU sent thugs to the kids door:http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new-york/your-semicha-or-your-wife

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