The Jewish Week | Letters

Rav Bina Article Based On Hearsay
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Paul Packer

I have long admired the courage of The Jewish Week to tackle issues that impact the members of our community. However, I cannot begin to express my disappointment with your recent article about Netiv Aryeh and Rav Bina (“Has The ‘Tough Love’ Rebbe Gone Too Far?” Jan. 27).

Letters
Anonymous Account No Less True
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Andrew

Mr. Packer implies that anonymity casts doubt on the veracity of an account; in my case it actually is my attempt to avoid being victimized all over again. An anonymous account is no less true than one that has a name attached.

Although it is true that I was over 18 at the time of these events, I can’t believe that anyone would suggest that this gives license to physical assault. Regarding the circumstances of what happened to me, let me be clear that I was called to task for being caught going to Ben Yehuda Street, and not for being drunk. 

Letters
Highest Level Of Care
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Eliot Young

This is a shameful article.

I have Rav Bina to thank for the fact that I still take time out to learn and for the fact that I am constantly looking to grow. Despite this slander, Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh will continue to have the highest amount of students every year, will continue to have the most second-year students for a yeshiva of its kind, and will continue to not only guide students to have the best student-to-staff ratio (3-to-1 last time I checked), to ensure

that Netiv Aryeh students have the highest level of care.

Letters
Troubling Incidents
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | David Solomon

Every single thing that is written in this article [on Rav Bina] is 100 percent true. I know this because in my relatively short three-month stint in Yeshivat Hakotel over 10 years ago I personally experienced every single one of them … and more.

I was called every name (the name that stuck and that I was called publicly by Rav Bina was “cancer” and or “poison”), banned from attending classes, abused physically by Rav Bina’s faithful sidekick, sent to therapy, told I was violent and much more.

Letters
This Time Jewish Week Is Right
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Rabbi Dov Fischer

The Jewish Week will be accused
of publishing lashon hora [slander] just as it was when it reported on Rabbi Baruch Lanner in 2000.

Letters
Unspoken Testimony
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Haskel Lookstein

In the article on Rav Bina, Gorsetman and Rosenblatt ask a rhetorical question: “But some are wondering why, indeed, Netiv Aryeh is so popular, with an estimated 110 first-year and 60 second-year American students … Why do families, deeply concerned about the emotional, educational and spiritual well-being of their children, continue to send their sons to study with Rav Bina when his controversial reputation is so well known?”

Letters
Need To Be Heard
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Seymour D. Reich

It is distressing that Israel’s deputy consul general in New York, Shlomi Kofman, walked out while the president of the Jewish Labor Committee, Stuart Applebaum, was offering remarks, some critical, about the current Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians (“Israeli Official Leaves JLC Dinner After Criticism of Netanyahu,” Jan. 27).

Letters
Taking A Step Back
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | Elie Rubinstein

I would like to express my gratitude to The Jewish Week for publishing William Rapfogel’s timely opinion piece, “When Jewish Foundations Ignore Core Needs” (Jan. 20). Finally, one of the leaders in the Jewish world went on a limb to discuss the unfortunate philosophies and practices of some foundations ignoring the plight of the impoverished Jewish population.

Letters
Dismayed By Reporting On Rav Aharon Bina
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Sandy Eisenstat

I am dismayed by the reporting of The Jewish Week in its story about Netiv Aryeh and Rav Aharon Bina (“Has The ‘Tough Love’ Rebbe Gone Too Far?” Jan. 27). The “Andrew” story is simply not true. I think anyone concerned with our young people and the future of Am Yisrael is saddened that “Andrew” has removed himself from the Torah community in which he was raised.

However, The Jewish Week allowed him to hide his identity while at the same time gave him a platform to attack a respected rosh yeshiva.

Letters
Mocking A Rabbi
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Jason Farkas

You should fire yourself for letting an article like that be posted (“Has The ‘Tough Love’ Rebbe Gone Too Far?” Jan. 27). It is outright lashon harah, and you allowed a family that isn’t religious and clearly not fitting for that yeshiva to degrade and mock a rabbi who has helped thousands of kids.

You are self-hating Jews and should be thrown out of the community for this.
 

Letters