Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

15 Av 5763 - August 13, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS
Rabbonim Issue Warnings Against "Birthright"
by G. Safran

Led by Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv, shlita, maranan verabonon have stated their opposition to an organization that arranges trips to Eretz Yisroel for groups of chareidi youths from the U.S.

In recent years a joint American-Israeli venture with Zionist leanings began offering trips to Israel for American teenagers designed to impart "ahavas Yisroel" to them. This program, known as Birthright, offers highly subsidized trips, and many participants--hastily assuming the program was sponsored by chareidim and was perfectly kosher--have been tempted to take part.

Last year many of the participants lodged serious complaints about the trips, saying they were taken to various national- religious sites and that the tone of the trips, which included the participation of potentially damaging figures, was inappropriate.

Recently it was learned the organization is expanding its activities to include bnei yeshivos from the U.S. Roshei yeshivos and marbitzei Torah from the U.S. issued an announcement warning parents that the program poses a genuine spiritual danger to their sons and daughters, including compromising their standards of tznius and kashrus and presenting opinions inconsistent with the Torah view.

The letter read (in part): "With regard to the tours called `Birthright' that many of those in our community started to participate in -- we come to note that even though the leaders of those tours claim that they are kosher and conducted lefi rucheinu, nonetheless it has become clear to us that this is not so, and these tours have hidden dangers for the chinuch of our children, to cause our sons and daughters to break the limits of tznius and kashrus and to influence them with ideas that oppose our holy Torah.

"Therefore, parents and educators should not send their sons, daughters, talmidim and talmidos to such tours."

Signatories included HaRav Shmuel Birnbaum, rosh yeshivas Mir; HaRav Yisroel Perkovsky, rosh yeshivas Beis HaTalmud; HaRav Aharon Shechter, rosh yeshivas Chaim Berlin; HaRav Elioh Simchoh Shustal, rosh yeshivas Beis Binyomin, Stamford; HaRav Shmuel Avigdor Feivelson, rosh yeshivas Beis Medrash LeTorah; HaRav Yosef Rosenblum, rosh yeshivas Shaarei Yosher; HaRav Chaim Leib Halevi Epstein, rosh yeshivas Zichron Melech; HaRav Elioh Dov Wachtfogel, rosh yeshivas Zichron Moshe, South Fallsburg; and HaRav Malkiel Kotler, rosh yeshivas Bais Midrash Govohah Lakewood.

In Eretz Yisroel a similar notice was issued by HaRav Eliashiv, HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, HaRav Chaim Kanievsky and HaRav Shmuel Auerbach.

They wrote: "The gedolei Torah of America already publicized their opinion about the pirtzoh involved in organizing tours to the Holy Land in the framework of `Birthright' without any appropriate spiritual supervision or oversight. This causes many problems in tznius and kashrus and leads to hearing false opinions and hashkofos against the holy Torah in the course of these tours.

"We hereby join the horo'oh of the American gedolim not to send talmidim and talmidos to these tours. May those who heed us merit to reap spiritual nachas from their children."

In a separate letter HaRav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz also stated his opposition, saying the organization distorts the proper perspective on Eretz Yisroel. "Regarding the trips called Birthright, in which many of anshei shlomeinu have begun to participate, including groups of girls raised in chareidi homes, the results demonstrate that during the short time they are in Eretz Yisroel, many of them are negatively influenced and are infused with a hashkofoh that Eretz Hakodesh, chas vesholom, is a place and a state just like any other country, with no feeling for the kedushoh [of Eretz Yisroel and of the site of Beis Hamikdosh] even after the Churban, [while] Chazal say the kedushoh of the Kosel Maarovi has not ceased, for it is a place of tefilloh to the Creator.

"And now we have heard that this organization wants to arrange [a trip for] a group of bochurim studying at yeshivas in the U.S. [who are] unaware that these trips, Rachmono litzlan, distance the participants from everything holy and the organizers come from a group that can be considered machti'ei horabim, a type of group Rabbenu Yonah, in Shaarei Teshuvoh (Shaar 3:51), ruled is forbidden.

"Therefore we hereby warn parents and yeshiva staffs to prohibit talmidim from joining this group for these trips--for the danger is a very dire spiritual danger--and to be aware of the extent of [spiritual] decline [they are liable to cause].

"May HaKodosh Boruch Hu infuse us with a spirit of purity and holiness to be safeguarded from all of these ways of the yetzer hora and may all those who heed [this warning] merit siyata deShmaya and protection. May HaKodosh Boruch Hu spare us from such trials."

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.