Yamim Noraim theme: Chareidim are not all bad...

Forwarded by MMH:

I am sure that readers of the AJNWatch blog will be just as proud to see the following items as I was.

MJCF - a very well run Tzedaka organisation.

And a report in J-Wire about a fire on Erev Rosh Hashana "Adass territory":

A catastrophe was narrowly averted in Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox community on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

Twenty-two firefighters battled a blaze in a house in Oak Grove, Ripponlea – opposite the Adass Israel synagogue – on Sunday morning around 09:20, according to the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.At least four fire engines arrived within five minutes, according to the MFB, and brought the fire under control less than half an hour later.

“Fire damage was confined to the rear of the property with the remainder heavily smoke-logged and requiring extensive cleaning,” a MFB statement said. “A twin adjoining property that shared a common wall was not affected.”

A MFB spokesperson said it was thanks to the smoke alarm that the mother was alerted and was able to get her children out safely after a blaze started in the laundry and spread to the roof and the hallway.

Members of the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel community rallied to help the family just hours before the New Year.Shlomo Boruch Abelesz, a longstanding leader of the Adass community, said he believed it was actually the home of Lubavitchers.“The good news is that the Adass community seems to have come to their aid with everything from lodging to food and clothes,” he said.

It is estimated that the repair bill will reach about $30,000, according to the fire brigade.

 

And a "Thank you" published via Galus Australis:

 

 

On behalf of The Jacobson and Cyrulnik families I would like to say an incredibly huge and endless thank you to the Adass community for all your incredible, and overwhelmingly kind help on erev yom tov when a fire was ablaze over our two adjoining homes.

I was personally brought to tears by the incredible, ceaseless display of unbelievable ahavas yisrael on erev yom tov: the offers of housing that sprung forth immediately, the offer and actual delivery of clothing for the children, the offer and delivery of a huge abundance of food, and the non-stop drop-offs from families of cakes and the like. The family that immediately took my children to their house and fed them and took care of them for hours while we quickly set up for yom tov after being outside for hours. You even went so far as to bathe one of my children and prepare them fully for yom tov, when you have your own large family to get ready. Truly I do not have the words to express the gratitude of the heart that prevails so deeply. Your abounding display of chesed is absolutely inspirational and overwhelming in its detailed consideration.

When I heard the blasts of the shofar on yom tov my heart was overwhelmed with emotions, especially evoked by your selfless complete mesiras nefesh in helping your fellow Jew at such a pressured hour. I wish I could thank each and every one of you who offered and gave kindness. You provided menuchas nefesh amidst the initial anguish, fright and worry, before we knew what had happened. We received non-stop words of encouragement and consolation, and you even asked what we needed from our houses, and convinced firemen and police etc to let us in for urgent things.
How could one repay you all for your abounding kindness? I can only ask Hash-m with all my heart that in the merit of all the kindness you offered, showed and did, that He may bless your community with kindness a trillion-fold, from now and forever. May He pour out an abundance of blessings with endless chayay, banay, mezonay revichay b’gashmius and ruchnius, always in peace and joy. May you all be blessed with long lives and a year of revealed overflowing blessings – beyond nature and beyond this world… into this world revealed!

Since Hash-m blesses us mida kneged mida, I am left feeling immediately on Sunday, with such unbelievable ahavas chinam, we will surely see Moshiach this year. How could Hash-m not answer and send him this very year. Your acts of kindness no doubt have broken open the gates of shomoyim, and it certainly has to be a year of revealed miracles for all Am Yisrael immediately now! I can only say that certainly you have, so to speak, rebuilt Beis Hamikdash with your unbelievable and abounding kindness, which we are in awe of. All of Am Yisrael can learn what kindness with mesiras nefesh is from you.

I am in awe of the unbelievable Adass community’s tremendous boundless kindness and thankful to Hash-m from the depths of my heart for sending an immediate nechama. I am privileged to live by you, and have contact with you, and humbled beyond belief at your actual mesiras nefesh in kindness for your fellow Jews bli gavul, boundlessly, beyond all boundaries.

 

On behalf of our two families, thank you, thank you, thank you. I wish the heart could aptly transcribe what it feels to paper, and the soul what it senses. Meanwhile, please accept these words as a form of thank you from us, who are absolutely humbled and endlessly grateful for your unbelievable kindness.

Thank you, thank you,

With heartfelt eternal gratitude,

Gmar chasima tova in blessings beyond nature, and abundant revealed endless bountiful good in this world!

 Mrs Leah Jacobson on behalf of the Jacobson and Cyrulnik families

The story also made it to a USA Jewish newsblog:

Danby upsets the Jewish News

(Apologies for the delay in posting)

We can't remember another occasion where, following criticism, the AJN expended an entire page to justify itself.

Seems that Michael Danby's private mailing to thousands of constituents describing how the newspaper was censoring or totally disregarding matters of importance, really got under the editor's skin. We suspect that AJN Watch's publicising those details didn't endear us to them either and probably the reason they unleashed Zeddy's donkey upon us this week.

But seriously, it is about time that they realised that they no longer have total domination and control on information to (and about) the Jewish community .

We now live in a world of blogs, websites and other alternatives. J-Wire seems to be picking up and becoming a more relevant. Galus Australis seems to be gaining importance. The weekly circulation of the Hamodia is growing constantly (despite the hefty $6 cover price) with much of the increase coming from the 'non-Charedi' and, surprisingly, even 'non-frum' sector. (Well maybe not really surprising, seeing that their coverage of news from Israel and the Jewish world is 3 or 4 times more comprehensive than the couple of pages that the AJN cuts and pastes from internet sites. And may we proudly add that this humble blog too, is getting thousands of hits every month (1500 this past week alone).

That a newspaper can upset so many sectors of the community is some 'achievement'. But it shows that there are deep seated problems and issues which require massive surgery and serious changes in the way the owners and management operate.

Not that we expect them to do anything. The Jewish News will continue to be the (tax loss) plaything of one rich Jew after another. And when current owner realises what little genuine respect and honour this little hobby brings him (and even less influence), you can bet on him handing over this loss-making operation to the next 'gevir' - another prosperous developer or merchant - with more dollars than sense - to take his turn riding the AJN merry-go-round.

Though it isn't a total disaster for the current owner Robert Magid. Zeddy Lawrence in his wisdom (and no doubt valuing his job or maybe even hoping for a raise) made sure to include his boss in his list of the "50 most influential Jews in Australia".

Now that's gotta be worth some of the lost big bucks and headaches that come with owning such a enterprise.

Another, rarely mentioned loudly, advantage of owning the paper is of course the clout his has when a mate or relative gets into financial or personal doo-doo. That's when the fearless voice of the community, becomes totally shtum. Shah shtill. We won't go any further about that matter at this stage, but it is special benefit that most do no have

CSG Advert – What the?

Further to the above-captioned piece in Galus Australis re the CSG [ http://galusaustralis.com/2009/09/csg-advert-what-the/ ], an English reader has forwarded to us the following cutting from the London Jewish Tribune talking about that city's Jewish security group known there as the CST.

It seems that problems associated with these types of outfits are universal.

This got us wondering if there any rabbinical approval or advice sought by or given to the CSG? Knowing that they are following halachic rulins would do much to pacify those who find it quite galling seeing Jewish youngsters outside Shuls - often blatantly being mechalel Shabbat.

We gleaned another similarity between Melbourne and London from that JT article, ie, that these boychiks (and girlchiks) don't service purely Charedi areas. Just like they are not seen outside Adass, Beth Talmud, Heichal Hatorah, Gerrer Shtiebel, Merkaz Hatorah, neither do they operate in London's Stamford Hill district.

Comment on change of editors at the AJN

By Les Rosenblatt on the Galus Australis site:
http://tinyurl.com/m5km9d

Les Rosenblatt says:
September 16, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I expect australia’s small Jewish community mainly based in melbourne and Sydney will continue to look to the AJN for its social reflection in all the photos of well-groomed would-be noticeables at various fund-raisers, openings, etc.
It will also read with more or less interest the odd bit of coverage of scandal in the courts, stresses in the jewish education system, the latest on Jewish births, deaths, marriages, and Australian/Jewish political system/personages interaction.
In other words, standard ethnic community newspaper fare – tabloidish, parochial commercial, social, cultural and sporting material.
Where the AJN has been remarkably disappointing is in its hard-faced denialism of complexities of Jewish identity, religious belief, and political diversity amongst Australian Jews with particular reference to the contradictions and complexities of Jewish nationalism in relation to global and middle-east (including Israeli-Palestine conflict) issue engagement.
It was sadly evident that the sportingly fair-minded (to the extent that a former sports editor turned AJN editor could continue to be so) Ashley Browne would run up against the Jerusalem Post-loving owner of the AJN who would be happy to see the Likud/Irgun/Labour militarist orthodoxy of Israel embraced as the pre-eminent beacon of security for Jews nervous about their place in the world.
Absolutely no need to even admit to any alternative possibilities. Simply give AIJAC its weekly column, extract large slabs of copy from the Jerusalem Post, publish press releases from the Israeli embassy,and showcase Michael Danby as local hero. The rest is spam or real estate.
Ashley did allow a variety of opinions in his letters columns and did at least try to be reasonably inclusive of the not too controversially border-line article. But it was not going to wash with the owner and his command of his property.
I predict the new editor will last perhaps 18 months and be a bit like the Jonathan Shier effect in the ABC during the Howard years – a dull flash in the same tarnished pan.

Les Rosenblatt.