Debate over controversial figure should be had out in the open
The stories have circulated for years. Stories of students being slapped and others called “Nazi” or “gay.” They are shared between alumni, passed on to prospective students and discussed between parents. They’re recounted in debates at high school and college lunch tables. They have inspired their own blog, the Rav Bina Abuse Blog.
They are stories about Rav Aharon Bina, rosh hayeshiva (head of the yeshiva) at Netiv Aryeh — an all-male yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem and a popular destination among American Orthodox high school graduates spending a gap year in Israel before returning to America for college.
And most recently, an article published last week by The Jewish Week has ignited a debate over Rav Bina’s questionable teaching methods, for which he has become infamous. (The article was written by Yeshiva University senior Yedidya Gorsetman and Jewish Week Editor Gary Rosenblatt with additional reporting by former New Voices Editor Ben Sales. Jewish student press, represent!) The headline read: “Has the ‘Tough Love’ Rebbe gone too far?” Comments on the article range from praise for the piece and harsh criticism for what some are calling a “shameful” article, widening the divide between Rav Bina’s longtime followers and detractors.
“The main problem is the culture of silence. The main problem is that when you want to come forward within your community, you are silenced and ostracized and pushed out of the community,” Jacob Chatinover said in an interview with New Voices in response to the article. A senior at Brandeis University Chatinover brought the latest iteration of the debate over Rav Bina to the Orthodox community at Brandeis by posting the article in the Facebook group of the Brandeis Orthodox Organization. (He and Gorsetman are personal friends, though Chatinover said that has nothing to with his position on the issue. “If that changes the reality of it for you, so be it,” he said.)
“By publicizing it, by breaking the silence, what I wanted to do was push it forward and say: ‘We need to talk about this and we need to allow anyone to come forward,’” he said. “I wanted the people in our community to know they could come forward. And that we will accept you, we will believe you, we won’t blame you, and we will try to hear you out.”
The divide has only widened every time the article has been mentioned or re-posted online.
“One thing somebody said was that this is not a place for political positioning,” Chatinover said of one of the responses to his post on Facebook. But the issue, Chatinover said, is one of religion, not politics.
“Anything anyone does in the name of Torah is a religious issue,” Chatinover said. “Truth and honesty and righteousness: those are our core religious values. Doing the right thing, is not political. It’s religious. And if you don’t understand that, then your understanding of Judaism is, at its core, at least different from mine, and I would say incorrect.”
What is religiously correct — or permissible under Jewish law — is precisely what is at issue here. Critics of the article argue it is lashon hara (gossip, literally “the evil tongue,” forbidden under Jewish law). They say the article is indefensible within an Orthodox Jewish legal framework, defaming and slandering a prominent rabbi.
“Lashon hara is being used as a shield to hide behind when there is a controversial topic. Why is it that people have no problem talking behind their friend’s back, but can’t talk about allegations against a rabbi?” Brandeis sophomore Rafi Abramowitz said.
While some question the piety of a rabbi who allegedly abuses his students, one online comment on the Jewish Week article questioned the piety of the same rabbi’s critics: “To the people who call themselves religious and in the next sentence make derogatory comments about fellow Jews, how can you even think of calling yourself religious!?”
Jewish law did not spring forth all at once, fully formed. Even in the most religiously conservative understanding of Jewish history, halacha has evolved over time. The laws regarding lashon hara were written before the development of the free press we enjoy today. We believe there is room in Jewish law to use the press as a way of addressing grave wrongs within the Jewish community.
“We have cautions to protect our own, to protect our institutions. These are all legitimate cautions,” Chatinover said. But, he added, “The effect is often that things get swept aside or aren’t taken seriously. The effect is to ostracize, disbelieve and accuse the accusing, the victims. So the effect of that is that people can’t come forward.”
In truth, the effect is the creation of an Orthodox Jewish community that obstinately refuses to acknowledge the reality it finds itself in. This is a community with no room for open conversation and a system that tolerates not just “Tough Love” rabbis, but Teflon rabbis.
Our hope is that Jewish communities will recognize this need, and that the debate among today’s Orthodox college students indicate the arrival of more open discourse — and a better course charted for the future.
New Voices editorials reflect the opinion of the New Voices editorial board.
