LAKEWOOD (VINnews/Mailbag) — As a longtime Lakewood resident, I have watched with pride as our community has grown by leaps and bounds, the kol Torah resonating louder and louder with every passing year. Finding ourselves as we are now in the midst of sefiras ha’omer, I am both mystified and pained by the news that a Lag B’Omer event for Lakewood-area children that was scheduled to be held at the FirstEnergy Park parking lot was banned based on what appears to be misinformation.
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I personally have close ties to Beis Medrash Govoha and its esteemed roshei yeshiva and appreciate full well that the importance of our community’s long standing policies disallowing concerts or holding any events of any sort in the stadium. But this Lag B’Omer event, organized jointly by several local Chabads and sponsored by respected local institutions and businesses, was constructed with all of those standards in mind. Scheduled to take place on Friday afternoon after school, this event is taking place in the parking lot, not within the stadium itself, with a program of Tehillim on behalf of acheinu Bnei Yisroel, a puppet show and a story teller. And while yes, there will be some live zemiros with Benny Friedman, it is just one of several components of the program, making it difficult to even to classify this as a concert. Ironically, the program is quite similar to that of another event being held in the same location on Thursday night, one that for whatever reason, has been deemed as being in keeping with community standards.
I can only surmise that this beautiful celebration was incorrectly described to the roshei yeshiva as a concert in the stadium, given the letter that was sent out to Lakewood parents urging them not to send their children. And it is exceedingly painful to hear that people masquerading as the event organizers have been making robocalls falsely suggesting that Chabad messaging will be at play here, when nothing could be farther from the truth.
The goal behind this event was very simple. In keeping with the time-honored tradition of celebrating Lag B’omer, why not create a program that all community children could enjoy, one that balances Torah with fun, while holding strong to the values and standards that define who we are? It is a sad day in Lakewood when there are those who are intentionally seeking to be divisive and are deliberately misrepresenting facts to our revered roshei yeshiva during a period when we should be focusing on achdus and Rabbi Akiva’s timeless message of v’ahavta l’reyacha kamocha.
I can only hope that this mistake will be rectified on behalf of our children, who should have the opportunity to celebrate Lag B’Omer with Torah-true simcha.
Seems like someone is making an excuse for the roshei yeshiva.
Don’t the roshei yeshiva have an achrayos to do their due diligence before making a psak.
Seems like some people may have forgotten why the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died….
Amazingly beautiful letter.
Why can’t ALL of B’nei Yisrael be like this? THIS is who we are (ALL of us), not hatemongers who spew the trash that was seen in the comments of previous article.
As a previous student of Bais Yaakov and a proud Lubavitcher Shlucha, I’m terribly saddened by the hate amongst klal Yisroel.
May we each have the courage and koach to display true ahavas chinam!!
good thing the rabbonim of lakewood are on VIN
why dont you go them and discuss it with them…
Power struggle in Lakewood. When all else fails you can depend on a civil war in the kollel. Oy
With all due respect to R’ Weinstein rather than posting on social media, why don’t you speak with the R’Y shlita? If they were misled they will issue a retraction.
Very well written!
אשריך !
If Chabad weren’t involved this wouldn’t have been an issue. Maybe the Lakewooders are afraid of the competition.
I think the concern was about Chabad Hofatzah.
What a joke. There is no Anshei Knesset HaGedola or any other real authority here. Just a mess and conceit. Ooooh, we are the most learned and holy. feh.
כי מציון תצא תורה
We simply have no idea what we are doing anymore.
I agree with the author. Some one has given deceptive info to the busy rabbonim and based on the decietful info that they believed was reliable they made a posak din that is off.
Those who presented the info to the rabbonim should be exposed for what they are! Liars.
This story reminds me a while back when ________________________ went to the Satmar Rebbe Reb Aron to invite him to the Internet Asifa and was told that Chabad was not invited because…….. His response that he nor his Chasidim will not participate in such an event
Unfortunately from all segments of society we have the Jihad trying to control us.
The event was organized by Chabad, with the stealth very characteristic of Chabad of the last 40 years at least. They know that if they openly sponsor it, they won’t get anybody to attend. So they resorted to their usual mode of behavior – deceit.
An event like this should not be allowed to corrupt the children of erlich yeshivah families; the Roshei Yeshiva were absolutely correct warning people not to fall to Lubavitch duplicity.
Mr. or Rabbi Weinstein is now trying to walk it back. I have no doubt, with very good intention. It’s not going to work.
It is beyond disrespect to say that the Roshei Yeshiva were misled. They are no fools. Lubavitch has managed to pull this trick off in Boro Park and get mainstream mosdos to participate for the last several years. They are looking for legitimacy and are insidious missionaries. Anyone that wants to know what they are should spend an hour in 770, then you will agree that our children shouldn’t be missionized.
If these roshei yeshivah prohibited use of the stadium, it’s clear that they intended the parking lot as well. We are Torah Jews. We seek and follow piskei halacha. This situation sounds like a deliberate attempt to circumvent the derech Torah in a community that lives by such a derech.
To take out one point from what you are saying in a different perspective, that these three roshey yeshiva are “baalei mikablei lashing horah” and they did not do their own DD before deciding based on what ever reasons they did to ban the children that go to their mosdos from going to this event. I THINK THAT you need to rethink your article..
how is this any different that making excuses for the missionary in French Hill? Chabad is sending their missionaries to Lakewood and they are not welcome.
Why doesn’t Lubavitch hold this event in another community, where the rabbanim don’t have a formal prohibitive policy?
organized jointly by several local Chabads
R Shach ZT”L held they can’t join with chabad. He appointed the rosh yeshivas. Not my place to say either way but thats where they are coming from. He is their rebbe.
To be clear I am not agreeing nor disagreeing. I am merely stating a fact. This is true even if I am a lubvitchar chasid. (Skver doesn’t allow breslov either.)
Dear Mr.Weinstein,
Whatever the case is you are wrong in coming out on a public forum as VIN.
If you seriously mean it than go direct to the Roshei Yeshivos and complain to them not here.
No child is coming for a puppet show or a raffle. This was clearly a badly disguised concert, and it should be stopped.
I don’t know who you are, I never met you in Lakewood, but the Roshei Yeshiva know exactly what is going on over here. The Menahalim of the Mosdos don’t want this at all, and they are the ones fighting it.
The local Chabads are not at the forefront of Chinuch in Lakewood, they do not understand how we do things, and they are not supposed to understand. People have no business interfering into the chinuch systems that they don’t understand or have a responsibility for.
Especially when they do it in a sneaky way, without disclosing who they are and why they are doing it.
I think your a sick bored individual