Just a random side point. The quote in the excellent book The Big Short about Steve Eisman, the founder of Footsteps, is that ‘He couldn’t even give his money away without starting a fight’. Unfortunately, the worst part about this organisation is that it doesn’t just fulfil its stated aims to ‘help’ people who have left the community, it aims to actively persuade vulnerable people to leave the kehilla. It’s UK counterpart is just as bad, as it focuses heavily on hitting back at the community it’s left, causing problems with regards to religious schools, kashrus and chinuch, all matters that are particularly volatile right now in this country anyway. There were several articles in a major newspaper several weeks ago where one particular young OTD bochur gave an interview in which he basically slandered the entire community, with charges that lacked any semblance to reality. The paper in question repeated all his accusations as if they were gospel, refused to listen to counterarguments, an supported his statements with comments from a female Reform ‘rabbi’ that were too completely false. The angle they took was education, but they used it to tar the entire community with a particularly thick brush. A counterpoint organisation would have a very difficult job getting the necessary publicity to counter these accusations, but it woul be a very useful resource for the frum kehilla.
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