I know what Rabbi Blau was trying to do. He’s Orthodox. he was trying to do a public event to publicize what Rabbi Aharon Feldman writes in his letter- you can have feelings and as long as you dont’ act on them, you’re still a frum Jew.
He failed spectacularly. Read the press coverage from jpost, Jewish star, and allthe blogs- what he ended up doing was giving the impression that’s it’s ok to be a practicing mishkav-zacharnik. And the entire crowd cheered these people on. It was a massive chilul Hashem, and it should have been done much more carefully. Having a practicing mishkav-zacharnik getting cheered on by the crowd accomplished exactly this. Someone should have made sure the guest list didn’t include this guy. Again, this just doesn’t happen in Touro. Rabbi Blau didn’t tell the entire crowd to cheer on a practicing mishkav-zacharnik. but they did, which says a lot about YU.
The defenders of the Beacon say they are just publishing things which are relevant to the average YU person instead of sweeping it under the carpet and pretending it’s not true. This is what I’ve seen on various Jewish news sites and blogs. The fact that they had this “hava amina”, and it’s well-supported by the anonymous interviewees in the Jewish news articles, makes the loud protests irrelevant. The fact that there are many on the student body who are accepting of these breaches makes the whole place a sakanah for a frum Jew.
Rav Hershel Shachter may be a tzaddik and a major talmid chochom, but if the price of hearing his shiur is YU then no thank you. Touro or Naaleh.