1
. I didn’t attack Mr. Storobin. I simply questioned why Hamodia would publish false information, now confirmed by Storobin’s adviser, that Storobin is frum.
2. With respect, Mr. Hayon is wrong. It DOES make a difference why Storobin went to shul and changed his name. In fact, Hayon admits that he did these for political reasons. That’s exactly why we hate politicians. How low can you go pretending to be frum solely to swing a few votes your way?
3. I agree that in most cases a person’s religious life should not be taken into account when deciding who to vote for. However, this case is different because Storobin was the one who brought it up – pretending to be frum just to gain a few votes. That speaks volumes about the kind of person that Storobin is.
4. I appreciate Mr. Hayon finally admitting that Fidler never called Storobin a Nazi.
5. My fifth point is the most damning. I spoke to a rov who signed on in support of Storobin. He told me that the rabbonim thought that Storobin was frum when they endorsed him. He was SHOCKED to learn that Storobin is michalal shabbos befarhesiya. This rov is now seriously considering withdrawing his endorsement of Storobin. So this lie that Storobin perpetuated is a very big deal and may undermine the validity of his rabbinical endorsements. In halacha we call this a mekach taos (mistaken arrangement) and, therefore, these endorsements are likely null and void.
Finally, I must take exception to Mr. Hayon’s laughable description of Storobin as a non-observant Orthodox Jews. There is no such concept in halacha. If Hayon instead claimed that Storobin was a baal tshuva, I would have bought that answer. But Hayon is not even claiming that. Hayon is saying that deep down inside of his heart Storobin thinks like a frum yid but hasn’t taken any steps to become frum. Sounds to me like a sad excuse for what is really going on: Storobin was cynically pretending to be frum to gain a few votes and thanks to YWN having the courage to publish my letter – Storobin is busted and running for cover.
Fool me once – shame on you, fool me twice – shame on me. Let’s not get fooled again by Storobin. I will remember on Election Day, March 20th, and hope that you do too.
A freilichin purim,
Yaakov Gold
NOTE: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of YWN.
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17 Responses
sounds like im stuck. either vote for a michalal shabbos befarhesiya or vote for someone that endorses same-gender marriage (which the rabunim said is asur to vote for him)
catch 22
Out of curiosity – who is yaakov gold? and what are his qualifications to be writing and commenting?
Moderators Note: Please read the last line in the article above “DO YOU HAVE AN OPINION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE POSTED ON YWN? SEND IT TO US FOR REVIEW.”
Yaakov, you still rock!!!
What IS observant? Cholov Yisroel, yoshon, tichel or hat vs sheitel, tzitzis out or even over ones shirt, tefilin d’Rabbeinu Tam, mayim achronim, washing negel vasser toch daled amos of ones bed? All of these are m’furash in Shulchan Aruch and many are the opinion of the majority of Rishonim, Achronim, and/or Poskim. So aren’t we ALL non-observant orthodox Jews? Keeping our observance within specific parameters and calling that orthodox, is no better than what the modern orthodox, conservative and reform Jews have done. They have all defined and limited their avodas HaShem to specific acts and beliefs. That is not the life of a Torah Jew. A Torah Jew learns and grows. He changes constantly. Give Dimity/Dovid a chance to do the same.
This back and forth begs the following question.
Was Storobin endorsed endorsed solely because he is (or they thought he was) an Orthodox Jew? I’m an Orthodox Jew, can I get the endorsement of all those Rabbonim who are thinking of moving away from Storobin?
Were any other qualifications considered in his endorsement?
I second RamatShilo’s question – who is Yakov Gold? It is true that, as noted by the moderator, anyone can submit an article or opinion for posting; however, I think some sort of description is warranted – particularly for someone posting with as common a name (or is it a pseudonym?) as “Yakov Gold”. Is Mr. Gold a Rav, political activist, or other “macher’ with an agenda, or just a community member with something to say? The credibility of the messanger affects the credibility of the messagge.
BTW, I know of others, generally from a non-Frum background and “on the way” but not yet fully observant, who refer to themselves as “non-practicing Orthodox”. It is acknowledged by those in the Kiruv movement that when one is coming from a background of nothing, it is too much to ask an individual to become totally Frum in one step. Is that a reason to denigrate those steps that the individual has already taken? The acknowledgement and recognition of true Frumkeit as the truth, and as the ideal to strive for, is why they define themselves as Orthodox, while their failure to reach this ideal (yet, hopefully) is why they are (at this point) non-practicing.
an Israeli Yid
Moderators Response: See the “Mailbag Section”. There are no credentials needed to write YWN your letter. Does the NY Times require your credentials to publish your letters?
Moderator- if you publish every article of every persons 2 cents the site will be full of rubbish… what qualifications does Mr.Gold have to be published? is he a rabbi? a politician? where was he educated? what are his credentials? I am not pro/no against what he had to say – but curious to whom he is and why you selected to publish his opinion.
Moderators Response: “if you publish every article of every persons 2 cents the site will be full of rubbish”…
As per the editorial board, they have not recieved ANY letters which were not published. Feel free to submit your rubbish for review.
Let’s cut to the chase. The issue is not whether anyone wears Tzitzis or dons Tefillin of Rabbeinu Tam.
Rav Belsky put it very succinctly. We have been supporting politicians who have destroyed all semblance of public morality in this country. It has been a Chilul Hashem.
Given a choice between a politician who has always been allied with the forces of Sodomy and who wants to continue with these efforts, versus a politician who openly declares his opposition to these efforts, the choice is clear.
All the rest is nothing more than Treif baloney.
And, remeber the old saying: “All that glitters, is not GOLD.”
WOW! WOW! WOW!
This is wild. If Storobin lied to our community’s rabbonim he must immediately apologize and withdraw from the race!
There is nothing wrong in electing someone who is none observant.. as long as he represents your needs.
I think the issue is that he lied and one does not know what his real political agenda is!
Frum or not, who cares???? These are the same fools that will vote for goysihe yiddin oysvorfs on the left like Chuck U Schumer!
We need the white house tapes.
What did he know, and when did he know it?
Moderator – in response to your comment on my posting, yes, the New York Times does demand that someone with an official or other position, writing in on an issue related to such position, specifically have that position noted – genrally just under the published letter (i.e., Mr. XYZ is the spokesman for the ABC campaign). The reason for this is to allow readers to assess a letter in light of such information – I may find his analysis interesting, but would not expect a Democratic activist to be unbiased in assessing the pros and cons of the Republican candidate.
When a letter is as full of spin as the one from “Mr. Gold” above, it truly does beg the question as to who he is and what is his motivation.
an Israeli Yid
I have been debating whether to write an OP ed for YWN readers. It just seems so foolish that people are even debating who to vote for. Does the Frum community want a guy that is pro-immorality so much that he voted for a non-binding measure Pro-Toeva. Lately I’ve been hearing the “anyone but Obama” slogan. Most people don’t care who is running against Obama, they just don’t want Obama. With Mr. Fidler so tight with the United Federation of Teachers, who is he kidding when he says he will fight for Yeshiva’s? Mr. Fidler fought against the closing of non productive schools. He is so tight with the UFT, that he thought is wasn’t such a big deal that the UFT PAID city council members to follow a UFT pre written script when they were to question the UFT. Do you remember when the City Council members extended their stay by voting them selves an extension? Well Mr. Fidler was one of those guys. I would rather stand behind Agudath Yisroel, and Mr Strobin then stand behind a career politician who has falseness seeping out on all sides of him.
Democrats focus on character assassination because that’s all they have. I think we are better served when we focus on the issues.
Mr. Gold, you seemed to have taken Hayon’s word and switched them around. “Even if David started going to shul and went through a name change to benefit his campaign.” The word’s “Even if” means that let us say that maybe that was the reason. Hayon never said he changed his name, or started to go to shul to benefit his campaign . You wrote “In fact, Hayon admits that he did these for political reasons.” really Hayon Never said that once.
second, David went to gateways and completed and leadership program. If he is going to Gateways, he must be on his way.
David Never lied to anyone. He never said himself he was frum, He even told someone who asked David straight out if he was frum.
abcd2 says:
March 4, 2012 at 10:24 am
I met david storobin Motzai shabbos. He was asked point blank if he was fully orthodox. He answered clearly that he tries to keep laws of kashrus and observe shabbos and belongs to a frum shule and tries to observe other mitzvos. I was very impressed as this was a very straight forward answer from a politician, and showed that he was not at all trying to fool people that he was 100% frum.
Also if David was pretending to be frum I think he would were a more mainstream Kippa. He told me he wears that kippa because he has always done so when he was in shul or at someone house for a shabbos meal.
David was never pretending to be frum. In the Soviet Union, if a boy was being called Dima/Dimitry and was a Jew, everybody (Jews) knew that his real name was David and to make his life easier the parents named him Dima. The same case with Natan Sharansky, who you might remember as Anatoly when some of you were demonstrating for his release fro prison. Thank you all for that, by the way.
David is a conservative guy, who does know some things about Judaism and certainly knows a lot about Jewish values. He is trying to learn more and he did go to that shul for some time before he even thought about running.
When he comes to an observant home for Shabbos or Yom tov, as the previous writer just said, he does wear a kippah.