spot-the-antisemitism:
spot-the-antisemitism:
All attempts to discredit chabad are actually attempts to get Jews to stop practicing because for many it the only option. It’s like no one has valid critisism anymore just bigotry
scratch a ‘hey Chabad are heretics cause they think their dead leader is the messiah and have too many kids’ person and a ‘ I crave to culturally genocide every jew’ fucker bleeds
oh and the Bondi synagogue was Chabad so this person is trying to subtly victim blame them by the timing of this post
I’m always right :))))
Hi, person who grew up in a Chabad community here: what the actual fuck. I read through the full post and its just misinformation after misinformation (not that we should have expected anything else, theres a reason the poster is on my blocklist)
Chabad is…a subset of Orthodox Judiasm with an outreach focus. Thats about it really.
Im going to break down some of their points. I will be using mostly circumstantial evidence, which is more academically integral that what evidence they have provided (none).
“Chabad is racist”: racism within the Orthodox community isnt not an issue, but there is nothing in Chabad that I have experienced that gives me any reason to think this problem is any worse there than elsewhere. I will say I have seen the most nonwhite converts and Beta Israel Jews at Chabads, but I recognize my sample size is small on both of those. “This is well documented” is not a source.
“Chabad beleives in Greater Israel” so what does this even mean. Most Chabadniks I have met are not particularly political, especially on the Israel front. Since you know a lot of the whole outreach thing is “lets go to where the Jewish communities are tiny and poorly resourced”, so the issue comes up a lot less, and when it does, less on a political front and more on a sociocultural recognition that the whole area is our homeland and we should be able to have access to all of it because it has our holy sites (which I think is a very reasonable perspecitve to have, from a lot of different angles). On average I would say your average Chabadnik leans slightly less zionist (by most reasonable to apply metrics, as well as the standardly applied unreasonable to apply ones) than your average modox Jew. I will also say Yom Yerushalaim and Yom Haatzmaut were not really celebrated at the Chabad shul I went to. Now, are there some political extremists within the movement? Almost certainly. I dont deny that. But theyre pretty rare in my experience so painting the full community by that brush is dishonest
“Chabad takes over other synagogues” what the fuck are you talking about. The Chabad i grew up at was a block and a half away from a much larger Conservative congregation, which yes had some people pulled from there…for things like more robust high holiday programming and summer camps. That is what we in the business call “bolstering local communal infrastructure” and not “taking over”. The Chabad where my parents live is on the smaller side of the several nearby Orthodox Synagogues and is not growing nor trying to. The Chabad at my uni and the Hillel are across the street from each other and collaborate on everything. This is just nonsense. And if your town only has one Menorah and its Chabad, that isnt evidence of Chabad agents neutralizing all the other groups. Its because either there arent a lot of Jews where you are, so Chabad is the main infrastructure, or they dont feel comfortable displaying their religion, so only the people who love to be loud about their Jewishness (disproportionately Chabad) are doing so.
“Chabad doesnt belive non Jews have souls” so you know how non Jews read the Talmud, take a sentence out of context, and then use it to say why Jews are evil subhumans actually? This is what you are doing.
I have read Tanya. I cant claim to fully understand it, but I have read it. In it, it says that all humans have one or more souls (Nefesh Behamis, or animal soul) with Jews and the righteous among the nation having a Nefesh Elokis as well (divine soul). The Nefesh Behamis is in charge of a lot of things, including stuff like advanced cognition in humans, so it doesnt mean that goyim are dumb animalistic brutes. Now thats not to say the statement isnt “problematic,” but its more complex that the 5 seconds of thought you gave it, and proposed resolutions do exist and are discussed. Not to mention its inclusion in the text is as a STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK for understanding the human-divine interface, so literally this is discussing sources of divine energy transmission and not like which race is the best race. So Im open to hearing criticism on this part, but actually read and engage with the source material first, which is something that Etrog clearly has not done if they got something as factually wrong as the number of souls non-Jews are said to have and what the implications of that are.
“Chabadniks who beleive the Rebbe was Madhiach are commonplace” so Id estimate Ive met around 100 Chabadniks close enough to get a sense for who they think Mashiach is. I would say if it were commonplace Id have at least met at least one who thinks its the Rebbe, right? I havent. Every single one thinks Mashiach is yet to come. Now I know there are some who do think the Rebbe is Mashiach, but they are a fringe minority, and until you provide an actual source Etrog you dont have any solid ground to claim otherwise. And if that source is billboards in Baltimore or NYC then i have some news for you about people who shout the loudest and how representative they tend to be of the groups they claim to represent
Quoting in full for this one:
“Progressive Jews are taught to protect the Orthodox and are often taught that these Jewish supremacist/borderline un-Jewish beliefs aren’t actually true and are just antisemitic slander (check the comments of this post, or whatever Jumblrite screenshots this)”
now I didnt have the same upbringing as most progressive Jews, so I will not comment on factuality. But man, what a way to avoid having to face criticism! Just say if they disagree they prove my point of how brainwashed everyone but me is! Brilliant manipulation.
“Chabad do outreach bc of their Jewish supremacist beleifs” blatantly false. The reasons Ive heard fall under three general categories: to be a light unto the nations (which means we should be exemplary and proud of who we are and does not say anything about innate superiority), to connect our peers with their culture and religion (nothing to do with the outside world at all), and to bring Mashiach through the spread of chassidut and Jewish observance (the only one that could reasonably be considered problematic, but is still fairly tame, especially when you consider Jewish and more specifically Chabad ideas of Mashiach are NOT the Christian rapture but an entirely different concept which i dont feel like explaining right now but is generally much tamer)
Thats all i feel like doing for now, so now I will conclude with the following (this is mostly me being angry, please do not take it as a well thought out peice of rhetoric):
Etrog, you clearly claim to be quite the authority on Judaism. I mean, the Rabbis all cite sources for where they draw their conclusions from, but you dont need to! Well, if you are so knowledgeable about what is and isnt properly Jewish, I advise you to think of such a basic point of Judaism that it is in the 10 Utterances that Hashem gave to us at Har Sinai. Utterance number nine: Do not bear false testimony against your peer.
PS: again this is not to say Chabad should be free from criticism, just this is one of the worst, most blatantly misinformative, and confidently incorrect criticisms I have seen
