This posting in a discussion about Neshama Carlebach, her musical career and some issues I have with what I think is her lifestyle and spirituality. I know she is a figure in the public eye, the daughter of one of the most famous and most controversial rabbis of the last generation and a person who has a thriving career as a “superstar in the world in the Jewish music industry” as her website say
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This posting is about Neila Carlebach again, the widow or is it “ex-wife” of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. She too is a figure in the public eye and as such should be scrutinized as she teaches and tells her late husbands’ or ex-husband’s stories. First of all, she said on the now defunct, Carlebach Family website, that she teaches people on all levels of Judaism. There are different
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

At this point in time, I have reviewed quite a few books on Amazon by Chabad Lubavitch. I panned the whole thing. In fact, the only books I gave any good ratings to were one on Satmar and one about the Jewish Catalog. I think they are basically good works. It may seem strange to laud Satmar but for the most part, I see them as essentially insular and despite their internal proble
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I am grateful to you for providing this board and allowing me to take part in the discussions. I have had a lot to say over the years and this forum has been critical in my process of divulging the information I have about the Baal Teshuva movement and its impact on my life.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I was watching a cable TV show the other day at my friend’s house on cults. The show depicted Charles Manson, a devil-worshipping cult inducting a new member, Heaven’s Gate and Guyana among other cults. And as readers of this site know, I have had my own problems being victimized by Chabad and Ben Yishai. There were some commonalities in all of this. All of these cults had a charismatic
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One of the reasons that I wrote again about FFMWOC is that the organization may be going ballistic. Some time ago, they dispatched a team to go to Joel Osteen, a prominent TV preacher and the leader of the largest church in the USA (about 30K members and millions of TV viewers for his Sunday morning show), to learn the most modern and up to date techniques of evangelism. As a side note, O
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Saturday, June 21, 2008 When I was in Israel in ’95, I printed up business cards that advertised me as a Cultbuster and now, I post on this forum. I was angry at the Carlebach movement and felt that they needed to be exposed. Years ago, around the time I got married, my sister gave a television to me and I caught this show called Success N’ Life run by Robert Tilton. He claimed t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Essentiallly, the Orthodoxy has all kinds of programs to help out fellow Orthodox Jews. They have gemachs ("interest free Hebrew loans") ie gemillas Chasadim, you can be a professional scholar of the Torah and that is the Kolel fund. When the Conservative and Reform movements learn how to take care of eah other like this, then maybe they will be shielded from the outreach worker.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It seems to me that the Reform movement has the funds to start programs to send young Jews to Israel and it could be done in a the way that the travelers could be shielded from these so called "outreach workers".
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

When you come into Chabad, you are assigned a mashpiah or mentor. They tell you things like, “Everyone needs a friend. Someone you can talk to.. etc. Basically, they always want to know what’s on someone’s mind. I heard Rabbi Goldberg once say, that if a bachur (“student”) is out of line they go to him and say, “We know who you are, and we know who your friends are … ” Another th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Rebbetzin Ester Jungreis is a kiruv worker who has an organization named Hineni not to be confused with the Jews for Jesus organization of the same name. My contact with her was minimal and ended many years ago. She had a center in LI and I went there a few times. She kept saying, “We don’t’ want to kill anyone, but if we have to we will.” It made me feel uncomfortable and I left.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In ’95 when I went to Israel, I got a chance to see how well-coordinated the outreach workers are. There seemed to be several entry points for a person. Chabad has an outreach office on the Cardo. Jeff Seidel goes to the Kotel every Eruv Shabbat to assign visitors with appropriate hosts for Sabbath meals. And also, Heritage House serves as a youth hostel. Al of this is not done without g
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

You might ask why all of these things have happened to me. It’s a good question While I am not totally innocent of sin I am not really such a bad guy. My maternal grandfather was from Poland. The Poles beat him up quite frequently and it was a blessing in disguise because due to that, his family decided to leave Poland and come to America around 100 years ago. As such, they missed the Ho
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My first trip to Israel was on the summer of ’72 when my father sent me there as a Bar Mitzvah present. A lot of things happened and I remember it well. The American Zionist Youth Foundation ran the trip, which was a Conservative organization. The name of the tour was Israel Summer Happening. From what I remember I was in ISH 9 or 12. I think that Birthright Israel is a modern day outgrow
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One of the things that escapes me and I never discussed it with anyone is how to be proactive vs. reactive when it comes to these outreach workers. In other words, forewarned is forearmed. Years ago there was a Purim spoof of the Jewish Press called “The Not the Jewish Press,” which had an “ad” in the “Classified section” which said, “Are you afraid of your child’s growing involvement wi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was the youngest person to ever land a job working for the US government who was a nuclear physicist. From what I remember, he got the job at the age of 17. He became a BT and died very early at the age of 48. During his lifetime, he translated the Torah into English (The Living Torah – by the way, Sister Che, Chaya Adler Poretsky, at the Carlebach Shul, maintains that
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Meir Levine (Marty in English) was an old high school friend of mine who became an Orthodox Jew and I met up with him in Israel back in ’78 – ’79. We were both in the Beit Shean Valley. I was at a Kibbutz Hadati (Modern Orthodox kibbutz) specifically Shluchot. Meir was at a non-religious kibbutz, which was part of the Hashomer Hatzair (“Guardians of the City”) movement. I had tried unsuc
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Neshama Carlebach is Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s eldest daughter. She has a singing career and her website discusses how she was groomed to perform and teach following in her late father’s footsteps. The website says that she took lessons for performing since the time she was 5 years old. I know that originally she didn’t want a Jewish music career. And currently she is working on a recordi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One of the absolute most appalling things is a religious scam, which drags down the name of G-d and creates what they call in Judaism a chillul Hashem or a “desecration of G-d’s name.” These scams aim at a person’ wallet. I have seen this and was victimized by this several times. One Jewish High Holy day, Ben Yishai raised $70K for the holiday. Most temples would be really happy to have s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Several years ago, I was around the New Brunswick, NJ campus of Rutgers University off College Avenue. I saw a table staffed by a very pretty, young Orthodox girl who was evangelizing. Based on the way she was dressed she appeared to be Modern Orthodox. She didn’t wear a sheitel (“wig”), scarf, a tickle or a snood and she had long hair, which was permed. This happened during an event called Israe
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This posting will deal with marriage and topics covered by Shea Hecht and his father in their respective books. In his book Confessions of a Jewish Cultbuster Shea discusses how the Prophet Elijah broke “illegal marriages” apart at sword point. Shea Hecht would love to do nothing more than bring those days of yore back I take it. Luckily he can’t. Thanks to the One Above. Some o
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Now Rabbi Fried is another of these outreach workers I was associated with. In fact he saw a lot of potential in me and promoted me to Assistant Rabbi in the 8th St. Shul. I was also the music director there and I watched the Shul as the Narcotics Anonymous group met there. I gave lectures there and supervised people’s behavior. I also gave mussar or ethical feedback. Rabbi Fried is basi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The incident was circa '78 to '79, but it still holds water. One of the things that really annoys me is how many problems we Jews sometimes have and how little sympathy we get from the Orthodox establishment. After what I went through on LI, it became painfully obvious that the BT movement offered me little back up.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Years ago, I had a friend who went to Aish. The rabbis told one disgruntled student, "Look, this yeshiva turns out a product. You don't like the product? Just leave!"
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

When prominent members of large religious groups tell me that what they push in terms of rellgion is "just a good lie," then it appears to me that one should be very skittish to die in the name of any religion. True religion, vs cults - it's hard to sort out the truth from the lies sometimes In Judaism, the rabbis call this the Olam Sheker, or the "World of Lies."
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One of the movers and shakers in the Carlebach movement is Rabbi Joel (Yankele) Dinnerstein. I did some research about him and I also met him once when I was living in Perth Amboy some years ago. He told me “Man, you got me down!” I try to use my brain these days. He used to work for The Abraham Residence, which is a kosher homeless shelter. Later on he moved on and founded and now head
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

According to some legends Adam (the first man's) first wife was Lillth. She demanded equality with Adam and was cast out from the Garden of Eden. She became a demon. There was a legend in Mesopotamia that there was a female demon called Lillutu. All of this was absorbed into the fictional accounts in various extra-biblical works of the Jewish people.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I always used to watch horror and sci-fi movies. So what does this have to do with an Anticult site? Basically, a lot actually. Keep reading this posting. A friend of mine gave me the movie; I was a Teenage Werewolf starring Michael Landon. It was Landon’s first movie role. In the movie, a custodian for a high school who is from the Carpathian Mountains explains the werewolf lege
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thursday, May 08, 2008 Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov was the founder of Chasidism. He lived in Okupy, Europe some 300 years ago. The term Baal Shem Tov means, “Master of the Good Name” and refers to the so-called Shem Hamepheresh or “Ineffable Name of G-d” the 72-letter name that the High Priest used to say on Yom Kippur (“The Day of Atonement”) in the Holy of Holies. Israel
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In Judaism, outlawing polygamy was a relatively recent ruling. Years ago there was a rabbi (it was either Rabbenu Tam or Rabbenu Gershon) who had 2 wives. The wives fought and hurt the rabbi and he made the ruling that polygamy was assur (“forbidden”) among Ashkenazi Jews. In the modern State of Israel (Happy 60th Birthday by the way) a person can come into the State with up to 4 wives (
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"