See Something Say Something

Countries around the world have ways to report activities or packages that one might even just suspect of being harmful and if you know it is harmful, it must definitely be reported.

In England you can see signs like this one

In Israel you can see scenes like these

Even in America you can see signs like this one in Washington, DC

At a nuclear facilities there are signs like this

And in NYC, after 9/11 you can see signs like this

Everywhere in the world, parents tell their children to watch out for strangers and suspicious activities. Adults report all suspicious and criminal activities to the authorities.

Unless you are an ORTHODOX Jews and the impropriety involves other Jews or Synagogues. Look at the news today and read about all of the deeds that were hidden for years and communities falling apart because nothing was said. Even their Rabbis, their spiritual leaders, preached for silence.

This blog is asking for Teaneck residents, Jew and Non-Jew, to stand up to Etz Chaim. Say something to Rabbi Feldman and the RCBC about the Torat/Toras fraud, the filing for the family room, nasty treatment of the neighbors (Jew and Non-Jew alike) and frivilous lawsuit against Teaneck taxpayers.

Rabbi Feldman is being PAID for his silence

The friends of Etz Chaim/Ohr Saadya will never admit wrongdoing. Be brave and be strong and tell your friends that they need to drop the lawsuit and approach the BOA through proper channels like every other synagogue in Teaneck.

It time to SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING in Teaneck. ITs time for Jews not to be silent at injustices, but vocal to their leaders. Make Etz Chaim/Ohr Saadya follow the same rules as every other synagogue, church, mosque and non profit business in Teaneck.

Just because a Rabbi is cool and learned and is a man of the cloth, doesn't make him infallible.

New Beginnings

A special Tisha B'Av Drusha from my brother

Rabbi Zitzinheimer MacDougal on the laws of Tisha B' Av

Rabbeisai (Holy Rabbis) Tesha Bav is a special time where all the yiddishe kinder (Jewish people) take the time to actually sit during a weekday. No running, jumping, hopping, skipping, rolling or dancing for Hashem's holy children. In a technically advanced age this is a big deal for anyone not just all the yiddishe kinder. Tomorrow night is a very holy night for sitting and listening to Eicha the holy book that is read on Tesha Bav.

Not only must we sit but we must sit on the floor or on small stools or technologically advanced mini beach chairs. The beach is assur (not permissible) to go to and stare at the scantily clad women without schvim kleids, the chairs are ok to use in Shul, unless of course there is a scantily clad woman on the chair. That is Assur of the highest degree, but the nekeivas (women) are nice to look at and really helps the concentration. 

One may not wear leather shoes because its super comfortable and a sign of being rich when we are supposed to be like a poor person mourning and feeling sad. Rabbosai you may wear the Tretorn Skymra SL Lace-Up Canvas Sneaker because it is made of canvas not leather. You can perform a huge hiddur mitzveh (enhancement) for Tesha Bav and buy it on amazon for $750.

Drinking and eating is not permitted on the holy tzoim (fast) yum tuv (holiday) of Tesha Bav unless you are suffering from pavlovian urges and really get hungry for a delectable hot kiddush and mashke when you drive by or get to shul. I posskin that you follow the Hydra Rav and use vitamin suppositories to nourish to body like a hydra.

You may not wash your hantelach (hands) past your knuckles, but roiv (most) people don't seem to wash them  so this halucheh (law) is one you don't have to remember anyway.

For the best Tesha Bav experience, I recommend a Shul with a women's section, with lots of mashke (booze) and loose moral standards with fraud and gambling, a Ninve (Non Jewish city that Jonah got to repent after the whale vomited him up) if you will like the one at the residence of the brilliant Bekiyus (proficiency) of the Rav of YU at 554 Queen Anne Rd.

But I digress. I would like to share something I read on Tesha Bav that is fitting for our times and Shluffenheimer's message to the sefardim (spanish/porteguese/middle eastern Jews) at Ohr Saadya. It is from the ou.org and it has shaychis (appropriateness) to the matzav (situation) in Teaneck with Ohr Saadya today.

The prophet Jeremiah spent years warning his people that they repent and stop insisting that the Temple would protect them. To his chagrin, the Jews honored the Temple more in spectacle than in spirit.

But, the Jews ignored him, even imprisoned him, and to his unbearable agony, he was proven right. The Temple was destroyed, the people ravaged, the nation dispersed and he was the witness.

The book of Eichah is timeless. Although it was composed in the wake of the end of the first Temple era, the Sages of the Midrash find it full of allusions to the destruction of the second Temple, over 500 years later. This is not at all an anachronism, because Jewish history is a continuum. Just as we live by the torah that was given over 33 centuries ago, so we are molded by the experiences of our forbears and the historical epochs they created.

Jeremiah weeps and we weep with him, because – if we are thoughtful and perceptive – we can see all of Jewish history in the dirges of Eichah. This is the challenge of Tisha B’av. Can we realize that this is not merely a day of tears, but of challenge and hope?

The book of Eichah calls Tisha B’av "a day of Jewish rendezvous with G-d" and we don’t recite Tachanun because it has elements of a festival.

Rendezvous with G-d? Festival? On a day of destruction and suffering? Yes, because Tisha B’av proves that G-d is not indifferent to Jewish conduct. We matter to him. And since we do, we know that He awaits our repentance and that there will be a third Temple, an eternal one.

The Sages say that the Messiah will be born on Tisha B’av. Let us read Eichah with the prayerful hope that he has already been born and that this day next year will be a day of joy.

\

OY! Alla Da Yiddisher Kinder should know that Shluffenheimer is like the prophet Jeremiah in that he weeps and cries and lives through the scorn and deridation of the Jewish people of Etz Chaim and Ohr Saadya as they ignore his lessons and pleas for repentance for their actions that affect all the yiddishe kinder. 


Hashem watches and judges the actions of am Yisroel (the Jewish people) and the actions of these Ohr Saadya and Robert Erlich and Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman and Zalman Levine and Akiva Shapiro and Rachelle Mandelbaum are causing negativity towards Jews and a huge chillul (embarrassment towards) Hashem and towards the yiddishe kinder of Teaneck. 


Rabbi Feldman's disciples who comment on this holy blog with their foul language embody all the negative traits of the Ninve at 554 Queen Anne Rd. 

Rabbosai there is hope in these troubled times.


I use the heilige (holy) term Ninve because just like the inhabitants of Ninve repented for their evil ways there is hope for the future of all the yiddishe kinder and the sefardim at Ohr Saadya that they will repent and return to the fold of the tzibbur (the community) of Teaneck.

As we say in Eicha:
Hashivenu Hashem Eilecha VenaShuva - Chadesh Yameinu KeKedem

Bring us back to you Hashem, and we shall return, renew our days as of old

Drop the lawsuit heilige neshama (holy soul) Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, Robert Erlich and Akiva Shapiro and approach the Board of Adjustment with love and respect and don't forget 
אנחנו חייבים לבצע את חוקי המדינה בה אנו נמצאים.


While we are in golus (exile) we must follow the laws of the country we are in and Ohr Saadya should file for everything they want for their family room in the BOA of Teaneck, the way that Hashem wants them to.




Have a good shabbos and a meaningful fast,


Rabbi Zitzinheimer MacDougal

Free High Holiday Tickets At The Jewish Center

Sadly, this was lost and buried in the previous posting:

Do you need High Holiday Tickets?

Free Synagogue High Holiday Tickets

at the JEWISH CENTER OF TEANECK

to new members of the community

(those who have lived in the area for two years or less).

70 Sterling Place

We all know there is something very special about the High Holidays. 

It’s a time when all Jews want to connect to the community…

and EZ Key will help you do just that with this exciting offer of free High Holidays tickets 

for at the Jewish Center of Teaneck in your area.

For the High Holidays 2012, synagogues in the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey area 

are opening their doors to new members of the community* and offering them High Holiday tickets   

(those who have lived in the area for two years or less), as a way of saying “Welcome.”

To participate in this one-time offer per individual/family, click here: request free tickets  

and let us welcome you with free tickets to celebrate the holidays at the synagogue.

THE JEWISH CENTER OF TEANECK
IS THE ONLY 
PARTICIPATING
ORTHODOX SYNAGOGUE 
IN THE ENTIRE BERGEN COUNTY!


Tell a friend!!!!!

Offer ends September 7, 2012



* Please note:  This offer is valid for family members residing at the same address (parents and children up to age 25).  Children age 25 or older may apply for their own EZ Key tickets.  Every effort will be made to accommodate your request for High Holiday tickets and to honor your synagogue preference.  However, we cannot guarantee availability.

Something Kosher Is Happening At The Center

Taking a break in the action to bring an important report from 
The ORTHODOX Jewish Center of Teaneck.

Board Bits: A Report on the June 6 Center Board Meeting
A discussion took place about the possibility of the Jewish Center joining the Orthodox Union (OU).
Questions were raised as to whether the benefi ts of membership would outweigh the costs.
David Schwartz discussed the advantages of joining:
The OU can provide many services to “new growth synagogues,”
including mission statements, strategic planning, mentoring, growing membership,
program ideas and execution, youth department, Shabbatonim, committees,
support groups, fundraising and budgeting, promotion, guidance in office management,
activism, and public policy.

They have a formula for determining dues based on membership,
but they have said they will work with us,
and money will not be an deterrent to our joining.

A motion was made and seconded that the Jewish Center join the OU;
the motion passed.

MacDougal's Take: 
We have never allied with any organization since the beginning of the Center's existence and stayed independent of the Conservative movement. In order to become and mainstream synagogue acceptable to all walks of Orthodoxy, now is the right time to join the OU. The Orthodox Union is an organization that is open to all different types of Jews, including those becoming more and more affiliated with Orthodoxy. This is the right move at the right time. Kudos Rabbi Lawrence Zierler and the religious committee on a job well done.

Free High Holiday Tickets at the Jewish Center 
Free High Holiday Tickets at the Jewish Center to New Members of the Community
Who Have Lived In The Area For Two Years Or Less
Contact the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey For More Information Click on the link…
FREE HIGH HOLIDAY TICKETS

Tell a friend!!!!!



This posting has been certified Kosher

Classic Musings #1: Paradise Lost

The Classic Musings series was created to repost older musings that are relevant today. Its especially helpful for those who have not been following the blog from the beginning.

A history lesson that was originally posted March 18, 2010. Everything you ever wanted to know about the origin of Ohr Saadya/Etz Chaim/ToraS Chesed/Torat Chesed is in this posting.


Once upon a time, Rabbi Daniel Feldman and his minyan were victims of slavery in the bondage of the Jewish Center of Teaneck. Rabbi Feldman couldn't handle the edicts of the spiritual ruler of the JCT, Pharoh Zierler. His 3Cs were mightier than 10 plagues and so Rabbi Feldman wrote a letter severing the relationship of the Jewish Center and the Orthodox members of his minyan. The letter was read at a Board Meeting and in doing so, he sacrificed the goodwill that was left between the Board of the Jewish Center and the Mechitza Minyan members of Merkaz L'Torah that would have stayed behind. He led his congregants out of the bondage of slavery in the Jewish Center of Teaneck and to the promised land of self determination. Pharoh Zierler did not chase after the Center members that left. Que Sera Sera. Pharoh Zierler had his own plans for the future of Orthodoxy at the Jewish Center of Teaneck.

Rabbi Feldman, and his group of Orthodox that left the Center with him, wandered from house to house in the wilderness until they set up temporary camp in CareOne. There were a few weeks of calm and stability. Rabbi Feldman set up a Board that he was to lean on for guidance and advice, but they were not taken seriously. His advisors, who guided Rabbi Daniel Feldman to remove his minyan from the Jewish Center, were still in charge and a rift began to form. The Original Mechitza Minyan members who trailblazed the way for the Orthodox community to feel comfortable at the Jewish Center of Teaneck were quickly relegated to the background and the amazing group of people that came together in such a short period of time moved to the forefront.

The group was named Torat Chesed, Torah of Kindness, and were incorporated, in May 2007, using the names of Original Mechitza Minyan members who did not approve the usage of their names on the documents of incorporation. There was talk of the group merging with The Teaneck Shul, a prayer group located near Arzei Darom, a prayer group that was allegedly begun to help their friend with his courtcase. There was talk of getting Rabbi Feldman paid, buying a house on Chadwick, being a satellite for the Teaneck Mikvah and other issues to distract the Original Mechitza Minyan members. Very soon there were activities attempting to get the two groups, the Teaneck Shul and Torat Chesed, to get to know each other, to possibly merge.

Finally, everything came to a head when Rabbi Daniel Feldman took a job with the Teaneck Shul, complete with salary and 554 Queen Anne Rd, and left the Original Mechitzah Minyan members in the wilderness of CareOne. All of his new friends left with him. To add insult to injury, he designated CareOne as a sattelite minyan for his Congregants to pray there on Sundays and Legal Holidays. His new Congregation incorporated in September 2007 as 554 Queen Anne, Inc. DBA: Etz Chaim of Teaneck.

While all of this was going on, from May to September 2007, Torat Chesed collected donations and dues for membership. Checks were being made to Torat Chesed and being cashed in the Torat Chesed bank account. In or about July, there was a change of address where donations and dues were to be sent and there was a request for checks to be made out to ToraS Chesed instead of ToraT Chesed. Monies that were earmarked checks written out for ToraT Chesed, were being deposited in a ToraS Chesed bank account. What was the need for a second bank account? Inquiries were made as to why there was a change and they were greated with a flippant attitude. Some people were told that some people say Tora"t" and some say Tora"s". Its just a matter of what pronunciation you were brought up with. Some inquiries were met with extreme venom.

There was to be no land of Milk and Honey, no giant grapes or land for the hapless Orthodox people that didn't follow Rabbi Feldman to the Promised Land, to the land of strong Cedar trees in the South, on the Path of Peace near the House of Aaron. Rabbi Feldman did what was best for himself and his family, in the short term, while harming his reputation and shirking his duties as the leader of all of his people. He tried to keep the peace by silencing the voices opposed to the merger and abandoning them in CareOne.

Those that were left behind were also defrauded by Rabbi Feldman's Minyan, 554 Queen Anne Rd, Inc DBA: Etz Chaim of Teaneck. It is unclear if Rabbi Feldman was personally involved with any of the shady dealings of his minyan's and now synagogue's leadership and Management Team.

ToraS Chesed is a corporation created in early July 2007 by the same person who incorporated ToraT Chesed. The names listed on the Documents of Incorporation of ToraS Chesed are same as 554 Queen Anne, Inc. From early July 2007-September ToraT Chesed, Inc. and ToraS Chesed, Inc. existed to service the same exact minyan.

The existence of ToraS Chesed, Inc. was kept secret from the Original Mechitza Minyan members. The ToraT Chesed checks were being deposited in the ToraS Chesed corporate bank account. ToraT Chesed's bank account's passbook began to collect dust from non-use.

Donors and members who wrote checks to ToraT were asked to sign a release absolving ToraS Chesed of any liability. Liability? What was/is 554 Queen Anne,Inc. DBA: Etz Chaim of Teaneck afraid of? ToraT Chesed and ToraS Chesed monies were one and the same! Right? ToraT Chesed already existed to represent Rabbi Daniel Feldman and all of his Congregants praying in CareOne. What was/is ToraS Chesed, Inc. and who did/does it represent? What is it's purpose?

ToraS Chesed, Inc. was created to collect money for Etz Chaim's future at 554 Queen Anne Rd. They knew that the ToraT Chesed members not following Rabbi Feldman to Etz Chaim would stop paying dues and donating money once they closed on 554 Queen Anne Rd. Its been alleged that they closed on 554 as ToraS Chesed, Inc. They tried to cover themselves by trying to get the ToraT Chesed donors and dues payers to sign a waiver absolving ToraS Chesed, Inc.of any liability and that they will not take any legal action against ToraS Chesed, Inc. After a ton of pressure, ToraS Chesed, Inc. became the Etz Chaim of Teaneck that we know and love.

Etz Chaim wants the Board of Adjustments to forget their history and their shady past. But as the BOA and the neighbors found out very quickly The Song Remains The Same.

It is upon us, this time of year, to remember and retell all that has befallen our old dear friends of the, now defunct, Mechitza Minyan. Please come home to the Jewish Center of Teaneck, your home until Moshiach comes.

The Trial

After the BOA decision,
the neighbors were happy,
Robert Erlich told the papers he was happy,
Rabbi Daniel Feldman told the papers he was relieved
and Etz Chaim's lawyer said
he was happy with the balance the BOA made
between religious freedom and respecting the neighbors.


All was quiet and dandy.


Enter Akiva ”I need to enhance my resume” Shapiro.


He pushed for a trial instead of applying to the township for a sign and going to BOA to appeal specific issues.


There are systems in place in all-inclusive Teaneck
to accommodate synagogues and mosques and churches.
All you need to do is follow them.
Instead, overtaxed Teaneck residents will be footing the bill,
so Akiva Shapiro can get trial experience.


If Akiva Shapiro,
member of Ohr Saadya and dinner honoree,
didn't need this trial on his 2 1/2 year old resume,
would Ohr Saadya still be going to trial?