YANKEE DOODLE JEW

The anniversary we mark this Friday,July 4th may be illustrative to us devoted UOJers. For when in the course of Jewish events, it becomes sadly necessary for one group of Jews to dissolve the bands they have with other similar groups, the previously most effective shown successful way to do this is not only by harping on the corrupt ,lunatic and decayed current state of events but also by setting forth that we at UOJ’s Party of Change (to be au current) hold these truths to be self evident:

All people-including Orthodox Jewish kids-are endowed by their Creator with the right to:

(a) parents who assume the duty to give each child quality individual attention and love them on an "as-is" basis;

(b) sufficient guidance and education to be able to earn a self-respecting livelihood without requiring handouts, government assistance programs, welfare etc. or desperate ads in periodicals(usually featuring geniuses- way too smart to buy life-insurance);

(c) sufficient guidance and education to know how to be presentable, well-groomed and neat- looking when amongst the general public and how to make themselves well understood in the local dialect (such as English,for example);and

(d) marry the person of their-not their parent’s- choice-at an age that they-not anyone else -feel ready.

Futhermore, we would suggest as a founding charter for the UOJ Party of Change that the following principles be established as a bill of rights (some are just rehashed concepts from earlier blogs just restated more as a fundamental guideline than as one of a long list of a litany of criticisms):

Principals,teachers or Rabbonim who engage in ,cover-up or condone in any form sexually predatory behavior or any behavior involving child molesting will be publicly identified and in all cases reported to the governing authorities in question;

We will judge our fellow co-religionists by the content of their character and not by the color of their clothes; Goy bashing is completely inappropriate. Some Goyim are good and some are not and ,believe it are not, the same is true for most nationalities ,including ours. Harping on old debates with Reform and Conservative Jews is a waste of time, and counterproductive. Bickering with modern orthodox Jews, and disrespecting their leaders, is foolish.

D’ina D’malchusa D’ina applies unequivocally to the United States and the Israeli government and stealing from Goyim, cheating on taxes, mortgage fraud, nursing home fraud and any other form of "g’neavius daas" is a Chilul Hashem. Major violators should be reported to the authorities. Chilul Hashem is the greatest public sin, even worse than excessive Loshon Hora or davening without a black hat.

Kollel is a waste of time and money for many participants, and drains limited resources from k-12 chinuch. Those who,nonetheless, choose, chinuch as a career, need to also get training in the field of education. In no institution of any worth should chinuch jobs be handed out on the basis of nepotism. Excessive Torah learning, prayer and simcha participation at the cost of earning a livelihood is physically and spiritually unhealthy.

Insistence on excessive modesty for women and men, and separation of the sexes, is unhealthy, and brings mockery to Judaism; Bans are foolish, are disregarded in any event, and breed disrespect for halacha and rabbis. Rabbonim who do not practice what they preach or have the need to ban everything that moves should be banned.

Zionism is neither good or bad. Some Zionists may be anti-religious ;however, we all know that if enough religious Jews moved to Israel (of the army serving kind) everything about that country religiously would change.

Non-acceptance of modern technology, such as the internet, is not smart. All modern devices can be used either for useful or for negative purposes. Blanket bans are intended only for those unable (see IQ below 80) to discern the difference and such bans only bring a mockery to Judaism.

Much of what was raised here has already covered by previous posts. My objective today was not to state beliefs I think most of us all agree upon but rather to impress upon us all to "change" the focus of this Blog from "what is wrong....." which is easy to identfy to"enough is enough". We need to focus more on how to positively rethink all these issues and most of all how to implement major "changes"of leadership. It is time to put that all the non-gedolim, fakers and make- believe Rebbes out of business and let them find a way to make an honest buck.

It is time for all Orthodox Jews to come into and become productive members of the 21st century. It is time for the non-exceptional members of the Kollels in both America and Israel to move on and be productive members of society. We need more focus in this arena on ideas and solutions etc. We all know what is wrong. It is an ambitious project; maybe too ambitious. But, try and remember what happened when just 13 people in one room in Philadelphia 232 years ago signed one simple piece of paper saying "enough is enough".