Managing Director Rabbi Yaakov Menken appeared on several outlets to discuss the NY Times hit piece against Hasidic education, but what the Washington Post picked up was an afterthought.
On Real America’s Voice, Rabbi Menken explained the absurdity of not including Hasidim at the White House “United We Stand” Summit against hate. Hasidim are the most frequent targets, so their absence was clearly yet another sign that they are simply not taken seriously. This was also demonstrated by the New York Times, which attacked Hasidic education with cherry-picked interviews intended to create a distorted picture.
In discussion with OAN, Rabbi Menken dove deeper into the “critique” of Hasidic schools, providing the perspective of one who has studied those same texts.
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And in a long-form podcast interview with Fox News Contributor Sara Carter, Rabbi Menken dove into the issue of anti-Semitism more broadly.
Yet despite the serious interviews, what The Washington Post picked up was simply defense of a friend, who had called out the mockery of Judaism contained in a “Jewish” event celebrating “intentional” eating on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, when eating is forbidden. Responding to one who chastised the friend, Rabbi Menken tweeted that “when one celebrates ‘intentional’ eating with healthy people, specifically on Yom Kippur, it is not beautiful, it’s a mockery.” Although not intended as a profound remark, it earned CJV the most prominent media mention of the week.