Ridiculous letter sent by a CH supporter to R Shimon Winegarten

79 PRINCES PARK AVENUE

GOLDERS GREEN

LONDON NW11 0JS

Telephone and fax number: 0208455 5657

e-mail: oyb@seniors.org.uk

Rabbi S Winegarten

23 Sneath Avenue

Golders Green

London NW11 9AJ

21 November, ’13

Dear Rabbi Winegarten שליט"א

It is most upsetting that I have to bother you concerning the same business that I wrote to you about back in July.

On Sunday morning, some of the Mispallelim asked me why the Sidra and Haftorah sheets had not been sent out on Friday as usual. I asked Eric Brunner and he told me that he hadn’t received them from me (which I know to be not true). On further questioning, he then told me that “the Committee” (Martin Younger and Shmaya Stimler) had taken the decision to stop the Torah sheets from being sent out. I approached Martin Younger on Sunday evening and he told me that he and Shmaya Stimler had decided that “the Rov had to be supported” and that therefore these Torah sheets could no longer be sent out because I davvened “across the road.”I said that it was sad that because of this horrible Machlokkes, now even Torah sheets were being denied to people who really enjoyed them and learned from them and found them interesting. 

I reminded Martin Younger that even the Police, who had been trying their hardest

for the past year to pin something — anything — on Reb Chaim, had given up and dropped all charges. He seemed surprised to hear this, as if it was news to him. It’s hardly to be expected that the anti-Semitic BBC would report that Rabbi Halpern had been released from police bail as prominently as they had reported on the six o’clock news that he had been arrested (which was subsequently on the World News — what a Chillul HaShem!) but I did notice that Martin Younger did not seem to be at all relieved to hear that a fellow-Jew, a prominent Rabbi at that, had beenreleased from Police harassment. 

I said that if he, Martin Younger, really meant to “support the Rov” then he should see to it that the Rov himself is kept aloof from all this Machlokkes and Chillul HaShem rather than to invoke your name in perpetuating and spreading more strife and conflict in our community. I said that the Kehilloh is rent apart enough without people fuelling the Machlokkes further, that I found it difficult to believe that this action was taken with your consent, let alone your encouragement, that surely you yourself were above this ugly vendetta. When I tackled Shmaya Stimler on Tuesday morning about this and said I wondered whether this action was with your knowledge, he said yes, it was. I told him of your agreement in July that the sheets should go out but he said that nevertheless this is the decision of “the Committee.” I prefer to be charitable and say that he is mistaken and misguided in his eagerness to “support the Rov” and that this is not your wish. I beg you to please rein in your “Committee” that at last this sorry fight, like that of Korach and his crowd, can be allowed at last to sink into the ground. In my altercation with Martin Younger I also pointed out that by no means was I the only one who davvened at Reb Chaim’s and that there were quite a number of other people who davvened in our Beth Hamedrash and also “across the road.” I told him, as I wrote to you in July, that as far as I know it was a Kosher Minyan, that this kind of pressure by “the BLBH heavies” was quite unacceptable and that I wonder whether it is this coercion and pressure on ordinary people who don’t have the guts to stand up to them (but claiming instead that they  “don’t want to get involved”) rather than any true conviction that there has been any wrongdoing, that is the reason for people deserting Reb Chaim’s. I said that this kind of action is what is destroying our Kehilloh and that it’s time to let the hate die down.

You will probably have heard that ordinary Baalei Battim are now quoting you as their “Daas Torah,” that they say that they have a “Psak Din” from you that they should not patronize those people who davven at Reb Chaim’s because by davvening at Reb Chaim’s, “they are supporting a Rohshoh.” So now, in your name, it’s alright to harm a fellow-Jew’s Parnossoh because he davvens in a particular Beis Medrash. That is what this Machlokkes has done: unlearned and

ignorant little people now dare to openly call a venerable Talmid Chochom and district Rov “a Rohshoh”! If Rabbonim have their differences, that’s one thing.

When Ammei Ha’aretz and Johnny-come-lately “Baalay Teshoovoh” dare to denigrate an Oved HaShem, a man who has done so much to bring warm Yiddishkeit and Chassidus into this area, when this happens, then I do think (as do many others, too) that it’s time for the Rabbonim themselves to call a halt to this destruction of our Kehilloh. Nothing — but nothing! — can be worth destroying the Yiddishkeit and the respect for Torah and Rabbonim of all the people — but especially the youngsters — in this whole district. But as I said in my previous letter to you, no-one has ever heard Reb Chaim say even a single word against all his detractors and haters: all the hatred and denigration is from the one direction. And on top of it all, there has not been even a shred of real evidence or credible testimony, not a single true witness (despite weekly posters and advertisements openly pleading for anybody to come forward with any kind of evidence at all!) of any wrongdoing, only innuendo and the “it’s better you don’t ask” kind of slandermongering.

Rabbi Winegarten, as the senior Rov in this district, you could call a halt to the open hatred that is spreading and destroying our Kehilloh. You are also aware that the knowledge of this Machlokkes has spread over the whole world and is a terrible ongoing Chillul HaShem. Without a doubt, the instigators of this campaign against Reb Chaim never dreamed that it would explode into this monster. But now they blame Reb Chaim for the Chillul HaShem simply because he stubbornly refuses to lie down and die.

Rabbi Winegarten, the world will be thankful to you if you can rise above all this dirt and hatred. Let there be peace. I’m afraid that if this Machlokkes is not ended, it will smoulder and burn until instead of Yidden being united by our love for each other we will be united as victims of a terrible hatred by others for us all.

When all is said and done (and even when all is implied and expanded and exaggerated) in the final analysis, anything that anyone has done is nowhere near as great an Avayroh as full-blown Messiroh or of inciting hatred in Yidden so that they should try to spoil other Yidden’s Parnossoh. But that is what is happening and now “the Committee” of Baalei Battim of the Bridge Lane Beth Hamedrash have decided, in their wisdom, to stop Torah sheets from being sent out because they think that in this way they are “supporting the Rov.” Please, Rabbi Winegarten, tell them that this is not what you want. Please tell Eric that he should resume sending out these Sidra and Haftorah sheets (incidentally, I don’t care for any acknowledgement and the sheets can go out anonymously for all I care) and that peace should be given a chance to heal our Kehilloh. In this connexion, I attach to this letter the Dinnim sheets and sundry articles and a story for Channukah for your approval to be sent out with the Sidra and Haftorah sheets as till now. As I said in my letter to you in July, surely the Dinnim sheets and Sidra and Haftorah sheets should be judged on their merits, not on where I davven and that the dissemination of Torah should be allowed to rise above all this tragic business.

In conclusion, I ask, with the greatest possible respect, that you please take the lead in starting the healing process instead of allowing others to use your name to promote hatred, strife and division. Please tell “the Committee” that you give your approval to the continued distribution of these Torah sheets to the members of our Beth Hamedrash and kindly inform Eric Brunner of your approval.

Yours respectfully,

O Y Baddiel

// Enclosures