Understand where I am coming from: I am “Centrist Orthodox.” My writings and I unequivocally have done all I can to extirpate leftist-woke "Open Orthodoxy," its perversions of halakhah, and its corruptions of core Torah beliefs. (Google “dov fischer open orthodox” to gather some of my years of writing here and elsewhere for more details on that subject. See also this review on Arutz Sheva. ) On the other side of the divide, I have great respect for Haredi Judaism, but I do not fit in there for certain reasons obvious to my readers. In the briefest of words, I call myself “Smotrich Orthodox.” That ideology further presented itself when Naftali Bennett's Minister of Religion, Orthodox Matan Kahana, sought to open the Kotel to Reform and other heterodox desecrations and, further, to desecrate the uniform universal conversion standard binding religious Jews across the world by introducing changes that would have divided the Jewish people worse than the Kaplan crowd tries to do. See here and here . Literally, conversions in Israel no longer would have been accepted anywhere else in the Modern Orthodox or Haredi world. Thank G-d, by G-d’s grace, miracles unfolded. Kahana was forced to give up his ministry, only briefly, but new developments afterward kept him from getting it back. Mansour Abbas assured that Muslims would not cast Knesset votes on how Jews should practice conversion. And then, finally, the Bennett government fell, leaving just enough time for Bennett’s agreed-upon successor, Yair Lapid, to hand over Israeli maritime territory and natural gas fields to Hezbollah and appoint Herzi Halevi commander in chief. With that background, a few weeks ago I very enthusiastically endorsed the Eretz HaKodesh slate for the World Zionist Congress elections. Many were shocked: “But you are ‘Modern Orthodox’! You have been a member of the Rabbinical Council of America executive committee for six years, chaired an RCA committee, and served on many others. You were on the board of the RZA (Religious Zionists of America) a few years ago. You were ordained at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and have been a rav at Orthodox Union shuls and a Young Israel. Your personality and resume embody the Modern Orthodox slate. How can you endorse Eretz HaKodesh ?” I answered: “Because Eretz HaKodesh also supports a permanent Jewish sovereignty over Judea and Samaria but, unlike the Modern Orthodox, Eretz HaKodesh does not compromise on core principles. The Modern Orthodox do compromise. We all know that.” Well, as with all things among Jews, the disagreements have not ended. I am sure Readers’ Comments below will reflect the eternal arguments. “How can you call yourself ‘Smotrich Orthodox’? What about Ben-Gvir?” (Yes, I like him, too, but I have to pick someone for Number One.) “But the Haredim don’t serve in the IDF?” (The Eretz HaKodesh record of five years ago saw them redirect money to Judea and Samaria, and even force the Keren Kayemet — JNF — to observe shmittah in Yehuda and Shomron for the first time.) Mostly, Eretz HaKodesh do not allow the Reform and other heterodox and haters of religion to walk over them. By contrast, the Modern Orthodox start with the same excellent position but sometimes compromise on core principles. (There will also be the de rigueur comments below attacking me for having contracted interstitial lung disease and having undergone a lung transplant in California, where a team of 12 medical experts have watched over me these past three years, by Chasdei Hashem (G-d’s grace), so I can continue to write and anger them.) No sooner had I exchanged these views with my good personal friends in the Modern Orthodox camp — and they are good friends over decades, except for one guy who hates me (can’t be loved by everyone) — then my rabbinic alma mater, Yeshiva University, announced the most disgraceful and devastating compromise on core principles I ever have seen out of “Modern Orthodoxy.” Yeshiva University officially just announced that they are formally recognizing an LGBTQ club. “L” stands for “Lesbian.” “G” stands for “Gay,” which is the woke term for “Homosexual Male.” “B” stands for “Bisexual.” “T” stands for — Wait a second, let’s go back to “B.” The woke argument for recognizing homosexuality is that the persons so affected are born that way. They cannot help it, and they cannot be consigned to a life without manifesting love. For the purposes of this discussion, I choose not to engage in that debate. That can wait for another day. My focus here: On what conceivable basis can Yeshiva University recognize Bisexuality — the letter “B” in “LGBTQ” — the desire to proceed along either or both lanes, whenever circumstances offer? If a person is oriented with a built-in mechanism that satisfies a normal inclination to love a person of the opposite gender, just as halakha (Jewish law) prescribes, by what metric can Yeshiva University say that, for Bisexuals, it also is OK that they are “Bi” and sometimes need to go AC instead of DC? At that rate, why not also have a YU club for properly married students who also “need” an occasional detour with a handsome man or beautiful woman, other than their spouse, who they happen to meet at a lecture or coffee shop? The idea that Yeshiva University would recognize an LGBTQ club, whatever name they use, proves that they have not even analyzed the question halakhically but instead have gone with the Woke Flow. The perverted and corrupt non-Jewish world advocates for the whole package — L and G and B and T and Q — so Yeshiva University adopts the same letters without even thinking about what “B” means. Just to be Woke-friendly. Initially, Yeshiva University took a principled stand and refused to recognize the club. I was quite surprised that YU did not cave in then. They fought the proposed LGBTQ club in court. The left-wing New York state trial court judge ruled for the To’eivah (LGBTQ) plaintiffs, and YU appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a reasonable response, reflecting how American law procedurally operates, the Supremes ruled that YU first would have to appeal to the New York State appellate court, then to the state Supreme Court (which goes by a different name), and then , after exhausting their state appellate options, they could return and seek judicial review in the federal system with the U.S. Supreme Court. (That truly is how the federal legal system works.) Finally, they would be before a conservative U.S. Supreme Court that has six of nine justices who regularly stand firmly with religious parties. (Curiously, they all are devout Catholics.) Yeshiva University kept fighting in the courts for over two years. And then, suddenly, they threw in the towel while winning and on the brink of total victory. (Who else does that every four or five years?) It is such a Chilul Hashem (Desecration of G-d’s Name). Of course, none of us would demand that LG students be expelled. Rather, “straight” students who taunt them or threaten them should be expelled. Leave them alone, just as we expect secular college students to leave Jews alone. The policy obviously should be the same “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that always prevailed in the American military until the Obama Woke took over. Instead, headlines like these appeared the next day: · Baptist Global News : Yeshiva University recognizes LGBTQ student club, reversing a longtime ban · New York Times : Yeshiva University Recognizes L.G.B.T.Q. Club After Lengthy Battle · JTA : Yeshiva University recognizes LGBTQ student club, reversing a longtime ban · NBC News : Yeshiva University will recognize LGBTQ student club after years of dispute · Lavender Magazine : Yeshiva University Agrees To Recognize LGBTQ Student Club This is a disgrace and it is a shame that we, the Nation who received the Torah at Sinai, will have to look to the Southern Baptists, the Vatican, and Muslim clerics for integrity on this matter. Within Orthodoxy, the very next day, a teenage yeshiva high school girl posted on Facebook that, inspired by Yeshiva University’s moral collapse, she and her friends now are demanding an LGBTQ club at their Modern Orthodox yeshiva high school. Rabbi Avi Berman, YU President, published this: R. Avi Berman letter on LGBT club Courtesy One exceptionally prominent Yeshiva University Rosh Yeshiva has written a personal letter on his personal stationery saying: “I gave my blessing to providing guidance and support in maintaining full, uncompromising shmeras ha-mitzvos (Torah observance) — to this sacred goal [to help students struggling with problems of same sex attraction and gender identity] and nothing more. Experience has attested that allowing this initiative to take the form of a club has and continues to create confusion. . . . Establishing any additional club in any Orthodox institution will only add to that confusion and must be avoided.” Rabbi Herschel Shachter on YU club courtesy In such a club, shy and curious students who are confused, perhaps gender dysphoric — but not yet lost to this horrible and often irreversible affliction, once begun — will have an address besides campus student counseling to explore their curiosities. Those actively engaged will befriend curious visitors, not as scheming proselytizers but as sincere, warm friends. They will share a cup of coffee together, a slice of pizza. Perhaps a cup will spill or a slice will fall, and both will innocently bend over to clean it. Unintentionally, perhaps they will touch hands. That is what happened when Monica Lewinsky “accidentally” dropped a slice of pizza on the president’s pants zipper. Is that too wild a scenario to anticipate? Do Orthodox parents send their children to YU merely to avoid anti-Israel protests elsewhere? No. They send them to YU like to a Jewish Hillsdale College, a place that remains safe from the perversions outside. A place of holiness, where Torah is taught, learned, and lived. And now Yeshiva University has opened the gates. Shame on the yeshiva that so many of us saw as our beacon. Subscribe to Rav Fischer’s YouTube channel here at bit.ly/3REFTbk and follow him on X (Twitter) at @DovFischerRabbi to find his latest classes, interviews, speeches, and observations. To attend any of his three weekly Zoom classes — Sundays on the past week’s events impacting Israel and world Jewry, and Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Tanakh (Bible) and Jewish law — send a request to rabbi@yioc.org Watch Rav Fischer’s 10-minute message,“There is No Palestine” ( here ).
