Rabbi Mordechai Gifter on Yeshiva University

0:04But here, one of the great rabbis who came out of Yeshiva University, well before this to'eva happened, cried out when he saw how this is happening in front of his eyes and everyone is staying quiet. How can everybody be quiet about this, he says. How can everybody be quiet when there is to'eva inside a yeshiva, an institution that calls itself a yeshiva? How could the two coexist in peace and be acknowledged? He calls the chief of that school, and the chief of the school says, "Listen, if we do not acknowledge the Toeva, we're not going to get any government funding." When he reached one of the wealthy Jews who donated a million dollars to the school in a recent campaign...

1:05How could you support such things? And he got the same response. If we do not acknowledge the Toeva, we're not going to get government funding. And Rav Gifter cries out to Am Yisrael and whoever is listening until this day. As the tears of heaven are getting bigger and bigger, how could it be that we acknowledge and accept toevah in the world of Torah? How could it be that everyone is silent about it? How could it be? And if silence is not a crime enough, praising the wicked makes it even worse. At Yeshiva University, has an Einstein Association of Gays and Lesbians. Do you hear the language? At the Department of Genetics, phone number 214-409-3364. Why is everyone silent?

2:19Signed by a gentleman, I don't know who he is, from Hannibal. Hyde-Dumar, 184 Division Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. When I got this card, I became shocked. My alma mater, Were it not for that yeshiva, who knows where I would have been today. And today, it's a department in a university, one of over 60 schools in Yeshiva University. All the schools have a description that takes up a column or a column and a half. The yeshivah has exactly two lines, but it's part of that university. And in that university, you have an association, an official association of gays and lesbians. If you read the weekly Cleveland Jewish News,

3:46You find in the synagogues, mentioned also the gay synagogue of Cleveland. But here, that gay should have a synagogue, it didn't happen. Everything can happen. But at Sheva University, we have a fissile association of mischiefs, corniness. practice those things for which the women that lived in Eretz Yisrael were driven out for, for Eretz Yisrael to make a place for us. I wrote to the president of the university, Santa McCott of Wisconsin. What are you doing about it? I'm overwhelmed. I've studied in the yeshiva. I cannot fathom that my alma mater should have sunk to such a degree. I wrote to his assistant, Rabbi Charlop. I wrote to the president of the rabbinical council, all from the yeshiva. And I wrote to a few more. What was President Lamm's answer?

5:15That's the important thing. We have three parties, but we cannot shut them down because that would be discrimination. And when we will practice discrimination, all government aid to the university will be immediately stopped. That was his answer. Do you understand what that means? We are ready to sell all our beliefs for the sake of government funds. That one only slant. That would be discrimination. And when we practice discrimination, all government aid to the university will be immediately stopped. That was his answer. Do you understand what that means? We are ready to sell all our beliefs for the sake of government funds. That one only slant. How far do we sink? There's nothing that can be done about it. Because we'll lose government funds, it will be considered discrimination. That's discrimination.

6:40I have no words for it. And all to whom I've written, who can possibly have influence in this, answer the same way. In my day, the boys who wanted university studies, Went to CCNY, NYU, and Columbia. Can't be done today. Must you have your own university? Contrary to what you should use, what a big place. Must that be the way to live? And you call that a disgrace. You call it Yeshiva University. They call it the name of yeshivas. It'll be another university like Columbia and all the others. of a yeshiva, where you list the yeshiva itself as a school in the university. This is the world we live in. I wrote to Mr. Irving Stone, who is a member of the Million Dollar Club. $100 million was raised at the anniversary, the 100th anniversary.

8:07He was one of those who contributed a million dollars. He gives a lot of money for his flock. So I wrote to him. I got an answer. I realized that he sent the letter to his assistant, and the assistant composed the answer. He signed his name, because it was practically the same wording as the letter the assistant had sent me. So I realize that this is not the shteigen language. You can’t get moving. We must do something to stop this. We must do something. And we can't just brush it off and say, well, that's Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, if it hadn't been in the United States, no yeshiva would be here today. All European yeshivas that came here after the war, because there was Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, which had laid the foundations of yeshiva theory.

9:35And it's our specific duty to see to it as Torah Jews that we should stop. We carry a terrible responsibility. Now, let's read further. article in the media, New York Times, March 24th, 1988. Not too long ago. This is a report by a reporter named Ari Goldman, the New York Times. begins ultra-Orthodox Jews, not Orthodox Jews, but ultra-Orthodox Jews. The extremists, ultra-Orthodox Jews, including the Chassidic, have set the religious agenda for too long in both the United States and Israel.

11:04they're not the ones to determine what is religion and what is not religion, the president of Yeshiva University said Tuesday, calling on moderate Orthodox elements to reassert themselves, from these folks, in a major speech on Centrist Orthodoxy. the first centrist Orthodoxy. Dr. Norman Lamm addressed a question that also has echoes in other faiths. This is the question. The question raised and posed by Dr. Lamm In an age when fundamentalists are flexing their religious muscle, they even have candidates for the presidency in the United States, the fundamentalists. Can moderate voices be heard, or does everything have to be by the fundamentalists? So he's actually been shown that it's equated.

12:35with the fundamentalists of the Christian faith here in the United States. That's not true. Because you're the president of the university. He studied there a little bit after me. Moderation should never be confused with indecisiveness As the tears of Heaven are getting bigger and bigger, how could this be that we acknowledge and accept toevah in the world of Torah? How could it be that everyone is silent about it? How could it be? And if silence was not a crime enough, praising the wicked

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