Year: 2020

Remember: These Socialist Laws Are Never Opposed by Rabbis!

Rent Control, Jobs, Marriage

By 

July 13, 2020

 

Demand curves slope in a downward direction. This means that the higher the price, the less of an item, or good, or service, will be sought. The more road blocks, hurdles, thumb tacks, placed in the way of any given action, the less likely it will occur. Economists do not agree on many things, but on this insight there will be nary a dismal scientist who will not acquiesce.

Yet, there are several public policies in place that are incompatible with this common-sense understanding.

Consider first residential rental units. New York City, San Francisco, Cleveland and another half dozen major cities are now offering free legal advice to tenants threatened by eviction. At present this benefit is afforded mainly to those accused of a crime who cannot afford a lawyer, on the ground that such legal aid is needed to provide equal justice for rich and poor alike. Now, it is being extended to renters.

Some commentators even think that this strengthens the hands of tenants and reduces homelessness. They reckon, however, in the absence of downward sloping demand curves. They think only in terms of immediate, not long term effects. Yes, give them free legal advice and fewer people will be evicted; one point for the tenant.

But look at this from the point of view of the landlord, or, the would-be investor in residential real estate. It now becomes more difficult to evict non-paying, or obstreperous tenants. Will they be more or less likely to build, upgrade, repair, apartment dwellings? To ask this question is to answer it. They will tend to seek greener pastures elsewhere. They will try to convert extant dwellings into condominiums, commercial space, etc. But, with less residential housing available the situation of renters will become more dire, not less. Remember that downward sloping demand curve: with a lowered supply, rents will rise not fall, and a given square footage will accommodate fewer people, not more. More homelessness, here we come.

The same analysis applies to other efforts to “help” tenants. Under economic freedom, landlords may demand as much as several months’ worth of security deposits. This will indemnify them if there are damages. It will also protect them from bankruptcy since it typically takes months to evict non payers. This problem arises especially during the Christmas season; judges are particularly reluctant to toss people out onto the street during these times. Curiously, they do not at all have the same attitude regarding robbers during December. But what are non-paying tenants other than thieves of accommodation?

Next consider the labor market. In France in particular, and other countries as well, the law makes it more and more difficult to fire employees. The authorities want to protect workers, and, also, do not relish increased unemployment statistics. This “remedy” of theirs also fails to take into account downward sloping demand curves; it looks, only, to the immediate run, avoiding long run effects. For when barriers are placed in the way of laying off wage earners, less of it will occur. How do rational profit seeking entrepreneurs react? Why, by not hiring workers in the first place! Instead of offering full time employment, they take on only part timers. Firms resort to contracting out to smaller firms, or to the individuals themselves. The latter take on what are called “gigs” so as to escape these unwarranted legislative enactments.

These laws are also discriminatory. Workers can quit with no by your leave. Unless and until employers can sever relationships with employees as easily, justice, to say nothing of full employment, will not prevail.

Let us attempt to make this point in an unrelated arena of human interaction. Suppose a law were passed and fully enforced mandating that no divorce would be allowed, ever, for any reason whatsoever. The immediate effect of course would be to preserve marriage. Without the possibility of divorce, more marriages would stay intact than otherwise (we abstract from the effect of such a law on the rate of infidelity). But what would be the long run effect of such a law on this institution ? Demand curves slope downward even in this milieu. Place more barriers against an act, weddings in this case, and fewer of them will occur.

If society really has the best interests of tenants, of employees, and, also, of spouses, it will not in effect charge higher “prices” for them. The very opposite policies would be pursued.

From LRC, here.

They Should Get a Recorded Testimonial, Too…

A Lubavitcher who works for a large Jewish school in Russia told me one of the students has a Jewish mother but a non-Jewish father, who works for the FSB (heir to the KGB).

The father told him he sends specifically to the Jewish school, in spite of his own status, because from his position he can compare the many different schools, and this one outstrips the rest by every metric…

מאן דאשתדל בתר חייביא עביד דאסתלק קוב”ה על כורסי יקריה, זכאה חולקיה

מכיר חבר עם בעיות בקדושה (תמונות, שירים, מעשים)? ישנו ארגון על טהרת הקודש עם הרבה סיפורי הצלחה במקרים קשים וגם קלים, הנקרא בשם “ונשמרתם”.

אם אתם מתביישים להפנות את החברים בעצמך, תוכלו לפנות היישר לארגון, והארגון בעצמו ייזום אתם קשר עבורך.

ארגון “ונשמרתם” נלחמת בחוסר המודעות, ומאפשרת יציאה קלה ותמידית מעוונות פגם הברית, העיניים והאינטרנט.

להדרכות מוקלטות, ייעוץ אישי, והכוונה פרטנית, התקשרו אלינו: 077-222-222-1. לשאלות נוספות, כתבו לנו: 0772222221M@Gmail.com

(ניתן גם לתרום לארגון בכרטיס אשראי דרך קהילות או נדרים פלוס.)

The ‘Journalistic Ethics’ of The Times of Israel & The Jerusalem Post

The Media’s War Against Orthodox Judaism

by Chananya Weissman

The Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post are waging a journalistic war against Orthodox Judaism. They have dropped all pretenses of objectivity; not only are their editorials one-sided and biased against the more traditional segments of Orthodox Judaism, but they regularly publish thinly-veiled editorials under the guise of news items. There can be no doubt that their mission is not to report news and inform the public, but to manipulate their readers through propaganda, selective reporting, double standards, and lack of nuance.

Two examples from the last few days alone (there are many more) illustrate their lack of integrity and professionalism.

On July 2 the Times of Israel posted a news update under the title “Shas leader says he made sure synagogues can keep packing them in“. This is the sort of snarky title one might expect to find in a high school newspaper, not a professional media outlet. The article went on to relate that the Prime Minister had sought to limit synagogue attendance to 20 people, while allowing more in event halls, bars, and clubs, but “Deri canceled the evil decree.”

The Times of Israel then showed a stock photo from May 20 – six weeks earlier – with the caption “Ultra Orthodox Jewish men eschew masks while praying at a synagogue in Jerusalem”. Thinly veiled message to readers: please hate these people!

But it got even worse. The article, ostensibly a news update, continued as follows: “It can’t be that restaurants, bars and clubs, where the danger is larger several times over, can host 50 people and synagogues can only have 20. In clubs they don’t keep distances and nobody wears masks,” says Deri, who apparently frequents dance clubs.

The malice of the unnamed writer or editor at the Times of Israel was so pronounced that he simply could not hold himself back from taking pot shots at Deri and Orthodox Jews at every opportunity in this short “news update”.

Needless to say, there were no reports of Muslim imams seeking to “pack them in” at mosques with snide commentary. After all, in their own words, “The Times of Israel has no partisan political affiliation. It seeks to present the news fair-mindedly…”

On July 9 the Jerusalem Post published a news story with the inflammatory headline “Chief rabbi patronizes women studying halacha, says ReformJudaism is fake“. The article began with the following paragraph: “Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef has issued an all out attack on Reform Judaism, describing it as “fake” and “falsified Judaism,” while also casting aspersions on the ability of women to study Jewish law at an advanced level.”

As it turns out, this is misleading. The article goes on to relate that Rabbi Yosef specifically reacted to legal pressure being put on the chief rabbinate to essentially ordain women (albeit perhaps with a title other than rabbi), and he acknowledged that women can and do learn Torah on a high level.

The author, Jeremy Sharon, referred to the women seeking “accreditation” as being “overwhelmingly from the moderate wing of the religious-Zionist community”. However, he did not enlighten readers with the basis on which he considers them moderate and Rabbi Yosef extremist – particularly important considering the “moderates” are using the secular courts to try to impose their will on the rabbinate and attain something that has never been accepted in Orthodox Judaism. Clearly the Jerusalem Post does not want readers thinking about this, but to simply accept as fact that Rabbi Yosef is a tyrant seeking to keep down holy religious women from achieving what is rightfully theirs.

Sharon then “reported” that Rabbi Yosef “embarked on an anti-Reform diatribe”. This diatribe basically consisted of accusing them of falsifying the Torah. What does Sharon expect the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, a staunchly Orthodox Jew from a prestigious rabbinic dynasty, to say about Reform Jewry? Apparently, that they are free to interpret the Torah however they wish, make whatever changes they wish, and it’s all just as good or better. Ridiculous.

Needless to say, we don’t read about Reform pastors, radical feminists, homosexual activists, and cross dressers pretending to be of another gender launching into diatribes against Orthodox Judaism. The Jerusalem Post treats their utterances with the greatest of respect and sensitivity. They will also never report to us how Muslim religious leaders might deal with pressure from women to become imams, which is a shame – that would surely be an interesting story.

On July 11 the Jerusalem Post followed up this editorial posing as a news story with an actual editorial. This one ran under the headline “It’s time for Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef to step up or step down: The government needs to present Yosef with a choice – either help or get out of the way.”

It is unimaginable that the Jerusalem Post would speak of any religious leader from any other denomination or faith in such caustic terms.

The editorial went on to declare: “It was also the latest proof why the Chief Rabbinate as an institution has lost its way and needs to be defunded by the government and eventually shut down…The attacks on Reform Jews is another stage in the Orthodox world’s assault on progressive Jews…Sadly, matters of religion and state in this country continue to be held hostage by ultra-Orthodox radicals who refuse to accept that not every Jew will look like them or practice Judaism the same way that they do…People who want to travel on Shabbat do not have an option of public transportation and reforms in the country’s kashrut system are slow in coming…It is time that all this changes. The government needs to present Yosef with a choice – either help or get out of the way.”

Simply put, the editors of the Jerusalem Post demand that the Chief Rabbi of Israel stop being Orthodox and that Orthodox Jews stop “assaulting” those who want to destroy their way of life in Eretz Yisrael by resisting this takeover in any way. Orthodox Jews are “radicals” and those who trample on the Torah and tradition are “progressive”.

This is the official position of the editors of the Jerusalem Post; it is clearly stated in their editorials and reflected in their heavily biased news coverage.

It is time not only for Orthodox Jews, but all decent people who respect tradition and objective reporting of the news to hold the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post accountable for their lack of integrity and professionalism. Perhaps those who do not wish to see Orthodox rabbis, institutions, and communities defamed on a regular basis – like no other religious leaders or communities – should “defund” these anti-Orthodox media outlets.

I understand that Anglo olim like holding an English newspaper in their hands, and maybe they know someone who works there, but at some point it’s time to decide that it’s too little a price for your selling your soul.

There is a war being fought against Orthodox Judaism. It’s time to stand up and fight back.

______________

www.chananyaweissman.com

https://www.facebook.com/etm.shabbatons

A Serious Question Has Now Arisen Regarding America’s Future…

IMPLOSION

Even a cursory review of world history allows the reader to realize that great and mighty countries and empires fall not necessarily because of outside pressures, but because of the implosion of the society itself. Rome ruled the world for over five centuries, and, at the height of its power, it succumbed to barbaric tribes. The breakup and disintegration of the Empire came as Rome was undermined by the spread of Christianity within its society and the dissatisfaction and dissolution of social norms. These factors gave way to internal violence and a complete abandonment of any sense of loyalty to the Empire itself, or to the history that Rome had so carefully fashioned and preserved over its centuries of hegemony. In short, Rome collapsed from within and not from without.

The same can be said of the Spanish Empire in the 16th century, which never recovered from its foolish, and self-destructive exile of its Jewish population at the beginning of the century. It no longer possessed the creativity and will to succeed that had driven it to become one of the major powers in the world.

The Ottoman Empire was also rotten from the inside, and any stress placed upon it would hasten its extinction and disappearance. The first World War provided that stress. and the Ottoman Turkish Empire never recovered. In our time, we have witnessed the destruction of Communism within the Soviet Union after 75 years of brutal and tyrannical rule. Once again, the Soviet Union collapsed from the inside and not from the outside. It had weathered all of the storms of World War II and the Cold War, but it could not survive because of the malaise of its population, the burdens of bureaucracy and inefficient government that it had foisted upon a helpless populace.

A serious question has now arisen regarding the future of the United States of America. It is a very polarized society, and over the past decades it has lost its moral footing. It has become dissolute, hateful of its own heritage, spoiled by too much material wealth, and subject to Marxist indoctrination emanating from its educational systems. Whether or not the United States will be able to survive this storm is, as of yet, an undecided question. However, it is clear to me that no matter what happens, it will become increasingly difficult for Orthodox Jews to maintain themselves in American society. The entire culture is hostile to Torah values and to a Jewish way of life.

Jews have waxed prosperous over the past decades, and the continuity of Orthodox educational institutions is contingent upon the continuation of that prosperity. However, whether America will have a prosperous future over the next few decades is a difficult question to answer. There will be more governmental regulations regarding curriculum, and the nature of educational classes in schools. Education separated by sex will certainly not be allowed, and the concentration on Torah studies will be severely limited. I hope that I am wrong regarding my fears, but my heart tells me otherwise.

Certainly, the America that I grew up in and lived in for most of my lifetime no longer exists. There is no longer wholesome entertainment nor a feeling of moral probity. America was once a religious country. Today it has become overwhelmingly secular with all the attendant evils that such a change in society inevitably engenders. History teaches us that nothing goes on forever, and that great countries and empires rise but inevitably fall.

For many years, I thought that the United States was an exception to that rule, but I no longer believe so. The curve has already flattened, and we are witness to the downward spiral that leads to irrelevance and impotence in world events, I fervently pray that I am wrong but these are my impressions as I view the current scene.

From Rabbi Berel Wein, here.