Part 2: The Reform INSIDE our Communities
Family is NOT first here: Practical examples of Mishpacha’s - and other magazines’ - harmful influences.
BS”D
In Part 1, we showed how Machon Mandel is a Reform-funded institute which trains Jewish people in “leadership” positions, in order to create “societal change” from within our communities.
The individuals who graduate the “Haredi” program - which is a branch of Hebrew University - outwardly appear as religious as before, and go on to have a massive influence on the frum world, subtly advancing leftist ideologies and shaping values.
Their ultimate plan is to have a society with Charedi flavor - eating chulent on Shabbos - that lives with all the values and ideals of secular society.
Machon Mandel is located at 101 Derech Chevron. The program be seen on their website. https://institute.mandelfoundation.org.il/english/Programs/Pages/Mandel-Programs-for-Leadership-Development-in-the-Haredi-Community.aspx
We showed the example of Menachem Bombach, a former head of Machon Mandel, who by his own private admission no longer believes in “those old things,” but looks frum and leads so many astray. For example, he heads a school in Beitar for Chassidish boys where he teaches about Zionism and Christianity, among other topics.
We continued with the owner of Mishpacha magazine, another graduate of Machon Mandel, as can be seen from their directory of alumni which was attached to Part 1.
I realize that this revelation is shocking, upsetting, and difficult to accept for many readers, as it was for me when I discovered the facts.
However, if you take time to think about this honestly and carefully and digest it, the pieces will start falling into place, and you will likely realize, yourself, many examples of how Mishpacha has been slowly and quietly shaping our Hashkafos and lowering our standards.
Rather than you taking action to counteract this terrible breach in Klal Yisrael because I said so, I would like you to start thinking critically for yourself about the state of our Yiddishkeit vis a vis the mesora, and researching what brought us to this low point.
In this article, we bring several fascinating pieces by other authors explaining the subtle, insidious ways that Mishpacha works to influence our thinking and the standards and values of our communities. The very morals and ways of life of this generation have been shaped by Mishpacha - and the other magazines.
The following PDF contains two articles which document Mishpacha’s numerous strategies for engineering social change in the frum population.
In the first article, two secular researchers actually performed a study - ten years ago - on Mishpacha’s efforts to normalize secular “higher education” in the chareidi world.
In the next piece, M. L. Davidowitz tells us about his illuminating hour-long conversation with Mishpacha.
Everything lines up with what we have reported here already. Please download the PDF and read - it’s worth it.
This is an additional piece, which appeared in Lehovin a few years ago:
Perceptions exist that newspapers and magazines are printed to inform, perhaps to entertain, and possibly to make money for their publishers. For some, this is true. For others, it is not.
Some newspaper and magazine publishers are on a mission. And missions vary.
Mishpacha’s reach further expanded in 2006 with Family First, a full-color weekly magazine connecting tens of thousands of Jewish women and girls around the world.
This week, they were in the news, on various venues in Eretz Yisrael, promoting their 6th annual evening of empowerment and promotion for ultra-Orthodox businesswomen. The event, produced by the Mishpacha events team, will be held in Bnei Brak, and according to the press release the “Osim Esek” event is:
“intended for ultra-Orthodox business and entrepreneurial women…with the aim of creating a unique and empowering event that will provide ultra-Orthodox business women with tools for business promotion and personal advancement.”
For years, the case was presented that women needed to go to work to help alleviate the financial pressures of the family.
Now, they are clear that, while that may be true, there is something else going on, as well. “Empowerment” and “personal advancement” were never in the lexicon of Jewish women. Jewish women understood their crucial and valued role as an “Eizer Kenegdo” and as mothers of the future. Jewish women were enriched by the spiritual role they play in this world and their investments in the Next World. Jewish women found meaning and fulfillment in their families. They understood that “histapkus b’muat” was a desirable trait, that for luxury too, a price is paid. Jewish women were prepared to help with parnassah, but never was it to replace their primary mission and focus. Jewish women have known and lived all this for millennia. And have continued with this mission and vision until today.
Evidently, Mishpacha magazine is hoping to change that.
“As a Mishpacha magazine tradition, the event will take place in a luxurious format. In the first phase of the evening, the 1200 participants will gather at the reception complex, which will include a rich buffet and a fashion complex designed with the aroma of international fashion shows. The fashion complex will show up-to-date and tailored trends for ultra-Orthodox business. In the reception area, mingling will be free and participants will enjoy networking opportunities and business connections.”
Click on their website menu, and the first word you read is “gedolim,” as if to create a perception that the gedolim are behind this. This is far, far from the truth. “The aroma of international fashion shows” smells nothing like “approved by gedolim.”
“In the second phase of the evening, the participants will move to the lecture complex, where three fascinating lectures will be delivered… The first lecturer, Dr. Nadav Goldschmidt, CEO of the Center for Service Excellence, will reveal the secrets of winning service that causes customers to come back to you, even in a market full of competitors…”
“Lecturer and Coach Ms. Rotem Hagag will deliver the second Ted Lecture, “Happiness is also in you”, which will explain how personal and interpersonal changes we are making can become a huge engine to drive the business forward.”
To reiterate, Mishpacha is excited to inform that Ms. Hagag, a non-religious woman, will explain to a room of over a thousand Chareidi women in Bnei Brak about making personal and interpersonal changes. Does that sit well with you? And what is the benefit of these personal and interpersonal changes? “To be a huge engine to drive the business forward.”
Feminism has been destroying family life, society, and traditional values for over 50 years. The feminist movement has been promoting dissatisfaction with the traditional role of women, and they have been quite successful in the world at large. But not so successful in the Torah world. In the Torah world, women are valued and they recognize the eternal worth of their primary role.
Unfortunately, with a mixture of kodesh and chol, the magazine, in the name of “family” or even “family first” is spearheading the effort to change this within our community. They are sowing the seeds of dissatisfaction in women, slyly urging them out of their traditional roles, out of marriage and Shalom Bayis, and tznius. They were the first to put women and girls on their cover. Bit by bit, they’re breaking barriers. Slowly, but surely. With the right mix of seemingly correct hashkafa, placing Rabbis on covers and sprinkled throughout the magazines, so that their agenda will go by mostly unnoticed. But, in a moment of truth, they are proud to claim to “set the agenda for Shabbos tables and board rooms.”
“The third lecture aims to give every business owner a clear, relevant and professional toolbox for growing their business. Entrepreneur and mentor Sapir Zissman will explain how to create an effective strategic plan that every business needs.”
Who is Sapir Zisman? A “motivational speaker” who “inspires” and gets people to “learn to love life.” Aha. Mishpacha magazine thinks that a thousand frum women should get mentored by a financially successful irreligious woman from Tel Aviv.
“At the conclusion of the Ted lectures, the participants will move to the main hall…empowerment and growth…. The Spring Orchestra, conducted by Ms. Shelley Kramer, will play a variety of musical pieces. In addition, there will be a dynamic dance performance… Alongside food for the soul… a rich and luxurious meat dinner will be served.”
These are their words. “Empowerment and growth.” These are not Jewish words. Growth would be, but not where the focus is financial. But they once again reveal some truth. These events (and the magazines that people read) yield great influence. This is “food for the soul,” but worry not, they will also provide meat in luxury to the women who will come to the event in Bnei Brak.
Caring Torah Jews, Beware!
(That is the end of the Lehovin article.)
This image gives an enlightening glimpse of where Mispacha is coming from:
Remember, if a magazine simply copied the New Yorker or Vanity Fair while pretending to be Jewish, few people would fall for it. But add in Divrei Torah and biographies of Rabbonim, and the rest of the magazine automatically has a hechsher, if we don’t think too hard.
Look at the words of the Chazon Ish, zatzal, about protecting our families from harmful outside influences:
…Now, towards the end of our exile, the world around us is steeped in kefirah and we are surrounded by Jews who transgress every aveirah without second thoughts… This is the terrible situation in which the survivors of the am segulah – those precious ones who are still loyal to Hashem and his Torah find themselves. Our hearts are troubled and our spirits depressed by the dilemma: How are we to bring up our children, and how shall we be able to spread Torah, if we are preoccupied with building walls to protect our young from the wilderness of deceit and loathsomeness that is the street outside…
ידוע, כי בסוף גלותנו גבר ההעלם ולמרות האמת כי כל הנעשה תחת השמש אינו ממקרה ח"ו רק הכל נעשה ע"פ השגחתו יתברך אפי' נקיפת אצבע קטנה, הדבר מכוסה ונסתר, ובני אדם שקועים בבירא עמיקתא של כפירה ומינות, וכל מעשיהם מנקודה זו, ודשים בעקביהם על מצוות היותר חמורות שבתורה בלי נקיפת הלב ומוסר כליות.
...במצב החמור הזה נמצא שארית סגולתנו הנאמנים לד' ולתורתו לחקיו ולמשפטיו, בלב דואג ובשברון רוח איך נרעה את הגדיים ואיך נרביץ תורה, וידינו עסוקות בבנין חומות ולהקים חיץ בין הצפיעים והצפיעות שלנו, לחוצות הפרועות שאית הכחש וחמדת התועבות...
Chazon Ish (Letters 1:113)
What happened to the walls the Chazon Ish speaks of? In our generation, it appears that they have fallen greatly.
It turns out that over a decade ago, many Gedolim were warning us about Mishpacha, but too few of us heard or understood.
The following plea, signed by 23 Rabbonim, among them Rav Ezriel Auerbach, Rav Yaakov Hillel, and Rav Yehuda Ades, was published in the Hebrew Yated Ne’eman on 13 Iyar 5771.
They start by saying that Gedolei Yisrael have already warned us to distance ourselves from the magazines, and now they are coming to express their pain about Mishpacha, which clearly seeks to bring outside values into our world, and thereby cause great harm to everything holy that we work so hard to instill.
I do not know who authored the following, but it expresses the problems very well:
This letter from Rav Elyashiv in 5772 is very explicit in asking people not to bring Mishpacha into their homes:
Rav Elyashiv says:
I have already expressed my opinion about the weekly magazine Mishpacha, which distorts and blurs the Hashkafas HaTorah, and now they are trying to expand their influence and reach.
We must stand guard that it not come into the homes of those who fear Hashem and definitely not to give a hechsher on it or to help them.
On a different note, here are two explicit examples of grave harm that Mishpacha has caused very recently:
JOWMA is an organization which presents as frum but is not. One of their board members is a woman “married” to a woman, and the other members approve of lifestyles the Torah forbids, as can be seen from talks given by their doctors, Dr. Sahar Wertheimer and Dr. Elissa Hellman, which I documented in my December article.
JOWMA’s seminars contain advice unquestionably contrary to Halacha. JOWMA has caused incalculable damage to the Jewish community. Yet, although Mishpacha was warned of JOWMA’s true colors, with specific documentation provided, they continued printing JOWMA’s advertisements.
Story number two is about an advertisement that Mishpacha REFUSED to print, at the cost of untold lives:
Someone who is part of a large medical network that helps patients access effective covid treatment was seeing firsthand the lifesaving effects of the little-known medications. This individual lined up four of the world’s top covid treatment doctors in January 2022 to give a seminar to frum physicians on lifesaving covid treatment - both at-home and in-hospital. Two of these doctors were world-renowned ICU specialists.
I know the person who had organized this event, l’sheim shamayim, and I know that Mishpacha was approached to run the advertisement for the event, which would have saved so many lives in our communities. They refused. I am actually in possession of the message that the person who attempted to get the ad in received. Mishpacha said the doctors in question were “fringe.” Well, considering that these doctors did not follow the CDC guidelines which said to do nothing until the patient had trouble breathing, at which time their chances for survival were slim, yes, they were “fringe.” Whose approval does Mishpacha seek, that of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, who desires that His children live, or that of the CDC?
Who appointed Mishpacha to make medical decisions for the frum community?
Who told them to create social change and shape our values? Were we not doing OK with over 3,000 years so far of living al pi mesora, since our Avos hakedoshim?
Who requested that they kasher college in our collective minds, normalize Jewish women having careers “l’sheim careers” - unprecedented in Jewish history - and lower our standards of tznius?
Did we ask them to increase our desire for materialism and to help us become k’ chol hagoyim?
Have we forgotten the words of Moshe Rabbeinu in Devorim, in his last speech to Klal Yisrael, as he begged us not to veer from Hashem’s instructions?
V’atem hadveikim b’Hashem E-lokeichem, chayim kulchem hayom.
When we remain one hundred percent pure and faithful to our Mesora, we survive and thrive.
When we allow small changes to creep in, the result is a snowballing cascade of destruction, both spiritual and physical.
We need only look around and see what is left - if anything - of the “enlightened” families of the last couple centuries.
Everything started with “small” changes, and now, most of their descendants - there aren’t even too many left - aren’t Jewish.
I would like to end with this powerful piece I received, which contains a translated letter from Rav Elyashiv zatzal from eleven years ago, at the end of his life:
צופה נתתיך לבית ישראל
שהעמדתי להם את בית רבי וחכמי הדורות
As foretold by HKB”H over three thousand years ago, Klal Yisroel has survived the long, bitter, golus with the core of our nation intact. Nation after nation and empire after empire sought to destroy us. Drunk with the power Hashem Yisbarach granted them over his cherished nation, they attacked, battering us from all sides.
Then, after their guns fell silent, as each kingdom felt its strength ebbing and its era of fame and power fading, they looked up, astounded. They imagined that there were no survivors, R”l, of this holy nation who would march forward into the next era holding the banner of the dvar Hashem aloft. But no, they stood with their mouths agape: once again, the storm had passed, and the trunk of the ravaged tree began to sprout new growth.
Just how did this storm-beaten tree survive, once again?
The answer was given to us by Hashem in that very same parashah. Hashem guaranteed that above the walls of our gale-buffeted city would always tower those turrets in which chachmei hadoros reside. He assured us that every dor would have its chachamim; and that those chachamim, looking from their position high above the city walls, would glimpse the enemy’s approach from afar. Even if many fell in battle upon the enemy’s arrival, those who heeded the chachamim’s warnings would endure. Those chareidim ledvar Hashem – the choshvei shemo who rushed to construct extra fortifications when the enemy was still unseen – they would be the zera kodesh – the holy foundation of the next station of our travels. By shielding themselves from goyishe influence when the threat was still visible only to gedolei yisroel, these yirei Hashem ensured their place as bricks in the bridge spanning the gulf separating Har Sinai from yemos haMoshiach.
It was in the last months that we would still be zoche to have Rav Elyashiv, zt”l leading us. Hashem granted him the insight to warn us of the approaching danger. From his vantage point high in the lighthouse of Toras Hashem, Rav Elyashiv wrote a letter to klal yisroel - perhaps his tzavaah to us. It reads:
יוסף שלום אלישיב
ירושלים
בס"ד, מוצש"ק מקץ תשע"ב
The secret and the basis of the survival of the olam haTorah and the frum community is the fact that they live a life of Torah and yirah in a purity of holiness, completely separate from the lifestyle and ideas of the secular world – the world of those who have thrown off the yoke of the Torah.
Therefore, it is important to protest and warn against all different types of projects originating outside our community, whose goal is to gain control of the pach shemen hatohor. They are establishing “chareidi programs” that will be totally subject to their control and run in their spirit. Included in this are all different types of “programs” and “tracks” of National, Civilian, and Military Service. The point of all of these programs is to establish sites in which there can coalesce a group of chareidim who is subject to the control of the porkei ol and of their culture.
They are also supporting all sorts of “institutes” and colleges for “training” and limudim chitzoni’im, leading to academic degrees. [These institutions and studies] are to bring aspirations that are foreign to us [into our camp]. Everyone knows how fiercely gedolei Yisroel, ztvk”l fought against every “chareidi institution of higher education” that was meant to teach such studies. [The gedolim] ejected all such institutions out of our camp.
Especially, they announce publicly that their goal in all of these programs is to change the spirit and the essence of the frum community. [They say openly] that they are trying to inject all types of foreign, Nationalistic and Maskilic aspirations that our fathers never imagined. [They are attempting] to “integrate” and “connect” the frum community into the secular world, lifestyle, and culture.
[We] call out: “Don’t join them on their paths – keep your footsteps far from their ways. Don’t mix with those that promote “change” – stay on the road we have been traveling on throughout the generations. Keep to the way of doing the will of Avinu shebashamayim – the One Who separated us from those who wander about, lost. As for us, he gave us a תורת אמת,
.וחיי עולם נתן בתוכנו
יוסף שלום אלישיב
Be’ezras Hashem, look out for more in Part 3 about the radically destructive influence of Reform infiltration in our communities.