Top Yeshiva U. Rabbi Blasts Modern Orthodox Speaker As ‘Like Reform’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Sam Kestenbaum March 31, 2017
A senior rabbi at Yeshiva University tore down posters promoting a lecture from a visiting rabbi and decried him as apikores, a perjorative Yiddish term used to describe a non-observant Jew or apostate.
“He’s going to attack all the rebbes in Y.U. It’s like inviting a Reform rabbi to speak in Y.U.,” Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Schachter told the Commentator, explaining why he removed posters promoting an event by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper. “He shouldn’t be invited here. You can quote me on that if you want. He doesn’t belong here at all.”
Rabbi Klapper was ordained by the Orthodox RIETS in 1994 and is currently the Dean of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership and a member of the Boston Beit Din. He does not teach at Y.U. and his lecture — which went on despite Schacter’s condemnation, was on Jewish law.
The student website the Commentator, which first reported on the comments, was also pulled into the controversy and accused of sensationalizing Schacter’s comments.
Despite the comments, Dean of RIETS Rabbi Menachem Penner asserted that Schachter did not “blast anyone.”
“Rabbi Schachter said nothing publicly,” Penner said. “The Commentator did.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
