Top Yeshiva U. Rabbi Blasts Modern Orthodox Speaker As ‘Like Reform’

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]

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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