Pro versus anti gay riot in Orthodox-Jewish England, part 1

Trouble is brewing in the solemn but thriving Spanish Portuguese Community in London.

1. Orthodox Sephardic Rabbi Dweck, formerly Los Angeles: https://www.facebook.com/RJDweck, now in London: https://www.facebook.com/joe.dweck.1?fref=mentions, has had the audacity to teach about gay men for 90 minutes and only in a positive way supportive way.

2. At least, that’s what the press says: Rabbis at odds in dispute over gay love, Senior rabbi in bitter war of words for claiming ‘gay revolution is fantastic’, Senior rabbi: ‘Gay revolution is fantastic’.

3. We can’t know for sure, because the audiotape is thoroughly removed from Internet and Facebook (and they told us: Be careful what you post on Facebook because once it’s posted you can never get rid of it. So not so!):

Class 16: Homosexuality in Torah – sephardi.org.uk
www.sephardi.org.uk/perspectives-class-16…
Perspectives – Class 16: Homosexuality in Torah in Senior Rabbi Dweck Blog,Rabbis’ Blog. Perspectives – Class 16: Homosexuality in Torah. Source Sheet here.
404 – The page you’ve searched for has not been found.

Let us make do with a tape of his acceptance speech (with top hat!) at the congregation that he now found himself in trouble, promising them already then yet another shocking meeting with modernity. Reportedly, in the past few years, he’s been tremendously popular, drawing a large crowd of young Jews – and no doubt jealousy from others.

4. He’s been praised for his original stand: Dweck’s position is as courageous as it is nuanced, and formally from London, Orthodox Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, now from Netivot, mentions on his Facebook page his support for his embattled colleague.

5. Rabbi Dweck has been very active educating his community on other controversial topics too. Here one from merely six weeks ago: Rationalist vs Mystical Judaism – Rabbi Joseph Dweck in Conversation with Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin.

6. Thank G-d, the Rabbi has also enemies. Here you can see for yourself what low-level language his worst contractor uses to paint his opponent as: worse than the Reform [!], a monster, worthy of excommunication, the biggest enemy of the Jewish People [no less!], a criminal that must be stopped [real incitement that would be a criminal offense in Israel!], proclaiming about him: I didn’t find a more wicked person on [sic] the Jewish Nation in 23 years; he never did anything positive for the Jewish People; he only spreads slander and bashes and smashed people’s reputation [look who’s talking!]he pushes people away from real Judaism; he [no doubt] is a violator of Shabbat, has no fear of Heaven; he fools people, and is delaying the coming of the Messiah [which happens because of baseless hatred!]. Who needs friends with enemies like that?! After being attacked like that, anyone sympathizes with the attacked! (Compare this to the British movie Witness For The Prosecution, where the accused is acquitted because how viciously he’s attacked.)

This slander, no doubt mightily contributes to Rabbi Dweck’s great success in the community – libel always backfires. The above was posted by someone who in turn questioned if his assailant is really a rabbi: “Rabbi” Yosef Mizrachi Slams Rabbi Joseph Dweck. As someone said: Bad things for the nation are good things for the media.

Here he talks against Rabbi Dweck’s new stand on gay men: The Rasha – Wicked & Corrupted Ideology Of Reform “Rabbi” Yosef Dweck Promotes Homosexuality – more than two hours of “reactions” to a 90-minute lecture. You can clearly hear how the speaker does not even understand much of the notes that he reads compiled by someone else. We do not believe in the authenticity and correctness of the unauthorized supposedly real quotes of Rabbi Dweck’s lecture from this second-hand critique.

7. A tremendous Sephardic Rabbi, Rav Aaron Bassous, is Monday going to answer Rabbi Dweck. I don’t expect to learn anything from him there as it seems [here] that his main expertise lies in heterosexual relationships. But is would definitely be interesting to see how the learned Rabbi will hopefully properly and with grandeur (grandness) handle the scandal.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. 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When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. 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