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“Freiing Out” – A New Book by Binyamin Tanny: Why People Go Off the Derech and What We Can do About it.

Recently I was excited to find out that a book I wrote three years ago is finally getting published. My inspiration to write “Freiing Out” came three and a half years ago when I was on a visit to Sydney, Australia. At a Friday night Shabbat dinner I was discussing the issue of why so many children were going off the derech and dropping their Judaism. A woman at the table remarked, “Binyamin, it sounds like you’ve got some good ideas on how to prevent children from going off the derech. You should write a book.”

And so I did. I wrote most of the book in two weeks, spending around twelve hours a day of solid writing. It then took a couple of months to finish it and then a while to get it published.

But thank G-d it looks like it should be available in the next few weeks, and I pray that some of the ideas I share in “Freiing Out” helps Jewish people stay strong in their Judaism.

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Jews For Jesus in Australia and Where Can You Find Jews For Jesus in Australia

Jews for Jesus car in Bondi Sydney Australia outside the Jewish shop

Jews For Jesus in Australia and Where Can You Find Jews For Jesus in Australia  

What does a Rabbi have to say about Jews for Jesus in Australia?

First off, I apologize for the title of this blog post “Jews For Jesus in Australia and Where Can You Find Jews For Jesus in Australia,” and for mentioning it again here. Because it is important to say Jews for Jesus in Australia a few times to get this page found in the search engines. I just hope that any Jew G-d forbid searching for Jews for Jesus in Australia may find my page and learn something about real Judaism before they are polluted with junk.

Well, I’ve long known that they unfortunately are operating in Australia. I do wish they’d go perhaps to Indonesia instead.  With a population of 250 million people there and maybe a dozen Jews, they’d have a hard time finding any Jews.

My first encounters in Australia with Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews, or whatever one calls them, was as a Rabbinical Student in Sydney. Some of these missionaries had gone through the Jewish neighborhoods in the Eastern Suburbs dropping off books, something about “The Real Messiah,” on the door steps of any house with a mezuzah.  One of the yeshivah boys having discovered this, mobilized a unit to go and collect as many books as they could before the home-dwellers ever got to them. Having collected a few hundred books, they made a bonfire in a garbage can and burnt them.

A few years later I was part of a group of Rabbis and educators who attended a two-day seminar on how to counter missionaries targeting Jews and how to deal with Jewish people who have, G-d protect us, fallen into one of these groups.

An organization called “Jews for Judaism,” works hard at countering the Jews for Jesus. Unfortunately the Jews for Jesus organization have a lot of money and human resources which makes it challenging working against them.

The most bizarre occurrence for me with a messianic Jewish organization was in Tokyo, Japan. I walked out of the train station in downtown Tokyo, and some guy wearing a big Jews for Jesus t-shirt handed me a brochure in Japanese and English. Now really, how many Jews are they going to convert in Japan?

Anyway, I got to thinking of all this because a friend of mine took this photo a few weeks ago. I’m not sure what they needed for the Judaica shop in Bondi.

It’s important that we know these guys are operating and that we must be prepared to deal with them.

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What’s Going on in Sydney, Australia in the Summer

What’s Going on in Sydney, Australia in the Summer

Still having a great time in Australia. Last week I did some camping a few hours out of Sydney. It was great to camp along the river, going for a swim in the morning, time to pray and meditate, and over all be out in the fresh open air.

I guess I’ve not been rushed to travel around Australia because I’ve seen most of the country already: Darwin, Uluru, Cairns, Tasmania, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, etc. Rachel has not yet been far from Sydney, so we will do some trips soon please G-d.

However, there is so much to see and do around Sydney, especially now with the Summer Festival going on. Also with the weather nice, I like to get out to the national parks as much as possible, for a day hike or longer. Rachel and I do some hiking together, but she is perhaps not as ambitious. I used to run trails doing ultra marathons, and sometimes when I get on the trail I can go to fast. So we do small walks together and Rachel leaves me the crazy long hikes to do solo.

We’re playing with the idea of buying a car and driving around the country. This is a common practice for backpackers to do. One option is to get a van with a mattress in the back, which makes for an easy place to sleep. However vans will use more fuel than cars. A camper-van is nice too, but uses loads of fuel.

Those are just some random thoughts.

We’ll keep you posted.

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On the First Night of Chanukah The ‘Traveling Rabbi’ Becomes the ‘Juggling Rabbi’ on Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia

About seven years ago I did a juggling/magic/ fire spinning; show for Chabad F.R.E.E and Chabad of Bondi beach. It was great to be doing the show again  after being out of it for a few years. I remember the times years ago when I’d be booked at a half a dozen Chanukah shows, and there would be these kids who attended every Chanukah party around town. They would be seeing me for fourth, fifth or sixth time, and they sat there calling out my lines and jokes before I said them. Good memories :)

 

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Why I have not Posted in The Last Few Weeks

This is from a hike I did 10 years ago in the Blue Mountains in Australia. Last week I went and did the same walk. It is still as beautiful

Hi All,

Those of you who are regular visitors to the blog would have noticed that I have not posted in the last few weeks. I have been busy writing a book and have thank G-d finished it at last. It is about traveling the world; filled with adventure and spiced with Jewish thoughts and practices. I hope to get this out in the next few months. I’ll either publish it with a major publisher or may make it available through print on demand.

Tomorrow night on Bondi beach I’ll be doing a Juggling Show at around 7:30. It is part of a joint Chanukah party with F.R.E.E. and Chabad of Bondi Beach which starts at 5:30pm. I hope you can make it.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that all is well, and I should have a few good Chanukah posts over the next week.
Regards,
-Ben

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The Four Faces of Israel: A Play

In the Four Faces of Israel, Helen Gottstein represents an Israeli Arab's point of view

In the play Four Faces of Israel, Helen Gottstein represents an Israeli Arab's point of view

Tonight I went to Shalom College with a friend of mine to check out a play about Israel and its people.  I was surprised when in walked a religious, orthodox Jewish woman.  I was surprised but pleased to see her putting on the play.  After all, so many people have misconceptions about women in orthodoxy, what they can and cannot do, and it was so nice to see an orthodox woman sitting up at the front.

She began by introducing herself, telling us a bit about her background.  Born in Melbourne to a secular family, she became ba’alat teshuva (returned to orthodoxy) starting at the age of 19.  She moved to Israel, where she now lives with her 9 children.  She presented some very strong views so that, although initially I had agreed with her, I began to doubt, and then get upset.  She made some pretty bold and tactless statements, saying outright that her life as a religious Jew made her better than secular Jews, no matter what their scientific achievements.  I was bothered because I kept thinking, “This is NOT the way to do kiruv!”  I was also concerned that the ensuing debate would derail us and she would never begin the play.  Some people were so upset by her strong stance that they got up and walked out.

A few minutes later, in the heat of the debate, she pulled the scarf off her head and declared, “I am an actress!” and we all gasped and laughed with relief.  The play had begun, but she had acted the part so very well, handled the onslaught of questions in character with such knowledge, that we had not even realized it was all part of the play! I was very sorry for those people who had gotten up and left.  They ended up missing the point of the whole exercise.  Initially she was in the character of a charedi (religious, orthodox) Israeli Jew, who she had portrayed pretty flawlessly – good, bad, and all!

She tied a bright, tie-dyed scarf over her head and continued, in a Southern American voice, as a settler, living in Judea and Sumaria (the “West Bank”) with her five children.  She argued, with classic Southern fire and ice, why the land of Israel is ours and why we cannot give it back.  Aside from not doing a very good American accent (what Australian can?), she was convincing and it was great.  At one point, after some nudging from my friend, I asked a question – but did it in my very best Southern accent.  (I did grow up in Virginia, y’all!)  This elicited lots of laughter.  She fielded most questions well, and it was obvious she knew her stuff.  She stayed in character the entire time.

Then, she pulled off her scarf and her skirt, unrolled the pants she was wearing, and unbottoned the top few rows of her shirt.  Wrapping a fashionable scarf around her neck, she declared in an absolutely flawless Israeli accent that she has a very hot date to keep tonight so we must make this fast.  She told us about herself, how she grew up on a kibbutz, but left it to work in some factories – one making machinery parts and the other processing pork products.  Chas v’chalila!  She then acted 100% as a secular Israeli – laughing about the gay pride parade that the charedi woman had decried, insisting on the two-state solution against which the settler was so fervent. The debate with the audience continued.

Finally, she whipped off her fashionable scarf, putting on instead a huge long coat and a hijab, and entered the world of the Israeli Arab.  As an Israeli Arab living in a Jerusalem village, she has all the same rights as other Israelis.  Yet, when she crosses through the border into Judea and Sumaria every day to teach at the high school where she is principal, she is subject to a lot of questioning by the guards.  She cannot stay overnight there because if she does, she could lose her ability to return to Israel.  She is happy for a one-state solution, she is happy to live with the Jews, but she does not want any divisions in the land.  Interestingly enough, this character, which I thought would be the most fascinating and controversial of all, received the least debate and response.  It was almost as if the Jews in the room saw the hijab and were paralyzed.  Another Jew, we can question endlessly, but a Muslim? Well, questioning a Muslim just isn’t politically correct!

In the end, it was a powerfully compelling show that raised a lot of questions.  For myself, I identified a lot of areas where I agreed or disagreed with the characters and what they represented.  I found myself straddling the first two, identifying most with a group in Israel known as dati leumi – religious Zionist Jews – such that I agreed with both characters, and with neither.  The best thing about the play was how there was something in it to both please and offend every person in the room.  In my mind, the purpose of art is to foster thought, and one of the best ways to do that is to offend, and to provide contrast.  In this play, Helen Gottstein did exactly that.  She did a great job and I recommend seeing this play if ever it is in your area!

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