6/18/12

Leading Orthodox rabbi slams Jewish Conservatives’ gay ‘marriage’ vote

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BY ANGELA O’BRIEN

Tue Jun 05, 2012 15:21 ESTComments (22)Tags: Gay Marriage, Judaism, Yehuda Levin

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) — After leaders in the Conservative Jewish community voted to officially endorse gay marriage rituals, one leading Orthodox rabbi has said the move is “depraved” and “turning everything holy on its head.”



Last week, guidelines for performing same-sex “marriages” were voted on by the Jewish Conservatives’ highest legal body, the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The guidelines passed in a 13-0 vote, with one rabbi abstaining.

Rabbi Yehuda Levin

“We acknowledge that these partnerships are distinct from those discussed in the Talmud as ’according to the law of Moses and Israel,’ but we celebrate them with the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages,” the approved document says.



The approval by the Conservative branch of Judaism in the United States of gay unions follows on the prior support of the Reform and Reconstructionist branches.
But Rabbi Levin—an Orthodox Jewish leader who often functions as a spokesman for the Rabbinical Alliance of America and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada—told LifeSiteNews that he is ashamed of the “depravity” and “total cravenness” of the vote.



The decision of the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Levin said, reveals that “the ultra liberal Jewish crazies - who have long since abandoned any semblance of their great grand-fathers’ religion - pursue every political zeitgeist and have to run to get in front of the wagon as it hurtles down towards Sodom.”



The new guidelines allow for two kinds of gay wedding, as well as outline stipulations on homosexual divorce. To Rabbi Levin, the fact that any kind of gay union should be endorsed in the name of Judaism, in unconscionable. “Even pagans in ancient times realized how inappropriate same-gender marriage was,” he declared.



According to the Rabbinical Assembly’s website, homosexual rabbinical students helped to draft the new guidelines. “As treasured members of our community,” states the Rabbinical Assembly’s website, “they are most directly affected by the proposed new liturgy and we sought their guidance.” http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/story/grappling-tradition



“We normal religious people have to see from all this craziness,” said Rabbi Levin, “that He [God] is sending us a message to look at ‘them’—the liberal crazies—and redouble our spiritual efforts to do proactively, loudly, and clearly, just the opposite.”
 
Originally posted on LifeSiteNews

6/8/12

Stand Up For Religious Freedom Rally -- Huntsville, Alabama -- June 8, 2012

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Part 1

Part 2

Chillul Hashem by Touro

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APPEARED IN THE FLATBUSH JEWISH JOURNAL. IT RECEIVED MUCH COMMENT & WAS DULY NOTED BY TOURO'S TOP LEADERSHIP Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5772
Dear Editor:
 I am writing to convey my utter dismay and disillusionment with Touro College for selecting Judge Judith Kaye as its June 4th Commencement Speaker.  Judge Kaye officiated at a high profile same gender marriage this past weekend involving NY City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.  Furthermore, she was instrumental while on the bench, in actively setting the legal groundwork for the eventual passage of the N.Y.S. same gender marriage law.
While on the bench of the New York State Court of Appeals, and presiding as Chief Judge, Judith Kaye was a key decisor in the case of Levin vs. Yeshiva University which ultimately forcedAlbert Einstein Medical School to admit same gender couples into its marital dormitory.  Judge Kaye even went so far as to write her own concurring opinion in that case in which she expressed the idea that the maintenance of separate dormitories for married couples could, by itself, constitute “discrimination”(!!).
In my estimation, it constitutes a grave Chillul Hashem for a Jewish institution such as Touro which touts its Torah values, Rabbeim and Bais Medrash system, to select as commencement speaker, Judith Kaye, whose values and persona are antithetical to the basic Torah precepts of kedusha.  This trespass is all the more egregious when one factors in that the graduates and their families may be predominantly Orthodox. This should be all the more self evident at this late stage of the devolving culture.
 Educational institutions such as Touro who cater to Orthodox students are ethically bound to carefully discriminate as to who they permit to inspire their students.  Touro must be cognizant that many within and without of the Orthodox community will infer that the Torah community couldn’t care a whit about the issue of same gender marriage and all the attendant issues of this nefarious agenda (i.e. adoption, education, the military, etc.). 
After all, this isn’t a politician to whom some will still mistakenly claim we “owe” something and thus we must countenance honoring them.  There must be hundreds of success stories in our community who could be appropriate commencement speakers; men who represent the finest of Torah Im Derech Eretz, and who would be appropriate role models.  Doesn’t Touro’s choice of Judith Kaye act as a non-verbal communication that she is somehow “kosher” as even a “partial” role model? To this I protest and declare: Chas V’shalom! In Yiddishkeit, we don’t bifurcate like this.  Half kosher is entirely “treif”!
(It may also be questioned as to why a Torah men’s Bais Medrash/College audience must be addressed from the podium by a woman b’chlal?  I’m not getting into the halacha aspect, I’m questioning why this is necessary.)
I don’t believe that the late Dr. Bernard Lander a”h would have taken such an insensitive and anti-Torah action.  If he did, he would surely have apologized to the Torah community.  I hope the current leadership of Touro will do the same.  As for me, my attitude towards Touro will certainly be: respect but suspect.
                                                                                                       With Sadness,
                                                                                                                 Rabbi Yehuda Levin
                                                                                                       Rav, Kehilas Mevakshai Hashem
                                                                                                        Spokesman of Torah Values
                                                                                                        Igud Harabonim/Rabbinical Allianceof America

6/6/12

(1998) Rabbi Yehuda Levin electrifies the multitude at the 25th March for Life

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With the following words, the Brooklyn pro-life leader challenges "Mr. President" Clinton -- and fellow religious leaders as well
Washington, DC (January 22, 1998)     My grandfather was persecuted in Czarist Russia! My in-laws were in concentration camps! And here I am, a single Orthodox Jew allowed to speak to millions of pro-life Americans. God bless America!
I’m here with five of my children. At any time now we’re expecting our ninth child, God willing. [cheers and applause] Thank you!
Mr. President, as an Orthodox Jew I have the deepest respect for the Presidency. But from this podium, I told you that you would be held accountable. On the 25th anniversary of Roe versus Wade I remind you that it is not merely a coincidence that episodes of Watergate and tapes seem to be repeating themselves a quarter of a century later. It is not merely a coincidence that the Jones deposition and the latest intern scandal occured in the very shadows of the 25th anniversary of Roe versus Wade. God has demonstrated manifestly that immoral behavior leads to cheapening of life and cheapening of life leads to immoral behavior.
Mr. President, the partial-birth abortion murder is nothing new. Pharaoh in Egypt in the book of Exodus ordered the Jewish midwives to partially deliver Jewish babies and if they were male to murder them. Pharaoh! -- I mean, Mr. President Clinton! The Jewish women rejected Pharaoh then and we won’t listen now!
President Clinton! Please inhale NOW and declare: I’ve been wrong on issues of life and morality! I’ve been wrong!
President Clinton! President Clinton, for once lead the country in the direction of respect for life, for God ordained life and morality.
President Clinton! Moses said to Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" And we say to you today: Let our children grow! Let our children live!
Mr. President, my fellow American, these scandals afford you an opportunity to become one of the leading political figures of the American landscape. As surely as religious Americans have been forgiving and welcoming to Dr. Nathanson and Norma McCorvey and others who have turned around on issues of life and morality, America would welcome you Mr. President, if on this very day you were to pull together many of the religious leaders that are here today. Go in front of the microphones, Mr. President. Take responsibility for your personal actions, and your actions on the abortion issue, announcing you wish to dedicate your remaining term to lead a revival, a return to morality and life values. Overnight, Mr. President, you would gain the support of the overwhelming majority of Americans who thirst for moral and political leadership.
President Clinton, find the inner moral fortitude to take this step now for your country and for God Almighty.
To the religious leaders I say we are not entirely innocent of brazen politicians who promote anti-life immorality and still have access to our religious institutions: WE STILL HONOR THEM! We, so to speak, turn the other cheek, emboldening them to persist in their promotion of even sodomy and partial-birth abortion. Our president--the politicians--must be held accountable by us. Let us take an example from Cardinal O’Conner and Bishop Tindlan who prohibited pro-abortion politicians from addressing diocesan events. We must draw a line in the sand and act as religious LEADERS, not as diplomatic politicians, if we want the thirsty flock to be religious followers.
Finally to our friends and allies in the political arena: A woman can’t be a little bit pregnant, and we can’t compromise a little by funding pro-partial-birth murder candidates. If it’s good for the party politics, that’s not enough. We must ask ourselves if GOD would compromise so that we could have more gains in Congress. Would God compromise?
I dare say God would say leave the victory to me, just don’t compromise and do what’s right.
President and Mrs. Clinton! Come back to us today. We’ll leave the light on for you!
We’ll lift our horn of life, to welcome your return!
Thank you, and God bless!
 Transcribed by Tim Broderick

6/3/12

March For Life 2004 Speech

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In memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

6/1/12

Message to Y Love

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