A group of Yidden, simple shchainim, went to meet with Skver’s leadership circle. They did not come with politics or power. They came as parents, as Baalei Batim, as Yidden desperate to preserve the peace of their homes and the Kedushah of their neighborhoods.
With broken hearts, they begged: stop buying homes in our communities only to pack them with low lives, pritzus and crime. Stop turning quiet Yiddishe streets into places of pritzus, chaos and fear.
The response they were given? “This is what the Tatte wanted, we have to do this to protect our community, our children. You need to understand that we are a community that does the most Chesed in the world. But this is not something that we can even negotiate on. We just have to do this.”
Those words should make us stop and ask, what did I just hear?
“Tatte” may sound lofty, but no one can claim a license to harm others on the grounds that “this is what the Tatte wanted.” The Torah is eternal, and every generation must follow its ways. If a policy results in Chilul Hashem, in pritzus, in tearing apart Yiddishe neighborhoods, then no amount of “Tatte” can justify what is going on, because that is not the Torah’s way.
But “we are a community that does the most Chesed in the world” is equally hollow. Chesed is one of the great pillars of Klal Yisroel. It defines us as a people. It is the very foundation on which the world stands, Olam Chesed Yibaneh. To invoke the name of Chesed in order to justify behavior that is the opposite of Chesed conduct, which brings pain, division, and harm to fellow Yidden is a distortion that undermines the very integrity of Torah itself.
Yes, Chesed is central. Yes, Ahavas Yisroel is central. But one Mitzvah does not cancel another. Because a community invests heavily in one area does not mean it can excuse Achzarius in another. Torah does not work on a “balance sheet” where good deeds erase aveiros. Each stands on its own, and each carries its own weight.
True Chesed uplifts. It creates Achdus. It eases suffering and reflects the ways of Hashem Himself, מה הוא רחום אף אתה רחום. When “Chesed” is used as a shield to excuse behavior that isolates or intimidates, it no longer deserves the name Chesed. It becomes something far more dangerous, Achzarius dressed in the garments of mitzvah.
No amount of good can erase the damage caused by policies that exclude or harass. A ribbon-cutting of a Chesed project does not make mutar what the Torah makes assur. Chazal teach דרכיה דרכי נעם וכל נתיבותיה שלום—the Torah’s ways are pleasant and peaceful. To twist that into דרכיה דרכי מחלוקת וכל נתיבותיה סבל is to hollow out the Torah’s very message.
To say, “We are a community of Chesed, but we must do this” is hollow, and dangerous. Teaching the next generation that as long as you carry the label of Chesed, anything else, even actions that harm other Yidden, can be permitted is surely a guarantee that whatever Chesed takes place will be short-lived and will eventually expire.
Klal Yisroel deserves better. We deserve to see Torah life modeled by the way the Torah sets forth. Not by cruelty hidden under a banner of kindness.
If we allow Chesed to be hijacked for actions that trample the mitzvah of ואהבת לרעך כמוך, then the word loses its meaning. And when Chesed loses its meaning, so too does the heart of our people.
Let’s work together towards true Ahavas Yisroel. That doesn’t mean you need to follow my ways, or I must follow yours. That means fully internalizing and understanding that every Yid, whether they Daven like you or live like me, is still part of the same Klal Yisroel.
It means seeing each other’s strengths instead of trying to erase each other’s presence! It means appreciating that the Aibeshter put us all here together, not to destroy one another, but to build. And certainly it does not mean to destroy each other’s neighborhoods.
Ahavas Yisroel does not mean trampling other Yidden in the name of someone else’s agenda.
Trying to live as an Ohaiv Yisroel,
Binyomin Ribiat
A Yid within the air-mile
34 Comments
The day the Rabbi retires, the whole system collapses. Peace will last a week—then hell breaks loose.
Can you hold on just a little longer?
It’s no secret in Skver: most Mile homeowners already have Plan B in the back of their minds—
to come live there themselves.
Ben, roll out the red carpet. The guests are coming.
Do these “homeowners” actually control their properties? or are they just a frontmen /straw buyers for ‘shekel hakodesh askanim’
Excellent comment!
The height of hypocrisy and selfishness!
Yasher koach
This is so tragic, especially coming from a so-called “frum” website with rabbinic backing. You’re waging a direct war against an entire holy community, all in the name of “truth”? This is absolutely horrible and represents the worst level of Chillul Hashem.
You may be too young to remember, or maybe you don’t want to, but for many years, the Lakewood Yeshiva, with its Roshei Yeshiva, made sure that Chassidim were not allowed in. The few who did manage to get in were prevented from opening their own kollelim, ensuring Chassidim remained a minority and their own hashkafos were fully controlled. This was a very understandable thing from their perspective—no one went and smeared the Lakewood Yeshiva in the public square the way you are doing now.
I’m not one to predict things, but the Mishnah does say, “v’havei zohir b’gachalsem” (be careful with their coals). You don’t start up with upstanding Yidden. Period. If you don’t like what Skver is doing, just do what you feel is right—the same way the Chassidim eventually did in Lakewood. But stop this horrible Chillul Hashem from continuing!
L’man Ha’emes, your comment deserves an answer.
You accuse us of waging war on “an entire holy community.” This is not war. This is about protecting existing Yiddishe neighborhoods from being deliberately targeted, destabilized, and uprooted. There is no mitzvah, no heter, and no tradition in Klal Yisroel that allows one community to destroy another, and definitely not under the banner of “chesed.” Speaking out against injustice is not a Chillul Hashem, allowing it to continue in silence is.
You compare this to Lakewood’s internal policies decades ago. Whatever did or did not happen there is irrelevant. Lakewood chose how to shape its own yeshiva culture internally. What Skver is doing is different, interfering, buying up, and destabilizing the kehillos around them. Sorry, the parallel doesn’t stand.
“v’havei zohir b’gachalsem.” That does not give license to any group to cause damage to others. The Rambam makes it clear that kavod talmidei chachamim is expressed through honesty, derech eretz, and keeping Halacha. Your suggestion cheapens the Torah.
You finish with “just do what you feel is right”. Halacha tells us otherwiseבמקום שאין איש , השתדל להיות איש. Families are being harmed, neighborhoods are being destroyed, all through Achzarius cloaked in “chesed,” the Torah demands that we speak up. Silence is not neutrality, it is consent. We sure better yell and make noise till the whole world stands up and says “Skver stop the sinas chinam policies”! If Klal Yisroel learned anything from the sick group Lev Tahor, it is that when a community uses Torah language to mask cruelty, the silence of others becomes complicity.
Yes, this is tragic and not because someone dared to write about it, but because it is happening at all. If we truly care about kavod Shamayim, then we must have the courage to say, Chesed will not excuse Achzarius.
Check out the gemarah on :שבת נד
כל מי שיש בידו למחות באנשי ביתו ולא מיחה נתפס על אנשי ביתו
באנשי עירו נתפס על אנשי עירו
בכל העולם כולו נתפס על כל העולם כולו
Today I again declare “SKVER STOP THE SINAS CHINAM”
you make me laugh , the hate written in this platform about skver is scary- and you speak about שנאת חינם????????????????????????????
read it for yoursef.
go few blocks down speak to the people there i promise you wont hear at all any hate vs your guys –hate nonstop
give it a try , buddy
The average guy in Skver is amazing, we are not talking about him or anything else down there besides their גירוש מייל גזירה.
We are here to shine the light on what’s going on here to save our community from being destroyed, and if saving a community is what defines hate in your mind, so let it be.
Your words are full of fire, but I’m looking at the reflection and seeing nothing but hypocrisy!
You accuse others of sinas chinam while publicly creating a bitter spectacle and providing ammunition to those who truly despise Yidden. Just look at all the Skver haters adding insult to injury, writing about things that have nothing to do with your maracha.
How do you justify waging a war on one type of hatred by fostering another, far more public, division within Klal Yisrael?
The Gemara you quote is about being mochah when someone does something wrong. It does not give license to publicly shame them, create strife, hate, and disgust. It’s not about exposing our community to ridicule and tearing it apart from within. If we truly care about Kavod Shamayim, we must have the courage to acknowledge when our actions inflict a greater wound than the one we are fighting.
Mr. L’man Ha’emes, let’s talk about emes.
Hypocrisy is pretending to be a community of chesed while uprooting and destabilizing other kehillos. Hypocrisy is crying “mesirah” while buying houses to evict neighbors. Hypocrisy is having seperate sidewalks for men and women and dumping pritzus on our streets. Hypocrisy is acting all aidel and dumping crime on our streets. Pointing out destruction is not hypocrisy, ignoring it and masking it in holy language is.
We are giving “ammunition” to outsiders? No, thats a mistake. Ammunition to outsiders is the very behavior that you Mr. L’man Ha’emes is defending! The greatest chilul Hashem is not when people protest, it is when Yidden see cruelty and intimidation paraded under the banner of Torah and stay silent. Pretending the awful and shameful policy from Skver is not happening does not protect Kavod Shamayim, it desecrates it further.
You fail to recognize the core issue, our neighborhoods are being ripped apart. That to you Mr L’man Haemes is a “non-issue.”? When Skver stops this campaign and does a real teshuvah, we will lock arms, stand together, and march to greet Mashiach.
Achdus will bring the geuala, and it can’t happen when one side tramples the other.
The Gemara in Shabbos, read the words carefully, “כל מי שיש בידו למחות… נתפס” whoever can protest and doesn’t is held responsible. It does not say “stay silent so people won’t talk.” That’s your spin, not what the gemarah says.
The very Gemara you tried to twist against us proves our point. If the damage is public, the protest must be public too!!!
“Inflict a greater wound,”??? The wound exists: families displaced, kehillos destabilized, neighborhoods in turmoil. Speaking about the wound is not causing it, it is demanding that it finally be healed. Yeah stop the aczurius!
So yes, let’s be l’man ha’emes. And the emes is this, Skver must stop this destructive behavior.
Today I again declare: SKVER STOP THE SINAS CHINAM! Then, and only then, will we be able to stand hand in hand in true achdus to greet Mashiach.
Ben, very well said, to add to this the Ohr Hachaim in Parshes Eikev on Kol Hamitzvo, basiclly sums this up, that you’ll find people that they’re prioritizing a few mitzvos, but then neglect others… you can see inside in more details and to add R’ Shimon Spitzer talks about it in detail….
why are you not calling them to din torah as they wrote in the papers that they’re willing to go?
There’s many reasons why we should or shouldn’t go to beis din and its not up to the aggressor to decide how we should defend our community – I’d let our rabbanim decide if, how, and when to go about it.
This comment sums it up perfectly.
We do not want to go to din Torah. We’ll rather create a website full of hate in the name of ahavas yisroel, but when the other side offers to go to din Torah, you reject that.
Thanks for exposing yourself.
You got reading issues?
Our rabbanim begged them to stop for years, they didnt even look our side. Now when they get a little heat they think they’ll put out a letter that they want to go to beis din and we’ll close shop the minute after.
What a scam…
I didnt say we wont go, I said its not for skver to decide what when and where. It’s on our rabbanim to decide.
you can have all reasons why it is a scam but the pact that you don’t want to try to go to bais din shows that you know that you know that you will not win and that you are just here for heat… and to have fun
and skver can also say the same that its not for you to decide what skver should do.
Oh my, you got some real reading issues…
We will win in any beis din. All beis din has to do is tell Skver to simply follow the clear halachos in shulchan aruch and the game is over.
A couple of weeks ago, Mendel Berger, Avrum Hersh Eisenberg, and their cronies tried to force our rabbanim to put out a letter against us. When they saw they’re not getting through, they decided to publish a forged letter in the local newspapers and let the rabbits explain that they really didnt sign off on it…
Baruch Hashem the outlets weren’t stupid and called up rabbi schabes to ask if he signed it and he said NO! Don’t publish it. But the cronies still sent out the forged letter on the web.
If anyone ever thought Skver wants to go to beis din to hear daas torah, you now know what they want. Intimidate and manipulat until we get sick and tired.
We will go to beis din when there’s a clear way to ensure the psak will be properly enforced by beis din and after making sure these cronies cant intimidate and manipulate the beis din, just like they just tried to do with our rabbanim.
Lemeiseh, its up to our rabbanim to decide on the if when and how to go about it,taking in account the above.
The same applies to them
Why isn’t square calling them to din torah?
They know who they’re dealing with..
Did they went to din torah all those years?
or some balai baatim took metters on their own hands against the torah
Publishing in local papers is the way calling in din torah?
I have 1 question which i was breaking my head the last few days;
Square is doing this because of the Heiliga Tata, doesn’t Chilel Hashem on the highest level over weigh that??
even if they come right by din torah this is chilul hasem on the highest level
shame on you
sorry you lost me. you have besmirched a whole community and left out the basics of Judaism.
Care to educate us on the basics of Judaism?
The basics of Judaism is Torah.
Destroying a Frum community is against the Torah, saving a Frum community is what the Torah expects you to do.
A Final Plea
It’s become clear that you are unwilling to listen to the other side. The way you’ve chosen to handle this is very difficult for me to believe that any genuine Torah authority is truly backing you. How could any Torah authority allow such an open display of hate within Klal Yisrael? If they did give you initial permission, they likely have no idea what this has devolved into. I am 100% certain their intentions were different from this outcome.
I see that figures like Rabbi Schabas, who sounds like a seriously choshuv Rav, and even some of the individuals posting on your site, seem like good people and genuine Talmidei Chachamim. This is what truly confuses me. I believe all your site is doing is instigating hate. I highly doubt you are convincing anyone to join your fight; maybe a few bored Skver-haters, but any normal person looking at your posts and comments is shell-shocked by what you are doing. You are only convincing everyone that this is a hate site, making them run the other way.
I used to have a hard time understanding the Machlokes of Korach and his followers. The Midrashim and Mefarshim tell us they were true Talmidei Chachamim and genuinely G-d-fearing Jews. So why would they cause such strife in Klal Yisrael? The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh asks an even deeper question: they knew that only one person could bring the Ketores, and there were 250 of them! What were they thinking? The answer is that when it comes to a machlokes, the most normal and righteous Jews lose their minds. Their intellect is simply clouded by the thought, “We must win, no matter what.” Nothing rational can be said to them.
I feel I have made my point here more than once, and I don’t have time for this foolishness. It simply bothered me too much to see my Rebbe and his Beis Din—all great Talmidei Chachamim and true Yirei Shamayim —who have never looked beyond their daled amos. Their entire lives are pure dedication to other Yiddin, and yes, even those who aren’t Skver. The Skver Dayan of Boro Park, of Lakewood, and of other cities has the entire city asking them their questions. The Skver Rebbe sits every night until two or three in the morning, giving encouragement, advice, and guidance to multitudes of Jews, not just Skverers. When anyone comes to him, no matter their background, he makes that person feel as if they are the only person in the world. Now, do not dare to claim these holy people are hiding behind Chesed and are really bad, cruel people, ch’v. That is the most horrible thing one could possibly say.
May Hashem help you all find the right way and serve Him in the way He truly wants.
If you truly wanted the truth, you could travel to New Square and try to talk to the Rebbe yourself.
Instead of making condescending speeches on this website
A beautiful word salad which that doesnt explain how you defend Skver who is destroying a yiddish community or how we shouldn’t be allowed to save our community.
Good luck.
My comment above, was directed @ L’man Ha’emes.
Instead of sitting and writing a presumptuous comment, read and research every thing that has been written about this problem. Not only here, but in other places online. It may take a while. The bullying that has been produced and exported out of this “innocent” shtetl has been around for many years. Perhaps the rebbe is a great and holy man. I don’t own a tzidkus barometer.
I do know that chazal say,
“hagadol mechavero, yitzro gadol heimenu”. If you deal in lofty things, your yetzer hora will appear lofty. As long as a person is alive, he has a yetzer hora that enables him to have bechira. If you have no bechira, why should you get credit for the good that you do?
A person who believes that they can not make a mistake is a person at risk of blissfully worshipping himself, ch”v.
Kinna, Taava, and Kavod, slowly drain one’s soul, until a person can no longer tolerate sharing the world with others. Delusions of grandiosity are not a modern era phenomenon. The sattan capitalizes on a person’s weakest link in order to distract them from Learning Torah, Doing Mitzvos, and the Pursuit of Peace.
There is no long term goal – just a continuous distraction to prevent a person from reaching his potential. One who deliberately impedes the spiritual growth of another yid can not be a tzaddik at the same time.
My comment above was a response to L’man Ha’emes.
I’m not an askin or a spokesperson; I’m a simple Skverer, a bystander witnessing a horrible act of sinas chinam. You claim Skver is out to destroy you, to deliberately make your neighborhood unsafe with violence and pritzus. You know very well that this is the tool you use to try and bring Rabanim to your side.
This is such an outlandish lie that it’s beyond belief. Do you honestly think the Skver Rebbe and his chasidim have nothing better to do than make your lives miserable? Are you out of your minds? Did any of you, even once, go to the Rebbe or one of the Dayanim and ask why Skver is buying houses and why they are putting in tenants you find undesirable? If you had, you might have heard an answer and could have avoided this whole horrible affair.
The emes is simple, and I already mentioned it, but perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. The Rebbe wants the shtetl to be a closed-in community to maintain a hashpa’ah he believes is right for his chasidim. The same way Lakewood wants its own hashkafa, the same way Flatbush never fully embraced Chassidim, and the same way every other community—whether it’s Viznitz, Satmar, or Belz—wants to keep its unique derech. That is simply their shittah.
Most Yidden living in Skver have never had or even seen a backyard barbecue or a baseball game. There are no swimming pools. Women dress in a specific way, men in another. The idea is to maintain a certain identity. To the Rebbe, this identity is so important that he felt there needed to be a buffer zone—not to destroy you, but to protect our own way of life.
The Rebbe’s and the askanims’ idea was to buy up any houses that went up for sale next to Skver to create that buffer. The fact that they are now inhabited by goyim who might be disruptive is not to make you run away. It’s because they have to get the highest-paying tenant to cover the mortgage on a house they bought for one sole purpose: to fulfill the will of their Rebbe.
You can spin this however you want, but you are not talking to the people who make these decisions. Your public campaign is a massive chillul Hashem.
There’s many levels of lying.
There’s the guy who is lying but is ashamed himself.
There’s the guy who is lying who is proud of himself.
There’s the guy who is lying and is so proud the he doesn’t care everyone knows he’s lying.
And then there’s the one who is so proud that he even called himself L’man Ha’emes.
_____________
Skver never hid the fact why they buy houses in the mile and what they do with the houses in order to keep jews out of the area.
I’m just gonna quote word for word what R’ Meir Schiller (the rebbe’s friend and unofficial english spokesperson of skver) said on the rischa deoreisa podcast a couple of weeks ago explaining Skvers mehalech:
“Buy up the properties, sell them to people who would be difficult to live together with – more high crime communities, and to create multifamily dwellings for, you know, 40-50 people in a house so that this would become an uninhabitable area for orthodox Jews.”
Stop any random Skver yingerman on the street and he will tell you this – unless he is ashamed enough.
L’man Ha’emes, we’re you hired by Mendel Berger? (You don’t have to answer this question…)
I think you said in a previous post that whoever wants to leave Skver could do so easily. Thats not true, as a born and bred, I’ve witnessed people moving out and being bashed by half of the community, who are most of their family, friends, and acquaintances. And then again, chances are odd that their children will be accepted in mosdos.
“The Skver Dayan of Boro Park, of Lakewood, and of other cities has the entire city asking them their questions. The Skver Rebbe sits every night until two or three in the morning, giving encouragement, advice, and guidance to multitudes of Jews, not just Skverers. When anyone comes to him, no matter their background, he makes that person feel as if they are the only person in the world.”
Hello…? Did you read the article?!? That’s exactly what Binyamin said, chesseddoes not excuse you….
And besides the point, no, the rabbi does not make you feel like the only person in the world. Things are very rushed and you can barely blurt out your question. He doesn’t owe us his time, not at all, just pointing out that it’s not exactly true…
I feel the need to speak up again. Regardless of whether Square wants to go to Bais Din, never cared before the public outcry, or any other excuses. if a Yid has a complaint on another Yid, the first step is a din torah. It can be with a Rav or if they can’t agree on one through a Bais Din through a hazmanh. That must, in all cases, regardless if one side wants or doesn’t want, be the first step. A PR campaign without that step has no validity. It doesn’t matter if you think they’ll listen or don’t think they’ll listen, you must try. If there is a hazmanah and they are “lo tzayis” then there is room for further steps. Saying Square never cared doesn’t negate your responsibility for proper procedure. Until you go through a Bais Din all of this is rechilus against an entire Aidah in Klal Yisroel and a chillul Hashem. In any disagreement one side can say I didn’t go through Bais Din because the other side wouldn’t listen or doesn’t care and therefore I can do what I want. This would destroy Klal Yisroel. I’m sure everyone here wants to be Ehrlich. Please do what Yidden do and go through Bais Din.
Mr. Cohen
The idea of going to Beis Din sounds frum. In reality, it makes absolutely no sense.
Who is the “Baal Din”?
This is not a dispute with one individual. There are more than 500 homes involved, hidden under layers of shell LLCs, straw buyers, and shifting ownership. Who exactly are we taking to Beis Din? 500+ owners? Or “Skver” as a kehilla? And if it’s Skver, who represents them, the Rebbe, the Village, the Judenrein Housing committee, private investors? There is no single party to summon.
Even if, by some miracle, all parties sat down, Beis Din has no enforcement mechanism for the Owners of these homes.
Toshvei Skver Shtetl residents reached out and gave firsthand testimony “When Skver loses, they ignore it or spin it.” So what’s the point??? This whole idea of Beis Din just kicks the can down the road, all in the meantime, more homes are purchased under the Judenrein policy.
Take a look at The Chofetz Chaim in Hilchos Lashon Hara, when Beis Din cannot stop the damage, it is permitted, and sometimes required, to go to authorities (Mesirah). That is not “rechilus.” It is hishtadlus lehatzil es hachevrah, protecting the community.
ואם רואה שאחד מתכוין להזיק את חבירו בין בגופו בין בממונו או מצערו, מצוה להציל הניזק מידו. ואף אם אי אפשר לו להציל אלא אם כן יגלה הענין לבני אדם, אף על פי שבזה גורם שידעו בגנותו של זה – מותר, ובלבד שיהא כוונתו לתועלת ולא להנאת עצמו לשנאו או לבזותו
ועוד זאת, אם רואה בני אדם שמתקבצים לעשות רע, ואין ב”ד יכולים למחות בידם, מותר לגלות הענין לפני בני אדם שיוכלו למחות בידם ולהפר עצתם. וכל שכן אם הענין נוגע לרבים – דבודאי מצוה רבה לגלות זאת
This is not a personal money dispute between two eherliche Yidden. This is about a policy of Judenrein, systematically pushing out Yidishe families. No Beis Din in the world is set up to adjudicate or “pasken” such a thing. That is why the argument “go to Beis Din” is a ludicrous suggestion, it sounds like an amazing Yidishe idea, but all it does is postpone us from calling out balls and strikes so more sinas chinam violations can take place!
Going to Beis Din under these circumstances is not Ehrlich. It is naïve and enables further harm to our Kehillos.
On a side note, Skver should love the publicity that we are bringing them. The mitzvah of sinas chinam which Skver holds so dear is being exposed for the whole world. Mitzvah l’farsem!
R’ Binyomin,
I haven’t posted in a while, but I just had to check in to see some more of your pure, delicious ahavas Yisrael. It’s so amazing to see a fellow Yid like you—the kind that’s so truly rare to find. Your boundless ahavas chinam and selfless askanus l’maan ha’klal show such remarkable beauty! You’re definitely bringing the geulah closer, especially with your brilliant and enlightening insights posted here.
Thanks for sharing all these amazing articles and posts; it’s shining such a magnificent light on you and the people you present. Keep up your amazing work saving the true upholders of Hashem’s army, fighting the good fight that will surely bring about the geulah!
If you show that you are ready to go to bais din we will let you know how it should present us
Mr. Lman Haemes,
If it’s true that we in skver just want a buffer zone, then can we be mentchlich about it? Can we put middle class people into our homes? People that we would tolerate as our own neighbors? Can you ask of your tenants to not have loud music outdoors? I did. If it’s truly just a buffer zone then please let’s have some ahavas yisroel to yidden living there.