Monday, October 4, 2010

Off The Derech in Crown Heights

Watch this film by clicking here: Off-A Glimpse at Hasidic Rebels
This short film is painful for me to watch. 
It's confronting, it's jarring, but it's a reality of life in Crown Heights today, certainly in Melbourne, and in Lubavitch around the world today.  We must not look away! 
I have no answers, only questions, here are a few:


What percentage of youth are we losing? 10%? 25%? 30% More?
Why are so many of our young people getting turned off to Chabad?
Is our educational system at fault, or is it from the home?
Is it the times we live in or can we stem the tide?


I listen to some of what these young people have to say and I have to admit some of it makes sense to me.  Kids notice hypocrisy, kids don't want to be forced into a mold, kids want to have fun. I understand all that.


But I want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them and scream, "There is nothing out there but an empty existence! Hashem is all there is! You are destroying yourself! The Rebbe loves you! Come back! Come back before it is too late and you waste your life and regret your choice!"


And to the girls I especially want to scream,"You are selling yourself short! You are more than a sexual object! You are a daughter of the King of Kings!"


And the most important question is this:
Do we care enough to do what is necessary to bring them home or not?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is very sad.

The one thing that they all have in common is feeling pushed around by Yiddishkeit. It is very important that parents encourage the child's input into the choices they make and be sure to let them develop (especially as teenagers) their own standards. They should CHOOSE their Yiddishkeit according to their own sense of inner justice. Parents can help them with this, talk with them about these ideas and trust them to rise to the challenge.
Sometimes it is the school, not the home that forces them around. As parents in this case, we have to help our children cope and support them with dealing with what feels to them like being bullied by the school and/or Yiddishkeit.
If a kid doesn't like school, outside the system, you drop out or spend your time doing other things. In Chabad, if you don't like school - your options are very limited. Any choice outside of staying in school is precarious Yiddishkeit-wise. This should be worked on. It is only in this last 100 years or less that all kids - academically minded or NOT - are expected to finish schooling.

Signed,
My thoughts

The Repenting Jewess said...

I thought Chabad provided more options than the other frummies. After all, if you don't like school in Chabad, you can always find some outreach activities to get involved with.

Klal said...

The yellow flaggers and the Yechi nutters are responsible for a large percentage of this generation going off the derech. Kids are not stupid. They look at all that and think 'what a bunch of cultish baloney!'

Anonymous said...

Actually, Klal,

I think that they see the immaturity on BOTH sides and go off - they are not stupid and they think, if the adults can't live peacefully, i'LL look for a way I can live in peace. Your judgemental, side-taking comments and negativity, for example, make them think Chalila Yiddishkeit is all a farse, if grown-ups can be so unfrum out loud and it is accepted as ok.
Reminds me of the several Lubavitchers who were drawn to Chabad by the loshon hora of the misnagdim against Chabad. They went to see for themselves if it was really true - and stayed.
If we grown ups talk so meanly to each other, can we blame them for looking elsewhere for moral behaviour?

Anonymous said...

There is no question about it that the Meshichist nonsense has torn apart a generation of young people away from Yiddishkeit. It's fanatical, dogmatic, contradictory and hypocritical. These kids see older people in a zombie like state who scream Yechi and have lost all ability for critical thinking, andas the young people said in this video, they see a cult. They want to escape the cult. They know this is not emes, they know this is not Yiddishket, and since there is no talking to cult followers, they make an exit first chance they get.

xyz said...

No question that the yechi and meshichist meshugaasim have caused chabad here and worldwide to lose many young people.

And the people we lose are the ones with an average or high IQ who soon realise what garbage they have been fed - and think to themselves, well if this is nonsense, who says all the other teachings are not?

And they leave - usually to become secular - like their parents or grandparents were - not so long ago.

Chabad is good a bringing in outsiders but nowhere as good at ensuring that future generations remain with us.

Usually we see that those who are still here are those who are simple (or less). Very sad all around.

Where is the rebbe when we really need him? Ad modai?