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Of Making Many Books

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12) A pdf version of this essay  can be downloaded here [*] Years in brackets refer to an individual’s or book author’s year of birth Thought experiment for the day: Anyone born 1945 would be pushing towards 80 and mostly past their prime. So name any Charedi sefer written by someone born post war that has or is likely to enter the canon, be it haloche, lomdus, al hatorah or mussar. Single one will do for now — IfYouTickleUs (@ifyoutickleus) July 27, 2022 A tweet in the summer which gained some traction asked for a book by an author born from 1945 onwards that has entered the Torah and rabbinic canon or is heading in that direction. I didn't exactly phrase it this way and some quibbled about 'canonisation'. The word does indeed have a precise meaning though in its popular use it has no narrow definition. Canonisation, or ‘entering the canon’ is generally understood to

How to Hijack a School…

…as taught at Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School

To those of you who have not yet heard, and that assumes that you read neither the Hamodia nor the Jewish Tribune, the voluntary-aided Yesodey Hatorah Senior School (YHS) has just appointed a new head teacher. She goes by Rivky Weinberg, but don't be fooled by her surname. Her maiden name was Pinter, daughter of Avrohom/Abraham Pinter, and that is the story that concerns us here.

This appointment is rotten at so many levels, so brazenly bent, so beggaring belief, so cynically contemptuous of staff, parents, pupils and the entire community, so disregardful of any modicum of propriety that it is difficult to know even where to start. But start we must and as the mishna teaches us, it’s not your job to complete the task but that isn't an excuse not to have a go.

Head teacher age

Let us begin with what is certain about Weinberg, which is her age. Wienberg is 33 years old and this makes her one of the youngest head teachers in the UK. In fact, as the table above shows (see Table 4), she may well be the very youngest head teacher in England!

So what are those exceptional qualities that have earned her this appointment at such a young and tender age? And what is so unique about her that she had to be brought over from Israel after a search that apparently spanned more than half the globe? Well, if we know little of her supposed experience it is not for lack of opportunity. Unlike other head-teacher appointments to frum schools up and down the country, Hamodia saw fit to dedicate a third of a page to this appointment but mentioned not a single qualification. It talks about her 'wealth of relevant experience' but remains vague on the details. Likewise, a letter was posted to parents notifying them of the appointment but with a similar lack of detail.

Another certainty is that she has little recent teaching experience in this country because she has been living abroad for the last few years. As far as anyone can remember, when she was living here about 10 years ago she worked at the Hamodia where daddy of course is an 'adviser' and which explains the hyperbolic announcement of her appointment. The grapevine further suggests that until very recently she's been the co-author of the popular Hamodia household-tips column, 'That's an Idea', where she went under the name of R. Vine. Whether advice on how to get chrein stains out of your husband's shirt qualifies one as a head-teacher is anyone's guess but apparently the YHS appointment panel think it does and I am in no position to argue.

So without the years, without apparent qualifications and with some vague experience only, what else might be behind her appointment? I shan't keep you guessing and considering how the vacancy arose may give us some clue. In March of this year the former head teacher of the school, Mrs Gitty (Rachel) Pinter, passed away. She was the wife of the Principal of YHS, Avrohom Pinter, and she was head teacher since about the 1970s when YHS was still a private school. It was following her passing that it fell to the governing body to appoint a new head teacher which they have now done.

And this is the point I am getting to. Rivky Weinberg has been appointed as head teacher for one reason only: because she is lucky enough to be daddy's girl and daddy believes he can get away with it. Her qualification is being her mother's and father's daughter and her experience consists of having them as parents for some 30 odd years. I haven't made this up and the governors have themselves said so. "As a daughter of Mrs Pinter she has a deep understanding of" yada yada yada.

Let me say that I'm prepared to believe that Weinberg's appointment is perfectly within the law. This school that denies its pupils anything from qualified and experienced teachers, a comprehensive curriculum, a broad range of school trips and even school meals, will gladly splash out generously on legal advice whenever its carefully constructed façade of lies and misinformation is under threat. You can therefore rest assured that they've covered themselves from every angle with the best advice that money can buy. But what neither lawyers nor ingeniuous household tips can do is remove the stench and boy does this stink.

YHS head ad, relocation

In the four-and-a-half months of the vacancy there were perhaps only 6 adverts with relatively few details of the job description, they contained no requirements for qualifications and in some of the adverts there was not even mention of experience. The ads repeatedly stated the availability of relocation costs as if it was a foregone conclusion that the candidate will have to be headhunted from abroad, though pinpointed is probably more apt. But if you had any doubt what it was that really mattered, every single advert mentioned the fact that Mrs Pinter had passed away. And if you still were not sure where they expected the candidate to come from, they mentioned a salary of about £90,000 per annum and salaries of that size go to one family only.

What an insult to our entire community. London is simply too intellectually and spiritually impoverished to provide a head-teacher to this academic powerhouse of barely 300 girls which spends almost as much time censoring their books as teaching them. Tens of schools up and down the country, some of them as frum as YHS and frummer, manage with mature local talent who have deservedly earned their positions, but this particular school that denies its pupils anything it does not have to provide will splash out on an unqualified 30-something for this senior post simply because she is a Pinter specimen. What contempt for their long-standing and qualified senior staff that a young nipper of a Pinter with little experience will be lording over them. What callous disregard for the welfare and education of hundreds of girls by appointing a head-teacher with so little to show for. And what rank hypocrisy of its Principal, Pinter himself, who has the effrontery to hold himself out as an authority on education.

This is the Yesodey Hatorah that boasts how it has been educating local children for some 70 years yet only one single family must provide almost all its senior staff. This is a school that spends only 75% of its overall budget, and of that less than half is spent directly on its pupils, yet pays its Pinter staff in the upper level of the bands even while it reduces pupil numbers. This is the school that despite its low numbers requires a full time Principal and Head Teacher and who if they are not husband and wife must be father and daughter.

YHS head ad, 90kAnd they may have a point. Considering that the majority of the teaching staff are gaggling unqualified teenagers who themselves left the school barely a couple of years ago, an unqualified head teacher just slightly older may be a perfect fit. The only difference, however, is that while the unqualified 18-year old GCSE teachers are dumped in front of a class of 16 year olds and paid next to the minimum wage for the honour, the unqualified head has been imported despite having little to declare but yet she will be paid, if the advert is anything to go by, around £90,000 p.a. without ever having to give a class in her lifetime. Because at YHS Principals and Head Teachers are for welcoming VIPs and solemnly roaming the corridors but that little pesky thing known as teaching is way below them.

Mins, Effect of Principal on app of HT

Hiring teenage teachers and discarding of them a couple of years later carries with it other perks too. It assures that there are few staff to aspire to or challenge the ruling family for any of the top jobs. And anyway who would even want to apply with that lot breathing down your neck. At the meeting when Pinter was considered as Principal, and at which a representative of Hackney Learning Trust was present, the problem with a future head-teacher appointment was discussed. And now it has come to pass.

This is how Pinter was eased in as Principal while his late wife was crowned Head, this is how another daughter was parachuted in as Senco and a panoply of daughters, daughters in law and nieces as teachers and now this latest arrival is to be anointed head teacher. That cynicism can stoop to this level requires a fair bit of experience and this she has seen at close quarters in abundance.

Let's not trouble the Chair of Governors in whose name this fiasco is being carried out, a certain Mr Theo Bibelman. As one of the chief communal undertakers he is the perfect candidate for covering up the rotting carcass he presides over. But let's spare the poor man for the moment as he recuperates from a search for a head teacher that 'stretched across three continents'. No doubt that was Africa, South America and Oceania and even there he must have lost his spectacles if all he could find for the job is a former authority on how to remove chometz crumbs from fridge shelves.

A week before the announcement of Weinberg's appointment, at the school's graduation ceremony and speech day, a letter from Bibelman was read out on his behalf. He couldn't deign show up in person for some silly 16 year old girlies just like not a single governor showed their shameful faces either. Not even the Principal, Pinter, on his fat wage, who otherwise pops up for the opening of a lemonade bottle,  graced the event with his appearance. Yet Weinberg was in the audience. Nevertheless, Bibelman's letter informed mothers that the governors were still in the process of appointing a head-teacher. Still in the process, yeah, of course they were. And how many of the other candidates were in attendance?

But still you think I'm biased and Pinter, aided and abetted by his cronies and stooges, hasn't quite hijacked the school, Weinberg's appointment is down to her incredible precociousness, the many family members in senior positions pure coincidence and otherwise everything is run strictly on merit. So perhaps explain why Pinter has a job at all. He does not spend too much time at the school, he never addresses pupils and appears neither at the start nor at the end of year ceremonies. The only time he is guaranteed to show up is on one of his VIP invitee visits when naturally there are cameras in tow. Yet he draws a full time wage despite the fact that he is both principal of his private schools and dean of his private seminary. A man of many talents, no doubt, and generously funded by the taxpayer.

And he isn't just any principal. With a bunch of do-nothing governors, he is the one who fulfils their duties too. He sees to admissions, to employment, to maintenance, to cheque signing, to external relations and to wherever he can stick a finger in so long that it consolidates his control. But as a governor he wouldn't earn a salary and so Principal suits him just fine especially when he has all the governors and trustees in his pocket.

Sem proposals

But still it's my bias. So consider how Pinter and his Head-teacher wife have been allocated space in the school to set up their own private, fee-paying seminary (6th form), Be'er Miriam, and for which they pay no rent. To make this space available the school reduced the available numbers of pupils thus reducing the ‘problem’ of overcapacity (see excerpt from the minutes above). And yet despite the reduced numbers the Head Teacher's salary kept on rising until it now stands at about £90,000 p.a. And now it is YHS girls who've been thrown to the wolves by being rejected from this very same seminary by a faceless, nameless panel who won't even give you a reason other than 'you don't fit in'.

Mins, hall hire, principal

But that is also not enough. It is Pinter who was responsible for negotiating the wedding hall contract (see above) by which hard-pressed parents and communal organisations are ripped off to the tune of about £2,500+ per event. The contract is between YHS and Simchas Nisuin which is an arm of the UOHC. Pinter is a trustee of UOHC, Lobenstein was chair of governors of YHS at the time and deputy president of UOHC and there was other crossover between members of both organisations but no one declared any interest. Which is how these two communal organisations have effectively conspired to rob us, the community, blind. And all within the law, no doubt.

YHS Trust, contact

Let us make no pretences. This entire process is rigged. The trust which controls the school has a minimal number of 3 trustees, each a long-established Pinter stooge, with the contact none other than Pinter himself at his home address. They in turn appoint a governing body of yet more stooges and cronies who rarely speak up at meetings, on those rare occasions that they bother turning up, who are happy to delegate anything and everything to the Principal, who in his benevolence is happy to take almost everything on. The governing body in its turn elects a chair, previously Joe Lobenstein and now Bibelman, both undertakers of impeccable credentials and each happier than the other to rubber-stamp all that suits the Dear Principal & Co's agenda.

And now for his troubles they have presented Pinter with the ultimate prize by crowning his daughter head teacher and with a masterstroke guaranteeing the succession for the next generation. As a member of one of the school bodies said to a complaining parent: "I know terrible things have been done under this phrase but I am really only following orders." Says it all, really.

But it is not just the governors and trustees who are to blame. The blame must be shared with the Hackney Learning Trust who know exactly what is going on but are too frightened to take Pinter on. With the JC and other newspapers who will quote Pinter incessantly on almost anything but will never try to pierce the veil that shrouds his organisations. With the Jonathan Freedlands and the Lord Glasmans and the bobbies and the machers and the shvitzers who will all come dancing to the Pinter soirees, sip his chareidi kool-aid to show the world how wonderfully inclusive they are but will not raise as much as an eyebrow at his shenanigans. How come he and his family occupy so many positions and how come he has a full time role as principal and yet can be all over town as soon as a lens pops up?

Then there are the organisations like NAJOS, Agudas Yisroel Housing, the London Jewish Forum, adoption agencies, health forums and a multitude of others who will give Pinter seats on their boards and consult with him despite the fact that he will allow no one of any independence anywhere close to his. On top of that there is our fawning media, renowned for its openness and fidelity to truth, who can always be relied on to do his bidding. Instead of thundering headlines at YHS's undisguised contempt these papers will display his picture almost weekly and report extensively on the crowning of his daughter without even a murmur of disgust.

And last but not least is us. Whether we are frightened, suffering from a severe bout of Stockholm Syndrome, or worst of all, apathetic, this could not happen if at some level we did not will it. Like some kind of Candide we have been led to believe that however bad things are it's still the best possible outcome and if not for the blue blood of that family we'd be even worse off.

The plain truth is that we are sheep and for that we deserve nothing better than the wolves we have snarling over us. Bibelman was quoted as saying what a proud appointment this is for YHS. It is not. It is a shameful appointment by a shameless governing body for a shamed community.

Comments

  1. Do I note a slight tone of cynicism? Are you genuinely surprised at these shenanigans?

    We, the oppressed and downtrodden inhabitants of NW11 have also enjoyed such similar treatment. The Pardes House group of schools have also been overtaken by the nobility of of the community, and before you could blink, the position of lifetime principal was bestowed upon the head of capo di tutti capi, his son David the menahel of the primary and, whilst joined on paper only for qualifying for grant status, chaim was the entire vaad hachinuch of beis yakov primary until his voluntary retirement from the post whilst being innocent of any inappropriate activities.

    Likewise the same said Moro Dasro in spite of opening a beis ha medrash slap in the middle of Golders Green Road almost equidistant beteeen the then already established houses of worship: Hagers, GGBH, Goschalks & Sassow, forbade the establishment of all and any new batei medrash, with the exception of David and Chayim, which, though they were his children, he felt it appropriate to forbid as well - but the overwhelming evidence convinced him to make these 2 exceptions, for the greater good of the community.



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  2. Excellent article!
    Couldn't have been written better.

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  3. Beis Yaakov Grammar -
    Freshwater's son in law (Eisner) decides on which girls are accepted!!

    Beis Yaakov & Pardes House seem to be run by Dictators.

    Menorah all the way.....

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  4. Probably worth making a FOI request to see what shenanigans went into "approving" this appointment.

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  5. sorry but Beis Yaakov Grammar is a private school belonging to family freshwater they own the building and pay the staff


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  6. Who are the 'dictators' of Pardes House and Beis Yaakov primaries? Both have a full board of governors as is required by law.

    However, Menorah even with a board of governors is a dictatorship run by Rabbi Greenberg of the Union.

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    1. PHP is a dictatorship run by the Radomishler. His son ran BYP until his sudden and totally inexplicable resignation 18 months ago, since when it has remained under the dictatorship of the senior governor - JR.

      Menorah was always a dictatorship, but was split in 2.The financial aspects were dictated by the head of the governors, the chinuch was dictated by the rov.

      Neither Rb Feldman nor Rb Greenberg are "of the Union". Furthermore, MPS always was, and remains, a far better school than either of the other 2, and remains the first choice of parents who are genuinely interested in the welfare of their children.

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    2. Thank you for showing your complete and absolute ignorance regarding the things of ask of those schools.

      PHP was set up by three Rabbonim of which only one, REH is still alive. He has taken little to no active role in the school at all for over a decade. His son, RDH is active as Vaad HaChinuch only, not in the day to day running of the school.

      His son RCH did NOT ever run BYPS. In fact his only involvement was when governors or kodesh staff asked him advice or when prospective parents asked him to get their children into the school.

      Rabbi Feldman is as much 'of the Union' as REH is, and Rabbi Greenberg is more so than any of REGs three sons are as none currently hold Union positions.

      BYPS is an excellently run school, at least as well as Menorah and both it and PHPS are first choice for practically their entire parent body.
      Unlike Menorah, they both consider themselves real Kehilla schools and unlike Menorah take in children that need places, such as one year ago when Toras Hashem closed down. PHPS allowed classes to be bulge classes in order that children shouldn't be left without a school whereas Menorah refused to help.

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    3. You must live a life of sheer bliss, if ignorance is indeed bliss.

      REH, is consulted to this very day on the minutiae of policy concerning PHP. On any matter which has managed to slip past him, that displeases him in the slightest, he will instruct to have it changed. Ergo, a dictatorship. He insisted on installing his son Reb D as acting head, menahel, and vaad hachinuch, although said son's total knowledge and experience in the field of chinuch was in phrasing a question to the gedolim he visited in a particular way to ensure he was encouraged to maintain teaching in yiddish.


      BYP was the private little fiefdom of CH, he came from time to time to see what is going on. He laid down a detailed list of dos and don'ts, and added or changed them at his whim. In my book, also a dictatorship.

      Rb Feldman refused to have a direct link with the Union, and ensured that his independent kehillo had a mikvah, old age home, and school. In addition to conforming to all national statutory regulations, MP is a kehillo school and the members wanted their rov to have a major decision in policy making. In the event that someone had a good argument against a policy, he was always open to discuss the issue, and if he was shown to be wrong, he would change his vote.

      I can't vouch for the incumbent rov, but I've not heard any undertones of dissatisfaction.

      I didn't say that PHP or BYP are anything but good schools, I did say that MP is the first choice of parents who care about their children's welfare, and I stand by that.

      Accepting the TE boys, does not make PH a kehillo school. It just proves Andrew Sprung has a heart of gold. Menorah is a kehillo school, of the GGBH aka Munks or Yekkish kehillo. They have always had an us and them approach to everything and with the exception of buying kedassia meat, and using the Adass cemeteries, have neither taken from nor given to the union. There was no reason to inconvenience themselves to accept boys from outside into their school, after having refused applicants who have chosen it as their first choice.

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    4. It seems you're living in the 1990s. REH isn't consulted on and doesn't give an opinion on anything unless it's completely a Vaad HaChinuch matter. His son RDH was Menahel for a time, but that's about 20 years ago. He also didn't get consulted on anything that isn't a VH matter. His input into acceptance is that as a kehilla school PHPS cannot refuse anyone unless they would corrupt the school. t's this Kehilla outlook that guides the school and makes it a real Kehilla school.
      REH and RDH are the only active members of the Vaad HaChinuch, so of course they have a say on matters which affect that. That's not a dictatorship.

      re BYPS and RCH, you're talking complete rubbish as usual.

      Thank you for confirming that Menorah have no interest in the wider community and only their insular Munks kehilla. It's absolutely disgusting that unlike every other school they refuse to take in children who unfortunately have no place. Every other school also has to turn down children who applied to them as first choice.

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    5. Merely stating things as fact, does not make them so. You are employing the tactics used by the Arabs living in Gaza, taking about 5% of a true event and adding another 95% of your fabricated bs in the vain hope that the world will accept your warped work of fiction, as true fact.

      It doesn't wash.

      DH was menahel as recently as 7 years ago, if not even more recently. I had reason to call on him in that capacity, at that time.

      CH did run things at BJ until recently, and it wouldn't surprise me if he continues to do so by remote control via daddy who has control over SK and MV as well as many of the financial donors.

      Your argument about Menorah is so pathetic, that it doesn't warrant any response.

      It's time you stopped living in the distant past and realised that we are nearing the end of the 58th century.

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    6. RDH might have stepped in as emergency menahel for a very short time between Lieberman and Abeles 7 years ago & for other very short emergency periods before when the school was between appointments, but the last time he was official Menahel was well over 20 years ago, before Mendlesohn.

      SK and MV do daven at REH but REH has never had any involvement in BYPS. If you knew who the main financial backers of the school are you'd admit that your argument is fanciful at best.

      Regarding Menorah, I was just repeating what you had already admitted, that they have no interest and feel no responsibility to the wider NW London Kehilla even in times of great need.

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  7. @Pi

    Goschalks didn't predate 171, and in any event, it was only a minyan in the house of an invalid.

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    1. I apologise for my error. I suppose that changes everything and excuses the mafia style behaviour of the father, the sons, and the holy @#$&*

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  8. Nobody knows how to artfully write up a scandal quite like you Mr Tickle. Keep up your blogging please!

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  9. We don't need no edyookayshun05 August, 2014 23:47

    Nobody writes up a scandal quite like you Mr Tickle. Keep it up.

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  10. please get your information correct REB DOVID gets paid a wage from PHP REB C Halpren used to till a few years ago when his health started to go down was active in the school . tell the governors what to do.

    regarding BYPS Chaim had a say in most thing I don't think he took a wage I personally don't like him, but he did a fairly good job with the school when some of the governors wanted to pull it to left even more

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  11. Tickle - looks like all your commenters are from GG. How do you expect your fellow hillbillies to demand uncorrupted school governance when few have displayed evidence of an education beyond that commonly possessed by your average six year old?

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    1. Shmuel, the Pinters do it and the brothers do not have an education, period.

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  12. John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, KCVO, DL (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902)—known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Bt from 1837 to 1869 and usually referred to simply as Lord Acton—was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He was the only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet and a grandson of the Neapolitan admiral Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. He is famous for his remark, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

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  13. @פי האסון

    I'm not anonymous above, but your reply is so wilfully deceiving and wrong it warrants a reply, despite the sensible thing being to ignore your lowbrow ranting and raving.

    "You must live a life of sheer bliss, if ignorance is indeed bliss."

    Says the buy who posts copious nonsense in his plentiful spare time, where each sentence is goldmine of misleading loshon horah and rechilos against named people. I suggest you ask your rov whether the 3 weeks and 9 days have tashlumin if you missed the purpose of the first one?

    "REH, is consulted to this very day on the minutiae of policy concerning PHP. On any matter which has managed to slip past him, that displeases him in the slightest, he will instruct to have it changed. Ergo, a dictatorship."

    Balderdash. Pure and unudulterated nonsense.

    Years ago he was active on the vaad hachinuch and had a say on everything chinuch-related, and rightly so. He was a founding rov and primary driver of the school from the days when it was a splitoff from YSH. As the many parents on the kodesh comittees (who actually ran the kodesh of the school) in the past decades can attest, he was by no means a dictator.

    A rov does have to have principles and stand for what is right with the long vision that Torah and decades of kehillah experience provides, and many of the more modern kehillos beleive that every matter should be decided by a vote of daas baalei batim in order to prove their allegence to the principles of democracy and mediocracy by mass concensus.

    If insisting yiddish in a UK cheder-style is a crime, well then you have them tried and convicted but to me that's hardly a valuable argument or the make-or-break of a school, much less indicitive of a dictorship style across the board.

    "He insisted on installing his son Reb D as acting head, menahel, and vaad hachinuch"

    Um, RDH was appointed menahel back in the days when the Vaad Hachinuch was composed of the Saasover amongst others and what nevoas bilom (or nivul moach) gives you the information that he "insisted" on installing his son, etc. (Btw RDH was only ever a temporary appointment, but never mind facts.)

    He has never been appointed headmaster.

    "although said son's total knowledge and experience in the field of chinuch was in phrasing a question to the gedolim he visited in a particular way to ensure he was encouraged to maintain teaching in yiddish."

    There is no formal qualification for vaad hachinuch memberhsip or menahelshaft other than being a talmid chochom with common sense - both of which RDH has in shedloads. The rest comes with experience (much like school governors) and RDH's decades of chinuch involvement must make him the most qualified active rov in the kehillah regarding chinuch.

    "BYP was the private little fiefdom of CH, he came from time to time to see what is going on. He laid down a detailed list of dos and don'ts, and added or changed them at his whim. In my book, also a dictatorship."

    This is patent nonsense. Whatever you think of him, he acted with regards to BY as an exemplary vaad hachinuch and was no more or less of a dictator then any other rov on any vaad hachinuch of well-run schools. He was very moderate, understanding and actually took the school through its greatest periods of growth in numbers and educational standards. He stepped down in a letter that was publicised on this blog.

    I imagine the rabbonim you randomly choose to respect make their decisions on reasoned judgement while those you don't are "made on a whim". The only thing made on a whim is your spewing of baseless accusations made against rabbonim you dislike, in order to hijack someone else's blog in the vein hope that someone is reading your endless childish rants.

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  14. @פי האסון

    I feel guilty for wasting nanowatts of power quoting you futher, and I shouldn't give more power to your puny elbow, especially when the Chofetz Hachaim Heritage Foundation message of Tisha Ba'av was devoted to the loshon horah of blogs (of which you are such a perfect example). But the spirit is unwilling but response reflex weak so ...

    "Rb Feldman refused to have a direct link with the Union, and ensured that his independent kehillo had a mikvah, old age home, and school. In addition to conforming to all national statutory regulations, MP is a kehillo school and the members wanted their rov to have a major decision in policy making. In the event that someone had a good argument against a policy, he was always open to discuss the issue, and if he was shown to be wrong, he would change his vote."

    You know very little of the any other school then if you think they were run any differently than PH. I sincerly hope MP isn't a school where the rov only has a "vote".

    "Accepting the TE boys, does not make PH a kehillo school. It just proves Andrew Sprung has a heart of gold."

    But I thought the H family (in your mind) have a dicatorship over the school? So your spin is that the school - no a particular governor (to whom your sinas chinom presumably doesn't extend) happens to have done a nice thing, but that the school's vaad hachinuch that run it as a dictatorship didn't make this noble decision.

    If you only knew the real chain of events (which I can't state without embarrassing others) and and who decided what your morsel of a brain would explode and you would crawling to some of those you accuse begging forgiveness.

    The school places crises is a shame on our kehillah and MP (a great school in many ways) won't lift a finger to help unless your ancestors had some connection to Deutschland, while RDH and PH has the tzidkus to accept boys that other schools wouldn't help in order to solve a kehillah crisis (of which most were unaware even existed). That's by definition a school with responsibility to the North West Kehillah and if anything unites us despite your seeds of discord, it should be this.

    I suggest you speak to the TH parents (at least 13 of them) to establish the facts - you may find the drivel you spout to be as accurate as the Independant on Gaza.

    Menorah is a kehillo school, of the GGBH aka Munks or Yekkish kehillo.

    Very nice, if you don't want to consider the broader North West London a kehilla. You're spinning so fast you should rename your pseudonym Bosch.

    "There was no reason to inconvenience themselves to accept boys from outside into their school, after having refused applicants who have chosen it as their first choice."

    Wherein Pi Hatabaas perfects the art of answering the question by repetition of the original problematic statement.

    "DH was menahel as recently as 7 years ago, if not even more recently. I had reason to call on him in that capacity, at that time."

    Which shown even further that you know next to nothing about the history of pardes leadership. He has acted as menahel in-between appointments when you happen to chance on him. Like the blind men and the elephant, your limited interaction leads to you to leap to entirely wrong conclusions colored by your poisonous agenda. If stepping in when necessary on temporary basis is a crime then again he's as guilty as sin. No good need goes unpunished in your mind.

    Your referring to RDH without the honorific of Rav no doubt earns you a penthouse suite in gehinnom. Well done.

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  15. @Tickle

    I actually came here to respond to your post (before falling for פי האסון hijacking of the topic for his own agenda).

    What is the problem with hiring out the hall for £2500 (or whatever it is)?

    Aren't you aware that halls of YSH's size are normally hired for £thousands more?

    Is it supposed to be hired out for free? Why?

    ReplyDelete
  16. stamford hill resident10 August, 2014 01:55

    Hendon United 12:59

    Being one of the Stamford Hill "ignorant hillbillies" referred to above with all my children in heimishe local moisdois I cannot comment on what goes on in the highly educated and far better informed GG.

    I should remind you that "Pi Ha'Osoin" appears to be very well informed and on a few things he mentioned which I checked I have ALWAYS found his information to be true.

    Regarding the YHS hall. The hiring out etc.is administrated by UOHC/Kedassia whose taavoh for money is well-known. In the interests of money they consistently break the law, the halocho, their word etc. and VERY often make compromises in kashrush.

    The YHS hall was paid for and built out of public finance, i.e. the taxpayer, as a community service unlike the other venues you mention which are commercial operations built and paid for by the owners who have to recover their investment and, of course, make a profit.

    Both UOHC and YHS claim to be community services and a form of Tzedoko. And that's what's wrong with charging a commercial rate for the hall. It belongs to us NOT to them.

    You will have noted that they NEVER publish accounts or have any form of accountability, elections or public meetings etc. Both are run as private fiefdoms by vested interests with an obvious self-interest in keeping our tzibbur as ignorant as possible. With, as you know, not inconsiderable success.

    ReplyDelete
  17. For reasons best described by King Solomon in Proverbs 26, I shan't bother to respond to the occupier of Raleigh Close.

    However, I continue to be amazed by persons reading and commenting on blogs, whilst vilifying said blogs as loshon hora. Resonates of a person wishing to purify his soiled body and soul by immersing in a ritual bath whilst grasping an insect.

    ReplyDelete
  18. stamford hill resident11 August, 2014 10:02

    Pi Ha'Osoin

    Sorry, can't agree with you.

    Not everybody who reads, or has read, Mein Kampf or Das Kapital and comments thereon agrees with what is written there.

    And according to UOHC's "Hatzolas Ha'doirois" declaration the internet is worse than either of those.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I agree pi hason you are hijacking the blog. you also are very wrong in facts for example CH and the beis yaakov. whatever he did he was a very good vaad hachinuch and your accusations of his style are just factually wrong. your just shooting off without knowing anyhting like most commentors and gossipers

    go set up your own blog if you want people follow your twaddle instead of spamming all the others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm neither wrong nor hijacking the blog. If @tickle thought I was hijacking his blog, he could always stop my comments from being displayed.

      I don't confirm nor deny that CH did or didn't do a good job at BYP, that is not relevant. Equally, Mrs RW may end up doing a wonderful job as headmistress of YHSGS. Also Irrelevant. It still remains a dictatorship.

      FYI; a VAAD, by its definition must consist of a minimum of two. Only a dictator can concieve a one-man-vaad, as he doesn't take any other opinion into account, anyway.

      Delete
  20. @tickle, I was actually hoping for a real reply from you.

    Educate me here, because I still feel that this terrible hall hire scandal is anything but.

    £2500 is very cheap for a chasuna hall of this size. Have any of you ever made a 400+ person chasuna or hired a hall of that size? Those are not market rates.

    Are the tickle-groupies claiming the Union own the hall, or receive a kickback? Where's your proof?

    Simchas Nisuin, which seems to be the UOHC's connection, has a deal with various halls and caterers for reduced-price chasunas which appears to include YHS hall at bargain prices. Whatever you think of the UOHC, simchas nisuin is a very worthy organisation and clearly not a profit-making enterprise, quite the opposite it's a tzedokah I'd gladly contribute to. Is the crime that simchas nisuin only deal with kedassia caterers? Explain.

    Tickle, what do you expect, that the hall would be let out by free? By lottery? First come, first served? Only for the donors or any Johnny-come-lately? What about a GG-er who wants to rent it?

    If the building was funded by communal fundraising then the state-aid part seems irrelevant, and it's like any other shul or school. Is a shul built through donations not allowed to charge for aliyos?

    And if it was funded (or partly-funded) by state-aid, why or how does that preclude renting out the hall even for the market rate? (Ignoring the fact that it's actually below market rate.) For instance, I've rented many council-owned facilities, and any state-aided school will happily charge you a pretty penny for hiring their premises. Making money out of existing premises seems an eminently sensible and the a route to long-term financial viability. I simply fail to see the scandal and I'm sure there's no law or even guideline against it. If the crime is that it's not reflected in their accounts, you'd have to prove that.

    So go on. Where is the scandal with the hall hire?

    I have very little time for those who leach of the kehillah their whole lives and defame named askonim via anonymous blogs without the courage to write their names.

    If you have any balls and if your accusations are true, then write your name to your accusations and bring actual proof rather than unsubstantiated accusations and hand-waving about cash earnings or closed accounts. You seem to operate with the hope that if it cannot be proved it cannot be disproved.

    The pat answer is to pretend to hide because of unspecified repercussions if you speak out. Yet these same cowards pretend they have the support of the silent majority. Those two are self-contradictory.

    ReplyDelete
  21. HendonUnited - I agree with your point on the hall (at least until Tickle explains himself), but the rest of the post (and its ikar point) is clearly substantiated and the appointment is utterly outrageous.

    ReplyDelete
  22. stamford hill resident11 August, 2014 23:05

    Hendon United.
    1. All government funded halls etc. are hired to "members" at nominal rates.
    2. The Union doesn't own the hall, we do.
    3. UOHC make a vast profit on every Simchas Nesuin wedding. They make about £5 clear profit on each chicken. If only 100 chickens are used that is £500.to say nothing of the various other charges they collect Such subsidy as there is is from the caterer. That's why the menu is so basic and there is a strict benching time. Because any extras come out of the caterers funds and not Kedassia.
    4. Who has ever had any benefit from the so-called kehilla? Can you tell me one service that UOHC has ever provided for the community. and BTW it isn't even a kehilla because membership is by application and voluntary.
    5. I would tell you my name but my wife works in one of the heimishe moisdois and where all my children are. If they knew who I am...........
    6. These are the views of the silent majority and under our hijacked system there are repercussions. You remember the "abuse" case in 1991?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1). All government funded halls. ... Can you substantiate this claim?

      2). We do. I am not privy to the details of the finance agreement, but usually a school funded from the public purse, and all its buildings, belong to the education authority. They rely on the governors to see the school is run efficiently, within stipulated guidelines. The school can rent out its halls at the discretion of the governors. If the governors vest that control under the hands of a single individual, e.g. a Rb Pinter, he has the discretion to hire out the dining room, gym, or any other facility, as he sees fit. If he's chosen to make a long term agreement with the boys from Brazil, that is his privilege. If you are a parent of a pupil in the school and believe it is impacting unfavourably on your child's education, there is a mechanism for complaint. To any other member of the public, quite frankly, it's not your business.

      3) UOHC, despite its claims to the contrary, runs its kashrus division - kedassia - as a revenue making enterprise. It buys poultry on the open market, supervises the slaughtering proceess, and wholesales the meat to the butchers.
      Simchas Nissuin, is negligibly cheaper than making your own arrangements, and if you booked your own wedding, within the SN guidelines, you could do it for less and without the stresses of kedassia breathing down your neck. Of course kedassia is making money, why shouldn't it?

      4) The vaad mishmeres hatznius is one of the numerous gifts the union has graciously bestowed upon our kehilla, it has also made charitable donations on our behalf, e.g. £25k to Neturei Karta a few years ago.

      6) There are always repercussions, no need to go back 23 years.

      5) There is no need to give your name. The geniuses demanding you do so are too cowardly to give their names. Why should you give your name?

      Delete
  23. keddassia is making money by taxing the poor at the most financially pressed time of their lives12 August, 2014 15:42

    Can Keddassia make simchas nisuim cheaper?
    Is Simchas nisuim run at cost for keddassia or are the profiteering from it?

    These are the real questions.

    The answer I would like is yes, it's undertaken by keddassia at their true cost with no profit to them.

    I have it on good authority that they are making money from it at many levels such as the profits from meat/chicken

    I wish keddassia were holier than holy, whiter than white and absolute malochim!

    Sadly that isn't the kehillah we have!

    It's all about chumros, politics, back stabbing and kovod.

    I am not saying beis din or board of shechitah are better but they don't represent the chareidi community.

    We should be setting an example.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's all about chumros, politics, back stabbing and kovod.

      Sadly, it's all about money. The traits you mentioned are just a means to the end.

      Delete
  24. Jacob says
    I dont expect to see this comment posted but I will still write it. My daughters though not my sons like many people went to YHS under Mrs Pinter. It is and will always be the best Jewish school in Hackney. The others who all have an agenda being chassidus or whatever which YHS hasnt will never be any good. One has to hand it to Mrs Pinter that she did all this single handedly. You can say what you like about her husband whom I happen to know but you dare not say anything about his late wife. I dont know his daughter but I think she is the only one who can stand up to the 'town' like her mother did. What is the use of getting the 'best' person if she cant stand up to the town. The rich girls from satmar are also going to the YHS seminary.
    You can make all the fun you want of the pinters but at the end of the day they are the only ones who do anything about girls education.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nobody says that she shouldn't have the job if she is the best candidate. The objection is to the nepotism to exclude all else. The selection of candidates for the role of headmistress, came from a restricted pool - the Pinter family. Candidates not of this family, weren't given an interview, even if they were better suited for the job. Their handicap was in their surname.

      Not the best method for selecting a headmistress.

      Delete
  25. Jacob says
    You are all missing the point The question here is not to find the most intellectual candidate with the most letters after her name.
    Rabbi Pinter has had no education whatever and still manages in his job.
    The problem is the parents and the rest of SH meaning the chasidim who are all jealous of their state funding. They will knock YHS where ever they can and do more than the owner of this blog to bring its demise.
    Only a Pinter can stand up to them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone with half a brain and a fully connected spine can stand up to them.

      The Pinters deserve acclaim for successfully taking the school through to state funding, thereby lessening the parental and communal burden for funding the school. That does not give them the authority to ride roughshod through the moral, halachic, and civil rulebooks. When they do wrong, they must be castigated. As the Union rabbonim won't, and the mikvah tattling is of little effect, only succeeding in adding exaggerated fiction to the story. Mr Tickle has undertaken to publicise the wrongdoings of these and other communal offenders. I have never found his information to be lacking substance and always has been correct. He, rightfully, took legal advice and steps to secure himself and his commentators, who evidently know little about the laws of libel, when a local rov got a court order for Google to reveal the names of anonymous and pseudonym blogs. And he continues to publish and encourage debate, on the societal wrongdoers.

      We, as a kehilla, owe Tickle a debt of gratitude for the ongoing public service. Even if nothing is done about individual incidents and events, by putting it out into the public domain, Tickle empowers the individual to make better informed decisions.

      Delete
  26. We don't need no edyookayshun19 August, 2014 17:50

    @ pi ho'assinine:

    Tickle for Headmaster!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Tickle for:- Raved, Gaved, Rosh Hakohol, and numerous other positions in the orthodox community.

      Delete
    2. and to the clearly unedjewkated, and illiterate morons who profligate the environs of Tottenham and Hackney, and increasingly Barnet too, if you were sufficiently literate to read the charters of the Union, and the Adass, and if you were sufficiently intelligent to enable your mind to process the information therein,  you would reach the conclusion, eventually, that these organisations have evolved, (actually devolved), into the opposite roles to their intended reasons.


      Would Rb Dr Solomon Schonfeld be alive today, I can vividly vision him with all the supporters he could muster, parading up and down Stamford Hill angrily remonstrating the Rabbinate, and actively encouraging @Tickle to be even more forthcoming with his blog. "Publish, and be damned," he would cry out. 


      Then again, he would never have allowed matters to deteriorate to today's levels. 

      Delete
  27. @Hendon United Please don't take my silence on the school hall as a lack of evidence. I stand by every word I've written though I will give you more than that to rely on.

    Like almost the entire town I too have been away and responding properly will require a separate post which takes quite a bit of time. It will however come in due course.

    ReplyDelete
  28. VpenuMlinc_ra1991 Robin Ulrich
    Best
    icidempom

    ReplyDelete

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