Wednesday, August 11, 2004

The Day The Rebbe's Words Poked Out The Eye Of An 85-Year Old Woman

Who was the editor of Jewish newspaper that got Walter Ruby fired for this story?

"In the late '80s, I talked to a gentleman named Barry Gurary. [He was the son of Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson's elder son-in-law, married to his elder daughter. Menahem Schneerson beat out Rabbi Shemaryahu to become the leader of Lubavitch.] There were books at 770 Eastern Parkway that he claimed belonged to him. Lubavitch claimed they belonged to them. He took the books and sold some of them. That led to a court suit. He was found guilty and forced to pay back much of the money.

"Barry sent me transcripts of fabrengens that the rebbe had preached that these books were like living documents, pieces of flesh, and that anyone who would sell them, it was like killing somebody. After the rebbe delivered one of these fabrengens, one of his young followers went upstairs, knocked on the door of Barry Gurary's mother and knocked out her eye. She was 85 years old. The fellow who did this was put on the first plane to Israel before they could prosecute him.

"The police didn't come around very fast, as a local [African-American] police sergeant in Crown Heights said to me, Mayor Kotch doesn't put a high priority on looking into this as the Lubavitcher Rebbe delivers 40,000 votes to him every election.

"This story was laid on my doorstep. I told the story. I submitted it to the consortium of Jewish newspapers. Then I went on a long trip to Russia in late 1989. When I came back from Russia, I found that I had been fired. One of the editors had showed the thing to someone in Chabad who had threatened to sue. Then I was going to sell it to New York magazine. I didn't get around to it. I did see it published in New York magazine by somebody else."

Shmarya writes: "The guy that hit her had apparently helped her load some boxes (apparently filled with those books) into a van earlier that week He heard the Rebbe screaming as Walter Ruby describes, went upstairs to the Gurarie's apartment in 770 and knocked on the door. Barry's mother opened the door for him and he beat her badly. Chabad arranged (on Shabbos) to get the guy to Israel on the first flight out after Shabbos. The police looked the other way long enough for the guy to get on the plane. According to my sources, Mrs. Gurarie phoned her sister, the Rebbe's wife, on Shabbos to get help. She answered the phone. No caller I.D., either. There's a history of the Rebbe provoking just this type of violence. Rabbi Rivkin, a Rosh Yeshiva of Torah VoDas and a Chabad hassid, suffered a similar fate in the early 1970's when he refused to go along with the Rebbe's wishes on an issue. (He thought the Rebbe's desire to put someone in cherem was not Halakhicly correct.) he was spit on, called a nazi, had his home defaced and vandalized, received death threats, 3 am threating phone calls, and was harrassed at evey turn. An elderly man, he suffered a massive stroke soon after and died. His son-in-law, Rabbi Shurin, wrote a couple of pieces in the Yiddish Forward about Lubavitch terrorism as a result. The Forwad even published pictures. The Rebbe's response to this was to say that no one who learns Chabad chassidus could do such a thing. Oh yeah, where did Rabbi Rivkin live? Crown Heights.

"I forgot to mention that Chabad in Israel allegedly treated the thug that beat up Mrs. Gourary as a hero. Made a good shidduch for him, etc. Great organization, nu?"