THE SOURCES OF CHAREIDI CORRUPTION

Recently Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv the posek hador (the ultimate living authority on halachah) for Lithuanian chareidim (ultra-orthodox Jews) issued a ban against accepting money from the Intenational Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). According to Yair Ettinger in Haaretz (10-26-09), this was done to damage Rabbi Yitzhak David Grossman’s chances of becoming the next Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Grossman the Chief Rabbi of Migdal HaEmek operates an orphanage, Migdal Ohr, which receives money from IFCJ. According to Haaretz, the timing of R. Elyashiv’s ruling is suspicious. Eight years earlier, Elyashiv decided not to join a ruling by other rabbis against IFCJ monies. If he had supported that ruling, Grossman and other Lithuanian chareidi groups would have stopped taking IFCJ money.