Saturday, July 29, 2006

Ralphlings, A Field Guide

A handy dandy hint for identufying a posting from one of the Ralphlings: look for the unsigned accusation of "selling out" "being bought" "taking bribes."

Here's a patial list of the folks they've accused:
Mindy
Swiller
Sheila
Gerri
Mike A
Mike Q
Lorraine

If I've missed anyone, so sorry!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Uncle:

Heres a ralphling post on another thread (make note of "sell" and "on the payroll"):

Anonymous said...
mindy prosperi and iris sandow both sold their houses and they have the nerve to speak out on this!!!!!!! How much did they sell it to KJ for and are they now on the payroll?

HEY UNC!I know, I will form a village because two people I may not like have sold their homes!!!
Doesn't that make sense?

Anonymous said...

Wow- Ralph and his court jesters sure are going to work using the fear and suspicion factors...but then again, it is Ralph calling the shots, so I guess nothing is off limits. Lets see, next he'll ask Roxanne to weigh in on the Village issue, and when she refuses, I'm sure he'll have a new label for her. And then what Ralph, should a new county legislative position be created for the Village of Nothing, with you as the self-appointed legislator! Again Ralph, you're such a loser that you'll go to any length to get your own way. People of the TOWN, we must not let the Ralph virus spread. Vote NO on August 10!

Anonymous said...

Just as an FYI the Village of Nothing will not get an additional County Legislator. Legislators are not town/village based. There are only 21 districts and regardless of whether we create the Village of Nothing or not, Woodbury's representation in Goshen will stay the same. But, i agree with what everyone else is saying, lets defeat this Village of Nothing on Aug 10th. Lets send a message to all the Carusoites thats lound and clear!!

Anonymous said...

Last time I checked selling your home and getting to live there rent free for a fews years is a payoff. Swiller how come that is ok with you? Please make us understand how these people are helping Woodbury by selling their homes to KJ but they go around telling us we dont need a Village?

Anonymous said...

FYI http://143632.yourkwagent.com/home

Iris sells Real Estae

Anonymous said...

Nobody's made any case to me why we need ANY villages in this town, town-wide or small ones. If none of them can stop annexation by KJ...than why do we need them? As to whether there would be the potential for a KJ2, than we would certainly have enough time to do something about that if it were to happen.

If someone can make the case why we need this village, lets hear it. But i can tell you i am tired of hearing personal attacks against people. That dosent answer the questions of why we need a village or dont. It just shows me the proponents of this village have nothing to say thats positive about it and are desperate.

Anonymous said...

Wow Read this
Chabad really knows how to zero in on what really interests people," says Iris Sandow, whose family belongs to Temple Beth-El but also participates in Chabad events. "It's easier to relate to Chabad on a spiritual level than the traditional synagogues."
What is Chabad? Chabad-Lubavitch is a large movement of Hasidic Jews that originated in the Belarus town of Lubavitch in the late 18th century. "Chabad" is a Hebrew acronym that means wisdom, understanding and knowledge.Often called just Chabad or Lubavitch, the movement is based in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and is known for its aggressive outreach, a campaign waged by young couples dispatched around the world as emissaries or shlichim. There are more than 4,000 emissary families worldwide, working in places as unlikely as the Congo. The organization estimates that nearly 1 million children attend Chabad schools, camps and holiday programs.Since its last rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, died in 1994, the movement has splintered over one faction's insistence that Schneerson was the Messiah.

Chabad couple is busy 'repackaging' Judaism
Orange County Times-Record, New York/May 28, 2006
By Chris McKenna
Monroe -- They aren't asking people to become Orthodox Jews like themselves. For that matter, they don't like separating members of a common faith into the usual Orthodox, Conservative and Reform camps.

Pesach and Chana Burston just want to produce better Jews.

The Burstons arrived in Orange County two years ago as emissaries of a Hasidic movement known as Chabad-Lubavitch, based in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

For decades, Chabad has dispatched thousands of young, zealous couples like the Burstons all over the world to nurture Judaism wherever it can be found. Their movement is as outward-looking as the Satmar Hasidim of Kiryas Joel are insular. They want to inspire fellow Jews, whatever they call themselves.

While adhering to the strict, literal Judaism of the Hasidim in their own lives, Chabad emissaries - or shlichim - are accommodating toward the assimilated Jews with whom they work.

"Our philosophy is, we're there to serve Jewish communities, regardless of background," says Pesach, a 29-year-old rabbi. "Why create barriers and distinctions when people have so much in common?"

In their short time in Orange County, he and his wife have built a dedicated following with their inclusive approach and blur of activities, from Hebrew schools and summer camps to weekly "Kabbalah and Chicken Soup" gatherings at their spacious Monroe home. Celebrations like their Purim party in March can draw upwards of 150 people to the local American Legion hall.

Soon, they could establish an even larger Chabad presence in Orange County. They're planning a 20,000-square-foot building off Gilbert and High streets in downtown Monroe that would become a permanent home for their expanding activities. It would also hold a synagogue.

Thus far, the only friction the Burstons have encountered is with a rival Chabad group in Goshen, led by Rabbi Yakov Borenstein and his nephew, Meir.

The elder Borenstein, who has represented Chabad in Poughkeepsie for about 20 years, claims he placed his nephew in Goshen to do outreach and that the Burstons are usurpers with no right to the Chabad name. Both groups, the Burstons and the Borensteins, hold similar activities and call themselves Chabad of Orange County.

Occasionally, this otherwise obscure rivalry has spilled into the pages of the Times Herald-Record, where the Borensteins have placed ads asserting their legitimacy and distancing themselves from the Burstons' building plans in Monroe.

Chabad headquarters sides with the Burstons in this turf battle.

"We are particularly pained that a small, irresponsible group is subjecting the good people of Orange County to unnecessary confusion," said Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for the movement. "The only authorized Chabad-Lubavitch representatives in Orange County are Rabbi Pesach and Chana Burston."

One February night, guests sit around a dining room table in the Burston home, picking at dried fruits as Pesach lectures about the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shvat, which celebrates the flowering of Israel's earliest-blooming trees.

The young rabbi, sitting at the head of the table in a light blue Oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up, handles his audience with skill: When eyes wander, he ropes listeners back to attention with a joke, a surprising pop-culture reference, an analogy from his own life.

A fire flickers in the fireplace. Guests smile as 3-year-old Duvy Burston scampers into the room in his jammies. Everything in the room radiates warmth.

"The Burstons are wonderful people to be doing outreach work," Michelle Dixler, one of the guests that evening, says later. "They are warm and friendly. They are nonjudgmental. They have a very welcoming attitude. I feel very comfortable with them."

The couple came to Orange County in 2004 to establish what is essentially a Chabad franchise. Pesach was from Crown Heights, born and raised there among the Lubavitch Hasidim. Chana was from Buffalo, raised in a non-Orthodox household that embraced Chabad after her father met one of its local rabbis.

Pesach and Chana met while working for separate Chabad organizations in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, Calif. After testing the waters in Florida, California and Seattle, the Burstons rented a house in Woodbury's upscale Brigadoon development and began organizing events for local Jews.

The luster of the operation they have developed in that short time - despite minimal financial support from Chabad headquarters - is striking. Their literature is colorful, professional and expensive. Their activities are elaborate and creative.

The Burstons' success and expansion plans probably cause a twinge of anxiety within Monroe's Reform and Conservative temples, whose leaders would rather not lose members and donors to Chabad. Some of the couple's most fervent admirers - those who go to the "Kabbalah and Chicken Soup" dinners and underwrite Chabad holiday parties - belong to Congregation Eitz Chaim and Monroe Temple Beth-El.

The rabbis from those two temples preferred not to speak for publication about Chabad.

The Burstons, for their part, don't view themselves as competition. They say they deliberately set up programs that weren't already available.

"We're not doing anything that we don't feel is filling a void," Chana says.

But the large turnout at their gatherings and the comments of their supporters make clear that the Burstons have "repackaged" Judaism, as they put it, in an appealing way for a broad range of Jews, whether affiliated with a temple or not.

"Chabad really knows how to zero in on what really interests people," says Iris Sandow, whose family belongs to Temple Beth-El but also participates in Chabad events. "It's easier to relate to Chabad on a spiritual level than the traditional synagogues."

What is Chabad? Chabad-Lubavitch is a large movement of Hasidic Jews that originated in the Belarus town of Lubavitch in the late 18th century. "Chabad" is a Hebrew acronym that means wisdom, understanding and knowledge.Often called just Chabad or Lubavitch, the movement is based in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and is known for its aggressive outreach, a campaign waged by young couples dispatched around the world as emissaries or shlichim. There are more than 4,000 emissary families worldwide, working in places as unlikely as the Congo. The organization estimates that nearly 1 million children attend Chabad schools, camps and holiday programs.Since its last rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, died in 1994, the movement has splintered over one faction's insistence that Schneerson was the Messiah.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/lubavitch/lubavitch37.html

Jim Booth said...

Can someone explain to me why Iris Sandow's religious affiliations or anyone's religious affiliations would be doing on a message board about the planned village vote??

Is that where we are going next in this town, attacking or publicizing an individual’s religious involvement to attempt to smear them?? I would certainly hope we aren’t going there!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Jim- If the proponents of the Village think it will put a suspicious light on those of us against the Village, they'll say and do anything. You're a smart person...just keep in mind who is the driving force behind rushing this Village thing through. They will say and do whatever it takes...so with the fact that Iris and Mindy have sold their homes, and both are Jewish, then Ralph and his group are going to make the correlation that Iris and Mindy are against the creation of the Village because they are in favor of annexation...obviously that makes NO sense, but that's what they want the average citizen to believe. I think they are counting on the fact that people will be scared and vote yes because of they're fear. That's why it's imperativve for people like you, and Swiller and the Uncle to keep putting out the truth- no name calling- just the facts.

Uncle Betty said...

Hey!
I like name calling.
I'm good at it.

Anonymous said...

I had planned to reply with more, but the dirty tactics regarding a person's religious beliefs just say it all.

I for one don't know all of the details, but applaud Mindy and Iris for continuing to try and protect their community despite some difficult decisions. Plenty of people are being driven out of their homes as neighborhoods are bought up, and to attack them is to smear all of the good people caught in the middle of this painful situation.

No, Bloom shouldn't be singled out for selling his home- but for continuing to spread the same lies about annexation after being proven wrong 3 years ago in a public meeting. Shame on him.

We should be judging our citizens not on the tough housing situations they find themselves in, and CERTAINLY not on their religion. Rather, on the content of their character, and record of integrity. In these areas, it seems to me the lines could not be drawn clearer.