Censorship WTF

I'm not a fan of censorship. As someone who's been through the Orthodox wringer and is all too familiar with corrupt "adults" stifling others' rights to free speech, I have a visceral gut reaction to any attempt to censor or corral others' freedoms. That's why I'm rather irritated that Harry Maryles edited a comment I posted on his blog.

He posted a rather reasonable post on the phenomena of hareidi poverty, an issue that I feel strongly about, and post about here every so often. I left a rather reasonable, if somewhat feisty, comment, and was disappointed to see that it was edited slightly. It lost some of my intention and also messed with the formatting a bit. And I simply can't stand censorship. If I had used foul language, it would be one thing. But really?! "Vigilant" needs to be changed to "there"? WTF?

Below is my original comment, in blue, beginning with the quote from his post that I took issue with. In red is the "censored" comment.

>>"The societal norms of this community deny them the opportunity to learn anything but Torah 24/7. In doing so they cannot possibly prepare themselves to make a decent living. If anyone of them ever does, they are considered outcasts. It is far more acceptable therefore to go through their system and end up as charity cases than to even have a thought of learning a trade or profession... It is my firm belief that those who are not cut out to learn Torah full time would better off learning a trade or a profession. Nonetheless because of the type of Chincuh they get they are virtually forced to stay in learning full time even while they contemplate marriage. They are indoctrinated to continue sitting in the Beis Hamedarsh and refuse to even consider preparing to make a living in any way."<<

Harry, you're beating around the bush. I can't stand this. A major crisis facing the Orthodox world and (I think) the biggest problem the Jewish world has ever faced is this insane poverty going on. And all you (who is one of the staunchest critics of the Orthodox world from within an Orthodox framework) can do is mention some vague inanities about trades and professions. If your cautious treading on eggshells doesn't tell me all I need to know about this sensitive topic, what will?

Part of the problem I have with your "trades and professions" line is the imprecision of the term. It's not unlike people imploring those who are unemployed to "get a job." Yes, getting a job is part of the solution, but it's far from the crucial issue that's at stake here. That is education, and the absolute necessity of a university degree to get even a half-decent job. Minimum wage and blue-collar work simply won't work. The money is too low, and the hareidim would never suffer the indignity of slaving in the mines. Nor should they do. In places like America with a wonderful knowledge economy, there's no reason some of these brilliant chareidim don't go to the greatest universities and come out with the greatest degrees and get the greatest jobs. There's no reason the next Einstein will be MO or not frum as opposed to a chusid mit payos. But you and I both know this will never happen. Because the chareidi world AND PARTICULARLY THE LEADERSHIP are yehareg v'al yavor opposed to FEH! CALLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FEH! and will never allow their students to attend. They'd much rather their students live like shnorrers, ganavim, chazerim, vilde chayes, and outright hobos than chas v'chalila! perish the thought! step foot into one of those treyfeh batei avodah zora, the colleges, where feh! atheist professors and GIRLS feh! are ever-vigilant to corrupt the pure innocent minds of our tayare bucherim. If and until this problem is addressed, nothing will change. The problem starts and stops with (lack of) education. It's just that simple.

You'll have to forgive my rude manner in this comment, but I simply can't bear to see people miss the point and act like the problem with frummies is that they don't get jobs. It's much deeper than that, and you know it. They insist on remaining ignorant (of everything except limudei "kodesh") and refuse to get an education, which is the number 1 reason for their poverty. I went to yeshiva with these people. I would estimate that 95% of them never went or will go to college. A quick peek at prestigious private non-frum JEWISH schools in my city show probably the inverse phenomenon. I would estimate that 95% of them do go to college, most of them for 4 years. What else can I say? (I know some of you will snicker that my numbers are not scientific, but please, they are estimates. Grow up.) I'll never forget the conversation I had with my yeshiva high school administrator, who, in explaining to me why I would not be getting the high school diploma I had earned, and subsequently codemning me to three long years of hell while I tried to compensate for my non-existent high school education and get in to college:

"???WHADDAYA NEED TO GO TO CAAALLEGE FO???? AY NEVA WENT TO CAAAAALLEGE!!!!"

>>"The societal norms of this community deny them the opportunity to learn anything but Torah 24/7. In doing so they cannot possibly prepare themselves to make a decent living. If anyone of them ever does, they are considered outcasts. It is far more acceptable therefore to go through their system and end up as charity cases than to even have a thought of learning a trade or profession... It is my firm belief that those who are not cut out to learn Torah full time would better off learning a trade or a profession. Nonetheless because of the type of Chincuh they get they are virtually forced to stay in learning full time even while they contemplate marriage. They are indoctrinated to continue sitting in the Beis Hamedarsh and refuse to even consider preparing to make a living in any way."<<

Harry, you're beating around the bush. I can't stand this. A major crisis facing the Orthodox world and (I think) the biggest problem the Jewish world has ever faced is this insane poverty going on. And all you (who is one of the staunchest critics of the Orthodox world from within an Orthodox framework) can do is mention some vague inanities about trades and professions. If your cautious treading on eggshells doesn't tell me all I need to know about this sensitive topic, what will?

Part of the problem I have with your "trades and professions" line is the imprecision of the term. It's not unlike people imploring those who are unemployed to "get a job." Yes, getting a job is part of the solution, but it's far from the crucial issue that's at stake here. That is education, and the absolute necessity of a university degree to get even a half-decent job. Minimum wage and blue-collar work simply won't work. The money is too low, and the hareidim would never suffer the indignity of slaving in the mines. Nor should they do. In places like America with a wonderful knowledge economy, there's no reason some of these brilliant chareidim don't go to the greatest universities and come out with the greatest degrees and get the greatest jobs. There's no reason the next Einstein will be MO or not frum as opposed to a chusid mit payos.

But you and I both know this will never happen. Because the chareidi world AND PARTICULARLY THE LEADERSHIP are yehareg v'al yavor opposed to FEH! CALLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FEH! and will never allow their students to attend. They'd much rather their students live like shnorrers, than chas v'chalila! perish the thought! step foot into one of those treyfeh batei avodah zora, the colleges, where atheist professors are there to corrupt the pure innocent minds of our tayare bucherim. On top of that they condemn the mixed environment of boys and girls!

If and until this problem is addressed, nothing will change. The problem starts and stops with (lack of) education. It's just that simple.

You'll have to forgive my rude manner in this comment, but I simply can't bear to see people miss the point and act like the problem with frummies is that they don't get jobs. It's much deeper than that, and you know it. They insist on remaining ignorant (of everything except limudei "kodesh") and refuse to get an education, which is the number 1 reason for their poverty. I went to yeshiva with these people. I would estimate that 95% of them never went or will go to college.

A quick peek at prestigious private non-frum JEWISH schools in my city show probably the inverse phenomenon. I would estimate that 95% of them do go to college, most of them for 4 years. What else can I say? (I know some of you will snicker that my numbers are not scientific, but please, they are estimates. Grow up.)

I'll never forget the conversation I had with my yeshiva high school administrator, who, in explaining to me why I would not be getting the high school diploma I had earned, and subsequently codemning me to three long years of hell while I tried to compensate for my non-existent high school education and get in to college:

"???WHADDAYA NEED TO GO TO CAAALLEGE FO???? AY NEVA WENT TO CAAAAALLEGE!!!!"