What Am I Missing? Seriously.
Here is link #1. It is about Lakewood Yeshivos in Crisis. This is the 2nd or 3rd school to shut down due to lack of funding.
Here is link #2. It is about how one single Lakewood fundraising rally resulted in $250,000.00 for Shalom Rubashkin's attorneys.
How does this work? I don't get it. What am I missing?
2) If one was to think about it from the halachic perspective, then one would say that עניי עירך קודמים doesn't apply here, because giving money to a struggling chedr is not a life-sustaining necessity, but in Rubashkin's case you are literally talking about the man's very life!
Either way, what's your issue?
- cfkaMP
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And why is saving SMR literally saving his life, again? Is he up for the death penalty?
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As to the "defend a felon" bullshit: In case you haven't been exposed to this novel idea in Law School, here in the US, people have a right to appeal and to due process under the law. Their relatives and friends also have a complete right (and even a moral obligation) to assist them to the best of their ability. This is deemed so important that even our tax dollars go to pay for public defenders for murderers and rapists! (This while the homeless languish on the sidewalks and the elderly spend their food pennies on the unfordable drugs).
So basically you have trouble understanding why the cause of saving a life of a fellow Jew and a father of 10 (who was given a virtual life sentence for forging some invoices) inspire someone more than supporting one of the hundreds of struggling Jewish schools? Is that what's troubling you?
- cfkaMP
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And how much are his lawyers getting for that? 250K from this one gathering in Lakewood alone? God knows how much more from Crown Heights. And his chances of winning on appeal? Anyone's chances on winning on appeal?
And in the mean time, schools are shutting down. But hey, I'm sure it's no big deal. Like you said, everyone has what inspires them. For some, it's education. For others it's paying for lawyers' new yachts.
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And though the statistics of appeal success are not great, people still want to try to help...
As to lawyer 'new yachts', that is incredibly silly coming from a law student. They bill by the hour, and a case of this magnitude will take hundreds of hours of research and conferences, support staff hours, etc. Heck, even reviewing the trial documents properly will take hundreds of hours! All this is reported to the client, who, one would presume reviews all the bills. Do you know how quickly $250K is spent at, say, $600 per hour?
- cfkaMP
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And no, reading the transcript will not take hundreds of hours... unless, of course, you are billing by the hour and have the entire frum world throwing money at you. In that case, reading a trial transcript might ostensibly take weeks and months and maybe even years to fully read properly and comprehend in its entirety.
You do know that Nat has only two attorneys in his office, himself and his daughter, right?
You do know that law students actually write appellate briefs and spend their summers practicing law, right? That they know how much is reasonable to charge and how much time a case can take? At 250 per hour, which is not shabby, this one fundraiser paid for 6 months of full time work for this attorney. 6 months of doing nothing but SMR and his appeal. And that was one fundraiser in Lakewood.
But paying teachers and building maintenance for 6 months? Nah, that's just not as cool as helping a fellow yid.
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- cfkaMP
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