[Avodah] Consumer Alert: Minhog Scams On The Rise! Mislabeled, Cheap Middle Eastern Imports Flooding In, Threatening To Overwhelm Natives!

[Lisa Liel]

At 09:14 AM 6/15/2011, Prof. Levine wrote:
>  From http://tinyurl.com/3uuyha3
>
>One of the more difficult challenges we face in keeping the holy 
>minhogim of our Ashkenazic ancestors is posed by present day 
>unrestricted imports from Eretz Yisroel, of Sepharadic minhagim 
>posing as Ashkenazic ones.

<snip>

Wow.  This whole Ashkenazi/Sephardi thing has gotten completely out 
of hand.  Not to mention the very concept of "the holy minhogim".

We're all Jews, for crying out loud.  My great-grandfather was born 
in Belarus, but his family came from Spain before that.  So what am 
I?  Where's the cut-off?  If I go back far enough, my ancestors came 
from Eretz Yisrael.  So did yours.  Do I go by Belarusian minhagim or 
Spanish ones?  Or since my father is still alive, B'H, should I 
follow his minhag and not keep kosher?

>People have to be aware of this serious problem, take a stand, and 
>refuse to go along with the adulteration of our holy Ashkenazic 
>heritage, which happens when people accept such customs.

I disagree that it's a serious problem.  I think the idea that some 
people consider it to be a problem at all *is* a serious problem.

And "adulteration"?  Honestly, that sounds like something out of Dr. 
Strangelove (PBF).  There's an abundance of cultural richness among 
Torah Jewry, and our "holy Ashkenazic ancestors" didn't adopt their 
minhagim in order to declare the minhagim of other Torah Jews to be 
treif, chas v'shalom.

Lisa