`:If you ever claimed in a Judaic studies program that ultra-Orthodox Jews don't have rabbis, or don't have synagogues, you would be laughed out of the room.   ::I am beginning to see the problem you have. You see, you do not know how to read what other people say without attaching your personal bias to it. Never once did I say that ultra-Orthodox Jews have no rabbis or synagogues. I DID say that the role of the rabbi and synagogue in ultra-Orthodox Judaism is minimal when compared with, say, Conservative Judaism. They are not clergy, in the traditional Western sense of the word. That is a fact. As for synagogues, they exist, but they are not essential. Minyan (a quorum of ten adult males in ultra-Orthodox law) is essential. You can have a minyan without a synagogue, but a synagogue without a minyan is an empty building. You can laugh all you want, but it doesnt change the facts. It may seem strange to you, but take the statement to anyone who actually knows something. I want to know who laughs then.   :If you ever claimed in a recognized Judaica studies program that a significant number of ultra-Orthodox rabbis accept and follow Modern Orthodox responsa (instead of their own), people would look at you as if you had two heads.   ::Also a silly point. If you were to draw such sharp distinctions between ultra-Orthodox and Modern Orthodox Judaism in a recognized Judaic Studies program, they would not know what you are talking about. A) That statement is false, because responsa in Orthodoxy does not work on the basis of someone's synagogue affiliation. B) What is a Modern Orthodox responsa versus an ultra-Orthodox responsa? C) In cases where things like hashgacha (kosher certification, etc.) are debated, you will find in most cases that it is not a question of responsa. If you know something about responsa literature in general (which apparently you do not), there are degrees of acceptance. For example, halav yisrael (milk under rabbinical supervision during milking to ensure that it comes from a cow). Most modern-Orthodox Jews do not insist on it t on the basis of a responsa by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who determined that American government supervision is sufficient. Most ultra-Orthodox Jews do insist on it. They do not reject the responsa. In fact, Moshe Feinstein (Reb Moshe, as he was called) was considered the leading halachic authority for the American ultra-Orthodox community in the past fifty years. They will say that the ruling is right BUT they want to be machmir (more strict on themselves, meaning more pious). It is not a rejection. It is simply being stricter. Ovadya Yoseph said women could wear pants instead of skirts. Would any of his daughters or daughters-in-law be caught dead in pants? No way. They are machmir.   :You just can't make this stuff up, Danny.   ::I dunno. I seem to be giving answers to everything you say, and my answers are based on sources. I am not making things up. I am simply stating things that (no matter how inconceivable it may be) you do not know.   :Stop trying to re-make the ultra-Orthodox in your own image. Its not good history. Frankly, I don't care what is on your resume. It doesn't justify writing such nonsense.  RK  : Personal attacks. I will say that your intellectual arrogance coupled with your apparent ignorance do not put you in a very good light.   In my professional life, I have researched and written extensively on this field, developed relationships  both working and personal  with many of the people involved, and worked on several important documentary films on the topic. I think I have a sense of what NPOV is, and a statement that the ultra-Orthodox ``hate`` the non-ultra-Orthodox just doesn't make the mark.   : Is beating the shit out of non-Orthodox Jews an act of love? Is calling them ``worse than Hitler`` an act of love? Is accusing them of creating the Holocaust an act of tolerance? Danny, you can protest all you like, but you obviously so immersed in an ultra-Orthodox worldview that you can't see the forest for the trees. This is violent hatespeech, and it frightens me to see an educuated person making apologetics for it. RK  :: Then it must frighten you even more knowing that I was actually there (and on one occasion, actually hit). Why? Because I do not feel the same antagonism that you do? Because I see some distasteful remarks in a certain context? You say in your diatribe that you want everyone to sit together and sing a Shlomo Carlebach niggun. Just answer me this though? Would Reb Shloime have davened in a shul without a mehitza?   Oh, and haredi does not mean ``trembling,`` as you originally wrote at the top of the article. In fact, that was kind of funny. You were apparently confused with the film Trembling Before God, which 