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Meor strikes again

 Keith S.October 28, 2019 at 8:47 PM

I am very sorry about what happened to your son. However I wanted to thank you. My son was also the valedictorian and now a junior at Wharton and also in a Fraternity. He told me last Firday that he was going to an overnight retreat for shabbat with his rabbi at Penn. The next day out of the blue my son mentioned to me that he was thinking of going to Israel to study torah for a year following graduation. He was raised as a conservative Jew and I am all for his connection to Judiasm and studying Torah and doing Mizvot. However, this was a shock because he just accepted an amazing job that he wanted so badly a couple weeks before. AND he is already planning to study abroad in Israel for his junior spring. So I spoke to him and tried to see where this was coming from. However, he was very resistant to any thing negative I was suggesting about his idea. Normally he is always very open to considering my opinions. So I told him I would call him later to discuss his potential plan. I then googled "jewish recruiting of college students cult" and I immediately saw your post. The similarities were shocking. It was if you were writing about my son. I called my son and asked what organization he was thinking of going to Israel with and he said MEOR. I sent him your story and it quickly got through to him and it helped him realize that at 20 years old, he was more susceptible to being unduly influenced. We agreed that if he went to Israel for a year to study that he wouldn't necessarily spend the rest of his life alienated from his family but it was certainly possible and why take that risk? After all look what happened to him after just a single night retreat. He could study as much as he wanted right here. Why be under the control of an organization for an entire year while he studies all day and night? Why walk away from an amazing job? So I am eternally grateful for you sharing your story and potentially saving my son.


Jewish Outreach: What Your Rabbi Isn't Telling You: Guest Post: A Concerned Jewish Mother Speaks Out About Kiruv (stopkiruvnow.blogspot.com)

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