Kiruv Organisation

Kiruv Organisation is an Orthodox Judaism outreach organization founded in 1995 by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi in New York for the purpose of teaching Torah to both secular and religious Jews.

Yosef Mizrachi founder

Yosef Mizrachi (Hebrew: יוסף מזרחי‎) is a Sefardi Haredi rabbi. He was born in 1968 in Israel. After his mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces he worked in finance in New York City. In 1997, Mizrachi left his professional career and devoted his life to first learning and eventually teaching Torah in a yeshivah in Monsey, New York. Mizrachi taught at Yeshivat Ohr Yisrael in Monsey for a number of years. He is presently devoted to Orthodox Judaism outreach know in Hebrew as kiruv ([bringing Jews] closer [to Torah Judaism]). Mizrachi has lectured worldwide. In 2004 he launched the "DivineInformation.com" website^[1] posting many of his video and audio lectures.^[2]

Work of the Kiruv Organisation

The Kiruv Organization provides DVDs, Audio CDs, MP3 CDs at no charge sponsored by dedicated donors, Noahides and non-Jews people. The subjects covered are "Divine Information," "Torah and Science," "Christianity versus Judaism" and "Life after Life" also available on the internet. As of 2013 Kiruv Organisation has handed out thousands of these free audio and video disks.^[3][4][5]

All the workers of Kiruv organization are volunteers, there are no mortgages, rent, or money wasted in any way. All funds are used 100% for the very Holy cause of Saving Souls and bring Jewish men and women back to Hashem our God...Please know that according to the Torah the best investment a person can make is helping others learn Torah and know Hashem...^[3][6][7]

Ethics

Mizrachi offers an extended ethical audio and video lecture series, called "The Path of the Just",^[8] based on the classical musar text Mesillat Yesharim (Hebrew: מסילת ישרים‎) composed by Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.

The Orthodox Jewish community spawned Musar to help people overcome the inner obstacles that hinder them from living up to the laws and commandments —the mitzvot— that form the code of life."^[9]

His lecture series on Pirkei Avot (Chapters/Ethics of the Fathers)^[10] (engl. Ethics of the Fathers) draws on Musar and practical ethics.

Mizrachi and other rabbinical teachers have also recommended the practice of Musar not only for Jews and Baalei Teshuva (returnees to Orthodox Judaism) but also for Noahides and non-Jews. For non-Jews this means the observance of the Seven Laws of Noah, for Jews and Jewish Baalei Teshuva, this means the acceptance, practice, study and learning of the 613 commandments.

Yeshiva

In 2001 Mizrachi opened a Kolel and a Yeshiva in Alfandari Street, Jerusalem.

Divine Information movie

In 2002 a movie called Divine Information was produced by Mizrahi and Yuval Ovadia, a former movie director with HBO.^[11]

In 2004 Mizrahi launched a website named DivineInformation.com^[12] offering at no cost hundreds of audio and videos lectures in English and Hebrew, some with subtitles in Turkish, Spanish^[13] and Russian. Followers of these lectures are from more than 50 countries. As of 2013, Mizrachi’s Facebook page^[14] has over a million visits per month and more than 56,000 followers.

Controversy

In early 2014, prior to a lecture tour in London, concern was expressed about statements by Mizrachi in his previous lectures relating to the behaviour of secular and religious Jews during the Holocaust^[15] suggesting that Down's Syndrome and autism are "punishments for sins committed in a previous life" and ^[16] among others.^[17] Mizrachi was criticized for his views while he explicitly maintains are "Torah sourced." His views also include lectures using Bible Codes to "explain" the Holocaust.^[18]

Mizrachi was the subject of criticism by a group of Modern Orthodox Jews who pointed out that such views are neither authoritative nor representative of mainstream contemporary Orthodox Jewish thought. Some members of this group sought to stop his lecture tour. As a result, at least one of his planned lectures in London was initially cancelled.^[19] Mizrachi replied to members of this group via his Facebook page that those who dispute [his] views "cannot be Orthodox" and that "such views are universally held as part of Orthodox Judaism."^[20]

In December 2015, in one of his lectures,^[21] Mizrahi claimed that less than one million Jews died in The Holocaust as opposed to the well accepted figure of 6 million, reminiscent of claims of Holocaust deniers. He argued that "“This is how it was in Europe, 80 percent of the Jewish people were assimilated and intermarried with non- Jews many generations before the Holocaust” and that therefore "The truth is that not even one million Jews were killed." Mizrahi drew criticism from academics and Jewish leaders including Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who said that he "“made up history to suit an agenda.”^[22] He was also criticized by noted author and lecturer Berel Wein who stated that "It is too damaging a matter to be left unanswered and unrefuted."^[23] The historians asserted that the number of assimilated Jews in Europe at the time was actually much smaller than Mizrahi claimed.

See also

• Orthodox Judaism outreach

References

External links

• Official website
• Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi - on TorahAnytime.com
• Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi's Latest Shows on Radio Arutz Sheva, Israel National News