RETRACTION AND APOLOGY: a previous version of this letter alleged that the op-ed in question was slanderous. The letter writer retracts the allegation being that it was hyperbole. The letter writer also apologizes that the letter was taken as a personal attack on the op-ed author's. It was not intended as character attack, rather as a sharp criticism of the op-ed author's ideas. It has been edited in this new version for clarification.

An Open Letter to Mottel

Dear Mottel,

Your op-ed, A Fire Burns in Crown Heights: An Essay on Religion, Modernity and Pizza, was based on false pretenses. You and your sympathizers misunderstand everyone attacked in your long and erroneous expose (with its ensuing comments) on the current tensions between the so-dubbed zealots, the restaurants, and the men and women on the streets of Crown Heights. Your view of the situation is narrow; your ability to influence is limited; and your solutions may be effective in Nevel or Never Never Land, but not in Crown Heights. Your advice is not helpful.

Despite all the talk about Community Council elections lately, I find I can?t really bring myself to care too much about who?s in and who?s out. My apathy is partially due to the fact that I don?t really know what the Community Council does, but I think the bigger reason might be that like other women in Crown Heights, I can neither run nor vote in these elections.

First of all congratulations and a hearty Mazal Tov to the newly elected Vaad of Crown Heights, you were voted in by an election that was held with the participation of an overwhelming majority of the residents of the Rebbe?s Shchuna, and we all pray for you and for your success on behalf of the residents of Crown Heights.

We live in a dual culture - pulled by the Jewish, Chassidic, and uniquely Lubavitcher traditions that bind us, we also seek on some level to integrate into the society around us. Our use of innovations in technology, our homes, and even our clothes, are all the result of the modern world's influence on our lives. [Note to those that take issue with the belief that any modernity has seeped into our Lubavitcher meta-culture: Our mode of dress - be it the short jacket, the choice of a more modern fedora over the more traditional Russian kasket, or even the relatively modern design of the Kapote (based on the Victorian Prince Albert frock) are all signs of our organic adaptation to the modern world]. The calls of modern life offer a lot of potential. They also give room to incredible danger. It is the tension of spanning this spiritual chasm that we must address if we are to remain viable as a group.

An Essay on Religion, Modernity and Pizza

We live in a dual culture - pulled by the Jewish, Chassidic, and uniquely Lubavitcher traditions that bind us, we also seek on some level to integrate into the society around us. Our use of innovations in technology, our homes, and even our clothes, are all the result of the modern world's influence on our lives. [Note to those that take issue with the belief that any modernity has seeped into our Lubavitcher meta-culture: Our mode of dress - be it the short jacket, the choice of a more modern fedora over the more traditional Russian kasket, or even the relatively modern design of the Kapote (based on the Victorian Prince Albert frock) are all signs of our organic adaptation to the modern world]. The calls of modern life offer a lot of potential. They also give room to incredible danger. It is the tension of spanning this spiritual chasm that we must address if we are to remain viable as a group.

Why Successful Individual or National Relationships, Cannot Depend On Love Alone

Obsessed With Love

Some people are willing to do almost anything to be loved. Our society lacks no example of ridiculous cases in which cravers of love are willing to strip themselves of their innermost dignity to desperately attract the affection of others. The recent ?balloon boy? saga, ?kiss cams? at sports games, lavish lifestyles or simple, yet bizarre human behaviors, all shout the same message: ?Please love me!?

From The Inbox:

Yitzchak Sapochkinsky from Chabad of Westlake Village, CA was speaking with an American Express representative at an indian call center, when the rep suddenly expressed interest in Chabad. The indian rep went on to say “I live in Mumbai, India, next door to the Chabad House” and spoke about the Holtzberg's.

It sounds like a simple approach to this country's illegal immigration problems: Crack down on businesses that employ undocumented workers.

But it's not so simple. Just consider the jury's verdict of “not guilty” for Sholom Rubashkin. The former Agriprocessors Inc. executive had been charged with scores of child labor violations and was acquitted on all of them. The Iowa Attorney General's Office alleged Rubashkin knew there were many children working in the Postville slaughterhouse prior to the 2008 federal immigration raid - but that he did nothing to put a stop to it.

The dramatic vindication of Sholom Rubashkin in the state child-labor trial last week has wreaked havoc with the public's view of him. Given his media-battered reputation, no one expected him to be acquitted of the state charges. Bias against him, especially in Iowa, was rampant. Many described their shocked reaction to the verdict.

The government had promised they had a solid case and there was no reason to doubt it.

The public had long been convinced that Sholom Mordechai presided over a crime-ridden plant where, in addition to minors being forced to work with dangerous chemicals and machinery, workers were subjected to forced labor and other outrages.

A great person once told me that whenever she enters a room, the first thing she notices is the racial makeup of the people in the room. As an observer at last night?s question and answer session with Rabbis Manis Friedman and Yossi Paltiel, I was struck by how un-diverse the audience was. The room was brimming with an almost entirely young moderate- to very-chassidish crowd or those with the hergesh to wear white shirts on Gimmel Tammuz, if you will. Mostly older 770 bochurim and yungerleit.

What was more glaring was who were not there ? the so-called single working class and the young Lubavitch college students. It is ironic that a program put on by the newly founded Besht Center did not attract an audience from their target group at one of its largest events of the year. But it is unsurprising considering how predictably unfulfilling these events tend to be. I only came down there because I felt I must do something on Gimmel Tammuz and because my friend paid my five-dollar admission fee.