Last week’s front page of the 5 Towns Jewish Times featured a photograph that communicated a terrible damaging message and for that I categorically and unequivocally apologize to our readers personally and to the community at large.
We emphatically condemn all violence regardless of its motivation and feel that the assault on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. will be recorded in history as a dark day for our country.
The photo that so many found troubling and even disturbing was not intended to G-d forbid, glorify or even minimally condone that type of message. There is no place for violence in our society under any circumstances and we pray that events of last week will be a catalyst to bring the people of our country together so that we can eventually speak in one voice and even debate our political and philosophical differences in a civil and peaceful manner.
At the end of the day even though many people contribute to making this newspaper possible on a weekly basis, an error in judgment like this is my exclusive responsibility. To the extent that you were offended I reiterate my apologies and will endeavor that we are more sensitive and careful and that a situation like this is never repeated.
The 5TJT looks forward to serving the community at our high journalistic standard as we have done for the last 21-years and as a source of information for our very diverse Jewish communities. We thank you for the trust you have shown in us and we will always strive to never let you down.
Larry Gordon
Publisher and Editor
Too little too late. You got the publicity you crave.
Good for you, nitwit!
Too little; too late. You got the publicity you crave.
Well done, nitwit.
Your writer (maskless heathcare professional) was rallying with a violent crowd that included Nazis in opposition to a valid election result. Your editors decided this should be celebrated on your front page.
This was a brazen betrayal of American and Jewish values, not an innocent oversight. Something so misguided could only happen at a dysfunctional publication.
You need to have a thorough reform process. This begins, but does not end, by removing that lunatic dentist from your pages. Changes at the highest level may be necessary to accomplish this.
If that is not possible, I expect someone else can use your office space.
It is called FREEDOME OF SPEECH ! If you do not like the paper don’t read it and dont advertise in it. Really….”expect someone else can use your office space” ? He can write whatever he wants since it is HIS PAPER and what you seem no not understand is that MAJORITY of the five towns and jews around the world agree with the paper. What is a shame though, is that he folded to Rabbi Billet and Rabbi Hain who should have left this community years ago. As we speak Beth Shalom is losing members right and left because of Rabbi Hains liberal self hating jewish views. This is the same one that endorsed crooked Hillary.
For all you sick Liberal snowflakes I have a suggestion, if you dont like the what the Fivetowns has become which is conservative and religious then LEAVE.
At lease man up and post your name so we can you add you to the list of liberals still in this community.
I expressed my values. You expressed your rage.
If I shared my name, you’d probably misspell it.
The new Five town is liberal progressive community. Racism is no longer acceptable here
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! The Five Towns of the 1970s and 1980s had some liberal and some progressive aspects and people. Since then? It’s basically just turned into an annex of frum Brooklyn, duplicating its trends in food, housing construction, and politics
One more thing. Can you explain how supporting a lying conman like Donald Trump is an expression of of the Jewish religion or conservative ideology?
Still remember when my own job at a bank was under threat when Trump was threatening not to repay his loans in the 90s.
You keep a list of liberals? Well that’s creepy
This reads exactly like something from one of the Palestinian groups that spend months spreading misinformation, lies, and nonsense, and then–immediately after people get killed in terror attacks driven by said nonsense–claim that they abhor violence, want peace and dialogue, etc. etc.
Even now, you refuse to renounce in print the “Stolen Election” conspiracies (and the COVID-19 anti-mask nonsense, and all manner of other dangerous bullshit). Shame on you.
Larry, do not give in to the liberals and haters. Stay strong. President Trump may have made mistakes, but he has been our best friend. The Jewish Community stands with President Trump!
Yes, stand with fascist Trump and his Nazi supporters who sport regalia bearing the name of Auschwitz. Yosef you should change your name to Yossel the Schmendrick!
It was proven that the sport regalia bearing the name of Auschwitz was a member of Antifa.
The Jewish community has found a new golden calf in the image of trump. The blind loyalty to this man is this generation’s avoidance zara
Everyone is entitled to make mistakes. However you have not changed the online version of the paper. If you believe that you made a mistake then this should have been changed already.
Additionally you should have “fired” the columnist involved if this apology was sincere.
Once you do both these things, then we will know you are indeed apologetic. Until then, it’s just words.
Your years of supporting the toddler in chief and his incitement of violence for his goals and his support for white fascists. Too little too late with your apology.
Congratulations! You and your muse, Gila Jedwab, have finally committed Chilul Hashem B’farhesya. Your front page picture and captioned article reached Newsday, as if we need that coverage as well. Your apology is certainly meaningless because you will not learn from it or change. The FTJT is your platform with seemingly no controls over its content and that makes you entirely responsible for its actions. What this community saw in your paper is not just offensive but also surely does not represent our commitment to Jewish ethics and morals. As we have learned from years of penalties against criminals, government sanctions against countries that violate all human freedoms, the most positive road to change is through financial means. Not only should your publication be outlawed in the Five Towns Community, your advertisers should halt their financial support of the FTJT and give their business to the other publications available to us. Maybe then you will understand the deficiencies that you and some of your contributors display with offensive articles, as opposed to, simply discussing the events and highlights of our community and positive Torah that puts a proper light on who we really are. I am a member of a Shul that will no longer take delivery of the FTJT and I hope that all the Yeshivas, Synagogues and vendors in the communities that the FTJT serves will follow suit.
Your hysteria has overwhelmed your judgement. The bloodlust in your words is evident.
NOTHING WRONG HERE !!! A photo at the Capitol ?? Violence from less than 1% of
participants ?? Repudiated and condemned by all !!
Your Leftist cancel culture is misplaced. Perhaps it is you we need to cancel. At the very least,
misguided Shuls and Leftist-leaning Rabbis who believe they speak for the Community.
THEY DO NOT. NEITHER DO YOU. Kol Ha’Kavod to Gila, a true Patriot !!!
Nice try, Larry. We know exactly what you’re concerned for — your wallet — and we know perfectly well that you will be printing Jedwab and her vile nonsense again as soon as the political temperature drops. You are, frankly, a despicable cynic who is willing to print life-threatening lies to generate revenue. May our community not be blind to the poison you secreet through this so-called “newspaper.”
Bravo Mindy, and Gila !!
Larry, never apologize to these people, these liberals speak for no one. Everyone knows the rally was peaceful, and the riot after was instigated by Antifa, sames as the BLM protests that turned into riots, that the media called “Peaceful Protests” We are with you, don’t give into the very few liberal but overly vocal liberal voices.
On Thursday, I called the 5TJT and spoke to a man named Mark. This is a summary of the call:
I called up and spoke to a guy named Mark. This is a summary of my conversation:
1. You can’t judge the protest off the actions of 2,000 people who stormed
2. It was peaceful when she was there
3. They don’t support this woman’s QAnon leanings, but not enough to not print a photo of her.
4. The protest was important because of the election
5. All the courts were pressured to not take the cases. The election was rigged.
6. All the media, including Fox News is lying. Implied that 5TJT wants to give the REAL NEWS.
Then it got crazy :
7. Would I be mad if they posted a picture of George Soros who killed people in the Holocaust?
SO forgive people for not putting much stock into this apology.
i deal with the paper all the time. nobody named mark workign there. that means you are another faker. go back to cnn and enjoy the echo chamber. nobody here believes your bs.
Larry, ignore the letter from the liberal rabbis. These rabbis aren’t real rabbis. They’re called erev Rav. It’s all over the zohar. This type of Orthodox Judaism, where rabbis break and pervert the Torah, has always been a major problem for the Jews. They’re just as corrupt as Washington.
My recommendation? Just ignore what they say. They’re ppl just like you and they only have the power you give them. Ppl will still buy the paper. Ppl will still be friends with the women. And the ppl who will actually cancel the two bc of the words of the rabbis, you don’t need those type of ppl in your life anyways…
I stand 100% with shuls that banned this paper. Your editorials and Jedwab’s articles would be laughable if the subject wasn’t so serious. What an embarrassment for the 5T.
Perhaps we need to ban these Shuls and their Boards. They are mostly Leftists, otherwise
there would be no issue with a citizen taking a photo in front of the Capitol. “Simcha” Your Sinas Chinam is a disgrace and you and the others had a worthless davening on Yom Kippur. It is YOU who are the embarrassment. I am still trying to determine why Larry Gordon issued an apology ?? None was needed !!
The Community is overwhelmingly supportive of Trump, not even close. AS HASHEM OBSERVES US !!!
It’s hard to have a rational discussion with someone who is so detached from reality. I was a Trump supporter for years. I appreciate his support of Israel, some of his fiscal policies and more. However, he lost me when he abdicated his leadership position during the pandemic. As more people died a Trump dud absolutely nothing (other than play golf). This craziness over the election was the last straw. Losing 50 court cases in multiple jurisdictions all point to the same conclusion. You lost, Get over it….and stop dragging the country down with you.
Well. 75 million people totally disagree with your assessment of events. The election at the very least, was suspicious. The trust and transparency, Hunter Biden, Ukraine, should disqualify Biden forever.
BUT THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE. The disgraceful cancel culture displayed toward a woman who merely took a photo in front of the Capitol, unaware of any violence. HOW CAN WE EXPECT MOSHIACH ??? The Shuls involved owe Larry Gordon and Gila an enormous apology. What was their crime ???
Even if it were 82 million people, you would still be supporting insurrection.
Why is it we keep on being told to respect “the 75 million people who voted for Trump” by the same people who deny the fact that 82 million people voted for Biden?
Apology? Please! Then why does your website still contain a link to this absurd article WITH the nauseating picture:
http://www.5tjt.com/orthodox-faithful-write-off-seriousness-of-capitol-attack/
Just informed beth sholom I am no longer a member. Anyone that attacks my favorite paper is dead to me. Of all the ingratitude, President Trump has been our best friend and deserves our support. Best President ever. The incursion into the capital was started by antifa, very knows that! These liberal twits that ignore that are just consumed with hatred for our president. Larry, you have been a great ally to our President and a true representative of our community….. dont give in, dont let the liberal mob win, we will need all the strength we have to get through the next 4 challenging years. We will resist! Biden will never be our president!
There was an election. More people voted for Biden. Biden is your president.
GILA WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! HUGS AND KISSES TO THE 5TJT PATRIOT!!!!!!!
We must defend free speech by denying people the right to boycott!
What’s remarkable about this picture is the caption: it says that Gila Jedwab (smiling widely and clearly enjoying herself at the chaotic sight) left before the violence ensued, however the picture clearly depicts in the background people CLIMBING over the capitol walls, AFTER THEY ALREADY OVERTOOK THE CAPITAL. Are you kidding me? Must we be so blindly, homogeneously republican as an Modern Orthodox community (although if we’re being honest, most of it results from “groupthink” and not from arriving with that choice arriving at that choice logically) that we support a group of Republicans that intentionally damaged government property,killed officers, and created violent chaos? Would you make the front page of your paper a picture of one of your writers at a violent BLM protest, smiling and “thumbs upping”? Are we so blind to the idea that violence and breaking the law, is violence and breaking the law, no matter what group, sect, or political party does it? Are you so blindy obsessed with Gila Jedwab, for reasons unknown to me and all your readers, that you will continue to promote her odd, dangerous and pseudoscience attitudes?
Enough is enough with the paper’s random, odd and misplaced obsession with Gila Jedwab. Dr. Jedwab has absolutely no place writing medical muses about COVID-19. She is a dentist, not an epidemiologist. Her views are not just “different,” they are radical, they are pseudoscience, and they promote extremely dangerous attitudes.
I understand that much of selling a paper depends on catching people’s attention: but will you really stoop so low, as to make it look like we are promoting violent and chaotic protests, and even put one of your writers among that scene clearly enjoying herself? Please, this picture was not just an “oversight” on your behalf; if it takes an average reader 10 seconds to understand the symbolism of this picture, it’s unbelievable that it would take the editor longer to think about it. Will you continue to post Dr. Jedwab’s “trying to hard to say something eye-catching” articles in the hope of sparking more anger and controversy than they already promote? I hope that in the future we can have higher moral standards for ourselves and for the content of our information and newspapers.
Apology? Please. Why then do you still have a link to to the article -WITH THE PICTURE – on your home page? You can’t have it both ways.
Several months ago, the New York Times published an editorial cartoon depicting a blind Donald Trump being led by a dog with Bibi Netanyahu’s face. After many complaints of anti Semitism, the NY Times editors issued an apology, but soon after they continued to publish other anti Semitic content. Despite their apology, it is clear that the editors of the NY Times have a clear anti Semitic and anti Zionist philosophy.
The same can be said of the 5T Jewish Times. OK, you apologized. Frankly, given the uproar you created, you didn’t have much choice. But have you changed your philosophy? I very much doubt it!
Look, I’m no liberal! I voted for Trump in both presidential elections, and I think what he did for Israel is nothing short of miraculous. But that in no way excuses the Boosha and Cherpa of his actions in challenging the election results! And you supported this disgrace enthusiastically! As late as last week you publicly cast doubt over who won the election, and who would be our next President.
SHAME ON YOU!! If I ever pick up your paper again, it will be to peel vegetables onto.
If you want to truly right this wrong stop giving Jedwab a platform for her dangerous and misleading messages. She encourages readers to not wear masks and put themselves (and others) in great danger. Even after all the death and grief our community had experiences she still believes that covid isn’t a big a deal. “Free Speech” does not include dangerous speech, like Jedwab’s, that puts peoples lives and health at risk.
Larry, man up and retract that idiotic apology. There is nothing to apologize for. The picture of a proud Jewish woman standing up for what Jews have always stood up for, justice and right, is nothing to apologize for. The self destructive lefty, not liberal, but lefty, Jews who would see conservative values silenced should be ashamed of themselves.
Every Jew is not a marxist a communist or a fraidy cat. We stood up for racial justice in the sixties; now the battle is more insidious. We need to stand up for freedom of thought and to defend our most precious right in the first amendment.
This country with all its blemishes has been great for our people; we need to protect it and not let the totalitarian lefties squash free speech.
There was no violence; nothing untoward in that picture.
Retract that apology.
Larry, I don’t get it. If you are truly of the belief that the election was stolen from Trump by: The Democrats, some Republicans, the Supreme Court, the State Courts, the State Legislatures, the media (except for OAN and Newsmax of course), the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, then what was wrong with the actions by those “patriots” on January 6th? Sure, violence is usually not the answer, but when such an egregious robbery of the People’s Will occurs, and the previously mentioned institutions do nothing to help, a revolution is certainly necessary, no? Why then, would you apologize for the picture of the grinning Deficient Dentist standing in front of the murderous “protestors”?
The answer is twofold. One has been mentioned already- you care about your wallet. That’s fair.
The other reason is that in your heart of hearts you don’t believe that the election was stolen. There would have needed to be too much cooperation (another word for “conspiracy,” as in the phrase, “conspiracy theory”) from so many people that it wouldn’t be possible. All the “evidence” that has been presented in support of massive fraud has either been unsubstantiated or disproven. Why else would so many (conservative) courts throw out the cases?
So, I join an uncomfortably large number of crazies in this comment section in calling for you to remove your apology. If you truly believe that the election was stolen by the government and so many others, then this “revolution” was warranted.
If you keep this apology up on the 5TJT website, the readers of this “newspaper” can assume that your previous articles calling this fair election “stolen” were all lies.
P.S.- Gila monster is the name of a venomous species of lizard that lives in the southwestern United states. I would rather be treated by the lizard than the snake.
Lets take politics out of here. Trump, Biden or whoever you vote for, shuls were made to be a place of inclusion and community and most importantly G-D
Are “these Rabbis” only good for trying to kill off our locals businesses?
seriously, 550, Chimichurri and now the 5t JN?
Nothing in the last 5 years have any local Rabbis been able to stand up to that makes sense.
Want to stand up for the Torah….just look at these places, the Mechitzos, the mixing between men and women, the kiddush clubs (that the rabbi goes to during haftorah) the talking during davening – be consistent and we can take them seriously until then they have made a joke of themselves, the shuls they “lead” and our community at large.
A picture is worth a thousand words. That front page picture of “Dr.” Jedwab flexing and grinning before an occupied Capitol was the apotheosis of the “masks and social distancing don’t save lives“ lie, the “covid pandemic is a hoax” lie, and the “landslide victory was stolen from us” lie. 350,000 covid deaths (so far), five death casualties from the invasion (so far) and a weakened democracy were the inevitable results of these lies. If you truly believe a that a duly elected president was stripped of power by an undemocratic coup of governors, legislators, and judges from both parties, why weren’t you storming the Capitol along with the other defenders of freedom? Or was it all a cynical, self-serving lie that you did not really believe it? So, which is it- are you a coward or a liar?
Thank you for your apology Larry Gordon. I was saddened and disappointed to see the front cover of your publication.
It seems that everyone has an extremely short memory.
It was not just this past summer when riots broke out across America, destroying all kinds of civil live – smashing windows of stores and burning police stations etc that Democratic politicians and their supporters we supporting and encouraging the rioting.
It was January 2016 when President elect Trump was about to take office that there were already calls to impeach him At his Inauguration there were mass demonstrations to take over DC, huge sit ins, actual rioting in the streets of DC with burning cars and destroyed public and private building – total chaos which was pushed not only by Democratic party agenda, but actual politicians calling for violence, with hashtag NotMyPresident trending. This went on for over a week, with the National Guard fighting molotov cocktails with tear gas and riot protection. “Former president Obama joined hundreds of other elected officials at the west front of the U.S. Capitol, anarchists armed with crowbars and hammers marched through the city’s streets, toppling over news boxes, smashing bus-stop glass, vandalizing businesses, spray-painting buildings and, smashing in the windows of a black limousine which was later setting it alight.
The Democrats were saying the election was rigged and the electoral college should be abolished. The media were calling Trumps election a dark day and fragmenting a divided America, pushing for more conflict and dissension.
THIS IS UNLIKE WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK. What happened last week must be condoned and is unacceptable, but it was not unprecedented; a drop in the bucket of what happened from the opposition 4 years ago.