Morons of the year award to the four young American men who went to Israel to study at yeshiva and engaged in more than torah study. Yup, they went all the way to the Holy Land in order to sell drugs. Now they’re in custody and a trial is pending. Boo hoo.
Apparently, one of the boys comes from a well-to-do family because his lawyer asserted that the court should be lenient on the boy because his father had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to “Israel” over the years. If only he had given some more spending money to his son…
See the whole unfortunate/idiotic tale here.
Latest posts by themiddle (see all)
link?
See your email.
Free the Yeshiva Four!
anyone have their number?
Uh, Leboff, just look up the Jerusalem telephone directory for “jail.”
right. this is clearly much worse than all the heroin and white slavery being done by Israeli’s in Israel.
Fuck it I say. Kudos to anyone courageous enought o risk their lives and well being by bringing good grass to Israel. may all who stand in their way be struck down and prevented form their tasks.
May god bless us one day to actually be a free people in our land.
–Yoseph
Its really pure idiocy to condone drugs. I mean some drugs are lesser evils than others, but the main point of them is clear. Drugs really destroy people, believe it or not. Those boys were directly ruining or helping ruin people’s lives. Drugs do more harm than anything else.
Yoseph,
What are you saying, that because there are murderers out there, armed robbers shouldn’t be put in jail?
And my cousins are all cops Yoseph. I mean I have a fairly liberal attitude to drugs (even though I don’t really smoke weed) but please, do not wish the striking down of otherwise good people.
Don’t really smoke weed, eh?
I thought this story was so sad. Some kids with enough business sense to run a successful business at 18 throwing their chances at doing something legitimate away so early on…but then I just always feel upset when people make mistakes that end up limiting their options now and later in life. So sad!
Um, selling ganja doesn’t require much of a business sense. It requires a supplier, a pocket scale and a market. And those little baggies. The little baggies are crucial.
Trust me, if marijuana required business sense to sell, it wouldn’t be sold by stoners.
Michael, it apparently requires some acumen if you’re going to avoid getting caught.
And they got caught, so, apparently, they didn’t have much.
Check laya’s post on 8/25/04. Does she know these guys? Were they the ones who gave her the goods for her rooftop smoke?
Dina: Marijuana laws are really lax here. I mean, I don’t really drink either, but on occasion, you gotta be social. WRT to weed, lots of people I know smoke it. It’s really not my thing at all though. In Israel, a bunch of American kids trying to set up shop to make some extra scratch WILL be busted because they interfere in the regular course of business and cut into regular dealers’ profits – especially when they’re selling premium priced high THC marijuana. These regular dealers have their protectzia and will rat out new upstart dealers in a second. The cops cooperate because regular dealers are good sources of info on other more damaging / dangerous crime and maybe they get cut in on the action. There’s a certain way things work, a certain equilibrium. When that gets upset, things like this happen. Those kids were dumb asses. Sorry!
TS: It’s impossible that these dumb ass kids supplied anyone other than a few of their friends before they got found out. So no, I doubt Laya got anything from them.
But Michael, a big factor in being successful is putting yourself out there and creating opportunities for yourself…which they did do (and then get caught).
But anyway, I was only kidding with that.
Well, as a result of this story, there is an entire story about Americans who are sent to yeshivas in Israel because they have drug problems. I guess their parents and families hope being in the Holy Land within a torah learning environment will clean them up. Sadly, at least one young man ended up falling through the system and has died of a heroin overdose.
We all have been to J-lem, and we all know how sketchy the Yeshiva kids are, and we all know how sketcy the Yeshivot they attend are.
I say screw em. I don’t care how much money their daddy spent to plant trees in Israel, admit that you raised a son who is a spoiled brat who thinks he can get away with anything, who should know better at age 20 anyhow.
to dispel the rumors, i don’t know who these kids are, and i never buy drugs anyway.
And Yoav, you’re making massive generalizations about Yeshivot that are entirely unfair
Yoav,
kol ha’kavod.
You forgot to add this loathing of religious people and institutions in your description of proud secular jew on your blog.
Drugs are generally destructive. My brother was a huge pothead and he started doing badly in school and then he went on to start doing other drugs and stealing my mom’s meds and money. My brother can be violent and emotionally abusive. Before he started drugs he was completely different and if he had never started things would be a lot better off all around.
I don’t loth religous people and institutions by any means. I have just had some bad personal experiences in my past that admitedly make me judgemental. I apologize for my grand generalization, I didn’t mean to offend.
I was just pissed off that their lawyer brought in the whole “his father donated XXX amount last year” as an excuse for their actions. I got offended at that part specifically.
Rina, it’s all about moderation.
Yoav, gotcha.
I figure its just easier to stay away from it completely 😀
Birthright wouldnt be so popular without them.
Nah, alcohol is the devil’s potion. Marijuana is from the earth and what is from the earth is of greatest worth. So says Ben Harper.
Marijuana is all well and good, and not without its attractions, but I must take issue with Ben. Hemlock is from the earth too, but I wouldn’t put that in the ol’ cutchie.
When I was in Israel (98-99) all the “cool” yeshiva boys were selling pot. Overpriced, in little matchboxes, packed with lots of stems…See, the stems bulk up the box but don’t make for good smoking…All harmless fun, or so I thought, until I met some poor american kid that spent a year in an israeli jail for just that. And this didn’t make any headlines…probably cause his daddy wasn’t rich…
First of all to all of you who say screw the yeshivot, you have no clue what you are talking about. To generalize and say all of them are sketchy is sad, pathetic, and just a tad low. I’m sorry, have you seen all the Yeshivot here? I’m just going to assume no..you didn’t afterall there are a few hundred of them. Oh and because a few ” religious” punks got busted so let’s just blame the whole system. Let me tell you my freind, majority of the drug dealers here in Jerusalem aren’t religious at all. Most who get arressted are secular Israeli’s who are the one’s dealing to the religious kids. And trust me, it’s not the religious kids who are doing the drugs…comparitavly to the secular kids. And the few Yeshivot that deal with these kids.. KOL HAKAVOD to them. Someone’s got to do it. And don’t think for a second that ” Oh , the kids American, let him do his stuff there.” The kid is Jewish like you and he has every reason to be here as much as you. MORE. His dad gives hundreds of thousands to the state. I’m sure your dad does too. My bad. Oh by the way… Just so you know..Im an Israeli American who has lived here for 8 years, I’m a addiction counselor here in Jerusalem, and work for an office dealing with these kind of issues. So let me tell you all something, and Yoav listen up, there are many many more drugs with the secular than the religious. Its not even an issue. I was visiting a well known rehab ( Israeli that is) and unfortunately the kids were on more substances than American students coming here know anything about. So Yoav, keep your uninformed comments to yourself. wisen up and open your eyes.
Thanks for the input, Brock.
I don’t know that I agree with the part about the dad giving a ton of money to the state buying special rights, but that’s not your point and the rest of it is valuable input.