I understand chabad hatred, I really do. If it’s justified or not is hard to tell. I’ve heard dozens of stories on the both sides of the fence, about the community that modified their mikvah according to chabads standards and then chabad turned around and built their own. About the community kollel that gave the same exact classes as the local chabad and about the shul that invited a chabad rabbi to teach some children and ended up opening his own shul and taking their minayn away. I could probably list a hundred horror stories I’ve heard through visiting communities over the years. Usually chabad hatred is like racism, it’s based on one persons personal experience. Just because a black man robbed you once, doesn’t give you an excuse to write off an entire people as evil.
What really irks me about chabad hatred is the folks who use chabad and then turn around to spew their hatred about them. Regardless of what you think, this guest post about Loving and Hating Chabad summed up many of my views, although I don’t agree with some of it and the author doesn’t know chabad that well. I know that the second you mention chabad it breeds sinas chinam, I’m not even talking about the Rebbe is Moshiach BS – that is a whole different story. I’m talking about people who use chabads services and then talk smack. I should mention that this goes both ways, I have met quite a few folks who have a completely different view of chabad based on a one time experience. The title of the post sums it up, I hear it all the time “I was in Yellowstone and I needed a mikvah and now I love chabad” I find it strange that one negative or positive experience can alter someone’s opinion of an entire group – but it just goes to show you that most of the flack that chabad gets from the Jewish community at large is baseless.
People are constantly using chabad as a hotel, restaurant and middle of nowhere all in one Jewish services. No other group in the world will ever do the kind of stuff chabad does and that alone wipes away anything bad they could have done. I wish that people would stop using the Meshichist stuff and their one experience to hate on an entire group of do-gooders. And if you’re going to use chabad as a hotel or restaurant give them a damned donation.