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Rabbi Fuerst’s pre-publication response to the mailout:
Background: For over three-and-a-half years Rabbi
Fuerst has enforced his excommunication. Although he committed himself in the Order
to “proclaim it in the most public fashion,” he actually published it just enough to hurt
Aaron Thomas, but not enough to embarrass the Shabats.
For over three-and-a-half years, Rabbi Fuerst has refused to submit to an independent
review of his actions. Two years ago, when Judge Kogan warned Rabbi Fuerst that he would be
wise to devise a Rabbinic resolution to Thomas’ lawsuit, the most Rabbi Fuerst proposed was to
offer to reconvene his own Beit Din and “reconsider its excommunication.”
On Thursday, June 17, 2004, I Fed-Exed to Rabbi Fuerst his blue envelope, with a note
explaining that 3036 such envelopes were being mailed out in five days, on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.
I invited him to e-mail any rebuttal that he wished, and I would print it and insert it into the envelopes.
I called Rabbi Fuerst that night to insure he would be home on Friday to receive the Fed-Ex. I told him
that I was still upset at him over the excommunication. He told me that I got what I deserved. I promised
that I would soul-searchingly think about what he said. I called back at about 11:00 p.m. Here is the
verbatim text of that conversation:
A.T.: Hello Rabbi Fuerst; I’ve been thinking about what you said, and -
R.F.: I’ve got people here; call me back later (and he began to hang up).
A.T.: Wait! Just one quick question. If you were so right, why won’t you go to Beis Din with me?
R.F.: (As he was hanging up in my face, I think I heard him say in a lackadaisical kind of way) You
wanna go to Beis Din, I’ll go to Beis Din (and he hung up).
I told my wife what I thought Rabbi Fuerst had said. I asked her, “What does that mean, after all this
time and effort?” She said just to wait and see if he responds to the Fed-Ex.
Four days later, on Monday, June 21, at 11:30 a.m., a leading Memphis attorney called me and said
that “some people in Chicago want to come down and talk to you; will you delay the mail-out until
Wednesday?” I explained that the best I could do was to delay it until Tuesday late afternoon, and I
would take the boxes to the airport instead of the neighborhood Post Office branch. That would give
them time to come in Monday night and meet at night or in the morning. The attorney called me back
at 5:00 p.m. “Aaron, my people never called me back, so I guess you just gotta do what you gotta do.”
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