In an article at Pop Chassid , Elad Nehorai wrote – with a big headline – “Kiruv is a lie.” Why? Because it creates the illusion that Judaism is “fun” or “easy.” Because it lures people in with songs or cheap spirituality or tasty food and then – bait and switch!!! – it turns out Judaism is a hard life and so the Judaism you thought was all about fun fizzles and you drift away from Judaism. And those who do stay religious, who move into religious communities like, I’m assuming Monsey or Lakewood or Boro Park or Jerusalem, suddenly discover that religious Jews are like anybody else, not all “souls on fire” but just regular people trying to make a living, playing loud music, behaving obnoxiously, speaking loshon hora, even stealing from each other in various horrible and petty ways. Nehorai’s solution is a little fuzzy – he recommends “improving the qualitative state of our communities.” By this I’m assuming he means make every Jewish person behave nicely instead of just a few kiruv r