Rabbonim Ban Tzedaka Play in Lakewood

Lakewood, New Jersey: The Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach of Lakewood's Beis Medrash Gavoha, issued a ban of a women's entertainment event that took place in Lakewood's Beis Yaakov High School Sunday night. The event, entitled "Comedance", was a show illustrating "the journey of life through comedy and dance", and featured women performers singing and dancing in front of an all-female audience. Although the performance met with no opposition when it took place at Boro Park and other venues in prior weeks, that was not the case in Lakewood. An automated phone call recording reached thousands of Lakewood homes Sunday evening, notifying all household that the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach, R' Kotler, R' Neuman, R' Schustal, R' Olshin and R' Salomon, had issued a ruling that the performance should not be attended. Ironically, this followed similar automated calls on behalf of the producers of the show that had been placed just hours before, reminding local women and girls to attend the event, which was advertised as a benefit for Tzedaka R' Meir Ba'al HaNes. The Roshei Yeshiva did not go into details regarding exactly what the problem with the event was, rather, general priciples such as "the spirit of Tznius" were invoked. In any case, the ban seemed to have little effect. Women who attended the event report that the performers played to a full crowd. Some pointed to the last-minute nature of the ban as reason for the little attention payed to it, phone calls prohibiting attendance at the event were made after 8:00 pm Sunday night, when most attendees had already left their homes to go to the event.