Rabbi Who Outed Helen Thomas Returns to Midway

What do you get when you combine a quasi-midlife crisis with a Flip camcorder?

If you're Rabbi David Nesenoff, you get the career path you were looking for–and numerous death threats.

Nothing has been simple since May 27, when Syosset High alum Nesenoff approached legendary correspondent Helen Thomas outside the White House and asked her about Israel. The response–that Israelis should get out and return to Germany and Poland–became a YouTube sensation, ended Thomas' six-decade career and put Nesenoff center stage on CNN and in the Washington Post.

A speaking tour now awaits, and Nesenoff was pleased to kick things off at his old stomping grounds, Midway Jewish Center, Wednesday night.

"It's nice to start off with a home crowd, a friendly crowd, people you prayed with for so many years," Nesenoff said.  

Before the lecture he enjoyed reflecting about his time as head of the junior congregation, when raffling off a Carvel ice cream cone for 35 cents or holding magic shows gave religious studies the feel of a birthday party.

"Where else do kids enjoy going to synagogue?" Nesenoff joked.

Nesenoff's trip to the White House initially appeared to be just as lighthearted, although he has been portrayed as an opportunist. Sons Adam and Daniel had acquired press passes for their website, www.shmoozepoint.com, for May 27's Jewish Heritage Day. Nesenoff said he tagged along; he had been looking for a new mission for his website, www.rabbilive.com, which had been used to bring religious services to overseas military, senior citizens and "lazy Jews." 

As of May 1 he had ended his Rabbi stint at an LI synagogue and spent a lot of time in his home study pondering the next move in his career. He was disenchanted with Israel's main perceptions as a place of bombing and turmoil, and wanted to get video snippets from people about what makes the country special. 

"If [Thomas] had just said to get the hell out of Palestine and go to Tel Aviv, I'd be back at home editing people talking about falafel," Nesenoff told the audience. 

But Nesenoff said the denial of Israel as a whole and the inclusion of Poland and Germany into the mix were obviously anti-Semetic. That said, he added that those who think he got the video and automatically thought career advancement need to look at the timeline. It was a week before one of his sons finally posted the video on www.rabbilive.com.

"There was Regents testing going on," Nesenoff said. "I didn't want him to do poorly in school because he had to post the Helen Thomas video."

When bloggers picked up on the video it got millions of views. Not long after the family was getting security training due to death threats. Nesenoff chose to put much of the hate mail online, unedited, and is glad he did.

"The moment we posted it, the hate mail stopped and the love mail started," Nesenoff said. "We had so many people write us and say they just wanted us to get one nice letter. It's amazing how many one nice letters you get."

As the speaking engagements move toward the fall, he'll be doing many on college campuses talking to journalism students. He noted that while there's no problem asking targeted questions, sometimes the broad queries will get people to say what's on their mind. At least, that's what happened with Thomas.

Said Nesenoff, "Sometimes I'd like to just ask the president, 'How's the world?'"