WHY THE RIGHT WING OF JUDAISM WILL SELF-DESTRUCT!
TUVYA IS CHAIM NEUHOFF
Address: 1296 E. 10th. St.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230
718-501-3708
Blogger Posek is Yisroel Belsky
506 E. 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11218.
(718) 941-0112.
The major advances in medicine, science, electronic technology, information technology and the judgment of history will prove over the next decade or two that fanaticism without intellect can not persevere in Judaism. The utter self destruction of the Arabs by themselves is cause for us to be reflective on the eventual Haredi self-destruction. Ultimately the only ingredient of a suicide bombers' makeup is faith in a myth. Not life, not reality, but belief in their insane leaders and their violent rhetoric, and martyrdom for the greater good or their cause.
If Haredi Judaism can only exist and sustain itself through blind faith and trust in their fanatical leaders, Haredism will collapse over the coming decades. I believe we can expect to see over the next decades the following:
Metziza B'peh will have caused untold amount of deaths and illness in babies subjected to this practice.
Technology will have permeated nearly every home and business via the telephones, computers, radios and other forms of mass communication unimaginable today.
Science will confirm convincingly that the planet Earth is billions of years old and "man" lived 100,000 plus years ago.
History will once again have demonstrated that appeasement of the enemy will put Israel on the brink of destruction. The only option for Israel to survive as a viable Jewish state is to destroy their enemies that threaten their existence.
In order for Judaism to survive it will have to have created a viable Yiddishkeit through yirah m'ahava the love of God through love not fear of a bogeyman, that will punish you for every real, imagined or manufactured sin. As the unequivocal truth of an old universe seeps in to the Haredi mainstream, as the medical evidence will certainly demonstrate that metziza b'peh is a potential danger to the child if the mohel is infected; the Haredi created Judaism, the one that befuddles the truths, the myth of the incompatibility of Torah and science and medicine (selectively), will be exposed as the fraud that it has become.
When very old men or men without any knowledge of the facts, or men who make a very ruthless calculated decision, that it's OK to lose some babies to metziza, than have a government capable of monitoring their rituals, the destruction of emunah to the masses will be geometric. The narrow minded, and the wicked and ignorant will be responsible, only then will it be too late.
Judging by the thousands of e-mails I have received since the Torah Temimah sanctioned molestation of children; who chose viciously to rather hush it up by the Scheinbergs and the Belskys than deal with it, thousands have strayed from the emunah pshuta, that our rabbonim are anshe emes, men of God. Add to the fact that nobody is presently dealing with the problem other than Rabbis Blau and Dratch in a meaningful way, the outrage is explosive! If this keeps up, which it very well may, Haredi Judaism will evaporate as a meaningful form of Judaism as Chabad is disintegrating into the global soup kitchen it has become.
The fascination with UOJ has become unreal. The anger, love, hate......is good, it has made most people passionate. The issues are on the table for the seeing person to see. There are hundreds of Jewish sites, maybe thousands, why come here? Why the dastardly attempt to destroy UOJ? Why permit lashon hara and motzei shem ra, when you're willing to cover for a molester by using a corrupt and evil person and a bogus bais din to issue a hazmana to a person accused of spreading rumors? How evil does one get under the disguise of halacha? How corrupt does one have to be for it to become so transparent that he should be physically removed from his position if necessary? I'm not condoning violence, I'm asking a simple question. HOW CORRUPT IS CORRUPT FOR YOU TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
The sad answer is that present Haredi Judaism can not pass self scrutiny. It can survive ONLY in ghettos and Bin-Laden style caves. The doctrine of gedolim infallibility is paramount, no matter how bizarre; that they are willing to destroy you, me, anyone and everyone that does not buy into that notion of incredible stupidity. Even my greatest critics on the historical fact that R' Elchonon chose death over the fear of the treifena medina America, will concede that he did make a mistake. Infallible? Hardly!
So what I've attempted to do, often times in a rude and crude manner, is to make the Torah and the rabbonim transparent. I intentionally write in a manner to create controversy and passion, no regrets whatsoever. How else was I going to capture the attention of hundreds of thousands of comatose Jews. Ani maamin b'emunah shleima, I believe with full faith, that Torah and science is reconcilable, that medicine and ritual practice can be compatible, that the Internet can be used for good and bad, just like money can. Did anyone recently attend an asifa banning the use of money? Yes, we can believe all this and not be an Apikorus!
The untoward facts are that truly observant Jews are decreasing in numbers. Poverty, ignorance, nonsensical and deadly dogma, corrupt leadership, are all contributing factors. Regardless of how many babies are being produced, children and adults DO NOT want to be impoverished intellectually or financially.
The rabbinical terrorists and their suicide bombers plan to destroy your way of life. Do you have the brains and the guts to fight them now or are you willing to see Yiddishkeit self-destruct under the falsehoods and voodoo Judaism led by these Jewish Fascists in beards and black clothing?
Choose life as Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandel zt"l did...Judaism is life, the living Torah, not the poisonous distortions of Pinchos Scheinberg and Yisroel Belsky and their gang of Torah perverters!
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
167 comments:
You've clearly gone over the edge since being outed.
Just dry up and go away.
How come TT is stil open? I thought you were gonna do something about it?
Long live UOJ! Brilliant piece as usual, and what amazes me is how many people drink the chareidi cool-aid even though these are otherwise intelligent people! How many times do I have to walk into Landau's shul and get filthy looks for wearing a keepa srugah, just because I'm not part of their fanatical cult? Enough already!
I just wonder, what percentage of chareidim go through the motions but deep down realize what BS it is?
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Rabbi Moshe Eiseman - Is He Still At Ner Israel?
There have been allegations against Rabbi Moshe Eiseman molesting boys at Ner Israel for years.
Over the last few months several Eiseman survivors have come forward to disclosed their abuse and demand that Eiseman be relieved of his duties at the Yeshiva. Those in power at Ner Israel passed the information on to Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer, who decided that Eiseman needed to leave.
Moshe Eiseman will be relieved of his duties any day now. I was told that his leaving will be done very quietly in hopes that it will not be disruptive to the new school year. I am curious if he's also been asked to move off of the Ner Israel campus?
Do you think any Jewish newspaper will pick up the story?
We all need to be asking where in the world will Rabbi Moshe Eiseman be going next? The odds are there will be no warning made to the new community where Eiseman goes.
The fear is that he will go back working with unsuspecting Soviet Jews. Remember, this is a man who has been a danger to our children for years!
Will Uncle Moshe be joining efforts with Rabbi Ephraim Byrks who also works with Russian Jews (Bryks is an alumni of Ner Israel)? Or will Eiseman be moving on to be near Rabbi Matis Weinberg?
For more information, download and watch the Bryks video
posted by Jewish Survivors Of Sexual Violence at Tuesday, August 29, 2006
UOJ, RIGHT AGAIN!
really scary track record
The article makes sense, no closed society can survive locked inside open society. My question is if the charedi society will be transformed into Amish like society, completely insulated and closed from outside world. (yes, I know the Amish do not take welfare) or new leaders will come and continue the path of rav moshe.
P.S (N.B) that sick weirdo, Pinchos Scheinberg is a product of pre-war Europe. It makes me Wonder is the corruption is American phenomenon or it began in Europe ?
Science will confirm convincingly that the planet Earth is billions of years old and "man" lived 100,000 plus years ago.
The other day, Dennis Prager had Rav Natan Slifkin on his show. You can listen to at the Townhall.com site (yes, I know that Prager's show and the Townhall site is part of the very Christian Salem Broadcasting Network, so there is plenty of sheker v'hevel there). I'd provide the link, but the site is not responding right now.
Dennis tries to be intellectually honest, so not only did he bring up the controversy, he also took a number of phone calls from three rabbis. One was openly hostile to Rabbi Slifkin, who handled him with decency and intelligence. The other two were pretty much sympathetic to Rabbi Slifkin, including one who identified himself as "chareidi", and asked him about Gerald Schroeder's attempt to match the "days" of creation with various epochs. This didn't surprise me because I recognized the rabbi's voice and first name and he's an Aish branch director and a friend of Schroeder's (and mine, btw). Rabbi Slifkin holds a different shitta and believes that the Genesis account is completely allegorical. Slifkin says that his position is based primarily on the Rambam, and when a caller asked about the Rambam that says that the mizbeach in the Beit HaMikdash was in the same location where Adam was created, Rabbi Slifkin said it was a good question and wasn't ashamed to say that he didn't know the answer (there's a gemara somewhere that tells us to not be ashamed to admit you don't know something).
This was the first time I've heard Rabbi Slifkin talk and I was impressed.
UOJ,
You must take out another yeshiva. I hear that YOB and Ner Yisroel are ripe for the picking. If another yeshiva gets hit with the molestation issue all hell will break loose.
Metziza B'peh will have caused untold amount of deaths and illness in babies subjected to this practice.
UOJ, I think it's a bit of hyperbole to say that there will be an "untold" amount of deaths and illness. With rates of HSV-1 oral herpes in the adult population estimated between 50% and 80%, we would already have seen a large number of infections in circ'd boys who had MBP, which I don't believe that we have.
I'm not minimizing the issue. I think it's a serious health issue, and I also think that the Litvak rabbis have been almost criminally silent regarding the fact that their mesorah as attested to in R. Moshe Bunim Puritinsky's Sefer HaBrit, never required MBP. They are letting the Chassidim frame this issue and drive the debate.
However, I just can't see a huge number of infections if we haven't already seen them.
Ronnie,
I had a piece a while back quoting various professionals, doctors and Rabbi Moshe Tendler from Y.U., where they were documenting cases of children getting ill, more children than ever in special education classes...correlating to the communities (Haredim) that have their male babies subjected to metziza b'peh. In addition parents in that community have not publicized their experiences with infant mortality.
In addition they have stated that the virus is not immediately recognizable as a cause of the rise in illnesses; it can take decades for the illness to rear it's head.
I've said it in the past and would repeat it again.
Infections that occur today could be proven and shown to the involved (sadly, only after the fact) so Metzitza Ba-Pe probably would be stopped at some time when states and community would fully catch to the problem.
Proving that the world was created billions of years ago vs. 5766 years ago is a matter of inter practice speculations (scientific calculations vs. ancient texts) and would not convince any outsider of that practice.
However, fortunately, the question of when and how was the world created is of little importance for everyday life and has nothing to do with health and economics. So there is nothing in both, Halakha or scince that could really stop the Haredi world from adapting to modern hygiene, honest business relations and sound economical practices. It is only a matter of their choice.
Head Of Pupa Hasidic Community Slapped For Real Estate Tax Evasion
A reader writes:
Businessman Herman Oberlander is very rich – it is said he is worth over $200 million. Herman – known in the yiddishe velt as Mechel – is Rosh HaKahal [head of the community, president] of the Pupa chasidic sect based in Williamsburg. His son Gedalia Oberlander of Monsey is a Lubavitcher who runs Heichal Menachem, a Chabad library named after the late Rebbe located in Monsey.
Herman Oberlander doesn't live in Monsey, but he keeps a summer home there at 4 Roman Blvd. Oberlander was trying to get out of paying taxes, so he claimed that he has a synagogue and is its rabbi. (The township can't locate the synagogue – because it does not exist!) He also claimed all his tenants – who are, incidentally, also his grandchildren – as his 'assistants.'
Nothing Herman Oberlander claimed is true. He does not have a synagogue. He is not the rabbi of a synagogue. His grandchildren are not synagogue rabbis either.
Herman's son Gedalia Oberlander, the Lubavitcher, also claimed to be a rabbi of a synagogue called, get this, Merkoz Halacha (center of Jewish law!). He also claimed his tenants as his 'assistants.' Although he might call himself rabbi, Gedalia Oberlander is not a rabbi at any synagogue. His tenants are not synagogue rabbis either.
Chazal (our sages) say that a father should teach his son good working skills. Well, Pupa's Rosh HaKahal adhered to our sages – he taught his son how to steal from the government, just like tattie.
But the government caught them and stopped their scams.
The Oberlanders have no economic hardship. So why steal? To paraphrase Pirkei Avos, I think the answer is they believe what you have is rightfully theirs, not yours, and what they have is theirs as well.
[As a bonus, here's a link to a Pupa property in Queens jointly owned, it seems, by Gedalia Oberlander's company. And one of Herman Oberlander's businesses was retail heating oil.]
There is a correlation between the problem of growing economic criminal behavior in the Orthodox community and the scandal of sexual abuse. It is the same hiding behind a halakhic formalism that justifies laundering money since the Shulchan Aruch does not mention it as prohibited, that fails to comprehend why it is horrendous for adults to abuse children. In modern societies dishonesty and moral depravity are often expressed in different terms from those mentioned in traditional sources but the ethical and moral principles of halakha remain valid. Unfortunately we lack the rabbinic leadership prepared to make the necessary applications.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter started a Mussar movement primarily concerned with character development and ethical sensitivity but when was the last time one heard a Mussar shmuze that mentioned either.
As a child I was brought up with the model of my grandfather trying to pay back his creditors during the depression because an ehrlicher yid should not rely on the technical use of bankruptcy to avoid his responsibilities.
Yosef Blau
A source of material in Rabbi Paysach Krohn's Magid series is a convicted pedophile rabbi
Jewish Whistleblower writes the Failed Messiah blog:
Unfortunately, there are elements of the Rabbanute committed to white-washing the humanity and flaws of our leadership and creating a false mythology.
This is nothing new. It is unfortunate, in my humble opinion, as clearly we have a Torah filled with characters who were human with flaws.
Compilers of our version of the Talmud removed from earlier manuscripts storys that placed the personalities of the Talmud in a negative light. The clearest example of this is Bruriah. The story of how she was seduced by a student of her husband, Rabbi Meir, which led to her suicide and her husband flight to Babylonia is now only in Talmudic commentaries to Tractate Avodah Zarah but clearly these commentators had access to earlier versions of our Talmud which still retained this story.
A modern example of this comes from the false story of Rabbi (Yom Tov) Lipa Brenner HaCohen written by Rabbi Paysach Krohn (brother-in-law of Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks Halevi who is married to Brenner's daughter) in Around the Maggid's Table, R. Paysach Krohn, p.98. Rabbi Brenner has provided information to Krohn regarding the historical background of many selections in Krohn's books (p.15, The Maggid Speaks: Favorite Stories and Parables of Rabbi Sholom Schwadron, Shlita By Paysach J Krohn).
[JWB emails Luke: "Rabbi Brenner has provided information to Krohn regarding the historical background of many selections in Krohn's books. This raises further questions as to the credibility of Krohn's body of work. Proof of Brenner's collaboration can be found in Krohn's writings in his Magid books by searching Google books."]
I present to you a retelling of the false story found on a website for a Bukharian youth group that has received funds and sponsorship from at least one mortgage broker company related to Rabbi Brenner with long quotes from Krohn's book. I will follow the lie by the actual truth:
1) THE LIE:
The following amazing true story illustrates the importance of correcting others in the nicest way possible:
Being a Rabbi in a small town, far from any city with a large Jewish population is often a lonely and thankless job. True, there is much to accomplish, but the challenges that need to be overcome on the way to solidifying a minyan of shomrei Shabbos (Sabbath observers), building a day school, or convincing people to uphold and maintain standards of kashrus and family purity always seem to be uphill struggles. More often than not, a Rabbi in an area with a limited number of Jewish inhabitants gets the feeling that the Jews in the community are simply not on the same wave length as he is.
One such rav was Rav Lipa Brenner, who had been inspired to enter the rabbinate by his mentor in Yeshiva Torah V'daas, Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz (1886-1948) of blessed memory. After a few years of serving as a rabbi and principal in a small town in New Jersey, Reb Lipa was becoming exasperated. The local baalei battim (laymen) were not cooperating with him in his endeavors and Reb Lipa's accomplishments seemed to dim with every passing year. Meanwhile, to add to his dilemma, business opportunities beckoned from New York. Aside from the potential financial security that was so alluring, New York offered a variety of boys' and girls' yeshivos in which Reb Lipa might finally have the opportunity to provide his children with the chinuch (education) that he felt was proper and essential.
In a quandary as to whether or not to leave the rabbinate, he decided to travel to Eretz Yisrael and seek the advice of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Reb Chaim Mayer Hager, of blessed memory. (1888-1972). Reb Lipa obtained his tickets and a passport, and made the trip. However, upon his arrival he was informed that the Rebbe was preparing to leave for Lugano, Switzerland, and would receive no more visitors before his departure. So Reb Lipa followed him to Switzerland.
In Lugano, Reb Lipa made his way to where the Rebbe was staying. He waited his turn to see the Rebbe and, when he was finally ushered in, the Rebbe asked Reb Lipa to sit beside him at his table. Seated across the table was another rav from Tel Aviv. After a few moments the rebbetzin (Rebbe's wife) came in with a glass of hot tea for her husband. Before she could even put the tea on the table, the Rebbe gently admonished her and said, "Please bring two more glasses of tea. We are three rabbanim (rabbis) here about to have a discussion."
Reb Lipa was astounded. The Rebbe had referred to him as a rav, and talked of him as though he were a peer. Reb Lipa trembled as he realized the significance of the title the Vizhnitzer Rebbe had inadvertently bestowed on him. But perhaps it wasn't inadvertent? Did the Rebbe know that he was thinking of leaving the rabbinate? Reb Lipa never bothered to find out. Then and there he resolved his own conflict. He would retain his position as rav.
Reb Lipa went on to teach and influence hundreds of under-affiliated Jews. For example, more than two decades later, Reb Lipa was visiting in the Mattersdorf section of Jerusalem. It was Shabbos afternoon and dozens of children were playing in the streets, which are cordoned off until nightfall. Suddenly a bearded young man came over to Reb Lipa, yelling, "Rebbe!" Reb Lipa turned around, but he did not recognize anyone. "Rebbe," the young man said, smiling, "you are Reb Brenner, aren't you? You probably don't recognize me anymore. I went to your school back in New Jersey more than twenty years ago. Come with me," the young man said warmly. "I want to introduce you to your grandchildren."
The young man took Reb Lipa by the hand and brought him to where his wife was watching their children play. The Sages tell us "Anyone who teaches Torah to a child of his friend, is as though he gave birth to [the child,]" said the young man, citing the Talmud (Sanhedrin 19b). "Thus, if I am your child, these are your grandchildren."
The young man was indeed one of the five from a foster home in New Jersey whom Reb Lipa had dedicated himself to teach Torah so many years previous. Reb Lipa had seen to it that he attend the Mirrer Yeshiva in New York, and from there, the young man went on to become an outstanding talmid chacham (Torah Scholar). Reb Lipa had all but forgotten him, but the young man had remembered. The face of his mentor had been etched in the child's memory forever. (Around the Maggid's Table R. Paysach Krohn, p.98)
We see the power of correcting others in a kind way. The Torah and mitzvahs of the young man and his family were only possible because Reb Lipa decided to stay a Rabbi. Thus, the kind words of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe had a tremendous effect on several generations. In our story, the Vizhnitzer Rebbe merely treated Reb Lipa with respect, by referring to him with the title of "Rav." There are plenty of businessmen but precious few talented Rabbis who can teach authentic Torah to the masses. Thus, Reb Lipa was much more needed in the rabbinate than in business. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe, who was endowed with enhanced spiritual powers of perception was able to see into Reb Lipa's soul and know what issue was on his mind. Therefore, when it came time to give Reb Lipa his opinion, the Rebbe did so in the sweetest way possible.
2) THE TRUTH
Rabbi "Lewis" (Yom Tov) Lipa Hacohen is a vile pedophile. He was convicted in 1996 of child molestation. The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years' probation.
Prosecutors said Brenner had sexual contact with a youth he met in the bathroom of the synagogue they attended. The molestations allegedly took place over a three-year period that ended in 1995 when the victim was 15 years old.
Yes, that is why the local baalei battim were not "cooperating" with him in his endeavors. They wanted him out of chinuch and out of their communities and institutions.
Instead, Rabbi Brenner moved from one community to the next through numerous synagogues and institutions in NJ and NY state. Brenner was a former Vice President of the Rabbinical Alliance of America and has held numerous pulpit positions in NY and NJ over the past 50 years.
See UOJ's discussion.
As to the assertion "Reb Lipa was much more needed in the rabbinate than in business". He was a complete and total fraud in both. His involvment in both is a complete chilul Hashem [desecration of God's name].
As to his business dealings, see my post about Rabbi Brenner's financial dealings and their possible impact on the child molestation criminal charges at:
Former Rabbinical Alliance of America VP & confessed/convicted child-molester: no jail time. Did his role in $57 million government fraud save him?
[JWB emails Luke: Rabbi Lewis Brenner hired the same lawyer to represent him as Rabbi Baruch Lanner, Marvin E. Schechter, former president of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. It seems that Orthodox Rabbis know who to go to when they are charged with child molestation.]
Yes folks, the truth, not the lie told by Rav Krohn in his Maggid's Table Artsroll myths and his stated questionable historical background source of the many other stories that Krohn has written. His source? To repeat: A convicted/confessed child molester involved in $57 million of government fraud.
{This is the man that Yisroel Belsky still claims that the charges against him are lies!}
I am against molestation
Great article UOJ. Powerful, honest and thought provoking.
You're just like the energizer bunny, you just keep on ticking!
Thank G-d for that.
UOJ, your title is actually real. Neuhoff destroyed his professional life because of his instructions from Belsky.
Science will confirm convincingly that the planet Earth is billions of years old and "man" lived 100,000 plus years ago
---------------------------------
Everything you say is right on and correct, except this line above. Darwinism is a fraud and his ridiculous "theories", adderabba will be proven to be as such. In fact, even the goyim are doubting the validity of evolution (21% up from 7%). It is a sinking ship. Nevertheless, I continue to applaud you for the work you are doing in exposing molestors and corrupt leaders. Yasher koach.
I have admired your work for some time so it was a terrible shock to find this post, and your subsequent comments, on your site.
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:UZdUF9Zs1xkJ:unorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2005/09/tragedy-in-our-midst.html+the+torah+condones+unethical+behavior&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=25
As a Ph.D. who works with many gay people (Jewish and not), I am hoping that in the many months you have been involved with these very serious issues you have bothered to educate yourself (by talking to credentialed professionals and reading peer-reviewed studies in reputable journals) about homosexuality. It is your right--and perhaps even your obligation-- as an Orthodox Jew to believe that homosexuality is "wrong," but your so-called "facts" are not based in rigorous research (or any knowledge of history, for that matter), but rather are products of a particular ideology. Again, while you have a right to believe in that ideology, do not confuse it with fact.
In any case, I commend you for your good work and dedication to this issue and if you are interested in learning more I will be happy to provide you with information.
The Mechaber in Hilchos Yichud forbids any inappropriate touching of anyone - and calls it ma'aseh tipshus. Halacha certainly dealt with the issur, but who reads the Shulchan Aruch?
Dear Admirer,
I am always interested in learning anything I can about the human being.
Kindly e-mail anything you feel is worthwhile.
I greatly appreciate your kind words. (and respectful critique)
Failed Messiah said...
Head Of Pupa Hasidic Community Slapped For Real Estate Tax Evasion
The use of "parsonages" for property tax avoidance/evasion seems to be commonplace in the froomie velt. While appealing a property tax increase, I discovered that one of my neighbors, a former teacher, then fundraiser, for a local yeshiva was living in a home "owned" by the school. I discovered it because the school eventually transferred title to the rabbi for $1.
To their credit, the local kollel here is careful to restrict their parsonage exemptions to the roshei kollel, and a literal handful of full time kollel guys. When guys leave full time study, the exemption is transferred. Much as I bitch about froomies, the kollel here in Detroit seems to be yashar yashar, and has been a very positive influence.
BTW, UOJ, can you activate other HTML tags in the comments? It'd be nice to be able to blockquote.
Steve,
I did not say anything about my belief in Darwinism. All I said is that I believe a two legged somewhat rational being existed 100,000 years ago.
Today's human is no different other than their ability to be rational (in many cases irrational)in a more sophisticated form.
Perhaps in a 100,000 years from now (if that is posssible, IMO not likely) we will be viewed as pre-historic man.
On another controversial note, I believe the theory of niskatnu hadoros does not apply to the thought process of the human. Just the opposite, I firmly believe that man as a whole is a lot more intelligent than our ancestors of thousands of years ago. That does not mean our value systems are better necessarily.
Darwinism is a fraud and his ridiculous "theories", adderabba will be proven to be as such. In fact, even the goyim are doubting the validity of evolution (21% up from 7%).
And 42% of Americans supposedly believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy by neocons etc.
While some scientists have a religious attachment to evolutionary theory, and while there are legitimate critiques (which came first? proteins or enzymes?), natural selection is experimentally verifiable.
Actually, an interesting side issue is what are the adaptive advantages to some genetic disorders. Some scientists feel that there has to be some adaptive reason why the genes for genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia or Tay Sachs have not been "unselected". It's possible that a single copy of a deleterious recessive gene might have some advantages.
Maybe the cost of a Yiddishe kup involves bad eyesight, bad stomachs, and bipolar disease. Actually, there is a theory (by Jonathan Sacks, I think, but not sure) that people who are "gifted" intellectually or artistically display minor forms of some very serious mental illnesses.
HaShem gives and He takes away. Intellectually advanced kids are often emotionally immature.
I did not say anything about my belief in Darwinism. All I said is that I believe a two legged somewhat rational being existed 100,000 years ago.
R. Dovid Gottlieb has said that we don't believe that Homo Sapiens was identical to Adam HaRishon. Our definition of "man" means a creature with spiritual capacities. There may have been Homo Sapiens around for some time before HaShem breathed nefesh haEloki into Adam. And the neanderthals (who current research indicates lived at the same time as early Homo Sapiens) might very well have been the anakim of Bereishit.
NP: Dixie Chicken - Little Feat
UOJ,
True, you did not say anything about your belief in Darwinism, but when you state that you believe that human beings existed 100,000 years ago, it must be based on some scientific theory that you subscribe to. You are entitled to your beliefs and theories and I will not engage you in a debate over this. I will save that for the Gil Students and Harry(only one victim)Maryles' of the world. In the meantime, GO ROTO ROOTER!!
Just the opposite, I firmly believe that man as a whole is a lot more intelligent than our ancestors of thousands of years ago. That does not mean our value systems are better necessarily.
As I try to teach my kids, good is good and smart is smart and they aren't the same thing.
One third to one half of the concentration and death camp kommandants had either PhD or MD degrees. The prison population in the US is actually smarter than average.
The yetzer haRa has access to all of our abilities. Our lizard brain has access to a human cerebral cortex. We can be very smart snakes.
Actually, there is a theory (by Jonathan Sacks, I think, but not sure) that people who are "gifted" intellectually or artistically display minor forms of some very serious mental illnesses.
-----------------------------------
Thanks a bunch, Ronnie.
And 42% of Americans supposedly believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy by neocons etc.
-----------------------------------
Ronnie, where do you get these figures from, Mick Jagger or is it Maggie Gylenhaal?
Journalistic Code of Ethics - Guidelines by the US Department of Justice
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2006/08/journalistic-code-of-ethics-guidelines.html
As we all know Jewish communities have not been kind to rape victims. When survivors have made disclosures they are often met with denial; and are often shamed and blamed.
All one needs to do is watch this video tape of Rabbi Abraham Twerski talking about the threats made against him when he first started advocating for battered women. Can you imagine what happens when someone starts talking about being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault or clergy abuse (professional sexual misconduct)?
According to statistics in the secular world, less then 16% of all rape victims ever report what happened to them to law enforcement.
Gary Rosenblatt, Phil Jacobs, Ami Eden, Blogger - Steven I. Weiss and other editors of Jewish papers have set up a protocol that are just not realistic. I've been told that they will not write stories of sex crimes (sexual abuse/assault) unless they have 3 victims of the same offender willing to come forward and allow the papers to use their full names in articles.
As we all know that the only way to change the way our communities handled cases is by education and also by exposing individuals who are dangerous to our children, family members and friends.
We need to demand that Ami Eden, Gary Rosenblatt, Phil Jacobs, Steven I. Weiss and other Jewish news media groups change their policies. According to the US Dept. of Justice a journalist should NEVER demand that a victim of a sex crime be identified by name.
When discussing these issue with a friend, she reminded me that in the case of Watergate the sources name was not made public until recently, and that was only with the permission of the individual.
Why is it that an individual who was sexually violated would have to be named in order to protect our communties from sexual preditors?
Please write to the following people and demand they change their policies.
Gary Rosenblatt - New York Jewish Week
Phil Jacobs - Baltimore Jewish Times
Steven I Weiss - Canonist
Ami Eden - Forward
***************
A MEDIA CODE OF ETHICS
The news media should--
* Present details about a crime in a fair, objective, and balanced manner.
* Recognize the importance of publishing or broadcasting information that can contribute to public safety and, at the same time, balance this need with the victim's need for privacy.
* Respect the privacy of individuals who choose to refrain from dealing with the media or who choose to address the media through a spokesperson of their choice.
* Provide a balanced perspective relevant to a criminal act that reflects the concerns of the victim and offender.
* Never report rumors or innuendoes about the victim, the offender, or the crime unless such information has been verified by reliable sources.
* In crimes other than homicide, identify the victim by age and area where the crime occurs, omitting street addresses and block numbers.
* Refrain from using information gained from private conversations of victims or their relatives who are in shock or distraught.
* Identify witnesses only when they volunteer to be named, and when there is clearly no danger that can be predicted through their identification by the media.
* Never publish the identity of a sexual assault victim without his or her prior consent, regardless of whether the case is in the criminal or civil courts.
* Never publish the identity of a child victim.
* Never identify alleged or convicted incest offenders when such actions could lead to the identification of the victim.
* In cases of kidnapping where it is determined that the victim has been sexually assaulted, stop identifying the victim by name once a sexual assault has been alleged.
* Never identify the names of victims of scams or other crimes that tend to humiliate or degrade the victim without the victim's prior consent.
* Refrain from photographing or broadcasting images that portray personal grief and/or shock resulting from a criminal act.
* Never publish photographs or broadcast images that could place the subject in danger.
* Refrain from showing photographs or broadcast images of deceased victims, body bags, or seriously wounded victims.
* Never publish photographs or broadcast images of funerals without the surviving family members' prior consent.
* Refer to drunk driving incidents as "crashes" or "crimes," not accidents, regardless of whether or not the use of alcohol has been determined as a factor.
* Approach the coverage of all stories related to crime and victimization in a manner that is not lurid, sensational, or intrusive to the victim and his or her family.
Un-Orthodox Jew said...
Actually, there is a theory (by Jonathan Sacks, I think, but not sure) that people who are "gifted" intellectually or artistically display minor forms of some very serious mental illnesses.
-----------------------------------
Thanks a bunch, Ronnie.
You know, UOJ, you're not the only gifted person posting here. *ROTFLMGNTO
*Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Gifted Narcissistic Tuchas Off
Ronnie said,
"While some scientists have a religious attachment to evolutionary theory, and while there are legitimate critiques (which came first? proteins or enzymes?), natural selection is experimentally verifiable. "
If I'm not mistaken, the only thing that has been experimentally verified has been at the level of things like more potent strains of microorganisms, like bacteria, out-breeding their less fit brothers in petrie dishes.
This is a far cry from the wildly counterprobablistic steps that are required to bridge complexity gap from omoeba to man. Once we accept that God had to play a role in that (about which I assume we are all on the same page)then it would seem to become a matter of philosophy as to whether God did or didn't need to wait millions of years for the process to unfold.
"Metziza B'peh will have caused untold amount of deaths and illness in babies subjected to this practice. Science will confirm convincingly that the planet Earth is billions of years old and "man" lived 100,000 plus years ago." TO UOJ YHE GREAT ONE I HONESTLY THINK YOU SNAPPED ON THIS ONE. first of all MBP has been done for doro doires if what you said is true were are all these dead/sick people secondly there is no way science can confirm planet earth was alive for billions of years and if yes why were mankind around for only 100,000 + years. one more point as yidden we beleive in the torah which clearly states adam was made on the sixth day of the universe and from there on to noah and on to avroham and so forth then we have the nach wich brings in our history to churban habayis after that there are calenders,so please explain even though no explanation will make me think otherwise for i truly believein the torah hakdoisha and nach. i told you already lets stick with the issue of child molestation and phony rabbis your good at that and we need people like you to rid ourselves of themyou are doing great and it seems to me that its stessing you out a bit,please let me know if i can be of any help to lessen the stress BEAHAVAH UOJ, LEIZEROWITZ VICTIM FOREVER
*ROTFLMGNTO
And 42% of Americans supposedly believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy by neocons etc.
-----------------------------------
Ronnie, where do you get these figures from, Mick Jagger or is it Maggie Gylenhaal?
Actually, Michael Medved, who cites it frequently. The source, however, is the Zogby polling organization, whose results are suspect, to say the least.
Hence the caveat "supposedly"
My, my, the discussion certainly has gotten off-topic.
One, I recommend to you all a book called "The politically incorrect guide" to Darwinism, or Evolution, I can't recall which is the title and I don't have it with me. The holes in macroevolutionary theory are legion - which has nothing whatsoever to do with microevolution, the adaptations made to endure climate changes, diet changes, etc. There is an interesting article about fruit flies on the web, also, which notes that even though scientists have manipulated, exchanged, and recombined every single gene in the fruitfly chromosome, fruit flies are still fruit flies and the succcess rate of creating a new species was zero. Darwin himself set forth the conditions by which his theory fails, irreducible complexity, and hundreds of chemical and biological processes have been demonstrated to be irreducibly complex - meaning the "intermediary" steps to create these processes have no functional biability and could NEVER have been "selected" for naturally. This is why the number of organic chemists and biological scientists who endorse Intelligent Design is growing literally daily. Think about it, if there was nothing wrong with Evolutionary theory and evidence then the high priesthood of Darwinism would need to work so hard to try and suppress research and ridicule their opponents, like the poor editor of the Smithsonian magazine who wasn't even an ID proponent when he got tarred and feathered for just publishing a peer-reviewed scientific article that in a round-about way didn't support the party-line. Also, God lives in a nexus of "now." Time as we know it isn't time as He knows it. That should be obvious. I really enjoyed the article recently published correlating the stages of the universe's development with the Days of Creation. It is a good theory.
Two, as the proud owner of a MENSA card, I can tell you that part of the problem in the Jewish community is that yes, high intelligence and marginal sanity are close friends, and worse, inbreeding doesn't help it. Which brings me to...
Three, back to a point relevant to the original post, it is being recognized by the Yeshiva-culture that more babies isn't really translating into more followers for their culture. That's why after literally hundreds of years of shunning those who marry out and considering their children outcasts, no longer Jewish, and also those whose families/ancestors adopted other sects of Judaism, we now have organizations like Rabbi Leib Tropper's Eternal Jewish Family that is desperately trying to rope in Jews from other sects of Judaism, especially intermarried couples, and make them part of the black-hat culture by dangling a "real" Jewish identity for them and their kids in front of them as long as they will promise to play nice from now on and move to one of their approved Yeshiva communities (if you aren't near one already). Hmmmm, that was quite a run on sentence, but you get the point, I hope. The closed, incestuous culture is getting unsustainable, so they need to bring in "new" blood, so to speak. I doubt very seriously this endeavor will be very successful, if our experience is any guide, but the fact that they're now trying it shows how desperate they are getting. They need fresh money and fresh bodies to claim they are truly growing and viable. And they can't get either of those internally anymore.
If I'm not mistaken, the only thing that has been experimentally verified has been at the level of things like more potent strains of microorganisms, like bacteria, out-breeding their less fit brothers in petrie dishes.
I believe there is a fair amount of work on drosophila (fruit flies) as well.
In my own neighborhood, I can see black squirrel are expanding their territory and replacing the less aggressive grey squirrels (actually light brown). Ten years ago, the black squirrels were starting to dominate in Huntington Woods, about 2 miles from here. Now they are common in my neighborhood.
This is a far cry from the wildly counterprobablistic steps that are required to bridge complexity gap from omoeba to man. Once we accept that God had to play a role in that (about which I assume we are all on the same page)then it would seem to become a matter of philosophy as to whether God did or didn't need to wait millions of years for the process to unfold.
No argument from me. Like I said, which came first, the protein or the enzyme needed to make the protein?
Though there is no theological difference between a cosmic magician who snaps His figurative fingers and One who works across eons, and maybe it's due to reading too much SF as a kid, but somehow a God who works across billions of years seems more, well, deific, to me. YMMV
bayit_bourne said...
This is why the number of organic chemists and biological scientists who endorse Intelligent Design is growing literally daily.
As far as I know, neither Gerald Schroeder nor R. Natan Slifkin are exponents of ID. I could be wrong about Schroeder, whose work is used by ID proponents, but I don't think he's endorsed ID, at least the way Christians have been promoting it. Slifkin holds by evolution guided by HaShem.
I really enjoyed the article recently published correlating the stages of the universe's development with the Days of Creation. It is a good theory.
That's Schroeder.
I'd love to hear a no holds barred discussion between Slifkin and Schroeder. Eilu v'eilu divrei Elokim chaim.
Two, as the proud owner of a MENSA card
No disrespect, but anyone who has to join a club of smart folks to get some kind of credential as a genius strikes me as a bit insecure about their intelligence. I feel the same way about people who cite their IQ figures.
FWIW, I have no idea what my IQ is. When I was a kid I believe I tested in the mid 140s but that's based on my mom's statements and she's not very credible about anything to do with reality, never has been. On most standard tests I'm 99th percentile, but the difference between 99th and 99.5th is exponential. I did pretty well on the SAT, was a National Merit finalist, but two of my kids outscored me (though the test has been recalibrated) - my son, my only son, whom I love, got a perfect math score and can handle calculus much easier than I can. The schedule didn't work out, so he took Calc II and Calc III while teaching himself Calc I. He also is a pretty decent songwriter - his band was at Yidstock a couple of weeks ago and they even sold some CDs after they performed.
I know some true geniuses and they have to go real slowly for me to keep up with them. Like this guy. (Boy he's going to be rich if we go to a hydrogen economy).
Is Orthodoxy becoming too religiously right-wing?
By FRANCES KRAFT and LEILA SPEISMAN
Staff Reporters
In this final part of our series on the move to the religious right in Toronto’s Orthodox community, we hear from other centrist voices about what they see as the growing influence of haredi religious leaders and practices in the rest of the Orthodox community. Much of their concern centres on the prominence of Kollel Avreichim on Coldstream Avenue, located in the heart of the haredi community near Bathurst Street and Lawrence Avenue. As the leading haredi post-yeshiva educational institution in Toronto, its rulings have come to exert significant influence in the wider Orthodox community. (Rabbi Shlomo Miller, its rosh kollel and av beis din – head of the institution and its rabbinical court – declined to speak directly to The CJN, saying that the media have misquoted and misunderstood him. However, he authorized a spokesperson to speak on his behalf.)
Many people in the Orthodox community are troubled by what appears to be a refusal of non-haredi rabbis and other Orthodox leaders to speak out against the current situation. Several people interviewed for this series expressed the view that many Orthodox rabbis and leaders are afraid of being censured by Rabbi Miller and the haredi community, and these sources contend this fear is behind the silence of Orthodox leaders. It is this context – and our belief that issues that generate such vehemence should be discussed openly – that has led The CJN to investigate the situation.
From left: Rabbi Reuven Tradburks, Rabbi Immanuel Schochet and Martin Lockshin
Rabbi Reuven Tradburks, secretary of Toronto’s Vaad Harabonim and spiritual leader of Kehillat Shaarei Torah, a Modern Orthodox congregation, paints a more positive picture than some others of the move toward more stringent religious practices and views in the Orthodox community.
“I feel that, often when there are dramatic changes in policy, people look at it as being a step backward, or as the Orthodox world becoming more fundamentalist. I don’t view it that way. I view it as a positive change, that the number of people who want to live a rich and full life completely consistent with what the Torah wants from us is growing.”
He said he does not see the discrepancies between Modern Orthodox and haredi philosophy as a division between the two groups.
“I think there are different approaches. It’s not a new issue. It’s a new manifestation. Part of the reason [the issue seems more pronounced] is because of e-mail, the Internet and instantaneous communication. And to some extent it’s also the ascendancy of Torah and knowledgeable Jews in the Orthodox world in general.”
However, he noted, there are Orthodox Jews “grappling to find a way of negotiating their allegiance to science and also their allegiance to Torah and Torah leaders.”
Rabbi Tradburks was referring to the debate about British-born, Israel-based Rabbi Natan Slifkin, a haredi scholar who touched off an ongoing controversy in the Orthodox world with his views on creation and science.
Three of his books – including Mysterious Creatures and The Camel, the Hare and the Hyrax, which offer ideas about the origins of the universe that are anathema to his fellow haredim – were banned by Israeli and North American haredi rabbis in early 2005. Especially troubling to them are Rabbi Slifkin’s assertions in The Science of Torah that the world was created not in six days, but over millions of years.
The young rabbi’s profile remained relatively low in Toronto until his visit to the city this past winter to speak at an event sponsored by Torah in Motion, a Modern Orthodox educational organization that hosts lectures and programs.
At that time, Rabbi Shlomo Miller of Kollel Avreichim issued “a letter of admonishment” stating that Rabbi Slifkin’s opinions on the six days of creation were “definitely heretical,” even “boorish.”
A book ban, such as the one imposed on Rabbi Slifkin, is “not something I would do, but I understand the rationale as to why that’s being done, even if I don’t agree with it,” said Rabbi Tradburks, whose synagogue also hosted Rabbi Slifkin as a speaker when he was in Toronto.
* * *
Jonathan Ostroff, a computer science professor at York University who was authorized by Rabbi Miller to speak on his behalf, said that Rabbi Miller had no connection with the original ban on Rabbi Slifkin’s books and that he only issued his own condemnation of his work after he was asked for his opinion on the subject by members of his own community. The letter was intended only for his followers, and not for the general community, Ostroff said.
He also told The CJN that Rabbi Miller distinguishes between “operational science” and “origin science.” Operational science, which Rabbi Miller accepts, examines how things work in the universe, while origin science looks at what caused things to begin.
Ostroff stressed that there is a difference between disagreeing with someone, and hating or looking down on them. “We object to his views, not to him as a person,” Ostroff said. In fact, he said, when Rabbi Slifkin came to Toronto to speak at the Torah in Motion event, he was invited to speak to Rabbi Miller and Ostroff, but was “unresponsive.”
“We would still be willing to talk to him anytime,” Ostroff said.
He added that, for a time, he was involved in dialogue with Rabbi Slifkin, both via the Internet and other means. “I wanted to continue the dialogue, but he cut it off. I don’t believe he wants to discuss substantive issues.”
When contacted by The CJN, Rabbi Slifkin said he had been advised by two Canadian rabbis against meeting with Rabbi Miller, because the rabbis felt the purpose of the meeting would be to try to change his views and not to have an open discussion of the issues.
Rabbi Slifkin added that he stopped his online communication with Ostroff “when the pressures of the ban began.” He said that at that time, his posts on an online discussion group were being passed on “to non-participants in order to stir up opposition to me. I have absolutely no idea what Dr. Ostroff means when he says that I don’t want to discuss substantive issues. I have done nothing else for the last few years!”
* * *
What makes the Slifkin affair unique, according to Yossi Adler, a Toronto lawyer who wrote about the controversy in a CJN column in January, is that in similar past cases, other people have retracted the material that was deemed offensive, “and everything [was] fine and dandy.”
Not only did Rabbi Slifkin not retract his assertions, Adler said, but rabbis who condemned his work went beyond banning his books to condemn him personally.
“It’s censorship,” said Adler, who fears that if someone like Rabbi Slifkin, who is part of the haredi community, can be singled out, then everyone is “potentially a target.”
To a lesser extent, Adler was singled out for his CJN column by some Orthodox Jews who criticized him for airing the issue in public. “They don’t understand that this is a significant issue that merits discussion and analysis,” he said, adding that the response he received to his column was overwhelmingly – perhaps 95 per cent – positive.
The naysayers are “creating an environment where debate is non-existent or only discussed behind closed doors, and that’s regrettable,” said Adler.
He also noted that some haredi Jews feel he and others are “right-wing bashing” out of enjoyment, an accusation he denies. “We came from that world. We feel an affinity to that world, and we care about its direction.”
The bans are increasing in number and seriousness, says Adler, who was raised in the “yeshiva world” but has moved toward what he terms “centrist” Orthodoxy. “I prefer the more centrist [community],” he said. “They’re less likely to build walls and to exclude what modernity has to offer. They’re more interested in secular education, and more Zionistic.
“As each group has become more confident, they feel they can live independently. I feel a significant disrespect [on the part of the haredi community toward] non-Orthodox and less Orthodox Jews.”
A lot of the haredi “suspicion” toward the outside world stems from a perceived breakdown of morality, as exemplified by societal changes that include same-sex marriage and sexual promiscuity, Adler explained.
“They will exclude media from their households. A lot of stuff in the media today is very trashy. At the same time, I think they’re throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
“It was probably like that before,” he admitted, “but not to the same extent, and they weren’t as bold in the way they impose certain rules in the community.”
Rabbi Miller “has a brilliant mind and is well versed in the sources,” said Adler. “No one’s willing to stand up and say that [what he is saying] is not acceptable, or that this is a stringency going beyond what the community requires.”
Adler said that, as a result, “there are people who have considered walking away from Orthodoxy.”
* * *
Not all rabbis were as forthcoming as Rabbi Tradburks when asked to be interviewed for this article. One said he didn’t even want to be quoted as saying that he declined to comment.
When asked repeatedly about the issue of possible repercussions for people who might challenge the growing influence of haredi religious leaders and practices, Ostroff’s only comments had to do with the reaction that Rabbi Miller has received for publicly expressing his own views.
“He has had repercussions for defending Torah Judaism. Should not a Torah teacher stand up for Torah? That’s what he did. Should he allow people to wallow in ignorance?”
Ostroff added that Rabbi Miller expected that he would face consequences for speaking out, just as anybody who comments publicly on any issue would. “But you have to protect your children, and you have to protect the truth of Torah.”
* * *
Martin Lockshin, a York University professor who is an ordained Orthodox rabbi, remains sanguine about the current environment in the Orthodox world.
The former director of York’s Centre for Jewish Studies says he still feels at home in most places in the Orthodox community and is heartened by the presence of Modern Orthodox institutions in the city, citing the examples of Netivot HaTorah Day School, and Bnei Akiva’s Ulpanat Orot and Or Chaim high schools.
“I see something like Torah In Motion, which tries to do intellectual types of things, as a positive force in the city,” he said.
“I know there are people I see as kindred spirits who I can talk to, who unabashedly call themselves Modern Orthodox.”
However, he noted, “it may be a well-placed concern that congregational rabbis find themselves in the difficult position – the modern centrist liberal kinds – worried about losing their bona fides because of a possible attack from the ultra-Orthodox.”
At his own synagogue, Congregation Bnai Torah, which has a more right-wing philosophy than his own, the rabbi “has been very tolerant of me,” Lockshin said.
* * *
Rabbi Immanuel Schochet, a retired philosophy professor at Humber College and a leader of the Lubavitch movement in Toronto, said the Jewish community has been inundated with dissent and anger, as well as stringencies that go beyond halachah in an attempt to protect tradition.
“We live in a society where under the guise of political correctness, all systems are go. Moral boundaries which were observed by everyone are being trampled,” he said by way of explanation. In today’s “permissive, licentious society,” observant Jews try to take precautions, he added.
Like immunizations, “we may inject kids with poisons to protect them” – in other words, expose them to the non-Jewish world so that they are equipped to deal with it. Or, he added, observant Jews may try to defend tradition by creating more closed enclaves and putting up behavioural fences such as not allowing television or Internet in the home, in an effort to circle the wagons around the community’s children. “It’s not foolproof, but it’s an attempt to protect kids and the young from being corrupted.”
The ideal, he said, is “the golden middle path,” though he admits this path is hard to find.
Rabbi Schochet added that there is “great hostility” within the Orthodox community, which he said comes from divisions that are more about ego than personal ideology.
There is a fight over “my gedolim [rabbinic sages] vs. your gedolim – my way or the highway,” he said, adding that this is not what the pursuit of Torah means. “You have to realize that you aren’t God’s policeman.”
There is nothing wrong with having a difference of opinion, so long as the discussion is kept to the issue and avoids the personal, he said. You condemn the act or action, not the person doing it, he added.
For instance, different schools serve different parts of the Orthodox world, but they should still be conscious of the bonds between them. “I may not send my children to schools whose views I disagree with. But show hostility to them? No.”
Rabbi Schochet said he disagrees with the approach of those who banned Rabbi Slifkin’s book.
“The answer is not to ban a book – that just gives publicity, and popularizes it, the opposite of what is intended. The answer is to discuss, and to question, to say why you think he is wrong.”
You don’t argue with a Jewish heretic, said Rabbi Schochet, speaking hypothetically, and “banning went out with the dodo.” The rabbis who banned Rabbi Slifkin’s books have “moved beyond what society needs. They shot themselves in the foot.”
“Not that I necessarily disagree with their views, just their methods.”
As to whether the Orthodox community will ever be united in the future, Rabbi Schochet said he “won’t place any bets on it. But then, that’s one good reason to hope for the coming of Moshiach.”
For my entire life, I've always had the feeling that Judaism made sense. Nobody was making me believe things that ran counter to reason. I can accept mystical things, things outside the realm of reason (but then some high level physics gets pretty strange too), but I can't accept things that go against reason. God gave me a brain and I don't think He's a cosmic trickster trying to pull a gotcha with dinosaur bones.
Now I see an anti-intellectual trend raising its nasty head. The Rambam, I fear, would be appalled.
We lost too many good minds to the haskalah and the Nazis. We can't afford to have the brightest, most creative elements of the yeshiva world alienated by narrow minded rabbis, insecure and trying to hang on to power.
It's funny that the same folks who insist on nishtana haTeva don't want to acknowledge that nature can indeed change. But then they are the same folks who on one hand permit things because the world has changed (showers during the Nine Days), but not others (earings on men, pants on women, medicine on Shabbas - like who uses a mortar (sp?) and pestle these days to take an aspirin?)
Dear Ronnie,
my point about the card, which I got in high school years ago, was that by way of that social network, I know a lot of smart people, smart Jewish people even, and most have some "quirks," to say the least. Some seem really nuts. I myself have a "quirk" or two, I'm just saying it goes with the territory, in my experience. And high intelligence does, for whatever reason, does seem to run in Jewish communities. So when you wonder about the behavior and schemes and what-not of some of these guys, and their abberant behavior of whatever stripe, some of it is due to a slight mental instability fed by the innate arrogance of the Yeshiva culture overall and tipped over the edge by their own personal arrogance, power-mongering, and years of getting away with it. It's psychology - a field in which I am admittedly not an expert - that I have observed in MENSA interest groups.
I believe the clock has run out on the YOB offer. Rather than force an insincere apology from them, I think a demand for some compensatory damages for the victims and their families is in order. It may be time to place a call to Jeffrey Herman.
Attention YTT Parents and Supporters:
I hope that you are proud of the way your tuition dollars and donations are being spent. The administrative office dedicated this summer to the sting operation to "out" UOJ by hiring a group of henchmen posing as a psychologist and administrator. They installed sophisticated computer software for this purpose and their computer was used to maintain a hate-filled, obscenity-laced blog. What a heimishe Yeshiva!
Yaakov,
Actually, the joke is on them as time will tell.
What a travesty. Ronnie Schreiber is unfortunately not cultured enough to know that the yeshivishe method of mixing mayonnaise with chrein is called chreyonnaise. Tiger sauce is cayenne pepper based.
http://www.luzianne.com/template_buy_product.cfm?ID=64
It is beneath the dignity of the blog that UOJ allows Ronnie to post comments that reflect such ignorance of culinary arts.
Wolfgang, you have to excuse poor Ronnie. There is nothing decent to eat in Detroit. He has to rely on hearsay from travellers to civilization. Maybe he should ask Margo who must have sampled every dish on earth.
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=10039
By SHIRA SCHWARTZ
Special to The CJN
NORTH BAY, Ont. — Scores of volunteers assisted Ontario Provincial Police last week in an intensive search for two Toronto-area Jewish men who went missing on Lake Nipissing.
Richmond Hill, Ont., resident Heine Mondrowitz, 56, and his son-in-law Eli Horowitz, 30, of Toronto, had been vacationing with their families at a lodge on the south shore of the lake when they rented a 19-foot boat to go fishing and swimming on Aug. 21 at about 3:30 p.m., police said.
Their empty boat drifted ashore in nearby North Bay later that afternoon, but the men failed to return.
Last weekend, Mondrowitz’s body was found on the shore of Lonely Island on Lake Nippising.
The discovery came after the OPP conducted searches of islands and along the shoreline, as well as underwater and from the air using helicopters. As The CJN went to press, the body of Eli Horowitz had not yet been found. However, he is presumed drowned.
“At this point, it’s going to be a body recovery,” OPP Sgt. Joe Striba in North Bay told the Toronto Star. “We’ve exhausted our land search and air search for a rescue.”
More than 30 people had volunteered to help police, and three civilian helicopters took part in the search. Many more volunteers came to the North Bay area to help in the search.
Police were asking lakeside residents and boaters along the south shore of Lake Nipissing to report anything unusual.
A busload of high school and university students affiliated with the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) arrived last Wednesday to help, but because there weren’t enough OPP officers to accompany them, they couldn’t join the search.
Instead, the youths spent their time praying, reciting psalms and comforting the distressed Horowitz and Mondrowitz families and their friends, who were also among the volunteers who could not be used for the official search parties.
“Doctors and surgeons have the opportunity to save a life almost every day,” Rabbi Binyamin Pinkus, assistant regional director of NCSY Canada, told the NCSYers.
“It isn’t often that we get the chance to do such an incredible mitzvah. Even if we aren’t part of the search, we are making a contribution just by being here… coming all this way, even if just to say Tehillim [Psalms] and to show that we care.”
Rabbi Pinkus stayed overnight with some of the students to help with the search the following morning.
What's the big fuss over Artscroll whitewashing Lipa Brenner? Nosson Scherman will rehabilitate any criminal who wants to get his seforim published. Trust me.
Wolfgang Puck said...
What a travesty. Ronnie Schreiber is unfortunately not cultured enough to know that the yeshivishe method of mixing mayonnaise with chrein is called chreyonnaise. Tiger sauce is cayenne pepper based.
I'm sorry for my mistake, but that's what the local froomies who have imported Brooklyn Cultcha to Detroit call it. Besides, New Yorkers don't eat chrein, they eat sweetened beets with a touch of horseradish. Feh! Brede's and Raskin's makes real chrein. Real chrein brings tears of joy. NYC bagels aren't very good either.
It is beneath the dignity of the blog that UOJ allows Ronnie to post comments that reflect such ignorance of culinary arts.
If you like sharp or spicy food, you'd like my Jerk Chicken recipe. I use 3 or 4 habaneros, a white onion and some scallions, along with cinnamon, ginger, allspice, mollases and honey to make the rub. The trick is to balance the heat of the capcasin with the flavor and sweetness of the spices. Use a food processor to make a paste, rub the chicken with it and let it sit overnight or at least a few hours in the fridge. Shake most of the rub off, then grill. The heat goes right to the bone.
As for my culinary arts, I can make real mac and cheese, starting with a white sauce from scratch.
NP: In From The Storm - Various Artists playing the compositions of the late James Marshall Hendrix
"It's funny that the same folks who insist on nishtana haTeva don't want to acknowledge that nature can indeed change. But then they are the same folks who on one hand permit things because the world has changed (showers during the Nine Days), but not others (earings on men, pants on women, medicine on Shabbas - like who uses a mortar (sp?) and pestle these days to take an aspirin?)"
Ronnie needs to do some basic learning before espousing such ignorance. The concept of nishtanu hativim mentioned by the Shach has nothing to do with those other topics. Taking showers during the Nine Days for instance, is permitted for the same reasons that it would have been in the days of yore, just not applied as frequently. Ronnie gets carried away with fashion trends. If the world decides to go nude let's say, it has nothing to do with teva of planet Earth and everything to do with morals or lack thereof. Without getting into the complexities of refuos which is beyond the scope of this blog (although Ronnie seems to think nothing is beyond it's scope), there is a shita, Rav Graubart, who is a frquent entry in Maayanah shel Torah, that pain relief is mutter on Shabbos because it is not refuah.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten said...
Wolfgang, you have to excuse poor Ronnie. There is nothing decent to eat in Detroit.
Sure there is. Just not in kosher restaurants. Well, J'lem Pizza makes very good pizza, not as good as Slice of Life in Skokie, but tasty nonetheless. They have really good employees, too [grin]. Paul Kohn is a great caterer and the restaurant he ran was first rate. The problem was that it was too expensive for froomies, and out in West Bloomfield the non-orthodox have places like the Lark and other outstanding treif restaurants from which to choose. Froomies here just won't support anything beyond pizza. And then you have to deal w/ the fact that any place with tables and chairs can get labeled as a hangout where boys and girls can, gasp, socialize.
He has to rely on hearsay from travellers to civilization.
You call Brooklyn civilization?
BTW, I make a pretty good chummus too. I start with Molly Katzen's recipe and spice it up a bit.
For anyone interested in Jewish food, Claudia Rodan's Book of Jewish Food is a terrific read (though I think my Bubbe's recipes are better)
bayit_bourne said...
my point about the card, which I got in high school years ago, was that by way of that social network, I know a lot of smart people, smart Jewish people even, and most have some "quirks," to say the least.
I was just kibbitzing. Glad you took it in good humor.
R. Meir David ben Yechezkel Shraga haKohen, H'y'd', said that he met a lot of stupid Jews and a lot of smart Goyim.
Some seem really nuts.
Seem??!!! Seem???!!!
I myself have a "quirk" or two,
Nah. All of us lowlifes and losers here are the sine qua non of mental health.
And high intelligence does, for whatever reason, does seem to run in Jewish communities.
Blame it on the 2% of 8th century CE Jews that we all are descended from. That and our fine eyesight.
So when you wonder about the behavior and schemes and what-not of some of these guys, and their abberant behavior of whatever stripe, some of it is due to a slight mental instability fed by the innate arrogance of the Yeshiva culture overall and tipped over the edge by their own personal arrogance, power-mongering, and years of getting away with it. It's psychology - a field in which I am admittedly not an expert - that I have observed in MENSA interest groups.
Nicely put.
Are you single? How old?
Yaakov R.
Again making fantastic points. As UOJ said, the joke will be on YOB.
A fight for survival. That's what this world is all about. Nice guys finish last, corny but true. Who in their right box would want to bring children into such an evil world? There are endless hurtles that need to be overcome for us Jews to survive. Bad enough, that the whole world is against us, but now our own Jewish brethren have also turned their backs on us, in our most critical time of need. Bad enough, that Muslim Nazi's are committed to spilling our Jewish blood, but now our leaders are doing the same thing. Bad enough, that being Jewish is very hard to maintain, but what logical person wants to be associated with a fake religion, that is not practiced according to Jewish law?
You see, it's the ultimate survival game. If you're mean, you have a chance to survive. In Brooklyn, NY, there is no being nice. The same goes for other cities. If I saw the parking spot first, and someone sneaks in before me, what do i do? Fight? Scream? yell? No i won't, it's no use. This is the Jewish way of daily life that we have become accustomed to. You see it, you take it. First come first serve.
It's all one big game of survival. Go to synagogue, and you are sure to be updated on the latest gossip, especially during the reading of the Torah. Go to the Jewish business establishments, and you are sure to see men and women who will only buy kosher glatt, bedatz, with 3 or 4 different ashgochos added as well (for your own safety of course), and that's all good and well, if you are a good, sincere, practicing Jew. However, while sitting at a kiddush, or your own home, munching on chulent and potato kugel, eating the kosher'er meat, and chicken, and cake, and you're busy laughing and berating the next person, for not being a tyeridca yid like yourself, then all of your bullcrap of maintaining a kosher diet is a fallacy and a joke, just like the rest of you is.
Moreover, as Jews, we would think that our religion is different than all the rest. We are supposed to have leaders who lead. We are supposed to have rabbi's who we can admire. We are supposed to prove all the other nations, what they are missing out, and right now they aren't missing out too much. We act like them, talk like them, and some of us walk around in disguise every day, with the beard, payos, black hats, shtreimels, beckersher, gartels, what have you, destroying and not practicing our religion, when on the other hand showing the devotion they spend, when searching for a "reliable" hashgocha. It's completely backwards.
We are stuck in an evil and corrupt world, where wrong is right, and right is wrong. Backstabbing and not caring for our fellow Jews, is a defense of survival for many people. Reputations are at stake here. Livelihoods are at stake. And oh yeah, KOVOD is also at stake. They are better than all the rest, they feel. They are as much ignorant, as they are hypocrites. It's absolutely, a disgrace. You know what is also a disgrace? That to this day, there is not one Rabbi who has the guts to address our sexual child abuse problem within our own communities. Our leaders, are scared to stand up for yiddeshkeit and for what is a problem that no one seems to want to address. I want an Al Sharpton for the Jews (lehavdil). Oh, how i hate AL, but i have to admire his resolve and commitments to his own people. If only Jews had that kind of leader. Someone who's not scared of getting stung or bitten.
So what is the answer? How do we survive? How will our children survive? Our rabonim and leaders are clearly corrupted and stained. They are not the answer, at least not for now. Heck, even an 8 day old baby has to fight for survival, from the metziza bepeh practice. I did not have metziza bepeh done to me at my bris, b'h, so i guess I'm not kosher meat.
The greater question is, what should the average yid do?
Suppose a chassid thinks and thinks and concludes that his ways are weird. Should he suddenly drop chassidus? Should he become a Litvak? What about the falling out he'll have with his family and community?
What about the charedi who realizes he's been had? He realizes that the Boys Club with Belsky et al are all a bunch of goons. Should he suddenly transfer his kids to YU?
Give us something realistic to solve these problems. You can preach to the choir until your blue in the face, but we need tachlis.
(Rabbi Shlomo Miller, its rosh kollel and av beis din – head of the institution and its rabbinical court – declined to speak directly to The CJN, saying that the media have misquoted and misunderstood him. However, he authorized a spokesperson to speak on his behalf.)
Whatever happened to hevei z'herin b'milav?
Rabbi Miller seems to be blaming the media for something that Judaism says is his responsibility. To be sure, the mainstream media is often inaccurate at best, but the mesorah teaches us that we have to be careful with our words and make sure the we aren't misunderstood.
The idea that a rav needs a "spokesperson" in order to convey his opinion is silly. Any thinking person knows that a spokesperson is constrained from speaking the full truth and is not interested in any dialogue but rather getting out a limited number of talking points. This is true with the president's spokesperson, Tony Snow (who I admire and is pretty forthright for a presidential spokesman), and it's true of Jonathan Ostroff.
That a rav has to hide behind a spokesperson shows that he is incapable of controlling his own speech.
Does anyone else see the contradiction between this:
Ostroff stressed that there is a difference between disagreeing with someone, and hating or looking down on them. “We object to his views, not to him as a person,” Ostroff said.
and these comments?:
In fact, he said, when Rabbi Slifkin came to Toronto to speak at the Torah in Motion event, he was invited to speak to Rabbi Miller and Ostroff, but was “unresponsive.”
“I wanted to continue the dialogue, but he cut it off. I don’t believe he wants to discuss substantive issues.”
This certainly addresses R. Slifkin's views, and isn't a personal attack on R. Slifkin, is it? Oh no. Not at all.
Looking at R. Slifkin's response, Ostroff's comments are, at best, dissembling.
Ostroff, like most froomies, is trying to seize the high moral ground, which has more than a whiff of ga'avah.
The other day when Rav Slifkin was on Dennis Prager's show the Christians who called up (in some cases to challenge R. Slifkin) were more menschlich and polite to him than the chareidi rabbi who called to disagree. The hostility and disrespect was obvious.
I'll post a transcript as soon as I can.
Anon 9:58...looking for tachlis,
It's difficult to offer advice, especially to someone I do not know. Every person and situation is different.
I'm going to take a stab at a general answer.
How disenfranchised are you? Are you willing to make changes in your life to accomodate your personal needs and wants, knowing you may have to do battle with members of your family and community?
You raise serious questions about your obvious struggles. My answer to you would be to make peace with yourself first and foremost.
Decide how far you're willing to go to adjust your life in a meaningful way within the daled amos of halacha.
Do it and don't look back!
You may e-mail me if you so desire at: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com.
You are not alone my friend.
regarding mr.cohen's article. first of all i have one question why haven't the square rebbie or other rebbies been asked for publication if stealing from the government is wrong?
regarding chassidim in general.we all understand they belive in a middle man.they dont understand the concept of hashgocas prutious.that in itself is a problem.but without chassidim i would say at least 75% of jews would be lost.
--
Quit While You're Ahead said...
"It's funny that the same folks who insist on nishtana haTeva don't want to acknowledge that nature can indeed change. But then they are the same folks who on one hand permit things because the world has changed (showers during the Nine Days), but not others (earings on men, pants on women, medicine on Shabbas - like who uses a mortar (sp?) and pestle these days to take an aspirin?)"
Ronnie needs to do some basic learning before espousing such ignorance. The concept of nishtanu hativim mentioned by the Shach has nothing to do with those other topics.
I'm sorry that I wasn't clear enough with my words. I wasn't trying to say that the cultural and social changes are the same as nature changing. I was saying that the same people who allow for changes in halacha based on the changes in culture are not consistent.
Taking showers during the Nine Days for instance, is permitted for the same reasons that it would have been in the days of yore, just not applied as frequently.
I'm sorry. I was relying on a halacha sheet distributed in the shuls here. I don't have a copy handy, but it's produced by a Rav in Cleveland. He specifically said that because while people formerly didn't bathe frequently, today we are used to bathing daily and thus we are more lenient and allow showers for cleanliness.
Ronnie gets carried away with fashion trends.
I believe that you are deliberately trying to miss my point.
If the world decides to go nude let's say, it has nothing to do with teva of planet Earth and everything to do with morals or lack thereof.
As I said above, I should have separated the two issues more clearly. I was riffing on the word "change". You are deliberately trying to make it seem that I advocate changing halacha to suit contemporary morals and fashions. I said no such thing. It is the froomies who allow changes selectively. When one tries to apply the logical conclusion to their changing halacha, froomies say, Oh no! That's not what we are talking about at all.
Your attempt to bring up nudity and the degraded state of public morality is a pathetic effort to tar me with the brush of pritzus, something I was clearly not discussing.
Without getting into the complexities of refuos which is beyond the scope of this blog (although Ronnie seems to think nothing is beyond it's scope),
Hafach Ba, Hafach Ba, d'kol ba. Torah is either all inclusive or not. You can't have it both ways.
there is a shita, Rav Graubart, who is a frquent entry in Maayanah shel Torah, that pain relief is mutter on Shabbos because it is not refuah.
Which avoids the issue that I raised. The prohibition of using medicine on Shabbat is based on obsolete apothecary technology. The gezeirah was based on a specific condition, a condition that no longer exists. I understand that you believe that chazal had a double top secret reason for every gezeirah. Fine. Just don't expect me to accept that your position is rational.
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/bryks_ephraim.html
Our leaders, are scared to stand up for yiddeshkeit and for what is a problem that no one seems to want to address. I want an Al Sharpton for the Jews (lehavdil). Oh, how i hate AL, but i have to admire his resolve and commitments to his own people. If only Jews had that kind of leader. Someone who's not scared of getting stung or bitten.
We had one. The "gedolim" disparaged him as not acting the way hishtadlus has traditionally been done. He didn't follow da'as chachamim (a froomie actually told me that's why he met an early demise). The Muslim nazis killed him. His name was Rav Meir Kahane. Not a perfect man, certainly, but he wouldn't have stood by while the pygmies and dwarves allowed children to be abused (not to disparage real pygmies and those suffering from dwarfism).
Heck, even an 8 day old baby has to fight for survival, from the metziza bepeh practice. I did not have metziza bepeh done to me at my bris, b'h, so i guess I'm not kosher meat.
Nope, you're just following the mesorah as practiced prior the rise of Chassidism.
R. Chaim Berlin: “I wonder at your efforts to gather rabbinic opinions approving the new method of meẓiẓah via a tube, since does one need to permit the permitted and to proclaim pure that which is pure? Nowhere is it recorded in Ḥazal that meẓiẓah needs to be performed exclusively by oral suction..."
IT IS INCUMBENT ON EVERY JEW TO WATCH THIS VIDEO!
UOJ
-----------------------------------
The Awareness Center is providing the documentary "Unorthodox Conduct" in the memory of Daniel Levin.
Our hopes is that it will be used as a way to educate the public on the devistating ramifications a case can have on an individual, family and in Jewish communities around the world. It's important to know what happens when a case of "alleged" childhood sexual abuse in the Jewish community is not dealt with properly from the beginning (bringing the case to law enforcement who is trained and educated in dealing with these cases).
Our hopes is that after you view this documentary that you will go to your rabbis and other community leaders and demand that there be changes made when a child makes allegations they were sexually abused/assaulted. We cannot afford for there to be anymore cover-ups when there are allegations that a child has been molested. We cannot afford to let one more child die. Our hopes is that not one more child will feel so desperate that they will take their own lives, as Daniel Levin did.
Please note: The Investigative documentary: "Unorthodox Conduct"contains graphic information regarding the case against Rabbi Ephriam Bryks. It was produced in 1994 by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/offender/brykslq.rm
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Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks principal Yeshiva Berachel David Torah High School Queens, currently serves time as a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens (Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within the community). As of today, there has been no public statement made concerning his decade long membership on the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. On May 27, 2003, he resigned his membership in the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), after being involved for a quarter of a century.
Anyone with relevant information regarding the open case in Canada is encouraged to contact the Winnipeg Police at their main phone number: (204) 986-6037.
Anyone with relevant information in the United States is encouraged to contact their local police department and their local District Attorney's office, NYPD Switchboard: (646) 610-5000 Queens District Attorney's office: (718) 286-6000.
Rabbi Ephraim Bryks is originally from Denver, Colorado. In this case, accusations about his inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980's. These accusations also included making sexual advancements to women in his congregation. When his alleged victims disclosed their experiences to a rabbinic leader in their community, they were basically told to keep silent. The rabbi advised them not to go to the police or child family services. He told them to deal with the allegations internally with the synagogue board. The children were not offered psychotherapy to help them cope with their alleged victimization. Unfortunately a teenager who didn't have the coping skills to deal with his memories ended up committing suicide.
Over the years Rabbi Ephraim Bryks has left a trail of alleged victims from such far-away places as Winnipeg, Canada. He is currently located in New York City. There are no documented cases or public information regarding any victims in New York, yet he has been let go by schools (one characterized as firing), but the schools will not discuss the matter.
For years alleged victims have been going to rabbinic leaders in their communities looking for guidance. For years rabbinic leaders have found it more important to protect an alleged sexual predator over protecting our children.
49 year-old Rabbi Ephraim Boruch Bryks will continue to run Yeshiva Berachel David in Queens until the end of the 2003 school year. No public statement has been made concerning his decade- long membership on the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. Rabbi Bryks was a member of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) for over a quarter of a century before his May 27, 2003 resignation. Ads in The Jewish Press indicate that Rabbi Bryks is currently working as a mortgage broker for a company he runs out of his home called REB International LLC.).
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You are not alone my friend.
This brings up one of the most valuable things about this blog - that there is a community of like minded Yidden. We don't 100% agree, but we share many concerns. It is so hard doing anything non-conforming in the frum community, that it's nice to be welcome somewhere.
UOJ, I thank you, sincerely, for making this forum available, a virtual kehilah, if you will.
NP: Little Wing - Toots Thielemans & The London Metropolitan Orchestra - from In From The Storm
.but without chassidim i would say at least 75% of jews would be lost.
Without shul candymen, 100% of Jews would be lost.
I'm the grandson and brother of two fine candymen.
To keep this on topic, some guy once questioned my brother's motivations in a very hurtful manner. Maybe I'll check with big bro to find out who the guy was, so I can ask him how he feels about pedophile rebbes.
We had one. The "gedolim" disparaged him as not acting the way hishtadlus has traditionally been done. He didn't follow da'as chachamim (a froomie actually told me that's why he met an early demise). The Muslim nazis killed him. His name was Rav Meir Kahane. Not a perfect man, certainly, but he wouldn't have stood by while the pygmies and dwarves allowed children to be abused (not to disparage real pygmies and those suffering from dwarfism).
Ronnie,
Indeed, you are correct. Rav Meir Kahane zt'l, is surely missed. We need more Meir Kahane's. He wouldn't have allowed this issue to die down, nor would he have stood idly by, while our children were being beaten, molested, victimized, and humiliated on a daily basis, in our schools and our neighborhoods. He wouldn't have allowed, Lipa Margulis, Yaakov and shlomo mandel(the 2 stooges), and others, to bully and blackmail parents, victims, friends, and anyone else they can get their dirty hands on, into forgetting about the sexual and coropal punishment tactics, and extreme physical abuse, that were practiced every single day, in what was percevied to be a regular day at school for our children, and an everyday occurance that our children had to go through, and be subjected to. The trauma, is just devastaing, to this day.
Thanks for your thoughts, Ronnie, always appreciated!
http://protocols.blogspot.com/2004_09_05_protocols_archive.html#109448176434999367
Me writes to Jason Maoz:
Last year when Newsday printed an expose on abusive Rabbis your paper responded with the following editorial http://www.jewishpress.com/news_article.asp?article=2461
In that editorial there was false information that was clearly referring to Rabbi Ephraim Bryks "...and authorities declined to charge another because there was no evidence to do so."
There in fact has been no final disposition to these charges or the investigation.
The case in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in fact remains open. To date Rabbi Bryks has not cooperated with the Winnipeg police or made himself available to answer the charges against him. There is no Statute of Limitations in Canada on criminal charges regarding the sexual assault of children. Your editorial claim has no basis in fact.
I would note that your paper that week ran several advertisements for Bryks' mortgage broker company called REB International LLC.
One of your columnists I'm told has and continues to promote Rabbi Bryks' counselling services to women.
Do you have any commitment to the truth as a journalist or as a Jew or will you take liberties and ignore facts when it comes to friends, people who buy advertisements and people who look/act/talk like you believe Orthodox Jews should (form over substance)?
http://www.banking.state.ny.us/wb010330.htm
Certificate issued to engage in the business of a Mortgage Broker under Article 12-D of the New York Banking Law:
March 27, 2001 (BR-MBD)
REB International LLC
84-33 116th Street, Richmond Hill, NY 11418
This address is right on the border with Kew Gardens and is a stone's throw away from the Shaar HaTorah yeshiva on 117th St.
http://nycserv.nyc.gov/nycproperty/nynav/jsp/stmtassesslst.jsp
I thought it might be Rabbi Krohn's house but the city lists the owner as ELINOR B RIBOWSKY. Paysach J Krohn actually lives around the corner at 11709 85th Ave.
http://www.yu.edu/Wurzweiler/inside_Update=2002.pdf#search=%22%22ELINOR%20B%20RIBOWSKY%22%22
who graduated YU's Wurzweiler School of Social Work in 1979.
Maybe someone should let us know what a creep this Rabbi Bryks is.
New York Settlement Agency
97 Center Road Pennellville, NY 13132
Phone: (315) 695-4137 Fax: (315) 695-4837
http://www.nysaweb.net/Services.html
REB International
Rabbi Brycks
(718) 849-4140
http://www.nysaweb.net/Home_Page.html
"Fast, courteous service done right the first time."
Rabbi Ephraim Brycks
REB International LLC
Richmond Hill, NY
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/bryks_ephraim_241212621.aspx
This page is chock full of Bryks info. (The same site also has pages on Kolko and Lipa Margulies)
It appears that Bryks has been living for a while at the house at 116th St. His phone number 718-849-4140 which is a Richmond Hill / Kew Gardens exchange corresponds to that address and has been his phone number for years. He's obviously either renting from Ribowsky or put the house in her name. Incidentally, there was a Ribowsky who was once Leib Pinter's business partner.
We had one. The "gedolim" disparaged him as not acting the way hishtadlus has traditionally been done. He didn't follow da'as chachamim (a froomie actually told me that's why he met an early demise). The Muslim nazis killed him. His name was Rav Meir Kahane.
-----------------------------------
Ronnie, thank you for mentioning Rabbi Kahane a"h. I had the zchus to march and protest with him in the 70's and 80's and at times, we would get arrested. He was a man that was not afraid to speak the truth, and only now, people are beginning to realize how right he was about the Arabs. He was constantly villified by the gedolim in his days, but he nevertheless showed true kavod to the rabbanim. He understood that their motivation was purely political, since he had his own political party. The Establisments he fought were the Israeli govt. and what he called the "fat cats" of the UJA and Federation who were left-wing liberals, that advocated peace with the Arabs by giving them money. He despised modern orthodoxy, (he created the term "Moderdox"), for perverting the true meaning of the Torah. He based all his views on halacha and was constantly quoting psukim that backed up what he was preaching. Had the US government followed the trail of his murderer, it would have led to Bin Laden and 9/11 could have been averted.
People keep crapping all over Jason Maoz, Yaakov Klass & the gang about the many indiscretions at the Jewish Press. While these people are to blame for some issues, they are stooges for the real powers that be. The head honcho who manages to keep under the radar is a wealthy macher from Manhattan Beach named Jerry Greenwald. It doesn't matter that Klass's father was a founder, he is a nobody at the paper although he is Vice President at the corrupt Iggud Harabbanim.
I'm going to look into this. I hope Bryks is not davening by the yeshiva. If he is, I'm sure R' Zelig would turf him out if it was brought to his attention.
The other Kew Gardens shuls he could be davening by are:
Rabbi Ashkenazy where the rich dudes like Reichmann & Schonberger are.
Rabbi Walkin
The Kew Gardens Synagogue
Rabbi Teitelbaum
Various Sfardi / Bocharian shuls, as he did once run a Sfardi yeshiva in Kew Gardens Hills.
For the first time there is now a shul in Richmond Hill on 110th St. The two rabbonim left an old shul that closed down in Elmhurst or Jackson Heights.
There is also the odd area resident that walks all the way to shuls in Forest Hills or Glendale.
I'm also concerned that Bryks is just off the corner of bus stops for Bais Yaakov & various chadorim and there are always kids frolicking on his block.
You are not alone my friend.
This brings up one of the most valuable things about this blog - that there is a community of like minded Yidden. We don't 100% agree, but we share many concerns. It is so hard doing anything non-conforming in the frum community, that it's nice to be welcome somewhere.
UOJ, I thank you, sincerely, for making this forum available, a virtual kehilah, if you will.
-----------------------------------
Ronnie,
That truly was one of the nicest comments ever expressed here. There is actually a global kehilla here; you are certainly one of the attractions.
First and foremost, we as a kehilla have brought the issue of child molestation to the fore. Every yeshiva will be more dilligent whether their motives are pure or not.
To date, three vile predators have been removed from their positions around children. Equally as important, we have brought comfort to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse. They realize they have a big brother(s) willing to go through every single obstacle to help them in every way.
Comfort has given way to sharing information and experiences with others. I was able to put numerous people in contact with each other who are helping each other deal with their pain. Teens in trouble with substance abuse because of their lack of hope, were given the strength to seek help.
Two shidduchim have been made, mazel tov! Tens of thousands of dollars in tzedakka were given to needy families, and people were directed to professionals for help with their unique issues.
This is just a start...when sincere people band together, the sky is the limit.
Chazak!
That zoominfo site is awfully strange. I see they list for EB as follows:
Board Membership and Affiliations
Board Member
The Awareness Center Inc - FLUSHING, New York
Ridiculous.
Nu! Kiddush! Kiddush!
A polishe or hungarian cholent?
UOJ: I speak for the Nation-
FIND YOUR ROOTS AGAIN!
It is about having a sheer hatred for the MOLESTERS.
Sheer hatred for the Rabbis who cover-up Molesting.
The same hatred the Jews in Gaza feel for the sick demented little dirty knife waiving rag-heads chopping people heads off.
RABBI KOKLO IS CHOPPING LITLLE CHILDREN’S HEADS OFF.
RABBI BELSKY IS ALLOWING THIS!
Were is the obsessive non-stop aggression towards these so called 'rabbis'
Why is Belsky not reciveing 100 letters a day, why is the front of his house blocked by protesters and fliers with picture of Kolko raping little boys.
DO YOU PEOPLE GET IT-
Kolko, Eisen, Belsky...
IMAGINE, actually going over to an 8 year old and pulling down his pants and stroking his penis!!
IT IS SO SICK- I JUST VOMITED ALL OVER THE COMPUTER.
Eliminate Belsky From Judaism.
He must have some lengthy & dumbass diatribe about how we must carefully ponder Bryks being around Kew Gardens kiddies but be careful not to to do anything to offend a man who is innocent until proven guilty.
Oh wait, Margo isn't paying for blogger hit man time when it doesn't concern him? Ok, scrap that.
I hope that Rabbi "Eisen" was a typo. You mean Eiseman, don't you?
Does anyone have a current picture of this guy? It should be posted at the Main St shopping district and Rosenblum's grocery on Lefferts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/nyregion/31stab.html
August 31, 2006
Told His Daughter Was Molested, a Lawyer Kills His Neighbor, Police Say
By AVI SALZMAN
FAIRFIELD, Conn. Aug. 30 — A patent lawyer in this suburb was released on $1 million bond Wednesday, two days after, the police say, he broke into the home of a next-door neighbor and fatally stabbed him after a relative told him that his 2-year-old daughter had been molested by the neighbor.
The Trinity Retreat House in Larchmont, N.Y., where the New York Archdiocese is sending priests who have faced sexual abuse allegations that it has deemed credible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/nyregion/31priest.html?ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print
August 31, 2006
A Choice for New York Priests in Abuse Cases
By ANDY NEWMAN
As the Roman Catholic Church struggles to repair itself and its image in the wake of the sex abuse scandals, one of the more confounding questions church leaders face is what to do with priests accused of abuse.
Some priests whose crimes fell within statutes of limitation are in jail. Some have been defrocked.
But others — because they are elderly, because of the nature of their offenses, or because they have had some success fighting the charges — cannot be defrocked under canon law. These priests occupy a sort of shadow world, stripped of most duties but still financially supported by the church and fairly free to move about, both angering the critics of the church and exposing the diocese to further liability.
Cardinal Edward M. Egan, head of the New York Archdiocese, is trying something new. Since June, he has offered seven priests that the archdiocese believes have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children a choice.
They can spend the rest of their lives in closely supervised housing, where, in addition to receiving regular therapy, they must fill out a daily log of their comings and goings. Or they can leave the priesthood and the lifetime security net that comes with it.
Priests who agree to enter the program move temporarily to a handsome, ivy-covered retreat house on Long Island Sound in a mansion-filled corner of Larchmont, N.Y., in Westchester County, a place where priests with troubles have long been sent.
The building, Trinity Retreat House, flanked by the sound on one side and an inlet on the other, is, unlike its neighbors, nearly invisible from the road, hidden behind leafy trees and an ivy-covered wall. In a few months, the priests are transferred to permanent housing elsewhere, said Joseph Zwilling, Mr. Egan’s spokesman.
So far, five of the seven priests who received the letters have resigned rather than submit to monitoring. One priest has moved into the retreat house, and the other is on his way, Mr. Zwilling said.
It is difficult to determine how many other dioceses have a supervised-living program like the new one in New York. In the Chicago Archdiocese, nine priests accused of sex abuse live in a retreat house on the grounds of a seminary and are carefully monitored, officials there said, adding that they also planned to install surveillance cameras and keep the priests locked in the building during some hours.
A spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, William A. Ryan, said, “There are several other dioceses that have similar programs, but unfortunately, none of them are willing to talk about it.”
In the New York Archdiocese, the priests who received the letter fall into one of several categories, Mr. Zwilling said.
Some have been convicted in a canonical trial but determined to be too elderly or infirm to endure being defrocked and are instead sentenced to a life of prayer and penance. Others have had the accusations against them referred to an archdiocesan advisory board consisting mostly of laypeople, including psychologists and lawyers. The board, which can interview the priest but does not have to, issues a recommendation to the cardinal on whether the priest should continue to minister.
The archdiocese notifies law enforcement authorities of all allegations that could result in criminal charges. But in many cases, with the accusations decades old, statutes of limitations had long since run out.
Those who defend priests have said the New York policy is too harsh, especially since the board that decides whether an accusation is credible does not have to give the priest a chance to defend himself. But Mr. Zwilling said the archdiocese was doing what it had to do.
“If there has been a finding and a belief that a cleric has misbehaved, we want to do all that we can to protect against such misbehavior occurring in the future,” Mr. Zwilling said this week.
The letter to the priests states, “The continued safety of our children and young people, the protection of the reputation and patrimony of the archdiocese, and your own well-being dictate that you enter this program and residence.”
The Rev. John P. Bambrick, a priest in the Trenton Diocese who says he was abused as a youth by a priest in Yonkers and who is now an advocate for victims, said that the program seemed in part like an attempt to force out abusive priests so that the church is no longer accountable for their actions.
“I don’t think the archdiocese is doing this out of their great concern for children,” he said. “There’s a liability issue here, and the archdiocese’s lawyers have come up with this brilliant plan, which is either to corral them and control them or to force them to leave.”
He added that if the archdiocese really wanted to protect the public, it would publish the names of abusive priests and former priests. “Unleashing them on society is not the responsible thing to do,” he said.
Mr. Zwilling said the program was not an attempt to drive out problem priests. “Our goal was to have them all participate in this program,” he said. “They are people who can make choices on their own, and this is what they have chosen.”
Mr. Zwilling added that he did not believe the archdiocese could legally notify the neighbors of abusive priests if the men were not convicted of any crime, though it does notify the local district attorney. The archdiocese covers New York City and five other downstate counties.
David Clohessy, the executive director of SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests, said community notification should not pose a problem: “If a bishop can publicly say, ‘Father Bob has been accused of child sexual abuse,’ ” — the archdiocese does tell parishioners in a priest’s own parish when he has been removed because of abuse allegations — “that same bishop can say ‘Father Bob now lives at this address and here’s why.’ ”
Before the new program, called the Shepherd Program, was put into effect, most accused priests lived on their own, as they do in much of the country, barred from functioning as priests but required only to tell the archdiocese every few months where they lived, Mr. Zwilling said.
It is typically difficult for laypeople to find out where abusive priests are living, said Paul Baier, co-director of bishopaccountability.org. “Here in Boston they’ve removed 150 of them, and no one knows where they are,” he said. “In Los Angeles they have 200 or 300 of them, and no one knows where they are.”
But the Rev. Michael Sullivan, chairman of the canonical board of Justice for Priests and Deacons, a national organization that helps clerics accused of sexual offenses, said that New York’s program was one of the strictest he had heard of.
“I don’t read in their policy that the person has an opportunity for a different job within the church unless they accept laicization,” Father Sullivan said, referring to the conversion of priests to laymen. “My sense is that if the canonical courts cannot prove anything, that that becomes overly restrictive, and that’s unjust.”
While the letter to the priests mandates psychotherapy, it does not speak of rehabilitation or of leaving the program. “That was the situation we found ourselves in the past, where individual clerics would go through intensive therapy and would be judged able to return to ministry, and it didn’t work,” Mr. Zwilling said. “They relapsed — that led to all the charges about shuffling priests around. With what we know today, I don’t think that can be an alternative.”
Priests who agree to enter the program may not say Mass in public, dress as a priest, be alone with children or “inappropriately use computers,” the letter says. They must receive therapy and spiritual counseling. And they must fill out a logbook every day, have it signed by a monitor and be prepared to document their claims.
Over the years, Trinity Retreat House, on Pryer Manor Road, has provided a temporary home for priests with all kinds of problems, including sex abuse. Several residents of Larchmont said they knew about the retreat house and were not bothered by it or by the new program.
“I think this shows that the cardinals are making an effort,” said Jeanne Murray, a retired teacher leaving Mass on Tuesday at St. Augustine’s Church, less than a mile from the retreat house. “What would we do with people who are not priests who make mistakes? We would try to help them.”
At the retreat’s office, the secretary showed a reporter the door. “It’s nothing to publicize,” she said. “It’s a retreat house for priests. Period. End of story.”
In the retreat house itself, a man answered the door, and three others inside got up from couches and scattered. There will be no interviews, he said.
Slightly OT, but perhaps UOJ will bear with me,
Besides being the funniest Jew since Lenny Bruce, a'h', Rabbi Kahane, H'y'd', was a seminal influence in the kiruv movement. In the late 1960s, he was the only publicly prominent Jew who spoke of being proud to be a Jew. If you talk to baby boomer BTs, sooner or later you are almost bound to hear the name Kahane, even if they disagreed with JDL tactics or Kahane's positions vis a vis Israeli politics and "transfer".
A friend of mine, who now lives in Israel (and unfortunately is almost blind now due to a rare genetic disorder that has symptoms similar to macular degeneration) told me that spending a Shabbas meal in Rabbi Kahane's home was what encouraged him to start being shomer mitzvot. It wasn't so much what the good rabbi had to say, but rather how he interacted with his children, the obvious warmth and love, and how much they respected him.
Rabbi Kahane wasn't perfect. But you could tell that when he criticised other Jews his anger reflected a fair amount of pain. In this I see a resemblence (sp?) to UOJ. Does anyone think that UOJ or any of us enjoy pointing out flaws in our leaders?
He had his obsessions, and was sometimes too much of an ideologue for his own good and for the good of his agenda, but he also had some wisdom.
This is from memory, so it might not be completely accurate - I taped the event so I have a cassette somewhere in a box.
Rabbi Kahane brought down the drash that says that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, not the world's tallest mountain, to teach Jews to be humble. He then said that the Gerrer rebbe (he didn't identify which of the Gerrer rebbes it was) "who was a talmid chacham, and a very smart guy too" asked a question. If HaShem wanted us to learn humility, why a mountain? Why not give the Torah in a valley? HaShem wanted the Jews to be humble, but not too humble. A Jew is a mountain.
Nobody's perfect. Not Rabbi Kahane. Not me. Not you. Not UOJ either. But ultimately a Jew must make a stand, secure in the knowledge that he or she is serving HaShem. When one performs a mitzvah, that mitzvah is pure and holy, regardless of the performer's aveirahs and tumah.
He was constantly villified by the gedolim in his days, but he nevertheless showed true kavod to the rabbanim.
Though I had a number of opportunities to speak with him privately, I once took advantage of a q&a session after an address of his to ask him who his rav was? Who did he ask his shailahs? Rabbi Kahane said, "When they gave me smicha, it didn't come with the phone number of a gadol. When I do have a question, I ask Ovadiah Yoseph." This, to me, indicated that he was an anav in some regards. It also said, to me, that God gave each of us a brain to use. Ultimately you have to make decisions on your own, as best you can.
“...and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם, מַה-טּוֹב; וּמָה-יְהוָה דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ, כִּי אִם-עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד, וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת, עִם-אֱלֹהֶיךָ.
Chaim Neuhoff's name is on the letter.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=our_schools&id=4515041&ft=print
(Bedford-WABC, August 31, 2006) - Two elementary school teachers and the principal at the Bedford Hills Elementary School in Northern Westchester have been suspended. Officials are investigating claims that the school failed to report suspected child abuse to the proper authorities.
The Bedford School Board last night decided to suspend tenured teachers Jennifer Conte and Regina Smith. Their suspension comes one day after Principal Victoria Graboski was placed on paid leave.
Eyewitness News' Kemberly Richardson is live in Bedford with the story.
The allegations, as well as the shakeup, just a week before the start of the school year comes as a surprise to many parents. Parents say they knew something was wrong when there was a sudden change of principals at the Bedford elementary school.
The Westchester DA's department is now looking into whether or not the principal told anyone and if she did, who did she tell.
Alleged inaction and neglect is what cost Bedford Hills Elementary school principal Victoria Graboski, her job.
Earlier this month police say a nine-year-old student of the school was raped by a family acquaintance. A woman, Julie Darling says the girl mentioned being abused to her daughter months ago. Darling immediately reported it to school administrators, but authorities were never notified.
Julie Darling, Parent: "I felt like oh my goodness, should I have went to the police department or should I have not gone to the school. As a parent when you hear things like that, what do you do with the information?"
Graboski could face criminal charges if it is determined she did not notify the district or police.
Bedford police would only say they're redoubling their efforts to find the suspect, a 27-year-old Guatamalan immigrant.
Bedford's schools superintendent would only issue a carefully worded statement
Debra Jackson, Bedford Schools Superintendant: "Our first and foremost concern is always students, their safety and we want to make sure we keep their parents informed and, that is our main concern."
Two school teachers have been suspended too. The Bedford School Board last night decided to suspend tenured teachers Jennifer Conte and Regina Smith. Their suspension comes one day after Principal Victoria Graboski was placed on paid leave.
The district has appointed Fred Merz as the school's new principal yesterday afternoon. Parents should be learning more details in a letter that's being sent out today.
A Virtual Kehilla You Say? said...
Nu! Kiddush! Kiddush!
Anonymous said...
A polishe or hungarian cholent?
Pailish? Ungarish?
Chas v'Shalom.
It would be a proper Litvak cholent ("chunt, we call it chunt not cholent", I can hear my mother kvetching). Beans, barley, potatoes, onions, meat and those oh so delicious marrow bones. Yummy. My sainted Bubbe, Topke Smolinsky (my daughter is named after her, her official Hebrew name is actually Yiddish, Toiba, while her 'English' name on her birth certificate is Tova, actually Hebrew, because I hate the nambe Toby - all the Tobys that I've known have been fat, male and female), usually baked her cholent in the basement stove. She'd use a big pot, maybe 20 quarts, and then wrap the lid with wet kraft paper, and tie it shut with a wet sisal rope. One of the grandsons would be sent downstairs to get the cholent after they got home from shul. You'd untie or cut the rope, now singed, remove the crisped paper, open the lid and smell the rei'ach of olam haBa. Then an unending stream of folks would stop by on their way home to their own cholents, because it wasn't shabbas for them without having a taste of Topke Smolinsky's "chunt".
My brother had a friend in high school that I became very close to while attending UofM, Alan Eisenberg. Alan's parents were both Survivors. Hungarian actually. His mom is from Sighet, and claims to have known Elie Wiesel when "he was a little pisherke". So Alan never knew his grandparents and ended up sort of adopting my Bubbe and Zayde as substitutes. The first time he ate lunch at their house on Shabbat, my Bubbe, as was her custom, gave him a plate of cholent. Bubbe wasn't one for small portions. A plate of cholent was full to the rim, piled three or four inches high. Alan's first reaction was to look for another plate to spoon up some for himself because he was certain this was a serving plate for the whole table.
On erev Shabbas, when she baked challahs, she'd make smaller individual challahs for each of her grandchildren in town, and my mom and her sisters would go over and pick it up, along with jars of chicken soup if they weren't making their own (actually, my mom's soup was better).
And lots of peppery gefilte fish made from Great Lakes whitefish and maybe a little carp.
And chopped liver that was so good, I actually was able to use it to train a cat to sit up and beg like a dog.
BTW, did anyone here ever learn with R. Dovid Lipshitz, the Suvalker Rav? My Bubbe was from Suwalk and my Zayde was from Bakalarovi, about 20 miles outside of Suwalk.
That truly was one of the nicest comments ever expressed here. There is actually a global kehilla here; you are certainly one of the attractions.
Toads and rabbits back at you.
You are too kind. My brother sighs in frustration whenever he reads my posts here. He wishes that my abilities were channeled better. He supports what you are doing, and has posted here (though I will not identify him - Hi Jeff, I got a response from that tuning shop in the UK and they said not much was available for the 1.4L engine and they didn't think the results would be cost effective anyway - though they liked my idea of a tour of Hethel, Coventry and Newport Pagnell), he just wishes that I was more productive.
Two shidduchim have been made, mazel tov!
Really? Know any smart, funny, attractive Jewish women interested in a very clever, very insane Jew? I've lost a bit of weight and I'm in the best physical shape of my life. I'd really rather reconcile with my ex, but I'm beginning to accept the fact that that train has left the station.
This is just a start...when sincere people band together, the sky is the limit.
True. But we shouldn't minimize the good that can be accomplish even when flawed people do mitzvahs.
One can cry sincere hot tears for people who go to bed hungry. Or, one can grudgingly give tzedakah that feeds a hungry family. Who is doing more good?
Like you said, Every yeshiva will be more dilligent whether their motives are pure or not.
Israeli diplomat arrested on suspicion of pedophilia
Following undercover investigation, Israeli who works for Consulate in Atlanta arrested and charged with computer offences and exploitation of children
WASHINGTON– An Israeli diplomat was arrested Thursday in the American city of Atlanta on suspicion of computer related offences linked to pornography and the sexual exploitation of children.
Captain Steve Morris, of the Columbia District Police in Georgia, told Ynet that the arrestee was a worker in the Israeli Consulate. He was arrested upon leaving his home and transferred into custody at a distance from Atlanta.
Daniel Craig, the District Attorney of Augusta, in the state of Georgia, announced that the suspected diplomat used the internet and email
in order to persuade a child to carry out illegal acts such as sodomy and severe sexual abuse.
The investigation has been going on for a considerable time by the Sherriff's Department of the Columbia district in Georgia, as we all as other government agencies such as the FBI. With that, the suspect was arrested only on Thursday after an indictment was approved. According to the decree, a search of the suspect's home was also carried out.
The Foreign Ministry said in response that they were aware of the episode and were looking into details. It was also said that the suspect holds a diplomatic license but is not an employee of the Foreign Ministry.
Nobody's perfect. Not Rabbi Kahane. Not me. Not you.
Not UOJ either.-
-----------------------------------
Ronnie,
Now you're starting to piss me off!
LMAO
We moved into the neighborhood a little while ago. When we inquired with a rov where the mikvaos are, he said there are only two choices, Kew Gardens Hills or Forest Hills, implying there is nothing in Kew Gardens itself. I later saw a list of mikvaos that listed a local one. The rov must know that Bryks is trouble.
Maybe the NYPD should raid the place to see if there are any hidden cameras.
The district has appointed Fred Merz as the school's new principal yesterday afternoon.
Margo, you got some splainin' to do.
UOJ should come down on the Queens Vaad for listing the Bryks Mikva & Gemach. If the press writes about them they will forced to remove the listings.
What kind of "Gemach" is he up to anyway? Destroying the lives of children?
Ronnie,
You seem to be a "gutta neshama" Hopefully the "very insane" part of your profile won't prevent you from being a good oveid Hashem nor deprive you of your share of yideshe nachas.
You know UOJ, all the warm and fuzzies you've been posting of late may deprive you of some of your more dedicated readership. On the other hand, it may buy you another kind.
Regards,
A "froomie"
This message is for UOJ's Toronto readers.
How do you allow Heshy Nussbaum to roam the streets and to attend shul as if nothing happened?
Are we insane?
Where is Orthorev?
I can't believe Bryks has a mikva in his house. Is there any doubt that he has cameras? Kew Gardens needs a mikva in a house? He gets together with shver Lewis Brenner and reviews the tapes?
Why isn't Pesach Krohn making a stink about this? If Pesach Krohn is our leading speaker then mental retardation is a bigger problem in our community than I imagined. What a fraud!
Toronto readers.
About the guy in Toronto who is becoming a gal. Was there any molestation in his background? Is he related to a molester or did he have a molester rebbe?
Ronnie said...
Blame it on the 2% of 8th century CE Jews that we all are descended from. That and our fine eyesight.
So when you wonder about the behavior and schemes and what-not of some of these guys, and their abberant behavior of whatever stripe, some of it is due to a slight mental instability fed by the innate arrogance of the Yeshiva culture overall and tipped over the edge by their own personal arrogance, power-mongering, and years of getting away with it. It's psychology - a field in which I am admittedly not an expert - that I have observed in MENSA interest groups.
Nicely put.
Are you single? How old?....
I reply:
Thanks. I'm married and have four natural born children and one legal ward. My oldest son just spent the last year at Kol Yaakov in Monsey (thank Heaven that's over. We're now in the Modern camp, mostly.)
I've got to protest about the whole pants thing. Really, how about historical some facts here? Pants were invented in the far east as WOMEN's clothing about 850 BCE. The idea was to cut down on rapes of girls working out in the fields, and of course to give women something to attach monthly necessities to. Women in the near and far east are widely depicted in mosaics, paintings, and other artwork wearing pants and "turkish trowsers." Meanwhile, the men were STILL wearing long robes, not pants, until much later. So women have been wearing pants for about 3000 years. Wealthy European men didn't start wearing pants until the mid 1700's (and then they only came to the knees). So men have only been searing pants for about 250 years. So who is cross dressing here, class? Women stopped wearing traditional eastern garb because of Hellenism in the middle east. And of those who didn't, catholic europe made them change their style of clothes when they migrated there. So, basically, the Pope decided women shouldn't wear pants, and the Rabbis of European descent are so far removed from their Middle Eastern heritage that they are completely ignorant of the truth, and are happy to let the catholic church dictate to them what is proper for Hebrews to wear. It's entirely idiotic. Men do not, and have never, needed any cloth betwen their legs. Pants are women's clothing!!!!!
So there.
#100-so there!
pee wee
If I am not wrong, I believe Bryks is a close relative to Paysach Krohn.
UOJ,
To Hell And Back, literally.
On Sunday, im yirtzeh HaShem I'll be participating in a 100 mile charity bike ride for P'tach, a non-profit that provides Torah education for special ed and learning disabled kids. The idea is that all Jewish children are entitled to a Torah education, even those who are developmentally disabled or who have learning disabilities. The name comes from the Pesach Haggadah, concerning the she'aino yodeah lishol, where it says att p'tach lo. You can find out more information at the Ptach.org web site. They have both self-contained classes at the primary and secondary levels as well as affiliate programs in a number of yeshivas. Besides the schools and programs in NYC, there are chapters in Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, Stamford, and Jerusalem.
Of particular interest to the chevra here is the fact that the organization has, on its web site, a very rigorous Conflict of Interest Policy, intended to prevent people affilated with the organization from deriving financial benefit. Frankly, I can't recall another Jewish non profit that has a similar publicly stated policy.
I'm looking for sponsors for the ride. We are riding to Hell, Michigan, about 50 miles east of here, and then back to Oak Park. So the ride is literally to Hell and back. If you or any of the readers here want to sponsor my ride, it can be done as either a lump sum or a pledge per mile. There is no minimum, so if someone wants to pledge 18 cents a mile, that's great. Of course, a dollar a mile, or more, won't be turned down. P'tach is a 501c3 non-profit so all contributions are tax deductible.
By way of disclosure, I have no personal ties to P'tach other than supporting it. Thank God, my children do not face this challenge. I'm just trying to help out some people who do really good things.
If anyone wants to help, contact me via email to rokem@netzero.net.
bayit_bourne said...
Men do not, and have never, needed any cloth betwen their legs. Pants are women's clothing!!!!!
Ummm, how can I phrase this in a refined manner?
I just posted something about a charity bike ride. Believe me, male cyclists don't wear bike shorts for fashion. Without proper support, it is very easy to end up chafing yourself. Saddle sores on one's tuchas are uncomfortable enough. Raw spots elsewhere in that region are a quantum leap in terms of discomfort.
How do I know? When I first started commuting by bike, I wore blue jeans and briefs for about a week.
Even when it's chilly enough to need sweats, I always have lycra shorts on underneath.
Oh, and for those of you who think this discussion is not tznius, in addition to padding, men's bike shorts typically have a terry cloth "modesty panel" sewn into the shorts on the inside of the front. Maybe I should call it the Va'ad HaTznius.
Rabbi's advise: 'Cure lesbian with sorcery'
Rabbi assures cheated husband that his lesbian wife will come running back if he pours sand on her lover's doorstep
Meir Turgeman, Ronen Tal
It sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke: "My wife has become a lesbian", a terrified husband told his rabbi. The rabbi gave him a sack and assured him: it contains special sand, simply pour it on your her lover's doorstep and when she steps on it she'll come running back.
If your partner shows lesbian tendencies and you want her to get rid of them, it's not a problem. All you have to do, according to a rabbi in Bnei Brak, is to pour "special sand" on her lover's doorstep and your wife will come running back.
This strange tale, which sounds as though it were taken from the Tales of the Wise Men of Chelem, began when a Bnei Brak resident was surprised to find out that his wife had lesbian tendencies and that she was cheating on him with another woman.
She even informed him that she would like a divorce. The man panicked and turned to the city rabbi to seek his advice.
Magical solution
The Rabbi provided a quick magical solution: He gave him a heavy sack of sand and told him to pour it on the doorstep of his wife's lesbian lover, telling him that the moment his wife will step on it the curse will be lifted. "Your wife will come running back," he said.
Happy at the advice given by the rabbi the man returned home. He immediately rented a car and assigned the mission of pouring the sand on the lover's doorstep to his 18 year-old son. The son obeyed his father and set out on his way.
A few days ago, at around 3 am, the boy arrived at the lover's home in Kiriyat Malachi. He carried the sack of sand on his shoulders, climbed the stairs to the apartment, poured the sand on the doorstep and returned to his car.
On his way out, he noticed several of the lover's dresses hanging on the washing line and couldn't hold himself back. He took out a match set the dresses alight.
The raging fire made him panic, and he tried putting out the flames. When he was unable to, he fled the scene. The frightened woman, who noticed the fire, managed to write down the license plate of the escaping vehicle and immediately called the police.
The Kiryat Malachi police discovered who rented the car and summoned the father and son to an investigation.
"I was desperate, my wife cheated on me with a lesbian. I didn't know what to do and I decided to ask the rabbi for his advice on how to lift the curse," he told the police tearfully.
Both father and son expressed their remorse; the police were considerate of their broken hearts and released them. However, they also gave him some advice: If you want your wife back, please do it lawfully.
Pesach Krohn is married to Bryks' sister.
I keep reading about Heshy
Nussbaum. Can someone please inform me and others what he
is alleged to have done.
I was around Eitz Chaim forever, so I remember when Heshy Nussbaum was a rebbe there. He later became a mashgiach for COR kashrus.
Earlier in the year there was a UOJ blog entry that had tons of comments about Nussbaum and some Toronto abusers who were more into physical violence.
Please Sir, put pressure on the Queens Vaad to stop promoting the Bryks mikva & gemach.
E-mail us
info@queensvaad.org
General Information
(718) 520-9060
Choose life as Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandel zt"l did...Judaism is life, the living Torah... [first elipses in original]
From Wikipedia:
During the period of WWII, Weissmandl was an unofficial leader of the Working Group of Bratislava (see the next section). In 1944, Weissmandl and his family were put on a train headed for Auschwitz, but he managed to escape from the train and hid in a secret bunker in suburban Bratislava. In the final days of the war he was evacuated by a transport organized by Rudolf Kastner with German permission. Later he moved to the United States, where together with those students of the original Nitra Yeshiva who were fortunate enough to survive the Holocaust, he established the Yeshiva Farm Settlement at Mount Kisco, New York. The Yeshiva was modeled on Talmudic accounts of agricultural settlements where a man was expected to study the Torah continuously up until the age suitable for marriage, and then after being wed and starting a family he would assist in supporting his community by farming the land during the day and confining his studies to the evenings.
I wonder what today's "gedolim" would say about Rav Weissmandl's educational paradigm, since it goes against the BMG paradigm of sitting and learning as long as possible, and denigrating those who work for a living.
As a community, we have abandoned an educational system that for centuries produced outstanding male leaders who provided guidance for the community and pious women who raised good Jews. Very few young men went beyond cheder - only the brightest and most promising went to yeshivas - which usually meant travelling to a distant city and possibly never seeing one's family again. Girls were educated by their parents - the Bais Yakov system was invented by Sarah Schenirer as a specific response to the institution of compulsory education for girls by the Polish government, which was effectively forcing Jewish girls to attend secular state or Catholic schools. Now, girls are expected to continue beyond secondary schools and attend seminaries for a year or two. Boys are expected to learn in yeshiva high schools, then learn full time in a mesivta until marriage, and then sit in kollel until their wife's income can no longer support their growing brood.
To rebuild after the Nazis essentially wiped out two generations of Jewish scholars, perhaps Rav Kotler's model was necessary, but I believe it's time to question its applicability b'zman hazeh. To be sure we are educating many young people, giving them a solid foundation - but is today's secular culture more of a threat to Yiddishkeit than unremitingly hostile Christian culture in Europe and Muslim culture in the levant?
Not everybody is a book learner. Not everyone has a gemara kup. We've talked about intelligence here, and I genuinely think that intelligence is portable - if you can learn one thing, you should be able to learn something else, but there are individual talents and aptitudes. I have a much easier time with biology than chemistry and can learn chemistry easier than I can learn physics - and [no brag intended, just the facts, ma'am] most people who know me think I'm a genius [I'm not]. I can play a little blues harp, but don't ask me to explain rhythm notations or read music. My brother is a true mechanical genius. He fixes million dollar machines for a living. I'm not exaggerating when I say that if he can't figure out how to fix it, it can't be fixed. He knows electronic theory very well (while I struggle with understanding impedence and inductance), reprograms EEPROMs all the time, and I've never seen him not be able to understand something technical (or intellectual for that matter). But he never got good grades in school. He's just not a book learner (though he can virtually inhale technical manuals).
The problem starts early. My friend Tzvi invited me to go with him on a group bike ride in Pontiac and Auburn Hills (riding in the literal shadow of the DaimlerChrysler headquarters, w/ a 10 story image of Dr. Zeitsche smiling down on us). On the way home he was telling me about his youngest son's class. I think he's about 8 now, and has a terrific rebbe. But they've already started 'tracking' the boys, with the brightest students in the grade being placed in the other class. The rebbe, who I personally know is a huge talmid chacham, started out the school year by telling his boys that his own favorite class was recess, and he plays with the boys during recess. He understands that he has to make a kesher with the boys, who may not be brilliant but they aren't stupid. They know they are in the "slower" class - and this rebbe has to encourage them in a system that doesn't value them because they aren't book learners. Will the school institute wood shop, machine shop, computer or automotive technical classes? Chas v'shalom! Frum Jews aren't supposed to know how to work with their hands. I can remember the looks my brother and I would get from froomies when we'd roll out on a creeper from under a car on which we'd been working. What?! Jews working on cars?! Not to mention the froomies who think that it's inappropriate for a cheder rebbe to play with his talmidim during recess. Kavod haToyrah! they will say.
Look at the article above about the reaction to Rav Slifkin in Toronto? The reactionaries there are headed by a rosh kollel who needs to have a spokesperson because he can't control his own words. They realize that credentials are important when discussing science, so they trot out a computer science professor. No disrespect to people with CIS degrees. David Gelernter is certainly a genius of high rank, but are there no frum biologists or physicists in Toronto? Hell, I know a very frum guy who has a MS and PhD in nuclear chemistry from Princeton and works as an inventor/entrepeneur - though I'm pretty sure that he already was well on his educational career when he started getting serious about Yiddishkeit. Apparently computers are considered a kosher technical profession, maybe because you don't have to get your hands dirty or confront ultimate issues.
Rabbi Weissmandl died thinking he'd not accomplished all that he could. Fortunately his yeshiva has survived, though I'm pretty sure that they've accepted the prevailing paradigm - I haven't heard of any of their graduates becoming farmers. I wonder what he'd say if he visited Lakewood or Bnei Brak.
[Note to UOJ, you are welcome to post this on the front page, and sponsor my bike ride in lieu of the contribution to Tomchei Shabbas]
Obvious questions:
1) Who supervises this plant?
2) How did the mashgiach t'midi miss these drugs?
1) Pot seized in Exeter valued at $1 million
Federal agents raiding a poultry plant on Lincoln Road make multiple
arrests, authorities say.
By Jason A. Kahl
Reading Eagle, PA
http://www.readingeagle.com/re/news/1562420.asp
Federal agents arrested about a half-dozen people and seized 700 pounds
of marijuana with an estimated street value of $1 million at a kosher
poultry processing plant in Exeter Township, authorities said Thursday.
The raid at G&G Poultry Inc. at 1100 Lincoln Road occurred Wednesday
about 5:30 p.m., according to Exeter police, who assisted several federal
agencies in the operation.
No one was injured in the raid.
Exeter police said they were not part of the investigation that led to
the raid.
Township police got involved after agents from the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit, or ICE,
called them for assistance before the raid.
Officials said several other federal agencies were involved in the
multi-state investigation and called police after agents followed a
tractor-trailer loaded with marijuana to the poultry plant.
Police said the marijuana was dumped behind the business, and police
dogs were used to recover the drugs.
Exeter police said ICE agents asked to use the cellblock and interview
rooms at the police department and detained about six or seven people
who were arrested at the plant.
Police said they think all of the people arrested were plant employees.
Federal agents loaded the marijuana into a rented truck and took it
back to their offices in Philadelphia. The people who were detained also
were taken to Philadelphia, where they were to be locked up pending
court action, police said. Their names were not released.
Exeter police said they did not know any more details about the
investigation. They did not know where the truckload of marijuana originated.
Reading police said a pound of marijuana sells for about $1,500. At
that rate, the 700 pounds seized in Exeter would be worth about
$1,050,000.
A spokesman for ICE could not be reached for more information.
No one answered the telephone at G&G Poultry on Thursday night.
Contact reporter Jason A. Kahl at 610-371-5024 or
jkahl@readingeagle.com.
2)
Feds Seize 700 Pounds of Marijuana in Berks
Story posted on 2006-08-31 18:05:00
----------------------------------------------------
A mikvah with cameras? How convenient! Free porn, 24/7, Wow! What a loveley sweet setup! While we are on the subject of cameras, wouldn't it be an awesome idea for all schools to put video cameras in the classrooms and hallways? A set of eyes, recording the movements of our children and their predators. I know that some schools are already equipped with them, but it should be made mandetory for all schools. Of course, that can create a problem in of itself, because it is most likely, that if there is a coverup, the tapes will conveniently disappear, so that's an issue that would also have to be addressed. Never a dull moment. Good Shabbos!
UOJ == You keep hammering away at what you do best. I'm proud of you :)
Ronnie said....
Ummm, how can I phrase this in a refined manner?
I just posted something about a charity bike ride. Believe me, male cyclists don't wear bike shorts for fashion.
I reply:
Well, women are supposed to wear skirts while riding a bike, so why can't you? LOL Sports is a whole other can of worms entirely. Of course, I think both sexes should wear whatever is the usual and customary costume for whatever sport they care to try, and I don't believe any sport should be barred to women because of costume. Or men either, for that matter.
Ronnie said...
Not everybody is a book learner. Not everyone has a gemara kup. We've talked about intelligence here, and I genuinely think that intelligence is portable - if you can learn one thing, you should be able to learn something else, but there are individual talents and aptitudes.
I reply:
One of the classes I had to take this past year for my linguistics minor was "Teaching English as a Second Language," and I learned a lot of interesting things in that class. One of the things we learned was Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In a nutshell, just because you can learn something one way, say book-study, doesn't mean you can learn something else, or even anything else, that way. Each person's mind is unique and processes information differently, and it may be that there simply is no method in use for some subject areas that will work with your individual wiring. So yes, in theory you should be able to learn anything, but in practice, it just isn't so.
That's part of the educational problem in the Yeshiva communities and in American Education in general. In Europe, they don't try and make everyone into book-learners, they have a vocational/apprenticeship/journeyman track for those who don't have the aptitude for book-learning. And just because someone doesn't have this aptitude hardly means they are not intelligent. But in America, they are made to feel stupid if this is the case, and the Yeshiva community is doubly guilty of that. How many artisans and brilliant craftsman and tradesmen have been lost to the Jewish community because of this? We will never know.
What's going on with these long-winded comments? You guys need to learn to be brief and to the point. Vayomer Boaz El Hakotzrim Hashem Imachem. Good Shabbos.
I don't think it's fair how Ronnie Schreiber launched an attack on Lakewood and it's beyond me why he seems to think he is the big bar deah on everything. Any level headed Lakewood fellow that I know has respect for other opinions in halacha like that of some major roshei yeshiva who allow college for married men in need of parnassa. The Kotlers themselves believe that Lakewood is for the most serious learners among us. It is not for everyone, certainly not for loafers & mooches who are detrimental to BMG and groups of whom have been purged several times over the decades. BMG is for serious learners, not shmoozers in the hallways or snoozers in the dorm who like the idea of being bankrolled by others.
I haven't seen an instance yet, where a Lakewood basher is acting out of a pure motive. They vary from bitter losers who themselves or a relative wasn't good enough to gain acceptance to those who feel inferior that they are associated with less elite yeshivas to more modern elements who have an ax to grind. Or could it be that Ronnie's swipes at Lakewood & Rav Miller are just excuses to make himself an aspiring novelist on UOJ? Who gives a hoot about Dr. Z and the thousands of other inconsequential details that Ronnie churns out with his diarrhea of the keyboard?
As far as Slifkin, I had reserved judgement being that Rav Elyashev is sometimes fed false information. I also read on at least 3 different blogs that the criminal Leib Pinter who is capable of any avlah may have been the driving force behind the ban.
Now that R' Shlomo Miller has weighed in, I am feeling more ambivalent. R' Shlomo is known to be a tremendous pikayach who would not just rubberstamp his signature to a ban like so many others. He would have thoroughly researched the issue. It is true that the press twists people's words around. Even supposedly orthodox papers like the Jewish Press are among the biggest culprits. As it happens, the Canadian Jewish News has an anti-frum bias. The CJN has gone so far as to edit out portions from their own frum columnists. In one case I am familiar with, they deleted more than half of a Rov's weekly column which looked patheticly short when that issue was printed.
I know Yossi Adler who unfortunately put his bitter & miguided feelings in print this past year. His attack many months ago on Rav Miller was regrettable and uncalled for. Maybe it makes Yossi feel better for leaving the fold of mainstream yeshivas he once attended.
It just so happens that R' Shlomo is not a knee jerk reactionary. He has actually come under pressure at times from real fanatics who think following just plain halacha is not enough in kashrus and other issues.
bayit_bourne said...
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In a nutshell, just because you can learn something one way, say book-study, doesn't mean you can learn something else, or even anything else, that way. Each person's mind is unique and processes information differently, and it may be that there simply is no method in use for some subject areas that will work with your individual wiring. So yes, in theory you should be able to learn anything, but in practice, it just isn't so.
With all due respect, this is ed school nonsense. Gardner, at Harvard's ed school, is one of the high priests of the ed school cult. At its heard MI is anti-intellectual, intended to attack merit and accomplishment by saying that we are all brilliant, just diferently brilliant. It fits well with the multi-culti worldview that says that all cultures are equally valid, even the ones that want to cut our throats singing Allahu Akbar (my god is bigger than your god). Like in Garrison Keilor's (he may be funny, but he's a complete lefty moonbat) Lake Wobegon where "all our children are above average".
Criticisms of Gardener's Multiple Intelligence Theory
* narrow intelligences may meet criteria, e.g. 20 to 30 intelligences may also have been convincing
* are these intelligences or just 'abilities'? (and what is the difference?) - musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, intra and interpersonal are a source of some controversy
* doesn't explain why some people are more intelligent than others
* these 'intelligences' are not all essential for successful adaptation (one of the common definitions of intelligence)
* ultimately there is not really much HARD scientific evidence.
bayit_bourne said...
That's part of the educational problem in the Yeshiva communities and in American Education in general. In Europe, they don't try and make everyone into book-learners, they have a vocational/apprenticeship/journeyman track for those who don't have the aptitude for book-learning. And just because someone doesn't have this aptitude hardly means they are not intelligent.
The European system is just as bad, just differently bad. Kids are forced into a vocational ghetto early on and have no hope of getting some higher education.
Oh to be in Europe/India/Japan/Aboriginal America, where things are so much better than big bad America. This has been a attitude of the elites since at least the early 20th century.
How about saying that "intelligence" isn't the same as "talent"? I have a friend who is a good enough musician that he's made his living teaching guitar. We like to argue about great guitarists. He thinks Ace Frehley is better than Eric Clapton, because "Clapton has only about 150 stock phrases and a good player should have at least 600." To which I respond, "But those 150 are played so well and movingly - and music is about moving people". Anyway, he once told me that "there's no such thing as talent. It's all technique and practice. If I teach you the technique and you practice enough, you can be a great player." So I asked him about improvisation and composition, and he conceded that improvising and writing indeed takes talent - though I'm pretty sure you can learn the techniques of writing music and improvising is based on known rules - there are plenty of books on soloing theory. But the really talented folks know how to break the rules.
But in America, they are made to feel stupid if this is the case, and the Yeshiva community is doubly guilty of that. How many artisans and brilliant craftsman and tradesmen have been lost to the Jewish community because of this? We will never know.
On this I agree 100%. Jews have been fabulous artisans in previous times. There is a reason why so many giants of modern art came from Jewish backgrounds. There were great Jewish artisans, who had to be very creative to make ornamental and graphic embellishments without running afoul of halacha that prohibited "graven images" and much statuary. Of course, working with Hebrew, a beautiful calligraphic letter set, helps. Similar, l'havdil, (yeah, I know it's an oxymoronic turn of phrase) to arabesque. Filigree was, in certain places and times, considered to be a "Jewish" art. The Moorish Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain was decorated by Jewish artisans.
The original name of my embroidery business is Rokem Needle Arts, taken from Sh'mot, where the Mishkan was embellished with "ma'aseh Rokem". As I say in some of my promo copy, textile arts are perhaps the oldest of Jewish arts. I take great satisfaction knowing that I'm doing something Jews have been doing for thousands of years. In fact, one of the things that bothers me about froomies is how clichéd and kitschey a lot of Judaica has become. Like Rav Adin Steinsaltz said, "Many synagogues and houses of study also leave a great deal to be desired aesthetically; in fact, they may be positively ugly, filled with cheapness and kitsch,". I try very hard to avoid doing any embroidery that involves metallic gold or silver thread on navy velvet because almost 100% of Judaica embroidery involves metallic thread (and besides, it's a real PITT to get to stitch out nicely - you can get the same color tone with a non-metallic and have much fewer problems). While some tallis bags and challah covers have some beautiful, clever and creative designs, most are the same old same old. That's one reason why almost everything I do is either custom or at least personalized. Here's a software simulation of custom design I did for my cousin's daily tallis bag - it's based on a photograph of a famous Jew, now deceased. The areas surrounded by white satin stitching are appliquéd with a woollike tallis looking fabric. It gets the point across without actually having a human image. It's certainly not your usual lions, crowns and pillars (though some of the "gemara frontspiece" pillar designs are quite nice).
I'm not saying this to promote my business. I'm saying it as a Jewish artisan who wishes that more Jews would make their own Judaica, expressing their unique personalities through the mesorah. There are many very talented Jewish artists, artisans and craftsmen working today - but sadly most of them are not traditionally observant.
Our schools denigrate work, and more specifically working with your hands.
NP: Hot House - Bruce Hornsby
Federal agents raiding a poultry plant on Lincoln Road make multiple
arrests, authorities say.
Maybe I should have been a mashgiach.
Actually, I'm quitting for the umpteenth time. Been a few weeks now. Still coughing up black crud. But REM sleep is coming back and starting to dream (literally) again.
This article (and many {but not all} of the comments) point out a fact that is tearing the Orthodox communities apart from within:
The casual acceptance of improper behavior
The boy-touchers, the baby-rapers are just an obvious symptom. On another blog, Orhonomics, in the discussion of what is submitted to a tuition committee when families are looking for a reduction in tuition, it became apparent that many of the committee members assume that the IRS 1040's that are submitted are lies. I'm flabbergasted! I've been submitting those to tuition committees for years, and I've NEVER even considered falsifying the information. After all, doing something illegal is a chillul Hashem.
Yet, it is considered commonplace to cheat on taxes. Tip O'Neal had a phrase for it: "Defining Deviancy Down."
That is exactly what we (collectively) have done. Since it is okay to cheat on taxes, then it become okay to cheat a non-Jew, then it becomes okay to cheat a Jew, then it becomes okay to kill, (bad) touch, or rape.
I'm not throwing in the towel. As Reb Zusya said, "When brought to judgement above, they won't ask me if I've been a tzaddik, but if I've been Zusya." That is the best that "Zusya" had the potential to be. These discussions are important. While I (and I'm sure many others) dislike how UOJ exposes the soft underbelly of Orthodoxy, I firmly believe that it is important that he (and others like him {and I'm assuming it is a "him"}) continue to press these issues to the forefront.
I saw the link on this site for "The Rabbi and the Cheerleader" and went to see it. It was great. She is amazing.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hKddisSNlFw
Bayit Bourne,
I was thinking about Gardner's theory and was wondering about polymaths, people whose brilliance extends to many disciplines. I can think of a number of performers who also have been accomplished graphic artists. Jerry Garcia, Tony Bennett and Red Skelton come to mind. Skunk Baxter, the Doobie Brothers' guitarist, is an expert on counter-terrorism. Todd Rundgren is a computer maven. David Gelernter, whom I mentioned above, is a true computer pioneer - one of the developers of parallel computing, a gifted writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and before the Unabomber took off part of his right hand, a talented musician and graphic artist. BTW, he calls himself a "survivor" of the Unabomber and refuses to be called a victim. He taught himself how to write and draw with his left hand after the bombing.
As an aside, I think it's terrific that there's a certifiable genius named Gelernter. You think he's got a few talmidei chachamim in his lineage? FWIW, he's an active Jew. I once saw a show about him on Tech TV and his sons wear kippot.
From his book, Drawing Life: Surviving The Unabomber
"I couldn't see out of my right eye, and my first thought was that I ought to wash it out, because it might have been sprayed with something that could destroy it. I traipsed to the bathroom in the middle of the building, thinking as I went that a certain graduate student--his office was midway down the hall--usually came in early, and I could get him to call the police; but his office was dark, so I figured I had better call them myself. It hit me as I entered the bathroom that I was bleeding buckets and should come up with another plan. The university health clinic was nearby, up a short rise and across the street to the rear of our building. I spent only a moment in the bathroom, went to the stairs at the front corner of the building and--breathing with difficulty, in pain and royally annoyed--made my way down the 5 1/2 stories to level ground.
"FBi men told me later that they had found a shoe in my office and my shirt on the staircase. They asked whether I had torn off the shirt to rig a tourniquet. Possibly, but I don't remember. My recollections feel continuous, but it turns out they are not.
"A person's first impulse when he is faced with this sort of thing is to try to fit it into the ordinary events of the day: "You have just, out of the blue, been gravely hurt and all bets are off" is a message the mind doesn't want to hear. By the time I made it outside, I understood I was in bad shape, maybe dying, but was still not absolutely clear on whether I would have to cancel my appointments for the whole day. When I woke up after surgery and saw my wife hours later, my first thought was: Did they have to go bother her? I'd rather have called her myself and de-emphasized the more alarming aspects. I knew at the same time that my condition was critical. That's what the hospital reported, and it certainly felt that way. The mind is like a bottle of salad dressing, capable of operating in mutually incompatible layers.
"They told me later that my blood pressure when I arrived at the clinic across the street measured zero; that it was lucky I had decided to walk and not wait for a ride, because I would likely have bled to death otherwise. But it was a very difficult walk. When I looked down at my right hand I saw the bones sticking out in all directions and the skin crumpled like paper.
"It could only have been a two- or three-minute walk at the outside, but the possibility existed that I would pass out or just stop, and I didn't want to. Providentially an old Zionist marching song with a good, strong beat came into my head. Music is valuable."
NP: Hot Tuna - self titled (and, damn, the jewel case for First Pull Up Then Pull Down was empty - I hate to lose records or cds).
izzy said...
Tip O'Neal had a phrase for it: "Defining Deviancy Down."
Quote properly applied but misattributed. It was, indeed, a politician, but a senator, not a congresscritter. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said it first. Tip O'Neal was a hack, hardly the man of rectitude that Moynihan was. One of the smartest and wisest men to have ever served in the Senate, Moynihan would not be welcome in the Democratic Party today (note the fact that someone felt compelled to edit the Wiki entry and call his landmark 1965 study on The Black Family "racist", because he dared to speak of pathologies in the black community).
From Wikipedia:
Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was a United States Senator, Ambassador, and eminent sociologist. He was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected with the Democratic Party three times (in 1982, 1988, and 1994.) He declined to run for re-election in 2000. Prior to his years in the Senate, Moynihan was a member of four successive presidential administrations, beginning with the administration of John F. Kennedy, and continuing through the administrations of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. It was often said of the scholarly Moynihan that he had written more books than most of his colleagues had read.
Other quotes from Sen. Moynihan:
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."
"If the news papers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people"
"The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country."
"you women are ruining the Democratic Party with your insistence on abortion."
"the issue of race could benefit from a period of benign neglect".
"there is no healthcare crisis in this country."
"An aircraft carrier is a strategic asset, a poker chip is a strategic asset -- and can be traded for one that is dripping oil. Israel is a moral asset of the United States, nothing less -- and nothing can be more important than that."
When an Orthodox Jewish New Yorker was asked to remove his kippah in the Senate gallery in 1982, Pat Moynihan wrote the legislation assuring this "simple but fundamental demonstration of what America is all about."
"This office has only one position on any and every issue -- we are not interested in shaping our views to satisfy anyone."
Where others saw random thuggery at the United Nations, he saw a calculated plan to discredit democracy, and almost single-handedly rallied support for the State of Israel which he unforgettably declared to be a "metaphor for democracy."
"Learn a lot more Torah -- that's the secret of your people's survival in this all-too-confusing world."
In the 16 years between 1975 and 1991 he gave over 750 speeches addressing the "Zionism is Racism" slander. While others dismissed the General Assembly resolution as "just words," he insisted that "words matter" and was fond of quoting the Talmudic dicta that "life and death can be shaped by words."
Newsweek
Sept. 4, 2006 issue - The NFL has effectively banned stadiums from playing Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" after the Brit rocker was convicted of molesting underage girls in Vietnam, prompting a search for a substitute celebratory anthem.
----------------------------------
When are the rabbis going to ban Yeedle Werdyger and Shlomo Carlbach music, at least at simchas? Does the NFL have more of a moral conscience than our gedolim?
Hot Tuna is about as obscure as music bands come. Who gives a rats tuchess about all these factoids? If we want to read blurbs about rocker CDs we can go to Amazon.com.
Stop cluttering the board.
Does anyone have a job for Ronnie who is obviously very bored?
Like R. Avraham Jacobovitz says,
"Don't forget to enjoy Shabbas!"
I saw "The Rabbi and the Cheerleader" show in New York, it was great.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hKddisSNlFw
How come no credit is given to uoj for the Eiseman firing?
I saw der rebbe mit der chairleeder and i could not stend up for a few hours.
Joel Cohen is a far-left, pro-illegal immigrant, pro-NAMBLA, anti-gun, pro-abortion, communist anti-Semite from the Tikun rag, and himself represents/protects such criminals. He uses the article to bash Judaism, while trying to save his vermin client's hides.
The fact that hassidim are shameless thieves and frauds has nothing to do with Judaism: au-contraire, it has everything to do with the fact that hassidism is a predecessor of reform, and that Judaism is not being taught in hassidic institutions. Cohen's claim that the adherence to halachic hair-splitting is the cause of criminality and its acceptance is bull. Aren't the hasidim the first ones to constantly proclaim that "warmth", "ahavas Hashem" and "yiras Hashem" are more important than rigid adherence to halocha? Just watch them fress kigel before davening, soak their pot-bellies in steaming hot mikvahs on shabbos, just so "they can daven better" (shacharis starts at 10 AM) and so on ad nauseum.
The halocha has a very clear stance on the crimes mentioned in Jerk Cohen's article: "Dina DeMalchusa Dina" - the law of the kingdom is the law. David Twerski YM"S never had a problem with Bill Clinton his lovely wife Hitlary, nor darling Lewinski babe. Donating rifles to the palestinians, promoting promiscuity in the public education system, ripping our borders open, ransacking the treasury, selling top nuclear secrets to china, outsourcing American industry to Mexico and China are no concern to Mr. Twersky, as long as his filthy little village gets filthy rich. Why should he care about halocha if he gets to pocket all those Benjy Franklins?
The fact is that ethics and moral behavior, such as described in pirkei ovos, are null and inexistent in the hassidic commuinty, but prominent in bona-fide Judaism. In the modern day Sodom and Gomorrah (a.k.a. New Skwer and Kiryas Yoel) stealing from the government, insurance companies, businesses and private people, be they Jews, hassidim or otherwise, is not an aveira but a mitzvah.
Hassidim aren't educated to decent Judaism but to buffoon (Rebbe, ADMO"R) worship and self-worship. In hassidc communities one cannot get married without $20,000 ugly & grotesque furniture and $5000 outfitting, so they go to schnorr, steal, defraud, embezzle and beg for freebies and handouts. All they want is "money for nothing and chicks for free". Hasidim in general are uneducated lowlives who grow up kowing nothing about Yiddishkeit nor goyishkeit, only hearing their evil "rabbis" preach about "kedishe ind tohoooooorah" and oylom haatzilus and middas hayesod, and after they get married they get out on the real streets of life for the first time, what can you expect from them? When they discover that their only values in life -gartel, schtreimel, tish, kigel and the zilber set- are empty nonsense (at least without a strong backbone of gemorah, Jewish history, Jewish philosophy and Tanak"h), all of their values are gone.
But this doesn't justify their faithful liar, um lawyer, Jo-hell Cohen to deride Judaism about which he knows nothing. He should be thrown in a locked cell with togethr with the Skwerer and the holy Satmar brothers.
Before uoj can be lauded for the eisemann firing, it must be confirmed that he was indeed fired and kicked out of yeshiva lane. Also, without an announcement of the cause of termination, he is likely to become a rebbi or mentor somewhere else, in which case nothing was accomplished. In fact, it might be safer to force him to stay at nirc until death so that they can keep a watch on him. Is he at least going to therapy? Something tells me that he is not. Maybe he should learn through mesilas yesharim a few more 100 times.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/classics/robert_durst/1.html
Joel Cohen represented Robert Durst who is seemingly almost as bad as Margo.
Hi, this is Tuvya Chaim Neuhoff. In case you need a reminder, I am still against molestation of any kind (unless sanctioned by Margo).
Has anyone checked out this week's Yated Neeman. They have a whole spread on Margolis and Mesifta Torah Temmima of Lakewood.
Here you have Margo who has to be "da best" in everything, so if he's doing a hit job, how does he wind up with an amateurish pisher like Neuhoff?
YTT even had "da best" molester around, so Margo's standards must really be slipping.
Whoever I spoke to in Neuhoff's soon-to-be neighborhood is not exactly thrilled with getting a SHMUCK for a neighbor.
Ronnie Schreiber needs a job or his own blog. He is boring us to death.
Anon 5:31 pm,
Pinny Lipschutz is well known to change direction as often as the wind. If he feels his readership is pissed at him, he won't give Margo anymore coverage.
Case in point: He has a meshugass affinity for Bill Clinton and used to give him positive coverage. Heck, he even had a shot of them shaking hands. When he got the drift that the Lakewood / general yeshivish crowd were angry about it, he cut it out in a jiffy.
Let him have it but be respectful or he'll think you're not one of his chevra.
editor@yated.com
845.369.1600
yossi izrael.
I applaud your post. I am actually sympathetic to the Chasidic cause. As usual the Magyar-Khazars have taken a good thing and destroyed it. Dave Twersky would have been an obscure little rebbe in Flatbush if the Oberlender Ferd wouldn't have made him into a world class rebbe. His father made a brilliant marketing move by moving out to New Square. That appealed to the temimesdike Oberlender pohren. Even though a completely Jewish shtetl in golus is unprecedented and unhealthy. Dave also married well by marrying the future Vizhnitzer rebbe's daughter.
When he met Gorbachev. Gorbachev said I made Chernobyl famous with the nuclear disaster. Twersky said he has kept communism alive in America.What a fraud.
Skever will implode one day, just like the Czernobler & Rizhiner chassidus did before the war.
has nothing to do with Judaism: au-contraire, it has everything to do with the fact that hassidism is a predecessor of reform, and that Judaism is not being taught in hassidic institutions.
Predecessor of reform, perhaps. Descendant of sabbatianism, most likely. Though the conflict was smoothed over in the pre-war hemorrhaging of orthodoxy and in the post-Shoah rebuilding, we should remember that the greatest rabbi of the past 250 years was a staunch opponent of Chassidism. Okay, so I'm a Litvak, and I'm biased, but Rav Eliyahu HaGaon M'Vilna wasn't an idiot.
http://nfonss.blogspot.com/2006/09/shul-candy-man.html
The Shul candy man.....
Am I the only one who gets a little creeped out by the shul candymen? I'm sure that the vast majority of candymen are great people, but it is TOO easy a cover for some sicko...
Now that the new school year has begun, any information about amount of students in TT?
And what about Kolko, has he returned to TT, or is he "teaching" young boys in another worthy yeshiva?
I tried getting to the bottom of exactly whose kosher poultry plant it is that was raided for drugs.
G&G Poultry at 1100 Lincoln was datelined Exeter Tnwship, but more specifically, the location is Birdsboro, PA. Two other company / individual names come up as poultry processors at that site.
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/efacts/searchresults.asp?varSiteID=565584&varSearchType=clnt&varSearchSubType=site
Some Arab named ABDELAZIZ HATEM, so maybe the paper is confusing Halal for kosher?
http://www.grimaud.com/
And Grimaud Farms, a French company dealing in specialty fowl like Muscovy duck and African Guinea pheasant.
Could G&G stand for Grimaud & Grimaud?
Maybe anyone can use the facilities to shecht, so the workers would not fall under the responsibility of a visiting kosher brand?
Pinchos Lipschutz,
Kidding aside for a moment, you are a crazy SOB for permitting Torah Temimah to get any sort of publicity. Would you take an ad for Jews for Yushka? WOW...UOJ is flipping, right? Wrong! Margulies represents EVERYTHING that's wrong with Yiddishkeit. He's a fraud!
If you print his garbage again as a legitimate organization, you risk dealing with some pretty serious unorthodox public relations!
Don't dare me!
Figures Neuhoff would take part in a ludicrous study (with our tax dollars no less?).
The only point to take from this is how many lives where destroyed by Margo and are now incapable of smiling?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12585516&dopt=Abstract
A)I doubt Pinnie L. reads this blog
B)I doubt he could care less about your threats
C)I doubt you can give the yated a worse name than it has
So, I dare you
Dag said...
The Shul candy man.....
Am I the only one who gets a little creeped out by the shul candymen? I'm sure that the vast majority of candymen are great people, but it is TOO easy a cover for some sicko...
My Zayde, z't'l', was a candyman. My brother, a'm'v's, is a candyman. I've done it from time to time. More Jews have been kept Jewish by shul candymen than by gedoyoyoylim. I never discussed my Zayde's sexual preferences with him, but I know that he was attracted to adult women, and I'm pretty sure that my big bro and I are too. You can call me whatever you want, but if you question my brother's motivations, I'll be more than happy to tear you a new one. Of course if you knew him, you wouldn't even think of quetioning his motives, unless there isn't room for a new one because you are all one.
Actually some creep once questioned my brother's motivations. But everyone in that shul knows the creep is a piece of work.
For someone to commit a crime, they have to have motive and opportunity. Where's the opportunity? It's not like there's a convenient boiler room, car or private office/bathroom nearby to use.
This is the drill:
Kid goes up to the candyman, asks for a candy. Candyman says only if your parents say it's okay. Kid goes and asks dad or mom. Kid returns to candyman, gets gumball, Twizler™, LaffyTaffy™, DumDum™, or the like. Kid goes back to parent. Parent asks kid if he/she said "thank you". If not, kid goes back and thanks candyman.
The kid is being watched by the parent for the duration of the event. Candyman is being watched by most of the folks in the shul, because they are normal, not creeped out, and get the warm fuzzies when normal people are nice to kids.
It's possible that there are some perverts who are shul candymen. Frankly, though, I'd put my money on the rich, single, middle aged guy who moved into the heart of the frum community and then started buying expensive bikes (Treks, Gary Klein, etc.), and expensive toys for kids, that their parents, loaded down with tuition bills, can't hope to afford. Then he starts taking teenage boys on overnight trips to Cedar Point amusement park on his cabin cruiser, and gives them rides in his '57 Chevy. Oh, he also was married to and almost instantly divorced from a woman with two sons. And no, I'm not the only one who has noticed and is at least a little creeped out by it.
Latest has it Kolko is giving
swimming lessons to young boys at
a water park!!!
I can't believe Lip-shits would take an ad from that garbage. Close the blog there's absolutely no hope.
On another note...Ronnie, I enjoy your comments.
Lipshutz reads this blog. Every Jew with a computer and access reads this blog. Lipschutz endorsed UOJ vs. Margo.R'Shmuel Kamintesky told him to print it.
It's worse than you think Gross.
These are very difficult times for adult survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA). Constant media stories and public awareness about child sexual abuse have caused all survivors of CSA to relive their own victimization.
The Importance of Therapy. The most important thing to do is to talk to a mental health professional about how you are feeling. It is very helpful for victims to establish a touch base relationship with a therapist so that at times of crisis --when events in your life or in the lives of others "bring it all back"-- you have someone to go to. Lawsuits are not therapeutic and cannot replace therapy as a means of coping, healing or obtaining closure.
Discuss the possibility of bringing a claim with your therapist. If you and your therapist determine that it bringing a claim would be a good thing for you, explore some of the resources on line and in book stores that explain the litigation process.
Exploration. If you are planning to bring a law suit, DO NOT read self-help books that talk about the symptoms of child sexual abuse. What you have read can be used by the defense to create the inference that your story was fabricated. DO NOT write angry letters to your abuser or the abuser's employer. DO NOT approach the abuser yourself and attempt to negotiate a settlement, no matter how sincere your motivation, you could be accused of extortion.
On this web site, look at the article Remedies for Victims of Sexual Abuse. This article discusses types of claims, professional exploitation, the waiver of privacy, impact on therapy, hypnosis, protective orders and publicity, retaliation suits, other issues. Connecticut version of article.
Statutes of Limitation. This page gives the statute of limitations (SOL) for each state. Some states have created extended time periods to bring claims, but a number do not. This will give you some basic information, but how the SOL will be applied to your case in your state is something that you should discuss with a lawyer.
Where to File. The question of where suit should be brought ("jurisdiction") can be complex and depend upon where the abuser lives, where the abuse took place and where you live. For instance, if you were abused in Connecticut or the perpetrator currently lives in Connecticut, you can bring suit in Connecticut regardless of where you live. If more than one state has jurisdiction, your lawyer can determine in which case it is best to file. For instance, one state might have a more favorable SOL.
How to Find a Lawyer. One way to find a specialist is to do an internet search for news stories about CSA abuse cases brought in the state in which you think suit could be brought. You can find a list of newspapers for each state at RefDesk. They often mention lawyers by name and sometimes state their experience.
You can contact the sexual assault coalition in the state in which you live and ask if they know of lawyers who have successfully brought CSA cases and who work effectively with victims.
One Voice/American Coalition Against Abuse (P.O. Box 27958, Washington, D.C. 20038-7958, Resource line: 202-667-1160 voice mail: 202-462-4688.
Your state's bar association may have a victims law subcommittee and may be able to provide you with the name of the chair or a membership list.
You can also try the Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator, the on-line version of the famous advertising directory for lawyers. Martindale-Hubbell is a paid service and not all lawyers chose to be listed or advertise. You can search the on-line site by geographical area, name, specialty, etc.
You can also contact the National Center for Victims of Crime for a referral.
Lipschitz most likely would be scared lipschitless from UOJ. The coward can't even print anything controversial without using his nom de guerre "Avi Yishai". He came up with that pen name because he has a son named Yishai. Azoy vee zogt zein fetter Elya, "Vos vet zein mit der kinder?"
Civil Statute of Limitations
for Child Sexual Abuse Connecticut
Conn. Gen. Stats. 52-577d
No common law discovery provision, but the existing special statute allows action within 30 from the date the victim reached their "age of majority."
The age of majority was 21 up until September 30, 1972. The age of majority to 18 effective October 1, 1972. Therefore there is a narrow window of time for victims who are ages 48-50 who have until September 30, 2002 to bring suit.
Bulletin 24May 02: Bill is Now Law. The full legislature passed a bill to expand the civil statute to allow litigation within 30 years of the age of majority (21 before October 1, 1972, 18 after that date). The Bill, Substitute House Bill No. 5680, has been signed into law by Governor Rowland and will be known as Public Act 02-138 until it is codified and integrated into the Connecticut General Statutes. The law is effective immediately.
The Legislature also enacted the same extension to the limitation on criminal actions. The criminal SOL will applied prospectively; in other words, to crimes committed on or after the effective date of the statute.
The criminal SOL for past crimes is two years from the date of your majority (expires the day before your 20th birthday), or 5 years from the date you report to law enforcement, whichever is earlier.
Examples: (note that these are court filing deadlines. Attorneys and prosecutors need months of preparatory time before charges or suits can be filed)
Civil: Example: You are 40 years old and were victimized when you were a minor. You have until the day before your 48th birthday to institute a civil suit for damages.
Civil Example: You are 49 years old and were victimized as a child. You reached your age of majority on October 1, 1972 when the age of majority changed to 18. You have 30 years from that date, until September 30, 2002, to have your lawsuit formally instituted.
Criminal: You are 40 years old and were victimized between the ages of 12 to 14. Your case cannot be prosecuted in the criminal court.
Criminal: You are 17 years old and were victimized between ages 12 to 14. You make your first report to law enforcement officials when you are 17. The State has until the day before your 20th birthday to institute a prosecution.
Criminal: You are currently 19 years old and were abused when you were 12 on June 15, 1995. Your parents make a report to law enforcement officials shortly after the event, on July 15, 1995. The State had 5 years from the date of the report, or until July 14, 2000, to initiate a prosecution. The State does not have until your the day before your 20th birthday to file because the earlier of the two limitation periods expired when you were 17.
See text and commentary on statute by Sue Smith.
Further Information: Contact Susan K. Smith, Atty., 39 Russ Street, Hartford, CT 06106 860-297-0035
Someone had emailed the series of anti-Rav Miller articles and I too found them wrong and disturbing. Allow me to tackle a different angle here. The "Torah in Motion" entity that brought Slifkin to town, if you put them in the best and most charitable light possible, is completely laughable. It's basically a one-man show and the guy is a complete buffoon & ignoramous, so even if Slifkin is eventually vindicated, his Toronto affair was a disasterous association.
The TIM fellow grew up Conservative. His father was "rabbi" of a temple for over 40 years and his uncle led the entire movement and produced the abridged "Siddur." Some of his relatives are Reform "rabbis". This fellow went to YU but doesn't have a clue in learning. He "quotes" the most preposterous statements in the name of his "rebbe", Rav Soloveitchik, who definitely never uttered them. His droshos, if they are not actually blasphemous, come pretty close. He was once a rabbi at an eccentric shul that refused to renew his contract, so he started TIM. Many mispalelim left the shul because of him. Even those that stayed as members, sometimes walked out when they couldn't stomach his meshugassen. The poor guy even looks like a goof. He is such a grub am haaretz that, as far as I know, he was the only shul rabbi in the history of the city's vaad, who was not allowed a rotating spot on the beis din. For someone who is a such a nobody, he is not very humble either. He thinks he is a bar plugtah on the greatest talmidei chochomim.
Attn victims of Yudi Kolko,
Lake Compounce is in Connecticut.
Why are people putting down Torah in Motion and calling me a goof?
I went on a binge years ago to reconcile the Big Bang Theory with Judaism, so Slifkin is right up my alley.
I used to live in Flatbush, by the way, on East 19th St, and stop saying all my relatives are frey behaimos. I'm also a nephew of old man Rabbi Kelman from Prospect Park.
This wasn't only an ad for torah temmimah. It was free publicity for them and don't forget the gedoilei lakewood was there !!
UOJ, you must get this article and send this off to Robert Kolker.
Defended by supreme lowlife Alan Dershowitz.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/us/03epstein.html?pagewanted=print
September 3, 2006
Questions of Preferential Treatment Are Raised in Sex Case Against Money Manager
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
PALM BEACH, Fla. — In the summer and autumn of last year, when most of the mansions here stood empty behind their towering hedges, the police stealthily watched one at the end of a waterside lane. They monitored the comings and goings of its owner’s private jet, subpoenaed his phone records and riffled through his trash.
The owner was Jeffrey Epstein, 53, an intensely private New York money manager with several billionaire clients. Months earlier, the stepmother of a 14-year-old girl told the Palm Beach police that a wealthy older man, whom the girl later identified as Mr. Epstein, might have had inappropriate sexual contact with her.
In sworn statements to the police, the 14-year-old and other teenage girls said a friend had arranged for them to visit Mr. Epstein’s home and give him massages, usually in their underwear, in exchange for cash.
Most of the girls, according to the police, said Mr. Epstein had masturbated during the massages, and a few said he had penetrated them with his fingers or penis. They identified him in photos and accurately described the inside of his home. Some recalled that his employees had fed them snacks or rented them cars.
Mr. Epstein pleaded not guilty in August to the crime he was ultimately charged with, soliciting prostitution. But at a time when prosecutors around the nation have become increasingly severe in dealing with people accused of sex offenses, the case has raised questions about whether Mr. Epstein’s prominence won him preferential treatment.
By the account of the police, they found probable cause to charge Mr. Epstein with much more serious offenses: one count of lewd and lascivious molestation and four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.
But instead of proceeding with such charges on his own, the Palm Beach County state attorney took the rare step of presenting a broad range of possible charges to a grand jury, which indicted Mr. Epstein in July on the lesser count. In Florida, prosecutors usually refer only capital cases to grand juries.
Even before the indictment, the Palm Beach police chief, Michael Reiter, had accused prosecutors of giving Mr. Epstein special treatment and asked the state attorney, Barry E. Krischer, to remove himself from the case.
In an editorial, The Palm Beach Post attacked Mr. Krischer, a Democrat whose post is elective, saying the public had been left “to wonder whether the system tilted in favor of a wealthy, well-connected alleged perpetrator and against very young girls who are alleged victims of sex crimes.”
The case has taken a toll on the reputation of Mr. Epstein, who owns a palatial home in Manhattan, has pledged $30 million to Harvard and once flew former President Bill Clinton on his 727. Politicians including Eliot Spitzer, a Democratic candidate for governor in New York, and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, also a Democrat, have returned campaign contributions from him.
But Mr. Epstein fought back, assembling a team of star lawyers, including Gerald B. Lefcourt and Alan M. Dershowitz, a friend of his, to look into the backgrounds of his young accusers.
Mr. Lefcourt says that the police acted “outrageously” and that his client has been wrongfully dragged through the mud.
“He disputes that he ever had sex with any under-age person or anything like that,” said Mr. Lefcourt, whose clients have included Russell Crowe, Martha Stewart and Abbie Hoffman.
Neither the police nor the state attorney’s office would discuss the case in detail. But the police released a thick report on the 13-month investigation after the indictment was unsealed in late July.
The police started investigating Mr. Epstein in March 2005, almost immediately after they were contacted by the stepmother of the 14-year-old, who, according to the report, was in a special school for students with disciplinary problems.
The girl, the report said, told the police that an older friend had “offered her an opportunity to make money” and had driven her to Mr. Epstein’s house one Sunday. The friend, identified by the police as Haley Robson, a local community college student, told the girl to say she was 18 if Mr. Epstein asked, the report said.
The girl told the police that Mr. Epstein’s assistant had led her upstairs to a room with a massage table and that Mr. Epstein had come in and told her to remove her clothes. She said Mr. Epstein had masturbated as she massaged him, had pressed a vibrator against her underwear and had given her $300 afterward.
In October, the police interviewed Ms. Robson, then 19, who told them Mr. Epstein had routinely paid her to bring teenage girls to his home. The police then interviewed a total of 5 alleged victims and 17 witnesses, many of whom told similar stories about what they had observed or participated in at Mr. Epstein’s home. According to the report, at least one said Mr. Epstein had engaged in intercourse with her.
Mr. Lefcourt, his lawyer, said one girl who told the police of having had sex with Mr. Epstein as a minor had lied about both the sex and her age and had not shown up for grand jury questioning. He also said Mr. Epstein had passed a lie-detector test clearing him of any sexual involvement with under-age girls.
A spokeswoman for the Palm Beach police said that early this year, the police went to Mr. Krischer, the state attorney, intending to apply for warrants to arrest Mr. Epstein. Instead, she said, they were told that Mr. Krischer would convene a grand jury to examine the evidence and decide what charges, if any, to bring.
Around that time, the police report said, Mr. Dershowitz met with prosecutors to share information about the accusers, including statements they had posted on MySpace.com, the social networking site, concerning use of drugs and alcohol. According to the report, Mr. Krischer’s office then decided to delay the grand jury session for several months.
The Palm Beach police grew frustrated, the report said, and on May 1 the department asked prosecutors to approve warrants to arrest Mr. Epstein.
Chief Reiter also wrote Mr. Krischer questioning “the unusual course that your office’s handling of this matter has taken” and suggesting that Mr. Krischer disqualify himself. Chief Reiter refused several requests to be interviewed, and his spokeswoman would not say explicitly why he had urged the prosecutor to step aside.
Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for Mr. Krischer, said the state attorney’s office sometimes sent noncapital cases to grand juries when there were questions about witness credibility. Mr. Krischer does not recommend a particular charge in such cases, Mr. Edmondson said, but gives the grand jury a list of possible charges.
Bruce J. Winick, a law professor at the University of Miami, said that while prosecutors in Florida rarely referred noncapital cases to grand juries, they sometimes did so with sensitive cases to be extra-cautious.
Mr. Lefcourt said the police were wrong to have released the report so soon, especially without correcting information that later proved wrong. He cited his assertion that one accuser had lied about her age, adding that she had also been arrested on drug charges and had been fired by her employer for stealing.
“What I’m trying to focus on,” Mr. Lefcourt said, “is, What’s motivating the selective and misleading release of information to the public?”
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/19338/Reward_for_Missing_Boater.html
A local North Bay paper reported Friday that a $3,000 reward has been offered for the recovery of Eli Horowitz. Mr. Horowitz and his father-in-law Heine Mondrowitz have been missing since August 21st, when the boat they had been using was found drifting in the water two hours after they set out. Mr. Mondrowitz's body was discovered last week Saturday.
The reward has been offered by The Hatzoloh organization in Toronto. Any person with information is asked to call 1-416-398-2300 or 911 if the body is discovered on Lake Nipissing.
The extensive water, air and ground search has been by the Ontario Provincial Police with the assistance of more than 100 volunteers from Hatzoloh.
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/19257/What%27s_In_A_Name%3F.html
The Jewish Press is very worried about the role of women in shul, except that is when they are molested by Mordechai Tendler.
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/19311/Letters_To_The_Editor.html
Undermining Gedolim
Individuals like Gil Student and Rabbi Slifkin undermine the authority of our gedolim – and without that authority, where would bnei Yisrael be today? We have survived as a community of faith through thousands of years of indescribable hatred and persecution precisely because we looked to our sages to light our way, to teach us right from wrong, to silence the heretical and illuminate the perplexed among us.
By questioning – and worse, may Hashem have mercy on us, criticizing – giants of emunah and learning who, in their wisdom and vision, have seen fit to ban books by Rabbi Slifkin that might lead Yidden astray, we are in effect telling the world that we don’t respect our Torah leaders.
Perhaps Rabbis Student and Slifkin would feel more comfortable as Conservative or Reform Jews, in which case they could ignore, dispute, or castigate the verdicts of our Torah authorities to their heart’s content. But if they insist on identifying with the Torah camp, they would be well advised to humble themselves at the feet of our sages. As for me, I choose to serve Hashem and honor His messengers and teachers.
Shmuel Rosengarten
Jerusalem
Young Upstart
I continue to be fascinated by the commotion over the writings of Rabbi Slifkin and I find the reaction to their banning by leading halachic authorities incomprehensible. Here’s why:
A review of the biographical information Rabbi Slifkin offers on his website shows that he has no special training in zoology but rather is simply someone who’s had a “lifelong fascination with wildlife and has kept a wide variety of exotic pets, including iguanas and tarantulas.”
We are told that Rabbi Slifkin studied at Yeshivas Shaarei Torah in Manchester, England (we are not informed for how long, at what level, and with what distinction, if any) and then moved to Israel where he “spent many years in study at Yeshivas Midrash Shmuel and the Mir Yeshiva.” Rabbi Slifkin, we read, “received ordination” at Ohr Someach Institutions after teaching there for some time. (Significantly, Rabbi Slifkin is today all of 30 years old.)
So here we have a thoroughly ordinary young man giving his opinions about the interplay between the fundamentals of the Torah and zoology – although there is nothing to indicate that he’s an expert in either – and the Orthodox world is in a tizzy over what he has to say. And Rav Yosef Sholom Eliyashiv, arguably the leading posek of our time, is castigated for having had the temerity to condemn this young man’s interpretation of Creation.
I would also point out that Rabbi Slifkin’s website tells us that his first book – Lying for Truth: Understanding Yaakov’s Deception of Yitzchak – was published in 1996. In other words, he was already pontificating to the rest of us when he was barely 20 years old!
Only among us Jews.
Chaim Feuer
What words of praise does Scherman have for Pinter, whose seforim he publishes?
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/19110/Letters_To_The_Editor.html
"The Jewish Press has richly earned a reputation for courage and integrity."
Rabbi Nosson Scherman
Brooklyn, NY
To Hell and back, literally, for P'tach.
Way OT, but it has to do with helping kids.
Today along with a couple of friends, I participated in a charity bicycle ride to support P'tach, which provides Jewish educational resources for special ed and learning disabled kids. It's a good organization doing good work for kids that would normally be left behind by the yeshiva system.
We rode to Hell and back, literally. Hell, Michigan is a small town about 50 west of here. The actual ride was 98 miles, total, but I did a small loop when I got home to get a full century in.
If you'd like to help out and post facto sponsor my ride, that would be greatly appreciated. Just make the check out to P'tach and mail it to Heshie Josephs, 25311 Ronald Ct., Oak Park, MI 48237. Please put "for Ronnie" in the notation.
Boy, my tuchas hurts, and I wasn't anywhere near Kolko.
Folks, please stop bashing lawyers just because they defend criminals. That's how the system works. People are entitled to legal representation and if the criminals don't get representation, we'll all eventually suffer. The state, and its power to take away your freedom, needs to be kept honest. And while guys like Dershowitz and Cohen can pick their clients, many lawyers do not. A good friend of mine is a talmid chacham who went back to school to get his law degree. He's growing his practice now, but most of his work is court appointed, which means he ends up defending some true lowlifes.
Also, Cohen's background or motives are irrelevant. The question is whether or not the facts in his article are true. If they are, then we all need to address issues of ethics in our community, starting with ourselves.
NP: Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring - Rodeo - Fanfare for the Common Man, Atlanta Sym. Orch. under Louis Lane
BTW, apparently some froomies think that being divorced is reason to castigate someone. My divorce was mentioned, as was the fact that PM has been divorced.
If you're going to put people down for having been divorced, you'll have to start criticizing the Bais HaLevi, R. Yoseph Soleveichik, R. Shmuel Rozovsky, former Ponevezh rosh yeshiva, and R. DovBer Schvartzman, ex son-in-law of R. Aharon Kotler and Rosh Yeshiva of Beis HaTalmud.
Gross,
Thanks for the nice words. Your posts are always worthwhile - and often acerbically funny.
What ever happened to Boog?
Moshe Rabaynu was also divorced!
Shlomo Feivel Schustal is also divorced and Malkiel Kotler has two wives.
Please, please stop lettin this board be ronnie's personal life- it is totally destroying the excitement people have come to associate with this blog (and why they keep checking in). At least 5 people I know stopped looking here due to "oh, it's only more of ronnie's crap personal life!
Ronnie is a wonderful guy, sometimes a bit wordy.
Let's all agree to attempt to limit our comments to 10-15 lines max.
Thanks.
Anonymous said...
it is totally destroying the excitement people have come to associate with this blog (and why they keep checking in). At least 5 people I know stopped looking here due to ...
"Excitement"?
Is that why you come here? For excitement and entertainment? What are you, some kind of emotional vampire who gets off on suffering and scandal?
NP: Hide Away - The Best of Freddy King
Un-Orthodox Jew said...
Ronnie is a wonderful guy,
Not really, but I'm working on it. Like Danny Ackroyd said in his hesped for John Belushi, a good man but a bad boy.
sometimes a bit wordy.
Wordy? Prolix? Bombastic? Discursive? Flatulent? Gabby? Garrulous? Long-winded? Loquacious? Palaverous? Pleonastic? Rambling? Tedious? Circumlocutory? Verbose?
Moi?
NP - The Best of Albert King
But I digress.
For all information on abuse cases please contact Joan Hertz at Ohel Family Services 718 851 6300 or 718 686 3100
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