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Friday, October 26, 2007

"Tatty, I miss you too. You have hurt me terribly and I can't fully comprehend what you did to me."



From The UOJ Archives, published twice, the first time was October 2005! The Rabbis Mocked Her...Called Her Names...Figuratively Tossed Her In The Wastebasket....THE BALTIMORE RABBIS MUST APOLOGIZE.... AND GET RID OF ELIEZER EISGRAU!



I was asked by Ms. Eisgrau to post her story for the world to see.
In fact, there are parts of this story I was indeed able to verify, and as to the entire letter, I have independent sources that I trust, that are able to vouch for her credibility.


Republished with permission and authorization of The Awareness Ctr.

A Story of Survival - Surviving Incest
By Survivor of Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau


Dear Family,

You have all turned your backs and walked away from me. My father, my mother, and eleven siblings. All gone.

This reality is very sad. It is disturbing, and incomprehensible all at the same time.

What is the terrible crime I committed that warranted the loss of my entire family? What could cause parents to abandon a child? Siblings to abandon a sister? And a community to collectively turn its back in silence?

I committed a terrible crime.

My unforgivable crime is that I spoke the truth about my childhood.

I could no longer keep secret the years of fear and pain. The molestation by my father, and the emotional abuse and neglect of both my parents. ..

I did try hard to keep it in the family as I had been taught to. I tried so hard to be the daughter and sister you wanted me to be. To be "good" To let it go, and just forget, and somehow be OK... But I was in too much pain. I knew I couldn't continue without help.

I came to you first, remember? But you made it clear that you did not believe that I was really hurt. You made it clear that you would not, and could not, believe me that Tatty molested me nor could you support me. You denied that I had a reason to be in so much pain. I had to go elsewhere for help.

Going outside the family for help is a major sin. The louder you shouted that it just wasn't true, that Tatty could never do such a thing, that nothing really happened to me, the louder I had to shout to hear myself over the clamor of your thirteen desperate voices.

Unfortunately It is true that I was sexually molested and abused in our family. If I am real than this did happen. I am a product of OUR family.

...Thankfully, there were others who heard and I got the help I needed. I survived and I am doing well!

Oh, if only It were true, as you say, that a therapist somehow convinced me that the memories are true!!! I would sue the therapist and have my family back!

If only it were true, as you say, that the books I read on the subject of abuse are what put these horrible ideas into my head!! I would burn the books and have my family back!!

If only I were truly sick, or truly mental!! I would then pose no threat and I could have my family back!! Oh, if only I were truly evil and out to "get" my father! But I still love my father in spite of myself. I don't believe that my father is an evil monster. He has caused a lot of pain and refuses to take any responsibility for his actions. He is a human being who has done much good and also much bad. He has a serious problem and I wish he would get help.

To my siblings, and to my fathers supporters, I say I am none of the things you accuse me of. I am just a women. I have my strengths and limitations just like you. I am a wife, a mother, a teacher, a friend, and neighbor just like you. I play with my children, hug them, kiss them and love them, just like you do. I laugh and cry and feel as deeply as you do. I have a life that is rich and joyful and completely separate from my past, as I hope that you do too. And I have many close friends who truly know and appreciate me for who I am...and know nothing of my past.

But there is no substitute for my family. I miss you. In spite of your denial of my experiences. In spite of your blame and accusations. In spite of you saying that your childhood was idyllic and wonderful...and therefore mine was too. I am truly happy for you that this was your experience and I can not take it away from you. I can only envy you. My childhood also had wonderful moments and happy memories, yet the good memories are overshadowed by pain, sadness, and fear. I wish there was a way you could accept our different experiences, and reconcile.

Perhaps there are those of you who would like to be in touch with me and believe that you can't because Rabbi Hopfer advised you to cut me out of the family. It would be going against "Daas Torah" to speak with me. I am so sorry for your pain. I am so sorry for us that you have chosen a rav who apparently has more to gain by breaking up our family than by encouraging its healing.

Any thinking, intelligent person can see that Rabbi Hopfer's cruel advice, which hides behind the guise of "Daas Torah," sadly, has nothing to do with either.

Tatty, I miss you too.

You have hurt me terribly and I can't fully comprehend what you did to me. I understand why the people who have trusted you do not want to believe me. It is just too overwhelming. I also do not want to believe...I still want to believe that I am wrong. I still want to believe that I have a father who is safe. You loved me and hurt me. You gave me life, and you almost killed me. You will always be the only father I have. I will always need you.

Mommy, I think I do understand why you walked away... You made it clear from the time I was young that Tatty was much more important to you than I was. I believe that on some level you know that my memories of him are true. I believe that you needed him, and still need him more than you ever needed me. You have not been able to let yourself truly see me from the time I was very little. And that hurts. Because I needed you desperately. You are my mother and I needed your protection and love. I will always need you.

I am a woman who was terribly abused as a child. I deal with this reality every day of my life. And because I did not keep the secret, I am a woman without parents or siblings.

With tears and always... hope for the future,

Eisgrau's Daughter ****

The reason I am telling my story is because I want people, especially rabbis, to realize that when allegations of child abuse are made by a child against a parent, (regardless of whether the allegations are true or not) it is an indication of a serious problem in the family. When abuse is covered up and denied it is usually handed down to the next generation. Cutting off the family member who dares to expose the family's pain and shame does not make the problem go away. My family and I needed help and the rabbi's failed us. My family and I still need help and the rabbi's are still failing us. If I had a child who said I had sexually abused them, whether I thought I had or not, I would realize that there was a serious problem in my relationship with that child. I would do all I could to help my child understand what had happened. I would get my whole family help.

When most people in the orthodox community look at my family they see a normal family. Everyone is religious, married with kids, seems happy, and appears not only to be functioning well but also contributing to their community.

I come from a very large orthodox family. Most of my early childhood was spent in a small town on the east coast. My father met and married my mother there while he was a student at her father's yeshiva. My grandfather's yeshiva was in a remote area jewishly and otherwise, and we were very isolated. We did not go to school and had no contact with children outside of the family.

My father was physically abusive and sexually molested me repeatedly while we were living near my grandfather's yeshiva. I was also molested by some of the students in the yeshiva. I don't remember their names. My father stopped abusing me when we moved to Baltimore and he started teaching.

My grandfather was also inappropriate with me. He exposed himself to me once when I was three. When I was seven he had a serious discussion with me. He told me how lonely he was and ask me if I thought he should get remarried. At that age he told my sister and I that he loved one of us more than the other. I was sure it was she who he loved more than me.

I know that my grandfather physically abused my mother, (although she will insist that her experience was not abuse). She would get hit, for example, if she couldn't keep the baby from crying. My mother is the oldest of ten children. Her mother died of an illness when she was fifteen. She said that my grandfather always hit his children too much, but after her mother died it got worse. She told me that her brothers would try to protect her. My mother's brothers are the only safe men who I remember having close contact with in my childhood.

My father was physically abused by his mother. She would hold his nose to force him to swallow foods that he d. She would beat him with a broomstick. He was a troubled teen and was kicked out of more than one yeshiva. He told me that my grandfather rescued him, "pulled him from the garbage can." He shared with me his first encounter with my grandfather. He said that when my grandfather was speaking to him he raised his hand to make a point, and my father instinctively ducked under the table. He thought he was going to be hit.

My grandfather also rescued Aaron Goldberger. He had been expelled from a yeshiva for "homosexual behavior." Knowing his background, and despite many warnings, my grandfather allowed Goldberger to marry his daughter. Years later Goldberger was convicted of molesting his own children and lost custody of them as a result.

I was a troubled child and an angry teen for obvious reasons. I was also extremely depressed. My mother would tell me repeatedly that I had nothing to be sad or angry about and that I should put a smile on my face.

When I was in the fourth grade I discovered by that I needed glasses. A classmate had a pair and I tried them on just for fun. When the room jumped into focus I realized that I needed glasses. I told my mother who said, "No you don't need glasses, you see well enough." Her response was typical.

When my fifth grade teacher sent a note home asking my parents to get my eyes checked they finally took me to an eye doctor. The doctor assured my mother that he could see by the shape of my pupil that I was nearsighted but she was still unconvinced. She told me that I was getting glasses not because I needed them but to get the teacher off her back. My sister taunted me "you don't really need glasses you just want attention."

As a child I often wondered what I could possibly do to become real in my parent's eyes. I remember watching other children in school and wondering what it was about them that I was missing that allowed them to exist, and have real needs and feelings. I thought there was something inherently wrong with me.

When I was sixteen I left home to go to school in Israel. When the Gulf War broke out my parents forced me to come back home and refused to let me return to Israel. When I was eighteen I ran away from home and went back to Israel. My father came after me. He told me that the only reason he could think of that I could possibly have run away was that I had lesbian relationship with a friend whom I had met and become close to while in school there.

My father said that he wanted to help me and would take me to see a psychologist if I came home with him. He took me to his friend, Dr. Aviva Weisbord, who agreed to see me as a favor to him. (Apparently he had helped her with one of her children who had been having problems.)

Dr. Weisbord should never have taken me on as a client due to her obvious conflict of interest. She allowed me to come to her house during the course of therapy and sleep over. She violated confidentiality by meeting with my parents against my wishes. She violated confidentiality by telling people that I had been a client of hers and that in her "professional" opinion my father had not abused me.

During the course of my treatment with Dr. Weisbord she and I both realized that I had been sexually abused. She kept asking me about my uncle, Goldberger, whom I had contact with as a young child. I did not remember any specific instances of him abusing me. I did not tell her about my father. She was very willing to believe that my uncle, a convicted offender, abused me. But I knew she would not believe me about my father. She made it clear that she trusted and respected him. At some point she realized that I was hiding something. She told me that there were serious boundary issues in my family. That there were things that I wasn't sharing with her, and that she did not want to hear. She told me that she was ending our relationship and sending me to someone else.

My next therapist would not speak with my parents at all, and when my father found out that I was talking about the abuse he told me that I had to stop seeing her. He threatened to take her to a bais din for "convincing me of things that never happened." He told me that I was heading down a dangerous path. That reading books on the subject of abuse was putting ideas into my head. He told me that he was the only one who really loved that and me if I wasn't paying my therapist she would throw me out onto the street. That was the day I left my parents home.

I had nowhere to go. In desperation, I called a woman whom I had met only once, Hinda Goliger, and she invited me to come live with her. Many people including my parents, tried to pressure the Goligers to throw me out so I would be forced to go back home. The Goligers refused to bow to pressure. They promised me that their home would always be a safe place for me and it was. They were truly there for me when no one else was. They believed in me, and I will always be grateful.

The abuse by my father and others left me with many issues. But even worse than the actual and abuse was the revictimization that I encountered from my family, and community, when I tried to reach out for help.

No one would believe me that my father or my grandfather had done these things. My siblings were very angry with me and treated me like I had some horrible disease. My mother told me that she knew that nothing happened to me and that basically I was saying these things to get attention. One of my uncles told me that saying that my grandfather abused me meant that I d the Torah. Another Rabbi who I spoke with, after asking me for my grandfathers name, told me that it was my imagination that I had been sexually abused and that I should just forget about it and get married and everything would be fine. Once again I was being given the message that I was not real. My memories were not real. My feelings and experiences were not real.

During this time one of my brothers, then in his teens, forced a six-year-old in the neighborhood to expose herself to him. He threatened to hurt her if she didn't comply. The child's mother told me about the incident. She told my mother about it too. My mother's response was that she needed to talk to my brother about staying away from s, and that my father needed to learn with him more often.

I told my therapist about the incident. She informed me that what my brother had done was considered sexual abuse and that she was mandated to report it. I begged her not to. I knew that my family, who were already very upset with me for saying that my father abused me, would think that I had reported it. She finally agreed to ask her Rabbi, R' Menachem Goldberger, what to do. Rabbi Goldberger. told her to make the report which she did.

Another Rabbi who I turned to for help was Rabbi Moshe Heinemann. I did not know how to approach him. I decided to ask him a halachic question that had been bothering me for a while. It was a question that one of my aunts had asked me when I told her what my father had done to me. I asked him if I was allowed to marry a kohen if my father abused me. I was hoping that he would hear the inherent pain in my question and offer to help me. He asked if it happened before or after age three. I said after. He then told me that if I decided to say that it never happened then I could marry a kohen but if I said that it did happen then I couldn't. End of conversation. That was the only time that I spoke with Rabbi Heinemann about this, or anything else. Some years later parents of a child in the Torah Institute went to ask Rabbi Heinemann about the allegations against my father. He told them to disregard what I said as I was, "crazy and not frum."

I went to other Rabbi's for help and I was told, "we know sexual abusers exists in our community but we know that your father is not one of them."

I already felt inherently damaged, and traumatized, as a result of the sexual abuse but the way my family and the rabbi's were treating me made the pain unbearable. Like all survivors of trauma I needed to talk about what happened to me in order to process it and heal. I needed (and still need) my truth to be heard. My family did not understand this and accused me of trying to hurt them by telling people about it.

I thought that because no one believed me I must be crazy. I wanted to believe that my family was right and I was sick or evil but deep down I knew that I wasn't and that I was remembering these things because they had happened to me.

I was in a tremendous amount of psychological pain. I often begged God to remove me from this world. I wanted to die to find out the truth. And I wanted to escape the pain. I attempted and was hospitalized. During my hospitalization I was diagnosed with a dissociative disorder (that I have since recovered from) whose only known cause is severe and repeated trauma in early childhood. I was also diagnosed with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder.)

While all this was going on I was teaching preschool at the Torah Institute. The preschool director was shocked when I told her that I was quitting because I was suicidal and needed to be hospitalized. She simply couldn't believe it. She said that I was doing a great job teaching and that she thought I was the most `together' of all my sisters. I told her that my family specialized in seeming `normal' and `together' and that I was good at it, but I was tired of pretending to be ok. I needed help.

At first the director said that she believed me that my father had sexually abused me. She told me that she knew more than one rebbe at the Torah Institute with sexual issues. She wanted to be supportive but at the same time she begged me to consider the damage that speaking about my experience would cause my siblings. She told me I could ruin my sister's chances of getting a shidduch if I didn't keep quiet.

She offered to let me stay with her for a couple of weeks while I waited for a bed to open up on the dissociative disorders unit. During this stay she changed her mind and told me that although it was obvious to her that my parents had caused me severe emotional damage, she just couldn't believe that my father had physically molested me.

During one of my many hospitalizations Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer came to visit me. I told him about the memories that I had of my father molesting me. I told him that I hoped my family and everyone else was right about me and that somehow my mind was playing cruel tricks on me. It was easier for me to believe that I was crazy then to believe that my father did these things to me. I wanted my family back.

Eventually, I rented my own apartment and applied for another job in a new preschool that was opening up in the community. I was hired as a teacher for the three-year-old class. A few weeks before the start of the school year the director informed me that some people in the community threatened not to send their children to her school if I was going to be teaching there. They told her that there must be something wrong with me because I had moved out of my parents home. This woman, not knowing that there was a connection between us, asked Dr. Aviva Weisbord for advice. Dr. Aviva Weisbord told her not to let me teach but to give me a job in a back office so that no one would know I was there.

I became completely disillusioned with yidishkeit because of the way I was being treated by the community and my family. People who should have been helping me were calling me crazy and evil. I wanted nothing to do with any of it anymore. I stopped keeping shabbos and kosher. I had to find a new way to relate to God. I also had to find a new God. One who had not allowed me to be abused in a yeshiva and by people who were supposed to be frum and uphold the Torah. A God who was all knowing and all loving and believed in me and wanted me to heal. I had to leave yidishkeit to find this.

I explored other religions. I spoke to priests, ministers. I came back to Judaism, mostly because I missed shabbos. I had to come to the realization that my parents and the Rabbi's who hurt me did not own God or Judaism and that their behavior had nothing to do with Torah. Although I am now shomer mitzvoth, to this day I can never completely trust a rabbi. And I doubt I will never feel completely safe or comfortable in the frum world.

About eight years after my conversation with Rabbi Hopfer my father became the principal of the Torah Institute. I had received excellent help in the trauma disorders day hospital at Sheppard Pratt and had with much effort pulled my shattered life back together. The chronic depression and psychological pain that I had carried around with me for as long as I could remember slowly dissipated as I worked through the traumatic memories. I was in school. I was working. I met and married a wonderful man. I gave birth to a baby. I was very happy. Every day felt like a miracle.

I was very concerned when I heard that a former student had accused my father of child abuse. I had thought/hoped that his abuse had stopped with me. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe the reason the abuse stopped when we moved to Baltimore was because my father had access to other children.

I told a parent of a child in the school that I was concerned that my father was not safe around children. It got back to my siblings and they went to Rabbi Hopfer for advice. Rabbi Hopfer told my siblings to give me an ultimatum. I was to promise never to talk about what my father did to me, or they would cut me out of the family. I told them there was no way I could ethically promise that.

I wrote Rabbi Hopfer a letter asking him why he had not contacted me before he gave my family this advice. He did not respond. Some months later I called him up several times, and finally he called back. I asked him why he had not contacted me before telling my family to cut me off. He became very defensive and angrily asked me why I believed that my fathers other accuser was credible? Why had I not bothered to check it out?

I told Rabbi Hopfer that I had checked it out and that although I was not in the room and could never know what really happened to this student, that based on my own experiences with my father I believed that it was possible that he had abused again.

I told Rabbi Hopfer that I wished that he and my family would also admit that they were not in the room when my father was abusing me and could never be completely sure what my father had done to me.

I asked him again why he had not contacted me. He said he had already spoken to me eight years earlier when he had visited me in the hospital.

Me: I am a different person now, in a totally different place then I was eight years ago. I was going through a serious crisis then. A lot has changed. I think you should have realized that and called me. Do you remember our conversation in the hospital?

Hopfer: No.

Me: So you made the decision to break up a family based on a conversation you had eight years ago that you don't remember?

Hopfer: I made my decision then that you were not credible and I stuck with it.

Me: I think you should have contacted me. Why don't you believe me about my father? Do you think I am crazy or evil?

Hopfer: No, but your siblings say that your story is inconsistent. First you said your uncle abused you, then your grandfather, then your father.

Me: When I first started dealing with this, I did not want to believe that my father abused me. Like you, I would rather have believed just about anything else. My therapist at the time wanted me to think it was my uncle.

Hopfer: Your own therapist doesn't believe you.

Me: The only therapist I worked with who is unethical enough to break confidentiality and speak to you about what she believes and doesn't believe about me, is Dr. Weisbord and she is also a friend of my father.

I'm trying to understand why you would advise my family to do such a terrible thing? What good could this possibly accomplish?

Hopfer: They have too choose between you and your father. They can't be loyal to both of you. They can't stand seeing the pain you are causing him.

Me: I wonder why you and my family are so focused on my fathers pain, which I didn't cause, yet no one seems to worry about my pain. I have lost my entire family because of this. And you have ruined any chances of my family taking any responsibility in dealing with this. Any chance of healing our relationship. If they want to cut me out let them at least own their own decision. Don't you realize that they take your advise as a psak, as da'as torah?

Hopfer: Yes. I realized that.

Me: would you consider changing your ruling.

Hopfer: No, I still think they have to choose.

Me: Is it because you don't believe me, that my father sexually abused me?

Hopfer: Yes, I don't believe that he did that.

Me: How can you be objective about this considering that you trust my father so much? He has taken over your shiurim for you when you are out of town. He has taught your children. Don't you think it would have been more responsible to send my family to someone else for advice about this? Someone who is not so close to the situation?

Hopfer: I believe that I made the correct decision.


In the end my father is still the principal of an elementary school. If the Rabbi's in Baltimore care at all about the safety of the children in their community they would insist that my father be evaluated by a professional who is trained to evaluate potential offenders. If they continue to try to "protect" him and demonize, discredit, and isolate me, they are continuing to perpetuate a tremendous evil for themselves and their community. They share some of the responsibility for the horrors I went through and they will be responsible for any new victims of abuse by my father.

I am still treated like I do not exist by my family. I don't know which of my siblings are married, and I have not been told of any births or simchas that have occurred.

I am still looking for a rabbi who is willing to stand up for me and challenge Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer to take a second look at what he is doing to me and to my family. Whatever the outcome, it would help me heal my relationship with Judaism to know that there is someone representing Torah who is willing to stand up for what is right.

70 comments:

Anonymous said...

Am Kodesh. I read most of this on the Awareness Center site and it rings so true. What a courageous young lady to have been able to make a life for herself.
Did this fellow abuse Samuel Juravel?
Did the same rabbonim cover for Eisgrau and the rest?
What did they do to help Juravel?
Now I think it is too late to pressure the FBI to mach shtill.

Clean up your communities. Make them makom Torah. Don't allow the scum to rise to being the leaders.
Do tshuvah. Get involved. Let some daylight in.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

It's shameful that so many comments coming in are slamming this victim and all victims of abuse. Of course it's their fault they were molested.

Some more climate adjustment in the works!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Ron,
C'mon. Give me a "clue" if I was close.

-----------------------------------
CLUE!

Anonymous said...

The woman who wrote this account and I have spoken many times. She is totally credible and rational. Remarkably, despite her experiences, she is a shomeres mitzvos living a full Jewish life.
Yosef Blau

Paul Mendlowitz said...

For all you skeptics/peasants...call Rabbi Blau yourself!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Kinderlach:

UOJ's rules of the game:

The last guy laughing wins!

Anonymous said...

Eisgrau & Bryks are perfect examples of how it is possible for a monster like Kolko to get away w/ murder.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The biggest fool is Yisroel Belsky trying to distract attention away from himself after protecting Lipa Brenner and Yudi Kolko for forty years.

BELSKY DROP DEAD! YOU'RE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH!

Anonymous said...

My bullshit detector went wild when I saw that hazmana sent by belsky to Greenwald. Talk about a nogeiah b'davar! Da'as Toyoyoyoyoyreh (props to Ronnie) at it's finest.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Fire in Camps Agudah and Silver Lake just weeks after they are M'Chalel Shem Shomayim. Is this a hint? Perhaps a message? Or just merely a coincidence to be dismissed as meaningless?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

http://www.chaptzem.blogspot.com/

Anyone in need of a good laugh....

NOW PRESENTING EMES AND THE LAW....

VIDEO CLIPS...LISTEN TO THE CLOWNS MAKE JACKASSES OUT OF THEMSELVES!
DON'T STEAL MONEY....PLEASE ONLY STEAL LIVES..................

Anonymous said...

'Editor' is indeed correct- Idiots # 1, 2 and 3 are indeed becoming the hilarious butt of a 'joke' that exposed them more than any blog could ever dream of.

Anonymous said...

UOJ

While I agree with you an the molestation issue, what is wrong with this privately funded event?

Is it wrong to tech people not to steal?

What is your problem??

Anonymous said...

Mondrowitz lives @ Rechov Diskin 9 Rechavia or Kiryat Wolfson Jerusalem. His Phone # is (when calling from the USA) 011-972-5-660-508

Anonymous said...

In the mid 70's in TA Baltimore there was a Rabbi Shapiro (who lived with his wife in the TA dormitory building) who physically molested the boys that resided in the TA dorm.

This Rabbi Shapiro would french kiss the boys, insert his tounge into their mouths, or would physically force his fingers into their mouths, he would lie down beside the boys on their beds, or would lay down across the boys whilst constantly touching them all over their bodies.

If you are a victim of Rabbi Shapiro, or know of anyone who might have been a victim, please contact us at tavictims@yahoo.com so that you can be included in our future lawsuit against TA.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to thank the Eisgrau daughter for sharing her childhood exeperI just wanted to thank the Eisgrau survivor for making her life experiences public. It really takes a great deal of courage to do what she's doing.

I agree with Rabbi Blau 100%. This survivor is extremely credible and rational. She is one of the most sane people I have met from Baltimore. It has been an honor getting to know her over the last few years.

If you or anyone you know has been abused by Rabbi Eisgrau please contact me immediately. I can be reached at The Awareness Center: 443-857-5560.

Anonymous said...

UOJ is Dead. Long Live UOJ.
---------------------------------
This week a group of enterprising do-gooders ("un")-successfully outed UOJ, a.k.a. The Un-Orthodox Jew. Unless you’ve been trapped under a rock, or offline, for the last six months, you know that a stark raving blogger has captivated, infuriated, and terrified the frum world and beyond by undertaking a one man holy crusade to crucify those he deemed arrogant, absent powers for allowing a small, but significant, number of child molesters and sex perverts work with and around vulnerable Jewish children in yeshivas, camps, and elsewhere.

To further his cause, this renegade blogger, UOJ, used intimidation, frothing rants, and his personal funds to strike fear into the oligarchy of influence he viewed as having strangled transparency and intellectual honesty in the frum community for more than a generation.

As for UOJ, he was only successful due to his embrace of the unfamiliar, and therefore frightening, technology of blogging. Through his blog, he provided a voice and a platform for those who had been silenced by the specter of public stigma, humiliation, and the not-so-subtle threat of “unnecessary” complications and ostracism when the time to marry off one’s children arrives -- the social gulag of frumkeit.

Outraged by the injustice, UOJ used his cover of anonymity to structure a forum where open ideas, intellectual honesty, and fearless admissions could blossom. Since January, his blog had attracted a growing community of thousands of readers and commentors who used the opportunity UOJ provided to constructively vent against those whose stranglehold on the status quo has stood unchallenged for decades. Yet, there is a dark side to freedom of expression when coupled with anonymity.

In short order, UOJ's blog became a magnet for the most vile loshon horah, the wildest of unsubstantiated claims, and a virtual cesspool of sniping, bickering, ad hominem attacks, misinformation, and outright sleaze. Some days, and often for weeks on end, it appeared as if every loser in the Jewish nation and beyond had found their way to the UOJ blog to spew vulgar, bitter, and no doubt agenda-driven drivel about all they saw as wrong with all things Jewish.

Without a doubt, by virtue of the fact that UOJ both allowed and in many cases fueled this environment, there is just cause for him to be taken to task.

Indeed, Judaism is a religion that does not condone the use of any means to achieve a particular end. One's actions must be frequently examined to insure they remain well in accordance with halacha, and just as important, common civility.

UOJ frequently crossed this line. He also, willingly or not, allowed himself to be irresponsibly misled by relying on any allegations, even if leveled anonymously. His methods often made it difficult or impossible to truly discern the motivation of the accuser; anonymous email is hardly the way to accurately verify truth and fact.

He is guilty of hubris and a foolish refusal to keep the cause of his mission formost and reverse course as needed. The biggest sin he committed was allowing his ego and raging god-complex to overwhelm the message and to undermine the credibility of those he was so committed to help.

With this said, there is also a valid argument to be made that desperate times call for desperate measures.

To an uncertain degree, our community is overdue for desperate measures. Our excesses in terms of spiritual abuse and the open cynicism of Jews disgusted by the exploitation and trivialization of all that is kadosh in our communities have become too great to ignore.

In recent years, kavod and influence have become the de facto currencies of our most densely populated frum metropolitan communities. As of late, these same communities are as easily characterized for their naked superficiality and neurotic, fetishistic obsession with superstition and the material trappings of religious observance as they are for chesed. The chesed is sincere, but does not successfully counterbalance the darker side of our communities

My feeling has long been that most forms of extremism will eventually find itself wandering into a collision course for a correction. And corrections are not known for being pleasant.

This said, I believe UOJ was that correction, or at the very least, a clear sign that the correction is coming. We can only pat ourselves on the back for having outlived the Nazis for so long. The substance of the communities and societies we so improbably built must ultimately rest on substance; that substance must be revisited and bulked up often.

Many, myself included, feel that huge segments of frum society are running on fumes. There is a hollow, empty wind blowing and the only thing that will stave off our being swept away will be to batten down the hatches of defining who we are, why we’re here, and what our role is. And the answer to none of these questions, as UOJ has forced us to face, is definitely NOT sheltering and enabling predators and perverts through inaction and apathy.

Therefore, while repugnant to many, I don’t believe anyone can truthfully insist that UOJ’s efforts were completely invalidated by his excesses. Since UOJ began his crusade, a lawsuit has been filed against the owner of Yeshiva Torah Temimah and a rebbe accused of serial molestation over the course of 25 years. So far, at least three people have gone on record to level these claims, and one yeshiva owner is being charged in a civil lawsuit for willful negligence among other charges. The damages to be collected run in the tens of millions. It is not out of the question that the plaintiffs will prevail. At this point, the outcome is anyone’s guess, but a guilty verdict would certainly send a constructive and long overdue message.

Furthermore, for these last six months, those who are irresponsible, or might I say wicked enough, to employ, harbor, and justify the activities of perverted individuals who prey on the vulnerable and innocent (and any child or teenager falls into this category), either through physical or psychological abuse were quaking in their boots. One Rasha Yeshiva in particular leapt to action only when threatened, and has since sat back to enjoy the view, as well as the reprieve the UOJ "non"-outing has no doubt provided.

For months, the three letters U.O.J. have struck terror into the hearts of those whose stock is a sterling reputation, regardless of how ruthlessly it is attained, to bolster fundraising and their leverage to attract "aleph" students. Such a climate of self-examination, even if precipitated by outside pressure, is healthy.

UOJ is responsible for creating this climate where the weak were finally empowered, the oppressed were finally uplifted, and the silenced were finally vindicated.

Whether those who have ("not") unmasked him, ("and outed an innocent person") have succeeded in silencing UOJ remains to be seen. One cannot know how those who feared him most will react from here on. Or if those who flocked to him so readily will continue to do so, now that the jBlogosphere’s Wizard of Oz has ("not") been unmasked.

Will people, deciding that the Wizard of UOJ is mere mortal, and hardly their omniscient savior, reject the man and his message and decide to move on?

Most of all, will the good he has done, even if tarnished by crude and vigilante tactics, result in lasting change and certain justice for the abused, oppressed, and silenced of our communities?

I certainly hope so, because his rude, anonymity notwithstanding, the man who we ("thought we knew as") UOJ was onto something. And I fear that those who delight over ("thinking they were crippling him") may unleash a societal cancer far more lethal that bruised egos and bullet holes in a flawed status quo.

posted by Still Wonderin' at 7:54 PM

Still Wonderin was not aware at the time of this post that the Belsky backed bloggers were in fact one-upped at their intended outing. A trap was laid to demonstrate to what lengths the Haredi world would go to attack a person and his family if they could create a smokescreen and a distraction to their crimes of enabling, coverup, smear campaigns..anything but deal with the real issues...fraud, phony hazmanas, enabling vicious child molesters... all under the guise of daas Torah.
My corrections to Still Wonderin's post appear in parentheses.
Chaval!!!!
UOJ

Anonymous said...

350 Years Later: The Excommunication of Spinoza.
--------------------------

This piece is a week late. I did not post it because of the war. Never the less, I feel it is relevant, if indirectly, to what is happening with attempts to silence UOJ, a controversial blogger. Such attempts have precedent, and are unfortunately, part of larger tradition of attempting to silence not only swashbuckling dissenters, but also towards uncomfortable ideas and the persons who broach them. Some of these ideas and concerns that have been condemned throughout our history were not motivated by an anti-religious bias; they were merely grappling with concepts, often with the incontrovertible.

If our rabbis had merely condemned specifics of Spinoza’s writing instead of severing him from the Jewish community and Jewish life, it is possible that many of our best and brightest would not have developed the assumption to operate outside the parameters of Normative Judaism.

Personal condemnations, bans, and excommunications are not always efficacious; they can have the opposite effect.

Spinoza was forced to operate outside the Jewish community, and therefore did just that.

Yet his legacy is massive. He influenced world leaders and thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.

But the rabbis’ excommunication of Spinoza did more than cast Spinoza himself from the Jewish community’s ranks. It also ensured that many of the great Jewish thinkers in the future would henceforth operate outside of traditional Judaism. Many haredi Jews will insist that Jewish genius is more common in the haredi world than outside of it because of intensive Talmudic training, but this may be wishful thinking, as even a portion of their most prominent leaders believed to be geniuses possibly lack a necessary secular component to their education and understanding of the world to have full relevance in the general marketplace of ideas; nor perhaps, do some of them even fully understand what they are considering banning. Even if they do understand, they are confined to a large degree by the ignorance of their constituency.

Spinoza’s shadow of indictment and continued popularity has long implied a communal resentment of the treatment he received. He is looked upon as a martyr, not only for justification of secularism, but for freedom of thought itself.

By excommunicating Spinoza, the Jewish clergy laid fertile and reasonable grounds for an explosion of secularism.

posted by David Kelsey at 9:55

Paul Mendlowitz said...

In Response to a commenter:

If Ner Israel was serious in getting the Eiseman victims to come forward, they would retain an attorney, the likes of Jeff Herman, to interview the victims. The victims would feel safe and would be protected by the attorney-client privilege.

Setting up a bais din to "invite" victims to come forward is a sham. These rabbis are not qualified to determine the validity of the allegations and certainly after all the phony batei din and rabbis on the take, who in their right mind would come forward to a rabbi?

GIMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAABBBBREAK!

Anonymous said...

Hello.
I've written you once before , and the comment did not get in.Perhaps it was not received;perhaps it was snowed under all the e-mails you say you are getting.I am trying again,because I believe there's an important lesson to be learned--and the K'llall must hear it,painful as it is.
I have virtually first-hand knowledge of the Ben-Zion Sobol case.Sobol was,perhaps still is,an extremely charismatic figure,and always attracted teen-age boys ,to whom he was both a father figure and a Rabbe,guide,and mentor.
He had a Yeshivah in Israel-- I believe it kept its name after the scandal regarding Sobol exploded ;he subsequently left the Yeshivah;the Yeshivah then reconstructed itself and does fine work ,and therefore I do not want to mention its name.
Yes, a Bais Din was formed to look into allegations of sexual molestation,and even worse-than-molestation.No, Sobol was not present.The Dayanim were intelligent enough to understand that the boys testifying were still psychologically under Sobol's sway;and would have been petrified to open their mouths in front of him.(though,I am sad to say,he had forced them to open their mouths in front of him ,so to speak,on many many occasions)The dayanim were knowledgeable enough to know that Halachically there was ample precedent to do this--a short teshuvah was written detailing why,giving precedents,etc,for any who would be sincerely interested to know why the Bais Din sessions were correct,and "kosher".
The boys testified-----one by one.Not in front of each other.No one knew who else was coming.
They told the same story.Sobol,UNDER THE GUISE OF DA'AS TORAH,performed unspeakable acts with them,in cars, in private rooms,in private homes..The boys were mesmerised by him----I know him-he was,perhaps still is, a truly spell-binding speaker and personality.
Get this,everyone-----here's why I know that UOJ is right on the money with his rants.Sobol would speak for hours about the rebbe -talmid relationship.Morah rab'chah k'Morah Shomayim.Hameharher achar rabbo kimeharher achar Hashechinah.All the blanketty blank ma'amarei chazal,all the propaganda about da'as Torah,all the garbage about emunas Chachomim(garbage in the way it has been presented for the last 80 Agudah-driven years,that is).The whole ball of wax,the whole nine yards.He could've been speaking at an Agudah convention.He would then take a boy,whichever boy he was in the mood of,I suppose,and he would bring him to a room,take him for a drive, and vitually force him to perform all kinds of unnatural,filthy,sexual acts with Sobol.(perhaps there was no penetration--they might've asked a shayloh,you know)
These were vulnerable boys who attended that Yeshivah--boys who had fallen out of the system,and were climbimg back.The yeshivah was a lifeline to them.Sobol was their hero,their guru,the one who made them feel good-----and the rosho used them for his sicko gratifications,telling them that the rebbe-talmid relationship made it all right,for they were as one,and were,in a spiritual sense,married to each other.
Sick?Impossible?How naive could these boys be?I asked myself the same questions--these were , after all, intelligent kids, not retards.
Better yet,I asked them.They answered---You do not understand.You can't.We were bombarded day in, day out, with the message that da'as torah is correct--infallible--right--that it is APIKURSUS to question Da'as Torah!That you do not understand what your rebbe does until forty years go by!And everywhere we looked in the society we wanted to associate with , we heard the same message..da'as Torah,do not question,you may not question,your hashkafohs are suspect if you are in doubt,if you think your Rebbe is wrong.........when you hear this all around you--and you are taught NOT to think for yourself--we are the results!
It's too late to help these boys now--they were helped to the degree possible back then (25 years ago?)..and I hope they've made normal lives for themselves.
The Bais Din ruled that the boys' 'testimonies' were plausible--believable--rang true---similar patterns,no inconsistencies...the boys broke down many times during the sessions and cried bitter tears,for their lives,their gullibility,their naivete..the Bais din ruled that Sobol may not be employed or otherwise given opportunities to be around boys,unsupervised.(No one talked about charges being filed-Sobol was in Israel,and was staying there.No one was interested,frankly--they just wanted him OUT!Right or wrong, that was the reality.)
K'lall Yisrael--these are the monsters you have created out of the myth of Da'as Torah as it is today presented --to allow self-interest,and much much worse,much worse!,to allow financial shenanigans,and worse,much much worse,to stymie criticism ,and to marginilize those who would make things right.
Go, UOJ.

Anonymous said...

GIMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAABBBBREAK????

Spinoza? YOU? You ARE a megalomaniac, and an idiot to boot. Spinoza was excommunicated for writing some of the most intelligent and subversive political philosophy in history. Ande better yet, he did so in the open, without a nom de plumme. Have you ever even HEARD of A Theologico-Political Treatise before this article, let alone read anything in it?
Unlike Baruch, you are a semi-literate fraud with no new ideas, hiding perpetually behind a mask while claiming to be comfortable with your identity being outed.
You are an ego-driven joke.
AND to make matters worse - you are a liar - not exactly a fitting heir to the hero of the enlightenment.


Reminds me of an old joke - a small town apikores comes to warsaw to meet the world famous warsaw apikores and learn from his heresy. He is directed to the man's house, and finds him on his way out to the mikva. confused, he follows assuming that the man will pee in the water or otherwise defile it, but the warsaw apikores instead immerses with tremendous kavvana. Then he proceeds to shul, davens extensively, and sits and learns torah for the rest of the morning. On his way to perform bikkur cholim in the afternoon, the small town apikores is overcome - "I dont understand - you're supposed to be the famous warsaw apikores - why are you doing all this??? I eat chazzer on yom kippur, sleep with a prostitute in shul, and work on shabbbos! But you - you're keeping all these halachos!! What gives?" So the warsaw apikores replies - "the difference between me and you, tatteleh, is that I'm an apikores, but you're a SHEIGETZ!"


Vhameivin yavin.

Anonymous said...

it is about time someone brought about Sobol so he got away with murder. I know someone who ended up crazy and was sent home from the yeshivah but now years later we realized what might of happened. I understand that sobol is gainfully employed although I am not sure what he is doing.

Anonymous said...

philosopher said...
AND to make matters worse - you are a liar - not exactly a fitting heir to the hero of the enlightenment
___________________________________

Hero of the enlightenment? Like Hitler was the "hero" of Nazism and Marx was the "hero" of Communism. I don't think UOJ wants to be associated with a movement that was as spiritually destructive as the enlightenment.

Anonymous said...

UOJ -- if NIRC hired the attorney to interview vicitms, there would be no attorney client privilege because the client would be NIRC not the victims. The victims should unite as a class (no pun intended) and hire their own attorney in which case their communications would be protected.

Anonymous said...

To call the Yeshiva Background Check Bill a baby step would be charitable. The bill, passed by both chambers of the New York state legislature and is awaiting Gov. Pataki's signature, would authorize private school's to run full, national criminal background checks on prospective employees. Note that the bill does NOT require background checks (in contrast to public schools which are required to do so), provide for the creation of a sex offender registry or require clergy to report credible allegations of abuse. The two latter steps would have had the potential of preventing some of the recent cases of sexual abuse in Jewish institutions while the proposed bil would not. Sadly, the fact that most religious groups support the bill is a furtherl sign of its salutary nature.

But it's a start. According to a community email sent by Elliot Pasik:
The Governor has, under law, until Wednesday, August 16, 2006, to sign the bill. I have been informed by legislative staff that emails and letters to Gov. Pataki can be helpful. Simply go to: ny.gov/governor/contact/.

You must mention the bill number, A.11399, which is unofficially known as the Nonpublic School Employee Background Check Bill.
As Mr. Pasik notes, this is not just about ensuring passage of the bill, but letting our elected officials know that abuse is an issue we care about:

I respectfully urge you to show our community's support for this bill. It will assist in assuring the bill's final rite of passage, and moreover, demonstrate to the Governor and legislative leaders our community's continued interest and direct involvement in matters of public concern.

posted by Krum as a bagel at 10:58 AM

Anonymous said...

TRENTON — The state Supreme Court upheld an appellate decision that a nonprofit private school can be held liable for sexual abuse by its employees, in a ruling released today.

The court ruled that the American Boychoir School in Princeton does not get protection from the state's Charitable Immunity Act because it applies only to negligence claims.

John W. Hardwicke sued the school and several employees in 2001, saying the music director, Donald Hanson, abused him when he was a child attending the school in the early 1970s. Hanson now lives in Canada and no longer works at the school.

In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz wrote the court finds "that the
CIA (Charitable Immunity Act) immunizes simple negligence only, and not "other forms of aggravated wrongful conduct, such as malice or fraud, or intentional, reckless and wanton, or even grossly negligent behavior.''''

Justices agreed 5-1, sending the case back to the trial division. Justice Roberto A.
Rivera-Soto dissented, disagreeing with the majority's interpretation of the act.

Anonymous said...

FROM: roshyeshivatt@gmail.com


The FBI has confirmed that this message was sent by........@ gmail.com.

To: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
Subject: See you Motzoei Shabbos


It has been a while that I have been meaning to talk with you. I felt for a long time that a simple conversation to explain certain realities to you would go a long way.

So this Motzoei Shabbos I think that we can straighten out a lot of issues.

As you can probably imagine, someone such as myself has a multi-faceted and multi-talented staff. They are, I assure you, extremely professional, which you will, of course, see for yourself at first hand. And none to soon.


I wonder whether you have ever considered making arrangements such as estate planning and other long-term preparations. One never knows when they might be providential.

As Shakespeare wrote, "Cowards die a thousand deaths, the valiant taste of death but once".

Getting scared yet?

This is just another anonymous netizen writing to you, this time, more out of curiosity than disgust. You are, of course, a thoroughly depraved individual, but that is not the reason I write. The above tone was for your entertainment only, I have no interest at all in threatening you and if you only had me to worry about, rest assured (no pun intended), you would be entirely safe.


Yours,
Big Ben Torah

Happy to hear from you Big Ben Torah. Hey...before I forget; what hechsherim and how many do you want on your prison meals?
Don't forget the gartel!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

THE EMES AND THE "BLOG"!!!!

Since the emes is what counts, the emes seekers are trying to insert "their" emes with the real emes. An example of "their" emes; no penetration=no molestation!

Just in case Big Ben Torah and his band of hats "hock" in their BS the new blog address will be:
aunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com

In case of an e-mail problem,
The new e-mail address will be: theunorthodoxjew@gmail.com

For now...things will remain the same.

BTW-LOOK FORWARD FOR SOME IMMINENT CLIMATE ADJUSTMENT!

SHEA-YOU JUST TELL ME WHEN THE "CLIMATE IS RIGHT" TO SET UP A SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY!

Anonymous said...

UOJ,

Let's see what's next before I make that decision. Maybe the article will be a shvacher article and I can keep stalling.
Ok, if you can come up with five thousand credible victims I may change my mind.
Please luz up already, you're ruining my summer. I can't swim or eat without Avrumie running over with a new UOJ alert!

Anonymous said...

UOJ,

I support you as do most sane people. But please take some of recent events to heart. Please dont start with the silliness and mockery--it plays right into the hands of your enemies.

Please focus on what needs to be focused on--relentlessly and unapologetically. I dont care who you are...I care more about your important message.

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

miss eigrau:
you did the right thing to tell your story. there is no other way to make these........!@#$ pay for what they have done, to you and to others.

Anonymous said...

I never thought of enablers targeting Rabbi Blau & his family. That's just awful.

I hope Hashem makes them pay a very dear price and we have a worthy shaliach called "UOJ eved Hashem" to make that happen.

Anonymous said...

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071025/NEWS/71025009/-1/crimedata01

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after police said he was found in a compromising position with an inflatable doll in a public restroom.

At 12:47 p.m., Craig S. McCullough, 47, 828 Eighth Ave. SW, was found lying on the floor in a bathroom inside the Hach building, 401 First St. Se, by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, according to the official complaint filed against him.

According to the criminal complaint, the man had his pants down “lying next to an anatomically correct inflatable doll.”

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has an office in the Hach Building. Special Agent David Hoagland, who found McCullough, could not comment on the incident.

McCullough remained in the Linn County Jail Thursday afternoon on a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

McCullough was convicted in 2004 of burglarizing Just For Me bridal boutique, 709 Third Ave. SE. Officers found him in a nearby alley carrying a mannequin wearing a bridal dress shortly after the burglary occurred.

Anonymous said...

Among the recommended blogs on the Hirhurim sidebar are these picks by Gil:

Marvin Schick
Harry Maryles
And Cross Currents from Menken & the Baltimore gang.

Anonymous said...

http://www.daashakohol.com/archives/178

Rabbi Weissmandels’ Contract Stipulates: Any Whistle-Blower, publicly, disclosing any Kashrus problems at Rubashkins’ will be FIRED and or FINED $5,000.00

Click to Download Entire Document in PDF

DaasHakohol.com has obtained a copy of Rabbi Weissmandels’ Contract, between him and all Shochtim at Rubashkins’ which forces every employee to sign an agreement which forbids them from publicly disclosing any wrongdoing or faults in Kashrus at Rubashkins’.

The contract further stipulates that any violation can result in the employee being fired and or fined $5,000.00.

The documents contained herein, also include several pages of proposed improvements in Kashrus, to correct Kashrus Problems which Weismandel concedes that they do in fact exist at Rubashkins’ and he proposes to remedy.

Since Rubashkin’s is covered in a cloud of secrecy, where their employees are threatened to be fired if they disclose any Kashrus Problems to the outside world and in addition, Rubashkin’s does not allow unannounced random Kashrus Inspections, by outside Rabbonim, there is no way to know if all of the Kashrus problems which Rabbi Weissmandel admits to, have ever been properly remedied or if they still exist today, unchanged.

Click to Download Entire Document in PDF

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about me. I'm the wonderful uncle Mario.

http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/EisemannFamilyTree.html

Anonymous said...

VAAD L'HATZOLAS NIDCHEI YISROEL
http://www.thevaad.com/
RABBINICAL COMMITTEE
HARAV AARON SCHECHTER
HARAV YAAKOV PERLOW
HARAV YAAKOV HOROWITZ
HARAV YITZCHOK FEIGELSTOCK
HARAV YOSEF HARARI RAFUL
HARAV MALKIEL KOTLER
HARAV MOSHE EISEMANN
HARAV FEIVEL COHEN
HARAV SHMUEL KAMINETZKY
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
RABBI NAFTOLI CUKIER
EPHRAIM HASENFELD
BARUCH HERTZ
Anyone that has any complaints about molestation or abuse connected with the Vaad can call board member Baruch Barry Hertz's wife Joan Hertz she is a social worker at Ohel
Http://www.nysed.gov/coms/op001/opscr2?profcd=72&plicno=063197
and she will surly know what to do or how to advise her husband. Her number at Ohel is 718 851 6300 and her home number is (718) 258-8274 and she lives at 1304 E Seventh St
Brooklyn, NY 11230-5104.
check out these
campaign contributions
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?zip=11230&last=Hertz&first=Barry

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?zip=11230&last=HERTZ&first=JOAN
Joan Hertz also operates a school for children
Haor Beacon School, 2884 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11229, 7183765400

Will Ohel take actiion on this Ms. Polin???

Anonymous said...

World Executive Council
of Ichud Mosdos Gur Israel

Conference in Italy

Daily Program

Monday – 17 Cheshvan October 29

9:00 - Welcome and Refreshments
13:00 - Lunch
15:30 – Minchah
15:45 – Shiur in Beis HaKnesses

16:30 - Opening Session
The Chareidi Sector in Israel – Where are we headed?

Host’s Introduction
The Fifth Convention – Generating Further Action / R’ Shlomo Werdyger

• The Thriving the Torah World
How the Private Business Sector Affects the Value of Giving /
HaRav HaGaon Moshe Chaim Lau, Rabbi of Netanya


• Parliamentary Cutbacks of the Budget
New, Behind-scenes Revelations /
Knesset Member R’ Yaakov Litzman

• Chareidim-run Businesses
A Summarized Report of Communal Chessed and Health Insurance
R’ Motti Schreiber

• The Ichud
Accomplishments of the World Executive Council in the years 2006-2007 –
A Review / R’ Moshe Aryeh Weinstein and R’ Yosef Meir Reichbard – Board Members of Ichud Mosdos Gur

• Symposium
o Facing Forward to Meet the Needs of the Community / Ideas and Suggestions

7:30 – End of Session
7:45 – Maariv
8:00 – Dinner

9:00 – Russian Jewry under Putin / HaGaon HaRav Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi, Russia
Jewish Folklore and Way of Life / Rabbi Meir Schwartz, Popular Arachim Lecturer





Bs”D

Tuesday – 18 Cheshvan October 30

6:45 – Daf Yomi Shiur
7:30 – Shacharis
8:15 – Breakfast
9:40 – Journey through the Time
Avnei Olam - An Unmatched Experience – the First-of-its Kind
We’ll backtrack sixty years, tour a shtetel in Poland, catch a glimpse of the typical tradesman in Warsaw. We’ll enter a Jewish home of those days, sit together in a Gerrer shtiebel in Lodz and travel to Gur in a legendary train. We’ll conjure up memories and listen to first-hand testimonies and stories, thus connecting to the deep roots from which our legacy has sprouted.

11:30 – In Memory of the Kedoshim
Host:
R’ J. Rosenkranz
In Memory of the Kedoshim of the Kehilla of Lintshitz, Hy"d


A World that was Destroyed and has Ceased to Exist – HaGaon HaRav Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv, Yaffo

Survivors’ Testimonials - Mesiras Nefesh and Jewish faith / A Documentary Film

The Survivors’ Hope / HaRav HaChassid Rabbi Chaim Mandel
A Generation’s Recovery from the Ashes

2:00 – Lunch

15:30 – : קבלת שלום ‘Shulem Nemen’

16:30 – Minchah

Torah Pearls / Delving into the Teachings of the Sfas Emes, zy”a

18:00 – Maariv

18:15 – The Main Dinner, led by the Admor, shlita

Presentation of Recognition Awards
HaRav HaChassid R’ Yosef Reichbard, Ichud Representative

Chairing the Festive Program
HaRav HaChassid Rabbi Chaim Plutchenik, Member of World Executive Council



Host’s Address
HaRav HaChassid R’ Shlomo Werdyger, Member of World Executive Council


Main Address
HaGaon HaRav Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv, Yaffo


Wednesday, 18 Cheshvan October 31

6:45 - Daf Yomi Shiur
7:45 – Shacharis
8:45 – Breakfast

Private Audience with the Admor, shlita (with prior appointment)

Global Economy

9:45 – The Economy in the Era of Globalization, and its Effect on the Real Estate, Stock and Diamond Markets - Heavenly Assistance as the Secret to Success

Guest of Honor – R’ Lev Leviev


Health as a Springboard to Financial Growth – Lawyer R’ Mendel Zilberberg
Member, Board of Management, Medical Center of Ashdod


The Real Estate Market – Future Goals and Development in the United States and Around the World / Mr. Howard Koppel, Founder and Executive Director of Sutton Allanca

13:15 – Lunch

15:30 – Minchah

16:00 – Siyum of Talmud Yerushalmi
Birkas HaDerech

Chairman: Rabbi Eliyahu Aftergutt

Siyum Maseches Taanis / Rabbi Avraham Noach Klein
Starting Maseches Shekalim / Rabbi Zvi Reizman

18:00 – Maariv
18:30 – Dinner

20:00 – שבת אחים גם יחד

Musical Entertainment

With notable singers: R’ Moshe Weintraub, R’ Shlomo Gertner, R’ Binyamin Helfgott, The Neilender Brothers
Musical Arrangements: R’ Yehoshuah Fried

Anonymous said...

Sexual molestation of minors up 16%

Recent government data shows 16% rise in sexual molestation of minors since 2000. Numbers believed to be higher since many cases go unreported. 'If the State keeps ignoring the problem nothing will change,' says Head of National Council for the Child

Yael Branovsky Published: 10.28.07, 16:43 / Israel News

Anonymous said...

Because of this monstrous situation protected by the rabbis, and others like it, I truly believe there is no such thing as Daas Torah. They make it up just to control people, and if something bad happens, well that's life.

Anonymous said...

I think that the World Executive Council
of Ichud Mosdos Gur Israel should invite Vicki Polin, UOJ, Rabbi Blau and Phil Jacobs to speak.

Anonymous said...

Anybody know what the end of the story was with the Hafner molester in Bobov? Did the victim get justice? Where is Hafner today?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

From The L.A. Times...Yeshivas are not far behind...

"A grim economic reality has been building for years in the nation's Catholic schools: Hit by rising costs and tuition and declining enrollment, many are fighting for survival.

The Los Angeles Archdiocese, which recently announced the closing of Daniel Murphy Catholic High School, has been beset by the same pressures, with total enrollment dropping to about 62,000 this year from more than 100,000 seven years ago. The student body at Daniel Murphy, which is subsidized by the Archdiocese, had dropped to 231 students from more than 500, and the Fairfax-area school was in jeopardy of cutting back its curriculum.

The number of Catholic schools in the United States declined by more than 850 from 1990 to 2005; scores of such institutions in New York, Detroit and St. Louis operating at deficits have closed in recent years.

Also, multimillion-dollar financial settlements reached with victims of priest sexual abuse have created new financial stresses".

Anonymous said...

Eisgrau has a son in law who had a bad reputation in shidduchim.

He reportedly got upset at a daughter of a rosh yeshiva he was going out with and spit in her face.

Anonymous said...

Who is related from the Feinstein side?

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/10/about-baltimore-and-number-of-cases.html

For years there have been rumors going around that there was a cousin of rav Moshe Feinstein who was seen as the black sheep of the family. Some say this cousin molested the Schisgal twins and possibly also one if not both of the Tendler brothers. Other's say that Mordecai molested his younger brother and his twin cousins. Many say that the Schisgal twins and Mordecai are very close friends, yet no one else in the Feinstein/Tendler families speak to them. The rumor is that the Schisgal twins allegedly posed for Penthouse magazine back in the early 1960's. A family member was able to get the images pulled prior to the publication of the magazine. Again this is all hearsay information and rumor. According to statistics it's over 90% of those involved in prostitution and or pornography are survivors of child molestation.

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/10/about-baltimore-and-number-of-cases.html

What can I say about the case of rabbi Matis Weinberg besides the fact that the rumors of him of being an alleged sex offender have been floating around for decades. Many say one of his siblings confessed to being raped by Matis during his childhood. The allegations is that Matis was only 16 years old at the time. If all of this is true, one has to ask, who molested Matis Weinberg? Was it a case of incest or someone outside the family?

I heard that Matis spent part of his childhood in Canada. If he was abused, could his offender be Canadian? Or was there someone on the Ner Israel campus that could have been his offender? Could he have been abused by Ephraim Shapiro? There was rumors that back in the day there was a rav on the campus of Ner Israel that was problematic. Could that mysterious rav the culprit?

I also wonder how is it that Moshe Eisemann ended up in Baltimore? I mean the real reason? Again he's another individual who has an alleged history of offending boys and young adult men. Why is it that he is being protected by the administration at Ner Israel? Is it because he is related by marriage to those in power? I also wonder if he helped to bring rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau to Baltimore along with Aron Goldberger. Both Eisgrau's and Goldberger's wives are Eisemann's.

-- and then we have the case of Shmuel Juravel. Rumors are that rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau made Shmuel a special project. What we don't know is if Shmuel could have been molested by Eisgrau or someone else in his family or the community? The first allegations made against Shmuel was when he was around 15 years old. At that time several boys came forward to the rabbinical authorities in Baltimore. Nothing was done, except that Shmuel was sent away. That's the same thing that happened when the allegations first came up against Matis Weinberg.

We all have to ask if Shmuel was abused as a child? If he was did he have more then one offender? It's not that unusual for a child who was sexually victimized to have multiple perpetrators. I also heard rumors that at least one of Shmuel's victims has become an offender. It's so sad to hear this because this is one tradition that needs to end.

I also wonder about Ephraim Bryks? We all know his father committed suicide and that was part of the reason why he went to Ner Israel. What we don't know is if Bryks was an incest survivor, or could he have been abused outside the home? If it was outside the home, was he molested by Matis Weinberg when he was on the campus of Ner Israel? Could it have been that Bryks was part of the alleged gang of boys that were molesting boys on the campus. Rumors are that Matis was the ring leader of this gang. I also am interested in learning the names of the other boys that were apart of Matis's gang? Who were the victims of this alleged criminal behavior?

I also wonder if the boys who were a part of this gang, are now considered part of our rabbinical leadership of today? Could that part of the reason there is such a resistance in some communities to do the right thing?

I'm trying to remember if I'm leaving out any other alleged or convicted offenders connected to Baltimore?

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/10/about-baltimore-and-number-of-cases.html#5988888370546604431

Shalom Tendler and Matis Weinberg went to Kerem In San Jose where they were found molesting kids and the school was shut down.

Anonymous said...

http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-periodical-jewish-word-vol-1-no-2.html

I received another issue of The Jewish Word, published by Religious Zionists of America (Rabbi Yosef Blau, President). The newspaper has a number of right-wing op-eds on various topics. There is also an article about R. Shlomo Amar that is quite good in that it tries to show his efforts regarding conversion standards in a positive light, which I think it succeeds in doing.

There is still no devar Torah. However, there is a picture on the front page of R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the leading Torah scholar in the Lithuanian yeshiva world. I'm not sure why a Religious Zionist newspaper would publish such a picture on its front page, especially when it has no connection to any story.

Later in the newspaper there is a picture of R. Shlomo Amar, Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, and a different picture of... the pope. However, I think the pope might be part of an advertisement for Touro. The entire page is in a different font and it is a puff piece about Touro's medical school. So I suspect that it might be an ad.

Somewhat tone deaf is the front-to-back page eulogy for Rebbitzen Tendler by ** her children **. There's no need to go into detail about why that editorial decision is just so, so wrong.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Shalom Tendler and Matis Weinberg were together in Kerem, and the school was closed down because kids were getting molested!

Shalom Tendler was thrown out of YULA - Yeshiva University Los Angeles, and The Young Israel Of North Beverly Hills---draw your own conclusions!

He now has a yeshiva where he is mentoring kids. Good luck to the lucky students and their parents!

Anonymous said...

Daas Hakohol readers are reporting that the lights were on all night with people running around the Crown Hts Vaad office.

They say that Rubashkin has been hit with a major audit.

Anonymous said...

One word of advice to Moishe Rubashkin:

Take it slow and don't jam the paper shredder.

Anonymous said...

http://www.daashakohol.com/archives/177#comment-8510

Some Rubashkin henchman is threatening to reveal the identities of whoever is behind the DaasHakohol blog.

Anonymous Says:

October 29th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
This site is becoming a liability to Lubavitch.

I am planning to publicize the the names of ….. its originator and ….. its current master.

Maybe that will cause at least its baalhabotim to be more careful about what they post……………………..

You can email me at …….@gmail.com

The blogger responds:

Thanks for the compliment.

Sounds like you are finally getting the message!

Looks Like, Men Hut Dir Ungerirt IN PUPIK AREIN !

Veharaaya? You are finally getting desperate, B.H. and finally starting to THREATEN Daashakohol!

Boruch S. V. V. Lizaman Hazeh !

Anonymous said...

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/518/908/1600/belsky%20hazmana.2.jpg

Just curious if Belsky had to change his cell phone number that he wrote on the bogus hazmanna to Greenwald.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Gumshoe,

Because justice grinds ever so slowly! 45 years for Eisemann, 40 years for Kolko, 15 plus years for Mordecai Tendler...you get the picture.

Anonymous said...

http://savefile.com/files/53776

Are there any more embarassing videos taken of me out there that haven't been released yet? Ich hob moyreh that they nailed me at Rubashkin.

Anonymous said...

http://www.daashakohol.com/files/Weismandels_Report-Problems_at_Rubashkin_and_his_Corrupt_Contract.pdf

I hope UOJ doesn't make fun of me. I made a boo boo and wrote this shtar with a clumsy choice of words. I mentioned the word "Shevach" many times.

No reference to Moish Finkel was intended.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

It's always the meshugoyim who have it backwards!
---------------


Kucinich questions Bush's mental health 1 hour, 23 minutes ago

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III.


"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

Anonymous said...

What a sham the Ichud Molestas Gur conference is.

A • Symposium
o Facing Forward to Meet the Needs of the Community / Ideas and Suggestions

Whaddaya think?

Just keep writing them welfare checks.

Hey Ichud! how about using the money these fat cats are giving you and setting up A Trade School to teach your young hasids a parnassah so that they can get off their fat asses, become self-reliant, and support their families instead of this constant mooching?

A Shanda V'Charpa!

Anonymous said...

R' Mordechai Becher is a tremendous talmid chochom & a very brilliant man. I'm not sure why he bothers working for Suchard at Gateways as he is leagues beyond them. In any case, his handlers wanted him to give a shiur on how PETA is not compatible with Torah views.

Rav Becher showed candor and did not shy away from saying Rubashkin is not behaving.

Most rabbinical spines would turn to jelly and not admit it. His wording was very clever when describing the fudgers out there, saying that even they could only honestly say that Rubashkin keeps "most" halachos. I wouldn't be surprised if Rav Becher has already gotten an earful about it.

http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/14395/

"There were certainly rabbis who agreed with the animal-rights groups that not all appropriate laws were being kept" in Postville, acknowledged Becher in an interview after the event.

Yet "most rabbis," he continued, "felt that most laws were being kept, and disputed the facts that were claimed and [their] physiological implications."

To further demonstrate that Jewish tradition is sensitive toward animals, Becher reminded people that there is no obligation to eat animals in Jewish tradition. He even hesitated to call shechitah "ritual slaughter" because it "implies that we're somehow obligated to slaughter animals."

He also cited the traditional Jewish saying whenever someone buys clothing -- "get a new one" -- a blessing meaning that one should live long enough to wear the garment out and then get a new one. Jews do not use that saying for shoes, he noted, because they are traditionally made from leather. In his view, that would constitute "praying that another animal gets killed."

J. "יהוא בן יהושפט בן נמשי" Izrael said...

UOJ and all who read this,

There is some scumbag who started lately to impersonate me. I never post on any "blogger" comments with my name (Yossi Izrael). On any such message boards I sign in with my nickname "Yehu".

UOJ, if you can figure out who this is please let me know. In any case delete the imposteur's comment. And please warn him never to get in my arm's reach.

THX.

Anonymous said...

There seems to be some confusion regarding the Weinfeld's lowlife and he is indeed a lowlife if you know the truth about him and his scummy parents. I don't think he is a full fledged member of the shul but is seen around because his shver is a Weinfeld guy.

Anonymous said...

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/10/27/news/regional/2f062ca95e35e69386257380007f4250.txt

Saturday, October 27, 2007 6:13 AM CDT
Judge denies motion to dismiss Agriprocessors suit

Anonymous said...

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=312707

A Chinese restaurant in Moscow is being investigated for butchering stray dogs and selling the meat to diners as lamb, Russian police said.

Anonymous said...

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=311175

Sascha Baron Cohen has a big distraction from newfound fatherhood after one of the unwitting subjects in the 2006 feature film Borat filed a lawsuit against him and 20th Century Fox.

Kathie Martin, who operates the Etiquette School of Birmingham in Alabama, appeared in a scene where Cohen's fictional character Borat Sagdiyev shows a naked picture of his "son" and boasted about the boys genitalia size, the New York Daily News reports.

Martin filed the suit in the Manhattan Supreme Court, alleging "commercial misappropriation, fraud, unjust enrichment, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional stress," and is seeking an undisclosed amount for damages.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/world/asia/31chemical.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

October 31, 2007
Chinese Chemicals Flow Unchecked to Market
By WALT BOGDANICH
This article was reported by Walt Bogdanich, Jake Hooker and Andrew W. Lehren and written by Mr. Bogdanich.

MILAN — In January, Honor International Pharmtech was accused of shipping counterfeit drugs into the United States. Even so, the Chinese chemical company — whose motto is “Thinking Much of Honor” — was openly marketing its products in October to thousands of buyers here at the world’s biggest trade show for pharmaceutical ingredients.

Other Chinese chemical companies made the journey to the annual show as well, including one manufacturer recently accused by American authorities of supplying steroids to illegal underground labs and another whose representative was arrested at the 2006 trade show for patent violations. Also attending were two exporters owned by China’s government that had sold poison mislabeled as a drug ingredient, which killed nearly 200 people and injured countless others in Haiti and in Panama.

Yet another chemical company, Orient Pacific International, reserved an exhibition booth in Milan, but its owner, Kevin Xu, could not attend. He was in a Houston jail on charges of selling counterfeit medicine for schizophrenia, prostate cancer, blood clots and Alzheimer’s disease, among other maladies.

While these companies hardly represent all of the nearly 500 Chinese exhibitors, more than from any other country, they do point to a deeper problem: Pharmaceutical ingredients exported from China are often made by chemical companies that are neither certified nor inspected by Chinese drug regulators, The New York Times has found.

Because the chemical companies are not required to meet even minimal drug-manufacturing standards, there is little to stop them from exporting unapproved, adulterated or counterfeit ingredients. The substandard formulations made from those ingredients often end up in pharmacies in developing countries and for sale on the Internet, where more Americans are turning for cheap medicine.

Because United States drug regulators require pharmaceutical suppliers to meet high standards, the American supply chain is among the world’s safest. But as China’s chemical suppliers multiply, Congressional investigators are questioning the F.D.A.’s ability to protect consumers.

“The facts are irrefutable,” Mr. Theriault, the former Pfizer official, told Congress. “The importation of counterfeit, infringing, misbranded and unapproved pharmaceutical products in the United States is increasing exponentially.” Pfizer makes Viagra, one of the drugs most often counterfeited.

Finding uncertified companies feeding the market is not difficult. Orient Pacific International, the Milan registrant whose owner did not show up, advertised that it makes and exports pharmaceutical ingredients to “worldwide famous medical companies.” The owner, Mr. Xu, is accused of selling counterfeit medicine to treat ailments like cancer, mental illness and heart disease, according to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E.

Mr. Xu shipped drugs to an Internet pharmacy, investigators say. But he also penetrated the highly regulated supply chain of legitimate distributors in Europe, said David A. Faulconer, a customs official. Acting on tips from large drug companies, federal officials devised a plan to stop him from doing the same in the United States.

Posing as a buyer, an investigator for the immigration and customs agency met Mr. Xu in Bangkok on March 6. Mr. Xu gave him “detailed suggestions for transshipment and smuggling techniques to evade United States Customs detection,” federal records show.

After investigators bought multiple shipments of counterfeit drugs, Mr. Xu traveled to Houston “to consummate an agreement for widespread distribution of his counterfeit products in the United States,” according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Federal agents arrested Mr. Xu

The Times found several other companies posing as manufacturers, thereby obscuring a drug’s provenance. In a recent joint statement, chemical associations in the United States and Europe cautioned that globalization has led to a rise in complexity in supply chains, “increasing the potential for contamination, mislabeling or substitution.”

Pharmaceutical ingredients can pass through three or four trading companies, none of which check their quality. The ultimate manufacturer may not realize the ingredients came from an uncertified chemical company.

Mr. Nie, for example, said he markets Viagra’s main ingredient, sildenafil, through a partnership with a chemical company in a distant region that he has never visited. “We met them at a trade fair,” he said. “This company didn’t even have a booth at the fair. They were standing outside the entrance to the exhibition center, and they handed us a flier with a menu of their products.”

He said he was trying to the reach the factory, which has no Web site, to fill a Croatian company’s order.

“Our main markets are in Latin America — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,” he said. “A little in Canada, a little in the United States. In Europe, we export to Germany, Russia, Italy.”

The French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis grew weary of watching other companies sell knockoffs of its new diet drug, Acomplia, and alerted French authorities that three Chinese companies were marketing their own version of the product at the 2006 pharmaceutical ingredient trade show, held in Paris. Six Chinese company officials were arrested.

One of those arrested in Paris was Jin Lijie, managing director of the Wuxi Hexia Chemical Company. Still, Wuxi Hexia showed up in Milan in 2007 selling a line of pharmaceutical ingredients.

Its representatives declined to be interviewed in Milan, or at its offices in the boomtown of Wuxi. “We are all young college graduates and we are still learning about the market,” said an employee named Du Yanqun.

To find out how well American consumers are being protected from unsafe imported drugs, investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently accompanied F.D.A. officials on inspections of drug plants in China and India.

In a letter to the F.D.A. commissioner, the committee said that the agency was unable to provide such basic information as the number of firms exporting to the United States, and that overseas F.D.A. inspectors lacked necessary logistical support. A House hearing on F.D.A. oversight of foreign drug manufacturers is scheduled for Thursday.

“China alone has more than 700 firms making drug products for the U.S., yet the F.D.A. has resources to conduct only about 20 inspections a year in China,” said Representative John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

And efforts to close the regulatory gap must overcome one particularly thorny issue: some uncertified companies accused of selling counterfeit drugs are owned by the government itself

Anonymous said...

Pindrus supporter Mordehai Rabinovitz, was hospitalized several weeks ago after he was beaten and his collar bone broken by pro-Rubinstein activists.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380695563&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

As residents of the haredi town of Betar Illit went to the ballots on Tuesday to choose their next mayor and city council, haredi politicians and activists estimated that election results, to be released late Tuesday night, would impact the balance of haredi political power on a national level.

On the face of it, the battle for control of the municipality of Betar - the fastest-growing town outside the Green Line - is a war between historic enemies within Orthodoxy: the rationalist Lithuanians vs. the spiritualist Hassidim.

Incumbent Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus, a high-ranking member of the Lithuanian Degel Hatorah faction of UTJ, is running against present Deputy Mayor Meir Rubinstein, a Breslav hassid backed by Boyan hassid MK Meir Porush (UTJ), who has staked his political future on Rubinstein's victory.

However, a closer look reveals that the fight for control over Betar is riddled with political machinations that cross traditional lines of conflict and has nothing to do with the respective platforms of the mayoral candidates.

UTJ Chairman Ya'acov Litzman, a Ger hassid, has provided behind-the-scenes backing to Pindrus the "Litvak" against Porush's candidate in an attempt to weaken Porush's standing in Agudat Yisrael, the hassidic faction within the UTJ.

Porush represents a group within Agudat Yisrael called Shlomei Emunei Yisrael, which brings together over a dozen small hassidic sects.

Porush hopes that a victory for his candidate in Betar - a town with a population of 27,000, of whom 12,000 are eligible to vote - will strengthen his political standing vís-a-vís Ger hassidim, who currently control Agudat Yisrael. However, if Porush's candidate loses the mayoralty bid, his political future will be uncertain.

Meanwhile, Litzman might have another reason for supporting Pindrus against Rubinstein. Pindrus broke a signed agreement with Rubinstein, in which he promised not to run for a second term as mayor. Pindrus defended his actions by saying he had received specific orders from Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the supreme halachic authority of Lithuanian haredi Jewry, to run despite the agreement. According to haredi sources, Litzman might use Pindrus's agreement-breaking precedent to his advantage.

According to a rotation agreement between Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah, Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Uri Maklev of Degel Hatorah is supposed to replace Agudat Yisrael's Ya'acov Cohen in the coming months. However, Litzman, pointing to Pindrus's lack of respect for signed agreements, might refuse to honor this deal, thus keeping Cohen, a Ger hassid, in the Knesset and maintaining unchallenged control over the UTJ.

Meanwhile, Pindrus also has the backing of Porush's own Boyan sect, a relatively small dynasty which nevertheless has a large representation in Betar. For political reasons, Boyan Rabbi Nahum Dov Brayer did not back Porush's candidate.

Viznitz Hassidim, probably the second-largest sect in Israel after Ger, are also backing Pindrus. Viznitz's decision to support Pindrus is part of an agreement between Boyan and Viznitz to join forces in Agudat Yisrael. The agreement could increase the chances that Viznitz MK Shmuel Alpert (UTJ) will continue to serve in the next Knesset, thus preventing former MK Yisrael Eichler, a Belz hassid, from returning.

Rubinstein has the backing of most other hassidic sects and the Sephardi haredi Shas Party.

On Monday night, Shas mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef came to Betar and, before a crowd of about 1,000, voiced his support for Rubinstein. However, the Sephardi vote is split, since Betar's chief Sephardi rabbi, Rabbi Ya'acov Tufik, has come out in support of Pindrus.

Over the past few weeks, the election campaign has upset the delicate balance in a town that has almost every imaginable hassidic sect, as well as a large Sephardi and Lithuanian population.

Anonymous said...

http://www.hernandotoday.com/MGBA8M06F8F.html

John B. Norman knocked on the door of a Brooksville home last July knowing a likely victim would answer, authorities say.
One did — on that day and the day after that, according to an affidavit from the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.

Norman and an accomplice, working as contractors for The Better Butcher Shop, sold $4,353 worth of frozen meat to an 82-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the report states.

The two returned the very next day and made another $4,000 sale to the same man who had forgotten the first day’s purchase, according to the affidavit.

Evidence also indicates that Norman, while working for another food company, pulled a similar scam on the same victim last year, the affidavit states. That time, he walked away with $11,420, according to the report.

“This crime (was) only able to be committed based on the victim’s declining mental status,” Detective Jeff Kraft wrote in the affidavit charging the 42-year-old Norman, of Port Charlotte, with one count of exploitation of the elderly.

Timothy W. Taylor, 27, of Tampa was also arrested and charged in connection with the July case.

Such crimes targeting the elderly are on the rise in Hernando County, Kraft and Sheriff Richard Nugent said Tuesday. Nugent has done some shifting in his detective division and assigned Kraft to full-time duty on elderly exploitation and fraud cases.

Anonymous said...

Regarding Rabbi Eisgrau...were you aware that the daughter making these allegations - let's call her G - has no actual memory of the alleged event, only a therapist's - let's call her V -suggestion thereof?  How about that G also tried to convince at least one of her sisters that she, G,  has clear memories of the two of them being abused in tandem, a claim which has been categorically denounced in all its respects by the sister in question? This "event" - so clear in the memory of G - just didn't happen, and G cut her sister off when G proved unable to convince her that it had.  In fact, contrary to the claims made in her open letter to her father, the family HAS made occasional attempts to reach out to G - SHE cut herself off from THEM, not the other way around as she claims. 

As to why the siblings haven't made more of an attempt to connect with G, consider: they all grew up, eleven (I think) siblings in a small house where privacy - let alone secrets - were impossible.  They KNOW these allegations are not just false, but heinous.  Add this certain knowledge to G's attempt to plant memories in the memory of at least the one sister as mentioned above - would YOU seek her out in their place?

Perhaps G actually believes her claim.  I would almost rather believe that she does, to believe that she has allowed the "memory", as suggested by Therapist V, has become her reality, rather than thinking that G is merely a bad person doing a very bad thing who is still holding on to childhood insecurities and hurts.

I can't speak to the other alleged abuser mentioned, but knowing what I know, I am highly doubtful of the veracity of the claims made against Rabbi Eisgrau. 

Please be very, very careful when "reporting" this type of innuendo.

Anonymous said...

the truth is not at all like Genendy Radoff says it is. She made up a story and spent years profecting it. Of course she sounds believable. She read many books and articles for real victims and knows just what to say. What she won't share are her records from there, yes THREE different mental health facilities that came to the conclusion that she was not molested. According to her story ( read her blog) she was raped by her father. Then it changed to anal rape. The third story became oral sex. Its all on her blog. Can't make it up. Her grandfather molested her also and she was gang raped by a group of yeshiva guys. She also was set up with a "bum" therapist who was a great therapist before and after her. Research that for yourself on line.
What is most interesting is that Genendy Radoff was Married by none other then Barry Freunel who over saw her Mikvah prior to the wedding. She NEVER talks about the one true abuser in her life.
Bottom line is, talk to people who know her and watched her story develop and you will hear the truth. Talk to people who only met her once she was a self proclaimed victim, and you only here the fraud that is in front of them.
Do your own research. It is a sad day when the victims of abuse are the accused.