Do any of you really stop and think what this gedolim thing is all about? Does anybody ever stop and think; when did our Mesorah stop? Are the proclamations now rendered by the group of stand-up comics known as the Moetzes Gedolei Torah (they all agree that they are gedolim), part of our Mesorah? Will our great grandchildren consider Pinchos Scheinberg's penetrating psak, Mesorah? Is it part of our Mesorah for hassidic rebbes to permit their followers, nay, encourage and urge their followers to destroy each other in the name of who is the rightful heir to the dynasty, actually a milchemet mitzvah or holy war? Can any human fathom the sanctioned destruction of their souls in the name of Judaism?
Can you believe that THOUSANDS of people are actually waiting for the Lubavitcher Rebbe to dust himself off and get on a white donkey for his announcement that he's Moshiach? Thousands of faxes to his tomb weekly are believed to be read and answered by him? ARE YOU NUTS?
There are NO gedolim, only people. Some people are very wise, some are not so wise, and some are downright evil and ignorant.
Somebody dies and a son takes over the family business, have we hatched a gadol?
Somebody else is a charismatic speaker with some Torah knowledge, have we a gadol?
Is not a gadol suppose to be a giant, a legend, a titan, an icon, a tzaddik, an extremely wise man, a baal machshava, so embedded with truth and Torah, that it becomes inseparable from their being? Torah and truth must be intertwined, inseparable, or there is no Torah! The Torah is truth; if it becomes distorted it is not Torah! These imposters that we have today are just that, phony fraudulent imposters and rabbi-impersonators. Gedolim? How many of you saw a real live gadol? Spent time with a gadol? Learned at the feet of a gadol? How many of you ever saw a human being so developed with their tziddkus that they would rather die than utter a sheker or intentionally hurt another human in any manner, by action or inaction?
How many of you ever saw a human that would actually bawl after hearing the pain of a fellow Jew that was a complete stranger to them? How many? Who among you can actually, really feel pain, unable to eat, lose weight, cry, when you find out another Jewish child was molested by a rebbe who was suppose to teach him Torah? How many? Look at yourselves! You go around with your daily business just wondering where you're going for Pesach and if the tea room will be open 24 hours!
Do you care? DO YOU CARE? Does anyone care?
I have met, learned by, spent considerable time with, and spoken to different generations of giants, I know what a gadol is; there are no more gedolim. What we have today are a pathetic group of ignorant, uneducated, unsophisticated, boorish, selfish, money driven, losers! From the U.S.A. to the "Holy Land" each person that is considered a gadol by the masses, falls into one of these categories, some fall into every category. I despise them; every single one of them for destroying "emunas chachomim", a little bit at a time. When you know the real thing, how can you live with these pitiful morons? When you experienced the awe of great Jews, when you are blessed with the ability to comprehend greatness, you can't accept in any way, what are posing today as rabbis. These people are giants/gedolim of utter destruction!
I am amused with the example that the Agudah sets as "achakolo b'chol yom sheyavo", "we await daily the arrival of Moshiach", while they book Madison Square Garden seven and one half years in advance for their version of "American Idol", called siyum hashas. Some emunah! Of course, they will tell you, that's in the event He does not come. I say BULL-CHOLENT! They have an agenda that does not include your welfare. Remember, Lipa Margulies led the gathering in saying tehillim, can you imagine that? Frankly, I would have rather have had Jimmy Carter lead the crowd with tehillim and the reading of his Jew-hate-filled book. With Carter, at least, there's no ambiguity as to who the enemy is.
Rabosai; we are in a generational war. We will win, no doubt. But it will take energy, participation, and fortitude. The Taliban-like rabbis and their supporters must be defeated. There is no room in our civilized society for "halacha" sanctioned evil. The Internet is as evil as a gun. You can use the Internet to protect yourself and your family with it, by learning, studying, researching, increasing your income, providing parnassah, and you can kill yourself with it, spiritually. Did you ever see a gun on trial? There is a person behind the gun/computer that must be educated and taught responsibile behavior with this great "weapon". You can fend off robbers in the middle of the night with a gun, or you can kill family members, Rachmana l'tzlan. Money can be used for good and evil, do you think these cavemen would consider meeting over a fire on the issue of banning money? Let's ban women while we're banning, women have caused men so much grief, pain, suffering and sin since Adam lost his tail bone:-). Especially now, they're wearing denim, now is the time!
THEY want to make these decisions for you, HA! They're in the Stone-Age. Who are they, the Nickelsburger Rebbe, the Dollarsburger Rebbe, the Drekburger Rebbe,the Carlos-bomber Rebbe, and the gang of terrorists that met on asareh b'Teves? What are their qualifications that they have rights to issue you 60 pages of fatwa manifesto directives on banning the use of the Internet? How do they earn a living? Off public assistance, that's how. This Internet issue is merely symbolic of the fear that they have. Too much information will ruin their business. Their ignorance and their inability to reconcile Torah and science makes them scared silly. You have the ability to access information that frightens them; they DO NOT want you to know anything other than what they tell you. This is not about porn sites, this is about their inability to control your thought process. Their death knell!
If you are convinced that rabbis and rebbes are no more closer to God than you are, they're out of business. If their brachas are worthless, why stand in line until the wee hours of the morning begging them to take your money? The more they take, the better they make you feel. JUST LIKE DRUGS! Do they care about you? Or are you only as good as your last check, or cash under the table to the gabbai-doorkeeper-zookeeper? What a freak show! What circus did they perform at before moving to Boro Park?
To paraphrase the verbiage of the great thinker, scientist/philosopher Carl Sagan; "their posturing, their imagined self-importance, their belief that they are somehow in a position of privilege in the universe, is unfathomable."
And these eternal words of wisdom of Sagan on the psychology of humans;(paraphrase) " the thought that you may have dedicated your life to a lie, that you may have accepted a conventional wisdom that no longer, if ever, corresponds to an external reality, is a very painful realization. A person will go to any lengths to prevent themselves from seeing that inadequate worldview that they dedicated their lives to."
My views and opinions may be the minority view for now in Orthodox Judaism, but since when does the majority view make it the correct view? Did not the majority of Jews in the time of Rabbi Akiva accept Bar-Kochba as the Messiah? Did not the vast majority of Jews in the time of Shabbtai Tzvi accept him as the Saviour of the Jews? Are not the followers of Jesus and Mohammed the majority religions of the world?
Very recently there was a psak from a world renown posek that would have adversely affected all commerce of Orthodox Jews. If not for one concerned Jew, the entire Orthodox world risked losing revenues perhaps in the hundreds of millions of dollars, because of the reckless conduct of this known posek.
Did Moshe Heinemann from Baltimore take the time and effort required to render a psak of this magnitude, that would have shut down all e-commerce sites of Orthodox Jews on Shabbos? Did he do the required verification by industry experts exactly how "virtual" transactions are transacted on weekends? Or did Moshe Heinemann stop off at his local bank and ask the bank teller about Saturday transactions, on his way to China to sign up a toy manufacturer with the Star K, in case an Orthodox child licked a Chinese produced toy? And when he did find out that he was dead wrong, how long did it take him to retract that idiot psak, as Yiddishe gelt was torched on fire?
It took him six very long months; he had to figure out how he was going to look politically and to ascertain that his business does not go up in smoke.
Did he care about your welfare?
Rabosai, have faith in yourselves. Grab yourself by the collar, pull yourself out of the doldrums you find yourself in. You've been duped, but it's not too late. Trust yourself to make appropriate decisions for yourself and your family, the Hats can not, will not, care not, and most certainly, should not!
Did one word of that 60 page fatwa include what to do with sexual predators posing as rebbes in our yeshivas? Is there one word about what to do with guys like Margulies, Belsky, Perlow, Fishman and the rest of these molester-enablers?
The state of our union is better than it was one year ago. We now know what all of these guys are about. Knowledge is extremely important and is power. We don't have the lame excuse anymore that we didn't know. We now know definitely that these are criminals in bed with each other. Are they going to make decisions for our welfare, or theirs?
The state of our union is now up to each and every individual that considers themselves a member of klal Yisroel. There's a huge hole in our "boat", if you don't fix it quickly, you and your children will drown. Fix the hole, or replace the boat for Heaven's sake, or perish!!
And what a year it's been. You have participated in far reaching and much needed change to a very flawed system. Things will never be the same. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteUOJ,
ReplyDeleteI am part of large chaburah who went to all the name brand yeshivos. We made pit stops in Brisk, Ponivizh & the Mir, before settling into Lakewood. You get the picture.
Most of my chaverim agree wholeheartedly with your campaign, although we think you get carried away with your rhetoric sometimes and we are offended by some of your outbursts, like against R' Elchonon. You recently hinted that a contemporary of Rav Wasserman had taynos on him. (I'm going to venture a guess that it was R' Shraga Feivel.) There have been others that the gedolim have been in disagreement over, including R' Avrohom Kalmanowitz, before him R' Yonosson Eybschutz and before him the Rambam, etc. These issues have nothing to do with stopping the chayos raos like Margulies and the diseased organ known as the Agudah from destroying neshomos.
I know that in the yeridas hadoros we are challenged to find true gedolim, so I understand your frustration. I believe that a more accurate way of framing the dilemma is that there are a few genuine gedolim left but they have been sidelined by the Agudah political machine.
The Agudah has no idea how irrelevant they've become. They do have a large following in their 50s and older who still fall for their garbage, but surprisingly, it's the younger generation that sees right through them. Even many of the mindless Philly robots that used to run to hear R' Elya at the convention, are no longer exactly "card carrying members".
The situation is indeed bleak but please don't be meyayesh on everything and everyone because of the bunch of frauds from William St.
The word in the yeshivos has been for years that the Moetzes is a joke. We're with you on that.
And a word for the Novominsker Rebbe. With all due respect Rabbiner Perlow, choshuva rabbonim are of the opinion that the Moetzes failed to stop Margulies and Kolko, mostly because of their naivette on molestation issues. The rabbonim believe that the Rebbe from Novominsk is an exception and had the yecholess to do something.
Eicha ....
UOJ;
ReplyDeleteBullseye, On target, as always.
And to "found the enemy..."
DON"T give R' Perlow a pass on child molestation. The Agudah was and is a major enabler of this situation. Zweibel's letter to Guiliani requesting non-NYC intervention in Yeshiva cases of abuse and molestation was their clarion call in protecting the scum minuvalim predator rebbeim at the expense of yiddeshe neshamos.
Kolko's destruction of (how many?? heilige neshamos) and his walk/strut on the streets of Flatbush today is a direct result of Agudah turning the other cheek.
Take this one to the bank: He'll be back at the Regency this summer and gletting bochrim in Camp Silver Lake.
Agudah is irrelevant and their time is over.
By NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
ReplyDeleteTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 17, 2004; Page B1
Because of the biblical prohibition against working on the holy day, Orthodox Jews must close their stores on the Sabbath. But does that also apply to their Web sites?
With the rise of e-commerce, that question has long been brewing in Orthodox Jewish circles, and last fall it came to a head with a random phone call to Rabbi Moshe Heinemann.
Rabbi Heinemann, of Star-K Kosher Certification, an international kosher certification organization based in Baltimore, is one of a handful of rabbis in the United States recognized as having mastered the minutia of Jewish law.
He is consulted frequently by Orthodox Jews -- who number some 600,000 in the U.S. -- seeking guidance with the wave of new technology never anticipated by the strictures of Judaism, especially when it involves the Sabbath, which begins at sunset Fridays and ends an hour after sunset Saturdays.
With the dilemma over Web-based businesses before him, Rabbi Heinemann recalled a 45-year-old related ruling by another renowned arbiter of Jewish law. The late Rabbi Yitzchok Weiss had said Orthodox-owned vending machines must be closed, because even though the owner isn't present to make the exchange, he still collects the money. The parallel precedent seemed clear, so Rabbi Heinemann's answer was that Web sites, too, must be unplugged, even though the owner isn't technically doing anything.
A Web site operated by an Orthodox Jew could remain open only "if the shopping cart on the Web site is shut down," ensuring that no actual transactions took place, Rabbi Heinemann ruled in his group's small but influential newsletter Kashrus Kurrents.
The article spurred a storm of protests from Orthodox businessmen concerned that Rabbi Heinemann's ruling, which several rabbis say has the force of law among observant Jews, would mean a loss of online orders.
The 66-year-old Rabbi Heinemann travels around the world certifying everything from ovens manufactured by General Electric Co. that can be programmed to go into "Sabbath mode" -- meaning that food can be kept warm because Orthodox Jews aren't allowed to turn things on by pressing buttons on the Sabbath -- to legal arrangements in which a Jew transfers formal ownership of his business to a gentile one day a week so it can stay open on Saturday. His organization boasts what it calls the world's only Mandarin-speaking rabbi.
Born in Germany, Rabbi Heinemann lived in England and came to the U.S. after World War II ended. He studied at rabbinical college under a prominent rabbi, the late Rabbi Aharon Kotler, dean of Beth Medrash Govoha Seminary, in Lakewood, N.J., the largest rabbinical seminary in the U.S. He has been teaching Jewish law for several decades.
"When Heinemann speaks, people listen," says Paul Mendlowitz, senior vice president of DiamondCard Processing Corp., a credit-card processing company in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Mr. Mendlowitz, who is Orthodox, and others countered that since most Web sites don't process transactions on Saturdays, no money changes hands, so the sites should be able to remain open. Israel Sendrovic, a retired executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, weighed in with the protestors, confirming that credit-card transactions over the Internet aren't generally processed Saturdays.
"One of my hottest business days was on Rosh Hashana," says Rabbi Mayer Pasternak, who created Jewishmusic.com, an online emporium of aural Judaica. "I felt a twinge of guilt, coming back and there were a couple hundred orders." The guilt was especially strong, he says, because he assumed that visitors to his site were nearly all Jewish, and should not be browsing the Internet on the Sabbath and holidays at all.
The Talmud, the collection of writings that make up the body of 3,000-year-old Jewish civil and religious law, weighs in on many of the finer points of the Sabbath, but not all of them, and could never have anticipated the explosion of Internet shopping, to name only one technological development that would have confounded the ancient patriarchs. "This is all new," Rabbi Heinemann says.
An infertile Jewish couple once asked the rabbi whether their child would be Jewish if they used a surrogate mother who wasn't. To the couple's relief, Rabbi Heinemann ruled that their child would indeed be Jewish, as the host mother would simply be an "incubator." He even developed an Orthodox procedure for ensuring the paternity and maternity of a baby conceived in a test tube: An Orthodox Jew must be on hand to collect the sperm and the egg and to seal the contents of the test tube.
The rabbi heard from an array of people who disagreed with him on the Web site issue. He was inundated with phone calls both at work and his home, and after mulling over the decision, he handed down a rare reversal in the newsletter's latest issue in May.
"Technically speaking," he wrote, "the vendor's monetary acquisition, the kinyan kesef, happens on a weekday so there is no issue, prohibition of mekach umemkar, business sale transactions, on Shabbos."
The issue has quieted down, but the rabbi, who has reversed himself only a handful of times in his 40-year career, says it deserved the attention: "This is something you have to know. Keeping the Sabbath in a proper way is very important to us."
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteYou are the only voice of reason out there. Dont listen to anyone and keep on writing. Expose the thieves and crooks who have hijacked Judaism. I think you should make a convention in the near future.
Keep on going
Amechad
We all know that Kolko is very hands-on kind of guy, but Margo confides to me that he "lusted in his heart."
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Shafran does an even worse job than I did as president. How is he still in office?
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteOne of your best posts! I can literally feel your angst and I am enraged and full of pity at the same time for the thousands that are being sold down the river. Please do not quit. There are countless souls to be saved, evils to be exposed, and issues to be tackled.
On another note:
I absolutely love the guy who humorously impersonates everyone from famous/infamous figures (i.e., Jimmy Carter, Eddie Antar, Beirach---) to neighborhood hockers! Give us more!
I hate wearing my 4 inch borsalino in the wild flatbush winds, and I can't carry b/c of the eruv.
ReplyDeleteUOJ, can you help me?
Thanks
It's what the old school button hole on the lapel is for. Originally they were intended to hook up to your fedora. Does anyone know what I am referring to? Boog will probably know.
ReplyDeleteI am sickened by the way the average Moshe and Yankel is terrified to use the Eiruv in Boro Park and FLatbush. These "gedolim and ketanim" yield absolute power.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gross that this last posting was one of your best of all time. I think it is the best post ever. I think that I am going to put it on print and distribute it in the community.
UOJ, thanks for taking out the time to eloquently write down our thoughts and rage.
Am Yisrael Chaim
Revolution now!!!
AmEchad
I once heard -in my Yeshiva days-
ReplyDeletefrom a great grandson of Rav
Chaim Brisker zt'l that he actually
opposed Agudah's formation but
gave in and attended the first
asefa at the Chafetz Chaim's urging. Even then he left the
asefa(convention ) early . His
objection was ' today the Gedolim
are choosing the Gedolim, tommorrow
the secretaries will be choosing
the Gedolim'
"Did not the vast majority of Jews in the time of Shabbtai Tzvi accept him as the Saviour of the Jews?"
ReplyDeleteShabbtai Tzvi was our savior and that is the truth.
Orthodox judiasm today is a huge farce.
A good question-why is Kolko walking the streets of brooklyn?we have got to go further and see that he gets the help he needs whatever that may be but to be out and about is rediculous infact even absurd and outragious!
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteCan you list the people that you feel were REAL gedoilim?
http://www.arikah.com/encyclopedia/Lakewood_yeshiva
ReplyDeleteSorry for interrupting, but anyone who learned in Lakewood will get a real kick out of this article. Try to hold yourself back from plotzing, but it says here that how well you did on the ferher doesn't matter as much as wether Yankel Pollock ultimately decides if you get accepted.
I never thought I'd find a website that's even more humorous than UOJ.
Right on UOJ.I support your cause.The world MUST KNOW what kind of Rishoyim are out there.Now that we know who they are we must make sure they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
ReplyDeleteOK UOJ
ReplyDeleteNow, since we do not have any Gedoilim anymore, we need a point of reference, who were the last true Gedoilim? We need it in order to recognize the current Gedoilim who were pushed to the sideline and those that would tesurface in the future. So of this list (only few examples, I do not want more then dozen names), who were and who weren't and what was the cutting point in time? (BTW, I look at all factions of orthodoxy, not only Agudah.)
Rav Moshe Feinstein?
Rav Ahron Kotler?
Rav Schneur Kotler?
Rav Avraham I Kook?
Rav Yehuda Kook?
Rav Arieh Levine?
Rav Oshri (Ud Mutzal Me'Esh)
Rav S. Z. Oierbakh?
Rav Elyashiv?
Rav Isroel M. Kagan?
Rav Shimon Schwab?
and so on...
I have a good idea who of these and their contemporaries were true Gedoilim and who were not. I also have a good idea who (not all) of those (who have been Gedoilim) eneabled the next generation to create the current situation by their shortsighted views.
Do you UOJ see the same pattern?
J’lem: Bleach war against ‘immodest’ women
ReplyDeleteResidents of haredi neighborhood claim attacks by religious fanatics battling against ‘promiscuity’ of clothing stores and shoppers; victim: This is Bitul Torah. Don’t they have anything better to do than look at women and determine whether they are modest or not?
Neta Sela
More and more women in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood have been complaining of being sprayed with a bleach mix.
The attacks mark an escalation of the religious fanatics’ battle against what they refer to as the ‘promiscuity’ on the haredi streets and the infiltration of ‘fashion’ that often times does not correspond with the strict dress codes in the community.
Flyer reads, 'Tight outfits destroy sanctity of our camp; you've been warned' (Photo: Dudi Vaaknin)
For instance, clothes that may seem modest to most people are considered by religious extremists to be ostentatious if they have shiny or colorful elements to them. Similar claims are made against women who wear overly-tight outfits.
A vendor at one of the local clothing stores said she felt something wet dripping on her shirt as she was walking down the street. At first she thought someone poured water over her, but later realized that she had been sprayed with bleach.
“This is Bitul Torah (wasting time that could be spent on Torah study), “she said. “Don’t they have anything else to do but look at women and determine whether they are modest or not? I thought we should perhaps organize a demonstration and declare, ‘we are modest and do not want to be burned,’ but obviously this did not materialize.”
Until recently the religious zealots focused their battle against the clothing stores: Last week yeshiva students arrived at a women’s clothing store on Amos Street and destroyed thousands of shekels worth of merchandise with bleach. The store was shut down immediately and a men’s clothing store was set up in its place.
About six months ago a store from the same chain was set ablaze in Bnei Brak.
According to the salesperson who was attacked, last week a yeshiva student paid a visit to the store and demanded that she “stop selling immodest clothes” and even warned her that “stores are going to be set on fire tonight.”
'These stores are a spiritual hazard'
The woman said she responded by telling the student that she “has no problem with the clothes in the store” and that the store is “full of security cameras.” The following morning she learned that a women’s clothing store on Hagai Street, just two streets from where she worked, was set ablaze.
On the evening the store was set on fire a rally was held at Jerusalem’s Sabbath Square during which Rabbi Yaakov Sofer spoke of the “spiritual deterioration of the Geula neighborhood."
According to one participant, the rabbi said “those stores should be closed down – to show the entire world that we are Jews. This is the last place remaining on earth; if it is destroyed, the whole world will be annihilated.”
During the past few months the Geula residents’ committee has been engaged in a campaign against plans to build a shopping center in the neighborhood. A booklet published by the committee about a month ago read, “Life in the neighborhood has become intolerable due to the many stores that are opening here. These stores are a spiritual hazard, as they attract different characters that are detrimental to our children’s education.”
Some claim that those behind the attacks are members of the residents’ committee, but members have repeatedly denied the accusations.
UOJ for President!
ReplyDeleteUOJ,
ReplyDeleteHow do you plan on beating them if they have WAY deeper pockets than you? You might have been able to win 50 years ago, not today. I heard every chasidic rebbe is loaded with cash, real estate, etc.
You weren't mechadesh much here; it's all well known. But we can't open our mouth because then we get torn to pieces.
"Shabbtai Tzvi was our savior and that is the truth."
ReplyDeleteSo go shave off one paya and become a Muslim, you shmuck.
UOJ must have missed that louse's comment, even with the filter on.
Anon, 3:25 p.m.,
ReplyDeleteI believe I demonstrated to all the power of "one". One person can make a difference, so YOU do yours by whatever means and abilities you have.
I do not want to get in to names of gedolim. Follow the truth........
ReplyDeleteLet's not get sidetracked by misguided agendas here, like that guy who's all bent out of shape over the eruv. The true gedolim from yesteryear were against carrying in these circumstances too.
ReplyDeleteI bet that guy doesn't even know the aleph beis in halacha. You have a bunch of either Chassidishe or Modern Orthodox am haaratzim who are somech on nobodies that say the eruv is ok.
The Haleiner Rov is the only godol that says it's ok, but that's because he was misled with wrong information. There's also Menashe Hakuttun, who likes making a point of being the R' Moishe Feinstein contrarian, but he uses a mehalech that no one understands. The rest of the "matirim" are nobodies.
The only exception in Brooklyn that R' Moishe didn't asser is Manhattan Beach, according to R' Dovid.
Move to the 5 Towns or Queens and stop kvetching.
"I do not want to get in to names of gedolim. Follow the truth........"
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true Gadol !
"UOJ for President!"
ReplyDeleteSince the two major parties are corrupt, UOJ will be registering as an Independent.
Tax cuts and elimination of Margulies & his enablers at the Agudah will be permanent.
"' today the Gedolim
ReplyDeleteare choosing the Gedolim, tommorrow
the secretaries will be choosing
the Gedolim'"
Someone later fine tuned that prophetic vort (maybe the Brisker Rov?). Something like, Moishe Scherer & Morgan Studios photography pick the gedolim.
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteThe genius of you is in every word. Hashem protect you from your enemies.
Who is the midas haEmess? Never heard of him. Is he living in this dor and sanctioned by the Agudah?
ReplyDeletehttp://chaptzem.blogspot.com/2006/01/rabbi-ephraim-wachsman-hosts-dinner.html
ReplyDeleteIs it true that Efraim Wachsman was a badchan before becoming Mr. I decide who a Godol is?
No wonder UOJ calls these guys stand up comics.
"We made pit stops in Brisk, Ponivizh & the Mir, before settling into Lakewood ... Most of my chaverim agree wholeheartedly with your campaign"
ReplyDeleteRemember the cornerstone of Neuhoff's drivel, that nobody agrees with UOJ except for various losers and bitter modern ortho guys who never got around to moving out of Flatbush?
Even the Agudah's not that stupid. They know just what a huge receptive audience UOJ has, which is why they completely overreacted at the convention.
Where did Belsky find this guy, who lives up to his nickname?
Does anyone here buy the Panim Chadashos / Yiddishe Vochenshmutz? I'm wondering what Chaim Shaulson has been saying about Margo and if he managed to dig up any original dirt on him, "kedarko bakodesh". Of course that whore can be bought off for the right price, like when Satmar finally payed him to stop bashmutzing the rebbe.
ReplyDelete"Follow the truth........"
ReplyDeleteI'm with the Agudah on this one. We just can't have loose cannons like UOJ out there espousing these kind of dangerous ideas. Heck, I'd be out of business. There'd be no yeshivos to act like a big shot in. No Artscrolls or Nosson Schermans to publish my baloney. And roshei yeshiva would treat me like the good for nothing crook & chotei umachtee ess harabim that I am, when I run around to get signatures to destroy a mechaber seforim and make myself look choshuv.
"I'm wondering what Chaim Shaulson has been saying about Margo"
ReplyDeleteWhores of a feather ....
Shaulson sent his kids to YTT. He has the money and no one besides Margo would take his kids.
He would bashmutz Margo if his kids are no longer there. I don't know if that's the case or not. Even Shaulson knows better than to crap on the hand that feeds you.
Video of the convention of the Board of Directors of Ger Inc. in Evian,France.
ReplyDeleteRemember pas b'melach.
Dear UOJ.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with much of your trash (most of the time) I feel that you are incorrect.
The true Gedolim of out time have no association with the Aguda, nor do they stick their noses into things which are not their buisness.
Examples: R' Shmuel Berenbaum Shlita, R' Zelig Epstein Shlita, R' Chaim Stein Shlita, R' Chaim Epstein and a few others.
You know that I'm right.
See ya!
Right on about the SIyum HaShas being American Idol. It should be a celebration of the average baal habos who learns Daf Yomi on the subway on his way into work, and instead they get totally ignored and it's just a kavod platform for the Gedoylim.
ReplyDeleteHow prophetic Rav Chaim Brisker's
ReplyDeletewords were. Today, the secretaries
tightly control what the Gedolim
have access to and choose the
Gedolim themselves! Why are the
sons of Roshei Yeshiva automatically 'Gedolim' b/c they
inherited the title even though
they are light years away from their fathers' in erudition?
That was never the case in Europe.
There you had a Gadol who gave
Psak but was not necessarily a
Rosh Yeshiva ie Rav Yizchok Elchonon ztl, Rav Chaim Ozer ztl,
Chazon Ish ztl etc.
uoj the great one!
ReplyDeleteim sure this was the SHOCK N' AWE campaign the president spoke of at the begining of the war.
to the exploratory committee for uoj go for it it definitly beats hillary or obama.
uoj for president in 2008!
LEIZEROWITZ VICTIM FOREVER
Tatty you are losing it!
ReplyDeleteWhen the Yidden were in Mitzrayim they we're redeemed when it was almost too late. They were in the 49th shaar of tum-ah. Now I'm sure we're just about there already and I'm surprised that Moshiach hasn't come yet.Everyone lives for this world and everyoneis here for himself.There are NO gedolim, No gaonim etc. today. Maybe there are some hidden Tzaddikim that almost no one knows about.It seems almost hopeless.
ReplyDeleteI think you should post names
ReplyDeleteWho is a true "Gadol"?
ReplyDeleteR' Dovid Goldwasser said an interesting Dvar Torah on the Nachum Seigel show last week. The question he asked is why does it say in one pasuk "Vayigdal Hayeled" and in the very next pasuk repeat "Vayigdal Moshe". R' Goldwasser quotes the Ramban that the first "vayigdal" was physical growth while the second was spiritual growth, that Moshe Rabbeinu had earned the title of "Gadol". The second pasuk goes on to state that Moshe went out to see his brother's suffering. This teaches us that Moshe Rabbeinu earned the title of Gadol because he sincerely cared about the people's suffering. All this was before he received the Torah, so his gadlus had nothing to do with Torah scholarship. We can learn from this that as a prerequisite for any rabbi to be classified as a Gadol, he must show caring to all suffering Jews, whether it's widows, orphans, the poor or the abused. Of course he must also be a Torah scholar and halachic expert. When we separate the true Gedolim from the false ones, then there are no contradictions and we have no questions as to how come the "Gedolim" have been silent regarding sexual abuse in our yeshivos. A true Gadol shows sympathy for the victims and punishes the perpetrators, as Moshe did with the Mitzri. The rabbis of our generation that are willing to come forward and take up this cause will earn the title of "Gadol". Until then, as UOJ states correctly, we have no "Gedolim".
steve thanks for the inspiring dvar torah,its beutiful!
ReplyDeleteoh! how sad and how true.
LEIZEROWITZ VICTIM FOREVER
So there are scum rabbis.
ReplyDeleteAnd there good rabonim too.
Where does that put me?
I go out into the world and choose a rav, the one that suits me best, right?
My self chosen rabbi is a scumbag, but he's my rav like Lot I choose my enviroment, On the other hand if I choose a yiras shomayim as guidance, then this reflects my choice.
So, is your bad hair day vocalizing against the jerk rabbonim, or the people who put him on the pedestal?
Jack Alter - CEO - Ger Inc. said...
ReplyDeleteVideo of the convention of the Board of Directors of Ger Inc. in Evian,France.
Remember pas b'melach.
11:16 PM, January 21, 2007
___________________________
That video has got to be the most ridiculous, ostentatious, wasteful, disgraceful, display I have EVER seen!
This is Chassidus???!!! Hundreds (if not, Thousands) of his kollel full-time "chassidim", in Geulah are living well below the poverty line, and GER INC. flushes who knows how many Thousands of Dollars down the toilet on this extravagant, "Kish-Tuches" convention?? Would it be that difficult to have their Super Important meeting at a Jerusalem Hotel? What a disgrace to Judaism!!! Shame on Ger!! Now I know why it should come as no surprise that Mondrowitz & Leizerovitz are BOTH Gerrorists.
Looks like UOJ has gone politically correct. From the infamous A,B,C list of Gedolim last year to refusing to comment on who is a Gadol! Is this UOJ on valium? UOJ post retirement seems different and more passive.
ReplyDeleteHow do we know that Belsky's goons are not holding the real UOJ at gunpoint somewhere forcing him to give over the password for the blog. For all we know, it is Tuvya who has now taken over the site posing as UOJ!
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is a bit over the top to say that we have no gedolim. They are out there - unfortunately, many of the people that the Hamon Am consider Gedolim are not the true Gedolim. That doesn't mean that there are no Gedolim at all.
I believe that you would have more credibility if you would acknowledge that there are real Gedolim, but bemoan the fact that they are not the ones that we hear about in the limelight.
Just take a look at Shafran, that smug jerk, when he "addresses" the abuse issue. If this is the face of the Agudas Yisroel, it's just another reason that they represent no one that I know.
ReplyDeleteYeah, so there are some old timers and out of towners who still get charmed by the Aguda's professional PR campaigns, but they will eventually come around too because the Aguda is as transparent as the crystal in Margo's chandelier.
Margulies is a backstabbing, fairweather friend. He says things are a little hot for him right now, so he cannot continue our friendship because of what the public might think. I was hoping I could move to Brooklyn and daven at YTT, since I've been kicked out of every shul elsewhere. Does anyone know if there are any seats open in Weinfeld's shul? He doesn't seem to have a problem with Yudi Kolko.
ReplyDeleteJust get me my seat on the dais at Agudah events and let me protect my ass-ets & interests. Avi Shafran is our boy. Deny, deny, deny that our system is bankrupt.
ReplyDeleteOf course if any real godol speaks up we just have to marginalize him. If they make it through our screening process somehow and say something at the convention we don't like, like R' Mottel Weinberg did, we just cut the mike and never let them back again.
Protection rackets are good.
Anonymous said "Tatty you are losing it".
ReplyDeleteDear child of UOJ, if in fact it was his child. Your father is a giant! Perhaps you are too young or immature to understand his greatness. Do you realize that there was only one person in all of Judaism willing to put himself out there at great personal risk to bring sexual abuse in yeshivas to the world's attention? He is a great man and deserves respect from all Jews. You are a mechutzaf to speak that way about your father, one of this generation's great Jews.
It has just been confirmed that UOJ is not Paul Mendlowitz. UOJ is a very patient person and he is waiting for the right moment to expose the Belsky/Tuvya team for thwe fools that they are.
ReplyDeleteThis will happen within the next 4-6 weeks according to my sources.
We just got some bad news from R' Yosef Frankel on his last visit to us up here in Otisville prison. He informs us that a bunch of guys who are or will soon be on trial for their lives are clamoring to get in here, Otisville being the most comfortable facility on the East Coast. Well, there are only 70 beds, so they'd better not get any ideas about worming their way in. We don't take well to being crowded. Got that, Pinter, Kolko, Margo and Applegrad?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, we never had the pleasure of bunking up with Eddie Antar. He must be a stickler for Sfardishe minhugim. Does anyone know if there's a prison out there with a Nusach Sfard / Eidut Hamizrach minyan?
Houston, we've got a problem. As a courtesy, UOJ has notified us that he's planning an extreme atmospheric event at another yeshiva, that will interfere with our operations.
ReplyDeleteAnd someone tell that pest Shea Fishman to stop jamming our switchboard. We won't take his calls anymore. He can wait to get updates from our press releases like the rest of the public.
If it turns out that UOJ is not Feivy Mendlowitz, can we expect to see a public apology from the Belsky-Bungalow Putz tag team?
ReplyDeleteWhat is for sure, will be more beating around the bush on this from Gil Student and Margo will freak out on his well-paid IT crew.
"Vat you mean you got da rong guy? Vat am I paying your for??!!"
>It has just been confirmed that UOJ is not Paul Mendlowitz. UOJ is a very patient person and he is waiting for the right moment to expose the Belsky/Tuvya team for thwe fools that they are.
ReplyDeleteThis will happen within the next 4-6 weeks according to my sources.
Uoj will release the documents (about Reb Elchonon) that don't exist before this happens.
It would be easy to finger any number of wrong suspects as UOJ. Margo has made so many enemies over the years that they can't even be counted. Many of them are participating on the blog and could confuse the YTT investigative team. It's like trying to find the perp when the police bulletin only describes him as a black male. It could be anybody. UOJ has many sympathyzers who could create an illusion when in email contact with Margo's henchmen.
ReplyDeleteCOLMER UPDATE!!!
ReplyDeleteHe is no longer a threat to Brooklyn youth as he has recently relocated to Passaic, NJ. Kudos to the numerous Rabbonim in the community who have publicly made their congregants aware of the potential danger lurking in our midst. Colmer is NOT blending in too well and his stay thus far, has definitely been an unwelcome one. NO ONE is sticking their head in the sand & covering up for this guy. Passaic PD has been put on alert as well about this guy.
The bigger question is, how can we make sure the next community he chooses to move to, knows about his past?
Margulies and the Agudath Israel cause chilul Hashem when these horror stories are learned by newcomers to the fold. Chilul Hashem among your own people is the worst possible type of chilul Hashem.
ReplyDeleteMillion Dollar Questions:
ReplyDeleteWhere is ORTHOREV???
What happened to The Editor?
Sadly "The Editor" commited suicide shortly after UOJ retired for Rosh Hashana, he had nowhere to turn after the blog closed, he was very depressed. It was a very sad day for us here in Detroit.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467739756&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
ReplyDeleteAvi Shafran, we don't care about your personal bubba maysos.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR ABUSE VICTIMS?
WE CAN'T HEAR YOU.
It's not nice to joke about someone committing suicide. I've seen Ronnie posting elsewhere. Let's just hope it takes him a long time to figure out UOJ is back in business. It really was annoying to have him blabbering about every trivial stupidity at length over here.
ReplyDeleteUOJ staff reporter,
ReplyDeleteI hope you are joking and if you are it is a very sick joke
That place really is as low as they come. Most people know about them from all the front page stories in the NY Times and the high profile criminals who were incarcerated. What's not that yedua is that so many other "upstanding" members there have either been under govt investigation or are guilty of terrible genayvos, etc, that never hit the fan.
ReplyDeleteUOJ staff reporter,
ReplyDeleteDo your affiliates in Passiac have any info on ORTHREV?
>Let's just hope it takes him a long time to figure out UOJ is back in business.
ReplyDeleteI would go with this, Ronnie is pretty slow.
Frankel's shul is a primary feeder into YTT. "Choshuve" mentchen have to have "the best yeshiva" to send their kids to. These creeps and Margo are made for each other.
ReplyDeleteSome of these machers are also said to financially support R' Shlomo Feivel, which despite all the bluffs over the years to leave, is the supposed real reason why he didn't bail out, and will not bail out until Margo's ship is completely torpedoed and sunk.
I think it's more important that UOJ release the documents of Margo's genayvos from YTV before the R' Elchonon stuff.
ReplyDeleteI should have a talk with Rav Schustal and let him know that continued association with lowlives like Margulies is not up to his standards. I mean, forget even about all the rishus & everything. What kind of cockamamie yeshiva has a guy on the payroll called "Bungalow putz" ?
ReplyDeleteAnd if someone has proof that Rav Belsky is up to no good, they should pass it along too.
I think I get it. UOJ must have teased Shafran that he was soon releasing the Reb Elchonon document. That's why there was an anti-UOJ freak out at the convention.
ReplyDeleteTo be objective, say Reb Shraga Feivel had taynos on Reb Elchonon. That would be his right but it doesn't mean that other gedolim like the Chofetz Chaim or Reb Chaim Ozer would agree with the damnation or critique.
I could see though that the Agudah would want to keep it a secret, especially after they've glorified Reb Elchonon time & time again.
Someone already mentioned that many figures in history have been the subject of a machlokes as to wether they were credible. In the worst case scenario, Reb Elchonon would be guilty of making a horrible mistake, one made by a well-meaning person. The Agudah would be horrified if he was reclassified along with Rav Kook and others.
There have been many injuries over the years on YTT property. If anyone even dared ask about the yeshiva's insurance policy, they would get a big fat NO from Margo.
ReplyDeleteSome have been left with lingering effects. Could they contact Jeff Herman about seeking compensation?
http://www.thatsfit.com/2007/01/22/heaviest-man-alive-vows-to-lose-1-000-pounds/
ReplyDeleteManuel Aribe of Mexico -- who weighed 1,200 pounds a year ago and wants to lose 1,000 pounds -- now weighs 800 pounds after following the "Zone" diet and wants to get to 200 pounds one day. That is, so he can stand on his own for the first time in a long time.
uoj has been entered in to belveue hospital he is being kept under watch on the highest floor
ReplyDeletegood luck uoj
I hope you enjoy your new roomates
stay in your own bed if you are not tied down and keep your prick to your self
thank god in lakewood there in no tolaerance for pedofilia
ReplyDeletethey through you out of town and let your new neighbors know about you, way befor magans law ever came around
i remember how they moved s.s. out of town, and others too
The guy from Lakewood, who could use a few lessons in spelling, has NO IDEA what he's talking about.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst molesters around was left alone to live right under everyone's noses. Someone else got all the blame for what he did. The mishpocho that got all the blame were guilty, but only of a lesser evil.
There are also pedophiles that have abused close family members but no one else. Those types are known in many cases to rabbonim and local therapists. They usually get a pass when run of the mill molesters don't.
Is it true that Margo created an uproar one year by honoring a known wife beater at the dinner?
ReplyDeleteConnected to BMG, Vaad... you can molest who you want, and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteNot connected they'll run you out of town if you walk the wrong way.
If Margulies needs a character witness, I'm there to vouch for him. We may have different methods, but we have the same goal.
ReplyDeleteThe Ger Inc. Board of Directors gets the Wall Street Journal. Hamodia is for the proletariat. To control their minds. They are not intelligent enough to think for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI'm no different than Morty Zuckerman, Leonard Stern, or Leibi Hoch aka Robert Maxwell who wanted a newspaper in New York. The zombies buy the Hamodia because they don't want to be tainted by the outside world. Hardy Har Har.
Agudah can rehabilitate itself and make amends to our Community by appointing a super-straight shooter to its Board of Directors who has and will continue to tell it like it is with Emes and Yoisher.
ReplyDeleteI nominate Al Goldstein
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteIN general I agree with you but you are a bit overboard here.
You seem to have the attitude that gedolim are infallible, much like the Agudah attitude. The only difference is, they think they have gedolim and you think there are none. The problem is that gedolim ARE people. Of course, your point about self-appointed gedolim is correct. But the fact that a talmid chacham makes a mistake or is imperfect does not eliminate him from gadol status. I hate to bring it up, but Dovid HaMelech, Moshe, Miriam, Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda... (where do I stop?) were all people, and the Bible records the fact that they made mistakes. So seizing on the fact that Rav Heinemen made a mistake to engage in name-calling and hyperbole strikes me as absurd.
And surely you are aware that Rav Moshe in some cases issues new or revised psokim based on new information or understanding, sometimes years or DECADES after the original p'sak. The Agudah has a hard time explaining that (except for ridiculous claims that he didn't write the tshuvos in question), but I don't: HE WAS HUMAN. Humans make mistakes. So do Gedolim.
Again, none of what I've just said takes away from your core complaint that some leaders may be less than that. But pretending that issuing an incorrect psak on commerce turns someone into the Devil makes you seem like your axe-grinding has overwhelmed your good sense.
One last thought: in a perverse way, the fact that no posek is universally accepted in North America makes an erroneous psak from Baltimore (if that's what it is --- I don't know the details)far less pernicious than you imply. How many actual dollars were lost? How many people listened to the psak? And, how many people did Rav Heineman even think would listen to his psak? Food for thought.
Boog, shame on you. That was a very prusta joke. Al Goldstein is the kind of sicko who UOJ would be put out of business if he hadn't already self-destructed.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing I didn't go ahead with that development in Staten Island. Who wants to be neighbors with Avi Shafran when he couldn't care less about abused children?
ReplyDeleteStepen Colemar has moved to Passaic. I am working with people in the area that need all relevant information about him to be able to make certain he does not strike again.
ReplyDeletePlease contact me at: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
Frumme Yid,
ReplyDeleteYour points are sound. My point is that once known of the mistakes made, why not ferociously attack the problem? Why pretend that they don't exist? That's pure rishus! What they did at the Agudah fress convention is Watergate redux; they'll pay dearly for that.
Re: Heinemann's psak. He was stopped dead in his tracks. People were closing down their sites, and the same idiot shtar mechira to goyim that all the nursing home behaimas use, was being put in place for Shabbos Internet transactions. A new business!
No doubt other "poskim" like Belsky would have jumped into this new bizyanos, by zonos!
UOJ will help keep Passaic safe.
ReplyDeleteUOJ,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if any of this helps, but I tracked down some information through databases.
Stefan's wife's name is Amy.
He is originally from the Deal NJ area and has ties there. His mother Marcell lives in Ocean Township. He either worked for or owned a business in Oakhurst called East Coast Microsolutions & possibly still does. He was listed at a property in Asbury Park since earlier in the decade.
The kehillos in the greater Deal area should beware of him.
Back to Frumme Yid,
ReplyDeleteThe core point about Heineman's psak is that he DID NOT do what was necessary to establish whether basic mekach umemchar was transacted on Shabbos. Of course he and every human is fallible, I for one never thought that any gadol in any generation could not err. Let's indeed go back to Moshe Rabbeinu.
This psak drives me crazy! Every kashrus administrator becomes a R' Moshe Feinstein, chas V'shalom! Would R' Moshe F. not have checked 1000 times with experts in the field before rendering such a wide-reaching psak? And if he made a mistake would he not shout it from the rooftops IMMEDIATELY?
All of a sudden, from out of the sky, falls this crazy psak from a guy who does get world attention.
Yes, many people were shutting down their websites thanks to the help of Pinny Lip-shits and his toilet paper of record.
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteAgain, i agree with each of the points you made in your (first) response. The Agudah has a lot to answer for as do the perosnalities. In case my post wasn't explicit enough, I wasn't saying that I endorse the Agudah's position or lack therof in any of this. Pum Farhkert. Attacking blogs as a way of protecting (sic) our kids? What are they thinking????
I just think that you are at your best when you are attacking the problem(s) at hand, and that focussing on a poor example of p'sak doesn't help. I fear that focussing on these irrelevancies (like the focus on whether Rav Elyashev smiles in photos ---- if he was smiling, people would say "wipe that smirk away, how can you smile when all this stuff is going down") may cause people who would otherwise be inclined to agree to discount your other well-thought points.
Be precise in your employment of language. To state that there are no perfect gedolim is 100% correct. To state that those who are widely considered to be gedolim may be something else, may be correct. But to state that ergo there are no gedolim is a non-sequitor.
After composing most of this and previewing it, I noticed your most recent post. I assume you realize I was not comparing any particular posek to Rav Moshe, for many reasons. I was merely arguing the admittedly narrow point that even the best can make mistakes or be misinformed. I think it's fair to say that Rav Moshe issued some medical psakim with what many would in fact consider to be incomplete medical information ---- think of where he was getting much of that information in the last years of his life. Does that term every Rav HaMachshir into Rav Moshe?? Of course not.
Yiftach b'doro k'shmuel b'doro. That must have been painful to accept back then, but it's reality.
(Am I saying that any particular person is our generation's yoftach?? Nope.)
Wise words, Frumme Yid. To my knowledge R' Moshe went to the EXPERTS, and they were wrong. There's a difference here.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe UOJ ever mentioned Rav Elyashev's demeanor. It's Shmarya Rosenberg over at Failed Messiah who gets carried away with every insignificant detail, who savages Rav Elyashev for not smiling.
ReplyDeleteLately, Shmarya has been going completely over the deep end. He talks like a bitter old man type of apikorus and keeps trying to convince people to stay away from frumkeit.
Correct it was Shmarya on R' Elyashiv. Whether Shmarya is going off the deep-end or not, I'm no expert in that area:-)
ReplyDeleteDon't the pro Flatbush eruv people say that Rav Moshe was totally mistaken on he simple piece of information of how many people lived in Brooklyn and other details about the docks and other things surrounding Brooklyn? Maybe we're just being romantic about Gedolim and pretending that they were people who they really weren't.
ReplyDeleteUOJ, what happened to the unspecified yeshiva that you said was going to take a pummeling last week? Mir varten.
ReplyDeleteAnother segment in our ongoing series of prevailing attitudes that facilitate abuse.
ReplyDeletePosters have noted, in what is probably just the tip of the iceberg, a trail of improprieties that leads back to certain Flatbush shuls. Sadly, these shuls are often noted for their "chashivus". What have we come to that the shuls with the most chevra who were mesayem Shas are not esteemed more than those with the wealthiest membership, wealth that is too often ill gotten? But this is what many in our community strive for. Daven at the "in" shul and send your children to YTT. If someone said "the best yeshiva", it wasn't me. One thing we have to hand Margulies is that he brilliantly exploited this niche market.
Speaking of Margulies, a horrific scenario crossed my mind. No matter how shallow the parents are, the children are innocent and deserve better. They are taught the Aleph Beis and told of the mesikus HaTorah. They arrive at YTT, excited and yearning for more. The very same rebbeim charged with seeing to their wellbeing & development, handpick victims to destroy and rob of their innocence. Business goes on as usual. The general parent body is not moved an iota when 40 years of monstrosities come to light. Most of the "manhigei hador" not only don't give a rat's behind, but are instrumental in further perpetrating the crimes.
Der Rambam shreibt that if the entire velt goes meshuga we are to hide in the mountains. I have not yet given up on the Klal. I know there are others out there like Monsieurs UOJ, Pasik & Greenwald who can and will fight for change.
http://www.ungaren.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI don't care what you all think and how many blogs & people make fun of us. YTT is still choshuv among our crowd so that's where our kids will go. You are all nisht fun unzera so gai kak in yam.
This little Itchee hrram Colmer is hanging around Deal? I'll get Eddie B'tesh to tell our SY boys to be on the lookout. If we see this this kelb anywhere near kids, we will tell him mabrouk then pound him into babaganoush. Nobody touches a Halabi and gets away with it.
ReplyDeletehttp://a810-cofo.nyc.gov/cofo/R/000/057000/R000057302.PDF
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't jump on the bandwagon of the big haymishe scam in NYC. I noticed that the Finance Dept has him on record as living in a 2 family house. Often when you compare tax records to the c of o, they don't match up due to illegal conversions. In this case, Shafran's house is a legal 2 family.
I don't think the Agudah convention will ever tackle illegal conversions. It might prove to be embarassing for Yudi Kolko & the Bungalow Putz.
The garbage being repeated about the Brooklyn population is just that, garbage.
ReplyDeleteThe official census numbers mean nothing. Just the vast numbers in Brooklyn of illegal Mexicans alone will probably push you over the limit.
The census results was a ploy that R.H. from Rottenberg's shul used when he tried to pay off rabbonim to sign that the "eruv" is ok. It didn't work at 18 or even 50 grand, so he upped the ante to 100 grand, before finding some rabbinical whores to provide their signatures.
R' Dovid Feinstein knows better than anyone else what his father said. He actually will let you in on a previously not so well known exception, that Manhattan Beach is ok, instead of Brooklyn being kulo ossur.
were are the gerer rabbonim on the eruv issue?
ReplyDeletethey dont let carry but they dont say that its ossir either they basically keep beating around the bush on this issue, probably b/c the gerer rabbi does not want to start up with the litvish oilem {shtienman}, and thats why so many in ger carry on shabbos in boro park , for if the rabbonim of ger had a pair of balls they would have said its osser or mitur no inbetweens andif they really had a pair leizerowitz would have been kicked out 15-20 years ago, but since they dont have guts we are were we are today.
LEIZEROWITZ VICTIM FOREVER
Why is Manhattan Beach acceptable for an eruv, but not the rest of Brooklyn, according to Rav Moshe Feinstein?
ReplyDeleteUOJ,
ReplyDeleteAre you the author of the Open Letter to Rabb Matisyahu Salomon?
If not, do you know who is?
If you know, what are their names?
If you don't want to answer the above questions, why not?
Kolko is due in criminal court tomorrow. Case number 2006KN084956.
ReplyDeletehttp://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcrim_attorney/AttorneySearchCase
Anon @3:44,
ReplyDeleteIf the person who wrote that letter wanted to publicize his name, he would have done so already. Why can't you respect a person's right to privacy? Why is it okay for you to remain anonymous, and not the author of that letter? Why should UOJ be a megalei sod? Does it change anything if you knew who wrote that letter? While we're at it, does it change anything if we knew who UOJ is?
I did not write the Salomon letter. There are other very concerned Jews that care about our future.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteUOJ is calling for change - open doors, end of secrecy.
Several people have put their names out there. We know who they are. People have to network. Let the authors of the Salomon letter identify themselves.
Rabbi Wachsman, at the Aguda Thanksgiving Night Massacre of 2006, said a few times, "Chadosh assur min haTorah". I believe its a quote from the Chasam Sofer.
ReplyDeleteCan someone educate me? What did the Chasam Sofer mean? Telegraphs and telephones are assur? Sewing machines? Electricity?
And what did Rabbi Wachsman mean? Blogs are assur? The computer is assur? Background checks are assur? Fingerprinting is assur? A registry is assur?
I was there, and I didn't know what he was talking about.
I'd like a serious person to answer me, who knows his stuff. Could be UOJ, who knows a lot, but I'd like somebody else too. Take your time if necessary, just let me know that you're working on an answer so I'm not in suspense.
This is all so nuts, I'm losing my mind. Please daven for me. Sometimes I start crying, and I'm not doing so well.
Do you think the author of the Salomon letter will be praised or dumped on by most people? Our community does not yet understand the difference between the good guys and the others.
ReplyDeleteWell the Aguda didnt exist during the Chasam Sofer's time - so it seemingly would be included in the "chadash" that's "assur min haTorah"
ReplyDeletePraise, what else? The author already has a hechsher from Rav Herschel Schachter.
ReplyDeleteThe author did his research, laid out the facts, and the argument. If and when the author states his name(s), that will rob Rabbi Salomon and his followers of the argument that an anonymous letter does not need to be answered. The author's reputation can also add to the credibility of the letter.
"UOJ is calling for change - open doors, end of secrecy"
ReplyDeleteWhere and when did he write this?
"Several people have put their names out there. We know who they are"
May hashem bless them and protect them!
"People have to network"
By remaining anonymous they can also "network" and accomplish what needs to be done. Look how much UOJ has accomplished by remaining anonymous.
"Let the authors of the Salomon letter identify themselves."
You have no right, hiding behind your anonymity, to ask him/them to identify himself/themselves. There are dangerous people out there that are looking to destroy anyone affiliated with UOJ and his movement. Look what happened last summer with the YTT gang.
Effy Wachsman-Hu shmo cain. This guy is a dope on dope. How did he get to the Fress Convention, By horse and buggy or the chadush automobile?
ReplyDeleteIts time for men to start acting like men. The battle lines have been drawn by Perlow, Kamenetsky, Salomon, Wachsman, Zweibel, Shafran, Twerski, Margulies. They haven't given an inch.
ReplyDeleteLet the Salomon letter authors step forward, and start agitating. Everybody in the Torah has a name. Its time.
Some of the great posts on this blog will overshadow the other State of the Union tonight. In the sick world out there, you guys are a source of inspiration and sometimes laughs too. Besides UOJ, I love reading from "ombudsman", the guy who debated Gil Student, and someone from last year who disappeared, John Q Publicstein. If I can go out on a limb, I'm choshesh that the guy who picked apart Gil is the same guy who showed everyone what a fool Avi Shafran is. They seem to have the same style and same kishron that cuts through crap like Ginzou. I know UOJ disagrees on principle, but I wish the Avi Shafran Speaks blog was still up. And to those hilarious jokers that imitate Flatbush & Syrian personalities, I know most of them and you've got it down to a tee. I burst out laughing sometimes then my wife gets a littkle annoyed and asks if I'm reading that brown page about YTT again.
ReplyDeleteIts time for men to start acting like men. The battle lines have been drawn by Perlow, Kamenetsky, Salomon, Wachsman, Zweibel, Shafran, Twerski, Margulies. They haven't given an inch.
ReplyDeleteLet the Salomon letter authors step forward, and start agitating. Everybody in the Torah has a name. Its time.
iaUOJ,
ReplyDeleteI know it was Shmarya who posted about Rav Elyashav and his facial expressions --- I am sorry if someone took my wordsd to mean that you had said that. I merely meant that I saw a similar thread, in that if you have something legitimate to criticize, don't mix in criticisms which seem to be over the top.
Sorry if any misunderstanding.
Margo's crew is putting out a new story on the street that uninformed people are falling for. By now everyone heard about an effort to shut down YTT so what these liars are saying, or at least I figure they must have been the ones who made it up, is that "there are troublemakers out there who are jealous of Margo's successes" that are going after him and that people that hate Hungarians are piling on with them. Talk about crap and pulling the race card, I don't think OJ Simpson's lawyers could have come up with a wilder fantasy than this.
ReplyDeleteRegardless if the Salomon author decides to step forward or not, what effect would that really have? Does anyone need additional confirmation of these facts?
ReplyDeleteWe know what and whom we're dealing with, let's not get sidetracked? The only question is WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT IT?
Dear Modesty Zone;
ReplyDeletePut the "prust" on the Agudah shoe.
Al Goldstein has a zechus in that he was and is transparent. What you see is exactly what he is. No double-face. No hypocrisy, no flim-flam, no BS, no shiv in the back.
Were the Agudah only able to say the same.
UOJ, Bush cant hold a candle to your speech! BRAVO!
ReplyDeleteYour words are like a balm to my soul that lost its youth and innocence to the vicious predator Avrum Mordechai Laizerowitz and the bastards that enabled him.
After listening to the audio of speeches of both Rav Solomon from the convention and Gil Student's ugefregt stab at one in Queens. I figured something out. Rav Solomon directed an attack at other bloggers besides UOJ. They would be CHaptzem, Vosizneas and Gil Student AND whoever else might emerge one day. When he said that bloggers' children should be kicked out of yeshivos, that was the one time the Agudah was attacking people BESIDES UOJ (who they think is beyond their reach). Gil mentioned in Queens that Wachsman or someone has apparently been closely following what he writes, that you could tell from what he said.
ReplyDeleteThe Agudah is finally starting to realize that this is much bigger than UOJ. This is about people who can think for themselves. People who think will put them out of business. The Brisker rov was the first big "thinker" out there who publicly stated his feelings. Other gedolim don't say it out loud. The bloggers started franchising "thought" to the general public which has everyone at 84 William looking like they saw a ghost.
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteI don't want to get off-topic here (I thihk this thread is pretty well exhausted), but making fun of somebody's name doesn't add credibility to your arguments, with which I mostly agree. Rav Dovid Lifshitz z"l shared a name with many others. ANd frankly, the fact that you choose to do so with nivul peh is inappropriate for someone of your stature. No, I don't mean that sarcastically in any way. And the fact that nivul peh is not important relative to exposing predators is not relevant. Given that the nivul peh doesn't actually help catch or expose monsters like Kolko (and in fact may in some way hurt that cause by turning some people off of your blog and erroneously discrediting you), I can't see why it belongs here.
Waxman said no blogging, and "No exceptions", meaning, even pikuach nefesh does not allow one to blog. His Wax-filled ears make him deaf to the cries of Jewish children.
ReplyDeleteListen to the tape, everybody, and try to prove me wrong. I don't have to, because I was there, and I heard what I heard.
He's crazy.
Who's big idea was it to start grooming Ephraim Wachsman as an up & coming gadol? WHat's the criteria these days? Is it gadol qualities or whoever makes a big hullabaloo?
ReplyDeleteThe better question is, Who is Wachsman related to?
ReplyDeleteRav Dovid Lifshitz z"l shared a name with many others. ANd frankly, the fact that you choose to do so with nivul peh is inappropriate for someone of your stature. No, I don't mean that sarcastically in any way. And the fact that nivul peh is not important relative to exposing predators is not relevant. Given that the nivul peh doesn't actually help catch or expose monster Kolko.__________________________________________________________________
ReplyDeleteI am m'kabel (accept) your criticism b'ahava. There are my reasons that will not be oisgehalten by the frum world.
In fact I've thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that outrageous bad behavior by our fellow Jews required an outrageous reaction to capture the world attention.
In fact I am convinced I'm right,
(for now). Crazy sells; I'm not certain if polite language would have been quite as effective. I'm still pondering your words and the words of others. I respect your point of view.
It's too bad I screwed royally when tackling UOJ. The Agudah thinks I'm a loser for getting caught and wouldn't let me give a workshop at the convention. I thought I was going to be the poster boy like David Schick was on business ethics.
ReplyDeleteUOJ-Stay put, don't fix somethink that's not broken. Whoever is offended by your language too bad that's definitely part of the attraction to your cause. Crazy also scares the shit out of people, dont change a thing. You caused a revolotion for the good.
ReplyDeleteUOJ, you are right about getting everyone's attention quickly, but ponder this. I get the feeling there are clean ways that you can get under the Agudah's skin even more than you are now.
ReplyDeleteFire President Bush's speechwriter. It's a chutzpa that no tribute was paid to UOJ for what he's done for this country.
ReplyDeleteLook, I learned in Lakewood and I'm pretty much typical. Rabbonim have told me that Wachsmann was speaking shtussim at the convention, bifrat with his silly codeword attempt to discredit the michtav from R' Shraga Feivel. I have no compelling need to cover for the Agudah because as far as I'm concerned they don't represent me. They certainly don't represent Kolko's victims. The Moetzes has not been inclusive of the greatest roshei yeshiva for the last 20 years because the political selection process stinks. We don't need Wachsmann opening his big pisk because R' Hershel Schechter, who is only one with guts to posken that what UOJ is doing is mutter, has already spoken up. The Agudah will never admit that R' Hershel is a bigger lamdon than anyone on their dais. I am opposed to the essence of YU but I will admit it.
ReplyDeleteThere are more yeshivishe roshei yeshiva saying the same thing, but only to their talmidim in private, und meh tor nisht ibberzoggin.
Frankly I'm getting tired of rabbonim acting like cowards and refusing to be mefarsem what they believe. Are they afraid that big bad Margulies is going to come down to huff & puff on them?
I HEARD ANOTHER CHILD IS COMING FORWARD. HE WAS MOLESTED IN KOLKO OFFICE.
ReplyDeleteIT LOOKS LIKE THE PARENTS ARE GOING TO THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY OFFICE.
THE QUESTION IS DO I BELIEVE KOLKO MESSED AROUND.YES I DO. I HAVE A FRIEND ON AVE K IN FLATBUSH THAT TOOK HIS SON OUT END OF 2006 BECAUSE KOLKO TOUCHED HIM. I ONLY FEEL SORRY FOR ALL THE VICTIMS THAT DON'T TALK ABOUT IT.MANY DOCOTRS SAY THE BEST REFUAH IS TO TALK ABOUT IT. WHEN I CHILD HOLDS IT IN THEY WILL SUFFER AS THEY GET OLDER.
I ALSO HEARD KOLKO HAS A HEARING JAN 24,2007.
I HOPE THEY HANG HIM LIKE SADAM. HE IS A SICK MAN.
Taking it to Brooklyn DA Hynes? You lost before you even started, my friend.
ReplyDeleteHynes balls (whats left of them) are held in an iron-vise grip by his goniff handler$/manipulator$ in Buru Pahk and Villiamsboorg.
He'll put on his shiny Election campaign, Conservative Synagogue Black Yarmulke, pose to you with his sad hangdog look, commiserate with you, make promises and assurances, and then do absolutely Nada, ningun, Kloom, gornisht.
Try not to let his spring door hit your Tuchis on your way out. Good if you bring along a little jar of Vaseline, just in case.
Via Con Dios and a better more productive move for you is to contact Lawyer Jeff Herman, PRONTO!
UOJ, I just reread my comment written last night and realized that I forgot to enter my name, "frumme yid".
ReplyDeleteI agree and I disagree with your response. It may indeed have been the case that initially you were only able to attract iconoclasts, and the use of some colorful language helped in that regard ---- a hora'as sha'ah, if you will.
I do believe that at this point your readership has diversified to include many like myself, who are somewhat taken aback by the language but generally in agreement with your sentiments and actions.
I think that perhaps the time has come to consider whether the greater good is served by continuing to scream from the rooftops, but not to curse from the rooftops. Your decision, of course. I know your motivations are good but I really think more people would be willing to join the fight for tov and yashar if they were more comfortable with the messenger.
>>How many of you saw a real live gadol? Spent time with a gadol? Learned at the feet of a gadol? How many of you ever saw a human being so developed with their tziddkus that they would rather die than utter a sheker or intentionally hurt another human in any manner, by action or inaction?
ReplyDeleteI did. I had the zechus to know Rav Gedalia Schorr. I had the zechus to be close to R' Chaim Shmuelevitz. I knew Rav Paler very well. These men exuded far more than you can describe. And there are some still out there today--R' Asher Arielli, R' Rafoel Shmuelevitz, R' Rafoel Schorr, R' Yitzchok Sorotzkin.
R' Yitzchok Sorotzkin is a godol like I am the President of the United states of America.
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke.
Colmer Info,
ReplyDeletei tracked some information too.
i think amy colmer is a sister not his wife. the following comes up in a google regarding a late grandmother.
"KURYK - On October 19, 2005, DOROTHY KATZ KURYK (nee Waranch); loving wife of the late Rubin Kuryk and the late Sidney Katz; devoted mother of Joel Katz of Annapolis, Marcell Colmer of Ocean, NJ and Ira Paul Katz of Atlanta, GA; beloved mother-in-law of Wendy Katz; loving step-mother of Cheryl Muscello of Baltimore and Wendy Mathias of Hollidaysberg, PA; devoted step-mother-in-law of Dean Muscello and Jeremiah Mathias; loving sister of Joseph Waranch and Martha Kirson both of Baltimore and the late Myer and Rubin S. Waranch; devoted sister-in-law of Dora, Sonia and Evelyn Waranch and the late Jerome Kirson; loving grandmother of Ronald and Richard Katz, Amy and Stefan Colmer, Andrew and Josh Mathias, and Michele and Danielle Muscello; loving great-grandmother of one. Interment Beth Tfiloh Congregation Cemetery, 5800 Windsor Mill Road."
also, if this is the same colmer in PC, then his wifes name is probably ilana and he goes by an alias of zissel. looks like he recently had baby boy.
"Zissel Leib & Ilana Colmer, baby boy"
look here: www.ptiweb.org/chanukah_5767.pdf
and some more info:
http://www.hillelyeshiva.org/apps/directory/directory_item.jsp?REC_ID=249872
"
Colmer Info said...
UOJ,
I don't know if any of this helps, but I tracked down some information through databases.
Stefan's wife's name is Amy.
He is originally from the Deal NJ area and has ties there. His mother Marcell lives in Ocean Township. He either worked for or owned a business in Oakhurst called East Coast Microsolutions & possibly still does. He was listed at a property in Asbury Park since earlier in the decade.
The kehillos in the greater Deal area should beware of him.
"
Uoj Staff Reporter - Detroit Desk said...
ReplyDeleteSadly "The Editor" commited suicide shortly after UOJ retired for Rosh Hashana, he had nowhere to turn after the blog closed, he was very depressed. It was a very sad day for us here in Detroit.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm alive and well. If you live in Detroit, you know where I live and work. UOJ SR DD, you're welcome to come by and visit in the garage. I'll even embroider you a challah cover gratis, if you publicly admit, using your real name, that you post on blogs like UOJ.
Anonymous said...
It's not nice to joke about someone committing suicide. I've seen Ronnie posting elsewhere. Let's just hope it takes him a long time to figure out UOJ is back in business. It really was annoying to have him blabbering about every trivial stupidity at length over here.
Well, someone has to blabber on at length about trivial stupidities. It might as well be me. I'm willing to use my own name and suffer whatever slings and arrows my words provoke. Are you?
Typical froomie coward.
Anonymous said...
>Let's just hope it takes him a long time to figure out UOJ is back in business.
I would go with this, Ronnie is pretty slow.
Crazy? Sure. Boorish? No question. Slow? You're out of your frickin' mind. I've been accused of many things, but stupid isn't one of them.
I'm not surprised the issue of speed weighs on your mind, though. Your wife was saying how quickly you finish.
"Are you in yet? Or are you done already?"
The Erub is Kosher and Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef said it was Kosher, so all the Maslaton and Mansour yoyo's can kiss off.... as for maslaton if you'd like to come to a Real Syrian Shul where we follow the Sephardic Laws and Tradition to the fulest join us at
ReplyDeleteSephardic Synagogue
511 Avenue R
Brooklyn , N.Y.
I promise you wont see Murray the furry bearded rasha there !!!!!!
Main Minyan 8:30 followed by Kiddush and Class you can ask the Rabbi who built the Erub any question you'd like.....
Telzer,
ReplyDeleteShall I say, Hail to the Chief?
Did R' Yitzchok offend your feminine sensibilities because you don't know what you're talking about? I am sorry to hear that. Child.
Regarding Anonymous post on Jan. 28 offering up the obituary of this accused molester's bubbe, I would like to suggest that this is disrespectful and should be removed. I do not know if this man is guilty or innocent, as some of you may, but that is irrelevant to the fact that his late grandmother's memory and name should not be linked with this, nor should the names of his living relatives who, one presumes, are likely innocent of any involvement and/or unaware.
ReplyDeleteSotah 22b From Artscroll translation: Rather, fear only the pretenders, who look like Perushim but are in rality not pious. For their actions are like the wicked action of Zimri etc.
ReplyDeleteFrom the notes there: Meiri homiletically applies to such people the verse (Psalms 92:8) and "cloaked in tzitzis" are all doers of iniquity.
I rest my case.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.letters11j2jun11,0,575183.story
ReplyDeleteWas this Postville raid prompted by a tip from a member of the local community who was annoyed at the presence of a kosher meat-packing plant in that region or by local ire at the number of immigrants in the area?
Whatever it was, certainly the kosher community in Pikesville is poorer for the raids, as are those who once worked at the plant.
Nelson Marans
Stop playing games UOJ -give us the R'Yaakov stories...............please
ReplyDeleteWachsman had no choice to outlaw blogs, as his cousins Mendy Klein and Malkie Spitz were the subjects of one of the most popular blogs of 2006 (5 Towns Whore)detailing in sorid details all of Malkies trysts. Wachsman then accepted a Torah in his shul paid for by his cousin Mendy Klein. Everything comes full circle
ReplyDeleteUOJ, you make it seem like we've never had such machloiksim. read the navi, we used to freakin KILL eachother, I'm talkin WAR, death, murder.....forget this blather back and forth. Or the Chasidim and Litvoks back in europe - talk about some conflict. Everyone would say that the other Rav was a POS - theirs was a gadol....just like today....you think heineman is a POS for not pulling a p'sak within 6 months. conratulations.
ReplyDeleteRabbi JB Soloveitchik has been criticized in public from many corners including Washington Heights. His rebbitzen allegedly had maskilishe tendencies which affected him. One complaint against him is that he may have found loopholes in halacha but did not take the poel yotzay into account.
ReplyDeleteAdin Steinsaltz grew up in the virulently anti-religious, pork eating kibbutz known as Shomer Hatzair. Steinsaltz does not have a mesorah as he never had a rebbe. He also reneged on promises to withdraw one of his troubling books.
Funny that Arthur is defending Shlomo Goren when Lubavitchers would not eat from his "hashgocho" either which was of typical Rabbinute stock of only fulfilling a fraction of the kosher requirements. This says nothing about his allowing mamzerim to get married for political reasons and allowing ascent to the Har Habayis while impure.
The reference to R' Yehuda Halevy is not clear.
Rav Schach's diatribe against Tzionim was the opinion of all Agudah rabbonim in 1948. While they may not have been as outspoken, they held these views while only working with the medinah so far as to benefit frum Jews.
Maybe Arthur should cleanse himself of his bitter hatred for Rav Schach before lecturing on sinas chinam.
http://news.google.com/news?q=strulovics&hl=en&tab=wn&scoring=n
ReplyDeleteStrulovics could run but he couldn't hide. Meanwhile all the Lakewood fressers who stuffed their faces at his lavish kiddushim in his Lakewood shtiebel should be ashamed of themselves.
Roshei yeshiva who approached Strulovics for money despite the dirt on his hands have all been burnt by his deadbeat pledges. All the while he made the most extravagant chassunos for his kids with the stolen money. This was complete with expensive props that were disposed of the next day.
let us not forget the giant of the mosey community the leader of the ganavim himself
ReplyDeletethe leading rabbi of the crooks
and the rabbi that rivals the frankel shul himself
non other then rebbe rabbi rottenberg the man who honors molesters thiefs and raapists
the man whose shul is used by otisville as a training center
the
Rabbi rottenberg
There's also a Rabbi Rottenberg, the Koziver Rebbe, in the Madison section of Brooklyn, whose shul is full of ex-convicts and other bums. That neighborhood is also similar to the 5 Towns in the numbers of guys escaping their chassidish backgrounds who feel more comfortable being modern away from the center of Boro Park / Flatbush.
ReplyDeleteTo Deconstructing Arthur's Hogwash May I direct you to Wed June 11 (StarK online)blogs where I posted a number of replys to your above post.
ReplyDeleteTo Decon... Yada Yada Yada
ReplyDeleteJust wondering why you posted your rant of June 16 11:34 on the Star K blog, for a second time on this one same date at 11:36? I got your gist the first time around.Is there some ulterior motive that I'm unaware of? Do you feel that these attacks need more exposure?
The Moral Responsibility Research Project was launched in October 2007. The researchers are graduate students in psychology at the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Loyola University. The focus of the research was the prevalence and effects of molestation in the Chicago Orthodox community. Using evidence-based best practices the team set out to research this vital subject.
ReplyDeleteThe following is a sampling of the data compiled to date:
1 in 6 Chicago Orthodox teenage boys reported being molested at least once.
1 in 5 Chicago Orthodox teenage girls reported being molested at least once.
Boys who are victims:
52% reported being molested by teachers
35% reported being molested by a relative
13% reported being molested by a friend/others
Girls who are victims:
0% reported being molested by teachers
73% reported being molested by a relative
27% reported being molested by a friend/others
Who did you report this to?
57% reported this to parents
20% reported this to a school/community rabbi
0% reported this to police
23% reported this to no one
Why didn’t you tell the police?
10% responded their parents wouldn’t allow it
54% responded their rabbi doesn’t approve of informing on another Jew
15% responded they feel guilty about what happened
21% responded they fear for their family safety, financial stability or prestige
Of those who reported the abuse:
How knowledgeable and accepting was the person you spoke to?
50% responded very knowledgeable and empathetic
30% responded knowledgeable but unsympathetic
10% reported it went right over their head
10% reported being insulted
What was harder for you, being victimized or coming forward and talking?
Boys:
63% responded coming forward
37% responded being victimized
Girls:
13% responded coming forward
87% responded being victimized
Those who did not report the abuse to anyone:
63% responded it would ruin the prospect of leading the life they desire
19% responded who needs to deal with a mental health worker
16% responded I must be a terrible person so why tell people how bad I am
2% responded I don’t know
All victims were asked these two questions:
1] Does God still love you?
73% responded Yes
20% responded No
7% responded I don’t know
2] After what you went through do you still love God?
23% responded Yes
77% responded No
http://www.nydoctorprofile.com/results_legal.jsp
ReplyDeleteSol D Neuhoff
NYS License Number: 124162
Date of NYS Licensure: 07-01-1975
Office Locations:
Brooklyn, NY
Malpractice
Judgments and Arbitration Awards
Number of awards: 1
Payment Details
02-05-1999
Kings County, NY
Significance
of Payment:
Above Average
Real-Estate Woes of Banks Mount
ReplyDeleteBy Michael Corkery, Jonathan Karp and Damian Paletta
Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal
Federal regulators warned that banking-industry turmoil would continue as financial institutions come to terms with piles of bad loans they made to finance the construction of homes and condominiums.
Until now, most of the damage to banks from the housing crisis has come from homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. But amid a dismal spring sales season for new homes, loans to home and condo builders are looking increasingly shaky. Banks have begun to dump them at what will likely be steep discounts, setting the stage for billions of dollars in fresh losses.
By KATE KELLY
ReplyDeleteJune 16, 2008; Page A1
Federal prosecutors, capping a yearlong investigation, are preparing to file criminal charges against managers of two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds whose collapse helped mark the start of the credit crisis.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn is slated to complete interviews of witnesses and other key people in the case this week, and has indicated to lawyers with interest in the case that indictments could be imminent, according to people familiar with the matter.
A prominent person in Jewish history made the same claims as UOJ about us not having gedolim!
ReplyDeleteHis name was Korach.
Anonymous 11:35 a.m.
ReplyDeleteAfter the prune juice did it's work this morning, very well indeed, you miss a simple yedia; Korach was wrong.
Some undisputed Gedolim: Haystacks Calhoun ................... John Goodman........................ Jackie Gleason.................... Roseanne ........................ John Candy....................... Orson Wells....................... Kathy Najimi......................... Santa Claus........................
ReplyDeleteThe reason we have rabbis who are not gedolim is simply because of the people. When my shul was looking for a rabbi we had a huge Talmid chochom come for shabbos he gave great shiurim. The next week we had a real personable guy who wasn't ignorant but was no more a genius or knowledgeable then most learning guys. After having both those "Rabonim" come for shabbos the conversations around the community all sounded the same. Yeah the first guy was really smart and knowledgeable but I feel like I can relate and talk to this second guy better. The first guy is too intorverted.
ReplyDeleteIn short:
since we all want the Rabbi to be is a hip personable guy we end up
with all these personable (some of them are nice others are polaticians) as rabbis while all the choshuv people that may have been on the Anshei Knesses Hagdola (Back in the day) are sitting in the back of beis medrash and learning.
Just a question out of curiosity and posed without malice...
ReplyDeleteWhy does ol' Mr. P Scheinberg wear all of those taleisi katan'im? Does anyone know. Is it for some mystical reason?
Rav Aharon Schechter caught on video, speaking about Slifkin:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO01hVfDFjI
Please Daven for Orel [ben Angela] Among the Victims "gedolim",ketanim,everyone.
ReplyDelete"G-d, how could this happen? How can this be despite my efforts to protect him from harm with my own body? Hashem gave me a precious gift, Orel, who has brought nothing but joy to our world since his arrival. Suddenly, this heavy blow! I do not know what to do with myself,? stated Angela, the 7.5-year-old Katyusha rocket victim´s mother, as he was taken to the trauma unit of Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva on Thursday. Upon his arrival, his condition was listed as extremely critical, chunks of shrapnel having pierced his delicate skull.
Angela when on to explain that "since his injuries, my life has ended. You don´t understand – I waited 11 years for his arrival, undergoing many fertility treatments. Please, we must all continue davening for him!?
Angela explains that on Thursday they decided to take sometime to enjoy, going ?out on the town´ as it were. As they were traveling a siren sounded and the vehicle immediately came to a halt in compliance with IDF Homefront Command instructions. "Orel got on the ground and I covered him with my body as best as I could,? added Angela. "He said to me, ?Ima, don´t be afraid. We are okay´. Then, suddenly, I saw blood coming out of his body. So much blood! He shouted really loud ?ima´ as if he wanted to tell me not to worry, that he wasn´t going to die?.
Orel was taken directly to the operating room where neurosurgeons and other medical specialists worked to control the inter-cranial bleeding. They also tried removing the shrapnel from his head. He has since undergone a second surgical procedure but they have not succeeded in removing all the shrapnel that penetrated his skull.
Avi, Orel´s dad, explains he arrived home from work and was asked to remain with Orel´s 8-month-old sister. "As soon as I heard the siren, I phoned Angela but she did not respond,? Avi explains.
"I began thinking the worst and a short time later, Angela telephoned me. She was crying and hysterical. ?My baby is dying´ she screamed?.
Angela later explained that after Orel was hit she stood up and began screaming. She picked her mortally wounded son up in her arms, stopped a vehicle, and they transported him to the Soroka Hospital where Angela is employed as a surgical nurse.
Want to understand the Gedolim - not as they are quoted - but what they really say?
ReplyDeleteDon't believe heresay - listen for yourself. This is R' Aron Shechter of CB attacking R' Nathan Slifkin and explaining his reasoning:
http://hamercaz.com/hamercaz/sit...ile.php? id=4128
I never heard of Rabbi Schacter before, and certainly never heard him speak. Now that I've heard him, I can understand how Balaam's donkey was able to speak!
ReplyDeleteDoofy:
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you, say hello to the other UOJ friend in your family.
Most certainly will. By the way, in the second part of his "lecture", Rabbi Schacter refers to his acquantaince with the "author" of the "big bang" theory. Fred Hoyle is the first guy to coin the term, and that would make the good Rabbi almost as old as Balaam"s ass!!
ReplyDeleteJerusalem - In recent weeks, it's become hard to trust anyone from the world of finance, regardless of who they may be—mainly because of the fallout from the case of Bernie Madoff, a 70-year-old American Jew who succeeded in fooling financiers, non-profits and individuals alike in the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.
ReplyDeleteNot only did the man hurt Yad Sarah and other Israeli institutions, including universities, but also the Rachemstrivker Chasidic movement headquarters in Jerusalem. According to information obtained by Ladaat.net, a grand festive dinner said to be scheduled for less than two weeks from now in the United States was cancelled at the last minute due to the Madoff scandal.
Apparently, the Jewish millionaire ensnared Rachemstrivker institutions in his net, with the dinner at which Madoff was to be guest of honor cancelled. In the wake of the cancellation, the Rachemstrivker Rebbe, shlita, also decided to cancel his planned visit to the U.S. The Rebbe is currently staying in Tiveria.
In a search for their ancestors, more than 140 people with variations of the last name Tendler have taken DNA tests and shared their results on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteWho’s your daddy?
They have also stumbled upon bastards, liars, rapists and two-timers.
Much of it is ancient history, long-dead ancestors whose dalliances are part of the intrigue of amateur genealogy. But sometimes the findings strike closer to home.
In one case, two Tendlers were surprised to discover they had different fathers. They confronted their elderly mother, who denied the most obvious possibilities -- that she had been unfaithful to her husband, the man they had always known as Dad, or that one son was adopted.
"It has been traumatic for some to discover their true lineage through the DNA tests," said Don Kincaid, a 76-year-old Texan who oversees the project and witnessed the brothers' ordeal.
As genetic testing becomes more widespread for medical information, forensics and ancestral research, more people are accidentally uncovering family secrets. Among the most painful are so-called "non-paternity events," cases in which Dad turns out to be someone else.
"It's going to be more and more of a problem," said Dr. Eric Topol, chief of genomic medicine at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. Increasing numbers of people will be asking their spouses and parents: "What happened 25 years ago?"
The direct-to-consumer DNA industry sometimes warns customers of the possibility of unintended consequences. But company involvement stops there.
The two Tendler brothers declined through a spokesman to talk about their experience, calling it too painful.
Others, with the benefit of genetic distance, are more philosophical.
"I'm sure in the history of the Tendler family, there's been some fooling around," said 66-year-old Shalom Tendler.
"If that's unique to this family, I'd be surprised."
Values and behavior
How many of us are not our fathers' children?
The question has fascinated researchers as a window into the gap between a society's stated values and its behavior. A 2005 analysis of 17 studies -- based on blood and DNA tests of various groups -- concluded that the answer varies depending on country and culture. But the average rate is 4%.
The issue has long lurked in the background of medicine. It's not hard to figure out if your blood type is compatible with Mom's and Dad's(If they are both A positive and you are B positive, you have a problem.)
A recent survey of 56 kidney transplant centers by the University of Maryland showed that 70% had stumbled upon at least one case of non-paternity as a result of testing potential organ donors.
DNA testing has opened the gates of possibility. The potential for surprises exists whenever members of the same family are tested.
For example, researchers looking for the genetic fingerprints of certain diseases have long compared child and parent DNA.
BY KIRSTEN DANIS
ReplyDeleteDAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Tuesday, March 25th 2008, 4:00 AM
A battle has erupted in the Orthodox Jewish community over a Brooklyn teenager sent by his prominent family to a behavior boot camp accused of terrifying abuse.
Isaac Hersh, 16, has been trapped since last summer at Tranquility Bay, a reform school on the island of Jamaica with a soothing name - and harsh discipline, according to the lawyer hired to try to get him out.
"It's a modern-day concentration camp," said Maryland lawyer Joshua Ambush.
Isaac's estranged parents sent him to the boot camp last year after luring him back to Brooklyn from his new home in Texas, court papers claim.
Isaac's twin brother, Sol, is panicked he's next to go.
"He's very worried about his brother. He's very worried about himself, too," said a friend of the family who asked to remain anonymous.
Tranquility Bay offers the promise of turning bad boys into focused achievers, but the walled-off camp with barred windows has been called a nightmare.
Children have been beaten, forced to eat their vomit and made to stand in painful contortions for hours, according to a separate suit filed in Utah by former students against private boot camps, including Tranquility Bay.
The case has so riled up members of the normally insular Orthodox community that several are taking the rare step of publicizing Isaac's situation.
One one side is Isaac's informal Texas foster family, who are also Orthodox, and their supporters, who prompted a nonprofit to file suit in Washington last week on Isaac's behalf.
They claim he was lured to Brooklyn with the promise of a job, handcuffed and thrown into a van that took him to the boot camp as he cried and begged to be released, the suit says.
On the other side are the teen's father, Michael Hersh - CEO of Brooklyn's huge Orthodox volunteer ambulance service, Hatzalah - and his wife, Miriam.
"Hatzalah will carefully monitor these proceedings, taking into account the seriousness of the allegations," the organization said in a statement.
The couple has a prominent supporter in Rabbi Aaron Schecter, head of Brooklyn's tight-knit Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, according to the suit.
It is unclear what prompted the parents to send Isaac to another country. Michael Hersh did not return a call for comment.
They had a troubled relationship for years, according to the suit.
Isaac, one of eight children, was sent to schools in Virginia and Long Island before the family moved to Israel in 2002, where the parents were accused of abusing Isaac, the suit says.
From there, the boys went to live with families in Texas, although the parents never lost custody.
"They're healthy, good, normal teenage boys," said the family friend.
As others have already suggested in some ways many here are too cynical, and the cause of truth and justice would be further advanced with a more nuanced, less hyperbolic tone.
ReplyDeleteBut in other respects you are way too idealistic, and not because you hold on to the idea of the possibility of gedolim. The idealism shows itself in failing to recognize the role of self interest in many phenomena that seem puzzling. People continue to send their kids to YTT because they benefit, in shiduchim, in social position etc. Each story is a little different. The same for continued support of the Agudah. When it comes to social circles, groups to become segmented thus multiplying the possibilities for kavod and other narcissistic payoffs.
In the wonderful sardonic video posted on the Gerer pow wow in Auvergne, one should ask who there was harming himself in showing up? Some earn a living from Gerer mosdos, others are bigshots in Gerr and have gained status.Worst case analysis everyone feels warm and fuzzy in carrying on the tradition.
This warm feeling is lost when anger and hatred take over in the name of truth and justice.
This is a joint online survey by the OU and Aleinu of Los Angeles to assess the happiness of Orthodox marriages.
ReplyDeleteSpecific attention is given to the EFFECTS OF MOLESTATION ON MARRIAGE.
Please take the survey, answer honestly, and hopefully we can all help save marriages.
This warm feeling is lost when anger and hatred take over in the name of truth and justice.
ReplyDelete------------
Everybody is certainly welcome to feel warm and fuzzy for all I care, as long as the fallout from all this fuzziness does not create a Judaism bereft of all substance.
Scientologists can refuse to take medicine for themselves and die, but certainly it would be a crime if they refused medicine to their children (I'm not referring to the recent tragedy by an actor's child - per se)
My point is simply that if truth, justice, yosher and all that is mentchlich must be eliminated out of Yiddishkeit for it to breed more Jews, we are in serious trouble.
Rabbi Nochem Rosenberg speaks out on these videos:
ReplyDeletehttp://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2009/01/rabbi-nochem-rosenbergs-update-january.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2Dtivp2A04
To call OUJ a Korach for saying there is a lack of gedolim???? Achisophel was also a gadol . He did tremendous damage to the Klal.
ReplyDeleteKeepin' It Real Estate: Buyers' Market? Beware!
ReplyDeleteby Andrew Jeffery
Is it a buyer's market?
Ask most real-estate professionals the above question, and the response will almost certainly be an emphatic "Yes!"
After all, they quickly explain, inventory levels are at all-time highs, sellers are desperate to get out from under their rapidly depreciating homes, and mortgage rates are at historic lows. What more could buyers ask for?
How about not losing their shirts, for starters.
The traditional definition of a buyer's market is one where supply outstrips demand, pushing down prices: Buyers have the upper hand. As the bull market begins to wane, however, buyers lose their enthusiasm and become concerned about price. The market cools down and buyers shy away, forcing sellers to make concessions and lower prices. This, in turn, creates an environment where buyers can shop around, be picky, and patiently waiting for their dream house to come on the market.
As demand returns, sellers start upping their list prices, refusing to pay for closing costs and holding out for a better offer. Buyers, fearful they might miss out on the next boom, bid up asking prices and ask for fewer concessions. Now that sellers have the upper hand, the market favors sellers as prices move upward. Such is the cyclical nature of real estate.
This story has played out for decades as real estate plodded along, homebuilders like DR Horton (DHI), KB Homes (KBH) and Toll Brothers (TOL) supplied the market with new construction and home prices marched steadily upward, outpacing inflation by the narrowest of margins. A little more than 10 years ago, however, that relationship started to come unglued.
The recent housing bubble turned the prevailing view of real estate on its head. Homes, long viewed as the most stable of all assets, became a speculative tool for even the most unsophisticated investor. The mania, fueled by lax monetary policy and Wall Street alchemy, helped contributed to the financial crisis currently gripping our country. As property values have careened back to earth, real estate assets of all kinds have become toxic.
Nevertheless, the National Association of Realtors (or NAR) and its dedicated minions have tirelessly peddled their lies that ours is a buyer's market. Let's take a quick jaunt back in time to some recent headlines and where that traditional assessment of a buyer's market got us:
Las Vegas: It's Definitely a Buyer's Market
USA Today: July 5, 2006
How true. Property values in Vegas have fallen 33% since summer 2006. Not to be outdone by their peers at USA Today, ABC ran this piece just weeks later:
Take Advantage of Real Estate's Buyer's Market
ABC News: July 31, 2006
"The National Association of Realtors said that the number of homes for sale has reached new heights, which is good news for buyers."
Anyone who bought in that "buyer's paradise" in Phoenix has seen their home's value fall by more than 30%.
The point isn't to criticize realtors for arguing it's a buyer's market: After all, one should expect nothing less from a group whose entire existence is based on convincing buyers it's a great time to buy - irrespective of the truth. Just ask Gary Keller, whose new book, Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, advises agents to "find every way possible to overcome the media-driven real-estate malaise."
The traditional definition of a buyer's market needs a bit of a makeover. A more sensible definition is a market where buyers have ample opportunity to make good investments. To be sure, a home is more than just an investment; it's a place to raise one's family, to grow old, to spend time with loved ones. However, as far too many American families have learned in the past three years, homes can become a debilitating burden if bought at the wrong price.
In today's market, there certainly exist attractive investment opportunities. But to label the market as a whole as one where buyers should be rushing out in search of the American Dream is borderline lunacy. Throughout much of the country, home prices are still too high: Real incomes don't support prevailing property values, even after the historic declines we've already seen. Supply, despite remaining at record levels, is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Home prices are undergoing a much-needed correction, and will continue to do so until fundamental demand catches up with supply.
This isn't to say every home on the market is overpriced, or that every buyer in the past 36 months has gotten a raw deal. There are deals to be had if one knows where and how to look - and, most importantly if the purchase makes good financial sense. To borrow a theme from Toddo, "financial staying power" should be at the forefront of any prospective buyer's mind.
So ignore the hype, both good and bad. As often is the case, not until the most ardent bulls turn in their horns will the bears return to hibernation. So, as soon as realtors concede it may not be a buyer's market after all, voila! A bottom we will have.
If I could only rip the golf balls off these gedolim bastards............
ReplyDeleteCow knocks over woman on bike, steps on her legs
ReplyDeleteTue Jan 20, 8:52 pm ET
BOULDER, Colo. – A woman escaped serious injury and refused medical treatment after a cow knocked her down and walked on her legs.
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks ranger Pete Taylor said the woman was riding her bicycle along the South Boulder Creek Trail on Monday when she encountered the cow and stopped to let the animal cross.
Instead, the cow knocked the woman over and stepped on her legs.
The cow had left the area by the time rangers arrived, but other people warned fellow bikers and hikers on the trail about the animal.
What's wrong with these people? Didn't they know they'd be safe with Diamondcard Processing?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/technology/21breach.html
January 21, 2009
Credit Card Processor Says Some Data Was Stolen
By ERIC DASH and BRAD STONE
Heartland Payment Systems, a major payment processing company, disclosed a data breach on Monday that potentially exposed tens of millions of credit and debit cardholders to the risk of fraud in what could quickly become one of the country’s biggest data compromises.
Robert H. B. Baldwin Jr., Heartland’s president and chief financial officer, said that his company believed the card numbers, expiration dates, and in some cases cardholder names were exposed after attacks on its computer systems at the one point where data had been unencrypted.
Once consumers swiped their cards, so-called sniffer software captured that data as Heartland sought authorization from the major payment companies and banks. Customers of Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Financial were all vulnerable.
“We have industry-leading encryption, but the data has to be unencrypted to request the information,” Mr. Baldwin said. “The sniffer was able to grab that authorization data at that point.”
Data thieves introduced the software as early as May, but Heartland did not detect the breach until it was alerted to the activity in late fall. The personal data of 600 million or more cardholders was vulnerable, but data security experts suggested data from far fewer accounts had been extracted. Other confidential information, like personal security codes, is not believed to have been compromised. That might limit damages.
Even so, the Heartland breach could wind up rivaling some of the largest data thefts. In January 2007, the discount retail chain TJX revealed that data on more than 45 million customers had been compromised. And 40 million cardholder accounts were exposed in the 2005 data compromise at a tiny payment processor, CardSystem Solutions.
Avivah Litan, a data security analyst, said that the Heartland breach could result in hundreds of millions in losses and other expenses. “If you add it all up, including legal costs, it could be as much as half a billion dollars in losses — or twice as big as TJX,” she said.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/158038/heartland_has_no_heart_for_violated_customers.html
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, one of the busiest news days of the year, Heartland Payment quietly released a statement declaring the company's card processing system had been hacked. Since the company handles more than 100 million credit card transactions monthly serving more than 250,000 businesses ranging from restaurants to retailers to payroll systems, chances are someone in every state is affected by this major data loss.
According to the New York Times , data thieves introduced the Heartland malware as early as May, and Heartland didn't open its eyes until late fall 2008. Then Heartland chose inauguration day to make its announcement.
Robert Baldwin Jr., Heartland's president and chief financial officer, told media that it is too early to estimate how many people are affected. Baldwin said comparisons to the TJX data breach of 2007, when 45 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen, are premature, and that it's unfair to call this the greatest breach of financial data ever.
Data security analysts disagree. Data security analyst Avivah Litan told the Times, "If you add it all up, including legal costs, it could be as much as half a billion dollars in losses -- or twice as big as TJX."
So what are Heartland's next steps? USA Today quotes Baldwin saying Heartland plans to "notify each victim whose data were stolen to comply with data-loss disclosure laws in more than 30 states." Much more than 30 states: 44 states have data-loss disclosure laws on the books, and federal legislation is pending. Based on Baldwin's words, it appears Heartland is willing to do only the bare minimum and comply with state laws instead of taking the extra effort to notify every single customer, regardless of law, about whether their data has been stolen.
The problem worsens. According to USA Today, security firm CardCops have been tracking a 20 percent year-on-year increase of hackers testing batches of payment card numbers to ensure they're still active. "The numbers could have come from a processor, like Heartland, or some other source that has access to a lot of customer data but is not a retailer," Dan Clements, CardCops president, told USA Today.
Heartland's actions stink of denial. It's embarrassing and nasty when hackers breach major financial institutions and pillage, and it definitely damages a company's reputation. But if said company isn't willing to accept responsibility and take action to support its customers, it deserves part of the blame. What's more, it only further pollutes consumer confidence, which, given the recession, is already in the dumps.
And to think Ronnie thought he could get even with UOJ by boycotting DiamondCard.
ReplyDeleteSholom Menashe Fuzailov, Flushing, NY
ReplyDeleteProfession: Dentist; Lic. No. 047661; Cal. No. 23629
Regents Action Date: May 20, 2008
Action: Application for consent order granted; Penalty agreed upon: 3 month actual suspension, 21 month stayed suspension, 2 years probation.
Summary: Licensee admitted to the charge of having been convicted of Falsifying Business Records in the 2nd Degree, a class A misdemeanor.
ABC Pharmacy, Inc., 5015 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
ReplyDeleteProfession: Pharmacy; Reg. No. 026818; Cal. No. 23685
Regents Action Date: April 15, 2008
Action: Application for consent order granted; Penalty agreed upon: Censure and Reprimand, 1 year probation, $5,000 fine.
Summary: Registrant admitted to the charge of a grossly negligent failure to comply with substantial provisions of New York State law governing the practice of the profession of pharmacy, to wit: allowing the retail pharmacy it operates to dispense prescription-required medications without a prescription.
Sam Antar, New York, NY
ReplyDeleteProfession: Certified Public Accountant; Lic. No. 050872; Cal. No. 23835
Regents Action Date: April 15, 2008
Action: Application to surrender license granted.
Summary: Licensee admitted to charges of having been convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud and Mail Fraud and of Obstruction of Justice.
Eddie's father and nephew who was CFO are both named Sam Antar. This is seemingly the nephew.
http://www.deepcapture.com/why-is-sam-antar-the-crook-being-pimped-by-fortune-magazine-and-the-rest-of-the-new-york-financial-media/
ReplyDeleteWhy is Sam Antar the Crook Being Pimped by Fortune Magazine and the Rest of the New York Financial Media?
February 9th, 2008
by Patrick Byrne
When Sam was busted, he ratted out his two cousins, who each served several years in prison on the strength of Sam’s testimony (I guess Eddie was Crazy after all, to trust Cousin Sam). Sam Antar ratted out family members in return for a reduced sentence of six months’ house arrest and 1,200 hours community service.
Barry Minkow is a convicted stock cheat who, at the ripe age of 23, was sentenced to 25 years for his various stock fraud schemes (no small feat). He was released after 6 years. Recently he became entangled in a new stock manipulation case. Three months ago Minkow was subpoenaed and deposed, and in that deposition (pages 8-10), disclosed that Sam Antar the Crook had paid Minkow $250,000 (in two payments, one of $100,000 and one for $150,000) to turn his skills against a public company that he, Sam Antar the Crook, was shorting.
Sam and Sam-cronies (Gary Weiss and Howard Sirota) regularly accuse those who disagree with them, or try to expose their shenanigans, as anti-Semites. Ed Manfredonia, one of the many whom they have repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism, asked the Anti-Defamation League to get involved. Displaying great class, the ADL got involved, and wrote this letter utterly rejecting those allegations. Notwithstanding the ADL’s statement, Sam continues to make endless allegations of anti-Semitism towards those who cross him.
Sam attempted to intimidate one of my colleagues by posting on a public message board the names and address of my colleague’s wife and two little girls, ages 6 and 9
And is there more than one David J. Zwiebel?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/DisciplineMarch2008.htm
David J. Zwibel a/k/a Joseph David a/k/a John D. Miller; Certified Public Accountant; 114 Lakeside Drive East, Lawrence, NY 11559; Lic. No. 046460; Cal. No. 23220; Application to surrender license granted. Summary: Licensee admitted to charges of having been convicted of Attempted Criminal possession of a Forged Instrument in the 2nd Degree and Scheme to Defraud in the 1st Degree, both class E felonies.
http://www.harborgroupint.com/about/commercial-real-estate-investors.aspx
David J. Zwiebel serves as Vice-Chairman of HGI and Managing Director of Harbor Group Israel (H.G.I) Ltd.
Mr. Zwiebel has over 50 years of experience in investment banking as well as public equity and real estate investments in the United States, Europe, and Israel and is well qualified in matching commercial real estate investors with the right property for them. Mr. Zwiebel served as a consultant to Brean Murray & Co., Inc., a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and currently serves on the board of directors of several Israeli high-tech companies.
Prior to immigrating to Israel in 1969, Mr. Zwiebel managed the U.S. office of Goodbody & Co., which at the time was the third largest stock brokerage firm in the United States.
Mr. Zwiebel is also very active in many charitable organizations, and currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Stuchynski Alzheimer's Center in Ramat Gan, Israel.
Mr. Zwiebel is a graduate of Yeshiva University in New York and completed courses for an M.B.A. at Bernard Baruch School, City College, New York.
I wonder where Shmuelly Antar got that idea from to call his critics antte-Semittin?
ReplyDeleteYou guys should mind your own business.
ReplyDeleteNext Boog is probably going to ask if the Zwiebel in Lawrence also buys a new tie once every 10 years at Emporio.
Zweibel going to Emporio for a tie is probably like Shafran coming to Bencraft to steam his filthy Borsalino ...
ReplyDelete... trying to shnorr a free one.
If I was David Rappaport I would chase Zweibel down 13th Ave with one of those Italian leather belts.
Time for a Gaza apology
ReplyDeleteBy MICHAEL FREUND
As extensive as the wall-to-wall coverage of the situation in the South over the past month was, there is one key issue that the country's leadership and media have studiously and carefully avoided mentioning of late. Despite finding time to examine a wide range of subjects, from the intricacies of intra-Hamas politics to the technical differences between Kassam and Grad rockets, pundits and politicians alike have proven incapable of acknowledging the underlying cause behind the present disarray.
Indeed, if you listened carefully, and followed the news in recent weeks, you may have noticed that hardly anything was said about the colossal strategic blunder which enabled Hamas to strike terror in the streets of Ashkelon and Beersheba.
Yes, you guessed correctly. To paraphrase Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, "It was the disengagement, stupid!" Of course, this hardly comes as a surprise. After all, it would require something of our politicians and their guard dogs in the press which they seem constitutionally incapable of doing: admitting they were wrong.
Yet that is precisely what they were when they supported the Sharon government's misguided August 2005 retreat: dead wrong, and profoundly so.
It was their blunder, their bluster and their blindness, which got us into this mess, and which brought the country an unprecedented wave of airborne Palestinian projectiles and terror. All those who backed the pullout then, and adamantly defended it to the public, clearly now owe the rest of us a whopper of an apology.
Which is exactly why they are so manifestly silent on the subject.
BUT THE facts are too compelling to ignore, and they readily speak for themselves. Let's do a quick rewind and you'll see why.
Prior to the ignominious retreat more than three years ago, there were warnings aplenty that it would endanger the South and place hundreds of thousands of people within range of jihadist rockets in Gaza.
Here is just one of many examples. On January 11, 2005, seven months before the pullout, Col. Uzi Buchbinder, head of civil defense in the IDF's Home Front Command, told the Knesset Interior Committee that the disengagement plan, if implemented, would expose 46 towns and cities in the Negev to Kassam rocket fire. At the same hearing, Col. (res.) Mordechai Yogev presented a report to our parliamentarians, cautioning that "the withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria will bring numerous large population centers and communities within the range of Kassam rockets and mortar shells." And that, of course, is precisely what occurred.
But no one wanted to listen, no one wished to hear, even as politicians and protesters on the Right railed against the disengagement, accurately predicting the disaster that would ensue. Instead, the leaders of the country mocked the plan's opponents and hurled invective and abuse their way.
After more than 100,000 people rallied outside the Knesset on January 29, 2005 against the government's plan, vice prime minister Shimon Peres ridiculed the gathering, labeling it a "rally of shlemazels." As it turns out, of course, the real shlemazels are not those who warned about the dangers of retreat, but those who stubbornly ignored them.
IN THIS context it is worth recalling that one of those who led the charge in favor of the expulsion of Gaza's Jews was none other than our very own Ehud Olmert, who at the time served as Ariel Sharon's vice premier. On June 9, 2005, Olmert insisted in remarks to an American Jewish audience that the disengagement "will bring more security, greater safety, much more prosperity and a lot of joy for all the people that live in the Middle East." Continuing with his flight of fantasy, Olmert went on to say that "we are confident that this disengagement will be successful, and that it will then lead to the beginning of a new pattern of relations between us and the Palestinian Authority."
Well, it certainly has lead to a "new pattern of relations," as the Palestinian leadership was forced to flee to Ramallah after Hamas quickly seized control over Gaza. But that, of course, is not quite what Olmert and his colleagues had in mind.
On August 15, 2005, the day of the pullout itself, Sharon addressed the nation and assured us that "this plan is good for Israel in any future scenario." Needless to say, that has proven to be patently untrue. And while Sharon is no longer in any condition to be offering regrets, there are plenty of people out there in positions of power who darn well should.
It is time for a Gaza apology and a national admission of guilt. All those who had a hand in the disengagement should apologize to the people of Israel, the residents of Sderot and the rest of the Negev and especially to those who lived in Gush Katif.
Through their folly, the supporters of withdrawal brought disaster upon this country. They destroyed the lives of thousands of Gaza's Jews, and put nearly a million Israelis within the cross-hairs of Hamas.
Unless Israel and its leaders have the courage to come to terms with their error, the danger of making additional such blunders will continue to accompany us well into the future.
Mistakes, wrote the author James Joyce, are portals of discovery. They allow us to gain a better glimpse of reality and to move forward. But that can only happen if in fact one is capable of embracing his own failings.
The disengagement, as its name implied, was supposed to disengage Israel from the Palestinians and their violence. But instead, as we have seen, it did just the opposite. It is about time that its proponents publicly acknowledged as much.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/01/20/2009-01-20_human_rights_worker_with_united_nations_.html
ReplyDeleteA high-ranking human rights worker with ties to the United Nations was nabbed at Kennedy Airport Tuesday with kiddie porn in his suitcase, officials said.
Clarence Dias, 65, president of the International Center for Law in Development, whose offices are located at the UN, had the smut in his carry-on bag as he passed through security on his way to a flight bound for Bangkok, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Transportation Security Administration officials doing a random bag check around 8:20a.m. allegedly found a DVD whose cover featured an apparently underage nude boy and an adult male in Dias' handbag, prosecutors said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/01/20/2009-01-20_mayor_gary_becker_of_racine_wisconsin_re.html
ReplyDeleteMILWAUKEE - The mayor of Racine, Wis., resigned on Tuesday, days after being accused of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was an underage girl.
Mayor Gary Becker resigned, effective 5 p.m. Tuesday, in a one-sentence letter that made no reference to the six felonies he faces.
His attorney, Patrick Cafferty, said Becker decided to resign because "it was in the best interest of everyone involved." He said his client intends to plead not guilty to all charges during a Feb. 10 arraignment in Racine County Circuit Court.
The City Council had planned to meet Tuesday night to begin the process of removing Becker from office in Racine, about 20 miles south of Milwaukee. Instead, the council's president, David Maack, said it will meet soon to decide whether to hold a special election or appoint someone to serve as mayor for the roughly two years left in Becker's term.
"I think it will allow us to move forward as a city and a council. We won't have this whole removal process hanging over our heads," said Maack, who had called for Becker's resignation.
Becker, 51, was arrested Jan. 13 at a suburban Milwaukee mall following a two-week investigation by the state Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation. After chatting online with a state agent posing as a 14-year-old girl, Becker went to the mall to meet the girl and buy lingerie for her, according to a criminal complaint.
During the chat, he offered to take her to a hotel to "have lots of fun," the complaint said.
The investigation started last month after Becker asked city workers to help him fix a problem with his personal computer. Police said the computer technician found six pornographic images of what appeared to be underage females and alerted authorities. Police passed the case on to state investigators to avoid a conflict of interest.
Investigators who searched Becker's computer found records of 1,800 sexually explicit chats, District Attorney Michael Nieskes said.
Becker, who is married and has two children, is charged with attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child under 16, possession of child pornography, child enticement, use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, attempt exposing a child to harmful material and misconduct in office. The charges carry a maximum penalty of more than 114 years in prison and $370,000 in fines.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/01/20/2009-01-20_discount_chain_hit_by_credit_crunch_kiss.html
ReplyDeleteA BARGAIN-lover's paradise in Kew Gardens Hills is set to close its doors - one more victim of the recession.
National Wholesale Liquidators on Kissena Blvd. opened 18 years ago, offering everything from hardware to clothing and household goods.
But its owners, the Rosen family of West Hempstead, saw the signs of its imminent demise last year, with lack of credit leading to its bankruptcy, according to news reports.
"I heard about it three days ago and here I am," Jamaica resident Saleem Mohammed said recently, as he faced long lines of shoppers competing for the last remaining items. Mohammed said he's been a big fan of the store, describing its status as somewhere between a Wal-Mart and a Family Dollar.
Founded in 1984 by Eva Rosen, the chain has 47 locations in 12 states, including the District of Columbia. Of those, only 10 are expected to remain open, including the store at 3500 48th St. in Long Island City. And only the Lodi, N.J., store will remain in the hands of the Rosens. The rest are to be owned by NSC Wholesale Holdings.
"The owner lost his credit line," said Albert Babayev, whose barbershop is next to National Wholesale Liquidators.
General Electric Capital cut the company's credit line by $15 million, putting a "major hardship" on its ability to pay its bills, according to a Reuters report. The Rosen family did not return calls seeking comment.
http://www.finalternatives.com/node/6624
ReplyDeleteNew York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has joined the ranks of those investigating the Bernard Madoff scandal. Cuomo’s office has subpoenaed J. Ezra Merkin, who ran several Madoff feeder funds, and 15 nonprofit entities as part of a probe into alleged charity fraud, he said at a news conference in Manhattan today.
According to Cuomo, who is seeking appointment to the U.S. Senate seat set to be vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, charities his office is looking at may have lost more than $100 million in Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Cuomo’s office oversees New York nonprofit groups.
“To steal from a charity in essence really does add insult to injury,” Cuomo said.
Merkin is the target of the probe, and the attorney general is seeking information about his Madoff feeder hedge funds, Gabriel Capital Corp., Ariel Fund and Ascot Partners. Cuomo’s investigation is trying to determine whether Merkin solicited money to invest with Madoff from the charities.
Cuomo said his firm isn’t investigating Madoff himself, who has already been charged by federal prosecutors with securities fraud and faces possible additional charges from Connecticut to Europe. The attorney general said he has not determined whether the charges in the charity-fraud case will be criminal or civil.
Among those subpoenaed in the probe are colleges and universities, including Bard College, New York Law School, New York University and Yeshiva University, according to the New York Daily News. Cuomo has also sought information from several other schools, including the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Ramaz School and the Sar Academy, as well as Carnegie Hall and the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York.
http://www.finalternatives.com/node/6688
ReplyDeleteArthur Nadel is no longer merely a missing hedge fund manager. He’s a missing hedge fund manager who’s been charged with fraud.
The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday sued Nadel, who heads Sarasota, Fla.-based hedge fund Scoop Management, alleging that he misled investors and inflated the value of the six funds he managed. The agency also won a freeze of Nadel’s assets, as well as those of the suit’s other defendants.
Nadel disappeared last week, leaving behind a suicide note. But in a case with parallels to Bayou Group founder Samuel Israel’s disappearance last year, authorities do not believe that Nadel has killed himself, and reportedly traced him to the New Orleans area this past weekend.
According to the SEC’s charges, filed in federal court in Tampa, Fla., Nadel overstated the value of his hedge funds by about $300 million; the $50 million in payouts he owed investors last week are apparently all that was left in the funds. Of course, even that $50 million may not exist: The SEC says that Nadel’s funds appear to have less than $1 million in assets. In addition, authorities believe Nadel recently transferred at least $1.25 million from two of his funds to himself.
Family ties seem to have cost one of Bernard Madoff’s relatives his home. Charles Wiener, Madoff’s nephew and a 30-year employee of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, has had to put his Long Island house up for sale after being wiped out in the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
ReplyDeleteWiener was reportedly near tears last week as he talked about his uncle's betrayal with The New York Post. “It's emotionally devastating to our entire family,” said Wiener, at his Centerport, N.Y., home, which he was forced to put on the market. “I can't afford it anymore.”
Wiener’s four-bedroom, ranch-style home was built in 1971 and features a dock and brick patio. It's now listed for $1.3 million.
Wiener joined Madoff Securities in 1978 and his last listed position was director of administration. Another former employee of the firm said Wiener worked on a different floor of the company's headquarters in midtown Manhattan than that where Madoff ran his “investment advisory,” and that Wiener didn’t have a clue about his uncle’s scam.
http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/011509/njYeshivotHearRemedies.html
ReplyDeleteOrthodox day school administrators gathered in Manhattan last week to “talk tachlis” about a dismal economy.
And the stakes were high: Panelists urged the approximately 100 officials present to eliminate costly programs and replace competition with cooperation as they struggle together for financial survival.
Some yeshivot are “in enormous crisis,” said Moshe Bane, an attorney who led the discussion Jan. 6 at the Orthodox Union’s Manhattan headquarters.
Bane’s specialty — bankruptcy law — was a telling opening act from the panel of experts. The day school movement, he said, is facing “industrial problems,” namely “diminishing tuitions and diminishing philanthropy.”
Bane also spoke of the impact of money manager Bernard Madoff’s alleged financial fraud, which included a large number of Orthodox philanthropists among its victims.
“The Orthodox community is suffering from one of the largest Ponzi schemes I’ve ever seen,” said Bane. “A handful of organizations have called me — and I don’t know how many others are out there — who have been borrowing to pay off debt. Today there is no one available to lend them money and they are going to collapse. Some of them are very large and well-known. These are major scandals.
“Many people have lost their investments,” continued Bane. “People give money out of their profits. They don’t give money out of their savings. They don’t give to charity. That may not have hit you yet, but it is going to hit you. In time, things may change, but we can’t count on it.”
Panelist Joshua Elkin, executive director of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, suggested schools save money by buying supplies collaboratively and combining small Advanced Placement classes with those at other schools.
But he cautioned the educators to resist the temptation of “low-balling” tuition.
“You must set a goal of 100 percent tuition collections. Now I know this is not an easy time, with people losing their jobs.
“But people losing their jobs need to renegotiate what they can pay,” he said.
Elkin also urged the educators “to beware of under-performing personnel.”
“They cost dearly. In these difficult times, if the right people aren’t on the bus on both the professional and the volunteer side, it will make steering through turbulent waters more difficult.”
As he handed out a list of recommendations, Rabbi Saul Zucker, director of the OU’s day school and educational services department, called for the institution of group health insurance to cover all day school employees and their families, as well as the collective buying of books, furniture, and school supplies to keep costs down.
He urged schools to reduce the numbers of field trips and social events as they increase revenue-raising appeals to Jewish federations and other community organizations, even suggesting coin-collecting “pushkes” in people’s homes.
“Folks, we have never needed collaboration more,” said Rabbi Martin Schloss, director of the division of day school services at the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York.
Schloss called on the Orthodox educational community to exert more political pressure for obtaining government funding in such areas as special education.
“It could be in the neighborhood of $150 million. Don’t let it be cut. We need you and your organizations and your parents to speak up.”
Schloss reminded his audience that Jewish education has faced even bigger threats than the current one.
“We Jews had schools in concentration camps. We had them in the Warsaw Ghetto. We will have them in the future,” he said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G4DjmRhMXM
ReplyDeleteALBANY—Former Schenectady police chief Gregory T. Kaczmarek has surrendered his license as a registered professional nurse as a result of having been convicted for his role in a cocaine and marijuana distribution ring.
ReplyDeleteKaczmarek, 56, pleaded guilty last month to criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. Kaczmarek’s wife, Lisa, is serving her time after pleading guilty to attempted third degree possession of a controlled substance.
As a condition of the ex-chief’s plea, he surrendered his police badge and his nursing license but will keep his state pension. He faces two years in prison and one year of post-release supervision when he is sentenced on Feb. 2.