I've gotten to the point that I believe there is no hope for this form of religion. Why do we/they find it so difficult to admit when they are wrong? Would it be so difficult to say "Kolko is guilty," "Bitton was right?"
Please don't bother us until after we emerge from our emergency damage control session. We are conferring over treif steak & frites at Le Marais.
As part of our minhag whenever we fress there, Jose de Mereilles approaches the table so Steve Savitsky can kiss his Jean Paul Gaultier shoes and Rabbi Genack bends over to kiss his derriere.
Avraham Keller is unavailable. Chef Mark Hennessey has him running 40 laps around the bathroom while he puts BIG BEATLES in the salad.
To Formerly Borderline Frum and other dear Yiddishe neshomos,
Please do not give up all hope. Hashem sees everything and criminals will be dealt with, whether they scar a child or feed treif to the unknowing public.
The Mishna Sotah prophesizes that the age before Moshiach will be chaotic to the point that the Vaad Chochomim will turn to the Vaad Znus. Perhaps this means molesters in the yeshivos and hashgochos whoring themselves for money.
The Rambam says that if the entire world loses it's sanity, we should escape to the mountains. We may be close, but there are a few determined individuals who are fighting to be machzir the atara leyoshna.
Please hang on and assist in the fight. DO NOT throw in the towel which only aids the criminals who thrive when no one speaks up.
I TOLD THEM ON MARCH 12TH THAT WE'RE MONITORING THEM AND THEY GO ON THE RADIO AND LIE ANYWAY!!!
BRAINLESS MORONS! _________________________________ Monday, March 12, 2007
Responsibility
Every day I'm inundated with requests to investigate many different horror stories foisted on innocent people by evil people. The rotten stench of humanity fills my nostrils daily. The illness that has taken over our religion is horrifying. What kind of Judaism remains for the generations?
People that have been reading UOJ for a while should know that I take my work seriously and personal. How can you not? Orthodox Judaism is disintegrating in front of me. There is no credibilty by the called "leaders"; "every single opportunity they miss an opportunity"(Abba Eban) to do right for the Jewish nation.
They can't understand that they lost control of our minds................ Finito forever!....................
That's a great thing; because we have a new opportunity to fix the pure evil going on in the name of Torah. Can you imagine that? We have been lied to, cheated on, our kids sexually abused in our yeshivas and girls' schools, rabbis fornicating with members of their congregations, stealing our money for their personal use and a thousand other crimes and distortions that are destroying us!
The rebbe-molestation issue is burning thousands of children, many, now adults with their own children, both male and female!
I get so much mail from the victims' wives (and husbands) describing the pain their spouses are suffering. It is heartbreaking to see the amount of lives that have been destroyed by people posing as rebbes and rabbis. (There are few good ones, too few - not all rabbis are criminals and rishaim)
People in teaching and "leadership" positions that are monsters are still there. Many rabbis that are worthless humans, are hiding under one rock or another. Every day I want to quit blogging. Every day I swear it's my last. But who will take over? During my brief hiatus, until the Agudah called; nobody took over the battle. Are there no other generals? Can that be possible?
Everywhere I look insanity and dishonesty disguised as piety is rampant. No honesty anywhere.
Rabbis that are caught lying, would rather continue to lie than deal with the truth. What they don't realize is the incredible amount of hard evidence against them; like voice recordings, video recordings, expert witnesses, rabbis that will testify to the truth, and much more! They just don't learn until it's too late. Rabbis can't fool ALL of the people all of the time, it's going to come back to bite them very hard!
Wise guys that break and mock the law can't hide behind attorneys and use the "law" to protect them! Technology is so advanced today that every move can be monitored, and it is!
Fanatacism has taken over in many enclaves of Judaism. Regardless of what the "sociologists" are telling you about the expansion of Charedi-ism, I'm telling you it's the Titanic heading for certain death.
But I'm here to stay! I will continue this battle and keep exposing the corruption and hunt down the rishaim wherever I find them.
I have a responsibilty to continue what I'm doing, and will continue to expose the fraud and the fraudsters in every corner, under every rock, and wherever else they think they can hide.
I've learned patience, strategy and game-plan from Samuel Reshevsky. Pounce on your adversary hard when they least expect it! And that, my friends, is what I intend to do!
Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
I pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here.
I may be being naive but I'm pretty sure that kashrut here in Detroit is on the up and up, at least in terms of the reliability of the hashgacha by the local vaad. Heck, I even think that Jack Goldman, while undoubtedly using heterim, wouldn't knowingly machshir treif. But then I've known Rabbi Jack for 40 years, and I personally know many of the vaad's mashgichim.
As for who gets hashgacha, that's a different story. The vaad does seem to have a pattern of protecting existing customers of theirs. When Yossi J. wanted to start a kosher Panera style breadshop, he couldn't get hashgacha because the vaad said there were already a couple of kosher bakeries, notwithstanding the fact that his business model was completely different. However, when the folks at One Stop (and their backers) wanted to open up a pizza shop a half mile from Jerusalem Pizza (disclaimer, my daughter works for J'lem and I'm friendly with the proprietors), the vaad said it was okay because J'lem doesn't sell by the slice as this shop does.
I will say that years ago, when Sara's Deli was open, there was a whispering campaign questioning the kashrut of the abatoir at Cornbelt Packing. The vaad, who supervised both Cornbelt and Sara's, made a point of convening over a meal at Sara's. At least they eat their own hashgacha, which you can't say about every supervisory group.
Once again it's Lag b'Omer time and the shameless Chai Rotel hucksters who exploit primitive peasant superstitions, and other character flaws common to religious and ignorant Jews are out in force.
For the past few years, the Orthodox Jewish public has been bombarded with requests to buy into a mysterious and certainly fictitious 'z'chus': footing the booze bill for a few thousand flailing wackos mosh-pitting past Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's tomb in Meron, Israel on Lag b'Omer.
For some reason bottled water and fire hoses aren't enough to cool off down the revelers. Rather, we're led to believe, they need to be served alcoholic beverages.
While most of my bewilderment is directed at the ridiculous claim that sending these whores money will result in fame, fortune, and every dream come true for you, I'm amazed at the dangerous activity they so unashamedly promote.
First, there are thousands of children there. Are they trying to lasso innocently charitable, though god-awfully stupid, people who send them money into aiding the corruption of minors? What if a child dies of alcohol poisoning, or by doing something stupid while under the influence? (Those were rhetorical questions, mind you.)
Second, the consumption of alcohol in extremely hot weather, when highly exerted, severely advances the risk of dehydration, shock, and possibly death:
Heat Wave Safety Tips
Slow down. Strenuous activities should be reduced, eliminated, or rescheduled to the coolest time of the day. Individuals at risk should stay in the coolest available place, not necessarily indoors.
Dress for summer. Lightweight light-colored clothing reflects heat and sunlight, and helps your body maintain normal temperatures.
Put less fuel on your inner fires. Foods (like proteins) that increase metabolic heat production also increase water loss.
Drink plenty of water or other non-alcohol fluids. Your body needs water to keep cool. Drink plenty of fluids even if you don’t feel thirsty. Persons who (1) have epilepsy or heart, kidney, or liver disease, (2) are on fluid restrictive diets or (3) have a problem with fluid retention should consult a physician before increasing their consumption of fluids.
Do not drink alcoholic beverages.
Do not take salt tablets unless specified by a physician.
Spend more time in air-conditioned places. Air conditioning in homes and other buildings markedly reduces danger from the heat. If you cannot afford an air conditioner, spending some time each day (during hot weather) in an air conditioned environment affords some protection.
Don’t get too much sun. Sunburn makes the job of heat dissipation that much more difficult
In essence, by contributing to this sham charity, you are proactively placing a great many people in serious Sakanah. I'm certain if some responsible Gedolim were still alive, they would be horrified at this practice purely from the perspective that it poses a serious health hazard
They'd be as horrified at the monumental waste of money that goes into the advertising; it could be over one hundred thousand dollars in print media, posters, and web marketing.
Supposedly there are all these people starving in Israel. It's bad enough the Kupat Hair "Where's the Gadol" Muppet Show wastes millions of advertising dollars to dupe people with jobs into feeding the so-desperately-hungry their 'gedolim' have created.
How are these con-men given free reign to irresponsibly siphon off even more money from an increasingly exasperated, though increasingly gullible, pool of donors for this idiocy? (another rhetorical question there.)
Last, get a load of this:
Moshe S. was searching for a shidduch for years. Last Lag B’Omer, he called Tzikdas Rashbi, and sponsored Chai Rotel mashke. He met his kallah just one week after Lag B’Omer.
And this:
Mr. C. was trucking a load of valuable merchandise when he was involved in a serious accident. The truck was crushed, and the merchandise badly damaged. The insurance company refused to compensate Mr. C. for the loss of his merchandise. Mr. C. took the insurance company to court – and sponsored Chai Rotel mashke. Three weeks later, he won the case.
Then this:
“ I was childless for 14 years when I joined Tzidkas Rashbi’s Chai Rotel Mashke distribution. That was four years ago. This year, I’m going to Miron in person, with my 3-year-old Shimon. We’re going to cut his hair in front of the tanna’s gravesite.”
T. Y., Brooklyn, NY
Or this:
Children, Refuos, Shidducim, Parnassah, Sholo Bayis? Or any other salvation? About 2000 years ago, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai wrote the Zohar, and brought great blessing to the world. Ever since, Jews who prayed at his gravesite, especially on his yahrtzeit, Lag B’Omer, experienced miraculous salvations. The barren, the sick, the poor, were helped.
You can experience the power of Rabbi Shimon’s blessing, too - "Join the thousands who were helped after participating in Tzidkas Rashbi Chai Rotel distribution
Aside from the fact that I recall these amazing miracles to be the very same advertised last year, READ: no new crop of amazing miracles have occurred since, I'm left wondering: who are the brain dead idiots buying into this anyway?? (yup, another rhetorical question)
Jack Goldman from Detroit is the Shield-K. He's said to be an eccentric dresser whose kashrus standards are as exotic as his Hawaiian shirts. I don't think Ronnie should be defending a clown. Mashgichim who look around for incongruous heterim are doing a disservice. There is no heter to find every heter.
Ronnie also missed the point about the BEATLES. The Frenchies misspelled the word in their court filing. UOJ had picked up on this earlier and ridiculed them.
It's a chutzpah that Le Marais is advertising this week in Jewish newspapers their new Sunday Brunch menu. I hope they experience an early demise like John Lennon. Les Beatles indeed. Their spokesman Juda Engelmayer can then find a job selling cheap T-shirts on Canal St. Maybe he can get a heter to man his stand on Shabbos seeing as he's been pushing for the "eruv" on the Lower East Side.
Rav Yisroel Belsky: Le Marais Allegations unfounded
new belsky.jpgIn a Yeshivaworld exclusive, a letter written by Rabbi Yisroel Belsky reads as follows: To whom it may concern: I have personally reviewed the statements made by Isaac Bitton about the kashrus of Le Marais Restaurant. In my opinion, his allegations have no substance and are unfounded, and the OU supervision of Le Marais is completely reliable. (signed).
A photo of the letter appears in the linked article.
Brooklyn, NY - Rabbi Bernard Freilich Hugs DA Charles Hynes Who Prosecuted Him.
Brooklyn, NY - A source who attended a $1,000-a-head fundraiser last night at the Rose Castle in Williamsburg for Rep. Ed Towns witnessed a double-take moment when he spotted Hasidic Rabbi Bernard Freilich hugging the very man who prosecuted him in a death threat case in the 1990s - Kings County DA Charles Hynes.
Freilich was aquitted of felony charges of witness tampering in 2000. Hynes had accused him of making death threats against a young woman who accused her father of raping her, ostensibly in an effort to get her to drop the charges.
Hynes'prosecution of Freilich angered the Orthodox Jewish Community, which called for his removal after the rabbi was cleared.
The event for Towns was hosted by Satmar Rabbi Leib Glanz, who is Towns' finance chair and executive director of the United Talmudical Academy, a nonprofit.
According to my source, the attendees includes: Two potential mayoral candidates (Weiner and Thompson), one potential comptroller candidate (Weprin), and at least one other Congressman (Meeks).
Mayor Bloomberg was touted on the invite to this event, but he didn't show up. According to a Bloomberg aide, the mayor was never scheduled to attend. This discrepency is evidently the source of some disagreement in the Satmar community, and since I don't know enough about it, I'm going to leave it at that. [NYdailynewsblog]
"During my brief hiatus, until the Agudah called; nobody took over the battle."
UOJ, I don't recall seeing on the blog what happened that got u back 2 blogging. Can u enlighten me as 2 what transpired with the agudah carpet sweepers and jerks?
how can this peice of crap "belchky" still be writing letters, his hands should have been broken to peices to the point he can no longer write, long ago.
Has anyone heard the OU response to the new tapes? I can't do any work until I hear it. The suspense is killing me. The truth is they are probably formulating their response as we speak.
Oh another point. The OU said "bitton developed amazing consiratorial theories".
Well wouldnt you if you knew: For the lawsuit, Le marias hired Richard Klass. Richard Klass, is the newphew of the owner of the Jewish Press, Low Klass. Before Passover, Low KLass published an article about Le Marais, and how great it and its owner the 21st century philosopher Jose were. hmm.. conspiracy? nah, course not.. conspiracies are for washington only. can it be the jewish press, the OU, le marais, levanas, and richard klass are all sleeping in the same bed? no no, cant be, richard klass is too fat.
In the OU mashgiachs Manual, they talk about how "a mashgiach should never take a break that exceeds 15 minutes because thats all the time it takes for kashrus to be hampered.
Well, its funny that when bitton asked Schreier to put at least, at minimum a jewish worker in the SECOND kitchen which is UPSTAIRS and out of view from the only mashgiach schreier repleid "its not gonna happen"...
Moral of the story: OU's policies are too strict. And Bittons "interpretation" of mixing fish and meat, dairy margarine and meat are all too strict for the OU.
UPDATE: Rabbi Moshe Eisemann is still tutoring students May 1, 2007 http://www.theaware nesscenter. org/Eisemann_ Moshe.html
The Awareness Center continues to receive reports that Rabbi Moshe Eisemann is still allowed to tutor students in the privacy of his apartment located on the Ner Israel Rabbinical College campus. For more information on the allegations made against Rabbi Moshe Eisemann contact Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer and the administration at Ner Israel (see numbers below).
Please note that Rabbi Moshe Eisemann and Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger (President of Ner Israel) are related through marriage. Rabbi Moshe (Mario) Eisemann is also a relative of Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau (through marriage). ------------
UPDATED CALL TO ACTION Demand Rabbi Moshe EIsemann Do The Following: The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - September 5, 2006
Please contact the following administra tors at Ner Israel and also Rabbi Hopfer. Demand that Rabbi Moshe Eisemann leave his position at Ner Israel aand move off campus immediately. He must also go to police in Baltimore and confess to his crimes. Please note that there is no statue of limitation on sex crimes against children in Maryland. Rabbi Moshe Eisemann must also pay restitution to his victims and enter into residential treatment for sex offenders.
It is believed that Ner Israel has known about this case for some time, yet has refused to take action. Please demand that they change their policies immediately! How many more children will need to be sexually victimized before they start to take this issue seriously?
Contact: Ner Israel Contact Information: 410-484-7200 Rabbi Aharon Feldman - Rosh Yeshiva (Head of the School) Rabbi Beryl Weisbord - Dean of Students Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger - President
Jack Goldman from Detroit is the Shield-K. He's said to be an eccentric dresser whose kashrus standards are as exotic as his Hawaiian shirts.
I've never seen him in a Hawaiian shirt, but he does wear some nice suits.
I don't think Ronnie should be defending a clown.
Who should the Bozoer Rebbe defend, if not for clowns? Clowns have a place reserved in Olam HaBa.
More to the point. I'm sorry if you're troubled that I defend a former teacher of mine that I've known for 40 years. Jack may be eccentric, but he's not a clown. I've known him to take some principled stances on controversial issues - he's hardly a left winger.
Mashgichim who look around for incongruous heterim are doing a disservice. There is no heter to find every heter.
Jack is a self promoter, no question, but as far as I can tell he's not machshir anything that's treif. Frankly, I'm not even sure if many of the products he is machshir even need hashgacha.
UOJ has to stop this thuggery by corrupt trial lawyers and their Democrat enablers.
In the tobacco litigation, trial lawyers established the precedent that a legal industry can be compelled to bear the costs it inflicts on society.
A major factor, perhaps the primary factor, in the cost of health care is the threat of litigation. From pharmaceuticals, to doctor's fees, to the electrical outlets in a hospital, everything needs to be tested, vetted, and insured against litigation. Hospital grade electrical outlets are virtually identical to mil-spec outlets but cost three times as much.
Since the trial lawyers established the above mentioned precedent in the tobacco litigation, I say they should be hoisted on their own petards.
We should institute a national health insurance plan funded by a 50% surtax on attorneys fees in personal injury cases. That would generate about $40 billion a year and you can buy lots of insurance for that much scratch.
The liberals should like it too since they're always going on about soaking the rich.
"Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
All joking aside, all of you know I'm hardly naive about rabbinical misconduct, but I'm very uncomfortable with this statement as it assumes the default position is that you can't trust rabbis.
So I'll give a short list of rabbis whom I would personally trust:
Danny Arm Shmuel Irons Moshe Schwab Izzy Schwab Shimon Shapiro David Apt (he should be consoled among the mourners of Zion) Avraham Jacobovitz Meir Landsman Alon Tolwin Reuven Spolter Pinchas Zuckerman Yoel Sperka Yudi Bakst
This is not to say that I see eye to eye with all of them. However, my contacts with them lead me to believe they are erliche yidden.
Caveat: The list could be longer and I mean no disrespect to anyone who I may have forgotten to include on the list.
I know this is an old post but I'm just coming across it now. Unfortunately, I can't agree with your list. While there are some very nice and Ehrlich rabbinic on there, I've personally seen 3 of them abuse their power and go against Halachos for their pride. It's one thing to make a mistake, it's another not to own up to it.
I think part of the reason it's so hard to find trustworthy rabbonim is because power corrupts. We've invested to much blind faith and power into human beings. We need to be able to question and hold rabbonim accountable. That's not to say that it should be done in a disrespectful manner, but nobody should be above the law.
He is a Queens Councilman who is a member of Young Israel of Holliswood. I believe that Rabbi Butler who left the OU in the aftermath of the Lanner scandal also davens there.
Isn't it amazing that Satmar and a whole host of shady characters bend over and the politicans come running with puckery lips.
The thought of Freilich hugging Hynes makes me want to barf.
Of course the Jewish Press is in bed with Le Marais and probably recommended nephew "Little Richard" Klass to represent them. Le Marais ads are big bucks. Just the little blurb in the dining section is about $1300 a year and then there are the large ads like the new one for Sunday brunch.
April 30th, 2007 at 1:00 pm Due to the sensitivity of this topic, (and after seeing the first few comments submitted,) commenting has been closed by the Comment Moderation Panel."
Hey Shmuck, go ahead and present Belsky's side of the story with no discussion. I never realized until now what a brainless twit you are, not even after you refused discussion of YTT.
"Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
I pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here."
A third trustworthy Rabbi is Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi. Anybody with a fourth?? ----------------------------------- I would nominate Rabbi Yeruchem Shain as the fourth honest Rabbi. He sincerely helps out his boys without any personal agenda. Anyone with a fifth?
Not to exclude anyone else, two of the biggest tzaddikim I have ever met reside in Lakewood. R' Yeruchim Olshin and someone who is probably a nistar, who I have reasons for not naming.
So if Eckstein is YeshivaWorld, maybe R' Shmuel Berenbaum decided that it's batlonus for anyone besides a stupid lummox like him to be the official driver.
The publisher of a publication that is more frum than the Jewish Press has been pulling a Jackie Mason for years. He kept saying that if Le Marais "does one more thing wrong" then he will no longer accept ads from them.
Hey Ploni, put your money where your mouth is.
Jackie Mason has always taynaed that whenever a Yid issues that threat, no one knows what that last thing is, because the threat is never carried out.
Someone should be mazmin Neuberger to a din Torah over Eisemann with an out of town beis din. Even if he says he will only appear local & they cover it up, it will at least force the issue.
Not to exclude anyone else, two of the biggest tzaddikim I have ever met reside in Lakewood. R' Yeruchim Olshin and someone who is probably a nistar, who I have reasons for not naming. ________________________
I totally agree with your take on R' Yeruchem... However he is not at all familiar with meelee d'alma, matters of the outside world, and therefore can not be relied on for worldly matters or tragic occurrences that have seeped in to Yiddishkeit.
His t'mimusdiker persona can not comprehend the illnesses and the tragedies that the Jews are having to tackle.
"Someone" should be mazmin Neuberger to a din Torah over Eisemann with an out of town beis din. Even if he says he will only appear local & they cover it up, it will at least force the issue.
It looks like Shmarya's appetite for aged steak got the better of him. After tipping his hat to UOJ for the Le Marais update, he insists the place is still kosher and brings a raaya that Rabbi Weinreb ate there last week.
UOJ, I have no connections to NIRC or Baltimore. I think it best if someone with a connection got involved. I am also currently tied up with another issue that would make you proud. I am trying to fix some corruption I stumbled across. So far, I have been publicly yelled at by a hypocrite rabbi who is friends with the perpetrator and the authorities are declining to intervene for reasons that are also inherently corrupt. I am working on other approaches to stop them. Nothing to do with molestation but rather financial misdeeds.
I would like Bitton to release the audio in it's entirety. Regardless of that, there is still a history of Le Marais cheating and fighting with the old hashgocho and the OU playing dumb. It's a shame how this all played out. The result will probably be that the OU will immediately reassign mashgichim when there is a problem to make it impossible to catch them on anything.
I'm not finished with the OU yet, so Genack and the chevrah will have to keep their seats warm for a few more moments to read this.
"Beatles" are less of a problem than cockroaches that infest other restaurants. Mendelson's under OU on Ave K had roaches crawling around the table where the pizza was made. An independent rov I spoke to in the kashrus industry didn't think the OU would do anything substantive.
The ubiquitous Rabbi Goldberg of the Vaad that keeps popping up as the only one who cares about anything, takes roach infestations seriously.
It's just amazing how our "stellar" hashgochos ignore basically all moral & even sakonna considerations, and yes, they even ignore bugs that are the worst type of kashrus issue.
Coackroaches are very difficult if not impossible to eradicate from a building. They will also appear where they never existed if the restaurant does food preparation in the basement instead of upstairs. (This also attracts rodents).
Some establishments with known infestations that are very severe are listed below. In many cases the hashgochos were contacted who did nothing.
The bagel place at 13th Ave & 39th (formerly Jerhod's)
Kings Hwy & East 7th - Kosher Hut & Seuda take out.
Kings Hwy & East 4th - Tea for Two and David's. This stretch is so bad that the neighbors called the Health Dept because the vermin were approaching nearby homes.
Coney Island & Ave K - Olimpic Pita, the butcher store next door & Cafe K.
Ave J & East 15th - the former Circa - OU
Coney Island & Ave N - Oh Bagel (coackroaches but unknown if the problem is severe)
The defunct Mendy's sports bar on the Upper West Side under OU had an infestation problem that went uncorrected for years.
16 Ave & 50th St - Motti's (fly infestation that they refused to rectify with a simple fix). They were apparently too busy giving free food to corrupt cops who would let them park illegally in front of the restaurant.
Some restaurants in the Catskills have terrible problems that are very difficult to fix. Have you ever run out after a minute because of huge horseflies swarming around you?
Spitzer is pushing through his gay "marriage" bill before taking care of child abuse. Even Boog will go easy now on Bruno who is criticizing the Guv. Steve Greenberg must be bentching shechiyanu.
" Jonathan Schorsch writes ... that I am a "clever fellow" ... Prof. Schorsch can be easily disabused of his first assertion by perusing my high school scholastic records, or by consulting my wife and children, who can regale him of all manner of dumb things I've said and done"
vqhww said... Well, at least we have a Bais Din. Now we can do things!
I saw a holy picture of R. Daniel Alter Rosh Kollel of Ger in Yated last week- anyone know if he was part of the Laizerowitz wedding delegation?
-----------------------------------
R. Daniel Alter, as you correctly stated is a very holy man, he is the last son of the pnei menachim of gur, and besides for a few sick individuals in ger who hate anything that has to do with the pnei menachem yo will not find a person that will say bad about him. i know him well and have seen him live his life for years, he is an ehrlich yid.
R' Yeruchom once had information & decided to get involved in a shmutzikke story that is not known to the public. His behavior was nothing short of heroic. After being apprised by Dayan Forscheimer of psak on technical aspects, R' Yeruchom took a stand against some big lowlives who could have made problems for him & the yeshiva. True he is not an expert on issues of this crazy world, so he consulted with an out of town rov who is.
If the average rosh yeshiva was like rav Olshin, you wouldn't have molesters going unchecked for decades long reigns of terror.
Belsky is a corrupt liar whether he retacts or not. Did he speak with Bitton? Did he clarify the details before going out and slamming Bitton? Of course not
You don't get better than R' Yeruchem Olshin in tziddkus.
He is handicapped in dealing with certain issues "because" of his tziddkus...he can't possibly imagine the rishus, the pure evil, the sheker, the low-lives, that have infiltrated the frum world.
Rav Pam ztvkl, lihebadel l'chaim, had similar difficulties.
Observant Jew...Slicha...just shooting off my mouth because I feel most people sit back and like the action, but God forbid they should get involved. Naah...that's for thugs like me.
UOJ, we are with you, we are the little guys who make the phone calls when you tell us to. we dont all sit back and enjoy the action. btw, what did aguda do to restart your blogging campaign after the convention?
Does anyone know what happened this weekend at the RCA conference?
Elliot Pasik begged them to tackle abuse and the registry. Gil has nothing on his blog about it as he probably wasn't invited to speak again this year.
SIW will probably have another fit now about UOJ's "groupies" and the other labels he uses. He wishes he had followers like UOJ does. Even Juda Engelmeyer the shlock shamass from Le Marais doesn't hang out on Canonist anymore now that SIW got bored providing him with a platform to push for a LES eruv and bash supporters of R' Moshe Feinstein.
YOU STILL HAVE NOT EXPLAINED WHY YOU ALLOWED MENDLOWITZ TO TAKE THE FALL FOR YOU AND IF YOU ARE EVER GOING TO VINDICATE MENDLOWITZ.
________________________
Anon 10:49,
Mr. Mendlowitz insisted that he was proud to be the fall-guy. Who am I to disagree with the namesake and the grandson of the legendary Rav Shraga Feivel zt"l?
Oh well, whatever happened with Sruly Singer has nothing to do with a new scandal surrounding Matthew Bronfman and allegations of misdeeds at the NY branch of Israel Discount Bank.
My good friend Julie Berman still hasn't kicked me out of the Claims Conference.
I'm still with the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.
I'm currently pursuing an independent project in Buenos Aires but the details are none of your beeswax. UOJ doesn't speak Spanish so he'll be singing "Don't cry for me Argentina" while he looks for me in vain.
My life hasn’t changed since dismissal from the WJC. I believe that organizations are vehicles, not purposes. They exist to serve issues.
What's all this about Sruly Singer? I am the president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC). I am the first Orthodox rabbi who was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Gregory the Great (by Pope Benedict XVI).
I was a rov & dayan in South Africa, then the Chief Rabbi of Ireland.
Yes, as Chairman of the IJCIC, I'd also like to know what's going on with Sruly Singer.
In case you're wondering who I am, I have been head of many organizations such as Bnai Brith and a trustee of the Village of Kings Point, north of Great Neck.
Most importantly, I am partner at Gallet Dreyer & Berkey LLP, one of the firms that is suing Yudi Kolko & YTT.
I hate corruption which is why I went after Lubavitch for false Messianism. As the RCA liason to the IJCIC, I will have to look into the serious allegations against Sruly Singer too.
One of the blogs is reporting that as of a few days ago, Bais Yaakov in Chicago is forcing parents to get rid of both TV and home internet connections, but that the hypocrites aren't forcing staff members to do the same. Don't forget that the Novominsker's shvogger is a prominent rov in the windy city.
I didn't hold much hope for the RCA conference when I found out who the "brains" were on the planning committee. Some goofball am haaretz who is promoted by Gil Student figures prominently over there. The goof says he comes from lineage of "9 generations of rabbis". His father headed a Conservative temple for 40 years. The goof attended YU and attributes the most corrupted garbage to Rav Soloveitchik, that the rav obviously never uttered. The goof was thrown out of his pulpit in 2005 and the shul is trying to take him to a din Torah over breach of contract for using the shul for personal functions and for an outside business, without permission or compensation.
And thankfully, Gil wasn't invited back this year to give another one of his tortured takes on UOJ, who he won't even name. Maybe the organizations finally learned that all you need is an internet connection, and not some blabbermouth like Gil to inform us, that hey, there are blogs out there.
Rav Pam ztvkl, lihebadel l'chaim, had similar difficulties. ------- True. Rav Pam was once asked whether it is ever permitted to use dirty words in certain situtations. Rav Pam inquired "you mean words like 'fress'"?
Oh come on, Rav Pam ztl was not that naive. You can impart wisdom and his answer from the rhetorical question. Anyone living in Brooklyn has heard dirty words on the street.
Gerrer rebbe leaves europe for the continent on Thursday. Is Laizeruwitz gonna be there with him like last year. Is reb UOJ controling the itinerrary again? Will he grant an overnite visa or a 3 hour hit and run? shouldn't hagaon harav daniel alter or his older bro the rosh yeshiva come instead? tehy have no blood stains on the kapote.
Re Elliot Pasik’s “How to Eradicate Abuse in Our Communities” (op-ed, April 27):
As an active member of the Task Force on Families & Children at Risk, I would like to assure Mr. Pasik that there is a lot of work being done in New York to protect our children. For many years we have been sponsoring educational symposia for mechanchim/mechanchot, rebbetzins, and the lay community abuse as well as on many other issues.
On May 9, my agency, the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, will be hosting a similar program focused on prevention for the Queens community with Dr. David Pelcovitz as a presenter. Later in the month, the task force will be presenting a prominent rav and Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski to speak with mechanchim/mechanchot on this topic.
We in the frum mental health community have been responding, and the attitude of our rabbonim has likewise shifted. While the shift may not be as swift or as public as we might like it to be, I believe that, after 120 years, many members of the community will be able to respond confidently when we are asked “Ayeka?”
Faye Wilbur, LCSW
Boro Park Office Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services
I am overwhelmed with Jewish life as it exists today, especially in the Orthodox world. It seems one has no value unless one has money and/or power – or, if one happens to be a woman, is a gorgeous size 2.
I am an unemployed widow who has been trying to find work at the local Orthodox schools. One of them is actively seeking teachers, the administrators know I’m available and many people have recommended me, but I cannot even get an interview. All I get are evasions.
My second issue: I have a wonderful and beautiful daughter who happens to be overweight, so no one will set her up with anyone who is not fat or undereducated (she has a master’s). Since I got married at 19 when I wore a size 16, I don’t understand the situation that exists today. Frum boys (and their mamas) only want tiny girls, and the shadchanim appear to be unsupportive if you do not fit that mold. My daughter has yiras shamayim, but no one seems to care because she has a few extra pounds.
I always thought that taking care of a widow and an orphan were high priorities in Judaism. I have to ask – where are the frum Jews to help? Are they too busy running after money, power, and kavod?
I have endured all of this for more than eight years and have reached my limits of understanding and patience. If this is frumkeit, I don’t need to be part of it (even though I was born into a frum family and have been so all my life).
All I can say is, shame on all the rabbis who either lead the charge into gashmius or lack the guts to stand up to the masses and do the right thing.
Sometimes I feel I am living in the time of Kamtza and bar Kamtza, when the rabbis sat at the banquet and allowed a man to be shamed because they did not want to offend their wealthy host.
Jerry Greenwald and his crew are joining the Agudah-Zweibel caravan in slamming the call for oversight on pre-schools. They had a few extra days to think, so they figured out a back-handed way to attack the legislation over technicalities, while ignoring the real reason that they & Zweibel oppose it - protecting kids from molesters.
That's so sad. Can anyone help give this woman Rose Gold a job and find a shidduch for her daughter? I'm sure someone here knows who she is or UOJ can track her down.
Regarding the need to publicly educate the world Jewry about the breach of modesty that erupted in his time, the great Torah giant, the Chofetz Chaim, wrote a letter, calling on rabbis of every community to speak out publicly on this issue:
"It is known to everyone that when a fire bursts out in the vineyard of the king, a proclamation goes forth from the ministers of the king to the inhabitants of the city, saying: ‘Everyone be strong to extinguish the fire in any way you can, for the vineyard of the king is burning, and if you are lazy in this matter, know that you will be held responsible with your lives, and you will be labeled rebels, because you did not take heed for his honor. And if you take courage, as is fitting, and put out the fire, then everyone shall receive his reward and honor according to his efforts.’ So too in this matter, for it is known that all of Israel is considered the vineyard of the L-rd, as is written, ‘For the house of Israel is the vineyard of the L-rd of Hosts.’
"And due to our many sins, a great blaze has erupted in His vineyard in several places because of this terrible fashion. For the power of impurity has considerably strengthened because of this. As our Sages have said on the verse, ‘And you shall guard yourselves from every evil thing’ (Devarim, 23:10), that a man should not have sexual thoughts during the day and come to pollute himself at night (Ketubot 46A). For if this should occur, all of the blessing and Divine flow to this man’s deeds will be cut off, and because of this he will be surrounded by evil tribulations, as is written in the holy books of wisdom.
"Therefore, every man has the obligation to extinguish this terrible fire, and to rectify the situation in his home so that everything will be according to the law, and not to allow licentiousness, G-d forbid. And in doing so, he will merit to have upright and exalted holy children.
"And more than anyone else, this obligation falls on the rabbis and on all those who are zealous to fulfill G-d’s words, that in every city and village, the importance of this matter must be publicly explained, in that it directly effects our survival and our success, both physically and spiritually, in this world and the next. Thus will the verse be fulfilled, ‘And your camp shall be holy.’"
When the esteemed Torah scholar and halachic authority, Rabbi Aharon Cutler, was asked if lecturing in public about modesty wasn’t an infringement of modesty itself, he answered: "Here I want to awaken you to a painful and shocking matter about which many people err. There are many people whom refrain from speaking about these things under the pretext of modesty. May Heaven help us! In such a fallen and licentious generation as ours, where everything is exposed without shame in the open - to speak about holiness and modesty – this is considered an affront to modesty?! Can there be a greater deception on the part of the evil inclination than this?! On the contrary, it is an absolute obligation to speak about these matters in public!"
In response to the claim that it is best not to speak openly about the seriousness of sexual trangression, since it will only lead people to depression, despair, and further sin, the elder Kabbalist, Rabbi Eliahu Leon Levi, says the situation is like seeing a person about to fall off a cliff. "Do you reach out to save him, or let him fall to his death?" he asks. "In the matter of sexual transgression, it is not knowledge that kills, it is the lack of it. When a person is offered a ladder to escape from the pit he has fallen into, he is happy, not depressed."
Can someone speak to Flakey Jake Strauss from Boro Park?
He's hosting a Shavuos getaway at a hotel with Susan Rosenbluth of Teaneck's Jewish Voice & Opinion. She has been involved in the past in smearing anyone opposed to Mordechai Tendler and is currently part of the OU led smear campaign against Isaac Bitton.
My second issue: I have a wonderful and beautiful daughter who happens to be overweight, so no one will set her up with anyone who is not fat or undereducated --------- I understand why she doesn't want someone who is uneducated, but what is her issue with a guy who is fat? Wasn't she size 16 when she got married? Isn't her daughter overweight? Hello, the lights are on, but is anybody home?
It seems one has no value unless one has money and/or power – or, if one happens to be a woman, is a gorgeous size 2. --------- Whenever I see the above sentence, I know that the writer has issues with her weight.
There is no need to exagerate. The majority of guys don't ask for a size 2. A size 6 or 8 is fine for them as well.
While Rose Gold lists some details that may not stand up to scrutiny, it's pretty obvious that she he is feeling much agmas nefesh and could use our help.
There are certain cultures that prefer a zaftig woman but 21st century America is not generally one of them. In ancient times a woman was considered undesirable if she was slim.
Holocaust Cash Went To Shadowy Pal Of Ousted WJC Leader Israeli finance minister, now being probed for corruption, urged death camp tour group to hire little-known N.Y. consultant; Singer friend Curtis Hoxter can’t explain
Larry Cohler-Esses and Ran Dagoni
An internationally known Holocaust education group disbursed — apparently illegally — more than $700,000 to an associate of an Israeli cabinet minister now under investigation for corruption, a joint investigation by The Jewish Week and the Israeli business daily Globes has learned.
In 2003, March of the Living, a New Jersey-based charity, began payments totaling $709,000 to Curtis Hoxter, who is also closely tied to former World Jewish Congress leader Israel Singer. The group began its payments to Hoxter the same year Singer was instructed to stop funneling unauthorized payments to him via the World Jewish Congress — payments that had by then totaled $657,600.
During this time, Singer was also involved in negotiations to join Hoxter’s Manhattan public relations firm as a partner.
David Machlis, president of March of the Living, told The Jewish Week that it was Avraham Hirchson, the group’s founder and now Israel’s minister of finance, who introduced Hoxter to the group and urged his hiring. Hirchson, a key partner of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, “suspended” himself last week as finance minister pending the outcome of a police investigation. He is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars in Israeli health care and union funds prior to taking his cabinet position.
Hirchson’s Tel Aviv attorney, Yakov Weinrot, confirmed it was his client who brought Hoxter to March of Living. But, said Weinrot, Hirchson “did not realize his salary would be so big.” Weinrot emphasized that March of the Living was a “independent entity,” though Hirchson founded the group and ran it for many years.
Singer was forced out of the World Jewish Congress in March after being removed from positions of financial responsibility there in 2006 — the year an investigation by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer found Singer and his chief aide, Elan Steinberg, responsible for financial mismanagement of the group.
According to WJC sources, Singer and Hirchson have been close since at least the mid-1990s when Hirchson was chairman of the Israeli Knesset committee devoted to regaining Jewish assets lost in the Holocaust, a cause that Singer led.
“They were friendly on a social basis and went out together on social occasions,” recalled one WJC source. “Hoxter has even been a visitor at Singer’s home.”
Hirchson’s March of the Living, a Jewish identity program that takes Jewish teenagers to Holocaust sites in Poland and then on to Israel, receives major funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, of which Singer is still president.
Eliezer Singer, Israel Singer’s son, relayed a statement from his father, who he said was traveling abroad and unavailable: “I’m not involved in allocating Claims Conference funds and certainly have no say or interest in any consultants that grant recipients might choose to hire,” Singer’s statement said.
According to tax records, the March of the Living payments to Hoxter took place over three years and were purportedly for fundraising services. But Hoxter has never registered with the New York State attorney general as a fundraiser or fundraising counsel, and is unable to explain what he did for payments he received.
“It was a minor activity,” he said. “I did fundraising, basically an activity to advise them to run a campaign in the U.S.”
Asked what fundraising activity he had conducted on the group’s behalf, Hoxter said, “I have no idea. I have no recollection. It was just something I assisted on. I prefer not to go into any details. It was not a major activity. I’d have to check my records.”
Hoxter, 85, said he had helped the group make “contacts.” Asked to name some of the contacts he facilitated, he replied, “I have no ideas about details.”
For March of the Living, the payments to Hoxter were anything but minor. In 2003, tax records show, his fee of $279,200 constituted more than one-third of the group’s budget for that year.
Who Is Hoxter?
Born in Germany to Jewish parents in 1922, Hoxter has, during his long public relations career, represented — apparently simultaneously — both the WJC and Swiss banks charged by the WJC with withholding funds from Holocaust survivors after World War II.
A December 1998 New York Times article— published during the WJC’s struggle for restitution from Swiss and German banks that had held onto Jewish assets after World War II — described Hoxter as one of a number of Jewish lawyers and consultants “defending the companies from which compensation is being sought.”
Hoxter, who fled Germany in 1938, before the Holocaust, “has spent much of his career representing German and Swiss companies, a role he says his first wife, now deceased, viewed with displeasure,” the Times reported then.
Yet just six months earlier, a roster of participants at a State Department conference on Holocaust restitution listed Hoxter as adviser to the WJC’s delegation.
In his book on the restitution controversy, “Imperfect Justice,” Stuart Eizenstat, the Clinton administration’s point man on the issue, recalled, “The Swiss would later jokingly refer to Hoxter as a ‘double agent,’ but in reality he was Singer’s man, a shadowy but effective figure who mysteriously turned up at key moments.”
Despite some calls for his removal, Singer remains president of the Claims Conference, which has granted more than $7.4 million to March of the Living since 1998. Claims Conference officials insist that Singer has never had any role in its allocations process.
“We are not aware of anyone from the Claims Conference making such a recommendation,” said Hillary Kessler Godin, the conference’s communications director, when asked if any conference officials had urged March of the Living to hire Hoxter.
The Claims Conference, which supplied grants to March of the Living even predating Singer’s tenure as president, designated its funds to the group exclusively for scholarships, Godin noted. The funds enable high school students to join March of the Living’s annual Holocaust education trips to Poland and Israel, she said.
But former WJC governing board chairman Isi Leibler, who first discovered Singer’s payments to Hoxter at the WJC and raised alarms about Singer’s financial practices there, said, “That March of the Living paid Hoxter massive, yet unexplained rewards while being funded by yet another group led by Singer can only be described as unconscionable and obscene.”
He dismissed the defense that Claims Conference money funded only scholarships, noting money is fungible.
“Claims Conference officials have the obligation of overseeing and ensuring that grants to organizations like the March of the Living are properly employed,” Leibler wrote via e-mail. “In the absence of any rational explanation, their failure to do so is an indictment, and every effort must now be employed to recoup these funds.”
Spitzer’s probe found that the earlier WJC transfers to Hoxter occurred from 2001 through 2003. But Hoxter’s accountant wrote the then-attorney general that Hoxter had “no documentation or description of services performed, or time records” to account for any WJC work during this period. The payments were never reported on WJC’s tax records, as required by law, a failure Spitzer blamed on the group’s auditor.
“Hoxter was secretly receiving these funds,” said Leibler. “The payments were never approved, and not a single WJC official but for Singer even knew he was on the payroll.”
In late 2003, when Leibler and Elan Steinberg, then WJC’s senior adviser, discovered the payments, Steinberg asked Singer to justify further outlays to Hoxter, Leibler related. “Singer declined to do so. Consequently, the payments to Hoxter were immediately terminated.”
“The claim that no one at the WJC knew about Hoxter is simply false,” Israel Singer retorted via an e-mail his son relayed. “The record shows he worked closely with senior WJC leaders since the late 1980s on many issues ranging from [Austrian President and former SS officer Kurt] Waldheim to restitution.”
But Leibler’s complaint is that no WJC officer besides Singer knew Hoxter was working for — not with — WJC; and at a salary ranging from $203,400 to $232,400 per year, making Hoxter the WJC’s American Section’s second highest paid employee.
A follow-up question to Singer on this point via e-mail elicited no response by press time.
Crossing The Charity Law Line
Under state law, charities and their fundraisers are obligated to register and file tax reports with the state attorney general if they raise more than $25,000 in New York. Fundraisers must also file copies of contracts with charities using their services. Despite the fact that March of the Living far exceeded the state threshold, neither it nor Hoxter are registered. Willful failure to register is a criminal misdemeanor.
Machlis, March of the Living’s president, denied his group had to file these documents. “Not including funds generated through the Claims Conference, which is not a public solicitation, virtually no funds were raised in New York,” he said.
But charities law expert William Josephson, who headed Spitzer’s Charities Bureau, said the Claims Conference’s money could not be excluded. “The statutory definition of ‘solicit’ is not dependent on whether the solicitation is public or private. It covers any solicitation,” he said.
Machlis did not respond to repeated requests to see a copy of any contract his group had with Hoxter, outlining work he had agreed to do.
Any misuse of Claims Conference funds, even indirectly, would be regarded as something akin to desecration in many quarters. The money comes from governments and institutions that were complicit in victimizing Jews during and after the Holocaust, and is meant to compensate its survivors and their heirs. A smaller amount is reserved for grants to groups involved in Holocaust education, research and remembrance, such as March of the Living.
March of the Living denied Singer had anything to do with its payments to Hoxter. But the disclosure by Machlis, its president, that Hirchson brought Hoxter to the group may open up more questions than it answers about the tangled ties linking Singer, Hirchson, Hoxter, and a fourth individual named Zvi Barak.
Barak, Singer’s longtime attorney, is also one of Hirchson’s longtime associates and the business partner of his son, Ofer Hirchson, in the Hirchson-Barak Corporation.
Barak was intimately involved in Singer’s WJC financial controversies. Spitzer’s probe found that Singer had improperly transferred $1.2 million in WJC funds from a Swiss bank to a custodial account in London controlled by Barak.
Spitzer also discovered that between 2001 and 2003, Barak and Singer were in active negotiations to join Hoxter’s p.r. firm. Barak circulated several versions of a memorandum of understanding outlining proposed terms for a partnership. One version obligated Singer to bring to Hoxter $2 million in clients annually for two years before he could become an equal partner. According to Spitzer’s probe, the draft memoranda were never signed or implemented.
In 2004, Barak’s relationship with Hirchson’s son sparked a Holocaust restitution controversy of its own. Barak worked then as advisor to a special Knesset committee investigating Israeli banks that, like some Swiss banks, had never returned millions of dollars in deposits from Holocaust victims after World War II.
Barak provoked a furor when, at a Knesset committee meeting, he rejected the conclusion of five accounting firms that the Israeli banks should return more than $172 million to Holocaust survivors or their rightful heirs. He instructed the accountants to rework their findings using new guidelines suggested by the banks, according to Israeli press reports of the meeting. This reduced by about 90 percent the compensation the Israeli banks owed survivors and their heirs.
It later emerged that the Hirchson-Barak Corporation was heavily in debt — for more than $26 million — to the banks in question; a fact Barak had not disclosed when asked about conflicts of interest before he became the Knesset committee’s adviser. Challenged on this, Barak replied that the debt was corporate, not personal, so there was no need to disclose this — a response the Knesset’s legal adviser accepted.
‘Suspicious Connections’
The tangle of relationships between Hirchson, the March of the Living founder and Israeli cabinet minister; Barak, his longtime associate and also Singer’s attorney; Hoxter, the p.r. consultant, Hirchson associate and longtime Singer friend; and Singer himself adds fuel to the central question:
What work did Hoxter — an octogenarian who has never registered as a fundraiser — do for the $1.36 million he got from two organizations tied to members of this quartet?
Last week, the Claims Conference announced its in-house financial controller, Yigal Molad, was launching an “in-depth audit” of grants it had made to March of the Living in response to the Israeli police investigation of Hirchson and “recent allegations in the media.”
“Even more than other public funds, restitution and reparation monies are sacred,” said Menachem Rosensaft, founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors. “It is unconscionable that any funds, let alone, hundreds of thousands of dollars, intended to benefit Holocaust survivors, should be funneled instead to feather the nest of a shadowy figure with highly suspicious connections to both Avraham Hirchson and Israel Singer.” n
Larry Cohler-Esses is Jewish Week editor at large; Ran Dagoni is Washington correspondent for Globes, Israel’s leading business daily newspaper.
Editor’s Note: In 2002, Israel Singer sought to recruit one of the authors of this article, Larry Cohler-Esses, for a job with the World Jewish Congress. Investigators for then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer later interviewed Cohler-Esses about that meeting.
There is a secular movement of men in America that are interested in heavyset women for taava reasons. They have weekly parties all over the place. I know about it because they even take place in frum neighborhoods, including in the heart of Flatbush. The ad line goes something like "for big beautiful women and their gentlemen admirers". There are probably frum men who have the same attraction but are too ashamed to admit it. It used to be 50 years ago that it was considered too brash to say you want a pretty girl. Nowadays, bochurim have no shame demanding only good looks. It should be no different that a bochur could say he is a chubby chaser. I somehow doubt though that this idea will get anywhere because of political correctness. The Agudah will say it's prustkeit and lehoraya the goyim do it. It's still ok in their book though to demand gorgeous size 2s only.
I don't comment on other blogs because of the "imposter" factor. Our readers have asked me for my take on the Bitton/OU controversy.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Isaac Bitton told the entire truth, and the OU has covered up the truth!
There have been many violations by the OU over the years that I am personally aware of. In one case, on a weekend bar-mitzvah, the mashgiach tmidi came over to me and told me NOT to eat the chicken because of suspicious activity in the kitchen. Yet, the OU continued to approve the kashruth of the hotel.
Bitton knew he was going to be made the fall guy, so he recorded the conversations, as I, you, or any intelligent person would do.
I would have no problem at all "not backing" Bitton if for even a brief second I thought he was not telling the whole truth.
In the time of Chazal there was such a thing as singles parties (on Tu B'Av). The Agudah conveniently ignored a Mishna for years while they blockaded any attempt to convene them. They finally loosened up somewhat in recent years by not interfering with Invei Hagefen events. They can't argue that we don't know what the Mishna means because it's befayrush in the pirush Meleches Shlomo in the back of Yachin Uboaz. This is also despite Rav Gifter and a number of younger poskim who said it was imperative to revive a version of the old minhag. Agudah baal habatim evidently knew better. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the more gezunte shaped girls were picked on Tu B'Av for shidduchim too. If the gezunte girls have no events to go to it's no wonder they have a harder time. I hate to make it sound like every problem is the fault of 42 Broadway, but it just emerges that way.
the gerer rebbi has left switzerland after being a few days in paris and antwerp and is headed back to israel, he will not be going to toronto as was planned, R'UOJ did you have anything to do with this? or does the gerer know something that the gerrorist chasidim dont,
Does UOJ or anyone know the telephone number of Bitton or his attorney? I couldn't find contact info on the Mashgiach blog and he thus far has not responded to a post.
I have information on a related cover up that could help his case. I wish to remain anonymous while giving over the details that can be checked out. I've already been threatened regarding this story but they don't know more than my old email address.
Is this the same Julie Berman who managed to destroy hundreds if not thousands of Rabbi JB Soloveitchik's reel-taped shiurim that were given to him for safekeeping after his toilet overflowed and flooded his basement ? why does't this surprise me?
too many gerrer losers have some sort of bone to pick with the current leadership or lack thereof. then you also have the almighty UOJ factor which is stronger than imagined by those who have yet to feel his iron fist. go back in time and read what UOJ posted he did last time around. awesome how when UOJ cracks his whip sparks fly.
My sources say he will come to the americas and leizerowitz might pull a visit to shore up those who think he is to holy to have used teenage boys. kind of the kolko syndrome
A friend in the media asked me to put this up. This is dangerous stuff, and threatens all of our freedoms. Make your voices heard.
UOJ ---------------------
Issue Date: www.insightmag.com - May 1-7, 2007, Posted On: 5/1/2007
Kuhner: Liberal totalitarianism Commentary by Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Liberal Democrats are attempting to muzzle conservative talk radio: they are assaulting free speech.
Like the communists in the former Soviet Union, America’s liberals seek to crush dissent by consolidating control over the media—especially talk radio, which has emerged as the dominant medium for conservative opinion.
Why aren't the newspapers all over the Bitton recordings?
________________________
Nobody in the media cares or understands the issue as it effects us. Certainly, it's not going to sell papers. It may also not help Isaac...so I'm not pushing it.
The paragraph on Belsky is almost at the bottom of the page. The left wing nuts who support Rackman's mamzerus program are cheering on Belsky after they gave him the idea.
A conference presented by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
and JOFA: the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
March 13-14, 2005
Brandeis University
I have here—and anybody who wants to come see it is welcome to—the last page of an annulment that was issued approximately a year ago by a beit din headed by Rabbi Israel Belsky, one of the most senior roshei yeshiva of Torah V’Da’as Yeshiva in Brooklyn. I believe that the proceedings of the Rackman Beit Din had a hand in this case or certainly influenced this. I know that a relative of the agunah in question was a student in my class. She came to me and told me about the problem. I gave her all of our writings on the Rackman Beit Din. She told me that she gave it to the mother of the agunah. I lost track of the case, but heard that an annulment had been issued. For those of you who know the names of New York rabbis, the rabbis who concurred with the annulment were Rabbi Israel Belsky, Rabbi Kurzrock, the head of the beit din of the Igud ha-Rabbonim in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, one of the leading rabbis in Queens, and Rabbi Wolmark from Monsey. I also have a haskama, a letter of support from Rabbi Landesman from a Monsey beit din. What happened with this annulment was that the recalcitrant husband’s family was very powerful. They lined up some powerful people and rabbis affiliated with another Brooklyn yeshiva, who dispatched a letter to Rabbi Eliashiv in Israel. One of Rabbi Eliashiv’s deputies reported that Rabbi Eliashiv considers the annulment invalid in the face of such incredibly strong rabbinical signatures. Certainly the rabbis I listed are among the gedolim of the New York Jewish community. In the end, the agunah paid over a million dollars to a family of multimillionaires, so it was not even normal greed. It was simply malice. So my question to you is, is this system ever going to produce a solution? These are the “big guns” in the New York Jewish community, and this is the right-of-center, black hat Jewish community that tried to free an agunah from an unscrupulous, dysfunctional husband. But they were stymied by an intrusive protest from Israel. That is why I said at the beginning that I’m all for abandoning the forms of marriage that put women in this position. Any alternative that frees women from this and increases pressure on the rabbis to do something about this, is, in my mind, the only way that this is going to move forward in our lifetime.
Where there's corruption, money, lies, fraud, violation of Halacha, coverup, bribery, "rabbinic-sanctioned" adultery, you will find my good buddy ----Blogger Posek Belsky!
Rabbi J. David Bleich says Belsky was soser himself on a heter / issur of eating bison. This is interesting because I think the OU is machshir a Rubashkin division in the Dakotas that sells Bison meat.
The American “buffalo” is not at all a buffalo but a bison indigenous to the North American continent with regard to which, unlike the European buffalo, there is no tradition. 7
NOTES
7. Cf., R. Israel Belsky, “Be-Din ‘Bison,’” Mesorah, no. 20 (Adar 5764), pp. 66f., who suggests that Hazon Ish would have sanctioned consumption of buffalo since the buffalo is an “ox.” However, that statement is unfounded. Both scientifically and in the eyes of the beholder, the zebu is far more similar to a cow than is the bison. Cf., Halacha Berurah, published by Zeirei Agudath Israel, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 3 and p. 4, note 24, in which Rabbi Belsky himself acknowledges that consumption of the meat of the American bison would not be sanctioned by Hazon Ish.
I figured out who the RCA "goof" is. I noticed that the RCA had no problem posting on their bio of him whatever stupidities he told them, including the misnomer of his family's "9 generations of rabbis". They do note that his father is Conservative but it's so played down and nonchalant that they make it sound like it's normal. This is obscene. His family is one of the most powerful forces in the Conservative movement. I heard from people in the shul that his father would visit and sonny boy, who was only junior rabbi, would seat dad in the senior rabbi's seat on mizrach. The other rabbi was insulted and several families left the shul thanks to this goof.
The RCA is an OU division. Is this the kind of image they are trying to promote? And how does YU give semicha to someone who doesn't know anything?
Just notch up the goof as another loser on Gil Student's team.
A big majority, 75 percent, said recent weather had been stranger than usual. Of those who said the weather had turned weird, 43 percent attributed it to global warming and 15 percent to pollution or other environmental damage. Four percent cited the coming end of the world or biblical prophecy, 2 percent blamed space junk and Shea Fishman blamed UOJ.
I am the frum Israeli guy who was at the center of a huge controversy at U Penn. After I heard a shiur from Belsky where he said water buffalos are domeh to black people, I got in trouble.
Sruly Singer's buddy Curtis Hoxter is a Yekke who lives in New Rochelle. His son Ron worked for the modern orthodox billionaire Ronald Perelman at Revlon and married a girl from Great Neck with a frum sounding name.
The consulting PR firm which also seems to do lobbying on Capitol Hill is Curtis J. Hoxter Inc. A 2nd PR firm which is in partnership with Tzvi Barak is Worldwide Consulting Inc.
I remember the goof and his younger brother from YU days. The younger brother is a divorced attorney on the West Side who also promotes himself as a "rabbi" (with help from Gil Student) and has gotten into the lecture circuit. He comes across much more cool and sophisticated than the bechor but it's also not clear if he actually knows anything. According to my sources, the father's temple is considered pretty schlepperish in Conservative circles. The father has very mediocre intelligence and gave blah sermons which made him unpopular with the intelligensia, some of whom left. The uncle who led the Conservative movement is a different story.
What I'd like to know is, doesn't the RCA have some kind of standard?
The Jewish anti-Semite Norman Finkelstein has made Sruly Singer one of his pet peeves. He says that he looked at Spitzer's report and saw that Sruly used WJC funds to pay for life insurance for the rebbitzen and medical insurance for his kids.
If you were brought up in a home where religion was a myth, then go on to discover that there is not a scintilla of evidence, archaeological or otherwise, that any of the stories in Exodus or any of the five books, or perhaps even the entire Neviim, ever happened, what would your conclusion be about the veracity of the Torah as a Divine account of the history of the Jews?
I'm not sure if that was actually you or the Yetzer Horah impersonating you.
Not one mashehu of evidence for anything the ENTIRE Chumash?
People will believe what they want to believe. There has been plenty of evidence unearthed. What about rock samples from the first Moon landing that corresponded to Mayseh Breishis? After the initial news reports, the information was suppressed. There's much more, but it won't change the warped mindset of Finkelstein who has kissed more Arab rotzchim than Neturei Karta.
I know Finkelstein, that's his perspective. Emunah, if not honed while a tot, ingrained from the milk of your mother, enforced and reinforced at every level of your life from birth, is a difficult if not impossible stretch.
I'm simply presenting the "other side of the coin"...there is another point of view, whether we agree or not.
I'm going back to my strongly-held belief, that we must not shrug off the difficult questions. The information age is upon us at the click of a button, we must be prepared to have Torah-compatible answers.
UOJ, it's an exaggeration to say that there is not a "scintilla of evidence".
Archaeological evidence includes references in Egyptian texts to the "apiru" [Hebrews]. As for the period of the nevi'im, there are artifacts from Bayit Rishom (an ivory pomegranate, I believe) and at least one inscription referring to "Beit David" (though skeptics insist it's Beit Dod).
As for Bison, what's the point of the Torah giving us simanim for kosher animals if we only eat those with a mesorah of kashrut and shechita? It makes about as much sense as saying we can't eat tomatoes because there is no tradition of that produce being kosher.
I wonder if the people who won't eat bison eat turkey.
There are millions of "Finkelsteins"...are we to simply write them off as bad, evil, ant-semites, haters of frum Jews...or do we take the bull by the horns and come up with rock-solid responses?
I'm a prodder...I push ideas around, I force people and ideas to pass the smell test. Do they?
Think!
Look at how far we've come in two brief years. Let's deal with ALL the issues that affect our emunah, not just the comfortable ones!
Scurrilous and Libelous Attacks Against Israel Singer, or The Gary Rosenblatt School of Journalism
Unless Rosenblatt and Cohler-Esses would next like to claim that Singer actually transferred the money back to Herr Hitler, there’s just no greater level of depravity available.
There are not "millions" of Finkelsteins. True, most secular Jews do not imbibe emunah with their mother's milk, yet they still do not act like the Amalek among us. Finkelstein is a rare and nefarious breed.
UOJ, if you are trying to prod constructive thinking, you may also want to provide an adequate answer while you're at it, instead of leaving some of your faith challenged readers hanging with provocative questions only.
The Gemorah relates in Sotah 49b that in the time of Moshiach, the generation will appear like a dog.
The explanation is offered that just as a dog runs ahead of its master but keeps turning around to see which direction the master takes, so too, in the time of Moshiach, people will lack the intelligence and courage to act sensibly on their own.
Ronnie, you are way out of your league here. Why don't you immerse yourself in parshas Shmini with the commentaries as well as in depth study of some masechtos before coming back to the table. The Oral Torah gives us insight into the parameters of simanim and mesorah. This is not a new story. The discussion starts in the Talmud.
The Kamenetzky family, descendents of the Shaloh Hakadosh and others do abstain from eating turkey. This is sometimes due to mesorah and sometimes due to the propensity of a turkey to swoop in an aggressive fashion, similar to a bird of prey.
With great pleasure I here take up the proverbial pen in defence of UOJ.
I'm a ultra orthodox religious jew and second UOJs opinion. He merely stated the fink's point of view and basicaly categorized him as a tinuk shenishbar. If u dont like what the fink thinks or says counter it intellectualy, no need to call him evil, just misinformed and mislead by his ignorance or wron perspective.
Yakov Aveenu was declared by the torah to be the winner of his battle w/eisav's angle yet HE was the one walking away with a dislocated something. What gives?
Sages explain that the battle began as an intellectual disagreement between yaakov's and eisav's derech in avodas hashem. Like many jewish losers today when the angel so he was losing (kee eino yochel lo) he reverted to (verbal and) physical violence. To this the torah infers that by reverting to violence the angle admited to beig intellectualy wrong and yaakov was declared the winner of the original contest.
You have my word that I will help get you a beis din to address your grievance for being made fun of. First you have to appear at the batei din that you were mesarev.
To take Finkelstein at all seriously, you have to believe in a worldwide conspiracy of Jewish leaders who are willing to deliberately “exploit” the Holocaust and are equally willing, deliberately, to oppress the Palestinian people. Without these pre-existing assumptions, Finkelstein could find no readers for his books.
The problem is not that his writings constitute poor scholarship but that it is not scholarship at all. He has not, for example, by his own admission, published a single article in a peer-reviewed journal.
Finkelstein is a driven man. All he ever seems to write or talk about is his idée fixe about Jews and Israel. He has organized a “solidarity” committee of like-minded folk who press the case for his tenure at DePaul University. But what can he contribute to civilized, scholarly debate? Instead of giving him tenure, he should be helped to find a place in the world in which his obvious intelligence and industry can be put to constructive use. That place is not in the community of scholars.
Werner Cohn Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada
Emunah is faith, no evidence required! We are not smarter than our zeides, but we have more information than they had that needs to be examined intelligently! Not "swept under the rug"!!!
Science is challenging, we need to address the relevant questions and proofs they offer. They are very imperfect, the science and the scientists, but they have no qualms at all to admit their mistakes based on the evidence at the time.
We need to address these issues as our children have immediate access to this information and are told to forgo a life of gashmiyas, and practically forced to take vows of poverty.(kollel)
We must engage our children in this conversation or the "Finkelsteins" will!
(90% percent of Jews are secular, 10% are Orthodox---half of the Orthodox are leading double-lives. 42% of people born in to Orthodox homes between 1950-1970, have given up on their heritage(Sarna and others)
Here's the story of an "Orthodox" child molester who had kosher food priviliges taken away in prison after he was caught eating treif several times. The putz sued the govt.
It is simply not true that scientists, or at least several of them, have no qualms admitting mistakes. The scientific community has been besieged by several recent scandals of falsifying data. Many of them are apikorsim who will only refute another theory to replace it with a different twist of apikorsus to make a name for themselves. They are not interested in researching anything that will prove the Torah.
I would like to know who your other sources are besides Sarna. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if that Conservative guru wielding an anti-frum axe had fudged some numbers.
As we all know, R' Moishe lamented over the popular refrain of "shver tzu zein a Yid" and the fact that magnificent shuls were built across America instead of yeshivos. There is no scientific way of calculating the poel yotzei, but the numbers are great.
Lately we have different problems and yasher koyach to you for doing something about it. I still think you should do more explaining than dangling bold questions in front of "borderline frum" and others.
Rabbi Spiegel (Monsey / New Hempstead) is out of Empire because of refusing to remove chickens from the line when the Schoichet & bodek said the knife has a p'gimah. etc.
Rabbi Spiegel instituted a new type of sharpening the knives "glatt & dull" hence no p'gimahs possible, but you have d'rosahs galore especialy when you schecht on an angle.
There were numerous incidents of what the the schoichtim call him a machil ne'veilos to klal yisroel R"L.
(An earlier comment here hints that Spiegel's efforts to get his crowd to switch to cholov Yisroel is like Moish Finkel fakerei)
That was a blast from the past with Emmanuel Rackman. The guy has faded into complete obscurity. Belsky may have been the last Mohican to try his gameplan.
Even Gary Rosenblatt has stopped running puff pieces about him to remind everyone he exists.
I read and read and read...(no novels or fiction) I forget the sources, but they are accurate based on my studies.(unfortunately)
I am not referring to the scientists/philosophers like Dennett, Dawkins. They are the ones with a definite agenda. I'm talking about Davies, Hawkings and the likes (not Schroeder, he's an idiot)that, in my assessment of their works, they are struggling to find God, not to NOT find Him.
There are valid questions, and we must come up with Torah-compatible answers!
To put this in perspective, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany recently met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to bring to her attention the fact that the German social security administration has denied ghetto pensions to about 61,000 of the approximately 70,000 survivors who applied for such compensation. With a failure rate of over 87 percent, the German program has been rightfully and widely criticized by survivors and Jewish and humanitarian organizations. Considering that ICHEIC has done only marginally better, why hasn’t there been a similar public uproar?
Chairman Eagleburger is quoted as having said that ICHEIC “has achieved its goal of bringing a small measure of justice to those who have been denied it for so long.” As a lawyer who has closely worked with ICHEIC claimants, I sadly disagree. For nine years, ICHEIC failed the very people it was created to serve.
Yisroel Schulman is the president of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)
Lawrence Eagleburger was sitting around on his fat rump with Sruly over nice juicy treif steaks and supersized orders of frites at Le Marais.
Have you ever seen how obese he is? The cheapskate wears shirts that he's bulging out of because nothing comes off the rack in his size and he won't pay for custom.
I have no use for Le Marais. I don't keep kosher but I'm still grossed out by BIG BEATLES. I vowed never to eat there again after they stopped the "All you can eat night"
YUALUMNUS, take it easy man! The plumbing in Forest Hills is kind of funky. Just ask my good friend and neighbor Sruly Singer. When Belsky heard that the Rav's chiddushim were somewhere in the aquaduct system, that's when he poskened we don't have to be choshesh for copepods.
Rackman may be obscure but his poisonous peiros are not. There are mamzerim out there thanks to him.
The ignorant public may have finally woken up when kol korays came out against him from every stripe of rov, from Rav Elyashev to Mizrachi in the territories to YU.
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am SIW- Is the best shot you got to defend your buddy Singer? Why don’t you deal with the “unaccounted” for millions of dollars that were transferred back and forth to his personal retirement accounts and placed in his wife’s name? You are pathetic! Rosenblatt looks like Bob Woodward, and you look like Woody the Woodpecker, emphasis on pecker!
SIW- Your buddy is a thief, respond to the gravest charges against him or just putz off!
Does anyone know the details of the scandal with the Bensonhurst shul? Mispalelim brought a lawsuit that it was sold to a mosque without their permission. The Jewish Week has a three line blurb that doesn't say much. They say it's the "Mapleton Park Jewish Center" but I don't think there is such a place. They probably mean the Young Israel of Mapleton Park on West 6th St.
They do say that the mispalelim lost the first round in court vs "the Ahmadiya Movement in Islam and several other defendants."
"there’s just no greater level of depravity available."
Steve Weiss is exactly the kind of "journalist" that the Wall Street Journal can't stand. He flies off the handle with something he holds dear and makes sweeping, irresponsible statements.
Of course the most important thing to SIW are his brown nose journalist ethics that take precedent over stopping molesters, so yes, child molestation is not more depraved than exposing Sruly Singer. Or at least that is in the topsy turvy world of SIW.
Note to those with outstanding orders for UOJ caps:
A transistor fried on one of the circuit boards for my embroidery machine. Instead of shipping the board to a technician in New Jersey (which will take at least 3 or 4 days and about $350), I'm going to try to save some time and money by replacing the component myself since a local electronics supply has the right transistor. Unfortunately I had to attend a funeral and the supplier was closing early today so I won't know until sometime tomorrow if this will work. If it doesn't work I'll have to have the tech rebuild it.
I'll keep everyone updated on any progress.
I already have the blanks in stock so b'ezrat HaShem as soon as the machine is up and running I'll be able to get the orders out. Thanks for your patience.
Regarding the Monsey treif meat situation Rabbi Yisroel Belsky paskened that there is no need to kasher any keilim.He based his psak on the following:
First, if Tumah is hutra b'tzibur then it is a kal v'chomer that non kosher meat is also hutra b'tzibur.
Secondly, Rabbi Belsky stated that he knows the owner of thebutcher store and that he is certainly an "ish neeman" and therefore the rule of "eid echad neeman b'issurin" applies.
Rabbi Belsky stated that many companies and hotels under the OU are beleived to have purchased meat from that store owner and that he feels there is no problem and no need to kasher.
NO ONE should eat any OU MEAT products or patronize any OU establishment without first verifying that a Kashering process took place following the incident.
Please contact Rabbis Genack and Elefant at the OU to discuss the blatant disregard of Kashrus standards promoted by "Rabbi" Yisroel Belsky.
I'm a ultra orthodox religious jew and second UOJs opinion. He merely stated the fink's point of view and basicaly categorized him as a tinuk shenishbar. If u dont like what the fink thinks or says counter it intellectualy, no need to call him evil, just misinformed and mislead by his ignorance or wron perspective.
I didn't have a lot of time so I wrote b'kitzur.
WADR, while it's not difficult to critique Finkelstein, I think you are way off base when you say that he's a misinformed or ignorant tinok she'nishbar. He consciously provides aid and comfort to the enemies of the Jewish people. He's no more a tinok she'nishbar than the tuchas fressers that ran to Tehran.
I can't wait to hear the OU spin on this.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten to the point that I believe there is no hope for this form of religion. Why do we/they find it so difficult to admit when they are wrong? Would it be so difficult to say "Kolko is guilty," "Bitton was right?"
ReplyDeleteI can't take it anymore. I'm devastated.
ReplyDeletePlease don't bother us until after we emerge from our emergency damage control session. We are conferring over treif steak & frites at Le Marais.
ReplyDeleteAs part of our minhag whenever we fress there, Jose de Mereilles approaches the table so Steve Savitsky can kiss his Jean Paul Gaultier shoes and Rabbi Genack bends over to kiss his derriere.
Avraham Keller is unavailable. Chef Mark Hennessey has him running 40 laps around the bathroom while he puts BIG BEATLES in the salad.
To Formerly Borderline Frum and other dear Yiddishe neshomos,
ReplyDeletePlease do not give up all hope. Hashem sees everything and criminals will be dealt with, whether they scar a child or feed treif to the unknowing public.
The Mishna Sotah prophesizes that the age before Moshiach will be chaotic to the point that the Vaad Chochomim will turn to the Vaad Znus. Perhaps this means molesters in the yeshivos and hashgochos whoring themselves for money.
The Rambam says that if the entire world loses it's sanity, we should escape to the mountains. We may be close, but there are a few determined individuals who are fighting to be machzir the atara leyoshna.
Please hang on and assist in the fight. DO NOT throw in the towel which only aids the criminals who thrive when no one speaks up.
Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
ReplyDeleteI pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here.
I TOLD THEM ON MARCH 12TH THAT WE'RE MONITORING THEM AND THEY GO ON THE RADIO AND LIE ANYWAY!!!
ReplyDeleteBRAINLESS MORONS!
_________________________________
Monday, March 12, 2007
Responsibility
Every day I'm inundated with requests to investigate many different horror stories foisted on innocent people by evil people. The rotten stench of humanity fills my nostrils daily. The illness that has taken over our religion is horrifying. What kind of Judaism remains for the generations?
People that have been reading UOJ for a while should know that I take my work seriously and personal. How can you not? Orthodox Judaism is disintegrating in front of me. There is no credibilty by the called "leaders"; "every single opportunity they miss an opportunity"(Abba Eban) to do right for the Jewish nation.
They can't understand that they lost control of our minds................ Finito forever!....................
That's a great thing; because we have a new opportunity to fix the pure evil going on in the name of Torah. Can you imagine that? We have been lied to, cheated on, our kids sexually abused in our yeshivas and girls' schools, rabbis fornicating with members of their congregations, stealing our money for their personal use and a thousand other crimes and distortions that are destroying us!
The rebbe-molestation issue is burning thousands of children, many, now adults with their own children, both male and female!
I get so much mail from the victims' wives (and husbands) describing the pain their spouses are suffering. It is heartbreaking to see the amount of lives that have been destroyed by people posing as rebbes and rabbis. (There are few good ones, too few - not all rabbis are criminals and rishaim)
People in teaching and "leadership" positions that are monsters are still there. Many rabbis that are worthless humans, are hiding under one rock or another. Every day I want to quit blogging. Every day I swear it's my last. But who will take over? During my brief hiatus, until the Agudah called; nobody took over the battle. Are there no other generals? Can that be possible?
Everywhere I look insanity and dishonesty disguised as piety is rampant. No honesty anywhere.
Rabbis that are caught lying, would rather continue to lie than deal with the truth. What they don't realize is the incredible amount of hard evidence against them; like voice recordings, video recordings, expert witnesses, rabbis that will testify to the truth, and much more! They just don't learn until it's too late. Rabbis can't fool ALL of the people all of the time, it's going to come back to bite them very hard!
Wise guys that break and mock the law can't hide behind attorneys and use the "law" to protect them! Technology is so advanced today that every move can be monitored, and it is!
Fanatacism has taken over in many enclaves of Judaism. Regardless of what the "sociologists" are telling you about the expansion of Charedi-ism, I'm telling you it's the Titanic heading for certain death.
But I'm here to stay! I will continue this battle and keep exposing the corruption and hunt down the rishaim wherever I find them.
I have a responsibilty to continue what I'm doing, and will continue to expose the fraud and the fraudsters in every corner, under every rock, and wherever else they think they can hide.
I've learned patience, strategy and game-plan from Samuel Reshevsky. Pounce on your adversary hard when they least expect it! And that, my friends, is what I intend to do!
Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
ReplyDeleteI pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here.
I may be being naive but I'm pretty sure that kashrut here in Detroit is on the up and up, at least in terms of the reliability of the hashgacha by the local vaad. Heck, I even think that Jack Goldman, while undoubtedly using heterim, wouldn't knowingly machshir treif. But then I've known Rabbi Jack for 40 years, and I personally know many of the vaad's mashgichim.
As for who gets hashgacha, that's a different story. The vaad does seem to have a pattern of protecting existing customers of theirs. When Yossi J. wanted to start a kosher Panera style breadshop, he couldn't get hashgacha because the vaad said there were already a couple of kosher bakeries, notwithstanding the fact that his business model was completely different. However, when the folks at One Stop (and their backers) wanted to open up a pizza shop a half mile from Jerusalem Pizza (disclaimer, my daughter works for J'lem and I'm friendly with the proprietors), the vaad said it was okay because J'lem doesn't sell by the slice as this shop does.
I will say that years ago, when Sara's Deli was open, there was a whispering campaign questioning the kashrut of the abatoir at Cornbelt Packing. The vaad, who supervised both Cornbelt and Sara's, made a point of convening over a meal at Sara's. At least they eat their own hashgacha, which you can't say about every supervisory group.
Avraham Keller is unavailable. Chef Mark Hennessey has him running 40 laps around the bathroom while he puts BIG BEATLES in the salad.
ReplyDeleteNeither Paul nor Ringo is particularly tall or fat.
Beatles as in beat.
Beetles as in creepy crawlies.
BULLSHIT ALERT!!!!
ReplyDeleteOnce again it's Lag b'Omer time and the shameless Chai Rotel hucksters who exploit primitive peasant superstitions, and other character flaws common to religious and ignorant Jews are out in force.
For the past few years, the Orthodox Jewish public has been bombarded with requests to buy into a mysterious and certainly fictitious 'z'chus': footing the booze bill for a few thousand flailing wackos mosh-pitting past Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's tomb in Meron, Israel on Lag b'Omer.
For some reason bottled water and fire hoses aren't enough to cool off down the revelers. Rather, we're led to believe, they need to be served alcoholic beverages.
While most of my bewilderment is directed at the ridiculous claim that sending these whores money will result in fame, fortune, and every dream come true for you, I'm amazed at the dangerous activity they so unashamedly promote.
First, there are thousands of children there. Are they trying to lasso innocently charitable, though god-awfully stupid, people who send them money into aiding the corruption of minors? What if a child dies of alcohol poisoning, or by doing something stupid while under the influence? (Those were rhetorical questions, mind you.)
Second, the consumption of alcohol in extremely hot weather, when highly exerted, severely advances the risk of dehydration, shock, and possibly death:
Heat Wave Safety Tips
Slow down. Strenuous activities should be reduced, eliminated, or rescheduled to the coolest time of the day. Individuals at risk should stay in the coolest available place, not necessarily indoors.
Dress for summer. Lightweight light-colored clothing reflects heat and sunlight, and helps your body maintain normal temperatures.
Put less fuel on your inner fires. Foods (like proteins) that increase metabolic heat production also increase water loss.
Drink plenty of water or other non-alcohol fluids. Your body needs water to keep cool. Drink plenty of fluids even if you don’t feel thirsty. Persons who (1) have epilepsy or heart, kidney, or liver disease, (2) are on fluid restrictive diets or (3) have a problem with fluid retention should consult a physician before increasing their consumption of fluids.
Do not drink alcoholic beverages.
Do not take salt tablets unless specified by a physician.
Spend more time in air-conditioned places. Air conditioning in homes and other buildings markedly reduces danger from the heat. If you cannot afford an air conditioner, spending some time each day (during hot weather) in an air conditioned environment affords some protection.
Don’t get too much sun. Sunburn makes the job of heat dissipation that much more difficult
In essence, by contributing to this sham charity, you are proactively placing a great many people in serious Sakanah. I'm certain if some responsible Gedolim were still alive, they would be horrified at this practice purely from the perspective that it poses a serious health hazard
They'd be as horrified at the monumental waste of money that goes into the advertising; it could be over one hundred thousand dollars in print media, posters, and web marketing.
Supposedly there are all these people starving in Israel. It's bad enough the Kupat Hair "Where's the Gadol" Muppet Show wastes millions of advertising dollars to dupe people with jobs into feeding the so-desperately-hungry their 'gedolim' have created.
How are these con-men given free reign to irresponsibly siphon off even more money from an increasingly exasperated, though increasingly gullible, pool of donors for this idiocy? (another rhetorical question there.)
Last, get a load of this:
Moshe S. was searching for a shidduch for years. Last Lag B’Omer, he called Tzikdas Rashbi, and sponsored Chai Rotel mashke. He met his kallah just one week after Lag B’Omer.
And this:
Mr. C. was trucking a load of valuable merchandise when he was involved in a serious accident. The truck was crushed, and the merchandise badly damaged. The insurance company refused to compensate Mr. C. for the loss of his merchandise. Mr. C. took the insurance company to court – and sponsored Chai Rotel mashke. Three weeks later, he won the case.
Then this:
“ I was childless for 14 years when I joined Tzidkas Rashbi’s Chai Rotel Mashke distribution. That was four years ago. This year, I’m going to Miron in person, with my 3-year-old Shimon. We’re going to cut his hair in front of the tanna’s gravesite.”
T. Y., Brooklyn, NY
Or this:
Children, Refuos, Shidducim, Parnassah, Sholo Bayis?
Or any other salvation?
About 2000 years ago, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai wrote the Zohar, and brought great blessing to the world. Ever since, Jews who prayed at his gravesite, especially on his yahrtzeit, Lag B’Omer, experienced miraculous salvations. The barren, the sick, the poor, were helped.
You can experience the power of Rabbi Shimon’s blessing, too - "Join the thousands who were helped after participating in Tzidkas Rashbi Chai Rotel distribution
Aside from the fact that I recall these amazing miracles to be the very same advertised last year, READ: no new crop of amazing miracles have occurred since, I'm left wondering: who are the brain dead idiots buying into this anyway?? (yup, another rhetorical question)
Jack Goldman from Detroit is the Shield-K. He's said to be an eccentric dresser whose kashrus standards are as exotic as his Hawaiian shirts. I don't think Ronnie should be defending a clown. Mashgichim who look around for incongruous heterim are doing a disservice. There is no heter to find every heter.
ReplyDeleteRonnie also missed the point about the BEATLES. The Frenchies misspelled the word in their court filing. UOJ had picked up on this earlier and ridiculed them.
It's a chutzpah that Le Marais is advertising this week in Jewish newspapers their new Sunday Brunch menu. I hope they experience an early demise like John Lennon. Les Beatles indeed. Their spokesman Juda Engelmayer can then find a job selling cheap T-shirts on Canal St. Maybe he can get a heter to man his stand on Shabbos seeing as he's been pushing for the "eruv" on the Lower East Side.
http://kosherwater.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeletehttp://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/04/rabbi-menachem-goldberger-of-baltimore.html
ReplyDeleteAvi Shafran asked me to not mention rabbonim.
Aron Twerski told me that Le Marais owner Jose de Mereilles is an honorable man.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Yankel Applegrad & the OU took my advice.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110009999
In today's Political Diary:
Howard Dean Endorses Lying to the Media
Rav Yisroel Belsky: Le Marais Allegations unfounded
ReplyDeletenew belsky.jpgIn a Yeshivaworld exclusive, a letter written by Rabbi Yisroel Belsky reads as follows: To whom it may concern: I have personally reviewed the statements made by Isaac Bitton about the kashrus of Le Marais Restaurant. In my opinion, his allegations have no substance and are unfounded, and the OU supervision of Le Marais is completely reliable. (signed).
A photo of the letter appears in the linked article.
Yeshivishvelt
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110009994
ReplyDeleteUOJ has to stop this thuggery by corrupt trial lawyers and their Democrat enablers.
Brooklyn, NY - Rabbi Bernard Freilich Hugs DA Charles Hynes Who Prosecuted Him.
ReplyDeleteBrooklyn, NY - A source who attended a $1,000-a-head fundraiser last night at the Rose Castle in Williamsburg for Rep. Ed Towns witnessed a double-take moment when he spotted Hasidic Rabbi Bernard Freilich hugging the very man who prosecuted him in a death threat case in the 1990s - Kings County DA Charles Hynes.
Freilich was aquitted of felony charges of witness tampering in 2000. Hynes had accused him of making death threats against a young woman who accused her father of raping her, ostensibly in an effort to get her to drop the charges.
Hynes'prosecution of Freilich angered the Orthodox Jewish Community, which called for his removal after the rabbi was cleared.
The event for Towns was hosted by Satmar Rabbi Leib Glanz, who is Towns' finance chair and executive director of the United Talmudical Academy, a nonprofit.
According to my source, the attendees includes: Two potential mayoral candidates (Weiner and Thompson), one potential comptroller candidate (Weprin), and at least one other Congressman (Meeks).
Mayor Bloomberg was touted on the invite to this event, but he didn't show up. According to a Bloomberg aide, the mayor was never scheduled to attend. This discrepency is evidently the source of some disagreement in the Satmar community, and since I don't know enough about it, I'm going to leave it at that. [NYdailynewsblog]
"During my brief hiatus, until the Agudah called; nobody took over the battle."
ReplyDeleteUOJ, I don't recall seeing on the blog what happened that got u back 2 blogging. Can u enlighten me as 2 what transpired with the agudah carpet sweepers and jerks?
to sargent boog.
ReplyDeletehow can this peice of crap "belchky" still be writing letters, his hands should have been broken to peices to the point he can no longer write, long ago.
Has anyone heard the OU response to the new tapes? I can't do any work until I hear it. The suspense is killing me. The truth is they are probably formulating their response as we speak.
ReplyDeleteOh another point. The OU said "bitton developed amazing consiratorial theories".
ReplyDeleteWell wouldnt you if you knew: For the lawsuit, Le marias hired Richard Klass. Richard Klass, is the newphew of the owner of the Jewish Press, Low Klass. Before Passover, Low KLass published an article about Le Marais, and how great it and its owner the 21st century philosopher Jose were. hmm.. conspiracy? nah, course not.. conspiracies are for washington only. can it be the jewish press, the OU, le marais, levanas, and richard klass are all sleeping in the same bed? no no, cant be, richard klass is too fat.
Ooh Ooh, I have another good one.
ReplyDeleteIn the OU mashgiachs Manual, they talk about how "a mashgiach should never take a break that exceeds 15 minutes because thats all the time it takes for kashrus to be hampered.
Well, its funny that when bitton asked Schreier to put at least, at minimum a jewish worker in the SECOND kitchen which is UPSTAIRS and out of view from the only mashgiach schreier repleid "its not gonna happen"...
Moral of the story: OU's policies are too strict. And Bittons "interpretation" of mixing fish and meat, dairy margarine and meat are all too strict for the OU.
UPDATE: Rabbi Moshe Eisemann is still tutoring students
ReplyDeleteMay 1, 2007
http://www.theaware nesscenter. org/Eisemann_ Moshe.html
The Awareness Center continues to receive reports that Rabbi Moshe Eisemann is still allowed to tutor students in the privacy of his apartment located on
the Ner Israel Rabbinical College campus. For more information on the allegations made against Rabbi Moshe Eisemann contact Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer and the
administration at Ner Israel (see numbers below).
Please note that Rabbi Moshe Eisemann and Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger (President
of Ner Israel) are related through marriage. Rabbi Moshe (Mario) Eisemann is also a relative of Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau (through marriage).
------------
UPDATED CALL TO ACTION
Demand Rabbi Moshe EIsemann Do The Following:
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - September 5, 2006
Please contact the following administra tors at Ner Israel and also Rabbi Hopfer. Demand that Rabbi Moshe Eisemann leave his position at Ner Israel aand
move off campus immediately. He must also go to police in Baltimore and confess
to his crimes. Please note that there is no statue of limitation on sex crimes against children in Maryland. Rabbi Moshe Eisemann must also pay restitution
to his victims and enter into residential treatment for sex offenders.
It is believed that Ner Israel has known about this case for some time, yet has refused to take action. Please demand that they change their policies immediately!
How many more children will need to be sexually victimized before they start to take this issue seriously?
Contact:
Ner Israel Contact Information:
410-484-7200
Rabbi Aharon Feldman - Rosh Yeshiva (Head of the School)
Rabbi Beryl Weisbord - Dean of Students
Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger - President
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer Contact Information:
Shearith Yisrael (Glen Ave. Shul)
410-358-3450 or 410-466-3060
410-367-9183 fax
************ ********* ********* ********
"Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
ReplyDeleteI pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here."
A third trustworthy Rabbi is Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi. Anybody with a fourth??
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
I pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here."
A third trustworthy Rabbi is Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi. Anybody with a fourth??
------
I agree. I fogot about him.
On the way home from a funeral I noticed a sushi bar in Royal Oak named Sakana. The place isn't kosher, but even if it was, would you eat there?
ReplyDeleteJack Goldman from Detroit is the Shield-K. He's said to be an eccentric dresser whose kashrus standards are as exotic as his Hawaiian shirts.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen him in a Hawaiian shirt, but he does wear some nice suits.
I don't think Ronnie should be defending a clown.
Who should the Bozoer Rebbe defend, if not for clowns? Clowns have a place reserved in Olam HaBa.
More to the point. I'm sorry if you're troubled that I defend a former teacher of mine that I've known for 40 years. Jack may be eccentric, but he's not a clown. I've known him to take some principled stances on controversial issues - he's hardly a left winger.
Mashgichim who look around for incongruous heterim are doing a disservice. There is no heter to find every heter.
Jack is a self promoter, no question, but as far as I can tell he's not machshir anything that's treif. Frankly, I'm not even sure if many of the products he is machshir even need hashgacha.
UOJ has to stop this thuggery by corrupt trial lawyers and their Democrat enablers.
ReplyDeleteIn the tobacco litigation, trial lawyers established the precedent that a legal industry can be compelled to bear the costs it inflicts on society.
A major factor, perhaps the primary factor, in the cost of health care is the threat of litigation. From pharmaceuticals, to doctor's fees, to the electrical outlets in a hospital, everything needs to be tested, vetted, and insured against litigation. Hospital grade electrical outlets are virtually identical to mil-spec outlets but cost three times as much.
Since the trial lawyers established the above mentioned precedent in the tobacco litigation, I say they should be hoisted on their own petards.
We should institute a national health insurance plan funded by a 50% surtax on attorneys fees in personal injury cases. That would generate about $40 billion a year and you can buy lots of insurance for that much scratch.
The liberals should like it too since they're always going on about soaking the rich.
Well, at least we have a Bais Din.
ReplyDeleteNow we can do things!
I saw a holy picture of R. Daniel Alter
Rosh Kollel of Ger in Yated last week-
anyone know if he was part of the
Laizerowitz wedding delegation?
"Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
ReplyDeleteAll joking aside, all of you know I'm hardly naive about rabbinical misconduct, but I'm very uncomfortable with this statement as it assumes the default position is that you can't trust rabbis.
So I'll give a short list of rabbis whom I would personally trust:
Danny Arm
Shmuel Irons
Moshe Schwab
Izzy Schwab
Shimon Shapiro
David Apt (he should be consoled among the mourners of Zion)
Avraham Jacobovitz
Meir Landsman
Alon Tolwin
Reuven Spolter
Pinchas Zuckerman
Yoel Sperka
Yudi Bakst
This is not to say that I see eye to eye with all of them. However, my contacts with them lead me to believe they are erliche yidden.
Caveat: The list could be longer and I mean no disrespect to anyone who I may have forgotten to include on the list.
I know this is an old post but I'm just coming across it now. Unfortunately, I can't agree with your list. While there are some very nice and Ehrlich rabbinic on there, I've personally seen 3 of them abuse their power and go against Halachos for their pride. It's one thing to make a mistake, it's another not to own up to it.
DeleteI think part of the reason it's so hard to find trustworthy rabbonim is because power corrupts. We've invested to much blind faith and power into human beings. We need to be able to question and hold rabbonim accountable. That's not to say that it should be done in a disrespectful manner, but nobody should be above the law.
"potential comptroller candidate (Weprin)"
ReplyDeleteHe is a Queens Councilman who is a member of Young Israel of Holliswood. I believe that Rabbi Butler who left the OU in the aftermath of the Lanner scandal also davens there.
Isn't it amazing that Satmar and a whole host of shady characters bend over and the politicans come running with puckery lips.
The thought of Freilich hugging Hynes makes me want to barf.
Of course the Jewish Press is in bed with Le Marais and probably recommended nephew "Little Richard" Klass to represent them. Le Marais ads are big bucks. Just the little blurb in the dining section is about $1300 a year and then there are the large ads like the new one for Sunday brunch.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theyeshivaworld.com/?p=6496
ReplyDelete"YW Comment Moderation Panel Says:
April 30th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Due to the sensitivity of this topic, (and after seeing the first few comments submitted,) commenting has been closed by the Comment Moderation Panel."
Hey Shmuck, go ahead and present Belsky's side of the story with no discussion. I never realized until now what a brainless twit you are, not even after you refused discussion of YTT.
The OU has removed any and all mention of le Marais from both their main & their kashrus website.
ReplyDelete"Are there 10 Rabbonim that can be trusted? I guess Rabbi H Shechter is one, Rabbi Blau is two, and I cannot think of any more.
ReplyDeleteI pray there are more than two in the world. Please help me out here."
A third trustworthy Rabbi is Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi. Anybody with a fourth??
-----------------------------------
I would nominate Rabbi Yeruchem Shain as the fourth honest Rabbi. He sincerely helps out his boys without any personal agenda. Anyone with a fifth?
Not to exclude anyone else, two of the biggest tzaddikim I have ever met reside in Lakewood. R' Yeruchim Olshin and someone who is probably a nistar, who I have reasons for not naming.
ReplyDeleteSo if Eckstein is YeshivaWorld, maybe R' Shmuel Berenbaum decided that it's batlonus for anyone besides a stupid lummox like him to be the official driver.
ReplyDeleteThe publisher of a publication that is more frum than the Jewish Press has been pulling a Jackie Mason for years. He kept saying that if Le Marais "does one more thing wrong" then he will no longer accept ads from them.
ReplyDeleteHey Ploni, put your money where your mouth is.
Jackie Mason has always taynaed that whenever a Yid issues that threat, no one knows what that last thing is, because the threat is never carried out.
Someone should be mazmin Neuberger to a din Torah over Eisemann with an out of town beis din. Even if he says he will only appear local & they cover it up, it will at least force the issue.
ReplyDeleteDoes Leiby Puretz know what Eckstein has been up to?
ReplyDeleteNot to exclude anyone else, two of the biggest tzaddikim I have ever met reside in Lakewood. R' Yeruchim Olshin and someone who is probably a nistar, who I have reasons for not naming.
ReplyDelete________________________
I totally agree with your take on R' Yeruchem... However he is not at all familiar with meelee d'alma, matters of the outside world, and therefore can not be relied on for worldly matters or tragic occurrences that have seeped in to Yiddishkeit.
His t'mimusdiker persona can not comprehend the illnesses and the tragedies that the Jews are having to tackle.
"Someone" should be mazmin Neuberger to a din Torah over Eisemann with an out of town beis din. Even if he says he will only appear local & they cover it up, it will at least force the issue.
ReplyDelete__________________
How about that "someone" being you?
It looks like Shmarya's appetite for aged steak got the better of him. After tipping his hat to UOJ for the Le Marais update, he insists the place is still kosher and brings a raaya that Rabbi Weinreb ate there last week.
ReplyDeleteWho thought Shmarya was totally predictable?
UOJ, I have no connections to NIRC or Baltimore. I think it best if someone with a connection got involved. I am also currently tied up with another issue that would make you proud. I am trying to fix some corruption I stumbled across. So far, I have been publicly yelled at by a hypocrite rabbi who is friends with the perpetrator and the authorities are declining to intervene for reasons that are also inherently corrupt. I am working on other approaches to stop them. Nothing to do with molestation but rather financial misdeeds.
ReplyDeleteI know it's not a very popular position right now, but I'm rooting for Belsky and the OU.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/29/AR2007042901668.html
ReplyDeleteBelsky hesitated because my name is Bitton, but then said he can still provide me with a hashgacha for the right price.
Who's this guy Shea Fishman who's trying to give me advice? He provided UOJ as a reference.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-mideast.html
May 1, 2007
Israeli Leader Resists Calls to Resign
I would like Bitton to release the audio in it's entirety. Regardless of that, there is still a history of Le Marais cheating and fighting with the old hashgocho and the OU playing dumb. It's a shame how this all played out. The result will probably be that the OU will immediately reassign mashgichim when there is a problem to make it impossible to catch them on anything.
ReplyDeleteI'm not finished with the OU yet, so Genack and the chevrah will have to keep their seats warm for a few more moments to read this.
ReplyDelete"Beatles" are less of a problem than cockroaches that infest other restaurants. Mendelson's under OU on Ave K had roaches crawling around the table where the pizza was made. An independent rov I spoke to in the kashrus industry didn't think the OU would do anything substantive.
The ubiquitous Rabbi Goldberg of the Vaad that keeps popping up as the only one who cares about anything, takes roach infestations seriously.
It's just amazing how our "stellar" hashgochos ignore basically all moral & even sakonna considerations, and yes, they even ignore bugs that are the worst type of kashrus issue.
Coackroaches are very difficult if not impossible to eradicate from a building. They will also appear where they never existed if the restaurant does food preparation in the basement instead of upstairs. (This also attracts rodents).
Some establishments with known infestations that are very severe are listed below. In many cases the hashgochos were contacted who did nothing.
The bagel place at 13th Ave & 39th (formerly Jerhod's)
Kings Hwy & East 7th - Kosher Hut & Seuda take out.
Kings Hwy & East 4th - Tea for Two and David's. This stretch is so bad that the neighbors called the Health Dept because the vermin were approaching nearby homes.
Coney Island & Ave K - Olimpic Pita, the butcher store next door & Cafe K.
Ave J & East 15th - the former Circa - OU
Coney Island & Ave N - Oh Bagel (coackroaches but unknown if the problem is severe)
The defunct Mendy's sports bar on the Upper West Side under OU had an infestation problem that went uncorrected for years.
16 Ave & 50th St - Motti's (fly infestation that they refused to rectify with a simple fix). They were apparently too busy giving free food to corrupt cops who would let them park illegally in front of the restaurant.
Some restaurants in the Catskills have terrible problems that are very difficult to fix. Have you ever run out after a minute because of huge horseflies swarming around you?
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=12611
ReplyDeleteSpitzer is pushing through his gay "marriage" bill before taking care of child abuse. Even Boog will go easy now on Bruno who is criticizing the Guv. Steve Greenberg must be bentching shechiyanu.
Someone found a dead cockroach in the salad today at Circa on Dey St (OU).
ReplyDeleteWas Mark Hennessy the guest chef there today?
Now Rabbi Weiner or the Jewish Press are going to tell us that we don't need any oversight about bugs because the hashgochos have it under control.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1177591151808&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
ReplyDeleteavi shafran, THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 28, 2007
" Jonathan Schorsch writes ... that I am a "clever fellow" ... Prof. Schorsch can be easily disabused of his first assertion by perusing my high school scholastic records, or by consulting my wife and children, who can regale him of all manner of dumb things I've said and done"
vqhww said...
ReplyDeleteWell, at least we have a Bais Din.
Now we can do things!
I saw a holy picture of R. Daniel Alter
Rosh Kollel of Ger in Yated last week-
anyone know if he was part of the
Laizerowitz wedding delegation?
-----------------------------------
R. Daniel Alter, as you correctly stated is a very holy man, he is the last son of the pnei menachim of gur, and besides for a few sick individuals in ger who hate anything that has to do with the pnei menachem yo will not find a person that will say bad about him.
i know him well and have seen him live his life for years, he is an ehrlich yid.
R' Yeruchom once had information & decided to get involved in a shmutzikke story that is not known to the public. His behavior was nothing short of heroic. After being apprised by Dayan Forscheimer of psak on technical aspects, R' Yeruchom took a stand against some big lowlives who could have made problems for him & the yeshiva. True he is not an expert on issues of this crazy world, so he consulted with an out of town rov who is.
ReplyDeleteIf the average rosh yeshiva was like rav Olshin, you wouldn't have molesters going unchecked for decades long reigns of terror.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/05/le_marais_part_.html#comment-68185072
ReplyDeleteBelsky is a corrupt liar whether he retacts or not. Did he speak with Bitton? Did he clarify the details before going out and slamming Bitton? Of course not
You don't get better than R' Yeruchem Olshin in tziddkus.
ReplyDeleteHe is handicapped in dealing with certain issues "because" of his tziddkus...he can't possibly imagine the rishus, the pure evil, the sheker, the low-lives, that have infiltrated the frum world.
Rav Pam ztvkl, lihebadel l'chaim, had similar difficulties.
Observant Jew...Slicha...just shooting off my mouth because I feel most people sit back and like the action, but God forbid they should get involved. Naah...that's for thugs like me.
ReplyDeleteFrom your mouth UOJ I believe it!
ReplyDeleteHUURRAYYY FOR RAV OLSHIN !!!!!
UOJ, we are with you, we are the little guys who make the phone calls when you tell us to. we dont all sit back and enjoy the action. btw, what did aguda do to restart your blogging campaign after the convention?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know what happened this weekend at the RCA conference?
ReplyDeleteElliot Pasik begged them to tackle abuse and the registry. Gil has nothing on his blog about it as he probably wasn't invited to speak again this year.
Elliot, are you still reading this blog?
"UOJ, we are with you, we are the little guys"
ReplyDeleteSIW will probably have another fit now about UOJ's "groupies" and the other labels he uses. He wishes he had followers like UOJ does. Even Juda Engelmeyer the shlock shamass from Le Marais doesn't hang out on Canonist anymore now that SIW got bored providing him with a platform to push for a LES eruv and bash supporters of R' Moshe Feinstein.
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteYOU STILL HAVE NOT EXPLAINED WHY YOU ALLOWED MENDLOWITZ TO TAKE THE FALL FOR YOU AND IF YOU ARE EVER GOING TO VINDICATE MENDLOWITZ.
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteYOU STILL HAVE NOT EXPLAINED WHY YOU ALLOWED MENDLOWITZ TO TAKE THE FALL FOR YOU AND IF YOU ARE EVER GOING TO VINDICATE MENDLOWITZ.
________________________
Anon 10:49,
Mr. Mendlowitz insisted that he was proud to be the fall-guy. Who am I to disagree with the namesake and the grandson of the legendary Rav Shraga Feivel zt"l?
Yes :-)
ReplyDeleteWhy should UOJ have to vindicate Mendlowitz?
ReplyDeleteWhatever smear job was done on Feivy is the reponsibility of Belsky, Margo & Bungalow Putz Neuhoff.
And as far as I know, Geldwerth has never apologized to Ben Hirsch either.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178020746263&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
ReplyDeleteOh well, whatever happened with Sruly Singer has nothing to do with a new scandal surrounding Matthew Bronfman and allegations of misdeeds at the NY branch of Israel Discount Bank.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/101509.html
ReplyDeletePlease excuse me while I thumb my nose at UOJ.
My good friend Julie Berman still hasn't kicked me out of the Claims Conference.
I'm still with the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations.
I'm currently pursuing an independent project in Buenos Aires but the details are none of your beeswax. UOJ doesn't speak Spanish so he'll be singing "Don't cry for me Argentina" while he looks for me in vain.
My life hasn’t changed since dismissal from the WJC. I believe that organizations are vehicles, not purposes. They exist to serve issues.
Take that.
http://www.rabbidavidrosen.net/bio.htm
ReplyDeleteWhat's all this about Sruly Singer? I am the president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC). I am the first Orthodox rabbi who was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Gregory the Great (by Pope Benedict XVI).
I was a rov & dayan in South Africa, then the Chief Rabbi of Ireland.
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1709780_1?&channel=CCC
ReplyDeleteYes, as Chairman of the IJCIC, I'd also like to know what's going on with Sruly Singer.
In case you're wondering who I am, I have been head of many organizations such as Bnai Brith and a trustee of the Village of Kings Point, north of Great Neck.
Most importantly, I am partner at Gallet Dreyer & Berkey LLP, one of the firms that is suing Yudi Kolko & YTT.
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/nav/contact.html
ReplyDeleteOk, let's get in line to find out about Sruly Singer.
I am co-chair of the IJCIC and Executive VP of the Conservative Assembly.
Rabbi Joel H. Meyers
Executive Vice President
(212) 280-6000
jmeyers@rabbinicalassembly.org
http://www.rabbis.org/news/article.cfm?id=100627
ReplyDeleteI hate corruption which is why I went after Lubavitch for false Messianism. As the RCA liason to the IJCIC, I will have to look into the serious allegations against Sruly Singer too.
One of the blogs is reporting that as of a few days ago, Bais Yaakov in Chicago is forcing parents to get rid of both TV and home internet connections, but that the hypocrites aren't forcing staff members to do the same. Don't forget that the Novominsker's shvogger is a prominent rov in the windy city.
ReplyDeleteUOJ, Nudnik and friends,
ReplyDeleteI didn't hold much hope for the RCA conference when I found out who the "brains" were on the planning committee. Some goofball am haaretz who is promoted by Gil Student figures prominently over there. The goof says he comes from lineage of "9 generations of rabbis". His father headed a Conservative temple for 40 years. The goof attended YU and attributes the most corrupted garbage to Rav Soloveitchik, that the rav obviously never uttered. The goof was thrown out of his pulpit in 2005 and the shul is trying to take him to a din Torah over breach of contract for using the shul for personal functions and for an outside business, without permission or compensation.
And thankfully, Gil wasn't invited back this year to give another one of his tortured takes on UOJ, who he won't even name. Maybe the organizations finally learned that all you need is an internet connection, and not some blabbermouth like Gil to inform us, that hey, there are blogs out there.
Rav Pam ztvkl, lihebadel l'chaim, had similar difficulties.
ReplyDelete-------
True. Rav Pam was once asked whether it is ever permitted to use dirty words in certain situtations. Rav Pam inquired "you mean words like 'fress'"?
Oh come on, Rav Pam ztl was not that naive. You can impart wisdom and his answer from the rhetorical question. Anyone living in Brooklyn has heard dirty words on the street.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mmdnewswire.com/content/view/1589/
ReplyDeleteThis is unreal. Ever since UOJ appeared on the scene, there is no fraud that goes unpunished.
Young Israel's Viewpoint Magazine on the internet & children.
ReplyDeletehttp://yije.org/PDF/article.pdf
Part I
http://yije.org/PDF/Vwpnt_Wntr07.pdf
Part II
"I have personally reviewed the ** statements ** made by Isaac Bitton"
ReplyDeleteWhy not interview the person to see if he has any other information? Could it be that Belsky doesn't want the truth?
The OU probably wouldn't let Belsky use their letterhead because even the shmuckiest lawyer wouldn't use reckless language like that.
Gerrer rebbe leaves europe for the continent on Thursday. Is Laizeruwitz gonna be there with him like last year. Is reb UOJ controling the itinerrary again? Will he grant an overnite visa or a 3 hour hit and run? shouldn't hagaon harav daniel alter or his older bro the rosh yeshiva come instead? tehy have no blood stains on the kapote.
ReplyDelete"you mean words like 'fress'"?
ReplyDeleteWell, Lenny Bruce did joke about coming home once and finding his wife "fressing the maid".
http://heraldnet.com/stories/07/05/02/100loc_a1molester001.cfm
ReplyDeletePublished: Wednesday, May 2, 2007
How a group of average people helped put a molester in prison
By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
http://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2007/050207.htm
ReplyDeleteYasher koach to UOJ for assisting in the capture of Ken Freeman.
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21449/Letters_To_The_Editor.html
ReplyDeleteResponding To Abuse
Re Elliot Pasik’s “How to Eradicate Abuse in Our Communities” (op-ed, April 27):
As an active member of the Task Force on Families & Children at Risk, I would like to assure Mr. Pasik that there is a lot of work being done in New York to protect our children. For many years we have been sponsoring educational symposia for mechanchim/mechanchot, rebbetzins, and the lay community abuse as well as on many other issues.
On May 9, my agency, the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, will be hosting a similar program focused on prevention for the Queens community with Dr. David Pelcovitz as a presenter. Later in the month, the task force will be presenting a prominent rav and Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski to speak with mechanchim/mechanchot on this topic.
We in the frum mental health community have been responding, and the attitude of our rabbonim has likewise shifted. While the shift may not be as swift or as public as we might like it to be, I believe that, after 120 years, many members of the community will be able to respond confidently when we are asked “Ayeka?”
Faye Wilbur, LCSW
Boro Park Office
Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21449/Letters_To_The_Editor.html
ReplyDeleteDisillusioned With Orthodox Life
I am overwhelmed with Jewish life as it exists today, especially in the Orthodox world. It seems one has no value unless one has money and/or power – or, if one happens to be a woman, is a gorgeous size 2.
I am an unemployed widow who has been trying to find work at the local Orthodox schools. One of them is actively seeking teachers, the administrators know I’m available and many people have recommended me, but I cannot even get an interview. All I get are evasions.
My second issue: I have a wonderful and beautiful daughter who happens to be overweight, so no one will set her up with anyone who is not fat or undereducated (she has a master’s). Since I got married at 19 when I wore a size 16, I don’t understand the situation that exists today. Frum boys (and their mamas) only want tiny girls, and the shadchanim appear to be unsupportive if you do not fit that mold. My daughter has yiras shamayim, but no one seems to care because she has a few extra pounds.
I always thought that taking care of a widow and an orphan were high priorities in Judaism. I have to ask – where are the frum Jews to help? Are they too busy running after money, power, and kavod?
I have endured all of this for more than eight years and have reached my limits of understanding and patience. If this is frumkeit, I don’t need to be part of it (even though I was born into a frum family and have been so all my life).
All I can say is, shame on all the rabbis who either lead the charge into gashmius or lack the guts to stand up to the masses and do the right thing.
Sometimes I feel I am living in the time of Kamtza and bar Kamtza, when the rabbis sat at the banquet and allowed a man to be shamed because they did not want to offend their wealthy host.
Rose Gold
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21447/Legislative_Silly_Season.html
ReplyDeleteJerry Greenwald and his crew are joining the Agudah-Zweibel caravan in slamming the call for oversight on pre-schools. They had a few extra days to think, so they figured out a back-handed way to attack the legislation over technicalities, while ignoring the real reason that they & Zweibel oppose it - protecting kids from molesters.
That's so sad. Can anyone help give this woman Rose Gold a job and find a shidduch for her daughter? I'm sure someone here knows who she is or UOJ can track her down.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the need to publicly educate the world Jewry about the breach of modesty that erupted in his time, the great Torah giant, the Chofetz Chaim, wrote a letter, calling on rabbis of every community to speak out publicly on this issue:
ReplyDelete"It is known to everyone that when a fire bursts out in the vineyard of the king, a proclamation goes forth from the ministers of the king to the inhabitants of the city, saying: ‘Everyone be strong to extinguish the fire in any way you can, for the vineyard of the king is burning, and if you are lazy in this matter, know that you will be held responsible with your lives, and you will be labeled rebels, because you did not take heed for his honor. And if you take courage, as is fitting, and put out the fire, then everyone shall receive his reward and honor according to his efforts.’ So too in this matter, for it is known that all of Israel is considered the vineyard of the L-rd, as is written, ‘For the house of Israel is the vineyard of the L-rd of Hosts.’
"And due to our many sins, a great blaze has erupted in His vineyard in several places because of this terrible fashion. For the power of impurity has considerably strengthened because of this. As our Sages have said on the verse, ‘And you shall guard yourselves from every evil thing’ (Devarim, 23:10), that a man should not have sexual thoughts during the day and come to pollute himself at night (Ketubot 46A). For if this should occur, all of the blessing and Divine flow to this man’s deeds will be cut off, and because of this he will be surrounded by evil tribulations, as is written in the holy books of wisdom.
"Therefore, every man has the obligation to extinguish this terrible fire, and to rectify the situation in his home so that everything will be according to the law, and not to allow licentiousness, G-d forbid. And in doing so, he will merit to have upright and exalted holy children.
"And more than anyone else, this obligation falls on the rabbis and on all those who are zealous to fulfill G-d’s words, that in every city and village, the importance of this matter must be publicly explained, in that it directly effects our survival and our success, both physically and spiritually, in this world and the next. Thus will the verse be fulfilled, ‘And your camp shall be holy.’"
When the esteemed Torah scholar and halachic authority, Rabbi Aharon Cutler, was asked if lecturing in public about modesty wasn’t an infringement of modesty itself, he answered: "Here I want to awaken you to a painful and shocking matter about which many people err. There are many people whom refrain from speaking about these things under the pretext of modesty. May Heaven help us! In such a fallen and licentious generation as ours, where everything is exposed without shame in the open - to speak about holiness and modesty – this is considered an affront to modesty?! Can there be a greater deception on the part of the evil inclination than this?! On the contrary, it is an absolute obligation to speak about these matters in public!"
In response to the claim that it is best not to speak openly about the seriousness of sexual trangression, since it will only lead people to depression, despair, and further sin, the elder Kabbalist, Rabbi Eliahu Leon Levi, says the situation is like seeing a person about to fall off a cliff. "Do you reach out to save him, or let him fall to his death?" he asks. "In the matter of sexual transgression, it is not knowledge that kills, it is the lack of it. When a person is offered a ladder to escape from the pit he has fallen into, he is happy, not depressed."
Can someone speak to Flakey Jake Strauss from Boro Park?
ReplyDeleteHe's hosting a Shavuos getaway at a hotel with Susan Rosenbluth of Teaneck's Jewish Voice & Opinion. She has been involved in the past in smearing anyone opposed to Mordechai Tendler and is currently part of the OU led smear campaign against Isaac Bitton.
Only one way to describe the RCA
ReplyDeleteconvention
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
My second issue: I have a wonderful and beautiful daughter who happens to be overweight, so no one will set her up with anyone who is not fat or undereducated
ReplyDelete---------
I understand why she doesn't want someone who is uneducated, but what is her issue with a guy who is fat? Wasn't she size 16 when she got married? Isn't her daughter overweight? Hello, the lights are on, but is anybody home?
It seems one has no value unless one has money and/or power – or, if one happens to be a woman, is a gorgeous size 2.
ReplyDelete---------
Whenever I see the above sentence, I know that the writer has issues with her weight.
There is no need to exagerate. The majority of guys don't ask for a size 2. A size 6 or 8 is fine for them as well.
1) Agudah protects the molesters
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13991
2)Conversion agreement off?
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13998
3)Sex offender inmate caught eating treif, demands kosher and gets
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14005
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070501/REPOSITORY/705010353
4) Holocaust Cash Went To Shadowy Pal Of Ousted WJC Leader
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14012
While Rose Gold lists some details that may not stand up to scrutiny, it's pretty obvious that she he is feeling much agmas nefesh and could use our help.
ReplyDeleteThere are certain cultures that prefer a zaftig woman but 21st century America is not generally one of them. In ancient times a woman was considered undesirable if she was slim.
Holocaust Cash Went To Shadowy Pal Of Ousted WJC Leader
ReplyDeleteIsraeli finance minister, now being probed for corruption, urged death camp tour group to hire little-known N.Y. consultant; Singer friend Curtis Hoxter can’t explain
Larry Cohler-Esses and Ran Dagoni
An internationally known Holocaust education group disbursed — apparently illegally — more than $700,000 to an associate of an Israeli cabinet minister now under investigation for corruption, a joint investigation by The Jewish Week and the Israeli business daily Globes has learned.
In 2003, March of the Living, a New Jersey-based charity, began payments totaling $709,000 to Curtis Hoxter, who is also closely tied to former World Jewish Congress leader Israel Singer. The group began its payments to Hoxter the same year Singer was instructed to stop funneling unauthorized payments to him via the World Jewish Congress — payments that had by then totaled $657,600.
During this time, Singer was also involved in negotiations to join Hoxter’s Manhattan public relations firm as a partner.
David Machlis, president of March of the Living, told The Jewish Week that it was Avraham Hirchson, the group’s founder and now Israel’s minister of finance, who introduced Hoxter to the group and urged his hiring. Hirchson, a key partner of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, “suspended” himself last week as finance minister pending the outcome of a police investigation. He is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars in Israeli health care and union funds prior to taking his cabinet position.
Hirchson’s Tel Aviv attorney, Yakov Weinrot, confirmed it was his client who brought Hoxter to March of Living. But, said Weinrot, Hirchson “did not realize his salary would be so big.” Weinrot emphasized that March of the Living was a “independent entity,” though Hirchson founded the group and ran it for many years.
Singer was forced out of the World Jewish Congress in March after being removed from positions of financial responsibility there in 2006 — the year an investigation by then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer found Singer and his chief aide, Elan Steinberg, responsible for financial mismanagement of the group.
According to WJC sources, Singer and Hirchson have been close since at least the mid-1990s when Hirchson was chairman of the Israeli Knesset committee devoted to regaining Jewish assets lost in the Holocaust, a cause that Singer led.
“They were friendly on a social basis and went out together on social occasions,” recalled one WJC source. “Hoxter has even been a visitor at Singer’s home.”
Hirchson’s March of the Living, a Jewish identity program that takes Jewish teenagers to Holocaust sites in Poland and then on to Israel, receives major funding from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, of which Singer is still president.
Eliezer Singer, Israel Singer’s son, relayed a statement from his father, who he said was traveling abroad and unavailable: “I’m not involved in allocating Claims Conference funds and certainly have no say or interest in any consultants that grant recipients might choose to hire,” Singer’s statement said.
According to tax records, the March of the Living payments to Hoxter took place over three years and were purportedly for fundraising services. But Hoxter has never registered with the New York State attorney general as a fundraiser or fundraising counsel, and is unable to explain what he did for payments he received.
“It was a minor activity,” he said. “I did fundraising, basically an activity to advise them to run a campaign in the U.S.”
Asked what fundraising activity he had conducted on the group’s behalf, Hoxter said, “I have no idea. I have no recollection. It was just something I assisted on. I prefer not to go into any details. It was not a major activity. I’d have to check my records.”
Hoxter, 85, said he had helped the group make “contacts.” Asked to name some of the contacts he facilitated, he replied, “I have no ideas about details.”
For March of the Living, the payments to Hoxter were anything but minor. In 2003, tax records show, his fee of $279,200 constituted more than one-third of the group’s budget for that year.
Who Is Hoxter?
Born in Germany to Jewish parents in 1922, Hoxter has, during his long public relations career, represented — apparently simultaneously — both the WJC and Swiss banks charged by the WJC with withholding funds from Holocaust survivors after World War II.
A December 1998 New York Times article— published during the WJC’s struggle for restitution from Swiss and German banks that had held onto Jewish assets after World War II — described Hoxter as one of a number of Jewish lawyers and consultants “defending the companies from which compensation is being sought.”
Hoxter, who fled Germany in 1938, before the Holocaust, “has spent much of his career representing German and Swiss companies, a role he says his first wife, now deceased, viewed with displeasure,” the Times reported then.
Yet just six months earlier, a roster of participants at a State Department conference on Holocaust restitution listed Hoxter as adviser to the WJC’s delegation.
In his book on the restitution controversy, “Imperfect Justice,” Stuart Eizenstat, the Clinton administration’s point man on the issue, recalled, “The Swiss would later jokingly refer to Hoxter as a ‘double agent,’ but in reality he was Singer’s man, a shadowy but effective figure who mysteriously turned up at key moments.”
Despite some calls for his removal, Singer remains president of the Claims Conference, which has granted more than $7.4 million to March of the Living since 1998. Claims Conference officials insist that Singer has never had any role in its allocations process.
“We are not aware of anyone from the Claims Conference making such a recommendation,” said Hillary Kessler Godin, the conference’s communications director, when asked if any conference officials had urged March of the Living to hire Hoxter.
The Claims Conference, which supplied grants to March of the Living even predating Singer’s tenure as president, designated its funds to the group exclusively for scholarships, Godin noted. The funds enable high school students to join March of the Living’s annual Holocaust education trips to Poland and Israel, she said.
But former WJC governing board chairman Isi Leibler, who first discovered Singer’s payments to Hoxter at the WJC and raised alarms about Singer’s financial practices there, said, “That March of the Living paid Hoxter massive, yet unexplained rewards while being funded by yet another group led by Singer can only be described as unconscionable and obscene.”
He dismissed the defense that Claims Conference money funded only scholarships, noting money is fungible.
“Claims Conference officials have the obligation of overseeing and ensuring that grants to organizations like the March of the Living are properly employed,” Leibler wrote via e-mail. “In the absence of any rational explanation, their failure to do so is an indictment, and every effort must now be employed to recoup these funds.”
Spitzer’s probe found that the earlier WJC transfers to Hoxter occurred from 2001 through 2003. But Hoxter’s accountant wrote the then-attorney general that Hoxter had “no documentation or description of services performed, or time records” to account for any WJC work during this period. The payments were never reported on WJC’s tax records, as required by law, a failure Spitzer blamed on the group’s auditor.
“Hoxter was secretly receiving these funds,” said Leibler. “The payments were never approved, and not a single WJC official but for Singer even knew he was on the payroll.”
In late 2003, when Leibler and Elan Steinberg, then WJC’s senior adviser, discovered the payments, Steinberg asked Singer to justify further outlays to Hoxter, Leibler related. “Singer declined to do so. Consequently, the payments to Hoxter were immediately terminated.”
“The claim that no one at the WJC knew about Hoxter is simply false,” Israel Singer retorted via an e-mail his son relayed. “The record shows he worked closely with senior WJC leaders since the late 1980s on many issues ranging from [Austrian President and former SS officer Kurt] Waldheim to restitution.”
But Leibler’s complaint is that no WJC officer besides Singer knew Hoxter was working for — not with — WJC; and at a salary ranging from $203,400 to $232,400 per year, making Hoxter the WJC’s American Section’s second highest paid employee.
A follow-up question to Singer on this point via e-mail elicited no response by press time.
Crossing The Charity Law Line
Under state law, charities and their fundraisers are obligated to register and file tax reports with the state attorney general if they raise more than $25,000 in New York. Fundraisers must also file copies of contracts with charities using their services. Despite the fact that March of the Living far exceeded the state threshold, neither it nor Hoxter are registered. Willful failure to register is a criminal misdemeanor.
Machlis, March of the Living’s president, denied his group had to file these documents. “Not including funds generated through the Claims Conference, which is not a public solicitation, virtually no funds were raised in New York,” he said.
But charities law expert William Josephson, who headed Spitzer’s Charities Bureau, said the Claims Conference’s money could not be excluded. “The statutory definition of ‘solicit’ is not dependent on whether the solicitation is public or private. It covers any solicitation,” he said.
Machlis did not respond to repeated requests to see a copy of any contract his group had with Hoxter, outlining work he had agreed to do.
Any misuse of Claims Conference funds, even indirectly, would be regarded as something akin to desecration in many quarters. The money comes from governments and institutions that were complicit in victimizing Jews during and after the Holocaust, and is meant to compensate its survivors and their heirs. A smaller amount is reserved for grants to groups involved in Holocaust education, research and remembrance, such as March of the Living.
March of the Living denied Singer had anything to do with its payments to Hoxter. But the disclosure by Machlis, its president, that Hirchson brought Hoxter to the group may open up more questions than it answers about the tangled ties linking Singer, Hirchson, Hoxter, and a fourth individual named Zvi Barak.
Barak, Singer’s longtime attorney, is also one of Hirchson’s longtime associates and the business partner of his son, Ofer Hirchson, in the Hirchson-Barak Corporation.
Barak was intimately involved in Singer’s WJC financial controversies. Spitzer’s probe found that Singer had improperly transferred $1.2 million in WJC funds from a Swiss bank to a custodial account in London controlled by Barak.
Spitzer also discovered that between 2001 and 2003, Barak and Singer were in active negotiations to join Hoxter’s p.r. firm. Barak circulated several versions of a memorandum of understanding outlining proposed terms for a partnership. One version obligated Singer to bring to Hoxter $2 million in clients annually for two years before he could become an equal partner. According to Spitzer’s probe, the draft memoranda were never signed or implemented.
In 2004, Barak’s relationship with Hirchson’s son sparked a Holocaust restitution controversy of its own. Barak worked then as advisor to a special Knesset committee investigating Israeli banks that, like some Swiss banks, had never returned millions of dollars in deposits from Holocaust victims after World War II.
Barak provoked a furor when, at a Knesset committee meeting, he rejected the conclusion of five accounting firms that the Israeli banks should return more than $172 million to Holocaust survivors or their rightful heirs. He instructed the accountants to rework their findings using new guidelines suggested by the banks, according to Israeli press reports of the meeting. This reduced by about 90 percent the compensation the Israeli banks owed survivors and their heirs.
It later emerged that the Hirchson-Barak Corporation was heavily in debt — for more than $26 million — to the banks in question; a fact Barak had not disclosed when asked about conflicts of interest before he became the Knesset committee’s adviser. Challenged on this, Barak replied that the debt was corporate, not personal, so there was no need to disclose this — a response the Knesset’s legal adviser accepted.
‘Suspicious Connections’
The tangle of relationships between Hirchson, the March of the Living founder and Israeli cabinet minister; Barak, his longtime associate and also Singer’s attorney; Hoxter, the p.r. consultant, Hirchson associate and longtime Singer friend; and Singer himself adds fuel to the central question:
What work did Hoxter — an octogenarian who has never registered as a fundraiser — do for the $1.36 million he got from two organizations tied to members of this quartet?
Last week, the Claims Conference announced its in-house financial controller, Yigal Molad, was launching an “in-depth audit” of grants it had made to March of the Living in response to the Israeli police investigation of Hirchson and “recent allegations in the media.”
“Even more than other public funds, restitution and reparation monies are sacred,” said Menachem Rosensaft, founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Survivors. “It is unconscionable that any funds, let alone, hundreds of thousands of dollars, intended to benefit Holocaust survivors, should be funneled instead to feather the nest of a shadowy figure with highly suspicious connections to both Avraham Hirchson and Israel Singer.” n
Larry Cohler-Esses is Jewish Week editor at large; Ran Dagoni is Washington correspondent for Globes, Israel’s leading business daily newspaper.
Editor’s Note: In 2002, Israel Singer sought to recruit one of the authors of this article, Larry Cohler-Esses, for a job with the World Jewish Congress. Investigators for then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer later interviewed Cohler-Esses about that meeting.
There is a secular movement of men in America that are interested in heavyset women for taava reasons. They have weekly parties all over the place. I know about it because they even take place in frum neighborhoods, including in the heart of Flatbush. The ad line goes something like "for big beautiful women and their gentlemen admirers". There are probably frum men who have the same attraction but are too ashamed to admit it. It used to be 50 years ago that it was considered too brash to say you want a pretty girl. Nowadays, bochurim have no shame demanding only good looks. It should be no different that a bochur could say he is a chubby chaser. I somehow doubt though that this idea will get anywhere because of political correctness. The Agudah will say it's prustkeit and lehoraya the goyim do it. It's still ok in their book though to demand gorgeous size 2s only.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9059646/Kim-Philby
ReplyDeleteHow many more shady characters & double agents is Sruly Singer connected to?
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9018141/Guy-Burgess-and-Donald-Maclean
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Julie Berman has his foot stuck in his mouth now. Didn't he say it wasn't shayach that any unlawful dispersements could get out?
And that poor Steven I Weiss will probably be headed back to Bellvue Hospital in a straight jacket.
Shmarya my dear friend,
ReplyDeleteI don't comment on other blogs because of the "imposter" factor. Our readers have asked me for my take on the Bitton/OU controversy.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Isaac Bitton told the entire truth, and the OU has covered up the truth!
There have been many violations by the OU over the years that I am personally aware of. In one case, on a weekend bar-mitzvah, the mashgiach tmidi came over to me and told me NOT to eat the chicken because of suspicious activity in the kitchen. Yet, the OU continued to approve the kashruth of the hotel.
Bitton knew he was going to be made the fall guy, so he recorded the conversations, as I, you, or any intelligent person would do.
I would have no problem at all "not backing" Bitton if for even a brief second I thought he was not telling the whole truth.
Kind regards,
UOJ
In the time of Chazal there was such a thing as singles parties (on Tu B'Av). The Agudah conveniently ignored a Mishna for years while they blockaded any attempt to convene them. They finally loosened up somewhat in recent years by not interfering with Invei Hagefen events. They can't argue that we don't know what the Mishna means because it's befayrush in the pirush Meleches Shlomo in the back of Yachin Uboaz. This is also despite Rav Gifter and a number of younger poskim who said it was imperative to revive a version of the old minhag. Agudah baal habatim evidently knew better. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the more gezunte shaped girls were picked on Tu B'Av for shidduchim too. If the gezunte girls have no events to go to it's no wonder they have a harder time. I hate to make it sound like every problem is the fault of 42 Broadway, but it just emerges that way.
ReplyDeletethe gerer rebbi has left switzerland after being a few days in paris and antwerp and is headed back to israel, he will not be going to toronto as was planned, R'UOJ did you have anything to do with this? or does the gerer know something that the gerrorist chasidim dont,
ReplyDeleteThank you UOJ for your candor & conviction.
ReplyDeleteDoes UOJ or anyone know the telephone number of Bitton or his attorney? I couldn't find contact info on the Mashgiach blog and he thus far has not responded to a post.
ReplyDeleteI have information on a related cover up that could help his case. I wish to remain anonymous while giving over the details that can be checked out. I've already been threatened regarding this story but they don't know more than my old email address.
Mystery Source,
ReplyDeleteKindly post your request on Isaac's site, he'll get back to you.
Is this the same Julie Berman who
ReplyDeletemanaged to destroy hundreds if not
thousands of Rabbi JB Soloveitchik's reel-taped shiurim
that were given to him for
safekeeping after his toilet overflowed and flooded his basement ?
why does't this surprise me?
This is a little confusing. The address of Belsky's "beis din" is a residential house owned by an Italian shiksa.
ReplyDeletehttp://nycserv.nyc.gov/nycproperty/nynav/jsp/stmtassesslst.jsp
Parcel (BBL):
3-6569-33
Owner: CACCIUTOLO, MARIA R
Property Address: 1440 East 7 St
too many gerrer losers have some sort of bone to pick with the current leadership or lack thereof. then you also have the almighty UOJ factor which is stronger than imagined by those who have yet to feel his iron fist. go back in time and read what UOJ posted he did last time around. awesome how when UOJ cracks his whip sparks fly.
ReplyDeleteMy sources say he will come to the americas and leizerowitz might pull a visit to shore up those who think he is to holy to have used teenage boys. kind of the kolko syndrome
ReplyDeleteA friend in the media asked me to put this up. This is dangerous stuff, and threatens all of our freedoms. Make your voices heard.
ReplyDeleteUOJ
---------------------
Issue Date: www.insightmag.com - May 1-7, 2007, Posted On: 5/1/2007
Kuhner: Liberal totalitarianism
Commentary by Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Liberal Democrats are attempting to muzzle conservative talk radio: they are assaulting free speech.
Like the communists in the former Soviet Union, America’s liberals seek to crush dissent by consolidating control over the media—especially talk radio, which has emerged as the dominant medium for conservative opinion.
http://meshumadmeshubach.blogspot.com/2007/04/kolko-reinstated-for-celebration-of.html
ReplyDeleteWrong. The Kolko syndrome is when a victim beats up the molester at a bris.
Why aren't the newspapers all over the Bitton recordings?
ReplyDeletehttp://battaz.blogspot.com/2007/02/im-too-lazy-to-think-of-title-for-this.html#comment-7112189851050838467
ReplyDeleteKolko isn't working there, but he is still on the payroll ...
February 14, 2007 12:03 AM
Kolko isn't working there, but he is still on the payroll ...
ReplyDelete_____________________
YES!
Why the heck would Margo still pay Yudi? I thought he's like Howard Hughes when it comes to his money.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't the newspapers all over the Bitton recordings?
ReplyDelete________________________
Nobody in the media cares or understands the issue as it effects us. Certainly, it's not going to sell papers. It may also not help Isaac...so I'm not pushing it.
Why the heck would Margo still pay Yudi?
ReplyDelete_______________
Think about the damage Kolko could wreak on YTT. Hush money!
Gerrer Chevra,
ReplyDeleteI did NOT forget about you guys!
I'm on it!
The paragraph on Belsky is almost at the bottom of the page. The left wing nuts who support Rackman's mamzerus program are cheering on Belsky after they gave him the idea.
ReplyDeletehttp://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:pVPGr9F7Rr0J:www.brandeis.edu/hbi/pubs/Agunot_Powers_that_Be-edited.doc+%22israel+belsky%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us
A conference presented by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
and JOFA: the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
March 13-14, 2005
Brandeis University
I have here—and anybody who wants to come see it is welcome to—the last page of an annulment that was issued approximately a year ago by a beit din headed by Rabbi Israel Belsky, one of the most senior roshei yeshiva of Torah V’Da’as Yeshiva in Brooklyn. I believe that the proceedings of the Rackman Beit Din had a hand in this case or certainly influenced this. I know that a relative of the agunah in question was a student in my class. She came to me and told me about the problem. I gave her all of our writings on the Rackman Beit Din. She told me that she gave it to the mother of the agunah. I lost track of the case, but heard that an annulment had been issued. For those of you who know the names of New York rabbis, the rabbis who concurred with the annulment were Rabbi Israel Belsky, Rabbi Kurzrock, the head of the beit din of the Igud ha-Rabbonim in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, one of the leading rabbis in Queens, and Rabbi Wolmark from Monsey. I also have a haskama, a letter of support from Rabbi Landesman from a Monsey beit din. What happened with this annulment was that the recalcitrant husband’s family was very powerful. They lined up some powerful people and rabbis affiliated with another Brooklyn yeshiva, who dispatched a letter to Rabbi Eliashiv in Israel. One of Rabbi Eliashiv’s deputies reported that Rabbi Eliashiv considers the annulment invalid in the face of such incredibly strong rabbinical signatures. Certainly the rabbis I listed are among the gedolim of the New York Jewish community. In the end, the agunah paid over a million dollars to a family of multimillionaires, so it was not even normal greed. It was simply malice. So my question to you is, is this system ever going to produce a solution? These are the “big guns” in the New York Jewish community, and this is the right-of-center, black hat Jewish community that tried to free an agunah from an unscrupulous, dysfunctional husband. But they were stymied by an intrusive protest from Israel. That is why I said at the beginning that I’m all for abandoning the forms of marriage that put women in this position. Any alternative that frees women from this and increases pressure on the rabbis to do something about this, is, in my mind, the only way that this is going to move forward in our lifetime.
Where there's corruption, money, lies, fraud, violation of Halacha, coverup, bribery, "rabbinic-sanctioned" adultery, you will find my good buddy ----Blogger Posek Belsky!
ReplyDeleteRabbi J. David Bleich says Belsky was soser himself on a heter / issur of eating bison. This is interesting because I think the OU is machshir a Rubashkin division in the Dakotas that sells Bison meat.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.traditiononline.org/news/article.cfm?id=100736
The American “buffalo” is not at all a buffalo but a bison indigenous to the North American continent with regard to which, unlike the European buffalo, there is no tradition. 7
NOTES
7. Cf., R. Israel Belsky, “Be-Din ‘Bison,’” Mesorah, no. 20 (Adar 5764), pp. 66f., who suggests that Hazon Ish would have sanctioned consumption of buffalo since the buffalo is an “ox.” However, that statement is unfounded. Both scientifically and in the eyes of the beholder, the zebu is far more similar to a cow than is the bison. Cf., Halacha Berurah, published by Zeirei Agudath Israel, vol. 7, no. 3, p. 3 and p. 4, note 24, in which Rabbi Belsky himself acknowledges that consumption of the meat of the American bison would not be sanctioned by Hazon Ish.
Rabbi J. David Bleich says Belsky was soser himself on a heter / issur of eating bison
ReplyDelete-------------------
He was getting paid off from the Bison mishpocho at first. When he stopped getting the gelt, he said you could start eating bison again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill
ReplyDelete"Blogger Posek" is getting stale. You should start calling him "Buffalo Belsky"
I figured out who the RCA "goof" is. I noticed that the RCA had no problem posting on their bio of him whatever stupidities he told them, including the misnomer of his family's "9 generations of rabbis". They do note that his father is Conservative but it's so played down and nonchalant that they make it sound like it's normal. This is obscene. His family is one of the most powerful forces in the Conservative movement. I heard from people in the shul that his father would visit and sonny boy, who was only junior rabbi, would seat dad in the senior rabbi's seat on mizrach. The other rabbi was insulted and several families left the shul thanks to this goof.
ReplyDeleteThe RCA is an OU division. Is this the kind of image they are trying to promote? And how does YU give semicha to someone who doesn't know anything?
Just notch up the goof as another loser on Gil Student's team.
Majority rules.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/washington/27poll.html
A big majority, 75 percent, said recent weather had been stranger than usual. Of those who said the weather had turned weird, 43 percent attributed it to global warming and 15 percent to pollution or other environmental damage. Four percent cited the coming end of the world or biblical prophecy, 2 percent blamed space junk and Shea Fishman blamed UOJ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_buffalo_incident
ReplyDeleteI am the frum Israeli guy who was at the center of a huge controversy at U Penn. After I heard a shiur from Belsky where he said water buffalos are domeh to black people, I got in trouble.
Sruly Singer's buddy Curtis Hoxter is a Yekke who lives in New Rochelle. His son Ron worked for the modern orthodox billionaire Ronald Perelman at Revlon and married a girl from Great Neck with a frum sounding name.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.millcreekpartners.com/ourprofessionals.asp
He's currently president of this company.
The consulting PR firm which also seems to do lobbying on Capitol Hill is Curtis J. Hoxter Inc. A 2nd PR firm which is in partnership with Tzvi Barak is Worldwide Consulting Inc.
http://www.rockawave.com/News/2005/0513/Front_Page/004.html
A Curtis Hoxter was arrested for flashing children in Far Rockaway, but he is much younger.
I remember the goof and his younger brother from YU days. The younger brother is a divorced attorney on the West Side who also promotes himself as a "rabbi" (with help from Gil Student) and has gotten into the lecture circuit. He comes across much more cool and sophisticated than the bechor but it's also not clear if he actually knows anything. According to my sources, the father's temple is considered pretty schlepperish in Conservative circles. The father has very mediocre intelligence and gave blah sermons which made him unpopular with the intelligensia, some of whom left. The uncle who led the Conservative movement is a different story.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd like to know is, doesn't the RCA have some kind of standard?
The Jewish anti-Semite Norman Finkelstein has made Sruly Singer one of his pet peeves. He says that he looked at Spitzer's report and saw that Sruly used WJC funds to pay for life insurance for the rebbitzen and medical insurance for his kids.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Norman Finkelstein:
ReplyDeletePonder this;
If you were brought up in a home where religion was a myth, then go on to discover that there is not a scintilla of evidence, archaeological or otherwise, that any of the stories in Exodus or any of the five books, or perhaps even the entire Neviim, ever happened, what would your conclusion be about the veracity of the Torah as a Divine account of the history of the Jews?
I wanted to be mazmin someone for making fun of me and calling me "Buffalo Butt", but Belsky said that's a political hot potato for him right now.
ReplyDeleteUOJ, bimchilas kvodcha, Ich darf moycheh zein.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if that was actually you or the Yetzer Horah impersonating you.
Not one mashehu of evidence for anything the ENTIRE Chumash?
People will believe what they want to believe. There has been plenty of evidence unearthed. What about rock samples from the first Moon landing that corresponded to Mayseh Breishis? After the initial news reports, the information was suppressed. There's much more, but it won't change the warped mindset of Finkelstein who has kissed more Arab rotzchim than Neturei Karta.
Lakewood Talmid,
ReplyDeleteI know Finkelstein, that's his perspective. Emunah, if not honed while a tot, ingrained from the milk of your mother, enforced and reinforced at every level of your life from birth, is a difficult if not impossible stretch.
I'm simply presenting the "other side of the coin"...there is another point of view, whether we agree or not.
I'm going back to my strongly-held belief, that we must not shrug off the difficult questions. The information age is upon us at the click of a button, we must be prepared to have Torah-compatible answers.
UOJ, it's an exaggeration to say that there is not a "scintilla of evidence".
ReplyDeleteArchaeological evidence includes references in Egyptian texts to the "apiru" [Hebrews]. As for the period of the nevi'im, there are artifacts from Bayit Rishom (an ivory pomegranate, I believe) and at least one inscription referring to "Beit David" (though skeptics insist it's Beit Dod).
As for Bison, what's the point of the Torah giving us simanim for kosher animals if we only eat those with a mesorah of kashrut and shechita? It makes about as much sense as saying we can't eat tomatoes because there is no tradition of that produce being kosher.
I wonder if the people who won't eat bison eat turkey.
Simply put, Norman Finkelstein is a bad person.
ReplyDeleteThere are millions of "Finkelsteins"...are we to simply write them off as bad, evil, ant-semites, haters of frum Jews...or do we take the bull by the horns and come up with rock-solid responses?
ReplyDeleteI'm a prodder...I push ideas around, I force people and ideas to pass the smell test. Do they?
Think!
Look at how far we've come in two brief years. Let's deal with ALL the issues that affect our emunah, not just the comfortable ones!
http://www.canonist.com/?p=1402
ReplyDeleteScurrilous and Libelous Attacks Against Israel Singer, or The Gary Rosenblatt School of Journalism
Unless Rosenblatt and Cohler-Esses would next like to claim that Singer actually transferred the money back to Herr Hitler, there’s just no greater level of depravity available.
There are not "millions" of Finkelsteins. True, most secular Jews do not imbibe emunah with their mother's milk, yet they still do not act like the Amalek among us. Finkelstein is a rare and nefarious breed.
ReplyDeleteUOJ, if you are trying to prod constructive thinking, you may also want to provide an adequate answer while you're at it, instead of leaving some of your faith challenged readers hanging with provocative questions only.
The Gemorah relates in Sotah 49b that in the time of Moshiach, the generation will appear like a dog.
ReplyDeleteThe explanation is offered that just as a dog runs ahead of its master but keeps turning around to see which direction the master takes, so too, in the time of Moshiach, people will lack the intelligence and courage to act sensibly on their own.
Ronnie, you are way out of your league here. Why don't you immerse yourself in parshas Shmini with the commentaries as well as in depth study of some masechtos before coming back to the table. The Oral Torah gives us insight into the parameters of simanim and mesorah. This is not a new story. The discussion starts in the Talmud.
ReplyDeleteThe Kamenetzky family, descendents of the Shaloh Hakadosh and others do abstain from eating turkey. This is sometimes due to mesorah and sometimes due to the propensity of a turkey to swoop in an aggressive fashion, similar to a bird of prey.
"Pinny Lipschutz",
ReplyDeleteI believe it was the Chofetz Chaim and you distorted the vort.
The "leaders" keep looking back like the dog because they are more interested in public opinion than doing what is the right and moral thing to do.
With great pleasure I here take up the proverbial pen in defence of UOJ.
ReplyDeleteI'm a ultra orthodox religious jew and second UOJs opinion. He merely stated the fink's point of view and basicaly categorized him as a tinuk shenishbar. If u dont like what the fink thinks or says counter it intellectualy, no need to call him evil, just misinformed and mislead by his ignorance or wron perspective.
Yakov Aveenu was declared by the torah to be the winner of his battle w/eisav's angle yet HE was the one walking away with a dislocated something. What gives?
Sages explain that the battle began as an intellectual disagreement between yaakov's and eisav's derech in avodas hashem. Like many jewish losers today when the angel so he was losing (kee eino yochel lo) he reverted to (verbal and) physical violence. To this the torah infers that by reverting to violence the angle admited to beig intellectualy wrong and yaakov was declared the winner of the original contest.
Margo,
ReplyDeleteYou have my word that I will help get you a beis din to address your grievance for being made fun of. First you have to appear at the batei din that you were mesarev.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/letters.php3
ReplyDeleteTo take Finkelstein at all seriously, you have to believe in a worldwide conspiracy of Jewish leaders who are willing to deliberately “exploit” the Holocaust and are equally willing, deliberately, to oppress the Palestinian people. Without these pre-existing assumptions, Finkelstein could find no readers for his books.
The problem is not that his writings constitute poor scholarship but that it is not scholarship at all. He has not, for example, by his own admission, published a single article in a peer-reviewed journal.
Finkelstein is a driven man. All he ever seems to write or talk about is his idée fixe about Jews and Israel. He has organized a “solidarity” committee of like-minded folk who press the case for his tenure at DePaul University. But what can he contribute to civilized, scholarly debate? Instead of giving him tenure, he should be helped to find a place in the world in which his obvious intelligence and industry can be put to constructive use. That place is not in the community of scholars.
Werner Cohn
Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
Lakewood Talmid,
ReplyDeleteEmunah is faith, no evidence required! We are not smarter than our zeides, but we have more information than they had that needs to be examined intelligently! Not "swept under the rug"!!!
Science is challenging, we need to address the relevant questions and proofs they offer. They are very imperfect, the science and the scientists, but they have no qualms at all to admit their mistakes based on the evidence at the time.
We need to address these issues as our children have immediate access to this information and are told to forgo a life of gashmiyas, and practically forced to take vows of poverty.(kollel)
We must engage our children in this conversation or the "Finkelsteins" will!
(90% percent of Jews are secular, 10% are Orthodox---half of the Orthodox are leading double-lives.
42% of people born in to Orthodox homes between 1950-1970, have given up on their heritage(Sarna and others)
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070501/REPOSITORY/705010353/1043/NEWS01
ReplyDeleteHere's the story of an "Orthodox" child molester who had kosher food priviliges taken away in prison after he was caught eating treif several times. The putz sued the govt.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14005
Gary Rosenblatt who is a wimp lately, pulled a NY Times style stunt and left out that Kuperman is a molester.
It is simply not true that scientists, or at least several of them, have no qualms admitting mistakes. The scientific community has been besieged by several recent scandals of falsifying data. Many of them are apikorsim who will only refute another theory to replace it with a different twist of apikorsus to make a name for themselves. They are not interested in researching anything that will prove the Torah.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know who your other sources are besides Sarna. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if that Conservative guru wielding an anti-frum axe had fudged some numbers.
As we all know, R' Moishe lamented over the popular refrain of "shver tzu zein a Yid" and the fact that magnificent shuls were built across America instead of yeshivos. There is no scientific way of calculating the poel yotzei, but the numbers are great.
Lately we have different problems and yasher koyach to you for doing something about it. I still think you should do more explaining than dangling bold questions in front of "borderline frum" and others.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/04/new-rav-hamachshir-on-block.html#7265617836192589361
ReplyDeleteRabbi Spiegel (Monsey / New Hempstead) is out of Empire because of refusing to remove chickens from the line when the Schoichet & bodek said the knife has a p'gimah. etc.
Rabbi Spiegel instituted a new type of sharpening the knives "glatt & dull" hence no p'gimahs possible, but you have d'rosahs galore especialy when you schecht on an angle.
There were numerous incidents of what the the schoichtim call him a machil ne'veilos to klal yisroel R"L.
(An earlier comment here hints that Spiegel's efforts to get his crowd to switch to cholov Yisroel is like Moish Finkel fakerei)
That was a blast from the past with Emmanuel Rackman. The guy has faded into complete obscurity. Belsky may have been the last Mohican to try his gameplan.
ReplyDeleteEven Gary Rosenblatt has stopped running puff pieces about him to remind everyone he exists.
Lakewood Talmid,
ReplyDeleteI read and read and read...(no novels or fiction) I forget the sources, but they are accurate based on my studies.(unfortunately)
I am not referring to the scientists/philosophers like Dennett, Dawkins. They are the ones with a definite agenda. I'm talking about Davies, Hawkings and the likes (not Schroeder, he's an idiot)that, in my assessment of their works, they are struggling to find God, not to NOT find Him.
There are valid questions, and we must come up with Torah-compatible answers!
What took so long for them to wake up?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=5933
To put this in perspective, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany recently met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to bring to her attention the fact that the German social security administration has denied ghetto pensions to about 61,000 of the approximately 70,000 survivors who applied for such compensation. With a failure rate of over 87 percent, the German program has been rightfully and widely criticized by survivors and Jewish and humanitarian organizations. Considering that ICHEIC has done only marginally better, why hasn’t there been a similar public uproar?
Chairman Eagleburger is quoted as having said that ICHEIC “has achieved its goal of bringing a small measure of justice to those who have been denied it for so long.” As a lawyer who has closely worked with ICHEIC claimants, I sadly disagree. For nine years, ICHEIC failed the very people it was created to serve.
Yisroel Schulman is the president of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)
Where were Singer & Berman?
ReplyDelete________________
Kissing Cardinal Lustiger's tuches.
Actually, that pesky toilet overflowed again. Maybe UOJ can help out. Isn't he the Roto Rooter guy?
ReplyDeleteLawrence Eagleburger was sitting around on his fat rump with Sruly over nice juicy treif steaks and supersized orders of frites at Le Marais.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever seen how obese he is? The cheapskate wears shirts that he's bulging out of because nothing comes off the rack in his size and he won't pay for custom.
BERMAN-
ReplyDeleteWHERE ARE THOSE RABBI
SOLOVEITCHIK TAPES THAT DROWNED
IN YOUR TOILET BOWL!!!
YOU OWE THE JEWISH NATION AN APOLOGY FOR FIRST DENYING YOU EVER HAD THEM AND FOR YOUR NEGLIGENCE IN THEIR DESTRUCTION!
WHY DIDNT YOU KEEP THEM IN A SAFER PLACE! YOU'VE DESTROYED AN
ESSENTIAL PART OF JEWISH HERITAGE!
SHAME ON YOU- YOU TOILET BOWL
SCOUNDREL!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/150000/images/_153251_lawrence_eagleburger.jpg
ReplyDeleteI have no use for Le Marais. I don't keep kosher but I'm still grossed out by BIG BEATLES. I vowed never to eat there again after they stopped the "All you can eat night"
I can't take it! I'm laughing so hard at the dialog here today that my insides hurt! UOJ should start charging.
ReplyDeleteYUALUMNUS, take it easy man! The plumbing in Forest Hills is kind of funky. Just ask my good friend and neighbor Sruly Singer. When Belsky heard that the Rav's chiddushim were somewhere in the aquaduct system, that's when he poskened we don't have to be choshesh for copepods.
ReplyDeleteRackman may be obscure but his poisonous peiros are not. There are mamzerim out there thanks to him.
ReplyDeleteThe ignorant public may have finally woken up when kol korays came out against him from every stripe of rov, from Rav Elyashev to Mizrachi in the territories to YU.
http://www.canonist.com/?p=1402#comment-58826
ReplyDeletejoe Says:
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am
SIW- Is the best shot you got to defend your buddy Singer? Why don’t you deal with the “unaccounted” for millions of dollars that were transferred back and forth to his personal retirement accounts and placed in his wife’s name? You are pathetic! Rosenblatt looks like Bob Woodward, and you look like Woody the Woodpecker, emphasis on pecker!
SIW- Your buddy is a thief, respond to the gravest charges against him or just putz off!
SIW needs to spend more time in the MTJ beis medrash instead of the filthy pizza joint on Grand St.
ReplyDeleteHe acts as if he doesn't know that shoel shelo midaas is a gazlan.
Does anyone know the details of the scandal with the Bensonhurst shul? Mispalelim brought a lawsuit that it was sold to a mosque without their permission. The Jewish Week has a three line blurb that doesn't say much. They say it's the "Mapleton Park Jewish Center" but I don't think there is such a place. They probably mean the Young Israel of Mapleton Park on West 6th St.
ReplyDeleteThey do say that the mispalelim lost the first round in court vs "the Ahmadiya Movement in Islam and several other defendants."
Grand St Pizza was padlocked by the City for health hazards. Poor SIW has to shnorr rides now all the way down to Circa by City Hall.
ReplyDelete"there’s just no greater level of depravity available."
ReplyDeleteSteve Weiss is exactly the kind of "journalist" that the Wall Street Journal can't stand. He flies off the handle with something he holds dear and makes sweeping, irresponsible statements.
Of course the most important thing to SIW are his brown nose journalist ethics that take precedent over stopping molesters, so yes, child molestation is not more depraved than exposing Sruly Singer. Or at least that is in the topsy turvy world of SIW.
Note to those with outstanding orders for UOJ caps:
ReplyDeleteA transistor fried on one of the circuit boards for my embroidery machine. Instead of shipping the board to a technician in New Jersey (which will take at least 3 or 4 days and about $350), I'm going to try to save some time and money by replacing the component myself since a local electronics supply has the right transistor. Unfortunately I had to attend a funeral and the supplier was closing early today so I won't know until sometime tomorrow if this will work. If it doesn't work I'll have to have the tech rebuild it.
I'll keep everyone updated on any progress.
I already have the blanks in stock so b'ezrat HaShem as soon as the machine is up and running I'll be able to get the orders out. Thanks for your patience.
TO ALL KOSHER CONSUMERS:
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Monsey treif meat situation Rabbi Yisroel Belsky paskened that there is no need to kasher any keilim.He based his psak on the following:
First, if Tumah is hutra b'tzibur then it is a kal v'chomer that non kosher meat is also hutra b'tzibur.
Secondly, Rabbi Belsky stated that he knows the owner of thebutcher store and that he is certainly an "ish neeman" and therefore the rule of "eid echad neeman b'issurin" applies.
Rabbi Belsky stated that many companies and hotels under the OU are beleived to have purchased meat from that store owner and that he feels there is no problem and no need to kasher.
NO ONE should eat any OU MEAT products or patronize any OU establishment without first verifying that a Kashering process took place following the incident.
Please contact Rabbis Genack and Elefant at the OU to discuss the blatant disregard of Kashrus standards promoted by "Rabbi" Yisroel Belsky.
I'm a ultra orthodox religious jew and second UOJs opinion. He merely stated the fink's point of view and basicaly categorized him as a tinuk shenishbar. If u dont like what the fink thinks or says counter it intellectualy, no need to call him evil, just misinformed and mislead by his ignorance or wron perspective.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have a lot of time so I wrote b'kitzur.
WADR, while it's not difficult to critique Finkelstein, I think you are way off base when you say that he's a misinformed or ignorant tinok she'nishbar. He consciously provides aid and comfort to the enemies of the Jewish people. He's no more a tinok she'nishbar than the tuchas fressers that ran to Tehran.
He consciously provides aid and comfort to the enemies of the Jewish people.
ReplyDelete__________________________
So does Ehud Olmert!
ReplyDeleteSo does Ehud Olmert!
You won't get any argument from me, but then the only Israeli political party that I've been affiliated with is banned.
Speaking of which, there's a fine essay by the author of Mei Menucha on the OU site.
And for contrast to Olmert, to see how a true Jewish statesman acts, read this article from the J'lem Post about Menachem Begin's radio address on May 15, 1948.