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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

"WHEN HOLINESS FAILS" - (AND CONTINUES TO FAIL US WITH INTENT AND MALICE! - A MUST READ-UOJ)

When Holiness Fails

Neil Rubin
Editor - Baltimore Jewish Times



The following sermon was delivered by Rabbi Elan Adler on April 28, 2007 at Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation in Pikesville.......


A terrible thing has happened in our Jewish community, something that has caught us off guard and sent us reeling. We found out, through publicity in the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES, that even the holiest of Jewish people are only human, and that the Jewish community is not immune to sexual abuse by clergy and other people of authority.

By now you must have read the article, which was a cover story a couple of months ago, about a young man the JEWISH TIMES referred to as Steve, who was sexually abused by Orthodox Rabbis.

A few weeks ago, the JEWISH TIMES editor wrote of a group of men who gather as friends, all of whom shared experiences of being molested by Jewish teachers.

And just last week came the news of a well known and respected Orthodox rabbi whose sexual abuse was corroborated by several victims, most of them while they were kids and who are now in their 50's or 60's. The article graphically described what is known clinically as predatory behavior, by a revered teacher and rabbi who fondled and molested his students, perhaps as many as hundreds of them.

Many of you, as well as many in our community, were incensed by the article, feeling that it is lashon harah, evil gossip about someone, and further, considering that the rabbi died almost 20 years ago, the article was a disgrace of a man who could hardly defend himself against the onslaught of accusation. And besides, many of you said, he was a kind and comforting man who had the finest reputation, a reputation now being tarnished in full view of the public.

I have to say that when the most recent article first came out, and it named names which the first one didn't, I was torn. On the one hand, one teaching of our Jewish tradition kept flashing in my mind, and it actually comes from the names of the Torah portions this morning, which are Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. On their own, they are just names of portions, but when you put them together, they are a statement: Acharei Mot means after the death, and Kedoshim means holy things. Put together, it says,

After the death, you say holy things, and this has been a guiding principle for centuries, the idea that after someone passes away, you find the nicest and most complimentary things to say. In rabbinic school, when learning about how to prepare eulogies, we were taught exactly this: once someone has died, focus on the positive and desirable attributes of the person, and let the rest be.

That's how part of me felt when the recent article came out.

The other part of me was not reserved for this particular rabbi, but for any rabbi or cantor, or teacher or person of authority who would use their power and intimidation to violate the bodies of children under their care and supervision. I felt anger towards anyone, especially a religious Jew, who would repeatedly molest a child, knowing that the child would be scared to tell anyone. I felt anger for the victims, who didn't know where to turn or who to tell, and who would likely carry their shame in silence, and whose lives would be forever affected by the brazen abuser.

The story of abuse in our community in not about a deceased Rabbi, or about one particular segment of our community, or even about what should be published and what should not. In my opinion, the story of abuse in our community is how it has been misunderstood, how it has been covered up, and how it will be dealt with.

Sexual abuse has been terribly misunderstood. I know that because of the many ways confirmations of abuse have been mishandled by people who should have known better.

Do you remember when the extent of this abuse first became publicized about the Catholic Church? I remember when bishops and cardinals and others in high authority were cross-examined about what they knew, and when they knew it, and how they handled known molesters in the church.

When being asked, over and over again we heard testimony that sounded something like this: We didn't know what to do about the allegations regarding Father Dawson, but then we heard several more, and we knew we had to do something about it. So what did you do? Well, we mandated Father Dawson to seek psychological help or maybe even psychiatric help, and we thought that would cure the problem, and perhaps a month of that was not enough.

And after that month, did Father Dawson still have contact with children? Well, yes, we thought he was over the problem, and that his sessions with the professionals had straightened him out. That what the testimony sounded like over and over again. At best, not understanding; at worst, minimizing the problem, sending Father Dawson to parish after parish, where he abuses more and more, and in the wake of the misunderstood lusts of Father Dawson lay the strewn and ruined lives of his victims.

What were they thinking? Didn't they read today's Torah portion as part of the Old Testament? Didn't they read chapter 18 of the book of Leviticus, the many verses that describe the various relationships forbidden by the Torah? These verses are read on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year during the mincha service, and they are unbelievable in what they forbid. Do not have relations with your mother, do not have relations with your sister, do not have relations with your uncle, do not have relations with your sister-in-law, if you are a male, do not have relations with another male as you would with a female…….you've probably read these or heard of these, and you may ask, why did you call them unbelievable?

I'll tell you why, because most people reading this list of forbidden relationships would have a one-word Yiddish reponse- Feh! Who would want to have relations with these people? What kind of sick mind would go there? And the answer is exactly what makes the list unbelievable, and this is why God had to say them- because people do have these desires and these lusts, and they need to be curbed. Why didn't the hierarchy in the church not understand this and remove the priests from the temptations? Why did they think that a few sessions with a shrink would obliterate and extinguish what God himself knows to be in the human mind?

And so they were sent from parish to parish, exponentially victimizing unsuspecting children and teens, knowing that ignorance and silence are two of the greatest allies of sexual abusers.

And, my friends, the leaders of the Jewish community may have misdiagnosed the confirmations of abuse as well. In last week's Torah portion, in speaking of the Metzorah, the one who had a leper's disease, the Torah says in Leviticus 14:54, Zot Hatorah lechol nega, this is the law for every affliction. But the Talmud in Eruvin 54a has this teaching: Zot Hatorah, this Torah, the study of Torah, Lechol nega, is good for every ailment. The teaching was a very traditional one, namely, that for whatever ails you, the Torah is the remedy- if you have a headache, study the Torah. If you have any pain or affliction, the Torah is the remedy.

I can relate to you at least a dozen times where I've heard a parent of a formerly religious child, who had severe psychological problems or who was dealing with drug and alcohol abuse, when asking their Rabbi for help, the Rabbi would say, "if he studied the Torah more, if he davened better, if he performed more commandments, everything would be fine.”

It's a traditional teaching, but it's terribly misguided. Someone who is a sexual predator and abuser and molester needs heavy duty professional help over long periods of time. It doesn't matter if they're Orthodox, conservative or reform, reconstructionist, humanist, secular, Buddhist or Moslem, and to say that study or observance will take care of it is irresponsible and inexcusable.

So one story of abuse in our community is how it has been so gravely misunderstood and therefore minimized to the detriment of the innocent victims.

You may say, Rabbi, we didn't know then what we know now, about human behavior and how to treat people who abuse. That may be so, but another story of abuse in our community is those who knew, and continue to know, and who say nothing.

They say nothing because they don't want to shame or embarrass their institutions. They say nothing because they don't want to embarrass the family of the abuser, or because they feel it will affect the "marriagability” of the abusers children or even the abused. Or they say nothing because they think the problem will go away, or because they pity the abuser who can't control himself but who is otherwise a very nice person.

Those who know, and who don't report, are shameful accomplices to the shredded and humiliated lives of the victims. Are there such people in our community? You decide.

This is from a letter distributed by the Vaad Harrabanim to all Orthodox households prior to the JEWISH TIMES article:

"In the past, many mistakes were made in handling situations. Abusers were often not recognized for what they were, as it was too difficult to believe that otherwise good people could do such things, nor was it sufficiently appreciated what damage such acts could cause. It was often thought that if the abuser was spoken to or warned, and perhaps moved to a different environment, he would never do those things again. In responding this way, many terrible mistakes were made and tragic consequences resulted. We have seen too often the immediate or eventual failure of these "behind the scenes” agreements to keep the perpetrators away from others.”

I was one of the rabbis who signed the letter. But I did not write the letter. Behind the scenes agreements is something I should have asked about prior to signing the letter. When were these agreements made? Twenty years ago when rabbis were more naïve, or 20 days ago, when it could signal a coverup?

Are there Rabbis and principals and leaders in the know, who know, but won't say anything? This is something that needs to be investigated, and investigated with seriousness and speed. If there are abusive ticking bombs in our community, and we don't do everything we can to prevent another abuse, and people are being protected, it should make us feel tremendously uncomfortable.

So this story is not about a deceased rabbi, or just about one particular segment of our community, or about what should be published or what should not. It is about how it has been misunderstood, and how it's been covered up and may continue to be, and it's about a third area, how it will be dealt with from now on.

There is no question that if we know of a sexual predator, especially one who abuses children, Jewish law or halachah that this abuser is called a rodeph, literally a pursuer, one who is effectively poised to destroy innocent lives and therefore, virtually any means may be used to stop him and bring him to justice.

Not just from hearsay or innuendo, but once an abuser has been reported and corroborated by at least two other sources, we must speedily stop that person and expose him. In many cases, the most effective method to protect the community is to publicize the abuser's name.

Some may consider that a shanda, but we must be mindful that what the person has done, the crime committed and the shame borne is silence is an even bigger shanda. We have an obligation to protect not only current victims, but also all future victims, and these future victims are not only the future victims of the abuser, but also the victims of the victims themselves- there has been shown to be a significant correlation between being abused and then abusing others. Unless someone is stopped in his tracks, the ripple effect of abuse can be staggering.

Whether alive or deceased, the perpetrators must be exposed. Even the deceased are not entitled to go to their graves in peace while the pain and shame of their victims finds no rest or comfort. The deceased abuser cannot defend himself, but neither can he have the luxury of remaining guiltless in the eyes of humanity while so many of his victims continue to suffer a life of torment and pain.

And while we diligently root out the perpetrators of such heinous behavior, that takes advantage of the most powerless in society by the most powerful, we need to tell the victims that they can come forward to a receptive community that will hear their anguish, not be judgmental about how or why anything happened, and help them to be liberated from their nightmare and be supportive as they begin their healing.

Yes, a terrible thing has happened to our Jewish community. We found out that we are not immune to the same ills and disgraces that plaque our neighbors. We thought we were immune, and that our Torah study and Torah observance can protect us from such behavior. We thought that a religious personality couldn't possibly do such a thing. But if we did, we missed a critical teaching of our Torah portion today. Leviticus 19:1, Kedoshim Tihiyu, you shall be holy. This means not only in the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law. Nachmanides made an insightful comment when he taught, "someone who only observes the letter of the law can easily become a degenerate with the permission of the Torah, for such a person can perform the technical requirements of the commandments, WHILE SURRENDERING TO SELF INDULGENCE, GLUTTONY AND LICENTIOUSNESS.

If you can keep strictly kosher, daven three times a day, keep every aspect of Shabbat, and meticulously observe the commandments, and then molest and abuse and scar an innocent child for life, whether living or deceased, you are not entitled to the mantle of holiness.

You are entitled to the contempt of the community which so faithfully put its trust in you.

May God help us to bring the perpetrators to justice and the victims to find their solace and strength from a community anxious to hear and help.

Amen.

134 comments:

Anonymous said...

is the R Eisemann case over?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

is the R Eisemann case over?
________________

It just begun!

Anonymous said...

Now that sounds like a Rabbi.

Anonymous said...

What a letter! Thank you, Rabbi Adler. Great job, UOJ.

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/857271.html

The brief conference of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) last week in Washington generated some discontent among attendants. The bagel and cream cheese meal was hardly indicative of an affluent organization, they complained. And yet, such minutiae tell the story of the gradual descent of the WJC into a new low in its history - a point marked by a plate of cheese.

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/857263.html

Police to question drivers who did not help motorcyclist as he lay dying on road
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent

The Police Traffic Division said on Tueday it was trying to locate drivers who passed by a motorcyclist as he lay dying in the road, without stopping to help, following an accident in Azur, near Tel Aviv, on Sunday.

Moshe Hai-Yisraeli was killed at Azur Junction after his motorcycle collided with a truck. He lay bleeding in the road for more than a minute as heavy traffic flew by. Finally, a driver pulled over to help.

"We will try to bring at least some of the drivers in for questioning in the following days ," police officer Noam Bagiansky told Haaretz.

Several passersby who saw Hai-Yisraeli after the crash later told police that they kept away because of the gruesome appearance of Yisraeli's body after the truck crushed his head.

"It was obvious the man was dead anyway, so there was no point in attending to him," they said.

However, police said they did not intend to ask drivers why they failed to administer medical treatment, but rather why they swerved around the body and continued on their way, as surveillance cameras recorded.

"They kept driving, as though the man were road kill," Bagiansky said.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, who expressed disgust over the incident, inspected the scene on Tuesday. To date, only one driver has reported to police that he witnessed the accident and chose not to stop. Police decided not to press charges against him.

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/857513.html

Maybe Sruly can help. Not everyone has money squirreled away in a secret Swiss bank account.

Anonymous said...

http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/11331.htm

I say it's now time to replace both Sruly Singer AND Julie Berman at the Claims Conference.

Anonymous said...

http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=6486554&nav=1sW7

A southwestern Indiana man arrested on child sex abuse charges after Oprah Winfrey offered a reward for his capture has lost his first round of appeals.

The Indiana Court of Appeals denied 34-year-old William Davis' appeal of his three child molestation convictions and affirmed the trial court's decision.

Davis fled in the summer of 2004 after learning that police were looking for him. He was a fugitive until October 2005, when he was apprehended in North Dakota two days after the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" segment aired.

Davis was later convicted and sentenced to 52 years in prison.

Anonymous said...

Where is the "Rabbi Elan Adler" in the NY area, when is he going to get up and say what this rabbi in baltimore said?

i'm not holding my breath, for the agudah continues to snore zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Anonymous said...

SIW & Co are bitching that we publicly posted all this dirt.

http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/meet/sc_070507.html

Steering Committee
The WJC Steering Committee met in New York on 07 May 2007.

Presentations delivered at the meeting included:

Termination of Israel Singer ( 140Kb) Appendix ( 5.5Mb)

Anonymous said...

The pride and joy of Munkacs.
----------------------------

Shipping missile parts nets 30-day stint

MICHAEL P. MAYKO mmayko@ctpost.com
Connecticut Post Online

HARTFORD — He grew up an Orthodox Jew in Eastern Europe. As a 2-year-old his father was taken away and killed and he spent much of the next five years living in an attic with his mother and 11 other Jews to avoid Nazi raids.
Now Lieb Kohn, caught shipping surface-to-air missile parts to Israel without government approval, will spend 30 days in jail, U.S. District Judge Christopher Droney ordered Monday.

Droney, once the state's U.S. attorney, also fined Kohn, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and his now-defunct export companies L&M Manufacturing and Nesco NY, both of Brooklyn, $25,000. Kohn pleaded guilty Dec. 15, 2004, to conspiring with a foreign weapons dealer to violate the federal Arms Control Act, which carries a maximum 10-year prison term.

But an impassioned plea from his lawyer, Bruce Koffsky, persuaded Droney to reduce the 46 to 57 months in prison recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

Koffsky submitted letters from members of the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn that described Kohn's difficult life, as well as his good works. Those included taking in a troubled teenager as a foster child on top of his own 10 children. That troubled teen was Ester M. Waldman, who credited Kohn with changing her life.

"I felt loved, wanted, respected, secure and confident," she told Droney. "I felt just like every child in the Kohn family I learned the beauty of a family relationship, the art of caring and sharing, plus total selflessness."

Grand Rabbi Moshe Rabinovich, of Brooklyn, told the judge how Kohn and his mother survived the war after his father was killed, secreted with 11 other Jews in a Polish's woman's attic. Kohn came to America in 1947 with his mother. After marrying again and having a daughter, she suffered a nervous breakdown and spent much of Kohn's teenage years in mental institutions, according to letters sent to Droney.

Kohn settled in Brooklyn, married and had 10 children while working as a diamond cutter.

But his life changed forever with his March 2004 arrest following an undercover investigation by agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securities Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

On that day, an agent posing as a UPS employee delivered Kohn's order for various parts from Radio Research, a Woodbury firm. Kohn is accused of buying wiring harnesses for radar in what is called a HAWK (Homing All the Way Killer) missile and magnetron tubes used in the fire-control radar system of the Phantom F-4 fighter jet.

Koffsky maintains Kohn "was duped" by Eli Cohen, his contact in Israel.

A reputed arms dealer who was kicked out of the U.S. in 1993 after being convicted of violating federal export laws, Cohen has been accused of shipping military parts to Iran through Germany.

A day before Kohn's arrest, Israeli national police raided a warehouse where they found additional HAWK missiles and Phantom F-4 parts. They arrested Cohen. Koffsky claimed Cohen offered Kohn a partnership in his business at a time when Kohn's own trade was faltering.

Cohen would provide Kohn with lists of items to purchase and directions on packaging and shipping them, including misrepresenting the destination, Koffsky claimed.

Other parts Kohn obtained during that time include an audio frequency amplifier for the F-5 jet fighter from RDB Aeromax in California and engine parts for the F-4 from Unique Aeronautics in Sun Valley, Calif.

Michael P. Mayko, who covers legal issues, can be reached at 330-6286.

Anonymous said...

Afraid of oversight? Why? Afraid that little kids will be protected?
Afraid that little kids won't die in day care? Afraid that they will have proper facilities? Afraid that kids won't be molested?

May 6, 2007

New York Up Close
At Religious Preschools, Worries About Others Looking Over Their Shoulders


By ALEX MINDLIN
The city’s health code spells out hundreds of regulations governing preschools and day care centers, ranging from the urgent (rooftop play areas must be fenced; teachers must get inoculations and pass background checks) to the comparatively minor (one toilet per 15 children, and 30 square feet of space per child; no television for children under 2; no whole milk for children over 2).

The rules cover all the city’s private preschools, with one longstanding exception: From the yeshivas of Williamsburg to the parochial schools of the South Bronx, preschools attached to religious elementary schools are, in effect, exempt.

“We don’t know the history of the exemption,” said Jessica Leighton, the Health Department’s deputy commissioner for environmental health. “It’s been over 25 years that this has existed.”

But now, in a proposal to revise the regulations, the department is seeking to end the exemption, which currently covers some 20,000 children, or roughly 7 percent of the city’s preschoolers.

“We felt that these children should have all the oversight, in terms of health and safety, that other children have,” Ms. Leighton said. After a period of public comment that will end on July 30, the Board of Health will vote on the proposal, probably at its September meeting.

The proposed changes have prompted sharp statements over the last two weeks from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and Orthodox rabbis across Brooklyn.

“The costs are prohibitive, and it’s impossible technically because of space concerns,” said Rabbi David Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, a group that serves a generally low-income Hasidic community. “If these schools have to comply with teacher-student ratios and other issues, this will drive the costs up, and the schools will not be able to raise the funds.”

Even at well-financed schools, the proposals have troubled administrators long used to operating without many of the constraints that apply to other private preschools.

The other day, at the prestigious Yeshivah of Flatbush, Dennis Eisenberg, the school’s executive vice president, pointed to a roomful of 3-year-olds, the boys wearing skullcaps decorated with cars and trucks. There were 16 children in the classroom, one more than the proposed regulations would permit.

“They would tell me to send one of these children home,” said Mr. Eisenberg, whose school serves 2,140 children, 340 of them preschoolers. “That’s not acceptable.”

He also objected to the provision regarding teacher certification, under which some of the preschool’s Israeli instructors might not be qualified. “What’s being imposed on us is how to teach these children, what kind of personnel to use,” he said.

But Ms. Leighton said the city was “focusing on health and safety issues,” not meddling with the schools’ curriculums. She said the agency could accommodate religious schools by granting waivers and time extensions, and by recognizing nonstandard credentials for instructors. “We’re willing to work with them,” she said.

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. The State website now says that Kolko's criminal case was "adjourned" to June 7th. Does that mean there were some kind of proceedings yesterday or did Yudi not even show up?

No wonder UOJ had no real time updates.

Anonymous said...

Most stories are probably unrecorded because Lita suffered the highest Nazi casaulty rate - more than 90% were wiped out. I know of stories that were never written.

Two books that come to mind (there are more) that document activity Litvak partisans are Hidden in Thunder: Perspectives on Faith, Halachah and Leadership During the Holocaust, by Esther Farbstein and Et La'asot Lehatzalat Yisrael (Time to Rescue Israel), by Dr. Chaim Shalem, both of Bayit Vegan College.

(Mind you, in the pre-corruption days, Rav Ziemba was an Agudah figure.)

In 1956, after the international community condemned Israel for invading Egypt and occupying the Sinai, Yitzchak Itshe Meir Levin (Agudat Yisrael), speaking like a true Zionist, defended the act.

"A million and a half young people and children were slaughtered in broad daylight, and the world's conscience was not moved," he said. "Now the Jews are gathered in the State of Israel. But still the outside world cannot give its consent. Perhaps it bothers [the gentiles] because the Jews refuse to go to the slaughter, but defend themselves courageously."

The Radzyner Rebbe, R' Shmuel Shlomo Leiner, called on Jews to break out of the ghettos, flee to the forests and take up arms. R' Shlomo Dovid Yehoshua Weinberg, the Slonim Rebbe, allowed underground activists to use his basement as an arms cache. R' Yehoshua Moshe Aronson, who was held in the Konim labor camp, supported a plan by the inmates to take revenge against German soldiers.

"Let us at least defend Jewish honor and avenge our spilled blood," wrote Rav Aronson. The plan was never carried out, however, and Aronson expressed sorrow at having missed the opportunity for vengeance and rebellion.

A group of Auschwitz prisoners during Hanukka 1941, set fire to eight pieces of cardboard and sang "Maoz Tzur" in full sight of German soldiers. Historian Yehuda Bauer commenting on this story, states, "None of the people who did this were religious. But on the threshold of death, and in the hell of Auschwitz, they demonstrated. They asserted several principles: that contrary to Nazi lore they were human; that Jewish tradition, history and values had a meaning for them in the face of Auschwitz; and that they wanted to assert their humanity in a Jewish way."

Bauer then asks, "Was their act less than firing a gun?"

Anonymous said...

It's not fair to give all the credit to Peter Bergson. What about the Vaad Hatzolah? Rav Kalmanowitz would drive around to Reform temples on Shabbos to plead with the secular to help. It was that crowd like the NY Times Ochs and Sulzburger families that wouldn't help or even mention the Holocaust because they were ashamed to display their Jewishness.

It's true that separation of the sexes was not overboard in Europe. We have allowed the Chassidish to hijack implementation of too many things. The biggest roshei yeshiva in Germany and Lita had mixed seating at their weddings.

Anonymous said...

There are some real gems there at WJC on Sruly. UOJ should give us a "best of" summary.

Anonymous said...

The Stropkover Rebbe (Tzanz) was also with the partisans and spent much of the war sleeping in an underground pit.

Get over your hurt with the Boy Scouts and stop this bubkess about yeshivish fairies. Most faygelach are secular.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

There are some real gems there at WJC on Sruly. UOJ should give us a "best of" summary.

_______________

I'm going to let this tragi-comedy play out. Bronfman is not an innocent victim. He knew Singer was a problem for years, had an opportunity to get rid of him when the AG report came out, instead he covered for him.

That's what you get when you cover-up crimes; I have no sympathy for Bronfman as a person. Yes, the WJC did a lot of good, but there is a price to pay when you choose to "sweep things under the rug".

I personally handed him a bona fide set of incriminating documents from an anonymous source at an IDB function in 2005. Singer should have been fired immediately!

You reap what you sow...you harbor a criminal, pay the price buddy. No tears from me!

Anonymous said...

This is round II of the crackdowns against Haymish daycare. The first round came after the death of a baby in an illegal Boro Park basement. The kvetchers were complaining then that they were being forced to be licensed, which the law really required the entire time. Costs went up dramatically, leading some parents to find new, illicit ways to up their income.

It's time to rent out that illegal apartment again. The one that looks like dreck. The tenant will be made to suffer because the baal habus has no intention of spending one dime on mandatory maintainence. The poor yeshiva boys or stiffs who just started working can't get any sleep on Shabbos because the baal habus scoots his kids to the basement where only the sucker tenant hears the noise.

Anonymous said...

The SIW groupies will go into a crazed frenzy now. They have been insisting for months that there's no way that UOJ got any documents to Bronfman.

Anonymous said...

Nuchem Kernwasser, your gonna go down with Duvid Olefski on the same ship. You were aware of what was going on in the gerrer mesifta from the day you ran from the Israeli authorities and parked your tuchess in the yeshiva as rosh yeshive / menahel. You spent your life stealing from the Israeli government and taking monies intended for the students and squiriling it away in swiss accounts. You ran an empire based on taking american boy's passports and screwing over the US government for college loans and the like. Serves u right that when u invested in life insurance policies of elderly jews u got ripped off by others. Your a shtick dreck that parked your dying body in boro park to seek refuge from the Israli police and did your part in the orgy of covering up for avrohom mordechai leizerowitz.

The ultimatum is this:

Get your ass out of boro park by shavuos or you go the way olefski is heading. Ask Olefski how he appreciates the heat he is gonna get over the next 2 months atop what he is getting the last year. If you want to escape this wrath go spill your guts to the attornies suing on behalf of the victims. As for the other ex and current staff that knew all along, your day is not long in coming. UOJ is on a hunting expidition and will have loads more trophy heads to mount in his den of the wicked.

Anonymous said...

"the vast majority of Haredi yeshivas are producing emotionally handicapped, physically challenged, under-educated, mentally disabled, fundamentalist leaning, ideologically twisted, overweight, undernourished, disrespectful parasites."

C'mon UOJ. Definitely a guzma norah. And "mentally disabled"? That's outright slander.

There is an element of metzius to the other charges but I feel it may not be such a bad thing. There are tremendous temptations in this world for sin. It is much more available and accessable than ever before. Dovid Hamelech said he would rather be a fool than a sinner. I sometimes drew rebuke in yeshiva for not wearing a hat in the street. I was told it is a shemira. I felt much too uncomfortable in my Bors but there is no denying that a girl in a miniskirt is much less likely to proposition a bochur in full yeshivish regalia.

It's too much in the opposite direction away from normalcy but it's often difficult to find the happy medium. Let's worry first about getting molesters out of yeshivos and crooks out of our haymishe mosdos. Then we will tackle the manhood of yeshivaleit.

Anonymous said...

I have posted this Tehillim request in the past and I continue to ask you to please say Tehillim for a 19 year old boy who is suffering from cancer and the doctors have given up hope. He is going thru a particularly rough time now and I ask you to please take a minute to say at least one perek of Tehillim for:
Refoel Moshe Aron Ben Sara Leah

Anonymous said...

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/05/08/news/regional/91ccb74803deba48862572d50041d5b9.txt

Talk about a raw deal. It's bad enough that UOJ makes fun of us but then Rubashkin doesn't even pay us.

Anonymous said...

Rabbi Menachem Genack, can say with a straight face that the many things we always relied on the government for i.e., labeling laws, etc., cannot be relied on now, yet at the same time claim that stealing from workers and other forms of worker mistreatment – all forbidden biblically – are better left to the government to enforce. In other words, many rabbinic laws and simple chumros are so important the government cannot be trusted, but biblical laws regarding worker abuse? In an administration with close to zero enforcement? That we can rely on the government to deal with.

Another way to look at this is to follow the money. The OU gets paid for every extra chumra it enforces. No one pays to have employee halakha enforced. One can easily make the case that, for the OU and other kosher supervising agencies and rabbis that run them, it all comes down to money in their pockets.

Anonymous said...

Shmarya claims this is what happened we owned a kosher restaurant in Minnesota:

I paid market rates, usually from a distributor, and Rubashkin often shorted me on orders – just as he did to small butchers across the country. I paid more WHOLESALE (and I was very close geographically to Postville) than product sold RETAIL in Brooklyn. And that Brooklyn meat? It was shipped through Minneapolis.

I purchased from Rubashkin because it was the only meat Chabad would eat and Chabad insisted – against halakha – that all knives, etc., be KASHERED if other meat was used.

I should also add the problem of rework. What do you do when a steak does not sell? Either you eat it or you grind it and make ground beef from it.But if the ground beef has some Chabad-approved and some non-Chabad approved meat in it, then the Chabadniks won't buy it. This leads to the insane situation of having to break down and clean the grinder on a near daily basis to do a Chabad run. And it leads to more spoilage, more unsold meat and more duplication. Small markets – like Saint Paul, MN – can't survive doing that.

Anonymous said...

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/31549/?imw=Y

I'm the Bukharian Lubavitcher who owns most 7-11 stores and Fina gas stations in the United States. I will take care of Sulzburger & Ochs because I also just bought the NY Times building.

Anonymous said...

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/05/wsj_publishes_e.html

Rubashkin is not the only corrupt Chabad enterprise. Check this out.

Anonymous said...

Obviously O.U.J disagrees with Rabbi Adler when it comes to corroborating claims with 2 sources,asd Eisgrau and Eismann certainly dont meet that criteria.

Anonymous said...

http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=268

My friend Lewis has used various screen names on JDate including BlowMyShofar, Hairy Knish, Uday Hussein, Anne Frankfurter, BotchedBris. They were all deleted by the uptight administrators.

Anonymous said...

Gilligan refuses to comment because he has a contract to publish Broyde.

http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=254

There has been a noted war of words between supporters of Yeshiva University and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT).

There were the harsh remarks of Howard Jonas about YU at the YCT dinner several years ago. On the other side, Rabbi Herschel Schacter referred to Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Saul Berman as Amalek.

There is a standoff that appears to have been won by the roshei yeshiva at YU (incl. Rabbi Schacter) to block YCT graduates from joining the RCA (the organization of modern Orthodox rabbis).

The latest flare up began in March 2007 when Rabbi Michael Broyde published an open letter challenging YCT to repudiate Jonas’ 2004 statements. Then Rabbi Natti Helfgott responded by listing the things that YU has done that are far uglier than Jonas’s comments:

-YU administrators calling Orthodox synagogues considering candidates from YCT and pressuring them not to hire the YCT musmach. Leading Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, visit Orthodox synagogues considering candidates from YCT and pressure them not to hire the YCT graduates (musmach).

-Rabbi Schachter tried to block YCT musmachim from getting semicha (rabbinic ordination) from the Israeli rabbinate.

Anonymous said...

Eisgrau & Eisemann don't have more than 2 accusers?

Anonymous said...

"Rabbi Herschel Schacter referred to Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Saul Berman as Amalek."

Saul Berman was protecting the rapist and molester Gafni / Winiarz according to Jewish Survivor Blog. He's wanted by police in Israel but he ran back to the States and is lecturing on the West Coast.

Anonymous said...

One cannot blame rabbonim who erred during the Holocaust. As the Brisker dayan explained, there is no clarity during a tzeit of hester ponim.

R' Aron Kotler was also active in the Vaad Hatzola, urging Reform Jews to not turn their backs on their people.

I agree with Ombudsman on the sweeping force of the contemporary yetzer horah. I have information from someone in Rabbbonus about the easy lure that entraps young men from YU AND ALSO yeshivish backgrounds. All they have to do is lose the yarmulka before going into a bar or more discreetly hooking up with women on certain websites. These options did not exist in the time of Volozhin.

Anonymous said...

The best kind of Rubashkin steak is the one at Le Marais that's basted with milchig margarine.

I'm sorry to hear that WJC is scrounging to serve bagels & cream cheese. I guess there isn't much money left after my pal Curt Hoxter cleaned them out.

Anonymous said...

It was buried in a JTA report this week. The reason for the IRS investigation of Sruly & WJC is because a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit was unable to account for $3.8 million.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thejewishpress.com/page.do/21514/Letters_To_The_Editor.html

I’m old enough to remember that in the 1960’s a brand like Hebrew National advertised in Orthodox publications, and as recently as the 1970’s Torah luminaries like Rav Pinchus Teitz, zt”l, decried the claim that non-glatt was somehow unacceptable for frum Jews.

Professor Shapiro was spot-on with his observation that “it’s very unusual for a tradition that regards itself as following the past to reject what previous standards were.” So much of what I see practiced in right-wing yeshiva circles is predicated on a rejection of the Orthodoxy that was perfectly acceptable to the rabbonim of thirty and forty years ago. That’s a proper mesorah?

Isaac Meltzer

New York, NY

We get Meltzer's basic drift but he is mistaken in thinking that many meat brands out there have acceptable kashrus apart from being non-glatt. It's completely scandalous what goes on. Rubashkin is no exception though just because it's OU & heymish. Unfortunately, being non-glatt nowadays means it's probably treif or not far from it.

Anonymous said...

"a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit was unable to account for $3.8 million"

LIARS !!

Anonymous said...

Who cares about a measly $3.8 million? Maybe because they could then afford to add lox to the menu of bagels & cream cheese? If all they care about is stuffing their faces, they should go with Sruly to the Agudah convention.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Unfortunately, being non-glatt nowadays means it's probably treif...... "or not far from it."

_____________________

You're doing a Gilligan now, something is either kosher or it's not!

Anonymous said...

I'd love to see Sruly Singer in action at the Agudah convention. He would have a hard time balancing all those handshakes between stuffing his face at the smorg.

I wonder if Shafran would extend an invite to an alter meshumad. I'd like to join the Agudah in a communique to denounce mandating clergy reporting on molestation (or reporting on molester clergymen) and denouncing troublemakers like UOJ.

I can just picture Shafran's email reponse: "Dear Mr. Jew ..."

Anonymous said...

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1701282.ece

Richard Snyder, a former chief executive of Simon & Schuster, the publisher, issued a $100 million lawsuit against Mr Bronfman, claiming that he had suggested to the media mogul that they try to buy Warner Music from Time Warner, then its parent, in 2004, and that Mr Bronfman had verbally promised a “fair and equitable distribution” of their success.

Mr Snyder, who had an office at Mr Bronfman’s private equity firm Lexa Partners, accused the Warner Music chief of reneging on the alleged agreement because he was “fearful of admitting to anyone — even himself — that he was incapable of attaining this level of success on his own”.

Orin Snyder, Mr Bronfman’s laywer, said that the claim for damages would be contested, adding: “These claims are absolute fiction. Simply put, Dick Snyder did not work on the Warner Music Group transaction and there was never an agreement to compensate him for anything.”

Mr Snyder ran Simon & Schuster for 20 years before being dismissed in 1994 by Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom, its parent; he later tried and failed to rescue the publisher Golden Books.

(Redstone gives money to Chaim Berlin)

Anonymous said...

http://www.thestar.com/artsentertainment/article/202635

QUEEN PHYLLIS: "I thought it was horrible, and I wanted nothing to do with it," says Phyllis Lambert, talking about her life as a child in the fortress-like Westmount, Que., mansion where she grew up as a Bronfman princess, daughter of the feared liquor tycoon known as Mr. Sam.

Lambert, who turns 80 this year, reveals this in the first few minutes of Citizen Lambert, a riveting documentary on Bravo! Sunday at 8 p.m. Horrified by a life of repression and control, she recalls, "I just wanted to get out."

She did – moving to Paris, then realizing a dream when she persuaded her father to let her take charge of planning a new Seagram Building in Manhattan, still today an architectural triumph.

Lambert once told me she could never have moved back to Montreal while her father was alive. But eventually she did, and Montreal is the luckier for it.

Many find her prickly and hard to get along with ...

Anonymous said...

Send regards to our French compatriots at Le Marais.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04112007/business/thats_so_rich__edgar_whine_business_.htm

THAT'S SO RICH, EDGAR WHINE$

Edgar Bronfman Jr., who sold Seagram Co. to Vivendi SA for $34 billion in 2000, sued the French company in federal court in New York, claiming it owes him a bigger pension.

Bronfman, now the chairman and chief executive officer of Warner Music Group Corp., says in a lawsuit filed yesterday that Vivendi is crediting him for only 20 years of service, ignoring 15 additional years for which he's entitled. Charles Michael, an attorney for Bronfman, declined to say how much his client claims he's owed.

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2442078.ece

The spat is the latest twist in a tortuous relationship between Vivendi and Mr Bronfman, whose decision to sell the family business in 2000 ranks as one of the worst-timed in recent corporate history. Mr Bronfman became executive vice-chairman of the combined company, but the Vivendi shares he and his family received plunged in value along with other media and dotcom companies in the stock market downturn at the start of the decade.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Agudah blowhards its time to shore up the Nidchai Yisroel. Those here in America being lost as a result of Rabbinic sex abuse. Nobody should care about the problems in Russia we have enough here at home. Fools don't you see that Eisemann is still an employee of the dumbass Vaad.

The same Vaad with Barry Hertz (of insider trading fame) investing the Vaad's money. With Nosson Neuberger (of Ner Israel College fame) running the funds. The same Vaad that was informed of Eisemann's extracurricular activities and swept it under the rug.

Yeshiva of Kishinev is still a registered institution of the Vaad Nidchei Yisroel, and is still under the auspices of Eisemann. As a result Mr. Shafran, Agudah employs a sex offender, and it's time for honesty.

Ronnie Schreiber said...

These options did not exist in the time of Volozhin.

Yes, there was not one prostitute or adulterous woman in all of Lita or Belarus.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Yes, there was not one prostitute or adulterous woman in all of Lita or Belarus.
________________

Ronnie,

Who am I to disagree with you on this subject?:-)

Anonymous said...

Ombudsman and Nudnik,

Rav Ahron Kotler and Rav Kalmanowitz were real Jewish men. They bear no resemblance to today's girlie men Agudists who can't even fight for their children against sex abusers. Today's queer Agudists prefer to don their fur hats, white leggings, and ballet slippers, dressed more like women, than men. They use curling irons for their payos, or maybe sleep in rollers overnight. Some of these dainty Agudists apply clear polish to their fingernails, maybe their toenails too. Their Shabbos robes, made from the finest silk, cost thousands.

Tens of thousands of nonorthodox Ameican Jews volunteered for the armed services during World War II. My father was one of them. Meanwhile, there were critics in the orthodox Yiddish newspapers who condemned Rav Kotler and Rav Kalmanowitz for being "mechalel Shabbos" regarding their hatzoloh activities, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe being one of them.

The Reform Jewish Secretary of Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, did everything he was asked to by Rav Kotler and Irving Bunim.

Mike Tress worked for Aguda, but he was not an Agudist. He was a mentsch first and foremost.

The stench from today's Aguda wafts downwards to Gehennim, as they sit idly by and do nothing. Or worse, whenever they open their mouths, like "Rabbis" Salamon, Wachsman, and Shafran, they sound like the fools they are.

Same Anon.

Anonymous said...

TOMPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former teacher charged with having sex with a 14-year-old middle school student and running off to Mexico with him pleaded guilty Wednesday to a sodomy charge.
Angela Renee Comer, 28, would serve 10 years in prison under her plea agreement, in which the prosecutor agreed to drop most other charges. Besides one count of third-degree sodomy, Comer pleaded guilty to one count of custodial interference.

She had faced up to 20 years on each of four counts of first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor and up to five years each for two counts of third-degree sodomy.

Comer said in an interview with The Associated Press after the court hearing that she was glad to avoid a trial, which had been scheduled to start Thursday.

"A trial is very stressful for everyone, and I just want this to be over," she said.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The stench from today's Aguda wafts downwards to Gehennim, as they sit idly by and do nothing. Or worse, whenever they open their mouths, like "Rabbis" Salamon, Wachsman, and Shafran, they sound like the fools they are.
_____________________

Exactly!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

"The laws of civilized societies reflect and shape those societies’ values". Avi Shafran in the Forward.
______

You miserable, sub-human, lying hypocrite!

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/05/rabbi-elan-adler-on-sex-crimes-in.html

When the rabbis in Baltimore start working WITH The Awareness Center instead of against -- I'll start to believe that they really want to make changes.

If I'm correct, it's only rabbis with a connection with Yeshiva University that are speaking out on sexual abuse in Baltimore. Please let me know if I'm wrong about this.

I also want to make a point to say that qn extremely reliable sources told me that Rabbi Elan Adler and his wife Rivkah Lambert Alder are friends with alleged sex offender rabbi Yaakov Menken.

It's interesting to see that when you go to Rabbi Adler's synagogues web page you will find Menken's organization listed (Project Genesis). Adler also has a link to one of rabbi Marc Gafni's long time supporters (Rabbi Saul Berman - Edah). It's also interesting to not that Rivkah Adler's organization (CJE) often runs programs associated with Menken.

I'll be honest, I'm sick and tired of the game playing by rabbis of Baltimore -- Jewish Survivor

Anonymous said...
Thank you for posting this. I went to Rabbi Adler for help and was basically shunned away by him. I don't know if he changed or not. Yet I would never suggest any survivors going to him as a support person.

May 09, 2007 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...
I had the same experience when I went to rav Goldberger. At first I felt safe with him, then after the second time I met him. I felt like he just didn't want to hear what I had to say.

May 09, 2007 10:27 PM
Anonymous said...
It's a great article. He should contact all of the survivors that he shunned and appologize to them. My question though is...He says you need three victims to believe an accusation. What do you do after one or two? Continue to allow the person access to children? Wait for the children to grow up, realize what was done to them? For the Perp to die in the meantime? So many kids don't tell.

May 09, 2007 10:35 PM
Anonymous said...
I went to Rabbi Goldberger for support years ago when I was a teen. I thought his house was a safe place, and I even babysat his kids many times! The abuser found out that he was being supportive and that I was spending a lot of time at the Goldbergers. Rabbi Goldberger agreed to meet with the abuser at his house. He told me about it and made it clear that he didn't believe me. I was very upset. I felt betrayed. I didn't feel safe there anymore. When I tried to explain how I felt he got angry and defensive with me..."I can let anyone I want to into my home." My only safe place was gone. It was a devestating experience.

May 09, 2007 10:44 PM

Jewish Survivors said...
"He says you need three victims to believe an accusation."

He is absolutely wrong. One survivor is one to many. The rabbis of Baltimore have to be educated. They think they know what they are doing or at least try to give the impression that they are knowledgeable. The reality is they aren't.

Remember it can take years of study to understand the issues surrounding survivors of sexual abuse and sexual assault. The rabbis in Baltimore, New York and around the world have only been "enlightened" for about 2 months.

I want to personally thank the survivors of Rabbi Eisemann. You started an important trend. Please make sure the rabbis at Ner Israel are accountable for not following through. Every survivor of every rabbi is counting on you to do so.

May 09, 2007 11:05 PM
Jewish Survivors said...
I forgot to add if you are a survivor of a sex crime, the first step is to contact your local rape crisis center to help you file a police report. After you do that and provide the police with all necessary information, if you choose you can go to the rabbis or your local beis din. But the first step is to file a police report. Don't let anyone try to talk you out of doing so.

May 09, 2007 11:07 PM
Anonymous said...
Wow, I was also turned away by rabbi Goldberger. Was anyone here also turned away by rabbi Porter?

May 09, 2007 11:25 PM
Anonymous said...
JS,
I like what you said here:

"The rabbis in Baltimore, New York and around the world have only been "enlightened" for about 2 months."

It's sort of like an unaffiliated Jew trying to teach halacha after attending classes for about 2 months. I wouldn't expect this individual to know what they are talking about -- nor would I trust the rabbis.

May 09, 2007 11:29 PM

Anonymous said...

No money is unaccounted for and the attorney general's report found NO evidence of criminal wrongdoing or intent. It found sloppy bookkeeping and sloppy business practices that pale in comparision to what I saw in Chabad and in other haredi venues.

I was there, in the WJC, during the height of much of what is viewed as the WJC's succeses. These people accomplished more in one day than the American Jewish Committee, ADL and AJC accoplished together in a lifetime, and they did in a chaotic environment with few staff.

When something had to be done it got done. It didn't matter whose credit card was used orhow the financials were covered. They just did the job and tried to sort out the money later. Edgar paid for things this way and never got repaid. So did Singer and others.

The problem is as the Forward notes:

Document after document is dribbled out to prove that Singer somehow cheated the Jewish people: stayed in hotels while traveling abroad, rented cars, hosted public meetings, ate meals. The documents released by various self-appointed guardians of Jewish honor are endless, but they all show the same thing: that Israel Singer traveled the world and represented the Jewish people to the best of his ability.
And Singer's ability was and is far greater than Liebler's, or Bronfman's or Herbit's.

But Liebler's attempts to pull the WJC rightward, and his personal hate for Bronfman – and for Singer, because Singer would not turn on Bronfman – created this ridiculous mess. Edgar is often a thug. He's used to getting what he wants now and without challenge. The only person who ever got around that was Singer, who did it with brains rather than with brute force. Liebler doesn't have those brains and he didn't have enough brute fore – or money – to win.

What Liebler did to soothe his own battered ego has hurt the entire Jewish people.

Singer is not a theif. He is a man who worked near miracles for you, and who was paid a fair but below-market wage for doing so.

What was Singer worth in the real world? Probably $1 million or more per year as a senior corporate figure. In the world of governments and non-profits? More than he made. (See how much Abe Foxman makes, not counting Foxman's vast perks or Marvin Hier.)

Open up Chabad's 'books' or the 'books' of almost any haredi org or yeshiva and see what you find. You won't like it. Neither will the attorney general.

Posted by: Shmarya | May 09, 2007 at 08:28 PM

Interesting spin Shmarya, I'm not buying it.

Time will tell and I'm not betting on Singer.

Posted by: MO MAN | May 09, 2007 at 09:53 PM

Anonymous said...

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=14045

But few insiders have spoken critically of the WJC publicly during these difficult years, presumably because of the authority and clout of the Bronfman-Singer team, and because Jewish leaders prefer to avoid the glare of scrutiny for their own organizations.

One leader, who spoke off the record this week, said it was “scandalous” that the details of the WJC’s troubles have been met with silence from the Jewish establishment. “Where is the outrage?” he asked.

He noted that Singer is president of the Conference on Material Claims Against Germany, the major group dealing with Holocaust restitution. Elections are due to take place in July, and Singer, according to his spokesman, Sheinkopf, has not decided on whether to run again for the top post. One member of the board said that with support within the group still strong for Singer, it would be “an uphill battle” to block him, despite the negative publicity surrounding him of late.

“It’s to everyone’s advantage to be on his side,” the board member noted. “Why take him on?”

Another subtext of the report is its charges against several possible successors to Bronfman.

The dossier asserts, for example, that Singer “may have accepted a bribe from Ronald S. Lauder” for $500,000 in stock in 1999 to promote Lauder’s interest in becoming president of the WJC.

No details are provided, and Lauder, the cosmetics heir and philanthropist who has announced his intentions to succeed Bronfman as WJC president, denied the allegation as baseless.

Anonymous said...

http://www.canonist.com/?p=1402#comment-59621

Andrew Silow-Carroll, the editor of the NJ Jewish News chimes in on SIW's blog and calls him "either willfully naive or protective"

Anonymous said...

Ron Lauder denies that he bribed Sruly? That's for us to determine.

Anonymous said...

Can UOJ tell us if there was anything in the dossier he handed to Bronfman that hasn't made it to the newspapers yet?

Anonymous said...

Because of the current difficulties at the WJC, I decided to forgo a cherry danish this morning for breakfast and only gulp down a shmeared bagel.

Eemo Anochi batzara.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Can UOJ tell us if there was anything in the dossier he handed to Bronfman that hasn't made it to the newspapers yet?

____________________

There's a mega-opportunity here for Gary Rosenblatt or some other enterprising journalist. The Roto-Rooter Guy is "in another sewer(s)".

I'll give Gary a hand (I washed it) here by dubbing this scandal "whiskey-gate"

Anonymous said...

Nassau Civil Supreme Index Number: 004881/2007 Upstate RJI Number:
Case Name: MESIVTA OF LONG BEACH vs. IN THE MATTER OF
Case Type: Other
Track: Standard
Disposition Date: 03/23/2007
Date NOI Due: 03/21/2008 NOI Filed: Disposition Deadline:
Calendar Number: RJI Filed: 03/22/2007
Jury Status:
Justice Name: GEOFFREY J. O'CONNELL

Attorney/Firm For Plaintiff: KRIEGER & PRAGER, ESQS. Attorney Type: Attorney Of Record Status: Active
39 BROADWAY, SUITE 920
NEW YORK, NY 10006
212-363-2900

Anonymous said...

Is Whiskey-gate just a play on words thanks to Seagrams or is there more brewing here?

Do you think Gary and his fellow journalists know things that they are thus far too scared to print?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Gumshoe,

Truthfully, I want to stay FAR away from this for various reasons, not the least being shedding any light on my source(s) (reliable friends).

Ponder this... It took approx. two years to get here. There is an ongoing, active IRS investigation. The AG investigators, to my knowledge, are being investigated.
Bronfman resigned suddenly.(Nixon?)

People are leaking all over the place all the way up the government ladder.

Are things "brewing"? What say you?

(no...I don't believe Gary has any of the "important" documents.

Anonymous said...

If you search State Supreme Court records under "Talmud", more than 200 cases appear which are mostly involving Satmar's UTA. Two suits are by the NYC Dept of Investigation and Shlomo Gottesman (Torah Umesorah?).

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxJe7rLH0Jw

Anonymous said...

Editor's View

by Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz

The story is told of a great Chassidic rebbe who related to his chassidim a conversation he had with a "slow-witted" person.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21519/My_Machberes.html

A convicted felon writes aboout it in the Jewish Fress and gives prominent mention to Belsky.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21507/Taking_Responsibility:_A_Religious_Perspective.html

After all the choyzek that the Jewish Fress has been exposed for by UOJ, they finally get a decent op-ed contributor in the form of Rav Yosef Blau.

Anonymous said...

Of course Belsky would get prominent mention. Tannenbaum is director of the Iggud haganovim and Klass is VP.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Fom the Jewish Press:

The succession of roshei yeshiva who have taken part in YTV’s Torah glory, literally a golden chain of tradition, are: Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, zt”l (1886-1948); Rabbi Dovid Lebowitz, zt”l (1889-1941); Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, zt”l (d. 1944); Rabbi Reuven Grozovsky, zt”l (1896-1956); Rabbi Moshe Dov Ber Rivkin, zt”l; Rabbi Aaron Yeshaya Shapiro, zt”l, Rabbi Uri Meir Kahanow, zt”l; Rabbi Shmuel Kushelevitz, zt”l (d. 1963); Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l (1890-1986); Rabbi Gedalia Schorr, zt”l (1910-1979); Rabbi Moshe Dov Ber Rivkin, zt”l; Rabbi Reuven Fain, zt”l, Rabbi Elya Chazan, zt”l; Rabbi Simcha Sheps, zt”l; Rabbi Elazar Kahanow, zt”l; Rabbi Avrohom Pam, zt”l (1913-2001); Rabbi Asher Katzman, zt”l; Rabbi Nosson Eliyahu Gertzulin, zt”l; and Rabbi Nesanel Quinn, zt”l (1910-2005).


They were the predecessors to and/or colleagues of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, Rabbi Elya Katz, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, Rabbi Yosef Savitsky, Rabbi Yitzchok Sekula, and Rabbi Moshe Wolfson, today’s roshei yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.

_____________________

It sums up quite well the dire matzav of Klal Yisroel! Chaval!

Anonymous said...

http://www.stljewishlight.com/news/301076722558161.php

For example, Brown pointed to Jewish day schools.

"If I'm not mistaken, last year there were 22 Jewish day schools nationwide looking for leadership, principals or headmasters, and often, from what I understand, the average time in place [for a head of school] is two to four years, which means we're not attracting the right people, and we're not keeping them if we get them," she said.

Part of the problem, Brown said, is what she calls "a culture of criticism."

"Part of it has to do with the constant media scrutiny of leaders generally that contributes to a blur of private and public leadership lives. I think a lot of people are afraid, frankly, to go into a lot of leadership roles."

Anonymous said...

What does that hayseh Brisker kanoyee Yosef Savitsky think of Belsky?

Anonymous said...

http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/12960/

I get no respect from YU rabbis or UOJ. I didn't "gay avek". I grew a beard now to look more choshuv.

Anonymous said...

Who is considered the primary rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaas now?

Anonymous said...

Rav Quinn's eidim, R' Moishe Hershkowitz, is from Derech Chaim, not Darkei Chaim like Tannenbaum says. He's actually a tremendous talmid chochom and it's not lefee chevodo that he's at a Scheinberg yeshiva geared to slow and average bochurim.

Anonymous said...

"Who is considered the primary rosh yeshiva of Torah Vodaas now?"

Allow me to nominate myself. Nowhere better for the blogger-posek to do it than online.

Anonymous said...

Why didn't the Jewish Press mention in the article that Margo was the YTV bus driver?

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/05/rabbi-elan-adler-on-sex-crimes-in.html#2908453178160762382

The Vaad can't use the services of The Awareness Center because it's to controversial. The Awareness Center speaks the truth. Honesty and integrity is too political for them.

Anonymous said...

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770509032

The wife of a Franklin man charged with molesting children at the daycare she owned is in jail after refusing to turn documents over to investigators.

“All she has to do is turn over the records that the state requires her to have,” said Macon County Sheriff Robert Holland today.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ifallsdailyjournal.com/node/2981

Jehovah Witness Pay Largest Settlement Ever

At a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will - disclose and discuss largest settlement ever paid in settlement of 16 child molestation lawsuits against Jehovah's Witnesses,- blast Witness officials for requiring those victims to sign 'gag orders' that prevent victims from discussing the crimes they experienced and the suffering they've endured, - ask the nation's second largest denomination to follow the lead of the nation's largest denomination and ban such secret settlements. The group will also announce an outreach effort to find and help more men and women who have been sexually abused by Jehovah's Witness officials.

Anonymous said...

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/files/rubashkin_nlrb_may_2006.pdf

Document above from the National Labor Relations Board.

May 10, 2007
More Rubashkin Shenanigans
The Rubashkin family's questionable business practices continue. Below you'll find a decision against Agri Processor of Brooklyn, which appears to be a Rubashkin-controlled company. Rubashkin – who not only hires illegal aliens but actively recruits them, as documented by Stephen Bloom in his book on Postville – tried to get around Federal law requiring companies to bargain in good faith with unions. How did Rubashkin do this? He claimed to have checked employees Social Security numbers and found those numbers did not match those in the Social Security data base – in other words, the numbers were false and the employees were, therefore, undocumented workers. Since, Rubashkin's logic went, the workers were illegals, they therefore did not have the same rights as legal workers – hence Rubashkin did not need to bargain with the union.

The NLRB rejected Rubashkin's claims.

This took place last year about this time. This year, as the union (UFCW) is organizing at Postville, Rubashkin showed workers at his Postville plant a letter from Social Security saying employees' numbers did not match any in the system. This can be viewed as threat – unionize, and we'll call the Immigration and Naturalization Service and deport the lot of you.

The workers promptly walked out. Rubashkin closed the gates, trapping the workers inside the facility grounds. Eventually, using an interpreter, Rubashkin assured workers they had nothing to fear. Then he denied the walkout happened when asked by local media.

Understand this well. Rubashkin employs and recruits undocumented workers. He does this knowingly. He uses the workers' legal status against them to pay lower wages and to keep out unions.

Your rabbis have their seal of approval on this behavior. The OU, Crown Heights Bet Din, Rabbi Weismandl's Supreme Kosher, the KAJ, United Mehadrin Kosher, and many others sign on to this abuse. And, needless to say, the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) and the haredim (Agudath Israel, etc.) are silent on the abuse and vocal about supporting Rubashkin and schechita from "attack."

Anonymous said...

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070510/A_NEWS/705100317

Local and national soccer associations reviewed or revamped screening processes for coaches over the past year after learning of sexual assault charges against a father and son with ties to Stockton's youth soccer community.

U.S. Club Soccer now requires coaches to submit a background check application before they interact with children. The changes came as authorities closed in on Ernie P. Roxas, 53, a former Stockton Youth Soccer Association coach who was arrested near Las Vegas last month on felony charges of rape, lewd acts upon a child and sexual abuse of a child younger than 18.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Who is considered the primary rosh yeshiva of "Torah Vodaas" now?

________________________

Some "Torah"...absolutely no "Daas". NONE! NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!

Anonymous said...

We also have faith that the govt won't force us to regulate molesters.

http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/051007/wwAsOlmertHnagsOn.html

Faith-based programs are especially popular with the American public, said Rabbi Abba Cohen, Washington director for Agudath Israel of America

Anonymous said...

Beis Chana is Klausenberg. I wonder if they were in on the scam with Mendel Brach or if he just used their name without permission.

Anonymous said...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122404

Name your favorite Blog.

Anonymous said...

From Rabbi Blau's own words in the jewish press:

"Jewish tradition neither demands nor expects perfection from Jewish leaders. To be human is to err. “There is no righteous person on this earth who does only good and never sins.” What is critical is how he reacts when he inevitably makes a mistake."

(moshiach comes before the rabbi's of coverup fame even think of apology)

Anonymous said...

A useless link there from Boog. How can they hold a vote on blogs and not include Tuvya's Blog from my good friend Neuhoff?

Anonymous said...

Please participate in DOROT's annual "Mezuzah Program" on Tuesday, May 15th!
Deliver a mezuzah to a senior in the community and help affix it to his/her doorpost. Then share some time together during an hour visit.
DOROT's Mezuzah Program
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM Orientation & Refreshments at DOROT
171 West 85th Street (near Amsterdam Avenue)
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Visits to elders' homes
The orientation will include information about mezuzahs, the blessing, how to affix to a doorpost as well as about the visit.
To register, please call Carrie Jacobs at 212-769-2850 or email at cjacobs@dorotusa.org. Sign up with a friend!
We hope you'll join us for this important mitzvah!

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/858229.html

Canadian businessman Matthew Bronfman, the son of outgoing World Jewish Congress president and Seagrams heir Edgar Bronfman, seems likely to be appointed to a senior position in the organization.

Senior WJC sources told Haaretz yesterday that Matthew Bronfman's appointment is contingent on the election of South African businessman Mendel Kaplan as the organization's new president in a June 10 poll. But cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, who has told Haaretz in the past that he would like to fill the position, has not announced plans to run.

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/101746.html

Ronald Lauder moved to clear the way for a possible run for World Jewish Congress president. On Tuesday, Lauder had his lawyer send a letter to the WJC’s American Section warning that the selection of a president must be in accordance with the organization’s by-laws.

Edgar Bronfman, WJC president for nearly 30 years, resigned earlier this week. The group said it would choose an interim president at its governing board meeting June 10.

Lauder's special assistant, Wayne Kozak, told JTA on Monday that Lauder would not officially enter the race until he was "sure that there is going to be a fair and transparent election." Lauder, the cosmetics mogul who is president of the Jewish National Fund and a former president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is a former WJC treasurer.

WJC representatives said Lauder's letter was discussed Wednesday at the American Section's governing board meeting.

"It will be an open and transparent process, because we don't want UOJ coming after us" a WJC spokesman said of the forthcoming elections.

Anonymous said...

Anti-internet asifah big on musser, small on mentchlichkeit

The anti-internet asifah that took place tonight at Ateres Chaya in Boro-Park, put a great emphasis on doling out musser to the attendees about their vile and evil ways with using the internet. Ironically, the asifah showed how little middos they had and how little value they put on others lives. In an effort to draw an enormous crowd, the asifah was broadcast over loud-speaker outside the hall on the street into late hours in the night. Each and every word uttered over the mike was blasted across town, waking babies, keeping them up and disturbing the peace and quiet of their parents. Maybe an example of ehrlichkeit and mentchlichkeit from the asifah organizers would have proven to be a more effective tool to accomplish their goal.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17638

During a panel report and discussion at UCLA:

Edgar M. Bronfman, chairman of the Hillel board of governors, megaphilanthropist and author of the recently published "Hope, Not Fear": "The most difficult job is to keep the Jewish community together in a free society."

On intermarriage: "It's a chance to bring in others. We should welcome everyone into Abraham's tent."

"I feel much more hopeful about the Jewish future now than I did a few years ago."
Adam Bronfman, hip son of Edgar and vice chair of Hillel's board of directors: "I like the idea that at Queens College in New York, we have Muslim students come over to Hillel to play Ping-Pong."

Anonymous said...

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010034

ACADEMENTIA

Finkelstein's Bigotry
Will America's largest Catholic university give tenure to an anti-Semite?

BY ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ
Sunday, May 6, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

In her 1951 best seller, "The Groves of Academe," Mary McCarthy fictionalized a failed academic who, realizing he wouldn't get tenure, became a communist so that he could claim that he was being denied tenure because he was a Red rather than a lousy scholar.

A version of that ploy is being used today. Norman Finkelstein brags that "never has one of [his] articles been published in a scientific magazine." By his own account he has been fired by "every school in New York," including Brooklyn College, Hunter and NYU. His chairman at one of these colleges said that Mr. Finkelstein was fired for "incompetence," "mental instability" and "abuse" of students with politics different from his own. His prospects seemed bleak, so when radical Islamist Aminah McCloud--a follower of Louis Farrakhan--helped him land a job at DePaul, a school that Mr. Finkelstein describes as "a third-rate Catholic university," he accepted "exile."

His prospects did not improve when he wrote a screed against Holocaust survivors called "The Holocaust Industry." The scholar whose work on the Holocaust was the "stimulus" for this volume, University of Chicago professor Peter Novick, warned that: "No facts alleged by Finkelstein should be assumed to be really facts, no quotation in his book should be assumed to be accurate, without taking the time to carefully compare his claims with the sources he cites. . . .

Anonymous said...

UOJ figured out before anyone else that the ex-CIA director is a fraud.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110010035

Inside the Inside Story
George Tenet's new book omits crucial facts and includes blatant fictions.

BY DOUGLAS J. FEITH

Anonymous said...

From the Better Late Than Never Department:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122414

Now maybe, just maybe, the OU can also get a program in place against the sex predatrors and molesters.

Anonymous said...

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/05/10/science-nasa-climate.html

Climate change will bring scorching summers, NASA scientists say
Last Updated: Thursday, May 10, 2007

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html

In Guilty Plea, OxyContin Maker to Pay $600 Million

The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives pleaded guilty today in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused.

From left, Howard R. Udell, the top lawyer for Purdue Pharma; Dr. Paul D. Goldenheim, the company’s former medical director; and Michael Friedman, Purdue’s president.

Anonymous said...

Belmar rosh yeshiva is R' Moishe Heinemann's son.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070511/NEWS01/705110416/1004/NEWS01

Neighbor upset with conditions at Belmar yeshiva

Woman: students loud, dirty
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/11/07
BY ERIK LARSEN
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

BELMAR — A Republican candidate for Borough Council contends that students at an Orthodox Jewish boarding school near her street are loud and dirty, that the school itself has outgrown the neighborhood and that the council should do something about it.

"The rodents, the trash . . . I'm not picking on the children, but someone is always awake," said Victoria Renner, 50, of D Street, a florist who is running for one of the two seats to be filled in the election this year.

Renner was addressing the council during a sometimes heated exchange late Wednesday night.

On Thursday, Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle, a Democrat, said that Mesivta Keser Torah School on 11th Avenue near D Street has been a fixture in Belmar in some form or another since about the 1920s.

The all-male school, or yeshiva, is part of the Congregation Sons of Israel; there were no precise numbers immediately available on the size of the student body.

"We've been through this over and over again with Mrs. Renner," Pringle said. "The police respond to reports of violations and they are rarely substantiated. Our code enforcement has dealt with the rabbi on some periodic litter issues. We will continue to make sure both the school and the students abide by our laws."

Several students interviewed Thursday said they believe complaints are rooted in anti-Semitic stereotypes and they are being singled out from other young people who live in the neighborhood.

"I think so, definitely . . .," said Ike Spitz, 16, of Brooklyn. "We'll be playing football in the street and one of the neighbors, they'll call the police, saying we're impeding traffic. But other kids, they can play basketball in the street, a block up, and no one calls, nobody bothers them."

They say their neighborhood can be uncom-fortable to live in sometimes: They've seen neighbors glare at them from their front doors or porches.

Renner said that it's not uncommon to see the students making noise, being up at all hours of the night, smoking, discarding their cigarettes on the ground as well as snack food wrappers and pizza boxes. There's now a problem with rats, she said.

"Nobody in the community deserves to be abused this way," Renner said. "Nobody. It's not just Vicki Renner who is unhappy with this."

William Tyler, 38, of 12th Avenue, agreed. He's a Plainfield police officer who lives next door to a house that serves as a dormitory for the school.

Tyler said the students' religion is irrelevant and that he likes the students on an individual basis. But there are nights where they have turned their dormitories into animal houses, behaving like any other young person liberated from an adult's supervision.

A rabbi at the school declined comment Thursday.

Recently, Tyler attempted to invoke the Open Public Records Act in an effort to determine when the borough approved "a college" in town, which he said aptly describes the yeshiva because it houses both high school-aged and college-aged students.

Borough Administrator Robbin D. Kirk said no approval for a college has ever been given.

Council President Meredith Brennan, who lives on 11th Avenue, said she does not see what Renner and Tyler see.

"I don't have dorms on my street," Brennan said. "There are kids around, don't get me wrong, I see the kids in white shirts."

Pringle warned Renner that she was risking a federal civil rights lawsuit.

"You can't say don't walk on our streets, you can't say don't walk in groups," Pringle said. "This is a ticket to a federal courthouse."

Anonymous said...

http://www.ou.org/abstinence

We will have to fix R' Hershel Schechter for allowing the OU to put up this website. He acts like an out of control gadol from a previous generation.

Anonymous said...

The Agudah's Yankel Horowitz has been quiet lately. Maybe the Novominkser told him to stick to Boro Park.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708569599&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Lost generation

LARRY DERFNER, THE JERUSALEM POST May. 10, 2007

Just off Jaffa Road, on Rehov Yoel Salomon, is "Crack Square," where many English-speaking runaways, often yeshiva dropouts, like to congregate. Down the narrow streets of Nahalat Shiva, past the masses of young people gathered outside the pubs, in a clearing surrounded by old stone buildings facing Rehov Hillel, is "Moon Square." This is the hangout favored by teenagers who live in abandoned local buildings, or "squats," and who stay drunk on cheap vodka.

Anonymous said...

http://www.gothamist.com/2007/05/11/pete_and_j_musi.php

Please share your strangest "only in New York" story.
When we first came to look for an apartment in New York, a Hasidic Jewish broker was showing us some shitbox apartment in Brooklyn. After showing us the place, he suggested that we take his car to check out another place. So, we get in his car, he starts to back out of the parking spot and jams the car next to us so hard that the adjacent car actually lifts up off the ground. He smiles sheepishly at us, remarking that he's only been driving for 2 weeks. Pete is in the front, J in the back, and we cannot make eye contact, or we will lose our shit. Begin driving. He stops fully at a green light and then runs two red lights. After several other minor infractions, he pulls over, looks at Pete in the passenger seat. And says, "You drive?". Why not. In the middle of all this, his wife calls, and he begins screaming at her in Hebrew. Meanwhile, his directions to the next apartment begin to degenerate, as Pete is urged to take his 17th left of the trip. So here we are, trying to find an apartment that we're definitely going to hate, with Pete driving the broker's car, and the broker yelling in another language on the phone. Story wraps up with Pete looking to J in the back for some guidance, and finds that J has decided to grab a quick nap.

Anonymous said...

Attention to men in Boro Park. here is what Ohel is feeding your wives. Ohel convinces them that they are being abused so they can reap huge benfits from the gov in form of grants to pay their counslers. They instruct the woman of Boro Park to come in secret and then they feed them this until they wrechk the fanily and then can get even more money to deal with the children. There has to be an outrage about this. Men in Boro Park Please post your stories and get more rabanim involved

http://www.ohelfamily.org/articles_drill.cfm?Art_ID=46

Anonymous said...

Rabbi Metzger of the Rabbanut publicly criticized the OU the other week for being machshir fake shrimp which is a mariss ayin problem. The Jewish Fress asked Rabbi Genack to comment. He says blah blah blah, we have a great relationship with Rabbi Metzger, blah blah blah, then says well I "personally" agree that it's a problem so we "probably won't" be machshir fake shrimp again when the contract expires.

Anonymous said...

From: It's sick out there, and getting Sicker Department:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3357145,00.html

Anonymous said...

The assifa this past thursday in ateres chaya, was addressed by the one and only duvid olewski aka "BIG DAVE", of leizerowitz fame, now he is one person that really fears the internet.

By the assifa he spoke of some neutral vaad being formed by the rabbonim of boro park that will consist of some yungerleit of pupa and 2 other chassidus and they will be in charge of letting a certain mosod or cheder know that a child in their school has internet at home, and then the school will have to either expell the child or his parents will have to sign papers that they will not have internet anymore, so that their kid can continue to be in school.

NOw were is the outcry on abused children big dave? why the silence, were you worried for kovod ger, thats why you let this sick perverted individual by the name of Avrohom mordechi Leizerowitz to continue to molest innocent bochrim years after you were told by numerous parents of their fears of leizerowitz, the internet is what your worried about of ruining challila innocent neshomos, what about the lives you have enabled to be abused and molested don't you ever think of them, Shame on you duvid, and all other rabbonim of boro park that have enabled molesters and perverts to rome our schools freely w/o fear of ever being stopped, you all deserve a molesters punishment.

The only way that you can fix it for me is to gather the people of boro park and ask mechilla for letting the victims down and not getting rid of the abusers when you were told about them, now if you tell me that you can't do it for you are opening up the rabbonim of the area to lawsuits by victims, thats your problem, eat the shit you made, while you are at this mechilla assifa, why not set up a vaad of neutral chassidem that will moniter rabbeim/menahlim/mashgichim so that you will not be faced with another lawsuit, big dave i am waiting but not for long, and then you will hear from me big time.

Ronnie Schreiber said...

Rabbi Metzger of the Rabbanut publicly criticized the OU the other week for being machshir fake shrimp which is a mariss ayin problem.

What's next, breakfast beef? The great fake hamburger and pepperoni that Slice of Life in Skokie uses on their pizzas? Pumpkin pies (Rich's Whip works well as a cream substitute)? Non-dairy coffee creamer? Smoked dark meat turkey roll because it looks like ham?

Ronnie Schreiber said...

# Tricot shirts

Hmmmm. No mention of tricot in the Shulchan Aruch.

# Lycra shirts and skirts

Same with lycra. I wonder what they'd say about my bike shorts and jerseys. Oh wait, I'm a man and the tznius patrols are only concerned with women. I'll remember that when the ladies at Bed Bath & Beyond are checking me out.

# Open-collared shirts

It seems that the halacha is concerned with covering the collarbone, not the shape of the covering.

# Short and tight skirts

The halacha is that the knees must be covered as the thigh is considered ervah. Mandating longer skirt lengths violate bal tosif. As for tight skirts, I wonder how they determine and measure tight. Do they have a uniform (pun intended) standard, or are they channeling Potter Stewart?

# Skirts with a slit

What about kick pleats?

# Skirts with a straight cut

Interesting how men who wear nothing but black become experts about women's fashions. Besides, considering the girth of some chareidi and chassidish women, straight line skirts are kinda moot.

# Long or bulky earrings

How long is long? What constitutes "bulky"?

# Clothes and bags in loud, flashy colors

Do they have a list of acceptable Pantone (tm) colors?

# Wigs that are too exclusive

WTF????!!!!

# Transparent or colorful stockings

I wonder if they realize that logically, if both transparent and colored stockings are prohibited, that covers 100% of stockings so any stockings would be prohibited. I think it's ironic that in some chareidi communities, women must wear stockings with seams in the back, just the kind of stockings that lingerie fetishists love.

# Clunky shoes

How do they measure "clunk"?

Is this what the chareidi leadership is hoping for:
Police in Tehran ordered to arrest women in 'un-Islamic' dress

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The self appointed guardians of tznius are silent about chareidi men patronizing hookers. I guess wearing a straight line skirt is much worse than taking off your tzizis as you get ready to shtup a nafka.

______________

My Friend Ronnie,

Who am I to disagree with you on this important topic?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Tzures rabim-chatzi nechama!

A man stopped at his favorite watering hole after a hard day's work to relax. He noticed a man next to him ordered a shot and a beer. The man drank the shot, chased it with the beer and then looked into his shirt pocket.
This continued several times before the man's curiosity got the best of him. He leaned over to the guy and said, "Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice your little ritual, why in the world do you look into your shirt pocket every time you drink your shot & beer?"
The man replied, "There's a picture of my wife in there, and when she starts looking good, I'm heading home!"

Anonymous said...

Oh well, we can't blame everything on Sruly.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271432,00.html

In the two years since Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought the company from Time Warner, Warner Music has been destroyed. It's gone. There's nothing there.

This week, they announced they were firing 400 people, 70 of whom were said to be from the WEA sales force. In the last quarter, WMG says it lost $27 million, compared to $7 million in the same quarter last year. Mind you, three months ago they announced a 75 percent drop in profits.

In the last year, WMG literally had two hits: James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley. That's it. Two. Otherwise, the Bronfman group has added nothing to the company.

We hear every day that downloading has ruined the music business. I say that is ridiculous. Laziness and greed have destroyed the industry from within. Warner Music has been turned into a venture capital pawn. It doesn't matter if they don't release anything, they will just lay off 400 people to show a profit. The people don't matter and neither does the music.

Here's a suggestion: Why not just give up and change the name to Warner Management Group or Warner Miscellaneous Group? Because the music is dead there, and so is the hallowed legacy.

Anonymous said...

This is like Gil Student refusing to comment about authors he publishes.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173351171876&path=!nationworld&s=1037645509161

Saturday, May 12, 2007
Music executives are silent on offensive rap lyrics after uproar
They promised to review issue and plan initiatives, but did not

Facing fierce criticism about offensive rap lyrics, top music-industry executives planned a private meeting. They would discuss the issue, they said, and “announce initiatives” at a news conference afterward.

That was three weeks ago. The news conference was canceled without explanation. Ever since, music’s gatekeepers have been silent.

“They want this whole thing to go away and keep doing what they’ve been doing, which is selling records,” said Don Gorder, the chairman of the Music Business/Management Department at the Berklee College of Music.

Verizon dropped pitchman Akon after video surfaced of him simulating sex with an underage fan on stage.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., the chairman and chief executive of Warner, and Lyor Cohen, Warner’s chairman and chief executive of U.S. music, have also declined repeated interview requests.

Ronnie Schreiber said...

By the assifa he spoke of some neutral vaad being formed by the rabbonim of boro park that will consist of some yungerleit of pupa and 2 other chassidus and they will be in charge of letting a certain mosod or cheder know that a child in their school has internet at home, and then the school will have to either expell the child or his parents will have to sign papers that they will not have internet anymore, so that their kid can continue to be in school.

And we all know that the internet will do more harm to a child than kicking him out of a yeshiva.

Big Dave, here is the baby. Here is the bath water. You choose.

Ronnie Schreiber said...

,Who am I to disagree with you on this important topic?

I read a lot.

For the record, I've never taken off my tzizit when with a hooker. But then I've never patronized a prostitute in my life. I may have no game when it comes to women but my ego won't let me pay for it. Alimony and child support is too close to paying for it anyway. Besides, I value my health too much to risk it by being with a hooker.

NP: Sky Blue Sky - Wilco (though I'm more partial to Jeff Tweedy's former songwriting partner Jay Farrar of Son Volt. Both of them are a bit lefty for my political tastes but are very talented songwriters).

Anonymous said...

auto report;

Don't even waste your time trying to figure these bums out.

They're full of s--t.

BTW; What percentages of learning disabilities, behavioral and psychological problems among these Chariedi children can be attributed to the transmitted STD's heilge Poppa brought home from the Shtupee?

Ronnie Schreiber said...

We hear every day that downloading has ruined the music business. I say that is ridiculous.

The decline began before iTunes and Napster. However, it could have been the big record companies who pioneered selling downloads and ringtones, but they were too busy being buggy whip manufacturers and looking for paid off congresscritters to solve their problems by suppressing potential competitors.

The major record companies stopped doing anything like artist development years ago, and acted like Major League Baseball before Curt Flood successfully sued to allow free agency. While their product may have stunk, the big five record companies had a virtual monopoly on the distribution of retail recordings. They knew that if artists wanted to get their records in music stores, they'd have to sign, or at least have a distribution deal with one of the majors. Independent artists and indie labels had a miserable time getting product into the stores, particularly the big chains like Tower, Sam Goodys, and WalMart.

However, once an alternative distribution stream was developed via the internet, the major record companies' power was drastically reduced. Musicians can now sell their music directly to their fans. Since most musicians make way more money from live performances (most name acts get about 90% of the gate, so a band can gross about $1 million a night playing arenas, not counting their cut of merchandising and incidentals), jettisoning the record companies was a no brainer.

Laziness and greed have destroyed the industry from within. Warner Music has been turned into a venture capital pawn. It doesn't matter if they don't release anything, they will just lay off 400 people to show a profit.

Warner's back catalog of recordings is still worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so there will always be venture capitalists eager to own the rights.

The WSJ just reported that Apple Corp., the Beatles' holding company, is very close to coming to contractual agreement to selling Beatles music online. The Beatles are one of the few major acts whose back catalog is not available for download. I'm guessing that the first day their catalog will be available the gross will be something on the order of $50 million.

To show how stupid the record industry has been, I'm listening to an audio stream of Wilco's new album, set to drop on Tuesday. A few years back, while they were on Warner Bros., Tweedy delivered the tapes of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, that had a lot of ambient and experimental music that frankly was not very accessible. Warner rejected the album and released the band from their contract. Wilco then made the album available for download for free at their web site. After half a million people downloaded it, demonstrating a market, there was a bidding war among the record companies, to sign Wilco and get the rights to YHF. They ended up signing with Nonesuch, a subsidiary label of, you guessed it, Warner Bros.

Ronnie Schreiber said...

Verizon dropped pitchman Akon after video surfaced of him simulating sex with an underage fan on stage.

More like simulating a rape. I saw the video clip before his label, Universal Music Group, had YouTube pull it on copyright grounds. He treated her like a rag doll. There's porn that's less offensive.

Verizon, btw, is still selling his ringtones. At a buck or two a pop, ringtones are arguably the most profitable part of many musician's revenue streams.

Anonymous said...

Big Dave, here is the baby. Here is the bath water. You choose.
---

My good friend from Satmar, Rabbi Niederman, the metzizah b'peh guy, tells me Big Dave is really nicknamed "tiny Tim". Nowhere to hang the spudik when it rains.

Anonymous said...

For the record, "I've" never taken off my tzizit when with a hooker.

----

Gotcha. Channele the Detroit nafka has a reputation for taking it off for her clients.

Source: Bunnie F.

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/05/synagogue-bans-sex-offender-from.html

Unless UOJ really puts the squeeze on me, don't expect me to follow the lead of British shuls and kick out sex offenders like Yudi Kolko.

Anonymous said...

The Chicago Sun-Times & ABC's Good Morning America are reporting on investigations by State Attorneys General and the Congressional Research Service that most expensive fish in restaurants is being substituted with cheap fish like Tilapia. Sometimes distributors are duping the restaurants and sometimes the restaurants are in on the fraud.

"The Congressional Research Service -- Congress' research arm -- issued a report last month citing a government survey that found 37 percent of fish examined by the National Marine Fisheries Service were mislabeled. A separate survey by the Fisheries Service found a whopping 80 percent of red snapper was mislabeled."

Anonymous said...

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/files/wjc_aod_01312006.pdf

The new week is off to a start and there aren't any new stories about me. Just the AG's report being rehashed and posted on blogs.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708595847&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Not so fast, Sruly.

I'm the Stoliner guy from Boro Park who became Chief Rabbi of the Ukraine. I'm an opponent of Pierre Besnainou, Sruly's supporter at WJC who Herbits compares to an Arab.

Anonymous said...

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000210964&fid=1725

Hey what's going on? It's one thing if Bronfman's people are kicked out of Israel Discount Bank for misconduct, but why are my people being forced out?

Anonymous said...

Health Commissioner Tom Freiden may kiss Satmar butt but he's a pain to work for. He's a tough cookie who likes yelling at his underlings.

Anonymous said...

It's a good thing Rubashkin doesn't do fish. There are enough shenanigans over there with chicken, beef & the bison that Belsky keeps flip flopping on whether it's kosher.

Anonymous said...

There's an article today on Arutz Sheva that describes the OU/NCSY's web-based"sexual abstinence program." Though the starry-eyed among us may believe that sexual activity among Orthodox youth is a non-issue, they live in denial at their own risk.

Meanwhile, cynics snort at "right wing" claims that the Internet is the bogeyman of our day, but I unequivocally beg to differ. Need I count the ways?

Putting porn aside, which is a clear and present danger, I am convinced that the instantaneous access the Internet allows to explicit information and perverse influences, all of which are anathema to the values of the Orthodox family, and I'd like to believe Jews in general, has much to do with why of the several therapists and child psychologists I've discussed this issue with, one describes walking in a fog of despair from the frequency and nature of sexual activities and proclivities he hears from teenage patients. And it's not just a problem for the Five Towns, mind you.

Another mental health professional describes how being a therapist in today's frum community means living with a broken heart. Dramatic, perhaps, but unwarranted, highly doubtful.

The OU/NCSY sexual abstinence program is geared to deliver frank, honest, and compelling information to Jewish teens, Orthodox or otherwise, about the havoc sexual activity wreaks on teenage lives.

It occurred to me that the site itself, provides a handy foil to the online perversity drenching today's teens. No one is moving backward. The net is here and here to stay. But a web-based abstinence program at-least provides another of several web-based positive influences.

The article mentions the involvement of Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) at Yeshiva University, in appraising and approving the program. The article notes that Rav Schachter made certain and believes the content of the program "[is] straightforward but not so graphic as to render it too unsuitable for observant teens to read."

Of course, just hearing that the OU, with the involvement of YU, spearheaded this timely and courageous program, many in the so-called "heimishe circles" will respond with the same 'Chareidim-don't-have-this-problem-if-you-weren't Modern-Orthodox-you-wouldn't-either' pomposity, and the usual head-in-the-sand snark reserved for real-world issue that may directly impact their community, which they expect will disappear if ignored long enough.

But then, alas, in a few years, we'll read some breathless Yated article describing the historical significance of how the Gedolei Hador met to discuss when they plan to discuss having a discussion about the solution to this tragic and unforeseen "blowjob crisis", or "homosexual machleh."

Organizations like Priority-69 or Project S.E.X. will materialize from the ether insisting that they and only they have the knowledge and experience to resolve this unprecedented crisis.

Rabbonim will organize perfunctory, community-wide Yomei Tefillot, while opaquely blaming the whole problem on women and their erotic Lycra skirts. The Agudah will issue press release after press release insisting that while it might seem they're doing nothing, really they are hard at work solving the problem "as we speak," but quietly, and behind the scenes.

Torah Umesorah, however, will develop a brilliant, immeasurably effective website that distributes FOR FREE inspired solutions that deal with the problem head-on. But, they'll refuse to reveal the URL to avoid the appearance that the condone the Internet; the existence of which, as per the binding policy of the Moetzes Gedolos, they cannot acknowledge.

And in the flurry or hand-wringing, self-pity, and uncomprehending panic, YU and the OU, long marginalized for their prescient leadership, will remain ignored in spite of their early contributions. And they'll stand back in wonderment, similarly uncomprehending that an issue they first identified and were so taken to task for, the centerpiece claim when fundraising, has somehow slipped through their fingers into the hands of a system which will never acknowledge, much less credit their visionary efforts.

Ronnie Schreiber said...


Gotcha. Channele the Detroit nafka has a reputation for taking it off for her clients.


I wouldn't know. I don't hang with the YBY crowd much and none of the Chanas that I know are working girls. Thirty years ago I heard there was a girl who worked the apartment building next door. As for the YG crowd, from my encounters with their guys, I'm not sure they'd know what to do. Besides, the administration there has conniptions if they find out a boy even talked to a female that wasn't his sister so I'd think the guys would be a bit gun shy.

Source: Bunnie F.

Bunnie's a decent guy albeit with some ambition and his son Mo is a straight shooter in my experience. While discussing the problem of molesting teachers BF acknowledged to me that there were three cases at YBY during his tenure there. His brother Tally is a sweetheart. I do a fair amount of work for Central East and my cousin Noach is on the staff and as menschlich as they come so you won't hear me say anything bad about them.

Anonymous said...

A lot of people are starting to take heed of UOJ.

http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20070511-4.html

New York joins 31-state collaboration to collect climate change information

Anonymous said...

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_5884595

Can UOJ help us get rid of the Russians?

Anonymous said...

http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/2314_ghetto_life.htm

The Gerrer Rebbe and Rav Shteinman in Antwerp.

Anonymous said...

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=21&id=12862

Maimonides has seen a 25% increase in emergency room visits since 2003, and the hospital has received complaints from patients and their families about long wait times.

Anonymous said...

Ronnie and no doubt others don't get why fake shrimp is worse that fake pepperoni pizza etc. Rabbi Metzger specifically blasted the OU for shrimp because you cannot easily discern that it's not the real thing. There are heterim for other fake foods that are easily discernable.

Ronnie Schreiber said...

Rabbi Metzger specifically blasted the OU for shrimp because you cannot easily discern that it's not the real thing.

And where is Rabbi Metzger's data to indicate that people cannot distinguish between the two? It would be easy to do the study.

I've never eaten shrimp, but I've seen enough to be able to identify, by sight, the difference between shelled shrimp and the processed fish product. Real shrimp isn't orange.

I've been told that dark meat smoked turkey roll is almost indistinguishable from ham, both in appearance and taste. Will we ban turkey roll next?

Anonymous said...

Doesn't Metzger have a gray past with regard to an illicit relationship....or was it his coclown?

Lets go to the records ala TheAwarenessCenter