Sunday, June 04, 2006---The UOJ Archives
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This is a copy of an e-mail I sent to a friend to pass on to the rabbis.
Dear.....
There's very credible evidence coming in on another large yeshiva doing exactly what Torah Temimah has done. I do not want to start taking down yeshiva after yeshiva, but I will, if need be. Before I go public with anything further, perhaps you want to set up a meeting with the Moetzes/Torah Umesorah and tell them the following:
1- Lipa Margulies must be removed from Torah Temimah. I don't care how it's done. He can't EVER again be involved in the chinuch of children. Let him open a restaraunt and get Kolko as head-waiter, and Belsky as mashgiach for all I care. When Margulies is removed, and Shustal, or that caliber person becomes rosh yeshiva, with an administrative board like the Chaim Berlin and the YTV model, I will move away from the Torah Temimah issue predicated on the following:
a- An independent sex-abuse registry is set up for all the yeshivas and Bais Yaakov schools, administered by frum professionals, NO RABBIS!
b-An independent professional panel of ten (men & women) are put together to hear allegations of abuse. They can meet on Sundays on a rotating basis. Three people need to show up once in 3 weeks.
c- If the above happens by August 3rd 2006 - Tisha B'Av, they will avoid the third self destruction of the Jews brought on by their own evil behavior.
I'm in the process of retaining a high profile PI, a former NYPD detective, to investigate ALL allegations of abuse, and go STRAIGHT to the media and the authorities with his findings.
Please get back to me by June 10th.
Your Chaver,
UOJ
My friend responds that he's having a problem with the direction the blog is taking.
This is my response to him:
I can appreciate your concerns about the direction of the blog. I'm also very glad to hear about your progress with the pending bill, but it's still pending and so is the registry by Torah Umesorah. Why not a statement from Torah Umesorah that they are working on one?
Look, you have valid points, I agree that some of the language is questionable, even mine. But look at the results! Kolko is gone and Margulies is ruined regardless of the show he puts up!
Do you really think anything would have happened if there was not a lunatic out there ready to take down all the yeshivas that are rotten, and harboring sick, abusive and ill rebbes?
"Rabbi"......is a monster, I verified it over a two week period before I put it up. I screen - 100 posts that have a name on it before I put up one. The masses are enraged, I feel it in their language.
I know people, the best results are made under pressure and deadlines. YESHIVA.......... is next, if the organizations don't act.
I too feel that I am NOT permitted to go away until major changes are implemented; not promises, not want to, not going to, but implemented permanently. My dear chaver, ...I will go away when the changes are in place NOT A MOMENT BEFORE. I don't trust them and neither should you. They've proven themselves to be rishaim, yes, teshuva is possible, but so far it's a bunch of talk.
Please get back to me by June tenth with a "written" letter of intent agreeing to yesterday's demands, I will then go on hiatus until Aug. 3rd.
If not...they'll be sorry, very sorry.....you know that!
Good Yom-Tov...All my very best,
UOJ
Posted by "UOJ" - "The Un-Orthodox Jew" at Sunday, June 04, 2006
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
140 comments:
Bug-free Schach!!??
Sick and getting sicker.
What's next. Hashgocho approved fine mesh nets to surround your Succah table and chairs so no bugs can access the table, glasses, cutlery and be machshil the assembled family/guests at the Table?
This is "Orthodox Judaism"?
YOWZA!
Hashem Yiracheim.
You wrote elsewhere that you are "sure" the Badatz gets a commission on the schach. How is it that you are so sure?
Because this is not an issue of halacha that they need to rule on. The s'chach is obviously kosher and it is no better than any other kosher s'chach. The Badatz haskama is not saying that the s'chach we have been using is not kosher. The only reason that they need them for is to be salesmen or pitchmen, and most salesmen I know work on commission.
"There's a sukkah born every minute."
Steve said...
Whoever witnesses this guy touching a child inappropriately must report it to the police. Reporting it to Chaptzem will not accomplish anything. Brauner is still under probation and another conviction will land him in jail for a long time, which is where he belongs, away from society. He has a din of rodef and it is a chiyuv to turn him in.
3:19 PM, September 05, 2007
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Steve, your right on once again, just open a chumash to parshas ki teitzi "and if it was in the field that the man found the engaged woman and he held her and slept with her, then only the man should die. and to the woman don't do a thing, for the woman has no sin, just as a person murders another, so the same is here".
Steve, the torah could just have said the woman should remain alive for she had not sinned, and was forced to do it, but no! the torah puts the 2 together in my opinion to teach us that these 2 are one and the same.
Uoj, what will it take for people and the cowardly rabbonim to agree with me on these two pesukim?
How many more lies...how much more pain...how many more victims....how many more pictures of rabbis in newspapers as child-abusers....when is enough--enough?
LVF, I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but when naara is chosser ksiv it's because she could have screamed and fought but didn't. Azoy lernt men.
UOJ had mentioned that the YTT gang are making fools out of themselves by pretending the legal proceedings are dead in the water. Can we get a sneak preview of something that's not on the court website? Of course we don't expect UOJ to tip off the shmucks. Maybe there's something that won't ruin the element of surprise?
"The only reason that they need them for is to be salesmen or pitchmen, and most salesmen I know work on commission."
You have no proof of that. If you are mistaken, it's not a very good time of the year to be motzee shem ra on talmidei chochomim.
Maybe there's some detail we don't know.
Maybe they were duped into signing. Don't forget that master manipulators like the corrupt Leib Pinter have pulled off even bigger stunts with many more signatures.
Do you think the Badatz receives a check or money under the table for every haskomma on a sefer?
This blast from a year ago and change past got me wondering. Torah Umesorah figured prominently in UOJ's warning and it's about when Shea Fishman retired and tried fading into obscurity.
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2007/08/rabbi-yehuda-kolko-indicted-again.html
UOJ took the picture from Yudel's blog on the OU shenanigans with cholov stam, adding this caption:
"Executive board members of Yeshiva Torah Temimah attempting to restrain Lipa Margulies at a smorgasboard at a recent Jewish wedding"
CLick on the link. It's priceless.
UOJ, one cannot argue with the results of all your hard work. One needs a scorecard to keep up with all the molesters that you have dealt with. Kolko is gone from YTT and is under indictment. Nussbaum is no longer teaching in YOB. Leizerowitz is gone from Ger Mesivta and is on the run in his Ir Miklat. Eisemann is no longer teaching at NIRC. Colemar is under arrest in EY and is awaiting extradition. All this has happened in a little over a year.
My concern is this: it seems that the survivors and your supporters have come to rely more on you and the blogs than their common sense. We know that there is more work to be done with Eisemann, Leizerowitz, Nussbaum and of course Mondrowitz. To expect you to singlehandedly take care of the next steps with these molesters is unfair. We need the survivors to come forward and tell their stories. Whether it is to the police, to the press or to Jeffrey Herman, it will have an enormous effect in bringing these predators to justice. We also need the kahal to step up and protest to the institutions that are still harboring them, and to the politicians.
A perfect example is the case of Jerry Brauner. If people saw this guy lunging at children, how do they not call the police? Instead they informed Chaptzem! Chaptzem is a wonderful blog, but what more can he do but post the story? With Eisemann, the victims that sent the disturbing and graphic e-mails to UOJ need to meet with Phil Jacobs and tell their story. I know they must have met with Rabbi Hopfer, otherwise Eisemann would still be teaching. In order to remove him off campus, the story must be told in full. Teamwork will get the job done.
http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2007/08/13/John-Browne-Public-Outing
I thought UOJ was only going after yeshivos. Why would he care to expose the CEO of British Petroleum Amoco ?
Who has the latest info on Stefan Colmer? Is he still in Israel in Jail or back in the US?
http://www.tsofar.com/zofar/see_article.asp?id=6536
בשר לא מנוקר בהכשר הרבנות
חשיפה נוספת של ההפקרות בתחום הפיקוח על הכשרות מטעם "הרבנות הראשית" – בשר לא מנוקר בהכשר הרבנות נמכר באטליז בכפר סבא
זכור לשון הרמב''ן בפירוש החומש למה התורה מזהיר כ''כ על משכב זכור "כי רחמנות הטפשים רבים חללים הפילו
http://chaptzem.blogspot.com/2007/08/beware-convicted-child-molester-yechiel.html#667985004920733377
Eight years ago Brauner hurt a family member. On Hoshana Raba morning while driving a Mes to the Beis Hachaim for Shomrei Hadas Chapel. My family member went along to say Tehillim like Brauner requested.
He hurt my family member really badly. After discussing it with the amazing Rabonim of Boro Park and them ordering us not to have him arrested, we went ahead and had him arrested anyway.
Community members guided us to the proper unit. Everything progressed quickly from there. The night before the sentencing Brauner attacked another Bochur in Shomer Shabbos shul. He asked him to help him shlep Seforim. This poor boy's father had no courage to do the right thing. Now Brauner's acts are on his hands.
Thanks to a few people who made sure he doesn't sit too long, Brauner got house arrest and was very soon free to continue his sick ways.
He specifically told the court ordered psychiatrist that the only way to stop him would be to cut off his hands.
Will somebody please kindly do it for him?
If anyone needs our help concerning Brauner just contact the Boro Park Shomrim, They'll contact us.
Look around you; it's bad and getting worse, spiralling out of control.
You say that your Emunah and Bitachon are being tested.
For consolation and chizuk learn Perek Cheilek in Sanhedrin.
There will yet be light at the end of this Tunnel.
Keep it in mind when you listen to these phoney, bloviating, self-serving, holier-than-thou, "Frum", schochad-taking, enablers, frauds, and shyster Rabbanut and Askonim that today pass for our "Leaders".
Marvel at their self-serving Pre-Selichos, High-Holy Days, and Shabbos Shuvah Droshos to be religiously followed by the geese but not the ganders, their affectatious pious mannerisms, the 'shuckling', their 'ernster piety'.
All of it, my friends, is rancid window dressing.
With very few exceptions, there is no one home.
"He specifically told the court ordered psychiatrist that the only way to stop him would be to cut off his hands.
Will somebody please kindly do it for him?"
If this putzola was in Bensonhurst it would have happened a long time ago.
Aron Twerski paid a dear price for his lies.
Lamdan said...
LVF, I'm not sure what you're trying to say, but when naara is chosser ksiv it's because she could have screamed and fought but didn't. Azoy lernt men.
-----------------------------------
Lamdan, if you don't understand it go back and read it again, this has nothing to do with naara being chosser, learn the parsha again, that in the city you are right she should have fought and yelled, but in a deserted field with no people around there is no use for screaming as the next posek states.
BTW I advise you to look at the meforshim in your chumash perek 22 pesukim 25,26 & 27, then you can tell me "Azoy lernt men".
Please post Barry Hertz address and phone number. where he davens and what yeshiva he went to? what his wife and childrens names are. thank you.
UOJ, when you will finish writing about your meeting with Rav Yaakov in Miami beach???
Oh and by the way I have emailed other websites (Cross-Currents and TheYeshivaWorld) to discuss the issue of pedophilia: TYW- an emphatic NO, although they did at least lament the fact that a bunch of monsters who should be hung are walking around; not sure why they don't want to get involved and Cross Currents never responded. It's pashut ridiculous that this stuff which is retzichah is happening and nobody says anything. It's completely out of control!
While we are on the topic of Tinaf Tinofsim.
Anyone looking for a well-dressed Handyman?
http://chaptzem.blogspot.com/2007/09/nyc-bar-disapproves-noach-dear-for.html#comments
i've only started reading this shocking blog, and i can't believe the development of this conversation. As far as I can see, no charges were ever filed and no complaints or lawsuits were ever introduced to the police or in a court of law. Is it that u believe your yeshiva system of justice and beis din to be so superior to the secular courts? if so, how is that so many people just take these anonymous people's accusations of sexual harrasment at face value without questioning their motives? its ridiculous how few skeptical comments i have found. is 'innocent until proven guilty' a concept completely foreign to Judaism? the allegations against R' Eismann could be true. it could also be true that he's an adulterer and a murderer. how the hell do i know? if you have a claim, and you have been hurt by an authority figure such as a rabbi, then bring the matter to the authorities. obviously , the beis din of baltimore with R' Heinnemen does not have the ability to handle a situation such as a sexual harassment charge, and it is just ridiculous for so many people to debate and consider these accusations without even an inkling of solid proof. who knows why a person might want to get back at a rabbi and spread accusations. this anonymous source might have his own reasons to slander a rabbi. I understand R' Eismann has passed away , but if any of you feel that you have been harmed in such a grievous fashion, it is a matter for the authourities. if proven guilty, there would be no more need for all this stupid discussion about what to do, ...because he'd be sitting his perverted little ass in jail. ! and i bet the 'moderator' doesn't have the balls to print this, because he just wants to continue this idiotic conversation.
Purim in Elul
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. Television Programming Director Awaits "Jewish Laws of TV"
by Hillel Fendel-Arutz Sheva
Television Programming Director Awaits "Jewish Laws of TV"
"Media should be like medicine," says colorful Udi Lyon. "Just like some rabbis are doctors, we need some rabbis who also studied media in depth."
Udi Lyon, 52, directs the Keshet national television company's special programming department - but that does not begin to describe him. He is also a student of the Merkaz HaRav Kook yeshiva, married to a left-wing secular woman, responsible for several nationally successful TV series, a strong opponent of the Disengagement, the employer of an Arab secretary as part of his campaign to promote minorities, son of a religious father and secular mother, and one who says about himself, "I don't do anything until I check to see if it's G-d's will."
His dream? "I want to build a media kollel [rabbinical seminary for married students] for genuine top-notch Torah scholars; they will study Torah half the day, working on media issues from the standpoint of Torah and Jewish law, and will study cinema and media the other half of the day."
"I know that I am deep in the 49 levels of impurity, but I'm trying to climb up to the 46th level"
Hagit Rotenberg of Arutz-7's weekly B'Sheva newspaper visited with Lyon in his office/studio. A sampling of what he had to say:
"The worst problem with television is the passiveness. This is the mother of all sin, the opposite of Judaism. You just accept whatever they give you, without choosing."
"As long as the religious public does not totally remove televisions from their homes, the way to deal with the situation is to use video and to select which programs you want to have taped for you. But in the current situation, the rabbis say it's better not to watch at all, and those who still watch are just left to watching whatever programs the secular channels give them. I would like the rabbis to compose a Jewish Law book for television, governing how, what, how much, and when to watch."
[Regarding why one of his programs is broadcast on the Sabbath:] "If you assume that all the secular Jews will become observant in the next five minutes, then the question is a good one. But I assume that in the near future the secular public will remain secular, and therefore I ask myself: What are they to watch? I would rather give them five minutes of spirituality on Friday night than totally abandon them.... I have a responsibility for all of Israel, and I deal mostly with the general [secular] public. If I can cause them to think about spiritual matters instead of the stuff they would otherwise watch, then I have saved a soul."
"The commandment to ensure that the Land of Israel does not lie desolate and abandoned applies here as well, for the television also has territory - an entire room in many houses. We are not allowed to abandon it, even on the Sabbath. If I could, I would broadcast the entire Sabbath."
"I have no place to eat in this building; the cafeteria is not kosher."
"I know that I am deep in the 49 levels of impurity, but I am trying to climb up to the 46th level... Aside from police agents implanted in the underworld, I am in the deepest place in terms of impurity - but I feel that I'm on a mission. As such, I cannot relate to every Halakhic prohibition, unfortunately - even though, essentially, I very much believe in these prohibitions: As the Sages say, G-d wanted to cleanse Israel and therefore gave them Torah and its commandments..."
[Regarding whether physical contact between men and women should be permitted in a play or movie:] "On the one hand, just like a doctor may touch his patient, here too, the actor is merely doing a professional act, and it is certainly not in private. On the other hand, the actor must employ emotion as part of his acting - and also, it's questionable whether the whole thing is considered 'necessary.' In order to provide the answers, we need rabbis who understand the significance of drama and cinema and will be able to say whether it's important. Today, they just say it's not important... It has to be understood what an actor does; maybe we have to think of another method of acting..."
"There is a [Talmudic] tractate that has yet to be written, and that is Tractate Media. It must be a real clarification of what the media is, how it must work, what is permitted and what is not. Aside from whether or not to buy a newspaper, the Torah is barely applied to these types of questions. Our forefathers never envisioned the current media situation; it's a totally new reality that requires a Halakhic breakthrough."
"The theory of censorship is right in principle, until you get to the question of who decides - and then you're in trouble... But if there is a real Torah clarification of these issues, out of genuine Jewish education, then even the secular public - they won't observe the Halakhah [Jewish Law], but they will follow us. We can lead a real spiritual process."
"Our approach to the ger, the stranger and foreigner, is a thread that runs throughout the Torah. I am talking only about Arabs who are loyal to the State; those who aren't, we must be very tough with. But we, who have experience in being strangers, cannot understand the plight of the Arabs? This is not a simple test that G-d has placed before us. I'm talking about truly loving the foreigner, as the Torah says, and to really accept him."
Marron;
The "Rabbis" knew about Kolko for 40 years from many victims and did Nada, K'lum, Ningun, Gornisht. They protected him and enabled him to continue molesting little children.
If not for UOJ and this Blog he would still be plying his predation.
Bryks in Ottawa, Canada was a known pedophile molester for years. None of the "Rabbis" had the balls to stop him. Daniel Levin is dead as a result. Today Bryks walks smugly on the streets of Queens working with children. Why are his kneecaps still in one piece?
Remember Baruch Lanner? Innocent? Right! Only until the OU could no longer stonewall.
The list goes on and on.
Don't talk to me about the "Rabbis" and the Botei Din. With singular rare exceptions they have the blood of the Klal on their hands.
The appropriate slogan for these "Rabbis"?
"B'Domiyich Chayee"
http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_248185549.html
copy & paste
What will we answer about Ohel in 20 years
Luke fan said...
We should get the Child Protective Services and the mayors office to investigate how Ohel determines who in adept to be a foster parent?. We can make a formal complaint and they will have to investigate.
How do they monitor whether the child is being exploited and abused by the foster parent. How do they choose foster parents. Do they have connections with Ohel and are in cozey relationship. All these things must be investgated.
Here is why people can exploit the children becoming foster parents. look at this website below and see what great benefits they offer. Ohel has to put in place some regulation and they need to be investigated so people do not exploit and abuse the foster kids like its reported on Luke fords blog
http://www.littleflowerny.org/FostParentInfo.html
You'll Receive:
Tax-free funds every two weeks to cover the children's living & clothing expenses.
Full medical & dental coverage for all children.
Free training all year.
The stories on Lukes blog about Ohel send a chill through my blood.
Http://www.lukeford.net/blog/index.php/
Luke Ford is investigating Ohel. Send him any information or mistreatments by Ohel or the Ohel staff.
lukeisback@gmail.com
Shomer Shabbos Shul in Boro-Park may face multi-million dollar lawsuit by molest victims
According to sources that spend substantial time in the Shomer Shabbos minyan factory Shul in Boro-Park, Yechiel Brauner is still touching kids in places where nobody should. According to the sources, which are keeping a close eye on convicted child molester Yechiel Brauner, who frequents the Shul, the molesetr's routine works like this; he enters the Shul when it is very busy. He then walks around until he has found himself a comfortable spot at a crowded doorway or thoroughway. He then proceeds to stand there with his arm extended downward, all the while feeling-up unsuspecting children as they pass by.
Why he is still allowed into Shomer Shabbos, or any Shul for that matter, being that he is a known convicted sex offender is beyond comprehension. The excuse that he has been rehabilitated is obviously defunct by now, because he is still molesting children every single day.
According to an expert lawyer that we consulted with in the matter, Congregation Shomer Shabbos is placing themself in the position of possibly facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the event that a molestee, or multiple molestees, should file suit. All parties involved in the Shul have been informed numerous times as to the situation with Brauner and have not done anything to protect their congregants or to bar him from entering the Shul, thus making the Shul and its leaders equally responsible for his actions.
Remember when someone, or many someones, decide to prosecute and sue, there may not be a Shomer Shabbos Shul left afterwards.
Gedolim Issue Kol Korah Against “Heter Mechira”
As the Shemita year creeps up on us, Maran Hagoen Rav Elyashiv Shlita - together with other leading Gedolim - issued a powerful Kol Koreh against the practice of “Heter Mechira”, the sale of Israeli farmland to a non-Jew to avoid the Issur of working the land in Eretz Yisroel during the Shmita year.
The Kol Koreh states that the Heter Mechira leads to the desecration of the “holy and precious” Mitzvah of Shmita.
The debate surrounding the Heter Mechira has been going on for over a 100 years, and enables farmers to symbolically sell their land to non-Jews for the Shemita year, without stopping to cultivate the land.
Most Charedim do not accept the Heter, and during Shemita buy produce from Arab farmers or abroad.
Rape Victim Advocates of the Year 5757 (Jewish calendar)
The Awareness Center wants to personally thank the following individuals and organizations who helped to make a difference in the lives of those who have been sexually victimized. We also want to thank anyone else we neglected to list.
All survivors of sexual violence(child sexual abuse, sexual assault, professional sexual misconduct, clergy sexual abuse) who chose to live instead of committing suicide. The Awareness Center also want to thank all survivors for doing what the can to make a difference in the world.
Victoria Balfour- for her dedication and determination in exposing the case of Dr. William Ayres and for offering hope to all of the survivors.
Rabbi Yosef Blau for his ongoing support to survivors of sex crimes and family members.
Electronic Frontier Foundation- for their efforts in protecting the civil rights of Bloggers who had the courage to speak out against Mr. Mordecai Tendler.
Bob Glickstein - For sharing his story of being sexually abused as a child by Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro.
Professor, Marci Hamilton - for advocating for the civil rights of survivors of sexual violence, especially in cases of clergy sexual abuse.
Phil Jacobs and the Baltimore Jewish Times for stepping outside the box and producing the series on sexual abuse in the Baltimore Community.
Jewish Survivors Blogger - for advocating for survivors and offering a blog for and about Jewish survivors of sex crimes.
Israel Moskovits - for creating the film "Narrow Bridge." The first film to address the issue of clergy sexual abuse in Jewish communities.
Simonne Levi-Jameson - for surviving the holocaust and publishing her autobiography "Men or Rats." We also want to honor Dr. Levi-Jameson for her life efforts of advocating for sexually abused children.
Paul Levy and Public Citizen Litigation Group - for their efforts in protecting the civil rights of Bloggers who had the courage to speak out against Mordecai Tendler.
Murray Levin - for his courage for sharing his story with the world and his on going efforts to reach out to survivors and various individual in the Baltimore community.
Pat Noaker - For being a mench when it comes to talking to survivors of child sexual abuse/clergy sexual abuse. Pat is an attorney who specializes in representing survivors of child sexual abuse /clergy sexual abuse.
Rabbi Shlomo Porter - for the hours he has spent talking to survivors of sexual violence.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) - for sharing their experience in dealing with cases of clergy sexual abuse and their legislative efforts in the United States.
Rabbi Ze'ev Smason and the small group of people in St. Louis Jewish community -- for doing the right thing when a case broke in their community and creating a new organization that grants wishes for Jewish sexually abused children.
Rabbi Yaakov Siegel - for writing the article "Background Information and The History of Rabbinical Ordinations."
Unorthodox Jew Blogger - for his dedication to exposing alleged and convicted sex offenders in the charedi world (ultra-orthodox).
Jan Wohlberg and Therapy Exploitation Link Line (TELL) - for her years of experience and resources.
All of the women who have been allegedly sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by Jonathan Berkowitz. These women and their friends have notified The Awareness Center every time they found their alleged offender on Frumster or other Internet dating services.
The survivors of Rabbi Moshe Eisemann who had the courage to come forward and for their dedication to make Ner Israel Rabbinical College safer.
The survivors of Rabbi Tobias Gabriel who had the courage to come forward, and for their dedication to making this alleged sex offender accountable for his actions.
The survivors of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko for filing police reports and for the courage it took to file civil suits against both Rabbi Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah (school).
The survivors of Rabbi Avraham M. Leizerowitz for filing police reports and doing what needs to be done to prevent any more children from being harmed.
The survivors of Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro who had the courage to have their stories told in the Baltimore Jewish Times.
The survivors of Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro who had the courage to have their stories told in the Baltimore Jewish Times.
The survivor of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler who had the courage and strength to file a civil suit against her alleged offender.
The FBI, US Marshall's Office, Interpol and any one else not mentioned involved with tracking down Rabbi Alan Horowitz and put him back in prison.
Volunteers, The Board and Advisory Board of The Awareness Center for dedicating their time and effort in trying to end sexual violence in Jewish communities around the globe.
Ohel Insider said...
Warning to men in BoroPark: Ohel Family Services has in the last few years been getting many government grants. One of them was for the purpose of opening a domestic violence center. In order to justify the money they receive Ohel must ensnare woman to come for counseling under the pretense that they are being abused. Ohel hires social workers and counselors and makes a nice fee off this. Once they sink their claws into the woman they don’t let go very easy because this is a major profit center for them. It can evolve into profit from divorce counseling, children counseling and the list goes on.
Here are the signs to look for if you suspect that your wife is getting involved with Ohel.
Modus operendi: The counselor will first try to get the woman to get her own cell phone so she can contact her discreetly. The counselor has the woman call Ohel at 718 851 6300 and leave a message for the counselor. The counselor will then call back with the appointment time probably when the husband is at work so he wont find out that they are sucking in his wife. Ohel will not come up on the caller id. The caller id will come up as 646718. If you see that your wife has called 718 851 6300 and then has a call back of 718646 you will know that she is in touch with Ohel and you better take action before its to late. Ohel will give her articles, books and lists of items to convince her that she is being abused. You will then hear her use words and talk in ways that she was not familiar with before. Watch out for these signs. Warning your wife could be involved with Joan Hertz of Ohel Domestic Violence.
This is being published for the benefit of the Jewish Community by Ohel Insider. I hope to post more information about Ohel and names of its counselors in the future. Anyone else that has information should also share it for the benefit of the community. This is a major scandal ready to break open. The Rabanim are unfortunately all quit about this. Some are paid fat salaries by Ohel to condone what they do.
Elliot Pasik Esq. should be added to the above list. He devoted the last four years of his life to getting legislation passed for mandatory fingerprinting for all private school employees. While at present it's optional, I'm hopeful the day will come when Jewish children in yeshivas will be afforded this vital protection.
Elliot is an articulate and dedicated advocate for the Orthodox Jewish community and deserves our thanks and recognition. I trust that he will not rest until he achieves all his lofty goals.
Barry Hertz is the owner of Track Data. Why is Peter dragging his kids into this?
See the first page of Hamodia magazine for a LETTER TO THE EDITOR - FROM DAYAN KOHEN RE: OU-Rabbi Gordimer's articles on the Treife cows.
Hat tip: Rav Yudel Shain.
I don't hear any singing from Frankel's Shul yet.
Uzerra in Passaic had better watch out. There has been all kinds of funny stuff over the years in collaboration with the local politicians.
It doesn't bode well for them if Passaic's mayor and two councilmen have been arrested.
http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_249095634.html
Feds Arrest 11 N.J. Officials In Corruption Probe
(CBS/AP) TRENTON FBI agents arrested 11 public officials, including a mayor and two state lawmakers, in towns across New Jersey on Thursday in connection with a federal corruption probe, the U.S. Attorney's office said.
The arrests were related to insurance contracts for local governments, a law enforcement officials said on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement was pending.
Democratic state Assemblymen Mims Hackett Jr. and Alfred E. Steele were among those arrested, along with Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera, the law enforcement official said. Also arrested were the chief of staff to Newark's City Council president, Passaic Councilmen Jonathan Soto and Marcellus Jackson, and five Pleasantville school board members.
Initial court appearances were scheduled Thursday afternoon in Trenton.
The U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun scheduled an afternoon news conference to discuss the case.
Steele has been an assemblyman since 1996, serving as deputy speaker since 2002. He's also the pastor at Seminary Baptist Church in Paterson and a Passaic County undersheriff.
Jenna Pollard, who answered the phone at Steele's Paterson office and identified herself as his chief of staff, said she had no comment and didn't know if Steele had a lawyer.
Hackett, 65, has been Orange mayor since 1996 after eight years on the city council. He's been an assemblymen since 2002.
A phone message left at Hackett's office wasn't immediately returned Thursday.
Thursday's arrests were the latest in an anti-corruption campaign waged by Christie's office. Two other Democratic state senators, Wayne Bryant of Lawnside and Sharpe James of Newark, are among others facing pending corruption charges.
More than 100 public officials in the state have been convicted on federal corruption charges in the last five years. In the late 1970s and early '80s two of New Jersey's members of Congress were indicted in FBI's famous "ABSCAM" bribery sting.
Then-Sen. Harrison Williams, D-N.J., and U.S. Rep. Frank Thompson, D-Trenton, were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. Williams resigned his senate seat. Thompson lost a re-election bid after being charged. Thompson died in 1989. Williams died in 2001.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/08/how-to-get-bann.html#comments
Today, Shmarya argues that the Nazi murderers defended by Kasztner at Nuremberg were trying to save Jews. (Say what?)
SHmarya argues there is equal moral footing for a Jew never being able to give up Yahadus and the Catholic belief that once baptized you can never give up Christianity. This is Shmarya's argument in favor of WWII orphans not being returned to the Jewish people. Shmarya argues it is not even theft or otherwise wrong.
SHmarya continues to insult the lawyer and call him a liar.
The lawyer responds:
Wrong, once again. Your name calling and misstatements, all void of any factual material, will not cover up the truth.
Those children were indoctrinated with anti-semitic garbage while the superior Christian faith driven by their god of love drove the parents of those children into gas chambers. That is an indisputable historical fact.
Anyperson who did not return a Jewish child entrusted to them by the child's parents under threat of death by that person coreligionists, and any person who deliberately disparaged the Jewish people while the so called superior religion of love engaged in mass murder, is also garbage.
The Pope may or may have not been limited in what he could accomplish. We will never know because he never even tried.
This is what he could have done; and when the Allies occupied Rome without risk to the Vatican.
He could have announced that any Catholic who from hence on participates in any way, directly or indirectly, in the mass murder of the Jews is hereby under the interdict. He/she is condemned to Hell from which there is no Parole and no Repentance.
Nobody knows how the good Catholic and Protestants guarding the concentration camps and manning the crematoriums would have acted after that. Perhaps it would have made no difference and perhaps it would have made every difference in the world. We will never know.
Having said that I will leave you with the last word, which you can use to continue to call me a liar, thickheaded and the rest. See your previous comments.
I will not post anything on this site, whatever the provocation, until at least after Simchas Torah.
To all a Kasiva and Chasima Tova and a Good Kvitel.
Did your June letter refer to Ner Israel or another Yeshiva?
Cross Currents never responded. It's pashut ridiculous that this stuff which is retzichah is happening and nobody says anything. It's completely out of control!
Cross Currents run by a group of Holier-than-thou BTs, They still have the aftertaste of a bacon cheeseburger in their mouth but that does not stop them from criticizing and hating other Jews; MO, Chabbad, Conservative, Reform, etc
I do not think they ever mentioned Kolko or any other rabbinical child abuse but I might be wrong on this one.
Those 3 Passaic Putzes received $34,000 in kickback bribes.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=bizarre&id=5634928
A man recently jailed for secretly videotaping a woman and a teenage girl has sued a police department for the return of his massive porn collection taken during the investigation.
Dennis Saunders, 59, filed suit against San Rafael police in Marin County Superior Court after the department refused to give back some 500 pornographic movies and 250 magazines his lawyer described as unrelated to the peeping case.
"There's absolutely no legal foundation for them withholding perfectly legal adult-oriented material," Tiburon attorney Jon Rankin said.
The video collection alone was likely worth at least $10,000, Rankin said.
Saunders was arrested in 2002 and charged with taping the 45-year-old woman and 16-year-old girl in their bedrooms and bathrooms at an apartment complex where he worked. He was convicted of 48 misdemeanors and sentenced to more than eight years in jail, but was released last month with credit for good behavior.
A lawyer representing the city said authorities wanted direction from a judge on whether it would be "lawful or appropriate" to return the material to Saunders, who has a history of peeping-related arrests dating back to 1979.
"If the court orders us to give it back to him, we will give it back to him," city lawyer Thomas Bertrand said.
http://www.tccweb.org/passaic.htm
You think they know how to sing in Frankel's shul? Just wait for the performance in NJ.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901301.html
Haifa District Court on Wednesday sentenced Arik Shechter, 25, to 11 years in prison and for brutally attacking elderly citizen and Holocaust survivor Ita Fogel. He was also ordered to pay Fogel 20,000 shekels in compensation.
Shechter was also handed a two-year suspended sentence.
In his verdict, the presiding judge wrote that Shechter had submitted Fogel to "Clockwork Orange-like acts" for three hours. He described Shechter's actions as a "repeat of Sodom and Gemorrah, expressed through physical and emotional abuse."
"Though we have grown accustomed to malicious acts of violence, it seems this time the defendant crossed all boundaries in the type and duration of his acts, and in his choice of victim."
Shechter and two other defendants were charged with breaking into Fogel's apartment and beating and torturing her over the course of three hours. Fogel was hospitalized in intensive care at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where she spent over a month under anesthesia hooked up to a respirator. She also suffered from pneumonia and serious respiratory problems long after the attack.
Shechter and fellow assailants Stefan Borisvicho and a third man arrived at Fogel's house after hearing that she kept a large sum of money hidden there.
The three caused a power outage in the building, waited for Fogel to exit her apartment for the stairwell where they attacked her and forced their way into the apartment.
The three defendants then tortured Fogel after they were unable to find any money in her house.
Borisvicho allegedly gagged Fogel's mouth with tape, beat her and poured bleach on her. Later on, the suspects doused Figo in water and applied electric shocks to her body.
Shechter was arrested two weeks ago after his picture was broadcast by national media.
Fogel expressed deep resentment at the sentence, saying she had expected Shechter would receive 20 to 25 years and the court had been lenient with him. "I feel no relief, and the punishment isn't enough compared to what I'm still going through," she said.
Fogel said she is not able to sleep at night and has lost her independence. She refused to accept Shechter's apology in court saying that he "ruined my life," adding that she spent six months in rehab and is still undergoing treatment for the trauma caused by the attack.
"It hurts and angers me. I can't forget and I can't sleep. This must not be allowed to pass unnoticed," added Fogel.
What's going on with Krasna yeshiva?
Last night (September 5, 2007) the Conservative Vaad Hakavoad of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) and the Cantor Assembly (CA) decided to recommend the expulsion of Rabbi Tobias Gabriel (learned in Telz & YU) from both organizations. We are now waiting for the executive committee of the RA to make a final decision.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/901583.html
Norman Finkelstein forced to resign.
TAC also left out the tenacious and brilliant work of Michael Lesher Esq. Michael has not only spearheaded the Mondrowitz case, but is extremely involved in the Colmer case. Michael Lesher has advanced the cause of the sex abuse victims to the heightened stages of alert that put it on the radar screen of the Jewish world.
Mr. Weiss, a victim of Mondrowitz, must be commended for his bravery for coming forward after so many years, and for his appearance on national television - Nightline.
We are all grateful to them!
this is the only jewish blog that has ever accomplised anything of importance. thankyou.
What is Brauner doing knacking around? He was supposed to be sent back to prison for violating parole. He "forgot" to mention his felon status when illegally applying to become a notary public. He then used his new profession to assist a mortgage fraud scam.
This guy is probably related to the Rav Haroshi of Chaifa who UOJ reported earlier is the target of a major Mishtara investigation into fraud.
Kfar Saba butcher fined over kashrut
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST Sep. 4, 2007
A butcher shop in Kfar Saba under rabbinic supervision might have sold non-kosher meat to its clientele, according to a Chief Rabbinate report obtained by The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.
On Monday at 5:30 p.m., an official from the Chief Rabbinate's Kashrut Supervision Unit discovered that the Tamar-Biton butcher in Kfar Saba had meat in refrigeration earmarked for retail sale that had not been properly koshered according to Jewish law.
In the report entitled "Severe Stumbling Block - Tamar-Biton Butcher," Rabbi Rafi Ochai, head of the anti-fraud unit, wrote: "From the above findings it can be concluded that there were serious lapses and breaches in kashrut supervision directives that raise the possibility that the public was tricked into eating non-kosher meat."
The business was fined NIS 1,000. The Kfar Saba Rabbinate was advised by the anti-fraud unit head to suspend Tamar-Biton's kashrut supervision certificate.
Rabbi Yehuda Najati, head of the kashrut supervision department in the city, said he had consulted with Kfar Saba Chief Rabbi Avraham Chalouche, who signs off on the certificates. However, no decision had been made regarding suspension of Tamar-Biton's certificate.
"We also have not decided yet whether or not to notify individuals who bought meat from Tamar-Biton in the past week to kasher the utensils they used to cook the meat," Najati said.
If it is determined that if non-kosher meat was sold to unsuspecting clients who care about kashrut laws, they would have to submerge the utensils used to cook meat in boiling water. In certain cases, metal utensils might need to be blow-torched.
Tamar-Biton only came under the supervision of Kfar Saba's Rabbinate last week. Previously, the shop sold meat that was not under supervision.
The anti-fraud unit's Ochai told the Post by telephone he could not be certain that Tamar-Biton had sold non-kosher meat since it came under rabbinic supervision. "But there is no doubt that there were serious indiscretions committed both by rabbinic officials and the owner of the butcher," he said.
Attorney Mordechai Eisenberg, head of the Movement for Fairness in Government, a nonprofit religious affairs watchdog, tipped off the Chief Rabbinate's anti-fraud unit after receiving inside information that non-kosher meat might be for sale at Tamar-Biton.
The meat that was found by the anti-fraud unit contained fat (chelev) that, according to Halacha, is strictly forbidden to eat. The process of removing this prohibited fat, which is prominent on the hind quarters and around the internal organs, is complicated and labor-intensive.
Chief Rabbinate directives dictate that meat containing this forbidden fat cannot be shipped to a city where there is no rabbi authorized by the local religious council to perform the fat removal procedure, known in Hebrew as nikur. Kfar Saba has no official nikur expert.
Tamar Biton, the owner of the butcher shop, could not be contacted for comment. However, her husband, Yaish, who is involved in the management of the business, said he had done nothing wrong.
Biton said that on Sunday, just a few days after the shop came under kashrut supervision, he met with Najati, head of the town's kosher supervision department. "Najati assured me an expert in the nikur procedure would arrive the following day to prepare the meat for marketing.
"But he never showed up," said Biton. "So I did not sell it. I kept the meat in refrigeration."
In addition to helping in the management of his wife's butcher shop, Yaish Biton is also the treasurer of Kfar Saba's religious council. He signs off on the paychecks of all religious council employees, including the chief rabbi's.
Najati said in response that Biton had promised to add a nikur expert to the Kfar Saba religious council payroll. "As treasurer of the religious council, Biton is the man who controls financial issues here," said Najati.
Ochai said the Kfar Saba case was "just the tip of the iceberg."
He said that although he was not sure if this was the case in Kfar Saba, in many cities and towns the local chief rabbi was weak while religious council officials, often appointed for political reasons, have extensive powers. "As a result, economic interests often take precedence over religious strictures," he said.
The Movement for Fairness in Government's Eisenberg said that in many religious councils there were "bullies" who did not respect the religious authority of the local rabbi. "Sometimes, like in Kfar Saba, there is an extreme case of conflict of interests," said Eisenberg.
"It is not right that the manager of a butcher shop is also the one who gives orders to those who are supposed to supervise him," he said. "There is no doubt that such a state of conflict of interests disqualifies him from serving in a religious council and from being able to sign off on paychecks."
The scope of the Tamar-Biton incident is not restricted to Kfar Saba. Rabbi Yehuda Taviv of the Tel Aviv Rabbinate broke Chief Rabbinate rules by authorizing the shipment of the meat from the Marbek Slaughterhouse in Be'er Tuviya to Tamar-Biton, according to the anti-fraud unit, and was verbally reprimanded.
Ochai said that in the past, Taviv had been warned about shipping meat that contained forbidden fat to several cities that lacked Nikur experts, including Ashkelon, Bat Yam and Petah Tikva.
Eisenberg said he would demand the immediate suspension of Taviv. He also said he would push for the suspension of Tamar-Biton's kashrut supervision certificate and for the local rabbinate to notify Kfar Saba residents that utensils used to cook Tamar-Biton meat should be kashered.
Shlush or Chalouche are the same name sometimes spelled differently in English or French.
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/bronx/2007/09/06/2007-09-06_court_sides_with_rabbi_in_sex_suit.html
Court sides with rabbi in sex suit
BY OWEN MORITZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, September 6th 2007, 4:00 AM
A controversial rabbi has fended off a lawsuit that charged he seduced a woman in his congregation by telling her she needed "sex therapy" to help find her a husband.
A divided appellate court ruled 3-2 that Adina Marmelstein's "thinly veiled claims of seduction" against Rabbi Mordecai Tendler are prohibited by civil rights law, and therefore she has no grounds to sue him.
But attorneys for the woman vowed to appeal based on arguments from the court's two dissenting members - one of whom, Judge John Sweeny, wrote that Tendler "clearly exploited the vulnerability" of Marmelstein "to attain his own ends."
The contentious case has rocked the Orthodox Jewish community because of Tendler's so-called "sexual therapy sessions," and led to the rabbi's dismissal from the Rabbinical Council of America.
According to court papers, Marmelstein, 43, first met Tendler back in 1994, began attending services at his Rockland County synagogue in 1996, and in November 2000 began a sexual relationship with the rabbi, a father of eight, that ended in May 2005.
Tendler, 53, a well-known advocate of woman's rights and counselor to Orthodox women seeking religious divorces, agreed to help Marmelstein in her quest for a husband and children.
He allegedly told her he "was as close to God as anyone could get."
The woman was advised to have sexual intercourse with Tendler so that her "life will open up and men will come to her," according to the court's summary of the case.
The relationship ended, Marmelstein alleges in court papers, when the rabbi "physically and emotionally abused her for his own sexual pleasure and gratification."
Tendler threatened that he'd put her in a straitjacket if she told anyone, according to the papers.
Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon on June 20, 2006, dismissed two of Marmelstein's claims - fraud and negligent infliction of emotional distress - but denied Tendler's motion to dismiss the woman's two other claims for breach of fiduciary duty and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
This led to last week's appellate court opinion, written by Justice Joseph Sullivan, that reversed Solomon's ruling and threw out Marmelstein's two remaining claims.
omoritz@nydailynews.com
Do they deport bank accounts too?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6980766.stm
A political row has broken out in Switzerland over a campaign poster from the right-wing Swiss People's Party, aimed at deporting foreigners - residents without Swiss citizenship - who commit crimes.
"aimed at deporting foreigners - residents without Swiss citizenship - who commit crimes."
Oh, I wonder if Pinky Green and Marc Rich ever got Swiss citizenship.
Owen Moritz makes no mention of what the dissenting judges said or of the coming appeal. It almost sounds as if the Daily News is siding with the predator.
Tal Marron said that Rabbi Eisemann passed away. Is that true or did he really mean Ephraim Shapiro?
SIW said he was taking the ethical approach and working behind the scenes to stop molesters.
Does anyone know of a single case where he intervened?
What a sicko. When Tendler gave a shiur to us, before being kicked out, he always acted like he held the world of himself.
SIW said he was taking the ethical approach and working behind the scenes to stop molesters.
Does anyone know of a single case where he intervened?
---------------
SIW is guilty of molesting the truth!
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3483364&page=1
A handful of states require juvenile sex offenders to post their personal information online. But the Adam Walsh Act, which states must implement by 2009, requires teens as young as 14 who are convicted of serious sex crimes to register as sex offenders for life.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3565994
ABC's Good Morning America interviews AMW's John Walsh who after 20 seasons has brought almost 1000 fugitives to justice and found 44 missing children.
Fast forward to 3 minutes & 53 seconds into the clip.
Like UOJ says, they can run but they can't hide.
The major networks have been excerpting from a new work by Dr. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire on how to identify a liar. One sign is when someone goes to the express lane of a supermarket for 10 items or less with more items.
I was really ashamed one time in particular at that Shoprite when a heimishe guy was acting like a big putz and making a chilul Hashem. He was trying to intimidate the Irish-looking cashier into giving him some kind of discount. When the cashier went to see the manager I overheard the cashier complaining about the F'en Jews.
"how to identify a liar. One sign is when someone goes to the express lane of a supermarket for 10 items or less with more items."
I convinced Margulies it's bad PR when he pushes around Shoprite like a ferd so he agreed to use a delivery service from now on.
We've got Avi Shafran's number.
Supermarket owners can be putzes too. There's one place in Brooklyn where the baalim are really not nice people. The used gangster tactics to pressure producers and distributors not to sell their competetion. That's a federal offense as well as for anyone supplier that goes along with it.
We had heard rumors a number of years ago that a Brooklyn supermarket had pressured some cholov yisroel companies in that respect. If anyone knows of a store that cannot buy it's supplies, please post it here and we will try to fix it.
It is true that the owners are nasty. When someone was going to drive to the Midwest for an entire day, they asked the baal habusta to double bag the groceries. Because she was concerned about the extra few cents, she put on a look that was so disgusting you would have vomited. It was like watching an ugly reptile coming out of her skin.
She discovered the supermarket industry after a baby had died under her care at her home child care business.
"Does anyone know of a single case where he (SIW) intervened?"
He's taking my approach and refusing to identify anyone.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/09/06/2007-09-06_hillary_fundraiser_on_the_run_again_jump-1.html
Hillary Clinton's money man is on the run again.
Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu was a no-show in a California court yesterday - thanks to authorities who didn't think an ex-fugitive would jump $2 million bail.
After he surrendered on a 15-year-old fraud rap last week, the rich Hong Kong-born businessman was freed on bail and told to return yesterday.
Surprise, surprise - he didn't.
And here's another shocker: His passport is missing, too.
"We do not know where he is as of this moment," Hsu's lawyer James Brosnahan admitted to a judge in San Mateo, Calif.
He revealed Hsu even hoodwinked his office, sending them on a wild-goose chase for his passport at his Manhattan condo.
Prosecutors - the ones who couldn't find the high-profile Hsu after he absconded in 1992 - were caught just as flatfooted.
"We believed the amount of bail being held for him was appropriate," said Ralph Sivilla of the California attorney general's office.
In fact, a prosecutor who was vacationing in New York and stopped by Hsu's Manhattan condo yesterday was reluctant to believe he deliberately fled.
"Maybe he didn't know or maybe he's just confused," the prosecutor said generously. "Let's give him the benefit of the doubt."
One person wasn't caught off guard: Judge James Ellis, who shot down a prosecution agreement to cut bail from $2million to $1 million last week.
Can you imagine this at the next Agudah Convention:
RMS: BARUCH HAMOKOM BARUCH HU....NU... SO ONE MORE MOLESTER SLIPPED THROUGH OUR FINGERS...NOBODY KNOWS HOW MANY WE HANDLE PRIVATELY!
Well Mr. Mashgiach...tell us...HOW MANY DID YOU EVER HANDLE? AND UNDER WHICH RUG CAN WE FIND THEM?
Brooklyn Law School Professor David Reiss was recently interviewed by a national Canadian television station, the Business News Network, about the possible explosion of lawsuits following the collapse of the subprime lending market this summer. Reiss predicted the collapse of the subprime market last year in an award-winning academic article.
Lawsuits will likely be filed against entities including the ratings agencies, lenders and investment banks, Reiss told television viewers.
“You name a player,” the professor said, “and I think you will see a lawsuit coming from that direction.” He discussed sources of various protections and legal remedies that might be available to borrowers and investors, including consumer protection laws and suits for fraud, as well as securities laws.
In a law journal article published last year, Reiss identified predatory mortgage lending as “today’s most pressing consumer protection issue, costing American families an estimated nine billion dollars a year.” He attributed the magnitude of the problem to the convergence of three trends: record-breaking rates of homeownership, ever-increasing housing prices and “the development of a credit market, known as the ‘sub-prime market,’ for those with no credit histories and poor credit histories.”
"Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced a $100 million-dollar “Keep the Dream” refinancing program to give some low- and moderate income homeowners with risky mortgages an opportunity to refinance and avoid possible foreclosure. The program is administered through the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal."
Protecting children is not on the agenda - just using our taxes for bailing out morons who bought homes they could never afford.
Shoprite should have given me a private check out line, because I am the best.
You should have seen the time that Margo and some other fresser were converging at the time on the refridgerator case and there was only one container left of schmaltz herring. Boy did that ever get ugly.
Boruch Habo to the newest inmate at Otisville.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/business/06cnd-tax.html
September 5, 2007
Banker Sentenced for Three Decades of Tax Evasion
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON
An investment banker who used his wife’s and children’s names in tax evasions dating back to 1977 was sentenced today to 50 months in prison for tax crimes, including the first criminal conviction for not paying the nanny tax.
The banker, Richard Josephberg, 60, kept evading taxes for years after he knew he was under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, testimony showed.
Mr. Josephberg wept in the White Plains courtroom when he spoke briefly near the end of a 90-minute hearing. He apologized to the court and his family and described himself as “a good person,” but expressed no remorse for his decades of tax evasion, for taking deductions after a court found they were worthless and for fabricating tax returns in the names of his children to evade his own income taxes.
After a four-week trial in April, a jury convicted Mr. Josephberg on all 17 counts of an indictment. He was charged with evading payment of taxes, conspiracy, health insurance fraud and criminal violation involving the so-called nanny tax, which requires individuals to withhold taxes for people who care for their children or clean their homes.
Internal Revenue Service officials said it was the first conviction under that law.
The case was pursued by a single I.R.S. collections officer, Joseph Lewandoski, after, court papers showed, he concluded that Mr. Josephberg had not been forthright in an interview. Auditors and criminal agents were eventually brought in to unravel the schemes used to evade taxes.
Judge Charles L. Brieant Jr. of United States District Court said the prosecutors, Stanley J. Okula Jr. and Andrew J. Kameros, had proved at trial that Mr. Josephberg owed at least $7 million, but he repeatedly emphasized that this was only the amount that the government had proven at trial.
“To this day the government doesn’t know how much is actually owed,” Judge Brieant said.
Among the witnesses who testified against Mr. Josephberg was one of his children, Kara Paldino, a Manhattan entertainment lawyer. Mrs. Paldino testified that without her knowledge her father created and signed tax returns in her name, but failed to pay the taxes owed.
She testified that she went to an H.& R. Block office in Greenwich Village in 2001 to file her first tax return, on money she earned as a summer associate at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Instead of a refund, she testified, she got a bill for taxes on $59,000 of capital gains from an earlier return that bore her name in her father’s handwriting.
Federal prosecutors asked for, and the federal probation report recommended, a term of 78 months to 90 months in prison.
Jared Scharf, Mr. Josephberg’s lawyer, asked for a sentence of 27 months to 33 months, after repeatedly expressing doubt that his client had committed some of the crimes. At one point Mr. Scharf said that the crimes that the government described, if they occurred, would have been committed not by Mr. Josephberg but by his daughter, Mrs. Paldino.
Calls to Mrs. Paldino’s office and vacation home were not returned. Mr. Scharf declined to comment on the record on behalf of his client.
Mr. Josephberg was a securities analyst at Goldman Sachs before he set out on his own. He was a founder of the Cralin Group, which sold tax shelters from 1977 to 1985 that were later held to be shams. Two Cralin principals, Bernard Manko and Charles Atkins, were convicted of selling fraudulent shelters that cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars.
The United States Tax Court ruled that the shelters were shams and that the deductions were worthless. After this ruling, testimony and court papers show that Mr. Josephberg deducted those losses anyway on his personal returns.
Mr. Josephberg moved recently to Greenwich, Conn., from Armonk, N.Y. He has operated in Manhattan in recent years under several corporate names including G. J. Capital and Josephberg Grosz.
The indictment covered every year back to 1977 except 1985; because of ambiguities, prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges for that year.
Judge Brieant ordered Mr. Josephberg to repay $21,000 within 30 days to Oxford Health Plan for defrauding them by falsely claiming his wife was an employee, which made him eligible for a group insurance policy. He also gave Mr. Josephberg 36 months of supervised release after he finishes his prison term at the Otisville Correctional Facility, a minimum-security prison in Orange County, N.Y. Mr. Josephberg is to surrender by Oct. 23, the judge said.
"Tax evasion is not a victimless crime," said Joseph Foy, a special agent with the IRS's criminal investigation unit. "We should not expect the honest taxpayer to foot the bill for those who hide income from the IRS."
Westchester Journal News:
But even after Judge Charles Brieant sentenced Josephberg, 60, of Greenwich, to 50 months, the combative mood continued.
As Josephberg left the courthouse, his relatives jostled a photographer trying to get a shot of the ex-securities analyst. Josephberg used his suit jacket to shield himself from the photographer, whose glasses were knocked off in the brief encounter outside U.S. District Court. Relatives declined comment on the case but shouted at reporters to investigate Stanley Okula, the lead prosecutor.
Two of Josephberg’s co-workers at Cralin – Jeffrey Feldman and Paul Foont – were also convicted, in 1990.
According to the proof at trial, Josephberg took various corrupt steps between 1994 and 2004 to evade payment of his tax debt stemming from 1977-1985, which, by 1995, had grown, with interest and penalties, to approximately $17 million.
Prosecutors said those corrupt steps included:
–directing the hundreds of thousands of dollars of income he was receiving between 1995 and 2003 to be paid to a newly created corporation and partnership he created and controlled and thereafter diverting that income to pay various personal expenses (including hundreds of thousands of dollars of country club dues and rent on homes in Armonk, and Greenwich, Conn.), again in order to create the appearance that Josephberg had little or no income;
–causing bankruptcy petitions to be filed for himself and his wife, resulting in false and misleading claims and statements being made by Josephberg and his wife when questioned, in written interrogatories and during depositions, about Josephberg’s assets and liabilities.
I refuse to post people's personal home address... Eisemann was understandably an exception.
I move headliner posts around for various reasons.
What was that guy so peed about that he wanted Barry Hertz's home address?
Another exception on UOJ is the home address of a convicted offender that is already publicized by the State offender registry:
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/cgi/internet/nsor/fortecgi?serviceName=WebNSOR&templateName=detail.htm&requestingHandler=WebNSORDetailHandler&ID=243870977
Yechiel Brauner
1319 54TH ST
2ND FLOOR
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/cgi/internet/nsor/fortecgi?serviceName=WebNSOR&templateName=detail.htm&requestingHandler=WebNSORDetailHandler&ID=91061155
They've now posted a picture & details for Yehuda Friedlander who was arrested by LAX Airport Police for molesting a 15 year old girl.
1434 46TH STREET
APT 2
Employer Info:
6103 15TH AVE
http://www.bakedeco.com/info/help.asp
Kerekes Bakery & Restaurant Equipment
E-mail: orders@bakedeco.com
Toll Free: (800) 525-5556
Phone: (718) 232-7044
MILAN, Italy -- Hundreds of people gathered late Thursday in Modena's main piazza to pay their final respects to Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C's and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenors since Caruso.
--------------
His talent was, IMO, unprecedented.
His voice was a tribute to the beauty of Hashem's briyah. He will be missed by all people who understood greatness in voice and music.
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/cgi/internet/nsor/fortecgi?serviceName=WebNSOR&templateName=detail.htm&requestingHandler=WebNSORDetailHandler&ID=55416709
Sex offender Dovid Zimmer also lives & works around the corner from Shomer Shabbos.
1333 51ST STREET
Employer:
5113 13TH AVE
Perfect Locksmith
http://www.alibaba.com/company/10568392.html
Perfect lock and safe co. Was originally a small locksmith in brooklyn n. Y. We now serve all five boroughs in brooklyn n. Y. With two showrooms one at 5113 13th ave and the other on mcdoald ave. Two more locations in lakewood n. J. Serving Ocean county specialising in transponder keys, keyless entry and decorative hardware are now open.
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/cgi/internet/nsor/fortecgi?serviceName=WebNSOR&templateName=detail.htm&requestingHandler=WebNSORDetailHandler&ID=55403401
Picture of Russian sex offender living at 345 WEBSTER AVE 6H
Criminal sex offenders will be posted, not someone looking to harass an individual(s) for unsubstantiated non-criminal allegations. Public records are exactly that, public!
Shkoiech vigilante. i looked up the creeps near me. there are a bunch of offenders living around Chofetz chaim and Touro mostly black. one of them works at the car dealership for toyota, pontiac etc at 139-65 QUEENS BLVD
AHH, Pavarotti!
Look at the clips on You Tube, both the solos and him with Domingo and Carreras, The Three Tenors.
http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/cgi/internet/nsor/fortecgi?serviceName=WebNSOR&templateName=detail.htm&requestingHandler=WebNSORDetailHandler&ID=385422910
A sex offender named Eisemann living in Oceanside, a city with a large frum population and 5 or 6 shuls. This monster sodomized a 10 year old girl.
Speaking of Placido Domingo, he dated Monica Lewinsky's mother for a while.
Andrea Bocelli is etzem zach. At least for that song from the Sopranos.
Andrea Bocelli is etzem zach
---------
Magnifico!
Considering his track record, Charlie Hynes is the worst person to ask.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=15256
Ask the DA: September 6, 2007
by Brooklyn Eagle published online 09-06-2007
By Charles J. Hynes
Kings County District Attorney
Q: I’m concerned about the future release from prison of a man who assaulted me. What can be done to protect me?
A: Your concern is understandable and shared by many victims of crime. In some circumstances, an inmate may be released under supervision by parole or probation officials. In others, an inmate may have completed his or her sentence and will be released into the community without supervision.
Where an offender and victim are related or known to each other, such as in a domestic violence or child abuse case, it is highly likely there will be a judicial Order of Protection in place when the offender is released. This may not be so where the parties are not known to each other. In such instances, courts will determine, on a case by case basis, whether a risk is posed to the safety of the victim and issue a final Order accordingly.
An Order of Protection is an important document. It serves to inform the offender that he or she must abide by the provisions of the Order or risk arrest and prosecution. In the majority of cases this means the offender must stay away from and have no contact with the named victim. Should the offender attempt to make contact, he or she will be found to be in violation of the Order and thereby subject to arrest. Violation of an Order of Protection is a serious offense. The offender may incur a substantial penalty including serving time in jail.
Anyone who has a question regarding the release of an offender or the existence of an Order of Protection in a case that arose in Brooklyn can call my office’s Victim Services Unit at (718) 250-3820. Your inquiry will be handled by one of my Victim Assistance Specialists, who will address any safety concerns and assist in obtaining a copy of an existing Order of Protection. If your case is still pending in court, you may also contact the assistant district attorney handling the case.
For more information please visit the office’s Web site at www.brooklynda.org. To have your questions answered in a future column, send them to asktheda@brooklynda.org.
You wrote on R' Yudel's blog a quote from R' Chaim Kohn. I don't have the article. Did he basically pull the rug out from under Belsky and the OU's supposed heter? When he says "lechatchila" does that mean he wouldn't say it's treif bedieved?
Oh crap, Belsky told me this was a safe place to dump all the incriminating documents.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/9898/Lakewood:+Missing+Suitcase+With+
Lakewood: Missing Suitcase With “Safris” Found
September 6, 2007
Yeshivaworld had posted a story a few days ago, about a large amount of Mezuzas and Tefillin - worth close to $200,000 - that were stolen from a home in Lakewood. Boruch Hashem, the suitcase was found by a local fisherman in Lake Carasaljo (Lakewood’s lake). The police have returned the suitcase to the owner - and only 25% of the items were ruined.
Everyone should be thanking abc's 20/20 for this, I don't give a shit how they get these perverts as long as it works, I don't know what their problem is over there werever they made that sting operation, hell! lets get them to boro park it seems as if we'll get way more than 23, for all I care the sting op could be in the bobover bais medrash, it would be a sight the look on goldmans, leizerowitz, mondrowitz, eismann, kolko,tendler, eisgrau, brauner, bryks, shapiros etc ....... faces, oh! just think of the look on avi shafran's face when he gets there telling the reporters, this whole sting op never happened, 20/20, get to work.
Copy & Paste,
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3558489
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1188291741587
LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP
It should be relevant again
Aaron D. Twerski / Special to The National Law Journal
September 3, 2007
In drafting the Products Liability Restatement, my co-reporter, Professor Jim Henderson Jr., and I struggled with difficult issues of public policy. We received hundreds of critical comments from the bench, bar and legal academy. But the one criticism we never heard was that our work was irrelevant. (Is the Tort Putz trying to defend himself?)
Aaron D. Twerski is Tort Putz extraordinaire and a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School and also serves as special counsel to New York-based Herzfeld and Rubin. He was the 2007 recipient of the Robert C. McKay Law Professor Award, presented for the past 20 years by the Torts and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association to an academic for his or her "commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship and the legal profession demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort and insurance law." Among earlier recipients of the award have been such scholars as Robert Rabin and Charles Alan Wright, and judges Richard Posner and Robert Keeton. This piece is adapted from his speech before the ABA on Aug. 12.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2007/08/09/82544.htm
Va. Man Awarded $41 Million for Priest Abuse Files Another Suit
By Randall Chase
August 9, 2007
A Navy doctor who was awarded $41 million in a civil lawsuit against a pedophile priest has filed a second lawsuit against Roman Catholic officials.
Attorneys for Cmdr. Kenneth Whitwell, 39, of Quantico, Va., filed the lawsuit in Kent County (Delaware) Superior Court against the Norbertine religious order, Archmere Academy in Claymont, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Bishop Michael Saltarelli, and the Rev. Edward Smith.
In March, a federal jury in Wilmington awarded Whitwell $6 million in compensatory damages and $35 million in punitive damages for four rapes by Smith during ski trips to Vermont. Whitwell was awarded a default judgment by the court after Smith failed to respond to the lawsuit.
Whitwell claimed that he was sexually abused by Smith for several years while attending Archmere, and that church officials did nothing to protect him. He alleged that Smith began molesting him in 1982, when he was a 14-year-old freshman and Smith was his religion teacher.
The federal lawsuit focused on sexual abuse on two weekend ski trips to Vermont because Delaware's statute of limitations prevented Whitwell from suing for abuse that occurred in the state.
The lawsuit filed last Friday takes advantage of a new Delaware law allowing victims of child sexual abuse to seek damages for abuse that occurred years ago. The law, which took effect last month, abolishes Delaware's two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits for victims of child sex abuse. It also allows a two-year "lookback'' period during which lawsuits previously barred by the statute of limitations can be brought anew.
"Now that the Child Victims Act is the law, I have filed suit against those whose 'I don't care' reckless attitude caused my rapes by a renegade priest,'' Whitwell said. "I want them held fully accountable by a civil jury and punished for their role in my child abuse.''
Bob Krebs, a spokesman for the diocese, declined to comment. Officials at Archmere had no immediate comment. Kathleen Jennings, an attorney hired by Smith after the federal jury verdict, did not immediately return a telephone message.
While the federal lawsuit focused on the Vermont trips, the new lawsuit alleges that Smith abused Whitwell more than 230 times over a three-year period in Delaware and four other states.
Whitwell, a Navy optometrist, testified in the federal lawsuit that he had repressed any memory of his sexual abuse until 2000, when it surfaced unexpectedly during a heated argument with his wife, and that he did not realize until resuming therapy in 2003 that his emotional problems were caused by his childhood trauma.
According to that lawsuit, Smith began working at Archmere two years after he was removed as principal at St. John Neumann High School in Philadelphia amid allegations of sexually abusing children there. After the lawsuit was filed, Archmere officials acknowledged that a complaint involving alleged sexual misconduct by Smith at the Neumann school was reported to the priory in 2002, and that Smith subsequently was banned from the Archmere campus.
"It's time for the entire truth to come out; all the things they knew, all the things they did, and all the things they did not do,'' Whitwell said.
While Archmere is located in Wilmington, Whitwell attorney Thomas Neuberger said the decision to file the lawsuit in Kent County was based partly on the fact that Dover Air Force Base offers a community accepting of the military, which could play in his client's favor.
After Whitwell won the federal lawsuit, Neuberger asked a federal appeals court to overturn a judge's earlier ruling dismissing Archmere, the diocese and Saltarelli as defendants. Neuberger said Friday that with passage of the new Delaware, he planned to drop the federal appeal because it is no longer needed.
I was at a wedding last weekend and not only was Lipa Margulis treated as a Torah Legend, but he was also given the 7th bracha....
If this is not the end of days....?
I would suggest OUJ, that you keep at it until we perge our people from sludge like this...or we will continue to confuse left and right, right and wrong, Emes and Sheker, etc...
Boog wrote that Bryks was in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He was actually in Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada. The community there is divided between people who hate him and believe it or not, people who support him and deny he could be guilty of anything.
The accused are Rabbi Israel Grunwald of Brooklyn, a leader of the Hungarian Pupa Chassidim, and his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander
Neither suspect entered a formal plea during the hearings, which were attended by dozens of rabbis from Los Angeles and New York in support of their colleagues.
Brooklyn Rabbi Is Freed on Bail In Sex Case, but Assistant Is Held
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN (NYT) 435 words
New York Times - June 3, 1995
A Brooklyn rabbi charged in Los Angeles with touching the breast of a 15-year-old girl on a flight from Australia returned home yesterday, but his assistant, facing a more serious sex-abuse charge, was ordered held pending an inquiry into his involvement in a 1991 sexual-abuse case in upstate New York.
The two rabbis were returning on a United Air Lines flight to Los Angeles on Wednesday when an American girl traveling alone ran sobbing to the crew and accused the men of molesting her. The rabbis were arrested on arrival in Los Angeles.
Rabbi Grunwald, the leader of Congregation Tuldos Yakov Yosef, was charged with sexually touching a minor and was released on a $10,000 signature bond at a hearing on Thursday. He flew to New York yesterday and went into seclusion at his home at 1137 53d Street.
But Rabbi Friedlander, who was charged with more extensive sexual abuse, was held without bail after prosecutors said he had admitted some of the acts, although contending that the girl had encouraged him.
Prosecutors also told the court on Thursday that Rabbi Friedlander had been involved in a 1991 sexual-abuse case in Monticello, N.Y. The prosecutors erroneously told the court then that he had pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree sexual abuse, the records of which had been sealed. The magistrate ordered the defendant held pending the unsealing of those records.
Returning to court yesterday, prosecutors said they had not yet received permission from a New York judge to obtain the sealed records. Federal Magistrate Carolyn Turchin ordered the hearing continued and Rabbi Friedlander held until Tuesday.
In New York yesterday, Justice Robert C. Williams of State Supreme Court in Monticello, acting on a request relayed by the Sullivan County District Attorney, Stephen Lungen, ordered the case record sent to Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
Prosecutors refused to disclose the contents of the record. But officials close to the inquiry said that Rabbi Friedlander, while working at a yeshiva, had been accused of sexual abuse by a dismissed employee.
In an appearance in Monticello Village Court in October, 1991, he did not plead guilty, officials said. Instead, a judge ordered a six-month adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, on condition of good behavior. After six months, the charge was dismissed and the case record was sealed.
Rabbi Friedlander's lawyer, Mitchell Egers, said yesterday that the charges against his client were false.
Bail Set for Rabbi In Sex Abuse Case
New York Times - June 8, 1995
A Federal magistrate set bail at $200,000 today for a Brooklyn rabbi accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl during an airplane flight.
Magistrate Carolyn Turchin set bail for the rabbi, Yehudah Friedlander, after his sister and his daughter's father-in-law posted bonds to insure the bail.
Rabbi Friedlander, 44, an assistant to Rabbi Israel Grunwald, was expected to leave the Metropolitan Detention Center here by Thursday, his lawyer, Mitchell Egers, said.
When he returns to Brooklyn, he will be under house arrest and be required to stay away from juveniles except his own children. He must also be supervised during flights to Los Angeles for court appearances, Ms. Turchin said.
Rabbi Friedlander and Rabbi Grunwald, 44, were arrested on May 29 at Los Angeles Airport on charges that they fondled the girl during a flight from Australia to Los Angeles. Both men were charged with abusive sexual conduct.
Rabbi Grunwald was released earlier on $10,000 bail. Ms. Turchin rejected Rabbi Friedlander's request for bail on Tuesday.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 9, 1995
After a hearing here June 2, U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Turchin released Grunwald on $10,000 bail. He immediately flew back to New York.
Grunwald, charged with sexually touching a minor, faces a maximum of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted.
Friedlander remained in detention over the Sabbath and the Shavuot holiday, despite Egers' protests. He was being held pending clarification of the disposition of a 1991 arrest in New York state, in which he was charged with a sexual offense.
On Tuesday, Turchin denied a cash bail to Friedlander, calling him "a danger to society."
The judge said Friedlander only would be released if someone put up his or her house with equity valued at least at $100,000.
If convicted, Friedlander, who was charged with more extensive sexual abuse, faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Friedlander has been identified in the media as a rabbi or "assistant rabbi," but according to Egers and New York sources, he is actually a non-rabbinical assistant.
A nine-page affidavit submitted to the court by an FBI agent, which cites statements by the young girl, a witness on the plane and Friedlander, alleges a number of occurrences during the long United Air Lines overnight flight.
The girl, an American traveling alone, accused Grunwald of leaning across an empty seat and, following some conversation, touching her necklace and fondling her breasts.
At some point, Friedlander allegedly exchanged seats with Grunwald, and while the cabin lights were dimmed, Friedlander allegedly groped and fondled the girl's private parts and breast for some five to eight minutes, the complaint charged.
The teenager told authorities that she tried to fend off the advances but was too embarrassed to call for help. However, a woman passenger observed the alleged incident, talked to the girl and then notified the flight crew, which radioed a report to authorities.
When the plane landed in Los Angeles, FBI agents, who assumed jurisdiction under the laws governing American aircraft in flight, arrested the two men.
One agent quoted Friedlander as telling him that it was the girl who initiated the advances, adding that "I shouldn't have done it, but it happened."
Egers said Friedlander was "in a state of shock and deeply upset that the whole Jewish world" knows about the accusations.
Egers, a veteran trial lawyer with close ties to the Orthodox community, said when he and his two clients appeared in court last week, he was "besieged by armies of reporters, with just about all the media from New York and Los Angeles on hand." For a day, "we were bigger than the O.J. Simpson case."
Reaction to the arrests was sharpest in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, where Grunwald serves as rabbi of Congregation Tuldos Yacov Yosef.
Rabbi Bernard Freilich, administrator of the Council of Jewish Organizations in Boro Park (who has his own record), told The New York Times that "people are outraged at these charges. They are unbelievable, impossible nonsense. It is impossible that an Orthodox Chassidic person would even speak to a female, much less touch her."
Rabbi Abner Weiss of the Orthodox Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills took a less categorical view. He was being installed as the new president of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California when he received word of the arrests.
In his first act in office, Weiss conferred with Aaron Kriegel, a Conservative rabbi who serves as prison chaplain, to assure that the two Chasidim would receive kosher food. Weiss said he personally bought loaves of challah for Grunwald and Friedlander.
Without passing judgment on the case, Weiss, who holds a graduate degree in psychology, noted that, in general, "Jews are not immune to any kind of illness, physical or mental."
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN (NYT) 887 words
New York Times - June 2, 1995
Rabbi Grunwald was the son of Josef Grunwald, the late Grand Rabbi of the Pupa Hasidim, who transplanted Holocaust survivors from Pupa, Hungary, to Brooklyn after World War II.
Today, the sect has more than 12,000 members in Monsey, N.Y., Montreal, London and Jerusalem, as well as in Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn. Yakov Grunwald, the founder's eldest son, is the Grand Rabbi and head of the Williamsburg community, and Israel Grunwald leads several hundred families in Borough Park.
The acts were said to have occurred on United Air Lines Flight 842 over the Pacific. Federal prosecutors, who assumed jurisdiction under laws governing United States aircraft in flight, said the girl, whose name was withheld because of her age -- she turned 15 during the flight -- had accused Rabbi Grunwald, after first engaging her in conversation, of reaching across an empty seat, placing his hand under her shirt and touching her breast.
The girl's detailed complaint said Rabbi Friedlander, who had been sitting on the far side of his colleague, exchanged seats with Rabbi Grunwald, and made a series of unwanted approaches while the cabin lights were dimmed for movies and rest periods during the long overnight flight.
She said he forced his hand under her clothing and touched her breast repeatedly and her vagina, despite her pleas for him to stop and her efforts to push his hand away. The girl said she finally began sobbing and retreated to the lavatory.
An affidavit by Mark Van Steenburg, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's senior agent at the Los Angeles Airport, said that another passenger, Sheila Myers, seated across an aisle just forward of the girl, told him she saw Rabbi Friedlander grope the girl for five to eight minutes under a blanket and alerted the flight crew.
Mr. Van Steenburg said Rabbi Friedlander told him the girl had put his hand on her breast twice, and on her pelvic area. "I did it, I shouldn't have done it, but it happened," the agent quoted the rabbi as saying.
The allegations stunned the rabbis' colleagues, neighbors and members of their community in Borough Park, many of whom called the actions unthinkable and the charges unbelievable, possibly trumped up by the teen-aged girl. They also complained that the rabbis, who were dressed in their traditional black garb and wore beards and sidecurls, had been humiliated by Federal agents who handcuffed them as they stepped off the plane.
By TOM RUE
The River Reporter, June 15, 1995
http://www.riverreporter.com/news/rue/950615b.htm
MONTICELLO - An ultra-orthodox rebbe arrested in Los Angeles for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl on a jetliner had a prior similar charge dismissed in Village of Monticello Justice Court, according to The New York Times and Cable News Network.
Yehuda Friedlander, now 44, was charged in 1991 with sexual abuse in the third degree, a misdemeanor. The charge was reportedly adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, and ultimately dismissed and sealed. It allegedly involved an offense against an adult woman.
At the time of the accusation, Friedlander reportedly managed a children's summer camp in Sullivan County.
Former village justice Mark Schulman was the judge who dismissed the charge against the rebbe, according to two sources familiar with the case. Local authorities declined to release any information, claiming the case was sealed by the justice court.
Focus on crimes involving religious Jews sparks debate
by DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - June 16, 1995
The spokesman for an ultra-reglious group, Agudath Israel of America, said he was not so certain that the focus on religious Jews' failings is legitimate.
"The attention paid to them because they're Chassidim is understandable but lamentable," said Rabbi Avi Shafran.
"What results from it is the reinforcement of the stereotype that Chassidim are hypocrites. The overwhelming majority of the observant world is people determined to keep to the stringencies of their faith," he added.
"For people to think Chassidim are this way, hiding a darker self, is embarrassing to all of us who wear beards and yarmulkes."
In another high-profile New York case, Rockland County District Attorney Kenneth Gribetz, an Orthodox Jew, quit his post last month shortly before pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of defrauding the government in a deal he worked out with the U.S. Attorney.
Although married, a father and grandfather, Gribetz was partly done in by his former mistress, who went to the media with information about him. Gribetz aspired to being a congressman and was admired by many of his area's religious Jews.
Rabbi Moshe Tendler, Gribetz's longtime rabbi, said in an interview that he had often cited Gribetz in his speeches to illustrate how a devout Jew can remain faithful to the laws of kashrut and Shabbat while pursuing any career --even in law and politics.
But evidence police collected from Gribetz's ex-lover's home included whips, a dog collar, sex toys and pictures of Gribetz modeling women's clothing. Their three-year affair apparently included trips they took together funded by taxpayers' dollars.
Tendler, who organized a meeting of community rabbis to levy social sanctions against Gribetz just before his breaches became public, described the former politician's behavior as a "chilul haShem," or a desecration of God's name.
His behavior "emasculated our Torah. It reduces or minimizes the claim of Torah, that this is the divine law fit for the human experience. If someone who has been exposed to Torah does these things, what will people say?" said Tendler.
It is the reverse of what a religious Jew is supposed to do, that "the name of God shall be loved by your actions in Kiddush HaShem," said the rabbi,who is also a professor at Yeshiva University and a respected expert on medical ethics.
According to the New York Jewish Week, there has been a longstanding feud between the two brothers, with Israel Grunwald in Borough Park refusing to recognize the authority of his older brother in Williamsburg.
Associated Press - Sept. 1997
http://members.cox.net/survivorconnections/usa1briefs.html
LOS ANGELES. (09/1997). Rabbi gets community service and counseling. Rabbi Israel Grunwald, accused of fondling a 15-year-old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia, has had the charge against him dropped after agreeing to perform 500 hours of community service and to seek counseling.
Another writer using a pseudonym gets a haskomma from Belsky. Maybe the author is Mrs. Bungalow Putz.
This review is by Rabbi Twersky, YU Rosh Yeshiva.
http://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/28208/
Mrs. Devorah Heshelis (which is a pen name) has done just that. Her monograph, The Moon’s Lost Light, is a remarkably creative and extremely erudite contribution to the Torah-and-women literature.
It is important to note that Mrs. Heshelis’ monograph is preceded by a very impressive collection of approbations. Outstanding rabbinic authorities and luminaries such as Rabbi Yisrael Belsky vouch for the traditional character of her ideas.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/34952/divorce_drives_supply_and_demand.html
How the Divorce Cycle Creates a Housing Glut
By Richard Beattie
Instead of getting married again, I'm just going to find a woman I don't like and give her a house -Lewis Grizzard
Almost everywhere you look there is an imbalance of “executive housing.” It begs the mathematical question on how many executives are there? And are there enough to buy these over sized houses on tiny lots of land? The theory goes something like this: A married executive relocates to town from the coast (pick one), moves his executive wife and 2.4 children and then the happy couple decides they no longer want to stay married. Then a second executive home is purchased for the executive wife who takes 1.2 children with her, she remarries another executive, who has 1.2 children as well, and a dog. The blended family then has to move into a bigger executive house with a tinier yard and then if statistics are right this executive couple splits a second and third time- hence other executive houses and a bunch of children who are doing their best to learn what it is like to solve the executive housing glut. This of course doesn’t give any mention to the original executive patriarch (from the first marriage) who is doing his part to keep the cycle going too. So if divorce creates the need then supply meets the demand of too many communities.
Another algebraic problem is, if the divorce rate is over 50% in this country, then how many of the divorces are granted to the same people? In other words if the same people are getting married, divorcing, then repeating the cycle again and again, does it stand to reason that just a small part of the adult population is raising the divorce statistic? According to Yale and Swarthmore University Sociology Professor, William Weston, “The divorce rate for first marriages is at 40 percent and second marriages at 60 percent which is good news overall.”
There are a percentage of divorces that approach the silly line of over 3 marriages and divorces. Too many times multiple marriages multiply by two and triple the victim rate when it comes to children and finances. According to Daniel Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind" which reveals the six abilities white-collar workers must master to survive in an outsourced, automated, upside-down world: “People living longer means less turnover in housing stock, which translates into more construction.” Pink predicts that 50-year or even 75-year mortgages could become common. “And I wouldn't be surprised to see continued growth in co-housing (seniors forming the equivalent of 21st century communes), multiple generations of families living together under one (large) roof, and other alternative housing arrangements.
Does anyone know if the pedophile Friedlander is the same mishpocho as the Lisker and Hivnover Freidlanders? The Hivnover is responsible for the many years that everyone ate treif at Maimonides hospital. It's still not klor if all the taaruvos problems in the kitchen were fixed. There's also a connection to Gershon Tannenbaum.
YESHIVA OF KISHINEV IS A BRANCH OF VAAD L'HATZOLAS NIDCHEI YISROEL
http://www.thevaad.com/
RABBINICAL COMMITTEE
HARAV AARON SCHECHTER
HARAV YAAKOV PERLOW
HARAV YAAKOV HOROWITZ
HARAV YITZCHOK FEIGELSTOCK
HARAV YOSEF HARARI RAFUL
HARAV MALKIEL KOTLER
HARAV MOSHE EISEMANN
HARAV FEIVEL COHEN
HARAV SHMUEL KAMINETZKY
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
RABBI NAFTOLI CUKIER
EPHRAIM HASENFELD
BARUCH HERTZ
Anyone that has any complaints about molestation or abuse connected with the Vaad can call board member Baruch Barry Hertz's wife Joan Hertz she is a social worker at Ohel
Http://www.nysed.gov/coms/op001/opscr2?profcd=72&plicno=063197
and she will surly know what to do or how to advise her husband. Her number at Ohel is 718 851 6300 and her home number is (718) 258-8274 and she lives at 1304 E Seventh St
Brooklyn, NY 11230-5104.
Shmarya, who always tries putting on the appearance that he knows Shas & poskim, really has his foot in his mouth now.
Tefillin with round batim were found at a dig. Shamrya seizes this to insinuate that rabbonim make up their own rules at whim and changed batim to square. He is clueless as to befeirush sources in Talmud Bavli of minim using the round ones.
Think of it this way - in 1000 years when archeologists dig up the remains of Hebrew Union College, is FailedMessiah XXVIII going to blog: "See! They davened in English not Hebrew!"?
(So far, Shmarya doesn't have an heir so this is theoretical)
Shares of Mattel (MAT, news, msgs) took a hit this morning after the world's largest toy maker announced a third major recall of Chinese-made toys in little more than a month because of excessive amounts of lead paint.
The latest action, which involved about 800,000 toys, is yet another blow to Mattel. The news, along with other recent recalls of tainted Chinese toys from other toy makers, could make parents even more nervous about shopping for toys this holiday season.
Mattel shares were down about 3% in early trading today as Wall Street worried about the hit to the toy maker's reputation. But the stock clawed its way back and closed the session with a modest gain. Mattel ended at $21.98, up 1 cent.
The news emerged late Tuesday, the same day The Wall Street Journal reported that Mattel appeared to have dragged its feet in pulling potentially hazardous children's toys off store shelves.
"Mattel, in at least three major cases since the late 1990s -- including last month's recall of nearly 18 million play sets studded with potentially dangerous magnets -- took months to gather information," rather than reporting the claims in the 24-hour time frame mandated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Journal reported. "In two of the cases, it collected scores of complaints for months before disclosing them to the agency."
Barbie accessories and more
The latest Mattel recall, whose details were negotiated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, covers 675,000 Barbie accessories sold between October 2006 and August of this year. No Barbie dolls were included in the action.
The recall also includes 90,000 units of Mattel's GeoTrax locomotive line and about 8,900 Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys, both from the company's Fisher-Price brand. The GeoTrax toys were sold from September 2006 through August.
Mattel's last recall, announced on Aug. 14, covered about 19 million toys worldwide. They included Chinese-made toys that either had excessive amounts of lead paint or had small magnets that could easily be swallowed by children.
On Aug. 1, Mattel's Fisher-Price division said it was recalling 1.5 million preschool toys featuring characters such as Dora the Explorer, Big Bird and Elmo because of lead paint. That action included 967,000 toys sold in the United States between May and August.
"China's manufacturing reputation is definitely being hurt in the eyes of consumers," Alan Oxley, managing director of Melbourne, Australia, trade-policy consultants ITS Global, told Bloomberg News. "Global brands like Mattel will have to do a lot more to improve their quality control."
With more than 80% of toys sold worldwide made in China, toy sellers are also concerned shoppers will shy away from their products in this year's holiday season.
By Marilyn Lewis
New Jersey has been crowned first in the nation for having the most residents who enjoy illegitimate farm-use discounts on the price of their auto insurance.
It's a heady distinction, sullied only a little by the fact that Jersey has the 11th-smallest farming industry among the 50 states.
Farmers or not, you can't say Jersey folks aren't resourceful. They emerged as kings in a recent report titled "Scam Alert: Study Reveals Crafty Urban Residents Cheat Auto Insurers." It is the fruit of research by Quality Planning, a San Francisco company that uses sophisticated analytical tools to verify policyholders' applications for insurance companies.
U.S. Drivers are paying the correct premiums subsidize those who've fraudulently or inadvertently misstated their risk.
A list of drivers' favorite auto insurance cost-cutting tricks is topped by those who lowball their mileage on insurance applications.
It's "not uncommon," Quality Planning says, to find insurance companies where owners of more than 60% of the vehicles insured say they commute just three miles a day or less. Analysts spot such inaccuracies by comparing policy applications against gigantic databases containing, to name a few sources, motor vehicle records, professional registries, prison addresses, census reports and smog data. In 2005, Quality Planning found, 17% of cars and trucks racked up more than 20,000 miles, yet owners of only 4% admitted that much driving.
Insurance applicants can demonstrate an uncanny ability to avoid a higher-rated category. "If the rate goes up at 5,000 (miles), you'll find this big cluster of folks at 4,999," Cox says. "It hits every single company."
To snag a lower rate, a driver may use a phony address -- for instance, a post office box or a mail drop in a neighborhood less prone to collisions and break-ins. Otherwise-law-abiding suburban parents commonly let grown children use their address rather than pay higher premiums for their central-city addresses.
http://www.qualityplanning.com/
“When we discovered that a Jaguar XJ6 was reported garaged at a five-acre farm in Brooklyn, we weren’t sure who’d be more interested, the DEA or the policyholder’s insurance company,” said Ted Harris, manager of research and development at Quality Planning Corp. “We also found a correlation between this practice and those states where auto insurance is expensive. This sort of fraud can cost insurance companies millions of dollars each year — and unfortunately it’s honest consumers who end up subsidizing the dishonest.”
http://wn.wsvn.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?clipid1=1729417&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//wn.wsvn.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp%3Fclipid1%3D1729417&rnd=30385527
Please help this little frum girl find a facility in the hope she can be revived before the State pulls the plug.
You're very good at convening meetings to impose sanctions on others who are baal habatim. What about your own sons and other family who disgrace the rabbonus?
There is a rabbi I know who knew about the treif at Maimonides but didn't have the balls to do anything about it. Most rabbonim are cowards is exactly right. If there still is a problem even after they spent big bucks on upgrading the kitchen it would be because Rabbi Weiss from State enforcement is friends with Friedlander. I'm not accusing Weiss, just saying that if problems still do exist it's because he's too easy on friends.
No wonder the maydelach in Pupa wear those bulletproof stockings. They have to protect themselves from touchy feely chasidim. How many perverts are running around there including the Ruv alein?
The Pupa Boro Park beis medrash should be shut down. UOJ should add them to his drek list.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu remained in custody Friday at a Colorado hospital following his arrest days after he failed to show up for a court appearance related to a felony theft conviction.
FBI agents took Hsu into custody late Thursday at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo., said FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock indexes tumbled more than 1.7 percent on Friday after the government announced the first monthly drop in payrolls in four years, fanning fears of a recession.
A Labor Department report showing employers cut a net 4,000 jobs in August piled on the gloom for Wall street and added to pressure for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
All 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average were trading lower and only two issues in the Nasdaq 100 were up.
Consumer discretionary shares were a major drag as speculation mounted that Americans will trim spending in the face of a weakening housing and employment climate.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the current market turmoil is "identical" in many ways to that which occurred in 1987 and 1998, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Friday.
"The behavior in what we are observing in the last seven weeks is identical in many respects to what we saw in 1998, what we saw in the stock-market crash of 1987," Greenspan was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Question for Steve said...
You wrote on R' Yudel's blog a quote from R' Chaim Kohn. I don't have the article. Did he basically pull the rug out from under Belsky and the OU's supposed heter? When he says "lechatchila" does that mean he wouldn't say it's treif bedieved?
Not only did he pull the rug out, but he punched enough holes into their "heter" to make swiss cheese out of it. Rav Yudel referred me to the Hamodia magazine of last week when I questioned Gordimer's application of "Kol D'Parish" to the milk issue. What R' Kohn is saying is that when you have a case of lechatchila, where the kosher milk is purposely being comingled with treife milk, then the laws of bittul that Gordimer listed, do not apply. You would need shishim to be mevatel, which is not there.
http://vosizneias.com/
Kiryas Joel, Monroe NY - State Police Investigating Vandals Attack on Jewish Couple Car for Not Observing Strict Orthodox Dress Codes.
Kiryas Joel, Monroe NY - A native of this Satmar Hasidic village, Toby Greenberg is not unfamiliar with the strict mores of her ultra-Orthodox community.
But she never expected to be persecuted for choosing to dress slightly differently.
Unlike most Kiryas Joel women, who wear long, dark dresses or skirts and simple blouses in public, Greenberg, 25, wears colorful shirts, wigs and denim skirts.
And that, in the eyes of a clandestine group of inquisitors, constitutes immoral behavior.
Greenberg and her husband, Yoel, awoke Tuesday morning to find the tires of their silver Chevy Impala slashed and white oil-based paint splashed on their new, black Mazda CX-7.
Written in white paint on the Mazda were Hebrew words that Greenberg interpreted in English as "get out" and "defiled person."
The couple at first suspected the attacks to be the work of Vaad Hatznius, the equivalent of a morality police group in the village.
But when Toby's family confronted members of the group, they denied responsibility for the acts, she said.
Still, Vaad Hatznius has been suspected of acting through other agents of the community to achieve its ends, she said.
"I want these people arrested," Toby said.
"I want them to pay for my damaged property and to pay for what they are putting my family through." [record]
Comments:
Anonymous said...
This zoineh got what was coming to her. If she continues to follow her wayward ways, and not in keeping with the community mores, she can fully expect to continue receiving this treatment.
Let her take her slutty ways to a town where the community mores are lenient - there is no shortage of such places. She cannot choose to impose her prostitution on a town that firmly rejects it.
If she continues to act with her deviant behavior, she will pay the price. And I can fully assure her, as in the past, no authority will ever catch up to the enforcers - they answer to a higher authority.
Anonymous said...
Way to go 'Ms.' Toby.
You showed them right! Spite them to their faces! Went to news reporters, got the word out! Brought out the biggest חילול השם imaginable. Just look at some of the comments at The Herald!
'Speaking with a reporter yesterday, Toby wore a bright pink Tommy Hilfiger long-sleeved shirt, a denim skirt with ruffles at the knees and a wig with a copper tint.'- That's it. ברוח היום. I think BRIGHT RED would have been more appropriate.
People may have been wrong in touching other people’s property, but that’s what you get in a confrontation! BLAME NO ONE BUT YOURSELF!!
While I’m not at all at Satmar Chosid, I surely give them credit for taking such a stance for upkeeping modes of צניעות. That such a breach THREATENS & EXITES them, is to be commended.
While they may have done איסור גזל, which is בין אדם לחבירו, you ‘Ms’ Toby, have done a lot worse. גדול המחטיאו יותר מן ההורגו. Not my own words. Someone to dress up less appropriately, and prance around in the streets, is LIKE RAPING their senses. You did it all: בין אדם למקום, בין אדם לחבירו, ובין איש לאשתו! You’ve also stolen, the קדושה of that place. They may make amends. How would you?!?
RE: Article in vosizneis on the couple that got messed over becuase wifey does not adhere to KY dress code.
Always good to go into Shabbos with a laugh and chuckle, and this story would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.
Aside from their laudable Bikur Cholim work, the satu mares are the biggest Tinaf Tinofsim and low life scumbags around and that's taking in a lot of territory.
The Vaad Ha'Tznius is worried about Tznius? Gimmee a break! The KY and Williamsburg factions are literally duking it out in the streets, Page 1 in all of the tabloids, piling up lawsuit after lawsuit in secular courts; all to see who gets their MF grubby hands on the hundreds of Mil. And they talk about Chilul hashem??!!
And how about the foil'e shtick they pull off in their businesses to avoid paying taxes? Incredible.
Chilul Hashem? Indeed.
Hey satu mares, line up right here and get your free Louimas.
Yahoo! Alerts Yahoo! News Alerts -
Friday, September 7, 2007, 11:35 AM
SAN DIEGO (AP) The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego says it will pay $198.1 million to settle 144 claims of sexual abuse by clergy.
Go To Shmarya:
BREAKING: PETA Finds Another Glatt Kosher Slaughter Abuse – Abuses Took Place As Rabbi Yisroel Belsky Watched!
http://tinyurl.com/2bkc7q
I read that terrible story about the giyores being abused by those sick heimishe animals. The kicker was the theft of her electricity. I know of two such stories with hijacked electric lines. One is with the landlord from Hell. Some shlumpy grubby fresser kind of guy who leins at various shuls in Flatbush did it to my friend. Some other people I know were victimized by Boro Park Hungarians for years. When they finally realized and confronted the ganovim, the Hungies put on this innocent act and insisted "vee didn't know."
Regarding the treif at Maimonides.
While it is not impossible that Rabbi Luzer Weiss did not know about it before someone filed an official complaint, it is highly unlikely. Major institutions have State inspectors coming around on a regular basis and they would either have to be blind, didn't give a damn and didn't report it to Weiss or were being paid off. There would be an incentive for a corrupt hospital to to pay them off as the upgrades needed to fix the problems there cost over 100 grand.
One analyst tells the Journal that today's jobs report and other details trickling through from the mortgage industry are so bad that "even Mary Poppins will go on Xanax."
Of course you heard it here first as UOJ scooped the WSJ.
How do Belsky and the OU keep churning out the dairy after Rav Kohn spoke up? What's their excuse now? Do they claim that any poskim allow bittul lechatchila?
I don't know why Shmarya felt the need to drag Satmar into the Belsky fiasco. They have nothing to do with it. A search of kosher databases reveals that Musicon is strictly an OU operation. It's not even up Satmar's alley to get into venison. They probably view it as an extra frill for fressers.
Those liars would give out a pamphlet that the "kashrus" is limehadrin min hamehadrin.
Don't let your wife give birth in that 4th rate hospital. Send her to a nice place where she can also get kosher food.
It's a long story to get into but Maimonides is through and through corrupt in many ways.
Well, I have to admit I'm also upset at Belsky but it's for my own selfish reasons.
I was wondering why the kosher venison is always so rubbery. It's a klal gadol in farming (and fressing) that when an animal is stressed before slaughter, it ruins the quality of the meat.
I implore Rabbi Belsky to be nice to the deer so that I have better fressing experiences.
I know the guy who stirred up trouble for Maimonides. He was very close to going to the newspapers before some changes were made. he has actually found kashrus problems in many places and some kashrus certifiers see him as big troublemaker and pain in the butt. if they don't act when he complains, he knows how to bring pressure on them. he doesn't know if he believes that Maimo hospital fixed everything but he can't sit around watching them. When his wife gave birth there a little while ago he wouldn't let her eat the food. he won't let her give birth in that sick hospital again anyways.
Watch the PETA Video:
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=musicon_deer_slaughter&Player=wm
Belsky mit der gruber boch stands on the side watching the proceedings.
Rav Ha'Machshir, indeed.
Don't forget that Levana's was the first & only place for many years that offered venison. They were also caught feeding people with treif kelim at catered functions and were later involved with the OU in covering up for the bastard chef at Le Marais. Then there were the times they were caught cooking on Shabbos.
According to PETA, the slaughter seen on this new PETA video was done in the presence of the OU's posek, rabbinic decisor, and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Torah Vodaas, Rabbi Yisroel Belsky. In other words, Rabbi Belsky saw it with his own eyes.
In a letter sent today to Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of the OU's Kashrus Division and to Rabbi Belsky, and cc'd to the OU's executive director Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Weinreb, Bruce Friedrich, PETA's vice president, wrote:
What our investigators recorded was appalling. As you may know, deer are high-strung, nervous animals. The deer killed by Musicon panicked when they entered the building. They were then wrestled into position in the restraining pen. In the “drop floor crush” restraint box, an assistant climbed on the back of the deer and knelt on the struggling animals’ shoulders to try to immobilize them. Another assistant then grabbed the deer by the ears or antlers and pulled their bodies forward to expose their necks.
Deer panic easily. Any handling—especially this type of cruel handling—causes them extreme fear and pain.
In a September 1, 2007, letter to PETA (attached), Dr. Temple Grandin confirmed that deer should not be knelt on or pulled by their ears during handling. Dr. Grandin also noted that at Musicon, there is not enough room to make a proper cut.
Immediately after shechita, the assistant would slam the pen door shut to keep the deer from thrashing; some dying animals had their heads squeezed between the frame and the door. The deer were conscious for up to a minute and a half after shechita and one was dragged away while still conscious, as confirmed by Dr. Grandin.…
Has anyone said they were molested when he was the rov in New Rochelle in the 1950s?
I'm also curious to know what younger bochurim who were in yeshiva with him at RJJ and YU have to say.
http://theawarenesscenter.org/shapiro_Ephraim.html#Gravestone
As his gravestone notes, TA is known as Chofetz Chaim yeshiva. Is it a branch of CHofetz Chaim in Queens?
Rabbi Pinchos Scheinberg was mashgiach of Chofetz Chaim before he founded Torah Ohr in Israel. There have been a number of Chofetz Chaim talmidim who have been involved in molestation cases either as the perp or in an enabler / cover up role.
Too bad the OU had its "halachic" Fresser seudah before the release of this Belsky blooper video, which really shows issues involved in shechting non-domesticated and exotic species.
http://kosherquest.org/bookhtml/SHECHITA_THROUGH_BUTCHER.htm
(from Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz of Kosherquest.)
According to the article, about 70 percent of shechted animals aren't deemed kosher and up to 95 percent of shechted animals aren't deemed glatt kosher. I'm not familiar with the source and the numbers seem high; do you think these estimates are correct?
Whether those figures are right on or on the high side, I think the point remains: If we have an ideal of treating animals humanely per shechita and all too often don't meet those ideals (even if it isn't because of humane treatment all the time), then the system seems flawed. Isn't there a major problem when a system frequently doesn't turn out an acceptable (according to its own standards) product?
Shmarya then chimes in:
"Rabbi Eidlitz is in effect lying in that book. He does so to justify the high cost of kosher meat.
Good heards can be as high as 85% glatt (under the Ashkenazic understanding of that term).
Certainly, Rubashkin is getting close to 65% glatt. His outright treife slaughter is probaby less than 20%.
As for the (venison) case here, the plant's owner appears to have lied to PETA. Pregnant animals are not treife."
According to my information, Shmarya doesn't get it right either. (What else is new?). While rabbonim tell me that Eidlitz is unnreliable and Feldheim only publishes him because they are personal friends, we have from R' Yudel and others that most Rubashkin output is treif. Despite the fact that Shmarya seems to believe he is the biggest expert in every area, I think R' Yudel's data is much more accurate. What Shmarya is probably trying to do is apply his very superficial knowledge of halacha to predict practical outcomes on the slaughterhouse floor. You can't argue with the man because he thinks he knows everything. One problem at Rubashkin is that they then try to shift treif to kosher which is much more profitable.
OU Crony Watch said...
How do Belsky and the OU keep churning out the dairy after Rav Kohn spoke up? What's their excuse now? Do they claim that any poskim allow bittul lechatchila?
No matter how much evidence that you present to the contrary, and no matter how many poskim declare that it is treife, they will still claim that it is a "safeik". It is the same approach as with the Eishes Ish, Lipa Brenner, Yudi Kolko, Le Marais, Rubashkin, et al. If we all close our eyes and ears and bury our heads in the sand, then we can declare all these cases sfeikos and they become battel (nullified). We must ignore all evidence and testimonies. We must do this to avoid hefsed merubah (major financial loss) to the yeshivos, kashrus agencies, and our wealthy friends.
Good heards can be as high as 85% glatt (under the Ashkenazic understanding of that term).
Certainly, Rubashkin is getting close to 65% glatt. His outright treife slaughter is probaby less than 20%.
According to the sources I've read, including Rav Yudel, the average is 70% treife, 15% "kosher"(Hebrew National style) and 15% glatt. I'm not surprised that Rubashkin says that they get 65% glatt, simply because it beehooves them to label as much as possible (as much as they can get away with) as "glatt". Heck , even their feces covered chickens are labelled "glatt".
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