This survey was sent to me by a friend of mine battling sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. I believe that the numbers (percentages) are similar among male teachers in general and - rebbes in yeshivas - in particular! I have discovered that a percentage of child rapists choose to teach children, so that they have easy access to them. This belief has been confirmed by numerous mental health professionals.
*************************
"The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops commissioned a survey of Roman Catholic church records of abusive clergy, to be completed by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The survey is one component of the Dallas Charter, a plan developed by the bishops in 2002 to respond to allegations of widespread child abuse by priests, and of extensive cover-ups by the church. CNN.com obtained a draft copy of the report and posted a summary on their web site on 2004-FEB-17. 1 The final version was released on 2004-FEB-27.
Some of the raw data contained in the report:
Years covered: 1950 to 2002.
Percentage of bishops who provided information: 97% 3
Total number of allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests: 11,000. Number substantiated: 6,700 (61%).
Number unsubstantiated: 1,000 (9.1%).
Number which were not investigated because the allegations were made after the priest's death: 3,300.
Number of priests who served during the interval: 110,000. Number of priests alleged to have abused children: 4,450.
Percentage of abusive priests: 4.0%
Number of priests who are currently serving: 44,000
Number of cases of abuse per priest: Most priests were accused of a single event
1,112 priests (25.0%) had two or three allegations
578 priests (13%) had four to nine allegations.
133 priests (2.9%) had ten or more allegations.
Age of the victims: Almost 6% were 7 years of age or younger.
16% were 8,9 or 10 years old.
78% were 11 to 17 years old.
Factors contributing to the abuse problem, as stated by the report:
Failure by the hierarchy to grasp the seriousness of the problem.
Overemphasis on the need to avoid a scandal.
Use of unqualified treatment centers.
Misguided willingness to forgive.
Insufficient accountability.
According to Paul McHugh, a member of the National Review Board, the epidemic of child abuse cases sprang up "...early in the 1960s and reached tidal-wave proportions in the 1970s and early 1980s." The report suffers from what public-health workers call "reporting bias." Some details of the 11,000 cases of alleged abuse are known. But there exists another "pool of victims of unknown size...outside of their accounting..." They might never come to light. By reaching back to the year 1950, the John Jay study showed that the 1950s were comparatively free of predators. It went relatively unrecognized during the 1970s and 1980s".
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
71 comments:
Lew was actually acquitted of the sex assault because of a technicality. Since it was his own home where he exposed himself and masturbated that is within his rights. The judge further ruled that it is not illegal to hint to your cleaning that you'd love to have sex with her. I still don't understand the ruling because he also locked the doors which should be kidnapping / confinement.
He appears to have gone to Packer Collegiate in Brooklyn in the mid-90s to get his high school equivalency.
Lew is now running a bunch of Chabad websites.
http://pcldesign.com/4436.html
He owns PCL Design.
http://lightcandles.org/
Rabbi Pinny or Chana Lew
570 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11213
718.604.0400
info@lightcandles.org
http://www.chabadcalendars.com/about.php
ChabadCalendars.com was founded by Pinny Lew with the goal of producing original and quality calendars for Shluchim to use in their communities.
If a Chabad calendar is hanging on your wall, it was very likely produced by this creep.
http://www.myencounter.com/
He is the grandson of Zalman Jaffe and distributes his book.
http://www.wellesleywestonchabad.org/article(050607).html
This article, written by a State Congressman no less, is about Pinny Lew speaking at a Wellesley College Shabbaton this past May run by Rabbi Bleich, the Chabad shaliach at Wellesley College. Wellesley is an ALL-FEMALE college. Bleich brought the pervert Lew-d to this environment.
Rabbi Bleich grew up as a Stoliner in Boro Park before switching to Chabadism. His brother is Chief Rabbi of the Ukraine. Bleich can be reached at 781-239-1076 or Chabadwellesley@aol.com.
I could be off slightly, but I'm told that there are approximately 7000 rebbes in yeshivas (Charedi and MO) in the U.S.A. Add camp counselors...etc. 4% is an unimaginable number of ....
Parents: The yeshivas are not going to protect your children, everything they're doing outwardly is superficial!
You're on your own!
Parents: you can't count on legislators to protect your kids either. I wrote the article about pervert Pinny Lew-d speaking at the Wellesley shul where I am the gabbai.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Bedrick
Jason Bedrick (born June 5, 1983) is a member of the New Hampshire state legislature.[1] He is a Republican representing Windham, New Hampshire. He is also an Orthodox Jew.[2]
Bedrick is the first Orthodox Jew to hold elective office in New Hampshire, which has fewer than ten Orthodox Jewish families among its 1% Jewish population.[2] New Hampshire has had several prominent Jewish elected officials, such as Paul Hodes and Warren Rudman, but no others have been Orthodox.[2]
At Babson College he was a senior editor for the Babson Free Press, and the founder of the local chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.[3] He also studied Torah in yeshiva Hadar Hatorah in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.[4]
Unanimously endorsed by the libertarian Republican Liberty Caucus political action committee,[5] Bedrick's 2006 victory was a narrow one, by only six votes, after a recount. In addition to school choice, he is in favor of continuing New Hampshire's traditional absence of sales and income tax, and is in general a fiscal conservative.[2]
Bedrick has announced that he will not author any legislation in his first term, instead preferring to vote on others' proposals as he learns the ropes.[1]
Bedrick is a committed Orthodox Jew, a baal teshuva, and a follower of Chabad-Lubavitch.[6] He observes Shabbat, keeps kosher, and won't shake a woman's hand because Haredi Judaism forbids most physical contact between unmarried persons of opposite sexes.[2] This became an issue during the election, but he received critical support from the Salem Women's Club after he wrote to them explaining the religious basis for his actions.[7] Because Jewish law forbids taking oaths, during his swearing-in ceremony Bedrick substituted the words "I affirm" for "I swear."[2] Bedrick always wears a head covering and sports a full beard.[2]
Bedrick works as a salesman part time, and intends to enroll in law school.[1] He also serves as gabbai of the Wellesley Weston Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue, in Wellesley, Massachusetts.[7]
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:PR1i5uDUNNkJ:www.jewishboca.org/index.php%3Fcategory%3DJEC%26ref%3DMarch%2520of%2520the%2520Living%25202007%26src%3Dgendocs+%22march+of+the+living%22+pinny+lew&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
There also seems to be a Rabbi Pinny Lew running Shabbatons for the March of the Living. I wonder if Sruly Singer arranged the funding for that.
Hey Bedrick, my prized mispallel Yosef Meystel wants to take a vacation out East. Do you think you could be mechabed him with an aliyah?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bedrick_with_Giuliani.jpg
I had a long talk with Bedrick about Pinny Lew-d. He says that Uncle Milty vouches for him as his brother in law Sholom Rubashkin only hires upstanding people to work for him. Don't forget it was never proven that Lew-d drove the getaway car during the murder & 2 armed robberies.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-many-rabbis-are-required-to.html#c2776139836302946118
Anonymous said...
R' Yudel should follow the very interesting comments today on DaasHakohol. Some Rubashkin supporters jumped in to attack but many Lubabs are coming to Rabbi Shain's defense. They say that those in Crown Hts who know about the kashrus cover up have a chiyuv to speak up and they should be ashamed of themselves that it fell to Rabbi Shain on the outside to raise the alarm.
Mon Oct 15, 03:03:00 PM 2007
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2006/02/razag-caterers-rest-of-story.html
RAZAG CATERERS on East New York Ave. in Brooklyn, NY opened up about 2 years ago. They had at that time the local kashrus certifier (Lubavitch) and the Breuer's KAJ. KAJ ulimately left Razag in a huff, after just a few weeks. (read on you'll figure out why)
Razag was looking for a Kashrus Certifier that the Yeshiva Bnei Torah would rely on them. They attempted to get Tartikuv-Minchas Chinuch among many others, they basically all turned it down due to the fact that they wouldn't certify an establishment that uses Rubashkin (regardless of the label on it e.g. Supreme, Kesser, Aaron, Margareten, KAJ etc).
They found none other than the M'chon L'Horah of Monsey / Boro Park. I spoke to the M'chon and advised them not to get involved with them as they can't be trusted, "they are liars", and the whole place is lacking organization. In the world of Kashrus, the Cardinal rule is "A liar can't be trusted even with 10 Mashgichim".
The M'chon L'horah did undertake the Certification regardless, putting in their own Mashgiach. The condition at Razag Catering as we see it now is as follows; They operate with the same lies, the 2 Mashgichim are working behind each others back to trip each other up, the non-Jewish help figured out the Rabbi's "back stabbing" in 5 1/2 seconds-and the rest is history.
M'chon L'Horah went into the Kashrus line for Business to support their Kolel. Their game plan is as follows; We are starting off as an unknown, we'll take on any half way decent Hashgocha to bring in the dollars $$$ and become popular. Once we are popular and in demand we'll upgrade to a "higher standard". In the meantime till the upgrade happens, it's not for "Bnei Torah" yeshiva leit. We will monitor & advise you when those upgrades take place.
NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!
By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago
PARIS - First Interpol unmasked his face. Now it knows his name. The international police organization, working off tips from people who responded to a global appeal for help, said Monday it has identified a suspected pedophile shown in Internet photos abusing young boys.
The man, whose face initially was disguised behind a digitalized swirl, is now thought to be on the run in Thailand, Interpol said. He is said to be an English teacher at a school in South Korea.
The man was allegedly shown sexually abusing 12 young Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, apparently ranging in age from 6 to early teens, in about 200 photographs posted on the Internet. Using techniques that neither they nor Interpol would discuss, German police recreated an image of the man's face and released four reconstructed photos of him last week.
Interpol said more than 350 people then supplied tips to authorities worldwide. Officials are still collecting and analyzing evidence to bring charges against the man if he is arrested, it said.
Interpol went public after efforts to track down the man through its network ran dry. Ronald K. Noble, Interpol's secretary-general, credited "remarkable progress" following the public response to its appeal for help on Oct. 8.
Interpol said it now knows the suspect's name, nationality, date of birth and passport number, but it did not release that information. It said the man flew from Seoul, South Korea, to Bangkok, Thailand, last Thursday, with security cameras documenting his arrival at Thai immigration.
"Thailand is at the center of an international manhunt, and authorities in the country, in cooperation with Interpol and police around the world, are hunting him down," Noble said.
In Bangkok late Monday, the deputy chief of Thailand's Interpol liaison office, police Col. Pornprasert Kanchanarin, said he was unaware of the new developments in the case. Interpol declined any further comment Monday beyond its statement.
Interpol provided two new photos of the suspect Monday. One, taken by Thai immigration officials upon his arrival in Bangkok, showed him seemingly older, with close-cropped hair and wearing glasses. The other, which Interpol said was provided by an informant, was a simple head shot of the man, smiling and ruddy-faced.
Interpol's decision to release the reconstructed photos was seen as being somewhat risky because it could have tipped off criminals to techniques police have at their disposal and prompted them to better hide their identities.
One of the pictures released last week and posted on Interpol's Web site showed the suspect with uncombed short brown hair. Another showed him with a hairy chest.
The photos date from before December 2004, when they were found on the Internet, Anders Persson, a Swedish police officer assigned to Interpol's human trafficking unit, said last week. Some were digitally stamped as having been taken in 2002 and 2003, he said.
Interpol asked people who recognized the suspect or who have other information to contact police or the Interpol bureau in their country. It urged them not to take any direct action.
Now, with the suspect at large, "we must again enlist the public's support," Noble said.
The boys believed to have been abused have not been located, Persson said.
___
On the Net:
http://www.interpol.int
Lew-d didn't just expose himself, he got completely naked. UOJ has to keep this pervert off the Wellesley campus.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2005/09/is-there-story-here.html
Horowitz lived at Ohr Somayach, Monsey for several years. That's where Rabbi Yaakov Menken went to Yeshiva and got smicha (ordination). The question is: Were they both there around the same time?
Horowitz lived in Iowa for several years. There were behavioral problems among young men in this community, young men who would have been in their teens when Horowitz lived there. Did Rabbi Horowitz know Pinchas Lew during his years in Iowa? Rabbi Pinchas Lew was part of a group of troubled young Orthodox men who were involved in armed robberies (and Lew later had a sexual misconduct allegation made against him).
I am also posting my thoughts here because it seems no Jewish newspaper would be interested in looking into these issues. I can't figure out if it's because they fear loosing funding from JUF, due to harassment by community leaders, fear of lossing their jobs, or what?
FYI: The secular papers are only interested in cases that deal with the Catholic priests. They seem to sell more papers then rabbis who abuse.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2005/09/is-there-story-here.html#112656148246677731
jewishwhistleblower said...
Last year after Rabbi Menken posted criticism of Gary Rosenblatt, the Awareness Center and support for Rabbi Eisgrau and, if I'm reading correctly between the lines, Rabbi Matis Weinberg:
1.
http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/too-hot-for-cross-currentscom-my.html#comments
2.
http://jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com/2004/12/rabbi-yaakov-menken-commits-mozi-shem.html#comments
I responded with several comments with bizarre responses from Menken. Unfortunately, I did not save all of them before they were deleted. But I did save several of them and remember the content of the others.
1) My comment on cross-currents
Here’s a perfect example of a rasha. He’s even a product of Maryland and it’s institutions.
see:
http://theawarenesscenter.org/Horowitz_Alan.html
Perhaps you can explain to me how the silence of the Jewish community and it’s leadership did not protect this monster and allow him to move from one community to the next destroying so many young lives.
Comment by jewishwhistleblower — 12/31/2004 @ 2:57 am
2) After the comment was deleted Rabbi Menken made comments which I responded to on my blog (statements with the "<" are by Menken, my response follows, links no longer contain the original data):
At 7:54 AM, jewishwhistleblower said...
link to current version:
http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2004/12/30/blogging-and-emloshon-horaem-gossip/#comments
At 8:05 AM, jewishwhistleblower said...
>Ordinarily, we’re not going to delete comments. But when someone
>not only goes off topic,
I think it was pretty dead on topic.
>but in addition names names
The only name I name was Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz who to this day promotes sex between adults and children. He writes for NAMBLA. If ever there was a rasha Rabbi Alan J. Horowitz is it.
see:
http://theawarenesscenter.org/Horowitz_Alan.html
>and spreads rumors,
What rumors?
This is pure mozi shem rah.
3) Rabbi Menken then went on to claim that he was very familiar with the Rabbi Horowitz case and that the rabbonim involved (including the rabbanut in Baltimore) did in fact take steps to protect the community from Horowitz. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the exact response as they were deleted very quickly with much of the rest of the post.
4) Now we know that the rabbanut in Baltimore took steps to ensure that after his 1983 conviction Horowitz would not spend any jail time, that he would live on a Yeshiva campus in Monsey and go on to prey on children for another decade in anonymity.
Oh, yeah, and the Yeshiva in Monsey that's where Menken studied and was molded. Where he learned that one has to protect the name of even Rabbi Horowitz who to this day is an unrepentant child molester who promotes adults having sex with children, while attacking and claming to know the motives of Gary Rosenblatt and the Awareness Center.
Apparently, one must protect rashas, sexual molesters who prey on the vulnerable and attack anyone who speaks out.
Leah Kleim doesn't usually support these kinds of people.
http://babyboiiluvu.blogspot.com/2007/07/by-phillip-stillman-prisoner-1024351.html
Sunday, July 8, 2007
By : Phillip Stillman, Prisoner # 1024351 Iowa Department Of Corrections
Phillip (Pinny) Stillman (not the Pinny on this blog) has been locked up for 16 yrs now.He goes in front of the parole board in October. He has terminal cancer that in in remission. Say some Tehiim, daven, Give Tzedokah whatever for him and pray he gets out.
Thank You.
Leah Kleim.
http://stopsruli.blogspot.com/
Detailed info was taken down this week after the apparent break up between the the Fried family's daughter & the alleged predator.
The alleged predator is identified on other blogs as a Chabad mashpia who teaches at he Hebrew Academy of Huntington Beach, Calif. His father is a very senior & respected rov in Toronto. His marriage was falling apart while he was having an affair with the girl. He groomed her for many years and asked for her hand in marriage even though he is much older than her.
http://babyboiiluvu.blogspot.com/2007/10/another-fuck-upbites-dust.html
His name & picture are here. Rabbi Groner told Long Beach, Calif. rabbonim to kick him out of the community.
They also own Hod Golan meat / poultry and have been forging the hashgocho of Chug Chasam Sofer.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-many-rabbis-are-required-to.html#c5262791052069909440
Scandals at Ahava Dairy said...
http://www.daashakohol.com/archives/175#comment-8113
kitniyos in the milk for pesach, chazer in the cheese cultures, no mashgiach found while milking, mashgiach cought not wearing talis koton, milk tank not sealed during break ….. etc etc.
Posted October 15, 2007
Brown County political leader faces sex charges
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
GREEN BAY — The chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County faces criminal charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old Ethan House runaway and providing him with beer and marijuana late last year.
Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, was charged last month with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child.
If convicted on both felonies and all three misdemeanors, Fleischman faces up to 52 years in prison.
Fleischman’s attorney, Jeff Jazgar, said he plans to confront the charges at the preliminary hearing set for Oct. 29.
“My client is innocent of the charges,” Jazgar said Friday. “Our plan is to get some witnesses to testify and present enough information to dismiss the case.”
Efforts to reach Fleischman were unsuccessful.
Fleischman has resigned his post with the Brown County Republicans, said Kirsten Kukowski, communications director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The teen, now 17, told authorities Fleischman took him to a hotel in Appleton during that time and then to a cabin near Florence for several days before returning to Fleischman’s Allouez home. The boy said Fleischman provided him with beer and marijuana, the complaint said.
The boy told police that when he would go to bed, Fleischman would fondle him and that on one occasion he awoke to find Fleischman at the foot of his bed masturbating.
Filed by the Green Bay Press-Gazette
Enough of this dreck. When are we going to hear what R. Yaakov Kaminetzky had to say about R. Schorr and other good stuff.
http://chaptzem.blogspot.com/2007/10/rav-of-shul-being-thrown-out-by-nyc.html
This is just a little warm up exercise because we're itching to throw Margo out of YTT and his house.
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/evils-of-zavla-zeh-borer-lo-echad-intro.html
I will be doing a series on the evils of the alternative to a formal Beis Din setting know as "Zavla" - short for "Zeh borer lo echad [v'zeh borer lo echad]" - the method of arbitration that Chazal allowed when for some reason a regular Beis Din would not do or does not exist. I was recently involved as a "dayan" in a Zavla kangaroo court (that is basically the state to which this alternative has deteriorated, it seems), as a favor to a "to'ein" who is a great tzaddik, talmid chochom and ba'al yisurim, for the first and last time, and it was an "educational" experience of the highest order. The potential for distortion and miscarriage of justice in these settings is so great, that it would seem to me less of an issur to go to "Ercha'os" than to participate in such travesties.
I just heard, albeit from a third or fourth hand source, that one of the more respected and distinguished Brooklyn poskim freely gives dispensations to go to Erkaos, as he feels the process is more honest and true to Din HaTorah than what you will get in a Zavla-type situation. Baruch shekivanti!
(The same source explained that a Beis Din kavu'a is not always a viable option because you have to have a pretty big claim to make it worthwhile. For example, he said, Machon Horo'oh here in Monsey charges $350 an hour for a Din Torah. So for claims of less than several thousand dollars, your best bet is to get a dispensation to go to small claims court.)
kurkevan said...
I think the Beis Din Maysharim in Lakewood has a parallel to a "small claims court." I'm sure they charge significantly less than $350/hr.
YGB said...
Good for them!
Such venues need to be publicized!
Anonymous said...
Unfortunately, Dinai Torah frequently arise when teachers or principals of Yeshivos and Bais Yaakov schools are terminated -- often unjustly -- by influential board members. Here (in a large Midwestern city) one man arbitrarily terminated a popular, dedicated, highly qualified girls' high scholl principal; closed a boys' high school, and has blocked payments to the laid-off rabbis and teachers of the back-salaries the school owes them.
In the resulting Din Torah, it is a poor (rabbi or teacher, often a woman) plaintiff vs. a powerful businessman.
Does the wronged plaintiff have any other (Halachically approved) recourse?
What can the community (i.e., the parents and students who have benefitted from the terminated educator) do to help them?
YGB said...
Well, for one thing, in the case we are perusing, the nit'anim, representing a closed mosad refused:
a. To provide a copy of its by-laws.
b. To provide information concerning its existing assets.
Due to the malfeasance of the other "dayanim", I was never able to demand that information!
As a non-profit, such information would be available from the relevant department of the state in which an institution is located, but the other "dayanim" were not desirous of having that information, and therefore were not willing to wait the several months that would be necessary to circumvent the recalcitrant nit'anim in this matter.
Having knowledge of the by-laws and assets could help a great deal. Knowledge of the former could help determine whether the nit'anim had the right to proceed as they did, while knowledge of definite assets could have given a Beis Din the right to demand that the corporation be dissolved and its funds returned to Klal Yisroel - in the form of its former employees!
Aside from these avenues, the concept of a local Beis Din's communal authority must be re-explored (we'll do that at some point in this series) and fortified, giving them the power to right the wrongs in a community.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/magazine/14syrians-t.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&ref=magazine&pagewanted=print
Shmarya criticizes the SYs for preserving their kehillah by banning almost all gerim.
He conveniently leaves out any mention that the NY Times writer, Zev Chafets, has an ax to grind because he is married to shiksa who didn't bother converting in any way, shape or form.
http://media.www.yucommentator.com/media/storage/paper652/news/2007/10/08/Editorials/Yunite.Ill.Tell.You.Why-3008782.shtml
In the weeks preceding the September 2004 ban on Rabbi Natan Slifkin's books, several prominent rabbis within the haredi community were assured (by Pinter & Tropper?) that two students studying in a Monsey yeshiva (Tropper's) had been so victimized by the author's books, that they left the yeshiva and have since gone off the derekh. As it turned out, one student had already left the yeshiva before Rabbi Slifkin's first book, Seasons of Life was printed in 2000. The other student did in fact read Slifkin's books, enjoyed them thoroughly, and eventually, for a number of reasons, transferred to Yeshiva College.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22581568-5005941,00.html
My friend Rabbi Pinchos Feldman is Gutnick's brother in law, although they don't talk to each other after suing each other in goyishe court for years.
That guy seduced by the secretary in St Louie WAS rich. His father was negotiating with Kleiman to keep him in yeshiva for a price but the deal fell through. He tried getting into NIRC after he was kicked out. Kleiman said the secretary almost destroyed the yeshiva and wouldn't hire anyone after that unless she was butt ugly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/nyregion/15ads.html?pagewanted=print
October 15, 2007
Report Questions Spending on Council Members’ Ads
By RAY RIVERA
The advertisements are typical of those you find around the holidays, graduation time or ethnic heritage days: a City Council member expresses best wishes, and uses taxpayer dollars to do it.
From 2002 to 2006, council members spent a total of nearly $200,000 a year on advertisements, but most were little more than self-promotional and many may have been illegal, according to a study due to be issued today by Citizens Union, a government watchdog group.
The City Charter prohibits city officials who are seeking re-election or another city office from participating in any television, radio or printed advertisement financed with government funds from Jan. 1 of an election year until voting day.
Michael C. Nelson, a Brooklyn Democrat who was the biggest spender on the list, defended the ads. Mr. Nelson, who was first elected to the Council in 1999, paid about $20,000 a year, for a total of $82,099, from mid-2002 to mid-2006, the report said. As with many of his colleagues, his yearly payouts remained consistent even when he was up for re-election in 2003 and 2005, according to the report.
For example, an ad he placed in January 2005 in a journal printed for the annual dinner of Masores Bais Yaakov, a yeshiva in Midwood, congratulated winners of awards and wished the school “continued success in your wonderful work.”
Ohel Insider said...
Warning to men in Boro Park: 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.
http://www.canonist.com/?p=1278#comment-75784
No Longer Silent Says:
September 25th, 2007 at 8:00 am
For a couple like the M Tendler’s I find it hard to believe they didn’t follow the laws of the Chofetz Chaim.They used Loshen Harah to condemn and destroy families. They used lies (Loshan Horah) and with the help their lants-min (clan members) to also use loshon harah to destroy anyone who didn’t fit into their agenda. The Tendler’s couldn’t do it alone. They had help from their strongly knit community. Their community only fell apart when it hit the media. They all knew what the Tendler’s were doing. Every single one of them knew about Mordy and the closed sessions in his office. Michelle would help destroy families if any one might be a danger to her fiefdom.
It's not over 'til the fat lady sings.
http://www.canonist.com/?p=1278#comment-75993
September 26th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
The Tendler story is not over. Till he and his wife confess to the deeds of helping to destroy families by stealing their children away and donating them to Ohel. Jewish children I know of wear crosses today because of this misfit and his female partner.
http://www.canonist.com/?p=1278#comment-77019
October 4th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Sheldon Silver is in good with the Tendlers.
Here is an article about Sheldon Silver from Wikipedia..
In 2005, commentator Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel lambasted Silver for blocking legislation that would mandate restrictions on child molesters after their sentences are finished (including possibly forcing them to become permanent residents in psychiatric wards). “He stopped legislation that would have tracked the most dangerous sex offenders with electronic devices, and that would have mandated that communities be notified of sex offenders,” O’Reilly said. “Everyone should know that Sheldon Silver is blocking legislation that would protect children and be tougher on sex offenders. That’s why we call this man the worst politician in office today.” [13]
“Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive.” - Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)
http://www.canonist.com/?p=1278#comment-77821
insider Says:
October 9th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Tendler Bar Mitzvah this week. Shabbos was supposed to be held at tatty's Community Synagogue, but due to Rebbetzin Shifra Tendler’s illness everything is being held at the Tendler’s house on Union Road.
On Sunday there will be a siyyum mishnayos and party at Yeshiva of Spring Valley boy’s building.
Mazel tov to Aharon Yosef on becoming Bar Mitzvah. (Perhaps he should be the one saying “baruch shepatrani” on his father instead of the reverse!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/nyregion/11mayor.html
October 11, 2007
Atlantic City Mayor Resigns After Two-Week Absence
By RICHARD G. JONES
ATLANTIC CITY, Oct. 10 — First he was missing, and now he is gone.
Mayor Robert W. Levy resigned Wednesday less than 24 hours after ending his unexplained two-week absence with the disclosure of his emergency stay in a rehabilitation clinic that treats substance abuse and psychiatric problems.
Mr. Levy’s resignation after slightly more than a year in office — and the temporary ascension of the City Council president — closes a particularly odd chapter in this resort city’s political history, which has included the ouster of five mayors in 40 years because of public corruption.
The resignation was announced by the mayor’s lawyer, Edwin J. Jacobs, almost a year after it was disclosed that Mr. Levy, 60, had misrepresented his service in Vietnam by falsely claiming for years that he had been a member of the Green Berets.
The United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie, is investigating whether that misrepresentation enabled Mr. Levy to receive extra pension benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Many frum communities including Great Neck and Roslyn make up North Hempstead Township.
Wasserman lives in Roslyn.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5707927&ft=print
(North Hempstead - WABC, October 15, 2007) - It's one of the worst cases of public corruption on Long Island -- that according to prosecutors.
They claim four current and former building officials from North Hempstead turned their office into personal piggy banks.
It all started small with complaints from homeowners about either being bribed or having issues with their inspections.
After a 16 month investigation, the Nassau County district attorney says its the worst case she's eve seen of good government being turned on its head -- and all because of greed.
Nassau County DA Kathleen Rice says these five men are responsible for literally paralyzing the North Hempstead Building Department.
She says the men held paid jobs with the town and lied, forged, bribed and fast tracked taxpayers projects to line their own pockets with tens of thousands of dollars.
The officials have been identified as including:
48-year-old David Wasserman, the former building commissioner
Wasserman faces a 29 count indictment for crimes that include hiding a six figure job as an architect on his personal income filings -- a job that was also a severe conflict of interest to being the building inspector commissioner.
This is Leib & Shmelka's latest incarnation after the Feds shut down Olympia Mortgage.
Have the brothers been banned from the industry? That would explain why Leib's wife Shaindy is fronting for the business when she supposed to be busy as principal of Masores Bais Yaakov.
http://brooklynlocal.com/pages/Businesses/cat/798/view/5806
Olympia Schapin Realty Ltd
Apartment Building Operators
Address: 1413 Avenue J
Brooklyn, NY
11230
Phone: 718-692-2626
Contact Person: Shaindy Pinter
By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer
57 minutes ago
LAS VEGAS - A fugitive accused in the videotaped molestation of a 3-year-old girl was arrested quietly during a traffic stop, telling the officer, "I'm tired of running," police said.
Chester "Chet" Arthur Stiles, 37, was scheduled for a hearing Wednesday. He was pulled over late Monday in Henderson for not having a license plate and admitted his identity after police said his license looked suspicious, authorities said.
These rotzchim were also behind the Crusades.
http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/vatican-prints-secrets-of-knights/20071012152309990001
VATICAN CITY (Oct. 12) - The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years.
Interpol identifies Canadian pedophile suspect - SCHOOL TEACHER
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
Tue Oct 16, 6:21 AM ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) - After an unprecedented global appeal, Interpol identified a suspected serial pedophile being hunted across Asia on Tuesday as Christopher Paul Neil, a Canadian now believed to be in hiding in Bangkok.
Panaspong Sirawongse of Interpol in Thailand said Neil, whose digitally swirled face in Internet photos of child sex abuse was unscrambled by German police computer experts, had taught at an international school in the Thai capital in 2003-04.
He did not name the school, but said Thai immigration, crime suppression and child crime police were hunting for Neil, who entered the country last week from South Korea after Interpol posted unscrambled pictures of his face on the Web.
"They are also looking for children he abused and took photos with," Panaspong told Reuters. "There were three boys he had abused. One boy has been identified and is being sought, two others have not been identified."
Keo Vanthan, deputy director of Interpol in neighboring Cambodia, where police say Neil was photographed sexually abusing small boys, said border authorities had been alerted in case he tried to sneak out of Thailand by land.
"We have issued an alert to all our international borders," he said.
Detectives have been trying to track down Neil, who was born in 1975, since German police discovered photographs on the Internet three years ago showing him raping 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
His face was disguised with a swirly digital pattern, but experts at Germany's BKA federal crime office managed to unravel the image, to reveal a white man with receding black hair.
When Interpol posted the cleaned-up picture of the suspect on its Web site (www.interpol.int) -- the first time it has issued a direct worldwide appeal -- more than 350 people came forward.
Neil, who had thus far been known only by the codename "Vico," was identified by information from five sources on three different continents, the international police body said.
On Monday, it released an image of Neil taken by security cameras at Bangkok airport last Thursday when he flew in from Seoul, where he had also been teaching. In the latest image, he looks significantly older and balder and is wearing glasses.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said a student at a school in the southern city of Gwangju had identified Neil as his TEACHER for two months until he stopped showing up for class on Thursday -- three days after his picture was first released.
Neil TAUGHT social studies and English and had been to the University of British Columbia, the student was quoted as saying. He also said Neil had been generally liked but had a temper.
The Canadian embassy in Bangkok declined to comment.
(Additional reporting by Ek Madra in Phnom Penh)
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/ny-bdzavla-problem.html
שו"ת אגרות משה חלק חו"מ ב' סימן ג
והא דכתב הרמ"א דאם דיינים קבועים בעיר לא יכול לומר לא אדון לפניהם אלא בזה בורר היה זה רק בעיירות שבמדינותינו שהיו מתמנים מהעיר שאף הרב האב"ד לבדו נמי היה יכול לכופו מאחר שקבלוהו אבל בנוא יארק ליכא דיינים קבועים שנתמנו מהעיר ובפרט שאיכא עוד אגודות וחבורות של רבנים שליכא אף מינוי מכל הרבנים שבעיר ולכן כשרוצה אחד מהן בזבל"א מוכרחין לילך בזבל"א דוקא.
ידידו, משה פיינשטיין.
Anonymous said...
We have a similar situation here, in another large city. Based on the Igros Moshe cited herein, the Av Bais Din (Kavua) allows summoned defendants the alternative of a ZAVLA. As demonstrated by a recent case, unscrupulous defendants take advantage of this "loophole" and use it to subvert the process.
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/pitfalls-of-zavla-contd.html
Friday, October 12, 2007
The Pitfalls of Zavla, cont'd
Now, the most significant demonstration of naivete on my part (call it stupidity, if you'd like), was my failure to realize the full portent of this line in the shtar birurin:
Al ha'tzedadim l'hitztayed im kol hochochusaihem u'mismochosaihem v'eideihem kdei she'Beis HaDin lo yitztareich l'diyunim nosafim.
Sounds innocent enough? We ask for the BD's convenience that everyone bring all matter of evidence that they know of the first time around so we don't have to reconvene, right?
Nope.
What it means is that unless the Beis Din decides for some overriding reason to admit it later on, any evidence, including Halachic reasoning, presented after the Beis Din's one and only sitting, was inadmissible.
I'm not sure I can describe the impact this approach has on a case.
The "dayan" of the nit'anim understood and implemented it thus:
This was a case of ha'motzi mei'chaveiro alav ha'ra'ayah. The to'ein had several claims, but let us focus on the major one. The to'ein had been a Rebbe for many years in a yeshiva. Several years ago, the yeshiva decided to "close", and terminated several Rabbeim. However, it still exists as a corporate entity with assets, retains (at least one) former Rebbe as an employee, and functions as a Shul and Beis Medrash. If you call the institution's phone number, you will still be answered: "Yeshivas X." The to'ein asked for the customary chodesh l'shanah severance that is paid upon termination. [Rabbi Michael Broyde from Atlanta has a frequently cited essay demonstrating that the minhag in the American chinuch system is to pay severance of chodesh l'shanah, and Torah U'Mesorah guidelines for its schools incorporate this standard.] Without getting into details, the yeshiva refused, on two grounds:
1. It had not itself established a minhag to pay severance.
2. It had not terminated the Rebbe, but had closed, and was therefore not required to pay severance.
In a future post I will lay out my position on a psak in this matter, and my reasoning, but the "dayan" of the nit'anim took a very simple and straightforward position:
This is a case of ha'motzi mei'chaveiro alav ha'ra'ayah. Unless the to'ein produces at the Din Torah itself (as per the clause above) verified and documented precedents of severance being paid in the makom in which this yeshiva is located and verified and documented precedents (again, at the Din Torah itself) of severance being paid in a case in which a yeshiva closed, he loses. Period. No further research or reasoning necessary.
In short, the burden of birur ha'emes and paskening is lifted from the shoulders of the "dayanim" and placed upon the to'ein. Any concession on the part of the "dayanim" to engage in independent research and analysis is purely their own condescenion, not a requirement of due diligence.
The third dayan was willing to, and did, do some independent research - but only to a point (e.g., he did not demand that the yeshiva produce its bylaws and open its books, etc.) - while the dayan of the other side was opposed to any research. However, even the third dayan did not engage in any independent research as to the minhag ha'makom in the locality of the yeshiva in question, nor did he engage in any research and analysis of the available Halachic resources beyond what was presented to him at the Din Torah.
Of course I share in the blame. I was naive and gullible.
I am taking responsibility in the only way I know how. I am exposing my foolishness l'einei Elokim v'Adam to try and warn others away from the same pitfalls.
I think the third dayan is basically a decent fellow, but of limited acumen, and gullible in his own way.
The problem with a secular court is that severance is a halachic minhag. My understanding is that it is only enforceable in a secular court after the binding arbritration of a Beis Din has ruled it is due.
In this case, I think that the only way the to'ein can get a fair hearing is to find a Beis Din Kavu'a that will agree that the Zavla's misconduct was such that they should reopen the case.
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/pitfalls-of-zavla-contd.html#c8881914295180339043
avakesh said...
There are many problems with our BD system and you described only a few. I make a partial list, only what I can recall right now:
1.No process. There are no rules for how litigants and dayanim are supposed to behave. Some talk on cel phones, discuss other dinei torah in the presence of other people, make small talk with one side, which can intmidate the other side etc. Farthermore, a toen is allowed to be forceful and sometimes overwhelm the dayanim in his arguamntation, especially if they are quieter and retiring kind. I secular courts judges get respect but not in BD.
2.You already described the problems of just getting someone to come to BD,. Whoever is not scrupulous and does not want to go can avoid it.
3.No fear of perjury. Litigants can outright lie without penalty and if dayanim dont do their own research, they can paskin based on false information.
4.No expert testimony. Most cases are complex in this day and age. Without access to expert testimony, dayanim often apply inapplicable halachos, e.e. calling a consultant a "sofer" and payng only for tehhwritten part of the work and not for meetings, site visits, consultations and thinking involved in the reports. Sometimes, dayanim protect themselves from complex cases by methods you describe, because they cant deal with constantly evolving information.
5. Some changes in lifestyle are not relfected. F.E. zoning is crucial to how people live now. Most B"D will allow anything to be built anywhere as if we still leave in overpopulated ghettoes.
6.All Dayanim are generalists. To be really good in anything, one must specialize.
At the end we must believe that Hashem makes everything right... but we really should be doing better...
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/pitfalls-of-zavla-contd.html#c8760802046243423907
Anonymous said...
I attend a shul where RYGB also attends periodically. The Rav there has been very vocal, on many occasions, that Zablah is 100% corrupt and that no one should participate in one.
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/pitfalls-of-zavla-contd.html#c1504756456081702840
If you are familiar with the Chassidic dialect of Yiddish, I suggest that you listen to the shiurim on these abuses of Beis Din at the following phone number, where hundreds of sources in hilchos dayanim are discussed:
(212)990-6003
"the minhag in the American chinuch system is to pay severance of chodesh l'shanah, and Torah U'Mesorah guidelines for its schools incorporate this standard"
Margo is a medakdek in minhugim and sees to it that Yudi Kolko is very handsomely compensated.
I'd better get Bechhoffer to shut the Hell up before he starts getting into misusing hazmonos.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=7145
I wonder if the Cunins still have Sruly Schochet working at their website AskMoses.com after Rav Groner told rabbonim to kick him out of Long Beach, CA.
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:_4HxTEVbZdIJ:stopsruli.blogspot.com/2007/09/save-aliza.html+%22yisroel+schochet%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
Dovid said...
First, a few comments to the commentators:
(It is noteworthy that comments 3,4, and 5 were written by three different people withing 13 minutes of each other. Coincidence? Discuss.)
"i b knowing", why don't you tell us who you are and who your father is? Might it be because you are a fraud? There isn't a Rabbi in LB who doesn't hold Dr. Fried in the highest esteem. Your cowardice in hiding behind internet anonymity is quite telling. In all likelihood you are the perpetrator himself, but if you aren't, you should be proud of your position and let your identity be known.
"reality check" ( again, probably the perpetrator), qualifying a statement is not backtracking. Let's say for a moment that Sruli and Aliza's sexual relationship didn't begin until she was legal. I challenge you to justify a 26 year old married, Chabad Rabbi, with children having an emotionally intimate relationship with a 15 year old student, and taunting an entire community, whose Rabbi is his uncle no less, with this deviance.
Your attempts to malign Dr. Fried, a man known by all to be anything but asinine, are obviously nothing more than an empty hope in your sociopathological mind to convince YOURSELF that you'll get away with this and live happily ever after. Books have been written about adulterers like yourself, your profile is no longer a secret. You can buy the vulnerable off -- until they realize that they aren't willing to risk losing their friends and loved ones for a twisted saga that is spinning out of control. You are powerless without your ability to buy off those who get in your way. I know one Rabbi in LA who won't be bought off no matter how close to your family you think he is. As smart as you think you are, I think you've met your match.
Concerned in LA said...
I daven at the new Chabad Shul on La Cienega. I was in shul on the first days of Succos and I was shocked to see Schochet proudly and obviously there with Aliza. Even without knowing Dr. Fried or his family personally, I can feel the deep pain and griefof this family.
Aliza, do you think for a second that you fool any of us? Do you think that we don't realize what your intentions were when you involved yourself in our shul? Aliza, does it not bother you that Schochet is attacking your FATHER?!?! Do you know what the word asinine means? Does it not disturb you that Schochet can say such horrible things about your father, the man who brought you into this world and raised you? It is not to late to reverse your course and return to what by all accounts is a loving family that yearns to have you back. Aliza, Please realize that Schochet has nothing to lose by ignoring everybody's pleas as he has already destoyed his and his children's lives. Aliza, you on the other hand have a bright future to look forward to if you can just trust in your family and close friends.
OK. Tachlis. What are the steps a family should take to check out the adults at camp, school etc.
Sruly's father is Rabbi J. Immanuel Schochet, who although a Lubavitcher, is the Kielcer rov of Toronto. He was sued for "slander" by Phil Berg (Feivy Gruberger) after he said the Kabbalah Center is a fraud and kefira.
http://www.wwrn.org/article.php?idd=7658&sec=55&con=55
Now fast growing in popularity, with some 50 centers worldwide, the contemporary Kabbalah movement has met fierce opposition within Orthodox Judaism.
The center opened a still-pending slander lawsuit six years ago against a Canadian Kabbalah scholar, Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet, after he spoke out against the movement.
His son, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, is carrying on the fight on this side of the Atlantic, calling the idea of the Kabbalah cheder “a farce.”
As for the Kabbalah Centre itself, “it’s just a cult,” said Schochet, a member of Orthodox Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ Cabinet — a group of rabbis who assist Sacks — and a rabbi at London’s Mill Hill United Synagogue.
“The movement has one primary objective, that of generating cash,” Schochet said.
OK. Tachlis. What are the steps a family should take to check out the adults at camp, school etc.
-------------------
Apply the same standards that you would do for a shidduch! Listen to every single piece of lashon hara, every idiot yenta male and female, every piece of garbage rumor, check the yichus, brothers, sisters, (as in Tendler), check out the aunts, (as in Tendler), look at the father as in Shapiro!....GET IT PLEASE! It's that important!
I won't publish names unless there are three people that put their real names to it, that does not mean that there are not hundreds of more names that belong on the criminal-UOJ list!
"I wonder if the Cunins still have Sruly Schochet working at their website AskMoses.com"
And whatabout the Cunin telethon that raises millions?
Hiccup
Does UOJ have any details about accountability for the Cunin telethon?
We'd also love to hear his take on that production.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Barker
So nu, whose the next contestant on UOJ's Criminal Hall of Shame?
Come on down!
WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called Tuesday for an aggressive response to deal with an unfolding housing crisis that he said presents a significant risk to the economy.
In the administration's most detailed reaction to the steepest housing slump in 16 years, Paulson said that government and the financial industry should provide immediate help for homeowners trying to refinance current mortgages before they reset at much higher rates.
He also called for an overhaul of laws and regulations governing mortgage lending to halt abusive practices that contributed to the current crisis.
"Let me be clear, despite strong economic fundamentals, the housing decline is still unfolding and I view it as the most significant current risk to our economy," Paulson said in a speech delivered at Georgetown University's law school. "The longer housing prices remain stagnant or fall, the greater the penalty to our future economic growth."
In his most somber assessment of the crisis to date, Paulson said that the housing correction is "not ending as quickly" as it had appeared it would and that "it now looks like it will continue to adversely impact our economy, our capital markets and many homeowners for some time yet."
Paulson spoke a day after officials from the nation's three biggest banks announced the creation of a fund with up to $100 billion in resources to buy troubled assets such as mortgage-backed securities.
Treasury Department officials participated in the behind-the-scenes discussions that led to creation of the fund, but no government resources have been pledged to the effort.
Paulson said that the government must balance the need to help homeowners stay in their homes against the threat that government action can encourage investors to make risky decisions in the future.
"We must help as many able homeowners as possible stay in their homes," Paulson said. "Foreclosures are costly and painful for homeowners."
But Paulson also stated, "When investors are relieved of the cost of bad decisions, they are more likely to repeat their mistakes. I have no interest in bailing out lenders or property speculators."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that the housing problem would be a "significant drag" on economic growth into next year and that it would take time for Wall Street to fully recover from a significant credit crunch.
In August, financial markets around the world were roiled by the worst credit crisis in nearly a decade as investors became worried about rising defaults in the mortgage market, causing credit to dry up in a number of markets including the market for commercial paper, short-term loans used extensively by businesses.
At the time, Paulson insisted that the country would be able to work through the problems without any lingering adverse effects. However, as the extent of the troubles in subprime mortgages has grown and the housing slump has deepened, the administration has worked to increase its efforts.
Democrats have also been critical of many of the administration's proposals so far, saying they will offer too little help in the face of the prospect that 2 million mortgages homeowners obtained with low introductory "teaser" rates will reset at much higher rates in the coming 18 months.
Paulson said in his speech that it was crucial for more mortgage companies to join in an industrywide effort dubbed Hope Now to boost the number of homeowners who can be reached with credit counseling and help to refinance to mortgages they can afford.
In remarks aimed at lenders, Paulson said, "We have an immediate need to see more loan modifications and refinancing and other flexibility. For many families, this will be the only viable solution. The current process is not working well. This is not about finger-pointing; it is about putting an aggressive plan together and moving forward."
Southern Calif. home sales plunge 30 pct in Sept Reuters, Housing woes take bigger toll on economy than expected: Paulson AFP,
Chabad Telethon:
Informed Guestimate!
30%-non-existent
15-20%-uncollectible
10-15%-donated over a period of 5-10 years.
Net - every year into the Cunin coffers..$2.5 million approx.
Can someone explain the problem with heter mechira. I understand the Chazon Ish said it is mafkir the Torah but is it not a machlokes? I see the secular always quoting R' Yitzchok Elchonon Spector that it's ok. I don't know where Rav Spector says it if at all.
And what is the basis for Rav Ovadya Yosef to be mattir?
Thanks.
"Net - every year into the Cunin coffers..$2.5 million approx."
I guess Margo was still ahead especially after illegally selling the govt food in the dining room.
I have a highly respected journalist that would consider doing an expose on OHEL Family services if there is absolutely bona fide incriminating evidence and witnesses.
E-mail me your real name and phone number and a summary of the hard evidence that would stand up to scrutiny in a court of law!
a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
I have not forgotten about the R' Yaakov series, I will get to it as soon as possible. In the meanwhile I'm in drek over my head because our "rabbonim" are gangsters and don't give a damn about you or your kids! "Chayecha Kodem!"
"In the meanwhile I'm in drek over my head because our "rabbonim" are gangsters and don't give a damn about you or your kids!"
Just another day at work for the Roto Rooter guy!
There's of course also extra excrement every time UOJ literally scares the crap out of them.
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/pitfalls-of-zavla-my-position-in-case.html
This is an excerpt from my final written communication with the to'ein concerning this case. Subsequently, the other two dayanim issued a psak din that they sent directly to the parties to the Din Torah. I have not seen a copy of it.
Dear Reb ..., shlita,
...It is simply one of "rabbinic malpractice," as the intention of the other "dayanim" to render a binding psak on the basis of a rationale that (to paraphrase): "Well, we don't know the halacha and we don't have to determine it ourselves (after all we can't find precedent!), the claimant has to prove it to us. Since he hasn't proved it, he loses." This is clearly not a din, nor karov l'din, but a miscarriage of justice. I cannot be a party to any further proceedings. I hope you will find a Beis Din that will redress this avlah. I am cc'ing the other individuals who sat in this "Beis Din."
My current positions on the psakim that should be rendered in this case are as follows, taking into account that no final disposition is implied:
... [In two other matters under consideration I wrote that in my view the halacha was (more or less) in accordance with the position taken by the nit'anim.]
3. Re severance pay: Rabbi ... is entitled to severance pay in full.
Explanation:
See Piskei Din Yerushalayim vol. 7 pp. 38-40 (it is in the Bar Ilan database, so I can send you a copy if necessary), that once the minhag of severance is established (as it is for mechanchim in ..., as we clarified with both the ... and Rabbi ...), its geder is that of a retirement savings account - i.e., the chodesh l'shanah eina mishtalemes elah l'ba'sof - it is only payable at termination, in one lump sum. This was reaffirmed in PDY vol. 9 p. 248. In the latter psak din
a cross-reference notes that there are certain conditions under which severance is forfeited. (See ibid., p. 293, concerning a case in which some Rabbeim in a yeshiva opened a rival yeshiva, in which case their severance is forfeited; see also ibid. vol. 8 p. 183 that when an employee quits a position of his own volition he thereby forfeits his severance).
Thus, severance is the equivalent of a thirteenth month's salary per year - with two caveats:
1. It is only paid upon termination of employment.
2. It is only paid in the absence of one of the conditions that renders it forfeit.
Thus, as is the case with back pay, the severance is a chov on the employer. Hence, the fact that the employer has chosen to shut down the function of its corporate entity that employed an employee is in no way an exemption from severance, just as it is no way an exemption from back pay. The employer must use its assets to cover this debt as it would any other debt.
The other "dayanim" claim that teshuvos issued in Eretz Yisroel are not binding, because the dina d'malchusathere is different. Of course, these psakim have nothing to do with dina d'malchusa. These same "dayanim" want to have it both ways as, claiming that Yeshivas ... is closed, despite the fact that according to dina d'malchusa the corporate entity is alive and functioning, with operations and employees.
Note 1:
In a telephone conversation, Rabbi ... [an outside authority] stressed to me that he never meant to say that the minhag was to not pay severance when a yeshiva is dissolved (which, in my opinion, has not occurred in our case in any event - as Yeshivas ... still functions, albeit as a Shul and Beis Medrash, and has at least one employee on its payroll). Rather, he said, he does not know what is customary in such circumstances.
He also stressed to me that the minhag of severance as established in regard to mechanchim emerged as a result of the hardship that mechanchim endure throughout their years of chinuch - i.e., since they are underpaid and overworked, the workplace has granted them this additional compensation.
Thus, obligation remains a lien outstanding on their remaining assets. [This halachic perspective on the parameters of severance was explained to me by one of the foremost experts in Halacha and Business Law in the United States, specifically in regard to the minhag of severance as practiced here.]
Note 2:
See Acting More Generously than the Law Requires: The Issue of Employee Layoffs in halakhah by Harry J. Van Buren III in Journal of Business Ethics 19, pp. 335-343 (1999) - upon request I can provide the essay in pdf or hard copy. While he is certainly not a posek, Mr. Van Buren demonstrates from several legitimate halachic sources that an industrial plant that has closed must pay severance to its laid-off employees.
A Beis Din is not comparable to an American civil court, in which the plaintiff must prove his own case. It is more comparable to the Continental system, in which the magistrates do their own investigations and analysis.
http://rygb.blogspot.com/2007/10/pitfalls-of-zavla-my-position-in-case.html#c2099256608749964660
Anonymous said...
I suggest you get in touch with the noted Mohel, Rabbi Eliyahou Zimmerman. He and a number of his collegs went through the EXACT same case in the late 1970's. Mosad closed and 'reopened' the next year in a diffrent fourm. Some of the biggest Gedolim of the time were involved including (I beleive) RMF. They did end up getting severence. BTW, it will be 1000% impossible to get any other Bes Din to look over this issue once your BD gives a Psak, no matter how weird it is.
http://www.yucommentator.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=d316797e-300b-417c-9813-eb27533d6506
Are You 'Rabbi' Enough For Young Israel?
National Council of Young Israel To Prescreen Background, Ideology of All Rabbinic Candidates
By: Nathan Lerman
Posted: 10/15/07
http://rabbiwithoutacause.blogspot.com/2007/10/young-israel-disses-chovevei-so-what.html
In its most recent Viewpoint Magazine, Young Israel published its intent to vet all incoming rabbis at Young Israel shuls, regardless of the institution from which the rabbi receives his semichah.
In a letter entitled Rabbinic Standards, Shlomo Mostofsky and Rabbi Peretz Steinberg noted: Today one can receive semicha by taking a written test administered over the internet or via fax…even if the exam is oral and face-to-face, that interaction is often the only time the rabbi meets the candidate. Furthermore, institutions have emerged that grant semicha where insufficient stress is placed on the student’s actual knowledge of Talmud, Halacha, and Jewish Ethics and Hashkafa. Individuals receive semicha without the minimum educational background or life experience needed to represent the “Traditional Torah-True Judaism” as set forth in the NCYI constitution… In some instances, these rabbis…have taken positions on various issues that would contradict the “Traditional Torah-True Judaism,” that Young Israel branches and members represent.
That's the same Peretz Steinberg who helped Belsky invent a phoney bittul kiddushin over the internet or via fax.
"I think you'd be naive to think that New York is immune from the credit crunch going on right now," the president of a New York real estate appraisal firm, Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/10/16/2007-10-16_bh_pays_43m_to_settle_discrimination_com.html
B&H Photo and Electronics Corp. has agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle allegations that it discriminated against Hispanic workers.
In its complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the photo and equipment outlet paid Hispanic staff working in its warehouses less than other laborers.
B&H also failed to promote Hispanic workers and did not provide them with health benefits, the EEOC said.
Under the agreement, B&H agreed to raise the wages of its Hispanic employees to correspond with those of non-Hispanics. It also agreed to distribute $4.3 million to individuals who were paid less or denied promotions or benefits because they are Hispanic.
From the Dallas Charter: Yes, we can learn from the "Goyim!"
Preamble:
"Since 2002, the Church in the United States has experienced a crisis without precedent in our times. The sexual abuse of children and young people by some deacons, priests, and bishops, and the ways in which these crimes and sins were addressed, have caused enormous pain, anger, and confusion. As bishops, we have acknowledged our mistakes and our roles in that suffering, and we apologize and take responsibility again for too often failing victims and the Catholic people in the past. From the depths of our hearts, we bishops express great sorrow and profound regret for what the Catholic people have endured.
With this revision of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, we re-affirm our deep commitment to creating a safe environment within the Church for children and youth. We have listened to the profound pain and suffering of those victimized by sexual abuse and will continue to respond to their cries. We have agonized over the sinfulness, the criminality, and the breach of trust perpetrated by some members of the clergy. We have determined as best we can the extent of the problem of this abuse of minors by clergy in our country, and we await the results of a study of the causes and context of this problem.
We continue to have a special care for and a commitment to reaching out to the victims of sexual abuse and their families. The damage caused by sexual abuse of minors is devastating and long-lasting. We apologize to them for the grave harm that has been inflicted on them, and we offer our help for the future. The loss of trust that is often the consequence of such abuse becomes even more tragic when it leads to a loss of the faith that we have a sacred duty to foster. We make our own the words of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II: that the sexual abuse of young people is “by every standard wrong and rightly considered a crime by society; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God” (Address to the Cardinals of the United States and Conference Officers, April 23, 2002).
Along with the victims and their families, the entire Catholic community in this country has suffered because of this scandal. In the last three years, the intense public scrutiny of the minority of the ordained who have betrayed their calling has caused the vast majority of faithful priests and deacons to experience enormous vulnerability to being misunderstood in their ministry and even to the possibility of false accusations..........."
Google "Dallas Charter" for more!
Some "ohr lagoyim" we turned into!
There is a weird family at Chalet Vim in Woodridge every year whose wife is on staff. They usually appear to be pretty harmless & docile but they are prone to have explosions.
I have knowledge of the woman abusing her own children. I am also concerned for the safety of others as her oldest daughter who is about 18 had a very violent episode (not at Vim's). She was angry at a woman twice her age and proceeded to hover around her and slam her body against walls as hard as she could to pester her. This came close to making a gaping hole in the shape of her body in the manner of "Looney Tunes", except it wasn't funny. Objects started falling off walls presenting a danger to a 4 month old infant who was almost hit. There are laws that define repetitive behavior such as this to be assault. When the police arrived, the nutty mother gave them a baloney story. The cops were confused and declined to press charges, suggesting to the victims that they instead try pursuing charges with the DA.
The eccentric man of the house was known to have explosive rages years ago in yeshiva and Brooklyn College. He would turn red as a beet and also like a cartoon character, it seemed as though smoke was billowing out of his ears. Although it appears he has no hand in his wife's abuse of their children, he had to be warned by rabbonim that the police will be summoned if he again bangs on people's doors like King Kong the giant gorilla and shouts.
Aron Bell was a subject of the 2003 book The Bielski Brothers, which chronicled his family's escape from the Nazi Holocaust. After their parents and two brothers were killed by Nazi soldiers, Bell's brothers, Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski, hid remaining family members in the expansive forest surrounding their Belarus village — for three years.
Over 21/2 years, the Bielski brothers saved more than 1,200 Jews by bringing them into their forest community, which included a synagogue, communal bath and a theater company. Bell changed his name from Bielski upon coming to the United States in 1951.
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/fraud1010.html
Police: Couple kidnapped, bilked their Palm Beach Towers neighbor
By MARGIE KACOHA
Daily News Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Palm Beach couple face life in prison if convicted of kidnapping one of their neighbors and dumping her in a Polish nursing home against her will.
Aron Bell, 80, and his wife Henryka, 59, are also accused of multiple crimes involving financial fraud against Janina Zaniewska, 93.
All three were residents of the Palm Beach Towers condominiums, 44 Cocoanut Row, when the couple carried out a scheme to bilk the elderly woman out of her life savings, according to an arrest report released Tuesday by Palm Beach police.
Investigators say the couple befriended Zaniewska and ultimately took control of her finances through a series of withdrawals and deposits among several banks — depleting the woman's savings of $250,000 to $300,000 — and used the money for their own living expenses. They also intercepted her personal mail and phone calls, according to police.
In May, the couple spirited Zaniewska away to Poland and allowed a friend to move into her condominium, according to police.
Zaniewska told police she thought the couple was taking her on vacation to Poland to visit friends near Warsaw.
Instead, Aron Bell drove her two hours out of the way to "the old lady home" in the rural town of Pobiedziska in western Poland, according to Zaniewska's statement to police. Aron Bell apparently checked her in and left with no explanation.
Zaniewska told police the doors at the nursing home were locked and she was unable to leave.
With the help of the Polish-American Club of Lake Worth, investigators located Zaniewska in the nursing home in Pobiedziska.
"Thank God you found me," Zaniewska said when Palm Beach police reached her by phone there.
After a U.S. Embassy official visited her in the nursing home and determined that she'd been placed in the home against her will, Zaniewska was returned to the United States on Oct. 4.
According to police, she was lucid when they interviewed her upon her return to Palm Beach. She is temporarily under the care of the state's Department of Children and Families and staying in a nursing home. Police expect the court to assign her a guardian.
Police launched the investigation in August upon hearing from Pamela Liekala, manager of the Regent Bank at Palm Beach Towers. Zaniewska opened an account there in April 2006. Liekala had not seen her since April 2007.
According to police, Liekala grew suspicious of the Bells' role in Zaniewska's finances. She said Zaniewska exhibited a drastic change in personality under the Bells' care, and they would not allow her to speak for herself while in the bank.
Zaniewska's personal physician, Dr. Daniel Fortier, had provided a letter to Henryka Bell stating Zaniewska "did have episodes of paranoia where Zaniewska believed that people were taking her money and injecting her with different things," according to the arrest report.
The doctor told police he was asked to write a letter stating his opinion about Zaniewska's ability to pay bills. He said he wrote the letter because he was under the impression that Henryka Bell was a court-appointed guardian.
Fortier wrote that she was able to make simple decisions but that she was unable to make proper financial decisions, according to police.
Police Capt. Elmer Gudger said Fortier is not under suspicion.
Once under the Bells' care and influence, the bank manager saw her using a wheelchair and she seemed confused.
Zaniewska told Palm Beach police that Henryka Bell gave her vitamins that "made her become very quiet."
Gudger said police are unable to determine whether the couple administered any drugs to Zaniewska that might have caused a change in her physical condition and demeanor.
Gudger said bank manager Liekala is a hero in the case.
"Absolutely. She called police upon her suspicions," he said.
Aron Bell was a subject of the 2003 book The Bielski Brothers, which chronicled his family's escape from the Nazi Holocaust. After their parents and two brothers were killed by Nazi soldiers, Bell's brothers, Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski, hid remaining family members in the expansive forest surrounding their Belarus village — for three years.
Over 21/2 years, the Bielski brothers saved more than 1,200 Jews by bringing them into their forest community, which included a synagogue, communal bath and a theater company. Bell changed his name from Bielski upon coming to the United States in 1951.
In addition to kidnapping, the Bells are charged with elderly exploitation, grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. Henryka Bell faces an additional charge of uttering a forged document.
According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, Aron and Henryka Bell were being held in the county jail Tuesday night. They were denied bail at their first appearance in court Tuesday.
Southland purchases in September fall nearly 50% from a year earlier.
By Peter Y. Hong and Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 17, 2007
Home sales in Southern California plummeted in September to a two-decade low, and a rash of grim housing-market assessments Tuesday suggested the worst is yet to come.
"We're on our way down and still picking up speed," said Christopher Thornberg, a Los Angeles-based economist who four years ago warned that the pace of housing price gains in the region couldn't be sustained.
The gloom extended to Washington, where Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. called the U.S. housing downturn the "most significant current risk to our economy." Paulson echoed a prediction by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Monday that the slump would be a "significant drag" on economic growth into next year.
Adding to the sobering picture, the National Assn. of Home Builders said its builders' confidence index hit a record low. The index, which tracks builders' views of market conditions and sales expectations for the coming six months, fell to 18 from 20 in August. It has been below 50 -- above which indicates a positive industry outlook -- since May 2006.
In Southern California in September, home sales in six counties -- Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura -- fell 48.5% from the same month last year. They were at their lowest since DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate service, began compiling such statistics in 1988.
http://www.zoa.org/2007/10/zoa_opposes_adl.htm
October 15, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has opposed Anti-Defamation League National Director, Abraham Foxman, advocating extending a platform to former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has compared Israel to the worst evil regimes on Earth, including that of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Apartheid and called Zionism racism.
In a 2002 speech in Boston, Tutu stated, according to the complete, unabridged transcript of his speech (which can viewed here ) that:
“The Apartheid government was very powerful, but we said to them: Watch it! If you flout the laws of this universe, you’re going to bite the dust! (applause) Hitler was powerful. Mussolini was powerful. Stalin was powerful. Idi Amin was powerful. Pinochet was powerful. The Apartheid government were powerful. Milosevic was powerful. But, this is God’s world. A lie, injustice, oppression, those will never prevail in the world of this God. That is what we told our people. And we used to say: those ones, they have already lost, they are, they are going to bite the dust one day. We may not be around. An unjust Israeli government, however powerful, will fall in the world of this kind of God.”
In the same speech, Tutu also explicitly compared Israel to apartheid -- “I’ve been deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.”
Tutu also used the anti-Semitic canard of asserting that the pro-Israeli lobby, because it is “very powerful” exerts an undue, malign influence that stifles debate -- “People are scared in this country [the U.S.], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful--very powerful.”
Tutu accused Jews of smearing critics of Israel as being anti-Semites -- “You know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the U.S.] and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic, as if Palestinians were not Semitic.”
Other statements by Tutu on Israel and Jews:
Zionism Is Racism: Tutu has claimed that Zionism has “very many parallels with racism.” (American Jewish Year Book 1988, p.50)
Jewish Arrogance: Tutu accused Jews of exhibiting “an arrogance—the arrogance of power because Jews are a powerful lobby in this land and all kinds of people woo their support.” (Jewish Telegraphic Agency Daily News Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1984)
Jewish Monopoly of the Holocaust: Tutu complained about “the Jewish monopoly of the Holocaust.” ( Jerusalem Post, July 26, 1985)
Forgive the Nazis: During his 1989 visit to Israel, Tutu “urged Israelis to forgive the Nazis for the Holocaust” (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 31, 1989), a statement which the Simon Wiesenthal Center called “a gratuitous insult to Jews and victims of Nazism everywhere.” (Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Response magazine, January 1990).
During the 1989 visit to Israel, Tutu remarked “If I’m accused of being antisemitic, tough luck,” and in response to questions about his anti-Jewish bias, Tutu replied, “My dentist’s name is Dr. Cohen.” (Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Response magazine, January 1990)
Jews Thought They Had a Monopoly on G-d: Speaking in a Connecticut church in 1984, Tutu said that “the Jews thought they had a monopoly on G-d; Jesus was angry that they could shut out other human beings.” In the same speech, he compared the features of the ancient Holy Temple in Jerusalem to the features of the apartheid system in South Africa. (Hartford Courant, Oct. 29, 1984)
Palestine, Not Israel: In conversations during the 1980s with the Israeli ambassador to South Africa, Eliahu Lankin, Tutu “refused to call Israel by its name, he kept referring to it as Palestine.” (Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Response magazine, January 1990)
Jews Cause Refugees: Asked about the Zionism-is-racism resolution, Tutu complained that “the Jewish people with their traditions, religion and long history of persecution sometimes appear to have caused a refugee problem among others.” ( South African Zionist Record, July 26, 1985)
Recently, Tutu was invited to speak at the Minnesota’s University of St Thomas but its President, Father Dennis Dease, rescinded the invitation when Tutu’s record of virulent anti-Israel words and actions were brought to his attention. At this point, the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman urged Dease to reinstate the invitation to Tutu. Foxman wrote to Dease that, “While Archbishop Tutu is not a friend of Israel, we do not believe he is an anti-Semite. As you rightly point out in your letter, his words have often stung the Jewish community. However, while he may at times have crossed the line, we believe that he should have been permitted to speak on your campus.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We are disappointed at Abraham Foxman’s action in urging Father Dease to reconsider reinviting Desmond Tutu, someone who, as the record recounted above clearly shows, has relentlessly demonized and defamed Israel and American Jewish supporters of Israel and who has made offensive statements about Jews and Judaism. Mr. Foxman himself says that Tutu has ‘crossed the line.’ Clearly this means that he crossed into either anti-Semitism or venal hatred of Israel and Jews? Why come to Tutu’s aid?
“It is remarkable that when I publicly criticized the appointment of John Roth to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and criticized New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman for their harsh and hostile writings about Israel, Mr. Foxman called me the ‘attack dog of the Jewish thought police.’ Here, however, where Tutu has made truly ugly attacks on Israel and its supporters, not on Israel’s defamers as I had, I don’t see him describing Tutu as the ‘attack dog of the Palestinian thought police.’ He ratchets it down several notches by referring to Tutu as having ‘stung’ the Jewish community. As head of the Anti-Defamation League, Mr. Foxman is supposed to be fighting those who defame Israel and Jews, not helping them retain speaking engagements.
“Free speech and First Amendment rights do not require that a platform be given by a university, church, synagogue or any organization to anyone to express their views. Free speech under the Constitution allows people to express their views by distributing leaflets or posters or magazines or writing newsletters or newspapers, or by speaking at street corners or in a park. It does not confer an obligation on everyone to provide a platform to anyone else. If a newspaper, for example, refuses to publish a piece by Abe Foxman on its opinion page, is that a denial of his right to free speech? If the University of St Thomas would refuse to give a platform to Abe Foxman, is that denial of his free speech? The answer is no in both cases.
“This being the case, it was certainly inappropriate and mystifying that Mr. Foxman of all people urged the University of St Thomas in Minnesota to reinstate its invitation to Tutu. Mr. Foxman should not be advocating that a platform be given to any individual who compares Israel to evil regimes; who uses anti-Semitic canards about undue Jewish power; who compares Israel to Apartheid and Zionism to racism; or who claims that Jews ‘monopolize’ the Holocaust, the unique Nazi attempt to physically eliminate an entire people, the Jewish people. Having been an opponent of apartheid does not confer immunity on Tutu to make bigoted and offensive remarks about other racial and religious groups.
“Put simply, the Anti-Defamation League should not be helping Tutu to potentially spread his venom. Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League should be fighting those who defame Israel, not helping them in any way.”
He raped me when I was 17 - and I have heard he had other victims as well. He doesn't deserve the light of day, but I was notified he is out on parol
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