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Friday, November 30, 2007

Haaretz - In English & Press Release From The Ministry of Justice!

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....."Where questions of religion are concerned, people are guilty of every possible sort of dishonesty and intellectual misdemeanour".....Sigmund Freud; The Future Of An Illusion.




'I planned to murder Mondrowitz'

By Aviva Lori

Tags: pedophile, Haaretz

"I wanted to murder him. Or to kidnap him and beat him to within an inch of his life and then dump him somewhere. Or to drag him to the American embassy and then send him back to the United States." The speaker is T., who says he is one of the victims of Avrohom Mondrowitz, the alleged pedophile from Brooklyn who styles himself a rabbi and psychologist, and whose misdeeds were described recently in these pages ("In the basement, behind a closed door," Haaretz Magazine, November 16). T. says that last year he paid someone who came to Israel to come up with an operative plan to assault Mondrowitz. "I sent someone to Israel. An American guy who came on one of the educational programs for American Jews, someone who is not afraid of anything. He did not work alone. He has connections with a few guys in Israel, who were going to do the actual deed."

Then why didn't it happen?

T.: "Mondrowitz was very careful and never went into the street alone. He knows that someone will finish him off one day. Someone who will decide that he doesn't care if he spends the next 50 years in jail. The person I sent on the mission is still in Israel. He sat for four months, preparing a plan - how and where. We found out everything about him, where he lives and how he behaves, but it is very hard to get close to him without anyone seeing, so after four months the guy said he was giving it up."

Would you really send someone to assassinate him?

"If it could be done without being caught, I would definitely do it. I don't want to, but all I know is this: If the law didn't manage to bring him to justice after so many years, the feeling is that no one cares. He isn't just some crook who robbed a store. He destroyed people's lives. I am still going to therapy twice a month. I have problems. I don't trust anyone, don't believe anyone, I am a very suspicious person. I talk to my children about it every week, and it's very hard to tell children not to be friendly with people. In our synagogue there was someone who went over to children and hugged them. Most people thought he was just being sociable, but I went over to him in the middle of the synagogue and gave him a real beating. I said to everyone, 'I am not going to wait around until he does it to one of my kids.'"

T., now 38 and living in New York, was almost 13 when he first met Mondrowitz. Since then he has been haunted by nightmares. "My life today does not exactly follow some 'golden way,'" he says in the Hebrew he learned during his stay in Israel. "I have no doubt that it started there, in that disastrous meeting with Mondrowitz. For some reason, I never told anyone the whole truth."

T.'s parents, Holocaust survivors, settled in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section. After his bar mitzvah he was to enter the Bais Yisroel yeshiva run by the Gur (Gerer) Hasidic sect in Borough Park, Brooklyn. To prepare him for yeshiva life, his parents sent him to a summer camp run by the Gur Hasidim in the Catskills, where he met Mondrowitz for the first time. "He would show up in his car, an Oldsmobile that was as heavy as a Merkava tank. That summer he started to buy me things. He asked me what I liked. I still have a set of books he bought me. He would take me to a pizzeria. I asked him if that was all right, if I was allowed to leave the camp, and he said, 'Yes, of course, I will get you permission.'"

T. doesn't recall Mondrowitz trying to touch him at camp. But he still remembers vividly what he later saw in the yeshiva. To mark the anniversary of the death of the Admor of Gur (the sect's founder), the students made a torch from wax candles, which they cooked in a large pot in the yeshiva's basement kitchen.

"I went down to the dining room, where the kitchen was," T. relates. "It was a bit dark and no one was there, but suddenly I heard noises. I looked around and then I saw them. A boy from the yeshiva, my age or maybe a year older, was leaning on a table. Mondrowitz was on top of him and both of them had their pants down. I was flabbergasted. It was like a nightmare.

"I ran upstairs, into the classroom, and told the teacher what I saw. Straightaway he went out of the classroom with me, and in the corridor he saw the boy and Mondrowitz coming up the stairs. So he saw that I wasn't talking nonsense." (Years later, T. says, "I found out that the boy never did well in life, that he was mentally ill.") The teacher then took T. to the principal and told him what happened. "I remember the principal shouted at me in Yiddish that I was a boy with a filthy mind. We went back to the classroom as though nothing had happened. At around 4 o'clock, Mondrowitz came and said he wanted to take me to his office, that he had to talk to me. He was an authority figure and I couldn't object. I went to his car, and he stopped at a store on 16th Avenue, took me into the store with him and said that the tzitzit [ritual undergarment worn by Orthodox Jewish males] I was wearing was not Hasidic enough and that I needed a more expensive one, made of wool. My father was poor and bought me a simple tzitzit. Mondrowitz then bought me a Coke and for the first time took me to his home, where he started to explain to me that every person needs a different form of therapy and that some children need to have a good feeling. As he was talking, he stuck one hand into my pants and the other into his pants. If I remember well, his wife was home. I went into shock. He asked me if I felt good. I said no, but he kept on and then he said I was too young, that one day I would find out what was really good for me."

The next day, T. told his teacher what had happened at Mondrowitz's home. The teacher promised to deal with it. "The following day, my father got a letter from the yeshiva saying that I was unsuitable and they should look for a different institution for me."

Before the age of 14, T. was sent to a Gur yeshiva in Israel, but was soon expelled, without any explanation. Maybe because he told his friends what he had seen in Brooklyn: "I discovered that there were six kids in the yeshiva whom Mondrowitz had treated."

After that T. stayed with his sister and with another relative, trying to get accepted to other yeshivas, but to no avail.

T. became a street urchin. He slept in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, sold pictures that he drew, and lived a hand-to-mouth existence. "The Jerusalem bus station was my home. Sometimes I went into a synagogue to sleep. At the age of 21 I was married. I worked for a solar-heating company, rented a place in Ramat Gan and forsook religion.? After 10 years in Israel, T. was divorced. He returned to the United States, found religion again - "I don't believe in religious people, I believe in God" - remarried and raised a new family.

Road to extradition

Avrohom Mondrowitz, 60, a Gur Hasid, was indicted in the United States on charges of sexual abuse, including sodomy, against hundreds of children, mainly Haredim (ultra-Orthodox), in his neighborhood of Borough Park, Brooklyn, in the early 1980s. The investigation began in 1984, following an anonymous phone call to Patricia Kehoe, a detective in the Brooklyn police sex crimes unit, about Mondrowitz's behavior. But by the time an arrest warrant was issued, Mondrowitz had disappeared. He and his family settled in Jerusalem. He was indicted in 1985, and Israel was asked to extradite him. This was not possible, because at the time the extradition agreement between the two countries did not define sodomy as a felony that mandated extradition. Mondrowitz lived comfortably in his Jerusalem home in the colorful Nahlaot neighborhood, teaching (until he was fired this year), praying three times a day in a local synagogue and, in his leisure time, apparently collecting and watching pedophilic movies and selling fake academic degrees from various universities to all comers.

Last May, local police raided Mondrowitz's home and found four pedophilic films. Two months ago, he was detained and questioned, but released under restrictive conditions. In September, the United States renewed its extradition request after the agreement with Israel was amended at the beginning of this year, so that sodomy is now an extraditable offense. But nothing happened. The police said they were in the midst of an investigation; the Justice Ministry refused to divulge information about its intentions. Mondrowitz continued with his regular routine.
Two weeks ago, on Friday, the day after the article's publication (on Thursday, in the Hebrew version of the Haaretz Magazine), Mondrowitz was arrested for the purpose of extradition. Three days later, he was brought before the vice president of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court, Judge Shimon Fineberg, who extended his remand by a week and wrote that the findings of the investigation "create a reasonable suspicion that [Mondrowitz] is still an active or potential pedophile. The fact that he does not have a police record of sexual abuse in Israel does not render the danger void. It is well known that with offenses such as these, particularly in the Haredi sector, to which the respondent belongs, the victims and their families often do not file complaints with the police owing to their desire to try to solve the problems without involving the police, in order to avert shame in the family. By this I do not find that the respondent committed offenses in Israel, but neither do I find the opposite."

The news of Mondrowitz's arrest was widely reported - more than 70 items appeared all over the world: in The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Pravda, The New York Daily News, the news agencies and, of course, in the Jewish press. The reports prompted more people who said they were Mondrowitz's victims to come forward.

One of them is B., the mother of M., an apparent Mondrowitz victim, who committed suicide last year. B. had long agonized over whether to go public. The latest round of reports gave her the impetus she needed. "Before this I didn't know that he had molested so many pure, innocent children," she says.

An Orthodox Jew, B. believes that God took her son in order to alleviate his unbearable pain, which, she says, was inflicted on him after a year of intensive "treatment" by Mondrowitz. Of B.'s three sons, she says two were victimized by Mondrowitz. They were sent to him for therapy when she and her husband were going through a divorce. M. was then nine and a half; G., his brother, was 11.

G., now 38, also takes part in the conversation. He says he was lucky: "He didn't really manage to hurt me, because I ran away. This was in 1981. My parents had just been divorced, and my mother sent me and my younger brother to him for professional help. I remember him as a very impressive person. He smoked a pipe and had a convertible sports car, which attracted a lot of attention. He was cool, you know. The first time I came to him he sat me on his knees and started to kiss me on the lips and fondle me in all kinds of places. I jumped up in a fright and escaped. He told me that if I told anyone, he would hurt me."

In what way?

G.: "I don't know, but he had a terrible look in his eyes and I was really scared."

Did you understand that what he did was wrong?

"I knew that I had a teacher in school who did [bad] things to me, so I knew it was wrong."

G. did not show up for the next session with Mondrowitz. He walked around the building for an hour, but did not go in. Two weeks later, he informed his mother that he would not go again. "We had a big fight. She wanted to know why. I only told her that I didn't like him. She was deeply involved in the divorce and didn?t press the issue."

His younger brother, M., continued to see Mondrowitz. It was not until 10 years later that he disclosed that the man had abused and raped him.

In 1988, during a visit to Jerusalem, G. and his brother saw Mondrowitz at the Western Wall. "I ran to him and started to hit him," G. recalls. "My brother restrained me and separated us. I shouted that this man is an animal who has to be arrested, but in the meantime he ran off."

G. has the names of eight additional people who say they were victims, who contacted him after the article appeared. They decided to urge the U.S. authorities to pressure Israel to extradite Mondrowitz.

"[My brother] M. married but wasn't able to have sexual relations with his wife," G. says. "He got divorced and became a homosexual."

Because of what Mondrowitz did?

"Obviously. Two weeks before his death, he told my father: 'I am not sure that even if Mondrowitz is brought to trial it will ease my suffering and reduce the pain.' We knew that something was not right with him - he did not behave normally. He became sentimental in his relations with people.

He had a problem with religion: He didn't understand how someone could teach religion and do things like that. He couldn't abide the hypocrisy. He used drugs and sank into even more pain. The drugs helped him cope. One day last year he took pills and didn't wake up again. He died in his sleep."

M. was 35 at the time of his death. His mother cannot forgive herself for having sent him to Mondrowitz.

"He was so popular, everyone recommended him," B. relates. "I heard him on his radio program and was impressed by the advice he gave. I was sure that I was helping my children. You don't expect a rabbi to do things like that. Now it turns out he was not a rabbi at all, that everything he told about himself was untrue. That man persuaded me to leave my children alone with him. That way, he said, he could help them more. But one day M. broke down and told me everything. I couldn't believe it. I was in shock. I hugged him and we both sat down and cried and cried without end. I told him, 'Don't ever dare look at that man again, ever. I will see to it that he pays for what he did.' But by the time I figured out what to do, he had already escaped to Israel."

Did you feel that something was amiss with M.?

B.: "I am sure that if I had felt that, I would have done something, but [Mondrowitz] hypnotized him. Afterward I found out that he would convince the children that each of them was unique and special, and that he loved them more than anything in the world, even more than their parents did. He would fill their head with all kinds of crazy things that influence children of that age. He would buy them things and seduce them."

B. says she does not understand why the other rabbis kept silent and did nothing. "It is very hard for me to understand why they protected him. Now I understand that there were too many rabbis who did the same thing. It destroyed the children; even those who remained alive are not really living. It is hard for me to believe that he didn't do it to children in Israel, too, because it's a sickness. Why didn't the police arrest him long ago? Never in my life have I had such a strong urge to kill someone as with this man. The only way to deal with him is by cutting off you know what, and do it very slowly. Let it hurt him, let him suffer like the gentle and pure children whose lives he destroyed. That is the pain I want him to feel." *******


Press Release - Received From The Minister Of Justice:



On November 16, 2007, Abraham Mondrowitz was arrested by the Israel Police, at the direction of the Department of International Affairs of the Office of the State Attorney. Mondrowitz was indicted in the United States on five counts of Sodomy in the First Degree, eight counts of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Yesterday, the Department of International Affairs of the Office of the State Attorney filed a petition to Jerusalem's District Court requesting that Mondrowitz be declared extraditable to the United States. In light of the gravity of the crimes for which Mondrowitz has been charged and the concern that he may attempt to flee from Israel and poses a danger to the public, the Department of International Affairs requested that Mondrowitz remain under arrest until the court decides whether or not he is extraditable.

On September 5, 2007, the United States authorities requested that Israeli authorities extradite Mondrowitz for the crimes listed above. After a thorough review of the extradition request, Israeli authorities decided to commence extradition proceedings against Mondrowitz in Israel.

According to the Request for Extradition, an indictment was issued against Mondrowitz in 1985 in New York for the commission of serious sex offenses against five minors between January 1, 1980 and September 15, 1984. The victims were all male, ages nine to fifteen at the time of the commission of the offenses against them.

Mondrowitz fled from the United States to Israel in 1984. The United States authorities sought his arrest at the time; however, Mondrowitz's extradition was only possible after January 2007, when the Protocol amending the Israel United States Extradition Treaty went into effect. Prior to the amending Protocol, the above-mentioned offenses were not extraditable crimes.

Mondrowitz's extradition case is being handled by the Department of International Affairs of the Office of the State Attorney (prosecutors Nili Gesser and Marlene Mazel-Herskowitz) and in cooperation with the Israeli Police's Interpol Department.

Sincerely,
Merav Haviv Assistant to the spokesman - Ministry Of Justice

148 comments:

Anonymous said...

UOJ,
Bless you for initiating and leading the fight. May Hashem give you the strength to carry on. May Hashem heal those who have been hurt by these monsters, and may he give hope and strength to the rest of us "poshete Yiden" to retain our emunah in spite of these reshaim who hurt and mislead us.

Anonymous said...

The Agudah finally smartened up somewhat. They stopped attacking UOJ and had their lapdog Shafran issue one stupid & indirect denial about Mondrowitz.

What was smart from a PR standpoint was to issue their statement on an undivided Jerusalem which is puting them in the limelight and attracting accolades from all over.

What ever happened to good old fashion editorializing from the NY Times? They should frame it as: the Agudath Israel of America which recently took a stand on an undivided Jerusalem as been subject to increasing criticism on their role of enabling and covering up child sex abuse. Rabbi Israel Belsky vulgarly bristled when asked for comment by this reporter.

Anonymous said...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311781,00.html

Thursday, November 15, 2007

By Roger Friedman

Unrelenting publicity hound Shmuley Boteach just doesn't know how to go away. Now he wants to "counsel" Britney Spears. Advice from him, she doesn't need.

I met Shmuley with Michael Jackson seven years ago this month, in November 2000. He was at the home of PR whiz Howard Rubenstein, who’d been hired by Michael and someone named Boteach to announce their charity, called Time for Kids or Time to Heal or Heal the Kids, depending on whom you asked.

The rest is history. A few months later, Boteach and Jackson held a loony seminar at Carnegie Hall to showcase Time for Kids. Among the participants who discussed the value of spending more time with your kids were now former publisher Judith Regan and game show host Chuck Woollery, each noted childhood experts. Ha ha.

Anyway, the thousands of dollars collected that night disappeared. The charity evaporated. Eventually, even Boteach’s “charity,” the so-called Oxford L’Chaim Society, also vanished.

At the time, I wrote a story in this column about Boteach, who hasn’t spoken to or seen Michael Jackson since that time — since well before Jackson’s arrest in November 2003. Nevertheless, Boteach has traded on his short friendship with Jackson as if it were active. It isn’t.

Boteach was bounced out of the U.K. and denied a rabbinical pulpit there, so he returned to the U.S. with visions of grandeur. He was accused in the U.K. of taking charitable money to buy a big house. (He said the charity he was running, the original Oxford L’Chaim Society, needed a headquarters.) He left England with a lot of enemies.

An article dated June 1, 1998, in the London Daily Telegraph clearly states: "Ah Shmuley. The shame, the disgrace. (He's been) publicly reproached by Elkin Levy, president of the United Synagogues; forced to resign from the synagogue in Willesden where he preaches, accused of conduct unbecoming, bringing the rabbinate into disrepute."

The resignation was apparently in response to the publication of Boteach's controversial book, "Kosher Sex," which has been a bestseller and was excerpted in Playboy.

Back on May 23, 2001, we revealed the truth about the "Kosher Sex" rabbi who started a bogus charity with Jackson.

To this day there has no been no accounting for the money Boteach and Jackson raised for their Time for Kids/Heal the World Foundation. Indeed, the event they held on Feb. 14, 2001, at Carnegie Hall — a symposium on children — has never turned up in tax returns.

London newspapers reported that Boteach was ousted from the L'Chaim Society of Oxford University for mismanagement of funds. (He allegedly used money from the charity to maintain a lavish home. Boteach insisted it was his right to do so.) He was also reportedly banned from having a pulpit in the U.K., although he has denied that.

The most recent tax return available, which covers all of 2000, states that the New York edition of L'Chaim Society took in $203,185 in donations but paid out $240,164 "for administration." There are no funds listed for "Program Services."

In May 2001, this column discovered quite a lot about the so-called Oxford L'Chaim Society of New York, which has nothing whatsoever to do with Oxford University in Great Britain.

I wrote: "In 1999, the British government criticized (Boteach's) L'Chaim Society of Oxford, London and Cambridge — an organization that was supposed to support and promote Jewish thinking and life on the Oxford campus — when they discovered that Shmuley (his name is Shmuel but he loves the nickname) had been dipping into the funds.

In an e-mail to the Oxford Union, Sonia Tugwell of the Charity Commission wrote on January 8, 2001: "In August 1999, the Charity Commission opened an inquiry under section 8 of the Charities Act 1993 into the L'Chaim Independent Charitable Trust as a result of concerns that the charity's funds were being misapplied.

"The inquiry established that a number of apparent inappropriate payments were regularly being made by the founder of the charity, Rabbi Boteach and his wife. Fundraising costs and administrative expenses were high in relation to relatively low charitable expenditure.

"As a result of the inquiry, in March last year, the trustees of the charity, after taking appropriate legal advice, reached an agreement with the Boteach’s. The result of this was that a sum was paid by them to the charity. The trustees of the charity decided to wind up the charity and the London and Oxford offices were closed last year with our approval. It was agreed that the assets of the Cambridge Society would be transferred to another trust. If there are any funds remaining after outstanding liabilities have been paid, these will be given to other charitable causes similar to those supported by the L'Chaim Independent Charitable Trust."

"It seems funny to me," said a source at the Oxford Union, "that the headquarters for the L'Chaim Society of Oxford is in New York."

Frustrated by the lack of information from Boteach's office, I subsequently wrote another story on Feb. 18, 2002, stating that Boteach's tax-free foundation in the United States is called Oxford L'Chaim Society, implying a tie to the prestigious British university.

I also wrote that the L'Chaim Society's 1999 public tax filing shows that the charity took in $300,000. Of that amount, $160,000 went to "management" and $122,000 was sent as a lump-sum donation to the L'Chaim Society of Cambridge, the other top British university.

But, of course, representatives of the Cambridge Society swore to me last year that they hadn't heard from Boteach in a long time. Certainly they didn't mention a huge donation, and neither did Boteach.

Even so, more than half the money collected by Boteach in 1999 went to salaries. Less than half was donated to charity. Just in case you were wondering.

Boteach — who is banned by the United Synagogues in Great Britain from having a pulpit — is best remembered for a quote he gave the London Independent in 1996. He said there is an 11th, unwritten Commandment: "Thou shalt do anything for publicity and recognition."

Anonymous said...

Leizerowitz is pissing in his skirt!

Anonymous said...

Pay-suck Krohn's picture should go back up on the sidebar for enabling Brenner & Bryks.

Anonymous said...

UOJ,
Can you please bump up the comment from Anonymous 10:16 a.m, November 29th 2007 to this new comments page. I'm afraid that it will be lost and unnoticed on the bottom of the last comments page of the previous article posted. Thank you very much!

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/927750.html

Six men from the Israeli Arab towns of Kalansua, Taibeh and Lod were indicted on Sunday at the Tel Aviv District Court for raping a 16-year-old on a beach in Netanya on November 8.

The victim, known as A., apparently spent an evening with her friend, known as B., in the city center, where the two consumed a generous amount of alcohol. The six men, Fahed Jaber (25), Ula Zuan (20), Mahmoud Hanun (23), Bilal Kashkush (20), Ahmed Abu Hamed (21) and Mahmoud Ras (21), arrived at the scene and courted the two young women, but were refused.

One of the defendants, Ula Zuan, allegedly exploited B.'s intoxicated condition and stole NIS 100 and two mobile phones from her bag. Soon thereafter, the defendants allegedly took the two in separate cars to the city's Sironit beach.

After arriving at the beach, the defendants allegedly raped A. while beating her and calling her "stinky Jew." B. resisted and was spared, but was thrown out of the vehicle. The defendants allegedly stripped her, burnt her bag and scattered its contents.

The next day the defendants, except Kashkush, are suspected of having met to agree not to turn in one another. They urged Ras to confess, but he refused.

The prosecution told the court that Ras confessed and incriminated his fellow culprits. It was also claimed that Suan's and Kashkush's sperm cells were found, but the two continue to deny the allegations.

The prosecution said that "the respondents carried out a series of violent, shocking and horrendous sex offenses against two teenagers, who were innocent and random victims, held captive by them during the event. The respondents are accused of raping and sodomizing the victims against their will, while taking advantage of their inability to resist and causing them physical injuries."

Suspected prostitute found slain in Be'er Sheva

A woman was found dead on Saturday night in Be'er Sheva with signs of a struggle on her body. She was named as Zoya Yegudayev, 28.

Anonymous said...

This is a question for any lawyers out there that would be comfortable answering it in this public forum, and if possible sharing your name and brief credentials as well.

To be honest, I'm asking this here, rather than at this point contacting individual attorneys, as I'm a little wary (maybe unjustifiably) that some lawyers might be interested in being associated with this case described below, partly to help promote their own broader agenda - rather than totally to represent the best interests of the young victim.

Here is the sanitized scenario:
A young teen is a victim of sexual abuse. The teen and family come forward, and report the abuse to the authorities, and after investigation, the perpetrator is indicted. The family is supportive of the child; the District Attorney's office also provides support; and counseling services are also provided.

The family's main interest in helping to bring this case forward, is to prevent the tragedy of any other innocent victims of this perpetrator's sick perversion - to keep him out of circulation with a jail sentence for as long as the law will allow, and to have him legally designated as a registered sex offender.

The family feels comfortable working with the prosecutors in the District Attorney's office.
Is there any reason why it would be in the interest of the child, to be represented by their own lawyer?

(I think that your answer would also be helpful to other victims who may be considering coming forward in similar cases - which I sincerely encourage them to do.)

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

http://www.cjp.org/page.html?ArticleID=161364

Neto Shops Ltd. and entrepreneur group DSK are planning to launch a private venture for the haredi (ultra-orthodox) community early next year -- an Internet search engine of websites and information pages with no direct link to the Internet. The haredi community has largely boycotted the Internet until now for fear of being exposed to content it considers anathema. Consequently, the haredim have foregone the advantages of the Internet and the unlimited possibilities of cyberspace.

Neto Shops aims to penetrate the haredi protected sphere to reach its 1.6 million consumers. The venture, called "Neto-to-Home" has won the backing of the Sacred Education Guards, the supreme authority for granting kosher permits in the haredi sector. Neto-to-Home will provide users with information from many sources, including appropriate magazine articles, business, help wanted, and classified ads, prayer times, and so forth.

Neto-to-Home will distribute for free 200,000 CDs at haredi communities in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Ashdod, Elad, Modi'in Illit, Betar, Haifa and the Krayot, Beersheva, Tiberias, and other towns. Each disk will have 3,000 sites, which look like the real deal. The disks will be updated every two months, and the company aims to have monthly updates. Other applications are under development. Authorized yeshivas will constantly supervise the content.

Neto Shops CEO Nadav Maoist told "Globes", "Today, many businesses cannot reach this target audience because of the high advertising prices charged by haredi newspapers, which cannot be compared with the prices charged in the competitive world of secular newspapers.

Anonymous said...

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/nov/27/man-claims-300-pound-prostitute-robbed-him/

Man claims 300-pound prostitute robbed him

Anonymous said...

I guess Sruly got himself a new gig!!

Arutz Sheva reports that
the American Jewish Congress has named Israel Singer as chairman of its international policy council of the Council for World Jewry. Singer was fired last march from his senior position at the World Jewish Congress and president of the Claims Conference.

Anonymous said...

http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/search?q=au%3ALeib+Pinter&qt=hot_author

Isn't it interesting that a Scumbag like me who steals hundreds of millions of dollars, has time to keep publishing more seforim?

1. Don't give up : rays of light and strength for the hardest times
by Leib Pinter
Language: English Type: Book Internet Resource
Publisher: Brooklyn, N.Y. : Mesorah, 2004.

2. ספר דברי ישועה ונחמה : פרקי אמונה וביטחון, עובדות והנהגות מגדולי ישראל /
Sefer Divre yeshuʻah ṿe-neḥamah : pirḳe emunah u-viṭaḥon, ʻuvdot ṿe-hanhagot mi-gedole Yiśraʼel
by פינטער, אלעזר יהודה לייב. Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: לייב פינטער, Brooklyn : Leib Pinṭer, [199-?]

3. ספר נחלת צבי : על התורה : רעיונות וביאורים בצירוף עובדות והנהגות מגדולי ישראל /
Sefer Naḥalat Tsevi : ʻal ha-Torah : raʻyonot u-veʼurim be-tseruf ʻuvdot ṿe-hanhagot mi-gedole Yiśraʼel
by פינטער, אלעזר יהודה לייב. Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: א.י.ל. פינטער, Brooklyn, N.Y. : E.Y.L. Pinṭer, ©1997.

4. קובץ דברי חיזוק והשקפה : ליקוט מדברי חז״ל וגדולי ישראל על המצב /
Ḳovets Divre ḥizuḳ ṿe-hashḳafah : liḳuṭ mi-divre Ḥazal u-gedole Yiśraʼel ʻal ha-matsav
by פינטער, אלעזר יהודה לייב. Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: חמו״ל, [Brooklyn, N.Y.? : ḥ. mo. l., 2001?]

5. ספר עשרה נסיונות : מיוסד על עשרה נסיונותיו של אברהם אבינו ללמוד וללמד בני יהודה קשת : איך להתמודד עם נסיונות ומצבים קשים בחיי האדם /
Sefer ʻAśarah nisyonot : meyusad ʻal ʻaśarah nisyonotaṿ shel Avraham avinu li-lemod ule-lamed bene Yehudah ḳeshet : ekh le-hitmoded ʻim nisyonot u-matsavim ḳashim be-ḥaye ha-adam
by פינטער, אלעזר יהודה לייב. Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: אלעזר יהודה לייב פינטער, Brooklyn, N.Y. : Elʻazar Yehudah Leyb Pinṭer, [762? i.e. 2001 or 2002?]

6. Ḳovets Divre ḥizuḳ ṿe-hashḳafah : ... mi-divre Ḥazal u-gedole Yiśraʼel ʻal ha-matsav
by Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: [Yerushalayim : s.n., 2002?]

7. דברי חיזוק והשקפה (קובץ) /
Divre ḥizuḳ ṿe-hashḳafah (ḳovets)
by פינטער, אלעזר יהודה לייב. Elaazar Yehuda Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: [s.n.], [Tel Aviv?] : [s.n.], 762 [2001 or 2002]

8. עשרה נסיונות /
ʻA.sara nisyonot
by לייב פינטער, אלעזר יהודה. Elazar Yehuda Leib Pinter
Language: Hebrew Type: Book
Publisher: משפחת הרשקוביץ, Bene Braḳ : Mishpaḥat Hershḳovits, 762 [2001 or 2002]

Anonymous said...

http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/57173225&referer=brief_results

As listed by the WorldCat division of OCLC (http://www.oclc.org/about/default.htm), these are the prestigious libraries where Super-Ganav Leib Pinter's books are found on the shelf:

Brooklyn Public Library Brooklyn, NY 11238

Jewish Theological Seminary New York, NY 10027

Yeshiva University New York, NY 10033

Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544

Yale University Library New Haven, CT 06520

Library of Congress Washington, DC 20540

Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305

University of Frankfurt Library Frankfurt, 60325 Germany

New York Public Library - Research New York, NY 10018

Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210

University of Toronto Libraries Toronto, ON M5S 1A5 Canada

Harvard University, Harvard College Library Cambridge, MA 02139

Anonymous said...

http://library.ohio-state.edu/search/o?SEARCH=38560286#

Pinter claims his "seforim" are copyrighted. How much do you want to bet that he didn't pay the fee?

Anonymous said...

Still not a mention of Mondrowitz on Yeshiva World. You think if some Rabbi's came to visit him in jail they'd publish that in the Gedolim Pictures section?

Anonymous said...

Hey Pinter, you Lowlife! Why do you call yourself "ex-convict" when you are going back to jail again?

What the heck do you call it in future tense anyway? Neo-con?

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The biggest plunge in new home prices in 37 years was not enough to revive October sales, according to the government's latest reading on the battered housing and home building markets.

Anonymous said...


Pinter claims his "seforim" are copyrighted. How much do you want to bet that he didn't pay the fee?


You establish a copyright simply by claiming it on an original work, without paying any fees. Registering the copyright, does however, make it easier to sue people for infringing.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The Agudah finally smartened up somewhat.

______________

No they have not...and I'm just getting warmed up!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

A highly reliable attorney responds to the query of Anon: 3:06 -------------------


Generally, if all is going well between the victim and prosecutors, there is no need for the victim's family to hire their own private attorney. Of course, if they feel they would benefit from his or her advice, mediation or whatever, that is their decision.

I would imagine the main reason a family in that position would be going to a lawyer would be to commence a civil suit against the perpetrator, or perhaps against an institution that should have supervised him and didn't, or didn't act on reports of his abuse, etc. Prosecutors do not and cannot advise victims along those lines.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Coming To The U.S.A.

-----------------------

Divorcing the rabbinate

Haaretz

By Anshel Pfeffer

tags: corruption, Metzger

Although Tzohar was founded a decade ago, it was only this past March that this group of maverick Orthodox rabbis took the highly unorthodox step of challenging the Chief Rabbinate in Israel's Supreme Court. In a petition, Tzohar asked the High Court to cancel the appointment of 15 new dayanim (rabbinical judges), who had been selected by the rabbinical establishment.

"We weren't happy to do it," says Rabbi David Stav, one of Tzohar's founders. Stav says he felt "that the group there in the Chief Rabbinate was just so corrupt, a group of ultra-Orthodox apparatchiks deciding who should be a judge."

Although the High Court ordered Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to reconvene the appointments committee, Tzohar's victory was short-lived, as the committee went ahead and reappointed the same candidates. Still, Stav says he doesn't feel disappointed. Now, he says, "we have 50 rabbis coming to us and saying that we have to set up our own independent rabbinical courts."

Until recently, Tzohar's main field of activity was in providing Orthodox rabbis to officiate at user-friendly marriage ceremonies. But slowly, the organization began moving in more controversial directions, voicing open criticism of the establishment. As this has happened, especially over the past two years, the Chief Rabbinate seemed to become aware of a growing threat and responded with a series of rulings. These in turn served as the catalyst for a wider conflict over shmita (the sabbatical year during which Jewish-owned land is supposed to lay fallow, according to halakha), the biggest row between Tzohar and the Rabbinate to date.

When Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger announced that local rabbinical councils would have the freedom to decide whether they would issue kashrut certificates to stores and restaurants selling heter mechira produce (fruit and vegetables grown on land that has been "sold" to a non-Jew via a legal loophole), Tzohar decided to set up an alternative kashrut organization that would provide kashrut supervision and certificates to farmers and businesses producing and selling heter mechira food.

What is not yet clear is whether the alternative kashrut apparatus marks the beginning of a permanent schism within the Orthodox rabbinate, or is just an ad hoc measure that will pass at the end of the shmita year. More crucially, will Tzohar have the strength and audacity to act on even more controversial issues, such as the conversion crisis, with over 300,000 new and less-new immigrants here, most of them from the Former Soviet Union, who are not halakhically Jewish?

About 150 Orthodox rabbis are active in the organization, which estimates that an additional 500-600 rabbis throughout Israel sympathize with their ideals. This informal nature is intentional. As Tzohar's membership spans the length and breadth of the religious Zionist movement, consensus is an overriding consideration, so that, in many cases, rabbis act as individuals and not Tzohar members. For example, Tzohar members vary widely on the conversion issue; nor does the movement have a united position regarding recognition of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.

"We never meant to be the enemies of the Rabbinate," says Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, one of Tzohar's founders, "but they gave us no choice. When we started out 10 years ago, they called us the young rabbis, but now many of us are nearing the age of 50, there's no one to be afraid of anymore, and we have to decide what exactly we stand for." ()

Anonymous said...

December 12, the day Mondrowitz is scheduled to be extradited, is the last day of Chanukah, Zos Chanukah. This day is truly a day of miracles. May the victims finally find some closure and some yishuv daas.

I think it's about time a special prayer is composed specifically for the protection of our children from pedophiles and for the survivors of sexual abuse. A Yehi Ratzon prayer that we can add upon taking out the Torah or at the end of Shmona Esreh will be very appropriate. If anyone can suggest a nusach, please post it here, whether in Hebrew or English. Remember how Yaakov Avinu prepared for Esav. He prepared for war, for diplomacy and he prayed. We have to use the same tact in our modern war with evil. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Anonymous said...

'I planned to murder Mondrowitz'

By Aviva Lori

Tags: pedophile, Haaretz

"I wanted to murder him. Or to kidnap him and beat him to within an inch of his life and then dump him somewhere. Or to drag him to the American embassy and then send him back to the United States." The speaker is T., who says he is one of the victims of Avrohom Mondrowitz, the alleged pedophile from Brooklyn who styles himself a rabbi and psychologist, and whose misdeeds were described recently in these pages ("In the basement, behind a closed door," Haaretz Magazine, November 16). T. says that last year he paid someone who came to Israel to come up with an operative plan to assault Mondrowitz. "I sent someone to Israel. An American guy who came on one of the educational programs for American Jews, someone who is not afraid of anything. He did not work alone. He has connections with a few guys in Israel, who were going to do the actual deed."

Then why didn't it happen?

T.: "Mondrowitz was very careful and never went into the street alone. He knows that someone will finish him off one day. Someone who will decide that he doesn't care if he spends the next 50 years in jail. The person I sent on the mission is still in Israel. He sat for four months, preparing a plan - how and where. We found out everything about him, where he lives and how he behaves, but it is very hard to get close to him without anyone seeing, so after four months the guy said he was giving it up."
Advertisement

Would you really send someone to assassinate him?

"If it could be done without being caught, I would definitely do it. I don't want to, but all I know is this: If the law didn't manage to bring him to justice after so many years, the feeling is that no one cares. He isn't just some crook who robbed a store. He destroyed people's lives. I am still going to therapy twice a month. I have problems. I don't trust anyone, don't believe anyone, I am a very suspicious person. I talk to my children about it every week, and it's very hard to tell children not to be friendly with people. In our synagogue there was someone who went over to children and hugged them. Most people thought he was just being sociable, but I went over to him in the middle of the synagogue and gave him a real beating. I said to everyone, 'I am not going to wait around until he does it to one of my kids.'"

T., now 38 and living in New York, was almost 13 when he first met Mondrowitz. Since then he has been haunted by nightmares. "My life today does not exactly follow some 'golden way,'" he says in the Hebrew he learned during his stay in Israel. "I have no doubt that it started there, in that disastrous meeting with Mondrowitz. For some reason, I never told anyone the whole truth."

T.'s parents, Holocaust survivors, settled in Brooklyn's Williamsburg section. After his bar mitzvah he was to enter the Bais Yisroel yeshiva run by the Gur (Gerer) Hasidic sect in Borough Park, Brooklyn. To prepare him for yeshiva life, his parents sent him to a summer camp run by the Gur Hasidim in the Catskills, where he met Mondrowitz for the first time. "He would show up in his car, an Oldsmobile that was as heavy as a Merkava tank. That summer he started to buy me things. He asked me what I liked. I still have a set of books he bought me. He would take me to a pizzeria. I asked him if that was all right, if I was allowed to leave the camp, and he said, 'Yes, of course, I will get you permission.'"

T. doesn't recall Mondrowitz trying to touch him at camp. But he still remembers vividly what he later saw in the yeshiva. To mark the anniversary of the death of the Admor of Gur (the sect's founder), the students made a torch from wax candles, which they cooked in a large pot in the yeshiva's basement kitchen.

"I went down to the dining room, where the

Anonymous said...

"however, Mondrowitz's extradition was only possible after January 2007, when the Protocol amending the Israel United States Extradition Treaty went into effect"

Is this true? Does this mean that all the bloggers who were yelling about this massive rabinic conspiracy to prevent the DA from extraditing Mondro is just a load of crap?

Anonymous said...

UOJ - You Da Man!!!!!

I can't wait for the news that poor Mondrosatan bled out rectally after the Black Panthers ran a 10 man train on his ass up in Folsom or Attica or wherever he ends up... On second thought, let him get stitched up rather than die so the brothers can go at him again!

Notthat I believe all stereotypes, but I hear some of those brothers are rather well endowed so Mondro may find himself in a world of pain once he gets placed in genpop.

Anonymous said...

This is the e-mail i sent to aviva lori of haaretz news.

"רצתי למעלה, נכנסתי לכיתה וסיפרתי למגיד השיעור (המורה) מה ראיתי. הוא ישר יצא איתי מהכיתה ובמסדרון הוא ראה את הבחור ההוא ואת מונדרוביץ עולים למעלה, אז הוא הבין שאני לא מדבר שטויות (שנים אחר כך התברר לי שהבחור הזה לא הצליח בחיים, שהוא חולה מבחינה נפשית). אבל אז המורה לקח אותי לחדר המנהל וסיפר מה קרה. אני זוכר שהמנהל צעק עלי 'גמאיינע ביכער' (בחור עם 'ראש כחול'). חזרנו לכיתה כאילו שום דבר לא קרה.


ט' סיפר למחרת למגיד השיעור מה קרה בשעות אחר הצהריים אצל מונדרוביץ בבית. זה הבטיח לטפל בכך: "למחרת אבא שלי קיבל מכתב מהישיבה שאני לא מתאים ושיחפשו לי מסגרת אחרת".


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Aviva,

I think that you have an obligation to publish the names of the staff in the gerer yeshiva that knew of T's story and turned their backs on him, I suspect that the menahel that yelled at T, that he has a "rosh kachol" is Avroham mordechi Leizerowitz, the very same mashgiach that abused me and dozens of others that I know of When we learned in the gerer mesivtah bais yisroel in boro park, And everyone in this community has a right to know who were the people that abused and turned their backs on the young boys that were entrusted to their care.

If it was not him then it had to have been R' duvid olewski, then let me tell you about him, he covered for leizerowitz after hearing from a parent first hand of the abuse to the mans child, and 15 years later leizerowitz was still mashgiach there, dont you see? these molesters are being covered for in the chareidi community by the rabbonim so as not to bring shame to their institutions, they dont care if that meens leaving the molesters to abuse many more young neshomos, please for the sake of our children break this wide open, and maybe then will we be zoycha to see a change in the way our leadership deals with this issue, thanks once again for writing such a beutifull article.

All the best,

Anonymous said...

May God have mercy on his soul AND may his cell mates have mercy on his sphincter muscles.

Anonymous said...

Boog!
Care to comment on this ger mesifta debacle?

Anonymous said...

I thought mondrowitz taught in yagdil tora, what was he doing in the mesifta basement filling boys with old stuff?

Anonymous said...

The Gadol Hador blog was yelling for a while that Dovid Orlofsky was hired by either Pinter or Tropper to write the diatribes against Slifkin.

Orlofsky is a Chofetz Chaim Queens talmid who runs NCSY in Israel. I think he might also be working for Gateways.

Don't confuse Harry Maryles with the facts that someone at one of his homeboy organizations was involved. It might be too much for the poor guy to handle.

Anonymous said...

has ger taken care of the abused boys or have they exposed themselves to a lawsuit by being complicit. i cant believe that a group or cult that so resricts sexual activity between husband and wife would allow this to go on for 30 years.

Anonymous said...

http://www.browndailyherald.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=b05ddb06-2599-4c9d-a702-69c2da6bfca9

Hilarious story with a Black dean at YU's medical school. If he wasn't Black himself, this would be spun into some kind of Jewish conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

OK folks here we go

CALL FOR ACTION

Call sol werdyger and demand the resignation of david olewski from any position involving the education of minors.

Contact info for Sol Werdiger:

SWERDIGER@OUTERSTUFF.COM

Outer Stuff Ltd.
1370 Broadway 15th Fl
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-594-9700
Fax: 212-695-6396


Call the gerer mesifta to demand david olefski's resignation effective immediately.

Gerer Yeshiva and Mesifta
5407 16 Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11204
(718) 854-8777

Call Avi Klien, benefactor of gerer mesifta and powerful influence in ger

Avraham N. Klein
614 Avenue J
(718)338-7980

Call the personal secretary of the gerer rebbi and DEMAND that david olefski be kicked out of ger and restricted from using any title linking him with ger. Anyone with this info please post.

if u receive a reply from any of the above please post on this blog

Anonymous said...

For close to $4000 a person at Turnberry you get to hang out with Rabbi Arthur Schneier and fress on food from Levana's in Manhattan who were last seen feeding their clients tarfus & bishul Shabbos.

http://msn.golf365.com/news_story/0,17923,9786_2924401,00.html

The LPGA and the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club in Aventura, south Florida, face court action trying to stop them launching a new LPGA tournament next spring.

Florida's Sun Sentinel reported today that the organizers of a Passover holiday event for more than 500 Orthodox Jews had filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court insisting that the resort is breaking its contract with them to make room for an LPGA tournament that "would be more lucrative."

This after the resort notified the Passover organizers in a letter last month that, without explanation, it was canceling the Passover holiday event contract.

The lawsuit states that Presidential Holidays Southeast has a contract to host a Passover event at the resort from April 17 to 27 next year, the fourth year of a five-year agreement, but that they had come to learn that the dates conflicted with the new LPGA event, which is set down for April 24 to 27.

Attorneys for Presidential Holidays Southeast are claiming that the complex nature of a Passover event that observes ancient rituals to the letter of Jewish law makes it nearly impossible to relocate with more than half of the 200 or so families expected to attend from around the world having already booked reservations.

Their lawsuit is demanding that the resort honor its Passover holiday contract.

"The contract specifically states that they may not cancel us to take what they deem better business," said attorney David Freedman, speaking on behalf of Presidential Holidays.

"There are strict Old Testament laws that must be adhered to, ritual meals where you can't cook dairy and meat in the same kitchen. It's impossible to move, but the resort's owners are saying we're out on the street because the LPGA is coming in."

Donald Soffer, the founder of Turnberry Isle and managing partner of Turnberry Associates, has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but he couldn't be reached on Monday.

Nor could Phil Goldfarb, the ownership group's president.

The LPGA has been also named as a defendant, but an LPGA spokesman said on Monday the Tour was unfamiliar with the lawsuit and were not in a position to comment as yet.

Lynda Clare, who co-owns Presidential Holidays Southeast with her husband, Stuart Vidockler, said that since hey learned of the cancellation last month, all attempts to find alternative sites that meet special Orthodox requirements had failed

The new celebrity pro-am tournament is hoping to attract leading LPGA stars like Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Suzann Peterssen and Morgan Pressel and to help make this possible, Turnberry Associates have invested $100 million in resort renovations over the last year, including a major redesign of the club's 18-hole golf courses.

"They want to be known as a premier golf destination, and this golf tournament is an opportunity to showcase their golf courses, but it doesn't give them the right to cancel our contract," Clare said.

Anonymous said...

MONDROWITZ COVERAGE ON MSN ISRAEL

?החסיד הפדופיל יוסגר לארה"ב

פרקליטות המדינה פנתה לבית המשפט במטרה להסגיר את החסיד אברהם מונדרוביץ' לארה"ב. מונדרוביץ' הואשם בארה"ב בעשרות מקרי אונס של ילדים לאחר שהתחזה לפסיכולוג
יוסגר לארה"ב? (צילום: AP)

30/11/07 07:04
מאת: קטי רון

המחלקה לעניינים בינלאומיים בפרקליטות המדינה, פנתה (28.11.07) לבית המשפט המחוזי בירושלים בבקשה להכריז על חסיד גור אברהם מונדרוביץ', המואשם בביצוע עבירות מין בקטינים בארצות הברית, כ-בר הסגרה מישראל לארה"ב.

בעקבות חומרת עבירות המין המיוחסות לו, והחשש כי מונדרוביץ' המסוכן לציבור ינסה להימלט מהארץ, ביקשה המחלקה, שהנאשם יישאר במעצר עד שתתקבל החלטה בעתירה להסגרתו.

החסיד שאנס עשרות ילדים

מונדרוביץ' נעצר (16.11.07) על ידי משטרת ישראל, בהוראת משרד המשפטים, לאחר שהואשם בביצוע מעשי אונס והתעללות מינית בעשרות נערים בארצות הברית. כתב האישום שהוגש נגד מונדרוביץ', כלל בין היתר תלונות של ארבעה נערים תושבי שכונת מגוריו בברוקלין באמצע שנות ה-80, חמישה מעשי סדום בקטינים, ושמונה מעשי התעללות מינית בקטינים.

מונדרוביץ (60), נשוי ואב לשבעה, הציג את עצמו כבעל כמה תארים וכפסיכולוג המתמחה בטיפול בנערים שעברו התעללות מינית. הוא הצליח להימלט לישראל בשנת 1984, זמן קצר לפני שפקודת המעצר נגדו מומשה. זאת, בעקבות תלונותיהם של כמה מהילדים והנערים שנפגעו על ידו.

ארה"ב מבקשת את עזרתה של ישראל בהסגרתו

בישראל עבד מונדרוביץ' במוסדות חינוך שונים, אולם בתקופה שקדמה למעצרו הוא לא היה מועסק. על פי החשד של המשטרה, לאחרונה התפרנס מונדרוביץ' מהנפקת תארים אקדמיים לכל דורש - בעיקר לסטודנטים ממדינות העולם השלישי.

לפני כחודשיים (5.9.07), פנו הרשויות בארה"ב למדינת ישראל בבקשה להסגיר את מונדרוביץ', בגין העבירות החמורות המיוחסות לו. לאחר מעצרו ובתום בדיקה קפדנית של תיק החקירה – החליטה הפרקליטות בישראל על פתיחת הליכי הסגרה.

מונדרוביץ' הגיע לישראל בשנת 1984, אולם על פי החוק רק החל מחודש ינואר 2007, מועד היכנסו לתוקף של התיקון באמנת ההסגרה בין מדינת ישראל וארה"ב - ניתן היה להסגירו. יצויין, כי עד למועד התיקון העבירות בהן הואשם לא נכללו באמנת ההסגרה בין המדינות.

מהמחלקה לעניינים בינלאומיים בפרקליטות המדינה נמסר, כי הטיפול בתיק המורכב נגד אברהם מונדרוביץ', נעשה בשיתוף עם חוליית אינטרפול במשטרת ישראל ועם נציגי משרד הפנים.

Anonymous said...

Most of you know I don't like Shmuley Boteach. Some may recall this dislike dates back to the week before he left America for Oxford, when I had the opportunity to meet him. Interestingly, that dislike was shared by almost everyone else at that meeting, save for Shmuley's lone friend. This friend was the sole reason for Shmuley's presence that day. None of us had met the man before and Shmuley was a complete unknown – a kollel student on his way to his first job as a campus rabbi.

Boteach's arrogance was astonishing. He was sitting in the presence of the best campus shaliach Chabad had (and the best they ever did have), a true pioneer of campus outreach and a real mentch. Shmuley, an uninvited guest with zero track record, treated him like a piece of trash. He did the same with other (non-Chabad) people involved in the project. At one point during Shmuely's unscheduled 'lecture,' I said to the shaliach, "Are you sure the Rebbe is sending this guy to Oxford? This has to be stopped. We have to call 770 ASAP." The shaliach agreed the choice seemed exceedingly poor. But no one in Chabad would dare question the Rebbe. Shmuley went on to build a huge operation in Oxford, largely by breaking most of the rules Chabad rabbis were then expected to follow. Eventually, when Chabad could take it no more, after repeated warnings he was thrown out. This has happened so rarely in Chabad that I can think of no other real examples to cite.

Realizing his own ethical lapses has never been a Boteach trademark.

Anonymous said...

Another kiddush Hashem brought to you by a Chassidishe XL sized man


From
morningcupcake.blogspot.com

Thursday, November 29, 2007
Oy Vay!
It's good to be back in cyberspace. After a week of not posting, I feel like I have plenty of ammo to write about - the first thing being our flight out to London.

As Amanda had said, by skipping a much thought about meal at the Olive Garden, we were able to start our trip on the right foot and see ScarJo (thanks, Pearl) herself, in the security lines at Dulles International. That also meant that we got to our gate with plenty of time to people watch. Being that we were on an international flight, we were, of course, grouped with other international travelers going to all sorts of neat places for the Thanksgiving holidays. But it wasn't until one particular person showed up and lingered by our gate did Amanda make mention of how you see all sorts of people at the airport.

This particular person was what I'd like to describe as an XL man. I also feel confidently in saying he was a Hasidic Jew. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish community but not a lot of Hasidic Jews. Hasidic Jews are the ones that cut their hair really short but leave long curly sideburns (called payoth) under their yarmulke (pronounced: ya-muh-kah). They also have the stereotype of being 'not so good' drivers in the really big Griswald-esque station wagons with huge menorahs on top during the Hanukkah season...HUGE menorahs. I've seen it.

Anyways - that's just a little background information on the Hasidic Jews. Back to the story.

So we board the plane and we got the seats that fall right behind the walls of the restrooms. That was good because that gave us more leg room. And we were in the middle section so it was five seats across. I plunked down in the middle seat with Amanda to my right. The two end seats were occupied by other women - so it was looking good. I was hoping, against all hope, that the seat to my left would stay empty. We were one of the last groups to board so it was looking that way. Just then, the Hasidic Jew came walking down the aisle and was lingering by our row....I leaned over to Amanda and just kept saying, 'Please don't let him sit next to me.' But she had her doubts and she was right - he was to my left.

Don't get me wrong - I have NO issues with Hasidic Jews. I don't want it to seem that way. What I do have a problem with is what most people have problems with, XL people that spill over into your seat - or those people that disregard the safety rules and just do as they please. Both applied to my neighbor.

He started the trip off on the wrong foot with the stewards because he wouldn't turn off his cell phone - he was constantly texting. The stewards asked him multiple times to turn off his phone - he did not. He just slid it into his pocket until they were done with their safety demonstration and continued to text. I glanced over at him - to see what he was up to. I saw other people, in other rows, glaring at him, because he continued to text. I saw whom he was texting - Cherry. Nice, huh? Anyways - he was texting all the way through take off - that was annoying...even though it didn't really matter that his phone was still on - but still, other people need peace of mind.

My neighbor's next faux pas was when he bogarted our shared arm rest. I decided to give it to him - he was an XL man afterall....but when I mistakenly got up to go to the restroom, he seemed to think it was ok to have his knees spread eagle into my leg space...and that it was ok to have his shoes off and kicked under my seat! Let's just say that by the end of the flight, I was down 1/4 of my seat and encroaching on Amanda's space.

Finally - as we were making our final descent into London Heathrow, my XL friend (because we are friends now, right?) decided to go grab his carry on luggage and store it....right in front of him. Because he had boarded the plane so late, he had to store his carry on towards the back of the plane, past our row of seats. So I can understand that he doesn't want to fight to get back there when we've reached the gate, only to have to come back forward again. But I think he just went about it the wrong way. Two stewardesses had to tell him that this luggage had to be stored. He made no move after the first two warnings. Finally, he said that he didn't want to go to the back to retrieve his luggage so the stewardess told him he could go up to Business Class and see if they would store his things for the remainder of the flight. He did so and was successful.

Overall, I don't think this guy flew much. But he still managed to get the kosher meal, which I took a good look at. I've always said I would put down the kosher meal to see what it's like. But after seeing it, I think I'll pass.

It's XL people next to me and people that LOVE to recline their seats to the maximum position in front of me that I always seem to be surrounded by on planes. Oy vay!

Posted by Jen at 10:18 AM



1 comments:
Amanda said...
As I've said before, I know the whole size thing is a sensitive issue for airlines. But the fact of the matter is, if someone is encroaching on your space - your seat - that isn't really fair. What the airlines should do is require a person over a certain size to get two seats. Maybe they wouldn't charge the overweight people for the extra seat (and I suspect this is the answer, bottom line or no), but the fact of the matter is that if you can't fit within the confines of a seat, you shouldn't be able to rely on spilling into someone else's.

Just my opinion. But the rest of us shouldn't be expected to give up our space. We pay for a full seat, not 1/2 seat.

November 29, 2007 4:42 PM
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Anonymous said...

Also all those other unnamed rabbis from chicago and NY that are mentioned in the article as molesters.

Anonymous said...

The Lubab Hecht family owns the parent organization of Iggud Haganovim. I don't understand why they let all those lowlives operate under their name like Belsky, Tannenbaum & Mendel Epstein.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-bethisrael7nov22,0,7919773.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines

Synagogue divided over rabbi, board

By John Nickerson
Staff Writer

November 22, 2007

NORWALK - A struggle for control of Beth Israel Synagogue of Norwalk has erupted between the 108-year-old institution's board of directors and its spiritual leader, Rabbi Yehoshua Hecht.

Last week, the board voted to fire Hecht, and Monday night, the congregation responded by voting to fire the board, synagogue authorities said.

Norwalk police have received three calls from synagogue officials requesting protection and investigation of an alleged theft of office computers belonging to the rabbi and his secretary.

Synagogue President Jerome Klein, a Hecht supporter, said the trouble began Nov. 12, after he canceled a board of directors meeting, only to find out the board met without him that evening.

During the meeting, six or seven board members voted to fire Hecht, canceling the 10 or more years left on his contract, Klein said. Hecht has led the synagogue for 23 years.

The next morning, Hecht called police to report that two computers had been stolen and that he could not get into his office because the lock had been changed, according to a police report.

A board representative had hired an off-duty officer to "stand guard" while the board voted. The officer, hired from 7:30 to 11 p.m., was posted while management removed "several boxes" from the premises, said police Sgt. George Weir, who reviewed a report of the off-duty posting with The Advocate.

When detectives arrived the next morning to investigate the missing computers, Klein told them of the previous night's meeting and that members had entered the synagogue without permission.

Detectives then contacted board member Jeff Bernstein, who told them of the vote to fire Hecht and the removal of the computers, which he said belonged to the synagogue, the police report said. Hecht had told police that morning that his computer was given to him as a gift.

After speaking with attorneys, detectives determined the missing computers were part of an "internal conflict" in the synagogue.

As a result, they decided the dispute was a civil matter and there was no evidence of a crime, the police report said.

Klein, who was voted in as president with the rest of the board about six months ago, said that the vote to oust Hecht is not binding because Klein is the only one legally empowered to convene a board meeting.

Bernstein told police that Klein did not have the authority to cancel the meeting, the police report said.

The board's attorney, Neal Rogan, would not publicly discuss the disagreements between Hecht and the board of directors.

"I cannot answer allegations in the paper," Hecht said yesterday. "That is not for me to do. It is the furthest thing in my mind to show disrespect for an official board of directors."

At a congregational meeting Monday night, a majority vote was taken to recall the entire board of directors, Klein said.

Klein said he called police before the vote because he wanted an officer nearby to ensure a fight would not break out if arguments became heated.

Of the 75 or so families that belong to the congregation, about 70 voted on the question. Klein did not have exact figures, but he said about 45 families voted to disband the board.

Bernstein could not be located for comment. Another board member, Dr. Charles Halasz, said he did not want to comment and deferred to Rogan.

Speaking on behalf of eight of the 13 board members, Rogan said it was unfortunate that Klein chose to make public statements about the synagogue's private matters.

"I represent a majority of the board of directors of Beth Israel Synagogue who have at all times attempted in good faith to preserve the financial and spiritual assets of the synagogue. In addition, the statements made by Mr. Klein as to the results of any votes taken, or the status of Rabbi Hecht are factually and legally inaccurate," Rogan said.

Rogan said his clients were pursuing all legal options available to them and did not want to try the matters in the media.

Hecht said congregation members have spoken through their Monday night vote "with a very clear and persuasive majority."

"I am deeply pained that our very distinguished, loyal and capable president of the synagogue, Mr. Jerry Klein . . . has not been listened to, or respected, as president of the board who provides guidance and perspective to the younger members of the board of directors," Hecht said.

Hecht said the vote showed that the congregation loves its rabbi, even though they may have disagreements.

"I am not blaming anyone," Hecht said. "I am not condemning anyone. This is not a finger-pointing experience. In the final analysis, this is a family. A family that pulls together from time to time sometimes airs its differences."

Anonymous said...

Blogger changed the comment format. They no longer allow you to hyperlink URLs unless you have an account.

Wordpress software used by DaasHakohol is better. It automatically hyperlinks any URL in the comment section without having to enter it again.

Anonymous said...

The background here is that Moishe Rubashkin is going back to jail at the same time that the Crown Hts elections were scheduled to take place. The Putz thinks he can push them off indefinitely until he gets out again.

http://www.daashakohol.com/archives/190

Rubashkin Has Rabbi Osdoba Block Vaad HaKohol Elections
In a meeting of the imposter Netzigim this past Monday night, 17 Kislev, Moshe Rubashkin reportedly produced a letter from Rabbi Osdoba that said to delay elections of the Vaad HaKohol and CHJCC Board of Directors, until there is peace in the community. Although these Netzigim were a creation of Rubashkin himself, they resisted the attempt to block the elections until they were made to understand that the Rav’s letter was a psak din. At that point they were forced to give up their plans to hold elections.

Rubashkin’s Netzigim met in the JCC offices. Rubashkin tried to convince them to delay elections, however, almost all the Netzigim wished to proceed. At that point Rubashkin left for a short time and returned with a faxed letter from R. Osdoba that stated elections should be pushed off. The Netzigim decided to consider the letter but proceed with announcing election plans. At that point R. Segal entered and explained that the letter was a psak din. The Netzigim did not wish to oppose the psak din and abandoned their election plans.

The meetings of the imposter Netzigim have been held under strict secrecy with the participants agreeing not to speak about what happens behind closed doors. This is necessary because they claim to represent a majority of the shuls, which is clearly untrue. Most of the shuls in Crown Heights have clearly stated that they will not attend these meetings, and that no netzig is authorized to represent them there. As long as the imposters do not publicize the participants, they can pretend that they are valid netzigim. Nevertheless, reports of what happened at the meetings continue to be leaked from several sources. While the reports vary in certain details, the general picture of what took place at the meetings is clear.

The imposter Netzigim were born when Rubashkin wished to sidestep the (legal) Netzigim’s demand for a financial accounting of the JCC and Vaad HaKohol finances, as required by the bylaws. Ever the master at creating divisiveness, Rubashkin capitalized on the bitterness of several Netzigim who failed to be re-elected to the Executive Board, and called his own meeting to elect a new Board. In order to claim a quorum, he added a number of non-Netzigim, and simply had them state that they represent their shuls. In the absence of Rabbonim who hold him accountable, Rubashkin has been able to maintain his charade.

The legal Netzigim have already announced election plans for the Vaad HaKohol and JCC Boards, as reported in Daas HaKohol on 11/25/07. Information recently received is that they plan to go ahead with their plans, as the psak din of R. Osdoba has neither been sent to them, nor is it considered valid by Rav Schwei and other Rabbonim with whom the Rav has consulted.

The irony of the imposter Netzigim rebelling against their “creator”, Rubashkin, should be noted. Even they have become disillusioned with his corruption and dishonesty, and seek a chance to rid the community of his destructive activities.

The three year Vaad HaKohol term is up in January of 2008. In the face of mounting opposition to his tyranny and destructiveness, Rubashkin is concerned that he would not be elected if a fair election was run. Many in the community are bitter over his making the Beis Din a mockery by obtaining whatever psak din suits his needs. Others are upset over his destruction of the Vaad HaKohol, the Netzigim, and the Gabboim of 770. Still others are furious over his violence and mishandling of community employees. Most are looking forward to the day that the election for a new Vaad Hakohol will be held.

Anonymous said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/30/nbrown330.xml

David Abrahams, the secret donor who is facing a police investigation, suggested yesterday that he had met (British Prime Minister) Gordon Brown as many times as he had "eaten porridge" in the morning.

Earlier this week, Mr Brown said he "no recollection of any conversations" about donations with the property tycoon, but was sure he had "probably met him on occasion".

The claims came as a new photograph emerged of Mr Abrahams together with Peter Watt, who resigned as party secretary this week when the scandal emerged.

The two are pictured smiling next to each other at a Jewish museum dinner, Mr Abrahams holding a glass of red wine and Mr Watt a flute of champagne.

According to insiders, Mr Abrahams was politically ambitious and enjoyed mixing with people in the higher echelons of the Labour Party and Jewish society.

In the early 1980s, Abrahams's father became Newcastle's Lord Mayor and councillors remember David virtually appointing himself as his unelected deputy.

It prompted the city council's then leader, Sir Jeremy Beecham, to effectively ban him from the civic centre because he did not want any interference with the work of the mayoralty.

Ten years later, Abrahams became Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Richmond, North Yorkshire, describing himself as "self employed in retail management", but he was de-selected.

It emerged yesterday he is a provincial vice-chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, serves on the board of the Trade Union Friends of Israel, and was among communal leaders who met the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, during his recent visit to Britain.

Dayan Ivan Binstock, minister at St John's Wood Synagogue in north London, confirmed that Mr Abrahams was a member and "an occasional worshipper".

A Rabbi in Newcastle said he remembered a row four years ago when Mr Abrahams cut down a tree in the local cemetery apparently without permission, so that he could erect memorials for his parents.

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929675.html

Full text on Monstrowitz is now online.

Anonymous said...

LAMA SAAMOD AL DAM REYECHA?????

"The reports prompted more people who said they were Mondrowitz's victims to come forward.

One of them is B., the mother of M., an apparent Mondrowitz victim, who committed suicide last year. B. had long agonized over whether to go public. The latest round of reports gave her the impetus she needed. "Before this I didn't know that he had molested so many pure, innocent children," she says.

An Orthodox Jew, B. believes that God took her son in order to alleviate his unbearable pain, which, she says, was inflicted on him after a year of intensive "treatment" by Mondrowitz. Of B.'s three sons, she says two were victimized by Mondrowitz."

Anonymous said...

Yadeinu lo shofchu es hadam hazeh.

No further comment.

(Smug, Putzy demeanor on my arrogant face)

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/929700.html

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent

Activists from Romanian fringe ultra-Orthodox groups have joined forces with local anti-Semites in a bid to take over Jewish graveyards in Romania, the leadership of the country's Jewish community told Haaretz.

According to the Jewish leaders, ultra-Orthodox groups such as the anti-Zionist Satmar sect are cooperating with Romanian legislator Corneliu Vadim Tudor to make financial gains from ownership of the country's 804 Jewish cemeteries.

According to a government decree from 2002, the cemeteries' guardian and owner is the federation of Romanian Jews. The federation says many graveyards have large areas that have never seen Jewish bodies. These areas, the federation explains, are comprised of prepaid plots that have never been used

Moreover, 700 of the cemeteries are in towns which no longer have Jewish populations, and so the unused land could be sold. The first alleged signs of the "takeover" came in 2004, according to the Jewish community's leaders.

That's when the New York-based ultra-Orthodox businessman David Kahan started publishing ads in local papers in which he accused the heads of the Jewish community of bartering land that belonged to cemeteries.

The leaders of Romania's Jewish community deny these allegations. "Every time we touched any part of a cemetery, we did so after consulting with prominent rabbis from Israel, like Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu," says Romania's chief rabbi and former MK Menachem Cohen. "All the works in cemeteries were carried out under strict supervision by teams of ultra-Orthodox rabbis from Israel."

Cohen conceded there had been land sales of former cemetery territory, but added all the profits went to a dedicative collective fund for payment for maintenance services around gravesites. Cohen said the funds also went to renovating synagogues and paying for medical services for elderly Jews.

Kahan, who called these transactions shady, did so as the head of "the Union of Romanian-American Jews" ¬ an organization registered under his name that was formed in 1998. The heads of the local Jewish community say this association is a one-man show and a front that Kahan allegedly used to promote his businesses.

Local leaders in the Romanian Jewish community point to two other organizations registered to Kahan's name in the U.S. Both the organizations ¬ called "the Federation of Orthodox Jewish-Romanian communities" and "the Rabbinical Council of Orthodox Jewish-Romanian communities" ¬ are a sham, they say.

In parallel, Kahan is said to be engaged in efforts to pass new legislation on Jewish cemeteries. The leaders of the Jewish community accuse him of siding with Tudor, leader of the Greater Romania Party, who is known for his strongly nationalist and anti-Semitic views and Holocaust denial.

In 2004, Tudor denounced certain earlier statements he had made as inappropriately anti-Semitic and acknowledged that the Holocaust had occurred. Tudor supported a bill to end the Jewish community's control over cemeteries. The bill's first reading passed, but it was eventually voted down.

Recently, the daily newspaper Maariv ran an article that said the heads of Romania's Jewish community were dealing in land that belonged to the cemeteries and that they were entrusted to keep. Aurel Weiner, president of Romania's Jewish Federation, says the article was untrue and constituted a part of Kahan's efforts to influence public opinion.

Kahan, for his part, says the Jewish Federation is attempting to vilify him because they are trying to preserve their hold on the cemeteries. "The Romanian government has abandoned its duties in that field, and the Jewish organizations are unable to take care of the gravesites," he told Haaretz.

"The Jewish Federation has taken the cemeteries and turned them into a profitable racket," he says. Kahan confirmed to Haaretz that the Satmar sect is involved in efforts to change the current legislation on cemeteries. "They hail from Romania and, unlike the large Jewish organizations, they really care about the graveyards and about their ancestors who are buried there."

Anonymous said...

I think UOJ should publish the home contact information for all these Agudah putzes who are grommas in the murder of children so everyone can give them a piece of their mind.

If there is some legal question about unlisted numbers, let's start with the ones from public databases.

Public outrage is the only thing that forces change with corrupt people.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that what is needed now is for those who have direct knowledge of the cover-up, including information on why it took the Israelis so long to act on the extradition request (and why they apparently did not act on the illegal material they found in Mondrowitz's home) to come forward. These people must go on the record. We have all heard about the suffering of the victims; now we need to know who was involved in making sure Modrowitz lived freely for so many years. Stand up!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The entire story will be told!

Anonymous said...

"The entire story will be told!"

Ahem, when have you ever known UOJ to not come through on his word?

Anonymous said...

http://www.zabasearch.com/query1_zaba.php?sname=shafran&state=NY&ref=%24ref&se=%24se&doby=00&city=staten%20island&name_style=1

AVI L SHAFRAN
12 ROANOKE ST
STATEN ISLAND, NY 10314

(718) 370-2864

Countless abuse victims who cannot sleep at night are insulted by this Putz.

Let Shafran know that Klal Yisroel won't let him & his Agudah bosses get away with it anymore.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

If you were a victim of either Leizerowitz or Mondrowitz at any place or time please contact Attorney Michael Lesher Esq.

He has the confidence of UOJ, LVF and other askonim as well as victims from both molesters.

He is very reliable with regard to keeping his clients names and information secret and will advise you free of charge of your rights and privacy. He is working these cases L'Shem Mitzva and is the leading force in bringing these molesters to justice.

Feel free to call him at 973-470-0212 or email him at michaellesher@optonline.net

You will feel the peace of mind that comes with beginning the healing procee by knowing you have done something for yourself and you have finally put your own needs and desires befor the egoistic cravings of these monsters and the rabbinic enablers.

May Hashem bless you all with peace and true happiness to enjoy the good things and people in life today and break free of the horrific and unfair past

gut shabbos to all, and thank you UOJ for starting this effort and putting the brakes on a free for all of young jewish flesh and blood.

Anonymous said...

UOJ or boog should give us some lengthy in depth analyses of the current impossible situation in the chareidi world. Also i'm wondering how indeed did mondrowitz gain free access to boys in the gerrer mesifta. Was the staff ignorant and asleep at the switch or was the dean (has anyone verified as being leizerowitz?) or even the teacher (verified as being Olefski?) in bed with mondrowitz all along. me thinks olefski and any other implicated enablers would do well to go public and attempt to clean reputation if they have a valid defense or story.

Anonymous said...

To: Anon. at 11-29-07, 3:06 p.m.:

I'm a lawyer, and the answer to your question is, Yes. It might be worthwhile for a crime victim to confer with private counsel of his own choosing, at least once. At the beginning of the police/DA investigation, the lawyer can assist the victim in putting the facts and circumstances of the crime into a form that is easy to grasp by the government attorneys and investigators, i.e., the chronology, the evidence, etc. If the victim is nervous about being interviewed by the police/DA, the lawyer can be there to smooth things out. Given the amount of stress that might be there, the victim might neglect to mention an important fact, and the lawyer will be there to prompt the victim's recollection.

The crime may also give rise to a civil claim against somebody, and the lawyer can be there to advise about that also.

Hope this information is helpful.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the Mondrowitz victim who told Haaretz he was trying to kill the beast knew that Mondro was always packing a pistol.

Mondro knew there were plenty of his victims out there looking to exact revenge and was scared shitless.

I hope UOJ or someone directs the Mishtara to search his home again for weapons.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

You are touching on a strategy that the police used when they picked him up the first time for questioning (technically - arrested him and released him).

They were hoping he would begin to hide his stash...of whatever..., drugs, kiddie-porn, weapons, phone book records, victim records.

They had him under surveillance and he did lead them to many things, but to my knowledge, not weapons.

I remember that I explained that each case is different; people were outraged that he was released. Now you know the rest of the story. (not quite...yet)

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Good One!
__________________

November 29, 2007,
New York Times
Helicopter Parenting Turns Deadly
Tags: lori drew, megan meier, teen suicide

Megan Meier, a 13-year-old from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, killed herself last year after an online relationship she believed she was having with a cute 16-year-old boy named Josh went very sour. What she didn’t know – what her parents would learn six weeks after her death – was that “Josh” was the fictitious creation of Lori Drew, a then-47-year-old neighbor and the mother of one of Megan’s friends.
Or former friends. Megan had, essentially, dropped the other girl when she’d changed schools and tried to put an unhappy chapter of her junior high school life – fraught with weight problems and depression – behind her.
Drew’s daughter, one assumes, would have eventually gotten over it. But Drew didn’t. Instead, she got revenge.
She created a fake MySpace profile (she later told police she’d done so to “find out what Megan was saying online” about her daughter, according to a sheriff’s report). Working with her daughter, she led Megan to become infatuated with “Josh.” And then she delivered the blow. “I don’t like the way you treat your friends,” Drew wrote. According to Megan’s father, “Josh”’s last e-mail to his daughter read, “You are a bad person and everybody hates you … The world would be a better place without you.”
The Meier case got massive play in the national media this past week, coming as it did on the heels of a major new survey showing that up to one in three children in the United States have been harassed or bullied online.
But for me the tragedy highlighted another troubling issue that threatens our homes just as steadily as poisonous online communications. That is the disturbing degree to which today’s parents – and mothers in particular – frequently lose themselves when they get caught up in trying to smooth out, or steamroll over, the social challenges faced by their children.
You only hear about the most freakish cases, like that of Lori Drew or of Wanda Webb Holloway, the Texas mother who in 1991 tried to pay someone to murder the mother of her daughter’s chief cheerleading rival. (“The motive here was love, a mother’s love for a daughter,” said a police investigator at the time.) Yet everyday examples abound of parents whose boundary issues are not so extreme, but still qualify as borderline wacko.
“People now feel like having a good relationship with your child means you’re involved in every aspect of your child’s life,” says Rosalind Wiseman, author of “Queen Bees & Wannabes” and “Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads,” who travels the country speaking with and counseling parents, teachers and teens. “Nothing is off-limits” now between parents and their kids, she says. “There’s no privacy and there’s no critical thinking.”
Wiseman has heard stories of parents who hope to pave their child’s way to popularity by luring the in-crowd to parties with promised “loot-bag” giveaways like iPods and North Face fleeces. She recently heard of a father who, happening on an instant-messaging war between his child and a bunch of children on a sleepover, went over to the other house, called the other father outside, and began a fistfight that ended only after someone called the police. And of a mother who, unwilling to join her fifth-grade daughter in accepting the apology of another fifth-grader who’d bullied her in the playground, hounded the school incessantly, pushing for the other child to be expelled.
Parents, she says, routinely blow a gasket when they get it in their heads that they need to seek revenge on their child’s behalf. “It’s, ‘I’ve been wronged. My kid has been wronged, so I’ve been wronged; therefore I have to do whatever’s necessary, including being disgustingly immoral.’ ”
“Where are the brakes,” Wiseman asked, “on parental behavior?”
Otherwise put: where does adult behavior end and childish behavior begin?
“Morally speaking, they shouldn’t have done that,” a 22-year-old writing on Yahoo! Answers this week observed about the Drew case. “But I don’t think they should be held responsible b/c kids are mean to each other every day. It would not be any different than an actual 13 yr old boy being mean to another girl.”
That, of course, is the whole point.
Parents of teenagers are not supposed to act like teenagers. They’re not supposed to dress like teenagers or talk like teenagers or spend their days text-messaging teenagers – as one mom Wiseman encountered did, exchanging expressions of shock and dismay, after her 14-year-old daughter broke up with a popular and athletic boy. (“I was totally basking in the social status I was getting from the boy,” the very honest mother told Wiseman.)
Or, at least, parents weren’t supposed to act like this in the past.
“There used to be this kind of parent-child gradient, where the parent was expected to – and did – function at a different level than the child,” says clinical psychologist Madeline Levine, author of the 2006 book “The Price of Privilege,” who lectures frequently on child and adolescent issues. Now, she says, “that whole notion of parents being in an entirely different space than their children is disappearing.”
In part, Levine blames parenting experts for this turn of events.
She blames the self-esteem movement, decades of parenting advice that prized “communication” over limit-setting and safety. She blames the narcissistic needs of parents who want their children to like them at all costs. And in part, when thinking over the fused mother-daughter dyads she so often encounters in therapy, she indicts this generation of mothers’ loneliness, dissatisfaction in work and marriage, stress, sense of failure, and emotional isolation. In the end, she asks, when you’re feeling alone and blue, “Who are you sure is going to hang around with you? It’s your children.”
It’s very easy to put up walls to separate the likes of Lori Drew and Wanda Webb Holloway from the rest of us. Most of us, after all, are not sick or profoundly vindictive, entirely lacking in self-awareness or devoid of all empathy.
Still, we have all caught ourselves spending a little too much time worrying about (or gloating over) our children’s popularity. We spend a lot of time feeling our children’s pain and put a lot of thought into shaping their world to offer them the greatest possible degree of happiness. But our kids really need something much bigger from us than that. They desperately need us to grow up.

Anonymous said...

What a piece of filth, this Mondro.

Wait till the boys in the Big House get their hands and other appendages on him. Package him in the same cell with Kolko and let the Boyz have a two-fer.

Equally scandalous and beyond belief is the cover up and protection given to these Tinofsim and Murderers by our Rabbiner "Leaders".

The organizations such as the Agudah and Torah Umersorah as well as the individual "Rabbi's".

It is not too strong to say that all of you have Jewish blood on your hands.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Shmarya has a penetrating post; see his blog for the entire thought:
_____________________

"In order to prevent more Mondrowitzs and more Kolkos, we need to take this to a higher level, we need to take the next step, we need to make sure the rabbis who initiated criminal conspiracies to intimidate victims and witnesses are brought to justice".

Shmarya Rosenberg....

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
J. "יהוא בן יהושפט בן נמשי" Izrael said...

See how this article started. Remeber who was laughed at when he was talking about "street justice"...

I hope this piece of garbage is raped to death in jail.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071127/OPINION/711260336

Legislation is pending that will open United States borders to imported prescription drugs. If it passes, America could be flooded with dangerous copycat and counterfeit drugs from China and other countries with poor records on consumer safety.

If we can't ensure safe children's toys from abroad, how can we ensure safe prescription drugs?

Proponents promise that imported drugs will bring savings. But the magnitude of those savings is debatable, and the policy will risk consumers' health.

Adulterated, impure pharmaceuticals represent a more serious threat than lead-tainted toys or toothpaste contaminated with anti-freeze - not only because they'll undermine faith in our medicine supply, but also because it's more difficult to track all sorts of different pills than one specific toy.

Consider the Food and Drug Administration's warnings about imported drugs. Dosages and labels are routinely incorrect. Animal drugs are often substituted for the real thing, even though they're not approved for human use. For example, the horse drug Clenbuterol has been smuggled into the U.S. and given to humans as a "performance enhancer."

The FDA has even discovered drugs "inappropriately packaged in baggies, tissue paper, or letter envelopes."

Some will counter by asserting that legislation will guarantee the safety of imported drugs by requiring that they undergo scrutiny by the FDA or Customs.

That's true - as far as the letter of the law goes. In practice, the FDA doesn't have the resources to check everything that enters the country. One recent study found that of approximately 40,000 packages transiting New York's JFK International Mail Facility each day, only 1 to 2 percent were inspected. In another case, a random check of 1,153 packages of imported drugs, the FDA found that 88 percent violated labeling and content requirements.

Resources for the FDA and the Customs Service could be increased, but at what cost and for what savings? The Congressional Budget Office has estimated potential savings from importation at one percent. One percent savings over the next decade isn't worth risking the sanctity of our drug system.

Advocates of importation also contend that their legislation would only permit Americans to buy drugs from "safe" countries like Canada, France and the United Kingdom. That too is impossible.

A few years ago, the FDA purchased several "FDA-approved" drugs from a Web site claiming to be "located in and operated out of Canada." But after receiving the drugs, the agency concluded "that neither the dispensers of the drugs, nor the drugs themselves, were Canadian." Worse, they "failed most of the (FDA's) purity, potency and dissolution tests."

What's more, under the European Union's system of "parallel trade," drugs can move freely among member states. So drugs purchased from Britain could have originated in a country with less rigorous safety standards, like Latvia.

With such dangers evident, it's too bad proponents of prescription drug importation have ignored or forgotten that safety and drug purity should come first.

Joel C. White is a Visiting Fellow with the Galen Institute, a not-for-profit health and tax policy research organization.

Anonymous said...

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/10/1030_realestate_markets/index_01.htm

If you thought that the worst is already over in the housing market, don't hold your breath. Futures traders are betting that there’s much, much worse ahead. By next November, these traders are betting that the blood bath will continue and home prices will fall as much as 25%

Anonymous said...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/341381_asbestos28.html

Asbestos turns up in toys, children's clay
DIYers who use duct tape, spackle, roof sealer also at risk of exposure
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
P-I SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

Asbestos has been found in a variety of consumer products, including one of this season's biggest-selling Christmas toys, according to the nation's largest asbestos victims organizations.

The CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit, two brands of children's play clay, powdered cleanser, roof sealers, duct tapes, window glazing, spackling paste and small appliances were among the products in which asbestos was found by at least two of three labs hired by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.

The group, which was created in 2004 by asbestos victims and their families, spent more than $165,000 to have government-certified laboratories examine hundreds of consumer products over 18 months to determine whether asbestos was present.

It is unusual for a group of volunteers, many of whom have asbestos-caused diseases, to fund research that impacts public health.

"We had to. No one else was doing it," said Linda Reinstein, the group's co-founder and executive director. "This is information that consumers and Congress must have because asbestos is lethal and we naively believe that the government is protecting us, when it's not."

The product that is of greatest concerns to some public health experts is the fingerprint kit, which is a huge seller, according to sales personnel interviewed by the Seattle P-I.

The kit, made in China, is one of several items licensed by CBS after its popular "CSI" science-crime shows. This model has an extensive array of plastic tools, inks and three types of very fine powders -- white, black and glow-in-the-dark. The analysis done for the victim's organization found high levels of two types of asbestos in the white and the glow powder.

Physicians are especially concerned because of the significant likelihood of children breathing in asbestos fibers as they hunt for fingerprints and use a soft-bristled brush to move the powder around.

CBS Consumer Products responded quickly when told of the reported contamination.

"We've asked our licensee to immediately conduct an independent test in the U.S. for asbestos. If the toy is determined to be unsafe, then we will insist that the licensee remove it from the market," a statement from a CBS spokesman said.

The manufacturer and distributor -- Planet Toys in New York City -- said in an e-mail that it frequently inspects the plants in China that make the CSI toys.

"The kit has been tested and has met all safety standards requirements as set by toy safety agencies and legislation, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission," a spokeswoman said, but added, "The agencies don't require asbestos testing and therefore we have never been apprised of any unacceptable levels of asbestos.

"We respect anyone's right to test our products and should their or our future tests reveal anything unacceptable, we'll of course take swift action to remove contaminated products from the market."

Some of the products tested for the organization contained less than 1 percent asbestos, which would not be prohibited under the partial asbestos ban just passed by the Senate. Industry lobbyists succeeded in watering down the complete ban that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., tried to pass. The House soon will hold hearings on the legislation and is expected to attempt a complete prohibition of all asbestos-containing products.

But other products, including the CSI fingerprint kit, exceeded that level, at about 5 percent asbestos. One of the highest levels of asbestos -- 30 percent -- was found in a roof sealer.

Health experts insist that asbestos at any level must be considered potentially hazardous.

"Any amount is harmful. Even 1 percent can represent millions of fibers, so we need a complete ban of all asbestos, at any level," said Dr. Arthur Frank, co-chairman of the organization's science advisory board and chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia.

Dr. Michael Harbut, an international authority in the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related diseases, calls the 1 percent exemption a "get out of jail free" card provided by the government to those who "profiteer off the asbestos-related deaths of Americans who wrongly believed these types of products are safe."

The products tested for the organization were bought from several national retail chains, including Wal-Mart, Costco, Toys "R" Us, Home Depot, Lowe's, Macy's, CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond and others.

Another product the labs said contained asbestos was Art Skills' Clay Bucket, where asbestos was found in six colors of clay.

The Pennsylvania-based family business uses clay from Thailand and, Jennifer Hogan said, produces "a safe and hazard-free product" which has "passed all toxicology tests required to conform to applicable United States safety standards."

Hogan says her firm appreciates the seriousness of the organization's concerns "and will pursue vigorously any evidence of hazardous substances in our products."

Three varieties of Ja-Ru Toy Clay contained asbestos, according to the laboratory reports. Omnimodels in Jacksonville, Fla., which distributes the clay from China to major toy chains, did not respond to a request for comment.

"There is no excuse for this. The fact that asbestos is still being found in consumer products is appalling," said Dr. Aubrey Miller of the U.S. Public Health Service, who has been researching asbestos health issues with the Environmental Protection Agency for almost a decade. "Even more concerning are products sold to be used by children. They have more time to exhibit the health effects from exposure to these disease-causing fibers."

The laboratories reported asbestos in Scotch High Performance Duct Tape and its All Weather Duct Tape, both of which are manufactured in Canada, according to 3M.

"3M has a policy against using asbestos in our products," said Jackie Berry, a corporate spokeswoman, "and we don't use asbestos in our duct tape."

The labs also said asbestos was found in numerous tests of DAP Crack Shot Spackling Paste and DAP's 33 Window Glazing.

David Fuller, vice president of marketing for DAP, said "neither product contains asbestos. As a responsible company, DAP has been, and will continue to be, in regular contact with our suppliers and will routinely review information and regulations relevant to ensuring the safety and efficacy of our products."

The test results reported high levels of asbestos in Gardner Leak Stopper. A request for comment from Gardner-Gibson's Headquarters in Tampa went unanswered.

Asbestos also was also found in hair rollers, hot plates and small appliances imported from China and sold in major drug store chains. The organization may do additional testing on those products and others.

Paul Zygielbaum, a survivor of mesothelioma, and his wife, Michelle, proposed tests of products readily available on U.S. store shelves.

"Our reasoning was that, while the continuing legality of asbestos doesn't seem to cause public outrage, the actual, unsuspected presence of asbestos in everyday products might do so," said Zygielbaum, who managed the testing.

Everyone involved with the organization's testing is convinced that numerous other products being sold contain asbestos.

"Every exposure to asbestos fibers is associated with an increased risk of cancer and asbestosis," said Harbut, who is co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos Related Cancers. "The use of these sorts of products may explain at least in part why some non-smokers get lung cancer and persons with no occupational exposures develop mesothelioma."

"In a perfect world, the manufacturers of these products would ensure that they are toxin-, carcinogen- and asbestos-free. In the real world, one of the cardinal responsibilities of government is to protect the people. It's just not happening,"

After reporting its findings at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday morning, the organization says it will submit its testing information to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the EPA.

"The government really needs to act responsibly and honestly and understand that political compromises have no meaning to a family devastated by an asbestos cancer," Harbut said.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization's Reinstein says, "The government has to do its job."

"There is no reason at all for the American consumer to pull a product off the market shelf and wonder whether it has asbestos in it that can kill them or their family. Just no reason at all," Reinstein said. Her husband, Alan, died of mesothelioma last year.

Anonymous said...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2007-11-18-private-labs-food-safety_N.htm

Anonymous said...

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/nov/27/man-claims-300-pound-prostitute-robbed-him/

Man claims 300-pound prostitute robbed him

Did my talmid muvhak Leib Tropper lose weight ?

Anonymous said...

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/11/25/Fake_1.ART_ART_11-25-07_A1_8E8I5ID.html?sid=101

Consider pharmaceuticals, a lucrative target for pirates. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly a third of all medicine in developing countries is counterfeit, with most of it believed to come from China.

The results can be deadly:

• Several years ago, Colombian authorities seized pills with packaging nearly identical to Ponstan, Warner-Lambert's menstrual pain reliever. The pills contained boric acid, floor wax and yellow highway paint.

• In 2005, a Burmese man with a curable form of malaria died after a hospital treated him with a counterfeit drug, made in China, containing only 20 percent of the necessary active ingredient.

• Last year in Panama, Chinese-made diethylene glycol -- a toxic chemical used in antifreeze -- was unwittingly mixed into cold medicine, killing at least 100 people. Counterfeiters in China had labeled the sweet-tasting solvent as glycerin, a common sweetener in medicines.

As much as 10 percent of all drugs in the U.S. are counterfeit, the Food and Drug Administration says, and plenty more are just a click away from Americans. More than half the medicines purchased over the Internet from sites that conceal a physical address are fake, the World Heath Organization says.

Anonymous said...

http://www.beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=81641-china-counterfeit-food-safety

Counterfeit vodkas, whiskeys & liquors in identical bottles.

Anonymous said...

A study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Council for the New American City says that over the coming year the property value of U.S. homes will plummet $1.2 trillion, and at least 1.4 million homeowners will lose their properties to foreclosure.

Anonymous said...

"The number of homeowners receiving foreclosure notices each month now almost equals the number of home sales across the state." - Tim Warren, CEO of the Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman, on the precipitous declines in Massachusetts home sales and prices over the last two months. (Boston Herald, Nov. 28th)

Anonymous said...

This on the heels of a record number of burnt out circuit boards.

"A Detroit News analysis of foreclosure data: Metro Detroit [has turned] into a foreclosure factory, where foreclosure notices were served on 260 homes a day in August -- the equivalent of wiping out two subdivisions every 24 hours. More than 70,000 homes in Metro Detroit -- equal to every residence in Southfield and Livonia -- have entered some phase of foreclosure in less than two years. A pace that was already an all-time record in January 2006 has jumped six-fold since then, crippling the mortgage industry, driving down property values and leaving tens of thousands of families financially broken."

Anonymous said...

i for one will assist in sponsoring a class action suit iagainst ohel and dovid cohen ( not rabbi he doesnt deserve that title )

maybe that is a route to go make ohel close and cohen pay

Anonymous said...

""UOJ" - "The Un-Orthodox Jew" said...
Shmarya has a penetrating post; see his blog for the entire thought:"

Pun intended?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Pun intended?
___________________

Not at the time...but now that you mention it...why not?:-)

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curly_Howard

Woo-woo-woo! Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk!

Anonymous said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/10/extra-virgin-olive-oil-kosher.html#c3350175410070930479

Maybe now the kosher restaurants in Brooklyn will stop having their illegal immigrant employees illegally dump the grease on the sidewalk. R' Aron Kotler held that it's doch a hezek that's ossur to even leave a piece of paper on the ground in people's way (see Mishnas R' Aron). Kol shechein putrid grease.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/55125-darling-international-dirty-sexy-money

I see some serious potential in another Darling, Darling International, Inc. (DAR). Darling provides rendering, recycling, and recovery solutions to the food industry primarily in the United States. It has two segments, Rendering and Restaurant Services.

The Rendering segment engages in the collection and processing of animal by-products. It converts these products principally into usable oils and proteins utilized by the agricultural, leather and oleo-chemical industries.
The Restaurant Services segment involves in the collection of used cooking oils from food service establishments and recycling them into similar products, such as high-energy animal feed ingredients and industrial oils. It also provides grease trap collection services and sells equipment to restaurants.

Anonymous said...

Boy, was it ever easy to fool this Ivy League professor with empty promises from the OU!

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1195546783622&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Joe Regenstein, a professor of food science at Cornell University, advises Jewish groups and the meat industry on issues of animal welfare. He is part of a two-person negotiating team that is working to develop guidelines for humane practices amenable to the two dozen or so fervently Orthodox rabbis who are responsible for the glatt kosher industry.

A year ago, he says, the two sides reached consensus.

"They agreed to put it in writing," he says. "I am still waiting for that document."

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Public Safety!
_____________

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

The most aggressive, thorough guidelines ever issued for preventing and treating childhood obesity were to be delivered to U.S. doctors Monday by a panel of medical experts.

The specialists, convened by government agencies and the American Medical Association, call for weight checks at least yearly, counseling about weight even if children aren't overweight, and a four-stage treatment plan that could end in medication or surgery for the most persistently obese children.

The recommendations, to be published in Pediatrics, "are long overdue," says Melinda Sothern, a pediatric obesity specialist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and author of Trim Kids. "Lots of parents and doctors are frustrated because there are no specific guidelines for treating overweight children."

About 17% of U.S. kids are obese, more than triple the rate in 1970, the report says. Extra weight raises a child's risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

Weight-related guidance should be given at every checkup of even normal-weight kids, whose body mass index (weight compared with height) is less than at the 85th percentile, the authors say.

Children need an hour of physical activity a day, along with limits on sweetened beverages, computer and TV time, and fast-food meals. Also, doctors should gather a family history of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Doctors also are advised to check cholesterol levels of overweight children.

For overweight kids (85th to 94th percentile) and the obese (95th percentile and above), diet and exercise guidelines are more specific and follow-up times are shorter.

Prevention, emphasized in the guidelines, was hardly mentioned in the far vaguer 1998 recommendations they replace, says Reginald Washington, an author of the new report and chief medical officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver.

Despite concerns about soaring childhood obesity, diagnosis still lags, with studies showing only half of overweight kids at most are diagnosed by their doctors, Sothern says.

Treatment of childhood obesity must be a family affair, adds William Dietz, director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parents must be involved "because overweight is linked to lifestyle, not just genes, and parents make the decisions here."

Paul Mendlowitz said...

By Julie Schmit and Barbara Hansen, USA TODAY

Consumers may draw comfort from federal meat recalls that alert stores, restaurants and households to potentially unsafe meat.

But most recalled meat is never recovered — raising the possibility that it was consumed before or even after the recall — according to a USA TODAY analysis of recall data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For 73 meat recalls this year and last, recovery rates per recall averaged 44%, the analysis shows. But for five recalls that followed reports of consumer illness, recovery rates per recall averaged just 20%.

Recovery rates vary for several reasons, including how quickly meat gets to market and the number of days between production and when problems are detected.

"The closer those dates are to each other, the more we get back," says Kenneth Petersen, USDA assistant administrator.

He says recalls spawned by reports of illness have low recovery rates because weeks or months can pass between when a product is produced, someone gets sick and illness is linked with food.

In contrast, recalls resulting from the USDA's product testing tend to result in higher recovery rates.

The USDA, which regulates meat and poultry, routinely samples thousands of products for harmful bacteria before they leave factories. Test results take a few days to produce.

During that time, companies can legally ship a product. If tests are positive, the product is recalled. Because the meat has been in the market a few days, recovery rates tend to be good: 62% per recall, on average.

There have been 54 meat recalls this year, up from 34 last year. For the most recent recalls, recovery rates are not yet available.

To get more consumers to check homes for recalled meats, the USDA next year plans to publicize names of retailers selling meat that was later recalled. "We think it would be helpful for people to know, 'Gee, that is my store,' " says Petersen.

Recall notices now posted on the USDA's website typically name states where a product was sent but not retailers, unless their names are on the product. Retailer names have been considered confidential business information, as with any customer lists.

Company actions also affect recalls. Typically, recallers alert their customers, often distributors or wholesalers, who alert their customers, and so on. But recovery of products isn't a given.

On Sept. 29, Topps Meat recalled 21.7 million pounds of frozen hamburger because of potential contamination with the deadly E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. The recall, the second-biggest ever for ground beef, was well publicized. Still, New Jersey officials found 141 boxes of recalled burgers in 12 state stores about a month after the recall.

Some retailers said they didn't know about the recall, says New Jersey consumer affairs spokesman Jeff Lamm.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Brilliant!
-------------

December 2, 2007, 6:13 pm
Stanley Fish - New York Times
Monkey Business
Tags: religion and the law

In a case now pending in a federal court in Brooklyn, Mamie Manneh of Staten Island stands accused of having brought smoked bushmeat – known colloquially as monkey meat – into the United States without proper permits, in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Ms. Manneh’s defense is that in her religion the eating of bushmeat has both a cultural and a spiritual significance. In an affidavit, 17 of her co-religionists declared, “We eat bushmeat for our souls.” Manneh’s lawyer, Jan Rostal, has analogized the African-based practice to the consumption at a Passover seder of foods like bitter herbs “that might have some reference to the Exodus.” In a motion to dismiss, Rostal said that the case, while apparently novel, “represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America.”
No, it doesn’t. It represents a more fundamental clash: between the imperatives of religion and the rule of law. The question raised by the case is whether the fact of a religious belief is sufficient to exempt the believer from the application of generally applicable laws — laws (like driving on the right-hand side of the road) that apply to every citizen no matter what his or her religious, ethical or moral convictions. Is religious belief a special case, so special that the devout practitioner gets a pass?
John Locke posed that question in “A Letter Concerning Toleration” (1689), and his analysis of it remains relevant today. Locke asks if it is lawful for Meliboeus (a name borrowed from pastoral poetry) to slaughter a calf and offer it as a sacrifice at a religious meeting. It depends, he says, on whether slaughtering a calf in order to put food on his family’s table is lawful. If it is, then killing the calf for ritual purposes is perfectly allowable, for “what may be spent on a feast may be spent on a sacrifice.”
But the logic also holds in the opposite direction. Suppose, Locke imagines, a disease had destroyed a large number of cattle and the government decreed that no more could be slaughtered. The prohibition would surely extend to religious rituals, not as a specific target of state action, but as a practice swept up in the wake of a general law.
That law, Locke observes, would not be “made about a religious matter, but about a political matter.” It would be true that some people would no longer be able to engage in behavior they considered central to their religious life, but because that would not be the result aimed at — the good of the commonwealth would be the concern — the government could not be accused of contriving to harm religion, even if that were an unintended consequence of its action.
Nor would it be wise to exempt persons of certain beliefs from the general prohibition; for that would amount to bending the law to the preferences and desires of particular citizens, and once you begin to do that there is no logical place to stop and the rule of law would be destroyed.
The upshot of Locke’s argument is that religious practices flourish only at the sufferance of the state. In theory you have the right to worship in the manner dictated by your faith, but should an aspect of that worship run up against a duly enacted regulation, the regulation, provided it is neutral in intention, trumps the demands of worship.
This same line of reasoning can be found in religion clause cases stretching from Reynolds v. United States (1878) to Employment Division v. Smith (1990). (There is an alternative tradition of “accommodating” religion in cases like Sherbert v. Verner and Wisconsin v. Yoder.)
In Reynolds the court considered the argument made by a man convicted of practicing polygamy that it is the religious duty of male members of the Mormon Church to engage in plural marriage, and that the penalty for failing to do so “would be damnation in the life to come.” The court observed that the prohibition against polygamy was general and not directed at any sect, and asked, “can a man excuse” his illegal practice of an interdicted behavior just “because of his religious belief?”
The answer is swift, firm and Lockean. “To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself.” In such a circumstance, the court concluded, “government could exist only in name.”
The same logic rules in Smith. Here the issue was the ingestion at a Native American religious ceremony of peyote, deemed a “controlled substance” by the laws of Oregon. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, notes that the Native American celebrants “contend that their religious motivation for using peyote places them beyond the reach of a criminal law that is not specifically directed at their religious practice and that is concededly constitutional as applied to those who use the drug for other reasons.” In short, the demand is that the law be applied differently to persons with different beliefs — you can’t use peyote as a recreational drug, but I can use it because I consider it sacramental — and this Scalia refuses to do.
The intention of the Oregon law, he points out, was not to curtail anyone’s free exercise of religion, and the fact that the free exercise rights of some people happened to be impacted negatively is “merely the incidental effect of a generally applicable and otherwise valid principle.” If the affected believers are unhappy, Scalia concludes, let them turn to the “political process” and try to get laws passed that will address their concerns.
That is exactly what happened on two fronts. Congress passed a law making the use of peyote in religious ceremonies an exception to the controlled substances regulations. And the same Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (1993), which transferred the burden of proof from the religious practitioner to the government.
Where the assumption in Reynolds and Smith is that the state need only be innocent of the intention to impede free exercise, the distinction between intentional effects and what Scalia calls “incidental” effects is RFRA’s first casualty: “Laws ‘neutral’ toward religion may burden religious exercise as surely as laws intended to interfere with religious exercise.” Whatever the source and pedigree of the burden, whether it is designed or accidental, those who suffer it must have a legal recourse.
Accordingly, in any instance where the burden is “substantial,” the state must demonstrate that the law in question “(1) is in furtherance of a compelling government interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.” In other words, the fact of a law duly passed by the appropriate bodies is not enough; with respect to a particular class of persons – religious believers – that law cannot take effect unless it can be shown that the highest state considerations require that it be applied without exception.
While RFRA was hailed as a victory for religious freedom by many, others saw in it the realization of the fear expressed by the Reynolds and Smith courts, the fear that any law could be lawfully disobeyed by someone who asserted that it interfered with the free exercise of his or her religion. In effect, they complained, the rule of law was being subordinated to the private convictions of an ever expanding set of citizens. For, as Scalia observes in Smith, who can tell another that a certain practice is not central to the free exercise of his religion? Prison inmates can claim that their religious requires them to eat porterhouse steak every day. And Meliboeus must be allowed to slaughter his calf even when his non-religious neighbors are prevented from doing so.
This brings us back to Mamie Manneh and monkey-meat. How will she fare in the courts? Her attorney is mounting an RFRA defense, but the act was weakened in City of Boerne v. Flores (1997), when Justice Kennedy challenged Congress’s ability to pass it. Congress, he said, has the power to enforce rights, not to create them: “Legislation which alters the Free Exercise Clauses’s meaning” – by creating a special right of exemption from general laws – “cannot be said to be enforcing the clause.” Moreover, said Kennedy, “if Congress could define its own power by altering the Fourteenth Amendment’s meaning, no longer would the Constitution be ‘superior, paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means.’” In short, saying what the Constitution means is our job, not yours.
That might have seemed the end of it, but in a 2006 case (Gonzales v. O Centro), the Roberts court interpreted Boerne as invalidating only the application of RFRA to the states. Given that Ms. Manneh’s case is being adjudicated in a federal court, an RFRA defense is at least plausible, although the fact that bushmeat is associated with diseases like ebola will likely be enough to satisfy even the “compelling interest” test and give the government a victory.
But no matter how the case turns out, we can be sure of one thing: it won’t be the last, because the issues Locke identified and analyzed will never be resolved. In her dissent in Boerne, Justice O’Connor wrote, “Our Nation’s Founders conceived of a Republic receptive to voluntary religious expression, not a secular society in which religious expression is tolerated only when it does not conflict with generally applicable law.”
Yes, that’s the question. Do we begin by assuming the special status of religious expression and reason from there? Or do we begin with the rule of law and look with suspicion on any claim to be exempt for it, even if the claim is made in the name of apparently benign religious motives? From Reynolds to the present moment, everyone has had an answer to that question, but I predict that no one will ever have the last word.

Anonymous said...

Leave Meystel alone. He is the choshuve gabbai by my shvogger Rav Eichenstein.

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/alleged-sex-offender-yosef-meystel-and.html

CALL TO ACTION: STOP ALLEGED CHILD MOLESTER FROM DOING DAMAGE CONTROL!

It appears that alleged sex offender Yosef Meystel has enough funds to donate to the Jewish United Fund (between $100,000 - $999,999), yet has never offered to pay the young man he allgedly sexually victimized for the pain and suffering. Meystel allegedly molested at the Rabbi Naftoli Riff Yeshiva in South Bend, IN.

Instead of allowing this alleged sexual predator to do "damage control", tell the Jewish United Fund (JUF) to do the right thing and give the money donated by Meystel to his survivor!

According to The Awareness Center's web page:

Yosef Meystel has been accused of child molestation during the time he was the adminstrator of the Rabbi Naftoli Riff Yeshiva in South Bend, IN.

He is currently employed by Morris Esformes who was at one time married to the wife of Mordecai Tendler nee Jofen's sister..

Esformes has a history with nursing home "deficiencies" including numerous heat related deaths at his homes.Yosef Meystel was the admistrator of the nursing home at the time. There was also allegations of an alleged sexual assault of a female resident in one of the nursing homes. Four days after asweep, another resident was found to be a sex offender and was arrested at a park where staff had taken him with other residents. As a result of that incident, home administrator Yosef Meystel was charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.
Contact the Chicago Jewish United Fund and suggest the cleanse themselves of this dirty money. Tell them to forward the funds to the survivor!

Planned Giving and Endowments
30 S. Wells St.
Chicago, IL 60606

• phone: 312-357-4853
• fax: 312-855-2477
• email: legacy@juf.org

Mental patient pregnant 8 months -- staff didn't know
Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 27, 2004 by Kati Phillips

A state monitor has been placed at an Evergreen Park nursing home for four days a week after state health officials reported finding out that staff didn't know a female mental patient was pregnant for eight months in the 249-bed skilled- and intermediate-care facility.

The monitor started Feb. 13 at Emerald Park Health Care Center, 9125 S. Pulaski, and will remain until care improves, said Tammy Leonard, spokeswoman for the Illinois Public Health Department.

"Monitors stay until the basis for placement is resolved, and that depends on the situation," Leonard said.

The woman's pregnancy was discovered when she was sent to a different facility for treatment, and she reported having sex with five patients, Evergreen Park police Sgt. Thomas Harold said.

This case follows an unrelated arrest Feb. 3 of Emerald Park's administrator, Yosef Meystel, on a battery charge after he was accused of grabbing a nurse, Leonard said.

A 2003 survey done by the state showed employee-resident abuse, inability to keep patients from wandering away, lack of rehabilitation programs for the mentally ill and a death investigation.

A 44-year-old man who suffered from seizures, diabetes and HIV died on Oct. 4, 2003, after a security guard slammed him into a bed and left him alone and inebriated in his room, according to a police report.

Anonymous said...

One of the funniest pictures UOJ ever put on the sidebar is the 3 Stooges fressing with their bare hands on huge steaks & pulkies.

It really does sum up the Agudah Fresser Convention.

Anonymous said...

http://www.abuse.com/elder_abuse/Illinois/PINNACLE+HEALTH+CARE+LA+GRANGE.html

Yosef Meystel now owns Fairview, the parent company of Pinnacle Health.

The govt found that this nursing home had a higher percentage than the national average of patients with pressure sores.

Scroll down to the bottom & you will see that they are woefully understaffed. He cheaps out with a tiny fraction of nursing care hours compared to other nursing homes.

Anonymous said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/11/brooklyn-marriot.html#c2449006406787119224

Some rabbonim spoke on Shabbos against a wine tasting that took place today in Queens.

Carmel & perhaps some other wineries sent representatives to a liquor store to sample their offerings. The baal habos tried to make it more exciting by offering free samplings of wines as expensive as $1000 a bottle. The baal habos was told that he should not be offering non-mevushal wines at an event open to the public but said that it is not a problem in his opinion.

One more enticement that the baal habos used was to tell customers that Carmel is sending "young girls" to assist with glugging down the wine.

Somebody was thinking about complaining to Carmel's hashgocho, the OU, but decided it's a waste of time since their m.o. is to mach avek acharayus.

If anyone knows the Rav Hamachshir in Eretz Yisroel, Rav Auerbach, you should let him know what Carmel is up to.

Sun Dec 02, 10:11:00 PM 2007

Anonymous said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/11/brooklyn-marriot.html#c6468191081418568427

Rubashkin-Free Zone said...

Fairway Market locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan & Long Island try their best to never resort to buying Rubashkin. In the odd event that they are stuck, it is clearly marked that it's Rubashkin.

Cutting & packaging at the store level is under the superb hashgocho of Rav Marmorstein.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Slop#Noun

One of the most damaging things that UOJ could do to the Agudah is send someone to clandestinely video us pigging out at the smorg & meat carving table.

It will be a chilul Hashem noyrah when everyone watches us slobber over the slop that caterer Michael Schick throws in trough for us.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=689349

Toxic Toys: Congress risks making things worse

By JAMES A. DORN

Posted: Nov. 24, 2007

Anonymous said...

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/11/prweb573216.htm

The Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada Announces its Position Regarding Ongoing Peace Efforts in the Middle East

Statements were made by some Jewish religious, political organizations, that returning parts of the holy land and particular Jerusalem for the sake of peace is prohibited. That is simply not true.

Brooklyn, NY (PRWEB) November 30, 2007 -- CRC applauds the efforts of President Bush by convening the conference in Annapolis, MD to end the conflict and blood-shed in the middle-east. We pray and hope for the success of the conference and its aims.

CRC doesn't routinely make political statements. However, when the truth is distorted and especially by people and organizations that pretend to speak in the name of Torah, CRC is obligated to set the record straight.

Statements were made by some Jewish religious, political organizations, that returning parts of the holy land and particular Jerusalem for the sake of peace is prohibited. That is simply not true.

CRC has previously made public statements confirming that the mere establishment of a Jewish State before the arrival of the Messiah is prohibited by the Torah. Jews are in exile throughout the world, where they have to live in peace and harmony, and be loyal to the residence countries we live in.

Torah principles also proclaim that human life is the most profound cause. Territorial concessions for the sake of saving lives and preventing human suffering are not only sanctioned by the Torah, but required.

Let it be clear that Agudath Israel of America does not represent and their presentations and statement are not reflective of all orthodox Jews in America and elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of orthodox Jews in America and abroad that are true to the religious teaching of the Talmud and sages, are against the declaration of a Sovereign state and opposed to the Israeli government expansionist policies.

May all mankind be worthy of true redemption when the "Swords will be beaten into Plowshares" and G-d's glory will fill the world.

CRC Established in 1952 is a worldwide organization representing over 150 Orthodox communities

Anonymous said...

http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=1848

By: Rav Aryeh Zev Ginzberg
Published: Thursday, November 29, 2007

Each year as I return home from the Agudah Convention, I marvel at the level of chizuk, ruach, and ruchniyus, which seem to grow stronger each and every year. This year, the 85th annual convention of Agudath Israel of America, held in Stamford, Connecticut, far surpassed those of prior years.

The Novominsker Rebbe, shlita, addressed the large crowd, all of whom were eager to hear some words of chizuk

Despite the late hour, the thousands present at the keynote session eagerly awaited the address by the Lakewood mashgiach, Rav Matisyahu Salomon, shlita, hoping to hear some words of chizuk. They were not disappointed.

Anonymous said...

I know this ehrenste baal teshuva who is completely mesmerized & brainwashed by Tropper.

He thinks that Tropper can't do anything bad "because he's close to Rabbi Scheinberg & R' Aron Schechter."

Anonymous said...

Was Belsky driving this route?

http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=4087

Hasidic-owned company told to desist picking up passengers from Boston area

Vamoose, the latest express bus line to offer service between the Boston area and New York City, suffered a significant setback this week when Cambridge officials denied the company permission to pick up passengers on city streets. Although Vamoose had successfully launched an express route from Bennett Street in Cambridge on Nov. 8, the company was ordered to cease all operations on Monday.

Vamoose was founded by Bluzenstein’s husband, Sam Bluzenstein, a Hasidic Jew from New York City. The former transportation head of a large yeshiva, Mr. Bluzenstein started Vamoose four years ago to provide travelers between New York City and Washington, D.C., with a more customer service-oriented alternative to traditional bus lines.

Anonymous said...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Loshon-Harah-Muffs-Earmuffs_W0QQitemZ180185322745QQihZ008QQcategoryZ2998QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Put these on next time UOJ talks about Kolko or tries to quote from R' Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz.

Anonymous said...

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071130/NEWS/711300362

Trials & Tribulations: Law firm sues to collect Satmar bill

November 30, 2007

There are more jokes, put-downs and one-liners about lawyers than there are lawyers, but let's all admit something: Everyone wants to get paid for the work that they do, and no one likes to get stiffed. Lawyers are just like anyone else. If you cut a lawyer, does he not bleed? And if you stiff him, does he not sue?

The Newburgh law firm of Rider, Weiner & Frankel got tired of being bled, figuratively if not literally, for legal fees that it contends are owed by a faction of Satmar Hasidim based at Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar in Brooklyn.

The case was a long-running dispute between the Brooklyn faction and the faction based in the Orange County Village of Kiryas Joel. The two sides wound up in court over an election for control of the board of the synagogue, which is a political powerhouse because of its ability to get out thousands of votes.

Rider, Weiner contends that the Brooklyn faction paid only $50,000 of an $87,888 legal bill, so earlier this month, the firm sued in state Supreme Court to recover the money.

It seems unlikely that the clients can claim that they have a beef about the firm's performance, since Rider, Weiner & Frankel won their case at the trial-court level in Goshen, and that victory held up on appeal recently in New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals.

The firm's lawsuit says that Congregation Yetev Lev of Brooklyn and its officers have failed to pay up, "despite repeated requests on the telephone and in writing."

The suit also notes that the synagogue's officers say they don't have the money to pay the bills.

The synagogue still had phone service yesterday, but no one answered.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=691257

Bill would allow lawsuits in old sexual abuse cases
It also would end statutes of limitation
By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Nov. 28, 2007

Anonymous said...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3477336,00.html

Mea Shearim's 'egg brigade' to prevent touristic infiltrations

The masses of visitors that descend upon Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox neighborhood during the Hanukkah holiday have prompted local extremists to volunteer for anti-tourist action, including attacking strangers with eggs and dirty diapers

Neta Sela Published: 11.29.07

Want to see haredim celebrating? Think again: Zealots from Beit Shemesh and Mea Shearim, nicknamed "Sicarrii"(dagger bearers) after Judean extremists from the second temple period, gathered this week for an emergency meeting to devise a plan against the tourists groups that will flood Jerusalem's Mea Shearim and the surrounding neighborhoods when Hanukkah starts next week.

Ynet has learned that participants devised a plan which includes wide-scale actions against tourists beginning next Tuesday when Jews around the world light the holiday's first candle. Eighty locals have already volunteered to enforce the program.

Under the framework of this planned "intifada", volunteers will attack tourists with eggs, diapers full of goodies, and whatever else they can get their hands on. According to their plan, the assault will force the police to hurry to the neighborhood to impose order, resulting in news coverage, which will cause anyone planning on coming to the area during the holiday period to think twice.

During Hanukkah, Mea Shearim and its environs become popular destinations for throngs of tourists from Israel and abroad. This phenomenon — or nuisance as the locals see it — can start as early as 7 am and end as late as 3 am.

Area residents understand what attracts large groups of people to the neighborhood's special festive atmosphere during the holiday, but many claim that the constant tours have become an insufferable inconvenience. "When we have big groups it gets really bad; lots of clatter, shouting. Many secular people come in inappropriate, immodest dress; it's problematic. The secular people are not aware that it is a problem but it really bothers the people," one neighborhood denizen told Ynet.

The struggle against tourism in Mea Shearim did not begin on Thursday. Last year, for example, residents established rotating neighborhood watches of five yeshiva students each whose job it was to prevent visitors from penetrating the walls of Mea Shearim. And just so that no one could claim he was not warned, volunteers posted signs around the area with the headline "Attention Hellenists" demanding that potential visitors avoid coming to the area and disrupting its special way of life.

This strategy was not especially effective, as the small bands of students were overwhelmed by the mass of visitors who treated the signs as a curiosity and occasionally got involved in useless confrontations with locals. Thus it was decided this year to make arrangements on a wider scale before it was too late.

One resident told Ynet about an event that occurred during an encounter with one group last year. One of the children visiting the neighborhood wore an earring and the resident asked the guide if the child was a boy or a girl. When he was informed that the child was indeed a boy, the resident asked the group to leave, telling them, "I do not want my children to see such a thing. What do I live in Mea Shearim for?"

Anonymous said...

http://www.aina.org/news/20071201135005.htm

A few weeks ago, a senior Greek Orthodox clergyman in Israel attended a meeting at a government office in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul quarter. When he returned to his car, an elderly man wearing a skullcap came and knocked on the window. When the clergyman let the window down, the passerby spat in his face.

The clergyman prefered not to lodge a complaint with the police and told an acquaintance that he was used to being spat at by Jews. Many Jerusalem clergy have been subjected to abuse of this kind. For the most part, they ignore it but sometimes they cannot.

On Sunday, a fracas developed when a yeshiva student spat at the cross being carried by the Armenian Archbishop during a procession near the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City. The archbishop's 17th-century cross was broken during the brawl and he slapped the yeshiva student.

Both were questioned by police and the yeshiva student will be brought to trial. The Jerusalem District Court has meanwhile banned the student from approaching the Old City for 75 days.

But the Armenians are far from satisfied by the police action and say this sort of thing has been going on for years. Archbishop Nourhan Manougian says he expects the education minister to say something.

"When there is an attack against Jews anywhere in the world, the Israeli government is incensed, so why when our religion and pride are hurt, don't they take harsher measures?" he asks.

According to Daniel Rossing, former adviser to the Religious Affairs Ministry on Christian affairs and director of a Jerusalem center for Christian-Jewish dialogue, there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently, "as part of a general atmosphere of lack of tolerance in the country."

Rossing says there are certain common characeristics from the point of view of time and location to the incidents. He points to the fact that there are more incidents in areas where Jews and Christians mingle, such as the Jewish and Armenian quarters of the Old City and the Jaffa Gate.

There are an increased number at certain times of year, such as during the Purim holiday."I know Christians who lock themselves indoors during the entire Purim holiday," he says.

Former adviser to the mayor on Christian affairs, Shmuel Evyatar, describes the situation as "a huge disgrace." He says most of the instigators are yeshiva students studying in the Old City who view the Christian religion with disdain.

"I'm sure the phenomenon would end as soon as rabbis and well-known educators denounce it. In practice, rabbis of yeshivas ignore or even encourage it," he says.

Evyatar says he himself was spat at while walking with a Serbian bishop in the Jewish quarter, near his home. "A group of yeshiva students spat at us and their teacher just stood by and watched."

Jerusalem municipal officials said they are aware of the problem but it has to be dealt with by the police. Shmuel Ben-Ruby, the police spokesman, said they had only two complaints from Christians in the past two years. He said that, in both cases, the culprits were caught and punished.

He said the police deploy an inordinately high number of patrols and special technology in the Old City and its surroundings in an attempt to keep order.

Anonymous said...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20071202_ARTof_theCON.html

Incredible story of the con artist Richard Grossman. He's from Massapequa NY where there's a Young Israel shul.

Anonymous said...

I ran to the Queens store yesterday. When you Fress all that Rubashkin fleish at the Fresser Convention, you need something good to wash it down with.

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/11/brooklyn-marriot.html#c6753938202241138896

The owner of that wine store is a big az ponim. He boasts to everyone that he tastes all the goyishe wines to know if they are good and that it's mutter "because it's my parnossa". By secular standards the store is very choshuv. He has yayin nesech varieties that cost 20 grand a bottle.

The frum owner of a major winery knows this & visits this store whenever he has a new introduction to see if the guy likes how it tastes compared to goyishe wines.

There is also a behayma in the Jewish music industry who tells everyone that he listens to goyishe music to compare and that kol isha is mutter for him "because it's my parnossa".

Anonymous said...

Agudah Fressers picked a bad time to fress at the convention.

When the Shvotim went "liros", it's a discussion among the Chazal if they went to graze the animals or if they were eating themselves.

The Maharal learns that they only came to the chait of mechiras Yosef because they went there for a davar gashmi to fress.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3445/1/Wayne-Y-changes-course,-says-yes-to-kashrut

This newspaper tries to take all the credit for this but the North Jersey Y was threatened by a rabbi on UOJ's A list that he would give them a lot of bad publicity if they kept the cafeteria treif. This rabbi was one of the people who pressured the Jerusalem College of Technology to kick out Mondrowitz.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Curlyhoward.jpg

I'm glad UOJ got this picture of my good side.

Anonymous said...

I hope Avrohom Pinter hasn't asked his American cousins Leib & Shmeckel to secure the mortgages!

http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11&SecId=11&AId=56812&ATypeId=1

New housing hope for Charedim
30/11/2007
By Leon Symons
The strictly Orthodox community is hoping that its housing problems could be eased by a new opportunity to build along the Thames Gateway, east of London.

Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, has held preliminary talks with community leaders about providing bigger houses in the short-term in Hackney and Haringey, the boroughs with the largest strictly Orthodox populations.

But looking further ahead, Mr Livingstone has also raised the possibility of a Charedi presence in the proposed major development of the Thames Gateway. The first block of housing will provide 7,000 homes planned for completion before the 2012 Olympics.

In a special report in August, the JC highlighted the problems of young Charedi families in London and Manchester who can afford neither rents nor deposits towards ownership.

Mr Livingstone told the annual reception of the London Jewish Forum at City Hall that he will be handed control of the capital’s £4 billion affordable-housing budget in April.

He already has command of the capital’s housing strategy, and now also has the power to review and amend new housing developments at the planning stage if he thinks they do not fit the strategy. With leading members of the Stamford Hill Charedi community looking on, Mr Livingstone said councils and housing associations should be building fewer units for one or two people, and more for four and five.

“We should be able to address the [housing] needs of the Orthodox community,” he said, “and make sure, where new homes are provided, they fit that need.

“We are working closely with people such as Rabbi Avraham Pinter and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, with whom housing associations will work to ensure that everyone has access to houses that are the right size for them.”

Speaking to the JC later, Mr Livingstone said: “The important thing is to help where the community is now. We can build small schemes on relatively small sites.

“The Thames Gateway will provide 40,000 homes in 20 years’ time. We have to put in infrastructure. I know that the community will need to have synagogues and schools and shops within walking distance — though, of course, they will have to pay for the synagogues themselves.”

Rabbi Pinter was encouraged by the commitment to five-bedroom homes. “It is excellent that Mr Livingstone is behind this and has cross-party support.”

Anonymous said...

Hershco was Leib & Shmeckel's shutef in the mortgage fraud. He is currently building the new Hilton hotel in Downtown Brooklyn. Let's see how many yeshivos switch their dinners there from the Marriott.

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=66516&v=8489176911

Mr. Palin's partner in the project, Ron Herscho of United Homes, is creating a mixed-use building with a Hilton Hotel on the lower half of the building and 10 stories of condominium units above.

Anonymous said...

The front Cover of this week's Jewish Planet has a picture of Shana Colby and asking the public to help find her.

They should have read UOJ before going to press.

Anonymous said...

http://godolhador.blogspot.com/2006/01/yeshivish-noise-tm.html

Hayodayim Yodai Eisav
Feeling too mellow? Need to rev up your zealousness a little? This tape could be the answer. It contains 5 tracks of background sounds of kannoim plotting the latest bans! Starring Leib Pinter, Yaakov Kalmanowitz and Reuven Shmeltzer. In 5.1 Dolby Surround. 8 Bonus tracks of R Elyashiv giving slightly different pesakim depending on who he is talking to.

Anonymous said...

http://exposingkalmanowitz.blogspot.com/2005/11/help-world-eradicate-oscar-kalmanowitz.html

PLEASE START POSTING TO YOUR HEARTS CONTENT ALL THE DIRT AND SCUM YOU CAN FIND ON THIS PIG BASTARD AND ALL HIS GOONS.

LEIB PINTER?

JACK KALMANOWITZ?

BRING IT ON BOYS................

LET THE PARTY BEGIN

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Yeah right!

--------------------

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC.N) Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Monday he doesn't expect the largest U.S. mortgage lender to file for bankruptcy protection, saying the "elements are certainly not there."

In an interview on CNBC television, Mozilo also said he is not in talks with Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) for a further cash infusion, following a $2 billion injection in August.

"Countrywide is a strong, viable financial company," Mozilo said. "Bankruptcy is an issue that nobody can ever eliminate, although I don't think it's possible or probable for Countrywide.

Anonymous said...

Duvid olewski is a disgrace!!

The Igud of ger, that was run by david goldberg, closed its office recently, so the hnoda pilot which was owned by the igud was entrusted to big dave, now that big fart left the key in the ignition, and wadda you know, he comes back to the car but bam! its not there, someone drove off with a nice pilot, good work big dave! you seem to have a problem taking care of valuable possesions being entrusted to your care, no differance between the young neshomos in mesivtah that you let down while protecting leizerowitz all those years, or property that was not yours.

The gerer oilem should kick this worthless peice of shit in his tuchess, before he loses everything they ever had, including the gerer mesivtah.

Duvid, resign now! before you get hauled off to court, on what info you had on mondrowitz all those years ago when Mr, T came to tell you what mondro did to him, duvid that was very nice of you to kick the boy out of mesivtah so that you can keep it under wraps.

Duvid your a shameless pig, and should join the likes of mondrowitz & leizerowitz in prison, to hell with all of you molester enablers, slowly but surely the truth will come out and we will find out each one of you so called rabbonim that knew of these monsters and did nothing, and as we find out the name of another enabler, we will demand their resignation as well, duvid, for now I know of you.

Please contact his wife to demand this lowlife quits the gerer bais din immediatly!!!!

Olewski, Dovid
1724 46th st
brooklyn NY, 11204
718-436-8216

While your at it call the mesivtah as well to demand he be fired from the yeshivah, he has no right to be there after enabling so many neshomos be destroyed.

tel. 718-854-8777 fax 718-851-1265

Anonymous said...

The Dov Hikind Show is trying to contact Mondrowitz victims. We would like to focus a program on the Mondrowitz issue and we would maintain victim confidentiality and anonymity.

Please contact:
Charnie at the office of Assemblyman Dov Hikind at 718-853-9616

Anonymous said...

I hope Shea Fishman isn't on staff at the Dov Hikind Show!

Anonymous said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=algJDiv8HfXg&refer=home

Countrywide Falls as Schumer Seeks Probe of Advances

Countrywide Financial Corp. fell more than 10 percent in New York Stock Exchange trading after U.S. Senator Charles Schumer urged the regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank system to probe cash advances to the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Thank You Ms. Rubin For an important validation of my take on the conduct of the human animal!
______________

By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

Although virtually all doctors think they should report impaired or incompetent colleagues or serious medical errors to the relevant authorities, nearly half don't, a study suggests Monday.
The authors say they are the first to try to broadly assess doctors' support for and adherence to professional standards. The researchers, whose findings appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine, surveyed a national random sample of 3,504 practicing doctors between November 2003 and June 2004. They received responses from 1,662.

While 96% of respondents said doctors should always report impaired or incompetent colleagues, only 55% of those with direct personal knowledge of such doctors in the past three years said they always did so.

And while 93% of respondents said doctors should always alert authorities when they observe serious medical errors, only 54% of those who had such information in the past three years said they always did so.

"I think human beings always fall short of their aspirations," senior author David Blumenthal says. "The intent of the paper was not to criticize but to … highlight the areas for improvement."

Anonymous said...

Thank You Ms. Rubin For an important validation of my take on the conduct of the human animal!
-----------------------------------
Uoj, so that second picture from the top of the sidebar really is a human Gadol.

Anonymous said...

Professor Marc Shapiro who likes posting controversial items on his blog, dug up some wild inyanim. Shapiro has not hesitated to blast rabbonim from any era that he feels are molesters / enablers but he draws the line with 2 stories. One of the Geonim accused the other of raping young bochurim in a room full of seforim. The accusations appear to be written in a way that do not appear credible.

Shapiro, who is Orthodox, seems to agree with the Reform scholar from a century ago, Henry Malter, that the charges were in all likelihood fabricated.

Then when one Acharon accused another of siring a child from an alleged incestuous relationship with his daughter, Shapiro excerpts Rav Kook's thoughts on the matter:

הדגיש בכאב עצום שתחילת המחלוקות החריפות בין גדולים מעבר לאמות מידה מקובלות של מחלוקות, התחילו מבית-
... מדרשו של רבי

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Bye Bye.....

__________________


Builder dumps homes in Morgan Stanley deal

Lennar sells portfolio previously valued at $1.3 billion for $525 million to joint venture owned 80% by Morgan Stanley.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

December 3 2007



Morgan Stanley has swept up 11,000 properties from homebuilder Lennar Corp. for $525 million.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In another sign of the collapse of the market for new homes, builder Lennar Corp. has dumped a portfolio of 11,000 properties for 40 percent of their previously-stated book value.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Bye...Bye....
___________________


NEW YORK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Banc of America Securities downgraded E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC.O: Quote, Profile , Research) on Monday, citing concerns about the company's main brokerage business, and its home equity loan portfolio.

Banc of America Securities, in a note, cut its rating on E*Trade to "sell" from "neutral" and slashed its price target on the stock to $2 from $9. It also lowered its 2008 earnings estimates on the company to a loss of 20 cents a share from a profit of $1 a share.

The downgrade followed other analyst cuts on Friday, a day after the company said it had secured a $2.55 billion cash infusion from Chicago hedge fund Citadel Investment Group.


The shares closed down 49 cents on Monday, or nearly 10.7 percent, to $4.11. The stock has lost about 85 percent of its value since January, falling in recent months as the company disclosed troubles in its mortgage business.

Anonymous said...

(OH) Ex-Chabad Rabbi, Chaim Capland arrested for Soliciting Prostitute

Posted by: "vickipolin@aol.com" vickipolin@aol.com
shoshanaavigail

Mon Dec 3, 2007 1:02 pm (PST)
$5.8 million in earnings
Major bingo hall run by rabbi
State can't ask charities where the money goes

by Alayna Demartini
Columbus Distpatch - December 2, 2007

http://www.columbus dispatch. com/live/ content/local_ news/stories/ 2007/12/02/ Bingo.ART_ ART_12-02- 07_A1_5R8KK3M. html?sid= 101

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Before any victim of Mondrowitz speaks with Dov Hikind...please be aware that Hikind has close ties to Ohel.

He may be doing Ohel's bidding in seeking out Mondrowitz victims and trying to neutralize them, as it may implicate Ohel's liability in the Mondrowitz coverup!

Chabdehu V'chashdehu...Suspect everyone!

Anonymous said...

"Chabdehu V'chashdehu...Suspect everyone!"

UOJ is right!!

But when it comes to the X-Files of the Agudah, the Gerrorists & Grubba Lipa Margulies, I would frame it as:

TRUST NO ONE

Anonymous said...

http://www.daashakohol.com/archives/190#comment-9013

CH news Says:

December 3rd, 2007 at 10:09 am
I was reading the last issue of the paper Rubashkin puts out lately (campaign material on the kehiles cheshbon a NOT SURPRISING OUTRIGHT GENEYVE) and got disgusted from this egocentric egomaniac that is comparing himself to Reb Pinye Althaus and Reb Mordechai Dubin ob"m.

What an idiot! What a joke!

The all paper is ME, ME and ONLY ME.

A real sicko!

What is nogeah to the kohol the yortzait of his grandmother and stories of his grandfather Getzl?

Even when he mentions names of shuls in CH that had a farbrengen on 19 Kislev he just limits himself to 770 and Getzls shul and others!

Ask Binyomin Althaus if his father would conduct himself like Rubashkin and stop paying the Rov, cut his health insurance and telephone and kick him out of his office and all this after asking the Rebbe for a brocho people shouldn’t talk loshon horoh on him?!!

What a hypocrite!!

This man has no shame!!!

Will Reb Mordechai Dubin take 150,000.00 from communal funds and spend it to mix in a case that has nothing to do with the kohol instead of buying winter coats for 1000’s of people men, women and children to be warm and happy?!!!

We are really dealing here with a lunatic psychopath, we better do something before it’s to late.

to CH news Says:

December 3rd, 2007 at 11:15 am
You 100% right all the issues are him and his family.

Moshe and Feigy, cousin Suri Ciment, sister (or niece) Balkany (Fetter Milty), bobbie Roze and zeyde Getzl etc.

Really disgusting!!

And I forgot shtinker gas ruach Shlomo Segal!

elections Says:

December 3rd, 2007 at 11:47 am

The elctions of the vaad must go even if Rubashkin doesn’t like it.

Even Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called elections and surprisingly lost.

Such is life!!!

Rubashkin makes the communists look good.

And Rubashkin will say everything “in the Rebbe’s name” Kaviyochol.

Anonymous said...

COLORING BOOK TELLS KIDS TO . . .
WATCH OUT FOR SHADE-Y PRIESTS
By JEREMY OLSHAN
CARDINAL EGAN
Approved book.December 4, 2007 -- A new coloring book being distributed by the Archdiocese of New York teaches children to protect themselves from adults - including, apparently, priests - who cannot stay within the lines.

Although priests are never explicitly the villains of "Being Friends, Being Safe, Being Catholic," the female guardian angel who narrates the morality tale warns on one page that an altar boy should never remain alone in a room with any adult unless the door is open.

"If a child and an adult happen to be alone, someone should know where they are, and the door should be open or have a big window in it," the smiling angel says in the panel as she floats above an altar boy donning his church smock, apparently in a church sacristy, as a man who seems to be a priest looks at him.

The coloring books have been distributed to 300 schools and 400 religious groups.

Edward Mechmann, director of the archdiocese's Safe Environment program, which commissioned the books, said church officials were wary of targeting priests directly.

"We are in the business of dealing with kids, and we don't want to rob them of their innocence," he said. "We wanted to be fair to the priests so we weren't stigmatizing them."

But advocates of those who have been abused by priests complain that the church must more clearly point the finger at the most likely perpetrators preying on children.

"Too much is made of the creepy stranger, when predators are actually most often the adults we have taught kids are trustworthy," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "It does seem as though church officials are still reluctant to admit that, in fact, their own clergy can be - and are - predators."

In the book, after a series of dire warnings about strangers bearing gifts and online predators wishing to meet children, priests are finally mentioned - but as part of a word search for a list of adults that can be trusted.

Even a comic book aimed at older kids avoids a clear indictment of a member of the clergy. In that story, a parent at the school preys on female students.

Advocates said they were not questioning the motives of the archdiocese, headed by Edward Cardinal Egan, but said that church officials were so careful, they missed the heart of the matter.


"No matter how you try to teach children about child sex abuse, if you don't point out that it is the priest, the teacher, the Boy Scout leader, who have a position of real power and trust over children, you have missed the point," said Michael Dowd, a lawyer who has represented hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse.

The coloring book was first reported in Newsweek magazine.

jeremy.olshan@nypost.com

Paul Mendlowitz said...

By John Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 4, 2007

Former Roman Catholic priest Michael Stephen Baker, who authorities say ranks among the Los Angeles Archdiocese's most prolific child molesters, pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing two boys and was sentenced to 10 years and four months in prison.

The 59-year-old defrocked priest, who was wearing a jail-issued orange jumpsuit, sat impassively as some of his accusers and their supporters testified about how he had ruined the lives of innocent children.


"I felt trapped in an alternate universe of fear and silence," said Matt Severson, who has accused Baker of molesting him as a boy. "As a result of this, I was deprived of much of my adolescence and the ability to mature and grow as a normal teenager."

One woman, who was allowed to testify without giving her name, looked directly at Baker. "You're going straight to hell," she said, "to Satan."

For many, Baker symbolized the church's failure to protect its most vulnerable parishioners: He allegedly molested more than 20 youngsters in his 26 years as a priest and had confessed his problem to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in 1986. Instead of alerting police, Mahony, then a bishop, sent Baker to a treatment center in New Mexico and later reassigned him to serve at nine other parishes, where he allegedly victimized other children.

And, when authorities sought records from the church to help build a case against Baker, church officials vigorously fought to keep that information secret.

The church issued a statement Monday on behalf of Mahony, saying that Baker "deceived parishioners, therapists, church leaders and most of all, his victims."

The sentencing should "bring some sense of justice and solace to his victims and to the church community that he so grievously harmed," the statement read.

Among the more than 500 alleged victims and 200 clergy members accused of misconduct, Baker's case was the one Mahony had said "troubles" him the most. The cardinal, who is considered the most powerful prelate in North America, publicly apologized in 2004 to the diocese's 5 million Catholics for his mishandling of Baker.

Baker was first charged with more than a dozen crimes against young men in 2002 -- including the molestation of Severson -- but those charges were voided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ruled that California lacked the power to retroactively extend deadlines to prosecute older crimes, known as statutes of limitations.

The decision wiped out hundreds of potential criminal prosecutions, and left largely to civil lawyers the task of determining the nature and extent of the scandal.

Police and prosecutors, however, continued to pursue Baker, subpoenaing his personnel files. Church lawyers spent years fighting those subpoenas. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled against the church and ordered that it turn over the records.

One document that was given to authorities reflected a church investigation -- and dismissal -- of an allegation that Baker had an inappropriate relationship with a boy at St. Columbkille's parish, in South Los Angeles. The document noted that the boy, the boy's sister and their mother denied that any misconduct had occurred.

Sheriff's investigators spent six months trying to find the boy before discovering that the name provided by church officials was not the youngster's actual name. When investigators ultimately found the young man, he told them that Baker had befriended him as a boy and molested him repeatedly.

At one point, he said, Baker performed a gruesome, secret ceremony at the altar of St. Columbkille's in which the priest mingled their blood and proclaimed them "joined for life."

Contrary to the church's report, sheriff's detectives said the victim and his mother and sister were never questioned by church officials at any time.

Baker pleaded guilty Monday to 12 counts in connection with molesting the boy from St. Columbkille's parish and another boy, now 27, whom he assaulted in the rectory of a church. Authorities allege that the conduct occurred over a two-year period starting in 1996.

Before the sentencing by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe, six people spoke at Monday's hearing, including Mary Grant, an official of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a victims' group. She said 10 years in prison was not enough.

"Their lives are not going to be repaired," Grant said. "They're never going to have their childhoods back. They're going to continue to have to cope and deal with what this has done to their lives."

Frank Zamora, whose son Dominic was allegedly molested by Baker, said his family had always believed that the church was "the safest place for our children." He said his son is now a recovering alcoholic and former drug user.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

.......Ex-priest pleads guilty in molestation scandal

December 4 2007

Page 2 of 2

"You made my son lose his faith," the elder Zamora told Baker.

In addition to the prison term, Baker was ordered to pay $20,000 to one victim and required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Because of good behavior and other jail-time credits, Baker, who has been behind bars for two years, is expected to serve at least three more years in prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. William Hodgman, the chief prosecutor in the clergy cases, said Baker's plea deal was fair, and emphasized that the 5 1/2 -year investigation was not over.

"As our district attorney, Steve Cooley, said when we started this endeavor, we have to follow the evidence and we will go where the evidence takes us," Hodgman said.

Ray Boucher, the lead civil attorney for the victims, said he was not happy with the sentence.

"I've lived with these clients and I've seen the impact on their lives," he said. "It's a slap on wrist, it's a parking ticket. This man should never be allowed back on the street."

The developments in Baker's criminal case Monday coincided with the Los Angeles Archdiocese's first settlement checks on behalf of hundreds of alleged abuse victims.

More than $504 million in payments was expected to be made by the end of the day, attorneys said.

Additional payments next year are expected to bring the total paid to victims by the church to $660 million. Boucher estimated that Baker's conduct accounted for $40 million of the total.

Carolina Guevara, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said the church's portion of the settlement would come from "investment or other internal resources, sales of real estate and from borrowings."

She emphasized that no parish properties or schools would be sold, but that the church would continue to reevaluate "all of our ministries and services since we will not be able to offer them at the same levels as in the past."

john.spano@latimes.com

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Police Unaware Of Attack Alleged By Cardinal Mahony

POSTED: 6:47 am PST December 4, 2007
UPDATED: 7:40 am PST December 4, 2007


LOS ANGELES -- Within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims, Cardinal Roger Mahony was assaulted by a man enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal, and it took him weeks to heal, it was reported Tuesday.

Mahony, 71, revealed the attack during an annual conference in October before hundreds of stunned priests, four priests who attended the gathering at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles told the Daily News.

News of the assault emerged Monday as the bulk of the church's $660 million settlement with victims began being paid out, with more than $500 million in checks going out in the mail, the newspaper reported. The settlement with 508 alleged victims was approved by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge July 16.


The attack on Mahony occurred in July near the cathedral, and it took the cardinal about a month to heal, the Rev. Sal Pilato, principal at Junipero Serra Catholic High School in Gardena, told the Daily News.

The cardinal was dropping off letters at a mailbox when he was assaulted, priests told the newspaper.

The cardinal said that after his attacker recognized him, the man began shouting expletives and knocked him to the ground, a priest told the Daily News.

Bruised after the attack, Mahony said it gave him a deeper understanding of the suffering the sex scandal victims have endured, priests told the newspaper. It was not known whether Mahony's attacker was a victim.

Mahony apparently decided not to go public with the assault. Police officials told the Daily News they were unaware of any such incident.

Mahony declined to comment on the reports.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

How sick is this guy? He should join the Agudath Israel as a godol!
--------------

Hollywood values - Los Angeles, California Cardinal Roger Mahony's support for a motion picture and TV program code to limit sex and violence in mass entertainment -

National Review West - Editorial
National Review, Nov 2, 1992

When Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles came out against Proposition 165, the initiative that would slash welfare payments, the Left whistled its approval. But let the cardinal speak on an issue where the sophisticates disagree with him, and cheers turn to outrage.

In February, when Cardinal Mahony suggested a voluntary movie and TV code to restrain the orgy of depravity on the screen, the ACLU took out a full-page ad in Daily Variety warning of Apocolypse in the form of "a list of moral rules that would return us to the 1950s.".

The cardinal was silent for a time, but he's back, calling once again for more attention to uplifting themes and less obsession with raw sex, gore, and cannibalism. No specific code, just a vague appeal to the industry's conscience. Yet even this approach is provoking more than a few hysterical reactions from within the citadel of the media aristocracy

Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.

Anonymous said...

On this erev Chanukkah I would like to remind everyone that the Yavanim were honorable men.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, Cardinal Roger Mahony is an honorable man!

Anonymous said...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/930995.html

Haredi dominance of Beit Shemesh 'is only matter of time'

By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent

Mea Shearim could be transposed to a few neighborhoods in Beit Shemesh, a city whose population now reaches 73,000. "Taking part in the profane elections is prohibited," and "Israeli women must dress modestly," declare posters around the city.

Local resident Nati Shauli did not even consider filing a police complaint two weeks ago after his car was vandalized. He and his wife came out of the grocery store in Ramat Beit Shemesh A, a mostly religious neighborhood, to find that their tires had been slashed. Shauli is convinced that whoever is responsible wanted to keep bare-headed women like his wife away from the ultra-Orthodox shopping center.

"Life has become insufferable here," he said in desperation.

The resemblance between Mea Shearim of days gone by and Ramat Beit Shemesh, one of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, is not accidental. Some 15 years ago the housing shortage in Jerusalem drove the extreme, anti-Zionist Eda Haredit sect of Jerusalem's Haredi community to seek housing for young couples outside the capital. They chose Ramat Beit Shemesh B. Today these people are even more fanatic than those in Mea Shearim.

These extremists comprise an estimated 2 percent, no more than 15,000 of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community. They are a minority in Beit Shemesh as well, but wield considerable power and influence.

The fanatics are mostly followers of Rabbi Shaya Rosenberger, a right-wing Satmar Hasid. Another group, a separatist group of Breslav Hasidim led by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Marmelstein, is even more extreme. In recent years these groups have conducted a series of campaigns - posting billboards calling for "modest behavior," introducing sexually segregated bus lines and recently protesting plans to open a state religious school near their neighborhood and opposing the sale of apartments in the neighborhood to people who are not ultra-Orthodox.

Two and a half weeks ago, police officers headed by Jerusalem police chief Aharon Franco and Beit Shemesh chief Oz Eliasi secretly met the leaders of the town's Eda Haredit sect. On their way to Rabbi Rosenberger's house the officers passed graffiti blasting Eliasi and branding him "the Nazi" and "evil."

People in the neighborhood described the meeting a "surrender," saying the police were now officially afraid of entering the neighborhood. They said the police had promised the rabbis to refrain from any activity in the neighborhood without the rabbis' prior authorization.

However the fanatics' energy is mainly directed at the silent ultra-Orthodox majority. People in Ramat Beit Shemesh A say that men harass ultra-Orthodox women merely for walking in the supermarket with wigs, as women from the Gerer Hasidic group do. They hurl insults at other women because they refuse to send their small sons to the part of the bus earmarked for men.

Anonymous said...

Another UOJ casualty

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk1OCZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NzIyOTY5OCZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTM=

PASSAIC -- A rabbi didn't think twice about interrupting prayer to rush to help a man struck on Katherine Avenue Monday by branches of a fallen 40-foot tree.

"I don't understand why people shouldn't help another human being," Rabbi Yehoshua Kaganoff said. He was praying in a home on Katherine Avenue shortly after 2 p.m. when the tree came crashing down.

The injured man, whom police identified as Thomas Painter, 59, suffered a dislocated left shoulder and a cut to the back of the head, according to Detective Andrew White of the Passaic Police Department. Painter, who was conscious at the scene, was taken to St. Mary's Hospital and listed in stable condition, White said Monday.

Police said Painter was standing outside of his silver 2003 Toyota Camry when he was struck by one of the tree's branches. The car sustained extensive damage to the rear windshield, and part of the roof caved in as a result.

The accident involving Painter came as the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for much of the tri-state area, including Passaic County and North Jersey. The advisory was expected to continue until 7 a.m. Tuesday. Advisories are issued when sustained winds of between 31 and 39 miles per hour or gusts of more than 45 miles per hour are possible, according to the National Weather Service.

Anonymous said...

http://www.forward.com/articles/12162/

I would to thank my good friends for all their moral support during this difficult time. Namely Belsky, Margulies & Moishe Rubashkin.

Gracias.

Anonymous said...

Where do you think Mondrowitz got his pistol?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931074.html

Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday convicted alleged organized crime boss Asi Abutbul of being an accessory to a weapons deal.

The court also convicted Eli Naim (nicknamed "the Magician"), one of the reputed crime chiefs in the Jerusalem area, of conspiring to commit a crime, and of illegally purchasing weapons.

The affair began at the beginning of 2006, when Jerusalem police stopped a car driven by two of Naim's men at the entrance to the city. A search of the vehicle revealed an Uzi sub-machine gun, magazines and silencers. One of the men found in the car was enlisted as a state's witness in the case.

After collecting a large amount of material during the course of their investigation, police decided to arrest the ten main suspects in the affair: Abutbul and three of his men, Naim and five of his.

Police suspected that the Abutbul and Naim collaborated in order to settle scores with rival groups in the capital.

During the arrest operation, police discovered a hidden weapons cache in an apartment belonging to one of Abutbul's suspected foot soldiers that included some three kilograms of RDX explosive material.

The case will be remembered for an incident that took place between Abutbul and Judge Hana Ben-Ami. The alleged crime boss was ejected from the courtroom after he shouted at the judge. He later told reporters "she will pay the price."

Anonymous said...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3477136,00.html

Is that a bomb strapped to your forehead?

Jewish passenger saying morning prayers on Chicago train causes panic by putting on tefellin, which other passengers thought to be wires of explosive belt
Itamar Eichner

A Jewish passenger on a Chicago train was arrested after fellow passengers accused him of being a suicide bomber.

The incident took place on a train that left Chicago early in the morning – when Jewish men are obligated to put on tefillin (phylacteries). The passenger began strapping the head-tefillin to his forehead and passengers unfamiliar with the custom rushed to the conductor and told him there was a man on board who was fastening a box to his head with wires dangling from it."

The conductor approached the passenger but the latter refused to answer him as he was in the middle of the prayer, heightening the conductor's suspicions.

Meanwhile, the passengers grew even more frantic when they noticed that the passenger sitting next to the Jewish man had a Middle-Eastern appearance and wore a turban.

"That was too much," said the Bob Byrd, NICTD chief of security.

The passengers panicked and the engine driver stopped the train. Police officers rushed into the train with a bomb-sniffing dog.

Police investigators soon realized their mistake and apologized to the passenger.

"This incident has given us all an opportunity to learn about other religions and their customs," said the chief of security.

Anonymous said...

"The case will be remembered for an incident that took place between Abutbul and Judge Hana Ben-Ami. The alleged crime boss was ejected from the courtroom after he shouted at the judge. He later told reporters "she will pay the price."

Does Abutbul need me to send the judge a hazmana?

Anonymous said...

New Voices Magazine profiles a Satmar chosid, "Sam," who left Williamsburg at age 19. Here's a bit about cheder and yeshiva education in Satmar:

…Corporal punishment at school was expected and tolerated by the community. Students were commonly hit with belts for violations as minute as losing one's place in the text while it was being read aloud. Sam recalls brutal treatment from his teachers, whom he grew to fear and despise. He still bears the scar from a pen jabbed into his hand as punishment for being late to class when he was four years old.

Sam says that he is no longer bitter or angry toward anyone in his old community. He tells me a story of a family member who was abused by the teachers and resents them greatly for it, yet sends his children to the same school, dooming them to the same experience. Sam says that by leaving, he is challenging this cycle of abuse. He doesn't hate the teachers who tormented him and who he feels pushed him to abandon his way of life and his religion. “They were hit, too” Sam says. “They don’t know anything else.”…

"Sam" taught himself English by buying secular newspapers and secretly reading them on the roof of his apartment building. At first, it took him a week to read one paragraph.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Fat Ferd Margo who likes slapping little boys in the face after Kolko feels them up comes from Satmar.

Anonymous said...

waddaya want from big dave the demon olefski?
He comes from very unkosher family stock. dig into his family tree and u will find a very unsavory member. hint: wonder y he harps on the fact he is the tzelle rav's son and dosn't say any more than that?

Anonymous said...

The putz looks modern orthodox.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/israeli-soldier-fined-over-babystealing-prank/2007/12/04/1196530678417.html

A TEENAGE Israeli soldier has been fined $1000 after he "jokingly" carried away a six-year-old boy from a St Kilda East park, telling the child he was a kidnapper.

Ariel Lourie, 19, said to the terrified victim that he was "going to put you into my car boot" before giving him "five seconds to run away".

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that the boy ran screaming and crying across a road as his mother confronted Lourie and demanded: "Are you crazy? What are you doing?"

Prosecutor Ted Combes said Lourie replied: "I was just joking", before the woman, who could not ring police because of her religious beliefs, consoled her son.

Lourie, who had a charge of child-stealing struck out, pleaded guilty to unlawful assault.

Magistrate Felicity Broughton yesterday fined Lourie without conviction after calling last week for a psychology report on him. It found he had no mental health issues. Ms Broughton had asked defence lawyer Steve Pica: "What is going on in this young man's head that this could be a joke?"

She reluctantly agreed not to sentence him so as not to "interfere with (his) continued moral, ethical and employment obligations" and rehabilitation.

Mr Combes said Lourie, who had arrived in Australia three days before the incident on September 15, sat with his cousin at 5.10pm as the boy and his younger brother played in Greenmeadows Gardens.

Mr Combes said the boy later revealed he heard someone twice say "don't do it" before Lourie picked him up and cradled him "as you would carry a baby".

As Lourie walked towards a street that bordered the park, the boy initially thought he was a family friend.

Mr Combes said Lourie told the boy "I'm not Jewish, I'm a kidnapper" and said he was going to put him in his boot.

The mother saw him being "carried off" and had started walking towards them.

Lourie had crossed the street to the corner of a grove, where he put down the boy, who ran screaming and crying to his mother.

Mr Pica told the court that what began as a joke and a game "obviously turned horrific" for mother and child, but he described Lourie as a decent man with an "over-friendly nature".

Mr Pica said Lourie, who was visiting his mother while on leave from the Israeli army, had apologised in writing to the woman for "creating a real nightmare".

Lourie was now absent without leave from the army and would return to Israel where he "still has to be dealt with by his father for this stupidity", he said.

Anonymous said...

Ben Barber is the Iggud Haganovim hack who raises votes & big money for Hynes.

Some of the Friedlanders are friends with Gershon Tannenbaum and one of them is the so called mashgiach who allowed treif all the years in Maimonides hospital.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2007/12/bipartisan-support-for-44th-cd.html

David Greenfield, executive vice president of the Sephardic Community Federation and a newcomer to electoral politics (although he has plenty of behind-the-scenes experience, working for both Sen. Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign and as Assemblyman Dov Hikind’s chief of staff), has put together a remarkably bipartisan and diverse group of supporters and guests for his first fundraiser to fuel a likely Council bid in the 44th CD in 2009.

The cost of the event - $2,500 to $1,000 a pop - is not small change and denotes a level of seriousness, particularly this far in advance of Election Day.

The current holder of that seat, Councilman Simcha Felder, who will be term-limited out of office in 2009 and is eyeing a comptroller run, is a member of Greenfield’s finance committee, as are education activist/consultant Michael Tobman and consultant Michael Fragin (a Republican aide to ex-Gov. George Pataki). There are also leaders of the Ashkenaz, Sephardic, Hasidic, and Catholic communities.

Special guests include: Assemblymen Vito Lopez, (acting in his personal capacity and not in his role as Brooklyn Democratic chairman, I’m told) and Alec Brook-Krasny, Senators Carl Kruger and Marty Golden (another Republican), and Councilmen Domenic Recchia and Michael Nelson.

The presence of the Republicans is meaningful in part because it could signal a possible cross endorsement for Greenfield should he fail to win the expected Democratic primary.

The list of potential Democratic candidates is considerable, including a friend of Hikind’s, Joe Lazar; Ezra Friedlander, Ben Barber, Morris Oiring (an aide to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz), Jules Fleischer (who was Sen. Diane Savino’s Orthodox liaison, unsure if he’s still there), and Yeruchim Silber, (worked for Councilman Bill DeBlasio, now VP of community affairs at the Metropolitan Jewish Health System).

Anonymous said...

http://www.nyobserver.com/2007/mailing-featuring-non-candidate-joe-lazar

Hikind, Taxpayers, Help an Almost-Candidate for Council

by Azi Paybarah

A helpful reader sent in this recent mailing from Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn which features rather prominently a man by the name of Joe Lazar.

That's the same Joe Lazar who is running for City Council in Hikind's section of Brooklyn, and, hypothetically, could benefit from this kind of taxpayer-funded exposure.

“As of now he wants to run, but he hasn’t made up his mind finally,” Hikind told me just now. “I don’t think anybody has announced to be honest with you.”

It’s an important distinction because, according to Hikind, announced candidates can’t appear in publicly funded mailings like this.

“The fact that somebody is thinking about running is a whole different ball game,” Hikind said.

“Again, anyone can be a prospective candidate. I know the rules. If he was a candidate he would not appear in anything that I’m issuing. I can tell you that right now. You know, I’m very tough and strict about that. He is not a candidate. The fact that somebody is thinking about it, I don’t think that automatically puts you in a category where you can’t appear in these kinds of things.”

In a quick scan of Lazar's web site, I didn't see a mention of City Council. But, if you google "Joe Lazar," the headline that pops up above the first hit that brings you to his web site does say "Joe Lazar for New York City Council-Home."

Here's what Lazar said: “You know, you can read anything you want to into anything. But I’ve been doing things for the community, and for all communities actually--I retired last year, about a year and a half ago, with about 35 years in government service. I don’t have to look for a cell phone project to get my name known in the community. And I wouldn’t cheapen myself to do something like that.”

Mr.Anonymous (not verified) says:
DOV HIKIND ANNOUNCED at his United NY FUndraiserlast month that Joe Lazr is running for Council. Simcha Felder announced that 3 people were running for Council - Ezra Friedlander, David Greenfield, and Joe Lazar. The fact that both Hikind AND Lazar are lying about this should not be surprising, considering everything else that Hikind LIED about in the past (COJO).

The_truth (not verified) says:
Get your facts straight before calling Joe Lazar a liar. He has never announced that he is a candidate. He is well known and liked in the community. Bringing up COJO, which I assume you meant the court case against Hikind, is just stupid. This is America and he was found innocent of all charges in that case. If that is not good enough for you then move to another country. If you have a personal vendetta or you want to run for the council seat then at least have the guts to give your name.

Anonymous said...

http://friendsofjoelazar.com/home

5614 16th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210
ph: 718-851-1356
fax: 718-504-3781
joelazar@friendsofjoelazar.com

Joseph Lazar is a consultant to:

The Lazar Consulting Group (www.lazarcg.com).

In February of 2006, Joe Lazar retired as the Director of the New York City Field Office for the New York State Office of Mental Health, a position he held since October of 1995, thus ending a career in government and politics spanning five decades.

In his role at the Office of Mental Health, Joe was responsible for the coordination, certification and oversight of all mental health services within the City of New York, including oversight of the mental health programs operated through the New York City Department of Health Mental Hygiene. His office also reviewed and approved all “Certificates Of Need” in New York City, for program and fiscal integrity. There are some 800 licensed and several hundred unlicensed mental health programs in New York City, whose costs exceed $4 Billion annually.

Joe had coordinated the State’s Mental Health efforts in New York City, coordinating the efforts of the Federal, State and City governments in the aftermath of the World Trade Center Disaster of 9/11/2001. This required coordinating the efforts of the U.S. Public Health Service, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the State Emergency Management Office (SEMO), the NYC Emergency Management Office (OEM), the American Red Cross, the NYS Office of Mental Health, the NYC Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services, the NYS Department of Education, The NYC Board of Education, and several hundred voluntary organizations.

Joe had also been a driving force in the Governor’s initiative on Orthodox Youths At Risk, bringing together both government agencies and community providers, in an effort to stem the tide in this difficult issue.

In 1989 he was appointed Assistant Regional Director for Fiscal Services with the New York City Regional Office of the New York State Office of Mental Health.

Before joining the State in 1984, Joe was the Director of Fiscal Affairs for the New York City Department of Buildings, responsible for budget, licensing, revenue collection, and all administrative services for the Department.

In 1973, Joe, a budget analyst, was appointed as the Deputy Director of General Services for the New York City Housing and Development Administration.

In 1971, Joe managed the investments for the New York City treasury and the New York City employee retirement funds under the leadership of then New York City Comptroller Abraham Beame.

In the late sixties and early seventies, Joe served as an auxiliary police officer, an aid to Assemblyman Leonard Silverman and a member of Community Planning Board 12 in Brooklyn.

Joe, and his wife Surie live in Brooklyn with their daughter and son-in-law, twin sons and daughter-in-laws, and eight grandchildren.

Anonymous said...

We're one big happy family & our connections through Dov Hikind really help!!

http://www.lazarcg.com/home.html

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Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071204/NEWS/712040309

Maj. Gen. Tom Bostick, escorted by seven soldiers, journeyed from Fort Knox, Ky., to honor 147 kids who this summer graduated from a program that aims to make them better citizens — the Leadership and Law Academy.

It's a program in which kids in the northern Orange County school awoke in the pre-dawn dark to slip on blue shirts with collars and khaki bottoms. Then they would march in formation, scale a 25-foot-tall wall and hear instructors from the school, the Army, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the police or the FBI, including an undercover Hasidic agent. They learned to read a fingerprint, play the stock market and argue legal cases.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

From the Commentator: (in part)

Leaking Ship: Young Israel On The Rocks

Survey, Conversations With YI Presidents, Observers, Show Resentment For NCYI, Anger With Recent Ideological Decisions

Charlie Quinn

Issue date: 12/3/07

Since its inception in 1912, the Young Israel movement has attempted to steer the precarious balance that is American Modern Orthodoxy. But according to sources inside the Young Israel as well as outside observers, the National Council of Young Israel may have run aground. A fresh series of controversial decisions asserting a greater dominance for the NCYI in ideological and halachic issues, as well an alleged neglect of support services for their synagogue, have coalesced to create a maelstrom of criticism and discontent for the venerable institution that, to some, foreshadows its potential decline.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Scary stuff:

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- A new year, a new start. For the credit markets, that's wishful thinking.

Nearly six months since the credit crunch started, the situation is still grim - and there are few encouraging signs, which doesn't bode well for businesses and households next year.

Toxic debt keeps cropping up on bank balance sheets. The housing slump still hasn't found a bottom, and investors remain skittish. Market watchers expect the credit environment to remain challenging into the better part of 2008. That will take a toll on corporate profits and squeeze American consumers, not to mention put a drag on economic growth.

"We're pretty close to a point where the capital markets fail to function properly," said John Addeo, a high-yield fund manager at MFS Investments. "I believe the Fed has the ability and wherewithal to resolve that issue, but what we really need to see is a restoration of confidence in the financial system."

When the mortgage mess triggered a wave of turmoil in the summer, investors had hoped problems would remain relatively contained. Instead, they've seeped into all pockets of the debt market.

The culprit has been the loads of complex debt instruments tied to home loans given to borrowers with poor credit. From collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) to structured investment vehicles (SIVs), this alphabet soup of products has wreaked havoc on financial markets.

Financial firms have taken staggering writedowns, costing the CEOs at Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500) and Merrill Lynch (Charts, Fortune 500) their jobs. The heavy losses, which are expected to continue into next year, have also forced banks to tighten their lending.

Anonymous said...

One of the focal points at a public hearing on Monday before the New York City Board of Health on the City Health Department’s proposed new child care regulations related to kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs operated by religious elementary schools.

The regulations, embodied in Article 47 of the New York City Health Code, impose detailed requirements upon all child care programs in the city. For many years, pre-school programs connected to religious elementary schools were exempt from having to obtain a formal permit under Article 47, and in fact received little regulatory oversight from the Health Department. However, in March of this year, the Department proposed an overhaul of the Article 47 regulations that would have done away with the permit exemption and would have required religious school kindergarten and pre-K programs to undergo onerous regulation.

Last month, however, after months of extensive discussion with the city’s religious school representatives, the Health Department reconsidered its position and decided to entirely exempt religious school pre-school programs from Article 47 regulations. Instead, the Health Department plans to regulate such programs under Article 45 of the Health Code – the same section of the Code that is binding upon public school pre-school programs – with the focus of such regulation only on certain core issues of basic health and safety. Monday’s hearing was to garner comment on the proposed wording of the new Article 47 regulation to codify the Health Department’s decision.

At the hearing, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel of America’s vice president for government and public affairs, expressed deep gratitude to Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden and his staff for working with Agudath Israel and other religious school groups, and eventually coming to the realization that pre-school programs attached to private elementary schools “are most appropriately treated by the Department as schools and not as independent child care programs.”

“This is the correct approach,” said Rabbi Zwiebel, “for two broad reasons.

“First, it reflects the reality that pre-school programs attached to religiously-sponsored elementary schools are part and parcel of the larger elementary school educational experience, certainly no less so than pre-school programs attached to public schools. Second, applying the full scope of Article 47 to pre-schools attached to religiously-sponsored elementary schools would impose an extraordinary financial and logistical burden on such programs – many of which are located in areas where space is at a premium, and where the population of children who require such services continues to grow at a rapid pace – thereby rendering it impossible to provide the type of affordable quality service that families in our communities have been receiving through these school-based programs.”

The Agudath Israel representative then offered several suggested changes to the proposed new regulation, to ensure that it indeed accomplishes what it was drafted to do.

One suggestion concerned wording that would have limited the religious pre-school exemption to such programs not only operating as “part of” an elementary school but also “located within” the school. There are, Rabbi Zwiebel noted, “a number of elementary schools in our community which, for logistical and other reasons, operate their pre-school programs in different buildings.” He suggested the problematic phrase be omitted from the regulation. The Agudath Israel representative also suggested that in-formation elementary schools qualify as well as already established ones; and that an age requirement for students at exempted pre-schools be clarified in the language of the rule.

Others who testified at the public hearing in favor of the proposed new regulation’s exemption of religious school kindergarten and pre-K programs was Rabbi Moshe Dovid Niederman, president of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, and Dr. Paul Lynch, associate superintendent for government programs and public policy at the Archdiocese of New York.

“We treasure the spirit of good faith and mutual respect that has characterized our discussions with the Health Department…” Rabbi Zwiebel concluded. “And we pledge our ongoing commitment to this important collaborative process.”

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The above circus involves the same metziza b'peh hoodlums!

Unknown said...

I live right near his neigbourhood in Jerusalem and really would like to take matters into my hand...not having somemore kids lifes ruined.

Whoever was involved with this story please e-mail me to mreich@hotmail.co.uk and we will see what we can do.