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All my efforts were for naught. Margulies and Kolko were digging in...and nothing they were being told - meant anything! I had used every ounce of energy attempting to persuade his go-betweens, and there were many, that none of his tactics were going to work. He was either going to bais din immediately, or I was going to take him down! The "Torah" world was warned through an intermediary, nay, many intermediaries.
Torah Umesorah knew! The Agudath Israel knew! The entire Torah Temimah hanhala and the board of directors knew. Sruli Belsky knew! It was no secret, I made certain that they had every opportunity to do right for the many victims, the Torah prescribed dictates of treasuring human life, and for Klal Yisroel! It was time to stand up and admit to a fatally flawed policy by the "gedolim" - that destroyed generations. The whole world knew...but nobody cared!
It was time to beg forgiveness...way past the time - where elaborate yeshiva buildings took precedence to preserving the treasured neshamot entrusted to their care!
But....as I learned over my life...there's nobody home!
They don't give a darn! They laugh at the thought that the children really matter. Of course not, they're just inventory in their warehouses. A number in a bakery line...a meal ticket to riches and real estate holdings.
I agonized...I knew exactly where this was going to wind up. I was already in contact with the media. Jeff Herman was lined up! One last shot...issue the hazmana from a successful attorney that specializes in clergy sex-abuse cases. All - Kleinman, Applegrad and Weinberger, yes George, had to do - was google Jeff Herman. See what he's done and undone! Please be afraid - please!
They did not care...at that point neither did I. I retained TWO respected toenim to represent the victims in bais din on March 16...one week before the hazmana was sent and faxed, just in case I was wrong! I hoped I was wrong! The victims deserved the best representation money could buy. They deserved no less, finally! The Heavens finally broke down and cried with the victims! But not the gedolim...they were at dinners! They were busy....who cared what some crazy was doing on the Internet. We'll hold asifas and ban him!
I shot the first bullet....they went scrambling to various people but not to bais din. Belsky said NO! I sent more messages....nothing! I fired off the second hazmana from an attorney that specializes in clergy sex-abuse cases...not a dumb putz rabbi that they could get Belsky or Epstein to threaten! A real lawyer with experience in this area! Collected millions for victims! Please be afraid - please!
I fired the third hazmana....nothing, they gave Jeff Herman the finger.
I was ready...Jeff was ready...Robert Kolker (New York Magazine) was ready....Margulies had one more chance. Fire Kolko pending a full competent investigation and real din Torah! No dice...he was putting Kolko on temporary leave,.... maybe!
As they say, the rest is in the history books!
So the Agudath Israel and their pathetic group of bozos...all of them knew; but did they? Did they know that they would be dragged through the filth they created - forever and forever? Did they really know the damage that would last forever...and did they care? Of course not, the bloggers are nasty people! Horrors! Lashon hara! Mesirah! Let's change the subject - ban the Internet! We'll get "Tzvi Frankel" to bash the bloggers...all of them!
I will never let you change the subject - NEVER! Do you hear me now? Do you?
To all of you "gedolim" I say...I'm far from done with you criminals. I'm just getting warmed up!
382 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 382 of 382http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Epstein_Jeffrey.html
The two best known enablers of Jeffrey Epstein are Alan Dershowitz (Boro Park Putz at Harvard) and Leslie Wexner, owner of Limited Brands, parent company of Victoria's Secret, Pink, Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, C. O. Bigelow, The White Barn Candle Company, Diva London, La Senza. Previous brands that have spun off include: Lane Bryant, Abercrombie & Fitch and Lerner New York.
There are also 14 other people whose identities are not known who have given Epstein over $1 billion dollars each to invest.
Ace Greenberg, the long time head honcho at Bear Stearns is considered to be Epstein's mentor.
Wexner, a Litvak, and his mother Bella were the first to make a $1 million personal donation to the United Way. Both their names were inscribed in marble and are on display in the lobby of the United Way headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
Wexner was recently recognized as the wealthiest man in the state of Ohio. He is well known for his philanthropy, often to Jewish projects. He serves as Honorary Vice Chairman of the Board of Congregation Agudas Achim (Conservative) in Bexley. He was a major funder of the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, the name of which is actually intended to honor his father. In 1984 he established the Wexner Foundation. It has both a Graduate Fellowship and an Israel Fellowship Program.
Formerly of Bexley, Ohio, Wexner now lives in a $47 million, Georgian inspired estate on nearly 1000 acres in New Albany built in 1990.
Also nearby is the major shopping village of Easton Town Center, which Wexner and partners (including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steiner + Associates) also developed. As a pun on his name and his former residence in Bexley, the village of New Albany was known (unofficially) for some time as Wexley.
"Heidi Fleiss" of Palm Beach is alleged to have brought six girls between ages 14 and 18 to Epstein's house for massages.
I figured UOJ would get around sooner or later to my dirty tactics in protecting my friend Epstein who grew up with me in Brooklyn.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbccentral/content/local_news/epaper/2006/07/29/s1b_epstein_0729.html
Famed Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz met with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office and provided damaging information about teenage girls who say they gave his client, Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, sexually charged massages, according to police reports.
And the documents also reveal that the father of at least one girl complained that private investigators aggressively followed his car, photographed his home and chased off visitors.
Police also talked to somebody who said she was offered money if she refused to cooperate with the Palm Beach Police Department probe of Epstein.
The case originally was going to be presented to the grand jury in February, but was postponed after Dershowitz produced information gleaned from the Web site myspace.com showing some of the alleged victims commenting on alcohol and marijuana use, according to the police report prepared by Detective Joseph Recarey.
Epstein's friends also cooked up a scheme to badmouth the Palm Beach Police Chief.
Also working with with Epstein here are another of his friends, the big PR guy Howard Rubinstein
Epstein also hired Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr and Roy Black, the lawyer from the William Kennedy Smith rape trial.
What do you expect from a prusta menuval like Dershowitz?
He writes in his book "Chutzpah" that he takes kosher food to his favorite nudist beach.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-litaco275515591dec27,0,3859783.story?coll=ny_home_rail_headlines
December 27, 2007
A man gunned down an employee at a Lawrence Taco Bell last night, then fled the restaurant and used the gun moments later to kill himself, Nassau police said last night.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c39_a1552/News/International.html
An accord expanding U.S. Evangelical Christians’ stake in the innermost sanctums of the Zionist movement has produced an undercurrent of unease in Israel and North American Jewish leadership circles.
Under the new "strategic partnership" announced late last week, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) will donate $45 million over three years to the struggling Jewish Agency in return for a spot on the executive board for President Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, ICJF’s president and a pioneer fostering the alliance between Christian Zionists and Israel.
Over 25 years, Rabbi Eckstein has burnished his image among Israelis for channeling charity money raised in Christian communities to Jewish immigrants to Israel, social welfare programs in distressed Israeli towns, and elderly Russian Jews. On Tuesday, his organization was thanked once again by Jewish Agency for giving $10,000 stipends to each of the 40 Iranian Jews who had defected in secret this week to Israel.
Though the Evangelicals’ Orthodox emissary has been the target of excommunication attempts and an investigation by a New York rabbinical court, which was unnamed in news reports, he also advised former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
by Tamar Snyder
Staff Writer
Professor Benjamin Ish-Shalom is head of the Joint Conversion Institute, a network of study centers aimed at helping immigrants, including the estimated 300,000 people from the former Soviet Union, convert to Judaism. The Institute, which represents Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews, was established by the Israeli government and the Jewish agency following the Ne’eman Commission’s recommendations in April 1998. As a showdown between Israel’s rabbinate and its ever-growing opponents over thorny conversion issues becomes increasingly likely, The Jewish Week spoke to Ish-Shalom during his recent visit to New York to talk about the conversion issue.
The Jewish Week: You are threatening to create independent conversion courts should Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar refuse to heed two-month-old recommendations set forth by a governmental committee calling for the
replacement of the current crop of haredi conversion rabbis. What are some problems afflicting the rabbis approved by the Chief Rabbinate?
Benjamin Ish-Shalom: Many of the rabbis who serve in the batei din for conversion are not open-minded enough and are not welcoming the potential converts. They don’t understand the social, cultural and mental conditions of the converts. Instead, they adopt a very strict approach. The outcome is that many who want to convert cannot overcome the examinations of the batei din. Others hear about the difficulties and obstacles and hesitate to join the process and don’t attempt to convert at all. It was always this way, but it’s becoming more and more difficult.
What sort of difficulties are you referring to?
Many of these obstacles are unrelated to underlying halachic demands. It’s a question of approach, of rabbinic policy. They are not willing to convert a woman who wears trousers. They want her to dress like a religious Orthodox woman. I know of a policewoman, who has to wear a uniform. They recommended that she switch jobs. There was another woman who represented the State of Israel at the Olympics. They demanded that she leave the sport and switch to another occupation. She did it because she wanted to be converted. But this is not a halachic demand.
You also complain that the conversion process is often dragged out for far longer than it needs to be. Can you describe other barriers to conversion that concern you?
The percentage of people who cannot overcome the exams is growing. They expect the convert to know many things that even religious people may not, including knowing the text of lengthy blessings by heart and answering questions regarding intricate details of halacha. Generally speaking, they expect the convert to become observant to the extent that he or she can be fully integrated into the religious community. They won’t convert someone who lives on a [secular] kibbutz.
What about your claims that the beit din prolongs the conversion process in order to deter converts?
It takes too long. [The rabbis] don’t want to make it too easy. It can take from a month or two to six months, a year. And then it takes another half a year until they receive the conversion certificate. It all depends on the impression that the rabbis get from meeting with the convert. Also, currently the rabbis are paid for every time they meet with the convert. Therefore, they have no reason not to invite them for another meeting. We recommend that they get paid on a monthly basis.
You’ve had considerably more success in converting Russian immigrants who are in the army, through the Institute’s Nativ program. Why is that?
The Nativ program offers three months of full-time learning about Judaism, halachic observance and Israel, as well as Shabbatonim in which students visit various Jewish communities. The first seven weeks offers a basic background in the Bible, Jewish history and Zionism. Visits to archeological sites enhance the day-to-night Torah learning sessions. They then get a month’s break to determine whether they want to continue with the conversion process. If they decide to go ahead with it, they then spend several weeks studying more intricate areas of halacha. Finally, they appear before a rabbinical military court to be converted to Judaism.
Since the program debuted in 2003, close to 80 percent of the 3,000 soldiers enrolled have been converted. Conversions in civilian conversion courts have around a 50 percent success rate. Part of the success is the fact that soldiers are living on a military base that is halachically observant. They have a kosher kitchen and a synagogue on premises. All the conditions are in place in order to maintain an observant lifestyle. It’s immersion.
Is the number of IDF conversions growing?
There are more and more rabbis in the civilian track who speak against the “easier” way of converting soldiers. They’re putting pressure on rabbis in the IDF.
Why the move to set up independent conversion courts?
Since the chief rabbinate does not face the real needs of the people, it ignores its own responsibilities and loses its relevance. If there’s no change, the whole structure of the conversion authority is questioned.
It seems unlikely that Rabbi Amar will heed the recommendations and appoint volunteer religious judges to replace the haredi rabbis currently serving in the conversion courts. What’s the timetable for establishing independent conversion courts?
We would prefer not to have any confrontation with the official rabbinic establishment. But we have no choice. We’re losing time and we’re losing the people.
Ish Shalom is a misguided putz. While Tropper is driven by money & prestige, Ish Shalom is probably from the school of thought that we have to increase the number of Jews in Israel - at any cost - to counter the Arabs.
I said I am against molestation of any kind. Yudi Kolko however was performing medical examinations.
http://www.chabadlibrary.org/books/default.aspx?furl=/zz/shut/2/249/1
ספרי כ"ק אדמו"ר ה"צמח צדק" > שו"ת > יורה דעה > סימן רלז > א
סימן רלז
א
לשו"ע סי' רמ"ו וסי' של"ד סמ"ב. ע"ד החשד שהיה על ההמ"צ דמחניכם ששחק עם נער א' בפורים והכניס ידו לתוך מכנסים של הנער אך נותן אמתלא ע"ז כי [הוא] חשוכי בנים מפני שאין לו ג"א מצד שהביצים שלו קטנים ביותר. ולכן רצה לידע אם כמ"כ הם אצל שארי אנשים:
הנה בירושלמי הביאו בב"י סס"י של"ד ובכ"מ פ"ז מהת"ת זקן שסרח אין מורידין אותו מגדולתו. לפ"ז מ"ש בש"ס שלנו במ"ק (די"ז) הכבד ושב בביתך. אין ר"ל להורידו מגדולתו כלל. והנה צ"ל דהפוסקים פסקו כר"ל דאמר ת"ח שסרח אין מנדין אותו כו'. ופסקו ג"כ כרב יהודה דשמתי' לההוא צורבא מרבנן דהוי סאני שומעני'. ושניהם במ"ק שם. והרי הם זה לעומת זה. הן אמת מדברי הרמב"ם נ' דהחילוק כך דפוסק כרב יהודה כמ"ש בפ"ו מהת"ת בסופו וז"ל חכם ששמועתו רעה ומ"ש רפ"ז מהת"ת אין מנדין היינו דוקא חכם זקן מופלג או אב"ד כו'. וכן מצאתי בב"י סי' של"ד שחילק בכה"ג בד"ה ומ"ש וכן כל ת"ח כו'. אך בטור שם משמע דמחלק בענין אחר והוא דרב יהודה מיירי בסני שומעני' דהיינו מתביישים משמועתו וזה גרע טפי מפני דה"ל חילול השם וכדאיתא ביומא דפ"ו. ומעתה בנד"ז י"ל דה"ל חילול השם. ויש להחמיר להרא"ש. אבל לפ"ד הרמב"ם כיון דהוא כמו אב"ד בעירו וראש העיר אין להעבירו כו'. ועיין בתשו' שער אפרים סי' ס"ד ס"ה. אך בנ"ד שנותן אמתלא טובה על הדבר י"ל דלכ"ע אין להעבירו כלל דאמתלא מהני בגמ' נגד כמה דברים
See footnote #33 at the bottom
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2007/11/marc-b-shapiro-responses-to-comments.html
R. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (the third Lubavitcher Rebbe) in Tzemah Tzedek, Yoreh Deah, #237, was asked the following question: A rabbi was playing with a young man on Purim and stuck his hands into the pants of the youth. The rabbi claimed that he did so because he was unable to perform sexually. He thought that this was due to his small testicles and he wanted to see if he was unusual in this regard. In other words, the rabbi was conducting a medical examination on the boy. The Tzemah Tzedek decided that the rabbi should not be removed from his position, as he provided a good explanation for his behavior. One can only wonder how many other boys were subjected to this rabbi’s medical examinations.
Ariel Sokolovsky of Boston, the head of the "Elokistim" (wackos who believe that the Lubab Rebbe is more than Moshiach - that he is G-d kaviyochol) is criticizing Shmarya for ignoring the Tzemach Tzedek story. He says that Shmarya will attack any Chabad rabbi besides him because his great grandfather for close to the Tzemach Tzedek.
If anyone remembers, Steve has asked Shmarya umpteen times to write about this but Shmarya ignored it. Shmarya later came up with a wishy washy BS answer that the Tzemach Tzedek teshuva is not available, so Sokolovsky found it online.
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2007/09/marc-shapiro-what-do-adon-olam-and-mean.html
Rav Mazuz is a very interesting personality. To begin with, he had a close connection to Habad for many decades, having taught in a Habad school in Tunis in the 1960’s. Yet when he saw the Messianic fever and other problems in Habad, he publicly condemned what was going on and wrote a long letter detailing his objections.[12]
He is also the only one of our gedolim who is an expert in arcane areas such as grammar,[14] Masorah, and medieval Hebrew poetry.
In fact, since he is an expert in this latter field, I knew that I could ask him a question about which most other gedolim would probably have no clue what I was talking about. One doesn’t need to have read Steve Greenberg’s book, or have listened to some of the gay advocates speaking around the time of the recent Jerusalem parade, to know that man-boy love is a theme in a number of medieval Hebrew poems.[15] I raised this issue with R. Mazuz, and was pretty sure that he would answer the way he did:
חס וחלילה להאמין שחכמי ספרד כתבו שירים מענין משכב זכור. וראה בסוף ס' תחכמוני שהביא עשרה שירים לקלל ולארר נבל אחד שכתב "לו שר בנו עמרם פני דודי" וכו'. צבי חן הוא כינוי לעלם יפה ואין בו כל דופי. חוקרי זמננו מהרהורי לבם ותעתועי רוחם כותבים מה שכותבים
(The reference to the Tahkemoni can be found in the Warsaw, 1899 edition, ed. Kaminka, pp. 430ff.)
Unless I missed something, I didn’t see any of the gay advocates mention R. Hayyim Vital’s assertion that when drunk, R. Yisrael Najara would engage in homosexual behavior. This passage was censored in a recent publication, as noted by Dan Rabinowitz.
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2006/05/hatikvah-shir-hamaalot-censorship.html
There is a rather interesting teshuva which appears in R. Avrohom Weinfeld's Lev Avrohom. In it he discusses whether one can recite Shir HaMa'alot to the tune of Hatikvah.
He first explains that this question involves the question of whether a tune from an impure source is appropriate to use. He begins by discussing the two well-known teshuvot (the Teshuvot haBakh and the Krach shel Romi) dealing with using non-Jewish tunes for Jewish songs.
However, without getting into all of his halakhic discusion, I would like to focus on his final proof that using a tune or the like for an impure source is inappropriate. He finishes with a quote from the book Shivchei Rav Hayyim Vital. This quote demonstrates, for him, that it does matter what the source of something is. The quote is as follows:
אמת הוא שהפזמונים שחיבר הם בעצמם טובים, אבל הוא בעצמו אסור לדבר עמו, ומי שמוציא מפיו הפזמונים שחיבר רע לו. כי תמיד פיו דובר נבלה וכל ימיו שיכור While it is true that the songs he composed are themselves good, he [the composer] it is not permitted to speak with him, and whomever sings the songs he [the composer] wrote, it is bad. Because [the composer] is always speaking profanities and spends his days drunk.
Thus, according to R. Weinfeld, this shows that R. Hayyim held it is very important to know who the source is and if that source is bad, one should not use it even if it is a nice song. In fact, R. Hayyim continues (although this does not appear in the Lev Avrohom) with other rather serious allegations against this person. However, this proof is premised on the fact that we accept this. That is, if we were to figure out who this person was and we in fact do sing his songs, obviously we would not follow R. Hayyim's understanding.
Now, as is apparent, in the Shivchei this person is anonymous. But all is not lost. The Shivchei is in fact an abriged version of a longer work. That work, Sefer Hezyonot the Book of Visions, is in fact published.
The Sefer Hezyonot was first published in 1954 by Mossad HaRav Kook. Admittedly, this book contains rather shocking material and was therefore claimed that it was not in fact from R. Hayyim. R. Reuvan Margolios (Leib Tropper's ex-shver), among others, protested outside of Mossad HaRav Kook after this was published. Needless to say Mossad HaRav Kook never republished this. Now in truth it seems the manuscript which was used to print this book was actually from R. Hayyim's own hand. And therefore this book has actually been republished recently in three different editions.
The first was in 1999 in an English edition "Jewish Mystical Autobiographies, Book of Visions." The second was in 2002 by a Yeshiva in Jerusalem and was edited and includes a commentary by R. Nesonel Monsor. However, as we shall see, this was not a complete edition. And then finally, this year Mochon Yad Ben Tzvi put out a critical edition of this book.
So to return to our question, who was this unnamed composer, one just needs to open a Sefer Hezyonot to find out. There the very same passage as was in the Shivchei appears, however, it includes the name of the person. That person is the composer R. Yisrael Nagara. R. Yisrael was not unknown, in fact he authored a very well-known zemer which is sung universally, kah rebon 'olam.
Now that we know who this is, we now see that it would appear we do not hold like R. Hayyim, in that we sing this song, even though R. Hayyim declared it was improper to do so. Thus, R. Weinfeld's proof is no longer a proof, but if R. Hayyim is correct in his claims of drunkeness etc. it actually demonstrates that we do not care that the source may be impure as it was.
Sokolovsky is also putting the squeeze on Shmarya over Theodore Herzl. Shmarya refuses to post a report that Herzl was fooling around with a 13 year old girl, using the excuse that he cannot verify the source and it may be from either the extreme right like Arutz 7 or the extreme left.
Sokolovsky is taunting Shmarya that he only refuses to post it because he doesn't want secular Zionists to look bad.
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2007/09/marc-shapiro-what-do-adon-olam-and-mean.html
[5] The one quality history book – and it is a really fine piece of work – published by Artscroll is Eliyahu Klugman’s biography of Hirsch. But unfortunately, even he couldn’t be totally honest. Thus, we find the following on page 66: “Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the first great Torah educator in America . . .” Is it possible that Klugman has never heard of Rabbi Bernard Revel and Yeshivas R. Yitzchak Elchanan? Regarding Mendlowitz, and the great respect he gets from the haredim, I have always assumed that they are unaware of his great love for the teachings of R. Kook. Listen to Menachem Mendlowitz, “The Complexity of Greatness: My Grandfather, Rav Shrage Feivel Mendlowitz” at Torah In Motion here:
http://torahinmotion.org/store/store.htm
R. Shraga also planned to open, together with R. Hutner, the American Hebrew Theological University. This is discussed in Helmreich’s World of the Yeshiva. This institution would have been just like Lander College. For a relevant source which, as far as I know, has gone unnoticed, see HebrewBooks here:
http://www.hebrewbooks.org/root/data/pdfs/as/otzrotjer12.pdf
and go to page 176 in the counter. Here we find that Mendlowitz wanted the Mir Yeshiva in New York to institute secular studies. (The author of this report, R. Moshe Yehudah Blau, was the world’s greatest editor of rishonim from manuscript, long before this became fashionable.)
Judaism must root out the fraudsters like Leib Tropper - Lipa Margulies - Philip Berg/Kabbala Ctr. - Marvin Hier/ Holocaust Judaism - whose only talent is to rob Judaism of its intended holiness - as intended by Chazal - to enrich themselves!
Someone keeps posting his version of the story with Dovid Cohen all over, which according to Professor Shapiro is not exactly what happened. It should also be noted that David Hartman is a nut job:
http://seforim.blogspot.com/2007/11/marc-b-shapiro-responses-to-comments.html
For the haredi world, one of the Rav’s great errors was his description of the differences between the Chazon Ish and the Brisker Rav, as expressed in the eulogy he delivered for the latter. In this eulogy R. Dovid Cohen famously screamed his protest at what he thought was the disrespect shown to the Chazon Ish. The Rav’s wife yelled that he should be taken out, and none other than R. David Hartman physically forced Cohen out of the hall. A few weeks ago R. Rakefet faxed me some pages from a new book on the Brisker Rav. Lo and behold, this hagiography says exactly what the Rav said, to wit, the Chazon Ish was prepared to engage in some flattery vis-à-vis Ben Gurion for the sake of kelal Yisrael, but the Brisker Rav was such an ish emet that no matter how good the cause he couldn’t bring himself to do this.
We wonder why UOJ left the Iggud haganovim off the list.
Much has been written about the shidduch crisis that has so sadly befallen girls of all ages. We have seen the blame game take many different angles and a variety of theories to explain the crisis. Some blame it on picky boys, parents, age gap, lack of money and Shadchanim. Like any other problem in the world, the victims are quick to blame others and forget sometimes that they too may be the cause to some extent of the problem.
Being a successful shadchan for many years, I cannot deny that the above doesn’t place any factor in the backup, however I feel that the girls themselves definitely play a major role in the crisis. Let me explain.
While it is true that the boys can be picky and it is hard to get a “yes” from them, it is only that way because they have a much broader market to choose from. However, once they give the go ahead, they usually show full interest in trying to make it work and give it their absolute best to give the girl a fair chance. Though they may have doubts or issues, they won’t nix the shidduch unless they are absolutely sure it’s not for them.
On the other hand, the girls, who give a yes very easily to go out, as soon as things don’t go the way they dreamt it would go, they rush to declare “it’s not for me” or “I can’t see it” and “It’s just not clicking”. They let their emotions take over and they don’t make a logical and thought out decision.
After discussing it with people in the shidduch field, we came to the conclusion that when a shidduch breaks up at an advanced stage, 80% of the time, it was the girl who dropped it. Also, the older a girl gets, the more likely she is to drop it, versus older boys, the older they get, the less of a chance you have that they will drop it “late in the game“.
Although until now I’ve tried redting older girls to boys, at this point the boys are so turned off from all the rejection, that I have a hard time convincing them to try it. They all tell me, why risk getting rejected when it’s been proven over and over again that older girls don’t give them a chance.
We have all read how last year Rav Chaim Stein declared the crisis a gezeira min hashamayim. It’s important to note that Yirmiyahu Hanavi writes in Eicha (3,38) “mipi elyon lo tetzei haraos vihatov” - from Hashem doesn’t come bad or good. The meforshim explain that even though everything comes from Hashem, including bad, it doesn’t come because of Hashem but rather from our sins or our actions (such as someone taking his own life). In order to stop the gezeira, we should do teshuva and in our case, try to fix our mistakes.
I haven’t written this letter to criticize or cause pain to the girls chas vishalom, but rather to open up their eyes and help them, with the help of Hashem, find their bashert.
To all the single women out there, I beg of you to please take time and think over whom you may have rejected in the past for no concrete or valid reason and if they are still around, give it another try. Maybe if you go with the attitude that I WANT this to work out, you may see things in a different light and it might start “clicking“. And when you go out next with a new bochur, give it your best and don’t make any decisions without discussing it with an outsider that will help you see things in a level-headed way and having your long term interests in mind.
May all the single boys and girls out there find their basherte bikarov mamish.
B.Y.L.
Lakewood NJ
Here is a yeshivishe guy, father of 2 shidduch age girls, complaining on Shmeckstein's YeshivaWorld:
Boys and their parents are making unreasonable demands on the girls parents regarding support. Today the average boy is looking for 7 years support and the better than average is looking for more years and $3,000 a month in support.
All this money being spent on people with his favorite pigmentation.
Published: 12/27/2007 by JTA
The Conservative movement will build an adult yeshiva for the Abayudaya, a community of Jewish converts in Uganda.
The $15,000 gift, announced Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif., at the national convention of United Synagogue Youth, the youth arm of the Conservative movement, was presented to Gershom Sizomu, the first member of the Abayudaya community to enter rabbinical school. A research fellow at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco, Sizomu will receive his ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles in May.
The 800 members of the Abayudaya, who had been living as Jews for years, were formally converted to Judaism in 2002 by a visiting delegation of Conservative rabbis.
Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said the gift of the yeshiva sustains the youth movement’s support of the Abayudaya Jews begun last year with a donation for a Jewish library.
The library will be housed in the new yeshiva, which is expected to be completed by summer.
Four or five students will begin studying next fall, Epstein said. Other students are expected to follow, some from “lost” African Jewish communities elsewhere in Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and southern Africa.
The Complexity of Greatness: Rav Shrage Feivel Mendlowitz.
UOJ is a Ho Ho Ho.
From this week's The Forward (in part)...This is what happens when "Judaism" becomes a free-for-all run by gangsters!
--------------
.....Although commonly recognized as performers of the brith milah, or Jewish circumcision, an increasing number of mohels are finding themselves handling the rituals for non-Jewish babies (even when, as in the DeCaros’ case, the father happens to be an ordained minister). Sherman, 51, may be one of the most prolific circumcisers in the tri-state area, but others — including Emily Blake in New York and Joel Shoulson in Philadelphia — have also found their services called upon by non-Jewish families. While it’s not clear exactly how many mohels offer nonritual circumcisions, the practice is, according to Shoulson — an Orthodox-trained mohel who has circumcised Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists and Hindus during his 50-year career — very widespread....
theforward.com
...one more thing....How many of these "circumcised" babies grow up to "claim" that they are Jewish!?
The fallout is endless! As is Tropper's scam...etc!
http://www.google.com/goog411/
Dial from any phone
1-800-GOOG-411
(1-800-466-4411)
Tachlis. What about 900 sex lines? Does Google have any of those for free?
Hey Catharsis;
You expect to get a benk kvetcher to sit on de kollel for cut rate prices?
Wake up!
This ship be sinking.
These Roshei Yeshivas with their constant brainwashing to their Bochurim have your balls (Future Dad-In-Law) in a vise-like pretzel grip from which there is absolutely no escape. You will die decrepit and penniless and leave a mountain of debt to your Yorshim.
How old are you now, Future Dad-In-Law? 48? 52? 55? 60? You probably already look 15 years older than your chronological age, which will only accelerate once you
sign away your Nechosim to young budding talmid Chochim, future Gadol Hador, R' Faustus.
This next generation with even less money and a one-income earner (the door-mop Mom )will have a much tougher time marrying off their daughters.
If you think there is a Shidduch Crisis now, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Will get much worse. This 'Derech' pushed by these "Roshei Yeshivas" that every bochur HAS to sit and learn and to expect years of full support from you is a massive fraud unprecedented in the annals of 'Orthodox'? Judaism.
Look in the mirror, Future Dad-In-Law. What do you see? I see a hapless Schmuck caught in a terrible trap that not even Houdini can get you out of.
Somewhere PT Barnum is having a hearty, jolly good laugh.
Lest people think that when it comes to Sephardi-Ashkenazi relations it is only the latter who have behaved in an improper manner, let me quote some interesting historical tidbits from Zimmels in Ashkenazim and Sephardim, p. 62:
In the year 1766 the Sephardi congrgation in London passed a law forbidding a Sephardi to marry an Ashkenazith and stipulated that the wife or widow could not obtain any relief from the ‘Zedakah’ (charity). Moreover, in the year 1772 a Sephardi asked the permission of the ‘Maamad’ to marry a “Tudesca’ but was refused, and in the Sephardi Synagogues in Amsterdam and London the Ashkenazim were prevented by wooden barriers from proceeding beyond the place permitted to them.
Talking about the shidduch crisis, has anyone read the book "The Shidduch Crisis: Causes and Cures"?
http://www.urimpublications.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=UP&Product_Code=Shidduch
The book takes a hard, honest look at the real difficulties faced by the dating public in today’s Orthodox world. With the rates of divorce and eating disorders rising, complaints regarding the shortage of men and the move away from socializing activities to the extensive use of third-party matchmakers, a true crisis exists and may be worsening. In this book, the author explores these issues, particularly those related to how matches are made. He finds that most are made based on availability, not compatibility, and on superficial criteria that have no relevance to what truly makes a marriage successful. Citing relevant data from the fields of psychology, sociology, and neurology, along with a host of anecdotes from a wide range of people, Dr. Salamon, a well-known psychologist, author, and lecturer, provides guidelines to help alleviate this crisis.
Dr. Salamon looks at the lists of criteria, the questions that people ask and the expectations for a mate that have developed over the last several years within the shidduch (matchmaking for marriage) process, and shows how they are counter-intuitive for forming healthy marriages. He also shows how much of what passes for background checking, in fact, may be lashon ha-ra (tale bearing). But most importantly, Dr. Salamon provides real suggestions for going beyond the physical, superficial standards that have contributed to a developing shidduch crisis. He advocates an approach where a measure of personal maturity is returned to those who are dating and makes the case for alleviating the external pressures on the dating couple.
Shidduch;
Nice PR promo. Are you Salamon?
All I know from your post is that you know how to copy and paste the blurb from the inside jacket of this book.
Hate to break this to you but Salamon is p---ing in the wind.
Nothing gonna change unless and until the Roshei Yeshiva change their tune and start counseling some common sense into their Bochurim. But we all know it ain't gonna happen because to do so weakens their power, their power base/influence and reduces their gelt intake and thus their ability to support their family-hanger ons.
What is the relationship between Phil Jacobs and Lisa Ferentz?
http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp
1.06 Conflicts of Interest
(a) Social workers should be alert to and avoid conflicts of interest that interfere with the exercise of professional discretion and impartial judgment. Social workers should inform clients when a real or potential conflict of interest arises and take reasonable steps to resolve the issue in a manner that makes the clients' interests primary and protects clients' interests to the greatest extent possible. In some cases, protecting clients' interests may require termination of the professional relationship with proper referral of the client.
(b) Social workers should not take unfair advantage of any professional relationship or exploit others to further their personal, religious, political, or business interests.
(c) Social workers should not engage in dual or multiple relationships with clients or former clients in which there is a risk of exploitation or potential harm to the client. In instances when dual or multiple relationships are unavoidable, social workers should take steps to protect clients and are responsible for setting clear, appropriate, and culturally sensitive boundaries. (Dual or multiple relationships occur when social workers relate to clients in more than one relationship, whether professional, social, or business. Dual or multiple relationships can occur simultaneously or consecutively.)
Don't worry -the shidduch problem will solve itself. The lazy, useless burdens on society - I mean, bochurim who expect to be supported by old men with actual jobs (and a houseful of kids to still support at home) - will simply become extinct as the economy continues to tank and fewer and fewer fathers-in-law are willing or able to support the leeches - I mean, learners. After all, there are only so many insurance scams, welfare frauds, tax evasions, and ponzi schemes to go around.
In the meantime, girls, ditch the reality impaired bums and marry gainfully employed converts - older ones, too. Why marry someone who's going to sell you into slavery to the goyim and send your poor babies out of your home to be raised in herds by strangers so they can sit around doing nothing useful all day? Are there enough yeshivas, shuls, and kollels in the world to even employ all these uneducated bums, in the unlikely event they get their priorities straight? No, there are not.
What does pirkei avot say?
Torah study is good together with an occupation...All Torah study that is not joined with work will cease in the end, and leads to sin. ...if there is no worldly occupation, there is no Torah.
If a guy can't agree to that, you don't want him.
From a historical perspective:
I have no doubt that Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, if asked, would have said that Rabbi Dov Revel z"l, was the first Torah educator in America and a very cherished individual. That would not have been the appropriate question.
Rav Yitzchok Sheiner from Eretz Yisroel - Kaminetzer Rosh Yeshiva - was a talmid of Y.U. (R' Yitzchak Elchonon). He found himself in Torah Vodaath for a Shabbos. What he found there...the "ruach haTorah" was something "he never experienced in Y.U."
He abruptly left Y.U. to learn in Torah Vodaath. I believe that was the issue then, that caused so much friction among gedolei rabbonim, until today.
There are phenomenal rabbonim in "pockets" of Y.U...ie; Rav Schachter and Rabbi Blau...and many others. The majority of the "policies" of Y.U.,however, does not quite conform with that "ruach haTorah" that so impressed the young Yitzchok Sheiner.
RSFM was angered to no end... with R' Elchonon's (Wasserman)concept of Y'harog V'al Yaavor...die in Europe but don't go to Y.U. They clashed violently (verbally).
He (RSFM) made certain that every nishomo that could be saved from churban Europe, was. Torah Vodaath had thousands of "student visas" granted to them through the state dept. Many fine and talented teens went from the halls of Y.T.V. to Y.U. and flourished to become outstanding humans and bnei Torah.
http://shalomhabayit.blogspot.com/2007/12/oy-vey.html
One in Five Expect to Borrow to Heat Homes This Winter
by Connie Prater, CreditCards.com Tuesday, December 18, 2007
For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.
Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; 9 percent will need to use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills. The poll, commissioned by CreditCards.com and conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, surveyed 1,004 randomly selected American adults by telephone Dec. 7-9, 2007 to gauge their attitudes about energy costs in 2008. A majority say they expect oil and gasoline prices to get worse in 2008...
...According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the federal agency that collects and distributes data on energy use and expenditures, heating costs between October 2007 and March 2008 are expected to spike by nearly 10 percent for the average U.S. household. The winter fuel projections show the sharpest gains for heating oil users -- especially those living in the Northeast....That's a 34 percent increase over the previous winter's bills...
The article makes a passing mention of turning down your thermostat, but for people with small children, having freezing floors isn't really an option.
UOJ,
This is something you need to poset ASAP - the corruption that goes on in Ramapo (Monsey) exceeds the limits of imagination.
Check this out.
I think you should put Preserve Ramapo on top of your links/pictures.
boog - your analysys is not 100% right. In non-yeshivish sectors the problem's no smaller.
I've just written about it recently.
J.I.
PS I also have a new website: The Four Winds Bar.
R' Dov Revel was not the first either.
R' Yaakov Yosef was at Eitz Chaim yeshiva founded on the Lower East Side in 1866. His son started RJJ in 1903.
R' Yaakov Yosef was at Eitz Chaim yeshiva founded on the Lower East Side in 1866. His son started RJJ in 1903.
---------
Certainly! I do believe it was in a "Talmud Torah"/versus a yeshiva format. Hebrew studies after public school.
Yehu;
Where is that exact link on the non-yeshivish sector, please?
"Eitz Chaim yeshiva founded on the Lower East Side in 1866."
I went to Eitz Chaim after it moved to Boro Park. Then I went to YU.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Joseph
Does anyone know if R' Yaakov Yosef's grandson Lazarus was frum? He was NYC Comptroller & 6 time State Senator. His son, named for the zayde, was a US Marine killed in action at Guadalcanal at age 22. The City playground next to the old RJJ yeshiva on Henry St is named for him.
I want an honest answer, not beating around the bush by RJJ President Marvin Schick.
http://theantisemite.blogspot.com/2007/12/turbo-lover-twin-turbos.html
Chananya Weissmann, who is greatly honored to hold the first reference in my links section, had an interesting article out a few months ago. The good ol’ schidduch crisis, again. Weissman, however, deviated this time from his usual approach of attacking the rigid social idiosyncrasies. Instead, he jumped on the masses’ bandwagon, blaming everything on the charedim in covert words. He generally addresses the subject as a whole, and if focusing on a specific community, it’s more the MO crowd. Yet this time he imports the Charedi meshigassen and blames the MO‘s problems on Charedim.
Guys and girls aren’t allowed to mix freely, a year in an Israeli Yeshiva turns the immaculate virginity of unsuspecting YU kids into rabid Yeshivish hard-liners, and Frisch grads simply cannot resist the temptation of deserting to the deepest darkest dungeons of Neturei Karta, right? I wonder whether Belz and Vizhnitz were successful in smuggling into the Young Israel crowd their demand for a spotless pedigree as a prerequisite to any prospective match?
In my opinion Weissmann totally misses the point. There is, of course, a common denominator in the schidduch crises on both sides of the aisle. But that is, so far, out dirty little secret. So let’s first give everyone a round of good bashing. The Charedi meshigassen are pretty easy for all to see: Hassidim want a fat schwer with lots of gelt, life support, a house, (“viz finish basmint tzi rent out for other chussid who vant hous viz finish basmint”) a Lexis, a Seberben and a beezniss. Of course, a “yichuss” to Rashi, Rabbi Yochanan HaSandlar and Dovid Hamelech goes without saying. Unfortunately, even in this wonderful America, the American dream isn’t yet a granted reality. All the more so the perfect schidduch – not so American, but much closer to a dream. Not everyone can be a millionaire, and even corrupt politicians haven’t yet figured out a way to hand out kallahs in a welfare program.
In the nasty world of kalter Litvaks, the situation is far more sophisticated: the girl (and the boy) must have clearly defined hashkafas, and must not veer astray - even a mashehu. Hashkoffeh, oy, die heilige Hashkoffeh! You see, litvaks aren’t just unwashed bums like those Chassidishe brutes. Each word, term, expression and name has a proper feel and touch to it, that little indescribable tone and facial countenance. “Lomdes”… “Chazon Ish”… “Teireh”… “Moron”… “Hasmodeh”… “Mesirus Nefesh”… woe onto the prospective chosson or kallah who roll their eyes the wrong way while these saintly words escape their lips! The chosson must, of course, unconditionally surrender to 24.3 hours of uninterrupted Torah toiling – the five cell-phones being only a necessary evil accessory to strengthen the bond with his rebbetzin. Of course, the kallah must be prepared for total devotion and absolute, selfless mesirus nefesh to Torah and a life of utter simplicity, even poverty – provided her father (preferably a Rosh Yeshiva – but if all he has is gelt, nu, we aren’t over-demanding) arranges for a fully paid apartment, furniture (used in top condition is OK – we Litvaks aren’t dirty materialists like you Hassidim or MO), maid and new Borsalino hat quarterly.
You can understand that for such a match made in heaven one must go through hell.
But the MO, oh, the true pioneers of derech haemtzais, pluralism, moderation, open-mindedness and academic freedom, nu, let’s give them a standing ovation. After all, how can one criticize these angels of absolute relativism, who freely mingle the sexes without the slightest shade of a doubt of improper behavior? Could anyone suspect the muses of moderation of dissociating themselves from a lower tier? Is it possible to even surmise the sublime disciples of Heidegger are capable of succumbing to material temptation? Could the exalted emulators of The Rav’s ways be suspected of vanity and looking down on people without PhD’s? See, coarse people like yourself, read a greasy blog by someone who actually touches a potato with his bare hands, performs an oil change on his non-late model gas-guzzler, and even –Darwin yishmerainu- drinks beer and smokes cigarettes! You guys can’t even begin to fathom the sophistication that goes into the shidduch decisions of an elated YU alumni. You have to understand that people who insist on their prospective life partner having a degree, a well-paying job, being able to converse about Hegelian nons… ooopppsssssss, um, genius, have a certain finesse that we “blackneck” Litvacks simply lack. Us, blues-listening, white-knuckled proletariat would never understand that a wife washes the dishes, laundry and children not because she happens to be a woman, -that’s horribly degrading- but for the mere fact that his Honor Mr. Chemical Engineer, Esq., PhD., EtC., who learns two shiurim and attends night collel simply doesn’t have the time to do these chores.
Schidduch crisis? Not in the least, no siree. The problem, essentially, is the same in all sectors; only the symptoms are slightly different. Scientific studies about the male to female ratio and the influence of a yeshiva year on one’s personality are good conversation for saleshidess, but in the real world are as irrelevant as Heidegger’s hogwash. Sinas chinom and “I” are the problem. The power that creates idiotic societal norms is called Sinas chinom. Then, it galvanizes segregated communities based on those meshigassen, to separate us from the other Yid. “I”, the ego, freezes our brains in such conceit that we can’t lower our honorable Self to accept second-class merchandise, lest we too be labeled second-grade.
Schidduch crisis? How about our complete egomania, our total infatuation with oilom hazeh, our reluctance to admit it and renounce it? Couple it with absolute laziness – we want to be the Gaon MiVilna overnight – and even on that night get a good sleep! – and there’s your perfect recipe for absolute disaster. So no, I don’t think there’s any schidduch crisis at all. There’s a “me” crisis raging.
Come to think about it – how good can a marriage of such people be? Mmmmmm, more schidduch crisis please!
"I do believe it was in a "Talmud Torah"/versus a yeshiva format. Hebrew studies after public school."
That may be true of Eitz Chaim in the 1800s but RJJ was given a City charter before opening in 1903.
I know of someone who complained about her principle for peeping on the girls and no one believed her. Instead she was given hell from the school and the teachers and surprise surprise she quit trusting the orthodox system.
Now what i want to know is why are the schools so corrupt and why do parents care so little as to let it get that way. And yes it is the parents who allow this as they keep sending their kids there. If there were no kids attending the school, then there would be no school.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/from-parent-of-child-molested-by.html
Thursday, December 27, 2007
From a Parent of a child molested by alleged sex offender - Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus
The following article was posted to "Happenings In Chicago - Does The Vaad Really Care?...":
Just stumbled on this site and what suprises!
I heartily agree with the comments that the (Chicago) Vaad has done nothing to support the victims of sexual abuse. My son was one of the many abused by Tzvi Wainhaus.
Shmuel Furest did NOTHING. Quite the contrary. We were actually called to come to his office- which we did- at the height of the IL DCFS investigations. Did he call to see how he could support our son? Of course not!
Imagine my shock when he actually had the audacity to ask us to 'Keep Quiet' and not say anything to the newspapers, or press charges! After all 'what a shonda in front of the goyim, and the poor man (wainhaus) feels horribly, and he has a family'. Unbelievable.
To this day, 7 years later this is still something that brings rage and anger to the core of my being and tears to my eyes. Literally and Always.
And to see that post that Jamie Dvorin cares so much about protecting the kids- I want to scream in rage: the lies! He not only told me to send my son out of town for high school ('for his own good') he also tried to prevent him from joining his class at ICJA. Of course I refused to send my son away. Would he have sent his 13 year old child away after being sexually abused by his favorite teacher? Away from his family? When his entire world came crashing down? Mr. Dvorin also made up a vicious lie about how the teachers didn't think my son should go with his class on his senior trip. When I called every teacher of my child I caught his right in his lie- HE didn't want my son to go. My son was an excellent student with no history of any behavior issues. Prior to being a victim there was no reason to assume he wouldn’t go on his senior trip, or go to ICJA. Dvorin also called ICJA to prevent my son from getting accepted there. Jamie said the problem was that he was a 'high risk child' – why? because one of HIS teachers abused him. He never accepted any responsibility- nor has Mr. Fuerst or the orthodox community. The only rabbi that behaved with any kindness or degree of menschkiet was Rabbi Harvey Well. The rest are filthy hypocrites and evil men. They can pretend to hide behind their mitzvot but there is no number of mitzvot they could possibly perform to erase the evil they have perpetrated. They may have avoided the court in this world but they will have their day in the heavenly court one day and there justice will be served.
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Wainhaus_Tzvi.html
Jewish Image Magazine (Page 46)
Fall 2000, Tishrei 5761
The following statement was made public as a result of the Ad Hoc Bais Din of Chicago deliberated on what to do with the allegations made against Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus of sexual abused children at Hillel Torah.
Under NO Circumstances whatsoever may the perpetrator teach in any classroom situation or any private or tutorial situation with any students, nor may he enter any school building at any time under any circumstances. Included in school buildings are any kollel buildings (adult learning center) that are open during non-school hours, such as during the summer, all school holidays, as well as Sundays and after school hours.
He may not go to any mikvah (ritual bath) anywhere in the world at any time, including erev Shabbos, Erev Yom Tov, erev Rosh Hashanah and erev Yom HaKipurim.
He may not go to any J.C.C. (Jewish Community Center) or any swimming facility anywhere at any time.
He many not use the restroom in any synagogue, yeshiva, kollel, or any other Jewish facility at any time, even if this will force him to miss davening (praying) or krias HaTorah or learning. The only exception is during the times that it is permissible to be in a kollel as enumerated above. During those times, and those times only, it is permissible for him to use the restroom.
No children, even his own, are allowed in his house at any time while he is present until the ad hoc bais din is advised to the contrary by his therapist.
He may not attend any simchas (celebrations), including weddings, bar mitzvahs, bas mitzvahs, kiddushim, brissim, vorts (lectures), banquets, or any other simcha anywhere or any time until the ad hoc bais din is advised to the contrary by his therapist.
He must be engaged in regularly scheduled uninterrupted intensive therapy with a therapist with whom the bais din is advised to the contrary by his therapist.
The Bais Din (Jewish Court), after much deliberation, and taking into consideration his health problems, will allow him to daven in different area shuls on Shabbos, even though there are children present, with the understanding that every Rav (Rabbi) will be made aware of his name, and to make sure that there is surveillance whenever he leaves the sanctuary to use the restrooms or any other area of the building. Any Rabbi not wishing to take on this responsibility has the right to prohibit him from davening (praying) in their shul.
Rabbi Gedaliah Dov Schwartz
Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levein
Rabbi Shmuel Furest
Rabbi Zev Cohen
Chicago Jewish Times - March 3-9, 2000
"Child sexual abuse is a disease of secrecy," says Dr. Robert Bloom, executive director of Chicago's Jewish Children's Bureau.
"It needs to be opened up. Like cleaning out a boil, you have to open it up before you can treat the underlying problem," he says.
His words echo those of every expert contacted for this article.
Among them are David Mandel, chief executive officer of OHEL Children's Home and Family Services, a New York-area social service agency. For the last two years, he has been studying the and publicizing the problem of child sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, and has written five articles on the subject for the New York-based Jewish Press newspaper.
In one he writes "...it's not likely that you're going to find any Orthodox offenders on this list (of sex offenders required to register under a federal provision known as Megan's Law). By and large, these people haven't been forced to go through the judicial system because the victims' parents are fearful that their child will be traumatized, that shame will be brought to their family or that this will cause difficulty with future shidduchm (marriages).
"The system does work. Our frum community has not been using the system," he concludes.
"The only rabbi that behaved with any kindness or degree of menschkiet was Rabbi Harvey Well. The rest are filthy hypocrites and evil men."
Umm, aren't there some very public incidents where Harvey Well acted like anything but a mentch?
Wasn't he the guy who threw a full wine bottle across the room at Rav Zimmerman's head in the middle of the Skokie yeshiva dinner?
Harvey Well also had something to do with the 30 odd roshei yeshiva being fired by Skokie in 25 years.
Oy vey, was I in Chicago then?
Chicago Jewish News - Jan. 28 - Feb. 3, 2000 (page 16 - 19)
The story begins more than 30 years ago, when a respected well-known member of the Chicago's Orthodox community began sexually molesting young girls. Most were between the ages of 5 and 12. Each thought they were the only one. And so all kept quiet about what had happened to them.
Which is why it kept happening. Some Orthodox leaders knew about it but said nothing, did nothing. Most members of the community heard the occasional whispered rumor but either didn't believe it or chose not to believe it.
And because each of the victims thought they were the only ones, they said nothing, in most cases blaming themselves, figuring they had done something wrong for this to happen to them.
It was about seven years ago that a community lecture on sexual abuse was canceled because it was decided it was "not relevant for the frume community." When Bruck was told that by the event organizer, she said, "oh yes, it is." Hartman and Bruck, who are sisters, had a family member who was a victim of abuse.
Over lunch shortly after, Hartman mentioned the incident to the women she was with and said that, in fact, there was someone in the community who had abused young girls. "One of the women go very upset and said 'you must tell me who it is, you must tell me right now'. And then she told us that he done the same to her more than 20 years before."
Then, Hartman said, word began circulating in her shul that a child had also been victimized by the man, a kosher butcher. "I asked her parents if that was true," said Hartman, "and they said it was."
It was with that that Hartman began "shaking things up, talking about this, saying something had to be done." Once it became known she was talking about it, Hartman said she got calls from others who had also been victimized.
"I wasn't out looking for this and this in not something people want to share. But they had kept it buried for so long and when they found out they weren't alone, they needed to open up."
Indeed, Hartman tells of one woman who had been victimized when she was five years old "and hadn't told a soul until she told me, when she was thirty something. She had been festering inside of her for all those years and when she finally opened up the gates, it was like a flood of emotions."
Hartman isn't sure why this woman and others opened up to her. She is sure, however, why she listened and responded.
"One of my family members was hurt in a way they should not have been hurt and didn't tell anyone for a very long time. They didn't know how. No one should have to feel such pain, humiliation and degradation. No one should have to wait 30 years to be helped."
What made sure Hartman would begin a crusade to see that help was there, was when she was talking to a woman in shul who had just moved to Chicago from out of town and learned that the family was temporarily staying in the house of the perpetrator.
"I told her she needed to know that while the wife was nice, she had to be very careful about the husband. I thought she might get mad at me, tell me to mind my own business. Instead, she thanked me and said 'I couldn't understand why he kept taking my daughter down to the van with him.' The woman came back a few minutes later and thanked me again.
"Needless to say they quickly moved out of that house. The truth is I was sick to my stomach having to tell her that, but I knew somebody had to say something'.
And do something about this man who had been molesting young girls in the community for more than 25 years.
Problem is no one was doing anything about it. Hartman and Bruck asked a therapist they knew to go to the community's leading rabbis and urge them to do something about the perpetrator. After much urging and pushing, the rabbis did finally call the man in. He admitted to having abused the young girls and promised to stop. Shocked that he so readily confessed, the rabbis told him to get counseling and instituted some minor restrictions on his activities.
And that was that.
But that was not enough.
"You would see him at public events," said Hartman. "In fact, I was there when he came up to get his ticket and one of his victims was working behind the desk. She sees him and starts shaking, shaking and he's fine, he's having a life."
And so Hartman and her sister went back to the rabbis and pushed more, pushed to have the rabbis "come up with more stringent rules and regulations on what he could and couldn't do. That he shouldn't be allowed to go to a bar mitzvah, weddings, any social events. So they finally did that. But other things that should have been done were not done. It was a year before his own family was told. Meanwhile, his oldest daughters were in outreach and would bring home girls and girls and girls every Shabbos. When what he had done became known in the community, his youngest daughter was still living in the house with him. She should have been in counseling, but he wouldn't allow it. Who the hell is he not to allow it? But nobody did anything about it."
The problem, says Hartman, was that this was an area that the community's leading rabbis were simply not prepared to handle properly.
"They're not educated in this. Which is understandable. When they were in school, no one ever sat down with them and said: some day you're going to have to deal with sexual molestation and abuse."
Hartman doesn't blame them for not knowing, but she does blame them for not trying to know, for the community's rabbis not coming together and sitting down and figuring out how to deal with this.
They didn't do that, says Bruck, "because they don't want any part of it. They don't want to believe this happens. And so even when it was shown that it does happen, they say it was an isolated incident, that Jewish men don't behave like this, that it will not happen again."
But does. And it has.
Indeed, it was just in the last couple of months that it was discovered a teacher at one of Chicago's Orthodox day schools, a rabbi, had been sexually molesting students, mostly boys.
According to Marjorie Newman, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services, their investigation found that at least nine students at the school, 8 boys and one girl, ages 10 to 14, were abused.
And there may be more. "We know it wasn't just this year," said Bruck. "He has taught there for many years. He also gave bar-mitzvah lessons. One incident is bad enough", said Bruck, "but this is unbelievable."
When they learned of this second, current incidence of a respected community member sexually molesting children, Hartman and Bruck were determined things would be handled differently than they were seven years ago.
"When we came to them so many years ago, it would have been nice if they had gotten together and put into effect some sort of program, some sort of mechanism but they were not willing to do it," said Hartman. "If they had, maybe what has happened wouldn't have, maybe one of these young men would have spoken up and said 'my rebbe is doing something that is wrong' and it would have been stopped earlier. They would have had a place to go, know there would be someone who would do something."
But because nothing was done then, Hartman and Bruck were adamant something be done now.
Incredibly, however, at first, they got basically the same kind of response this time as they had last time from virtually all the rabbis in the Orthodox community.
"We went to several rabbis and nobody would step up and do anything," said Hartman.
"We approached every rav," adds Bruck. "They weren't surprised about it, they all knew about it and they all said 'no thanks, we don't want any involvement.' They were not interested in dealing with it."
Which convinced the two sisters they had to go and talk to the community's leading halachic authority.
But wanting to make sure all aspects of the issue would be covered by those better versed in the area than they are, Hartman and Bruck asked a prominent rabbi, an Orthodox attorney and an Orthodox psychotherapist to go with them.
"They each said they'd let us know. But we never heard back from any of them. So we went ourselves."
"I told him I was not happy he didn't not get involved seven years ago and that he had to be involved this time," says Hartman. "I did not speak meekly but was adamant to get my point across. We explained to him, from a to z, how others had been victimized because things had not been put into place. He said he didn't know how to deal with it and we explained that wasn't an answer." And so Bruck and Harman spent hours explaining that pedophilia is a disease, explaining why it was so important the community be alerted that this goes on and had been going on, explaining the pain it causes its victims. They begged this rabbi to learn more, to do more. He said he would.
And, indeed, Hartman and Bruck are pleased that four rabbis, Rabbi Zev Cohen of Congregation Adas Yehurun, Rabbi Gedaliah Schwarts of the Chicago Rabbinical Council, Rabbi Shmuel Fuerst of Agudath Israel of Illinois, and Rabbi Avrohom Levin of Telshe Yeshiva have agreed to serve as the rabbinical advisory board of Project Shield, a new effort to more systematically deal with the issue of sexual abuse (see separate story).
Rabbi Cohen defends how the community's rabbis have dealt with the current perpetrator, saying he and three other rabbis have spent more than 300 hours on the case, forming a Beit Din to protect the victims by "confronting the perpetrator, making sure he was in counseling and issuing stringent guidelines to prevent any interactions with young boys." He says the community should be proud of the "incredible amount of work that has been done to help the victims and their parents and ensure there are no future victims."
Rabbi Cohen adds that the community's rabbis should not be criticized in this instance and says that "if rabbis are not seen as strong in the eyes of the community, they don't have the ability to do anything and that doesn't benefit anyone."
Hartman and Bruck agree that Rabbi Cohen has been the most responsive rabbi in the community about this matter but not that not one rabbi, not even Cohen, has spoken from the pulpit about the issue. And that while he, and Rabbis Levin, Schwartz, and Fuerst are trying to deal with the issue, the vast majority of Orthodox rabbis continue to do nothing.
"Our goal is to get the rabbis to work with us on this, not to read this article and get all upset," said Hartman. "Yes, a few rabbis have tried to do good and that's a big step and we are grateful, but we need more, we need a majority to get involved to protect our children.
"Some rabbis say they don't like the line that their attitude about this has been 'don't ask don't tell.' Well, I'm sorry but that has been the majority of the rabbinical response."
And because that has been so, the rabbis have failed to let the community know about the issue.
"Why wasn't the community alerted about this school rebbe from the pulpit so that parents could take the necessary precautions?" asks Hartman. "Why haven't rabbis gotten up in shul and said something?"
Indeed, Bruck confronted one rabbi and said, "you're the rabbi of a shul. Have you gotten up there and said anything to anyone? He said 'what do you want me to say?' I used to go to his shul and he would talk about Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, talk about O.J. Simpson. I said to him you can talk about it with your children. So he said to me, 'I'm up for suggestions. Please."
While Hartman is pleased that the four rabbis have joined her efforts, she notes that they still have not sat down together as a group and talked about a plan of action. "And I understand that they are very busy and have a lot of immediate things to deal with. But you can't wait until something else happens. We need the rabbis to be pro-active, to react now and plan now. We can't wait for later, we must prevent there from being a later."
She notes that one rabbi has said that because it happened in her family, she is over reacting to the situation. "No, I've under-reacted, I waited too long to do something, I should have done more seven years ago. The rabbis are talking now about the dangers of the Internet. Well they also need to talk and educate about this danger."
While Hartman is hopeful they will, some still have their doubts. A therapist involved in the issue says that she put together a bunch of materials about child sexual abuse for the community's leading halachic authority to read and brought it to his house. "He said that he didn't want the material and that the guy is not going to do it again because he's a frum man."
Brucks notes the same kind of silence has happened not only in the school where the incidents occurred but in all the Orthodox days schools. "They don't have a clue. Every school and every principal was called and asked if someone could come in and talk to the parents, to the teachers, to the students; and every single one said no, said they felt no one was talking about it and to do so would be to open up a Pandora's box.
"Even more amazing, they haven't even talked to the class whose members were molested."
Why? First and foremost, they don't want it getting out into the public world. The last thing they want is that people should know it happens in the frum community. Then there's the fact that people don't want to believe it happens. There are still lots of people who don't believe what the first perpetrator did is true or they say it's "lashon hara" (gossip) to talk about it. It's not an issue anyone wants to get involved with, it's easier to say it's a rumor, nobody can prove it. And so they just deny it."
The problem with the rabbis not publicly acknowledging what has occurred, says Hartman, is that it aids the feeling of "most people who don't believe the perpetrator is guilty. After all, up until this point he has been a respected person, unless you have the facts. But the facts are supposed to be kept confidential to protect the victims and since no one wants to come out and say, 'yes I was sexually abused and this is exactly what happened to me.' You don't have the facts and so it is dismissed as hearsay. Those in the community who know the perpetrator, say they've never been molested so it's probably not true. That's the point. These perpetrators lead a double life so why believe this blind information when I know this guy, he's a nice frum man in our community?"
And so the perpetrator gets away with his crime and the victims pay even more.
Indeed, the Department of Children and Family Services began its investigation because one of the boys molested at the school called their hotline to file charges against the rabbi and, says Hartman, "this kid is being persecuted. Kids in that class love their rebbe and so this victim is being penalized for pressing charges, his life is being made a living hell."
Beyond that, the rabbi is being protected to see that he stays out of jail and his story kept out of the newspapers.
Why are the rabbis working so hard to make sure he doesn't stand trial, let alone go to jail? "Because it didn't happen to their kids," said Bruck, "it's as simple as that."
The perpetrator's attorney, Hal Garfinkel, refused to comment on any aspect of the case when called by the Chicago Jewish News.
Hartman says that the community's fear of the story being public is putting the concern very much on the wrong thing. "I brought one of the victims, now grown up, to the office of one of the rabbis and he said he felt such rage he wanted to murder the perpetrator. The parents of another victim told the rabbi they wanted to kill the man.
"When a victim voices these raw emotions, the rabbis should be shaking in their boots. But they did nothing, all they were focused on was keeping it out of the papers and the perpetrators out of jail. I finally said, 'are you guys waiting for someone to actually shoot the perpetrator? How are you going to hide that from the newspapers?"
To not acknowledge what has gone on, says Bruck, "you destroy victims' lives over and over. Think about those who have poured their hearts out--and yet who see nothing being done about it, who walk through the community and there the perpetrator is, go to the pizza shop and there he is, so they are victimized over and over again and the rabbinic reaction is nothing. The victims continue to be pained that it is not being publicly acknowledged that what the perpetrator did was wrong. Meanwhile, the perpetrator, whose life isn't easy, but still he's managing to go to shul, his life goes on, people want to help his family."
Not that there shouldn't be compassion for his family, says Hartman, who calls them victims, too. "I know his wife, she's a very find young woman. Her life is over, her life is hell and will be forever, whether she stays with him or not. He destroyed lots of lives and you have to have sympathy for that. They have eight children. No one knows what goes on behind her closed doors, but I can guarantee, it ain't a pretty site and my heart goes out to her. She and her children are big victims in this."
But, says Harman, first and foremost there are the victims this rabbi sexually abused. She calls them "the faceless victims."
"In the case of his family, the community knows who the victims are and so they want to do for them. But everyone seems to be forgetting the faceless victims, these innocent children who nobody knows, who are being left out to hang, to live with this pain the rest of their lives."
Which is why Hartman and Bruck believe it is so important people talk about this, know about it, that people let their rabbis know they expect them to act.
"I think it's pretty pathetic that the rabbis can't work together to protect our innocent children," says Hartman. She notes that the hot issue at the moment in Orthodox circles is something being labeled 'Children at Risk', referring to the increasing number of Orthodox youth who are leaving the community, often getting into drugs and other destructive behaviors.
"You have all the rabbis speaking from the pulpit about 'children at risk. I think if someone did a little research to see how many of those children were sexually molested, it might be a pretty eye-opening experience. Children do not come from nice home and become so deep rooted in anger and frustration and so self-destructive unless something pretty horrible has happened to them .
"Everybody talks about the children, the children, being there for the children, well then when a child or their parent comes to you and say someone has really hurt my child, then do something about it. It's very nice to preach about 'children at risk' but helping children who are victims of sexual abuse is at the core and nobody is responding to it."
And there is no excuse for that, says Bruck. "This happens everywhere, in every community. It doesn't happen more in the Orthodox community, actually it probably happens less, but it does happen."
Which is why Hartman and Bruck are doing what they're doing, saying what they're saying, because the truth is they wish they didn't have to.
"There is no question some will be unhappy this is being talked about publicly," says Bruck, "but it's either say nothing or say and do something to make things better. People don't want us to talk about it., but that's the only way something gets done."
This is something that goes to the heart of what all of us are supposed to be all about," adds Hartman. "Never in a million years did we think we'd be sitting here talking about this. I am part of this community. Every person in my family has dedicated themselves to being a responsible member of the community and to making it a better community. It is not our desire to tear it apart in any way, shape or form. Our goal is to unite it and make it better.
"Maybe 25 years ago, this kind of thing wasn't discussed. But we discuss it now. This is not going to disappear, not going to go away by itself. So you have to be ready to deal with it."
And you start to do that, she says, by "putting a face on it. We have to give it legitimacy, make it a reality, get our leaders and the community to take it seriously. We need the rabbis to sit down and get educated about it, understand the irreparable damage these perpetrators do to their victims.
"People want to believe they can trust their spiritual leaders to deal with this problem, but if nothing is done, this is a bomb waiting to explode in everyone's face."
http://shalomhabayit.blogspot.com/2007/12/real-inflation-rate-food-up-75-in-2.html
The end of cheap food
Dec 6th 2007 From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10252015
...Since the spring, wheat prices have doubled and almost every crop under the sun—maize, milk, oilseeds, you name it—is at or near a peak in nominal terms. The Economist's food-price index is higher today than at any time since it was created in 1845 (see chart)...
...Even in real terms, prices have jumped by 75% since 2005.
...Although the cost of food is determined by fundamental patterns of demand and supply, the balance between good and ill also depends in part on governments. If politicians do nothing, or the wrong things, the world faces more misery, especially among the urban poor. If they get policy right, they can help increase the wealth of the poorest nations, aid the rural poor, rescue farming from subsidies and neglect—and minimise the harm to the slum-dwellers and landless labourers. So far, the auguries look gloomy...
See now why the government "conveniently" leaves food out of its "core inflation" statistics? Because including them would show the ugly truth, and they want to cover that up for as long as possible, class.
Please say tehillem for an american gerer yungerman that lives in israel, and was involved in a terrible car accident near bnei brak, he is currently in a medical induced coma, his name is "yisroel ben shaidel yita".
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. and European banks including Citigroup Inc (C.N) and HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) are considering selling off parts of their businesses as they prepare for tough times ahead, the Wall Street Journal reported.
While Citigroup may shed or shut several of its mid-size units, HSBC could exit all or parts of its $13 billion U.S. auto finance business, the Journal reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation.
Some executives estimate that Citigroup could dispose of as much as $12 billion worth of what are considered noncritical assets, according to the Journal.
Units it could possibly shed include Student Loan Corp., which is 80 percent owned by the bank; its North American auto lending business; Brazilian credit card company Redecard SA, in which Citigroup held a 24 percent stake as of September 30; and its Japanese consumer finance business, according to the Journal.
New Citi Chief Executive Vikram Pandit's plans to streamline its operations include laying off about 20,000 employees and shedding business lines, the Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter.
Citi had already said in April that it was cutting about 5 percent of its work force, or 17,000 jobs, and there have been talks of cuts above that number. The bank employs over 300,000 people in over 100 countries.
HSBC is one of the most strongly capitalized of the world's global banks, but it has consistently said it will focus on fast-growing emerging markets and take a "tough-minded" approach to capital allocation.
HSBC has also indicated that businesses in more developed markets should have a global reach -- something it does not get from the U.S.-focused auto finance unit, which also fails to provide cross-selling opportunities.
Any assets sold off by global banks, including Citi, HSBC or even by smaller European lenders, could provide attractive opportunities for Asian banks or cash-rich sovereign wealth funds keen to diversify their investment portfolios.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new single-family U.S. homes fell much more than expected to an annual rate of 647,000 in November, the slowest pace in more than 12 years, according to a government report on Friday.
New single-family home sales were down 9 percent from the downwardly revised pace of 711,000 in October, the Commerce Department said.
Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 720,000.
Sales in the U.S. Midwest were particularly weak, tumbling 27.6 percent to the slowest pace since July 1991.
(Reporting by Emily Kaiser, editing by Joanne Morrison)
The Tefilla of Aleinu felt bad that people always rushed through it at the end of davening so Hashem was kovea it in the middle of Shmona Esrei for Yamim Noraim.
Birchas Asher Yatzar felt bad being connected to bodily functions so Hashem made it a brocho for chassunos too.
The mamzer felt bad about it's lowly status so Hashem said I will make you the President of Skokie Yeshiva.
Food up 75% in 2 years
The end of cheap food.
THAT'S HORRIFYING !!!!!
I'll have to negotiate a better deal on yeshiva tuition now !!
i know one of harvey well's nephews. the guy is the biggest shnorrer and ausnutzer you ever met. he would always use babyface charm to get things out of people. he would even hover around complete strangers and whine that he's really thirsty but doesn't have any money for a soda, hoping they would dole out some change to him.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/05/kashrus-hotline-1-212-990-7238.html#c1831535768344655849
Terrible Sign of What's to Come said...
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a1479/News/New_York.html
The jist of this long article is frightening. I don't care that it doesn't bode well for greedy hashgochos but it will be terrible for the public who will not even be able to get bread in some places when this shake up is finished.
The Conservative are now offering free "hashgocho" as a public service, competing with agencies that charge restaurants between 60 to 90 thousand a year.
R' Peretz Steinberg's son in law Rabbi Asher Schachter just lost one of his restaurants on Long Island because they could not afford to pay him. This is a scandal by itself as it seems he was charging greedy, exorbitant rates because he allows shvache standards with these stores like to remain open and cook bagels on Shabbos, Yomtov & even Yom Kippur.
The Conservative are also telling restaurants to switch from Rubashkin so-called "glatt" to Hebrew National. It is more kosher anyway, vehamayvin yovin, but the cost savings is 100k+ a year.
And one humorous note, Arye Ralbag (or is it his father R' Yehoshofot?) tells the freye his name is Rabbi J. Howard Ralbag.
Anonymous said...
The Queens Vaad gave a foolish answer to the Jewish Week when asked about the Conservative taking away their accounts. The Vaad says it won't make a dent in heimishe areas like Main St. Shkoyach. What about frumme Yidden in Nassau & Suffolk counties? What are they going to eat if all the establishments save tons of money by going with the Conservative?
Anonymous said...
While the Conservative have some valid taynos about the greed and unfairness of regular hashgochos, they are also a bunch of conniving people. They get plenty of PR for doing very little. These "rabbis" are making a big fat salary from the temple, which is why they volunteer here for free and come by to do a cursory inspection of the restaurant kitchen. You can bet that they won't be rolling up their sleeves to get dirty like real mashgichim.
Anonymous said...
Speaking of the Queens Vaad, they have a new administrator. I wonder if it's going to make any difference though. There are so many different machanos to appease over there that it's virtually an impossible job to do things right and others before him haven't lasted. You have to deal with baal habatim, left wing modern orthodox rabbis, Chofetz Chaim rabbonim, etc. There has been big resistance before when someone tried bringing them up to standard with other hashgochos, especially on bugs.
The new guy reportedly left KVH / the Vaad of New England because he was too frum for them. I hope he hasn't gone from the frying pan into the fire azoy vee me zogt.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/05/kashrus-hotline-1-212-990-7238.html#c8956851029968081001
Hashgocho on Streits said...
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a1532/News/New_York.html
What does R' Yudel or anyone know about standards from Rabbi Soloveitchik and whoever else on Streit's products?
I don't use R' Zushe Blech sanctioned 18 minute matzah on Pesach. I'm wondering about their other products.
(Agav, there was a rumor around the yeshivos that Streit's had the whitest matzah cake meal and that a lab test revealed parts weren't baked. No idea if it's true.)
Yudel Shain said...
(Agav, there was a rumor around the yeshivos that Streit's had the whitest matzah cake meal and that a lab test revealed parts weren't baked. No idea if it's true.)
The Star-K's Rabbi Heinemann was very much on target when he refused to permit the use of the Matzo Meal for Pesach from a number of machine bakeries. Check with them.
It's amazaing to see that when local Monsey Jews visited Iran and attended Araftat's funeral, a group of Monsey rabbonim refused to publish or sign any kol koreh that would remove these alleged Jews from the community. And in fact, not allow their children to attend the local Yeshivahs, since they have probably caused one of the largest chilul hashem in history.
If they refrain from signing on such a kol koreh they definitely
should refrain from signing on anything else like how they are now sticking their noses into the kashrus of restaurants.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/12/alert-supreme-meat-uruguay.html#c3876989795566893557
BREAKING NEWS said...
Starting this coming week, Rabbi Gornish is supposed to start allowing Rubashkin's Supreme under R' Weissmandel.
Way to go Rabbi Gornish. First your joke mashgichim and vegetables full of bugs and now this.
Yudel Shain said...
When the steers will realize that the Rav Hamachshir is lying, they might not take it lying down.
With those pockets full of "dineros", I sure hope he stays out of the steers way.
What's Rabbi Gornish going to get? $$ or only promises. He started slipping a long time ago, I guess he's taking the challenge.
Wow! Weismandel couldn't do it on his reputation (what reputation?), so Rabbi Gornish will be able to prop him up- sounds good.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/12/27/mondrowitz_122707.jpg
Mondrowitz to remain in jail. next hearing set for January 9, 2008. If you can translate, please do so. Thanks!
[This is only the first page. Three pages were truncated but will be sent later today, I hope.]
How they got housing wrong
Experts thought 2007 would bring a real estate recovery - not the worst collapse on record. What does that say about forecasts of a turnaround next year?
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
December 28 2007: 11:09 AM EST
Housing forecasts proved too optimistic in 2007, and the experts making predictions of a turnaround in 2008 say those estimates are more difficult than ever this time around.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Before you put much hope in forecasts for a 2008 rebound in the battered housing market, consider this: A year ago at this time many top economists were looking for that recovery to begin in 2007.
Instead, the year saw historic declines in nearly every measure of housing strength and home building, and left a trail of predictions from some of the nation's top economists that look - at best - foolish.
The greedy hashgochos brought this on themselves and the dumkopfs probably won't wake up until it's too late and they've suffered heavy losses.
The biggest losers will be the frum public. Suburban areas will go back to the stone ages as far as options to buy food. This is being directed from the top at JTS and is now picking up steam in suburban Philly too. It will spread across the country.
This is is lawyer's argument that Mondrowitz be released on bail wearing an electronic bracelet
Most interesting, is a prominent Gerer rabbi offering to put up bail and the chorus vouching for Mondrowitz by offering to put him in their homes with their children.
Well if they want to back a pedophile then let them have him in their homes with their kids.
But sadly that doesn't mean they will keep Mondrowitz soley in their homes - he will be free to wonder to parks and such places.
As for the electronic bracelet, i watched a TV programme about those and there are too many flaws with them. He will still be in society.
The long-running fight between Congregation Lubavitch (i.e., the huge minyan that prays in the main synagogue in Chabad World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY and the gabbais who represent them) on one hand and Agudas Chassidei Chabad (Aguch; Rabbis Krinsly, Shemtov, Kotlarsky, etc.) has temporarily ended.
According to VosIzNeais, Judge Ira Harkavy today awarded the building and the synagogue to Aguch. The gabbais are expected to appeal.
Realizing that evicting the "open" Meshichistim from 770 could be an unpopular move, Krinky/Shemtov decided on the strategy of painting the Gaboyim as representing a fringe element of what they call “lunatic Meshichistin”. The regular Meshichistim keep their opinions "in the closet".
http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2007/12/important-reminder-for-jblogosphere.html
BLOGISTAN
Rabbi Avi Shafran
There was a time, not terribly long ago, when disturbed individuals bent on broadcasting angry fantasies had only soapboxes in public parks from which to rant. And respectable people knew, if only from the ranters’ appearance, to keep well out of spittle’s range.
Today, though, the very means of mass communication that enables so much worthy information to reach such large numbers of people at the speed of light – the Internet – has also been harnessed to spread madness, hatred, lies and (not a word to be used lightly but here entirely appropriate) evil. And so, close on the heels of the swindlers and pornographers who have colonized so much of cyberspace, have come the gaggle of electronic soapboxes known as weblogs, or blogs.
The writer of a recent article in the Agudath Israel monthly The Jewish Observer expressed chagrin at discovering the nature of many Jewish blogs. Often anonymous as well as obnoxious, some of those personal opinion-diaries, he found, display utter disregard for essential Jewish ideals like the requirement to shun lashon hora or forbidden negative speech, and hotzo’at shem ra, or slander; to show honor for Torah and respect for Torah scholars. I would have added basic fairness to the list. And truth.There are, of course, responsible bloggers, in the Jewish realm as in others, writers who seek to share community news or ideas and observations with readers, and to post readers’ comments. Some explore concepts in Jewish thought and law, others focus on Jewish history and society.
But just as an unfiltered e-mail account quickly reveals that the bulk of electronic communications are from people we would really not wish to ever meet in person, so are responsible blogs, in the Jewish realm as in the general, decidedly in the minority.
And even many responsible blogs allow postings of comments from people with very different value systems. As one poster on a Jewish blog, “Joe,” noted: “The whole reason people gravitate to blogs with active comment sections is because of the gosip [sic] and back and forth jabs and insults… If thats [sic] not your thing, fine, but anyone who reads or posts on a blog cant [sic] seriously claim that lashon hara bothers them.”
No one knows exactly why the Internet appears to bring out the worst in people, but there is little doubt that it often does. And the cloak of anonymity seems to unleash truly dark, ugly alter egos. As a popular Jewish blog’s founder told the Forward in June, “There’s a lot of testosterone on the Internet, a lot of swagger… anything can happen.”
Like maliciousness and mayhem. Recently, for example, a 13-year-old Missouri girl who was targeted on a non-Jewish social-networking site for verbal abuse by classmates became so distraught that she hanged herself in her bedroom with a belt.
Another recent e-outrage, although with a happier ending, was perpetrated by a Milwaukee teacher who presented himself anonymously on a blog as a critic of the local teachers union. In an attempt to garner sympathy for union members, he wrote that the two youths who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in 1999 “knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs: One shot at a time.” Only because of the implicit threat of violence, and the resultant involvement of law enforcement, was the teacher’s ruse uncovered. Less prosecutable offenses, although malevolent, misleading and violative of the laws of civil discourse, are, needless to say, of no interest to the police.
And so, many blogs have become showcases for carefully concocted stews of truth and falsehood well stirred and generously seasoned with gall and spleen. The Jewish sites among them like to malign guilty and innocent people alike – extra points for Orthodox Jews and triple-score for rabbis.
On some sites, targets’ guilt is established purely by rumor, innuendo, anonymous accusations and alleged association with accused or confirmed wrongdoers. Innocent until proven guilty? Not in the blogosphere.
Indeed, if a Jewish blog were fully reflective of Jewish values, even those who are actually guilty would not be subject to “open season” maligning. Truth may be “an absolute defense” in American libel law, but not in Jewish law; true statements are precisely the focus of the prohibition of lashon hora. It might strike some as strange, but the Torah teaches us that the evil of such speech is inherent, not a function of falsehood.
Perhaps even more disturbing is the apparent gullibility of so many visitors to those blogs, who, from their own postings, seem ready to swallow any accusation or character assassination, as long as the charges are sufficiently salacious or forcefully asserted. Some of the many adulatory comments posted on offensive blogs may have been planted by the blogerrai-meisters themselves, but many certainly seem to be from other citizens anxious to join in the fun.
Responsible bloggers don’t deserve to be lumped together with the louts and understandably chafe at having their entire enterprise tarred with the sins of individuals. Unfortunately, though, those individuals and their sins comprise the bulk of the blogosphere. Those who counsel avoidance of blogs are no different from those who advise against frequenting dark, crime-ridden neighborhoods. There may be bargains to be had in such locales, maybe even a good library or pizzeria. But they are scuzzy places to spend time in.
The Internet in general is, pace the popular arbiters of societal propriety, not a healthy place to hang out in. That is why many Orthodox Jewish religious leaders have frowned upon its use altogether for recreational purposes. They feel that the windows it opens to every corner of the wider world allow in not only some sunlight but much pollution of the most pernicious sort.
But even if business or other life exigencies require individuals to utilize the Internet, there are dark corners of the Web that are filled with venomous spiders, that pose extraordinary risks and should be avoided at practically all costs. The blogosphere is a particular infested corner.
All Jews should be concerned with basic Jewish values like shunning forbidden speech, refusing to judge others, showing honor for Torah and Torah-scholars. And if we are, we are rightly warned against patronizing the untamed areas of Blogistan. Because, while larger society may hallow the idea of free speech, Judaism considers words to carry immense responsibility. Used properly, they can teach, inspire and elevate. But used wrongly, or recklessly, they can be virtual weapons of mass destruction.
© 2007 AM ECHAD RESOURCES
[Rabbi Shafran is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America.]
"Some of the many adulatory comments posted on offensive blogs may have been planted by the blogerrai-meisters themselves"
I told Shafran to include this part about UOJ. It's not shayach that so many people hate me.
It would be nice to see Shafran identify the Tzvi Frankel character, nobody ever heard of him. So much for anonymous comments. Also which "falsehood" is he referring to? It would nice to know that as well.
All Jews should be concerned with basic Jewish values like shunning forbidden speech, refusing to judge others, showing honor for Torah and Torah-scholars.
And of course, who needs to mention other "basic Jewish values" as protecting Jewish children against molesters, protecting the kosher consumer against massive fraud, dealing honestly in business, preventing massive chillul hashem, etc. etc.? But then again, our job is to "change the subject" and attack the evil bloggers.
By the way, please read this week's Jewish Press article by Rabbi Binyamin Epstein titled "Kashrut". He tells of one horror story after another regarding today's kashrut standards and "mashgichim". Shabbat Shalom.
I was wondering if Steve is still alive. I knew if he has any pulse that preposterous outburst from Shafran would get him to chime in.
Rabbi Avi Shafran works for Agudath Israel of America, and some of the most damning alleged incidents of rabbi-on-boy sexual abuse took place at their boys camp and under their watch. Also remember bloggers exposed this abuse. Further, Agudath Israel of America has opposed steps to end rabbi-on-child sexual abuse, including a proposed New York State law mandating background checks for all employees of religious schools.
This is time for zero tolerance, both of rabbi-on-child sexual abuse and of the rabbis who cover for it.
Rabbi Shafran is one of those rabbis, consistently showing far more concern for the honor of rabbis than he does for the innocent children raped by his rabbinic colleagues.
Rabbi Shafran should not be employed anywhere in public Jewish life. Sadly, the same is true for the rabbis who employ him, and who have made blogs and the Internet a greater evil than the rabbis who rape and abuse defenseless children.
"Freedom of the press belongs those who own one."
Jewish Observer / Am Echad anyone?
Given his preoccupation with loshon hara and respect for rabbis (as well as his unkind generalizations about bloggers, who, evidently, don't merit either respect or protection from loshon hara), it seems that Rabbi Shafran's primary concern is to ensure that nobody gets to chip away at his authority.
Reading this I have visions of Cartman from South Park only with a beard and black hat screaming, "YOU MUST RESPECT MY AUTHOR-RI-TAY!!!!"
There are letters from various gedolim from 70-80 years ago against reading various Jewish newspapers that sound almost exactly like Shafran's article.
Considering how much time Rabbi Shafran spends reading UOJ and other blogs, it's amazing that he gets any work done.
In a way Shafran's right. I recently came across a Jewish blogger that wrote a horrible post that was not only insensitive, but virtually spit in the face of victims of sexual abuse. Here's a few outtakes of that post:
What is also lamentable, though, is that its [abuse's] existence—to whatever extent—in the Orthodox world provides fodder for those who are always at the ready to pounce on the flimsiest of anecdotal evidence to "expose" what they believe are the moral shortcomings of Orthodox life.
And this:
Last year, an article appeared in New York magazine that told the tawdry tale of an alleged serial Orthodox child abuser
WAIT! Who was that blogger? Does the word HYPOCRITE come to mind?
I am against anonymous attack blogs of any kind - EXCEPT when Moyri Verebbi Horav Belsky makes a hoyroas shoaah for Tuvya's Blog.
I told that numbskull Shafran to name UOJ. I can't believe he's such a chicken of what UOJ can do to him.
The Bungalow Putz was interning at LIJ Hospital's psycho division. The local Young Israel - the only shul in town - was damaged, actually devastated by flood waters in the last year. The shul is appealing to all LIJ doctors and interns who davened in the YI to help out.
Has Dr. Neuhoff given them a red cent?
UOJ himself said "Let's change the subject", so I took him up on it to ignore molestation.
"the apparent gullibility of so many visitors to those blogs, who, from their own postings, seem ready to swallow any accusation or character assassination, as long as the charges are sufficiently salacious or forcefully asserted."
There you have it folks. NY Times articles and copies of Federal indictments are a figment of your imagination. Now go one being your gullible selves and listen to Avi Shafran. Hurry along now.
How would Rabbi Shafran respond to the above poll, that 53% of people polled on this site and elsewhere (majority), feel that their children are safer in yeshivas today because of the efforts of UOJ?
At no time did the rank & file of Hungarian & Yeshivishe dopes vote that way in UOJ's poll. He controls and manipulates the results.
There is no reason to even conduct a poll as Kolko is innocent.
The parents of YTT can rest assured that their children are safer than ever. Not because of UOJ but because of the valiant oversight of the Rosh Hayeshiva R' Lipa Margulies and the Honorable Town Crier, R' Aron Twerski.
The Government of Israel appears to be admitting that rabbis in the mid-1980s told Avrohom Mondrowitz to flee indictment in the US for the safety of Israel. Mondrowitz did so and lived openly, freely and safely in Israel for more than 20 years.
Mondrowitz is to remain in jail until his next hearing, set to be held on January 9, 2008. The entire court document is now posted as a PDF file below. If you can translate, please do so and leave as a comment to this post. Thanks!
Briefly, it seems Rabbi Meir Zilberstein, who is the head of the Ger Hasidim in Jerusalem, has offered to vouch for Mondrowitz and serve as a form of a guarantor, as has Mondrowitz's wife and children.
This proves Ger is officially backing Mondrowitz, because no such action could or would be taken by Rabbi Zilberstein without the direct approval of the Gerrer Rebbe himself.
The offer to guarantee Mondrowitz's court appearances is also of little value. I do not believe the court can hold Rabbi Zilberstein responsible for Mondrowitz's flight from justice if he should again flee. Further, the price in dollars to be paid in lost bail is minor to a family as wealthy as the Mondrowitz family and to Ger itself, which is exceedingly wealthy. The Gerrer Rebbe is one of the richest men in Israel.
If Mondrowitz is released on bail, expect him to flee justice. He'll probably be shielded by Ger in a development town where Ger has a presence. After a few months, he'll go from there to Jordon or Egypt using a non-Israeli passport. From there, he'll go elsewhere, perhaps to the FSU or even to a city in Western Europe, where he'll stay until he's hunted down – if he's hunted.
The government's official response in court to Mondrowitz's request for bail by Hershkowitz, the Government's attorney, is, roughly, as follows:
We oppose any kind of alternative to incarceration. We are speaking here of somebody charged with serious crimes of a sexual nature, against children. We are also talking about crimes he committed in his house. In our opinion house arrest is not appropriate. An alternative to incarceration is based on the trustworthiness of the respondent himself. The respondent has demonstrated throughout the years the ability to flee justice. He is not deserving of an more opportunities to flee from justice and extradition to the United States. It is not only an issue of whether we have confidence in the guarantors because, like the judge noted, one of them is the father of small children in the places in the area where the respondent lives. According to the detention service, the respondent was helped by the community. According to a previous investigation, it was discovered his flight to Israel was by the advice of the rabbis. Strictly speaking, even the bail amount was low in respect to the serious offenses described in this case. In our opinion the alternative to incarceration is not sufficient. We are requesting his incarceration until the extradition hearing.
The Government of Israel has officially admitted that rabbis told Mondrowitz to flee to Israel in the mid 1980s where he would be safe from American justice.
UPDATE 12-28-07 11:30 AM: Here is the entire document as a PDF file. Sorry for the delay.
Also, comments to the first post were lost. Please leave them again here. Sorry!
UPDATE 2, 12-28-07 3:00 PM:
The Forward has this quote from July of 2006 which speaks clearly to the rabbis intentions in this case, as I then reported:
…One member of Hynes’s Jewish council, Rabbi Herbert Bomzer, said he does not remember Mondrowitz’s extradition being discussed by the council. Bomzer did say that he knew Mondrowitz when the younger man was a counselor at Yeshiva University’s high school, and that Mondrowitz had been “loved” by the students.
When asked if he would now support extradition proceedings, Bomzer, president of the rabbinical board of Flatbush, said: “If he has managed to get to Israel and is protected by the law there — then leave it alone.”…
The entire Forward piece is here in PDF format, as well.
By the way, this means, I think, that the rabbis who told Mondrowitz to flee broke New York and US Law and are accessories after the fact to Mondrowitz's crimes. Will they be prosecuted? They should be.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/files/mondrowitz_122707_court_document.pdf
Sorry pal, it looks like it's going to get really ugly for you when UOJ reads this court document about Gerrer rabbonim fighting to save Mondrowitz.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/baltimore-demanding-transparency-and.html
Back on April 11, 2007, the Vaad HaRabbonim/Rabbinical Council of Greater Baltimore signed a letter and made public a statement about dealing with "Abuse in Our Community".
To this day the members of the Vaad who signed the letter have not been held accountable for the issues they addressed. For the last four years the rabbonim of Baltimore have been aware that allegations were made against Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro, yet did nothing more then have him stop teaching bar mitzvah students -- and then helped in arranging for this alleged sex offender to have a job working for Wasserman and Lemberger's. The status quo in the Baltimore community has been to ensure those who are alleged to have molested children have a way to make a living, yet doing nothing to help those who have been sexually violated.
It's a well known fact in the orthodox community of Baltimore that Yisroel Shapiro daven's (prays) at Congregation Darchi Tzedek synagogue, located on Seven Mile Lane. This is a synagogue in which children can be seen running in and out of. One would think that Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz's first concern would be to make sure the children of his shul were protected and to start asking if any children might have already been molested so that he could assist in them getting help. To this day Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz has never issued public statement warning his congregants of the fact that Shapiro was arrested and charged with child molestation. Unless a parent read The Awareness Center's web page, has been reading blogs or another parent told them, they are unaware that there is an alleged sexual predator amongst them.
The Awareness Center is asking that everyone contact Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz and the Baltimore Vaad HaRabbonim Rabbinical and ask them to:
Make public the plan they established to notify parents in the community of the potential dangers of their children being left alone with Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro.
We are also asking that this statement include the safety plan created when Yisroel Shapiro is davening at Darchi Tzedek or any synagogue. They also need to make public the safety plan they established for Wasserman's and Lemberger," the retail business in which Shapiro is employed and also for any other public location Shapiro may enter.
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer - President
Vaad Harabbonim of Baltimore
410-358-3450
Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz
Congregation Darchei Tzedek
410-653-1688
410-486-0445 (Rabbi Horowitz)
7307 7 Mile Lane
Pikesville, MD 21208
Members of the Vaad HaRabbonim
1. Rabbi Elan Adler, Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation
2. Rabbi Reuben Arieh, Ohr HaMizrach Congregation
3. Rabbi Menachem Goldberger, Congregation Tiferes Yisroel
4. Rabbi Emanuel Goldfeiz, Congregation Beit Yaakov
5. Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, Cong. Shmorei Emunah
6. Rabbi Moshe Hauer, Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion
7. Rabbi Dovid Haber, KAYTT and Star-K
8. Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, Agudath Israel of Baltimore and Star-K
9. Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer, Sheiris Yisroel
10. Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, Chabad Lubavitch of Baltimore
11. Rabbi Nesanel Kostelitz, Machzikei Torah Congregation and the Community Kollel
12. Rabbi Chaim Landau, Ner Tamid
13. Rabbi Elchonon Lisbon, Bais Lubavitch - Chabad of Park Heights
14. Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, Ner Israel Rabbinical College and High School
15. Rabbi Gavriel Newman, Beth Jacob Congregation
16. Rabbi Shlomo Salfer, Winands Road Synagogue Center
17. Rabbi Jonathan Seidemann, Kehilath B'nai Torah
18. Rabbi Simcha Shafran, Adath Yeshurun and the Bais Din of Baltimore
19. Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Agudath Israel of Greenspring and Av Beis Din of Baltimore
20. Rabbi Shmuel Silber, Suburban Orthodox
21. Rabbi Amrom Taub, Arugas Habosem Congregation
22. Rabbi Y. Zvi Weiss, Bais Haknesses of Baltimore
23. Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, Beth Tfiloh
http://cbs2.com/local/josh.roth.spinka.2.619477.html
Bail Set In Orthodox Jew Money Laundering Case
The Defendent Is Being Held Because He Is Seen As A Flight Risk
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Bail was set today for an Israeli man accused of tax fraud, but a federal magistrate judge then delayed granting bail until the government could appeal his decision. Joseph Roth, 66, is one of six men arrested in connection with the money laundering ring.
Roth, of Tel Aviv, is accused of participating in a sophisticated tax fraud and money laundering scheme involving an Orthodox Jewish sect that allegedly cheated the IRS out of millions of dollars.
Bail was set at $1.9 million by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Hillman in a hearing this morning at U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Hillman then granted Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel O'Brien's request to stay the ruling so the government can appeal it to the federal district judge assigned to Roth's case.
O'Brien said the fact that Roth is not a U.S. citizen, Roth's age, and a 1977 Israeli law barring extradition of Israeli citizens, makes Roth a significant flight risk.
Roth will remain in federal custody until at least Jan. 4, pending the district judge's decision on Hillman's ruling.
Arraignment for six of the defendants named in the indictment is scheduled for Dec. 31.
Roth, the assistant manager of the Israel-based Mizrahi Bank, was named along with the Grand Rabbi of Spinka Naftali Tzi Weisz, and four others in federal grand jury indictment. Weisz, 59, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is currently free on $2 million bond. Roth is the only defendant currently in jail.
The indictment alleged that Roth and the others participated in a sophisticated scheme to use Spinka charities to pay illegal kickbacks to donors so they could cheat the Internal Revenue Service. The defendants then laundered the money through businesses in downtown Los Angeles' jewelry district and Mizrahi Bank, according to court documents.
Spinka is a Hasidic sect within Orthodox Judaism that originated in a European town along the border of Romania and Hungary.
I'd like very much to sympathize with the predicament of Lakewood shadchaness, but I remember my co- worker, a Lakewood musmach himself going to another(or perhaps the same with a very short memory!) shadchaness about his 30- something unmarried daughter. De erster kasher-- "is she slender?." This happened a number of years ago and now B'H she is married, no thanks to that particularLakewood Shadchaness. Bye the Bye--- I really am a spaced out BT!
Shafran dropping the curtain on legitimate timely questions with hot button words like "kavod ha Torah and leytsoones" simply does not fly. The enire Jewish kehilla will be judged if we do not move to protect children from molesters.
Bloggers are on the heel of pornographers ?
Could be avi is a bit angry that uoj called the jewish observer a pornographic magazine that should not be in a jewish home.
"Rabbi Shafran should not be employed anywhere in public Jewish life."
Amen to that! This guy has the job of being the mouthpiece for an organization opposes efforts to establish background checks for teachers and staff.
Personally, I would not trust him to be alone with my children or my livestock.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3291586.ece
By Peter Popham in Milan
Published: 29 December 2007
One of Italy's most colourful priests and the founder of a network of drug rehabilitation centres is expected to be charged with sexually molesting young recovering addicts at the headquarters of his organisation near Perugia in Umbria.
Monsignor Pierino Gelmini, 82, is a household name in Italy, a strong supporter of the political centre-right and a frequent guest on television chat shows. Politicians have warmly reciprocated his support, and in 2005, the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi famously handed over a cheque for 10 billion lire (equivalent to ¿1m) to the priest, known as Don Gelmini, on television for the charitable work of his organisation, Comunità Incontro.
Rarely mentioned during his television appearances is the fact that decades ago he was sent to jail for fraud, issuing dud cheques and other offences. And now another scandal appears to be beckoning.
The shadow of accusations of sexual abuse fell across Don Gelmini in the summer when it emerged that he was under investigation for allegedly exploiting some of the charges in his care. It was reported that one of them, Michele Iacobbe, now 34, had first filed a complaint against Don Gelmini in 2002. No action was taken, but he continued to complain about the priest's misbehaviour, which he said dated back to 1999.
Eight other former wards of the organisation added their voice to his, with great detail. Two of them were minors at the time the alleged abuse happened.
The main Italian newspapers reported yesterday that the preliminary judge in the case was on the verge of committing Don Gelmini for trial on a charge of sexual violence.
When the accusations were first made public, Don Gelmini responded angrily that he was a victim of "the Jewish-radical chic lobby". The Vatican has advised the priest to give up his role as head of the organisation only if he is sent for trial. But Silvio Berlusconi has again spoken up for him, and Maurizio Gasparri, a member of the right-wing National Alliance party and a minister in Mr Berlusconi's last government, said the priest's accusers were "very few and of scant credibility".
He was jailed Italy in 1971 after being sentenced to four years for fraud. But, according to an article in Il Messaggero at the time, he "often obliged the prison director to put him in solitary confinement to prevent 'promiscuity' with other inmates".
"These accusations will certainly not prevent me from continuing to embrace my boys," Don Gelmini said, "as I have done for the past 50 years."
Internet opens elite college materials to all
By Justin Pope, Associated Press
Gilbert Strang is a quiet man with a rare talent: helping others understand linear algebra. He's written a half-dozen popular college textbooks, and for years a few hundred students at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been privileged to take his course.
Recently, with the growth of computer science, demand to understand linear algebra has surged. But so has the number of students Strang can teach.
An MIT initiative called "OpenCourseWare" makes virtually all the school's courses available online for free — lecture notes, readings, tests and often video lectures. Strang's Math 18.06 course is among the most popular, with visitors downloading his lectures more than 1.3 million times since June alone.
Strang's classroom is the world.
In his Istanbul dormitory, Kemal Burcak Kaplan, an undergraduate at Bogazici University, downloads Strang's lectures to try to boost his grade in a class there.
Outside Calcutta, graduate student Sriram Chandrasekaran uses them to brush up on matrices for his engineering courses at the elite Indian Institute of Technology.
Many "students" are college teachers themselves, like Sheraz Ali Khan at a small engineering institute in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Noorali Jiwaji, at the Open University of Tanzania. They use Strang and other MIT professors as guides in designing their own classes, and direct students to MIT's courses for help.
Others are closer to MIT's Cambridge, Mass., campus. Some are MIT students and alumni, while others have no connection at all — like Gus Whelan, a retiree on nearby Cape Cod, and Dustin Darcy, a 27-year-old video game programmer in Los Angeles who uses linear algebra regularly in his work.
"Rather than going through my old, dusty books," Darcy said, "I thought I might as well go through it from the top and see if I learn something new."
There has never been a more exciting time for the intellectually curious.
The world's top universities have come late to the world of online education, but they're arriving at last, creating an all-you-can eat online buffet of information.
And mostly, they are giving it away.
MIT's initiative is the largest, but the trend is spreading.
More than 100 universities worldwide, including Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Notre Dame, have joined MIT in a consortium of schools promoting their own open courseware.
You no longer need a Princeton ID to hear the prominent guests who speak regularly on campus, just an Internet connection. This month, Yale announced it would make material from seven popular courses available online, with 30 more to follow.
As with many technology trends, new services and platforms are driving change. Last spring marked the debut of "iTunes U," a section of Apple's popular music and video downloading service now publicly hosting free material from 28 colleges.
Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley recently announced it would be the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube. Berkeley was already posting lectures, but YouTube has dramatically expanded their reach.
If there isn't yet something for everyone, it's only a matter of time. On iTunes, popular recent downloads include a climate change panel at Stanford, lectures on existentialism by Cal-Berkeley professor Hubert Dreyfus, and a performance of Mozart's requiem by the Duke Chapel Choir. Berkeley's offerings include 48 classes, from "Engineering Thermodynamics" to "Human Emotion."
"It's almost as good as being there," said Whelan, the Massachusetts retiree, of the MIT classes he has sampled. "The only thing that's lacking is the pressure." He says he usually doesn't do the homework assignments, but adds: "Now that I'm not in school I don't have to do that anymore."
YouTube, iTunes, OpenCourseWare — none are the full college experience. You can't raise your hand and ask a question. You can't get a letter of recommendation.
And most importantly, almost everywhere, you can't get credit or earn a degree.
That caveat, however, is what has made all this possible.
When the Internet emerged, experts predicted it would revolutionize higher education, cutting its tether to a college campus. Technology could help solve one of the fundamental challenges of the 21st century: providing a mass population with higher education at a time when a college degree was increasingly essential for economic success.
Today, the Internet has indeed transformed higher education. A multibillion-dollar industry, both for-profit and non-profit, has sprung up offering online training and degrees. Figures from the Sloan Consortium, an online learning group, report about 3.5 million students are signed up for at least one online course — or about 20% of all students at degree-granting institutions.
But it hasn't been as clear what role — if any — elite universities would play in what experts call the "massification" of higher education. Their finances are based on prestige, which means turning students away, not enrolling more. How could they teach the masses without diminishing the value of their degree?
But MIT's 2001 debut of OpenCourseWare epitomized a key insight: Elite universities can separate their credential from their teaching — and give at least parts of their teaching away as a public service. They aren't diminishing their reputations at all. In fact, they are expanding their reach and reputation.
It turns out there is extraordinary demand for bits and pieces of the education places like MIT provide, even without the diploma.
OpenCourseWare's site gets more than 1 million hits per month, with translated versions getting 500,000 more. About 60% of users are outside the United States. About 15% are educators, and 30% students at other universities. About half have no university affiliation.
"I think the fundamental realization is that distance learning will solve the problem of access to certification, but there's a larger problem, which is access to information," says Steve Carson, director of external relations for the MIT initiative.
"If you're going to work as a public health professional, you need the certification," Carson says. "If you're working in a community" — say, in Africa — "you don't need the certification. You just need access to the information."
About 7,200 miles from Cambridge, the Polytechnic of Namibia in is the kind of place eager to learn from MIT. Though barely a decade old, the school in the young African nation's capital Windhoek, is poised to play a key role in the country's development. It's one of 84 sites in Africa where MIT has shipped its course materials on hard drives for institutions to store locally on their own networks. With bandwidth costing about 1,000 times its price in the United States, patching into OpenCourseWare over the Internet would crash the school's fragile networks.
CIO Laurent Evrard says Polytechnic takes pride in standards on par with top global peers — he notes how U.S. exchange students get credit for work there — and says students like using OpenCourseWear to see how they stack up.
"Everybody here knows about MIT," he says, though it doesn't hurt that the school rector — its top official — is an alumnus.
On the opposite coast of southern Africa, Jiwaji says most of his Tanzanian students have never heard of MIT. Students use the courses "because it gives them a tool. They feel lost and they don't have good books," Jiwaji says. "They need a guide to help them."
His distance university — with 30,000 registered students — has OpenCourseWare available at centers around the capital of Dar es Salaam. There, it gets an impressive 600 hits per day, mostly in management classes.
Though it's found a wider audience, OpenCourseWare was originally intended for teachers. The idea wasn't just to show off MIT's geniuses but to share its innovative teaching methods. After examining an MIT course called "Machine Structures," Khan, the Pakistani professor, redesigned his lab assignments for a computer science class to get students more involved, asking them to design and build their own microprocessors.
"It really encourages the students to discover and try something new," he said. "Normally the stress here is on how things work, not on creating things of your own."
MIT's free offerings focus mostly on well-organized texts like syllabuses and readings, along with an expanding video lecture collection. Others, like Stanford and Bowdoin College in Maine, provide more polish, editing and features.
Berkeley, meanwhile, is focused less on bells and whistles than on ramping up its ability to roll out content with a system that automatically records and posts lectures. Berkeley's eight YouTube courses drew 1.5 million downloads in the first month, said Ben Hubbard, co-manager of the webcast.berkeley program, and the school is being inundated with requests to post more.
"That's why we're so focused on automation," he said. "Our motto is 'Fiat Lux' — 'let there be light.' We feel like this is a great way to let the light of Berkeley shine out on the world."
A big obstacle is cost. Professors are reluctant to participate unless staff are provided to help with logistics. A major expense is video camera operators, unless schools can persuade lecturers to stand still at the lectern. MIT estimates OpenCourseWear costs a hefty $20,000 per course. Money from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation started the project, but from now on it will rely mostly on contributions from MIT's budget and endowment, and from visitor donations.
But there are direct benefits. Small schools like Bowdoin can use iTunes to show prospective students the richness of their offerings. MIT reports half its incoming students have already checked out OpenCourseWare.
Meanwhile, half of MIT alumni use OpenCourseWare, too. And alumni who stay connected with the intellectual life at their alma maters are more likely to donate.
MIT and other schools also emphasize the services benefit their paying customers — the students. On-campus use at MIT and Berkeley spikes during exams, as students review lectures. Fears that technology would hurt class attendance have proved unfounded, at least at MIT, where 96 six percent of instructors reported no decline.
Will the free offerings of elite universities ever reduce demand for the full — and full-price — experience at places like MIT? Carson doubts it. Networking, late-night arguments over pizza, back-and-forth with professors — that's where the real value lies, and even MIT's technology may never catch up with that.
For teachers like Strang, his expanded reach is no more than a minor inconvenience — occasional e-mailed questions from "students." And it's a major reward.
"My life is in teaching," he says. "To have a chance do that with a world audience is just wonderful."
Oh, the Things You Find Out OnlineFri Dec 28, 2:00 AM ET
DEAR MARGO: I am 33 years old and head over heels in love with a guy who I think is great. The problem is that he drinks a lot and then picks fights with me, and the next day, he doesn't even remember the fight.
He recently got divorced, and I know from experience that it's a hard time dealing with everything. My family hates him and I think the feeling is pretty much mutual.
We live together, and finances are one of the things he picks a fight about. He thinks he's paying more of the bills than I am. The truth is, I am paying my half, but it seems he's paying more because he has bills from his marriage that he still has to pay.
I am at my wits' end about this whole situation. I don't want to leave him, but I can only handle so much more.
--- JANE IN ILLINOIS
DEAR AT: Run, Jane, run. If you evaluate the negatives about this guy you are head over heels in love with, chances are you might reorganize your thinking. This chap is most likely an alcoholic. It is bad enough to drink to the extent that you become belligerent, but quite something else not to have any recollection of it the next day. Your family doesn't like him for what seem to be valid reasons. (Sometimes families should be listened to. Do not ask me how I know this.)
In addition to his dependence on Jim Beam, he also has a chip on his shoulder about money. At the risk of being repetitive, marriage does not improve anyone's behavior. People are generally on their best behavior before the deal is closed. Caveat emptor.
--- MARGO, WARILY
DEAR MARGO: My boyfriend, "Matt," and I have been together a little more than four years. We have a very strong relationship and have discussed marriage and children, but we both agree we should wait.
Confessions on MySpace
DEAR MARGO: I was checking out my 12-year-old daughter's MySpace (she knows I do this as a condition of her having it) and found my 14-year-old niece's MySpace (that my brother and sister-in-law do not know she has), where she alluded to having a "relationship" with a lesbian friend.
High-Class Worries, as My Dad Used To Say
DEAR MARGO: I am in my early 20s. My boyfriend and I have been dating for three years and have a wonderful relationship. We've survived three periods of long distance, one breakup (soon reversed) and a host of other issues. We are absolutely supportive of one another in all matters.
Don't Let the Ex Isolate the Kids
DEAR MARGO: I've been divorced now for a little over 10 years. In the process, my ex-wife has alienated my family to the point where they want nothing to do with her. That's fine because I only deal with my ex-wife as necessary.
************************
Margo went into business in the 1960s as Dear Yudi. His broad experience and understanding of human nature provide answers for the troubled — and entertainment for everyone else.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=18703
Here's some progress. The Rebbe of Karlin-Stolin in Israel says his chassidim should stop shnorring and get a job.
UOJ had better be careful or I'll give another speech condemning him.
I wouldn't take that threat lightly if I were him.
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/51/30_51whattayear.html
Councilman Simcha Felder (D–Borough Park) rhapsodized to The Brooklyn Paper about his bladder after winning the Paper’s coveted “Bladder of the Year” designation. He earned the honor by hiding in a City Council bathroom during the vote to elect his openly gay colleague Christine Quinn as Council Speaker. “[My] bladder deserves this award, as it boldly withstands a daily barrage of coffee that would destroy most other bladders,” wrote Felder.
When these fools attacked UOJ the first time at the convention, rabbonim were furious that a whole can of worms was opened in that most Convention Fressers didn't read blogs, but were then looking up and reading UOJ.
In the last year there were some people who stopped reading UOJ out of protest because they didn't like how he attacked someone they admire, like the Gerrer Rebbe, etc. Now with Shafran's new tortured op-ed, they are all scratching their heads and saying, hmmm what did UOJ do that got Shafran all riled up? They are now reading this blog religiously again.
Six years after he was declared mentally incompetent under murky circumstances involving his political rival, District Attorney Charles Hynes, and two years after he had been locked down in a Bronx nursing home, former Civil Court Judge John Phillips was finally freed in 2007.
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=9&aid=76988
Anyone recognize this putz who pulled off a robbery in Boro Park?
When everyone finds out that the "Rebbe" is buying off every judge and politician in Israel to protect Mondrowitz, some may change their minds about him. Maybe not, very sad!
Uoj, I dont know were or how this rav meir zilberstein comes in hear, it is a known fact in ger, that at least for the last year this rav is not 100% reliable, since his mind is not always with it, he is getting older you know.
R'LVF:
I'm sorry to be the one to bring you bad tidings.
I am certain as to the Rebbe's direct involvement!
I am certain as to the Rebbe's direct involvement!
Uoj, I was not questioning the rebbis invovelment, the question is how the hell do they think that rav meir zilberstein is going to watch over that child molester? this rav is going senile for cryin out loud.
The question is how the hell do they think that rav meir zilberstein is going to watch over that child molester?
----------
They could care less!
CALL TO ACTION: Case of Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro
Demanding Transparency and Accountability from our Religious Leaders!
http:www.theawarenesscenter.org/shapiro_yisroel.html
The Awareness Center, Inc.
(the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault)
P.O. Box 65273, Baltimore, MD 21209
www.theawarenesscenter.org
443-857-5560
December 28, 2007
Back on April 11, 2007, the Vaad HaRabbonim/Rabbinical Council of Greater Baltimore signed a letter and made public a statement about dealing with "Abuse in Our Community".
To this day the members of the Vaad who signed the letter have not been held accountable for the issues they addressed. For the last four years the rabbonim of Baltimore have been aware that allegations were made against Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro, yet did nothing more then have him stop teaching bar mitzvah students -- and then helped in arranging for this alleged sex offender to have a job working for Wasserman and Lemberger's. The status quo in the Baltimore community has been to ensure those who are alleged to have molested children have a way to make a living, yet doing nothing to help those who have been sexually violated.
It's a well known fact in the orthodox community of Baltimore that Yisroel Shapiro daven's (prays) at Congregation Darchi Tzedek synagogue, located on Seven Mile Lane. This is a synagogue in which children can be seen running in and out of. One would think that Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz's first concern would be to make sure the children of his shul were protected and to start asking if any children might have already been molested so that he could assist in them getting help. To this day Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz has never issued public statement warning his congregants of the fact that Shapiro was arrested and charged with child molestation. Unless a parent read The Awareness Center's web page, has been reading blogs or another parent told them, they are unaware that there is an alleged sexual predator amongst them.
The Awareness Center is asking that everyone contact Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz and the Baltimore Vaad HaRabbonim Rabbinical and ask them to:
Make public the plan they established to notify parents in the community of the potential dangers of their children being left alone with Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro.
We are also asking that this statement include the safety plan created when Yisroel Shapiro is davening at Darchi Tzedek or any synagogue. They also need to make public the safety plan they established for Wasserman's and Lemberger," the retail business in which Shapiro is employed and also for any other public location Shapiro may enter.
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer - President
Vaad Harabbonim of Baltimore
410-358-3450
Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz
Congregation Darchei Tzedek
410-653-1688
410-486-0445 (Rabbi Horowitz)
7307 7 Mile Lane
Pikesville, MD 21208
Members of the Vaad HaRabbonim
1. Rabbi Elan Adler, Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation
2. Rabbi Reuben Arieh, Ohr HaMizrach Congregation
3. Rabbi Menachem Goldberger, Congregation Tiferes Yisroel
4. Rabbi Emanuel Goldfeiz, Congregation Beit Yaakov
5. Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, Cong. Shmorei Emunah
6. Rabbi Moshe Hauer, Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion
7. Rabbi Dovid Haber, KAYTT and Star-K
8. Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, Agudath Israel of Baltimore and Star-K
9. Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer, Sheiris Yisroel
10. Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan, Chabad Lubavitch of Baltimore
11. Rabbi Nesanel Kostelitz, Machzikei Torah Congregation and the Community Kollel
12. Rabbi Chaim Landau, Ner Tamid
13. Rabbi Elchonon Lisbon, Bais Lubavitch - Chabad of Park Heights
14. Rabbi Sheftel Neuberger, Ner Israel Rabbinical College and High School
15. Rabbi Gavriel Newman, Beth Jacob Congregation
16. Rabbi Shlomo Salfer, Winands Road Synagogue Center
17. Rabbi Jonathan Seidemann, Kehilath B'nai Torah
18. Rabbi Simcha Shafran, Adath Yeshurun and the Bais Din of Baltimore
19. Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Agudath Israel of Greenspring and Av Beis Din of Baltimore
20. Rabbi Shmuel Silber, Suburban Orthodox
21. Rabbi Amrom Taub, Arugas Habosem Congregation
22. Rabbi Y. Zvi Weiss, Bais Haknesses of Baltimore
23. Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, Beth Tfiloh
Bricolage Designs is Henry Radusky from Boro Park. He is in hot water for multiple buildings with code violations. He had his certification abilities revoked and according to some articles you can Google, is under investigation by law enforcement for paying off corrupt DOB officials who allow the safety hazards.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=17474
An eight-story, 69,300-square-foot building containing large, family-sized affordable condominium units will soon rise in Midwood.
The Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), a not-for-profit mortgage lender for affordable housing, reports that it has provided a $14.3 million construction loan for the development.
Designed by Brooklyn-based Bricolage Designs, the new building, at 1535-1543 East 19th Street, between Avenues O and P, will be constructed on a site comprised of three lots, one vacant and the others with two-family homes that are being demolished.
The 43-units will include four studios, nine one-bedroom units (three will be duplexes), five two-bedroom units, 20 three-bedroom units and five four-bedroom duplexes. The units are expected to sell for $445 per square foot and range in price from $203,810 for a 458-square-foot studio apartment to $646,000 for a 1,615-square-foot four-bedroom duplex.
There will also be a 566-square-foot community facility space and 27 indoor parking spaces.
http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_7823950
While 74 percent of the Los Angeles Unified School District's 700,000 students could be eligible for subsidized meals for low-income students, only 37percent of those in middle schools and high schools participate.
The district receives between $2.07 and $2.47 for each subsidized meal served. But since only about half of the 500,000 students who qualify participate, that amounts to a loss of $100 million a year - funds that could be staving off hunger and providing the basic nutrition that schooling demands.
Meanwhile, a recent federal report finds that slightly more than one in five students who received a subsidized lunch last year weren't, in fact, eligible for the benefit. Nationwide, that fraud amounts to a $935 million hit, at least.
There's a ganev who works out of his house in Flatbush who boasts that he is often called in to fix the screw ups by Bricolage Design.
The guy is running the following scams:
1. He overcharges by miles. If you question his billing, he suddenly drops the price by leaps and bounds with dumb "explanations" that make no sense.
2. He pressures you to buy from him the material that he specifies. If he finds out you are going to buy it from someone else, he ships it to you in a hurry and hopes you pay the bill before you realize what happened or before a competitor ships the same order.
3. The guy is one of the biggest fakers in town in "frumkeit" and a huge rodef kovod. He likes throwing parlor meetings for yeshivos in his house (built with stolen money). He finds out at which hotel all the biggest machers are staying for Yomim Tovim and follows them there to rub shoulders. Meanwhile, he is watching his premium movie channels while signing at his kids' yeshivos that he has no TV.
4. To top it all off, the guy is a petty thief who has been known to steal small amounts of cash if he can swipe it in a way that it can't be proven.
Did anyone go to the police about Leizerowitz? Are they working on an indictment?
The lead up to Shafran's drivel, were a bunch of other attacks on blogs from the OU, Sholom Rubashkin and whore-for-hire Menachem Lubinsky.
They are obviously very worried about the truth getting out from not just UOJ but also R' Yudel, DaasHakohol and others.
Lubinsky took the cake by saying that bloggers can't be trusted on kashrus issues. That's right Lubinsky, stifle free speech so you can keep getting paid to shill for your clients who are feeding Rubashkin treif to millions of people.
Simply put:
If and when Mondrowitz leaves jail under a bail agreement of any form come here for a full expose on the entire mondrowitz family. Including the steamy details of the escapades of some of his children and other relatives. You'll be amazed at how this DOES run in his family. It is up to his family to cease seaking his bail to keep me from yapping. It is either full justice for the victims or i spill the family jewels. (Like extramarital and homosexual shenanigins.)
UOJ,
If Cohen is a chalal like you now contend in your sidebar commentary, have you:
A. confirmed his father was in fact a Kohein
B. found out if he duchens & gets first aliyah at his shul Gvul Yaabetz
????
How could any rov be mesader kiddushin for his parents if true?
Dovid Cohen's father was a Kohein, he does not duchen nor does he get the first aliya in his "shul".
That designer guy putz does a lot of shuls and yeshivos so it's really mammon hekdesh that he's stealing from in many cases. He still has a good reputation among the Hungarian and other feinshmecker losers and keeps getting referrals despite his ripoffs. Most people don't bother to question him I guess.
I don't know that his kids go to yeshiva that actually make you sign about television but there's no question that he gives a false impression that he's very frum.
The redifas kovod is really disgusting. I've seen him drop tidbits of information around where he wants people to hear that he paid a lot of money for such and such.
Rabbonim once came after him about one of his genayvishe maases but they had to back off because the guy is very smart and covered his tracks perfectly. They were afraid he would call the cops that they are harassing him and they did not have proof that would stand up in court. They do tell people however that he is swindler al pee halocho.
READ IT AND WEEP:
From this week's Jewish Press
Kashrut
By: Rabbi Binyamin Epstein
"To whom is he teaching knowledge, and to whom is he imparting wisdom? To those just weaned from milk..."(Yeshaya 28:9)
The Talmud (Sotah 12b) notes that this verse refers to Moshe Rabbenu, who as an infant, refused to nurse from any of the Egyptian women that Pharaoh's daughter brought over after she had rescued the child from the river. That is why Miriam suggested to call a wet nurse from among the Hebrew women, whereupon she summoned the child's mother. The spiritual knowledge of Torah enters into someone who partakes only of kosher food.
Everyone complains about the level of kashrut in our midst, but it is only lip service. Everyone talks about the debacle in Monsey but that is as far as it goes. People are busy supporting their families and hope that it was just an isolated incident. As for kashrut, they rely on the rabbis.
I used to assume that a mashgiach at a catered affair made sure that everything he supervised was reliable, but this is not necessarily so.
Many years ago, a colleague told me that he was at large out-of-town wedding-500 guests-and went to the kitchen to speak to the mashgiach. He asked the mashgiach in Yiddish "Can I eat here?" The mashgiach responded "You can't even drink the water. Now, if you ask me what I'm doing here, I will tell you that I represent the local rabbi. But you can't eat at his house, either."
At a bar mitzvah in a beautiful hotel, I asked the mashgiach whether one can eat there. He answered in the negative. Puzzled, I looked at him. He explained that the caterer of the affair was married to a gentile, and he didn't know why the Rabbinical organization in charge trusted him.
After talking for several minutes to the mashgiach at another bar mitzvah, I asked him whether he himself would eat there. He responded that what he does is his own business. He had a different level of fear of G-d than other people. So I rephrased my question: "Should someone of your level of fear of G-d eat there?" He answered that he was not personally familiar with certain foods that were brought in, but the Rabbinic organization in charge probably was-and told me which foods those were.
I was at a wedding at Terrace on the Park and went into the kitchen looking for a mashgiach. I encountered the caterer, whom I trust, and asked him where the mashgiach was. He told me that there were three mashgichim there, but what could he do? Instead of circulating on the various floors, they were sitting downstairs and gabbing with each other.
Several months after the Monsey debacle, I was at a wedding in Monsey and walked into the kitchen, asking for the mashgiach. The kitchen staff pointed to a door and I found the mashgiach there, sitting and learning. I asked him if he was the mashgiach, and when he replied in the affiramtive I exclaimed, "Monsey hasn't changed!" and slammed the door on the way out.
At a wedding in Queens, I spent ten pleasant minutes chatting with the mashgiach. He asked me whether I had been at a wedding there six months before, because that was the last time a guest had come into the kitchen.
During a wedding at a Sheraton Hotel in Connecticut I spoke with three mashgichim in the kitchen. They asked: "There are 700 people here and you are the only one to come to the kitchen. Why?"
So I am asking you, Why? Are you that hungry that you can't survive should you find out that you cannot eat there? Don't know what to ask? If 10% of the guests walked into the kitchen at a catered affair, it would put the caterers, the certified kashrut organizations and the rabbis on notice that the Jewish consumer cares. The mashgichim would do their jobs instead of talking and learning.
I have not picked situations where there were no mashgichim at all or where the kashrut supervisors were arrogant morons. Most of the mashgichim I met were competent, G-d fearing people. They would understand if a layman finds problems in their kitchens, they will lose their credibility and their livelihood.
Next time you are enjoying the sweetbreads and tongue at the smorgasbord, do you feel guilt-free if they they turn out not to be kosher?
UOJ, is there any evidence that David Cohen was involved in advising Mondrowitz to flee? It would not surprise me based on what I know about his lack of repsect for the US legal system and his radical and anti-halachik views on dina dmalchusa dina but I am wondering whether there is any evidence that he was involved in this case.
UOJ,
i JUST WANT TO BRING TO YOUR ATTENTION ABOUT AN ARTICLE THAT WAS WRITTEN ABOUT OHEL IN THIS WEEKS JEWISH PRESS. tHE JP NEEDS A BIG POTCH FOR THAT ARTICLE.
ALSO THERE IS A WEEKLY MAGAZINE IN LAKEWOOD CALLED *THE LAKEWOOD VOICE*
IT HAS PICTURES OF MARGO HAVING THE KOVOD OF WRITING OSIYOS IN A SEFER TORAH R"L FOR MESIVTA OF LAKEWOOD TORAH TEMIMA BRANCH.. YOU CAN SEE ALL THOSE YOUNG BOYS NEBACH DANCING WITH MARGO.\ ONE PARTICULAR PHOTO SHOWED ONLY MARGO AND THE BOYS DANCING (NO TORAH BEING HELD BY ANY ONE) BUT UNDER THAT PHOTO IT SAYS BOCHURIM DANCING WITH TORAH AND YOU SEE THE CAMERA FOCUSED ON mARGO YM'SH. uOJ LET ME KNOW IF U NEED A COPY OF THIS MAG FOR THE PICTURES ETC.
MUCH hATZLOCH, VKOL TOV
That Flatbush yutz who steals to live the high life is actually a cheapo. While he enjoys thinking he's choshuv, his wife is a bigger snake than him and forces him into major expenditures. He was complaining to his friends that she threatened to disown him unless they do stuff like go to Disney for chol hamoed et cetera. She has a teef sickness of wanting to impress everyone. Her father gave a shiur in a major yeshiva so it's incredible how she has these hasogos.
http://davidonthelake.blogspot.com/2006/11/sign-of-trouble.html
Ok...I can deal with one nut..
But that a newspaper (The Lakewood Voice) should publish such boorishness...is simply mindboggling...
Ok..ok...without further ado..
The Letter
Dear Lakewood Voice,
I would like to comment on something that has been bothering me for a long time. Why is it that in this Ihr HaTorah, yidden are naming streets after ladies?
This is not appropriate for a yiddishe shtut
Is there a shortage of names, how about naming the streets after American presidents like New Square?
I hope this will be a wake up call to the builders and whoever else makes these decisions.
Thank you,
Name Withheld..
jemima3 said...
fantastic letter - must have been a joke just to see if anyone was moronic enough to actually publish it.
It's All Good Now said...
Reminds me of the letter a woman wrote to a newspaper in Monsey about kids eating nonkosher animals from the animal cracker box.
I just remembered something! Remember last year, I think it was, when there was a big bruhaha in Monsey about someone selling chicken that was not kosher, telling people that it was? I remember there was an ad published with the signatures of many Rabbis at many shuls in the area, calling for a day of fasting and prayer for forgiveness for inadvertently eating all that treif chicken. Guess who's signatures were conspicuously absent from the ad? Tropper and Jacobs, et al.
Hey Shaffy baby!
When are you publishing your article on the grave Chilul Hashem caused by the Spinky Shtinky?
Or is that also a figment of the blogs imagination and Loshon Hora?
No doubt you just gonna sweep this story under your filthy mold-infested Borsalino.
http://mschick.blogspot.com/2007/12/scholarly-abuse.html
"It is not prudishness that begets my reluctance to write about sexual abuse. I do not want to cover up any form of wrongdoing. My reluctance arises from the likelihood that what I write will engender the false claim that I and the Orthodox cover up all abuse."
Who publishes the Lakewood Voice?
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/call-to-action-marvin-schick-new-york.html
Sunday, December 30, 2007
CALL TO ACTION: Marvin Schick, New York Jewish Week and Sexual Violence
CALL TO ACTION: Read the information below and send a note to Marvin Schick and the Jewish Week.
Marvin Schick lacks the information and education needed to be making any sort of public statement regarding the issue of sexual violence in Jewish communities. Unfortunately, the Jewish Week gave permission for Schick to have a voice to promote inaccuracies to the Jewish world.
It's time we demand that Jewish newspapers only publish information and articles on the topic of sexual violence from those who have the appropriate credentials of being experts in the field of sexual violence -- and not those who just who can afford to pay for full page ads, as in the case of Marvin Schick.
In Schtick's article he attacks Rachel Yehuda, who is one of the foremost researchers in the trauma field. We all should be asking Marvin Schick to show us his resume so that we can determine his expertise in the field.
As a people we also must also demand honesty, transparency and accountablity from all of those who are attempting to influence the Jewish world. By not doing so we are allowing our community leaders to murder the neshema's (souls) of those who have been sexually violated and their family members.
Contact:
Marvin Schick
mschick@mindspring.com
Jewish Week
Gary Rosenblatt, Senior Editor
gary@jewishweek.org
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/call-to-action-marvin-schick-new-york.html#8503530967055564678
Rachel Yehuda, PhD said...
I think the most insidious problem here is the use of a paid advertisement in the Jewish Week to undermine a scientific process. As a mental health professional and reader of the Jewish Week I find it incredulous that someone with no journalistic, clinical or scientific credentials at all can have a forum to discredit findings that have passed the rigorous process of peer review in a scientific journal.
It is one thing to be accused of writing a paper with "reckless scholarship and statistics" by a peer, and quite another by a layperson. I hope the Nefesh community will use its credibility to help set the record straight that talking about a mental health problem in the community does not constitute "group libel and severe cruelty toward observant Jews."
I hope the Nefesh community will be able to communicate to the Jewish Week that it is completely inappropriate to allow a paid advertiser to undermine the reporting of a finding in this manner, particularly since it was the Jewish Week itself who began all of this by publishing a story on the paper (for which they did interview me, but that is another issue). The paper we wrote was published in a peer review psychiatric journal with a large readership of mental health professionals who may treat members of the Observant community. It was written to make the point that clinicians should not fear discussing the possibility of sexual abuse even if their client/patient "seems" like they would be offended by such discussion. Even the most modest of women may have had such untoward experiences and if they did, therapy provides a safe place for discussion of these matters. Since over half the sample in our study sought mental health treatment, even if the sample is not representative of the general Observant population, it clearly is extremely relevant to clinicians treating such patients. Non-genital abuse was included specifically because it was reported as "abuse" by the respondents and was equally associated with mental health outcomes as genital abuse.
Mr. Schick was also mistaken in conjecturing that this paper must have been similar to the one presented, but ultimately not accepted for publication by the Orthodox Forum. That paper dealth with the primary aim of the survey -- to examine relationshps among adherence to laws of family purity and sexual dysfuction and satisfaction, but not sexual abuse. The decision not to publish the paper in an Orthodox publication widely read by both singe and married laypersons was not based on the conclusions, but the frank and explicity language of the survey questions and answers.
It is particularly upsetting to see how certain Mr. Schick is that the sample we used was "less than 1/100th of those who refused to participate" since he has absolutely no way of knowing this. We discuss in the paper that given the nature of the distribution, we had no way of estimating the number of people who did not express interest by not asking for the questionnaire, but many did, and those who did returned the survey.
Furthermore, the absence of accurate information on the characteristics of Observant Jewish women prevents anyone – including Mr. Schick – from assessing the representativeness of the sample. A point we made in the paper was that constraining the sample to women who report regular use of the mikva prevented us from examining sexual abuse in other particularly relevant subgroups such as, married women who were raised observant but are now no longer so, or single women, including those never married, divorced, widowed, or gay. Perhaps this limitation also explains the high prevalence of ba’a lot teshuva in our sample, which we noted.
The rigorous process of peer review in scientific journals is designed to weed out the sensationalism that is often present in the media and paid advertisements. The purpose of publication was not to publicize the material to a general audience. We understood that the interesting topic would make it likely that it would be reported on elsewhere, but we had no control of how it would be reported. Even Mr. Schick acknowledged that we repeatedly discussed the studies limitations, some of which he reports. I hope the Nefesh community will help educate the public on this issue. It is terribly undermining to all of us for the Jewish Week to allow any person with a checkbook to say anything he pleases and jeopardize the work we need to do in education and treatment of the community.
"Guess who's signatures were conspicuously absent from the ad? Tropper and Jacobs, et al."
Why would anyone go to Tropper to sign? He's a nobody. Like Rav Bloch explained in his shiur, no one ever paid attention to Tropper which is why Tropper and his BIG BOYCH had to go to Israel to fool some rabbonim there to be the first to recognize the Eternal Jewish Fraud.
Gary Rosenblatt is a joke. This isn't the first time he sided on the side of taking money verses publishing the truth. Just flashback a few years ago to the case of Mordechai Gafni. He took the side of one of his best friends, Saul Berman. Much better to help a confessed child molester get away with soul murder then to do what he could to help those who were sexually abused.
Saul Berman wouldn't amount to much today if Avi Weiss hadn't gotten him a job at YCT. His "Edah" organization fell apart and he was reduced to doing gigs with his guitar at Ramat Orah on West 110th St.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/call-to-action-marvin-schick-new-york.html
Dr. Michael Salamon granted The Awareness Center permission to forward the following message which was originally posted to the NEFESH list serve. NEFESH is an international organization representing orthodox mental health professionals.
Executive Board Member - Dr. Michael J. Salamon Responds to Marvin Schick's paid ad in the New York Jewish Week (see article below)
For you Americans who don't quite understand the Queen's English, this means welfare housing.
I'm sure Sir Boog will just love the recommendation that the British Agudah division be given more funding to provide more welfare housing.
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18&SecId=18&AId=57134&ATypeId=1
‘Deprived’ Charedim get MPs’ help
28/12/2007
By Dana Gloger
DIANE Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, has filed an early day motion (EDM) calling for more research by the government into what she calls the Hackney Jewish community’s “hidden deprivation”.
Her action, which has the backing of the Respect MP George Galloway, follows a report on findings from the 2001 Census on the Jewish population in Britain. It was the first time the census included a question on religion.
The report, published in May by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, found that Jews living in Hackney, East London, were experiencing higher levels of social deprivation than Jews in other parts of the country.
Their figures, gleaned from the census, show that 34.5 per cent of the Hackney Jewish population were living in social housing. This is 25 times higher than those in Hertsmere and three times more than Salford.
It was also found that Jews in Hackney were living in the most overcrowded conditions.
In terms of education, the Hackney community also fared worst, with 43.5 per cent having no qualifications, compared to just 7.8 per cent of
general London Jews.
In her EDM, Ms Abbott calls for the House of Commons to recognise the results of the research and to investigate further.
She said: “This hidden deprivation is an important issue which is not often discussed, and I wanted to bring attention to it. It’s interesting because the strictly Orthodox community here is quite self-contained, so it’s the first time we have seen this information.
“The research shows that, relatively speaking, it’s the most deprived Jewish population in the country.”
Ms Abbott added that local authorities needed to work closely with the community to see what could be done to help in terms of housing, and that Stamford Hill housing group, the Agudas Israel Housing Association, should be given more support and possibly increased funding.
So far, 27 MPs have signed the EDM, including Mr Galloway. Ms Abbott said she was not surprised he was one of the signatories as it was “a serious issue”.
She added: “The more signatories it gets, the more the government will be pressured to act.”
There are less treasonous people supporting the Agudah than secular groups.
It's about time these people realized we are NOT living in Czarist Russia anymore. We do not have to deal in the black market to survive. America offers everyone a fair chance to work hard and succeed but apparently this type of behaviour is ingrained in some of these people's genes.
It's a chillul hashem of epic proportions and this turns off many a potential baal teshuva or philo-semite.
Decent Jews are sick of bearing the brunt of these lowlife peoples actions.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_PxepB5WL1N0/R3fpMyYvZVI/AAAAAAAAAGw/hZn1BZ1Q_aI/s1600-h/MarvinSchick.jpg
If Boog thinks Lubinsky's got a dumb smile on his face, he's obviously never met me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/world/asia/15fish.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
Here in southern China, beneath the looming mountains of Fujian Province, lie dozens of enormous ponds filled with murky brown water and teeming with eels, shrimp and tilapia, much of it destined for markets in Japan and the West.
Fuqing is one of the centers of a booming industry that over two decades has transformed this country into the biggest producer and exporter of seafood in the world, and the fastest-growing supplier to the United States.
But that growth is threatened by the two most glaring environmental weaknesses in China: acute water shortages and water supplies contaminated by sewage, industrial waste and agricultural runoff that includes pesticides. The fish farms, in turn, are discharging wastewater that further pollutes the water supply.
"Our waters here are filthy," said Ye Chao, an eel and shrimp farmer who has 20 giant ponds in western Fuqing. "There are simply too many aquaculture farms in this area. They're all discharging water here, fouling up other farms."
Farmers have coped with the toxic waters by mixing illegal veterinary drugs and pesticides into fish feed, which helps keep their stocks alive yet leaves poisonous and carcinogenic residues in seafood, posing health threats to consumers.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3962.cfm
The organic label on a bag of produce, whether domestic or foreign-grown, does not mean that USDA inspectors actually have visited the farms. Instead, a certifier visits the farms and reports to the USDA, which reviews the paperwork.
China presents one example of the problem encountered with the credibility of foreign certifiers, said Joe Mendelson, legal director with the Center for Food Safety, a non-profit consumer and environmental protection association based in Washington D.C.
"Do we know whether the government or the certifier has the will to crack down on fraud?" Mendelson asked. "I doubt it, because [a crackdown] would have direct impact on China's ability to export product."
When foreign countries export organic food, even with the USDA certification label, there is cause for concern because of a language gap and a knowledge gap in farmers' understanding of U.S. regulations and what organic means in the U.S., said Jim Riddle, organic outreach coordinator of the University of Minnesota and former chair of the USDA National Organic Standards Board.
China is the primary country under question, he said, because of its incredibly rapid growth in converting massive amounts of land to organic production in order to reap the price premiums of organic.
"I have been an organic inspector (and have trained inspectors throughout the world, in Japan, Taiwan and Russia) for 20 years--it takes time to convert to organic production," Riddle said.
"There are concerns about China's past agricultural processes and toxic inputs, the possibility of toxic residue in the soil and possibly in the food, and there are concerns about the long-term commitment to following the organic standards and the depth of understanding of the organic requirements," Riddle said.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/tcoast/epaper/2007/12/23/m1c_mcshoplift_1223.html
Shoplifters pick up pace for holidays
By JILL TAYLOR
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Stuart police Sgt. Marty Jacobson joked of the holiday spike in shoplifting calls and arrests.
Many of those caught with an item tucked in a purse or shoved in a pocket have cash or credit cards in their wallets, police say. Some steal for the thrill of it and some have convinced themselves they are entitled to a little thievery to compensate for "corporate greed."
Retail groups estimate more than $30 billion is lost nationally each year to shoplifting, employee theft, vendor fraud and administrative errors.
That translates to higher prices for consumers on everything from food to plasma televisions.
Jacobson said he recalls being called out on a case where a shopper ate a bag of pistachio nuts as he walked around a store and then refused to pay for it.
"It was $4.99. But $4.99 is $4.99," Jacobson said.
http://business.theage.com.au/americans-walk-from-loans/20071223-1iqr.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
Americans 'walk' from loans
David Hirst
December 23, 2007
Nearly 180,000 US local councils were placed on credit watch, with the credit agency Fitch releasing another $US5.3 billion in credit downgrades involving 27 mortgage companies. The news emerged on Friday night, when the nation's newspapers, even if they were following the story, would miss it.
That one company could downgrade 27 major financial institutions in one stroke is stunning, but it follows a swathe of credit downgrades that swept the US on Thursday and Friday.
There has been a major falling out between mortgage insurers, credit rating companies, banks and mortgage institutions, which believed their loans were insured, only to be stunned to find themselves booted into the mire that is American banking.
Chinese, Singaporean and Arab sovereign investment funds seem to offer the only salvation for the US banking system.
The depth of the housing crisis was underscored by the head of one of America's largest banks, Bank of America, the straight-speaking Kenneth Lewis, who warned of a completely new attitude by Americans to their homes amid fears that as many as 20 million householders may "walk" from them, further deepening the crisis.
Lewis' comments came as a new expression - "jingle mail" - referring to the growing trend where Americans mail the keys to their homes to the lenders before vacating, entered the US lexicon. Figures for November revealed more than 200,000 US homes were foreclosed, a 68% increase on November 2006.
In a repeat of the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, but perhaps on a vastly greater scale, the downgrading of local councils will further threaten communities.
That period was characterised by cutbacks to police and council lay-offs, followed by degraded roads, and services to the poor and elderly.
Late last week the respected website Calculated Risk figured that housing losses might reach $US1 trillion and even $US2 trillion.
The prominent New York University economist Nouriel Roubini, who is predicting an extremely hard landing for the US economy and an acute recession, said on television that Wall Street's latest rises represented a "sucker's rally" and stated the nation was in its "most severe liquidity crisis for 50 years".
"We are heading to a severe recession," he said. In his blog, he referred to Calculated Risk's loss estimate of $US1 trillion plus, and said "could prices fall that far? Oh yes they could".
J Kyle Bass, the highly respected authority on the housing industry, recently released details of a study his company has concluded on the vast "Inland Empire" region of California where millions of new homes have been built in the past decade, and said he found the situation far worse than he expected, with over 90% of housing loans containing some sort of fraud.
He said "50% of applicants overstated their incomes by more than 50%" in what is the starkest condemnation of the "liar's loans" this correspondent has seen.
The relationship between capital and insurance, and the trust between them is as old as capitalism itself. One cannot survive without the other.
Commercial Real Estate: The Next Shoe to Drop?
By Jerome Idaszak
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/call-to-action-marvin-schick-new-york.html#2982193839915286695
This also proves that Shmarya has no business burping his boych sevoros and grinding his axe at the opposite extreme.
According to a report Monday by "Globes", the number of Chareidim who have Internet is rising. Their report is based on information given to them by BEZEk. In Meah Shearim for example, 19% of residents have Internet. Elad: 31% Meah Shearim: 19% Bnei Brak: 17% Beitar Ilit: 18% Netivot: 27% Tzefas: 31% Kfar Chassidim: 29% Rechasim: ...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/yourmoney/chi-fri_gail_1228dec28,0,6768904.column
2007: 'Most grueling year in credit history'
Gail Marks Jarvis
December 28, 2007
UnMedicated Orthodox Jew
YOu are EITher with UNMEdicated Ortodox Jew or against me! I aM SICk and TIRed of all the Molestingse! and must STOP by all! the RabbIS who is MolestingsE them! Truths will be uncovered! Lies will be untold! I will ExpoSE EVERYONE!! No one Can STOP ME!!!!!
EVERYONE LIES!!!!!
I HAVE BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK!!!!!
I seen many things. I see n terrible horrible crimes all covered up. LOOK IN ANY BASEMENT IN BORO PARK YOU WILL KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. LIES!!!! LIES!!!! LIES!!!!
All the clowns!!! the clowns in their SHTREIMELS!!! they know what i am TALKING!!! about!!! all th coverups in their hevres!!! Tell me about YANKEL WHO CAME DOWN WITH HERPES. He said it was TB!!! I KNOW IT WAS HERPES BECAUSE YOU DON'T TAKE ANTIBIOTICS FOR TB!!! Where did he get it. I BET HE WAS MOLESTED!!!
I AM PRINTING MORE NAMES OF RABBIS I HAVE RECCIEVED CONFIDENTALLY!!! BECAuse theire is fear. But DO NOT FEAR ME unless you molEST!!! THEN I will wreak vennngance on you!!! I HAVE BLOG!!! I EXPOSE THINGS!!! Enough already with all the ltyings and thei lyings liars!!! I have blog!!!
Rabbi Smhuel X. Winston of Willmore Blvd, Queens, New Hampshire - Thousands of crimes. Too many to sPELL
Rabbi Gershon Gringers of Belle Harbor, California - MOLESTED SOMEONE!! MAYBE ME!!!
I HAVE THOUSANDS MORE NAMES TO REVEAL AND I HAVE BLOG!!!! SEe me soon!
Monday, May 28, 2007
MANY PEOPLES IS PRAISING ME!!!
EVERY DAYS I GET MILLIONS OF COmments!!!!! SOME REAL!!!!
They praise me for great work I do!!! I bing millions of rabbis to justice!!! I am a crusaders against molestings!!! Crusders always my roll models!! I dont do it for money (BUY MY T-SHIRTS!!!! BUY MY T-SHIRTS!!!) I DO it to keep Rabbis who is molestings off the streety. I have POWER!!! the ANIMALS in SHTREIMELS who molest know that UNMEDICATED ORTHODOX JEW is breathing down their necks.
I bring justice to molesters!!! by molesting them!!! with my blog!!! they molest for perversions!!! I blogmolest for justice!!!
Peoples is right to praise me!!! I am singlehanded crusadering for juctist against SMELLY Rabbis. No one one stood up to Agudah BEFORE ME!!! KOLKO, I EAT YOUR!!!! THIS IS JUSTICE!!!
I AM MAKING ULTIMAYTUMS to all Rabbis. Retire now or I will expose you. I am on exposing roll!!! I have photos and videos and names. I HAVE BLOG!!! FEAR MY BLOG!!!
Retire now or face my anonymous wrath!!!
CHILD MOLESTERS RABBI OF THE WEEK!!!!
EACH WEEK, i Unmedicated UN-ORTHODOX JEW will nominate one filthy ANIMAL RABBIS WHO IS MOLESTINGSE CHILDRENS TO BE THE child molesSTER RABBI of THE week!!!
TREMBLE!!! BUY MY T-SHIRTS!!! I an acceptings any and all hearsay madeup information whatever about rabbis who may be molested you or someone or someone you heard. I don't care Send me names!!! I MAKE THEM PAY!!! I HAVE BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am reportING TRUTH!!!
First now is Rabbi Wendelr Meyerson of Boca Raton, Cleverland
Rabbi Wendel Meyerson was the masgiah at the local VETERIONARY SCHOOL WHERE i been told he molested many horses. I AM EXPOSING HIM!!!! I WILL EXPOSE HIM AND EVERYONE!! UOJ !!!
On BHEALF of every swee innocent child who has been molested, i UNMEDICATED ORTHODOX JEW WILL WREak justice!!! I KNOW NTHINGS!!!
I won't stop1! I can't stop!! I have a Dog!!! Is this DAAAT TORAH??? SOMEONE TELL ME?? i CALLENGE YOU!!!
(DON'T EVEN BOTHER posting comments!!! Comments are closed you filthy animals)
Stop PSYCHOPAHT!!! RABBIS!!!! Molestings!!!!
Rape!!!!
MURDER!!!!
WHAT I am a VOICE IN THE DARKNESS, a speaker for the millions and billions molested. I know everyone who has ever BEEN MOLESTED!!! IF YOU HAS EVER BEEN MOLESTED I PROBABLY KNOW ABOUT IT. But you should tell me anyway. I am in charge of all molesting.
In 3 months since I been blogging I uncovered huge amounts of molestings everything in yeshivas and other yeshivas and more yeshivas. Scandals are GOINGS ON AND BEING COVERED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOMEONE MUST SPEAK OUT!!!! I AM SOMEONE.!!! I AM ME. I AM UNORTHODOX UNMEDICATED ORTHODOX JEW.
I have seen many molestings. I maked this blog to speak out and protest against molestings. All molesterings in so-called """""FRUM""""" (KRUM!!!!!) WORLD ALL FEAR ME. They tremble to their socks at me. (Buy my -T-Shirt, 40 percent of 4 percent of proceeds sales goes to molesting. Support me. Buy T-SHIR!!!!T)
In West Winconsins VAAD, thousands been molested. Jewish Press lie and say there is no West Wiconsins, I ASK THEM THEN WHO WAS MOLESTED???? HOW LONG WILL YOU COVER UOJ THE MOLESTINGS THAT IS GOING ON INSIDE YOUR VERY EYES. I have speoken to thousands of millions of children scarred by lives for molestings. MOLESTINGS DRIVES ME CRZY!!!
I ask you how much longer!!! Their institutions must be thrownd out and buried under lawsuits. I am in contact with many lawyers. Some with degrees. I have scratches everywhere. Hives. I am scratching itching for justice. I smell justice IN MY SLEEP.
SOON!!!!
ECONOMIC REPORT
Sales of existing homes are down 20% in the past year and are down 31% from a peak of 7.21 million two years ago.
Inventories of unsold homes on the market declined by 3.6%, representing a 10.3-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with 10.7 months in October. Inventories typically drop in the autumn.
The median sales price fell 3.3% from a year ago to $210,200.
November sales were in line with the 4.99 million annual pace expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.
Condominium-unit and co-op sales fell 1.6% to a 600,000 annualized pace. Condo sales are the lowest since November 2001.
Inventories of single-family homes declined to a 9.9-month supply from 10.4 months in October.
The federal government should take two bold steps to rescue the housing market, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate trade group:
The government should allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase larger loans.
The Federal Reserve should lower interest rates by at least three-quarters of a percentage point.
U.S. new-home sales off 9%, more than forecast, in November - by I look at the LA Times blogs--they are reporting 30% to 50% drops----and around the nation very similiar too.
We keep getting fake numbers----so people lose confidence in the system----it is this loss that keeps us from investing.
You are correct--the NAR is so far out it is laughable---why are they allowed to post fake numbers? It is like our Fed who says inflation is always 1.8% to 2.5%------for decades--always the same---even when we watch food and energy prices skyrocket and other costs--except wages.
OK, before we all go out and buy a new home in the expectation of major gains in wealth, let's take a look at the real numbers. As you might expect, this article, like the NAR press release on which it's based, puts as positive a spin on the real estate market as the data would allow.
Now, here is what the 12/31/07 NAR data show:
1. Although the number of units sold was up 0.4% in November over October, the number of units sold in November 2007 vs. November 2006 is down 20%.
2. The very modest increase in units sold in November comes after three months in which the number of units sold slid by 5% (August), 4% (September), and 1% (October) over the preceding months. I will grant that this trend does suggest a slowing in the downward trend of the number of houses sold.
3. In the same way, the median (and also mean) price for housing sales continues to fall despite the 1.6% price increase in November. In the preceding three months, the median price dropped 2% (August), 6% (September), and 2% (October).
4. As NAR reports, the median price of a home in November was 3.3% below November of the preceding year. (NOTE: These numbers do not distinguish between types of homes--single-family, townhome, or condo--so it's impossible to discern the effects on median price of shifts in types of homes sold, if any.)
5. The numbers are more stark when looking at current volumes and prices from the peak market.
---The total number of homes sold is down 29.3% from its peak in 2005 (5.0M units vs. 7.1M units).
---The median price of a sold home is down 5.3% from its peak in 2006 ($210.2K vs. 221.9K)
All told, the value of the market for existing homes has declined some 32% since its peak year in 2005. That is a decline of more than A HALF TRILLION DOLLARS--$502.9 BILLION--from more than $1.554 trillion in 2005.
Here is the source for that information: http://www.realtor.org/research.nsf/Files/EHSreport.XLS/$file/EHSreport.xls (Note: This is a spreadsheet appended to a NAR press release.)
On a more anecdotal note, I happened to see more than 100 foreclosure notices (probably about 140-160; I quit counting at 100) in today's Washington Post. They covered page upon page at the end of the Sports section. I guess foreclosure purchases are some new kind of competition!
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/12515.htm
By David Wilder December 30, 2007
This morning I was told an amazing story, which I'd never heard before. I was sitting with my good friend and teacher, Rabbi Yisrael Shlissel, the dean of the Ohr Shlomo Study Hall located in Tel Rumeida. I had just related to him one on a list of horror items concerning Friday's battle, when two young Kiryat Arba men were killed by Arab terrorists.
On this morning's news the Arabs claimed that Achikam Amichai and David Rubin were not killed by terrorists. Rather the incident was criminally motivated. The terrorist spokesman said that it was a drug deal gone bad and they started shooting at each other.
As a result of these ridiculous charges, on Friday night, following the beginning of the Jewish Shabbat - Sabbath, police invaded the morgue in Kiryat Arba, stripped the two dead men, photographed them and took their fingerprints, in order to check out any past 'criminal' or 'drug-related' past.
It's enough to turn one's stomach.
When I finished telling Rabbi Shlissel about this, he told me his story. The Rabbi is, by the way, the son-in-law of murdered Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, who was stabbed to death in his Tel Rumeida home by an Arab terrorist over nine years ago.
Rabbi Shlissel told me that following the week of mourning for his father-in-law, the police requested that the murdered Rabbi's widow, Chaya Ra'anan, accompany them to the police station in order to answer a few questions. She had been present at the time of the murder and tried to save her husband, to no avail.
She agreed and sat down with an investigator at the local police headquarters. When their line of questioning became clear, she abruptly got up and walked out. The police officer interrogating her suspected her of having murdered her husband and then setting up her home, (including igniting a firebomb in order to burn down their caravan home), to make it 'look like' a terror attack.
So much for our wonderful Israeli police, who suspect terror-attack victims of murder, and strip and fingerprint murdered Israelis because of terrorists' false charges.
Difficult to believe. But the stories are true. This is the country we live in.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-housingdenial28dec28,0,6004313.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
Realty reality: Housing prices are headed way down
Southland house prices have risen past sustainable levels for most homeowners.
BY CHRISTOPHER THORNBERG
December 28, 2007
In 2002, the median price of a single-family home in Los Angeles was $270,000 and the median homeowner's income was $65,000. With a $50,000 down payment, the annual cost of that house (taxes, insurance and payment on a 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgage) would add up to about 33% of the median household's income -- just under the 35% mark that the Federal Housing Administration calls the upper limit of "affordable."
By 2006, the cost of that same house doubled, to $540,000 -- pushed by unbridled speculation fueled by unparalleled access to mortgage capital. But median income rose a paltry 15%. So today that same set of costs come to 60% of gross income.
That might be a manageable burden when home prices are rising at double-digit rates, creating new equity that can be accessed to support spending -- but not when prices are flat and the home-equity ATM is closed.
There are "experts" out there who once preached that there was no bubble; they now preach that all real estate is local and that prices in your neighborhood won't be affected by foreclosures and price declines elsewhere.
The cold, hard truth is that foreclosures are serving only to hasten the painful process of shifting housing prices back to a level the market can sustain. Prices must and will fall. Everywhere. Probably 25% to 30% from their peak.
2008 is the year when gravity will reassert itself. You should be adjusting your expectations of your home's value so that it's correctly aligned with market realities. And when making important financial decisions today, be realistic and factor those declines in.
Christopher Thornberg is a founding partner with Beacon Economics.
Marvin Schick is a big shot with Avi Chai. It doesn't seem to bother the Agudah that he's funding many organizations that they are against (of any kind!).
http://www.avi-chai.org/bin/en.jsp?enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enInfolet=Projects.jsp&enDispWhat=Zone&enZone=AboutUs&
Below is an alphabetical listing of the over 80 programs that AVI CHAI supports in North America, Israel and the former Soviet Union with links to each project's description as it appears on the site. (* past projects)
Ahavat Yisrael: Haredi Civic Education *
Alma Hebrew College
Alot Program
AVI CHAI Bookshelf *
AVI CHAI Bookshelf for High Schools
AVI CHAI Fellowship *
AVI CHAI Lexicon of Jewish Culture
AVI CHAI on Television
AVI CHAI Prize
AVI CHAI Siddur
AVI CHAI Voucher Program *
AYALA Judaism and Democracy *
BabagaNewz
BaMidbar
BEIT AVI CHAI
Beit Morasha of Jerusalem
BINA - Center for Jewish Identity and Israeli Culture *
birthright israel
Booknik.ru - A Russian-language Site Focusing on Jewish Literature and Culture
Building Loan Program
Building Loan Program for Overnight Camps
Camp Movement Educational Program Planning Grants
Chinuch.org
Cornerstone Fellowship
Course for Russian Immigrant Teachers: Yad Ben Zvi *
Culture and Identity *
David Project - North American High Schools
David Project Curriculum for Gap Year Yeshivot Funding
Developing Performance Goals for Jewish Studies at Day Schools
Educational Technology Experiments
Elul
Enhancing Immigrant Schools in New York City
Eretz Acheret
Eretz Hemdah Institute *
Eshkol - Programs on Jewish/Israeli Literature and Culture in the Most Popular Intellectual Clubs in Moscow
Forum for National Responsibility *
Grants to Encourage Continuation from Jewish Middle School to High School
Guttman 2000 *
HaMaslul *
Haredi Center for Technological Studies
Haredi College of Jerusalem
Hartman Jewish Educational Empowerment
Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv
Hebrew Union College Master of Arts in Jewish Teaching
Hevruta TV Pilot *
Home Subsidies for Jewish Studies Teachers
Improving the General Studies Programs in Jewish Schools in the FSU
Israel Blog by/for High School Students
Israel Education and Advocacy Books
Israel HighWay E-letter *
Israel Studies for Day School and Supplementary School Teachers
ITIM - Jewish Life Center for FSU Olim
Ivriyon - Hebrew Language Program for Jewish Studies Teachers
JDC Youth Training Program and Educational Enhancement for Family Camps
Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) - Summer Camping
Jewish Day Schools - 21st Century *
Jewish Encyclopedia in Russian
Jewish Learning Initiative *
Jewish Teacher Corps *
Journey to Jewish Heritage
JSkyway *
Judaic Enhancement in Jewish Schools in the FSU
Judaic Preparatory Tracks *
Kehillot Sharot
Keshet School
Kfar Blum and Hakhel Jewish Culture Festivals
Kolot
L'aila *
Learning Community *
Lekhu Lakhem - Jewish and Educational Journeys for JCC Camp Directors: A Senior Fellows Program
Maale Media Dialogue *
Ma'arag
Marketing Grants & Assistance *
MASA
MaTaN Talmudic Institute for Women
MATCH: Matching First-Time Donors to Jewish Education
Media Study Groups *
Melitz Center for Jewish-Zionist Identity
Melton Maftechot
Melton Mini-School for Preschool Parents
Mentoring for Novice Teachers
Merchavim - Shared Citizenship Kit for Haredim *
Meretz Rabbinical Training Institute: Nahariya *
Mikranet
MiMizrach Shemesh
Mivchar
Morasha
NETA Hebrew Language Program
NETA in the FSU
Netivot Program *
Netzer Olami Training and Enrichment Seminars
New Orleans Day School Re-enrollment Incentive
Olamot: Israeli Jewish Identity in Upper Nazareth
Or Avner Pilot Program for Youth Counselor Training and Educational Enhancement
Oranim: Project Ofek *
Panim
Parashat HaShavuah
Pardes Educators Program
Partners in Torah *
Pirkei Avot
Piyut Website
Pre-army Mechinot
Principals Training - Harvard University
Principals Training - Jewish Theological Seminary
Principals Training - Lookstein Center
Principals Training - Yeshiva University *
Promoting Yom Ha'atzma'ut in Jewish Day Schools in the FSU
Psychology in Judaism *
Public School Text Analysis (The Image of Jews and Judaism - Shalem Center) *
Publication of Books on Jewish and Israeli Themes
Publication of Jewish Illustrated Children's Books in Russian
Radio Reka
Remote Teacher via Video Conferencing
Revivim
Sabbaticals
SEFER - The Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization
Sephardic Rabbinic Training *
Shabbat Enhancement/Experiential Educators Grants
Shenhar Watch *
Shorashim: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) *
Small-Grant Initiatives for Olim
South Florida Day School Scholarships *
Speaking Poetry
Starter Jewish Libraries for High School Students
Student Israel Advocacy Initiatives on Campus
SULAM - Judaic Enrichment for RAVSAK Community Day School Heads
Summer Camping in the FSU: Jewish Agency
TaL AM
Talmudic Studies Program for Women
Tehuda
The Jewish-Israeli Book Festival in Moscow
Thought Leadership
Tzav Pius
Tze Ul'mad
Tzietz: The Department of Jewish Studies at the Moscow State University
Tzohar
Values and Current Events *
Van Leer Secular Judaism Forum *
Virtual Resource Center of the Lookstein Center at Bar-Ilan University *
World Congress of Jewish Studies: Judaism and Democracy *
Write On For Israel
Yad Ben-Zvi Bible Curriculum
YAHALOM
Yesodot
Yiud *
Yiud V'yichud: IDF Center for Jewish-Zionist Identity
Yom Ha'atzma'ut Grants *
Zichron Yaakov: A Pilot Jewish Community *
oNE OF MARGOS BIGGEST BACKERS IS THE FAMOUS GAVIR NOEF FROM FLATBUSH JOE TABAK
HES NOT HAPPY TO HAVE HIS SHIKSA GIRLFRIENDS IN EUROPE, HE ALSO FUNDS MARGOS LEGAL BILLS, AND HOSTA MALKIEL KOTLER ETC WHILE BEING A BAKI IN EVERY STRIP CLUB IN NYC
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2007/12/beyond-sub-prim.html
A "classic double bubble"
Good morning. Repeat after me: It's not just a sub-prime mortgage crisis, it's a mortgage crisis. Or, as PIMCO's Paul McCulley writes, it's a "classic double bubble" -- one bubble is the asset, the other bubble is the lending against that asset.
One bubble is housing, the other is mortgage lending. Not just sub-prime lending. All of it.
If you don't believe me, read E. Scott Reckard's piece in today's L.A. Times about growing troubles with Option ARMs.
Option ARMs, Reckard writes, "were the easiest and most profitable home loans for lenders and brokers to make for much of this decade."
Why did borrowers like them? Simple: Option ARMs allow you to buy maximum house for minimum initial monthly payment. They are not particularly complicated or confusing. You buy now and pay later.
"... more than 75% of option ARM borrowers have been making only the minimum payments, analysts at Standard & Poor's Corp. said last week. As a result, the delinquency rate on option ARMs already is jumping and is likely to keep rising sharply, S&P said."
Why was there a bubble in mortgage lending? Because mortgage lending, particularly products like option ARMs, was wildly, shockingly profitable. According to John Diamond, a Chino broker, while a broker might earn $4,500 for selling a $300,000 fixed-rate loan, the commission could total $12,000 on an option ARM of the same size. "These loans drove the whole industry from late 1999 through late 2006," Diamond said. "It was just about the only thing any broker wanted to sell."
Don't blame just the brokers. Borrowers wanted these things.
Your thoughts? Comments? Insights? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-optionarm28dec28,0,4900304.story?coll=la-home-business
MORTGAGE MELTDOWN
Defaults moving beyond sub-prime
Delinquencies among holders of risky option ARMs are increasing as their minimum payments climb.
By E. Scott Reckard
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 28, 2007
Thought the mortgage meltdown was just a sub-prime affair? Think again. There's another time bomb waiting to explode, experts say: risky loans made to people with good credit.
So-called pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages, or option ARMs, were the easiest and most profitable home loans for lenders and brokers to make for much of this decade. Last year, they accounted for about 9% of the volume of all mortgages made in the U.S. and were especially popular in California, Florida and Nevada -- states where home prices rose the most during the housing boom and are now falling most sharply.
An option ARM loan gives a borrower the option of paying less than the interest due, causing the loan balance to rise. If it rises too much -- say, by 10% or 15% -- the opportunity to make a low payment vanishes and the required payment skyrockets.
That scenario is becoming increasingly common. In fact, more than 75% of option ARM borrowers have been making only the minimum payments, analysts at Standard & Poor's Corp. said last week. As a result, the delinquency rate on option ARMs already is jumping and is likely to keep rising sharply, S&P said. Because option ARMS went only to "prime" borrowers, they aren't eligible for a much-publicized interest rate freeze that is part of a White House-backed plan to stem sub-prime foreclosures.
One upshot could be foreclosures growing more common in affluent neighborhoods.
"Whether it's a wealthy community or a sub-prime community, it all comes down to how much equity the borrower has and how much home prices fall," said Joshua Rosner, a managing director at investment research firm Graham Fisher & Co.
Option ARMs were originally offered in the 1980s by California savings and loans as a way to give some financial flexibility to self-employed people and others with variable incomes. But as homes became more expensive this decade, they became increasingly desirable simply because of the ability to make extraordinarily low payments for a good period of time.
"The only reason for taking [an option ARM] was to use the minimum payment to get more house or a bigger refi than you otherwise could afford," said Guy Cecala, editor of Inside Mortgage Finance.
Attractive payment option
Joan Olsen is an example of someone who took out a mortgage she couldn't afford. A retired welfare worker, she said she didn't fully understand the loan terms when she refinanced her San Diego condominium 15 months ago with an option ARM. Olsen, 73, had a top-tier credit score of 760 but said she could afford to make only the minimum payment on her loan, which initially was $788 a month and now is $847. Her loan balance is $289,000, up from an initial $272,000. If it hits $312,000, which it could do in 20 months, she'll be required to pay more than $2,000 a month. Meantime, home prices have tumbled: One condo in Olsen's building sold recently for $251,000, so refinancing isn't a viable possibility.
"I have no one but myself to blame," Olsen said, "for signing off on something I didn't understand."
Although option ARMs went to prime borrowers, they had many characteristics that made them riskier than standard fixed-rate mortgages.
For example, a borrower could make minimum payments as though the interest rate were 1% or 2%, when in reality interest was accruing at a much higher rate -- often 7.5% to 8% at a time -- in 2005 and 2006 -- when fixed-rate borrowers could get 30-year loans at 6.5%.
What's more, standards for making option ARMs were loosened starting in late 2004, when Wall Street firms began buying such loans in bulk to be converted into securities backed by the loan payments, Cecala said. Because lenders didn't have to keep the loans on their books, he said, they weren't too worried about the risk of losses.
As a result, loans of 90% or more of the home's value became the norm, up from a once-standard 80%. And many of the loans were made without verifying income or assets, even for borrowers who could easily have supplied that information -- an invitation for the borrower, loan officer or broker to fudge numbers, analysts say.
Olsen's loan required her only to state, not document, her retirement income from pensions and Social Security.
Her application says that income totaled $5,000 a month. In an interview, Olsen said she actually received well under $3,000 a month but left details of the application up to a saleswoman at the brokerage where she got the loan, and signed the stack of documents without reading them carefully.
A spokesman for the lender, the Homecomings Financial unit of GMAC Financial Services, said there was nothing in the application to trigger any alarms.
Despite such risks, the initial low payments on option ARMs have kept a lid on serious delinquencies -- 3.7% of all option ARMs, Standard & Poor's analysts said in a report last week. That's higher than before, but still low compared with the 6.3% delinquency rate on loans to good-credit borrowers with so-called hybrid ARMs, which have a low fixed rate for two to 10 years before becoming adjustable-rate loans.
At Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial Corp., which S&P said made about a quarter of all option ARMs last year, 3% of such loans held by the lender as investments were delinquent at least 90 days, up tenfold from 0.3% a year earlier. Delinquency rates were even higher on option ARMs from other lenders, including Pasadena-based IndyMac Bancorp and Seattle's Washington Mutual Inc., S&P said.
Countrywide and other lenders tightened their lending standards last summer to ensure borrowers could afford loans after the interest rates adjusted upward.
Had those guidelines been in effect previously, Countrywide recently said, it would have rejected 89% of the option ARM loans it made in 2006, amounting to $64 billion, and $74 billion, or 83%, of those it made in 2005.
Easy sell in better times
Before standards were tightened, several mortgage brokers and former and current Countrywide employees said, it was easy to sell option ARMs to borrowers by focusing on the low minimum payment.
As the housing market boomed, borrowers figured they could always sell the home at a higher price if they got in trouble -- and brokers pocketed big rebates for selling option ARMs, said John Diamond, a Chino broker with 39 years in the business.
Although a broker might earn $4,500 for selling a $300,000 fixed-rate loan, Diamond said, the commission could total $12,000 on an option ARM of the same size.
"These loans drove the whole industry from late 1999 through late 2006," Diamond said. "It was just about the only thing any broker wanted to sell."
Now the party is over.
At the San Francisco nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service, which fields hundreds of calls a day from borrowers in trouble on their loans, about 25% involve option ARMs, said Erica Sandberg, a spokeswoman for the center.
"They've been paying less than the interest they owe, so the loan balance is going up," she said. "Refinancing such a loan is all but impossible. And in a lot of markets selling the home isn't an option now."
Homecomings, Olsen's lender, said it was negotiating with her, trying to modify her loan so she'll be able to stay in the condo, though she fears her retirement will have to end.
"I think there's no way around it," she said. "I'm going to have to work at least part time."
These are excerpts from the latest Mondrowitz court appearance:
Moaz [Mondrowitz's lawyer]: In addition to the electronic bracelet, there is Meir Zilberstein, the main rabbi of the Ger hasidim in Jerusalem. In tow with him is Yaakov Kaminsky, [Rabbi Zilberstein's nephew and a lawyer]. Rabbi Zilberstein will commit to taking responsibility for this respondent for the duration of our dealing with this issue. Rav Zilberstein is a major gadol, recognized in his community, and is the respondent's rabbi. Together with his being supervised 24 hours and an electronic bracelet, is this not sufficient as an alternative to incarceration? We are almost three decades after these allegations. Also, even when he knew they were looking for him in '86 he basically consulted with his attorney for the duration and did not ever attempt to disappear. So, therefore I am saying that even though he knew he was wanted, he has proven by his actions that he didn't disappear for 20 years. I would refer to the points I just made. Even Kaminisky will be willing to watch the respondent for 24 hours a day.
Kaminsky [Rabbi Zilberstein's nephew and a lawyer]: I am ready. I am sure. I have family and I am still willing to do this. I am prepared for the supervision to be at my house. I have small children. I understand what is written in this case. I also know about what they found on his computer. My small kids will not be home. This is my decision. I am ready.
Maoz: I also have a financial guarantee of 100,000. The family is very modest. They are also prepared to give 250,000 shekels.
Kaminsky: I will move into my parents' apartment with [Mondrowitz].
[The question is where will he stay]
Kaminsky: I will move into wherever he is. [The distance from Kaminsky's parents' house is five minutes. He has three children, 4, 11 and 16.] [Rabbi] Zilberstein is the spiritual adviser for over 2400 households in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. He is the highest [Ger hasidic] spiritual leader. Because of the reputation of the rabbi, nobody is going to damage his reputation. He will also sign.
The State's attorney (Hershkowitz): We oppose any kind of alternative to incarceration. We are speaking here of somebody charged with serious crimes of a sexual nature. Against children. We are also talking about crimes he committed in his house. In our opinion house arrest is not appropriate. An alternative to incarceration is based on the trustworthiness of the respondent himself. The respondent has demonstrated throughout the years the ability to flee justice. He is not deserving of an more opportunities to flee from justice and extradition to the United States. It is not only an issue of whether we have confidence in the guarantors because, like the judge noted, one of them is the father of small children in the area where the respondent lives. According to the detention service, the respondent was helped by the community. According to evidence submitted, the defendant was advised by rabbis to flee to Israel. Strictly speaking, even the bail amount was ridiculously low in respect to the serious offenses described in this case.
In our opinion the alternative to incarceration is not sufficient. We are requesting his incarceration until the extradition hearing.
Moaz: They are coming back with these strong words. In the 80's he appeared for every court date. To come and say after 20 years that he would be considered a flight risk, this is not right. He went out in public for 20 years and he never ran away. The risk or danger was there, but he still did not run away. After we've heard what the court had to say we are prepared to bring the rabbi (Zilberstein) in as a guarantor. The respondent will live with the rabbi in his house. If we need additional supervision, we can also bring Kaminsky. I understand the State's stand, and their arguments.
The State's other attorney: We believe that he will disappear. The community and his family are complicit in why he didn't run away. He was being protected here and knows he has refuge here. This concern is alive and well.
The Judge: The respondent's attorney is requesting that he be released to Rabbi Zilberstein and additionally, as a guarantor, Yaakov Kaminsky. The incarceration service has requested a continuance of the proceding until January 9 at 10:30.…
Here is the entire Hebrew document as a PDF file. If you can translate it for us, please do. Leave your translation as a comment in the comments section of this post. Thanks!
"JOE TABAK"
Is that the guy who owns all the bungalow colonies in Sullivan county?
He may even own Regency, HQ for Yudi Kolko and Applegrad.
Where's Dr. Bungalow Putz? I'm sure he can shed some light in this, his area of expertise.
"I live in that solitude which, is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity".
WHAT A GREAT QUOTE
I have always wondered what it would be like to watch Albert and the RAMBAM have a conversation....
Install a lay board of heimeshe accountants to monitor every dollar in every yeshiva! You're more than entitled to know where the millions upon millions of dollars a year are going.--- Don't trust them - they're thieving.
MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE YESHIVA UNIVERSITY ON THIS LIST.
According a blogger SpacedOutBT, 5 Towns Jewish Times publisher Larry Gordon, a lapsed Lubavitcher, has a brother David who was a radio host in the 1980s.
His show was called "Evening Voice of Jewry in NY" that ran on WEVD-FM.
http://broadcasting.wikia.com/wiki/Chronology_of_call_letters_WEVD
1330 khz (1941-1981)
Off AM from 1981-1988, WEVD-FM operating as WEVD during that time
He says that David Gordon used to host child rapist Avrohom Mondrowitz during the station's stint on FM as well as a colorful character named Victor Vancier aka Chaim ben Pesach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Vancier
This is despite that Vancier was a convicted JDL terrorist and was already a convicted criminal before being allowed on the show. One blog also claims that Vancier's mother did not have an orthodox conversion.
http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/s/s/18/media18/2010/Dec/19/LiveLeak-dot-com-2aa811cac6bb-post01246893040.jpg?d5e8cc8eccfb6039332f41f6249e92b06c91b4db65f5e99818bad3954b44dfd4728c&ec_rate=300
Vancier is also a child molester
Can UOJ set the record straight? A modern orthodox rabbi named David Walk has been going around koching that Artscroll censored out a story in their book on R' Yaakov Kaminetzky. He says R' Yaakov insisted on watching the lunar landing on TV to see what would happen al pi HaRambam who writes that the moon has no physical mamashus. When men actually bounced off the Moon's surface, R' Yaakov said the Rambam must have been engaging in scientific speculation instead of daas Torah.
A completely different version of the story was making the rounds for years in some large yeshivos that al pi the nusach of Kiddush Levana, it will not be possible "lingoa bach" on the Moon - so R' Yaakov said farkert, that it must have been an optical illusion because of course there could not be a "giant step for Mankind" on the Moon's surface. In the yeshivos some disputed this to say R' Yaakov really said something else that was in response to a kashya asked by Shlomo Goren.
I am looking for victims of Heshy Nussbaum. I was a victim of his back in the 70's in Toronto at Eitz Chaim Schools, Camp Eitan and the Toronto Pirchea Choir. Whether you are from the U.S or Canada, it is time for him to face justice. His crimes are still on peoples minds, which I saw on comments with regards to a very recent arrest of another religious molester in Toronto. Please comment here so we can find a way to get together and receive justice for what he has done to our lives and others.
Survivor of HN
Can UOJ set the record straight?
*
I am not familiar with the "moon" story.
It sounds like a bubba maaseh; R' Yaakov was a very realistic and practical person; I don't believe he would have believed that the moon landing was staged by the US government.
What did Georgie Weinberger know and when did he know it?
No one was alleging that the US government staged the landing. They were tayning that the govt believed they had "landed" on the Moon when they must have been tricked into believing it through illusions.
Is there a statute of limitations in Ontario? I didn't just target frum victims. I was trolling for frey kids and have been seen with goyim in my old beat up white van.
The whole NASA conspired to fool the US government? Naarashkeit!
No no no. No conspiracy from anyone. They say everyone was fooled by illusions as per R' Yaakov's explanation. But again that version of the story was shot down by the other version that R' Yaakov was only answering a kashya posed by Goren. I don't remember exact protim except that Goren's kashya was considered to be a dumb one.
http://www.congregationagudathsholom.org/kolsholom/ASJune05.pdf
Rabbi Walk wrote about it on page 5 of this newsletter from a shul that is about as Left as you can get in the orthodox spectrum. He seems to be using the Moon story to "go somewhere" that is a little "far out" hashkafically.
It is well established that the Rambam said that Chazal were capable of getting it wrong when it came to science!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers:_Dark_of_the_Moon#Plot
I know all about yeshivishe conspiracy theories with the Moon landing. They hock a tcheinik about it in my mother's cholov Yisroel restaurant in LA. That's why I wrote it into the plot of Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Heshy Nussbaum is unsupervised when hanging around Agudah Toronto and when acting as a mashgiach for the COR including at I believe secular summer camps in the Haliburton region.
The Nussbaum clan is very powerful in Toronto. That's why Heshy's crimes were basically covered up and why Aaron Levine who married into the family was able to get away with it so many years with his explosive temper and violence against boys at the Ner Israel yeshiva.
I'm glad that Spielberg & Toronto came up because they tie into the theme that I have been hammering the Agudah about.
I think it was the Agudah's Jewish Observer years ago that snidely bashed Spielberg for being a huge advocate for Holocaust remembrance when he is married to the shiksa Amy Irving.
So now you have the hypocrite organization Agudah running to the event arranged by Ari Fleischer, also married to a shiksa, in batei medrash in Eretz Yisroel during the 9 Days.
Then the NY Times reported yesterday on the uproar over the Romney dinner scheduled for Tisha B'Av that forced it's postponement until today yud aleph Av. The entire Israel trip, including Fleischer's portion, was the brainchild of political strategist Dan Senor, a Conservative Jew from Toronto, who is married to the shiksa NBC News anchor Campbell Brown. Interestingly, Campbell used to be the girlfriend of Saudi Arabian politician Adel Al-Jubeir.
In the Agudath Sholom newsletter on RYK and the Moon, there is another piece on page 4 about a chazan Rav Yisroel Schorr who came from the heim to Yeshiva of Harlem in 1923 and had a few other shtellers later on in the Bronx & Brooklyn. He was offered a job by the Chicago Opera Company but turned it down for frumkeit reasons.
Any idea if he is related to the Torah Vodaas Schorrs?
He was not closely related to the TV Schorrs if at all. He was taka a very ehrlicher Yid, a favorite of RSFM, my father z"l, and myself.
My father thought he was in the same category of greatness with Yossele Rosenblatt. I was amazed at his greatness as a chazzan; I first heard his recording as a youngster and he was the original composer of "sheyibonoh bais hamikdosh" that Moshe Kousevitzky made famous.
He is the maternal zeide of Debbie Lapidus Rechnitz, a machetainester of Yisroel Belsky, and an accomplished pianist/musician in her own right.
http://www.israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=2934&q=1
How is the big gvir Dr. Robert Rechnitz related? Not sure if he's even shomer Shabbos but he is very active in Zionist circles.
Robert Rechnitz is such a gvir that his Josh on the Upper West Side (who is definitely not frum) is donating $40 million for a velodrome in Brooklyn as if it's pocket change.
http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/blogs/red-wrap/2012/07/some-brooklyn-residents-want-bike-track-to-take-a-hike/
There is a big buzz in the press today about the controversy this is generating.
Robert Rechnitz is a businessman, I do not believe he's a doctor, unless he's the same type of doctor - Julius Kuhl was. Nisht geshtogen ugeflogen!
Robert is Yaakov Rechnitz's brother, Debbie's husband.
Well, Artscroll calls Julius Kuhl a doctor, and so does the US Holocaust Museum
Isn't he Israel Singer's shver?
http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/archguide/collection/
Dr. Julius Kühl was born in Galicia, but moved to Switzerland in 1929 to pursue his studies, which he completed at the University of Bern. At the outbreak of World War II he received a Polish legation position giving him responsibility for refugees, Polish soldiers in Swiss internment camps, and Jews. He saved hundreds of his fellow Jews by helping to provide them with passports and visas, aiding their attempts to enter Switzerland, and cooperating with charitable Jewish organizations and prominent rescuers, such as Recha and Isaak Sternbuch. After the war, Kühl received letters of praise from Jewish organizations, the British embassy, and the American military. Dr. Kühl retired to the Miami area. This collection of photocopies of his correspondence and papers was received from an unknown donor shortly after the United States Holocaust Memorial Council opened its offices in 1980. Council staff transferred the collection to Robert Wolfe at the National Archives and Records Administration for safekeeping until the Council was able to properly store the papers. Mr. Wolfe returned the collection to the Council shortly before the Museum opened in 1993. The location of the original papers is unknown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_(film)
Nu, nu. This guy also called himself a doctor
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