CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:
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:
1 – 200 of 382 Newer› Newest»ELIEZER ( LOUIS ) Kestenbaum was also arrested with the rabbi of spinka as being a part of the money laundering team. Kestenbaum is the president of the ODA organization in Williamsburg brooklyn NY
The spinka rebbe of boro park was just arrested for massive fraud. i have the fulll scope on my blog, also what the media is not telling you about.
Is that UOJs signature on the checks?
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1962534620071219
Obama proposes U.S. ban on China-made toys
Wed Dec 19, 2007
Obama tries to curry favor with UOJ
-------------
He's Indian?
REPOST by Bruiser
One bais din after another are refusing EJF proposed candidates for conversion.
Unfortunately, Tropper and his butler Dovid Jacobs have unlimited access to money and with that money they can buy basei din and rabonim.
They have in-house beis-din run by one boor and ham haaretz Pinchos Rabinowitz who is on Tropper payola and will convert a Chihuahua dog if Tropper pays him and told him to do so.
And then the dog will have universally accepted conversion.
Accused Of Molesting Bar Mitzvah Students
By Adam May
CBS News - Baltimore
December 19, 2007
Watch Video
http://wjz.com/local/rabbi.molesting.yisroel.2.614587.html
PIKESVILLE, Md. (WJZ) — At a kosher deli off Reisterstown Road in a Pikesville stripmall, Eyewitness News found Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro, a butcher who jumped out from behind his desk and hid from our cameras when we tried to ask him about new criminal charges that he sexually abused two young boys during Bar Mitzvah lessons.
Shapiro never came out, but a coworker did. The man later yelled at Eyewitness News after we walked out the door that the allegations against Shapiro were "fabricated."
City prosecutors say "Over the past several months, police and prosecutors have conducted an extensive investigation that led to the charges."
The alleged abuse took place at Shapiro's home off Olympia Street in 1988 and 1994. Some neighbors caught wind of the allegations a few years back and posted flyers.
One victim tells police he was forced to chant passages from the Torah as he was inappropriately touched.
"The problem is that we don't know if there's more victims. We know a few but not how many there have actually been," said Vicki Polin.
Polin heads a support group for victims of rabbi abuse. She's concerned that some leaders in the Orthodox community keep abusers quiet.
"They're told they shouldn't report it to secular authorities because it could start another holocaust. Unfortunately, it starts another type of holocaust where an accuser has access to hundreds of children and each time they perfect their skills," she said.
Warning to men in Boro Park: Ohel Family Services has in the last few years been getting many government grants. One of them was for the purpose of opening a domestic violence center. In order to justify the money they receive Ohel must ensnare woman to come for counseling under the pretense that they are being abused. Ohel hires social workers and counselors and makes a nice fee off this. Once they sink their claws into the woman they don’t let go very easy because this is a major profit center for them. It can evolve into profit from divorce counseling, children counseling and the list goes on.
Here are the signs to look for if you suspect that your wife is getting involved with Ohel.
Modus operendi: The counselor will first try to get the woman to get her own cell phone so she can contact her discreetly. The counselor has the woman call Ohel at 718 851 6300 and leave a message for the counselor. The counselor will then call back with the appointment time probably when the husband is at work so he wont find out that they are sucking in his wife. Ohel will not come up on the caller id. The caller id will come up as 646718. If you see that your wife has called 718 851 6300 and then has a call back of 718646 you will know that she is in touch with Ohel and you better take action before its to late. Ohel will give her articles, books and lists of items to convince her that she is being abused. You will then hear her use words and talk in ways that she was not familiar with before. Watch out for these signs. Warning your wife could be involved with Joan Hertz of Ohel Domestic Violence.
This is being published for the benefit of the Jewish Community by Ohel Insider. I hope to post more information about Ohel and names of its counselors in the future. Anyone else that has information should also share it for the benefit of the community. This is a major scandal ready to break open. The Rabanim are unfortunately all quit about this. Some are paid fat salaries by Ohel to condone what they do.
Jewish sect leader held on charges of money laundering
Spinka rabbi faces multiple counts in an alleged tax scheme.
By Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 20, 2007
The leader of an Orthodox Jewish sect was arrested Wednesday after authorities unsealed a sweeping 37-count indictment alleging that he operated a decade-long tax fraud and money laundering scheme stretching from Israel through New York to downtown Los Angeles' jewelry district, authorities said.
Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz, head of the Spinka religious group, and his executive assistant, Gabbai Moseh E. Zigelman, are accused of soliciting "tens of millions of dollars" in contributions to Spinka charities while secretly promising to refund up to 95% of contributors' donations, federal prosecutors said. The contributors then illegally claimed tax deductions on their bogus donations.
Weisz and Zigelman calculated in January that Zigelman alone had solicited nearly $9 million in 2006, with a $700,000 profit for Spinka after donors were repaid, according to the indictment.
Spinka Jews are members of the Hasidic group within Orthodox Judaism. The sect originated in Romania and has a large population in Israel, Europe and Brooklyn, N.Y., where Weisz and Zigelman reside.
The indictment unsealed Tuesday charges Weisz, 59, and Zigelman, 60, with conspiracy to defraud the IRS and to launder money. They also face 19 counts of mail fraud, 11 counts of international money laundering and one count of operating an illegal money-remitting business. Additionally, Zigelman is accused of helping to prepare fraudulent income tax returns.
The indictment alleges that beginning in 1996, the pair reimbursed contributors through several channels. One involved cash payments transferred through an underground network that included businesses in and around L.A.'s jewelry district.
The scheme also allowed donors to pay a money laundering fee in order to have access to funds through wire transfers that started at Spinka organizations and ended in secret accounts in an Israeli bank, the indictment alleges.
Six associates, four of whom were arrested Wednesday, were charged in connection with the scheme. Those arrested were identified as: Yaacov Zeivald, 43, of Valley Village; Yosef Nachum Naiman, 55, of Los Angeles; Alan Jay Friedman, 43, of Los Angeles; and Joseph Roth, 66, of Tel Aviv. Authorities are looking for Los Angeles diamond merchant Moshe Arie Lazar, 60, and Tel Aviv attorney Jacob Ivan Kantor, 71, both believed to be in Israel.
Five Brooklyn-based Spinka charities are also defendants in the alleged money laundering scheme: Yeshiva Imrei Yosef, Yeshivath Spinka, Central Rabbinical Seminary, Machne Sva Rotzohn and Mesivta Imrei Yosef Spinka. The charities are accused of making out false receipts for phony donations as well as receiving the money laundering fees, according to the indictment.
The FBI and IRS are continuing to investigate alleged crimes committed by contributors to the charities, authorities said.
tiffany.hsu@latimes.com
I guess it runs in the neiman family as well, this yosef n. neiman is a gerer chussid and is the brother of e. neiman from cojo that sat in jail in upstate ny for stealing from the government for the mosdos
Dear UOJ,
You should sleep very well knowing that you forced the Orthodox world to face this issue. Even evil clowns like Solomon and Shafan had to acknowledge your work.
Because of you being enabler of child molesters is not as easy as it used and the clown rabbis will think twice before doing so.
I am glad to hear you are going next after Tropper to mekayem ‘ubiarta hara mikirbecha ‘
"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".
Shakesperian.
How did UOJ get these money orders back from the prostitutes that they were spent on?
My husband is in the money laundering detection business advising banks & financial institutions, & it aggravates him so much to see frum yidden get themselves into this mess. He knows exactly how it was caught. When he first read it on VIN last night he was so upset.
His advice...DON'T DO IT!!! The govt AND THE BANKS are investigating Charities more & more, & there'll be more arrests & more korbonos unless this practice stops. The Mosdos think everyone benefits, but it is illegal.
You can't steal from & cheat the government & expect to get away with it. Now he's on his way to work dreading being asked questions by his colleagues. What a Chillul Hashem! Not to mention the stupidity of the Mosdos & the donors.
It's terrible that the Rebbe is in jail; there's no guarantee he even knew what was going on, but as the head of the Mosod he is presumably the bottom line.
Just look at what happens when Mosdos do these things!! PLEASE STOP!! DON'T START!! Your organization will still be able to carry on.
In the course of his work, my husband has found some really nasty stuff, not involving Yidden B"H, but you'd better believe that there will probably be more "successful" investigations.
Please don't be naive & say well, maybe the government made a mistake. They don't make mistakes in money-laundering. You have NO IDEA of the extent of their sophisticated investigative powers, contacts, & software & what (& WHERE!!) they find this stuff. The Regulators are putting increased pressure on Banks to monitor the activities of charities as a result of Muslim organizations chanelling $$ to terrorist organizations through registered charities.
Please note that this extra scrutiny is across the board & is not limited to any religious group. So Jewish charities come under the same scrutiny as any other organization.
The Banks are under increasing pressure to prove they are monitoring to the required level. As a result, they file reports where there is the slightest suspicion of unusual activity. It is a little known fact that banks do NOT have to prove that money-laundering is taking place. The law clearly states that banks only have to report "activity which is significantly unusual or suspicious." This is called Defensive Filing. Then the government takes over.
My husband is certain many Mosdos are so naive & unprofessional they don't realize what they are doing is illegal. Please remember: ignorance of the law is no excuse.
NEWS
Special Arrangement to Allow Approved Email and Internet Access
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
A special arrangement has been made following concerted efforts by Vaadas HaRabbonim LeInyonei Tikshoret to allow the use of approved computer communications (email and Internet) for those in need of them in order to earn their living, without the spiritual harm they would be liable to suffer otherwise.
This week a Vaadas HaRabbonim delegation visited the home of Maran HaRav Yosef Sholom Eliashiv shlita, who said, "Preventing the stumbling-blocks caused by computers is an act of removing abomination and fulfilling the Torah commandment of `Uvi'arto horo mikirbecho'" (Devorim 13:6). He offered strong support for the campaign against the blight of undesirable computer use and the harm wrought upon Jewish homes.
HaRav Shmuel Halevi Wosner shlita was also pleased to hear about the development of the plan, saying, "Happy is he who has no need for a computer, and those who need computer communications should connect only through the program under the supervision of Vaadas HaRabbonim LeInyonei Tikshoret, and may Vaadas HaRabbonim, which led the present solution, be blessed from the Heavens."
The solution was achieved following extensive efforts to develop a sophisticated system to filter out spiritual hazards since in our generation, in waging its war, the yetzer hora is wielding computers and technology lacking all oversight. On the other hand, changes in commerce and office work now require many people make use of computers, including email and Internet, as a work tool to earn their living. People in this situation have expressed their regret over having to use such a problematic tool, with a sense they are constantly on the edge of a gaping abyss.
Upon learning of their quandary gedolei Yisroel shlita decided there is no alternative other than to seek kosher means to allow chareidim to engage in their trade without spiritual pitfalls and asked Vaadas HaRabbonim to seek a suitable solution, and following formidable efforts, a technological breakthrough was eventually achieved.
Internet Solution Offered by Rabbonim Where Necessary
The following notice was issued by the Vaadas HaRabbonim LeInyonei Tikshoret (Telfax: 02 5381858), which was founded and is guided by gedolei Yisroel shlita:
In light of the increasing use of computer communications systems (email and Internet) in order to execute various tasks and convey information, etc., we have received numerous requests from those who need to use these systems in the course of earning their living.
We were asked by maranan verabonon shlita to seek a solution that would allow the use of these types of communication without having to expose oneself to the terrible stumbling-blocks found in these means of communication, which have claimed numerous victims
Rachmono litzlan.
Now, following much hard work, we have managed besiyata deShmaya, based on consultations with experts, to arrive at a technical blocking solution for those who need access to email alone or to sites essential to their work. We've contacted communications companies that provide these infrastructures and servers to have them provide a solution for the chareidi public through a special track that would be under our supervision.
At this stage several companies have responded, and now those interested will have the opportunity to connect to this special track by calling a special hotline at 057-311-0220 from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.
We hereby give notice that the above does not contain any dispensation to use computers, and certainly not computer communications, except in the case of needs related to earning a living, and every individual should act according to the instructions of his rabbonim shlita.
May it be His Will that no stumbling-blocks result from our efforts.
Boruch Shraga
Tzvi Friedman
Yisroel Fishbein
Amram Offman
Yosef Binyomin Halevi Wosner
The case was broken, in part, with the help of a secret cooperating witness, a Los Angeles businessman identified in the indictment only as R. K. In one year alone, before he turned state’s evidence and agreed to record his former colleagues secretly, R. K. contributed about $1.7 million to the Spinka sect’s scheme.
I can't stop crying from this post UOJ.
wasn't Chaim Berlin and Fruchthandler involved in a similar scheme a few years back with a chicken outfit called Ranch One?
g-d help us all.
What are those Bank of America cashiers checks all about?
Pay $2500 to the order of what rabbi from who and for what?
There were a ton of comments written today on the last post. This post didn't get much action in the last 24 hours.
What does Georgie Weinberger have to do with this? I know he's a rich guy who sent his kids to YTT and is fawned on by the Agudah apparatus, but then again, there are dozens others like him. Why is he special?
In the immortal words of Michael Ray Richardson:
"The ship be sinking"
And if you could ask the late, lamented Johnny Cochrane he'd tell you that since the glove do fit it's off to Ossining.
there are tzetlach in williamsburg to say tehillim for a guy 7 years in jail chaim ben hinda
who is that?
Kestenbaum's name doesn't come up in any report of those arrested today.
The first comment here appears to be in error.
Hilarious how the commentor juxtaposed Leib Tropper with Elle Woods & Bruiser.
There was a movie "Legally Blonde" about a dumb blonde who somehow manages to get accepted into Harvard Law School. Elle is the blonde and Bruiser is her mutt.
I bet you'll never see this one on Shmuckya ben Alfred Rosenberg's website:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2007/12/the-evil-of-pea.html
Piss Now gets funded to hunt "settlers" and betray Jews.
http://www.local10.com/news/14902181/detail.html
* Video: Former Chaplain Of Dolphins Accused Of Sexual Abuse
Former Miami Dolphins Chaplain Accused Of Sex Abuse
Man Comes Forward Publicly To Talk About Abuse
December 20, 2007
MIAMI -- A former chaplain for the Miami Dolphins is accused of sexually abusing a teenage altar boy over a five-year period in the late 1970s.
The allegations are detailed in a $10 million negligence lawsuit filed Thursday against the Archdiocese of Miami.
Father Donald Walk was also a priest at North Miami's St. James Catholic Church, Local 10's Glenna Milberg reported.
The accuser, now 43 years old, is identified in the lawsuit as John Doe No. 42. In a rare move, he came forward publicly Thursday.
"I've spent many years trying to forget about it. I'm just now coming to terms," said Eddy Carvin, who lives in Northwest Florida. "The church is such a big thing in my heart. You think you're doing the right thing no matter what."
Carvin said he decided to come forward after learning about other lawsuits filed against priests.
"Up until a few years ago, I really thought I was the only one," he said.
Carvin's attorney said Walk used his position as chaplain for the Miami Dolphins to lure Carvin into a relationship. At a news conference, the attorney displayed photographs of Carvin as a teen with team celebrities like Glen Blackwood and Bob Keuchenberg.
In a statement e-mailed to news organizations, the Archdiocese of Miami responded to the lawsuit by outlining its policy.
"We report the allegations to the State Attorney's Office, start the process of healing and reconciliation for the alleged victim and accused, and present all the information to the Archdiocesan Review Board," the statement reads.
Walk worked as a priest at St. James Catholic Church during the same years as Father Anthony Mercieca, who is now implicated in the sexual abuse of former Congressman Mark Foley when Foley was a teenage altar boy.
He was removed from the church shortly after Carvin's mother reported the abuse to church elders. The Archdiocese of Miami transferred him to a church in Southwest Florida mwhere he continued working for years.
Walk is now retired and living in Venice, Fla. His phone number is unlisted. The Archdiocese of Venice, where he last worked, lists his status as a "priest without faculties" which prohibits him from serving as a priest.
Lawyer gets 25 to 50 years in sex abuse case
12/20/2007, 5:23 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia lawyer found naked in the courthouse with a teenage girl has been ordered to serve 25 to 50 years in prison.
Larry Charles, 51, had pleaded no contest to charges of sexually assaulting the 14-year-old and five other girls.
In court Thursday, one victim testified that the abuse haunts her and has left her unable to trust anyone.
Authorities say a sheriff's deputy making rounds found Charles in a lawyers' lounge with the girl. Charles, a criminal defense attorney, was charged with assaulting six girls, three of them sisters. The other girls say they were 5 to 10 years old at the time of the assaults.
Yehu:
I missed the reference to your name calling of Shmarya in your comment last night. You may, if you wish, criticize his views here, but I will not allow any personal attacks or name calling.
Thanks.
Due to technicalities, there will be no tish with the Rebbi this shabos, sorry for the inconvenience.
Yosef n. neiman & alan friedman, were the only ones let out on bail so far, the story is that the feds dont have much on them, neiman is a travel agent not a jewler, besides he is a haisa gerer chusid so the heiliga rebba shlita will zicher help him and daven for him.
My opinion: When consumers stop spending on "electronics" at this time of year...that sends up a whole bunch of new red flags!
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ATLANTA (Reuters) - Circuit City Stores Inc (CC.N) reported a wider third-quarter loss on Friday as sales fell and its store changes disrupted business, sending shares of the consumer electronics retailer plummeting 34 percent in pre-market trading.
Circuit City also forecast a loss for the current quarter, compared with its earlier expectation of a profit.
The loss came to $207.3 million, or $1.26 a share, for the quarter ended November 30, compared with a loss of $20.4 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding a noncash expense of $102.8 million, the loss was 64 cents in the latest period.
Net sales fell 3 percent to $2.96 billion, below the $3 billion analysts expected, according to Reuters Estimates. Sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, fell 5.6 percent.
(Reporting by Karen Jacobs; editing by Mark Porter)
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=32985033&blogID=318081896&Mytoken=DE4F659A-2FFB-4C4C-B6CF0BDFE73433B557198245
Shmarya put his foot in his mouth by immediately screaming that he's Charedi. All it takes for Shmarya to go ape is to see a beard on someone.
"When consumers stop spending on "electronics" at this time of year...that sends up a whole bunch of new red flags!"
CompUSA, Inc. is a retailer and reseller of consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. CompUSA serves consumer retail, small-to-medium businesses, corporate, government and education customers. Founded in 1983 and based in Addison, Texas, CompUSA currently operates 103 stores in markets across the United States. Financial troubles have plagued the company in recent years, and on December 7th, 2007, CompUSA announced that it would be closing all of its 103 remaining stores by the end of 2007.
http://content.pyzam.com/funnypics/stupid/fun4.gif
Door to Yudi Kolko's Office.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d49/danjb/9.jpg
After being assered by the Badatz and now shunned by more & more American rabbonim, Leib Tropper is getting desperate and looking for any candidates he can find.
If this is true, it explains why Shlomo Mandel is protecting Nussbaum.
- They are childhood friends
- They are in cahoots with abusing kids
http://exposemolesters.blogspot.com/2007/12/story-of-mary-ellen-which-started-child_14.html#c4916026884532710752
I went to that YOB Jailhouse said...
YOB is run like a jail. The students are the inmates. Shlomo Mandel and his employees run the asylum. They impose the most strictest and craziest rules and restrictions on you. They emotionally drain every ounce of you. They are physically abusive. Mentally, they succeed in breaking and destroying the lives of so many souls. They try and brainwash every kid that's there. Is there a Television in your home they would ask you. I imagine that today they would also ask the question; is there a computer in your home? does it have Internet Connection? YOB would pull kids aside and intimidate them into telling on their parents. If you had a Telivision in your home, phone calls and threats would soon follow by the YOB animals to better get rid of that (box) Television or else we're throwing your kid(s) out of the Yeshiva. Then there were the usual complaints. We don't like the color of your shirt or pants. Your hair is too long. Someone told us they saw you in a pizza store with girls. You're chewing gum. You laughed during minchah. You were a "cutzpanyak", you didn't stand up for your Rebbe when he walked in the classroom. Shlomo Mandel would routinely shake down students and beat them with his fists for smallest of pranks as did his younger brother Yankel. Yehudah Nussbaum on a daily escapade of his, would use that wooden ruler of his to whack students as hard as possible with it. If you cried and showed fear you'd get hit even harder. Nussbaum went through many wooden rulers after splintering and breaking them on students wrists and knuckles. Nussbaum was no stranger to using his hands and fists on boys for not having the place or any stupid thing he wanted to make you miserable for. He and Mandel made a brutal vicious combo in breaking the hearts and psyche of every kid that unfortunately attended that institution.
Students from younger grades would be sent to Nussbaum's class and made to stand against the wall as a punishment. Nussbaum would punish them if they got out of line, but they were usually scared like no tomorrow from this scary psycopathic molesting Rabbi. Nussbaum was the guy that loved to grab students and hold them close to his body and chest while rubbing his filthy beard and face all over them. He's the same vile creature who gropes and fondles you under the false pretenses of wanting students to come up to his desk and read out loud from his chumash. He's a cruel, sadistic, cold hearted creep, Just like his good childhood buddy Shlomo Mandel.
December 20, 2007
What's Simcha Klohr up to these days?
Increased consumer spending is definitely a good thing!
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude oil rallied more than $2 Friday to over $93 a barrel after a government report showed November U.S. consumer spending increased by the largest margin in more than two years, easing fears that oil demand from the world's largest crude consumer may slow.
"November U.S. consumer spending increased by the largest margin in more than two years"
And how much of that spending is by overextended shmucks on credit?
That is definitely a BAD thing!
And how much of that spending is by overextended shmucks on credit?
--------------
83.36%
http://losangeles.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel07/la121907usa.htm
The indictment charges Weisz and Zigelman with one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and other crimes, 19 counts of mail fraud, one money laundering conspiracy count, 11 counts of international money laundering, and one count of operating an illegal money remitting business. Zigelman is also charged with two counts of aiding in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns. Roth is charged in both conspiracy counts; several mail fraud counts; and several international money laundering counts. Kantor is charged in both of the conspiracy counts and several international money laundering counts. Zeivald, Lazar, Naiman, and Friedman are charged in the main conspiracy count and with operating an illegal money remitting business. Zeivald is also named in one mail fraud count. If convicted, all of the defendants face substantial federal prison sentences.
In the money laundering conspiracy charge, five Spinka charitable organizations - Yeshiva Imrei Yosef, Yeshivath Spinka, Central Rabbinical Seminary, Machne Sva Rotzohn, and Mesivta Imrei Yosef Spinka, all based in Brooklyn - are named as defendants. These entities allegedly issued fraudulent receipts for bogus charitable contributions and were the beneficiaries of fees charged for transfers of funds as part of the money laundering conspiracy.
A rov spoke about the Spinker shtinkers on Shabbos. He was visibly shaken by the chilul Hashem so far and from what will emerge when all the shoytim who gave the money are rounded up.
He did not justify their actions but made an excellent point that yeshivos are partially to blame for demanding ridiculously high tuition fees. Outside of Brooklyn, as in suburban NY-NJ and even Queens, tuition runs between 10 to 30 thousand per child.
http://bp3.blogger.com/_DCGOA_RlajQ/R22cxDnsriI/AAAAAAAABVw/pc0x_29-OLQ/s1600-h/Picture-shatnez.jpg
This is a kol korei signed by 7 Monsey rabbonim that says to only go to expert shaatnez checkers. R' Yudel, who has been screaming for a long time that Kreitman at Treetop Shaatnez Testing is being machshil everyone, has been coming under attack for speaking up.
These rabbonim list the experts and conspicuously leave Treetop off the list.
Contrary to rumors on this blog I did not convert Bruiser because he and Elle Wood refused to be separated , Although Tropper does not require separation we do require separation of one night and Ms Wood refused to stay away from Mr.Bruiser even for one night.
However we did convert the Taco Bell chihuahua after he promised to drop the chalupa and to replace the Gorditas with kishke and hu yehudi gamur (full blown Jew)
If anybody knows of a shiduch for a good dog shomer torah umizvos please email Leib or Liba Tropper at ltropper@horizons.edu or 845-425-1315
In the Chassidishe demented view
a chillul Hashem is only commited
when there is an aveira-a sin is
transgressed. Therefore , since
again in their demented view
no Jewish Law was violated
THEY WILL DENY EVEN NOW THERE WAS
ANY CHILLUL HASHEM HERE!!!!
now go bang your head against a wall
I heard by kiddush that the Spinka squealer is named Richard Kassirer.
What do UOJ & friends know about this guy?
"However we did convert the Taco Bell chihuahua after he promised to drop the chalupa and to replace the Gorditas with kishke and hu yehudi gamur (full blown Jew)"
R' Mordechai Becher once said over a story in shiur that his yarmulka once blew off a balcony and was eaten by a dog below. He jokingly added that after the dog died, an autopsy revealed that another contributing factor to it's death was that it had consumed some p'tcha.
he is related to suri kasirer the political consultant
who married bruce tietlebaum who was fired from guliani inc
Spinka scandal update:
Hundreds of people to seek immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony!
What about Kaszirer from diamonds in Belgium? ANy relation?
No relation to Antwerp.
Why was Suri Kassirer fired by Giuliani?
They are modern orthodox from the West Side by the way.
Nobody is long term.
This is where UOJ comes in very handy. After a very public and hard hitting campaign by UOJ and his readers, Mirrer yeshiva kicked Leib Pinter out of the office and off their stationary.
This is not diabolical on their part. We are talking about a yeshiva where rabbis do not even read newspapers and had a hard believing that Pinter has been involved in mega-crimes that shook the ground all the way to the White House. Pinter was only there to benefit himself and used the yeshiva in the process as is well known.
UOJ is still trying trying to get Artscroll to recall Pinter's books. So far, Artscroll has only recalled books by Rabbi Paysach Krohn where he tried to sanitize his relative, the convicted child rapist Lipa Brenner of the Iggud "Harabbonim".
Archie:
Pinter will be gone completely from Artscroll as well!I believe Eisemann's books are gone. Sad, soon I'll have nothing left to read:-) I'll miss Leib's wisdom.
Thank you EJF for converting me,
Do you know amigos that EJF stands for:
Enchilada
Jarritos
Flautas
Muchas gracias señor Kaplan Para la alimentación
Bueno para ser hoodio
This a list from EJF web site
http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/rabbis/bateidinlist.htm
of rabbis who are on Tropper payola and/or affiliated with him. Watch the list as rabbis ask to be removed from that list and IYH the page would be no longer available.
Beis Din of Yerushalayim Rabbi Nachum Eisenstein 011-972-225-322047
Beis Din of Monsey Rabbi Pinchus Rabinowitz 845-425-1315
Beis Din of Philadelphia Rabbi Aharon Felder 215-745-2968
Beis Din Merkaz HaRabbanim Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik 312-543-3945
Beis Din of Cleveland Rabbi Yisroel Grumer 216-321-5002
Beis Din of New York-Emek Halacha Rabbi Yisroel Dov Webster 718-236-9244
Beis Din of RCC- Los Angeles Rabbi Avraham Union 213-389-3382 ext 13
Beis Din of Milwaukee Rabbi Mendel Senderovic 414-234-8635
Beis Din of Montreal, Canada Rabbi Yonoson Binyomin Weiss 514-739-6363
Beis Din of Miami Rabbi Mendel Senderovic 414-234-8635
Beis Din of Houston Rabbi Yehoshua Wender 713-729-8870
The following batei din are also known to us to be using universally accepted standards:
Name Rabbi Telephone number
Beis Din of Cincinati Rabbi Zelig Scharfstein 513-731-4671
Beis Din of Lakewood Rabbi Dov Kahan 732-905-5922
UOJ - how can you be contacted to discuss issues?
Dear UOJ,
Want to make another impact on the corrupt within Orthodoxy who are making it impossible for the ehrlich?
BE FORWARNED--EVERY BIT OF PAYOFF, DOUBLE BILLING, BRIBERY OF JEWS AND NON JEWS PERPETRATED BY ANYONE WHO COVERS THERE HEAD WILL BE POSTED.
THIS BLOG IS READ BY MANY!
http://neandershort.blogspot.com/2007/12/stinka-from-spinka.html
The Stinka From Spinka
Yesterday afternoon the television news was abuzz with the arrest of the Rebbe of Spinka on a variety of white-collar charges, including income tax evasion and money laundering. According to the government (he has yet to be tried by a jury and is presumed innocent) he solicited large donations from wealthy people in our community, then kicked back as much as 95%, giving the donor a tax deduction 20 times what he was entitled to. I am no longer surprised by news of this sort, just thoroughly disgusted. It seems that ingratitude is the new Jewish virtue. We enjoy in this country the tranquility and freedom that eluded us throughout our long galut, and this is what we give in return. Earth to Harediland: Wake up. We’re not in Poland or Hungary any more. The American government does not persecute Jews. Whatever the gemara might say about the permissibility of defrauding Gentiles or a Gentile government (which ours is not, Jews having achieved high office up to and including running for Vice President) does not apply in our enlightened society. And the intrinsic evil of the rebbe’s alleged crimes is compounded by their inevitable consequence: massive hillul Hashem. It seems to have escaped the notice of the haredi world that such actions confirm all the tired old stereotypes that Gentiles have of us. Jews are dishonest connivers. Jews are greedy. Jews are grasping. Jews are money grubbers. Jews don’t uphold the law of the countries in which they live (hey man, remember that one?), ad infinitum. For those who think that skulduggery of this sort can be kept to ourselves, be assured that news of the rebbe's arrest was splashed all over the Internet (see link above) within hours of its occurrence.
The presumption of innocence may keep the Rebbe out of jail for the time being, but it does not entitle him or his hangers-on to our respect or trust. For that, those who presume to be our authority figures must be above suspicion. One who has such a cloud hanging over him (so much the more if the charges are substantiated) cannot be trusted in matters of kashrut or as a witness on a document of halakhic significance such as a ketuba or get. They should not be invited to our functions, nor should they be honored in our synagogues. In short, they should be ostracized from the society of honest men, a powerful sanction as long as man is a social animal (and a sanction which needs to be applied to men who unreasonably withhold gittin from their wives). And any parent with a child in Spinka’s yeshiva needs to ask himself or herself if (s)he wants his or her child taught by men of such dubious character.
suri kasirer raises monety for bill tompson and simcha felder
and is dealing with lots of political people
there is a rumor that she and bruce negotiated the deal for robert
http://neandershort.blogspot.com/2007/12/stinka-from-spinka.html#6046899766712938954
SephardiLady said...
I just fear what is coming next (only days ago I caught a story about impending audits, on Yeshiva World-which hasn't even reported this case- in Orange County NY on Medicaid fraud and the writting is on the wall if you look at the figures).
UOJ - how can you be contacted to discuss issues?
--------------a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
subject line : VERY IMPORTANT URGENT- PLEASE READ ASAP!
"Rabbi Harry Maryles is a fraud. He is no more interested in the truth than he is in breaking his leg. Morrie's money is dirty, Harry, and so is the Torah it supports, stained and dripping with the blood of defenseless elderly people killed by his negligence and his thievery. That's your Torah, Harry, tattered and dripping in blood. Hope your God likes it".
--------------
Shmarya is correct on this one (IMO). Maryles just can't be that naive! Maryles chooses not comprehend the evil that "man" is capable of! Which "sort of" makes him an accomplice --- by whitewashing the deeds of a very evil man, regardless of how much money he pays to mosdos to buy credibility!
Any relation to the Kassirers in Brooklyn and Queens?
Mrs. Esther Koenig is mechutonim with Kassirer from Queens. If there's any relation, then get ready for another big wind up from Esther. In the past when her relatives have been at the center of sordid stories and accusations, like the alleged child rape in Lakewood, she starts dropping counter rumors all over to lessen the impact.
Artscroll had stolen certain works of Natan Slifkin. They did not credit him for the writings or paid him for them. UOJ had written about this a few years ago. Rumor had it that Scherman had received a call: pay Slifkin or else! Slifkin got paid.
Word on the Street is that the $atmar$ are next on the Feds radar screens and that the gelt they've washed will make the $pinka$ look like chump change.
Time to start building the new wing at Ossining.
There may be a catch that works in Koenig's favor. The guy who says he stumbled across the rape in progress is the son of a convicted child rapist and related to another suspected child rapist. The accuser later got divorced and I dunno even if hes still frum.
Circuit City's problems are due not so much to consumer spending issues but rather to a bonehead cost cutting move. They fired everyone who made an arbitrary percentage above an arbitrary average wage. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aw.zhHEzMpZU&refer=home
This meant they got rid of their best salespeople. No wonder their sales went down.
That's not just my opinion:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR2007050101623.html
As for CompUSA, as computer prices and margins have shrunk, they couldn't compete with lowball places like MicroCenter. If I am not mistaken, CompUSA had it's origins with one of the Jewish pioneers in cyberspace, Aaron Schmiedel. Aaron helped run one of the original Jewish BBS networks, Keshernet, and also designed some Hebrew fonts that are still widely used. He had started a small business selling floppy drives back when the IBM PC first came out. He eventually sold out to some business guys who turned it into CompUSA.
Ah, the old days. My first computer was an Apple IIe, with a couple of floppy drives and a 300 baud modem. Putting aside DSL, cable and other high speed consumer services, not to mention T1, T3 and faster commercial lines, the fastest POTS modems today are 56K. That's 56,000 baud, almost 200 times faster than my first modem. Then I moved to an early Mac with an aftermarket hard drive. My uncle gave me that when he upgraded. He also gave me a DEC laser printer from his medical clinic. The thing must have weighed 60 lbs, and was about 4 times the size of the Samsung on my desk now. My first PC was a genuine 5150 with a massive aftermarket 10 meg hard drive that I thought would take forever to fill. I have plenty of files on this computer that individually are way more than 10 megs. I was running a bbs, US Robotics had come out with 9600 baud modems, and they were fast as lightning. You would only have to spend a few hours downloading large files instead of all night.
But you could tell the whole thing had promise.
So while UOJ deserves kudos, he couldn't have done it without pioneers like Aaron Schmiedel who started connecting Jews digitally and electronically back in the 1980s.
any relation to robert kassai?
lets uoj check to verify it is the family kasirer and that suri negotiated this and then let anty politician that uses suri
then be told no money because she helped with informers
maybe then they will get the message
stop bruce and suri
I came to this site by accident and i couldn't believe my eyes. shame on all of you. being that you are a "rabbi" i question how you can write any of this being that the halacha is that even if in your perverted view of things there was even an iota of truth to any of this total nonsense it would still be forbidden to publicy it, may hashem have mercy on all of you and show you the light of repentance speedily.
I just posted this on Harry's blog:
"Except when it comes to covering up for your dear friend Morrie. Sorry, but your wishy washy apologetics won't wash it this time. The case that was brought against him for making fraudelant claims was brought by the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT (not by his competitor or opponent). To avoid a lengthy court case, he agreed to a 15 MILLION dollar settlement to repay all his fraudelant claims. He lost his license for his Emerald Park home due to the intolerable conditions there. Sex offenders lived in his nursing home. All this is via sources as reliable as anything else you post here. Yet, you sweep it all under the carpet and cover it up.
Will you have the courage to allow this criticism to go past moderation? Of course not. Only anti charedi/anti gedolim posts go through."
Please pass this beautiful story along to people you know. There is hope for the ill, from a fellow Jew and traveler:
-----------------------
'My Cancer Was a Gift'
Cancer validated my compassion and helped me show others that death is a chance to teach our greatest lesson.
Rabbi David Wolpe
This article first ran in the October/November issue of Moment Magazine.
I stood by the hospital bed of a friend who was dying of cancer. He wanted to know why he was sick, why he must die, why he must leave his children and grandchildren. As his rabbi, I was armed with few answers. I could tell him that it was part of God's plan or I could confess to him that I did not know. Neither seemed like the right response.
So, instead, we exchanged stories about chemotherapy. My hair was just beginning to grow back after a bout with lymphoma; his, wispy to start, was gone from the drugs that had targeted all the fast-growing cells in his body. They had done a thorough job on his hair but not on his cancer.
We talked about the strange gratitude we felt for the medicinal poison as it coursed through our veins. There was a moment of solidarity, then sadness returned. Battle stories are not nostalgic when they end in death.
"But at least you understand," he said. It reminded me anew that my cancer was a gift; as a rabbi, it validated my compassion. People knew that I really did understand, that my family and I were not unscathed. Needles seemed forever to be dangling from my arm and I was always being shoved into metal tubes for scans and pictures and tests. Enduring the elaborate technology of survival creates a kind of tribal solidarity.
"So," he asked, "why did it happen to you?"
Did I get cancer for a reason?
Four years before my lymphoma I had undergone surgery for a brain tumor, thankfully benign. Five years before that, after the birth of our daughter, my wife had cancer and surgery that left her unable to bear more children. After each experience, people would ask what it meant. Now someone was asking not out of curiosity or even spiritual hunger, but spiritual urgency.
We looked at each other for a long time. I know what it does not mean, I told him. It was not a punishment. The calculus of reward and punishment in this world is surely more complex than sin equals cancer. One thing is clear: the cancer is not only about you. Those who care for you suffer as well. The ripples do not end.
Facing our own mortality, the traditional roles had melted away. We were no longer rabbi and layperson, younger man and older man. I recalled how in the first verse of the Book of Kings, King David was no longer referred to by his title when he neared death: "Now the days of David drew near that he should die." When we approach death we no longer can hide behind titles and status. The man and I were two people who had undergone similar ailments. One of us, for now, was in remission, and one of us would die before the other. And neither knew why.
He told me that it was not his own life he feared for, but what would happen to his family. How would his loss hurt them? I remembered how, as I was first wheeled into surgery, I was surprised at how little I feared death; I feared instead the consequences of my death. I feared not for myself but for my wife and daughter.
Did he believe in another world? He was not sure, but he hoped. I ventured that everything a human being was — the hopes and dreams, the love and gifts — could not completely disappear. The old analogy had it right: There is a birth into this world that we never could have imagined. Might there be a new birth, another world, equally beyond the reach of human imagination? Life, as writer Vladimir Nabokov once said, was such a remarkable surprise, why should death be less of a surprise?
He smiled and we shared a moment of hope. Maybe all the therapy, the scans and shots, had only postponed the consummation of an unimaginable life to be.
But we soon returned to the moment. To die is to lose everything we know, all the wonders of this world and the people in it. To die is to leave so many stories unfinished and to miss the next act of the stories of others, those whom we know and whom we love.
I did have one thought that might offer him a glimmer of comfort. When I was sick it became clear to me how carefully others watched my reaction — would my faith help me at all, they wondered? Does a professional practice of Judaism offer some strength? Feeling their eyes on me helped me realize that in sickness we are not powerless — we still have the ability to teach.
I told this man, my friend, my fellow human, that his children and grandchildren were watching him. Here was a chance to teach his greatest lesson. They would remember much about him to be sure, but they would never forget how he died. His acceptance, his dignity, even his hope, could change their lives.
Each week, I told him, I studied Torah with a man who just turned
90. He had often recounted what his mother said to him as she was dying: "My child, do not be afraid. It is only death, and it has happened to everyone who ever lived."
The two of us in the hospital room held hands, and agreed that if we could, we would pass from this life with words of love and hope for awakenings to come. Shortly afterwards, he passed away. His children speak of him with reverence for his life and for the way in which he faced death. As with all meetings of the spirit there was not one who gave and one who took; there were two who stood with each other and before God, and even in their sadness, felt blessed.
The hock in Ponevezh and Mir is that ainer foon der gedolim in Eretz Yisroel said about the situation of Spinka and others. They said Hakol Kol Yaakov any moisid that took money that was laibidikeh money, done in a kosher way but was sheltered by mosdos will survive. Ober, deim moisos that took Yodaim Yedai Aisav gelt, Toiteh money, coming in through chommos extortion or force to repay a malve b'ribbis those are the cause of the situation. Those moisdos have blood on their hands, and will have no kiyum.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/12/kyo-restaurant-in-monsey.html#c8302950387317517465
Anonymous said...
The COR is a mafia! They have immediate double standards that bring their repute into great question. On the one hand they libel and slander KSA and I know of one case where a mashgiach was threatend with termination if he did hashgacha for KSA on his OWN time. The COR is alos now involved in multiple din torah's. They brought in R. Heinamann as a dayan for a recent case and he went against COR. To date COR has said it disagrees with the psak beis din and have not agreed to honor it. Rumors have it that an outside beis din will be brought in to place a siruv on the hashgacha. Will keep you all posted.
Anonymous said...
Up until about 15 to 20 years ago, COR establishments, including the ones considered "heimish" like Hermes Bakery, were selling treif shelf items like cereal, gum and candy.
The COR was out to lunch. Yeshivaleit from Ner Yisroel were complaining but the COR only stopped this behavior after an American rov complained who had the power to publicize against it. A kashrus official in NY described them as being over 30 years behind American hashgochos.
Even more recently, caterers, including in shul halls, were serving treif liquors or alcoholic drinks with yayin nesech additives. I don't know even if this has stopped. The COR may be more up to date now, but they were not earlier following lists of non-acceptable drinks from American hashgochos.
Nursing homes under COR employ a Rabbanut-style sham of allowing only a fraction of their usual requirements. When questioned, they use the excuse that the alter freye shmageggies would not keep kosher at all so it's better to at least provide some level of kashrus.
Be very careful when calling the COR office for information. The women working there are very eager to answer your questions instead of passing you on to a rabbi. They sometimes don't know their head from their foot and give completely false information. Even in one case where the COR had a printed list of which ice cream flavors were kosher, a woman there mixed up the items.
Anonymous said...
COR is among the hashgochos that dismisses R' Yudel. Funny how anyone I've noticed doing that has there own credibility problems.
Anonymous said...
I witnessed a very troubling episode years ago at a COR restaurant. The place was owned by Sefardim and the COR mashgiach was a Sefardi. A family that was also Sefardi and knew both the owner and mashgiach came to eat. The elderly grandmother was with them who cannot eat regular food. The family brought her special cooked food from home. They asked for a plate (ceramic) which the mashgiach initially refused. The family argued that look at the grandmother, she is frum and covers her hair. She would not eat in our home if we weren't kosher. The family was not as frum - not even shomer Shabbos. The mashgiach relented and gave them a plate.
I have noticed in general that many Sefardim have a perverse sense of not wanting to be mevayesh someone - to the point where I have seen completely not frum people bring over hot food to someone's house and the supposedly frum baal habusta will serve the hot food on their china to "not embarass" the visitor. They are also very ignorant of many halachos. For instance, they will make wine bottles pogum for kiddush or think they can kasher any dishwasher for Pesach by "running the cycle 3 times".
Much of the nonsense they do stems from what someone "remembers" from Morocco or Algeria etc, except that there are several other opinions in the room of what happened in the old country. They mostly mean well but sometimes border on the absurd. There was a famous mayseh with a group of Iranians in Baltimore who got into a car crash. They wanted to thank Hashem for sparing them so they were mekabel on themselves to become Kohanim. (Rav Heinemann says over this mayseh in public shiurim)
After seeing all this I stopped eating in the homes of Sefardim unless they are bezunder Charedi.
Marvin Schick has done another despicable thing.
To those who follow Schick's writings, this is not surprising. Schick has spent much of his adult life covering for haredim.
When Hella Winston's book Unchosen was published, Schick wrote a libelous review. I called him and challenged him to produce facts. He never did, at one point claiming illness as an excuse.
Schick libeled Winston on the pages of the New York Jewish Week, in an unlabeled advertisement meant to look like a news report or in-house column. The Jewish Week's Associate Publisher Rich Waloff told me the line designating Schick's 'columns' as advertising had "somehow" "inadvertently" "dropped out" months before. But Waloff did not understand why the Jewish Week had to answer any questions about its policies, and he refused to name the sponsor of Schick's ads or to apologize to anyone for the lack of labeling.
Gary Rosenblatt, the Jewish Week's Editor and Publisher, dismissively told a source that he would not answer questions from "bloggers" about Schick – or anything else, for that matter. It was not long after this that Rosenblatt was forced to admit he had covered up his friend Rabbi Mordechai Gafni's sex abuse for years. Who forced that admission? Bloggers.
On the 10th anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Jewish Week ran a story under the byline of Associate Editor Jonathan Mark. Crown Heights was festooned with large yellow banners, flags and bumper stickers naming the late Rebbe the messiah. The main synagogue in 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad's international headquarters, was draped with these. Mark's article minimized this messianism, mentioning it only in passing when referring to the main synagogue in Chabad's international headquarters as the basement synagogue. The other synagogue upstairs had no such banners. What Mark failed to tell his readers is the basement synagogue is huge, capable of housing thousands for prayer, and the "upstairs synagogue" is the size of a small bedroom, able to (legally) hold perhaps two dozen men.
When I published my critique of his work, Mark emailed me and told me that he did not write the line about the basement synagogue. It was inserted into his story, Mark claimed, along with other edits by a person unknown to him.
Assuming Mark is telling the truth, who could do this to the Associate Editor of a publication? The graphic designer? The printer? An intern? Perhaps.
More likely it was done by or at the request of someone higher up in the Jewish Week than Jonathan Mark. That would mean either Rich Waloff or Gary Rosenblatt did the deed. My money is on Rosenblatt.
For years, Schick's paid advertisements have been published in the Jewish Week, presented as if he were a columnist working for the Jewish Week rather than an advertiser on its pages. Sometimes these ads have carried a very small, indistinct disclaimer; sometimes they have not. When they have in the last two years, it is because of unwanted attention from bloggers and the very real potential of a libel suit, not due to any self-policing on Rosenblatt's part. It should go without saying that Schick did not have the honesty to insert that disclaimer himself.
I bring this up now because Schick's latest attack is based on his attack against Winston two years ago (Download Schick.pdf), and against the now-released study done by Michelle Friedman on sex abuse in Orthodoxy.
Schick's original attack against Winston claimed Winston had promoted her book as a book on sex abuse in Orthodoxy. Schick also claimed New York Magazine's Robert Kolker had made the same claim from the book. In fact, neither assertion was true.
Schick also claimed Winston's dissertation advisor "told me that the original manuscript was far more hate-filled than what appeared in print." That advisor is William Helmreich, now Professor of Sociology & Judaic Studies at City University Graduate Center and City College of New York and Director of the City College Conflict Resolution Center. Helmreich told me then that he never made that statement or any similar statement to Schick. Further, Helmreich confirmed that he had not seen any of Winston's book until a few days before it went to press. He praised that manuscript highly. Winston's editor at Beacon told me that no changes were made in the manuscript and that nothing was done during the writing process to tone down the work.
In other words, again, what Schick claimed is not true.
What is true is that Winston had just published a widely read and well reviewed book on Jews who leave haredism and Kolker had just published a widely read and well received article on Rabbi Yehuda Kolko's 40 year career of rabbi-on-boy sexual abuse and the haredi rabbis who covered it up. Both works make haredism look bad, not because of bias, but because both expose previously hidden problems that soil ultra-Orthodoxy's image.
Now Schick has revisited this because Michelle Friedman's paper is finally through the long peer review process and is now published (Download ajp_articlefinal.pdf). Winston had cited a pre-publication summary of Friedman's article in her book, and Schick attacked Winston for doing so. Schick claimed that many of the study participants were ba'al teshuvas and therefore these women brought their sex abuse stories in from the outside. Without them, Schick claimed, sex abuse in haredism would be incidental.
Schick is making this claim again now that the study is released. But what Schick does not tell his readers is that it is even more likely the study under represents the number of abused women in Orthodoxy rather than the opposite. For various reasons having to do with the willingness to report along with access to counseling and anonymous medical care, those women who chose to report are arguably the tip of the iceberg, not the iceberg itself.
No one can draw comprehensive conclusions from a study like this. Friedman herself does not do so. Neither do her coauthors or the study itself. Neither does Winston. To the extent that such generalities were drawn, they were drawn by media unfamiliar with the methodological process involved, not by Friedman the others.
In her book, Winston in fact writes:
While it is unclear whether or not such abuse exists to a greater degree in these communities than it does in the general population, some have theorized that Jewish communities' historical antipathy toward informers has likely played some role in keeping such abuse quiet, when it occurs.
Honesty, it seems, is not a Schick family character trait.
But there is a another point Schick misses. The Friedman study does not survey women who have left utra-Orthodoxy. Anecdotal evidence shows a high level of sexual abuse of these former haredi women when they were still inside haredism. Would inclusion of these women and removal of all BTs change the study results? Perhaps it would. Perhaps it would show that sex abuse is rampant in haredi society. Anecdotal evidence would point that way, but we can't be sure until a study like this is done.
The point is, the knife Schick wields cuts both ways, and Marvin Schick is too dishonest to admit it.
I could go on about Marvin Schick's deficiencies. But the issue really is not Marvin Schick alone, anymore than the issue of a bull rampaging in a marketplace is this issue of the bull alone. Just as the bull left his confinement because of willful or accidental neglect of its owner, so too Schick continues because of the willful neglect of the Jewish Week and others who publish him.
Gary Rosenblatt has a responsibility to report the truth. Indeed, the Jewish Week’s website puts it this way:
"Our first loyalty is to the truth."
In that vein, readers of the Jewish Week are entitled to know who pays for Schick's 'columns.' Could it be that a Jewish organization uses money raised to educate Jewish children for this purpose? Is it a private donor? Is this donor getting a tax deduction for this? Does this "project" show up on an organization's IRS 990 form or is it hidden?
Another negligent party here is the Greater New York Jewish Federation, which buys Jewish Week subscriptions for tens of thousands of Jews, in effect owning the paper without actually owning it. While it is difficult to make the legal claim that the New York Federation is liable here, the moral claim seems clear.
Everyone involved here should be trying to stop this abuse, to wipe it out.
Instead, haredim like Marvin Schick downplay the abuse and fight legitimate efforts to curtail it because those efforts involve publicity which damages the haredi community's standing. That damage to the haredi reputation is clearly more important to Marvin Schick and his cohort than the very real, painful and often permanent damage done to the bodies, minds and souls of innocent haredi women and children.
http://orthomom.blogspot.com/2007/11/plea-for-help.html
There is a five-year-old boy in Woodmere, New York named Zev Wolff. I don’t know Zev or his family, but several of my friends do and have called his case to my attention. You can read more about Zev at this Web site.
http://www.zevsfund.org/
He is suffering from neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer, with a prognosis that is difficult. There is, however, a possibility to help him and at least 60 similarly situated children.
Scientists have developed a monoclonal antibody called 3F8 that gives neuroblastoma patients a good chance to survive. Unfortunately, the compound is not helpful to Zev and the other children mentioned above, because it is made from mice cells that their immune systems reject. It will take approximately $3 million to fund a biotech company to “humanize” the drug into a form called HU3F8. At last word, the families of the affected children have raised $1 million toward this end, so the goal is to raise a further $2 million.
An organization called Band of Parents, founded by families of neuroblastoma patients, has been approved by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) (i.e., tax-exempt) organization. I can send you a copy of the IRS's determination letter if you would like to see it. You may send a contribution to Band of Parents at P.O. Box 335, Dewittville, NY 14728. Alternatively, you may contribute online with a credit card at this page.
http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org/Pages/Page.aspx?Page=Custom&Name=Donation
Thank you for considering this matter. I think it is especially worthy of your attention if you are pondering a tax-deductible charitable contribution before year’s end. If you require further information, I will be happy to put you in touch with community leaders more familiar with the cases of Zev and the other children. I would urge you to call this cause to the attention of your friends, as well.
We are all too aware of cases where medical science is not yet able to help the afflicted. In this case, science has found a potent solution, and the missing ingredient is money. Let us hope we can make a difference for Zev and other children suffering from neuroblastoma.
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Credit card defaults alarmingly high
Rate of credit card default seen surging as fallout from the subprime meltdown is spreading.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Americans are falling behind on their credit card payments at an alarming rate, sending delinquencies and defaults surging by double-digit percentages in the last year and prompting warnings of worse to come.
An Associated Press analysis of financial data from the country's largest card issuers also found that the greatest rise was among accounts more than 90 days in arrears.
Experts say these signs of the deterioration of finances of many households are partly a byproduct of the subprime mortgage crisis and could spell more trouble ahead for an already sputtering economy.
"Debt eventually leaks into other areas, whether it starts with the mortgage and goes to the credit card or vice versa," said Cliff Tan, a visiting scholar at Stanford University and an expert on credit risk. "We're starting to see leaks now."
The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late jumped 26 percent to $17.3 billion in October from a year earlier at 17 large credit card trusts examined by the AP. That represented more than 4 percent of the total outstanding principal balances owed to the trusts on credit cards that were issued by banks such as Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Capital One (COF, Fortune 500) and for retailers like Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500) and Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500).
At the same time, defaults -- when lenders essentially give up hope of ever being repaid and write off the debt -- rose 18 percent to almost $961 million in October, according to filings made by the trusts with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Serious delinquencies also are up sharply: Some of the nation's biggest lenders -- including Advanta, GE Money Bank and HSBC -- reported increases of 50 percent or more in the value of accounts that were at least 90 days delinquent when compared with the same period a year ago.
Posted on VIN:
This was not an indictment based on a tax violation which is out of DC but was a money laundering case out of the AUSA in LA and they want the publicity like Southern District AUSA get with Helmsly and Martha Stewart. So far they are getting as much as they dreamed for. I worked for Justice and I did not get the idea they were anti-semites. They just hate every crook, they think everyone is a crook and unfortunately for the Rebbe HaShem Yerachem, most cases are built on informants who have been caught and they are looking for something called a "5-K" letter to get their sentence reduced. Most people --Hamish and otherwise-- think the Feds are "keystone cops" and "pink panter" inspectors, but they are not. They are really smart and well trained. They have five years to work on a case and they hate to lose, so by the time they open the indictment it is like a base ball player rounding third and heading for home. HaShem Yerachem on the Rebbe and other Yidden who get caught up in this, but please take some mussar and stop this non-sense and have faith in the Almighty.
Alexander Novak, Esq.
in the latest edition writes:
- Spinka conspirator Alan Jay Friedman is on the OU board of directors
- Robert Kassirer was also breaking SEC rules (does UOJ know which publicly traded company he owns?)
"One thing is clear: The Orthodox community deplores any attempt to defraud the government of the United States, and there is no excuse for it, and there's no rationalizations that are acceptable," said Rabbi Meyer H. May, president of the Rabbinical Council of California. "It's against the Torah and it's against our moral foundation. At the same time, regarding these specific individuals, they should be allowed to have a fair trial, as everyone is innocent until proven guilty." He also stressed that people should beware of lashon hara, or gossip, of discussing this case, and to keep in mind that there are wives and children and family members who might also be hurt.
But whatever the verdict on the accused, Rabbi May said this should be a wake-up call to the community. "The community should look deeply inside itself to examine its values, its commitment to truth, and its understanding of what God really wants us to be and how he wants us to act. We are here in this world to sanctify the name of God and not to denigrate it."
He stressed that the accused are individuals, not representatives of the Orthodox or Hasidic community. "Ninety nine percent do pay taxes correctly, do abide by the law, do take their positions as citizens of the United States seriously and ethically."
http://exposemolesters.blogspot.com/2007/12/story-of-mary-ellen-which-started-child_14.html#c9118931114612065813
I have some information on Shlomo Mandel that will absolutely put a nail through his coffin. I cannot disclose it right now.
Defendant MOSHE ARIE LAZAR was the owner of Lazar Diamonds in Los Angeles
Defendant YOSEF NACHUM NAIMAN, was the owner of Shatz Et Naiman, dba Jerusalem Tours in Los Angeles
Skver and Belz supposedly are also notorious.
Satmar has political clout like no other. Also, the powers that be are
pretty savvy.
At the end of the day, they all shot themselves in the foot. Any
chasidishe moysod that now asks for a $1 million is happy with $50,000. So the "big" givers aren't such big givers anymore.
Someone wrote on Chaptzem that Kassirer was indicted once before for stealing millions.
What was that story?
They also imply that his late father Yankel Kassirer paid for Bais Yaakov LA's building.
"Robert Kasirer ratted out Jews who weren’t even on the feds radar," says a source. "I bet he’ll even be at shul this week. He’s a prominent member of Beth Jacob who has been in trouble for a long time for fraud. Even while he was a known fraud and bilked millions and millions from private investors, he was welcome in Beth Jacob. He was treated with respect by Rabbi Weil. He was called to the bima. He hosted BJ events. It was business as usual."
"If Kasirer did this to the Italian Mob, he’d be in a witness protection program," says an observer. "I don’t think the Spinka Hasidim are going to put a hit on him."
"I wonder how long until Irving Lebovic (the dentist, married to heiress Shirley Lebovic) and other Agudath machers are caught for the same crimes," say sources. "Irving used to boast about how they cheat the IRS… They’ve talked about deals that sounded like laundering money through a yeshiva in Israel. Robert Kasirer was one of the gang… They would meet at Lebovic’s home and make fun of the IRS and how gullible they are. I remember when they all decided to act as yeshiva bachurim (kollel students). They needed to show that their kollel has a live student body. It didn’t help and one of them was sent to jail. There was also a situation with a stolen bank check from Home Savings bank. It hit the newspapers latter. They are all still doing it under the disguise of Agudath. A bunch of crooks, mainly from the other side of town — Fairfax and Hancock Park, some moved here (Pico/Robertson)."
"They were all working married men, financially established in their own businesses. For the government inspection, they’d dress up as kollel students, living on stipends and learning full time. The money to support the Kollel students comes from donors and some government funding. The donors got the tax write off. THERE WERE NO STUDENTS and they played the role and laughed about it. Thought it was a cute prank to cheat the government."
I don’t understand how this wild speculation could possibly be true. Dr. Irving Lebovic teaches ethics according to the ChabadUSC.com website.
He wears a black hat. He looks really religious.
Surely no Orthodox Jew would engage in crime.
That would be a desecration of G-d’s name!
Twelve years ago, Rabbi Loew (Lowe?) was the Hasidic rabbi (wore a bekesher, he seemed like the frumest of the frum) at what is now known as Bais Yehuda at the corner of La Brea and Oakwood. It’s a big brick shul. This is where ANY ONE who was any one prayed — all the old timers such as Saul Kest, Moshe Weiss, Robert Kasirer, Stanley Diller etc… The shul was loaded. Rabbi Lowe started a kollel and could not support it so he started laundering money. He was busted and did five years in prison (circa 1995-2000). The shul never recovered. Now people pray at Yavneh, Rubins, Young Israel of Hancock Park…
On Rabbi Loew’s first trial, there a black woman on the jury who wouldn’t vote to convict him. There was a hung jury. The holy rabbi announced it was a sign from G-d. On the second trial, HaShem wasn’t in the courtroom and he was convicted.
Robert Kasirer is one of Beth Jacob’s biggest donors (over a million dollars). He dedicated the Soloveitchik Artscroll machzor (High Holiday prayer book) and bought them for the whole shul.
On the top of its website BethJacob.org, the shul says: "Beth Jacob is a Modern Orthodox Shul located in the heart of the religious Los Angeles and Beverly Hills community. Beth Jacob is a shul that strives to engage our members in areas of chesed, Torah study, and communal activism."
Beth Jacob’s rabbi, Steven Weil, is famous for his selectively applied no-predators policy. It landed him on the cover of the Dec. 8, 2006 Jewish Journal.
For years, Rabbi Weil and Beth Jacob honored sexual predator Rabbi Aron Tendler.
(I want to step outside my reporter role for a paragraph. I was booted from Beth Jacob by Rabbi Weil in the fall of 2001. When questioned about his decision, Rabbi Weil says privately that he heard from two women that many years previously I had aggressively sexually come on to them. I believe this accusation is true (though I have no idea who these women were, back then there were so many). That said, I have great sympathy for a shul having a no-predator policy. I believe Rabbi Weil is a good person and a good rabbi. All good people have standards. All standards, by definition, are selectively applied. By putting the speed limit at 65 mph, you are saying it is legal to drive 64 mph and it is illegal to drive 66 mph. By going to great lengths to have a predator-free shul, Rabbi Weil has antagonized a lot of people who may not be predators and opened himself up to extra scrutiny in this area.)
From the latest Young Israel of North Beverly Hills (the richest Orthodox shul in Los Angeles) bulletin: "YINBH extends condolences to one of our founding members, Robert Kasirer, and his family on the passing of his father, Mr. Yacov Kasirer z"l."
Who is Robert Kasirer? This Dec. 15, 2003 Los Angeles Business Journal story gives some idea:
For years, Beverly Hills lawyer and health care entrepreneur Robert Kasirer has fought off a string of fraud accusations and monetary judgments that resulted when his business ventures went sour.
While bond investors and lenders have sought repayment, Kasirer–the son of a philanthropist and health care executive–has continued to live a lifestyle that costs, by his estimate, $122,000 a month. Despite his admitted business setbacks, Kasirer serves on research boards at both UCLA and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he and his wife also chair the parents’ volunteer program committee.
….Earlier this month, Kasirer was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles investigating Medicare fraud. His lawyers, citing the possibility of a criminal indictment, were able to place on hold a lawsuit seeking class action status that alleges he defrauded hundreds of municipal bond investors, according to documents filed in the civil case.
Many of those investors had already been victimized once, by Alzheimer’s disease, by the time they encountered Kasirer, according to documents in the 273-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Central District of California.
Kasirer is involved in numerous other legal scrapes, some related to the non-profit operator of the Alzheimer’s facilities, Heritage Healthcare of America, and some not. He has created dozens of companies under various names, and has been the subject of investigations by the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"We have all the evidence to prove Kasirer is a crook who defrauded elderly bond investors," said Brian Barry, a lawyer representing hundreds of bondholders. "There were kickbacks to all of the parties involved, his wife was on the payroll and then the lawyer in the case simply destroyed all of the documents. The whole scheme was deliberate and detailed."
…Earlier this year, Kasirer and his wife Debra were sued by Alliance Bank of Culver City for failing to make payments on a $750,000 loan they received in 2001.
…After using about $150,000 for construction work and furnishing of a second home, and lending another $250,000 to a friend, Kasirer said he had used "the rest of the money for my living expenses, as I am between career opportunities and my last business venture was not successful."
He went on to cite a minimum of $122,208 in monthly living expenses, including: $16,000 for his gated house on the 600 block of Canon Drive in Beverly Hills; $7,600 for a ski house in Park City, Utah; $4,350 for auto expenses; $5,100 in religious dues and donations; $12,000 for his children’s tuition; and $45,000 for legal fees.
Kasirer’s personal spending patterns pop up frequently in the allegations involving Heritage Healthcare.
The investors’ complaint alleges that he "caused the improper transfer of bond monies to himself, his wife and/or his companies," even while he was paid a salary of $920,000 a year from 1997 to 2000.
Debra Kasirer also received more than $1 million in salary and consulting fees from Heritage Healthcare through her own company, Mishkan Healthcare, which lists the couple’s Beverly Hills home as its business office, the lawsuit states.
Robert’s father, Jacob Kasirer, is an executive at Golden State Health Centers Inc. in Sherman Oaks and an active philanthropist who donated enough money to Bais Yaakov High School on Beverly Boulevard to get his name engraved on the building. His company was paid at least $198,000 in consulting fees by Heritage Healthcare and was listed as a supervisory manager in one of the bond offerings, according to the complaint.
According to a 1992 story in the Los Angeles Times, Kasirer was president of Beverly Hills Medical Holdings, which purchased Beverly Hills Hospital and became the subject of several lawsuits.
The lawsuit alleges that Kasirer, his associates, his wife and his father collected millions of dollars in consulting fees and illegal payments, such as feasibility studies, that ultimately caused the Alzheimer’s facilities to run out of money and collapse.
…But the lawsuit alleges that in 1996, as the Rancho Hospital offering was about to close, "Robert and Debra Kasirer decided to use the bondholders’ money to pay for a trip to Hawaii for themselves" by arranging for a board meeting to be held on Maui.
In 1999, the Texas Department of Human Services conducted an investigation of a Heritage facility in Houston where "residents requiring an incontinence program did not receive help, residents were abusing each other without repercussions and a raging scabies epidemic was not contained," according to the lawsuit.
A Sarasota, Fla., facility was apparently built on a flood plain, causing an employee to complain that alligators often roamed the grounds and were a safety concern to the elderly patients, the lawsuit states.
Here’s more from the Los Angeles Business Journal (July 5, 2004):
THE Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges last week against Beverly Hills resident Robert Kasirer and four executives involved in the collapse of Heritage Healthcare of America, which sold $131 million of municipal bonds in the late 1990s, ostensibly to fund health care facilities for Alzheimer’s patients.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, claims the five California defendants engaged in a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 1,800 investors in 36 states.
The 11 municipal bond offerings, sold from 1996 to 1999, were supposed to be used to build nursing homes in California, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Only five facilities actually opened, including Rancho Hospital in Rancho Cucamonga, which filed for bankruptcy. The others were taken over through a receivership.
The SEC complaint alleges that Kasirer, 55, an attorney who controlled Heritage Healthcare, engaged in kickbacks and profited from the scheme, including putting his wife and father on the payroll of Heritage affiliate companies.
It’s a good thing that Rabbi Weil maintains such strict standards against financial predators or who knows how much trouble honored members of Beth Jacob would get into.
A Google search of "Robert Kasirer" turned up many results, including:
LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 18774 / July 1, 2004 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. ROBERT A. KASIRER, ET AL. (United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 04-C-4340). Robert A. Kasirer, Jerold V. Goldstein, Joel T. Boehm, James E. Iverson and Victor P. Dhooge Charged With Fraudulent Offer and Sale of $131 Million of Municipal Revenue Bonds
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("Commission") announced that it filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on June 29 against Robert A. Kasirer, Jerold V. Goldstein, Joel T. Boehm, James E. Iverson and Victor P. Dhooge. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants, acting in concert, fraudulently offered and sold over $131 million of municipal revenue bonds to members of the public.
The SEC’s Complaint alleges that the Defendants offered and sold the bonds in question through a series of eleven offerings underwritten by the now-defunct, Minnesota firm of Miller & Schroeder Financial, Inc. ("Miller & Schroeder"). The Complaint alleges that the Defendants sold the bonds to more than 1,800 investors residing in thirty-six states. The Complaint alleges that the purported purpose of each bond offering was to finance the development of a specified healthcare facility by Heritage Housing Development, Inc., a company effectively controlled by Defendant Kasirer ("Heritage"). The Complaint alleges that all together, there were ten Heritage facilities located in the states of Texas, Florida, Illinois and California. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants represented in offering documents that the proceeds from each bond offering would be used to finance one specific healthcare facility. The Complaint alleges that in fact, however, the costs of developing the Heritage facilities, including payments to Defendant Kasirer and some of his family members, outstripped the proceeds from the facilities’ respective bond offering. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants covered the resulting cash shortfalls by operating a type of Ponzi scheme, commingling bond proceeds and diverting bond proceeds from more recent offerings to pay the expenses of earlier projects. The Complaint alleges that this diversion of bond proceeds from one project to another went on for three years. The Complaint alleges that beginning in February 2000, the Heritage facilities ran out of money and defaulted on their obligations to bondholders. Presently, all the Heritage facilities are in default on their bonds.
The Complaint alleges that Defendants Kasirer and Goldstein controlled Heritage and personally directed the commingling and misapplication of bond proceeds and that Defendants Iverson and Dhooge, representatives of Miller & Schroeder, managed the underwriting of the various bond offerings, despite their knowledge that bond proceeds were being wrongfully commingled and diverted. The Complaint alleges that Defendant Boehm, an attorney who acted as counsel for Miller & Schroeder in the bond offerings, issued favorable legal opinions despite his knowledge that bond proceeds were being wrongfully commingled and diverted.
The Commission seeks the entry of permanent injunctions, disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest and civil penalties against Kasirer, Goldstein, Boehm, Iverson and Dhooge.
SEC Complaint in this matter
Here’s the happy ending from the SEC:
Litigation Release No. 20358 / November 5, 2007 SEC v. Robert Kasirer, et al., Case Number 05-CV-3059-RSWL (C.D. Calif.) SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Robert A. Kasirer in Municipal Revenue Bond Offering Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) announced that on October 31, 2007, the Honorable Ronald S. W. Lew, Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, issued a final judgment against Defendant Robert A. Kasirer ("Kasirer") which: (1) permanently enjoined Kasirer from violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder; and (2) ordered Kasirer to pay disgorgement in the amount of $2,193,565, plus prejudgment interest in the amount of $2,797,869, for a total of $4,991,434. Kasirer consented to the entry of the final judgment without admitting or denying the allegations contained in the Commission’s Complaint.
The Commission’s Complaint alleged that from February 1996 through August 1999, Kasirer and others ("the Defendants"), acting in concert, fraudulently offered and sold over $131 million of municipal revenue bonds to members of the public to finance the development of ten healthcare facilities by Heritage Housing Development, Inc. The Defendants offered and sold the bonds in question through a series of eleven offerings underwritten by the now-defunct Minnesota securities dealer Miller & Schroeder Financial, Inc. The bonds were purchased by more than 1,800 investors residing in 36 States. Kasirer was the president of the company that selected the properties to be developed and then managed the Heritage facilities. The Complaint further alleged that Kasirer directed the wrongful commingling and diversion of millions of dollars of bond proceeds and concealed that practice from investors. The Complaint also alleged that Kasirer, acting knowingly or with a reckless disregard for the truth, was the primary author of bond prospectuses which misled investors, and personally profited from his scheme.
For additional information, see Litigation Releases Nos. 18774 and 19131.
From Forbes, Oct. 15, 2001:
Kasirer, who lives in a Beverly Hills home complete with a private tennis court, is no stranger to controversy. The Heritage hospital he helped manage in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. was accused by Medicare attorneys of overstating reimbursable Medicare costs by at least $8.7 million over three years. Kasirer says he knew nothing about it and his company was one of three to manage the hospital during that time.
The Internal Revenue Service is considering yanking the tax-exempt status of some bonds connected to three housing projects Kasirer helped develop in the early 1990s. The issue centers on arcane "tax-exempt arbitrage" rules. The IRS claims on one of the deals, Kasirer bought a chunk of the project’s tax-exempt bonds, and with another party backed them up with taxable U.S. government securities to ensure the debt was repaid (a process called "defeasance") and resold the securities for a profit. Kasirer insists he didn’t defease the bonds and lost money on the sales.
Nearly two years after the Heritage bonds defaulted bondholders are losing hope U.S. Trust can recover much. "I don’t know when was the last information I got about what they were doing," says Doris Archey, 74, a widow in Downey, Calif. who invested $250,000. "I guess they aren’t doing much."
On February 7, 1993, Robert Kasirer donated $1,000 to Senator Edward Kennedy.
I guess that’s not a crime.
The Minkatcher Rebbe held a strategic meeting with Rabbonim and lawyers present on how to proceed with the Spinka story. At the meeting various strategies were discussed and money was put together for the Spinka defense. The Minkatcher Rebbe then flew down to LA to speak to the Spinka Rebbe and his lawyers about the legal situation.
It's not at all plausible that Suri Kassirer & Bruce Teitelbaum can stick their noses in Jutice Dept matters. If anything, Justice would be eager to take down any corrupt political officals too.
For me, it's just business as usual. Did anyone see the photo op I had in the Jewish Fress with Rabbi Hecht from Crown Hts? I helped facilitate PR for Rubashkin by helping him distribute Agri turkeys to inner city poor people.
"Ombudsman said...
A rov spoke about the Spinker shtinkers on Shabbos. He was visibly shaken by the chilul Hashem so far and from what will emerge when all the shoytim who gave the money are rounded up.
He did not justify their actions but made an excellent point that yeshivos are partially to blame for demanding ridiculously high tuition fees. Outside of Brooklyn, as in suburban NY-NJ and even Queens, tuition runs between 10 to 30 thousand per child."
---------------------------
Summer camps also figure prominently here.
Yeshivos should go to the 1 month summer vacation that Lakewood,
Monsey and elsewhere has. Camp for 2 months is now equal or more than
tutition for a kid in Lakewood yeshivos.
I'm very upset that someone doesn't take a stand on this.
Chasidishe yeshivos are a little better because they are learning camps. When you learn the whole day, prices aren't outrageous like Camps Agudah, Munk, Ma na vu etc.
I have some information on Shlomo Mandel that will absolutely put a nail through his coffin. I cannot disclose it right now.
2:44 PM, December 24, 2007
==================================
uoj, is this about his days in Telshe cleveland??
From the UCLA Center on Aging newsletter June 2, 2000:
Robert Kasirer is the newest member of the UCLA Center on Aging’s Board of Trustees. He is the chair and CEO of HealthCareContinuum, LLC and its affiliate entities. The firm owns and operates acute care and psychiatric hospitals, and provides consulting and financial advisory services to companies in the specialty long term care industry. Kasirer is responsible for executive level direction and oversight of the company, including planning, financing, project and site selection, and establishment of business arrangements and strategic relationships.
From 1995 to early 1997, Kasirer was associated with a publicly traded healthcare company, where he was managing director of one of its subsidiaries and was a member of its Board of Directors. From 1986 to 1995, he developed retirement communities, assisted living facilities and healthcare facilities for not-for- profit owners as a fee developer, and owned an ancillary services healthcare company.
Kasirer earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1970, and a Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law in 1973. He is admitted to the New York Bar. He has lectured extensively, and has authored articles on the senior living industry.
From Lawyersandsettlements.com:
Beverly Hills, CA: (Nov-24-07) The federal Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against Robert Kasirer, a Beverly Hills attorney, accusing him of hatching a scheme to defraud investors of tens of millions of dollars. The suit charged Kasirer of operating a Ponzi-type scheme to enrich himself and his associates. A suit was also filed against another defendant, Jerold Goldstein, who was described along with Kasirer as a primary architect of the scheme. Federal officials stated that $144 million in tax-exempt bonds were sold for two facilities in Florida, one in Chicago, one in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, and six in Fort Worth, Austin, Brownsville, Houston, east Houston and Texas City. The facilities were to be developed by Heritage Housing Development, a Los Angeles nonprofit created in 1993 that was controlled by Kasirer. Further, bond buyers were led to believe that proceeds from each bond offering would be used to finance one specific healthcare facility.
SEC officials stated that from the onset, the costs of developing the healthcare facilities, including payments to defendant Kasirer and some of his family members, outstripped the proceeds from the facilities’ respective bond offerings. The defendants covered the resulting cash shortfalls by operating a type of Ponzi scheme, commingling bond proceeds and diverting bond proceeds from more recent offerings to pay the expenses of earlier projects. As part of a settlement reached, a US district court in California issued a final judgment, ordering Kasirer to pay $5 million, resolving the fraud suit.
From afikimfoundation.org:
If Ever There Was a Time to Reach, Teach And Inspire,
It Would Be The High Holidays.
For the third time in two years, we are offering a new work that will bring renewed dimensions of understanding and inspiration to people who are seeking to expand and deepen their relationship to Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur.
The Rosh Hashanah Machzor with commentary culled from the teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l, is the second volume in a truly momentous series. For over half a century, Rabbi Soloveitchik was one of the most influential figures in American Jewry and for decades he delivered an annual series of lectures related to virtually every aspect of the High Holidays; their themes, prayers and inner meaning.
Last year, K’hal Publishing, in cooperation with the Orthodox Union, published the Kasirer Edition Mesoras HaRav: Yom Kippur Machzor with commentary drawn from Rabbi Soloveithchik’s teachings. The Kasirer Yom Kippur Machzor reached the four corners of the world.
In cooperation with Robert Kasirer of Los Angeles, California, who through his generosity has endowed the Kasirer Edition volumes to the honor and memory of loved ones, The Afikim Foundation has participated in the dissemination of the volume to college campus minyanim nationwide, at no charge.
With the way Dr. Gerson Hepner (an Orthodox Jew in Los Angeles who’s welcome to attend any shul he wants including Young Israel of Century City and Beth Jacob) is racking up the criminal convictions, he should have plenty of time to select his best Biblical poems.
This 2005 report is delicious:
…In approximately 1985, Petitioner decided to change his practice to one primarily involving the care and treatment of personal injury patients. His practice was a great success and, between 1984 and 1989, he opened and operated satellite offices in Inglewood, Hollywood and Studio City, earning an average annual gross income of $1,700,000. However, that income was not legitimately derived. He paid "cappers" to provide him with personal injury . He billed for more extensive reports for patients he had not seen. He charged for more patient visits than actually occurred and charged at a rate of $500 per visit. He billed for other work he did not perform. Patients’ signatures were often forged on sign-in sheets so as to increase the amount of their bills without their knowledge. Petitioner’s inflated bills were paid by insurance companies in connection with patients’ personal injury claims. Petitioner also evaded income taxes and attributed tens of thousands of dollars of personal expenses to his corporation on his income tax returns.
…During the late 1980s, Petitioner’s conduct and demeanor began to change. He went through alternating stages of euphoria and depression. His life-style became flamboyant, even to the point of purchasing a taxicab-yellow Rolls Royce and wearing bright red silk shirts to his Orthodox synagogue [YICC?] (something he was aware was grossly inappropriate for such a congregation).
…[To help Dr. Hepner regain his medical license after serving four years in prison circa 2005:] Steven Weil, Rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation, confirmed Dr. Hepner was a devoted member of Beth Jacob, was a biblical school [scholar], was assiduous in his Jewish studies, and enjoyed an excellent relationship in the community. Rabbi Weil stated that Dr. Hepner had expressed remorse for his criminal offenses.
[Doctors who went to bat for Gershon Hepner include Paul A. Lessler, Steven M. Kaye, Seymour Perl, Charles Feinstein, John Hochman, Ronald Ralbag, Samuel M. Berger, Bernard G. Slavin, Ivor Geft, and Jonathan Hulkower. You must read their recommendations for Dr. Hepner.]
…Petitioner has been active in religious studies and practice, and through such study has gained significant insight into ethics and his behavior.
…Petitioner practices Orthodox Judaism. In addition to his writing, he studies the Talmud nearly every day and attends a weekly Talmud class. He also gives seminars on the Bible once every three weeks. Petitioners believes his biblical and talmudic studies have helped him to "understand the gravity of [his] offenses and reinforce [his] determination never to commit any crimes again.
…Petitioner submitted numerous letters supporting the reinstatement of his medical license. The letters’ authors, both from within and outside the medical profession, all portray petitioner as an extraordinary individual who, despite his past transgressions, is a paragon of intelligence, competence, piety, honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and contrition.
…Dr. Hepner’s ex-wife, Linda Hepner, lives with Petitioner. In her letter of support, she described Dr. Hepner’s behavior in the late 1980s as bizarre, but believed he was successfully rehabilitated. His behavior is now more subdued and calm. He has regained his ex-wife’s confidence and trust. He is a caring grandfather. He voluntarily sees a psychiatrist every three months. Linda Hepner stated Dr. Hepner was fully rehabilitated in her letter.
On February 20, 2005, Investigative Assistant Gerard spoke to Linda Hepner. When asked why she wrote the letter, Linda Hepner said she wanted to move on, the past few years were terribly difficult; Dr. Hepner turned over a new leaf and wanted to be a better person. Linda Hepner said she had observed an enormous change.
…In 1995, [Dr. Hepner] went through an amicable divorce from his wife. He continues to reside in her home with two of their four children. Petitioner believes that neither he nor his wife ever stopped loving each other, but that his wife sought the divorce because of the stress Petitioner’s Bipolar Disorder, his crimes and conviction placed on her. He would like to reconcile with his wife.
During the 1980s, Hepner was a leader of an accident ring, getting these Mexicans to do a slam and stop on the freeway and trap people into accidents. Then these "victims" would come in to Hepner to be diagnosed. Ohmigod, soft tissue injury, $50,000, bill Medi-Care.
He pled rather than face trial. He claimed it was political.
So why did Dr. Hepner really divorce? To protect his assets. He could give them to her and to YULA/Museum of Tolerance. He made a deal with Rabbi Marvin Hier before going to prison so that his assets would be kept safe for Linda (who taught at YULA) and the kids.
Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky made similar financial deals with Rabbi Hier and the MOT.
While in prison, Hepner managed to get disability payments for being bipolar.
http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=108
Rita Parizer went for help to the Orthodox Hotline and was seen by Dr. Michael Held and Mrs. Shirley Lebovic who did not report to the authorities the abuse Rita suffered at her husband’s hands.
Dr. Held worked as a psychologist at YULA. Later he was hired by Shirley’s husband as the director of a home for orthodox children with developmental problems called Etta Israel. As for Shirley Lebovic, she’s in social work.
Word on the street has it KJ and Skwer are next.
Personally, I'm kinda skeptical as all influential politicians are sold out to the vote - from the lowest shmuck in the village all the way up to state senators.
Lo lechinam holach hachazir etzel ha-ADMO"R ele mipnei shehu mino.
KJ lives on welfare, foodstamps, sec8 and state nturition aid (deliver food 3X a week to KJ which is distributed and SOLD sometimes - free food from YOUR tax money) as well as Hamaspik - providing services to mentally ill children. Most of these children come from Skver - his eminence David Twerski YM"S ADMO"R of Skver has a strict zero-tolerance policy for any kind of contraception under any circumstance. And he has the same policy toward children born with mental retardation or severe physical conditions too. "A sick child disturbs the stability of a Jewish family and is detrimental to the other siblings" - is their profound reasoning. So whenever such a child is born, he's simply left in the hospital. Then satmar's Hamaspik picks the kid up, puts him in a foster family that gets a lot of money to support that kid. Then he goes to hamaspik where Meyer Wertheimer & co milk even more money for him. The drug industry is a serious threat to this business, as a tiny pill could ruin it all for them.
Skver has numerous "non-profit" healthcare centers that milk ol' uncle Sam, i.e. YOU. Refuah health center that double-bills medicaid and similar scams, as well as a mother convalescence center.
"Invest in Judaism - buy a rabbi!"
There was also a shell company in St. Kitts & Nevins, transactions through Canada and couriers with cash in luggage with hidden compartments.
And this was no spoof. The Spinker Rebbe mit zein shtreimel was on the HD channel of CBS News. There takka are toyevos on der High Definition.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2007/12/19/Spinka%20tax%20fraud%20-%20indi
ctment.pdf
Overt Act No. 62: On or about January 26, 2006, defendant KANTOR told R.K. that under the current arrangement, R.K. would likely have to report on his annual tax return his control of a foreign account in Israel "which we don't want to say."
Overt Act No. 63: On or about January 26, 2006, defendant KANTOR told R.K. that he could "solve all your problems" by creating a New Zealand trust administered by a company in Switzerland and that while the trust would "from the theoretical side" own the assets of Bedford Holdings, as a practical matter the trust would only disburse funds in accordance
with R.K.'s wishes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/936908.html
Finally some news that's meaningful!
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/937157.html
Police bust mastermind burglar 'The Brain' breaking into Judaica store
By Ora Katz, Haaretz Correspondent
Police on Saturday afternoon arrested five people on suspicion of breaking into a Jerusalem office building housing a Judaica and jewelry store. The suspects include convicted criminal Yitzhak Drori, whose skills as a burglar have earned him the nickname "The Brain."
The alleged robbers were arrested upon exiting the building on Ben Yehuda Street. According to police, the suspects were found to be in possession of sophisticated burglary equipment, including hydraulic and electronic devices used to break through walls and neutralize alarm systems.
A police spokesperson said the group had managed to break into the building, which is largely abandoned during the weekend. However, they said that they had failed to break through a wall to enter their main target: the building's Judaica and jewelry store.
Police said they had received a tip informing them of the impending robbery attempt. Based on the information, a team of detectives kept the men under close surveillance and followed them to the Jerusalem building where they lay in wait outside.
"The five men had taken into consideration that the building was empty on Saturdays," a police official said. "They broke in through the main door. Then they broke into another room that shares a wall with the Judaica and jewelry store. Then they tried to make their way through that wall to the store using sophisticated equipment. The idea was to neutralize the alarm system and break through the wall. The wall was much thicker than they had imagined. They worked on it for three hours, and when they saw they weren't going to be able to break through, that the wall was 'stubborn' and they were not going to succeed, they had to leave with the equipment. This is when detectives caught them red-handed, with bags full of equipment in hand. That's when the arrests were made."
After the suspects were held, detectives entered the empty building and examined the large hole the robbers created in the wall shared with the jewelry store.
"We saw that their bags were empty of jewelry and that they didn't make it inside; that they left with the same equipment they came with. They couldn't carry out their plan because it was a thick Jerusalem[-stone] wall," the police official said.
The police sting was carried out by several teams of officers from the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv districts. Drori lives in Beit Hashomani, and the remaining four arrested suspects are residents of Holon, Rishon Letzion and Jerusalem. All have prior records related to burglary attempts. The suspects are expected to be brought Sunday before a Magistrate's Court to extend their remands.
Bruce Riedel, a former career CIA official and senior adviser to three U.S. presidents, told Newsweek that "I came back from a trip to Israel in November convinced that Israel would attack Iran".
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/935884.html
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Tuesday issued three additional indictments following the Channel 10 investigative report into pedophilia.
According to the indictments, which charges Eldad Ben-Guy, 38, from Ramat Gan; Gil Sayag, 31, from Jerusalem, and another Jerusalem resident whose name is being withheld, the suspects had blatantly sexual conversations over the Internet with a Channel 10 workers who posed as 13-year-old girls.
In addition to these indictments, the scheme has thus far resulted in four indictments, and 11 have been arrested. Ben-Guy's indictment and the indictment filed against Eytan Rozin two days ago are the harshest charges filed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/936817.html
Naftali Leib, 60, of Lod, is charged with attempting to perform an indecent act in public and attempted sexual harassment. Leib is the first suspect to be charged with publishing child pornography, after 25 pictures of sexual acts involving children were found on his personal computer.
The other defendants, known as Y., 31, of Ramat Gan, and A, 37, of Rishon Letzion, are also charged with attempting to perform an indecent act and attempted sexual harassment.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/937829.html
The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Monday issued an additional indictment following the Channel 10 investigative report into pedophilia, bringing the number of indicted suspects in the affair to eleven.
Meni Tzelik, 27, of Acre, is charged with attempted rape and attempted sexual harassment after initiating a blatantly sexual conversation with a Channel 10 journalist, who posed as a 13-year-old girl, and offering to meet her for the purpose of sexual contact.
Poll: Haredim read papers more than secular public
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 23, 2007
Sixty-eight percent of the haredi population in Israel read haredi newspapers, according to a survey commissioned by the McCann Erickson advertising group.
Three-quarters of those surveyed by Mutagim and Market Watch, the two polling companies that conducted the survey, said they read newspapers over the weekend.
Respondents said they devoted 20 minutes daily on average to newspaper reading, compared to seven minutes among secular Israelis.
Some 28% said they read Hamodia, a daily controlled by the Gerrer Hassidim, while 21% said they read Yated Ne'eman, a daily identified with the Lithuanian haredi community. Mishpacha, an apolitical weekly, garnered 16% of the haredi readership.
Half of those surveyed felt that Yated represented rabbinic opinion, while 42% felt that Hamodia did.
The size of the group polled and the study's margin of error were unavailable.
Unlike secular communities who have access to other types of news media, such as Internet and TV, the haredi population tends to use Internet less and normally does not watch TV. As a result, the printed news represents a much larger chunk of haredi media exposure.
"Kasirer earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University in 1970, and a Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law in 1973."
Kassirer from Queens's son in law Moishe Koenig from Frankel's shul also surfaced in St John's law school after he disappeared from Lakewood.
Rabbi Laibel Katz Yeshivah closed down by NYC DOHRabbi Laibel Katz's Yeshivah in Flatbush has been closed down by the New York City Department of Health. The DOH came down to inspect a catering hall that is run from the building where the Yeshivah is located. The DOH found many violations and closed down catering hall, barring anyone from entering the building including the Yeshivah Bucherim.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3485939,00.html
Chief Rabbinate: Abortions are grave sin
Rabbinic Council of Chief Rabbinate to establish committee to lobby against abortions in Israel. Rabbis: Abortions delaying coming of messiah
Neta Sela
Israel's Chief Rabbinate decided over the weekend that it would establish a special committee that would work to reduce the amount of abortions carried out in Israel.
Both Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger supported the Rabbinical Council's decision.
The council made the decision after Dr. Eli Schussheim, director of the anti-abortion organization Efrat, presented the rabbis with facts and figures on the amount of abortions carried out in Israel yearly.
According to Dr. Schussheim, 50,000 abortions occur in Israel every year, only 20,000 of which are legally performed.
The Rabbinic Council, which is made up of the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Rabbi Shaar-Yeshuv Cohen, the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook and Beersheba’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, has decided to have the new committee begin work this coming Saturday.
"The vast majority of abortions are unnecessary and strictly forbidden according to halacha because they are carried out even when the pregnancies do not endanger the mother's health," the rabbis wrote in their decision.
The rabbis believe that these types of abortions are a grave sin which may even delay the coming of the messiah. They base this assumption on an expression uttered by the Jewish sages which can be construed as signifying that the messiah will not arrive until all souls meant to be born to Jewish mothers are in fact born.
The halachic basis for the rabbis anti-abortion position is articulated in Genesis 9:6 which reads: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man."
The rabbis see fetuses as constituting a "man" based on a Gemara passage which states that a fetus in its mother's womb should already be considered a human being.
What does Rabbi Scheinberg say about "digital" penetration (with fingers)?
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11&SecId=11&AId=57093&ATypeId=1
A paedophile who used his role as a football coach to prey on young boys may have abused other victims beyond the nine referred to in court, police said this week.
Daniel Gersh, 36, was jailed after admitting 60 counts of assault and related charges, including molesting nine boys, aged seven to 11, and filming several of them.
When officers raided his home in Ilford, Essex, they found 55,307 indecent images of children on his computer.
Police also found 3,152 indecent films, some including scenes of sado-masochism and bestiality. Gersh also had more than 1,195 hard copies of indecent images.
There was also a document detailing 29 methods of abuse. It read: “This child is an eight-year-old boy who I’m going to sexually abuse. I will molest him at the flat. It will be filmed on digital camera for use on trader P2P.”
After the hearing, Detective Inspector Keith Braithwaite said: “I do believe there are more children out there that he’s abused.
“He did not co-operate with police. If you know or have any concerns regarding the activities of Gersh and feel it may be relevant or find it helpful to talk to someone, the police and social services have set up dedicated telephone lines for people to ring.” The numbers are 020 8217 6415 for the police, and 020 8708 3014/3565 for Redbridge social services.
Patrick Power, managing director of Redbridge Children’s Trust, said: “I think it’s the best sentence that could have been achieved in the circumstances. The judge acknowledged it is very difficult to consider he would ever be safe with children.”
Gersh, a former FA-registered coach, was checked and cleared by police when he volunteered to take part in football nights at Jewish community centre Sinclair House in Redbridge, Essex, in 1995. He also coached at Jewish summer camp Na-Sho-Pah in New York 15 years ago.
He sat with his head bowed throughout the two-day hearing at Blackfriars Crown Court. Judge David Martineau told him that he had a “persistent and premeditated” approach to grooming boys.
He added: “Your behaviour in my view was seriously aggravated by the fact that you often filmed what you were doing, thus keeping a permanent record of it to be viewed for your own purposes as often as you liked.
“I am quite satisfied you have a deeply ingrained propensity towards this behaviour involving boys aged six to 11, and this propensity is very likely to be incurable.”
Gersh, who had been in custody since his arrest, was told that he was being given an indeterminate jail sentence. He will be able to apply for parole in less than five years but Judge Martineau warned him the chances of release were “slim”.
He received “significant credit” for his guilty plea, because he had saved court time and prevented the victims having to testify.
His lawyer Allan Goh said that Gersh had not abused for financial gain, that he had made “efforts to rehabilitate himself” and that his admission “touched on what happened to him himself when he was young”. He had also written a letter to the victims’ families, which was not read out in court.
Referring to some of the video footage, Mr Goh accepted there had been “slapping” of children but said that any violence used “was at the very lowest end of the scale”.
Gersh was arrested in October 2006 when a mother contacted police after her nine-year-old son spoke out. Officers from the Child Abuse Investigation Team studied the material seized from his home and went on to identify a further eight victims.
The court heard how Gersh told them: “My life is over. I have been trying to hide this since I was 13 years old.”
He also told them: “I never penetrated any, apart from digitally. My life’s a mess for the past 20 years. You guys must be disgusted. It’s going to be a nightmare. You hear about all these things.”
He then asked whether a particular victim, known only as Child 8, had reported him. When the police confirmed it, he said: “What I did to him was wrong.
“I’m only good at one thing. I have an affinity with kids. I’m good at music. I write songs.”
A statement from the mother of one victim read in court said: “Although we have done nothing wrong, we feel we let our son down.”
Gersh is banned from working with children, having unsupervised access to them or owning equipment capable of downloading images from the internet. He is also on the sex offenders’ register.
Earlier this year, Gersh’s father Paul, a former chairman of South West Essex Reform Synagogue, attacked the JC’s “total lack of compassion” after it ran a front-page story detailing his offences.
U think this is the bad news coming out from LA? Wait and see what a chassidic child rapist from NY is up to now that he is in LA and involved in a major jewish organization!
great comment on Chaptzem
The American justice system is indeed imperfect, as is any run by human beings. Anyone care to compare it to our present system of batei dinim?
a not such a brilliant one
I am sorry but if you learn the halucha properly you will see that Mitzvah of pidyon shevuim is even when the person is guilty of his crimes (yes I know one does not understand) and this only makes this mitzvah even harder.
Anyone involved in this mitzvah will get his fair share from the one above.
What is not allowed is one to muser on someone else. I believe that in the chassam soffer’s times they burnt a musser. In this instance the musser helped so many people get caught. I know that he had a big nessoyen (and maybe he even asked daas torah) but to get people on a plane to come to LA and caught is already to much.
Some questions for the oilam--
Moishe Koenig=Michael Koenig?
Maayanot girls high school of teaneck, NJ scandal with teacher going off with girl who just graduated. understand he was able to go to lunch with her during the school year?
Is the Munkatcher involved in any scams?
Is the guy who posted his property involved in any scams for the Spinka Rebbe?
What does Spinka = Spanka refer to?
What is Frankel's shul?
Do any botei din look at financial corruption?
In order to do business with these organizations do you have to kick the mosod back $$$?
Where do you report fraud allegations or people profiteering from our organizations as no rov or bais din wants to touch it?
Do you think that Spinka's only crime is what they got them on?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847396241&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
THE OTHER big TV news scoop of the week was Channel 10's Internet sting operation, done in cooperation with the Israel Police, which netted the arrest of 11 men for soliciting sex with a minor.
Channel 10 investigators entered Web chat rooms in the guise of 13-year-old girls, who were then approached by various men trying to start up a relationship with them, and in some cases supplied them with pornographic material. When asked by the men for a face-to-face meeting, the "girls" invited the suspects to their "homes" while their parents were supposedly away. When the men entered the hidden camera-rigged house to meet the young-looking actresses hired to play the girls, they were joined shortly afterwards by reporter Dov Gilhar, and police officers who placed them under arrest.
The report, broadcast Sunday night, undeniably made for compelling television. And certainly all of us, especially parents of young children who already know how to use the Internet, have to be satisfied with the results. This is especially so, since pedophile cases in the past have been notoriously difficult to prosecute, due to the myriad problems in using testimony from children, something not necessary in this instance.
Still, this approach to nabbing pedophiles raises some tricky questions about the interrelationship between law enforcement and media, and the role of privacy in the criminal justice system.
First off, although Channel 10 is taking credit as the first local news outlet to pull off this kind of operation, the idea comes straight from the US. The NBC-TV current affairs program, "Dateline," has run a whole series of such reports about online pedophiles, under the title "To Catch a Predator."
For the most part the results have been impressive, with the sting netting on-camera dozens of suspects, including teachers, clergymen and public officials.
But serious reservations began to be raised last summer, when "Dateline" ran such an operation in the town of Murphy, Texas. One of the suspects ended up committing suicide by shooting himself, while police and a television crew were waiting outside the door of his home.
Then the local district attorney decided not to prosecute most of the cases, in some instances citing jurisdiction issues, and in others the fact that the evidence might be tainted because the media was so directly involved.
"The fact that somebody besides police were involved is what makes these cases bad," Murphy DA John Coburn told AP, whose report on the incident also quoted defense attorney Eric Chase: "Police should not be abdicating a very important function to either private organizations or entertainment organizations."
There's no reason, though, why a private news operation like Channel 10 isn't free to pursue such an investigation, or that undermanned police, especially when it comes to something so new and widespread like tracking online sex offenses, should not necessarily utilize that resource.
That said, the notion of police and media working so closely together at the very inception of such an investigative project raises all kinds of tricky civil-liberty issues, to say nothing of journalistic ethics. Technically, all this may be entirely legal; yet I have to wonder what would happen if one of those alleged offenders who had their faces plastered on Channel 10 this week ended up doing something as dramatic as taking his own life.
As a concerned parent myself, I'm certainly happy something is being done here to patrol the Internet for sexual predators. But Channel 10 and the police have undoubtedly opened a Pandora's Box of sorts, and must tread very, very carefully when using these kind of investigative tactics.
Calev@jpost.com
Moishe Koenig=Michael Koenig?
Michael is the name he goes by at his Midtown law firm.
Frankel's shul on East 21st btwn I&J has more criminals per capita than any shul in the world. Some of the more prominent ones are allowed by the ruv to sit on mizrach.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/business/23house.html?ei=5087&em=&en=adb997dd0bbe41fd&ex=1198731600&pagewanted=print
December 23, 2007
This Is the Sound of a Bubble Bursting
By PETER S. GOODMAN
AS construction and real estate spiral downward, the unemployment rate in Lee County has jumped to 5.3 percent from 2.8 percent in the last year. With more than one-fourth of all homes vacant, residential burglaries throughout the county have surged by more than one-third.
“People that might not normally resort to crime see no other option,” says Mike Scott, the county sheriff. “People have to have money to feed their families.”
At Selling Paradise Realty, a sign seeks customers with a free list of properties facing foreclosure and “short sales,” meaning the price is less than the owner owes the bank. Inside, Eileen Rodriguez, the receptionist, said the firm could no longer hand out the list. “We can’t print it anymore,” she says. “It’s too long.”
In late November, more than 2,600 of the 5,500 properties for sale in Cape Coral were short sales, says Bobby Mahan, the firm’s owner and broker. Most people who bought in 2004 and 2005 owe more than they paid, he says. “Greed and speculation created the monster.”
Scanlon Auto Group, a luxury car dealer, says it has seen its sales dip significantly — the first time that’s happened in 25 years. Rumrunners, a popular Cape Coral restaurant with tables gazing out on a marina, says its business is down by a third, compared with last year.
Furniture dealers are folding. Hardware stores are suffering.
“It started with housing, the loss of construction jobs, mortgage companies, title companies, but now it’s spread through the entire economy,” Mr. Kest says as he walks a strip of mostly empty condo towers on the riverside in downtown Fort Myers. “It now has permeated everything.”
"Maayanot girls high school of teaneck, NJ scandal with teacher going off with girl who just graduated. understand he was able to go to lunch with her during the school year?"
There was a similar story years ago at a Brooklyn Beis Yaakov. A girl was getting rides home from a secular teacher more than twice her age. They ran off and got married. The other girls were berated to no end because they saw but didn't want to snitch.
BYs and yeshivos across NY then used this story for years to come to implore all talmidos & talmidim that if they "see something, say something" a la 1-866-NYC-SAFE terrorism hotline.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/12/22/business/23house_graphic.html
Look at this graphic for the surge in crime when real estate crashes.
Der Eibishter zolt hittin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/business/24target.html
December 24, 2007
How the Cooling Economy Is Stealing Target’s Christmas
By MICHAEL BARBARO
"Do any botei din look at financial corruption?"
If there is some profit in it for them, then absolutely! Some would then say the beis din is the one doing the "corruption".
I wonder if lard is takke more geshmak tasting than vegetable oil? I have to ask my fellow Agudah Fressers in Toronto.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/12/kyo-restaurant-in-monsey.html#c5390926714850080269
There was recently a terrible story with a COR restaurant. The lowlife Sephardi owner who was in cahoots with a corrupt mashgiach, were raided by the hashgocho who were looking for pie crusts with chazir treif lard. The owner denied sourcing anything forbidden and the pathetic "mashgiach" swore he saw the owner make the pies from scratch. To "prove" his point, the "mashgiach" hot gemacht a brocho (levatolo) and gulped down a big shtick pie like a fresser.
These two clowns had no idea that a witness had seen the owner buying the chazir treif at Costco. The COR took the pies to compare them at Costco and they were exactly the same!
The restaurant immediately closed and investors in the Sephardishe community were stiffed out of tens of thousands of dollars.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=923995&contrassID=2&subContrassID=11&sbSubContrassID=0
לשמור על הסוד
הרב י', שנפגע על ידי מונדרוביץ בעצמו, סבור שאין לחשוף התעללות בילדים בפומבי
הרב י', בן 39, מנתב את האנרגיות השליליות מהילדות לטיפול, בהתנדבות, בילדים חרדים שעברו התעללות מינית כמוהו. הקשר שלו עם מונדרוביץ התחיל בערך בגיל 12. הוא היה שכן שלו, גר באותו רחוב והיה חבר של הבנים שלו. "יום אחד, כשבאתי אליו הביתה, רציתי לשחק עם הבנים שלו, התברר שהם לא בבית. מונדרוביץ היה שם והזמין אותי למשרד שלו והתחיל לתת לי כסף וכל מיני מתנות יקרות. אני אף פעם לא לקחתי ממנו כלום, והוא שם את הידיים שלו איפה שלא צריך. אחרי הפעם הזאת אני לא רציתי לבוא לשם יותר, אבל הוא דיבר עם אבא שלי ושאל למה אני לא בא יותר לשחק עם הילדים שלו, ואבא שלי שלח אותי אליו והוא שוב עשה אותו דבר. הרגשתי שמשהו לא בסדר, אבל לא יכולתי להגיד לאבא שלי, אז הלכתי לשם ושוב הוא היה לבד. נדמה לי שהמשפחה שלו היתה בחופש, אני לא זוכר למה ואיך אבל נשארתי אצלו לישון וזוכר שבאמצע הלילה התעוררתי ואז הוא שוב נגע בי. אולי הוא נתן לי משהו שאמשיך לישון. בבוקר קמתי והלכתי הביתה".
אחרי כמה פעמים הפסיק ללכת לשם ואף פעם לא סיפר דבר לאף אחד. "מונדרוביץ המשיך להתקשר לאבא שלי, ביקש שישלח אותי לשחק עם הילדים שלו, אבל אני לא הלכתי לשם אף פעם יותר וגם עם הילדים שלו הפסקתי לשחק. עד היום איש לא יודע על כך דבר. לא הורי, לא אשתי ולא הילדים שלי, אבל כשהתחילו לספר על מונדרוביץ, אמרתי לאיימי נוישטיין שאני יכול להאמין לכל מלה".
י' באופן אישי לא חולם בלילות על רצח אבל מכיר אחרים שכן. "שמעתי שיש הרבה איטלקים, כאלה שהיו אז ילדים, שרוצים להרוג אותו", הוא אומר. י', בעצמו רב, מתנגד לחשיפת מעשי הזוועה של הרבנים בפומבי, לא כדי להגן עליהם אלא כדי להגן על הילדים. "לפנות למשטרה ולבית המשפט בארצות הברית זה סיפור ארוך של שנים ובינתיים החשיפה הורסת את הילד או הילדה שהיו קורבנות התעללות עוד יותר. את מונדרוביץ לא אכפת לי להביא למשפט כי היום כולם כבר מבוגרים".
האם ילדים בקהילה החרדית חשופים יותר להתעללות? י' מספר כי לפני 15 שנים הכיר פדופיל מניו ג'רזי ששמע שהחברה החרדית סובלנית כלפי פדופילים. הוא קנה דירה בברוקלין, גידל זקן ופאות והתחיל לפגוע בילדים. כשתפסו ועצרו אותו, הפעיל י' את קשריו במשטרה. "דיברתי עם כמה חבר'ה שהיו להם קשרים עם שוטרים וכשהביאו אותו לבית המעצר, השוטרים אמרו בקול רם, שכל העצירים האחרים ישמעו, שהוא פדופיל ושמותר לעשות לו הכל. אחרי חמישה ימים בבית המעצר הוא הסכים להכל. היו לי אז קשרים עם התובע בברוקלין והשפעתי עליו שתהיה עסקת טיעון. העסקה קבעה שאסור לו יותר לגור בעיר אלא רק במקום מבודד. הוא מכר את הדירה שלו בברוקלין, בכלום כסף, ועבר משם לאזור כפרי. אני לא רציתי שיהיה משפט כדי שילדים שהוא פגע בהם לא יצטרכו להעיד נגדו".
נתת יד להסתרה.
"רק כדי שהילדים לא ייפגעו עוד יותר. אבל אני בעד להילחם בזה מבפנים. אצלנו אם ילד יגיד שעשו לו משהו כזה, יזרקו אותו מבית הספר, לא רוצים שייצא שם רע לבית הספר. ואני בעד להוריד את הסטיגמה מהילדים שהתעללו בהם. האשמים הם בתי ספר והישיבות. שם צריך לעשות את המלחמה".
To keep the secret
Rabbi Y, who was abused by Mondrowitz himself, thinks that one should not expose child abuse in public
Rav Y, 39 years old, reports on the negative consequences of children in treatment, voluntarily, for Haredi children who suffer the type of abuse that he did. His contact with Mondrowitz began when he was about 12. He was a neighbor, living on the same street, and he was friends with his (Mondrowitz's) children. "One day, When I came to his house, I wanted to play with his kids but found that they were not home. Mondrowitz was there, and he invited me into his office, and he give me money and all kinds of nice gifts. I never took anything from him, and he put his hands where it was inappropriate. After that, I did not want to go there anymore, but he spoke to my father why I did not come over to play with his kids anymore. So my father sent me there, and he did the same thing again. I felt that something was wrong, but I could not tell my father. So I went there, and again he was alone. I seem (to recall) that his family was away on vacation, I do not remember why or how, but I remained with him to sleep over, and I recall that in the middle of the night, I awoke, and he was touching me again. Perhaps, he had given me something so I would continue sleeping. In the morning I got up and went home."
After several times, he stopped going there, and he never told anyone. "Mondrowitz kept contact with my father, requesting that he send me to play with his kids, but I never went again and I stopped playing with his kids altogether. To this day, no one knew anything, not my parents, not my wife, not my kids, but when they started telling about Mondrowitz, I told Amy Neustein that I could believe every word.
Y, personally, did not dream at night about murder, but knew others that would. "I heard that there were many Italians, that were (treated) similar(ly) when they were children, that wanted to kill him." He says, Y, himself a Rabbi, is against publicly exposing atrocities committed by Rabbis, not to protect them, but to protect the children. "To open up to the police and the courts in the US, this is a long multi-year process, and meanwhile the exposure destroys the boy or girl who is an abuse victim even more. Mondrowitz is not forced to come to court, because now, all them are already grown."
Are children in the Haredi community more exposed to abuse? Y tells that 15 years ago, he knew of a pedophile in New Jersey who heard that the Haredi group were tolerant toward pedophiles. He bought an apartment in Brooklyn, grew a beard and payos, and began abusing children. When they caught him and detained him, Y activated his contacts with the police. "I spoke with many chevra who had contacts with the police, and when they brought him to jail, the police shouted out loud, so all the other prisoners would hear, that he was a pedophile and that they would be allowed to do anything to him. After 5 days in jail, he confessed everything. I had contacts with the Brooklyn prosecutor, and I influenced him to work out a deal. The deal stipulated that he cannot live in the city, but only an isolated area. He sold his apartment in Brooklyn, for virtually nothing, and he left there for some rural area. I did not want it to go to trial, so that the children he abused would not have to testify against him."
You helped to cover it up?? (Presumably this is the reporter's question)
"Only so that the children should not have to go through it again. But I advocate fighting from within. With us, if a child tells that someone did soemthing like this, we throw him out of school. They do not want that the school should get a bad reputation. But I advocate removing the stigma from children who are abused. The fault belongs to the schools and yeshivos. It is there, that they need to ...
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/12/
mondrowitz.html
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Thank You Shmarya!
Breaking news -- Mondrowitz's granddaughter, age 7, dies.
Daniella Fastag-Grunberg, the daughter of Faigy Fastag-Grunberg (nee Mondrowitz) died yesterday.
ALERT!
Nittal Nacht research on the Spinka lineage, led me to various sites on the "Spinka" family. One site claimed to have a "full history with photos".
I clicked on it...BINGO! a trojan horse virus took over my computer!
It is now fully repaired...be aware that this could happen. Do not open any attachments claiming to contain "Spinka history or photographs"!
The only safe one that I discovered was Wikepedia!
Maybe the virus was from federal agents looking for more money launderers. What better place to look than a Spinka site?
Nittel nacht by the way is January 6, still celebrated as Xmas by Orthodox Christians.
Nittel nacht by the way is January 6, still celebrated as Xmas by Orthodox Christians.
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...And by many Orthodox Jews from Hungarian lineage.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/jewish-press-has-less-hits-then.html
The Awareness Center's Newsletter said:
In an e-mail it was announced that "The Jewish Press website( http://www.thejewishpress.com/ ) receives over a quarter of a million hits monthly
So far this year The Awareness Center has had almost 6,800,000 hits.
It's unbelievable -- The Awareness Center receives more hits per month then the Jewish Press.
We average over 1/2 million hits per month. In July, our busiest month, we had just over 710,000 hits or slowest month is always the month of the high holidays. September we only had a little less then 505,000 hits.
"And by many Orthodox Jews from Hungarian lineage."
How does UOJ know that I celebrate Christmas bechadrei chadorim?
http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/orthodox-jewish-sect-leader-charged-tax-fraud_855.html
Several of the Brooklyn charitable organizations are schools. One such is Yeshiva Imrei Yosef, a private Orthodox Jewish school for boys in grades Pre-K to 12 with 312 students, which is one of 5000 such organizations approved for charitable donations by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Franscisco.
Calls by the New York Times were unable to obtain any comments on the case from the defendants.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847374643&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Rabbi Ya'acov Avigdor, who eventually ended up in the US, reprinted his halachic treatise Helek Ya'acov in 1950 with a long introduction. A good portion of it is devoted to rebuffing claims of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust. He goes to great lengths to explain why physical resistance was impossible.
Avigdor also recounted the long discussions that took place in a rabbinic court in Drovitz, a town located in modern-day Ukraine, over whether it was permitted to pose as a Christian to save one's life. The rabbis debated whether Christianity was a form of idol worship, and therefore posing as a Christian was forbidden, even at the price of giving up one's life. The court ruled that not only was it permitted to pose as a Christian, it was also an act of bravery since the reason for doing so was to preserve the Jewish people.
Avigdor's admission about posing as a Christian would be considered controversial in haredi circles.
In another introduction, Rabbi Moshe Natan Lemberger of Hungary recounts how he risked his life to obtain oil to light a hanukkia. He later debated whether it was permitted to endanger his life for the oil.
The Euphemism of the year…
Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn who is a gentleman and a scholar calls Ignoramus Leib Tropper an ehrliche yid. It is like calling OJ Simpson ‘a Good husband’ or calling Kolko ‘a Chidren Advocate’.
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2007/12/issue-is-what-is-halachic-basis-of-ejf.html
I guess this is what Christmas spirit is all about. Yes Gitty-Suri There is a Santa Claus !!!
Yo Leibele Tropper, did you beat up liba recently ?
Yo, Leibele Tropper, did you beat up Gila and Rina recently ?
For about a decade, Yossi Ross aka Joseph Roth, 66, of Tel Aviv, was Mizrachi Bank’s L.A. rep. Traditional Jews had the attitude, "Let’s bank with Mizrachi Bank and make Israel some money."
Orthodox Jews knew Yossi. He lived in the Valley. He lived an Orthodox life. At Shaarey Zedek, he’d daven from the bima (pulpit). He had a nice voice. He was a nice guy.
"You can’t tell me more people weren’t involved (with Spinka)," says a source. "Yossi Roth knew every frum Jew in Los Angeles."
"I’m sure there’s going to be another indictment."
Dear Jewish website owner,
Keeping the Shabbat on your website is now possible. By using the "Shomer Shabes" system you can block access to parts of your website on Shabbat and Haggim, for example pages including donation links, products for sale or advertisements.
The system is recommended by the chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger. And it was successfully installed in tens of Israeli websites.
The Shomer Shabes system operates according to visitor’s time zone, and only blocks them if it is Shabbat in their area. There is also no interference with search engine’s access. If you prefer, instead of blocking the visitor, the system can simply add a message to the page saying it is now Shabbat.
Setting up the system is easy: just go to http://www.shomershabes.com/US and look for the "Join here" link.
In an e-mail it was announced that "The Jewish Press website( http://www.thejewishpress.com/ ) receives over a quarter of a million hits monthly
So far this year The Awareness Center has had almost 6,800,000 hits.
It's unbelievable -- The Awareness Center receives more hits per month then the Jewish Press.
We average over 1/2 million hits per month. In July, our busiest month, we had just over 710,000 hits or slowest month is always the month of the high holidays. September we only had a little less then 505,000 hits.
The goal is to prevent one more person from becoming the next victim of a sex crime
The Awareness Center has been made aware of a web page that describes Yochanan Berkowitz as a "family therapist". http://www.yochanan-berkowitz.com/
Over the last several years The Awareness Center has had several conversations and e-mail exchanges with Rabbi Avrohom Braun who is the director of Admissions and Education at Ohr Somayach in Monsey, NY regarding the allegations made against his former student. Even though he is aware of the information he still advocates for this alleged sexual predator. It's important to be aware that Yochanan Berkowitz confessed to the alleged sexual assault to a member of The Awareness Center's Board.
Contact Rabbi Braun and let him know how you feel about him protecting an alleged sex offender:
Rabbi Avrohom Braun
ohr@ohrsomayach.edu
Ohr Somayach
Tanenbaum Educational Center
244 Route 306 / P.O. Box 334
Monsey, New York 10952
Please help us warn others that there have been numerous allegations that Jonathan Berkowitz has been sexually inappropriate with women he has dated, which includes a case of alleged date rape back in 2004. The alleged survivor filed a police report, went through a rape exam at a local hospital and attempted to pursue this matter with the criminal court system.
A Grand Jury reviewed the matter and considered the evidence involved. As a result of its review, the Grand Jury did not find probable cause for the return of an indictment. Therefore, criminal prosecution was not pursued on this case.
Over the last several years The Awareness Center has also received several phone calls from various women regarding Yochanan Berkowitz's behavior while dating. Many have described his behavior as being sexually inappropriate for an orthodox man. A common theme has been for Jonathan Berkowitz to present himself as a psychologist to potential dates, and to ask several women at the same time to date him exlusively.
According to the state of New York only individuals who hold a Ph.D. or PsyD may call themselves a "psychologist. According to the New York licensing bureau, Yohanan Berkowitz has a Masters Degree in Social Work, holds a LMSW (Licensed Masters of Social Work)
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Yochanan Berkowitz, MSW, LCSW, MSE.d - Family Therapy
http://www.yochanan-berkowitz.com/
Yochanan Berkowitz - Letters of Recommendation
Dr. Ellen Friedman, PSY.d
287 93rd Street
NY, NY 10952
(212) 674-2423
February, 10 2007
Re: Yochanan Berkowitz
To Whom It May Concern:
As a professor in the Long Island University Graduate School of Education, I have come to know Jonathan Berkowitz quite well. This student has excellent clinical skills and was very professional in all of his interactions with both faculty and peers.
I find him to be a highly intelligent, talented, very perceptive, responsible, enthusiastic young man, who gained the respect of many educators, and fellow students.
His overall academic achievements were outstanding. His testing and problem solving abilities are notable. His study habits were commendable. His verbal and written expression is clear, well organized, and stimulating. He exhibits a strong sense of self-discipline and self-determination. His use of discretion and foresight displays a high degree of maturity. His initiative in doing research manifested his ability to work independently as well as harmoniously with others.
He was an exceptional graduate student, and has been an exceptional employee for the past twelve years. I recommend Jonathan Berkowitz without any reservations to your agency/clinic/school as a School Psychologist/Social Worker.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ellen Friedman
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Elliot Novogrodsky, School Psychologist / CSW
187 Fairfield Woods Road
Fairfield, Connecticut 06825
917-439-6182
March 12, 2007
Re: Yochanan Berkowitz
To Whom It May Concern:
I was asked to write a letter of recommendation on behalf of Jonathan Berkowitz. I have known Jonathan for Over 9 years and have supervised him on many issues relating to family and individual/group counseling. Likewise, I have supervised and guided him on the analysis of educational and psychological assessments. He establishes rapport with the children rapidly and with ease. His ability to learn and implement new testing material is quite impressive. His reports are done in a timely and professional manner and his IEP’s are accurate and reliable.
I have found Jonathan to be an exciting and sensitive young man, with much promise and skill that have won him the admiration of others. He listens closely to the complaints of others and without stimulating defensiveness, questions and facilitates clarification. Jonathan can handle delicately both individual and family dynamics, and can deal effectively with otherwise insurmountable situational experiences. Jonathan also has excellent conceptual and expressive capabilities, conveying the most difficult of ideas in a most simplistic and easy to understand way. This is a special skill. His drive, sense of humor and fair play as well as his friendliness, smile and approachable nature have given Jonathan the competitive edge.
Jonathan has won my admiration, certainly, and I am confident that he will add much to your organization and win your admiration, too. I recommend Jonathan without reservation.
Elliot Novogrodsky
School Psychologist
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Dr. Vikhta Gurevich, MD
307 Ocean View Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11235
718-743-5555
January 25, 2007
Subject: Letter of Recommendation for Jonathan Berkowtiz
To Whom It May Concern:
I had the pleasant opportunity to work closely with Jonathan during employment at the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services. He had worked under me as my colleague as a Clinical Social Worker from March of 2002 until June of 2003. I then supervised him outside of the clinic from July of 2003 through the summer of 2006. His responsibilities included providing psychotherapy for a caseload of adults, couples, adolescents, and children in an individual and group setting. Jonathan also shared his work as a clinical service team meeting supervisor and collaborative case conferencing manager with me. During the course of his employment, Jonathan proved himself to be a hardworking and talented therapist who was able to quickly develop and maintain rapport with clients, proved to be an outstanding team player, and an overall exceptional employee. He excelled in treatment planning, and intake services. I was quite impressed by Jonathans' ability to complete all paperwork assigned to him. His treatment plans were always thorough and comprehensive, and seemed to meet the needs of the clients. Another area where Jonathan stood out was group leadership and collaboration. He was well prepared for all meetings, provided valuable and useful information on clients, functioned well as a team leader when required, and worked effectively as a team member under the direction of other team leaders. He often took the initiative to get things started and picked up the slack when things were going slowly. Jonathan is highly respected, as both a person and a professional, by colleagues, employees, and clients.
Overall, Jonathan is a very conscientious and able employee. I certainly believe he has what it takes to make a wonderful therapist in any given situation and I am sad to see him leave the New York area. As detailed above, based on my experience working with Jonathan, I can unreservedly recommend him for any client servicing and/or leadership position. If you would like further elaboration, feel free to call me at 718-743-5555.
Sincerely,
Dr. Vikhta Gurevich, MD
Psychiatrist
The community tolerates NO treif, NO chillul Shabbos, NO shatnes, etc. It should also tolerate NO abuse.
It's amazing that Rabbonim, and a community, that is so strict about sexual mores, should be so lax, when INVOLUNTARY sexual activity is foisted upon the innocent!!
A group of people who do not tolerate even a little T.V., a little hair showing, a little neck line showing, a knee showing, etc., stand idly by, while a "little" fondling is taking place!!
For Shame!!
Disappointing Sales During Holiday Season
MICHAEL BARBARO - NEW YORK TIMES
Published: December 26, 2007
American consumers, uneasy about the economy and unimpressed by the merchandise in stores, delivered the bleak holiday shopping season retailers had expected, if not feared, according to one early but influential projection.
Spending between Thanksgiving and Christmas rose just 3.6 percent over last year, the weakest performance in at least four years, according to MasterCard Advisors, a division of the credit card company. By comparison, sales grew 6.6 percent in 2006, and 8 percent in 2005.
“There was not a recipe for a pick up in sales growth,” said Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors, citing higher gas prices, a slowing housing market and a tight credit market.
Strong demand at the start of the season for a handful of must-have electronics, like digital frames and portable GPS navigation systems trailed off in December. And robust sales of luxury products could not make up for sluggish sales of jewelry and women’s clothing.
What did eventually sell was generally marked down — once, if not twice — which could hurt retailers’ profits in the final three months of year. “Stores are buying those sales at a cost,” said Sherif Mityas, a partner at the consulting firm A.T. Kearney, who specializes in retailing.
MasterCard’s SpendingPulse data, scheduled to be released Wednesday, cover the 32-day period between Nov. 23 and Dec. 24. It is based on purchases made by more than 300 million MasterCard debit and credit card users and broader estimates of spending with cash and checks. It encompasses sales at stores, on the Internet, of gift cards, gasoline and meals at restaurants.
The final numbers are in line with MasterCard’s already modest expectations, which were reduced in the middle of the season. But retail analysts and economists, who scrutinize holiday spending for clues about the health of the American economy, are unlikely to be impressed by the results.
Eboni Jones, 32, of Windsor, Conn., epitomized the problem for stores.
A phone company manager, she waited until this past weekend to make a single purchase at a major chain store this season, favoring Web retailers and designer outlet stores with deeper bargains.
“I am on a tighter budget that I’ve ever been,” said Ms. Jones, who walked into the Macy’s at Westfarms Mall in Farmington, Conn., on Sunday morning to take advantage of a sale.
In the past, she easily spent $100 each on her six nieces and nephews. This year, it was more like $50. “If it’s not on sale, I won’t buy it,” Ms. Jones said.
MasterCard found that online spending rose 22.4 percent, a healthy, if not robust, showing, given fears that Web purchases would slow after a decade of impressive growth.
Clothing sales rose a meager 1.4 percent, but there was a stark split between genders. Sales for women’s apparel dropped 2.4 percent. Sales for men’s apparel rose 2.3 percent. Analysts said women complained of dreary fashions.
“Even when the dust settles, women’s clothing is likely to be one of the weakest categories in retail this season,” said John D. Morris, senior retail analyst at Wachovia Securities.
Luxury purchases rose 7.1 percent, as the nation’s well-heeled splurged on $600 Marc Jacobs trench coats and $800 Christian Louboutin shoes. Footwear, at all prices, proved a bright spot for the clothing industry, with sales surging 6 percent.
Weak sales of clothing left retailers jostling for the deepest if not most desperate discounts over the last weekend to drum up interest from consumers. Martin & Osa knocked 50 percent off women’s wool sweaters. Gymboree issued $25 coupons to shoppers who spent $50 on its children’s clothing. Even the markdown-averse Abercrombie & Fitch dusted off its clearance signs, selling $99 faux-fur trimmed-down coats for $79.
The American consumer has perplexed analysts this season. Retail experts confidently predicted that shoppers, uneasy about the economy, would trade down from mid-price chains, like Macy’s and Nordstrom, to discounters with steeper discounts.
To a certain degree, they did, mobbing low-priced chains like T.J Maxx, and Marshall’s. But the discount retailer Target has struggled this season. On Tuesday, it said its sales could fall by 1 percent in December compared with last year, an anomaly for a retailer accustomed to at least 4 percent monthly sales growth over the last three years.
In the end, analysts said, the biggest winners are likely to be Wal-Mart, which emerged as the undisputed low-price leader this season, and Best Buy, which became the destination for competitively priced electronics.
Much of this season’s action appeared to unfold on the Web, which spared consumers a $3-a-gallon drive to the mall. Like MasterCard, ComScore, a research firm, found that online spending rose steadily to $26.3 billion.
ComScore measured spending during the 51 days between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21. The biggest day for online shopping was Monday, Dec. 10 ($881 million), not the Monday after Thanksgiving ($733 million), known as Cyber Monday in the retail world, because consumers typically flock to the Web at work after a holiday weekend of browsing.
Unsatisfied with sales so far, dozens of retailers, from the high-end to the low, will start slashing prices Wednesday morning. Kohl’s is scheduled to hold a 60- to 70-percent off sale; Macy’s is knocking down prices by 50 to 70 percent, and dangling a $10 coupon for purchases of $25 or more; clothing will be 50 percent off at Saks Fifth Avenue between 8 a.m. and noon; and Toys “R” Us is offering a buy-one-get-one-half-off promotion.
Sign of a society losing its mind
By Amia Lieblich
"Ed medina" ("State Witness") by Igal Sarna, Xargol, 479 pages, 16 euros
"In the face of obstacles and difficulties in life, the individual can opt for one of two opposing responses: to deal with the painful issue, to study it and even to become unflaggingly engrossed in it, or to flee as far as possible, if not into concrete reality then into distraction and imagination............"
A good friend offers wise words of comfort after describing an agonizing conversation I had with an abuse victim's parents today:
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....You and I don't make the world go round. And we can't save it. No one can. All we can do is to repeat, as often and lucidly as we can, the messages we see so clearly written on every wall, messages that somehow evade the notice of nearly everyone else... until it's too late.
Albert Jay Nock wrote many years ago, in a delectable essay in political/religious homiletics called "Isaiah's Job," that a prophet's purpose is not to reach the multitudes, but merely to ensure the transmission of the most important of God's messages to the remnant that survives every generation's stupidities and crimes, every catastrophe.
I can't quote it from memory, but I remember he attributes to God something like: "You will not know who the Remnant are; you will not even know that any such Remnant is actually hearing you, and you may not find one even if you search for it. But I promise you that the Remnant exists, and that it will find you. Your job is to assume it exists and to speak to it.".........
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124647
Hospital Tip and Double-Jeopardy in Yad L'Achim Rescues
17 Tevet 5768, 26 December 07 03:57by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Yad L'Achim, the anti-missionary organization with a side interest in rescuing Jewish girls from Arab villages, has rescued two such girls in the past few weeks - one of them twice!
The latest incident occurred when the young woman, identified only as S., told her Arab boyfriend - whom she met in the local supermarket where he worked - that she wanted to end their relationship. In response, he took her to an isolated spot, beat her, and warned her never to leave him. He then took her to her parents' home, but continued to patrol the area in his car to make sure she would not run away.
S. then called the Yad L'Achim emergency line, and was instructed to call her Arab "friend" and say that her desire to leave was only a momentary lapse and that she wishes to continue the relationship. She did so, and in fact the Arab left. Before dawn, a Yad L'Achim car arrived at the house and took her to a secret home in the Shomron.
But the story does not end there - mainly because S. did not listen to instructions. She was told that past experience had shown that she must give up her cell phone and all contacts with her family for a short while, in order that her boyfriend not be able to track her down. S. could not bear to give up her phone contacts with her best friend, however - and in fact her Arab boyfriend found her. He arrived one day with several friends and forced her to accompany them. Neighbors who saw the incident called the police, but S. told them she was not being kidnapped. Despite this, the Arab again beat her brutally.
Once again, S. found the way to call Yad L'Achim and say that though she knew she didn't follow their instructions, she needed their help once again. This time, she was taken to another secret apartment, cut off all contact with friends and family for a while - and is now anxious to have her success story used as a warning to other Jewish girls not to enter into relationships with Arabs.
Yad L'Achim Chairman Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifshitz said the incident should serve as a warning for Jewish store-owners who employ Arabs in the midst of Jewish neighborhoods.
Hospital Tip Leads to Jewish Wedding
In a story that was reported last month, an elderly hospital patient took notice of a suspicious Arab-Jewish relationship, phoned Yad L'Achim, and another girl was saved - and is about to be married to a newly-observant man in Bnei Brak.
This incident began about seven months ago when the Yad L'Achim hotline received a call from a man hospitalized at Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv. The caller said he saw a Jewish girl at whose bedside was a young man who appeared to be an Arab. “She seems to be suffering and the Arab is there to make sure she didn’t talk,” reported the elderly Jew. “I’m turning to you because you’re the only ones who can do something.”
Within half an hour, two Yad L’Achim members arrived at the hospital, posing as representatives of an organization that distributes food to patients and their families. After speaking with the girl, the two reported back to Yad L'Achim that she appeared to be "frightened, even terrorized." The group's intelligence department then learned that the young Arab was an illegal worker and that the girl had left her family to enter into a relationship with him. Yad L’Achim immediately forwarded the information to the police, which arrested the Arab and neutralized the threat he posed.
Discussions with family in Arad revealed that the young woman had been orphaned from her father as a child and that she had slight disabilities that resulted in her being rejected by her friends. With no father or a close circle of friends, she was a “perfect” victim for her Arab suitor. Weeks of painstaking work by Yad L’Achim, including deep discussions with he about the importance of family and the Jewish People, she returned to her family and Torah observance - and later became engaged to an observant Jew. The marriage is scheduled for next month.
Rabbi Lipschitz, commenting on this story, said, “An elderly Jew is lying in the hospital and sees something that sets off warning bells. He can ignore it, but he remembers his obligation to take responsibility for fellow Jews... He [took] out his cell phone and call[ed] Yad L’Achim’s hotline, and in so doing he saved a fellow Jew. All the souls that will come from this young woman and her descendants are in his merit. The message of this story is that we mustn’t remain indifferent.”
U think this is the bad news coming out from LA? Wait and see what a chassidic child rapist from NY is up to now that he is in LA and involved in a major jewish organization!
7:41 AM, December 25, 2007
----------------------------
Involved with hatzola of LA perhaps?
Yad L'Achim,
Very inspiring story, thank you for that. However if Kaplan, Tropper and Nachum Eisenstein and the rest of the EJF knew about it before hand they would convert the Arabs.
THE OTHER big TV news scoop of the week was Channel 10's Internet sting operation, done in cooperation with the Israel Police, which netted the arrest of 11 men for soliciting sex with a minor.
Many states have so-called felony firearms statutes, if you use a gun in the commission of a felony you get an extra two years. There should be a stupid wing of prisons for guys who get arrested trying to meet 14 year old girls or boys on the internet for sex. While indeed there are a small number of high mileage adolescents who are looking for sex with adults the reality is that if you are chatting with someone who claims to be a young teen looking to boff or get boffed, most likely they are either a middle aged male pervert or a cop.
While indeed there are a small number of high mileage adolescents who are looking for sex with adults the reality is that if you are chatting with someone who claims to be a young teen looking to boff or get boffed, most likely they are either a middle aged male pervert or a cop. OR A TENDLER!
"Maayanot girls high school of teaneck, NJ scandal with teacher going off with girl who just graduated. understand he was able to go to lunch with her during the school year?"
There was a similar story years ago at a Brooklyn Beis Yaakov. A girl was getting rides home from a secular teacher more than twice her age. They ran off and got married. The other girls were berated to no end because they saw but didn't want to snitch.
There was a scandalous story years ago. It seems that Laizer Wolf had made a shidduch with Tuvia to marry Tuvia's unmarried daughter Tzeitel, but instead of marrying the prosperous butcher Wolf, only twice her age, Tzeitel wanted to marry Motel, a young tailor with not a pfennig to his name.
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/41838/?imw=Y
The son of survivors of the Warsaw ghetto and Nazi death camps, Finkelstein was raised in Borough Park and later Mill Basin, where he attended high school a few years behind Chuck Schumer. His parents became atheists after the war.
His new building remains heavily Jewish. A friend of Finkelstein’s father once approached him in the lobby and urged him to tone it down. “Norman,” he told him, “you’re getting older, and all the old-age homes are owned by Jews. If you keep this up, you’re not going to have anywhere to go.”
"Alte Cocker, Joe's Jewish uncle" sounds like Ronnie Schreiber trying to sneak back under UOJ's radar.
Frankel's shul putz, vos redst du shtussim? Moishe Koenig's goyishe name at work is Mark, not Michael.
This psak was being discussed in Ponevezh regarding the current hock. A person came in and asked the following question. Is it muttar to report fraud allegations or people using our mosdos for illegal activities since no rov or bais din is trained enough regarding these issues?
According to Daas Torah, don’t report it. UNLESS the individual falls into one of the following two categories:
1] A threat to society. (Shach to Choshen Mishpat 388, 59)
2] A rodef (pursuer) who is causing physical or psychological harm to their victims. (Shach to Choshen Mishpat 345, s'if kattan 45)
In these specific instances, since the Rabbonim are not trained enough in the ramifications of abuse on the victims, and they have no investigative powers to compel the accused to open his accounts for analysis, the authorities may be consulted. For example, a usurer who forces his victim to repay by using threats or other means of extortion which would classify him as a threat to society and a rodef, and it would be Halachically permissible to pursue criminal charges against them.
Steep rise in child sexual assault complaints among Haredis
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
tags: steep rise, ultra-orthodox
The National Council for the Child reports a steep rise in recent weeks in the number of requests for help from child sexual assault victims and their parents. Council head Yitzhak Kadman found that 30 percent of the new requests came from the ultra-Orthodox community, which had previously almost never contacted the organization about sexual assault.
The council provides volunteers, usually law students, who accompany sexual assault victims through the process of filing a police complaint, the investigation and criminal proceeding. More than 1,500 children have been helped in the seven years since this project began.
Kadman said that over the past few weeks, the council had fielded dozens of requests per week. Callers are referred to the council by police, juvenile investigators from the Social Affairs Ministry, welfare offices, doctors, schools and other community facilities.
Kadman sees the awakening of the Haredi sector as a real "breach of barriers." Contrary to expectation, the Haredim who apply for help do not want a Haredi volunteer to assist them, nor do they care whether the volunteer is a man or woman, Kadman said.
Girls who pressed charges against rabbi are ostracized
By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10
Tags: Haaretz.com TV
Haaretz.com/Channel 10 daily feature for December 25, 2007.
For the past six years, two religious teenage sisters have been paying a hefty price for speaking out against a rabbi who was convicted of indecent acts.
The two girls were kicked out of their school two years after their family pressed charges against the Rabbi, and were only allowed to return following judicial intervention.
Nonetheless, this past summer their principal again decided to expel the two, with his official reason being that they are not suited for the school.
2,000 complaints of sexual abuse filed by children under 12 in past year
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel received nearly 2,000 complaints of sexual abuse in the past year from children under the age of 12, and nearly 2,500 from teenagers aged 13-18.
In over half of the 9,000 new cases the crisis center dealt with this past year the victims were minors. In 60% of the cases involving children under the age of 12, the abuse included incest while 17% involved rape and 19% indecent acts.
The report states that in 72% of the cases involving children under the age of 12 the assaults occurred in either the victim or the perpetrator's residence, while 12% took place inside educational institutions. As much as 90% of the victims were assaulted by someone they knew.
These findings, which were organized as part of a report by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel called "Not in our school?", will be presented on Wednesday to Education Minister Yuli Tamir.
These assaults stem from "the innocent worldview of children, which creates an absolute trust in adults, without the ability to resist forcefully", the report reads, citing articles and victims' accounts of abuse.
Even at the later ages, from 13 to 18, around 80% of the perpetrators are known to the victim. As the ages of the victims rise, the percentage of cases involving incest drops, while those involving rape rises. In cases where the victim is between 13 and 18 years old, 41% involve rape, and 7% group rape. Incest was reported in 20% of the cases for this age group.
In this group, 17% of the assaults took place in educational institutions, of these, 11% were in religious yeshivas.
The editors of the report attribute the rise in cases of sexual assault against minors to the exposure of teenagers to "non-normative sexual behavior" on the internet and the media, and the weakening influence of parents and teachers as authority figures.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/862921.html
Popular Nahariya rabbi arrested for alleged indecent acts
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
The arrest of a popular Nahariya rabbi for allegedly committing indecent sexual acts was made public Thursday, after a judicial gag order was lifted.
Rabbi Shimon Gerlick serves as rabbi of the Nahariya hospital as well as rabbi of the city's Amidar neighborhood.
Police arrested him three weeks ago after an 8-year-old girl and 30-year-old woman accused him of indecent sexual acts. Police extended the remand of the rabbi twice before putting him under house arrest last week.
A 15-year-old girl came forward and issued a third complaint against the rabbi while he was under arrest, police said.
The 8-year-old, who was escorted to the police station by her family, said that when she was five she visited synagogue where the rabbi took her to a secluded area and sexually abused her.
The 30-year-old, who is married, said the rabbi sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions. Once when she came to him for counseling at the hospital and another time when she met him at a shop in the city. In her testimony she said that in both incidents Gerlick took her hand and placed it on his crotch.
The 15-year-old testified that she met the rabbi near one of the synagogues in town where he committed indecent acts.
All of the charges against the rabbi relate to incidents that took place in the past few years. Brigadier General Faraj Faras, Nahariya police chief, said that the decision to arrest Gerlick was only made after each of the complainants' testimonies had been checked and found truthful.
Rabbi Gerlick is a well-known and admired figure in Nahariya. Over the years he has carried out the wedding ceremonies of hundreds of couples in the town and the surrounding area. Acquaintances were shocked to hear of the charges. One close friend told Haaretz: "We don?t believe it. This is a rabbi that everyone knows on account of his understanding and wisdom. He is a very warm man, its impossible to believe he's capable of such acts."
Chanina shiff, the meshamesh of the 4 previous gerer rebbis passed away this morning.
"11% were in religious yeshivas."
Of the 2000 cases that means over 200.
This seems to correspond to UOJ's empirical findings of at least one molester per yeshiva. You have to bear in mind that are still many unreported cases.
The corrupt menahel who expelled the girls is probably at a Dati-Leumi school. I hope UOJ finds out who he is and is instrumental in having him jailed.
"According to Daas Torah, don’t report it. UNLESS the individual falls into one of the following ..."
The Ponivizher rayd seems to follow R' Moishe's shita which is more restrictive than other poskim.
There is even a shita that violating dina demalchusa in a medina shel chesed is enough to be allowed to masser.
Approx. 95% of sexual abuse crimes never get reported.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--medicaidfraud1225dec25,0,3643807.story
Medicaid fraud collections rise
By VALERIE BAUMAN | Associated Press Writer
11:57 AM EST, December 25, 2007
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/telecom/article/lucent-technologies-agrees-pay-1-million-fine-resolve-fcpa-allegations_417534_13.html
Lucent Technologies Inc. has entered an agreement with the Department of Justice and has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to resolve allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.
The agreement concludes a multi-year investigation into whether Lucent -- a global communications solutions provider -- violated the FCPA when the company, prior to its November 2006 merger with Alcatel SA, provided travel and other things of value to Chinese government officials and improperly accounted for certain corporate expenditures on behalf of those officials in company books and records.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/12812522.html
By Marcia Gelbart
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The Rev. Charles Newman, former president of Archbishop Ryan High School, was arraigned last night on theft and forgery charges. His bail was set at $50,000.
Newman, a Franciscan friar who led Philadelphia's largest Roman Catholic high school, was accused of stealing $900,000 from the school and providing drugs and money to a former student he allegedly molested.
The preliminary hearing is scheduled for Monday
The multiple charges include felony counts with maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Newman, 57, led Archbishop Ryan from July 2002 to November 2003. It is Philadelphia's largest Roman Catholic High School.
Recently, Newman had been living in a Wisconsin friary.
UOJ get results !!!
Someone put in the comments the list of rabbis who work/get paid by Tropper from a page on the EJF web site. The page is no longer there
http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/rabbis/bateidinlist.htm
I ate those rabbis for breakfast.
One thing that sets the subprime litigation wave apart from that of the 2001-03 bear market is its breadth. After the collapses of Enron and WorldCom, lawsuits were targeted at a fairly narrow range of parties: bust internet firms, their accountants and some banks. This time, investors are aiming not only at mortgage lenders, brokers and investment banks but also insurers (American International Group), bond funds (State Street, Morgan Keegan), rating agencies (Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s) and homebuilders (Beazer Homes, Toll Brothers et al).
“It seems that everyone is suing everyone,” Adam Savett of RiskMetrics tells the Economist. It goes on to mention other litigation, like the investigations of New York AG Andrew Cuomo, the slew of lawsuits filed by Ohio AG Marc Dann and the SEC probes of mortgage-related hedge fund blowups. Indeed, yesterday the NYT reported that that government agencies that investigate and prosecute mortgage fraud cannot keep up.
“The ultimate cost of the mortgage crisis in terms of settlements, awards and legal fees can only be guessed at,” concludes the Economist. “But the consensus view is that payouts will climb well above the billions stemming from the internet bubble.”
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1198231505300
Anthony Lin
New York Law Journal
12-26-2007
Allen & Overy is facing a religious discrimination suit by a former New York associate who claims he was fired because he insisted on observing the Jewish Sabbath.
Norman D. Schoenfeld claimed in a suit filed in Manhattan federal court Thursday that the British law firm fired him in October after he had worked there for two months because one partner in particular was upset that Schoenfeld was unable to work on matters from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
According to the complaint, leveraged finance partner Mark S. Wojciechowski recruited Schoenfeld to Allen & Overy knowing he was an observant Jew but nonethless swore at him before he left one Friday and also demanded that the associate respond to e-mails on a Saturday morning. Wojciechowski also allegedly insisted the associate work with him during a Jewish holiday.
Schoenfeld, a 1999 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, claims his observance did not interfere with his work and that he billed hours similar to other associates at the firm.
In a statement responding to the suit, Allen & Overy said Schoenfeld was fired solely for performance reasons during a trial period of employment. The firm said it was committed to diversity, and a firm spokeswoman said there were a number of lawyers at the firm who observed the Jewish Sabbath.
In its statement, the firm also said that Schoenfeld, who joined Allen & Overy from the New York office of Andrews & Kurth, had failed to disclose on his resume his employment for 32 days at another New York law firm.
Schoenfeld in represented by Anne Vladeck of Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard while Allen & Overy has retained Rene M. Fleming of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
Guma Aguiar is a Brazilian related to Tom Kaplan. Is he one of the Jewish or non-Jewish relatives?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119863054713149915.html
DOJ's Free Pass for Tort Fraud
By LESTER BRICKMAN
December 26, 2007; Page A11
The defects of the U.S. Department of Justice have been the subject of much commentary. But the allegations of incompetence or worse pale when compared to the free pass it has given to doctors and lawyers to commit mass tort fraud, exceeding $30 billion in the past 15 years.
Over one million potential litigants have been screened by agents for tort lawyers in asbestos, silica, silicone breast implant and diet drug (fen-phen) litigation. The lawyers sponsoring these screenings have paid over $100 million for medical reports to support the 700,000 or more claims generated by these screenings. There is compelling evidence, much of it reviewed in my published writings, that the vast majority of these medical reports, including chest X-ray readings, echocardiograms, pulmonary function tests and diagnoses are bogus.
U.S. District Court Judge Janis Jack, appointed by President Bill Clinton, blew the whistle on this type of fraud two years ago. It was, she stated, "clear that lawyers, doctors and screening companies were all willing participants . . . [in a scheme to] manufacture . . . [diagnoses] for money."
For a while, it appeared that Judge Jack's extensively documented findings would spur law enforcement to curb mass tort fraud. Indeed, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which launched an investigation of fraudulent asbestos claims more than three years ago, was invigorated by Judge Jack's findings to empanel a grand jury.
But it now appears as if neither this U.S. Attorney's Office nor the parent Department of Justice is going to prosecute mass tort fraud. Six months ago there were signs that Justice was moving forward on some key cases involving one or more of the litigation doctors. Now, unfortunately, that activity appears to have all but ceased.
The dimensions of this fraud are stunning. An asbestos screening of 1,000 potential litigants generates about 500-600 diagnoses of asbestosis. If these same occupationally exposed workers were examined in clinical settings, approximately 30-50 would be diagnosed with asbestosis. The total take for "excess" asbestos diagnoses is more than $25 billion, of which $10 billion has gone to the lawyers. More billions for bogus claims in the diet drug (fen-phen) and silicone breast implant litigations can be added to this bill.
A comparative handful of doctors and technicians are responsible for the vast majority of bogus medical tests and diagnoses. To indict and prosecute those responsible would require testimony from other doctors that the mass-produced diagnoses cannot have been rendered in good faith.
To be sure, doctors can differ in reading X-rays or making a diagnosis. But when a doctor has been paid millions of dollars to produce 5,000 or even 50,000 diagnoses in the course of mass-tort screenings -- and when panels of experts have found the vast majority of these to be in error -- the most compelling conclusion is that the diagnoses were "manufactured for money."
Prosecutors on the federal and state level are nonetheless concerned that such a "battle of the experts" will raise reasonable doubt in the minds of juries, and so they decline to prosecute these doctors, let alone the lawyers who hired them. This decision, however, gives the doctors a special dispensation to commit fraud.
Asbestos litigation screenings ceased about four years ago when it appeared that the Congress would create an administrative resolution of asbestos claims, and Judge Jack's findings attracted prosecutorial interest. But now that it has become clear that this Department of Justice has retired from the mass-tort fray, temptations are proving too powerful to resist.
A few weeks ago, a full-scale asbestos litigation screening was held in Bartlesville, Okla. Lawyers may be dipping their toes in the water to see if prosecutors will respond.
If so, they will find that the tepid response of this Justice Department is just what their doctors ordered. We can then expect a resumption of the generation of bogus claims on a mass scale. This would indeed be a shameful reflection on this or any Department of Justice.
Mr. Brickman is a professor of law at the Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University.
Dr. Bungalow Putz told me that Lester Brickman is just a moderne guy from YU so I shouldn't pay attention to his attack on me in the Wall St Journal.
On the one hand, Schoenfeld did not disclose his employment at another law firm which is grounds for dismissal. On the other hand, Allen & Overy is a very stuffy British firm and probably anti-Semitic.
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/12/lawsuit_of_the_day_the_jewish.php
What's most troubling are the comments left by lawyers on this legal blog that are nothing less than anti-Jewish hate literature.
Dr. Bungalow Putz sounds like a villain from a 007 movie.
Someone at A&O admitted that in their eyes, Schoenfeld was a slacker not because of Shabbos, but because he slowed down their work with all the Yamim Tovim in Tishrei. They can't understand why a Yid can't work on Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur if they are sometimes forced to work on Kratzmach and Easter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(James_Bond)
UOJ saw to it that Neuhoff was shaken up, not stirred.
http://www.abovethelaw.com/images/entries/NSchoenfeld%20-%20Complaint%5B1%5D.pdf
Those British anti-Semites are just looking for excuses. Schoenfeld left a lawfirm voluntarily after a month which is really nitpicking on their part.
These Brits don't understand that Jews are at every major firm in NY and what a PR disaster they just created for themselves.
By Mr. Shiller’s calculation, the decline in home prices is greater than at any time since 1941 when the housing market was faltering at the start of World War II. Since their peak in July 2006, home prices in the 20 regions have dropped 6.6 percent. Many economists are predicting that home prices will fall 10 percent to 15 percent from their peak to their trough, though some pessimists believe the drop could be as large as 30 percent.
The Spinka gang aren't getting any breaks it looks like. The crew in the LA office of the US Attorney are a bunch of Irishmen. They are the toughest litigators.
You can always count on Heilman for some major breakthrough chiddush.
http://www.forward.com/articles/12347/
Zigelman and Weisz estimated that they had collected more than $8 million in phony donations, securing for themselves a profit of nearly $750,000.
The indictment charges them with conspiracy to defraud the IRS and with money laundering. They also face 19 counts of mail fraud, 11 counts of international money laundering and one count of operating an illegal money-remitting business. Zigelman is also accused of helping to prepare fraudulent income tax returns. Six associates were also charged. Four of them were arrested in California, and the two others are believed to be in Israel.
Samuel Heilman, a professor at the City University of New York and an expert on the ultra-Orthodox, charged that the incident reflects a disregard for secular law.
Representing Schoenfeld against the law firm is Anne Vladeck, who recently represented Anucha Browne Sanders in her lawsuit against Madison Square Garden
http://www.bcnys.org/whatsnew/2007/1107biztaxclimiate.htm
Analysis ranks New York's business tax climate among worst in the nation
Claire Hazzard
Business Council Staff
(November 7, 2007)
New York’s combined state and local business tax climate is among the 10 worst in the nation, according to a recent analysis of state business taxes.
The 2008 State Business Tax Climate, published in October by the Tax Foundation, reports that New York’s tax climate ranks 48th in the nation – one place below where the foundation ranked the Empire State on its 2007 index.
The index studies more than 100 variables in five broad categories: corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales taxes, unemployment taxes, and property taxes.
“New York’s individual income, sales, unemployment and property tax systems all rank in the bottom 10, and its sales tax system is second worst,” the report said. And, despite arguments to the contrary, taxes do have an impact on business, the report said.
“Although the market is now global, the Department of Labor reports that most mass job relocations are from one U.S. state to another rather than to an overseas location,” the report said. “So state lawmakers are right to be concerned about how their states rank in the global competition for jobs and capital, but they need to be more concerned with companies moving from Indianapolis, IN to Ithaca, NY, rather than from Indianapolis to India. This means that state lawmakers must be aware of how their states’ business climates match up to their immediate neighbors and to other states within their regions.”
The foundation warned against attempts by states to attract businesses with tax and incentives and subsidies.
“Lawmakers create these deals under the banner of job creation and economic development, but the truth is that if a state needs to offer such packages, it is most likely covering for a woeful business tax climate,” the report said. “A far more effective approach is to systematically improve the business tax climate for the long term so as to improve the state’s competitiveness.”
A state with a business-friendly tax climate will levy “low, flat rates on the broadest bases possible,” the report said. It’s those states that are best suited to economic growth, the report concluded.
A table comparing New York's index rankings to those in other states is available at:
www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf/businesstax.htm.
Only New Jersey & Rhode Island are worse. California is only one better than New York.
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/12/lawsuit_of_the_day_the_jewish.php#comment-163025
lawyer with insane hours and a big paycheck
You seem proud of that! HA- truck drivers also work insane hourse and get big paychecks- youre a tool with a capital TOOL
Posted by: Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid
On "The Apprentice", this debate about a Sabbath observer cam up among the contestants. Donald Trump understands business and was disgusted that someone wanted to axe the Orthodox Jew among them for missing Saturday. Trump, who doesn't have an ounce of Jewish blood in him, immediately fired the guy complaining.
You trolls making bigoted comments here are supposed to be officers of the court but you are nothing but a disgrace. You would be censored or disbarred for talking like this on the record.
For shame.
Posted by: White Shoes
How ironic that all you lawyers are moralizing about a slacker. I bet that every one of you pigs dishonestly overbills your clients.
It's well known what my solution is for your ilk.
Posted by: William Shakespeare
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071221/NEWS/71221004/-1/NEWS
December 21, 2007
Kiryas Joel - A $516 billion congressional appropriations bill contains $521,700 and $148,000 for Village of Kiryas Joel security and health-care services.
The first grant, secured with help from Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would go toward security equipment and emergency services technology. The other, secured by Schumer and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., would pay for equipment for a women’s health center. Kiryas Joel officials could not be reached for more details about the money’s use.
The Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative government watchdog group, has criticized so-called earmarks in the bill as pork-barrel spending.
While Margulies was hiding out bechadrei chadorim, I spent Christmas with family down in Baltimore.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.open26dec26,0,5636021.story?coll=bal-features-headlines
Ruth Adelsberg was distributing leaflets for a charity sale at nearby Belsky's Furniture and Baby Basics to benefit the Chesed Fund. She said she treats Christmas as a "mitzvah day."
"We try to fill the day with doing good things," she said. "For me it's just a time when other people are keeping what's important to them and I respect that very much."
And, in her way, she shares in it. Last night she was planning to visit Hampden to see the famous Christmas light display there.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517217372&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Now that's a chiddush! From a guy who was sworn in to the Presidential cabinet with a Christian bible on Shabbos with shiksa wife #2 at his side.
Hard to believe he was frum until joining the US Army in 1943.
I bet that Shmarya will ignore this story because they are a prestigious Conservative family - not Orthodox.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-lifink165504812dec17,0,6152499,full.story
Harvey Saul Finkelstein comes from a family distinguished for its leadership in Long Island's Jewish community. His father, Rabbi Ezra Finkelstein, led the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset for more than 20 years, and his grandfather headed the Jewish Theological Seminary from 1940 to 1973. His brother is a rabbi at a New Jersey synagogue.
He and his wife, Miriam, who also works in his Plainview clinic, are active members of the Dix Hills Jewish Center. In 2005, Finkelstein told a reporter that he attends religious services twice a day
Check out what this "Malpractice Putz" is responsible for.
Harvey Finkelstein is an honorable man.
After UOJ identified me as the sitting Supreme Court justice who may be supporting Margo, it's been tough landing sources of income besides some lousy book deal.
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/01/two_new_arguments_in_favor_of.php
Because of his low pay, Justice Clarence Thomas has been reduced to eating at ESPN Sports Zone.
(Yes, we know, CT got a seven-figure advance for his memoirs. But when you enjoy Corvettes, luxury RVs, and fine cigars, the money goes fast.)
I'm going to sue that kid I slapped who was molested by Kolko. I strained my arm in the process.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/12/20/man_60_sues_boy_8_over_ski_collision/
VAIL, Colo.—A 60-year-old man is taking an 8-year-old boy and his dad to court, claiming the boy caused a ski-slope collision that left the older man with a shoulder injury.
more stories like thisDavid J. Pfahler of Allentown, Pa., sued in federal court in Denver, claiming Scott Swimm, then 7, was skiing fast and recklessly when they collided in January, the Vail Daily reported Thursday.
The suit claims Pfahler suffered a torn shoulder tendon and seeks compensation for physical therapy, vacation time, nursing and medical services provided by Pfahler's wife, and other expenses. It estimates the couple's losses at more than $75,000.
Scott's father, Robb Swimm, said that he saw the crash and that Scott was skiing slowly and in control.
"It wasn't a violent collision or anything; Scott just kind of tapped his ski boots," he said this week.
Scott's mother, Susan Swimm, said her son weighs 48 pounds and couldn't have been going more than 10 mph.
"Who in the world sues a child?" she said. "It just boggles my mind every day."
Pfahler's Denver attorney, Jim Chalat, declined to comment on specifics but says Pfahler, who works for Reader's Digest, wants to go back to work.
http://www.newstimes.com/latestnews/ci_7749222
DANBURY -- A 33-year-old woman was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault Saturday after allegedly groping a man playing Santa Claus at the Danbury Fair mall.
Sandrama Lamy, 33, of Danbury, is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, according to Danbury Detective Lt. Thomas Michael.
According to information provided by the Danbury Police Department, officers were dispatched to the mall Saturday at 8:45 p.m.
The mall Santa told police that Lamy touched him inappropriately while sitting on his lap.
"The security officer at the mall said Santa Claus has been sexually assaulted," Michael said.
Lamy was also charged with breach of peace.
"She must have caused a commotion over there," Michael said.
Lamy was released on a promise to appear Jan. 3 in Danbury Superior Court.
Danbury Fair mall spokeswoman Melissa Eigen called the alleged groping "an isolated incident."
"The safety of our guests and employees is a top priority, and we strive to create a safe and enjoyable shopping environment at all our facilities and Danbury Fair specifically,"
2007 has not been a great year for mall Santas.
Earlier this month in Missoula, Mont., a mall Santa was assaulted with a pumpkin pie.
Meanwhile, a department store Santa in Australia claims he lost his job earlier this month because he said "Ho, ho, ho."
His bosses had asked him to say "Hi, hi, hi."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/us/15kansas.html
Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison is resigning. We'd say that this is pretty lame; what prominent public official hasn't had an affair? But there are other allegations in the mix, including a claim that he tried to get dirt on a political rival from his lover.
http://nymag.com/news/features/41826/
The Fantasist
Accused of paying underage girls for sex, superrich money manager Jeffrey Epstein is finding that living in a dream world is dangerous—even if you can pay for it.
By Philip Weiss Published Dec 10, 2007
David Michael Draiman (born March 13, 1973 in Flatbush, New York)[1] is the lead singer for the band Disturbed, which hails from Chicago, Illinois. He was born to an Orthodox Jewish family.
He is one of six artists who sang for the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, along with Jonathan Davis of KoЯn, Wayne Static of Static-X, Jay Gordon of Orgy, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and Marilyn Manson. He produced the album Believe as a response to his grandfather's death. He was recently added to the Hit Parader "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" in 2006 at #42.[2]
After attending Yeshivah High School at the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee, the Fasman Yeshiva High School and Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, and Valley Torah High School in North Hollywood, California, he spent the 1991-1992 academic year in the Neveh Zion Yeshiva in Telshe Stone, Jerusalem. He attended Loyola University Chicago where he triple majored in business administration, political science, and philosophy. He was considering law school before he joined the band, which he discovered in an ad in the Illinois Entertainer, a local music publication in Chicago. In 2003, he also started his own record label, Intoxication Records, along with band member/guitarist, Dan Donegan, and drummer, Mike Wengren. David has a brother Ben who lives in Jerusalem.
His last job before becoming a musician full-time was as a health care administrator at Ambassador Nursing and Rehab Center in Chicago. He has three homes, one in his Brooklyn hometown, one in Chicago, and one in L.A. The L.A. one, he says, is to "escape the Chicago winters."
Visually, David is easily recognized for his shaven head and dual labret piercings.
Posted by: Yehuda Draiman, Energy Analyst
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l - conversion of intermarried couples is very problematic I
Y.D. (1:157): Question: Concerning a convert who does not accept the obligation of doing mitzvos is he considered a convert? Answer: It is clear and obvious that he is not a convert at all even after the fact. This is also what my father actually ruled in Strabin. He said in such a case that the person was not a ger in any sense whether for leniencies or strictness. That is because the acceptance of mitzvos is an absolutely necessary condition to become a convert (Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 268:3). Even if the person asserts he is accepting the mitzvos – if we are aware that he is not actually accepting them – his assertion is meaningless. While it is true that if a person is converting for the sake of marriage it is valid after the fact – but that is only if he is fully and truly accepting the mitzvos for the sake of marriage. This is clear and obvious. All this was stated explicity by my father when he ruled in this case. I really don’t understand the reason why some rabbis err in this matter. Even according to their mistaken view that the acceptance of mitzvos is not required – what is the benefit that they are providing for the Jewish people in accepting as converts those who don’t accept the mitzvos. It is certain that G‑d does not approve nor is it desirable for the Jewish people that such converts become mixed into the Jewish people. It is simply obvious that such a person is not considered a convert.
Y.D. (1:159): …In general this whole enterprise of conversion for the sake of marriage is displeasing to me. Therefore I refrain from involvement in it. Not only from the halachic viewpoint that one should not convert someone for the sake of marriage lechatchila, but also because of the reason - that it is almost certain based on our experience - that they are not actually accepting the obligation to do mitzvos. They are just making empty assertions that they will keep the mitzvos. The fact is that without the acceptance of doing all the mitzvos – even one detail (Berchoros 30) - that they are not to be accepted. This is not comparable to Shabbos (68) of a person converting in isolation amongst the non-Jewish population and he doesn’t know about Shabbos or the prohibition against idolatry – nevertheless he is considered a genuine convert since he is fully and sincerely accepting all the obligation encumbent on a member of the Jewish people. Such an acceptance is valid since it an acceptance of the entire Torah – even though he does not know what these halachos are. In fact concerning every prospective convert it is not necessary to inform him of all the mitzvos before he converts. After the fact it is not necessary to inform him of anything as is clear in the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch sif 12. However if he in fact is not accepting the obligation to do all the mitzvos he is not accepted as a convert. This is the essence of conversion. However it is a fact that the majority of converts in this land who convert because of marriage – they do not actually accept to do the mitzvos even though they assert they are. It is well known that they are lying. That is because they are not concerned about being more religious than their husbands who are non observant and transgress all the laws of the Torah. However perhaps in the present case that you are asking me about - she will truly accept the obligation of doing mitzvos. Therefore I am not making a ruling about the validity of the present case to you because there are many rabbis in New York who accept this type of convert. Therefore there is no reason for me to say that it is prohibited to accept her. However I personally am not happy with this. My father also did not find it acceptable but did not say it was prohibited to accept such converts. Therefore you should do according to your understanding of the situation and how urgent you perceive it….
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2007/12/jeffrey-epstein-to-serve-18-months-in.html
Jeffrey Epstein to agree to plea in prostitution case
Part-time Palm Beach resident to trade 18 months in prison, house arrest for end to federal probe.
By MICHELE DARGAN
Daily News Staff Writer
Friday, December 14, 2007
Money manager Jeffrey Epstein accused of paying underage girls for massages, sometimes sex at his home on El Brillo Way.
Money manager and part-time Palm Beacher Jeffrey Epstein is scheduled to go before a judge Jan. 4 for a plea hearing in his felony prostitution case.
"a department store Santa in Australia claims he lost his job earlier this month because he said "Ho, ho, ho."
His bosses had asked him to say "Hi, hi, hi."
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This is because of a politically correct meshugass that Black men call women "hoes" which is the way substandard English speakers pronounce Whores. The radical shvartz faction is actually trying to get everyone including Santas from saying "Ho Ho Ho".
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