All the horrible abuses inflicted on the Jews in the Holocaust, did not do as much permanent damage as them being sexually molested.There can be no t'shuva for this great crime against children, the victims are tormented for the rest of their lives. I hold the rabbis/"gedolim" personally responsible! All of you who knew and did nothing, or worse, covered up these heinous crimes, if you have one ounce of humanity, you should resign your positions immediately, or the klal should throw you out!
UOJ
According to new study, sexual abuse traumas have greater effect on survivors than any other experienced during Holocaust years. 'Abuse still causes incessant thoughts, nightmares,' researcher says.
A new study conducted at the Haifa University reveals that Holocaust survivors who suffered sexual abuse during World War II were much more traumatized by molestation than by any other of the horrifying experiences they went through during that period.
The study, the first ever to focus on the subject, is set to be presented next Sunday in the framework of a conference to mark the international Holocaust Memorial Day at the university.
Prof. Rachel Lev-Wiesel, who conducted the research, said that although the survivors experienced other traumatic events during the holocaust, including the loss of parents, physical abuse and hunger, the memory of sexual abuse remained etched in their minds more than anything else.
"This abuse still causes incessant thoughts on the subject and nightmares," Lev-Wiesel said.
'Survivors told stories with clarity, precision'
The study consists of interviews with 22 men and women in Israel and the United States, who were willing to share with the researcher stories about the abuse they underwent during the war.
Lev-Wiesel said that some people who offered to take part in the study were rejected, because she believed they would not be able to cope with the burden of memories and the self-exposure involved with the interview.
The average age of the interviewees stood at 68 years, and Lev-Wiesel said all have told their story with clarity and precision, in contradiction to how people usually speak of a traumatic event.
This is proof, Lev-Wiesel said, that the survivors retell the story in their heads over and over again, reliving the past daily.
All the survivors interviewed for the study have spent the war years on the run from the Nazis, some at hiding in the houses of Christians, others moving from place to place with the partisans, an easy prey for menacing adults along the way.
According to Prof. Lev-Wiesel, this fact does not eliminate the possibility similar incidents took place at ghettos as well.
Abuser usually close to victim
In some of the cases revealed in the study, the abuse was carried out by relatives or other Jews, which alleviated the trauma and embarrassment among survivors.
In one of the cases the abuser was a man who helped smuggle children from one place to another, in another it was a father who sexually abused his daughter, and in several other incidents – mothers who molested their sons.
Prof. Lev-Wiesel stressed that situations of stress and war do not create pedophiles, but that they enable such people to operate more freely.
Yisroel Belsky's Bogus Loshon Hara Hazmana ...
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
*********************************************************
*************************************************
SEE THE SHAIGETZ AND FRAUD YISROEL BELSKY:
Download the Belsky files here:
http://savefile.com/files/53776
(copy & paste)
Are you sure "alleviate" is really the word you want to use in the 3rd paragraph from the bottom:
ReplyDeletetr.v. al·le·vi·at·ed, al·le·vi·at·ing, al·le·vi·ates
To make (pain, for example) more bearable: a drug that alleviates cold symptoms. See Synonyms at relieve.
I don't think having fellow Jews abuse you makes it more bearable - I would guess you meant to say that makes it worse.
I agree with you Ahavah. Those were the words used by the Professor, so I will not edit them.
ReplyDeleteI think she meant exacerbate.
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain that the professor thinks in Hebrew and that would cause her to use certain words differently than people that think in English.
ReplyDeleteI simply don't understand the problem with criticizing Gedolim and Rabbis who are making mistakes. Why even a 24 hour moratorium? I know in the Catholic Church, lehavidil, the pope is infallible and perfect. Should we also take a 24 hour break on teaching the parts in the Torah about Moshe Rabeynu hitting the rock, The shivtei Kah selling their brother into slavery, Soroh Imeynu SINNING according to the Ramban in chasing away Hagar, Shaul hamelech killing out Nov Ir ha Kohanmim...etc. etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteWhy do we now live in an atmosphere when whatever Gedolim do it MUST be right, when our Avos Hakdoshim were not always so? Why do we have to idolize them in such a way? Is it the Christian influence, or is it from closer to home like Chabad? Why does "The Making of a Gadol" get put in Cherem, and the only things we are allowed to read about our leaders are the Artscroll Superhero Comic Books, that leave our young people with the impression that Gedolim are superhumans that we cannot relate to or learn anything relevant to our own lives from? What is wrong with respectfully questioning the silence of the Gedolim on this important issue, the way we ask a Kashya on the Rambam, when we don't understand? I have not seen anything like "bashing" Gedolim here, just a sincere effort to understand them that will increase our trust and Emunas Chachamim. Shutting down questions, will not accomplish this, just like telling children they cannot question what they learn in yeshiva, will surely turn off many from the beauty of Yiddishkeit.
It is obvious that victims have been conditioned in our community not to "rock the boat" by bringing their problem to the light of day. If we now want to hear from them, we have to make sure that they are allowed to express their feelings, including their deep disappointment with community leaders who they feel let them down. How can they make peace with their experience of fear of coming forward, and their experience of feeling betrayed by community leaders? Rochel Geller said above that victims should not wait for the community to change in order to heal. However, living in a community that does not want to face the horrors of your experience increases the trauma exponentially that needs to be healed. Holocaust survivors were devastated by the inability of many people to believe and listen to their stories. This caused them a severe increase in their pain and suffering, which was dramatically alleviated by the Survivors of the Shoah Oral History Project, where they were asked to bear witness and testify for history, and they were convinced that the world wants to and needs to hear their stories. And mothers who lost children to drunk driving accidents started an organization called MADD to help them heal by turning their tragedy into a means to help others avoid one. Sure, survivors must find MANY ways to heal, but one important way would be by finding a way for the community (somewhat represented by all of us on this website, and somwhat represented by our rabbinic leaders) to embrace them, hear their stories, offer support, learn from their experiences show concern and compassion, and include them in finding ways to confront the problem in the future.
UOJ is upset at us for only lowering interest rates by 75 basis points today.
ReplyDeleteUOJ Must think I'm full of Poup after I'm accused of making a scene at the Narrow Bridge screening.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poupko.com/
600 Reisterstown Road, Suite 600A
Baltimore, MD 21208
(410)585-9330, FAX (410)585-9331
poupko@msn.com
Victim of Rabbinic Abuse in a Yeshiva
ReplyDeleteThere is a blogger that was attacked at the Agudah convention for being disrespectful of Gedolim in his ardent cry for help, and angry condemnation of passive enabling of molesters.
I asked a yeshiva rebby from a chashuva family, and he explained to me that the blogger was a "Rasha".
I asked him to answer 3 questions:
Do you believe that the rebby from the Brooklyn Yeshiva molest many children over many years?
Answer: Yes
Is it good that he has been taken away from children? Asnwer: Yes
Would any of this have happened without the blogger?
Answer: Silence
People need to stop attacking the messenger. And people need to stop protecting rabbis and yeshivas at the price of not protecting our children. This is what seems to be the choice.
The issue is that when abuse does happen in Yeshiva, there have been cover ups and intimidation. When the people that you look up to the most act in this manner, victims are victimized a second time and perhaps this takes an emotional toll on them equal to or greater than the molesting itself. This is not Gedolim bashing - just the plain, hard facts.
ReplyDeleteI spoke to the Rosh Yeshiva and administration of a certain Yeshiva when accusations surfaced that a long time Rebbi had been abusing for over 40 YEARS! You all have seen this story in the news.
Instead of taking action, the Rosh Yeshiva had a "friend" from another Yeshiva issue a Hazmanah to take me to Bais Din for being Motzei Shem Rah on the MOLESTER!
When the community cares enough, they manage just fine to do something! All you need is a few of the big donors to make a few phone calls, and change will happen very fast.
ReplyDeleteOk, fine, not everyone has access to that kind of resource, but it's preposterous to think that the community has no alternative and is just so helpless.
What would they do if there were rumors about a rebbe in a yeshiva showing kids porn? You think they'd just stand there helpless? You say you don't know how to challenge a gadol?
Think about this: How would the community react if any well established chareidi gadol publicly started telling people that they should wear knitted kipa's, send their kids to YU, and hang the Israeli flag out their window? You think everyone would just go along with it?
The community reacts to what bothers them, and when enough people are bothered by something enough, change happens. They simply aren't bothered enough. Or rather, they probably are bothered by it all, but like I said earlier, are more bothered by the consequences of revealing potentially incriminating details.
There are all sorts of campaigns done all the time. How did everyone get convinced to throw out their thousand dollar wigs? How did all the rabbonim get persuaded to hop on the anti-Slifkin bandwagon?
When the community and the rabbonim care about something enough, they handle it just fine. As for what the average person should do if they don't have the ability to start a campaign, why not simply ask your Rav his procedures for handling these situations, in case chas vshalom, you know someone who might one day need it?
And if you find it unsatisfactory, express that to him. Why not call up the top-most Rav that you have access to, and ask for some sort of explanation of how it's possible that Rabbi X and Mechanech B are still somehow in positions of influence and power when there are so many suspicious rumors about them? Why not ask how come the whole rabbinic establishment somehow manages to find a common voice (and a loud one at that) when it comes to so many other things, but they don't seem to have anything to publicly say when it comes to this issue?
Their feet have to be held to the fire. If they say, "You can't know the details, but just trust us," you have to say, "No, that's not good enough anymore. Decades of not seeing any action lost you the right to that trust." And if they say, "Who are you to challenge me? I'm the Rav, you're just a poshute ba'al habos. You're supposed to listen to me. I don't take orders from you." Well, then, at that point you've reached the stage where you might just realize that you should stop turning to this person for advice and look elsewhere, and do the same thing with the next person who you think you trust.
When the abuser was revealed in the Flatbush Yeshiva what did the "Olam" do? Where was the community uproar? My question earlier still remains unanswered, why on earth is that Yeshiva still open being run by the same board and the same administration?
ReplyDeleteWhy did the community not picket outside that Yeshiva building? Why did the parent body not insist on a changing of the guards? Why is the Gedolei Hador being blamed when there is plenty of responsibility to go around?
Yes those Rabbonim where horribly wrong. I would not be able to look any of them in the face with enough respect to call them Rabbi, but I cannot blame ALL RABBIS or all the Gedolim for their misdeeds.
Why is it the responsibility of the Agudah or the Rabbinical Boards, etc. when the parent body in that Yeshiva, or the local community itself did ban together in disgust and with an uproar and demand that those accomplices to the fact be removed and denied access to that building. (I am not saying that the Agudah should not promote solutions.)
Why did they not demand that an order of protection or restraining order be placed against that whole group from entering the building and going near the children. There were many things that the "locals" could have done at that point in time. Why is everything moving along status quo in that Yeshiva as if nothing happened?
This is the perfect case to review and understand that each and everyone of us as parents and Jews had a responsibility here and did nothing but talk and gossip about it. And now people hiding behind their anonymity choose to wash their hands clean of their own responsibilities and just blame the Rabbonim and Gedolim. Well it is so much easier to blame others than to admit fault in ourselves.
Yes the Rabbonim could have come out and make statements, yes the Rabbonim could have done something, but so could the K'lal have done something. Why was it up to the Rabbonim when the parent body themselves still chose to allow these accomplices near their beloved children? There is no way I could even imagine myself allowing my child to have contact in any way with so called "Rebbeim" I didn't respect, those who protected a molestor and allowed him to continue in his ways.
Those who threatened parents and victims in Beis Din, those who cared more about the abuser and his family than the 500 other kids under their care. How could I ever trust that my child was safe with them? I couldn't and yet, there are still 500 kids in that building every day.
Are the Gedolei hador twisting anyone's arms to keep them there? Did the Gedolim threaten the parents that something horrible would happen to their children if they took them out of that Yeshiva?
Let's be adults here and understand from an adults perspective that we each have the power of choice, reasoning, and ability to "do". If we choose to give up our power and wait for others to make the choices for us, or take control over our lives, our decisions and our ability to act then we have no one to blame but ourselves.
A victim is a victim and has no choice. It is unforgiveable that a victim got victimized twice or more in these cases IN THE PAST. Had I seen an ad in the paper, or received and email that there was an organized rally outside a Yeshiva or person's home because he was an abuser or accomplice I would join that rally to show my support.
But I have yet to see anything of that kind from a victim, support system for a victim, or group promoting change.
Had I seen an ad in the paper, or received and email that there was an organized rally outside a Yeshiva or person's home because he was an abuser or accomplice I would join that rally to show my support.
ReplyDeleteBut I have yet to see anything of that kind from a victim, support system for a victim, or group promoting change.
It's hard to follow these anonymous posters. They do make some good points, but I wish they (if it's more than one poster)would choose a screen name. To the above anon, why are you waiting for others to organize demonstrations and protests? What's wrong with you? Tell me, have you called or written to your State assemblyman regarding the passage of Elliot Pasik's bill? Do you even know about what that bill is about? Did you do anything this past year since UOJ put out the word, to facilitate the extradition request of Mondrowitz? Sure, it's easy to criticize others for lack of action while you sit around spectating. Instead of criticizing, get up and do something constructive for a change.
UOJ really means business about the economic downturn. Apple Computer, thought to be the last safe bastion to buy stock in announced higher earnings after today's closing bell but is still down $24 a share in after hours trading!
ReplyDeleteHas UOJ decided how many points lower he will have the markets open tomorrow morning?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nypost.com/seven/01212008/news/regionalnews/matzo_bawl_at_building_858909.htm
ReplyDeleteMATZO BAWL AT BUILDING
January 21, 2008 -- About 150 residents of a pricey Brooklyn apartment building were forced to evacuate yesterday when authorities found something not kosher - an unsafe, illegal matzo factory, fire officials said.
Two grain silos used for baking matzo were discovered in the basement of the posh building on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, said FDNY Deputy Chief Joe Woznica. He said grain becomes "highly explosive" when processed.
"Residents were living with two large bombs in the basement," he said.
The formerly commercial building had been converted illegally to rental loft residences, and was cited for several code violations, authorities said.
Residents were forced to stay somewhere else or go to a temporary shelter set up at a nearby school.
It wasn't immediately clear when they'd be allowed back in.
"It has to be the coldest day," said resident Caitlin Biskup, 22.
"I was really excited to come home, catch a movie and have tea. Now I'm just homeless."
Building owner Nachman Brach could not be reached.
But community activist Isaac Abraham said the owner was working to rectify the situation.
The owner "was caught totally off guard with certain violations," Abraham said.
UOJ made sure that Apple tanked after he found out Margo was buying their stock and Twerski is now using an iPhone.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteI'll believe people are serious when I see heads roll, until then it's all talk...talk....talk...
If I was a day-trader I would bet tomorrow's market moves up!
To R' Ben Bernanke: You crackin' me up chaver...All you're doing is putting a band-aid on the stock market, the economy is broken and we're in a recession.
SERIOUS TAX CUTS FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/20/2008-01-20_man_kills_wife_jumps_to_death_off_bridge.html
ReplyDeleteMARLTON, N.J. - Marital problems led a high-ranking executive of a collapsed subprime mortgage lender to kill his wife in their home and then jump to his death from the Delaware Memorial Bridge, authorities said Saturday.
Searchers continued to look for the body of Walter Buczynski, who parked his car on the span and jumped off around 12:20 p.m. Friday, about 20 minutes after his wife's body was discovered by police.
The Burlington County prosecutor's office said Saturday that Buczynski, 59, left a note inside the vehicle, indicating that his wife, Marci, 37, would be found at their home, that he had jumped off the bridge and that the couple's two sons were safe.
Marci Buczynski suffered blunt force trauma to the head, resulting in a fractured neck, authorities said.
Walter Buczynski was vice president of Columbia, Md.-based Fieldstone Mortgage, a high-flying subprime mortgage lender that made $5.5 billion in mortgage loans and employed about 1,000 people as late as 2006.
However, it has since filed for bankruptcy and now has less than 20 employees.
I hope UOJ is right about the opening bell Wed morning in NY. The Hang Seng index is already down 10% and Tokyo is down another 6%.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really scary in my estimation is that Ambac, the leading insurer of bonds is on the brink of bankruptcy along with it's industry peers. If they go under, there will be a collapse of the international economy on par or worse than the Great Depression of 1929.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/local_news/yisroel_shapiro_pleads_not_guilty/
ReplyDeleteYisroel Shapiro Pleads ‘Not Guilty’
Israel Shapiro Gets April 1 trial date for multiple molestation charges.
Phil Jacobs
Executive Editor
“Not guilty.”
This was the plea entered into court record by Israel Shapiro before Judge John Miller Tuesday morning in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
Mr. Shapiro made his plea in response to charges of three counts of child sexual abuse, three counts of third degree sexual offense, three counts of fourth degree sex offenses and six counts of second degree assault. The charges were brought to court by the State’s Attorney’s Sex Offense Unit.
Unless a plea deal is made, Mr. Shapiro will appear in court for an April 1 trial.
The allegations made by plaintiffs dated back to 1987-88 and 1993-94.
Mr. Shapiro, a former bar mitzvah teacher, currently works in a local butcher shop.
An Orthodox Jew, he appeared in court wearing a gray suit and gray blue tie, but without wearing any sort of kippah or head covering. He kept his hands on his knees before rising to face the judge.
That omission of a kippah or yarmulke was noted by the plaintiff.
“When I saw him walk in without his yarmulke on, I thought, `What a hypocrite.’ He didn’t take his yarmulke off when he was molesting me. But before a judge in a court room, he doesn’t have it on,” said one of two plaintiffs.
Mr. Shapiro was represented before Judge Miller by local attorney Isaac Klein.
Mr. Shapiro was arrested and charged in early December. He is the son of the late Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro, himself the center of a BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES investigation of a alleged sexual molestation.
Before ascending the steps to the fourth floor courtroom in the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse, one of the plaintiffs in the case, visibly emotional, said, “I’m feeling sick.”
When asked what he wanted to come from the charges, his answer was simple: “I want him to go to jail,” he said.
In the courtroom, the plaintiff, who was just a young teen when the allegations took place, held hands tightly with his wife.
In the charging documents, the plaintiffs wrote that “Israel Shapiro would shuckle [or rock back and forth] holding me against himself and leining [chanting Torah] out loud while he was feeling me up and touching me.”
At another point, the victim reported “I could feel his erection under me. I would try to get off his lap, but he’d hold me very tightly. I must have been doing something wrong. I thought it was my fault. It was very confusing me as a child. I just wanted to learn.”
On Tuesday morning, there was no doubting the serious nature of the situation. Upon entering the courthouse, visitors had to look at an electronic monitor directing them to the appropriate court room. It was like searching for one’s flight on the video departures board at the airport. But instead of departures and arrives, the board was divided into misdemeanors and felonies.
There on the felony side of the board was Mr. Shapiro. And before a courtroom of people awaiting their time with Judge Miller, Mr. Shapiro’s case was the first one called. The entire not guilty plea took only minutes.
“It’s good there’s a trial date,” said the plaintiff. “It’s a step in the right direction.”
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/cover_story/beth_tfiloh_suit_seeks_25_million/
ReplyDeleteBeth Tfiloh Congregation and Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School recently filed a $25 million lawsuit against local developer Howard S. Brown and two of his business entities, Stevenson Commons LLC and Glyndon LLP.
The civil suit was filed Jan. 8 in the Circuit Court of Baltimore County. The suit states that Mr. Brown, a former Beth Tfiloh congregant who held a “position of prominence and trust” there, “engaged in various self-dealing business ventures” at the expense of the Pikesville synagogue.
In other words, Mr. Brown, according to the suit, took advantage of the congregation by using his influence to direct projects to himself that allegedly were performed on behalf of Beth Tfiloh and the school, and that he made financial promises he did not intend to keep.
Dear Mr. Vos Zogt:
ReplyDeleteWe are in a "perfect economic storm." R' Ben can lower the interest rates foon hint biz morgan, there is no money to lend.
The bond insurers can't insure because there's no liquidity in that segment. The banks are not approving most residential loans even to people with good credit because there is no appraisal they trust, Wall St. is not buying commercial paper and most importantly, consumer spending is coming to a screeching halt!
We need rachamei Shomayim everywhere we turn.
Tomorrow's stock market will turn upwards on bargain hunting.
Jim Kramer, who can't stop talking but actually has a good idea here and there, proposed that it would be cheaper for the US Treasury to just buy Ambac and the other bond insurers instead of pishing away money on stimulus packages. But even that might just be like a band aid on Shafran's brain because it won't stop the municipalities from going insolvent.
ReplyDeleteIt's rather interesting that the Bank of England refused to go along with the interest rate cuts. Sub-prime may be worse in the UK than in the US.
ReplyDeletehttp://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/baltimores-rabbi-yisroel-shapiro-pleads.html
ReplyDeletePhil Jacobs keeps referring to Rabbi Israel (Yisroel) Shapiro as "Mr." instead of using his ordained title of "Rabbi". This is a case of clergy sexual abuse and should be referred to as such. By not doing so takes away some of the influence and status he had over the children he molested.
Rabbi Israel (Yisroel) Shaprio is the son of the late Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro and the brother of two other ordained rabbis. One of his brothers is living in Maryland and the other residing in Massachusetts, both are Rosh yeshiva's (deans) of two different Jewish day schools. His family has a great deal of influence and clout in the orthodox community of Baltimore, which includes connections with the administration at Ner Israel Rabbinical College (and high school), Rabbi Moshe Heinemann and Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer.
Some time ago The Awareness Center put out a CALL FOR ACTION on this case, which you can download at: http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/ShapiroYisroel_CallToAction.pdf. It's odd that Phil Jacobs never mentioned any of the following demands in his article:
The Awareness Center is asking that everyone contact Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz and the Baltimore Vaad HaRabbonim and ask them to:
1. Make public the plan they established to notify parents in the community of the potential dangers of their children being left alone with Rabbi Yisroel Shapiro.
2. We are also asking that this statement include the safety plan created when Yisroel Shapiro is davening (praying) at Darchi Tzedek or any synagogue.
3. They also need to make public the safety plan they established for Wasserman's and Lemberger," the retail business in which Shapiro is employed and also for any other public location Shapiro may enter.
Rabbi Yaakov Hopfer - President
Vaad Harabbonim of Baltimore
410-358-3450
Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz
Congregation Darchei Tzedek
410-653-1688
410-486-0445 (Rabbi Horowitz)
Considering the fact that Phil Jacobs is the executive editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, I'm sure he has influence in how long or short a story is in his paper. Please call and or write to Phil Jacobs and ask him why he's going soft on this story.
Phil Jacobs, Executive Editor
pjacobs@jewishtimes.com
Phone: 410-752-3504
Fax: 443-451-6025
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/baltimores-rabbi-yisroel-shapiro-pleads.html#824525721600248376
ReplyDeleteLuke Ford on rabbi Eleizer Eisgrau said...
(Back in 2004) Stories are told from first-hand observation of rabbi Eisgrau getting drunk on Purim and pulling kids on to his lap, smothering them with physical affection, and telling them he loves them. Some of the kids get a horrified look on their face, freak out, struggle out of his arms, and run off.
On three occasions, rabbi Eisgrau has been accused of sexually molesting children. Two allegations were made by former students and one by his daughter. At least one of his accusers now live in Silver Spring, Maryland (the frum community south of Baltimore right outside DC).
Rabbi Eisgrau is protected by the two leading Orthodox rabbis in Baltimore (Yaakov Hopfer and Moshe Heineman who believe Eisgrau is innocent).
Rabbi Eisgrau's eldest daughter has been excommunicated from her family and the Baltimore community and those who allege they were molested by Eisgrau have been labeled as crazy.
Police were stonewalled by the Orthodox community. Few would talk to the detective from within the community. They wouldn't acknowledge that they knew who the children were who accused the rabbi of molesting them.
Aaron Goldberger, the brother-in-law of rabbi Eisgrau, was tried and convicted of sexual abuse.
A pediatrician who did a medical exam on the kids who say they were molested by Aaron Golderberger, was told, according to my sources, to get rid of the evidence.
Baltimore Jewish Times editor Phil Jacobs, Modern Orthodox, was working on a story on this and then he spiked it. Some believed Jacobs was under the thumb of his rabbi Menachem Goldberger of Tiferes Yisroel.
Some of those who alleged that rabbi Eisgrau sexually molested them were devastated when Jacobs abandoned the story. "We know there will never be any justice in this lifetime," one person said.
"Torah Institute of Baltimore 35 Rosewood Lane Owings Mills, MD 21117 410-654-3500 www.torahinstitute.org Principal: Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau Orthodox boys school for nursery/preschool through grade 8. Intensive Judaic and secular studies. Summer camp program available. Located on 12-acre Owings Milll campus."
People are terrified about speaking up on the case of rabbi Eisgrau. They have been so threatened by the Orthodox powers that be in Baltimore, they won't even speak to the police, let alone journalists. Police have never seen a community so unwilling to speak up about such matters because of threats.
Just working to expose the story can be cause for having your life threatened by members of the Orthodox community. On the other hand, you can have people crying at your feet about Eisgrau -- that you've never met a holier man. He's so pure.
Eisgrau's daughter went to a world-renown American rabbi (circa 2002, Dovid Cohen (independently wealthy), halachic advisor to Ohel Children's Home and Family Services, friendly with Lewis Brenner's family), famous for fighting sexual abuse, with her story. He was nice. He said he would get back to her. He called the rabbis who rule the community in Baltimore. Several sources say he was threatened that if he got involved, all backing for his institutions would dry up. A source in the Orthodox rabbinate say that serious Baltimore Orthodox rabbis investigated the charges against Eisgrau and found them baseless. They relayed this to rabbi Dovid Cohen who then dropped out of the case.
When Eisgrau's daughter called him back, rabbi Dovid Cohen said, I'm sorry. I can't have anything to do with you.
Rabbi Cohen spoke at a Nefesh convention circa 2000. He encouraged the therapists there to raise public awareness of sexual abuse.
******************
(Luke Ford in 2007)
Baltimore Jewish Times editor Phil Jacobs interviewed rabbi Eisgrau's daughter. He's told people he could not authenticate her story and that's why he didn't publish it. He's told people that her story has changed. Along with Baltimore's Orthodox establishment, he's said that she is not credible.
A Baltimore police detective (Richard Hardick) investigated the abuse complaints about rabbi Eisgrau. He did not find enough evidence to persuade the district attorney to bring charges. The detective has told people that he believes Eisgrau committed abuse. The detective has said that he never encountered such opposition to a child abuse investigation from a community as he encountered in Baltimore's Orthodox community.
I've spoken to the author of the letter. I've spoken to others who have researched this story. There was a police investigation (by detective Richard Hardick). The Baltimore Jewish Times editor Phil Jacobs interviewed at least one person who says he/she was molested by rabbi Eisgrau. Jacobs did further investigation. Jacobs got threatened by powerful members of the frum community. Jacobs decided he did not have a story. One of Baltimore's leading rabbis told the Eisgrau family and the Baltimore frum community to put the daughter who alleged the sexual molestation into cherem. These are indisputable facts.
Phil Jacobs is a member of rabbi Menachem Goldberger's shul Tiferes Yisroel, which claims it is open to all Jews. All Jews except those who investigate this case. One such person has been banned from the shul and refused membership, even though the person is a Jew, born a Jew, and identifies Orthodox, solely because the person was looking into the Eisgrau story. Phil Jacobs and rabbi Goldberger know exactly what I am talking about.
Me, an anonymous poster on Protocols who I have gotten to know well over the past six months through private emails etc, and somebody with enormous credibility in these issues, writes on Protocols:
I have specific information regarding a relative of a victim of sexual molestation who approached Rav Dovid Cohen for help regarding a Rabbi who had a long documented history of sexual child abuse (not Eisgrau). Rav Dovid Cohen pretty much called this person a liar and refused to listen or help. Rav Dovid Cohen is just another protector of the abusers within the rabbinate.
One of the problems with the Shalom Task Force is that it is closely connected with its affiliate organization, Beit Shalom (Bukharian Jewish Women’s Organization). Ora Nisanov wife of Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, runs Beit Shalom.
Ora Nisanov and her husband Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov also ran a Yeshiva called Berachel David. Both were directors of the Yeshiva according to public records. The principal at their school? Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, who had a long documented history of sexually molesting children. The Nisanov's were aware of Bryks' history at the time and still support him. The school has since closed.
These people are the problem not the solution.
According to a well circulated story, a tough guy upset at stories he'd heard about Rabbi Eisgrau abusing kids, met the rabbi in the mikveh when no one else was around and knocked him out.
Minutes after predicting bargain hunters will drive up stock prices tomorrow, Tokyo's Nikkei index is up 3.3%.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Nisanov leads the de facto yeshivish faction of the Bukharians. The less frum ones follow the chief rabbi Yitzchak Yehoshua. I wonder if they are all in on it as Ephraim Bryks lectures in Bukharian shuls all over Queens including the Lefrak City Jewish Center in Corona.
ReplyDeleteGoing off the rails again, UOJ (or professor)?
ReplyDeleteThe article speaks first of the Nazi tortures, which included the most horrifying forms of sexual torture. It is unbearable to read or learn about this subject, there is IMHO very little focus on this specifically, and on Nazi torture in general and how coldly and caluculatedly it was done.
In my mind it is not comparable to molestation by parents or teachers, horrible, shattering, painful and traumatizing as it is. No, I'm no expert on the subject, but I do find the idea of utilizing even the shoah as a vehicle to promote awareness to sexual abuse. Not all ends justify all means.
I do not wish to go into specifics, but you simply can't compare what the Nazis were doing to even the worst rapists.
The more such things you bring up, the less good for the cause.
J.I.
Hi everyone, I am in the news
ReplyDeletehttp://www.northjersey.com/news/aroundnj/Are_donated_autos_helping_needy_kids.html
No, I'm no expert on the subject...
ReplyDelete_____________________
Yes you are. Harry M. said you taught him everything he knows about child sex-abuse.
What do Jews and Mexicans have in common? A riddle for the guys at the water cooler!
ReplyDelete-----------------------
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The victims of human sacrifice by Mexico's ancient Mayans, who threw children into water-filled caverns, were likely boys and young men not virgin girls as previously believed, archeologists said on Tuesday.
The Maya built soaring temples and elaborate palaces in the jungles of Central America and southern Mexico before the Spanish conquest in the early 1500s.
Maya priests in the city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula sacrificed children to petition the gods for rain and fertile fields by throwing them into sacred sinkhole caves, known as "cenotes."
The caves served as a source of water for the Mayans and were also thought to be an entrance to the underworld.
Archeologist Guillermo de Anda from the University of Yucatan pieced together the bones of 127 bodies discovered at the bottom of one of Chichen Itza's sacred caves and found over 80 percent were likely boys between the ages of 3 and 11.
The other 20 percent were mostly adult men said de Anda, who scuba dives to uncover Mayan jewels and bones.
He said children were often thrown alive to their watery graves to please the Mayan rain god Chaac. Some of the children were ritually skinned or dismembered before being offered to the gods, he said.
"It was thought that the gods preferred small things and especially the rain god had four helpers that were represented as tiny people," said de Anda.
"So the children were offered as a way to directly communicate with Chaac," he said.
Archeologists previously believed young female virgins were sacrificed because the remains, which span from around 850 AD until the Spanish colonization, were often found adorned with jade jewelry.
It is difficult to determine the sex of skeletons before they are fully matured, said de Anda, but he believes cultural evidence from Mayan mythology would suggest the young victims were actually male.
(Editing by Todd Eastham)
Rev. Dovid Cohen of Cong. Gvul Yaavetz on Coney Island Avenue and who is actually a cohen challal (that is why he is not allowed to duchan - his grandmother was a divorcee from a previous marriage- thereby voiding the cohen status for all their future children) but kept the family name Cohen, should be remembered as the clergy bastard that advised Mondrowitz, during the eighties when the cops were investigating him, to flee to Israel. Dovid Cohen is the same crook that gave advice too his congregant to bribe Brooklyn Judge Garson in a divorce court trial. Cohen should be sharing a cell with Garson.
ReplyDeleteCan someone please give us the details on the roll in which
ReplyDeleteAdolf Belsky participated in the sexual molestation of children at Camp Agudah and Torah Vodaath. Why is Adolf Belsky still being allowed in chinuch?
Chutzpanyak!! You call him ADOLF BELSKY. Where is your respect? He should be referred to properly:
ReplyDeleteRabbi Adolf Belsky Yemach Shmo.
. . . .. . V'zichro.
ReplyDeleteFinally the bastard is being referred to by the name that fits him.
Tell all your friends of his proper name. Tell them you saw it here on UOJ first.
So, its Yisroel Belsky a/k/a Adolf Belsky from now on? That's cool.
ReplyDeleteBernanke should have held the Fed funds rate at 4.25%. Standing pat might well push the economy into a recession. But the Fed's newfound vigilance on inflation would boost the dollar, effectively lowering the prices of oil and other imports. America would suffer a short downturn and restore price stability, paving the way to a strong recovery in 2010 or 2011.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the Fed has already chosen sides. It's likely to lower rates every time growth slows or joblessness rises. As a result, it will never tame inflation until it becomes a clawing, bellowing threat. Then we'll have to suffer a real recession, the kind we suffered in the aftermath of a time we should study and shouldn't forget - the 1970s.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/22agent.html?ei=5087&em=&en=94133723d683cd7f&ex=1201150800&pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteJanuary 22, 2008
Feeling Misled on Home Price, Buyers Sue Agent
By DAVID STREITFELD
Is there any evidence that david cohen advised Mondrowitz to flee? It would not surprise me as the man has the most repulsive views regarding basic ethics and he thinks that he is so great that he can disregard the Shulchan Aruch. many Rabbonim have told people privately that he should be ostracized by the frum communtiy but people are afraid of him and are afraid to go public.
ReplyDeleteDow Jones Average is down 200 points at 9:33 am.
ReplyDeleteMessage for Steve:
ReplyDeleteI noticed the debate you were having on FM about Rubashkin. Where do you get your information from about NY area restaurants? I have unfortunately found that most ARE using Rubashkin.
I understand where the other guy is coming from. The OU is the face of "mainstream" Orthodox Judaism to the outside world and even to the uninformed among us. I think a better way of stating the case is to say the OU is distorting the very mainstream orthodox values that they purport to represent.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/01/kaj-v-weismandel.html#c6803825920571779187
ReplyDeleteIts official.
NPGS 1 & 2 in LAKEWOOD posted a big sign that they are stopping to sell any products of Rubashkin in thier stores. Way to go Mr Rothchild. . Next i heard that kollel food store and its sister company, kosher west maybe following along too. This is wonderful news!
Oy vey!
ReplyDeleteLA Archdiocese Offices Sold for $31M
By JACOB ADELMAN
Associated Press
January 22, 2008
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has sold its 12-story administrative headquarters building to help pay last year's $660 million settlement with people alleging sex abuse by clergy, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The Archdiocesan Catholic Center was sold to Jamison Properties of Los Angeles for $31 million, archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg said.
Staffers who oversee the archdiocese's cemeteries will move to office space on the grounds of a cemetery, Tamberg said.
Pimco's Gross Says Fed Rate Cut a `Sad Testament' (Update3)
ReplyDeleteBy Kathleen Hays and Deborah Finestone
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund, agreed with UOJ that the Federal Reserve's emergency cut in borrowing costs today is a ``sad testament'' to the state of the U.S. economy.
The central bank cut the target overnight lending rate to 3.5 percent from 4.25 percent after stock markets tumbled from Hong Kong to Paris amid increasing signs of a U.S. recession. Policy makers weren't scheduled to gather until next week. Gross expects the rate to fall as low as 2.50 percent.
``It's a sad testament to think the Fed has to cut interest rates eight days in front of a meeting to salvage the equity markets,'' said Gross, the founder and chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., in a Bloomberg Television interview. ``The U.S. economy is in a rather sad state of affairs in that it depends on housing and stock prices to keep going.''
Monday, January 21, 2008
ReplyDeleteA Charedi Hero
The victim’s name is Tuvia Stern. He is a Charedi. He lives in Ramat Bet Shemesh B and he is a hero who has paid a price! An American Oleh, he is man of conviction who stood up to these Charedi terrorist thugs! And now he lies in a hospital after being severely beaten by people from his own community!
As is typical of the smug individuals who refuse to see what’s going on in their own community, I was challenged more than once about the veracity of my source. “Why hasn’t it made the media?” I was asked. Why hasn’t it even made the local bulletin boards in Ramat Bet Shemesh? Well, my source is impeccable. But for those who continue to harbor doubt take a look at the photos at Rafi’s Life in Israel blog. Read what he has to say. Then tell me it didn’t happen!
Tuvia Stern deserves our support. Not just in word but in deed. He is a man who cares about Klal Yisroel. And did what he could… what he felt was necessary to stop these Charedi terrorist thugs from terrorizing their communities.
There are community leaders in Ramat bet Shemesh that have at best been reticent about taking a public stance on this issue. As someone who lives in Ramat Bet Shemesh has said, they very quickly sign on to a public call to observe the highest standards of Tznius. But when it comes to signing on in equal measure to a public call condemning these these Charedi terrorist thugs… they have thus far not done so in equal measure. Have they taken out an ad in a magazine similar to the one calling for Tznius observance? I doubt it.
Again, illustrating my point about their greater obsession with Bein Adam L’Makom then with Bein Adam L’Chavero.
The Mishna in Nedarim corroborates what I have said many times on this blog. Some Jews care more about violating Hilchos Terumah that they do about killing another Jew! One is allowed to make a false Neder based on the fear of such people. These Charedi terrorists are such people!
The Rabbanim of Ramat bet Shemesh need to change course and focus on the larger issue of Pikuach Nefesh. Peoples lives are in danger. These people are capable of murder! I have no doubt about that.
The entire community of Ramat Bet Shemesh A, Charedi and Dati alike ought to unite. This outrage transcends all Hashkafos. The goal is to rid this community of the Charedi terrorist thugs primarily by putting them in jail for a long time... to the maximum extent of time the law provides for these crimes. There has to be maximum cooperation with the police.
The homes of the Ramat Bet Shemesh Rabbanim should be peacefully picketed. The Rabbanim of Ramat Bet Shemseh A should unite in opposition to the violent Charedi terrorists and lead the way in demanding that the entire community cooperate with the police. To the extent possible Rabbanim from Ramat Bet Shemesh B be should be invited to join forces with them. Those Rabbanim that refuse should be publicized as terrorist sympathizers in magazines, newspapers, and billboard posters.
One of my sources has informed me of a planned demonstration that is to take place tonight in Ramat Bet Shemesh at 7:00 PM local time. The location is at Nahar HaYarden 9. I urge as many people attend as possible and I hope that the crowd contains as many Charedim as Datim.
Another source has actually had contact with the victim’s family. Here is what he told me:
One of the main leaders of the gang of thugs in RBS is Avrohom Yitzchak Mermelstein.
He lives at: 6 Karlin Blvd, unit 304
His phone number is: 845-781-8025
First, I implore all residents of Ramat Bet Shemesh to refrain from any violence against this individual. We are not the terrorists. But this individual should not be left alone either. He needs to know that there will be consequences to his actions. He needs to be picketed peacefully but relentlessly. He should never be allowed to go anywhere without the escort of picketers… potential witnesses to his crimes of terror, whether they be directly committed by him or instigated by him.
Let Tuvia Stern know that we stand by him and that his acts of courage that resulted in his being so severely being beaten will not be in vein.
Post script: My source arranged for me to speak to the victim. I got off the phone with him moments ago. He graciously consented to give me his e-mail address:
tuvya.stern@yahoo.com
Please send letters of support.
Rabbi Horowitz & co edited a bunch of comments on his blog that named yeshivos etc. They are threatening to discontinue any future comments if zee readers break zee rules again.
ReplyDeleteAvrohom Yitzchak Mermelstein is a Breslover. I wonder if he gets any financial support, even indirectly, through the kooks with the pamphlets in NY-NJ.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20080123/ENTERTAINMENT/549897137
ReplyDeleteHe should be signed up as a UOJ agent.
NEW YORK — Like so many wiseguys before him, Lou Ferrante finally got pinched. After years of hijackings, beatings and other violent crimes, he was busted for armed robbery and sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison. Life behind bars was a shock to the smart-aleck kid from Queens who had joined the Gambino crime family. But even more shocking was how he spent his time.
ReplyDeleteWhile other prisoners slept, Ferrante would rise early to daven, reciting prayers of his newfound Jewish faith. He wore a yarmulke in the exercise yard and followed kosher dietary laws. He spent months in an upstate prison writing a Torah commentary but shoved it under his mattress when the Sabbath began on Friday night.
-----------------------
Hey Louie,
FUGGGGEEEETTTTAAAABBBOOOUUUTTTIIITTTT!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/dining/23sushi.html?ei=5087&em=&en=2c9a9232f1612301&ex=1201237200&pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteSushi found to have high mercury levels.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/dining/23sbox.html
And mercury is now also found to cause heart disease. Maybe I should stick to fressing Rubashkin?
The trading day is far from over...so far it seems I may have gotten it half right.
ReplyDeleteThe Asian and European markets skyrocketed on bargain hunting from 3-8%.
I am human and make mistakes..(not very often:-)
That rosh kollel has been convicted of assault in that fatal accident.
ReplyDeleteShmarya attacks Ohr Sameach despite all the good they do. In his warped book, kiruv is the ultimate evil.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m14&SecId=14&AId=57508&ATypeId=1
18/01/2008
By Daniella Peled
An Orthodox group is taking in abused or abandoned Ukrainian-Jewish children and sending them off to lead new lives in Israel. Daniella Peled visits Odessa to investigate
When Aron was 11, his mother Raisa, a prostitute, would send him down to the docks of Odessa to find clients for her. For each sailor the boy brought back, he got one Ukrainian hryvnia — a tenth of a penny. That was 10 years ago. These days, Raisa lives in a cellar in the centre of the Ukrainian port city, down rickety stairs through a door that will not close, and behind a dirty, ragged curtain. Inside, a strong smell of urine rises from a room plastered with ancient wallpaper and peeling pictures cut from magazines. There is no toilet. “I manage somehow,” says Raisa, an apologetic smile on her face.
But there is one small area of the cramped room that is an obvious source of pride. There, on a small low table, stand framed photographs of Aron and his sister Xenia, now thousands of miles away from this squalid basement.
One day, when he was touting for customers as usual at the docks, outreach workers from the Tikva Jewish orphanage found Aron and brought him and Xenia — who, then aged five, had not yet learned to walk — to live in one of the charity’s homes. Both eventually made aliyah. Xenia — despite her special needs — is now studying in a girls’ seminary. Aron battled alcoholism, spending a year in a residential rehab unit, before finding work on a building site.
Compared to the fate of other disadvantaged Ukrainian youngsters, these modest achievements amount to an almost fairytale ending. Even 17 years after the country gaining independence, poverty, drug addiction and alcoholism are endemic. A generation of children is suffering the consequences.
“Ten per cent of the children who go through Ukrainian state orphanages commit suicide before they are 18,” says Refael Kruskal, the director of Tikva’s schools and homes. “Sixty per cent of the girls turn to prostitution and 70 per cent of the boys turn to crime.” And while minority rights are generally respected in Ukraine, the Jewish community — estimated at almost 80,000, although numbers are assumed to be much higher — are not immune from the social ills plaguing the country.
Eighty per cent of the children in the Tikva homes have been abandoned, abused, or — like Aron and Xenia — come from homes damaged by drink, drugs or extreme poverty. The rest are orphans.
At the infants’ building, home to 35 children aged up to five years, the children, demonstrably affectionate, climb over every visitor. Yura, four, leaps into every available lap. He wants to be a policeman when he grows up — or Batman. Big-eyed Angelina has very short, cropped hair, a legacy of the lice she had when she arrived. Sveta, a blonde 18-month-old girl with a scarlet corduroy pinafore and pink tights printed with ducklings, stomps about wearing a crown made out of Lego. She has been here since she was two days old. Her mother is a former resident of the children’s home who one weekend, aged 15, went to visit her own mother. She was raped by the neighbour, and came back pregnant.
Shlomo has also been at Tikva since he was two days old. Now aged two, with a cone-shaped head and unnaturally bulging eyes, he has had to undergo a series of cranial operations. He smiles hugely but still cannot speak, despite intensive speech therapy. His one-year-old sister Olya plays nearby. She has been here since she was five days old. “Their mother keeps on having children and dropping them off here,” sighs a carer.
The roots of the charity lie with the American Orthodox outreach organisation Ohr Somayach. Its emissary, Rabbi Shlomo Baksht, arrived in Odessa in 1993 as part of the effort to revitalise the local community. Rabbi Baksht, an Israeli-born educator, set up the first children’s home in 1996. When financial difficulties ended Ohr Somayach’s operations in 2000, the rabbi founded Tikva as an independent organisation. It now runs four children’s homes, six schools, a fully accredited university and a soup kitchen. Unusually, Odessa is one of the few cities in the former Soviet Union where Chabad is not the dominant Jewish force.
Although not a Zionist organisation, Tikva guides most of its graduates towards aliyah, although in recent years it has recognised that the challenges of life as an immigrant to Israel is not the best option for many of their troubled charges.
Very few of the children had any experience of Judaism before coming to Tikva. But Refael Kruskal, the director, insists that, although the homes are run as fully Orthodox operations, there is no element of coercion. Furthermore, children are always taken into the home — and sent to Israel, for those who make aliyah — with the co-operation of their parents.
However, Judaism, he says, provides a ready-made structure — “and such children need a framework”, he explains. Within the home, the children are supposed to keep Shabbat — “but we know that some go behind the building to smoke,” he says with a wry grin. “Once, two girls got up late on Saturday — so they took a taxi to shul.”
Some, like Odessa-born Sharon Tuyansky, now 23, who spent three years living in the girls’ home before finishing school in Israel, both return to Orthodox Judaism and to Tikva. After marrying, aged 19, she is back as a teacher at the Tikva girls’ school. Her seven brothers and sisters also passed through the Tikva system, and “all of us are now chozer b’tshuva [newly religious]”, she says proudly.
However, as much as the homes introduce the children to Judaism, they take in only those who are halachically Jewish, even though under the Soviets children automatically took their father’s ethnic identity. Sasha Zhechev, Tikva’s chief administrator, has a team of 30 people working to locate Jewish children throughout the whole former Soviet Union, a task aided by the meticulous Soviet-era records detailing each citizen’s nationality and background.
“I would help any kid if I had the resources,” says UK-born Kruskal, who came to Odessa nine years ago. “I wish we could save 1,000 non-Jewish kids. Donors see that, if we take non-halachically Jewish kids, then it impacts on the continuity of this community. But every kid pulls at your heart.”
There is no possibility of any child being adopted, even though the charity is inundated with requests. If not in their parents’ custody, they would legally belong to the state, which would then have responsibility for placing them. And in any case, the children in the homes, even those who have suffered terrible mistreatment, seem still to love their parents.
Artur, who lives in the boys’ home — one of 16 children from his extended family being cared for by Tikva — is on a five-day visit to his mother in Belgorod, a town an hour’s drive from Odessa. At first glance, his mother’s place does not seem like much of a home. The building looms over a pot-holed courtyard piled with junk. Inside, half a dozen grizzled men lounge around a wood-fired stove crawling with cockroaches. Laughing with them is Artur’s aunt Anya, a young woman with dyed black hair, a chipped tooth and the swell of her latest pregnancy pressing up against her jumper. She is not quite sure, she says, who the father is.
Around them totters a sweet-faced 14-month-old girl in a red snowsuit, a long knitted grey cap and a sore on one lip. If encouraged, Olla will do her party tick — chirruping “My mother’s a bitch!” in Russian.
The smell of alcohol and something with a sharp chemical tang hangs in the air. It seems like dozens of people live here, crammed three or four within the filthy walls of each crumbling room, some too strung out to leave their beds or acknowledge the presence of visitors, others watching gaudy game shows on television.
In comparison, the newly renovated Tikva girls’ home is close to a brightly coloured paradise, with pretty murals painted by a Tikva alumni. Each floor houses a different age group, with a soft-play area, computer suites and art rooms nearly disappearing in a riot of sequins, satin and tinsel.
In the younger girls’ play area, a group of friends list their favourite things. Natasha, orphaned at the age of three, is a blonde seven-year-old with a sparkly pink top and gold earrings. She loves painting. “And Katya is my best friend, and I want to be a hairdresser when I grow up,” she declares in her squeaky voice.
Larissa, 10, a sharp-featured girl with Biro-smudged hands, wants to be a kindergarten teacher when she grows up. “I don’t like it when the older girls tell us what to do and when to go to sleep.” One of six children, she and three of her siblings were left behind in Odessa when her parents, both alcoholic, split up and her mother took two of the boys to Israel.
On the floor above, 16-year-old Larissa and her friend Anya, 13, are lounging watching a DVD of Spider-Man 2. “In general I like it here,” says Larissa, from the town of Nikolayev, two hours from Odessa. “But it’s a little oppressive with the counsellors telling us what to do. And they take our phones away every night and only give them back after school.” Dark-haired, her skinny face nearly overbalanced by silver hoop earrings, Larissa cuddles a toy reindeer she won at the amusement park last week and complains with good-natured teenage angst. “We are so busy at school, and after that I have singing and extra tuition. I’m really tired.”
The boys’ home, housing 50 children from the ages of six to 16, has yet to be renovated, and a dreary institutional smell of mince hangs in the air. The teenage boys, all wearing standard-issue black velvet kippot, have a raw, rangy look about them. But the walls are painted cheery shades of orange and yellow, and there is a clubhouse with a dozen computers, a pool table, and a small gym — not to mention Asia the cat and Gadia the dog.
“Some boys come here from a very hard family,” says Yeshua Kanevskiy, the director of the orphanage, “and for some of these boys the dog is their first friend.” Sitting in his office, decorated with Van Gogh and Monet prints alongside religious pictures, Kanevskiy, a returnee to Orthodox Judaism — explains his philosophy. “We are a traditional place, but I am very afraid of stigmas. In Israel if you have a black kippah you are already in a box. We are not a factory for religion.”
He pulls out a photo of Vlad, 12, whose mother is a sex worker and father a professional thief. While he still lived at home, his mother’s way of punishing him was to put him in a dog kennel. “He steals everything he sees,” recounts Yeshua. “He is very clever, but he can’t act like a student. He is very violent, very manipulative. For four or five years he has been having psychiatric treatment twice a week.”
Next door in the art room is Slava, 17, a blond, diffident youth from Belarus. He and his youngest brother Viktor have been at the home for one month. “We are the new ones,” he says shyly. One of eight children, his father died when he was four and the siblings are spread over the world between Israel, Russia and Ireland. His ambition is to study art in Britain. He pulls out a pastoral scene, of Belarus, he says. “I drew it with the colours I feel, the green, the sky. I love my country and I miss all my friends. But my mother said we should go.” And he likes it here. “It’s a beautiful place, and I’m not saying that because I don’t want trouble. I really feel it. ”
www.tikvaodessa.org
Did the rosh kollel learn in Lakewood? His name is common but familiar. I saw his picture in the paper that looks even more familiar.
ReplyDeleteA family who sent all their boys to YTT is notorious for only being open to the wealthiest shidduch prospects. I know a girl from one of the wealthiest Jewish families in the world. They did a shidduch with her not knowing that while she is a fine person, her nose was originally one of the most unattractive ones you have ever seen. I wonder if they would do the shidduch regardless.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thejc.com/Home.aspx?ParentId=m14&AId=57361&ATypeId=1&secid=14&prev=true
Cosmetic surgery may be seen as a modern innovation, but Jews have been going under the knife since the start of the 20th century. Many felt they needed to correct what they viewed as a deformity to help them integrate socially and professionally into western society. In fact, the operation, known as rhinoplasty, was pioneered in the 1900s by German Jew Dr Jacques Joseph (the son of a rabbi), to help patients who “suffered with an ethnic nose” in his native Berlin.
More of these putzes keep popping up but Shmarya keeps insisting this is an Orthodox-only problem, especially when it's covered up like this was back in 1999. The guy is so blinded by his hatred that it's sick.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/258497.html
Rabbi at Amherst's Temple Shaarey Zedek resigns amid complaint
Synagogue member alleges misconduct
By Jay Tokasz
Updated: 01/23/08 9:37 AM
The rabbi of an Amherst synagogue who was censured in 1999 for ethics violations has resigned amid a new complaint alleging misconduct.
The Rabbinical Assembly, the union that represents 1,400 Conservative rabbis worldwide, is investigating the complaint, filed by a member of the synagogue who accused Rabbi A. Charles Shalman of having an inappropriately close relationship with the member’s wife.
Shalman submitted a letter of resignation last Wednesday, citing personal reasons for leaving Temple Shaarey Zedek, a Conservative synagogue at 621 Getzville Road.
Shalman, who was hired in 1995, told The Buffalo News on Tuesday that the complaint was just “one piece of a much larger picture” of why he resigned.
“I have put a lot of thought into this decision and hope that I can find a less stressful second career, though I know it will never be as gratifying as my service to the congregation has been,” Shalman, 52, said in a brief telephone interview.
He said he was crafting a letter to the congregation that would explain his decision more fully.
C o ngregation President Rusty Zackheim said the Temple Shaarey Zedek community was shocked and saddened by Shalman’s resignation.
The temple board did not ask Shalman to resign.
Zackheim said she was made aware in late December of the complaint, which she described as being much different in nature from those that surfaced in 1999, when Shalman was nearly removed as rabbi of Temple Shaarey Zedek.
A Rabbinical Assembly investigation concluded then that Shalman had violated several principles of rabbinical conduct during his private counseling or teaching sessions with female members of the synagogue.
The assembly’s ethics board found that Shalman had improperly touched, questioned and made suggestive comments to some women. The assembly ordered him to seek therapy and refrain from counseling or teaching women, unless approved in advance by the ethics board.
The congregation voted to retain Shalman, who had four years remaining on a contract that paid more than $100,000 per year.
The 1999 investigation split the congregation into dueling factions, and the rabbi indicated to board members that he did not want to see it torn apart again, Zackheim said.
“The atmosphere was circuslike,” she said. “He did not want to see that happen again.”
Shabbat services were held Friday evening and Saturday morning without Shalman and will continue under the direction of Cantor Mark Spindler and lay leaders, Zackheim said.
The synagogue has applied to receive an interim rabbi.
The programs of Temple Shaarey Zedek also will continue, except for a Talmud class that Shalman taught.
Shalman had acquired a reputation as a compelling public speaker and bright Talmudic scholar. He often participated in dialogue on sensitive topics with people of other faiths and offered his perspective in public discussions about Israel and the Middle East, Christian-Jewish relations and other subjects.
He is a former president of the Buffalo Board of Rabbis and is listed as a faculty member of the Kadimah School of Buffalo.
Temple Shaarey Zedek, the area’s largest Conservative congregation, with about 500 members, is in the midst of merger talks with the area’s oldest Conservative congregation, Temple Beth El in the Town of Tonawanda.
Zackheim and Temple Beth El President Ed Drozen said Shalman’s resignation would not affect those discussions.
“It doesn’t throw a wrench into it,” Drozen said. “It just gives us something else to deal with.”
jtokasz@buffnews.com
http://media.buffalonews.com/smedia/2008/01/23/06/120-bn-20080123-B001-amherstrabbires-168064-MI0001.standalone.prod_affiliate.50.jpg
ReplyDeleteSome letz who reads UOJ tells me I look like Shalom Tendler before his beard turned white.
http://www.komotv.com/news/national/13882377.html
ReplyDeleteMan seen throwing toddler from freeway overpass
Dat drey kop Villie Viesner told me to put all my money in Apple Computer shares. I tought it vas immune from UOJ but I didn't know dat the CEO's name Job is goyish for Iyuv.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone here heard about the "rabbinic arbitration" conducted by shmutz face Dovid Cohen of Gvul Yaavetz. The disputing parties were the now well heard of Yudi Kolko and Shlomie Klein the bubble gum chewing elementary school principal at Chaim Berlin (a putz in his own right). The fight was about properly dividing their shared ownership in Camp Menuval (Ma-Navu). Shlomie Klein was represented at the time by an attorney and came loaded with tons of papers to prove his case. However, after Kolko finished telling his side of the story, and just as Klein's attorney was about to present his position and show his documented evidence, the freak sicko Dovid Cohen announced that he need not hear the Shlomie Klein side because he has made his finding. Shmutz face Dovid Cohen explained that he was gifted from Heaven with the ability to see through people and that he already knew the truth even without hearing and seeing any evidence. When the lawyer for Klein protested that he has solid evidence to prove his client's case, his words fell on the deaf ears of the psychotic lunatic, as he would not listen. The rasha Dovid Cohen insisted that he need not hear anything further and closed the proceedings. Of course, he issued a wriiten decision in favor of Yidi Kolko and shafted Shlomie Klein. (It's a fact that Dovid Cohen loves women and apparenly he loves sexual molesters also. Remember, Dovid Cohen of Gvul Yaavetz is the low life that suggested to Mondrowitz to flee the USA and go to Israel. Dovid Cohen admits to having known for over 40 years what Kolko was doing. And why is that considered a big deal- Shlomie Klein knew the same information and also did not tell it out to the public or drop Kolko as a partner for that reason. ) Imagine, the bastard Dovid Cohen claims to conduct a "din torah", but instead rules by some magical sense of smell. Some sick dog he is, or worse than a dog. Dogs I assume know what they are smelling, yet they don't try to arbitrate on that basis.
ReplyDelete(It is a known fact that Dovid Cohen rules on matrimonial matters in favor of women without ever speaking to or meeting their husbands.) The end of the story was that the attorney brought a court action to void out the Dovid Cohen arbitration decision on the grounds as described above and was successful. Thereafter, the entire matter was brought to court and where Kolko was defeated.
Adolf Belsky sounds to me the same as that other Adolf. Apparently, that name befits him better than one used by many Jews.
ReplyDeleteUOJ keep up the good work.
WOW UJO you scored 100 points. The entire Yeshiva Torah Vodaath is talking and laughing aloud over this web page. UOJ and the name ADOLF BELSKY has made a big hit. Even those that spoke out in the past against UOJ were laughing this time. Most talmidim connected with Torah Vodaath today know that Belsky is exactly as you wrote previously and so eloquently in your Belsky files when you referred to him as "walking sewage". This morning as Adolf Belsky walked by, one very chashuver bachur lifted his arm (after Adolf passed him by) and gave him a Heil Adolf. The place was rolling from laughter.
ReplyDelete