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Thursday, November 29, 2018

UOJ - "Don't be taken in. Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl!"

One of my all-time favorites from a good friend - The UOJ Classics!

Dear UOJ:

"......With reference to your recent correspondent: beware the well-meaning critic who "only " wants you to curb your language. Language is the key to humanity itself, so show me a censor and I'll show you a prison guard -- however well-intentioned. I do not advocate -- I do not practice -- indiscriminate brutality in language any more than in deed. In fact, I see plenty of writing on blogs that makes me worry for the future of civilized discourse. But NOT because of the language involved, nor because it attacks a sacred cow here, an overrated human icon there. Talk radio is infinitely worse than blogs; have the rabbis banned THAT? Au contraire: brutality aimed at "liberals" is still groovy.

Avigdor Miller could be as coarse in scorning his opponents as anything I've read on Jewish newsgroups -- has anyone lately pointed this out? There's the Jewish Observer, which indulged personal attacks against the author of Holy Days (who deserved better) and lately ran an obscene rant that condemned as sinners all people who write unpleasant truths about powerful rabbis, a piece so destructive of logic and decency that the author apparently never noticed the irony of condemning slander while committing it himself -- wholesale. Has this been condemned?

We are all fallible, and in controversy we inevitably irritate or disappoint at least some of our readers. Sometimes with reason. But it is a great mistake to be guided by a wish not to offend. Let the "gentle" critic who "only" wants you to tone down your rhetoric, or your graphic allusions, or your offensive imagery, or your subject matter, or your this or your that, assert in no uncertain terms -- if he dares -- that something he objects to in your work is, in fact, wrong, bad, untrue. If he can make that claim, and convince you of its correctness, well and good.

Otherwise: he is a temptation to be politely but firmly set aside. The man who wants to tell the truth but not offend the respectable is like someone who wants to scale a wall without using his hands. You can't do it. You want to do serious work -- well, some people aren't going to like it. They tell you they like your buildings but find the shadows they cast a little excessive? "Sorry, lady, but the shadow comes with the building. I'm sure you can find a spot without either one, if that's your choice." You can't write anything without tripping over somebody's sensitivities. So why worry about it?

Once you're offending -- OFFEND.

I don't mean blowharding. But OFFEND. If you're not offending someone, you're saying nothing... which of course is why so many rabbis, idolized by the "civil" crowd, are rising through the ranks by repeating the same sermons again and again, telling us nothing -- but giving no offense.

As for the claim -- the civilians are never without it -- that the same goals can be accomplished with different language -- well, if that's really so, why haven't they done it? I say the objection to the tools used is only valid true when the tools are truly the wrong ones... in which case, you won't be getting any results. Otherwise the methods are inseparable from the goals. Which is why Mozart had to use so many notes (in spite of fashion), Beethoven had to use bold dissonances, Ibsen had to refer to adultery and venereal disease. Even Lenny Bruce was told once that he could be a great comic without the "filth" (whatever that meant)... have you ever tried paraphrasing one of his great routines on sexual frailties -- minus the four-letter words? Having tried it once, would you ever want to again?

I do not believe the straitjacketing of language in Orthodox communities is a coincidence. I think it is a matter of deliberate strategy.

As Orwell pointed out, curbing language curbs thought: if there is no vocabulary to explain why Big Brother is evil, then the idea itself becomes impossible to hold. In our communities things are much the same. "Elchanan Wasserman was a religious tyrant who sacrificed thousands of people to his rigid piety" is no easier for the average Orthodox Jew to articulate than "Big Brother is ungood" would have been in Oceania. Breaking this barrier is not incidental to the kind of cause you're engaged in -- on the contrary, it is a fundamental part of it.

The Agudah crowd instinctively knows that the moment people can say "Reb Moshe sometimes misrepresented Talmudic sources to advance a personal ideology" or "Avigdor Miller emotionally manipulated ba'alei t'shuvah," etc., etc., they will begin to think for themselves and will never again be under Agudah's control. So, of course, they condemn such "language" as coarseness, as gossip, as slander, as slights to sages, whatever... rather than addressing themselves to the ONLY thing that matters, the truth or falsity of the statements in question.

Isn't it a commonplace that we can never learn from anyone's greatness until we can separate it from his frailties? Is Abraham Lincoln less inspiring a figure when we know about the messes in his personal life and his rough-and-tumble political background? Human beings emulate other human beings -- if you want to know what happens when people, instead of learning from fallible models, become the apes of God, look at R. Elchanan. I think he would have been a greater man if he had seen HIS heroes as human. He didn't: and just look at the results.

I may misquote him here, but Thomas Hardy, frequently under attack for his subject matter in his lifetime -- now accepted without question as one of the great novelists and poets of the early modern period -- had the right idea when he wrote in his journal: "Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl." It's taken me, a shy, diffident type, a long time to learn this, but no approach but Hardy's EVER works.

The moment you start trying to appease one critic, another pipes up; take something back, everything starts to collapse; cast around for consensus -- none will appear. If you want to be loved, don't write, or at least don't write honestly; there were vastly more popular writers than Hardy back in the 1890s. They wrote what the public liked and turned out bestsellers. Not one of them is ever mentioned today.

Don't be fooled by the number of hits on your blog -- most are curiosity seekers; the really popular speakers are the Frands, the Krohns, the Salomons, the Kotlers, etc., who never tell their audiences a word they don't want to hear. Our community will embalm them, and 75 years from now they will be exactly what they are now -- just as they are already the inarticulate corpses they will be then.

If a few words from your blogs survive, you at least will have a chance to live forever... not because of your "language," nor in spite of it, but because you wrote a few words that were true, right, clear, pure and necessary . . . and good Lord, what else can any of us hope for? It's a rare enough accomplishment as it is, while using every sensibility God gave us and every word he lent us for the purpose. Start censoring yourself, even for "good" reasons, and you don't have a chance.

Don't be taken in. Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl."

248 comments:

1 – 200 of 248   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

"Reb Moshe sometimes misrepresented Talmudic sources to advance a personal ideology" or "Avigdor Miller emotionally manipulated ba'alei t'shuvah," etc., etc

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

Does he really mean it or is he even just saying it as a possibility?

I thought even UOJ believes that R' Moishe is beyond reproach.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/01/08/2008-01-08_city_briefs.html

Sex-rap extradition

A Brooklyn man accused of abusing two Orthodox Jewish teens was brought from Israel to the U.S. Monday, becoming the first person extradited under a treaty that went into effect last January.

Stefan Colmer, 31, is expected to be charged Tuesday with sexually abusing two 13-year-old boys in his Midwood home in 2006, a law enforcement source said.

Anonymous said...

Front Page of the Wall St Journal

No wonder the investigations of Rubashkin illegal activity move so slow

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119932860523364137-5xYewZljkkDmW_pa64MAr7FTZsE_20080201.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Iowa is widely perceived as a homogenous state of meat-eating corn-growing white Protestants. But exceptions to the American Gothic stereotype abound, from the sushi halls of Iowa City and grape trellises of the Amana Colonies to the ultra-orthodox Jews from Brooklyn who run a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville. Here in Fairfield, about 1,700 residents gather each afternoon in a pair of gold domes for a session of group meditation known as Yogic Flying.

Ahead of today's Iowa caucus, in which even a few dozen votes could tilt the race in many voting precincts, candidates have been making special pitches to demographics as small and eccentric as Fairfield's Transcendental Meditation community.

Anonymous said...

Holy Fat Margo's Ass! Ne'er a readin' so much sense in one essay. Brilliant quotes, genius choice of wording and superb analyses of the friggin' situation. This sounded like Steve or LVF after a college degree in literature. Yous blowin ma mind. Way to go deputies.

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC.N) on Tuesday denied market speculation it might seek bankruptcy protection, after shares of the largest U.S. mortgage lender slid to their lowest level in nearly eight years.

Anonymous said...

Dear UOJ,

I truly believe that you're sincere in your work and intentions, but I whole heartily disagree with UOJ - "Don't be taken in. Never explain. Never retract. Get it done and let them howl." There is no way “you at least will have a chance to live forever”. Just the opposite, had you written and exposed molesters without the foul images and languages, you would have had a much greater audience, not only in size but also in respect. Most stable people who read your site say “Feeww what a menuval” and they consciously never look back at it because they are disgusted by its pictures and words.
Furthermore and unfortunately, you are making it more difficult for Mosdos to heed your demands because it is below their dignity to bend to a group of gloating baby menuvals. Only a fool believes in only one way, and to be honest, and with no intention to hurt you, the true reason you do it is because you can’t disassociate your anger with your agenda (a subtle hint to what most likely happened to you as a child) as you so admitted yourself at times that “you are only human”.

The gemara and chazal say that “ain hakadush boruch hu mikapaich schar kol beriah” which generally refers to rewarding even the biggest rishaim for the good they do, but also refers to the bad that good people do as the gemara says “kol haomer hakudosh boruch who mivater etc.”

On this note; it is important for you to realize that the gemara says “mutav liodam sheyapil atsmo litoch kivshan haaish vial yalbin pnei chavairo birabim”. The gemara and chazal equate Malbin pnei chavaira birabim to retsicha. You have consciously chosen to murder enablers and equate them to molesters. Molesters are murderers and as one Rav told me "they are boros birishoos harabim that need to be exposed”. However most enablers most likely don’t understand the dynamics and repercussions of molestation and are a complete different story. According to chazal, there is no doubt that in the next world you will give a fat din vicheshbon for what you say and write about them, and may G-D have a mercy on your soul, and I mean that sincerely.

The gemara in Psuchim 3B says “Al yotsi adam daver miguneh mipiv sheharai ikam hakusuv shmone oisios viloh hotsi daver miguneh mipiv”

Furthermore the Gemara in Kesuvas 5B says “tana dibei reb yishmael mipnai ma ozen kula kasha vihuolia raka shim yishma daver shainu hagen yokuf alaihu litocho” continues the gemara “al yashmia adam liaznov davarim bitailim mipnai shehaim nichvis techila”

Furthermore and directly discussing this issue of molestation the Gemara in Avoda Zora 36B says “vi’al binosaihen mishoom daver acher vial daver acher mishoom daver acher” later on the gemara asks "what is this daver acher that you refer to but don’t mention"? the gemara answers "MOLESTATION". (see the cross references in Nidah and other gemaras and mefarshim)

With sincere hope that you will change your targets and tone.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

800 some e-mails so far today in reference to this headline post! I read about 70....9-1 very positive and in agreement totally with the brilliant author of the post!

Todah!

Anonymous said...

The blogosphere is in a state of shock how eloquently this author expressed himself/herself.

I, for one, believe that there is not a syllable or letter wasted on frivolity.

We'd like to hear more from this author.

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/hiding-behind-bible.html

Avi Shafran told me to try this. Also, Belsky advised not even showing up to court but it was kind of hard to listen to his advice when you have a bunch of Federal Marshalls dragging you there.

Anonymous said...

Tehilim Perek 14 Laminatsaich lidovid Amor Nuvel bilibo translated; The menuval says in his heart there is no G-D (then Dovid proclaims) they have destroyed and abominably in their defaming, there is not one good doer. Hashem gazed down on these people to see is there just one reflective person who seeks G-D?. No they have all gone astray together there is no good doer NOT EVEN ONE”

There are millions of fools who make "Aliya" to Mecca each year. Numbers mean nothing. There are losers of all types who will slap high five as they gloat in the opportunity to see in the downfall of their enemies, and expose the one fish they finally catch. On the contrary G-D fearing men of honor and dignity stick to their guns and silently cry at the tainted picture that has been painted. The city of Sidom, a city full of rape, and molestation. (See chazal) which the etymology Sodomy comes from, was destroyed- and Avraham begs Hashem is there just a few tsadikim to save this city? Hashem responds and indicates that Avraham is the only one standing Tsadik.

If you have the slightest Yiras Shimaim, which you claim you seek from others, you would make a kidush hashem, and take down right now all your negative pictures and remarks about talmidai chachomim, who you've publicly defamed and subtlety categorized as enablers. According to chazal and specifically here according to Dovid Hamelech who according to the Rambam was the greatest B’aal ruach hakodesh (not novi) all your supporters and including the author of this “UOJ - "Don't be taken in” who writes “the really popular speakers are the Frands, the Krohns, the Salomons, the Kotlers, etc., who never tell their audiences a word they don't want to hear” will pay a heavy price for the unspeakable loshon hara, and motsi shem ra etc.

There are many other topics that you write about here which demonstrates your ignorance in halacha and hashkafa, including what you’ve sadly written about the AriZal and the Zohar. It is obvious that you either never seriously learnt halacha (and kabala) as you claim in your profile, or in your older age you’ve forgotten that many times the poskim in shulchan aruch and the mishna berura, pasken just based on the writings of the Zohar. Today though, that is not my debate since it’s also obvious that you’ve fallen pray to numbers, and did not heed to these authors words “Don't be fooled by the number of hits on your blog”. Today my issue is, that you are getting more and more support from empty headed ami ratsim who know nothing about yidishket, I repeat nothing, and you’ll just run with them further, as they take you down no one else, and fall pray to your temptation of defaming talmidai chachimim, instead of your initial intent to bring down molesters. Similar to what I mentioned before, we’ll all give a din v’cheshbon one day, but I’m sure happy that I’m not in your or any of your supporters shoes.

With sincere hope that you’ll repent, change your pictures, targets, and tone.

Anonymous said...

1010 wins news had the story of colmer, and they claim the judge set bail for $"10,000,000.00" thats right ten million.

Anonymous said...

Without UOJ, Colmer would still be on the loose. The anonymous basher has his head in his tuches.

Anonymous said...

If anyone wants to yell at me in person, you know where to find me now.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517327361&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Background static

avi shafran , THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 8, 2008

Winter, when my commute home from Manhattan on the Staten Island ferry is shrouded in darkness, provides me with a singular opportunity.

That's because the thousands of other commuters sailing along with me are more subdued than at other times of year. There is, of course, artificial lighting on the ferry, but the darkness outside seems to quell conversations somewhat; the boat is noticeably quieter than when the sun sets later. And where the electric lights are most dim, in a certain part of the vessel unknown to many passengers, is where you will find me.

I use my commute to study Talmud and catch up on reading. In the winter, the study is particularly sweet in that poorly lighted, somewhat remote area, where the only other passengers are interested exclusively in napping or listening, eyes closed, to their iPods.

A small, battery-operated booklight clipped to the cover of the tractate I study casts soft light onto the page, and, unless one of my neighbors is intent on annoying the rest of us by turning up the volume on his "personal" audio-device so it sounds like an angry bee (and no doubt permanently damages his eardrums), all is quiet and dark, with the Hebrew words before my eyes drawing me in. I wouldn't come home any other way.

AT AN Agudath Israel national convention several years ago, Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon, the Mashgiach, or dean of students, of the famed Lakewood Yeshiva (Beth Medrash Govoha), delivered an address that I often recall as I settle into my ferry-seat. His topic had been the centrality of introspection and focused study to the essence of true Jewish life, dedication to the Divine. And then he bemoaned how chronically unconcentrated we all are these days.

When incandescent lighting was first commercialized in the 1920s, Rabbi Salomon recounted, committed Jews - like the rest of the world - were enthralled with the possibilities presented by the new technology. They saw wondrous potential in not having to rely on the dim, flickering light of wax candles or oil lamps to illuminate the sacred books whose study they so cherished.

But the revered Torah personage Rabbi Elya Lopian (1872-1970), a giant of the Mussar movement that stressed striving for personal ethical perfection, was less sanguine. He told his students that the more primitive lighting to which they were accustomed, for all its drawbacks, facilitated concentration and focus. The new technology, he feared, for all of its advantages, would undermine those things.

Anonymous said...

It's a travesty that the judge set bail for Colmer. The bleeding heart liberals will come up with the money in minutes, under the guise of "Pidyon Shvuyim". This man has proven that he is a flight risk. How can you set bail for a man accused of such heinous crimes, who as recently as last year attempted to flee justice?

Anonymous said...

I doubt that people will cough up 10 million bucks for an unconnected BT. I would be much more concerned if it were Mondrowitz.

Anonymous said...

Mier Silberstein has informed his counterpart in the usa, David Olewski that it is moraly admirable to put up the bail and house Colmer in David's house so long as Colmer takes on the practice of sodmizing boys through a bedsheet hole ONLY and only once a month per individual boy. Mier is quoting some obscure psak halacha from R' Shlomo Zalman Aurbach that no one knows of but Mondrowitz claims to have an authenticaly forged copy of this teshuva tucked away in the crotch of his gatkis.

Anonymous said...

1-800-pickle, a pidyon shvuim orgy-nization run under the auspices and oversight of Lazer Ginzburg is seeking to raise enough funds to bail out Rav Colmer who according to the Ba'al Haloshonos Gadolos (Effin' Quacksman) is innocent since no 2 adults witnessed any sort of Pincus S. Penetration, and besides the point Avi Shafran says the gedoilim paskened it is loshon hora and a great chillul hashem.

Avi issued the press release on the staten island ferry while hiding Slifkin's sefer and the makings of a godol in book jackets of Eiseman's new Artscroll/Mesorah Chibur on the virtues and reasons behind cibuk v'nishuk of minor boys. He will elaborate more on his regular blog apearances and in the jewish enquirer-observer which has recently won the affectionate aclaim of UOJ as a porno mag.

Anonymous said...

Whoever said that pigs will fly before UOJ and friends get these molesters deported might want to buy stock in Rubashkin before everyone gets wind of the raining pigs and swine phenomena and a rush for rubashkin stock is started.

Anonymous said...

Dunno what this blustering fuss is over attacking rabbi enablers. When the Leizerowitz scandal broke wide open nearly 2 years ago an argument broke out in one of the gerrer shteebles on 16th Ave as to the proper perspective and response in dealing with the revelations of hanky pank going on with this mashgiach for so many years. As a result of a dare, these folks presented both sides of the matter to one of the leading poiskim today for his opinion, stressing that his psak would or might lead to certain actions or consenquences stressing that this was a request for a psak halacha l'maise. HIS PSAK after a few days of research and shikul hadaas was:

1. Leizerowitz has a din of a rodaif and miseere is recommended and if not possible then bodily harm is a permissable option since he is an active rodaif.

2. His enablers and protectors HAVE THE SAME DIN as him and it would be permissable to report an enablers illicit businees dealings to the IRS etc. only kol zman the molester is in the country. Once he leaves and the enablers no longer obstruct in procuring the safety of society the above directives no longer apply.

3. As to whether one may further harass the rabbonim who enabled and covered up (like David Olefski), a psak was not asked and I think it wise to check with halachik authorities about this before it is perpetrated. Consideration would have to be given to the fact that the enabler or enablers have shown gross incompetence in weighty issues like these.

Anonymous said...

as someone who takes unpopular positions and is quite outspoken in communities on various issues
ican only concur with the write and tell uoj the immortal words of jim valvano dont give up dont ever give up

YoelB said...

KEEP THE PICTURES.
It's a public service to have some of the other pictures on the site of men with smicha who are, or who protected evildoers. Then look at the picture of Rav Shmuel Berenbaum zt"l and compare it to the others. Look especially at and around the eyes.
Know how to recognize your enemies.
'Nuff said.

Anonymous said...

The author of the DOn't be taken in piece has set up a strawman to be burned to the ground. The author of the first article never suggests that UOJ should do anything to be less effective. He simply states that UOJ could be just as effective without resorting to Bizui, Laitzonis, etc. In fact, all of this diminishes UOJ's effectiveness bothh here and in the next world

UOJ could have gone after the molesters and ACTIVE ENABLERS (MARGO AND THOSE that actively got involved to coverup molestation) just as strongly but not lumped every PASSIVE ENABLER (those who may have known something at some time or another in the past 30 years and didn't say anything) together with the real villians. This is so unfair. IT also leaves the wrong impression that there is this underground cabal of Rabbis that for the past 30 years have secretly plotted and planned to ensure that all molesters are protected.

The truth is strong enough. We do not need exaggerations to make our case. MARGO and his ilk and the molesters are shameful and need to be taken down, but the number of Rabbis ACTIVELY involved is still relatively small. Of course, this is still terrible and it is a SHANDA that nobody outside of UOJ will tell it like it is about the molesters and enablers, but for UOJ to create a false reality is a big problem.

UOJ - G-D judges each of us. I believe that if someone can accomplish something great and chooses to do it in a way that causes UNNECCESSARY collateral damage, there is a din vchesbon.

The Tuvya's of the world will tell you that because of the "BAD side" of UOJ, the blog is RISHUS. I can not agree with that because the BOttom line is that the Tuvyas, etc. and other GENTLE SOULS will do nothing to the molesters and enablers. However, please do understand that this argument is accepted by many people who would otherwise perhaps support the effort by UOJ. People simply do not feel comfortable associating with an effort as this because of the "bad."

UOJ, please do not mock our intelligence with your claims that you have received 800 e-mails, 9-1 in supoort, etc.

We are not fools!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Colmer was officially extradited through the U.S. Marshalls Service on Monday (though I understand he was flown out of Israel on Sunday). From the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (located in Brooklyn), he was officially arrested and booked Monday night by New York police and then placed at Rikers Island. He was arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court (the trial court) Tuesday morning. The bail set is five million cash over ten million dollars surety bond.

Anonymous said...

To the anonymous of 12:16 and other misguided "tzadikim":

How dare you and the others spend precious time criticizing UOJ on moral grounds for his "leitznus, and "Bizui" and for his "Nivul Peh"!

It is one thing to make the argument that it MIGHT possibly be a less strategically efective approach because it turns off some even though it gathers the emotions of others. YES, as a genuine, real life SURVIVOR OF RABBINCAL SEXUAL ABUSE, I believe I speak for many in saying that UOJ's throwing caution to the wind on these halachas, was a breath of fresh air in our community that has cynically hidden behind Torah laws such as lashon harah and mesirah and chillul Hashem in its hypocritical attempt to be "Merachem al ha'achzarim." So for you to have the chutzpah to judge what will be UOJ's fate in the next world for this is repugnant. Do you still have riteous indignation to spend on the breaking of these halachos, when so many of our community leaders, the decisors, transmitters and guardians of halacha are using it to protect evil?

As for your point about being careful about collateral damage and lumping together the passive and the active enablers, this is an obtuse and simplistic argument. UOJ has always claimed to be following an approach akin to the one taken by the presidential administration of our country since 9/11 towards terrorism. Namely, that those who harbor terrorists are equal to terrorists. It does not matter if Syria actively or passively allows Hamas and Hizbolla to do their evil work in their country. It does not matter if Yeshiva of Brooklyn, or Ner Yisroel or The Moetzes of Agudas Yisroel or Torah Umesorah actively or passively neglected their fiduciary responsibilty to the community to warn and protect it from danger. Remember, please, that "All that is needed for evil to be victorious is for good men to do nothing."

Of course, we would all agree that the level of evil perpretrated durring the Holocaust by the Allies passively refusing to bomb the railroad tracks to the concentration camps, or passively neglecting to save Jews by opening their borders, was not quite as evil as the actions of the Nazis. Lo Saamod Al Dam Re'echa is technically only a "Mitzvas Asey", and not the moral equivalent of "Retzicha." But it WAS evil and must be seen as such. So painting with a broad brush and saying the world was complicit in the holocaust, thereby attacking America too, IS NOT an irresponsible cause of "collateral damage". Neither is blaming those leaders who knew and did NOTHING to help the victims of sexual abuse for decades, due to lack of character, wisdom, and integrity.

So, while it is completely underswtandable to question UOJ's tactics in terms of their utility, to pass moral judgment as the "holier than thou" writers who have the audacity to talk about his "din v'cheshbon", is hurtful to the feelings of the victims, including yours truly, who UOJ is attempting to represent.

UOJ's use of exagerated numbers and statistics to attempt to support his cause may insult your intelligence, but the false piety of the "chosid shoteh" you express, insults our humanity, as it deflects attention from the suffering of the victims, and denigrates UOJ, who is a lone voice standing up for us.

Finally, as for those that feel that the site is "Rishus" because of it's "BAD" side, and refuse therefore to support its efforts. To me they appear akin to those Jews in the times of Chanukah, who agreed with Matisyahu's sentiments, but could not support his "BAD" methods of militant, violent confrontation with the Helenists. And just as at that time, the Macabim/Chashmonaim followed the ancient slogan of Kanaus "Me LaHashem Aylay", and DID NOT worry about popularity or the sensitivities of the "GENTLE SOULS", so should all of us strive to follow the lead of UOJ, and ignore his critics and those who are not up to the challenge of his calling.

Signed,

A grateful survivor who would be incredibly honored if UOJ were to post my piece for all to read.

Anonymous said...

http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2008/01/received-by-email-i-dont-wish-to-come.html

DovWeasel and his supporters belittling Rav Shmuel Berenbaum ztl.

Anonymous said...

My Encounters With Rabbi Baruch Lanner

By Yochanan Lavie

After my family moved around the corner to an Orthodox synagogue, I was attracted to, and envious of, Sabbath observance. Reform Judaism seemed pallid and churchy to me. The Hertz Chumash used back then in our Reform synagogue was a subversive text. It spoke to me; that one could believe in the Torah as divine revelation and not be a knuckle-dragger. My study of Jewish history and lore also convinced me that Orthodox Judaism was more authentic. An article in The Village Voice by Carol Getzoff called “Tripping Out on Torah,” about ex-hippies becoming Lubavitchers made being frum seem cutting edge and cool. Also, corny as it seems now, Fiddler on the Roof was inspirational to me. So I stepped in to the Orthodox shul around the corner, not knowing what reception I would get, and started my spiritual journey. A year later, I convinced my open-minded parents to send me to Frisch, a Modern Orthodox yeshiva high school.

In short, I became a BT without knowing that the letters NCSY could be strung together in any meaningful way. I was fully Orthodox both ideologically and in praxis in high school. I didn't "convert" through NCSY. I joined NCSY in high school, because I thought it would be inspirational, and help me meet people. I was immediately drawn to Baruch Lanner. He was fat, dumpy, talked like a duck, and dressed in bargain store chic before it was fashionable. Despite that, he was mesmerizing.

Lanner was indeed charismatic. He could leave a room full of kids spellbound, by his intense emotional appeals. Although obviously very intelligent, he preferred to go for the emotional jugular. For example, he talked about his father, who was a Holocaust survivor. I remember one speech (I think in was a Shabbaton in Asbury Park or Seaside Heights- one of those moribund former resort towns). Here is a close paraphrase:

One day my father asked me, “Baruch, what word can you make with the letters of the word moshiach?” I didn’t know, so he hit me. So he asked me again. I didn’t know, so he hit me. Finally, I said “yismach,” pleasure. And that’s the answer he wanted.

In another speech, he was crying about how he used to hate his father, who would lock him in a closet so he could be good. (I couldn’t make this up).

His typical Shabbaton havdalah service would involve dim lighting, a slow, emotionally evocative tune such as “Ani Ma’amim,” a sob story about the Holocaust, a Baal Teshuvah who was having a hard time, or some such thing. It would start off low key and pensive, and then be built up into a screaming, fire-and-brimstone guilt trip. Sometimes Lanner’s partner in crime, Nate Siegel, would be the one haranguing the audience. Nate and Baruch screamed into so many microphones I am surprised they never blew an amp.

Suddenly, after the service, “Boom, boom, boom,” went the drums, and “Yibeneh” would play. The lights would go on and “spontaneous” ruach dancing would ensue in a fast frenzy. From slow, introspective, and mystical, to an emotional crescendo and then a fervid release of energy. For hormone soaked teenagers, this was quite effective; this, despite the fact that Lanner never deviated from this formula. Dear reader, it worked on me.

What about recalcitrant Shabbaton goers who were not into it? I remember one Winter Regional Shabbaton when the harangue went on for about two hours. (I was getting disillusioned and cynical at the time, so I kept track- even though part of me was still buying it). Advisors stood with their arms folded at the doors. If a kid wanted to sit down, or go to the bathroom, he was physically prevented. A visitor from the Southern Region of NCSY, who I knew from the Israel tour, was appalled by this. In his region, he said, it was friendlier and low-key. This is an extreme example, but not far off from the strict micromanagement Baruch encouraged his advisors to enforce at all Shabbatonim.

At school, and in NCSY, Lanner played favorites. Years later, as an adult educator, I know how inappropriate such behavior can be. At one Shabbaton, he announced at a kumzitz that so-and-so was “the best kid in the region-“his exact words. Then, he had that youth read aloud a personal letter he wrote to his advisor about wanting to keep every Shabbat. When the guy finished, Lanner said: “This is the best kid in the region!” Later in the year, at another Shabbaton, he announced: “Remember that guy I said was the best kid in the region? Well, drugs became a little more important in his life than torah!” He brought no proof to substantiate this claim.

It's Lanner’s charisma that makes him dangerous. He encouraged a cult of personality, both in NCSY and at the school. He always had an adoring entourage. At the school, they would joking sing: "Lanner, Lanner, keil rachum v'chanan," to the tune of slichot. Maybe it's not avodah zarah 'cause it's clearly a joke, but it was creepy. So was the big grin he would have on his face when they sang it. (This is not secondhand. I actually heard & saw this!) He would almost always be accompanied down the corridors by his loyalists whom outsiders derisively called “Lannerians.” Any other kid, who wanted to join the inner circle, but wasn’t hand picked, was tolerated but ignored. (Yes, haters, I was one of them- circling like a lonely moth around a flame).

That brings me to the story of my friend Danny Winters. Danny was, and still is, a model BT. He would walk two miles to an Orthodox shul, rather than daven at a nearby Conservative one. He kept kosher using his own dishes, because his parents were ambivalent about him becoming religious (although they did send him to Frisch, at his request). He was, and is, one of my best friends. Danny became active in the NCSY chapter of the shul he trekked to. One day, when Danny, Lanner, and I all had a free period, (and the entourage was not around) he told Lanner he was interested in running for president of his chapter. This is what went down:

Lanner: I don’t think you should become president of your chapter. In fact, I will do everything in my power to make sure you are NOT elected.

Danny: Why?

Lanner: Well, you’re not popular enough with the kids, and with the parents. Also, you don’t have money, or the ability to raise money. This chapter needs a lot of money in order to be successful.

That was the point I left NCSY.

But backtracking before that point, there is the salacious part: He did inappropriate things with boys, as well as girls. With girls he made inappropriate comments about breast size, etc. (I didn't personally witness it, but I know the accusers and they are of good character). I did witness him kneeing guys in the balls for minor religious infractions (like not wearing talit katan if they "knew better"). He dismissed that as "horseplay" in the OU report.

An example of his “horseplay” was inflicted on another friend, Bobby Wiseman. Bobby, like many teenagers, had conflicted feelings about religion. He was raised in an observant Conservative family, but was always sent to Modern Orthodox yeshivot. He was pretty much orthoprax, but Conservative in ideology, and angry at God. (His father was tragically murdered in a mugging a few years before I met him.) The way he rebelled against God was by making minor, sarcastic comments, and not taking the mitzvah of tzitzit seriously. (Despite that, as I said, he still was pretty much observant.) It was school policy for boys to wear a tallit katan, so Bobby found the smallest one he could find- a toddler’s training pair. It was actually funny- more like a necklace. But he became active in NCSY and had a religious awakening, and decided to deepen his observance.

Like Danny, Bobby would walk miles to the nearest Orthodox shul; forsaking the Conservative one he grew up in. He decided to get a real tallit katan, but didn’t own one yet. He was afraid his “necklace” was too small to be a garment, and would therefore constitute carrying if worn on Shabbat. He asked a teacher in Frisch, a chareidi rabbi who is very knowledgeable in halacha, who agreed it is better to be safe than sorry. Don’t wear it on Shabbat, he advised. Bobby was not safe from Lanner’s knee, however.

At the Fair Lawn Shabbaton, Lanner asked Bobby if he was wearing tzitzis. Bobby answered truthfully, no. Before he could utter a further explanation, an advisor pinned Bobby from behind while Lanner kneed him in the testicles. Bobby doubled over in pain. When I asked him if he was okay, he said he is leaving NCSY, and Orthodoxy, and returning to Conservative Judaism. I couldn’t think of anything to say to convince him otherwise.

As for Modern Orthodoxy, Lanner seemed a subversive element, to me. He had an articulate Chasid (I think it was Meyer Schiller, but I could be wrong) debate unprepared kids about Zionism. Lanner said, “You’ll see there’s just as much kedushah on the right- and perhaps a little bit more” than Modern Orthodoxy. Of course, the intelligent, articulate adult made mincemeat out of the naive, emotional Shabbaton-goers. (This was in Washington Heights- for some reason part of NJ Etz Chaim region).

As to his actual crimes, I did not know the extent back then, but I tried to warn people that he was a loose cannon. They didn't listen- citing loshon hara, making excuses for him, talking about the good he did, etc. Sometimes, adults would literally cover their ears and say “I don’t want to hear this!” An FFB friend said “Didn’t Baruch make you frum?” when in fact, this friend knew my history and conveniently forgot it.

I told a school consular about all this. She was horrified but knew she was powerless to do anything, due to Lanner's standing in the school. She said he ran NCSY like a cult. Other adults thought I was emotional, was exaggerating, etc. I wasn't the only one; Danny and Bobby and others tried to tell their stories. Until the sexual stuff came out, we were not believed. I was trying to be Paul Revere. But I was treated more like Cassandra.

Some would still justify Lanner, saying he saved souls. True, but many kids, both FFB and BT were turned off to Orthodoxy by him as well. One FFB said “Lanner is an asshole. He only thinks you’re any good if you made yourself frum.” Another commented on a BT kid who was courted by Lanner and abandoned when Lanner lost interest in him. I don't know what the ratio is of saved ones to turned-off ones, but I suspect it's at least a wash. I know it put a lot of doubts in my mind; doubts I have not gotten over 30 years later...

Note: Some of the names have been changed to protect privacy, but all incidents are true, to the best of my recollection.

Anonymous said...

Avi Shafran is an honorable hypocrite!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

UOJ's use of exagerated numbers and statistics to attempt to support his cause may insult your intelligence, but the false piety of the "chosid shoteh" you express, insults our humanity, as it deflects attention from the suffering of the victims, and denigrates UOJ, who is a lone voice standing up for us.

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

The numbers and statistics are never exaggerated.....NEVER!

Anonymous said...

"Fiduciary duty" is the keyword.

There is a moral and legal obligation for the "passive" enablers to act. An imperative rooted in both halacha and secular law.

For our anonymous critic who is so preoccupied with punishments in the World to Come, he might want to read up on all the maamarei Chazal of those who were punished because they could speak up but chose to remain silent. I believe it was Rebbi Chanina who realized how gravely he had erred when he did not intervene when seeing one Jew merely insult another. He fasted until his teeth turned black.

Kal vochomer, ben bno shel kal vachomer, when we have children murdered by pedophiles.

Anonymous said...

The statistics skeptic sounds like a Putz in the style of Neuhoff who either is deliberately lying to downplay UOJ's impact or who just can't get through his thick skull how wide reaching and influential the blogs are ....

... ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S UOJ - ONE OF THE ONLY GUYS WHO GAVE ENOUGH OF A DAMN TO FIGHT TO TAKE BACK YIDDISHKEIT FROM THE SELFISH LUNATICS.

Anonymous said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/01/confused-or-convinced.html#c7383255979143365220

Shtender Bender said...
I'm surprised everyone is drawing conclusions FROM THE DATE ON KAJ'S LETTER. All or most Certificates of Hechsher expire right before Pesach (for the obvious reason).
THE SHAME OF IT IS, that Hechsherim can't really recall/cancel a Hechsher, only refuse to renew it when it expires. Hence the KAJ "Nissan" dated letter.
In the past, I have seen this happen several times leaving the consumer to believe they can really continue using the product unitl the cutoff date while in reality we should be smart enough to know if the Hechsher is bailing out we should too!
This is one of the most significant problems with Hechsherim in general. No one knows what problems really are being dealt with, what Heterim are utilized to resolve a problem and more importantly, pulling the wool over our eyes and fooling us into buying a product that is BID'EVED at best. Although the Shulchan Aruch does provide these Heterim, does Halacha also allow us to be misled into thinking it is the same quality as the Mehadrin kosher ones, not bid'eved ones?
I await a Hechsher who will commit/promise to announce that "today" there was an issue with their product so those who want to be MEIKIL may eat it (note choice of words).

Anonymous said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/01/confused-or-convinced.html#c2655319574626765981

Inside Information said...
I'm told the Chof-K is looking at disallowing Rubashkin in all of their establishments.

Anonymous said...

This company owned by Lubavitcher Sefardim has been caught with treif cheese and forging the teudas kashrus of Chug Chasam Sofer. They also own a meat company called Hod Lavan.

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/01/confused-or-convinced.html#c4324464391189741442

Cholov Yisroel brands like Golden Flow and New Square (Ahava Dairies) have also dramatically increased the number of stores that sell the Cholov Yisroel milk and other dairy products, including many supermarkets and discount chains. While Ahava continues to be a main player, retail sources say that the company has found itself in difficulty with creditors. Retailers in the New York metro area received letters to pay the creditors rather than Ahava. KosherToday was not able to reach anyone at Ahava, whose phone is answered 'Schwartz,' but industry sources say that the company is undergoing the latest of several reorganization efforts. Ahava in the early '90's was credited with bringing down prices of Cholov Yisroel milk when it successfully won a battle to import milk from Farmland Dairies in New Jersey.

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs on Wednesday said it expects the U.S. economy to drop into recession this year, prompting the Federal Reserve to slash benchmark lending rates to 2.5 percent by the third quarter.

In a note to clients, Goldman said real gross domestic product would contract by 1 percent on an annualized basis in both the second and third quarters. For all of 2008, the investment bank said GDP would rise by 0.8 percent.

The unemployment rate will rise to 6.5 percent in 2009 from the current 5 percent, it said.

The weakening economy will force the Fed to lower policy rates by an additional 1.75 percentage points from the current 4.25 percent. Starting in September, the Fed cut rates at the last three meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee, reducing the target rate on loans between banks by 1 percentage point from 5.25 percent.

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC.N), the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Wednesday that foreclosures and late payments rose in December to the highest on record, though it made more loans than expected in the fourth quarter.

Its shares fell as much as 20.2 percent as concern persisted that Countrywide might seek bankruptcy protection. The shares fell 27.4 percent on Tuesday though Countrywide rejected an identical rumor.

"Rumors of bankruptcy are still surrounding Countrywide," said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments. "Investors still believe that they need an infusion of capital."

Anonymous said...

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/localnews/ci_7919030

Harry C. "Hank" Payne, the 14th president of Williams College, who served from 1994 to 1999, was found dead Monday after an apparent fall or jump from a hotel balcony in Atlanta. He was 60.
The Fulton County (Ga.) medical examiner's office is trying to determine the cause of his death, which was announced on the Web site of Woodward Academy in College Park, Ga., according to The Associated Press. He had served as that school's president since July 2000.

Payne fell or jumped from an eighth-floor balcony at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, where he was a guest, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. An Atlanta Police spokesman told the paper that the investigation was pointing to a suicide.

In a statement issued yesterday, current Williams President Morton O. Schapiro called Payne a "wonderfully decent and caring man who dedicated his professional career to expanding the intellectual lives of students" and whose initiatives begun during his tenure continue to benefit the college.

"Our thoughts and prayers go to (Payne's wife), Deborah, and to their sons, Jonathan, Class of 1997, and Samuel," Schapiro said.

Prior to his tenure at Williams, Payne served as president of Hamilton College in New York and as provost and acting president of Haverford College outside Philadelphia, where he also taught.
He received his doctorate in history in 1973 from Yale University. He was a professor of history at Colgate University from 1973 to 1985.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?mode=a§ionid=1&contentid=28402&contentName=Rabbi%20Shmuel%20Berenbaum,%20Mir%20Rosh%20Yeshiva,%20Dies

The Jewish Fress has very shvache reporting on R' Shmuel's levaya. Although the picture from a block away really shows how huge the crowd was.

Anonymous said...

Rebbetzin Wiesenfeld from Beis Hatalmud, the granddaughter of the Chofetz Chaim, was killed by a car while crossing the street to the Ateres Shlomo chassuna hall.

The levaya was yesterday at the yeshiva.

Boruch dayan haemes.

Anonymous said...

47 Sorotzkin, 4th Floor

Anonymous said...

Dear UOJ Please post my comments, and don’t fall pray to the “The really popular speakers who never tell their audiences a word they don't want to hear”

To the Anonymous poster who wrote Dunno what this blustering fuss is over attacking rabbi enablers etc. and to the author of to the anonymous of 12:16 and other misguided "tzadikim" and to the commentor Ombudsman said...

Please don’t misconstrue or take out of context my comments on this posting. I’m not giving a freeway here to molester enablers, or advocating halting chasing Molesters. Rather the UOJ takes the liberty to mock derail, defame, and insult in all sorts of vulgar language anybody and everybody he disagrees with. He openly mocks and insults many Rebbes and Rosh Hayeshivoi of today and yesteryear regarding all sorts of various issues THAT HAVE NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH CHILD MOLESTATION. All I advocated for was that he stop practicing an unfathomable double standard where he chases child molesters calling himself “a yorai shamaim” while simultaneously publicly defaming OTHER INDIVIDUALS which according to chazal is considered a MURDEROUS ACT. It is also a grave sin that NOT ACCORDING TO ME but rather according to our sages qualifies him for giving up his Chailik Liolam Haba-Portion in the world to come. The UOJ himself cowardly hides behind a pseudonym, never revealing his true identity, and then he sets the protocol that anybody who disagrees with ANY ways of his ideals for life are labeled “molester enablers” giving him the halachic authority to publicly mock them by their rightfully names and images. This protocol is nothing less then a SICKENING COWARDLY DOUBLE STANDARD. It’s simple, his sins of mocking in a public domain, other PERHAPS sinners, is a much graver sin then any of their possible sins. The Gemara Sanhedrin 107B clearly echoes this by quoting Dovid Hamelech; Amor Dovid lifnai Hakadush Boruch Hu etc. translated; “Dovid says before hashem, and not only this but while they learn the halachas of the four deaths of bais din, they (mockingly) turn to me and say Dovid one who commits adultery with another married women what deathly punishment does he deserve, I respond to them his death is choking, however he still retains a place in the world to come, but one who shames another in public HAS NO PLACE IN THE WORLD TO COME”

On this note; I’ll translate what I wrote before regarding what our sages say about embarrassing others in public and vulgar language; chazal say “It is better for a person to throw himself (and two others) into a burning oven rather then to mock another individual in public. For willing to do this, Tamar was rewarded with grandchildren who were kings and a grandchild who will be Mashiach”. The gemara in Psachim 3B says “Do not utter inappropriate language from your mouth since we find that the Torah changed 8 letters so as not to utter an inappropriate word”. Furthermore the Gemara in Kesuvas 5B says “They learnt by Reb Yishmael; for what reason is the inner earlobe hard and the outer lobe soft? Just in case one starts hearing some inappropriate language he should be able to turn the outer lobe inwards.” continues the gemara “Do not hear to your ears words of vain for they will be the first to be singed in the world to come”. Additionally and directly discussing this issue of MOLESTATION the Gemara in Avoda Zora 36B says “They forbade the daughters because of something else and something else because of something else” the gemara asks "what is this something else that you (the gemara) has only referred to but don’t wish to clearly articulate”? The Gemara answers "CHILD MOLESTATION".

For those who feel that having hundreds of supporter’s means he is right to use a foul mouth I quoted the following versus in Tehilim. Tehilim Perek 14 Laminatsaich lidovid Amor Nuvel bilibo translated; The menuval-dirty mouther says in his heart there is no G-D (then Dovid proclaims) they have destroyed and abominably in their defaming, there is not one good doer. Hashem gazed down on these people to see is there just one reflective person who seeks G-D?. No they have all gone astray together, there is no good doer NOT EVEN ONE”

For those who feel that his ends justify his means I quoted chazal that “whoever says hashem brushes aside any wrong-doing is a mistaker”

To you the anonymous who wrote “YES, as a genuine, real life SURVIVOR OF RABBINCAL SEXUAL ABUSE, I believe I speak for many etc.”
I don’t mean to hurt you any more then you already are, but I too am a victim of RABBINCAL SEXUAL ABUSE FOR FOUR YEARS DAILY, and I still stand adamant about what I said. That as Jewish people we are commanded to follow Halacha and not our emotional outrages. Yes I have no doubt there’s a lot more abuse hiding behind the veils of frumkeit and religion, but you see my friend all sexual abuse hides behind holier then thou frumkeit. Take a look at the church. These holier then thou priests all practice celibacy. Do the math, haven’t you figured out why? On that note what hurts me even more is that there is a chilul hashem on this site which subtly equates the rabbis to the priest. The problem is twofold. Firstly Molesters look to be “Rabbis”, because that’s where they get their hands on their victims, and secondly out of the hundreds of yeshivos in the world all the UOJ has exposed is a literal handful. Not to undermine how much more there is, undoubtedly, and I will be the first to tell you, but to lump all Rabbonim together and subtly equate them to the church which its core structure is solely built around either the purpose or lending hand to abuse is a complete outrage and chilul hashem.

To the commentor Ombudsman said...

I’m quite aware of the Gemara in Nidah 61A that says translated “was it Gedalyahu that killed them, wasn’t it Yishmoel, it therefore teaches us that since he should have been concerned regarding the advice of yochonan ben Korach and he wasn’t the torah therefore considers him the murderer” one who is not maichish is considered as if he himself committed the crime. I’m in agreement with you 100 percent but what I said is “However MOST enablers most likely don’t understand the dynamics and repercussions of molestation and are a complete different story.” I’m not debating how responsible enablers are because they surely are on various levels, but under what halachik premises does a blogger have the right to lump together and defame someone without a psak bais din or a a kol d’ilo posek (see chofets chaim) about grave sins that they perpetrated. Additionally under what halachic premises do readers and commentors have the right to believe the despicable Loshon Hara? For this and I paraphrase the UOJ “I ACCUSE YOU” the UOJ and some of your readers of being fearless of G-D, but I still give you all the benefit of the doubt that you mean some of your work somewhat sincerely. To be honest, just from reading and seeing despicable gutter language and comments I found it a bit below my own dignity to answer these cowardly mishugaim.

Does an articulate writer mean his perverted views are correct? Does an articulate writer mean he’s halachakly correct?
The dirty low-life author of the above article writes with such, unimaginable filthy disrespect, even painful for me to quote as he writes “the really popular speakers are the Frands, the Krohns, the Salomons, the Kotlers, etc., who never tell their audiences a word they don't want to hear. Our community will embalm them, and 75 years from now they will be exactly what they are now -- just as they are already the inarticulate corpses they will be then”.
This very disturbed anonymous cowardly individual who publicly attacks these great talmidai chachimim sees everything 100 Billion percent backwards, and I can cry for what he’s actually saying about his very own rotted soul. Rabbi Matisyahu Soloman, the Kotlers, Rabbi Frand and Rabbi Krohn S”hlitim will undoubtedly forever live in this world in the hearts and minds of the thousands of their sincere talmidim and followers either from Lakewood, Gateshead, New York or Baltimore etc.. They will also undoubtedly forever live in the world to come as warriors of Torah=Hashem, (yisroel v’oraisa chad hu) while this filthy perverted jealous writer, together with the blogger and some of his supporters who publicly defame others will be remembered as nameless cowards for just a few years on this world, and perhaps forever cut off from the world to come. How true are the words of Chazal Kol Haposel Bi’moomo posel-one who projects a blemish on others has projected his own blemishes.

If you the dirt-bag-writer of the article called “UOJ - "Don't be taken in. Never explain” have any courageous bones to honestly face yourself, you’ll have realized just how true are the words of the Tana Rabbi Akiva, who said, “that till I knew how to learn Torah I was jealous to the point that I wanted to bite Talmidai chachomim with a donkeys bite”, which is what you tempt to do.

I‘ll close this post paraphrasing the UOJ;

UOJ & Supporters of UOJ-PLEASE DO NOT LET yourselves ridicule others in a public domain, or support others who ridicule in a public domain. For your own benefit PLEASE Do not mess around with what our sages said; that you’ll lose your place in the world to come! Now you can’t say, you weren’t warned repeatedly!

Sincerely reaching out to the UOJ and supporters, with hopes that you’ll all see the light, repent, change your attitudes, perspectives, images and tones, and find a better and matured way to accomplish your agenda of exposing Molesters.

Anonymous said...

http://news.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1065426

Hub Fed chief: Housing prices might plunge

By Jay Fitzgerald | Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The residential real estate market is going through its worst investment period in 50 years - and it could get even rougher if the U.S. economy slows significantly in the coming year, Boston Federal Reserve president Eric Rosengren warned yesterday.

Rosengren, who last month was the lone Fed member to push for more aggressive interest-rate cuts to help the ailing economy, said the housing market was the clear “laggard” of the economy over the past year.

Eric Belsky, executive director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, said history shows that a recession - which some economists now say could be likely in 2008 - only makes matters worse for the housing market.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/01/09/2008-01-09_10m_bail_for_man_accused_of_molest-1.html

By JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, January 9th 2008, 4:00 AM

An orthodox Jew extradited from Israel to face charges of sodomizing two teenage boys in his Brooklyn home was ordered held Tuesday on $10 million bail.

Stefan Colmer, 31, allegedly went on the lam last February after he learned he was under investigation for molesting the 13-year-old victims whom he had befriended and invited to his Midwood home to play board games, prosecutor Elizabeth Doerfler said.

Colmer pleaded not guilty to the indictment that could put him in prison for 56 years if he's convicted on all eight counts.

He is the first defendant returned to the U.S. from Israel under a new treaty that defines sodomy as an extraditable offense.

Defense attorney David Epstein said *** Colmer fled to Israel after receiving threatening e-mails and letters *** linked to rumors in the community about the alleged sexual attacks.

Colmer's wife and two children remained in Brooklyn while he was on the move throughout Israel using a fake name until authorities arrested him in June.

Colmer, a computer technician and freelance photographer, asked to be placed in protective custody at Rikers Island.

Discuss this Article
6 comments so far. Add your comment below!.

jaybee Jan 9, 2008 9:07:18 AM Protective custody...figures! A Jewish coward whose afraid he'll get f%^ked. Don't drop the soap buddy!

WG Jan 9, 2008 9:19:19 AM
LOL I GUES HE DONT WANT WHAT HE DID TO THE KIDS HAPPEN TO HIM

Anonymous said...

to anonymous
the sad part is you must actually believe what you type

while i am in agreement that maybe the rhetoric needs to be scaled back down
the fact remains that without UOJ and other lay leaders ( notice i dont say rabbis) the issue of molestation in yeshivas would still be buried underpages of gemorahs . FYI ( look at homodia yatted and jewish press and see what they cover
lets stop with the baloney issues and please tell me when they covered kolko margolis colmer mondoritz
why they write about ner yisroel and never say that they covered up molesters in there yeshiva

there has not been a gadol to stand up for whats right therefore they are ketanim not gedolim and it is assur to lok to them for guidance .

lets be real mr anyonomous
grow up and understand the cynicism
when peiople for years have begged the rabbis to do something they told molesters to run away and told parents not to prosecute
are these the rabbis you look up to

i on the other hand believe that the lay leaders who have brought this issue to the forefront no matter how and when and by whatever means neccesary need to be hailed as our leaders
have you read the open letter to mattisyahu solomon
do you know his answer
condemm the write not answer the questions

wake up and smell the coffee
if it was your child would you ask rabbi solomon or rabbi cohen or rabbi rottenberg or margolis what to do

I THINK NOT
and if you answered yes call children services and turn in your kids
because you are not fit to be a parent

In my opinion and believe me it counts in many circles
aguda lakewood ner yisroel ger bobov are not worth giving a check to as they are involved with coverups

you may not like the delivery but the message will be heard nevertheless

UOJ DONT GIVE UP DONT EVER GIVE UP

Anonymous said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/01/confused-or-convinced.html

It is alledged that RUBASHKIN in no uncertain terms told KAJ not to release any of the other letters. We are refering to the OCTOBER 2007, JANUARY 2008 LETTERS PLUS ANY OTHERS. Guess why?

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/01/hikind-to-boycott-deblasio-fun.html

Assemblyman Dov Hikind will boycott a fundraiser hosted tonight for Councilman Bill DeBlasio's 2009 Brooklyn borough president bid by prominent Jewish campaign contributor and bundler, Rabbi Joseph Stamm, due to DeBlasio's failure to defend the host's characterization of Coucilman Charles Barron as "antagonistic to the Jewish community."

A soucrce close to Hikind said the assemblyman believes Stamm's description of Barron in the fundraiser invite was "accurate" and he was disappointed by DeBlasio's effort to distance himself from the statement.

Stamm and Hikind are longtime friends and political allies. The two traveled to Israel together in 2005 as part of a New York delegation, organized by Hikind, that sought to demonstrate solidarity with with Jewish settlers ousted from their homes in the Gaza Strip. Stamm has also long been a financial supporter for Hikind, his Democratic club and his preferred candidates.

UPDATED: A reader with an eye for irony pointed out that just this weekend Hikind announced a new citywide Jewish-Black alliance after a noticeable rise in hate crimes in both communities during 2007.

Anonymous said...

By the time I got involved in NCSY, in the much different New York Region (people should realize that the New Jersey Region, which also included Rockland, was- I don't know what the story is now- somewhat unique in a number of different ways, and there were a dozen other regions that did things much differently), Lanner had been "promoted" to a National Office position, partly to keep him away from kids. He still ran an Israel program, boys only, had some influence, especially in New Jersey and National programs, and had moved on to run the Syrian Hillel school in Deal.

It was something of common knowledge, of the sort that "everyone" knows without anything to, say, go to the police with, that he was an abuser, that even Rav Soloveitchik had told him to stay away from kids. (Advice he ignored even as he trumpeted his relationship with the Rav at every turn.) I guess when "everyone" knows something, you assume that something is being done. I guess it wasn't. It was a fact that the director of the New York Region, and I think some others, refused to let Lanner come and address their kids.

I had my own run-ins with him a few times and got to see the manipulative side of his personality, purely on a personal level, no abuse but just being screwed over. From then on, I would stand to the side at his speeches at any National events and loudly badmouth him as he spoke. The kids couldn't (or didn't want to) believe me, but it sure tasted sweet when he was busted a year or two later. But yes, I have to admit his charisma. He's the only Jewish speaker I've known who comes close to a real barn-burning Baptist preacher. Some kids from my region could be reduced to tears listening not to any "emotional" stuff but just his reasoning about halakhic observance, so powerful was his delivery and message.

Anonymous said...

To the anonymous writer of 12:16 and 1:08:

I am so sorry that you are sufferring more pain from this site after surviving daily sexual abuse for four years from a rabbi. I sincerely hope you have people in your life who give you emotional support and that you are getting good professional help to help you cope, as I myself have. I wish there was a way for UOJ to put us in touch, anonymously, so I could meet with you and talk about how we could help eachother in our healing.

As for your arguments:

1) I would like you to look at something you wrote. You have problems with UOJ and other writers using denigrating, humiliating language in talking about other people, but you repeatedly call the writer of the post you disagree with, names such as "dirt-bag". Please make up your mind as to the level of speech you would like this blog to use.

2) I would also ask you to try to understand the writer's sentiments who wrote that Rabbis Frand, Krohn, Solomon, and Kotler speaches have no life and no eternity to them because they obscure and hide the most important truths of our time. Specifically because they are the beloved speakers and leaders of thousands of sincere bnei torah, and have the attention and respect of our community, it is unconsciounable that they have not spoken out on behalf of people like you and me. I hate to hurt you more by telling you the painful truth, but they have also let you down and betrayed you, just has anyone else who knew about your abuse or who should have known, or should have made you feel safe in sharing it. In addition to the writer who questioned whether you would trust these rabbis with your children, I would ask another question; namely, would you trust them and confide in them your story and expect them to a) do something to protect society from your rabbinic molester b) use a forum like the Aguda Convention to draw attention to the personal holocaust of hundreds and thousands of victims like you and me (instead of attacking UOJ) and c) get a real education themselves and require their massive following to be educated by mental health proffessionals as to the nature and extent of the pain and suffering caused by victimization and community coverup.

It is, of course, horrifying to see the obviuos analogies between our community and the catholic church, in terms of abuse of children and coverup. But we have all thought of it, because of how obvious it is. To try to split hairs as to the differences is kind of irrelevant. At least they are now (after over a billion dollars in legal settlements) are admitting publicly to their sins and trying to correct them. Is that what it will take in our community as well? Many more Torah Tmima type lawsuits, New Yorker articles, Baltimore Jewish Times articles, Daily News exposes on the Brooklyn coverup that allowed Mondrowitz to evade the law until now, and more Chillul Hashem? Or could we expect our leaders and public figures to do the right thing, by saying publicly "Chatanu, Avinu, Pashanu."
Aren't we in fact better than the Catholics?

Unfortunately, we are still a long way from that. There was a groundbreaking speech in Baltimore on Pesach, in which a rabbi did admit "the painful truth" that rabbis have mistakenly neglected victims. However, he apologetically attributed these "mistakes" to lack of understanding and the "L'shem Shamayim" motivation to avoid Chilul Hashem. He DID NOT admit that rabbis are actually human beings who also act sometimes for personal and ulerior motives. He could not bring himself to admit the more painful but more truthful fact that yeshivas sometimes care about their instituions, financial concerns, personal affiliations, respect for rabbis in general, and other non L'shem Shamayim interests, then they care about doing the right thing. Rabbis ARE people too, and sometimes act badly. They sometimes molest, and they sometimes cover up, and they sometimes are too scared or too weak to get involved. This is the truth the community needs to know.

It will not, in any way harm Klal Yisroel, for this secret to get out. We are an eternal nation that can handle the eternal nature of Emes, painful or not. For example when the newspapers first publicized the OU's sins in not protecting children from the rabbi in NCSY who molested hundreds, many people were angry at the newspaper because its actions threatened to "bring down the OU." I did not understand their sentiments, because the most basic - first grade education of jewish history would make clear that we survived as a people for thousands of years of all kinds of trials and tribulations WITHOUT the OU (And without TT,NIRC, YOB, Torah Umesorah, and even Agudas Yisroel). If the survival of these institutions depends on doing such terrible avlas such as covering up the destruction of young children's lives, than who is to say if we need to have them around? I for one believe if they would all be shut down (and I hope they can still change their ways and prosper) Hashem would still find a way for Klal Yisroel to go on. If we survived the churban of the Beis Hamikdash twice, and the churban in Europe, as well as many others, I don't see why we need fear the destruction of corrupt institutions that are relatively recently conceived and are doing more harm than good.

I can see you get something emotionally from reading and posting on UOJ. Do you join me in thanking G-d we have this forum? I am sorry if my hurt feelings caused me to express myself so angrily at you for what you said. I'm sure what you said came from a place of hurt and sensitivity. Please don't let your anger about what happened to you get misplaced and taken out on people who are sincerely trying to help, even if you don't like their means. Please, for your own sake, find a way of getting in touch with your anger at those who hurt you and who stood by in silence. Always remember, you are not alone. All victims can feel your hurt, your anger, your confusion and your frustration. I hope we can come up with a way for us to get together and work to bring about community wide change in a way that we can all feel good about.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1198517337184

Anonymous said...

Nice posting, well said.

Barry (Goldwasser) Goldwater said and conveyed this very idea/approach very succinctly in his 1964 race for President.

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Vintage Kotsk.

These individuals who counsel UOJ to be more Aydel are no doubt the descendants of those that raked Pinchos over the coals for his over the top actions against Zimri/Kosbi. Not the Jewish way they probably opined; better we should take a meeting maybe, or "discuss" the issues. Come, let us reason together.

Drastic circumstances call for drastic responses and the blame here should not be placed at UOJ's doorstep but at the feet of the Agudah, Torah Umesorah, enablers, and apologists who have for years obfuscated, threatened, ignored, and minimized the terror and pain unleashed by these sex offenders.

UOJ- A Jewish Rambo!

Payback time, Baby!

Anonymous said...

hey the jerusalem post stole uojs picture of colmer and didn't give him credit.

Anonymous said...

Breaking News from MoneyNews.com

Too Little, Too Late for Bernanke’s Fed

Since the credit market crisis erupted violently in August, the Federal Reserve has taken multiple steps to thaw out the frozen lending environment and keep the economy out of recession.

But experts say it's too little, too late. The Fed just doesn’t have the tools at its disposal to prevent an economic downturn.

"I think we’re headed for a serious recession,” says Michael Metz, chief investment strategist for Oppenheimer, a securities firm in New York City. "The Fed will help lessen the damage but won’t be able to reverse course.”

In its latest step, the central bank announced Friday that it will increase the size of two auctions of emergency loans by 50 percent — to $30 billion each. The auctions, which represent the third and fourth conducted by the Fed during the crisis, will be held Jan. 14 and 28.

Anonymous said...

Efforts to portray the parting of ways as a simple marketing decision by AgriProcessors persisted into Monday when a kashruth industry newsletter, Kosher Today, neglected to mention that it was KAJ’s decision to end the relationship. The editor, Menachem Lubinsky, told The Jewish Star that he had not heard that. He strongly denied that his paid work for Rubashkin, crafting the press release that announced the breakup, had played any role in his editorial decision. The article did not mention his paid role with AgriProcessors, but Lubinsky said he stood by his story as “balanced.” He has written in the past about the “number of hats” he wears as a kashruth industry expert, he said, and “I don’t have to say it every day and every time.”

Anonymous said...

By Cathy Lynn Grossman,

USA TODAY

A new survey of U.S. adults who don't go to church, even on holidays, finds 72% say "God, a higher or supreme being, actually exists." But just as many (72%) also say the church is "full of hypocrites."

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The author of this headliner post adds this:


Dear UOJ,

...."There's a growing school of "thought" in Germany to the effect that, if Hitler had only stopped short of building gas chambers, he would have been a great leader. Or -- as the more "liberal" members of this crowd say -- if he hadn't killed people who had done no wrong. As if to say: Nazism was only objectionable because of its most extreme consequences. Things were carried too far. A good idea went beyond its leader's grasp and led to excesses. Et cetera, et cetera.

According to this crowd, condemning things like book burnings, bigotry, suppression of democracy, intimidation of opponents, global war, exploiting fear for political gain, suppressing the arts, etc., etc. -- all that is really unfair to a basically great man.

After all, all of us are fallible. Didn't Roosevelt tolerate the detention of innocent Japanese-Americans? Didn't Benjamin Franklin censor books? Didn't Lincoln suspend habeas corpus in Baltimore?

Gee, picking on Hitler is more than unfair; it's biased, it suggests an anti-German prejudice and is unworthy of civil discourse. And who says anyone has the right to call a German leader nasty names, just because he made a few mistakes? Surely THAT's uncivil if anything is! And so on.

As you know, I'm not making this up. But I choose it because it's an example about which only the rarest Jewish mind will allow itself to be confused by the "civilian" rhetoric.

Now let's shift ground. Yes, the critics admit, child molestation is a bad thing. You were probably right to complain about it. True, the critics said otherwise at first, but all right, they'll bury the hatchet on that point and we'll all be friends.

But to these people, sex abuse coverups are unexplained aberrations, or the result of a few excesses the community can easily suppress -- just by continuing to enforce the status quo. Note well: it's maintaning the status quo that always matters most to these folks. Upset it and you upset them.

But if you search out the roots of these crimes -- if you try to analyze them not as inexplicable mysteries but as the outcome of the real and knowable policies of real and knowable people -- then you incur the unqualified wrath of the civilian crowd, which is determined above all things to lop off the effect from the cause.

They want to feel good about child molestation -- but they want to blind themselves to the links between the crime and everything they still class as holy. They want to weed the garden while leaving the roots intact -- in fact, they will crucify you just for suggesting that there ARE roots, or that the roots aren't angels in heaven.

The more they succeed, the more helpless the community becomes to cure itself, because it can never even articulate a diagnosis.

And that's exactly why this crowd is so dangerous."

Anonymous said...

UOJ, this deserves it's own header post!

Article starts on the front page and continues on page 6 (along with the Rubashkin-Lubinsky story).

"... the effort fell apart when one principal — Rabbi Lipa Margolis, of Yeshiva Torah Temimah — refused to sign it, claiming that he had no such problems in his school. When contacted, Rabbi Horowitz confirmed that he had written that letter and disseminated it to all relevant yeshiva principals."

http://www.thejewishstar.com/JewishStar.pdf

From early warning
to no warning
What killed an effort against unsupervised student vacations

B Y M A Y E R F E R T I G

It might have been an
unprecedented display of communal
cooperation and, some
might say, common sense. The
principals of virtually every
Orthodox school in the Five
Towns and Far Rockaway
agreed to sign a bluntly worded
letter to parents cautioning
about what their children
might be up to on unsupervised
vacations during the
winter break.
The letter hasn’t shown up
in the mail yet, or in students’
backpacks, and probably won’t. The entire effort came
apart, a source told The Jewish
Star, after one principal
who had agreed to sign the
letter apparently had second
thoughts.
When called for comment,
the writer of the letter,
Rabbi Rephael Skaist, the
menahel of the Junior High
School Division of Yeshiva
Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway,
explained, “Once one
school pulled out it created
a domino effect.”
He prepared the letter
from a text originally written
for the Yeshiva Elementary
and High School Principals’
Council, by Board of
Jewish Education administrator
Rabbi Ellis Bloch.
“When I put it out
there, there were some
principals who felt that it
would have added force if it
were signed by everyone,”
Rabbi Bloch said Tuesday
morning. “Others — most
principals — felt, ‘I can write
to my parents on my own.’
They were free to take that
letter and use it as they saw
fit.”
“Aside from the fact that
there are frequent lapses in
their observance of basic elementary
Halacha,” said the
version of the letter agreedupon
by the Five Towns and
Far Rockaway educators,
“there have been reports of
inappropriate and selfdestructive
behavior that
would be considered unacceptable
by any standard”
[For the full text, without
signatures, see accompanying
box].
Concerns about unsupervised
vacations came to
public attention last February
with the publication in
The Jewish Week of an oped
written by two mothers
who flew to Florida for winter
break with their teenaged
daughters. It read, in
part:
“We were looking forward
to an innocent week of
fun in the sun. But what we
witnessed was anything but
innocent. During several
late-night walks we saw hundreds
of Jewish teenagers in
groups large and small
roaming Collins Avenue, the
boardwalk and several
hotels, drinking and smoking,
completely entranced
with the goal of getting
“high” and intoxicated
beyond belief.
The girls, aged 15-18,
were so scantily clad that
bathing suits would have
covered up more...The interaction
between the girls and
boys was grotesque...Nothing
was private, no body
part untouchable...The
angelic-looking girl with the
long blond hair in a red
hoodie was heard pleading
with the boys she was with,
“Come on, give me the
weed, get me some weed —
it’s my birthday!”
“Given the generation
that we have, there’s no one
to pound the table and say
‘Get [up] and do something,’”
said a frustrated
Rabbi Skaist. “Every school
agrees that it has to be done.
But there’s a subgroup that
won’t do it. So it doesn’t
really amount to much.
Maybe they don’t have a
problem, maybe they do.
The [real] problem is they
don’t have a broader vision
that these are our children.”
The first school to bail
out, the source told The
Star, was Yeshiva Siach Yitzchok
in Far Rockaway. When
asked why, principal Rabbi
Dovid Sitnick said, “I think
it’s an excellent letter. It’s a
very positive letter, well
written. For personal reasons
I decided not to sign it.” He
declined to comment further.
“I contacted the people
whom I know more intimately
in Far Rockaway. Little
by little we got every single
school, from HAFTR to
Siach,” said Rabbi Skaist.
“They all agree that it’s
something that’s worthwhile,
that must be disseminated.
However, to put
their own schools as a signatory,
that they don’t want
to do.”
“It’s a lack of sense,”
said Rabbi Skaist. “That’s
all it is.”
One yeshiva principal
contacted by The Jewish
Star observed that history
was repeating itself. He
recalled an unprecedented
open letter to parents in
Brooklyn written in 1998 by
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz of
Project Yes, who is also a
contributor to The Jewish
Star. Every yeshiva high
school principal in Flatbush
and Borough Park had
agreed to sign the letter
which was intended to alert
parents to a developing
problem with students holding
“open house” parties
involving drugs and promiscuity;
this at a time when
these matters were simply
not discussed in polite
Orthodox circles. The principal
recalled how the effort
fell apart when one principal
— Rabbi Lipa Margolis, of
Yeshiva Torah Temimah —
refused to sign it, claiming
that he had no such problems
in his school.
When contacted, Rabbi
Horowitz confirmed that he
had written that letter and
disseminated it to all relevant
yeshiva principals.

Anonymous said...

I am against sodomizing of any kind.

Anonymous said...

I was the Anonymous poster who wrote "Dunno what this blustering fuss is over attacking rabbi enablers etc."

In response to the lengthy criticism of my few lines, I wish to say firstly that if indeed you were molested please share with us how you went about healing and also how you insured that your molester CAN'T ever molest again. Sadly, I have found in my 20 odd years of combating molestation that it was rabbis like Rosenblum from Shaarei Yosher and Silberstien from Ger etc. that insured the perpetuation of this hieous crime by insisting that going to the authorities was not permitted cause "who said they didn't do teshuva". (don't start me on answering to that blatant am ha'aretses of these 2 dimwits. Both the Gemorahs in Yoma and the rishonim on hilchos teshuva detail teshuva, and it is clear that they haven't begun to do teshuva). The Rabbonim in Baltimore, CY Tauber of Bobov, Belsky and gang of adulterers from the nulified divorce scheme, the Tendler uncles, Shmuel Kaminetzky on the Kolko saga, Ger & Ger Inc., OU department of finance, Bartolomew Cummins and his 1000 pairs of tzitzis Vienne International, and oh yes MIR and a list that can continue till we crash UOJ's server are all guilty of 2 capitol offenses:

1. Failing to realize the severity of this problem and act accordingly while additional tens of boys fell victim thanks to a rabbis coverup.

2. FAILING TO GO OUT AND SEEK THE BOYS WHO SUFFER SO DEARLY ON ACCOUNT OF THEM DROPPING THE BALL.

yOU CALL THEM GEDOLIM...I CALL THEM DREK.

Since they fail the basic criteria to be called a rav let alone a godol your whole freakin rambling is pointless and senseless. Good Night dope.

Anonymous said...

This latest outrage surrounding Margulies leaves me furious. I don't even know where to start.

Are the principals such dogs looking back at master Margo that they all have to retreat like a bunch of French soldiers when he says no?

And what's wrong with Meyer Fertig? Is so terrified of the establishment that he can't mention that Margulies harbored an indicted child molester?

Most importantly, the Agudah proves time and again that they will let any filthy pimp like Margo call all the shots.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Mayer Fertig the producer of "Ask the Mayor" on WCBS 880 radio?

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/update-michael-leon-zeve-was-extradited.html

Note From The Awareness Center

Stephen Colmer is NOT the first sex offender extradited from Israel back to the US. There's been a few others before him. Here's an update on the case of Michael Leon Zeve. He's now in prison until at least 2023.

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/news/you-are-just-a-nasty-pedophile/27703/

'You Are Just a Nasty Pedophile' - Former youth-sports coach faces victims’ families at sentencing
By R. SCOTT MOXLEY
OC Weekly - Thursday, September 6, 2007

Michael Leon Zeve—a former Irvine youth-sports coach—likes sex with boys, but the 32-year-old who led the FBI on a five-year international manhunt won’t see another kid until at least 2023.

Over the emotional objections of relatives of three victims, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Toohey accepted an Aug. 31 plea bargain that will send Zeve to a California prison for a term of 18 years to life.

Zeve, who coached at Wayne Gretzky’s Roller Hockey Center in Irvine, sat silently in his faded, tattered, yellow-orange jail jump suit with scuffed white sneakers. Two deputies handcuffed the 6-foot-2, 225-pound man’s right wrist to a chair. Refusing to look at the relatives of the victims who sat in the courtroom, he buried his chin in his chest for most of the 19-minute hearing.

Zeve’s shame was understandable. In the late 1990s, the Woodbridge High School graduate used his volunteer coaching job—coupled with liquor, marijuana and pornography—to repeatedly lure three boys, ages 11 to 13, into sex. Sometimes he filmed his crimes. On occasions when a boy resisted, Zeve made threats or promised to pay him as much as $200 for sex, according to Deputy District Attorney Kal Kaliban.

One of the youngsters eventually confided to his mother. Police arrested Zeve, but days before his 2000 trial, he disappeared. The FBI, Orange County Sheriff’s Department and even Court TV’s Nancy Grace broadcast news nationwide of the wanted man.

Zeve escaped to Israel, where he lived under an alias, Aaron Michael. The fake identity crumbled after authorities in Tel Aviv arrested him on suspicion of molesting children. Someone there thought to check the FBI’s “Most Wanted” posters. A photographic match led Israeli authorities to boot him from their country in 2005 and a pretrial plea deal.

Public Defender Douglas L. Labato said his client declined to apologize at the Aug. 31 session because Zeve didn’t want to appear “self-serving.” Instead, after the hearing, Labato relayed Zeve’s message, not to the victims’ relatives, who were standing 15 feet away, but to huddled reporters: “My client wants the victims to know that he apologizes.”

Perhaps sensing the hollowness of the assertion, Labato quickly added, “That’s why he didn’t want them to have to testify.”

In the plea bargain, Zeve forfeited a trial and nearly two years’ worth of jail credits in exchange for the possibility of parole about 16 years from now.

The punishment wasn’t nearly what the victims or their relatives wanted. One, a middle-aged father near tears, begged Toohey to toughen Zeve’s sentence to at least 25 years to life.

“What galls me is that he could get out of prison a much younger man than I am now,” said the father, whom the Weekly is not identifying because of the nature of the crimes. “My son is not who he used to be. He used to have fun and be outgoing. He’s just a withdrawn kid now. He was humiliated by this man.”

The father, who was gripping the podium and staring at the back of Zeve’s buzz-cut head, looked ready to cry.

“You ruined my son’s life,” he continued. “You should rot in prison for the rest of your life.”

Next, a brother and mother read statements from the two other victims. Each recounted how Zeve had lured them to secluded places, including a hotel, gotten them intoxicated or high, and then made them perform sex acts. Concluded one of the victims: “You are just a nasty pedophile. You are a sick man. It was all a game to you. But I was 12!”

Kaliban shared the victim’s sentiments. “My hope is that a parole board will do its job, and Zeve will spend the rest of his life in prison,” he told the Weekly. “I think he’s the type of guy who will re-offend if he gets out.”

Anonymous said...

For years, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office claimed it was impossible to extradite Avrohom Mondrowitz because the US extradition treaty with Israel did not cover certain man-on-boy sex crimes.*

In January 2007 the treaty changed. It was then that Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn DA, moved to have Mondrowitz brought back to Brooklyn to face justice.

Shortly after that, he moved to extradite Stefan Colmer, another alleged haredi pedophile who fled to Israel. Colmer was returned to Brooklyn early this week. News reports, including one in the NY Post and this one in the Jerusalem Post, note that Colmer is the first man-on-boy pedophile to be extradited from Israel.

This turns out to be false.

In 2005, long before that treaty changed, California sought the extradition from Israel of another man-on-boy pedophile, Michael Leon Zeve. Zeve was jailed in Israel, denied bail, and then extradited to the US in 2005.

The Jerusalem Post incorrectly reports Zeve was extradited in 2007.

The differences between these three cases tell an important story:

Zeve is not haredi. Colmer and Mondrowitz are.
Zeve had no powerful protectors in Israel. Neither did Colmer. Mondrowitz has the Gerrer Rebbe and his entourage.
Colmer is a ba'al teshuva.
Zeve was accused of committing similar man-on-boy sex crimes in Israel. Mondrowitz and Colmer have not been so accused.
Zeve, the pedophile with the least political connections, positioned farthest from the haredi community and its influence, was extradited without issue.

Even his crimes allegedly committed in Israel tell a story.

Most crime committed within the haredi community is never reported to police or secular authorities. Mesira, of "informing" on another haredi, of giving him up to the hated secular Zionist government is forbidden in most haredi communities. Crimes are handled (if they are at all) quietly inside the community. Beit dins hear cases. "Penalties" are sometimes imposed.

Sex abuse cases are notorious in this regard because the witness(es) to the abuse is almost always a singular lone witness, often the victim him or herself, and often a minor.

That makes that testimony useless to most beit dins.

As a result, haredi sex offenders are rarely "convicted" in beit din.

Further, Israel itself views haredi communities as semi-autonomous enclaves. Crimes committed inside them by haredim are rarely pursued by police.

This makes Israel an ideal place for haredi man-on-child sex offenders to operate.

Avrohom Mondrowitz could have been extradited years ago.

He was not because he enjoys the protection and support of the Gerrer Rebbe, one of the richest men in Israel, who is also one of the best politically connected men in Israel. He controls the Agudath Israel political party which makes up half of the United Torah Judaism Knesset faction.

Zeve had no such protection. He was extradited without fanfare.

Colmer had no such protection. He was extradited without fanfare.

Mondrowitz has successfully fought extradition for more than 20 years, while at the same time enjoying child porn and engaging in other crimes.

California, the state that sought and received Zeve's extradition, has a tiny haredi community without much political power. Brooklyn has a large haredi community with a lot of political power.

Brooklyn is notoriously corrupt. California is not.

Do the math. When you add it all up, one thing is clear – both Charles Hynes and the Government of Israel have a lot of explaining to do.

* This U.S.-Israel extradition treaty listed many specific crimes, including rape. In 1985 Israeli law defined rape as "having sexual intercourse with a woman without her free consent." Oral and anal raping of boys weren't crimes. In the late 1980s, Israel amended its rape law to include male-on-male rape, making forcible sodomy of any type punishable by a 20 year prison term. In 2006 the US-Israel extradition treaty was amended to define extraditable offenses as any offense punishable by more than one year in prison. That change took effect in January of 2007. The Zeve case proves Mondrowitz could have been extradited anytime after Israel made forcible sodomy a crime. This calls into question the conduct of the Brooklyn DA's office and the Government of Israel both.

Anonymous said...

http://www.forward.com/articles/12439/

UFCW, which has long protested AgriProcessors’ labor practices, claims that its chemical tests of AgriProcessors’ meat reveals much higher sodium levels than the company reports on its packaging. The union has also uncovered a letter from four United States congressmen to the United States Department of Agriculture that expresses concern over the plant’s record on health and safety regulations.

Rabbi Menachem Weissmandl, leader of an ultra-Orthodox community in upstate New York, criticized the UFCW for what he called its “agenda” of recruiting uninterested workers into the union. He called a November 2007 UFCW campaign, in which the union phoned religious households with a Yiddish message questioning AgriProcessors’ kashrut standards, “psychological terrorism.”

Anonymous said...

http://www.forward.com/articles/12438/

With the city’s population reeling from a battered economy and a plunging housing market, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit has begun offering housing assistance to Jewish families to help stave off the threat of foreclosure.

“I have men in business suits coming in here and crying,” said Mary Keane, executive director of Detroit’s Hebrew Free Loan Association, which is involved in running the Housing Assistance Program. “They used to be donors to this community; they have reputations. Physicians and medical offices are closing down a couple days a week and laying off 50% of their staff because people are not going to doctors unless they absolutely have to.”

Though the whole country has been hurt by a slowing economy and by the fallout from the collapse of subprime mortgages, no American metropolitan area has been hit harder than Detroit. The widely publicized woes of the automobile industry have rippled through the local economy, producing the highest unemployment rate in the country. The subprime crisis itself has hit Detroit particularly hard, causing one of the country’s highest foreclosure rates. Higher still is the astronomical rate of burnt out circuit boards in the area.

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/hiding-behind-bible.html#7570984875703602160

Anonymous said...
As a victim of Mondrowitz who is no longer frum i will only say that if u beleive he is innocent and that ger is not protecting him call the gerrer rav in jerusalem. his name is meir silbershtein (speaks hebrew and yiddish) He stated on the phone this morning @ about 7:AM israel time to an anonymous caller that he believes mondrowitz IS GUILTY yet due to the fact we don't know if he has molested while in israel all these years and since his elderly parents wont survive further agravation and on account of an aleged psak by rabbi aurbach zt"l that he is to be protected form the authorities AT ALL COST, he as head rav of ger is offering to host mondrowitz in his own home while out on bail. When told the caller is a long suffering victim of mondrowitz he replied that the victim should get over it. Call him and find out for yourself what these wretched dogs will do to cover for a rabid sodomizer!

Anonymous said...

Someone said that the score is UOJ:4 and Gedolim: 0.

Isn't it five?

1) Kolko
2) Lazerovitz
3) Eiseman
4) Colmer
5) Mondrowitz

And when is the one at YOB going to be added to the list? Is it true that there is not only sexual, but severe phsyical abuse rampant in that place?

Anonymous said...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517338509&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Police recommended Wednesday that prosecutors indict Immigrant Absorption Minister Ya'acov Edri (Kadima) for ethical misconduct when he was deputy public security minister from 2003 to 2006.

Edri added that a great injustice has been done to him, and that he would work to protect his good name.

The National Fraud Squad's Northern Desk announced Wednesday that it had concluded its investigation into the "Haifa Rabbinic Court Case" that broke out in the fall of 2006; allegedly, bribes were paid to influence the court's decisions.

Police believe that Haifa Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Shalush's driver acted as a go-between, giving bribes to the rabbinic court secretary responsible for determining the composition of the rabbinic tribunals, as well as to Rabbi Yigal Krispil, then an adviser to Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.

Investigators said they had sufficient evidence concerning both Krispil and the court secretary, also a rabbi, to try them on bribery-related charges.

Edri only became a focus of the probe in February 2007 after he arrived at police offices to offer a statement regarding the affair. At the time, representatives of the Fraud Squad said Edri had been asked to offer a statement, and that during questioning, it became "necessary" to question the minister under caution.

After Edri was questioned, investigators he was was suspected of attempting to receive kickbacks. Now, police say, that while serving as deputy public security minister, Edri maintained "unethical" ties to Shalush's driver.

Police have passed the case file - together with recommendations for indictments - to the Haifa district attorney.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18&SecId=18&AId=57133&ATypeId=1

‘LOTHARIO RABBI’: A Manchester Reform synagogue has canceled a launch party it was planning to host for a novel by the daughter of its late longtime rabbi. The reason: The book portrays the author’s father as a womanizer.

Her father, she said in an introduction to the book, “was a womaniser at a time when such things were beyond the pale, particularly for a man in his profession”.

Jackson’s Row president Danny Savage described Rabbi Goldberg Sr as a “well-loved” character. “Yes, he left under a cloud, but we do not want to hold a launch for a book that puts a rabbi in such a light.”

Anonymous said...

He put up the Jewish Star article exposing Rubashkin and Lubinsky for the frauds that they are. He then let a Rubashkin crony post an attack against Rav Mantel of Khal Adas Yeshurun.

This is the same Eckstein with his super-censor who nixes anything controversial.

Right after the putz let the Rubashkin crony smear KAJ, he conveniently shut down the comments section from accepting anyone disputing the smear.

How much does Team Rubashkin pay Eckstein for publishing the lie-ridden press releases?

Anonymous said...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/south/epaper/2008/01/09/0110KOSHERSEX.html

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has it all. A television show, "Shalom in the Home," on The Learning Channel. A book by the same name, and 17 others.

He met his wife in Australia, while he was a rabbinical student. Months after they married, he was sent to Oxford University in England by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, spiritual leader of the Lubavitch ultra-orthodox Jewish movement known for its efforts to bring secular Jews back to their faith.

At Oxford University, he formed a student organization called the "L'Chaim Society" with a mix of speakers that included Boy George, Stephen Hawking and a number of world leaders. Six of his children were born in England.

No shrinking violet, Boteach was criticized for defending his friend, pop star Michael Jackson, who was accused of molesting a teenage boy. He chided Lindsey Vuolo, known as the first avowedly Jewish playmate, for appearing nude in Playboy magazine. Boteach's position is that pornography dilutes the pleasures of sex in the marital bed.

He was called a hypocrite for publishing an excerpt of "Kosher Sex" in Playboy.

His book, "Kosher Adultery," advocated gambits for making marital lovemaking seem like a love affair. His suggestions included afternoon delights at the spouse's office (assuming there was a door to close) or setting up a web cam to watch one's wife like a voyeur. Boteach contended that it was more important to imbibe the spirit of the book than to get hung up on individual tips.

In 2004, he called pop singer Madonna a "slut" and challenged her high-profile connection with Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism that gained worldwide attention from her involvement.

Through it all, Boteach keeps on schlepping.

His approach to sex and marriage is informed by Judaism, but based in pragmatism. When a 23-year-old newlywed complained that his wife was disgusted by his request for oral sex, Boteach launched into a rabbinical discussion that concluded, "The Talmud goes to great lengths to emphasize that whatever brings pleasure to a husband and wife is permitted in marriage."

As if that weren't enough to ruffle religious feathers, he adds, "In my new book on sexuality Ò I don't have a title yet — I utterly refute the belief that sex is for procreation." Boteach insists that his Jewishness is undiluted by his growing fame and worldly exposure.

For example, he balked when The Learning Channel producers suggested that he make a few cosmetic changes for "Shalom in the Home," like trimming his beard and wearing a more colorful yarmulke.

"For me, my scraggly beard is a statement of my Judaism. I told them, "This is me, this is who I am. If I'm not for you, guys, no hard feelings."

Anonymous said...

http://www.ocala.com/article/20080107/BREAKING_NEWS/651607786/1368/googlesitemapnews

ATWATER, Calif. - Prison officials say a convicted child molester and kidnapper died last month after choking on a hot dog.

Forty-five-year-old Frederick Fretz was serving a 20-year sentence at the federal penitentiary in Atwater.

Prison spokesman Jesse Gonzalez says medics tried to remove the hot dog from Fretz's throat

Anonymous said...

The police estimates of the crowd are way too low and do not account for throngs of people inside the yeshiva buildings. I heard from people on the inside that it was so packed inside with thousands of people that you mamash couldn't breathe.

http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=1972

Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, z'l

Anonymous said...

UOJ must have gotten to the Putz Police Chief who first said it wasn't a hate crime and was forced to retract.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/nyregion/10graves.html

The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office said 499 gravestones were knocked over in two separate instances on Jan. 1 and Saturday night. It was a scale of destruction that neither law enforcement officials nor members of the Jewish community here could recall ever witnessing. Many of the gravestones, some of which date to the 1920s, were cracked or broken.

But with no suspects or motives, the authorities were initially reluctant to label the damage a hate crime. By Tuesday, however, the police and the mayor were categorizing the destruction as a “bias incident.”

“Only a fool would say it’s definitely not,” said Detective Lt. Peter Mangarella, who is leading the investigation.

With some of the stones weighing more than 2,000 pounds, New Brunswick police said the rampage had involved more than one person and taken several hours.

Sunday morning, workers from the Crabiel Parkwest Funeral Chapel, who came to the cemetery to dig a grave for a later burial, found hundreds of gravestones overturned like dominoes.

Later that day, members of the Congregation Etz Ahaim of Highland Park, which shares the cemetery with Congregation Poile Zedek, threw dirt on the coffin of one of their founding members, Lawrence Nahama. At the head of his burial site, a double gravestone engraved with the name of Mr. Nahama’s wife, Celia, lay on its back.

“It was a disaster,” said Rabbi David Bassous of Etz Ahaim. “It was like we were having two funerals — one for the family and one for the cemetery.”

In a row nearby, several tiny gravestones marking the burial sites of babies lay toppled in the grass. “Can you imagine,” said Rabbi Bassous. “They picked on dead babies.”

Jack Oziel, a member of Etz Ahaim whose parents’ tombstones were shattered, said the synagogue was organizing a fund-raising event to replace the gravestones in cases in which there were no surviving family members.

“Some of these people died 50 or 70 years ago, and there are no survivors,” said Mr. Oziel, 92. “So it becomes the synagogue’s problem. We have to remember these people, and the only way we can do it is by righting these stones.”

A half-dozen members of the New Brunswick Police Department tried to right some of the stones that had been toppled but not broken. “A lot of family members are coming here,” said Lieutenant Mangarella, calling the overturned stones a terrible thing to see. “If we can prop them up and give them a little relief, we will.”

Anonymous said...

Mamash a chutzpe that Meyer Fertig in the Jewish Star calls me the "principal" of YTT. Ich bin der Rosh Yeshiva shlita of the best yeshiva!

Anonymous said...

http://exposemolesters.blogspot.com/2008/01/baruch-dayen-haemes-harav-shmuel.html#c4382318524622389345

Anonymous said...
I was physically abused by R' Nussbaum numerous times when I was in his 5th grade class. He had his hands all over me too. I still remember how he grabbed me feeling me up everywhere. It was uncomfortable for me. I did not fully realize what he was doing to me at the time. He was very touchy. Kissing, hugging, squeezing - feeling around and rubbing his beard on kids. He was definitely acting inappropriately, but as a little boy I was so innocent that I never questioned.

I just wanted to say keep up the fight. I totally support you.

Anonymous said...

http://cbs2.com/local/Van.Nuys.Jonathon.2.626720.html

An ex-con pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder for strangling his girlfriend in her Van Nuys apartment.

Jonathon Arthur Hendler, now 38, entered the plea as he was about to go on trial for the March 31, 2006, slaying of Beverly Ann Kass, according to Deputy District Attorney Alison Matsumoto.

Hendler was arrested four days after Kass' death, after calling three friends and telling them he had killed her, according to Los Angeles police.

One of the friends, a rabbi, reported the crime to police.

In connection with his plea, Hendler admitted that he had a 1991 robbery conviction counting as a "strike" and two other convictions in 1991 for robbery and burglary, Matsumoto said.

He is facing a 40-year-to-life term in state prison when sentenced Friday by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard Kirschner, according to the prosecutor.

A second charge alleging that he tried to rob a bank in Culver City shortly before his arrest is expected to be dismissed when he is sentenced, she said.

Anonymous said...

http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.search?p_logger=1&establishment=Agriprocessors&State=All&officetype=All&Office=All&p_case=closed

In 2006 alone, the plant was issued six violations by OSHA, two of them classified as “serious."

An examination of Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) workplace injury logs (known as OSHA 300 logs) at the plant reveal over five amputations from 2001-2005, two of them in 2005. In addition, the logs reveal dozens of other serious injuries such as broken bones, eye injuries and hearing loss. In July of 2007, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in order to obtain the most recent OSHA reports for the Postville plant.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3492690,00.html

Could it be the end of divorce extortion? The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved this week an amendment to Israeli law that would prevent ‘divorce-refusing’ husbands from financially extorting their wives

MK Melchior, too, braces for haredi objections to the bill, but does not see it as problematic in terms of Jewish law. “Many torah greats in various generations concluded that the status quo is unjust towards women, and were willing to amend the situation so that women would find it easier to obtain a divorce, “ he said.

Anonymous said...

Will foreclosures spark an arson boom?

As homeowners get more desperate, the insurance industry is bracing for an increase in arson.

By Jon Birger, senior writer


Goldman Sachs analyst Jan Hatzius says a recession and a more serious downturn in the housing market are on the horizon.



NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Faced with foreclosure on her Russellville, Indiana home, Christina Snyder allegedly concocted the kind of plan that now has insurance executives on edge.

According to the county prosecutor, the 31-year-old Snyder allegedly offered to pay a neighbor $5,000 to help her burn down her house and make it look like a botched rape attempt - all in order to claim $80,000 in insurance money. Snyder wanted the neighbor to bind her hands in duct tape, write "whore" on her shirt, and then help her escape once the blaze was set, the prosecutor says. The neighbor demurred, instead reporting Snyder to police.

With the national foreclosure rate zooming and the real estate market in a two-year funk, the insurance industry fears more homeowners will see arson as a way out of their financial woes. A recent report by the industry-funded Coalition Against Insurance Fraud notes that with "untold thousands of homeowners struggling with ballooning subprime mortgage payments, fraud fighters are watching closely for a spike in arsons by desperate homeowners who can no longer afford their home payments."

History indicates such a spike is coming. "When the economy is down, we see an increase in fraud," says Dennis Schulkins, a claim consultant in State Farm's Special Investigative Unit.

It may already be happening. Allstate (ALL, Fortune 500) spokesman Mike Siemienas says his company has seen an increase nationally in arsons among homes in foreclosure. In California, the state¹s insurance division reports that the number of questionable residential fires in 2007 increased 76 percent over 2006.

National arson statistics for 2007 aren't yet available, but Federal Bureau of Investigation crime data shows there was a significant uptick - 4 percent - in suburban arson in 2006, when the real estate downtown began to take hold. The arson increase in 2006 marked a change from the prior three years when suburban arson fell 3 percent, 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Says Dennis Jay, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud's executive director, "It's a growing problem."

Anonymous said...

Mayer Fertig is hereby "mezuman" to my private "beis din". How dare he expose R' Lipa?

Anonymous said...

For the poster above advocating me for President; all I can say is that I think I'm gonna cry, sniff.

Anonymous said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSL1855684720071218

LONDON (Reuters) - Troubled British soul singer Amy Winehouse was arrested on Tuesday as part of an investigation into perverting the course of justice, London police and her publicist said.

Anonymous said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0961368320080109

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - An Alabama father confessed to throwing his four young children from a high-rise bridge into coastal waters after an argument with his wife, police said on Wednesday.

Lam Luong, 37, of Irvington, Alabama, was charged with four counts of murder and was being held in the Mobile County, Alabama, jail. He was scheduled for a bond hearing on Thursday.

Searchers in boats and helicopters were scouring 100 square miles of coastal Alabama waterways for the children, who ranged in age from four months to three years and were presumed dead.

Investigators said Luong first reported the children missing on Monday but later admitted he threw them from the 80-foot (24-metre) bridge connecting the Alabama mainland to Dauphin Island near Mobile following a dispute with his wife.

"We're doing an extensive search," said Sgt. Jerry Taylor of the Mobile County Sheriff's Department.

Seven law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, joined the search, which resumed at daybreak on Wednesday after being called off Tuesday night due to rough water and fog.

Divers were also involved in the search for the bodies of the children, along with boats using sonar.

Police identified the children as 4-month-old Danny Luong; Lindsey Luong, 1; Hannah Luong, 2; and 3-year-old Ryan Phan.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2674261.html

An Austrian con man lived in hospitals for three years after tricking more than 90 clinics into admitting him with fake illnesses.

Jobless Franz Steiger, 59, from Muerzzuschlag, treated the hospitals like a hotel and stayed in 93 across the country.

But he was caught out when he claimed he had been suffering from dizzy spells after being knocked off a motorbike - and examining doctors grew suspicious when they could find no other injuries and checked with other hospitals.

Steiger has admitted to charges of deception by simulating injury and prosecutor Herbert Kohlbacher said: "He obtained free hospital accommodation and food by fraud."

Anonymous said...

His friendship with pedophile Michael Jackson is old news but I had never heard of him chumming up with Irish faig and heroin addict "Boy George". He was the lead singer of Culture Club which he displayed with Hebrew oysiyos as Tarbut Agudah (Fresser?). He was recently sentenced by a Manhattan judge to clean the streets of garbage after he lied to the NYPD.

The loser was best known for being a transvestite. He once collapsed and was carried away on a stretcher from a live concert. At the hospital they discovered pints of semen in his stomach that they had to pump.

He's currently on trial for kidnapping & assault.

Anonymous said...

Notice how the Agudah's Yankel Horowitz sent the letter to yeshivos deemed "relevant". I'm going to assume that means places like YTT & in the 5 Towns as opposed to Stoliner mesivta and Beis Hatalmud.

You see, if you're not the kind of Hungarian Putz or feinshmecker who has the Florida problem to begin with and whose kids are out of control, there's no need for 42 Broadway to annoy you.

Fat, grubba Margo likes to pretend his crowd are from the kedoshei elyon.

This is a farce within a farce.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America is in advanced talks to acquire Countrywide Financial, possibly stepping in to save the struggling mortgage lender, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
___________

I'm very familiar with the matter, it is either B of A, "acquiring" them...read rescue for a fire sale price...or bankruptcy!

Anonymous said...

Rabbi Weissmandl confirmed that it was the KAJ that decided to pull the plug.
“Definitely, it was not Rubashkin that fired them,” Weissmandl said. “Mr. Rubashkin pays kashrus fees for certifications that he doesn’t have anymore — rabbis who are too old to provide certifications, but he pays them their fees. He’s a very, very loyal person.”


There you have it, MMW calling Rubashkin and Lubinsky liars. The fact that Rubashkin "pays kashrus fees for certifications that he doesn't have anymore", shows the level of corruption in the kashrus business today. For rabbis to accept money for non-supervision is tantamount to shochad. Rubashkin is a businessman who doesn't give free handouts. You can either call it a licensing fee (as in the case of the OU and KAJ), or hush money for the others.

Anonymous said...

The state of our Judaism today, courtesy of "D-ass Toiyrah":

1. Can't eat the meat.
2. Can't drink the water without a triple-quadruple bypass filter.
3. Can't eat the vegetables.
4. Sheitels need a Hechsher (anybody policing this or is this too a ce$$pool of iniquity like the meat?).
5. Can't marry off your daughter unless you sell yourself into Eved Ivri slavery. You should only live so long.
6. Can't send your kid to yeshiva and sleep comfortably at night cause his Tyreh Tzaddik rebbe may cop a feel, physically/psychologically abuse him, or worse.
7. Internet is treif and assur.
8. cell-phones have to have special
restrictions or you can't use them.

And the beat goes on.

Sheesh!

OK, Guys & Gals let's all sing together:

Gimmee that Ol' time religion!

Anonymous said...

To the anonymous writer of 4:04 PM, January 09, 2008

I will respond to each and every point that you made in the order that you made them.

You wrote; “I am so sorry that you are suffering more pain from this site after surviving daily sexual abuse for four years from a rabbi. I sincerely hope you have people in your life who give you emotional support and that you are getting good professional help to help you cope, as I myself have. I wish there was a way for UOJ to put us in touch, anonymously, so I could meet with you and talk about how we could help each other in our healing.”

My friend I’m not suffering in pain from this site? Maybe it causes me a bit of aggravation that an extremely sick individual writes such horribly audacious comments in a public form about other people.
As far as people in my life giving me emotional support, that’s not something I wish to discuss here, but I’ll gladly meet you and talk to you and discuss whatever you wish to regarding the issue at hand. I don’t know your age or status in life so I apologize in advance if I hurt you with what I‘m about to say. For me it’s been many years now, and I have a life for myself. I have a wife, children, a growing family, a business, and I spend much of my time learning. The reason I made a point of this, is because I found many people especially youngsters wallowing in their pain and using this abuse issue at every opportunity to excuse themselves from there moral obligations. The bottom line is, that this abuse dates back thousands of years, and yes unfortunately thousand of children are still being abused, but there’s a whole world and life out there.
In shachris each morning we don’t say Alu devorim sheain luhem shiurt, hapaia….. Bikur Cholim ,V’i Hachnasa Kalla, and stopping child molestation. I’m not chas V’isholam trying to undermine the pain and believe me I do think that if you stop a child molester your schar does fall into that category, but it would be very healing for victims like yourself to try coming out of their shell and get a new life.

You wrote “I would also ask you to try to understand the writer's sentiments who wrote that Rabbis Frand, Krohn, Solomon, and Kotler speeches have no life and no eternity to them because they obscure and hide the most important truths of our time.”

So you’ve decided that more then Learning Torah, Davening, and all of spirituality etc. this is the most important truth of our time. This falls right into line of what I was saying before. The whole world does not evolve around child molestation. It’s maybe a challenge of our time in the freedom of information world, that’s it. It‘s a terrible horrific painful crime, its repercussions are even more horrendous, and there’s no vocabulary to describe it, but there’s also a whole world out there, and had there not been you or I could never heal. Many of my friends would joke at times how they were abused as children, but they get on with life and so should you.

You wrote; “specifically because they are the beloved speakers and leaders of thousands of sincere bnei torah, and have the attention and respect of our community; it is unconscionable that they have not spoken out on behalf of people like you and me.”

10 years ago, way before this raving lunatic had this stage to rant from, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman and Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsly got up in a public gathering of a few hundred people ADVERTISED IN ALL THE NEWSPAPERS AND POSTED EVERYWHERE and spoke about this issue. I don’t recall what they called the gathering(something like dark secrets) but I kept a copy of the tape and I can send it to you if you so wish. However I do agree that a one or two time gathering does not answer to the relevance or necessity, which is your point.
The truth regarding this entire issue and website is as follows; that aside from the TORAH, GEMARA, RABAINU YONA, and (I believe an old teshuva from the Noda B’iyehuda) discussing this issue, this issue was a buried taboo issue for hundreds of years. It‘s an extremely difficult issue to grasp or comprehend, and much the same way a victim will subconsciously disassociate, and deny the trauma for endless years to himself, bystanders will deny the atrocities as well. Lets’ face it, how many victims of Kolko came forward after 40 years knowing all along that in all likelihood he was doing this to hundreds of others. I read somewhere that “everyone knew Kolko was a molester” everyone means everyone not just the Rabbis, so the denial was everywhere with everyone, it was simply too painful of an issue that got mentally brushed aside by EVERYONE!!!!!For a more lengthy understanding of what I said, specifically regarding bystanders and outsiders please read Dr. Richard Gardners book called Betrayed as Boys.

You wrote: “I hate to hurt you more by telling you the painful truth, but they have also let you down and betrayed you just have anyone else who knew about your abuse or who should have known, or should have made you feel safe in sharing it.”

Sorry your perspective on this in my humble opinion is backwards. They have given me life, the tree of life. They the Rosh Hayishevos and Mashgichim of America have given me the greatest gift of all; the ability and desire to learn Torah, and grow close to hashem, which will hopefully earn me an eternal place in the world to come. Furthermore, I should say, that without them I probably would never have healed the same, since I would never have found solace without a life of Torah. My fifth grade Rebbe who taught me how to learn gemara does not and did not have to understand the effects of Child Molestation. He has to know how to learn and teach Gemara. Get the drift? Good!

You wrote; In addition to the writer who questioned whether you would trust these rabbis with your children, I would ask another question; namely, would you trust them and confide in them your story and expect them to a) do something to protect society from your rabbinic molester b) use a forum like the Aguda Convention to draw attention to the personal holocaust of hundreds and thousands of victims like you and me (instead of attacking UOJ) and c) get a real education themselves and require their massive following to be educated by mental health proffessionals as to the nature and extent of the pain and suffering caused by victimization and community coverup.

I definitely have a difficult time trusting others with my children, but I don’t want to live a paranoid life, so I use my best judgment, talk a lot to my kids, and pray!! I had some great Rabbaim in Yeshiva and one pervert will not make me paranoid. There are Rabanim criticized on this website that I would entrust my kids with since I DID CONFIDE IN THEM AND THEY DID HELP ME. As far as A goes) The Rabanim I just referred to did help me protect society from my Rabbinic Molester, and an associate Rav put behind bars two other molesters as well B) Yes they should use a forum like the convention to draw attention to this holocaust. C) From my understanding some Rabanim have gotten an education from Dr. Jacob Soloman who is well aware of the extent of damage that this does. Rabbanim, and Rosh Hayeshivos should get an education no doubt, however you have precisely made my point with your question. The mere fact that you’re requesting this, indicates that you understand all to well how complex this issue is. So instead of jumping on the ban-wagon to assault Rabbanim and create a chuilul Hashem, be Dan Likaf Zchus. Tsedek Tsedek Tishpot amisecha..

You wrote; “It is, of course, horrifying to see the obvious analogies between our community and the Catholic Church, in terms of abuse of children and cover-up. But we have all thought of it, because of how obvious it is. To try to split hairs as to the differences is kind of irrelevant. At least they are now (after over a billion dollars in legal settlements) are admitting publicly to their sins and trying to correct them.”

You’re stepping out of line. There is NO ANALOGY BETWEEN OUR COMMUNITY AND THE CATHLOIC CHURCH, NONE WHATSOEVER. The Catholic Church is only about corruption and abuse. I will paraphrase “we’ve only seen a tip of the iceberg of their abuse and corruption”; don’t be foolish now. However, there are cases of abuse, unfortunately, in our communities, that have to be dealt with, and there exists uneducated Rabbanim, but there is NO ANALOGY WHATSOEVER BETWEEN US AND THEM. Our Rabbanim are Bnei torah, there Priests are achzorim. Do you understand what Celibacy means? The Gemara in Avoda Zora says not to trust them to even to watch your animal. You get the drift? Good!

You wrote: “Many more Torah Tmima type lawsuits, New Yorker articles, Baltimore Jewish Times articles, Daily News exposes on the Brooklyn cover-up that allowed Mondrowitz to evade the law until now, and more Chillul Hashem?”

The UOJ picked up on the oldest stories that have been around for years. Mondorowits is a story from a generation ago. This doesn’t mean it should be ignored but don’t use him and Kolko and the few others to Chas V’ishalom compare us to the Church. That’s absolutely outrageous, horrific and a chilul hashem!!!

You wrote: Or could we expect our leaders and public figures to do the right thing, by saying publicly "Chatanu, Avinu, Pashanu."

In my humble opinion, but not from any halachic source, some leaders specifically regarding the Kolko and Mondorowits cases should perhaps say Chotanu publicly for people like yourself and others that have been hurt, however from a torah perspective they MAY only be obligated to say chotuna to the almighty himself.

You wrote; “Unfortunately, we are still a long way from that. There was a groundbreaking speech in Baltimore on Pesach, in which a rabbi did admit "the painful truth" that rabbis have mistakenly neglected victims. However, he apologetically attributed these "mistakes" to lack of understanding and the "L'shem Shamayim" motivation to avoid Chilul Hashem. He DID NOT admit that rabbis are actually human beings who also act sometimes for personal and ulerior motives. He could not bring himself to admit the more painful but more truthful fact that yeshivas sometimes care about their instituions, financial concerns, personal affiliations, respect for rabbis in general, and other non L'shem Shamayim interests, then they care about doing the right thing. Rabbis ARE people too, and sometimes act badly. They sometimes molest, and they sometimes cover up, and they sometimes are too scared or too weak to get involved. This is the truth the community needs to know.”

I think that the generation is coming around. I know quite a few professionals that work together with Rabbanim. Yes I do feel Rabbinic are human beings and it is possible they have ulterior motives, and are too scared or too weak to get involved. However I would guess that most Rabanim (when I say that I refer to bnei Torah) may lack understanding and that the disassociating/denial factor have perhaps worked together with them mistakenly thinking their avoiding a Chilul Hashem. Some other poster mentioned something about newspapers and to him I say; Newspapers like the Yated and Hamodia are businesses just like yours and mine, and they don’t want to publish topics that may turn off their cliental. There is no obligation for them to put their business in jeopardy. I highly doubt this unidentified raving lunatic would put his business in jeopardy to help a molested victim.

You wrote: “I can see you get something emotionally from reading and posting on UOJ. Do you join me in thanking G-d we have this forum? I am sorry if my hurt feelings caused me to express myself so angrily at you for what you said. I'm sure what you said came from a place of hurt and sensitivity. Please don't let your anger about what happened to you get misplaced and taken out on people who are sincerely trying to help, even if you don't like their means. Please, for your own sake, find a way of getting in touch with your anger at those who hurt you and who stood by in silence. Always remember, you are not alone. All victims can feel your hurt, your anger, your confusion and your frustration. I hope we can come up with a way for us to get together and work to bring about community wide change in a way that we can all feel good about.”

I think I answered most of what you already wrote. I do not appreciate your subtle line about misplaced anger which you use to undermine what I wrote. This whole site is about misplaced anger, and you’re being machzikai yidai ovrai avaira,-complacent with the crimes of this blogger. As to what I get out of this site is irrelevant since it will be misconstrued if I put in writing, and I do not join you in thanking G-D we have this forum. It’s in ugly one. I have never criticized the blogger regarding assisting in blowing open the kolko crimes other then our sages say that vulgar language is a terrible thing, that we will have to answer to the almighty.


However I will never ever bend in my conviction and belief that it is forbidden halachkly to humiliate another individual in public without a kolo d’ilo posek, or a bais din that they commited acts that are not b’ichlal osai maasa amcha. For this matter I believe that the blogger and the writer of the article without a sincere Teshuva have lost their place in the world to come. That is what our sages taught. You’re either with G-D and his Torah or against G-D and his Torah. Mi Lashaem Alai. We don’t live by whatever protocols some unidentified raving lunatic sets, nor has anyone on this blog answered me, on how it became halachicly permitted. Do you honestly think that Jeff Hermans lawsuit to YTT would not have prevailed without UOJ publicly defaming them? What kind of amateur fool thinks that only one vulgar defaming method will work against this system?
In my opinion the blogger and the author of the above article should never be trusted with any kids, since the underlying pain of a molested victim is humiliation which is precisely what they recklessly do onto others.
I honestly feel that this whole site is tainted and ridden with lies to get dem gedolim, but in truth their issue is how G-D allows this much the same way people have issues with how G-D allowed the holocaust, as the posuk says Ki lo alai telunosaichim ki im al hasehm.
I say the thirteen Ani Maamins every day and I truly believe that this is the will of the ALMighty.

Before meeting with you I would like you to concede to me at the very minimum that what the blogger and author have done is terribly forbidden according to the Torah. If you can’t and don’t have the strength for it nothing personal my friend, but I do not wish to meet with you. I do though wish you all the best and hope you heal very quickly, you deserve back whatever was stolen from you, and May Hashem give you all the blessings in the world.

All the best my friend,

Sincerely looking forward to your reply

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/rabbi-baruch-lanner-leaves-prison-today.html

Rabbi Baruch Lanner was released from prison today. He will be living in an apartment in Elizabeth, NJ. It is not known at this time which synagogue he will be attending or where he will be spending this shabbos.

As part of Baruch Lanner's parole agreement, Baruch is court ordered to continue in therapy for sex offenders treatment. Lanner will also be mandated to a life time of parole. The Awareness Center is still waiting to hear what the rest of Baruch Lanner's parole agreement includes.

Unfortunately, as we have seen in other cases -- our religious leaders have a habit of advocated for the rights of sex offenders, verses advocating for those who have been sexually victimized by sexual criminal acts. As a people it's vially important that each of us demand that the needs of the survivors come first. It will require everyone's help to insure that are community leaders do not repeat this pattern with Rabbi Baruch Lanner, as they have done in the past.

As of today there is no proven treatment that will "cure" a sex offender, especially one with the past history as that as seen in the case of Rabbi Lanner. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to keep our children safe, and help monitor convicted sex offenders like Rabbi Baruch Lanner from being physically abusive and or molesting another child.

Baruch Lanner is going to have a road ahead of him. We all need to insure he has a way to earn a living. He's right to be out in public also needs to be protected. The problem is trying to not violate his rights at the same time as protecting innocent children from becoming one of his next victims.

Like many other convicted sex offenders, Baruch Lanner will most likely spend the rest of his life always be inches away from committing another sex crime. It's sort of like an alcholoic trying to stay away from his or her next drink. As a people we need to help Baruch Lanner keep away from our children, to insure he stays in remission. We all can help do by asking to both community and religious leaders of Elizabeth, NJ the following:


What safety measures have Jewish community leaders established in Elizabeth to help insure Baurch Lanner has no contact with children under the age of 18? (this includes inside of synagogues and other public institutions.)
Have you send out flyers to community members with Baruch Lanner's picture on it. The flyers should include warning the community of Baruch Lanner's past history of being physically abusive towards boys and sexually abusing teenage girls? The goal is to keep Rabbi Lanner away from minors.

Anonymous said...

http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/rabbi-baruch-lanner-leaves-prison-today.html#6994003555382463284

Anonymous said...
Lanner was once a candidate for Principal of the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Rabbi E. M. Teitz tried to recruit him even as Lanner was abusing girls and hitting boys in the JEC high schools.

Nothing happens in Elizabeth without the consent of the Teitz family.

Nothing.

Anonymous said...
Do you think that still true considering rav Blau's wife is rav teitz (sister)

Anonymous said...

http://oybay.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/shafran-shmears-responsible-jewish-writers/

Shafran Shmears Responsible Jewish Writers
Posted by Oyster on January 10, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran, the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, and sometimes journalist, wrote a crude defamation of Jewish bloggers in the January 4th issue of the J Weekly of Northern California.

In his article titled, “Avoid the untamed jungles of Blogistan”, (why the learned Rabbi thinks that central Asian state suffixes are synonymous with evil is beyond me) Rabbi Shafran wastes no time in comparing bloggers to “swindlers and pornographers”. As a Jewish reader (and commentor) of blogs for 3 years, and as a blogger myself for the past year and a half, I am personally offended by what he wrote.

He throws in some obligatory ‘well, I guess there are a few ok Jewish bloggers out there. Maybe five’ qualifier, but the marks of his broad-stroke brush cannot be finessed away. He claims that, “responsible blogs in the Jewish realm as in the general are decidedly in the minority”. This is so obviously a case of seeing what you look for. As someone who has read many a blog from the J-blogosphere, I can say that it runs the gamut from Torah discussion to Israeli culture. I believe that Rabbi Shafran is so focused on the negative aspects of what he reads online, that he’s willing to slander the good with the bad. You can tell that this is a lashing out at blogs that struck a personal nerve with him, when he writes, bitterly, that these malicious blogs seek to score “extra points for Orthodox Jews and triple score for rabbis”.

What he really fails to see is that blogs aren’t some sinister ideological movement that seeks to spread “evil” (in his own words), but are just another means of communication. This is a classic example of confusing the message with the medium. Hateful and mean-spirited content can be delivered by books, movies, TV, magazines, newspapers, and, yes, HTML documents on computer networks. This is no reason to support the knee-jerk throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater reaction of, “the Internet in general is not a healthy place to hang out in”.

One of the charges that he levels is that these blogs do not uphold the value of avoiding Lashon Hara. I know several Jewish blogs that take this matter very seriously. JewSchool, a left-of-center blog that might not be one of Agudath Israel’s biggest fans, makes a point of invoking the Chofetz Chaim & Rav Soloveichik in reminding its readers that one must show the utmost respect for other writers / commentors, and must avoid Lashon Hara. Oy Bay itself has taken this matter extremely seriously, to the extent of involving both local Orthodox rabbinical authorities and even the police when an especially egregious case of Lashon Hara landed at our doorstep. Perhaps because most of us don’t wear black hats and suits he finds it inconceivable that Jewish blogs could cherish the self-same values that he does?

Rabbi Shafran also underestimates, and under-reports, on the positive aspect of the J-blogosphere. In my own personal life, I had a transformative experience when I met other Jewish bloggers in real life at the Jewlicious Festival in LA. Meeting David Abitbol (jewlicious.com), David Kelsey (the Kvetcher), Esther Kustanowitz (JDaters Anonymous), Rabbi Yonah Bookstein (BlogShul), and others changed my life, and made Jewish writing a passion of mine. That lead me to attend other Jewish conferences, and now I have Jewish friends all over the world. And all from reading a so-called “venomous spider” of a website called Jewlicious.com . And now imagine this effect ten-thousand fold, as similar young Jews around the world interconnect and collaborate online, creating a positive Jewish community that *does* lead to friendships and relationships in real-life.

In closing, Rabbi Shafran writes, “All Jews should be concerned with basic Jewish values such as shunning forbidden speech, [and] refusing to judge others”. Rabbi Avi Shafran would do well to heed his own words, and not write articles that prejudice the Jewish community against Jewish bloggers.

Anonymous said...

There's an even better kashya on Margo and the Agudah about the letter. Why the heck are they still giving that ferd any chashivus that his signature belongs next to mechanchim?

Anonymous said...

Does Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum send Torah tapes to Rikers Island or just Otisville and Allentown?

Anonymous said...

KINGS Supreme Court
Docket: 04314-2007
Defendant: COLMER, STEFAN
Born 1976

Arrest Date: January 7, 2008
Arrest Time: 19:20
Incident Date: January 28, 2006

Criminal Justice Tracking Number: 59766853Q
NYSID Number: 2696869K
Arrest Number: K08602074

A Misdemeanor, 2 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SEX MISCON: ORAL/ANAL CONDUCT
Indictment Count: 3

A Misdemeanor, 5 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 9

A Misdemeanor, 2 count, Not an arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 29
Charge added to case on: May 21, 2007

A Misdemeanor, 4 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 15

A Misdemeanor, 5 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 8

A Misdemeanor, 5 count, Not an arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 26
Charge added to case on: May 21, 2007

D Felony, 1 count, Not an arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: CRIMINAL SEX ACT 2: VICTIM<15
Indictment Count: 34
Charge added to case on: May 21, 2007

A Misdemeanor, 4 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 16

D Felony, 1 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: CRIMINAL SEX ACT 2: VICTIM<15
Indictment Count: 1

A Misdemeanor, 5 count, Arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: SX ABSE:SX CNTCT W/IND<14
Indictment Count: 5

D Felony, 1 count, Not an arrest charge, Not an arraignment charge
Description: CRIMINAL SEX ACT 2: VICTIM<15
Indictment Count: 10
Charge added to case on: May 21, 2007

I could keep going but this isn't even half way through. There's all kinds of sordid stuff like anal and oral acts.

Anonymous said...

After the grand jury indictment, an arrest warrant was issued for Colmer on May 18.

He pled not guilty on Jan. 8 and was not able to post bail.

He's due back in court in front of Judge Mullen on Feb. 25th.

Anonymous said...

Boy George is an honorable transvestite.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know which David Epstein is defending Colmer?

http://www.paulweiss.com/lawyers/detail.aspx?attorney=618

There's David J. Epstein from Paul Weiss Rifkind who looks like some greasy yeshiva guy.

J.D., University of Michigan Law School
cum laude
B.A., Haverford College
with honors

http://www.martindale.com/Profile/attorneys.aspx?alid=398295&ft=1

There's David B. Epstein on his own in Brooklyn.

http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1609022_1

And there's just plain David Epstein with the Legal Aid Society.

Legal Aid Society Criminal Division

Address: 7th Fl
175 Remsen St
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Anonymous said...

To the above anon, at 8:59

You said "The Rabanim I just referred to did help me protect society from my Rabbinic Molester, and an associate Rav put behind bars two other molesters as well"

Right, and I got a bridge to sell you! give me the name of the rav that put away 2 child molesters, I personally want to thank him.

Who are you kidding?

Anonymous said...

A talmid asked R' Shmuel Berenbaum what he could do for a segulah to be blessed with children. He told him to learn the sefer of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik on the Rambam. He explained, “Der grester segulah iz Torah - The greatest segulah is Torah.”

When the yungerman looked at him with amazement, Rav Shmuel explained that he had another reason why he suggested to learn the classic sefer of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik. ‘Rav Chaim was the father of the yesomim of Brisk. Rav Chaim cared for the poor children, he cared for those who had no one else. “Together with the merit of Rav Chaim’s Torah there is no greater zechus.”

When the end was near, the dying Rosh Yeshiva turned to his son and told him that he felt as if his time on this world was about to end. “Un ich hob nisht vos moirah tzu hoben,” said Rav Shmuel. “I don’t fear death; I don’t fear meeting my maker.”

He was so real, he was so pure. He spent his life following and learning Torah to the degree that he himself became a cheftzah shel Torah.

Rav Shmuel asked that a Gemara Kesubos be brought to him. He opened to Daf 103b and 104a to learn the sugyah of the passing of Rebbi. Everything he did in this world was al pi Torah, including leaving it. And just as the Gemara describes, “Nitzchu ereilim es hametzukim v’nishbah aron hakodesh - The Heavenly beings overcame the good people of this world and captured the aron of Hashem.”

Rav Shmuel Berenbaum leaves us with a legacy of ameilus baTorah, gadlus baTorah, as well as chavivus and chashivus for Torah and Bnei Torah. It is left to us, his spiritual yorshim, to fill the great void left by his passing.

Anonymous said...

˜Rav Chaim was the father of the yesomim of Brisk. Rav Chaim cared for the poor children, he cared for those who had no one else.

Anonymous said...

Powerful thunderstorms packing heavy rain and high winds pushed across Alabama and Mississippi on Thursday, causing scattered property damage and some injuries.
Several tornado watches or warnings were issued Thursday in both states, but no touchdowns were immediately confirmed

Anonymous said...

You did not answer this question:

"As for your arguments:

1) I would like you to look at something you wrote. You have problems with UOJ and other writers using denigrating, humiliating language in talking about other people, but you repeatedly call the writer of the post you disagree with, names such as "dirt-bag". Please make up your mind as to the level of speech you would like this blog to use."
------------------------------

My question to To 8:59 PM is as follows:

a) If you're such a lamdan as you claim, why waste your time and ruin your neshamah by reading this blog?

b) Your view is one dimensional and excuses Rabbonim end of story.

c) your arguments are inconsistent with the facts.

d) This one is to UOJ - Could you please not take the abuse from this shoiteh anymore. On the one hand he claims sexual abuse is a problem. On the other hand he wants us to get permission from "bais din" and "Rabbonim" who themselves are guilty and Nogeah bedavar.

e) You succeeded in writing a lot of things, but in the end you really didn't say too much; other than you can't stand the offensive tone and language of this blog.

This guy is either a total flake or as ignorant as they get.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

d) This one is to UOJ - Could you please not take the abuse from this shoiteh anymore. On the one hand he claims sexual abuse is a problem. On the other hand he wants us to get permission from "bais din" and "Rabbonim" who themselves are guilty and Nogeah bedavar.
------------
It's important to see what we're up against! There are thousands of these guys walking around out there - when they should be hospitalized!

Anonymous said...

"when they should be hospitalized!"

uoj, you gave me the first laugh of an otherwise hard boring day at work, keep it up your doing just fine, Chazak!

p.s. please send the man a copy of the "roto rooter guy".

Anonymous said...

UOJ IS THE ROTO ROOTER GUY!

Published originally August 18, 2006 B.C. (Before Convention)
Customer Service Number:1-800-TOLD-YOU.


You buy a house in a good neighborhood and your toilet keeps backing up. Not every day, but just enough for you to realize that your sewer system is a problem. But you're busy, raising a family, making a parnassah, and all the other activities that occupy your time 110%.

So your sewer problem is there, any fool would realize that if your toilet keeps dumping zevel in your living room every few months, you have a sewer problem. In order for you to deal with the problem you must take a real hard look at the root cause of the damaged system. Then you come to realize that the whole neighborhood has shit backing up into their bedrooms, dining rooms and living rooms as well.

You call a meeting with your neighbors and decide to buy thicker carpets and have the zevel piped in under the carpet so you don't have to have the crap hit you in the face. You make many melave malkes, conventions and dinners and take the stench with you...because ultimately the stench is you! But now you're in a room where every one smells like shit and you think it's perfume or so they tell you. You now go out and buy knee boots...hoping the charra will not dirty your suit or legs. At the dais of these dinners, you begin to believe that they caused the stench by stuffing your sewers with their bull"shit", so if you called a plumber, they will profit from your sewer problem, because they own the plumbing company.

They continue to stuff up your sewer system with newsletters and proclamations, and their propaganda slowly convinces you that really you don't have a sewer problem at all. It's imagined.....and let's blame the sewer company for selling you inferior pipes."

It's the Goyim stupid"......or people that act like Goyim. And you know what? The plumbers that brought you the news that you have a problem at all, are shgatzim. They use nivel peh, are m'challel Shabbos, they fix sewers on Shabbos...what qualifies them to tell you that your sewer is broken? Never listen to a plumber who uses nivel peh; call your posek, he'll tell you what looks like shit, smells like shit, and has destroyed your lives with these toxic fumes that have penetrated your being, is really nothing more than a tradition that all of us inherited from our ancestors.( What looks like sex abuse, feels like sex abuse,and IS sex abuse, is really, really, NOT sex abuse, it's the psak from a godol that really counts, NOT the law of our Country, or the law of civilized man!)

What to do? All your life you are living in this community, but now this big bad plumber has uncovered for all the world to see, that there really is a huge sewer problem.

SHIT EVERYWHERE!

The Roto Rooter guy insists that the sewer is irreparable; only a total removal of the sewer "system" will remove the problem that has destroyed your home. It must be replaced with brand new pipes and must be installed by reputable plumbers. He apologizes for his frustration and his use of "over the top" language, but has learned from experience that good people don't pay much attention to soft spoken plumbers." Imagine" he says, " If I came to your home in a suit and tie, and spoke the King's English, would you really believe that I'm a plumber?" "Would you really believe that me and me alone can tear out your broken sewer and replace it with a brand new working system that is able to flush out the drek before it becomes a problem? I will install a warning system..we'll call it a black hat alert, the shit detector will sound a siren way in advance, way before your sewer begins to crumble."

"And you know what? It's FREE! I'll do it at no charge. You see I love the people that live in this neighborhood, I JUST HATE THE SMELL! This used to be a beautiful neighborhood, until the drek peddlers moved in.

Your choice my friends, go Roto Rooter, or suffer with the farshtoonkena drek that represents the toxic smell that is destroying your neighborhood.

Go Roto Rooter at no charge, or choose the likes of the mushchasim that are called Fraud Yisroel Belsky, Lipa Margulies, Pinchos Scheinberg, Simcha Kaufman and last but certainly not least, Yudi Kolko.

Anonymous said...

Survivors of Ohel Family Services please post your stories so the public is warned

Anonymous said...

The guy with the 55 paragraph diatribes sounds like Neuhoff on steroids. I could dispute many things he says but it's not worth it.

Just one question I want him to answer. And answer it with an answer this time - not another question.

How do you defend Paysach Krohn when he is enabling and protecting a suspected child rapist Ephraim Bryks who is wanted by police in Canada?

Don't get righteous on us now. I'm playing by YOUR rules because the RCA beis din determined he is a threat and forced him out of chinuch. Krohn organizes shabbatons for children with Bryks.

And why does Paysach Krohn try to rehabilitate CONVICTED child rapist Lipa Brenner. Don't argue because I speaka you language. They say Rav Pam assered Brenner from stepping foot in Torah Vodaas.

Anonymous said...

"read rescue for a fire sale price...or bankruptcy!"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120005404048583617.html

Countrywide Gets Rescue Deal

By DAMIAN PALETTA , VALERIE BAUERLEIN AND JAMES R. HAGERTY
January 11, 2008 9:26 a.m.

Bank of America Corp. agreed to buy tottering mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. in a $4 billion all-stock deal, a move that could build a bulwark against the mortgage-default crisis by protecting one of its biggest casualties from collapse.

Anonymous said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119998596045681265.html

PAGE ONE

Fed Chief Opens the Door
To 'Substantive' Rate Cuts

By GREG IP and JOELLEN PERRY
January 11, 2008; Page A1

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, citing the growing threat to the economy from fragile financial markets and weakening employment, opened the door to "substantive" cuts in U.S. interest rates.

Anonymous said...

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,3063,00.html#2_0

I am moved after reading UOJ's site. I think YTT should have been carpetbombed earlier.

Anonymous said...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321310,00.html

"American Idol" judge Paula Abdul "had an insane nervous breakdown" at Los Angeles International Airport over the holidays, according to a report on radaronline.com.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=18767

2008-01-11
The Spinka money trail -- and the informant who brought them down

By Amy Klein, Religion Editor

Anonymous said...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNTbSSn9dkLu6yfQbafokYk7Mx-wD8TUN9IO0

The Bungalow Putz is against steroid use of any kind. Neuhoff only supports injections of vitamin B-12.

Anonymous said...

The LA Jewish Journal links UOJ to get the article from attorney Joel Cohen. The top of UOJ's post is a get-Belsky-and-Neuhoff blurb.

Anonymous said...

Amy Klein is a big UOJ fan.

One particularly poignant plea came from New York white-collar defense attorney Joel Cohen, in an essay published in 2006 titled, "Jewish Felons: The Problem of Criminality in Observant Communities." Cohen described witnessing a disturbing rise in crime among Orthodox and Chasidic Jews. (from UOJ)

Anonymous said...

Eckstein put up a slideshow with 100s of pics from Rav Berenbaum's levaya.

In the section where he highlights gedolim in attendance, he saw fit to make Belsky a prominent entry.

Anonymous said...

To Phew said...
I could dispute many things he says but it's not worth it.

Dispute!! I’d like to hear what you have to say instead of all these childish remarks, shoteh, hospitalize him, say something as a logical counterpart!

“How do you defend Paysach Krohn when he is enabling and protecting a suspected child rapist Ephraim Bryks who is wanted by police in Canada?
Don't get righteous on us now. I'm playing by YOUR rules because the RCA beis din determined he is a threat and forced him out of chinuch. Krohn organizes shabbatons for children with Bryks.”

I don’t know Paysach Krohn never met Paysach Krohn, or personally care for Paysach Krohn. Nor did I differ with you regarding this? All I said is that according to Halacha; in order for you to defame a person in public you need a kolo di lo posek, or a psak bais din just like the open letter to Rabbi Matisyahu states “Apparently a mere forty years of koila d’lo posuk was not enough”.

If you have a psak bais din as such, then post it, and show it! Don’t just spew around all the gossip you hear!

Anonymous said...

Moody's Investors Service's

negative view on Bank of America Corp.'s (BAC:bank of america corporation 1:33pm 01/11/2008

CFC 6.67, -1.08, -13.9%) weighed on the already beaten-down investment grade corporate debt market Friday and sent investors into safe-haven U.S. Treasurys.

The ratings agency said Bank of America's plan to buy Countrywide in a $4 billion all-stock deal is detrimental to Bank of America's capital position because the amount of equity being issued is modest in relation to the total assets being acquired.

Anonymous said...

And I thought it was an incredible shonda and lack of kovod to just push together a bunch of plastic chair for the niftar to be placed on during the levayah in Yerushalayim.

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday after American Express Co (AXP.N) was the latest company to warn of mounting credit-card defaults and slowdown in consumer spending, adding to expectations of a U.S. recession.

Anonymous said...

has uoj got anything wrong yet/

Anonymous said...

When they needed to move the aron, the crowd either wouldn't or couldn't move, so the chevra kadisha just started pushing. It was a big nebich that the alter Mirrer, Rav Brodeonski shlita got pushed into R' Shmuel's kever.

Anonymous said...

Gee, I wonder why ...

When the Spinka case broke, the Rabbinical Council of California (RCC) discussed the informant issue, RCC President Rabbi Meyer May said. But the council decided to let other halachic authorities deal with the question.

"There is no way to explain how perfidious what RK did is. He violated the spirit of Jewish law," May said.

Anonymous said...

Weisz and Zeligman had spent another Shabbat in Los Angeles, detained until the arraignment. The Spinka Rebbe attended Rabbi Chaim Boruch Rubin's synagogue in Hancock Park -- which itself is entangled in a legal battle over land use -- and was given the honor of leading services. At this, a few men walked out in protest.

"As a parent in the community and as a rabbi in the community, since there were children in the room and since we have an obligation to teach our children right and wrong," one person who left quietly said later. "I have no problem [with the Spinka Rebbe] sitting in the front in his normal [honored] seat," but the man who walked out said he would have preferred "one stage less than normal" to show children "that it's not business as usual."

Anonymous said...

Kolkoism and Lannerism is about idolatry of flesh and blood - like early Chirstianity, Sabbateanism, Frankism, and Muhammadism.

Anonymous said...

There is a big problem here. A VICTIM expresses his opinions on this blog which is not what UOJ, LVF and others want to here. They resort to name calling and Laitzonos - exactly what tis VICTIM is being critical of.

We are all so caring about all the victims of abuse, but only as long as they support the prevalent positions espoused on this blog by UOJ and commenters that we must expose the fraud enablers, etc. Because this victim does not support these views and actually maintained his respect for Rabbonim despit being abused, WE jump on him for being a TRAITOR to OUR cause. This is ridiculous! Can in it just be that there are victims out there who do not agree with UOJ? While we may not agree with them, we have no right to ridicule them! UOJ has created a You are with me or Against me mentality - no in betweens - no gray matter. This logic is now applied to the VICTIMS - the very ones that this BLOG fights for! I guess there are good victims and bad victims! If we really cared for VICTIMS, wouldn't we ACCEPT thiem even if they do not agree with UOJ.

Personally, I do not agree with this VIctim, but I do hear his points and believe that they have much validity. Publicly embarrassing people is a serious transgression! This is what he is saying. Others have said similiarly that UOJ could have been just as effective without resorting to these tactics. I believe that this Victim takes it too far as for the victims and enablers this may have been the most effective manner, but UOJ paints everyone together no matter how small their involvement and will not hesitate to embarass these people as well.

Bottom line is that this guy has been treated like the ENEMY because he disagrees. THe commenters have not hesitated to make fun of him. Similiarly, this is how UOJ treats anyone that may have played any role in any "coverup" whatsoever.

The fact that even a VICTIMS can receive such treatment is truly scary! It contradicts everything that this blog supposedly stand for and questions the integrity of UOJ and others.

Anonymous said...

To the Victim's Advocate said... 10:36 PM, January 12, 2008 and to LVF said...

Thank you “Victim's Advocate” for expressing some of my inner thoughts. Sometimes victims have an extremely difficult time in shouting out- expressing the voice that was shunned out during those traumatic moments. You actually took the time out, to speak my voice for me. Thank you and May Hashem bless you.

You wrote: Bottom line is that this guy has been treated like the ENEMY because he disagrees. The commenters have not hesitated to make fun of him. Similarly, this is how UOJ treats anyone that may have played any role in any "coverup" whatsoever.”

Well said! On this site it’s all black and white there is no gray, how pathetic!!

I heard Reb Matisyahu Soloman’s speech online, and all he did was criticize the UOJ for his Nivul Peh, and disagreed saying that “we don’t sweep under the carpet” Does this automatically make him an ENABLER that he deserves to be humiliated and defamed in public?

AS VICTIMS OF HUMILIATION OURSELVES, HOW DO WE STAND BY IN SILENCE, THE SAME SILENCE WE’RE ANGRY AT OTHERS FOR?

Even the open letter to Reb Matisyahu reflects his innocence in this way; “I lay no blame at your doorstep for the above; you come from another part of the world, did not participate in and have no first hand knowledge of these events.”

To LVT You wrote: “Right, and I got a bridge to sell you! give me the name of the rav that put away 2 child molesters, I personally want to thank him.”

And then you wrote: “when they should be hospitalized! uoj, you gave me the first laugh of an otherwise hard boring day at work, keep it up your doing just fine, Chazak!”

I took time out on Friday to call the Rav, and I asked him again “Did you put two others behind bars? He said “absolutely, and anyone that wants to meet or speak with me about them is welcome”. I asked him if I could mention his name here on this blog, and he said, absolutely not, but if I get in touch with any ligit person, they’re welcome to meet or speak with him.

Bottom line MR. LVT is that you called me a liar!! Now listen here! I was severely abused, not minimally abused for maybe a years time by the likes of a Kolko, but severely abused, taken advantage of…for YEARS…..etc…. and you had the audacity to call me a liar regarding the people that supported me most during the most trying times in my life. Shame on you!!
You’re no better then any enabler who denies the victims trauma. I should curse you much the same way, I thanked the “victims advocate” but I hold my tongue because I believe in the Torah which you don’t.

I will close this post with another plea to the blogger. Although you’ve made it clear that you have no respect for the Zohar, however you do show respect for Rabbi Shraga Feivul Mendelowits and Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky who did have the utmost respect for the Zohar. In the hopes that the spark of orthodox teshuva still remains but buried within your soul I will quote a Zohar. The Zohar in Tikunai Zohar tikun 5 translated “and furthermore, the verse Lo Solin Nivluso refers to people who speak nivul Peh together with loshon horo, this sin causes that they die before there time is meant to be, and that’s what the posuk means when it says ki kuver tikbirenu.

Sincerely reaching out to the UOJ and supporters, with hopes that you’ll all see the light, repent, change your attitudes, perspectives, images and tones, and find a better and matured way to accomplish your agenda of exposing Molesters.

Anonymous said...

The Jewish Week interviewed Rabbi Billet who was the head of the RCA at the time. He said that they forced Bryks out of chinuch.

And Lipa (Lewis) Brenner's conviction is public record.

Paysach Krohn continues to enable these scumbags.

Links to all these items have been posted on UOJ before but some ostriches will never get their heads out of the sand.

Anonymous said...

Is this some sort of 'blast from the past'?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

"...get it done and let them howl"!

Fan of UOJ said...

I am so sick and tired of reading talkbacks saying that if you would have just curbed your language, you would have had a much larger audience.

That is a total lie.

If you hadn't used such brash tactics, no one would have paid any attention at all.

Rodef emes said...

This post is so damn good, its scary. Nobody frum wrote it. Had to have been a BT with a very serious education. I don't know how I overlooked it the first time around.

Anonymous said...

Registered sex offender Yechiel Jerry Brauner of Borough Park arrested again. Back in court June 30 2009



2009KN049962 Brauner, Jerry 06/30/2009 Kings Criminal Court AP3

Court Kings Criminal Court

Case # 2009KN049962

Defendant Brauner, Jerry

Charge Detail Disposition/Sentence
PL 240.26 01 Violation, 2 counts, Not an arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Harassment 2nd- Phy Contact PL 240.26 01 Violation, 2 counts, Not an arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Harassment 2nd- Phy Contact PL 130.55 00 B Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Sexual Abuse 3rd
PL 120.15 00 B Misdemeanor, 2 counts, Not an arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Menacing 3rd
PL 130.52 00 A Misdemeanor, 1 count, Not an arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Forcible Touching
PL 130.55 00 B Misdemeanor, 1 count, Not an arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Sexual Abuse 3rd
PL 130.52 00
**TOP CHARGE** A Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge

Description Forcible Touching
PL 120.15 00 B Misdemeanor, 2 counts, Not an arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description Menacing 3rd

Anonymous said...

Recommended reading:

DaatTorah.blogspot.com

Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn's blog. Many smart things written about abuse, other topics.

Avi L. Shafran said...

Judge Chin is a pornographer.

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Monday, June 29, 2009 -- 11:37 AM ET
-----

Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison

Bernard L. Madoff on Monday received the maximum sentence for
perpetrating one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall
Street history and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rabbi Gershon Bess - Los Angeles said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2009/06/agri-postville-iowa.html

I don't understand the point of the "Vaad Lemaan Hayahadus" run by R' Gershon Bess in Los Angeles.

He issued a shtickel the other week that attacks people who wash themselves on Yomtov.

I don't know who he thinks he is by accusing people begeder issteniss on a 3 day hot & sweaty Shavuos or Simchas Torah of being overpampered rodfei taavah who have no recht to clean themselves. He goes on to attack poskim who say it's mutter besheim R' Shlomo Zalman ztl as misquoting him. Bess says he asked R' Shlomo Zalman himself who said it's "ossur" - of course it's clear that Bess asked the shayla in a way that he would get the desired "psak" of ossur. The halachos are complicated but there's no reason why bnei Torah, talmidei chochomim who know the halachos cannot wash themselves.

It's not clear why this has become such a hot topic letztens but R' Yair Hoffman pulled the same stunt a month ago, writing in the 5 Towns Jewish Times. He comes out of the inyan with the "brilliant" maskana that it must be ossur since there is no befeirush teshuva in Igros Moishe that is mattir. Can you believe this guy?

A general word to all these agenda-driven am haaratzim, R' Aron Kotler ztl and many other gedolei haposkim were mattir under the right circumstances.

Yair Hoffman, agav, was the guy who was last seen getting caught using an alias, "Ben Nathan", in the 5 Towns Jewish Times to attack Rubashkin critics. This after he got an all-expenses paid trip to report nicely on Agriprocessors.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

R' Gershon Bess is a talmud chochum atzum. He is clearly wrong with the psak he made in his last newsletter; rather surprising because he is a practical posek.

Ho Ho Holder and Bim Bam go to bat for al Qaeda terrorists said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/us/29gitmo.html

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has advised an Obama administration panel trying to devise a new system for trying terrorist detainees that defendants have some constitutional rights if they are tried by military commissions in the United States, notably including protections regarding statements against them obtained through coercive interrogations, administration officials said Sunday.

Ahavah said...

I had a question, and I think this is more or less how it went:

I don't know if you have been paying attention but there has been a very heated discussion over at Daas Torah concerning Tropper and EJF, 5 or so (not consecutively) of the last 7 or 8 posts have been on this topic and "Roni" has been attempting to fend off a handful of EJF critics, basically.

Ahavah Gayle said...
Roni says: "And at the same time R' Tropper's energy is focused into hel[ping those couples who approach him to help them covnert WHEN THEY ARE SINCERE!"

And who gets to decide whether or not they are "sincere?" Is he rejecting people who are WITHIN the halachic framework simply because they choose not to be Chereidi or fund his community? What is the basis for insisting on chumras/stringencies that all of our grandparents never heard of or practiced to be the standard for new converts? By those standards NOBODY is really Jewish, because we all know good and well - there are plenty of photographs - that in the early part of this century Orthodox women dressed like normal American women and were not distinctive in any way, Jewish immigrant kids went to school with other Americans and associated with them, pretty much everyone had a business or day job, women raised their own kids, not daycare, and so on and so on.

How is it that Tropper gets to insist on standards that everybody here's grandparents and great-grandparents and probably even parents (for many) did not hold to? Where does he get such power - who gave it to him and is it legitimate and according to halacha? Other Rabbis seem to be saying "no."
June 25, 2009 12:37 AM

"Roni" ignored my question. What followed were several posts by "Roni" some of which were fairly incoherent. So I wrote this (and was quite surprised that DT actually posted it!):

Ahavah Gayle said...
Somebody needs to get Roni some meds. That problem with his ability to write grammatical and properly spelled sentences fading in and out randomly surely indicates a brain tumor - or maybe he's possessed.
June 25, 2009 2:07 AM

I wrote this because several commenters at DT have made the assertion that Tropper sometimes posts as "Roni" on DT. So:

Roni said...
Ahavah,

I thought your question earlier deserveas answer. thank you for reminding that you deserve no answer!
June 25, 2009 3:07 AM

I replied:
Ahavah Gayle said...
Any excuse, right Roni?
June 25, 2009 6:32 PM

And the fight between Roni and others has progressed on now through successive articles at DT but Roni never would answer my question. So I was wondering if anyone here would take a shot at it, because I would really like to know. Thanks.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Leib Tropper has about the same right to grant or withdraw conversions as Yaakov Perlow has to investigate pedophilia in yeshivas.

Really clear, LEIB TROPPER IS A FRAUD; EVERYTHING THE MAN DOES IS SUSPECT!

Ombudsman said...

Tropper is very intelligent and manipulative. It would not surprise me if his alter ego is purposely posting in bad grammatical form to leave the impression that it is someone else writing those posts.

As one astute blogger has pointed out, Tropper is often seen typing into his Blackberry. The numerous blog posts suspected as his would certainly account for his Crackberry addiction.

Anonymous said...

Isn't Rabbi Bess one of the RCC's rabbis that continues to cover for pedophiles like Aron Tendler? Its one thing to make people stink on Yomtov, but quite another to stink yourself all year round.

Moetzes Resign! said...

Conyers quits in wake of guilty plea

Detroit Free Press ‎

57 minutes ago

Israel Belsky SHLITA said...

Sometimes are the fire hydrants are in use.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/taxicab-tales-from-the-drivers-seat/

An Unwanted Deposit

A man got into Andre Boulin’s cab with his dog, and the driver reminded him to watch it to make sure it behaved. “Then the fare was, for example, $4.90,’’ said Mr. Boulin, who’s been driving a cab in the city for 24 years. “When he got out, he gave me $10 and he told me, ‘Keep the change.’ I said, ‘What is this?’ He goes, ‘The tip.’ I was happy for the tip.’’ Then Mr. Boulin drove on. “Someone stopped me, O.K. I stopped for him, and he opened the door. He closed the door back up’’ without getting in. “I said, ‘What’s going on?’ Then I kept driving. A second customer stopped me, he opened the door, and then he closed the door’’ without getting in. “I said, ‘Wow, this is strange’ … I pull over now. I stop and I open the door. … The floor is completely messed up — dog doo-doo.’’ That’s when Mr. Boulin realized why the first man had left that $5 tip. “I had to stop, and went to the car wash to spend $22 to clean the car.’’ Now, he said, if you have a dog but you’re not blind, “I’m not going to take you — not only me, most of the cabdrivers.’’

Two faced liar said...

With Bernard L. Madoff now sentenced to 150 years in prison, his wife, Ruth, said Monday that she felt “embarrassed and ashamed” and “betrayed and confused” by his crimes.

In her first statement since Mr. Madoff’s enormous Ponzi scheme came to light in December, Mrs. Madoff assailed her husband, saying, “The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years.”

Bim Bam identity said...

A better liar and spinmeister than Clinton.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Spinning a Supreme Court decision in its favor, the White House said Monday that the justices' reversal of a ruling that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge proves that she follows judicial precedent.

The high court ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race.

Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs said the ruling should put to rest claims by Sotomayor 's Senate critics that she's an activist judge.

Shmarya groupie said...

Only if they're orthodox

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/should-charities-repay-their-madoff-money/

Should Charities Repay Their Madoff Money?

Avi L. Shafran said...

Not only is Bernie Madoff my hero, his wife is a tzaddakus, she took ONLY $2.5 million of geganveter gelt.

Yoel-Feish said...

Groundless hatred is given as one of the reasons for the current exile, the Chofetz Chaim says that the sins that got us into the exile must still be going on to keep us in it. Your article " Chassidism Is Not Judaism" was disgusting to read for all of it's Loshon hara, blatantly shown in such a public manner.

Avi Shafran's letter got lost in the mail said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124604151653862301.html

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin noted that more than 100 victims had written letters to him, citing one from a widow who said she went to see Mr. Madoff two weeks after the death of her husband, who had invested their life savings with him. Mr. Madoff put his arm around the widow and said, "Your money is safe with me," according to the letter Judge Chin cited. Judge Chin said Mr. Madoff didn't receive a single letter or statement of support before the sentencing.

It's unclear where Mr. Madoff will do his time; the decision is made by the Bureau of Prisons. Mr. Sorkin asked for a medium-security prison in Otisville, N.Y.

Chevra Chazerim - Albany division said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124605742408663533.html#project%3DGIFT_MAP_0906%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

JUNE 30, 2009

Governments Grab Unused Gift Cards

Moetzes Resign! said...

Calls mount for Sanford to step down

CNN - Peter Hamby - ‎1 hour ago‎

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- Three more Republicans in the South Carolina state legislature spoke out against Gov. Mark Sanford on Monday and said the best thing for him to do in the wake of last week's scandal is resign

Ezra Merkin said...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/30/business/AP-US-Madoff-Asset-Scramble.html

A hedge fund manager being sued over his role the Bernard Madoff scandal is selling off $310 million worth of art.

Financier J. Ezra Merkin ran a fund that invested heavily with Madoff, and lost everything when the fraud fell apart. His clients say he misled them about what he did with their money.

Merkin has denied any wrongdoing, but has agreed to sell his collection of paintings by the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko and sculptures by Alberto Giacometti.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is also suing Merkin, says an anonymous buyer is acquiring the art trove.

The money will be held in an escrow account until various legal battles involving Merkin are resolved.

Dear Rav Perlow, Shlit"a said...

Baruch Hashem there are leaders like the religious Senator Ruben Diaz Sr.

He just hocked up Agudath Israel's planned Priority 7 funding. The funding was based on Bloomberg's tax increase. Senator Diaz led the coalition in saying NO MORE TAXES. If Bloomberg wants to pay, let him take it from his own pocket.

MAY ALL FUNDING BE CUT UNTIL AGUDATH ISRAEL STANDS UP FOR THE INNOCENT VICTIMS, THEY CONSISTENTLY FIGHT AGAINST.

AndyBee said...

I am unsure as to why there is such hostility towards Rabbi L. Tropper.

His organization is to assist potential converts who seek his assistance.

It is NOT mandatory that one go through him. Therefore, his standards are not being imposed on anyone who seeks to go elsewhere.

But he has the right to hold certain standards (including chumros) for those coming to him.

Seriously -- and please, hold off on the hostility -- am I missing something?

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! WHOOP! WHOOP! said...

A pervert who faced 50 years in jail for having sex with two boys he'd lured to his Brooklyn home could be freed as early as this year.

Brooklyn Supreme Court judge Martin Murphy today ordered Stefan Colmer jailed for between 2-1/3 and seven years under a plea deal. He has already been held for two years.

The lenient punishment was handed out despite Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes urging the judge to give him at least double the sentence - or scrap the plea agreement and send Colmer to trial.

"We object," he said in a letter sent to the judge. "We strongly recommend that you sentence the defendant to 4-2/3 to 14 years in prison or, in the alternative, you set aside the agreement and reassign this case for trial."

Colmer, 32, an orthodox Jew, agreed to plead guilty to eight counts of a criminal sexual act. He had been facing 37 charges.

Hynes had asked the judge to run two of the counts consecutively -- sending Colmer to jail for 4 2/3 to 14 years.

But Murphy refused, saying Colmer had no previous record, was seeking treatment for his crimes and the case against him was weak.

Colmer had befriended the boys, who were both 13, in 2006. He invited them to his Midwood home to play board games before molesting them.

He then went on the lam to Israel. He became the first person to be extradited from that country for sodomy under a new treaty with the U.S.

"We are very grateful that the judge reflected in his sentence a true sensitivity and understanding," said Colmer's lawyer, Robert Gottlieb. "These two boys will not have to testify in open court and hopefully they will now have productive lives."

Colmer mumbled an apology to his victims as he was sentenced. The victims and their relatives were not in court.

Reb Akiva Aigur said...

The Hagoas R' Akiva Aigur in Hilchas Shabbas 307:5 writes the following; "it appears that (even on Shabbas) one who is pained (by not showering) may wash himself with water that was heated before shabbas".

Tell Bess to do the math (Yom Tov Shaini is more lenient then Shabbas) and promptly concede to his error with this Psak!

Avi L. Shafran said...

I'm very impressed with R' Gershon Bess.

Don't you katnei moach understand why he assered showering on Yonteff?

He read my "poet who doesn't shower" analogy and knows I'm right.

Scoop on Leib Tropper said...

"His organization is to assist potential converts who seek his assistance.

It is NOT mandatory that one go through him. Therefore, his standards are not being imposed on anyone who seeks to go elsewhere."

Boy is AndyBee ever missing the boat.

Tropper is not just waiting around for some curious gentiles to come to him. He is desperately seeking out every Jew married to a shiksa, to convert the wife in violation of every halachic standard.

Tropper's motivations are both money and trying to make a somebody out of himself.

If that wasn't enough, the megalomaniac is trying to set his bogus standard as the only acceptable one in the world. He thinks he gets to approve who are the only acceptable beis dins.

Rabbi Bloch in Monsey got it exactly right, that Tropper is a charlatan who nobody paid attention to in America for many years and somehow lucked out in duping some rabbis in Israel to pay attention to him.

The Badatz of the Eidah Charedis has since issued a halachic ban to have anything to do with Tropper and rabbis from Chasidish to Yeshivish to YU have cut ties with him.

Tropper constantly harps that he is backed by Rabbi Elyashev but cannot produce anything on paper to that effect.

Ave L Agudah Fresser said...

What's the story with Simcha Klohr's yeshiva building?

Does he only add a brick at a time as donations trickle in?

Shiksa Who Was Duped By Tropper said...

Tropper is not just waiting around for some curious gentiles to come to him. He is desperately seeking out every Jew married to a shiksa, to convert the wife in violation of every halachic standard.

Regarding Yossi Neiman said...

Yossi or "Joe" Neiman is the owner of Perfect Locksmith and other companies in Brooklyn who lives around Ave H & East 14th.

He owes people a lot of money, perhaps millions of dollars according to some estimates.

He claims that he spoke to poskim who told him he has "no chiyuv to pay".

Who does he think he is kidding?

He claims that he was robbed of $100,000 by an ex-employee living in Lakewood but that does not exactly exempt him when he is running companies worth millions.

Does anyone know if there's even any truth to the alleged embezzlement by the Lakewood employee?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Industry experts claim the worst is yet to come as unemployment rises.

The Financial Times

Credit card losses hit record 10.4%
By Saskia Scholtes in New York

Published: June 30 2009 23:59 | Last updated: June 30 2009 23:59

Losses on US credit cards hit a record 10.44 per cent in June, squeezing profit margins for credit card securitisations to a 10-year low, according to Fitch Ratings.

Profits from off-balance sheet vehicles backed by credit loans in June fell below the 5 per cent threshold for the first time since November 1998, said Fitch.

Credit card securitisations have built-in triggers that force early repayment when profits fall below zero. Such triggers are designed to protect investors from prolonged exposure to bad credit card loans.

Rising losses on credit cards have in recent months pushed big US banks to come to the rescue of the off-balance sheet vehicles they use to transform hundreds of billions of dollars of consumer loans into securities sold to investors.

Banks have also raised interest rates on credit cards in a bid to counter rising borrower defaults, late payments and boost profitability, underscoring how the deteriorating health of the US consumer is opening new fronts in the financial crisis.

On Tuesday JPMorgan Chase said that, from August, some of its customers would see their minimum required payments rise from 2 per cent to 5 per cent of their unpaid monthly balances.

Most credit card loans are placed into pools – structured as trusts – that are used to back bonds sold to investors. The banks retain a small interest and manage the trust.

As credit card loans held in trusts are paid off, the money is used to fund new lending, while interest and other charges are used to compensate bondholders and cover any losses. Any remaining funds are profits and are paid to the issuing bank.

Mounting credit card losses are depleting those funds, however, prompting banks to support the securitisation trusts.

Banks rely on such securitisations to fund their huge levels of credit card lending while keeping risk off their books.

The doomsday scenario facing banks is that credit card losses will rise to levels that force the vehicles to repay bondholders early.

Deteriorating performance has forced some credit card vehicles to divert cashflows into special reserve accounts that are used to ensure investors are repaid. Fitch tracks six vehicles that are diverting cashflows in this way.

However, Michael Dean, analyst at Fitch, said the banks had thus far been able to maintain profits at levels above the danger zone and had prepared the securitisations for further losses, or charge-offs, meaning that ratings downgrades could be avoided.

Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and credit card lender American Express have all provided support for their credit card securities in recent months.

Anonymous said...

is that employee a locksmith in lakewood?

Imperfect locksmith said...

The Lakewood ex-employee accused of theft used to do data entry so it's not clear how he would be in a position to steal so much money.

People suspect it's just a made up smokescreen by the real ganav who doesn't want to pay his debts.

I heard a story tonight that Neiman was even suggesting that his creditors go after the supposed thief as if he is somehow potur from paying and that he "might" take the Lakewood guy to a din Torah. Yeah right. When's the last time someone was robbed of 100 grand and didn't immediately call the cops?

If I were his lawyer, I would paraphrase Bernie Madoff's counsel that "my client is a very flawed individual".

Miami Beach said...

Lubavitch Education Center faces foreclosure

South Florida Business Journal - by Brian Bandell

The Lubavitch Education Center’s 84,020-square-foot, seven-story building on seven acres, along with two other properties, is named in the $8 million foreclosure lawsuit filed on June 23 by the Birmingham, Ala-based bank in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court.

The nonprofit center is affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch, an orthodox Jewish movement that has temples and education centers throughout the world.

The foreclosure names the nonprofit Friends of Lubavitch of Florida and the for-profit 17330 NW 7 LLC. Rabbi Bentzion Korf, who is listed on the Lubavitch Education Center’s Web site as the director, manages both entities, which took an $8 million loan from the bank in 2004.

Korf didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The center was founded in 1973 as the first rabbinical college, or yeshiva, in the southeastern U.S. Orthodox Jews from throughout South Florida send their children there for religious education.

In addition to the main campus, which is located near Golden Glades, the foreclosure targets the 30,750-square-foot education center at 1114 Alton Road in Miami Beach and a 3,363-square-foot apartment building at 1231 13th St. in Miami Beach.

Miami-based attorney Elizabeth Dombovary, who represents Regions Bank in the lawsuit, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment

Anonymous said...

If you link to my work...the madoff jail until 150 years, please put it as a clickable link to the T-shirt...

http://www.printfection.com/purimtees/Madoff-Until-150-years-T-Shirt/_p_4084864

Avi L. Shafran said...

Bernie is on a very hoich madreiga like the baalei musser who were known for their hisbodedus. That's what all this talk regarding solitary confinement is about.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=apzmc9N7mJkA

Even worse for Madoff, fellow inmates serving life sentences may want “to make a name for themselves” by harming the ex-money manager, a former inmate said. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which will decide where he’s jailed, may isolate Madoff to protect him from other prisoners.

“If they see an opportunity to take that man out and be in the paper and make a name for themselves, what do they have to lose,” Steve Vincent, a former police officer jailed for theft who now runs Federal Prison Consultant Services in Louisville, Kentucky, said in an interview. “Wherever he goes, they’re going to put him in solitary.”

“The vast majority of people he’ll be incarcerated with will be people who committed violent offenses,” said Barry Pollack, a lawyer who represents white-collar defendants and isn’t involved in the Madoff case.

Anonymous said...

Is that the Neiman that was in Mir high school and St Louis?

Can you trust Bim Bam with anything? said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/01leonhardt.html

In the weeks just before President Obama took office, his economic advisers made a mistake. They got a little carried away with hope.

To make the case for a big stimulus package, they released their economic forecast for the next few years. Without the stimulus, they saw the unemployment rate — then 7.2 percent — rising above 8 percent in 2009 and peaking at 9 percent next year. With the stimulus, the advisers said, unemployment would probably peak at 8 percent late this year.

We now know that this forecast was terribly optimistic. The jobless rate has already reached 9.4 percent. On Thursday, the Labor Department will announce the latest number, for June, and forecasters are expecting it to rise further. In concrete terms, the difference between the situation that the Obama advisers predicted and the one that has come to pass is about 2.5 million jobs. It’s as if every worker in the city of Los Angeles received an unexpected layoff notice.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

What you will not hear from the media is that UNDEREMPLOYMENT is hovering around 15%.

So an employee who was cut back to 30 hours per week - can not meet all his/her obligations...ie; mortgage, credit cards, car payment...

Archie Bunker said...

Shmarya posted a report on Chassidish NYPD officer Yoeli Witriol arresting a woman who broke the law by not carrying her dog in a container on City trains. Of course Shmarya only posted the one report from Gothamist.com that makes Witriol look the worst.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/07/01/2009-07-01_dogtoting_woman_says_cop_ruffed_her_up_in_subway.html

The reality is that Brodigan works for the far-Left Huffington Post and accused Hasidic Jews of being "incredibly sexist".

Sounds like another loser Liberal journalist trying to increase her profile while pushing an agenda.

Did Shmarya see this report and decline to link it lest Brodigan be exposed?

R' Yudel Shain slams Lipschutz and the Yated said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2009/07/lakewood.html

Among other things, he accuses Lipschutz of never mentioning kashrus scandals even though there is an imperative for the public to know, all because Pinny is scared of chasing away advertisers and the ad dollar$ they bring in.

R' Yudel says he reminded Pinny's uncle R' Elya Svei several times vos shtayt in seforim that tarfus causes kids to go off the derech.

Jerusalem Post on Madoff said...

Rav Avraham Feder, rabbi emeritus of Beit Knesset Moreshet Yisrael in Jerusalem, notes that in the 1790s, after European Jews were emancipated, various ancient Hebrew ideas fell out of favor. With modernity, vengeance came to be seen as unethical and even un-Jewish. Jews began to embrace the Christian tenet of turning the other cheek.

In fact, in Jewish tradition, going back to ancient times, vengeance is closely associated with justice. The Psalmist calls upon the Creator: "Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his homeland."

Feder points out that while vengeance is the Lord's, the collective is occasionally empowered to exact retribution or vindication, as in Chapter 8, verse 13 of the Book of Esther, when the Jews are told to be ready "to avenge themselves on their enemies."

Elwood McQuaid, a leading Protestant clergyman and Christian Zionist, cites Romans 12:19 in defining his tradition's attitude to vengeance: "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord."

McQuaid: "What's interesting, and I believe clarifying here, is that the passage bases its authority on Deuteronomy 32:35. In the following passage, Romans 13, the justice/vengeance issue is left in the hands of the 'governing authorities,' with a strong admonition to obey and support those laws. Therefore, in cases like the Madoff fiasco, Christians would support whatever terms of justice/vengeance the law imposed. The prohibition is against executing personal vengeance, but supportive of the law of the land - justice."

So to Madof attorney Sorkin, we say: Vengeance is indeed an acceptable goal of punishment, certainly in such a case. You might more credibly have appealed for mercy, which the Judeo-Christian tradition, and American jurisprudence, provide when justice makes a petitioner undeserving of leniency.

But even mercy has its limits.

Lakewood ganav Moishe Kizelnik said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2009/05/beware-lakewood-builders-escrow.html

A din Torah is in the works against Moishe Kizelnik of Lakewood.

When the Lakewood Badatz was mazmin him, he put on a gantze shpiel by sending a shaliach to tell them he is "very angry" (at the beis din) and that they "have no recht to be mazmin him". The shaliach added that he "convinced" him to go to another beis din - any beis din - outside of Lakewood.

The original toveim warned Kizelnik that if he plays games that will start a shtar harshoah against him. That is what happened and other baalei chov who have been burned by Kizelnik have been joining the din and others still are being sought.

If you have been burned by Kizelnik, please email lighting.agency at gmail.com to join the din Torah.

He also had a front row seat by the Agudah convention smorg said...

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/06/taken-his-charm-investors-saw-money-vanish

By Tom Shean
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 28, 2009

Joseph Shereshevsky is a schlub who worked hard to come off as a mensch. Turns out, he might be a ganif who ripped off many in his greater mishpuchah.

At the first Saturday service after Shereshevsky's arrest, Rabbi Chaim Silver reminded the B'nai Israel congregation that Judaism forbids lashon hara, otherwise known as gossip or evil speech.

While living in Newport News, Shereshevsky began hanging out at a Norfolk deli, The Kosher Place Cafe & Market on 22nd Street in Ghent. He was in his element there, getting to know the employees and other regular patrons, talking about food - a favorite topic - and faith.

Anonymous said...

this what i said about pinny this week


yu know pinny is so sick

M.Jackson who pased this week was a 5 year old in a 50 year old's body

when i remeber pinny putting himself of the front cover of the shevuose issue, and every time he makes a simcha we get a page of pics of remplers beard

i think he is a 2 year old in a 50 year old's body

vi daey lemavin !!!!!!!

Mayer Goldberger from Boro Park said...

http://www.longislandpress.com/2009/06/25/brooklyn-man-accused-of-23-million-fruad/

A Brooklyn was charged with stealing $2.3 million from a Great Neck real estate company, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Wednesday.

Mayer Goldberger, 50, of Sunset Park, secured a short-term loan from BRT Realty Trust in the above amount last year using a fraudulent title issued by a title company that Goldberger invented, according to the district attorney. The allegedly fraudulent report included an allegedly fraudulent mortgage issued by another company created by Goldberger, Rice said. Goldberger also created a false title insurance policy using the signature of a dead person, Rice added.
The $2.3 million loan was wired into Goldberger’s accounts but the loan went into default when the principal was supposed to be repaid, Rice said. Authorities are still unsure as to how Goldberger spent the loan.
“Bad mortgages, fraudulent loans, and real estate fraud leave honest businesses holding the bag,” Rice said in a statement. “Bogus loans like these make it that much harder for honest homebuyers to do business at a fair price.”
Goldberger was charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of a forged instrument and scheme to defraud. He faces up to 25 years in prison, if convicted. Goldberg’s attorney, Robert McDonald, of Mineola, could not be reached for comment

UOJ gets results said...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10274730-1.html

Seven online merchants operating more than 40 Web sites have agreed to pay a $765,000 settlement following an investigation by the New York State Attorney General's office, the AG's office said.
"These companies engaged in the worst kinds of consumer fraud, from classic bait-and-switch schemes to blatant lies and bullying sales tactics," New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a news release that went out Thursday. "Let this be a message to online merchants everywhere: such abuse of consumers and violation of the law will not be tolerated."

All of the companies were based in Brooklyn, and while their names invoke digital photography, many also sell gear ranging from projectors to HDTVs and computers.

Some of the heimish Brooklyn ganuvim said...

http://hdguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/list-of-bait-and-switch-e-tailers.pdf

INVESTIGATION OF ON-LINE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS MERCHANTS

List of company addresses and d/b/a names for restitution funds:

● 1 Way Photo: J&V Marketing, Inc., One Way Photo, 1 Way Photo,
1wayphoto, Lenses n’ More, LensesNMore, 1WAYPHOTO.COM, and
LENSESNMORE.COM.
§ Address: 5409 18th Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11204.

Best Price Cameras: C&M Photo Corporation and J&K Cameras, Inc.
d/b/a Best Price Cameras, Century 21 Electronics, Enterprise Photo,
Infiniti Cameras, Infiniti Photo, Infinity Cameras, Mr. Accessory, New
World Electronics, New World Camera, Photo Dynasty, PhotoDynasty.com,
Razz Photo, Sharp Digital Direct, Shop Digital Direct,
BESTPRICECAMERAS.COM, BESTSTOPCAMERA.COM, CENTURY21ELECTRONICS.COM,
EASTCOASTDISTRIBUTOR.COM, ENTERPRISEPHOTO.COM, INFINITICAMERAS.COM,
INFINITIPHOTO.COM, INFINITYCAMERAS.COM, JANDKCAMERAS.COM,
MRACCESSORY.COM, PHOTODYNASTY.COM, RAZZPHOTO.COM, and
SHOPDIGITALDIRECT.COM.
§ Address: 1965 McDonald Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11223.

Margo's lawyer defends Yosef Ungar! said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25buses.html

The chief executive of an industrial supply company in Brooklyn pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling counterfeit spare parts for subway cars and buses to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, prosecutors said.

The businessman, Joseph Ungar, 47, of Brooklyn, was accused of passing off less expensive knockoffs as the products of standard ball-bearing manufacturers.

Prosecutors said he also created an elaborate web of deception to support his activities, even assuming the identity of a dead businessman on the telephone and in writing.

“The counterfeit parts were inferior in quality and workmanship to the material that should have been supplied,” Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said at a news conference.

Mr. Ungar’s company, Abec Industries, distributes bearings, gears and other power transmission products. It pleaded guilty to separate charges on Wednesday.

Barry L. Kluger, the inspector general of the authority, said in a statement, “When a dishonest vendor sells counterfeit parts, the M.T.A. loses both the protection of a reputable warranty and the quality assurance of genuine equipment.”

Authority officials said, however, that although some of the parts made their way into vehicles, the public was never in danger.

Mr. Ungar pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to charges including grand larceny, tax evasion and scheming to defraud. Abec Industries pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting and identity theft.

Avraham C. Moskowitz, Mr. Ungar’s lawyer, declined to comment when reached by telephone on Wednesday.

Alongside the fraud investigation, investigators also discovered that Mr. Ungar had evaded taxes on the vast majority of his personal income from 2003 to 2007, and had also avoided paying New York City taxes on Abec’s corporate income.

Prosecutors said Mr. Ungar agreed to a sentence of five years’ probation and a lifetime ban on doing business with the authority. He must also pay more than $330,000 in restitution, criminal fines, taxes, interest and penalties.

Abec has agreed to pay $5,000 in criminal fines and go out of business, Mr. Morgenthau’s office said.

Mr. Kluger said Mr. Ungar’s punishment sent a strong warning to others who might consider selling counterfeit goods to the authority.

“Simply put, the message is: You will be punished, pay us back, and never do business with us again,” he said.

Edward Stein said...

http://www.finalternatives.com/node/8305

Hedge fund manager Edward Stein has pleaded guilty to running a $30 million fraud, including a Ponzi scheme.

Stein entered his plea on four counts of securities fraud and one of wire fraud yesterday in Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court. He was freed on $2 million bond, despite pleas from some of his victims that he be jailed immediately.Hedge fund manager Edward Stein has pleaded guilty to running a $30 million fraud, including a Ponzi scheme.

Stein entered his plea on four counts of securities fraud and one of wire fraud yesterday in Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court. He was freed on $2 million bond, despite pleas from some of his victims that he be jailed immediately.

Stein faces nearly 20 years in prison at his sentencing on Sept. 28, prosecutors said.

Yossi Ungar said...

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--subwaypartsscheme0624jun24,0,4406093.story

In a scheme dating to 2003, Ungar concealed a checkered past with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by using legitimate distributors' names in bids for contracts for ball bearing parts used in train motors and bus transmissions, Morgenthau said. In one recent instance, while already under investigation, he used the name of transit parts seller Irving Patron, who had been dead since 2005.

"On the phone, he would say, 'This is Irving,"' the prosecutor said.

Ungar, 47, managed to win contracts requiring him to provide parts manufactured domestically. Prosecutors said he secretly boosted profits by supplying counterfeit Chinese-made parts that were up to $10 cheaper per unit.

The inferior parts had the potential to wear down more quickly and cause blown engines, authorities said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06242009/news/regionalnews/ceo_to_plead_guilty_of_selling_fake_part_175892.htm

MTA Inspector General Barry Kluger said the low-quality materials could have led "to major problems."

"Worst case scenario, it could result in a derailment," Kluger said.

Morgenthau said that if Ungar fails to comply with any aspect of the deal, he could be sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison.

http://blog.fleetowner.com/trucking-straight-talk/2009/06/30/courts-put-truckings-reputation-lives-at-risk/

This is great. A scam artist makes a profit and at the very least costs the city money to replace defective parts, and puts thousands of lives in danger over the years should those counterfeit parts have broken and caused a deadly accident, and what does he get: In essence, a $330,000 penalty. Big deal.

“Simply put, the message is: You will be punished, pay us back, and never do business with us again,” the MTA’s inspector general, Barry L. Kluger, told the New York Times.

Say what? Does Mr. Kluger really believe this is an appropriate punishment? Ungar probably already has the plans in motion to set up another fraud. Counterfeiters always do.

As long as the penalties for counterfeiting remain soft, it will remain an issue. After all, if you could make thousands, even millions of dollars selling counterfeit parts with only the risk of a fine, would it be worth it? Many believe it is.

Hugh Hendry imitates UOJ said...

Although Bernard Madoff is—so far—the only man convicted in the $65 billion Ponzi scheme he ran for decades, one hedge fund manager says he had accomplices: his investors.

Hugh Hendry of London-based Eclectica Asset Management, in an interview with CNBC today, called Madoff investors greedy and said they should have known that the ultra-consistent returns they received was simply too good to be true.

“I’m sympathetic for people losing money, but I think this pejorative term of being greedy still applies,” he said. “There was an implicit greed in not questioning and just accepting unnatural returns.”

Hendry, chief investment officer at Eclectica, is not alone in calling out Madoff investors; Joe Nocera, business columnist for The New York Times, has done so repeatedly, and did so again yesterday after hearing the Madoff victims addressing his sentencing hearing blame everyone but themselves.

“Shouldn’t the Madoff victims have to bear at least some responsibility for their own gullibility? Mr. Madoff’s supposed results — those steady, positive returns quarter after blessed quarter — is a classic example of the old saw, ‘when something looks too good to be true, it probably is,’” Nocera wrote on his blog yesterday.” What’s more, most of the people investing with Mr. Madoff thought they had gotten in on something really special; there was a certain smugness that came with thinking they had a special, secret deal not available to everyone else. Of course, it turned they were right—they did have a special deal. It just wasn’t what they expected.”

Hendry seconded those notions.

“They didn’t show the requisite amount of fear that would have generated the curiosity to investigate,” he said. Madoff pleaded guilty to running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme in March and yesterday was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

And while he may feel sympathy for Madoff’s victims, he can garner no such emotion for the funds of hedge funds and investment advisers that steered their clients, unknowingly, into Madoff’s web.

“Shame on their advisers,” Hendry said, adding that those who did invest with Madoff are getting something of a comeuppance.

The first question investors ask today is, “Did you invest with Madoff?” Hendry said. And if the answer is “yes,” those advisers are finding themselves increasingly blacklisted.

OMG said...

Is that the Yossi Ungar who sometimes davens at Weinfeld's shul at Ave L & East 22nd and is a nephew of super crook and child molester Potyi Lipshitz?

Colmo the Homo said...

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=29208

UOJ must have given the newspaper this ugly picture of me.

Cookie fresser said...

They make the cookies known as "shtreimlach"

The Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company factory in the Bronx, where 134 workers on strike since last August have been replaced, must reinstate the workers and pay them wages going back to May, a federal administrative law judge has ruled.

The 134 workers, members of Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers, went on strike on Aug. 14, two weeks after their contract had expired.

Most of the workers at the factory, at 184 West 237th Street in the Kingsbridge neighborhood, are paid $18 to $23 an hour, according to the union’s lawyer, Louie Nikolaidis. The union and the company could not run reach an agreement over a new contract. Stella D’Oro demanded that the union accept a $5-an-hour wage reduction for certain workers, along with cuts in pension and heath care benefits, Mr. Nikolaidis said.

Anonymous said...

There was a Yossi Ungar who graduated Philly mesivta in the late 1970s.

Vos vet zein mit der kinder?

This is the company of the thief:

Abec Bearings, Inc.

588 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
phone: (718) 645-6868

Anonymous said...

It would be interesting if child molester Jerry / Yechiel Brauner was one of the corrupt notary publics helping Ungar pull off the fraud.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/06/brooklyn_man_gu.php

Ungar's Abec Industries sold the MTA substandard Chinese transmission parts, such as gears and ball bearings, and charged for quality goods. He was awfully clever about it; after he was barred from doing business with the city in 2004, he used fake personal and business names, got notaries public to certify fake signatures on bids, and even impersonated a dead guy in writing and on the phone. When investigators raided his plant, they found bogus goods and label-makers which Ungar used to disguise his fakes. He also maintained a bogus business address to avoid paying city business taxes.

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/06/24/phony_subway/

Ungar recruited notaries public to certify the fake signatures he affixed to his bids.

Search warrants were executed during the investigation at storage facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the Wood-Ridge (New Jersey) Industrial Complex, as well as at Ungar’s Brooklyn residence. Investigators recovered evidence directly connecting Ungar and ABEC to the scheme, including label printing equipment used to mark the packaging of counterfeit bearings and additional supplies of the counterfeit bearings fraudulently sold to NYCT by the defendants.

A financial investigation conducted in connection with the counterfeiting scheme determined that since 2003, Ungar evaded personal income tax on the vast majority of his income and avoided paying New York City taxes on ABEC’s corporate income.

For example, ABEC failed to pay any New York City general corporation tax from 2003 to 2007 by falsely reporting that it was located on a bungalow-lined residential street in Monroe, New York.

Yudi Kolko said...

Leave my tayera shochen tov Yossi Ungar alone.

I lived at 1249 East 22nd St and Ungar lives at 1286 East 22nd St.

Margo always told me Yossi was a good Hungarian boy who would accomplish great things.

The truth about Shmarya's friend Chrissy Brodigan said...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07012009/news/regionalnews/ruff_rider_cursed_cop_176994.htm

The city's first Hasidic cop was excoriated in a anti-Semitic rant by a dog-loving subway passenger who allegedly refused to place her sick pet in an animal carrier, sources and a witness said yesterday.

Brooklyn blogger Chrissie Brodigan claimed Officer Joel Witriol went ballistic when he saw her take her pug, Dempsey, out of her purse in violation of subway regulations at around 5:30 p.m. Monday. She said he cuffed her, insulted her and roughed her up.

But a witness, Viane Delgado, said Brodigan was the one out of line. Delgado said Witriol "repeatedly" asked the woman to place the barking pug in a carrier she had. But instead, she allegedly insulted him with anti-Semitic slurs and tried to walk away.

"You f---ing Jew, you're not even human," Delgado quoted Brodigan as saying.

She repeatedly said, "Jewish people think they own everything," a source said.

A police source said Brodigan was belligerent and argumentative.

Anonymous said...

There's something very strange about Lipschitz nephew Yossi Unger. When his parents got divorced he lived for years in the chaotic Lipschitz home.

In my opinion, Yossi always had a creepy demeanor on his face.

Pinny Shitlips said...

Yudel Shain could complain to Fetter Elya all he wanted. He doesn't understand certain realities like that Agudah fresser lawyers are more scared of lawsuits than doing the right thing as required by halacha.

Kim Jong Il - Supreme leader of "Democratic" Republic of North Korea said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il#Cult_of_personality

Did Pinchos Lipschutz put his face full blown on the Yated cover because he is trying to create a personality cult?

Moetzes Resign! said...

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/01/aig-directors-abandon-ship/

AIG directors abandon ship

Yankel Applegrad said...

Let me know if Yossi Ungar needs a change of scenery. I might still be able to get him into Regency bungalow colony before July 4th.

They're full right now but Belsky might be able to arrange for one family to sort of disappear.

Dr. Bungalow Putz Neuhoff said...

I am against counterfeit train parts of any kind.

Arnold Scwartznegger Adds To UOJ Underemployment Numbers said...

The California government shutdown will lead to a third furlough day each month for 235,000 state employees, bringing their total pay cut to about 14 percent.

California began its new budget year Wednesday without a balanced spending plan, which will force the controller to issue IOUs.

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