And he that steals a man, and sells him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. (Shemos 21:16)
Our holy Torah made no exception for Aaron Schechter. The Torah recognizes Isaac Hersh as an adult and there can be no rationalization made for the horrendous crime committed by Schechter against Hersh.
What has become of us? How do we allow people like Schechter to sit on our dais’ and appear at our simchas? Where is the outcry?
Everyone in Chaim Berlin is aware of the fact that Aaron Schechter was a horribly abusive father. His beatings of his sons are legendary. One need look no further than his two sons to see what happens when Aaron Schechter is allowed free reign on an innocent child.
Yet, once again Chaim Berlin sat quietly this shabbos as Aaron Schechter stood for one of his theatrical shemona esrais. Not one word of protest was heard in Chaim Berlin.
I again ask, HOW MANY OTHER CHILDREN ARE BEING HELD HOSTAGE TO AARON SCHECHTER’S SICK VIEW OF THE WORLD?
I fear for our future as a nation when we bestow honor upon Aaron Schechter, someone who is a Lo Tzayit Dino for over 25 years.
Devorim 17:
If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, even matters of controversy within your gates; then shall you arise, and get you up unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose.
And you shall come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days; and you shall inquire; and they shall declare unto you the sentence of judgment.
And you shall do according to the tenor of the sentence, which they shall declare unto you from that place which the LORD shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you.
According to the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, so you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall declare unto you, to the right hand, nor to the left.
And the man that does presumptuously, in not hearkening unto the priest that stands to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die; and you shall exterminate the evil from Israel.
וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל
AARON SCHECHTER, HOW MANY OTHER CHILDREN ARE YOU HOLDING HOSTAGE TO YOUR EVIL AND SICK VIEW OF THE WORLD? YOU ARE A RASHA AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH!!!
***************************
A young Bais Yaakov girl expresses her gratitude to Hashem:
The boy was happy
He had escaped his home of sorrow and pain
The boy was happy
He was living in a place where no on could harm him
The boy was happy
Until it was shattered
The phone call
Was received
The phone call
Seemed a peace offering
The phone call
Was not what it seemed
The boy was in pain
He was suffering
The boy was in pain
In a place devoid of Torah
The boy was in pain
He was trapped
The boy was in pain
There was no way out
The boy has been freed
Hashem stretched out his hand
The boy has been freed
Hashem held him in his mighty grip
The boy has been freed
And took him out of Gehenim
The boy has been freed
How mighty are the ways of Hashem?
*********************************
WELCOME HOME ISAAC! THE JEWISH NATION - WITH THE HELP OF HASHEM - WILL WATCH OVER YOU AND PROTECT YOU FROM ALL EVIL! AM YISROEL CHAI!
Isaac is on U.S. soil!
AARON SCHECHTER, THE CHARADE IS OVER. YOU’VE BEEN EXPOSED FOR THE EVIL LOW-LIFE THAT YOU ARE!
Harav Shamshon Weiss, ZTL to Fruchthandler and Schechter:
“…you digest the problem of “Gezeyla.” “Gezeyla Me’deuraisa,” pure and simple. Try to digest it, if you can. Or will that, too, become part of the strategy to destroy a fine, good and noble Jew, of course all in the service of “Kvod Horav” and “L’shem Shomayim”? I DO NOT ENVY YOU PEOPLE. [In other words, you’re all going straight to hell.]
Read the entire letter below:
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:
.jpg)
****************************************************
UPDATE 4:28 P.M. EST!!!!!!!!!
UOJ Exclusive
St. Elizabeth, Jamaica:
The three medical and legal professionals who flew to Montego Bay, Jamaica to examine Isaac Hersh were detained yesterday by the Jamaican authorities on charges of impersonating a parent and attempted kidnapping after successfully having met with Isaac Hersh.
According to sources in the United States Embassy, a complaint was sworn to the Jamaican authorities by Michael Hersh, Steven Mostofsky, Esq. and Rabbi Aaron Schechter in which they alleged that the three professionals were attempting to kidnap Isaac Hersh.
They remain in the custody of the Jamaican authorities pending clarification of the veracity of the Schechter teams' allegations.
**********************************************************
NEWSFLASH - 3:08 P.M. EST!!!!!!!!
UOJ Exclusive
St. Elizabeth, Jamaica:
A private jet carrying medical and legal professionals arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica yesterday where they were met by officials from the United States Embassy who escorted them to the Tranquility Bay compound.
Once there they demanded and were granted access to Isaac Hersh.
Isaac was taken to the Embassy where he confirmed on the record that he had been abused by his father, Michael Hersh while living at home and was currently being tortured and deprived of basic necessities in Tranquility Bay.
At the insistence of Michael Hersh who currently has legal custody of Isaac, Steve Mostofsky who is Michael’s attorney and Rabbi Aaron Schechter who is Michael’s spiritual advisor, Isaac was returned to the Tranquility Bay compound.
Affidavits, together with testimony - is being presented to a federal judge in New York --- who is being asked to take custody of Isaac from his father, Michael Hersh.
*******************************************************
UPDATED! Reb Moshe Feinstein bestows semicah on the Mashgiach of Chaim Berlin, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein brands Aaron Schechter a Lo Tzayit Dino.************************************
CLICK ON LETTER TO ENLARGE!
*********************************************************
Hey Aaron Schlechter you Lo Tzayit Dino - sheigetz - putz - bum - who gave you semicha? You had better release Isaac from prison NOW or this onslaught will continue until you're forced off the Moetzes and no self respecting Jew will allow you on their dais.***************************************************
NEW - UPDATED LASHON HARA!!!!NEW LETTERS!!! TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!! PRINT THEM OUT!!!*****************************************************
***WOULD YOU BUY A USED CAR FROM THIS PUTZ?*** "Aaron and Avrohom, if you want to see swine just look in the mirror"
****************************************************
*********NEVER BEFORE RELEASED LETTER ON AARON SCHLECHTER. R' MOSHE BRANDED HIM "LO TZAYIT DINO"!CLICK ON LETTER TO ENLARGE!*******************************
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE: THE LETTER NEEDS NO EXPLANATION!
February 1, 1982
To the honorable Rabbi Aaron Moshe Schechter, head of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and Kollel Gur Aryeh and Reb Avrohom Chaim Fruchthandler, President of the Board of Directors:
Peace and Blessings!
Upon the claim of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, we are summoning you to stand in judgment before the Bais Din of Agudas Harabonim within the next two weeks from today. Please respond by return mail as to your readiness to stand before us in judgment.
In the interim, Rabbi Carlebach retains his rights to his position as Mashgiach and spiritual leader of Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin and Kollel Gur Aryeh, and it is therefore forbidden for anyone to assume this position and it is further forbidden for anyone to rise to his position. You are also obligated to continue paying him his full salary as before.
With much respect,
Bais Din of Agudas Harabonim
[Rabbi] Moshe Feinstein, Head
[Rabbi] Tzvi Meir Ginzberg, Dean
**********************Isaac Hersh*****************
************************************************************
From independent sources as well on the JS Blog:
I am informed that Rabbi Aaron Schechter from Chaim Berlin and the Agudath Israel Moetzes Gedolei Torah of America - has approved of the incarceration of this child, and supports the parents Michael and Miriam Hersh! Schechter should be locked up in a nut-house!
Law Offices
Joshua M. Ambush, LLC
Hilton Plaza
1726 Reisterstown Rd., Suite 206
Baltimore, Maryland 21208
Contact: Joshua M. Ambush, Esquire, 410-484-2070
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEDERAL LAW SUIT FILED TO RESCUE CHILD FROM MODERN DAY CONCENTRATION CAMP
March 20, 2008, Baltimore, MD
The Washington Center for Peace and Justice, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of a 16 year old Brooklyn boy seeking injunctive relief to stop his abuse and to gain his release from a notorious behavior modification facility in Jamaica, West Indies, where he was sent after being brutally seized at the behest of his parents, Michael and Miriam Hersh. Michael Hersh is a former student of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin in Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and a disciple of Rabbi Aaron M. Schechter, dean of the Yeshiva.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, details the long history of abuse of the boy by his father that culminated in his being forcibly removed from his house in the early morning hours on June 13, 2007. The boy was sadistically handcuffed and dragged to a waiting van by two men hired by his parents while shocked witnesses helplessly watched him plead with his abductors.
It was not until several months later that worried family members learned that the boy had been sent by his parents to Tranquility Bay, an affiliate of World Wide Association of Specialty Schools and Programs, WWASPS. The complaint details documented cases of abuse at Tranquility Bay which includes beatings, sexual assault, food deprivation and excessive use of isolation.
Joshua Ambush, the lead counsel in the case, announced the filing of the action against the parents. Michael Hersh, father of the boy is the CEO of Chevra Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Inc., the largest all-volunteer ambulance service in the United States. The complaint also names the State Department for constitutional and civil rights violations.
Ambush emphasized that the lawsuit is not about tort damages, but rather is an effort to save the boy's life and rescue him from a modern day concentration camp. "Child abuse by a parent should not be tolerated in civilized society, and should not be tolerated when the parents hires surrogates to perpetrate the abuse. It is unconscionable that perpetrators of abuse are able to evade prosecution by virtue of the fact that the abuse is taking place outside the jurisdiction of the Untied States. In addition to rescuing this child, this suit seeks to demonstrate that federal courts, in such cases, retain jurisdiction over the abusers and those that aid and protect them."
A copy of the complaint that was failed in this case is attached.
http://www.geocites.com/safeisaac/files/HershComplaint.pdf
Joshua Ambush will be available for interviews by phone appointment at 410-484-2070
http://geocities.com/saveisaac/
http://geocities.com/saveisaac/files/HershComplaint.pdf
http://geocities.com/saveisaac/files/UpdatedPressRelease.pdf
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2001/04/24/2001-04-24_stox_fraud_won_t_fly_ranch_1.html
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:
KAJ WITHDREW SUPERVISION FROM RUBASHKIN FOR KASHRUTH REASONS! CLICK ON LETTER!
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW YORK JEWISH COMMUNITY
After speaking with numerous Hatzoloh members it has been made clear that the people primarily responsible for the hiring of Michael Hersh and seeing Hatzoloh dragged into the public eye are: Zelig Gitelis (F-19) who lives at 1319 East 26th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11210 [Cell no. 1-917-612-3519 – Home no. 1-718-434-5359] and Yitzi Stern (B-30) who lives at 1405 48th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11204 [Cell no. 1-917-559-8880 – Home no. 1-718-633-3905].
They were the active members of the Hatzoloh search committee and offered the most vocal support for his hire. They failed us and their executive responsibilities by hiring someone with no previous employment history and a record of child abuse. In addition, the fact that we’re paying him an annual salary $250,000 is an outrage.
All this on the say of Rabbi Aaron Schechter.
Their responsibilities are to Hatzoloh and the Jewish community who support Hatzoloh, not to any individual or other group. We hold them personally responsible for this embarrassment of Hatzoloh, Klal Yisroel’s proudest organization, and demand they take immediate action to see that Hatzoloh is kept out of the news and can return to their incredible mission of saving, not assisting in the destruction of, Jewish lives.
We are going to research and post the names of all the guilty members of the Hatzoloh board that caused this travesty and hold them personally responsible for their actions.***********************
YESHIVA VERITZKY/CHAIM BERLIN DISPUTE!CLICK ON LETTER!
343 comments:
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Here I am on YouTube under my frum alias.
As blogger Joe Schick points out, this niggun is "Imagine" by John Lennon whose lyrics include "no Heaven, no Hell, no religion"
Ombudsman said...
Steve, you can't bash all hotel goers. Some women are too stressed to make Pesach.
If they are too stressed out and they are on the verge of a nervous breakdown, then they should make the seders at friends or relatives homes. Oh, I forgot, they're also at the hotels.
TO UOJ:
"I live in that solitude which, is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity".
WHAT A GREAT QUOTE
I have always wondered what it would be like to watch Albert and the RAMBAM have a conversation....
as Isaacs brother I can confrerm that the shmuck of a "rabbi" sheachter is accountable for more info email me @ texanjew@gmail.com
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/fear-and-31-bullets-from-account-of-detective-who-shot-sean-bell/
A battle has erupted in an Orthodox Jewish community over a Brooklyn teenager, Isaac Hersh, 16, who was sent by his family to a behavioral "boot camp" in Jamaica that his lawyer says has abused him. The boy's father, Michael Hersh, is chief executive of a large Orthodox volunteer ambulance service, Hatzalah; the boy, one of eight children, had been living with another Orthodox family in Texas.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/03/save-isaac-hersh-standoff-between-us.html
Last night a private jet carrying a delegation of three individuals arrived in Montego Bay. The delegation included a mental health professional who is an expert in child abuse, and both a medical and legal professional. Upon landing they were immediately escorted by United States Embassy officials who to Tranquility Bay. The goal of this excursion was to communicate directly with the Isaac Hersh to determine if he was OK.
The first time they went to the gates, the delegation and the US embassy officials were turned away. After the second attempt they were granted a visit. Isaac was immediately taken to the US Embassy where he confirmed on the record that he had been physically abused by his father, Michael Hersh while living at home. He also stated that he was currently being tortured and deprived of basic necessities in Tranquility Bay.
At some point the delegation from New York was arrested and is currently being held on attempted kidnapping charges. Jamaican authorities took delegation member's passports they are currently being detained. I've been told that at this time several politicians are involved along with the federal court.
At this time US Embassy officials are staying at the gates of Tranquility Bay in hopes of gaining the release of this child.
Michael Hersh maintains legal custody (parental rights) of his son Isaac. Affidavits, along with testimony is being presented to a federal judge in New York. The goal is to temporarily remove parental rights from Isaac's parents so that the child can receive proper help.
Here's what you can do to help:
Call Rabbi Aaron Schechter who is Michael Hersh's spiritual advisor (Dean, Yeshiva Chaim Berlin) and the families attorney, Steve (Shlomo) Mostofsky, President of the National Council of Young Israel (which is a national synagogue
organization representing 150 synagogues throughout the United States).
Demand that they drop the charges of kidnapping of delegation members.
They allow delegation members to bring Isaac back to the United States so that he can receive proper medical and psychological attention.
Contact Information:
Steve (Shlomo) Mostofsky, President
National Council of Young Israel
212-929-1525
president@youngisrael.org
http://www.youngisrael.org/content/Contactus.cfm
Rabbi Aaron M. Schecter, Dean (Aharon Moshe Schechter)
Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin (Flatbush)
1593 Coney Island Ave.
Brooklyn, New York, 11230
(718) 377-0777
http://www.caica.org/CEO_of_Hatzolah%27s_teen_in_gulag_camp_embroils_siblings_and_community_3-24-08.htm
CEO of Hatzolah's Teen In Gulag Camp, Embroil's Siblings, And Community
Man-O-Manischewitz, what a Tinofes Mess we're in, all over.
It's a crying shame that the Lakewood Goy masquerading as ah Frummer got picked up by the Feds thereby depriving us of even bigger future Aluf Nachas, cause from what I read he had the act down 100% and was "Shteiging Gevaldig" and was well-respected in the community.
Ver Vais that with his Tshukah und Bren he had the potential to be a Guest of Honor at a future Agudah Convention.
Es volt Ge'pahst.
Love Is Blind.
Greenwald. I think Sidney.
Can anyone confirm?
Excuse me, but I believe all the Shechter seruvim and letters were taken from my blog. It was not out there beforehand. Be a man, UOJ, and give credit where it's due. See My Blog Here
And Here
Not to poop on your party, but fair is fair.
Harav Shamshon Weiss did not mince words. "I do not envy you people"! Wow.
Hirshel:
People send in information...I verify the authenticity...also the veracity of the source...and I post it.
If anything was taken from your site, I certainly apologize - but I was not informed where they got it from.
I hope you're mochel if in fact you were not credited with the information - if it came from you.
Respectfully,
UOJ
Rabbi Herman Neuberger from NIRC learned as a boy under Rabbiner Dokter Samson Rafael Weiss in Würzburg. Rav Weiss convinced R' Herman that it was time for him to move on to a bigger yeshiva like the Mir in Lita.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DD113AF93BA35751C0A966958260
February 8, 1990
Rabbi S. R. Weiss, 79-Year-Old Leader Of Orthodox Jewry
By ALFONSO A. NARVAEZ
LEAD: Rabbi Samson Raphael Weiss, a leader of Orthodox Jewry in the United States and a staunch advocate of Jewish education, died on Tuesday at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 79 years old and lived in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Weiss, a leader of Orthodox Jewry in the United States and a staunch advocate of Jewish education, died on Tuesday at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 79 years old and lived in Jerusalem.
In 1945, Rabbi Weiss founded the Young Israel Institute for Jewish Studies in Manhattan and was its dean until 1956. Under his leadership, the institute developed into the largest adult Jewish school in the United States.
From 1947 to 1956, he was also national director of the National Council of Young Israel. He was then named executive vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations in America, a post he held until 1972, when he moved to Israel.
Rabbi Weiss was chairman of the department of Judaic studies at Touro College in Manhattan, returning to New York each spring to conduct seminars on Jewish thought. In Israel he was chairman of the Jerusalem Institute for Talmudic Research.
Studied in Europe
Rabbi Weiss was born in Emden, Germany, and studied at universities in Europe. He was ordained in 1934 and received a Ph.D. from the University of Dorpat in Estonia in 1938.
He was dean of the Hebrew department at Jewish Teachers College in Wurzburg, Germany, before coming to the United States in 1938. He taught at the Rabbinical Academy Ner Israel in Baltimore from 1938 to 1940 and was dean of Beth Yehuda Talmudical Academy in Detroit from 1940 to 1944, when he came to New York to organize Torah Umesorah, a national organization dedicated to the establishment of Hebrew day schools.
Rabbi Weiss is survived by a son, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Weiss of Jerusalem; three daughters, Miriam Dissen of Israel, Yetta Zelikovitz of Queens and Devorah Kitevits of Brooklyn, and two sisters, Ruth Goodman and Kate Firestone, both of Israel.
These are some facts that I have not yet seen posted:
#1 - If any one has ever been to the Landuas mikveh erev shabbos they know that Micheal Hirsh is a certified weirdo! His mannerisims and methods of showering and dipping are that of a man with serious issues and possibly sexual misconduct or abuse. He has been known in just his few days at Hatzolah to be way to touchy feelie.
#2 - Any one who knows Rabbi Schechter knows he is not a man to meddle into affairs unless it is something big. This kid is nothing big because RAS has his own screwed up grandkids whom he could care less about. Rather it is the knowledge that Mr. Hirsch has on the money laundering between Fruchthandler and the yeshive that they went way out of the way to make sure he has a very good paying job. Well now this is blowing up in everyones faces. How stupid to have a child beater as CEO of Hatzaloh!! haha..
#3 - His daughter in seminary is being prepared to testify at the trial against him.
#4 - Michael Hirsh's own parents disowned him and threw him out of the house that they own on Avenue M because he refused to stop abusing his children and stop legally trying to kill his 2 twins. His own parents will be testifying against him in this court battle as well. He is a maniac that because those 2 boys have minds of their own he is going biserk!
#5 - His inlaws have also disowned him because he has mentally abused and controls their daughter. They will also be testifying againt their son in law.
After this is posted I am positive that all 5 of these items will be verified numerous times over. When the verification has occured I will continue with some more of the real Hirsch story that people dont know.
right now i dont think any body wants to go near chaim berlin or touch fruchtys stinkin money
the stench of human sacrifice rises from that place like a crematorium
what a bunch of farshtinkene behaimos mushchusim would do this to a yiddeshe kint
schechter is a horrible monster prust oon poshut and now hes exposed to the whole world
I can help bring down Chaim Berlin, Inc. To which authorities do I go to report fiscal crimes against the state and the feds. I do need to know if this is mesirah and I am not kidding that I know enough to help bring them down.
Please convey my best to the hanhalah and tell them that you have a reader that can and will bring them down if they don't let this kid free.
Genug.
Is it mesirah?
Threatening is allowed but am I really able to go to the authorities?
Lakewood, NJ - A 19-year-old man has been identified as the suspect sought by authorities in an armed robbery at Reich Jewelers, where two employees were held at gunpoint and forced to fill duffel bags with jewelry, as was reported by VIN News.
Law enforcement agencies are searching for fugitive Avraham Rotenberg, 19, of Birch Street, Lakewood, in connection with the robbery, Howell police Detective Eileen Dodd said.
Some of the jewelry was recovered after Rabbi Michael Rottenberg of Heathwood Avenue received a mysterious call at about 4:30 a.m. March 6 telling him to look outside his door for packages. The rabbi called Lakewood police. The bags contained only some of the proceeds from the store robbery.
Federal marshals and the FBI are looking for Rotenberg in connection with the robbery.
Rotenberg, who has a New York driver's license, is listed in the state's wanted persons database but is not listed in the federal wanted person's database until after a grand jury indictment, Dodd said. [Asbury Park Press]
Threatening is allowed but am I really able to go to the authorities?
----------------------
Get me the info. - I'll get the job finished!
To set the record straight, when I posted the original links to some Shechter docs -i posted links to Tzigs site -i took it for granted that all would know that it came from his iste -my apologies -keep up the good work both of you.
Shmarya is reporting that Isaac is back in the US
Ok, I'm being partisan here but it bugs the heck out of me that Ringel from Chaim Berlin is Hillary Clinton's shik yingle that brings the Clintons to smell up the 5 Towns.
I have to admit that I haven't bothered to speak to Rabbis Schechter & Fruchthandler, but I believe there must be some explanation for all this. I would actually post a 5000 word essay about it but I don't need another thrashing by UOJ & Boog.
I warned you to lay off my shver R' Avrom Fruchthandler, UOJ!
Believe me, you don't want a choshuva guy like me coming down on you!
http://books.google.com/books?id=WaObe1cRLc0C&pg=RA1-PA134&lpg=RA1-PA134&dq=%22samson+raphael+weiss%22&source=web&ots=s6qZnuU_qI&sig=IRFHul9uOCGgpyN-vt9yWiauYdQ&hl=en
Exactly 66 years ago.
What about his nephew involved in having senile nursing home patients voting for his people!!!!!!!
It looks like between Leib Pinter's relatives & the Chaim Berliners, no one else can get a high paying job at Fartscroll.
There are many of them on the payroll at the regular business, but some of them are even getting paid royally from the foundation division.
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:kOM7EU7Dio8J:www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm%3Fbay%3Dsearch.summary%26orgid%3D4921%26print%3D1+%22eli+herzka%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Yechezkal Danziger Senior Editor $130,726
Eli Herzka Editor $128,540
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4921&print=1
Hillel Danziger Editor $104,858
Vicky Polin is reporting that after Isaac was taken back to the gulag by Jamaican police, US diplomats parked themselves in front of the gates and warned Jamaican officials that they would remain camped there until Isaac is released. This was done on orders from high level Federal officials in Washington.
It's easy for a meshuloch to accuse R' Avrom of being stingy. I guess we could judge ourselves if we see the amount he wrote out on the check.
I do however know about a few other Fruchthandlers who like to be frugal. One of them haggles over the price of suits like he is in the Arab shuk. One of them haggles over anything he buys even if the items costs a couple of bucks. One doesn't like to give money where he davens. Once when the shul needed money to expand, he went on a binge to convince people that the shul shouldn't expand. The rov was upset and commented that he's manufacturing excuses because he's too cheap to shell out any money.
We also received a stream of letters from an employee at Agudath Israel, a right-of-center Orthodox group, that nitpicks the semantics of our stories, but ignores the responsibility of religious organizations to make sure that children’s lives are not ruined. Some people, it seems, are quicker to protect perpetrators than victims.
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/opinion/jt/publishers_note/
March 21, 2008
Painful Truths
Andrew A. Buerger
Publisher
When former bar mitzvah lesson teacher Israel Shapiro of Olympia Avenue recently entered an Alford plea on child sexual molestation charges, there was likely sufficient evidence for the prosecution to convince a judge or jury that he was guilty, according to Judge John P. Miller of Baltimore City Circuit Court.
With that, Shapiro was sentenced to perform 300 hours of community service and to pay $10,800 in restitution to one of the victims for the latter’s psychological counseling. Shapiro also must physically and via computer stay away from anyone under the age of 18. As of sentencing, he was working at a local butcher shop.
This case is now closed.
But there’s more to come. Other victims will come forward in other cases; we now know that authorities are investigating other local rabbis. So this is just the sad start and not the end. Some here wished this was “case closed.” A vocal minority very much wants to end it all right here and pretend it never happened. The victims, too, wish their lives were never damaged, but it’s too late for them. Now they want more justice. They gained a small taste of that last week. They are pressing for more.
Fortunately, many people are now working on behalf of the victims and some changes have been made here to start protecting our innocent children. The Tamudical Academy, the Orthodox boys’ school that employed at least one rabbi who allegedly molested boys, has taken action to prevent future occurrences. The Baltimore Board of Rabbis, under Rabbi Steve Schwartz’s leadership, has sought proactive solutions. We have reported on the seemingly half-hearted efforts of some Orthodox rabbis here. (Click “sexual molestation” under “special report” at jewishtimes.com .)
Still, a lot of people remain in denial. We get cowardly, unsigned letters all the time accusing us of making this up. Judge Miller would disagree. We also received a stream of letters from an employee at Agudath Israel, a right-of-center Orthodox group, that nitpicks the semantics of our stories, but ignores the responsibility of religious organizations to make sure that children’s lives are not ruined. Some people, it seems, are quicker to protect perpetrators than victims.
Meanwhile, a few weeks ago a teenage victim of sexual abuse sued a Howard County teacher, the school board and the state for $3 million. Folks, these lawsuits are heading our way. If we don’t protect our children, we damage them for life. This will not only harm our children, but our inaction will haunt us and seriously dent our communal coffers.
Some Catholic archdioceses even filed for bankruptcy when facing similar lawsuits.
Despite having had some employees ruin children’s lives, the Catholic Church’s lobbying arm has waged an ugly campaign to prevent the Maryland legislature from extending a child sex abuse victim’s right to sue past the age of 25. Many victims are afraid to come forward before then. But some in the Church seem more concerned with saving assets than souls. Money was saved in this amoral victory, but it’s not over; more bankruptcies are to come –– beyond the already moral bankruptcy.
The Jewish community isn’t much better. We remain in denial. Blame the Baltimore Jewish Times, blame the victims; do nothing about legislation to help our kids. In the end, we will be destroying Torah.
Many victims are understandably upset with the slow pace of change. Some are even upset with us for not more aggressively going after alleged perpetrators.
However, like any respected news organization, we follow a code missing from many rants on the blogosphere. We are working hard to ferret out the truth. We won’t run a story without solid testimony from credible sources.
Yet, we know many are afraid to come forward because, as we’ve seen with the Catholic Church, there is a public price to pay.
We are working on several stories regarding alleged perpetrators, but we will not print them without a thorough investigation. In that regard, we’re no different from the Boston Globe covering the priests’ sexual abuse story for the last eight years.
We live by the same journalistic code. We won’t rush. We won’t be intimidated by allegedly pious leaders. And we won’t stop printing the truth.
I heard a rumor that UOJ wants to nail my lesbian behind for forcing Elian Gonzalez back to Castro's regime in Cuba.
UOJ .... Great JOB !!!
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON - President Bush says the recent increase in violence in oil-rich southern Iraqi and parts of Baghdad presents "a DEFINING MOMENT in the history of Iraq"
I didn't know all this stuff was going on with Chaim Berlin.
I have to ask Rabbi Yosef Fruchthandler, a fellow member at the Frankel's shul den of thieves.
Does UOJ have any feedback from the emergency meeting at 42 Broadway?
Is there any truth to the VIN report of even Rabbi S. Kaminetzky & the Tort Putz's brother going against Rabbi A. Schechter?
How are the Agudah shysters now going to deal with all the incriminating evidence about Chaim Berlin being broadcast to the world?
Let me shed some light here.
Kaminetzky is a rasha gamur! He is a sly bastard - that goes with the tide of today! He thought he could cleanse himself - from Eisemann, Kolko, Shmeltzer - and scores of other horrible things he did - so he got involved here - FOR HIM - NOT ISAAC! THERE WAS NO MEETING AT THE AGUDAH!
R' Dovid Feinstein was endorsing saving Isaac - NOT going against Schechter! He is a very weak man! Nebach!
I assume that Dr. Pelcovitz was one of the good guys since he recently told off David Mandel at a public function in Baltimore.
What about the Tort Putz's brother? How does he fit in here? And what about the honchos from Hatzolah that are gettin credit? Is there a split at Hatzolah or is this part of a cover up?
It would also help if UOJ could list any rabbi and askan who helped here without any ulterior motives. With all the disheartening crap out there, we need some chizuk to know that not everyone has gone evil or insane.
There was no meeting at the Agudah so I had to wet my underpants at home in Staten Island.
UOJ:
Shmuel Kamenetzky may be two faced but he did a lot to help free Isaac.
Lehavdil, Reb Dovid did refuse to go on the record but worked the phones for days.
Well now we know why Pesach Lerner the chief self-appointed "liberator" of Jonathan Pollard hasn't been able to get Jonathan Pollard out of prison, because he has his Young Israel friend Steve Mostovsky on the job and as we see, Mostovsky like's to fight to keep Jews IN jail like Isaac Hersh as much as he claims to want Pollard OUT of jail..
Oh well, and Arone Schechter was the one who keeps on signing all those petitions to free Pollard, what hypocrisy, he's probably whispering in Pesach Lerner's and Mostovsk'y ears that hehehe who cares about Pollard as long as Uncle Sam keeps up with things under the table to help out the "unzere mentschen" and in any case Pollard is a Tziyoni and Schechter hates Tziyonim.
But like Mostovsky has lost all credibility to be Lerner boss at the National Council of Young Israel so has Lerner, because how can a person heading a national Orthodox synagogue organization like the NCYI that is suppoed to be above politics and a uniting force become the lacky of someone like Schechter and a nut job like Hersh. Give Schechter credit, he knows who to compromise because he dragged Mostovsky in knowing full well who Mostovsky is as a Young Israel big and that is more cover for Shechter than the fact that Mostovsky is a lawyer, but the Young Israel crowd will be the last ones to be impressed by Shechter's/Mostovky's/and by implication Pesach Lerner's antices: They will be seen for the outright hypocrites all who want to "free" Pollard but have no qualms in "imprisoning" a 15 year kid in a concentration camp for more than a year till it takes and national outcry, interventiong by US dilomts and human rights groups and TWO upcoming lawsuits to free him!
Pesach Lerner must resign in shame NOW! He obtained his position by strong-arm illegal tactics pushing out long serving Executive Director Rabbi Ephraim Sturm. Lerner was hired to co-ordinate outreach and kiruv program, but with the help of his rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg, the long-suspected pedophile who was kept off the Moetzes of Agudah for this by Rav Elya Svei, they pushed Sturm out and covered it all up with taking on causes like What manipulators they are. Who needs them, Vicki Polin or perhaps the UOJ should be put in charge of getting Pollard out of jail, they will do a better job of it than the cynical self-serving numbskull double-dealing so called "rabbis" like Lerner and his and Shechter ally Mostovsky.
Note, that once Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg died, Pesach Lerner's main strategic backer and behind the scenes (always behind the scenes, with deadly whispers) advice-giver is none other than Aron Shechter who offered the Chaim Berlin bais medrash building for the memorial to Rabbi Yakov Weinberg after he died when noone else would go near such an event by a mile.
Pesach Lerner's hypocrisy and double dealing and not uttering a squeek in defense of Isaac Hersh and by being an ally and employee of Mostovsky and a pawn of Shechter must also be held accountable and he should quit in shame very soon!
Gumshoe:
- THE REAL GOOD GUYS HERE - CHOOSE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS - THE REAL VERY GOOD GUYS!
YOU WILL NOT SEE THEIR NAMES IN THE NEWS! THEY DID IT BECAUSE THEY ARE TRULY GREAT PEOPLE - THEY CHOOSE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS BECAUSE THEY ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE WITH NO AGENDA OTHER THAN SAVING THIS CHILD!!!!!
YES - WE HAVE A FEW GREAT PEOPLE - TOO FEW!!!!!
Leib Tropper's boys are putting out the word that nothing being said about Schechter - including the siruv din - could possibly be true.
This must be a real cliffhanger for Tropper, desperately holding on to one of the last backers of his money making EJF fraud.
"As of today Michael Hersh who was the president of Hatzaloh Ambulance Service in New York, is on a leave of absence from his position" reported by the Awareness Center at http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/hersh_michael.html
If there was even a tzad of a cheshash that Rav Yaakov Weinberg was a molester, Vicky Polin & Luke Ford would have been all over it.
You may not realize that they have much easier criteria to jump up & label someone than UOJ does.
OK so UOJ cannot name the heros and we can appreciate that.
But were there any choshuv, big name rabbonim who had the courage to do the right thing and fight Rabbi Schechter?
From what I know, the only rov that Schechter (& Fruchthandler) may have any awe of is Rabbi Zelik Epstein. Rav Zelik is very weak however from his medical condition, he should be well, and I don't know if he is physically able to get involved in something like this.
Schechter at first tried to get Reb Zelik to remain neutral. After Reb Dovid got involved both Reb Zelik and Reb Kalman where aghast at what Schechter had done.
UOJ seems theyeshivaworld.com drop the whole subject of Isaac Hersh
Hey, it used to be the shtatty thing for me & my friends to send our sons to YTT or Chaim Berlin.
What are we going to do now that their prestige has been flushed down the toilet?
I'm looking for my old Pirchei leader ID card to rip up & mail back to the Agudah with an explanation why they are now on my hit list.
To "oh come on": really now? Ever wonder why Ner Israel pushed out Yaakov Weinberg in spite of him being the husband of Rav Ruderman's only daughter's husband? They sent him away to run the yeshiva that his son Matis had set up in Santa Clara in California in the 1970s but guess what, he landed up being just as bad (like father like son/s) and the Santa Clara yeshiva had to be closed down rather than reveal the scandals of all the boys that were molested there.
Many of the kids there were naive young baal teshuva types with Russians and they had no clue how to respond to wolves dressed in sheeps clothing like the Weinbergs.
And hey, guess who fought Ner Israel and made Rabbi Neuberger crazy to take Yaakov weinberg back in? None other than Aron Shechter!!!! But Rav Elya Svei held the line against the Weinbergs, not letting Yaakov on the Moetzes and including speaking out very publicla few times against Aish HaTorah's misuse of "sex education" lectures etc to "mekarev" people.
And when Yaakov Weinberg died of cancer who was the main maspid who ran to Baltimore, none other than Rav Aron Shechter (and the Novominsker Rabbi Yaakov Perlow , another avowed Chaim Berliner.)
There are many people from Ner Israel who know the inside story of how disgraceful, money-hungry and controlling and ruthless both Yaakov and Noach Weinberg really are but have held back. But the lies cannot be buried forever.
Vicky Polin is reporting that Isaac landed on US soil at 7 am this morning & is receiving medical attention.
Is this just a routine checkup or does Isaac have any injuries from those Mormon Kommandants and their Jamaican stormtrooper guards?
Mr. Hidden Horrors, your story does not correspond to various facts I am aware of.
Rav Weinberg was the rosh yeshiva of the Toronto branch of NIRC until 1970. Because of events that had nothing to do with him, he had to return to Baltimore. Basically what happened is that the student body, many of whom were not even shomer Shabbos or kosher, hijacked the yeshiva and were backed by the baal habatim.
It's not like he had something in Baltimore already that was taken away from him.
R' Elya Svei had other problems with Rav Weinberg, namely that the Steipler & others have always been very much against the NIRC hashkafa.
Who is Rabbi Yosef Shereshevsky from Norfolk Virginia, COO of Wextrust Capital, who financed Isaac's rescue operation and provided his private Jet?
Is he one of the brothers, one being a fine upstanding yeshiva rebbe and one a crook?
It was hard getting the limelight for rescuing Isaac when the public turned their attention to us. We had to compete with Senator Hillary Clinton who was trying to hog all the kovod for herself.
http://www.torchweb.org/aboutteam.php
The Rabbi Wolbe brothers from Texas & Monsey that saved Isaac - are they sons of THE Rav Wolbe?
Hogging kovod is exactly right. Hillary's kavannos in saving Isaac are about as genuine as the fraud she was involved with in trading futures of hog bellies in the 1990s.
Hillary was also caught this week lying on the campaign trail about an incident that happened many years ago.
She claimed she came under gunfire once when visiting Bosnia. The media examined all the video footage and interviewed witnesses that prove she is lying.
It doesn't seem like a politically correct thing to advertise these days.
https://www.wextrust.com/about_profile.aspx?id=Shereshevsky
Prior to WexTrust Mr. Shereshevsky spent 13 years in the diamond commodity business, opening offices for a major diamond house in Israel, New York, Paris, Chicago and Tel Aviv. He has also been heavily involved in diamond mining operations in West Africa.
Mr. Shereshevsky is a member of the Executive Board of Hampton Roads School in Norfolk, VA and a member of Congregation Bnai Israel.
Don't tell me this is Steve Mostofsky's brother?
Was the "rescue" a cover up to save face?
https://www.wextrust.com/about_profile.aspx?id=Mostofsky
Michael Mostofsky, Director of Private Equity, WexTrust CapitalSince joining the firm in 2002, Mr. Mostofsky has played a critical role in the development and day-to-day operations of WexTrust Capital's Private Equity Group.
As Director of Private Equity for WexTrust Capital and Principal of WexTrust Securities, LLC, Mr. Mostofsky serves as the firm's lead client service liaison, using his passion and dedication to help investors achieve their short and long-term financial objectives.
Mr. Mostofsky also has an active role in the ongoing expansion of the company's operations and development of its new investment opportunities.
Prior to joining WexTrust Capital, Mr. Mostofsky held positions with a number of securities firms and managed operations for a mid-sized office supply company.
Mr. Mostofsky is currently registered with the FINRA and has been licensed since 1995. He holds series 7, 63, and 24 licenses.
My Pro-Fresser of Economics at Baruch College is none other than the OU's Simcha Katz of "Central Glatt" treif infamy.
https://www.wextrust.com/about_profile.aspx?id=Cohen
Mr. Cohen is Director of Merchant Banking for WexTrust Capital and manages all loan origination efforts for the company. Mr. Cohen has been with the WexTrust companies since 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Cohen was a Real Estate Lending Officer for First Bank of The Americas (FDIC chartered bank, New York, NY), from 1992 to 1996, and was a partner at Aspen Capital from 1998 until 2000, which the company was purchased by WexTrust. Mr. Cohen oversaw all of the loan origination of Wextrust High Yield Debt Fund I, LLC and originated the majority of these loans personally. Mr. Cohen is also the managing broker for Coldwell Banker Commercial/WexTrust's office in New York City, and heads up WexTrust's acquisition efforts in the New York metropolitan area. Mr. Cohen has an MBA in Finance and Investments from Baruch College, in New York, NY, and a B.A. in economics and business administration from Bar Ilan University in Israel. Mr. Cohen served in the Israeli Army from 1986-1988.
UOJ is probably wondering if I use Grecian Formula for hair or if this picture is from ages ago.
http://www.szmlaw.com/
STEVEN Z. MOSTOFSKY, P.C.
is a law firm that concentrates on the areas of family and matrimonial law.
26 Court Street
Suite 700
Brooklyn, N .Y. 11242-1107
Telephone: (718) 246-0863
Facsimile: (718) 855-2057
law@szmlaw.com
Admitted:
1983, New York
1996, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
Law School:
New York Law School, J.D., 1982
College:
Yeshiva University, B.A., 1979
Member:
New York State Bar Association (Member, Committee on Children & the Law; Sections on: Family Law Tort Putz, Insurance & Compensation Law)
Brooklyn Bar Association (Trustee, 1995-2001; Committees: Chair, Arbitration Committee, 1995-; Assigned Counsel Family Court: Member, 1988-1997, 1999-; Vice Chair, 1993-1994; Family Law, 1988-1990, 1995-; Sexual Discrimination, 1995-1998; Civil Court, 1998-; Family Court, 1998-; Family Law-Matrimonial Law, 1999-; Sections: Family Law, 1998-)
New York State Trial Lawyers Association.
Honors:
Distinguished Service Award: B.B.A. - 1995
http://www.szmlaw.com/Docs/Domestic%20Violence%20&%20Religous%20Communities.pdf
Here's Steve Mostofsky on domestic violence.
http://www.szmlaw.com/Docs/Law%20Guardian%20Reports%20Inappropriate%20Practice.pdf
Is Mostofsky contradicting himself here about custody of minors?
http://www.szmlaw.com/Docs/Steven%20Z.%20Mostofsky,%20Esq.%20Addresses%20the%20Get%20Conference%20at%20the%20Office%20of%20the%20Brooklyn%20D.A..pdf
Steve Mostofsky with Charlie Hynes & Naomi Low Klass Mauer regarding gittin.
Rabbi Schechter happens to be fire & brimstone against the NYS Get Law. I wonder where Mostofsky stands.
The Agudah's official position on Isaac Hersh's plight was presented by Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, th Novominsker.
"I'm sorry. I can't get involved. This is a Flatbush matter. I live in Boro Park."
What a sorry excuse for a man. What a loyal Chaim Berliner.
"Schechter at first tried to get Reb Zelik to remain neutral. After Reb Dovid got involved both Reb Zelik and Reb Kalman where aghast at what Schechter had done."
Who is Reb Kalman
Who is Reb Kalman?
His son
Adlerstein;
Do us all a big favor, take your 5,000 word essays and stick your head up your ass. I hope you know which end is up and make sure your hat's on straight before you make entry.
Shereshevsky from Virginia screwed diamond guys out of big money up in NY's 47th Street, then left for VA and opened Wextrust. Also renowned for keeping his wife an Agunoh Limbo for years until he finally suck-ceded in extorting her family for the Big Bucks. His Brooklyn Brother, the Mirrer Rebbe has got serious issues with tight underwear. The Guy wears bears watching, could be a budding Kolko.
"Shereshevsky from Virginia screwed diamond guys out of big money up in NY's 47th Street"
What's wrong with taking diamonds from club members and not paying for them? How else are you supposed to finance the finer things in life?
did anyone else notice that both kolko and colmer have an apperance before the same judge on monday. lucky judge - he gets a twofer
Boog,
Unless you have any serious reason to believe Rabbi Shereshevsky is a threat, it's irresponsible to compare him to Kolko.
Chaya Yehudit B- Leah
1 year old girl who's been very ill. The doctors are trying to help her but it only seems to be getting worse - pls forward
In Rav Blech’sshul this morning the shmuss was about the terrible shidduch made with the knowledge of the boys chesroinos. Apparently the girls father turned down some top learners and baalei middos simply because their families didn’t have name recognition. Her father is a tutzach who thinks he’s all that chashuv. The regular shadchanim refused to redd her any shidduchim. When the boy came to BMG the tummel began that this woulfd be a perfect shidduch. The boys family has large name recognition due to a massive scandal. The yutz shadchan didn’t realize it was a joke and redd it. The shadchan is from what seemed like a rich family but rumor has it that his father and the girls father are under investigation for mortgage fraud of flipping and have lots of subprime exposure. The boy was hard up for cash and pushed the shidduch. Mammash a rachmanus on the girl, a busha v’cherpah.
What kind of chesronos does the chosson have?
Is Hersh's "leave of absence" from Hatzolah going to be akin to Yudi Kolko's, where the putz still shows up at YTT facilities elsewhere and is still being paid?
There have been gross distortions of the truth as to who was involved in getting Isaac released.
None of the names thrown around were major players - a few calls here and there - maybe!
I will not post those bogus - attention seekers - limelight lovers - names! Go to the Satmar putz for BS - Not here!
Hey UOJ, can't you cut us a little slack or do you have to poop on every party?
The Lakewood chosson was chasser a zeroa nituya.
Vicky will say anything for a little attention from the in chevra.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/us/29converters.html
March 29, 2008
Thieves Leave Cars, but Take Catalytic Converters
By SUSAN SAULNY
CHICAGO — Jose Fernandez said he decided some time ago that on his salary as a restaurant worker, he was better off without his 1996 Toyota 4Runner. He hoped to make a nice bit of cash from its sale.
Before he could do that, though, someone beat him to extracting value: A thief sneaked under the sport utility vehicle with a battery-powered saw, slicing from the Toyota’s underbelly what may be one of the most expensive small parts of the auto world: the catalytic converter, an essential emissions-control device made with small amounts of metals more precious than gold. Who knew? Mr. Fernandez didn’t.
Inside the lobby of the New Windy City Mufflers and Brakes shop, Mr. Fernandez said he had heard a rumor that catalytic converters had suddenly become the rage on the black market here, but he did not believe it until his went missing on a well-lighted North Side street.
Theft of scrap metals like copper and aluminum has been common here and across the country for years, fueled by rising construction costs and the building boom in China. But now thieves have found an easy payday from the upper echelon of the periodic table. It seems there may not be an easier place to score some platinum than under the hood of a car.
“This morning I woke up and walked out, turned the key and there was a noise like this,” Mr. Fernandez said, grumbling the trainlike roar that cars make when they are missing their converters. “And now to fix it, I don’t want to spend the money because it’s really expensive.”
The price of gold recently hit record highs, crossing the $1,000-an-ounce mark before retreating a bit. Less well publicized has been the fate of the even-more-rarefied metals platinum, palladium and rhodium, with platinum hitting recent record highs of more than $2,300 an ounce. People who may have thought their lives had nothing to do with the booming commodities market are finding out the hard way where their connection is — in their car’s exhaust system.
The catalytic converter is made with trace amounts of platinum, palladium and rhodium, which speed chemical reactions and help clean emissions at very high temperatures. Selling stolen converters to scrap yards or recyclers, a thief can net a couple of hundred dollars apiece.
Exactly how much depends on the size of the car and its converter. But even a little bit is worth a lot. Converter thefts are the quickie crime du jour, not only in Chicago, where workers in auto body shops and other experts say it is increasingly a nuisance, but anywhere cars are, which is to say basically everywhere.
“These are definitely occurring more than they have in recent memory, and why that is is definitely tied to the price of precious metals within converters,” said Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Replacement converters usually start around $450. “When you start getting into the larger S.U.V.’s, it’s $1,000-plus,” said Don Tommasone, owner of Village Automotive, a car care center just outside the city. “The larger the catalytic, the more platinum. That’s the ones they’re stealing. It’s also easier to crawl underneath them. They don’t need to jack up the vehicle, they just saw it right off.”
This month in Memphis, 140 children were stuck at their day care center after thieves stole the catalytic converters from the center’s two vans. Recently in Columbus, Ohio, 25 cars in one parking lot were vandalized for their catalytic converters. And several states are working on legislation to make it harder to resell what up to now was a part little known outside the world of auto enthusiasts and mechanics.
Because stealing a converter does not involve actually breaking into a car, it often goes undetected. Alarms and other precautions, like parking in a well-lighted area, are scant defenses.
Last year in Minnesota, someone broke into the Ramsey Police Department’s impound lot and took 19 catalytic converters off the vehicles there, a spokeswoman said. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis ran this headline about the break-in: “Thieves Show How Low They’ll Go.”
Jim Lyon lives opposite a police station in the Chicago suburb of Westmont, and can see his Jeep Cherokee from his window. Still, someone got him. “They’ll probably get 150 bucks for two minutes’ work. Not bad!” Mr. Lyon said. “As soon as I realized there was precious metal inside, I knew what they were looking for.”
Legs sticking out from under a car were a tip-off this year for the Chicago police, who said they spotted a man in the Lakeview neighborhood just before he slithered from under the car and discarded a power saw along the curb. The man and three accomplices were charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools.
“When will this stop?” wondered Chris McGoey, an auto theft expert. “When they’re not worth anything any more.”
Now that the rescue is almost over, there is an aftermath of junk the community needs to face. Unfortunately, several major organizations are likely to be seen as associates if they do not renounce and condemn what happened and sever their associations with the criminals and immoral goons. By association, Hatzoloh is connected with Michoel Hersh. They have begun the process of putting him on leave of absence. It better be without pay. I wouldn’t want a penny of my donations to fund him. This needs to followup with a termination, not giving him the dignity of a resignation. Let the process of disconnecting him from his two precious sons continue, and he should be investigated for possible child abuse for the rest of his children.
By association, Mostovsky is president of NCYI. This organization does much for Klal Yisrael, and that does not deserve to be tainted with the actions that Mostovsky took and supported throughout this ordeal.
The Agudah Moetzes needs to deal with the association of Schechter who has disgraced his position by supporting abuse by proxy, blocking rescue efforts, and by participating in the mesira of having the rescuers arrested in a foreign country.
The three names here need to be brought to beis din and accused of mesira, and there should be community consequences for this. None of them should be allowed to occupy a position of leadership for the Klal anywhere. We, the people, need to stand up and proclaim that we will never tolerate the corruption that enabled this tragic placement and the entire geshichte that followed. The chilul Hashem rests squarely on the shoulders of those that created the entire scene, Hersh, Schechter, and Mostovsky. They need to receive the shunning by all of us, and let them deal with their own bizyonos. We do not need to be victimized by their reputations anymore.
Also guaranteed to cause riots
1. Cutting back on the food at the Agudah Fresser Convention
2. Eliminating the 24 hour tea room at Pesach hotels
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/worldbusiness/29rice.html?ei=5087&em=&en=8202a8316f6b1e12&ex=1206936000&pagewanted=print
March 29, 2008
High Rice Cost Creating Fears of Asia Unrest
By KEITH BRADSHER
HANOI — Rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world’s largest rice producers to announce drastic limits on the amount of rice they export.
The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world’s population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months. That has pinched the budgets of millions of poor Asians and raised fears of civil unrest.
Shortages and high prices for all kinds of food have caused tensions and even violence around the world in recent months. Since January, thousands of troops have been deployed in Pakistan to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Protests have erupted in Indonesia over soybean shortages, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs.
Food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. But the moves by rice-exporting nations over the last two days — meant to ensure scarce supplies will meet domestic needs — drove prices on the world market even higher this week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/worldbusiness/29swiss.html?ei=5087&em=&en=06a331ab1837499a&ex=1206936000&pagewanted=print
March 29, 2008
Trying to Get the Swiss to Talk
By CARTER DOUGHERTY
GENEVA — Like Paul Revere, Konrad Hummler sounded the alarm last week as he made his way by train and by plane to his bank’s branches across Switzerland. This country’s storied role as secret banker to the world’s wealthy is under threat like never before, Mr. Hummler warned.
Mr. Hummler, the jaunty, blunt-spoken managing partner of Wegelin & Company, a small private bank in St. Gallen, has watched a German tax-evasion scandal evolve into a debate about banking secrecy here. Worried that the treasured discretion of Swiss banks is under assault, Wegelin’s foreign clients have been inquiring about their money.
Mr. Hummler says that this time, Switzerland may not be able to stop the rest of the world from prying open Swiss banking.
“What is going on is a power play,” he said. “It may be unusual in today’s Europe, but it is here.”
This land of stunning Alpine vistas, which has chosen to remain outside the European Union, has always loomed large in the global imagination as the place where the wealthy stash their money beyond the tax man’s reach. The best estimates suggest that image is true, to the tune of $1 trillion to $2 trillion.
The scandal that threatens that lucrative business began when German authorities obtained secret financial data from Liechtenstein, Switzerland’s tiny neighbor with similar banking laws. The information in hand, investigators fanned out across Germany to seize documents thought to be related to tax evasion by hundreds of wealthy Germans. Cases are now being prepared based on the information, a process likely to take years. The fallout has claimed the job of one top executive, Klaus Zumwinkel, who had headed the German postal service, and has given the German left a political boost.
But Switzerland is the bigger prize. And its continuing refusal to help other countries catch tax cheats hiding their money there appears to have hardened Europe’s resolve to force change.
“If a car is stolen in Germany and taken to Switzerland, the Swiss help find it,” said Hans Eichel, a member of the German Parliament and a former finance minister. “But when it’s about tax evasion — and much larger sums — they do nothing. No one outside Switzerland understands that.”
To Thomas Borer, a former Swiss ambassador to Germany, few inside Switzerland understand the depth of foreign discontent.
“It is obvious,” said Mr. Borer, now a lobbyist, “the government and the banks, really, are heavily underestimating the impact of this scandal.”
“There may be an avalanche coming, and we are not ready,” he added.
Mr. Borer compares the coming storm to the debate Switzerland faced in the late 1990s over dormant bank accounts belonging to Holocaust victims and their families. When first faced with demands for restitution, Swiss banks dismissed the claims despite urgent warnings from some Swiss diplomats that the issue would not go away.
After an international blowup that sullied their reputation, the banks settled the matter by creating a $1.25 billion restitution fund.
Last month, Germany threatened to delay a new passport-free travel arrangement with Liechtenstein, the clearest sign that Germany is willing to hold other policies hostage to its goal of cracking banking secrecy laws.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is due to visit Switzerland in late April and is expected to press demands for more investigative assistance from Swiss authorities in tracking down German tax dodgers — and less secrecy generally.
The official Swiss reaction has been self-conscious detachment, which they hope will deflate the issue.
No one expects Swiss banking secrecy to dissolve overnight. What European governments are aiming for is a middle ground between Switzerland’s being a banking black hole and the openness of other major countries.
One compromise might be for the Swiss to agree to provide greater assistance to foreign authorities investigating suspected crimes. But that kind of move could breach the discretion so many Swiss clients value.
Under current agreements with the 27-nation European Union, Switzerland imposes its own capital gains tax on people who invest here but live in European Union countries, and remit the money to the appropriate national authorities. Some countries, including Germany, believe the current system gives them less money than they are owed.
European officials believe they can seize this moment to rally public opinion against the Swiss, German officials said. France, which will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of this year, has agreed to take up the issue.
Even American leaders are taking note. Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, has announced his own inquiry into tax evasion by Americans in Liechtenstein, and both he and Senator Barack Obama are pushing legislation that would give the federal government new powers to track down money in Switzerland and elsewhere.
The concept of bank secrecy is deeply rooted in Switzerland, akin to the confidentiality rules governing doctors and lawyers in other countries, and a 1934 law makes it a crime for bankers to disclose client information. For foreigners, this combination is an effective shield against authorities at home.
Generally, treaties on mutual legal assistance between sovereign nations apply only to matters that would be deemed a crime in both countries.
Mr. Hummler is unusual only in that he openly admits Swiss banks manage lots of money that escapes taxation elsewhere. But he makes no apologies. Recently he wrote a widely read eight-page tract defending Europeans who put their money in Switzerland as engaging in “financial self-defense” against high taxes at home.
Most analysts say big Swiss banks like UBS and Credit Suisse, which make most of their money outside Switzerland, would do just fine without banking secrecy. But Mr. Hummler said such secrecy is vital for the small private banks, a stable business with fat margins even in bad times.
Polls consistently show that 80 percent of Swiss support the banking confidentiality law — but that number drops into the 40s when it is applied to foreigners, suggesting the Swiss care much less about the privacy of non-Swiss citizens.
Mr. Hummler experienced that reality first hand a few weeks ago. During a meeting of his Rotary Club in Zurich, his fellow members were appalled that Swiss bankers might be managing the money of foreign tax evaders. “We had no idea,” Mr. Hummler recalls them saying, “that you did things like that.”
Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Swiss finance minister, has brushed aside notions that Switzerland will water down banking confidentiality, a cornerstone of the financial system. Jean-Michel Treyvaud, a spokesman for Mr. Merz, called the debate “a media phenomenon” and declined an interview request.
But bankers here said Swiss authorities’ worries actually run deeper. The quandary they face is that even discussing the issue could unnerve foreign clients.
Mr. Hummler said clients were already unnerved, since the dangers facing secrecy are obvious.
“You don’t want to say Swiss banking secrecy is in danger because of marketing issues,” he said. “But when it is so obvious, as it is now, it does not do much for marketing.”
http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/CSHomePrice_Release_032544.pdf
Record Declines in Home Prices Continued in 2008 According to the
S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
New York, March 25, 2008 – Data through January 2008, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its
S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States continued into the new year, with 16 of the 20 reporting MSAs posting record low annual declines, of which 10 are in double-digits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/us/29fraud.html?ei=5087&em=&en=38d7ea8f238213b0&ex=1206936000&pagewanted=print
March 29, 2008
Report Sketches Crime Costing Billions: Theft From Charities
By STEPHANIE STROM
To "Torontonian": You seem to have a reading problem because Toronto was not mentioned.
It was AFTER Yaakov Weinberg left Toronto that he went back to Ner Israel (where else would he get a rent-free place where he could strut his stuff) and then in the late 1970s early 1980s his son Matis had made a deal with Daniel Lapin, that Lapin would raise the money and find a place in Santa Clara CALIFORNIA to build a brand new unconventional kiruv-type yeshiva and then guess what happened, Daniel Lapin and Matis Weinberg had a huge fall-out, over who controls the money and about Matis's pedophilia, so Lapin walked away from it, after he got them the place in the first place, and right at that time Matis's father Yaakov was sitting around in Ner Israel BALTIMORE with nothing to do because he was dumped by the guys in Ner Israel TORONTO, and Rabbi Neuberger a"h in Baltimore wanted to get rid of Yaakov Weinberg -- they basically hated each other -- and Yaakov Weinberg was SHOVED, given the HEAVE HO, told to get the heck out, and go to SANTA CLARA in Northern CALIFORNIA to see what he could do at his son's yeshiva there, and being that he was a Weinberg, guess what he did best...yup, caused problems and CONTROVERSY and after huge scandal broke out over Matis's sexual misbehavior with the boys and it was the Agudah Rosh Yeshivas who hushed it up and sent Matis away to Israel and let him off the hook with the proviso that he not head a yeshiva ever again, which he eventually did anyway a few years later and a new scandal broke out of him molesting boys in YERUSHALYAIM, the school was investigated and cut off by Rabbi Blau and YU and Matis had to quit, again after two agudah rabbis "looked into the matter": Shmuel Kamenetzky and Feivel Cohen a big Chaim Berliner himself, and whos oldest son works in Chaim Berlin and is married to Ruby Schron's daughter. Anyhow, Shmuel Kamenets's and Feivel Cohen's great "invetigation" didn't go anywhere and Matis is still free to roam the frum world...
But to get back to Yaakov Weinberg, he took over from his son Matis in Santa Clara in CALIFORNIA (it ain't Tornoto!!!) and he landed up in the same mud and controversy as his son with allegations of molesting boys being quashed and the whole place just suddenly shut down and TODAY very few people even remember (like you it seems) that in the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a "branch" of Ner Israel for about a decade in Santa Clara, Northeren Claifornia that Matis Weinberg and his father Yaakov used as a personal little "fiefdom of fun" far away they thought from the the prying eyes of the boys' parents as many were naive baal teshuva and new Russian immigrant kids (all easy prey and game for the well-known long-standing well-practiced molesters like the Weinbergs) and snoopers, and they ran the Sanat Clara yeshiva into the ground and when the stench of compalints and scandals started rising up, they just shut down the place and rode out of town as if nothing had ever happened, which was very nice for them, because they ahd the Agudah rabbis like Aron Shechter and Shmuel Kaminetzky covering for them but left many boys scarred for life. All in the name of "spreading and protecting Torah" naturally.
http://jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=19124
In 1861, the Reform Rabbi David Einhorn vociferously denounced slavery to his congregation, Har Sinai Congregation of Baltimore, which was a pro-slavery state. A mob threatened to tar and feather him, and he had to flee north.
Most rabbis aren't so literally chased by mobs, but there is a modern-day equivalent in the outraged congregation, or in public responses to a rabbi who takes a strong political stance.
That's what happened after Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky of the Modern Orthodox B'nai David-Judea congregation in Pico-Robertson, delivered a sermon about the need to consider a divided Jerusalem. He published his remarks as an op-ed in this newspaper, which was followed by a Los Angeles Times article covering the outrage caused by the scandal. In the aftermath, Kanefsky held closed-door meetings with some upset congregants.
Reported from http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/03/covering-up-the.html
"Covering Up: The Isaac Hersh Saga Continues
Rabbi Tzvi Gluck, one of the men involved in the rescue of Isaac Hersh, is on Zev Brenner's Talkline show. I'll have an mp3 of it up tomorrow.
A lot of what he is doing is covering for Michael Hersh, his wife, and especially for Rabbi Ahron Schechter.
I interviewed Sol Hersh, Isaac's brother, Friday. I wasn't going to publish anything on the interview. But after hearing Rabbi Gluck's misrepresentation of fact, I have to.
First, based on Rabbi Tzvi Gluck's interview and what I know to be the truth:
1. Gluck knew about the story for months but did not take the necessary action.
2. Only when MR got involved just over one week ago was real action taken.
3. Still, Gluck did try, but only in ways that would not shame Rabbi Schechter or the community.
4. Rabbi Shechter only became "helpful" after the Daily News story ran and the pressure on him mounted exponentially. (Kind of like a person cooperating with police after realizing lack of cooperation will lead to a very long jail sentence. I think Rabbi Gluck confuses helpful with covering one's own butt.)
5. Isaac Hersh is sill not safe. He is within reach of his parents, and is being kept at the home of a family chosen by them, in Brooklyn, it seems, close by the family home. In other words, not with his foster family as incorrectly reported by VosIZNeais (please see the update to this post).
6. Bad as Tranquility Bay is, it is not a Nazi concentration camp. Calling it that cheapens the Holocaust and defines down the suffering that took place in it. Tzvi Gluck should know better.
Now, what Sol Hersh told me:
1. Sol was very appreciative of the help Isaac got from Rabbi Tzvi Gluck, MR, and several others, most mentioned in my previous post.
2. Sol alleged years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father.
3. He told me his father got access to drugs and illegally doped both Sol and Isaac.
4. He said there was a real court case in Israel charging the father (and the mother, I believe) with child abuse. The family fled Israel to avoid the consequences of that court proceeding.
5. Sol went to Brooklyn several years ago and personally met with Rabbi Schechter, who refused to believe him – even though Sol brought with him a large dossier on Tranquility Bay.
6. Rabbis and others went to Rabbi Schechter, as well – he rejected them all.
7. The reason the rescue delegation was held by Jamaican police is because Isaac's father, Michael Hersh was contacted, apparently through Tranquility Bay officials, and had Jamaican police intervene.
8. Neither Sol or Isaac are Orthodox. They have not been since a very young age. Sol described himself as an agnostic.
9. Sol is in a secular high school in Texas, but lives with an Orthodox family. He's on the wrestling team and loves school, and loves the community.
10. Isaac was living with another Orthodox family in another city in Texas and also going to secular school – until the kidnapping.
11. Sol spoke at great length about his father's attitude toward the boys and his alleged abuse.
12. At one point Sol said, "Rabbi Schechter just loves my father, my father just has him eating out of his hand. I don't know what's going on there…" He then went on to mention the Ranch 1 fraud, and Chaim Berlin's alleged connection to it, and said, "Some people think it's this."
The idea that a representative of the Jewish community could try to kasher the actions of Michael Hersh, his wife and Rabbi Ahron Schechter is appalling.
No matter how much good work Rabbi Tzvi Gluck does, no matter what he did to help bring about this rescue, nothing allows Rabbi Gluck or anyone else to cover for someone like Michael Hersh or Rabbi Ahron Schechter.
And to leave Isaac Hersh within reach of what clearly seem to be abusive parents is also appalling. It is also negligent. And it is criminal.
I said before police needed to be involved in this case. That is still the truth."
"I was beaten and bound in boot camp, claims Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox teen
March 29, 2008
By Kristen Danis
A Brooklyn teen banished to a behavior boot camp in Jamaica by his family - sparking an internal battle among ultra-Orthodox Jews - is back in the United States after a showdown on the island nation.
Isaac Hersh, 16, landed at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey Friday after his father was persuaded to let him leave Tranquility Bay, a private reform school.
"Relieved is not the word," said Zvi Gluck, a Queens financial worker. "The entire way home he was describing the atrocities that were happening there."
Gluck was one of a handful of Orthodox men who jetted to Jamaica on Wednesday to try to fetch the teen and was briefly detained until Isaac's father agreed to his release.
The ending capped a dramatic week when some members of Isaac's tight-knit community took the unusual step of publicizing his case.
The teen, who had been living with an Orthodox Texas family in an informal foster situation, had been brought back to Brooklyn by his parents last June and then shipped off to Tranquility Bay.
The family that had been caring for Isaac had no idea where he was until about three weeks ago - and became worried that he was living in a facility that has been accused of abuse.
Isaac told Gluck and others that he was beaten and forced to lie on a mat with his hands and feet tied as punishment for minor infractions.
The story so divided the religious community that Isaac's father, Michael Hersh, was forced to take a leave of absence from his job as CEO of Hatzalah, the large, Brooklyn-based volunteer ambulance corps. Hersh's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.
Friends of the Hersh family described Isaac as a troubled son who had clashed with his parents for years. Others described him as a normal teen. He is living in an undisclosed location while custody arrangements are worked out.
kdanis@nydailynews.com"
http://www.caica.org/CEO_of_Hatzolah's_teen_in_gulag_camp_embroils_siblings_and_community_3-24-08.htm#beaten
In last decade 5,000 children reported sexual abuse, incest
By Ruth Sinai HAARETZ
Some 5,000 children age 14 or under have reported being sexually abused by a parent or other relative over the last decade, according to data released by the Social Affairs Ministry yesterday. However, the ministry believes that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that most such cases are not reported.
The accepted estimate worldwide is that one out of every 11 men and one out of every seven women were victims of incest as children. Advertisement
These 5,000 cases of incest - including 421 last year, up from 365 in 2006 - represent some 28 percent of all children who suffered sexual abuse over the last decade, the ministry said. About 10 percent of these incest victims were sexually abused by a parent or step-parent, and the rest by other relatives.
Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog, noting that reporting incest cases is the critical first step toward dealing with the problem, urged people to call the welfare authorities anytime they even suspected that incest might be occurring.
Altogether, the welfare authorities dealt with 2,409 sexually abused children last year, including the 421 incest victims. A total of 511 men are currently serving prison sentences for incest.
The ministry runs 10 treatment centers for children who suffered sexual abuse, and two more are in the process of being established. These centers have a budget of NIS 10 million.
Mr. Hidden Horrors, there is no need for you to lash back at me like a big mouth. My reading skills are fine. Maybe I was being medayek too much in your original rendering of the timeline.
I never knew that R' Yaakov was in Santa Clara. I don't know if Gary Rosenblatt made any mention of it either.
If R' Hermann was so opposed to him, please explain how he became rosh yeshiva of Baltimore AFTER being ousted and being involved in a West Coast scandal.
Being "dumped by the guys in Toronto" is not an accurate description. The place was out of control and there was nothing anyone could do about it. R' Yaakov quit in disgust and Ner Israel Baltimore severed their ties but the Toronto yeshiva kept the name and went under Lakewood's umbrella. Lakewood really had no input either. They were limited to sending some rebbeim while Breuer's ran the show for the next 2 decades. The new Yekkish rosh yeshiva was powerless to stop the students from openly dating girlfriends and attending Zionist protest rallies. R' Yaakov Kaminetzky warned some rebbe candidates about the yeshiva which remained a problem for many years. It was basically the community high school where everyone went. Some guys were eating treif food in their dorm rooms and brought televisions for "yeshiva Shabbos" so they could watch porno flicks that air Fri night on Canadian TV.
After many years of draconian crackdown by the new rosh yeshiva, aided by two physically violent administration officials, they finally got a grip but with a heavy price tag and a lot of collateral damage.
R' Feivel Cohen I hear is the uncle of Kolko nemesis Ben Hirsch.
Isaac needs to understand that the best resolution to his situation lays with the Moetzes. It is never a good idea to go to law enforcement.
Here's a new one. Rubashkin shortchanging worker paychecks.
http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/032708/commLaborSafety.html
by Avram Lyon and Elihu Davison
March 27, 2008
An article on OUKosher.org notes proudly that the Orthodox Union is the most recognized symbol of kashrut in the United States. The article goes on to say that Jewish consumers consistently name the OU as their top choice for ensuring the food they purchase meets the most stringent kosher standard, while non-Jews perceive the OU as signifying the highest level of product safety and cleanliness.
Yet the Forward reported in August 2007 that food safety is something OU certifiers leave to government inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. “Our general policy is that we are relying on the USDA and the FDA to make sure that companies are in compliance,” the CEO of the OU’s kosher division, Rabbi Menachem Genack, told the paper. “We follow their lead, but we’re only following. They have the expertise and experience to do it.”
Many rabbis have told us that multiple issues come into play when determining whether a product is kosher. It is not just a question of the ritual slaughter of an animal, that vegetables are free of bugs and parasites, or whether wine has been boiled. Whether products are safe, animals treated well, and workers treated fairly and safely are all issues that can impact whether a product can be considered kosher.
If kosher authorities waive their responsibility to investigate such matters, it nonetheless does not release them from the obligation to act when information from such experts becomes public knowledge. The OU has an obligation to the kosher consumer, the Jewish community, and the general public to act. It has an obligation to protect the image of kashrut.
Reports have surfaced regarding tsa’ar ba’alei hayim, the mistreatment of animals, in kosher processing plants in Postville, Iowa, and Gordon, Nebraska. The reports were written by USDA inspectors and became public as a result of a Freedom of Information Act inquiry. The reports are available for inspection by anyone who cares to look.
Mistreatment of workers, including the shorting of paychecks at the Agriprocessors facility in Postville and an attempt to deny the rights of workers to organize at the Rubashkin facility in Brooklyn, are well known. The Postville situation is now the subject of a lawsuit brought by workers, and the attempt to prevent workers from exercising their right to organize in Brooklyn was overturned by the National Labor Relations Board and the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. All of this is well documented.
On several occasions we have witnessed the recall of kosher meat packed by Agriprocessors that could have endangered public safety, and we have seen USDA letters that conclude that “these findings lead us to question your ability to maintain sanitary conditions and to produce a safe and wholesome product.”
This past week the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) charged Agriprocessors with 39 abuses, including more than a dozen health-related violations, and fines of more than $180,000. In the last three years, Agriprocessors has paid the Environmental Protection Agency and/or OSHA more than $750,000 in fines.
As in the past, the firm in question claims to have addressed these issues (some of these new charges were for repeat abuses). And yet there is an undeniable pattern that cannot be addressed by merely adding still more kosher inspectors at the plants.
Some, like Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, Yona Metzger, have suggested that some of the allegations against kosher slaughterhouses are the result of non-Jews trying to harm kashrut observance. But the charge rings hollow in the face of such obvious abuses by a kosher meat packer. It is not anti-Semitism at work here, but our own failure to police the actions of such companies. If we do not act it is not surprising when, to our embarrassment, others do.
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev (1740-1810) set a precedent that should be heeded when, noting the oppressive working conditions of a local matza bakery, he declared the matza treif — non-kosher — as a result.
As the preeminent kosher certifying body in the U.S., it is time for the OU to take action.
Avram B. Lyon is former executive director of the Jewish Labor Committee. Elihu Davison is former News Director at WEVD and vice chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4081/1/It%92s-about-more-than-food
That a kosher food plant has received 39 citations for violations of state health codes is deplorable.
We are supposed to be "a light unto the nations." Our factories, stores, and other businesses should be among the most ethical in the world for we, to paraphrase Hebrew National’s slogan, answer to a higher authority than the U.S. government. It is not enough for us as Jews to say that we will simply abide by the laws of the land. One of the pillars of our religion is tikkun olam, repairing the world. To do that, we cannot just say, "We’ll let somebody else handle it."
The Rubashkin family, which owns Agriprocessors, could be among the most pious in the world, but there is more to Judaism than just ritual. That family has an opportunity to turn things around in Iowa. Unionized or not, they must at least reverse the conditions that led to these citations. As the world’s largest producer of kosher meats, Agriprocessors has a particular obligation as one of the most visible faces of the kosher industry. When people look at the company they should be awed by its practices, not ashamed.
Kashrut inspectors do not have the same training as USDA or OSHA inspectors. However, they should act as rabbis who can enforce the precepts of the Torah that call for fair treatment of employees. They may not have the authority to issue fines but their judgments do carry moral and religious weight, particularly in businesses run by the observant.
We do not expect the Orthodox kosher organizations to create their own versions of the hekhsher tzedek. We do, however, expect these agencies to make certain that the factories they supervise follow what Hillel called the totality of Jewish law.
http://www.jstandard.com/articles/4095/1/Expanding-the-definition-of-kashrut
What a disgrace to the Washington Hts and Yekkishe community & Klal Yisroel at large.
KAJ Breuers President Erich Erlbach said in this interview that there were no specific kashrus violations at Rubashkin. Little did he know that right at that time, and perhaps because of his covering up, a disgusted KAJ insider handed over an incriminating document to Rabbi Yudel Shain that proves there were multiple kashrus violations.
When will people get it that covering up Chilul Hashem only leads to greater Chilul Hashem when the truth gets out?
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/COMM/803120335/-1/NEWS
By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
March 12, 2008
Blooming Grove — A kosher market in frequent violation of Town of Blooming Grove building laws has filed for bankruptcy protection as it copes with a long list of debts.
The Orange County Kosher Market at 1025 Route 17M ran up against town laws almost as soon as it started construction in 2004.
The project consisted of a two-story building, with the supermarket in a 7,000-square-foot space on the second floor, and five retail spaces on the first floor for rent.
According to town records, the owner failed to acquire building permits for construction in 2005, resulting in a stop-work order from the town.
That triggered a 2005 lawsuit, in which Rockland County attorney Dennis Lynch, who represented the owner, 1025 Route 17M LLC, broadly accused the town of anti-Semitism.
Following settlement of that lawsuit, the business ran aground again over more code violations, including having an improper septic tank.
"It was one of the typical things that happened with that place," said Blooming Grove Supervisor Charlie Bohan.
"They complied to a point, and then fell into violation again to a point, where the stop-work orders and orders to vacate came into effect again."
The failure to follow town laws seemed to have taken its toll on the business, which started piling up a list of liens against it for failure to pay bills.
In 2006, TD Banknorth filed a foreclosure proceeding after the business failed to make payments on its $2.2 million mortgage.
Court records attribute ownership of the building and business to 1025 Route 17M, a limited-liability company, whose representative is listed as Margalit Schnitzler, a resident of Kiryas Joel. Attempts to reach Schnitzler were unsuccessful.
Schnitzler sold the building and the kosher market to United AG Realty LLC in 2007.
But the business, which is currently closed, continued not to pay bills, resulting in a cutoff of power from Orange and Rockland Utilities around Christmas time, Bohan said.
Bohan said his office called the county Department of Health and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets numerous times to investigate violations, including spoiled food.
Meanwhile, a court ordered the property to be auctioned off on April 9.
Those plans might derail if Schnitzler, who has retaken ownership of the business and filed for bankruptcy protection, finds a way to keep hanging on, Bohan said.
"We're dealing with a bunch of scam artists who are trying to put one over on us, and it's not going to work," the supervisor said.
jsullivan@th-record.com
EDITED
I know Isaac personally. He babysat fom my children many times. He is a perfectly innocent teenage boy who caused his father some embarrassment by struggling with his Yiddishkeit. This wicked imprisonment was the father's reaction to that personal struggle Isaac was working hard to deal with. There is no excuse.
I want you to also know that I've personally heard threats made by the father to destroy the lives of all the people who are attempting to rescue his son from Tranquility Bay. He called all these askonim who dedicated time and money for this Mitzvah- "Reshaim"! For the guy who posted before that called him "aidel", that seems pretty interesting to me.
The unsung hero in this rescue is Reb Moishe Rosenbaum (MoRo) of the Lower East Side and the Woodbourne seforim store.
No one will ever know what this lamed vuv tzadik accomplished in just a few days (he first learned of this case last week). Boruch Hashem Klal Yisroel has people like Reb Moishe.
UOJ, I know what was edited out of Texas Jew's comment.
I know you believe the rabbi who contacted RAS is a fraud, but even if he had ulterior motives, I think it speaks volumes of RAS if he wouldn't even listen to his peers. Belsky has been accused of acting the same way in matters that pertain to him.
UOJ, if you aren't letting through the new Jewish Week article, you obviously believe it's BS.
Do you think the reporter & editor Gary Rosenblatt were duped by Team Mostofsky or do you think Rosenblatt is covering up for Mostofsky like he's covered up for some of his modern ortho friends in the past?
I listened to the interview and callers on Zev Brenner on Motzoei Shabbos. I must comment that Zvi Gluck was most careful, in full awareness that he is on public radio, to mot malign anyone. He spoke about the father and Schechter capitulating once they heard more direct reports of the atrocities and abuse that Isaac suffered at Tranquility Bay. To have done otherwise would place him at risk for lawsuit. To speak more openly and accusingly in the anonymity of a blog is less risky, and plenty of people are doing it.
There is nothing about Zvi that is seeking to protect any of the above parties. He is in full recognition of how desperately they tried to sabotage a hatzolas nefashos effort. I will also say that Zvi gave an accurate portrayal of his mission, to rescue those that need help, and to create a safer world so that others will not suffer. He is a true baal chased, and does not have personal benefit from his askonus. Just as he needs our recognition of someone who is selfless and tireless when a yid is in trouble, his wife needs the recognition as the aishes chayil who shares her husband’s time with the Klal to do the mitzvos he does. Zvi is not looking to damage people’s reputations. If they fall from grace because of what they have done that becomes public knowledge due to such rescue missions, that is a responsibility that rests solely on the shoulders of those who take the side of rish’us. Examine the posuk in Tehillim (125:3).
To "Torontonian" again you prove yet again that you are reading challenged when you ask "If R' Hermann was so opposed to him, please explain how he became rosh yeshiva of Baltimore AFTER being ousted and being involved in a West Coast scandal" because if you RE-read what was originally stated in the first "Weinberg's hidden horrors" post (1:46 PM, March 28, 2008) you will see that it stated that: "And hey, guess who fought Ner Israel and made Rabbi Neuberger crazy to take Yaakov weinberg back in? None other than Aron Shechter!!!! But Rav Elya Svei held the line against the Weinbergs, not letting Yaakov on the Moetzes and including speaking out very publicla few times against Aish HaTorah's misuse of "sex education" lectures etc to "mekarev" people."
Aron Shechter was a consitent backer of Yaakov Weinberg, even after Weinberg's death. The main reason was that Weinberg was one of Rav Hutner's first talmidim and Rabbi Hutner was the shadchan of Weinberg to the only daughter of Rav Ruderman of Ner Israel in Baltimore. It is known that on the day of Weinberg's wedding his father died and he suffered a massive bervous breakdown, and it's not clear if that created a personality disorder in him or if he was just always a troubled and twisted person, but Rabbi Hutner admired him all the same because he was a learning genius and Shechter always saw to it that Yaakov Weinberg was "looked after" and cleaned up after him and covered for him no matter what scandals and misdeeds rose up in his trail as he headed from one controversial job to another.
UOJ,
With all your contacts with Robert Kolker, Hella Winston etc.. Is there any chance that there could be a major investigative piece re : these Vantzen ??
Shmayra responded to me that from a legal point of view schlechter could be implicated for cover up and facilitating child abuse.
by the way are you aware that in north maimi beach florida
fruchthandler has his granddaughter in a beis yaacov because she is troubled you should hear what she says to other girls about her family
this is also the same Beis yaacov that had a tenth grader on friday night sneak out of a shabbaton to meet a non jewish guy at a club
the whole neighberhood was aked by the family that runs beis yaacov not to talk about it. Seems like they dont want people to know what type of school it is
also
I do not think Gary Rosenblatt was necessarily duped. The reporter of the story was!
Criminal prosecution of Schechter will require a few necessary elements.
1- The D.A. wants to prosecute.
2- A witness or two that's willing to go all the way.
3- A grand jury convinced that Schechter CAUSED and conspired with the kidnappers and the kidnapping - rather than agreeing to it and supporting the dangerously ill father..
I believe it will not happen - UNFORTUNATELY!
The media will only run with it, IMO, if this becomes a criminal act by a clergyman, maybe a snippet here and there about the putz Schechter and the ill father - but not a serious piece.
Shmarya claims that Mostofsky-Schechter only backed off because:
A. The Daily News ran a story
B. Dr. Pelcovitz threatened to go public against them with new things he learned
Someone also claims on Shmarya's blog that Steve Mostofsky's brother Michael who is partners with Shereshevsky is angrily opposed to what Steve is doing and also helped finance the rescue.
It's no chiddush that Moe Roe was involved. His work with at risk kids is legendary.
Is the alleged angle with the Fruchthandler-Mafia money laundering going anywhere?
Did Michael Hersh ever work in the Chaim Berlin office of for Fruchthandler?
Someone writes on Vicky's blog that after 15 year old Shmuel Juravel was caught molesting kids in Baltimore, he was sent to one of these Mormon boot camps after consultations with Heinemann & Hopfer.
Actually someone else disputes that Michael Mostofsky gave one penny to help Isaac.
http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=5159
(march 27, 2008)
Rabbis urge victims to speak out
ASHLEY BROWNE
REPORTS of alleged sexual abuse by the former principal of the Adass Israel girls school have sparked Melbourne’s Orthodox rabbis into action amid reports that another high-profile figure within the community has been engaging in inappropriate behaviour.
The Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) has shored up its processes and is seeking to reassure the community that victims of abuse can come forward and seek assistance from qualified legal, psychological and rabbinical authorities in a confidential manner.
The high-profile figure in question is not affiliated with the Adass school or congregation, nor a member of the RCV, but the person’s identity and details of alleged inappropriate behaviour have been the subject of widespread speculation throughout Melbourne’s Orthodox community for the past few weeks.
It is believed the latest allegations involve both inappropriate physical contact, as well as improper financial transactions.
In a statement to The AJN, the RCV said: “We have been aware for some time now that there have been concerns regarding alleged abuse by a trusted official in the Jewish community.
“During this period, the RCV has continued to encourage alleged victims to come forward and confidentially present their issues to the RCV, so that halachic and legal counsel may be provided.
“In light of recent occurrences, the RCV wishes to make it known that its good offices are available for the purpose of assisting victims and alleged victims of abuse by trusted officials in our community.
“A small, but highly-qualified group of professionals has been engaged by the RCV to assist with legal and psychological counselling as required.”
It is believed that until late last week, there was division within the RCV as to how to deal with the community identity in question, and it was felt that this was deterring some of the alleged victims from coming forward and seeking assistance.
But this issue was resolved after a series of meetings over the weekend, so that a completely confidential environment can be created for those who wish to seek comfort.
“It needs to be made clear that if alleged victims do come forward, there will be no cover-ups and no sweeping of any issues under the carpet,” said RCV president Rabbi Meir Kluwgant.
“We’re equipped to offer whatever sort of assistance is required.”
The AJN understands that two high-profile community identities, who have previously held leadership positions within the general Jewish community, have agreed to work with the RCV and talk to individuals who may come forward seeking assistance.
they say that leizerson on beis yaacov in north miami was begging parents not to publicize the girl who ran away on friday night to be with her non jewish boyfreind
the school pretends to be frum and makes all sorts of rules but if you pay full tuition like fruchthandler did then they take your kid even though she has told many classmates stories about what her family does
For those trying to be Dan Lekaff Zechus Michael Hersh, a couple of pointers
1) I believe there is a difference in Halacha if someone is considered a Tzadik, Rosha or average, regarding how much you have to be Dan him Lekaf Zechus so if he has a "track record" it may impact this obligation.
2) If you know someone did something wrong you don't have to minimize the wrongness of the act, rather you assume that there were unusual circumstances and pressures that make it more difficult for the person to resist temptation etc. This way, while saying what he does is clearly wrong we don't have to be judgmental toward him personally.
3) We can't use this concept as a means of absolving ourselves from the obligation to protect innocent victims (i.e., you can't be a Tzadik toward the alleged perpetrator at the expense of the victim).
(from a promiment Rabbi)
http://www.janasdreamcruises.com/RabbiLoringFrank.html
Rabbi Frank is an internationally known spiritual leader, charismatic speaker, healer and “physician of the soul”, who blends the philosophy of all branches of Judaism and the basic tenets of other religious points of view with holistic lifestyle principles. The Rabbi holds the vision of a greater global awareness that physical and spiritual health through holistic living is an inherent gift from God, for everyone. Known for his spiritually uplifting and creative life-cycle ceremonies, the Rabbi’s caring and sensitive nature draws many people, including well-known celebrities from around the world, for healing and renewal of body and spirit.
As a macrobiotic practitioner for over thirty years, Rabbi Frank considers macrobiotics to be the ultimate “kosher” diet and the basis for a physically healthy and spiritual life. Rabbi Frank also believes and conveys, with a real conviction, that an “affirmation of healing” through prayer and meditation can bring the “Divine Presence” into our lives, face to face with God, to facilitate and expedite healing and to create a higher state of physical and spiritual wellness. Amen.
Individual Kabbalistic Healing consultations are available by appointment $360
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/467320.html
Posted on Sun, Mar. 23, 2008
For 92-year-old groom, 'romance' is over
BY JOAN FLEISCHMAN
Annulled: the marriage of lifelong bachelor Alfred Kreisler, 92, a retired multimillionaire attorney from Miami Beach, and Yvette Penichet, 43, a Miramar divorcée. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ronald Dresnick declared it ''void'' in a four-page ''agreed final judgment'' after three mental health professionals examined Kreisler and concluded he ``did not have the capacity to manage his own affairs or marry.''
Kreisler, a former industrial claims judge, and Penichet, who worked for a mortgage firm, wed on Oct. 4, 2007. Rabbi Loring Frank officiated at Kreisler's Hibiscus Island home and signed the marriage license. Alfred was in a wheelchair. Kreisler's 95-year-old brother Seymour, a retired dentist, was in another room.
Two days before the nuptials, Al Kreisler put $7.7 million into a joint account with Penichet. She immediately wired $30,000 to her son, court documents say.
Kreisler's nieces, Susan Kreisler Kupferberg, 51, and Francine Kreisler Price, 55, were not celebrating the marriage. They had already filed a court petition to determine ''incapacity,'' and Circuit Judge Celeste Muir appointed them co-guardians and removed Penichet from the $7.7 million account.
On Nov. 8, Kupferberg and Price asked Judge Dresnick to undo the marriage. The nieces' legal team: Terry Abrams Berger, Douglas Reynolds, Sean Collin, Michael Trop, and Patricia Kopco.
Berger also called Detective Mary Jo LaMont of the Miami-Dade police elderly exploitation unit and reported that Penichet was ''attempting to gain access to [Kreisler's] assets which are in excess of $22 million.'' (On her wedding day, Penichet tried to withdraw $400,097.53 to buy a Rolls-Royce, but the bank wouldn't clear the funds.)
The case has settled. Penichet returned her wedding ring and waived any claims to Kreisler's millions. She got to keep the $30,000 she wired to her 20-year-old son Joevanny Astorga.
The nieces signed a ''non-prosecution form,'' saying they would not seek ''criminal charges'' against Penichet ``regarding any alleged elder abuse.''
Penichet reportedly met Kreisler through one of his caretakers. Penichet's attorney, Andrew Boros, says she genuinely cared about him. Kreisler wanted Penichet ''to look after him,'' Boros says. ''He didn't want to be put into an old age home. He wanted to stay in the house.'' Kreisler was lonely, Boros adds. ``His only other companion was his brother.''
Alfred and Seymour are now at an assisted living facility in Aventura.
The London Jewish Chronicle has confirmed that Chassidish Lesbian molester Malka Leifer is hiding at her parents house in Bnei Brak.
>Anonymous said...
I went to CB mesivta during 77-78. Didn't know much about the inner-workings or history of the place, but it seemed like all the big machers, especially the Fruchthandlers and Danzigers, were creepy fellows. And practically each Rebbi was a cold fellow who basically took no real interest in us (at least those who weren't 'CBers').
One day, a wild-eyed, old man grabbed the crook of my arm with his cane handle as I was heading down to the lunchroom and started farhering me. Only later did I find out it was Hutner himself.<
WTH??? I wrote that months ago!! Who re-posted it that and why?
Anyone know how we can see a picture of Malka Leifer?
Something very unusual has happened on the Awareness Center's website in the last few hours, the "Isaac Hersh" cannot be found.
Is this temporary, like a technical glitch, or has something more serious happened?
Ever since the Isaac Hersh saga has gripped the headlines on the Jewish blogosphere, The Awareness Center has reported on it. The easiest way to reach the subject on its site was to search for "Isaac Hersh" on its own website, like so:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=014421550565519737414%3Arfjbn50hc-4&cof=FORID%3A0&q=Isaac+Hersh&sa=Search
and up came the full story, but now NOTHING comes up. What's going on here? Have the Fruchnadlre/Shechter legal shocktroops struck?
Does anyone know what's happened and can anyone confirm what's up with Vicky Polin and the reporting of the Isaac Hersh case on The Awareness Center's website?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/969944.html
Police: Bnei Brak has by far the highest rate of sexual offenses
By Roni Singer-Heruti
Haaretz
March 31, 2008
Police investigating suspicions that a sex predator is wandering about in Bnei Brak said Sunday that they believe there are more cases of sex-related crimes in that city than in any other locale in Israel.
"The number of sex offenses in the Bnei Brak area is higher than any other city by tens of percentage points, and it is clear to us that we do not know about many cases that are not even reported because of the well-known fact that in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, there is great reluctance about reporting such incidents," a senior police officer in the Tel Aviv District said.
The Dan Region police received reports of 10 sexual assaults of girls in recent months. Two cases involved rape; the rest were instances either of attempted rape or indecent assault. In all cases the girls, aged approximately 12, gave a similar description of their assailant, who they said wore the garb of a specific Haredi community, and used the same modus operandi in his assaults. The suspect followed his victims and then attacked them in the yard or the lobby of a residential building.
However, police are also exploring the possibility that more than one assailant is involved.
In recent months the police have been tightening their relations with rabbis in Bnei Brak as a way of countering the attacks. According to police sources, the cooperation has often been successful and the rabbis have encouraged parents to complain about sexual assaults perpetrated on their children.
"Contrary to the past there is greater trust in the police [among the Haredi community] and less shame in filing a complaint. We recognize these phenomena that occur occasionally, and recently there have been many publications in the city, which have warned children about sexual predators," a senior public figure from Bnei Brak told Haaretz Sunday.
"Now the approach tends to be inclined toward involving the police as soon as possible after we learn that the attack has taken place. More than ever there are reports in various places, especially in schools and in letters to the parents, warning against the phenomena that threaten the children," the local source added.
He explained that there are mediators whose role is to liaise between the families and the police.
However, police sources still say that "the number of complaints that are filed is far from being high," adding that they are aware that in reality, there are many more instances of sexual assault which police only learn about through their intelligence sources.
The information is often received from "messengers" who are members of the religious courts of individual rabbis, and who disseminate rumors, recommending that the police investigate them.
A week ago, a 33-year-old resident of Lod was arrested in Bnei Brak on suspicion of sexually assaulting a teenager who returned home late one night. The suspect, who has been indicted, followed the teen and her friend, and assaulted one of them. As they fled, he chased one of them and attacked her in the lobby of the building where she lived. Her father and brother heard her screams and came to her aid, and the assailant was arrested.
Police say that "this is a widespread phenomenon and children are harmed by it. The problem is that this is a closed community where it is not customary to report such cases. Thus sexual assailants, and other kinds of criminals, know they can operate without fear in Bnei Brak, and know that the chances that complaints will be filed against them is minimal."
Nonetheless, police stressed that "the community in Bnei Brak knows the situation a lot better than us."
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/03/case-of-malka-leifer-ner-israel.html
Please note that it was learned that the case of Malka Leifer has connections to Ner Israel and the Weinberg Family. More information to follow soon.
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Leifer_Malka.html
Shmarya jokes that another male fantasy has been shattered.
R' Yaakov Weinberg comes from a family of Slonimer chassidim. Slonim has a very unusual minhag that they demand a kesuba for their daughters worth 50 grand, which is more than 5 times more than anyone else asks.
There have been incidents at chassunos where the chosson, who was not told about it earlier, refuses to go ahead with the chuppa until the nusach hashtar is changed.
Talmud Bavli (Moed Katan 17) discussed just this issue. A prominent scholar was alleged to have committed various sexual improprieties. While the rumors about him were widespread, the scholar was also an important member of the community who influenced budding young scholars.
The sage Rabbi Yehuda agonized over whether or not he should publicly condemn the man and ostracize him. Though this would justly punish him for his actions, it would also rob the community of a valuable asset and could create a hilul Hashem (desecration of God's name) when it became public. Rabbi Yehuda chose condemnation, and refused to repeal his decision.
Years later, on his deathbed, Rabbi Yehuda faced the scholar, and smiled.
"Do you now mock me as well as having condemned me?" asked the scholar.
"No," said the sage. "I smile because I had the courage to condemn you for your crime and to hold fast to my convictions. In heaven, that will hold me in good stead, and the angels will smile upon me, too."
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/NEWS02/803280436
Is this kid Avromi Rotenberg related to Rabbi Mickey Rottenberg?
Is Reich's Jewelers owned by frum people?
What's the story with the Rotenberg reject?
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/NEWS/803280416
LAKEWOOD — The man Orthodox Jews here knew as Nathan Levi was a rising star among them, having in three short years gone from a religious layman to a Torah scholar capable of mentoring others, those close to him said.
The same man is now in a Kansas prison awaiting trial on federal identity fraud charges under the name "John A. Doe," according to court papers that list his real name as Ted Riley Floyd.
As news of Levi's sudden departure spread, feelings of betrayal consumed this intensely close-knit Orthodox enclave, with many raising doubts about the purported Jewish roots of the newcomer they had embraced as one of their own.
"We gave him the confidence and all the support he needed to feel comfortable and honored here. To find out he's pulling a scam on the community is heartbreaking," said Rabbi Ike Lewis of the Congregation of Etz Haim, where he had tutored Levi for three years. Lewis would only give his secular name out of concern for his safety.
Levi was arrested at his home on Forest Park Circle Feb. 21 by U.S. Department of State agents on a 2002 warrant for submitting a fraudulent passport application in Wichita, Kan., according to authorities. That day, a New Jersey magistrate judge released him on $100,000 bail on the condition that he receive mental health counseling and return to Kansas to face the charges, court papers stated.
On March 24, a U.S. District Court judge in Kansas jailed Levi after determining he was lying about his identity, according to the detention order. At that hearing, Levi said his real name was Ted Riley Floyd. The court "it appears that Defendant is not Nathaniel James Levi, and that Nathaniel James Levi is in fact deceased."
"We essentially told the judge we can't trust he'll show up every time in court, because we just don't know who this guy is," Jim Cross, of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas, said.
Levi's next court hearing is May 12, with trial set to begin May 20, Cross said.
It remains unclear how truthful Levi was about his Jewish background or what ties he has in Wichita other than having in-laws there.
No rush to judgment
Some Orthodox leaders refrained from quick judgment.
"How can I say he betrayed us? Do we know these allegations are true?" Joseph Atles, a member of Lakewood's council of Jewish leaders, the Vaad, said Thursday. "I could not say that with a straight face. I hope he didn't take advantage of us."
Levi at some point contacted Partners in Torah, a Lakewood-based nonprofit group that helps people discover their Jewish heritage by matching them up with a volunteer mentor, Shalom Rosenberg, the group's national follow-up coordinator, said.
"We had no reason to believe he was being dishonest about anything," said Rosenberg, who would not elaborate on when or for how long Levi was involved with the organization, or what was unearthed.
Lewis said Levi was matched with a Partners in Torah mentor about three years ago and brought to Lakewood from Kansas for a visit. Having liked what he saw, the self-employed graphic designer decided to move his family here.
Several neighbors in the Forest Park section told of helping him and his wife, Jamie, with everything from stocking up groceries for the Sabbath to finding private Orthodox schools for their three or four young children.
"Have done so much for him, how should people feel now?" asked one Orthodox woman who, like the other residents interviewed, asked that her name be withheld due to concerns of exposure. "They're really hurt. It's like a slap in the face."
Once settled, Levi tackled his role as a rabbinical student with vigor, spending long hours at the yeshiva university, Beth Medrash Govoha, and taking classes at Etz Haim, which was within walking distance of his home.
Lewis described Levi as a "very powerful" intellectual and a "multi-talented" tradesman who could switch effortlessly from religious scribe to construction worker to graphic artist.
"He excelled in his studies to a level where he was mentoring others," the rabbi said. "He was an unbelievable character."
During their time together, Lewis would receive only random snippets of information about Levi's past. While doing some handiwork for the synagogue when he first arrived, for instance, Levi told of his time as a sniper in the Persian Gulf war, where he supposedly was rewarded for making a kill shot from a mile away. He also claimed to have worked construction in Kansas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967870.html
Recent incidents point to heightened tensions inside Israel between the ultra-Orthodox community and messianic Jews, who believe in Jesus but consider themselves Jewish.
In the desert town of Arad, a religious argument recently ended in an attempt by a messianic Jewish man to run over a member of Yad L'Achim, a Haredi anti-missionary organization.
Edwin Beckford, a messianic Jew and resident of Arad, has been charged with assault and is now under house arrest. He says his action was a result of years of provocation and abuse.
Talmud Bavli (Moed Katan 17) discussed just this issue.
--------------
I will not get a free pass. I will have to answer why I waited so long!
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1265067/
Mar 27, 2008 (McClatchy Newspapers - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- -- In early March, the most pressing legal scrape for a youthful Miami Beach munitions merchant was a DUI arrest after a night of partying on South Beach.
But this week, Efraim Diveroli's life got a lot more complicated.
The 22-year-old officially learned his Miami Beach company's $300 million contract with the U.S. Army was suspended because he may have violated U.S. law by selling decades-old, Chinese-made ammunition to supply Afghan soldiers, federal authorities said.
Diveroli is also under criminal investigation by federal agencies in Washington, D.C., and Miami, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the case. And a congressional oversight committee will hold a hearing next month on federal contracts awarded to his company, AEY Inc.
He could not be reached for comment. His grandfather, Angelo Diveroli, 72, who lives in North Miami-Dade, defended him on Thursday, saying he's being accused of selling older weapons by "jealous competitors."
"This is a shame because my grandson is a genius," the grandfather said. "He's a genius about anything to do with weapons. Ever since he was a little boy, I would take him to gun shows and he could identify every model of guns. People would ask: How can he do that so young? He has a gift, I would tell them."
His Miami lawyer, Hy Shapiro, said Thursday his client's company received the suspension notice on Wednesday but was awaiting further documentation from the Army.
"There's nothing I'm prepared to say right now," he said.
The improbable story of such a young man winning such a lucrative military contract was first published by The New York Times, which detailed Diveroli's history as a munitions maverick who had allegedly misled the Army by saying most of his machine-gun cartridges were Hungarian.
According to the Times, much of the ammunition came from aging stockpiles of old Communist bloc countries _ but also from China.
Both the Department of Defense's inspector general and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are investigating Diveroli's alleged network of weapons trafficking, the Times reported.
The suspension of Diveroli's contract, which his company won through competitive bidding last year, is temporary _ depending on the investigation's outcome.
A copy of the suspension notice obtained from the Army said that on Nov. 25, 2007, Diveroli provided military officials with "false or misleading" information. He indicated that the rounds of ammunition for AK-47s and other assault rifles were made in Hungary between 1965 and 1975, the notice said, but the Army discovered most of the munitions were, in fact, manufactured in China between 1962 and 1974.
In the March 25 suspension notice, Army officials cited a "prohibition" on sales of Communist Chinese military munitions to the U.S. government.
In a related document, the Army summarized the history of Diveroli's company, AEY, which was founded by his father in Miami Beach in 1999, noting that it started out selling surplus goods, wholesale scrap and waste materials.
Diveroli's fortunes rose with U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The company landed its first military contract in 2004, generating revenue of more than $1 million. But Diveroli's business with the Defense Department grew so dramatically that he snared contracts worth $200 million last year. The largest was to supply ammunition to the Afghan National Police and the Afghan National Army, which were fighting al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents.
All that government contract work transformed Diveroli's lifestyle.
"He's overseas right now, trying to fill government orders for weapons," said his grandfather, Angelo. "He is doing this work to help the American government. They are picking on him because he's a young man, but he's a hard worker. He works like a dog."
Angelo Diveroli, who is of Italian-Jewish descent and came to the United States from Rome, said his grandson was born on Miami Beach and attended schools in Europe, Israel and the Northeast.
The grandfather said he knows little about his grandson's private life. He lives in a high-rise condo on 38th Street and Collins Avenue and has an office on Arthur Godfrey Road.
"He's a young man. He has girlfriends and he goes out," Angelo Diveroli said. "I know sometimes he stays up all night because he has to deal with people in different time zones."
While living on Miami Beach, AEY's youthful president has had several run-ins with the law but no criminal convictions, Miami-Dade court records show.
Since 2005, Diveroli was accused of physically assaulting and harassing a former girlfriend. He also was arrested on charges of beating up a valet parker at his condo. Police said he was carrying a fake Florida driver's license that indicated he was four years older.
His latest legal problem is still pending. Earlier this month, on March 5, Diveroli was again arrested by Miami Beach police _ this time on a drunk driving charge.
He was released the same day on a $1,000 bond, said Janelle Hall, a Miami-Dade Corrections spokeswoman. He has an April 11 court date.
Diveroli might be the only U.S-approved munitions supplier with a Myspace account.
Diveroli kept his active until 2005. In his bio he describes himself as "a super nice guy."
He adds: "I know what I want out of life but not exactly quite sure how to get it yet."
And he confesses: "I had problems in high school so I was forced to work most of my teen years and I probably grew up way too fast. I finally got a decent apartment and I'm content for the moment, however, I definitely have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up a lot of my time."
He says he considers himself to be suffering from a case of "undiagnosed ADD."
What kind of women would he like to meet? "A sweet, pretty girl with a good attitude and love for life," according to his Web site posting. "A woman that will stand by her man because she knows he would do the same for her no matter the circumstance."
Adass Yisroel is where Malka Leifer plied her trade.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/107669.html
Published: 03/23/2008
Police are investigating an alleged assault at a kosher bakery in Melbourne.
Emma Forovski, an 84-year-old grandmother, was hospitalized last Wednesday with a fractured nose after she allegedly was kicked by a staff member at the Haymishe Bakery in Melbourne’s heavily Jewish Balaclava neighborhood. The dispute apparently began over the freshness of a cake that Forovski wanted to buy.
Forovski, a Russian immigrant, told Sky News, “She pushed me and then kicked me and I fell [and] there was blood.”
But the owner of the bakery, which is under the supervision of the fervently Orthodox Adass Israel community, has strenuously denied the allegations.
Eva Weisner told 3AW local radio that Forovski, who was with her 90-year-old husband, had racially abused staff.
“An old Russian lady came into the shop, bought a cake and then started yelling at the serving ladies, saying ‘You are a dirty Jew’ and ‘You should die today.’ ”
But Forovski, who is also Jewish, denied that she had racially abused staff.
Raizl Fogel, a spokeswoman for the bakery, said the incident was unfortunate.
"We wish her well," she said, "but we’ve always prided ourselves on excellent service.”
Client #7 has been fingered. Another lapsed member of the Tribe in the form of sexual pervert Marv Albert who disappeared from NBC News after a woman complained he left bitemarks in her.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-liwash0401,0,7197274.story
March 31, 2008
A driver who was dissatisfied with the service at an Elmont car wash became enraged when he was told to wait in line for a free, second car wash Sunday afternoon, the Nassau County police said. The man repeatedly rammed his Chevrolet Silverado truck into the car wash's computer controller, trapping three employees behind the broken machinery, the police said.
It was around 2:20 p.m. at Mr. Hand Car Wash, on Linden Boulevard in Elmont, when Assi Touti, 37, of 108th Street, Forest Hills, complained that his truck was not clean enough after going through the car wash, the police said.
He was offered another wash at no cost, a police report said.
But, the police report said, "Touti reportedly became agitated at having to wait in line longer and for a second time, and intentionally drove his Silverado truck into the car wash's computer control, repeatedly, trapping three employees between that machinery and a fence."
The controller, valued at around $12,000, was demolished, and the company lost revenue due to the damage, the police said. No one was injured.
Touti was arrested at the car wash and was charged with second-degree criminal mischief, a felony, and three counts of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. He was scheduled for arraignment Monday in First District Court, Hempstead.
Ultra-Orthodox tradition grants nearly sweeping approval of smoking on Purim, even among the "infants of Beit Rabban" - in other words, innocent children. But in recent years, some have attempted to spoil the ultra-Orthodox child's use on Purim of firecrackers and consumption of cigarettes, in their mandated topsy-turvy celebration of the reversal of the evil plot against Persian Jewry. Research presented by the Ministry of Health and the Israel Cancer Association suggest that the average ultra-Orthodox smoker - and there are many - smoked his first cigarette as a child on Purim. How early does this smoking begin? To judge by the approach of a prize-laden campaign organized by the "Hayim Bri'im Bihesed" (Healthy and Righteous Living) organization and the Maccabi health maintenance organization - at a very young age. From today and until Purim ends, "Every child who is at least 8 years old who refrains from smoking or possessing cigarettes, or products containing tobacco," and who presents a signed document from his parents attesting to his abstention from smoking, is entitled to participate in a raffle.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS01/803300307
Forrest Co. grapples with funding for new jail
By TERRY L. JONES
The new jail is designed to be a single-level, 103,000-square-foot facility with a 9,136-square-foot mezzanine.
But already architects have been asked to go back to the drawing board to reduce the maximum-security areas in the new jail. That could bring the price down to between $13 million and $14 million, Marshall said.
"We just did a new floor plan for them," confirmed Mike Pinter, senior staff architect at Dean & Dean Architects in Jackson.
Pinter said in their current sketches for the jail the number of maximum-security buildings was scaled down to two instead of three.
"When you're building a maximum-security area, just guessing, it can cost $250,000 or more per square foot," he said. "(That's) because you've got solid concrete walls and extremely heavy doors and frames with electronics built into them."
The new facility will contain 600 beds, Pinter said.
http://www.jacksonville.com/apnews/stories/032808/D8VMGMK00.shtml
Efraim Diveroli is a yeshiva boy.
R' Elya Boruch Finkel, one of the roshei yeshiva of the Mir Yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel, passed away suddenly at 60 years old after suffering a massive heart attack Monday morning
Bruria Keren, the wacko who dresses like the Taliban, whipped her kids with electric cords and let them have sex with each other is married to a shnorrer who collects money overseas. He may have interrupted you during shacharis at Landau's shul or rang your doorbell on a Sunday.
The London Jewish Chronicle is reporting that he just returned from a shnorrfest and was arrested upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport.
I love the UOJ because you document your claims. DO YOU HAVE THE PAPERS ACTUALLY IMPLECATING cHAIM BERLIN IN THE THE JAMAICAN COURT PAPERS W/ MOSTOFSKY TO KEEP ISAAC THERE? THIS WOULD BE THE MOST DAMNING EVIDENCE IMAGINABLE. sINCE TILL NOW CB IS ONLY HEARSAY INVOLVEMENT.
One thing should be clarified. There are several community organizations that are being implicated in this ordeal by association, and there is probably no reason that they should be seen as bearing any responsibility whatsoever. In terms of the personal responsibility, the next several days will probably involve revelations that will tell much more than is known as fact.
Yeshiva Chaim Berlin has probably done nothing here. The Rosh Yeshiva was involved, but that would be personal involvement.
The Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisroel was also not involved. Rav Schechter is a member of that body, but any involvement of his was not the capacity of a member of the Moetzes, nor of Aguda in general.
Hatzoloh was also not involved at all. That Michoel Hersh was an officer or that Zvi Gluck is a Hatzoloh member is irrelevant.
National Council of Young Israel was also not involved. The attorney, Mostofsky, happens to serve as NCYI’s president, but any involvement of his was via his law practice.
It is common to associate organizational affiliation as a basis for responsibility, but that does not mean that there is any accuracy. None of these organizations should be vilified because of what happened here.
These comments are making me sick to my stomach.
Why is klal yisrael so quick to jugde each other?
Im crying for my fellow Jews who are so quick to drink up this hot button gossip and destroy the name of a Torah family, rather than -at the least- be dan l'kaf z'chus.
Do you know how guilty we are of shfichas domim? We are killing the reputation of a Torahdik family. 99% of you DO NOT know the story and its a chutzpah to comment, let alone make the father out to be a rasha. Chas v'sholom!
And to involve the members of hatzalah? To harrass them like this? How low have we fallen? This is NOT l'shem shomayim. Theres too much chillul Hashem for it to have been lishmah.
Do you know that the mishmah calls someone who is m'vazeh talmidei chachamim an APIKORES? And there's no chelek in Olam habbah for them.
People are being m'vazeh R' Aaron Shechter- people who dont even reach his ankels in gadlus- in public forums all over the internet. Oy lonu!
We have a lot of t'shuva to do.
There is definitely another side to this story. There hasta be.
Michael Hersh, based on the many wonderful things weve heard about him, has a chazakah for being an ehrlich, straight man.
Please lets not be m'kabel this- its motzi shem ra.
As a side point,
I know the Hersh's very well. They are wonderful people; intelligent, high functioning, well meaning, humble people who only have their childrens best interest in mind. They were blessed with 8 children, two of whom are deeply disturbed.
Isaac (Yitzchok Meir) and his twin, Shlomo Zalman are boys that I know well. They are brilliant, adorable kids with incredible personality... but they are also quite disturbed.
Their parents tried everything under the sun to help them, spending every cent they dont have. These boys have been out of control since they were babies.
Isaac is a danger to himself, as well as to those around him and for many reasons, something drastic hadda be done.
R' Aharon Shechter realizes this and therefore stands alone in his support of the parents decision.
I know the boys well, and I like them A LOT. Theyve stayed at my house, too. I also know that they need a lot of help. Their parents are absolutely wonderful and the community should be ashamed of themselves for butting in now- when they can pat themselves on the back, instead of 10 years ago when it was more private but when they desparately needed help.
Oh, and btw, UOJ
you do realize you're gonna burn in hell for all this, right? You better take a trip to cancoon and start getting used to the hot weather...
I wrote a whole post on the night of the 28th or 29th and it's never showed up!
Please re-post!
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