photos by Reuters
JERUSALEM - A terrorist entered the library of a rabbinical seminary - Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav Kook - and opened fire on a crowded nighttime study session Thursday, killing eight teens and wounding nine before he was slain, police and rescue workers said. It was the first major terrorist attack in Jerusalem in more than four years.
Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip praised the operation in a statement, and thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza to celebrate......
************************************************************
53 comments:
I used to think these kinds of tragedies could only happen during Av. There have been some horrifying attacks in recent years during Adar. R' Shmuel Berenbaum ztl even cancelled simchas Purim in Mirrer yeshiva one year.
At least these bochurim are zoche to kevura. When R' Shmuel cancelled simchas Purim it was a time of suicide bombers that left no trace of some victims. R' Shmuel said it is a terrifying shaas cherem if Yidden are nebich not even zoche to kevura.
Meir Kahane was right.
R"L Another 8 Korbonos.
Peace Talks? No. It is Piece Talks.
Piece by Piece, Nefesh after Nefesh we are being cut away and down.
Led by feckless, putrid, cowardly politicians interested only in Power, Gelt, and political office.
Betrayed by Likud in the Gush Katif Disengagement and now being betrayed by Holy, Holy $has in the partition and giveaway of Jerusalem.
Sderot, Ashkelon. Which town is next?
What will it take and what needs to happen for these politicians to defend and protect it's citizens?
'it's time for UOJ to step out of the shadows and assume a manhig's role of am Yisroel. He spoke out on issues of the heart and was proven right. In the zchus of his heilege zeides, he will resume the derech hayashar v'tovv and lift up the klall'
Boog said:
"Led by feckless, putrid, cowardly politicians interested only in Power, Gelt, and political office.........and now being betrayed by Holy, Holy $has "
Yep. It's our same problem.......just different "leaders". Sometimes our enemies within let the enemies without do the dirty work and sometimes they let enemies within do it. G-d have mercy on our young boys. Save them from the murderers of body and soul.
To me, an interesting part of the Kolko / Margo civil trial is if and what Rabbi Kaufman's part in this was. Did he really aid Margo and Kolko in the mental and physical duress to keep defendants from calling the authorities or suing? And if he did, how the heck is he still head counsellor at Camp Agudah? (I don't care if he is or isn't in Torah Temimah b/c nothing in that cesspool can explain why he's willing to work for a lowlife that ignored a bais din that awarded Torah Vodaas
millions)
Are the allegations that he passed names with Shea Fishman from Torah Umesorah to Margo true? This means as proved in court. This doesn't necessarily come out in a criminal
case b/c of the right of no self incrimination, but would come out at a civil trial (assuming he doesn't perjure himself).
The other very fascinating issue here is what did Rav Sheinberg say. I wonder if that comes out in court? Do they depose him for the civil case?
Why is Schorr's Chassidish Fanaticism setting the larger Agudah agenda?
As recently as 35 years ago, a rosh yeshiva who had learned in the yeshivos of Europe made a chassuna for his daughter. When R' Nosson Wachtfogel zl was invited he inquired if there would be a mechitza. When he heard there would not be a mechitza he initially declined the invitation but then changed his mind when the rosh yeshiva reminded R' Nosson that there were no mechitzos in Lita and that we are being drowned with Chassidishe influence.
"Shafran criticizes the Fourth Estate, bloggers, talk show hosts, and the Jewish Star."
Fourth Estate refers to "the mob" (as in mob rule) or the proletariat, the poorest class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither home ownership, capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor. In ancient Rome, the proletariat were poor landless freemen who, crowded out of the labour market by the extension of slavery, became parasites on the economy. Karl Marx used the term to refer to unemployable workers, paupers, beggars, and criminals. Marx believed that the seizure of power by the proletariat from the capitalist class was a necessary step to a classless society. Under Lenin and the Bolsheviks, this revolution was to be directed by the Communist party, as the vanguard of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle referred to the press as the Fourth Estate in 1821.
Comrade Shafran is very loyal to the party.
The Agudah is on the verge of collapse internally and externally!
There may be some remnants left of that pitiful group as lobbyists - if they keep their charade going as "spokespeople" for Orthodox Jews. Eventually - the politicians will wise up - and after the existing "rabbis" die off...they'll be gone!
Internally - their former supporters are a mere handful of kavod-seeking losers!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm
Hey Putski, the downfall of Shafran and the boys at the Agudah will read like "Animal Farm".
The "Utopia" has stopped "snowballing" thanks to shmucks like Friedman who pushed the envelope too far this time.
The only reason I'm upset at Friedman is because he didn't float the issur out long enough for me to get my signature on it too!
R' Chaim was right when he refused to join the Agudah, predicting they would be worthless today.
A similar thing has already happened to the Igud Harabbonim which is now nothing but a den of thugs led by Mendel Epstein, Gershon Tannenbaum & Belsky and even child rapists like Lipa Brenner.
The Agudah is on the fast track to follow them into the abyss.
It seems that 'Effin Wachsman has been hiding out during this episode and hasn't made a peep. I guess he got enough of a pummeling last time around.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/rubashkins-rav-hamachshir-says-you-can.html#c8891040288122072176
I went into a haymishe store last night that sells a lot of Rubashkin. When I told the owner about the latest outrages with mad cow, sewage, bolt gun stunning and Federal investigations, he just played dumb and said, yeah I guess something has to be done.
Earth to baal habos: Stop looking like a goylem and get the chazirei out of your store or you are also an accomplice.
Anonymous said...
Subway (Rubashkin meat?) is opening 3 new kosher locations soon. Queens, Baltimore under Star-K and Wall St under OU.
Someone wrote this on another blog:
They need to work out a better system of not mixing the fish (tuna) & meat. I observed in other Kosher Subways the Aino Yehudi using the same knife & gloves & counter while switching from making a tuna sandwich to making a meat sandwich. He also toasted bread for a tuna sandwich together with a meat sandwich at the same time. The mashgichim in these kind of places need to be aware to watch out for these type of things. When people observe these problems they must be reported to the OU immediately.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3513901,00.html
Rabbi Aviner: Women permitted to kill rapists
In fiery newsletter, rabbi encourages women to resist any form of sexual harassment
Kobi Nahshoni Published: 03.02.08
Fight off your attacker: Women attacked by rapists are permitted to kill them to ward off the attack, Beit El Chief Rabbi Shlomo Aviner ruled in a newsletter published Saturday.
“In either word or deed, fight him off. Yell out loud so that everyone can hear you. If he touches you, slap him. If he attempts to do worse, and there is no other choice, you can kill him…yes, kill him,” Rabbi Aviner wrote.
The rabbi also noted in his article that his advice falls well within the guidelines of Israeli law, which is also on his side. ”A young man broke into a woman’s apartment and wanted to have his way with her. She killed him and the court ruled that in this instance she had the right to use reasonable force in order to defend herself, and that her actions were justified.”
In an article entitled “Don’t Let Men Harass You” the Rabbi urges women to resist all forms of sexual harassment, either in word or deed, and advises women “to not allow men to treat them like an object for their own use and pleasure.”
“Don’t be afraid to fight back against harassment, even if it is in the workplace and even if it involves a superior,” writes the rabbi. “Women’s organizations will gladly be there for you and help you fight back. You will not be on your own.”
That being said, Rabbi Aviner cautions complainants that the road that lies ahead for them will not be a simple or easy one. “The harasser will not give in easily. He will say that you asked for it, initiated it, enticed and seduced him with provocative clothing, etc. Don’t worry, however, women’s groups will help you through it.”
In the latter part of his article Rabbi Aviner cites statistics that indicate that there are over 50,000 cases of sexual abuse in Israel among women between the ages of 25-40. Moreover, 25% of religious women report that they have been sexually harassed. “Most were harassed by someone they knew, most chose to remain silent…” stated the Rabbi.
What is the rabbi’s solution for this widespread problem? “We should put 50,000 men in jail, so that others see, learn and realize that when a woman says ‘no’ it means just that.”
http://www.observer.com/2008/brooklyn-borough-8
Last year, while still a resident of Manhattan, my friend Justin and I headed to Clinton Hill where a loft party was getting under way. I crawled up the rickety warehouse stairwell to find a young woman collecting $10 outside of a steel doorframe. Inside, an unexpected crowd of partygoers mixed and mingled. Barely legal Hasidic men swayed to jungle beats near sassy Puerto Rican gals, one of whom introduced herself to me as Lecstasy (for the drug), a regular at the space.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3515776,00.html
Uproar in ultra-Orthodox community: Who tired to extort renowned cantor in order to take over his position at synagogue?
Danny Adino Ababa Published: 03.07.08
A cantor, a seductive blonde woman and a steamy sexual encounter in a luxury hotel. These are the tantalizing components of a scandalous new sex tape causing a major uproar in the ultra-Orthodox community in recent days.
To add more fuel to this smoldering scandal, police officials suspect that the tape in question is nothing more that an elaborate extortion ploy by the cantor’s opponents, designed to force him to resign his coveted post.
The sordid affair began several months ago, when a major dispute broke out between the cantor and several congregants at the synagogue. The congregants accused the cantor of engaging in extramarital affairs, and sought to have him replaced with a Tel Aviv resident who was their close friend.
The congregants approached the cantor and demanded that he resign or they would publicize his illicit deeds. The cantor adamantly refused, and so the congregants decided to set up their own little sting operation. They hired a private investigator, who in turn acquired the services of a young woman to tempt the cantor.
The woman told the cantor that she was a university student researching the cantor’s role in the religious community. The two spoke for as while before retreating to a hotel room for an illicit rendezvous.
What the cantor did not know was that there were cameras strategically placed throughout the hotel room capturing his indiscretions. Congregants now had their very own sex-tape, which they promptly sent to senior haredi officials, demanding that the cantor be fired.
The plot thickens
Time passed, and nothing further seemed to happen. Here, however, is where the plot thickens. The police attained the cantor’s sex tape during an International Crimes Unit raid on the private investigator’s office, though they had no prior knowledge of the lavish extortion scheme surrounding it.
The cantor admitted to the affair, but told police that he was extorted by parties in the haredi community after being taped without his knowledge. The private investigator involved was also questioned by police under warning, but maintained that he was merely doing his job in a legal fashion, seeing as both the cantor and the woman involved were acting of their own free will.
The suspects involved in orchestrating this ‘sting operation’ were also questioned, and asserted that they were trying to expose the corruption rampant in the haredi community. The cantor purported to be an honest man, they said, and they were merely trying to publicly expose his true colors.
Police investigator sent the tape to the prosecutor’s office following their investigation in order to determine whether any of the parties involved will stand trial. In the meantime, this entire sordid tale has caused a major upheaval and uproar in central Israel’s haredi community. Needless to say, the steamy sex tape is all anyone can talk about in the cantor’s synagogue and community.
Source close to the cantor in question stated that he is under a great deal of stress, and the contributors to the synagogue are now considering whether or not to continue sponsoring the institution.
“He was entrapped and extorted, that much is certain,” said an American haredi source affiliated with the synagogue.
“The institution in question is handling this matter with the utmost earnestness as we speak, and the cantor in question is still employed at the synagogue until this matter is investigated further.”
Oron Meiri contributed to this article
Avi Shafran boldly goes where no Dunce has gone before.
Strange how someone who is neurotically careful not to say loshon hara about Kolko, smears multitudes of Jews with his "Fourth Estate" insult.
The Kids Are Alright
Editorial
Thu. Mar 06, 2008
Fears of American Jewry
disappearing, drifting into a velvet oblivion of assimilation, have given rise to a cottage industry of research, outreach and alarm-ringing in recent years. Most of this activity is aimed at maintaining the loyalty of the next generation of Jews, to save them from vanishing from the fold. It’s a complex job; it entails measuring the pace at which young Jews are truly bolting the barn, diagnosing the sources of their malaise and finding creative new cures. Practitioners generally view their enterprise as a rear-guard action to delay the inevitable disappearance.
For all that, measuring the Jewish attachment of the young has become one of the primary arenas of organized Jewish activism, second only to defending Israel. To community insiders, this activity is the sacred call of history. To outsiders, it often looks like a mob frenzy as staged by the Keystone Kops.
The latest example of this ongoing panic is the recent release of two new studies, both measuring the attachment of young Jews to Israel. The two studies were conducted separately by two different groups of researchers at the same time, probing the same topic, asking the same questions, using the same sets of statistics. Both purport to be objective, scientific analyses of the numbers. And yet, curiously, they reach opposite conclusions.
As reported this week by our Anthony Weiss, both new studies seek to explain the steady decline in Jewish attachment from oldest to youngest Jewish adults. Both studies rely heavily on the annual survey of Jewish opinion conducted by the American Jewish Committee. Both ask what causes the generational decline in attachment.
Is it a long-term decline, propelled forward by the weakness of each new generation’s identification with the Holocaust and Israeli independence? Or is it a reflection of the modern Jewish life cycle, in which engagement with Judaism and Jewish affairs goes up as adults grow older and settle down?
The truth is that there’s evidence in both studies to support either conclusion. Both teams, one from Brandeis University, the other from the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, marshal impressive numbers to disprove the other’s thesis.
The Bronfman team, led by Steven M. Cohen, believes the decline is a long-term historical shift. Intermarriage and greater societal acceptance lead to more personalized forms of Judaism that have little room for ethnic loyalties.
The Brandeis team, led by Len Saxe, notes that the gradations of attachment, from young to old and low to high, remain steady over the decades. The disengaged 25-year-old of 30 years ago is now a highly involved 55-year-old. There’s nothing, they claim, to indicate that this year’s disengaged 25-year-old won’t be a highly engaged 55-year-old in another three decades, as past generations have found.
There’s one correlation that isn’t mentioned in either study: the link between the authors’ conclusions and their temperamental dispositions. Cohen has emerged in recent years as a leading voice of caution and pessimism regarding the future of American Jewish identity. His pessimism is shared by many of the most visible and prolific students of Jewish belief and behavior.
Saxe, by contrast, is developing a reputation as a leading debunker of Jewish doomsday scenarios. It was his team that produced last year’s study of population trends, indicating that the much-publicized American Jewish population estimate of 5.2 million was off by at least a million, and that American Jewry was increasing, not disappearing. His new department, the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, is fast becoming a leading redoubt of optimism in a field of Jewish population studies that generally seems to be dominated by alarmists.
Only time will tell who is right, and we’ll all be gone by then. In the meantime, there’s enough work to go around for everyone. For some, it’s bolstering programs like Birthright Israel, which have a proven record of strengthening participants’ emotional ties to Israel and Judaism. For others, it’s building a welcoming community, so that those disengaged Jews who are truly drifting away can find their way back.
Question and a few comments.
Was Belsky taking a swipe at Rabbi Reisman by signing?
Notice how Larry Gordon backs off from last week after being criticized on UOJ.
Why the heck is Larry giving Taliban Friedman the kid glove treatment when the lowlife lied to the rabbonim to get them to sign?
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=2197
This is only a newspaper, and the thoughts communicated in this space—most of the time—are only those of one person without any comprehensive expertise on many of the issues that are brought up for discussion here. While I frequently consult experts and experienced people in various fields on issues of the day, the objective of this column is to feed a thought process and generate discussion of issues on a civilized and intelligent level.
As thinking beings, there are lots of issues, items, and thoughts that pass through our heads on a daily basis. From the time that we are children in school, we are taught to make our best effort to wrap our minds around concepts so as to grasp and understand them. After we do our level-headed best, we are often asked to try a little harder, to reach a little higher, and we’re frequently told that, with a bit more effort, we could do better.
Last week, after weeks of discussion, 33 of the most prominent Torah scholars in the U.S. joined together and applied effective pressure to cancel a heavily promoted concert, which was to feature singing performer Lipa Schmeltzer at the WaMu (Washington Mutual) Theater at Madison Square Garden. The proclamation that was issued referred to the event as a forum that encourages “lightheadedness and immorality.”
Last week in this space, I wrote that I was able to understand and relate to the concerns of these leaders. As best as I can surmise from reading about it and talking about it with people intimately involved with the issue, it seems that their intentions were honorable and their hearts were in the right place. At the same time, people have been hurt on several levels. First and foremost, Mr. Schmeltzer, and no doubt his family as well, were terribly humiliated in a very public forum. Beyond that, there has been a considerable loss of money, but the producers have received assurances that those who banned the event will help defray some of the losses.
So intriguing was the story of the dynamics behind the cancellation of the event that the New York Times saw fit to run the story. I feel that the Times’s motivation for running the story was not necessarily to shed the most favorable light on how the Jewish community functions. The Times is used to a Jewish community that is left-wing and liberal, supporters of all kinds of different and even unusual lifestyles. The Times and many of its readers like to view the Orthodox (and especially the so-called ultra-Orthodox) lifestyle as something akin to Islamic fundamentalism. To this way of thinking, the Torah is something that belongs in a museum with ancient artifacts and should be viewed as outdated and irrelevant to modern Jewish life.
For our part, we know that the Torah is vibrant, very much alive, and relevant to everything we do each and every day. While we are taught and understand that Torah has applicability to every facet of life, very often it is difficult to reconcile this reality, particularly in the current times we live in. To that end, we look to our leaders to, well, lead the way.
Understanding how to successfully synthesize a Torah way of life with a modern-day lifestyle has confused many, and in particular our youth. They are bombarded with messages and distractions from the world around them that touts the fun and excitement that is offered up from so many mundane directions. No sooner does our community develop a model of those things they find so alluring and that seem kosher as well as safe to emulate than they get marginalized and ruled as prohibited by leading rabbis.
The activist behind the anti-Big Event, as you’ve read in newspapers and on the Internet, is Rabbi Usher Friedman. He’s been described as an activist who acts with zealotry and enthusiasm when he sets his mind to something. Let me tell you something about Usher Friedman. He’s an unusual man who has grown accustomed to undertaking what seems like impossible projects and bringing them to fulfillment. He founded and runs an organization in Brooklyn named Nechomas Yisroel. In brief, the organization encourages Jewish parents to take their children out of the New York City public schools and send them to study Torah in yeshivas in all our communities.
He gets these parents to do this by arranging for them to pay almost no tuition for their children in yeshiva. He raises the money to pay their tuition, and as a result of his years of efforts, the lives of thousands of kids and thousands of families have dramatically changed, and they have returned to Yiddishkeit. His organization is most active among Russian Jewish youth who come from families that escaped the religious vacuum of the former Soviet Union.
So obstacles do not intimidate Usher Friedman. In a conversation on Tuesday, he told me that he does not work alone, but in close tandem with “da’as Torah,” or scholars who have a vision of Jewish life that they see as compatible with Torah. Friedman apparently felt that from his perspective and world outlook, bringing Chassidim and other families with a yeshiva background to the big-city venue in the shadow of Madison Square Garden was too much of a step out on a limb for an otherwise mostly insulated frum community.
The only question is, according to some, did Rabbi Friedman and his associates misjudge the general needs of the k’lal and community? The most common refrain you hear these last few days is that Jewish kids have been deprived of a much-needed outlet, that they’ve been deprived of experiencing, if only for a few hours, the way in which a talented performer can sway them and make them feel spiritually elevated by the words of Tanach put to music. Rabbi Friedman did not see it that way, and neither did most of the rabbis who signed the proclamation halachically outlawing the show.
According to sources who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to comment but who are close to some of the rabbinic figures, the entire concert program was reviewed by Rabbi Yisroel Reisman of Brooklyn and approved. Still, some preferred not to sign off on granting permission for thousands of people to attend a function they may have considered frivolous or certainly non-essential.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961337.html
Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?
By Yossi Melman
The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of "national security."
But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran's nuclear program.
Risen included this information in his book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration," which was published in 2006. In the book, he discusses a number of ideas which he says were thought up jointly by CIA and Mossad operatives to sabotage Iran's nuclear capabilities.
One of these ideas was to build electromagnetic devices, smuggling them inside Iran to sabotage electricity lines leading to the country's central nuclear sites. According to the plan, the operation was supposed to cause a series of chain reactions which would damage extremely powerful short circuits in the electrical supply that would have led to failures of the super computers of Iran's nuclear sites.
According to the book, the Mossad planners proposed that they would be responsible for getting the electromagnetic facilities into Iran with the aid of their agents in Iran. However, a series of technical problems prevented the plan's execution.
Another of the book's important revelations, which made the administration's blood boil about James Risen, appeared in a chapter describing what was known as Operation Merlin, the code name for another CIA operation supposed to penetrate the heart of Iran's nuclear activity, collect information about it and eventually disrupt it.
Operation Merlin
The CIA counter proliferation department hired a Soviet nuclear engineer who had previously, in the 1990s, defected to the United States and revealed secrets from the Soviet Union's nuclear program. His speciality was in the field of what is called weaponization, the final stage of assembling a nuclear bomb.
The scientist was equipped with blueprints for assembling a nuclear bomb in which, without his knowledge, false drawings and information blueprints were planted about a nuclear warhead that was supposedly manufactured in the Soviet Union. The plan's details had been fabricated by CIA experts, and so while they appeared authentic, they had no engineering or technological value.
The intention was to fool the scientist and send him to make contact with the Iranians to whom he would offer his services and blueprints. The American plot was aimed at getting the Iranians to invest a great deal of effort in studying the plans and to attempt to assemble a faulty warhead. But when the time came, they would not have a nuclear bomb but rather a dud.
However, Operation Merlin, which was so creative and original, failed because of CIA bungled planning. The false information inserted into the blueprints were too obvious and too easily detected and the Russian engineer discovered them. As planned, he made contact with the Iranian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and handed over to them, also as planned, the blueprints.
But contrary to the CIA's intention, he added a letter to the blueprints in which he pointed out the mistakes. He did not do this with ill intent or out of a desire to disrupt the operation and harm his operators. On the contrary, he did so out of a deep sense of mission and in order to satisfy his American operators. He hoped that in this way he would simply increase the Iranians' trust in him and encourage them to make contact with him for the good, of course, of his American operators.
The result was disastrous. Not only did the CIA fail to prevent the Iranians in their efforts to enhance their nuclear program, this operation may also have made it possible for them to get their hands on a plan for assembling a nuclear warhead.
Freedom of the press
In Israel, military censorship would have prevented the publication of details such as these. But in the U.S., where the principle of freedom of the press is sacred and anchored in the constitution, there is no compulsory and binding censorship. There is, however, an expectation there that the press will show responsibility. This expectation has increased in recent years, particularly with the conservative Bush administration and in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Risen is not the first journalist to have been subpoenaed to give evidence before a grand jury and reveal his sources.
Wouldn't it be great if the foods we eat were safe, healthy, and free from pesticides?
There is a lot of confusion about what is safe to eat for our own health and longevity, as well as for our planet. There are no easy answers, but here are some basic guidelines for finding foods that will nurture you and the planet.
Say No to GMOs
Genetically Modified Foods (GMO) foods - including plants and animals - have been genetically manipulated to make the plant more productive, more resistant to pests, or contain higher amounts of a certain nutrient. When these foods are made to be more productive, it is no different than using growth hormones to make a chicken lay more eggs or a cow fatten up more rapidly.
In fact, it is similar to an athlete taking steroids. They promote extremely rapid growth but have side effects down the road. It is still too early to know what the effects of GMOs; it will take several generations to see if they have harmful effects on the human body. In the meantime, request your local supermarket carry natural and organic foods. Demand that their growers and distributors label foods that have been genetically modified.
Subtract Packaged Food's Additives
Avoid highly processed and refined foods - they're stripped of critical nutrients and then the nutrients are added back into the food after processing. Sulfites, nitrates, and MSG (monosodium glutamate) are the three most common additives used in packaged foods to preserve color, prevent spoilage, and enhance flavor.
Sulfites can give rise to severe allergic reactions like asthma. Nitrates combine with amines in foods to form nitrosamines, which can lead to neurological damage or cancer. Headaches are often associated with MSG.
Other additives, including artificial colors and flavors, have been found to cause cancer in animals and cause hyperactivity in children. Shopping the perimeters of your local supermarket is your best bet to avoid packaged foods and ensure a selection of healthy, simple whole foods.
Produce Pointers
Years of shopping in over-stocked supermarkets has disconnected us from our food and its origins. Much of the produce at your supermarket has been picked weeks - or even months - before it makes its way onto the shelf.
These items are preserved by nitrogen or other artificial means that make them appear fresh; however, these foods have a low nutritional value. Farm-fresh produce comes directly from the source to your table, leaving little time in between for nutrients to be lost.
So shop at local farms stands, buying fresh, in-season organic produce. By eating locally produced foods you are lessening global warming by not buying foods that have been transported hundreds or thousands of miles to get to your dinner table.
When produce isn't organic, soak it in a large pot of cold water for five minutes, add a tablespoon of sea salt and one tablespoon of vinegar, then rinse thoroughly. You can also peel the pesticides off the outer layer of fruits and vegetables; however, keep in mind that you will lose some of the valuable nutrients in the skin.
Produce with the highest amounts of pesticide residue levels include cucumbers, peaches, and zucchini - all of which can be peeled. Some produce is best eaten only when it is organic, such as celery, cherries, grapes, strawberries, and tomatoes.
Meat Management
Conventional meat, poultry, and dairy products contain sizable amounts of pesticides, hormones, and antibiotic drugs that are harmful to your health.
In addition, commercial feed for animals is full of growth-stimulating hormones, drugs, coloring agents, and pesticides. And consider this: nearly 140,000 tons of poultry are condemned annually as unfit to eat, usually due to cancer, and yet a substantial amount is processed into animal feed.
More than 40 percent of antibiotics produced in the United States are used as animal-feed additives. The ecological result, after the animals and humans urinate and defecate the antibiotics, is the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains that are very dangerous to our health. For your health and well-being, only buy organic and free-range animals whenever possible.
I hope you find safe, healthy foods that will nurture you in the many years to come. I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.
May you stay healthy, live long, and live happy!
-Dr. Mao
Are these Iranian Yidden or sand monkeys?
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/07/business/07toothpaste.php
Four U.S. executives charged over tainted toothpaste
By Louise Story and Geraldine Fabrikant
Friday, March 7, 2008
Criminal charges have been filed against four executives at two American companies who imported toothpaste from China that contained a poison used in some antifreeze, the city attorney in Los Angeles said in a statement.
The chemical, diethylene glycol, which is banned from certain ingestible items in the United States, was discovered in almost a million tubes of toothpaste in May and led to recalls in 34 countries.
The chemical, commonly used in antifreeze and as a solvent, can lead to kidney damage or liver disease.
The toothpaste ended up being distributed in the United States in prisons, luxury hotels, hospitals and discount stores. It was one of the earliest global alerts to broader manufacturing problems in China that allowed scores of tainted products, including toys, children's jewelry and pet food to end up on store shelves. The chemical in the toothpaste was used instead of the more expensive chemical glycerin.
The Los Angeles city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, working with the Food and Drug Administration, on Thursday filed a criminal complaint against two Los Angeles-based importers, Vernon Sales and Selective Imports.
At Selective, Frahad Nazarian, the president, and Yones Ghermezi, the vice president, were charged with two counts of receiving, selling and delivering the tainted products.
At Vernon Sales, Kamyab Toofer, the president, and Pejman Mossayi, the vice president, were charged with 14 counts of receiving, selling and delivering an adulterated drug.
The case is the first instance of criminal charges being filed in the United States against any party in the toothpaste scare
Employers Slash Most Jobs in 5 Years
By JEANNINE AVERSA,AP
Posted: 2008-03-07 17:19:35
Filed Under: Recession Watch
WASHINGTON (March 7) - America's employers slashed 63,000 jobs in February, the most in five years and the starkest sign yet that the U.S. is heading dangerously toward recession or is in one already.
By Peter Eisler,USA Today
Posted: 2008-03-07 15:12:08
Filed Under: Elections News, Hillary Clinton, Politics News
(March 7) -- Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Friday that "it's clear our economy has slowed" and tried to reassure an anxious public that the long-term outlook is good. "Losing a job is painful and I know Americans are concerned about our economy. So am I," Bush said during a hastily arranged White House appearance on the heels of a gloomy government economic report.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-mozilo8mar08,0,2465471.story
Countrywide Financial Corp. founder Angelo R. Mozilo defended his fortuitous stock trades before a congressional panel Friday, denying that he had manipulated his trading plan to unload about $141 million in stock options before the company collapsed.
"You had good timing," needled Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&refer=us&sid=apfiVHGlJs70
March 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve moved to add as much as $200 billion to the banking system over the next month to offset a deepening credit crisis that may have already pushed the U.S. economy into a recession.
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said March 5 that the credit markets won't recover until house prices stop falling. He said in a conference call organized by Deutsche Bank AG that home construction needs to decline to clear a surfeit of unsold properties and stabilize home prices.
``I don't think there's that much the Fed can do about this,'' Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, said in an interview in Paris. ``It's very limited what monetary policy can do in the wake of a once-in-many-decades housing-price crash.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&refer=us&sid=ao6ZIW0pGyEE
FBI Probes Countrywide in Possible Fraud
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko declined to comment
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/business/08econ.html?pagewanted=print
The jobs report was so bleak that many of the few remaining optimists on Wall Street threw in the towel and conceded that the United States was already in a recession.
“Godot has arrived,” wrote Edward Yardeni, who had been one of Wall Street’s most relentlessly upbeat forecasters. “I’ve been rooting for the muddling through scenario. However, the credit crisis continues to worsen and has become a full-blown credit crunch, which is depressing the real economy.”
The convulsions in the credit markets were spurred in part when Thornburg Mortgage, one of the nation’s biggest independent mortgage lenders, and Carlyle Capital, the offspring of one of the country’s largest private equity firms, failed to meet demands by lenders to post more cash or pledge other assets, also known as margin calls, on debts that had been backed by packages of mortgages.
Fed officials said Friday that they were not pumping money into the system in response to the poor jobs data but rather to the growing unwillingness or inability of investors to finance even routine business deals. Fed officials have long feared that anxiety about credit losses would create a “negative feedback loop,” or self-perpetuating spiral of rising unemployment, more home foreclosures and yet more credit losses.
“You have big credit losses that make it harder to get new credit, which means the economy starts to slow down and foreclosures go up,” said Nigel Gault, a senior economist at Global Insight, a forecasting firm. “Then you get even bigger credit losses, which makes banks even less willing to lend and you keep spiraling down.”
The Fed’s problem is that its main weapons against a downturn — lower interest rates and easier money — are ill suited to a crisis that stems from collapsing confidence about credit quality.
Even though the central bank sharply cut short-term interest rates twice in January and clearly signaled that it would cut them again on March 18, rates for home mortgages have risen and rates for many forms of commercial loans have jumped sharply.
Within minutes of the new report on employment, many in the dwindling pool of optimists changed their positions.
Mr. Yardeni was hardly alone. Just one minute after the Labor Department published its report at 8:30 a.m., JPMorgan Chase reversed its stance, declaring that a recession appeared to have begun. Lehman Brothers switched its position as well.
Since August, the Fed has sharply cut overnight rates five times, to 3 percent from 5.25 percent, and investors have been all but assuming that the central bank would reduce them by at least another half a percentage point, and perhaps three-quarters of a point, at the next meeting.
But by Thursday, Fed officials had become increasingly alarmed that rates for many kinds of lending were skyrocketing as investors demanded steep risk premiums that are normally associated with a serious economic recession.
What particularly alarmed Fed officials was that the margin calls on Carlyle Capital and Thornburg Mortgage had stemmed from plunging confidence about the value of highly conservative mortgages that were guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-sponsored mortgage companies.
If investors lose confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have become the only major remaining source of mortgage financing in recent months, Fed officials fear that home sales and housing prices could plunge further and foreclosures could climb even higher than they already have.
Home prices are falling in almost every part of the country, a phenomenon that Fed officials and many other experts until recently thought was all but impossible, and some analysts now predict that average home prices will ultimately fall 20 percent from their peak in 2006.
The effect is reducing household wealth. According to data this week from the Fed, net household wealth declined by $900 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
Indeed, the ratio of homeowners’ equity to the value of their homes fell below 50 percent for the first time in history last year, according to the Fed. Far more alarming, however, is that about 30 percent of all homes bought in 2005 and 2006 are “under water,” meaning they have mortgages that are higher than their resale value.
“We’re at the beginning of the bursting of the housing bubble,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal research organization in Washington. “The rate of foreclosures is just going to increase as time goes on.”
Eric S. Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, noted that the housing calamity thus far has occurred even though unemployment is still low, at just 4.8 percent. But a surge in joblessness would almost certainly lead to more foreclosures and more downward pressure on home prices.
“A downside risk that we do need to consider is whether a rising unemployment rate generated by slow growth will force some people to sell their houses, creating further downward pressure on housing prices,” Mr. Rosengren said in an interview.
China to crack down on singers after Bjork outburst
Reuters
China will tighten its controls over foreign singers and other performers after Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at a Shanghai concert last weekend, the Ministry of Culture said on Friday.
Bjork chanted the name of the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region after performing her song "Declare Independence," which she has used in the past to promote independence movements in other places such as Kosovo.
The performance "not only broke Chinese laws and regulations and hurt the feelings of Chinese people, but also went against the professional code of an artist," the ministry said in a statement quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.
The Rabbi Yehuda Kolko child sexual abuse lawsuit has hit the big time, and so has the man most responsible for bringing this creep to justice: (UOJ) Unorthodox Jew. The New York Magazine has a long feature on man-on-boy sex abuse in the haredi community.
Highlights: (nymag.com) - (Do the Orthodox Jews have a Catholic priest problem)
1. Rabbi Pinchas Scheinberg, a now senile 'gadol' living in Jerusalem, was brought in during an earlier crisis in the 1980s by Kolko's backers to scare off the accusers and their families. Scheinberg allegedly told the families that, if Rabbi Kolko did not penetrate your son, it is not abuse according to the Torah, and pulicly exposing Rabbi Kolko violates the laws of lashon hara, and you must not do it.
2. Abuse is so widespread that Hella Winston, author of the Unchosen, met dozens of haredi men who were abused or who knew someone who was.
3. Gedolim, including Rabbi Scheinberg, have allegedly been covering up this abuse for years.
4. Both Agudath Yisroel and Torah U'Mesora are alleged to be part of the coverup.
5. The Brooklyn Attorney General defers to local beit dins, and fails to prosecute haredi abusers.
6.The beit dins themselves are corrupt.
7. Chabad advocates for sexual abuse victims have been prevented from making presentations in Chabad yeshivot.
8. A Chabad man-on-boy abuse victim is quoted in the article.
9. The laws of mesira (informing), lashon hara (talebearing) and hillul Hashem (desecration of God's name) are frequently cited by rabbis, including gedolim, to silence accusers and victims.
10. The community does not protect its children from predatory rabbis.
I ask readers in Jerusalem to do the right thing. Go to Rabbi Scheinberg's yeshiva in Mattersdorf and demand an answer. Anything less than a complete apology, spit in the senile bastard's face.
Kol HaKavod to (UOJ) UnOrthodoxJew for risking everything to bring down these creeps. You have saved lives.
Please read the entire article (nymag.com) before posting any comments. Thank you.
What about defenseless little boys at 555 Ocean Pkwy, you dumb putz?
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=72471&v=7603405021
"Just as there is a special place in hell for perpetrators of attacks on men women and children doing nothing but going about their daily lives, there is a special section there reserved for attackers of young men who were sitting and studying Torah," said the director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran.
http://www.nysun.com/article/72563
Boog will have a field day when he sees me posing for the cameras with this convicted putz thief. I just figured the guy couldn't be so bad if he lived in Kew Gardens Hills.
A fellow commenting on blogs who calls himself Harry Miller and says he is in his 60s claims that boys were being molested in the old Chaim Berlin in Brownsville / East New York.
Is this true?
The raw sewage flowing through the kill floor of Rubashkin's shchite is no big deal. Adderabbe, it was a mayle that we learned from Shmeckel Pinter of how to add value to your real estate investments.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100303/met_13691326.shtml
Apartments shut down, residents forced to leave
Health, electrical violations cited
By Tia Mitchell
Times-Union staff writer
About 70 Jacksonville families were left homeless yesterday after their apartment complex was condemned by authorities, who said the grounds were soaked with raw sewage and children were playing near exposed electrical wires.
Many of the displaced residents of Wollitz Gardens Apartments in Northwest Jacksonville say they were living in a blighted property with neglectful and unresponsive managers. But now they are not sure where they will go and feel gypped because they paid rent on Wednesday.
The city sued the prior owner of the complex, New York investor Samuel Pinter, in January 2002 claiming that untreated sewage was flowing onto the apartment grounds. A judge found there was evidence of "repeated and chronic problems" with the lift station, which created a health hazard.
And the judge ordered Pinter to hire someone to haul the apartments' wastewater to a licensed treatment plant until he had installed at least two working pumps.
By late afternoon yesterday, Wollitz Gardens was in chaos. Parents tried to corral their children while asking questions of authorities who had come to offer help. Rented moving trucks and small cars were used to haul items out. Some people simply threw their furniture away.
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/courts/ad2/calendar/webcal/motions/2008/M65534.pdf
Hey, did you guys know that even Independence Bank sued the Pinters?
Shmelka tried to fight the ruling but finally conceded and withdrew the appeal.
http://dockets.justia.com/search?q=Olympia+Mortgage+Corporation
Looks like Fannie Mae is going after Pinter with separate actions in every state he did business in.
One of the shutfim who has thus far escaped scrutiny in Pinter's mortgage fraud is Boaz Smolarchik of Briarwood, Queens who is named in a federal suit.
Young Israel of Briarwood by the way is one of the shuls where child molester Ephraim Bryks gives shiurim.
To be exact, Smolarchik is the owner of defendant "Galit Network LLC" that conspired with Pinter to do cosmetic repairs on homes they were fraudulently inflating the appraisals of.
http://www.websupp.org/data/EDNY/1:04-cv-00875-213-EDNY.pdf
In the first 29 pages of this filing, it's shown that Pinter's partner Yaron Hershco was using various front companies of part of the mass scale mortgage fraud.
Page 30 details how Pinter tried to plead poverty that he doesn't have the money to pay for providing Olympia's documents. The judge just laughed at him and ordered him to cough them up.
And who's this Dovid Unger that works for Pinter?
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:LOK4cN5grvoJ:junior.britannica.com/eb/topic-427989/Olympias+%22olympia+mortgage%22+fraud&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=44&gl=us
Pinter's Olympia Mortgage is an entry in our online edition considering the extent of his fraud.
Article on Pinter a few months ago in the Law Journal Newsletter.
http://www.lawjournalnewsletters.com/issues/ljn_nyrelaw/22_1/news/149607-1.html
November 2007
Race Discrimination and Mortgage Fraud
By Stewart E. Sterk
The crisis in the subprime mortgage markets has brought to light many allegations of predatory practices by mortgage lenders and other participants in the housing industry. In Barkley v. Olympia Mortgage Co., Judge Raymond Dearie of the Eastern District approved a strategy that might permit some victims of the alleged fraud to obtain a federal forum, with the possibility of treble damages and attorneys fees: allege (and prove) that the predatory practices constituted a form of racial discrimination.
Subscribers: click here for the full story
Non-Subscribers: click here to subscribe
Pay per view ($15.00)
Guess Who Was Spotted in Brooklyn Yesterday?
You know who. A reliable source tells me it was…
…the instigator of the ban against Lipa Schmeltzer and Jewish music concerts Rabbi Avrohom Schorr, who told Hella Winston of the Jewish Week Friday, February 29, 2008 that he was:
“not available to answer questions over the phone.” When asked if he would answer questions in person, Schorr said that he was going out of town for “a couple of weeks.”
Rabbi Avrohom Schorr – coward, bully. You can now add liar to that list, as well.
http://www.ncua.gov/ncuaboard/board_appeals/appeals/BD-03-06.pdf
The Federal agency known as the NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION discovered that the Pinters were using one of their front companies, Midwood Credit Union, to launder money for Olympia.
They have since moved to seize the company and liquidate it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshiva_Torah_Temimah
Yeshiva Torah Temimah is a Haredi yeshiva with branches in Brooklyn, New York and Lakewood, New Jersey that was founded by Rabbi Lipa Margulies.
A May 2006 article in New York magazine claimed that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a teacher at the school for 30 years, had been a pedophile.[1] A $20 million civil case was filed against the yeshiva and Rabbi Kolko, alleging that the yeshiva had concealed the Rabbi's actions and had intimidated victims into not reporting the incidents.[2]
[edit]
Anyone care to expand my profile so that the public can learn of my gevaldig attributes?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipa_Margulies
Rabbi Lipa Margulies is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Temimah
This biographical article about a person notable in connection with Judaism is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it
Was Fruchthandler still a major shareholder in Independence when they were recently bought by Sovereign Bank for $42 a share?
Friedman came to R' Henoch Leibowitz shlita but he refused to sign.
R' Yisroel Reisman is actually Av Beis Din of the Agudah's little heard of beis din. This isn't the first time he has poskened al pi halacha to be overridden by the Taliban elements.
There were some nutjob baal habatim in Passaic who wanted to throw out Rabbi Sacks, the rov of the local Agudah shul, because he was too modern for them. They started bashmutzing him that he's a YU kind of guy who gives a shiur to women on Shavuos. The Agudah beis din led by Rav Reisman poskened Sacks did nothing wrong, certainly not enough to have him removed from his shteller. The Taliban element ignored the psak and tried back door channels with Agudah Fresser executives to get the rov kicked out.
Nosson Scherman has no shame if he doesn't recall Pinter's books and let go his relatives on the Mesorah payroll who participated in the frauds.
Hey Scherman, take your turn behind Belsky to pee on a fire pump.
http://haazinu.org/images/newsletter.pdf
Maybe I should change my last name?
There was a "Rabbi Pinter" who was director of the Breuer's day camp in 1968 and worked for the yeshiva before that. Was it putz Leib?
Post a Comment