From Shmarya: D.A. LIES TO KOLKO VICTIMS, THROWS CASE IN KOLKO'S FAVOR!
http://tinyurl.com/56pkua
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
143 comments:
Amazing how far and deep your reach has proven. What vindication! Who imagined blogging would do so much when we began?
UOJ can and will "reach far and deep". Wait to see what he will do to Fatso Margo and Doctor Death Mondrowitz within the next 2 months. BTW, where is the Colmo the Homo saga up to?
Hey UOJ! U iz on a (GEBROKTS) roll these dayz! Keep 'em up.
According to Shmarya at FailedMessiah he will serve no jail time. Is this a success? Might depend on whose perspective.
THE SYSTEM WORKS!
3 years probation and some counselling....at least he admitted guilt
by the way there will be some cheap realestate available on ocean parkway shortly..what does yanky applesauce say now?
His victims are jailed for life, & he walks scott free-Bais-Din & the Court system are all the same. It sure reflects on society-It's not only the fish that stinks or the fruit that's rotten
It is not the result we hoped for, but perhaps the best one to be had under the circumstances. The statute of limitations issue was a tough nut to crack. Victims and their families have a guilty plea, and I truly hope they can take some comfort from that. This plea opens the door to civil lawsuits. Think of it, who can be sued...Margo, YTT, Camp Agudah, The Agudah, various Rabbis or administrators of YTT and camps that knew or should have known and did nothing...the list goes on.
Make no mistake...without UOJ, without the internet, this never would have happened. Thank you UOJ.
Stop Kvetching-
he wasnt guilty - the system is VERY hard on sex offenders- give it up - he is innocent- ask him mechilla- do u think the DA and all the money individuals spent was to get him to go to counceling? they thought he wasguilty but hes innocent- ask mechila and move on
WHAT THE &%$#@
Without R' David Framowitz this would have never happened!
good for you-UOJ
I hope you are not swayed by the idiots and detracters who do not realize what a wonderful chessed you accomplished for the victims
the zeidy's neshama should have an aliya. Good Yom Tov
This world is filled with monsters like Kolko. There is a sea of abusers just like him. There is no punishment that we can hand out to him that will adequately punish him. There is no amount of money that we can pay his survivors that will adequately compenstate them or their families for what they have gone through. No one judge, no one blog, no one person and no one website will rid our world of this evil.
So why are we here? What have we accomplished?
All we can do is fight evil one day at a time. That is our job in this world ... to stand and fight. That is what Hashem wants of us. To do good and fight evil and corruption. We will expose each and every abuser in our community. We will expose those who protect them. We will expose those who enable them. We will dismantle their institutions, we will empty their pockets, remove their resources, we will limit their influence and ultimately like all despots they will fall. We will shine our light on them and take away the anonymity that allows them to thrive. Their time of protection in our community is at an end. Let them know their time is at an end. We stand for Torah. We stand for the true values that they pervert. They only cloak themselves in a false righteousness.
We will protect the vulbnerable that our enemies prey on.
Every small battle we fight saves lives.
Every Kolko we expose removes a dnger from many children.
And we have only begun.
Fight on!
I agree UOJ, without David Framowitz this would not have happened...so both of you were indispensible.
So YW doesn't think this is news. They didn't think Isaac Hersh was news either. Mark Levine would call YW part of the "drive by media." I wholeheartedly agree.
Anonymous 4:34.
There are many of us out there with first hand knowledge of "hot Kolko".
I need some of what you are smoking....
Free speech entitles anyone to say what they want to. I have a right to publish the comments that will not cause any more emotional harm to scores, and perhaps hundreds of "alleged" victims - over three generations. KOLKO IS A MONSTER! WILL ALWAYS BE A MONSTER AND NO PLEA-BARGAIN WILL EVER CHANGE THE FACTS!
Too bad the Judge didn't give Koko a trip up to Rikers where the boyz n' hood would've given him a nice Louima massage sans vaselina.
Give him a taste of his medicine.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/kaj-october-letter.html?showComment=1208208480000#c3300757118735172980
Yekka yenta said...
So, Reb Yudel, will you be the first to spill the beans on the hungry rabbis of Washington Heights are they going back to the treifeniaks of Postville or trying their luck with Solomon's meats or some other outfit.... their paychecks are coming to an end this week and they still need a parnassah and the 50 old timers on social security in the Heights can't possibly pay them.
I am somewhat troubled by what appears to be the sweetheart deal that defendant Kolko received. However, we do not know if the victims who, I presume, testified in the grand jury (a secret proceeding), were willing to go forward at a public trial. Often in sex crimes cases, the DA accepts a plea arrangement to spare the victims the ordeal of testifying at a trial and facing cross-examination by a defendant's lawyer. That cross-examination can be brutal and is, in some senses, a revictimization of the crime's innocent victim.
i believe there is a need for a site for what we should call truth without the blinders
id like to set that up
please let me know how one can do it
UOJ is owed a debt of gratitude that is incalculable. May Hashem bless your efforts in cleaning up obviously corrupt rabbinic leadership.
Brooklyn Rabbi Sentenced in Sex Abuse Case
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Brooklyn Rabbi pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn prosecutor said.
Rabbi Joel Kolko has been sentenced to three years probation and will enroll in counseling.
Kolko had been charged with two counts of sex abuse in the first degree, one count each of sex abuse in the second and third degrees, one count each of harassment in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child.
The charges were made in connection with incidents that accusers said happened between the early 80s and 2006. The Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah, where Kolko taught, was also accused of covering up the incidents of abuse and threatening parents who tried to report them.
The Yeshiva denied those claims.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207486211780&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing Ben-Hur and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.
The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207486208263&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Although not a Jew himself, the American actor Charlton Heston, who died Saturday night at 84, certainly had a tendency to portray Jewish characters. He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Ben-Hur in the 1959 classic of the same name, and most famously portrayed the tablet-waving Moses of The Ten Commandments (1956).
Such was Heston's association with biblical-era characters that one of his later works, Charlton Heston Presents the Bible, had him reading from the holy text in locations across Israel, including Jerusalem, Jericho, the Negev and Lake Kinneret.
In what could have been Heston's most audacious Jewish role, the FBI recruited the actor amid the 1993 Waco, Texas, standoff involving David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. Heston was to have played the Voice of God to facilitate negotiations with Koresh, however the plan was never used.
In a 2002 piece for The National Review, Jewish actor Richard Dreyfuss lamented that "millions of Jewish kids grew up with the confusion that A) Charlton Heston was Moses and B) Charlton Heston was not Jewish."
I've been reading about Kolko now for many months and just remembered the abuse I used to get back in Camp Agudah, when I lived in the 'Colonial' in the summer of '77 at the hands of an animal named Ehrenthal (who thought he was hot stuff because his father was a 'marshal' in Buda Pest (ie Boro Park) and a modern guy named Steinmetz. It wasn't sexual but it was unrelenting and drove me to tears. When I approached the rabbi (a guy with a long white beard) about it, he basically laughed it off. Anyone remember his name or knows what happened to Ehrenthal the mamzer?
http://www.balita.com/xshell.php?id=2030
LOS ANGELES—It was as if the judge had already made up his mind even before the sentencing began. At the March 24 judgment day of who was probably the most controversial immigration lawyer in California, Phillip D. Abramowitz was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in spite of “cooperating” with authorities, which saw the eventual downfall of one of the largest immigration law firms on the west coast.
Though U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson gave Abramowitz and his lawyers the time to state their case who argued for some community time instead of a full jail sentence, Abramowitz received all 21 months of prison term and would spend another three months in home detention with electronic monitoring. He was also ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.
Before handing down the sentence, which was a plea bargain, Anderson admonished Abramowitz in a manner that he would serve as an example for other lawyers who may be thinking of committing a crime. All other lawyers “will now have to think twice,” Anderson said.
Addressing everyone in the court, Anderson said, “I don’t understand why he (Abramowitz) stands before me. He has an education; he owned his own law firm; who is more than capable of earning a decent way of living; someone whose junior lawyers and paralegals looked up to. This is a case where everyone expresses shock and surprise.”
Aside from the fines, more than $1 million in various bank accounts have also been seized from Abramowitz.
In the courtroom were Abramowitz family—wife, son and daughter—as well as a rabbi from his synagogue, and staffers from the law firm he used to own as he was ordered to divest all his interests in the firm, as well as not to operate any professional corporations. Outside the courtroom, all the people gave Abramowitz a hug, while the wife, daughter and son cried. When asked for his comment, Abramowitz told BALITA that “He (Judge Anderson) didn’t listen to me.”
If the case went to trial, according to prosecutors, Abramowitz would’ve faced some 50 counts of conspiracy to commit fraud.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080413/fugitive_rabbi_/20080413?hub=World
Meanwhile, an international warrant has been issued for Israeli rabbi Elior Chen, who is believed to be hiding within the Jewish community in Toronto or Montreal.
However, sources have told CTV News that Chen may travel to another country that doesn't have an extradition treaty with Israel.
Meanwhile, the hunt is on for Chen, a man whose followers believe has supernatural powers and who refer to him as "His Honour the King of the Messiah." He is believed to have fled Israel with a friend who has relatives in Canada.
The international warrant allows Canadian authorities to take him into custody if he is discovered here.
Chen's lawyer said Sunday that it would be poor advice to tell his client to surrender, despite the warrant in his name.
"Should Elior Chen turn himself in? No, it's the last thing he should do," Ariel Atari told CTV News in Jerusalem. "Otherwise he will be tried here by the public."
Chen's arrest (aka Hen) is imminent!
soldier reporting for duty.
just last week i suggested ( really convince) to a few "yeshiva" guys to read the blog. most were open-minded, one guy, get this, still didnt beleive kolko did it. i must have texted him a thousand times when the big news broke. im still smiling. im just doing my part. one at a time.
long live the truth. long live the jews!
Kol hakavod uoj and the many victims of this sick old man kolko,and his enabler gruba lipa.
the reprecussions of his guilty plea have yet to be seen, alas, have no doubt or fear for they will surely reverberate throughout chareidi jewry in the coming weeks & month, lets not forget mondrowitz's hearing on his appeal is coming up right after pesach, thanks to uoj the cracks in the wall have been made and is ever so slowly expanding, the total collapse of the corrupt rabbonim and their institutions is upon us.
Yasher koach,
http://www.rcmp.ca/about/organi_e.htm
The Mounties always get our man (as long as UOJ tells us where the putz is hiding)
http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/en/about_us/role_of_csis.asp
As peers of the CIA, it's poshut embarrassing that UOJ has better intel than we do. We did figure though that if Chen doesn't make a break for Arizona to join Naomi Klass Mauer at Pesach Fressers with the Chevrah, that he would hook up with Michael Schick at his Pesach resort in the Canadian Rockies.
UOJ, you've been alleging and predicting criminal charges against Margolis. Could it not be that Kolko spilled the beans on Margo in a bargain for a light sentence? The Jewish Week article about hush money, would suggest that Kolko had info to sell, as well as the most unanswered question of this whole sordid affair: Why didn't Margo, a shrewd businessman, get rid of Kolko years ago just to avoid this mess? Were they secret lovers? Probaby not. Is Margo stupid enough to believe in his innocence, and L'shem Shamayim enough to fight for him at the risk of his own yeshivah and personal wealth? Hardly. But if Kolko had the dirt on him, that would answer this mystery and would also explain why the D.A. was so nice to Kolko. I'm waiting for some kind of criminal charges on Margo. What do you say, UOJ?
Secondly, am I the only one who hopes that the victims do not accept a settlement, but make this go to trial? They will surely win a lot of money and make sure the shmutz gets out in the public once and for all. Wouldn't that be nice?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649985277&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Some haredi commentators have argued that the media has not put enough stress on the fringe nature of these groups, or on the fact that most of their adherents were ba'alei tshuva (newly religious). They have also claimed, as in the past, that such abuse is no more common - or is even less so -- than among the secular public, yet the media never specifically talk of "secular families" when reporting on such cases.
Those are legitimate points. But while it's certainly debatable to argue that mainstream haredi ideology is not in any way relevant when domestic abuse takes place in such households, certain sociological aspects of the community - in particular, its increasing poverty and the overcrowding in homes - could be said to be a contributing factor.
But those are issues for another column. One aspect definitely relevant to media coverage, though, is the perceived reluctance within the haredi community to openly discuss and deal with these issues.
As Tali Farkash, the Ynet columnist born and raised in the haredi community, wrote this week: "The famous conspiracy of silence among the haredi population, which the welfare services and police are dealing with, is a mark of disgrace to the entire sector. Wanting to maintain an image of morality at any cost, they fall into the hole dug by negative elements in the name of Torah, in the name of righteousness. An intensive brainwash has turned psychologists into 'religion's enemies,' social workers into those 'causing people to leave religion' and the police into the messenger of the foreign regime. In this glass house, monsters grow and thrive among us."
Farkash also this week went on Channel 2's media review program Tik Tikshoret (Communications File) to specifically accuse the haredi media of failing to report or comment on such cases, thus reinforcing this "conspiracy of silence."
This certainly seems to have been true of the Beit Shemesh case, which apparently went on for years until one of the family's neighbors alerted the authorities and later told a journalist he knew that in doing so he was going against the mores of the community.
Farkash did acknowledge that there has been some progress in this matter in recent years, but not enough. It seems to me the haredim cannot have it both ways - arguing on one hand that behavior like this is exceptional in their environment, usually committed by someone not "really haredi," yet still showing reluctance to expose crimes being committed right in their own backyard in order to stop (or prevent) them.
This is an issue on which the haredi media should be taking a lead among their public - as has been the case with the secular media - and not holding it back by reinforcing negative patterns of behavior.
Perhaps I'm being a bit naïve about a press which still won't publish any images of women, no matter how modest - even children - but I hope this isn't entirely the case, especially in the future.
One last point: Whenever such charges are made, haredi commentators are often too quick to shoot back that it's not only such abuse - or a media reluctance to deal with it when it involves certain individuals - that's not unique to their sector.
Well, that's true to some degree. A notable example in Israeli secular society was the exploitative behavior of leftist icon Dahn Ben-Amotz, which was only revealed (by Amnon Danker) after his death.
There have also been several cases involving among non-haredi and Orthodox religious figures in the US in recent years. I myself pleaded guilty in these very pages two years ago to having failed as an editor in not having more vigorously followed up on rumors that reached me about the sexual misbehavior of the now-disgraced "New Age rabbi" Mordechai Gafni. All that only argues for more coverage of these issues, both within and without the haredi community, as long as it is done in a responsible manner - one that avoids salacious scandal-mongering, properly respects the privacy of the victims, and puts such actions in the proper sociological context when necessary.
The stories told these last few weeks out of Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh have been truly stomach-turning. The proper response, though, is not to avert our eyes, but openly to address them in a manner that will only encourage those who learn about such incidents in the future to make sure the proper authorities are notified.
ON ANOTHER very related matter: Just six weeks ago, I wrote a column summing up the media's role in the sex scandal of former president Moshe Katsav, "as it hopefully draws to a close."
Oy vey iz mir - woe is me - or all of us, as is in the case here. Alas, I'm afraid the shower of sleaze this affair has already dredged up, every sordid detail reported in the press and broadcast on the evening news, will soon turn into a deluge. This will surely be so if this case goes to trial, and Katsav's alleged victims testify in court expounding on some of the accusations against him already aired by the media.
That's at least one reason to regret that the ex-president decided this week to turn down the plea bargain deal offered him by the State Attorney's Office.
So be it. But perhaps, because I now have two daughters old enough to want to watch the evening news - though not to understand everything on it - I hope the anchors will at least do us the courtesy of giving us the obligatory: "Some of the details in the following story may not be appropriate for children," before they start providing us with X-rated accounts of what allegedly went on in Katsav's offices in the Tourism Ministry and Beit Hanassi.
Calev@jpost.com
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207650002794&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Chen & the gang were torturing the Klass kids in Wolfson Towers where I used to live.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3531026,00.html
Lamentably, however, as is happening with the tragic Kolko case in the United States, some in Israel have politicized this horrific case and used it to bash the haredi community as a whole. Some have claimed, falsely, in my opinion, that abuse is commonplace within the haredi community and for appearance’s sake is just brushed under the carpet.
Of course there are psychopathic people in every society, but anecdotal evidence and my experience—having lived among both groups of people—tells me that family and domestic problems are far less common in Orthodox and haredi communities.
Rabbi Levi Brackman (www.levibrackman.com) is executive director of Judaism in the Foothills (www.jitf.org).
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE
AP Business Writer
The onslaught of homes facing foreclosures has yet to ebb, a research report showed Tuesday, with bank repossessions skyrocketing last month as more troubled homeowners mailed in their keys and walked away.
And the worst isn't over: the wave of adjustable-rate loans resetting to higher rates will crest in May and June. And that's expected to push more homeowners into default and foreclosure in the third and fourth quarters of this year, according to RealtyTrac Inc. of Irvine, Calif.
"Once we're through that batch of loans, the worst will have been worked through the system," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing.
The number of U.S. homes receiving at least one foreclosure filing jumped 57 percent in March to 234,685, compared with 149,150 properties a year earlier. Filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.
The overall foreclosure rate is 5 percent higher than in February. March marked the 27th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in national foreclosure filings.
That meant one in every 538 households received a filing during the month. Forty-four percent were households that slipped into default for the first time and more than a fifth were homes banks took back.
Lenders took possession of homes at a sharply higher rate, up 129 percent over last year, as more homeowners relinquished their homes, said Sharga. Banks repossessed 51,393 properties nationwide, many of them without a public foreclosure auction.
"In a lot of cases, banks worked something out with the owner in advance and took back the keys and deed. For a homeowner, it's not as embarrassing and it's a little less of a blemish on their credit record compared to a foreclosure," Sharga said.
He estimates between 750,000 and 1 million bank-owned properties will hit the market this year, or about a quarter of the homes up for sale. In some areas, these properties will continue to slow sales and depress prices further.
Declining home prices and stricter lending requirements have exacerbated the foreclosure environment. Homeowners stuck in unmanageable mortgages aren't able to sell their homes or refinance into cheaper loans before their mortgage payments reset higher.
Nevada clocked in the worst foreclosure rate for the 15th straight month. Last month, one in every 139 households received a foreclosure-related notice, nearly four times the national rate. The number of properties with a filing increased 24 percent over February and 62 percent over the previous March.
California had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the country. One in every 204 California households received a foreclosure-related notice. The state had 64,711 properties facing foreclosure, the most of any state and more than double last year's total.
In Florida, 30,254 homes reported at least one filing, down nearly 7 percent from February, but up 112 percent from the year before.
Rounding out the states with the highest foreclosure rates were Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts and Maryland.
This is today's daily news. UOJ what happened here? You can be sure that the kolko nuts are going to have a field day with this
Rabbi avoids jail on molest rap
Tuesday, April 15th 2008, 4:00 AM
A rabbi charged with molesting boys at a Midwood, Brooklyn, yeshiva took a plea deal on Monday that will spare him any jail time after the case fell apart for prosecutors.
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 62, who still faces five lawsuits, pleaded to misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child in exchange for three years' probation.
The case unraveled after prosecutors found that an adult accuser had been charged with making up unrelated accusations against others, a law enforcement source said.
The price of oil hit a new high yesterday and diesel went up over 15% last month which means Rubashkin will be raising his prices again.
A new poll says a growing majority of Americans won't be purchasing a house anytime soon, which is just the latest sign of increasing pessimism about the nation's housing crisis. In fact, more than a quarter of homeowners are worried their homes will lose value over the next two years, and one in seven mortgage holders fear they won't be able to make their monthly payments on time over the next six months.
MINNEAPOLIS (April 12) - At least 23 people in 14 states have been sickened by the same strain of salmonella found in two breakfast cereals recalled by Malt-O-Meal, the federal Food and Drug Administration said Saturday.
The FDA said the recalled products were distributed nationally under the Malt-O-Meal brand name, as well as private labels including Acme, America's Choice, Food Club, Giant, Hannaford, Jewel, Laura Lynn, Pathmark, Shaw's, ShopRite, Tops and Weis Quality. The cereal bags have "best if used by" dates from April 8, 2008 (coded as APR0808), through March 18, 2009 (coded as MAR1809).
Here is Torah Temimah's replacement for Koko:
___________________________________
By The Associated Press
4/15/08
"Tehran's police chief, who was in charge of fighting vice, has been taken to jail and his case is currently under investigation, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary said Tuesday.
But the spokesman, Ali Reza Jamshidi, refused to elaborate further about the case which has caught wide public attention in Iran, saying it is now in the legal stage.
Jamshidi said he was not authorized to provide more information.
Advertisement
Local media have reported that the police chief, Gen. Reza Zarei, was taken to jail after he was caught last month with six nude women by a police raid on an underground local brothel. He was also forced to resign. Local Web sites have also extensively reported the case in recent weeks.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, have also confirmed the reported arrest circumstances.
Prostitution is illegal in Iran and even talking about sex is frowned upon by hard-line clerics ruling Iran. The order to raid the alleged brothel was reportedly given directly by Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah MahmoudHashemi Shahroudi.
Zarei was in charge of a program to clean cities from corruption and in recent months had reported arrests of young men and women for illicit relationship or not respecting the Islamic dress code.
State media in recent weeks reported Zarei's replacement but made no mention of his arrest or the reasons that led to his detention since such issues are considered a taboo in Iran.
Iran's strict Islamic rules allow little socializing between the sexes, and young Iranians have been jailed and flogged for dancing together at birthday parties.
For years, the hard-line clergy that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution painted a rosy picture of the Iranian society, never admitting to vices such as prostitution, which under Iranian law could be punishable by death.
But in the past decade, authorities have acknowledged that prostitution was a fact and is even spreading in Iran. Prostitutes are becoming more and more visible on the streets, mainly due to economic hardships.
The rise in prostitution has led to suggestions that brothels be legalized and monitored. Some Iranians say brothels could be run according to Islamic rules, presumably under a Shiite Muslim tradition in which men and women are allowed to have temporary marriages - sometimes less than 24 hours.
Most clerics, though, scoff at the idea that sex outside marriage can ever be
condoned by Islam. After the 1979 revolution, clerics destroyed brothels as un-Islamic and corrupting."
Pope: 'Ashamed' of clergy abuse scandal By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press Writer
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday he was "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church and will work to make sure pedophiles don't become priests.
Benedict was answering questions submitted in advance by reporters aboard a special Alitalia airliner as he was flying from Rome to Washington to begin his first papal pilgrimage to the United States.
"It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen," Benedict said. "It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission ... to these children."
"I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future," the pope said.
Benedict pledged that pedophiles would not be priests in the Roman Catholic church.
"We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry," Benedict said in English. "It is more important to have good priests than many priests. We will do everything possible to heal this wound."
Benedict's pilgrimage was the first trip by a pontiff to the United States since the scandal involving priests sexually abusing young people rocked U.S. dioceses and triggered lawsuits that have cost the Church hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements.
Pedophilia is "absolutely incompatible" with the priesthood," Benedict said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--inthenews-sheldon0410apr10,0,5317777.story
Meet Shelly Silver: One of the three most powerful men in New York state politics; lower Manhattan rainmaker, trial lawyer, and perhaps the most inscrutable and criticized member of a state Legislature that is easy to hate.
He's the quintessential Manhattan trial lawyer in pinstripes; yet he spends summers in his home in the Catskill Mountains, where he's an avid golfer.
At 64, he's small and bookish; yet he was a basketball star at Yeshiva University and holds New York Rangers season tickets.
He's an orthodox Jew, a modern Tevia-like character, who won't violate the Sabbath even for pressing state business, but who was also questioned in an investigation of lobbyists for his Las Vegas casino trip.
He deals in billions of dollars in the state budget, and was singled out Wednesday by Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education for being the key to a record increase in school aid approved Wednesday. "I would call him a master negotiator," Easton said.
Silver has also personally directed tens of millions of dollars in pork-barrel spending to the district he represented since 1976, and _ rumor has it _ represents several bold face names in a lucrative law practice he scrupulously keeps secret under attorney-client protections.
Yet he resoles the toes and heels of his shoes to make them last, and keeps a beat-up pair for wet weather in the trunk of the older model sedan he drives himself.
Perhaps his most notable physical feature: Silver has the thickest of skins, seeming to the point of uncaring that he's routinely seen as an obstructionist. While he has many allies, few call him a close friend.
Unlike most political leaders who form deep alliances, Silver's position on issues is usually hard to predict and his the last perspective known. He's blocked the Senate's Republican majority repeatedly and, days later, sided with GOP senators to override hundreds of vetoes by former Republican Gov. George Pataki. Silver has also rebuked former Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer, most notably in choosing a new comptroller.
Polls show few New Yorkers know Silver, even though he has led the Assembly since 1994 and was the driving force behind such major initiatives as universal pre-Kindergarten, tax-break zones for employers, the revival of lower Manhattan after Sept. 11, and a nanotech research center in Albany. But polls also show that most of those who do know him, don't like him.
"I certainly wouldn't consider him a friend, and he wouldn't consider me one, but I've known him since the mid-'80s," said Steven Greenberg, a former spokesman for Democrats. He respects Silver as smart and savvy.
Silver's opponents blame him for elimination of a commuter tax that could have brought the city $5 billion and counting since 1999. He's also blamed for the loss of the 2012 Olympics by opposing a huge development plan for Manhattan's west side that would have included a stadium for the New York Jets.
The New York Daily News on Wednesday derisively called this graveyard of opportunity "Shell's Kitchen."
Silver's opposite number, Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno from upstate, has long had a tolerate-hate relationship with the Manhattanite. In thorny legislative and budget negotiations, Bruno says Silver just crosses his arms, sits back, and waits. And waits.
Usually, it works.
"He's got great timing," said Democratic Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester. "He sits and waits for things to come to him. Most people don't have that kind of patience."
As part of its efforts to educate the wider Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender community about its Equality Ride mission, Soulforce NYC will hold a benefit concert and party next Wednesday, April 16. The evening's headliner will be Ari Gold, the sexy R&B recording artist, whose own life has been, in part, a story of reconciling his gay identity with a youthful education in an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva.
http://www.5tjt.com/news/images/news-images/tiferes_matzah.jpg
Free box of matzah for anyone who predicted Kolko would beat a prison rap.
This is also the official matzah of Chevrah Chazirim.
http://www.jewishpress.com/displaycontent_new.cfm?contentid=31206&contentname=My%20Machberes§ionid=20&mode=a&recnum=0
Zalmi Teitelbaum apologized that this spread is nothing compared to Chevrah Chazirim.
http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?contentid=31235&mode=a§ionid=1&contentname=Rabbi_Marvin_Hier%3A_Be_Proud%2C_And_Alert&recnum=1
I hear UOJ cancelled his Newsweek subscription after they called me the most influential rabbi in America.
UOJ,
Kudos to you for all you hard work. I'm envious of your place in the World-to-Come. I hope the guilty plea paves the way for the barrage of civil lawsuits that will clean out Kolko & Co. once and for all...
Didn't Jeff Herman vet that 31 year old Kolko accuser who prosecutors say makes up stories?
Margulies was so angry at Kolko's admission of guilt yesterday that he burnt Eli Greenwald in effigy and shouted at the burning mannequin as loud as he could.
Any idea if Kolko's admission opens the door to perjury charges against Applegrad and company?
How many figures already testified falsely in court?
Breaking the backs of ALL the enablers is the next step! This sordid story is far from over!
Shmarya is reporting that there are some complicated elements that the Daily News didn't even scratch the surface of. He will have more reporting on Kolko today or tomorrow.
AT NO TIME ....
Oh, nevermind ....
A guilty plea means nothing if I get pardoned by Hillary.
I'm glad Ben Ringel from Chaim Berlin is actively campaigning for her by unzerre mentchen.
Belsky had better cover my dry cleaning bill. I did an Afikomen trial run of stuffing his Tiferes Matzos in my hoyzen. They have to be the crumbliest matzos I've ever tried.
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2008/04/steve-mostofskys-nasty-history-on-child.html
Google is useless. They still haven't removed the UOJ post as I demanded.
Days like these make me proud of identifying as a avid UOJ follower. Like someone said on VIN: If going after the YTT money with civil suits means these victims are just moneygrubbing liars, what does it make the holocaust victims going after Nazi Veiterguttmachung money from the German's?
And may I add: Can someone tell me how I SHOULD seek justice for my being molested without idiots yelling that I'm making it up? These enablers are far-enfering Kolko like they did when Leizerowitz ran to Israel. These tzaddikim wanted to spare a national chillul hashem so they escaped to Israel/pleaded guilty.
Hitler also commited suicide so as to avoid exposing the great jewish lie about the holocaust. What a tzaddik he was! In line with the like of Colmer, Leizerovits, Kolko and the gran daddy of 'em all Rabbi Doctor Avremel Mondrowitz.
He rabbis! Weez comin' after you with a buzz saw! If the boyz in da hood at riker's cant getya, UOJ WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurts just as much. Same pain in de ass, just different lube! Keep your eye on bans and bugs and all will be just fine. Till you wake up one day and the big little nest egg you had created off the backs of the little guy gets cracked and scrambled in UOJ's frying pan, a La civil suit.
Now more than ever..........................Yudi Kolko is a honorable child molester who wont lie to a judge about forced sex (sans penetration - edited by Pinny and the tale of 100 tzitzes) with little boys.
I think Kolko should just run off to Israel and marry Malka Leifer or A. Leizerowitz who has reportedly undergone a sex change and now goes by the name of Abigail (Horny and Hairy)Leizerowitz.
I find this so troubling.
I think that some of you who claim that the guilty plea to the relatively minor crime of 2 counts of endangering the welfare of a minor is a victory, are either fooling yourself, or trying to save face.
If Kolko is indeed guilty of the crimes of which he was originally charged, he rightfully deserves a prison sentence, and certainly to be put on the sex offender registry.
I believe that child sexual predators cannot control themselves. If he is actually guilty of the crimes of which he was originally charged, and is allowed to walk free, and not labeled, then he will forever be a danger to children.
I really want to believe that the District Attorney's office did not let someone guilty of child sexual abuse off which such a light punishment because they yielded to pressure from outside sources.
Only HaShem and the victims know whether justice was done here.
http://www.connpost.com/breakingnews/ci_8920516
Child porn sentence suspended for ex-rabbi
DANIEL TEPFER
Article Last Updated: 04/14/2008 02:39:22 PM EDT
BRIDGEPORT — A former West Haven rabbi and mental health counselor was given a suspended sentence today for possessing child pornography.
"I have great remorse and great sadness. I've accepted responsibility for my actions and I assure you, you will never see me in court again," Edward Schlaeger told Superior Court Judge George Thim.
"This conduct cannot be condoned," the judge retorted as he sentenced the 53-year-old former Trumbull resident to a five-year suspended term, followed by five years probation. He also ordered Schlaeger to register as a sex offender.
Until he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, Schlaeger had been the rabbi of Congregation Sinai in West Haven and was a clinical social worker for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services at its Southwest Community Mental Health Center here.
His lawyer, John R. Gulash, told the judge his client has since converted to Christianity and has been attending a church in Trumbull. He said his client intends to relocate to Skokie, Ill.
Gulash also told the judge that his client has been undergoing counseling and will continue to do so.
According to Senior Assistant State's Attorney Howard Stein, Schlaeger's estranged wife, through her lawyer, in September 2005 handed over to the Bridgeport State's Attorneys office two compact discs she had discovered while cleaning the defendant's property out of their Trumbull home.
The discs, labeled with black marker "Fun Times" and "Downloaded pics," contained 15 pornographic images.
Stein said one of the images was positively identified as that of a child from an investigation in Germany, another was an obvious pornographic image of a child and six others appeared to be images of children.
The prosecutor said police searched the Trumbull home and seized a milk crate containing a large collection of pornographic material along with a genital piercing kit.
Schlaeger's ex-wife also turned over to police his journal in which he described himself as suffering from a sexual addiction, the prosecutor said.
Police later seized a large amount of pornographic paraphernalia from the home in Shelton where Schlaeger subsequently moved, the prosecutor said.
But Stein told the judge that despite the "truckload" of pornographic material seized from the defendant, only two images from the CDs could definitely be determined to be child pornography. He said he agreed to the plea bargain because, under state law, it is a defense to the crime if a defendant has fewer than three images.
LOSING FAITH AND LOSING PEOPLE!
---------------------------
By DAVID GONZALEZ - THE NEW YORK TIMES - (Go to the NYTIMES.COM for the entire article)
Published: April 15, 2008
The banners hanging in the main corridor of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers declare, “Through Faith We Grow.” The class portraits that line that very same corridor tell the opposite tale. Half a century after the halcyon days when several hundred men at a time studied to be ordained as priests for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, only 22 are enrolled.
Even more alarming to Catholics, although six men expect to be ordained in May, none are entering the first-year theology program.
While seminary officials attribute the sudden drop to extra preparatory course requirements that went into effect this year, it is nonetheless a jarring development.
“You do what you can, as well as you can, for as long as you can, and hope it works,” said Bishop Gerald Walsh, the seminary’s rector. “I’d be optimistic if we had enough clergy present for young people and willing to talk to them.”
He will have enough — and then some — on Saturday, when Pope Benedict XVI visits the seminary for a prayer service and youth rally. The pope’s mere presence will be a jolt of encouragement to the seminarians. It will also offer them and other priests and nuns the chance to mingle with 20,000 young people and plant a seed for vocations.
There will be flashy videos, with quick cuts, stirring sound tracks and fearless priests on New York streets. Goody bags will include glossy post cards of the pontiff emblazoned with the word “Willkommen!” — and the Web address nypriest.com, the seminary’s recruiting site. In coming weeks, the archdiocese will send its schools posters that announce, “The World Needs Heroes,” including one of black-suited priests crossing an intersection — looking like “Going My Way” meets “Reservoir Dogs.”
Officials of the archdiocese do not apologize for embracing Madison Avenue marketing to counter a sharp decline in vocations.
An increasingly secular and materialistic culture, reluctance among the young to accept lifelong celibacy, and anger over the church’s handling of sexual abuse scandals have all contributed to the precipitous drop, the officials say.
Vocational directors recognize that the public’s confidence has been shaken by the scandals. They have chosen, however, to focus their marketing campaign on an upbeat message.
The Rev. Luke Sweeney, director of vocations for the archdiocese — which covers the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and seven counties west and north of the city — says the church must make its case if it hopes to reinvigorate a priesthood that is increasingly elderly. “How do we get the ‘cool’ factor back into the priesthood?” Father Sweeney said. “If we don’t sell the priesthood, we can’t legitimately ask a young man to consider the priesthood as a vocation.”
What the seminary lacks in numbers, it may make up for in intensity and eagerness. The seminarians speak of finding a joy and purpose that eluded them in secular careers.
“We live in a very confusing world, a world where there is a lot of evil in it, and good men need to step forward,” said Brian Graebe, a former high school teacher who is finishing his first year. “You can stick your head in the sand, or you can do something to change it. What more heroic life is there than to touch these eternal mysteries?”
St. Joseph’s Seminary — informally known as Dunwoodie, after its neighborhood — is hardly alone in its diminished fortunes. Nationally, the enrollment of seminarians in four-year theology programs has been flat for the last decade, currently numbering 3,286, said Sister Katarina Schuth, a professor at St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, part of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. More than a quarter of those seminarians, she said, were foreign born.
“It’s a tough time for the church,” Sister Schuth said. “Dunwoodie has lost proportionately more than most. It really is a puzzle, given the huge population of New York and the boroughs.”
When St. Joseph’s opened in the late 1800s, its stone castle, topped by a gleaming cupola and perched majestically atop a hill, was described by Bishop Bernard McQuaid of Rochester as “the grandest seminary building in Christendom.” It was also, according to the Rev. Thomas J. Shelley, a Fordham University professor, one of the most progressive seminaries of its age, with an intellectual tradition to rival the best Catholic universities, until a Vatican crackdown on modernist thought a century ago led to a more orthodox approach.
Still, priests who were seminarians during the 1940s and ’50s recall a tranquil place whose daily rhythms were marked by the clanging of the bell for classes, meals and Mass. Many came from immigrant, working-class homes where the religious life was seen as a step up.
The Rev. Gerard J. DiSenso, who grew up poor in the Bronx, said the first time he had a room all to himself was when he entered the seminary in 1947.
That he was surrounded daily by more than 200 seminarians was encouraging and humbling......
"police searched the Trumbull home and seized a milk crate containing a large collection of pornographic material along with a genital piercing kit."
I'm going to ask my shvogger, the mohel Paysach Krohn if he knows how to use one of those.
Did R' Eli Teitelbaum give any info to the DA before he was niftar?
"His lawyer, John R. Gulash, told the judge his client has since converted to Christianity and has been attending a church in Trumbull"
Sounds like a good candidate to join Margo's legal team.
Kolko is a bigger threat than ever in Lakewood.
If he touches any kids there, don't forget that Schenki from BMG is one of the highest rankest cops on the Lakewood PD.
Boog, question for you.
as we all know that mondrowitz gets to spend pesach in prison, do you think they feed him plain ole moror via mouth, or louima style?
Although the plea deal should have been for at least one sex offense, I am glad that he did plead guilty. At lease it avoids the need to further traumatize his victims by testifying in court and having to be cross examined by Schwartz. We all know how corrupt the DA's office is and one day we will know why they let him off with less than a slap on the wrist. In the meantime, Lakewood parents must beware of this predator and shield their children appropriately. If anyone sees this pervert touching children, you must call the police immediately. We had a situation in Boro Park where a convicted child molester, out on parole also, was seen swiping at children. Instead of calling the police, the witnesses contacted a blogger. Had they called the police, the fiend would have been put away for a long time.
Let's not forget, Hynes let Lipa Brenner off with a similar plea bargain. This was after Brenner was caught with a 15 year old boy that he was molesting for three years. And we should never forget the Mondrowitz cover up for 23 years. The pidyon shvuyim funds for these perverts go a very long way. Let's keep it going!! Elior Chen, Michal Shenbaum, Malka Leifer and Bruria Keren will all be needing more of the same financial support. The Mondrowitz Foundation is need of replenishment. You're all be doing a tremendous mitzvah by keeping these monsters free to attack more children. Just ask Attorney Schwartz.
I'm busy like mad getting reading for the Fressers in Arizona & Kolko thinks I have nothing better to do than lend him my sommeliers for his Champagne party.
(I had no choice but to oblige though since Mostofsky, Marty Samson & my homeboys from NCYI will all be there)
HERE IS A LEG UP ON MONDROWITZ.
LET THE RECORD STAND FOR ETERNITY THAT THE FIRST WORD ABOUT MONDROWITZ'S LEGAL DEFENSE MANEUVERING HERE IN THE USA GETTING UNDER WAY THIS WEEK IN BROOKLYN, WAS MENTIONED RIGHT HERE AND NOW ON THE MOST AUTHORATATIVE SOURCE......THE REB UOJ BLOG!
MONDROWITZ'S ENABLERS AND PROTECTORS & SOME OF THOSE WHO STAND TO LOSE THE MOST IF HE COMES BACK HERE ARE GEARING UP STARTING THIS WEEK TO OBSTRUCT BRINGING HIM BACK AND PLANNING FOR THE CHANCE HE MIGHT BE BROUGHT BACK HERE.
THIS IS ALL I CAN SAY FOR NOW. I FIGURED AT LEAST THE UOJ SQUADS SHOULD GET SOME ADVANCE INFO IF I CANT DO MORE. GET THE BASTARD FOLKS!
I have finally agreed that the Vaad Hahorim should meet. It will be at Rabbi Kolko's party to pop Champagne corks. Rabbi Margulies will be wearing a helmet as he always has the bad mazal of having corks aimed at his head.
Reading the comments on this blog is so reflective of the lack of achdus in the frum world.
There is such a division between self styled Kanaim/Zelots,on one side Reckless/Buryonim on the other and in the middle are cynics and somewhere buried are the decent level headed who will save what is beginning to look like an Iyr Hanidachas.
I have personally spoken to one of the Rabbi’s victims his life is scarred forever with anger and humiliation. His innocence taken away at a young age. His parents and siblings were threatened with violence and other. BH today he has a beautiful family and is coping, surviving and struggling day to day.
The Rabbi has been a Rebbe for more than 4 decades and must have had more than One Thousand Talmidim perhaps 99% had only good experiences as reflected on this blog by those professing his innocence and admiration of him.
With that said the 1% have lived in shame , humiliation and anger from 1st grade through present adulthood.
As parents with children, if my child or your child was Chas v’sholom molested by anybody I cannot imagine the wrath that I or any parent would convey on the perpetrator and a Hanhalah that would do nothing about it.
On the other hand I am sure The Rabbi would like to change the past and I think at this point he has tremendous remorse, he got caught he was arrested, humiliated in public. He pleaded guilty to his actions and nobody in their right mind would plead guilty to such an ugly abhorrent crime If they were truly innocent. His name is branded for life along with his family.His lifetime of work in Chinuch has been permanently stained.
This is a sad chapter for our people, our community worldwide.
But it is also a new era where children, parents and hanhalah will work together and this type of abuse is no longer acceptable or ignored.
As a people we have always stayed together, Y’hi rotzon may we once again.
On Motzaei Shabbos Shushan Purim, 15 Adar 2, 5768 (March 22, 2007), the Jewish world was shocked to hear that Rabbi Benzion Dunner, zt”l, paragon international Torah philanthropist, died after Shabbos, at the age of 46. Reb Benzion was traveling from his home on West Heath Avenue in Golders Green to the Normandie Kosher Hotel in Bournemouth, England, with his wife and nine children, ages one month through 20 years old. He had two children and another passenger with him, who were unhurt. His wife, Esther, nee Stern, was driving in a second car with seven of their children. None of them were injured.
Within minutes after the accident, the news of the premature, sudden death of Reb Benzion Dunner reached every Jewish community throughout the world. The joy of Purim in London was, literally, snuffed out. Melaveh Malkahs and other joyous Purim gatherings were quickly brought to a close. How could anyone be joyful when a leading Torah philanthropist died so young?
Just hours earlier, Rabbi Benzion had been busy distributing huge sums of money to organizations and individuals. Beginning on Thursday, Ta’anis Esther through Friday, Purim and Motzaei Shabbos Shushan Purim, Reb Benzion distributed as much as two million pounds (almost $4,000,000). When the sad news reached America, Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger, Bobover Rebbe, immediately flew to London to participate in the levayah (funeral) as did Rabbi Dovid Twersky, Skverer Rebbe, with two sons.
This Denny character who's trying to smooth everything over for Kolko used the name "Manish" to post the same crap on SHmarya's blog.
Do you know the first thing about hilchos teshuva? Kolko never asked mechila from his victims.
Do you know the first thing about the sickness of child molesters? The recidivism rate is about 100%.
Go preach to the choir at VIN.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8931538?source=most_viewed
LOS ANGELES—One of three former employees being sued by Rob Lowe says the actor sexually abused her for years but she continued to work for him and his wife because she loved their two boys and needed the job.
In legal papers filed in Santa Barbara, Jessica Gibson says Lowe touched her inappropriately several times between September 2005 and January 2008.
Last week, Lowe sued three former employees, including Gibson. He said she demanded $1.5 million to remain silent about the abuse allegation, which his attorney dismissed as "outrageous" and "untrue." In that suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lowe also accused another nanny of spreading lies about him.
Lowe, 44, is a former star of "The West Wing" and currently appears on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters."
He gained attention in the 1980s as a member of Hollywood's so-called Brat Pack, appearing in such films as "The Outsiders," "Class" and "St. Elmo's Fire."
At the height of his Brat Pack career in 1989 Lowe was embarrassed when a sex tape of him with two women surfaced. It had been recorded the year before in Atlanta, where he had attended the Democratic National Convention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Lowe
Lowe is not Jewish but his wife probably is.
It should leave me speechless, but I can't resist commenting.
"The thousands of dollars these middle-class parents are paying through the nose to Yeshivas that are producing illiterates that can't spell, can't do elementary math, can't string together a coherent-clearly enunciated English sentence, and have absolutely no idea or clue how to speak or act in public without making a Chillul Hashem. No marketable skills upon graduation, no directive to make a Parnassah and instead are coerced to matriculate into-lifer learners thereby perpetuating the Roshei-Yeshiva led welfare state who gleefully continue to sponge off the rich ass-konim."
It sounds just like the early 80's when I went to college and the professors declared that all they were preparing me for was graduate school. If I wanted a vocation I should go to a professional training school instead. I was exposed to filth, drugs, ideas bordering on sedition. I learned more in 3 years in high school then I learned in college and was treated better in high school.
I'm sure that many of my fellow classmates can say the same about the college experience. No I didn't grow up in yeshiva or chassidshe circles. I grew up with the help of real people who saw me for more than my earning potential and potential contributions. I'm dubious that this system has an exit plan for a child. Does any one ask the question - after 12 years of schooling what do we want to see and how do we get there?
I was molested in Yeshivah years ago. I now am worried about sending my children to yeshivah. I know how to protect them, but I just feel naseous paying so much money to send them to a school that I know I need to protect them from and cannot rely on to stick up for their safety or their humanity. Like boog said, they will be viewed as tuition payers and potential donors, not as human beings. I don't particularly like the idea of public school, but I don't see an alternative. Anyone know of a good high school in the tri state area, that is reasonably priced and where something like this would not happen?
Let's see, black hat school or public school? What's missing? Do the Modern Orthodox schools scare you so much that you don't even consider them? There are some pretty good ones out there where supervision is tight. Anything can happen, but it's less likely when there's a tight ship where teachers are observed regularly like in most MO schools. You will feel like a fish out of water, but the water is fine and full of Shomrei Torah and Mitzvos. Honesty and Mentchlechkeit should count for something. Knit and leather Yarmulkas are not the worst threats to your children.
1. Kolko acknowledged guilt.
2. A plea deal always involves a reduction in the charges and penalty.
3. Kolko is not accused of sodomy or rape. He is a "fondler."
4. Only two of the six victims who have filed cases thus far fell within the statute of limitations for criminal charges.
5. If any of Kolko's many victims who have not yet filed cases now step forward, Kolko will be indicted and arrested again.
This saga has just begun and this plea is a victory for the good guys.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/apr/15/warrant-issued-for-fraud-suspect/
A federal judge has issued an arrest warrant for Arnold Zaler, a former kosher deli owner accused of fraud, after authorities said he left the country for Israel.
Department of Homeland Security records show Zaler flew from Atlanta to Tel Aviv on March 24 - about one month after he was indicted by a federal grand jury on 30 counts of bank, wire and mail fraud.
He was scheduled to return to Atlanta on Sunday, but did not. As a condition of his $25,000 unsecured bond, Zaler was not allowed to leave Colorado.
Zaler's attorney, Mitchell Baker, said Monday he could not comment on any conversations he may have had with his client.
"I'm quite certain he's intending on coming back," Baker said.
Authorities say the former owner of Zaler's Kosher Meats falsified purchase orders to sell hot dogs at the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field at Mile High and Coors Field. He then used those orders to persuade investors to loan him at least $2.2 million.
To Anonymous 7:05
You're absolutely correct to be concerned that there is no "exit strategy" because there isn't.
In an ideal world, your high school age kids would spend 1/2 the day studying real academics and Torah, and the other 1/2 day being apprenticed to someone who knows a skill, trade, or craft in which they have an interest in order to prepare for making an honest living and supporting their family when they get married. It's not impossible, but I wouldn't hold my breath on being able to pull it off. Don't dismiss the idea without trying, though. You never know what you might find if you look.
That being said, you will most likely have to choose among evils - and a cheredi yeshiva education has 0% chance of providing your children with gainful market-rate employment opportunities. What's left is a non-cheredi high school followed by college, or a trade school of some kind.
You must act as a responsible parent and insist that your sons can function themselves as adults when the time comes and earn a living. You owe this to your children - to not make it so that they will be perpetual paupers and be dependent upon welfare and charity. You must be firm in this no matter what - your kids future depends on it.
Shalom.
can we create the maccabies
a group that if they see kolko or any other molester or enabler harrass them to the point that they should be embarrased to leave their homes
i for one everytime i see belsky i call him the ganef enabler and he always walks away never has he once said to me i am not i guess he knows the truth
http://www.slate.com/id/2188982/
Here Comes the Next Mortgage Crisis
Subprime was just the beginning. Wait until California's prime borrowers start handing their keys to the bank.
By Mark Gimein
Posted Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at 8:12 AM ET
California is to mortgage lending what Chicago is to pork bellies. For years, that meant it was a place with soaring house values; today, the foreclosure rate across the state is twice the national average and going up fast. Riverside County, outside Los Angeles, may be the foreclosure capital of the country, with a rate close to six times the national average. And housing prices are in freefall.
California should be the poster child for a mortgage-loan bailout. In few other places have so many taken on such onerous debts with so little equity. Unfortunately, the crisis in California is going to get much worse, and there is no bailout that will solve it. Why? Because if the first stage of the foreclosure crisis was about people who could not afford their mortgages, the next stage will be about people who have every reason not even to try to pay their mortgages.
Over the next several months, we're going to be subjected to a chorus of hand-wringing about the moral turpitude of people who walk away from their mortgages and pronouncements like last month's warning from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that people should honor their mortgage obligations. The problem with finger-wagging on what you "should" or "ought" to do is that, when it comes to money, you're usually given the lecture only when it's in your interest to do the opposite. Certainly, that's the case for all the California homeowners who in the next year or two are going to find themselves with the choice of whether, faced with a huge new wave of interest resets and a historic decline in the value of their homes, they will simply walk away.
First, those home prices: For a weird few months of the mortgage crisis, statisticians came up with peculiar numbers about home values, rolling out comforting stats showing single-digit declines. Well, that's over.
Last month, the California Realtors' association (folks who in October managed to "project" that prices would fall 4 percent in 2008) reported that, actually, California house prices in February fell 26 percent from a year ago. In the places where the foreclosure boom has hit hardest, it's worse........
lvf;
The best outcome is for Mondro-Pervo to be extradited back to Brooklyn and after found guilty sent up to Rikers where the home boyz will give him the penetrating massage of his life.
Dem boyz n' hood knows how to take care of them bearded white crackers.
I can't figure why the Italian parents of the kids Mondro-Pervo repeatedly molested, at the very least, never broke this MF's knee caps. Really out of character. Jimmy Hoffa lies beneath the Giants Goalposts in the Meadowlands for a lot le$$. Many kids would be in much better shape today, if only.
April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Samuel Israel, a co-founder of bankrupt hedge-fund company Bayou Group LLC, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors of more than $400 million.
``I lied to you and I cheated you and I cannot put into words how sorry I am,'' a visibly sweating Israel, 48, told investors as he stood before U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon. He apologized to his family while defense lawyers sought leniency, noting his nine back operations, painkiller addiction, the rod in his spine and his pacemaker.
``He suffered from these ailments while he did the crime,'' an unmoved McMahon said before pronouncing sentence today in Manhattan federal court. ``He can deal with them while he does the time.''
The sentence brings to a close the criminal prosecutions stemming from the company's collapse. Bayou filed for bankruptcy in May 2006, prompting lawsuits claiming it operated a ``Ponzi scheme'' that paid old investors with money from new ones. Israel faced as much as 30 years in prison if he was convicted at trial.
Based in Stamford, Connecticut, Bayou was among the biggest hedge-fund companies to come under federal scrutiny for missing money since 2000, when Michael Berger was accused of hiding $400 million of losses at his Manhattan Investment Fund.
Stiff Sentence
Israel's sentence is among the stiffest given to a white- collar offender in the seven years since Enron Corp. collapsed. Others included former WorldCom Inc. Chairman Bernard Ebbers, who received 25 years for fraud, and former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling, who got a 24-year sentence.
Bayou's chief finance officer, Daniel Marino, was sentenced by McMahon in January to 20 years in prison.
Israel and Marino, who pleaded guilty in 2005, admitted they used fake results and a phony auditing firm to lure investors to participate in the hedge fund.
``Israel volunteered to speak to the government, spoke to the government early, spoke to the government often,'' defense lawyer Barry Bohrer told McMahon before sentencing. The judge responded by pointing out that Israel only cooperated after the Bayou fraud became public.
``After he was caught, he stopped lying,'' the judge said. ``Good for him.''
Israel was sentenced to five years for investor adviser fraud, five years for conspiracy and 20 years for mail fraud.
McMahon gave Israel the maximum for each count while allowing him to serve the sentences concurrently rather than consecutively.
Conspiracy, Fraud
The judge also allowed him to remain free before his June 9 surrender date.
While the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has final say on where Israel will serve his term, his lawyers requested the Federal Correctional Complex Butner, located in North Carolina. The facility has a medical unit.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0&item=125862
Two Palestinian Authority Arab workers in a Ramat Gan restaurant had, unbeknownst to their employer quietly been recruited by Hizbullah operatives and were planning to carry out a terrorist attack, it was revealed Thursday.
The two residents of the PA-controlled Samarian city of Shechem were illegally employed by the "Grill Express" restaurant on HaYarkon Street in Ramat Gan.
Both 21-year-olds, identified as Ihab Yehye Ahmed Abu Riyal and Anas Mustafa Said Salum, had been assigned to a unit of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades terrorist organization of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction after their initial recruitment by the Lebanese-based Hizbullah operatives.
The two were to have received the poison from two fugitive PA terrorists, Hani Ka'abi and Hosni Tzalag, fugitives from the Balata neighborhood of Shechem, who organized the technical aspects of the attack. The cell also considered the merits of infiltrating a suicide bomber into the area with the assistance of the two restaurant workers as well.
The poison itself was to have been a white, odorless and tasteless powder with a slow-release component which would have been undetectable when slipped into the food, thus allowing for harm to the maximum number of diners, according to security officials.
The would-be terrorists were arrested on March 19 in a joint operation by intelligence officers from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Police, several days before the attack - which would have been the first of its kind - was to have been carried out.
"It should be emphasized that the terrorist infrastructure headed by Hani Ka'abi is currently active in attempting to perpetrate other terrorist attacks, possibly with the assistance of other [PA Arabs] illegally present in Israel," stated a spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office.
Police say the owners of the Grill Express will face charges for illegally employing Palestinian Authority Arabs.
April 3, 2008
Terror gang plotted to blow up transatlantic planes
David Byers, Woolwich Crown Court
Eight Islamist terrorists with the “cold-eyed certainty” of fanatics plotted to blow up several transatlantic airliners in mid-air in what would have brought about a death toll of “almost unimaginable scale”, a court was told today.
The alleged suicide mission, “in the name of Islam”, would have involved the suspects boarding seven flights leaving London for the United States and Canada with explosives disguised as soft drinks. Once on board, homemade bombs would explode on each aircraft, killing all the passengers and causing casualties on an “almost unprecedented” scale.
Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution, said: “What these men intended to bring about was a violent and deadly statement of intent that would have truly global impact.”
He said the plot had been foiled when two of the suspects, Abdullah Ali and Assad Sarwar, were arrested on the night of August 9, 2006, as they were meeting in Walthamstow, East London. Officers swooped on Mr Ali as he met Mr Sarwar in a public car park.
In his pocket they found a computer memory stick containing details of one-way flights from Heathrow, the court was told.
Seven scheduled flights on three carriers - Air Canada, United Airlines and American Airlines - departing from Terminal 3 were highlighted. The destinations were San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and two services to Chicago.
Mr Wright said there was evidence the accused had ambitions to bring down more than seven aircraft. He said a conversation between two of the men revealed they also considered other terminals and as many as 18 suicide bombers.
Woolwich Crown Court was told that the suspects wanted the flights to be blown up while they were over the Atlantic, meaning none of the other aircraft could be saved after the first exploded. The seven airliners would be “entirely at the mercy of the suicide bombers who happened to be on board with their explosive devices.”
The jury was told that the main agent in the homemade explosives would be hydrogen peroxide mixed with other organic materials. Mr Wright said the liquid explosive would be concealed in 500ml plastic bottles of Oasis and Lucozade to be smuggled on board.A sugary drink known as Tang would be mixed with the solution to add power to the blast. This main charge would be detonated by another substance known as HMTD concealed within AA1.5v batteries.
Mr Wright said: “Hydrogen peroxide has a number of legitimate domestic and commercial purposes. It is available for purchase by the public. When mixed with an organic material in an appropriate strength it has explosive properties. It is capable of being detonated to deadly effect, as previous terrorist incidents have demonstrated."
The court heard that an address book belonging to Mr Ali, 27, seized by police, contained details showing the formula to be used in the explosives. It allegedly contained phrases like “Lucozade red 1.5 drops”, “Check time taken to dilute in HP”, and “decide on which battery to use for D, small is best”.
Elsewhere in Mr Ali's handwritten diary he allegedly referred to how the materials for the bombs were to be transported on to the aircraft. On one page he wrote: “Select date, five days before jet. All link up. Dirty mag to distract, condom.
“One drink use, other keep in pocket, maybe will not get through.
“Plus keys and chewing gum on the D in the electronic device.”
Another page referred to various coloured soft drinks. Mr Wright said that Mr Ali “chose to lie” and said he could not remember when police asked him about the significance of these diary entries. He added that the explosions allegedly planned by the men would have “devastating consequences” and would have been done “all in the name of Islam”.
"These men were, we say, indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue,” he said. “Inevitably, such an event would also have fatal consequences for the various passengers and crew who happened, quite by chance, to be flying to North America on the day selected by them to commit their atrocity.
“These men and others were actively engaged in a deadly plan which, had they been successful, would have brought about a civilian toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale.”
Mr Ali, also known as Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Walthamstow, Mr Sarwar, 24, of High Wycombe, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of no fixed address, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Walthamstow, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, of Walthamstow, Waheed Zaman, 23, of Walthamstow and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, 29, of High Wycombe, all deny conspiring to murder others and endangering aircraft
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//1263703
This putz followed Margo's footsteps as a bus driver. Video of him here too.
http://www.daashakohol.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82
Rubashkin's Criminal Record: C.H. Starves while Williamsburg gets 200 Tons for Pesach
To be sure this is not an exaggeration, check out all the Photos at the end, of this article, to get a feel of the difference between Rubashkin's Crown Heights funding vs. the funding other Jewish Neighborhoods get.
Political Observers had long, for-warned Crown Heights residents that keeping a repeat offender, of felony crimes (who plead guilty and is currently awaiting sentencing with a possible Jail Term NOW) while he continues to control all of the many bank accounts of the CHJCC) would undoubtedly result in Crown Heights loosing all Government Funding and loosing other private funding, Chas Vesholom, since no one, in their right mind, would trust Rubashkin, with millions of dollars in funding after he was convicted of Check Fraud and now with him pleading guilty on his second Federal Indictment.
While many residents of Crown Heights, heed the warning that Rubashkin must be removed from office, others didn't get the "hint" until after the dark predictions come true, now.
It's happening right NOW!
Williamsburg distributed 200 THOUSAND POUNDS! of food for Pesach, this year 5768 / 2008, while Crown Heights distributed a very small fraction in comparison, a few hundred pounds of food.
The full story, reported in the media:
Williamsburg, NY - Already being referred to as, “Super Sunday”, - This Past Sunday (yesterday) was certainly be a sight to seen, as a four-block circumference, nicknamed “Distribution Square” was closed off to traffic, permitting the distribution to take place in a safe, secure and controlled environment. The “Square” encompasses Harrison Avenue, Wallabout Street, Union Avenue and Walton Street.
UJCARE, the new premier community relations agency, representing communities throughout Williamsburg, Boro Park, Bayswater, Monsey and Monroe (But NOT to Ruabshkin of Crown Heights C.H.J.C.C.) has secured private funding through generous benefactors, to launch its newest initiated, “Project SABAINU”, which will purchase and distribute over 200 tons of food for Passover.
Dozens and dozens of tractor trailers have rolled through the streets of Williamsburg for the free distribution of Pesach Food, yesterday, Sunday, April 13th.
In the spirit of the Passover Hagadah, “Let all those who are hungry come and eat…”, (granted to Williamsburg, but denied to CH because of Rubashkin's criminal record) SABAINU volunteers had the arduous task of assessing family needs and distributing vouchers at three different locations, to insure that those who needed it most would get the necessary staples (including fruits, vegetables, grape juice and eggs) to celebrate the holiday to the fullest.
A Lubavitcher told he got just ONE DOLLAR, in Crown Heights, which helped him to make pesach.
I asked him with 1 dollar?
He said well the 1 dollar I used (to help pay, 1/2 of the fare) for the train to Williamsburg to the Satmars & they gave me matzo wine potatos fish meat etc etc plus $1000
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04152008/news/regionalnews/perv_rabbi_cops_plea_106598.htm
Not only did Kolko get a plea bargain but his admission to misdemeanor endangerment was something akin to leaving a kid alone for a few minutes in your car while you shop because KOLKO DID NOT HAVE TO ADMIT THAT HIS CRIMES WERE OF A SEXUAL NATURE.
DA Charlie Hynes seems to have again totally caved on this one to the wishes of the establishment mafia.
http://www.dailyyid.com/
And here's the Satmar Putz at Daily Yid linking to the Post and calling him "Harav Kolko 'shlita'"
http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2008/04/haredi-advertisement-of-year.html
This was an ad placed in a Haredi weekly ad booklet distributed in Bet Shemesh.
April 16, 2008
The Pope's Visit
Pope, in U.S., Is ‘Ashamed’ of Pedophile Priests - NEW YORK TIMES
By IAN FISHER and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
WASHINGTON — Pope Benedict XVI chose to address bluntly the sex scandal that has torn at the church here even before he landed Tuesday on his first official visit to the United States, saying he was “deeply ashamed” by the actions of pedophile priests.
His comments aboard his plane, in answer to a written question submitted by a reporter and selected by the Vatican, appeared to soothe many Catholics but left others demanding more action than words.
“It’s difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betrayed in this way their mission to give healing, to give the love of God to these children,” the pope said, adding that the church would work to exclude pedophiles from the priesthood.
“It is more important to have good priests than to have many priests,” he said.
The words were his strongest ever on the issue, one he clearly wanted to emphasize as he arrived on a six-day visit to Washington and New York. His comments were in response to the first of four questions he answered on the plane — chosen from 20 the press corps had submitted in advance.
It was unclear whether these would be the last words from Benedict on the issue, which ruptured the faith between parishioners and priests and has cost the church some $2 billion, or whether it was an opening signal of both reconciliation and more to come. Church officials have said they expected the pope to address the scandal more than once during his visit, and there is speculation that he may even meet with some victims.
But victims’ advocates clearly were not satisfied by the comments.
“He talks about feeling shame for the scandal but it’s a far cry from the shame that victims have had to live with our entire lives,” said Becky Ianni, 50, who said she was abused by her parish priest in Alexandria, Va., from age 9 to 11.
She was speaking at a vigil outside St. Dominic Church in Washington when the pope’s plane landed just before 4 p.m. Those at the vigil held a long vinyl banner with photographs of more than 60 children abused by priests. They explained that the 15 or so faces that were framed with black boxes were those of victims who had committed suicide.
“We don’t really need his sense of shame,” Ms. Ianni said. “We need him to take firm actions to correct the situation.”.......
I once had a problem at a Pesach hotel that required medical intervention. I suffered the whole week until leaving the hotel. I suspected the cleaner they were using.
http://www.thejc.com/Home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18&AId=59054&ATypeId=1&secid=18&prev=true
Pesach warning over cleaning fluid
28/03/2008
By Rachel Fletcher
Hatzola has warned against using very strong cleaning products for Passover after two Manchester children were hospitalised with chemical burns.
The Orthodox ambulance service, which took the children to hospital, has warned people to be particularly careful when using St Moritz, a Hungarian product, which it claims is much more powerful than ordinary cleaning fluid.
Children can be burned just by touching surfaces that have been cleaned with it, claimed Daniel Smith, who handles training and equipment for Hatzola Manchester.
He told the JC: “It’s about 50 times stronger than regular products. Last year we had it taken off the shelves when people started using it for Pesach.
“It’s a very good cleaner, but it’s very, very caustic. We have had a couple of cases where kids somehow touched it. They didn’t necessarily get the container, but touched surfaces before it was washed off, or the cloth used for it. Last week, a couple of kids were hospitalised overnight.”
Mr Smith said people may feel inclined to use a strong cleaner when preparing for Pesach.
“We are telling people not to use it. It’s just too dangerous. This is a time of year when people are doing thorough cleaning. Ideally, don’t use it when kids are in the house.”
St Moritz is made by a Hungarian company called Well Done. Its own website warns: “The product is corrosive. Skin contact causes severe irritation and produces severe burns. It is corrosive to eye tissues, can cause severe eye damage. For hand protection always use rubber gloves.”
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--artifactlawsuit0414apr14,0,2641207.story
April 14, 2008
NEW YORK
A Brooklyn rabbi and an Israeli antiquities dealer are fighting over custody of a nearly 1,500 year-old marble slab inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
The Israeli antiquities dealer claims in a lawsuit that the rabbi stole the artifact after he refused to pay $110,000 for it.
But Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch says he held up payment because the dealer did not mention that the artifact was expected to be returned to Israel after five years.
The rabbi operates the Living Torah Museum where the artifact is on exhibit. He says he is not interested in "renting" it.
The dealer's attorney says the rabbi has something that doesn't belong to him _ and should pay or give it back.
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER,AP
Posted: 2008-04-16 08:36:38
WASHINGTON (AP) - The construction of new homes plunged in March to the lowest level in 17 years, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
Housing construction dropped by 11.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000 units, a much bigger decline than economists had been forecasting.
Building permits also fell in March, signalling even more problems ahead for the beleaguered housing industry.
Oil hit another high yesterday of over $114 a barrel.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/04/the_rabbi_and_t.php
The Rabbi And The Trash-Hauler
by Melissa Bailey | April 3, 2008
An alleged racketeer got an unlikely assist in court Thursday from a representative of the Lord.
Rabbi Shmully Hecht (pictured), one of New Haven’s biggest landlords, came to New Haven U.S. District Court Thursday to stand up for Dennis Bozzuto, a trash-hauler who was about to be sent to prison for a year for taking advantage of him.
Bozzuto owns John’s Refuse, a Northford-based trash-hauling company that does a lot of business in New Haven. In an hour-long hearing that featured lingo like “banging” and “body punches,” Senior U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns sentenced him to a year in the slammer, three years’ supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
Bozzuto, 37, of Madison, pleaded guilty in November 2006 to one count. His arrest was part of a larger federal probe into corruption and mob ties in the waste-hauling industry in Connecticut and western New York. The investigation has so far led to charges against 33 individuals and 10 businesses.
Bozzuto was a minor player, going along in a crooked trash-hauling scheme controlled by James Galante that duped customers with false bids and inflated prices. Galante is accused of running a “property rights system” where companies used extortion and threats to maintain control over business on their turf.
Bozzuto pleaded guilty to taking advantage of two customers by inflating bids at the order of high-ranking racketeers.
Hecht, who lives and runs his business out of New Haven, was one of those customers — an alleged victim of Bozzuto’s criminal act.
In March 2005, Hecht’s company Preperty LLC solicited bids for trash collection on a Waterbury apartment complex. Knowing the property was in Galante territory, Bozzuto sought advice from alleged racketeer Richard Galietti then faxed a bid of $14 per yard, twice as much as the rate from the Galante-owned ADS company.
According to court documents, Hecht ended up finding a company outside of the racketeering network to take on the trash contract. His property managers then reported being “strong-armed” by ADS and, “on one occasion, ordered the salesperson to leave the property and never return or the police would be called.”
Approaching the lectern in a black suit, Hecht told Judge Burns he had no doubt the trash industry is “run by a bunch of monsters.”
“They talk to you on the phone as if they’re about to come over there and kill you,” he said.
Looking back at Bozzuto and his family — two brothers with gelled, salt-and-pepper hair, tan women in silky shirts — he said he understood how the Bozzutos could be confused for operatives in that same world.
“They sort of look like they’re out of a movie,” Hecht told the judge, turning around to gesture at them. “Look at them — a bunch of good-looking guys. They look like the Italian trash mob!”
“But they’re the exception in this industry,” Hecht continued.
Hecht, whose company owns over 1,000 apartments in New Haven, said he has dealt daily with the Bozzutos for 10 years.
He choked up as he spoke of the kindness of Dennis Bozzuto, a “simple garbage man” who would wave at him from his truck on Prospect Street and was always fair about billing.
“Hey Shmully, where’s Australia?” Bozzuto once asked him, upon hearing of Hecht’s upcoming business trip.
“He’s a simple, decent guy,” Hecht told the judge. He got worked up, speaking so fast the stenographer had to ask him to slow down. He denied he had been victimized by Bozzuto’s role in perpetuating the unfair system.
“I definitely have never been a victim of anything Dennis Bozzuto has done.” If anything, Hecht said, Bozzuto was the victim.
Hecht spoke, wiped a tear and shook his buddy Bozzuto’s hand. Bozzuto stood quietly in a gray suit. His attorney, Robert Casale, argued his client was an “unsophisticated” man who did not socialize with the elite racketeers and only agreed to go along with the “property rights system” after months of pressure. After he took away a lucrative, multi-year, million-dollar-plus contract to manage North Branford’s municipal trash, Bozzuto came under pressure from Galante operatives and was punished by getting locked out of a Danbury dump.
Bozzuto only caved in after 10 months of figurative “body punches,” Casale argued.
The government prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Raymond F. Miller, said Bozzuto sounded like a good guy but “body punches” was an overstatement. In recorded phone conversations, Bozzuto sounded more “jocular” than “intimidated” by Galante’s men, Miller said.
“It’s difficult to sense in those tapes any intimidation,” Judge Burns agreed. She said the two men, Bozzuto and Galietti, sounded like they had a good “rapport.”
Swayed in part by some testimony that painted Bozzuto as a giving, compassionate man, Judge Burns took sympathy on the defendant when it came time to sentence.
Bozzuto faced a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. According to a plea agreement, he agreed to a sentence of 15 to 20 months.
Burns ordered a sentence below that range: 12 months, three years’ supervised release plus a $10,000 fine. She said she meant the sentence to be a general deterrent to trash-haulers out there. “Hopefully this prosecution can put an end to this system of conspiracy to participate in racketeering,” Burns said. Bozzuto is due to voluntarily surrender himself on May 15.
After the hearing, an emotional Hecht went up to shake Burns’s hand. Outside the courthouse, he milled with Bozzuto’s family.
Abuse Victims Not Placated by Pope
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Members of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests demonstrated outside St. Dominic Church in Washington, asking the pope to meet with the families of abuse victims.
By IAN URBINA and ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: April 16, 2008
WASHINGTON — Far from tamping down emotions, Pope Benedict XVI’s expression of remorse on Tuesday for the church’s sexual abuse scandal prompted an angry and skeptical response from victims, who said they wanted actions, not words from the Vatican.
“He talks about feeling shame for the scandal but it’s a far cry from the shame that victims have had to live with our entire lives,” said Becky Ianni, 50, an abuse victim who joined a vigil in front of St. Dominic’s Catholic Church here.
Holding an eight-foot-long vinyl banner with photographs of more than 60 children abused by priests, a group of about a half-dozen victims and supporters gathered to voice their frustrations with the pope.
The protesters explained that the 15 or so faces on the banner that were framed with black boxes were those of abuse victims who committed suicide.
“We don’t really need his sense of shame,” said Ms. Ianni, who said she was abused by her parish priest in Alexandria Va., from age 9 to 11. “We need him to take firm actions to correct the situation.”
Speaking to reporters on his flight to the United States, Benedict addressed the scandal that has produced more than 13,000 sexual abuse victims and cost the church more than $2 billion.
“It is a great suffering for the church in the United States and for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen,” Benedict said, adding that he would work to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood. “It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission.”
Robert Costello, however, was among the child abuse victims not moved by the pope’s remarks. “I think they were rehearsed,” he said.
At a news conference in Boston organized by a victims’ group, Mr. Costello, who said he was abused by a priest in West Roxbury, Mass., starting when he was 10, said he was shocked that the pope would talk about his own suffering and that of the church while making no mention of the harm done to victims.
“What about the suffering of the children?” he said, adding that he planned to travel to New York to read aloud the names of victims on Friday while the pope addresses the United Nations.
David Carney, who says a priest abused him during his freshman year at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, also dismissed the pope’s comments as insincere.
“Don’t sit around on your plane and talk about it,” said Mr. Carney, 41, who also attended the Boston news conference. “If you’re ashamed about it, do something about it.”
At the vigil in Washington, another victim, Peter Isley, who is a national board member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said the pope’s comments rang hollow.
“The pope says he has empathy and that he doesn’t understand how this could happen, and yet he is not willing to talk to actual victims to get our input,” he said.
Various victims’ organizations requested several months ago that the pope or his representatives meet with them during the papal visit, Mr Isley said, but all such requests were met with silence.
Mr. Isley added that like most victims, he wants two clear actions from the pope. First, he wants him to announce this week that he plans to change canon law so that every priest who has assaulted a child anywhere in the world will be removed from ministry. Second, he wants the pope to announce plans to take disciplinary action against any bishop who has been involved in covering up an assault.
Anne Barrett Doyle co-director of Bishop Accountability, a Web site that documents the sexual abuse scandal, expressed similar skepticism. She said that what the pope did not say is more important that what he did.
“Rather than shifting attention to pedophile priests, he needs to focus on the culpability of bishops,” she said. “The crisis occurred because many U.S. bishops were willing to hide their priests’ crimes from the police with lies.”
http://www.vosizneias.com/files/RavBelskyletter.pdf
Here's Belsky claiming he was only against Lipa & Sheya but that Taliban Friedman forged his signature to asser all concerts.
Shmully Hecht's family owns the Iggud Haganovim where shysters like Belsky, Tannenbaum & Mendel Epstein ply their shady trade.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybsb&story_id=116312710&ID=blackenterprise
I'm investigating Shmuely Boteach's nephew Diveroli. It seems he never actually applied for minority Hasidic status but some doofus govt employee entered it by mistake. The Blacks think it's a conspiracy and are screaming "We wuz robbed!"
MR. POPE! YOUR WORDS ARE MEANINGLESS! YOU WERE IN THE VATICAN FOR SOME 25 YEARS - AND KNEW - PARTICIPATED IN THE COVER-UP - AND NOW THAT YOU WERE CAUGHT - YOU APOLOGIZE???? YOU ARE A ROTTEN SCOUNDREL!!!!
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/03/21/heir-apparent-shari-and-daddy-dearest-sumner-redstone/
Sumner Redstone, the owner of Viacom / Blockbuster / CBS News, who was once honored at the Chaim Berlin dinner, has a daughter who was married for 14 years to the Zhviller Rebbe of Boston, Rabbi Ira Korff. They have 3 children together.
I wonder if Sumner Redstone knows about this? Some Chaim Berlin bochurim wearing hats & jackets were once seen going into the Blockbuster Video on Kings Hwy to rent a movie. R' Lazer Ginzburg saw them and followed them in. He screamed at them and kicked them out of the store.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/04/mechiras-chometz.html?showComment=1208314260000#c4205931938953785552
Even R' Yudel Shain is laughing about Belsky's matzos.
He says he writes the concert letter because of the "sheaylas harabim"
What about answering the rabim about his gangster role in the Kolko affair?
After claiming he didn't asser all concerts, he says halevay that everyone should be mekayem the Rambam to not lose a single night of learning, ahem, by going to a concert.
What about Kolko's victims who lose many nights of learning because of their suffering?
Belsky has time to write about Lipa Schmeltzer but when he is mattir milk from treif cows he claims he has no time to write a teshuva explaining his "logic". When someone confronted him in Lakewood this year about why he supposedly has no time, he said it's because he "spends half his time answering meshugoyim"
ANON LEG UP:
PLEASE CONTACT ME - a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com
------------------------------
HERE IS A LEG UP ON MONDROWITZ.
LET THE RECORD STAND FOR ETERNITY THAT THE FIRST WORD ABOUT MONDROWITZ'S LEGAL DEFENSE MANEUVERING HERE IN THE USA GETTING UNDER WAY THIS WEEK IN BROOKLYN, WAS MENTIONED RIGHT HERE AND NOW ON THE MOST AUTHORATATIVE SOURCE......THE REB UOJ BLOG!
MONDROWITZ'S ENABLERS AND PROTECTORS & SOME OF THOSE WHO STAND TO LOSE THE MOST IF HE COMES BACK HERE ARE GEARING UP STARTING THIS WEEK TO OBSTRUCT BRINGING HIM BACK AND PLANNING FOR THE CHANCE HE MIGHT BE BROUGHT BACK HERE.
THIS IS ALL I CAN SAY FOR NOW. I FIGURED AT LEAST THE UOJ SQUADS SHOULD GET SOME ADVANCE INFO IF I CANT DO MORE. GET THE BASTARD FOLKS!
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/teens-sending-x-rated-photos-on-phones/20080414150409990001
Teens Sending X-Rated Photos on Phones
AP
(April 14) - Forget about passing notes in study hall; some teens are now using their cell phones to flirt and send nude pictures of themselves.
The instant text, picture and video messages have become part of some teens' courtship behavior, police and school officials said. The messages often spread quickly and sometimes find their way to public Web sites.
"I've seen everything from your basic striptease to sexual acts being performed," said Reynoldsburg police Detective Brian Marvin, a member of the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force of Central Ohio. "You name it, they will do it at their home under this perceived anonymity."
Westerville Central High School senior Jerome Ray said he's received such unsolicited messages, including one from a classmate while he was sitting with his girlfriend.
"A lot more girls are aggressive," said Ray, 18. "Some girls are crazy and they are putting themselves out there."
Candice Kelsey, a teacher from California, said some teenage girls think they have to be provocative to get boys' attention. As a result, they will send photos they hope their parents never see.
"This happens a lot," said Kelsey, author of Generation MySpace: Helping Your Teen Survive Online Adolescence. "It crosses every racial socio-economic group. Christian kids are doing it. Jewish kids are doing it."
Male teens are also doing it.
For instance, a central Ohio high school teen made a sexual cell phone video of himself and sent it to female classmates. One of the girls forward the Westerville South High School's video to at least 30 other people.
Mark Raiff, a principal at Columbus' Olentangy Liberty High School, said some of his students and their cell phones have caused trouble.
"They don't see anything wrong with it," he said. "It leaves me speechless."
UOJ any update on this guy ?Nathan Horowitz
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=2317
Rav Henoch Leibowitz, 1916–2008
Naflah ateres rosheinu. On Tuesday of this week, Klal Yisrael lost one of the last great rashei yeshiva and ba’alei mussar of the previous generation, Rav Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz, zt’l. The loss is indescribable.
Rav Leibowitz was the only son of his saintly father, Rav Dovid Leibowitz, zt’l, founder of Yeshiva Rabbeinu Yisroel Meir HaCohen, commonly known as Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim. The yeshiva was first established in 1933 by Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz, a nephew of the Chofetz Chaim. On December 7, 1941, Rav Dovid Leibowitz passed away, and his son would take over at the helm of the yeshiva.
He personified the midah of emes, as well. Once, for example, a wealthy individual gave a $10,000 donation that was doubled by his corporation’s matching-funds program. The problem was that the donor’s check did not clear. Rav Leibowitz promptly refunded the corporation’s money. Any behavior otherwise was sheer anathema to him. He was a genuine Torah sage in every way, and he would never countenance any form of dishonesty, chalilah.
Rav Leibowitz had a warmth and a smile that conveyed his love for each member of Klal Yisrael. He also had a great sense of humor, which he utilized to connect with talmidim, baalei batim, and other members of Klal Yisrael.
Rav Leibowitz personified the idea of sensitivity toward others and making sure that people realized what it means to cause anxiety to others.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/975301.html
The poor yeshiva students in Beit Shemesh and Bnei Brak did not know what to do with their Shefa Shuk supermarket vouchers last week ... the Gur Rabbi had signed an edict protesting the chain's parent company for desecrating the Sabbath.
Relief and deliverance arrived from an unexpected place. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who knows only that Shefa Shuk has branches in Afula, Dimona and other peripheral towns where hundreds of thousands of Shas supporters live, asked the ultra-Orthodox council for the sanctity of the Sabbath not to declare a public boycott. The Ashkenazi yeshiva students immediately began selling their vouchers to the Sephardi students for half off and went to shop at the competing chain, Alef. Meanwhile, the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods were filled with colorful posters whose number and sophistication surpassed even those hung during the protests against El Al and the Supreme Court.
The ultra-Orthodox public knows that strong economic interests are hiding behind the "campaign for the Sabbath." At the beginning of the week, Bnei Brak was rife with conspiracy theories that sought to explain the complicated affair. One claimed a rich businessman who was competing with Shefa Shuk was fueling the fight in order to boost his own supermarket chain, which was about to be sold based on its income over the past three months. Another explained that a wealthy man was interested in making Shefa Shuk collapse for even more convoluted reasons.
Even if the rumors were exaggerated, or perhaps fabricated, it is clear to all that the Sabbath is a marginal issue in this conflict. And indeed, the struggle began as a bona fide matter but morphed and gained momentum to reach its current proportions. The issue was sparked by Roni Manela, a Gur representative in Tel Aviv city hall, who denounced what he called the collapse of the status quo on religious affairs as well as a social injustice.
The big supermarket chains, he said, and first and foremost the AM:PM chain, which is open around the clock, are competing unfairly with small grocery stores and forcing them to give up their day of rest. Quite a few secular people would have been able to identify with Manela's protest had he not been joined by several young ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs, some of them with interests in other supermarket chains. They began persecuting Dudi Weissman, who controls both AM:PM and Shefa Shuk, while ignoring Lev Leviev, who owns 26% of the chain and also earns a good profit from Highway 6 and from Channel 9, both of which operate on the Sabbath.
No one touches Leviev, who recently made an ostentatious appearance at a gathering of Bucharan Jews in the company ofa leading rabbi. Leviev, who strictlyobserves kashrut and Shabbat, was the guest of honor at a Gur Hasidim dinner in Italy, and condemns the secular Zionists who destroyed the state. Only Weissman is suddenly the enemy of Judaism. The discontent over this well-funded fight is starting to percolate upward, and in the Friday edition of Hamodia, the Agudat Yisrael party newspaper, the rabbis' spokesman explained "what the campaign is all about and why the plot to open dozens of shops on the Sabbath so endangers the Sabbath in the land of Israel." It is true that the public listens to the rabbis, the spokesman said, but "a wave of publications and all kinds of false information have brought people to ask questions." Hamodia listed these questions and answered them one by one, as if this were the Passover seder.
To explain why this is happening now, Hamodia stated that Shalom Fischer, one of the owners of Shefa Shuk, left the chain because it was desecrating the Sabbath, and that the affair has been gaining momentum since then. But what Hamodia forgot to mention was that Fischer moved to Supersol, a partner in a rival ultra-Orthodox chain. The long article failed to say who is funding this massive, unparalleled publicity campaign.
Meanwhile, the chief victims of the affair are both the poor yeshiva students and the Sabbath. The issue of an official day of rest should concern both the religious and the secular, and should involve weighty cultural, social and moral questions. Well-ordered countries maintain an official day of rest when all commerce halts, other than a few authorized food stores and emergency services. These establishments rest on another day.
Does it run in the Kolko family?
LAS VEGAS CONSULTANT KOLKO SENTENCED IN ACCOUNTING FRAUD SCHEME
By Stephanie Ayres
14 May 2007
Phoenix, Arizona
The US Attorney's office in Arizona announced on November 1 that Frank Kolko, a Las Vegas-based consultant, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, four years of supervised release, and payment of $2.5 million of restitution and $1.3 million to the IRS. Kolko had pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of tax evasion.
As a consultant for Arizona real estate company NCH Corporation, Kolko had used his authority over the company's bank accounts to issue numerous checks to himself, used NCH accounts for personal luxury spending, and failed to report about $2 million he took from NCH accounts without authorization as taxable income.
Here is a loose translation of the Belsky letter:
"In response to the question many are asking, after several different text versions on the issue of concerts appeared with signatures of Rabbis upon them: did the Rabbis sign one publication or the many as was publicized? The answer is on this that only one pamphlet was signed as any sensible person would understand, but some fraudster put the signatures on the others. The authentic signatures were intended to prevent public hilarity and light headedness and nothing else. Thus the Rabbis were stirred to prevent the routine for such, after the hilarity and comedy were highly publicized, which was never broken through with such an extent, which needed distancing from. It is known once the gate is open, it won’t easily close again.
On the general issue of concerts, that wasn’t addressed in that pamphlet and everybody should do according to the advice of their rabbi. May all Jews be content with studying the Torah vigorously. In the words of the Maimonidies Chapter 3 of the laws of “Studying Torah”, he who wants to attain the Torah Crown should be careful all his nights that he shouldn’t lose even one of them, etc.
Praised should be the rabbi that all his congregants reached this level."
25th (of the month of ) 2nd Ader (of the year) 5768
Yisrael -the Levite- Belsky
The authentic signatures were intended to prevent public hilarity and light headedness and nothing else.
I think these rabbis ended up causing more hilarity and light headedness than Lipa ever did.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-passover16apr16,1,1291583,print.story
How dare these guys try to outdo Fressers with the Chevrah. I'll have to get Mostofsky to intimidate them & Samson to file legal papers.
Shmarya and the Jewish Week are accusing Brooklyn D.A Charles Hynes of protecting Kolko the pedophile. They say he discredited his own witness, dissauded others to testify and gave Kolko a better-than-necessary deal. The moral cowards and perverters of justice in Brooklyn's Charedi community must take responsibility for this. Hynes is a politician, scared sensless of offending Orthodox leaders. As the Jewish Weeks tells it, Hynes has prostituted his office to satisfy the Orthodox community before. He wouldn't have spared a monster like Kolko if the Brooklyn pukes and abominations who masquerade as Jews hadn't made it clear that this was the outcome they desired.
Seemingly divided court considers death for child rapists
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Wed Apr 16,2008
WASHINGTON - Proponents and opponents of imposing the death penalty for rape of a child underwent intense questioning Wednesday from a seemingly divided Supreme Court.
The hour-long argument came in the case of inmate Patrick Kennedy, sentenced to death for raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter.
Kennedy's lawyer, Jeffrey L. Fisher, told the court the death penalty for child rape under Louisiana law violates the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia challenged Fisher's position that the Louisiana law is too broad and that not enough states have enacted the death penalty for child rape to justify the Supreme Court's support for it.
"The trend has been more and more states are imposing the death penalty," said Roberts.
Louisiana is among five states that have imposed the death penalty for child rape since 1995.
The case represents a potentially different direction for a court that in recent years has narrowed the death penalty, overturning it for murderers who are juveniles or are mentally retarded.
Kennedy is "exquisitely culpable" and he has committed a crime that is "just unspeakable," Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz told the court.
Louisiana prosecutor Juliet Clark described the injuries of Kennedy's stepdaughter, which required surgery, arguing that a crime of such savagery warrants Kennedy's execution.
Justice Stephen Breyer expressed concern that "suddenly we will be in the business" of broadening the death penalty for crimes other than murder.
"I am not a moralist, I am a judge," said Breyer.
Kennedy is one of only two people, both in Louisiana, on death row in the United States for raping a child without also killing the victim.
No one has been executed for anything other than murder in 44 years. In 1977, the court ruled out executions for rapists whose victims are adults.
It left open the issue of whether raping a child could lead to death.
Arguments in the Louisiana case came on the same day the high court settled an issue that had put executions across the nation on hold for months. The justices turned back a challenge to procedures for execution by lethal injection in Kentucky. Similar methods are used by roughly three dozen states.
Besides Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas also allow executions of someone convicted of child rape, although the latter four states never have applied the death penalty to child rapists. Missouri, led by Gov. Matt Blunt, is considering a similar law.
Those states say there is a trend toward toughening penalties for people who victimize children and contend that death is an appropriate punishment for so horrific a crime as the rape of a child.
Kennedy's lawyers say more states have rejected the death penalty for child rapists and that the reasoning of the court's 1977 decision — that death is an excessive penalty for a rapist who does not also kill — should apply even when the victim is a child.
Groups that work to prevent sexual violence also have sided with Kennedy. They say victims often know their attacker — a relative or family friend — and that more rapes will go unreported if children have to worry that their words might lead to an execution.
The other inmate, Richard Davis, was sentenced to death in the Shreveport area in December. He has just begun appealing his conviction and sentence.
The case is Kennedy v. Louisiana, 07-343.
Yahoo! Alerts Yahoo! News Wednesday, April 16, 2008,
WASHINGTON (AP) Pope Benedict XVI tells the U.S. bishops that the clergy sex abuse scandal was "sometimes very badly handled."
---------------------------
Pathetic Putz Liar!
This from vin
Brooklyn, NY - Newspaper Claim: DA Charles Hynes Fails To Pursue Child Abuse Cases
Brooklyn, NY - Michael Lesher, an attorney and community advocate specializing in child abuse cases, said he could cite at least two other cases “off the top of my head” in which Hynes failed to diligently pursue child abuse cases in the Orthodox community.
“I say it reluctantly that there has been a pattern of inaction by Charles Hynes’ office in cases of this kind,” said Lesher. “That’s a statement I make based upon hard evidence in specific cases. ... I must at this point consider it to be a politically motivated pattern.”
Marci Hamilton, a professor of constitutional law at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and author of the forthcoming book, “Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children,” termed the outcome of the Kolko case “the worst of all possible worlds.”
“It’s such a joke,” she said. “It’s really a travesty of justice the way it’s been handled.” “The sad part,” said Hamilton, “is that . . . more children are going to be endangered. They really have not solved any of the public’s legal problems with this person, and the tragedy is that you end up with communities not vigorously going after the clergy in their own communities. Then it’s their communities that suffer, [and] the children who are most likely to be at risk in the future are the children within the same community.
“That’s a tragedy that has repeated itself in one religious organization after another,” she said.
-----------------------------------
Charlie tuchass lecker hynes, you are scum, b/c of your not even slap on the wrist for kolko, you have proven to us once again what a spineless coward you are, for years, mondrowitz was out of a jail cell free to harm every innocent child he can reach as you pimped your fat ass to ben barber and friends, mutterperl another person who told investigators "when I see young girls, I cannot control myself, and I follow them" were is mutterperl now? who knows, probably out wandering the streets looking for little girls, now with kolko this takes the cake, charlie your a pimp and must have a warm spot for child molesters, go rot in hell you schmuck.
Mi Lashem elei, join me in a campaign of e-mails and phone calls to the brooklyn DA's office so we insure this not happen when they get mondrowitz back in town, demand an answer to this ridiculous kolko plea deal, its sickening and discouraging to many victims out there who were contemplating if to file a complaint against their rebbi with the DA or not.
Please e-mail...
asktheda@brooklynda.org
CienavaM@ BrooklynDA.ORG
JausR@BrooklynDA.org
While your at it send an e-mail to the israeli justice department, just a little reminder that we want mondrowitz to face his victims in a courtroom here in brooklyn.
Please e-mail...
YaelK@justice.gov.il
feedback@mfa.gov.il
Hey charlie, your a f**ken pig !!
In an ideal world, your high school age kids would spend 1/2 the day studying real academics and Torah, and the other 1/2 day being apprenticed to someone who knows a skill, trade, or craft in which they have an interest in order to prepare for making an honest living and supporting their family when they get married.
I know a kid in engineering school who works as an apprentice plumber. I told him that engineering can be outsourced to India but when your house if overflowing with crap, that can't be outsourced. Though I suppose illegal immigrants can underbid you.
The Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim, Horav Hagaon Rav Henoch Leibowitz, zecher tzaddik l’vrocha, has passed away. The funeral is scheduled to take place at Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim, 76-01 147th Street in Kew Garden Hills, at 1:30PM on Wednesday. Rav Leibowitz was a Rosh Yeshiva for over 60 years, inspiring generations of students. This is a tremendous loss for all of Israel.
Inspiring? Why inspiring? I have no doubt the Rosh Yeshiva inspired some students in his time, but what an odd way to praise the deceased. Not only does the word carry a new-agey whiff of flim-flam, it also short sells him: Wouldn't it be more fitting to remember a great Torah sage for teaching his students?
Anyway, the passing of this wonderful man, is an apt time to remember the circumstances that led his father and predecessor to establish Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim. Here's the Wikipedia version:
The yeshiva was established in 1933 following a dispute between Rabbi Dovid Leibowitz and the administration of Yeshiva Torah Vodass. The cause of the dispute is not known. At the time, Rabbi Leibowitz taught [DB: or perhaps inspired] the "top shiur," or most prestigious class, at Torah Vodaas, and when he quit to create his own yeshiva most of his students left with him.
Great story, no? The star teacher, sorry inspirer, walks out with the best students and starts his own place around the corner. Though the dispute was likely about something mundane like money, or assignments, I prefer to imagine that RDL walked out on principle. But what was the principle? Dare I dream RDL left because he -a student of the Alter, and a nephew of the Chofetz Chaim, and a strident Litvak, besides- could not stomach the Hasidic leanings of the school's head, Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz? Wouldn't THAT be great? Alas, I have no evidence but as half baked theories go this one is as good as any.
BDE RHL. May his memory be a blessing.
A lot of people suffer. But whether people had good childhoods/adulthoods or horrendous childhoods/adulthoods, all people must logically strive to be good people if civilization is to thrive. This blog has failed to keep this in mind.
This blog apparently wishes to inspire insults rather than serious thought or dialog.
We readers know one thing for sure, the more someone is insulted on this blog, the greater a person they must be.
AF
Oil hit another new high today of $115.54.
And this just in from Reuters:
Merrill Lynch to cut 2,900 jobs after huge loss
Reuters
April 17, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N) on Thursday posted a quarterly loss of $2 billion and said it planned to cut 2,900 more jobs after recording more than $6.5 billion in write-downs on subprime mortgages and other risky assets.
STOP GIVING THE CHAREIDI CREEPS--
FROM VOSIZNEIAS--"New York - Rabbis: Mitzvah To Expose Haredi Criminal Gangsters Exploiting Yeshiva Boys"
28 Comments - Show Original Post Collapse comments
Anonymous just a yid said...
first of all, it is terrible that these bochurim are in jail and it is a very important mitzvah to get them out. but i think its very harsh to jump to conclusions that a frum, erliche person would do such an awful thing like set bochurim up to go to jail. i think we need to be dan lekaf zechus here, and assume at least that perhaps the yiddin who 'set up' the bochurim were set up themselves by others. also, the bochurim could very likely have been arrested just to try to get money out of their families, etc., or for political reasons. after all, we have just seen in our own community how the "authorities" tried to lock up a respected mechanech (Reb Yidi Kolko, shlita), and in the end it was proven that this was all just for money and for politics, not because any wrongdoing had occurred.
Rabosai, we need to focus our efforts on helping these bochurim get released, not causing more machlokes by trying to point the finger on other yiddin! lets work on our middos of achdus and being dan lekaf zechus.
chag kasher vesameach to all
UOJ, why in the world are you knocking the Pope? At least he met with victims of clergy abuse, said he was ashamed, and prayed with them.
When do you think that our Gedolim will show this much compassion? Will it take 2 billion dollars in lawsuits to get them to feel our pain?
Of course he is a rasha and a liar and corrupt and a fraud. But our religious leaders can't even live up to him. We are truly in big trouble. Really big trouble. Really big. Big.
BORO PARK PERV APPREHENDED:
Borough Park, NY +Suspect Arrested Molesting Kids At Park+
Borough Park, NY - Community patrol services, and concerned citizens have asked VIN News to inform the public of the following important issue.
As we are very busy preparing for Yom Tov, and the kids are home from school, we send them to play outside at parks, in an unfortunate situation that happened in the last few days, a predator by the name Michael Martin, has circulated in a Borough Park playing park, at 18th Ave. and molested several young kids including one 4-year-old and two 8-year-old children. the perp was apprehended today by Boro Park Shomrim Patrol, and arrested by the NYPD.
Please make sure you know where your kids play, and warn them to be vigilant on their surroundings. educate them on this sensitive issue.
To AF:
The people most insulted on this blog are rabbis who molest children and those who promote molestation with their coverups and silence.
Are these truly the greatest people you can imagine?
Can't you imagine anyone better than Rabbi Margolis threatening victims of abuse? Can't you imagine anyone better than Mondrowitz ruining hundreds of Jewihs lives? These are the people insulted the most.
Even the Pope, Yimach Shmo, expressed outrage at the molesting of children. Can't we do the same without people like you trying to shut us up with your holier than thou BS? Go back to molesting your children or sticking up for rabbis who do it for you.
Ken:
Hopefully the idea would be for us to call plumbers from our own community before resorting to illegals - that's another part of the issue. By supporting tradespersons from our own community we are keeping them off of charity and welfare, ideally.
We readers know one thing for sure, the more someone is insulted on this blog, the greater a person they must be.
-------------
Ergo, Kolko, Margilies and Mondrowitz are your true lamed vuv tzadikim.
Have another sip of that yummy cool aid you're drinking.
So Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch won't return something he borrowed?? That's rich because I recall lending him a sefer that took repeated cajoling and threat of a fine to get it back. This was at the time he'd refer to himself as 'Chief of Accounting' at J&R when he was just a bookkeeper.
i knew it. Yasser was right about you people.
gut moed uoj. i figured youd enjoy this photo also did you notice who will be at thgis years tora umesora convention? also check out the letter that the jewish press wrote regarding that hell hole in jamaica. It was worded vey carefully.
Now that he has pleaded guilty to "child endangerment" (I have no idea what that means), he DEFINITELY losses his Chezkas Kashrus.
This essentially removes the biggest hurdle towards permitting Lashon Hara Litoeles (Speaking poorly of a person for a constructive purpose).
Therefore, it is Halachikly imperative that all Jews be alerted and all those who know what is going on to speak up.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04192008/news/regionalnews/bad_raid_rage_107180.htm
April 19, 2008 -- The NYPD has launched an internal probe after cops broke down the door of a Hasidic family's home in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood as they hunted for a suspect in a racially charged assault on the black son of a cop.
The Internal Affairs Bureau and the Civilian Complaint Review Board are investigating why officers burst into the Eastern Parkway apartment, searched the home and arrested the suspected attacker's 20-year-old brother, Aron Ezagui, without a warrant.
The raid Tuesday night came several hours after two young Hasidic men attacked Andrew Charles, 21, sources said.
Sources said Charles was walking near the corner of President Street and Albany Avenue when a Jewish man asked, "What are you looking at?"
Charles was sprayed in the face with mace. Then the attacker made a phone call and a car showed up. Three or four other men jumped out and one of them began beating Charles with a baton, a source said.
The source also said that the same car was found later without license plates.
Charles, the son of officer Moses Charles, sought treatment at a nearby hospital.
"He has a lot of bruises and pain in his back," said family spokesperson W. Taharka Robinson.
Ezagui told The Post he had just come from a deli when he heard loud banging and people identifying themselves as police. Instead of opening the door, he turned on a camcorder.
"I don't know what they'll do to me," said Ezagui, who was in the apartment with his mother, 9-year-old sister and possibly others.
In a Post reporter's review of the tape, police shout, "One more time and it's coming down."
Seconds later, more than a dozen cops charged into the apartment carrying flashlights.
Once inside, police asked whether there was "a hostage." The man replied, "Do you have a warrant?"
Ezagui was taken to the 71st Precinct and charged with obstructing governmental administration, but the Brooklyn DA's Office declined to prosecute.
The Ezagui family expressed anger about what happened and filed a CCRB complaint. The family is also weighing the possibility of a lawsuit against the NYPD.
CCRB spokesman Andrew Case said: "We have the complaint, and we're investigating it."
A law-enforcement source said police were alerted to the possibility of a hostage situation by Ezagui's aunt, who lives in a neighboring apartment - a circumstance that can preclude the need for a warrant. Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese
philip.messing@nypost.com
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04192008/news/regionalnews/kinky_news_networkcnns_quest_a_very_knot_107174.htm
April 19, 2008 --
This is CNN? Kinky!
CNN personality Richard Quest was busted in Central Park early yesterday with some drugs in his pocket, a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot, law-enforcement sources said.
Quest, 46, was arrested at around 3:40 a.m. after a cop spotted him and another man inside the park near 64th Street, a police source said.
The criminal complaint against Quest said the park was closed at the time - something Quest should have known because of all the signs saying "Park Closed 1 a.m. to 6 a.m."
Quest was initially busted for loitering, the source said. Aside from the oddly configured rope, the search also turned up a sex toy inside of his boot, and a small bag of methamphetamine in his left jacket pocket.
It wasn't immediately clear what the rope was for.
He was reportedly once offered a position for the English-language version of the controversial Al Jazeera network, but said he turned it down because being gay and Jewish, he didn't think it would be a good fit.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804190378
April 19, 2008
Man, 33, accused of sex with teen
Jane Lerner and Steve Lieberman
The Journal News
SPRING VALLEY - A wrong number brought Oscar Garcia together with a 15-year-old girl from a Hasidic Jewish community in Orange County, police said yesterday.
And their relationship became illegal soon after they met, police said.
Officers arrested the 33-year-old Garcia on Thursday night at his village home on a felony statutory rape charge accusing him of having sex with the underage girl.
Details of their relationship and how long they knew each other were not released by the police. Police said the girl hails from the Hasidic enclave of Kiryas Joel, whose members live separately from secular society.
Garcia and the child first met during a telephone conversation, Sgt. Louis Scorziello said.
"They met through an erroneous phone call," Scorziello said. "I don't know who dialed the wrong number - him or her."
Police were told about the relationship by the Rockland Sheriff's Department, which had received a tip, Scorziello said.
Officer Kim Grey handled the initial report, did interviews and located Garcia and the girl, Scorziello said.
"Officer Grey did an excellent job," he said. "She turned the details over to the detective bureau and an arrest was made."
Police arrested Garcia on Thursday at 17 Washington St. Yesterday he told a village justice that he lived there with his two in-laws.
Garcia was accused of having sex with the girl on Tuesday at the Washington Street house, according to criminal complaint read yesterday in Village Court.
Justice Susan Smith set Garcia's bail at $35,000 on a charge of third-degree rape. The District Attorney's Office recommend the bail figure. Garcia was being held in the county jail in New City.
Smith scheduled a preliminary felony hearing on the rape charge for Wednesday afternoon. The prosecution will have to provide evidence to warrant holding Garcia on bail.
If a grand jury indicts Garcia before Wednesday, the hearing would be adjourned and the case transferred to County Court in New City.
Garcia, handcuffed behind his back and wearing a white-T-shirt, blue jogging pants and sandals, didn't enter a plea.
He listen to the complaint and answered questions through a Spanish-speaking interpreter.
Garcia told the court he had been living in Spring Valley for three years and works for a landscaping company. He didn't identify the company.
Police said he was born and raised in Guatemala and his status in the United States was under investigation. If Garcia does not have legal status, conviction on the statutory rape charge could lead to deportation after a prison sentence or jail term is completed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/974819.html
A Nazareth District Court on Monday convicted the Mayor of Kiryat Shmona Haim Barbivai with a series of offenses, including taking bribes, forgery, fraud, and breach of trust.
Barbivai was convicted of 13 out of 24 charges brought against him, which stemmed from a period of time when he took campaign contributions from building contractors during mayoral elections in 2003.
While Barbivai was soliciting the assistance of local business leaders, he was also serving as the head of the local planning and building committee, which gave him the ability to reward contractors and developers who had contributed to his campaign.
From the jewish survivor blog.
Anonymous said...
I've come to believe we have no God. God would not let this happen to us! If he were a real GOD. He's made up!
April 24, 2008 5:40 PM
Sir Viver said...
In short, an aquaintance told me that the biggest difference between old time genuine judaism and modern day rabbi worship (aka as whoreship)is that in the times after the destruction of the temple in jerusalem the common jewish theologic thinking was somewhere along the lines that g-d is all good and all knowing and steers all that is done by mankind. EXCEPT the deliberate evil done by one man unto his brother with malicious intent. Orthodox jewish thinking (or lack thereof) today has it on good current authority and every day indoctrination that we may not question ANYTHING (a la christianity) and everything is caused by g-d.This is a dangerous aproach because it leads people to avoid questioning other peoples immoral acts and provides a sense of security for evildoers to hide behind as we rollover and take the abuse without daring to question ones motive for immoral actions such as rape theivery molestation muurder etc.
We must remember always that g-d is NOT the initiator of the molesters evil and perverted thaughts. G-d merely provided the choice for man to chose good or evil regarding his fellow man. The decision and resultant actions is by origination and act solely the work of man himself.
This answer is as important as the original question and therefore is worthy of its own blog post to benefit those in genuine search for authentic jewish thought.
As for the poster who concludes that "we have no g-d", I don't think that is logical and is a result of emotionaly charged challenges to understanding g-ds existance. Intelligent design of some flavor must be a likely explaination to the worlds complex existance. And being that judaism is the oldest major religion, I am more than comfortable as a jew to live my life believing in what our forefathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob beleived in. Our questions should not be a source of irrational conclusions our something to shun (as is done by chareidim the world over) rather a starting point for a search to gain more knowledge from the primary sources of hashkafa as in the works of the Rambam. Ramban, Ohr Hachaim and the likes.
Sincerely,
Sir Viver
April 25, 2008 12:02 AM
Anonymous said...
I also have come to the conclusion that there is no God. How can one believe otherwise when one contemplates the horrors some children are subjected to at the hands of their own parents -- Think of the thousands of children around the world who are sold into sexual slavery, brutalized and die a young death thru violence, AIDS drug overdose, or suicide These children never grow up to become survivors. God is completely absent thruout their short lives -- why should we believe God is present in ours? "God" is simply one's own inner strength to endure, the kindness one human being shows to another, or dumb luck to escape.
April 25, 2008 12:02 AM
Herstory said...
"The decision and resultant actions is by origination and act solely the work of man himself."
If this is true, can you explain the case of Malka Leifer? She's not a man.
April 25, 2008 9:36 AM
Anonymous said...
Sir Viver,
I used to think much like you and but after years of witnessing unrestrained evil in the world, I am less optimistic than ever about the existence of God.I would be interested in how your construct of God and free will responds to the following dilemma -- Why would a "good/moral" God allow a system in which evil doers are able impose THEIR free will over innocent victims without restraint, thereby REMOVING the ability of children and others to exercise THEIR free will to end their victimization? I am thinking of thousands of children throughout the world who have NO recourse to legal authorities, moral adults or even weapons to stop their brutalization at the hands of another human being. It seems to me that is a fundamental, cosmic imbalance with absolutely no moral centre/presence of "God" as Judaism conceives God. If you could provide an answer, maybe I will be able to have the hope that God does indeed exist/care.
April 25, 2008 3:45 PM
Anonymous said...
This is a tough one. I am a survivor and I believe in God. I believe that we all have free will...Evil and Good are equel forces in the world, otherwise thier would be no free will and we would all be like angels, animals, or robots. Not to say that I understand God and that I do not get angry at God. I still have a lot of questions...But I believe that things happen for a reason and that I survived for a reason. I believe that God is all knowing and all loving. I believe that God cares about how we treat each other above all else. I have trouble believing that God cares whether I rip toilet paper on Shabbat, or drink milk five minutes or six hours after eating meat...That I have a lot of trouble with.
April 26, 2008 1:15 PM
Uoj,
Welcome back and hope this summer goes a bit easier for you.
I just want to mention to you that over yom tov i noticed in one of the papers that torah umesorah will be having non other then Rabbi Shlechter there at thier annual weekend along with others who frankly do not belong there especially since he was behind the isac hirsch case all the way. what kind of mesorah are they showing us by have these no goodnik rabbis there? we must make sure in every way shape or form that shlechter is uninvited. I was told that a big shot of torah umesorah lives currently in lakewood .Not sure of his name yet
We cannot let DA Hynes get away with this. He needs to know there can be pressure put on him from both sides. He is up for re-election next year. Make sure to donate to his opponents. Even if we can't push him out of office, make him sweat his re-election.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19124694&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=560113&rfi=6
"Challengers target Hynes -Rivals say DeVecchio loss could make D.A. vulnerable"
By Thomas Tracy
After the Lindley DeVecchio debacle, people are mulling over a possible run against Kings County DA Charles Hynes.
The political bloody nose Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes received last month after a headline-grabbing mob mole case imploded around him has a few of his former challengers wondering if they have a shot against him in 2009.
At least one or two of the three men who ran against Hynes in the 2005 Democratic primary maybe preparing themselves for a second run against the D.A. now that some critics say that his position is vulnerable.
The Irish scrapper, however, doesn’t seem to be worrying about the loss of the Lindley DeVecchio case’s future ramifications, telling the New York Daily News recently that he’s not too worried about his re-election prospects.
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“I think [the loss] is a blemish on his office,” said Canarsie State Senator John Sampson, who came in second in the four way race for the 2005 Democratic primary for DA. “It’s his office and he is responsible for what happens in the case. He knew the good and the bad about the witness and he should have known that she had been giving conflicting statements to people about this case.”
All charges were dropped against DeVecchio on October 31 after it was discovered that Linda Schiro – their star witness — may have been lying on the stand.
Schiro, the longtime girlfriend of Gregory “the Grim Reaper” Scarpa, testified to both the grand jury and in court that she witnessed DeVecchio pass information to the mobster about people who later ended up murdered.
But, just as the prosecutors case against DeVecchio was about to wrap up, it was discovered that Schiro’s statements in court were inconsistent with a 1997 interview with two journalists planning to write a book about the Mafia.
In those taped interviews, Schiro was heard saying that DeVecchio was not involved in the murders he was being charged with.
“He should have known how detailed this witnesses testimony would be,” said Sampson who said that on the same week that DeVecchio was set free, his law firm won an attempted murder case against the DA’s office. He would not, however, identify his client. “You really had to wonder why the feds opted not to prosecute DeVecchio because they had the evidence and the same information.”
Despite his criticisms against Hynes, Sampson wouldn’t say if he was planning a run against Hynes in 2009.
“My first concern is 2008 and helping the State Senate get a Democratic majority,” he said. “Two-thousand and nine will take care of itself. But I promise you if I make a decision to run, experience will not be an issue.”
Sources said that high powered attorney and former Hynes challenger Arnold Kriss is also mulling over a run against Hynes.
Word about Hynes’ predicted vulnerabilities in 2009 were sparked last month when a Crain’s Insider report said that Democratic leaders were primping Judge Gus Reichbach for a run against him. Reichbach presided over the DeVecchione case.
Assemblymember and Kings County Democratic boss Vito Lopez was reportedly promoting Reichbach, who he has close ties with, according to the report.
But political insiders refuted the rumor, claiming that the esteemed judge wouldn’t want the job.
“It [the Crain’s report] was a silly story, it was nonsense,” said a source with close ties to Hynes. “Why would a this judge want to give up being a judge to become a young DA?”
The source went on to say that Hynes has “no problems” with Vito Lopez, so there would be no reason why the Democratic boss would be shopping for a challenger.
Without a doubt, Hynes will be running for his sixth term, Hynes supporters said.
Hynes made his intentions clear in a recent interview with the Daily News, when he claimed that he was “not going to satisfy critics who want him to resign or vow he won’t run for re-election.”
“As long as I can convince 51 percent of the electorate to vote for me, I’ll be here as long as I want and I’ll run on my record,” he said.
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