http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a7198/News/New_York.html#
Yeshiva Fired, Then Paid, Rabbi Charged With Abuse
Kolko got big bucks from Torah Temimah while ‘on leave’; lawyers suggest it’s hush money.
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko: Court documents reveal payments going back to 2006. by Hella Winston/ Larry Cohler-Esses - THE JEWISH WEEK
A Brooklyn rabbi charged with having sexually molested his students has collected almost $70,000 from Yeshiva Torah Temimah and entities linked to it since the school put him on administrative leave 22 months ago.
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko received payments ranging from $3,000 to $9,000 per month between May 2006 and December 2007, according to court records obtained by The Jewish Week.
The court records also suggest that before Rabbi Kolko left the school, he received tens of thousands of dollars above his reported yearly income at the school’s direction.
Rabbi Kolko faces trial on charges of molesting two boys at the school and attacking an adult former student within the past several years. He remains free on $60,000 bail since his arrest and indictments in December 2006 and September 2007. A trial date has not yet been set.
Four former students have also filed separate civil suits against Torah Temimah, alleging they were molested by Rabbi Kolko and that the school covered it up. The suits seek damages totaling $50 million.
This week, a fifth plaintiff came forward. Identified in his complaint only as John Doe No. 6, the former student, now in his mid-20s, alleges Rabbi Kolko molested him when he was between the ages of 11 and 13. The abuse, he claims, took place in the yeshiva’s basement and in Rabbi Kolko’s private office, among other places. As with the previous plaintiffs, the new one alleges that Rabbi Lipa Marguiles, the school’s chief administrator, “knew of allegations that Rabbi Kolko was sexually abusing boys at Torah Temimah years before” but failed to act.
Unlike the other suits, this one names Rabbi Marguiles personally as a defendant.
Michael Dowd, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, voiced concern Tuesday that the newly disclosed payments might influence Rabbi Kolko to remain silent about any knowledge or neglect by the school or Rabbi Marguiles regarding his alleged conduct. He noted that the yeshiva was effectively subsidizing Rabbi Kolko’s criminal legal defense while the school itself was being sued by his alleged victims for neglect.
Dowd, who represented plaintiffs in suits against the Catholic Church involving sexual abuse, said he saw the same pattern of continued payments in those cases.
“These child abusers could literally sink the institutions with the[ir] knowledge,” he said, explaining what he saw as the motivation for payment.
Still On The Payroll
It was in May 2006 that Yeshiva Torah Temimah announced it had put Rabbi Kolko on “administrative leave . . . on advice of counsel and by mutual agreement.” The announcement came shortly after two of the civil suits were filed, followed by a New York magazine exposé alleging years of child molestation by the rabbi and a decades-long cover-up by the yeshiva.
Despite Rabbi Kolko’s departure, canceled checks and other financial records show the yeshiva or entities linked to it continued to pay the rabbi substantial sums almost every month.
After repeated questions from The Jewish Week about the money, and repeated statements empahsizing the schools break with the rabbi, his attorney, Avi Moskowitz, said the funds were severance payments.
Significant gaps remain in the financial records. But from June 2006 — a month after his “administrative leave” was first announced — through August 2006, Rabbi Kolko received at least $6,000 per month from the yeshiva.
Attorneys for his alleged victims are still seeking yeshiva financial records for September and October 2006. But in November 2006, there was a change. That month a $6,000 check came from Yonasan Tendler, a Torah Temimah parent. The check was written out to “C. Grosnass,” apparently Rabbi Kolko’s married daughter, Chana Grosnas.
There is no record, once again, regarding payments in December 2006. But a payment for $9,000 in January 2007 came to Rabbi Kolko from Congregation Tzorchei Amcho, a Brooklyn-based religious charity headed by Tendler. Rabbi Kolko continued to receive payments, of $3,000 per month, from this charity through July 2007. In several cases, the charity paid Rabbi Kolko this sum the day after receiving an identical amount from the school.
After this, except for September, where there is another gap, the payments resumed from the yeshiva directly: $6,000 in August and October; and $3,000 in November and December, the last month for which records are available.
Regardless of who issued the checks and who received them, Yeshiva Torah Temimah can be assumed to have organized the payments, with Rabbi Kolko as the beneficiary. The yeshiva turned the records of these payments over to the court in response to a discovery request seeking all disbursements to Rabbi Kolko or his “agents” from the school or its “related entities or agents.”
Reached at home, Tendler, the head of the charity, which he described as a free loan fund, said, “I don’t think [Kolko] received any payments from the organization and I don’t have anything to talk about. Keep well.” In a follow-up call, he added: “I don’t know why payments made from a free loan fund or whatever should be a matter of public record.”
After checking with the school, Moskowitz, its attorney, said the checks to Kolko after his departure were severance payments, issued on the basis of a “halachic concept,” or religious law, that mandates one month’s pay for every year served for laid-off employees. Moskowitz noted that Rabbi Kolko had worked at the school for about 35 years.
(That concept is not universally accepted. A Modern Orthodox Bet Din ruled in 2002 that such payments are not religiously required.)
Court records show that in 2006, the school reported Rabbi Kolko’s salary to the IRS as a little more than $1,000 per month. Moskowitz did not respond to a detailed message asking how this comported with the payments of $3,000 to $9,000 per month to Rabbi Kolko in the months following his departure.
Asked about the payments to Rabbi Kolko via Tendler and Congregation Tzorchei Amcho, his religious charity, Moskowitz said that the yeshiva had borrowed money from the fund to pay Kolko’s severance.
“They had a payroll to keep, and they didn’t have the money for it,” he said. “He [Tendler] fronted the money.”
As for the payments the yeshiva made to Tendler’s free loan fund the day before the fund made payments in the exact same amount to Kolko, Moscowitz said: “The yeshiva has borrowed money from this free loan society and they pay back all the time.”
Halachic Justification
It is unclear just when Yeshiva Torah Temimah terminated its ties with Rabbi Kolko, necessitating severance payments.
Moskowitz said initially that Rabbi Kolko “was put on administrative leave at the beginning of the school year” in 2006 — a termination time at odds with the school’s May 2006 announcement. Asked to explain the meaning of “administrative leave,” Moskowitz said, “Kolko was taken out of the classroom ... until they [could] figure out what to do. He is not employed by them.”
Yet, when pressed on Rabbi Kolko’s status, Moskowitz said, “He is not on leave. The employment relationship has been terminated.”
Asked whether Kolko had been fired, Moskowitz said that the yeshiva “obviously anticipated that he is not going back there. The relationship has been severed. ”Attempts to reach Rabbi Kolko at home were unsuccessful and calls to his civil attorney, Robert Mercurio, were unreturned. Jeffrey Schwartz, Rabbi Kolko’s criminal attorney, said he was not familiar with the financial terms of Kolko’s departure from the school.
But David Framowitz, an alleged victim of Kolko and the subject of the New York magazine piece, said he was “totally shocked and appalled to hear that Yeshiva Torah Temimah has been and is still paying Rabbi Kolko a monthly salary since supposedly firing him in May 2006. YTT has been misleading the public for almost the past two years with this lie. ... Is this what parents are paying their hard earned tuition for?”
Tax Discrepancies On Pay
Meanwhile, the records filed in response to the discovery request show another anomaly. Prior to his departure, Rabbi Kolko apparently was paid sums by the school or entities linked to it far in excess of the salary the school reported to the IRS.
In 2005, the records show, Torah Temimah reported Rabbi Kolko received $10,067 in wages, tips and other compensation. But financial transaction reports filed with the court show the school paid him $73,400, in multiple payments of varying size each month, all of them described as “reimbursement.” Moskowitz said these payments were actually Rabbi Kolko’s salary, dismissing their being labeled “reimbursement” as “an internal accounting issue.”
In 2006, an employee earnings statement for Rabbi Kolko lists his “reg[ular] salary” from the school for the months of June through August as $1,000 per month. But an additional statement shows him getting the same amount during this period from the Religious Education Association, a religious charity founded and controlled by Rabbi Marguiles, the yeshiva administrator.
Financial transaction records also filed with the court show checks that appear to correspond with these outlays. Deductions seem to have left Rabbi Kolko with $1,844 per month from these two sources, for a total of $5,532 during the three months in question. Additionally, the transaction records show, the school disbursed another $12,900 to Rabbi Kolko, once again, all listed as unspecified “reimbursements.”
For the entire year of 2006, these records show, Rabbi Kolko received more than $53,800 from the school and from Rabbi Marguiles’ charity — considerably more than the $1,000 per month listed as his school salary.
Moskowitz, the yeshiva’s attorney, did not respond to repeated detailed messages seeking clarification of these discrepancies. But in earlier interviews, he strongly defended the school’s payments to Rabbi Kolko after his departure. “You mean that they give somebody that has not been convicted of anything, who worked for an institution for 35 years and then gets laid off, [severance] is newsworthy?” he said. “I don’t think so.” Rabbi Kolko, he noted, has not so far been convicted of anything.
Dowd, the attorney for those claiming Rabbi Kolko had molested them, would have none of this. “If you want, hold the money someplace . . . and then pay him later on if he is exonerated,” he said. “Who is going to complain then? But the idea that he’s being bought in order to defend himself, and if you will, his defense is being paid by the school that was charged with the protection of the children that he abused, it’s an outrage.”
Noting the New York City Department of Education’s policy of suspending teachers charged with sexual misconduct without pay, Dowd said, “I would hope that a yeshiva would hold itself to a higher standard than the New York City school system. ... The only severance that he should have received was a boot out the door.”
Hella Winston teaches sociology at Queens College specializing in the Orthodox community.
Larry Cohler-Esses is editor at large.
90 comments:
Sounds like this yeshiva needs, among other things, a better accountant.
How they will account for decades of neglecting the complaints of children and parents is another matter.
They seem to be making every moral and legal mistake in the book.
Use of the word 'halachic' in any sentence involving this apparently criminal enterprise is beyond the pale... but not surprising.
I hope they will keep some money back, to begin to pay those who have suffered, if and when they lose.
In my opinion, this is MAJOR NEWS!!!!!! What a bunch of Bast***!!!
There are some very very stupid people at YTT. If it came from a gemach why didn't they respond it was a loan? And if he was on adminstrative leave why couldn't it be with pay? And if it was w/o pay. Why severance? Severance is someone was fired. That's not leave.
Incredible.
Two young boys at the center of a custody battle
have not been seen since Shushan Purim, and police
have a warrant to arrest their father, Natan
Horowitz, whose last known address was in Long
Beach.
Horowitz allegedly took the boys, Yosef, 5, and
Michael, 3, and dropped out of sight after a New
York State Supreme Court judge in Hempstead
awarded custody to the boys’ mother, Stacey
Horowitz, at a hearing on March 19.
“She was awarded temporary custody because
of his failure to produce the children on numerous
occasions for visitation,” said David Seidemann, an
attorney who represents the mother. “We filed a writ
of habeas corpus commanding him to appear in the
courthouse with the children. He didn’t show and
[an] order was issued from the court that he be
apprehended. She was granted temporary custody
but it was too late, he was gone.”
“I’m scared for them,” Stacey Horowitz said of
her childen Monday evening. “Everyone says they’ll
find them, but how can you disappear into thin air
with two kids?”
She said that a friend who was dropping off a
mishloach manot package for the boys early on March 20, Ta’anit Esther, saw Natan Horowitz’s car
filled with white garbage bags.
“The upstairs neighbor told me he saw someone
with a yarmulke, a man in his 60s, go into the apartment
that morning, so obviously someone is helping
him,” Mrs. Horowitz said.
The boys do not have passports, she said, and
her estranged husband has never left the country.
His parents live in Woodmere, but they told detectives
they do not know his whereabouts. Parents and
son are said to be “not close.”
While the case was first considered to be custodial
interference, a missing persons report filed with
the Long Beach Police Department Monday night
upgraded its status. As of press time on Tuesday,
police had not issued an Amber Alert notification.
E-mail about the boys’ disappearance was sent
out on Monday by a Far Rockaway couple, Avi and
Dawn Goldstein, who are friendly with Stacey
Horowitz, and was forwarded “around the world”
earlier this week. It noted that Natan drives a tan,
four-door American car with the license plate DYP
1887 and moved to Long Beach from North Woodmere
just two months ago. It said that he is known
as a ba’al tefillah and ba’al koreh and may try to find
a job in either of those capacities. Jewish communities are asked to “look out for a
newcomer with two children.”
If someone spots him, it is suggested
that local police be notified
immediately.
Late Tuesday afternoon,
the Goldsteins received an email
from a Chabad rabbi in
Farmington Hills, Michigan,
saying that Natan spent shabbos
of Shushan Purim in their
community with the two boys.
The rabbi, who identified
Natan from his name and the
descriptions given in the
email, said that he was posing
as a doctor who was on vacation,
claiming that his wife had
died in a car accident.
Mrs. Horowitz hasn’t seen
her boys since Feb. 25, though
it’s not the first time she and
her sons were forcibly separated.
After she suffered a bout of
post-partum depression three
years ago, following the birth
of Michael, her husband had
her committed against her will to a mental health facility and
then refused to allow her to
return home. He obtained an
order of protection against her
and used it to have her arrested
eight times, she said, for
infractions such as returning
the boys two minutes late from
court-ordered visitation. Each
time “it was the whole nine
yards –– fingerprints, handcuffs.”
She has spent a number
of nights in jail.
Anna Kotkes, of Far Rockaway,
a friend of Mrs.
Horowitz, said, “When I first
met her I thought she was
exaggerating. Then I got to
know her more and more.”
On more than one occasion,
Kotkes or her sons
returned the boys to their
father after a visit with their
mom “because we didn’t want
her near him because he was
always having her arrested.”
One such episode
occurred on the front stoop of
the 4th Precinct in Hewlett.
“They literally grabbed her from behind. I never saw anything
like it. I was sick,” Kotkes
said. “He’s really done a number
on her.”
Kotkes said she, herself, is
“terrified” of Natan Horowitz,
who has “used four letter
words” at her and threatened
to have her arrested.
“I once said to Natan,
‘you’re both the parents, why
don’t you be nice about it and
share the kids?’” Kotkes
recalled. “‘You don’t want to
be together but why can’t she
have her kids?” He responded,
“‘No way, my kids know she’s
crazy. They’re smarter than
she is.’”
Earlier this month Stacey
Horowitz was evaluated by a
mental health professional
who agreed to share his findings
with the consent of Mrs.
Horowitz and on condition of
anonymity.
On the morning of her
second son’s bris, the family’s
home burned to the ground.
“Needless to say, she became depressed,” the therapist related,
and “she was not treated
for her condition for many
months.”
Today, “there is no evidence
that she is a danger to
herself or others [and] there is
no reason to think that Mrs.
Horowitz would be anything
other than a good parent.”
Natan “is also playing
games with the Get,” Mrs.
Horowitz said. He has ignored
three summonses to appear
before the Beth Din of America,
according to an official at
Get Ora, an organization
which assists women who seek
a halachic divorce. A Siruv
(contempt of court) document
is awaiting the signature of the
Av Beit Din, Rabbi Gedaliah
Dov Schwartz of Chicago,
according to Get Ora.
“I don’t know what to
think, what’s with my kids,”
Mrs. Horowitz said. “It’s horrible.
It’s just horrible.”
At least one mishloach
manot concept this Purim either
backfired, or was wildly successful,
depending upon your point
of view.
The bomb squad and detectives
from the 4th precinct were
notified after a person dressed
as Osama Bin Laden was seen
placing a package on the front
steps of a home on West Broadway
in Woodmere.
The package contained a
grenade with white powder
around it, candy, and a book
called “Jihad for Dummies.”
Mayer Fertig says Steve Mostofsky told him he took on Michael Hersh as a client "at the request of the Agudath Israel of America"
OUTRIGHT LIE - He tells Mayer Fertig that Isaac had to leave every foster home he was in because he is a problem. Several foster parents & rabbonim tell Fertig this is NOT true.
STUPIDITY #1 - He tells Fertig besheim R' Aron Schechter that it's ok to send Isaac to a place with no Shabbos or kashrus because of "pikuach nefesh"
STUPIDITY #2 - Mostofsky is spreading a probable lie that Isaac chases his mother around with a broom.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080402/NEWS/80402072
April 2, 2008
More than 50 Lakewood homes being auctioned to recoup Dwek's debts
By ZACH PATBERG
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
More than 50 homes here are being auctioned off as part of bankruptcy court's effort to gain back a portion of the up to $350 million the developer Solomon Dwek owes creditors.
The auction, which started at 1 p.m. at the Ramada Inn in Toms River, drew about 300 bidders who ranged from investors looking to accumulate real estate to renters trying to own their first homes.
The goal was to raise at least $8 million to go toward the $14 million of debt accrued by the 53 properties. Yet a majority of the first 25 homes auctioned off went back to the banks because bids weren't high enough
A broom?
Sounds like Naomi Klass Mauer claiming to NY Magazine she was chased around by a baal tokeya. At least she gets points for originality.
Naomi Klass, that Yefas Toiyar Road Kill, being chased by a Baal Tokeiyah??????!!!!!! Hochee Mama!
I can't stop laughing.
Love (or something more graphic) is Blind.
Besides this, they set up a pidyon shvuyim defense fund for him. They went around collecting for him on Purim. Does it get crazier than this?
Boog,
I wasn't kidding, she said her ex kept chasing her around the house to bloz shofar in her ears.
The NY Magazine cartoonist had a field day with it.
Either the Tendlers are raping girls or women or their laundering money for rapists. sick and getting sicker.
Was it this Purim that they were collecting for Kolko? Which retards were targeted as likely givers? Was this by making an appeal in Weinfeld's shul or did YTT have the bochurim go shnorring door to door with their stretch limos? Which ketanim gave michtvei haskama?
This a scam any way you slice it because Kolko is very wealthy.
UOJ made an appeal a little while back for the public to provide info on this Yonason Tendler piece of garbage.
Did any damaging information come back?
Fruchthandler & Pinter are probably giving a lot of money to Artscroll's so called foundation. In return they get tax writeoffs and a bunch of their relatives put on the payroll. I wonder if the 2nd perk is legal.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/03/14/jewish-school-director-resigns-over-controversial-poetry.aspx
By Chris Wattie, National Post
The director of a private Jewish school has resigned over a controversy about explicit poetry he posted on his personal Web site.
Brian Simon, the president of the Leo Baeck Jewish Day School, told parents and staff of the school in a letter today that David Prashker had quit as director of the school, which teaches 800 students from kindergarten to Grade 8. Mr. Prashker submitted his resignation amid what the president called “the recent unfortunate circumstances involving our School,” which erupted this week after an anonymous e-mail to parents this week called attention to his poems.The anonymous e-mail called the poetry “disturbing” and asked if parents felt comfortable entrusting their children to Mr. Prashker. One poem explored a young man's heady sexual encounter and used the word "f---" several times, another included the verse "the first act of killing is the hardest" and "the second time is remarkably straightforward."
It is not clear when the poetry was written -- Mr. Prashker's Web site references material that dates back to 1973 -- and it has since been removed from his personal page. Mr. Prashker, who is also a novelist, an artist and a poet, has not returned phone calls seeking his comment on the controversy.
His resignation will not take effect until Aug. 31, but he will take a leave of absence until then and the school will immediately begin the search for a replacement director, Mr. Simon said.
“This was not a decision that either David or the School took lightly or without appropriate consideration,” he said in the letter. “We wish David all the best in his future endeavours."
Parents at the school, which has campuses in Forest Hill and Thornhill, appeared split between criticizing Mr. Prashker and supporting him after the on-line poems were revealed.
Many appeared to be more upset about a potential breach in the school's electronic system, than the poetry's content after the anonymous e-mail exposing the poems was sent to many parents home e-mail addresses. “We continue to review the protocols currently in place to safeguard parents’ contact information, and to investigate how that information may have been accessed,” Mr. Simon said in today’s letter.
By comparison, Isaac is lucky he was sent to Jamaica and not this place on the British isle of Jersey:
POLICE probing the horrors of the Haut de la Garenne kids' home have found a trapdoor leading to the cellars where children were allegedly raped, drugged and flogged.
Former residents at the Jersey care home told police about the secret hatch.
And yesterday, deputy police chief Lenny Harper confirmed that it had been discovered.
He said: "We've uncovered what we have been referring to as a trapdoor. It is a space in the floorboards.
"The size and location corroborates what we've been told by victims. It's a homemade entrance in the floor above the cellar."
Forensics officers searching the cellars had already found a set of shackles and a bath secured to the ground.
Detectives fear the remains of as many as seven children may have been hidden in and around the home, known by locals as Colditz.
More than 160 former residents have told police they were abused.
Some of the crimes allegedly date back 40 years. Police are looking at a list of 40 possible suspects.
Journalists were yesterday shown the ground-floor stairwell, just feet from the door to the cellars, where a child's skull and other remains were found under a concrete floor last Saturday.
Forensics experts have spent more than 30 hours searching the small area for evidence. They have removed the concrete and are sifting through the rubble beneath.
The skull was discovered after a dog trained to sniff out human remains reacted strongly at the site.
The dog gave similar reactions in the cellar area, where children were allegedly tortured in "punishment rooms".
There are at least two chambers in the cellar area. They had been bricked up, possibly in a bid to conceal evidence.
Police are also searching for a third secret room after a tip-off from a former member of staff at the home.
Experts are slowly excavating the first of the cellar rooms, using diggers to remove large amounts of debris. Every piece of rubble will have to be examined.
More searches are taking place in the grounds, at spots where the "corpse sniffer dog" reacted.
Mr Harper said police have been told that bones were buried in a field next to the home.
He added: "We do not know what the remains are. They are still in the ground."
It's understood the police team will also search for clues in two pits in the courtyard of Haut de la Garenne.
The pits, each more than 10 feet deep, were originally designed to store rain water but it's feared they may have been used as dungeons.
A number of victims have told how they were locked in a "deep, dark place" before being abused.
One former resident of the home claimed yesterday that an ex-member of staff tried to silence him after he went to the police.
Steve, 38, said the woman contacted him through a friend. He added: "This person suggested I have a good life, a very good job, a family, I've left the island, it's all in the past and dredging it up won't help matters.
"I said that I had already spoken to the police.
"She said, 'Well, I know that but if they speak to you again, certainly about the remains, it would be in your best interests to keep a low profile.'"
Steve is one of a handful of people who spent their entire childhoods at Haut de la Garenne. He knows of the kids who "disappeared".
He said he was abused by staff, visitors and even other children at the home. He recalled: "When I was eight I was cornered one day. I thought I was in with the gang but I was grabbed and stripped of my clothes and told to have sex with this girl who was about 15.
"Of course I couldn't because I was too young but I had to pretend. If I didn't, they'd whip me with nettles and chuck stones at me.
"I was also made to stand in a corner until I couldn't stand up any more because I wouldn't go to sleep at night.
"When that didn't get the desired effect, they got all the people from the home to come to the bottom field.
"We were paraded out in our pyjamas and chased around the field by a staff member with a cane. When he caught you, he'd whip you.
"At the end of it, my pyjamas were ripped, I had cut legs and could barely breathe.
"I remember one of the staff said, 'This isn't right'."
Steve said the cellar area of the home was known as Baintree and kids were sent there when they misbehaved.
He added: "We knew there were canes there. I don't know about shackles but we knew about pillory stock things."
Builders who converted Haut de la Garenne into a youth hostel four years ago have told how they found shackles mounted on a wooden block and a bundle of "about five large canes".
Jersey's government have denied the workmen's claims.
Another alleged victim told how children at Haut de La Garenne were "groomed by paedophiles". Carl Denning, now 49, said: "It was always at night when we were put to bed.
"Lights went out. Occasionally somebody would come in and mess around with one of us in the dormitory. It was sexual."
Mr Harper revealed yesterday that two more former residents had come forward with "extremely serious allegations" of sex abuse at the home.
As the inquiry continues to grow, Jersey police have called in reinforcements from the mainland. Twelve specialist detectives from forces across England and Wales are set to join the team.
http://exposemolesters.blogspot.com/2008/03/shocking-kars-4-kids-oorah-scam.html?showComment=1204766520000#c4690928702299864680
Anonymous said...
I for one will never forgive Jack Mandel for torturing me while I attended elementary school. His trademark "come here tzadikal" still haunts me to this day. He's a sicko. So is his brother Shlomo Mandel
UK children rescued from worldwide sex abuse ring
· Two-year inquiry smashes highly sophisticated group
· 22 new arrests follow jailing of six Britons
* Vikram Dodd, crime correspondent
* The Guardian,
* Thursday March 6 2008
Detectives in three continents believe they have broken one of the most sophisticated paedophile rings ever. Eight British children between six and 14 years old have been rescued and arrests made in the UK, Australia and the US.
The ring used advanced techniques to avoid detection and one member boasted of belonging to the "greatest group of paedos ever to gather in one place".
Police traced the victims to addresses in the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre said. Some had been abused by their parents. The arrests followed a two-year inquiry which began in Australia, spread to Europe and was coordinated by the FBI in the US. The US was chosen as the base for police operations as most of the sex ring's members were American residents, police said.
A total of 22 people were arrested last week, including two men in the UK, in the final strike against the ring. Six further British men have already been jailed for their roles in trading and receiving pictures and videos on the network.
The newsgroup members gained access to the ring by providing pictures of child sexual abuse. According to US court documents, one member in Florida labelled one folder of images "mild" and another "wild". James Freeman, who used the nickname "Mystikal", bragged: "All I can say is they are worth the download." According to the US indictment against Freeman, seen by the Guardian, he wrote: "My thanks to you and all the others that together make this the greatest group of paedos ever to gather in one place."
Paul Griffiths, who heads the victim identification team at Ceop, based in the UK, said the children were subjected to horrendous abuse. "In every image there is a child. These images are crime scene photos where children are being subjected to sexual abuse. This is not 'child pornography'.
"It's important to remember too, though, that these children were not missing. They were located in the place where they were supposed to be safe - their own home - where their abuse was recorded and made available over the internet to satisfy sickening sexual desires of a deviant group of individuals."
Australian police said the international covert operation had uncovered 2,500 "customers" in 19 countries. As a result of the two-year operation, 400,000 images of child abuse were seized. Police also closed four commercial child sex web sites and arrested more than 100 people for allegedly purchasing child sex material. Officers in the UK used facial recognition software and a database called Childbase as they raced to identify victims from clues in each image.
The FBI's executive assistant director, Stephen Tidwell, said the online gang was run like a business, with indecent images used as a substitute for cash. He said: "This is beyond a quantum exponential leap for us to see folks that have gone to this much trouble to produce this kind of volume of horrific exploitation of children. But with 400,000 [images] we're going to be at this for years, trying to find the victims."
Peter Crawford from Queensland police's state sexual crimes squad, said: "It has been the most significant infiltration of an international child exploitation network by a law enforcement agency anywhere in the world. The major challenge for this investigation was to unravel the intricate web that networked offenders had weaved to protect themselves, incorporating strict guidelines, rules and encryption."
Members of the ring all used aliases, such as Box of Rocks, Crazy Horse, Lizzard, Methusaleh and Pickleman. In one example cited in the indictment, Raymond Roy, known as Nimo, posted videos of Thai children "to give everyone something to do for an afternoon".
"This one may offend here, so a word of caution, these girls are heavily drugged," Roy wrote on July 10 2007, according to the court documents. "Not much action to speak of, the girls are [sic] to [expletive deleted] up to move or resist. Three girls, the first one being the youngest, around eight or nine yo [years old]."
Noting the sophisticated process the porn ring used to outwit police, Tidwell compared the growing number of child pornography crimes to those of cocaine dealers, terrorists and the mafia. "If they had good operational security, that's a bad thing for us," he said. "When you've got that, you've got a real challenge for law enforcement."
Rabbi Dr. Gilbert Klaperman was the founding rabbi, in 1950, of Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence, NY. A distinguished professor and lawyer, he was a faculty member of institutions including Yeshiva College and Hofstra Law School. After his retirement from Congregation Beth Sholom in 1988, Rabbi Dr. Klaperman has continued to serve in various roles, including assistant district attorney in Kings County, New York.
Tzvi Gluck (son of convicted criminal Edgar Gluck) is an employee of Shereshevsky
Gluck tells Fertig he wasn't really arrested. Is this a cover up to protect Aron Schechter & Michael Hersh? Fertig then reports that Gluck, Pelcovitz and Rabbi Wolbe would have been jailed if not for the intervention of Malcolm Hoenlein, Willy Rapfogel (Met Council?), Hillary Clinton and her Chaim Berliner Putz Stooge Ben Ringel from the 5 Towns (orginally from Lakewood).
Shmarya has been running around claiming he "knows" from a dozen people that Isaac is "not frum". Rabbi Wolbe, Isaac's foster parent, says he is Shomer Shabbos. It just goes to show that Shmarya will jump to conclusions he favors when he is short on facts.
Oh and one more shtuss from Putz Mostofsky. When pressed by Fertig, he admitted that TB is a boot camp but quickly "farentfered" that it's not a problem as long as Michael Hersh was keeping tabs on them by phone from Flatbush. What kind of a Dumb Putz is this Mostofsky? At least Ben Brafman comes up with BS that is believable.
State helpless in face of skeletons in haredi closet
In spite of efforts by welfare officials, local rabbis, state authorities are unable to curb rampant child abuse in ultra-Orthodox families
Yael Branovsky
Published: 04.03.08, 08:03 / Israel Jewish Scene
One harrowing case after another, yet welfare officials stand by helpless: Faced with a string of heart wrenching cases of child abuse in the haredi community, even state officials now concede that they have only been able to reach this closed community on rare occasions, and often too late.
One recent, disturbing case, for instance, in which a Netivot mother had sexually abused her son, only came to light when the son began to attend boarding school and molested a fellow pupil. The social workers who handled his case quickly realized that the child had no idea that what he was doing was wrong.
New generation of rabbis encouraging battered Orthodox women to seek help, involve police. Welfare minister: Conspiracy of silence on this issue slowly being broken
Full story
Dalia Lev-Sade, director of community services at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, stated in an interview with Ynet that seeing as the haredi community is so sequestered, haredi children enjoy less exposure to societal conventions of right and wrong.
“This is a group that is extremely closed off from the rest of the world, and so many times we are unaware of problems within the community and cannot intervene.”
“The case in Beit Shemesh is a classic example,” recounts Lev- Sade. ”Even though the family was monitored by welfare services, the social workers involved could not fully understand the family, nor the essence of the problems it was facing, because they kept such closely guarded family secrets. Only when something drastic occurs can we actually begin to take action.”
The ultra-Orthodox community, however, is slowly becoming more open, according to Lev-Sade. “The haredi community is slowly opening up and coming to realize that you can’t keep the skeletons in the closet forever.”
Orlet Moyal, director of welfare services at the Bnei Brak Municipality, tends to haredi families on a daily basis and knows all too well that that road to reaching this clandestine community is long and torturous. “It was nearly impossible to reach the haredi community just a few years ago, but we began to come up with creative means of reaching this community without offending its sensibilities.
“We wanted to be able to reach the haredi community before things became disastrous,” says Moyal, "and so we contacted local rabbis and rabbinical councils and urged them to mediate and intervene when families were reluctant to accept help.”
'More willingness to report abuse'
Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, head of the National Council for the Child, believes that it is the closed and reticent nature of the haredi community that in many instances precludes intervention by state authorities in child abuse cases.
“The haredi community firmly opposes airing its dirty laundry out in public, like we saw with many kibbutz communities in the past. The haredi community is extremely concerned about its public images, and in many cases rabbis did not allow families to go to the police and report abuse.”
Kadman noted, however, that this trend is mercifully changing. “In recent years there is more willingness among haredi families to report abuse. In our council alone, 30% of individuals involved in a project tending to victims of sexual abuse are haredi.”
Doron Aggasi, director of the Shlom Banecha foundation, which aids victims of sexual abuse and violence in the haredi community, stated that the recent public cases of child abuse within the haredi community indicate that the haredi world is changing for the better when it comes to reporting such crimes.
“These kinds of cases were often stifled in the past, because the haredi community was unwilling to disclose anything. Now however, people are far more aware of issues such as sexual abuse and familial violence, be it through exposure to the internet or other sources.”
Aggasi maintains that it is rabbis that are at the forefront of these positive changes in the haredi community.
“Rabbis have asked me about the best treatment options for pedophilia and sexual deviance, and we are currently training social workers to treat both victims and perpetrators.
"In this respect, the haredi community has bypassed its secular counterpart by far, because this is a very motivated, obedient society that has taken heavy handed measures to help curb such phenomenon.”
Roi Mandel contributed to this article
Does anyone know if the IRS has been tipped off so that they may investigate this fraud?
And regarding this "severance pay", what about payroll taxes, workmen's comp, disability, etc.?
And the fact that Margo / YTT has set up a legal defense fund for Kolko, can that be used against him in court?
I edited out some of Shmarya's wild conjecture about Isaac's frumkeit. Shmarya, who recently announced that he has dropped religious observance, wishes that no one be orthodox, which thus taints his ability to see things as they are. Shmarya is also going overboard on Moishe Rosenbaum and others who did rescue Isaac from a more imminent danger even if Zakheim is a criminal putz. The ones to blame are the courts. It also irks me, that unlike UOJ who was involved in the rescue, Shmarya is just bellowing all kinds of complaints from the sidelines when he did nothing.
-------------------------
The rescue of Isaac Hersh turns out to be far less complete that its backers maintained. First of all,…
…Isaac is in the custody of Steve (Shlomo) Zackheim, a man with a criminal background who a friend of Michael's father. Apparently, Rabbi Ahron Schechter agreed to this arrangement.
The courts ratified it while pushing off a custody appeal made by Isaac's aunt and uncle until May.
The rescuers apparently had no real plan for how to deal with custody issues after the rescue and did not do the legal groundwork necessary to assure custody in the weeks leading up to the rescue.
There are cases of other children sent to Tranquility Bay whose relatives – an aunt, for example – were awarded custody even before the child was removed from TB. It appears the legal groundwork necessary to make this happen was not done.
Further, Isaac's 'rescuers' continue to claim that Isaac was and is religious – something that friends and family say is absolutely false.
So what's happening here?
I think this:
1. Tzvi Gluck, MR and the other rescuers had no real viable plan.
2. They did not do the proper preparatory work to ensure the safety of Isaac.
3. At the same time, concern for shaming the community limited what could – and should – have been done to protect Isaac.
4. Isaac is now in the custody of someone with close ties to both Michael Hersh and other who supported him in his decision to send Isaac to TB.
5. A normal family court would have awarded temporary custody either to Isaac's aunt and uncle or to a court appointed foster home. Instead, it accepted a deal brokered with Michael Hersh, Rabbi Schechter and the rescuers to put Isaac within his father's easy reach. This only makes sense if the rescuers did not object or if the deal was brokered by them in the first place – and I'm told it was.
Twice now I got information on this case and was asked not to publish it by rescuers and their close supporters. Each time I was told publication "endangers" Isaac and Sol. And each time much of the information was made public a day or so later by these rescuers but through other outlets, like the Daily News.
Last night I spoke with a victim in all this and asked him about custody and related issues. I already had heard the rumors and had some confirmation. He knew something would be made public but he did not know exactly what.
What that turned out to be is a misleading piece in today's Jewish Star.
Isaac should be returned to his foster family in Texas and allowed to live his life as he sees fit, within the law of the United States.
Tzvi Gluck, MR and these other rescuers have the responsibility to do their utmost to make this happen.
At the same time, police need to view this case as it really is, and investigate and charge the people – Michael Hersh, Rabbi Ahron Schechter and, perhaps, others, who horrifically abused a teenage boy
http://theantitzemach.blogspot.com/2008/04/torah-vodaas-through-ages.html#2757294225416075478
The tale that (Belsky's grandfather) Wilhelm founded YTV himself is not true. See Artscroll's Reb Shraga Feivel book for more info.
An important player in the beginning was Mizrachi leader Rabi Zev (Wolf) Gold, who was a Rav in Williamsburg in those days, who reportedly gave YTV its name, which is the same name as the short-lived Yeshiva of Mizrachi leader Rav Yitzchok Yaakov Reines z"l in Lida had, before it closed in the WWI era. Not a coincidence I'm afraid. They had limudei chol there as well as limudei kaydesh (Lida I mean, as well as NY later), hence the name Tayreh and daas, similar to the Torah umadda slogan of another maysed.
YTV (NY) in the early days was ivrit beivrit (or maybe ivris beivris), as Helmreich reported.
"At least Ben Brafman comes up with BS that is believable."
Believable BS also comes with price sticker shock. Brafman won't even sit down to hear what the client's problem is unless these shmos like Leib Pinter & the murdering rap singers and Genovese mafia thugs put 25 grand on the table.
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/willig_mordechai.html
Vicky Polin has put up an entry on Rabbi Willig's involvement in the Lanner scandal.
A NJ newspaper reports that Rabbi Willig later issued a 2nd public apology for wrongly allowing himself to be a dayan when he knew Lanner personally.
Don't count on Belsky apologizing however.
Did Roland Arnall always have a good relationship with Marvin Hier or was there an eventual falling out?
Ask Hatzolah posek Dovid Cohen how he allows a convicted sex offender like Zakheim to respond to emergencies when he's putting his filthy, horny paws all over women in desperate need of medical attention, the same gender that he can't seem to get enough of.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20080403.html
Two Lawsuits Draw Attention to the Abuse Suffered by Troubled U.S. Teenagers Sent to Boot Camps Abroad: Why the State Department Should Push for an International Prohibition
By Marci Hamilton
FindLaw: Legal News and Commentary
April 3, 2008
Teenagers, even the ones who are stars at school and elsewhere, can be a challenge. Those who take a wrong turn toward drugs or gangs, to cite just two examples, can be very difficult to handle. Thus, it has not been uncommon in the United States for parents in such desperate straits to send their children to military schools or to wilderness camps.
There is also a third choice, however, which was in the news last week: teen boot camps. This choice, as I will explain, should be made illegal around the globe -- with the U.S. State Department taking a leading role in protecting U.S.-based (and, if possible, foreign) teens who suffer abuse abroad.
The Tranquility Bay Lawsuit and the State Department's Response
Recently, attorney Joshua Ambush filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a public interest organization in Washington, DC, against the Department of State. The suit alleged that State Department regulations establish an obligation on the part of the U.S. government to prevent the abuse of American children abroad.
In particular, the suit urged that the State Department needed to immediately investigate the abuse that American teenager Isaac Hersh had allegedly suffered at a boot camp in Jamaica called Tranquility Bay.
It is to the State Department's credit that it took the lawsuit very seriously, and quickly aided in Isaac's release from what appear to have been torturous conditions. At first, Isaac's parents, who reside in New York, tried to block his release. However, eventually they were persuaded to permit Yeshiva University professor and psychologist David Pelcovitz to accompany Isaac back to New York. Pelcovitz interviewed Isaac in Jamaica, in the presence of a United States embassy official; determined that Isaac had been abused; and brought him back to the United States for treatment and for his safety.
The good news is that Isaac was rescued; the sad truth is that many children still reside at Tranquility Bay and in other boot camps around the world.
Another Suit Alleges Abuse At the Behest of the World Wide Association of Specialty Camps and Schools
Fortunately, a pending lawsuit filed in federal court in Utah aims to make some headway against these institutions. The defendant is the World Wide Association of Specialty Camps and Schools, based in George, Utah. The plaintiffs are 140 victims of teen boot camps (including Tranquility Bay). The suit alleges that they suffered severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of the camps -- including being forced to eat their own vomit, having their hands and feet bound, being locked in dog cages, being forced to reside in isolation, being placed in painful postures for long periods of time, being deprived of food, and being deprived of any education.
From even this sketchy description, it seems obvious that these so-called "boot camps" are nothing more than modern-day torture chambers.
Once again, just as in the arena of childhood sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and outside it, it has taken a number of adults, working in tandem, to create the conditions for such horrible treatment of children. Once again, terrible crimes have been committed against children by the very adults who were supposed to protect them. It is up to the national and international legal community to now ensure their safety by shutting down these camps and making their practices illegal.
It Is High Time for the Federal and State Governments to Aggressively Target Teen Boot Camps and Those Who Patronize and Enable Them
When parents send a child to such a boot camp, and support it with their payments, they are creating the opportunity for such abuse. Accordingly, those parents who were aware of the camps' nature, yet still sent their children there, should be held fully accountable under the law: They essentially have paid third parties to abuse their children on their behalf. Moreover, the camps, their owners, their employees, and the government agencies that look the other way should also face serious legal repercussions.
With Isaac Hersh's story still fresh in everyone's mind, it is the right time for the State Department, Congress, and the state legislatures to initiate all the action needed to shut down the camps operating in the states, exert great pressures to shut down the ones operating abroad, and exact heavy penalties on those operating abroad when U.S. minors are abused there. As I have argued in past columns such as this one, the platforms of the national political parties should have a plank that speaks to protecting children from harm. This is a nonpartisan issue; thus, each of the three remaining viable candidates for President should include the protection of children as one of his or her highest priorities.
Like the international trafficking of children for sex, the ugly international subuniverse of boot camps causes massive suffering, and thus demands that fast, decisive, and harsh action be taken.
Marci A. Hamilton is a Visiting Professor of Public Affairs and the Kathleen and Martin Crane Senior Research Fellow at the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. An archive of her columns on church/state issues - as well as other topics -- can be found on this site. Professor Hamilton's most recent work is God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law (Cambridge University Press 2005), now available in paperback. Professor Hamilton's forthcoming book, which will be published this spring is entitled Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children(Cambridge 2008).
We are in the wake of a terrible destruction, Jewish blood IS spilling like water in the Holy Cities of Flatbush, Monsey, Baltimore, Chicago, etc. of precious sons of Zion who are falling by the hands of abusive Rebbeim and parents. Poskim have entered the estate of Hashem and turned Yiddishket into a heap of rubble. And all that is besides the frightening danger to the nation of Hashem from enemies from without who threaten to obliterate it - may it never come to pass, and may Hashem have mercy.
And then there are other heartrending tragedies that have suddenly afflicted our community. Parents who kidnap their own children, and roshei yeshiva who threaten victims while paying the abuser. We are all enveloped in mourning over the calamities borne by Jews in every city. We are becoming our own worst enemy.
We therefore call and encourage the entire community to gird and strengthen itself in what the Jewish people relies upon, the pillars of the world: Torah, avodah and gemillus chasodim - and to gather in shuls and botei medrash to pour out prayers and pleas before our Father in Heaven. Through the recitation of Tehillim and the Yom Kippur Koton service on Thursday, 27 Adar II, may the wicked repent and see the dangers of their ways.
May our entreaties be pleasing to the Master of all, and may He listen to our cries, accept our prayers in mercy and quickly bring us the Redeemer without delay. May the pain of the victims begin to dissipate. Amen!!
Rav Ahron Shechter
Rav Lipa Margolis
Rav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler
Nuchem Rosenberg- The Mikva Man from Monsey - says he went to the DA and told him that the chareidi public has to be educated about molesting and that it is not mesira. Just like the Muslims misinterpret the Koran that you can stab anyone on the street same way they misinterpret the Torah that going to the police is mesirah.
A must listen. In yiddish.
It shows that the people are rising up to take back yiddishkeit.
212-461-2778
If someone could translate and put a transcript here, it would be interesting for all.
Rabbi Moses Zevulun Margolies, (1851-1936) was the founder of the Ramaz school on the Upper East Side.
Any relation to Margo or Ruben from Manhattan Beach?
http://www.ckj.org/docs/JewishWeek10.1.2004.pdf
“If you live close to Madison, Park, Fifth Avenue, you feel like people know you’re comfortable,” said Anny Ralbag, a longtime resident and member of Congregation B’nai Israel on East 77th Street, a small Orthodox shul. “You feel upper class.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3525966,00.html
The 34-year-old Levy, whose real name is Ted Riley Floyd, contacted members of the American 'Torah' organization, which helps Jews back into the religious fold, and presented himself as Nathan Levy, a secular Jew interested in reconnecting with Judaism.
The organization quickly found a place for 'Levy,' along with his wife and four children, in the closed-off ultra-Orthodox community in Forest Park, Lakewood.
Community members welcomed Floyd and his family with open arms and open checkbooks, offering to pay tuition fees for his children.
"We saw it as a great mitzvah," said one of the women who knew the family. "We cooked Shabbat dinner for them and opened our doors and hearts to them so that they could become a Kosher Jewish family."
And they did. Floyd established himself in the yeshiva as a studious young man, who one of the rabbis described as "sharp, clever and witty." In fact it wasn't long before Floyd was promoted to be a teacher's aid in the yeshiva.
But last month the hoax came to an end. Federal officers arrested Floyd in his Lakewood home and revealed to his many friends in the community that 'Nathan Levy' is actually a con-artist with a knack for adopting the identities of deceased persons and carrying out various schemes under their names.
Jacob Perlow's brother in law Eichenstein from Chicago is now giving the hashgocho on Shotzer matzos. He is using the name of his Zidichev kehillah, where Yosef Meystel is gabbai.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20050825.html
The Drive to Create Pedophile-Free Zones: Why It Won't Work - And What Will Work
By MARCI HAMILTON
hamilton02@aol.com
R' Nuchem Rosenberg is the mentch who forced the Badatz to shut down a Yerushalmi mikva where pedophiles were molesting & raping young boys. He is a tremendous yiras Shmoyim and talmid chochom who is a bokee in hilchos mikvaos.
Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg lives in Monsey now? When did he move from Williamsburg?
Hey Pollock,
How did Riley Floyd get past your painstaking scrutiny to get into BMG?
Complain to your grocer that you don't want to buy the Zidochov molester matzos and that you aren't happy that they are selling them.
He is a tremendous yiras Shmoyim and talmid chochom who is a bokee in hilchos mikvaos.
------------------
Then he knows that all the male mikvas need to be shut down the same way the gay bath houses were shuttered when the Aids crisis hit.
The only severance that he should have received was a boot out the door.”
---------------------
Picture this. Margulies, Applegrad, Geldwirth and Kolko booting each other out the front door of Torah Temimah.
Never happen with the fox guarding the henhouse.
YTT had a million dollar collector, a real pro, as a 9th grade rebbe. He used to daven visikin at Modzitz. A tallish guy with a reddish/blondish/mix beard I forgot his name. I always see him by Landau.
What's his name and was he shnorring for Kolko?
It’s articles like this one in the Jewish Week that make me understand the rage expressed by the blogger known as UOJ.
That kind of behavior by a supposed rabbinic leader is inexcusable and enough to create a 1000 UOJs!
"Complain to your grocer that you don't want to buy the Zidochov molester matzos"
That comment was posted at 4:15. At 4:16 the Yenta already called and gave me an earful. I called the distributor and told him to take them back or I will never hear the end of it.
Please support my brother in law and buy the Zidutchev molester matzos.
I am against molester matzos of any kind!
I think everyone should buy from Tiferes Matza Bakery in Far Rockaway under the personal hashgocho of Moron Horav Hagaon, R' Yisroel Belsky, Raish kol bnei galusa.
Forget Belsky & the Bungalow Putz and listen to Perlow. Er iz fort a Chaim Berliner.
Rebbitzen Ralbag veist nisht vus zee zugt. Vee are da highest class on Ocean Parkvay.
Da next after us is Belsky's chaver Yankev Klass.
ExposeMolesters blog is reporting that 'Effin Wachsman, who screamed at UOJ at the Agudah Fresser Convention, was an employee of Yudi Kolko at Camp Manavu.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
"My occupation now, I suppose, is jail inmate."
- Unibomber Theodore Kaczynski, when asked in court what his current profession was
http://bp1.blogger.com/_DCGOA_RlajQ/R_VsSeX5cYI/AAAAAAAABeE/b4ep0hCLvlc/s1600-h/scan0002.gif
Here is a copy of the lab report with identifying markers erased.
R' Yudel accuses Dayan Westheim in England of perpetrating a tarfus scandal against the public. Westheim certifies special production runs at the treif Haribo candy company in Austria for gummy bears and like with gelatin. R' Yudel asked him which gedolim gave reshus to start playing around with gelatin because companies have an incentive to cheat since fish gelatin has a low melting point of about 80F and it's yellowish tinge is not ideal. Westheim told R' Yudel he got the go ahead from Dayan Wosner in Bnei Brak & Rav Blau from the Badatz. R' Yudel was suspicious so he asked these rabbonim who denied it and said they actually told Westheim not to get involved. R' Yudel then got a financial sponsor to test 8 packages of gummies in a lab.
6 out of 8 samples came back as TREIF BEEF GELATIN !!!!!!
Protecting Our Children
From The Editor's Desk
By: Larry Gordon
Published: Thursday, April 03, 2008
The episodes are as notorious as they are unconscionable. They are complex real-life events that are even more difficult to commit to paper without offending the sensibilities of the reader. Having spoken with and listened to professionals in the field of medicine, psychology, and social work over the last few days, I have come away shaken and even frightened by stories of depravity that have been perpetrated on children. I’m talking about frum children, kids who go to yeshiva with smiles on their faces, children just like yours and mine.
Some of the stories are about horrible events that occurred a long time ago. While some did indeed start long ago, in at least one case a series of lurid assaults took place over decades without detection. And if there was detection, then there was awful and damaging neglect for which our judicial system is in the midst of assigning responsibility.
The type of stories I am alluding to have been detailed in painful and garish terms in the general press over the last couple of years. It is vitally important to point out that these events are an aberration and in no way representative of a blight or systematic failure in our mostly exemplary, high-achieving yeshiva systems around the country. In fact the overwhelming number of cases of abuse occur in the home, unfortunately with a minority of cases taking place in schools.
But if even one single child suffers from any type of abuse, whether it is in school or in the home environment and those who can exact some positive impact on that situation look the other way or excuse the behavior in some way, then we need to know about it and we need to act.
On too many levels we live in unusually difficult times. The focus of this essay is about the way in which our senses are assaulted by shocking and yes, a disgusting depiction of the way in which personalities of note—lately those in the New York political arena—have conducted parts of their lives. The news of these matters is everywhere we turn. You can’t buy a soda in a store without passing a newsstand and having increasingly offensive headlines and photographs jump out at you as you wait your turn on line to pay for your purchase.
Fortunately the news and the doses in which it is delivered are not part of most of our daily lives. But don’t allow yourself to be misled. This type of attention-grabbing and jolting news has maneuvered itself and managed to seep into our otherwise relatively insulated community. In some way we’ve been invaded, and while some of us can handle it, others are having difficulty processing these messages. This week the Israeli press reported on an alarming increase in abusive attacks on boys and girls in Bnei Brak in Israel. So apparently it’s everywhere.
This being the reality, it’s clear that most everyone is in agreement that our children need to be protected to the maximum extent possible. That means affording protection in homes that are sometimes troubled, in school situations that can occasionally get out of control, and on the street with friends, in the relaxed atmosphere of our summer camps, and in the myriad settings and situations young innocent children find themselves in.
To this end a meeting was held this past Saturday night to announce the formation of a new group—the Board of Advocates for Jewish Children. There is an impressive array of individuals who have worked for years on legislation that further enhances the protection of our children. Present at the meeting were a number of attorneys, psychologists, pediatricians (very often the first line of defense in these matters), social workers, school administrators, teachers, and several rabbis from Far Rockaway, the Five Towns, Brooklyn, and Queens.
It’s important to note that those involved in mitigating these problems say that there is probably a record number of teenagers—boys and girls—who have either given up or been given up on by schools, their families, and so on. One meeting participant described several instances of scores of kids who just make the street their home in Boro Park and Flatbush and how he has developed a relationship of trust and loyalty with these kids so that he is able to track down where a young person has gone when they are not home sometimes for days at a time.
The theme of his remarks is that this type of behavior does not occur in a vacuum; it’s an expression of hurt and frustration that often is an outgrowth of some form of abuse. He’s in the streets every night trying to locate kids for parents who are obviously worried sick. He says he’s busy seven days a week working with kids who know that he is a friend who cares, and he works with police trying to keep these children out of the system when they act up, as many tend to do.
Interestingly enough, each professional sees the situation and its solutions from his or her own personal and professional perspective. Elliot Pasik, an attorney from Long Beach, is one of the founders of the new group. While there are many ideas and items on the agenda, in the short term Mr. Pasik is diligently promoting a bill already introduced in the New York State Senate by Senator Dean Skelos and sponsored by Harvey Weisenberg in the Assembly for mandatory fingerprinting and background checks for prospective and current school employees. He hopes to get the bill passed and into law before this coming summer. A number of yeshivas and other schools here and around the country have voluntarily fingerprinted all employees. Others submit new hires to professional background checks as well.
While this is a step in the right direction of further protecting children from harm, there is also concern about how the move will be received from the perspective of our schools. On Saturday night there was concern about the yeshivas in particular seeing this movement as being adversarial to and in conflict with their management styles. Yes, you can always find parents who have an ax to grind with a teacher, a rebbi, or an administrator in any given school for any number of real or imagined reasons. The Board of Advocates is determined not to be a forum for that type of expression; on the contrary, with the professional makeup of the board, issues that stem from misinformation and misunderstandings can be easily identified and resolved.
The goal is clear: to provide and implement effective procedures that can indicate to supervisory personnel when there is a problem that requires their attention. The bill that Mr. Pasik has worked on with Mr. Skelos calls to amend the education law, requiring fingerprinting and for “nonpublic and private elementary and secondary schools to apply to the commissioner of education for criminal history record checks on prospective employees.”
In the future, it is hoped that legislation will be passed that will bring to nonpublic schools all the additional protections of Project SAVE (Safe Schools against Violence in Education) that are not in the current legislation:
• mandatory reporting of child abuse or neglect by nonpublic-school employees;
• mandatory abuse-prevention plans;
• mandatory employee registration with the State Education Department;
• mandatory school-based health care.
We live in a time where there are many ills that plague our society. In addition, some things that were once shocking and intolerable have somehow found a place for themselves in the realm of everyday life. That’s the area in which responsible parents and school personnel need to put the brakes on this downward spiral. Working with the schools, the Board of Jewish Advocates For Jewish Children can make important inroads that improve the lives of our children.
Would anyone go to a doctor or entrust an attorney or any other professional who had a questionable history or who could not stand up to a professional background check? Would you put your child on a school bus in the morning if you knew that the driver has a poor driving history or even a suspended driver’s license? The answers are obvious.
Comments for Larry Gordon are welcome at editor@5tjt.com.
I didn't think it was a good idea when Yonason Tendler laundered Tatty's check in my name.
I'm the brunette that Tatty always said he would find the "BEST" guy for.
Tatty would always try to get European Briskers in Lakewood who probably didn't hear about any Kolko scandals in far away lands.
So Tatty found me a chain-smoking Brisker from South Africa whose father was originally the rosh kollel in Blackpool, England.
I went into YTT a few times to daven on Shabbos and stood right near Rabbi LM. The creepiness emanating from the fellow was actually tangible!
By now, everyone probably knows how YTT got its start, right? GRAND THEFT FRM YESHIVA TORA VODAAS!
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207238154936&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Apr 3, 2008 20:54 | Updated Apr 3, 2008 21:02
Ethics @ Work: Where's the shame?
The conviction of Knesset member and former cabinet minister Shlomo Benizri says a little about the state of public-sector ethics in Israel today, but the reaction to his conviction says a lot more.
About two years ago, Benizri was indicted for a variety of offenses involving using his public office for private gain, in particular by giving inside information and preferential treatment to businessman Moshe Sela in return for money and valuable services. This week, Benizri was convicted on a number of these offenses, based largely on the testimony of Sela himself.
That Benizri is guilty of such serious crimes is certainly dismaying. But it is not, in itself, necessarily symptomatic of a wider problem with public-sector ethics in Israel. All legislatures have occasional cases of bribery, and Israel is no exception. What is most dismaying is the evidently minor political damage that the conviction seems to be causing. Benizri has announced that he does not intend to resign, and no pressure whatsoever is evident from within his party. It seems that Shas doesn't think a bribery conviction here and there really matter to its voters, or to its political partners.
While corruption is nothing new in Israel or any other country, getting caught used to be a severe political liability. In the early days of the state, fewer cases of public-sector corruption reached the courts, but more of them were taken care of within the political parties, who were concerned about their image.
In a fascinating article on the changing attitudes toward corruption, former Jerusalem Post columnist Anshel Pfeffer wrote in January 2007: "For the state's first 25 years its leaders, including David Ben-Gurion, regularly covered up cases of embezzlement, resolving matters behind closed doors. Former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner reminisced on Army Radio... that when she was a young police prosecutor 50 years ago, it was unheard of for a politician to be brought in for questioning."
Ben-Gurion may have resolved matters behind closed doors, but the impression is that he resolved them, presumably, with the end of the guilty party's political career. The lack of involvement of law enforcement may reflect, as much as anything else, the effectiveness of the political system itself in rooting out corruption.
Later, perceived corruption in the Labor Party was a major factor in the 1977 electoral success of Herut (precursor to today's Likud) and Dash, leading to the first electoral defeat for Labor after almost 30 years in power.
I don't know if today's politicians are any more corrupt than those in the past, but the electorate's tolerance for corruption seems to be much greater, reaching an alarming indifference. Prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was forced from office, in part because it was revealed that his wife, Leah, had a modest dollar account in the United States. But prime minister Ariel Sharon had enough political capital not only to stay in office, but even to launch a new party despite an endless series of criminal investigations against him and his political allies, including one that landed his son, Omri, in jail for crimes committed on behalf of his father.
After Estherina Tartman was caught having included gross fabrications on her CV, Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman removed her very reluctantly from be a candidate for tourism minister, at first trying to downplay the significance of the fraud (which was not however a crime). Tartman continues to serve in the Knesset; evidently Lieberman doesn't consider audacious lies in the service of political advancement to be a political liability among Israel Beiteinu voters.
Benizri is not the first Shas member to be convicted. Raphael Pinhasi was convicted in 1997, but did not resign from the Knesset. Former chairman Aryeh Deri was convicted in 1999. In 2006, Yair Peretz was convicted of obtaining a phony diploma and did leave the Knesset, but was allowed to run on the subsequent Shas ticket. Peretz was replaced by Ofer Hugi, who was in turn convicted of submitting forged documents.
Shas supporters claim that their legislators don't enjoy equal protection of the law, and that the legal establishment is engaging in a witch hunt against their party, so they are convicted for crimes that other public figures are allowed to get away with. (Peretz never claimed that he was innocent of cheating to obtain his degree, he merely claimed that "everybody does it.")
It is hard for me to evaluate these claims; they even have a certain plausibility. But my claim is precisely that the legal establishment shouldn't be necessary to eliminate corrupt legislators; if the political system is functioning well, it should be eliminating them itself.
Revelations of misconduct by an occasional legislator are always dismaying, but not necessarily a source for worry. But the very low political price that these revelations seem to bear is extremely worrisome. French diplomat Joseph de Maistre commented almost 200 years ago, "Every nation has the government it deserves." Israel will never have, or deserve, honest and competent legislators if the voters don't insist on them.
ethics-at-work@besr.org
Asher Meir is research director at the Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem (www.besr.org), an independent institute in the Jerusalem College of Technology (that employed Mondrowitz).
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3526179,00.html
Jerusalem court finds Shas member guilty of passing on advance information to building contractor in exchange for perks worth millions of shekels; Benizri's spiritual, political patron, Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, of facilitating and accepting bribes
Aviram Zino Latest Update: 04.01.08
Two years ago Benizri was indicted for passing on advance information to building contractor Moshe Sela which included details on the quota of foreign laborers expected to arrive in Israel.
The prosecution said that in return for this information the Shas member had received perks worth millions of shekels, including large sums of money, expensive furniture, cleaning services, electrical appliances and help in expanding his apartment.
The MK was also convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and disrupting court proceedings. His spiritual and political patron, Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, was convicted of facilitating and accepting bribes and conspiracy to commit fraud.
During the trial, Sela, who became a state witness, said he financed various construction works and renovations at Benizri's home and claimed that the Shas MK had attempted to disrupt legal proceedings.
"By now, everyone probably knows how YTT got its start, right? GRAND THEFT FRM YESHIVA TORA VODAAS!"
Actually, we still eagerly await UOJ to release all the incriminating documents pertaining to Margo's thievery.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3509939,00.html
On shaky ground
Shas MK blames gays for quakes, but his party’s corruption may be real cause
Aliza Davidovit Published: 02.22.08
It’s acknowledged that the Gay Pride Parade shakes up Manhattan every year, but never to the magnitude of 5.3 on the Richter scale. Yet that’s exactly what Shas Knesset Member Shlomo Benizri touted as the cause of Israel’s earthquake this past week: "homosexual activity practiced in the country.”
Perhaps Israel is on “shaky ground” because your religious party, which is supposed to stand on a moral, ethical ground, has been mired in scandal after scandal after the indictment and subsequent conviction and imprisonment of your former party leader, Aryeh Deri.
Or perhaps others in your party have tickled the Richter scale as well, including Raphael Pinhasi, Yair Lev, Ofer Hugi and Yair Peretz, who have all been convicted of offenses including fraud and forgery. Or are the Knesset walls now trellised with rosebuds because of your own indictment and charges by the State Prosecutor's Office for accepting bribes and breaching the public trust?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/970772.html
Nurit Elstein, the Knesset's legal adviser, has concluded that it is not possible to suspend MK Shlomo Benizri from the Knesset until the court rules that his actions constitute moral turpitude.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3458853,00.html
New generation of rabbis encouraging battered Orthodox women to seek help, involve police. Welfare minister: Conspiracy of silence on this issue slowly being broken
David Regev
The number of calls made to hotlines for victims of domestic violence in the Orthodox community has increased three-fold over the past few years, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.
The number of haredi women who called the hotlines jumped from 477 in 2004 to 1,402 in 2007, while the number of women who were housed in shelters for battered women each month nearly doubled, from 24 to 40 on average.
Attorney Noah Korman, who established the first shelter for abused haredi women in 2000 and opened a second one two years later said, "The phenomenon of violence against women exists in the Orthodox community just as it does in any other, but it was not made public as it was in the secular sector. Haredi women preferred to keep it secret. It must be remembered that domestic violence brings great shame on an Orthodox family."
According to him, haredi women turned to the hotlines and shelters as a last resort.
"Women who arrived here did so after suffering years of abuse, when they felt they were in danger and could not take it anymore," Korman said.
'It's strictly forbidden to beat a woman'
He said the change in the rabbis' position regarding the phenomenon was also instrumental encouraging more abused women in the community to seek help.
"Haredi women are becoming more and more aware of the dangers related to domestic violence, and the new generation of rabbis is encouraging them to file complaints and break the cycle (of violence)," Korman said.
David Yosef, the rabbi of Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood and the son of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, declared on Wednesday that it was "strictly forbidden to beat a woman.
"If the need arises to involve the police in this matter, then they should be involved," he said.
Korman said most of the violent incidents against haredi women take place on Shabbat due to the fact that on weekdays the men are usually studying at yeshiva or tending to other matters.
He said that in many cases the violence erupts at the Shabbat diner table, adding that many of the haredi women arrive at the shelters with their children, "sometimes with nine or 10 of them".
On Wednesday Welfare Minister Issac Herzog visited a shelter for battered haredi women for the first time.
"The conspiracy of silence regarding violence against Orthodox women is slowly being broken, and we plan on helping them as best we can," he said.
The punishment visited on Sen. Hillary Clinton for her flagrant, hysterical, repetitive, pathological lying about her visit to Bosnia should be much heavier than it has yet been and should be exacted for much more than just the lying itself. There are two kinds of deliberate and premeditated deceit, commonly known assuggestio falsi and suppressio veri. (Neither of them is covered by the additionally lying claim of having "misspoken.") The first involves what seems to be most obvious in the present case: the putting forward of a bogus or misleading account of events. But the second, and often the more serious, means that the liar in question has also attempted to bury or to obscure something that actually is true. Let us examine how Sen. Clinton has managed to commit both of these offenses to veracity and decency and how in doing so she has rivaled, if not indeed surpassed, the disbarred and perjured hack who is her husband and tutor.
Alfred Kahn, the adviser to President Carter who was chastised for using the dreaded R-word to describe an economic slump, famously took to calling it a "banana" instead. President Bush prefers to call it a "rough patch" or not to talk about it at all. But Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke treated the nation like grown-ups Wednesday, telling Congress that the economy is in such shaky shape that a "recession is possible."
This isn't exactly a news flash. Many economists — looking at billions of dollars of bad mortgages, months of job losses, plummeting home and car sales, and soaring gasoline and food prices — have concluded the nation is already in one.
He was always the shy giant. The depth of his intellect he struggled to hide. Gifted and talented beyond imagination. Always unassuming and humble. Saw and understood what nobody else did. The grandson of his grandfather. I miss you tiere R' UOJ. It would be nice to hear from you.
Tiere Chavrusa:
Dat's it?
What -how did fat ass steal YTT?? explain the story?
http://bp3.blogger.com/_DCGOA_RlajQ/R_Yv2uX5ceI/AAAAAAAABe0/RZR17FsH7Qs/s1600-h/westheim.jpg
How dare Yudel Shain expose my products as treif! Who cares if little kids are sucking down all this nisht geshochtenna fleish?
The economy shed 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/04/nwcp-of-baltimore-tzedaka-boxes-what.html
UOJ is probably wondering if R' Shmuel K sent me to Baltimore.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/beware-haribo-gummy-bears.html
Including more lab reports. He submitted other types of Haribo candy under Westheim besides the gummy bears. Other shapes were also found to be treif like the rattlesnakes & cherries.
People at the OU were smearing Rabbi Shain up until a week or two ago implying that he makes up stories and can't produce any evidence. Meanwhile because of these shmucks at the OU and elsewhere, some rabbonim refused to tell anyone not to feed this treif to their kids and even allowed Haribo to be distributed in shul.
The moral breakdown we've seen over the years is astonishing: financial scandals, such as tax evasion and money laundering every year, like clockwork; various chilulei Hashem, ranging from "The 10 Worst Landlords of New York," to a frum guy selling treife instead of kosher meat for about ten years, to child sex abuse, to rabbinic covering up for that abuse, to plain old child abuse, to shushing everything up for fear of "shidduchim," to kids gone wild because of ...many reasons, among them a cloistered, asphyxiating educational system which only offers Talmud all day long---a system into which everyone is supposed to fit---to a lack of respect for secular education, to a lack of respect for the kids themselves and their need to gently experiment and think independently, to a "condemn everything" mentality, leading to bans on...well, everything: Jewish books. Rabbis. Music. And competing Jewish philosophical ideas.
This is charedi Judaism, 2008.
The "goy" is bad. But you can take his money. Don't say thank you as he polices your streets and puts out your fires. Or , in Israel, stands on the borders and fights your wars. Instead, protest violently outside---and inside--- police stations if the cops give one of you a ticket. Scream at police in Israel, and burn your garbage in the streets!
At all times, in every way imaginable, consider yourselves above the "law" of the "goyim." Then, when convicted, make sure you only eat glatt kosher and learn daf yomi in jail. Don't rethink your hashkafiz. Oh no. And don't teach your children differently.
In Israel, don't get an education. Just learn Torah all day. After all, Israel needs 250,000 more rabbis than they have already. I'll be seeing them soon in my shul, begging for money. Coming from a country which is pretty impressive in the high tech field, and some others, it's a disgrace. No. Pass that by. Make a living, like a normal human? That's for the Zionists. We'd rather shnorr forever. By the thousands.
In every way, IN EVERY WAY, charedi society is broken: it is immoral, decadent, honors only its own, respects noone or anything else, is as insular as a monastery, hopelessly corrupt, and has no interest in learning its own vaunted "mussar" which it insists I learn so as to "work on myself." But does Charedi Judaism "work on itself"?
Did you know there was a Zakheim who gave the "hashgocho" on Bernstein's?
The Satmar Putz at VIN has started censoring all the comments and only allows ones that are pro-Michael Hersh-Sexheim-Chaim Berlin.
Where does this Putz Yonason Tendler live and daven?
From the "Pas B'Melech Toechal, I'm Destitute, Boo-Hoo, Sniff-Sniff" Dept:
BMG bids 6.5 mil for the Princeton School.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/16401/Beth+Medrash+Govoha+Bids+$6.5+Million+For+Old+Princeton+Ave.+School.html
While their Yungerleit have to resort to all kinds of dreidelech and Horomehs; WIC, Section 8, Foodstamps, V'Chuluh to make ends meet.
And of course making their parents and in-laws work like Ferd into their Golden years in order to support their children.
Somebody call PETA. Our Choshuve Elders deserve no less protection than the Minks and Kapporos Chickens.
Shmarya claims that Zakheim got off easy with only misdemeanor sex assault because it was a plea deal to avoid a felony charge and registering as a sex offender.
Can anyone confirm this?
Haribo are also a bunch of Nazis. The company owner was a POW captured by the Allies during WWII.
At this webpage there are tabs to click on to view the different periods of history.
http://www.haribo.com/planet/uk/info/frameset_verbraucherinfo.php?verbraucher=1
"The first successes"
Just before the Second World War, HARIBO is a solid medium-sized business with approximately 400 employees. Then the war comes, and the demand is for tanks, not gummi bears. Business drops sharply, as a result in particular of an increasing shortage of raw materials. The company’s founding father Hans Riegel dies an untimely death aged 52.
The Founder of success
The founder: Dr. Hans Riegel
Hans Riegel junior was a POW during the war, and he returned from captivity in 1946.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/03/beware-haribo-gummy-bears.html?showComment=1207329780000#c2246516792574736335
Yudel Shain said...
Rav Vosner, shlita Said he can't give me a letter re: Rav O. westheim... as they are Mechtonim, & he can't make a family .....
He said "ich-hub eim-gezugt-loi mit-a-groiser-alef...."
And Rav Blau also told me he told him to stay away "fun-der-kranker-bet- mit'n-Jela'teen".
http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer2/03072003/355361/reuven_elbaz_a.jpg
Where does UOJ find the time to go after even cockamamie Franken from Israel like me?
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/NEWS02/804040466
LAKEWOOD — Before his move here, or his name-change to Nathaniel James Levi, or his eventual arrest on identity fraud, Theodore Riley Floyd was a married Kansas man, raised Christian and aspiring to be Jewish, people who knew him said.
In 2000, he and his wife, Jamie, came to the Ahavath Achim Hebrew Congregation in Wichita and spent the next two years studying Torah law there until they were ordained as Orthodox Jews, the synagogue confirmed.
"This I would like to confirm definitely. Before he went to Lakewood, New Jersey, he was already (converted)," Rabbi Pinchas Aloof, the Floyds teacher at Ahavath Achim, said in a recent interview on the New York Jewish radio show, Talkline with Zev Brenner. "He acquired quite a bit of Torah learning in Kansas."
News of Floyd's conversion prior to his arrival in Lakewood put to rest the sweeping suspicion here among many Orthodox Jews that he was an impostor. Yet derision still remained over the fact that he apparently lied about his name and his Jewish heritage.
When he contacted Partners in Torah four years ago, Floyd, calling himself Levi, portrayed himself as coming from Jewish parents and living Orthodox most of his life, according to Rabbi Eli Gewirtz, the national director of the Lakewood-based organization, which has helped more than 20,000 people become familiar with their Jewish roots.
"There's always the bad apple. We have no idea why this person may have misrepresented himself," he said, expressing frustration at how such a publicized case had seemed to overshadow the great strides Partners has made.
Gewirtz said an assigned Partners' mentor spoke by telephone with Floyd for one hour each week for about four years while he was still in Kansas. "He wanted to study the Talmud," he said.
Eventually, a visit to Lakewood was arranged followed by a permanent move to the heavily Orthodox Forest Park section two to three years ago. There he flourished as a budding religious scholar until the morning of Feb. 21 when federal agents arrested him at his home.
Floyd is currently in federal custody in Kansas on a warrant charging that in 2002 he submitted a fraudulent passport application. Floyd had said he wished to make a pilgrimage to Israel upon his 2002 ordainment, Aloof said. The rabbi also said he had encouraged Floyd to find a larger and more Orthodox community to raise a family than the 300-family one in Kansas.
But when Aloof heard about the arrest, he had thought Floyd was in Israel, not Lakewood.
"This is disturbing to me," Aloof, now retired and living in Texas, said on the radio program. He declined several requests for a separate interview.
It is unclear when or why Floyd became Nathaniel Levi. The name, according to court and Navy records, is that of a man — now dead — who served in the Navy for less than two years in Florida on the USS Yosemite — an auxiliary boat that repaired destroyers — until his discharge in 1993. A Kansas court document cites Levi's death certificate was issued in California. The Navy lists his hometown as Bakersfield, Calif., the same town Floyd told Partners in Torah he was from. Floyd, as Levi, had also told his Lakewood brethren of his time fighting in the Gulf War. But the military's national personnel center in St. Louis has no record of Floyd serving in any branch.
Questions still circulate here about who he is. Reno County, Kan. Police say he stole a refrigerator in 2001. The Barton County Sheriff's Department also has an outstanding warrant on him for $2,500 for a misdemeanor theft charge.
There's little else. All that his mother, Vera Floyd, who now lives in Tucson, Ariz., offered was that he was raised a Christian, met his wife at a small county college in Kansas and "was our boy in Wichita."
She knew nothing of Jewish conversions or migrations to Lakewood. "We don't keep in touch much," she said, then added: "The last time I talked to him he told me that if anyone called about him to not say anything."
Zach Patberg: (732) 557-5739 or zpatberg@app.com
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?template=zoom&Site=B3&Date=20080404&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=804040466&Ref=AR
UOJ must have given the newspaper my picture.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/NEWS/804040448/0/NEWS02
The address is technically in Jackson NJ but it's right at the border of Lakewood and steps from the oylam at the end of 14th St.
UOJ Enforcement Division said...
Where does this Putz Yonason Tendler live and daven?
12:12 PM, April 04, 2008
====================================
last i heard he lives in seagate and has a small yeshiva . dont know if this is his current situ..
When ‘dayanim’ and ‘rabbis’ use the Torah for their own power and commercial profit, this is the behaviour of a swine i.e. a Pig.
No other ‘rabbi’ will ever act against another ‘rabbi’ - even when he knows his colleague is clearly desecrating the Torah. Each rabbi is only worried about losing his own position.
Therefore, the ‘rabbi’ and ‘dayan’ will never effect justice. And he will never truly stand for the Torah or the Honour of Hashem. His pocket will always prevail.
The Torah must never be used for commercial gain and profit. Am Yisrael can only be lead by those who have the necessary love and respect of Hashem and the Torah.
1. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may use lies. They turn the innocent into the guilty, and the guilty, become the innocent. They will not hesitate to tell lies in the Synagogue.
2. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may steal. They steal and siphon off money for themselves, from the community and individuals.
3. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may commit murder. They may shame a Jew in public, even repeatedly. This is one of the most vile acts of murder in Jewish law – and they know this.
4. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ will not hesitate to use Lashon Hara - the ‘Evil Tongue’ - to suit his own ends. Slander and gossip. This too, is one of the worst acts of murder in Jewish Law. Their slander is never challenged by the community, because they hold positions of power. And the slander may begin with the Rebbetzin herself.
5. The ‘dayanim’ and ‘rabbis’ worship idols and other gods. Their only god is Money. Especially the ‘Dayanim’ – the ‘Judges’ who sit on a Beit Din. They only care about their high incomes and retirement packages. They have little or no love for the Torah or Hashem.
In the case of Lubavitch/Chabad, all their rabbis are carrying out a form of Avodah Zarah – strange worship. They are using mediation and intercession. This is completely forbidden, and against the Torah. We are only allowed to pray to Hashem, directly ourselves.
6. When the NAME of Hashem has been taken in Vain – repeatedly - by reshaim, the ‘rabbi’ will turn a deaf ear and blind eye to the
CHILLUL HASHEM.
This is the abhorrent behaviour of a Pig.
This is an extremely severe and dangerous situation.
There is NO forgiveness for this evil sin and aveirah.
7. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may also offer large bribes, tell lies and bring False Witnesses – when he in fact has committed the crime. These are heinous acts of the most despicable kind. This is especially vile when the ‘dayan’ is sitting on a ‘Beit Din.’
8. The ‘rabbi’ may commit adultery. And when he gets divorced, he may spread slander about his own ex-wife, blackening her name – when in fact he was at fault.
9. The ‘dayan’ and ‘rabbi’ may also desecrate Shabbat – if it suits him. He will use physical violence to assault another Jew or Jewess at any time. This evil and venomous behaviour is 100% against the Torah.
A further word of advice regarding those who masquerade as a ‘dayan’ ‘rabbi’ or false ‘mekubal’:
1. These men may knowingly and willingly, deliberately deceive a Jew or Jewess. e.g. in the area of shidduchim, or offering to perform a ‘pidyon nefesh’.
This abhorrent and deceptive behaviour has caused tremendous harm to people who are innocent and trusting.
2. Do not ever ‘kiss the hands’ of these men (which they might offer to you in public).
3. And do not be duped into queuing and waiting, to see them for their ‘brachot’ (‘blessings’). They peddle ‘brachot’ purely for their own selfish gratification and ‘kavod’ (‘honour’).
Their duplicitous behaviour is nothing short of deception and cunning. In short they are abhorant and causing so much harm to amm israel. They prey on the vulnerable, and those who are naïve, unsuspecting and trusting of these pedlars.
Any man who chooses to be a ‘rabbi’ (‘true teacher’ of Torah) or a ‘dayan’ (‘judge’), or a ‘mekubal’ (‘kabbalist’) should be doing so Voluntarily. Out of his pure love for Hashem and the Torah. And his Ahavat Yisrael.
If he refuses to do community work voluntarily, and wants and accepts payment for everything he does, such a man should not be leading a community. He should get a job and earn a living. He can collect milk bottles or clean the windows. That is what is called ‘earning a living’.
Torah is learned, studied and taught: out of Love. Voluntarily. But the ‘rabbis’ have turned the Torah into their ‘Profession’, from which they earn money.
We are commanded in the Shema to:
‘LOVE Hashem, your G-d, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and with all your soul and with all your might.’
‘VE’AHAVTA et Hashem Elokecha BECHOL LEVAVECHA uvechol nafshecha uvechol meodecha.’ (Devarim, Vaethanan, 6:4-5)
Is the ordinary man or woman PAID to pray to Hashem, or to say some words of Torah? No. Has veshalom! But the rabbis are. These men can give ‘lovely’ shiurim that they have rehearsed. But they would not give a shiur without being paid for it.
The true hachamim and rabbis of old, all actually worked at proper jobs and professions.
Wake up! Even a little child could have worked this out. These salaried men can never truly stand for the Torah, because in a case of conflict between a correct course of action according to the Torah, and the rabbi or rav’s pocket – his pocket and position will always prevail.
Pirkei Avot: (2:2)
“Raban Gamliel beno shel Rabi Yehuda HaNassi omer: yafeh talmud Torah im derech eretz, sheyegiat shenaihem mashkachat avon. Vechol Torah she’ein imah melacha sofa betailah ve’goreret avon. Vechol haoskim im hatzibbur yiheyu imahem leShem Shamayim……”
“Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabi Yehuda HaNassi, said: It is good to combine Torah study with a worldly occupation, for working at them both drives sin from the mind. All Torah without an occupation will in the end fail and lead to sin. And let all who work for the community do so for the sake of Heaven………”
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