UOJ ARCHIVES DECEMBER 2009
My information differs from the "Chicago" study. Rabbis raping female teens under their care, is much more prevalent than we dare speak aloud - until now. I am not aware if the Chicago study factored in the male teachers of females - or they solely questioned them about females molesting females; and therefore found no incidences of sexual abuse in Chicago by teachers. I can confirm, that although among female teachers and counselors there exists incidences of child molestation, it is much rarer than male teachers raping male students, much less. The summer camping season is upon us - talk to your girls (and boys)!
The Tendler phenomena can be divided into categories:
Mesivta Birkas Yitzchok
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Mesivta Birkas Yitzchok | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
| Los Angeles, CA, USA | |
| Information | |
| Type | Religious |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Jewish |
| Established | 2006 |
| Head of School | Rabbi Sholom Tendler[1] |
| Website | mbyla.org |
History
In 2006, Rabbi Sholom Tendler was forced to resign from his positions as Hebrew principal of Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles (YULA) and as rabbi of Young Israel of North Beverly Hills under a cloud of various sex scandals.*******
1- A rabbi places himself in a female school environment - in a position of power and control - where teenage girls are just coming into their raging hormonal sexual desires. A charismatic rabbi able to seduce a weak or naive female student is too easy. If the rabbi lacks extreme yirat Shomayim and yirat chet, a rather too common incidence in girls schools, the children are prey to these evil and seriously deranged - degenerate - sub-humans.
2- Generally speaking, rabbis that teach in girls schools are inferior in Torah knowledge than their counterparts in boys schools, and most, if not all - would not be considered a noted talmud chochom - or a serious Torah scholar. Although there are exceptions, the same findings would apply to rabbis that are principals in girls schools.
3- These rabbis, that are around teenage girls in particular, must be screened to the maximum, and under constant monitoring. The ideal would be - in a perfect world, that no rabbi under the age of 60 years, should be a teacher or a principal of a girls high school. There are exceptions that could be made as far as the age bracket - but far and few. Girls should never seclude themselves with male teachers, and never take a ride home with them by themselves. Parents must make their teenage girls aware of the potential dangers of taking rides with any male, teacher or otherwise. Male relatives that act inappropriately towards teenage children, should be kept away from them. Child rape happens too often in the Orthodox Jewish community, more than anyone will ever acknowledge, as well as in all other communities. Protect your child with knowledge and awareness.
4- The shalom bayit rabbis are for the most part ignoramuses in their ability to counsel couples with marital difficulties. Most of these rabbis that specialize in couples counseling, should never be alone with the woman. They use it as an excuse to get close to them, even if no physical sex takes place - at first. A rabbi that has counseled hundreds, if not thousands of troubled couples over 35 years, stands accused of being intimate with many women.
5- Women should NEVER drop off their underwear for shailos in person, and NEVER pick it up in person. Use the mailbox or leave it at the door with a symbol or a number. Rabbis have used the good ol' underwear trick to lure unsuspecting women into their office, to discuss the circumstances surrounding the spotting or staining.
6- A "known" posek - who is still a practicing hilchos nidah posek, stands accused of forcing his wife to wear the panties of other women left overnight, while he donned others himself. He still uses the "difficult shailos" as an excuse to probe the sex lives of women.
7- Women should never go to a rabbi's study alone at night - unless you are absolutely certain that the wife and older children are at home, and the office door is completely open. There is NOTHING a rabbi has to discuss with you behind a locked door, that he can not say quietly and respectfully with an open door. When you get there - if the wife suddenly went grocery shopping - GET OUT OF THERE! NEVER go to the shul office EVER, by day or night - unless you are with your husband, or if you are single, accompanied by a friend.
8- Any shaila that needs clarification - should be limited to the telephone - and NEVER let the rabbi ask any questions that pertain to your sex life. NEVER!
There are competent and ehrliche rabbonim - but there are many that are not - and will use an opportunity to molest, talk sex, have sex with trusting and naive women. A former "chief rabbi" of a major American city, was able to convince scores of baalat teshuvas that he must accompany them to the interior of the mikve and witness the tevila - as part of their welcome to the Orthodox Jewish community! What followed - you don't need much of an imagination. He used everyone as a door mat for his personal gain, including issuing bogus hashgochos on food items that needed serious supervision; only for the community to find out that he NEVER showed up at the facilities, and had no employees.
Rabbi sexual abuse is real and out there - and comes in many different shapes, forms and guises. If anyone knows of any of these incidents similar in nature to the above - let me know - once verified - I'll hunt them down with all the means available to me - for the filthy pigs that they are, and the damage they do to innocents!
Chabdehu - V'CHASHDEHU - respect - but - SUSPECT!
ADDED OCTOBER 9, 2013
Rabbis (allegedly) Infected With The Tendler Disease!
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new-york-news/name-god
http://www.adkanenough.com/27/post/2013/10/rabbi-dr-aharon-hersh-fried-child-molester.html
http://www.torahcafe.com/rabbi-dr-aharon-hersh-fried/teaching-a-definition-video_61e736b9c.html
ADDED JULY 2014
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| DOVID WEINBERGER - LAWRENCE, NEW YORK |
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| ELIMELECH MEISELS - CHICAGO - ISRAEL |
255 comments:
1 – 200 of 255 Newer› Newest»Just a reminder about the process of molestation, and this is nearly identical regardless of whether the victim is an adult or child. The perpetrator will only rarely be upfront about the intent to victimize. He (sometimes she) will “groom” the victim. This is process of preparing the victim to loosen and bend the boundaries about physical space, create an environment of (false) safety, generate a relationship that the victim could interpret as close and positive, and other such dynamics. These experiences might be welcomed by the victim, as they do not appear to be negative, and there is no perception that the perp will commit any form of damage.
This process can just as easily occur in an office setting. Typical behaviors can include getting the individual to remain at work at hours when others are not present, buying her lunch, ice cream, or even gifts. Unless all other workers are treated the same, the girl or woman should raise a red flag. There are now several resources to describe the halachos of tzniyus that are required for office work. Not everyone wants to follow them properly. Perhaps, some might claim, that the stated rules and guidelines in some of these books and pamphlets are overly strict. Even so, they are good guidelines, as many settings may turn out to be places where dangers can lurk. The yetzer horah is more patient that we are, and he will allow the process of grooming to take quite some time. Once the damage happens, it may be more difficult to get out of it.
I know of such abuse happening in schools, offices, and other places of business. As a community, we typically give too much credence to the holy malbush. The external dress, chassidish, litvish, yeshivish, or whatever they’re called these days, may be no indication of someone’s level of halacha observance and morality. Since these perps are not public in their pursuits, it is difficult to address the problem purely from the angle of limiting the criminals. There is little choice in this, but the process must begin from creating greater awareness so that potential victims can spot the trouble before it begins, and take the steps needed to prevent abuse.
Recently, I was consulted about a Rav who runs an office. He was finding more opportunities to spend time looking at the secretary’s computer, browsing over her shoulder, and initially apologizing when he brushed his hand past her shoulder. She became aware of his grooming, and was quite uncomfortable. She is receiving the guidance to politely extricate herself from the situation, while she is also preparing documentation to share with others to put a full stop to this man.
There was a modern orthodox rabbi in St Louis who Rabbi Kleiman accused of hitting on women. Does anyone know if it's true or if it was just a way for Kleiman to settle the score with his enemy?
There are some shomer Shabbos Sephardim who drive taxis for a living. One of them often picks up meshulochim with big white beards as fares. He does not let on that he is Jewish. He wears a cap but does not look Jewish whatsoever. He looks either Hispanic or Chinese. Some of the shnorring bums have acted very inappropriately while in his cab. They have tried to pick up young women in skimpy outfits by rolling down the window at red lights and blurting out crude advances in broken English. When the driver finally says something in Ivrit and indicates a high level of observance, the horny dogs just about go into cardiac arrest.
There are chassidishe ignoramouses who think that the far end of Flatbush is void of heimishe Yidden and the perfect place to go misbehave without being seen. There are reports of them taking "escorts" out to dinner in the restaurants here while their wives are at the bungalow. Maybe Neuhoff was conducting his polls in the wrong place. I personally never saw these dinner dates, well maybe one that looked suspicious, but I did see a guy with a big white beard and payos coming out of Blockbuster holding a video that is very sexual in nature.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3558004,00.html
Officials say UOJ, the CIA, the NSA, and British and Canadian intelligence agencies began to pick up a steady stream of information - from electronic intercepts, human sources and surveillance ...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/994529.html
Intelligence agencies in Canada and the United States are warning of mounting signs that the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah is planning to attack Jewish targets in retaliation for the assassination of top Hezbollah man Imad Mughniyah some six months ago, ABC News reported Thursday.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the February 12 assassination in Damascus, but Israel has denied any involvement.
The intelligence sources told the American news network that Hezbollah was operating sleeper cells in Canada, and that senior Hezbollah operatives have left Lebanon for Canada as well as Europe and Africa.
According to the sources, ABC reported, there is currently no specific warning of an imminent attack, but they added that Hezbollah operatives have recently carried out surveillance of the Israeli embassy in the Canadian capital, as well as several synagogues in Toronto.
The sources added that Latin America was also a possible target for a Hezbollah strike.
Four suspected sleeper cells have been identified in Canada, ABC reported, and some 20 suspected Hezbollah operatives are currently under surveillance. The members of the cells have received orders to send their family members back to Lebanon.
The network also reported that a Hezbollah weapons expert was spotted at a firing range south of Toronto. According to the intelligence sources, the operatives' moves are being coordinated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," said former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who told ABC he had met with Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last month.
"Hezbollah would not carry out an attack in the west, or wherever this attack is going to occur, without approval from Tehran," Baer added.
Baer told ABC that his Hezbollah contacts told him an attack against the U.S. was unlikely because Iran and Hezbollah did not want to give the current administration, headed by U.S. President George W. Bush, an excuse to attack.
Then again, not everyone is looking at making sexual advances. Some "rabbis" like me have a tayve to punch and slap people instead.
Attention All boys at Shaarai Torah In Monsey between the ages of 12 and 17 years:
Yeshiva Shaarai Torah in Monsey under the directorship of Pedophile Mordechai Gimpel Wolmark will be taking a trip to Venice Beach on the Shabbos that Rabbi Yisroel Belsky will be lecturing there to the immodestly clad women on Hilchos Tznius.
Following the Belsky lecture, the pedophile Rabbi Mordecahi Gimpel Wolmark will continue his series of discourses for all his attending students on the laws of nidda and Chassanim to be held at the same location, on the beach.
As is the practice when in Monsey, New York, on Motzei Shabbos, there will be a trip to the mall where boys who attended the beach lecture will be permitted to visit the local Victoria Secret boutique together with Rabbi Mordechai Wolmark, followed by an open discussion conducted by Rabbi Mordechai Gimpel Wolmark the nationally known sex pervert, on each students personal thoughts on the matter.
Wolmark is seriously a deranged sex maniac who speaks sex with his choice students and has brought groups of four at a time to the mall to visit with him the victoria's Secret botique. This monster must be forced out chinuch and out of our community in Monsey forever.
The ideal would be, that no rabbi under the age of 60 years, should be a teacher or a principal of a girls high school. There are exceptions that should be made as far as the age bracket - but far and few.
I think that the ideal should be that whoever involves themselves in chinuch should be involved solely in chinuch. By the way, what do you do with teenage girls who come from broken homes (mom is to busy being a socialite and dad is to busy being the askan ha dor) that beg for a hug? What do you do when the Rov has a daughter in the school and she is the leader of the pack? What do you do when the mom's are using suggestive looks and words?
Again, that doesn't mean that a teacher has carte blanche to respond inappropriately. Such behavior shouldn't be handled alone, but by the hanhallah of the school. Of course, sometimes they have their hands tied too. Wish any of us could come up with an easy answer - Remember you represent Hashem out there, after 120 do you want to hear what He thinks? Of course, if you don't believe ignore all these comments, this blog, His Torah and wait for the cops when they come with the silver bracelets in the one size fits all category.
http://mosherubashkinhitsjews.blogspot.com/2008/06/moshe-rubashkins-continuous-criminal.html
Can anyone get copies of these?
1. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 6135502, 10/29/2002, JUDGMENT, JUDGMENT - CITY COURT OF NEW YORK - BROOKLYN
2. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 01-CL-2129, JC-00002129-2001-CR, 6/4/2001, JUDGMENT, LEHIGH, PAJGT
3. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 000364748, 12/15/2000, JUDGMENT, BRONX COUNTY CLERK LIEN
4. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, JUDGMENTS DOCKET, 12/15/2000, 23234/00, SUPREME COURT, BRONX COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
5. COHEN, SHAUL, MECHANICS LIEN, 04/19/1999, SUPREME COURT, KINGS COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
6. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 2722, 10/29/1997, FEDERAL TAX LIEN, KINGS COUNTY CLERK LIEN
7. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 20042, 11/15/1995, FEDERAL TAX LIEN, KINGS COUNTY CLERK LIEN
8. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE Y, 1345982, 10/26/1995, JUDGMENT, KINGS COUNTY CLERK LIEN
9. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE Y, JUDGMENTS DOCKET, 10/26/1995, KINGS COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
10. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE ET. AL., JC-00000065-1995-SL, 2/13/1995, STATE TAX LIEN, LEHIGH, PATXLN
11. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 00006197392, 3/4/1993, JUDGMENT, SATISFIED, JUDGMENT - CITY COURT OF NEW YORK - BROOKLYN
12. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 00000106390, 12/31/1990, JUDGMENT, SULLIVAN COUNTY CLERK LIEN
13. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 00002761490, 12/17/1990, JUDGMENT, NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK LIEN
14. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, JUDGMENTS DOCKET, 12/17/1990, 27614/90, SUPREME COURT, NEW YORK COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
15. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, JUDGMENTS DOCKET, 12/17/1990, 27614/90, SUPREME COURT, KINGS COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
16. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 00001678787, 3/23/1990, JUDGMENT, KINGS COUNTY CLERK LIEN
17. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, JUDGMENTS DOCKET, 03/22/1990, 16987/89,
SUPREME COURT, NEW YORK COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
18. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, JUDGMENTS DOCKET, 03/22/1990, 16987/87,
SUPREME COURT, KINGS COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE
19. RUBASHKIN, MOSHE, 00001698789, 3/22/1990, JUDGMENT, NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK LIEN5)
I believe he has ties to the following:
1. AF SERVICES INC., CORPORATION (PROFIT), 9/9/2002, 9/9/2002, 269607, IOWA SECRETARY OF STATE
2. AF SERVICES INC., CORPORATION (PROFIT), 8/21/2002, 8/21/2002, C0145177, IDAHO SECRETARY OF STATE
3. MONTEX BLEACHERY INC., INCORPORATED BUSINESS, IN GOOD STANDING (ACTIVE), 2720832, PASOS
4. MONTEX TEXTILES LTD., FOREIGN BUSINESS, IN GOOD STANDING (ACTIVE), 1503592, PASOS
5. Inactive - MONTEX TEXTILES LTD, 1101 S 6TH ST, ALLENTOWN,, PA , TEL: 610-437-4679, ABI-NO: 000448043, 10/8/2002
6. MONTEX TEXTILE LTD, PA , May 16, 2003, 120 words, DUNS: 04-513-7411
7. R AND M DIAMOND, 2/9/2001, 81721, KINGS COUNTY, NEW YORK, ASSUMED BUSINESS NAMES (fictitious name)
8. BAHERE KNIT INDUSTRIES LTD, NY , June 03, 1994, 117 words, DUNS: 83-284-75526)
The New York Times September 23, 1983 Sec.B,Pg.34
HASIDIM HELD FOLLOWING CLASH WITH POLICE
By LINDSEY GRUSON
Nine police officers were slightly injured yesterday and four people arrested in a melee between the police and Orthodox Jews leaving a synagogue holiday service in Brooklyn, the police said.
A police spokesman, Chief of Patrol Robert Johnston, said the trouble started at 1:45 P.M. when a city bus drove up Kingston Avenue in the Crown Heights section and nearly hit a man and a woman crossing the street. The couple, Hasidic Jews, had attended a service celebrating Succoth in the main synagogue of the Lubavitch movement. The man, identified as Levy Weingarten, 27 years old, of 7 Balvour Place, threw a rock that broke the bus's rear-view mirror, Chief Johnston said. The driver called the police.
Religious Rule InvolvedWhen officers tried to put Mr. Weingarten into a police car, he resisted. Orthodox Jews do not ride on holidays. Chief Johnston said 300 other worshipers then attacked the officers. He said that most of the officers injured suffered cuts and scratches during the shoving and kicking that followed. He said that none of the worshipers were hurt.
''It was an attempt by the community to take a prisoner away from the police because putting the person in custody in a car would violate their religious faith,'' Chief Johnston said.Arrested in addition to Mr. Weingarten were Eric Jacobs, 25, of 1715 Union Street; Moshe Rubashkin, 25, of 435 Crown Street, and Israel Shimtov, 43, of 1594 Carroll Street. Mr. Weingarten was charged with malicious assault and the others with simple assault.About 250 Hasidim later demonstrated to protest the police action.
7) The New York TimesDecember 8, 1983Sec. B,pg.43 Hasidim IndictedThree Hasidim, including a rabbi, were indicted yesterday on felony assault and riot charges stemming from a melee between a group of Hasidim and the police in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn on Sept. 22. Nine officers were reported hurt.
The police said the incident began when a bus nearly hit a couple leaving a synagogue after services for Succoth, the Feast of Tabernacles, and a man arrested for throwing a rock at the bus resisted being put in a police car because Orthodox Jews are not allowed to ride on holy days.
Charged with felonies were Rabbi Israel Shemtov, 43 years old; Eric Jacobs, 25, and Moshe Rubashkin, 25.
The man seized in the rock-throwing, Levi Weingarten, 27, was charged with criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.
The police said after the incident that they had offered to walk him to the station house, but that their way was blocked and they put him in the car.The suspects' lawyer, Ronald M. Kleinberg, said the four were victims of discrimination and assault in the incident.
http://mosherubashkinhitsjews.blogspot.com/2008/06/can-mayor-bloomberg-be-held-responsible.html
The Crown Heights community and it's representatives "the Netzigim of Crown Heights" have tried in vain for the past several years to rid it's self of the criminal dictator which heads the CHJCC, by attempting to organize new elections for a new board of directors to head the CHJCC.
These efforts were blocked by Moshe Rubashkin, where he used the rubber stamp of his Rabbi, Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba, who is on the payroll of this convicted felon, in a grossly unethical attempt by Rabbi Osdoba to exploit the situation, in an unprecedented abuse of Rabbinical power by Rabbi Osdoba to Cover Up on all the criminal Activity of this Convicted Felon, Moshe Rubashkin, to attempt to stop the community from taking Moshe Rubashkin to court and now his shameless attempt to keep this convicted felon empowered indefinitely by issuing baseless Rabbinical rulings to block any community attempt to organize Democratic Elections for a new Vaad hakohol and for new Board of Directors of the CHJCC.
When Moshe Rubashkin was arrested for hitting the head of the Netzigim, Yisroel Best, Rabbi Osdoba even went to the Police Station, to show his support for the Arrested Criminal, Moshe Rubashkin, while interestingly Rabbi Osdoba, was not even ashamed of himself, that he visited the Perpetrator, yet refused to visit the Victim, Yisroel Best, who was at the same time and the same place, also under arrest, (since Moshe Rubashkin had filed counter charges against his victim, Yisroel Best).
Record corn prices mean more expensive meat, dairy!
By STEVENSON JACOBS, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - Raging Midwest floodwaters that swallowed crops and sent corn and soybean prices soaring are about to give consumers more grief at the grocery store.
In the latest bout of food inflation, beef, pork, poultry and even eggs, cheese and milk are expected to get more expensive as livestock owners go out of business or are forced to slaughter more cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens to cope with rocketing costs for corn-based animal feed.
The floods engulfed an estimated 2 million or more acres of corn and soybean fields in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and other key growing states, sending world grain prices skyward on fears of a substantially smaller corn crop.
The government will give a partial idea of how many corn acres were lost before the end of the month, but experts say the trickle-down effect could be more dramatic later this year, affecting everything from Thanksgiving turkeys to Christmas hams.
Rod Brenneman, president and chief executive of Seaboard Foods, a pork supplier in Sawnee Mission, Kan. that produces 4 million hogs a year, said high corn costs were already forcing producers in his industry to cut back on the number of animals they raise.
"There's definitely liquidation of livestock happening," and that will cause meat prices to rise later this year and into 2009, said Brenneman, who is also the vice chairman of the American Meat Institute.
Brenneman's cost for feeding a single hog has shot up $30 in the past year because of record-high prices for corn and soybeans, the main ingredients in animal feed. Passing that increase on to consumers would tack an extra 15 cents per pound onto a pork chop.
It's a similar story for U.S. beef producers, who now spend a whopping 60-70 percent of their production costs on animal feed and are seeing that number rise daily as corn prices hover near an unprecedented $8 a bushel, up from about $4 a year ago.
"This is not sustainable. The cattle industry is going to have to get smaller," said James Herring, president and CEO of Amarillo, Tex.-based Friona Industries, which buys 20 million bushels of corn each year to feed 550,000 cattle.
Corn's prices were already rising before the floods, driven up 80 percent over the past year as developing countries like China and India scramble for grains to feed people and livestock. U.S. production of ethanol, an alternative fuel that can be made with corn, has also pushed prices higher, prompting livestock owners to lobby Washington to roll back ethanol mandates.
Before the floods, corn farmers were enjoying record profits selling the grain to feed animals and for use in cereals and as a sweetener in soda and candy. But a sharply smaller corn crop could wipe out those gains.
In Iowa, the No. 1 U.S. corn grower, floods inundated about 9 percent of corn crops, representing about 1.2 million acres — almost 1.5 percent of the country's anticipated harvest.
In Indiana, another 9 percent of corn and soybean crops were flooded, potentially costing farmers up to $840 million in lost earnings, Indiana Agriculture Director Andy Miller said.
Floodwaters also tossed farm equipment, sprayed cornfields with debris and silt and sucked away large chunks of topsoil. For livestock owners and meat producers, the damage may be felt long after the corn grows back.
Even before the floods, Tyson Foods was complaining that high grain prices would drive up its costs by $600 million this year. The world's largest poultry company has already raised its prices over the past year, and expects to keep raising them, CEO Dick Bond told analysts at a conference in May.
Higher feed prices will eventually filter through to the cost of milk, cheese and yogurt, too, since 65 to 75 percent of a dairy farmers' production costs are for feed, said Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation.
With the cost of animal feed only going higher, many poultry and dairy farmers are starting to look for cheaper alternatives.
Nebraska dairy farmer Dan Rice, who has 1,500 cows, said one alternative is to buy some of the byproducts of cereal or flour production, but they're not nearly as productive compared to corn.
"If we all feed less corn and get less production, then the price at the grocery stores are going to go up," said Rice, who supplies milk to grocery stores in Omaha and around Kansas City.
Without easy ways to cut costs, many livestock producers will have little choice but to slaughter more animals and send them to market.
"We're in survival mode now," said Paul Hill, chairman of West Liberty Foods, a turkey processor based in West Liberty, Iowa. He estimated U.S. turkey producers will reduce their flocks by 10 to 15 percent nationwide, a cutback that will send consumer prices dramatically higher.
"The cost of Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys will go up this year, and maybe even more next year," said Hill, who is also the chairman of the National Turkey Federation.
If corn were to rise to $10 a bushel, Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, said recouping costs through higher retail prices may not be possible.
"Can you possibly charge enough for the chicken to recoup that investment?" he said. "That's a question no one can answer yet because it's never been done."
___
Associated Press writers David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., and Lauren Shepherd in New York contributed to this report.
I'll "hunt" them down with all the means available to me - for the filthy pigs that they are, and the damage they do!
---------------------------
This just in from the Vice President:-)
My name is Dick Cheney - and I approve this message - UOJ does not miss!
Steve will be posting an amazing piece on:UOJGROUP.BLOGSPOT.COM
It will be up shortly!
Please daven (pray) for the speedy recovery of Raiza Shoshana bas Sara Rivka.
My post is up on UOJGROUP.BLOGSPOT.COM. UOJ, thank you for the opportunity to post a few Torah thoughts.
42 Broadway should also be known as "Foggy Bottom"
Former Defense Minister Mordechai allowed entry to US
By Itamar Eichner
YNet News
May 23, 2008
Visa granted after Olmert tells US officials Mordechai rehabilitated, does not pose threat to American public despite sex offenses
Former Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai was granted a visa by the US embassy in Tel Aviv at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's request, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday.
Mordechai's initial request for a visa, which was filed some four months ago, was rejected by the Americans due to his past conviction for sexual misconduct.
However, during President George W. Bush's first visit to Israel Olmert asked a number of senior US officials intervene in the matter while taking into account that Mordechai had been rehabilitated and does not pose a threat to the American public.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak's office also turned to the Americans on Mordechai's behalf.
Meanwhile, Mordechai also filed an appeal with the American embassy, which was reportedly debated among some of the highest-ranking officials in Washington. The appeal was eventually accepted and Mordechai flew to US a few days ago for a 10-day private visit.
During his tenure as defense minister between 1996 and 1999 under then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mordechai was considered the darling of the US administration and was a welcome guest at the White House and the Pentagon.
http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2008/06/12/news/news12.txt
As the media (including many Jewish outlets) continue to report as fact many baseless rumors and every negative allegation they can find regarding the Agriprocessors plant in Iowa, we feel compelled to bring to light some qualities of the Rubashkin family which the media fails to report.
We serve as Jewish leaders in our respective communities and are firsthand witnesses of the kindness and selfless concern that the Rubashkin family, led by Reb Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin, shows for thousands of communities, families, and individuals around the world. We live in areas with a minuscule kosher clientele, where kosher meat and poultry is difficult to find. Knowing the importance of the mitzvah of kashrus, and appreciating its fundamental place in Jewish life, as emphasized by our mentor the Lubavitcher Rebbe, zechuso yagein aleinu, the Rubashkin family always goes out of its way to ensure that the Jewish families in our outlying and far-flung communities receive the quality service and fresh products that we so greatly need.
They dont do this for PR; our towns dont give them much. They dont to it for profits; in many instances there is actually a financial loss. They do it because they are caring Jews devoted to the welfare of their brethren. They live up to their family reputation, which goes back for generations, to help Jews anywhere, anytime, no questions asked, no strings attached.
The chesed (kindheartedness) and hachnasas orchim (hospitality) of this family are legendary. No one is ever turned down at a Rubashkin home, not in Iowa, Boro Park, or Crown Heights. We are all familiar with the saying charity begins at home, yet their kindness extends well beyond the Jewish community. We are stunned at how Jewish leaders and media outlets are ready to print and say things that hurt this wonderful family, by engaging in outright motzi sheim ra (spreading of malicious unsubstantiated rumors) without clearly establishing the facts of the cases in question!
PETA and DHS notwithstanding, we have come to know the Rubashkins, and they are the exact opposite of the monsters the media portrays them to be.
May Hashem continue to bless them, for their success is the success of many Jewish communities.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Chaim Bruk (Bozeman, Montana), Rabbi Berl Goldman (Gainesville, Florida), Rabbi Ovadia Goldman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Rabbi Mendy Goldstein (Naperville, Illinois), Rabbi Mendel Lifshitz (Boise, Idaho), Rabbi Zalman Mendelsohn (Jackson, Wyoming), Rabbi Mendy Weinberg (Overland Park, Kansas)
[These Lubobs missed the boat, that besides all the other wrongs the Rubashkins do, they are also oyver on the Rebbe's takkana of requiring a mashgiach on every segment of their operation.]
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6204690
Eyewitness News reporter Phil Lipof has the story.
He is a wealthy businessman well-known in the Orthodox community. He has a wife and five children. But what he is accused of doing is simpy depraved.
We caught 40-year-old Zalman Silber getting out of his car at his Munsey home hours after being arraigned on charges he was pretending to be a gynecologist. He allegedly gave exams to at least two young women in 2003 and 2004.
The girls, 18 and 20 years old at the time, say it happened at a building on Park Avenue.
They say Silber touched their breasts, gave them what they thought was a gynecological exam and then made them turn on their sides for a rectal exam.
At Silber's home, the woman who answered the door wouldn't comment on the arrest. Neither would Silber, who quickly ran away from our camera.
His neighbor, though, did talk to us, and was stunned by the news.
"I can't wrap my head around the whole idea," Ruth Lowenstein said. "I had absolutely no idea."
Silber made millions in the 90s offering tourists simulated helicopter rides around the city through the New York Skyride at the Empire State Building.
Prosecutors say Silber would tell his victims that the exams were part of a medical survey.
Silber's family posted $10,000 bail Friday morning. The next step is a grand jury. As for other victims, the district attorney says the investigation is ongoing.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06192008/news/regionalnews/subpoena_blitz_puts_heat_on_al_116165.htm
June 19, 2008 --
The probe into the Rev. Al Sharpton's finances intensified this week, with the IRS sending out a flurry of subpoenas to his most generous corporate donors, The Post has learned.
Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser and Michelob, confirmed yesterday that it received a federal subpoena in connection to its charitable giving to Sharpton's National Action Network.
"We have received a subpoena and are cooperating with the IRS," the company said in a statement.
Sharpton blasted the subpoena as a "fishing expedition" and said his donors are proud of their financial support. The St. Louis-based corporation donated between $100,000 and $499,000 to NAN in 2007 alone, according to its Web site, but declined further comment about its relationship with Sharpton. A knowledgeable source said several other corporate donors received or would soon receive subpoenas.
Sharpton himself, his business entities and his nonprofit civil-advocacy group owe millions in back taxes, documents show.
The IRS and the US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn have an ongoing probe into Sharpton's finances going back to his 2004 run for president and stewardship of NAN.
Last year, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began a probe of NAN because it failed to follow state financial-disclosure regulations for nonprofits.
Cuomo's office has since turned over its NAN file to the US Attorney's Office.
As of 2006, the most recent year that financial documents for the group are publicly available, it owed $1.9 million in payroll taxes and penalties.
Ten NAN staffers were slapped with subpoenas this past December, and the Anheuser-Busch subpoena is part of the same probe.
News of the fresh subpoenas comes just days after The Post chronicled Sharpton's relationship with some of the country's largest corporations.
Sharpton threatened boycotts or protests against corporations while simultaneously soliciting donations and sponsorships of NAN events, The Post detailed.
Personally, Sharpton owes $931,397 in federal taxes and $365,558 in New York City taxes, according to an IRS lien.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/NEWS03/806190462/-1/newsfront
Zalman Silber lives on Grandview.
VP Cheney, please don't go hunting with Rav UOJ, we need him healthy.
Rabbi Moshe Green knows well about the sexcapades of Mordecahi Wolmark of Shaarai Torah and with his taking bachurim to the Victoria Secret botique and a dozen other perverted stuff he did with his boys. I guess he and his buddy Greenwald have a good reason for not making the stink it dserves.
Cholent Fresser,
With whatever problems YCT has, FBI tape recordings at Postville do not lie. There is plenty of evidence that hasn't been officially verified.
There is also plenty of information (off the record) from KAJ who pulled out and whistleblower mashgichim from other kashrus agencies. Why do you think mashgichim are being threatened with huge financial penalties if they talk by Rubashkin, Weissmandel & the OU.
http://start.telsheyeshiva.com/
Telz is not in Boro Park ober fort there is a Telzer minyan in Boro Park. That's why I could get involved with this but not over Kolko & Margo.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/united_states/article/agriprocessors_turns_to_homeless_for_help_20080620/
In an effort to restore lagging production at its plant in Postville, Iowa, the country’s largest kosher meat producer has been hiring workers from homeless shelters in Texas to replace employees detained in a massive federal immigration raid last month.
According to a spokesman for the meat producer Agriprocessors, workers are recruited by a firm in Amarillo, Texas, and sent to Postville. Once there, they are processed by Jacobson Staffing, a Des Moines-based company that screens them for drugs and alcohol and ensures they are legally permitted to work in the United States.
Several officials in Postville say the new arrivals have created problems for the town.
Postville Police Chief Michael Halse told JTA that his officers had arrested four plant workers for disorderly conduct this week.
Father Paul Ouderkirk, leader of the local Catholic church, which has played a lead role in helping former workers and their families after last month’s raid, said a mentally challenged woman from Texas had come to his church looking for help with prescription medications.
And in an interview Friday with Postville’s local radio station, Diana Morris said she spent three days on a bus from Amarillo only to discover she was expected to live with 10 men in a four-bedroom house that had no electricity or hot water.
“Amarillo’s homeless problem has become Postville’s homeless problem,” Jeff Abbas, who runs the KPVL radio station, told JTA.
In a statement Friday to JTA, Jim Martin, Agriprocessors’ newly hired compliance officer, said any allegations that contractors had misled new recruits would be investigated.
“We would note that we do not believe that homeless people should be prohibited from applying for employment from Agriprocessors,” Martin added. “In fact, for the appropriate individuals, we welcome the opportunity to offer them the chance to better their lives.”
Agriprocessors has been struggling to restore production since authorities conducted the largest immigration raid in U.S. history May 12 at the Postville plant. Nearly half the workforce was rounded up and some 300 workers are now facing deportation, having pleaded guilty to various forms of identity theft and fraud.
The company has had trouble getting its production levels back to speed, sparking concerns of a kosher meat shortage around the country.
Within weeks of the raid, a Waterloo staffing company withdrew an estimated 150 replacement workers from the plant, citing safety concerns. A group of Native Americans brought in from a smaller Agriprocessors plant in Gordon, Neb., left within days, saying working conditions were worse than expected and the company hadn’t made good on its promises.
Those reports have helped prompt several Jewish organizations to call for boycotts of the company.
But Rabbi Seth Mandel, rabbinic coordinator for the Orthodox Union, one of two agencies certifying the plant as kosher, says Agriprocessors merely is responding to the dictates of the market.
“Most consumers will not pay a premium for free-range, natural or organic beef, no matter how much lip service they pay to the idea,” Mandel wrote in an e-mail obtained by JTA. “The same thing holds true regarding employees and their working conditions. Meat packers would [have] no problem with paying higher wages and make working conditions better—IF the consumers would pay the premium price thereby entailed.”
In her interview with Abbas, Morris described how she was recruited from Amarillo with about 15 others and given a Greyhound bus ticket and $15 dollars to pay for food during the 1,000-mile journey. She said she was promised 30 days of free housing as well as a $100 bonus upon arrival.
What made the offfer so attractive, Morris said, was the $10 per hour that Agriprocessors is now offering. “Everything down there is about $6 an hour being paid, and that’s the minimum wage,” she said of Texas.
Juda Engelmayer, a company spokesman, said that Jacobson determined who was fit to work in the plant and that resources were provided to transport workers back to their homes if they weren’t offered jobs.
“They are given the opportunity and the means to go back where they came from,” Engelmayer said. “I don’t know if everyone takes it. Free citizens are free to move around as they wish.”
Why ship these people to Postville and then screen them for employment? Why not work directly with homeless shelters in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin – or even Texas, which is much further away? Why not screen applicants in place, accept those you want to hire and then bring them to Postville with a guaranteed return bus ticket if the person chooses to leave anytime within the first month or two of work?
What Rubashkin is instead doing guarantees Postville's crime rate will soar.
Add to that the living conditions reported by the JTA and KPVL and you have another disaster waiting to happen.
"There was a modern orthodox rabbi in St Louis who Rabbi Kleiman accused of hitting on women."
That rabbi later moved elsewhere to become the rosh yeshiva of a modern orthodox boys high school. That yeshiva was always a little wacky. One of the rebbeim would pre-screen videos for boys in the dorm to watch and remove the pornographic parts.
He is currently rosh yeshiva of a Dati Leumi place in Israel.
Adapted from Shmarya
Rubashkin Hires New PR Powerhouse – Represents Fortune 500 Companies, Hip Hop Artists, Paris Hilton
The new PR firm is 5W Public Relations and, among its clients are Pastor John Hagee, Televangelist Benny Hinn and a few members of Israel's Knesset
So what happens to Lubicom and its chief Menachem Lubinsky now that Agriprocessors has a real PR firm working for it?
This:
It seems 5W will handle PR for the national, secular and non-Orthodox markets and for the left wing Modern Orthodox. And will handle blogs. (We've already seen the effects here, I think, with some comments from, shall we say, obvious trolls.)
Lubinsky will continue to sleaze his way through the haredi and Centrist Orthodox communities.
Who benefits from this move?
Not Rubashkin alone. The OU benefits and so does Chabad.
Both have been hurt by Rubashkin's scandals. Neither are willing to take the steps necessary to distance their organizations from Agriprocessors and the Rubashkin family.
The only solution they have is to make Rubashkin's PR better in hopes that takes the pressure off.
The Forward has a brief but important report on this shift:
http://www.forward.com/articles/13628/
…Juda Engelmayer, who is handling the Agriprocessors account for 5W, said that Agriprocessors had hired his firm within the past two weeks to deal with marketing, but he declined to go into greater detail about strategy or the types of issues his firm would handle.
Menachem Lubinksy, CEO of the kosher industry consulting firm Lubicom and a spokesman for Agriprocessors, told the Forward that he expected 5W to deal with negative publicity and blogs. Asked to confirm this, Engelmayer said 5W’s role is still undefined.
Meanwhile, Lubinsky’s firm has organized a meeting for June 24 in midtown Manhattan to present Agriprocessors’s case. According to an e-mail publicizing the event, the topics discussed will include the potential for a kosher meat shortage and “What can be done to stop the slander and vilifications against Agriprocessors?” Among those slated to appear, according to the e-mail, are “local community activists from Postville” and “kosher food industry leaders.” Lubinsky declined to reveal the identities of the activists and industry leaders.
Rabbi Morris Allen, leader of the Conservative movement’s effort to reform labor practices in the kosher food industry and one of the most prominent critics of Agriprocessors, said he worried that the public-relations push was a sign that Agriprocessors was more focused on going after its critics than about changing its practices.
“It appears that sometimes people’s best defense is not to look at themselves to make change but rather to attack people who are simply calling for a higher standard to be used in the production of kosher food,” Allen said.
A few years ago, I met a Chabad rabbi in California, affiliated with OU (who was not involved with the kashrut of meat). He defended Rubashkin. After all, if he knew the people personally, they must be good people and their critics must be "evil". In summary, I believed him to be a good and ethical man, who had a blind spot for acknowledging that Chabad Hassidim that he knew could do immoral things. The OU is complicit because they have the responsibility to be a watchdog (and if anything more strict and attentive to details than secular authorities) and they are more concerned about their revenue stream. If Rubashkin would send expired meat to a Jewish camp, who can trust their kashrut?
I am particularly frustrated that Rubashkin is putting more effort into PR and damage control and what appears to be less effort into actually changing their practices and fixing the problems. I guess from a Jewish perspective, this would be ritualistic observance on the surface and a lack of sincere tshuvah.
While I am not a fan of Benny Hinn, I have only the greatest respect for the efforts of Pastor John Hagee. While I disagree with Hagee's theological views, he is among the most pro-Israel and tolerant of Jews among Christian leaders, particularly when compared with the Catholic Church and the Presbyterian Church USA.
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/35469/format/html/displaystory.html
Steve Broadway, manager of the meat department at the Palo Alto Mollie Stone’s, wishes he could say the same. “Trying to fill our needs is getting more difficult, no doubt about it,” he said.
The store’s distributor for kosher meat, Twin City of New Hope, Minn., has historically bought exclusively from Agriprocessors — forcing both distributor and store into scramble mode.
“Poultry products have been extremely difficult to get a hold of,” said Broadway, noting that orders from Agriprocessors used to yield mainly ready-to-sell parts. “Now we’re getting more whole chickens and we have to cut them into packages ourselves.”
Broadway said supermarkets catering to larger communities of Jews that keep kosher are probably having an easier time.
“Being on the West Coast and especially in Northern California, we kind of get what’s left over,” Broadway said. “[Agriprocessors and its distributors] are going to fill their needs back East before they take care of us, and even L.A. comes before us.”
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/06/understanding-r.html
The idea that Twin City Poultry (TCP) "historically" bought exclusively from Agriprocessors is false.
Twin City Poultry carried and still does carry Alle, International Glatt and other glatt meats, and Empire Poultry along with Rubashkin. But TCP also had a special business relationship with Rubashkin. And that is said to be part of what the US Department of Justice is investigating.
For a long time, kosher food distributors had the country carved up into individual regional fiefdoms with some cities – Chicago, for example – "open" for competition and others – Minneapolis-St. Paul and huge swaths of the Western US – "closed." According to the US Department of Justice, this is called market division or market allocation – and it is illegal:
Market division or allocation schemes are agreements in which competitors divide markets among themselves. In such schemes, competing firms allocate specific customers or types of customers, products, or territories among themselves. For example, one competitor will be allowed to sell to, or bid on contracts let by, certain customers or types of customers. In return, he or she will not sell to, or bid on contracts let by, customers allocated to the other competitors. In other schemes, competitors agree to sell only to customers in certain geographic areas and refuse to sell to, or quote intentionally high prices to, customers in geographic areas allocated to conspirator companies.
Much of the West and Midwest was at times TCP exclusive territory.
What TCP seems to have done in these areas - including Palo Alto – is only offer Rubashkin product for sale. (It may also be that TCP can no longer distribute Empire nationwide.) Alle and others were used in areas where there were other kosher food distributors active and TCP had to compete.
(An exception to this is Minneapolis-St. Paul itself, where TCP always offered Empire and non-Rubashkin meat for sale, perhaps because many of the local non-Chabad rabbis at first preferred it and TCP executives belonged to the synagogue where these rabbis prayed.)
That helped get Rubashkin a monopoly, and is part of what is causing the kosher meat shortage today.
A friend of mine told me that his father-in-law, a kosher distributor in Louisville, has run into similar problems with Rubaskin effectively trying to push competitors, like Empire, out of the Kentucky kosher market, such that it exists.
What Rubashkin did was undercut the other's prices and force the others out of various markets – illegally, if the US Department of Justice is to be believed.
BTW, once he had a market to himself, his prices went way up.
Rubashkin's whole business model is based on cheap illegal labor. Without that, he won't be able to compete well. And he won't survive, unless he bribes enough haredi rabbis to hold his monopolies out east. But that cannot last forever.
Typical Krinsky type of Abuse of power especially the financial aspect of it, is well documented here and goes back to 1996
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1996/04/16/1996-04-16_just_happened_to_hit_jackpot.html
Is it a coincidence that Kehot is mysteriously missing exactly 2 million while Rabbi Krisnky's son, (Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky has financial control of all finances of this Lubavitch Book Store) yet Dovid Krinsky, who lives in a Millionaire's type of House on the corner of Brooklyn, Ave and Montgomery st. mysteriously, just had some, "DUMB LUCK" with exactly $2 Million Dollars?
Dovid Krinsky, Yehuda Krisnky's son, made a mysterious 2 Million dollar buy of a vacant three-story warehouse on Manhattan's West Side, also by a "bizarre chancy stroke of odd luck", -; he did so precisely in the nick of time, just as the Board of Education was thinking of leasing the building for a school????
Just Luck????
Uh Huh?!
Are we supposed to believe such non-sense?
Do they think we are 3 year olds?
I am trying to find out more details about the Kehos Book store theft of 2 millions dollars by Krinsky and his son in law who were in charge and will let you know.
http://chabad.info/index_old.php?url=article_en&id=11684
One thing I can tell you for sure, is that this man, Yehuda Krinsky, is a very dangerous and deceptive, charismatic, manipulative, person and is not at all who he seems to be.
He can give you the warmest loving hug smile and kiss while stabbing you in the back at the same time.
Krinsky is perhaps not a Child Molester or wife abuser. Krinsky is much worse than that because Krinsky molests and abuses all world Jewry and especially all of Lubavitch, when he masquerades that he is in charge of all of Lubavitch and in fact pockets millions and what he doesn't pocket he uses for POWER to be able to bully everyone around by threat of frivolous lawsuits.
As you know justice is owned by whoever has a better lawyer and Krinsky uses millions to buy the best and most expensive lawyers and also uses all his political clout "in the name of Lubavitch though he is Mr. Lubavitch" to talk to the judges behind closed doors to get them to rule his way!
Every non profit has or at least should have an open book policy, as long as they are honest.
Krinsky will not show the books to no one because if he did he will find his ass in Jail much quicker than Aronov in Israel.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/11/more-details-on.html
On the surface he gives this charismatic smile that he is the nicest person on earth but he is the worst kind of an SOB on earth and if you are into exposing big-shot Rabbi's who abuse their power, there is no one who abuses their power more than him.
The greater the power the greater the abuse of it.
Aronov's abuse is small potatoes comped to Krisnky's abuse of power.
http://lukeford.net/blog/?p=3093
An email I got.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/995434.html
Police say Israeli investigators have left for the U.S. to question people in connection with the corruption probe involving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The premier's son, Shaul Olmert, is also expected to face questioning, Israel Radio reported Monday.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says the investigators flew to the U.S. on Monday and are expected to be there about two weeks. He had no further details.
But Israel Radio reported that the officers will conduct inquiries at offices, banks and hotels in New York, Washington and Las Vegas.
The key witness in the case is Jewish American businessman Morris Talansky.
http://news.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view/2008_06_23__Housing_slump_hits_hard:__Report:_%E2%80%98Worst_in_50_years_/
Housing slump hits hard
Report: ‘Worst in 50 years’
By Jerry Kronenberg | Monday, June 23, 2008 |
The U.S. housing bust is probably the deepest downturn in a half-century and “may (still) have a way to go,” Harvard University researchers conclude in a report due out today.
“The current housing slump is shaping up to be the worst in 50 years,” experts at Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies write in their annual “State of the Nation’s Housing” report. “The national median single-family home price fell (for) the first time in 40 years of recordkeeping, leaving several million homeowners with properties worth less than their mortgages.”
The study finds that:
Median U.S. home prices have lost 18 percent in inflation-adjusted terms in the 2 years since the market peaked. By contrast, prices actually rose 6 percent by this point in the early 1990s downturn.
Foreclosure rates are the worst ever in the 34 years experts have tracked such data.
The housing market has a hefty 10.7-month supply of unsold existing homes listed for sale. There’s also an 11-month supply of newly built housing - a 30-year high.
Mortgage rates, which fell as much as 6.8 percentage points in prior busts, have barely dropped this time around.
“All of these factors may make this downturn more protracted than usual,” researchers write.
Still, the study also says Boston housing remains roughly as unaffordable as ever.
“Prices have fallen in Boston, but they haven’t adjusted that dramatically,” Harvard’s Eric Belsky told the Herald. “Prices simply haven’t fallen as much during the bust as they shot up during the boom.”
http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m11s18&SecId=18&AId=60642&ATypeId=1
13/06/2008
By Lynda Roughley
A Manchester businessman involved in a huge international “advance fee” fraud has been jailed.
Michael Rashman was sentenced to four years and nine months’ imprisonment by a judge who told him: “You have tarnished the good name of British overseas trading.”
Judge Gerald Clifton told Rashman, 54, that he accepted he had not played the leading role. He put his role “behind that of Carl Montlake but ahead of David Sasson”, the other two Jewish defendants.
He said that it was not pleasant to send a person like him to prison but he had a duty to the public.
Rashman, of Kersal Gardens, Salford, was found guilty last month at Liverpool Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud between January 1, 1998 and April 20, 2004.
His barrister, David Scutt , urged the judge to keep the sentence as short as possible because of his client’s wife’s ill health.
“There have been two trials, whose proceedings have lasted for four-and-a-half years, and that has taken its toll on his wife’s health. The innocents of the case also include Rashman’s children,” said Mr Scutt. “His good name has gone and the confiscation proceedings will devastate him and his family,” he added.
Confiscation proceedings are to begin on December 15. Montlake, 47, of Spring Vale, Prestwich, was convicted at a previous trial and jailed for six years. Sasson, 47, of Childwall, Liverpool, who admitted the fraud plot, was jailed for two years last October.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659748534&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Knesset asks comptroller to investigate Claims Conference
Jun. 16, 2008
Dan Izenberg , THE JERUSALEM POST
The Knesset State Control Committee on Monday called on the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany (Claims Conference) to allow the state comptroller to monitor the organization's activities.
Committee chairman Zevulun Orlev (NU/NRP) also announced that the findings of the state commission of inquiry on the government's treatment of Holocaust victims over the years would be presented on Sunday by retired justice Dalia Dorner.
The call for an investigation by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss was one of a number of recommendations the committee made at the end of a two-hour session on allegations raised in the media and by Holocaust survivors that the organization - established to represent the Jewish people on behalf of the victims - was misusing funds from the sale of property belonging to German Holocaust victims without heirs.
The committee also called on the Claims Conference to devote a larger sum from a separate fund created to help victims directly to individuals. Currently the money goes toward organizations that help Holocaust survivors and refugees and to philanthropic organizations that are not connected to the Holocaust.
Former Foreign Ministry director-general Reuven Merhav, head of the executive committee of the Claims Conference, told the committee and representatives of Holocaust-related organizations and individual victims that the organization had distributed $70 billion directly since its establishment in 1952.
In addition, $1.3b. has gone into the coffers of the Claims Conference from property that belonged to Jews before World War II. Merhav said $600,000 of this money had gone to heirs of the victims who were discovered after the properties were sold. Of the balance, $300,000 was left in reserve and another $400,000 was devoted to the needs of survivors and refugees in Israel.
Each year, Merhav explained, 80 percent of the allocated funding goes directly to the survivors, while 20% is earmarked for projects to commemorate the Holocaust.
The proportion of funding channeled to the survivors and to memorial projects has become an increasingly controversial issue over the years, as has the use of money allegedly allocated to the survivors.
At the end of April, the YES satellite network aired a documentary film by journalists Guy Meroz and Orli Vilnai-Federbush. They accused the Claims Conference of withholding funds from elderly, sick survivors, paying exorbitant salaries to its top officers and looking after its own interests and survival at the expense of those it was meant to serve.
Meroz and Vilnai-Federbush attended Monday's meeting and continued to attack the Claims Conference. At one point, Merhav lost his temper and called them liars.
Most of the Knesset members at the meeting spoke out against the conference. MK Limor Livnat (Likud) charged that there was "no transparency and no supervision. The feeling I get is that conference has been preserving itself down through the years." MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) charged that the conference had not helped the Holocaust victims from the former Soviet Union apply for their rights and that explanatory material was published only in English, German and Hebrew.
Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan, whom the cabinet appointed as the government's liaison to the Claims Conference, criticized the organization for the fact that only four of the 50 members of its board of directors were Israelis even though the overwhelming majority of survivors live in Israel today.
Orlev asked Lindenstrauss to investigate the relations between the government and the Claims Conference. He also called for the head offices of the organization to be moved from New York to Israel.
His problem is that he doesn't wear a kipa serugah
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993352.html
Boaz Yona, the fugitive CEO of the failed real estate company Heftziba, was extradited to Israel yesterday. Agitated and bruised, he boarded El Al flight 382 from Milan under heavy Italian guard on his way to lock-up in Israel. "The main goal is to find the best way for all the buyers to get their homes," he told reporters on the plane. "They turned me into a thief," he said. "I want to clear my name, my father's name and the name of my entire family."
According to a plea bargain signed yesterday with Yona, he will be sentenced to seven years in jail, probation at the discretion of the court, and NIS 4 million in compensation to home-buyers.
"What Israel has done to me over the past 10 months I don't remember them doing to Eichmann," he said angrily. "Nobody built more than I did in Israel, he said.
"Shame on you," he shouted at reporters on the plane. "You won't judge a person before his trial. You judged me; you turned me into a thief," he said.
Yona was seated in the back of the plane, out of concern that some of those harmed by the Heftziba affair had boarded the plane to confront him. "They suffered," he said of the buyers, "but I also suffered. My suffering was much greater." Yona showed reporters his hand, which had burns on it; he said they had been inflicted on him by other prisoners in the Italian jail where he was incarcerated, after they found out he was Jewish.
Yona's plane landed at 5 P.M. and he was taken to a police car waiting on the tarmac that drove him straight to the fraud squad offices in Bat Yam.
The Prisons Service decided to keep Yona in relative isolation, to prevent him from coming into contact with angry home-buyers or prisoners who may have lent Yona gray-market funds or helped him move his money before he fled Israel. This morning he will be brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court for a remand hearing.
Approximately 4700 home-buyers are believed to have been hurt by the Heftziba crisis.
In addition to police, Yona is being investigated by the tax authorities and the Israel Securities Authority. Among the charges he reportedly faces are aggravated fraud in the amount of hundreds of millions of shekels, conspiracy, falsifying corporate documents and money-laundering.
http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/national/c-9382/pms-friend-left-me-penniless/
An Israeli charity director and close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert left a cancer stricken elderly woman penniless over four property transactions, a court heard this week.
Anne Marie Morley, 71, told the High Court on Monday that Dr Joseph Elmaleh "stripped" her of £3m in cash, leaving her penniless in her dying days and unable to even afford to pay for lawyers to represent her.
Morley described Dr Elmaleh, 70, as a close friend with Olmert, a director of a Jewish foundation and the "meanest cheapskate I've known".
She is currently living in one of the flats in Cadogan Square over which she has a lifetime tenancy, but said she faces "bankruptcy and eviction" as a result of the court case, and is also worried about suffering a stroke because of the stress.
The pensioner told the court, “I am the victim of grand theft and criminal fraud," saying she had encountered "evil on a grand scale.”
She described a “showdown telephone call where I said 'I have found out what you have done, how could you do this to me?' and he just screamed at me 'Well sue me'."
http://www.weekendpost.co.za/main/2008/06/21/news/nl01_21062008.htm
PE tycoon in R843m UK crime bust
Brian Hayward WEEKEND POST REPORTER haywardb@avusa.co.za
PORT Elizabeth-raised London businessman Leslie Sieff is at the centre of one of Britain‘s most sensational crackdowns on organised crime after police found more than R843-million in cash – much of it stashed in plastic supermarket carry-bags – at a safe-deposit box company he owns.
Also found during the bust were firearms, “shocking” paedophilic material, fake passports and credit cards, paintings believed to be of 17th-century Dutch origin, drugs including dagga and cocaine and “large quantities of documentation vital to enable fraud and human trafficking”.
The raid, during which 300 heavily armed officers swooped on Sieff‘s London safe-deposit box company earlier this month, was the culmination of a two-year long investigation.
This week Scotland Yard detectives wrapped up their individual investigations of almost 7000 safe-deposit boxes owned by Safe Deposit Centres Ltd – a company under Sieff‘s co-directorship.
Police have described their investigation, code-named Operation Rize, as “an astonishing haul and a major victory against global organised crime”. It has also brought about a subsequent 1800 individual investigations concerning the contents of some of the boxes.
Criminal masterminds are thought to have used many of the company‘s boxes for depositing their ill-gotten gains since the company opened in 1983 – thought to be the same year Sieff emigrated to London from Port Elizabeth with his wife, Jill, and two young sons.
Sieff, 60, who lives with Jill in a plush multi- million pound home in North London, was arrested along with fellow Safe Deposit Centres directors Jacqueline Swan, 44, and Milton Woolf, 52, on June 3. The trio, who have been released on bail pending further investigation and ordered to return to a central London police station in early September, are accused of numerous money laundering offences.
Woolf is also a South African expatriate.
According to reports, the company was targeted after police suspected that it had breached UK anti-money-laundering laws by not registering with the Financial Services Authority and failing to conduct identity checks on prospective depositors. Police said directors had also failed to file reports of any suspicious activity to the Serious Organised Crime Agency – Britain‘s equivalent to the FBI – as they were required to do by law.
Police also suspect that some of the £53,5-million (R843-million) seized is linked to Britain‘s biggest robbery, the 2006 raid on the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent. To date the bulk of the £53- million-plus taken in the robbery has not been recovered by police.
The news has been a hot topic among the close-knit Port Elizabeth Jewish community, of which the Sieffs were prominent members before they emigrated in the ‘80s.
Sieff, who matriculated from Grey High School in 1965, is an accountant and his father a doctor. After Sieff, who holds a British passport, emigrated with his family to London, his parents, Morris and Ethel, emigrated to Canada.
Leslie and Jill Sieff also head London‘s Hampstead School of English, a block away from the offices of Safe Deposit Centres.
The arrests and subsequent seizures have made big news in Britain, dominating the pages of major newspapers.
But Sieff this week remained mum about the charges facing him. Contacted this week by Weekend Post, he said: “I don‘t want to make any comment about it at this stage.”
But police believe their crackdown has been a major blow to organised crime. “Police believe that a high percentage of the safe deposit boxes were being used by criminal networks to store the proceeds of crime,” Scotland Yard spokesman Paul Clark told Weekend Post this week.
“Police officers have been working around the clock searching the three safe depositories in Park Street, Hampstead and Edgware for the last 10 days. Searches are now complete at all of the venues.”
A total of 6717 boxes were opened and searched – many with the use of sniffer dogs to safeguard against possible booby- trapping with explosives – with 3608 containing items. Each box was treated as a single potential crime scene.
“It became apparent that the companies targeted could be assisting the activities of organised criminal networks by facilitating the storage of criminal assets. As a result Operation Rize was mounted resulting in the arrests and raids,” Clark said.
According to Scotland Yard, the investigation is now moving from a search and seizure phase to an investigative phase.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806210377
RAMAPO - The town supervisor yesterday sharply criticized a police officer for fingerprinting a Hasidic Jewish woman and ordering her to remove her wig for a mug shot following her arrest.
Shifra Cohen, 23, of Grove Street in Monsey was arrested Thursday on a felony charge of first-degree welfare fraud.
With calls for a protest against the police by some Hasidim, Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence apologized to the community.
Cohen was among dozens of people across the county arrested as a result of an investigation by the Rockland District Attorney's Office and the Department of Social Services.
District Attorney Thomas Zugibe told him the photograph of the woman would be expunged and a new photo taken at a future date.
Jewish Community Security Alert
ABC News today reported ntelligence agencies in the United States and Canada are warning of mounting signs that Hezbollah, backed by Iran, is poised to mount a terror attack against ˜Jewish target somewhere outside the Middle East. The Jerusalem Post and other news agencies are also reporting this information.
As always, ADL is in close contact with law enforcement, but as of now we have been unable to confirm this information. Moreover, these reports provide no basis upon which to assess their accuracy.
Despite this, there are some steps that Jewish communal institutions and their staff can take. These include:
1. Keeping your eyes and ears open for anything unusual or suspicious and calling law enforcement immediately if you come across something. Unusual behavior, suspicious packages and strange devices should be promptly reported to the police or security personnel. Be particularly mindful of individuals paying attention to or photographing your institution.
2. Reviewing and practicing your security procedures, reviewing with all personnel their role in security. For instance, if vigilance has slipped in mail and package delivery safety procedures, now is the time to revisit this area.
3. Ensuring that your staff knows what to do in the event of an emergency.
4. If you have not done so, this is an excellent opportunity to invite your local law enforcement to your institution to discuss security.
You may also wish to consult the guidelines and advisory materials on the ADL web site at www.adl.org/security
ADL will make available additional information as we become aware of it.
Contact us any time at 310-446-8000
. If an incident does occur at your institution, we urge you to contact law enforcement and to follow-up with a call to ADL for our additional support. We are always available to answer questions or assist with contacting the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Judy Feldman
Associate Director
Anti-Defamation League
Pacific Southwest Region
10495 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Tel: (310) 446-8000 x4229
Fax: (310) 470-8712
jfeldman@adl.org
www.adl.org
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ex-air-america-director-charged-with-fraud/78832/?print=5041424121
A former director of Air America Radio, Evan Montvel Cohen, has been arrested in Guam after Hawaiian prosecutors charged him with fraud.
Mr. Cohen, once a resident of Brooklyn, was at the center of a scandal involving loans that the liberal network had received during the period leading up to its launch from a Bronx social-service organization, the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, which, in turn, received funding from New York City. In 2003 and 2004, a period during which Gloria Wise agency made $825,000 in payments to Air America, Mr. Cohen was director of the radio network as well as a development director for Gloria Wise.
Although other officials at Gloria Wise were charged with crimes, Mr. Cohen, 42, was not. His role in securing the transfers of the money is alleged in a report by the city's Department of Investigation. A host at Air America, Al Franken, who is no longer affiliated with the station, called Mr. Cohen a "crook" on air, according to news reports.
Mr. Cohen was arrested in Guam on Tuesday at the A.B. Won Pat International Airport upon his return from the Philippines, the Marianas Variety reported yesterday. The charges, which are out of Hawaii, involve credit card fraud.
http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/12125808117420.xml&coll=1
By JEFF HARRELL
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former Meiers Corners ophthalmologist got the bill yesterday for performing unnecessary eye surgeries and bilking Medicare of $1 million.
U.S. District Judge John Gleeson sentenced Dr. Joseph Mermelstein to five years in prison and ordered the former medical and surgical director of the Eye Institute of Staten Island to pay a $100,000 fine and restitution totaling $70,000.
Dr. Mermelstein, 52, already has begun serving his sentence and was in federal custody when he appeared in Brooklyn federal court yesterday, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's Eastern District Office.
The disgraced eye doctor also lost his license to practice medicine.
"Dr. Mermelstein is a dedicated physician who helped thousands of eye patients preserve and regain their eyesight," said his attorney, Jonathan Halpern. "He has fully accepted responsibility and is moving forward."
The prison term comes on the heels of a November plea deal when Dr. Mermelstein copped to a count of conspiracy stemming from a scheme in which he falsified patients' medical records and submitted phony health insurance claims to Medicare and other private insurance providers from 2000 to 2005.
Speaking to the judge during the plea hearing, Dr. Mermelstein detailed one instance in May 2000 in which he personally falsified the records of a patient who was seeking to have surgery to correct a droopy eyelid.
"I discarded the technical drawing of her condition that a technician prepared, and instructed the technician to prepare another drawing that exaggerated the patient's condition," Dr. Mermelstein told Gleeson.
"At my direction, the technician did so, but refused to sign his name to the drawing. I then wrote the technician's name on the drawing and placed the new drawing into the patient's file," Dr. Mermelstein said.
"I billed my fee for the surgery to the patient's insurance company," he added. "I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I take full responsibility for my conduct, which I sincerely regret."
FBI agents raided Dr. Mermelstein's offices at the Eye Institute, 2177 Victory Blvd., Meiers Corners, in September 2004.
As patients watched, some wearing patches over their eyes, federal agents hauled away several metal cabinets filled with records and seized files from an automobile parked in front of the center.
http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20080620-4.html
ALBANY - Governor David Paterson Thursday joined state legislators to announce an agreement on legislation providing for the automatic revocation of a teaching certificate held by any school official convicted of a sex offense, as well as legislation providing for the automatic revocation of an administrator’s license upon conviction for defrauding the government. Both pieces of legislation were sponsored by State Senator Stephen Saland and Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan.
These new laws will require District Attorneys to promptly notify the State Education Department when teachers, school administrators or other professional educators are convicted of sexual offenses that require them to register on the state’s Sex Offender Registry. Additionally, District Attorneys will notify SED upon the conviction of administrators who engage in fraudulent schemes at the taxpayers’ expense. SED will then immediately revoke these licenses.
Current law does not provide for a mechanism to automatically revoke the certificate or to immediately terminate employment of a teacher convicted of a sex offense for which registration is required under the Sex Offender Registration Act. This legislation provides for this mechanism by streamlining the process for revoking a certificate and terminating employment of a teacher who would have already received due process in a criminal proceeding, and includes appropriate provisions to prevent errors through misidentification of the person who has been convicted. The process for the administrator crimes is identical to the teacher sex crimes: immediate revocation.
These bills take effect immediately.
I'm from Great Neck / Kings Point.
http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20080620-8.html
Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes and Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn Thursday announced the indictment of Abraham Hertzberg, for causing fraudulent plans to be filed with the Department of Buildings in connection with an application for permits to excavate at 791-793 Glenmore Ave, a job site where a building collapse would later kill a laborer.
Hertzberg, 84, is charged with nine counts of offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison for each count.
The indictment charges that in 2005, William Lattarulo hired an architect to design plans to build a laundromat at 791-793 Glenmore Ave, in East New York, Brooklyn. The architect in turn subcontracted the excavation portion of the designs to Hertzberg who is a professional engineer with Sanchez Associated. However, Hertzberg, who had previously lost his authority to self-certify architectural designs, used a stamp belonging to his partner, Luis Sanchez, to certify them in Sanchez’s name. He also placed Sanchez’s signature on several documents filed in support of Lattarulo’s applications for building permits.
At the time of the incident, Sanchez was recovering from a severe brain injury and lacked the physical ability to review or certify architectural designs.
After acquiring the necessary building permits, Lattarulo commenced construction in a reckless manner, which ultimately lead to the death of a construction worker, when the adjacent building collapsed, according to a separate indictment announced June 11. In that indictment, Lattarulo is charged with Manslaughter in the Second Degree.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/06/06/2008-06-06_two_found_guilty_in_mortgage_scam_and_fa.html
Two ringleaders of a multimillion-dollar mortgage scam are facing up to 30 years in prison and heavy fines and restitution after pleading guilty to bilking banks and fleecing foreclosure victims in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Maurice McDowall, who directed the daily operations of the scheme, and Aleksander Lipkin, a mortgage broker who coordinated the fraudulent loans, both pleaded guilty in Manhattan Federal Court Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud in a scheme that stole dozens of homes and racked up more than $20 million in home mortgages and equity loans.
From November 2003 through April 2005, McDowall and Lipkin targeted homeowners facing foreclosure, offering to refinance the homeowners' debt with larger mortgages by "selling" the homes to straw buyers with better credit who could qualify for easier terms, said Michael Garcia, U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
The foreclosure fiends promised the house deeds would be returned after a year, which didn't happen, and in some cases the fraudsters even forged the homeowners' signatures to steal their homes out from under them.
Lipkin conspired with other mortgage brokers and processors at AGA Capital NY, Inc., and Northside Capital NY, Inc., both based in Brooklyn, as well as with home appraisers, straw buyers and others, submitting fraudulent loan applications with false documentation such as bank statements. In some instances, the conspirators got mortgages under stolen identities.
McDowall, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. He faces a maximum prison term of 30 years and a maximum fine of the greater of $1 million or twice the gain or loss resulting from the crime. He must pay restitution to the victims as well, and McDowall has agreed to forfeit a total of $2.5 million.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 9, 2006.
Lipkin, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud and now faces the same penalties as his partner in crime. Lipkin also agreed to forfeit a total of $7million. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 10 of this year.
Four other defendants were charged with McDowall. One has pleaded guilty and the rest await trial, scheduled for June 23.
Of the 26 other defendants charged with Lipkin, four have pleaded guilty and the rest await trial on Nov. 17.
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Federal prosecutors have charged more than 400 people across the U.S. in a crackdown against mortgage fraud, as the government stepped up efforts to address the subprime loan crisis.
FBI Director Robert Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip said the campaign, called Operation Malicious Mortgage, was designed to send a message that housing crime is a national problem.
http://www.rep-am.com/news/349277.txt
WATERBURY -- A New York real estate speculator has admitted in court papers that he submitted false and inflated property assessments to a bank to obtain a $3.9 million loan he never repaid.
How and why Abraham Breuer told Grand Pacific Finance Corp. that 16 properties were worth more than $5 million when they were really worth about $2.1 million remains an issue in dispute as a foreclosure case winds its way through Middletown Superior Court.
Five of the properties -- dilapidated rental units -- are in Waterbury. The city auctioned off four of those for delinquent taxes and is taking the fifth by eminent domain for the new Brooklyn elementary school.
Breuer, through E Z Realty Management, obtained a $3.9 million mortgage on the 16 properties in 2006. After getting that loan, he stopped paying property taxes and water bills, and ultimately defaulted on the loan.
In his defense, Breuer's attorney, Robert A. Ziegler, contends that his client filed false appraisals and inflated rental income statements because an officer at the bank named Jerry Kwok told him to.
"Jerry Kwok tutored Abraham Breuer how to falsify the information and instructed Abraham Breuer to resubmit the information as modified," wrote Ziegler in papers filed May 20.
The reason Breuer agreed to apply for a loan far beyond the value of his properties involved a plan to shield his brother-in-law, Stanley Gestetner, and Grand Pacific from banking regulators, according to his lawyer.
The account provided in court papers by Ziegler is complicated, to say the least.
Gestetner owns a hotel in Southfield, Mich., on which Grand Pacific had issued a $10 million loan. The bank also gave him an extra $1.8 million unsecured loan to cover state and local property taxes.
According to Ziegler, Kwok was worried that the loan to Gestetner didn't have sufficient collateral and would attract the attention of auditors.
To beef up the loan's credibility, Ziegler contended, Kwok suggested that Gestetner get Breuer to put up his Connecticut holdings as additional collateral.
According to Ziegler's filing, Breuer was initially reluctant, but finally submitted a loan application.
Kwok told Breuer to acquire more properties and to inflate appraisals and income statements after reviewing the initial application, Ziegler wrote.
Gestetner's hotel company filed for bankruptcy protection in February of this year. In June, a Michigan Bankruptcy Court judge converted the case from a Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation, according to federal court documents. That hotel deal, like the 16 Breuer properties, is buried under a mountain of tax debts, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Breuer's claim in the Middletown case is that once the auditors were done with the Michigan file, Grand Pacific would refinance his loan and release its claims on his Connecticut properties.
Attorney Pierre Yves Kolawkowski, representing Grand Pacific, insists in his written response that no such arrangement existed and points to the original loan documents as proof.
Nowhere in the original $3.9 million loan is there any mention of collateral on a Michigan loan or Gestetner's company, and Breuer's is the only signature on the documents.
In the Michigan bankruptcy case, there is no mention of the Connecticut properties, although E Z Realty of Michigan is mentioned as an unsecured creditor.
If the value of the Connecticut properties was overstated in the loan application, Breuer did it himself, Kolakowski wrote.
"E Z Realty's representations were made as statements of fact, however, such representations were substantially and materially false and known to be false when made," wrote Kolakowski.
Both sides allege fraud in the case and seeking damages.
Local investors maintain that inflated appraisals during the hot real estate market between 2003 and 2006 have led to unfair property assessments and contributed to inner-city blight because many of those loans defaulted.
In addition to the 16 properties in the Grand Pacific deal, Breuer was involved in 14 other deals in Waterbury, 13 of which ended up in foreclosures or other legal action.
I think that Moisa is Hungarian for Moishe.
http://www.kitv.com/news/16670615/detail.html
HONOLULU -- Police arrested a Nanakuli man early Friday morning and charged him with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy over the last year.
Police think there may be many more teenage victims, and they are asking people to come forward to tell their stories.
The boy worked for the man's portable toilet business, and he told detectives the man had him strip naked when he measured him for a work uniform and then sexually assaulted him.
Police charged Henry Moisa, 56, of Nanakuli with four counts of first-degree sexual assault. Officers arrested him near his Nanakuli home just after 4 a.m.
Police said they found evidence inside his home.
"There were many photographs of underage males that we believe were the victims of this person," Sgt. Kim Buffett said.
Moisa runs a business called A's Party Portable Toilet Rental, with his brother, Manuel, who told KITV, "I know he's innocent. I know my brother."
hilchos yichud being kept to the t is a great protection....
many many "events" could have been avoided
Profile of one of Lubie shluchim who signed the letter attacking Rubashkin critics.
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/06/01/features/range/2b0a3bbc7653e5d58725745a0020fc74.txt
He’s young. He’s a recent transplant to Jackson from New York. He rents a house in town, he has a young family, he loves to snowboard and mountain bike, and he has a full beard.
Sound like a typical Jackson ski bum? Well, there’s a twist. He’s a Hasidic Jew, and possibly the only full-time rabbi in Wyoming.
Rabbi Zalman Mendelsohn moved with his family to Jackson May 6 as part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, a branch of Hasidism. Chabad, based in New York, works to help Jewish communities that have limited or no infrastructure retain or regain shape, and helps Jews who may be isolated find communities. He intends to serve the entire state (of Wyoming).
Still, being Orthodox in Jackson will have its challenges, such as a lack of Kosher restaurants. (The Mendelsohns order >>> meat and dairy products from a Kosher plant in Iowa <<<.)
http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19749796&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6
In 2006, Hikind voted for the Dignity bill ... and he has supported legislation that gave domestic partners hospital visitation, medical decision-making, and other rights dating back to 2003.
"When I speak on issues involving the gay community I have been supportive," he said.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080607/NEWS/806070324
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
June 07, 2008
KIRYAS JOEL — One side describes the post-election scene as a melee in which as many as 400 boys and young men shouted at departing poll watchers, pelted at least two women with eggs and shook the van of an attorney they revile.
The other side scoffs at that description. In their account, the crowd size was closer to 150, no eggs were thrown and the noise that poll watchers heard was merely celebratory singing.
The setting was a wedding banquet hall on Forest Road where Kiryas Joel held an election for two village trustee seats on Wednesday — the latest political battle between two feuding factions within this Satmar Hasidic community.
The friction began around 9:40 p.m. when the poll watchers and lawyers who had stayed to await the voting results filed outside, where a crowd of young spectators had gathered.
Michael Sussman, the attorney for the village's opposition movement, said he met "what looked like 300-400 young men," who screamed at him and followed him to his van as a public safety officer cleared a path through the crowd.
Once behind the wheel, Sussman said in a written account, "I could only go backwards, into a crowd of hundreds of fist-clenched young men who had pure hatred on their faces and in their hearts. They were screaming; they were rocking my van."
Moses Witriol, the village's public safety director, denies that last part.
"Nobody touched his van," Witriol said. "Unless I'm blind — and I just bought a new pair of glasses."
Witriol claims a Kiryas Joel Alliance member who accompanied Sussman had incited the crowd. Had the two men heeded his advice to leave the banquet hall by the back door, the whole incident could have been avoided, he said.
There are no outside police accounts of what happened. Several state troopers reportedly responded to the scene with lights flashing, but no record of their visit exists.
Orange County sheriff's deputies — who monitored the last village election, in 2005, under court order — had no such obligation this time and got no requests for help, Undersheriff Kenneth Jones said.
Jones recalled a brief moment of friction after the 2005 election, when a crowd of young people rocked the car of two opposition lawyers as they tried to leave. Deputies intervened and quickly ended the altercation, he said.
http://www.forward.com/articles/13554/
Los Angeles - When attorney Donald Etra was invited to join President Bush at Camp David for a spring weekend in 2005, the invitation put him in a quandary. It was already Friday afternoon, and Etra, an Orthodox Jew, feared that if he traveled by car from the White House as planned, he’d never make it to the presidential retreat by sundown.
The solution: Bush stepped in and offered to fly Etra and his wife, Paula, to Camp David in his helicopter, in order to ensure that they would get there by the start of the Sabbath.
Etra, 60, a high-powered Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer, has known Bush since the two men were friends at Yale University. Members of the class of 1968, the two pals joined Skull and Bones, the prestigious secret society. The future president even traveled once to Manhattan’s Upper East Side from New Haven, Conn., to share a Sabbath meal with Etra’s family.
They have maintained the friendship ever since. Last month, Etra was one of 79 members of the president’s delegation to Israel in honor of the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary. In 2003, the president sent him to Poland to represent America at the 60th anniversary commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. This past spring, Bush reappointed Etra to his second five-year term on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
What is particularly striking about Etra’s long friendship with Bush, and his reputation as one of the president’s closest Jewish associates, is the rather less publicized fact that Etra is, by his own description, a liberal Democrat.
As the Bush administration winds down, Etra spoke with the Forward about everything from the president’s take on Purim to why Etra remains fiercely loyal to Bush despite their political differences. A member of two Modern Orthodox synagogues in L.A.’s Pico-Robertson district, Young Israel of Century City and Beth Jacob Congregation, Etra boasts a star-studded client list that includes the likes of rapper Snoop Dogg and actress Fran Drescher. He recently represented the Spinka rebbe, a Brooklyn Hasidic leader, at a bail hearing related to charges that the rabbi defrauded the government of millions in tax dollars.
Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, Hillel executive director at the University of California, Los Angeles (who was charged with assaulting a woman), and a former client of Etra’s, described Etra as “a liberal Orthodox Jew with a very rational worldview.”
“My sense is that he’s a type of careful liberal, an-old style Democratic liberal,” Seidler-Feller said. “Meaning that on social issues, on abortion and so on, he follows the line, and he’s careful — meaning, he has limits.”
Seidler-Feller noted, however, that Etra is careful to keep a low profile on political matters. “He plays things close to the chest,” Seidler-Feller said. “He’s not out there.”
Indeed, Etra’s political campaign contributions on the public record do not show a long list of Democratic candidates that he has supported. He contributed three times to George W. Bush’s first election campaign in 1999. Going further back, Federal Election Commission filings show that in 1991, Etra contributed to two Democratic candidates, one in California and one in Ohio.
If Etra’s publicly reported contributions don’t reveal much about his leanings, other hints along the way speak volumes. He was a supporter of the recalled Democratic ex-governor of California, Gray Davis. He is pro-choice. In the early 1970s he co-authored a book on Citibank with Ralph Nader, then known for his firebrand consumer advocacy.
How does Etra remain close — he’s a frequent White House overnight guest — to a president who opposes so many of the causes he holds dear? Etra offered a simple answer: “Friendship trumps politics.”
Several decades ago, during the Reagan administration, the future president was in L.A. for Etra’s wedding and attended the oyfruf, the Jewish ritual in which a groom-to-be is called up to the Torah on the Sabbath before his wedding. At the time, the elder George Bush was vice president, and Etra recounted how impressed the younger Bush was with the fact that the Orthodox congregation said a prayer for the president and the vice president on a weekly basis.
At Purim time two years ago, Etra had an opportunity to explain to the president the meaning of the feast of Esther. Etra was staying overnight at the White House the day after the celebration, and one of the president’s daughters asked whether he’d observed the holiday. When Bush asked for an explanation of Purim’s significance, Etra summed it up succinctly. “I said it was about a crazy guy in Iran who wanted to kill all the Jews,” Etra said. “And the president remarked that not much has changed.”
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS/806120313
Last week, Rosenwasser confirmed an incident that he wasn't able to discuss while he was a sitting judge. In 2005, someone apparently hacked into his cell phone while he was in the midst of deciding a ferocious dispute between Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, leader of a Kiryas Joel faction of Satmars, and Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, spiritual leader of the main Satmar synagogue in Brooklyn. They were quarreling about who should have access to a cemetery in Kiryas Joel.
Rosenwasser reported the hacking incident to the state Office of Court Administration. He also called lawyers who were involved in the case into his chambers for an off-the-record conference.
"Here's the way it went: We got called into chambers, and nobody knew why until we were there," said Bruce Dunn Sr., one of the lawyers who was there. "He related that he had received an odd message from his cell-phone carrier that led him to believe that someone was able to access his cell-phone records.
"He said that if there's any reason anybody wanted him off the case, then he would recuse himself. If anybody thought he was prejudiced or partial, in any way, then he would recuse himself. Everyone said they didn't want him off the case."
The state Office of Court Administration doesn't acknowledge internal complaints by judges. But in 2004, another judge, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Melvin Barasch, spoke of a minefield of threats, unfounded allegations of corruption and anonymous rumors that awaited his every move in another case involving a civil dispute between Satmar factions.
Barasch said there ought to be an investigation.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/06/14/nosplit/bvtvsunfeat14.xml
On the surface, Samuel Leibowitz is a regular 38-year-old ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jew, who was born and raised in London’s Stamford Hill. He says his prayers, has Shabbat dinners and is involved within the community. What makes him different is the fact that he’s served nine years in prison, in three countries, because of his multiple convictions for international drug-smuggling. This makes him a fascinating subject for the first of a three-part observational documentary series entitled Jews, about Jewish life in today’s Britain, from producer/director Vanessa Engle.
Considering the religious devotion of Engle’s interview subjects across all three films, their honesty and openness is impressive. As was her dogged perseverance in snaring the ‘lead character’ Leibowitz, in the opening documentary The Prisoner, as he ducks and dives his way through the close-knit north London community. Engle had found a brief news article about him in the Jewish press describing how he’d been to court for drug-trafficking in the UK but that he’d been given a reduced sentence because the community had offered to absorb him and rehabilitate him.
‘I seized on it,’ says Engle. ‘I felt there was a great story there and I tracked him down and started writing to him. Then he’d start to phone me and I visited him in prison a few times and took it from there. It was a hunch, I had no idea what he’d be like. It was a risk that paid off.’
Through Leibowitz’s eyes, the first film also explores the Cheredi (ultra-religious or Orthodox) community. ‘There’s not been a film about that community for decades,’ says Engle, ‘and this explores how they cope with a renegade [Leibowitz] and modern life.’ Leibowitz, in turn, introduced the film-maker to members of the community, but not all of them were willing to be interviewed on camera. ‘A lot of people wouldn’t talk,’ says Engle, ‘but I’m very dogged. We made an awful lot of phone calls, hundreds.’
Does anyone know of the Beis Din Dboro Park? Is it legite. I saw a seruv against a woman hung up on the streets on Brooklyn. Would consider attending since it seems they would in fact issue a seruv against a woman but I do want to attend a legitmate Beis Din.
When my wife argued that we should stop accepting the OU because of their reaction to the Lanner incident(*), I told her she was crazy. The OU would treat kashrut seriously because kashrut, unlike children, was important. As usual, she was right and I was wrong.
(*) Her exact quote: "How can we trust them with our food if we can't trust them with our children?"
Posted by: ABribeBlindsTheEyesOfTheWise | June 23, 2008 at 12:03 PM
Anyone know how many Maimonides officials were arrested for these grave violations that put patients' lives at risk?
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcrim_attorney/AttorneyCaseDetail?docketNumber=2008SK073625&courtType=L&countyId=oLUUSn6XZmnpHT0uYTneNw%3D%3D&docketId=iIGHl3gV5io2g2_PLUS_Nq3mABg%3D%3D&docketDseq=TrjonlJL3RZ9RRb318vIVw%3D%3D&defendantName=MAIMONIDES%20MEDICALCENTER&county=KINGS&court=Criminal%20Court&recordType=S&recordNum=9747915
KINGS Criminal Court
Docket 2008SK073625
Defendant MAIMONIDES MEDICALCENTER
Violation, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: VIOLATE/FAIL TO COMPLY WITH FIRE COMMISSIONER
http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcrim_attorney/AttorneyDefendantDetail?docketNumber=2008SK052220&courtType=L&countyId=oLUUSn6XZmnpHT0uYTneNw%3D%3D&docketId=83RVkBbePRTKwuH08LhG_PLUS_g%3D%3D&docketDseq=6ph1Wz8HOwPQ4jiHzfbz%2Fg%3D%3D&defendantName=MAIMONIDES MEDICALCENTER&county=KINGS&court=Criminal Court&recordType=S&recordNum=9747915
KINGS Criminal Court
Docket: 2008SK052220
Defendant: MAIMONIDES MEDICALCENTER
Violation, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: VIOLATE/FAIL TO COMPLY WITH FIRE COMMISSIONER
Just for your info, just because ol' windbag Yudi Kolko got off easy with criminal charges, it doesn't mean his court appearances are over. The judge still has him shlepping in while he's on parole. He was in court on June 3rd and is scheduled to return from Lakewood again on July 30th.
Mutterperl will be in court the following day on July 31st.
It's a wee bit harder for Yudi Kolko to get all the way back to Lakewood before Shabbos but I assure you he will be fine.
On May 28th, Judge Mullen upped bail for Colmo the Homo to $1 million. It's not clear why as Colmer couldn't even make bail when it was $10,000. Colmer is due back in court on July 16th.
"It's a wee bit harder for Yudi Kolko to get all the way back to Lakewood before Shabbos"
A little high octane gas will do the trick.
I hope the Howell Police Dept has extra speed traps on Route 9 for the Kolkos on erev Shabbos. Tulman can shove the ticket where the sun don't shine. And believe me, a srugie will not curry favor with Howell cops either.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/06/22/where_have_all_the_men_gone/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2
'Where have all the men gone?'
As the role of women increases in Judaism, questions swirl about a gender imbalance
By Michael Paulson
Globe Staff / June 22, 2008
American Judaism has a boy problem.
After several thousand years in which women were relegated to the sidelines of worship and community leadership, scholars and denominational leaders now say that women are significantly outnumbering men in numerous key segments of non-Orthodox Jewish community life.
At the Reform movement's seminary, 60 percent of the rabbinical students and 84 percent of those studying to become cantors are female. Girls are outnumbering boys by as much as 2 to 1 among adolescents in youth group programs and summer camps, while women outnumber men at worship and in a variety of congregational leadership roles, according to the Union for Reform Judaism.
The evidence is everywhere. At Temple Sinai in Sharon, nine of the 11 members of this year's confirmation class were girls. At Temple Beth David in Canton, last Saturday's Bible study drew 11 women and no men. At Temple Isaiah in Lexington, the executive board for the last year had eight women and one man. And at the Prozdor, an intensive supplementary high school program at Hebrew College in Newton, 59 percent of the students are female.
"After bar mitzvah, the boys just drop out," said Sylvia Barack Fishman, a professor of contemporary Jewish life at Brandeis University and the coauthor of a study on "Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life," which was publicly released last week.
"American Jewish boys and men have fewer connections to Jews and Judaism in almost every venue and in every age, from school-age children through the adult years," the study declares. "Contemporary liberal American Judaism, although supposedly egalitarian, is visibly and substantially feminized."
As with so much about gender, everything about this subject is highly controversial. Some Jewish leaders dispute the statistics, citing contradictory evidence, or pointing to the continuing presence of men at the helm of the biggest community organizations and synagogues. Others question whether a preponderance of women is a problem, or just progress. No one is clear whether the trend, which has only emerged in the last few years, is a temporary phenomenon or a sea change.
But scholars and rabbis say they are concerned that diminished participation by men in Judaism threatens the health of the Jewish community.
The Brandeis study argues that "men's decreased interest in Jews and Judaism walks hand in hand with apathy toward creating Jewish households and raising Jewish children."
With all that I read about on this chain of posts one gets the impression that there's nothing positive left in Yididishkiet.No gedolim,no rabeim ,no kashrus,no yeshivas etc.Are there any erliche yidden left out there? This can be quite depressing.Come on fellas,is the only thing we can do is besmirch,belittle,demonize individuals and groups on and on? Does every narishkeit one reads here about Boro Park,Flatbush,Lakewood,Crown Heights,Yehupitz or whatever other place have to be put in print? Of course there's a lot of injustice going on and a lot of worthy battles and crusades to be fought.We don't live in a utopian society.If we did Moshiach would have come a long time ago,but when I read these posts, some of which are really over the top,I have strong doubts whether he will come at all.The Rebbi Rayaz ZT'l of Lubavitch, as a child, asked his father the Rebbi Rashab ZT'L "Why did HKB"H create us with two eyes"? To which The Rashab answerd "with one eye we look at the good in others and with the other we turn inwards and look for our own shortcomings".
We live in a locale where distance and other factors make it a hardship to send our daughter to a Bais Yaakov at such a young age. A Chabad school is much more convenient. We told the rebbitzen in charge that we eat Lubavitcher shechitah but we draw the line with Rubashkin. This Chabad outpost buys directly from Agri. We do not want our daughter eating the toxic tarfus when we are already not bringing Rubashkin in the house and moser nefesh to not eat it anywhere outside the house. This Chabad outpost already has other children not eating their meat because the parents adhere to vegetarianism. That is ok for Chabad but if we have a higher standard of kashrus, it gets them visibly upset. They allow no explanation from us, talking over us that we are falling for the anti-Semitic conspiracy and "it's all politics". They told us, fine, don't eat the meat, before trying to embarrass us in front of others with snide remarks that we care more about what we eat than the "lashon hara" that comes out of our mouths.
I decided not to pull our daughter out nor to argue back. As sheker has no raglayim, I was confidant before the Federal raid that Rubashkin would not last much longer.
Kings County Civil Court
Index Number: CV-000063-08/KI
Case Name: BETTER HEALTH FITNESS EQUIPMENT
vs.
EMES, YESHIVA TORAS
Case Type: Civil
Classification: Consumer Credit
Filing Date: 01/02/2008
Disposition Date:
Calendar Number: P-08-KI-004582
Jury Demand: No
Judge Name:
Attorney/Firm(s) For Plaintiff - BETTER HEALTH FITNESS EQUIPMENT:
Meyers, Saxon & Cole Attorney Type: Firm
3620 Quentin Road
Brooklyn, New York 11234-
(718) 339-3330 ext:
Attorney/Firm(s) For Defendant - YESHIVA TORAS EMES:
Steven Z. Mostofsky Attorney Type: Attorney
26 Court Street
Brooklyn, New York 11242-
(718) 246-0863 ext
Kings Civil Supreme
Index Number: 012634/2008
Case Name: YESHIVAS NOVOMINSK vs. .
Case Type: Other
Disposition Date: 04/25/2008
RJI Filed: 04/28/2008
Justice Name: JAMES G. STARKEY, PT 6
http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/FCAS_docs/2008APR/2300126342008100SCIV.pdf
Petitioner, Yeshivas Novominsk, incorporated pursuant to Article 10 of the Religious Corporation Law of the State of New York by the filing of its Certificate of Incorporation with the Kings County Clerk on April 30, 1981 (“Petitioner”), by its attorneys, Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, PC, having moved this Court pursuant to 5 5 1 lof the Not-For-Profit Corporations Law of New York State and $12 of the Religious Corporations Law of New York State for an order granting leave of this Court (i) to enter into a $1,000,000 loan transaction with the Avi Chai Foundation ; (ii) to issue bonds in the principal amount of $8,000,000; (iii) to execute a letter of credit to secure the loan with the Avi Chai Foundation ; (iv) to execute a letter of credit to secure the Bonds in the principal amount of $8,000,000; (v) to mortgage and otherwise encumber Real Property owned and operated by Petitioner located at 1680- 1694 60th Street
Upon reading and filing the Verified Petition of Rabbi Lipa Brennan (Lipa Brenner the child rapist?), Secretary and Trustee of Petitioner, verified on the 20fh day of March, 2007, and the Exhibits annexed thereto, from which it appears that the Members of the Petitioner and the Board of Trustees of the Petitioner duly adopted resolutions recommending and authorizing Petitioner to enter into the following transaction (the “Bond Transaction”):
a. The Petitioner will issue taxable bonds in the amount of eight million dollars
($8,000,000) (the “Bonds”).
b. The Bonds shall bear interest at a variable rate, to be determined in accordance with market conditions prevalent as of the date of issuance of the Bonds.
c. The Petitioner shall borrow the sum of $1,000,000 from the Avi Chai Foundation, the essential terms of which are as follows:
i. Principal $1,000,000
1.1.. Interest Rate: Loan does not bear interest
iii. Amortization: Quarterly Payments of Principal in $50,000 installments commencing 4/1/2008
iv. Prepayment of Principal: Yes
d. The proceeds received from the sale of the Bonds and the loan from the Avi Chai Foundation will be used by Petitioner to provide for (i) the refinancing of an existing Mortgage, (ii) repay various loans from various of its Trustees, (iii) fund a debt service reserve hnd and (iv) hnd costs of issuance.
e. Concurrently with, and as a condition to, the issuance of the Bonds, and the loan from the Avi Chai Foundation the Petitioner will cause to be delivered an irrevocable, direct pay letter of credit of Commerce Bank (the “Bonds LE’) and a standby letter of credit of Commerce
Bank (the “Avi Chai L/C”)(collectively, the “Letters of Credit”).
Jacob Perlow forgot to tell you that I'm the big cheese at the Avi Chai Foundation that also happens to fund a bunch of modern orthodox yeshivot and organizations with questionable hashkafot.
John Does #4 & #5 vs Kolko, Margo & YTT have some sort of routine court date this Wednesday but the big trial is scheduled for Nov. 14th in front Judge Battaglia.
Does anyone know why Judge Steinhart denied a request for a protective order on May 8th?
I sued La Carne Grill because they don't give you Rubashkin steaks and salad with BIG BEATLES like Le Marais.
New York County Civil Court
Index Number: CV-009737-08/NY
Case Name: THE JEWISH WEEK INC
vs.
E & Z RESTAURANT LLC, TA LA CARNE GRILL
Case Type: Civil
Classification:
Filing Date: 02/11/2008
Disposition Date:
Calendar Number:
Jury Demand: No
Judge Name:
Attorney/Firm(s) For Plaintiff - THE JEWISH WEEK INC:
BORGES & ASSOCIATES LLC Attorney Type: Firm
575 UNDERHILL BLVD SUITE 110
Syosset, New York 11791
5166778200
At one time Schmuel Levinger claimed to be Rabbi Adin Steinsalz’s west coast liason. Then he claimed to be selling Israeli high-tech ipo’s. Then he disappeared. Then word spreads that he owes a lot of money to people in the community.
Who is this mystery man? Has he done dirty deeds done dirt cheap? Does this "Schmuel" also use the name "Baruch Levinger"?
There’s a Baruch Levinger acts like a con man. He’s been peddling his shtick on and off in Jewish Los Angeles for about 25 years. A real fancy talker. His departed for Monsey about 20 years ago. A lot of people in Jewish LA were mad at him.
He came back wearing fancy clothes and talking about IPOs.
His wife kicked him out recently.
He borrowed money from people to attend singles events (cruises) and people didn’t get repaid.
He’s fat, a roly polly. About 15 years ago, somebody started a rumor that Baruch had won the lottery. It seemed like the whole community came looking for him to get a part of this $3 million pie. But he didn’t have millions. He had not won the lottery.
Good luck collecting money from this guy.
Case Type: Other Promissory Note/Collections (General Jurisdiction) Case#: EC047421 CASE NAME: M&I BANK FSB VS LEVINGER, SCHMUEL Parties: CAFE BONJOUR INC. - Defendant,LEVINGER SCHMUEL - Defendant,M&I BANK FSB ASSIGNEE OF SWIFT FINANCIAL - Plaintiff Attorneys: CHERIN & YELSKY - Attorney for Plaintiff Date Filed: 06/12/2008
Yes there is a guy working for Novominsk called Lipa Brenen and he is no ger.
LONDON (Reuters) - A pig's delight is three square meals each day, according to a Swedish study on Tuesday showing swine raised in conventional indoor pens are healthier and grow fatter when fed this way.
http://exposemolesters.blogspot.com/2008/04/hynes-office-dissuaded-families-ready.html
I know for a fact Hynes has went very easy on some people in the Bobov community who were accused of sexual abuse.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) - A northern Iowa man awaiting trial on sex abuse and incest charges has died in a farm accident in Floyd County.
Officials with the sheriff's office say Daniel Leech died after he was pinned under a hydraulic lift box on a pickup truck on Monday.
Authorities say it appears Leech was unloading wood chips and tried to repair something or free up the box when it fell on him.
LOS ANGELES (AP)—Former NBA star Dennis Rodman was arrested for allegedly hitting a woman at a Century City hotel.
He was arrested Wednesday night after officers answered a report of a domestic dispute, police said. The woman sustained injuries to her arm, police added.
The 46-year-old former rebounding champion was jailed for investigation of felony domestic violence and freed on $50,000 bail early Thursday.
http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080502/OPINION03/805020307
May 2, 2008
Preventing child abuse could be worth billions
$104 billion is not small change, especially in our current economic environment. It is the kind of money that should make every American take pause, every politician take a stand and everyone who cares about children rethink the way we think about child abuse and neglect. A study released in January by Prevent Child Abuse America and the Pew Charitable Trusts calculated the economic impact of our failure to prevent child abuse and neglect at $103.8 billion for 2007 alone.
Gumshoe says
"Unless there is an Irish ger named Lipa "Brennan", why the hell is that filthy child rapist Lipa Brenner the secretary & trustee of Novominsk?
I hope UOJ makes a big stink about this."
Here's a perfect example of what I wrote about on my previous post.A purely innocent individual who has a name similar to Lipa Brenner but is named Lipa BRENNEN and happens to work for the Novominsker is already being villified and and besmirched without anyone looking into to the truth of this matter.
Motzi shem ra in it's purest ugly form without looking into the ramifications of such an accusation.A simple check into this would have saved this guys reputation.I happen to to know BRENNEN and he's a sweetheart of a guy.
THE Lipa Brenner - is a close friend and financial supporter of Perlow. (and Belsky)
courant.com/news/local/hr/hc-reardon0521.artmay21,0,389939.story
Sex Abuse Complaint Against Reardon 40 Years Old
By DANIEL P. JONES And HILARY WALDMAN
Courant Staff Writers
May 21, 2008
Almost 20 years before what was believed to be the first child molestation complaint against Dr. George Reardon, a mother accused the prominent St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center doctor of abusing her son, court records show.
The nearly 40-year-old complaint was among a huge cache of child pornography discovered hidden in Reardon's former home last year. But the document's existence was kept quiet until lawyers suing St. Francis for negligence recently asked a judge to order its release.
The court papers filed in connection with the lawsuits, which have been consolidated at Superior Court in Waterbury, do not precisely say to whom the mother's complaint was delivered. But it's clear the matter was handled by Dr. Joseph S. Sadowski, an official of the Hartford County Medical Association — who also practiced medicine at St. Francis.
The existence of the complaint raises startling new questions about why Reardon was allowed to continue practicing medicine through the 1970s, 1980s and into the 1990s — all the while allegedly preying on scores of children. Until the disclosure of the April 1970 document, the first known abuse complaints were lodged with state regulators against Reardon in 1987.
Barry Feldman, general counsel at St. Francis, has said that although an internal investigation is underway, to the best of his knowledge the hospital did not learn anything about the specific nature of the allegations against Reardon until 1993, when the health department moved in public proceedings to revoke his medical license.
Since last year's discovery of the photographs on Griswold Drive in West Hartford, about 100 people have sued St. Francis, claiming the hospital was negligent in not preventing the abuse. Many of the alleged victims say Reardon abused them and photographed them in degrading poses at his office at St. Francis; Reardon, they say, told their parents they were participating in growth studies.
In 1970, when the mother lodged her complaint, the mechanism for dealing with allegations against physicians was markedly different from what it is today. Until the early 1980s, complaints against doctors were generally handled quietly by local medical societies — essentially trade groups of doctors formed to advance their professional interests.
Even when the medical society disciplined doctors, their names were kept secret — even from the hospitals where they worked, according to a retired Hartford physician who was involved with disciplining doctors, though not at the time of the Reardon case. The court papers do not indicate whether officials at St. Francis became aware of the mother's complaint at the time.
Before the state law was changed, patients who felt harmed by their doctors were advised to write a letter of complaint to their local medical society. Each county had a society and the Hartford County Medical Association was known as the most active in the state.
At the Hartford association, complaints were referred to a subcommittee of doctors called the ethics and deportment committee, according to a former committee member who asked that his name not be published. The next step in the process was for the doctors to respond to the allegations in writing.
Members of the ethics and deportment committee would then consider the written complaint and the doctor's response to determine if any intervention was necessary.
Most of the cases involved doctors who abused drugs or alcohol, and problem doctors were commonly referred for treatment without any record of an indiscretion. The former committee member said his group never informed the hospitals when complaints were made against their staff physicians.
Sadowski became president of the Hartford County Medical Association in 1973. He was chairman of the ethics and deportment committee in 1970 when the Reardon complaint was filed, according to St. Francis.
He was a contemporary of Reardon's, who was chief of endocrinology at St. Francis and practiced medicine there from 1963 to 1993, when he resigned in the face of allegations that he had molested young patients for decades, starting in the 1950s. Both Reardon and Sadowski were doctors in the Navy before starting their medical practices in Hartford at about the same time.
Torah U'mesora still won't implement guidelines that would require that all allegations of sexual abuse be reported to the police. Wonder if aron shlechter has anything to say on this matter. He looked like an idiot at the recent TU midget event!
Sex Offender Arrested after Exposing Himself in Bookstore
KTLA News
May 23, 2008, 12:57 PM PDT
ARCADIA -- A young girl is recovering from a terrifying experience at an Arcadia bookstore, and a registered sex offender is in custody.
Police say Jaime Elvis Elizondo, 33, brushed up against the 5 year old girl and exposed his genitals while shoppers watched in horror and the girl's father sat just a few feet away. The incident was captured on the store's surveillance camera.
Elizondo, a resident of San Gabriel, is under arrest, suspected of "touching his exposed genitals up against a young female child" in a Borders bookstore at Westfield Santa Anita, 400 S. Baldwin Ave., according to Arcadia Police Chief Robert P. Sanderson.
Witnesses confronted the suspect and he fled, but one of the witnesses was able to identify the suspect from the National Sex Offender Registry, police said.
Elizondo was arrested and booked on suspicion of one count of committing lewd acts with a child. He was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Anyone with additional information regarding the attack was asked to contact Detective Dan Crowther at (626) 574-5149.
To Reb UOJ
"THE Lipa Brenner - is a close friend and financial supporter of Perlow. (and Belsky)"
That may be true about Brenner but Brennen is is a paid employee of the Novominsker.Shades of Kamtsa and Bar Kamtsa.
I hate to take away the joy de vivre of Gumshoe.
R' Arthur:
My point remains the same. Perlow and Belsky - actively and actively/inactively, protected Kolko - for many reasons - ONE of them is that they both did not want the Brenner connection to surface again.
http://exposemolesters.blogspot.com/2008/05/rebeccas-story-what-would-charles-j.html?showComment=1212179880000#c2020062280312572030
Ex-Yob er said...
I went to that hellhole called yeshiva of brooklyn. It was the worst time in my life. I was viciously abused by jack mandel and judah nussbaum. They used to beat me with hands and fists. I witnessed a kid getting his pants pulled down in front of everybody by vicious jack. I saw a boy get slapped so hard he blacked out. I seriously hope that place gets shut down soon!
Arthur, you seem to have some complex problems if you think I get "joy de vivre" out of confusing names. I had good reason to suspect it was the convicted criminal and I have never heard of any Jew with that Irish sounding last name before.
Get some help.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212041440001&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Rabbi: Rabbinic courts unjust, corrupt
Ruth Eglash , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 31, 2008
A Jerusalem rabbi says his family is being targeted by the Rabbinic Court Administration in a campaign of vengeance because of the actions of his son that highlights the "corruption" and "protektsia" (outside influence) in the state-appointed body.
Rabbi Moshe Zalman Bryskman, leader of the Shimon Hazadik synagogue in the capital's Old Katamon/San Simon neighborhood, said last week he had fallen victim to harsh and unfair treatment by the courts due to his son Meir's ongoing divorce proceedings.
In April, the rabbinic courts turned exclusively to The Jerusalem Post, saying that in an effort to track down Meir (who, they believe, has fled the country) and force him to grant his wife a get (bill of divorce) they wanted to publish his details in the secular media to "shame the family" into coming forward with information on his whereabouts.
According to the information obtained by the Post, the couple had resided together in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood until their separation. Later, Bryskman moved into his parents' home on Rehov Hizkiyahu Hamelech and was seen more recently in the Geula neighborhood.
"The Beit Din [religious court] says it wants to bring shame on the family," Bryskman said. "How can they say such things? It's like a mafia. It's terrible, the article that you published was full of lies. All the details they gave you were false. It has caused us terrible damage and really brought shame on our family."
In a written response, the Courts Administration said it stood by its original claims against Meir Bryskman and that the same tactic had been used successfully in the past to force recalcitrant husbands to comply with its rulings.
"The judges' decision that Meir Bryskman must give his wife a get was made after carefully considering all the complaints and hearing all the witnesses speak," the court statement said. "He must issue a get without delay."
"The rabbinic court should be considered the same as any other legal body in the State of Israel and the husband in this case is showing clear disrespect for its rulings," continued the response. "The father is trying to sabotage the course of justice in this case."
The response also said the administration's legal adviser was considering filing criminal charges against Rabbi Bryskman for obstruction of justice.
Bryskman said he did not know why the court would take "vengeance" against his family, but insisted that it was
happening.
He would also not give the Post a straightforward answer as to whether he knew the whereabouts of his son and said that whether or not he saw his son as justified in fleeing Israel was "irrelevant."
"It does not matter what I think, it was not my decision," the rabbi said.
"I love my son, but I have no power over his decisions - that is what the rabbinate wants me to have - but I do understand the background... as to why he does not want to appear [in court]. I don't know if he has run away from the country or from his problems; maybe he just saw that he had no room to appeal and was left with nowhere to turn."
Bryskman said that several factors surrounding the three judges and their decisions raised serious questions as to the legitimacy and fairness of his son's treatment in the case, which was first heard by the lower Jerusalem Rabbinic Court in July 2005.
He pointed out that ombudsman Judge Tovah Strasburg-Cohen, who deals with complaints against rabbinic judges, has already investigated his son's case and severely criticized the fact that anonymous witnesses were called, outside of the usual procedure; the fact that one of the judges had approved the decision without being at the hearing; and that one judge, Rabbi Avraham Sherman, was employing the same lawyer for his daughter who was representing Meir Bryskman's wife.
"My son said all along that he is willing to give a get, he just wants to resolve the issue of custody concerning his children," said Bryskman, adding that his family had tried to contact his daughter-in-law's family directly, but that they refused to talk.
But the father refused to answer why, if his son wanted custody of his children, he would leave the country, making it impossible for him to get it.
Following the ruling from the lower court, Dina Bryskman (Meir's wife) appealed to the higher court in 2006, and the final judgment calling on Meir to grant his wife a divorce came last month.
"He has only been refusing a get for 25 days and not for five years, as has been claimed by the rabbinic court. That is the biggest lie," said Bryskman. "Maybe his decision [to leave] was incorrect but perhaps he did it due to all the pressure and stress."
"Regardless of what I think, he is 33 years old and not a child," he continued.
"[Meir] makes his own decisions and they have nothing to do with me. This should be a personal issue between him and his wife. I am, of course, his father and I love him very much. I am just hurt that there is all this corruption in the system and that the media has been used to shame the family."
The rabbinic court responded, however, that "the father is involved in this case intensively; from participating in hearings to making requests on his son's behalf."
The spokeswoman also said that Sherman had no connection to the said lawyer in Strasburg-Cohen's report and that all the witnesses were heard following the court's normal procedure.
"The Bryskman case is no different than any other that we treat throughout the year," the court said.
I have found myself increasingly more agitated these days. I'm not happy with the high prices of yeshiva tuition. I can barely afford to make shabbos, let alone pay an exorbitant price for my child's education. I'm seriously thinking of sending my kids to public school. I'm disenchanted with the whole Jewish scene and the scandals that never seem to end. I praise this blog for providing me and others with some sort of sanity in which I can vent my frustrations. Being religious has taken its toll on myself that I would have never imagined in my wildest dreams. I know that I'm not the only one feeling this way.
Chazak ubaruch!
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080522/OPINION02/805220340/1039/OPINION
May 22, 2008
Childhood sexual abuse survivors need more time to begin recovery
Maggie Watson
Guest essayist
New Yorkers have an opportunity to make our state safer for children. S.4614 is a bill currently before the state Senate that if passed would extend the statute of limitations for the prosecution of sexual offenses against a child until that victim reaches age 28. Currently the statute of limitations runs out at age 23. However, because victims are often traumatized by someone known to them, an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of abused children are unwilling or unable to disclose their victimization until well after they reach adulthood.
Since childhood sexual abuse survivors are more likely to do poorly in school, more likely to suffer from mental and physical illness and more likely to experience financial failure and physical injury, they need more time to begin to recover and to distance themselves from the offender.
As the law stands, we unrealistically expect survivors of sexual abuse to face their abusers in grueling court proceedings before they turn 23. In addition, children stay silent because predators use any number of trauma-inducing tactics to keep them that way. And the current law tells abusers that their methods need only be effective until their victim's 23rd birthday. Hence, not extending the law to (at least) age 28 leaves most child predators free from punishment and free to reoffend.
Furthermore, the option to file civil action, generally pursued after the lengthy criminal matters, will be denied because time has run out.
The last few years have seen laws increasing the punishments for those convicted of sexually abusing a child. But how much good can these laws do when only 10 percent to 20 percent of child victims are able to stand up under the devastating lifelong consequences of their suffering long enough to speak out?
Why hasn't this common-sense bill been passed?
Sadly, because it awaits more support. Consider calling or writing a letter to your state senator.
For more information, call (800) 244-5373 or go to www.preventchildabuseny.org.
Watson, of Rochester, is a volunteer with Prevent Child Abuse New York.
Boruch:
Chazak - we are living in extremely trying times. I'm certain your plight is taking its toll . If you wish, I would be very willing to intervene for you at the schools, to get your tuition reduced. Send me an e-mail - if you choose to.
Public schools - should not be an option.
Sincerely,
Motzi shem ra in it's purest ugly form without looking into the ramifications of such an accusation
Arthur,
You need to get off your high horse. You're the last person on this earth who should be preaching about motzi shem ra, considering the venom you constantly spew here against Rav Shach zt"l. I already exposed you as a liar (remember that "beard" statement which you denied making), and now you are exposed as a transparent hypocrite. I don't care how highly UOJ thinks of you and his connection to your mishpacha. I have no use for liars and hypocrites. Go back to fressing on your underprocessed treife Rubashkin hot dog and stop crticizing the decent posters here.
Neigh. I throw off Arthur a long time ago because he was criticizing Maran Rav Schach ztl while riding bareback.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/06/lubicom-rubashkin-weismandel-withdraw.html
Lubinsky has withdrawn R' Yudel's invitation to the Rubashkin propaganda event.
Lubinsky is not allowing ANYONE in unless he is sure that they will play along with the OU-Lubicom LIES. Kashrus Magazine was not invited nor was anyone other neutral party except for Cornell University's Professor Regenstein. They may think that Regenstein will fall for their baloney. I hope they don't withdraw his invitation too based on my post.
JUNE 24th 2008 TODAY'S E MAIL FROM RUBASHKIN's PR firm
Hello Mr. Shain,
I apologize for the confusion but this is a closed event and open only to people who have received a direct invitation from our office.
If you then receive a direct invitation,you may RSVP to the event.
Thank you,
Eda Kram
Lubicom Marketing Consulting
1428 36th St. Suite 219
Brooklyn, NY 11218
T:(718) 854-4450 ext. 100
F:(718) 854-4474
Email: mailto:eda@lubicom.com
JUNE 20th, 2008
Dear Mr. Shain,
I forwarded your request and was asked to let you know that only people who have received invitations will be able to attend. Also, that this session is a briefing and not an open discussion.
Since you have received an invitation, you will be the only one to be admitted.
Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
Eda Kram
Lubicom Marketing Consulting
1428 36th St. Suite 219
Brooklyn, NY 11218
T:(718) 854-4450 ext. 100
F:(718) 854-4474
Email: eda@lubicom.com
R' Yudel indicates there may be a big surprise coming after Shabbos Nachamu but refuses to elaborate.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-defense-of-rubashkins-rabbis-mm.html
Readers have offered some speculation that perhaps even Weissmandel can't take Rubashkin's garbage anymore and has given an ultimatum.
Here is the most informative post I've seen yet:
Rabbi Weismandel's report says he wants "in writing" the Heter Rubashkin's plant works on Shabbos.
Rabbi Weismandel writes in his report that the cozy-relationship of the kosher staff especially the "shoichtim" & the female employees "especially in a small cozy town" are not acceptable.[Note: but Rabbi Weismandel says that this are the cold facts]
He also writes that there so many changes constanly taking place in the Rubashkin plant that he can't keep up with it.
There is lot more in his confidential report "between the lines"....
It's frightening that others are still defending this so called kosher...
I take a look at the next generation growing up on all of this type of so called kosher-the results are horifying.
To Steve,
Either you did not read or or did not want to understand my response to you when you first brought up this "expose" of my mentioning something about the importance of a beard visa a vi Dinah Demalchusa.I suggested that you look up my original post where I clearly stated that I was quoting someones post in it's entirety not realizing that there was any mention of beards and for I which offered my apology.(and even if yes ,mai hoavleh?).Where the lie is I fail to understand.
As to Rav Shach I stand by my original statement.The man was no Tzaddik.A lamden yes, but very far from from being an Oiheiv Yisroel of Apta.He was a vile hater which can clearly be seen in his letters and writings in a number of posts to which I directed you that backed up very clearly that Rav Shach was a hater and demonizer of anyone who did not subscribe to his opinions.You apparently did not read those either.
If it makes you feel better to attack me or my beliefs by all means continue to do so.I'm always ready to make another Yid happy so on with the show.
When someone wrote about a number of Chashove yidden who Rav Shach attacked including Rav YBS ZT"L you were very vehement in your attacks on these individuals. Again the man was a bal machlokes in every respect and look at the the legacy of sinas chinom and physical machlokes that he left behind in that once great mokom HaTorah, Ponovitch that was founded in Eretz Yisroel by the great Rav Kahanman ZT"L(with whom he had many fights to.)
Carl Icahn wants Yahoo CEO fired
By Yi-Wyn Yen
Another day, another angry Yahoo shareholder.
Yahoo investor Carl Icahn told the Wall Street Journal that he wants wants to get rid of Jerry Yang as Yahoo’s CEO for botching the Microsoft (MSFT) bid.
June 8, 2008
The Day the Traffic Did Not Stop in Hartford
By PETER APPLEBOME for the NY Times
HARTFORD
The video of a 78-year-old man being tossed in the air after being hit by a car and then left in the street like a discarded food wrapper would have been hideous whoever the victim.
POLICE in the north-eastern American state of Connecticut are hunting two heartless motorists who fled after hitting an elderly man.
The US has been shocked by a video showing the man being hit by speeding cars, then lying on the road as motorists and onlookers do nothing to help.
Police in Hartford, population 120,000 and the capital of Connecticut, released the dramatic 1½-minute video, taken a week ago, in an attempt to identify the two drivers who fled after slamming into Angel Arce Torres, 78. The video shows Mr Torres, who had just bought milk at a convenience store, crossing a street, then trying to avoid being hit by two cars hurtling down the road in the wrong direction.
He apparently manages to avoid the first car, but is hit by the second, which sends him flying into the air. His daughter said he was fighting for his life.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/16530401/detail.html
Suspected Child Molester Arrested After Knocking On Officer's Door
COWETA COUNTY, Ga. -- Coweta County officials have charged a suspected child molester they say went door to door in search of young victims. But when Eugene Murphy, 20, knocked on the door of an officer who investigates sex crimes, she made sure authorities knew what he was up to.
Authorities said Murphy had an intense desire to harm children. Murphy was knocking on doors wearing running shorts, a tank top and no shoes, according to officials. An off-duty officer told police she knew something wasn’t right and jumped into action.
Neighbors told Channel 2 they are angry after hearing Coweta County investigators say Murphy brazenly went door to door in search of a child to harm.
A homeowner said she thinks Murphy saw the basketball goal in her yard and came to her door and asked if any kids were home. She said Murphy told her his uncle was having a party and he was looking for children to invite. It was the suspect’s unlucky day because the homeowner happened to be an Atlanta police officer who investigates sex crimes and she thought his behavior was suspicious. She followed Murphy and called deputies.
“At that time the suspect made statements that were alarming to the deputies about his intent and why he was looking for these children,” said Lt. John Lewis with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.
Murphy was arrested and charged with criminal attempt to entice a child for indecent purposes. After further investigation, authorities said they found another victim and Murphy was charged with kidnapping and attempted child molestation.
Investigators said they continue to talk to potential victims. Murphy had a court appearance and was denied bond.
Southern Baptists reject sex-abuse database
By ERIC GORSKI – 7 hours ago
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Under pressure to fight child sex abuse, the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee said Tuesday that the denomination should not create its own database to help churches identity predators or establish an office to field abuse claims.
Baruch,
Our disenchantment is a road back to our enchantment. Don't despair too much. There are many who don't follow the lead and accept blindly. They are true to Torah and Yiras Shamayim. I think our open lines of communication and this support system that UOJ and others have built, notwithstanding the occasional shill, are worthwhile. Be strong. Hashem is watching - you take care of yours and He will take care of His.
http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20060118009.html
Rabbi Mordecai Tendler Demands Resignation of Rabbis Basil Herring, Mark Dratch, Hershel Billet and Yosef Blau from the Rabbinical Council of America as His Lawyers Move to Dismiss Lawsuit
Steve,
To refresh your memory I Wrote part one
"Anyone remotely familiar with Rav Shach and most of what he had to say, knows that his was a message of vicious criticism, mean politics, and primitive hate - not exactly the 'ahavas yisroel machine', if you get his drift.... Here are a few sample lines of what this man was all about, quoted from his own writings;
Here is Maran on.....
Rabbi Joseph Baer Soloveitchik
Michtavim U-Ma’amarim (Bnei Brak, 5848 -5755), vol. 4 pages 36-40. [RS’s article is full] “of things that it is forbidden to hear”. See also ibid. p. 107 [in reference to RS’s work: “the book contains heresy, in the literal sense of the word. The mind is boggled by such a sight”.
It must be emphasized that Rabbi Shach was strongly apposed to communal disharmony, as he himself asserted many times. Yet, in such a situation he felt compelled to speak out in order to safeguard the Jewish heritage. For Rabbi Shach it was better to cause ruptures in the Jewish community than to allow thousands of Jewish hearts and minds to be poisoned by RS heresy.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
Rabbi Shach, Michtavim U-Ma’amarim. vol. 4 pp. 65-7. [In a letter written two days before Rosh HaShanah in the year 5749]: “…All his works contain heresy. It is forbidden to debate with Steinsaltz, because, as a heretic, all the debates will only cause him to degenerate more. He is not a genuine person (ein tocho ke-baro) and everyone is obliged to distance themselves from him. This is the duty of the hour (mitzvah be-sha’atah). It will generate merit for the forthcoming Day of Judgement.”
See also ibid. vol. 5 pp. 163. There, Rabbi Shach declares that it will be impossible for Rabbi Steinsaltz to do Teshuvah (repent) and make right the colossal damage that his edition of the Talmud has wrought. See also ibid. p. 28-9. Rabbi Shach explained that he was not lacking in Ahavas Yisrael.On the contrary he was saving the souls of all the Jewish people who had the potential to be influenced by the impure works of rabbi Steinsaltz.
Rabbi Shlomo Goren
Rabbi Shach Michtavim U-Ma’amarim, vols.1-2, pp.73-4; vol. 6, pp.78-9. “He [Rabbi Goren] is not a Rabbi and his Halachik rulings are worth nothing. One may not eat food manufactured under his supervision or carrying his seal of approval. He belongs outside the camp (michutz la-machaneh mo’shavo)…he is worse than the Reformers. One must mourn for the Sefer Torah that was burned”.
Rabbi Shach acknowledged that Rabbi Goren claimed that he was not violating the law and had authored a book in which he justifies his opinion. However, although he himself had not read it, those who had, had informed him that it was no more than “a joke, falsification of facts and lies”.
Rabbi Yehudah Levi
Michtavim U-Ma’amarim vol. 1, pp. 107-8. [Book expressing ‘Hirschian’ philosophy was banned and the author severely chastised for expressing views that are held to be wrong in certain circles.]
Religious Zionists
Michtavim U-Ma’amarim vols.1-2, pp.75-6. [Although Rabbi Shach was most passionate in his views on the secular Israelis, he also inveighed heavily against religious Zionists (or ‘quasi aggudists’: “agguda’im le-machatzeh”). Rabbi Shach once said:] “I am compelled to tell you”, that they are essentially no different. It is “the same pot” of Tereifah meat; “the only difference is that their [the religious Zionist’s] pot is covered with a knitted yarmulke (Kippah Serugah)!” Religious Zionists have done nothing for the benefit of Torah causes in Israel. They are void of Torah and the fear of Heaven and are not capable of producing any gedolim. Any success that we – the Torah world have – is despite, not because, of them. Those quasi-aggudists who harbor pro-Zionistic sympathies may be observant Jews but they are guilty of Shittuf! (‘metaphorical idolatry’). They include Yeshivah high schools in the ambit of their interests – “Oy! What a sharp sword on the soul of the Yeshivos!”
Contrast the venomous diatribes with the torah insights, concern for fellow Jews, and practical advice which fill the letters of real manhigei-yisroel over the last century, and the contrast is too clear to ignore. R' Shach had nothing positive to contribute, so he relied on gool 'ol sinas chinam to make his mark. Unfortunately, as anyone familiar knows, the letters quoted above are merely a sample of the wanton hate this man spewed on a regular basis. Wake up, people. R'Isser Zalman didn't teach this 'derech', nor R'Chaim Oizer, nor does R'Chaim Kanievsky, nor did any real godol who had something to contribute to 'Olam haTorah'. The more R'Shach is analyzed, the clearer this becomes, and as he's already in Olam hoEmes, you don't do him any favors by repeating his mistakes."
2:28 AM, June 15, 2008
Deconstructing Arthur's Hogwash Wrote...
Rabbi JB Soloveitchik has been criticized in public from many corners including Washington Heights. His rebbitzen allegedly had maskilishe tendencies which affected him. One complaint against him is that he may have found loopholes in halacha but did not take the poel yotzay into account.
Adin Steinsaltz grew up in the virulently anti-religious, pork eating kibbutz known as Shomer Hatzair. Steinsaltz does not have a mesorah as he never had a rebbe. He also reneged on promises to withdraw one of his troubling books.
Funny that Arthur is defending Shlomo Goren when Lubavitchers would not eat from his "hashgocho" either which was of typical Rabbinute stock of only fulfilling a fraction of the kosher requirements. This says nothing about his allowing mamzerim to get married for political reasons and allowing ascent to the Har Habayis while impure.
The reference to R' Yehuda Halevy is not clear.
Rav Schach's diatribe against Tzionim was the opinion of all Agudah rabbonim in 1948. While they may not have been as outspoken, they held these views while only working with the medinah so far as to benefit frum Jews.
Maybe Arthur should cleanse himself of his bitter hatred for Rav Schach before lecturing on sinas chinam.
11:34 AM, June 16, 2008
I then said To deconstructing Yadah Yadah Yadah,
Since your only defense seems to be slander and personal invective against Rav YBS and other chosheve yidden are you aware of the fact that Rav Shachs wife was a Dr.(oy vay himmel geshrei)? That his son who is also a Dr.and By his own admission has left the Creidishe camp and is an ardent Zionist?So what does that make Rav Shach? Nobody invented all the filthy hate ascribed to R' Schach - it's clearly advertised by his own hand, in his own books, for all to see. That some of you are so brainwashed as to insist on re-casting such vile sinas-chinam as service to some supposed 'daas torah' is incredible, Can't you read - the man was a rabid anti-semite, and his hateful rants don't substitute for real lomdus in any way. I quoted mere snippets of the mass hate spewed by this man - isn't it time for the spin-doctors to reprint this nonsense as something else ?! Let's call a spade a...spade !! We can move on once the established facts are read into the record and the revisionists silenced. Don't you present yourself as some kind of researcher/historian ? Well how about some intellectual honesty for a change ! Or do I need to quote more of his senseless rants to convince you - the record is clear.To be continued.
1:56 PM, June 16, 2008
That crack about the "Rubashkin cattle supplier" is funny but I was wondering if anyone has hard information about a rumor floating around the meat industry.
I cannot find any news items to back up the reports that some ranchers are now refusing to sell livestock to Agri. I think it's just a matter of time that Rubashkin is choked off from many directions besides losing their clientele.
Next Applegrad will get arrested for trying to sell UOJ's condos at 555 Ocean Pkwy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080624/ap_en_ot/follieri_arrested
An Italian businessman who has been romantically linked to movie star Anne Hathaway has been arrested on wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering charges, Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday.
Raffaello Follieri, who was awaiting an appearance in Manhattan federal court, is accused of falsely telling an investor that the Vatican had appointed him to manage its financial affairs.
He allegedly claimed that, as a result of his Vatican connections, he and others could obtain properties of the Catholic church in the United States at a substantial discount to fair market value.
The name of his attorney could not immediately be determined.
Hathaway's publicist, Stephen Huvane, has previous stressed that "The Devil Wears Prada" star is not part of any probes and is no longer a board member of the Follieri Foundation.
Earlier this month, the New York state attorney general's office said it was investigating the foundation operated by Follieri, 29. The charity's work includes vaccinating children in Third World countries.
The Follieri Foundation has not filed U.S. tax disclosure forms required from charities, according to a review of records by The Associated Press.
To Steve,
To Yadah Yada Yada,continuation
An article written a number of years ago before the messhichistin became an issue and obviously way before the Rebbis histalkus
"There has been a lot of talk about gedolim and especially about
Rav Shach. Before people make any judgements I think it is important to
know something about the man and his teachings. If what I say ppears
harsh, let me assure the readers that I have said the same things to many
rabbis and they have agreed with me. Since the views I will be expressing
are also those of numerous others it would be best for the moderator not
to censor it. I realize that others are afraid to speak out so I will say
what everyone else is thinking. Needless to say, the Lubavitchers have
spoken out and been a great deal harsher than I will be but that is for
good reason. Rav Shach has branded the rebbe a heretic. Furthermore, he
has branded the entire movement as heretical. Most people respond harshly
when they have been called heretics, Especially since the other gedolim
seem to have no great problem with Habad. They don't support everything
Habad does but you don't have other gedolim using the inflammatory rhetoric
of R. Shach.
In fact he is very inconsistent. He mocks the Lubavithcher
rebbe's Rambam learning program saying that people knew about the
Rambabm before Lubavitch came around and that no one should follow
Habad's program and it is forbidden to innovate and yet he praises Daf
Yomi. Well, people knew about learning Talmud before R. Meir Shapiro.
The difference is that when Rav Shach likes something, when it comes
from his circles, then it is ok. However if an innovation, no matter how
good, comes from another circle then he viciosly attacks it.
In general, everything that comes out of his mouth is criticism.
He does not believe in building but in destroying. All of his volumes of
letters are attacks against everything from Lubavitch, to religious
Zionism, to Hesder yeshivot, to Rav Goreh (who has no yirat shamayim
according to Shach), to R. Steinsaltz (another heretic). When the rest
of he Jewish world was celebrating the Entebbe raid and R. Moshe said it
was an open miracle Shach gave a talk saying that what the Government
did was forbidden. This is exactly what the Satmar rebbe said! He gave
his famous talk last year viciously attacking the kibbutzim. Why? We all
know that they don't keep kosher there but why attack them. Is this the
way to bring people together and bring them to yiddishkeit? Is this
love? Lubavitch knows how to be mekarev, they do it through love. Shack
simply attacks. And then he attacked President Herzog for no reason.
Herzog did more for religious Jewry than any president and he is a fine
man but Shach viciously attacks him just like he attacks the kibbutzniks
who have laid down their lives so that he could live in peace. And he
expects the secularists to keep subsidizing the yeshivot at the massive
rate they have been?
Rav Shach has no value in his life other than that of learning
Torah. People can't feel good about anything other than learning Torah.
There is no value to the State of Israel other than that it enables us
to learn Torah and its destruction would be no great tragedy if Torah
continued to be learnt. He opposed the annexation of East Jerusalem and
Golan because it will get the goyim mad. He doesn't recognize the
concept that Jews should see something positive in annexing our
capital-- East Jerusalem. He also speaks of not provoking the Gentiles,
a concept which has no validity when Jews have a state, although he
thinks that the State is just as much a galut as N. Y. and London. He
says that Jews in Israel should act as if they were dancing before the
Polish nobleman. In other words, the fact that Jews now have a state
means nothing about how they relate to the world. They still must have
this inferiority comples. There is something wrong with having pride and
holding one's head up.
His views have infected the Haredi community. We all know that
they dodge the draft but it is even worse. They refuse to say a mi
shebarakh for IDF even though the latter protect them from the Arabs.
They refuse to say a prayer for the government which gives them millions
of dollars. In the diaspora they alwasy said a prayer for the government
but not in Israel. In the Diaspora they always acted patriotic and if
there was a moment of silence for war dead they wouldn't dream of
breaking with the practice. However in Israel while everyone stands at
attention on Yom Hashoah they go about their business. Do they realize
how much of a hillul hashem this is and how it hurts the feelings of
others who are remembering loved ones. Of course they know but they
don't care. Unlike Lubavitch they enjoy confrontation.
For R. Shach there is only one truth. He has no conception of
Jewish history and doesn't realize that there can be disputes in matters
of hashkafah, as long as we all accept Torah and halakhhah. Thus when R.
Ovadiah decided to join the government he threatened to ban all of the
latter's books No other gadol has ever made such irresponsible
statements and acted in such a dictatorial manner.
Everything I have described so far is written in his books. I
have not made any of it up and if gets you mad hearing what he believes
trust me that this is only the tip of the iceberg and there is no way
that anyone who reads this line should regard him as an important gadol,
since everything most of us view as important he mocks (he even says its
forbidden to form rabbinic organizations).
To give one final example of this let me refer to Rav Shach's
attack on R. Soloveitchik in vol. 4 of his letters. As everyone knows,
there were always disputes in hashkafah between the Rav and other
gedolim. However this never stopped the Lubvavitcher rebbe or R. Moshe
or R. Aharon Kotler from being on close personal terms with the Rav and
respecting his gadlus. Obviously R. Moshe and the Lubavticher Rebbe, as
well as the Rav, believed that their own approach was correct and the
others were wrong. But they never said that the approach of the other's
was forbidden. It was just misguided. Similarly, the Rav never said that
everyone had to learn secular studies, that other aproaches were
invalid. Rather, only that his approach was also legitimate.
Rav Shach has a different approach, one which shows all of his
feeling of knowing everything and his belief that he, and only he, knows
the truth, the one and only truth. In discussing the Rav's book Hamesh
Derashot he doesn't say that we have a different view or that the Rav is
wrong. No, what he says is that it is forbidden to listen to what the
Rav says. Forbidden. the Rav goes against Daat Torah and the Rav has
completely distorted Daas Torah (one wonders whose Daas Torah. Doesn't
the Rav have his own Daas Torah?) Since anyone who goes against Daas
Torah speaks heresy it is forbidden to listen to what the Rav says! Does
he realize who is talking about? This is not some Mizrachi functionary
he is mocking (not that this is forgivable either). He is speaking about
R. Soloveitchik, whom R. Tendler called the greatest Rosh Yeshivah of
our generation, whom the Lubavitcher rebbe stood up for etc. etc. May
God forgive him for degrading our teacher! Furthermore, R. Shach
continues, it is the Rav's secular studies which are responsible for
these distortions. Woe are the ears which hear such nonsense. What
chutzpah, to say that secular studies distorted the Rav's Torah! Rav
Shach goes on for a few pages without any respect for the fact that the
Rav was a gadol and he is entitled to have different hashkafah, also
throwing in some irrelevancies about how Hesder yeshivot have destroyed
any notion of striving for greatness in Torah learning. (He also hates
hesder because their students actually get a job. For R. Shach, and
Israeli Haredim, as oposed to American haradim, there is something
negative about actually working for a living. There is no concept of a
Baal ha-Bayit. That is why he put Leo Levi's book Shaare Talmud Torah in
Herem, since it advocates a Torah im Derekh Eretz [i. e.earning a
living] approach). Shach is also confused how come the rabbis in the U.
S. did not protest The Rav's opinions and furthermore that they
contributed to the book Kevod ha-Rav . This is a great hillul hashem
since by giving the Rav a book in his honor and praising him the
yeshivah students will see this and think that is ok to follow in the
Rav's path, God forbid, and will absorb his views which are completely
"pasul".
I could go on but I think everyone gets the point. When it comes
to gedolim we should consult R. Eliashiv, R. Shlomo Zalman, the chief
Rabbis, R. Ovadia etc. We should not even take Rav Shach's opinion into
consideration. By adopting such a hateful tone and being so opposed to
everything we consider decent he is not really different than the Satmar
rebbe, who was, as R. Aharon Soloveitchik told me, a great scholar who
made a terrible blunder. So too with Rav Shach. He has slandered great
gedolim and for his sake we should hope that it was all done le-shem
shamayim. When I asked R. Aharon why we don't put him in Herem in
accordance with the pesak of the Rambam re. anyone who slanders a gadol
all he could say was that we no longer use the Herem. One thing must be
said for Lubavitch, even thought R.Shach says they are heretics and that
their rebbe is one of the greatest sinners alive, and going straight to
gehinnom, they have not lost their cool. I don't think there will be any
rejoicing in Crown Heights when he passes away. They realize that this
whole affair is very sad. Unfortunately, however, when the rebbe passes
away there will be rejoicing in Ponovezh because one is supposed to
rejoice at the death of a heretic. What have we come to!"
2:11 PM, June 16, 2008
Steve,Did you read or understand any of this?
Cribs recalled after 4 trapped
(AP) — Government safety advocates announced Tuesday a recall of about 320,000 Jardine cribs, after four children became trapped.
The wooden slats and spindles on the crib's frames can break. Children can get trapped in the remaining gap. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is aware of at least 42 incidents of broken slats and spindles, and four instances of children getting trapped. Two children suffered cuts and bruises.
The recalled cribs were manufactured in Taiwan by Jardine Enterprises and sold by KidsWorld stores, Geoffrey stores, Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us. They were available nationwide between January 2002 and May 2008.
Arthur should go preach to the choir of his Messianic nut readership of the Algemeiner.
The Meshichist rabbis issued a public curse against Rav Schach of "sifsei sheker tayolamna". They were probably having sour grapes for entire generation since R' Boruch Ber said the same of the previous Rebbe before he had a stroke. What worked for R' Boruch Ber did not work when the miserable Lubavs later tried to be mekalel the gadol hador.
A study released in January by Prevent Child Abuse America and the Pew Charitable Trusts calculated the economic impact of our failure to prevent child abuse and neglect at $103.8 billion for 2007 alone.
Two left wing special interest groups who cannot be trusted.
No wonder Arthur's wife doesn't want him blogging. The uncontrollable hatred he has for Rabbi Schach must send his blood pressure up 20 points.
I weigh in with the consumers!
----------------------------
Economists should listen to consumers
Experts have a half-glass full outlook for the economy while average Americans are far more pessimistic. Here's why the consumer is probably right.
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Many economists are looking for at least a modest rebound in the second half of this year. That's a key part of the reason the Federal Reserve is expected to end its nine-month course of rate cuts and keep rates steady Wednesday.
But 5,000 consumers surveyed earlier this month by The Conference Board, a well-respected private business research group, gave the bleakest six-month outlook for the economy ever in the nearly 42 year history of the survey.
Consumers expecting business conditions to deteriorate outnumbered those who expected an improvement by more than three-to-one. Those expecting more job losses topped those expecting an improvement in the labor market by more than four-to-one.
So who's right? Even some economists think it's not a good idea to ignore what consumers are saying.
"I would guess that the consumers are going to be right," said Keith Hembre, chief economist First American Funds.
He said the combination of record high energy prices, rising unemployment and job losses, a historically bad housing market and continued tightening of credit gives consumers every reason to expect the economy to get worse.
"Those four headwinds are not fading," Hembre said.
Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, suggested that with consumers feeling so grim, they may pull back on plans to make big-ticket purchases. That can slow the economy even further than current experts are forecasting.
In fact, the Conference Board survey showed consumers' intentions to buy just about every type of big-ticket item, from cars to appliances, fell this month. The only thing consumers planned to buy more of was air conditioners. Fewer Americans also planned to take a vacation, according to the survey.
Hembre said consumer spending has stayed remarkably strong in the face of all the economic problems in the past year.
But Bernard Baumohl, executive director of The Economic Outlook Group, said that spending has been helped to this point by the more than $100 billion in tax rebate checks approved earlier this year as part of the federal government's economic stimulus plan.
With most of those checks spent, a fall-off in spending is now a serious risk, especially with this level of worry by consumers.
"The outlook for spending later this year looks poor," Baumohl aid. "Households cannot escape the grim reality."
And economists agree that if consumer spending, which accounts for nearly three-quarters of the nation's economic activity, actually starts to decline, it is likely to send the economy into a much more pronounced and longer recession than currently expected.
Another reason to believe the consumers' outlook rather than the more optimistic view of many economists is that the consumer's view is far more current, according to Bob Brusca of FAO Economics.
"He who forecasts last forecasts best," said Brusca. He said consumers are making their judgments about the economy because they have to buy gas and food every day and see what's happening to home prices in their neighborhood. So they have a sense of the economy before it starts to show up in the official numbers weighed by economists.
"Consumers, not being economists, know what's going on in the real world," he said. "That's the most up to date forecast you can have. The economists made their forecasts a while ago."
1] Hannah Sachs Bais Yaakov has DROPPED the name Bais Yaakov and become the Hannah Sachs Girls School as it used to be known.
2] Yom Ha’Atzmaut will be celebrated in a meaningful way AGAIN.
3] A new cracker-jack Rabbi has been hired at Yeshurun one of the largest and oldest synagogues in Chicago (R’ Zev Cohen’s) to give more “balance” to the equation.
For close to fifteen years Yeshurun has seen a steady push to turn far right-wing to please Rabbi Cohen. A graduate of Chicago Community Kollel (Lakewood) who insisted on shoving his hashkafah on regular balabatim. His first order was the abolishment of Tefillat Hamedinah and all references to Medinat Yisrael. His next step was to place himself on the Vaad Hachinuch of the local schools in order to move right. He joined the Special Bait Din for the prevention of Molestation. However, instead of using his influence to protect the victim, he has hamstrung the process and placed obstacle upon obstacle to protct the status quo.
As fast as Chicago was turned to the right, it can change to the left even faster. Chicago is the center of the USA, if you want to be on the right move back to Lakewood.
OY VEY another climate change. I'll get my coat.
Leave my husband alone, I can't keeping changing the sheets at night.
To Steve and Big Dr,
I am not a Lubavitcher Chosid And don't have an axe to grind for or against Rav Shach Z"L but something bothers me.How come on a blog that tars and feathers almost every so called "godol" ,rightfully or wrongly, do you have the gall to attack Arthur for bringing up some very valid points about one individual, Rav Shach? Are you related to him?Have you ever been his talmidim?
Steve,Even though I don't agree with Arthur's post where he questions some things that are posted here,he does so in a respectful manner.I don't see him insulting the Chosheve bloggers on this site.Why do you get so riled up about his posts?
Doctors Say Medication Is Overused in Dementia
Arthur's wife found that her husband had unrecognized hypothyroidism, a disorder that can contribute to dementia.
Arthur was moved to a nursing home to get these problems under control. But things only got worse. “My husband was screaming and out of it, drooling on himself and twitching.”
The psychiatrist in the nursing home stopped the Risperdal, which can cause twitching and vocal tics, and prescribed a sedative and two other antipsychotics.
The use of antipsychotic drugs to tamp down the agitation, combative behavior and outbursts of dementia patients has soared, especially in the elderly.
Cholent Fresser,
I did not mention anything before about Arthur's attacks against Rav Shach zt"l. However, when he comes on here and starts attacking other commenters as being "motzi shem ra", I had to put the hypocrite in his place. I do not begrudge anybody his right to vent and to state his opinion, even if it's totally off the wall. This is UOJ's blog and he is very liberal when it comes to allowing posts that are controversial. I have no problem with that. I do have problems with liars and hypocrites and I will defend the decent people who post here against the insults of hypocrites.
To all the "ohavei Yisroel" who attack me for being a bed wetter,of having fallen of a horse,Of being a lousy Rubashkin hot dog fresser(I actually hate hot dogs)Of being a farshtukene Lubab LOL and the gibberish written by my "Pharmacist".If you all you can do to answer my points about Rav Shach is charector assassination and innuendo ad hominim (Next crime will be a lousy speller)instead of some intelligent response, really is an indication of your true lack of an answer to my posts,
Wow ,I must have touched a raw nerve when I said that we can all do some cheshbon hanfesh in the way we think and speak.It's interesting that individuals who attack a very wide spectrum of Rabeim,Roshei Hayishivos and poshete Yidden at the drop of a hat(justified or not), attack me because of what I wrote about one individual the so called "Godol Hador".
OK guys you've got the field to yourselves so keep it coming because this is where I get of.
whats the story in north miami beach with the beis yaacov
and who was the rabbi that told an abused woman to go home and make a better dinner for her husband in north miami beach
ABRAHAM KAHAN
DOB: October 20, 1966
Address: 1264 57th Street
Brooklyn, New York
ABRAHAM KAHAN, the owner of Healthstar Industries of New York, Ltd. ("Healthstar"), a durable medical equipment ("DME") company located in Brooklyn, New York, has been charged with health care fraud.
According to the complaint, between October 1998 and January 2002, KAHAN paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to two employees of Oxford Health Plans, Inc. ("Oxford"), a managed health care company, to induce the employees to refer DME business to Healthstar and to fraudulently inflate the prices paid to KAHAN and Healthstar by Oxford for the equipment. DME, such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, air mattresses and motorized scooters, are intended to assist a person with an illness or an injury and are intended for repeated use. As part of the scheme to defraud Oxford, the employees, DME coordinators at Oxford, authorized Oxford to pay Healthstar 100% of the charges billed, rather than following the reimbursement rates set out in the contract between Oxford and Healthstar under which Healthstar was entitled reimbursement of 60% or 65%. The complaint alleges that as a result of KAHAN's fraudulent scheme, Oxford incurred losses of least $200,000.
If convicted, KAHAN faces a maximum sentence of 10 years of imprisonment, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and restitution in the amount of $200,000.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI. The government's case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Carrie Capwell and Catherine M. Mirabile.
People in the know in N Miami Beach are afraid to go public about what may have been happening in the BY or in the yeshiva of "Z" in MB itself. People who have tried to correct things have been threatened, apparently, as they suddenly clam up--not at all a kosher response.
Route 17: Fenway, Crosley And 770
Reprint of article on the Jewish week blog
For a number of years, cynics would get a good laugh out of the fact that Kfar Chabad, the Lubavitch town in Israel, built a duplicate
of the rebbe's headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway .
The duplicate 770 was said to be indicative of how crazy and messianist the Chabadniks were, they must have been expecting the rebbe to drop in, pretty funny. Only a chasid could be so nuts, right?
Wrong. I'm not a chasid and I understand completely. When I went to Epcot I got a kick out of the recreations of town squares in Paris and Morocco, and the animatronic presidents in the Magic Kingdom. I like seeing the duplicate Statue of Liberty on a rooftop near Lincoln Center.
Any Jewish soul with a sense of history would be understanding of an Israeli chasid's natural longing to be reminded of a place so beautiful, historic, and evocative of perhaps the greatest Jewish story of the 20th century -- second only to the rebirth of Israel -- the rebbe's campaign to find, love and serve every single Jew on the planet, from the Congo to Kansas.
Baseball fans have built replicas of Fenway's Green Monster.
After the Cincinnati Reds abandoned Crosley Field, those who loved it built a duplicate in Blue Ash, Kentucky, with 600 of the original seats. You can see the outfield wall here , here and here .
The new Yankee Stadium will attempt to replicate the original, the way it was before it was redone in 1976.
Last week, The New York Times (June 15) ran a front-page photo, with an accompanying story, about a beachfront hotel in Turkey,
designed to appeal to Russian tourists. The Kremlin Palace Hotel's buildings are replicas of the Kremlin and the onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral .
This summer, thousands will be visiting Williamsburg, Virginia to see the recreations. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, attempts a spiritual recreation of Satmar in the Carpathians.
A few days ago, I was in Crown Heights, at the original 770, for a wedding in the alley - an alley just big enough for a chuppah, and ten flanking rows of folding chairs -- between 770 and the Chabad library.
After the ceremony I touched the outer bricks; touched the brick fountain that's gone dry in the small yard in the rear; walked through the old hefty front door into 770's hallway where the rebbe used to stand; and down the narrow, twisting stairway into the great block-long fabrenegen hall.
In 1979 it seemed much larger, the size of a football field, or the Temple Mount's plateau. It now seems the size of a shul, or yeshiva study room.
Were there some signs and stickers about Moshiach? Yes. Did it matter? No more than a visit to Jerusalem's Wall would be disturbed by seeing foxes on the Temple Mount. It wouldn't matter anymore than it would to see bumper stickers for McCain and Obama, evidence of mortals and lesser men, in Jefferson's Monticello. What the rebbe did here goes far beyond anyone's poor power to add or detract.
There was holiness in 770, such as tourists would spend thousands of dollars in airfare to see on heritage tours to the Polish woods or the Ukrainian countryside. In Brooklyn, you can see it - the real thing - for the price of a subway token.
I closed my eyes and ran my fingers over the bricks like a blind man running his fingertips over the face of a beauty queen from some year before I was born.
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I closed my eyes and ran my fingers over the bricks like a blind man running his fingertips over the face of a beauty queen from some year before I was born.
Because, after all, the Torah doesn't warn us about worshiping physical items (or people, live or dead, for the matter), does it?
And, no, you won't find any Obama or McCain stickers at Monticello. The National Park Service tries to prevent that kind of secular desecration.
Vera,
I mentioned that I am not a lubavitcher and don't agree with every thing they say or do but
I think you miss the whole gist of this article.You take words and twist them around to your point of view.Don't you think it's time to for someone to write something positive for a change or is it just negative,negative,negative? Is it a Mitzvah mediuraisa to make snide remarks because they have different values then you?
i for one just need to know the details of what happened in nmb and have people ready
please email UOJ the info if your in the know
UOJ would you be willing to serve as a missleman for this info
i believe that nmb and MB need to clean up their act
i hear the miami herald is working on a story of the rabbis who told a lady in northmiami beach to make chicken soup when her ribs were broken
Rav Schach ztl uses a halachic process for approving Israeli military raids at Entebbe or anywhere else. Like he told the Tzahal generals who secretly sought his advice during the Gulf War, it is only mutter to undertake a dangerous mission if there is a chance that a small sakannah can remove a larger sakannah. Since mounting can attack to eliminate Iraqi Scud launchers very likely would have resulted in not even locating them, he held it was ossur to put pilot's lives at risk.
I don't know what Rav Schach's beef was with Herzog but the man certainly did not follow in the footsteps of his rabbi father.
There is a chiyuv to speak up when kibbutzniks are fressing on chazir. They know better and can cause the Jews to be driven out a la vataki haaretz es yoshveha.
"Rav Shach has no value in his life other than that of learning
Torah."
Far vos lebt a Yid, you fool? Why not attack R' Moishe Feinstein too for his teshuva that attending baseball games is ossur because of bittul Torah?
Arthur then moves to attack Rav Schach (and by extension most Charedi rabbonim) for not following the Rebbe's opinion on pre-1967 borders.
If Arthur foolishly believes there is "no more golus" thanks to the secular medinah, he is not only violating the issur of misgareh beumos but also the shvuah mentioned in the Gemorah. Even Rav Ovadya Yosef insists that we not toe the foolish line of "no more golus".
There is something to be said of not shnorring from a govt you disagree with which is why Brisk and many chassidim do not take their money. Finally an argument from Arthur that has a leg to stand on.
Arthur is mistaken that Charedim seek "confrontation" with the Tzionim. They largely follow the Brisker Rov's shita that all confrontation be avoided because they are choshud on retzicha. Now watch Arthur launch into an anti-Brisk tirade because the Rov couldn't stand the Rebbe either.
I can barely stop laughing that Arthur brings Moses Tendler as "proof" that "the Rav" was the "gadol hador". Incidentally, Rav Schach was far from the only one attacking Rav S. Even Yekkishe rabbonim did so.
June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd.'s Swiss unit sued a former employee who faces a criminal indictment for
defrauding the bank and its clients.
Leumi, Israel's biggest lender by market value, sued Ernst Imfeld, who headed Bank Leumi Switzerland's private banking unit
until 2001, and four others seeking 107 million Swiss francs
($103 million), the company said in an e-mailed statement today.
The complaint seeks compensation ``for the direct damages caused
to the bank as a result of the fraud and deceit perpetrated
against the bank and its customers,'' less insurance proceeds, Tel Aviv-based Leumi said.
The damage claim was filed in conjunction with the criminal
trial set to begin against Imfeld in Switzerland on July 2, Leumi
said. Swiss law allows a damaged party to seek compensation in a
civil damages claim along with a criminal claim, if the claims are
clearly connected, the bank said.
Bernard Rambert, Imfeld's attorney in Zurich, said he won't comment before the opening of the trial.
Imfeld is accused of fraud, embezzlement and forgery,
including unauthorized money transfers from clients' accounts
and unapproved foreign exchange, stock and options transactions, Leumi said.
Head Of OU Shechita Uses Lanner Excuse: Rubashkin Is The Chabad "Kiruv" Of Kosher Meat, No Worse Than Other Meat Plants – Criticism Of Rubashkin Is Lashon Hara
Well, either all other meat plants hire 13 year olds to illegally work chicken lines; recruit and hire illegal aliens and then provide them with forged ID; extort and abuse those same illegal workers; and engage in unfair and illegal business practices; or Rabbi Seth Mandel is lying again.
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/2008/06/23/492/ou-gets-more-detailed-on-agri/
As you read the following email* from Mandel posted by Ben Harris of the JTA, ask yourself one question: Can you trust this man to supervise your kosher meat?
I don't think so:
Date: Mon, 26 May 2008
From: “Mandel, Seth”
mandels@ou.org
Subject: My response to the Agri issue
There is no question that much of what is said is loshon hora and r’chilus, because there are not that many people who know what actually goes on in meat plants in general and in this one in particular.
My relationship with Agriprocessors (the name of the Rubashkin meat company, which I shall abbreviate as Agri) is a professional one, and I consider it a good one. As with all companies that I supervise (and indeed, almost all companies that the OU supervises), we occasionally have differences, and then we have to make clear to the company that they must change certain practices to conform with OU standards or policies. Most kashrus professionals will tell you that the relationships with Gentiles is usually easier than with Jews, and that holds with meat companies as well. But Agri is by no means worse than most other Jewish companies.
Almost nothing in this world is all black or all white. Although Agri makes mistakes, one is obliged also to take into account the good that Agri does, which is often eclipsed by the latest newspaper articles.
Agri does produce a large share of the glatt kosher beef sold in the US (although I would not rely much on the percentages reported in the newspapers). This is because Agri has made it its business to produce kosher meat at relatively inexpensive prices and make it available throughout the United States. In many places in the US, Agri meat is the only glatt kosher meat available, and it is available in such places because Agri has made it its business to market and ship beef to any supermarket or store that has any interest. There is absolutely no question that there are many Jews who are eating kosher meat today only due to Agri. These are the Jews that would just as soon buy kosher meat, and are willing to pay some premium for it, but will not buy poor quality beef or will not travel long distances to get it. In a sense, just as Lubavitch nowadays generally speaking is in the business of kiruv, Agri is in the business of kiruv as far as meat goes. It aims to make decent quality glatt meat available everywhere it can at a decent price, and has been very successful in doing so.
I can tell you that Agri does not try to cut corners as far as kashrus goes, but does go as far as its rabbinic certification say it can. Most companies do the same. As far as I see, this is generally true of other facets of its business: Agri goes as far as other companies in the business go. Agri is no worse than other large meat packers. One can argue that a Jewish business owner should not be just as good as other comparable businesses, but better. That is a valid argument, but better practices entail higher costs. As I have said many times when I am questioned about more humane treatment of animals, cattle growers and meat packers today would be very happy to institute higher humane standards, but consumers must vote with their wallet. Most consumers will not pay a premium for free-range, natural or organic beef, no matter how much lip service they pay to the idea. The same thing holds true regarding employees and their working conditions. Meat packers would no problem with paying higher wages and make working conditions better — IF the consumers would pay the premium price thereby entailed.
The law makers in this country have created an impossible situation. They do not allow temporary workers in, knowing full well that much of the agricultural market and the meat market depend on such workers. If the workers cannot get here legally, they come illegally. The fact of the matter is that all large meat packers employ mostly immigrants, because almost no native-born Americans are willing to work in a meat plant for the low pay that makes inexpensive meat possible. Since it is impossible for the Mexicans and Guatamalans to come legally to work, they come illegally. So there are illegal immigrants at almost every large meat packer in the US.
If the government just wanted to arrest illegal immigrants, it could go to any large meat packer. But the government knows that as many illegal immigrants as it arrests and sends home, more will come, unless there is a legal worker program instituted. So it targets companies where it has reason to believe that management is involved in the knowingly hiring illegal aliens or in helping them get fraudulent documentation. Some people made allegations that Agri was involved in this, and so the government has been planning a raid on them for months. The search warrants make it clear that the government was looking for evidence to support this.
Is it true? I do not know, and venture to say that none of the shochatim and mashgichim in the plant know either. Although most shochatim and mashgichim gossip, they do not associate much with the gentile workers except during work, and even then contact is mostly on the work floor, since the kashrus workers have separate lunch rooms and break facilities. So they do not know about allegations of sexual abuse, methamphetamine labs, beatings, and other allegations. Kosher workers do not pry into the lives of gentile workers, nor do they go into the isolated warehouses which are the only possible places to produce illicit materials. There are no beatings or sexual mistreatment of workers or drug facilities in the operating areas of the plant. There are also no workers that look underage. I go all over the plant when I visit, and the mashgichim that work for the OU also do, but only into areas where meat is processed. We do not visit the water treatment plant, nor the sheds where some materials are stored, nor houses where gentile workers live. We also do not act as OSHA inspectors, interviewing workers to hear their complaints.
In any large plants, some workers have complaints. I have been to other companies where the conditions appear to be worse, and to others where the conditions are better. Many workers who have complaints eventually leave the company they work for or are fired, and then they spread allegations
to whomever is willing to listen. Some allegations of ex-employees prove
to be true, others prove to be false.
In such situations, I find it repugnant that Jews automatically assume that allegations are correct. According to the G’moro, even in cases where we know the facts of the matter, Jews are obliged to be dan l’khaf z’khus a fellow Jews. All the more so if the facts have not yet been established. The government has not yet indicted any plant manager, let alone any of the Rubashkin family; reportedly they are still sifting through the evidence. The only thing beyond the arrests of workers that has happened is that a guidance counselor in Postville who has worked with immigrants for years has been summoned to appear before a grand jury. He has not been arrested nor has any proof been given that he was involved in illegal activities, and in any event he is not an employee of Agri.
The position of the OU is that we require owners of meat businesses to be shomrei mitzvos and also abide by the law. The OU is following the actions and findings of the federal authorities and will act accordingly; we take violations of law very seriously. But the OU certainly does not assume a person guilty because of allegations, nor is any Jew allowed to. We have certified Rubashkin for years, and I can assure you there are no kashrus problems at Postville more than occasional mistakes that happen anywhere, and when mistakes do happen, they are corrected.
If an individual Jew has a problem with the way any Jew runs his business, he has the right to take his business elsewhere. But a Jew has no right to call for a boycott of another Jew without proof that he is doing something wrong. There is no such proof at Agri, and there have been no reports yet that anyone has such proof.
I fully understand that people wish that there would be no more scandals involving Agri. I wish so as well (and Agri does, too). But as another Jew once said (OK, one who believed that he was the moshiach), only those clean from sin should throw stones at others. The fact that the UFCWI (the union that is trying to unionize Agri) is putting ads in Jewish newspapers featuring all the allegations, rumors and innuendos that anyone has made does not constitute a heter for Jews to follow suit.
Seth Mandel
So Rubashkin knowingly recruits and hires an illegal workforce, paying them far below what Empire and other pay. He uses that unfair advantage (along with copious amounts of other shady practices) to undersell his kosher competition and drive them out of market after market.
Rubashkin's workers are exploited and abused, treated like dirt, made to work forced unpaid overtime and shifts as long as 17 hours.
This allows Rubashkin to sell kosher meat "cheaply" in Peoria, and this is what Seth Mandel calls "kiruv" (religious outreach).
This is the OU's Baruch Lanner problem all over again – every abuse is justified as long as the kiruv is good.
Ben Harris comments that the real (sorry) meat of the e-mail is where Mandel discusses whether or not the allegations — of drug production, worker mistreatment, underage workers, etc. — are in fact true. He openly admits that he doesn’t know, but what he does know is that if such things were going on, the kosher workers wouldn’t know about it. They don’t associate much with the general workforce, he writes, and they don’t go into “isolated warehouses,” which he says are “the only possible places” that drugs could have been produced. In the meat production areas, Mandel gives the company a clean bill of health: “There are no beatings or sexual mistreatment of workers or drug facilities in the operating areas of the plant. There are also no workers that look underage.”
That last point is perhaps subjective, while offering Mandel some wiggle room (”The workers didn’t look underage”). I interviewed two teenagers in Postville who both claimed to work in production and both looked pretty young to me.
The OU is rotten to its core.
* Mandel told the JTA this is not the full version of the email and the this version is misleading. But he refused to be more specific or supply a "complete" version. Mandel also claimed the email was supposed to be "private," as if that would in any way let him off the hook for writing it.
Cholent fresser and readers,
This blog is devoted to Roto-Rootering out corruption in the Rabbinate. Rabbi Schach was a selfless man who rarely took his head out of a sefer which is why he is not attacked by UOJ. When he became too old to give shiur he felt he longer had a right to receive any benefits from the yeshiva. Rav Elyashev poskened that the yeshiva still gets tremendous benefit from his mere presence and implored Rav Schach to stay in the apt.
Rav Schach who had kol Hatorah kulah at his fingertips was one of the few voices to speak up against Chabad excesses in the early days. He had the wisdom to see how Chabad would devolve into a ragtag group who have lost their minds over Messianism.
Hypocrite Arthur then goes on to gloat over violence in Ponivizh when the shluchim can't even meet at 770 anymore without fists and furniture flying and people landing in the hospital with critical injuries.
In response to the question from "Most rabbonim are cowards", R' Yudel Shain reported last night that cattle ranchers are now refusing to sell Rubashkin unless they are paid upfront.
It's time that a class action Federal lawsuit against the OU be considered, for passing off treif meat as Kosher in interstate commerce for who knows how many decades.
It is my understanding that Dr. Gradin has changed her position regarding the Weinberg Pen and that she now considers its use to be humane.
Having wintessed its use I must say that I did not see an animal suffer and when the animal was turned out on the slaughter house floor it was quite dead - but one caveat.
The shechita must be done properly and thoroughly. That means cutting the throat of the animal close to the metal bars that are on either side of the animals head. If the bars are hit, the knife may become damaged, so there is great reluctance on the part of the shochet to work that close. That could lead to incomplete shichita.
What happens to the meat from such an animal?
Kashrut is all about trust. The meat from an incompleted shected animal that suffers should be considered treif. Given the both the depth and breadth of problems that have existed at Agri over such a long period of time one has to question the honesty and integrity of the owners. Simply put, a great many kosher consumers have lost confidence in the company, and the cosmetic changes that have been proposed by the OU and the company only serve to further undermine that confidence.
When the Conservative Movement did its investigation of Agri in 2006, Shalom Rubashkin complained that the CM was only looking at his establishment and they should look at others as well, like Empire.
The CM took him up on that challenge and went to Mifflintown, PA to examine conditions there. While the number of injuries from slips and falls was high in both plants, the number of severe injuries (amputations, stab wounds, etc)at Empire were signifcantly lower.
Salaries at Empire w healthcare were high, $9/hr on average with $6-7/hr for healthcare or a total of $16+/per hour. At Agri the average was $7.50/hr with NO benefits.
At Empire there was a safety committee made up primarily of workers and one senior management person. At Agri the safety committee was made up entirely of supervisors and managers and no input from workers (it became a place where managers would discuss worker performance and who they were going to fire).
At Empire there was signage in English, Spanish and Korean. At Agri, sinage was entirely in English.
At Empire they had a fulltime nurse on duty 8 hrs a day who was on call 24/7 (a former trauma nurse at that). At Agri they didn't even have an infirmary and injuries were addressed by the laundry workers.
At Empire workers have a union and a grievance procedure where people trained in representing workers can guarantee a fair hearing by the company. Agri, manages by intimidation. There is no grievance procedure. If workers don't like they way they are treated, they'll fire you or threaten to call ICE.
Much of this was written up in reports in 2006 - some of which became public while others were kept private but which I was privilaged to see.
Bottom line, one company operated according to derech eretz and respected its employees, while the other treated its employees like shmutz.
But comparisons are not always fair.
Empire only does poultry, while AGri does both beef and poultry in the same plant. A bit ambitious.
What Agri needs to do is be the best it can be in the treatment of its workers, animals, the environment and the consumer. It has failed in all areas. The past is prologue and I have no confidence that the hubris of the owners will change.
The best course of action for the workers is to form a union to gain some form of stability and self-protection. The best course of action for the human treatment of animals would be stepped-up monitoring by the USDA. And, the best course of action for the kosher consumer would be for the Rubashkins to sell the plant and all of their holdings in Postville to someone with the knowledge and expertise to run the operation. Until that happens the kosher consumer can have no confidence that products coming out of the plant are both kosher and meet the highest ethical standards.
OU's Seth Mandel said: “Kosher workers do not pry into the lives of gentile workers, nor do they go into the isolated warehouses which are the only possible places to produce illicit materials.”
Wrong. Although it has not been proven, it is possible that drugs were manufactured in the plant. Meat and poultry processing plants use large quantities of chemicals which are mixed inside the plant. Neither mashgiachim, shochtim or US government inspectors are present during third shift when the plant is cleaned. These officials come in first thing in the morning and “inspect” for cleanliness at that time. As improbable as it may seem it is conceivable that illicit drugs were manufactured in the plant mixing room. No one would notice if one or two extra people were working away for hours in the mixing room while the cleaning crew was working elsewhere in the plant.
OU's Seth Mandel said: “So they (mashgichim and shochtim) do not know about allegations of sexual abuse, methamphetamine labs, beatings, and other allegations.”
and,
“There are no beatings or sexual mistreatment of workers or drug facilities in the operating areas of the plant.”
Wrong. I know of at least three instances where a “rabbi” beat a worker or demanded a worker lie to protect a Rabbi. One of those instances was documented in the ICE affidavit. A number of the sexual encounters took place in the operating areas of the plant – specifically in the offices of the supervisors during daytime operations!
OU's Seth Mandel said: ”There are also no workers that look underage. I go all over the plant when I visit, and the mashgichim that work for the OU also do, but only into areas where meat is processed.”
You know Rabbi Mandel, any bouncer at any bar can recognize an underage kid with bad credentials trying to get in.
OU's Seth Mandel said: “ We do not visit the water treatment plant, nor the sheds where some materials are stored, nor houses where gentile workers live.”
Perhaps if you cared, you would have tried to meet workers on neutral territory – someplace workers would feel safe to openly express what was going on there. Any idiot could walk around that plant and feel and see the fear in the workers. You’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see it. I believe everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but I also believe you have to dig beneath the surface to get to the truth. Ronald Reagan used to say, “make peace but verify.” The OU fell down when it did not take steps to verify what was being said about Agri. I grew up in the wholseale food business and when we suspected there were a group of workers stealing from the company we hired a private investigator to send in a "mole" (sound familiar). It didn't take him long discover the culprits and we stopped it cold. You could have dealt with this quietly but forcefully. There was no need for this scandal to erupt publicly. What I, and many others, would be much more impressed with, is if the OU admitted its mistake, removed its haschacha (if for no other reason then to protect its "brand") so we could all move on.
OU's Seth Mandel said: "I find it repugnant that Jews automatically assume that allegations are correct.”
I find it repugnant that the OU willfully ignores evidence when it is presented. You cannot argue that Agri didn’t knowingly hired underage kids. Eighteen were picked up during the ICE raid, only a fraction of those who actually worked there. By turning a blind eye to the human tragedy that was taking place at Agri, the OU has contributed to the enormous harm done to the image of the Jewish community and to kashrus observance. The fact that more than a month after the raid this is still a major topic of discussion in synagogues across the country is a tribute to the collusion and hubris exhibited by Agri and the OU.
OU's Seth Mandel said: “According to the G’moro, even in cases where we know the facts of the matter, Jews are obliged to be dan l’khaf z’khus a fellow Jews.”
We are also required to confront those that do harm: I will act as a relentless accuser against those who cheat laborers of their hire.
(Malachi 3:5)
OU's Seth Mandel said: ”The government has not yet indicted any plant manager, let alone any of the Rubashkin family; reportedly they are still sifting through the evidence. The only thing beyond the arrests of workers that has happened is that a guidance counselor in Postville who has worked with immigrants for years has been summoned to appear before a grand jury.”
Between six and eight subpoenas were delivered to the executive offices of Agri approximately four weeks ago. It has been reported that one supervisor has fled the country.
OU's Seth Mandel said: “We have certified Rubashkin for years, and I can assure you there are no kashrus problems at Postville more than occasional mistakes that happen anywhere, and when mistakes do happen, they are corrected.”
Calling Agri's business decisions a "mistake" is an insult to people's intelligence. A mistake is something that happens in error. Agri's actions were the result of cold, calaulating decision making. Quite simply put: greed. Rabbis like Moshe Feinstein in effect found ways to rule non-union produce treif and did so again with cage-raised veal. They did so out of concern for the suffering and exploitation of workers and animals. At Agri, the OU seems to go out of its way to do the opposite – koshering abuses of all sorts as long as the slating, soaking and deveining is done correctly.
OU's Seth Mandel said: “The fact that the the union that is trying to unionize Agri is putting ads in Jewish newspapers featuring all the allegations, rumors and innuendos that anyone has made does not constitute a heter for Jews to follow suit.”
Magicians call this "mis-direction" get the audience to look at something else while you pull the wool over their eyes. Blaming unions for the OU's failure to safeguard the ethics of kashrut shows a lack of respect for kosher consumers.
As Pogo said, "We have meet the enemy and he is us."
At a minimum, these allegations, Federal and State charges, fines and regulatory judgments against Agri are cause for the kosher consumer to act with extreme caution. That means that Jews are well within their halachic rights to share the information made public about Agri and to choose to avoid eating Agri products until Agri is sold to someone within whom the kosher consumer can again have confidence.
With this e-mail from Rabbi Mandel, I stand corrected. Any differences between his stated position here and what Rabbi Samuels claimed is basically hairsplitting. One more lie and he will have a chazakah for chronic lying.
At least no one can accuse me of failing to judge dan l'kaf z'chut. I gave Rabbi Mandel the benefit of the doubt until he implicated himself. Let it not be said that Rubashkin's critics are failing to be deliberative in judgement.
It is now clear that the OU's principal motive is to keep the kosher meat $$$ gravy train going at all costs. This is why Rabbi Mandel argues in favor of low ethical standards and cheap meat. If Jews decided en masse to cut their meat consumption or, kal va-chomer, go entirely vegetarian, and eat more foods that do not require supervision to be reliably kosher (e.g. fresh produce), the OU would lose certification fees. Meat is much more complicated, kashrut-wise, than, say, canned chick peas, and one would assume that the certifying agencies take a bigger cut.
I wonder what percentage of OU Kosher revenues are from meat certification in general, and what portion of that is from AgriProcessors. It would be an interesting statistic.
Boo Boo Bruno is stepping down as Majority leader in Albany. The timing is suspicious considering that the FBI is investigating.
The good news is that he is being replaced by Dean Skelos from Nassau County. He is the guy who worked with Elliot Pasik to push the sex offender registry.
Now we have to get rid of Shelly Silver who aids the stonewalling from Shafran & Zweibel.
So Rabbi Mandel, the OU, Chabad, et. al are so worried about lashon ha-ra about AgriProcessors. What about all of the lashon ha-ra against Rabbi Ralbag and Triangle-K? We are told that Triangle-K is not reliable, but no one ever gives any hard evidence as to exactly why it is not a reliable hechsher. We are told that it is OK to say this because the lashon ha-ra is to'elet, for a constructive purpose. If it is constructive to warn people not to accept the kashrut of food under a certain certification when there is a lack of conclusive evidence as to why the hashgacha is unreliable, then why is it not to'elet to warn consumers of the lack of yashrut of a company when the evidence is quite clear? Or is kashrut more important than yashrut?
And why should we not judge Triangle-K, and all of the other ostensibly non-reliable agencies dan l'kaf z'chut, kosher until proven otherwise, to take Rabbi Mandel's reasoning to its logical conclusion?
The OU conveniently ignores that Rubashkin is foremost a business seeking to make profit. It's not a non profit.
According to OU "reasoning" we should be seeking to endorse or at least verify the kashrus quality of HEBREW National, because it, not Rubashkin, is the brand of kosher meat products travellers, or Jews in remote places are likely to encounter. Yet the OU continues its policy of implying that Hebrew national is not kosher.
I also find it interesting that the OU is not willing to discuss the practice of Rubashkin Sabbath production. Is this in line with Hilchoth Shabbath ?
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 -- 10:23 AM ET
-----
Supreme Court Rejects Death Penalty for Raping Children
The Supreme Court struck down a law that allows execution for
raping a child, ruling that it would violate the
Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Margo insisted that I vote against the child rape law.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/leaving-the-fold-20080623-2vlh.html?page=-1
Rubashkin is not the only reason Lubavitch is screwed up.
Why is so much energy and time being spent on the Lubav vs Rav Schach issue? Why not Rav Yaakov Emden vs Rav Yonason Eibschutz? Or for that matter, how about a medrash on Korach vs Moshe Rabbeinu? Treif is not a sect thing, it's a Torah thing and if we are follows of Torah then no matter who is at fault we all suffer. Correctly asked is the OU any better or worse than Triangle-K or Chof-K? Every hashgacha has had issues with their supervision at one time or another. Whether it's Pesach items, meat, cheese, they all have had some issues. May be they should all be supervised and have to report to the FDA on their supervision. Botei Dinim too are unregulated, why don't they have to report to the State Court system or Federal. I have to report my taxes and business dealings to the government and account for every action. Let's require Kosher supervisors and beis dins to be supervised by at least state agencies in agriculture and judiciary.
Shmarya is reporting that Rubashkin & Lubinsky pulled a fast one last night. They decided at the last minute to uninvite a number of people already invited to their propaganda event - besides Yudel Shain - so they told these people the event was "cancelled". They then informed everyone else the event was moved to another location.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214132665693&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Thousands of pale-skinned yeshiva boys smeared with sunscreen lotion gathered Monday in the hot Jerusalem sun to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of an educational system belonging to the most anti-Zionist stream of Orthodox Judaism in the world.
The school system, funded primarily by the Satmar Hassidic communities in New York, Antwerp and a few other cities, teaches in Yiddish and says it refuses to receive money from the State of Israel for theological and ideological reasons.
However, sources told The Jerusalem Post that the "independent" school system does receive state funds indirectly.
Schools that belong to the system, which is run by the Edah Haredit, an umbrella organization of Hassidic sects and fanatic Lithuanian streams of Judaism, register their students in schools that do receive money from the state.
These students, who are registered but do not attend, are known as nefashot ("souls") or malachim ("angels").
The state funds received for these souls, or angels, is then transferred to the Edah Haredit schools.
The rally staged Monday was ostensibly a 30th anniversary celebration.
But organizers and participants said it was really an opportunity to encourage school principals to boost their fundraising efforts as the devalued dollar and the slump in the US economy buffeted haredi education budgets.
"We need to shake up the apparatus," said one of the organizers. "The heads of the fundraising efforts have run out of steam. We need new faces."
The Keren Hatzala or Emergency Fund, set up by former Satmar Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum to fund a totally autonomous educational system, is strapped for cash.
Let me relate a story in the name of the rav of Baranowitch who also served as the mashgiach of the yeshiva there under Reb Elchonon. This man Rabbi Yaakov Lubatcheski was also the son in law of the Alter of Navarhodok.
He said if you are walking at night and see someone entering another person's house through the window, do not be melamed zechus on the other person, but assume the reasonable which is burglary - and alert the police.
Several years ago the Israeli Police dept raided the hq of the Eda for income tax evasion , rather than go to court the Eda settled "on the spot" for a back paymeny of millions of Israeli pounds.This incident was reported in many Israeli papers including an orthodox newspaper.
Given that the Badatz is a highly profitable kashrus organization and given the fact that the Mosdos they support claim to be poor and that the average Yerushalmi of that stripe is constantly fund raising for himself or his family, it stands to reason that this kashrus money is not evenly distributed.
I'll let you decide if its in Swiss banks or in Barbados or under Belsky's mattress, but it clearly is in the hands of a few. Few of the Eda's mosdos or members ever see a penny of this kashrus money.
And thats a well known fact among the Bnai Yerushalayim.
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/751/549.html
צלם צרפתי: הרב מצגר ביקש ממני להתפשט
הצלם שעבד בכנס בספרד בו נכח הרב הראשי טוען שמצגר התחיל איתו וביקש לראותו עירום. פרקליטו של הרב הראשי: "זו עלילה נבזית"
בעז גאון וקלמן ליבסקינד | 25/6/2008 7:55 "עשינו ראיון עם הרב הראשי של ישראל. בסוף הראיון הוא ביקש ממני ללוות אותו לחדרו. הדלת נסגרה מאחורינו. הוא אמר שיש לי גוף יפה ומוצק, החמיא לשרירים שלי ואז ביקש ממני להוריד את הבגדים ולשכב על המיטה, כי הוא רוצה לראות אותי עירום. הייתי בשוק. בוודאי שזה מטריד" - כך תיאר פ', צלם צרפתי בן 27, את שהתחולל, לטענתו, בחדרו של הרב הראשי לישראל יונה מצגר, במרץ 2006.
הרב יונה מצגר צילום ארכיון: משה מילנרהמקום: סביליה, ספרד. האכסניה: כנס בין דתי ראשון מסוגו, שאליו הוזמנו מאות רבנים ואימאמים, כדי להפיץ לעולם בשורה של שלום, צניעות ואחווה. המלך הספרדי העניק את חסותו לכנס, שאורגן על ידי יו"ר הארגון הצרפתי, אלן מישל.
"מצגר המיט בושה על הרבנים בכנס", אמר מישל בראיון שנערך עמו בפריז בשבוע שעבר, "וגם על היהודים". הוא אישר כי מצגר ניסה "להתחיל" עם צלם צרפתי בכנס, וכינה את האירוע "חמור מאוד".
אין זו הפעם הראשונה שמצגר מואשם בהעברת רמזים מיניים בוטים לגברים צעירים, שריריים בעיקר.בשנת 2003 פנו למעריב גברים שסיפרו כי מצגר הוביל אותם למקום מבודד, החמיא לשריריהם וביקש לראות ולגעת. מצגר הכחיש וטען כי מאחורי הטענות עומדים יריבים פוליטיים.
"אני לא סובל את הצביעות הזו"
את עדות הצלם הצרפתי מגבות דמויות בכירות, הזועמות על "צביעותו" של הרב מצגר. יצוין, כי בעבר תקף מצגר בחריפות רבה את מצעד הגאווה בירושלים, וכינה אותו "מצעד התועבה". ביום חמישי פנה מצגר יחד עם הרב הספרדי הראשי במכתב דחוף לראש הממשלה, בו ביקש להטיל מגבלות על הופעתם של הצועדים.
רבנים שהשתתפו בכנס בספרד שמעו על ה"אירוע" בזמן אמת ולא ידעו, לדבריהם, היכן לקבור את הבושה. מנכ"ל הרבנות הראשית עודד וינר שמע על האירוע, כמה דקות אחרי שאירע, אך בחר להתעלם כי "מדובר בשמועה שיש בה חילול השם". וינר העדיף שלא להגיב לכתבה.
"ישבתי בלובי של המלון", מספר ראש החטיבה
הבין-דתית במשרד החוץ לשעבר, גדי גולן, שנכח בכנס והיה אחד ממארגניו. "פתאום באה אחת המארגנות, בחורה ישראלית-צרפתייה, הצביעה על צלם ואמרה: 'אתה רואה את הבחור הזה? מצגר התעסק איתו'".
גולן , כמו משתתפים רבים בכנס, זועמים מאז על הרב הראשי. זעמם התפרץ באחרונה עקב כוונת הארגון הצרפתי לארגן כנס נוסף, בהשתתפות מצגר. בלחץ הרבנים בוטלה השתתפותו של מצגר. "לא נזמין אותו לכנס הבא", אומר אלן מישל. "ולא, הוא עוד לא יודע".
"אני לא סובל את הצביעות הזו", אומר גדי גולן, "להתנהג כך ועוד באירוע כזה. שמע, אני לא צריך שיישב בבית סוהר. מספיק לי שיישב בבית".
"גם להומוסקסואלים מותר לתת ביטוי לדחפיהם המיניים"
מארגון הצילום הצרפתי שהעסיק את הצלם פ' בכנס הועברה התגובה הבאה: "הצלם פ' לא היה קטין בשעת המקרה בסביליה, ולכן איננו חושבים שמדובר בהטרדה מינית, אלא בפיק-אפ הומוסקסואלי קלאסי, מה שמכונה בצרפתית Drague. גם להומוסקסואלים מותר לתת ביטוי לדחפיהם המיניים.
"אנחנו מבינים את האלמנט המזעזע בהתנהגותו של מצגר בהשתמשו בעמדת סמכות וכוח. במידה שהיו מוצגות לנו הוכחות שהוא התחיל עם ילדים, אז אולי היינו יוצאים עם הסיפור. עם זאת, מאחר שיש למהלך הזה תוצאות פוליטיות בלתי נשלטות, אנחנו מעדיפים להישאר מחוץ לסיפור הזה".
בהמשך הגיעו כתבי מעריב לצלם בכוחות עצמם, והוא הגדיר את האירוע כ"מזעזע".
"ברשות הרב עדות התומכת בגרסתו"
תגובת פרופ' דוד ליבאי, עורך דינו של הרב מצגר: "הרב מצגר דוחה בשאט נפש את ההאשמות חסרות השחר המועלות נגדו בכתבה. במהלך כנס בין דתי בסביליה, בו השתתף הרב מצגר לפני יותר משנתיים, ביחד עם משלחת רבנים מהארץ, לא התרחש כל אירוע בעל אופי מיני, לא בחדרו של הרב ולא באף מקום אחר.
"בשיחה שהתקיימה בין הרב לצלם, כמו גם בשיחות שהתקיימו בין הרב לבין אנשי תקשורת נוספים שנכחו בכנס, לא היה שמץ של אמירה בעלת אופי מיני, והרב מעולם לא אמר את הדברים המיוחסים לו. מדובר בעלילה נבזית, וברשות הרב עדות התומכת בגרסתו".
עו"ד ליבאי סירב לבקשת מעריב לחשוף את העדות. עוד אמר ליבאי, כי "הרב מצגר משתתף יחד עם חשובי הרבנים מהארץ ומהעולם בכנסים רבים, ולא ידוע לו על גורמים המחרימים או שוקלים להחרים כנסים שבהם הוא משתתף".
הסיפור המלא - ביום שישי ב"סופשבוע"
I believe the name of the Baranovitcher Mashgiach was Rabbi Lubchansky.
Hey Shafran you tinof tinofet, guess who got a headline post on - uojgroup.blogspot.com.
"Looking out six months, more people are pessimistic about the outlook for jobs and business conditions than at any time since 1980. And more people think their own income will fall than at any time since the Conference Board started asking that question in 1967."
My wife works for a major company that is cutting sick days in half, making workers report on govt holidays and increasing health insurance premiums. Year to year salary increases have been greatly reduced from a maximum of 8% to 3.5%.
The greedy shmucks that I work for have pulled several tricks out of their hats that are a violation of Federal Labor laws. When someone argues or files a complaint, they just fire the employee and deal with the consequences later, hoping the now jobless ex-employee doesn't have enough money to fight them with lawyers.
"more people think their own income will fall than at any time since the Conference Board started asking that question in 1967."
What an outrage! Food prices have gone up by 30% so how is anyone supposed to pay for all-you-can-eat fressing?
Are These Guys Nuts?
by Jonathan Rosenblum
Yated Ne'eman
June 25, 2008
Snag said...
"Arthur should go preach to the choir of his Messianic nut readership of the Algemeiner.
The Meshichist rabbis issued a public curse against Rav Schach of "sifsei sheker tayolamna". They were probably having sour grapes for entire generation since R' Boruch Ber said the same of the previous Rebbe before he had a stroke. What worked for R' Boruch Ber did not work when the miserable Lubavs later tried to be mekalel the gadol hador."
Wasn't the freardika Rebbe's stroke either during or after WWII? Reb Baruch Baer had already been niftar. I NEVER heard that he ever said anything against the Rebbe. He was so Meshubad to Reb Chaim, that it's difficult to picture him saying this, having known R' Chaim's good relationship with Lubavitch all those years.
As a result of the allegations of intolerable injustices at Agriprocessors, the largest producer of kosher meat and poultry in the U.S., BBYO takes major stand by asking its various camp partners to avoid serving Agriprocessor products, to which they comply.
Nine hundred teens participating in BBYO’s summer leadership experiences at Perlman Camp, PA; Beber Camp, WI; and American Hebrew Academy, CA, over the course of this summer, will eat meals free of Agriprocessor products, showing a unified commitment to social justice and Jewish values.
The reason this issue has struck such a deep chord with BBYO teens is because it’s the story of their grandparents and great grandparents – the story of immigrating to find a better life, fighting oppression and standing up for social justice.
Marilyn Sneiderman, BBYO Deputy Director
This was sent to another blog.
"This is a story that I'd think more appropriate for April Fools Day.
A student from a prominent Yeshiva in Boro-Park was rewarded for breaking a pen that was signed by Lipa Schmeltzer. The principal of this school preaches to innocent young pupils about the dangers of listening to Lipa Schmeltzer. It is actually 'banned' to purchase or hear Mr. Schmeltzer's albums.
This is a true story that my 9 year old son let me in on. As a parent who isn't exactly smitten over Lipa I must admit this incident is so way out of line that it really got me thinking. What have our chinuch institutions morphed into? The answer: Fanatic & radical establishments that are clearly delivering very wrong messages to our children. To be rewarded for breaking a pen that was signed by a yid? I know there are plenty of bad yidden out there but please....this is bordering on insane.
Praying For Better Times"
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4170965.ece
Shmiel Leibowitz was actually convicted THREE times for drug running.
http://www.pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111243&Itemid=34
New York (PRWEB) June 10, 2008 -- A spokesman for Rabbi Mordecai Tendler stated today that the allegations made in the Marmelstein complaint are without any basis in fact, fabrications and have always been vehemently denied both in court filings and in the public forum.
The statements made before the Court of Appeals by counsel for both parties are in the context of a motion to dismiss the complaint. Procedurally the court must entertain such allegations as true solely for the purposes of determining the legal sufficiency of the Marmelstein allegations as set forth in her complaint. The unfortunate press reports which imply any concession by Rabbi Tendler's attorney are recklessly taken out of context and a distortion of the record.
Contact Information
Hillel Tendler
845-354-4948
The Last Undercover: The True Story of an FBI Agent’s Dangerous Dance with Evil Bob Hamer. Hachette/Center Street, $23.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-59995-101-0
There have been many books concerning FBI undercover agents on perilous assignments, but this one by a veteran FBI agent goes most of them one better with his full-tilt voyages into the darkest fringes of society. After his training and recruitment into the criminal netherworld, Hamer assumed several identities—such as drug dealer and contract killer—to penetrate the closed societies of the Chinese, Russian and Iraqi mobs. However, Hamer’s controlled theatrics are most compelling as he infiltrates the security-obsessed North American Man/Boy Love Association disguised as an aging pedophile, to crack the group and their extensive international network. The sneak peek into that dank society of “chicken hawks” is illuminating in its depiction of child sexual abuse. With his practiced lies and disciplined behavior, Hamer is a peerless undercover agent, although his book sometimes breaks its narrative focus and wanders into several cases at once.
I went to camp Agudah. This place is the central base for homosexual activity between campers. Perhaps this can be explained as sexual experimentation, although I know for a fact some boys were coerced and forced by other boys. However, what cannot be excused is the counselors and rebbeim who sexually abused many boys. Most people know about kolko, but there are many others as well. Today I see some of them and am very tempted to say something. One is a big Rabbi of a shul.
Quebec rabbi beats speeding ticket for circumcision emergency
Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, June 17, 2008
MONTREAL - Quebec's Jewish chaplain for prisons got a speeding ticket quashed after convincing a judge he'd been rushing to a medical emergency: a baby boy who was bleeding from a ritual circumcision.
"It wasn't like I was going 120 km/hr - I was going a reasonable speed," Jacob Levy told Judge Alain St-Pierre in a Montreal municipal court Monday, where he contested the ticket.
After listening to the rabbi's story, the judge said Levy had proven the "necessity" of why he'd been speeding, and threw out the charge.
Levy, who used to be grand rabbi of Geneva and also lived in France, leads a Sephardic congregation. Trained in Jerusalem as a mohel, the Hebrew word for circumciser, Levy has been practising the ritual procedure for 30 years.
His first case was his own son, he told St-Pierre, showing his surgical kit as proof of his trade.
Levy testified he'd received an emergency call from a distraught mother whose eight-day-old boy had been recently circumcised. The bandage had come off and the boy was bleeding.
The speed at which Levy was travelling was not mentioned in court.
I stopped buying Rubashkins. The coverup by the OU is eqivelent to the verse that says "lifnei iver loy sitain muchshol." I'm sure they are oyver many more lavim as well.
YUdel do you know about this
are you aware KM kosher miami is being sued for taking its hechsher away for no reason and then closing a mans bussiness over politics
they admit to being setup by calls from a PI dont know why they were called
Rabbio GRosss in miami says to the communitiy we really might have erred but by that time they had closed the bussinees and it was then bouight by a convicted felon and moser who got a hechsher from rabbi gruber (from monsey no less)
finally someone has the courage to stand up to these idiots
and KM stands for KOsher Maybe
Guys, tachlis. All of you with itchy keyboards, take a look.
Agri’s OSHA Record!
The claim made that there are $182,000 worth of safety violation fines in 2007 is false. In fact, only $29,750 for 14 safety violations with no repeat violations cited.
As for some of the others:
AgriProcessors has a human resource department where abuse and harassment and sexual complaints could be filed.
Unfortunately, there was; but just one such complaint was filed in about twenty years at AgriProcessors.
The human resource department investigated the complaint with the appropriate authorities.
The police did not find reason to file any charges
AgriProcessors never had a charge for sexual abuse brought against it in any court or governmental establishment
To say that their internal department dismissed the claim does not move me, whereas the fact that the local authorities who investigated the claim did - does.
Also, you should note that:
AgriProcessors has a government approved HACCP plan in force.
AgriProcessors has the USDA staff on site full time - monitoring safety.
So, unless the police, the local government, OSHA, USDA and everyone else is on the take, this is a series of unfortunate events that do not add up to the evil. More like a big company that does nasty work with blood, bones, sinew, flesh, knives and hooks that is so big is has some accidents, staffing issues, and harassment issues, but nothing is out of the ordinary for a workforce, small society or manufacturing plant.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/6/prweb1024704.htm
Rabbi who has been the subject of a long running internet defamation campaign wins court decision against anonymous bloggers.
New York, NY (PRWEB) June 15, 2008 -- Rabbi Mordecai Tendler's prolonged legal battle, has once again received powerful positive momentum from a string of decisions from courts in New York (http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/6/prweb1008154.htm), California (http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/H031130.PDF), and the Chief Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, Israel (http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20060118009.html).
In the latest court victory, a decision issued on June 10th 2008 by the California Court of Appeals, the court ruled against the legal arguments of Paul Alan Levy of the "Public Citizen Litigation Group" (http://www.citizen.org) in Washington, DC and Cindy A. Cohn of the "Electronic Frontier Foundation" in San Francisco, CA, who allegedly argued on behalf of multiple anonymous internet bloggers. Levy's case was based on affidavits he obtained from Yosef Blau and Mark S. Dratch, alleged prominent players in the campaign against Rabbi Tendler (http://www.ereleases.com/pr/20060118009.html). The lower court decision which was reversed was the subject of much internet publicity.
The case has been remanded where the court may not entertain any application for counsel fees, and perhaps may entertain appropriate re-filing of applications for the issuance of subpoenas to obtain the identity of bloggers who in an Ohio defamation action are claimed to have libeled Rabbi Tendler (see California link above). In oral arguments before the appellate court, Rabbi Tendler named one of the suspected bloggers. That suspected blogger, allegedly resides in Ohio and was involved in a particularly acrimonious matrimonial matter many years ago. In issues relating to that case, a member of Rabbi Tendler's family served in a rabbinical capacity.
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/H031130.PDF
Filed 6/10/08 Tendler v. www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com CA6
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for
publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication
or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
MORDECAI TENDLER,
Plaintiff and Appellant,
v.
WWW.JEWISHSURVIVORS.BLOGSPOT.
COM et al,
Defendants and Respondents.
H031130
(Santa Clara County
Super. Ct. No. CV064307)
Appellant Mordecai Tendler obtained a pre-filing discovery order in Ohio to aid in his effort to learn the identities of the anonymous individuals who had posted statements about him on the Internet that he believed were defamatory. Respondents, who we will refer to as the Does, are the anonymous individuals who posted those statements. When Google, the subject of Tendler’s discovery order, refused to comply with Ohio
subpoenas, Tendler filed a request for subpoenas in Santa Clara County Superior Court premised on the Ohio discovery order. The Does filed a motion to quash and a Code of Civil Procedure section1 425.16 motion to strike. Although Tendler withdrew his request for subpoenas, the Does’ proceeded on their section 425.16 motion to strike. The superior court granted the Does’ section 425.16 motion to strike, and awarded them their
attorney’s fees. On appeal, we conclude that a request for subpoenas does not fall within
section 425.16, and therefore the superior court erred in granting the motion and in awarding attorney’s fees.
I. Background
In February 2006, Tendler, a resident of New York, obtained an order from an Ohio state court providing his Ohio attorney with “subpoena power for the purpose of obtaining IP address and other owner/creator information from Google concerning web blogs that have allegedly published false, libelous and defamatory statements concerning
the Petitioner.”2 In March 2006, Tendler’s Ohio attorney issued a subpoena to Google seeking “the originating internet protocol (IP) address(es) or other owner/creator
information for the following uniform resource locator (URL):
www.jewishwhistleblower.blogspot.com.” At the same time, identical subpoenas were issued to Google for the URLs www.rabbinicintegrity.blogspot.com,
www.newhempsteadnews.blogspot.com, and www.jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com.
Google apparently declined to respond to these Ohio subpoenas.
On May 24, 2006, Tendler’s California attorney filed a “request[]” in Santa Clara
County Superior Court asking the court “to issue a case number and endorse” the four subpoenas. The court filed a “civil case cover sheet” on May 24, 2006 and assigned a case number. (Capitalization omitted.)
Google apparently notified the Does of Tendler’s subpoenas. On July 7, 2006, “defendants John Doe JewishSurvivors; Jewish Whistleblower, and NewHempsteadNews” filed a motion to quash the subpoenas.3 On July 13, 2006, the Does filed a second motion seeking to “strike this proceeding” under section 425.16.
They claimed that “the allegations of the deposition subpoena and the underlying petition are covered by C.C.P. § 425.16 . . . .” (Capitalization omitted.) On August 2, 2006, Tendler filed a request for dismissal without prejudice of the “Out-of-State Subpoena Commission.” The dismissal was entered that day.
On August 29, 2006, Paul Alan Levy filed an application for permission to appear as counsel pro hac vice for the Does. Levy wished to appear in association with the California attorney, Cindy Cohn, who was also representing the Does. A hearing was set for October 12, 2006 on the motion to strike and on the application to appear pro hac
vice. Tendler’s Ohio and California attorneys apparently ceased to act on Tendler’s
behalf in August 2006, and Tendler apparently was without counsel thereafter. However, he did not promptly file a proper substitution of attorneys or provide the Does’ attorneys
with a mailing address or telephone number, which made it difficult for them to serve
Tendler with any pleadings.
The motion to strike and application to appear pro hac vice were heard on October 12, 2006. Neither Tendler nor any attorney appeared on his behalf. The court
granted the application and the motion, and awarded the Does “their attorney fees and
costs pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16(c).” On October 18, 2006, Tendler filed a proper substitution of attorney, substituting himself for his California attorney and providing a mailing address and telephone number for himself. On November 7, 2006, the Does filed a motion for an award of attorney’s fees and
costs. They sought $40,496.25 in attorney’s fees and $1,745.64 in costs. Levy asserted that he had spent 34.5 hours on the litigation, while the associated California attorneys had spent a total of 29.2 hours. Levy’s time had been spent between June 13, 2006 and October 28, 2006, with most of the time being spent early on. Tendler sent a letter to the
court that seemed to seek reconsideration of the court’s prior orders, but the court denied
the request for reconsideration as untimely. The court awarded the Does $20,330 in attorney’s fees and their costs. Tendler filed a timely notice of appeal from the court’s orders granting the motion to strike and awarding the Does their costs and attorney’s fees.
II. Analysis
The question before us in this case is whether a request for a subpoena falls within the scope of section 425.16.
(Follow link for several pages here)
III. Disposition
The superior court’s orders are reversed, and the matter is remanded with directions to deny the section 425.16 motion. In the interests of justice, the parties shall bear their own costs on appeal.
McAdams, J., concurring.
Attention anonymous Internet posters and bloggers: this court has good news and bad news for those of you who engage in nontortious discourse. The good news, announced earlier this year: your message will be protected by the First Amendment and your identity will be protected by the court quashing a third party
subpoena, unless the requesting party can make a prima facie showing of defamation. (Krinsky v. Doe 6 (2008) 159 Cal.App.4th 1154 (Krinsky).)
The bad news: it may cost you tens of thousands of dollars to preserve your anonymity. I must concur with my colleagues’ ultimate conclusion that Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16 (section 425.16) does not apply to requests for subpoenas, but I write separately for two reasons: First, I cannot agree with the
rationale employed by the majority in reaching the conclusion that the statute is inapplicable here. Second, I urge the Legislature to consider whether the statute should be expanded to include third-party subpoena requests of this type.
Although my colleagues have no difficulty rejecting the application of section 425.16 to a request for a third-party subpoena, I do not reach this
conclusion quite so easily and comfortably. In enacting this provision, the Legislature expressed specific concern that
“participation in matters of public significance … should not be chilled through abuse of the judicial process” and it noted “a disturbing increase in lawsuits
brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of
speech and petition for the redress of grievances.” (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16, subd. (a).)
Here, appellant Mordecai Tendler, a rabbi, sought the identity of his online critics on four weblogs or “blogs” related to matters of interest to members of the
Orthodox Jewish community. This New York resident brought an action in Ohio claiming false and defamatory statements made against him and served subpoenas in California on Google, Inc., the Internet Service Provider (ISP) hosting the blogs, seeking the Internet protocol (IP) addresses of the respondents and thus their personal identities. Respondents’ motion to quash service of the subpoenas and their motion to dismiss under section 425.16 raised First Amendment objections and contained declarations concerning the potential consequences within the Orthodox Jewish community if disclosure occurred, including religious,
economic and social ostracism.
Accordingly, from the trial court’s perspective, the issues before the court in California raised the question whether appellant’s request involved an “abuse of the judicial process” within the meaning of section 425.16.
I reluctantly agree with the majority that even the broadest
construction cannot bring this particular proceeding within the statute’s ambit. My colleagues easily dispose of the matter by finding that the statute applies only to complaints, petitions, or their equivalent.
As Witkin explains, “the meaning of ‘cause of action’ remains elusive and subject to frequent dispute and misconception….” (4 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (4th ed. 1997) Pleadings, § 25, p. 87.)
Given that fact, there is good reason to believe there has been and will continue to be a corresponding increase in requests
for subpoenas served on ISPs and other site hosts to disclose the identities of writers. Some requests will be based on a legitimate right to discover the source of libelous statements or business disinformation schemes; but some will be solely for the purpose of silencing a critic by harassment, ostracism, or retaliation.
I urge the Legislature to consider whether section 425.16 as currently
written adequately addresses this rapidly expanding arena of public expression and whether the statute leaves this popular forum open to potential “abuse of the judicial process” without the level of protection afforded “causes of action.”
_________________________________
McAdams, J.
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/2008/06/23/493/agriprocessors-to-hold-private-meeting-tuesday/
According to the invitation, the event will be a chance to “learn the TRUTH about Agriprocessors” (emphasis in the original) and to learn “what can be done to stop the slander and vilifications against Agriprocessors.” Those wishing to attend are instructed to RSVP to Lubinsky’s firm, Lubicom.
But here’s the catch — late Friday we learned from Lubinsky that press will not be admitted. When asked, he declined to tell us why. The truth will apparently only be shared with invited guests.
The Tuesday meeting comes, as the Forward noted last week, as the company appears to be gearing up for a big public relations push. They have retained the services of PR powerhouse 5WPR (after being turned down as a client by another prominent firm), and they have lately been uncharacteristically quick in responding to the media. Lubinsky e-mailed me a statement last week responding to allegations related to the company’s decision to hire homeless workers from Texas — before I even asked him for one.
But the company and kosher supervision agencies also seem intent on closely controlling the message that they are putting out to the Jewish community. Last week, we blogged about Rabbi Seth Mandel, the OU’s head of kosher supervision. Mandel met in Hartford recently with a group of rabbis and insisted that the contents of the meeting remain private. He later sent a lengthy e-mail explaining his view of the situation, and when we asked him about it, he said the e-mail was private and should not be reported (you can read the e-mail here).
Who was it who said the truth will you set you free?
http://www.web-church.com/jesus_christ/who_said_the_truth_will_set_you_free.htm
Oh, right.
Group: Abuse of downer cattle continues
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The group whose undercover slaughterhouse video last February prompted the largest beef recall in U.S. history alleged on Wednesday that cattle — some of them possibly bound for the National School Lunch Program — are still being abused, this time in livestock auctions.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), an animal rights group, said a new investigation shows dairy cattle being abused last May at a livestock auction in New Mexico. The group said an investigator watched three cows and calves "being mistreated and tormented in order to get them to stand and walk" into an auction ring in Portales, N.M. The group says state inspectors "were present at the auctions and apparently saw much of the abuse."
At HSUS's headquarters, Wayne Pacelle, the group's president, played for reporters a short video that showed, among other images, a stockyard worker kicking a cow, another cow struggling to pull itself forward by its front legs and another being dragged by a hind leg with a chain attached to a Bobcat-type tractor.
A meat industry trade association condemned the handling practices shown in the video, calling them "simply inexplicable."
It was not immediately clear whether the cows in the video were sold at auction or were even the same cows referred to in the investigation.
"We had hoped that this problem would have been taken care of by the regulatory agencies and the private livestock industry," Pacelle said. He added that there's no evidence that the downer cows were slaughtered or, if so, whether the meat found its way into the school lunch program, a major buyer of ground beef.
SCHOOL LUNCHES: Beef recall spotlights real cost of cheap cafeteria meals
"We just don't know" what happened to them, he said.
Pacelle noted that many cows sold at the Portales auction are processed at an Amarillo, Texas, plant that is a top supplier to the program.
American Meat Institute President J. Patrick Boyle said the practices depicted in the video are "harmful to animals and to the industry's reputation. The fact that this occurred is simply inexplicable."
He said humane handling of animals "is both ethically appropriate and has real economic benefits in terms of safer workplaces and better meat quality," and noted that industry guidelines prohibit the dragging of non-ambulatory cattle.
If the animals showed up at a meat packing plant, the group said, "they would most certainly be condemned by federal inspectors as unfit for the food supply."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, said the revelations of abuse at the auction "are extremely troublesome. Not only are we again witnessing the inhumane treatment of cows and the illegal slaughtering of downed cows for the food supply, but also the distribution of potentially contaminated meat into the school lunch program."
She said USDA should close a federal loophole that allows downer cattle to enter the food supply if, when they're first inspected, they are ambulatory.
On Feb. 17, the Hallmark/Westland Meatpacking Co., based in Chino, Calif., voluntarily recalled 143 million pounds of beef, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture found evidence that plant workers slaughtered "downer" cows — cows that were unable to walk — without a veterinarian inspecting them first.
Hallmark had stopped operations on Feb. 1, after HSUS released an undercover video shot last fall that showed plant workers using forklifts to roll cows that couldn't walk and poking them with electric prods, allegedly to move them to the slaughter box.
No illnesses were reported tied to the Hallmark beef, but downer cattle have been generally prohibited from the U.S. food supply since 2004 because they carry a higher risk of mad cow disease, a fatal brain illness, and E. coli and salmonella contamination.
Until the recall, Westmark was one of the nation's largest suppliers to the National School Lunch Program, supplying about 100 million pounds of beef total to federal food and nutrition programs over the last five years.
Last Friday, Daniel Navarro, a Hallmark slaughterhouse manager, pled guilty to two counts of felony animal cruelty and two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. A co-worker, Rafael Herrera, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in the case last March. He is serving 180 days in jail and is expected to be deported to his native Mexico.
Hallmark has drawn complaints about abusive treatment of animals since at least 1996, USA TODAY reported last March. The 12-year-old allegations of downer cattle being prodded are similar to the recent ones.
Contributing: Associated Press
I had thought that "Cholent fresser" was somewhat sincere but his latest post proves he is a fraud.
He has been pasting posts from other blogs that were apparently written by operatives for Rubashkin's PR firm 5W. He does not then go on to cut & paste the rebuttals that refute them.
Rubashkin WAS fined 182k and more. While some of it is still pending, much of it was bargained down in court which is common with government penalties.
Empire poultry does not have nearly as many serious injuries as Rubashkin.
I don't feel like rebutting the other pro-Rubashkin spin from Cholent fresser. I'm sure you get the idea though.
Talmid:
I agree that 5W is a fraud. 5E got it right!
Looks like AJ Soloveitchik was right in not even taking money from Satmar. R' Dovid does take from the keren though.
Lakewood Talmid and UOJ
1)Since when does cutting and pasting constitute fraud? If that were so then almost all the bloggers here are frauds.
2)The reason I did not paste the rebuttals was simply because my cut posts about Rubahskin were posted before any rebuttals were made.
3)Would any of the anti Rubashkin cut and pasters post rebuttals to their blogs?
4)Apparently you most have access to some intelligence agency that the pro Rubashkin posts were put there by 5W,CIA,MI5,the Mosad or the NKVD? I don't have such access.
5)Why is posting a pro Rubashkin post ,either cut or my own ,make me a fraud , some kind violater of the code of ethics of UOJ and shows a lack of sincerity on my part?
6)I did not post that many posts about Rubashkin.Why don't YOU rebut them.You have the right to post your opinions here and so do I (unless UOJ deems otherwise).
These paid trolls that have infested Shmarya's blog are working overtime and they expect to hit as many blogs as possible. I wonder if they are getting paid as much as Chaim Neuhoff was paid by YTT to troll this blog two years ago.
GARNEL IRONHEART COMMENTING ABOUT AVI SHAFRAN'S RUBASHKIN ARTICLE "THE MISSING ETHIC"(THE MISSING BRAIN IS A BETTER TITLE):
I could imagine Rav Shafran working as the PR guy aboard the Titanic and sending off a little missive right after that fateful moment. Without a doubt, he would have explained that icebergs are, of course, made of ice which comes from water and everyone knows that water can’t break the skin of the Titanic! Besides, the boat is still afloat so those who are prematurely screaming out on the deck about it sinking are clearly overreacting. Maybe if there was some evidence other than the boat listing high on one side we could conclude that the ship was in trouble but surely you wouldn’t want to derive anything from such limited evidence. Now if you’ll excuse him, he has some deck chairs to go rearrange.
Comment by Garnel Ironheart — June 20, 2008 @ 9:26 am
Every person gets to SHOUT HERE AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS!
EVERY OPINION COUNTS - EVERY PERSON COUNTS - EVERY JEWISH NESHOMA COUNTS - I DON'T CARE WHAT THAT OPINION IS - YOU CAN SCREAM HERE ALL YOU WANT!
SO DO THE DISSENTING VOICES AS WELL! WE HAVE COME A VERY LONG WAY - NOTHING WILL BE KEPT IN THE CLOSET! NOTHING! THE WORLD CAN LOOK AT WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US!
EITHER WE'LL FIX OUR WAYS - OR LET THE BOAT SINK!
CUT AND PASTED FROM ANOTHERBLOG(OY VAY).I don't agree with every thing said but interesting and with no intention to insult the chosheve bloggers here.
"There was a time, not terribly long ago, when disturbed individuals bent on broadcasting angry fantasies had only soapboxes in public parks from which to rant. And respectable people knew, if only from the ranters’ appearance, to keep well out of spittle’s range. Today, though, the very means of mass communication that enables so much worthy information to reach such large numbers of people at the speed of light – the Internet – has also been harnessed to spread madness, hatred, lies and (not a word to be used lightly but here entirely appropriate) evil. And so, close on the heels of the swindlers and pornographers who have colonized so much of cyberspace, have come the gaggle of electronic soapboxes known as weblogs, or blogs."
Not directed at anyone in particular on this blog
Far be it from me here to take away a person's right to self-esteem, Hashem knows I suffer from a lack thereof, and I wouldn't wish that on any other Yid. I think being comfortable with what you do, and feeling like you're an important part of any operation is key to success. But what I've seen recently in some circles has begun to irk me, and increasingly so. I've started to see a group of mostly ordinary people, with no major inherent Mayles, who seem to think that G-d must not have created the Gan Eden that could be big enough for them. They take themselves very seriously. I speak of a certain group of Baalei Batim, Yeshivishe BaaleiBatim, to be exact, and not the ones who struggle to make a living either. They see to have the best of both worlds, they live a good life, the two cars and a manicured lawn life, and have time for G-d too. They make time for learning, yet have time for eating out and other Moysros. They lack very little; The kids have Shabbos suits, shoes, and a Borsalino on every Bar Mitzvahed head, and they daven Mincha before the Shekiah too, c"v not angering G-d by praying after the Zeman. They also don't bother with unimportant things like Chassidim do, always sticking to the basics, and never deviating from the Mesorah.
Why would I belittle those who follow the Mesorah and daven in a timely fashion? I'm not, much as you'd like me to. I also Fargin those who have the means to buy the Beste Un Di Shenste when it comes to honoring Shabbos and Yom Tov. What irks me is the love affair, the self-gratification that screams from these people, as if Beshvili Nivra Ha'Olam means that G-d created all this just so I should be rewarded for my good deeds. I always knew that we were never done working hard, and that we should never believe in ourselves, they seem to think differently.
Who is the blogger from Ohio that Tendler "outed"?
Bad News.....Good News!
---------------------------
Child rapist escapes death but not tough justice
Thu Jun 26, 12:22 AM ET
The Supreme Court's latest death penalty ruling, issued Wednesday in a child-rape case from Louisiana, reinforces two closely linked trends.
Most obviously, the ruling continues the court's steady narrowing of capital punishment's reach. Less noticed is the fact the court has done so at about the same pace that states have created an alternative that makes the death penalty pointless, along with the controversy that it generates. Life in prison without the possibility of parole, which barely existed when the court reinstated executions in 1976, is now an option in 35 of the 36 death-penalty states.
Ruling in the case of a man convicted of raping his 8-year-old stepdaughter at their home outside New Orleans, the court held that for crimes against individuals, capital punishment is for murder. Period. "The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the 5-4 majority.
The decision overturns laws in six states that permit executions for child rape. And it appropriately moves the USA a step further from an irreversible practice that has proved to be problematic, discriminatory, out of step with most of the developed world, and no more a deterrent than the prospect of being locked in a tiny cell for decades.
When the court brought back the death penalty 32 years ago, it set a standard that executions be administered evenhandedly.
Reality has turned out otherwise. The odds of receiving a death sentence are three or four times greater when the victim is white than if the victim is a minority. Defendants sometimes lack competent legal representation. Evidence can be flawed.
Worst of all is the potential for a mistaken execution. DNA testing has exonerated 16 inmates who served time on death row, according to the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that handles cases in which post-conviction DNA testing can prove innocence. Such proof, of course, is of no use to a prisoner who has been executed.
Wednesday's ruling marked the third time in six years that the Supreme Court has limited the death penalty's reach. In 2002, it banned the execution of mentally retarded defendants, and in 2005 it banned the execution of those who were younger than 18 at the time of their crimes.
This court, which upheld the use of lethal injection earlier this term, is unlikely to overturn capital punishment altogether. That leaves the U.S. in the company of China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as nations that still carry out executions. But at least the court has drawn a line at crimes that don't involve the killing of the victim.
Patrick Kennedy, 43, the child rapist in the Louisiana case, might consider Wednesday's ruling to be a victory. But assuming he is resentenced to life without parole, as he should be, he might come to regard his remaining years on earth to be a fate worse than death.
Above opinion piece was from the USA Today!
Packouz's father is a rabbi with Aish Hatorah.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/578265.html
Sat, Jun. 21, 2008
Four indicted in munitions fraud
BY JAY WEAVER
Last year, the State Department e-mailed a young Miami Beach munitions dealer, telling him that he could not sell Chinese weaponry to the U.S. government to help supply allied forces in Afghanistan.
But Efraim Diveroli, the 22-year-old president of AEY Inc., and three of his employees didn't take no for an answer, according to an indictment unsealed Friday.
Instead, authorities contend they conspired to defraud the federal government by selling it more than $10 million of Chinese-made machine-gun rounds, telling U.S. officials that the ammunition was from Albania.
Diveroli and his co-workers, who made their first appearances in federal court in Miami on Friday, even arranged to have ''Made in China'' markings removed from the wooden crates shipped to Afghanistan to conceal the origins of the weaponry, according to the indictment.
''When these contractors intentionally cut corners to line their own pockets, they risk the safety and lives of our men and women in uniform,'' U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said at a news conference Friday.
The 71-count indictment charges Diveroli, his company, and employees David Packouz, 26, of Miami, Alexander Podrizki, 26, of Miami, and Ralph Merrill, 65, of Salt Lake City, Utah, with defrauding the U.S. and other procurement offenses. Arrested on Thursday and Friday, the foursome are set for arraignment on July 9.
A lawyer for Diveroli said the government's indictment was flawed, noting that the federal regulation cited in the indictment prohibits the sale of ammunition acquired ``directly or indirectly, from a Communist Chinese military company.''
''The regulation does not prohibit an American from selling Chinese-made ammo to the U.S. Army if the ammo was acquired before the 1989 Chinese munitions embargo,'' attorney Howard Srebnick said in an e-mail.
'Mr. Diveroli did not acquire the Chinese-made ammo, `directly or indirectly,' from any Communist Chinese military company,'' Srebnick said. ``The government knows Mr. Diveroli purchased the Chinese-made ammo from the Albanian government, which had acquired the ammo back in the [1960's] and 70's, before the Chinese embargo and before Mr. Diveroli was even born.''
The improbable story of the Miami Beach munitions maverick broke in March, when the New York Times reported that he had allegedly misled the Army by saying that most of his machine-gun cartridges sold to the U.S. Army were from former Soviet-bloc countries -- not China. The munitions were for Afghan forces fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents.
In late March, the U.S. Department of Defense suspended Diveroli's $300 million military contract, which included the $10 million Chinese-made ammunition shipment. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been investigating Diveroli and his company before then, officials said.
Family members, including Diveroli's father, Michael, who said he founded AEY as a printing business in 1999, declined to comment outside the courtroom Friday.
But Diveroli's grandfather, Angelo, who lives in North Miami-Dade County, told The Miami Herald that he questioned whether the indictment was political.
''I think there's somebody behind this,'' he said.
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/may/25/0525_Foreclose/
The spread of foreclosures into suburbia could worsen this year as homeowners with good credit fall behind on mortgage payments because of inflationary pressures, especially from gasoline and food. Many prime borrowers are also expected to default on the home equity loans they mostly used to pay off credit card debt, resulting in what industry experts are calling the “alt-A mortgage crisis.”
“What you’re seeing in the suburbs is going to be the next phenomenon,” said Bob Eberle, president of the New York Real Estate Investors Association
http://www.bloggernews.net/116390
Noted evangelist minister Annis Shorrosh was arrested by Daphe Police . The reason: Just like other evangelists he too was involved in financial fraud trying to destroy evidence of his financial crime.
Daphne police have arrested an Evangelist minister for arson.
A fire alarm went off about 10:00 p.m. Tuesday at the Loma Alta Towers. A trash can in the basement of the building was on fire.
Police Chief David Carpenter tells News 5 that Dr. Anis Shorrosh used an accelerant to set the trash can on fire. Police believe he did it in an attempt to burn the building down.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/washington/24arms-subtk.html?hp
June 24, 2008
Cover-Up Is Cited on Illegal Arms
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON – A military attaché has told Congressional investigators that the American ambassador to Albania endorsed a plan by that country’s defense minister to remove evidence of illegal Chinese origins on ammunition being shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company.
The approval came in a late-night meeting between the ambassador, John L. Withers II, the Albanian defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, and their top aides just hours before a reporter for The New York Times was scheduled to visit the American contractor’s operations in Tirana, the Albanian capital, last November. The American military bought the ammunition to supply Afghan security forces, but American law prohibits trading in Chinese arms.
The attaché, Maj. Larry D. Harrison II of the Army, attended the meeting and told investigators for a House committee that Mr. Mediu voiced concerns that the reporter would reveal accusations of corruption against him. The minister said that because he had gone out of the his way to help the United States, “the U.S. owed him something,” according to Major Harrison.
When Mr. Mediu ordered the commanding general of Albania’s armed forces to remove all boxes of Chinese ammunition from a site the reporter was to visit, Major Harrison said “the Ambassador agreed that this would alleviate the suspicion of wrongdoing,” according to excerpts of a transcript of the interview investigators conducted with the attaché on June 9, and made public Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
At the time of the meeting, the company, AEY Inc., was under investigation for illegal arms trafficking involving Chinese ammunition. On Friday, the 22-year-old president of the company, Efraim E. Diveroli, and three other people were charged with selling prohibited Chinese ammunition to the Pentagon.
Major Harrison told investigators that he did not agree with the decision to hide the boxes from the reporter, and said that he felt “very uncomfortable” during the meeting. Major Harrison, who as the chief of the embassy’s office of defense cooperation was responsible for helping train and equip Albania’s military, said that his suggestion to bar the reporter from visiting the Albania base was rejected.
In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the committee’s chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat, said on Monday that there also appeared to be evidence that embassy officials in Tirana tried to cover up the November meeting once Mr. Waxman’s staff began an investigation into AEY.
A spokesman at the United States Embassy in Tirana referred all questions to Washington. A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, told reporters Monday that the department was reviewing Mr. Waxman’s letter, including Major Harrison’s statements.
"We have no information that would support the idea that U.S. officials were involved in some kind of illicit activity," Mr. Casey said. "But obviously, again, any allegations made, certainly any questions raised by the chairman, of a major committee in Congress, is something that we will be happy to look into." Mr. Casey said.
According to e-mails obtained by congressional investigators, Major Harrison urged embassy officials to inform the committee of the November 19 meeting between the ambassador and minister, but the embassy omitted any reference to the meeting in its official response to the committee’s questions.
Embassy personnel seemed sensitive to the Albanians’ alarm. The day after the November meeting, the embassy’s regional security officer, Patrick Leonard, wrote an assistant an e-mail obtained by the committee: “NY Times just arrived today and might be doing a story on this and it might get ugly. Ambassador is very concerned about the case.”
When The Times published its article on March 27, 2008, it was quickly forwarded to embassy officials. In an e-mail to several embassy officials, Mr. Leonard said that the article focused on the dealings of AEY. “No mention of Embassy involvement – thank God!” In his letter to Secretary Rice, Mr. Waxman said Major Harrison’s statements combined with the e-mail correspondence among embassy officials “raises questions about both the State Department’s role in the shipment of illegal Chinese ammunition and the candor or the Department’s response to the Committee.”
In January 2007, the Army awarded AEY a contract, potentially worth $298 million, that made it the primary munitions supplier for Afghan security forces in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
An examination by The New York Times earlier this year uncovered documents from Albania that showed that AEY bought more than 100 million Chinese cartridges that had been stored for decades in former cold war stockpiles. Mr. Diveroli then arranged to have them repacked in cardboard boxes, many of which split or decomposed after shipment to the war zones. Different lots or types of ammunition were mixed. In some cases the ammunition was dirty, corroded or covered with a film.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5228076&page=1
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants to know how deep the Diveroli cover up goes at State Dept headquarters in Washington.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5245645&page=1
June 25, 2008—
A Department of Justice official was fired yesterday after refusing to testify at a Congressional hearing regarding whether or not her office awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in grants based on political favoritism and personal connections.
Michele DeKonty, Chief of Staff for the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Administrator, cited the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and declined to appear at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing last week.
DeKonty's departure also comes on the heels of a Justice Department probe into alleged irregular contracting practices within its own ranks according to a federal law enforcement official close to the investigation.
Questions about the agency's awarding of grants were raised earlier this month by ABC News on Nightline. (click here to watch the report)
OJJDP staff members were notified of DeKonty's departure this morning in an email from the office's administrator, J. Robert Flores, who is also under investigation by the DOJ's Inspector General. That investigation probes Flores' hiring of a Honduran Colonel as a contractor on faith-based issues and his alleged golfing during conferences on taxpayer-funded business trips, according to a staff member who was contacted by the OIG.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5238922&page=1
NBC has settled a lawsuit that blamed the network for the suicide of a Texas prosecutor who was targeted in an undercover sting against alleged pedophiles as part of the Dateline: To Catch a Predator show.
The suit was brought by the sister of William Conradt Jr., an assistant district attorney in Rockland County, Texas, who shot himself in the head after a local police SWAT team, accompanied by a Dateline crew, surrounded his house and moved in to arrest him in November 2006.
The attorney for Conradt's sister, Bruce Baron, told ABCNews.com that "the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties." Patricia Conradt had initially sued for $109 million. The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0608/062408e1.htm
Army officials failed to examine (Diveroli) AEY's performance under previous Defense and State acquisitions before awarding the massive munitions contract, which may have led AEY to pass through so many loopholes.
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080624102358.pdf
Documents produced by the committee showed that well before AEY received its $300 million munitions contract, it had developed a dubious performance record for failing to deliver serviceable products and meeting deadlines.
Under one terminated agreement, an October 2005 contract to supply U.S. soldiers with helmets, the helmets arrived dented and with peeling paint. One inspector classified them as "damaged goods," and said, "We don't want them." The contracting officer on the helmet acquisition told Oversight Committee investigators of Diveroli, "I just don't trust the guy," according to the panel's report.
In another instance in late 2005, Diveroli tried to explain away his failure to deliver 10,000 Beretta pistols under an Iraqi Security Forces contract by inventing excuses about a phony plane crash, alleged interference by the German government and a nonexistent hurricane that had hit Miami.
Cmdr. Robert Brooks, the contracting officer who ultimately terminated the pistols deal, also alleged in committee interviews that AEY repeatedly used bait-and-switch tactics by replacing nonconforming products in place of those required by the contract. Brooks classified AEY's performance as "extremely poor" and went so far as to describe the company as the worst he had dealt with in all of Iraq.
Lawmakers showed little patience with department officials. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said the contract award was the result of "serious communication problems, serious incompetence, phenomenal carelessness and a culture of mediocrity." Some suggested the munitions contract might not have even been necessary because there was a handful of NATO allies willing to donate similar stockpiled weapons at no charge to the United States.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11361.html
Flood insurance woes create new mess
By KATIE HANSON - THE DAILY IOWAN | 6/26/08
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/24/eveningnews/main4206201.shtml?source=mostpop_story
(CBS) Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran's nuclear complex.
CBS consultant Michael Oren says Israel doesn't want to wait for a new administration.
"The Israelis have been assured by the Bush administration that the Bush administration will not allow Iran to nuclearize," Oren said. "Israelis are uncertain about what would be the policies of the next administration vis-à-vis Iran."
Israel's message is simple: If you don't, we will. Israel held a dress rehearsal for a strike earlier this month, but military analysts say Israel can not do it alone.
"Keep in mind that Israel does not have strategic bombers," Oren said. "The Israeli Air Force is not the American Air Force. Israel can not eliminate Iran's nuclear program."
The U.S. with its stealth bombers and cruise missiles has a much greater capability. Vice President Cheney is said to favor a strike, but both Mullen and Defense Secretary Gates are opposed to an attack which could touch off a third war in the region.
U.S. intelligence estimates Iran won't be able to build a weapon until sometime early in the next decade. But Israel is operating on a much shorter timetable.
"The Iranians, according to Israeli security sources, will have an operable nuclear weapon by 2009. That's not a very long time," Oren said.
For now, the Bush administration is counting on new economic sanctions which took effect Tuesday to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear program. But nobody's counting on it.
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; Page A06
AEY Inc., the company run by a 22-year-old Miami Beach arms dealer who was indicted last week for conspiring to defraud the government on a $298 million Pentagon contract in 2007, was on a State Department watch list for suspicious international dealings the year before that contract was awarded, according to testimony before Congress yesterday.
Both AEY and its president, Efraim E. Diveroli, were listed because they had been under investigation since July 2005 because of suspicion of "numerous violations of the Arms Export Control Act and contract fraud," according to a report released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at yesterday's hearing.
But Defense Department contracting officials were not aware of the listing because the two agencies did not regularly share such data, according to defense and State Department officials who appeared at the hearing.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121435075603401563.html
THE TILTING YARD
By THOMAS FRANK
June 25, 2008; Page A13
I wonder if, back in the rosy-fingered dawn of our conservative era, all those Adam Smith-tied evangelists of "limited government" had any idea that they were greasing the skids for a character like 22-year-old arms dealer Efraim Diveroli?
Mr. Diveroli, whose tousled, slightly confused visage recalls the perpetually stoned Jeff Spicoli from the 1982 film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," was the improbable recipient of a 2007 government contract to supply ammunition to our allies in Afghanistan.
The trouble was the munitions he sold were, like, seriously bogus. Old and partially defective, the stuff apparently originated in China, which is a Pentagon no-no. Mr. Diveroli was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida on Friday on numerous counts, including allegedly attempting to defraud the government.
How could a kid barely able to buy beer secure a nearly $300 million defense contract? It will be interesting to find out. Maybe Mr. Diveroli's story will be the one that finally fixes public attention on the carnival of fraud, waste and profiteering that characterizes our system of government-by-contractor. Maybe it will finally persuade us to ask our politicians why it is that they hire Blackwater to do the job of the Marines and pay Kellogg Brown and Root to arrange the logistics for the Army wherever it goes.
And maybe it will finally call into question one of the greatest shibboleths of conservative governance. Although contracting-out has been celebrated by big thinkers from both parties and although it has been practiced in some form or other since the earliest days of the republic, an ideological commitment to outsourcing is one of the signatures of conservative rule.
One fact about government outsourcing is settled: It sure doesn't save money. A Washington Post reporter who scrutinized Katrina reconstruction contracts in 2006 found that "the difference between the job's actual price and the fee charged to taxpayers ranged from 40 percent to as high as 1,700 percent." To cover damaged roofs with tarps, certain contractors billed the government $1.50 per square foot of roof covered; some of the people who actually did the work got under 10 cents per square foot. Guess who kept the difference.
Privatization also constitutes a fundamental change in the constituency to which government answers. Journalist Tim Weiner estimates that, by 2006, about half of the people working for the CIA in Iraq and the National Counterterrorism Center were contractors, former CIA personnel accountable not to the American public but to their employers. "The spectacle of jumping ship in the middle of a war to make a killing was unremarkable in twenty-first century Washington," he writes in his book, "Legacy of Ashes." Among the CIA's new hires, he reported, the saying is, "Get in, get out, get paid."
The days when conservatives railed against red tape and shrieked for efficiency in Washington now seem like a lifetime ago. When they finally got the opportunity to put their theory into practice, conservatives contrived instead one of the most wasteful systems ever seen.
Why should I comment either? Just because Diveroli went to Pirchei a few times when he was a little kid?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/582009.html
Waxman said Diveroli was invited to testify before the committee but declined through an attorney, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/blog-blake-6-24e
The Pentagon found earlier this year that AEY had sent crates of rifle cartridges to Afghanistan that had "disintegrated from extensive termite damage." Some of the ammunition was more than 60 years old. Asked by the Pentagon what happened, an unidentified AEY official admitted that he had delivered "shit ammo" to Afghanistan security forces.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/NEWS03/806240384/-1/SPORTS
A countywide investigation into welfare fraud produced the arrests of 43 people accused of stealing more than $318,000 from various public assistance programs since 2004, Rockland authorities said yesterday.
People who knowingly stole from public assistance programs can turn themselves in to Social Services by Oct. 1. Those who admit stealing by the deadline will avoid prosecution if they pay restitution. In an effort to spread the amnesty message, the county will post fliers in several languages, such as English, Creole, Spanish and Yiddish.
One arrest caused an uproar last week. Shifra Cohen, 24, of Grove Street, Monsey, complained that a Ramapo police officer ordered her to remove her wig for a mug shot and a female officer was not called to fingerprint Cohen when her arrest was processed Thursday. She was arrested by the District Attorney's Office but processed by a Ramapo police officer.
Some Hasidic community leaders complained to Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence about the woman's treatment, even threatening to protest at the police station. The District Attorney's Office also got calls from the community leaders about the arrests.
St. Lawrence said the police officer who processed Cohen's arrest was insensitive to her religious needs, and the supervisor apologized to the Hasidic community. Cohen and her husband, Joseph, 33, of Grove Street were charged with third-degree welfare fraud relating to the alleged theft of $8,485, authorities said.
Some of those arrested
Third-degree welfare fraud
- Bryanne Adler, 24, of 43 Green Ave., Valley Cottage: $5,777.50
- Jason Adler, 30, of 43 Green Ave., Valley Cottage: $5,777.50
- Sheila Brooks, 42, of 23 Karnell St., Spring Valley: $7,247
- Leon Brooks, 42, of 23 Karnell St., Spring Valley: $7,247
- Joseph Cohen, 33, of 9 Grove St., Monsey: $8,485.79
- Shifra Cohen, 24, of 9 Grove St., Monsey: $8,485.79
- Shaul Fliegman, 32, of 6 Kings Court, Airmont: $18,468.43
- Sheindle Fliegman, 30, of 6 Kings Court, Airmont: $18,468.43
- Yisroel Rosenberg, 31, of 27 Echo Ridge Road, Airmont: $11,430.37
- Sima Rosenberg, 30, of 27 Echo Ridge Road, Airmont: $11,430.37
: $4,137.94
Fourth-degree welfare fraud
- Lara Liberstein, 26, of 61 Eagle Ridge Way, Nanuet: $2,203.40
Amnesty program
Anyone who has illegally obtained money and benefits from public assistance programs through the Rockland Department of Social Services can avoid prosecution by giving themselves up before Oct. 1. Recipients would have to repay the money stolen within a year. If payment is not made within a year, the Rockland Department of Social Services will file a judgment to be reimbursed and charge 9 percent interest on the stolen money.
Welfare fraud can bring a prison sentence of up to seven years.
To take part in the program, call 845-364-3200.
http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080626/NEWS03/806260495/1028/NEWS12
June 26, 2008
Court of Appeals dismisses rabbi-seduction lawsuit
Steve Lieberman
The Journal News
New York's top appeals court yesterday dismissed a civil lawsuit accusing a Ramapo rabbi of convincing a woman that she must have sex with him in order to find a husband and have children.
Adina Marmelstein of Manhattan claimed Rabbi Mordecai Tendler seduced her into a 3 1/2 -year sexual relationship from November 2001 to May 2005.
Tendler, 53, a married father with eight children, has denied having had any sexual relationship with Marmelstein, who once attended his Kehillat New Hempstead synagogue on Union Road.
Marmelstein's lawsuit accused Tendler of breach of fiduciary duty and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Her lawyers argued that because Tendler was a rabbi, he was in a position of power over Marmelstein, and that separated their relationship from a mere affair.
Tendler's lawyers argued her lawsuit should be dismissed based on the issue of seduction having been abolished in 1935 as a legal claim in New York to seek monetary damages.
The state Court of Appeals, after hearing arguments earlier this month, yesterday tossed Marmelstein's lawsuit, upholding an Appellate Division decision.
The seven justices on the high court ruled that even if her claims of an affair with Tendler were true, Marmelstein voluntarily had an intimate relationship with the rabbi because "she subjectively believed that the (sex) 'therapy' he suggested would help her find a husband."
The justices ruled that "no cause of action can be maintained for an extended voluntary affair between consenting adults."
Marmelstein claimed that Tendler told her if she wanted a husband and children, her only hope was to have sex with him. His true motivation, she claimed, was his personal pleasure.
The jurists found that "Marmelstein has shown only that she was deceived by Tender, not that she was so vulnerable as to surrender her will and capacity to determine her own best interests."
One of Tendler's lawyers, Glenn Feinberg of Manhattan, said yesterday that the courts have vindicated the rabbi.
"The rabbi has said from the very start of this that this case has absolutely no merit," Feinberg said.
"It's over," he said. "The case has been dismissed by the highest court."
Marmelstein's lawyer, Lenore Kramer of Manhattan, said the legal fight had not necessarily ended. Kramer said she would talk with Marmelstein about options.
"I am disappointed and I am somewhat surprised because of the way the arguments went," Kramer said, adding she had been hopeful for a decision in her favor after oral arguments.
Kramer said the Court of Appeals missed a chance to send a strong message with this case.
"It's a conservative court," Kramer said. "They are reticent to expand avenues of tort law. This was an opportunity to hold clergy who prey upon their congregants responsible."
Tendler is the son and grandson of two modern Orthodox Jewish rabbis. His father is Dovid Moses Tendler of Community Synagogue of Monsey, and his grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, was an authority on Jewish law.
Mordacai Tendler became a well-known advocate of women's rights and counselor to Orthodox women seeking religious divorces.
Marmelstein, 43, first met Tendler in 1994 and began attending services at the Union Road synagogue in 1996. He began counseling her on family issues in 2001, when she claims the rabbi talked her into having sex with him.
In the lawsuit, Marmelstein claims Tendler told her that "he 'was as close to God as anyone could get,' that he 'talks to God all the time' and that he was in fact, 'the Messiah.' "
Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon on June 20, 2006, dismissed Marmelstein's claims of fraud and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The judge denied Tendler's motion to dismiss her claims for breach of fiduciary duty and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The Appellate Division later ruled 3-2 that Marmelstein's "thinly veiled claims of seduction" against Tendler are prohibited by civil rights law, and therefore she has no grounds to sue him.
The decision led to the showdown before the Court of Appeals.
Marmelstein's lawsuit and other accusations of womanizing led Kehillat New Hempstead's board of directors to oust Tendler as the congregation's leader.
The decision set off a series of legal battles in secular and religious courts.
On June 3, Tendler won an Appellate Division decision stating he was improperly dismissed as a rabbi. He can seek monetary damages for breach of his lifetime contract in court, Feinberg said.
The controversy surrounding Tendler became public in 2005 when the Rabbinical Council of America expelled him from its ranks of Orthodox Jewish rabbis.
Cholent Fresser is being dishonest. The rebuttals on other blogs WERE posted before he did his pro-Rubashkin cut & paste job.
The paid trolls are on Shmarya's blog but they are making a bigger impact in the comments section of the JTA and various newspapers. This is especially true when there is a registration process required. Lubinsky's & Engelmayer's boys are getting paid and have all the time in the world.
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