Chanukah 2008
[In Part]
....HELLENISTS IN OUR DAY
We have to be ever vigilant, for if we falter, the forces of Hellenism are waiting around the corner to ambush us. As soon as they sense us turning our eyes from the goal, they pounce upon us with cleverly worded propaganda to curtail our hallowed religious practices.
We live in an age when talk is cheap and positive actions are few and far between. People speak strongly, often with little thought or intelligence, but are very slow to act. Leadership is seriously lacking and too many positions of leadership are occupied by people who don't possess the ability to rally people and join them effectively for good causes.
In today's day and age, Yevanim hide behind the power of the pen, the web, blogs and populist demagoguery to attack us. Misyavnim offer wild accusations to back up their unfounded charges. They spare no effort to vilify and castigate us, as if they were paragons of virtue. The more growth our community experiences, the more scorn the misyavnim heap upon us.
It is interesting to note that no one has analyzed the religiosity of Bernard Madoff in an attempt to smear all who serve G-d as he does, or doesn't.
Just imagine if it was a chassidishe Yid or a Lakewood resident who had robbed good people, charities and banks of billions of dollars. There isn't enough newsprint available or gigabytes of memory to contain the invective that would be flowing in our direction, vilifying every frum Yid and blaming one man?s thievery on our way of life and value system.
But since he wasn't on the board of black hat yeshivos, and he mostly robbed the endowment funds of more enlightened charities, nobody dares insinuate that the hedonistic life he led and enabled had anything to do with the evil that lurked inside of the heart of that man.
It is high time we rose up and said that we're not going to take this anymore. Our community is blessed with able rabbinic leadership, devoted askonim, capable lawyers, public relation experts and lobbying groups. We ought to stand up to them and engage in a campaign to end the vilification and constant disparaging of our holy traditions.
The menorah and the Yom Tov of Chanukah remind us that we should not hesitate to defend Torah and mitzvos. The lights of the menorah proclaim to us to seek out the people who carry the flag of Torah and the Matisyahu ben Yochanan Kohein Gadols of our day and rally around them. As we light the menorah, we should remember the words of the Rambam that, in our day, every person who devotes his life to Torah is a ben Levi. We are all bnei Levi.
We should resolve to use our abilities to spread goodness and kindness in this world. We should seek to inject greater purpose in our lives. Instead of just sitting back and criticizing others, we should leave the comforts of our coffee rooms to join together and mightily wave the flag of truth and justice where it counts. We should be prepared to forsake some of our physical comforts and put ourselves on the line for the values we believe in and that matter.
When the call of Mi laHashem eilay goes out, we must all answer.
Whether the call is directed at our wallets, our minds, our time or our physical attendance, we must always be prepared to answer, Hineini. I have heard, I have prepared myself, I am ready to carry the banner of the bnei Levi.
The Gemara, in answer to the question of Mai Chanukah, states that the miracle of the pach shemen is to remind us that though we may view ourselves as being but a small pach shemen, a tiny vessel of limited value, if we commit ourselves to the service of G-d with the self-sacrifice of Matisyahu and the bnei Levi, the light of our lives can be enduring and everlasting.
*
Dear Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz,
I will reprint a post that I had previously written in 2006, somewhat modified, in response to your terribly misguided and confused rant.
The pain that all thinking people feel as well as the outrage, is expressed by myself and thousands of readers of this blog. Going through literally some one thousand plus comments and e-mails per week, I am able to read and put up only a fraction of the comments and read only some of the e-mails. The masses of thinking ehrliche Yiden are incensed and want change --- now!
I am guilty... Guilty of letting it take years for me to transform, for maximum attention on the Internet, my mild-mannered personality into the "wild-man" UOJ. I'm watching this Jim Jones-like behavior (1000 people took their lives in Guyana because their leader told them to) for years, while trying gently to make a difference by attending board meetings, writing essays under pseudonyms, donating large sums of money through intermediaries, all with the proper intent to get a system in the yeshivas and Rabbanut that is guided by the beauty of our Torah.
Not a system governed by individual needs, not beautiful edifices, not ostentatious dinners and conventions, simply a system run by yirei Hashem with no other interest than the needs of the Klal first, foremost and only!
Instead, we have a system that is corrupt from the mail-room person up to the decision-makers, and everyone in between. How did we get here? Where did this disease of abuse of power and utter corruption come from? Are we students of our holy Torah or are we just a bunch of people dressed in dark clothing, hats, wigs, and tzitzis? (some fools wear more than one pair at a time)
The answer my friend, is the pass we gave to our rabbis, that are no more than mortal humans.
They have the same temptations that all of us have, and many of them, not all, fall victim to the really ugly side of humanity. They steal, they lie, they abuse, they mislead, they cheat, they are corrupt. You know why? There is no system of checks and balances that all humanity requires. They are the rabbis/gedolim...who is going to keep them in check?
We have erred. We have turned our rabbis into gods...they are not, not at all. They are influenced and corrupted by money and power just as we are. We are scrutinized by our peers, they get a pass.
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
Therefore the trembling anger I have displayed towards R' Elchonon Wasserman. He was a Torah giant; but he was not God, just a mere human, fallible just like any other human. Was he brilliant in Torah? Absolutely! Therefore what exactly? A student(s) wants to escape the Nazis...and he writes him back to stay put? Pikuach nefesh replaces a personal theory or opinion that "Y.U.", R' Yitzckok Elchonon in those days, was more dangerous to his talmidim than Hitler? Yeshiva Torah Vodaath obtains hundreds of visas for his talmidim and he tells them NO THANKS!? Torah Vodaath was good enough for his son R' Simcha Wasserman, R' Yaakov Kaminetzky, R' Shlomo Heiman, R' Reuvain Grozovsky.... but NOT for his talmidim and the Yiden of Baronovich?
HE NEVER TOLD THEM OR ANYONE THAT TORAH VODAATH WAS BEGGING TO TAKE THEM ALL IN!
I was sitting at the hospital bed years ago of a true "tzaddik gamur"; he was nebach at the end of his life. He was at one of the meetings where his family hosted a reception to honor R' Elchonon in the late 1930's. I was holding his frail, cold and trembling hand, as he described to me what transpired after that meeting. The host and the hostess threw themselves at the feet of R' Elchonon in the living room, sobbing uncontrollably; pleading with him NOT to go back to Europe, and to bring his talmidim to the United States, Torah Vodaath would take all of them in.
R' Elchonon was trance-like...he wouldn't budge. "HE KNEW WHAT HASHEM WANTED!" He in fact played God, hundreds if not thousands died against the wishes of Hashem and His Torah, which commanded us to violate Yom Kippur, Shabbos, Kashrut...do everything one must do to save a single life!
So generations of Yiden gone, along with millions of mitzvas and acts of chesed that could have been performed, untold thousands of kinderlach singing modeh ani l'fanecha - gone...! What Art Scroll will NOT tell you, is that Rav Yitzchok Sheiner shlita, the present rosh hayeshiva of Kaminetz in Israel, was a talmid of Y.U. at that time. Not too shabby a black hatter I might comment. He was right up there on the infamous list of people banning Nosson Slifkin's works. {He admitted to me that he would have done it differently - in hindsight}
Wherever I travel around the globe, when the topic of the War and Torah Vodaath comes up (among religious Jews), everyone I meet knows someone or had a family member that had a student visa from Torah Vodaath. WHY NOT THE THE JEWS OF BARONOVICH?
So my passion is, in my opinion, well-founded, rooted in common sense, discovered truths, and Torah inspired fact. No chassidic rebbe or any rabbi has godly powers, they are mere mortals.
Remember we are Jews NOT Christians; there are NO intermediaries in our religion. WE have a direct line to God, not one bit less than a person who is wearing eighty pairs of tzitzis, fur hats, round hats, square hats, velvet ones, silk jackets, white kabbalah coats or any of the cult-like dress that we have succumbed to like children lost in a store full of toys and costumes.
We have let the Pied-Pipers flute us into a generation of meaningless rituals and chumras that are nothing more than the works of dangerous and foolish power grabbers.
Some rabbis do this intentionally, and some are led to this madness by a circle of their leidegayers; people who are human parasites, eating off the flesh of the naive and trusting. When I met with R' Shteinman shlita, to find out that he knew nothing of a virus called herpes, only for him to categorize the New York Department of Health as Goyim out to destroy Judaism (for their findings that a particular mohel, Yitzchok Fisher, was responsible for illness and death spreading herpes by way of metziza b'peh), I knew this gedolim thing has to go.
When R' Shmuel Kaminetzky responded in the Kolko matter, that we MUST assume Kolko did t'shuva if a recent victim, that was not victimized in the last few months, did NOT come forward, I knew that it was a mitzva to come out with the heavy artillery; lawsuits, secular media, private investigators, the D.A....and anything else I could think of to bring to light the cesspool of leaders that we have selected to guide us through these difficult times. When Aaron Twerski disgraces the very essence of our intellect by calling Lipa Margulies an honorable man, there is no stopping me!
So I am upset to the point of being a "crazy person" and every other adjective my detractors can think of. But my accounting will be given to Hashem, not some earthly human; and whenever that day comes, I will go proudly, knowing full well my intentions were pure; no money, plaques, chicken dinners, or any other fleeting reward. I would not want to sully any s'char that I may or may not receive from my Creator.
There will be more...much, much more; this Thursday [July 2006] I will go public with the next yeshiva cover-up and their in-house molester {Ner Israel-Baltimore.} I will not stop until we have an abuse-free yeshiva system and that includes their enablers. I will not give up the milchemet mitzva, until I am able to affect and realize, to the best of my abilities, "v'hashev lev avos al banim, v'lev banim al avosam."
Two years ago I was labelled a "Maskil", now I'm a "Misyaven" --- that's OK, actually my grandfather was called these exact names, it did not deter him nor was he intimidated, and it will not deter me, never!
I will let God judge me on my intent, my love for Klal Yisroel, my fervent passion in attempting to change a system that is broken, and the way I facilitate that change [when all else failed]; after all, I am human and have shortcomings.
I'm willing to take that chance.
Sincerely,
UOJ
143 comments:
Who the hell are you to judge R' Elchonon? He forgot more Torah than you know. So he didn't want Jews to come here because he saw the enviornment in America as being dangerous spiritually. Obviously, he (as well as 99% of the Jewish leadership) did not believe Hitler would do what he did. Of course, with your perfect 20/20 hindsight, you have the balls to judge him.
As low Klass the Jewish Press might be, at least they are willing to touch the topic of abuse of all types. They dedicated the middle section just to the issue of abuse, even if they happen to be off at times, at least they try. Although they have Mr. Shvindler Tanenbaum, at least he valued Kashrus enough to rip the glatt kosher v'yosher Moish Finkel when he fooled the world with his religious masquerade.
Mr. Spineless Pinny with his Daas Torah paper has made a mockery of our religion in its entirety. Every lowlife, piece of garbage being written about on UOJ has his picture in that week's Yated, and identified as an askan of note. Pinny has failed to discuss the dirty word A-B-U-S-E of any type in his holy paper. Beating the stuffings out of kids isn't abuse important enough to mention, molestation is a simply fabricated story to destroy our religion made up by some apikorsim, and rebbeim can do as they please to their students because they have Daas Torah. Kosher isn't important especially when Moish Finkel had Pinny's daddy as his mashgiach for five years.
Who is causing Jews to jump ship UOJ or Yated? Who is more concerned with Yevonim values of cash UOJ or Yated? Who is fighting to end abuse and kosher fraud UOJ or Yated?
Pinny think long and hard. Because when you go down you'll have plenty of time to think, while we sing as the Yated falls.
Happy Chanukah Pinny a.k.a. Mr. Misyaven!
on thursday the maggid lied
a happy chanuka to all
pesach krohn spoke in north miami beach ata kollel function
he then called a gentleman in the audience a tzaddik gomer for his work in kiruv
never checking out a story that this tzaddik is divireced for knocking up a secretary and other behavioral patterns
i guess we should all strive to be tzaddikim
he was pressed by people on the abuse issue and all he wouldd say is that he will not defend his brother in law
krohn hates yeshivaleit as much as uoj does...
presidential molester cleared by lakewoods vaad linyanei molestation uchidoime.
I believe the rabbi of "sons of israel" who has ties to some of these orgonazations UOJ champions is on that vaad.
Any compensation forthcoming from the yeshivas, Torah Umesorah, the Agudath Israel, the OU for their victims?
*
Chinese dairies to compensate melamine victims
Saturday December 27, 2008
Chinese dairy companies that sold milk tainted with melamine ready to compensate victims
BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese dairy companies that sold melamine-tainted milk are ready to pay compensation to the families of the nearly 300,000 children who became ill or died from drinking contaminated infant formula, a state news agency reported Saturday.
Twenty-two dairy producers will make a one-time cash payment to the victims' families, China's Dairy Industry Association announced, although it did not disclose an amount, the official Xinhua News agency said.
"The money for compensation is in place now and will soon be handed to the people who have custody of the sickened children through various channels," the association said. The group did not specify a date.
In one of the worst food-safety scandals ever to hit China, at least six babies died and some 294,000 other children suffered kidney and urinary problems from drinking formula contaminated with the industrial chemical.
The issue of compensation for the young victims has been a highly sensitive one, with Chinese courts so far not accepting any lawsuits filed by the families.
The crisis highlighted a widespread practice among dairy suppliers who watered down the milk they bought from farmers and then added melamine to it to artificially boost its protein levels. The tainted milk was then sold to dairy companies.
The report did not name specific companies involved, but some of China's largest dairy producers including Sanlu Group, Mengniu Dairy, Bright Dairy and Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial group, have been implicated.
"The enterprises offered to shoulder the compensation liability. By doing so, they hope to earn understanding and forgiveness of the families of the sickened children," the association said.
Sanlu, which was at heart of the scandal, was declared bankrupt in recent days with a reported 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) of net debt.
The association also said that the 22 companies have set up an extra fund to cover medical bills for future health problems, according to Xinhua.
"If the babies suffer from relative aftereffects, all medical fees will be covered by the fund," the association said.
As of late November, 861 babies remained in the hospital, Xinhua said.
On Friday, the first trials associated with the scandal opened. Six men, including the owner of a workshop that was allegedly the country's largest source of melamine, appeared at four different courts, where they are accused of producing and selling melamine.
Sanlu's chairwoman and general manager, Tian Wenhua, will go to trial Wednesday.
http://variationsonatheme.typepad.com/
Pinny Lipschutz's father was mashgiach for Moish Finkel / Shevach?
Vos zogt der fetter R' Elya?
Although I don't usually frequent his blog, this quote from DovBear is right on target:
Yated Ne'eman's web site boasts that it's "a window into the chareidi world." Yated's web site is as much a window into the chareidi world as the PR department is a window into a corporation's world. You can get some info from them, but only as the company/community wants to be seen, not as it really is. A truer online window into the community is its blogs. Instead of press releases, blogs are more like sitting in the company's cafeteria, hearing what the employees are talking about. You get a much richer and more realistic view, something Yated can't countenance.
r' elchonon did not know what would happen
but he was awaur of the gemmarah
גדול המחטיא יותר מן ההורגו
so please leave r' elchonon alone
HE HAD SEYADA DESHMAYOH TO MAKE THE DECITION HE MADE
U ARE INESENSE QUESTIONING G-D
It's time tzu machen choizek fun ganovim und andere mushchasim. Not like the Yated middle pages.
"so please leave r' elchonon alone
HE HAD SEYADA DESHMAYOH TO MAKE THE DECITION HE MADE
U ARE INESENSE QUESTIONING G-D"
So tell me why this statement is not worse then Cunins statement "Der Rebbi firt der velt".
The man is actualliy equating Reb Elchonon to G-d.
If a Chabadnick would say the same he would be drawn and quartered on this blog and all the others.
Although I respect UOJ for his many accomplishments, I feel that his analysis of Reb Elchonon's refusal to allow his students to emigrate lacks sophistication, and is far too simplistic. As a blog comment is not really the place for anything lengthy, I would put it this way : Reb Elchonon was the product of a system. In many ways, he epitomized the system - his entire intellectual development was achieved through a rigid adherence to the system. He was not a creative, free spirit, let's think out of the box type of person. His personality, as reflected in his writing, was very much driven by the pure application of the yeshiva thought system that he embodied. The point is that it was the system, not Reb Elchonon, that failed. Who can imagine his thoughts as the people cried and begged him to save his yeshiva? Who knows what conflicts raged in his soul? But the iron control of his training won out - and he and his students went to their deaths. UOJ, you need to get off this phobia of yours regarding Reb Elchonon. He didn't mean to play God, it wasn't an ego thing - it was just an inability to rise to the needs of the hour, and that inability itself was rooted in an archaic thought system that in many ways still operates, and still holds us back today.
arthur is a shmuck if he can't tell the dif btwn "siyata dishmaya" and "feering di velt". I'll translate for u, its the difference btwn having "heavanly ASSISTANCE" and "RUNNING the world", putz.
"U ARE INESENSE QUESTIONING G-D"
First of all you wanna make a point try to do so without using nivel peh.The fact that you have to resort to such language shows your insecurity in your premise.
Second of all what the above statement is implying is that every Godol,imagined or real, is infallible,a concept alien to yiddishkeit.
As a Lubavitcher Chosid I can assure you that if I were to claim that if you attack the Lubavitcher Rebbi you are attacking G-d I would be attacked by every every "yeshiveshe Ben Torah" as being an ovaid avodeh zoreh.Where is the deviding line beetween reality and wishful thinking?
I am in no way trieng to denigrate the greatness of Reb Elchonon.My question is, does the above premise of "siyate dishmaye" apply to every shmendrik rosh Yishiva,Rebbe, posek and on and on?Why are some gedolim granted infallibility bcause of"seyate dishmaye" and others not?Who makes these decisions?
As I assume you consider yourself a "ben Torah" may I humbly suggest that you refrain from using the type of gutter language in the future and if in your sublime wisdom you have the ability to answer my above questions plese do so in a mentchliche manner.
As a take off from Rabbi Levi Brackman. We will have a new feature called "Name That Scandal" where all Pinny's noted askanim written about and pictures in the middle section, Lakewood Pages, and Fruits of the Plain sections will be identified by their respective scandals. It is up to the astute readership of UOJ to Name the Scandal their involved in. This way maybe the scummy askanim and rabbonim will be less interested in the featured publicity. This will hopefully get Pinny to stop perverting our religion with his rag paper.
The Yated shouldn't be the brochure for the "American Jewish Idol".
Were R' Ahron Soloveichik and R' Joseph Ber Soloveitchik running institutions that were places of such dire spiritual danger so great that it would be better to risk death than to be in their batei midrash?
It's interesting that in Parshat Re'eh on the navi hasheker, on the one whose prophecy is accurate but he uses it to turn the people away from Hashem's way, it says explicitly יומת but in Shoftim, about the navi whose prophecy doesn't pan out, the pasuk doesn't say anything explicit about his fate; here Rashi says והרוג אותו
It's a pity that chabadsker intellectuals cannot differentiate between statements like "syatah dishmayoh" to let G-D LEAD AND RUN THE WORLD and saying "rebbe runs the world". With all their deep philosophy they cannot make simple distinctions in distinct statements.
OUJ, Even if you think you are entitled to offer a criticism of the sort you are espousing, you may do with a bit of humility, sensitivity, and respect for the people of whom you criticize. In addition, these issues do not have one gadol to be blamed. There were many gedolim ,ry, rebes from *all* (no one brand is immune) stripes who held the same idea a REW. A little more respect and dignity when criticizing them, and please do not lay blame on one single segment of leaders of klal yisroel in such a bizayon'dike fashion. Find some words and phraseology that makes your point while keeping the respect for those whom you criticize and do not lay blame at one or another as if they are the sole fault for the loss of lives of the unfortunate left behind as there are multifaceted factors that involved the tragic loss of klal yisroel.
I'm against gutter language of any kind.
Neuhoff, you FRAUD!
Your Tuvya's Blog was FULL of GUTTER language.
After your buddy Gil Student came under criticism for befriending a LOSER who allows all kinds of nivul peh, you finally did some editing to remove it.
(some fools wear more than one pair at a time)
Yea, I know someone like that.
I'm terribly sorry rabbosai, there's just no nice way of saying that R' Elchonon (Satmar Rebbe, Belzer Rebbe - ran to Israel in middle of the night........)were responsible for the destruction of generations of Jews.
Excuse me rabboisai.
I am a Yeshiva University graduate. I am the uncle of Pinny Lipschutz. I am the only navi you can rely on nowadays.
All the shmutz on Rav Elchonon is why my chaver Rav Ephraim Wachsman reminded everyone at the UOJ-Agudah conevntion that only nowaday rabbonim are to be listened to, not the relics from the past.
Leizerowitz Bulletin....
Rumor has it that, leizerowitz is in possesion of a letter sent to him by the victim that came forward in 2006, causing him to flee like a dog to israel.
The source I have told me, that the boy asked leizerowitz for forgivness and claims the allegations are not true, and the only reason why he did it was b/c his mother forced him to make these claims, the story is that leizerowitz forgave him & told him he has to ask mechilla of his family members as well.
Let me make this clear to everyone, the gerer mafia is working overtime, this boy is nearing shidduch age and is afraid he might not meet his basherta with all he has been through, if such a letter exist, then it was forced upon the boy in order to try and clear up the mashgiachs name.
My source also told me that the gerrorists have the letter in an e-mail, & their working on getting it posted on the major yiddesh blogs(vin-ywn), so if you see such a letter, you should know its pure bulls**t, for I have in my possesion a list of 14 victims of the mashgiach leizerowitz, with a 20 year timeline from the oldest to the youngest, whom all confided to me the similar types of molestation by this pervert.
so all of you bear in mind "what looks like s**t, & smells like s**t, probably is S**T!!!
Uoj, I would like to hear your take on the gerer rebbi, the IMRI EMES.
UOJ,
I'm terribly sorry rabbosai, there's just no nice way of saying that R' Elchonon (Satmar Rebbe, Belzer Rebbe - ran to Israel in middle of the night........)were responsible for the destruction of generations of Jews.
You're right there is no nice way to say anything that's not nice or even denigrating. When it comes to gedolim or our Avos we tend to forget how harshly Hashem treated them and how exacting Hashem was with them. The bigger the person the more expected from them and that unfortunately leads some to hold them to a standard of baal mofes or baal nissim. There is a book out about the Rebbes who escaped to Israel before the Nazi's (yimach shemom) caught them. We who weren't in the middle of this human conflagration and who get caught up in the height of the pedestals that we put people on should give themselves time to put themselves in these circumstance. It's an intellectual exercise and I would be the first to say rife for dishonesty. Hashem created the world and set it's course. Boruch Adler says as much in his book Foundations in sefer Devorim. It's a thought; Hashem created these events and He watches them unfold with the expectation that these events will move us to change. We have the power to change ourselves and by doing so mitigate the events that will play out only in terms of our reactions (my words not Rav Adlers'). I make it a point to include this in all my responses here; Pogo's dictum - I've seen the enemy and he is us. The mirror in the hall or in the beis kis gives you all the fighting spirit you need to change yourself and hence the world's view of yourself. The world is set. Hashem's plan gets played out and goes according to His will. After 120 we get a glimpse of the plan; and then challilah, get sent back here. Shlomo Carlebach (the singer) once stated in a prelude to a song, if the gedolim look ugly, it's because you're ugly. Check the mirror before you go out.
I heard firsthand from Belzer and Satmar Chassidim that the rebbes promised nothing would happen to their flock. I did not hear firsthand from any Ger chassid - but heard from Survivors that heard from Survivors that until 1940 - when the Imrei Emes fled Poland to Israel,(with a few sons) he "predicted" the Ger chassidim would be safe.
The reasons I even go here is ONLY to attempt to knock sense to the klal's head - these guys were dead wrong - and ran like hell to save themselves while their trusting chassidim got slaughtered.
Use your heads and think for yourselves - nobody else gives a damn!
Leizerowitz is the bastard he has been accused of being. Ask the poor souls suffering in every town ger has a presence. He has left a trail of victims that amount to the dozens. That is only what is known. Statistics of victims remaining anonymous suggest he may of created hundreds of victims. This menuval is posturing now to make a surprise appearance back in the states at the wedding of a supporters daughter. If it comes to that you will read here first the connection the bal simcha had with another well known child rapist. Stay tuned.
UOJ,
Since this seems to be the elephant in the room, and no one else has asked, I was wondering if you would share with us the reason why you have finally decided to reveal your identity.
Thanks!
A mailing with awful spelling is going out these days to the jewish communities. It is essentialy an organization with a name very similar to another famous charity. They tout a letter by r' elye fisher of the boro park gerrer kollel - who gained notoriety when he covered for both leizerowitz and mondrowitz. the organization run claims to help those in isreal in need of psychological help and shalom bayis. My question is, why has ger not setup a similar fund to help those hurting from the MASGIACH and the DOKTOR?
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a14398/News/New_York.html
Charities On Hot Seat From Potential Donors
Jewish philanthropy watcher Gary Tobin: “Does any donor need more excuses not to give.”
A prominent Jewish activist in Washington described his own Madoff-related rebellion. While writing end-of-year charity checks last week, this activist decided to withhold his customary $1000 contribution to the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Washington. The reason: the group revealed it had lost at least $10 million in the Madoff collapse.
UOJ,
Since this seems to be the elephant in the room, and no one else has asked, I was wondering if you would share with us the reason why you have finally decided to reveal your identity.
Thanks!
-----
It will become clear in the months ahead!
beleiving that a REW was divinely inspired and thus his actions are the will of the one above and stating that questioning his actions is INASENSE questioning g-d is not the same as saying he runs the world. So, is okay if I belittle ur intelligence now, Arthur?
UOJ,
Your posting at 2:06 leads to a question that has been bothering me. As long as Hashem has removed his presence from the world and has removed prophecy from the world and has removed all direct connections to him (Urim VeTumim), why would we believe, unconditionally, in any other man? I know emunas chochomim. But that concept does not imply, nor does chochma, knowledge beyond the teivah. You see, you ruminate, you act. Yes there is a faithfulness in a chocham. But fools ask a chocam, how much paper to tear off in the beis kis? Again, this forum may be inappropriate to ask of a man living in a shtetl adhering to his Rebbe or Rov with limited means whether he now thinks that he should have taken off and fled. These ideas are above the teivah, I think. For example, why do people stick it out in hurricanes when history has examples of the foolhardiness of doing so? The Nazis, yimach shemom, were a storm and yet people stayed advised by those they trusted. Even in New Orleans, it took a second major hurricane for the trusted, elected, officials to tell people to move and get out of harm's way. Still people stayed. I have noticed that people will do things contrary to what, in hindsight, they should have done in the heat of the moment and wind up looking foolish. Is it an avlah for these Rebbes and other Jews to have fled? Was it a guzmah that enabled Roshei Yeshiva and Rebbes to ignore the potential for destruction that occurred. Europe is soaked in blood. Historically communities in France and Germany were decimated and obliterated. We don't know. Hashem knows. We may one day be in this position. And I believe that the debate of future intellectually dishonesty will be as instense as the debate of history regarding our actions at that time. The mirror is not covered, no one mourns seichel. Open the eyes and look in the mirror, the scary answers are there.
Reb Pinny,
I'm surprised at your am ha'aratzus in your lomdishe shtickel about the Misyavnim. Pashut pshat about the yevanim history was their love of their bodies, and their hedonistic pleasures taken to indulge their bodily urges and desires.
It stands to reason that the Misyavnim were those haimishe yidden who sought to also indulge in hedonistic pleasures. The nowaday equivalent would be child molesters in our haimsishe community.
The Yevanim and Misyavnim caused the defilinmg of the Bais Hamikdash. What was needed were the Maccabees to fight to rekindle the light of kedusha in the community. UOJ and other warriors fighting the noble fight to return yiddishkeit to what it was supposed to be, are unquestionably today's Maccabees.
Realize that the modern day Maccabees have ignited so much passion into our community, they will ultimately succeed. Your days as spokesman for Daas Torah are seriously numbered.
A correction in next week's paper is highly recommended.
R.L.
Chicago, Illinois
Gerrer Groper:
Don't worry we'll have a whole page in our middle section dedicated to the holy Rabbi Leizerowitz and his noted askan friend. Give us a heads up so we can hire an entire papparazzi to follow them to make sure no activity goes unnoticed.
This blog is blessed with the most intelligent readers and commenters, I'm very proud of us all. Boruch never fails to make a comment that touches on foundational issues - thanks for your insight.
But...I will boast, if I may, ever so briefly, and say thanks. I learn so much from our readers and commenters.
Boruch raises a very interesting point. What was the simple shtetl Yid to know about such savagery?
The answer is that they knew enough to ask - and many sent their kids off and many family members had already left. Its not like the Jews were never victims of mass murder!
There were signs everywhere - people in Poland especially were early victims of the Polish rishaim butchering Jews and Jews going missing in the middle of the night. So its not like it was hidden.
There was radio - the rebbes and rabbonim were being treated extra kindly by the occupying Nazis in exchange for keeping their people in line.
Rav Weissmandel was screaming at the top of his lungs as well as others as early as the mid-30's.
There were members of my family who fleed in the late 30's..not everyone made it - but they all knew what was happening at one degree or another.
So we have different crisis today - yet there is a very significant amount of people who will refuse to send their kids to high school, never mind college - because their rebbes or rosh yeshivas said so, dooming the majority of their kids to a life of failure, misey and poverty with all its implications.
Who were the biggest covers for the child rapists if not the gedolim rabbonim and rebbes? There were reliable shmuas for 40 years - people chose to look away and ask their idiot rabbis if they should go to the police.
Every generation - b'chol dor v'dor omdim aleinu l'chaloseinu - sometimes from the outside and sometimes from the inside! If we don't foster change, the rabbonim, rebbes and their askonim will destroy us.
"beleiving that a REW was divinely inspired and thus his actions are the will of the one above and stating that questioning his actions is INASENSE questioning g-d is not the same as saying he runs the world. So, is okay if I belittle ur intelligence now, Arthur?"
You can belittle my intelligence all you want but to use nivel peh in the your rant about REW gadlus is somewhat disingenuous.
You did not answer my question as to whether your hypothesis applies to every godol including the Lubavitcher Rebbe?Another question that you haven't answered is, does this mean that the your assumption is that every assumed godol is infallible? How do we know to which ones can we attribute that Hashichina medaber metoch grono? Finally, whats with the upper case letters? Do you think that they validate your "premise" to a greater degree.
For some reason I get the feeling that you'r nothing more then some Yeshiva bochur rotzer who never met a true godol and has no idea what the word really means.(and I'm not trying to diminish the gadlus of REW.)
UOJ,
We all appreciate the intelligence of one another and hopefully that and a desire to foster thoughtful dialog will help all of us correct ourselves. It is ourselves that we need to look at. I agree that their were plenty of warnings regarding the barbarity of the Nazis. There was as equal an enabling through the German intelligencia and the electorate. It is not my intention to create a back and forth regarding the shtetl Yid who was financially without means or without friends to be saved. Hashem Yirachem. It is my intention to ask why we, as an intelligent and thoughtful people, deliver ourselves into the control of any man. The operative word is control. Our Avos looked to Hashem, no man or king controlled them. Each action they took was to get closer to the truth of Hashem. Avrohom refusing to be given anything from the eved avodah zorah. Yitzchok having to be blinded so as not to see the bad influence of Eisav. Yaacov wrestling with the malach - which is a book in itself. I've asked Yidden why they cleave to a Rebbe and there is a generational chasm in the answers. The older Yidden went to get answers to questions that perplexed them and to have a person of deeper knowledge- equated with greater closeness to Hashem - give them guidance. For example, in my own family, the Rebbe was consulted regarding a business deal. Not because the Rebbe was an expert in business but because he had an objective insight that went beyond the cha-ching. This is in 1895. Today's chassidim are looking to belong and join a kehillah with a Rebbe to be someone. This is why, I think, this throw-away generation picks up and moves around the way it does. If the Rebbe isn't hip to your needs and doesn't connect on your level, you go. Of course it doesn't help the most of the Rebbeloch are business people first. Our cultural shift in connection with the secular movement to freedom and to choice and to ME has dismantled the traditional Rebbe. Maybe you can still go to a pre-War Rebbe in Skulen and get an eitzah, but I'm doubtful and that's not to be disrespectful. Today's Rebbe is surrounded by the minefield of chassidim with self interests. A Rosh Yeshivah hasn't got it any easier. And they have made themselves into businesses as well by proliferating. That in turn has watered down the product and requires new sources (baal teshuvah) to hustle the gelt. Yes, we have, Boruch Hashem, a steady birth rate. But the growth of institutions to house the growing number of sons-in-law or sons that are mediocrities in their peer groups is frightening. Rav Shlomo Freifeld asked who will be our teachers (meaning the generation of youngsters that were being born at the end of his life)? There are pockets of quiet learning that is done lishmah. There are pockets of factories that turn out inferior or mediocre product because of the necessity to make a parnassah.
The shtetl Yid didn't have these issues, true. He did have to make a parnossah. He sent his child(ren)away so that they could grow and be closer to Hashem. His actions were self sacrificing. Even if his Rebbe were to insist he flee, he probably could not.
Our Rebbes would insist on our fleeing as such a call would be litigious. Our society would be in the path of the hurricane because like Lot we wouldn't be able to leave our wealth and comfort. Rebbes can't change us. Rebbes can't control us. We wouldn't give ourselves up to such control, even to save ourselves.
I believe, and it's with great respect, that those who could flee did and did not leave their chassidim behind willfully. I believe, that each Yid trusted in Hashem.
I believe, that Jabotinsky, who sounded the clarion from pulpits across Europe, reached as many to flee as any Rebbe could have and still 6 million perished.
We have choice. Look in the mirror and the answer to our issues and problems stare back glaringly. Every wort, every blemish. Hashem is in charge, not the Rebbe, not the Rosh Yeshivah. We make the choice to follow Hashem or we don't. Look to the Avos. Look in the mirror. Mi LaHaShem AiLai or Mi Atah? Look in the mirror.
Without belaboring the issue; I will give you an analogy in today's terms.
Bernie Madoff starts an investment firm. At first his clients are few, but his "magic" and steady returns attract followers. He performs miracles by never missing a payment at better than the "normal" market return.
Soon, he starts believing his own scam. He becomes Mr. Infallible - and this lasts --- until he gets into an economy that no longer is able to produce new and fresh clientele.
At some point --- he had to know that he crossed the line between investment manager and investment scammer; at that moment he chose to become the scammer.
At some point, the rebbes knew before they fled Europe, that there was no hope, but they misled their "investors"... and when push came to shove, the "investors" were left holding the "bag".
The kollel world today --- is identical to the greatest Ponzi scam of all time - but nobody is sending these kids to safety of a parnassah/potential freedom --- environment.
The money will not be there for the Kotlers at some point to keep this charade going.
The Kotlers will have their real estate ( even at diminished values - with the public's money) and bank accounts --- and the kids will not be able to flee to freedom/safety --- because they will have nowhere to go.
Their parents can not help them - the Kotlers will feif on them, and these kids will be the next "at-risk" group.
Mark my words!
Hoffman either doesn't know or chooses to ignore that YU accuses Merkin of investing their money without permission. That is clearly assur.
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=3584
The Merkin Affair
Madoff, Ponzi, and Halachah, Part 2
By Rabbi Yair Hoffman
Published on Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Talmidim of R' Aron have allegedly accused R' Dovid Schustal of getting too kanoyish with R' Aron Kotler's shitos on learning and twisting them out of context.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3998664/Holocaust-survivors-love-story-exposed-as-a-fraud.html
A Holocaust survivor's acclaimed memoir about meeting his future wife across the wire fence of a concentration camp has been exposed as a fraud.
Herman Rosenblat's Angel at the Fence has been withdrawn by its publisher, Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin, following allegations by scholars, relatives and fellow survivors about its veracity.
Those taken in by the hoax include the producers of a forthcoming feature film adaptation and the television host Oprah Winfrey, who had hailed the tale as the "single greatest love story... we've ever told on the air".
In a statement issued at the weekend through his agent, Rosenblat, 79, said: "I wanted to bring happiness to people. I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world."
Although records confirm that Rosenblat, a retired television repairman now living in Miami, was a child prisoner in several Nazi concentration camps, critics questioned his account of how he was befriended by a Jewish girl – living in secret with a Christian family – who, for months, threw him apples and bread over the fence at a sub-camp of Buchenwald.
Years later, Rosenblat claimed he met a young Polish immigrant, Roma Radzicky, on a blind date in New York and she turned out to be the same girl. They married in 1958 and have been together ever since.
But historians pointed out that it would have been physically impossible for prisoners to make contact with outsiders at the Schlieben camp, except for a spot right beside an SS barracks.
Berkley Books said it was cancelling the book "after receiving new information" from the author's agent, adding that it "will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work".
The statement came only a few days after the publisher had tried to defend the book, arguing unconvincingly that it was a work of memory not of scholarship.
Rosenblat only started to tell his love story in the 1990s. Lying in hospital after being shot by a burglar, he was visited by his dead mother in a vision and urged to break his silence, he said.
The story earned the couple two appearances on the Oprah Winfrey show, and inspired a children's book and a feature film adaptation which is scheduled to begin production next March.
Harris Salomon, its producer, said the film – retitled The Flower of the Fence – would still go ahead, claiming that the "the integrity and the beauty of the story remains as a work of fiction".
Unlike other discredited Holocaust memoirists such as Misha Defonseca ("Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years") and Benjamin Wilkomirski ("Fragments"), Rosenblat's concentration camp credentials are not disputed.
However, his claims about the girl so angered his family that one of his brothers stopped speaking to him.
"The way he lied for years and years was utterly reprehensible," said Sidney Finkel, a friend and fellow camp inmate. "On the other hand, I feel sorry for him, because at a very early age he experienced the Holocaust and never had a chance to grow up in a normal home. Maybe this explains why he did what he did."
The controversy has renewed criticism of publishers' track record on fact-checking.
Penguin has had to break ties with two authors already this year – Margaret B Jones admitted she invented her story of befriending gang members in south central Los Angeles while Cassie Edwards was accused of lifting numerous passages from other sources.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/29/news/companies/gmac/?postversion=2008122920
Treasury bails out GMAC - $5 billion
Brooks is referred to as "Bulletproof Brooks." The posting goes on to say he is involved in a humanitarian mission in Malawi, and has "managed to save" a nonprofit organization called Oneg Shabbos. Oneg Shabbos ("joy of the sabbath" in Hebrew) was established in Brooklyn in 1995 to help struggling families, according to its Web site. Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, its executive director, said Brooks had been "helpful" to the organization in the past.
But shareholders say that even if Brooks had helped some organizations, they remain offended by the posts, saying he should not go public with his charitable efforts.
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/business/ny-bzbrooks3012312892dec30,0,2953234.story
David H. Brooks, charged with looting the Westbury-based body armor company he founded to pay for a lavish lifestyle, has been under house arrest in Manhattan for nearly a year now and is out of public sight.
Except on the Internet.
In the past few weeks, angry investors said yesterday, Web postings have gone up portraying Brooks as a "humanitarian" who has "saved thousands of lives" by developing body-armor technology, and who is involved in a mission in Malawi, Africa, "offering generous donations to help aid the grief-stricken area."
But investors who say they lost money to Brooks said in interviews he is trying to create a sympathetic portrait in hopes of influencing a jury when his trial begins in April, or even of gaining a presidential pardon from the Bush administration.
"He's doing it because he's had second thoughts, or maybe to make himself look better," said David Koenig, 80, a shareholder in Brooks' company, once known as DHB Industries Inc.
The federal indictment 14 months ago of Brooks, then DHB's ex-chief executive, attracted national attention. Prosecutors said Brooks used company money to pay for an $8-million bat mitzvah for his daughter and a bejeweled belt buckle in the shape of the U.S. flag that cost $101,000, among other things.
Brooks' attorney, Ken Breen, declined to comment yesterday.
DHB was one of the country's largest manufacturers of protective armor for the Army at a time U.S. troops were fighting some of the heaviest battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of DHB's protective vests were rejected by the Marine Corps. The company replaced defective gear and remained a supplier.
Brooks was charged with tax, accounting and securities fraud. Brooks, who has pleaded not guilty, was released from federal custody last January after posting a $400-million bond. But the bail requires Brooks to wear an electronic bracelet at all times and have an armed guard in his apartment to ensure he does not leave.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/article/teriton_tenants_win_battle_to_stay_in_historic_apartment_complex_20081225/
Did UOJ have anything to do with this?
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=3600
Nearly 100 pulpit rabbis attended the inaugural lecture of the Advanced Mental Health Training in Pastoral Counseling series in Brooklyn at the end of October. From substance abuse to religious conflict, suicide to premarital counseling, the intense ten-session course now under way, given over seven months, focuses on a breadth of mental-health issues affecting the Jewish community.
The National Council of Young Israel’s Division of Professional Development of the Department of Rabbinic Services, in conjunction with Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services and Touro College, has developed a course of study in psychological and social issues as well as basic counseling skills.
In today’s world, the rabbi is most often the first port of call for someone in distress. Community members more typically approach a rabbi than a psychiatrist when confronting issues of mental health. The challenge is that rabbis are, understandably, not always informed as a mental-health resource. This speaks to the critical importance of collaboration and mental-health training amongst pulpit rabbis.
It is the purpose of this workshop series to educate community rabbis to be more informed and sensitive to an array of mental-health issues, and to empower such community leaders with the tools of early detection to encourage professional referral without delay. Rabbis are not expected to treat, but to use their influence, help, and assist.
Proving that real life is more illuminating than fiction, rabbis were asked to share some immediate cases they have had to confront. They told of a boy planning to kill his father; a bipolar diagnosis; community hysteria; and the alarming complaint by parents who felt abandoned in the lack of Jewish and Orthodox support groups. It immediately became clear that practical examples would not be hard to come by.
In his opening remarks, Manny Wertman, COO of OHEL, conveyed the important message “that one should be careful not to think that those with a psychiatric disorder are violent or even have a propensity to be violent.” Mr. Wertman attributed this misunderstanding largely to frequent media hype and conveyed that the reality was that a mentally ill individual was more likely to be a victim than a perpetrator of violence.
Importantly, the set of sessions will also focus on the burnout of rabbis themselves and the public life of a rabbi today—a reflection of the complexity of emotional and mental challenges that can be faced by all.
Upon completion of the ten-course curriculum, each participant will receive a certificate from the National Council of Young Israel, Ohel, and Touro College.
The Psychology of Gaza and Mumbai
When Love Becomes Evil
By Yosef Y. Jacobson
Mourners prayed over the bodies of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28, during their funeral procession in Kfar Chabad.
Love Vs. Hate
After the Mumbai jihad exactly one month ago, we were moved by a call from all segments of world Jewry and beyond to do more good deeds. The Chabad movement -- the group that had its emissaries sadistically tortured to death in the Chabad House of Mumbai – like other Jewish organizations, called on people to increase in acts of goodness and kindness, to do more mitzvos (sacred deeds), to saturate the world with love and holiness. I attended at least a dozen memorial services for the murdered victims; all of them encouraged the participants to combat violence through positive deeds.
Chabad’s official website created a special section where people are invited to embrace a new mitzvah in tribute of the innocent victims of Mumbai. Close to 11,000 people joined the initiative.
And at the heart wrenching funeral of Gabi and Rivkah Holtzberg, the Chabad ambassadors murdered in Mumbai, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarski, vice-chairman of Chabad’s international educational arm, declared in a voice choked with tears and resolve, that Chabad would fight back the terrorists not with tanks and missiles, but by spreading goodness around the world, by constructing more centers dedicated to spread light to dispel darkness.
These noble responses echoed the wisdom of the legendary spiritual leader of Chabad, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (1902-1994), who always taught that each mitzvah affects the world in a powerfully positive way. “The world is in balance,” the Rebbe often quoted the Talmudic passage, “and each mitzvah can tip the scale” becoming the “tipping point” which may transform the consciousness of humanity.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe frequently articulated the timeless Jewish message that since G-d is the master of the world and all security ultimately depends upon Him, each act which increases our connection to G-d, creates a channel for deeper divine blessings and protection. What allowed the Jews to survive through millennia of savage persecution was not military might alone (other Empires had much more of that), but their commitment and dedication to G-d, His Torah and His Mitzvos.
The Rebbe also taught that we must turn tears into catalysts for renewed action, and use pain as a spring board for rejuvenation. And he would often write that there is no greater joy to souls who were taken from us than the fact that their lives and deaths inspire so much goodness in our world.
Finally, the Lubavitcher Rebbe firmly believed in the ancient Jewish principle, one of the recurring messages in the Hebrew Bible, that the fate of history lay not only with governments and various global forces, but also with individuals who dare to choose the path of courage and moral clarity even in the face of adversity. The story of Moses, for example, is the story of a single moral choice made by a single individual (Pharaoh’s daughter) at a single moment. The initiative, then, to change the world begins in our own bedrooms. When you kindle a flame on your porch, the Rebbe once said, the laws of physics – and the laws of spiritual physics – dictate that the light you kindled traverses the globe.
The call to respond to the senseless act of hate perpetrated in Mumbai through engaging in “selfless love,” as one writer put it, is thus both profoundly important and inspiring.
When Love Is Insufficient
But it is not enough.
During such painful times – when terror has reared its ugly head again in Israel and the world over -- it is equally important to articulate another message the Lubavitcher Rebbe discussed very often, namely, that love and good deeds alone are often insufficient to combat terrorists.
Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg and his pregnant wife, tortured to death in India, were the epitome of love. They shared their home and heart with hundreds of strangers each week, giving them food, nurture and affection. Why, then, did the two monsters who entered their private home, violating and murdering everybody in sight, not feel the love and respond in kind?
Because some people are so filled with hate, they are incapable of appreciating love. Concerning such people, the Talmud states (1), “He who comes to kill you, kill him first.” Or in the words of the Midrash (2), “He who shows compassion for the cruel, will end up being cruel to the compassionate.”
If someone had killed the nine terrorists before they captured Mumbai, hundreds of lives would have been saved; hundreds of children – including 2-year-old Moshe Holtzberg – would have parents alive today.
“Violence is never the answer,” many good people believe. But this is both untrue and harmful. When someone wants to kill you and your children, and the only way to stop him is through violence, then violence is the answer, albeit a painful one. It is violence used by police that stops violent criminals from hurting innocent people. There are many innocent people alive today solely because someone used violence to save their lives.
Many Muslims living with us today genuinely believe that the greatest achievement in life is to torture, rape, maim and murder Jews, Israelis and Westerners in the most barbaric and sadistic way possible. Any sign of love and restraint is seen by them not a gesture toward reconciliation, but as a demonstration of weakness, emboldening them to continue their Jihad.
That is why the Israeli complete withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 did not stop Hamas from daily bombing Israeli civilian areas, attempting to kill as many Jewish babies as possible. The restraint shown by Israel in recent years drove peace away further. Hamas saw it as a demonstration of weakness and as an invitation to pursue their goal to destroy Israel and murder all of its citizens.
Gandhi and Churchill
In 1938, after the Nazis had already carried out the Kristallnacht pogrom, Mahatma Gandhi directed the following words to the Jews of Germany:
"I am as certain as I am dictating these words that the stoniest German heart will melt adopt active non-violence ... I do not despair of his [Hitler's] responding to human suffering even though caused by him."
In 1942, Gandhi offered this advice to the British:
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have which are useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions ... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them (3)."
Where would we be today if the pacifist Gandhi has been the leader of England, not the proponent of moral violence, Winston Churchill?
Hitler was defeated not by love but by war. If Churchill would have embraced Hitler with affection, you and I would not be around today to talk about love.
Learn from Your Body
We have already had a culture respond to Islam with good thoughts alone. Part of Alexander the Great's army settled down Asia and became Buddhists. They created the Ghandarvian Buddhist culture. The Ghandarvian Greek Buddhists created the first Buddhist art and sculpture. When Islam invaded they had no army, only good thoughts. Alexander the Great's best soldiers had become absolute pacifists. After the jihad, we do not find a single Buddhist in what is Afghanistan today. Good thoughts and good works are not always enough in the face of violence.
Look at our bodies. Do you think that our immune system just gives those misguided germs a big hug and understanding? No. It kills them. No inter-species dialogue, no being nice. Is that a bad thing? If you think so, then try AIDS, the failure of that viral/bacterial murdering immune system.
The present festival of Chanukah celebrates the miracle of a single cruse of oil to burn for eight days, representing the timeless potential of the human spirit to kindle the flame of love and hope in an oasis of darkness. But what allowed the Jews of the time to kindle the menorah was the war which the Hasmonean family waged against their Syrian-Greek oppressors who tortured thousands of Jews to death. Had the zealous Jews instead sent a bouquet of flowers to Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian Greek ruler, Judaism and the Jewish people would be gone today.
Governments which care about the security of their citizens must thus wage an uncompromising, relentless war to uproot the terrorists and their infrastructure wherever they are. Love will not do the trick with these guys. They must be pursued, hunted down and annihilated. Not because we love war, but because we love the innocent people who will die if we do not take down these monsters.
So keep those mitzvahs coming; love with all your heart, and fill the world with kindness. But remember: Sometimes, the greatest mitzvah is to kill. When immoral violence prevails, moral violence is the answer.
Well, the neighbourhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
The neighbourhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
The neighbourhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighbourhood bully.
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighbourhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighbourhood bully.
Lakewood, N.J. -- In a surprising, last-minute move, the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach of Lakewood's Beis Medrash Gavoha, the largest Yeshiva in the world outside of Israel, issued a ban of a women's entertainment event that took place in Lakewood's Beis Yaakov High School Sunday night.
The event, entitled "Comedance", was billed as a show illustrating "the journey of life through comedy and dance", and featured women performers singing and dancing in front of an all-female audience. Although the performance met with no opposition when it took place at Boro Park and other venues in prior weeks, that was not the case in Lakewood.
An automated phone call recording reached thousands of Lakewood homes Sunday evening, notifying all household that the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach, R' Kotler, Neuman, Schustal, Olshin and Salomon, had issued a ruling that the performance should not be attended. Ironically, this followed similar automated calls on behalf of the producers of the show that had been placed just hours before, reminding local women and girls to attend the event, which was advertised as a benefit for Tzedaka R' Meir Ba'al HaNes.[...]
Neuhoff, Steven I. Weiss & Pesach Lerner wanted to wait until all the facts were in.
Ellie Nesler dies at 56; woman killed her son's accused molester in courtroom
By Jon Thurber
December 30, 2008
Ellie Nesler, the mother who took the law into her own hands in a Northern California courtroom by shooting to death the man who allegedly molested her young son, has died. She was 56.
Nesler died Friday morning at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, said Phyllis Brown, the hospital's public information officer. The cause of death was not revealed, but Nesler was known to have been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994.
The story of Nesler and Daniel Mark Driver, the 35-year-old Christian camp employee who in summer 1988 allegedly sodomized then 7-year-old Willie Nesler, became national news after she shot Driver several times in the head and neck in the Tuolumne County community of Jamestown on April 2, 1993.
Ellie Nesler was praised by some as a protective mother driven to act by the prospect of having her traumatized son testify against Driver in open court. Others criticized her for brushing aside the legal system.
From the Los Angeles Times
Kirk Kerkorian sells remaining Ford shares
The investor spent about $1 billion acquiring a 6.5% stake in the struggling automaker this year, then saw the value of its stock plummet.
By Martin Zimmerman
December 30, 2008
Kirk Kerkorian wasn't kidding when he said he was putting the brakes on his latest foray into the auto industry.
A spokeswoman for Tracinda Corp., the billionaire's Beverly Hills-based investment company, confirmed Monday that it had dumped its remaining stock holdings in struggling Ford Motor Co. She declined to provide details of the stock sales.
Kerkorian owned 107.1 million Ford shares, or 4.9% of the company, in late October, when Tracinda reported in a regulatory filing that it had unloaded 7.3 million shares and planned to sell the rest of its holdings by the end of the year.
Because it owned less than 5% of the company -- the regulatory threshold for reporting changes in stock ownership -- Tracinda was not required to file information with the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the more recent sales, such as when the shares were sold or at what price.
But Kerkorian, who began buying Ford shares in April and spent about $1 billion acquiring a 6.5% stake in the automaker, clearly took a bath on the investment. Ford was trading at about $7.75 a share when Kerkorian began acquiring his stake.
arthur stupidly stated:
"You did not answer my question as to whether your hypothesis applies to every godol including the Lubavitcher Rebbe?Another question that you haven't answered is, does this mean that the your assumption is that every assumed godol is infallible? How do we know to which ones can we attribute that Hashichina medaber metoch grono? Finally, whats with the upper case letters? Do you think that they validate your "premise" to a greater degree.
For some reason I get the feeling that you'r nothing more then some Yeshiva bochur rotzer who never met a true godol and has no idea what the word really means.(and I'm not trying to diminish the gadlus of REW.)"
arthur loses points when he changes the "nidon" in mid-debate. When bringing up new questions its very PUTZY & SHMUCKISH to talk as if u had already asked them. but ill answer them anyway, retard. I personaly believe the lubavitcher rebbe was no godol. Meglomaniac, yes. Godol? no. But since you ask the question with a given,(that he was on the same level as REW HY"D) I'll try and explain sumthin to ya. (UOJ, PAY ATTENTION THIS IS 4 U TOO.) The premise of siyata dishmaya doesn't mean infallibillity. It means that great mens actions are guided by the one above. If the one above wanted REW to be slaughtered in the ninth fort and famously proclaiming "I don't know why this is happening, but I trust g-d that this is for the best," then he would have a "irrational" need to return to a war zone.
agav, arthur, shchina midaberes was moshe rabbeinu but I can count on a chabadske shmuck like you to use it when talking about "assumed gedolim."
and I'm not just a bored yeshiva bochur, but if I was, isn't it that much more embarrasing for you to be schooled by an ignorant caveman suchas myself?
one more thing. when u diefy a man, you lose all benefit of doubt. REW was never diefied. MMS was. end of story.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html
DECEMBER 29, 2008
As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010
Arthur: December 30 - 1:05 a.m.
Don't you think that it would be proper and ethical, to credit the lyrics for the "Neighborhood Bully" to Bob Dylan, who wrote them in 1983?
5:28 sounds like mein gutteh chaver Rav Chaim Dov Keller fun Chicago.
Your writings are b'diyuk why ich hut gezugt bifnei kol am v'aidah that you can't rely on gedolim of the past. They didn't have Hashem with them, our gedolim do.
A reminder to all --- cash in your gift cards before January 1. The National Retailers Association is predicting some 200,000 retail bankruptcies in 2009 --- your gift cards will be worthless.
arthur arthur arthur....
bringing up 3 week old non stories in an attempt to smear lakewood? anyone who hasn't heard the story yet is a bigger caveman than me, or a bigger fool than you. for the truth behind that story, it was a fake call set up by someone whose initials are (truthfully) BS. He always comes up with ways ti make the yeshiva look stupid and arthur is one of the people dumb enough to bite...
Enough already with the name calling! You're welcome to disagree with Arthur all you want --- no more personal attacks against him!
"arthur arthur arthur....
bringing up 3 week old non stories in an attempt to smear lakewood? anyone who hasn't heard the story yet is a bigger caveman than me, or a bigger fool than you"????????
I suggest that you learn how to read or get a new pair of glasses.I never brought up any story "in an attempt to smear lakewood."In fact I didn't bring up any story at all.
I would also suggest that you take a running jump into the nearest mikveh for using the nivel peh that you do when you speak about about Reb Elchonon and for the blatant sinas chinom that you exhibit in your rants.
I apologize.I just read the story that was attributed to me.I did not post that story .Apparently someone posing as me posted it. However ,the rest of my last post still stands.
Is the blood of this troubled yid on NER YISROELS hands, meaning, did he learn in that yeshiva, & if yes, was he touched by the infamous molestor there????
Baltimore, MD - Baltimore's Ner Yisroel community joined their brothers worldwide in shock and grief upon learning of the sudden death of one of their own, Zvi Dovid (Fifi) Zahler, who tragically died this morning in an auto accident.
Mr. Zahler had departed Baltimore early this morning in his vehicle for Passaic, New Jersey. Family members in Baltimore called his hosts in Passaic some time later to determine whether he had arrived, and were informed that he had never showed.
Baltimore's volunteer community patrol was shortly mobilized and spent the next several hours searching for Mr. Zahler until the Maryland State Police were contacted to ask whether any current accidents involved a vehicle matching the description of Mr. Zahler's automobile. Police replied affirmatively.
According to police and other sources, Mr. Zahler's vehicle went out of control around 10:30 a.m. while traveling on the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge along I-95. The six-lane bridge spans the Susquehanna River about 25 miles northeast of Baltimore. Zahler was thrown from the vehicle and apparently died instantly.
Due to the distance he was thrown from the car, Maryland State Police troopers on the scene didn't locate his body until 1:00 p.m.
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Wind conditions are currently said to be the cause of the tragedy. Indeed, the bridge crosses between bluffs high above the river valley, and is posted with warning signs "Subject to Crosswinds."
Mr. Zahler who is originally from Toronto, was a member of the Ner Yisroel yeshivah's kolel and had only married last year. Compounding the tragedy is that the young Mrs. Zahler, now suddenly widowed, is said to be expecting their first child. He was 25.
**UPDATE**
Levaya Tuesday 3:00 pm Levanson Funeral Home, Reistertown Rd., Pikesville, MD
--------------------------------
Baltimore, MD - A Baltimore man who died yesterday morning in the Susquehanna River, (reported yesterday by VIN News as an accident), wasn't an accident, state police say.
State police from the the John F. Kennedy barracks claim that the man died after he jumped into the Susquehanna River from the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge on Interstate 95 near Port Deposit in Harford County.
Police said Trooper Adam Davies was on patrol and was driving north on I-95 about 7:15 a.m. when he saw a man jump into the river. Police said Davies reported the incident and moments later found an unoccupied 2007 Honda parked in the northbound right lane.
Police said Harford County firefighters and marine units of the state police and state Department of Natural Resources entered the water and recovered the man's body a short time later. The victim was taken to the nearby Tydings Marina and pronounced dead. Police identified the man as Zvi David Zahler, 24, of Baltimore, MD. His family was notified by New Jersey police, and the incident remains under investigation.
Police knew of no reason for the man jumping to his death.
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Editors Note!
VIN News would like to apologize to our many loyal readers who rely on us for accurate, professionally researched information.
When we learned yesterday of the grim news out of Baltimore, we did diligent research, but our sources in the Jewish community and family members either had inaccurate information or deliberately provided us with inaccurate information. Additionally, we called the Maryland State Police last night, but they did not want to comment and did not release any details of this incident until this morning.
We apologize for the misinformation provided to VIN News. As news moves fast, we strive to balance professional accuracy with timeliness, and when a story carries substantial credibility as it did in this case, we post our report at the risk of contradictory facts emerging later.
Lchvod Harav UOJ,
I'm sorry if my name calling crossed the line, I just get worked up when chabad, or any religion, tries to compare they're leaders with ours. I will refrain from addressing -------- arthur so I will remain within the bounds of proper speech. That said i'd also like to know if you don't agree with my posting earlier about siyata dishmaya. That REW's actions "could've" been divinely inspired with the outcome r"l being what it was.
In closing I'd like to comment that in truth I believe that arthur is an honorable man....(couldn't resist a parting shot)
The Awareness center is excited to announce our first Survivor Speak Out in New York!
As you know The Awareness Center is struggling to stay afloat. If there's anyway you can help financially to support us we would be greatly appreciative.
We just got confirmation for space for our first New York Jewish Survivor Speak Out. The meeting will be from 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm on Jan. 26, 2009. More information will be posted shortly.
If you are a Jewish survivor of sexual abuse and or assault and would like to be on our panel please contact me immediately. We are also needing volunteers to help get the word out. The event is free and open to the public, yet reservations are required due to limited space.
For more information call:
443-857-5560 or send an e-mail to: VickiPolin@aol.com
I'm sorry if my name calling crossed the line, I just get worked up when chabad, or any religion, tries to compare they're leaders with ours.
---------------------
The Lubavitcher Rebbe zt'l was a gaon atzum. As I said previously and often, all rebbes are human and so was he. IMHO - something went wrong somehere - especially towards the end of his life - when he did not stop the Moshiach movement among his followers.
Some will say he that he did it intentionally from the start, and that he believed it himself.
I can not speak to that - I just do not know.
Shkoyach UOJ for finally releasing the R' Elchonon letter, but questions still remain.
Since R' Elchonon was possibly big enough to know things that we don't, did you ever hear him criticized over this by the likes of R' Shraga Feivel or R' Yaakov?
I also don't quite follow your logic on the Rebbes.
The Brisker Dayan should be commended for his candor that in a tzeit fun hester ponim we cannot know what will happen, but I don't know that the Rebbes were shuldiks for giving hope in the face of calamity. There are poskim who even hold that it is mutter to make a shvuas shov to a deathly ill relative that they will be allright.
As far as specifics,
- I don't think the Satmar Rov would have opposed his oylam going to Schveitz but there was only so much room on the train. At best he is guilty of not staying behind with his flock like R' Elchonon did.
- You say that the Nazis y's coddled the Rebbes. I am not aware of that. If anything, I know of instances where Rebbes and rabbonim were specifically targeted and hunted down. This is why the Stropkover Rebbe shaved his beard and acted like a poshutte Yid.
- I'm not sure how the Poilishe Yidden could have escaped as the border was sealed when the invasion started.
I never asked R' Yaakov, I wish I did.
As for RSFM -- I will remain silent (for now).
Let's learn from the grave mistakes that were made and people got slaughtered. I know of no instance where a rebbe ran to safety and took members of his kehilla, if you are aware of one, please let me know.
Enough said - we are getting sidetracked - being menachem a choleh is not on point.
Arthur said...
Lakewood, N.J. -- In a surprising, last-minute move, the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach of Lakewood's Beis Medrash Gavoha, the largest Yeshiva in the world outside of Israel, issued a ban of a women's entertainment event that took place in Lakewood's Beis Yaakov High School Sunday night.
The event, entitled "Comedance", was billed as a show illustrating "the journey of life through comedy and dance", and featured women performers singing and dancing in front of an all-female audience. Although the performance met with no opposition when it took place at Boro Park and other venues in prior weeks, that was not the case in Lakewood.
An automated phone call recording reached thousands of Lakewood homes Sunday evening, notifying all household that the Roshei Yeshiva and Mashgiach, R' Kotler, Neuman, Schustal, Olshin and Salomon, had issued a ruling that the performance should not be attended. Ironically, this followed similar automated calls on behalf of the producers of the show that had been placed just hours before, reminding local women and girls to attend the event, which was advertised as a benefit for Tzedaka R' Meir Ba'al HaNes.[...]
Real Arthur or not the story is TRUE. Rebitzen Kotler called the organizers of this "chassidish" tzedaka and told them outright that they wont tolerate one of the entertainers being a Lubavitcher. Regardless, when word got out on the ban all the ladies made a point to show up and it was a wild success. Did better than the ones in BP and Monsy. So there. The facts to this can be proven by calling the organizers of the event.
The Awareness center is excited to announce our first Survivor Speak Out in New York!
As you know The Awareness Center is struggling to stay afloat. If there's anyway you can help financially to support us we would be greatly appreciative.
We just got confirmation for space for our first New York Jewish Survivor Speak Out. The meeting will be from 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm on Jan. 26, 2009. More information will be posted shortly.
If you are a Jewish survivor of sexual abuse and or assault and would like to be on our panel please contact me immediately. We are also needing volunteers to help get the word out. The event is free and open to the public, yet reservations are required due to limited space.
For more information call:
443-857-5560 or send an e-mail to: VickiPolin@aol.com
"I know of no instance where a rebbe ran to safety and took members of his kehilla"
- Mirrer Yeshiva
Most know the characters involved
- Nitra yeshiva
Ditto
- Frankfurt yeshiva
Rav Schneider escaped with talmidim. One of the trains was blocked by the Nazis who tried dumping the Yidden in Poland. Poland would not accept them so they were stuck in shacks at a no-man's land at the border.
- Kattowiczer Rov
Did not escape himself but raised funds to get Yidden to England.
- There were also rabbonim and their followers in Holland who went underground and killed many Nazis with the Resistance. The rabbonim were made decorated officers of the Dutch Army after the war.
Mondrowitz Accusers Seen Ready To Testify
by Hella Winston
Special To The Jewish Week
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office has indicated to prosecutors in Israel that the alleged victims of an accused pedophile who fled to the Jewish state more than two decades ago will testify should he stand trial, The Jewish Week has learned.
An excerpt of the letter from the head of the sex crimes bureau was contained in a brief submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court by attorneys representing the State who have been arguing for the extradition of former Brooklyn youth counselor Avrohom Mondrowitz. He was arrested in Israel in late 2007 after a change in the Israeli-U.S. extradition treaty provided a basis for returning him to the U.S.
While a Jerusalem court ruled Mondrowitz extraditable earlier this year, he appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which heard his final appeal on Dec. 8.
At that hearing, the Justices asked the State’s attorneys to consider three issues: the propriety of retroactive application of extradition treaties; the prosecution’s decision to extradite Mondrowitz despite the many years that have passed since the commission of the alleged crimes; and whether Mondrowitz should be tried in Israel.
The excerpt from the letter from the sex crimes bureau chief, Rhonnie Jaus, was part of a larger brief responding to those questions and filed with the high court on Dec. 23.
“Over the last twenty-two years, these victims have had to live with this childhood trauma. Knowing that the efforts they made to testify against Mondrowitz [have] not brought them any justice [has] made living with this nightmare that much more difficult,” Jaus wrote. She was referring to testimony given by the victims to a Brooklyn grand jury, which indicted Mondrowitz in absentia in 1985 on four counts of sodomy and eight counts of sexual abuse in the first degree against four children in Brooklyn.
“Over the years when these victims, now grown men, have been contacted by our office, they have maintained their interest in the prosecution of Mondrowitz,” Jaus’ letter continued. “They are concerned for their own privacy and safety, but willing to pursue the case.”
A spokesman for the Brooklyn DA confirmed that the letter had been submitted and that the victims “have a continued interest in the case and have expressed a willingness to testify.” He also noted that Jaus’ letter communicated the fact that these victims were “in terror of Mondrowitz” in 1985.
Jaus’ letter is significant, according to Michael Lesher, a journalist and attorney who has been deeply involved in this case. Lesher says it is “the first direct statement in an official forum that specifically tells us that the original complainants are in contact with the DA’s office and [that they] are prepared and do want to proceed with prosecution. That’s an important and encouraging sign.”
Indeed, these victims’ identities have never been publicly revealed nor has any of them ever come forward to comment on the case. In fact, one of the many notable aspects of this case is the fact that the victims named in the original indictment are not from Jewish families. But comments over the years by those in law enforcement indicate that Mondrowitz may have had hundreds of Jewish victims, among them those sent to him for counseling, referred by the Brooklyn-based Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, and other Orthodox communal institutions and individuals.
Several of Mondrowitz’s alleged Jewish victims have spoken to the media in recent years, though the statute of limitations bars them from being a part of any criminal or civil action.
Two of these men, Mark Weiss and Boruch Sandhaus, also wrote letters to the Israeli Supreme Court, as part of an amicus brief submitted to the Court by Survivors for Justice, an organization they helped to found which seeks to assist victims of sexual abuse in the Orthodox community obtain justice in the criminal and civil courts.
In the brief, submitted to the high court by SFJ’s pro bono Israeli counsel, the law firm Yigal Arnon & Co., Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for the group, writes that, “Returning Avrohom Mondrowitz to the United States to defend against the criminal charges will send a clear message to those who have been sexually abused in our community, and in the similarly insular haredi communities in Israel, that authorities from New York to Israel intend to do everything in their power to protect our children.”
Urging the Justices to uphold the lower court’s determination to extradite Mondrowitz, Sandhaus writes, “It is now over 20 years and Avrohom Mondrowitz has yet to face his victims in court and defend himself against the numerous horrific charges of abuse he committed against us when we were children. I live daily with the indescribable agony and torture of the memories Mondrowitz left permanently burned into my brain. Knowing that this monster is still out there amongst children just adds to the immeasurable agony I feel.”
"I know of no instance where a rebbe ran to safety and took members of his kehilla"
We know the yeshivas ---
Publisher Pulls Book By Holocaust Survivor
Reuters NEW YORK – The fallout continues from Herman Rosenblat's discredited Holocaust story.
Laurie Friedman's "Angel Girl," a children's book inspired by Rosenblat, was pulled Tuesday by the Lerner Publishing Group. President and publisher Adam Lerner said in a statement that the Minneapolis-based company had been misled by Rosenblat and his wife, Roma.
"We are dismayed to learn about Herman and Roma Rosenblat's recantation of part of their Holocaust survival story," Lerner said. "While this tragic event in world history needs to be taught to children, it is imperative that it is done so in a factual way that doesn't sacrifice veracity for emotional impact."
Friedman, whose other books include the popular "Mallory" series, said in a statement issued through Lerner that the Rosenblats had reviewed her manuscript and assured her of its accuracy.
"I wanted to find a way to share what I felt was an important and inspiring message for children," Friedman said. "My goal in writing `Angel Girl' was to communicate that even in the darkest of times, no one should give up hope.
"Unfortunately, I, like many others, am disappointed and upset to now learn of Herman's fabrications."
Lerner Publishing is offering refunds for returned copies of the book, which had a list price of $16.95. About 2,000 copies had been sold, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of industry sales.
Rosenblat, 79, and a resident of North Miami Beach, Fla., last weekend acknowledged fabricating his story of how he met his wife, to whom he has been married for 50 years. His own memoir, "Angel at the Fence," scheduled for release in February, was quickly canceled by Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).
Rosenblat, a prisoner at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s, had charmed the world for years with his story of meeting a young girl who would throw him apples and bread from the other side of a barbed-wire fence. Rosenblat appeared twice on Oprah Winfrey's television talk show, and was a popular speaker and interview subject.
But scholars doubted Rosenblat, noting that the alleged meeting area at the camp was next to the SS barracks. Numerous inconsistencies were raised recently by The New Republic.
"To all who supported and believed in me and this story, I am sorry for all I have caused to you and every one else in the world," Rosenblat said in a statement released Sunday through his agent, Andrea Hurst.
At least one Rosenblat project is still on: A feature film based on his life that is to begin filming next year. Producer Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures says the movie may refer to why the Rosenblats apparently "fabricated elements of their wartime love story."
I don't think it passes muster with Artscroll.
Rosenblat doesn't have enough finstera credentials.
R' Yudel Shain took down the entry but in an item that generated almost 100 comments in a few days, it seems that Eckstein and/or his brother who works for Manis in Lakewood was behind the Pooper Scoop blog.
Eckstein was said to be caught Engelmayer style with IP tags.
Because he so viciously attacked the Kotlers on that blog, which he since took offline, he is losing his advertisers one by one on YWN.
What happened with the Lakewood Scoop blog was all a big misunderstanding.
Eckstein had an unpaid intern working at his computer who was misbehaving without his permission or knowledge.
Trust me.
" Arthur said...
To Anon 5:28
so you want me to say straight out that only Chabad are real Jews, I'll say it. If you are not Chabad, you are not Jewish"
I don't know who this velts chochom is but it's definitely not me.
Now back to reallity,
As the situation in Gaza continued to spiral out of control and rockets fell unchallenged on Israeli towns and cities, the only option left, was for Israel to finally hit back. It seems we have been here many times before. Arabs attack- Israel reacts, the tragic cycle continues. If you listen carefully you can hear the fury of the Arab street gathering steam. First the Arab League, then in perfect harmony, the Europeans apologists and to finish the rhapsody, the UN Security council- ah, so predictable. We have heard this awful medley before. Like a tone deaf orchestra, the feigned outrage is of course aimed at the Jewish State.
Their skewed resolutions will as always focus its ire against Israel for its aggression. Shocking.
Let’s skip this exercise in futility and cut to the chase. Allow me to preempt their dismay and outrage with a well needed reality check.
Unilateral disengagement from Gaza was designed to create joy and harmony between Jews and peace loving Arabs. By now we all know how the sad story goes but it is worth repeating if only to guide us as a new round of violence engulfs the area-again.
No sooner had Israel exited the Gaza strip, did rockets, mortars and missiles began raining down on Sederot and other border towns from the peace partners whose eyes widened in giddy disbelief -as Israel actually left. Israeli “aggression” in this case was only against her own, as heroic pioneers were forcibly extracted from their homes. Shuls and schools were abandoned and Israelis literally became homeless overnight. The Arabs were free to burn and mutilate world renowned Israeli achievements in farming, irrigation and housing-all in a desert setting that no matter how many times the Arabs tried the only thing they could grow, was sand and cemeteries. And burn they did. Israel’s inability to protect her citizens, bordered on criminal, as the world continued its tunnel vision blindness on behalf of the poor Palestinians.
In the UN Security Council, the well known bastions of democracies, Libya backed by Syria, had the unmitigated effrontery to call Israel blockade of Gaza, a Holocaust.
Libya’s deputy permanent UN representative, Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi, “compared the situation in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust
Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari telling reporters, “Unfortunately, those who complain of being victims of genocide are repeating the same kind of genocide against the Palestinians.
As widely predicted prior to withdrawal, Israel had been forced into a defensive posture while militants fired away with impunity. Sederot had become ground zero for Arab attacks and the silence of the Security Council was deafening. Israeli aggression? Hardly.
And so while Israel celebrated the “bitter success” of the Gaza disengagement, unabated rocket attacks from Gaza became a constant. Arms smuggling thru hundreds of underground tunnels became the norm. In front of the eyes of the world, the cease fire was being used by Hamas to gather munitions, missiles and supplies in anticipation of the inevitable. Still the Israelis waited to see how the Hamas hierarchy would greet the end of the cease fire. With hours to spare before the deadline expired, their answer was delivered by grad rockets. The Sederot air raid siren operator has not slept since. Aggression? You know the answer.
The Israeli threat of severe retaliation was met with more Hamas rockets and missiles hitting targets as far away as Ashkelon. By now you know that Israel has finally- FINALLY reacted. Can you hear the drum beat of the world? The chorus begins yet again. So I feel compelled to deliver a message to my cousins in the Arab league, elitist Europeans, xenophobic Security Council members and their enablers at CNN:
We are a nation whose destiny is tied to the blood soaked soil of Eretz Yisroel. Despite your long history of cruel and vicious persecution of the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our people take great comfort in todays timely prayer of Chanukah:(Al Hanisim)
“And for the miracles, and for the salvation, and for the mighty deeds, and for the victories, and for the wonders, and for the consolations and for the battles which you (G-d) performed for our forefathers in those days, at this time”
Our message to you is- Make your resolutions. Do your paperwork. Have your one sided debate.
Then, get out of the way. We’ve done it your way.
Peace with stateless entities sworn to Israel’s destruction is unattainable.
There is no peace. Peace is an illusion created by fiction writers who seemed to have slept thru bible class in search of a Norwegian medal.
Remember Chevron 1929? Sabarro?
Bus #2 ?
Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Naava ?
Merkaz Horav ?
Mumbai?
We do!
So on this eighth day of Chanukah, as our soldiers stand at the battles door, we invoke the courage of Matisyohu Kohen Gadol and the legendary Chashmonayim and urge our young warriors and collective nation to carry that indomitable spirit into battle.
As our predecessors have done before us, we must man our battle stations by increasing and enhancing our Teshuva, Tefillah and especially our Tzedokah during these challenging economic times. Feel the pain of another Yid and do something to ease their burdon.
Dearest soldiers, Klal Yisroel stands with you. Hashem Yaazor. Finish the fight and come home in peace.
Management of GMAC parent company Cerberus includes Ezra Merkin, former Vice President Dan Quayle and former Treasury Secretary John Snow, who is chairman of the New York-based private-equity firm. That poses a potential conflict of interest in a Treasury Department rescue of GMAC, said Josh Lerner, a Harvard Business School investment banking professor.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE4BT42W20081230?sp=true
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday defied fellow Democrats and appointed a successor to fill Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat -- the seat the governor is charged with trying to sell to the highest bidder.
Ignoring warnings from within his own party not to make an appointment, Blagojevich named to the seat former Illinois attorney general and frequent candidate Roland Burris, 71, a fellow Democrat and African-American who lobbied for the post.
The seat vacated by President-elect Obama, a Democrat who was the lone African-American in the chamber, has been in limbo since Blagojevich was arrested by FBI agents on December 9 on charges he attempted to solicit campaign contributions and other political favors.
Blagojevich said he was compelled to act because the Illinois legislature put off consideration of a special election to fill the seat. The governor is fighting impeachment proceedings under way in the state legislature.
"Please don't allow the allegations against me to taint this good and honest man," Blagojevich told a news conference.
The governor has denied doing anything wrong and dismissed calls, including from Obama, to resign and give up his sole power to make the Senate appointment, which lasts until 2010.
U.S. Senate Democratic leaders vowed on Tuesday to block the appointment, saying Burris would "serve under a shadow and be plagued by questions of impropriety."
"It will ultimately not stand," they said in a statement.
Burris, a lawyer, was the first African-American elected to statewide office in Illinois in 1978 when he became state comptroller, and was state attorney general from 1991 to 1995.
He has run unsuccessfully several times for higher office, including a U.S. Senate bid in 1984 and governor in 1994.
Burris and his consulting firm have donated about $15,000 to Blagojevich's campaigns since 2002.
"Roland Burris is emblematic of the old-school, pay-to-play culture that has plagued Illinois for generations and this appointment is another embarrassment for the people of Illinois," state Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna said.
"It's a very shrewd political move on the governor's part," political analyst Don Rose said. "The Senate has said it won't accept anybody that he proposes, but here they've come up with an African-American with deep roots in the black community."
The Democrats will be in control of the U.S. Senate with at least 57 seats in the 100-seat chamber when Congress reconvenes on January 6. Still in limbo are Minnesota's undecided Senate race, as well as Obama's Senate seat in Illinois.
The U.S. Constitution states that the Senate decides the qualifications of its members. But if the Senate blocked the appointment, the case would likely end up in court.
Fallout begins for retailers after dismal holiday season
Updated 15m ago
By Mindy Fetterman and Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
Retailers will close tens of thousands of stores in 2009, and several more will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the effects of the worst holiday retail season in 40 years sink in.
"Every retailer is looking to reduce their footprint," says Michael Dart, principal at Kurt Salmon Associates, a retail industry analyst firm.
ECONOMY: December consumer confidence wilts to all-time low
The fallout started before Christmas and has continued immediately after: The Parent Co., operator of eToys.com, announced Sunday that it had filed for Chapter 11, while KB Toys, Ann Taylor (ANN), Sears (SHLD), Talbots (TLB) and Circuit City previously announced the closures of some stores.
"Retailers will assess every location, and if it doesn't make a profit, it's gone," says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group.
The International Council of Shopping Centers projected in October that 148,000 stores would close in 2008, the largest number since 2001. It said an additional 73,000 stores would close in the first half of 2009.
That number could grow. December sales will be reported on Jan. 14, but early surveys indicate spending is almost completely frozen. MasterCard's annual SpendingPulse report released late last week showed retail sales fell 2% to 4% for the holiday season. Sales of electronics and appliances fell 27%. Women's clothing fell 23%.
Sales at chain stores fell 1.8% in the week ending Dec. 27 compared with the previous year, while sales fell 1.5% compared with the prior week, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales index.
The International Council of Shopping Centers expects holiday sales, which measures sales in November and December, to fall 1.5% to 2%. That would represent the weakest performance since the ICSC began tracking such data in 1969.
"We see a sustained, protracted and prolonged shift in consumer behavior through 2009 and 2010," Dart says. "This is not just one bad holiday season."
For the first time, holiday online shopping declined this year. Spending was down 2% from Nov. 1 to Dec. 21, says market researcher ComScore."This is bad, considering that online holiday sales, year-over-year, have been up about 20% every year," says Don Davis, editor of Internet Retailer, a trade magazine.
Exceptions were Amazon.com, Apple.com and Walmart.com, which saw 6% to 10% surges in traffic. Amazon.com said Friday that it recorded its "best ever" holiday season with a 17% increase in orders on Dec. 15, its peak day.
Online sales could have been worse. Strong promotional efforts by online retailers, such as discounts and free shipping, persuaded many consumers to shop, says Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at ComScore.
At least one market researcher says this year's online holiday season wasn't that bad. EMarketer predicts spending will rise 4% to $30.3 billion, though that's about one-fifth the growth rate of the past few years.
Contributing: Reuters
Advocate for priest abuse victims banned from church
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The leader of Roman Catholics in the northeastern state of Maine has taken the unusual step of threatening to punish an outspoken advocate for people who were sexually abused by priests, possibly by denying him communion.
Paul Kendrick of Freeport has been banned from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, and warned in a letter that if he tries again to contact Portland Bishop Richard Malone he risks losing any right "to participate fully in the sacramental life of the church."
Kendrick, a co-founder of the Maine chapter of the lay reform group Voice of the Faithful, has been a vocal critic of how church leaders have responded to abuse claims and treated victims.
"It's a not-so-subtle attempt to silence me," Kendrick said Monday. "My response is that it's not about me. It's about protecting children today and helping and supporting those who were abused. He will not silence me from speaking out on those issues."
Sue Bernard, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Portland, said the bishop doesn't object to criticism but that Kendrick's actions have gone far beyond that.
Kendrick has protested outside churches, inundated the diocese with mail and e-mail, participated in a public confrontation with Malone and even showed up at an out-of-state meeting the bishop attended, Bernard said. She called it a campaign of harassment that ultimately could undermine Malone's ministry.
"For five years, we've really looked the other way. The bishop let him have free rein basically but we want him to know that from this point on, he must stop," she said.
Kendrick got word of the potential penalty after he told the bishop in a letter that he planned to attend Christmas Eve Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where Malone often celebrates Mass. The activist then received a criminal trespass order that barred him from the cathedral, the chancery and Malone's residence. He was also served an order to cease and desist from harassing Malone.
The vicar general, the Rev. Andrew Dubois, further warned Kendrick in a letter of church-imposed penalties if he fails to abide by terms of a church order forbidding Kendrick from coming within 500 feet (150 meters) of the bishop or being in the same building when he's present.
Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former dean of Duquesne Law School, said he had never heard of a bishop using church law, in this case the threat of an "interdict," against activists.
"It's extremely unusual," said Cafardi, who was an original member of the National Review Board, the lay panel the U.S. bishops created in 2001 to monitor their response to the abuse scandal.
The Rev. Tom Doyle, a Virginia priest and advocate for victims who is representing Kendrick, said the church has threatened to prevent Kendrick from receiving Holy Communion if he doesn't comply.
Doyle said he can't find any basis for the diocese's actions, but he said church leaders have been angered by the aggressive tactics of some activists. Doyle said his work with abuse victims cost him a promising career as a canon lawyer in the church.
"One of the biggest sins in the Catholic Church is to criticize a bishop," Doyle said.
Last year, Malone released the names of 12 living former priests who faced credible allegations of abuse in Maine. The diocese also validated allegations against nine of 21 deceased priests identified by the attorney general in 2005 as being accused of sexual abuse.
Reb UOJ
Even though blogging definitely has it's positive uses,I sometimes wonder whether the negative outweighs the positive.
We develop a gradual but insidious poisoning of our psyche that less din veless dayan.That there's no accountability.Blogging gives us the opportunity to hide behind our anonymity to express things that we normally would not say or write which can be positive but more often then not we resort to distortion,profanity,denigration,character assassination,demonozation and outright lies and many are the innocent that fall by the wayside.(I think I just set the record for a run on sentence).
We lost six million at the hands of the Nazis Y"S and yet we are our own greatest enemies when we write off entire kehillos of Yidden in our sometimes arrogant crusade to make right that which we perceive to be wrong ,whether it's because of the hats or clothes they wear,their different perceptions in hahskofe,the way they they speak and so many more rightful but mostly wrong reasons.
At a time that we need achdus more then ever before, it's the commodity that we most lack.
We definitely need rachamim rabim memokor horachmim vehachsodim.
Please excuse this rant but I couldn't help it in view of the attacks posted here today, whether against me or in my name or perhaps something that I posted.
R' Arthur,
Your point is well taken, and to some extent you are absolutely correct, that people will say anonymously what they would not say openly.
But that does not mean they don't think it.
And that works both ways.
We could give them - (us) - a forum to air their thoughts and grievances, and perhaps, with the appropriate responses, can get people to alter their thinking.
So even though I let some pretty nasty ones through (even though I disagree with them sometimes vehemently), the worst ones never make it past comment moderation because, IMO, those guys are hopeless.
So for example, today that obnoxious commenter called you a shmuck; you responded, I responded, and he apologized, sort of.
In the end, like every other consumer product, the good blogs remain, and the other hundreds of thousands fade away.
So, just speaking for UOJ, I believe the benefit of this particular blog, has had world-changing ramifications for the better. I don't say it boastfully, but factually.
If there was not an important message here in the big picture - we would not be the target of so much venomous attention. They'd write me off as a crackpot, and go away.
But instead they can't get enough of coming after me - because of the powerful message of emes. If our accusations were lies or even distortions, they would vanish.
That will not make it a perfect solution to a very imperfect Jewish geshtalt, but the well-read blogs, IMO, gets the emes out, regardless of how its said.
It certainly is not perfect - and perhaps I let through a few comments that I should not have, and said a few things that I could have said differently, but here we are.
As your uncle zatzal used to say " ah guten gedank kumt fun a gezunten kop".
Am I the only one to notice a surge of stray hundten running around pishing on fire hydrants?
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/12/22/cash-strapped-families-cant-afford-to-keep-their-pets/
Cash-strapped families can't afford to keep their pets
Tragedy strikes Holtzbergs again
http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=1466
Arthur, I monitor the blog very closely. I second UOJ's reply to your last post. Let me add that I tend to agree with the great majority of your opinions here yet refrain to join in the fracas due to the obvious almost anti semitic venom spewed by your detractors. I dont think many take them seriously, though I wonder at times if you don't appear to be begging for these obnoxious tirades by you walking a too fine line with the selection of your words which at times can be read 2 ways. Chazak!
had the manhigim and gedoilim dealt with this guy (avremel mondrowitz) properly a quarter of a century ago we wouldn't be socked with this mess now. Pnei hador K'pnei hakelev and know we are left to clean up after the dog's poop.
A former top executive at Merrill Lynch who received a $25 million golden parachute after just three months of work has purchased a $37 million Park Avenue palace.
Peter Kraus, 55, paid the staggering sum for a five-bedroom co-op on New York's posh Park Avenue after getting a $25 million buyout from Merrill Lynch when the company was sold to Bank of America in September, the New York Post reported.
• Click here to see more photos of the $37 million palace.
The 15-room apartment — featuring 11-foot-high ceilings, four fireplaces, three maid's rooms, a mahogany-paneled library and a gym upstairs — sold for twice what the previous owners, Democratic fundraisers Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, paid for it nearly two years ago, the Post reported.
Kraus is seen as a poster boy for the excess and irresponsibility on the part of America's financial institutions that helped drive them into the ground.
Although he did not officially start work until September, he hit it big after just a couple of days in office, when Merrill Lynch's CEO sold the company to Bank of America for $50 billion during the market meltdown.
And just in case his massive new pad isn't spacious enough, the building also features a squash court and wine cellar downstairs, according to real-estate broker Brown Harris Stevens.
"Don't you think that it would be proper and ethical, to credit the lyrics for the "Neighborhood Bully" to Bob Dylan, who wrote them in 1983?"
Not being much of a Rock fan (I am an avid follower of,gasp,Classical music) I was completely unaware that the lyrics were penned by Bob Dylan,a nice?!Jewish boy who drops into the Chabad house in Minneapolis every once in a while.
Someone sent the lyrics to me without identifying the author.
The NIRC kollel guy who apparently decided to commit suicide is a horrible tragedy. He obviously had unresolved issues no one was able to validate or accept. We know how it feels to keep secrets inside because the frum society doesn’t give a hoot. But, to go public as a victim is a very personal choice. It is up to the person to make up his/her mind. It’s unfair to guess if the dead man was a victim or not.
For those still trying to decide if molestation can destroy lives, it can. Suicide is a real threat when our pain eats at us. Without someone to guide you, a guy we can trust and say what’s on our mind without fear of abandonment it’s doubtful some of us would be here to write this post. Without our mentor/rabbi’s encouragement to do something usefull with our life, we would have no need for life. So take a stand against all abuse, lives depend on it.
Every person can rebuild the world or destroy it.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-taxi1231,0,7914038.story
Yellow Cab is offering free rides home tonight to those who have too much to drink and live within the Baltimore area, according to co-sponsors AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Maryland Department of Transportation's State Highway Administration.
The Tipsy? Taxi! campaign is in its second year and provided more than 100 rides last New Year's Eve. Free taxi rides for up to $50 will be given from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. to those at least 21 years old who have been drinking at a restaurant or bar in Baltimore. Balances more than $50 are the passenger's responsibility.
Riders are to call 1-877-963-TAXI for the service. The program will also be available on St. Patrick's Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
http://chabad.info/index_old.php?url=article_en&id=13459
Now the following announcement has been posted on Chabad.info, a leading Chabad blog:
New Committee to Tackle Rubashkin Case
A new committee has been formed to supervise efforts to secure the release of Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, former CEO of Agriprocessors in Postville, IA • The group, which is comprised of individuals with years of experience in assisting community members with legal troubles, began assisting Rubashkin six weeks ago • 'The Committee of Concerned Anash for Pidyon Shevuyim' will focus on assisting the Rubashkin familly in all matters.
["Anash" is an acronym that basically means members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community."]
The Committee is working with a team of top lawyers for the best defense as well as a public relations group, and will be collecting funds for the legal defense and keeping the community involved with the cause, Chabad.info was told.
Committee members include Levi Balkany [Rubashkin cousin], Yingy Bistritsky, Ari Chitrik, Sholom Duchman [Rubashkin cousin], Mendel Feller, Noson Hecht, Shea Hecht, Shmuli Hecht [probably the Shmuel Hecht who offered property worth in excess of $10 million dollars toward Rubashkin's bail and who is a Chabad rabbi and businessman in New Haven, CT, but could also be a nephew or cousin], Sholem B. Hecht, Sholom B. Lipskar [founder of Aleph, which is raising tax deductible money for Rubashkin's legal defense], Benjy Stock, Zalman Vishedsky and Yaakov Weiss [Rubashkin son in law arrested for child molestation], Suri Ciment, Hindy Labkowski and Molly Resnick.
In a press release sent to Chabad.info, the committee made the following statement: "The committee wants the public to know they are the official group to assist and aid the Rubashkins, endorsed by the family. The committee has years of experience in dealing with pidyon shevuyim cases, and now they have turned their attention to helping Sholom Rubashkin."
Members of the committee held a meeting Sunday at the offices of The National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE).
Following the meeting the committee held a press conference for the Lubavitch media in an effort to call on the worldwide Lubavitch community to take action, get involved, and donate to the Rubashkin legal fund. The meeting was attended by reporters representing many chabad news outlets, including Chabad.info.
Other Jewish groups are expected to speak out on behalf of Rubashkin, citing that "the case is now an attack against shechita."
Rabbi Pesach Lerner of Young Israel and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel of Agudas Yisroel are said to be planning a trip to Iowa to meet with Rubashkin in prison.
This Tuesday, lawyers from Grefe and Sidney, one of the firms defending Rubashkin will be visiting Crown Heights to meet with the committee and residents. They are scheduled to meet with Ahron Rubashkin, patriarch and founder of the Agri plant.
"Lubavitch in Crown Heights, and around the world, needs to know – from S. Padre Island, Texas to Shanghai, China, Kosher meat was available because of the Rubashkins," Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht said. "Any traveler, as well, benefited from Rubashkin. This affects every single person that eats kosher throughout the world."
The head of Colel Chabad, Chabad's oldest charitable organization dating back to the late 18th century, the founder of Chabad's prison outreach, and the head of the Chabad organization that runs a Crown Heights yeshiva (the oldest baal teshuva yeshiva in the world) and the Ivy league Torah Study Program all sit on this committee as do other connected Chabad members.
Chabad can no longer deny that it is both raising money for Sholom M. Rubashkin's defense and orchestrating much of the pro-Rubashkin / anti-government propaganda flooding media and the Web.
If you look at the website for Minnesota Chabad shaliach Mendel Feller, you'll see something else interesting. Rabbi Asher Zeilingold, the man who helped fake an OSHA report 'clearing' Rubashkin and who has long acted as one of Agriprocessors' paid kosher supervisors, is listed by Chabad.org as an official employee of Chabad-Lubavitch.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/832463.html
California warns it'll be paying bills soon with IOUs
By Steve Wiegand
Sacramento Bee
Franken lead at 50; Minn. absentees left to count
By BRIAN BAKST – 1 hour ago
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Democratic candidate Al Franken now holds a 50-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota's Senate race, but wrangling over inclusion of absentee ballots continued Tuesday and any final determination of a winner was still days or weeks away.
By this time next week, the state board overseeing the recount expects to declare a winner in the bruising campaign between Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" cast member, and the incumbent. But even then, the race won't be over if the losing party challenges the outcome in court.
Franken's lead grew by a few votes Tuesday when the state Canvassing Board finished allocating to each candidate his share of thousands of ballots that had been held up because of candidate challenges.
"We are well into the fourth quarter," said Marc Elias, an attorney for Franken. "We are a few yards from the end zone, but we feel good about being able to get it in."
Coleman attorney Tony Trimble said his client could still overtake Franken, either during the count of absentee ballots or in the expected court case. Coleman's campaign has alleged irregularities in the counting of some ballots in Democratic strongholds.
"We're faced with an artificial Franken lead," he said.
Meanwhile, officials at the local level began determining which of hundreds of yet-unopened absentee ballots should be counted. They had initially been rejected by election officials because of minor but not disqualifying errors, such as a signature on a ballot that doesn't match the one on file with the county.
The size of that pile is in dispute but it is thought to be around 1,350. Coleman's campaign is challenging some of those ballots and wants to add another 650 to the stack.
Reports from some of the regional meeting sites early Tuesday suggested gridlock, with the campaigns not seeing eye to eye.
"Things are not going as smoothly as we hoped," said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann.
In St. Louis County, where election officials had identified 161 ballots they said were rejected for no lawful reason, Coleman's campaign Tuesday challenged the inclusion of dozens of them.
One belonged to Duluth resident Mary Bell, who told the Duluth News Tribune that her husband served as her witness on the absentee ballot but put a date on the outside of the envelope that didn't match hers.
"He's in the doghouse now," Bell said with a laugh. "But it does make me angry that my vote might not get counted because of this."
She wouldn't say who got her Senate vote. That's a common mystery with these ballots because they remain sealed.
The absentee ballots in question were all rejected on or before Election Day, but later deemed to be incorrectly disqualified.
What's so shlecht about a Band-Aid solution?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/middleeast/01mideast.html
The air attacks on Gaza continued on Wednesday, and at least 20 more rockets were fired by Hamas militants in reprisal into southern Israel, including three that landed in the city of Beersheba. Mark Regev, the spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said earlier that the country’s leaders “view it as important to keep up the pressure on Hamas.”
“We cannot give them a respite to rearm and regroup,” he said. “We need a real, sustainable solution, not a Band-Aid.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/business/31drug.html
December 31, 2008
No Mug? Drug Makers Cut Out Goodies for Doctors
By NATASHA SINGER
To Lehman Brothers, Linens ’n Things and the blank VHS tape, add another American institution that expired in 2008: drug company trinkets.
Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies — Viagra pens, Zoloft soap dispensers, Lipitor mugs — that were meant to foster good will and, some would say, encourage doctors to prescribe more of the drugs.
No longer will Merck furnish doctors with purplish adhesive bandages advertising Gardasil, a vaccine against the human papillomavirus. Banished, too, are black T-shirts from Allergan adorned with rhinestones that spell out B-O-T-O-X. So are pens advertising the Sepracor sleep drug Lunesta, in whose barrel floats the brand’s mascot, a somnolent moth.
Some skeptics deride the voluntary ban as a superficial measure that does nothing to curb the far larger amounts drug companies spend each year on various other efforts to influence physicians. But proponents welcome it as a step toward ending the barrage of drug brands and logos that surround, and may subliminally influence, doctors and patients.
This blog is so boring
Measuring the toll of the disgraced financier. Dec 23, 2008
Sponsored ByA Letter To Madoff
Measuring the toll of the disgraced financier.
Rabbi Marc Gellman
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dear Bernie Madoff:
I don't think you know what you have done.
Life inevitably inflicts upon us different kinds of wounds. Very few people can live connected lives and not occasionally fail those who depend upon them and trust them. However, these are failures not betrayals. They come from trying to do the right thing and not being able to do it. A betrayal is different than a failure. A betrayal is an intentional wounding. It is born of cruelty, not ignorance. Most of us know of failures and betrayals. What you have done, however, is to radically expand the scope and viciousness of betrayal. You betrayed not just your friends, but your closest friends. You betrayed the trust of those who entrusted you with everything they had saved. You betrayed charities whose good works you have extinguished in an afternoon. These betrayals are epic in their scope and dazzling in their utter lack of remorse or responsibility. There must be some new word invented to describe the way you have redefined betrayal. The Bible calls such things a toevah, "an abomination". It means an act so alien to our values and our natures that it cannot be understood or explained. You have committed an abomination. This is what you have done.
Another thing you did was make life incredibly more difficult for people who sell real and honorable and legitimate money products. Now every stock broker and money manager and hedge-fund operator and insurance rep who has already had a tough time convincing prospective clients that what they are selling is good and honest must now also convince them that they are not like you. An entire world economy we now know is based to an immense degree on simple trust, and you have done more than any single person to destroy that trust. You are a financial terrorist. Your attack has toppled the foundations of trust in our financial markets. Although you are not by any means the only financial terrorist, you are its most reviled attacker. What have brought us down are not worthless financial instruments, but worthless people. Many business people have always known and have never forgotten that trust is all the collateral they have ever placed against a loan. Your name is on people's lips now, but the ones out there selling honest products at a fair price ought to push your name into the gutter where it belongs. This is what you have done.
One of the very worst things you did has to do with the Jews. You are responsible for reviving the "Jew game." I heard of the Jew game from a boy who became a man last Saturday. I asked him once if he had ever experienced anti-Semitism in school. That20is when he looked at the floor and told me about the Jew game. The game, played by anti-Semitic kids in school, was one in which they would hide around a corner, throw a quarter down the hall, and then when somebody picked up the quarter, they'd run at the person, shouting, "You're the Jew!"
You did not cause the anti-Semitic insults about Jews and money, but you caused them to be revived. Not since Julius Rosenberg spied for the Soviet Union has one person so damaged the image and the self-respect of American Jews. I am not comfortable with the fact that so many of the articles about you specifically identify your prominent place in the Jewish community. Ken Lay of Enron shame was never identified as a "prominent Protestant energy broker." The most aggressive accusers of the governor of Illinois seldom describe him as "the prominent Serbian-American governor of Illinois." Yes, it is unfair that your Jewishness has become part of the storyline. But you just reminded the bigots who grew up playing The Jew Game that it still strikes a familiar chord. You wiped out Joe Lieberman's accomplishments. You revived ancient bigotry against our people. You gave credence to the horrid accusations about Jews being untrustworthy and greedy. One offensive paper has a column called "Jews in the News," which focuses on some Jewish criminal or other to remind their sickening readers of the legitimacy of anti-Semitism. You are not just one of the "Jews in the news" they seek. You are the apotheosis of their hate-filled world. You have given the Jew-haters material for a decade of hate gardening. You single-handedly revived the Jew game. This is what you have done.
Most of those you've deceived will learn to live and give in new and perhaps more modest ways. Unlike your evil, which has been stopped, nothing will stop their courage and compassion. Some of your victims will no doubt be more severely wounded in circumstance and in spirit, but none of them, I pray, will surrender to your assault. Their friends will not leave them. Their children and grandchildren will not refuse to hug them and kiss them. After their initial trauma subsides, they will, I believe, move on to cling to the blessings that cannot ever be stolen.
You, on the other hand, will lose everything,everything! From this day to the end of your life, there will be none who will trust you. To be mistrusted by everyone is an enormous curse and you have brought this all upon yourself, and for what purpose? You were supposed to be the master of risk and reward and you risked everything from everyone for what reward? You have not just made a bad calculation about how money works, you=2 0have made a bad calculation about how life works. You gave no value to what matters and all value to what does not matter at all. This is what you have done.
Shame on you Bernie Madoff. Shame on you.
Neuhoff is only a Psy D.
Psy Ds can only prescribe medicine in 2 states (+ the territory of Guam) and New York is not one of those jurisdictions.
The only freebies he's been getting are copies of Belsky's books.
The Scam That Outscams "The Scam"
By Dan Solin
The Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme is generally regarded as the biggest financial scam of all time. I don't agree.
Hedge funds, and particularly "fund of funds," make Bernie's despicable conduct look like small potatoes.
The underlying premise of hedge funds -- outsized returns with no increase in risk--is fatally flawed. Numerous studies have demonstrated the vast majority of these funds do not beat the returns investors could obtain for themselves, by investing in a simple S&P 500 index fund.
It was only a matter of time before these funds started to implode. According to a web site that tracks hedge fund failures, 108 funds at 66 firms have gone of business since 2006. Many more are sure to follow.
While the pitch of hedge funds is a scam standing alone, the "fund of funds" embellished the con. These funds charged 1% or more for selecting and monitoring the performance of "the best" managers.
This scam relied on the gullibility of investors who believe "best managers" is not an oxymoron. The data clearly indicates that it is. If you own an actively managed fund, the odds of it beating its benchmark over 1 year is 1 in 3, over 5 years it's 1 in 5, over ten years it's 3 in 100 and over 25 years it's essentially zero!
How anyone can claim to be able to beat these odds and convince so many sophisticated investors they should pay them to do so, is the poster child for a combination of greed and cognitive dissonance.
Enter the track record of Bernie Madoff. Fifteen years with steady returns of 11%. This was something fund of funds could really sell -- and they did. Some funds reaped hundreds of millions of dollars of fees for simply forwarding billions of dollars of assets to Madoff. These investors felt privileged to gain access to him and were happy to pay the fund fee, secure in the knowledge that Madoff was being closely monitored.
You know what happened next.
Here's the real scam: How motivated were these "fund of funds" to carefully monitor Madoff's performance? Did they really want to kill the golden goose? Or is it likely they either knew his returns were too good to be true or engaged in "willful blindness" to his fraud?
It would not have been difficult to detect his misconduct. He used an obscure accounting firm. He had no independent custodian. These are major red flags.
Or, they could simply have read a 2001 story about Madoff written by Erin E. Arvedlund in Barron's.
The article was skeptical of Madoff's track record and noted "[T]hree option strategists for major investment banks told Barron's they couldn't understand how Madoff churns out such numbers using this strategy."
Of course, real monitoring would have included replicating Madoff's results. No one has been able to do so....and with good reason.
The real beneficiaries of the scam are these funds. Their rewards dwarfed those received by Madoff.
They are the ones who engaged in the scam that outscams "The Scam."
I inquired with BMG as to whether R' Matis Solomon is really also one of Margo's hired hands.
It was not denied.
Excuse aleph I was given is that Margo was already paying him to give shmuzen on a regular basis before he became der Lakewood Mashgiach
Excuse bais is that Rav Solomon goes to the YTT bais medrash, not the yeshiva ketana (as if that makes a difference).
This is disturbing on several fronts.
How can anyone, let alone klei koydesh at the leading yeshiva, have anything to do with a mokom tumah and Margulies?
And the conflict of interest is too much to bear now that we know that RMS got up to lambast Margo's arch-enemy UOJ at the Agudah Fresser Convention. As Margo's paid employee, he should have excused himself from pretending to speak for Klal Yisroel.
Oh ...
Attacking UOJ while getting a weekly check from Margulies is a conflict of interest?
Why didn't you say so earlier?
Ich hob nisht gevust!
This is a "boring blog"? Gimmee a break. What are you inhaling, Bro?
With Pedophiles running amuck aided and protected by "D-ass Toiyrah", greed, scams, cover ups, deceit, Kolel scams in the name of Toiyrah, the development by our "Rosher Yeshivos" of a poor underclass in perpetuity and that is inculcated with the mantra that learning a trade and making a Parnoseh is Treif and therefore resorts to Gov't dole in the form of HUD, Section 8, WIC, V'Chuluh.
Perhaps BMG should apply to the Feds to become a Holding Bank so that they can get share of the TARP bailout money. It worked for Ezra (Bernie Made-Off? Never met the Man) Merkin.
Our Am Ha'Nivchar has become a Nation of High-Pox-Crisy.
Dear UOJ and anyone "in the know",
Very recently there have been two caes of confimed abuse in Lakewood, NJ by husband's of babysitters.
One involves a middle age man, while the other involves a young fellow on Hatzoloh who lived in Presidential Estates.
R' Matisyahu Salomon has forced both to leave town. If R' Salomon agreed to such drastic measures, it must be very real.
For the sake of all the rest of us, can someone please provide the names of these monsters so that we can be informed who they are?
Remember, they are leaving Lakewood and may be moving in on YOUR block!
a young fellow on Hatzoloh who lived in Presidential Estates.
What was the story with Rabbi Salomon trying to stir up a hornet's nest in Lakewood 4 years ago, saying no one should daven by Rabbi Pereira?
According to my Ponivitcher-Brisker sources, Rabbi P had no involvement in the issue that got Rabbi S bent out of shape.
Did the mashgiach ever apologize?
http://www.oukosher.org/pdf/Daf_16-10.pdf
Scroll down and add it to the UOJ rogue's gallery.
REMINDER....
All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies today Dec 31, and you will start to receive sale calls.
YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS
To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222 It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five
(5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number. HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS. It takes about 20 seconds.
Return to Mumbai
Video and Photographs
http://www.shturem.org/index.php?section=news&id=32870
lakewooder said...
presidential molester cleared by lakewoods vaad linyanei molestation uchidoime.
I believe the rabbi of "sons of israel" who has ties to some of these orgonazations UOJ champions is on that vaad.
10:00 AM, December 28, 2008
in truth I heard he underwent a lie detecter test and other "complicated psycological profile testing" all of which he passed. r mattisyahu did not run him out of town, he's living in his sisters house untill things quiet down by the tummulters.
Ralph Peters today in the NY Post.
As ever the voice of reason and common sense:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01012009/news/columnists/bam_stirs_fears_in_israel_146762.htm?&page=1
The Bim-Bam Identity.
Ex-Hareidi Wants to Disqualify Hareidi Parties
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) A former hareidi Jew, head of the “Light” Party, has petitioned the Central Elections Committee to disqualify the hareidi-religious parties for their anti-democratic stance.
Yaron Yad’an, 47, founded the “Light” Party this year, with the goals of nullifying exemptions from the army based on Torah study, nullifying the religious education networks, and separating synagogue and state in the Jewish State.
His party's petition to the Elections Committee states that the hareidi parties express “values and statements regarding democracy and government that do not jibe with the values of democracy.”
Yad’an is famous in the hareidi world for having become religiously observant at the age of 17, establishing a hareidi family of seven sons, and then, after his bid to become Rosh Kollel [top rabbi in a Torah study institute] was thwarted, deciding that he and his family would become secular.
“One evening,” it was reported in the now-defunct hareidi newspaper Yom HaShishi, “he came home and cut off the sidelocks of all seven sons, took off their yarmulke from their pure heads, and made the following terrible declaration: ‘From now on, we are all secular.' … The terrifying screams of the children that night shocked the community…”
The newspaper’s report, which was upheld later by a court that ruled against Yad’an’s libel suit, also stated:
“A wretched and unstable Jew named Yaron Yad’an was taken in from the street in Tel Aviv by Torah students and brought close to Torah, receiving help in finding his bride - a newly-observant young woman from Rechasim, where he remained to study Torah for several years until he was named the director of the local Kollel. Then, with delusions of grandeur, he crowned himself a ‘Torah giant' and demanded to be named educational head of the Kollel. The scholars prevented this because of his very non-commendable character traits and because of rumors regarding his modesty. He therefore went and left his studies, and then left his Creator, as ‘revenge’ against G-d Who had not fulfilled all his lusts…”
“Light” Party sources say that if the Elections Committee does not disqualify the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, they will consider turning to the Supreme Court.
A source in the Shas Party told the Ladaat.net site that it would not comment on the matter, because “responding to a party that would not pass the minimum vote threshold in a school vote for student council would mean giving significance to something that does not exist.”
The Fraud of Government Intervention
Robert Tracinski – Wed Dec 31, 1:40 am
The top story of 2008 is undoubtedly the revival of the left. After nearly two decades on the defensive following the collapse of the Soviet empire--the definitive example of the failure of socialism--advocates of a government-controlled economy are trying to make a comeback.
How brazen has this leftist revival become? It has gotten so far out of hand that some on the left are openly defending central planning. Yes, comrades, you read that right.
I occasionally poke around the Internet to see the response to my articles, and I recently came across a reply to my December 11 article warning about the return of the Old Left, complete with central planning for the financial and auto industries. Over at MyDD, a prominent clearing house for "netroots" Democratic Party activists, Charles Lemos responded by complaining that "Central planning is the latest conservative epithet in the wake of president-elect Obama's bold and sweeping proposals for revitalizing the increasingly moribund American economy." He then goes on to declare that, "As liberals, as progressives it is imperative that we fight for planning. It's time we rehabilitate the concept of long-term planning."
Can anyone really be saying this in the 21st century? If so, it is because they have failed 20th-Century History 101. For those in need of a quick refresher, the satirical website The People's Cube has posted a helpful overview of the product line once offered by the East Bloc's centrally planned auto industry. My favorite line is an old joke about the Yugo: "Every car came with a rear defroster to keep your hands warm as you pushed it."
But central planning has not just been discredited by a mass of empirical evidence. It has been thoroughly refuted in theory, too. Legions of pro-free-market economists, particularly the Austrian school's Ludwig von Mises, have thoroughly demonstrated that the government's so-called planning is actually an attack on planning.
Planning is what is already done in a free economy by millions of private individuals. Every economic decision they make is a plan about how to allocate the only money and effort they have a right to dispose of: their own. And these plans are made with full access to the only kind of information that is really relevant: the context of their own lives and values.
Government planning, by contrast, consists of smashing all of these private plans and replacing them with inferior plans made by inferior men.
Planning for its future solvency, for example, Bank of America decided not to lend money to a defunct window and door manufacturer--but then along comes Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, right before his arrest, to demand that the bank extend such a loan anyway. Other banks decided, reasonably enough, that the best way to survive an economic downturn is to make only conservative investments--but along comes their uninvited new business partner, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who declares that he expects them to open a floodgate of new lending.
And how about you? You may have decided, for example, that you will get better value for your money by spending it on a Toyota rather than a Pontiac--but then along come George Bush and Barack Obama to decree that your money really ought to go to General Motors after all.
This is the world of central planning, which consists of forcibly substituting the plans of government officials for the far more sensible plans that private individuals make about their own lives and money.
And we haven't seen the worst of it, at least not yet. Much bigger and deadlier lessons will spring to mind for those who were paying attention in 20th-Century History 101. Remember Trofim Lysenko? He's the crackpot scientist who got Stalin's ear and set himself up as the central planner of Soviet agriculture, single-handedly wiping out Soviet wheat production. Or what about the hucksters who convinced Mao that it was possible for peasants to manufacturer steel in small backyard furnaces, helping to turn the Great Leap Forward into a great leap backward?
If you think that these central planning catastrophes are limited to the most doctrinaire Marxist dictatorships, consider that Bernie Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme is minuscule compared to the multi-trillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that is Social Security. And if the economic downturn exposed the fact that Madoff's scheme wasn't backed by any real assets--what do you think a sudden decrease in payroll tax revenues is going to do to Social Security?
Certainly the plans of private individuals can go awry. Just ask the former homeowners who over-extended themselves by taking out adjustable rate mortgages, or the investment banks who over-extended themselves by financing those mortgages. But private mistakes are corrected by the workings of the market. People who can't afford their houses will have to sell them to those who can; failing banks get bought out by healthy banks; unprofitable automakers go bankrupt and their bones are picked clean by manufacturers who can make a profit.
But notice that the whole point of the government's planning in the current crisis is to prevent all of these corrective mechanisms. The government is intervening, not to make the economy healthier and more efficient, but to keep the overextended borrowers in their homes, to keep insolvent banks afloat, and to pump money into failing automakers so that they can keep losing money for another year or two.
That leads us to the deeper reason for the comprehensive failure of government planning. By its very nature, government planning always sacrifices economic calculations to political calculations.
The purpose of government planning is not to maximize the creation of wealth, but rather to maximize the satisfaction of political pressure groups. Hence the auto bailout, the purpose of which is not to make GM profitable but rather to prop up the UAW--the only organization whose destruction is guaranteed if the Detroit automakers file for bankruptcy.
The clearest example of this principle is the attempt to use the auto bailout to force Detroit to stop fighting global warming restrictions and to manufacture underpowered "green" cars. In another interesting response to my article, Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center--a state-level pro-free-market think tank--observes the irony of Washington, DC, spending billions to save the automakers just as the state of Washington plans to spend billions on a public-transit scheme designed to discourage people from driving cars. "The logic of these activities," Myers concludes, "is that we need to spend $25 billion to save an industry that we are spending $22 billion locally to kill." And this is just a small sampling of what is being proposed on the federal level by means of "cap-and-trade" energy rationing designed to make automobiles too expensive to drive.
The absurdity of George Bush's public proclamations about the financial crisis is that he still considers himself a "free-market guy" who is destroying capitalism in order to save it. But the reasoning behind the auto bailout is even more perverse. Washington wants to save the auto industry so that the global warming lobby can conspire to destroy it.
Given a century of factual and theoretical refutation, continued advocacy of government planning is a transparent fraud. It is an attempt to cover up the fact that what the planners really have to offer us is not planning but chaos--an economy held hostage to the contradictory, ever-shifting whims of government officials and political pressure groups. Isn't that the predominant character of the current bailout frenzy, as the Treasury, the Fed, the president, Congress, and the president-elect careen from one stimulus plan to another? Haven't the past three months given the impression, not of planning, but of spur-of-the-moment improvisation?
The modern left is already based on two big frauds. They call themselves "liberals," even as they oppose liberty--in the economic realm and, increasingly, in the intellectual realm. And they describe themselves as "progressives," even as they seek to reverse two centuries of progress made by capitalism. So it should be no surprise to find advocates of "long-range planning" who systematically oppose the genuine economic plans made by private individuals.
Thousands of stores to disappear in '09
Experts say disastrous holiday sales will force many more merchants into bankruptcy - and ultimately into liquidation.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: January 1, 2009: 11:58 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The ugly sales year that was 2008 will haunt U.S. retailers in 2009, with industry experts warning that disastrous holiday sales will spark a domino effect of store closures and bankruptcy filings.
And, with thousands of fewer stores, the "shop-'til-you-drop" mentality that has characterized American consumerism could be coming to an end.......
i heard that there is a way to view pages of a website that was taken down -ie that they are cached somewhere on the web. Would anyone know where such a site exists?
From Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz:
http://www.rabbihorowitz.com/PYes/ArticleDetails.cfm?Book_ID=1129&ThisGroup_ID=262&Type=Article&SID=2
Why Avrohom Mondrowitz Must Be Extradited
What I Would Tell the Judge
by Rabbi Yakov Horowitz
I do not anticipate receiving an invitation to address the Israeli judge presiding over Avrohom Mondrowitz’s extradition case. However, given the opportunity, here is what I would say:
Your Honor:
One of the great Torah sages of the 19th century famously stated that one of the main functions of a Rabbi is to advocate for and support the weakest members of his community. I respectfully suggest that our judicial system as well, has a similar mission – to provide a venue for the downtrodden individuals among us to be heard and fairly represented.
I can think of no group of people who are more in need of rabbinic and judicial support, than child-abuse victims. For the vast majority of them were abused or neglected many, many times – first by the monsters who ravaged their innocence and cruelly stole their childhood, later inadvertently, by the adults in their lives who weren’t attuned to their silent cries for help while the abuse was taking place, and finally by those who passively or actively protected the abuser, rather than the victim, once the abuse became known.
On behalf of the hundreds of abuse victims that I have met and tried my very best to comfort and support over the years, I beg you to remove the legal barriers that stand between Avrohom Mondrowitz and his long overdue date with justice in America.
Mondrowitz cruelly abused and ruined the lives of many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of vulnerable children who came to him for counseling and support. I personally have met many of his victims, and know of at least one who committed suicide after years of a tortured existence. I know victims of his who became alcoholics, heroin and cocaine addicts, and those who are my age and unmarried – never becoming whole enough to love and be loved. My wife and I became grandparents eighteen months ago, and this evil monster robbed those victims of the joy of holding their own child.
Thankfully, I was never molested as a child. But I often think of how I could very well have been one of the kids who were ruthlessly sodomized by Mondrowitz. I lost my father before my fourth birthday, and due to my restless nature, was a very poor student in school. In short, I would have been a perfect candidate for an evil predator like Mondrowitz – who was a practicing social worker, when I was struggling in school as a teenager. Because I was spared that horrible fate, I feel all the more morally compelled to stand with his nameless, voiceless victims and advocate on their behalf.
I am far from an expert in legal matters. But, one human being to another, I plead with you to do everything in your power to see to it that his victims can finally gain a modicum of validation and support – seeing him stand before an American court of law and squarely face his crimes. This is where he committed his crimes and this is where he must face justice.
Two years ago, several months before the attempt was made to extradite Mondrowitz, I wrote a column in The Jewish Press decrying the fact that he was permitted to live a peaceful life in Israel after the horrible crimes he committed. At that time the public at large was apathetic, as this case was under the radar of the average person on the street. Thankfully, the tide is turning and there is now a groundswell of support for his extradition. It is difficult to convey to you what a body blow it would be to the fragile emotional health of long-suffering abuse victims, to see this high-profile case fall into the win column for this monster, and the immoral people who are protecting him.
Word on the street is that there are powerful people backing Mondrowitz. Having him successfully avoid extradition will confirm that suspicion in the minds of many. It will also reinforce a horrific message – unfortunately the one that is prevalent – to the public at large and more specifically to abuse victims – that the blood of innocent children can be washed away if the molester knows the right people. Additionally, it will be a huge step backwards for those of us in the trenches, who are begging abuse victims to step forward, and assuring them that they will be taken seriously.
At the risk of overstepping my bounds, I appeal to you from the depths of my heart, not to be a party to yet another rape of his victims – and all the other abuse victims who are watching this case carefully – which offering Avrohom Mondrowitz shelter from justice would be.
Thank you for offering me the opportunity to address the court.
Apropo of Tracinski's article, here is a chilling prediction by Russian Professor Igor Panarin which appeared recently in The Wall Street Journal 12/29/08.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html
_____________________________________
* DECEMBER 29, 2008
As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010
By ANDREW OSBORN
MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.
In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin's ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country's top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.
Mr. Panarin's apocalyptic vision "reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today," says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. "It's much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union."
Mr. Pozner and other Russian commentators and experts on the U.S. dismiss Mr. Panarin's predictions. "Crazy ideas are not usually discussed by serious people," says Sergei Rogov, director of the government-run Institute for U.S. and Canadian Studies, who thinks Mr. Panarin's theories don't hold water.
Mr. Panarin's résumé includes many years in the Soviet KGB, an experience shared by other top Russian officials. His office, in downtown Moscow, shows his national pride, with pennants on the wall bearing the emblem of the FSB, the KGB's successor agency. It is also full of statuettes of eagles; a double-headed eagle was the symbol of czarist Russia.
The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."
In September 1998, he attended a conference in Linz, Austria, devoted to information warfare, the use of data to get an edge over a rival. It was there, in front of 400 fellow delegates, that he first presented his theory about the collapse of the U.S. in 2010.
"When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise," he remembers. He says most in the audience were skeptical. "They didn't believe me."
At the end of the presentation, he says many delegates asked him to autograph copies of the map showing a dismembered U.S.
He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.
California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.
"It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time." A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. "It's not there for no reason," he says with a sly grin.
Interest in his forecast revived this fall when he published an article in Izvestia, one of Russia's biggest national dailies. In it, he reiterated his theory, called U.S. foreign debt "a pyramid scheme," and predicted China and Russia would usurp Washington's role as a global financial regulator.
Americans hope President-elect Barack Obama "can work miracles," he wrote. "But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles."
The article prompted a question about the White House's reaction to Prof. Panarin's forecast at a December news conference. "I'll have to decline to comment," spokeswoman Dana Perino said amid much laughter.
For Prof. Panarin, Ms. Perino's response was significant. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he says.
The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.
Boog,
The Russians are still bemoaning the death of their Soviet Union and their precipitous fall from power twenty years ago. If you spoke to Russian emigres in the '80's, they were always proud of Soviet power and domination regardless of the fact that they themselves were persecuted by the Evil Empire.
2:03 pm Google waybackmachine
UOJ,
You should post a picture of this leitzan-clown, Yaakov Litzman. He's probably more responsible for protecting Mondrowitz than his boss:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaakov_Litzman
Haredi Group Balks At Clergy Law
by Debra Nussbaum Cohen
Jewish Week - April 5, 2002
http://www.thejewis hweek.com/ viewArticle/ c36_a2095/ News/New_ York.html
New legislation adding clergy to those professionals who are legally required to report suspected child abuse is being welcomed by a wide range of rabbinic leaders and those who work with victims, but it is being opposed by an influential group in the fervently Orthodox community.
As Catholic Church officials struggle to deal with a flood of lawsuits over the sexual abuse of children by priests, the New York state Senate unanimously passed the measure. The Assembly is preparing a similar bill.
The legislation comes as Manhattan's largest Reform congregation, Temple Emanu-El, remains silent on the sexual abuse charges against its cantor, though its leadership had information about the allegations before Howard Nevison was arrested last month. (See accompanying story.)
Professionals who come into contact with children —
doctors, nurses and dentists, schoolteachers and administrators, psychologists, social workers, child care workers and law enforcement staff — must report to the state any suspected abuse.
But clergy have been exempt from the requirement in New York since 1828, when the state Legislature became the first in the nation to protect the "clergy-penitent privilege." The law has stood through the efforts of the
Catholic Church and Agudath Israel of America,
which have blocked measures for change at the state and local levels.
This time, however, the Church is staying out of the fray,
leaving only Agudath Israel, which represents the interests of fervently Orthodox Jews on a variety of issues, in opposing the addition of clergy to the law.
The organization, whose offices are essentially closed for the Passover holiday, is still undecided on whether it will formally oppose the bills, said David Zwiebel, Agudah's executive vice president for governmental and public affairs.
But, he said, if the law is passed without any exemption for clergy-penitent privilege, some Orthodox rabbis may choose not to comply with it.
"If the law tells the rabbis 'you've got to go to the authorities on this' and the rabbis feel that, for instance, a case of abuse goes back seven years and the best way to deal with it now is to refer the man to therapy rather than to law enforcement, they will choose to deal with it themselves," said Zwiebel, who is also an attorney.
"You decide where your first duties and obligations are," he said.
Illustrating the position of some in the haredi community, an Orthodox pediatrician in Brooklyn who has lectured on child abuse and disseminated tapes of her speeches has said that though she is required to report suspicions of child abuse, she checks with her rabbi to get permission.
Psychology professionals who work with victims of sexual and physical abuse say the new law will likely help their young victims.
It "makes it easier for clergy to do the right thing," said Herb Neiburg, who directs behavioral medicine at the psychiatric Four Winds Hospital in Katonah, N.Y., and teaches pastoral counseling at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary.
"When something is mandated by law, it takes away the guilt over breaking what used to be this old type of priest-penitent relationship," he said.
"The tough part will be when clergy hear that other clergy have molested kids. It's always tough to turn in a colleague, but it has to get done," said Neiburg. "This law will open that door."
Leaders of the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and centrist Orthodox movements have all publicly voiced support for the legislation.
But those who work with the fervently Orthodox say it may not work in their community, which is suspicious of secular authority and has its own way of dealing with problems — relying on rabbinic judgment.
"People go to rabbonim [rabbis] to talk," said David Mandel, chief executive officer of the Brooklyn-based OHEL Children's Home and Family Services. "This law may discourage people from going to talk to their rabbis if they think that the conversation is going to be on the record." (click here for more information on David Mandel: http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=Soo67uqrseE)
That, Neiburg argues, "is like saying that since pediatricians are mandated reporters, no one will bring a kid with injuries that could look like abuse to a pediatrician, and it obviously doesn't work that way."
Even so, said Mandel, "the legislation may be premature" for the Orthodox community.
"Legislation will not necessarily dramatically improve the way the Orthodox community handles these issues," he said. "Continuing to educate the community, to remove the stigma from the victim and his or her family and put the onus on the offender, will make the most dramatic changes." n
Steve;
Indeed Dr. Panarin may be indulging in wishful thinking but the topsy-turvey events of the past six months indicate that nothing is beyond the realm of happening and with "There Can Only Be One President At A Time" Bim-Bam taking Office in 2-1/2 weeks, all bets are off.
Fasten your seatbelt.
My prediction:
Within one year there will be suicide bombers all accross America. Just my gut feeling.
I was one of the many Mondrowitz victims.I am Married with Children.Most of the readers do not understand the pain,anger,and lack of trust that I grew up with due to my molestation.I am sure it has to do with the fact that I am A sex & crack addict.No amount of punishment in this world would be enough for the damage this man caused.But we are not here to punish people it is not our job.We are here and obligated to protect our children.If anyone protects A child molestor in our midst he is just as guilty.There is no shame in being molested.we were innocent kids that were robbed of a innocent life.Its about time we blow this open in our community so we can stop this ugly perpetual cycle.May hashem bring the gulah & healing to all of us.
We must absolutely crush the system that allows every Rav and politically connected askan the ability to protect criminals by taking responsibility for them.
It is also time that parents teach their children basic rules of safety, many of which are taught in public schools but somehow neglected in our yeshivas.
1) No one should touch a child in the bathing suit area. If anyone does, the child should know to immediately let a female adult know, and to let their parents know as soon as possible.
2) Children should not be taught to mindlessly think everything negative is loshon hora. They need to be told by their parents that they can and should tell their parents anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.
3) Parents should debrief each and every child every day after school--"How was your day?" etc.
4) Parents need to be alert to changes in personality of a child. A previously happy child who becomes somber warrants immediate investigation.
5) Children often know more than they say--If a child tries to avoid a certain bus driver or the gym teacher or a certain rebbe, try to find out why--and do not make that child stay with that person.
6) Teach children to trust their gut feelings, their instincts, and if something does not feel right, to let Mommy or Tatte (Daddy) know right away.
Many of these basic principles are taught in public schools but in too many of our yeshivas common sense is not very common anymore, and the parent-child bond has become worthless--replaced by a doctrine of blind obedience bordering on the deification of the rebbes, menahel, and rosh yeshiva.
There is great danger in severing the parent-child bond and fostering extreme loyalty only to the child's rebbe.
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show me a godol and i'll show you either a molester or an enabler. the 3 are synonomous today. and if mondrowitz gets off the hook thanks to the gedolim of yesterday and today, i will kiss this religion goodbye.
I too am a victim of him. i too have a loving innocent family suffering for mondrowitz's sins commited on me. Take heart in the grassroots groundswell of support building among laymen and a very select group of rabbonim. we might never heal completely but we can grow with the help of available community supports like rabbi horowitz. closure and validation appears now to be a clear possibility. but regardless, we must pull together and support eachother through the resultant behavioral anomalies that being a victim creates. you might want to get in touch with the attorney michael lesher (who is working free on this case - he isn't even a trial attorney) a tzaddik of a man and a great mentch. he might be able to facilitate for you meeting other victims of mondrowitz like me. He took my testimony and signed for me a letter promising to keep the info confidential. As for the drug and sex addiction, know that it is a common reaction to your horrible experiences as a youth. Ben Zion Twersky, who has a office on 18th avenue in boro park is a caring ear for such situations. I learnt to trust him and confide my inner feelings and life secrets. Call him. He has seen and heard it all and will treat you with respect and dignity no matter where you have gone with your painful life. Hang in there brother. I wish we can all sit down together and give and get strength from eachother. yevarechecha hashem v'yishmerecha! Love you brother, i know and feel your pain. Call these 2 angles. do it for your kids, and for caring folks like me.
All these comments point to why shidduchim are not a joke or a game of Russian roulette. Parents and kids in shidduchim should understand the importance of doing due diligence on information crucial to a marriage success or failure, and not fall into the hype of the "Shidduch Crisis", so lets settle.
Far more dangerous is going into a shidduch for the money, or perceived money. Money isn't given away for free, there are always strings attached. If there is a history of dysfunctionality, instability, inappropriate behaviors, abuse etc. be extremely vigilant. Don't throw away your life or your childrens life to avoid being an unmarried bachelor/ette NASI statistic. Otherwise you will likely become a divorce statistic.
Shomer Pesoim Hashem, Hashem guards the fools, only applies to one who truly is fooled. Not to a person who saw the flashing lights yet took the plunge anyhow.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/business/02dairy.html?em=&pagewanted=print
Taxpayer bailout of dairy farmers.
They produced too much milk & cheese that they can't sell so now the govt is using your tax dollars to pay them for being failed businessmen.
Steel Industry, in Slump, Looks to Federal Stimulus
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: January 1, 2009
The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy.
That maxim once applied to Detroit’s Big Three car companies, when they dominated American manufacturing. Now they are losing ground in good times and bad, and steel has replaced autos as the industry to watch for an early sign that a severe recession is beginning to lift.
The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders. Its executives are waiting anxiously for details of President-elect Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, and adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program — up to $1 trillion over two years — intended to lift demand for steel to build highways, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and rapid transit.
“What we are asking,” said Daniel R. DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of the Nucor Corporation, a giant steel maker, “is that our government deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a ‘buy America’ clause.”
Economists in the Obama camp said the president-elect’s proposals to Congress will include significant infrastructure spending that draws on heavy industry.
New spending should provide an immediate jolt to the steel business, which has already gone through the painful makeover now demanded of automakers. Steel mills were closed, companies were consolidated, hundreds of thousands lost their jobs and the survivors agreed to concessions. As a result, productivity shot up and so did profits, to record levels in the first nine months of this year. Even as the economy wobbled, steel held its own.
But then the recession hit in force. Steel goes into nearly everything made in America, from homes and office buildings to cars, appliances and light bulb sockets, and as construction and manufacturing wound down, so did the output of steel, plunging 50 percent since September.
The steel industry’s collapse closely tracks the alarming late-autumn swoon in the national economy, as the housing bust and the credit crisis converted a mild downturn into “a severe one that has much further to run,” says Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at IHS Global Insight, offering a view increasingly shared by forecasters.
OF COMMITMENTS
AND SACRIFICE
by Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn
Reprinted with permission from Along the Maggid's Journey,
by Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn, Published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd.,
Brooklyn, New York, l995
R' Moshe Aaron had aspired to learn in the great European yeshivahs following the example of his uncles, Rabbi Moshe Shain and Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg, today the Dean of Yeshivah Torah Ohr in Jerusalem. However, because World War II was raging, travel to Europe was impossible.
As a student in Mesivta Torah Vodaath in the early 1940's, the young Moshe Aaron had fallen under the spell of the legendary R' Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz (1886-1948). R' Shraga Feivel was a charismatic, multifaceted individual whose lectures electrified students and laymen alike. His passionate love for the Land of Israel was contagious. When he taught Scripture or Psalms and spoke of the Holy Land, tears welled up in his eyes.
Under the influence of "Mr. Mendlowitz" (as R' Shraga Feivel insisted on being called), Moshe Aaron decided that if he couldn't travel to Europe, he would go instead to study in Israel; but that too was impossible during the war. (His grandfather, R' Yaakov Yosef Herman [1880-1967], had reached Israel on the last passenger ship to leave the United States before the war.)
After the war ended and the Jewish communities in Europe were tragically decimated, Moshe Aaron set his sights once again on Israel, and it became the focus of his life. His mother was encouraging but his father, R' Lipman, couldn't see the point. "He is doing so well in Torah Vodaath," he would say. "What is the point of leaving? He has wonderful friends, such as Yosef Levitan, Hershel Mashinsky, Moshe Wolfson, and Shmuel Mendlowitz. Why go away?"
Moshe Aaron's mother would reply simply, ''If he wants to go that much, it is ordained in Heaven that he be there."
The British, who controlled Israel at the time, were not anxious for Jews to emigrate there, especially young men, for they feared that the newcomers would join the militant resistance forces of either the Haganah, Etzel or Lechi, all of whom were committed to driving the British out of Palestine.
One day in April of 1946, Moshe Aaron met his uncle, Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg, and told him about his yearning to go to Israel. Rabbi Sheinberg assured him, "If you want to go, you will go. The Talmud says 'A person is led in the way he wants to go.'" (Makkos 10b)
A week later Rabbi Sheinberg asked Moshe Aaron about his plans.
Moshe Aaron said, "The British still won't let anyone in.”
Rabbi Sheinberg responded, ''But what are you doing to be able to go? You have got to do yours, and God will then do His."
"What is there for me to do?" asked the surprised Moshe Aaron.
"Get a passport, buy clothes, get valises, pack your things, and get ready," urged Rabbi Sheinberg.
Moshe Aaron did just that. He obtained a passport, packed five crates of books, put together some clothes, and was ready to travel.
At the end of April it became known that Great Britain had relented and issued 32 certificates for immigrants to Palestine. The Jewish Agency kept 22 for Zionists; gave eight to the Mizrachi, and two to Agudath Israel. The U.S.S. Marine Carp was going to be the first ship to leave for Haifa since the end of the war.
Moshe Aaron was friendly with Mike Tress (1909-1967), head of Agudath Israel in New York, and asked Mr. Tress if he could have one of the certificates.
"I can give it to you", said Mr. Tress, "only if you receive permission from R' Shraga Feivel."
Moshe Aaron was sure that his Rabbi would grant permission -- after all his love for the Land was unsurpassed. But to Moshe Aaron's dismay, R Shraga Feivel refused. "Is it fair to send you" he asked, "when that same certificate can be used by a whole family?"
Moshe Aaron was devastated, but he understood. He continued his studies in Torah Vodaath, his love for Israel undiminished.
Three days before the Marine Carp was to set sail, the mother of one of the families that had been granted permission to travel suddenly fell ill. Her family would not travel without her and returned their certificate to the Agudah. Moshe Aaron, who had heeded his uncle's advice, was ready to travel at a moment's notice. Since no family could possibly prepare for a trip of this magnitude in only three days, he was sure that the certificate would be his, but Mr. Tress still insisted that only Mr. Mendlowitz could authorize release of the certificate.
This time R' Shraga-Feivel said that Moshe Aaron could use the certificate, but on one condition. ''You cannot go like an American!"
"What does the Rabbi mean?" Moshe Aaron asked.
R' Shraga Feivel explained. “An American goes to Israel, takes a sniff and comes back home. If you go, then it must be with the idea of staying there, getting married, and building a family. In that way I will be sending a family to Israel.”
"But I don't know where my future wife is”, protested Moshe Aaron.
"You must try to find your partner in marriage there”, insisted R' Shraga Feivel.
Moshe Aaron thought for a moment and said, "If I find my wife there, I will stay." Thereupon, R' Shraga Feivel granted him permission to take the certificate.
BE VERY CAREFUL WITH SHIDDUCHIM, TOO MUCH IS COVERED UP BY "WELL-MEANING" PEOPLE. IF SOMETHING IS WRONG IN A FAMILY WATCH OUT, YOU DON'T WANT TO BECOME ANOTHER STATISTIC.
From VIN:
I am the widow of a man who suffered from depression issues for years. I will say the yeshivish frum community (Rabbonim and their constituencies) is poorly equipped to deal with depression issues or any issues that make the community look less than perfect.
My husband, had no Rabbinic support to get the help he needed early on when it would have done the most with the least pain. The Rav we dealt with took the easy way out and told my husband that I was the problem. I have since found evidence in his papers and writings that he suffered from depression before we met (while yet a bachur in Yeshiva).
After a lot of agmas nefesh I was able to get him to go to therapy, he was sent to a psychiatrist to try several different meds the failure of which only made him sink deeper. He eventually took his own life. While I would have wished to go public to get more awareness in the community, I have had to put my children first. It has not been easy to raise them in the shadow caused by thoughtless people like you who feel they’re entitled to know every Yankel’s business.
Before you go on your diatribe on the false story of a car accident, consider the fact that you and almost everyone else on these sights go under anonymous or another pseudonym.
The way this yungerman died is really none of your business. The ability for the new almanah and their unborn child to get through this should be your present concern.
Being a yentah in this situation is nothing more than rishus on your part.
If you want to get involved to try to make a difference so this shouldn’t happen to others like me and this new almana (and I can tell you there are plenty more of us); than go to your Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshivos, start working to raise the funds needed for people to get the professional help they need, invite Psychologists to speak in your Shuls and communal institutions and stop your yenting.
http://www.vosizneias.com/24959/2008/12/30/baltimore-md-state-police-auto-fatality-wasnt-accident/
Stupidest comment of the day:
27. The gedolim disagree 1/2/09 - 2:32 PM
Shmuel
While I sympathize with what you say, the gedolim obviously have a different opinion. They think that it is mesirah to bring Mondrowitz back and that sexual abuse is not enough of a crime to warrant jail. The gedolim have spoken (or not spoken, as the case may be). We feel that sexual abuse is terrible, they don't, so we have to accept their judgment.
A reply to a defender of mondrowitz on VIN:
Pure BS. Not the devil's advocate. more like the devil himself.
The police stated at a press conference after his arrest last year that the KP was found on his PC and on external storage. It was reported at the time in the papers and is part and parcel of the prosecutors 'Tik'.
Nekoma is not torahdik in regard to dinei momonis NOT to Nefashos.
No one ever said teshuva was easy. He was not in hiding. The press and those who wanted to know always had his address in jerusalem. He did not phone any victims nor send shlichim/askonim to help heal his victims.
If monstrowitz really felt his life is now in danger would he not have others ask mechila in his name? The fact that an admission might be used against him in court does not mean he can do teshuva in any other way. your rationalizations are similar to the ones he used to justify what he was doing 20-30 years ago.
Yes, i beleive u have issues and are dead scared u or a relative is next on the lynch list.
a molester who no longer molests goes scott free? and a murderer thief too? only a diseased mind would think like you. can u imagine what those contemplating molesting kids would think if your twisted logic prevailed in society.
No we have no gedolim other than the Schachters, Blaus, Horowitzs and handful of others. The rest are tuches lekkers with zero backbone. Bring your kvitlach to litzman and the virgin m--y, for it is not judaism nor our g-d that you worship. yes, silbershteyn is one sick dog. poor guy lost his mind years ago. too hell with enablers and protectors. till the gerrer rebbe's own grandson gets molested we wont get any help from them. Thats one big bandwagon going to hell if u ask me.
This crime was NOT commited against children since the time of creation. and if it did it rightfuly ended in the horrible death of the perpetrator. u sound like a very desperate fiend defendeing yourself from the natural progression that justice will attain. your day cometh and if u ask me, you rightfuly should be wetting your pants.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,475286,00.html
Man Arrested in Child Molestations at Bookstore
Friday, January 02, 2009
There is a basis to permit one to wear a shirt with rolled up sleeves (outdoors, without an Eruv) because this is an accepted manner of dress and would not constitute Hotza'ah. However, R' Moshe Feinstein is quoted as having ruled stringently on this matter because the rolled up portion of sleeve is considered extra material (a Massui) since in very hot weather the extra portion of material is unwanted, and most people would prefer a short sleeved shirt. Nevertheless, Rabbi Yisroel Belsky reports that he asked R' Moshe zt'l if he would permit someone who would prefer wearing a long sleeved shirt even in very hot weather (e.g. he is uncomfortable wearing a short sleeved shirt because of tznius, and would rather wear a long sleeved shirt and roll up the sleeves a little bit) to wear rolled up sleeves. R' Moshe answered affirmatively, that if one prefers the long sleeved shirt the rolled up portion may still be considered a garment and it would be permissible.
By David Scheer
Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators working to untangle Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme are probing other money managers suspected of using similar tactics, two people with knowledge of the inquiries said.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing at least one case in which investors may have been cheated out of as much as $1 billion, according to one person, who declined to name the manager and asked not to be identified because the probe isn’t public.
more bme inside story please! what was the schorr/ungarisher fight about? y did r yaakov leave ytv? what was r simcha shustals involvment?
You are famous!
http://www.hamercaz.com/hamercaz/site/news_item.php?id=3309
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