Yisroel Belsky - In The OU Advertising Campaign In China!
I'M ASKING THE GLOBAL JEWISH COMMUNITY TO NOT PURCHASE ANY OU ENDORSED PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF CHINA! I FIRMLY BELIEVE - THAT THEIR LACK OF STRINGENT SUPERVISION - COMBINED WITH THE CHINESE FOOD MANUFACTURERS' RECORD ON KNOWINGLY SHIPPING TAINTED FOOD TO THE U.S., CAUSES BOTH A SERIOUS HEALTH AND KASHRUS DANGER! EAT CHINESE MANUFACTURED FOOD AT YOUR PERIL!
"Perhaps the most high-profile examples of these potential dangers come from last year's tainted pet food scandal and the halting of questionable food products from China.
The pet food disaster, which slowly evolved into the largest recall of pet food in U.S. history, involved exported wheat gluten from China that contained the toxic chemical melamine and was used as an additive in food sold under more than 100 brand names. Hundreds of dogs and cats died; an official tally was never issued. In addition, U.S. health officials disclosed that up to 3 million broiler chickens had been fed the contaminated surplus pet food and then had been sold to restaurants and supermarkets across the country.
That was followed by a recall of almost a million tubes of toothpaste from China that were contaminated with a chemical used in antifreeze. The toothpaste had been distributed to institutions for the mentally ill, hospitals and prisons in the South.
And, shortly after that, U.S. health officials halted the importation of farmed fish from China because of chemical contamination in the fish feed."
Editorial - THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Case of the Poisoned Pet Food
Published: February 9, 2008
The Bush administration has moved with welcome vigor to prosecute two Chinese companies and an American importer involved in the sale of contaminated pet food ingredients that killed or sickened thousands of dogs and cats. After last year’s flood of tainted imports, American regulators have been struggling with limited success to strengthen their inspection capabilities. Those efforts must be buttressed with criminal prosecutions of anyone who knowingly sold harmful or untested products.
An investigation by the Food and Drug Administration led to the indictments by a federal grand jury in Missouri this week. The importer, ChemNutra, based in Las Vegas, contracted to buy wheat gluten, a plant protein used as a binding agent in pet foods, from an export broker in China. The Chinese broker bought the wheat gluten from a Chinese processing company.
The Chinese processor is charged with lacing the product with melamine, an inexpensive additive that can make the wheat gluten look like it contains more protein than it actually does. The export broker is accused of mislabeling the shipments with an inaccurate product code to escape mandatory inspections in China.
ChemNutra, is accused of knowing that the shipments had been miscoded — and would not be inspected in China — yet failed to disclose that to American pet food manufacturers who bought the gluten. The indictment does not charge that ChemNutra knew the shipments were adulterated with melamine, and company officials deny any intent to defraud.
If prosecutors prove ChemNutra’s wrongdoing, stiff fines and a jail sentence would provide a strong deterrent. In the absence of an extradition treaty, it is unlikely that officials of the Chinese companies can be brought to justice here. The administration must press China to strengthen its regulations and the agencies that enforce them. Beijing needs to understand that American consumers are increasingly wary of any product made in China and need a clear sign that criminal behavior there will be caught and punished.
I'm informed by a trusted individual that the Newsday article - described below by Shaul, was published on March 8, 1998. I'll be posting it as soon as I get it! It was a weekend edition...UOJ
Shaul Writes:
About ten years ago there was an article carried on the front page of Newsday with a picture of a beaten up chassidishe yungerman from Boro Park. I remember his face was all bloody and swollen. It looked just like the work of the Nazis. Inside was a picture of Belsky and another gangster, both of whom were invoved with executing the kidnapping and torture. That next day the TV news cameras were focused on the home of Belsky. The story was carried on the TV news.
The story was that Belsky had gotten paid to form a Beit Din from which he ordered the kidnapping and torture of this yungerman. The object was to extract a Get which under Halacha he could not do since a forced Get is not valid. The husband had claimed his wife had never went to Beth Din with him but had instead gone to Goyyish court to take away his kids and bank accounts.
Only after she took everything from him in court which she was not entitled to in Jewish Law and would not have won in a Beit Din, she paid Belsky to extract a Get, which is according to my rabbi with whom I discussed this story this morning, absolutely invalid and possul. My rabbi added that the concept of the Rambam allowing a beth din to administer force to obtain a Get is only when both the husband and wife both agree to accept the ruling of a particular Beit Din. Only, then and only if the husband does not follow that Beit din ruling which he accepted to follow, may that Beit Din force the husband to abide and fulfill the Mizvah of abiding by the ruling he accepted to follow.
In a case where there is no prior acceptance of the Beit din by the husband then that beit din has no jurisdiction over the matter there is no mitzvah for the husband to follow their rulling. Any Get obtained from a Beit din by force would not be valid according to the Rambam since they are not the Beit din of the husband and so he has no mitzvah to listen to them.
My rabbi explained that according to the rambam when he has a mitzva to obey the Beit din only then could forcing the husband to give a Get be valid. In a case where some three bums get together and call themselves a beit din, there is no mitzva to listen to them and according to the Rambam too such a forced Get is invalid and possul.
In the Newsday story there was no prior agreement, the couple was fighting it out in goyyish court. When Belsky ordered the kidnapping and torture of the husband the Rambam's concept did not apply. According to my rabbi the halacha is anyway not like the Rambam and no Beit din may order force.
However as I wrote above, even according to the Rambam where there is no acceptance by both sides to follow a specific Beit Din, that Beit Din even if hired by the wife, has no authority to issue orders against the husband. In that case reported in Newsday, as I remember, it was very clear that the husband never went to the Belsky Beit din and that the wife was using the goyyish courts.
The bottom line is Belsky who orders the kidnaping and torture of a Jew is in my opinion the same and worse then a brown shirt nazi.
I agree with my rabbi who said this morning that Belsky should not be permitted to be involved in Kashruth or any Jewish function.
I am writing this to the public with the consent of my rav who is very orthodox and learned Chacham. I only wish I had the Newsday article to display here.
Thank you and Shabbat Shalom to all.
Shaul ben Baruch Haim
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***The UOJ Post Office Bulletin Board***
*** WANTED - FOR CRIMES AGAINST JUDAISM!***
Gentlemen:
Klal Yisroel needs to see a demonstration of good will from your organizations.
TALK ALONE AMONGST YOURSELVES IS BEING FROWNED UPON BY THE KLAL. TOO LITTLE, WAY TOO LATE!
Step one must be a serious step that requires a showing of disgust with the rot that has infested the rabbinate.
I CALL UPON YOU TO TERMINATE YISROEL BELSKY FROM YOUR ORGANIZATIONS.
THIS MAN IS THE EPITOME OF THE HOOLIGANISM AND DECAY THAT HAS CAUSED SO MUCH SUFFERING AMONGST US!
THROW HIM TO THE GUTTER.. THAT'S WHERE HE BELONGS! DO IT QUICKLY!
A Reader Writes:
I'm sure you know about this e-mail, but anyway I received this afternoon a multi copied e-mail with a link to UOJ and which stated that the site is extremely evil and pornographic and that it is...... forbidden to read anything ......that is posted there.
It then asked that...... I click the link provided for the site and scroll down ......and vote "DISAGREE WITH THE ABOVE STATEMENT" in favor of Rabbi Belsky.
The message stated it was endorsed by .....Rabbi Mordechai Wolmark Rosh Yeshiva Shaarei Torah.
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A grateful "Yisroel Belsky" responds via e-mail from his hospital bed......
The National Alliance estimates about one in 17 Americans suffers from a serious mental illness, and mental illness affects one in five families and has affected me terribly says Yisroel Belsky. But as common as it is, families often are in the dark because mental illness is not on their radar the way cancer or heart problems are, Belsky says.
Often, they don't even know the symptoms, like covering up for child-rapists, annulling Jewish marriages for serious money, and getting paid big bucks to claim non-kosher meat as kosher.
No one else recognized it "because mental illness was not on someone's radar screen ”and because there was so much stigma. To people looking in, I was probably selfish, reckless and moody. The reality was that I was suffering inside. I wouldn't wish it on anyone."
Once a person or one's family recognizes a potential problem, getting help is the next step. And it's often a difficult one. UOJ reached out, I was not happy, but I realize it's for the benefit of the entire Jewish world. Mendel Epstein calls it tough love!
Often the person suffering from the mental illness does not understand that she or he is sick, says Ira D. Glick, a physician and psychiatry professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and my doctor.
"If you go break your leg and run into the doctor, the doctor will put a cast on it and give you medicine for it," Glick says. "You say, 'Thank you. Thank you.'
"In our field, when somebody has bipolar disorder or anxiety disorder or depression or schizophrenia, what do they say? What do most people say?
'There's nothing wrong with me. I don't need this treatment.' "
That is why it is so important to have UOJ involvement, Glick says. "We see UOJ as a partner in the treatment team. It's the patient, family and doctor all working together to make a diagnosis, set goals and carry out treatment."
But because it is so difficult under most state laws to have a person hospitalized, families often have to wait until there is a crisis, Belsky says.
"You must wait until they meet the criteria for hospitalization; in most states they have to become so gravely disabled that their life is in danger," he says. "And then you have to call the police or you have to call UOJ to come into your house and take your family member to the hospital. And I want to tell you that it's one of the most traumatic events that will ever happen to you."
Rabbi Wolmark is very wrong; come join me Mordechai, I especially love the feeling I get after they take off the strait-jacket for a few minutes every day....
