This Torah-based edict, includes your emotional health. Quality of life is important in Judaism, and therefore prohibits doing anything that you know will affect your health negatively.
For example, there are halachic deciders that will tell you smoking is prohibited under this instruction. There are no normal rabbis that if asked "should I begin smoking?" would answer in the affirmative, regardless of the pleasure it would give you.
There have been perhaps millions of words and thousands of essays written on the "beginning" of life and the "end" of life in Judaism. Accordingly, one should interpret this that life is not to be toyed with.
I believe that the Orthodox Jewish community, world-over, has not yet conceded that mental illness is an illness. Even Maimonides, the brilliant doctor, philosopher and codifier of Jewish law, had not paid serious attention to emotional health; rather got it wrong on his claim of inferiority of non-Jews as compared to people of Jewish genetic makeup, one wonders, as a physician, how he would have interpreted pedophilia. (Not being critical just factual)
But we do know in matters of science and medicine, the world is ever-evolving. A very ignorant minority of Jews, within the Berlin Wall of Brooklyn, Lakewood, Jerusalem or Bnei Brak, believe the planet Earth and the universe is literally 5769 years old. Yet, the "holiest of rabbis" around the globe, will refuse to permit you to be buried in certain Jewish cemeteries, because you are deemed an heretic if you did believe that the world is older than the Jewish calendar.
Flat-Earthers are embedded in the rabbinic structure of Charedi Judaism. Mental illness leading to pedophilia, child-rape and other crimes against children are still deemed by this group of peasants as something that "repentance" or teshuva can heal. Therefore -- the rationale still is, why go to the police if teshuva is possible? So this intellectually handicapped group of mental midgets treat pedophilia like traffic court. Tell the judge you will never again press the pedal to the metal and do 90 on the way to the Catskills, and you're off the hook.
The damage done to our community by the rabbis -- never mind the child-rapists -- is beyond description. A child by the time he or she is five years of age, their personality is formed, unless some traumatic set of events transpires, like child-rape or other emotionally devastating events, then this human is damaged permanently with life-altering triggers. Every action for the rest of his life factors in the trauma he experienced as a child.
The damage is not limited to his/her views of sexuality, but the way these persons view EVERYTHING!
Last year The Big-Event concert was cancelled because they thought (the 30 some rabbis that signed the ban) they could get away with it. The list of bozos that signed the ban included child-rape enablers, a sick SOB that approves of sending kids to torture camps for disciplinary action if they Heaven forbid do not follow the Chaim Berlin manual for OCD. When the people rebelled (over a concert for a few hours - they know what's important) the gedolim-rabbi, Shmuel Kaminetzky changed his mind and blamed everybody but himself for getting caught doing something crazy, so this year he "blessed" the performer, the producer and The Event.
They are messing with your heads, because they can!
You - parents - grownups - have an obligation to yourselves and your family to guard yourselves and your community from being emotionally and tragically manipulated. Guard your children from these destroyers of a quality life, a life of healthy behavior and activities within the confines of halacha, not contrived psychosis. They know not or care not about your physical or emotional well-being.
If they did, they would issue a kol-koreh that every teenager must learn a parnassa/trade before they get married. One should never be able to stay in a yeshiva setting if they do not have any means of earning a living whether in the professions, the business world or in the rabbinate, (if they would be qualified) once they bring children into the world. And even then, one needs great siyata d'Shmaya!
The perilous winds of the 1930's are gusting, gathering hurricane strength every day. Ignore them at the great risk of destroying your children, their children, and your family.
47 comments:
Updated Wounded Soldiers, Jan. 14 AM
Compiled list; information as of midnight Jan. 13, 2009.
Please keep the following wounded soldiers and civilians in
your prayers:
Moshe ben Chana Malka
Noam ben Elsa
Liel Husha ben Miriam
Ben Ben Netiva
Yosef Haim Ben Ziva
Dvir Ben Laya
Rafael Ben Dina
Neriya Ben Rivka
Oren Ben Chaya
Ronen Chai Ben Leah
Ron Ben Havatselet
Eitan Ben Sarah
Gal Ben Hedva
Ran Ben Mirel
Idan Ben Nadi
Yitzhak Ben Nava
Ohad Ben Bracha
Nesanel Ben Nava
Maxim Ben Olga
Yisrael ben Ilana
Yoad Ido ben Freida Elka
Idan Ben Liora
Nadav Ben Miria
Sagi ben Osnat
Omar Ben Dorit
Lior Ben Mazal
Yevgeny Ben Elizbeta
Moshe ben Eidi
Moshe ben Pnina Rose
**Aharon Yehoshua ben Chaya Shoshana, newlywed son of Rav
Karov, Rav of Yeshivat HaShomron, critically wounded in
fighting in Azza. (Jan. 13)
**Paratrooper Aharon Karov was critically injured yesterday
morning. His father the Rosh Yeshiva of the High School
yeshiva in Karnei Shomron. His story is a story that you
won't soon forget:
Aharon lives in Karnei Shomron. Less than two weeks ago
Aharon got married. Because he is an officer in the army,
he had to leave the MORNING AFTER THE WEDDING to report for
duty in Gaza! No sheva brachot! He returned for the Friday
Night meal and by the next morning was back in Gaza. Today
he went into a booby trapped house in Northern Gaza. He is
now in Beilinson Hospital listed as critical.
Here are the names of more soldiers in Hadassah Hospital:
Gal Or ben Aliza- He's married for 10 months, 26 years old.
Yaakov Yisrael ben Yardena Wolf, injury that missed carotid
artery by less than 1 cm. Made aliyah from England, 20 years
old.
Yaakov ben Orli- 19 years old.
Natanel ben Mazel Tov, 20 years old. He says to the Jews of
the world: "Thank you for all your prayers for the soldiers.
All the prayers help. May Hashem repay you only good."
Also, please pray for the civilians who were wounded by
Kassam missiles in recent days and are still in need of
medical attention:
Gabriel Ben Sarah -- child from Sderot with trauma and
severe injuries due to nearby Kassam rocket fall.
Bat El Hila Bat Phoebe -- age 31 seriously injured from
kassam.
Gila bat Odelia – injured by Kassam in Netivot.
Yaakov ben Rivka - very seriously injured from kassam
rocket;rocket that fell in Netivot, has undergone 7
operations
Yaakov ben Miriam – age 83, injured from rocket explosion
Hoshea ben Miriam
Wahal Mijan – critical, has had 3 operations & doctors are
battling to save his life;
Noam ben Aliza
Yosef Chaim ben Ziva
Raphael ben Dina
Yedidya ben Shira
Elishama Shalom ben Rivka Leah;
Tom ben Chana
Edward ben Sarah
Ran ben Merril
Yitzchak ben Navah
Netanel ben Navah
Netanel ben Mazal Tov
Tal ben Anat
Gal ben Aliza
Nadav ben Miriam (Maria)
Omer ben Dorit
Raphael ben Nina
Oleg Dizengoff
Daniel Tamarov
Avi Cohen
Roni Rapaport
Ori Noga
Yedidya Schlesinger
Rafi ben Dina
Gavriel ben Sarah from Sderot – child injured from kassam
attack;
Michael ben Anna, 23, has undergone 6 operations and will
need at least 4 more;
Kidnapped & Missing Soldiers:
Ron ben Batya (Arad)
Guy ben Rina (Hever)
Tzvi ben Pninah (Feldman),
Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah (Katz),
Zecharia Shlomo ben Miriam (Baumel)
Majdi Halabi
Gilad ben Aviva Shalit
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A11FC3F5413728DDDA00894DA405B888BF1D3
Court Told of Witness-Harassing; Charge Being Investigated
By CHARLES KAISER
February 9, 1978
Rabbi Leib Pinter, head of the B'nai Torah Institute of Brooklyn, told a witness in a conspiracy trial not to cooperate with the Government, according to a Government sentencing memorandum filed yesterday in United States District Court.
http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/BasicArch/Client.asp?Skin=BasicArch&&AppName=2&enter=true&BaseHref=DCG/1978/09/06&EntityId=Ar00100
I think UOJ was really behind it as a frishe yungerman, but the US Attorney in Philadelphia accused me of covering up for Leib Pinter and Dan Flood.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3DB1F3BF937A25752C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
November 14, 1990
School Feared Borough Park Boy Was Victim of Abuse
By JACQUES STEINBERG
The public school attended by an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy whose mother is accused of killing him alerted welfare officials at least three times over the last year because teachers suspected the boy was a victim of child abuse, the school's principal said yesterday.
The principal, Philip Tritt, of Public School 205 in the Bensonhurst section, said a social worker for the city's Human Resources Administration last visited the school to discuss the case "a day or two" before Sept. 29, when the boy was hospitalized in a coma from which he never recovered. At that time, the social worker had been trying to find a temporary home for the boy, Yaakov Riegler, who attended a specialclass at the school because he was classified as mentally retarded, Mr. Tritt said. Mr. Tritt said that over the course of the year, two different city social workers got in touch with the school and worked on the case with school officials. Mother Put on Probation
A spokesman for the agency, Earl Weber, declined to discuss the case yesterday, citing state confidentiality regulations. He would not comment on whether the Child Welfare Administration, the city agency that handles child abuse and neglect cases, had given the boy and his family any special supervision in light of the criminal record of his mother, Shulamis Riegler. Mrs. Riegler was sentenced to five years' probation on Aug. 7, 1986, for assaulting another son, Israel, 13. At the time, the city removed Mrs. Riegler's three children from the home and placed them in other homes in the Orthodox Jewish community of Borough Park in which they live.
The children were returned in October 1989. But it was unclear yesterday what role the Human Resources Administration or a private agency, Ohel Children's Home and Family Services, had taken in the decision to reunite the family. Ohel had worked with the Child Welfare Administration to place Yaakov and his brothers in foster care in April 1986.
Lester Kaufman, Ohel's executive director, declined to answer questions about the Riegler family and would not say why the children were returned to their parents.
Mrs. Riegler, who is 33 years old and sixmonths pregnant, was arraigned yesterday in Criminal Court in Brooklyn on charges of second-degree murder and ordered held without bail, pending a hearing on Nov. 16. The police said they had no reason to believe that the father, Moses, 34, was involved in the boy's death, but court documents filed yesterday shed no light on what Mr. Riegler may or may not have known about his son's abuse.
A lawyer for Mrs. Riegler, Brian Linder, said he could not comment on the case.
Members of the tightly knit, usually reticent Orthodox Jewish community have been stunned by the boy's death, an almost unheard of event among the community of large families reared according to tradition and religious law. But many were asking questions yesterday, and the recipient of a number of their phone calls was Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat who represents the area. "This is not a community that doesn't care. On the contrary, it's a community that focuses on every detail," Mr. Hikind said. "I'm trying to find out for myself just what happened. I don't know." 'Suspicious' Bruises
Yaakov's teacher at P.S. 205, and later a school guidance counselor, noticed that the boy had "suspicious" bruises as early as September 1989, not long after he began his first year there, Mr. Tritt, the principal, said. Suspecting child abuse, school officials met with Yaakov's parents and continued to monitor the situation, he said.
It could not be determined if Yaakov had been living in a foster home when the first signs of abuse appeared, though the police said he was returned to his family's home in October 1989. Mr. Tritt said that when Yaakov was enrolled at P.S. 205, the school was not notified that Mrs. Riegler had a history of violence against her children.
"There was nothing in particular to call attention to the fact that the parents shouldn't have children in the home," Mr. Tritt said.
On Nov. 2, 1989, after again discovering that Yaakov had more bruises, the guidance counselor, Elizabeth Lantiere, called the emergency number of the New York State Central Register for Child Abuse and Maltreatment, Mr. Tritt said. By the end of the month, he said, the school had been put in touch with a social worker from the city's Child Welfare Administration.
Mr. Weber, the spokesman at the Human Resources Administration, would not say whether the case had been referred to the agency or whether a social worker from the city agency had worked on the case. But he did say that state officials, when notified of suspected child abuse in the city through the emergency line, usually refer the concerns to the city's Child Welfare Administration. Counselor Calls Agency
From the end of November 1989 through the beginning of June 1990, the social worker was in contact with the school and the family, Mr. Tritt said. The problem initially got better, he said, but by June, Yaakov again had bruises and the guidance counselor again called the state. Mr. Tritt said he did not know if the guidance counselor also got in touch with the social worker directly at this time nor did he elaborate on the outcome of the call to the emergency number.
"When he returned this year, there was concern once again that the marks were continuing," Mr. Tritt said. "There didn't seem to be improvement."
On Sept. 26, three days before the boy, was taken to the hospital in an irreversible coma, the guidance counselor called the state emergency number again, said Ralph Fabrizio, the community superintendent of schools who oversees P.S. 205. A day or two later, another social worker told school officials he was looking for a new home for Yaakov.
Asked if the social worker saw the child at this time, a day or two before his death, Mr. Tritt said, "I don't know if he did, nor do I know if he was in school that day."
That Saturday, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, Yaakov's two older brothers, aged 13 and 10, attended synagogue, while their mother stayed at home with Yaakov and his 13-month-old brother, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office yesterday. It also said that no other adult was in the home, but did not mention Mr. Riegler by name. The Medical Examiner determined that Yaakov was fatally injured between 7 A.M. and noon that day, Sept. 29., the complaint said.
Yaakov, "in a coma, with head injuries and a spiral fracture to the left femur," was admitted to Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn that day, the complaint said. The boy never regained consciousness and died on Oct. 14.
Mr. Tritt described Yaakov as a "happy child" who could not read and who could only speak in one-word sentences. He was mentally retarded, Mr. Tritt said, but "trainable," meaning he had the potential to be self-sufficient in the future.
Though details about the origin of Yaakov's learning disability were not immediately available, Rabbi Simcha Strohli, a Yeshiva principal who knows the Riegler family, said, "From Day One, when the child was born, he had problems."
Mr. Tritt said Yaakov's difficulty in communicating "was one of the problems we had in determining the problem at home."
"If we asked him about a bruise he might say 'Mama,' " Mr. Tritt said. "But sometimes children in that same class use the same word to mean a lot of different things."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0DA123AF930A25752C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
November 13, 1990
Murder Case In Community Of Families
By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN
A Brooklyn woman with a history of violence against her children was arrested and charged yesterday with the murder of her 8-year-old son in a case that revealed what one public official called a little-known problem: child abuse in the family-oriented, tightly knit Orthodox Jewish community.
The woman, 33-year-old Shulamis Riegler, was taken into custody at her home at 1329 51st Street in Borough Park and charged with killing her son, Yacov, who was brought to a Brooklyn hospital in a coma on Yom Kippur, Sept. 29, and died on Oct. 14 without regaining consciousness.
An autopsy found he had died of head injuries, and was a victim of "child-abuse syndrome," a pattern of broken bones and other injuries that included a leg fractured just before hospitalization and "old and recent fractures in various stages of healing," said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for New York City's Medical Examiner's office. First Case in Memory
After Mrs. Riegler's arrest, three other sons -- 13 and 10 years old and 15 months old -- were removed for placement in foster homes. The suspect, who is six months pregnant, had pleaded guilty to assaulting her oldest son in 1986 and was placed on five years probation; her children were then put in homes but returned to the family last year.
Late yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Riegler, in a long black coat and brownish-blonde wig, buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she was led in handcuffs from the 66th Precinct station house at 5822 16th Avenue.
Detectives said her husband, Moses, 34, apparently had no role in the death of Yacov, a pupil at nearby Bobover Yeshiva Bnei Zion.
Criminal justice officials said the case was the first in memory involving a charge of child-abuse murder in any of the city's Orthodox Jewish communities, where families are typi cally large, violence is abhorred and children are raised strictly by custom, tradition and religious law.
"A lot of people would rather believe we don't have such a problem," said Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat who represents Borough Park. "I don't want to whitewash anything. It's taken us a little longer to realize certain social ills in our community."
Mr. Hikind added: "It's a very tightly knit community, and many problems -- they attempt to resolve them internally. We don't like to talk about child abuse in an Orthodox Jewish community. You never hear about problems like that. But they are here."
Word of the arrest stunned many Orthodox Jews, who reacted with disbelief and sorrow. "It's impossible, absolutely impossible. It's unbelieveable," Srague Feivl Lichtenstein, a neighbor who has known Mrs. Riegler and her family for many years, said after learning of the arrest. 'A Family Person'
And Rabbi Elimelech Naiman, director of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park, said of Mrs. Riegler: "She is a family person. She has good children. She is a good mother. I'm not going to say there weren't problems. There were problems."
But Rabbi Naiman was reluctant to characterize the case as one of child abuse. "They are a loving family," he said. "The children did get some amount of love and affection, but not all they were supposed to be getting."
The case offered a glimpse into the Orthodox Jewish community, where life is regulated by religious laws and customs that date back centuries and where modern urban problems like crime and child abuse sometimes lie hidden under a general consensus that they are rare or nonexistent.
Several factors account for this, as some members of the community noted yesterday.
First, strict religious laws prohibit loshon hara, the slander known as evil speech, so that people who know about child abuse are forbidden from talking about it, except to a rabbi or someone in a position to do something. Within the Community
Second, it is only under very special circumstances that a member is permitted to go outside the community to secular authorities to try to remedy a perceived wrong. The tendency is to keep problems within the community, which has few remedies other than ostracism.
Moreover, since families tend to be large -- eight to 10 children is not uncommon -- and since many women as well as their husbands work outside the home, family pressures are often great, and older children are often called upon to mind younger ones.
Children are nonetheless raised with a great deal of discipline, attending school nine to 10 hours a day and held responsible for chores and other work within the home.
Because of the closeness of family and school ties, it is virtually impossible, members of the community say, to conceal bruises, black eyes and other evidence of child abuse.
While violence -- and even corporal punishment for children -- is abhorred and crime is believed to be rare within the community, child abuse is known to exist. But it is virtually impossible under religious law to take a child away from abusive parents.
One organization in the community, Ohel Children's Home, places children in foster care and often works with the city in doing so. The city and Ohel were responsible for placing Mrs. Riegler's children in neighborhood homes after her conviction in 1986. 'Multiple Bruises, Contusions'
The police said Mrs. Riegler's contact with the authorities outside her community began on April 15 of that year, when her 10-year-old son, Israel, was taken unconscious to Maimonides Medical Center with "multiple bruises, contusions, puncture wounds, bite marks and slashes from head to toe."
"She had hit him with a stick," said Lieut. Vito Spano, commander of the Brooklyn detective squad that investigates child-abuse cases.
Three days later, Mrs. Riegler was arrested, and her children were removed by the city's Bureau of Special Services for Children. They were later placed in other homes with the help of Ohel.
Charged with assault and endangering the welfare of her child, she pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court and was sentenced to probation. It is unclear whether she was supervised by a probation officer.
It is also unclear why the authorities decided to return her children to her in October 1989, shortly after she gave birth to another boy. Ohel officials declined to comment on the case, and city officials were unavailable for comment late yesterday.
On Sept. 29, as the community was marking Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of the Jewish calendar -- Yacov, who like his peers wore the traditional sidecurls known as payess and the fringe vests known as tsitsiss, was taken in a coma to Maimonides Medical Center.
"She said he fell and had a seizure," said Sgt. Aniello R. Bianco, commander of the 66th Precinct detectives.
Two weeks later, Yacov died. The autopsy, performed on Nov. 2 by Dr. Jonathan Arden, the deputy medical examiner in charge of Brooklyn, found many broken bones and other injuries in stages of healing. Head injuries were the principal cause of death.
Shaking his head in disbelief after Mrs. Riegler was taken away yesterday, Mr. Lichtenstein, the next-door neighbor, said: "She's a religious person, the best person. She many times helped the neighbors with favors. She would walk the kids home from school."
But other members of the community, when approached on the street and asked for comment, kept to the strictures of their tradition and said nothing of the tragedy.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DD1639F933A25751C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
In 1986, Shulamis Riegler beat her 8-year-old son Israel so badly that he was hospitalized in a coma. Doctors noticed human bite marks on his shoulder.
When the boy recovered, he and his two little brothers spent several years in foster care before going home in 1988 and 1989.
Then, barely a year later, Mrs. Riegler beat another son, Yaakov. She twisted his leg so viciously that she heard his thigh bone crack. The retarded boy, 8 years old, 3-feet-8 and 48 pounds, was taken to the hospital in a coma and never woke up. Known as Abusive
Yaakov was one of seven children who died in 1990 after repeated beatings and whose families were known to New York City's child welfare system as abusive or neglectful, a recent city report found.
In the report, the only public accounting of how the city's Human Resources Administration handled such cases, Yaakov was an anonymous statistic, unnamed because of strict state confidentiality laws that protect the privacy of informants and families, even, as in Yaakov's case, when the mother has pleaded guilty to killing her child. Mrs. Riegler is to be sentenced today to 7 1/2 to 15 years in prison.
Ohel, the agency that the city had assigned the case, recommended that the family be reunited.
On March 15, 10 days after the school noticed the swollen elbow, Mrs. Reigler took Yaakov to the family pediatrician, Max Bulmash. The doctor said he noticed nothing wrong with the boy's elbow.
H.R.A. investigator, Keith Glascoe, visited the Riegler home. He later told a hospital social worker that he had seen what appeared to be burn marks on the boy. Yaakov told him that both his mother and father had hurt him, but that his mother hurt him more. Mrs. Reigler's explanation was that Yaakov always fell and hurt himself.
Sept. 29 was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, a day of atonement. Yaakov stayed home with his mother while his father and older brothers went to temple.
Mrs. Riegler was pregnant with her fifth child, and felt sick. Yaakov had diarrhea and soiled himself several times. Mrs. Riegler had to clean up after him repeatedly. She later confessed in court that she "lost control" and beat Yaakov. His head hit hard against the wall.
The comatose boy was taken to Maimonides, where his brother had been treated four years earlier. Mrs. Reigler blamed Yaakov's injuries on his clumsiness, just as she had with Israel. She told a hospital administrator that she was praying in the dining room when Yaakov fell.
The mother, dressed in a nightgown, sat talking with Dr. Bulmash, who had came into the emergency room looking "white" and very upset, the hospital social work report stated.
On Oct. 14, 1990, Yaakov died.
In a subsequent trial of the parents in Family Court, it took a medical examiner almost an hour just to describe the bruises on Yaakov's arms.
Dr. Bulmash is under investigation by the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, which is trying to determine whether he violated laws that require doctors to report signs of child abuse to the state phone line.
H.R.A's child fatality review panel recommended that the agency report Dr. Bulmash to the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct, but was prevented from doing so by the agency's lawyers, who said confidentiality laws forbade it.
Mrs. Riegler's probation officer, Yvonne Hernandez, who was carrying about 160 cases at the time Mrs. Rieger's probation ended, was mildly disciplined for sloppy record keeping. Her supervisor agreed to early retirement after an internal investigation of the case, probation officials said.
The abuse investigators, Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Glascoe, as well as their supervisor, are still working in the same Brooklyn office. H.R.A. would not say whether they were disciplined, citing confidentiality.
https://www.fastcase.com/Google/Start.aspx?C=78e888ee6913092b38a9910e57b8a62232d2401d2a1d39f8&D=bc814d00b133653bcc047a0641e1f81c63bbd50abb3504d8
Morris SCHWIMMER, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
Gregory KALADJIAN, etc., et al., Defendants.
No. 92 Civ. 2376 (SWK).
United States District Court, S.D. New York.
October 7, 1993
Plaintiffs Morris Schwimmer ("Mr. Schwimmer") and Rifka Schwimmer ("Mrs. Schwimmer") (collectively, the "Schwimmers") bring this action challenging the allegedly unlawful and involuntary removal of their minor son, plaintiff Yoel Schwimmer ("Yoel"), from their home by the defendants, and the allegedly unlawful and non-consensual physical examinations of minor plaintiffs Devorah Schwimmer, Berish Schwimmer, Faiga Dina Schwimmer, David Schwimmer, Yoel Schwimmer and Rachel Yachet Schwimmer (collectively, the "Schwimmer children"). Plaintiffs also challenge the defendants' practices, patterns and policies in determining when and how to remove children whose parents are suspected of child abuse. Defendant Gregory Kaladjian ("Kaladjian") moves, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), to dismiss the amended complaint against him for failure to state a claim.1 For the reasons set forth below, Kaladjian's motion is granted in its entirety.
BACKGROUND2
Defendant Kaladjian was the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services ("DSS") during the relevant time period.3 As such, he was responsible for the maintenance of the New York State Registry, and had oversight and supervisory responsibilities over all aspects of the New York City Human Resources Administration ("HRA"), including the Child Welfare Administration ("CWA"). Defendant Barbara Sabol ("Sabol") was the Administrator of the HRA, charged by law with investigating reports of alleged child abuse within her jurisdiction. Defendant Robert L. Little ("Little") was employed by HRA as Executive Deputy Commissioner of CWA. Defendant Mary Harris ("Harris") was employed by HRA as a manager of CWA. Defendant Joseph Guilford ("Guilford") was employed by HRA as a supervisor of CWA. All of the defendants are sued in their official capacity.4
On June 22, 1991, Yoel, then 27 months old, lost his balance and fell backward down several wooden steps. Mrs. Schwimmer examined Yoel, and observed several bruises on his forehead and cheeks. Upon determining that he did not suffer any serious injury, however, Mrs. Schwimmer did not seek the services of a doctor.
Subsequently, on June 24, 1991, Mr. Schwimmer took Yoel and two other Schwimmer children for regular medical checkups to Dr. Gerald Rood ("Dr. Rood"), a private physician. During the examination, Dr. Rood questioned Mr. Schwimmer as to the origins of Yoel's bruises....
Does anyone have a paid NY Times subscription to see just how many govt officials Pinter was being investigated for bribing?
The more corrupt the author, the more choshuv you make our publishing company look!
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A11FF3E5413728DDDA90A94DA405B888BF1D3
B'nai Torah Institute in Brooklyn Is Target of 3 U.S. Investigations
By CHARLES KAISER
February 20, 1978, Monday
The B'nai Torah Institute, which in five years expanded from a small Brooklyn religious school into a huge, multimilliondollar social-service agency, is the focus of three Federal investigations into possibly improper relationships between it and senators, representatives and the United States Department of Labor.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil prices tumbled Wednesday as new government reports show crude inventories continuing to build, suggesting that demand for oil and gasoline will not rebound anytime soon.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell more than 4 percent, or $1.56 per barrel, to $36.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after trading as high as $39.45.
Prices have fallen from as high as $50.47 just last week with evidence growing that a weakened global economy has eaten away at energy demand.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said crude inventories grew by 1.2 million barrels for the week ended Friday. That was below the expectation of 3 million barrels, according to the average of estimates in a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Yet the department said in last week's report that oil stocks jumped 6.7 million barrels the previous week, meaning less and less crude is being used.
Gasoline inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels, 300,000 barrels ahead of analyst estimates, and distillates increased by 6.4 million barrels compared with the estimate of a gain of 1.7 million distillates.
Crude appears to be headed back to the levels it reached nearly a month ago when it fell to $33.87 a barrel, the lowest mark since 2004.
The build in distillates -- used for heating oil and diesel fuel -- comes as blowing snow and frigid temperatures pound much of the country. The leading edge of the cold air was expected to move from the Midwest into the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South by Wednesday and Thursday.
The weakness in the inventory report just shows how broad the economic downturn is becoming, oil analyst Stephen Schork said.
"No one can tell you where the bottom is," he said of oil prices.
Oil began to come off its highs for the session before the inventory report came out after the government reported that retail sales plunged far more than expected in December. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that retail sales dropped 2.7 percent last month, more than double the 1.2 percent decline that Wall Street expected.
For 2008, retail sales were down 0.1 percent, a sharp turnaround after a 4.1 percent gain in 2007. It was the first time the annual retail sales figure has fallen on government records going back to 1992. Before 2008, the weakest year for retail sales had been an increase of 2.4 percent in 2002, the year after the 2001 recession.
The report helped send Wall Street into another tailspin with the Dow Jones industrial average falling more than 300 points and major stock indexes off at least at least 3 percent.
"The retail numbers were dismal," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Association. "They drove the stock market and then we got spanked again."
The department also reported that businesses slashed inventories in November by the largest amount in seven years as they scrambled to cope with a record plunge in sales.
Inventories were reduced by 0.7 percent in November, even worse than the 0.5 percent drop analysts expected. It marked the third straight month that businesses have cut their stockpiles, the longest stretch since four straight months of reductions that ended in August 2003.
Despite the decline in the oil prices, the cost of filling up has not changed much. Prices at the pump rose 0.2 cents to $1.792 overnight, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Prices are 13.2 cents higher than a month ago, but $1.269 below what motorists paid a year ago.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures fell 2.5 cents to $1.1236. Heating oil fell 7.8 cents to $1.4354, while natural gas for February delivery fell 19.9 cents to $5.035 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, February Brent crude fell 74 cents to $44.09 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
I knew a rabbi who's wife was working in Bulmash's office years ago, so I was encouraged to get a strep test there.
There was no strep but it later turned into bronchitis. Bulmash wasn't there one day so the rebbeitzen gave me a prescription for anti-biotics. Obviously there are reasons why only doctors can legally give prescriptions. I did not request it - it was offered and I'm sorry I accepted. She made a huge mistake that almost cost me my life. I suffered for a long time after developing a bad case of pnemonia since the dose I was prescribed was good for a 5 year old and could not possibly cure an adult.
It was embarrassing but I had to tell the rabbi so that they wouldn't make that mistake again with someone else. He was visibly ashamed and didn't take it very well. His reaction? He stopped talking to me for 10 years.
Dr. Bulmash is a good man and a great community askan and doctor. He has seen hundreds of patients pro bono and has saved dozens of lives with his expert diagnostics. His only fault perhaps is that he is TOO GOOD. With the case of Yakov Riegler HY"D Dr. Bulmash was too gulible in listnening to the Ra-boys who told him not to masser 'cause the rieglers were from a choshuve family (leifer) and it was mesira. The Bobover bastards are more to blame for little yaakov'c early demise at the hands of his mother. Bobov too is to blame for protecting Goldman the molester whose favorite haunt is menashe klein's mikva (mikva is a jewish sanctioned gay bath house where naked adults, adolescents and children roam freely and soak together in baths without any cloting and zero supervision). Bobov too is guilty for protecting Solomon Hafner and runing the poor disabled victim and his family out of Boro Park for trying to jail the pervert for what he had done.
Liraz Madmony, a 23-year-old law student from Sderot, addressed the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on Gaza in Geneva on behalf of the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) on Monday, before the vote by the council that condemned Israel's military offensive in Gaza and resolved to send a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinians.
Liraz Madmony of Sderot addresses the UN in Geneva, Monday.
Photo: Courtesy
Here is the text of her speech.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I come from Sderot, the city in Israel that for eight years has been terrorized, by 10,000 rockets fired against us from Gaza.
As a law student, I learned - and I believe - that all human beings have the right to peace and security.
But when I see today's resolution, I ask: Why is the United Nations ignoring my suffering? When the terrorists committed these 10,000 violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, why was the UN silent?
Are human rights for some, but not others?
The constant assault on Sderot has destroyed our ability to lead a normal life. The warning before each attack gives us only 15 seconds to run for shelter. Fifteen seconds that will decide, life or death.
Mr. President, who will protect our right to life? My family does not have a bomb shelter, so we run to the most protected room, which is the shower.
There is one attack I will never forget. We heard the siren at seven in the morning. We ran to the shower. The rockets fell next to my house. My little brother, who was 14, went to see if anyone needed help. He found a man whose legs were blown off, and a woman blown to pieces.
My youngest brother is six. The rockets have been falling for eight years. He knows no other reality.
Everyone suffers in Sderot. Fathers and mothers are afraid to go to work, creating poverty. Kids are afraid to go to school. I have missed many of my law classes. My friends are afraid to visit. The streets lie empty.
I dream of the hometown that I remember. When the park near my house was filled with happy families and children playing. When people enjoyed life.
I still dream of peace. It will come when the rulers of Gaza choose humanity over hate, when they stop firing on our children while hiding behind their own.
We refuse to grant victory to the terrorists. We choose to live, staying strong with our faith, family and love of country.
Mr. President, who will protect our most basic human rights? My country is now trying its best, and all who love life and desire peace should pray they succeed.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Nortel Networks Corp., the phone equipment maker that was once Canada’s largest company by market value, filed for bankruptcy protection after losses mounted and financing dried up amid a deepening recession.
Nortel’s U.S. stock reached a split-adjusted high of almost $900 in 2000 as the dot-com boom fueled demand for telephone equipment. Since then, the company lost out to Cisco and Juniper Networks Inc., whose products enabled telephone companies to transmit phone signals over Internet lines.
The plunge in the shares prompted a series of lawsuits, with investors accusing Nortel of perpetrating an accounting fraud that included improperly boosting sales by accelerating the booking of fiber-optic equipment contracts. Nortel fired CEO Frank Dunn and other executives as a result.
The company agreed in February 2006 to pay $575 million in cash and issue 62.9 million shares to settle the suits, and Nortel’s insurers agreed to pay $243 million. The settlements won approval Dec. 26, 2006, in New York and a month later in Canada.
Last year, Canadian federal police charged Dunn, former Chief Financial Officer Douglas Beatty and former Controller Michael Gollogly with fraud for misstating results in 2002 and 2003. They also were charged with accounting fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission.
An Israeli army lieutenant colonel in Gaza told a Reuters reporter:
"I think Hamas has already folded. A couple days ago, an armed squad popped up from a tunnel that was concealed by a nearby building. We took them out with tank fire and a bulldozer. Another time, a suicide bomber came in on a bicycle. We spotted him in time. He ran off to take cover in a building, presumably to draw us in. We demolished the building on top of him with a bulldozer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health14-2009jan14,0,3032028.story
Illinois' senior citizens are facing the traumatic prospect of being moved from nursing homes teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as the homes wait for months to be paid by the floundering state government.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are also at work on a stimulus package that could include as much as $100 billion to bail out Medicaid, the primary federally funded health program for the poor administered by the states.
Melvin Siegel, who operates five nursing homes serving some 400 seniors around Springfield, Ill., said he is close to closing because of slow payments from the state.
Nursing homes, which rely heavily on Medicaid, often don't have the option of rejecting patients on public assistance.
"There is no place to go," said Siegel, 79, who said he has borrowed against his home, life insurance and retirement savings to keep in business. "If this falls apart, I'll be penniless. . . . It's never been this bad."
BY KENNETH LOVETT
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
Tuesday, January 13th 2009, 9:44 PM
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson on Tuesday nominated a childhood friend of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver as chief judge of the state's highest court.
Paterson picked Jonathan Lippman, presiding justice of the First Department of the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court, from a list of seven finalists to head the Court of Appeals.
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/tax-issues-derail-fast-ok-for-geithner/305127
You'd think that Barack Osama could at least tap someone to head the IRS that pays his taxes.
From the "Just a sloppy mistake Dept":
G-E-I-T-H-N-E-R
Imagine if this guy was a Republican? Oy Vey. Tarred, feathered, Special Prosecutor, and run out of D.C. in a tsunami flash.
Now I ax you: Is this the "Change You Can Believe In", "Yes We Can".
I got it! It's George Bush's fault.
The Bim-Bam Identity.
The Obama camp knew about Geithner's delinquency -- they told him to pay up, and he did. This is his second round (so far) of non-payment of self-employment taxes that has been discovered.
Kellogg pulls peanut butter crackers after recall by supplier involved in salmonella probe
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- A peanut butter maker that sells bulk supplies to institutions issued a nationwide recall as officials on Wednesday reported two more deaths associated with a salmonella outbreak. Its client Kellogg Co. later asked stores to stop selling a variety of peanut butter crackers.
Lynchburg-based Peanut Corp. of America issued the recall late Tuesday for 21 lots of peanut butter made since July 1 at its plant in Blakely, Ga., because of possible salmonella contamination. The company supplies peanut paste to Kellogg, which on Wednesday asked stores nationwide to pull peanut butter crackers sold under the Austin and Keebler brands.
Kellogg, based in Battle Creek, Mich., said it hasn't found problems or received complaints about those products.
"We are taking these voluntary actions out of an abundance of caution," Kellogg CEO David Mackay said in a release.
The national salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 430 people in 43 states. Health officials in Minnesota and Idaho reported Wednesday that one death in each state had been linked to the outbreak. Another death in Minnesota and two in Virginia were confirmed Tuesday.
All five were adults who had salmonella when they died, though their causes of death haven't been determined. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the salmonella outbreak may have contributed.
Peanut Corp. of America said none of the peanut butter being recalled is sold through retail stores. Its peanut butter is made for distribution to institutions, food service industries and private label food companies. The company said the peanut butter is sold under the brand name Parnell's Pride and by the King Nut Co. as King Nut.
However, the products being pulled from shelves by Kellogg are sold directly to consumers. They include Austin and Keebler toasted peanut butter sandwich crackers, peanut butter and jelly sandwich crackers, cheese and peanut butter sandwich crackers, and peanut butter-chocolate sandwich crackers. Customers and stores are asked to hold onto the Kellogg products, but not eat them, until an investigation is complete.
FDA compliance officer Sandra Williams said Kellogg's move is known as a stop-sale order and isn't as serious as a recall. Neither Williams nor a Kellogg spokesman could say how many units were involved, but Williams said, "It's a very large volume."
Kellogg spokesman Darryl Riley said federal investigators visited company facilities this week.
The Peanut Corp. recall was issued after an open container of King Nut peanut butter in a long-term care facility in Minnesota was found to contain a strain of salmonella. Health officials had recommended nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants discard containers of peanut butter linked to the outbreak. The peanut butter was in containers between 5 and 50 pounds.
"We deeply regret that this has happened," Stewart Parnell, owner and president of Peanut Corp. of America, said in a news release. "Out of an abundance of caution, we are voluntarily withdrawing this produce and contacting our customers."
Customers were notified by phone and in writing, the company said.
Kellogg said it gets peanut paste from several suppliers.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture so far has found nothing in samples tested from Peanut Corp.'s Blakely plant, spokesman Arty Schronce said Wednesday, but added the testing process can take several days.
Authorities have declined to identify the five people who died. But Virginia Health Department spokesman Phil Giaramita said Wednesday the cases there involved an adult over 65 in southwestern Virginia and a younger adult in the northwestern part of the state.
Health officials said a man in his 70s who had numerous underlying health conditions was the second person to die in Minnesota, where 13 people have been hospitalized. The Idaho death occurred in the fall.
The CDC said it appears most people became ill between Sept. 3 and Dec. 31 but mainly after Oct. 1.
King Nut recalled the peanut butter over the weekend in the seven states where it distributed it. King Nut president Martin Kanan had said he didn't want to wait for Peanut Corp. to act. He did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment on the wider recall.
Besides the Georgia plant, Peanut Corp. of America has plants in Suffolk, Va., and Plainview, Texas.
Georgia agriculture officials have one to three inspectors at the Blakely plant and more people working on the case at the department's Atlanta headquarters, Schronce said. He said peanut butter plants in the state are inspected once or twice a year and more frequently if problems are found.
Somebody please stuff some King Nut butter down Hank Paulson's throat before he leaves Washington!
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government is close to finalizing a deal that would give billions in additional aid to Bank of America Corp. to help it close its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co., according to people familiar with the situation.
Discussions over these funds began in mid-December when Bank of America approached the Treasury Department. The bank, already the recipient of $25 billion in committed federal rescue funds, said that it was unlikely to complete its Jan. 1 purchase of the ailing Wall Street securities firm because of Merrill's larger-than-expected losses in the fourth quarter, according to a person ...
On big kashya on Geithner is why he only paid 2 out of the 4 years of taxes owed when he was first caught. He only coughed up the balance now.
IMF Informed Geithner on Taxes
Senate Delays Treasury Nominee's Hearing Till Jan. 21; Obama Vote of confidence
Timothy Geithner, whose nomination as Treasury secretary has been delayed by his past failure to pay taxes, was repeatedly advised in writing by the International Monetary Fund that he would be responsible for any Social Security and Medicare taxes he owed on income he earned at the IMF between 2001 and 2004.
Questions about Mr. Geithner's initial failure to pay more than $34,000 in taxes are clouding his prospects for confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee postponed Mr. Geithner's confirmation hearing from a tentative Friday date to next Wednesday, which means President-elect Barack Obama will take office without a Treasury secretary amid the biggest financial crisis in decades.
Current and former IMF officials said the fund provided numerous warnings to U.S. employees about payroll taxes. According to IMF documents released by the Senate Finance panel, Mr. Geithner regularly received information about his tax obligations.
Mr. Geithner didn't make any Social Security or Medicare tax payments on his income during the years he worked for the IMF, though he did pay income taxes. After the Internal Revenue Service audited him in 2006 and discovered the payroll-tax errors, Mr. Geithner corrected them for 2003 and 2004. Only after Mr. Obama picked him for Treasury secretary last fall did Mr. Geithner pay the Social Security and Medicare tax he owed for 2001 and 2002.
Mr. Obama offered a vote of confidence Wednesday that echoed a defense offered by transition officials a day earlier: Mr. Geithner made a mistake common to people who work for international institutions.
"Tim Geithner, when I [nominated] him, was rightly lauded by people from both sides of the aisle...as somebody who was uniquely qualified" to handle the economy, Mr. Obama said. "Is this an embarrassment for him? Yes. He said so himself."
Let me guess ... Colmer worked for Braca and Braca didn't want to pay him when he found out he's a pedophile?
Eddie, I think Lazer Ginzburg has a better chance of raising a million dollars bail before Colmer succeeds with a racketeering suit from Rikers Island. Maybe it's an excuse to get off the island for court appearances.
While you're all marveling at the hypocrisy that is Geithner and the Bim-Bam, ponder the hypocrisy and see no evil of Hillary's Senate confirmation hearings.
Hubby Bill Lewinsky will continue to collect Bag Money from Arab Governments for his Library (Any books in there?)You mean to say that this will not impact Hillary's approach to diplomacy with these Gov'ts at Israel's expense?
Bulls--t.
Look at all of Bim-Bam's appointments to his cabinet and other Offices: designed to bring this Gov't and country down.
While you're asleep at the wheel, this sleeper will destroy the USA.
The Bim-Bam Identity.
Oil $34
J-Post,
Police on Thursday arrested a 45-year-old Tel Aviv resident on suspicion of impregnating his 13-year-old daughter.
According to hospital reports, the daughter is at the same stage in her pregnancy as her mother.
Police will request extension of his remand later Thursday.
An IDF rabbi shared this personal testimony...
I had the privilege this week [the week before the ground offensive into Gaza - ed of accompanying the Golani Brigade's Regiment 12 soldiers. I am the regiment’s rabbi, in reserves, and I was called up to serve just like the all the rest, to “aid Israel at its time of tribulation.”
As a long-time ba'al-teshuvah [returnee to observant Judais, a rabbi in a yeshiva who usually walks around wearing a jacket and hat, I now had a major change of atmosphere: my black “uniform” became one of dusty dark green, the hubbub of the Torah study hall was replaced by not-so-pleasing army slang, and my wife's delicious food was given up for the “delicacies” of the mess hall, most of which I don’t eat because of one stringency or another.
We spent most of the week in wet tents, with the terrible cold preventing me from sleeping at night. (I apparently wasn’t working as hard as the other soldiers, because they fell asleep the second they hit the pillow.)
My work, as an official of the Army Rabbinate, was to give encouragement and strength to the soldiers, give out Books of Psalms [Tehilli and distribute special prayers for those who go out to battle.
Psalms for All
And what did I discover down there in southern Israel? My brothers! The Golanchiks (Golani Brigade soldiers), about to go out to war, want to hold on to the Rock of Israel! There wasn’t a soldier there who didn’t equip himself with a Tehillim in his pocket or combat vest - but the big surprise we had was when we gave out tzitzit [four-cornered shirt with the required ritual fringes attac. Usually only the yeshiva guys take them, but this time, every soldier there seemed to want one!
“Rabbi, bring me some tzitzit, my whole tent wants.” “Hey, achi [my brothe, take one of these, it’s better than the ceramic vest!” These were the types of calls we kept hearing over and over. Every package of tzizit that we opened was snatched up within seconds.
There was one young fighter who came to the synagogue whose face fell when he heard that there were no tzitzit left. He was totally bereft, until one of the officers who wasn’t going out to battle took off his own tzitzit and gave it to him, saying, “Take it, achi (in the Golani you can’t say something without achi), you need it now more than I do.”
Ma'ariv evening prayer of Friday night, Parashat Vayigash, was simply unbelievable. The Rabbinate realized that the synagogue was too small to fit all the hundreds of soldiers, and so it turned the soccer field into an impromptu synagogue, with prayerbooks, Holy Ark, and everything else.
Whoever did not take part in that Kabbalat Shabbat [Sabbath Welcomin service, is like one who never took part in a Kabbalat Shabbat service in his life! Almost the entire Golani Brigade, officers and soldiers, yelling out the Kaddish and Tehillim prayers. If it wasn’t for the uniform I was wearing, I could have almost thought that I was at a Yom Kippur service in one of the large yeshivot!
No Questions Asked
Our loving Father, too, was there, enjoying every minute of His sons gathering around Him. Our Father doesn’t ask, “Where have you been until now? Why do you remember Me just when you go out to war?” He welcomes all His children and embraces them with love.
After the Sabbath meal, held in an atmosphere of a great “high,” we were privileged to be able to hold an Oneg Shabbat for the soldiers. Chief IDF Rabbi Avi Ronsky was with us the whole Sabbath, and he warmed our hearts with stories of the Nation of Israel, on compassion, on brotherly love, and more. We sat outside with cake and sunflower seeds in the cold, but inside our hearts it was warm.
During the Sabbath, we had to travel to the places from where the soldiers would leave for Gaza. We arrived and the soldiers were imbued with combat spirit, getting ready, trying to get in a last cigarette. Many soldiers tried very hard not to smoke that Sabbath, after I explained to them the importance of observing the Sabbath. They would come up to me every five minutes and ask if the Sabbath had ended yet.
We prayed Ma'ariv there, recited Havdalah [the Sabbath-ending blessin over grape juice, a lighter [instead of a cand and an orange [in place of spice. And then it was time to go in. The Regiment Commander gathered everyone for last-minute words of strength, and explained to them about the “corrective experience” we were about to impart to the enemy.
When he finished, the Deputy Commander read aloud the prayer before going out to battle. “Repeat after me,” he ordered, and a whole regiment of hundreds of soldiers yelled out, “Ana Hashem hoshia na! Ana Hashem hatzlicha na! [O G-d, save us! O G-d, grant us success” After the prayer, the Deputy Commander asked me to blow the Shofar, just as thousands of years ago when we conquered the Holy Land.
Perfect Coordination
Though I’ve blown the Shofar in public before, this particular time was something that will remain with me my whole life. And then, as if I and the Israel Air Force were in perfect coordination, the very second that I finished blowing the Shofar, our planes bombed the enemy area, as if it were a signal to begin the ground offensive.
The soldiers lined up in two columns, and as I parted from them with handshakes, I thought to myself, “What a special nation we have! This is how a Jewish army looks as it goes out to war – not with boastful ‘We will win’ stickers, but rather ‘We will win with G-d’s help.’”
No Dispute
I will just end by saying that where I live in Modi'in Illit, we have a clever interpretation of the verse ‘G-d’s voice is powerful’ – the word for power is spelled with the letters kaf and chet, which we say are the initials of kova and chalifa [hat and sui, our usual garb. But as of this week, we now know that they are also the initials of the kumta chuma [brown bere worn by the Golani soldiers. There, too, the voice of G-d is heard – and “lo pligi” (there is no argument between the two, both are right).
King Ferd must be choking on his camel milk.
Oil is now $33 and the Dow Jones is poised to break through the floor into the 7000s again.
Depravity is the result of the abuse of trust. Look at the instances of depravity that this blog and others have concentrated on such as molestation, Ponzi schemes, institutionalized indifference to parnossah, and more. The ability to get away with depravity is the abuse of trust. I looked at the comments that were posted regarding today's tragedy in New York's Hudson River. One hundred fifty people could have been dragged from the river dead from hypothermia. Chasdei Hashem. Chesed from Heaven. And idiots are posting their depraved indifference to Hashem and to His creations. Depravity has it's source in the abuse of trust. Depravity is rooted in the abuse of trust. Once upon a time, trust was the symbol for authority to be authority. They have abused this. Authority is depraved. Our moral compass has been obfuscated by the immoral who have absconded with trust. May Hashem have mercy on us.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCAeWf23n91i2_hqCGhxgvNoV9RgD95JVA986
In this booking mug shot released by Stow (Ohio) Police Department, Feliks Goldshtein is shown, Thursday, Jan.8, 2009. The bank robber may have tipped his intentions when he stood in line at an Ohio bank wearing a ski mask before staging a holdup. Police say a teller asked the man, identified by police as Goldshtein, to take off the ski mask he was wearing before being served. At that point the man displayed what turned out to be a toy gun and told the teller to give him all the money.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479867,00.html
O.J. Lawyer: 'He's a Sociopath'
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50F0BY20090116?sp=true
Bernie Madoff's investment fund may never have executed a single trade, industry officials say, suggesting detailed statements mailed to investors each month may have been an elaborate mirage in a $50 billion fraud.
An industry-run regulator for brokerage firms said on Thursday there was no record of Madoff's investment fund placing trades through his brokerage operation.
That means Madoff either placed trades through other brokerage firms, a move industry officials consider unlikely, or he was not executing trades at all.
"Our exams showed no evidence of trading on behalf of the investment advisor, no evidence of any customer statements being generated by the broker-dealer," said Herb Perone, spokesman for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Madoff's broker-dealer operation, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, underwent routine examinations by FINRA and its predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers, every two years since it opened in 1960, Perone said.
Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market who was a force on Wall Street for nearly 50 years, allegedly confessed to his sons the firm's investment-advisory business was "basically a giant Ponzi scheme" and "one big lie," according to court documents.
He estimated losses of at least $50 billion from the Ponzi scheme, which uses money from new investors to pay distributions and redemptions to existing investors. Such schemes typically collapse when new funds dry up.
Each month, Madoff sent out elaborate statements of trades conducted by his broker-dealer. Last November, for example, he issued a statement to one investor showing he bought shares of Merck & Co Inc, Microsoft Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Amgen Inc among others.
It also showed transactions in Fidelity Investments' Spartan Fund. But Fidelity, the world's biggest mutual fund company, has no record of Madoff or his company making any investments in its funds.
DISCREPANCIES
"We are not aware of any investments by Madoff in our funds on behalf of his clients," Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said in an e-mail to Reuters.
Neither Madoff nor his firm was a client of Fidelity's Institutional Wealth Services business, their clearing firm National Financial or a financial intermediary client of its institutional services arm, she said.
"Consequently, his firm did not work with our intermediary businesses through which firms invest their clients' money in Fidelity funds," she added.
There also appear to be discrepancies between monthly statements sent to investors and the actual prices at which the stocks traded on Wall Street.
For example, his November statement showed he bought software maker Apple Inc's securities at $100.78 each on November 12, about a month before his arrest.
But Apple's stock on that day never traded above $93.24. The statement also showed he bought chip maker Intel Corp at $14.51 on November 12, but Intel's highest price on that day was $13.97.
"You could print up any statements you want on the computer and send it out to a client and the chances are the client wouldn't know, because they are getting a statement," said Neil Hackman, president and chief executive of Oak Financial Group, a Stamford, Connecticut-based investment advisory firm.
To some, the numbers did not add up.
About 10 years ago, Harry Markopolos, then chief investment officer at Rampart Investment Management Co in Boston, asked risk management consultant Daniel diBartolomeo to run Madoff's numbers after Markopolos tried to emulate Madoff's strategy.
DiBartolomeo ran regression analyses and various calculations, but failed to reconcile them. For a decade, Markopolos raised the issue with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which has come under fire in Congress in recent weeks for failing to act on Markopolos's warnings.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-holder15-2009jan15,0,4257566.story
As Eric H. Holder Jr. gears up to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee today for his confirmation as attorney general, some Republicans say they will question him aggressively about whether his ties to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich are more extensive than Holder has acknowledged.
GOP staffers investigating Holder's background say that although he has downplayed his connections to Blagojevich, new information suggests Holder did legal work for Blagojevich on an investigation into the controversial award of a state casino gambling license by the Illinois Gaming Board.
In 2004, Blagojevich tapped Holder as a special investigator for the Illinois Gaming Board, which had approved a controversial license for a casino to be built in Rosemont, Ill.
Responding to rumors of corruption and mob connections, Blagojevich promised a full, independent investigation. At a March 2004 news conference, he introduced Holder as the state's special investigator into the matter. But the investigation was canceled almost immediately, after some state officials objected to Holder's appointment.
Last month, the controversy resurfaced when Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges. About a week later, Holder submitted his background report, which was supposed to contain all of his business relationships in the eight years he had spent in private practice since he left the Justice Department at the end of the Clinton administration.
When the Senate committee's ranking minority member, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), asked Holder why he had not mentioned it, Holder said the deal had never actually "materialized" and that he had "never performed substantive work on the matter."
Committee investigators then filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the gaming board, and received an April 2, 2004, letter from Holder in which he told the board that he had been appointed to conduct the investigation and wanted to be provided with relevant documents.
Committee investigators said that numerous senators on the committee were concerned about whether Holder was providing them with a full picture of the deal and why Blagojevich chose him for it. And they said their failure to get information on the subject was part of a pattern in which the Democratic majority on the committee was not being fully cooperative with their efforts to thoroughly investigate Holder's actions as a Clinton administration official and a private lawyer.
Holder will face tough questioning today over other issues as well, including his role in several Clinton-era clemency cases like the pardons of fugitive financier Marc Rich, drug dealer Carlos Vignali and 16 members of two Puerto Rican nationalist groups that committed terrorist acts in the U.S.
Anything new since yesterday when Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed Ezra Merkin?
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/16/magazines/fortune/madoff_mother.fortune/index.htm
The late Sylvia Madoff was registered as a broker-dealer in the 1960s but left the business after being cited for failing to file reports.
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/police-probe-fla-fraud-claim-missing/310142?cid=5
MIAMI -A Florida hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors out of millions is missing and his family is worried because he left a note indicating he was "distraught," police said Saturday.
Authorities were interviewing investors and looking into claims that Arthur G. Nadel stole from them, said Sarasota Police Capt. Bill Spitler. It was too soon to say exactly how much was invested, but there were reports the hedge fund could be out $350 million.
"The victims that I know of, I know some of them personally, they have no reason to lie," Spitler said.
Nadel, who operated under the name Scoop Management Inc. in Sarasota, was last seen Wednesday morning by his wife. She reported him missing later that day. Nadel, 75, left a note for his family, although authorities nor his wife would divulge its contents.
"The reason we were called was because he was distraught and they became concerned," said Sarasota County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Chuck Lesaltato.
Peg Nadel said she was cooperating with the authorities and all the investors, but wouldn't go into any detail.
Local authorities were working with the Securities Exchange Commission and FBI in the ongoing fraud investigation.
Arthur Nadel was prominent in local social and philanthropic circles in the beach town along the central Gulf Coast. His investors ranged from individuals to the local YMCA Foundation, The Sarasota-Herald Tribune reported.
Neil Moody, who said he employed Scoop as a trader for three funds in which he was a general partner, has told several investors interviewed by the newspaper that the hedge funds value was $350 million. He said Saturday that he has also lost millions.
"My family is over $12 million at risk," he said. He would not give any further information.
Moody, a director of the YMCA and first vice chair, told the group's local president Thursday that the money was gone and resigned from the board, the newspaper reported.
Another investor said he was not optimistic about getting the $730,000 he invested back.
"I feel abused. I feel beaten. I don't know who to believe," said Dr. Brad Lerner, an internal medicine physician.
"Scoop" Management?
Was Nadel running that as part of Eckstein's Pooper Scoop in Lakewood?
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/12/yeshiva-world-loosing-its-advertisers.html
Yeshiva World losing it's advertisers!!! (?)
YESHIVA WORLD closed its Lakewood Pooper Scooper site.
Anonymous said...
I was hate flagged today by Yeshiva World for calling him to task. He makes himself to be a Tzaddik by posting a letter complaining about coverage of a certain VIN story. The comments he posted were full of Lashon Hara yet when I questioned his associations with frumreport and lakewoodscoop he went ballistic. That proves that he is afraid of this. Keep the pressure up on this.
Anonymous said...
How did Eckstein go ballistic besides censoring your comments?
Anonymous said...
He went ballistic by posting my e-mail and ip address and hate flagging me.
Anonymous said...
If Eckstein is publicizing email addresses an IPs of people asking legitimate questions of him, that is harassment and I believe also a Federal offense under a new Act recently passed by Congress.
Of course depending on how nasty he is about it the shayle is whether he is being motzee shem ra or if it's just stam oynoas devorim.
Is Eckstein violating Federal law? said...
If he runs an anonymous blog he is breaking the law but not if he identifies himself. He admitted last year he is behind YWN but Lakewood Poop-Scoop would be problematic.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s1197es.txt.pdf
Internet harassment, the anonymous kind, has been a federal crime since 2006.
The Communications Act of 1934 criminalizes anonymous harassment by a telecommunications device. Congress amended the law a few years ago to criminalize anonymous harassment via the Internet.
Some argue that the law curtails freedom of speech. Perhaps. If someone is blogging or commenting anonymously about a private citizen in an “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent” manner ” with intent to “annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass,” it is actionable, according to the new law. But should someone have the freedom to do that? Apparently Congress doesn’t think so.
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland unveiled the biggest loss in British corporate history, overshadowing a second banking sector bailout and sending its shares reeling to their lowest in over a quarter of a century.
RBS said Monday it was on course to report a 2008 loss of up to 28 billion pounds ($41 billion) and that further hits from bad debts were inevitable, bruising the European banking sector, which fell 8 percent to a 13-year low.
News of RBS's record-breaking deficit came as the government announced a second support package for banks designed to counter recession by kick-starting lending to businesses and consumers.
The scheme failed to reassure investors, however, and RBS shares closed down 67 percent at 11.6 pence, having earlier slumped to 10 pence.
Other bank stocks also tumbled, with Lloyds Banking Group down 34 percent on the first day of trade following its takeover of HBOS last week.
Shares in Barclays lost 10 percent
Belsky had a flat Sun problem in addition to flat Earth
http://www.theriverwine.com/twinsuns-winery.html
Why is the OU & Rav Akiva Padwa of London certifying Twin Suns wines with images of the Sun on the bottle which it's assur to create these images?
Avodah Zara 43b, Tosfas v’hu,” Rosh 3:5, Ran page 38, Rambam Hilchos Avodas Chochavim 3:11, Tur, Shulchan Aruch 141:4, Taz 13, Shach 25
Even according to the yechidim who are mattir non-protruding images (Darchei Teshuva 141:34, Chochmas Adam 85:5-6, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 168:1), these are printed with high end ink that seem to the touch to protrude. Avnei Yushfei 1:151:1 & Shevet Ha’Levi 7:134:7 point out the issur remains even if altering the color of the sun in the image. Minchas Yitzchok 10:72 explains it doesn't matter if the item is disposable. Although Belsky came up with a "chiddush", kedarkoi, that adding rays coming out of the sun to the image "removes" the issur since solar rays are not visible to the human eye, everyone is cholek on him: see Rav Falk in Am Hatorah 3:5:page 62, V’ain Lamo Michshol 2:page 127:footnote 14, Rav Azriel Auerbach in Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society ibid:page 112:footnote 10.
At the heimishe vein gesheft next door to Rockland Kosher in Monsey's Shoppers Haven mall, the owner tells the oylam that this is his favorite wine.
Also at this gesheft is a michshol horabim self-serve wine tasting table with non-mevushal wines.
When the chassidishe owner is asked how he is allowed to leave non-mevushol without a mashgiach for freya & goyim, er iz alein moydeh that 5% of his customers are not frumma Yidden. This is his "terutz" as if the 5% are bottul beroiv.
And it is obvious that he does not like the question.
This is not the first time this has happened as Rav Shteinman ztl famously said that the oylam should stop saying child molesters are "sick" as the proper definition for them is reshoyim.
Now Ami Magazine reported in the Rosh Hashana edition that when R' Aron Leib was on his American road trip for chizuk, he was approached by several mechanchim who kvetched that today's children are mechutzofim like never before. R' Aron Leib put them in their place that kinder are gutteh and they want to be gutteh. The problem is zogt er that they see the adults like you in positions of chinuch & authority who are the ones not behaving properly. So then how do you expect the kids to act with such role models????
(It's shocking that Yitzy Frankfurter actually published this in his magazine when he is usually from the first to cover up for the Establishment)
Sheker vechuzuv!
Until I got railroaded out of YTT, I always had the bestah mechanchim, Yidi Kolko bichlal!
Vait until I get my hands on dis Frankfurter! Now he also selling out to UOJ?
The Gadol Hador Was Mechaven to the "LETZ HADOR":
https://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2011/07/there-are-no-bad-kids-only-bad-rebbes.html
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