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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A Frum Therapist Reports!

......."Hardly a day goes by in which I do not learn of another victim of abuse in our community that could have been avoided if our leaders would start leading.

- A woman taken advantage of by a rabbi who everyone has heard does this but nobody has stood up to him.

- A man molested as a boy by a rebbe who is also known in this small chassidic community but is being protected by a powerful Rebbe.

- Another boy who learned in Ner Yisroel, who suddenly became clinically depressed after reports that he had a "close" relationship with Rabbi Eiseman, that he refuses to discuss.

- A mother of a boy who is now a severe drug addict with suicidal tendencies, who was molested by an older boy from a "chashuv" family. A "Gadol" told her not to confront the boy's family but to tell her rov. Her rov told the mother that it is now "mashiach tzeitin, and these things are to be expected." I told the mother to confront the family, which she did, and they were very thankful to be informed that their son had this problem.

- A known incest-rapist has children in a yeshivah and the Torah Umesorah psychologists refuse to get involved with helping his children, even though they are presented with psychological symptoms.

- A frum play-group is found to have several little toddlers who were sexually traumatized in some way. Parents and grandparents ask me if children that young should be kept home.

- Some rabbis are telling some parents that it is best NOT to send their kids to overnight camp.

And this is the tip of the iceberg. Over the last few months, especially once Dov Hikind has started shining light publicly on this problem, stories are coming out that make all of this look like kids play, no pun intended.

In some cases, the level of abuse has become almost institutionalized and ritualized among groups of molesters. Among some teens at risk in Monsey, being molested is seen as a kind of rite of passage so that a boy might ask his friend "where did you learn? Who molested you?"..........

My Friend Steve Adds With Great Passion:

Wake up you morons in RBS (and other charedi communities) before your rabbis destroy our future.

We have our own share of child molesters in our yeshivos in the U.S. We are bigger morons than those in RBS because we haven't learned from the mistakes of the past. How do we allow a serial child molester named Avrohom Reichman, free access to young children on a daily basis at UTA Satmar? How can we be silent after Dov Hikind boldly promised last summer that he will not be back in a classroom in September? How do we allow Hikind to be conned by that filthy, lying, conniving enabler, David Niederman?

"To me, it does not make sense," says Niederman, of the United Jewish Organizations, "that so many people have been violated and for so many years they have been quiet. Something does not add up. It's being blown out of proportion — big time."

They have been quiet for so many years because of people like Neiderman who continue to muzzle the victims while enabling the molesters to continue molesting our children. He says he conducted an investigation. What kind of "investigation"? The perv failed every polygraph test! Let the police do the investigating, you chamor! Then they asked one of the victim's mother, "On a scale of 1-10, how bad was the molestation"? If it was through clothing, they claim, it's not so bad. Sure, let him molest another hundred kids through clothing. It's not so bad! If those heroic children, mentioned in Maseches Gittin, that jumped off the boat, were told that they would only be molested "through clothing", do you think they would have submitted to their captors and not jumped off? This contention that "it's not so bad" is as ridiculous as the "no penetration, no molestation" argument. Ask any professional psychologist and he will tell you that the results of such molestation are just as devastating. Go speak to the victims of Mondrowitz that were sodomized and then go speak to victims of Kolko and Eiseman, and you will see that they are all permanently scarred for life! How many more korbanos do we need? How many more lives need to be destroyed?

This case at UTA in some ways is worse than the YTT case. At YTT, they were in total denial. Here, they were connivers. They first removed the molester, promising the victims' family that he would not return. They then waited for the statute of limitations to expire, and then brazenly brought him back. We cannot give these bastards a free pass. They must be held accountable and Reichman must be removed immediately. Let's hope that the Engelmans succeed in their lawsuit and that Niederman and all the criminals at UTA are exposed. We need to lobby vigorously to suspend the statute of limitations for one year to allow victims a chance to report old cases to the police. We should all attend Hikind's prayer service on March 1 at the Y in Boro Park, show our support for his efforts, but also voice our dissatisfaction in his handling the Reichman case.

We should not underestimate what a group of determined and caring individuals can accomplish. We need to learn the lesson that UOJ taught us three years ago when he singlehandedly defeated the powerful Establishment that was protecting the likes of Kolko, Nussbaum, Leizerowitz, Mondrowitz, Colmer and Eiseman. The disturbing cases at UTA and RBS show that we still have a lot of work to do before this war is finally won. Let's all do what we can and beezras hashem, we shall succeed. We have no choice but to win this war, for our children's sake!

94 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me thinks you pushing it with the Monsey story - "Where you learn, who molested you?"

Paul Mendlowitz said...

I report - you decide!

Anonymous said...

Marvin Schick said molestation does not exist in the Jewish community.

Anonymous said...

it is so sad to continue to read about the apathy that the jewish rabbinica community has to this issue

i for one warned the rabbis of my sons yeshiva that if i even feel that a teacher behaves innapropriatly i will go to the classroom with a bat

they now have instituted a policy of checking their employees and registering them

wake up yidden throw these bums out of your shuls and kehillas

Anonymous said...

BME! BME! BME! BME! BME! BME!

C'mon! Give it up. Let us know what happened.

Anonymous said...

Schick is only telling half the story. It was UOJ who invented the word molestation because he is jealous of the BEST yeshiva.

Now please excuse me while I go into hiding before Federal agents come calling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/business/worldbusiness/19ubs.html

In the hush-hush world of Swiss banking, the unthinkable is happening: secrets are spilling into the open.

UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, agreed on Wednesday to divulge the names of well-heeled Americans whom the authorities suspect of using offshore accounts at the bank to evade taxes. The bank admitted conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and agreed to pay $780 million to settle a sweeping federal investigation into its activities.

It is unclear how many of its clients’ names UBS will divulge. Federal prosecutors have been examining about 19,000 accounts at the bank, but UBS ultimately may disclose the identities of only a few hundred customers.

But to some, turning over any names at all heralds the end of the secret Swiss bank account, whose traditions date to the Middle Ages.

“The Swiss are saying that this is the end of Swiss banking as they knew it,” said Jack Blum, an offshore tax specialist. “Nobody will trust the security of the Swiss bank account.”

As part of the settlement, UBS agreed to cooperate with a broad summons issued by the Justice Department to turn over the names. Under the terms of a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, the bank and its executives could be indicted if UBS didn’t identify the customers.

UBS has said it is closing the offshore accounts of its American clients. But under the deal with the United States authorities, the bank must provide periodic written evidence of that to prosecutors. UBS earned $200 million annually from the business.

Prosecutors suspect that from late 2002 to 2007, UBS helped American clients illegally hide $20 billion, letting them evade $300 million a year in taxes.

In a striking admission, UBS said that from 2000 through 2007, some of its private bankers and managers had “participated in a scheme to defraud the United States” and the I.R.S. by helping American clients set up and conceal offshore accounts. The scheme involved falsifying or not properly obtaining or filing certain tax forms required of both the bank and its clients.

UBS’s offshore private banking business once employed some 60 private bankers in Lugano, Zurich and Geneva. Prosecutors claimed UBS referred clients to lawyers and accountants who set up secret offshore entities to conceal assets from the I.R.S.

UBS urged some American clients to destroy records and to stash watches, jewelry and artwork that they had bought with money hidden offshore in safe deposit boxes in Switzerland. The bank also encouraged them to use Swiss credit cards so the I.R.S. could not track purchases. In a statement on Wednesday, Peter Kurer, the chairman of UBS, said that “UBS sincerely regrets the compliance failures in its U.S. cross-border business that have been identified by the various government investigations in Switzerland and the U.S., as well as our own internal review. We accept full responsibility for these improper activities.”

Marcel Rohner, the group chief executive of UBS, said in a statement that “it is apparent that as an organization we made mistakes and that our control systems were inadequate.”

In January a senior UBS executive, Raoul Weil, was declared a fugitive, two months after being indicted by a federal judge in connection with the investigation of the bank. Mr. Weil, a Swiss citizen, oversaw the cross-border private banking operations from 2002 to 2007.

UBS had fiercely resisted turning over the names, even after some executives were indicted and implicated in the offshore private banking business. Swiss law distinguishes broadly between tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax fraud. Unlike in the United States, tax evasion is not a criminal offense under Swiss law.

The move by UBS to settle the case, on the eve of a Senate subcommittee hearing next Tuesday on the matter, signals how close the bank came to being indicted for not cooperating with prosecutors. Indictment is a near-certain death knell for corporations.

Of the $780 million that UBS will pay, $380 million represents disgorgement of profits from its cross-border business. The remainder represents United States taxes that UBS failed to withhold on the accounts. The figures include interest, penalties and restitution for unpaid taxes

As part of the deal, UBS also entered into a consent order with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which it agreed to charges of having acted as an unregistered broker-dealer and investment adviser for Americans.

The settlement caps a painful run for UBS, which suffered more than $50 billion in losses in the collapse of the American mortgage market and received a $60 billion bailout from the Swiss government last October.

The bank will not have to pay additional fines and penalties, which could have brought the deal to more than $1 billion. People briefed on the issue said the banking crisis and the recession were factors in this decision by prosecutors.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

BME! BME! BME! BME! BME! BME!

C'mon! Give it up. Let us know what happened.

*

The goal of this Blog is and was to shed light on the horrors that are going on in the name of Daas Torah -- to make effective changes to repair that extensive damage.

I'm am truly concerned about what will happen to "Emunas Chachomim" -- if I disclose what I know happened between Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky ztvk"l and Rabbi Gedalya Schorr over Bais Medrash Elyon and Torah Vodaath - during the period after Rav Shraga Feivel's ztvk"l petirah --- and up until the time Rabbi Schorr was niftar.

So, while I intend to disclose those events, I am going through the filtering process -- to avoid collapse of the "Torah world" completely.

Anonymous said...

A Black Democrat from Maryland was on CNBC this morning. She refused to answer what happens in the following scenario: Losers get bailed out by taxpayers so they can hold onto the homes they could never afford in the first place. So what happens when the economy turns around and the losers stand to make $100,000s off the rise in home values. Do the losers get to keep the profit at the expense of all of us? Two CNBC anchors kept cutting her off and demanded she answer the question. This ugly looking COngresswoman who could use a good dentist, kept talking over them and dodging the question. They finally had enough and told her to get lost, moving on to other programming.

Anonymous said...

Marvin Schick's statement that abuse doesn't happen has the endorsement of the Aligned Federation of F&%d up Rabbis of Ramat Bet Shemesh.

Rabbi Elimelly Hornyfeld
Rabbi Chaim Z. Malignoshitz
Rabbi Shmuel Z. Ivedoneurson

Presidum

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/02/05/2009-02-05_nyc_so_costly_you_need_to_earn_six_figur.html

N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class

BY Elizabeth Hays
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Anonymous said...

A small group of Yemenite Jews reached Israel on Thursday after a secret airlift from their Arab homeland.

The Jewish Agency said it brought the 10 people to Israel after a "special operation."

Spokesman Michael Jankelowitz said the Yemenites had been threatened by al-Qaida. He refused to say how they were rescued, citing security concerns.

Most of Yemen's Jewish community immigrated to Israel after its establishment in 1948, but about 280 Jews remain there.

Jankelowitz said the community has faced growing threats over the past year. He said Jews in the capital of San'a fled their homes last year because of al-Qaida threats.

In December, a Yemenite Jew was killed in a shooting attack.

Anonymous said...

We should get together with Sharpton & boycott UOJ too!

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/02/19/2009-02-19_rev_al_sharpton_black_leaders_planning_b.html

Rev. Al Sharpton, black leaders planning boycott of New York Post over controversial chimp cartoon

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/nyregion/20food.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

February 20, 2009

Newly Poor Swell Lines at Food Banks Nationwide

Anonymous said...

A must see video

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

VIDEO: 'The government is promoting bad behavior... do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages... This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard'... MORE...

TRADERS REVOLT: CNBC HOST CALLS FOR NEW 'TEA PARTY'; CHICAGO TRADING FLOOR MOCKS OBAMA PLAN

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20web-baker.html?hp

Now Barack Osama is trying to skew the US Census to illegally count more Democrat-voting minorities & homeless bums.

Anonymous said...

Filed at 3:02 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A government lawsuit Thursday seeks the identities of tens of thousands of possible U.S. tax cheats who hid billions of dollars in assets at the Swiss-based bank UBS AG. A defiant Swiss president pledged to maintain his country's bank secrecy laws.

In the suit filed in Miami, the Obama administration wants UBS to turn over information on as many as 52,000 U.S. customers who concealed their accounts from the U.S. government in violation of tax laws.

''At a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and their health care, it is appalling that more than 50,000 of the wealthiest among us have actively sought to evade their civil and legal duty to pay taxes,'' the acting assistant attorney general, John DiCicco, said in a statement.

A deal announced Wednesday provides access to about 250 to 300 UBS customers who used Swiss bank secrecy laws to hide assets. To avoid prosecution, UBS agreed to pay $780 million. The bank's chairman, Peter Kurer, said UBS accepted ''full responsibility'' for helping its U.S. clients conceal assets from the Internal Revenue Service.

But that does not mean the bank is about to fork over information on thousands of accounts.

On Wednesday, the government claimed in court papers there were close to 20,000 U.S. clients who hid assets through the UBS program. A day later, the number had climbed to 52,000. U.S. officials offered no immediate explanation for the revised estimate, but it was another sign they are raising the pressure on the Swiss bank.

''This shows the big fight is yet to come,'' said George Clarke, a tax lawyer based in Washington who is not involved in the UBS case.

For one, UBS said that except for the 250 to 300 U.S. customers, it will fight to keep all others names private, arguing Swiss secrecy laws shield them.

Hours before the new suit, Switzerland's president, Hans-Rudolf Merz, said his country will not relent in defending its treasured tradition of confidential bank accounts.

''Banking secrecy, ladies and gentlemen, remains intact,'' Merz told reporters.

Merz said Swiss authorities handed over the files on the 250 to 300 American clients of who are suspected of tax fraud. The transfer took place in the middle of the night in the Swiss capital, Bern, just ahead of a U.S. deadline for Swiss cooperation, he said.

But U.S. officials want much more. According to Thursday's filing, the thousands of accounts in question held about $14.8 billion in assets in the past decade.

Merz, UBS and Switzerland's financial regulator insist that Thursday's handover was not a retreat from the principle of banking secrecy because it involved only a small number of files linked to tax fraud -- and not tax evasion.

Under a 75-year-old law, Swiss banking secrecy can only be lifted when individuals are deemed to have deliberately defrauded tax authorities, as opposed to failing to declare all assets. That is a distinction only Switzerland and other tax havens make.

Experts said the decision to bypass the courts and give up customers before exhausting all legal options seriously endangers a pillar of the banking industry that helped transform Switzerland into one of the world's richest countries.

Lawyers in Zurich, Switzerland, sued the head of Switzerland's financial services authority FINMA, which authorized the transfer of files.

It is now for a federal judge in Miami to decide whether U.S. courts can force a bank to violate Swiss bank secrecy laws and provide the account information.

According to U.S. officials, an acquisition in 2000 of a U.S. company brought UBS a host of new American clients. The bank then set about to evade new reporting requirements for those clients. To do so, UBS executives helped U.S. taxpayers open new accounts in the names of sham entities.

The clients, in turn, filed false tax returns that omitted the income they earned in their Swiss accounts, according to the court papers.

Anonymous said...

UOJ:

EMUNAS CHACHAMIM IS A HOAX, almost as big as showing up to Azrieli Towers and expect money to fall from the roof. YOU CAN'T DESTROY EMUNAS CHACHAMIM, the rabbis have already done it with their corruption.

Don't be scared what will happen when you reveal the BME, YTV power grab. Most of us will shrug ouir shoulders and say HO HUM, nothing new.

Anonymous said...

NEW YORK - About 200 people, outraged over a New York Post cartoon, have been protesting in front of the newspaper's Manhattan offices.

The cartoon on Wednesday appeared to link President Obama to a violent chimpanzee. On Thursday, the protesters shouted "Shut it down!" and "Boycott the Post!"

-Click here to see photos of the NYC protests against the Post's chimp cartoon

Activist minister Al Sharpton says they'll be back again Friday.

Anonymous said...

Shakedown b--t--ds.

Al (Hymie Town; Diamond Merchants)Sharpton can F off and kiss it on both sides. What a low-life piece of scum.

Come back Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and every freakin day of the week with your 200 bozos. Probably the most productive hours you'll be spending, off the streets and out of trouble.

I can wash my own windshield.

Anonymous said...

Boog, I'll getcha near the George Washington Bridge.

Anonymous said...

February 19, 2009

Allen Stanford Found In Virginia

By REUTERS
Filed at 5:08 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI said Thursday its agents found Texas billionaire Allen Stanford in the Fredericksburg, Virginia, area and served him with court papers accusing him of massive fraud.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the Federal Bureau of Investigation acted at the request of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and that Stanford, whose whereabouts had been unknown for the past few days, had not been arrested.

Kolko said he did not know whether Stanford had surrendered his passport.

The SEC's complaint, accusing Stanford of an $8 billion fraud, was served by agents from the FBI's office in Richmond, Virginia, Kolko said.

"The agents served Mr. Stanford with court orders related to the SEC civil filing against the Stanford Financial Group," Kolko said.

Stanford and three of his companies were charged with fraud in a civil complaint filed in federal court in Dallas, Texas.

Anonymous said...

APNewsBreak: Black Pastors to Ask Burris to Resign

11 minutes ago

Anonymous said...

While they're at it, have them also ask the Bim-Bam to resign.

Anonymous said...

RBS Achdus,

I know all about Akiva Kagan and the rabbi's cover up.
What a disgrace. I have a relative who lives in RBS who told me that there have been multiple reports to the police but rabbinic influence has stymied the investigation.
These poor children have suffered while this monster walks the streets with impunity.
He is still teaching children and poses a threat to the kids.

Wake up you morons in RBS (and other charedi communities) before your rabbis destroy our future.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Rabbosai:

I want to advise everyone that I believe it is very prudent to have canned food, bottled water, all foodstuff that can survive without refrigeration -- in your homes and basements --- for at minimum 30 days for the entire family. If you can afford to purchase food for longer periods - please do. Powdered formula for infants should be a priority.

UOJ

Anonymous said...

What is gore the cheshash, chalileh?

A breakdown of law & order because of economic / food riots?

A breakdown of the power grid?

al Qaeda getting their hands on WMD?

Anonymous said...

Washington Post - 3 hours ago

By Peter Slevin CHICAGO, Feb. 19 --

Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.) canceled his public events Thursday and retreated behind closed doors to plot strategy during a week that has seen his honesty questioned and his Senate future cast in doubt.

Anonymous said...

Syndicated political cartoonist Chip Bok didn't find the Post cartoon racist, but he said it probably was in bad taste.

"A woman was terribly mauled and almost killed," he said. "That's really the only grounds by which [my editors] would throw out a cartoon. When it involves somebody's life like that, I would tend to stay away from it."

Bok knows a little about what it feels like to create a polarizing cartoon. In 2006, around the time of the Danish Mohammed cartoon controversy, the Akron Beacon Journal published a cartoon he drew showing a blurred picture of Mohammed on CNN.

The cartoonist had been watching the network cover the story about Muslim anger over the Danish cartoons, which showed the prophet with a bomb crafted out of his turban. Bok was upset that CNN had chosen to blur the cartoon in its coverage.

The cartoonist immediately drew his cartoon, which showed a couple watching TV and saying, "Well, no wonder Muslims are upset. Muhammad looks like he's on acid."

"I was inundated with e-mail, the paper was picketed," he said. "There was quite a reaction."

Anonymous said...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/19/holder.folo/index.html

Holder 'nation of cowards' remarks blasted

Ed Hornick
CNN

Stephan Tawney, writing on the American Pundit blog, said "Our attorney general is black, both major parties are led by black men, the president is black. Last month, the nation officially honored Martin Luther King Jr. as it does every year, and Holder is speaking during Black History Month. And yet we're apparently a 'nation of cowards' on race."

Ron Christie, a one-time domestic policy adviser to former President George W. Bush, said that for the nation's chief law enforcement officer to raise race issues "was wrong and it was very insulting to the American people."

CNN iReport contributor Jimmy Deol of Toronto, Ontario, called Holder's remarks "a bit strong and needlessly provocative."

Holder -- who said that he wants to "revitalize the Civil Rights Division" at the Justice Department -- said Wednesday that he wants to start a new conversation.

CNN senior political analyst David Gergen said the attorney general's comments failed to take into account how far the country has come.

"If you look at overall where we've come, we just had a huge, huge debate. And now we've elected a black American, and to seemingly after that to call this a 'nation of cowards,' it's just tone-deaf," Gergen said.

Anonymous said...

I recently read an article portraying the extreme view of "Da'as Torah" (i.e. they are infallible) as having only arisen about the same time that the, l'havdil, Catholic church started promulgating a similar view for their pope.

Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Burris' support in black community begins to waver

International Herald Tribune - 46 minutes ago

Anonymous said...

Wake up you morons in RBS (and other charedi communities) before your rabbis destroy our future.

We have our own share of child molesters in our yeshivos in the U.S. We are bigger morons than those in RBS because we haven't learned from the mistakes of the past. How do we allow a serial child molester named Avrohom Reichman, free access to young children on a daily basis at UTA Satmar? How can we be silent after Dov Hikind boldly promised last summer that he will not be back in a classroom in September? How do we allow Hikind to be conned by that filthy, lying, conniving enabler, David Niederman?

"To me, it does not make sense," says Niederman, of the United Jewish Organizations, "that so many people have been violated and for so many years they have been quiet. Something does not add up. It's being blown out of proportion — big time."

They have been quiet for so many years because of people like Neiderman who continue to muzzle the victims while enabling the molesters to continue molesting our children. He says he conducted an investigation. What kind of "investigation"? The perv failed every polygraph test! Let the police do the investigating, you chamor! Then they asked one of the victim's mother, "On a scale of 1-10, how bad was the molestation"? If it was through clothing, they claim, it's not so bad. Sure, let him molest another hundred kids through clothing. It's not so bad! If those heroic children, mentioned in Maseches Gittin, that jumped off the boat, were told that they would only be molested "through clothing", do you think they would have submitted to their captors and not jumped off? This contention that "it's not so bad" is as ridiculous as the "no penetration, no molestation" argument. Ask any professional psychologist and he will tell you that the results of such molestation are just as devastating. Go speak to the victims of Mondrowitz that were sodomized and then go speak to victims of Kolko and Eiseman, and you will see that they are all permanently scarred for life! How many more korbanos do we need? How many more lives need to be destroyed?

This case at UTA in some ways is worse than the YTT case. At YTT, they were in total denial. Here, they were connivers. They first removed the molester, promising the victims' family that he would not return. They then waited for the statute of limitations to expire, and then brazenly brought him back. We cannot give these bastards a free pass. They must be held accountable and Reichman must be removed immediately. Let's hope that the Engelmans succeed in their lawsuit and that Niederman and all the criminals at UTA are exposed. We need to lobby vigorously to suspend the statute of limitations for one year to allow victims a chance to report old cases to the police. We should all attend Hikind's prayer service on March 1 at the Y in Boro Park, show our support for his efforts, but also voice our dissatisfaction in his handling the Reichman case.

We should not underestimate what a group of determined and caring individuals can accomplish. We need to learn the lesson that UOJ taught us three years ago when he singlehandedly defeated the powerful Establishment that was protecting the likes Kolko, Nussbaum, Leizerowitz, Mondrowitz, Colmer and Eiseman. The disturbing cases at UTA and RBS show that we still have a lot of work to do before this war is finally won. Let's all do what we can and beezras hashem, we shall succeed. We have no choice but to win this war, for our children's sake!

Anonymous said...

Yeyasher Koach to all those dedicated to help remove the burdens from those in pain. Physical pain, spiritual pain, and mental anguish are hard to live with. Hakadosh Baruch Hu WILL repay all those who dedicate their time and resources to alleviate the pain of others. These people see a person in distress, and follow Hashem's law of Azov Ta'Azov, you must chip in to assist in carrying his burden.

These people of valor fulfill a daily Naaseh V'Nishmah, doing without being concerned with financial benefits. From Monsey, Chicago, Los Angeles, to Jerusalem these people are amazing.

Anonymous said...

Marvin Schick: No molestation? What's his view on Madoff? David Schick, Sr.? Any connection?

Anonymous said...

Steve,

Many of the "rabbis" in Israel began their careers (or lives) in the US.

Geographical lines do not separate between like minded low lives who would rather protect the "good name" of Charedisim at the expense of our children.

Kol Hakavod to UOJ and other brave individuals who risk personal and professional harm in order to wipe out this plague.

Anonymous said...

BERLIN (Reuters) – A fat Jewish businessman from New York lost more than 10,000 euros ($13,000) in a plastic bag after forgetting the cash in a public toilet, authorities said on Thursday.

Hesse state police said the man took the "five-figure" sum with him as he stopped to relieve himself in a motorway service station near Haiger in western Germany. He then drove off.

A police spokesman said it was not clear why the man took half an hour to notice his loss -- by which time the money had gone.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

The dramatic rise of children with "special needs" in Hasidic and ultra-orthodox communities, in my opinion, is directly linked to the herpes virus and other viruses that are transmitted by metziza b'peh (oral suction) at circumcision. I'll speculate that the vast majority of these 280 children in this school are males.

*

Excerpted from The Jewish Week!

"Kiryas Joel’s all-Jewish public school with a $13 million budget, has 280 students, all of them with special needs, some with dramatic physical disabilities. More than 900 students in the private Kiryas Joel yeshivas receive remedial support in the public school that has more staff than full-time students."

Anonymous said...

The dramatic rise of children with "special needs" in Hasidic and ultra-orthodox communities, in my opinion, is directly linked to the herpes virus and other viruses that are transmitted by metziza b'peh (oral suction) at circumcision. I'll speculate that the vast majority of these 280 children in this school are males.

Dear UOJ

Such pronouncements are not in line with generally accepted medical fact. Please consult with the CDC before starting an undue panic. Special needs children are created by Hashem. While we can sit and speculate as to why they are created - we can also speculate on shatnez. It's not my place to go through the laborious detail that genetic makeup and mutation would require to convince a lay olam regarding the selection of herpes as a mutant agent. Herpes has other devestating effects on the mind and on the body that are fully realized. Chicken pox is the herpes virus for example and many are unaware of that. Prevention of disease spreading is admirable and worthy of you. Please don't do it through innuendo and without documentation.

Thank you,

Boruch

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Boruch,

I've done much research over the years on the topic of disease as it relates to children who have been subjected to metzizah b'peh versus children that have not.

While I clearly "speculated" in my post, the medical evidence is in my favor.

Anonymous said...

Obama is truly dangerous. Look how his Transportation Secretary is trying to make this country into Orwell's Animal Farm. "LaHood" by the way is a stinking Arab whose real name is Lahoud. This is Obama's idea of "Republicans" in his Administration, an Arab from his corrupt home State of Illinois.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/02/20/washington/AP-LaHood-Vehicle-Mileage-Tax.html

Filed at 12:54 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn -- an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.

Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.

''We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled,'' the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said.

Most transportation experts see a vehicle miles traveled tax as a long-term solution, but Congress is being urged to move in that direction now by funding pilot projects.

The idea also is gaining ground in several states. Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island are talking about such programs, and a North Carolina panel suggested in December the state start charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.

A tentative plan in Massachusetts to use GPS chips in vehicles to charge motorists by the mile has drawn complaints from drivers who say it's an Orwellian intrusion by government into the lives of citizens. Other motorists say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers.

Besides a VMT tax, more tolls for highways and bridges and more government partnerships with business to finance transportation projects are other funding options

A blue-ribbon national transportation commission is expected to release a report next week recommending a VMT.

The system would require all cars and trucks be equipped with global satellite positioning technology, a transponder, a clock and other equipment to record how many miles a vehicle was driven, whether it was driven on highways or secondary roads, and even whether it was driven during peak traffic periods or off-peak hours.

The device would tally how much tax motorists owed depending upon their road use. Motorists would pay the amount owed when it was downloaded, probably at gas stations at first, but an alternative eventually would be needed.

Arthur said...

Ther is sill some hope for Boro Park.At least from an Irish Cathlics point of view.

"Mazel Tov.

It was like the opener to a bad bar joke: a fair Irish Catholic moves to Hasidic Brooklyn.

Except it isn’t a joke. It is my life. I, the fair Irish Catholic one, moved to a Hasidic Jewish Brooklyn neighborhood almost nine months ago.

And not just any Hasidic Jewish neighborhood. I moved to the largest Hasidic neighborhood in the United States.

When I decided to move to Brooklyn from the West coast, I was unfamiliar with her neighborhoods. I came to visit Manhattan’s sister borough in May to find an apartment before my summer move. New York was dark and rainy; borderline apolocalyptic. As I visited apartments with my companion Conner, I based my judgment on a very important, highly scientific test: The “Do I feel comfortable walking these streets at night in the dark without fear of getting jumped, groped and/or murdered?” Test. Majority of the neighborhoods I looked at failed—until I came to Borough Park.

Borough Park is in South Brooklyn below Park Slope and above Coney Island. I could tell the neighborhood was quaint based on the fact I walked by two elementary schools within two blocks of one another. Even in the late May downpour, I felt instantaneously comfortable and connected. The apartment I came to see was wonderful. 1,200 sq. ft, 2.5 rooms, top floor and a roof view that was enviable. The building owners are a mother-daughter duo and spoke with such heavy New York accents, I could barely understand what they were saying—but I knew I liked them. I trusted them. And more importantly, I trusted the neighborhood.

I signed a lease.

Walking back to the subway, I noticed a few men in wide brimmed hats and heavy overcoats. They had curls at their temples that tumbled past their ears. These men were accompanied by women pushing double-seated strollers. As I continued down my new street, I noticed all of the women had identical haircuts: a blunt cut brunette bob. Because of the rain, they covered their hair with plastic bonnets. After a few more blocks I figured out they were all wearing wigs. And I also figured out I just signed a lease in a Jewish neighborhood.

When I arrived back to Oregon I googled my new neighborhood and found out my speculation was correct. Borough Park was the largest Hasidic neighborhood in America. Crown Heights Brooklyn, made famous by Jewish reggae rapper, Matisyahu, was number two.

I arrived in Brooklyn full-time in the dead of summer. The July humidity was almost enough to make me trek back across country without looking back. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced. There was no way to remain cool and there was no way to remain clean. Now that the weather was bright and clear, I saw many more of my new neighbors. Dressed in their wool coats and slacks, their dark brimmed hats were lined with white residue from their head sweating in the 95-degree sun.

I was immediately singled out. My wild curly, blonde hair paired with my kelly green shirt and shorts didn’t make the best first impression.

I found myself intimidated by this culture. Never making eye contact, they didn’t acknowledge me. They looked right through me. I constantly had to step off the curb so they could pass. It was like I wasn’t present on the street at all.

My father and I went to the local hardware store to purchase an air conditioner. The Hasidic man behind the counter didn’t help us. After waiting at the counter to pay for what we came for, the shopkeeper looked at me and simply walked away.

My dad had an idea.

When he returned without me, but with Conner’s brother Sam 15 minutes later, he was sold the unit without a problem.

Summer continued with like experiences. I felt guilty walking the streets in dresses and shorts. Women would stare at me while waiting in line at the local, non-Hasidic owned drug store. I found myself getting more and more frustrated as time wore on.

The first five months of living in Borough Park, I didn't talk to a single resident. It was an unspoken agreement. I became a silent observer. I was fascinated by the Hasidic way of living and I started noticing their subtleties.

Like how Hasidic men would cut in front of Hasidic women in various lines. How the usually packed streets were vacant on the Sabbath (Saturdays). How their children go to school Sunday through Thursday. How not once have I seen a Hasidic man or woman walk at a leisurely pace. They walked very quick and with purpose. Their coats are very long, sometimes covering their feet and they looked like they were floating because of it.

A few months ago while waiting to pay for some cards at Duane Reade, the local drug store, a Hasidic man cut in front of me. Usually I am very non-confrontational, but today I was a bit feisty. I walked in front of him and placed my items on the counter. A moment later I could feel his chest on my back, letting his presence known.

I was an outcast in this neighborhood and this man made sure I understood. So when a Hasidic woman reached out to me one Fall night, in one of the most bizarre encounters of my life, to say I was shocked is a severe understatement.

While walking home from the subway with Conner around midnight, we noticed makeshift tents all over my neighborhood. 12x12 foot wooden boxes were assembled and covered in tarps on the sidewalks. As we walked by each one, we could hear conversation inside.

Upon reaching my apartment entryway, a Hasidic woman who I recognized as living in the building next to mine approached us.

“I need you to reset my oven,” she states in broken English.

Completely caught off guard, I ask her to repeat herself.

“Here, you go with her,” she says while pointing at her pre-pubescent daughter in the doorway of their building.

Without giving it a second thought I go with her. To reset the oven. At midnight.

While walking up the never-ending staircase, I start to overheat. Not because of the incline, but because I have no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going. I turn to look behind me and Conner has matching bewilderment on his face.

When we reach the apartment I notice instantly it is three times the size of mine and I’m immediately envious. Furnished in dark oak and gold, the home is rich and warm. When we walk into the living room, we are met by an audience. Roughly seven or eight children look at us in confusion. My red pants and knee-high boots were not helping.

“Here,” says the daughter while pointing at the oven.

The oven is running perfectly fine. It’s on, baking something at 400 degrees.

“Push this down arrow button,” I’m told.

So I do.

“Keep pushing it until 350.”

So I did.

“Ok. Thank you.”

I don’t think I even returned the sentiment because I was so confused. Why couldn’t she press the button three times? My mind is racing. If they were to kill Conner and I right now, no one would know. Seriously.

As we turn to run back down the stairs to safety, we are blocked by the mother who was coming up them.

“Ok, now I need you to program my lights,” she says. “In the back room.”

Now I’m officially feverish and suffering from slight tunnel vision.

We follow her to the dark back room where we are met by her older son. She points at the light timer on the ground of their laundry room, and Conner picks it up on command. As she and her son are speaking Yiddish to one another, Conner and I are wild eyed.

“Ok, he says you have to turn it three clicks to the right,” she instructs.

Conner clicks it times three.

“Ok, now you have to put this pin in it to set it.”

Conner sets the pin.

“Ok. Thank you.”

I yell “You’re Welcome” over my shoulder as I’m already out the door.

“Here, I must give you cake,” she says.

We enter her kitchen and she cuts us a generous piece of marble cake. Feeling a little more at ease while giving her countless children awkward smiles, I ask, “do you mind telling us why we needed to do these things and what the huts are outside?”

“Why yes, it is our holiday, Sukkot [pronounced sue-COAT]. Our men eat, drink and sleep outside for seven days,” she says. “And we cannot do any kind of work for a week.”

Like setting light timers and ovens.

Thanking her for the cake, we descend the stairs.

“So when do you work, just in case we need something else?” she asks us.
“Well are you able to call us?” I ask.

“No.”

“What about leave us a note?”

“No.”

“Ok, well if you see us outside, we’ll come help if you need it.”

Note taking and dialing were all considered exerting themselves during this time.

It was at this moment I felt a part of this culture. Hasidic Jews are a quiet, ultra orthodox culture. I get it.

On New Years Eve an acquaintance I don’t know well approached me at a bar.

“How come you live in that neighborhood?” she asked rudely. “I’m Jewish and I wouldn’t even live in that neighborhood.”

Well good. Then don’t. Because it’s my neighborhood. And when they need their ovens set, I’m the only gentile they've got. And I'm ok with that."

Anonymous said...

“And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the hearing of the people; and
they said: ‘All that God has spoken we will do and we will listen.’ ” Shemos 24:7

Rabbi Simai lectured: When Bnei Yisrael gave precedence to “we will do” over “we will listen”,
six hundred thousand ministering angels came and set two crowns upon each man of Israel, one
as a reward for “we will do” and the other as a reward for “we will listen.” - Shabbos 88a

In the most quoted penultimate event prior to Matan Torah, we said that we would do
and then listen. Yet, between uttering this statement of loyalty and accepting the code of
law that naturally followed, something went wrong. The verse “they stood at the foot of
the mountain” is quoted by Rav Avdimi bar Chama bar Chasa as teaching that HaKadosh
Baruch Hu held the mountain over them as a cask and said to them, “If you accept the
Torah, fine, and if not, there will be your burial.” (Gemara Shabbos 88a)

How could a mortal threat demanding Jewish acceptance of the Torah descend on the
heels of n’aseh v’nishma, our acceptance of the yoke of God? Yet, only by guaranteeing
that our descendants would adhere to the law were the Jewish people able to receive it.
This aspect of Matan Torah led to a threat because it was the only point of acceptance that
appeared out of our control. While those who witnessed Hashem could pledge
themselves, they hesitated to pledge their offspring whom they would never even meet.
Because we stopped short from offering our children, Hashem threatened us with burial.

But if He was only after that generation, why did Rav Avdimi bar Chama say “there
will be your burial”? He should have said, “here”. The answer is that Hashem wasn't just
threatening the first generation. “God was telling the people that whenever and wherever the
Jewish generations would neglect the Torah, ‘there’ they would meet their tragic end as
Jews.” Our ancestors, on pain of death, pledged us for the Torah. It follows that all of us
are under the same oath - to become spiritual roots for others - to guarantee that our lives
will be lived so powerfully as to compel those who will never know us to continue where
we end.

With the amount of teenagers, and adults experiencing far greater doubts about Judaism than we may care to believe, WE are not following the Mesorah. We have created our own brand of Judaism. Style is more important than substance in our minds. Outer trappings of frumkeit, have been elevated above the intrinsic value of Toras Hashem.

The laws of bain adam l'chaveiro are trampled on. Without following these laws we create a decadent society, with every person doing as they please. We find dinei Torah sold to the highest bidder, rodfim harming others claiming they are l'sheim shomayim, and rabbonim who embarrass others claimng it's l'shaim shomayim.

By following the laws of bain adam l'chaveiro, we will hopefully inspire, and reignite the spark of Judaism still inside. And, there will be no need for our generation mitzvah du jour, Pidyon Shevuyim.

Good Shabbos

Anonymous said...

So much for the big Liberal lie for the last 7 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/

Guantánamo Meets Geneva Rules, Study Finds

By WILLIAM GLABERSON 12:54 PM ET

A report on the Guantánamo Bay detention center will conclude the prison complies with humanitarian requirements

Anonymous said...

Obama & his HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan went on TV today to attack Rick Santelli and lecture him to "stop pointing fingers". When Donovan was cornered by a reporter as to why Santelli and the whole public shouldn't be angry, he mumbled some lame excuse that Obama's "plan" will somehow save $6000 in home equity value for homeowners not being bailed out. No word on renters who are being stabbed in the back.

Yesterday Rick Santelli, who reports from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade the for CNBC, unleashed a rant against Obama’s newly announced housing bailout plan, intended to help some homeowners refinance mortgages and avoid foreclosure. The clip was quickly linked to and embedded in Web sites everywhere, and provoked intense reaction.

At National Review Online, for example, Kathryn Jean Lopez was busting out the Santelli 2012 posters:

I’ve had a case of deja vu today.

I’m noticing the tone. I’m seeing the enthusiasm. And I’m digging out from the sheer volume of e-mails I’ve been getting today about that CNBC dude. The reaction to Rick Santelli’s Chicago-trading-floor incident this morning echoes the emotional reaction my inbox had to Sarah Palin’s convention speech this summer.

I make no endorsements. It’s just an observation.

I think people are hungry for someone who is fed up with the way things are and who seem to believe in something enough to know there in an alternative worth fighting for. Some of the voices may be far from perfect, but Americans are looking for signs of the life of an alternative. And so if a representative pops up — someone who appears to have roots and energy, folks will cheer them on in the hopes there’s a candidate here. Maybe not a presidential candidate, but a leader of some sort. Someone who can offer a vision of something other than a culture of bailout.

Today, Rick Santelli was that sign of life.

Also at NRO, Larry Kudlow seconded Santelli’s call for a Chicago Tea Party to protest the housing plan:

Team Obama is rewarding bad behavior. It is enlarging moral hazard. It is expanding its welfarist approach to economic policy. And with a huge expansion of government-owned zombie lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Team Obama is taking a giant step toward nationalizing the mortgage market. . .

Reporting from the Chicago commodity pits, my CNBC colleague Rick Santelli unleashed a torrent of criticism against this scheme. Santelli said: “Government is promoting bad behavior. . . . Do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages? This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage? President Obama, are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgages! It’s a moral hazard.”

All this took place on the air, to the cheers of traders. Santelli called for a new tea party in support of capitalism. He’s right.

Anonymous said...

Mayor Daley won't call for Roland Burris to resign

Chicago Tribune - 3 hours ago

The pressure may be mounting on US Sen. Roland Burris to resign, but Mayor Richard Daley wasn't going to be one to add to it today.

Anonymous said...

Shmarya's Left Wing followers are attacking Santelli and the Merc traders as the ones who caused the mess in the first place.

Yes, Wall Street is greedy but it was bankers who caused the housing problem - Not commodity traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

It figures that these Liberals are using misrepresentations to defend Obama's "plan". The White House is still on the attack against Santelli with Obama's press secretary mockingly dismissing him today as overreacting from too much caffeine. (Santelli responded that he's not a coffee drinker btw). Next these totalitarian Marxists will invoke the "Fairness" Doctrine to make sure no one else can speak up.

The stock market isn't fooled by Obama's Marxist schemes and melt down every time he and his cronies open their mouths.

The "audacity of hope" has become the drumbeat of doom.

Anonymous said...

NAACP calls for firing of NY Post cartoonist

CNN - 4 hours ago

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Leaders of the NAACP on Saturday called for the firing of the New York Post cartoonist whose drawing lampooning the federal stimulus bill has drawn charges that it's racist and encourages violence toward President Obama.

Anonymous said...

`Overzealous' cops seize man's `Abort Obama' sign

By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer

Friday, February 20, 2009

(02-20) 08:00 PST OKLAHOMA CITY, (AP) --

Police officers seized a sign saying "Abort Obama not the unborn" from a driver's pickup truck, but later returned it after supervisors decided the officers had been "overzealous."

Construction worker Hal Harrison said Thursday that U.S. Secret Service agents interviewed him at his home and walked through his house after police stopped him last week.

"The officer said, 'Do you know why I pulled you over?'" said Harrison, 53. "I said I had no idea, and he said that the sign could be construed by the Secret Service as a threat to the president.

"I thought, 'This is something from Nazi Germany, not in Oklahoma.'" He said he's no fan of Obama but that his homemade sign is a political statement opposing abortion, not a threat to the president.

While the officer went too far in confiscating the sign, pulling the man over and reporting his name to the Secret Service was not wrong, said Capt. Steve McCool, a spokesman for Oklahoma City Police Department.

"The officer was a little overzealous in terms of what the sign meant," McCool said. "He made a decision based on his determination, and once the supervisor got involved, we returned the sign."

Adrian Andrews, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Oklahoma City office, said agents determined Harrison was not a threat.

"There are better ways to make a political statement than to say 'Abort Obama,'" Andrews said. "That's going to get our attention every time. We'd rather be safe than sorry."

The sign's back on his truck, Harrison said, and he's considering bringing a civil case against the police for what he considers a violation of free speech rights.

"I've always been kind of a loudmouth," Harrison said. "If I can find a lawyer who will take the case, I probably would."

Anonymous said...

Hilarious coming from NY Times Liberals

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/opinion/21blow.html?em

February 21, 2009

Op-Ed Columnist

A Nation of Cowards?

By CHARLES M. BLOW

Calling people cowards is counterproductive. It turns the conversation into a confrontation

So why do so many people have this anti-black bias?

I called Brian Nosek, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Virginia and the director of Project Implicit, to find out. According to him, our brains automatically make associations based on our experiences and the information we receive, whether we consciously agree with those associations or not. He said that many egalitarian test-takers were shown to have an implicit anti-black bias, much to their chagrin. Professor Nosek took the test himself, and even he showed a pro-white/anti-black bias. Basically, our brains have a mind of their own.

This bias can seep into our everyday lives in insidious ways. For example, a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in October found that many white doctors also had an implicit pro-white/anti-black bias, while black doctors showed almost no bias for one race or the other. The paper suggested that these biases may contribute to the unequal treatment of blacks, and that doctors may not even be conscious of it.

According to a Brown University and University of Victoria study that was published last month in the online journal PLoS One, researchers were able to ameliorate white’s racial biases by teaching them to distinguish black peoples’ faces from one another. Basically, seeing black people as individuals diminished white peoples’ discrimination. Imagine that.

Talking frankly about race is still hard because it’s confusing and uncomfortable.

First, white people don’t want to be labeled as prejudiced, so they work hard around blacks not to appear so. A study conducted by researchers at Tufts University and Harvard Business School and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that many whites — including those as young as 10 years old — are so worried about appearing prejudiced that they act colorblind around blacks, avoiding “talking about race, or even acknowledging racial difference,” even when race is germane. Interestingly, blacks thought that whites who did this were more prejudiced than those who didn’t.

Second, that work is exhausting. A 2007 study by researchers at Northwestern and Princeton that was published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science found that interracial interactions leave whites both “cognitively and emotionally” drained because they are trying not to be perceived as prejudiced.

Anonymous said...

Hey Archie;

What caused the current mortgage mess was twofold:
1. the passage of the Community Restoration Act pushed and passed by Carter that forced Banks to give mortgages to low-lives that never had a prayer of being able to re-pay. Welcome to the sub-prime mess and the destabilization of the Banks.

2. The refusal of lib Dems aka Barnet (Feigele) Frank and Chris (pay my mortgage) Dodd to allow tightening of lending rules on Fannie Mae and Mac.

Now people who played by the rules are being coerced by The Bim-Bam Identity to be "fair" and cover for those who had no business 'buying' a house. Owning a home is not a 'right', it's a responsibility.

Santelli is 100% right.

So was Joe The Plumber who saw the Bim-Bam for who he really is.

People are starting to wake up and realize they made a big mistake. This is not the "Change" they want. No Socialism-Marxism.

One if by land, two if by sea. The revolution is coming.

We have a chance to reverse this crap in the 2010 elections. Many HOR and Senate Dems are up for re-election.

Anonymous said...

UOJ...I urged you in an earlier comment several weeks back to write about the personalities in Torah Vodaath and what you know about the history of the institution. I remember a few years ago you had very harsh and passionate things to say about some well known Williamsburg baalei batim who I knew way back then. It all seemed irrelevant to the main themes of your blog.

I now see you feel some reluctance to write all that you know. I personally think history will take care of itself, and the duty of eye witnesses is to say what they believe happened. One way around the problem might be this...why not say over in a more abstract way what you think the main legacy of R. mendlowitz was and how these ideas were more exemplified by the R. Kaminetzky faction than by R. Schorr and those who supported his ideas.

As someone who was close to R. Schorr and thought very highly of him I can't say I am exactly looking forward to your remarks. I nevertheless feel the fight was not in vain, more than self interest was involved and both sides had serious ideas. I was wondering if you could articulate some of these issues.

Thank you in advance.

Anonymous said...

yo UOJ,
i'm thinking of dressing up like kolko for purim. you wanna roll with me and dress up as either a little boy or margolis? we'll do it right, down to every last detail. down to every last greasy, meeus beard strand. you in?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Hey Cynical,

I may be crazy, but I'm not on drugs!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

As someone who was close to R. Schorr and thought very highly of him I can't say I am exactly looking forward to your remarks. I nevertheless feel the fight was not in vain, more than self interest was involved and both sides had serious ideas. I was wondering if you could articulate some of these issues.

*

It is and will be very painful for me, but I will eventually tell all!

Arthur said...

More memories of Mumbai
http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=15834#c

Anonymous said...

You know there are two contradictory ideas circulating as to what ails the Orthodox community. The first is that the current situation is a perversion or diminution of the golden age of American Orthodoxy when gedolim were REALLY gedolim and the community had not lost its way in a web of corruption and fanaticism. Against this idea it must be acknowledged that many of the rabbis that are at the center of the current storm are close descendants if not actual representatives of the 'golden age' that everyone looks at as the model of how life ought to be.

It is for this reason alone, besides the more abstract historical interest, that it it is important to revisit and look once again the golden age of American yiddishkeit. And imho there is no place more central than Williamsburg and Torah Voddath in the 20 years before and after the war. If there is something wrong with today, there should be reason to believe there was something deeply wrong back then. But what?

UOJ is both one of the main critics of contemporary charedi life and in a privileged position to explain the etiology of our current sad state.

My own personal view is that what we have today already existed back then, but we were too young and naive and stupid to understand where it was all heading.Just a thought.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Greed, fraud and corruption has infected mankind since the beginning of time - that's not new. All gedolim were humans and were fallible, even the greatest of them. But they were, in my opinion, men of great moral integrity. They recognized their humanity and overcame their shortcomings with their great moral compass instinctively guided by the Torah.

There was corruption in the kashrus industry 100 years ago, read the history of Rabbi Jacob Joseph and what the gangsters did to him.

Today is very different than yesterday. There's not an honest soul in any leadership position in the "Torah world", that has a megaphone -- in a position to make a difference.

All the yeshivas/ organizations are run by people I would never leave the room with uncounted money on the table.

The days of mesiras nefesh, the likes of Rabbi Weissmandel's efforts to save Hungarian Jews was untainted by any personal gain for him, is unheard of today.

Rav Shraga Feivel ztvk"l, never had a personal bank account, b'shita, lest he would not need the help of the Ribbono Shel Olam on a daily basis for sustenance.

Were they perfect without human flaws? Of course not! But their lives were guided soley with breathing fire into the neshomas of the Klal without a scintilla of any personal self-interest.

What person alive today in the USA can we attribute those qualities to?

The answer is sadly obvious.

Nobody!

Anonymous said...

I appreciate all you do for klal israel. It is too bad it is too late for my own children that had to go through that while I was trying to save them. But maybe others will benefit was it becomes public that frum rabbis are often sexally depraved.
And should never be left alone with children.
I have been thinking perhaps Talmud learning--for real would be the answer but i decided not to go with that.
Now My best choice of an option is the Rambam Model (With input from Rebbi Nachman)which I am trying to develop in a Kant Friesian way.

Anonymous said...

These lowlives were making the cheese with non-food grade oil! Coliform is the bacteria found in tzoah!

Another reason to be more suspicious of OU, Star K, Babad & CHK.

http://blog.syracuse.com/farms/2009/02/north_country_cheese_plant_sus.html

North Country cheese plant suspended

Posted by Debbie Groom/The Post-Standard February 21, 2009 3:43AM

Ogdensburg, NY -- New York state officials on Friday suspended the operation of a cheese manufacturing plant in Ogdensburg.

State Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets Patrick Hooker issued the following statement:

"Today, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets suspended the operating permit of Ahava of California, which operates a cheese manufacturing facility in Ogdensburg.

The suspension was based on inspections of the plant and samples of the plant's products, which showed that continued operation and distribution of its products could pose a serious danger to the public's health, safety and welfare.

"It is unfortunate that one of our dairy processing facilities is suspended from operation, however recent inspections found its products to have excessive levels of bacteria and coliform, as well as containing non-food grade oil. In addition, Ahava's facility and equipment are in extreme disrepair, posing further potential contamination.

"The action taken today is effective immediately and stops all cheese processing and distribution at the Ogdensburg plant.

Department inspectors have already seized over 25,000 pounds of cheese unfit for consumption, and all other product will be held until a determination is made that it is not adulterated.

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with these bureaucrats? Ahava is state of the art.

Anonymous said...

"What person alive today in the USA can we attribute those qualities to?"

R' Zelig was approached by Moish Finkel who offered to sell the yeshiva chicken at half price. R' Zelig said he could not sever a decades long relationship he had with a supplier for money. This is why Shaar Hatorah was one of the only yeshivos without a treif kitchen.

Anonymous said...

Ahava brands include Morning Select, Slim U, Golan, Best Mooo, New Square, Ateret, Le Makabi, Montburg & Kahal

Anonymous said...

The Watertown Daily News says that that Ahava's pasteurizer broke yet they continued to ship cheese and that the roof was leaking onto the production line.

Ahava Dairy is still open at the Lowville, NY location. Ahava also has meat cold cuts under the Hod Lavan label.

Be careful to avoid these products.

Anonymous said...

Rant raises profile of CNBC on-air personality Rick Santelli

By Phil Rosenthal, Tribune media columnist

February 23, 2009

CNBC's Rick Santelli's self-described rant on TV last week, bemoaning that "the government is promoting bad behavior" with President Barack Obama's mortgage bailout plan, clearly resonated with many Americans, made him a viral video star and drew a White House rebuke.

Only during the weekend, however, was it occurring to him how his newly raised profile—part Howard Beale, the fictional "mad as hell" anchorman, part Howard Jarvis, the anti-tax champion of fiscal responsibility—might be parlayed into other opportunities.

"I don't think in those terms, but maybe I should now," Santelli, 52, a full-timer on CNBC since 1999 whose current contract is set to run out around the end of the summer, said from his west suburban home. "I have three daughters. I have the whole college thing and whatnot."

Santelli, who doesn't have an agent, said he already has heard from several publishers, a prospect that interests him.

"I'm just a fired-up kind of guy, and it's all spontaneous," he said. "The ranting part, I'm just prone to do that. This one was just different. And, no, I certainly didn't expect it to turn out any different. It's just that with this one, we really, really tapped into a nerve."

With an allusion to communist Cuba and traders around him voicing their support, Santelli said from the Chicago Board of Trade floor early Thursday on CNBC: "This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbors' mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills? ... President Obama, are you listening?"

Someone at the White House was. At his briefing Friday, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs shot back—hard—likely out of concern for the traction the so-called Rick's Revolt could gain. "I feel assured that Mr. Santelli doesn't know what he's talking about," Gibbs said.

Yet Santelli's rant, the points he raised and the White House response were the talk of the Sunday-morning TV roundtables, an acknowledgment that he had given voice to many unhappy with where the bailout seems headed.

"About this populist backlash, I think they're worried [at the White House], and rightly so," National Public Radio's Mara Liasson said on Fox Broadcasting's " Fox News Sunday." "In this kind of a situation, you want to be dishing out the populism if you're the president. You don't want to be on the receiving end."

Santelli said the issue, in his view, isn't political. It's philosophical. He wasn't for the first stimulus package under the Bush administration either.

Anonymous said...

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/02/23/nyregion/23paterson.span.jpg

You provide the caption.

Anonymous said...

http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=3957848

FDA’s budget has shrunk by 12 percent since 2002, and it has 7 percent fewer employees assigned to food safety.

It’s conducting roughly as many domestic inspections now as it did six years ago — even though the number of food production facilities has grown exponentially. Many of those inspections are conducted by state food safety agencies under FDA contract.

The nation’s food safety has suffered as a result. The number of annual salmonella outbreaks has grown 60 percent since 2002, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. E. coli infections are up nearly 30 percent. And outbreaks of cryptosporidium, a parasitic infection, have more than doubled.

The agency was embarrassed by several recent outbreaks of food-borne illness, most recently a salmonella outbreak linked to products from Peanut Corp. of America (PCA). FDA has acknowledged that it inspected the company’s Blakely, Ga., facility only sporadically: once in 2001, and then again this year. And it never learned about 10 salmonella tests, conducted by private labs, that found the toxin in PCA’s products.

The outbreak “highlights a number of shortcomings with our nation’s food safety systems,” said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “A good day at the FDA is when avoidable outbreaks don’t occur. And that did not happen here.”

Anonymous said...

Filed at 10:54 a.m. ET

HOUSTON (AP) -- A federal judge accused of groping two of his female court employees and trying to force them to perform sex acts has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in exchange for sex-crime charges being dropped.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent's guilty plea came as jury selection in his trial was set to begin on Monday.

Kent, 59, had been facing six charges -- five related to federal sex crimes and one for obstructing justice, in which he was accused of lying to an investigative committee.

The obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Kent was the first federal judge charged with a sex crime and would have been one of only a handful to be tried.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22friedman.html

Reading the news that General Motors and Chrysler are now lining up for another $20 billion or so in government aid — on top of the billions they’ve already received or requested — leaves me with the sick feeling that we are subsidizing the losers and for only one reason: because they claim that their funerals would cost more than keeping them on life support. Sorry, friends, but this is not the American way. Bailing out the losers is not how we got rich as a country, and it is not how we’ll get out of this crisis.

G.M. has become a giant wealth- destruction machine — possibly the biggest in history — and it is time that it and Chrysler were put into bankruptcy so they can truly start over under new management with new labor agreements and new visions. When it comes to helping companies, precious public money should focus on start-ups, not bailouts.

You want to spend $20 billion of taxpayer money creating jobs? Fine. Call up the top 20 venture capital firms in America, which are short of cash today because their partners — university endowments and pension funds — are tapped out, and make them this offer: The U.S. Treasury will give you each up to $1 billion to fund the best venture capital ideas that have come your way. If they go bust, we all lose. If any of them turns out to be the next Microsoft or Intel, taxpayers will give you 20 percent of the investors’ upside and keep 80 percent for themselves.

If we are going to be spending billions of taxpayer dollars, it can’t only be on office-decorating bankers, over-leveraged home speculators and auto executives who year after year spent more energy resisting changes and lobbying Washington than leading change and beating Toyota.

I’ve been traveling all across the country on a book tour, and every evening I return to my hotel with my pockets full of business cards from inventors in clean energy. Our country is still bursting with innovators looking for capital. So, let’s make sure all the losers clamoring for help don’t drown out the potential winners who could lift us out of this. Some of our best companies, such as Intel, were started in recessions, when necessity makes innovators even more inventive and risk-takers even more daring.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Karl Heinrich Marx the son of Hershel Mordecai would be proud!

*

U.S. Eyes Large Stake in Citi
Taxpayers Could Own Up to 40% of Bank's Common Stock, Diluting Value of Shares

Citigroup Inc. is in talks with federal officials that could result in the U.S. government substantially expanding its ownership of the struggling bank, according to people familiar with the situation.

While the discussions could fall apart, the government could wind up holding as much as 40% of Citigroup's common stock. Bank executives hope the stake will be closer to 25%, these people said.

Any such move would give federal officials far greater influence over one of the world's largest financial institutions. Citigroup has proposed the plan to its regulators. The Obama administration hasn't indicated if it supports the plan, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

Regulators Seek to Quell Bank FearsGrip on Bank Would Tighten If Deal Is Set Sovereign Wealth Funds Rush to Assess ImpactWhen federal officials began pumping capital into U.S. banks last October, few experts would have predicted that the government would soon be wrestling with the possibility of taking voting control of large financial institutions. The potential move at Citigroup would give the government its biggest ownership of a financial-services company since the September bailout of insurer American International Group Inc., which left taxpayers with an 80% stake.

The talks reflect a growing fear that Citigroup and other big U.S. banks could be overwhelmed by losses amid the recession and housing crisis. Last week, Citigroup's share price fell below $2 to an 18-year low. Bank executives increasingly believe that the government needs to take a larger ownership stake in the institution to stop the slide.

Under the scenario being considered, a substantial chunk of the $45 billion in preferred shares held by the government would convert into common stock, people familiar with the matter said. The government obtained those shares, equivalent to a 7.8% stake, in return for pumping capital into Citigroup.

The move wouldn't cost taxpayers additional money, but other Citigroup shareholders would see their stock diluted. A larger ownership stake by the government could fuel speculation that other troubled banks will line up for similar agreements.

Bank of America Corp. said Sunday that it isn't discussing a larger ownership stake for the government. "There are no talks right now over that issue," said Bank of America spokesman Robert Stickler. "We see no reason to do that. We believe the goal of public policy should be to attract private capital into the bank, not to discourage it."

Shareholders' Fears
Citigroup's low share price already reflects, at least in part, a fear among shareholders that their stakes might be further diluted. A government move to take a big stake could backfire, potentially spurring investors to flee other banks, even healthier ones.

There's no universal agreement on what constitutes nationalization of a bank. In the U.K., the government already owns 43% of Lloyds Banking Group PLC, and last week moved to increase its ownership of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC to 70% from 58%. Those two banks have been classified as "public-sector entities," and as much as £1.5 trillion ($2.136 trillion) of their liabilities have been moved over to the country's balance sheet.

The White House has knocked down recent speculation that the government is preparing to nationalize several large U.S. banks.

The U.S.'s intentions with Citigroup remain unclear. For instance, it's not yet known whether the government would seek a stronger hand in the New York company's management or day-to-day operations.

As part of the plan, Citigroup officials hope to persuade private investors that have bought preferred shares -- such as the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority -- to follow the government's lead in converting some of those stakes into common stock, according to people familiar with the matter. That would further bolster an obscure but increasingly pivotal measure of banks' capital known as "tangible common equity," or TCE.

The TCE measurement, one of several gauges of a bank's financial strength, gives weight to common shares -- thus the interest in converting preferred shares to common stock.

Details of the rescue remain in flux. Key questions, such as the price at which the government will convert its preferred stock into common shares, haven't been resolved.

And it's possible that other options will emerge to stabilize the company. For example, the Obama administration could decide to sit tight until the results of several new "stress tests" on major banks -- broad examinations of financial health now being mandated -- are known in a couple months, one official said.

If the deal gets nailed down, it will be Washington's third effort to aid Citigroup since last fall. In October, the Treasury Department put a total of $125 billion into eight giant financial institutions, including $25 billion to Citigroup, in exchange for preferred shares and warrants to buy stock.

Then, shortly before Thanksgiving, the government agreed to infuse another $20 billion into Citigroup as its stock tumbled. It also agreed to protect the banking company against most losses on a $301 billion pool of assets.

Among the question marks looming over the current discussions is the future of Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit and the company's board.

Anonymous said...

Rav Yudel Shain has been warning us about Ahava/Hod Lavan/Golan, etc. for nearly ten years. See his kosher consumer website below from 1999-2000. When you are dealing with crooks such as Banayan of Ahava and Rubashkin, how can you ever trust their kashrus?

http://www.kosherconsumer.org/alerts.htm

Anonymous said...

The Dow just broke through the floor into the 7100s.

Anonymous said...

The Bim-Bam and his witting and un-witting accomplices are purposefully sinking the US economy.

Implosion and destruction of the USA is the goal.

Who is really behind this Sleeper? Who really gains? Many candidates.

WAKE UP! America!

"Change" is here but not that you can believe in.

The Bim-Bam Identity.

Anonymous said...

These are some facts:

Moish Finkel cried poverty to Shaar HaTorah to get out of tuition. His son was forced to use Pell Grants he could have put to better use, just to stay in yeshiva. Moish tried to get Rabbi Yankelowitz to excuse tuition payments by giving a good rate on chicken. Yoel told him where to go, with exact directions. After his son left there was still an open account of owed money, never collected on. R’ Zelig didn’t like what he did so he didn’t want him as a vendor because Finkel wasn’t erlich. However, Shaar HaTorah did buy hotdogs, and cold cuts from him. So while they never used his chicken, they used his other products.

There is much more to the Finkel story, which won’t be good for R’ Zelig’s image. Feel free to ask R’Zelig or Yoel for more details. All this information disclosed was given by a senior member of the hanhallah. I have been suppoting Shaar HaTorah for close to twenty five years, and hope to keep my respect for the yeshiva and its hanhallah. Respect R’ Zelig, but realize he’s human not someone to listen to when he says left is right.

Anonymous said...

(Reuters) - American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG - News) is in discussions with the U.S. government on securing additional funds, CNBC reported on Monday.

Anonymous said...

Do child rapist Ephraim Bryks and his brother in law Paysach Krohn, who live around the corner, sometimes daven in the yeshiva?

Anonymous said...

That picture for Boog with Patterson & Shelly Silver is hilarious. Imagine Silver sitting on a throne while wearing royal purple.

Anonymous said...

I would think that Finkel's hotdogs & cold cuts where something like Meal Mart brand in sealed packages.

If Shaar Hatorah was already scammed there's nothing wrong with recouping the money that way.

Anonymous said...

It happens all the time that con artists make a pledge to a shul or yeshiva to look choshuv, then pawn off useless dreck instead of giving the money. One goniv featured on UOJ for money laundering tried giving some farkakte looking rugs he claimed were worth $1000.

Even in Lakewood there was at least one loser yungerman that would take seforim for sale by putting food stamps in the honor system kuppah.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if Finkel's Pell grant was legit

Unknown said...

Any time I've purchased franks and any bulk purchases of cold cuts,they came if "factory sealed" packaging. If their purchases were the same, Finkel was unable to send any of his"own" products. That is unless, he was a real scammer and resealed their packaging. Always a possibilty.

Anonymous said...

Finkel's son was very close with the kollel in Shhar HaTorah. He had his father donate chiccken and brisket once a month to feed fifteen families. It was the same time Finkel sold his Glatthouse
charah to Rosenblum's. His cold cuts andd hotdogs were Glatthouse, not Meal Mart. He had problems with kashrus for fifteen years. Five at Glatthouse, and ten at Shevach. So Shaar HaTorah did in fact serve his traif charah in the yeshiva.

R' Zelig did not ask you to nominate him for the new American Jewish Idol-Gadol Contest. He has enough stuff under the rug in his apartment in the dorm, you don't want to know about. Let's agree to disagree, but don't toot his horn for him. It will backfire.

Anonymous said...

AIG is looking for another $40 to $60 billion on top of the $150 billion they've already received.

The shareholders will also probably be wiped out.

Anonymous said...

Stocks close today at 1997 levels as the Market votes to "short" the Bamsters Socialist-Marxist Agenda.

The Bim-Bam Identity calls for fiscal restraint after spending 2 trillion "stimulus". Will speak to the nation tomorrow night and unveil new taxes on the "rich" during this economic recession.

Was PT Barnum right? Are we suckers?

America, WAKE UP!

The Bim-Bam Identity.

Anonymous said...

Washington - FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III today warned that extremists "with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons" to sow terror, raising the specter that recent attacks in Mumbai that killed 170 people last year could embolden terrorists seeking to attack U.S. cities.

Anonymous said...

Hey big shot, R' Zelig will call the cops all the time when the phonies won't. The only thing under his carpet are the long hard hours he put in solving Klal Yisroel's problems. You should be ashamed of yourself.

And there is no evidence by the way that Finkel was cheating people from day one. The first indications starting popping up at 3 years into Shevach. He was 11 years at Shevach, not 10.

As far as Bryks, he davens in the old shul on Lefferts. He's been active on the Queens Vaad because Belsky's friend Peretz Steinberg runs the show.

Anonymous said...

Rabinowitz Munkatcher, if it was a Pell grant, you should know.

Anonymous said...

Obama pledges to slash deficit — after increase.

Anonymous said...

Nu UOJ:

Vat do you tink? Is Reb Zelig America's favorite gadol? Vat's hiding under his carpet?

Can you explain why he got booted from YTV?

Anonymous said...

Oh come on. All it took was a different hashkafa to get booted from old YTV. The "Malochim" got booted and so did a group of bochurim who angered R' Yaakov by learning a different masechta without asking reshus.

Anonymous said...

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/13045/story-2-0-kosher-plant-closed-for-lack-of-cleanliness

State inspectors found that Ahava's type of cheese that is packed in brine (Mediterranean style) was in contaminated brine.

The Osdaba mentioned here is the son of CHK's Dayan Osdaba, a crony of Moishe Rubashkin.

Banayan is also guilty of worker safety violations, just like Rubashkin.

Anonymous said...

Speak to the pizza shops you buy from and demand to know which cheese they are using. And ask the yeshivos which cheese they are serving to your children.

NY State officials are currently trying to track down where all the other contaminated cheese has gone.

Ahava brands include Morning Select, Slim U, Golan, Best Mooo, New Square, Ateret, Le Makabi, Montburg & Kahal.

Anonymous said...

Hey Boog

the next step for Osama is to mandate that wall street raise the prices of shares. Heck - if our currency has no real discernable value, why should our stocks?

This is a new kind of roller coaster - it only goes down, faster and faster.

Anonymous said...

Nobody's commenting on the gentile girl's experiences in Boro Park. What a Chillul Hashem and, based on my own experiences, sounds true.

Anonymous said...

It's the best article I had ever seen