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Sunday, November 08, 2009

An Open Letter To Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, Mashgiach, Bais Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey

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I'm addressing this post to the attendees of the coming Agudah Convention - do not be taken in by the lies and spin you will hear about the "gedolim"! You put them there and you can and should take them down! They are the primary reason your communities and your children are traumatized and having kids "falling" out of windows to their deaths.
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The UOJ Archives - December 5, 2006

Dear Rabbi Salomon:

I heard your speech at the Agudah Convention and have a few comments and questions I would like to share with you. I am writing this letter in an open forum as I believe the issues herein are of vital importance to our people and warrant the same circulation as your much publicized speech.

I take no issue with your well reasoned argument calling for civility in expression of disagreement. B'nei Torah should be able to agree to disagree. While I join you in condemning the deplorable language used by the few, I respectfully suggest that dissenters need not be placed in the category of “rasha,” or “maskil” for you to make your point. Likewise, suggestions of “hakei es shinov” (knock out their teeth) and proclamations that children of select members of our community whose views you may disagree with have no place in our schools, do little to further civilized discourse.

In your speech you made a point of declaring your lack of cowardice in dealing with the issue of sexual abuse by rabbeim in yeshivas and insisted that keeping your efforts discreet or as you put it to “sweep under the carpet”, is a choice you make to protect human dignity. Whose dignity are you referring to? The dignity of those few victims courageous enough to step forward and confront these powerful monsters or the dignity of these monsters and their poor families? I respectfully suggest that by concerning yourself with the dignity of the pedophile and sweeping his heinous acts under the carpet, you subject his victims to another round of abuse at the hands of the community while enabling the predator to continue his reign of terror on unsuspecting victims.

We are taught that “chochmah b’Goyim, taamin.” Medical statistics tell us that a treated pedophile has a sixty percent rate of recidivism. This places the pedophile squarely in the category of a rodeph and as such we have a duty to our community to expose him so that potential victims are aware of this clear and present danger. Sex Offender Registries exist for a reason. Namely, the law and medical science recognize that these people are incapable of controlling themselves. You may be impressed by a heartfelt and tearful confession coupled with a commitment to never again succumb to temptation, (“teshuva”.) However, you will not be present when this pedophile succumbs to his overwhelming urges and destroys another poor innocent life. Respectfully, you do not have the right to ignore universally accepted medical knowledge and take innocent children’s lives into your hands for the sake of a pedophile’s “dignity.”

Indeed, your strategy of not acting until the pedophile has been proved 100 percent guilty and using the Torah as your guide to protect our mosdos is not new. As will be shown below this very same strategy was followed by many other rabbonim with disastrous results. Rabbi Shalom Yosef Elyashiv puts it best while writing about this very issue. Rabbi Elyashiv quotes the Rashba who writes in his Responsa, III no. 393, “… Because if you will adjudicate based only on the laws established by the Torah, society will be destroyed …” (emphasis added.)

Yes, we do need to stop “the terrible assault” and “immunize against a plague” of “insidious poison seeping in.” It is our duty to teach our children to “rise in their defense” and of course we must “give them the ammunition to fight back when they are attacked.” You and I differ only in our opinion of where the threat lies. You maintain with an impressive fervor that the threat lies with disrespectful bloggers. I respectfully disagree and see the threat to be that deadly minority of rabbeim who are morally corrupt and are destroying our children.

In your speech you alluded to the case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a rebbe in Yeshiva Torah Temimah for over thirty-eight years. You express indignation that this one example of a pedophile that “slips through the fingers” is being used as an illustration of how Klal Yisroel behaves. Rabbi Salomon; unfortunately one is as one does. As such, this is who we are as a community today. Tragically, the story as depicted by the secular media in all its gory detail is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The below bullet point history is general and merely touches upon events of the past forty years. If you want more details, I suggest you confer with Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman, who was employed by Kolko in Camp Ma-Na-Vu and will surely share his knowledge of events with you. Remind Rabbi Wachsman of his expression of remorse to his friends for not having informed his uncle, Rabbi Shloime Klein, of Kolko’s predilection for young boys when Rabbi Klein was embroiled in a difficult din Torah with Kolko and Rabbi Lipa Geldwirth in or around 1990.

A Partial Biography of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko & Rabbi Lipa Margulies

· 1967 – While working as dormitory counselor at Yeshivas Mir, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko calls David R. out of his dormitory room and begins discussing matters of a sexual nature with him while rubbing up against him in an aroused state. This abuse continues for the remainder of the school year and into the summer season at Camp Agudah. Mr. R. is now a Manhattan attorney living with his partner in New York City and insists that his lifestyle choice has absolutely nothing to do with his abuse by Kolko.

· 1969 thru 1971 - Rabbi Yehuda Kolko begins abusing Dovid Framowitz in Yeshiva Torah Vodaas of Flatbush (now known as Yeshiva Torah Temimah) and Camp Agudah, the details of which abuse are now public knowledge. Mr. Framowitz, a grandfather living in Eretz Yisroel, has not gone a day since being abused without reliving the unspeakable agony he suffered at Kolko’s hands.

· 1972 - Rabbi Yehuda Kolko sexually abuses two young campers (names withheld at the request of the victims) in Camp Agudah who complain to their counselor. Their counselor reports the complaint to Rabbi Simcha Kaufman. The abuse of these two boys cease for the remainder of that summer. Rabbi Simcha Kaufman is a co-worker of Kolko in Yeshiva Torah Temimah (more on Kaufman below) and was a co-worker of Kolko in Camp Agudah until 1976 when Kolko voluntarily left Camp Agudah after he co-founded Camp Ma-Na-Vu with Rabbi Lipa Geldwerth, another co-worker of his at Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

· 1977 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, employed as a rebbe in Yeshiva Torah Temimah in the morning, is employed in the afternoons by Yeshiva Karlin Stolin as secular studies principal. During the course of his short tenure in Yeshiva Karlin Stolin numerous complaints are lodged by both students and parents (names withheld at the request of the victims) accusing Kolko of sexually abusing boys in the Yeshiva. Rabbi Shmuel Dishon asks Kolko to leave the employ of the yeshiva.

· 1977 on – Eyewitness testimony and accusations of sexual abuse by Rabbi Yehuda Kolko of students at Yeshiva Torah Temimah and Camp Ma-Na-Vu reach a crescendo which culminates in several businessmen approaching Rabbi Lipa Margulies in 1984 and offering to fund a retirement package for Rabbi Yehuda Kolko provided he seeks employment away from children. Rabbi Lipa Margulies steadfastly refuses to accept the offer and suggests that those parents who disagree with his decision remove their children from his Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

· 1981 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko sexually abuses a twelve year old student of Yeshiva Torah Temimah (name withheld at the request of the victim.) This victim publicizes the abuse and acts out, vandalizing Kolko’s home and car. Rabbi Lipa Margulies calls this victims father and warns him that if this activity does not stop his other children would be expelled from Yeshiva and the safety of his family could not be guaranteed. This victim is subsequently referred to Avrohom Mondrowitz for counseling.

· 1984 – As instructed by Rabbi Avigdor Miller, an askan calls for a meeting which takes place at the home of Rabbi Yakov Perlow (the Novominsker) and is attended by Rabbi Avrohom Pam, Rabbi Elya Svei, Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller, Rabbi Aharon Schechter, Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman, Rabbi Shea Fishman and Rabbi Yankel Bender. At this meeting, chaired by Rabbi Perlow, the askan discusses what is transpiring to innocent boys at the hands of rabbi pedophiles and requests that Torah Umesorah and the rabbonim issue a statement calling for their removal from chinuch. Rabbi Svei informs this askan that Torah Umesorah has consulted their attorneys who advised that for Torah Umesorah to admit knowledge of such abuse would subject Torah Umesorah, its staff, all its member schools and their staff to liability for not having reported their knowledge to the authorities earlier. Accordingly, Rabbi Elya Svei informs the askan, neither he nor Torah Umesorah will do anything about this problem.

· 1984 thru 1985 – At directed by Rabbi Avrohom Pam an askan approaches Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman and the two meet with Rabbi Shea (Joshua) Fishman in the office of Torah Umesorah. Both Scheinerman and Fishman neglect to inform this askan that Fishman had been instructed by Torah Umesorah’s lawyer to do nothing about this issue. Rabbi Fishman requests the names of Kolko’s victims and promises absolute confidentiality. Names are provided to Rabbi Fishman who begins his own investigation of the allegations. He meets with and speaks with several victims who pour their hearts out to him after he guarantees them confidentiality. Rabbi Shea Fishman promptly discloses all he has learned to Rabbi Lipa Margulies who in turn publicly disparages and discredits each and every one of those boys who were brave enough to step forward.

· 1985 – A follow up meeting takes place at the home of Rabbi Simcha Kaufman and includes Rabbi Kaufman, Rabbi Lipa Margulies, Rabbi Shea Fishman, an askan and an eyewitness. The eyewitness recounts his personal knowledge of Rabbi Kolko’s sexual abuse of boys and discusses the information he had gleaned from others. Rabbi Lipa Margulies insists that the charges are all fabrications and attacks the reputations of everyone involved in seeking the removal of Kolko from his Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Rabbi Shea Fishman subsequently informs anyone who asks that he can not deal with this issue as he is old (50 at the time) and will lose his job if he pursues this matter.

· 1985 – Rabbi Moshe Scheinerman is offered a lucrative and prestigious position as rav of a shul (a position he holds to this day) and is told that he must cease and desist from his actions against Yeshiva Torah Temimah rabbeim (his own words) which he promptly does. Scheinerman abandons ship explaining that it is not appropriate for a rabbi of his stature to deal with these matters. Rabbi Yehoshua Leiman takes over.

· 1985 - Rabbi Yehoshua Leiman and others continue their quest for a solution and convene a bais din for this purpose. This bais din, consisting of Rabbi Menashe Klein, Rabbi Yechezkel Roth, Rabbi Aharon Stein, Rabbi Moshe Stern and Rabbi Chaim Yankel Tauber, is scheduled to hear testimony for two days after which they will rule on how to proceed. This panel meets and hears testimony for one day. Shortly thereafter, Rabbi Moshe Stern states that he is unable to participate in any more sessions and this bais din is disbanded without further explanation. In a private conversation with one of the askanim, Rabbi Stern disclosed that he had been approached by Rabbi Lipa Margulies which resulted in the discontinuance of the din Torah.

· 1985 – Upon the dissolution of the above bais din, Rabbi Lipa Margulies retains Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg to convene a second bais din for the purpose of clearing Rabbi Yehuda Kolko’s name. Rabbi Lipa Margulies then drafts Rabbi Friedman (the Tenka Rav) and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Brown to serve on Rabbi Scheinberg’s bais din. Prior to convening the bais din, Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg speaks with several of Kolko’s victims and asks them to describe what Kolko has done to them. Upon hearing the allegations Rabbi Scheinberg informs the boys that in the eyes of Halacha they had not been molested. Rabbi Scheinberg also calls the askanim and tells them to cease and desist in their attempts to remove Kolko from chinuch. Rabbi Avigdor Miller disagrees and instructs the askanim in no uncertain terms to do whatever must be done to protect children from Kolko.

. 1985 - Rabbi Pinchus Scheinberg convenes the bais din and takes the position that Rabbi Kolko has a chezkas kashrus absent any testimony by two adult witnesses to any single event. Rabbi Friedman takes the position that in light of the persistent rumors Rabbi Kolko must be kept away from children. Rabbi Brown ultimately concedes that there is no halachic evidence against Kolko and the din Torah is concluded. Rabbi Lipa Margulies insists that he has a psak from this bais din but to this day has refused to produce it. Regardless, it is of note that no victims testified before this bais din.

· 1987 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, having groomed a former first grade student of his for years, begins systematically sexually abusing this boy (name withheld at the request of the victim) both in and out of the Yeshiva Torah Temimah building. When this boy complains to Rabbi Lipa Margulies that his grades are slipping because Kolko is removing him from class almost daily, Margulies responds by slapping the boy across the face and throwing him out of his office. This young man is now living down south after obtaining a leave of absence from the U.S. Army.

· 2001 – Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, takes a young Yeshiva Torah Temimah student under his wing (name withheld at the request of the victim) and begins removing him from class for “special projects.” These special projects include the boy being sexually molested by Kolko in the basement of the yeshiva, in Rabbi Kolko’s car and in Rabbi Kolko’s private office, which Rabbi Lipa Margulies has conveniently equipped with its own private bathroom. This young man is currently in therapy and hopes to be able to recover enough to be able to get married and start a family.

· 2005 – Dovid Framowitz, after years of searching on the Internet, chances upon a post written by a blogger calling himself “ UOJ - the Un-Orthodox Jew” which makes reference to Rabbi Lipa Margulies harboring Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a known pedophile, in his Yeshiva Torah Temimah. Dovid begins communicating with this blogger via e-mail who in turn posts Dovid’s story on his blog. Over the course of several months other victims of Kolko begin to step forward with their stories.

· January 2006 – Several askonim decide that this four decade long chillul Hashem must stop and approach both Rabbi Yehuda Kolko and Rabbi Lipa Margulies with a demand that Kolko be removed from Yeshiva Torah Temimah and Camp Silver Lake and further commit to spending the rest of his life in treatment and away from children. Both Kolko and Margulies refuse.

· February 2006 – A letter is drafted informing the public that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko is a dangerous pedophile and that Rabbi Lipa Margulies continues to employ him despite his knowledge of this fact. Copies of this draft letter are delivered to Kolko and Margulies. Both Kolko and Margulies are offered the opportunity to deal quietly with the issue and are informed that if they continue to refuse, the letter would be mass mailed to the entire community. Kolko responds by stating that “the matter has been taken care of” and Margulies responds by asking if anyone “thinks Kolko is still a threat” and declares “if anyone does not like the way I run my yeshiva let them not send their children to my yeshiva.” They refuse to comply and the letter is sent out in a mass mailing.

· February 2006 – Eli Greenwald, a graduate of Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah, son of one of the founders of the yeshiva and a parent in the yeshiva receives the letter and spends a few days investigating the matter. He calls Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad, the yeshiva’s administrator, and requests a meeting of the Vaad HaHorim in order to address this serious issue. Rabbi Applegrad informs him that there will be no meeting as the allegations are false and that he and Rabbi Margulies have the matter under control. Mr. Greenwald called Rabbi Lipa Margulies and makes the same request of him. Rabbi Margulies responds by shouting at him.

· February 17, 2006 – Eli Greenwald is served with a hazmana issued by Rabbi Yisroel Belsky calling him to a din Torah to answer the charge of hotzoas shem rah (a form of lashon hara) allegedly committed against Rabbi Yehuda Kolko. Mr. Greenwald responds on February 21, 2006, that he will appear for a din Torah before the Bais Din of America. To this day there has been no reply to Mr. Greenwald’s response by either Kolko or Rabbi Yisroel Belsky.

· February 2006 – An askan meets with Rabbi Yaakov Perlow and pleads with him to get involved in this matter. Rabbi Perlow refuses on the basis of his being a yachid and this being a tzibur matter. After being pressed further Rabbi Perlow takes his final stand that this is a Flatbush matter and as he is a Borough Park rabbi it would be unseemly for him to get involved in this matter.

· March 2006 – Rabbi Lipa Margulies reaches a standstill agreement with the askonim by committing to appear before a panel consisting of two rabbis and one frum lawyer, all three of whom had been chosen by him. Rabbi Lipa Margulies reneges on his promise to appear before this panel.

· March 23, 2006 – A hazmana to a din Torah is sent to Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, Rabbi Lipa Margulies and Yeshiva Torah Temimah summoning them to a din Torah before the Bais Din of Mechon L’Hoyroa or a bais din of ZBLA. The hazmana is ignored by all the defendants.

· March 30, 2006 – A second hazmana to a din Torah is sent to Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, Rabbi Lipa Margulies and Yeshiva Torah Temimah summoning them to a din Torah before the Bais Din of Mechon L’Hoyroa or a bais din of ZBLA. By fax sent on April 5, 2006, Rabbi Lipa Margulies responds to this hazmana stating he will not appear for a din Torah “without a prior determination of the charges against Rabbi Kolko.” Rabbi Kolko continues to ignore the hazmanas.

· April 6, 2006 – A third hazmana to a din Torah is sent to Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, Rabbi Lipa Margulies and Yeshiva Torah Temimah summoning them to a din Torah before the Bais Din of Mechon L’Hoyroa or a bais din of ZBLA. By fax sent on April 10, 2006, Rabbi Lipa Margulies responds to this hazmana by stating “the hazmonah that you sent to us was not a valid hazmonah.” Rabbi Kolko does not respond at all. It is of note that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko is still teaching in Yeshiva Torah Temimah while these exchange are taking place.

· May 4, 2006 – A lawsuit is filed in United States District Court: Eastern District of New York, naming Rabbi Yehuda Kolko; Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, Inc. and Camp Agudah as defendants. Rabbi Yehuda Kolko remains in the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

· May 5, 2006 – Rabbi Simcha Kaufman approaches Dovid Framowitz and with tears in his eyes tells him that if only he had known what Rabbi Kolko was doing to him he would have put a stop to it. Of interest was Rabbi Simcha Kaufman’s complete denial of any prior knowledge of any accusation before Dovid Framowitz brought his lawsuit. Rabbi Simcha Kaufman pleads with Dovid to withdraw his lawsuit lest he hurt Rabbi Lipa Margulies and the yeshiva.

· May 10, 2006 – After being approached for comment on several occasions by Robert Kolker, a reporter for New York Magazine, and with a 5:00 p.m. printing deadline looming, Rabbi Lipa Margulies issues a statement through his attorney at 4:30 p.m. Beginning with a proclamation that Yeshiva Torah Temimah is the preeminent yeshiva in the world followed by an absolute denial of all the allegations, the statement concludes with an announcement that Rabbi Kolko has agreed to a “leave of absence” pending the resolution of this matter. Despite this claim, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko remains in the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

· May 12, 2006 – A second lawsuit is filed in United States District Court: Eastern District of New York naming Rabbi Yehuda Kolko; Yeshiva & Mesivta Torah Temimah, Inc. as defendants. Still, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko remains in the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

· May 15, 2006 – “On the Rabbi’s Knee – Do the Orthodox Jews Have a Catholic Priest Problem” a feature article in New York Magazine {nymag.com}, a publication with a circulation of three million, is published. Within days of the publication of the article and after thirty-eight years of committing unspeakable acts of perversion in Yeshiva Torah Temimah, Kolko leaves the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah. It was only after the magazine hit the newsstands that Margulies succumbed to pressure and removed Kolko from the classrooms of Yeshiva Torah Temimah.

· July 2006 – Over the vocal protest of many residents and with the help of his friend Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko takes up summer residence at a home in Regency Estates in the Catskills. Despite the claim that Kolko was on a leave of absence from Yeshiva Torah Temimah, he continues working for Camp Silver Lake, Yeshiva Torah Temimah’s summer home. In addition, Kolko initiates and organizes a multi-camp excursion to Lake Compounce, a water park located in Connecticut, where he is seen frolicking with young boys in bathing suits. A media outcry ensues resulting in Kolko being banned from the park by its non-Jewish management. Astonishingly, in August Kolko organizes a second trip to Lake Compounce, which is attended by the same frum boys camps who participated in the July trip.

The above is but a sampling of the cases I am aware of. One need not be a great lamden to realize that I am aware of only a small percentage of Kolko’s abuse victims. As rachmonim b'nei rachmonim, it is unbearable to grasp the stunning extent of this catastrophe.

To all who decry the “chillul Hashem” the New York Magazine article resulted in, I say, embarrassing, yes, chillul Hashem, absolutely not! Indeed, it is ironic that this very article which has been condemned by many rabbis is what got you and them to belatedly acknowledge Kolko’s guilt. Apparently a mere forty years of kola d’lo posuk was not enough. Were the lawsuits and the magazine article the chillul Hashem?

No!

The decades long chillul Hashem is that of Margulies and Kolko’s actions coupled with the many decades of improper action and inaction by our rabbis and organizations. This was somewhat offset by the recent kiddush Hashem of the action taken by a few askonim. They who had the courage to do what had to be done to protect our children from the acts of monsters and the cowardice of our rabbis. All this I say with respect and reverence.

I lay no blame at your doorstep for the above; you come from another part of the world, did not participate in and have no first hand knowledge of these events. I merely ask you to understand the world of pain that Rabbi Yehuda Kolko and his enablers, with a special note of distinction going to Rabbi Lipa Margulies, have left in their wake. I respectfully question your judgment in showing respect and support for Rabbi Lipa Margulies without having done a thorough investigation of his history. Surely, l’maan yishmeu v’yirahu, a man such as Lipa Margulies must be publicly vilified; not chalila publicly honored by someone of your esteem.

I submit that despite the focus of your speech, this issue has nothing to do with a blogger or kavod ha'Torah. That he fell into this issue and “b’makom sheain ish” he chose to “hishtadail lehios ish” and participate in pushing it forward, is a sad commentary on the egregious failures of our leadership.

Rather, the issue is the still unanswered question of where our leaders were all these decades while Rabbi Yehuda Kolko and Rabbi Lipa Margulies were savaging our children?

I ask with humility; how can you stand in front of us in good faith and turn this into an issue of kavod ha'Torah? I ask that you hear the constant cries of anguish laden souls destroyed by chronic inaction coupled with a misguided concern for the “dignity” of rabbis who molest children.

This is not a tale of something that somehow “slips through the fingers” but rather only one of many glaring examples of what occurs in a community whose leaders are unwilling to deal with an issue that sits under a spotlight for four decades and engulfs the souls of countless innocent children. Hashem yerachaim.

As parents we have every right to expect that accusations of sexual abuse by a rebbe be first verified post haste and then publicized so that we may protect our children from this predator and make informed decisions about where to send our children to yeshiva. In the face of pikuach nefesh; cries of kavod ha'Torah, chillul Hashem and loshon harah have no relevance. To resort to such cries is simply am ha'aretzes and violates the precept not to be a merachaim al ha'achzor. The issue all of us need to address, lay people and rabbis alike, is why nothing was done for so many decades and what lessons we can learn from our past mistakes to prevent future catastrophes of this nature.

Respectfully,

95 comments:

Arthur said...

Food for thought.
The following was posted by a blogger on a different site.He brings up some very valid points.It was written upon the death of Rabbi Noah Weinberg.

"Does he have a successor ?
While I am certain he contributed to the growth of Judaism, one can not compare his stature to that of the Lubavitcher rebbe. The Rebbe was a manhig of Klal Israel. That's not to say he was THE manhig but he was the defining Jewish leader in the diaspora after World War 2.
That said I really believe that the goal of Organized Judaism for the next 20 years needs to be inreach. I talk not only of so called at risk teens , but of thousands of people who are orthodox outwardly but whose practice is very lax to say the least.They are reverse Marranos.
Programs must be designed to meet their needs. These programs have to take in account that these people are knowledgeable about Judaism and Torah and you can't sell them bobkes.
There are many singles, single men and women, divorced people, teens and even straight shooters who are disenchanted with their Orthodox life style and the frum world in its different manifestations.
The man or men or woman who meets this need will be the manhig of the next generation.
Most non religious Jews today are so assimilated and intermarried and filled up with crazy ideas about sexuality, homosexuality, politics, Israel, Ecumenism, etc etc that it's an aveyre di rehd to bother with them and spend our limited resources while at the same time thousands of formerly frum men and women many highly educated are on the verge of becoming non observant.Most of these people are not druggies they are not freaks, and are well adjusted, but the frum social life etc does not speak to them. Is there a rav who would listen to these people without passing judgement ?"

Anonymous said...

Spring Valley, NY - A Hasidic Jew indicted on shocking kiddie-porn and child-rape charges claims he's too religious to even look at the grotesque photographic evidence against him.

The 23-year-old Rockland County man is due in a Manhattan court to seek bail. If convicted, he could go to jail for as many years as he's lived.

Prosecutors say David Silverman and two buddies - both now fugitives in Israel - used MySpace to lure three girls, ages 14 and 15, from their Westchester County homes.

Raised in a Hasidic family upstate, Silverman left home in his teens, shaved his hair, tattooed his body, pierced both ears multiple times, and joined the drug-drenched rave and trance music scene.

Silverman has insisted he never touched the girls.

On the strength of the new evidence, Silverman, who had returned to the Hasidic lifestyle and moved to Spring Valley, was tossed into jail in lieu of $50,000 bail on charges of child pornography and statutory rape.

Now, he is refusing to discuss anything to do with the charges or look at the evidence "for religious reasons," says his lawyer, Israel Fried.

"He was 21 at the time, and the girls were 14, 15, but did not represent themselves as such," Fried claimed.

Anonymous said...

There is such a thing as girls pitzing themselves up to look like adults & lying about their age. The law however makes it illegal regardless of whether anyone was duped.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/09offender.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

February 9, 2009

Effort to Track Sex Offenders Draws Resistance

By ABBY GOODNOUGH and MONICA DAVEY

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/09peanuts.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

BLAKELY, Ga. — Raw peanuts were stored next to the finished peanut butter. The roaster was not calibrated to kill deadly germs. Dispirited workers on minimum wage, supplied by temp agencies, donned their uniforms at home, potentially dragging contaminants into the plant, which also had rodents.

Even the roof of the Peanut Corporation of America plant here in rural southwest Georgia was an obvious risk, given that salmonella thrives in water and the facility should have been kept bone dry.

“It leaked when it rained,” said Frank Hardrick, 40, an assistant manager who, along with four other workers, described life inside the plant. “Different crews would come in to work on it, but it would still leak.”

The conditions at the plant, more circa 1955 than 2009, would have been enough to cause alarm in an industry where sanitation can be a matter of life and death, food experts said.

But they were only one element in the salmonella outbreak and subsequent food safety train wreck that started here and swept through the country — claiming eight lives, sickening an estimated 19,000 people in 43 states and spurring an array of recalls, including TV dinners, snack bars labeled organic and ready-made meals for disaster relief.

An examination of the Blakely case reveals a badly frayed food safety net. Interviews and government records show that state and federal inspectors do not require the peanut industry to inform the public — or even the government — of salmonella contamination in its plants. And industry giants like Kellogg used processed peanuts in a variety of products but relied on the factory to perform safety testing and divulge any problems.

At the same time, processed peanuts have been finding their way into more and more foods as a low-cost yet tasty additive, making tainted products harder to track.

Problems emerged in southwest Georgia’s peanut country in 2004, when a whistleblower reported that the food-product giant ConAgra Foods had found salmonella in peanut butter at its plant in Sylvester, Ga., 75 miles from Blakely. But when plant officials declined to release their laboratory tests, the Food and Drug Administration did not pursue the records and was unable to confirm the report of salmonella.

The government finally demanded the records three years later, and verified the whistleblower’s claims, after hundreds of people were sickened by salmonella-tainted peanut butter produced at the plant in 2007. Even then, ConAgra insisted that the government not make those records public, according to documents obtained last week by The New York Times. Calling its testing proprietary, ConAgra told the food agency in a Feb. 27, 2007, letter: “Once F.D.A. has completed its review of the documents, please return them to ConAgra Foods or shred.”

ConAgra, which makes Peter Pan, ultimately improved conditions at its plant and increased testing. But neither federal regulators nor state regulators imposed those same standards on other peanut facilities like the one in Blakely, records and interviews show. To the contrary, inspection reports on the Peanut Corporation of America plant over the last three years show that state inspectors — Georgia has only 60 agents to monitor 16,000 food-handling businesses — missed major problems that workers say were chronic.

Georgia officials said budget constraints and other outbreaks of food-borne illnesses diminished their abilities to inspect the peanut plants.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration accused the Peanut Corporation of America of repeatedly shipping peanut butter and other products right after discovering salmonella, which is commonly found in the feces of humans and animals. The agency had previously said the company held up the shipments until a second test came back negative for the bacteria.

“Our whole family was angry,” said Jeff Almer of Savage, Minn., whose 72-year-old mother, Shirley Mae, died in December after eating tainted peanut butter from the plant. “This could have been avoided.”

The Peanut Corporation of America, a family-run business based in Lynchburg, Va., now under criminal investigation, declined to discuss events leading to the outbreak, saying in a statement: “We are sorry our process fell short of not only our goals, but more importantly, your expectations.”

Kellogg said it was looking for ways to improve its procedures for buying ingredients.

With children accounting for half of the salmonella illnesses traced to the Blakely plant — and a worldwide recall that now includes pails of peanut butter shipped to schools, military bases and nursing homes — the safety issues raised by the outbreak are drawing comparisons to those in China’s tainted milk scandal.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing our food safety problems as coming from other countries,” said Robert Tauxe, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who helped trace the outbreak to the Blakely plant. “This outbreak is telling us we haven’t been paying enough attention.”

The Peanut Corporation of America began making peanut butter at the plant on Magnolia Street about three years ago, said Blakely’s mayor, Ric Hall. Peanut paste, a purer mash without added sugar, followed.

“They had a little niche market, importing some peanuts from Mexico and South America, and buying a lower grade,” said Mr. Hall, who visited the plant when it clogged city sewers with oil overflows. “To the uninitiated, it looked like they were doing everything right.”

But its yellow-brick walls hid the array of poor work conditions and safety flaws, said employees, who lost their jobs when the plant closed on Jan. 16.

Many of the hourly workers earned only minimum wage and had gone years without a raise. Frederic McClendon, 31, a shift supervisor, reached $12 an hour last year but still could not afford health insurance for his two boys, who live in a weather-beaten trailer. “If you pay your workers, you get the best out of them,” Mr. McClendon said. “If you don’t, you don’t.”

Using temporary workers also saved money, said Mr. Hardrick, the assistant manager, “but there was a lot of retraining going on.”

After Canadian officials in April found metal shavings in peanuts produced by the plant, a new manager handed out raises, stepped up cleaning and imposed tighter safety controls.

But the effort, employees said, was too little, too late for the salmonella problems, given that the plant had been shipping tainted products since 2007.

Mr. Hardrick said he had known about the salmonella at the time, but had been told the positive test results were only “presumptive” for the bacteria, not definitive. He regularly took peanut butter home to his family.

Inspecting the plant was the responsibility of Georgia, which like 42 other states is under contract with the Food and Drug Administration to monitor food plants. The agency’s Science Board concluded in 2007 that the agency did not have the capacity to ensure a safe food supply, with domestic businesses under its purview having risen to 65,500 from 51,000 in 2001.

In Georgia, state agriculture inspectors said they were hampered by rising needs and falling budgets. The state asked inspectors to conduct more tests for contamination, but slashed the number of miles they could drive, said Leta Emily Bird, who had 310 businesses to monitor in Georgia before she retired last fall. “You might do the inspection, but it takes a lot more driving to get a test done and delivered,” she said.

Reports show that the state ran tests for salmonella on three samples from the Blakely plant in 2007, and none in 2006 or 2008.

The last state inspection, on Oct. 23, 2008, found just two problems: mildew and dust in a storage room, and the reuse of shipping bags.

Plant employees said they typically had advance knowledge of state inspections and that last month, when they were tipped off that federal investigators were coming, the employees were told not to answer questions. Where the state had found no major problems, the federal team found many, like the leaky roof, and swab tests showed salmonella living on the plant floors. Plant managers had not decontaminated the peanut butter processing line after detecting salmonella, the federal report shows.

In examining Peanut Corporation of America’s records, federal investigators discovered that company tests had found salmonella 12 times since 2007. The inspectors said they got the records by invoking a bioterrorism law.

Dr. Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, said he got an inside look into the nation’s food safety problem when ConAgra hired him two years ago to help address its salmonella crisis.

ConAgra, which acknowledges its past mistakes, shut its plant down for six months, studied the problem and spent $33 million to eliminate water leaks, air flows that might carry contaminants and numerous other threats. Employees now have 80 rules to follow before beginning work, starting with uniforms that they can’t take home. “I like to say that we built a submarine,” the plant manager, Earl Ehret, said last week.

ConAgra bolstered its salmonella testing process, sampling one jar per production line every 20 minutes. The company said it will also will turn over test results to inspectors upon request.

But even ConAgra may only go so far. Asked if the company would notify the Food and Drug Administration on its own if it finds salmonella, the company’s spokeswoman, Stephanie K. Childs, said: “Your question is new for us. It’s one the company is considering.”

Georgia regulators said they plan to try to change state law to require greater disclosure of food safety tests. But Dr. Steven M. Solomon, an official in the federal agency’s Office of Regulatory Affairs, said the agency has viewed such disclosures as a “double-edged sword” that might inhibit some companies from testing in the first place.

The ConAgra and Peanut Corporation of America outbreaks have left victims and their families embittered about the government’s role in protecting consumers.

David Marshall’s wife testified before Congress in 2007 after his mother, Mora Lou Marshall, of Shreveport, La., fell ill after eating Peter Pan peanut butter, which her dentist had recommended for her health.

Now the family is troubled to see the episode repeating itself, along with new vows to set things right. Another Congressional hearing on tainted peanut butter is scheduled for this week.

“The other day, there was some congresswoman saying we need to enact laws now to not let this happen again,” Mr. Marshall said. “And I was like, ‘You idiot. What have you all been doing?’ The law should have been enacted years ago, and this made us wonder, what does the F.D.A. even do?”

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/world/middleeast/09israel.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Mr. Lieberman began his political career working for Likud, becoming campaign chairman in the 1990s for Mr. Netanyahu and director general of his office when he was prime minister. He later formed Yisrael Beitenu, winning election to Parliament as its party leader. He has held several ministerial portfolios but only for short periods because of his tendency to fall out of favor with those in power.

Lately he has also come under investigation for the business practices of a company owned by his daughter, including allegations of money laundering, fraud and breach of trust. The police have said they believe that the daughter, Michal Lieberman, was serving as a front for her father.

Mr. Lieberman said he welcomed the investigation because the more he was seen as pursued by the establishment, the more popular he became. The investigation, he said, would add four seats to his party’s take.

Anonymous said...

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2009-02-05/news/armed-again/

Indicted South Florida weapons dealer Efraim Diveroli keeps making millions from you and me.

By Penn Bullock
Published on February 03, 2009

On March 15, 2008, a fireball shot into the midday sky over Albania's capital of Tirana. The blast echoed 100 miles away in Macedonia and Kosovo. Its force was comparable to that of a small nuclear weapon. But this wasn't atomic. It was an accident at an arms depot, where poor villagers had been hired to handle old ammunition and artillery shells. The explosion killed up to 26 people and injured hundreds. The village of Gerdec was obliterated.

Three men were arrested for mass murder in what local media dubbed "Albania's Hiroshima." Two of them were alleged accomplices to a 23-year-old Miami Beach-based arms dealer named Efraim Diveroli, who faces trial later this year on 83 counts of fraud and conspiracy for procuring Chinese-made ammo in Albania and selling it to the Pentagon.

The charges may be hard to prove, though. A potential lead witness in the case, Kosta Trebicka, died mysteriously in September. His body was found bloodied and sprawled across a dirt road in eastern Albania, some 50 yards from his slightly dented SUV. Trebicka had recorded a tape (played in the YouTube clip below) in which Diveroli said corruption in that country "went up... to the prime minister and his son."

Indeed, last week, federal prosecutors retreated, allowing the return of $4.3 million of Diveroli's property — including a new Mercedes 550 — that had been confiscated. Perhaps even more significant, Diveroli is out on bail and a company he owns called Ammoworks may even now be selling ammunition to the American government. This fact has been largely overlooked by prosecutors and Congress.

Diveroli comes from a family that includes arms dealers and a celebrity holyman. His uncle, Shmuley Boteach, was recently named by Newsweek as one of America's top 50 rabbis. He's also a former reality-TV host on TLC, a friend of Oprah's, and the bestselling author of Kosher Sex and Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments. Boteach was accused of misusing charity money in 1999 and paid some back. In 2001, he collaborated with Diveroli's mother and Michael Jackson on the ominously named "Time for Kids" charity, which later went bankrupt.

Diveroli grew up in Miami Beach and went to work at age 16 for another uncle, Bar-Kochba Boteach, who ran an arms dealership in South Central Los Angeles. Two years later, in 2004, Diveroli filed papers in Nevada to form Ammoworks, which would soon resurface at a gated community in Hollywood, Florida.

Diveroli then moved to Miami and took a job with his dad's arms company, AEY Inc. Within a year, at age 19, he took over as president. Along with a childhood buddy and two-time college dropout named David Packouz, he accrued a bevy of government contracts. In 2006, for instance, AEY shipped several million dollars of clothing, weapons, and firefighting equipment to government agencies, according to a website called Fedspending.org.

Soon, AEY was placed on a State Department blacklist. The firm was being investigated for "numerous violations of the Arms Export Control Act and contract fraud," according to a congressional report issued last year. In addition, it was accused of performing substandard work on at least 11 government contracts, which were ultimately withdrawn or terminated. According to the congressional report obtained by New Times: "Government contracting officials repeatedly warned of 'poor quality,' 'damaged goods,' 'junk' weapons, and other equipment in 'the reject category,' and they complained on several occasions that AEY was 'hurting the mission' and had 'endangered the performance' of government agencies."

Still, in January 2007, the firm won a $300 million contract with the U.S. Army to supply ammunition to Afghanistan for that nation's antiterrorism effort. AEY was to provide the police and national army with the bulk of their bullets.

Diveroli found much of the ammo in Albanian arms dumps. Some of it dated back decades and came from China. Unfortunately, selling Chinese-made war material to the Pentagon is illegal because of a 1989 arms embargo. Diveroli emailed the State Department in 2007 to ask if he could ship Chinese ammo. When the reply was no, federal prosecutors claim Diveroli removed the Chinese packaging and passed off the ammo as Hungarian.

Diveroli allegedly hired two of the men accused of mass murder at Gerdec to run the repackaging process at Tirana's Mother Teresa International Airport. The ammo was removed from sealed canisters and packaging marked "Made in China." It was then dumped into cardboard boxes and shipped to Afghanistan. Sometimes bullets spilled in transport.

In the tapes, Diveroli tells Trebicka to bribe one of the ammo repackagers. "Send one of your girls to f*** him," Diveroli says in the recording posted on YouTube and quoted by the New York Times. "If he gets $20,000 from you, I can live with this." Trebicka warns of the dangers of involving the alleged repackager and his "Mafia guys" in the deal. But he assures Diveroli about their plan going forward — and he alludes, mysteriously, to the CIA. "Probably I will be invited in Washington, D.C., by the CIA guys and my friends over there," Trebicka says. "Two weeks from now, I will come to Florida to shake hands with you and discuss future deals." It wasn't long after the tape's recording that Trebicka's body turned up outside the city of Korce. The Albanian government ruled he died accidentally when his car overturned, but some question that finding.

March 2008 was disastrous for Diveroli. On the 27th, the Times, acting partly on Trebicka's leads, accused the company of supplying Chinese ammo to the Pentagon in violation of federal law. The next day, the U.S. government suspended AEY from further contracting work. In a letter announcing the suspension, Pentagon officials warned that Diveroli might strike again: "It is reasonable to believe that both Mr. Diveroli and AEY will seek to obtain similar work in the future, either directly or as a representative of another contractor."

This turned out to be prescient. On March 6, 2008 — three weeks before the Times story broke — Efraim Diveroli had registered Ammoworks in Florida. It was headquartered in a Hayes Street apartment in Hollywood. In April, an industry insider spotted him at an arms fair in Malaysia.

But in June, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Diveroli, as well as David Packouz and two other AEY associates, for fraud and conspiracy. Diveroli retained at least two government contracts for months after the indictment. "The contracts were for AK-47s and weapons repair parts," says Glenn Furbish, a senior audit manager for the Special Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).

SIGIR confirmed that Diveroli was paid $10 million for the two contracts. It seems that while he was under federal indictment, the federal government made him a multimillionaire.

This past September, Ammoworks moved to an office building on Michigan Avenue just north of Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The firm wasn't listed in the registry downstairs, but its ninth-floor suite was spacious and sunlit, with a fitness ball for a chair. Though a worker there declined to comment, the firm's website, ammoworks.net, which has since been scrubbed of most text, bragged about a fortune in government contracts: "Ammoworks has produced hundreds of millions of dollars worth of firearms, ammo, and tactical gear among other things for our special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan."

In fact, Ammoworks may simply be a shell for AEY. Records show that the Ammoworks website was bought and registered by AEY, and AEY's latest state filing lists Ammoworks' address on Michigan Avenue. In a brief interview with New Times, Efraim Diveroli acknowledged that both companies are his. "Yes, I own Ammoworks, and I also own AEY," he said. He declined to comment further.

A salesman for Ammoworks, Boz Kramer, told New Times in a phone interview that the firm is out of stock and back-ordered in heavy-caliber Lithuanian .308 ammo. But he said it can be obtained with a hefty minimum order of 28,000 rounds — or 140 "Sealed Military Battle Packs." According to its website, Ammoworks also sells AK-47 ammo "made in South Korea for a U.S. government contract."

Although Diveroli is awaiting trial and Ammoworks was placed on a U.S. blacklist, Kramer confirmed this past October that the company was trying to sell indirectly. "We provide quotes to companies that are selling to the government," he said.

A government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, "It's often the case that a company will get suspended or debarred, and then the owners will form another company and start getting contracts through the new company."

Maybe Efraim Diveroli — the indicted 20-something, whom another unnamed official called a "ballsy little shit" — will use that well-worn stratagem to again sell arms for America's wars.

Anonymous said...

(Reuters) - After losing his entire life's savings to disgraced fund manager Bernard Madoff, 90-year-old Ian Thiermann abandoned retirement and now works the aisles of a grocery store to make ends meet.

Handing out fliers hawking avocados and pork ribs at a supermarket in Ben Lomond, California, Thiermann is one of many facing dramatic lifestyle changes after losing their savings in Madoff's suspected $50 billion (33.8 billion pound) Ponzi scheme.

Thiermann wasn't even aware he had invested with Madoff until December 15, when a friend who managed his investments called him on the telephone. "He said, 'I've lost everything and you have lost everything.'" For Thiermann, that meant $750,000.

Days after the release of a list of thousands of Madoff customers -- from Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax to actor John Malkovich -- a picture is emerging of a scandal that has reverberated far beyond America's still-wealthy to those who have lost nearly everything.

And swept up in the pain are many who should be savouring the twilight of their lives in peaceful retirement rather than scrambling for a living.

Thiermann, owner of a pest-control company in Los Angeles before retiring 25 years ago, enjoyed returns of 10 to 12 percent each year on his savings for about 15 years regardless of whether markets rose or fell. He lived on those returns, devoting much time to nonprofit work.

"We don't have any cash reserves now. And we still owe money on our houses," he said in a telephone interview. He learned of his losses while shopping in a local grocery store with his wife, Terry.

"The store manager who we know very well said, 'What's wrong?' We said, 'Have you heard about this Madoff?' And he said, 'Oh my god!" Thiermann explained. "I now work there as a beginner and I deeply appreciate it."

About 2,490 miles to the east in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Maureen Ebel has also surrendered a comfortable retirement, and works as a cleaner after losing her family savings of $7.3 million to Madoff.

On December 17, six days after learning of her losses, the 60-year-old widow found work cleaning the home of a friend and caring for a 93-year-old woman. Ebel's husband, a doctor, died in 2000 at age 53. The former nurse is also selling her luxury Lexus SUV and a winter home in Florida.

"I HELD ONTO MY DOG AND I CRIED"

"On the first day I went to work, after pushing that vacuum cleaner around, I came home and said to myself 'this is what my life has come to,' and I held onto my dog and I cried," Ebel said in a telephone interview.

In Pompano Beach, Florida, 73-year-old Irwin Salbe also expects to return to work after losing about 75 percent of his investment portfolio to Madoff, who according to court documents confessed to his sons on December 10 that the firm's investment-advisory business was "basically a giant Ponzi scheme."

Such schemes use money from new investors to pay distributions and redemptions to existing investors.

Salbe said his family investments with Madoff date back to the 1960s, although he declined to say exactly how much.

"We were pretty heavily in it with my children and my grandchildren. They all had accounts with mine. We're all in it and it's substantial," he said.

"Now we're downsizing. I had two cars. We've gotten rid of one. I've cancelled some trips. I've reduced my expenses with every opportunity. We don't eat out like we did. If we go out, we got to a neighbourhood place like for a pizza," he said.

"I used to get my income from there. Now, there's no more expensive dinners. I don't hug my kids anymore like I used to," he said. "The image of Madoff's main clientele is of rich people. That's not true. A lot of people have been devastated like me," said Salbe, who had met Madoff several times.

Salbe, a general manager for a newspaper and magazine distribution company in New York before retiring in 1991, inherited the Madoff investments when his father died in 1984. Over the years, he poured in his own money and eventually parked his entire retirement savings with Madoff.

"I'm going to definitely have to go back to a part-time job," he said.

EVAPORATED SAVINGS

In Wisconsin, Abby Frucht ponders the fate of her parents, whose $1 million in life's savings seemingly evaporated with the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, Madoff's investment-advisory business. Her parents lived off the money in a retirement home in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

"My dad is 85 and my mom is 79. We don't know how long they can stay there. We're working that out now," she said.

Her father suffers from Alzheimer's disease and may not fully comprehend what's happening, she said in a telephone interview. "They are very elderly and can't possibly go back to work. They are very comfortable and happy where they are."

Her parents have enough savings to stay in New Mexico another two months. After that, they may have no choice but to move in with her in Wisconsin. "My sisters and I have power of attorney over them so we have been putting our heads together to try and find a way to keep our parents comfortable."

Some want industry regulators or the government to pay.

After losing money to Madoff, Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, said both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority could be held liable for investors' losses.

"The brokerage industry is responsible for this because these are the people that caused all of this," he said.

Arthur said...

America as the last man standing

'In a generation or two, the US will ask itself: who lost Europe?'
Here is the speech of Geert Wilders, Chairman, Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem.
The speech was sponsored by the Hudson Institute on September 25.
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for inviting me.
I come to America with a mission. All is not well in the old world. There is a tremendous danger looming, and it is very difficult to be optimistic. We might be in the final stages of the Islamization of Europe. This not only is a clear and present danger to the future of Europe itself, it is a threat to America and the sheer survival of the West. The United States as the last bastion of Western civilization, facing an Islamic Europe.
First I will describe the situation on the ground in Europe. Then, I will say a few things about Islam. To close I will tell you about a meeting in Jerusalem.
The Europe you know is changing. You have probably seen the landmarks. But in all of these cities, sometimes a few blocks away from your tourist destination, there is another world. It is the world of the parallel society created by Muslim mass-migration. All throughout Europe a new reality is rising: entire Muslim neighborhoods where very few indigenous people reside or are even seen. And if they are, they might regret it. This goes for the police as well. It's the world of head scarves, where women walk around in figureless tents, with baby strollers and a group of children. Their husbands, or slaveholders if you prefer, walk three steps ahead. With mosques on many street corners. The shops have signs you and I cannot read. You will be hard-pressed to find any economic activity. These are Muslim ghettos controlled by religious fanatics. These are Muslim neighborhoods, and they are mushrooming in every city across Europe. These are the building-blocks for territorial control of increasingly larger portions of Europe, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city.
There are now thousands of mosques throughout Europe. With larger congregations than there are in churches. And in every European city there are plans to build super-mosques that will dwarf every church in the region. Clearly, the signal is: we rule.
Many European cities are already one-quarter Muslim: just take Amsterdam, Marseille and Malmo in Sweden. In many cities the majority of the under-18 population is Muslim. Paris is now surrounded by a ring of Muslim neighborhoods. Mohammed is the most popular name among boys in many cities. In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims. Many state schools in Belgium and Denmark only serve halal food to all pupils. In once-tolerant Amsterdam gays are beaten up almost exclusively by Muslims. Non-Muslim women routinely hear 'whore, whore'. Satellite dishes are not pointed to local TV stations, but to stations in the country of origin. In Franceschool teachers are advised to avoid authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. The history of the Holocaust can no longer be taught because of Muslim sensitivity. In England sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system.. Many neighborhoods in France are no-go areas for women without head scarves. Last week a man almost died after being beaten up by Muslims in Brussels, because he was drinking during the Ramadan.&a mp;a mp;n bsp;Jews are fleeing France in record numbers, on the run for the worst wave of anti-Semitism since World War II. French is now commonly spoken on the streets of Tel Aviv and Netanya, Israel. I could go on forever with stories like this. Stories about Islamization.
A total of fifty-four million Muslims now live in Europe. San Diego University recently calculated that a staggering 25 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim just 12 years from now. Bernhard Lewis has predicted a Muslim majority by the end of this century.
Now these are just numbers. And the numbers would not be threatening if the Muslim-immigrants had a strong desire to assimilate. But there are few signs of that. The Pew Research Center reported that half of French Muslims see their loyalty to Islam as greater than their loyalty to France. One-third of French Muslims do not object to suicide attacks. The British Centre for Social Cohesion reported that one-third of British Muslim students are in favor of a worldwide caliphate. Muslims demand what they call 'respect'. And this is how we give them respect. We have Muslim official state holidays.
The Christian-Democratic attorney general is willing to accept sharia in the Netherlands if there is a Muslim majority. We have cabinet members with passports from Morocco and Turkey.
Muslim demands are supported by unlawful behavior, ranging from petty crimes and random violence, for example against ambulance workers and bus drivers, to small-scale riots. Paris has seen its uprising in the low-income suburbs, the banlieus. I call the perpetrators 'settlers'. Because that is what they are. They do not come to integrate into our societies, they come to integrate our society into their Dar-al-Islam. Therefore, they are settlers.
Much of this street violence I mentioned is directed exclusively against non-Muslims, forcing many native people to leave their neighborhoods, their cities, their countries. Moreover, Muslims are now a swing vote not to be ignored. ,.
The second thing you need to know is the importance of Mohammed the prophet. His behavior is an example to all Muslims and cannot be criticized. Now, if Mohammed had been a man of peace, let us say like Ghandi and Mother Theresa wrapped in one, there would be no problem. But Mohammed was a warlord, a mass murderer, a pedophile, and had several marriages - at the same time. Islamic tradition tells us how he fought in battles, how he had his enemies murdered and even had prisoners of war executed. Mohammed himself slaughtered the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. If it is good for Islam, it is good. If it is bad for Islam, it is bad.
Let no one fool you about Islam being a religion. Sure, it has a god, and a here-after, and 72 virgins. But in its essenceIslam is a political ideology. It is a system that lays down detailed rules for society and the life of every person. Islam wants to dictate every aspect of life. Islam means 'submission'. Islam is not compatible with freedom and democracy, because what it strives for is sharia.. If you want to compare Islam to anything, compare it to communism or national-socialism, these are all totalitarian ideologies.
Now you know why Winston Churchill called Islam 'the most retrograde force in the world', and why he compared Mein Kampf to the Quran. The public has wholeheartedly accepted the Palestinian narrative, and sees Israel as the aggressor. I have lived in this country and visited it dozens of times. I support Israel. First, because it is the Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile up to and including Auschwitz, second because it is a democracy, and third because Israel is our first line of defense.
This tiny country is situated on the fault line of jihad, frustrating Islam's territorial advance. Israel is facing the front lines of jihad, like Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Southern Thailand, Darfur in Sudan, Lebanon, and Aceh inIndonesia. Israel is simply in the way. The same way West-Berlin was during the Cold War.
The war against Israel is not a war against Israel. It is a war against the West. It is jihad. Israel is simply receiving the blows that are meant for all of us. If there would have been no Israel, Islamic imperialism would have found other venues to release its energy and its desire for conquest. Thanks to Israeli parents who send their children to the army and lay awake at night, parents in Europe and America can sleep well and dream, unaware of the dangers looming.
Many in Europe argue in favor of abandoning Israel in order to address the grievances of our Muslim minorities. But ifIsrael were, God forbid, to go down, it would not bring any solace to the West. It would not mean our Muslim minorities would all of a sudden change their behavior, and accept our values. On the contrary, the end of Israel would give enormous encouragement to the forces of Islam. They would, and rightly so, see the demise of Israel as proof that the West is weak, and doomed. The end of Israel would not mean the end of our problems with Islam, but only the beginning. It would mean the start of the final battle for world domination. If they can get Israel, they can get everything. So-called journalists volunteer to label any and all critics of Islamization as a 'right-wing extremists' or 'racists'. In my country, the Netherlands, 60 percent of the population now sees the mass immigration of Muslims as the number one policy mistake since World War II. And another 60 percent sees Islam as the biggest threat. Yet there is a danger greater danger than terrorist attacks, the scenario of America as the last man standing. The lights may go out in Europe faster than you can imagine. An Islamic Europe means a Europe without freedom and democracy, an economic wasteland, an intellectual nightmare, and a loss of military might for America - a s its allies will turn into enemies, enemies with atomic bombs. With an Islamic Europe, it would be up to America alone to preserve the heritage of Rome, Athens and Jerusalem.
Dear friends, liberty is the most precious of gifts. My generation never had to fight for this freedom, it was offered to us on a silver platter, by people who fought for it with their lives. All throughout Europe American cemeteries remind us of the young boys who never made it home, and whose memory we cherish. My generation does not own this freedom; we are merely its custodians. We can only hand over this hard won liberty to Europe's children in the same state in which it was offered to us. We cannot strike a deal with mullahs and imams. Future generations would never forgive us. We cannot squander our liberties. We simply do not have the right to do so.

Anonymous said...

http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/815902

UOJ, what do you think?

SHerry Orbach came out of hiding this week & identified herself to the Village Voice. She is bitterly opposed to her mother, Amy Neustein, and now the Voice is backtracking somewhat on their support of her.

Neustein's latest campaign is to publicly expose her own brother as a slumlord and nasty person who is abusing his tenants and others.

Anonymous said...

GM's Lutz to Retire

Wall Street Journal - 1 hour ago

By LAUREN POLLOCK General Motors Corp. product czar Bob Lutz will retire at the end of the year

Anonymous said...

Brooklyn, NY - A Hasidic man was busted for allegedly exposing himself in front of a woman aboard a subway train in Flatbush, authorities said yesterday.

S...P..., 53, was standing next to the 38-year-old woman, who was seated on a B train approaching the Church Avenue station at 7:17 p.m. Thursday, sources said.

Suddenly, the woman felt someone brush up against her and thump her shoulder, and she turned to see P... exposing himself, the sources said.

The woman screamed at P.... to stay away, ran off the train and flagged down an officer in the station, cops said.

The officer quickly arrested P., who was charged with sexual abuse and public lewdness.

Anonymous said...

http://www.swcommconnection.com/news/story.php?story_id=123299176691188800

Beloved rabbi drowns after son's wedding

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Archie:

Sherry Orbach has not been in hiding. The same attacks were made on Amy Neustein, from Sherry Orbach's email address, three years ago, and they were amply commented on at the time, as was the fact that the attacks had little in common with the documented facts of the case.(Sherry Orbach was 6 years old when she reported being sexually abused by her father; she has been surrounded by her father's supporters, and has been separated from her mother, her mother's family, and all those sympathetic to the child's abuse reports, since she was 8, so it is not surprising if she no longer remembers those events.)

For anyone interested, a succinct outline of the facts of that case may be found on the "Mothers of Lost Children" site. (I understand it appears, or will be appearing, on several others as well.)

Here is the link: http://www.mothers-of-lost-children.com/neustein.htm

The outline also mentions some news sources that accurately describe the case, including an article in the Voice itself, by Adam Fifield and Michael Lesher, appearing October 1, 1996.

Michael has written me that no one ever refuted any of the facts asserted in that article, which presented plenty of evidence that the courts covered up a very credible case of child sex abuse, partly at least because of pressure from powerful people in the Brooklyn Orthodox community.

The Jewish Week also ran a piece on November 1, 1996. Again, the facts stated there remain unanswered.

It's important to remember that these attacks on Amy Neustein started when she published her first book -- on how child sexual abuse is handled in family courts -- and the same attacks are rising again now that she's got another book coming out (that is, a book edited by her) -- this time specifically on child sexual abuse in Jewish communities.

As described on this site, influential people like Steve Mostofsky have been involved in trying to stifle the message by orchestrating criticism of the messenger. It's an old tactic. We should know better than to be distracted.

For the heck of it, let's repeat the obvious. Jewish kids ARE being sexually abused. And plenty of people would like to cover that up. Attacking the messenger won't make the problem go away. End of story.

By the way, from its advance publicity it's clear that Amy Neustein's new book contains essays from many very respected writers about the nature and scope of the problem we face.

This isn't about Amy Neustein and her daughter! -- Just as the things described on this site aren't about whether you like UOJ!

Anonymous said...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02092009/news/nypdblotter/nypdblotter.htm

Who was the menuvel arrested on the B train?

Anonymous said...

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20090202003512248C332745

Father held for child porn

Anna Cox
February 02 2009 at 05:27AM


The 15-year old girl sat on her bed, crying her eyes out.

She had just seen her 50-year old father being arrested for child grooming and pornography.
On Sunday the Child Protection Unit (CPU) swooped on an upmarket house in Glenhazel, north-eastern Johannesburg, to make the arrest.

The man has become the first in Joburg to be arrested for child grooming and pornography under the amended Sexual Offences Act.

Child grooming is the process of preparing minors for sex through electronic or other means, lewd suggestions and messages.

The man allegedly started communicating with a 14-year old Glenhazel girl on Mxit - a social cellphone networking service.

Captain Colin Morris, of the CPU, said the man began SMSing lewd messages in December, and the girl complained to her parents.

The SAPS put the CPU onto the case, and Morris took over the girl's phone for two weeks, pretending to be her, and responded to messages.

"I received many lewd and suggestive messages from him. He has ingratiated himself into the Glenhazel Jewish community," Morris said.

With the help of Norwood police, a team of about 15 police officers strategised their plan for the arrest. The man had 29 previous convictions and had spent time in jail

Wearing bulletproof vests and armed with R-5 rifles, and a crowbar and hammer to break the gate if necessary, the team drove to the house, where they arrested the man.

They found a scrapbook with newspaper clippings on child rape. Two porn movies were also found.

Police said their priority now was to place the man's teenage daughter safely with relatives. Several relatives refused to have her. Eventually, a member of the Jewish community came to her rescue.

Anonymous said...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3668330,00.html

Report: 2,281 kids abused at home in 2007

Anonymous said...

Speaking the Unspeakable:
Sexual Abuse in Jewish Communities in the US and Israel


When: Sunday, February 15, 2009 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Where: Congregation Beth Elohim
274 Garfield Place
Brooklyn, NY 11215


Registration:

Pre-Registration: $10.00 Per Person (Payment received no later then Feb. 12, 2009)
At the Door: $15.00 (SAVE 50% by registering early!)


RSVP: The Awareness Center, Inc., P.O. Box 65273, Baltimore, MD 21209


Make checks payable to : The Awareness Center, Inc. A credit card payment can be used by clicking on the donation button on our web page. Send us a note stating that the funds were for the registration fee for this event.

Call us at: 443-857-5560 or e-mail: info@theawarenesscenter

Anonymous said...

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Linda Thomsen, whose unit is the target of congressional scrutiny for failing to detect Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud, will step down as new Chairman Mary Schapiro replaces senior management.

Thomsen, head of the division since 2005, will return to private practice after 14 years at the SEC, the agency said in a statement today. A departure date isn’t set and she will stay to help ensure a smooth transition, SEC spokesman John Nester said.

Schapiro, appointed by President Barack Obama, is replacing senior managers after being sworn in Jan. 27 with a pledge to “reinvigorate” an enforcement arm faulted by lawmakers for missing Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme. Former federal prosecutor Robert Khuzami, now a top Deutsche Bank AG lawyer, is the lead candidate to succeed Thomsen, two people familiar with the matter said last week.

Arthur said...

Believe or not. Even the Jihadists have it in for Lubavitch.Maybe it's this guys Satmar backround.We must be doing something right.

*'770' Chabad-Lubavitch World HQ Targeted in Jihad Videos*

Shevat 11, 5769, 05 February 09 11:30

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Barely two months after a rabbi, his wife and four other Jews
were brutally murdered in a Chabad House in Mumbai, India,
the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn
has been targeted in a series of jihadist videos posted on the internet.

The English-language videos and posts singled out Orthodox Jews, and
especially the Chabad-Lubavitch community in the Crown Heights neighborhood
in Brooklyn, New York, for attack.

The source of the thinly-veiled threats, a group called Revolution Muslim,
is domestic to the United States, and the English-language threats are
carefully tailored in an attempt to avoid breaking any American laws.

Nonetheless, the intent is clear, according to the Targeted Actionable
Monitoring Center (TAM-C) of the Institute of Terrorism Research and
Response (ITRR), a U.S. and Israel-based organization with offices in the
United Kingdom as well.

*'Do Not Let Orthodox Judaism Get Away With Murder in Ghaza'*
Headlining a propaganda video of a rally by a far-left organization were the
words, "Do Not Let Orthodox Judaism Get Away From Murder in Ghaza [Gaza]."

Underneath the video was the statement, "Make EVERY attempt to reach these
people and teach them the message of Islam or leave them a message from
Islam."

A subsequent video and accompanying text clarified the "message" the
Islamist blogger had in mind and how to "reach these people."

The video first denies that any threats against Orthodox Jews were made on
their website, but then switches to a montage of images of dead Arab
children - apparently from Gaza - interspersed with repeated images of "770"
- the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters - and a blood-spattered Jewish
prayer book from a terrorist attack in the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in
Jerusalem.

The video concludes with the sound of gunshots.

The text under the video adds the following P.S.: "NYPD - It was me (Yousef
al-Khattab) that made the Chabad Islamic propagation (sic) post and appeal.
Do have your search warrants in order. The gunshots at the end in NO WAY are
meant for the NYPD (since they asked me about it)."

*Other Locations Targeted As Well*
The videos followed the posting on the same jihadist site of photos of the
Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters and its main synagogue, its address at
770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and details of the times when the synagogue
is filled with worshippers.

The third and final video in a series of three aiming at the
Chabad-Lubavitch community is narrated entirely by Al-Khattab, who appears
to either be completely exhausted, or possibly even under the influence of a
sedating substance of some kind. He is leaning back, with his eyes almost
completely closed, his voice drawling.

He begins with what is apparently meant as disclaimer, saying his group is
"not here to fight with Jewish people" and explaining that the bullet sounds
are just a "sound wave" used for the videos.

The threats begin, however, a moment later: "An atrocity is done and an act
of terrorist [sic] is done like what was done in Ghaza, when they
indiscriminately bombed women and children, and just... I don't even know
what to say... and we know where the source is, and the source is definitely
770 Eastern Parkway is one of those sources that funds it, and gives their
spiritual support as well. and definitely Yeshiva University in Washington
Heights, is another place that prepares students, religious Orthodox
rabbinical Jewish students to be in the hesder yeshiva, which is the officer
corps of the religious Jews, so yes, these are definitely the sources, and
the Jewish Federation buildings, all over the United States, they fund it."

Al-Khattab continues: "In the eyes of the Muslim world... even the thinking
Christian populace would agree -- that Israel is a war crime. We think it's
imperative to bring to the forefront, hold these people responsible... find
out who is the head of the Jewish Federation... give them the Islamic
message... leave them the message of Islam. Let them know, that maybe they
drew up those borders that they occupy, but our borders as Muslims are all
over the place. Okay? That's not a threat, that's what it is, that's what
it's gonna be.

"And wal-LAH hee, (Arabic for "truthfully" -ed.) New York City Police
Department, CIA and FBI, you can put me in jail for the rest of my life, as
long as I got that information out there for people to know what to do, I
did something," Al-Khattab asserts.

*'Tears of Today, Weapons of Future'*
A new video posted this week,* *entitled "An Arabic Boy Threatens America
For What It Did To." shows an Arab boy who becomes increasingly upset and
angry as he is interviewed during an apparent demonstration, ending his
short diatribe in tears.

The video is preceded by the headline "Don't Wait for Obama's Change
(Warning: External Links Are NOT Necessarily the Views of
RevolutionMuslim.com)". This is followed immediately by the exhortation to
Stand Up Against American and 'Israeli' Aggression (sic) and a media player
with the YouTube video, uploaded by "EgyptianAnger."

At one point the boy bursts into tears and then shouts out loud, "We came
here today to make them pay, those who attacked us, not to just talk. we
will grow up, And Grap (sic) You From Your Land, America!!"

The video ends with the words, "Tears of Today, Weapons of Future."

*Risk Management is Key, Warns Security Group**
*Al-Khattab is listed as one of three top leaders of the Revolution Muslim
group, headed by Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal. Al-Khattab claims to be Jewish
by birth, and has allegedly switched lifestyles numerous times.

The self-styled Islamist says in a personal blog that he was born a Morrocan
Jew named Joseph Cohen, then traveled to the United States where he became a
member of the anti-Zionist Satmar Chassidic sect in Brooklyn. From there,
he writes in a personal blog, he moved to the Jewish region of Gush Katif in
Gaza, before finally converting to Islam in Morocco. He presently is
allegedly a cab driver in New York City.

According to TAM-C, lone-wolf terrorist attacks on Jewish assets and
individuals are a growing phenomenon worldwide, running the gamut from
vandalism to shootings and car bombings.

The organization has recommended that security personnel for Israeli and
other Jewish people and properties "increase their situational awareness,
enhance general protective measures for fixed assets and review emergency
recovery procedures."

*Nissan Ratzlav-Katz contributed to this report.*


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed

Anonymous said...

Foreclosures continue to rise, with a new one started every 13 seconds, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

Anonymous said...

Geithner opens his mouth and the Dow Jones is down 310 points so far.

Anonymous said...

If your drugs bills are high and your funds are low. Contact the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, (888-477-2669), a nonprofit organization run by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. The partnership helps uninsured or low-income consumers get access to 475 public and private prescription assistance programs.

Needymeds.org also has information on medicine and healthcare assistance programs. Older people should contact BenefitsCheckUp, a service of the National Council on Aging, which locates benefits programs for seniors with limited income and resources.

Anonymous said...

Now Bernanke opens his mouth and the Dow is down 363 points.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what happened now. Maybe Larry Summers farted, but the Dow is now down 386 points.

Ahavah said...

I'm presuming you have read the article from the Jerusalem Post that Failed Messiah blogged about, concerning how the Chief Rabbinate is no longer accepting certifications or conversions from modern orthodox Rabbis because their "communities" are "not recognized" by the Chief Rabbi?

Have things really gotten so far into bizarro land that in order to protect the rights of my children and myself I need to get a certification us (and for my husband a conversion) from a REFORM Rabbi in order to "safely" practice Modern Orthodoxy and keep our right to return intact???!!???

Is there some civic way in the Israeli government to appeal this craziness?

(BTW, I also liked your previous post - a 170 IQ is very impressive. I only squeaked into MENSA by one point. And of course I don't have time to read 10 or more books on any one day, but I read several a week, usually late. I think reading non-fiction and keeping up with current events is one of the most important things people can do to "connect the dots," so to speak. I wish more women would do so.)

Anonymous said...

It's a crime to lie to investigators?

Washington Post - 2 hours ago

By Del Quentin Wilber and Dave Sheinin

Former Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada was charged today with lying to Congressional investigators about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

Anonymous said...

A television station in Columbia, S.C., is reporting that local law enforcement officials have made eight arrests in connection with a house party where Olympian Michael Phelps' photo may have been taken with a marijuana bong in his hands. Seven of the arrests were for drug possession and the eighth was for drug distribution, according to the WIS-TV (Channel 10) report.

WIS reporter Jack Kuenzie also reported that the bong's owner had offered the device for sale on EBay for as much as $100,000. Kuenzie said that the Sheriff's Department now has the device.

The television station reported that Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott began to investigate after a British tabloid printed a picture of Phelps with the bong in his hands.

Anonymous said...

Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska -- A major figure in Alaska's abuse-of-power investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin has resigned.

Gov. Palin's office issued a statement Tuesday saying state Attorney General Talis Colberg had resigned "in the best interest" of Alaska.

Mr. Colberg was appointed to office when Gov. Palin was elected in 2006.

A legislative panel subpoenaed nine state employees and Gov. Palin's husband last fall in the so-called Troopergate investigation of Gov. Palin's firing of her public safety commission.

They all initially refused to testify.

Mr. Colberg represented seven of the state employees and said he advised them of their options. He also unsuccessfully challenged the subpoenas in court.

The Alaska House Judiciary Committee has criticized Mr. Colberg for his role in the case.

Anonymous said...

ATLANTA (AP) Peanut company at center of outbreak says salmonella may have been found at Texas plant.

Anonymous said...

New York - A new survey of seven countries across Europe shows millions continue to believe the classical anti-Semitic canards that have persistently pursued Jews through the centuries.


The findings released by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today revealed that nearly half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe they have "too much power" in business and finance.


Attitudes Toward Jews in Seven European Countries (.pdf) an opinion survey of 3,500 adults – 500 in each of the seven European countries – Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom – conducted December 1, 2008 – January 13, 2009, found 31% of the respondents across Europe blame Jews in the financial industry for the current global economic crisis.


Overall, 40% of Europeans in the countries polled believe that Jews have too much power in the business world, with more than half of Hungarian, Spanish and Polish respondents agreeing with that statement.


The findings were similar to those of a 2007 ADL survey that found significant percentages of Europeans continue to believe in some of the most pernicious anti-Semitic stereotypes.


"This poll confirms that anti-Semitism remains alive and well in the minds of many Europeans," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "It is distressing that there seems to be no movement away from the constancy of anti-Semitic held views, with accusations about Jews of disloyalty, control and responsibility for the death of Jesus.


"In the wake of the global financial crisis, the strong belief of excessive Jewish influence on business and finance is especially worrisome," Mr. Foxman added. "Clearly, age old anti-Semitic stereotypes die hard, particularly on a continent which is witnessing a surge in violent attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions following the war in Gaza."


A comparison with the 2007 survey indicates that over the past two years levels of anti-Semitism have remained steady in six of the seven countries tested. The United Kingdom was the only country in which there was a marked decline. Meanwhile, the percentage of those believing that Jews "have too much power in the business world" increased by 7% in Hungary, 6% in Poland and 5% in France.


Respondents across the continent were asked a series of indicator questions representing the most pernicious notions of anti-Semitism and whether or not they thought the following four statements were "probably true" or "probably false."


• Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country.

• Jews have too much power in the business world.

• Jews have too much power in international financial markets.

• Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.


Respondents were also asked whether they agree or disagree with the following statement:


• The Jews are responsible for the death of Christ


Finally, respondents were asked,


• If their opinion of Jews was influenced by actions taken by the State of Israel and whether they believed the violence directed against European Jews was a result of anti-Jewish feelings or anti-Israel sentiment.

Anonymous said...

IT'S ABOUT TIME:



Yeshivos Urged to Do New Employee Background Checks


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 10th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
A recently implemented New York State law that enables nonpublic schools to take steps to avoid hiring new employees with previous criminal records was the subject of Agudath Israel of America’s most recent communication with yeshivos across the state. A state law mandating criminal history and background checks for applicants for teacher certification and public school employment has been in effect since 2000. The checks entail fingerprinting applicants through the state’s online system and running the prints through those in the databases of the FBI and the State’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.Under the 2000 law, however, yeshivos and other nonpublic schools could not take advantage of the state’s online fingerprinting system. This was changed in 2006, when the law was expanded to allow non-public schools to mandate fingerprint-supported criminal history and background checks for prospective employees through the state’s online system. The new law was slated to go into effect in July, 2007, but in fact implementation of the optional fingerprinting programs for nonpublic school employees was delayed until late last year.

Through its division of yeshiva services, under the direction of Mrs. Deborah Zachai, Agudath Israel sends out frequent newsletters and memoranda to yeshivos across the country, informing them of the applicable government laws, regulations, and funding or service programs. It is most recent mailing to yeshivos in New York, Agudath Israel provided information about the new fingerprinting law and its implementation.

The Agudath Israel memo goes beyond simply providing information, however; it affirmatively encourages yeshivos to take advantage of the opportunity created by the new law to opt into the state fingerprinting system. This recommendation reflects the guidance of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, as well as the policy of Torah Umesorah, to encourage yeshivos to perform background checks on all prospective employees to help ensure the safety of children and minimize potential liability for schools.

Says Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel’s executive vice president: “Unfortunately, we have become all too familiar in recent years with allegations of school employees engaging in criminally abusive conduct toward vulnerable children. We have worked together with Torah Umesorah to encourage yeshivos to institute a variety of steps to protect children from such conduct. This new state law is by no means a panacea, but it could prove to be a useful tool in weeding out prospective employees who have no place in a school setting.

“We hope yeshivos will take advantage of the opportunity.”

{Elisha Ferber-Matzav.com Newscenter}

Anonymous said...

HIKIND TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH SEX ABUSE VICTIMS

On Sunday, March 1, 2009, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) will host a community-wide event entitled, A Morning of Chizuk (support) to show solidarity with victims of sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community, and to provide information to concerned citizens. The program includes inspirational speeches and the recitation of tehillim (psalms).

Dr. Benzion Twerski; Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum, Director of Iggud HaRabbanim; Shmelke Klein of Eitzah; and Rabbi Yerachmiel Milstein, Executive Vice President of Project Chazon, among others, will address the audience. “We are all guilty of not doing more to address sexual abuse in our community,” Hikind said. “The time has come to ask forgiveness from the victims and to pray for continued strength from God to combat this issue. I urge the community to join in this unprecedented event.”

A Morning of Chizuk will be held at the Boro Park Y, 4912 14th Avenue, at 11:00 AM. Separate seating will be available.

In furtherance of Hikind’s mission to educate the public about sexual abuse in the Orthodox community, Hikind will dedicate two radio shows on February 21st and 28th to interviewing two sex abuse victims from the Orthodox Jewish community.

During the course of the shows, Hikind intends to announce that the multi-faceted plan created by his task force to tackle sexual abuse is nearing completion. “We are putting the final touches on our plan to implement education, prevention, and intervention systems in homes, schools, camps, and the general community,” remarked Hikind. “Education and awareness are the only way to protect our children from predators.”

Anonymous said...

It seems like there's climate change.

Anonymous said...

Rabbinic Emotional abuse is just as bad as any other kind of abuse.

ExposingZupnik.blogspot.com
ExposingZupnik.com
YouTube.com/ExposingZupnik

Anonymous said...

Plainview, TX - A second peanut processing plant owned by the company at the heart of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness has been shut down after Texas authorities discovered the bacteria in peanut products there.

Late this afternoon, Congress ssued a subpoena to compelStewart Parnell, president of Peanut Corporation of America, to appear tomorrow morning at a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce committee. Parnell, 54, of Lynchburg, Va., has stayed out of public view since investigators first traced the food scare to his family-owned company in early January.

The company owns three peanut processing plants located in Georgia, Texas and Virginia.

The federal investigation into the ongoing salmonella illness, which has killed eight people and sickened 600 others in 44 states, has centered on the Blakely, Georgia plant, which was shut down on Jan. 28.

On Monday night, the company also shuttered its Plainview, Texas plant at the request of state health officials after laboratory results showed salmonella in samples of roasted peanuts, peanut meal and granulated peanuts taken on Feb. 4, said Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. Additional analysis is needed to confirm the contamination and determine if it is the same type of salmonella linked to the current outbreak, McBride said.

The bacteria were discovered before the affected granulated peanuts and peanut meal had left the Texas plant, but contaminated roasted peanuts had been shipped out of state, McBride said. Company officials notified the distributor Monday night and recalled the roasted peanuts, he said.

Texas officials believe none of the contaminated product reached consumers, McBride said.

Michael Rogers, the director of field investigations at the Food and Drug Administration, said federal officials are in the middle of a "comprehensive" investigation of the Texas plant and were not prepared today to discuss their findings so far or to comment on the discoveries made by Texas officials.

The Texas plant, which employed 30, had been operating since 2005 unknown to government regulators. It was not registered with the state and had never been inspected by health officials, McBride said. State and federal officials only learned about the Texas plant after the FDA had began questioning Peanut Corporation of America officials in connection with the outbreak.

State inspectors went to the Plainview plant on Feb. 4 and took samples, he said. The company kept half the samples and sent them to a private laboratory for analysis, while state officials sent the other half to the Texas state laboratory, he said. The state officials found minor problems at the plant, such as openings in screens, and no reason to suspend operations.

"Unless there's an immediate threat to the public's health, our regulatory approach is to work with a company to get it into compliance, not to shut someone down and eliminate income and jobs," McBride said.

On Monday, however, the company informed the state that its internal test results from the Feb. 4 samples were "presumptive for salmonella", McBride said. That was enough to shut it down, McBride said, adding the state expects results from its own laboratory tests soon.

Federal investigators say Peanut Corporation's Georgia plant knowingly shipped products contaminated with salmonella on 12 occasions in 2007 and 2008. The company makes peanut butter for institutions such as nursing homes and schools and makes peanut ingredients used by other food companies in products ranging from energy bars to candy to dog biscuits. In one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history, the company has recalled all products made with peanuts processed at its Georgia plant since 2007. Among the thousands of customers affected was the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which purchased peanuts and peanut butter from PCA in 2007 and served it to thousands of poor children through the government's free lunch program.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation of the company, and several civil lawsuits filed by victims of the outbreak are pending.

Meanwhile, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America sent a letter to the peanut company today saying it was terminating its kosher certification for all three peanut plants.

Anonymous said...

Opinion
By Rabbi Avi Billet

Issue of Feb. 13, 2009 / 19 Shevat 5769

Relative to other surgeries, bris milah is a simple procedure, with a surprisingly low risk rate. At the same time, an incision, an open wound and the removal of skin tissue necessitate precautions which will minimize danger to the child. The parents and the mohel must be on the same page on this latter point.

In an operating room, a surgeon takes many precautions to minimize the chance of bacterial infection reaching the patient. Mohels should be held to these same standards when operating on infant boys. It is understood, of course, that the public nature of the ceremony makes complete sterility an impossibility. Nonetheless, we are a far cry from where standards should be.

The sterility litmus test can be broken down to five components: how instruments are sterilized, how they are laid out for bris use, how the mohel cleans his hands, whether sterile gloves are worn when dealing with the open wound and how metzitzah is done.

Surgeons sterilize packaged instruments in a machine at 273° Fahrenheit, and avoid opening the “sterility guaranteed” package until surgery time. Mohels should do the same. Cold sterilization in a solution or in rubbing alcohol is less than ideal, and the five minute soaking some mohels employ before the bris is substandard. It may produce a nice alcohol aroma, but real cold sterilization requires hours of soaking to be completely effective.
Instruments laid out on a freshly laundered diaper cloth may be quite comfortable, but they have lost any claim of sterility. A pre-packaged sterile drape is easily accessible and should be standard for every mohel to use.

A mohel who washes his hands and is careful not to shake others’ hands should be commended. But when he adjusts his pants, head-covering, lab coat or tallis, not to mention his instrument bag or a bottle of wine while laying out instruments, he has negated any previous hand washing.

Some mohels will operate with bare hands “sterilized” by alcohol or Purell. Nice as this is, touching the pillow, baby, sandak, and baby’s diaper make previous efforts meaningless. Additionally, it is virtually impossible to completely clean under the fingernails, unless (with a big ‘perhaps’) the mohel soaks in a chlorinated pool for 20 minutes immediately before the bris. This is an uncommon practice.

Mohels should be required to wear sterile gloves, donned immediately before touching sterile instruments and the sterile field of the bris. If it is time consuming, he can wear two pairs, removing the outer pair immediately prior to beginning. Non-sterile gloves are a step up from “no gloves,” but they are still less than ideal.

“Metzitzah” is defined as drawing “deeper” blood from the circumcision spot, which some view as a medical necessity while others view it, based on modern medical knowledge, as a ritualistic remnant of what may have once been deemed a medical requirement (Shabbat 133a-b).

Over time the idea of doing metzitzah with the power of the mouth was introduced, which is defined in two ways: either put a mouth directly on the wound, or use the power of the mouth through a sterile pipette. The latter avoids direct contact and the sharing of body fluids between mohel and baby.

Both are halachically sanctioned, while only one meets the approval of any unbiased modern medical sensibility. Arguments such as “saliva heals” and “one’s first instinct is to suck a cut on your finger” are irrelevant to the case of a mohel’s mouth touching a fresh wound in a newborn.

Any parent who insists that metzitzah be done with direct oral contact should do the metzitzah himself.

Maimonides writes, “It is impossible to restore the lost life of a Jewish child” (Milah 1:18). While he says this to allow delaying a bris on a child who is not physically ready, certainly the same dictum should be followed when circumcising a child: no step in the bris procedure should allow the slightest possibility that its inclusion can open the door to giving the baby an infection.

It is our responsibility and right to demand the best for our children. For the sake of the health of our children, let us begin with insistence that the bris maintains the highest standards of sterility.

High standards of sterility for a bris. When the following precautions are taken, the possibility of infection is reduced to the smallest percentage.

All instruments, drapes and bandages are completely sterile
The sandak, who holds the baby during the bris, does not touch the baby directly. Baby’s legs are covered with a blanket or wrapped with a conform bandage.
Mohel wears sterile gloves for the bris and every time he touches the baby’s open wound thereafter
When metzitzah is done, there is no direct bodily contact between mohel and baby
No one who is ill participates in the bris ceremony
Those who care for the wound after the bris wash hands with soap and water before opening the diaper
After bandage is removed, anti-infection ointment, such as bacitracin, is applied to the healing wound for a few days.

Rabbi Avi Billet has been a mohel for 10 years.

Anonymous said...

(Bob Grant Mandatory Castration Act of 1974)

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1878462,00.html

The Unkindest Cut: A Czech Solution for Sex Offenders

By Leo Cendrowicz / Brussels
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009

A doctor makes an incision in a man's scrotal sack and, deftly wielding his scalpel, quickly removes both testicles. In the Czech Republic that simple operation is the punishment for male sex offenders. But to the Council of Europe, the region's leading human rights body, the procedure is "invasive, irreversible and mutilating."

Anonymous said...

Do the Czechs castrate even if there was no penetration?

Ich red nisht Czech so I'll get Margo to find out.

Arthur said...

Dear Bishop Williamson
by David A. Harris
Executive Director, AJC
February 10, 2009



Dear Bishop Richard Williamson,

You’ve been in the news quite a bit lately, haven’t you?

As one of the four bishops whose excommunication from the Church was recently lifted by the Vatican, you and your, shall we say, problematic beliefs have gained international attention.

Chief among them is your denial of the Holocaust. The Church inexplicably missed this anything-but-secret side of your life, but after much public outcry, it now insists that you recant your views before moving forward.

Your denial of the Holocaust isn’t new, of course. Twenty years ago, you declared that, “There was not one Jew killed in the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies. The Jews created the Holocaust so we would prostrate ourselves on our knees before them and approve of their new State of Israel…. Jews made up the Holocaust….”

The basis for your denial?

In an interview this month in Der Spiegel, you stated, “I addressed the subject in the 1980s. I had read various writings at the time. I cited the Leuchter report in the interview, and it seemed plausible to me. Now I am told that it has been scientifically refuted. I plan now to look into it.”

The interviewer then suggested a trip to Auschwitz, to which you replied, “No, I will not travel to Auschwitz.”

It’s hard to know where to begin in the face of such appalling – and, no doubt, willful – ignorance on the part of a Cambridge-educated prelate.

Why willful? Because anyone opting to believe the scientific quackery of Fred Leuchter, who sought to prove that mass gassings were impossible but was dismissed by historians and legal experts as the kook that he was, can’t be totally honest. Nor can someone who refuses to visit Auschwitz, while trumpeting his denial of what took place there.

Yes, Bishop Williamson, we Jews, with our infinitely fertile imagination and endless desire to deceive the rest of the world, made up the Holocaust.

No, there never was an Adolf Hitler, a Mein Kampf, a Wannsee Conference, or a Final Solution. Nor were there the death camps at Auschwitz, Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, or Treblinka. Nor were there the Einsatzgruppen, the ravines of Babi Yar, or the ghettos. Nor were there the gas chambers, the crematoria, or the killing agents.

No, it was just one big fabrication to enlist the world’s sympathy.

And no, six million Jews weren’t really killed. Of course not. They’re all living on a South Pacific island having a smashing time with their children and grandchildren.

Or maybe they’re hiding just outside Thessaloniki, waiting for the moment when no one is looking so they can regain their homes and livelihoods in a city where—allegedly, of course, Bishop Williamson—96 percent of the Jewish residents disappeared one fine day in 1943.

And why have I been grieving for my cousin, Mila Racine, all these years? How could I think she had been killed in the death camps, when I should have been looking for her on Facebook? How silly of me!

I’ll be sure to tell all those with whom I grew up that their parents, like mine, were liars. How dare they, the survivors, the remnants of European Jewry, have led us astray into believing that so many of their relatives, neighbors, friends, and colleagues had been carted off by the Nazis and their collaborators, never to be seen again? After all, you seem to know otherwise.

Oh, and, let’s not forget, Bishop Williamson, that we Jews are so cunning and powerful—you know that, since you’ve publicly praised the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as truthful—that we managed to persuade everyone from Winston Churchill to General Dwight Eisenhower, from Jan Karski to Raoul Wallenberg, that there was a Holocaust. Boy, did we ever manage to pull the wool over the world’s eyes!

Bishop Williamson, what really explains your refusal to accept perhaps the most documented—and monstrous—crime in recorded history, a crime so unique that Churchill referred to it as “a crime without a name”?

Clearly, it’s not the absence of information. Scholarly works, personal testimonies, eyewitness accounts, films, archives, and museums abound.

No, it must be something else.

Could it be a desire to “protect” the historical image of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich from the stain of the Holocaust?

Could it be an effort to stir the waters of anti-Semitism, which got a “bad name” during the Second World War?

Maybe it’s a way of seeking Israel’s elimination, since you insist that its creation derived from our grand deceit?

Or perhaps it’s a theological issue, rooted in your ultra-conservative, pre-Second Vatican Council belief system that does not hold Jews, any Jews, in particularly high regard?

Whatever the reasons, you certainly find yourself in good company. Let’s see. Apart from Fred Leuchter, there’s David Irving, who was found in a British court to be a Holocaust denier and a racist. Then there’s David Duke, whose racism and anti-Semitism have found him dear friends in Iran. And, not least, there’s the Iranian president himself, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has taken on the role of global Holocaust denier-in-chief.

Perhaps it’s too late, Bishop Williamson, or perhaps it’s not. If your religious beliefs include the possibility of redemption, go to Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Belzec. Visit the Holocaust museums in Washington, London, and Jerusalem. And go back and read what the Church has said on the subject of the Holocaust, including the powerful statements of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, as well as the 1998 Vatican document, “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah.”

Oh, and while you’re at it, perhaps you’d add another book to your reading list, the late Father Edward Flannery’s The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Anti-Semitism. It might help you understand the historical antecedents of the Holocaust. Jews had long been demonized, dehumanized, and destroyed on European soil – and the religious teachings, edicts, and incitement of the Church were all too frequently a common denominator.

What ultimately happens to your standing in the Church is a matter for others to decide. But don’t count on the silence of Jews and Gentiles of good will, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as long as you seek to kill the victims of the Holocaust a second time by choosing to ignore the reality of their deaths.

What’s next on your political agenda? How about challenging the truth of the 9/11 attacks by suggesting that the U.S. government planned it all as a pretext to invade Afghanistan? Oh, sorry, you’ve already done that.

Well, Bishop Williamson, don’t give up hope. Maybe you can take up the case that Galileo, unlike you, actually did deserve eternal excommunication for asserting that the earth revolved around the sun.

Anonymous said...

WASHINGTON — Eight of the nation’s top bankers faced off against critical lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday, who questioned their use of tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money and pointed out the growing public anger at the banks in the bailout.

“When you took taxpayer money, you moved into a fishbowl,” said Representative Paul E. Kanjorski, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “Now, everyone is rightly watching your every move from every side.”

Anonymous said...

Private lab says salmonella found as far back as 2006 at peanut company tied to outbreak


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A peanut company blamed for a salmonella outbreak discovered the dangerous bacteria at its Georgia plant as far back as 2006.

Darlene Cowart of JLA testing company told a House committee on Wednesday that Peanut Corp. of America contacted her business in November 2006 to help control salmonella discovered in the plant.

Federal health officials earlier said the company's private tests found salmonella a dozen times, dating to June 2007. Cowart's testimony shows the company was dealing with the bacteria problem seven months earlier.

The number of deaths that may be linked to the contaminated food increased to nine on Wednesday after Ohio officials confirmed a death there.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/business/12madoff.html

February 12, 2009

Wife Withdrew Millions Before Madoff’s Arrest

By DIANA B. HENRIQUES

On Dec. 10, the day before Bernard L. Madoff was arrested, his wife, Ruth, withdrew $10 million from a brokerage firm partly owned by her husband, according a state regulatory complaint filed in Boston.

It was her second withdrawal in less than three weeks — the first one, on Nov. 25, had been for $5.5 million, the complaint said.

Federal prosecutors have cited Dec. 10 as the day that Mr. Madoff confessed to his sons that he had been running a huge Ponzi scheme whose losses could approach $50 billion. After that midday conversation, the sons alerted law enforcement and Mr. Madoff was arrested the next morning.

Both withdrawals were made from Mrs. Madoff’s accounts at Cohmad Securities, a firm co-founded and partly owned by Mr. Madoff. Cohmad has been under investigation by William F. Galvin, the top securities regulator in Massachusetts, since shortly after Mr. Madoff’s arrest.

Anonymous said...

The Dow opens down 161 points and oil sinks to $34.

Anonymous said...

From The: How Brown Will My Nose Get?
Dept.

http://www.vosizneias.com/27290/2009/02/12/vatican-city-pope-at-meeting-with-jewish-leaders-says-holocaust-denial-unacceptable/

Hey Hoe-Hoe nlein! New PM in Israel, start groveling.

Shmuckey Schumer must have had you in mind with his comment about people not minding a little pork.

You're a "Leader" my hairy arse, get a real job.

Anonymous said...

We must have the courage to stand up to those who seek to undermine us and our distinct way of life. We have to recognize our enemies for who they are and not give them or their arguments any credence. We have to be prepared to fight for our rights to properly observe halacha as we have been doing for thousands of years. We have to defend each other without embarrassment.

Pinchos Lipschutz
Editor, Yated Ne'eman (2/11/09)
********************************

Pinny Boy:

Enlighten us members of Amalek, Yevanim and now Midyanim.

What does the halachah we have been observing for thousands of years, believe regarding molestation? Or about publicly humiliating people? Or about ruining the parnassah of people you disagree with? Or about judges accepting bribes to throw a "Din Torah"?

Traditional Jewish values, and halachah are not followed by our contemporary "sages". Don't start with TRADITION garbage. YOUR rabbis veered off, and destroyed or religion.

Anonymous said...

Yo Boog,

Do you always have to be so critical without thinking of a limud zchus?

I was trying to do UOJ a favor and run to the Vatican before Sruly Singer did, and all I get is a roasting.

Arthur said...

LETTER BY A FLORIDA TEACHER -- PLEASE READ

When will the American People get fed up and do something, or is it too late...

This is a subject close to my heart. Do you know that we have adult students at the school where I teach who are not US citizens and who get the PELL Grant, which is a federal grant (no pay back required) plus other federal grants to go to school?

One student from the Dominican Republic told me that she didn't want me to find a job for her after she finished my program, because she was getting housing from our housing department and she was getting a PELL Grant which paid for her total tuition and books, plus money leftover.

She was looking into WAIT which gives students a CREDIT CARD for gas to come to school, and into CARIBE which is a special program (check it out - I did) for immigrants and it pays for child care and all sorts of needs while they go to sch ool or training. The one student I just mentioned told me she was not going to be a US Citizen because she plans to return to the Dominican Republic someday and that she 'loves HER country.'

I asked her if she felt guilty taking what the US is giving her and=2 0then not even bothering to become a citizen and she told me that it doesn't bother her, because that is what the money is there for!

I asked the CARIBE administration about their program and if you ARE a US citizen, you don't qualify for their program. And all the while, I am working a full day, my son-in-law works more than 60 hours a week, and everyone in my family works and pays for our education.

Something is wrong here. I am sorry but after hearing that they want to sing the National Anthem in Spanish - enough is enough. That's a real slap in the face. Nowhere did they sing it in Italian, Polish, Irish (Celtic), German or any other language because of immigration. It was written by Francis Scott Key and should be sung word for word the way it was written. The news broadcasts even gave the translation -- not even close. I don't care whether this offends someon e or not but this is MY COUNTRY. IF IT IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP -- please pass this along. I am not against immigration -- I just expect immigrants to come through like everyone else. Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes, live by the rules AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past -- and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

PART OF THE PROBLEM -Think about this: If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone - YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM! It is Time for America to speak up. If you agree -- pass this along

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

February 13, 2009

Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit

By IAN URBINA and SEAN D. HAMILL

At worst, Hillary Transue thought she might get a stern lecture when she appeared before a judge for building a spoof MySpace page mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. She was a stellar student who had never been in trouble, and the page stated clearly at the bottom that it was just a joke.

Instead, the judge sentenced her to three months at a juvenile detention center on a charge of harassment.

She was handcuffed and taken away as her stunned parents stood by.

“I felt like I had been thrown into some surreal sort of nightmare,” said Hillary, 17, who was sentenced in 2007. “All I wanted to know was how this could be fair and why the judge would do such a thing.”

The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled.

“In my entire career, I’ve never heard of anything remotely approaching this,” said Senior Judge Arthur E. Grim, who was appointed by the State Supreme Court this week to determine what should be done with the estimated 5,000 juveniles who have been sentenced by Judge Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2003. Many of them were first-time offenders and some remain in detention.

The case has shocked Luzerne County, an area in northeastern Pennsylvania that has been battered by a loss of industrial jobs and the closing of most of its anthracite coal mines.

And it raised concerns about whether juveniles should be required to have counsel either before or during their appearances in court and whether juvenile courts should be open to the public or child advocates.

If the court agrees to the plea agreement, both judges will serve 87 months in federal prison and resign from the bench and bar. They are expected to be sentenced in the next several months. Lawyers for both men declined to comment.

Since state law forbids retirement benefits to judges convicted of a felony while in office, the judges would also lose their pensions.

With Judge Conahan serving as president judge in control of the budget and Judge Ciavarella overseeing the juvenile courts, they set the kickback scheme in motion in December 2002, the authorities said.

They shut down the county-run juvenile detention center, arguing that it was in poor condition, the authorities said, and maintained that the county had no choice but to send detained juveniles to the newly built private detention centers.

Prosecutors say the judges tried to conceal the kickbacks as payments to a company they control in Florida.

Though he pleaded guilty to the charges Thursday, Judge Ciavarella has denied sentencing juveniles who did not deserve it or sending them to the detention centers in a quid pro quo with the centers.

But Assistant United States Attorney Gordon A. Zubrod said after the hearing that the government continues to charge a quid pro quo.

“We’re not negotiating that, no,” Mr. Zubrod said. “We’re not backing off.”

No charges have been filed against executives of the detention centers. Prosecutors said the investigation into the case was continuing.

For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Judge Ciavarella was unusually harsh. He sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a state rate of 1 in 10. He also routinely ignored requests for leniency made by prosecutors and probation officers.

“The juvenile system, by design, is intended to be a less punitive system than the adult system, and yet here were scores of children with very minor infractions having their lives ruined,” said Marsha Levick, a lawyer with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.

“There was a culture of intimidation surrounding this judge and no one was willing to speak up about the sentences he was handing down.”

Last year, the Juvenile Law Center, which had raised concerns about Judge Ciavarella in the past, filed a motion to the State Supreme Court about more than 500 juveniles who had appeared before the judge without representation. The court originally rejected the petition, but recently reversed that decision.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that children have a constitutional right to counsel. But in Pennsylvania, as in at least 20 other states, children can waive counsel, and about half of the children that Judge Ciavarella sentenced had chosen to do so. Only Illinois, New Mexico and North Carolina require juveniles to have representation when they appear before judges.

Clay Yeager, the former director of the Office of Juvenile Justice in Pennsylvania, said typical juvenile proceedings are kept closed to the public to protect the privacy of children.

“But they are kept open to probation officers, district attorneys, and public defenders, all of whom are sworn to protect the interests of children,” he said. “It’s pretty clear those people didn’t do their jobs.”

On Thursday in Federal District Court in Scranton, more than 80 people packed every available seat in the courtroom. At one point, as Assistant United States Attorney William S. Houser explained to Judge Edwin M. Kosik that the government was willing to reach a plea agreement with the men because the case involved “complex charges that could have resulted in years of litigation,” one man sitting in the audience said “bull” loud enough to be heard in the courtroom.

One of the parents at the hearing was Susan Mishanski of Hanover Township.

Her son, Kevin, now 18, was sentenced to 90 days in a detention facility last year in a simple assault case that everyone had told her would result in probation, since Kevin had never been in trouble and the boy he hit had only a black eye.

“It’s horrible to have your child taken away in shackles right in front of you when you think you’re going home with him,” she said. “It was nice to see them sitting on the other side of the bench.”

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/business/economy/13insolvent.html

February 13, 2009

News Analysis

Ailing Banks May Require More Aid to Keep Solvent

By STEVE LOHR

Some of the nation’s large banks, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking.

A sober assessment of the growing mountain of losses from bad bets, measured in today’s marketplace, would overwhelm the value of the banks’ assets, they say. The banks, in their view, are insolvent.

Anonymous said...

There is a rumor that the Chicago Community Kollel is reconsidering its relationship with Rabbi Y.H., because it finds the "anything goes" attitude of this blog in conflict with its strict adherance to Torah rules of acceptable expression. In fact, several weeks ago it stopped e-mailing the Rabbi's regular Friday columns.

Yet another example of how the Chicago Community Kollel has turned into a LIABILITY to our city. Rabbi Zucker must realize that the kollel supporters will also "reconsider" their support of the kollel. Especially with their "Special Asset" as an alimni they obviously don't need the community financial support any longer.

Oh Well!

Anonymous said...

2 Things:
Very cute picture up at the top. So we have the young UOJ and present UOJ. A Bar Mitzvah picture should be next.

What's going on with the comments...isn't anyone reading/posting anymore?

spacedoutBT said...

Larry Gordon used to have an AM radio show called "Evening voice of Jewish Community in New York" One of his featured shows was "Rabbi Doctor" Mondrowitz. Gordon, along with his brother Yossi are now putting out the Five Towns Jewish Times. Does anyone ask him about the old days and how he now feels about the Blogs? Or does he hide behind a blanket disclaimer of his endorsements, past snd present?

Anonymous said...

Larry Gordon grew up davening in 770.

Larry Gordon has spent the last year as a major propagandist for 2 corrupt Lubab companies, Rubashkin & Ahava Dairy.

Larry Gordon gets advertising dollars directly / indirectly from those companies.

Larry Gordon & his coward employee Yair Hoffman published a hatchet job piece (under a fake name) smearing Rubashkin & molestation critic Mayer Fertig.

One of the Genacks writes for Larry Gordon's paper too.

Arthur said...

"Larry Gordon grew up davening in 770.

Larry Gordon has spent the last year as a major propagandist for 2 corrupt Lubab companies, Rubashkin & Ahava Dairy.

Larry Gordon gets advertising dollars directly / indirectly from those companies."
Since when is growing up "davening in 770" become a crime?If it is then I and a lot of good people are a bunch of criminals.That includes one of UOJ's Roshei Yishivah who,while not growing up in 770,was a steady mispalel there.
The fact that you use the derogatory term "Lubab" already indicates where your coming from.
Since when is accepting money from advertisers ,"crooked" or not, become a crime.These so called "crooked" companies were and are advertised in many other publications besides the "Five Town News" .Are they also "criminal"?Pardon my ignorance but I am aware of Rubashkins crimes but what's the story with Ahava? One gets the feeling that these three entities major crimes are that they are are all somehow associated with "Lubab" land and you sir seem to have a issue with that.
I knew Larry Gordon when he was a child from seeing him once a year when his father Nissan Gordon A"H used to daven in the Frierdike Rebbe's Apartment on Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur.The above Rosh Hayishiva did to.

Anonymous said...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233304761980&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Let me recount a lesson in economics I received in the eighth grade at the Yeshiva of Brooklyn. Our principal, Rav Menahem Manus Mandel, posed the following question: Who is wealthier, the man with $100 or the man with $200? "The man with $200," we replied in unison. "Not necessarily," explained the rabbi. "You must remember that wealth must be measured not by the amount an individual has, but rather by the amount he thinks he lacks. Most people want to double whatever they have; hence, the person with $100 wants $200 - and so he is missing $100. But the person with $200 wants $400 - so he is missing $200. Doesn't this mean that the person with $100 is wealthier, because he requires less to have what he thinks he needs?"

Rav Mandel's point was a lesson about greed, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed." Our present market collapse and banking/mortgage crisis, with the resultant fear of foreclosure on homes and losses of pension and endowment funds, must teach us that greed is not good, and that the 10th commandment, "Thou shalt not covet," is right on target. Greed ultimately leads to the "Madoffian" loss of morality because its ever-growing demands shut out the "still, small voice" of the God of lovingkindness and "Thou shalt not steal."

If our community had only concentrated more on the modesty of our prophets, then monetary profits would not have come to control our markets. Indeed, Jewish "worship" of the "letter of the law" - as opposed to its spirit - is exemplified by the recent Agriprocessors slaughterhouse scandal, which should have served as a warning flag.

No one questioned the strict halachic compliance to which the plant owners adhered; the problem involved the illegal workers who were hired, the inhumane manner in which they were treated, and the callous treatment of the animals before they were slaughtered.

In the aftermath of this outrage, one of the most respected leaders of a well-known kashrut-certification agency declared that kashrut means adhering to specific ritual standards regarding the piece of meat itself, period. Which workers you hire and how they are treated is a separate issue, he said, which must be policed by the government.

But that completely misses the point which informs the laws of kashrut - the fact that the prohibition of eating meat and milk together is a reflection of sensitivity and consideration: "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk," (Ex. 23:19) and that the biblical source for the soaking and salting of meat is "Thou shalt not eat the blood, for the blood is the soul of the animal."

The Bible is clearly concerned about training us to be sensitive to the ethical ambiguity of eating meat. And the Bible is clearly concerned about training us to be ethically sensitive to all living creatures, most of all to our fellow human beings.

My favorite story about Rav Yisrael Salanter (1800-1870), founder of the Jewish Ethicist Mussar Movement, relates to his Friday evening meal as the guest of a Kovno baker. Eager to impress the honored visitor with his piety, the baker bellowed to his wife (whom he addressed improperly with the appellation "Yiddene" or "Jewish woman") that she must immediately cover the hallot (braided Sabbath loaves). The woman, embarrassed in the presence of Rav Salanter, shamefacedly covered the loaves, an act which she had planned to do anyway.

Rav Yisrael turned to his self-satisfied host. "Do you perchance know why we cover the loaves?" he asked. "Of course, learned rabbi," answered the baker. "Usually we make the first blessing over the bread, which then frees us from making other blessings over other foods. However, the Sabbath meals are an exception, since the blessing to sanctify the wine must precede the blessing over the bread. Since the hallot would probably expect to be blessed first, we cover them to avoid their embarrassment when we bless the wine first."

"Why do your ears not hear what your mouth is saying?" responded the rabbi. "Do you really believe that Jewish law thinks a piece of dough has feelings? No, Jewish law is training you to be sensitive to the feelings of the halla so you will be sensitive to the feelings of your wife!"

We Jewish educators, rabbis and leaders of Jewish institutions must not overlook the true values of our traditions, the teachings of our prophets. "What is good and what does the Lord require of you? Act justly, love kindness, and walk modestly (not opulently) with your God" (Micah 6:8). We dare not honor the millionaire of the day while we overlook the educator of the year, or give fulsome praise at obscenely gaudy bar-mitzva and bat-mitzva celebrations where the matching color schemes of the dresses and flower arrangements and the deafening band crowd out the religious meaning of the rite of passage. The gods of gold and silver must not push aside the God of modesty and morality. Only when the term "religious Jew" becomes synonymous with "ethical human being" will we be able to fulfill our mission as "a holy people and kingdom of priests - teachers to the world" (Exodus 19:6); only then will be a "light unto the nations."

The writer is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs, and chief rabbi of Efrat.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh dear Arthur, apologist for anyone who ever wore a pinched Borsalino and had a Tanya beyado.

Anonymous said...

Former Manager Says Peanut Plant Complaints Ignored

ABC News - 4 hours ago

By DAN HARRIS and KATE BARRETT

A manager at the Peanut Corp. of America's plant in Plainview, Texas, said he repeatedly complained to the company owner, Stewart Parnell, and the Texas Department of Health about unsanitary conditions at the plant

Anonymous said...

"a pinched Borsalino"

Nisht shlecht as long as it's filthy!

Arthur said...

"Ahhh dear Arthur, apologist for anyone who ever wore a pinched Borsalino and had a Tanya beyado"
I don't think so.Larry Gordon is not exactly the type to wear a Borsalino, pinched or not, or for that matter any type of "shlape" and I highly doubt that you will find him with "a Tanya beyado".

Arthur said...

"A Tanya beyado".By his own admission Reb UOJ also had a "Tanya beyodo" as well as a lot of other chosheve yidden who are not part of the "Lubavitcher entity".Dos zol zein yedder yiddens greste aveireh and can't you geniuses come up with something more the the same narishe ibergekeite "avlehs"?

Anonymous said...

Arthur, there is no need to get so defensive.

"Since when is growing up "davening in 770" become a crime?"

My point is that Larry is a nogeye badovor and always predisposed to defend Rubashkin and Ahava owner Banayan.

"the derogatory term "Lubab" already indicates where your coming from."

I do not have anything against non-Meshichistim. I have heard Lubavitchers call themselves Lubabs and did not realize it could be considered offensive. Maybe then it's like Blacks who call each other "Nigga".

"Since when is accepting money from advertisers ,"crooked" or not, become a crime."

They have negios and therefore act unethically when they defend Rubashkin & Banayan without a disclaimer. This is besides the fact that Larry's reporting has been completely dishonest. Same thing goes for the Yated & Jewish Press.

"I am aware of Rubashkins crimes but what's the story with Ahava?"

Ahava has stiffed everyone imaginable and is operating under a dubious bankruptcy. Some of their facilities were seized by the govt in Upstate NY in what was a massive chilul Hashem.

Ahava has also been caught selling treif cheese. Ask the Lubavitchers at OK why they do not allow their products. As far as the meats imported by Ahava from Israel, Chug Chasam Sofer wrote a letter that their hashgocho was forged.

Pedophiles in Mikvas said...

The shocking suicide in the heart of Boro Park of Motty Borger, 24, two days after his marriage has sent shock waves of anger and disbelief (and naturally denial) throughout many people in Boro Park and beyond.

It was reported in the media such as in the NY Post November 6, 2009 Groom death plunge: H'moon hotel leap. The groom is the son of the well known video and musical man Shmuel Borger as reported in Matzav.com, November 6, 2009 Tragic Petirah of Mordechai (Motty) Borger z”l.

Now pedophile sleuth R Nuchem Rosenberg has unveiled a recording about what he knows and he names people and places.

Hear it for yourself. Dial 712 432 8788 1121 dial 0# when prompted. The first part is in English, the rest in Yiddish. (twitter.com/VaadHachinuch

R Rosenberg states the following:

Motty Borger was part of a large group of boys who had and have been abused by pedophiles for years. They have mostly never seen or sought professional help to deal with their perilous situation.

Most of the attacks on the boys took place in the mikva of Munkatch in Boro Park, and even in its bathrooms, other Chasidic and Charedi gents and youngsters hooked on pedophilia.

The names of the main pervert pedophiles in Munkatch are know, they are a Mr. Ashkenazi who serves as a "gabbai" in Munkatch and a Mr. Friedman who also runs his own video company. There are others.

The Munkatcher Rebbe has known about this but like other rebbes does nothing because he gets donations from the likes of the pedophiles' families and aquaintences.

Motty Borger texted his friends, the police are aware of this but Brooklyn DA Hynes is covering up as usual, and they knew about his emotional problems stemming from being avictim of pedophilia. He was not ready for marriage even though his father asked the advice of rebbes who said that marriage would "cure" Motty, but R Rosenberg says with dark humor that "marriage is not a hospital"!

Motty could not face telling his young bride about his problems on the first night. But on the second night he told her why he was having trouble being intimate with her and why he was acting weird. She was shocked to hear what he had to say and she asked him why he did not tell her before they got married. He told her he was told not to say anything and he agreed with her at which point he walked over to the balcony and jumped out in the morning.

R Rosenberg says he is trying to help 250 such boys whom he calls "damaged goods" because they have been messed up by pedophiles in mikvas, yeshivas and all over for years, and he knows of another at least 3,000 other messed up kids like this, including frum girls molested by their fathers who are now messed up, some off the derech already.

R. Rosenberg says young chasanim from Skver and Williammsburg have also jumped out windows when being forced to marry after having been attacked by pedophiles as kids and became messed up, and he says that there will be more kids jumping out of windows unless the rabbonim speak up and the DA starts prosecuting cases instead of covering them up.

He blames Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes of mixing "Jewish blood into his whiskey" by ignoring the complaints and failing to prosecute the pedophiles.

Largely to blame are Rebbes and rabbonim who do nothing, keep quiet because they need the donations from many of the families from which pedophiles come.

Listen to what he has to say and judge for yourself.

Pedophiles in Mikvas and Yeshivas said...

Hear and see R Nuchum Rosenberg speak out in his own words as he outlines the problems with pedophiles running loose in Charedi and Chasidish communities and how Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes is a corrupt hack who has sold out, takes bribes and releases pedophiles: Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg #1 (3 minute YouTube video).

Here R Rosenberg gives more details about cases and problems he faces in fighting pedophiles in Williamsburg. He mentions that a judge asked why no one sent a letter of support for the victims and not against the molesters? R Rosenberg shows how he suffers for his dedication to rooting out pedophiles. See and judge for yourself:

Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg #2 (8 minute YouTube video).

R Rosenberg explains himself further, part of another series:

(Part 3) Protecting those who advocate for Jewish Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse - Rabbi Nochem Rosenberg (10 minute YouTube Video).

(This post is not meant as an endorsement of the "Awareness Center" but is meant to help the plight of victims of pedophiles in mikvas, yeshivas, and anywhere where a Torah lifestyle should supposedly reign.)

Anonymous said...

Rabbi Rosenberg is in Cherem and prohibited from entering any public building in williamsburg for a good reason. He is publicising his own fantasies to further his own agenda. His storu about Borger is another one of his fantasies There is no basis at all except what he says "text messages" . he is full of rechilus about a shochen ofor, This is another Cherem Kadmonim to me moitzi shem ra al hamesim. he is now in cherem by todays rabonim, and the previous generations.
To all shuls and Mikvaos, please abide by the Cherem and do not allow him to enter.

Williamsburg said...

The putz at 11:47 am is attacking R' Nuchem Rosenberg just like the corrupt Rebbes who don't want the truth to get out.

R' Nuchem is one of the only people with guts to fight for the kinder and is a big talmid chuchem.

UOJ gets results said...

http://www.nychildvictimsact.org/

Sign the petition.

UOJ Public Service Announcement said...

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Maclaren USA Inc., the maker of baby carriages, is recalling about 1 million umbrella strollers sold in the U.S. after receiving reports of 12 kids who had their fingertips amputated by the side hinges over the past 10 years.

Maclaren USA, a South Norwalk, Connecticut-based unit of the closely held U.K. company, has been working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission since August on the voluntary recall, Charlotte Addison, a spokeswoman for Maclaren, said in a telephone interview today.

The company has received reports of 15 injuries from children placing their finger in the hinge, resulting in 12 fingertip amputations, the CPSC said in astatement. There’s been an increasing number of injuries in the past two years, prompting the recall, Addison said.

The recall involves all umbrella strollers sold in the U.S. since 1999, including the “Volo” model, which costs $130, and “Techno XT,” which costs $315, according to MacLaren’s Web site. The company will send protective covers to all owners for the side hinges, Addison said. Parents should keep children away from the carriages when opening and closing them, she said.

Consumers should immediately stop using the strollers and contact Maclaren to receive the free protective covers, the CPSC said.

Maclaren strollers, which are made in China, are sold in the U.S. at retailers including Babies “R” Us and Target Corp., according to the CPSC.

R' Yudel Shain gets results said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2009/11/please-sign-petition.html

The Agudah Fressers are protesting in the comments that he is encouraging people to sign the petition.

Anonymous said...

When R' Matisyahu started pursuing it, he got stoned & sued in all directions.
He wants to wead rotten apples, but as an employee his hands are tied.

Anonymous said...

When R' Matisyahu started pursuing it, he got stoned & sued in all directions.
He wants to wead rotten apples, but as an employee his hands are tied.

Belsky resign! said...

Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Federal prosecutors want a prison term of at least 27 years for a former Louisiana congressman convicted of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.

William Jefferson, a Democrat who represented parts of New Orleans, was convicted in August of bribery, racketeering and other counts. The case made headlines when authorities found $90,000 in cash hidden in his freezer.

He will be sentenced on Friday. Prosecutors want a term of 27 to 33 years under federal sentencing guidelines. That would be significantly longer than sentences for other congressman in recent scandals.

The government also wants Mr. Jefferson to begin serving his sentence immediately after Friday's hearing. He is currently free on bond.

UOJ gets results said...

Filed at 1:21 p.m. ET

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block Tuesday's scheduled execution of sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad.

The Court did not comment Monday on why it refused to consider his appeal.

Muhammad is scheduled to die by injection at a Virginia prison for the slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station during a three-week spree in 2002 across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were also suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona. Malvo is serving a life sentence.

Son of Boog said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/nyregion/10paterson.html?hp

A growing number of budget experts believe that New York can no longer afford to spend so much in the wake of the economic crisis, rising unemployment, the collapse of the stock market and the travails on Wall Street — the state’s main fiscal engine. While the state faces a deficit of more than $3 billion for the remaining four and a half months of this fiscal year, the greater worry among state officials are the unprecedented deficits the state faces in 2011 and 2012, after federal stimulus financing and a temporary tax increase on the wealthy expire.

“We’re going to fall of a cliff unless we get our revenues and our expenditures in true sync,” said Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch, the administration’s point man in budget negotiations with the Legislature.

He said that the state could no longer rely on its usual strategy of turning to an array of short-term solutions or ask more of the state’s taxpayers, adding, “We’re at the outer limits of the elasticity of our tax system.”

Anonymous said...

While the subject of Nuchem Rosenberg's campaign is a truly painful one that has been poorly handled by everyone involved, he should be the last person to consider an authority on it. His tactics are harsh, morally challenged, and smack of his own agenda. He probably means well, but lacks the finesse to accomplish anything but public shmearing. This is offensive. Can't we find other authority people and look to them for their opinions?

Anonymous said...

Pedophiles in Mikvas - why would you publicize this story without the victim's permission? I'm not saying I believe it - I have no idea if it's true. But in the event that it is, don't you think a victim deserves privacy? Even more so, when he's no longer with us and can't speak for himself.

Pedophiles in Mikvas and Yeshivas said...

"Anonymous said...why would you publicize this story without the victim's permission?"

The victim is dead, can't get his "permission" now. However there are hundreds, in fact thousands of frum kids being molested by pedophiles in mikvas, yeshivas. camps and in their own homes. Should everyone just remain silent? Like in the Holocaust? What about lo sa'amod al dam rei'echa? If it was your kid would you keep quiet, like many who are blackmailed to shut up or be booted out of their kehilas. You are a coward.

"I'm not saying I believe it - I have no idea if it's true."

It's true. Plenty of it, and worse than you think. Ask any therapist that works in the frum communities.

"But in the event that it is, don't you think a victim deserves privacy?"

No. How does a dead person get "privacy"? They alareday have it in the grave. It is very quiet there. Try it. The victim deserves justice.

"Even more so, when he's no longer with us and can't speak for himself."

So what? V'hachai yiten el libo. This is a plague that must be stamped out. Do you think in yemos hamoshiach that the Sanhedrin will tolerate pedophilia in YESHIVAS and MIKVAOS of all places??? Think it over. Don't be afrid of the truth. Shining the light of reality and the truth on shefichas damim will help to bring it to light, control it, and eventually to eradicate it.

In any case have you heard everything that R Nuchem Rosenberg says here: can you give specfic responses rather to his points rather than just act like an immature crybaby (the stage that precedes acting like a terrorist to shut people up.)

According to R Nuchum Rosenberg (and psychiatrists say this can happen) THE RECENT SUICIDE IN BORO PARK OF MOTTY BORGER A'H WAS A DIRECT RESULT OF HIM BEING A VICTIM OF PEDOPHILIA. HE WAS MESSED UP AND COULDN'T TAKE MARRIAGE: Hear all of it for yourself. Dial 712 432 8788 1121 dial 0# when prompted. The first part is in English, the rest in Yiddish.

Pedophiles in Mikvas and Yeshivas said...

"Anonymous said...While the subject of Nuchem Rosenberg's campaign is a truly painful one that has been poorly handled by everyone involved, he should be the last person to consider an authority on it."

Why? He has done a good job of creating awarenes of this subject and he has the guts to fight the pedophiles and to speak up against the silent and hypocritical leadership that is doing nothing. Usually, and it is proven, the Rebbes and Rosh Yeshivas protect the pedophiles because they don't want negative attention and they still have a mentality of 200 years ago they think they are living in the shteitalch, while parents of kids attacked by pedophiels are warned that if they speak out they will be kicked out of their communities. So stop talking garbage and baby-ish lies please.

"His tactics are harsh,"

There is no gentle of way of doing this. There is no gentle way of cutting out cancers and tumors either. There is also no gentle way of clearing car crashes from highways. They get scraped off the roads and it's ugly and messy.

"morally challenged,"

How so? Can you explain?

"and smack of his own agenda."

Like what? It seems he genuinely is being moser nefesh and being meimis es atzmo for the inyan of saving Jewish kids from pedophiles. He should get prizes and awards. Why is he being persecuted by the backwards and corrupt rebbeim? Can you answer that please?

"He probably means well,"

You are too kind.

"but lacks the finesse to accomplish anything but public shmearing."

He is blunt, outspoken and refreshing. In any case he talks like any chosid does just he talks bekol ram and he is willing to say openly what many are thinking and saying quietly. He is very brave. The rebbes are threatened. They are small men. What have they done to earn their leadership of the Jewish people beyond being the spoiled brat sons and grandsons of previous rebbes. Not even "tzadikim" that hide in peltz.

It is time to cancel and get rid of the corrupt useless leadership of the rebbes and rosh yeshiva and rabbonim who cover up for and protect pedophiles, and instead to put men like R Nuchem Rosenberg in positions of leadership. He is a great Rebbe in his own right alareday. His oppressors have made him into a nirdaf and Hashem loves the nirdafim. Is he mechalel Shabbos? Does he eat treifos? Does he deny the Torah? His only "crime" is that he speaks out against the corruption in matters of immorality and espcially about pedophiles and rapes. So what is wrong with that?

If there were ten thousand like him Klal Yisroel wowwuld be better off that wih all the coward Rebbes and Rosh Yeshiva who only worry about their fat donations and their positions. They are fakers while R Rosenberg is genuine, unless you know more about him than just shouting at him names.

He is a fighter for the weak. The Torah says it is a mitzva to protect the yasom, almana and ger because they have nobody to fight for them. The nevi'im attacked the corrupt kings who are just like today's rabbinic leadership that accepts bribes and tolerates evil like pedophilia instead of being humble, of the people and fighting the evil and not accepting it as part of life. You know this and everyone knows this. It's time to tell the corrupt leaders to resign.

"This is offensive."

What is? Your willingness to accept pedophiles and to allow kids to be molested and then commit suicide because they are too screwed up to be married is offensive. Shoteh and rasha.

"Can't we find other authority people and look to them for their opinions?"

Like who? Find some good leaders who are willing to fight pedophilia and throw out the KNOWN pedophiles and rapists roaming in the frum neighborhoods attacking kids and young men in the mikvas and yeshivas, and nebech girls being molested by their own male and female relatives, sometimes girls are attacked by lesbians in frum community too and its covered up and ignored, if the wrondoers are evicted then all will follow the ones who remove the evil, ubi'arta hara mikirbecha, in an heartbeat. Guaranteed.

Medicare Frauds said...

While the Obama regime plans on cutting $500 Billion from Medicare under te misnamed ObamaCare, these folks have started to help with the cuts their way, as reported in the latest AARP newsletter:

"Criminals Bilk Medicare of Billions Each Year

Splurge on sports cars, horses, hotels, helicopters

By: Jay Weaver | Source: From the AARP Bulletin print edition | November 1, 2009

They indulge their wildest whims—a private helicopter, Lamborghini sports cars, thoroughbred horses, even a “Pirates of the Caribbean” water theme park. For the schemers and scammers, Medicare fraud is one crime that does pay—and pay and pay.

The Benitez brothers of Miami—Carlos, Luis and Jose—can vouch for that, federal prosecutors say. The brothers, who operated fake storefront clinics there, were indicted last year on fraud charges after allegedly collecting $84 million from Medicare for phony medical treatments. They spent their Medicare millions on the helicopter, the horses, a rental car agency and tourist hotels—all items the government is now trying to seize and reclaim for taxpayers.

Medicare frauds are often inelegant—but they’re outrageously lucrative and relatively low-risk. So lucrative, and so low-risk, the FBI reports, that a number of cocaine dealers in Florida and California have switched from illicit drugs to Medicare fraud.

Medicare loses billions of dollars to fraud each year. “Those billions of dollars,” said Eric Holder, U.S. attorney general, “represent health care dollars” that could be spent on medicine or care or hospital visits, “but instead are wasted on greed.”

Yet Congress has denied Medicare the money officials say it needs to truly police itself. Four years ago, as fraud began spinning out of control, lawmakers ignored Medicare’s request for $300 million to fight these crimes—even though the agency’s Office of Inspector General says that every dollar spent protecting the program returns $17.

Now, with Congress and the Obama administration hoping to help finance health care reform with $500 billion in savings wrung from Medicare over the next 10 years, cracking down on fraud is a fresh priority. And it shows. Just this year, anti-fraud efforts have seen a marked increase in money and agents.

Miami vice

The nation’s first federal Medicare fraud strike force hit the ground in Miami two years ago—with agents from the FBI and investigators from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, as well as federal prosecutors. Altogether, the strike force and the southern Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office indicted 197 suspects in 2007, almost doubling Medicare fraud prosecutions.

In one Miami case alone, the team charged 16 people with orchestrating a $101 million fraud involving phony bills for medical equipment that Medicare patients neither needed nor received. Now, strike forces are operating in Medicare fraud hot spots like Los Angeles, Detroit and Houston, and officials say more cities will be targeted later this year. The scams are many, varied and spreading.

The Houston strike force, for example, shut down clinics billing Medicare for $3,000 “arthritis kits” that were only heating pads and knee and shoulder braces. A $16 million bust last July netted 32 doctors and executives. Some of the clinics, prosecutors charge, also were billing for liquid food supplements for patients who were deceased."

Medicare Fraud said...

"Criminals Bilk Medicare of Billions Each Year

Since 2007, the strike forces have indicted nearly 300 defendants who allegedly stole $680 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Sentences range from two to 15 years, with one doctor receiving 30.

Half of those defendants were arrested in Miami—the Medicare fraud capital of the nation. Schemes hatched there are perfected, then exported to other parts of the country.

“We know the fraud is viral and spreading to other communities,” says Kirk Ogrosky, deputy chief of the Justice Department’s criminal fraud section, who coordinates the strike forces.

Take the case of the two Miami men who allegedly set up a chain of about 40 clinics—with names like Fast Cure Company—in Florida and then four other states. Prosecutors contend the two men ran a ring that bilked Medicare out of $100 million for therapies—never administered­—for cancer, HIV and other illnesses. Investigators found some of the “clinics” were empty storefronts with hand-lettered signs; others were post office boxes.

Scammers obtain Medicare numbers by buying or stealing them from doctors, clinics or patients. Ogrosky says that once a “professional” patient sells his Medicare number, it can be reused again and again—or sold to others cheating the system.

Just one Medicare number—in the wrong hands—tricked Medicare into paying more than $1.1 million for phantom treatments. Alexander McCray of Miami paid for his crack cocaine habit by helping dozens of clinic operators file false claims for phony HIV infusion treatments billed in his name.

Hardened criminals

Medicare is now a magnet for miscreants, including not only dishonest doctors and white-collar crooks, but hard cases like Guillermo Denis Gonzalez, a convicted murderer. He bought a Medicare-licensed medical equipment company and submitted more than $500,000 in phony claims—two years after walking out of prison.

He pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare in August but still faces murder charges. Florida investigators say that after an argument, he killed and dismembered an acquaintance. The victim’s body parts were found in six black garbage bags in three different dumpsters around the Miami area.

Calculating an exact national figure on the costs of Medicare fraud—estimates of losses range from $11 billion by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to $60 billion by industry experts—is difficult.

Criminals intent on stealing as much as they can as fast as they can “have a relatively easy time breaking through all the industry’s defenses,” Malcolm Sparrow, a one-time fraud investigator and now a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told a Senate committee in May.

He said that if the crooks learn to submit their bills correctly, then for the most part their bogus claims “will be paid in full and on time, without a hiccup, by a computer, and with no human involvement at all.”

Why is Medicare so vulnerable to crooks? The entitlement program is based on an honor system that many experts say is broken."

Medicare Fraud said...

"Criminals Bilk Medicare of Billions Each Year

And Medicare officials admit that with their skimpy anti-fraud budget they are hamstrung because the system’s goal is to pay for medically necessary services quickly—within 14 days—which leaves little time to verify the millions of claims handled each week.

Shady health care operators have repeatedly proved they can circumvent Medicare’s weak technological defenses by simply altering computer billing codes to get their claims approved or by changing their scams to stay one step ahead of the system.

But this year Congress stepped up, allocating an extra $200 million for Medicare’s anti-fraud budget. An additional $300 million is on tap for 2010. The money has enabled the agency to make more unannounced visits to providers, launch more audits of dubious claims and upgrade its computer software that flags suspicious bills. And Medicare crime fighting is becoming more resourceful to keep up with the crooks. Now, for example, the agency is trying to rein in billing for expensive home visits to Medicare patients that are not needed or never made.

Miami’s average cost for each Medicare home health care patient with diabetes and related illnesses runs $11,928 every two months, according to a new HHS report—32 times the national average of $378. “That’s how bad things have gotten in Miami,” says Cecilia Franco, who heads the Medicare office there. So her office is sending nurses and investigators door-to-door to see if beneficiaries that health care agencies claim as clients really need twice-daily visits by skilled nurses. To discourage this scam, in January federal officials will impose a 10 percent cap on payments while they investigate claims—a first in Medicare history."

"Diagnosis Medicare Fraud

By: Elizabeth Nolan Brown | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | - November 2007

Peter Hillenbrand, 86, underwent more than 15 surgeries to remove skin cancer.

“I had so many cuts on my face, my arm, my back,” says Hillenbrand of Sarasota, Fla. After one surgery, his left eye was sewn shut for two months. Some of the surgeries left scars.

But Hillenbrand may never have had skin cancer. He was a patient of Sarasota dermatologist Michael Rosin, who is serving 22 years in federal prison for Medicare fraud. Rosin was convicted in 2006 after billing more than $3 million for unnecessary surgeries on at least 70 elderly patients.

Rosin, 57, routinely gave patients false skin-cancer diagnoses, sometimes without even looking at their biopsy slides. Dozens of slides recovered from his office were completely unreadable. He blamed their illegibility on a “conspiracy” amongst his staff.

Nearly every patient who had a biopsy was told he or she had skin cancer and needed surgery. According to court testimony, one former patient said that she became so accustomed to Rosin finding cancer that she would schedule surgery before he gave her the biopsy results.

Because Rosin could bill Medicare for each layer of skin he removed, many patients were subjected to unnecessary removal of layers, leaving some permanently disfigured. Others, like Hillenbrand, underwent surgery many times...

Hillenbrand says he thought Rosin was a friend. When he discovered that the married father of seven was defrauding him and others, Hillenbrand cried. “It was such a terrible, terrible thing that he was doing,” he says.

An employee at Rosin’s office eventually filed a federal whistleblower suit against him, leading to an FBI investigation. In March 2006, a federal jury found Rosin guilty of 70 counts of Medicare fraud. U.S. District Judge William Castagna sentenced Rosin to 22 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $48,866 to patients, $3.6 million to the Medicare trust fund, and another $3.7 million to the government."

Anonymous said...

The rabbis are loath to tell you that our Rabbi Finkel in Chicago was correct in his opinion that sexual abuse victims need special care preparing them for intimacy. The idea of intimacy cannot be sprung upon the unprepared on the first night or things end up in disaster. The intimacy issues facing newlyweds has to be addressed, but we have to prevent more victims by turning in pedophiles. I listened and am happy now!

Malach HaMovies said...

It's probably a very good chance that Borgor was molested as a child.

R" Nuchum claims that he was repeatedly molested in Munkatch while he was in elemntary school.

Meanwhile the Moetzes Gedolei Havantzen are probably more interested in how many boys from Torah Temmimah end up going to Brisk then a jewish groom out of anguish jumping out of a hotel window on to 13th Av.

Meanwhile, check out the link below re: an unsolved murder at the Yeshiva Of Long Beach in 1986. I remember when it happened and that it was covered up.

We could use some good investigative reporting over here.

http://www.unsolved.com/ajaxfiles/une_chaim_weiss.htm

Anonymous said...

To: Hella Winston And Robert Kolker and all of the other investigative reporters:

First of all thank you for all of the good work that you have done. Please don't give up now.

Although you are not part of the community we appreciate and honor you for all that you have done. We are forever in your debt.

Please continue to expose all of the monsters and the evil organizations and leaders that cover up these henious crimes against our helpless children.

Signed,

The silent orthodox jewish majority

Munkatcher Putz said...

What about the moderne Munkatcher molesters in Frankel's shul in Flatbush like Potyi Lipschitz?

Zvi Goffer said...

http://www.hedgeworld.com/news/read_newsletter_aa.cgi?section=dail&story=dail16583.html

Zvi Goffer could have passed for Tony Soprano when he warned confederates in his alleged insider-trading ring that "someone's going to jail." Don't be too obvious about making big money, he said in a cell phone conversation intercepted by investigators in February 2008.

"Someone's going to jail, going directly to jail, so don't let it be you, OK?" Goffer said, according to a criminal complaint. "That's a ticket right to the (expletive) Big House."

According to federal prosecutors, Goffer was the boss of an insider trading operation that paid sources for non-public information. He and 13 others were charged on Thursday as the scandal centered on Goffer's former employer, hedge fund Galleon Group, widened dramatically.

A criminal complaint naming Goffer, head of the trading firm Incremental Capital, and his alleged accomplices reads like a script for TV dramas like "The Wire" or "The Sopranos," in which drug and Mafia criminals try to stay one step ahead of the law.

Federal prosecutor Preet Bharara told a news conference that investigators resorted to wire taps and other methods "traditionally reserved for the mob and narcotics traffickers" when the accused began "taking a page from the drug dealers' playbook (and) deliberately used anonymous, hard-to-trace, pre-paid cell phones in order to avoid detection."

Calls recorded by law enforcement officials were littered with nicknames like "the Greek" and "the Rat," and even jokes about getting information from a guy fixing a pothole. Current and past targets were code-named the "Hilton hit" and the "Apple."

There was talk about "cash lying around," and investigators observed what they believed were hand-offs of white bags and cases packed with cash.

In one phone call, an attorney, Jason Goldfarb, who was charged on Thursday, told Goffer that he had a meeting with the "boys" planned, but added they were like "nervous nellies."

The "boys," according to prosecutors, was a reference to people sharing information with the alleged ring.

Goldfarb said the "boys" were "hungry" because one had recently "spent his whole chunk of change" on his honeymoon and the other had "bought a new kitchen."

"Now they're, they're ready to replenish, and that's what we're going to do," Goldfarb said, according to the complaint.

Much like the drug traffickers in "The Wire," those accused in the insider-trading ring were constantly paranoid about a potential "rat" who would talk to the authorities.

In the end, all their precautions didn't work.

"When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such," Bharara said.

Raphael Chaim Golb said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/nyregion/08about.html

Investigators had a warrant to arrest Raphael Haim Golb and seize his computer. He was caught red-handed.

Mr. Golb is, or was, a guerrilla fighter in a cyberbrawl over the Dead Sea Scrolls, a war about the origins of 2,000-year-old documents that has consumed the energy of academics around the globe.

He was being arrested for fighting dirty.

Mr. Golb is 49 years old and had 50 e-mail aliases. He used pseudonyms to post on blogs. Under the name of a professor he was trying to undermine, prosecutors charged, Mr. Golb wrote a quasi confession to plagiarism and circulated it among students and officials at New York University.

His purpose, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said, was “to influence and affect debate on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in order to harass Dead Sea Scrolls scholars who disagree with his viewpoint.”

For a while, no one knew that 50 different names in the Dead Sea Scrolls debate were the prolific Mr. Golb, a graduate of Oberlin College who has a law degree from New York University and a doctorate in comparative literature from Harvard (dissertation: “The Problems of Privacy and Trust in Modern Literature, and their Relation to the Idea of Freedom”).

In court papers filed last week, Mr. Golb’s lawyers argued that prosecutors were trying to criminalize the commonplace. Both sides in the Dead Sea Scrolls debate, they said, use “sock puppets” — fake identities — on the Internet to make it seem as if scores of people are arguing a point.

“These bloggers marshaled their legion of sock puppets to engage in intellectual combat with the sock puppets allegedly created by Raphael Golb and others,” the lawyers wrote.

No other creatures in the animal kingdom behave like this, not when the stakes are lower than food or mating or survival. And here’s a bonus: a thread of the Shakespearean runs through the case.

Mr. Golb’s father is Norman Golb, a professor at the University of Chicago and a critic of claims that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the work of a sect called the Essenes, thought to have lived near the Qumran caves where the scrolls were found. Professor Golb has suggested that the scrolls were actually the product of several libraries in Jerusalem and were taken to the caves around the time the city fell to the Romans in the year 70. This is not a dispute for the fainthearted. Golb the Son has taken up his father’s cause with all the vigor permitted by multiple Gmail accounts.

part 2 said...

When he was arrested, Mr. Golb was asked by prosecutors if he wrote under the name “Charles Gadda,” one of the most visible Internet advocates for his father. He would not answer directly.

“They would say that my father is doing it or asking me to do it,” Mr. Golb said, according to court papers. “My father certainly never asked me to do anything of the kind.”

But he allowed that “Charles Gadda” was doing pretty well. “Do you realize that the Charles Gadda articles have been read by thousands of people?” Mr. Golb continued. “I know that, because I look at them, it says on them.”

The Internet is, of course, both gold mine and sludge pile, where people lie about their ages, their abilities, the world. The prosecutors say that by adopting all those false identities, Mr. Golb was trying to obtain a benefit, and so committed criminal impersonation, identity theft and aggravated harassment. But Mr. Golb’s lawyers maintain that there was no tangible benefit, and therefore no crime.

“Gaining an advantage in academic debate about the Dead Sea Scrolls is not the kind of benefit required by the law,” said Ronald Kuby, one of the defense lawyers.

But what about the injury Mr. Golb apparently tried to inflict on Lawrence H. Schiffman, the chairman of Judaic studies at N.Y.U.? Someone wrote from larry.schiffman@gmail.com to Professor Schiffman’s graduate students and dean, alerting them to an article that suggested he had committed plagiarism. Perhaps two things go without saying: The article was actually written under one of Raphael Golb’s pseudonyms, and Professor Schiffman has been critical of the theories of Golb père.

The defense claims that the e-mail messages were transparent parodies, and that in any event, injury to a reputation is a civil matter, not a criminal violation.

Wall St Fresser said...

(Reuters) - Federal and state authorities have charged 14 people with fraud and conspiracy as part of an insider trading network that involves some of the same companies and individuals as the Galleon Group scandal.

Below are names of some of the defendants, according to a charges filed against them in the Southern District of New York:

* ZVI GOFFER Worked at Schottenfeld, a New York-based broker dealer, for nearly all of 2007. He moved to Galleon in January 2008, where he worked for about eight months before quitting to start his own trading firm, Incremental Capital.

* JASON GOLDFARB Worked as an attorney in New York with the law firm of Brecher Fishman Pasternack Walsh Tilker & Ziegler, which specializes in injuries law. Brecher Fishman is where R' Shea Fishman releases tension during inclement weather events.

* CRAIG DRIMAL Worked in Galleon's office space, but was not employed by Galleon.

* EMANUEL GOFFER Worked at Spectrum Trading LLC in 2007 and is currently associated with Incremental Capital and broker-dealer Echotrade.

* MICHAEL KIMMELMAN Was a founder, with Zvi Goffer, of Incremental Capital. He was also a trader at Lighthouse Financial Group. He previously worked as as a mergers and acquisition attorney at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California Law School.

* DAVID PLATE Worked at Schottenfeld from June 2006 through March, 2008; currently associated with Incremental Capital.

Pedophiles in Mikvas and Yeshivas said...

"Meanwhile, check out the link below re: an unsolved murder at the Yeshiva Of Long Beach in 1986. I remember when it happened and that it was covered up.

We could use some good investigative reporting over here.

http://www.unsolved.com/ajaxfiles/une_chaim_weiss.htm"

If you are able to, and you understand Hungarian Yiddish, listen to the most recent report from R Nuchum Rosenberg on his 212 461 2778 line and you will hear him report about cases of hangings, suicides, pushing of kids to kill themselves in CHASIDISHE COMMUNITIES when there were questions raised by parents about pedophilia and sexual abuse against rebbeim, so it's no suprise that a kid in a yeshiva dorm may have been killed when he may have finally warned a molester that he would expose him and he to paid the ultimate price, no less than a korban.

Anonymous said...

Rosenberg Nuchem was in cherem and still is He talks garbage, is a groise talmid chulem He claims to be writing a fourth volume on Mikva He hasn't even written one He tells people to go to mikvah on Yom Kippur he is a Zoken Mamreh He is talking about people without any witnesses at all. He is an extorionist at best, and apoor one too, Ever seen his hat? LOL

Agudah Fresser said...

I'm glad to see our Satmar allies are doing a good job of smearing Nuchem Rosenberg to discredit the truth he speaks about sex abuse victims. Vito Lopez came up with the idea of calling him a "zoken mamreh."

Shmarya groupie said...

http://www.chimpout.com/forum/image.php?u=3332&dateline=1228186101

Rakim forgets to mention that much of software available was developed by Orthodox Jews who insert tricky code to stunt the advancement of Black people.

Anonymous said...

UOJ-

Time for you to do a Motty Borger o'h story under your own byline.The business stinks. If you think there is any truth to Nuchem Rosenberg's names it should be told now while it has everybody's attention.

Yerachmiel Lopin

Anonymous said...

Timing is everything.

Question why is Yated Neeman's Pinchos Lipschutz suddenly realizing, gee, let's take responsiblity and open up things a little.

Hypotheses about timing:

1. getting ready for the Rubashkin disaster (not likely, it was published before they had a verdict and they may still have hoped to luck out with one of those weird quirks of jury processes.

2. Getting ready for the real Motty Borger story to come out. Again, not likely, because they never give up hope on a coverup until the day after it is front page news or there is an indictment.

3. Getting ready for the Agudah convention. -- more likely. So we can count on some speech about admitting problems and even taking some additional so-called bold step. It may even be bold by their sluggish standards. My guess, they will revive the shared beit din. This will allow them to control rabbis who might have been too ready to say "just go to the police." Also this way they can decide which molesters to throw under the bus and whch to protect. At ths point, the question is no longer whether to protect all molesters. So the fighting is going to get uglier. I predict some nasty charges and counter charges about whose permissions are kosher and whose bans on informing are designed to protect molesters. They are very nervous because everyone is vulnerable through beit din participations, advice, friends, talmididm, relatives, congregants, funders, etc. It is also impossible for most folks to be sure they have all the schmutz covered up. Even if you have every case nailed down, the same guy probably molested someone else you don't know about. These sorts of things can start unravelling very quickly. I will bet that Hynes indctment rate will start heading up even higher.

Should be fun to watch:

Predictive question. Who will be the next one thrown under the bus and which Rabbi will take ownership to ward off other charges.

Yerachmiel Lopin FrumFollies.wordpress.com

PS Joe Engelman was listed as one of the Forwards 50 most influential Jews this year!!