Thanks Steve.
THE JBAC RESPONDS:
In response to the Agudah’s unfortunate position:
We can clearly see without a shadow of a doubt the fear running through the veins of the executive membership of the AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA AND TORAH UMESORAH - THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR HEBREW DAY SCHOOLS. WE had an amazing lobby day in Albany, and we can state without a shadow of a doubt that we had a very positive reception and response.
It was truly history in the making, a day that one could only hope for and yet with the help of the Almighty has finally come to fruition. We were a diverse group of ALL religions, ALL backgrounds, All organizations, ALL groups, ALL stories, ALL there for the same reason and the same cause standing in unison behind Assemblywoman Margaret Markey and Senator Thomas Duane for one full hour at a press conference, and then breaking up into individual groups for the rest of the day walking through the Assembly and the Capital speaking to OUR state representatives face to face; human beings one to another speaking truth and honesty crossing ALL barriers of race, religion, bias, bigotry, class, finance, etc. Chasidim and misnagdim stood side by side with gentiles male and female, children, parents and grandparents; clergy and laymen. The playing field was leveled. We were all there for the same cause, either as victims, family of victims or advocates for victims and children.
We relayed certain information that they were previously unaware of and quite shocked to learn such as the non-public school system has no laws governing them as far as child safety is concerned. No mandatory finger-printing and background checks of staff, no teacher licensing, no mandatory reporting system on abuse or molestation. As the well known joke (unfortunate not funny) goes “if you’re a pedophile YOUR safe in our system”. Mrs. Engelman made a point of informing our legislatures that every male teacher that is charged with teaching Torah or religious subjects is referred to as Rabbi and it does not mean that they have studied in rabbinical seminary nor has received rabbinical ordination. So just because they bear the title it does not mean they deserve the title nor the respect and honor that goes with it.
It was truly a Kidush Hashem standing on the same platform with Rabbi Nochum Rosenberg and Rabbi Gershon Tanenbaum, the Director of the Igud Harabonim of America, author of the “My Machberes” column for the Jewish Press, along with the other Rabbonim he brought with him. Rabbi Tanenbaum’s words were inspirational to the crowd especially the victims. Joel Engelman was the first speaker after Assemblywoman Margaret Markey and Senator Thomas Duane who clearly presented their reasons behind this bill. Joel spoke about how he was victimized at the tender age of 8 years old by Rabbi Avrhohom Reichman of the United Talmudical Academy, who as he spoke is still in front of a classroom of young children, basically a field of young and vulnerable prey and still no one has taken any type of precaution to protect the children by removing him or separating him from his evil and illegal inclinations. There were at least 5 other chassidishe men standing behind the speakers who had similar stories, and another 5 who were frum and not chassidishe. There were others in the audience who were no longer Frum but used to be. This of course in addition to victims from non-Jewish backgrounds. Obviously not everyone was brave enough to stand behind the speakers to be photographed for all to see. Kudos to all for stepping forward whether in front of the cameras or behind.
Note to the Agudah that is called bravery and Kidush Hashem, they are willing to come forward to “SAVE” the lives of other Yiddish neshomas. And WE all stood there for a full hour while everyone had a turn Jew and catholic, priest, nun, alter boy, and gemarah kup who was stripped of their faith by those who should have been encouraging and promoting their unique and individual connection and relationship with their maker.
And of course our own Frum Assemblyman Dov Hikind stood side by side with us and with the authors of the bills for all to see that he stands firm in his conviction of co-sponsoring this bill and supporting the passage of same. Why else would he stand there with all of us for the press conference and the photo opportunity? What message is he sending to you the Agudath Israel of America when he stands with the victims that he took testimony from, that he cried with, that he understood their betrayal because YOU did nothing to help them and aid them; you did nothing to protect them, to believe them, to stop their abusers from continuing their reign of terror and destroying other young children.
Marci Hamilton took the floor. Marci Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair of Public Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and a widely-regarded scholar in constitutional law. She is an expert on and advocate for the U.S. Constitution's required separation of church and state. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University in 1979 then earned a Masters degree at Pennsylvania State University and a juris doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. She served as a law clerk for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States and Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Marci was very eloquent and very carefully vacated any misconceptions that the YOU the Agudah and others seem to use as a smoke screen for your positions. To paraphrase: the Markey bill is following the guidelines set forth in the open window legislation of the California and Delaware bills where no civil litigations were allowed to move forward without a “certificate of merit” from a qualified mental professional. This would absolutely disqualify your contention of “capricious litigation”. Furthermore, the “open window” bill produces extremely low numbers of false claims we repeat “proven false” claims but revealed a record breaking additional 360 previously unknown pedophiles that those states have now registered and citizens are now aware of and can protect themselves from.
There is a statistical study which revealed that every repeat offender known as a serial pedophile will in his/her lifetime commit 400 acts of abuse also appropriately referred to as violence in their lifespan. YOU, the Agudah are smart enough to run those numbers for yourselves but we can help you with that, an additional 360 x 400, that is 144,000 acts of violence against children that may be averted in the states of California and Delaware. Don’t you want to claim that you can do that for our children as well? And yet with the great Jewish population in the state of California we did not hear of even one Jewish institution that was forced to close or forced into bankruptcy due to this one year open window of opportunity. Would you care to explain that? Is it because no one sued them or because they had less Frum Jewish pedophiles than we do here? Either way it doesn’t show much cause for your position.
It is quite clear that when you speak of the “fundamental interest of our community” you speak of the “financial” interest of our community because basically that is ALL you are concerned with. No not actually you are also concerned with losing face for your organization and the Rabbinical members who themselves are “nogeah b’davar” because they are personally involved or because they are involved in the cover-up, either way a conflict of interest; absolutely not capable of making a proper or unbiased decision in this case. As you say “Our rabbinic and lay leaderships are acutely aware of the emotional trauma and damage caused by the perpetrators of such abuse.” They are aware, because they have always been aware and have chosen to do nothing, again, they are nogeah b’dovor and therefore not qualified to make an unbiased decision in this case. They should be respectfully exempt from this decision for obvious reasons and only those who have never been touched by this issue should be allowed to have a say in it.
Why is it that when Reb Elyashiv offers a psak everyone listens as if it came from Har Sinai itself, but in this case when his psak clearly states that perpetrators should be handed over to the authorities his words are ignored like poison? Had he followed his psak with “and their wives’ sheitels should be burnt”, maybe, maybe at least there would have been a bon fire. A valid question would be, did the executive members of the Agudah discuss this issue with the Gedolim of Eretz Yisroel and get some guidance from them before coming to this conclusion? Was Reb Elyashiv consulted?
Now lets look at your financial concern.
I am surprised that you do not have faith in the myriads of religious CPA’s and Attorneys who we are quite sure are already hard at work (just in case) closing old corporations and opening new ones to hide any assets that Yeshivas and other institutions have. In the event that, which is highly unlikely, anyone would actually go so far as to sue and receive an award from same, there would never be any money, any building, any asset left in the name of the institution that would have been in business at the time of the event. Come on, we are all Yiddish Kep here, we know how the game is played. It is an insult to the intelligence of the K’lal that you think we are fooled by this smoke screen. And WE also know that YOU know that 95% of all victims are not interested in monetary compensation. All they are interested in is putting their abusers out of business and making sure they never ever have access to innocent children again.
So what really is your motivation behind this?
We know, you are still protecting the pedophiles and their protectors. YOU still don’t want to come clean. You still wish to honor them and not disgrace them by allowing their names to become public. You are still more concerned with their reputation than with allowing the victims of their crimes to have the opportunity to start healing and finding some closure to their misery.
SHAME ON YOU!
If you recall back in the 1960’s Emile Zola coined the phrase J’ACCUSE against the French government in reference to the Dreyfus case. I am going to say those words to you here and now.
J’ACCUSE
For putting the honor of the Jewish religious pedophiles first and foremost before the welfare of their victims. “the burden of litigation expense or legal liability for ancient claims would fall squarely on an entirely innocent group - the current parent body”. That is a complete and utter fallacy and you are trying to misguide the public because they have total faith and trust in you as we once did. The current financial body should hire representation to absolutely REFUSE to defend the institution and the pedophiles they harbor. THEY should demand the immediate dismissal of said pedophile and any administrator who was connected to the case and absolutely forbid any tuition funds or any other funds to be used in defense of either. As stated before, the corporation at the time of abuse would no longer be current if the CPA’s and attorneys are doing their jobs for cases that happened way in the past. Cases that happened in the past 10-12 years would be covered under their insurance policies which have sexual abuse riders. So again, YOU the Agudah are trying to SCARE and frighten the Olam to fall into line behind you.
J’ACCUSE
“Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah have taken a number of concrete steps to help ensure that Jewish schools, extra-curricular youth programs and summer camps implement policies and procedures designed to protect children against such abuse. Our organizations have also supported legislative efforts to furnish such protection, including the recently enacted legislation in New York authorizing nonpublic schools to screen all prospective employees through the state's fingerprint checking system. ”
What exactly have you done and how has it helped? Yes you have supported the legislation with lip service, but what have you done to implement it, basically nothing.
J’ACCUSE
YOU who have implemented TAKANOS not suggestions, on how many guests one can invite to their own Simcha, limiting the parnasah a caterer makes, how many musicians a person can hire for their own simcha, limiting the parnasah a musician makes, but did nothing to implement the fingerprinting and background checks in all Yeshivos! YOU did not make that mandatory! You just supported the bill and allowed for those who wanted to comply. Where were the TAKANOS to prevent child abuse and molestation of our precious children?
J’ACCUSE
YOU could have saved thousands, upon thousands of young innocent neshomas but you didn’t.
J’ACCUSE
For the good things that the Agudath Israel has done for K’lal Yisroel you have neglected on a tremendously large scale the biggest responsibility any Jewish organization of such magnitude has and that is to protect our innocent neshomas!
You have a great big chelek in the pain and suffering of thousands of yiddishe kinderlach and their families for tearing their lives apart and for pushing and shoving them off the derech.
And now instead of showing them and all the children, the future of K’lal Yisroel that YOU stand for honesty and integrity, exactly what we teach and expect from our children YOU want to absolve ALL the guilty parties of their responsibility and accountability? Is this the hypocrisy that you choose to continue to role model for our children?
YOU had and still have an opportunity of teshuva and of helping to allow the healing to begin but you refuse to step up to the plate.
WE can’t force you to do the right thing; we can only ask you to. But whether you do or don’t, the bill will go forth and it will pass because every day it gains support, and with each day’s gain, those who approve and support the bill continue to garner more and more support, and it is growing like a wildfire because it is the right thing to do. Hashem will help us uncover the truth and reveal the identities of all the dangerous individuals who hide amongst us, who are not ashamed to defile our youth within the walls of mekomos kedoshim like yeshivas, mikvaot and shuls. The health and welfare of our children far outweighs the financial concerns of institutions real or imagined.
These institutions know how to protect themselves but children don’t and that is why WE have to find ways to help them, as Margaret Markey, Thomas Duane, and the fine states of California and Delaware have. So with you or without you WE know right from wrong, WE understand good from evil, WE know the good guys from the bad guys, WE know who to honor and respect and who to turn away from. Hashem has given us strict guidelines in the Sheva Mitzvos B’nei Noach. Those who cross those lines, do not deserve the honor and respect you insist on bestowing upon them. Anyone with an ounce of seichel Hashem has given them will see through your smoke screen and contact their Legislative representatives to throw their support behind this bill.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Sherree Belsky Director Kids Count Foundation (For Reference: Sherree Belsky – Maiden name Gottesman -second Generation Holocaust survivor – Auschwitz death camps; Belsky (Bielski – Bielski Brothers- Jewish partisans saved 1,200 Jews in the Russian and polish forests in the Holocaust)
Rabbi Dr. Asher Lipner Ph.D Vice President Jewish Board of Advocates for Children
Elie Hiller Jewish Educator West Orange, NJ
Mrs. Pearl Engelman Mother of Joel Engelman Brooklyn, N.Y.
*
The RCA Statement On The Markey Bill
March 20, 2009
Dear Ms. Markey:
The Rabbinical Council of America represents more than 1,000 modern and centrist orthodox rabbis. We are the rabbinic arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
We support Bill No. A.02596, sponsored by you, which would extend the civil and criminal statutes of limitations for sex abuse victims.
Child sex abuse is a horrendous crime. Victims often bear the scars for entire lifetimes. They are at higher risk for clinical depression, substance abuse, and suicide.
Many victims are overcome by feelings of confusion, shame, and embarrassment. As children and teens, they are psychologically and emotionally unable to deal with the court system. Only later, as adults, and often with therapy, do they feel comfortable in working with the judicial system. Unfortunately, arbitrary statutes of limitations stand in their way.
Jewish law and tradition recognize the need for our justice system to protect the most vulnerable among us. Lowering the statute of limitations bar for child sex abuse victims would serve that purpose. Sexual predators are often recidivists and need to be incarcerated, and classified as convicted sex offenders, in order to assure public safety. Sex abuse victims deserve to be fairly compensated for their grievous injuries. Your bill will assure these laudatory goals.
Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Basil Herring
Executive Vice-President
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
139 comments:
Mazal Tov!! Keep up the great work, folks!
Today is the day to celebrate. By abiding and showing respect to these chachomim and gedolim we are enabling them. Stop buying anything with Satmar, Skver, Baltimore hashgochos. Throw the OU in too. Just kidding. We still need to support them so people wouldn't think that water and foil and tea and a slew of other products need their stamp.
Happy Yom Haatzmaut
Oh man! We already have R' Moishe Sternbuch, R' Shlomo Miller and R' Yudel Shain telling the oylam not to trust our lousy hashgocho that utilizes all kinds of kashrus shortcuts & bogus heterim. Now UOJ too?
I hope this letter isn't shown to hotels. If they refuse out of disgust to rent facilities for the Agudah convention, how are we going to stuff our faces at the shmorg?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/health/28brod.html
April 28, 2009
Paying a Price for Loving Red Meat
By JANE E. BRODY
There was a time when red meat was a luxury for ordinary Americans, or was at least something special: cooking a roast for Sunday dinner, ordering a steak at a restaurant. Not anymore. Meat consumption has more than doubled in the United States in the last 50 years.
Now a new study of more than 500,000 Americans has provided the best evidence yet that our affinity for red meat has exacted a hefty price on our health and limited our longevity.
The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner, especially from one of our two leading killers, heart disease and cancer, than people who consumed much smaller amounts of these foods.
Results of the decade-long study were published in the March 23 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine. The study, directed by Rashmi Sinha, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, involved 322,263 men and 223,390 women ages 50 to 71 who participated in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study. Each participant completed detailed questionnaires about diet and other habits and characteristics, including smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, education, use of supplements, weight and family history of cancer.
Speaking for the Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran said his organization had not yet decided if they would allow researchers into their annual convention. He cited research by a Marvin Schick that there is no evidence that orthodox Jews are affected by gluttony.
I knew UOJ's great-grandfather!
http://www.reason.com/news/show/131967.html
In the 1880s, when a French crime fighter named Alphonse Bertillon pioneered the mug shot as a unique form of portraiture, the photographs he took were expected to do one thing: Help establish an individual’s identity at a time when driver’s licenses, fingerprint files, and Facebook pages didn’t exist. Today mug shots are still used to identify, but we also want them to punish, deter, and entertain.
A growing number of law enforcement agencies led by UOJ and media outlets are happy to capitalize on our voyeuristic interest by posting virtual rogues’ galleries of alleged prostitutes, johns, drunks (celebrities preferred) and other accused miscreants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/business/economy/29trade.html
April 29, 2009
Pork Industry Fights Concerns Over Swine Flu
By ANDREW MARTIN and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
The swine flu is producing global hesitation over eating pork.
As more cases of the new influenza emerged on Tuesday, deepening worries about a possible pandemic, several nations slammed their borders shut to pork from the United States and Mexico. Wall Street analysts predicted a sharp decline of pork sales in grocery stores, and some consumers began steering clear of pork chops.
Some hog producers were furious at the trade bans, saying at a joint press conference with the Agudath Israel of America that they were simply a political ploy by countries to give their own farmers a leg up. “We are in a very economically stressed economy, and anything a country can do to discredit another country’s product, they will do that for trade advantage,” said Scott Burroughs, the chief operating officer at Nebraska Pork Partners.
White House will probe presidential plane PR stunt
The Associated Press - 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - The taxpayer bill for Monday's presidential plane flight over Manhattan was $328,835. The political cost to the Obama White House will be harder to calculate.
I think the Jewish Board for Advocates for Children could have made a better choice than to have Gershon Tannenbaum represent them. Surely there are other rabbis around that are not convicted felons, that do not have a 35 year history of engineering fraudulent schemes, that do not write for a corrupt newspaper that is part of the problem and do not direct a corrupt beis din that is stacked with molesters & enablers.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/29/2009-04-29_governor_paterson_guilt_drives_opponents_of_gay_marriage.html
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson said Tuesday gay marriage foes - including religious leaders - are driven by guilt over their failure to oppose discrimination and violence against homosexuals.
Paterson, who introduced the bill this month, received a standing ovation and chants of "Dave, Dave, Dave" from the crowd at the Empire State Pride Agenda's LGBT Equality and Justice Day.
The bill faces an uphill battle in the state Senate. Paterson conceded he has not contacted any lawmakers to push for its passage.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/29/2009-04-29_pit_bulls_bounced_owners_are_howling_as_dobermans_rotts_also_curbed_in_city_hous.html
Pit bulls, Dobermans, Rottweilers banned from public housing
(AP) VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he was sorry for the abuse and "deplorable conduct" of some church members at Canadian schools that aboriginals were forced to attend.
The pontiff expressed his sorrow during a meeting with victims and representatives of the native Canadians, telling them acts of abuse can never be tolerated by society.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indian children in Canada were made to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.
The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant, and has apologized and offered compensation.
On Wednesday, a group of victims attended the pope's general audience in St. Peter's Square and later met with the pope privately to share their stories and concerns, the Vatican said in a statement.
"Given the sufferings that some indigenous children experienced in the Canadian residential school system, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the church and he offered his sympathy and prayerful solidarity," the statement said.
"His Holiness emphasized that acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in society," it said, adding that the pope was praying that the victims would heal and move forward "with renewed hope."
The aim of the residential school system was to isolate the native Canadians from the influence of their homes and culture, which the government at the time considered inferior to mainstream Canadian society.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology in Parliament last year, calling the treatment of children at the schools a sad chapter in the country's history. He said the policy of forced assimilation was wrong, had caused great harm and had no place in the country.
Canada has also offered compensation, part of a lawsuit settlement between the government, churches and the approximately 90,000 surviving students that amounted to billions of dollars being transferred to aboriginal communities.
The Catholic Church alone paid some $79 million, the Canadian bishops' conference said.
The United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches have already apologized for their roles in the abuse.
Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, who himself suffered abuse at a residential school, had said that survivors wanted the pope to acknowledge the role of the Catholic Church in their suffering.
Fontaine, who was in Rome for the audience, has noted that Benedict expressed personal shame over a clergy sex abuse scandal when he visited the United States and Australia last year and wanted the pontiff to do the same in this case.
Fontaine was holding a news conference Wednesday after the papal audience.
In addition to the government apology and compensation, a Canadian truth and reconciliation commission will also examine government policy and take testimony from survivors. The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and educate Canadians about a grim period in the country's history.
Canada should be allowed to give compensation to the Native Indian victims of sex abuse. Money is the lifeblood of the country and must be preserved.
Rabbi Belsky is sending a hazmona to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Correction: Canada should Not be allowed
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DCGOA_RlajQ/SfTnP7xByKI/AAAAAAAADgA/GGZCExBrEFk/s1600-h/rav+eliyashev-boats.jpg
Rav Elyashev writes in this letter a few years ago to R' Shmuel Berenbaum obm that the OU (Belsky) should stop acting like a bedieved is lechatcheelah.
Star-K - R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztl also came out against them before he was niftar.
Gershon Tannenbaum - you can add plagiarist to his list of "accomplishments" for when he stole that article from the old lady at the Catskills Institute. The Jewish Press simply erased the article and never apologized. He is also currently under investigation for money laundering through his shul.
That necktie from Emporio must be too tightly wound and sucking off the oxygen supply to Zweibel's brain. And ties made in Spain & Italy sometimes have shaatnez. Zweibel should check that out too.
Rav Elyashev is not alone. R' Moishe said the same thing about OU oil on tanker ships decades ago only to be followed by empty promises that it would be fixed. Some say that R' Moishe was not given all the facts and would have assered it if he was. As a matter of fact, Rav Hershel Schechter wrote a letter in 2001 to Belsky & Genack saying he doesn't understand how the oil is not treif, even bedeeeved. Someone inside the OU angry that Belsky and Genack are covering this up, leaked the letter to Rabbi Shain.
Gershon Tannenbaum is a flawed individual --- but he did a great mitzvah going to Albany and taking the only honorable position on sex-abuse in the Jewish community.
Let's recognize that --- at the very least, let's not bash him on this particular post.
UOJ, I usually agree with you, but think hard about the man's background. I think it is a huge mistake to team up with Tannenbaum on this. Perhaps this time he is acting lishma and not as a "kovod zucher" running for the cameras but it is precisely because of his flaws, and they are substantial, that he is not the guy for the job. We need to put out the cleanest faces to law enforcement & the legislature to be taken seriously. Surely some of the officials being asked for help are aware of Tannebaum's criminal record with US Postal Police for mail fraud and the SEC for stock fraud. And how would it look if he was suddenly arrested again for his current issues?
Even if Tannenbaum had no police record, here is a guy in cahoots with Rabbi Belsky, Mendel Epstein, convicted child rapist Lipa Brenner and Ben Barber who funds Charlie Hynes and allegedly asks him to cover up abuse cases in Boro Park.
The US tax-paying sucker
By SHMULEY BOTEACH
David Brooks wrote in last week's New York Times that what he learned on his most recent visit to Israel is that an Israeli's greatest fear is to be seen as a frier, a sucker. Perhaps it's a lesson that we Americans ought to learn.
Over the past few months it is clear that Wall Street has made the American taxpayer its sucker. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Wall Street pay levels have now returned to 2007 levels, with Goldman Sachs now having "set aside $4.7 billion for worker pay in the quarter. If that level continues all year, it would add up to average pay of $569,220 per worker - almost as much as the pay in 2007, a record year."
The problem is that Goldman Sachs, along with most Wall Street banks, has taken billions of dollars in government bailout money and, as the Times argued, rather than continue to pay their employees astronomical salaries "some of that revenue... could be used by bailed-out banks to pay back taxpayers." If you had told me that the day would come when the average American taxpayer, who makes $45,000 a year, would be asked to donate toward the income of those making at least 10 times more (let alone those making tens of millions a year), I would scarcely have believed it. But welcome to the modern American rip-off.
When I lived in England for 11 years, I often pondered on the difference between the English get-in-the-queue mentality versus the sharper American elbow sensibility. We used to be a nation that just wouldn't take it. Two centuries ago we rebelled against the British for taxing our tea. But today we largely remain silent as we are taxed to help Wall Street bankers make the payments on their Ferraris.
Look, if you're a wealthy American and you want to buy a yacht, God bless you. There ought to be no class warfare in a country that prides itself on rewarding people for entrepreneurial effort. But you can't ask secretaries, flight attendants and firefighters who are struggling to pay their utility bills to finance your butler.
Where is the reform of Wall Street that we were all promised after the scandals that started with the collapse of Bear Stearns a year ago and continued with the million-dollar bonuses that were paid to the geniuses at AIG who left the American taxpayer with a $200 billion dollar bill?
A FEW WEEKS ago my new Bear Stearns account manager attempted to hit me with triple commissions on a new investment strategy for my retirement account, after it had already shrunk by a third. Had I not asked questions, I would have been charged a percentage on the total amount invested, the mutual funds they were going to place my money into (which begs the question, why should I pay them just to hand over my money to be managed by someone else?), and finally a commission on every sale of stock that had to be liquidated to place the money in a managed account. After I raised a ruckus the fees were refunded. But surely the publication of the new best-seller A House of Cards detailing the fall of Bear Stearns due to irresponsible greed would have been enough for the firm to want to reform its ways. Apparently not.
And this just seems indicative of the general direction of America. We're all expected to tighten our belts and get serious about saving money as our government engages in reckless spending and taxes us up the wazoo.
I live in New Jersey, and if any of you are thinking of joining me you ought to first grow a third kidney to make sure you can pay the taxes. In my small town of Englewood, we pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. Yet the street down the road from me has potholes that can you descend into and resurface only about a week later. There are arcane rules about what you can leave for the garbage, so you end up owning a large vehicle to make regular trips to the local dump. The public school system spends on average $23,000 per child per year, even as their test results are some of the lowest in the state. Still, Governor Corzine, a man I know personally to be kind, dedicated and brilliant, thinks the remedy to our state's problems is to raise taxes further. Many of us are thinking it might be time to find a new home.
And what shocks me while all this goes on is how little protest anyone hears. In our city a brave man name Raphael Bachrach tried to establish a Hebrew language charter school which might have allowed some of the religious Jewish parents to recoup a couple of bucks of their hard-earned tax money through the establishment of a school where Hebrew and Jewish history would be taught. It died a quick death through lack of support.
ARE AMERICANS getting soft? If we would have lived under the George III, might we just have sipped our expensive and tax-laden tea with a few empty murmurs about the injustice of being taxed unfairly?
About 18 years ago I started writing essays about the dangers of Wall Street. At Oxford I watched as scores of my students who were studying law and medicine abandoned their intended professions to accept high paying jobs in finance. What would happen to a society, I pondered, in which the brightest minds were no longer building anything but were simply taking $100 and making it into $200?
Not that finance isn't important, but the industry became so dominant that it created a brain drain in nearly every other sector. Who would create the medical breakthroughs of tomorrow? Who would invent renewable sources of energy? But what I did not foresee is that even with all those brilliant people, Wall Street itself would collapse. The reason: money without purpose creates a zero sum game in which accumulation alone becomes the objective. The system is gradually bankrupted by greed.
The people I personally know on Wall Street who never succumbed to that greed were those who saw money as a means rather than an end. They made huge amounts to give away huge amounts to worthy causes. In other words, they placed justice at the center of their financial enterprises.But a lot of us are feeling that there is little that is just right now in American tax and bailout policies. And since the cornerstone of every society is justice, it's a problem that has to be remedied before people lose faith in the system.
Ombudsman:
This is pure speculation on my part, but I believe here's how Tannenbaum got involved.
Hikind went to their Iggud seeking their support. Of course, he got it. So now Hikind invites him to the rally in Borough Park, and puts up Tannenbaum as the featured speaker.
Now Hikind shleps his buddy up to Albany --- The JBAC is in no position to get into a tussle with Hikind, so they bite their collective lips.
So I do not like or respect Tannenbaum - nor do I think the JBAC is happy to see him at these events, but they're caught between a rock and a hard place.
If it was me, I would tell Hikind to get a babysitter for Tannenbaum....but that is not the position that the JBAC finds itself, at least not at the present time.
I could see that Tannenbaum's involvement may have been an almost unavoidable circumstance on the part of the organizers but be very wary! If the very pro-molester forces we are battling wanted a mole who would tell them the every move of Hikind, Pasik, Lipner, etc., Tannenbaum could be doing exactly that!
Agreed!
JBAC take note!
Shmuely Boteach is another bum that has no business moralizing to anyone. And this has nothing to do with his hashkofos or being put in cherem by Chabad. Boteach was under an investigation that was mysteriously dropped midway into whether missing funds from the Oxford Jewish Foundation were going into his pockets. Not to mention that several of his relatives have either been arrested or under investigation themselves.
Dear Rahm,
The passuk verse says, "If Hashem does not watch the city, the city guard is doing a worthless task".
Israel is central to the Jewish identity. Israel allows Jews the pride of a homeland. It shows the world that Jews are to be respected, and not a passing fad. The Israeli Defense Force and its Mossad, are respected the world over.
We may feel relaxed. We may feel proud of our accomplishments. We may feel we have the greatest protection from attack. We may feel that our strength is the work of our hands.
Therefore, the passuk verse warns us, "If Hashem does not watch the city, the city guard is doing a worthless task". If we fail to follow the path of Torah, Hashem will forsake us.
When the waters of morality vs. immorality become murky, the Jewish people suffer. When the value of material possessions is of greater import than the survival of the spirit, the Jewish people suffer. When the protection of criminals is a higher priority than protection of the innocent, the Jewish people suffer.
The joint Agudath Israel/Torah U'Mesorah Jewish Day School Society position on the issue of protecting innocent children from Orthodox Jewish pedophiles is blatantly wrong. Their position is the antithesis of Jewish values. It is an abomination for Jews to think this way.
The Agudath Israel/Torah U'Mesorah Jewish Day School Society lobbyists can no longer be given credence. They have veered so far from the G-dly path and the path of Torah to be acknowledged as representatives of Orthodox Jewry.
The only way to protect the vital interests of Israel and Judaism is with awareness of it's enemies. Agudath Israel/Torah U'Mesorah Jewish Day School Society are enemies of the worst kind.
Have a Chag Sameach!
Rabbi XXXX
I sent a memo to Tannenbaum that the climate is still not right for this.
I think That Torah and Talmud describe a Divine reality but are not that Divine reality in themseves.
There are flaws in the system. To give one example:
The Orthodox Jew is not a homo sapien. He is a higher spiritual being. He might be charming and nice to homo sapens but in the long run he just sees them as cute little pets,-or perhaps chickens and cows. Would he be willing to slaughter a chicken or cow? Maybe not. But he would pay for others to do so.
They have "certainty". They are the last and only hope of the universe. And would they be willing to lie and kill to save the universe? After all they do operate on the principle of the greater good.
They claim to have the answer to all mankind. But is the answer worth it? Is it worth your family? Maybe the answer is in itself the problem?
To tell the truth when I learn gemara with my learning partner we are just discover the truth that there is much of in Torah. But he cant afford to be a critic and so we really can't examine these issues very well.
I say pull orthodox Judaism off the market. But let us say we don't do that. After all there are great books in it, Torah, Talmud, Rambam, Tosphot, the Ari, R Nachman.
But there should be a warning message of severe psychological damage that it causes.
But let us say that we dont pull Breslov off the market because Rebbi Nachman was a great Zadik. But maybe there should be a warning message on the side of the package the surgeon general has determined that this product will cause you to stop learning Gemara, it will put your marriage in jepordy, will damage you mental health.
Hey, I can help with molesters!
What good is a guy like Tannenbaum who can't do much more than give his hechsher on shaytelach in Boro Park? I'm a guy who gets the job done!
All of Tannenbaum's frauds were intercepted by the Feds before he could finish them but I have a long list of references who can vouch that I saw my frauds through to completion.
US Dept of Education's lunch program
Fannie Mae
Credit Suisse
Rabbi Slifkin
The dopes who went to jail for me at Bnai Torah
Former Senator Dan Flood of Pennsylvania
Avrohom Donner
Shea:
The climate is definitely warming worldwide for the worse.
This is where I'm coming from. I have no motive, I have no bias. I don't get paid, and I work only for chessed.
I am sick and tired of watching the lives of children be cut off and destroyed.
I am sick and tired of watching kids get thrown out of Yeshiva because they are "bad influences" on other kids. That's pure sheker, who did that to them, who hurt them so, that they are rebelling that way? I don't want to lose even one more child to accidental or purposeful drug overdose of suicide.
I am sick and tired of the hypocrites who proclaim to be the "gedolim" and are supposed to be the best role models for the children and in the mean time are hurting, molesting and destroying them; pushing and shoving them off the derech; threatening them with death and worse to hurt their families; and even playing with their psyches telling them that they forced them to act that way; and then turning the the rest of the olam and pretending to be pious and ehrlich yiddin and receiving kovod and honor for their "good" deeds. And that includes the villain that had a child abducted and forceably sent to a torture camp "Jamaica Bay" run by goyim.
I am sick and tired of Rabbonim who call children and their parents "liars" for coming forward with the truth and telling them to "shut up" and not say a word while the molester continues to destroy one after another, child after child.
Is that motivation enough? Should I continue? I am sick and tired of young girls not being safe in their own homes in their own bed; need more? I am sick and tired of worrying about kids going off to out-of-town yeshivas and sleep away camps being molested in their bunks or in the showers. I am terrified of young boys going to the mikveh to perform a mitzvah only to be raped and molested. Should I keep going or I you as nauseous and fed up as I am? Do you think these practices should have been stopped a long time ago and some safety precautions could have been put into place?
Do you know how many yiddishe kinderlach could have and should have been saved by now? Do you know how many kids are sacrificed every single day until we stand up and reveal the WALL of SHAME?
This is my question to all of you. HOW MUCH LONGER ARE YOU GOING TO STAND FOR IT AND STAMP YOUR FEET IN DISGUST AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
Did I say one word about not giving Ohel tzedaka for the kids they do help? Did I say one negative word about the good things that Agudah does do? Did I say one negative word about true and honest Rabbonim? I hold Rav Moshe Feinstein z"tl and Rav Pam z'tl to be my Rebbeim. As far as I'm concerned, until I meet Rabbonim as fine and ehrlich; as caring and compassionate about EVERY single JEW m'gadol v'ad katan, I reserve judgment on the rest of the Rabbinic population.
I hold the leadership who CAN make a difference responsible and accountable for exposing the pedophiles and putting them out of business. When that happens ALL forms of molestation and incest will come to an end because then and only then will the pedophiles and molesters know that their days of reckoning have come and only then will victims know that they will be heard, they will be believed and they will be protected. Any more questions for me, I hope I have made my position very clear. I have nothing to gain but to protect my grandchildren and yours.
Dov Hikind asked me if I could babysit Gershon Tannenbaum.
Forget it! Do you know how many people Tannenbumbum owes money to? What makes Hikind think I would get paid?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/us/politics/30cong.html
The House approved a $3.5 trillion federal budget on Wednesday as Democrats raced to cap President Obama’s first 100 days in office by adopting a fiscal blueprint laying out the path for his chief (Marxist) policy initiatives.
The vote of 233 to 193, closely following party lines, demonstrated again the deep ideological divisions in the House, as Republicans rejected the spending plan en masse, joined by 17 Democrats.
Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, called the Democratic budget an “audacious move to a big, socialist government in Washington.” Republicans said the plan masked future deficits and would shift much of the responsibility for pay those deficits to future generations.
The budget also does not extend a new middle class tax cut established by the president beyond 2010, unless Congress finds a way to pay for it.
http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/042309/njAttorneyWarnsClients.html
by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer
April 23, 2009
Attorney Lawrence Horn is warning fellow members of New Jersey’s Jewish community to “come in from the cold” if they are hiding undeclared income in Swiss or Israeli banks — or face the possibility of stiff penalties and even prison time.
Horn, chair of the Business Crimes and Tax Litigation Departments at Sills Cummis and Gross, told NJ Jewish News that the government is cracking down on those who have not paid United States taxes on their assets in foreign banks.
He urged those with $10,000 or more in such banks to take advantage of what the IRS calls its “voluntary disclosure policy.”
“If you come forward before Sept. 23, the Internal Revenue Service will only take 20 percent of that money. But after Sept. 23, the percentage will rise to 33, then 50 percent,” he said.
“If people don’t come forward by then, they are likely to be prosecuted.”
His plea follows a government crackdown on UBS Bank. The multinational institution has an estimated 53,000 American depositors who have not declared their earnings on their tax returns. Horn estimated that 10,000-15,000 of them are in the New York area alone, and while he cannot say what percentage of them are Jewish, he described many as “wealthy people of European extraction.”
Israel is not a repository for offshore banking in the way Switzerland or the Cayman Islands are. However, said Horn, “most Jewish people who have money in Switzerland also have money in Israel. Anecdotally, when I have clients in Credit Suisse or Deutsche Bank and they are Jewish, they usually have money in Israel, and they are not reporting that money either.”
He characterized his client base as “Americans of various descents and religions,” but noted that “a significant number are from Jewish families — whether they be European, Iranian, Iraqi, Syrian, or Egyptian — who for reasons of fleeing those countries 20 or 30 years ago placed money in accounts overseas which they either utilized on an annual basis or let sit.”
“I’m a legal oncologist,” he joked. “I give people bad news every day, because clients who are being investigated by the IRS don’t like to hear from their lawyers about what’s happening with the investigation. There are an awful lot of Jewish taxpayers who should seriously consider voluntary disclosure.”
Horn believes the federal government is offering a “very good carrot” to encourage voluntary disclosure as well as the “stick” of prosecution for tax evasion for those who don’t volunteer.
Voluntary disclosure lets depositors “avoid prosecution,” said Horn, “and they can get most of their money back without it being questioned or looked at.”
As for the stick, “if the IRS selects you to investigate, a year from now the stakes will be a lot higher,” he cautioned. “You may go to jail for 33 to 44 months if you are caught and plead guilty, and possibly longer if you go to trial and are convicted. That is a lot of time.”
Horn, who has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a law degree from New York University, specialized in tax fraud prosecutions as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1971 to 1978. He is a congregant and former board member of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown
Dear UOJ,
Let me see if I got this correct. Tannenbaum is to the Igud HaGanovim as Shafran is to the Agudas HaGanovim. Shafran and company are unequivocally opposed to victim's rights when it may implode their comfortable lifestyles antithetical to observant Judaism. Tannenbaum is in the company of a loose conglomeration of individuals who will defend, to the nth degree, their right to be antithetical to everything about observant Judaism. I learned that if A=B and B=C, then A=C; was I mislead?
Has anyone a comment on the Torah VeDaas honorees. I believe that smoke is rising from Rav Yaakov's kever. Has anyone noticed that Novominsk couldn't find anyone from Flatbush to honor at their dinner, must be strictly a Boro Park affair.
Regarding truth in labelling and warnings. Philosophies are about the argument not about getting to the facts or the practice. Observant Judaism is not a philosophy, it's an action requiring a lot of effort in attaining practice. Sticking to the foundation and avoiding the esoteric pilpul (leave that to the Yeshive bloggers who need to justify their kollel existence) is, in my opinion, the authentic observance of Judaism. Much can be found by learning Chumash with Rashi that was undiscovered or unsaid. We don't need to put warnings on Torah, but on Torah personalities.
Boruch:
No one asked me if I thought having Tannenbaum speak in Albany was a good idea. The deed of supporting the Markey Bill is a good one.
I would prefer if the JBAC would not have him appear at their gatherings.
Remember -- I'm only one guy with a computer, and drains sewers in my "spare" time.
About another child who's life was destroyed.
The second-class fallen
Posted by Sherri Mandell
Even the headline in the Jerusalem Post gets it wrong ... Remembrance Day to honor thousands of servicemen and servicewomen. Those who were killed in war.
But there is no mention of the thousands that have been murdered in terror attacks. Even though this day is officially for families like ours as well, the Post doesn't mention it.
Face it: victims of terror attacks are the second-class fallen. They didn't die in uniform, but in school clothes. They didn't die next to their comrades but in cafés and on buses. They were going about the daily life of school or work, not busy honorably defending their country. There was no glory to their deaths.
Perhaps there is national shame as well: this country could not defend them, innocent mothers and fathers and children and brother and sisters. And the victims of terrorism are evidence as well of the difficulties of establishing peace with the Palestinians, who purposefully murdered these innocent civilians in cold blood.
The rest of the world regards children like my son Koby and his friend Yosef Ish Ran, cruelly murdered by terrorists, with little compassion. Where are the European NGOs speaking about terrorist victims' human rights? The New York Times wouldn't even refer to Koby as a victim of terrorism because he was killed in the West Bank.
Even in Israel on this day terrorist victims are remembered, a little. I am asked to speak on Yom ha Zicharon [Remembrance Day] at schools and in community centers. A mild flurry of activity surrounds this day. The rest of the time the country can forget. They can forget about the little boy who went to school and never came home. But my family carries his sweet little face and his inhuman killing in our hearts forever.
"Agudas HaGanovim"
That's actually what they call Hersh Ginsberg and his friends who hijacked R' Moishe's old beis din called Agudas Harabbonim.
Hey, how come no one invited me to speak in Albany? I think I'll just show up next time unannounced to grab the microphone anyway.
If there's no beis din that let's me give pompous speeches, I've got to let myself be heard somewhere.
Mrs Mandell is right about terrorists but it would be nice if her husband Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandell resigned from the OU instead of participating in the Rubashkin cover up.
This is so predictable. SHmarya cannot get in the last word here before blocking me from replying like he does on his own blog so he just slinked away after losing the argument. And what does he do next? His first new post today is promoting the organization that persuades people to leave the fold of Torah & mitzvos.
Meanwhile, Failed Messiah's false messiah Obama can't get his biggest campaign "promise" of middle class tax cuts to last longer than a year. Wow were the voters ever duped.
I don't trust Tannenbaum or Hikind. Hikind has already sold us out and Tannenbaum, well, I don't need say anymore. We have to do better in the spokespeople department.
From a white supremasist list serve:
There is absolutely NO DOUBT that if Agudath Israel's current leadership, board members, and Rabbis were running the organization during World War Two, they would have shipped many more boatloads of people back to be murdered.
They will get Avi "Goebbels" Shafran to justify it to avoid bringing down our community most vital institutions.
They will get "Rabbi" Perlow to say since this is happening in Germany, not Boro Park it's of no concern.
"Rabbi" Solomon would tell the Germans to go sweep six million Jews under the rug.
The callous bunch of child murderers will make a convention lambasting the greatest threat to Judaism survival is some kooky Jewish guy who is spreading lies and tawdry tales against them, and have the "DASS TORAH" decide to sacrifice six million of their brothers is called Sanctifying the Name of God.
The Agudath Israel animals believe in sacrificing children for the sake of their real estate.
Do you really think they won't slaughter an innocent Gentile to use his blood for their Passover crackers????
There is a golden opportunity for Klal Yisroel -- to select new leadership -- and dump the corrupt old guard.
This window of opportunity will be fleeting; does Klal Yisroel have what it takes?
Rabbosai - the future Jewish generations will either make it or not depending on if you select new, brave, bright, bold, honest, no-nonsense leaders.
Shareholders Oust Bank of America Chief as Chairman
By LOUISE STORY
NY Times
13 minutes ago
Shareholders stripped Kenneth D. Lewis of his chairman’s title in a vote that may mark the beginning of the end of his leadership at the embattled bank.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/us/30scotus.html?hp
But let's see if Ho Ho Holder let's the crook off the hook.
Steve you are the greatest! (besides for our personal roto rooter friend) keep it up.
Hello LVF
What was the JBAC supposed to do if Tannenbaum showed up? I was there and there were NO other rabbis. Mark Appel grabbed the podium and introduced him because he wanted to show that there are some rabbis on the right side. I think he would have been happy to have any adult Jewish male with a bris mila, or more importantly a beard and a black hat.
NEXT time, if the choshuve UOJ oylam will actually show their faces at a JBAC event, believe me they will not have room for Tanenbaum. Seriously where was everyone????
We needed a showing. We got one but a pretty pathetic one. Appel also shlepped a few lubavitchers from albany, Nochum Rosenberg was there with his "shamash" and Pearl Engelman with her grandson.
This blog is great. But its all talk and no action. Except for the owner, OBVIOUSLY!
Is Belsky only matir for dogs or people too?
http://www.kof-k.org/articles/081408110849H-1%20Hamodia%20Article.pdf
A point worth mentioning when eating outside is that “Eating in the street is comparable to the actions of a dog, and some say one who does this is passul to testify” (Kiddushin 40b). Some say this means one may not eat a meal in the street, while others say it means even if one merely grabs a bite. The Yerushalmi (Meseches Maaseros 3:2) says it is not praiseworthy for a talmid chacham to eat in the street.
A ben Torah should not eat outside even in an area that is enclosed with a gate; rather, he should choose to eat inside. For others, it is perhaps permitted (Rav Belsky).
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The recession that is shrinking workers' paychecks may also be expanding their waistlines, a survey showed on Wednesday.
One in 10 U.S. workers said they are snacking more during the day due to concerns over the economic situation, and nearly half complained of gaining weight in their jobs, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.
It said 43 percent of employees surveyed reported they have gained weight while in their present jobs. A quarter said they gained more than 10 pounds and a sixth gained more than 20 pounds.
VIN has a well-written article on a Boro Park yungerman who went to commit suicide last November. Obviously not all of the comments are sympathetic. I leave it to UOJ to excerpt or post the article. But here is my comment.
Tatte zisseh. When will your children become more like Pinchos and less like Korach?
To the individual who wrote Fantasy. What are you referring to? The story, the feelings of Pinny, the galling lapse of concern on the part of the hanhala and Rebbeim. Are you one of those who believes that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth? I feel badly for those around you.
For the individual bent on exorciating the Forward, you're right. He should have gone to the police with the guys name and have the police break down the door of wherever this pervert is working and arrest everyone until the pervert is fired and the pervert confesses. For those who talk coercion, watch how many present victims would step forward knowing that they aren't alone and the cops would pleasurably beat this pervert into a stupor.
Remember all of you that our worst enemies were able to do their perversions and dastardly deeds because no one believed that they were capable of doing so. There are still those who deny the reality of modern genocide because they will swear up and down, mankind is incapable of doing this. Silence is a shield and darkness is a shield. Criminals look to silence their accusers. It's a canard of criminality. Maybe you don't believe this story comes from an actual person. Maybe it's a composite of stories from 10's of children. That's an issue and that needs the exposure. When these predators are exposed to the light they are then shaking and confused. We need to defend those who come forward who have been molested as vigorously as we raise holy hell when a goy brings Nathan's hot dogs to restaurant. Destroying a neshoma and having it turn against the holy foundation it stemmed from is, to me, worse than eating chazir. I can do teshuvah for eating chazir, what teshuvah is there for obliterating the neshomah of a child?
Hashem have rachomim on your children. We look to you, now. You are our help and support. Please, Hashem, save us now.
JWB agrees with Jewish Press reader that Shafran and Agudath Israel are an embarassment
http:/www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/39069
More On Shafran (II)
Aside from the embarrassment Avi Shafran caused Orthodox Jews everywhere, there is another dimension to this sorry episode.
For years, the Agudah, for whom Shafran works as its director of communications, has claimed preeminent authority to speak for the Jewish community based on the organization's supposedly acting on the instructions of its council of sages, the Moetzet Gedolei Hatorah of America. This presents any thinking person with a serious dilemma.
If the sages of the Moetzet authorized Shafran's atrocious piece, one can't help but wonder whether their judgments on other public issues deserve automatic deference. But if the sages did not approve Shafran's article (which seems more likely), what are we then to make of the Agudah's claimed basis for its authority - i.e., how are we to know when the sages are involved in vetting the organization's proclamations and public statements and stances?
Gershon Millman
(Via E-Mail)
JWB agrees with JBAC letter in the Jewish Press. We need Markey Law
http:/www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/39069
New York Needs Markey Law
The Markey bill would extend the statute of limitations on both criminal prosecution and civil cases of sexual abuse for five years until the victim is 28 years old. It would also open a one-year "window" during which time victims of any age could come forward to hold their molesters responsible with a lawsuit for damages.
This one-year window has enabled victims in other states to help law enforcement officials identify active sexual predators (more than 350 in California alone) who were previously unknown.
Myths about old and false allegations are being used as a scare technique by those who would prefer to keep our community's substantial problem under wraps. If this law is passed, it would help to end, rather than encourage, the very rare cases of false accusations. Going through a trial is a tremendous ordeal that people without excellent evidence do not want to endure. This law would discourage the filing of false reports, as the allegations would need to be substantiated to have their day in court.
Dr. David Pelcovitz, a leading expert in this field, has repeatedly made it clear that false abuse allegations made by a child not involved in a custody dispute are extremely rare, occurring in less than one percent of cases. When the statute of limitations window was lifted in other states, old flimsy cases never made it past first base.
No institution - no school, no church, no shul - was closed as a result of the window being lifted in other states. Institutions have insurance policies that protect them from these types of lawsuits anyway, so suggesting that tuition increases will result from this one-year window is nothing more than a desperate scare tactic.
We need to save our innocent children and not worry about tarnishing our image while we are cleaning up. This is our chance to really make a Kiddush Hashem by putting a stop to our customary cover-up efforts and addressing the problem courageously.
To help get this law passed, you can call your state assemblyman and state senator to express your support. In addition, it's important to check if your children and grandchildren's private schools have personal safety policies in place to prevent abuse, as well as a written protocol to follow, in case abuse is reported - just as the public schools have.
Mrs. Bracha Goetz
Executive Committee
Jewish Board of Advocates for Children
JWB says OHEL protects the abusers not the abused:
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=4175
A. OHEL CEO David Mandel proposes protecting the child molesters "Open a one-year window for perpetrators to disclose their acts that were committed and that exceed the criminal statute of limitations. Provide them amnesty from future civil suits."
B. RCA supports Markey bill
C. Larry Gordon editorial
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=4170
...
The Ohel position, as enunciated in the Mandel statement, calls for an amnesty of sorts on prosecution or civil lawsuits provided offenders come forward on their own, admit their guilt, and seek professional help. Pasik said that he was astounded by such a suggestion, saying, “How can there even be a mention of any kind of amnesty for the type of damage wrought here for so long without anyone stepping forward and speaking out?” Mr. Pasik, who is lobbying Albany to pass legislation on these matters, is astounded that now that we’ve finally begun, after all these decades, to seriously address abuse issues, we are talking about amnesties and reducing the ability of a victim to seek redress.
...
D. Story of a survivor
http://www.forward.com/articles/105262/
...
The teacher who Pinny alleges sexually abused him has not been charged with any crime, and is now beyond New York State’s statute of limitation for either criminal charges or a civil suit by Pinny. This paper does not, therefore, identify him by name.
...
About a year after Pinny first tried to tell of the abuse, his mentor abruptly left Yeshiva Tiferes Shulem D’Nadvorna. He was hired by another school in Boro Park, only to be let go about a year later. The pattern repeated twice more. Pinny followed his abuser’s career with a sick feeling in his stomach. He was sure the same thing that happened to him was happening to other kids; he heard whispered stories about this teacher, but nothing ever came of it.
...
Comments must be kept to a short paragraph or two.
Thanks,
UOJ
I don't have a CPA or MBA. I don't even have an associate’s degree. My many brothers and sisters have masters degrees, even Doctorates. I never had a chance; you see at one time I was a promising student. I could read books at age 4.
Trauma is a horrible thing, so horrible that when you wake up from it at a much later age, a new trauma sets it. This one is much worse and unimaginable for most, the realization of a lost childhood and adulthood is so difficult. More so, not to forget permanent mental damage. What a reminder that is.
You see, I get offended when people use bad logic and are uncaring to those harmed really badly. I also understand that sometimes people make decisions based on pressure, rather which doing what is right. In this case it is their religion, or rather selfish salvation, that won't let them help those who need help the most. To stop laws that would help those harmed the most.
I wonder if getting raped from age 8 to 10 and once gang raped by 4 priests might help some understand better how trauama occurs. Add to this, a priest who attempted to suffocate me, I played dead and slept in the woods.
How about this, four of my rapists are not even listed on the abused list at bishopaccountability. org How many others haven't been reported? Probably many more.
Then again, I was threatened from telling anyone or face harm to myself, and my family from being shunned and looked away from. They told me they would excommunicate my family. Yes, they were kind to explain its meaning and effects.
Then again, does it really matter that the current bishop of the diocese is one of my abusers. I'm sure he protects the rest and only defrocks those whose rapes where too obvious, deals are struck I'm sure.
It would have been nice if I could have passed classes, but I was too vigilant and could never concentrate. I became alone, spending all my elementary days figuring out how to kill myself. I did have to be a good actor too, couldn't let anyone know something was wrong.
I was so traumatized that even in 2002, I was still escaping and living a life of chaos and self destruction. This stuff is normal for those severely traumatized. It took my need to protecting a small boy at the age I was when abused, to cause the trigger and awaken. I woke out of it two years after 2002.
Then again I have two witnesses, so proving is not a problem at all. However as a child they told me no one would ever believe me. Guess what happens today?
No chance at court and those devout religious call me a liar. They were right and evey religious follower is helping my rapists now.
I don't worry too much about a tiny few who might jump on the bandwagon, after all this happens with everything. Should we no longer prosecute anyone for anything? No more jails then. I guess some people don't care about those with lost lives, guess they can twist anything to meet their end. Do people stop believing in our justice system if it serves their purpose.
The new crusade to harm victims again has been built. This is too difficult to accept. Please support Margaret Markey’s bill . Please abort yours.
BTW, the RCC has used every effort to humiliate me and will convince others I am a liar. Pedophiles can do that well, they can fool anyone. How can I combat this? How about my family who is ashamed to go to church?
I am a single dad who is disabled, disabled from the violent rapes by Catholic priests. I have written a book describing the rape and helping people understand how trauma destroys lives. I have included the many campaigns and those who fight against the victims, including those who need to support the organization. I have enough proof the Vatican did interfere to make sure justice would never be served. I can go on and help those understand that Catholic charities will not be effective; it's a web of revenue so nicely woven. Even if it did, though not likely, there would be so many new services offered by other organizations as it leaves an opportunity.
My book is now being edited. I can only hope it gets published before the final votes come in.
Finally, public school abuses are generally localized and less than violent. The violent pedophiles are found in organizations as the RCC. More so, this is organized pedophilia, which I have also proved.
The study to demonstrate public school abuse was more prevalent, changed the rules without going back to apply the same to Catholic ones. You see, they now include questionable abuses, such as "your dress looks nice". This is wrong, but those crusaders will resort to anything.
Remember, the RCC has lots of cash, they will jump on not only every publication, even have their crusaders create new ones. How can victims compete with this? Only you can help us, you are who we truly need to help us get the justice we deserve.
One final note; There should be unique laws in place for organizations as the RCC who, from the very top demanded secrecy leaving the child in a life long trauma and encouraged threats.
Please, their crime is the Perfect Crime.
My sincere thanks,
Pete Lafond
Thanks LVF.
UOJ, Basil Herring's statement was not about the Markey Bill but about the fingerprinting bill. That would be the Weisenberg Bill.
I don't like putting my neck out, but in light of what I just read I will. As there is FREE therapy at Mt. Sinai Hospital under the Savvy-Takkanot program for surivors of sexual abuse in the frum community specifically, why is Ohel pushing for us to raise money for therap? It is because they expect it to come to them those funds as they "counsel" the victims. Why are they asking for amnesty for perpetrators? Because one of the best kept secrets in our community is that Ohel has a program for perpetrators. They get paid to "monitor" the perpetrators (and haven't been that successful as some of their clients went on abusing even as they were under "Ohel" monitoring). Even worse has been cases where kids who were molested were sent to Ohel and met their molester in the corridors there.
I stand corrected Steve. What is the position of the RCA on the Markey Bill?
I haven't seen any official statement from the RCA regarding Markey. The OU said that they are "not opposed" to it. That's what I call real leadership :)
March 20, 2009
Dear Ms. Markey:
The Rabbinical Council of America represents more than 1,000 modern and centrist orthodox rabbis. We are the rabbinic arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
We support Bill No. A.02596, sponsored by you, which would extend the civil and criminal statutes of limitations for sex abuse victims.
Child sex abuse is a horrendous crime. Victims often bear the scars for entire lifetimes. They are at higher risk for clinical depression, substance abuse, and suicide.
Many victims are overcome by feelings of confusion, shame, and embarrassment. As children and teens, they are psychologically and emotionally unable to deal with the court system. Only later, as adults, and often with therapy, do they feel comfortable in working with the judicial system. Unfortunately, arbitrary statutes of limitations stand in their way.
Jewish law and tradition recognize the need for our justice system to protect the most vulnerable among us. Lowering the statute of limitations bar for child sex abuse victims would serve that purpose. Sexual predators are often recidivists and need to be incarcerated, and classified as convicted sex offenders, in order to assure public safety. Sex abuse victims deserve to be fairly compensated for their grievous injuries. Your bill will assure these laudatory goals.
Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Basil Herring
Executive Vice-President
Think Taxes Are Too High Now?
Just wait: Congress is all but certain to raise them a couple of years from now. Tax increases will hit both businesses and individuals -- and not just singles making more than $200,000 a year and married couples over $250,000 a year. They'll be the first to get pinched, but not the last. There's just not enough revenue that can be drawn from the wealthy without crippling the economy, so in time, middle incomers will feel a bigger bite, too.
Probable Hike for Businesses
New restrictions on worker classification to make it easier for the IRS to crack down on firms that treat workers as contractors who are really employees.
Higher SECA taxes for owners of S firms and partnerships by blocking them in the future from skirting payroll taxes by taking their compensation as dividends instead of salary.
An elimination of some tax breaks for big corporations, including the deduction for domestic production, accelerated depreciation and incentives for foreign income
JWB says:
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=4175
Dear Ms. Markey:
The Rabbinical Council of America represents more than 1,000 modern and centrist orthodox rabbis. We are the rabbinic arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
We support Bill No. A.02596, sponsored by you, which would extend the civil and criminal statutes of limitations for sex abuse victims.
Child sex abuse is a horrendous crime. Victims often bear the scars for entire lifetimes. They are at higher risk for clinical depression, substance abuse, and suicide.
Many victims are overcome by feelings of confusion, shame, and embarrassment. As children and teens, they are psychologically and emotionally unable to deal with the court system. Only later, as adults, and often with therapy, do they feel comfortable in working with the judicial system. Unfortunately, arbitrary statutes of limitations stand in their way.
Jewish law and tradition recognize the need for our justice system to protect the most vulnerable among us. Lowering the statute of limitations bar for child sex abuse victims would serve that purpose. Sexual predators are often recidivists and need to be incarcerated, and classified as convicted sex offenders, in order to assure public safety. Sex abuse victims deserve to be fairly compensated for their grievous injuries. Your bill will assure these laudatory goals.
Sincerely yours,
Rabbi Basil Herring
Executive Vice-President
Thank you for posting the correct letter from the RCA. The RCA is the only organization that has been in the forefront of this war for the past ten years. Their resolutions need to be adopted by ALL yeshivos and institutions. Had they been listened to at the time of their first resolution, thousands of innocent souls would have been saved.
Regarding the Markey Bill, and the Torah’s hashkafas on it:
Chazal went to great lengths to make Takanas to avoid such perpetration. The Gemara in Shabbas 17B says that Chazal were gozer on their bread and oil lest we may drink their wine, and on the wine because of their daughters and on their daughters lest it leads to a Davar Acher. Mai Davar Achair? The Gemera concludes precisely this; our children being perpetrated from them by acts of Mishkav Zachor.
Similarly the gemara in Yebomos in the beginning of Perek Chairish 112B states that chazal made a great Takana to allow the brothers and mother of a Yesoma to marry her off m’idarabanon, before she was Bas-Mitsva, so that she shouldn’t be violated and taken advantage of in ways of znus. Rashi explains; "she has no one to watch her, and they will take advantage of her in the ways of znus"
Ohel has always been a creepy organization yet many shuls have let them raise money from the bimah. I am thinking of one in particular where David speaks and raises and the accountant has "donated" a lot of money and and and.
If anyone can guess the name of the shul, the name of the accountant,etc. they get a point.
I haven't decided yet if their is any "legal basis" to continue imprisoning al Qaeda terrorists who murdered thousands of Americans on Sept. 11th. If I do, President Obama has ordered Guantanamo closed regardless, which means these killers will be put on American soil where they could escape into your neighborhoods. If Congress & the States prevail in keeping them out of general prisons, we will just have to spend $50 million more of your taxpayer dollars to build them their own prison, all to appease Liberals who just don't like Guantanamo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/nyregion/01shays.html
May 1, 2009
Ex-Congressman Says Campaign Manager Embezzled Funds
By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
In late November, Christopher Shays was still absorbing the shock of having lost his bid for re-election after 22 years in Congress when he made a troubling discovery: Tens of thousands of dollars had disappeared from his campaign treasury.
The news got worse, according to an adviser to Mr. Shays: The man Mr. Shays entrusted to run his political operation for nearly a decade had been quietly draining the account and had spent nearly $200,000 on Red Sox tickets, limousine travel, mysterious withdrawals at the Foxwoods casino and a donation of more than $1,000 to his synagogue.
The campaign manager, Michael Sohn, has not been charged with a crime.
The Federal Election Commission has opened an investigation into the apparent financial irregularities at the request of Mr. Shays, who has also alerted the Justice Department.
The bank statements the campaign had in its own files did not match those kept at the bank, and showed a higher account balance than actually existed.
The campaign quickly hired staff to conduct a forensic audit. They found that there were 21 A.T.M. withdrawals apparently made by Mr. Sohn totaling about $70,000, and nearly $100,000 in unauthorized checks made out to Mr. Sohn himself. The audit also found that he had made about $22,000 in unauthorized charges on the campaign credit card, including almost $11,000 for cellular phone service, $615 for a hotel stay in New York City and $877 for a meal at a steakhouse in Washington, Mr. Fox said.
Mr. Shays said Mr. Sohn withdrew $2,000 from an A.T.M. at the Foxwoods casino.
More absurdities from the overpaid CEO of Ohel. This idiot is constantly introduced at gatherings as some "expert" on the topic of sexual abuse, yet he has zero educational background on the subject. His convoluted idea that the molesters be granted amnesty if they come forward within a year is another way of delaying justice for the victims. None of the molesters are coming forward publicly and declaring "I am a child molester", or "I abused about a hundred children in my lifetime". I do not know of one molester in the Jewish community that admitted his guilt without first being confronted by accusations. What is there to gain for them? They will be branded for life regardless. Money? They can easily declare personal bankruptcy and not have to pay a cent, even if they are found guilty. All along they can continue denying and calling the charges one massive conspiracy, a la Yudi Kolko. I would think that they would logically take their chances that the victims who haven't outed them to date will not sue, even if Markey passes.
Then there is this thing about "therapy" again. Yes, a child molester needs extensive therapy. However, studies show that the rate of recidivism is extremely high, even among those "recovering" molesters. Yet, Mandel keeps spewing out the argument that with therapy, child molesters can be cured for good and they will not pose a danger to children anymore. He even suggests that they can be employed as teachers of young children. He stated this at the YTT parent conference in June 2006 when Margulies tried to calm the parents down in the wake of the Kolko revelations in NY Magazine. At that same meeting, Margulies announced that the yeshiva had appointed a new "psychologist" to deal with molested children. That "psychologist" turned out to be the now infamous "Bungalow Putz" who tried to bring down UOJ. Mandel also appeared at the Baltimore conference, now known to victims and advocates as the infamous Baltimore Massacre. At that meeting, he strongly advocated not going to the police, but going to the rabbis when a child is sexually abused.
It's obvious that Ohel will be subject to several lawsuits if Markey passes. Just from the Mondrowitz victims alone, they would be subject to tremendous negative publicity. Such publicity can topple this organization and poor David will be out of his cushy job. Now you know why he keeps spouting off.
(AP) - An executive at a Dallas investment firm that advises some of the country's biggest public pension funds has been arrested in connection with a pay-to-play scandal in New York.
Saul Meyer is a co-founder of Aldus Equity, one of several companies whose conduct has come under scrutiny in a probe led by N.Y. state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a complaint filed Thursday that Aldus paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in "sham fees" to a top aide to New York's former comptroller in exchange for his help landing the company a $175 million pension fund deal.
Mr. Meyer surrendered to face criminal charges Thursday morning.
Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli says he will step down after the company emerges from bankruptcy.
Chrysler Hearings Begin in Bankruptcy Court
By ZACHERY KOUWE
NY Times
10 minutes ago
The fate of Chrysler shifted from Washington to a Manhattan courtroom on Friday, as lawyers for the automaker sought a settlement with creditors.
US Sen Reid: Health Bill Easier To Pass Than Climate Change
Wall Street Journal - 27 minutes ago
By Patrick Yoest
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., expressed optimism Friday that the Senate could pass health care legislation, but sounded more cautious notes about writing legislation intended to address global warming
Project SARAH (Stop Abusive Relationships At Home), the Clifton-based statewide provider of services for Jewish victims of domestic violence, has won a Competitive Victim Assistance Grant and will use it to develop additional services for survivors of sexual assault.
A training conference on May 7 will be the first event to be funded by the $48,063 grant, which was awarded by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law and Public Safety.
“What is Your Role in the Case of Suspected Child Abuse in the Jewish Community?” is geared to an invited audience of some 320 New Jersey congregational rabbis from all streams, as well as all day-school principals and heads of guidance. The speakers are to be the directors of Project Aleinu, a day-school-based program of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles aimed at preventing sexual abuse and dealing with individual victims and perpetrators and their families.
“This cross-denominational conference marks the beginning of expanding our mission to combat the issue of child sexual abuse in the Jewish community,” said Project SARAH director Elke Stein of Teaneck. “As a result of the grant, we were able to move forward in this area.”
While no Jewish victim is turned away from Project SARAH’s programs, its focus is primarily on the Orthodox.
“Those who come from the Orthodox Jewish community require specialized outreach services and community education and treatment that is sensitive to their complex religious and cultural issues,” said Esther East, executive director of Jewish Family Service of Greater Clifton-Passaic.
East said that many domestic-violence victims have also had histories of sexual abuse. “Project SARAH has worked with both male and female survivors of sexual assault and has been called upon to assist communities and rabbis who are dealing with these issues,” she said.
The conference, jointly sponsored by the 12 Jewish Family Service agencies in New Jersey, also will include an opportunity to meet with state legal personnel who become involved in cases of child sexual abuse.
In addition to direct treatment, Project SARAH also offers voluntary anger-management sessions for men; education; community outreach; professional training; and resource development. In 2007, it was part of a pilot project with the NYU Center on Violence and Recovery called Healing Circles. This community-based domestic-violence intervention brought together an affected couple, their children, and a “care community” of family and friends to address verbal, emotional, and physical abuse.
For information, call (973) 777-7638 or e-mail projectsarah.org
R'uoj, you do realize that tuning in to wmca 570 on may 2nd at 12:00 pm is shabbos afternoon.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/car_wash_brothers_face_labor_abuse_charges_20090422/
Since two local Iranian Jewish brothers were charged with a 176-count criminal complaint by the L.A. City Attorney’s Office in February for alleged labor law violations at their car washes, many area Iranian Jewish business owners are quietly expressing support for the pair. And some believe they are being singled out for political reasons.
The complaint alleges that Benny Pirian, 38, and Nissan Pirian, 31, the owners of four car washes in Northridge, Hollywood and Los Feliz, routinely refused to pay their workers minimum wage, failed to pay their workers overtime, prevented their workers from taking rest breaks and required their workers to purchase uniforms and equipment from them, in addition to other violations of state labor laws. The complaint also alleges that workers who attempted to unionize the car washes with the help of the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers were intimidated and harassed, and that a manager at one of the car washes brandished a machete and a club in two such union-busting incidents.
The City Attorney’s Office also alleges that the Pirians failed to provide medical attention to workers who were seriously injured by acid burns, deep puncture wounds and severe lacerations while on the job. If convicted on all counts, the Pirians could face more than 80 years in county jail and more than $1.25 million in fines and restitution.
“This was a joint investigation involving the investigators from our office and from the United States Department of Labor,” said Max Follmer, a City Attorney’s Office spokesperson. “Our offices investigated this case for some time, interviewing more than 40 witnesses.”
The Pirians’ arraignment is scheduled for May 7 in L.A. Superior Court.
The criminal charges are just the latest troubles for the Pirians. Bet Tzedek, the L.A.-based Jewish nonprofit law firm, first filed a civil class-action suit against the brothers and their four car washes last May on behalf of nearly 250 current and former workers for unpaid wages as well as denial of rest and meal breaks.
Businessman and philanthropist Ezri Namvar was once a pillar of the Los Angeles Iranian Jewish community, a trusted friend to whom many in the community loaned freely and without fear.
Now Namvar and his investment company, Namco Capital Group, Inc., are accused of losing as much as $400 million loaned to him.
For the last three months, lawsuits have been filed and extensive negotiations have been taking place to resolve the hundreds of millions of dollars in disputes between Namvar's creditors and the Brentwood Iranian Jewish businessman. On Dec. 22, two dozen creditors filed an involuntary bankruptcy petition against Namvar and Namco.
The petition follows 17 lawsuits filed against Namvar, Namco, entities owned by Namvar and other Namvar family members alleging breach of contract and contractual fraud in a case that attorneys estimate involves 300 to 400 creditors, the majority of whom are Iranian Jews.
Todah R' LVF! Corrected!
Did you see the posting today on Ohel on failed messiah.com ?
How much does the cholol dovid cohen get? is it under the table.
And the sheygetz Harry Myrles of Hamentza claims to be so infuriated by the child molestation yet he will not publicize the name of Izzie belsky who is the number one supporter of the most infamous abuser of them all.
He claims that until he has written proof that Dovid Cohen said its muttar to steal from goyim, he won't publicize the name. I provided with written evidence of Izzie yeshu's misbehavior regarding fraudulent gittin but instead he bans me.But the steipler's chavrusa he loudly condemns without providing written proof. instead he relies on allegations on a mo web site. this man myrles is a big fraud and needs to be exposed already. he is a liar a charlatan and a mo thug!
I'm also president of the Avi Shafran Fan Club. (Eckstein is Chairman of the board)
I agree with you, Steve. All this nonsense about "curing" child molesters really has to stop. Not only is the recidivism rate high, but there is evidence that some pedophiles are born, not made. Some molesters are unrecovered abuse survivors themselves, but others simply have a sexual preference for children. An inborn preference cannot be cured. It can only be managed. So, what if the "cure" doesn't work? What if a pedophile can't "manage" his impulses? What then?
More damage, more pain, more innocence shattered. Our children become the litmus test as to whether a person has rendered himself harmless. No child should be the guinea pig in that kind of dubious experiment.
Having been on the receiving end of this kind of abuse, having shared support groups with other survivors, and having counseled survivors, I have arrived at the conclusion that someone who molests a child has given up his right to live freely among the rest of us. Let him live, let him get counseling, and let him redeem himself--in prison, along with all the other people who inflict life-altering pain on the rest of us.
Focus the resources for healing on the survivors who have done no harm. And please, for G-d's sake, STOP using the word "victims." We are not victims. We are survivors. The difference is immense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_castration
UOJ (& Bob Grant) should get together with Eliot Pasik and have Albany pass laws to chemically castrate molesters.
Someone said on Yudel's blog today that the Finkelstein home in Monsey burned down to the ground. Is this true? Are pro-molester forces trying to shut them up?
http://www.csun.edu/~psy453/crimes_y.htm
Chemical castration is an ideal punishment for sex offenders. When Depo-Provera is administerd, recidivism rates fall to 5%. Their sexual fantasies are lessened as a result of the reduction of testosterone levels.
http://lohud.com/article/20090416/NEWS03/904160464/-1/SPORTS
A Congers woman who says she was duped out of her home has dropped a federal lawsuit in favor of a state one seeking $1.5 million in compensation and damages.
Elizabeth DiGiacomo's attorney, Wayne Gavioli of Nanuet, fired a buckshot blast at everyone within legal sight - a New Jersey real estate developer who lives in New Hempstead, a Monsey attorney and a notary and title company involved in the deal.
The filing of the lawsuit in state Supreme Court on Tuesday ended DiGiacomo's bid in federal court, where she had used an anti-racketeering statute to file a civil lawsuit naming Gershon Alexander, the real estate developer, and Ryan Karben, the Monsey attorney who's also a former assemblyman.
Gavioli said that although High Mountain Sanitation Haverstraw continued to be named in the new lawsuit, he believed it was "nothing but a shell corporation without assets," so it was financially better for his client to pursue a state lawsuit against the individuals instead.
The traffic agents are known to target frum neighborhoods because they get beaten up in tough Italian, Black & Hispanic neighborhoods.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=27531
From July 2007 to June 2008 the city issued 9,955,441 parking violation tickets, generating $624 million in revenue, according to NYC Department of Finance figures and NYPD statistics. A recent New York Times study discovered the number of parking tickets increased 42 percent since Mayor Bloomberg took office seven years ago.
The hardest-hit areas is Flatbush-Midwood/70th Pct. with 44,911 tickets
Who needs chemical castration with 5% of molesters still offending?
Let's do regular castration and bring the rate down to zero.
Make that the Finkelstein home in Lakewood.
I'm against home burnings of any kind.
The shmuck cares more about those overweight Black ticket agents wearing bulging polyester pants that are 3 sizes too small, than he does about children being sexually abused.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=27531
A new program to protect traffic agents was announced recently by Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes. “This program is essential, to ensure that assaults on traffic enforcement agents are prosecuted swiftly, efficiently and to the fullest extent of the law,” said Hynes. The state legislature passed a law last July making assaults on agents a Class-D felony with a possible sentence of up to seven years prison time.
Traffic agents are on an “out-of-control” ticket-writing spree in Bay Ridge and business leaders are calling for them to be reigned in, especially when they do not use discretion under certain circumstances that do not necessarily deserve a summons. That’s what Third Avenue merchant leaders are telling the city: stop in the name of reason!
“I can see through my office windows what traffic agents do,” said Wade Jabour of Jabour Realty, directly across from Councilman Vincent Gentile’s office on Third Avenue, a champion of fighting parking ticket excesses. “I saw the building’s landlord, a longtime businessman, now 90, getting a wheelchair from a car trunk. Suddenly an agent ran up and zapped him with a ticket. Can’t they use some discretion?”
Jabour, a Merchants of Third Avenue vice president, witnessed the recent incident in which Kelli Kilbride, owner of the neighboring Lavender Blue, was ticketed while waiting for a parking spot. She had her child in the car and was wearing a foot brace after a recent injury. “The agent ran quickly across the street with a summons. Where’s the respect and fair play?”
Gentile, who has led parking ticket forums, said there is an issue of respect for drivers under certain circumstances. He noted the double-parking ticket given a year ago to Eugene Iannicelli, 84, parked on Fort Hamilton Parkway to pick up his wife after a doctor’s visit. Gentile paid the $115 fine.
“This has to be handled from the top, with a sergeant asking agents to use discretion in situations where there is no serious violation, to use a little slack,”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/nyregion/02budget.html?hp
Bloomberg Proposes Sales Tax Increase
If those black ticket people would wear a rosh yeshiva frock, it would hide that they are bulging out of their hoyzen like me.
What does UOJ have against the Dallas Cowboys?
(CNN) -- An air-supported roof over the Dallas Cowboys' practice field collapsed during a heavy thunderstorm Saturday afternoon, leaving 12 people injured, authorities said.
The story of the Finkelstein home,
After the tragic death of the Finkelstein boy, the father (a ba'al teshuvah) decided to turn his home into a haven for disaffected youth (like his son had been). Shea had previously lived in a basement appartment with his girlfriend (a daughter of a broken home) and this appartment was turned into a lair for all the hard-core Kids-at-risk in Lakewood (mostly, of course, children of bt's and broken homes). One night of chol hamoed, the lebedige kinder got a little too lebedig and burned down the house. Oops!
Dear Dr.Patti
After I sent you my story you were able to help me through the girlthrive scholarship fund. I want to thank girlthrive for helping me attend a conference of sex abuse in Jewish families.
Most of the stories on your site are from girls who are still struggling with figuring out if what happened to them was abuse. I wanted to share my story, not so much for your advice but to let other girls know you can get out, you can get help, you can get away and on with your life. Probably the hardest part for me was finally accepting that my mother would never protect me. I was abused emotionally, physically, and sexually by both parents. When I turned 18, I decided never to go back. I'm 21 now, and I have been out of my parents' house for three years.
I was raised in a traditional Jewish household -- not incredibly rich, but not exactly poor. I went to private schools until high school. My father was a doctor, and my mother was a social worker. Not exactly the type of family you'd think would be as screwed up as we were! Certainly, I never gave much credit to what was going on in that house....I truly believed that EVERYONE had no locks on the bathroom doors, got into psychotic screaming matches with their mothers over how fast they loaded the dishwasher, and got hit by dad for making mom mad. I truly believed that ALL 12 year olds had to do all the cooking and cleaning for the entire household (never, of course,getting it right). Why wouldn't any other 12 year old have to buy her own food and clothing? My parents told me that they were the only ones who could ever love me, whom I could ever trust. Therefore I grew up in constant fear--fear of not making them happy (I never could) and fear of what would happen to me if they hated me and "threw me away".
The only reason I can convince myself to stay away from them is because of what HE did to me--my father, the sainted doctor, who saintedly molested his little girl. I had no idea back then that three-year-olds didn't need vaginal exams given by their dads. I had no idea, back then, that 10-year-olds didn't have to be felt-up daily by their fathers "to make sure they wear bras". I had no idea, back then, that 15-year-olds didn't need enemas just because dad said so---and that, even if they did, they could do it themselves. I knew that dad shouldn't walk in on me in the shower--but there was no stopping him. It is the sexual abuse that is so clear to me now. He violated my body, and my mother basically stood by and watched.
So how did I get away from that madness? How I am, a 21-year-old baby, about to finish a Master's Degree in Social Work and really make a life for myself? Well, I didn't get off easy. I was anorexic, I was a cutter, I was suicidal more times than I care to remember. I was blessed with two women in my life who mothered me in the best way they could, and took care of me as best they could. I spent as much time away from that house as possible, and my religious youth-group and school supports helped me make that possible. As much as I saved myself, I could write a book about the people who saved me. I always wanted a magic answer. I always wanted someone to swoop me up and carry me away from my crazy family; to adopt me as their own and love me like I knew I should have been loved. In the end, I had to rescue myself. I was in college early--at 17. I kept going home for vacations, to get my tuition paid. One vacation, my father punched me in the stomach in the middle of the driveway and locked me out of the house. Nothing new. But that was the end. I was 18, and I wasn't going to put up with it anymore. I had no idea HOW I would make it on my own, but ANYTHING was better than being in that house. That night, I had no doubt in my mind that someday they could kill me.
I got on a bus back to college and never went back. After many bad therapists I have finally found a good one who I trust. My parents no longer pay my tuition. They've harassed my therapists. They charge me to use their health insurance (and no, it's not costing THEM anything). They send my grandmother after me to convince me to come home. I'm $60,000 in debt. I live in a dorm room, and am otherwise homeless. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I had a mom, or wonder if I made the right choice. But I know, deep down, that staying in touch with those psychopaths I was born to would have killed me. For once in my life, I chose me.
I'm not going to lie and say that it's easy. Therapy is a challenge, but I know it helps me. Every single day is a struggle. The "simplest" things are such a challenge, especially in my world, where EVERYONE has parents. I feel alone, and misunderstood. But I'm alive, and I'm safe. Safe! And at the end of the day, that's worth it.
...........Chana.
Chana,
You must be on your guard that a Tendler-like rabbi does not offer to take you under his wing to "assist" you with overcoming the family trauma that almost destroyed you.
These "Tendlerites" are always on the prowl for teens and women who are seeking the authority figure they never had.
If in doubt, you may check with me for his credentials. Most of these phsycopaths are charming and charismatic.
UOJ
Seen this?
http://rabbileibtropper.com
There was once a wealthy askan, baal tzeddakah, and businessman that lost his wealth. He was very depressed and asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe for an aitzah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe answered him, "An askan has tremendous chiyuvim to do good for people. You once went out against a family, and ruined the child's education. Because you destroyed the young boy's Parnassah Ruchni, Hashem is destroying your Parnassah Gashmi". A similar story is told about the Steipler Rav.
There are too many spiritually wounded victims of molestation in our community. Agudath Israel is trying to do anything to thwart their complete healing. Focusing on their own Parnassah Gashmi, instead of the countless victims Parnassah Ruchni, they will fall like all empires who sought to destroy the neshamos of Klal Yisroel.
SO.............
Before you reserve a seat at their May 17th dinner, ask yourself, "Do I want to be included as one who destroyed the Parnassah Ruchni of countless pained neshamos? Do I really want to risk everything, for the sake of being popular in the eyes of Agudah?"
Who cares about the Agudah messing kids up for life? I look choshuv when I go to the Agudah dinner and that's all that counts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/business/02madoff.html
A court-appointed trustee in the Bernard L. Madoff case has accused Stanley Chais, an investment manager and prominent Los Angeles philanthropist, of routinely getting “implausibly high” returns on his family’s Madoff accounts — profits so high that he should have known they were the product of a fraud.
The trustee also asserted that Mr. Chais and members of his family withdrew more than $1 billion from their Madoff accounts since 1995 and “untold additional funds” in previous years — money that actually belonged to other Madoff investors, who thought their funds were being invested.
Finally, he accused Mr. Chais of benefiting from false tax losses in his Madoff accounts, some of which were apparently created after the losses supposedly occurred.
Chais family accounts had annual returns of more than 100 percent, and 125 times when the returns exceeded 50 percent. In 1999, one trust fund had profits of more than 300 percent, it said.
It also asserted that some tax losses reported by various Chais family accounts over the years were fictitious, the product of backdated transactions.
And it claimed that this special treatment and the outsize returns “were a form of compensation by Madoff” to Mr. Chais for steering millions of dollars of other people’s money into the Ponzi scheme.
http://rabbileibtropper.com/rabbi-troppers-bio/
(Tropper's BT yeshiva) Kol Yaakov’s doors opened in Elul of ’81 and was named in honor of Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky zt”l, who inspired its founding. In existence for almost 25 years, Kol Yaakov has reached students from across the globe. Rabbi Tropper attributes the yeshiva’s success to the approach in Hashkafa and Chinuch he learned from his Rosh Yeshiva, Maran Harav Scheinberg shlita.
President Obama's vow to keep Americans safe is in conflict with his decision to limit interrogation techniques to the Army Field Manual, opponents of his anti-terror policies say.
The Army Field Manual, which includes interrogation methods intended for captured soldiers rather than hardened terrorists, is "not useful at all," David Rivkin, a former official in the Bush Justice Department, told FOX News. "In fact, the Army Field Manual is, let's say, so anemic, that it goes below the level of coercion associated with police station level of interrogation."
For instance, the time-honored technique of "good cop, bad cop" is in question because insults are not allowed.
Michael Scheuer, a former CIA employee wonders how far Obama would go if the U.S. captured a terrorist who said nuclear weapons were set to go off in some American cities but refused to say which ones.
"What do you do in that case?" Scheuer said. "Is the president's moral repulsion about techniques that have protected America more important that actually going after an attempt to use a nuclear device in the United States."
Tropper's next upcoming fresser event that is fully subsidized to attract rabbonim to his fraudulent gerus program:
Westin Govorner Morris Hotel, Morristown,NJ
05/24/2009 - 05/26/2009
It's not hard to get participants when you get FREE 5 star lodging & gourmet food galore to stuff your face with! All paid for by by Texas oil billionaire who had his intermarried goyishe relatives sanitized by Tropper.
On the Zev Brenner show he said that child abuse has moved up the "totem pole" at the Agudah. Any idea why he would invoke avoda zara, a getchka that represents the power of Shamans among Native Indians?
When Brenner cornered Zweibel that there is no such thing as a statute of limitations in halacha, Zweibel accused victims of violating the issur of going to arkosayhem.
The "best" part of the interview was when Brenner asked Zweibel if yeshivos deserve to be bankrupted if the rosh yeshiva was enabling abuse all the years. Zweibel offered that the Moetzes would have to decide. You would think after all the emergency meetings they had, they have already seemingly decided to protect the enablers.
Rabbi Yankie Horowitz is another charlatan who will lose everything.
The rabbonim went running for the levaya of a billionaire this week who made his fortune illegally. He was once levied a record $36 million fine for price fixing.
Zweibel told Brenner we were unanimous in opposing the Markey bill.
When Brenner said he heard R' Shmuel Kaminetzky is currently supporting the Markey bill, Zweibel said ich gloib nisht.
Zweibel tells Brenner: "Hearing the stories from sex abuse survivors is one of the most gut-wrenching experiences I have ever had"
Yeah, he must be scared shitless that he will lose his job if the stories get out.
Last night i heard Mark Appel. Boy, was he on fire !! He blasted the Agudah and Ohel with relish. He also brought up the fact that Aron Schechter from Chaim Berlin ignored a hazmana (many hazmanas) from R' Moshe Feinstein to resolve a din torah !!
David Zweibel came out later to talk about the "gedolim's opposition to the Markey bill. He whined that our "HEILIGE" mosdos, shuls and camps will become bankrupt. Halavai !!
Rabbi Zweibel,
Let me ask you something. Would you be defending the Yeshivas as "Heilig" if every few weeks the menahael would bring down strippers from manhattan and they would put on a lesbian sex act show for the bachurim ? Obviously not.You wouldn't even call it a yeshiva no matter how black their borsalino is and no matter how many dafim of gemorah they mastered,
The Mosdos that allowed Rebbis to rape our boys are no better then the scenario that i outline above,
They are not yeshivas. They are not Heilig. And they must be financially destroyed.
Where is the Outrage?
“I never left the Torah, the Torah left me.”
This is the ‘cry’ of yet another victim of sex abuse. One who attempted suicide! He is still observant, married, and is raising his three children properly. But he is only going through the motions.
I think I can better understand UOJ now. For those who don’t know who that is – he is a blogger that was instrumental in putting Rabbi Yehuda Kolko out of business as a sexual molester. He has also been a harsh critic of mine – for being too tepid on this issue among other things.
Not that I didn’t understand where UOJ was coming from. I did. I just did not understand the level of his anger and his resorting to Nivul Peh. Nor did I approve of his unbelievable disparagement of respected Rabbanim in the Torah world. I still don’t. But I now fully understand it. And I am in full agreement with his outrage.
Every new article that tells the story of yet another victim makes me angrier at the relative calm on this issue on the part of our rabbinic leadership. I know they all work tirelessly for Klal Yisroel. I know that they do not take public policy decisions on this issue – or any issue - lightly. I also know that they have expressed legitimate pain and sorrow for the victims.
But I do not hear the anger. I do not hear the anger at the fierce loss of innocence of a Jewish child that was molested by another member of Klal Yisroel. I hear only calm rhetoric condemning abuse and a desire to help - as long as Torah institutions don't get hurt.
I understand it. But I am at a loss to fully understand it. Yes - Torah institutions are vital to our spiritual welfare. Without them we are lost. So we must do everything we can to make certain that they are not destroyed. But the price is not unlimited. The cost cannot include one more sexually abused victim. The loss of one precious innocent child to a sexual molester is not worth all the bricks and mortar of every single Torah building in Boro Park – and Flatbush – and Williamsburg – and Crown Heights - combined!
Not a single child should be sacrificed for that. Saving one child saves an entire world. Destroying one child destroys an entire world. There can be no ‘calculated risk’.
Yes, it is important for every rabbinic leader to express sympathy. But sympathy is not enough. What is needed here is ANGER! The kind of anger expressed by UOJ.
Once upon a time the yeshivos only stole money. Most of us know that the previous generation on gedolim and gedoilim had no problems teaching our boys how to get fraudulent Pell grants and how to milk the school lunch program. My guess is that these bochurim grew up steeped in crime and saw how corrupt the system was. No wonder the moetzes has no problem saying they want a statue of limitation.
Guys please list the names of the yeshivoth you went to and or attend now and list the financial monkey business they are up to and they will get closed the same way.
Please post the names of the guys and bookkeepers who drove you to burnt down buildings to list as your address.
To the crooks at I will report the games you are playing with invoicing. The only thing the oylam has to lose is you.
A Chabad rabbi at the funeral was confronted by reporters about the gvir's shady history and the $36,000,000 fine. He said yes, he was a "complex" individual.
http://forward.com/articles/105262/
Well, I didn't mean a totem pole mamash. It's just that the shtatty pattern on my new tie from Emporio reminds me of totem poles.
It was mostly chassidishe yeshivos into the Pell grant fraud and the lunch program scammer Leib Pinter has a long history of lying to gedolim.
What I realize today is there are few untainted "gedolim" remaining. I think we have stressed the laws of loshon hora so much, that people (Rabbanim) use that as an excuse to not talk about these things. I know that my emunah is wavering because of what is going on in the orthodox world today. I know Torah Judaism is emes, but I can't do it on my own. I need gedolim to look up to, but when I can't find them, I get discouraged. Too many "gedolim" have made poor decisions with regard to the problem of sexual abuse in the orthodox community. Othodox Jews can no longer joke about the Catholic church because we, the people that should be a light unto the nations, are no better. I wonder how much more we have to sink before Moshiach comes to rescue us from ourselves.
Once again, our "leadership" has o publicly aligned itself with the Catholic Church to thwart legislation that will proect our children. There was a similar alliance when mandatory reporting was brought up in Albany. Kisdom Hayinu, Ka'Amora Daminu! We have become like Sodom and Gemorrah! Even Rabbi Horowitz, who has been one of the lone sane voices in the haredi world, has joined forces in opposing the Markey/Duane bill.
This paranoia that has pervaded the Agudah, that frivolous lawsuits will be filed and won by vicious liars, is totally unfounded. In California where over 300 molesters were exposed after the state opened a similar one year window, no yeshivos or Jewish institutions had to file for bankruptcy. This lame excuse that the Agudah and the Catholic Church has come up with is all a smokescreen.
What they are afraid of is some of the truth coming out. The truth that they have so successfully hidden under the carpets for decades. The truth that there is a plague of child molestation in our yeshivos and that certain yeshivos looked the other way. It will be almost impossible for the survivors to collect any monetary compensation from these institutions. They all know this very well, both the survivors, the Agudah and all the institutions. However, these survivors need to be able to come forward and tell their stories and hope to make a difference. We need to open that window and allow some fresh air in-the fresh air of truth.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- His once-prominent political career is buried and the turmoil of his marriage is playing out in public. Now, John Edwards is facing a federal inquiry.
The two-time Democratic presidential candidate acknowledged Sunday that investigators are assessing how he spent his campaign funds -- a subject that could carry his extramarital affair from the tabloids to the courtroom. Edwards' political action committee paid more than $100,000 for video production to the firm of the woman with whom Edwards had an affair.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2009/05/rabbi-chaim-veshnevsky.html
Yudel Shain doesn't know who he's messing with. Since when do OU-affiliated rabbis have to listen to halacha?
UOJ:
Rabbi Horowitz WAS a lone voice in the wild at the Hedonistic Agudath Israel organization. Today his voice was silenced. He sold out, like a dried up whore. Sold out to the "No Penetration" Rabbinic scholars. He flushed the hopes of a revitalized, reinvigorated, more wholesome, and moral Judaism down the toilet.
Reb UOJ, if there was ever a time to release the information you are holding, today is the day. Today, the last vestiges of pride in Torah has been murdered. Today, Daas Torah was murdered. Let us all vomit out these Gedolim, and start rebuilding Judaism that follows Torah. The God given Torah, not the selfish Daas of the Torah, more concerned about finances, than neshamos.
Reb UOJ, it's time!!!!
to 1:55
Dream on. The blackest of black hat yeshivos were into it. I wish you were right. Sadly you do not know the facts.
Rabbi Horowitz's voice was not silenced, he chose to oppose the Markey Bill, in my opinion, a monumental and fatal error in judgment.
Regardless if the Bill passes or not, Yankel Horowitz will have to live with that decision.
History is replete with careers destroyed because of moments of weakness. While I am not willing to write him off because of the good he's done, his standing with the weak and silenced voices, can never be the same.
Yankel, I call it as I see it.
UOJ
(To the tune of , of course,
"Take Me Out to the Ballgame!")
Take me out to the Fresser Convention
Take me out with the "in-crowd".
Feed me some braised beef and kosher wine,
We’ll wine and dine and we’ll have a good time
For we’ll root for Margo
And the passing of the Lopez Bill
For it’s one, two, three, four molesters
WE rejoice that slipped through our fingers and are free!
Take me out to the Fresser Convention
Take me out with the "in-crowd".
Feed me haleetaini-na style chicken legs,
I don't care for hard-boiled eggs.
And its root, root, root for Kolko
That he will soon reappear.
And let's hope, hope, hope that we'll meet
Once again to fress next year!
Take me out to the Fresser Convention
Take me out with the Hungarian crowd.
Read the propaganda from Zweibel
And don't skip a word!
Please hold on to your totem pole,
We want to be heard!
And lets, root, root, root for Shafran
That he will keep up his shpiel
So we can nosh, nosh, nosh and by-gosh
Let's eat the 18-course meal!!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/business/economy/04debt.html
May 4, 2009
Worries Rise on the Size of U.S. Debt
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and JACK HEALY
The nation’s debt clock is ticking faster than ever — and Wall Street is getting worried.
As the Obama administration racks up an unprecedented spending bill for bank bailouts, Detroit rescues, health care overhauls and stimulus plans, the bond market is starting to push up the cost of trillions of dollars in borrowing for the government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/opinion/04mon2.html
The shmucks who control the NY Times are pushing for Obama's proposed taxpayer bailout for every loser who bought a house knowing he couldn't afford it.
How many child sex abuse victims did Rav Salamon cry for? Did the Agudah help kill the metal bat bill in the NJ legislature?
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/new_jersey/20090504_ap_boy9diedafterbeingstruckbybaseball.html
New Jersey lawmakers in 2006 considered banning metal bats after a 12-year-old in Wayne was hit in the chest by a line drive off an aluminum bat and went into cardiac arrest.
Steven Domalewski was resuscitated, but suffered brain swelling.
The measure cleared an Assembly committee but stalled in the Legislature.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090504/NEWS/905040334&template=printart
May 4, 2009
Hit by ball, boy, 9, dies
A rabbi's son, fatally injured while playing with his brother
By JENNIFER BRADSHAW, MICHAEL RILEY
and JOSHUA RILEY
Some 1,000 mourners assembled Sunday at services for a local rabbi's 9-year-old son, who died after being struck in the neck by a baseball while playing with his brother.
Eliyahu Dabbah, a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, died shortly after his 10-year-old brother hit the ball with an aluminum bat as the two played alone in the backyard of their Long Branch home Friday afternoon, police said.
Eliyahu is the son of Rabbi Mordechai and Faigy Dabbah. Rabbi Dabbah heads the Yeshivat Keter Torah in Lakewood.
Many of the mourners stood solemnly outside Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapel in the cold rain and listened to the service broadcast over loudspeakers. Many stood under umbrellas and uttered soft prayers.
Through the raindrops, tears streaked the faces of the mourners. For these devout people, the service turned on a search for meaning in tragedy.
The boy's father addressed the crowd at the end of the service.
"He was always smiling," the dad said, maintaining his composure. "I asked my little boy, 6 years old, what he thought. (He said) "I'm sad, because I'm going to miss him, but I'm happy he's going to eternity.' "
Rabbi Matisyohu Salomon of the Beth Medrash Govoha Yeshiva in Lakewood told the mourners that to find meaning here, they needed to elevate themselves above the immediate pain.
"On one side is this greatest tragedy," he said. "On the other side, one of the biggest and most wonderful manifestations of truth."
That truth, he went on to say, is that we "are not here for this world" but for eternity.
"What do we have children for?" Salomon asked. "For these few years?"
The child, he went on to say, is teaching us all this morning. A pure soul, this child is guaranteed eternity, he said.
"When I heard the news," Salomon said, "I burst into tears . . . but we cry for ourselves, not for this child."
In what was described as a highly unlikely accident, medical and police officials said the death affected them as well.
Hatzalah EMS captain Avi Aboud, who responded to the 4 p.m. emergency call, said the EMS squad found the boy in cardiac arrest when they arrived.
Aboud said the community surrounding the Dabbahs is "very close," and the death of Eliyahu resonates throughout the community.
"It hits everybody," he said. "We should only meet like this in happy times."
First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter E. Warshaw Jr. said a routine investigation was conducted, but there was never any reason to believe the death was more than terrible misfortune.
Though no adults were present at the time, there seems to have been no delay in attempts to get help for Eliyahu, Warshaw said. The medical examiners report named the cause of death as blunt force trauma from the baseball, he said.
"The Monmouth County law enforcement community extends its condolences to the Dabbah family as it deals with this awful tragedy," Warshaw said.
Eliyahu was taken to Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, where attempts to revive him continued for an hour, but he was pronounced dead in the emergency room, a hospital official said.
After the service, the casket was taken to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where in the company of a few rabbis and his father, Eliyahu was taken to Israel to be buried with his grandmother.
The family will sit Shiva for seven days at their home.
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- U.S. Jewish leaders want answers as to why two former AIPAC officials were targeted for a federal investigation.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations, questioned “the justification” for the case and the decision to bring charges under a law that had barely been used in more than 90 years.
“You don't want to reopen the whole case, but you have to look at the damage that was done,” Hoenlein said.
On Friday, the U.S. government asked for a dismissal of the indictments against Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst. The two had been awaiting trial ever since an FBI raid in August 2004 on AIPAC offices resulted in charges, based on a 1917 statute, that they had obtained and relayed information relating to Iran’s threat against Israel.
The request for dismissal noted the "diminished likelihood the government" would prevail. In the past three years, the government case has suffered numerous setbacks in pre-trial court rulings.
A UOJ agent started a rumor that I gave the list to Kam, but it's not true! I only gave the YTT list to Margo.
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/05/02/dane-ranked-number-four-most-wanted-nazi/comment-page-1/
Soren Kam, a Danish national, has moved up to number four on the ten most wanted list for World War II Nazi wartime criminals after a recent revision of the rankings. Kam’s upgrade is the result of reports that Aribert Heim, the doctor who gave lethal injections to victims at the Mathausen camp, may have died in Egypt.
“New evidence suggests that [Heim] may have died in Cairo in 1992, but serious doubts regarding these findings and the fact that there is no corpse to examine, raises doubts as to the veracity of this information,” the Politiken reported.
Soren Kam is wanted for his role in the murder of anti-Nazi Danish newspaper editor Carl Henrik Clemmensen. Kam is also believed to have helped facilitate the roundup of Denmark’s Jewish community by stealing the Danish population registry. This led to the deportation of countless Danish Jews to Nazi concentration camps, where many died.
Kam is known to be living in Germany, but Denmark has been unsuccessful in getting Germany to extradite him to face the charges despite having a European warrant out for his arrest.
Rabbis urge limit foreign women to protect wives
JERUSALEM, Agence France Presse Newswire
Rabbis want authorities to reduce the number of female foreign workers entering Israel, as their male employers seem to easily succumb to their charms, said a report today.
The plea follows an appeal lodged at a rabbinical court south of Tel Aviv by a scorned wife whose husband had an affair with a Filipina employee, said the Maariv daily.
“The authorities should apply restrictions to guard the honour of Israel’s daughters,” wrote Rabbi Nahum Gortald, the head of the tribunal.
“It is inconceivable that a man leaves a spouse whose beauty bears the traces of time for a younger foreign employee,” he said.
http://lohud.com/article/20090504/NEWS03/905040352/0/NEWS/Karben+quits+Suffern+job
By James Walsh • jawalsh@lohud.com • May 4, 2009
SUFFERN - Ryan Karben has resigned as special counsel for the urban renewal project, citing a lack of support from the village board.
Recent years have found Karben subject to several controversies.
He was arrested Jan. 30, 2008, on drunken-driving charges in Ramapo. He pleaded guilty in December to violations of driving while impaired by alcohol and crossing hazard markings.
Karben resigned from the Assembly in 2006. There were allegations he made unwanted sexual advances toward a male intern, but he said he left to spend more time with his family and build his law practice.
Then a Congers woman sued Karben last month, charging that he had misrepresented her in a real estate transaction.
http://chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=14600
At least 2000 Montreal Anash are attending an emergency meeting tonight, Sunday at the Yeshiva at 6405 Westbury Avenue. In an urgent call to community members the yeshiva administration pleaded for assistance "due to the grave severity of the current Insolvency, al pi teva, it is only a matter of days, before the unthinkable happens R"L"
After Crown Heights, Montreal is the next largest Chabad community in the world! The 68-year-old Tomchei Temimim is the only Chabad elementary school in Montreal, Canada.
Over the years YTTL has overcome many challenges to its existence, ranging from menagdim, the Canadian ministry of education, to Hamas sleeper cells. In December 2008 the Yeshiva was threatened by the Ministère de l'Éducation to conform to it's NPS standards or be forcibly shutdown.
In January 2009 the Yeshiva was in a panic over a potential terrorist attack by Hamas sleeper cells planted in Quebec. This time it is the Marshal.
Due to the grave severity of the current Insolvency, al pi teva, it is only a matter of days, before the unthinkable happens R"L.
This catastrophe has far reaching implications not only to the 300 current students, but on the many teachers and staff currently employed by the institution.
If you have a friend or relative living in Montreal, you are encouraged to contact them with your generous pledge to help stave off this catastrophe.
Any amount at all donated by you at this critical juncture gives you a tremendous opportunity of being part of saving a Tomchei Temimim, and the blessings that come along.
In the merit of your charity above your limits, may HKB"H shower you b'kol tuv selah!
And in the merit of your increased generosity, may we witness the fulfillment of the Rebbe's prophecy that "the time of your Redemption has arrived" and "Moshiach is coming Now."!
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710784974&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Two young men were lightly wounded in a brawl that broke out between two groups of youths in the Satmar yeshiva in Bnei Brak on Saturday night.
One of the men was stabbed and the other was wounded by a stone, which was hurled at him.
Police arrested two men in their twenties suspected of involvement in the fight.
This is also an anti-Trust outrage! There should be more than one company selling dusty hats!
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1080898.html
Why is a Haredi hat dealer suing a prestigious Italian firm?
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
"I hit people upside the head, that's my job," joked Yitzhak Meir Ferster as he arranges the latest collection of hats on the display table. The head of "Ferster Quality Hats" reminisced about the days in which his forefathers - who founded the business in Warsaw in 1912 and brought it to Jerusalem - laid brimmed hats atop the heads of David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, Zalman Shazar and Menachem Begin.
Now, when brimmed and felt hats are the exclusive domain of Haredi men, Ferster proudly boasts of the many important rabbis and spiritual leaders who have donned the hats from generation to generation.
Ferster, though, is now trying to hit the Italian hat manufacturer Borsalino upside the head. Aside from the fact that it is a prestigious brand that has been providing headwear for the last 152 years to customers all over the world; and notwithstanding the fact that it is a firm that was the subject of a feature film starring Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo, it is also attempting to become the dominant player in the Jewish-Haredi market in Israel.
As part of a continuing legal battle, Ferster filed a NIS 5 million lawsuit in Tel Aviv District Court against Borsalino. This comes after dozens of years during which Ferster sold Borsalino brand hats alongside its own, popular manufactured models that went by the name "Brandolino." A few years ago, both companies found themselves embroiled in a dispute that led the Italian giant to cease offering its hats for sale through Israeli middlemen catering to the Haredi community.
Last year, Borsalino opened its own franchise shop in Jerusalem and another more recently in Bnei Brak. The row led both companies to file lawsuits and counter-lawsuits claiming failure to abide by the terms of their past agreements, financial damages and other infractions.
The bitter lawsuit provides a glimpse into the fierce competition for the heads of the Haredi male and the yeshiva student, a competition that generates tens of millions of dollars each year.
"The hat represents a basic and a very important element like no other within the Haredi public, since this public attaches the utmost importance not only to the quality of the hat that it wears but also to the most subtle nuances in its design and appearance," Ferster's attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
The competition heated up in the weeks leading up to Passover, especially in advertisements in ultra-Orthodox newspapers and message boards within the community. The Italian firm promised new styles and designs for the holiday, using the slogan "Borsalino, with respect." Baron Hats, one of Ferster's Israeli competitors, also advertised new imported styles.
The companies are also working to attract customers from Yeshivas and other Judaic studies institutions by handing out gift certificates and coupons, and every spring a new marketing gimmick is unleashed. Borsalino, for example, invited ultra-Orthodox journalists to its factory in Italy to watch the intricate hat-making process.
"Many people ask why our hats are so expensive," said Mendy Bastomsky, a Borsalino franchise holder in Israel. "After a visit [to the factory], the journalists ask how it is possible for the hats to be so inexpensive."
Ferster manufactures and sells dozens of hat styles made from exclusive felts and lamb's wool. "I am the only manufacturer in the Jewish world," said Ferster. "All the others are simply hat sellers."
A salesman at the Borsalino store in Jerusalem begged to differ when asked about the rivalry between the two firms. "With all due respect, we don't view [Ferster] as competition."
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=4153
Behind The Scenes At ArtScroll: ‘With Hearts Full of Love’
Rav Mattisyahu Salomon, shlita, the mashgiach of the famed Lakewood Yeshiva, knows the hearts of his thousands of students. And he knows the hearts of Jewish children everywhere—and he knows the hearts and minds of the parents who work so hard to raise them right.
When approached to have a book written based on his hundreds of audiotapes, the Mashgiach chose the subject of raising children in accordance with the Torah.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/patersons-job-approval-slips-to-19-percent-in-poll/
Paterson’s Job Approval Slips to 19 Percent in Poll
Agudah Fressers here & there, Agudah Fressers everywhere!
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/news/20090504/h1n1-swine-flu-widespread-in-us
H1N1 Swine Flu Widespread in U.S.
CDC: 'Virtually All the U.S. Has This Virus Circulating'
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
May 4, 2009 -- The new H1N1 swine flu is circulating in "virtually all the U.S.," a CDC official said yesterday.
Japan sentences Hasidic Israeli to 8 years in jail after Ecstasy bust
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz
A Japanese court sentenced an Israeli to eight years in prison on Friday after convicting him of attempting to smuggle Ecstasy into the country, according to friends of his family.
The Israeli, who was a minor at the time of the crime, is the youngest of three yeshiva students arrested a year ago while attempting to enter Japan with suitcases containing large quantities of Ecstasy pills.
The other two Israelis, Yoel Goldstein and Yaakov Yosef Grinwald, are still waiting to face trial.
Goldstein, Grinwald and the minor were arrested in April 2008 at Tokyo's Narita International airport after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam. Customs officials found that they were carrying 90,000 Ecstasy pills after suspicions were raised over their large suitcases.
The affair has caused shockwaves in the Satmar Hasidic ultra-orthodox community to which the three men belong.
Two more Satmar Hasidim are suspected of being behind the operation: Haim Roter is believed to have fled to Europe and Ben Zion Miller was arrested in Israel in February.
Police believe Miller worked for an Israeli criminal organization that they suspect is connected to the Abergil family.
http://www.politickernj.com/alan-steinberg/29429/jack-kemp-rest-peace
He grew up in the Wilshire area of Los Angeles, then a predominantly Jewish area of the city and felt a deep personal kinship with the American Jewish community. He was not only a friend to the Jewish community - he was a true brother for us. Many politicians, both Democrat and Republican, give lip service in support of Israel in order to attract Jewish voters. Jack Kemp, however, was totally committed to Israel and Zionism, and the State of Israel never had a better friend in Congress than Jack Kemp.
In fact, Jack had such an extensive knowledge of Judaism and Jewish history that he often quoted Rabbi Moses Maimonides in his speeches. Rabbi Maimonides was also known as the Rambam, an acronym of his Hebrew name, Rabbi Moshe ben (son of) Maimon. The Rambam, who lived in 12th century Spain, Morocco, and Egypt, was one of the truly outstanding personages of Jewish history - he was perhaps the most outstanding rabbi in history, as well as being the greatest physician in the world in his time, and a world renowned philosopher as well. His book, the Guide for the Perplexed is one of the most influential and widely read books in the history of philosophy. In fact, there is a famous Jewish saying that "from Moses (in the Bible) to Moses (Maimonides), there was none greater."
The following quote from the Rambam is a remarkable summary of the life philosophy of Jack Kemp, a man who lived eight centuries after the Rambam:
"Anticipate charity by preventing poverty; assist the reduced fellow man, either by a considerable gift or a sum of money or by teaching him a trade or by putting him in the way of business so that he may earn an honest livelihood and not be forced to the dreadful alternative of holding out his hand for charity. This is the highest step and summit of charity's golden ladder."
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