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E-mail by Anonymous
Dear Rabbi Perlow,
Permit a small man to speak a word in the ears of my lord, and let my lord not be angry with his servant, for you are great.
Please, let me speak my mind freely.
"First, however, he reminded his listeners that what makes Agudas Yisroel special is that “it seeks the truth of Torah” and discerns it in the understanding of Gedolei Torah. That determination to divine what is proper for Klal Yisroel “resists even well-meaning daas baalei batim,” Rabbi Perlow proclaimed, and certainly “the bloggers and the picketers, presumptuous promoters” of the notion that “they know better what is good for the Jews.”
Really, Rabbi Perlow. Don't you get it?
You're publicly acknowledging a burning fire in your community, a chillul Hashem of epic proportions, allowed to continue by...the Agudah and its leaders. If not for UOJ, a big, bad blogger, who singlehandedly raised and fought this issue into the consciousness of the charedi public, you would never have discussed it. It would have remained, as it was for 50 years, our dirty little secret. So, kol Hakavod to UOJ and all of us bloggers and readers, who have forced this unto the front pages, to finally be discussed and dealt with once and for all. But, knowing the Agudah, it won't be.
Amazingly, by virtue of your discussing this crisis at an Agudah dinner, UOJ has won. We have all won. The Agudah lost.
Don't you see that, too? You tried to keep it quiet, off the front pages. We wouldn't let you. So now you discuss it as the very first topic at your dinner. And bloggers shouldn't take credit? Then who should? The Agudah? After silencing students and parents for 50 years?
They will now try to deal with it. Let them try. They have a lousy track record so far on legislation. And they're in bed with the Catholic Church on Markey. What the RCA understands, the Agudah doesn't. What any baal habos understands, the Agudah refuses.
“Individuals have been hurt and deserve redress, acknowledgment and empathy.” There is a need, the Rosh Agudas Yisroel continued, “for tikkun ha’ovar” - correcting the past - and for addressing the future, “creating means to guide against wrongdoing to children.”
What does this mean? Are you agreeing you made serious mistakes for 50 years? You need to "correct the past"? Really? Why? Everything you've ever done has been Daas Torah, right? So how, where, did you go wrong? If you blew it, SAY SO: loudly and clearly: "We blew it, big time. Had no idea what we were doing. Always did the wrong thing, made the wrong decisions, for 50 years. Uhh, very sorry." That would be a step in the right direction.
"Not many people, Rabbi Perlow noted, know of the countless hours spent by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel and the Vaad Roshei Yeshiva of Torah Umesorah over the past two years discussing the many complex facets, including the implications “for mosdos haTorah.”
“ 'No one really knows the sensitivity that went into this entire process,” over the course of many meetings regarding “this painful parsha.' ”
That's the problem. We never elected you. You feel no need to communicate with American Jewry. There's no transparency. We have no idea if you're continuing to ignore the crisis---as you did for so long---or if you're trying to fix it. So we're supposed to believe you're attempting to fix it. But there's no evidence of any attempt to fix it, so what should people believe? That nothing is going on, that's what. But nice to hear that hours were spent trying to...fix it. Can you please show us the fruit of those meetings, other than climbing into bed with the Catholics?
"He called his listeners to carefully read and comprehend the joint statement that was issued several weeks ago by Agudas Yisroel and Torah Umesorah, reflecting the conclusion of the rabbonim at their helms. “ 'It was carefully drafted,” he averred, “and is not to be misread or treated cavalierly.' ”
Noone is reading it cavalierly, we just don't agree with it. You were wrong in the past---you just admitted it---and you're wrong now. That's ok. It's not a sin to be wrong. Just listen to baaleibatim who know more than you and try to lead.
"That statement made clear that the signatory organizations fully acknowledge the horror of abuse, “the devastating long-term scars it all too often creates,” and the fact that “'for too long many victims have suffered alone.'"
No! Are you kidding? Rabbi Shafran once called these incidents "tawdry tales"! Who could believe these children? Agudah rabbis never did. NOW you admit that long term scars result? Really? Who told you? Why believe him?
Your humble servant.
Shmuel
151 comments:
Shmuel,
Great heartfelt piece; what's up with this "your humble servant" stuff...you serve Hashem, NO rabbi gets "served" in Judaism.
Some deserve respect, but they are far and few!
This rabbi pedophile got 30 years in jail.
Visit http://usaagainstisraelweingarten.blogspot.com/---- many exclusives and scoops that you will not find anywhere else.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/merkin-to-cede-control-of-hedge-funds-to-liquidator/?hp
J. Ezra Merkin, the New York financier who lost more than $2.4 billion of his clients’ money in Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, has agreed to place his three hedge funds into receivership and turn them over to a liquidator, Guidepost Partners.
The move comes at the request of New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who officially charged Mr. Merkin last month with lying to his investors about how he was handling their money. At a hearing in New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, Justice Richard Lowe gave Mr. Cuomo’s office and Mr. Merkin’s lawyers until May 28 to finalize their agreement in principal.
“Merkin’s deceit, recklessness, and breaches of fiduciary duty have resulted in the loss of approximately $2.4 billion,” according to the complaint filed by Mr. Cuomo’s office, which opened an investigation of Mr. Merkin soon after the Madoff scheme collapsed in mid-December.
Mr. Merkin, the former chairman of GMAC, is also being sued by New York University, which requested months ago that he relinquish control over the Ariel Fund, one of the investment vehicles he manages. The university, which lost $24 million of its investment in Ariel, is suing Mr. Merkin for turning over a portion of its money to Mr. Madoff without disclosing the arrangement to Ariel’s investors.
“As part of his continuing efforts to maximize the returns to investors in the funds, Mr. Merkin has agreed in principle to appoint Guidepost Partners, a leader in global investigations, security, and compliance, as the receiver for the funds while he remains available to consult regarding the wind-down at no cost to the funds,” Andrew Levander, a lawyer for Mr. Merkin, said in a statement.
Mr. Merkin collected more $470 million for managing three funds, Ariel, Gabriel and Ascot Partners, over the last decade. The three funds are said to have about $1.4 billion in assets remaining including about $700 million in Ariel, which Mr. Merkin has continued to oversee.
In the lawsuit with N.Y.U., Mr. Merkin’s lawyers proposed in February a plan to form an “oversight committee” that would evaluate the liquidation of several funds under his control — a process that will likely take years.
Did they know this report would come out the next day?
I just blogged about this. These people can pat themselves on their backs all they want. The truth is known and everyone knows that they are the ones who covered up the abuse. They are running scared and deserve what ever comes to them. I pray that the Markey bill passes and all these people are sued into oblivion. I'll buy a condo at the site of the former Torah Temima.
http://honestlyfrum.blogspot.com/2009/05/at-agudah-convention-other-night-their.html
Isn't that funny that Rabbi Jacob Perlow is so worried about being sued. The Agudah must have very little faith in their big expert consultant Marvin Schick who said that molestation doesn't even happen at yeshivos.
In axing the (Jewish Observer), the (Agudath Israel) has lost much of its raison d'etre. Sans the JO, they are just a shtadlanus organization. They no longer can lay claim to advancing the thought of Torah-true Yahadus, nor to boldy confronting the burning issues of the day, nor to clarifying what the Torah has to say on matters of the day and matters of eternity, nor to educating the generation. True and saddening folly.
Hey, Marvin Schick here.
There is no stirah. The Novominsker is afraid of being sued by liars who make up "tawdry tales".
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/senate-leaders-balk-at-closing-guantanamo-prison/?hp
Senate Leaders Balk at Closing Guantánamo Prison
I do not need an organization to tell me who is a Gadol and who isn’t. I have no problem with the laity in Agudah consulting with Gedolim for guidance and following their advice. That is important and necessary. We need advice from great rabbinic figures on many issues. But we don’t need a committee of selected people who by dint of belonging to the Moetzes are deemed Gedolim.
Rav Moshe Feinstein did not need Agudah to tell him he was a Gadol. The world accepted him – Agudah or no Agudah. He earned that distinction all by himself. The same is true for other members both past an present.
What is not true is that there are no other Gedolim besides Agudah Moetzes members. Nor is everyone on the Moetzes necessarily a Gadol. There are members of the Moetzes that are there for political reasons. By having a Moetzes created in this fashion it belittles the very definition of what a Gadol is. It reduces the stature of a true Gadol when others are invited to be his peers - just because they belong to a particular group.
I have profound respect for some members of the Agudah Moetzes. I do not feel that way about others of them. And there are still others that I think are greater in Torah knowledge than many of the current members and have at least as much Yiras Shamyim as they do - who are not members. And never will be! I know I am not alone in feeling this way.
I recommend www.matzav.com where the Agudath Israel press release can be read, including some quoted comments from the Rosh Aguda, Rabbi Perlow, delivered at their annual dinner on May 17.
Nothing has changed. Rabbi Perlow preaches the infallibility of daas Torah. Daas baal ha'battim should not be heeded. Here is an excerpt from the press release:
"First, however, he reminded his listeners that what makes Agudas Yisroel special is that 'it seeks the truth of Torah' and discerns it in the understanding of Gedolei Torah. That determination to divine what is proper for Klal Yisroel 'resists even well-meaning daas baalei batim,' Rabbi Perlow proclaimed, and certainly 'the bloggers and the picketers, presumptuous promoters' of the notion that 'they know better what is good for the Jews.'"
The "determination to divine" jumps out. Centuries ago, there were folk religions who utilized divining rods to talk to G-d. The Torah forbids magic.
Its really nothing new. Judaism has always been confronted with religious leaders who insist on their version of leadership because they have a closer connection to G-d than the rest of us. Sometimes it is a charismatic Chassidic rebbe, or it is a Shabbatei Zvi, or it is a Christian deity. We Jews always survive this turbulence, because the vast majority of us do not believe in intermediaries, and that is the way we are supposed to practice our faith.
The yeshivaleit around the world know that membership on the Moetzes is meaningless. As a matter of fact, the Roshei Yeshiva who's daas is sought by the bulk of today's bnei yeshiva are not on the Moetzes and most would not join.
Even if we had a Nosson Hanavi, we do NOT have a Dovid Hamelech for a Nasi. The sheer arrogance to put down the "presumtous bloggers and picketers" who include many, many victims of sexual abuse, who have been spat on and worse by our community and its leaders for so long.
Why is Hashem doing this to us? Why do we have such horrible people in leadership roles?
How did we allow thiso happen?
What can we do to change it?
If Rav Perlow is only a Rebbe in Boro Park, then why could he have not stayed home in his huge 17th Avenue abomination?
Why did he have to get up and go to Manhattan the way he got up from his wife's shiva to be a character witness for a drug money launderer?
What a terrible person. And this is what our communtiy calls a leader?
A gadol?
Rochmono Litzlan.
Hashem Yerachem.
"We must Mon Kavod HaTairah. Kavod HaTairah means what is written in the Tairah, not what people try to reform Tairah say it is".
HaRav Elya Svei zt"l
did you guys picketing get any media coverage?
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/photos/005_j_ezra_merkin.jpg
Rorschach has a lot of nerve making choyzek in implying that Baltimore bochurim are nerdy for wearing hats with small brims. Is that the hakoras hatov I get for lending him my old dusty hat?
Lehoraaye that there's nothing wrong, here is a picture of a shpitz cool guy, Ezra Merkin, who also wears a hat with a small brim.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/photos/005_graphic.jpg
Man are things ever getting messy these days!
http://www.feebs.nl/video/1967be19c1171
Shafran, what's cool about Merkin? That he was in bed with your hero Madoff?
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=6819592
Watch this video where an ABC reporter walks in unannounced on a meeting and asks hard questions about improprieties of company directors that gets people in attendance infuriated at the directors.
When the main convention of the Agudah costs $800 per person held in a fancy hotel while thousands are unemployed and may not even have health insurance, your only conclusion can be that this organiztion is out of touch and it cannot survive indefinitely.
When (a menber) of the Moetzes refuses to intervene in a high profile molestation case, because its in a diferent locale than where) he resides, you can only ask (why is that a reason not to intervene).
When the Agudah is against the markey bill, you can only hope for its quick demise.
When one of the senior members of the moetzes is lo tzias le'din when called several times to a din torah by reb moshe feinstein, you know that... we are in serious trouble.
Avi Shafran, entfer ihm nisht.
Rorschach is mistomme another one of those modern orthodox losers who never bothered to move out of Flatbush.
R'uoj, I read the book, it was an interesting read, yet why in heavens name would you want your name on such a book, 9-11 surely has many questions to be answered, but his book is way out there in "left" field with the moveon.org types.
Why is Hashem doing this to us? Why do we have such horrible people in leadership roles?
How did we allow thiso happen?
What can we do to change it?
Anonymous,
Hashem leads us in the way we want to go. By being passive and docile, afraid of scrutiny, and oblivious to communal responsibility we allow the other guy to come forward. It's time to be the other guy. It's time to refuse to be led by the nose to belong to a social club rife with corruption. It's time to localize - think global buy local. There are, B'H, Yiddishe mentchen in every community who lead by example and without the need for ego stroking. This disingenous crass mockery of leadership vocalized with platitudes to even bigger self serving idol worshippers can stop when you stop directly or indirectly supporting them.
We didn't allow it to happen. We dropped out. The vacuum became so great that we were nearly sucked in and disappeared. We have had great men whithered by low lifes. It is the Yam HaModia (the Internet) that has saved Yiddishkeit for falling into the pit of self indulgence. The Torah was first in being pitiless when it came to calling a spade, a spade. Now, the Internet does this.
How can we change it? Get active in your shul. Challenge conventionality. Support the middle of the road. Work at Yiddishkeit. Make time for your kids and work with them. I believe that these times were forced upon us to reexamine our values, which have gone so far afield of Yiddishkeit. Be the other guy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/your-money/16wealth.html?em=&pagewanted=print
CHARITY CASES
In this time of economic need, being charitable is seen as a virtue. But litigiousness can strike nonprofits and board members can be personally exposed.
A member of a nonprofit board can buy a directors and officers policy to protect himself from litigation related to board decisions. A common lawsuit against a nonprofit board may come from not firing a director who repeatedly harassed other employees. But there are less obvious cases.
“With a synagogue, the board votes to do a major improvement but through poor planning it is too expensive and they can’t pay their staff and the religious school can’t operate and they lose the synagogue,” Mr. Zeldes said. “That’s a board mistake. It’s a breach of fiduciary duty.”
And the congregants could sue. Not only could such a mistake cost the board member the time and money he has donated, it could cost him personally.
"Why is Hashem doing this to us? Why do we have such horrible people in leadership roles?
How did we allow thiso happen?
What can we do to change it?"
Hashem didn't do this to us - we did it to ourselves, leaving our brains at the door and never letting our kids think for themselves at all.
How did we allow this to happen? By giving them money, pure and simple. We gave to their dayschools, their yeshivas, their kollels, their shuls, their charities, their federations and the organizations like this and they lined their pockets with it and became rich and influential.
What can we do to change it - reverse course. No more money to them or anything affiliated with them, period, no matter how good sounding it is, no matter how much they cry "for the children's sake," or "for the sake of the elderly and poor," because it's just a facade.
Get a group of like-minded friends and family together and secede from their little fiefdoms. Daven and worship yourselves, teach your kids yourselves, help each other directly instead of going through their organizations.
In other words, make them completely broke irrelevant. That's the only way to win this fight.
Ray Stark was niftar 5 years ago at 89 years old.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05142009/gossip/pagesix/barbra_streisands_ex_ready_to_tell_all_169140.htm
May 14, 2009 --
SOME of Barbra Streisand's long-hidden secrets will be bared in a new tell-all by her ex-boyfriend Hollywood producer Jon Peters -- who claims the beloved diva was sexually abused by a slimy movie mogul and had affairs with three of her leading men.
In the proposal for his memoir, "Studio Head," which was sold last month to Harper- Collins for $700,000, Peters writes he "wanted to kill" Ray Stark, producer of "Funny Girl" and "The Way We Were," when he learned that "Stark, an ogre of male chauvinistic casting-couch sexual entitlement, had molested both Lesley Ann [Warren] and Barbra when they were auditioning for him, and neither had ever really gotten over it."
Filed at 8:00 p.m. ET
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency has found suspect materials in Chinese-made drywall, adding weight to fears that the house-building staple may be causing corrosion in homes and possibly sickening people in several states.
A report released Tuesday says the EPA tested Chinese-made wallboard in two Florida homes and discovered sulfur and two organic compounds associated with acrylic paint.
The report says those chemicals were not found in four samples of American-made drywall.
Several federal and state agencies are investigating complaints that Chinese-made drywall is corroding copper pipes, blackening jewelry and silverware and causing health problems.
I just spoke with my Rav who is part of Agudath and apparently he has been in touch with a big Posek who wrote up a Tshuva that its forbidden to oppose the Markey Bill. In contrary, that everyone is obligated to support it as best as they can. After seeing the Tshuva which seems to be an extremely powerful one, the Rav has totally swung to other side. I am trying to get a hold of the Tshuva.
LVF:
There are too many questions without logical answers. That's my viewpoint, no conspiracy, just a horrible lack of safeguards protecting the U.S. prior to that tragic day.
Incompetence at its absolute worst; the agencies were not even communicating with each other.
It is also healthy for the mind to read material that you don't agree with, as long as the argument is presented in an intelligent manner.
BTW, the government does stifle the truth; I was able to call the present recession, one year prior to the government even admitting we were in an economic "slowdown".
Questioning people in important positions, is a good thing to do. Just look around at what we thought were viable economic indicators, and how they collapsed after years of concealing the fraudulent financial instruments that created this recession.
Filed at 8:01 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an ominous setback, the government agency that insures the pensions of 44 million Americans has amassed a record $33.5 billion deficit -- triple what it was just six months ago.
The bleak financial snapshot, in a report obtained by The Associated Press, raises new fears that a federal bailout eventually will be needed for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The beleaguered agency is being saddled with the underfunded pension plans of companies going bankrupt in the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.
The agency does not insure 401(k) plans, but its fate is important not only to the workers covered by more than 29,000 employer-sponsored benefit pension plans but to all taxpayers who could be asked to foot the bill on a bailout if the agency ever becomes insolvent.
Compounding the agency's fiscal problem are investigations into allegations that its former director, Charles E.F. Millard, had inappropriate contacts with three Wall Street firms that recently won multimillion-dollar contracts to advise the agency on a new strategy to invest its assets more heavily in stocks, real estate and private equity rather than more conservative fixed-income treasury securities.
A PBGC inspector general report released last week said that Millard's office had hundreds of phone conversations and e-mails with Wall Street firms bidding for the work at the same time that he was actively evaluating their proposals. In October 2008, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and JP Morgan won awards to invest up to $2.5 billion of PBGC assets in real estate and private equity in return for up to $100 million more in fees over 10 years.
Millard has denied any wrongdoing, saying his actions were legal and ethical. He has been subpoenaed to testify Wednesday at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on the agency's ability to take over a rising number of underfunded pension plans from companies going bankrupt.
Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Max Baucus of Montana and Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Michael Enzi of Wyoming have asked the inspector general to further investigate phone calls and e-mails that suggest Millard sought help getting a job in the weeks after the contracts were awarded to the Wall Street firms. The House Education and Labor Committee also has opened an investigation into the allegations against Millard.
(CBS) The Senate passed a major reform of the credit card industry Tuesday that clamps down on arbitrary fee and interest rate increases. But even after President Barack Obama signs the bill, the law won't fully take effect for nine months.
That's a nine-month loophole, and as CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason reports, consumer groups are concerned the credit card companies will use the time to hike up interest rates and fees while they can.
http://www.lohud.com/article/2009905190355
A 65-year-old restaurant-guide writer is accused of bringing young women from abroad to his northern Westchester County home under the guise that they would work for him, then forcing at least one of them into sexual slavery.
Joseph Yannai, who lives at 309 Salem Road and is the author of "The International Who's Who of Chefs 2004-2005," was charged with one count of first-degree sex abuse and two counts of second-degree labor trafficking, both felonies, according to the county District Attorney's Office.
Police say Yannai lured the primary victim, a 21-year-old from Hungary, to work at his home as his personal assistant. But after she arrived Feb. 18, she learned the real rules of the house: that her e-mails and personal phone calls would be limited and that she would get no spending money or access to transportation, police said.
Then there was that other expectation, that Yannai "threatened and coerced the victims to perform sexual favors," District Attorney Janet DiFiore said.
The woman also came across photos of Yannai with other women in his bedroom and learned that there had been six or seven other young women from various countries who worked at his home, police said.
A second victim, a woman from Brazil, also was working there at the time, police said.
Before leaving Hungary, the primary victim had made e-mail contact with another Hungarian who lives in Pound Ridge, police said, and on March 11, the 21-year-old victim contacted that person, who helped her escape.
The woman then went to Pound Ridge police, who launched an investigation before turning the case over to state police.
Yannai, who lives with his wife and has no children, surrendered yesterday at the state police barracks in Somers, Investigator Cornelius Merritt said.
Yannai, who was arraigned in Pound Ridge before Town Justice Edward Hand, posted $100,000 bail and is due back in Town Court on June 22.
Authorities say the victim learned of Yannai's job offer through a Web site for au pairs. In e-mail exchanges that began in December, Yannai posed as a young woman who was his former employee, the prosecutor's office said.
The woman was told that she would work as a personal assistant to a 64-year-old businessman and had the option of being paid $2,000 a month to work for him but live elsewhere, or live in his home, all expenses paid, and receive $20,000 at the end of the year, authorities said.
She chose the latter, officials said.
Yannai faces a maximum of seven years in state prison if convicted of the top count.
Yesterday, Yannai appeared friendly and hospitable when approached by The Journal News at his home. Although he declined to discuss the case, he invited a reporter and photographer inside the home, offering them drinks, introducing them to his dog, Sadie, and giving them a tour of the spacious living room, which was adorned with leather furniture, and offered a view of the many lily pads floating in a pond out back.
"You're giving me the opportunity to say something I've wanted to say for the last who knows how many years: No comment," he said, referring questions on the case to his lawyer.
His lawyer, John Pappalardo, said Yannai denies the allegations against him.
"There certainly was no sexual abuse or sexual slavery in this case," Pappalardo said.
Several news crews were parked outside Yannai's home on Route 124 yesterday.
Neighbors said they were stunned by the allegations.
"I can't really imagine he's done anything wrong," neighbor Ellen Abisch said, adding that Yannai had told her he had au pairs living and working at his home.
Another neighbor, Katherine Biagiarelli, who lives next-door to Yannai, said that when she came home from work a couple of weeks ago, she saw police taking items out of his home.
"They took some computers out, some hard drives," Biagiarelli said, adding that she did not know Yannai personally.
Another neighbor, Nancy Mutino, described Yannai as "very rich"
Is this guy the son of Rabbi Seidler-Feller from UCLA who got in big legal trouble for hitting a woman?
http://www.yuobserver.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=3aa214f4-c73a-489b-914d-a14f061261a6
Yeshiva University Students Speak Out About Abuse
By: Olivia Wiznitzer
Posted: 5/5/09
Shaul Moshe Seidler-Feller (YC '11) thinks that newspaper involvement "depends on the case. If the problem is being dealt with effectively by the parties involved in private, it should remain private and not be broadcast to the community.
Do we know when the Markey bill is up for a vote?
"Our enemies fight with chariots, and fight with horses, but we fight with the name of Hashem"
(Tehillim 20)
Agudath Israel's Moetzes Council of Sages are fighting with those who led the Spanish Inquisition, and those who stood silent as six million of our fellow Jews were murdered. They will twist every law and Passuk in the Torah, in order to fight against those most vulnerable.
Rabbi Lamm was 100% wrong in his predicted demise of Reform Judaism. Sunday night to our utmost horror we watched as Agudath Israel has openly decided to reform our holy Torah.
Shame on these rabbis and layleaders for allowing such an abomination to take place. Agudath Israel and its Moetzes Council of Sages sinned, and caused others who believe in them to sin. This disgraceful public desecration of the name of Hashem will come back to harm Orthodox Jewish interests nationwide.
Shuvu Shuvu Yisroel.
We cannot allow this Chillul Shaim Shomayim Berabim go unanswered.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7580155
The FBI has evidence that 500 unsolved murders of women near major highways are by truckers who pull off into cities / suburbs to stalk their random prey before driving off and getting away with it.
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Jack Welch, former chief executive officer of General Electric Co., criticized the government- backed bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC for favoring unions at the expense of creditors and said President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus programs will cause budget deficits.
“I don’t particularly like where he’s taking us,” Welch said, referring to Obama, during an interview yesterday at the Boston Convention Center. Welch, 73, who led GE from 1981 to 2001, was a guest speaker at the New England Business Xpo.
“To get the money he needs, he has to have a fake budget,” Welch said. “He’s fooling people about how we’re going to have the top line support the programs in the middle without enormous taxes and some programs not going.”
By Or Kashti, Haaretz Correspondent
Police continued their investigation Tuesday into shocking allegations that came to light on Sunday - that a 10-year-old girl in the coastal city of Ashdod was gang-raped by her peers over an extended period of time.
Detectives are currently checking claims that the girl was sexually violated by several minors with whom she had watched pornographic movies. They are also investigating whether any adults might have been involved.
Education Ministry officials Tuesday defended teachers at the girl's school, who have been publicly accused of neglect. The officials said the teachers promptly notified the proper authorities and acted in keeping with to ministry guidelines.
"When they first became aware of the case, the school immediately informed her parents, passed the information on to the city's welfare department and sought guidance from [ministry] supervisors," a ministry official said.
A team of psychologists came to the school Tuesday to speak to children who may have been affected by the incident.
Ministry officials said that the girl, who is currently in fifth grade, had been involved in several "unusual" sexual incidents, such as exposing herself in public. A psychologist and other staff members at the school had spoken regularly with the girl and been in touch with her family. In addition, the municipal welfare department had made inquiries to try to determine whether she was being abused at home. However, the ministry officials said, social workers failed to find any proof of misconduct by the girl's relatives.
The event that finally brought the alleged rapes to the knowledge of the authorities happened two weeks ago and outside the school's premises.
"When school staff first investigated the incident, all the students said the girl had initiated the sexual contact," a ministry official said. "The incidents occurred over a lengthy period and the whole case is currently being investigated, including the possibility that adults were involved."
Hila Segal, the Education Ministry official in charge of dealing with sexual abuse of students, said the alleged incident and others like it raise questions about society's standards for normal sexual behavior in children.
"Again and again, we encounter a discrepancy between what adults think of various sexual behaviors at a relatively early age, and the reality," she said Tuesday. "One must question adults' preconceptions [about sex]."
At this stage, she added, the ministry is not seeking "to define what normative sexual behavior is but to give the children legitimacy to talk about anything that bothers them."
According to ministry data, the number of children who sought psychological help as the victims of alleged sexual abuse rose last year. However, Segal said, the figures do not necessarily indicate a rise in the number of such incidents. Rather, she said, they probably reflect a growing awareness, and hence increased reporting, of sexual misconduct.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/nyregion/20ethics.html
ALBANY — The state inspector general released nearly 2,000 pages of documents on Tuesday related to his just-completed investigation into the State Ethics Commission and its reputed leaks of information to the Spitzer administration.
But the most revealing records in those documents chronicle a visit that the inspector general, Joseph Fisch, made to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer late last year. Mr. Fisch sought to interview Mr. Spitzer as part of the inquiry and found him hostile, frustrated over his experience in Albany and with his legendary temper in full bloom.
The transcript of the interview, which had not previously been released, offered a window into Mr. Spitzer’s state of mind seven months after his resignation, and showed a side quite different from the one that Mr. Spitzer exhibited in recent interviews he has undertaken as part of what appears to be a public rehabilitation tour.
In the course of Mr. Fisch’s visit, the ex-governor lashed out at Gov. David A. Paterson’s administration, the news media, the Albany County district attorney and a Republican operative, Roger Stone, among others.
The interview was conducted at the Fifth Avenue real estate offices of Mr. Spitzer’s father, Bernard, rather than at the inspector general’s Manhattan office, because of the former governor’s concern that the news media was trailing him.
Mr. Spitzer then alternated between asking Mr. Fisch to ask him a question and cutting him off before he could, according to the transcript.
“My time is precious, Judge. What is your question?” he said, but then cut him off again, and criticized P. David Soares, the Albany district attorney, for “generalized incompetence”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/nyregion/20marriage.html?hp
May 20, 2009
Gay Marriage Slow to Draw an Opposition in NY
Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn was feeling distressed.
The State Assembly had just voted to legalize same-sex marriage, after gay rights groups flooded the Legislature with visits, phone calls & e-mails. Where, he wanted to know, was the other side?
“Wake up! Where are you?” Mr. Hikind, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage, said. “It’s the bottom of the ninth, two outs, and you’re losing — big time.”
The interest groups working to legalize marriage for gay couples have been laying the groundwork for more than 4 years, lobbying lawmakers & funneling $100,000s to their campaigns. And last week they began running television commercials in the state’s largest media markets promoting same-sex marriage as an equal rights issue.
Their opponents, who are just beginning to organize, say they feel outgunned & underfinanced.
The difficulties in New York echo those conservatives have faced throughout the Northeast. Over the last six weeks, Vermont, Maine & New Hampshire have all moved to allow gay couples to wed.
The region has been challenging for opponents of same-sex marriage, in part, because the measures are being decided by state legislatures — not voter referendums where the opponents’ ability to motivate large numbers of voters, rather than influence institutional players, has been an advantage.
“It is the lack of a proposition or referendum,” Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said. “Many of them really have no idea how to present their grievances.”
In New York, the National Organization for Marriage, whose resources have been stretched thin from other campaigns, began making phone calls to recruit supporters only late last week.
The state’s Roman Catholic bishops have been somewhat distracted, too, having focused their lobbying energies this session on defeating a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse to bring civil claims, and have appeared unprepared for the battle over marriage.
Other groups that typically take the lead on conservative causes, like New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms & the Conservative Party of New York State, say they lack resources to mount a broad media campaign.
And the state does not have the large numbers of evangelical Christians & Mormons that have helped fuel movements to restrict marriage to heterosexuals in other states.
The State Assembly passed Gov. Paterson’s bill to give same-sex couples the right to wed by a vote of 89 to 52 last week, and gay advocates are pushing for a vote in the Senate before the Legislature adjourns at the end of June.
Supporters have a financial advantage, too. The National Organization for Marriage said it planned to spend a minimum of $100,000 on its efforts, on telephone and e-mail appeals to voters & ads on Web sites. The Empire State Pride Agenda, the leading gay rights organization, is already spending at least twice that on its TV advertising & hired Patricia Lynch Associates, one of Albany’s most influential lobbying firms, for $10,000 a month.
Still, social conservatives in New York state have seemed somewhat fragmented, lacking a galvanizing issue like the death penalty, over which they waged epic battles with Govs. Mario Cuomo & Hugh Carey.
The efforts have also been hurt by the lack of a statewide political figure to lead the opposition. The state’s 2 senators, governor, legislative leaders & attorney general all support gay couples to wed.
Even the archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, whose upbeat personality & savvy suggest he could be a powerful voice, has no plans to step into the debate.
Mr. Paterson said the archbishop did not raise the issue when the two met last month.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, suffered a stunning rebuke Tuesday when investors shot down its executive-compensation plan, in the latest display of shareholder anger over big paychecks and boardroom excesses amid the economic crisis.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/05/gingrich-pelo-1.html
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich today flatly declared that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be replaced in the wake of her allegation that the CIA lied to her about harsh interrogation techniques.
“She really disqualified herself to be speaker,” Gingrich, R-Ga., told Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America. “I think the Democrats should get a new speaker.”
Pelosi’s allegation “basically smears” the U.S. intelligence community, Gingrich said, leaving her “disqualified” to be behind only the vice president in the presidential succession order. Leaving her in place, he said, is “very dangerous” for the country.
Gut gezugt, Rabbinic Members.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7628205&page=1
It must have been that skunk UOJ who discovered the paper trail that all of Bernie's relatives were knowingly living off the stolen money.
Great comment by Genuk at Failed Messiah !!
The Agudah can probably continue to hoodwink the faithful with their little two-step. They are equally self interested in preserving the status quo and sweeping everything under the carpet. The only thing that really bothers them is that the picketers and bloggers have ruined that picture perfect, air brushed, candy coated, art scrolled vision of themselves.
The problem they have are the victims. "The voice of thy brothers blood is screaming from the ground." That voice cannot be silenced and is growing louder and louder. Call it the night of the living dead or perhaps the telltale heart.
When the OU had the Lanner problem, over the objections of the old guard, they brought in an outside law firm with a former US Attorney, to do an independent audit. The results were damning but it saved that organization's hide. Right now it does not appear that there is even one bar daas in the Agudah fold who has the guts and brains to take the "painful" steps needed to save that organization. Perlow actually articulated the reason. They are afraid that any real admission of wrongdoing, as opposed to the mealy mouthed nonsense that they have been spewing forth, will subvert the entire daas torah/gedolim power structure.
They need to realize that their organization is in grave danger. Their continued arrogant and wrong headed approach will ultimately cost them their credibility, to the extent they still have any, and will end the Agudah as we know it. Many believe that's a good thing and should have happened long ago.
It really stinks that Google Blogger has now imposed the new maximum character restriction. Take for example the NY Times article about gays. It was very difficult to edit the post to include all the important items.
DUBLIN -A fiercely debated, long-delayed investigation into Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says priests and nuns terrorized thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades — and government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.
Nine years in the making, Wednesday's 2,600-page report sides almost completely with the horrific reports of abuse from former students sent to more than 250 church-run, mostly residential institutions.
It concluded that church officials always shielded their orders' pedophiles from arrest to protect their own reputations and, according to documents uncovered in the Vatican, knew that many pedophiles were serial attackers.
The commission said overwhelming, consistent testimony from still-traumatized men and women, now in their 50s to 80s, had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the entire system treated children more like prison inmates and slaves than people with legal rights and human potential.
"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," the final report of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse concluded.
New York Jewish Week - May 19, 2009
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c41_a15837/News/Short_Takes.html
The battle over legislation that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse for one year took to the streets Sunday night, complete with a dose of sophisticated street theater.
The scene was the New York Hilton Hotel, where the haredi umbrella group Agudath Israel was holding its annual dinner. The organization — along with Torah Umesorah, the Orthodox educational network, and the Catholic Church — opposes a bill authored by Assemblywoman Marge Markey that, if passed, could potentially end up costing Orthodox institutions tens of millions of dollars. The bill provides a one-year window during which alleged victims can file civil suits regardless of when the abuse took place.
A small group of supporters of the Markey bill, in standard protest style, picketed the Agudah dinner, displaying signs that read “Agudah Stop Protecting Pedophiles.” But the group went a step further. It handed out forged fliers designed to look exactly like those e-mailed to Agudah members. On one side was a copy of the Agudah’s joint press release with Torah Umesorah opposing the Markey Bill. On the other was a fake statement from Rabbi David Zwiebel, Agudah’s executive vice president for government and public affairs.
The fake message — in which “Rabbi Zwiebel” claims to have been ordered to work with the Catholic Conference of New York State in this “holy mission” and calls upon Agudah members to decide how the organization should respond to the “epidemic of sexual abuse” —— appeared real enough to at least one Jewish leader who saw it. He called The Jewish Week to tip the paper off about the “statement.”
Among the protesters were Mark Appel, a community activist from the Upper West Side; Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, an activist and advocate from Williamsburg who claims he was shot in the head for speaking out about child sexual abuse in his community; Levi Goldenberg, also from Williamsburg and the founder of an organization called The Committee for Safeguarding Orthodox Jewish Children; and Joe DiAngello, a member of the group Survivors for Justice who alleges he was raped in a mikveh when he was 7.
According to Rabbi Rosenberg, the protesters were there “[to let] Jewish people who are supposed to be Torah-observant people know that we are not allowed to have any kind of pedophilia in our community. And [unfortunately] the Agudah and these rabbis with them are backing these pedophiles on a very, very bad level.”
He referred specifically to the case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, who is alleged to have abused what some believe could be dozens of children with impunity for over four decades, both in schools and at the Agudah-owned Camp Agudah, Inc.
At one point, the protesters got into a confrontation with Israel Lefkowitz, who identified himself as an Agudah trustee “proud to be an Agudist since 1940.” Through the open window of his car as he entered the Hilton, he told protesters that he “was against sexual harassment for all the children.”
When asked by The Jewish Week whether he thought people should report allegations of abuse directly to the police, Lefkowitz did not respond, but chided the protesters for demonstrating in public.
“We are on the same side,” he told them. “The problem [with the Markey bill] is that somebody can wake up after 40 years and say that he was molested.”
Rabbi Zwiebel said in an e-mail, “Obviously I don’t like it when people use my name and image falsely.
“But,” Rabbi Zwiebel added, “Lefkowitz is essentially right: the protesters are our brothers and sisters, and they have a special claim on our attention and conscience. We may have disagreements over specific strategies and approaches, which at least from our end we are determined to keep civil, but we need to remember who/what the real ‘enemy’ is: apathy about the underlying problem. I hope the day will come when we can all look back and say that we took steps that made a real difference.”
Jerusalem - Between a Gemara class and a morality class hesder yeshiva students will attend a special course at the Rape Crisis Center for Religious Women. The course is meant to train yeshiva students to become instructors at workshops on the prevention of sexual harassment, which they will give at high school yeshivas and ultra-Orthodox schools.
The objective of this initiative is to provide religious and haredi teenagers with tools to prevent assault, and teach them how to act in case they were victim of abuse.
"There's an epidemic of sexual abuse of children in Israel," said Debbie Gross, who runs the center. "This epidemic exists in all the sectors, including the religious and haredi ones. We are talking about a very serious phenomenon, which I believe can be substantially reduced through these workshops.
"We are already running similar workshops in kindergartens and elementary schools. The problem is that some schools don't allow us in classes over the fourth grade, not to mention yeshivot, which don't let us in at all because they don't want women to host the workshop.
"This is exactly why we needed to train men. We approached the heads of the hesder yeshivot and they agreed," she said.
Is there a difference between the religious and haredi public and the secular public with regards to sexual abuse?
"The only difference is that in the religious and haredi society abuse is made much easier, because of the gender separation. A predator would go to places where there are no mothers to protect their children. For instance, a haredi mother can't take her son to the swimming pool from the age of 8-9. So the kids sometimes go with an older brother, who doesn't always keep an eye on them.
"Additionally, in our education system we have men teaching children from the age of three. This doesn't exist in the secular system, where one can graduate from high school without ever having a male teacher. We know that an attacker usually seeks a profession that allows him to be close to kids," Gross explained.
The course was made possible thanks to a grant from the Shatil organization, the Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel.
YNET News
I'm an ole' Irish boy so I know how to help the heimishe cover up abuse in Brooklyn.
Have a drink!
Israel Lefkowitz was profiled in the Village Voice as a convicted criminal who bilked Medicaid at his nursing homes.
What better spokesman to stand up for the Agudah!
Schwarzenegger says he's heard voters' anger
The Associated Press - 30 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he's heard "loud and clear" a voter message to take care of deficits through budget cuts alone, without passing additional costs along to them
he told protesters that he “was against sexual harassment for all the children.”Hey Lefkowitz, you stole my line.
http://www.villagevoice.com/2002-05-28/news/scandal-cash
Did someone mention the Village Voice article that also features convicted sex offender Zakheim from Hatzolah?
Yes, we do have people in our community who have a criminal conviction relating to financial transactions. But we also believe in teshuva, and looking at the whole person. Lefkowitz is a very serious baal tsedaka, who often takes the initiative in many areas of communal affairs. His nursing homes have a reputation for being clean and well run. The conviction goes back some thirty years, and sometimes the government handles these things civilly, and sometimes
criminally - it was the times. The government was coming on very very strong then. Would that we learn a lesson to our current problem. The Village Voice doesn't know everything, and neither do we.
Lefkowitz from Boro Park was involved in another fraud. He dumped his daughter who couldn't have kids on a Lakewood yungerman who wasn't told about it before the chuppah.
Lefkowitz later claimed he didn't know about his own daughter's problem.
Which Agudah / Yated staffer was that at 2:03 being matzdik for Lefkowitz's thievery?
What difference does it make klapei shmaya if the govt attacks the fraud from a civil or criminal tzu gein, you dumb lummox?
And teshuva for nursing home operators may be something like "teshuva" for pedophiles. Have you ever met a nursing home operator who doesn't bounce checks and pull other shticklach?
Does anyone know if the NY Times investigations into corrupt nursing homes by reporter Cliff Levy turned up anything else on Lefkowitz?
"Lefkowitz is a very serious baal tsedaka"
How much money did he have to steal from taxpayers to accomplish that?
Maybe Avi Shafran can treat us to another pshetl about how avlos are really tzidkus.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/jewishweek/image/articles/03a-522.gif
It's perfect for the UOJ sidebar
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b71f69e201157098a3a4970b-pi
Which feste guy wrote this?
Lefkowitz should have shut his mouth. Now he is going to bring on himself the full fury of UOJ groupies digging up every piece of dirt that can be found.
Let this be a warning to other machers who think they have a pischon peh to cover up child abuse.
When Lefkowitz's rosh kollel son decided he wanted to move to Lakewood, Lefkowitz just dumped the kollel on Nostrand and stopped giving a cent with no warning whatsoever. Where was this big rich baal tzedoka when kollel yungerleit couldn't buy food to put on the table? He also left them hanging after the architect had drawn up plans for the new building. Lefkowitz turned around to sell it for a profit and left R' Yossi Eisen's shul high & dry.
And it wouldn't surprise me if 2 mispallelim by the kollel didn't say boo to Lefkowitz - Agudah's in house lawyer Mordechai Bizer and one big goniv business associate of Lefkowitz who at least so far has not been caught by the police.
Even I have a problem with Lefkowitz.
His whole extended clan shows up at every convention and there are so many of them that it's hard for anyone else to get a strategic spot to stuff our faces at the shmorg!
One of the guys listed on the Agudah dinner committee is the nephew of Sruly Singer and grandson of Julius Kuhl.
More awareness needs to be raised on how Paterson has lost his mind and will put New York State into a death spiral like Michigan's if he isn't stopped.
"Have you ever met a nursing home operator who doesn't bounce checks and pull other shticklach?"
I'm glad you brought that up. Can someone explain what happens when a check actually clears? I'm mamash clueless on that.
Lefkowitz is also a big knacker at Torah Vodaas. Is he one of Belsky's supporters?
http://www.fec.gov/press/press2004/20041014mur.html
The son who runs the business, Shimon Lefkowitz, has his name pop up in a scandal prosecuted by the FEC. Not clear from this document what his role was exactly although Noach Dear and Steve Zakheim along with a long list of names from Boro Park and Flatbush are also implicated.
I can quote you from the Tanach, Shas, Shulchan Aruch, Rishonim and Acharonim why we must pass this legislation to protect our children. Can any opponent of the Markey bill give one, just one, legitimate Torah source for opposing this bill?
Did Rabbi Perlow give any explanation other than to say that the decision was made through "divine determination"?
I'm not saying that I'm more fluent in Torah and halacha than these rabbis, chas veshalom. All I'm saying is that they need to explain to us simple baalei batim where they came up with this divine revelation. The old "trust us, we know what's good for you" will not work when it comes to such a volatile subject like the safety of our children. I think the Torah is crystal clear regarding which direction to take. That's why I suspect that their decision had nothing to do with what the Torah mandates, but rather what their lawyers and bankers mandated.
Rabbi Perlow openly admitted to mistakes made in the past, though he did not specify what those mistakes were. Do you believe that when those mistakes were made, that they also based those faulty decisions on the Torah? Where in the Torah is there even a slight hint that the correct approach is to silence the victims and to protect the child molesters?
What a way for him to start correcting the mistakes of the past, by fighting against legislation that would expose child molesters and protect our children. As much as you try to give the Agudah rabbis the benefit of the doubt, it just doesn't add up. These rabbis are extremely well versed in Torah and halacha and yet they continue to make, by their own admission, these fatal errors in judgment. It's time for them to stop worrying about the money and to start doing what's right in the eyes of Hashem. It's about time they started fighting for the victims they have wronged and working to protect our children.
Only through tough legislation and by sending these molesters to jail will we start to scratch the surface. THAT is what the Torah mandates. I challenge anyone to prove otherwise.
Steve you are 100% right!!!
Reb Yaakov Kaminetsky said in public many times that “that no one should ever just say hashkafos without proofs from chazal, because otherwise anyone could make up anything they want".
He also said he likes the Satmar Rav because he never says or writes anything without sources from Chazal.
There is no tshuva of Reb Moshe Feinstein without sources and proofs from chazal.
Are Wall Street speculators driving up gasoline prices?
MiamiHerald.com - 1 hour ago
By KEVIN G. HALL
WASHINGTON -- Oil and gasoline prices are rising fast as Memorial Day weekend approaches, but not because supplies are tight or demand is high
Steve,
There is a proof, "In God We Trust". It's on the back of all that's held sacred by social clubbers, back room politicians, hypocrites and fill in your own blank.
(IsraelNN.com) Two Israeli yeshiva students in Canada were arrested on drug charges, which were then downgraded to “crossing without a visa.” They are out on bail, awaiting trial.
The story, told to Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen by the brother of one of the students, began shortly after the recent Passover holiday, when the two decided to go to the U.S. to visit relatives. Shortly before their departure, they were told that they would need visas to cross the Canadian border into the U.S., but they decided to try to sneak across the border through a forest. Instead of “landing” in their destination of New York, however, they found themselves in Vermont.
A local guard discovered them and alerted police, who set off in pursuit of what they thought were drug smugglers, who have become a plague along the forested Canadian-Vermont border.
The boys were caught after a short chase and were placed in jail. “They were thrown into a dungeon-like cell for days without even being questioned as to whether they were carrying drugs,” the brother said.
The prison authorities then took the initiative of calling Rabbi Levi Kanelsky, of the European humanitarian organization Aleph, whom they knew as someone with contacts with hareidi-religious Jews. Aleph, with wide experience in helping Jewish prisoners incarcerated throughout Europe, made contact with the boys and with their families in Israel and was able to convince the Vermont authorities that the boys were not involved in drug smuggling.
The local police would not let them off scot-free, however, and decided to charge them with “illegal entry into the United States.” This seemed to indicate that they would soon be expelled back to Canada or Israel. In the meanwhile, they spent the ensuing two weeks in jail, provided with tefillin and kosher food by the local Chabad chapter.
At the end of the two weeks, however, the boys were informed that because of the heavy caseload in the local courts, their trial had been postponed until the end of this year. The boys were faced with the choice of either spending the next several months in prison, or putting up $20,000 bail each and remaining with relatives.
Last week, the boys' relatives arrived with the money, and they are now out of prison – forbidden to leave the United States until their trial is over.
http://forward.com/articles/106319/
Inside the grand ballroom of the Midtown Hilton in Manhattan, Agudath Israel of America’s annual dinner was unfolding according to plan. Men and women dressed in traditional yet elegant clothes dined on salmon and listened to Senator Charles Schumer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledge their fealty.
Outside, a storm was brewing.
A dozen protesters stood in front of the Hilton’s parking garage and waved signs that said “Agudah: Stop protecting pedophiles.”
Most attendees waved off the protesters or ignored them with a look of distaste.
But Agudath board of trustees member Israel Lefkowitz rolled down his car window to chastise the protesters.
“I am against sexual harassment for all the children,” Lefkowitz said. “But you don’t do this in public.”
One of the protesters, Mark Appel, yelled at Lefkowitz in his car: “Your children are being molested, and you know that [officials from Agudath] are not doing anything about it.”
“Why are you so angry?” Lefkowitz asked.
“What is Agudah doing to my molester?” asked Joe DiAngelo, who says he was raped as a child in a Brooklyn mikveh.
In his defense, Lefkowitz replied that he booted out a principal who was molesting boys at his son’s school.
“What happened to him? Why wasn’t he arrested?” asked Levi Goldberg, a soft-spoken young man wearing a traditional black suit, hat and peyes.
“I do not know,” Lefkowitz said. He called the protest “a desecration of a Godly institution.”
“Reasonable people can disagree on this,” Agudah spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran said inside the dinner hall. “We have no problem with extending the statute of limitations, we have no problem with anything preventative, we only have problems with the so-called ‘window’ provision.”
Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudath Israel of America, took a harsher tone in his dinner address, chiding “the bloggers and the picketers, presumptuous promoters” for the notion that “they know better [than Agudah’s Council of Torah Sages] what is good for the Jews.”
Perlow called child sexual abuse “a serious issue.” He acknowledged a need “for correcting the past – and for addressing the future, creating means to guide against wrongdoing to children.”
The protesters find Agudah’s statements short on specifics.
They accused Agudah of a conflict of interest. The organization is named as a defendant in sex-abuse lawsuits involving Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, accused of molesting dozens of students, including boys at an Agudah-run summer camp, and would likely face more lawsuits if the window legislation passes.
Appel, one of the protesters, is founder of a Jewish community group called Am Echad aimed at promoting Jewish unity and supporting social services. It is New York-based with chapters in other cities.
“I’ve met kids who have been abused [recently] by people who were abusing kids 30 years ago,” said Appel. “These guys [Agudah] are just stalling – they’re emotionless on this issue. So they’re going to sit here tonight and have a nice collective meal, and meanwhile their community is being torn apart.”
Elliot Pasik, a director of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, a group in favor of the window legislation as well as mandatory fingerprinting of private school teachers, said he’s disappointed by Agudah’s response.
Contact Rebecca Dube at dube@forward.com
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 -- 10:32 PM ET
-----
4 Arrested in Bomb Plot in New York
The F.B.I. arrested four men in New York City in an alleged
plot to detonate a bomb outside a Jewish temple, The
Associated Press reported. The authorities said the suspects
had planned to detonate a car with plastic explosives in the
Bronx.
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/bill-would-extend-shield-law-to-cover-bloggers/
Perhaps its time you stop the talk and take off your smelly shoes and get ready to throw them towards the next doof bag that opens up his hot air balloon at the podium. If I was brave enough to do it to the president of the USA you should be brave enough to do it to the presiding members of your rotten organazations. It felt really good afterwards!
UOJ and the Bored Souls
Dear Mr. Novominsker:
How downright ironic condescending and dehumanizing - that you take a stage with a microphone and demand of us to understand what we don’t see takes place behind closed doors, when our own realities - smack in front of our noses - is our shunned voices, locked away with our real-time pain of physical sexual violations, and drugs and alcohol - to numb the pain.
Shame on you!
>Last week, the boys' relatives arrived with the money, and they are now out of prison – forbidden to leave the United States until their trial is over.<
How long before we all start getting glossy brochures in the mail demanding we help out with 'pidyon shivuyim'?
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Whitney Tilson, the outspoken founder of hedge fund T2 Partners LLC, is girding for a deeper mortgage market meltdown
Predictions of more fallout from the housing bubble are also darkening their outlook in their usual playing field of stocks, which have been rising from the ashes. New York-based T2 is selling bank stocks, some of which recently doubled in value.
"There will be a headwind of continued losses for the better part of five years" considering that banks are facing more losses on residential and commercial real estate, Mr. Tilson told Reuters. He expects additional losses of more than $1 trillion.
The housing market will continue to be a driver of the credit crunch, with the knock-on effects producing consumer loan defaults that keep financial institution balance sheets under pressure, he said.
That view contrasts with hopes that U.S. housing could be on the road to recovery, following signs that home sales are bottoming and home building starts are rising.
Messrs. Tilson and Tongue say U.S. home-price drops could overshoot "fair value" of about 40%, to a decline of 50%. As of February, home prices had fallen more than 30% since their mid-2006 peak, according to S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
In stocks, investors bludgeoned by the worst bear market since the Great Depression have been clutching at signs in economic reports and company earnings that signal the U.S. recession may be coming to an end. Two-thirds of the 94% of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings through Monday [May 18] have beat analysts expectations.
But to T2, the stock rally is nothing more than an opportunity to profit. T2 is selling financial stocks that have soared since March.
Among positions pared are Wells Fargo & Co. and American Express Co., Mr. Tilson said. Shares of both companies have more than doubled since early March, along with other financials amid speculation that the grip of the U.S. recession was easing.
At the same time, Mr. Tilson has added Bank of America Corp. to his short positions, which benefit if the stock price falls. Bank of America, he says, is more exposed to a downturn, he said, and "has a much worse position" than Wells Fargo and American Express
Mr. Tilson said he and Mr. Tongue are shorting MBIA Inc., the bond insurer that they write in their new book is woefully underreserved and may not survive the year.
Mr. Tilson is also shorting homebuilders whose shares have bounced, such as Centex Corp. and Pulte Homes Inc., because there is "virtually no need" for their product for years, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/21/us/AP-US-Fancy-Whiskers.html
May 21, 2009
Men Compete for Title of World's Fanciest Whiskers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:11 a.m. ET
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1680056
The Cecil County Sheriff's Office says a teenager beat his mother with an aluminum baseball bat because she wouldn't share her french fries with him.
(AP) - A Wall Street brokerage firm collected $6.2 million in illegal fees by duping hundreds of investors into buying stocks at inflated prices, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
An indictment charged owners Joseph Sorbara and Steven Markowitz and 15 former employees of the now-defunct Joseph Stevens & Co. Inc. with enterprise corruption, grand larceny and other felony counts. They were to be arraigned later Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
We are fed up with the orthodox monopoly on family matters, with the extortions, with the ignorance, with the shamelessness.
www.nimaslanu.blogspot.com
Quinn was one of over 2,000 people to give evidence in a nine-year inquiry into child abuse at educational institutions, orphanages and hospitals run by Roman Catholic religious orders in Ireland from the 1930s to the 1990s. On Wednesday, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse released its findings. The five-volume, 2,600-page report is a catalog of horrors, describing "endemic sexual abuse" in boys' institutions and the "daily terror" of physical abuse experienced by the estimated 30,000 Irish children who were sent to them. (See pictures of new hope for Belfast.)
The report lists the sexual, physical and emotional abuse — including rape, molestation and severe beatings — inflicted on children in around 100 so-called industrial schools, most of which had closed by the 1970s. These were state-funded institutions run by Roman Catholic orders such as the Christian Brothers or Sisters of Mercy to which orphans, truants, children of unmarried mothers or those with behavioral problems were typically sent.
Few children received any semblance of what would pass for an adequate education today. Instead, boys and girls spent much of the day in workshops, on farms or in laundries, providing free labor for the religious orders, who, in turn, received government payments for each child that was sent to the school. "I was supposed to be sent to school for an education," says Quinn, who spent hours each day repairing damaged clothes in a tailor's shop. "But it was more like penal servitude."
As well as documenting the most depraved acts committed by school staff, Justice Sean Ryan's report condemns the culture of secrecy that prevailed in the institutions. Incidents of child abuse committed by members of religious orders were almost never reported to the police. Furthermore, priests who were known abusers were often transferred to other institutions where they continued to abuse children. (See the top 10 scandals of 2008.)
The report also criticizes the "deferential and submissive attitude" of the state towards the religious orders. It says inspections of the industrial schools carried out by the Irish Department of Education were inadequate, and despite claims by young people of mistreatment in the institutions, the government continued to send children to those schools for decades. In some of the most shocking cases detailed in the report, boys who reported sexual abuse by priests or lay staff members were physically beaten for speaking out, while their abusers continued to work at the school.
"I'm delighted about the report," says journalist and campaigner Mary Raftery. "For years we were the lone voices. We lived through decades in this society where people just refused to believe that nuns and priests could behave in [this] way." It was Raftery's documentary film series States of Fear, broadcast on Irish television in 1999, that first brought allegations of systemic abuse in reform schools and other institutions to public attention and led to the creation of the child abuse commission.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a15778/News/New_York.html
by Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
In yet another indication of the problems plaguing the Conservative movement, as many as 40 synagogues are considering withdrawing from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism because the movement’s congregational arm doesn’t serve their needs, according to a leader of a new group pressing for change.
“I say stay and change from within, but 30 to 40 other synagogues may leave,” said Arthur Glauberman, a founder of Bonim (“Builders”). He was referring to multiple comments on a United Synagogue listserv.
Bonim, which claims to represent about 50 synagogues along the East Coast, is now speaking openly of ousting the current United Synagogue leadership, slashing the group’s $14 million budget and restructuring the organization. It is also calling for the closing of all 15 of the movement’s regional offices in order to save money on rent and staff.
“The United Synagogue has become so absorbed with its own power and is out of touch with providing services to member organizations,” said Glauberman, president of Shaarei Tikvah in Scarsdale.
Can we get a caption of who the anti-Agudah protesters are (provided they don't mind identifying themselves)?
I'm disappointed with Hella Winston. While she has done a lot of good to expose pedophiles it's clear that she has an anti-orthodox bias and thinks there is something out of whack with all aspects of our lifestyle. This past Shabbos she was a guest on a radio show in Fairfield County CT. The host is a secular Jewish woman, Lisa Kamen-Wexler, who is incredibly ignorant and anti-orthodox and made a bunch of comments that reflected it. Hella Winston was alternating between piling on or remaining silent.
I really question the motives of some of our so called friends in the war on molesters. Marci Hamilton for instance leads the fight to prevent orthodox Jews from establishing eruvin. These people may be similar in this regard to the neo-Nazis & Islamo-Fascists who comment on Vicky's websites because they enjoy sordid issues plaguing Jews.
Two perspectives - one from a halakhic source and one the practical world of operations.
First halakhically, as was pointed out, R. Willig publically apologized for his behavior. His kavod as a RY and posek was enhanced not diminished. To say let's focus on the future without acknowledging the past is not the time honored halakhic approach to repentance. if you believe members of the moetzet and/or their fellow-travellers are all guiltless, i would understand their lack of an act of contrition. given the facts reported, i do not see that as remotely plausible. in fact, according to some, they continue to allow some not so innocent to sit "oben un."
second, in the real world, if someone repeatedly underplays the significance of what is happening, he most often forfeits the right to lead the response. Does anyone really believe that this case ought be different? these rabbis failed partially because they thought their daas torah needs no input from professionals. before giving anyone the reins of the clean-up or even a vote, i would at least want to hear what has caused them to change their mind! If they have not, well...
Rabbi Perlow proclaimed, and certainly “the bloggers and the picketers, presumptuous promoters” of the notion that “they know better what is good for the Jews."So, it is better for the Jews to conceal, stonewall, and be in denial of the epidemic of child abuse, even though this will inevitably lead to more such victims רח"ל.
Somehow, that does not seem very much like דעת תורה.
http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=14839
What was smeared on the walls at the home of a South Florida chabad rabbi has left a community outraged, and police are calling this a possible hate crime. "We saw, on the window right here, it was smeared all across here," Rabbi Aaron Rabin said making a sweeping gesture in front of his large picture window at the front of his home. "Dog feces smeared all over this window and on the floor here." Rabin was mortified when he returned home Thursday from the Jewish Learning Center, a synagogue on 41st Street. He first saw the remnants of eggs that were chucked at his home, and then he went to his front door. "This handle over here, somebody had taken the dog feces and covered the entire handle here, where you press to get in, so your hand was automatically going to get covered in the dog feces ... and then, on the wall over here all the way down, all over here, smeared." Rabin does not own a dog, and so he says someone had to think this out and transport the dog feces. Miami Beach Police said this crime is "mind-boggling" and promised to get to the bottom of this. If you have any information that might help investigators, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward.
Maybe Shafran takes orders directly from the Rebbe after all. What the Novominsker said is more insulting to the victims than Shafran's hot air.
5/5/09
Rabbi Y. Blau:
I have been disillusioned
Jews, respected in the community, who are extremely smart, talented & capable can never the less have abusive personalities & harm children
I also learned that in general people do not change. Abusing children is not a sickness that vanishes after 6 months of therapy
Despite the fact that it's unpleasant to hand matters over to secular authorities, I have realized that our community is simply not equipped to deal with abuse. We can't investigate properly & we can't take measures strong enough to protect children from abuse
Institutions just want to rid themselves of a problem-to clear its reputation, parents don't want people to know because of the negative effects such information can have on reputation, shidduchim & publicity. The Community does not want publicity either. However, silence does not help
The media has turned out to play a very important role in forcing the community to confront the issues rather than stay in denial
In the Chareidi world there's an even bigger problem because they are endlessly concerned with maintaining the image of the community. Interestingly, the blogs play in a role in this. There are a number of blogs: Un-Orthodox Jew is the primary one ... many people in the community feel that they have no voice & they can only call out their pain on a blog where they can be anonymous or use a pseudonym
There's a story that's told & I can't vouch for its authenticity that one of R' Aron Kotler's talmidim wanted to teach but was having trouble controlling the class. So the principal wanted to let him go but he felt terrible, so he asked R' Kotler whether he should let him go & R' Kotler said, "Oh, it's a rachmonos" and the principal thought he couldn't let him go because it was a "rachmonos" for his wife & children. "No!" said R' Kotler; "it's a rachmonos on the children that this man was teaching!" I am speaking from my own perspective. It takes a lot of mesiras nefesh to be in Chinuch. If a teacher can't control himself & will beat the children, then what is the good of that? Some people think, by the way, that emotional abuse can be more traumatic than physical & sexual
There was a first grade rabbi in Brooklyn who abused students & campers for over 30 years. When word got out, the yeshiva supported him the whole time, without acknowledging anything. Parents did not react with the exception of one family who moved their kids from the school. If the community had reacted differently, if the yeshiva knew that all students would leave, they would dismiss the teacher immediately
Lanner was a very capable man who worked in NCSY. Former youth of NCSY accused him of abusive behavior. It was very difficult to have a proper proceeding in the bet din, since for many people who were present he was a spiritual hero. Those people who covered up for him presented a huge challenge & embarrassment to the victims who were able to summon the courage and testify in public. Eventually though, the modern orthodox community did come to terms with reality, the bet din met with victims; rabbis held a public apology in Bet Midrash of YU. Such an admission is not yet visible in the charedi world
Rav Blau interview part 2
There is a tremendous scandal in the Catholic Church. They are guilty for covering up for priests who abused children. Unlike Jewish communities, where the congregation elects rabbis, appointment in the Catholic Church is from the top-their Hierarchy. Therefore, one can trace responsibility back directly. Catholicism also believes in repentance; they forgave priests and gave them a new chance by relocating them to another church. The Church keeps records of all such transactions, which serves as evidence. To top it off, the Catholic Church has lot of money, which makes it worth the fight for victims
It's harder to pin down authority in the Jewish community
It's time the Orthodox community shows it's in favor of protecting its children before its institutions and reputation
http://www.yuobserver.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=010b2d75-ae47-44a2-839e-b2067bcc93c2
Besides for the devastating financial losses, the heads of the Agudah, Rosh Yeshivas and Menhalim will most likely be called to testify in court.
I'm sure that they are not looking forward to that time.
Agudah figures had no problem running to court when they stuck up for a shyster laundering money for the Columbian drug cartels.
That radio show in CT with Hella Winston also had a chassidish woman living in Williamsburg call in to vent - on Shabbos noch r'l. (We all heard it after Shabbos on the website)
I wonder if Margo can get any more big names to vouch for him in court as character witnesses, or am I the only shmuck?
For only $125 you too can be able to divine what is supposed to happen.
This is the divine Rav Perlow is referring to.
It's gevaldig!!!
Well, I used a little technology to get around Shmarya's block on my IP. I reappeared for a few days as "J.J. from Good Times" before he pulled the plug on me again this morning. It's not clear if I lasted a bit because he was busy tweaking his software to block my new method of entry or if using the name of a Black character got me rights under Affirmative Action.
http://www.stljewishlight.com/topstories/294518205570149.php
In any case, he erased this post while getting rid of me. I said the freaks in this article must have been misdirected as they belong in the cess pool that handles the wastewater from Rubashkin.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242212388437&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Does anyone know how Shloimy Klein is handling tuition issues at Manavu this year? Applegrad tells me that Margo is being very tight handed at Silver Lake.
My name is drek because I screw over everybody. I don't pay the rebeim, I don't pay the teachers, I steal from my employees because I know how to get away with it. Let me tell you that long beard of mine can work wonders.
You think I care about din vecheshbon? You think withholding wages and financially depleting other Jews so that they can't make ends meet bothers me even one iota? I'm a fraud and proud to be one!
Ask any Yeshiva Ruach Chaim or Yeshiva of Kings Bay employee (including the goyish workers) and they will tell you a lot of loshon harah about me. Which in return I will summon Harav Belsky Shlita immediately to forward them an Hazmana.
http://www.nycourtsystem.com/Applications/JudicialDirectory/Bio.php?ID=7023849
Hey Klohr,
What about ignoring people in your shul if you think they don't have enough gelt to $hmear you with?
Even your former big chossid Eli Goldberg from the Agudah "young leadership" finally saw through the charade and left.
From yener blog:
Moshe Friedman owns Marvid Poultry in Montreal. The money behind Marvid is said to come from Moshe's brother, Hershey Friedman.
A senior government source told me today that Hershey Friedman bought Agriprocessors' $10 million line of credit two weeks ago. He told me Friedman was buying Agriprocessors, and he was surprised that a sale has yet to be announced.
The source's information matches with rumors circulating in the haredi community regarding the sale.
Friedman was described to me by a well-placed source intimately familiar with the haredi world as man involved in "shady" deals. The descriptive language used was extremely harsh.
Friedman is also supposed to be a large donor to Lakewood Yeshiva.
I'm told another Friedman brother is Lieby, known legally as Lawrence. Lawrence pled guilty to Medicaid fraud in 2001. He agreed to repay $48 million.
The New York times described Friedman's indictment on charges of grand larceny, conspiracy and falsifying medical records this way:
The 21-count indictment accused Mr. Friedman of drawing robust immigrants into the centers, which are intended for the frail, and billing the Medicaid program for unnecessary or nonexistent services.…
The indictment was issued after an 18-month investigation, in which the Health Department ''fully'' cooperated with the attorney general, the department has said.
During that time, however, the department approved six expansions of Mr. Friedman's business, which enabled him to increase his billings from $4 million a year to $47 million by the time of his arrest.
Mr. Friedman's two adult-day-care centers -- intended to provide physical therapy and rehabilitation to the disabled elderly who can still live independently -- quickly grew to account for one-quarter of all state adult-day-care Medicaid billings, the attorney general has said.
Lawrence Friedman's crime was allgedly facilitated by a pair of Satmar businessmen close to New York's then-governor, and the trail of this Medicaid fraud seems firmly placed in Williamsburg and the Satmar hasidic community.
B&H Photo, the Satmar-owned electronics dealer, received more than $2 million of this dirty money from B&H Home Health Care. The two companies are allegedly not related and no purpose for the payment is clear, although one could suspect a form of money laundering, similar to what Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins did for Satmar-owned Allou Healthcare.
Marvid was involved in a nasty labor dispute that saw the company put union workers out of jobs (or have their ours greatly reduced), while the company replaced them with temporary non-union workers.
This isn't much different than Agriprocessors hiring workers at $13 per hour, working them for a few weeks and then firing them without cause, and with the provision that they can be rehired in the near future, but at a much lower rate of pay.
The exclusive distributor of Marvid in the US is Satmar-owned Alle Processing. One of Marvid's kosher supervising agencies is the OU.
Why hasn't Agriprocessors' sale gone through?
Maybe the US Attorney's vetting process is going slowly. Or maybe the Friedman's are having trouble structuring or financing the deal.
Or perhaps the sale will be announced over this slow Memorial Day weekend, when no one to speak of will be paying attention.
Will the Friedmans buy Agriprocessors?
If it matters how workers are treated, if honest business practices are required, then the answer should be no.
Sadly, neither are requirements for Agriprocessors' sale.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/198372
President Obama has tapped New York's controversial top doc to head the CDC. What will Tom Frieden bring to the job?
By Anne Underwood | Newsweek Web Exclusive
May 19, 2009
Frieden has gone to new lengths. He issued a branded New York City condom, with packaging by designer Yves Behar, and launched an advertising campaign urging New Yorkers to "get into it" and get some. Since the first New York City condoms were introduced on Valentine's Day 2007, distribution has soared from 17 million a year to 36 million. This isn't a government-surplus product, but something with cachet, says Frieden. But David Zwiebel of the Orthodox Jewish group Agudath Israel calls the new campaign grossly offensive. And Edward Mechmann, assistant director of the Family Life/Respect Life Office at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, insists that abstinence is the most effective policy.
For anyone who went to the St Louis yeshiva the building was known as the Millstone campus named after the original donor Isidore Millstone who this St Louis newsppaper is reporting on:
The unfolding news that Jewish community patriarch Isadore E. Millstone went missing over the weekend has left many simultaneously saddened and profoundly grateful for his enormous contributions during 102 years of life.
Authorities were searching the Missouri River over the weekend and on Monday after police received a report Saturday that an elderly man was seen jumping off the Daniel Boone Bridge. As the Jewish Light went to press Monday evening, Millstone had not been found. Investigators last Saturday afternoon found an unattended vehicle near the bridge that belonged to Millstone's caregiver; authorities do not believe the caregiver had driven it there.
As recently as May 3, Millstone spoke without notes and was in apparent good health and spirits at the dedication of the Staenberg Family Complex at the Jewish Community Center, on the very grounds that Millstone purchased and donated to the community back in the 1950s.
Millstone was in acute pain at a recent dedication ceremony. The pain resulted from a shoulder injury he had suffered during the celebration of his 101st birthday in January 2008 at the Deer Creek Club. A family spokesman confirmed that information and added that Millstone had the flu at that birthday celebration.
A statement issued by the family on Monday said: "The man we all loved so much had suffered from anxiety. A painful shoulder injury he suffered in January 2008 was a contributing factor; beyond that, it is difficult to say, especially in a man of his years. We are continuing to pray for his safety and we ask the community to join us in our prayers."
I hope nobody tips off the feds about my money laundering operation. The Syrians don't trust me ever since I took their donations and used it as my personal piggy bank.
Lefkowitz yelled out his car window that they don't have a recht to protest against the Agudah in public.
I guess it's ok though for him to get caught stealing from Federal programs and the publicity that comes with it.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-rabbi-city-zone-06-may06,0,2319272.story
By Ron Grossman
Tribune reporter
May 6, 2009
The eviction notice was addressed to "unknown occupant," but that could not have been further from the truth in the small slice of Uptown where Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz ministered.
Because of a dispute with Congregation Agudas Achim, where he had been rabbi for 13 years, Lefkowitz must leave the condominium the synagogue owns by mid-May.
"I'll be sitting on a couch on the street," said Lefkowitz, 64. "I have no place to go."
Lefkowitz was fired last fall and the ensuing series of legal battles, religious as well as civil, has left the synagogue's fate -- as well as his -- hanging in the balance.
The letter of dismissal said Lefkowitz was fired for "gross mishandling of synagogue funds and donations."
"The rabbi has to be in control of everything," Turk said. "He would find a way to chase competent people off the board."
Even his friends, including Michael Azose, rabbi of the Sephardic Congregation in Evanston, say Lefkowitz is not one for subtlety.
The conflict between Turk and the rabbi came to a head in the middle of last year, when Turk said the board discovered a bank account in the congregation's name they didn't know about.
Lefkowitz said the account was necessary to manage synagogue funds and that he never used the money for personal gain. He appealed his case to a beth din, or religious court, which ruled it "did not find truly demonstrable evidence to prove the allegations."
The beth din awarded Lefkowitz $20,000 in severance and ordered the congregation to pay the monthly assessments on the condo. When that didn't happen, the condo association went to civil court for an eviction order.
Meanwhile, because the rabbi did not receive his severance, the beth din in April held Agudas Achim in contempt of court.
Turk acknowledged the beth din's censure, saying the board was in the process of paying off the condo's debts.
He said Lefkowitz has been sent part of his severance, and the board is currently raising funds to pay the rest.
Does anyone know of any organization that helps people pay the astronomical costs of therapy?
My insurance won't cover the costs of my social worker.
I grew up in a broken and unstable home, and I've been going for therapy for a while, yet I simply can't afford it.
Please help me.
thank You.
Here goes Meathead, I mean Shafran again!
He is trying very hard to be clever by mentioning another TV show or movie. He might also be taking a swipe at "Archie Bunker" who criticizes Rubashkin and the Agudah all over the blogs. Archie Bunker was of course the star character in "All in the Family"
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=4284
All In The Family
By Rabbi Avi Shafran
Published on Thursday, May 21, 2009
UOJ,
Are you aware that there is another molestation case in RBSA?
Rumors have it that this time it is a woman perp.
Do you have any details?
Yes, and I'm on it. There are other incidents by rebbes as well.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/politics/ny-potax1512768754may14,0,3609189.story
The new MTA payroll tax will hit every taxing district on Long Island, costing as much as $3 million annually to Nassau County government
Local governments already squeezed by the recession will have no choice but to raise property taxes
"It also goes to all payrolls. That means every church, every synagogue, every school," state Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City) said. "Public schools get a rebate supposedly for the first year, but we don't know if that's going be continued. All universities, all colleges, every not-for profit . . . they get taxed."
Democrats asserted that the MTA needed the bailout because the Republicans who had controlled the Senate for decades failed to address the agency's problems.
"What we're doing is cleaning up the mess Republicans left us with," Austin Shafran, spokesman for the Senate Democratic majority said. "Their lack of a plan would have left us with 30 percent fare hikes, a dramatic loss of service and lost jobs."
Gov. David A. Paterson expressed a similar sentiment, saying that "Instead of being part of the solution to the MTA crisis, the Senate Republicans sat on the sidelines."
State Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), appearing at the news conference in Mineola with Hannon and other state officials, said the bailout was "a tax on jobs. Whether you're making money or not, your payroll is going to be taxed."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-licaro2112787455may20,0,5024451.story
Citing a string of errors in judgment that led to the death of a 2-year-old girl, Nassau prosecutors invoked a rarely used law Wednesday to charge the girl's day care and two officials there with felony assault.
Prosecutors say that in the crucial moments before Olivia Raspanti died after choking on a carrot at Carousel Day School in March, assistant director Kathryn Cordaro and school owner Gene Formica were thinking more of protecting themselves because their facility was unlicensed than they were about protecting the toddler who had been entrusted to them. The two were charged Wednesday with felony reckless assault by a day care provider, a crime that could send them to prison for a maximum of 1 1/3 to 4 years if they are convicted.
Prosecutor Anne Donnelly said Cordaro's actions in the midst of the emergency were evidence of the school's misplaced priorities.
Instead of calling 911 immediately after Olivia started to choke, Cordaro went down the hall and instructed an employee to call emergency workers - and asked that they not turn on their lights and sirens, prosecutors said. Cordaro asked the employee to tell the 911 operator that Olivia was still breathing, a fact that prosecutors now say was almost certainly not true.
"A little child is choking and gasping, and you say, 'Don't use lights and sirens'? " Donnelly said. "That's not someone who is putting the child first."
Cordaro and Formica pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon and were released after posting $5,000 bail each. In addition, each was charged with three misdemeanors - second-degree reckless endangerment, misrepresentation by a child care provider and a violation of Social Services Law. The school has been charged with those crimes as well, making it subject to fines, Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said at a news conference.
Rice said state law requires any person or facility caring for more than six children younger than 3 for more than three hours a day to be a licensed day care provider, which Carousel was not. Rice said that even after Olivia's death Carousel "continued to illegally provide care to children" younger than 3 - and that Formica "refused to sign" a cease-and-desist order issued by Child and Family Services representatives the day after the death.
Donnelly said Olivia's teacher told prosecutors she gave one child a carrot, then left the rest of the bag in her purse, where other toddlers found them and helped themselves. Donnelly said it's more likely that the woman deliberately left the carrots out in the open, but either way, they were not put out of the children's reach.
In charging Cordaro and Formica with felonies, prosecutors employed the seldom-used "Jeremy and Julia's law," passed after the deaths of infants in Albany and Florida day care facilities more than a decade ago.
11:03 PM EDT, May 19, 2009
A Queens College student faces reduced bail on a charge of running down another driver in Long Beach who was pounding on his hood.
Bail for Evan R. Potts, 22, who has been jailed since Friday on charges of second-degree manslaughter, was reduced from $5 million to $500,000. His family intends to post the bail, defense attorney Stanley Kopilow said Tuesday.
Potts, of Oceanside, appeared for the second time Tuesday before Long Beach City Judge Stanley Smolkin, who cut bail to $500,000 bond or $250,000 cash, from the $5 million bond or $500,000 cash he had set Saturday.
Potts wore the same black shorts and T-shirt he has had on since his arrest. He has pleaded not guilty.
Friday morning, just before running down the other driver, who had jumped in front of him, Potts dialed 911 and tried to reverse his car away to flee, police said. Potts then accelerated forward, running over the other driver, Ian Sharinn, of Long Beach.
Potts and Sharinn, 34, had exchanged words as they drove in Long Beach before Sharinn got out of his car, police and witnesses said. Potts was arrested nearby.
Kopilow, of Garden City, said at least one witness said Sharinn "was a raging lunatic." Kopilow added that there is a footprint on his client's driver's side door and that he was scared for his life.
An assistant district attorney said that Potts called 911 to get on the record that there was damage to the Altima.
After hitting Sharinn, officials said, Potts made a U-turn and drove south to an intersection. Police had conflicting statements about whether witnesses pulled Potts from the car there or whether he got out on his own.
Potts was arrested in 2007 on charges of possession of burglar tools and marijuana, resisting arrest, third-degree criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty to some of the charges, court records show.
Potts' mother, Amy Potts, cried after the court hearing Tuesday and said her son is a good student who was scheduled to be taking final exams at Queens College.
If you can switch insurance, the major carriers do pay for mental health.
While most frum therapists are greedy fressers who do not take any kind of insurance, you can ask frum referral agencies like "Relief Resources" for the few who do take insurance.
Examples of other insurance carriers. Blue Cross allows 25 sessions a year and Aetna allows 30. Cigna also allows a decent amount.
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/6538/48/
Gov. Paterson, who raised state taxes by $8 billion last month, just cost state taxpayers $300,000 more.
The state has secretly settled an embarrassing federal racial-discrimination lawsuit, The NY Post had reported. The suit accused Paterson, back when he was Senate minority leader in 2003, of firing a white Senate photographer in order to replace him with an African-American.
The lawsuit had been scheduled to go to trial in federal court Monday in Syracuse, with Paterson, the state's first black governor, as a key witness. The case was settled earlier in the week, although a few glitches delayed the final deal until yesterday, legislative sources said.
The settlement ends a civil-rights action first filed in 2005 by Joseph Maioriello, 56, of Schenectady, a 26-year Senate employee who originally sought $1.5 million.
He was fired from his $34,000-a-year job as a photographer two years earlier and replaced by a black employee, El-Wise Noisette. The shakeup happened after Paterson ousted then-Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn) as the minority leader.
Connor was expected to testify that Maioriello was a good photographer.
While neither Paterson nor the state admitted that Maioriello was a victim of racial discrimination, the size of the settlement means "that the state wouldn't have made out very well if it had gone to trial," said a source close to the lawsuit.
"If nothing wrong happened, why is the state paying out this kind of money?" the source asked.
The settlement was initially delayed when Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), Paterson's successor and a fellow African-American, refused to give his approval.
Smith had veto power over the settlement since the suit was filed against the Senate. He was in the awkward position of either authorizing a large payment for alleged reverse discrimination or holding out for a trial, which would have forced Paterson to testify under oath.
Smith was represented by lawyers from the office of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, which had no comment.
In the lawsuit, Maioriello claimed he was told by John McPadden, then Paterson's chief of staff, that he was being fired because a number of minority senators wanted to replace him with "a minority photographer, a black photographer."
He said he was also told, "You got to remember who Sen. Paterson is. Sen. Paterson is black."
Paterson, who is legally blind, claimed in a sworn deposition that he didn't see well enough to have fired Maioriello because of his race.
A spokesman for Paterson later said the comment was "a quip, a joke."
http://nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html?hp&hp#/rivka_karasik
What a rochmonus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/nyregion/22merkin.html
Financier in Madoff Case Quits Synagogue Position
By PAUL VITELLO, NY Times
J. Ezra Merkin, the financier who entrusted sizable portions of his friends’ and investors’ money to what turned out to be Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, stepped down Wednesday night as an officer of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, a wealthy congregation founded 50 years ago by his father, and whose members included some of Mr. Merkin’s largest individual investment-losers.
Mr. Merkin disclosed his unexpected decision in a speech at the synagogue’s annual membership meeting, in which he declined the nomination to become chairman of the synagogue’s board of trustees. Ordinarily he would have assumed the chairmanship by custom, as the outgoing synagogue president.
“He said he had decided that he needed to focus on a number of events in his life, and that to best serve the community and his family, he would decline the nomination,” said Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier, the congregation’s chief rabbi. The approximately 100 members present, from a total membership of about 300 families, “warmly applauded” Mr. Merkin’s speech, the rabbi said.
Leaving the meeting Wednesday night, one member who declined to give his name said “there was a lot of relief” about Mr. Merkin’s decision. He said that in the weeks preceding the annual meeting, the general expectation that Mr. Merkin would take the largely honorific post of chairman had made for “a stressful period” for many members of the synagogue. By some accounts, the congregation as a group lost more than $1 billion in the collapse of Mr. Madoff’s scheme.
Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University who is acquainted with several members of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, described the synagogue as “probably the wealthiest Orthodox congregation in the world.”
Among its well-known billionaire members, not all of whom invested with Mr. Madoff through Mr. Merkin, are Ronald O. Perelman, the financier and corporate raider; Ira Rennert, who made a fortune in junk bonds and the Hummer; and Mort Zuckerman, the real estate magnate who owns The New York Daily News.
Mr. Merkin acted as the intermediary to Mr. Madoff for another temple member, Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who lost much of his personal wealth and the endowment of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity as a result.
Mr. Merkin also lost large sums in Mr. Madoff’s scheme, and Mr. Sarna said there was a deep ambivalence toward him, “a feeling that he had done a lot of good for the temple over the years,” mixed with resentment over the Madoff disaster.
New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo has charged Mr. Merkin in a civil suit with misleading investors by taking $470 million in management fees while turning their money over to Mr. Madoff.
Rabbi Kermaier would not say if there were investors among the members who attended Wednesday night’s meeting. But he said that most “have not been interested in castigating or criticizing.”
He acknowledged that there were some who were angry.
As for his own remarks to the group, Rabbi Kermaier said, “I tried to convey the view that hopefully we will all be able to take a few steps back and see this through the lens of a long history of communal service” by Mr. Merkin and his family
http://community.nytimes.com/external/comments/www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/1in8_rivka_karasik.html
At the Pride Agenda advocacy/rally in Albany last month, there was a significant contingent of Orthodox Jews. Out (or closeted) and Orthodox/Hasidic, however, for most people, remains a lifelong struggle against the consequences of rejection by the community and a guilt-ridden nightmare.
— Barry Blitstein, New York City
The freak show goes on!
Over at Failed Messiah today, some weirdo apikorus rabbi affiliated with Avi Weiss is expressing outrage alongside Shmarya about a story in Israel. A Conservative lady wanted to say kaddish for a grandparent in an orthodox shul but was denied permission by the rov.
It seems like the lady was trying to pick a fight. There is no indication if she is even allowed to kaddish anyway because her parents might still be living and she has no business intruding on the rules of an orthodox shul.
Shmarya's left wing orthodox "rabbi" friend from Chicago is such a sicko that he is making lewd comments that right wing orthodox might get an erection from kol isha .
State seeks to close school where tot choked
BY MICHAEL AMON AND CHAU LAM | michael.amon@newsday.com chau.lam@newsday.com
8:43 PM EDT, May 21, 2009
State regulators are drafting an order to shut down Carousel Day School by next week, after concluding that most of the school's programs have been operating illegally for nearly three years, state day care officials said Thursday.
Why is the putz giving them more of our money if they are going bankrupt anyway?
"The Obama administration is preparing to move GM into bankruptcy under the terms of a plan that would give the auto giant tens of billions of dollars more in government financing, the Washington Post reported."
“Paying for insurance” at 6:55 am referred to frum therapists being greedy fressers who do not accept insurance. I am a frum therapist, and I will respond to this outrageous accusation. None of my colleagues asked me to speak for them, but I am sure that most, if not all, will echo my sentiments.
The parity between mental and physical health with regards to insurance coverage is dreadful. The copays are impossible; the caps of payments are choking. There are separate deductibles, and there are expectations that the copays will be forgiven as well as the deductibles. Furthermore, the insurance companies work with “managed care”, labeled by the AMA many years ago as “mangled care”. This means that the approval for the reimbursement is made by the insurance company, no longer by trained professionals. Some college freshman who is paid a salary to deny payments will decide the course of therapy. The professional must supply copious notes and paperwork, only to face denials, limits of sessions, and vastly substandard payments.
I can only speak for myself, but the sheer volume of free services that I render totals to many thousands of dollars worth every year. I have a sliding scale for those less able to pay. And I am struggling financially myself. I just do not have the heart to impose perfectly reasonable fees on someone who needs help and has financial struggles. My wife gets upset, as this form of tzedokoh, while admirable, is beyond our means. I am not crying poverty or schnorring from others, but I carry the same huge expenses as everyone else, and should generate the income level appropriate for my expertise.
By the way, these frum, greedy fressers drive the same jalopy cars as everyone else, not luxury cars. Come to conferences of the mental health professionals, and try to find the expensive cars in the parking lot.
Yes, coverage for mental health services is a good option, but I would never give control over my practice to some “greedy insurance guy” to regulate. By the way, many people need much more coverage than 25 or 30 sessions. Just calculate, the more severe conditions can require more than one session per week, and consider the consultations with psychiatrists for possible use of medication. The duration of treatment before exhausting benefits is quite short. That type of health care coverage is quite irresponsible.
So before making allegations about therapists, get some information first. There are a whole lot of reputable and generous therapists out there who want to avoid having untrained imbeciles restricting their capacity to help people.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/gov/2009/05/20-01/Shropshire-charged-with-sex-crime.html
Published 05/20/09
Mayoral candidate and Alderman Sam Shropshire was arrested yesterday for allegedly molesting a male midshipman last week in a car in West Annapolis, city police said.
According to police and court records, Shropshire, 61, groped the genitals of a 21-year-old midshipman about 11:15 p.m. Thursday while driving near the intersection of Rowe Boulevard and Taylor Avenue.
The mid reported the incident to officials at the Naval Academy, who in turn contacted city police. He told police that Shropshire grabbed his genitals for about 30 seconds without his consent. He said he pushed Shropshire's hand away, but that Shropshire fondled him again.
The mid said he then asked the alderman - whom he has known since the fall of 2007 - what he was doing, and Shropshire apologized. The mid was then let out of the car.
Shropshire, who moved to Annapolis in 1987 and was elected to the City Council in 2005, declined to comment on the charges this morning.
Gill Cochran, Shropshire's attorney, said his client is innocent.
"My client totally denies it," he said.
There is no court date scheduled in the case. If convicted, Shropshire faces up to 10 years in prison for second-degree assault and one year in jail for fourth-degree sex offense. Both charges are misdemeanors.
In the past, Shropshire has spearheaded a letter of apology from the city of Annapolis for its role in the slave trade. He also championed an unsuccessful movement to ban plastic shopping bags in the city.
Shropshire is a devout Christian who studied theology and culture in colleges in South Carolina, Philadelphia, New Jersey, California, Florida and Taiwan, according to previous stories in The Capital. When he was 21, he was arrested in the Soviet Union for passing out Russian-translated Bibles and Jewish prayer books
http://www.wheels24.co.za/Content/FormulaOne/F1News/92/2cfe6b8c917d4c89bb8381b49839ec47/Scheckters_F1_title_voided
South Africa’s only Formula 1 world champion, Jody Scheckter, has considered handing back his 1979 title.
Scheckter (59) told the BBC he is aghast at the current Machiavellian dynamics permeating the sport’s leadership.
Considering the controversy surrounding FIA president Max Mosely's fascist background and his sado-masochistic sex scandal last year, the rescinding of an F1 world championship by the only driver of Jewish lineage to ever to win the title - Scheckter - would do untold damage to the already embattled image of the sport.
http://blog.newvoices.org/?p=240
These Lubobs are off their rockers.
Look at her picture - she even wears a Chassidish style tichel!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/22/98-year-old-becomes-oldest-person-in-britain-evicted-by-council-for-terrorising-neighbours-115875-21378640/
98-year-old becomes oldest person in Britain evicted by council for terrorising neighbours
By Euan Stretch 22/05/2009
The rap sheet:
- Hits with walking stick
- Bangs on neighbours’ doors and windows
- Had phone cut off after bombarding police with calls
- Disrupts traffic in the street by walking in the road
- Fakes falls in front of cars
- Council built fence to keep her away from neighbours’ windows
Shuffling along with the aid of two walking sticks, frail Mary Plaisted hardly looks like a menace to society.
But the 98-year-old could soon become the oldest person in Britain to be evicted from their home after terrorising her neighbours.
Grey haired Mary kept residents in her block of council flats awake all night by banging on their doors and windows.
The situation got so bad that a fence was erected to keep the problem pensioner away from her neighbours’ homes.
Mary had her phone cut off after making hundreds of nuisance calls to police and social services removed her call button because she raised the alarm 500 times in one month.
Council carers also refuse to work with her after she hurled torrents of abuse and attacked them with her walking stick.
Neighbours in Lordshill, Southampton, have logged her actions and say she wanders out into the middle of traffic and fakes falls in front of oncoming cars to get attention.
One elderly resident, who asked not to be named, said: “She’s an absolute nightmare. We’ve tried everything to get rid of her.”
Mary, who has one surviving son, insisted she only called for help when needed and tapped on a neighbour’s window just once.
She added: “I’ve done nothing wrong to warrant being moved. There is nowhere else for me to go.”
But the council has started legal proceedings to repossess her £75-a-week flat after an investigation was launched and she was assessed as having no mental health issues.
It is understood that housing chiefs have not identified any alternative accommodation for Mary, meaning that she could be left homeless if the eviction goes ahead.
A spokesman for Southampton city council said: “We always seek to find a balance between an individual’s needs and that of other residents.”
My client Yudi Kolko never molested anyone. He was just making sure their underwear was inside out to protect them from ayin hara.
http://www.forward.com/articles/105929/
Satmar Hasidim ward off the Evil Eye by wearing their yarmulkes inside out, especially on Simchat Torah. Similarly, some pre-war Hasidim are reputed to have worn their underpants inside out.
http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16812&Itemid=86
MONTREAL — Quebec’s chassidic communities are denying that negotiations with the provincial education department aimed at making all their schools conform to the law have broken down, and that at least one school is facing legal action.
Citing documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, La Presse published articles this month suggesting Education Minister Michelle Courchesne is reaching the end of her patience with the schools.
The newspaper reported that she is recommending that the case of the Satmar community’s Yeshiva Toras Moshe be referred to the attorney general because it continues to operate without a permit. Its permit was removed because it teaches mostly religious studies, with insufficient time spent on the secular curriculum prescribed by law.
The chassidic schools have been under extra scrutiny by the education department for the past 2-1/2 years, ever since La Presse and other Quebec media began reporting that some of these schools are not complying with the Education Act. They found that few secular studies are taught, particularly in the boys’ schools and especially at the high school level.
The articles in La Presse this month describe little progress in talks between the ministry and, not only Satmar, but also the Belz and Skver communities, whose high schools are also said to not be adequately teaching the provincial curriculum, at least, in the boys’ schools. All Quebec children must remain in school until they are at least 16.
The schools under review have a total of 700 students, according to the ministry.
NEW YORK - Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau Tuesday announced the indictment and arrest of a lawyer for stealing $652,600 in settlement monies from 11 of his personal injury and medical malpractice clients.
Marc Bernstein, 54, of Bernstein & Bernstein, LLP in Manhattan, was arrested on several charges of grand larceny and scheme to defraud. The crimes charged in the indictment occurred between March 27, 2007 and April 30, 2009.
The investigation leading to the indictment and arrest revealed that Bernstein engaged in a scheme to steal from his victims, most of whom were individuals left physically weakened or disabled by medical malpractice or car accidents.
In the typical case, he had one of his law firm associates negotiate a settlement on behalf of the victim, and Bernstein took control of the incoming settlement monies. Instead of safeguarding these funds and distributing them to his clients, he stole the money.
Bernstein has been indicted on five counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony, six counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class D felony, and two counts of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony. A class C felony is punishable by up to five to 15 years in prison, a class D felony is punishable by up to 2⅓ to seven years in prison, and a class E felony is punishable by up to 1⅓ to four years in prison.
The investigation is continuing
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
By MATTHEW B. CRAWFORD
Changes in the economy have had the surprising effect of making the manual trades more attractive as careers.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp's biggest bondholders plan to reject the company's current offer for a 10 percent equity stake, a spokesman for the creditors said on Friday.
The development suggested a hardening of positions by GM bondholders and the Obama administration over a bond exchange that threatens to send GM into bankruptcy.
GM's biggest bondholders of some $27 billion in unsecured debt last month pushed for a 58 percent stake in GM, which President Barack Obama's Auto Task Force has signaled is unrealistic.
"It's been a universal no from the get-go," said Nevin Reilly, a spokesman for the committee. "Bondholders are being seen as speculative bad guys, but bondholders are investors, many of whom put their retirement money into GM."
The big bondholders have no formal relationship with smaller retail GM investors, but Reilly said they have received many calls seeking to coordinate a response.
"You know the bondholders are going to have to take some haircut," Austan Goolsbee, a member of the Obama administration's auto task force, told Reuters Television on Friday. "Everybody has got to put some skin in the game."
Goolsbee said "everybody has got to come together and make some sacrifices and that includes the bondholders for sure," he told Reuters.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/students-hurt-in-grate-collapse-at-brooklyn-school/?hp
Students Hurt in Grate Collapse at Brooklyn School
By SEWELL CHAN AND ANN FARMER
Updated, 12:40 p.m. | At least 20 students, around ages 11 to 15, were injured around 10:30 a.m. on Friday when a grate gave way under them outside a Brooklyn school, causing them to fall into a basement, the authorities said. Fifteen students were taken to Maimonides Medical Center, according to the Fire Department, and an assemblyman said that other injured students were taken to New York Methodist Hospital and Lutheran Medical Center.
The school, the Shaarei Torah Elementary School, is a Jewish girls’ school at 222 Ocean Parkway, near Church Avenue, in the Kensington neighborhood, south of Prospect Park. The school has about 300 students from kindergarten to eighth grade.
A woman who answered the office phone at the school hung up, refusing to answer questions. The school is part of Yeshivat Shaare Torah, an Orthodox educational institution.
The grate — about 20 feet long and about 4 feet wide — is wedged into cement and runs along the front of the building. The space underneath the grate is empty and on the bottom is the basement floor.
About 25 to 30 students had left the building for a group picture, said Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents the neighborhood, in a phone interview from the scene of the accident. The children were “standing on a raised railing that suddenly caved in, they fell about 15 feet down, on top of each other,” he said. “It was an incredibly scary experience.”
Arye Klar, a volunteer member of the Hatzoloh volunteer ambulance service, said the grate fell in on only one side, so the children ended up rolling on top of each other. The grate was designed to let light into the lower levels of the building, and although it “wasn’t in that bad of a condition,” it was not intended to support the weight of multiple people.
Ruthie Levy, 11, a fifth grader, said that more than 30 were standing on the grate. “All of a sudden we felt it shaking,” she said. “We were trying to jump off it. It fell down. We were all trying to get out.”
Ruthie said she had some scratches. “We were able to climb out,” she said. “A lot of people got a scratch, but it’s nothing. Some people went to the hospital to get stitches. Everybody was crying.”
Joyce Srugo, 10, a fifth grader, said, “I didn’t fall. I held onto my friend. Some fell and went to the hospital. My friend’s getting stitches. I was crying. I thought it was like a dream.” The teachers came out of the school and immediately started helping the students, she said.
In the minutes after the accident, Assemblyman Hikind said, there was a flurry of alarm because of widespread concerns in the Jewish community about anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of the disruption, on Wednesday evening, of what the authorities are calling a terrorist plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and to shoot down planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.
“Nobody was quite sure what it was,” Mr. Hikind said of the accident at the school. “In a sense we’re all very happy it wasn’t anything more serious.”
Mr. Hikind added: “On the one hand, thank God it wasn’t anything more. But it was an experience no one is going to forget.”
NEW YORK, May 1 (UPI) -- Ten former foster children have sued New York City, claiming that child welfare agencies did not investigate the woman who adopted and abused them.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, The New York Times reported Friday.
The children, now in their late teens and early 20s, live in group homes or foster care in Florida, where Judith Leekin was living when she was arrested.
Thomas Moore, one of the lawyers representing the children, said they need "huge interventions" and "therapy on many levels."
"The bottom line here is to seek damages for all of these children because of the destruction, essentially, of their childhoods," he told the Times.
Investigators found that Leekin used four aliases to take in 20 handicapped foster children, adopting 10 of them. They said her only interest was the subsidies available and she was paid $1.68 million.
When they were found, the children were dirty and emaciated, some left almost toothless by lack of dental care.
Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the New York Division of Children's Services, said the city was a victim of Leekin's fraud and plans to fight the suit.
Kolko will be fine when he turns his underwear inside out before Shabbos.
Maybe things USED to be that way but a recent Federal act has given a lot of parity to put mental health on equal footing.
The GREEDY psychs are of course always eager to defend their money grubbing when challenged about the people most in need of help who are being cynically denied help because they can't afford to pay out of pocket.
Someone in my family sees a therapist (who happens to take PPO type insurance) as a molestation victim. I have seen the amount the insurer pays the therapist and it is more than a regular medical doctor or even many specialists get paid.
The patient must pay a nominal copay. If they beg you for an exemption, that's between you and the patient.
While some carriers like Blue Cross are notorious for demanding more paperwork and stonewalling payments (at least initially), you don't have to take the troublesome insurance companies. At least take the easygoing ones for G-d's sake.
You GREEDY therapists could do a lot more to help the victims. With the easygoing insurance companies it's a geder of ze nehene veze lo chaser.
Refusing ANY insurance is MIDAS SDOM in my book.
Why focus on names? No matter what it’s called, there will always be a school of thought which considers Halacha malleable and will seek to adapt it to the contemporary ethos. That which Zecharias Fraenkel started in Breslau, cannot be undone simply with the demise of JTS in New York or the Conservative synagogue infrastructure. The general rightward shift in Orthodoxy will probably render it wholly unwelcoming to that ideology.
At the same time, that righward shift is alienating many heretofore Orthodox Jews. Concepts like Da’as Torah, along with the inability or perhaps unwillingness of the rabbinic establishment to form a cohesive response to the scandals that plague the Orthodox community, the focus on trivialities like public entertainment rather than trying to deal with new realities, all serve to force the conclusion of many marginal Orthodox Jews that they are no longer part of the mainstream Orthodox body politic. They may be culturally Orthodox, but are no longer considered truly so. The loss of a serious Conservative alternative leaves those people denominationally homeless. It will be that combined vacuum, populated by former committed Conservative Jews and disenfranchised Orthodox Jews from which a new movement will arise.
Did I really write that last sentence?Guess I did and maybe we should call it "UOJ"
By DAVE ALTIMARI
The Hartford Courant - May 22, 2009
courant.com/ news/local/ hc-catholic- sex-abuse- brigdeport- connecticut, 0,3035843.story
The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that documents contained in 23 lawsuits against pedophile priests from the Bridgeport Archdiocese should be unsealed and available to the public.
By a 4-1 to vote the court dismissed the latest attempt by the archdiocese to keep hundreds of pages of depositions, internal church memos and other documents that detail how top church officials, including then-Bishop Edward Egan, protected abusive priests, shuttled them between archdiocese' s and failed to report potential criminal activity to the proper authorities. Egan was later appointed a Cardinal of the New York Archdiocese. He recently retired.
The court ruled all but 15 documents in the 23 separate files are public records. The court ruled the 15 documents in question, at least two of which are depositions, were not submitted as legal documents
and will remain sealed.
This is the second time the case has come before the Supreme Court
since 2002. Waterbury Superior Court Judge Robert F. McWeeny first granted four newspapers The Courant, Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post - the right to intervene in the closed cases and seek the documents.
The Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocesan Corp. appealed that decision but lost as the court remanded the case back to Waterbury court where
Judge Jon Alander ruled in 2006 ruled that the files should be public record.
Alander ruled that he didn't find compelling the argument by the
diocese that the files should remained sealed out of concerns for ensuring a fair trial, should one become necessary. The diocese argued that this is a legitimate concern because two sex abuse lawsuits remain pending, in addition to the cases already settled, and future
claims could be brought.
``The public's right of access to those documents is particularly
strong in these cases due to the extraordinary public interest in
knowing whether minors in Connecticut were sexually abused by priests employed by the Diocese and whether the Diocese was responsible for perpetuating that abuse," Alander wrote.
The archdiocese appealed Alander's ruling sending the case back to the state Supreme Court for the second time.
The church tried a different appeal to the Supreme Court this time arguing that since Alander had been named to a judicial panel ordered to review public access to court records in general that he should have recused himself from this case.
The abuse cases in question, which involved more than 23 victims, were settled in March 2001. The Courant obtained copies of some of the sealed documents about a year after the settlement, including
depositions taken of Egan, who was bishop of the Bridgeport diocese
from 1988 to 2000, and other diocesan officials.
Egan was in charge of the Bridgeport diocese when most of the lawsuits against priests under his control were filed and adjudicated.
Stories detailing how Egan and other officials in Bridgeport ignored accusations or protected abusive priests were published in The Courant in 2002. The stories were based on depositions from the lawsuits, documents from the personnel files of accused priests and other diocesan memorandums.
Dear friend,
Sexual abuse and molestation have been getting a lot of attention in the frum media recently. We've been hearing a lot about how many Jewish kids have been molested. People in the know will tell you that there is little peer support available to victims, who often feel ashamed, alone, and afraid. The statistics for child sexual abuse are one in four girls, one in six boys. Think about it! that means in a class of 24 girls, on average you will have six girls who were molested, and in a class of boys, four!
I myself am a survivor of sexual abuse. After looking for peer support online, I found many forums that I could join for support. The problem with all these forums was that they are not frum sites, and after a while were not so helpful. The outside world doesn't understand many aspects of frum life, and I didn't like having to explain every step of the way.
Instead of waiting for someone else to come up with a solution, I found one myself. Using my blogger name as the basis, I started a private survivors only blog, which never got past its rocky start. After hearing someone speak about Rav Noach Weinberg zt"l, how he didn't give up when his schools failed, and how he eventually became the giant of a man that he was, I decided not to give in to my instincts, which were to give up.
I have just finished setting up two online forums for people who grew up frum and/or are frum now. It would be greatly appreciated if you can forward this email to everyone you know, so that any jewish person who was abused will know where to go for peer support.
For females: www.allussheffelech .proboards. com
For males: www.ay-ynhorah. proboards. com
Thank you, and tizku lemitzvohs.
Little Sheep
come read my story at www.sheffele. blogspot. com
http://www.switched.com/2009/05/03/radio-shack-customer-asks-for-manager-receives-beating-instead/
Radio Shack Customer Receives Beating After Asking for Manager
by Warren Riddle
If you've ever worked in customer service, you know how infuriating it is to listen to an endless string of mundane complaints or fend off duplicitous customers looking to get something for free. Regardless, there's a line that customer service reps should never cross -- the line between angrily getting a supervisor and mercilessly pummeling the dissatisfied shopper.
According to WEAU, Radio Shack employee James Knol of Eau Claire, Wisconsin crossed that line last Sunday night (April 28). Knol not only refused to accept a return item from customer Leigh Carey, but he also started punching him so violently that a witness called '911.' Apparently, Knol went all 'Incredible Hulk' when Carey asked to see his manager.
Knol was charged with disorderly conduct and battery, but WEAU didn't release any details about Carey's condition or plans for litigation, although we won't be surprised to see a lawsuit in the very near future. [From: WEAU]
WASHINGTON — The State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, according to an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian Foreign Service officers.
Mrs. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, appointed the nation’s first openly gay ambassador, James C. Hormel, to serve in Luxembourg. Opposition by Republican senators blocked a vote on the appointment, leading Mr. Clinton to appoint him eventually during a Congressional recess in 1999.
When Hashem sought candidate locations where to give the Torah, numerous mountains offered their opinions why they should be the chosen location. Hashem looked at the impressive public relations statements they released, and was duly impressed by them. Yet, Hashem taught a lesson on that day in the desert. Hashem chose little, unimpressive Har Sinai, with zero public relations budget, and zero interest in “red carpet treatmet”, as the location to give the Torah.
Similarly, when King Shaul was being replaced, Hashem instructed Shmuel HaNavi to go to the house of Yishai to find the new king. Shmuel spoke to Yishai about the significant responsibility of being a leader, and asked to meet his sons. Each of Yishai’s elite six sons provided glitzy public relations displays to show why they are divinely chosen for the role of king. Yet, Shmuel had a feeling that these candidates fell short of the defintion of leader. Yishai finally mentioned his seventh, most unimpressive, shepherd boy David. Shmuel met him, and Hashem said he is the one to lead klal Yisroel.
Hashem’s message is abundantly clear to all. When chosing leaders Hashem values most, the one who least desires to become a leader, who shies away from the public relations aspect of leadership. One who works behind the scenes to get the job done, who needs no accolades, nor financial incentive to do what is right, that is a leader. By placing the needs of the klal ahead of their personal ego boosters, leadership will be given to them.
The notion that some rabbonim feel that they may chas v’shalom “divine” the words of Hashem, is hubris in its most shocking form.
I wish I hadn't shot off my mouth by accident about the molester in my grandson's yeshiva. That might prompt UOJ to look into what my role in all that really was.
Arthur said,
The loss of a serious Conservative alternative leaves those people denominationally homeless. It will be that combined vacuum, populated by former committed Conservative Jews and disenfranchised Orthodox Jews from which a new movement will arise.
It is the obligation of every Torah and Mitzvah observant Jew to fill the vacuum that Jews (authentic born from a Jewish mother or observing after a fit conversion) are being sucked up into. Kiruv is not for glossy organizations with well heeled donors. Kiruv is how you are perceived by your fellow Jew. If they think you are an unapproachable snob with shady dealings then you've succeeded in turning them off and no organization is going to turn them on. It's a very fine line. A kind word or a smile does more for the cynical Jew then all the dinners and events. Remembering the family of a divorced parent for kiddush, male or female. (Males suffer just as much in a divorce situation.) We are all the other guy and the other organization when it comes to uplifting our fellow Jews. It's hard work. It's worthwhile work. A new movement will just do more damage. Actually we have the best movement already, it's called Yiddishkeit. It's necessary to define that so that we fulfill Hashem's purpose and ratzon. When we do, the vacuum's close up. I would encourage disenfranchised and fed up Jews to go to the non-glossy and flashy places of authentic and sincere Yiddishkeit. Places where the money isn't and people are. Places where the baal batim are asking new comers where they will be eating, during the week as well as Shabbos. Places where kiddush is cake and bromfen, not a seudah. It might be time to bring the closeness and varmkeit of out of town, back to Yiddishkeit. The shtetl was a friendly place albeit poor. Each neighborhood, each shul, each shtiebel can regain that history. Cap the gelt on aliyahs. Make sure that everyone has a place. Encourage people to speak from the heart, privately and publicly. We have to do this for our future. The other guy is us, now.
Dear Community Member;
The passuk in Hallel says, "The stone that the builders despised, was turned into a cornerstone". King David was referring to the way he was treated by his family. They looked at him as a dirty shepherd and despised him. But, Hashem saw in his actions a loving and caring shepherd who is devoted to his flock, was given the responsibility of leading the Jewish nation, and was turned into a cornerstone.
Pain and suffering refines a person to the level they need to be able to feel the pain of others. A child born with a a silver spoon in their mouth is rarely capable of feeling the pain of those society despises. Only one who was branded with the hot iron of tongue-waggers, and went through the furnaces of society's hatred can truly feel the pain of others. Only such a person is worthy of leadership and responsibility. Only such a person becomes a cornerstone of a community.
The Jewish nation was only able to accept the Torah, when they stood united as one. They broke through the barrier of material perception. Rich and poor, happy and hurt, strong and weak all came together for a common purpose. The purpose being, the acceptance of Hashem as Supreme Ruler.
There are too many people suffering the pain of abuse and being despised. There are too many people suffering in silence, while indifference reigns. When will those, who are unaffected to the problems of society wake up? When will we realize that in a split second we could be suffering from abuse, and be despised by the same society we currently are applauded by?
Nothing dear friend assures it won't be you and your family tomorrow.
The time to rebuild the lives of those who are despised is now. Community members who through their actions or inactions caused people to feel the pain of helplessness, must rebuild those lives. The road to accomplish this is a difficult one. We must all swallow our pride in order to do what is right.
Thank you,
I AM SO GLAD I WAS ONE OF THOSE WHO PROTESTED AT THAT DINNER THE WALLS ARE SLOWLY COMING DOWN
MARK MEYER APPEL
THE VOICE OF JUSTICE
Mark: You made a difference!!!
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