Compliments in part to the CBC
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The divining of the "older pedophiles" at the evening prayers by the Moetzes Guardian Council - Subprime Leaders -************ Assembly of Experts!
******************
The Marge Markey Baby Rockettes - showing off their stuff in support of the Markey Bill! (volume up)
when will you post about Dovid Cohen the cholol of flatbush please? why the wait? apparently marvin schick is now defending him.
ReplyDeleteThe NY Post sent a clown last week to the NY State Senate in Albany. How about UOJ sending 3 Stooges impersonators to the next Agudah Fresser Convention? They should blend right in, especially if they are going to gorge themselves with food!
ReplyDeleteThere are signs up that Belsky put a Mrs. Dahlia Babyoff in cherem for not appearing at his scam private "beis din". Yeah, the same one that he uses when no legitimate beis din will get involved like when he attacked Eli Greenwald on behalf of Kolko and Margo.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1-TdlaxQmQ
ReplyDeleteMinute Rice isn't bad but I prefer Rice-a-Roni because it's the San Francisco treat.
By NICK TIMIRAOS
ReplyDeleteTwo Democratic lawmakers are calling on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on the new YTT condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of the development of these condos with a view of the YTT basement from every unit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/nyregion/22rabbi.html?hp
ReplyDeleteRabbi Glanz’s route into public life began in the mid-1980s when he ran the bus system for Satmar yeshivas.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/06/22/nyregion/22rabbi.inlineB.ready.html
ReplyDeleteIn case UOJ and Boog were wondering, that's Chaim Dovid Zweibel standing with me, his head popping out behind Leib Glanz.
How will my favorite blogger handle more cuts to his unemployment and welfare benefits? Those lowlife Republicans must be in cahoots with orthodox Jews to get even with him.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/us/22states.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican, said last week that he would unilaterally cut a total of $2.7 billion from nearly all government agencies and programs that get money from the state, after he and Democratic legislative leaders failed to agree on how to balance the budget.
http://www.businessinsider.com/sonia-sotomayors-mortgage-policy-problem-2009-6
ReplyDeleteSonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama's nominee for a seat on the Supreme Court, served on the board of a New York State agency charged with providing discounted mortgages to middle and low income homebuyers from 1987 to 1992. During the time, she was a consistent advocate of pushing the agency to provide more mortgages to low-income home buyers. In short, she advocated the kind of aggressive lending practices that helped create the mortgage meltdown.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/22/us/AP-US-ODD-Hogs-Gone-Wild.html
ReplyDeleteArkansas State Police say a tractor-trailer rig hauling pigs overturned early Monday on a major highway and some of the four-legged hogs got loose.
The wreck and the roaming porkers closed a stretch of Interstate 430 connecting Little Rock to North Little Rock.
State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said morning commuters were detoured around the area as troopers and others tried to corral the escaped hogs.
The swine could weigh as much as 800 pounds each.
In praise of Yudi Kolko watch:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rJ8oZFt4l8
Harry is slamming Schick's criticism of the Cohen articcle in Jewish Week!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUTiXyDBHKM&feature=related
ReplyDeleteOnly batlonim with no shaychus to learning act like these kind of shoytim.
Vehamavin yovin.
ReplyDeletehttp://avikolko.blogspot.com/2009/03/virtue-of-character-assassination.html
SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2009
The Virtue Of Character Assassination
The Hamodia this week had a column discussing the supposed Shwarma King scandal. One sentence is so true:
"It seems that in the rush to find out what is going on in the street we have totally lost our sense of responsibility; in opting for the "right no know all," the online community has - with varying degrees of enthusiasm - almost made a virtue out of character assassination".
I know this all too well, and I wish no one else ever will. But those who partake is these people-destroying-orgies should bear in mind that tomorrow it just might be them.
Dumb Yid said...
How do you deal with it?!
Avi Kolko said...
B"H it's how DID I deal with at and not how DO I deal with it.
It's not for here, maybe one day I'll write a book about it
http://avikolko.blogspot.com/2009/03/bernie-madoff-mitigating-factors.html
ReplyDeleteSATURDAY, MARCH 14, 2009
Bernie Madoff & Mitigating Factors
Yes, the person did something wrong. But there's a much larger picture. And if we do that, Hashem will judge our misdeeds the same way.
Let's keep that in mind when we judge Bernie Madoff - or anyone who does bad things. No one starts off bad, no one means to be bad, and there is a lot that we don't know.
For example, if you don't notice a car in your blindspot and sideswipe it you must pay all the damages. It was a total accident - every driver has at least once in their life not seen the person in their blindspot even if they didn't hit him - but you still have to pay. You're not a lowlife but you are responsible for your actions.
Here it's obviously much worse - it was on purpose and there's a lot more damage then a fender bender. But that still doesn't mean the guy is a lowlife.
He always thought he would eventually get out of the mess, make enough money to pay everyone back.
Things are never black and white. Just because you never saw remorse except on camera doesn't mean there was no remorse except on camera. My main point was that there are lots and lots of small things that eventually create a horrible crime. It's wrong (not to mention small minded) to just look at the last day of a person's life.
Your father was busy taking kids into his private bathroom to molest!
ReplyDeletehttp://avikolko.blogspot.com/2008/12/discriminating-doctors.html
Back in my Torah Temimah days there were regular bathrooms for use by students and a special faculty bathroom for use by the faculty. I guess they felt it wasn't kavod for the rabbeim to have to share a bathroom with the students.
Shkoyach to Avi Kolko for telling me about this but I think it's still too expensive.
ReplyDeletehttp://avikolko.blogspot.com/2008/11/respectable-thing-to-do.html
On Friday I passed a guy who set up shop on the sidewalk cleaning hats. For 30 shekels - roughly 8 dollars - he made my hat look like new.
http://avikolko.blogspot.com/2008/08/to-be-mentioned-in-praise.html
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Pinny Fischer agreed to be honored at the YTT dinner.
http://avikolko.blogspot.com/2008/08/welcome-to-regency-estates.html
ReplyDeleteTUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2008
Welcome to Regency Estates
Devorah and I are spending most of our vacation in Regency Estates, in Woodridge, New York. The modern-day "summer community" is a far cry from the decrepit bungalow colonies of old. With two pools, two tennis courts, two basketball courts, two handball courts, a baseball fields and four play grounds, not to mention the two or three story fully winterized "units" - it redefines luxury living. Perhaps not for those of us who dwell in multi-million dollar Flatbush homes, but certainly in the eyes of the non-Jewish locals.
Anyway, this is a map of Regency Estates that I created a few summers ago. Besides for appearing on the screen in front of you it also is in the form of a 6 foot sign that welcomes and directs visitors to Regency.
http://avikolko.blogspot.com/2008/07/man-cries.html
ReplyDeleteToday I saw this man crying during Shemonah Esrei of Yom Kippur Katan. What would make a grown man cry real, bitter tears?
Does he not have food to put on his table? Is he terminally ill? Does he have an older child who is not married? Is he not married? Has he been falsely accused of being a child molester?
Anonymous said...
Falsely accused of being a child molester?!?!?!?!
You've got some serious Chutzpah!!!!!!
The victims of your father's sexual abuse are scarred for life. Your father should get on his knees and beg each and every victim for forgiveness and mercy. Otherwise, he will not be spared the judgement of Hashem, who knows the hearts of and knower of all hidden things.
Filed at 3:00 p.m. ET
ReplyDeleteCLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- A former high-ranking Scientology official who handled the case of a mentally ill member who died under church care ordered the destruction of incriminating evidence to cover up missteps, a newspaper reported Monday.
---------------
Filed at 3:00 p.m. ET
555 Ocean Parkway (AP) -- A high-ranking YTT official who handled the case of a boy molested under Kolko's care ordered the destruction of incriminating evidence, during a staged "break in" on Shabbos, to cover up missteps, a newspaper reported Monday.
There was a student that made a lot of problems in class; he fought with classmates, made a lot of noise
ReplyDeleteThe teacher tried a lot of things, but nothing helped.
He decided to tell the father about his son’s behavior.
Father: What do you want me to do?
Teacher: Maybe take him for a check-up.
Father: How is that going to help?
Teacher: Maybe the child should take Ritalin (a calming drug).
Father: How am I going to get this Ritalin?
Teacher: No problem, I’ll get it, and the child should take the pill every morning and everything will be o.k.
Father: Who is going to remember to give it to the child every day in a house full of children?
Teacher: I’ll worry about it. I’ll make sure he takes it every morning.
Father: But I don’t want the whole class to know about it.
Teacher: No, no, I’ll make sure that no one sees. I’ll put the pill in the teacher’s room next to the coffee machine. Every morning I’ll send your son to make my coffee and at the same time he’ll take his pill. Like this no one will know.
The father agreed to the plan. Every morning the teacher prepared the pill next to the coffee machine and went into class. After a few minutes the child would come in with the coffee, and everything went fine.
And now the atmosphere in the class was calm. The child wasn’t sent out of class and there were no fights!
After a few weeks, the mother asked the child: Nu, what’s doing in class?
Child: Great!
Mother: What happened that everything’s so good?
Child: It’s very simple. Every morning the teacher sends me to make his coffee. I go into the teacher’s room and there there’s a special pill! I put the pill into the coffee and after he finishes to drink it, everything in the class is 100%!!!
I am against nitpicking of Avi Kolko's blog to shlogg him up and make fun of him of any kind.
ReplyDeleteKolko will be fine when he gets up to Regency before this first Shabbos of the bungalow season. (I know that Neuhoff very vehemently insists that the season starts earlier but this is lechol hadayos)
ReplyDeleteWhen does Avi have time to blog when he's busy chauffeuring his father around?
ReplyDeleteWhat Avi Kolko is doing is a pattern that has been repeated elsewhere. Getzel Rubashkin took to the blogs to defend his family and a pro-Tendler blog that bitterly attacked Rav Yosef Blau and the RCA leadership is suspected of being authored by a son-in-law of Mordechai Tendler.
ReplyDeleteWho did a shidduch with Avi Kolko when the family was in the heat of molestation scandal?
ReplyDeleteBungalow Yenta,
ReplyDeleteWe keep yelling about the "Shidduch Crisis". People have to settle and not care so much about this unimportant stuff. Baruch Hashem people listen to us.
Please send your checks to:
Yeshiva Shaar Hatorah- NASI
84-48 118th Street
Kew Gardens, NY 11415
Thank You Tropper
What does Tropper have to do with Shaar Hatorah?
ReplyDeleteI was medayek from Daf Yomi another "limud" that no one else has ever managed to come up with. Avi Kolko is being mekadesh shem shamayim by defending his father on his blog.
ReplyDeleteKolko Chutzpah, thank you for quoting me.
ReplyDeleteI wrote the anonymous comment on Avi Kolko's post about falsely being accused of being a child molester.
nice to have people appreciate what I write.
Thanks.
You people are sick.
ReplyDeleteWhy should Avi Kolko have to suffer for the sins of his father. Avi is a victim too. He has a father a molester, and he needs to lead a normal life too. He didn't molest, his father did.
Anyone who followed Avi's blog will realize that his blog had nothing to do with defending his father. I hope I don't hurt you, Avi, by saying this, but I believe that the purpose of the blog was to help himself. You see, Avi's first impulse when the news broke about his father, was to hide forever. To never lead a normal life again, and to suffer for the sins of his father.
Instead Avi did the most commendable thing in the world. He started a blog to fight his impulse for privacy. He blogged for an entire year about everything and anything. ONCE or TWICE he mentioned, as a side thought his father's scandal, perhaps as a way of sharing the hurt and embarrassment. But that wasn't the point of the blog.
Avi was a victim too, in his own way. And Avi pulled himself out of the rut. Avi, you have earned my respect.
It is disgusting, and frankly sickening, to see you people make fun of victim like that. Shame on you. And I mean it.
I invite all the naysayers to read through his entire blog from beginning to end to see the neshama and humility in such a person. May Hashem help Avi grow and lead a normal life, despite the shame he's been through, through NO FAULT OF HIS OWN.
Hey DUMB Yid, you really live up to your name.
ReplyDeleteAvi should shut his mouth and not publicly say his father is innocent.
Get the "point"?
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/22/us/AP-US-Rubber-Rooms.html?pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteJune 22, 2009
700 NYC Teachers Are Paid to Do Nothing
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:33 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.
Because their union contract makes it extremely difficult to fire them, the teachers have been banished by the school system to its ''rubber rooms'' -- off-campus office space where they wait months, even years, for their disciplinary hearings.
The 700 or so teachers can practice yoga, work on their novels, paint portraits of their colleagues -- pretty much anything but school work. They have summer vacation just like their classroom colleagues and enjoy weekends and holidays through the school year.
--------------
June 22, 2009
700 NYC Teachers Are Paid to Do Nothing
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:33 p.m. ET
BROOKLYN, NY (AP) -- Torah Temimah rebbeim accused of sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall of their Regency bungalow, if that's what they want to do.
Because the YTT Omerta code of silence makes it extremely difficult to fire them least they squeal on Margulies, the rebbeim have their full salaries funneled to them for years after the money has been laundered by Yonasan Tendler.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/obama-invites-gay-rights-advocates-to-white-house/?hp
ReplyDeleteJune 22, 2009, 4:59 PM
Obama Invites Gay Rights Advocates to White House
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/22/arts/20090622_PRIVATE_SLIDESHOW_5.html
ReplyDeleteListening to the keynote address on Motzaei Shabbos and nodding in agreement that UOJ is a monster.
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian scientists are breeding a special type of cow designed to burp less, a breakthrough that could reduce a big source of gases responsible for global warming.
ReplyDeleteFiled at 11:02 p.m. ET
ReplyDeleteWIND GAP, Pa. (AP) -- Police in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley say an elected official passed out drunk at a public meeting and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance.
Police say Plainfield Township Supervisors Chairman Tim Frankenfield had a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit for driving. They say the 42-year-old had a bottle of whiskey next to him.
Frankenfield was cited for public drunkenness for Thursday's incident and faces a fine of $119.50.
Court records show Frankenfield was cited for the same offense at a liquor store in Lower Nazareth Township in December 2006. He paid a fine of $219.50.
Frankenfield hasn't returned a telephone message seeking comment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/us/23prison.html
ReplyDeleteA Congressional commission plans to issue recommendations on Tuesday for standards to reduce sexual assaults in the nation’s jails and prisons.
The commission cited an estimate by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that 60,500 state and federal prisoners were sexually assaulted in 2007.
JWB says:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/23/2009-06-23_teen_accuses_tutor_of_abuse.html
Brooklyn teen accuses bar mitzvah tutor, former social worker, of abuse
By Scott Shifrel
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, June 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM
A frightened Brooklyn teenager shakily took the stand Monday to accuse a bar mitzvah tutor of repeatedly molesting him.
The boy, who wore dark glasses and a yarmulke, avoided looking at social worker Yona Weinberg as he recounted how the man allegedly took advantage of him in a car, a bathroom and private sessions beginning in November 2007.
"I remember him touching me," said the 14-year-old boy. "He touched my private area."
The boy spoke just above a whisper and nervously played with his fingers. He is one of Weinberg's four alleged victims in the nonjury trial.
Weinberg, a former social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, may testify in his own defense Tuesday. He faces as much as seven years behind bars on sex abuse and other charges.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16089/News/New_York.html
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the Jewish Week didn't name me as one of the rabbis covering up for Colmer.
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/14/1005866/south-african-investors-swindled-in-pyramid-scheme
ReplyDeleteSYDNEY, Australia (JTA) -- A South African-born Jewish businessman accused of defrauding hundreds of investors is rejecting the comparison with Bernie Madoff.
Barry Tannenbaum, 43, who now lives in Sydney, issued a statement to the media on Friday saying he categorically rejected as “conjecture and speculation” the “wild allegations” that he swindled more than 300 local and foreign investors out of about $1.2 billion. The alleged scam is being described as South Africa’s biggest corporate fraud.
Tannenbaum is alleged to have built a pyramid scheme in which he allegedly offered investors up to 200 percent annual returns. His company, Frankel Chemicals, was allegedly involved in the import of major quantities of chemicals on behalf of South Africa’s pharmaceutical giants, including Adcock Ingram, founded by Tannebaum’s grandfather, Hymie.
Local and international media have likened him to Madoff, the American businessman who pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of some $65 billion -- the largest investor fraud by a single person. But Tannenbaum rejected the comparison outright.
“I have read with amazement that I have been guilty of a multibillion-rand scam and that I am compared to Bernie Madoff in the USA,” he said in a statement.
“As has happened with other companies that have from time to time found themselves in a financial predicament, particularly in the present climate, I have found myself in such a situation," the statement continued. “I state categorically that I am not sitting with millions. I have not amassed some fortune that I have spirited away, and in due course an audit will bear out this statement, if people are still interested in hearing the truth.”
The High Court in Pretoria agreed last week to allow the appointment of a liquidator.
Tannenbaum is pictured on the Lubavitch.com Web site holding a Torah scroll he helped donate to a Chabad House in South Africa in 2006.
Mr. Avi K
ReplyDeleteThere are some inappropriate ads running down the right side of your blog. Check out the "Are you a hot Mama?" with photo. Not appropriate for a Torah Temimah bochur. There was another one yesterday, but it's gone now. I loved the one about the sex offender registry...deliciously ironic.
Avi, my advice to you...deep cover. No matter what you write or what your intentions are, you can't win.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/21/national/a163120D66.DTL
ReplyDeleteReport: Violence common among Scientology managers
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The leader of the Church of Scientology struck his subordinates numerous times and set an example for physical violence among the tightly controlled religion's management team, four former high-ranking executives told a newspaper for a story published Sunday.
The executives who have since left the organization told The St. Petersburg Times that they witnessed David Miscavige, chairman of the board that oversees the church, hit staff members dozens of times.
"It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment," said Mike Rinder, who oversaw the church's legal and media relations operations. Rinder said he was struck many times by Miscavige and that he also hit others before leaving in 2007.
In a response to the paper, the church denied the allegations, saying that the four former executives statements were "absolute and total lies," and the claims are an effort to tarnish Miscavige, who has led the church for more than two decades. A spokesman said Sunday the church provided documentation that the claims the four made were false.
Marty Rathbun, who served on the church's board and was a top lieutenant of Miscavige's, said he was often ordered by Miscavige to attack others.
Tom De Vocht, who for years oversaw the church's spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, estimated that during one three-year period, he saw Miscavige strike staffers as many as 100 times. He left in 2005.
De Vocht also participated, explaining to the newspaper how he rationalized his actions: "If I don't attack I'm going to be attacked. It's a survival instinct in a weird situation that no one should be in."
The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology, founded in 1954 by the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
Devotees converge on Clearwater, on Florida' west coast, for the highest levels of the church's training programs. By church tallies, around 12,000 Scientologists live and work in and around Clearwater.
Scientologists believe spiritual enlightenment is possible by ridding the mind and soul of the accumulated, unwanted effects of this lifetime and innumerable previous lifetimes through an intense counseling process called "auditing." Auditors use a device called an "e-meter," similar to a polygraph.
Parishioners pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for the auditing services and progress through various levels of "Operating Thetan." Those seeking to achieve the highest "OT" levels visit Clearwater.
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/16/1005908/rabbi-in-australia-charged-with-fraud
ReplyDeleteSYDNEY, Australia (JTA) – An American-born Chabad rabbi living in South Australia has been charged with allegedly signing fake report cards to justify applications for government funding for phantom Hebrew classes.
Rabbi Yossi Engel and his wife Chana have been charged with 39 counts of dishonestly dealing with documents in connection with the Spirit of David Adelaide Hebrew School they reportedly founded in Adelaide, the Australian Jewish News reported on Tuesday.
The couple, who received a court summons on Monday, are scheduled to appear in the Magistrates’ Court in Adelaide on July 30 and are expected to plead not guilty, the newspaper reported.
The Engels are alleged to have signed fake report cards between 2001 and 2004 for Jewish students who were already registered at other schools in order to prove that the apparent Hebrew classes warranted government funds from the Ethnic Schools Board of South Australia. The Spirit of David Adelaide Hebrew School, which Rabbi Engel claimed was an after-hours institution, was deregistered in 2007, but is believed to have received some $40,000 in funding, according to the Ethnic Schools Board.
Adelaide Police’s Criminal Investigation Branch interviewed more than 50 people about the alleged scam.
Born in Brooklyn, Rabbi Engel was first sent as an emissary to the small Jewish community in Adelaide, which numbers less than 1,000, in 1998. But a rift between him and the board of Adelaide Hebrew Congregation, the city’s only Orthodox synagogue, resulted in the board deciding not to renew his tenure at the end of 2006, sparking a bitter legal battle.
In 2007 a District Court judge found in favor of the board, and upheld its termination of Rabbi Engel’s contract.
Lubavitch.com, the organization’s official Web site, still lists Rabbi Engel as director of Chabad of South Australia.
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_6597653
ReplyDeleteInternet sex sting nabs 13, Including Valley Torah Graduate David Mazlin
Aug. 14, 2007
Tony Castro writes:
Thirteen men - including five from the San Fernando Valley and one from Simi Valley - were nabbed in a sting targeting suspects who troll the Internet seeking sex with underage girls, officials said Friday.
The undercover operation mirrored the popular "To Catch a Predator" segments on NBC's "Dateline," with undercover FBI agents and police officers portraying adolescent girls in online chat rooms.
Some of the men who made dates with the "girls" arrived at an undisclosed Valley location bearing gifts, ranging from alcohol and jewelry to teddy bears and ballet slippers, officials said.
The suspects include: Babak Habashi, 24, of Winnetka; Abraham Aleksanyan, 30, of Van Nuys; (RCC mashgiach of Mashu Mashu Kosher Restaurant) David Mazlin, 23, of Valley Village; Oscar Hernandez-Garcia, 25, of Sherman Oaks; David Avram Cohn, 49, of Woodland Hills; and Shalendra Avi Parasram, 27, of Simi Valley.
http://www.lukeford.net/Images/photos/davidmazlin1.jpg
ReplyDeleteMy boss at RCC, Rabbi Avrohom Union, told me to erase all my pictures online, but Luke Ford managed to save one first of me wearing my black hat.
In the beginning of the nineteenth century a married woman named Yittel Levkovich gave birth to a child which, we are told, was obviously not her husband's. Yittel claimed that she had been raped by a male demon. This claim was accepted and the woman was not regarded as an adulteress nor was the child regarded as a mamzer. Yet other Jews refused to marry with the descendants of this woman, and these descendants were known as "Chitshers." Matters got to be so bad that in 1926 a broadside was published signed by many Hungarian rabbis declaring that there was no problem marrying into the Chitshers. Among the signatories was the young R. Joel Teitelbaum, the rav of Satmar.
ReplyDeleteDespite this plea, there were those who continued to shun the Chitchers, and even to this day there are families in the Hungarian hasidic world who will refuse to intermarry with other Hungarian hasidim since the latter are descended from Yittel and the demon.
It's hard to keep up with all of Shmarya's looney conspiracy theories not rooted in any facts whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteHe accused Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz of getting the Queens bakery molester out of any jail time. AFTER Shmarya finally got around to actually asking Horowitz about it and Horowitz denied it, Shmarya backed off THAT claim,
(Shmarya claims everything he says is backed up by facts, yet he constantly shoots first and asks questions later.)
BUT ...
Since Shmarya couldn't let go without pulling down Horowitz regardless, he constructed another one of his far fetched fairy tales that Horowitz only reported the molester to the police because the molester lives in Queens where no big Agudah rabbis live.
The news articles clearly state that the (Chassidish) molester lives in Brooklyn.
Shmarya's sycophants will not call him on his lies and inconsistancies. When the rest of us do, Shmarya blocks us from commenting again. And all the while he has the nerve to criticize other blogs who do the same.
PERV AFTER B'KLYN GIRLS
ReplyDeleteBy PHILIP MESSING, NY Post
A stranger molested two 16-year-old Hasidic girls in separate incidents in Brooklyn in less than a week, sources said.
The first incident occurred at 5:15 p.m. last Friday in the vicinity of East Third Street, in Kensington. A second fondling incident occurred on Monday at around 8:35 a.m. in the vicinity of Avenue O and Dahill Road in Bensonhurst.
The suspect was described as a light-skinned Hispanic man in his 20s
He had no problem supporting Mordy Tendler way after it became well known in town that Tendler was screwing around with other women. He even showed up at the wedding of Tendler's daughter in the heat of the scandal. Horowitz is a person that has his self-interest only in mind. The Queens baker cost Horowitz no risk with his handlers, let's see him take on a rabbi in a yeshiva or anyone that is tied in with the machers.
ReplyDeleteThis is also from Professor Shapiro. Maybe the Gemara Yerushalmi is another "reason" twisted out of context by the Agudah to defend molesters:
ReplyDeleteRav Ovadiah Hadaya explains the Holocaust as God's way of cleansing the world of all the mamzerim! How a sensitive scholar, which Hadaya certainly was, could offer such an explanation really boggles the mind. To think that the cruel murder of six million, including over a million children, not to mention all of the other terrible results of the Holocaust, was in order to complete some yichus program is beyond strange. I can't recall who it was who said that any attempts at explaining suffering are invalid if you are not prepared to tell it to a parent whose child is dying of cancer. I certainly can't imagine anyone telling a parent that his family was wiped out in the Holocaust in order to get rid of the mamzerim! (A well-known American charedi rosh yeshiva responded very strongly when told about what Hadaya wrote, but I don't have permission to quote his words.) Prof. David Halivni commented, when I told him about Hadaya's view, that Sephardim often don't get it when it comes to the Holocaust. I remember thinking about Halivni's comment when Rav Ovadiah Yosef gave his own explanation for the Holocaust, some years ago, one which created such a storm that Holocaust survivors protested outside his home. He claimed that the dead were really reincarnated souls suffering for their sins in previous lifetimes.
Although he doesn't mention it, Hadaya's view is obviously based on the Jerusalem Talmud, Yevamot 8:3, which speaks of a catastrophe coming on the world every few generations which destroys both mamzerim and non-mamzerim (the latter are destroyed as well, so that it not be known who committed the sin.) Sefer Hasidim, ed. Margaliot, no. 213, repeats this teaching.
יש הריגת דבר או חרב שלא נגזר אלא לכלות הממזרים וכדי שלא לביישם שאם לא ימותו רק הממזרים היה נודע והיתה המשפחה מתביישת מפני חברתה [ולכן נוטל הכשרים עמהם]
It is possible that Shmarya was UNWITTINGLY mechaven to the proper conclusion with Horowitz.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that Shmarya does not use reason or even facts while making his arguments. Heck, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
If Horowitz was defending Tendler it does not correlate with Shmarya's conspiracy but stems from Horowitz's own meshugassin.
ReplyDeleteTendler is a modern orthodox weirdo who was publicly condemned early on by a long list of Monsey rabbonim from Chassidish to yeshivish, including the velt's Brisker, R' Mottel Orbach.
The only other Charedi supporter Tendler may have had in town was a rosh yeshiva who is a BT.
Yankee Horowitz position on the Markey bill says it all. he can not be trusted when push comes to shove.
ReplyDeleteJWB says:
ReplyDeleteGary Tendler, 36, of Brentwood, Essex, a Jewish table tennis champion and former City banker, has been jailed for using his position in the sport to groom a 15-year-old girl for sex.
http://www.thejc.com/articles/table-tennis-champ-jailed-sex-abuse
Table tennis champ jailed for sex abuse
From The Jewish Chronicle
Marcus Dysch
June 4, 2009
A Jewish table tennis champion has been jailed for using his position in the sport to groom a 15-year-old girl for sex.
Former City banker Gary Tendler, 36, of Brentwood, Essex, met the teenager, one of Britain’s elite junior players, at a national tournament in 2007. After swapping mobile phone numbers he molested her several times.
The married father-of-two was a former nominee in the senior sportsperson of the year category in the Maccabi GB sports honours list and had been ranked as high as number 21 in the country by the English Table Tennis Association.
But last Friday at Snaresbrook Crown Court, he was convicted of six charges of sexual activity with a child and jailed for 12 months. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.
Judge Inigo Bing said the girl was particularly vulnerable when Tendler abused her as she was mourning the death of her mother. When the four-month period of abuse ended, she was so depressed that she twice attempted to overdose on painkillers.
The girl told the court she felt she had been “used like a sex object” after being bombarded with lewd text messages and made to perform sex acts.
Tendler was convicted at an earlier hearing of possessing indecent images of a child after asking the girl to email him nude pictures of herself.
He denied the charges and claimed he did not know the girl was only 15.
During a trip to London’s West End, he plied the youngster with alcohol and molested her in a restaurant toilet.
Police found 12 photographs of the girl posing naked or in her underwear on his computer.
Tendler lost his £150,000-a-year job as a human resources officer for Dutch bank ABN AMRO after he was arrested in October 2007.
http://www.wpix.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3877217
ReplyDeleteUOJ really does get results. How did he organize this protest against me for protecting molesters with the Agudah & Church with only 5 hours notice?
JWB says:
ReplyDeleteYou can't run and you can't hide. We will expose you.
Sex offender’s appeal rejected
From The Jewish Chronicle
June 19, 2009
http://www.thejc.com/articles/sex-offender’s-appeal-rejected
A convicted sex offender who fled Israel before facing jail had his extradition appeal rejected in the High Court today, despite claiming that returning to Israel would leave him at risk from being nuked by Iran.
Orthodox Jew, Nachman Natal Stal, fled Israel in May 2006 after being found guilty in a Tel Aviv-Jaffa court of sodomy and indecent assault of a minor, relating to an incident in his car in Tel Aviv in 1998.
The married father-of-nine had been in hiding in Stamford Hill until he was recaptured by British Police last May while changing a tyre on the A40 in west London .
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith later authorised his extradition but he challenged the decision.
Speaking through an interpreter Mr Stal offered prayers as he pleaded with Lord Justice Stanley Burnton and Mr Justice Wilkie that “as long as Israel is threatened with an atomic bomb one shouldn’t be extradited there”.
He also alleged that the Israeli government’s motivation for taking him back was out of vengeance, because he had refused to “lie” about something he did not do, so instead absconded.
The 39-year-old also said that in the absence of secure units for sex offenders in Israel , he was scared of being tortured by fellow inmates, asking that “the honourable court” should not “cast me to the dogs”.
But Mr Justice Wilkie said that Israeli prisons could segregate at-risk prisoners in the interests of safety.
1. Hikind supported both the Markey and Lopez Bills.
ReplyDelete2. The Lopez Bill has no window,, extends the Statute of Limitations only slightly, and is described as worthless by anti-abuse activists and professionals dealing with abuse.
3. Markey's bill was amended to include public schools to overcome objections raised by the Catholic Church and Agudath Israel of America. Those organizations thought the unamended bill was "anti-religious." (In truth, public schools were not originally included because public school students have other existing safeguards religious school students lack, and because the governor and the teacher's union originally opposed it.)
4. Markey's bill was also recently amended to cap the age of survivors who can sue using the window to 53 years old. Before this change, there was no age limit for suit.
5. Hikind is under tremendous pressure from Satmar and Agudath Israel of America to kill the Markey Bill.
6. He is under additional pressure now to come to the defense of Vito Lopez, whose threatened rebellion is solely meant to destroy the Markey Bill.
7. Hikind has been playing both sides against the middle. Any bill that passes he can claim as a victory. If nothing passes, he can claim the 'obstinacy' of Markey and survivors caused the failure.
8. VosIzNeais characteristically does not ask Hikind any questions based on the facts, and just lets Hikind say whatever he wants. And the VIN prints it without clarification or comment.
Hikind has always been a problematic person of questionable honesty and even more questionable ethics.
His behavior today is simply another reminder of that.
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b71f69e201157129b6f5970b-popup
Now here is a flyer that is being handed out in front of Vito Lopez's office. It shows what is really at stake for Lopez if the Markey Bill passes. Lopez is the man Dov Hikind is helping
On Thursday, lawyers appeared on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan to announce they had filed a sex abuse lawsuit on behalf of Richard P. Green, a nephew of New York’s former archbishop, Cardinal John J. O’Connor. They said Mr. Green, 31, had been molested by a priest at a Pennsylvania high school in the early 1990s.
ReplyDeleteThe priest has since died, but the suit names as defendants the priest’s religious order and a diocese in Delaware, which has a law similar to Ms. Markey’s bill.
“It’s our client’s hope that the legislators keep this in mind,” said one Mr. Green’s lawyers, John Manly, referring to Albany lawmakers, who could clear the way for other victims like Mr. Green to file a lawsuit.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/06/hed_beaten_in_c.php
ReplyDeleteBeaten in Court, Rubashkins Battle to Keep Crown Heights Religious Leadership
By Elizabeth Dwoskin • Village Voice
Just when you think things in Crown Heights couldn't get any stranger, they do.
Last December, we chronicled the tale of the powerful Rubashkin clan -- the Crown Heights Lubavitch family that practically ran the kosher meat-processing business in America, until they were brought down by a huge immigration raid and a host of legal troubles.
Throughout the national news frenzy, the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights was like the eye of the storm: as chaos ensued, people gathered in solidarity with the Rubashkins. When Moshe Rubashkin had to appear in court in Philadelphia -- the twice-convicted felon was accused of illegal storing hazardous chemicals in his abandoned Allentown textiles factory and then lying to the EPA -- hundreds of religious Crown Heights residents woke up at 5 a.m. and came to the trial by busload. Even people who privately disagreed with his conduct were there to support him.
For those crimes, Moshe Rubashkin -- the brother of Agriprocessors meatprocessing plant CEO Sholom -- was sentenced to sixteen months in a federal prison, where he is currently serving time. For two years prior, Moshe also directed the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council, a publicly-funded social service organization whose leadership doubles as the neighborhood's rabbinical council. (It's a powerful position for many reasons -- not the least of which is that its leader has the power to appoint the rabbi who certifies the meat that is considered kosher by neighborhood supermarkets!).
No one seemed to mind that he had been twice-convicted on felony charges. And the strange thing is, even though he went to jail in November, he remained president of the council until elections were held in May.
In May, Moshe Rubashkin's ticket lost the election. And then, something strange happened: Over the past few months, Moshe's family and supporters have waged a court battle to retain control of the council.
They have asked a judge for a restraining order against rival rabbinical leaders who won the election. In May, the rival leaders obtained a restraining order against them from a Brooklyn judge. The judge also prohibited the Rubashkin camp from coming close to the council's Bank of America account
(Two years prior, Rubashkin had been prohibited from handling the council's money when he was convicted on a felony charge of writing $325,000 in bad checks. But that didn't stop him from being elected to the leadership position, or folks like Mayor Bloomberg from calling him when he wanted to convey a message to the community).
Recently, a letter from the Rubashkin camp showed up on one of the rival leader's blogs. The letter, from a leading rabbi, was a religious mandate saying that "even from jail," Rubashkin was allowed to lead the council until he could appoint another leader. "He is the most corrupt rabbi in the world!" screeched an anonymous post on an anti-Rubashkin site. Yesterday, the dueling rabbis were in court again
What about Shmarya mentioning that R' Lazer Silver ztl poskened to hand molesters over to police but still firing a pot shot at him that it doesn't mean the rov was perfect.
ReplyDeleteThe lowlife shmuck is obsessed with attacking frumme.
http://rabbipruzansky.com/2009/06/15/the-attack-of-the-moralists/
ReplyDeleteR' Dovid Cohen denies he said it's mutter to cheat on taxes so case closed. The Jewish Week has no right to report it even though 7 people at the shiur complained to the Beis Din of America.
I might be modern orthodox but I invoke the Agudah tactic of screaming to shutup with the sing song of LOSHON HARA LAMED HEH GO TO HELL THE EASY WAY.
Vote unlikely on sex abuse bill Catholic Church opposes
ReplyDeleteNY Newsday
As the state Assembly wrapped up its regular session Tuesday, it appeared unlikely that controversial child sex abuse bill would be voted on, advocates and officials said.
The bill, sponsored by Assemb. Margaret Markey (D- Maspeth) and opposed by the Catholic Church, would drop the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases for victims 53 years and younger. Previously her bill included no age limit.
She also recently amended it to explicitly include public as well as private institutions.
Assemb. Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring a competing bill that does not lift the statute of limitations, said he did not expect either bill to pass the legislature this session, or even this year. "The likelihood of a law occurring this year is highly unlikely," he said.
Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for Survivors for Justice, a group that supports Markey's bill, also said it didn't appear the legislation would be taken up last night. But "we are exceedingly confident that in the special session" that could be called in Albany later this year "this important legislation to protect children will be passed" in both houses, Soury said.
Adding to the uncertainty, Markey was not in Albany Monday. Her office did not say why.
I'm against overhauling any system of any kind no matter how broken it is.
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (AP) Obama declares overhauling the health care system is not a luxury, 'it is a necessity'
A true godol and tzadik
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aish.com/heroesOfIsrael/heroesOfIsraelDefault/Heroes_of_Israel_Roi_Klein.asp
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:pCntTyRz0O8J:www.nimn.org/files/GushAdSigners.html+"gershon+Silver"&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
ReplyDeleteI hope that Rav Eliezer Silver's grandson is not the Gershon Silver from Dayton, Ohio, who signs petitions generated by the pro-Palestinian group "Not in My Name". Although the source might be a little murky I don't doubt that such a sensible psak could have been given and it would make the Agudah look really stupid if we find it bichsav and publicize it.
There are 4 people I know who might be able to track down R' Eliezer's psak against molesters in old out of print sforim. Marc Shapiro, Yudel Shain, Hirshel Tzig and someone I will not name.
Can anyone help?
R' Lazer Silver was from a previous generation and the Novominsker obviously does not agree with him. So go ahead and spend hours trying to dig up some irrelevant psak.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Archie Bunker's unnamed source is "Not in my name". And agav, Archie Bunker is a meathead who is also from a previous generation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/nyregion/24albany.html?hp
ReplyDeleteALBANY — Senate Democrats entered the locked Senate chamber through a back hallway on Tuesday afternoon and locked themselves in, pulling off a sneak attack of sorts in the ongoing battle for control of the State Senate.
Senator George H. Winner Jr., a Republican from central New York, described the Democrats’ move as unnecessary and possibly against the law.
“It seems to me somewhat petulant and or illegal to lock the doors,” Mr. Winner said.
Of course it's insane. The point is that the Agudah is even disgracing the memory of it's own founders and patriarchs.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/23well.html
ReplyDeleteAs head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. David A. Kessler served two presidents and battled Congress and Big Tobacco. But the Harvard-educated pediatrician discovered he was helpless against the forces of a chocolate chip cookie.
In an experiment of one, Dr. Kessler tested his willpower by buying two gooey chocolate chip cookies that he didn’t plan to eat. At home, he found himself staring at the cookies, and even distracted by memories of the chocolate chunks and doughy peaks as he left the room. He left the house, and the cookies remained uneaten. Feeling triumphant, he stopped for coffee, saw cookies on the counter and gobbled one down.
“Why does that chocolate chip cookie have such power over me?” Dr. Kessler asked in an interview. “Is it the cookie, the representation of the cookie in my brain? I spent seven years trying to figure out the answer.”
I trained to be a lifeguard under Shimon Eider z"l, the first thing out of his mouth at the first class was - paraphrased - "remember drowning people can't think straight, they'll take you down with them even if you're trying to save them."
ReplyDeleteI'm not trying to save the Agudah, they deserve to drown as an organization, but they'll take everyone and anyone down with them as they go down!
"drowning people can't think straight"
ReplyDeleteYou should always leave your car window rolled down in case you plunge into water or if you have to argue with abused child advocates.
BILL DONAHUE RELEASED THIS STATEMENT TODAY:
ReplyDeleteRight now it looks like this badly conceived legislation is dead in the water. But were it to pass eventually, I renew my pledge today to spend whatever it takes to alert the residents of New York State of their right to sue the public schools if they were ever sexually abused by one of its employees (provided they meet the conditions outlined in the bill).
Some have questioned my motive. Let me end the suspense: I am fed up with unscrupulous lawyers and their well-greased professional victims’ groups seeking to plunder the Catholic Church. Now that public institutions are finally included in the Markey bill, it is only just that potential claimants be informed of their rights. And guess what? A reality check has already taken place. Opposing the Markey bill are the New York State School Boards Association, the New York State Council of School Superintendents, and other civic groups.
Here’s more. An AP story today says 700 public school teachers in New York City are being paid full salaries to sit around doing such things as yoga and playing Scrabble while their cases are being investigated. The accusations include sexual abuse.
Still more. Today’s New York Daily News has a story about a teacher’s aide who was busted for molesting a first grader; the 6-year old girl is thought to be the third victim of the same employee. And so what have they done to him? He’s been reassigned to a desk job.
And people wonder why the Catholic League is pulling out all the stops. Believe me, we will never yield on our pledge.
BELIEVE ME BILL, WE WILL NEVER YIELD EITHER! WE WILL NEVER YIELD TO YOU AND TO THE MOLESTERS YOU ARE PROTECTING! WE WILL NEVER YIELD TO YOU OR TO THE CHURCH THAT CHOOSES TO PROTECT VIOLENT CRIMINALS INSTEAD OF CHILDREN! WE WILL NEVER YIELD TO YOUR CORRUPTION! WE WILL NEVER YIELD UNTIL EVERY LAST ONE OF THE MOLESTERS AND THEIR ENABLERS, INCLUDING YOURSELF, ARE LOCKED UP!
Speaking of sitting around playing Scrabble, it was the iluy Bob Grant who observed that made-up Black first names must have been invented when their parents were playing the game.
ReplyDeleteI once mentioned it on FM when it was relevant and SHmarya of course had a cow.
Major Case Squad Activated After Body Found Wrapped in Rug
ReplyDeleteJune 23, 2009
Detectives with the Major Case Squad are investigating the gruesome discovery of a man's body found in East St. Louis.
The body of a white male was found underneath a rug in the 2900 block of Morris early Tuesday morning.
FOX 2 News has been told the body may have been there for some time.
Pelosi Moves Climate Bill to a Vote
ReplyDeleteWall Street Journal - 56 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote Friday on a sprawling climate change bill, signaling the Democratic leadership's confidence that it can overcome objections from Farm Belt Democrats
UOJ:
ReplyDeleteI also threatened to take everyone down with me. Once your reputation is gone you become a persona non grata. No one gives a hoot who you think you're going to take down.I know the chevra since the Beekman days. They epitomize the adas Korach. Spewing garbage with a hechsher. I am very happy about the death of their magazine of hate.
As for your earlier point, unzere heimsihe chevra don't call 911. Even if family is kidnapped or assaulted you NEVER get police involved. Nobody wants the government involved in your private farsheedinst.
Thank You for the platform,
Moish
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/oscar-winning-songwriter-is-charged-in-sex-assaults/?hp
ReplyDeleteA 71-year-old Oscar-winning songwriter and director was arrested and charged on Tuesday with raping and sexually assaulting 11 women he lured from the Pacific Northwest to his East Side Manhattan apartment from 2005 to 2008 using Craigslist and a talent Web site, the Manhattan district attorney announced.
The songwriter, Joseph Brooks, whose hit, “You Light Up My Life,” won the Academy Award in 1978, surrendered early Tuesday and appeared later in State Supreme Court on a 91-count indictment.
His lawyer, Jeffrey C. Hoffman, said Mr. Brooks would plead not guilty, adding that the charges “look preposterous.”
Mr. Hoffman said his client suffered a stroke in April 2008, suggesting it would play a role in his defense. Mr. Brooks appeared in court, looking disheveled in an ill-fitting jacket and baggy pants.
Prosecutors said he was strong and fit at the time of the attacks.
JWB says:
ReplyDeletePedophile Yona Weinberg's absurd defense [note he is now in the real estate industry, the choice industry for many exposed and disgraced pedophiles in NY such as Rabbi Lipa (Lewis) Brenner and Ephraim Bryks]:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/24/2009-06-24_molest_defendant_kid_came_on_to_me.html
Molest defendant: Kid came on to me
BY Scott Shifrel
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, June 24th 2009, 4:00 AM
A Bar Mitzvah tutor and social worker charged with molesting four teens took the stand Tuesday to deny it - and even said one of the youngsters came on to him.
Yona Weinberg, 31, of Flatbush, said one teen asked him about Viagra and sex toys while he was praying and teaching Talmud, and another tried to grab his crotch.
He denied abusing the teens.
"It never happened," the married father of four said of one boy's account of a sexual proposition.
He said another boy put his hand on his right leg in a van.
Later, the boy said, "He had feelings for me. I explained to him that they were not mutual. I told him he would eventually outgrow them."
Weinberg, a licensed social worker who is now in real estate, lost his composure only when defense lawyer Marvin Schecter asked if he had called any of the families since his May 2008 arrest.
"I called at least two other patients to inform them I was no longer allowed to work with children," he said, lowering his voice, taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes.
Cross-examination is slated for Wednesday.
WASHINGTON — President Obama has decided to send an ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday evening, in a sign of the deepening engagement between the Obama administration and the Syrian government.
ReplyDeleteThe Bush administration withdrew the ambassador to Syria in 2005 to protest the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon. Washington suspects Syria of being involved in the attack
Mutterperl guilty of attempting to kidnap girl
ReplyDeleteBY Scott Shifrel
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, June 20th 2009, 4:00 AM
Bernard Mutterperl has been found guilty of trying to kidnap then 11-year-old Xochil Garcia.
Brave girl, 13, testifies at kidnap trial
A jury convicted a Brooklyn man on Friday of trying to abduct an 11-year-old girl on Mother's Day 2007 - rejecting the argument he was just strange, not sinister.
Bernard Mutterperl, 21, grabbed Xochil Garcia, covered her mouth when she screamed and walked her down the stairs of her Midwood apartment building.
He grimaced - and his mother burst into tears - when the jury found him guilty of attempted kidnapping and other charges that carry up to 15 years in prison.
"Travesty of justice, travesty of justice," defense lawyer Joyce David said. "There was no evidence here, just speculation."
Xochil's stepfather, Heriberto Rodriguez said he was "happy with the verdict, but I can't be too happy because a lot of people are still suffering. I can't imagine what his family is going through now."
Mutterperl's lawyer had argued his actions were inappropriate and awkward but not criminal.
But jurors who heard the girl's vivid testimony and Mutterperl's police statement about liking little girls took only three hours to convict.
"If the first thing you do when you see a child is grab her hand and say, 'Don't scream,' that's a little more than inappropriate," said one juror.
Xochil, who kept her cool and waited for the right moment to escape Mutterperl's grasp, bravely took the stand to tell jurors about what prosecutors said was "every parent's worst nightmare."
A husband and his wife are taking a Hebrew language course.
ReplyDeleteAs they walk into the class the rabbi asks the man what he thinks about this class.
The husband replies "I'll only have to learn the first part of every sentence".
The rabbi replies "Why is that?"
The husband says: "Because my wife finishes all my sentences."
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16103/News/New_York.html
ReplyDeleteWhen Rabbi Mordechai Suchard began planning this year’s annual dinner for Gateways, the nonprofit Jewish education and outreach organization he founded 12 years ago, he searched tirelessly for an honoree, someone who could make a significant donation and reach out to his or her friends to do the same. But in this worst economy in decades, Rabbi Suchard had so much trouble finding the right person that he decided to cancel the dinner altogether until everyone’s financial straits were less dire.
"We found people, but the problem is they don’t want to be hitting up their friends," said Rabbi Suchard of potential honorees.
For Rabbi Suchard’s part, the economy has taken its toll in other ways than fundraising: the Gateways founder has lowered salaries by 15 percent, taken loans and cut back on programming.
http://www.forward.com/articles/108001/
ReplyDeleteHoenlein Hits Obama On Speech, Then Retreats
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/06/they_needed_a_m.php
ReplyDeleteRabbi Leib Glanz, the chaplain for Jewish inmates, approached Valerie Oliver, a chief who was the head of custody management at the time, and asked for the transfer of Orthodox Jewish inmates to the Tombs. Oliver approved the request -- yet another example of special treatment in this unfolding story.
"The rabbi would have the inmates transfered at her behest," a correction source says. "Once Oliver started it, the staff just did it. And you never had, for example, Muslim inmates transfered like that."
The official reason, the sources said, was religious. Certain Jewish religious ceremonies and functions, such as public prayer and reading from the Torah, require an minimum of 10 men--known as a Minyan.
But, you can't help but wonder whether Glanz wanted all of his guys together so it would be easier to do favors for them. Reportedly, Jewish inmates at the Tombs were allowed to make extra calls to girlfriends and bookies, and enjoyed food brought in from the outside.
On Dec. 30, Glanz organized a bar mitzvah for an accused fraudster in the Tombs, complete with 60 outside guests, catered food and silverware. That party and a subsequent one have led to multiple investigations, the resignation of the No 3 official in the department and a lot of general chaos.
The inmate who benefitted was Tuvia Stern, who had fled the country for 20 years to escape fraud charges. According to a correction source, since he was a flight risk, he never should have been allowed to be housed at the Tombs.
Glanz, correction sources say, also threw barbeques for correction department staff on the roof of the Tombs. He would bring in steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, and all the fixings. It was routine for wardens, chiefs and even the commissioner to attend these functions. Jewish inmates did the cooking. Glanz paid for the events.
"This didn't happen over night," a correction source said. "It's been going on for awhile."
Glanz resigned yesterday. His lawyer Richard Finkel declined to comment.
Oliver at one point allowed a Jewish inmate to attend a funeral outside the jails. She ordered the escorting officers not to enter the funeral home, which is considered a breach of security regulations, correction sources said.
Oliver is now Chief of Administration, a post which takes her out of responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the jails.
A Correction Department spokesman cited the ongoing investigations in declining to comment on Glanz and Oliver.
Nothing, so far, has changed in the status of Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, one of the officials who approved the bar mitzvah. But folks are still questioning why he was allowed to retain his job.
Correction Commissioner Martin Horn promoted Jalil to assistant commissioner after the Imam made a controversial speech in Arizona, claiming the biggest terrorists in the world were in the White House.
Abdul-Jalil had served 14 years in jail on drug charges and is on lifetime parole. He was released in 1989. The FBI issued a memo of concern over Abdul-Jalil's speeches--a document the DOC says it never received.
DOI rules state background checks are required for all managerial positions, and all city employees earning more than $80,000. Abdul-Jalil would have fit into both of those categories, but it's unclear whether the background check was necessary in Abdul-Jalil's case.
DOC spokesman Stephen Morello says, "The department was fully aware of Imam Umar's background when he was hired and when he was promoted."
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16151/News/New_York.html
ReplyDeleteAfter Fraud, A Call For Compassion
Members of Ohab Tzedek were asked by their rabbi to reach out to the family of an ex-gabbai sentenced to eight years in prison for securities and wire fraud.
by Adam Dickter
Assistant Managing Editor
Rabbi Allen Schwartz recalls Chaim Regensberg as a family man who hosted fundraisers in his Upper West Side home for charities in Israel or for Congregation Ohab Zedek, where he was an active member.
“I always thought he was an honest guy, upright in all areas,” said Ohab Zedek’s rabbi, who has known Regensberg for about 10 years. “But something happened, he got in over his head and instead of coming clean immediately, it got worse.”
Federal prosecutors paint a different picture of Regensberg, 44, who was sentenced to eight years in jail last week for defrauding nearly two dozen people in a three-year, $11 million Ponzi-scheme.
They say he methodically roped in members of his Orthodox community with promises of returns as high
as 18 percent via fictional investment schemes until his arrest in March 2008. A jury last April found him guilty of two counts of securities fraud and seven counts of wire fraud. He faced 20 years.
Federal Judge Victor Marrero said Regensberg, who was a gabbai at Ohab Zedek, used a “mask of piety” to lure investors, according to the New York Post.
But Rabbi Schwartz said no one would have invested with Regensberg because of his position at the shul.
“He was one of seven gabbaim,” said the rabbi on Tuesday. “It would be very strange to me if someone said, normally I wouldn’t have invested with him but I will because he was a gabbai. People invested with him because he was making money for them in good times.”
The rabbi speculated that “what probably happened was when times got tough he did something too risky. Even the investors who want his head now would tell you he [appeared to be] an honest guy.”
According to the indictment by the U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District, Michael J. Garcia, Regensberg falsely told investors he had access to initial public offerings on foreign exchanges before the general public, and that he could sell such stocks quickly for returns of 5 to 15 percent within weeks.
A second scheme involved loans to trading firms to use for leveraged investments. Since the funds supposedly were not traded but kept in accounts as collateral, Regensberg told investors he could guarantee a return of up to 18 percent per year, according to Garcia, who said Regensberg in reality lost large portions of the money in unrelated risky investments; he then began paying early investors with income from new ones in a Ponzi scheme, while diverting large amounts to himself and his relatives.
The scheme fell apart when some investors confronted Regensberg in 2007 about missed payments, and he presented them with a forged bank document claiming a $9 million balance, while the actual sum was only about $9,000, prosecutors convinced the jury.
Rabbi Schwartz said neither he nor the shul had any money invested with Regensberg, and that most of those who lost money attended other congregations.
In giving Regensberg the benefit of a doubt, the rabbi speculated that if the investor had engaged in fictitious money schemes, he had likely done so “to fix a situation that just went bad” in an effort to recoup losses from legitimate investments.
At his sentencing, Regensberg said his crimes stemmed from an addiction to gambling. But Rabbi Schwartz said he took that to mean high-risk investments, and did not know Regensberg to frequent casinos or other forms of gaming. “Investments that were too risky, that’s how I understood it,” he said.
ReplyDeleteZev Brenner, a member of Ohab Zedek and host of the Talkline Jewish radio programs, said people at the congregation were upset by the scandal but that many believed, as the rabbi does, that Regensberg started with pure intentions.
“They feel like this is similar to the [Bernard] Madoff story, where he started out innocently and got over his head and kept taking future money to pay back the past,” said Brenner. “When you do that, you’re bound to fail.”
Another longtime member of the shul, Glenn Richter, said he knew no one who was cheated by Regensberg. “There is a large transient population [at the shul], people who stay here only a few years and move on. It could very well be that this happened to some of them,” said Richter. “But logically people who are burned aren’t going to get up and wave their hands and tell everyone.”
Richter, who knows Regensberg casually, said his impression, “like everyone else’s is that he was a very upstanding gentleman. He wasn’t a flashy guy. A gabbai is somebody who is trustworthy. You don’t give that position to someone who is a bubblehead.”
Rabbi Schwartz said Regensberg would be welcomed back to the synagogue on his release only if he showed a willingness to atone. “According to Jewish law, it’s not just to do the time but to gain forgiveness from those who were hurt.” The Talmud, he said, discusses different ways to atone for a financial crime, from rituals to restitution.
In his Shabbat sermon this week, Rabbi Schwartz stressed the importance of compassion for Regensberg’s wife and three children, citing the Torah’s warning that the iniquity of the father would be visited upon his sons.
He said Regensberg’s wife and children had not been to the shul in some time, but the congregation president had reached out to them.
“The family will need support,” he reiterated in an interview Tuesday. “The children will have no one to sit next to in shul. And what’s going to happen to them in school? Kids can be cruel. We have to have sensitive parents, even parents who were involved, to be careful what they say in front of their kids, who could repeat it in school.”
The lesson for the community, he said, was to take prompt responsibility for any misdeeds.
“There are people in power in the Tanach who do things wrong and their greatness is that they don’t just bury themselves deeper in their wrongdoing,” said the rabbi. “[Regensberg’s] tragic story is that he was not able to dig himself out. It was destined to end this way.”
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Israel-Former-Ministers-Abraham-Hirchson-And-Shlomo-Benizri-Jailed-In-Separate-Corruption-Cases/Article/200906415317490
ReplyDeleteFormer finance minister Abraham Hirchson was sentenced to five years behind bars after being found guilty of stealing half a million dollars from a trade union he ran.
The judge at his trial accused him of turning Israel's National Labour Federation into a "casino" for himself and other officials.
He was told he deserved a punishment no different from that given to a "regular felon".
Hirchson is a friend of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was hounded out of office by swirling corruption allegations and still faces an investigation although he denies any wrongdoing.
In another case, a former labour and welfare minister was sent to jail for four years for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Shlomo Benizri had his sentence extended on appeal from 18 months and was ordered to pay a fine of more than £40,000.
After sentencing, the accused's family bizarrely claimed he had been the victim of a conspiracy by a homosexual cabal within Israel's justice system.
Benizri's brother Rabbi David Benizri was reported in the Israeli media as saying gay members of the Knesset, police and prosecutors' office worked together to send him to jail.
The disgraced pair are the latest in a series of Israeli public figures mired in sleaze allegations.
Former President Moshe Katsav faces trial later this year accused of rape and other sexual offences.
Ex-justice minister Haim Ramon was convicted of forcibly kissing a female Israeli soldier.
And in 2006 Israel's ambassador to El Salvador had to be recalled from his post after he was found cavorting through his embassy grounds wearing nothing but bondage gear
http://www.forward.com/articles/107575/
ReplyDeleteAs Layoffs Mount, Which Jewish Executives Shared the Pain?
Only a Minority Took Pay Cuts When Employees Lost Their Jobs
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16165/News/New_York.html
ReplyDeleteRabbi Baruch Leibowitz estimates there are 1,000 Jews among the approximately 14,000 inmates on Rikers Island, New York’s primary detention center. Inmates come and go, awaiting bail and plea bargains. Nevertheless, the chaplain said, he only gets “between seven and 13” Jews for the one weekly service he officiates, a Tuesday afternoon Mincha.
Rabbi Leibowitz, ordained by Rav Moshe Feinstein at Mesivta Tifereth Jerusalem, dismissed the conventional wisdom that Jews are imprisoned only for white-collar crimes: “Whatever you read about people going to jail for, that’s what Jews go to jail for. That Jews only do white-collar crimes is not a valid notion.”
It’s not a new phenomenon, either. In 1950, 11 of the 19 inmates on Sing Sing’s “death row” were members of “the tribe” — a lost tribe, at that.
Rabbi Velvel Butman, the Chabad emissary to Westchester, began volunteering in prisons in Ossining, Bedford Hills and Valhalla in 1993, to help with the modest celebrations for Jewish holidays.
Chaplains, who have modest budgets, “are very happy to accommodate us,” said Rabbi Butman. “We bring whatever we need, staff and goods, spirit and songs, we bring the tefillin, the meat slices, salads, all the refreshments and we do it for free. It actually costs us money. Who pays for that? The shaliach has to raise this money himself.”
Rabbi Butman says, “Some prisons we go to regularly, some we’re on-call. If an inmate or relative gets farblunjit [lost and confused], they’ll ask us for help.
Valhalla, a prison shared by the federal, state and county governments, “has no chaplain coming through on a regular basis. On Sukkot we put up a portable sukkah in the yard, we danced with the inmates, with lulav and etrog. For that, of course, we need clearance. But any inmate has the right to individual visitation, so we can do that more easily. Even for individual visits, I always contact the chaplain anyway, to maintain friendship.”
The Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, “always taught us to remember and love every Jew, regardless of their circumstances,” said Rabbi Butman, “even if they’re in prison.”
In the 1970s, said Rabbi Butman, “the rebbe launched a campaign for us to care about Jewish inmates. After hearing the rebbe would speak about it a number of times at fabrengens [chasidic gatherings], one student, Yossi, went to my father,” Rabbi Shmuel Butman, director of Lubavitch Youth Organization, “to get money to rent a car. He’d drive to prisons eight hours, 10 hours away,” said the Westchester shaliach.
“The rebbe was following this very closely and gave a lot of directives. One year, Yossi got a call from the rebbe’s senior secretary on the night of Bedikas Chomets [before Passover], saying, ‘the rebbe wants to know if you brought matzahs to prisoners upstate.’ Yossi says yes. Then, ‘The rebbe wants to know if you provided a kosher l’pesach oven so inmates can heat their food.’ It didn’t dawn on him that he had to go that far. So Yossi goes right away to an electronics store in Crown Heights, gets a small portable oven, drives upstate for seven or eight hours — remember, this is the night before Pesach — delivers it, and comes back the next day just in time for the seder.
“After that, Yossi realized how serious was the rebbe’s commitment to each Jewish prisoner, if the rebbe cared on a busy night before the seder to make sure that not only was there food but hot food. Yossi — and the rest of us — realized we had to do more.”
ReplyDeleteUnder the direction of the rebbe, the Aleph Institute, a nonprofit national charitable organization was started in 1981, to institutionalize assistance to Jews in prisons.
One Jewish businessman, who asked for anonymity, said he specializes in helping Israeli prisoners. He said they have to deal with cultural and language difficulties in addition to anti-Semitism and other problems. “Their families are often in Israel; they can’t visit, or visit regularly, so they don’t have that support, either.” This volunteer said he’s been working about 20 hours a month for the past 13 years, with the help of a pro bono lawyer, to help Israeli prisoners finish serving their sentence in Israel, under an existing international treaty that says that foreign nationals can complete their sentence in their home country.
Despite the scandal of the Satmar chaplain, and the fears about Islamic chaplains spreading radical Islam in prison, there is a strange pattern of back scratching among these chaplains. The supervisor of the city’s 40 chaplains is Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, who in 2006 told inmates in upstate’s Woodbourne prison that President George W. Bush was “the biggest terrorist in the world.” He also has spoken out against “Zionists in the media.” Despite being condemned by Jewish organizations and investigated by the FBI, he was publicly defended as a good person by chaplains Rabbi Leibowitz and Rabbi Glanz, even though Rabbi Glanz, as a Giuliani appointee was thought to be Abdul-Jalil’s political opposite.
In turn, it was Abdul-Jalil who gave Rabbi Glanz permission for the controversial in-prison bar mitzvah. The imam was reprimanded, but did not lose his job, was praised for his good work by Mayor Mike Bloomberg
Parent arrested in Lakewood, New Jersey for leaving child unattended in steamy car. Bystanders attempted to find a parent, then called police. The consequences could be deadly, and get parents in trouble.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25calif.html?hp
ReplyDeleteCalifornia to Pay Creditors With I.O.U.’s
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/us/25sanford.html?hp
ReplyDeleteMark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina, said he had conducted an extra-marital affair with a woman in Argentina, ending a mystery over his week-long disappearance that had infuriated lawmakers and seemed to put his rising political career in jeopardy. He apologized for the affair and the deception surrounding his trip in a rambling, nationally televised news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Governor Sanford, 49, admitted that he had been in Buenos Aires since Thursday, not hiking on the Appalachian Trail as his staff had told reporters.
In revealing an affair that had gone on for about a year — and which he said he had disclosed to his wife, Jenny, five months ago — he said: “This was selfishness on my part.”
Mr. Sanford announced on Wednesday that as a result, he was resigning his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. The association soon after announced that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour would become chairman.
The whispers about the missing governor started as early as Friday, when one lawmaker and outspoken rival of Mr. Sanford was quietly outraged that the governor had left the state without a plan for a transfer of power in the event of an emergency.
“I don’t care how big a problem you had with the person,” Senator Knotts said. “I had concerns for his safety and the fact that there was nobody leading South Carolina. There was nobody in a position to make a decision on homeland security or if there were a prison riot or something of that nature.”
Senator Knotts said that he was content to learn that the governor had been hiking on the Appalachian Trail, and would be coming home Wednesday. But when he learned Wednesday morning that the governor was actually in Argentina, he added: “It all could have been avoided if his staff started out not trying to cover up for him.”
Mr. Sanford is the third sitting governor to become the central figure in a major scandal in recent years. Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer, Democrat of New York, resigned a few days after his involvement with prostitutes was revealed in March 2008. Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, Democrat of Illinois, clung to office for weeks after being accused by prosecutors of influence-peddling, including trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama; he was impeached and removed from office by the state legislature on Jan. 29.
A reporter tried to ask Mr. Sanford at the end of the news conference whether he would resign his office, but Mr. Sanford ignored the question.
> Same Sex Marriages
ReplyDelete>
> (NEW YORK) In an unusual display of unity, leaders of five Chasidic
> groups today issued a joint statement in support of proposed state
> legislation to allow same-sects marriages.
> The groups represented were Belz, Pupa, Saatmar, Bobov, and Lubavitch.
> "Of course we want same-sects marriages," said Rabbi Wurzma Shtreimel,
> head of the Belz movement. "A Belzer should marry only a Belzer. That
> makes perfect sense." The other rabbis agreed.
> "If a Saatmar weds a Bobover, woe to their offspring," proclaimed
> Rabbi Praymita Gartel of Saatmar. "What would their children
> be-Saatovers?? That's totally unheard of."
> The rabbis shared concerns about the dilution of their individual
> groups through intersect marriages. "The Tanya warns us," said Rabbi
> Mendy Pantz of Lubavitch. "If a Lubavitcher marries outside his sect,
> his children lose half their heritage. His son is not Lubavitch, just
> Vitch. And his grandson becomes a son of a Vitch."
> At a separate news conference, Chasidic women expressed similar
> concerns. "It's less confusing when our kind marry their own kind,"
> said Rebbetzin Donna Kittel, founder of a Pupa women's group, The
> Mamas and the Pupas.
> To prevent intersect marriages, Belz rebbetzin Gitta Kapotah announced
> the formation of a new community matchmaking service, Wedding Belz.
> "We must protect our Belz," she said. "They're our family jewels."
> Contacted by Mr. Richard Feder of Ft. Lee, N.J., Rebbetzin Emily
> Littella of Bobov asked: "Vat's all dis I hear about same-sox
> marriage?
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/24/business/AP-US-Insurers-Faulty-Payments.html
ReplyDeleteFiled at 7:43 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional investigators said Wednesday two-thirds of the U.S. health insurance industry used a faulty database that overcharged patients for seeing doctors outside their insurance network, costing Americans billions of dollars in inflated medical bills.
Yonah Weinberg and Bernard Mutterpurl were both convicted for sexual abuse. Weinberg was sentenced to two years maximum prison time while Mutterpurl faces up to fifteen years. Weinberg was accused by four different Jewish boys of sexual molestation. He was a bar mitzvah tutor and social worker for the JBFCS. Two years seems like a mere slap on the wrist. The boys went through the trouble of testifying and being cross examined. The pervert claimed that the boys came on to HIM! While I'm glad that the boys were courageous enough to testify, I'm afraid that other victims will not do the same if the courts continue to hand out such soft sentences. What is the incentive for these victims to testify if their attackers get off easy while they themselves have to suffer through reliving their nightmares, and much worse? Not only that, I'm sure there will be a cry of pidyon shvuyim to get Weinberg released early. These boys are being called liars and fabricators. People actually believe Weinberg's delusions that these kids had a crush on him. This case shows how far we've come in that these kids testified. However, we have a long way to go before we can say that this war has been won.
ReplyDeletehttp://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/huffpos-question-at-obama-news-conference-sparks-a-media-flap/?hp
ReplyDeleteThis is a long article that outlines how Obama is pulling a Clinton and having Left wing journalist friendlies plant pre-arranged questions at White House press conferences.
Notice how the NY Times purposely neglects to mention that James McGreevey of New Jersey is another Democrat Governor who had to resign in disgrace. If you are a flaming homo, the Liberal Times will cover up for you.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_12595309
ReplyDeleteNORWALK -- Police had to clear an "out of control" bat mitzvah party Saturday night at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.
Brian Fischer, rental coordinator for the museum, told police the younger guests at the Jewish ceremony, which celebrates a girl's coming of age, tore out ceiling tiles and a light fixture in the 141-year-old, 62-room mansion. Fischer said he saw several boys and girls engaging in oral sex in the bathrooms, Officer Carleton Giles said.
A Wilton man, reportedly intoxicated, was charged with resisting arrest.
After Fischer could not bring the party to order, he called police shortly after 11 p.m., Giles said.
The first officer said he walked into the main room of the mansion, bought by the city of Norwalk in 1941 and saw about 150 guests.
"The party appeared to be out of control, with kids running up and down the stairs and through the rooms," the report said.
Several barricades that prohibit entrance to some of the rooms were knocked down, Giles said.
Sheldon Gerarden, executive director of the mansion, built by banker and railroad tycoon LeGrand Lockwood in 1868, confirmed Monday that there was minor damage.
"It is a shame because we have worked so hard through the years to provide this facility to the public for different events, and it may mean that we have to review our policies," Gerarden said.
Sheryl Finnie Baker, who rented the mansion for her daughter's bat mitzvah, said the reports are "blown way out of proportion." Fischer overreacted, she said, and to say the party was out of control is ridiculous.
"All I knew was that I was dancing, and then there were five police cars outside," Baker said.
No one told her the kids were upstairs or that there were allegations involving oral sex, she said. She saw no inappropriate behavior in the bathrooms, she said.
"These kids are not the type to do oral sex," Baker said.
Gerarden said the carpet was stained, but he declined to provide a damage estimate. He said he is confident that those responsible will pay for repairs.
Baker's brother, Peter Finnie, 52, of 24 Duck Pond Road, Wilton, was charged with first-degree criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and interfering with an officer, Giles said. No juveniles were arrested, Giles said.
According to Giles, Finnie was "terribly belligerent" to the officers, and challenged their authority to disperse the party. Officers detected alcohol on his breath, Giles said.
According to a police report, Finnie's wife shook her head in disgust and told police, "My husband is an (horse's?) ass when he is drunk." Finnie was released after his wife, Leslie Ann Finnie, posted $475 bond, his court file shows.
Finnie did not return a call to his home for comment. Baker said her brother was defending his son from an officer just before his arrest, and he may file a complaint.
The mansion has been available for parties for decades. In the past, the mansion has collected more than $100,000 per year in rental fees, said Christopher Cooke, museum board of trustees chairman.
Cooke said he did not talk to the museum employees who worked Saturday night and did not want to comment.
"We are trying to be fairly circumspect about this thing," he said.
In the recession, the museum's rental receipts are a third of what they were six years ago, he said.
Gerarden said that in 2 1/2 years working at the mansion, he has not seen a party get out of control as the one did Saturday night.
"Everyone has respected the mansion, and it is that kind of respect that allows us to do this," he said. "I'm sorry the police had to be called."
http://joshuahammerman.blogspot.com/2009/06/teens-behaving-badly-advocate-bar.html
ReplyDeleteJoshua Hammerman
I have served Temple Beth El in Stamford, Conn. for over 21 years, synthesizing rabbinic and journalistic passions.
The Stamford Advocate decided to make Bat Mitzvah mischief making its front page story yesterday: Norwalk police clear bat mitzvah gone awry. Here's the follow up story just published: Norwalk mansion rental policy may change after out-of-control bat mitzvah.
I commend TBE congregant Artie Selkowitz for questioning in a letter to the editor today, Where's the coverage of good news? Also see TBE congregant Lynn Villency Cohen's letter. This is not to excuse any vandalism or inappropriate sexual behavior that may have gone on. These issues are long-term, not just for bar mitzvah parties, but for all teen activities. The things I hear about the way people "grind" at proms, for instance, are equally troubling, as is the general culture of "hooking up" that has become so prevalent. These might be fodder for a general article about the lack of modesty and respect for other human beings and property that are so noticeable in the behavior of some teens (and adults too).
But front page news? C'mon! I've been the first to critique excesses at these events (see Bar Mitzvahs Play Better Off Broadway (Jewish Week, 12/19/08) and Have We Gone Overboard? )but specifically to tie this type of misbehavior into Bar Mitzvah is equivalent to saying that because there was rioting in L.A. following the Lakers' championship the other day, the NBA somehow is evil and corrupt. I won't raise the banner of anti-Semitism, but why focus on a party that happens to occur after a particular religious event as opposed to any other teen party where similar (or worse) things might happen?
I'm not blind to the fact that our own students are capable of this kind of thing (though no TBE kids were mentioned in the article), but I've noticed a distinctly positive trend in the way families approach this event over recent years, and in particular this year. The over-the-top parties have fallen victim to the bad economy (even those who have the money see it as being in bad taste) in favor of more spiritual values. Our kids understand that as well. I've seen far less "bar" as the saying goes, and much more "mitzvah."
There are lots of things wrong with our culture but Bar Mitzvahs are not among them.
http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/062509/edcolBarMitzvaBabylon.html
ReplyDeleteAndrew Silow-Carroll is the Conservative Jew who is editor of the NJ Jewish News. He farentfers that the Conservative Jews tearing apart a historic site aren't so bad and that only Satmar chussid Leib Glanz deserves to make front page news.
Part 1
ReplyDeleteTo the Novominsker Rebbe, Rabbi Shafran, Rabbi Zweibel and Rabbi Horowitz, and the rest of the individuals who opposed the Markey Bill.
You may be interested in reading below my latest chabura (Torah analyses) which pertains to your concerns for the “Bill’s ‘Window’ Unfair” that you publicly shared - whether in the Joint Statement, Jewish Week or Online Websites. It involved the Mechiras Yosef and this week’s Parsha of the Miraglim.
I had three major questions on the Mechira:
1) As many mefarshim explain that; “no one really knows the sensitivity that went into the entire process over the course of many meetings regarding this painful parsha” of the Mechiras Yosef by the other Shvatim. The greatest group of Tsadikim that ever lived at once surely “convened many meetings with little fanfare away from the media limelight” before they came to their badly mistaken conclusion. How and where did they go so awfully wrong?
2) Twenty two years later when they went down to Mitsraim to buy food and began to realize their mistake (“Aval Ashaimim Anachnu”), what precisely was the message Yosef was “picketing and promoting” by returning their monies back into their sacks? It seems like such strange thing to do?
3) At the end of Parshas Vayichi, the Posuk tells us that the brothers humbly came before Yosef and admitted their mistake by saying Avachi tsiva lifnei moso etc... If they were courageous enough to come forward and “make a Tikun Haovar”, why were they destined in a future gilgul to get killed so horrifically in what’s generally known as the Asara Harugai Malchus?
While learning chumash with Torah Temimah I delved into the Yam Hatalmud to fine some real answers to these extremely puzzling, and mystifying questions. I researched everywhere, including the Sifrai Ha’zohar the Ari Z”L and other such Seforim until I found the true and satisfactory answer.
The Sifrei Kabalas explain that the answer to all the above questions lays in the one charge of “Meraglim Atem”, which Yosef leveled at his brothers when they first came down to Mitsraim. They explain that his charge was a hint to a future sin by his brothers, in a later Gilgul of the Miraglim, who were likewise counted to the highest caliber. They too would once again sin with the identical underlying errors of Mechiras Yosef. They made two very serious errors in both instances; 1) they had flawed perceptions 2) they mis-prioritized.
With regard to Mechiras Yosef they had flawed perceptions because they rendered Yosef to be a big bad teenage blogger based on his style of haircuts (misalsel b’sairo) and clothing (kesones pasim), and his hanging-out with wrong chevra (v’hu naar es bnei bilah). They felt that; "the determination to divine what will be best for Klal Yisroel resists even a well-meaning daas baala bais,” and Yosef could not possibly be right with his assertions that, one day it would be necessary for THEM that he should be king, to legislate safety measures, and support provisions for THEIR children; the future of klal Yisroel. Their error was that; they should have seen passed his external and perceive him as he truly was; a greater and wiser Tsadik then all of them; a “Tsadik Yisod Olam” who ultimately held on to his yidishkeit and faith and who’s determination for divining would eventually prove true, despite being sold down to Mitsraim by his own family Rabbinical (Agudath) members, where he was to become victim of a terribly humiliating sexual assault by both Potifera, and his wife (see Medrashim on Sris Pharaoh and Ashis Potifera), and consequently languished in the depths of despair, pain and an environment of drugs, alcohol and adultery.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteTheir second error was their mis-prioritizing; they should have first and foremost considered the collateral damage of emotional pain that, Yosef the victim, and his family members such as Yaakov, would endure from their position and actions on the matter, even HAD they been right. They also mis-prioritized by sharing their inferred concerns of Yosef ruling over them, and not having the proper Emunah with their destiny of (their organization) also inheriting portions in Erets Yisroel.
These same identical underlying errors were repeated years later by Meraglim. They too had flawed perceptions because they should have perceived the ongoing funerals as a means of distractions to enable them to spy undetected, and a means to root out the evil (molesters) before they were to arrive in the land. Likewise, they should have seen passed the external enormous size of the fruit; and perceive these (Markey) provisions as a legislative gift from Hashem to help them survive physically and emotionally for future generations. Instead, they mistakenly viewed all these above-mentioned items, as legislation “that could literally destroy schools, houses of worship that sponsor youth programs, summer camps and other institutions that were the very lifeblood of their communities”.
Just as well, they made the second error of mis-prioritizing; they should have first and foremost had the proper Emunah with the future of Torah and Yeshivas in Erets Yisroel, and not share in public their inferred loshon hara concerns for the giants (lawsuits) looming in front of them to destroy their Mosdos. Precisely because they made a public Joint Statement inferring their concerns for their “lifeblood”, were they and all those who stood alongside of their opposition punished terribly. They also made an identical error as they did in Mechiras Yosef; to remain defiantly stubborn and argue that “the determination to divine what is best for the future of Klal Yisroel resists even well-meaning daas baalei batim” like Kalaiv and Yehushua - the minority group which went against their “Dass Torah”.
The Zohar Hakodash writes, that; although they were all great Tsadikim, nevertheless they misperceived because of their negios (bias), since they knew that once they would cross over into Erets Yisroel (the Markey Bill would pass) they (the Agudath) would lose whatever leadership positions they had.
The answer to the second question; what was Yosef “picketing and promoting” with his message to them by returning their money into their sacks? Yosef was conveying a very powerful message; that although his brothers had already recognized that the tide had begun turning against them; nevertheless, they would retain their misperception Yatser Haras for centuries and generations to come. The Posuk in Parshas Mikaits 42:35 is translated and explained in Kabala as follows; and it was as they were emptying their bags - they were beginning to empty their sins , behold each mans kesef – from the loshon kisufin; his yearnings to do evil, were still very much tied to his sack – tied to himself, (they could not shake-off those flawed perceptions), and (through Yosef’s message) they (finally) saw their tied up yearnings (of yatser haras) that existed inside themselves, and Avihem – their genetically inherited ones, which made them very fearful- for what would transpire to them in future generations.
Finally the last question; why the occurrence of the Asara Harugai Malchus when they already made a “Tikun Haovar”? The Rabbeina Bicahya at the end of Parshas Vayichi explains that although they were brave enough to admit some level of wrongdoing, nevertheless, since they didn’t have the full courage to LOUDLY and CLEARLY apologize for their mistakes – they were to come back in a future Gilgul, and finish-off that Tikun Ha’ovar.
והמבין יבין
Yosef-Ha'tsadik
Not so poshut because my accuser Issa is an Arab.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnbc.com/id/31542033
Bernanke's 'Cover Up' Must Be Explained: Rep. Issa
| 25 Jun 2009 | 08:01 AM ET
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke needs to explain whether the Fed kept the Securities and Exchange Commission in the dark about Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch before the central bank is given more power under financial reforms, Rep. Darrell Issa , R-Calif., told CNBC.
"We're simply going where the documents lead us… as we look at reform, we've got to go back to the rule of law and laws have to be written and then obeyed," Issa, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told "Squawk Box."
Bernanke will have to answer the Committee's questions at 10 am New York time Thursday.
Bank of America merged with Merrill Lynch last year after weekend negotiations, in an attempt to save Merrill from collapsing.
The inquiry should have taken place earlier, Issa said, and is all the more necessary as under new rules the Fed may be given additional powers to oversee the financial markets.
"Bernanke's failures are not a great deal in the total picture. Not informing the SEC… literally trying to prevent the SEC from being at the table…that's wrong," he said. "This is, in fact, a cover up, it is a failure to disclose, deliberately, and with emails."
"If they have this authority going into the future, are we right to say the SEC is a lapdog to be told when the Fed wants and not told when it doesn't want? You wouldn't accept that from public companies' CEOs," Issa added.
Asked whether Thursday's hearing was in fact opening the door for more pressure and allegations against Bernanke, who is seen by many in the market as essential for alleviating the financial crisis, Issa said:
"If you need Bernanke, how do you keep him from having a stroke or a heart attack if he's so indispensable?"
Shmarya will probably figure out a way to blame frum Jews and Republicans.
ReplyDeleteMr. Parrott fails to mention that over 25% of Blacks in the United States are either in jail or on parole and their criminal convictions preclude them from getting a job. And how many others are just too lazy to get off their rear ends to get a job?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25unemployment.html
For certain groups, the situation is much bleaker, Mr. Parrott said. He said that the official unemployment data showed that more than 23 percent of all black men in New York City were either unemployed, working less than full time or had become too discouraged about their prospects to look for work.
I am against marijuana use of any kind but Aron Twerski's brother is 100% right in that bungalows are Gan Eden!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ou.org/index.php/jewish_action/article/54473/
By Abraham J. Twerski
The Catskills! About as close to Gan Eden as we can get! Fresh mountain air, no congestion, wide open spaces. We can hardly wait for those summer months.
But during these months, parents must remain vigilant. The danger is two-fold: What a child may do and what may be done to a child. I have heard it all: “My child is a yeshivah boy”; “My daughter is a wonderful frum girl.” The greatest danger is a false sense of security, and our greatest protection is being aware of the dangers.
Don’t delude yourself. A yeshivah boy can be approached by someone saying, “Try this. It gives you a good feeling.” Youngsters do not have mature judgment and may not know about drug abuse. Drugs make them feel good, so why not? No one has ever alerted them to the dangers. They may have their first experience with marijuana; if they like it, they may try it again. This could lead to frequent drug use. Similarly, gambling can produce a thrill. Some parents may view kids gambling as innocent fun. But this kind of “fun” can quickly get out of control, and can cause youngsters to steal.
Of course, problems can occur year-round—but at least there are some deterrents when children are at home in the city. During the school year, children tend to stay in their frum neighborhoods, and most of the time are either with their teachers or parents. Their time is occupied with their studies. In the summer, however, kids are free to roam about, and they may have plenty of unsupervised spare time.
As we witness with alarming frequency, even in the Orthodox community, there are predators who molest children. Some of the predators appear to be fine people—they could even be one’s relatives—whom no one would ever suspect of doing anything wrong. Moreover, children may trust them. But the majority of molestation cases remain hidden. Most children never report these incidents to their parents; they feel guilty about them and are afraid they will be punished. Sometimes the predator threatens the child, making him fearful of divulging what happened.
Last summer, on a Shabbos afternoon in July, a “frum” youngster was caught drunk driving. He crashed into a bungalow and then tried to flee the scene on foot. Some may ask, How can this happen? The fact is, it did happen, and things that we never imagined could and do happen.
Alcohol is available everywhere, even in the finest camps. Sixteen-year-old kids will often ask unsuspecting adults to buy beer for them, claiming their parents asked them to get it for oneg Shabbos or a melaveh malkah meal. Teens foolishly think they can handle two beers and that drinking is “cool.” But even a little alcohol can cause them to act thoughtlessly and recklessly.
Children may develop a tolerant attitude toward alcohol by emulating their parents. It’s one thing to have a lechaim at Kiddush; it’s quite a different matter when a child sees his father having several bourbons at the Shabbos table.
Finally, children in camp should not be given cell phones. Cell phones permit campers to be in contact with people off campgrounds in a manner over which parents have no control. If it is really necessary for your children to get in touch with you, they can use the camp phone.
At all times, though especially in the summer, parents should know where their children are and with whom they are associating.
(IsraelNN.com) The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), in cooperation with IDF and Border Police units, have arrested four Arabs for the July 27, 2006 murder of Dr. Daniel Yaakobi of Yakir. After Yaakobi brought his car to an Arab car garage for repairs, an Arab on site attacked the Jew with a wrench and a stick until he collapsed.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Chaim Kanievsky, considered a top Torah sage of the generation in the hareidi-religious community, issued a Jewish legal decision banning the employment of Arab workers by Jews after an Arab hired as a driver by the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem murdered eight students in March, 2008.
“According to Jewish law, it is completely forbidden to hire Arabs, especially in yeshivas,” Rabbi Kanievsky said. “There is a concern of endangering lives.”
The rabbi explained, “After all, we are at war with them…and are there not Jews that can work and make a living?” Asked later if his words should be publicized, Rabbi Kanievsky said: “Certainly.”
Jewish Labor Hotline
Though a web site listing Jewish labor businesses was closed down by the supreme court after a law-suit from an Arab advocacy group funded by the New Israel Fund (and backed by Shmarya?), a hotline and email account has been set up to provide solutions for those seeking Jewish laborers for work anywhere in Israel.
The hotline, for everything from gardeners, heavy equipment operators, painters, car garages, cement mixers and handymen to catering and restaurants, can be reached at: 1 599 588 588 or by emailing: mokedai@gmail.com . To reach a human hotline operator, dial extension 1, Sunday through Thursday, 8am-1pm.
Dr. Yaakobi was 59 when he was murdered. He was survived by his wife Chani, four children and 12 grandchildren.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/the_lawyer_who_represented_hol.html
ReplyDeleteLawyer Edward Fagan is disbarred in N.J. for misusing Holocaust victims' funds
June 24, 2009 20:02PM
TRENTON -- Only a few years ago, Edward Fagan was a world-renowned lawyer for the underdog, brash and audacious enough to take on Swiss banks and even whole countries to win judgments for Holocaust survivors and victims of South African apartheid.
This week, the Supreme Court announced he was barred from practicing law in New Jersey, completing one of the steepest falls from grace in the state's law community.
Aaron Houston/For The Star-LedgerEdward Fagan contests his disbarment in front of the New Jersey Supreme Court in Trenton today.
The court found Fagan, 56, misappropriated nearly $400,000 of the money he won for the victims he so effectively championed.
The justices agreed with the Disciplinary Review Board that Fagan knowingly misused client and escrow trust funds and was also punished for his "conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation." Fagan was disbarred in New York in December.
"Somebody's life work that goes bad in such a negative way ... that's the sad part," said Jeannette Bernstein, the niece of Estelle Sapir, a Holocaust victim and former client of Fagan's who had "entrusted" him with "everything."
"I think the survivors were badly serviced by him," Bernstein said. "He worked very hard but along the way, he lost us somewhere.
He walked away with millions, and for him to end up doing what he did, is unconscionable."
Fagan said in an e-mail he had no comment on the court's order.
When he appeared before the court last week, Fagan said he "didn't misappropriate a penny of client funds."
Fagan did not deny he had taken money from Gizella Weisshaus, a Holocaust survivor he represented, after putting it in his own personal trust fund. He said he was "entitled" to the money -- more than $80,000 -- she owed him for work he had done.
But Fagan could not produce all of the records showing he had done that work.
"I was a terrible bookkeeper," he told the court, saying the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics had stolen his documents.
Fagan initially worked with large law firms in Manhattan and New Jersey, including the Morristown law firm formerly known as Shanley & Fisher, defending tobacco companies and asbestos producers against personal injury claims. But he got fed up with that and tried to make it big on the other side -- by representing those who had personal injury claims to make.
That led him to work for skiers killed in a fire on a lift in Austria and a 2002 legal action against Swiss banks, claiming their financial dealings had helped extend South Africa's apartheid regime.
He gained international attention by being the first to file suit against Swiss banks for Holocaust survivors. In the class-action case, he and other lawyers eventually got a $1.25 billion settlement for thousands of clients in 1998.
Elan Steinberg, the former executive director of the World Jewish Congress, said when the case began, he was "critical" of lawyers like Fagan, who charged fees for the survivors they represented.
Steinberg, who knew Fagan, described his misappropriation of client funds as a "tragedy twice over" for Holocaust victims.
"There's something also particularly poignant here, in that the effort was trying to achieve justice and this terrible turn of events makes this particularly bitter," Steinberg said.
During the ethics probe, Fagan testified he grew up in a conservative Jewish home in Texas, where the Holocaust was frequently discussed
DETROIT — A Michigan man described as one of the world's most prolific senders of spam e-mail has pleaded guilty to fraud and acknowledged that he sent millions of unsolicited e-mails trying to influence Chinese stock prices.
ReplyDeleteProsecutors say 64-year-old Alan Ralsky of West Bloomfield made $3 million in summer 2005 by using an elaborate spam e-mail system to inflate the prices of Chinese stocks on U.S. exchanges.
He pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in federal court in Detroit. Nine of the 11 people indicted last year in the case have pleaded guilty.
Ralsky faces a possible prison sentence of 3 1/2 years or less under terms of his plea agreement.
U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg says Ralsky was at one time the world's most notorious illegal spammer.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/broadcom-emulex-samueli-2469816-one-county
ReplyDeleteA year ago, when Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom Corp. was accused of securities fraud, the executive chairman of Emulex Corp. e-mailed this reporter: "I feel confident that Henry will be vindicated thru our legal process. He's one of the good guys!!"
One year later, Paul Folino of Emulex e-mailed a different message about Samueli: "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have said what I said."
What changed?
For one thing, Samueli pleaded guilty to one felony count of lying to federal investigators. For another, Irvine-based Broadcom made a hostile takeover bid for Costa Mesa-based Emulex. And the dispute between the two Orange County tech companies has become personal.
For years, Folino and Samueli have been two of Orange County's top philanthropists. They collaborated as donors and fundraisers for Chapman University, U.C. Irvine, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Orange County High School of the Arts, the Orangewood Children's Foundation, the MIND Institute and the New Majority, a group of wealthy Republicans.
Samueli has donated almost $200 million to arts, education, scientific and Jewish charities, including $23.7 million in 2007, the most recent year available. Folino, Orange County's 2006 philanthropist of the year, has personally contributed more than $20 million to local charities, but personally persuaded donors to give more than 10 times that amount.
The battle turned acrimonious in April after Broadcom offered what Emulex considered a low-ball "opportunistic" bid to pay $9.25 cash for each Emulex share.
First, Broadcom sued Emulex in Delaware for adopting a poison pill defense against hostile takeovers. Then Emulex retaliated with a lawsuit in Orange County calling Broadcom "a sin-based business."
Emulex's 66-page complaint is laundry list of allegations previously aired in criminal and civil cases against Samueli, who also owns the Anaheim Ducks hockey team, and Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III, who left the company in 2003. What's new is the focus on Samueli, who has managed to retain his image as a social pillar despite his guilty plea. Among the allegations:
•Samueli is "one of the chief architects of the fraud" at Broadcom that improperly accounted for $2.2 billion in employee stock options.
•Samueli used "threats against others in connection with Broadcom and his personal business" to cover up misconduct.
Samueli declined requests to comment for this story. He is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last June 23 to one felony count of lying to federal investigators about his role issuing options to Broadcom executives.
Under his original plea deal, Samueli agreed to pay $12 million and avoid time in prison. A federal judge tossed out the deal because it could give "the impression that justice is for sale."
http://www.wsaz.com/home/headlines/49050146.html
ReplyDeleteGREENUP COUNTY, Ky. (WSAZ) -- A man accused of stalking children at local pools and videotaping them was arrested Wednesday in Greenup County.
Police charged James Juett with trespassing and disorderly conduct. While he could be released on bond, it comes with certain conditions.
And the condition of that bond is that Juett can't get near swimming pools where children are present. Local pools in eastern Kentucky have been notified.
I'm very upset that UOJ published my home address last year. I'm afraid this Angelo guy who lives not far from me in Staten Island will come over and strangle me!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/16/bernard-madoff-victims-statements
To his victims, Bernard Madoff is a monster, a bastard, a psychopath, a lowlife, a scoundrel and a devil. The sheer force of the fury and frustration levelled at Wall Street's most notorious fraudster has been documented in scores of letters describing wrecked lives, plundered retirement accounts, families in tatters and shattered dreams.
Angelo Viola, 79, from Staten Island, New York, says he is "not the typical media portrayal" of a Madoff victim: "I live in a modest two-bedroom house and I own one car. I was a small business owner and I worked six days a week for most of my life and funded my own IRA [retirement account] in order to retire comfortably. Now I am considered under the poverty level and I do not think I can last another six months in my home."
http://www.forward.com/articles/108466/
ReplyDeleteSexual-abuse survivors who traveled to Albany, N.Y., with high hopes this past spring got a tough lesson in political reality. The state Assembly’s regular session ended on June 22 without any action on a bill that would make it easier for sex-abuse victims to sue their molesters and the institutions that employed them.
“People are playing politics with innocent kids’ lives. I don’t even know what to think anymore,” said Joe Diangelo, a member of Survivors for Justice, a group that formed last year to support Jewish survivors of child sexual abuse. Diangelo was one of several Jewish activists who joined Catholic abuse survivors lobbying New York State legislators this year, only to see their efforts countered by a strong push against the bill from the Catholic Conference and a few ultra-Orthodox Jewish organizations.
“It’s sad, but by no means are we going to stop,” Diangelo said as he protested outside the office of Assemblyman Vito Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat who played the most visible role in blocking the sex-abuse bill in the Assembly.
The bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat, plans to reintroduce the measure when the legislature reconvenes in January 2010. Markey’s bill would extend the statute of limitations for civil and criminal cases of sexual abuse; more controversially, her bill also would create a one-year “window” during which older victims of childhood sexual abuse could sue their molesters and sue any institutions that covered up or enabled the abuse, such as schools, religious institutions or community organizations. Similar “window” legislation in California led to about 1,000 lawsuits, most of them against the Catholic Church.
Markey and her supporters argue that the one-year window is necessary to expose sexual predators who may still be molesting children today. But opponents of the bill — including the Catholic Church, Agudath Israel of America (an ultra-Orthodox umbrella organization) and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg (an influential Satmar community group) — argue that defending against decades-old claims of abuse would prove impossible and too expensive for religious and community groups that would be targeted by lawsuits. They support the idea of a longer statute of limitations going forward, but oppose the retrospective window for lawsuits.
Markey entered this legislative session with high hopes for what she named the Child Victims Act. It had been approved in the Assembly by wide margins for the past three years in a row, only to die in the Republican-controlled Senate. After the 2008 election put Democrats in the majority in the Senate, chances for the Markey bill seemed better than ever. And the current chaos in the Senate was not yet a factor.
Ironically, the likelihood of a vote in the Senate may have made it harder for the bill to gain momentum. Knowing that the Assembly vote on the bill would have real consequences this year, the Catholic Conference stepped up its lobbying efforts against it, and groups such as Agudath Israel went public with their opposition.
ReplyDelete“It was able to sail through earlier because everyone knew that Bruno [former Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno, who retired last year] would block it,” said Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law professor Marci Hamilton, who supported the Markey bill. “They could take a public vote on it, knowing there would be no backlash. This year, the Catholic Conference started to play hardball early on.”
The opposition forced Markey to make some changes: She reworded the bill to include public institutions as well as private ones, and she put a 53-year-old age limit on who could sue over past sexual abuse. With those changes, Markey said she was confident she had enough votes to pass the bill. As late as the week of June 15, she was predicting a vote in the full Assembly within a few days.
Supporters of the Markey bill point to Lopez as the architect of the bill’s downfall. A vociferous opponent of the one-year window legislation, Lopez sponsored a competing bill that would extend the statute of limitations going forward but would not allow lawsuits in old cases. Those lobbying for Markey’s bill heard that Lopez was planning to introduce what’s called a “hostile amendment” on the Assembly floor, basically replacing the Markey bill with his own. With votes from Republicans as well as from Democrats who were wavering on the Markey bill, that tactic might have succeeded. And the prospect of an ugly floor battle was enough to make Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver wary of bringing the bill to a vote in the busy waning days of the session.
Lopez told the Forward he has no intention of introducing a hostile amendment. Instead, Lopez said, he wants to convene a task force of religious leaders, abuse victims, legal experts and others to hammer out a compromise between his proposal and the Markey bill.
Given the rancor toward Lopez that exists among sexual-abuse survivors who lobbied for the Markey bill, such a meeting may be a tough sell. For his part, Lopez dismissed the daily demonstrations that have been occurring outside his district office in Brooklyn.
“That’s one or two people who want to sue, who just want to get money,” Lopez said. “That’s not, to me, a protest.”
Farrah Fawcett Dies of Cancer at 62
ReplyDeleteFarrah Fawcett, an actress, television star and pop-culture
phenomenon whose good looks and signature leonine hairstyle
influenced a generation of women and, beginning with a
celebrated pinup poster, bewitched a generation of men, died
on Thursday in Santa Monica, California, according to Paul
Bloch, her spokesman. She was 62 and had been battling cancer
since late 2006.
Oy me haya lanu!
ReplyDeleteA Philly boy? It's zicher that he did teshuva
ReplyDeleteFiled at 12:59 p.m. ET
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A suburban Philadelphia landlord has admitted setting up spy cameras and secretly recording women tenants for nearly two decades.
Thomas Daley, of Phoenixville, put cameras behind mirrors and in ceiling fans in bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms at five apartment buildings in Norristown.
Prosecutors say it began in 1989 and continued until September 2008. Norristown police were tipped off when a tenant found one of the cameras.
Daley pleaded guilty in Montgomery County on Wednesday to more than 30 counts, including invasion of privacy.
The 46-year-old will be sentenced later. He faces 10 to 151 years in prison.
Defense attorney Tim Woodward says Daley never showed the videos to anyone else and ''is extremely remorseful.''
Filed at 12:59 p.m. ET
ReplyDeleteROME (AP) -- The high-end prostitute at the center of Premier Silvio Berlusconi's starlet scandal has dismissed the premier's claims that he doesn't know her, saying they spent the night together and shared an ''intimate'' breakfast the next morning.
Patrizia D'Addario told the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper that the only way the premier could be confused about her identity was because ''there were so many other young women who looked just like me'' at the parties he threw at his residence.
Prosecutors in the southern city of Bari have questioned D'Addario and other starlets as part of a probe into a local businessman accused of recruiting and paying women to attend parties at the premier's homes.
The businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, has said the women were only reimbursed for their travel expenses and has apologized to Berlusconi for causing scandal.
Berlusconi has said he has never paid for sex, and in an interview with gossip magazine Chi, which he owns, said he didn't remember D'Addario's name or what she looked like.
He granted the interview as he battled a mounting scandal that began when his wife, Veronica Lario -- a former actress who met Berlusconi while starring topless in the play ''The Magnificent Cuckold'' -- cited his selection of showgirls for European Parliament candidates and his attendance at the birthday party of an 18-year-old model in announcing she was divorcing him.
D'Addario was quoted as saying by Repubblica that she attended two parties at Berlusconi's Roman residence, including one at which she said there were some 20 young women, including two known lesbian prostitutes, who flocked around the premier as if they were at a ''harem.''
She said she danced with the premier to Frank Sinatra's ''My Way'' during the party, and that the women dined on smoked beef, pasta with mushrooms, cutlets with potatoes and a yoghurt torte that was ''soft, like grandma's.''
She said she spent that night, Nov. 4, with Berlusconi, when the premier reportedly skipped an appearance at a U.S.-Italy event marking the election of President Barack Obama.
D'Addario has said she recorded her encounter with the premier and has turned the tapes over to Bari prosecutors. Prosecutors have not commented on the claim.
D'Addario denied Berlusconi's claims she was paid to expose him, saying she came forward on her own only because he had reneged on a promise to help her out with a real estate problem she was having.
She says she received euro1,000 ($1,400) from Tarantini for her attendance at an Oct. 15 party, but wasn't paid for the Nov. 4 encounter and instead received the promise Berlusconi would intervene in the land dispute.
D'Addario says after she confided in an acquaintance that she had recorded proof of her encounter with the premier, her house was robbed and Berlusconi snubbed her at a Bari campaign appearance, even though she was a candidate with a local party affiliated with his Freedom People's party.
She said thieves made off with her computer, music CDs, lingerie and designer clothes -- including the Versace dress she wore the night of Nov. 4.
Despite the back-to-back scandals, Berlusconi's conservative forces have emerged victorious from this month's European and administrative elections. But the allegations have tarnished his image abroad and sparked protests at home.
Thousands of women's rights activists and intellectuals have signed an online petition calling on first ladies not to attend the Group of Eight summit in July in the town of L'Aquila to denounce what they say is Berlusconi's sexist behavior in public and private.
Shmarya Rosenberg seconded the motion to boycott Berlusconi citing that he had committed the Cardinal Sin of failing to celebrate Barack Obama's election victory.
LOS ANGELES DIVISION - A godol with knowledge of the situation says the great lover of children - entertainer Michael Jackson has died.
ReplyDeleteNo lawsuits will be accepted at the local Agudah.
Reb Pinny wrote this week, "When people prey on the weak, and we are hesitant to confront and expose them because we don’t want to appear as baalei machlokes, we are enabling evil to flourish. When we accept money and honor from people we know to be corrupt, we are encouraging these people to grow in power and influence. When we permit people we don’t respect to speak in our name and represent us simply because we don’t want to rock the boat, we are strengthening the hand of individuals who are incompetent to lead. When we permit others to publicly humiliate good people who have attempted to improve the public welfare, we are contributing to the moral pollution of our world.
ReplyDeleteAbused people cannot fight alone. Victims cannot be expected to have the moral stamina to fight off those who harmed them. By doing nothing to hold the guilty to account, we are as guilty as the perpetrators. The only way evil can flourish is if people of good will remain silent, either out of fear or self-interest".
It is time to publicly praise all those who put their names and reputations on the line for abuse victims. They include, Mark Mayer Appel, Mrs. Pearl Engelman, Rabbi Mordechai Finkel, Dr. Asher Lipner, Elliot Pasik Esq., Survivors for Justice, and Rabbi UOJ. These fearless leaders saw the dramatic effects of abuse, and the Chillul Hashem of strengthening the perpetrators. They chose to protect Hashem's honor and protested.
May Hashem bless and protect them, and grant them all the brachos He can offer. May all of you, go from strength to strength.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The country's smallest state has the longest official name: ''State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.''
ReplyDeleteNow, a push to drop ''Providence Plantations'' from that name has advanced farther than ever before. It's an encouraging sign for those who believe it conjures up images of slavery, while opponents argue it's an unnecessary rewriting of history that ignores Rhode Island's tradition of religious liberty and tolerance.
Although ''plantations'' can have different meanings, it carries a significant one to Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Providence, an African-American who sponsored the bill.
''Slavery comes right off the bat,'' Almeida said Wednesday. ''Rhode Island was known as one of the 13 colonies that was, in fact, involved in slavery.''
To Rabbi yosef hatzadik, please let the oilem know where you will be giving your shabbos shuva drusha, WOW!
ReplyDeleteLVF - I would be honored if you took the time out to read and comment on my first letter to the Agudath at http://bar-kamtsa.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteJWB says:
ReplyDeleteRabbi Jacob Max, convicted sexual predator and Ner Israel Rabbinical College graduate, joins the growing list of Ner Israel's shames:
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/AbusesNerIsrael.html
The Case of the Students of Ner Israel Yeshiva in the 1950's
The Case of a List of Abuses at Ner Israel (Toronto, Canada)
Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks
Case of Rabbi Moshe Eisemann (AKA: Moshe Eiseman) - Mashgiach Ruchni Ner Israel Rabbinical College
Case of Rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau
Case of Rabbi Benyamin Fleischman
Case of Rabbi Solomon Hafner
Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum
Case of Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler
Case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler
Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg
see: http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/article/public_role_for_rabbi_jacob_a._max_still_unknown/
June 26, 2009
Public Role For Rabbi Jacob A. Max Still Unknown
In the wake of his recent conviction, Rabbi Jacob Max’s pastoral services and practices remain in limbo.
Alan H. Feiler
Phil Jacobs
Managing Editor
Executive Editor
It has been more than two months since Rabbi Jacob Aaron Max was convicted in Baltimore County District Court of sexual offense in the fourth degree and second-degree assault for the molestation of a former Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home employee last December.
But the rabbi’s role, stature and legacy in the local Jewish community, after more than a half-century in the public eye, remain a question mark and a nagging concern.
An Upper Park Heights resident and Ner Israel Rabbinical College graduate, Rabbi Max, 85, is the rabbi emeritus of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Hebrew Congregation, also known as Liberty Jewish Center. Even though he pleaded not guilty at his district court trial April 13, the rabbi decided last month not to appeal Judge Nancy Purpura’s conviction of one year’s sentence of suspended incarceration and unsupervised probation.
Rabbi Max, who did not return a phone call earlier this week from the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES, has retired from conducting funeral services, according to sources. In addition, the day before a spring meeting of the Baltimore Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Max sent a letter of resignation to the group, according to Rabbi Michael Meyerstein, executive director of the organization.
The board was slated to discuss and vote on the expulsion of Rabbi Max from the organization, to which he belonged for decades, because of his conviction.
...
http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/kashrut-wine-and-music
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love this hypocrisy?
What about Le Marais?
I was planning on supporting Vito Lopez at the protest by shouting through my car window, but I got stuck in traffic on the way.
ReplyDeleteThat scoundrel UOJ must have arranged the jack knifed tractor trailer at the beginning of the BQE to keep out all us Boro Park Agudah fressers.
The death of pedophile Michael Jackson has shocked the NY Times and let a publicity hound rabbi to point out that Jackson gave him a dog (in exchange for access to the rabbi's children, it seems) in his JPost.com article.
ReplyDeleteWhat we see in this case that celebrities get a pass. They can endanger and even molest our children, but they are special people, deserving of special treatment.
This is not very different from how the orthodox community treats rabbis and rebbes and teachers who molest our children. They are held up on a pedestal. They are special, they deserve to be protected, understood and let off with easy sentences if they are caught.
We need to reject this idolization of human beings and live lives completely dedicated to halacha and ethics if we are to survive as truly religious Jews.
Orthodox Jews are behind this. They convinced UOJ to kick Ronnie Schreiber off the blog which is what precipitated the decline of the auto industry, hence putting Black people out of work.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/magazine/28detroit-t.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
G.M., Detroit and the Fall of the Black Middle Class
It's revolting that you could not watch any TV News network today (they're all Liberal except Fox) without being bombarded for hours about some pedophile who was ashamed to be Black. It crowded out all the other news.
ReplyDeleteDid Shmuely Boteach take some time out to be maspid his old chaver Michael Jackson or is he still too busy flirting on TV shows with high priced zonas and porn stars?
"Standing with The Gedolim," Vito Lopez, and the Unanimous Front of Daas Torah
ReplyDeleteAsher Lipner, Ph.d.
Rabbi Zweibel has said that Agudah favors a bill more along the lines of the bill introduced by Assemblyman Vito Lopez and strongly backed by the Catholic Conference. Unlike Rabbi Horowitz, the Agudah had no problem with the bill "going after" the molesters themselves and adding years to the statute of limitations. They did not mention any of Rabbi Horowitz's objections about the bill not doing enough to protect childrenor for such revisions other than stopping the "window" aspect of the bill, that would threaten the "lifeblood of our community", by allowing old lawsuits against yeshivas and shuls and camps that knowingly and intentionally allowed their staff to molest children.
In fact far from calling on Ms. Markey to adapt her legilsation to do more to protect children, for the most part the Agudah has been against every aspect of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children's position paper that lobbies strongly for laws that would bring yeshivas and non-public schools under the same legislative mandates as public schools to protect children. One example is the Agudah's public stance, united with the Catholic Church, (opposing every other religious denomination from protestants to every Jewish group including the OU), to stop the mandating of clergy to report child abuse.
In general, the Agudah always attempts to show a united monolithic "Daas Torha" front on this issue as with all issues, whether it is about music concerts or about attending Washington rallies in support of the people of Israel, even though our Mesorah is based on Machlokes Lsheym Shamayim ever since Shmaya V'Avtalyon. Rabbi Zweibel said repeatedly during his radio interviews on Zev Brenner and Dov Hikind that he spoke for a unanimous decision of the Moetzes and the Vaad Roshei Yeshivah. Unanimous???
While the public silence of the Rabbanim on the Moetzes is deafening (not a criticism, just a fact, site editor), those who have spoken to or heard from individuals know that there are actually many different shitas.
For example, Reb Ahron Feldman, Shli"ta, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel, and member of both the Moetzes and the Vaad Roshei Yeshivah, recently told me that nobody is allowed to ever go to the police about an alleged child molester because A) rabbis do better investigations than police and B) a jew might go to jail, chas v'shalom. He did make exception for a professional who is a mandated reporter who could lose his or her license since then it is a matter of parnassah.
Reb Matisyahu Salomon, Shli"ta has convened many a beis din in Lakewood in an attempt to confront the problem of child sexual abuse. Everyone wishes the Mashgiach well in his efforts, but the results, from what I hear and from the cases I have been involved with, such as that of the bochur in Lakewood who was a survivor of abuse who was niftar from an overdose on drugs R"L, have been far from successful in stopping abuse without involving law enforcement.
Reb Shmuel Kaminetsky, Shl"ta has recently told more than one person who knew of a child molester NOT to go to beis din, but rather to go directly to the police. The actual quote I heard second hand was "Beis Din a hin Beis din a her. Call the police." This would appear to break new ground, in beginning to have our community comply with the psak of the Gedolim like Rav Elyashiv, Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Yibadel, and others who have written tshuvas paskening that the authorities must be notified.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Horowitz, Shli"ta, is the first Charedi Rov to publicly encourage and applaud a victim for going to the police, and he has been joined, apparently by the Vaad Harrabanim of Queens. The Vaad Harrabanim of Baltimore had written a public statement three years ago acknowledging that police need to be involved, and that rabbanim have to facilitate this, but I am not aware of any cases where they have actually followed their own stated position. Rabbi Feldman did not sign the Vaad's letter, (although other members of his Yeshiva's hanhala did) and he told my friend that he, Rabbi Feldman, did not agree with many aspects of the proclamation and was not bound by its opinions. (I happen to follow the Baltimore community's response to sexual abuse very, very carefully, as I have been personally involved in dealing with a high profile case of abuse that has not yet been fully addressed by the community.)
Another example of Machlokes regarding child abuse, is in regards to the permissibility of sending teens at risk to "boot camp" type schools, where abuse has been documented to occur. Reb Ahron Shechter, Shl"ta has publicly backed the parents of a Flatbush boy who forced him into such a school, while Reb Shmuel signed a public service anouncement stating that parents should not ever do this.
The Novominsker Rebbe, Shli"ta, addressing the issue of abuse publicly for the first time at the Agudah Annual dinner, calling on the community to make a "Tikkun Haavar" and to do more to protect children, did not officially endorse or condemn Markey 1.0, 2.0 or any other legislation.
Reb Dovid Feinstien, Shli"ta, has been extremely quiet on this issue and it is hard to come by evidence of his personla opinion, although I do plan on discussing this with him, and will report back, Bli Neder. The only statement I have heard so far is that when asked by friends of mine to issue a Koly Koreh telling people not to send their kids to a yeshivah that has been publicly shown to cover up for molesters, he replied that parents would have to be crazy to send their kids their but was unwilling to issue the Koyl Koreh. I have no idea what the Rosh Yeshiva holds about Markey or about going to the police.
Dr. Twerski already mentioned above a recent radio commercial in which Gershon Silver quotes his grandfather Rabbi Eliezer Silver, Z'TL, as having said explicitly that victims of abuse should go to the police and that abusers should be put into Cherem.
ReplyDeleteWith all of this diverse spectrum of opinions, and a dearth of published statements from the Gedolim, (in America at least)it is difficult to understand Rabbi Horowitz's claim to "stand with THE gedolim" against Markey. It is also hard to understand Rabbi Zweibel's claim that Aguda's position was backed unanimously by its Moetzes. He has called attention often to its' "not opposing" extending the SOL's for "going after" molesters civilly and criminally, which clearly implies that Agudah is ok with utilizing law enforcement and even strengthening its power. But Rabbi Feldman has told me and others that he opposes ever using law enforcement. And the Lakewood Beis Din (as well as other Batei Din praised by Rabbi Zweibel on the radio) have clearly avoided allowing, yet alone encouraging, victims to go to the police, as is indicated by the fact that while Agudah, the Vaad of Baltimore, and even the Yated Neeman have all acknowledged that "a significant number of Orthodox children have been sexually abused," the only known case where a Rov encouraged a victim publicly to go to the police has been the recent case described on this site.
To sum up, I have to agree with the last two posts that until further clarification, there is clearly not one view of the Gedolim that we must side with or against.
The Nation --
ReplyDeleteMichael Jackson, the King of Pop, is dead of a heart attack at the age of 50. In the next few days we will be treated to endless eulogies mining the rich archive of his music, dance, videos, performances and especially his purported habits, hobbies, misdemeanors and alleged crimes. After all, what writer could resist mentioning the various critters and tchotchkes he collected: the hyperbaric, youth-preserving oxygen chamber, the Elephant Man's bones, his pet chimp Bubbles, the Beatles catalog, Neverland Ranch, Macaulay Caulkin, Elizabeth Taylor, his many noses, skin pigments and hairstyles, his one bright white glove. I certainly can't.
These mutations will inevitably be placed in the tragic narrative of his decline. We will be asked to remember Jackson in his prime--as the smiling, dancing, "P.Y.T." black child star who outshone his less talented siblings in the Jackson Five or as the pop-and-dance virtuoso who transcended Motown by bringing us "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billy Jean." Forget the eccentricities and footnote the accusations of child abuse and molestation (he was never found guilty). Those are but sad stains on the larger spangled fabric of his life and career.
Well, I am here to say: fuck that shit. Without his extravagant eccentricities and ambiguous, obsessive relationships to race, gender, mortality and childhood (and children)--indeed without the conspicuously tenuous link he had to the category of the human itself--Michael Jackson would have been a B-list has-been. Most likely last seen on the latest episode of Celebrity Apprentice, his obit would have followed Farrah Fawcett's. In short, he'd be John Oates.
Our fascination with Whack-o Jack-o has never been only, or even primarily, with his prodigious skills. It was with the way he personified our culture's most central ambitions to whiteness, immortality, wealth, real estate and fame. Lodged somewhere between the superhuman and the alien, aspiration and disgust, Jackson was a grotesque reflection of our collective desires.
As Margo Jefferson noted in her perceptive book On Michael Jackson, the best reference point for the "Man in the Mirror" is P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth. Like the Chinamen and Arabs who peopled Barnum's circus, Jackson came to embody the space between "Black or White." Like Barnum's pygmies, giants, bearded ladies and albinos, Jackson mesmerized us with his recombinant body, the weird scale and mix of his anatomy. His animal menagerie helped too.
Like those with too many or too few body parts, Jackson was a human freak, to be pitied, sure, but also to be mimicked, always to be looked at and, in some way, to be wanted. He was a freak.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/thegodblog/item/shmuley_boteach_jacksons_death_an_american_tragedy_20090625/
ReplyDeleteHey Boteach you lowlife, are you choking back tears for Wacko Jacko?
Is Joyce David the sister of R' Hillel David? She was part of Mutterperl's legal defense team.
ReplyDeletehttp://joycedavid.com/bridge-shoot.htm
Read this profile of her. She makes the lawyers for Kolko and Pinter look tame by comparison.
http://joycedavid.com/in_the_news.htm
And here are all the killers and rapists she has defended.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina acknowledged Thursday that he visited his mistress in Argentina on a taxpayer-financed trade mission to South America early last summer, an admission adding another layer to a scandal that produced increasing calls for his resignation.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/nyregion/26nypd.html
ReplyDeleteJune 26, 2009
Police Commissioner Plans to Put More Minority Officers in Top Posts
By AL BAKER
After a white officer fatally shot an off-duty black officer in Harlem in May, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly wrote to the governor vowing to increase the number of minority officers in the department’s top tier.
On Friday, Mr. Kelly aims to follow through by tapping several minority commanders for coveted positions within the department at a promotion ceremony at 1 Police Plaza.
While some have praised Mr. Kelly as a fair-minded leader of a hierarchical organization, others have cited a need for more diversity in the upper ranks. For his part, Mr. Kelly’s new round of promotions hews closely to a record — as he described it in his letter to Mr. Paterson — showing that minority officers are generally promoted more quickly than white officers of the same rank.
Nestle also ran a plant in Germany during the war that was run by Yiddishe slave labor. Nestle initially refused to hand over their documents in the 1990s that would determine how they should compensate survivors and only gave in after various governments threatened the company with sanctions.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/26/business/AP-US-Nestle-Recall.html
Filed at 1:43 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Inspection reports from a Nestle USA cookie dough factory released Friday show the company refused several times to provide Food and Drug Administration inspectors with complaint logs, pest-control records and other information.
The records, which date back to 2004, were made public after Nestle's Toll House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough was discovered to be the likely culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to the latest estimates from the federal Centers for Disease Control. The CDC is investigating the outbreak along with the FDA.
According to the reports released by the FDA, the company refused to allow FDA investigators access to certain documents in at least 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
The FDA conducted two inspections in 2007. The first in February detailed six minor issues, including tools and equipment being stored in a handwashing sink in the Toll House preparation area, a water leak from the same sink and a hole in a steam line.
In November, the FDA returned to the facility to check to see if those issues had been corrected. During that inspection, the company refused to allow inspectors to photograph anything and also did not allow any review of production records or complaint files as per the company's policy.
In 2006, Nestle again did not allow the FDA inspector to use a camera and did not allow access to a complaint log, pest control records or information on an environmental testing program.
During that inspection, the FDA found three live ''ant-like'' insects on a ledge along a wall by a powdered sugar station in the cookie dough manufacturing area, dirty stainless steel equipment in a bin that was identified as clean and water dripping from an overhead line. The company told the FDA inspector it had called its extermination company and said the other issues would be corrected immediately.
Another one of my heroes.
ReplyDeleteAt dawn on Hollywood Boulevard, me and many fans gathered at Michael Jackson's star on the Walk of Fame to honor the former child prodigy who became one of the best-selling pop artists of all time before descending into a strange and reclusive lifestyle amid tawdry tales and accusations of child molestation.
"His music was the soundtrack of my childhood," said Avi Shafran as he knelt to light a white votive candle amid a growing pile of flowers and posters. "I didn't realize what a loss it was until he was gone.".
Jackson's passing was front-page news around the world as airwaves filled with his greatest hits from "Thriller" to "Billie Jean" and social networking sites were bombarded with messages and tributes from fans and musicians..
"It's so sad and shocking," said the Novominsker Rebbe. "I feel privileged to have had him perform at the Agudah conventions. He was a massively talented boy man with a gentle soul, we must not consider his past child molestation history. His niggunim will be remembered forever."
It wasn't Nestle's fault.
ReplyDeleteMargo told me he has information that there was a break in on Shabbos where ganovim stole the documents. They couldn't hand them over to the FDA because they didn't have them.
If Nestle won't even cooperate with Federal investigators then why should we think they would cooperate with the OU? The OU by the way has a history of caving in and not rocking the boat when their clients don't cooperate like when Solomon's broke the rules. (Speaking of Solomon's, there's a huge scandal that just hit the papers)
ReplyDeleteNestle owns several other brands including Poland Spring and Gerber baby foods.
http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/34333/
ReplyDeleteTons of meat rotted for months in Bridgewater
By: Liz Bos, The Daily Republic
BRIDGEWATER — Meat may have been rotting in an abandoned Bridgewater meat plant for the past six months, according to authorities who cleaned up the stinking, maggot-infested mess this week.
Bridgewater Quality Meats’ power was shut off in December 2008, authorities said. Tuesday, after residents had recently begun noticing a smell emanating from the facility, authorities discovered and removed 44 tons of meat. Wednesday, the cleanup was still ongoing.
“It was absolute disbelief that somebody would let that much meat go bad,” McCook County Emergency Manager Brad Stiefvater said. “That’s high dol- lars. There’s a lot of value there. I don’t understand it.”
The meat, which was apparently left behind by owner Ilan Parente after he relocated his business to Minnesota, sat in coolers at the plant until Bridgewater locals began noticing a rotting smell two weeks ago. Bridgewater City Councilman Bob Anderson said that initial attempts to contact Parente were unsuccessful until the city’s attorney got involved. Parente then sent two employees to clean up the mess, but after it became clear progress wasn’t being made, the city stepped in.
“It’s too bad (the meat) had to go to waste when there’s so many people that could have used it,” Anderson said.
People in Bridgewater don’t know why Parente abandoned the meat, but some suspect he might have done it intentionally as payback for past run-ins with authorities.
“I couldn’t believe anybody would deliberately leave a mess like that,” said Ed Meyer, a volunteer on the cleanup crew. “So here I am, just as a city volunteer, no pay, and the owner is sitting where, in his air-conditioned office?”
According to Stiefvater, Bridgewater Quality Meats closed early last year. It was reported that Parente moved his business to a facility in Dawson, Minn. Parente had several run-ins with authorities prior to that, including in 2004 when his company was sued by the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources for environmental violations.
Stiefvater does not yet know what the total cost for the cleanup will be but said it has involved “quite a few community resources.”
“No doubt we will try to recoup that from the owner,” Stiefvater said.
The cleanup crew, comprised of 20 volunteers from Bridgewater, including the mayor and several city council members, was on the job from noon Tuesday to midnight Wednesday morning. Some additional work was required Wednesday to bleach and wash out the coolers where the meat was kept, and to dispose of trash from the building, which Stiefvater estimated would take most of the day.
Stiefvater said the volunteers had to wear rebreathers to protect them against gas and bacteria from the rotting meat. There was also a danger that Freon leaks in the building might combine with bleach in the disinfection solution to produce dangerous fumes.
Locals don’t know how long the meat was in the building — only that the power was shut off in December, and that any meat in the building since then has probably been rotting.
“Nobody in that town had any idea there was that much meat in there,” Stiefvater said.
Bridgewater Mayor Marty Barattini said he is not sure if the building will be usable after the cleanup, due to the extent of the damage and contamination. The city plans to thoroughly disinfect the inside and outside of the building and evaluate the property once the cleanup is finished. Barattini also said that he is very appreciative of all the effort from community members helping with the cleanup.
“The thing I think about the most is with the amount of meat that was left in that building, why that meat was left to rot as opposed to taken to the Banquet or one of the missions to feed the poor,” Barattini said. “I believe there was enough meat in that building to feed the homeless of Sioux Falls for a year.
http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=86392
ReplyDeleteA small South Dakota town is dealing with a big, smelly mess.
The power company cut off electricity to an abandoned packing plant in Bridgewater in December, not knowing that tens of thousands of pounds of meat were still in the freezers.
If the wind blows just right, you can still get a whiff of what's frustrating Bridgewater residents.
"You can't open your windows and not have the stench come into your house," resident Kim Longe said.
People started noticing the smell a couple weeks ago. It took some time for officials to confirm the stink was seeping out of the Bridgewater Quality Meat packing plant. And cleanup started yesterday.
The 70,000 pounds of unrefrigerated buffalo meat was so spoiled that it liquefied and then literally burst out of its packaging.
"It's as bad as you might imagine," McCook County Emergency Manager Brad Stiefvater said.
At its strongest, some say the town when you stepped outside it smelled like something died, while others say it was exactly what they suspected..
And as temperatures soared well into the 90's only grilled the odor.
"Depending on wind and weather conditions, the whole town could actually stink at times," Stiefvater said.
McCook County officials hope they can plug up the smell by the end of the day so residents can stop plugging their noses.
"We're going in and basically bleaching down the coolers and washing them out to kill the bacteria and get this stench abated," Stiefvater said.
Until then, the town will continue to face a stinky situation.
Bridgewater's mayor says the city is trying to get ahold of the plant owner to take responsibility for the mess. The plant's been abandoned for more than a year.
Vhy didn't dat putz Ilan Parente fin Solomon's tell me about da meat? I could have bought it five cents on da dollar to feed to da bucherim.
ReplyDeleteShmarya put on a show of false menchlichkeit last year and lectured me that I should refer to Belsky as Rabbi Belsky even though he is corrupt.
ReplyDeleteToday, he arrogantly tried to belittle the gadol hador by calling him "Elyashev".
I was able to sneak past the filter he uses to block me to point out his hypocrisy but since he doesn't want his readers to see it, he immediately erased my post as soon as he logged in again.
DETROIT (AP) -- City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of powerful and popular Democratic congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for supporting a sludge contract with a Houston company.
ReplyDeleteConyers, a political unknown who won her council seat in 2005 largely on her husband's name, admitted in federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery, responding quietly to questions from Judge Avern Cohn.
She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she's sentenced.
The fiery 44-year-old Conyers left court without commenting.
Her lawyer, Steve Fishman, said he will ask Cohn to impose a sentence that does not include prison time.
Rep. John Conyers, the 80-year-old chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who prosecutors said knew nothing of the bribery, declined to answer a reporter's questions as he walked to the House floor for a vote Friday morning. ''I have no comment whatever,'' he said.
Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI office, said Conyers' guilty plea should signal others who may have been involved in wrongdoing who have not been named that the noose is closing on them.
''The message I want to send is, ''We're coming after you.''
Monica Conyers' plea is the latest blow to a city beset by political scandal in recent years. Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a top aide were jailed after admitting to lying under oath about their romantic involvement during a whistle-blowers' trial.
And a recent audit of the city's beleaguered public school system has uncovered theft and other wrongdoing by employees.
Like the brash and arrogant Kilpatrick, Monica Conyers took a defiant stance as the Synagro bribery accusations swirled around her, the council and city. She refused to address the accusations in recent weeks, and was often contentious with colleagues and the media.
Monica Conyers told The Associated Press in September that she would like others to see her as ''someone who cares about the city, someone who wants to make sure all the citizens of Detroit have what they need to live'' productive lives.
But it was another side of Conyers that gained the most attention.
She has called reporters seeking interviews ''evil'' and compared the local media to ''paparazzi.''
Last summer, Conyers was involved in a disturbance at a Denver hotel while attending the Democratic National Convention with her husband. She also has been accused of threatening to shoot a mayoral staffer, and she publicly called Cockrel ''Shrek.''
I know that Neuhoff likes going Upstate, but Buffalo is all the way up there.
ReplyDeleteNY Daily News Inquiring Photographer asks this question for the children with no Voice:
ReplyDeleteWho the f--k was Pinny Lip-shits referring to in his Page-3 Op-ED column this past week?
Hey Pinny, if you've decided to come out in support for the sexually molested children and grieving families, rise up from your Ground hog hole and write clearly and directly: Name names and show your direct support for Messrs. UOJ, Pasik, Lesher, et al. that are fighting the good fight.
Sitting on the fence will only give you hemmorhoids.
Pinny Lipschutz a.k.a. Avi Yishai is our biggest customer.
ReplyDeleteYenta, what do you expect?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think Neuhoff was referring to Buffalo, the animal, the rov in Buffalo, NY is mishpocho with Leib Pinter.
Just curious, what was it you didn't like about my last comment?
ReplyDeleteI've been globetrotting (again); on the run, I accidentally deleted a few of pages of comments and e-mails before I read them. (perhaps 70-90)
ReplyDeleteIf anyone cares to resend them, please do.
UOJ
I highly reccommend the book "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" by Rabbi Shmuel Waldman.
ReplyDeleteA must read!!!
For once I agree with comment written here.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Shmuel Waldman is my son in law.
Gil Student is upset at Shmuel Waldman for writing in the book that contemporary bible critics no longer agree with earlier bible critics. Gilligan says that no one should make false claims to be mekarev.
ReplyDeleteSholom Rubashkin Jr (son of Moishe) is reporting to prison 3 weeks later than originally scheduled.
ReplyDeleteThe government agreed to the delay because his newborn infant is suffering from reflux disease and he is busy taking the baby to doctors every day.
Sicko achzar Shmarya is angry that the government agreed to the 3 week delay. Does Shmarya have any humanity left in him that he doesn't reserve for blacks and homosexuals?
The new credit card reform law is full of good consumer protections, but here’s one you might not know about: It’s going to require companies like FreeCreditReport.com (owned by credit bureau Experian) to clearly state that their services aren’t actually free.
ReplyDeleteWho doesn’t love those FreeCreditReport.com commercials? You know, the ones featuring the lovable 20-something singing about his credit troubles in a variety of musical genres? In the first, he’s dressed in pirate gear and crooning about how he has to work in a seafood restaurant because his identity was stolen (it works best if you don’t think too hard about it). My favorite jingle is the one that has him singing about how he married his dream girl, only to find out that her credit was bad, too. You can see all the commercials here:
The only problem, of course, is that FreeCreditReport.com is not really free. In order to get your report through the site, you must sign up for a trial membership in the site’s “Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring” program. If you don’t cancel your membership within a 7-day trial period, you’re billed $14.95 a month. And plenty of people have fallen for the site’s promise without realizing they were going to be billed. The Better Business Bureau has received 9,865 complaints about the site in the last 36 months, with some complainants saying that they kept being billed even after canceling membership.
But now, thanks to the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, companies touting free credit report services must disclose in their ads that consumers are entitled by law to receive a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus, and that the official web site to obtain them is AnnualCreditReport.com. And radio and TV ads must clearly state, in both the audio and the video, “This is not the free credit report provided for by federal law.”
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama White House left open the possibility Sunday that the president would break a campaign promise and raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 to support his health care overhaul agenda.
ReplyDelete"Obama White House"
ReplyDeleteIsn't that an oxymoron?
Miriam Siegman is a shakroness!
ReplyDeleteJune 29 (Bloomberg) -- Victims of Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme branded him at his sentencing hearing as “beast” who had ruined their lives, forcing one to scavenge for food in Dumpsters.
Madoff “discarded me like road kill,” said Mirian Siegman, of Stamford, Connecticut, today at the hearing in Manhattan. She now relies on food stamps, collecting recyclable bottles and digging through Dumpsters.
Nine victims told their stories to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who will sentence Madoff today. Madoff’s lawyer has recommended a sentence of 12 years, while prosecutors urge 150. The federal probation service recommended 50 years, twice the penalty for the convicted chief executives of Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc
http://www.nytimes.com/
ReplyDeleteA federal judge sentenced Bernard L. Madoff to 150 years in prison on Monday for operating a huge Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of people, calling his crimes “extraordinarily evil.”
In pronouncing the sentence — the maximum he could have handed down — Judge Denny Chin turned aside Mr. Madoff’s own assertions of remorse and rejected the suggestion from Mr. Madoff’s lawyers that there was a sense of “mob vengeance” surrounding calls for a long prison term.
“Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering,” the judge said. “It spanned more than 20 years.”
After Mr. Madoff’s victims finished speaking, his lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, stood up and said the government’s request for a 150-year sentence bordered on absurd. He called Mr. Madoff a “deeply flawed individual,” but a human being nonetheless.
ReplyDelete“Vengeance is not the goal of punishment,” Mr. Sorkin said.
---------------
A couple of years ago, a bahayma Agudah fresser landlord in Flatbush was harassing and stealing from his giyores tenant who today as a result has serious problems with emunah. As a means of defending herself and to prevent the bahayma from harming others, she got a psak from a level-headed rov that she may report the landlord for various illegal activities he was engaged in. The landlord's rov tried to talk her out of reporting him to authorities - or even going to beis din - saying "the point is not about teaching him a lesson."
Justices Rule for White Firefighters in Bias Case
ReplyDeleteBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 47 minutes ago
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that white firefighters were unfairly denied promotions, reversing a decision that Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
Now under criminal investigation in the Jimmy Savile pedophilia scandal is Lord Christopher Patten, the former last British Governor of Hong Kong and the current head of the BBC Trust. When BBC Director-General George Entwistle was forced to resign recently, he received a huge payout suspected to be hush money, not unlike the sums that Margulies has been paying Kolko.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/24/nyregion/the-city-vote-precinct-by-precinct.html
ReplyDeleteShmarya is going to town on this NY Times report that Orthodox Jewish precincts in Brooklyn & Queens voted overwhelmingly for Mitt Romney. That according to Shmarya is the root of all evil since they passed over his Black false messiah Obama to vote for a rich White guy. Shmarya presents the graph as if Orthodox Jews are the only party "guilty" of this "Cardinal sin" when it also clearly shows that Irish & Italian neighborhoods in all 4 outer boroughs voted for Romney as well.
Why is the Agudah & Lipschutz funneling most of Klal Yisroel's money to law-breaker Sholom Rubashkin when yeshivos are failing, 100s of mishpochos lost their homes & even all their clothing to Hurricane Sandy and Yankel Ostreicher's life is in danger from corrupt Bolivians?
ReplyDeleteSholom Rubashkin's nephew also named Sholom has just been re-jailed for violating probation in a huge fraud & arson case after he refused to do 250 hours of community service. "Pidyon shvuyim"?
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Highranking+Bolivian+official+arrested+sale+jailed+Americans/7612172/story.html
The latest is here on Ostreicher who has been in a very dangerous jail for 18 months without even being charged with anything. This is not the kind of Country Club that Sholom Rubashkin & Leib Pinter are sitting around in Otisville fressing braised brisket.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/health/after-dozens-of-deaths-inquiry-into-bed-rails.html
ReplyDeleteDefective designs of bed rails for elderly or mentally ill patients in nursing homes is causing thousands of injuries and deaths every year. But nothing has been done about it because the government is under tremendous pressure from the manufacturers & nursing home operators to leave them alone while the nebich cases keep getting hospitalized or die.
The achzoriyusdik secular hashkofo of the Obama Administration agav, which was formulated by the Chiloni Israeli doctor who is the brother of Rahm Emmanuel, is to let old & mentally ill people die because it will cost the healthcare program too much money to service high-maintenance patients.
And what a "kiddush" Hashem that heimishe nursing home operators are part of this. Like the talmid of Torah Temimah & Lakewood that the NY Times reported fled Far Rockaway and left all the alter mentchen in his nursing home to freeze & go hungry in the dark after the hurricane.
Atlanta (CNN) -- An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been arrested and charged with two counts of child molestation and one count of bestiality, police said.
ReplyDeletePolice arrested Dr. Kimberly Quinlan Lindsey, 44, in DeKalb County, Georgia, on Sunday.
Authorities also charged Lindsey's live-in boyfriend, Thomas Joseph Westerman, 42, with two counts of child molestation.
The two are accused of "immoral and indecent" sexual acts involving a 6-year-old, according to information from DeKalb County Magistrate Court and an arrest warrant.
The bestiality charge says Lindsey "did unlawfully perform or submit to any sexual act with an animal."
The alleged incidents took place between January 1, 2010, and August 22, 2011.
Westerman is out of jail on bail; Lindsey remains in jail with bail set at $20,000, said Lt. Pam Kunz of the DeKalb County Police Department.
Thomas Joseph Westerman, Lindsey's live-in boyfriend, was arrested for counts of child molestation.Lindsey is the deputy director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office at the CDC, according to her biography on the agency's website.
Prior to her current role, Lindsey was the senior health scientist in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response. That office oversees the allocation process for $1.5 billion in terrorism preparedness.
In her 12 years at the CDC, Lindsey has received 12 awards for outstanding performance on projects and programs, according to her bio on Emory University's Biological and Biomedical Sciences website. Lindsey earned her doctorate in immunology and molecular pathogenesis from the university in 1998, a year before she began work at the CDC.
A LinkedIn Web page for a Thomas Westerman lists him as having been a watch officer at the CDC from November 2009 to November 2010 and a resource management specialist since August 2011.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said the agency is aware of the case but cannot comment on personnel issues.
ABC News
ReplyDeleteNov. 27, 2012
A group that claims to rid men of same-sex attractions & turn them straight.
The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of New Jersey, alleges methods used by Jersey City-based Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) constitute fraud under state consumer protection laws.
Arthur Goldberg, JONAH's co-director, and Alan Downing, a "life coach" who provides therapy sessions, were also named in the suit.
The plaintiffs include Michael Ferguson, Benjamin Unger, Sheldon Bruck & Chaim Levin, all of whom used the services of JONAH when they were in their teens or young 20s.
Two of the men's mothers, Jo Bruck & Bella Levin, who paid for therapy sessions that cost up to $10,000 a year, are also plaintiffs.
One plaintiff alleges that therapy sessions that involved a virtual "strip tease" in front of an older male counselor, as well as reliving abuse & homophobia were "humiliating."
They are seeking declaratory, injunctive & monetary relief, as well as court costs.
The plaintiffs have received legal help from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Three of the plaintiffs are ultra orthodox Jewish; Ferguson came from a Mormon background & met Downing at a "Journey Into Manhood" retreat.
JONAH appears to cater to orthodox Jews, but its methods "do not have a strong religious aspect," according to SPLC lawyer Sam Wolfe.
The lawsuit alleges some methods used included: telling boys to beat a pillow, the "effigy of the client's mother," with a tennis racket; encouraging "cuddling" between younger clients & older male counselors; and even instructing attendees to remove their clothing & hold their penis in front of Downing.
Attendees were also subjected to ridicule as "faggots" & "homos" in mock locker room and gym role playing, according to the lawsuit.
In 2008, the cost of an individual therapy session was $100 & for group session, $60. JONAH also "strongly pushed" attending weekend retreats that cost as much as $700, said Wolfe.
Goldberg said he knows nothing about the lawsuit which was filed this morning, and referred ABC News to JONAH's website.
Goldberg admitted he had "no background specifically in counseling."
"I am the administrator," he said. "I used to teach family law."
When asked about instructing boys to take off their clothes, he said, "I know nothing about that."
Goldberg also said he had "no idea" how to reach Downing because he was an "independent contractor."
According to JONAH's mission statement, the nonprofit is "dedicated to educating the Jewish community about social, cultural & emotional factors which lead to same-sex attractions."
"Through psychological & spiritual counseling, peer support, and self-empowerment, JONAH seeks to reunify families, to heal the wounds surrounding homosexuality, and to provide hope," the statement reads.
Goldberg, who runs the business side of the nonprofit, says that "homosexuality is a learned behavior which can be unlearned, and that healing is a lifelong process."
According to the lawsuit, JONAH cites the "scientific" work of Joseph Nicolosi, one of the primary proponents of conversion therapy and Richard Cohen, who was permanently expelled from the American Counseling Association in 2002 for "multiple ethical violations."
Nicolosi's methodology is based on the belief that a weak father-son relationship & a dominating mother contribute to homosexuality. He advocates "rough & tumble games," as well as father-son showers, according to the lawsuit.
Cohen uses a technique called "bioenergetics" that includes having male patients beat a pillow, which represents their mother, as a way of stopping same-sex attraction, according to the lawsuit.
This is what happens when Barack Hussein Osama is President of the United States.
ReplyDeleteThe President tries to convince the CIA Director not to resign after he compromised National Security by engaging in an extra-marital affair and giving his mistress access to classified material.
A 2nd woman named Jill Kelly, who is really an Arab named Khawam who is married to an Irishman, is involved with both CIA Director Petraeus and the top General in the war on terror. Furthermore, she is free to come & go as she pleases at the normally restricted base of operations for US Special Forces in Tampa. The who's who of the US Military & Intelligence communities attend parties at her house, parties which are funded in a scandalous way with a trail of unpaid bills.
The Arab Khawam's twin sister has a relationship with the lawyer for Senator John Kerry and all kinds of military officials do personal favors for her including interceding in a lawsuit she is entangled in.
Barack Hussein Osama was schooled in a radical Muslim madrassa. Could he be a sleeper cell for al Qaeda?
R' Donald Trump has offered to pay $5 million if the President will release his college transcripts where it is suspected that he took courses under Arab professors that bash Jews & Israel. So far there is no interest in the $5 million.
Arthur Goldberg pleaded guilty in 1989 to municipal-bond fraud in connection with a fictitious housing scheme, and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. After his release, he cofounded JONAH with Elaine Silodor Berk, a New Jersey woman who, like Goldberg, has a gay son, and has been associated with groups for parents of gay children.
ReplyDeleteUnger was also given Cohen's signature “touch therapy.” He was sent to a darkened room to be cuddled by another man while gentle music played. "They would tell us if we were man enough, we wouldn't be gay," Unger said. But even though he found it unsettling to be held in a fetal position by a man he didn’t know, Unger felt obliged to take part, since he'd been told the success of the therapy relied on his complete trust in the process.
Perhaps more disturbing was an exercise to sever what Downing said was Unger’s overattachment to his mother. "I just went with it because they said they knew what they're doing,” Unger recalled. “They told me they were professionals and these are the proven methods that they use."
In the exercise, Downing put a pillow on the floor and told Unger to imagine it was his mother and then beat it with a tennis racket. While Downing and the other men in his group cheered him on, Unger beat the pillow so furiously his hands bled. Soon after, Unger cut his mother out of his life. "She's a loving, caring, great mother, and I just stopped talking to her. She would call and say, ‘What did I do wrong?’ and I couldn't explain. I was like a zombie repeating what they were saying: ‘It's my mother, it's my mother, it's my mother. Detach, detach, detach.’"
Reached by phone, Downing hung up when asked to comment on the plaintiffs’ description of his techniques.
I like the way that the Southern Poverty Law Center described it in their press release:
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit describes sessions that involved clients undressing in front of a mirror and even a group session where young men were instructed to remove their clothing and stand naked in a circle with the counselor, Downing, who was also undressed. Another session involved a subject attempting to wrest away two oranges, which were used to represent testicles, from another individual.
“Sadly, there is no accountability for those who practice conversion therapy,” said Michael Ferguson, a conversion therapy survivor and plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Downing and other counselors at JONAH also use techniques that leave clients alienated from their families. These techniques encourage clients to blame their parents for being gay. Clients even participate in violent role play exercises where they beat effigies of their mothers.
“These counselors are skilled at manipulating you into believing just about anything,” said Benjamin Unger, another plaintiff in the case. “During my time with JONAH, they told me constantly that my mom had made me gay. I was so convinced that I refused to have any contact with her for several months, which caused a great deal of damage to our relationship.”
JONAH, formerly known as Jews Offering New Alternatives for Homosexuality, was founded by Goldberg, a former Wall Street executive and attorney. Before founding JONAH, Goldberg was convicted of three counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal government. He was ultimately disbarred from being an attorney.
The NY Times adds that the lawsuit is asking the court to shut down Jonah.
ReplyDeleteIgnore the left-wing slanted reporting that is demonizing all therapy for gays. The problem is that Goldberg is breaking halacha left & right with sexual arousal & masturbation as part of Jonah's regimen. The NY Times is quoting Goldberg as defending the masturbation techniques as therapeutic for those with "body image problems". This is nonsense & completely forbidden in halacha.
There was a group of rabbonim who signed the "Torah declaration" that countered the left wing Avi Weiss types saying that Orthodoxy accepts open gays. The "Torah declaration" signing rabbonim had good intentions but were duped because Goldberg is a loser and a charlatan operating outside of Torah principals. Some rabbonim refused to sign the "Torah declaration" because they had no idea who was behind it. It was even possible they said that it could be a militant gay group looking to attack them.
Teaneck "Jewish Voice & Opinion" newspaper publisher Susan Rosenbluth recently identified herself as the spokeswoman for the mysterious consortium behind the "Torah declaration" and claims the consortium consists of 2 dozen rabbonim & askonim, all of whom continue to refuse to divulge their identities. Remember that Rosenbluth has been behind bogus agendas in the past such as fighting tooth & nail to defend the Tendler Trinity of perverted human garbage. It's possible she is either friends with the Goldbergs or was paid off by him and that there is actually no real consortium.
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Witch of Abish Brodt "Songs" are you referring to?
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