by John O'Futzyutz
When I sat down with these three American priests who are well versed in the English language, I was really taken in by their knowledge of Scripture as it relates to the "in-topic" of today, child molestation by the Catholic clergy. The focus quickly shifted to their "older cousins", the Jews, particularly rabbis, for reasons unknown to them, covered up child sexual abuse in their Hebrew schools, summer camps, and houses of worship.
Now I know these three priests well, they would have no reason to change the subject; they are smart, they grew up in orthodox Catholic homes, and clearly believe the Pope as the infallible messenger of god and the other two parts of god's cosmic makeup, Spirit and Son. The pope would never, for example, apologize for child-abuse by thousands of priests, if he was not really sorry. He is so sorry that he moved the "Lipa Margulies" of the Church, Cardinal Bernard Law, to the Vatican, as one of the pope's right hand people. In matter of fact, my Catholic antennae was pricked by this bold decision, borrowing this phrase with permission from my friend, a Jewish journalist in the Jerusalem Post, Jonathan Rosenblum.
The English speaking priests certainly convinced me that they have no reason at all to go against the pope's unambiguous message; if you are ever in doubt about the sexual proclivities of a priest, or about a Cardinal moving priests around from parish to parish; rather than call the police, send him to Rome, they have a great job for him with a lot of different multi-colored hats and shmattes. If you are dumb enough to get caught, deny that any priest ever molested a child, if pressed really hard by an "Enlightened one", say, "yeah, we found out about one who slipped through our fingers, and no we do not sweep or sell rugs, we are not merchants -- but if another child molester does exist, the police may be called."
So that's that, the Pope Hador speaks, the priests listen, we know all that, right?
Wondering what was going on with the Jews, now that I got the alleged priest problem out of the way, I contacted my fellow Yale schoolmate, Jonathan Rosenblum, who I understand became the drugged mouthpiece for ultra-orthodox Jews, especially in Israel.
Jonathan tells me a very similar kind of strange goings-on in the Ramat Bet Shemesh town, a suburb of Jerusalem. He spoke as well to three rabbis (something the Jews and Catholics have in common the number three as in Trinity, as in upsherin, as in moving on Tuesday - yom shlishi (ki tov twice plus one on yom rishon) three portions of cholent at kiddush, three main dishes at Pesach hotels, three dunks in the mikve) --- in that town, and was assured that these parents who claim to have had their child molested in a Hebrew school, was a bunch of cholent poop. Why would these English speaking rabbis lie? What do they have to gain? They care only about the well-being of their congregants and the Jewish community, just like the English speaking rabbis in the U.S.A. They even remember that they asked people to leave town, they can't be sure why, but probably because they molested someone. They even invited an Ohel employee, Dr. Schulman, to address the community on how to mitigate damages from families whose children were allegedly abused by rabbis in schools.
"In 1996, the Village Voice ["A Child's at Stake," by Adam Fifield and Michael Lesher] reported that an Ohel advisory board member, Susan Schulman, commented that she always deferred to rabbinic advice before making a child-abuse report, although she acknowledged that she 'could be arrested' for doing so." [Emphasis added.] This is what's coming to Ramat Bet Shemesh!
And this quote really tickled my fancy; "It is well known that these accusing parents just hate rabbis and don't really care about their children's welfare at all, and would destroy their own kids and drag their families through the mud just for the sake of making rabbis look bad", according to Rosenblum's sources in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community.
In matter of fact Jonathan said, the Jewish pope, so to speak, the greatest rabbi of the generation (96 years young and even remembers his name without a teleprompter), who is schooled in every single area of humanity, decreed that only if rabbis believe child molestation took place, after many meetings by the local rabbis, and a unanimous decision by all the rabbis and zonas in town, and the child is screened by their handpicked Orthodox therapists, with a degree or not, then if none of these people ever used a cell-phone without a hechsher, or shopped in a store without a kosher certificate on all the women's clothing, or sat on a bus where women and men are not separated by a shower curtain, then one may be permitted to go to a shomer Shabbos police station, where every police person eats Rubashkin glatt kosher meat that is not cooked in a Heinemann Kitchen Aid kosher Yom-Tov oven and whose wives do not wear wigs from India.
Now, Jonathan and I go back a long way; I felt ashamed that I would have to ask him this question, but a good journalist must be thorough.
"Jonathan, and when you met with the alleged molested children and their parents, what exactly did they tell you?"
"Well John", he said, "after taking to the three rabbis, why would I need to talk to the victims and their parents?"
In fact Rosenblum permitted me to use his quote in the Jerusalem Post as the new "gospel" for the Jewish community.....
"The rabbis' preference for working behind the scenes derives not from a desire to sweep problems under the rug, but from a considered philosophy about what is best for victims, their families and the community. The knowledge that incidents will be publicized can keep victims or their parents from coming forward. In addition, publicity can lead to hysteria in which parents become convinced that their children are at great risk in school. (In fact, more abuse takes place within families or involves older children as perpetrators.)"
Now, even me being a "Goy" knows this is the new lying Shafran-Schick-Salomon limerick coming from the Torah Giants of America, certainly expected to make a huge splash to the English and Yiddish speaking members of the Jewish community worldwide. Perhaps it may even wind up in a radio commercial.
Jonathan, even the Goyim are ashamed of you!
O'Futzyutz,
ReplyDeleteIs it true that the Brooklyn Archdiocese is getting Rosenblum on loan as mouthpiece while Bishop DiMarzio is in the hospital?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124468099761804581.html
Defense attorneys say many of the abuse cases that were brought in California and now in Delaware name perpetrators and religious superiors who are dead or retired. The only point, says some attorneys, is to wrench money from the Catholic church. "It's almost impossible to defend the cases," says Mark Chopko, the former counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who says he has been a consultant on more than 1,000 abuse cases.
The Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y., has been an outspoken opponent of the bill in Albany. "Clearly this is aimed at the Catholic Church," he said. "People believe we have deep pockets and are responsible for individuals that might have been representing the Catholic Church." Sexual abuse is a much bigger problem in public schools, he said.
The issue is the subject of debate beyond the Catholic Church. In New York, the proposed law to create a one-year window on civil suits is being supported by some Jewish groups, who say that childhood sexual abuse is a little-known problem in the Jewish community. But opponents say the legislation would force Jewish institutions into settling cases from years past, bringing financial ruin to schools and synagogues.
Efforts to open a "window" to criminally charge people for rapes committed years ago have met with resistance in court. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected retroactively extending time limits on criminal prosecution of sexual abuse against minors. The court said California unlawfully changed the legal consequences of the crime after the fact. The Supreme Court chose not to take up the issue of civil lawsuits, but California state courts have upheld the constitutionality of retroactive civil actions.
The California legislation ushered in more than 800 lawsuits, compelling the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to issue a report that named clergy who had been accused of abuse. Some who were still working in ministry were removed from their posts. That diocese alone paid a settlement of more than $660 million in 2007 to people who said they had been abused.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20090611.html
ReplyDeleteAt this point, the Catholic Conference in each state is charged with monitoring whether child sex abuse statutes of limitations reform legislation is pending, and to fight it. Overall, the Conferences are spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to fight the survivor movement. They throw at the reform bills every conceivable argument, regardless of whether it is true or false, and their tone is invariably inflammatory and vituperative; they quickly and thoughtlessly demonize anyone in support of child sex abuse SOL reform.
In New York, which is now the most active state with respect to SOL reform, according to the media, four lobbyists have been hired by the hierarchy to battle the pending window legislation, the Child Victims Act (recently amended). These lobbyists have concocted three arguments: First, they say that the original bill was "unfair" because it did not apply to public institutions. (In fact, this was an outright misrepresentation of the law; it opened a window for all victims filing against public institutions under federal civil rights law and for victims in state court who could ask for a waiver of a state procedural hurdle.) In the tone of "woe is me," with their "fairness" argument, they have worked assiduously to move the attention away from the victims they created (who are walking the halls of the New York legislature virtually every day at this point), shamelessly portraying themselves as the "real victims."
Second, they argued that the original bill was too "open-ended." It is just not fair, according to them, to make the Church liable for its bad acts decades ago – even though no one questions the continuity or consistency of this 2000-year-old institution or that they are more than likely guilty in a large number of cases.
Third, they have told their parishioners and the press repeatedly that they will go "bankrupt" if they have to pay damages to the victims they created, when this is simply untrue; the Church will be able to pay its liability by selling real estate unrelated to its mission and through insurance, as I detail further below.
The movement in New York has become much more diverse, and has expanded to include not only survivors of the Church, but also Jewish survivors and victims of family sexual abuse. The diversification makes tremendous sense, since these bills apply to every survivor, and since the vast majority of child sexual abuse victims faced perpetrators who were neither trusted religious figures nor Mr. "Stranger Danger"; rather, the largest category of victims includes the victims of family abuse. The survivors have found many other partners, including the National Black Church Initiative and numerous Jewish groups, like Survivors for Justice, and others to join with them in their cause.
ReplyDeleteIronically, the opposition is limited almost exclusively to a select set of religious groups, though they account for a small percentage of victims. (That means they are lobbying against the victims of incest, the largest percentage of victims.) The Catholic hierarchy has found a partner in Agudath Israel in lobbying against such reform in New York. You can identify which religious groups in a particular region of the country have particular concerns about their sex abuse secrets. In Oregon, where a bill to extend the statute of limitations is being considered, the Catholic hierarchy is working very publicly with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to stop the reform.
The victims' movement has matured in other ways as well. The survivors have become tougher and savvier in the public arena. No political fight, especially one in which religious groups are throwing around their political weight, leaves anyone unscathed. The making of legislation is like the making of sausage: No one in their right mind would want to watch. In New York State, the movement has had to learn – as it faces the brass-knuckle politics for which the state is famous -- that this movement is no different than any other. When it seemed they had no chance at getting their legislation passed, they were treated with kid gloves and respect. But now that there is a real possibility that a statute of limitations window will become law, the Church hierarchy has adopted the motto "All is fair in love and war" -- or in their case, "All is fair if the result benefits the Church." The members beholden to the Church likewise have been cold to the survivors' faces, who in turn have gotten thicker-skinned and tougher.
In order to build the strongest support for the Child Victims Act in the Legislature, its primary champion, Assemblywoman Marge Markey, agreed to amendments that would explicitly expand its reach to public institutions and cap the age of those who could bring claims under this window at age 53. She simultaneously slayed the only two plausible arguments the Church had.
ReplyDeleteVictims across the state initially were distraught at the age cap and some reacted blindly, saying that if the bill did not reach every victim, it should be killed. And truth be told, some of the most ardent supporters of the legislation are cut out by the age cap. But to their credit, they quickly recovered and went back to the arduous task of educating members of the legislature about the travails of child sex abuse survivors, and the need for New York parents and children to know who the perpetrators are. Ultimately, they came to the conclusion that having a somewhat smaller window was still far better than having no window at all in New York.
The Church was then left with its groundless financial argument against the bill. A crucial fact that came out of California was that the Church does indeed have the resources to make up for the evils that the hierarchy visited upon children. The settlements were half insurance proceeds and half proceeds from the sale of property not related to religious purposes. No schools were closed, and no services were cut, just because the Church paid the damages due to its victims under law. The one filed bankruptcy case (of the San Diego diocese) was baseless, because the diocese had so many land holdings it did not belong in bankruptcy court. The filing was dismissed.
The New York hierarchy, though, has ordered its parish priests to say the opposite to parishioners on Sunday, claiming that religious mission is threatened by statute-of-limitations windows, but putting these lies behind the pulpit does not make them true. It does, however, bring to mind a line from Prizzi's Honor, when Jack Nicholson says to Kathleen Turner, two hitmen falling love, that the Sicilians would "rather eat their children than part with money and they are very fond of children."
Nor can lies be turned to truth when a bishop states them. Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio aggressively has tried to sell the fiscal story. The money story against the window legislation, though, is deeper than his shallow predictions of the end of Catholic services (largely funded by the government anyway). The New York Times reported recently that DiMarzio removed Rev. James O'Shea of Churches United from a Brooklyn affordable housing project to increase Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez's control of it. In an unsubtle move, Lopez then introduced a bill to compete with the Child Victims Act, which was obviously co-authored by church lawyers given its original exclusion of institutions (like the Church) from liability for harming children. That bill has lost momentum in another mark of how far the survivors have come.
After Markey amended the Child Victims Act to meet the hierarchy's only potentially reasonable objections, DiMarzio moved to condescension for the victims, saying that he knows what victims need more than they do. According to the Times, he declared that "the adversarial process of litigation would present an "insurmountable barrier to bringing about what is necessary — healing." With the number of survivors joining this movement nationwide and walking the halls in Albany, his paternalism is outdated, to put the best face on it.
ReplyDeleteKnowing that money alone could not sustain their opposition forever, the hierarchy ratcheted up the rhetoric. On June 8, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights released a wild-eyed press release, calling New York's newly-amended Child Victims Act "chopped meat." The flailing for metaphor speaks for itself.
The movement was then thrown for a loop (as was all of Albany) when the New York Senate flipped from Democrat to Republican control this week. Showing their resilience, though, the survivors showed up in Albany the next days and went from office to office with the same message: This is the right and the best thing to do for New York's children. The two Senators who moved from Democrat to Republican were sponsors of the original bill, so there is every reason to believe this bill for children can be passed whether Republicans or Democrats are in control. A vote is expected in the Assembly next Tuesday, June 16.
At the same time, the reform movement has become more sophisticated, with the Survivors for Justice purchasing radio spots urging passage, other groups even hiring lobbyists, and the creation of a comprehensive website, www.sol-reform.com, on which I have taken the lead. Moreover, the movement has expanded well beyond survivor groups alone, to now include Parents for Megan's Law, the National Organization for Women, Pandora's Project, Justice for Children, the Leadership Council, and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, among many other worthy organizations.
Out of these coalitions, a new mantra can be heard, one which proves that the SOL reform movement has truly grown up and embraced its adult role in the rough-and-tumble world of politics. That mantra is directed to New York legislators right now, and it is this: Vote against the Child Victims Act, and we will fight tooth-and-nail to be sure you are never re-elected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/nyregion/13vouchers.html
ReplyDeleteJune 13, 2009
Families Urge Bloomberg to Save After-School Vouchers
By JULIE BOSMAN
For uncommonly large Orthodox Jewish families, they are a lifeline: vouchers from the city for after-school care, redeemable at a yeshiva of their choice.
“If I didn’t have it, my head would spin,” said Idy Herskowitz, a mother of 11 from Brooklyn who qualified for vouchers and enrolls five of her children in an after-school program. “It gives me time to take care of my other children.”
As part of citywide budget cuts beginning next fiscal year, the Bloomberg administration has threatened to eliminate the 12-year-old, $16 million program, which is open to many needy families for use at schools and day care centers but which has overwhelmingly benefited Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Borough Park and Williamsburg.
In response, City Council members, community leaders and parents from those well-organized neighborhoods orchestrated a swift and furious campaign to persuade Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to save the voucher program, as he did in 2004.
They have produced more than 30,000 letters from parents to the mayor, delivering them in dramatic fashion — in 14 large cardboard boxes — to City Hall on Wednesday afternoon.
Councilmen Simcha Felder and Bill de Blasio, whose districts include parts of Borough Park, have played a “good cop, bad cop” routine to pressure the mayor. Mr. Felder, a close political ally of Mr. Bloomberg’s, has privately leaned on him to intervene, while Mr. de Blasio held a news conference last week angrily denouncing the mayor and the budget cut.
Advocacy groups have squeezed Mr. Bloomberg even more, arguing that cutting the voucher program would unfairly affect Orthodox Jews.
“This is something which many families in our community have come to rely on,” said David Zwiebel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, an advocacy organization. “We’re doing our best to remind the mayor that eliminating the vouchers will have a disproportionate impact on one segment of the community.”
More than 2,000 children benefit from the coupons, formally called Priority 7 vouchers, which are obtained through referrals from people who work in social services, including rabbis, teachers and social workers. In January, citing budget cuts, the city’s Administration for Children’s Services said it expected to eliminate 950 of the vouchers in the fall. In the agency’s latest budget proposal, it would cut the remaining 1,100 vouchers.
“These child care vouchers have been awarded since the mid-1990s to lower-income N.Y.C. families with social service needs,” Sharman Stein, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children’s Services, said in a statement. “Given the budget restraints we’re forced to plan for, we have to help the city’s neediest and most vulnerable families first.”
A typical after-school program runs from about 3 to 6 p.m. At the United Talmudical Academy in Borough Park, for example, children play games, make art projects related to Jewish holidays and snack on chicken nuggets and fruit.
The voucher program began in the 1990s, when money became available after federal welfare changes. A miniscandal followed when Milton Balkany, a prominent rabbi and political contributor, quietly recruited thousands of Orthodox parents to sign up — at the behest of a City Hall aide, he later said.
Child-welfare advocates complained that the vouchers had been awarded disproportionately to families in a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn — Borough Park, Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Midwood.
Today, the agency gives out 22,000 child care vouchers using a priority scale. The highest priority groups include families that are under the watch of the child-welfare agency, children with special needs and children whose parents are on welfare. The seventh group of vouchers, numbering just more than 2,000, is set aside for families that are not otherwise involved with a city agency but have “family dysfunction, family needs or family problems.” Each voucher pays up to $288 a week for a child’s care, and many families receive more than one.
ReplyDeleteThere are 1,422 families on waiting lists for Priority 7 vouchers.
The Administration for Children’s Services plans to cut an additional 1,000 child care vouchers for families who have an ill or incapacitated parent, and for families with a parent who is looking for work. Both of those categories, Priority 8 and 9, respectively, ranked lower than Priority 7. The city plans to maintain funding for Priorities 1 through 6.
Even now, most of the people who receive Priority 7 vouchers are Orthodox Jewish families in Brooklyn, a constituency that Mr. Bloomberg has carefully courted. And of the nearly 100 after-school programs, an overwhelming majority are run out of yeshivas in Brooklyn. (A handful are in secular day care centers in the Bronx and Manhattan.)
Members of the Orthodox community say their families often get by on one income, since mothers typically stay home and care for the children. And most pay private-school tuition, since they send their children to yeshivas.
“People don’t earn a lot of money,” said Yoel Holtzman, the head administrator at Tiferes Bnos, a girls’ school in Williamsburg with an after-school program for 75 children. “In some small apartments, some children come home to 11, 12 people in the family. I really think without after-school care, the children will probably go crazy. There will be parents and children who have to start taking pills. It’s really going to affect them tremendously.”
It will require more than $16 million to save the entire program. (An aide to Mr. Bloomberg said that reinstating the vouchers was still “under discussion” as part of budget talks with the City Council.)
Privately, several advocates of the vouchers said they were optimistic that Mr. Bloomberg would preserve the program.
Mr. de Blasio, chairman of the Council’s General Welfare Committee, said he was not so sure.
“I’m not confident, at this point, that any of the restorations that we need are happening,” he said. “I don’t see much flexibility from this administration.”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/16153255/Agudah-Letter-to-Mayor-Bloomberg-Priority-7
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/opinion/13suozzi.html
ReplyDeleteShame on Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi for getting on board with the faygelach!
Rosenblum probably thought by not posting in CC, he wouldn't have gotten bashed as much.
ReplyDeleteThis is another reason (As UOJ mentioned in the SFJ commercials) NOT to support the American Agudah !!!
And if you are a member, please let the membership lapse and do not renew it (as Dr. Lipner and so many others have done, myself included)
Even though their magazine, the JO has gone under, they are still funding "slick willie" and college educated Rosenblum to SMEAR the victims and their parents.
Again, it'd the American Agudah that's behind Rosenblum. For many years, he was a regular contributor to the Jewish Observer.
And right at this moment, when the agudah and the "gedolim's" reputations are in in the toilet, they need him desperately to be their chief goon and "hit man".
The Vantz (bedbug) is the most difficult roach to destroy. Ask any exterminator. For example, when a mosquito (or a bee) bites someone the creature will immediately die.
Not so the Vantz. When a bedbug bites they draw blood from the victim and it actually gets stronger. The way to get them is to kill them in their nests.
It appears that the Vantzen at the American Agudah has lost their power.
Yet, because they were not totally destroyed and still have money, like true Vantzen, they re-grouped and they were able to sic smiling Rosenblum on the victims.
Agudath Israel can't have it both ways.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, they fight every legislation to protect children from being victimized in school settings. Claiming it's a separation of church and state.
On the other hand, they are clammor for Priority 7, and state assistance programs for their schools. They whine to Bloomberg and Patterson how not funding their schools disproportionately affects Orthodox schools (ignore chuch/state).
Yet, Agudath Israel conveniently ignores the main qualification for funding. "All programs receiving these funds must comply with all state safety measures".
By refusing to implement safety measures in schools, Orthodox schools are INELLIGEABLE for any city or state funding.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/business/economy/14view.html
ReplyDeleteMEDICARE expenditures threaten to crush the federal budget, yet the Obama administration is proposing that we start by spending more now so we can spend less later.
This runs the risk of becoming the new voodoo economics. If we can’t realize significant savings in health care costs now, don’t expect savings in the future, either.
Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics at George Mason University.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/06/14/technology/tech-us-israel-internet-religion.html
ReplyDeleteJERUSALEM (Reuters) - Religiously devout Jews barred by rabbis from surfing the Internet may now "Koogle" it on a new "kosher" search engine, the site manager said on Sunday.
Yossi Altman said Koogle, a play on the names of a Jewish noodle pudding and the ubiquitous Google, appears to meet the standards of Orthodox rabbis, who restrict use of the Web to ensure followers avoid viewing sexually explicit material.
The site, at www.koogle.co.il, omits religiously objectionable material, such as most photographs of women which Orthodox rabbis view as immodest, Altman said.
Its links to Israeli news and shopping sites also filter out items most ultra-Orthodox Israelis are forbidden by rabbis to have in their homes, such a television sets.
"This is a kosher alternative for ultra-Orthodox Jews so that they may surf the Internet," Altman said by telephone.
The site was developed in part at the encouragement of rabbis who sought a solution to the needs of ultra-Orthodox Jews to browse the Web particularly for vital services, he said.
Nothing can be posted on the Jewish Sabbath, when religious law bans all types of work and business, Altman said. "If you try to buy something on the Sabbath, it gets stuck and won't let you."
http://www.koogle.co.il/
I'm glad the NY Times only dragged me into that article on Priority 7 and didn't find out I went on the radio to back Dovid Cohen on tax evasion!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/americas-first-muslim-president/
ReplyDeleteAmerica's first Muslim president?
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton -- someone Judge Sonia Sotomayor might call a "white male" -- was dubbed "America's first black president" by a black admirer. Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering to a special interest that earned Mr. Clinton that distinction, Barack Hussein Obama would have to be considered America's first Muslim president.
This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.
What little we know about Mr. Obama's youth certainly suggests that he not only had a Kenyan father who was Muslim, but spent his early, formative years as one in Indonesia. As the president likes to say, "much has been made" -- in this case by him and his campaign handlers -- of the fact that he became a Christian as an adult in Chicago, under the now-notorious Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright.
With Mr. Obama's unbelievably ballyhooed address in Cairo Thursday to what he calls "the Muslim world" (hereafter known as "the Speech"), there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself. Consider the following indicators:
• Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to "the Holy Koran." Non-Muslims -- even pandering ones -- generally don't use that Islamic formulation.
• Mr. Obama established his firsthand knowledge of Islam (albeit without mentioning his reported upbringing in the faith) with the statement, "I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed." Again, "revealed" is a depiction Muslims use to reflect their conviction that the Koran is the word of God, as dictated to Muhammad.
• Then the president made a statement no believing Christian -- certainly not one versed, as he professes to be, in the ways of Islam -- would ever make. In the context of what he euphemistically called the "situation between Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs," Mr. Obama said he looked forward to the day ". . . when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them) joined in prayer."
Now, the term "peace be upon them" is invoked by Muslims as a way of blessing deceased holy men. According to Islam, that is what all three were - dead prophets. Of course, for Christians, Jesus is the living and immortal Son of God.
In the final analysis, it may be beside the point whether Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim. In the Speech and elsewhere, he has aligned himself with adherents to what authoritative Islam calls Shariah -- notably, the dangerous global movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood -- to a degree that makes Mr. Clinton's fabled affinity for blacks pale by comparison.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Mr. Obama has -- from literally his inaugural address onward -- inflated the numbers and, in that way and others, exaggerated the contemporary and historical importance of Muslim-Americans in the United States. In the Speech, he used the Brotherhood's estimates of "nearly 7 million Muslims" in this country, at least twice the estimates from other, more reputable sources. (Who knows? By the time Mr. Obama's friends in the radical Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) perpetrate their trademark books-cooking as deputy 2010 census takers, the official count may well claim considerably morethan 7 million Muslims are living here.)
Even more troubling were the commitments the president made in Cairo to promote Islam in America. For instance, he declared: "I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear." He vowed to ensure that women can cover their heads, including, presumably, when having their photographs taken for passports, driver's licenses or other identification purposes. He also pledged to enable Muslims to engage in zakat, their faith's requirement for tithing, even though four of the eight types of charity called for by Shariah can be associated with terrorism. Not surprisingly, a number of Islamic "charities" in this country have been convicted of providing material support for terrorism.
Particularly worrying is the realignment Mr. Obama has announced in U.S. policy toward Israel. While he pays lip service to the "unbreakable" bond between America and the Jewish state, the president has unmistakably signaled that he intends to compel the Israelis to make territorial and other strategic concessions to Palestinians to achieve the hallowed two-state solution. In doing so, he ignores the inconvenient fact that both the Brotherhood's Hamas and Abu Mazen's Fatah remain determined to achieve a one-state solution, whereby the Jews will be driven "into the sea."
Whether Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim or simply plays one in the presidency may, in the end, be irrelevant. What is alarming is that in aligning himself and his policies with those of Shariah-adherents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the president will greatly intensify the already enormous pressure on peaceful, tolerant American Muslims to submit to such forces - and heighten expectations, here and abroad, that the rest of us will do so as well.
jonathan rosenblum is a niave BT whose family bank rolled his new lifestyle. he is a spoiled brat and a naive fool and is a sickening individual. i will never forget his post in the jerusalem post justifying his son not serving in the israeli army because he loves his son so much that he didn't want to lose him...
ReplyDeletewhat a fool! he is part of the agudah click and he should be ignored for the ignoramous that he is!
has he ever held down a real job? doubt it just sucked off his parents. now he is a famous writer. his articles don't even belong in a sewer.
Is this Krohn from the sexual harassment case related to Paysach Krohn?
ReplyDeleteKrohn v City of New York Dept. of Educ.
2007 NY Slip Op 30993(U)
April 27, 2007
Supreme Court, New County
Docket Number: 0111902/2006
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Extended Stay Hotels, which operates a chain
ReplyDeleteof mid-priced extended stay hotels in 44 U.S. states and two Canadian
provinces, filed for bankruptcy protection in New York today.
The chain, which has more than 680 properties, said it had $7.1 billion in assets and $7.6 billion in debts at the end of last year. The company employs approximately 10,000, it said in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
This morning we see Shmarya calling for Google to be sued for not including the reports of "journalists" such as himself included in Google News searches.
ReplyDeleteAre there any lawyers out there willing to take on this case pro bozo for the destitute shnorrer?
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16031/News/New_York.html
ReplyDeleteMarvin Schick, an educational consultant for the Avi Chai Foundation, said the great majority of New York area Jewish schools serve the haredi population, which doesn’t tend to do sophisticated fundraising.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6482737.ece
ReplyDeleteHe spent nearly 20 years on the run and fought bitterly against extradition from Britain but when the fraudster Tuvia Stern arrived back in New York, he found prison authorities surprisingly accommodating.
The former fugitive, jailed for three and a half years in March for fraud, was allowed to throw two parties for his family behind bars, even hiring his own kosher caterers and a prominent Jewish singer.
He hosted a lavish Bar Mitzvah for his son and later an engagement party for his daughter. For the Bar Mitzvah, prison officials allowed 60 guests to party for six hours in the jailhouse gym last December in a detention centre grimly known as “The Tombs”.
Five top prison officials — including a rabbi and his boss, a Muslim imam — have been disciplined.
Stern, an American and member of the Orthodox Jewish Satmar community, was charged in 1989 with two fraud schemes in New York that he initially claimed were organised by his older brother, Ephraim.
The pair were accused of a $265,000 (£160,000) cheque fraud against Morgan Guaranty Trust and a $1.5 million plot to defraud an equipment leasing unit of the Bell Atlantic telephone telephone company.
Tuvia Stern fled America on the eve of his trial on the advice of his rabbi to avoid giving evidence against his brother, his lawyer told the City of London magistrates court during the extradition battle. He moved to of São Paulo, Brazil, with his wife and their children and successfully fended off US efforts to extradite him.
The father of seven was arrested in Britain in December 2006, however, as he tried to visit two of his children on a new US passport. He was extradited to America after the British courts refused to intervene.
Denied bail Stern pleaded guilty in New York and was sentenced in March to two-and-a-half years in prison for grand larceny and one-year for bail-jumping, records show. Before being transferred to an upstate jail to serve his sentence Stern was held at the downtown Manhattan detention centre known grimly as “The Tombs”.
Stern hired his own caterers who supplied not just kosher food but also cutlery — including knives. Friends and family were allowed to keep their mobile phones in another breach of normal prison rules.
Stern himself was able to shed his prison uniform and dress up for the event. The guests were entertained by Yaakov Shwekey, a popular Orthodox singer, and a band.
The New York City Department of Corrections even paid the overtime for prison guards at the party.
The first party went off so well that prison officials gave permission for a second jailhouse event several months later, allowing ten guests in for an engagement party for his daughter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/nyregion/13jail.html
ReplyDeleteThe part-time Correction Department rabbi who arranged for a prisoner convicted on a $1.7 million fraud charge to hold a lavish six-hour bar mitzvah party for his son in a New York City jail has long used his influence to transfer Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish inmates from jails on Rikers Island to a more hospitable one in Manhattan, several city officials said on Friday.
The rabbi, Leib Glanz, whose role in the bizarre bar mitzvah episode and the transfers is the subject of a city investigation, is widely viewed within the agency as wielding so much political clout that he can aid the careers of favored managers, according to the officials, though none could say from where such power might emanate.
Indeed, one senior official suggested that Rabbi Glanz — a prominent figure in the Satmar community who has broad ties to law enforcement and state and city political figures — essentially conjured his own image as something of a kingmaker in the city’s jail system.
“It flows from the fact that he does favors for all the staff, it flows from the perception that he has juice all the way up to the mayor’s office and it flows from the fact he’s a name-dropper,” said the official, who like several others interviewed for this article would speak only on the condition of anonymity.
But other officials suggested that Rabbi Glanz’s image as a powerful figure stemmed from real influence he wielded after he joined the department as a part-time chaplain in October 2000, during the administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Regardless of whether his power was real or perceived, one thing was certain: The Dec. 30 bar mitzvah, with 60 guests, a band and a catered meal in the jail gymnasium amid the controlled environment of a city jail, rocked the department and upset Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
“It’s an incredible thing,” marveled one former department official of the bar mitzvah for the son of Tuvia Stern, who had been a fugitive for close to two decades before his return to the United States earlier this year on grand larceny charges that led to a 2 ½- to 7 ½-year prison sentence. “I don’t even know what to say. I don’t even understand how something like that could happen — the trucks backing into the loading dock, there’s carving knives, there’s phones — it’s literally unbelievable.”
Rabbi Glanz has been suspended for holding the bar mitzvah, which was reported by The New York Post, and will not be allowed to return to work at that jail, the Manhattan Detention Center, which is safer and more hospitable than Rikers Island. His job is a civil service position and he cannot be fired without a hearing.
ReplyDeleteSeveral officials suggested that the disclosures stemmed from a complex web of power struggles within the department, as senior officials sought to maneuver after an announcement by Commissioner Martin F. Horn that he was leaving the agency.
Rabbi Glanz went to great lengths to organize the bar mitzvah. In a Dec. 24 memo to the jail warden, he said he would perform a “bar mitzvah religious ceremony” on Dec. 30 at the jail. The memo listed the guests.
Mr. Bloomberg, on his morning radio show on Friday, declined to discuss the inquiry by the Department of Investigation, except to say, “The term ‘lack of judgment,’ those kinds of things may — I certainly don’t want to prejudice any of this — may be in some people’s minds.”
Efforts to reach Rabbi Glanz were not successful.
Bruce J. Teitelbaum, who was Mr. Giuliani’s chief of staff near the end of his mayoralty and helped the rabbi get the chaplain’s job, said, “this is not a venal guy, not a guy who plays games.”
“He probably didn’t think this through the way he should have,” Mr. Teitelbaum said, “but he is a fine person.”
Rabbi Glanz has other defenders, including the head of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, Norman Seabrook, who contended that the top uniformed officer, Carolyn Thomas, should also be held accountable.
“He is definitely a person that has been with me at 3 o’clock in the morning, when a correction officer has expired,” Mr. Seabrook said.
Spector's publicist, said his client is wearing a Jewish yarmulke — or skull cap — in his cell and is conferring regularly with a prison rabbi and receives kosher food at mealtimes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090611/ENTERTAIN90/90611017
A mug shot of Phil Spector released Wednesday reveals that prison has been a hair-raising experience for the legendary music producer. Spector, known for his many elaborate hairstyles over the years, had to abandon his wigs after being sentenced last month to 19 years to life for killing actress Lana Clarkson.
The mug shot, which shows a bald-pated Spector with long stringy hair on the sides, was taken on June 5 as part of the routine intake process in the prison system.
"They took my husband's freedom and dignity. So why not his hair?" said Spector's wife Rachelle, who had previously suggested that her husband's thick mane of hair was his own.
"This is a personal matter," she said. "But in case you don't know, they don't allow for much accessorizing while in prison."
Spector, 69, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 death of Clarkson at his castle-like home in Alhambra. Spector had two trials with essentially the same evidence. The first ended in a jury deadlock.
He is being processed and evaluated at North Kern State Prison in Delano before being sent to his final prison destination. Regulations forbid wigs and hairpieces unless they are deemed medically necessary.
Gordon Hinkle, deputy press secretary for the Department of Corrections, said the photo was distributed to the media and social networking sites including Twitter because of a department policy aimed at transparency in public information.
Hal Lifson, Spector's publicist, said his client is wearing a Jewish yarmulke — or skull cap — in his cell and is conferring regularly with a prison rabbi and receives kosher food at mealtimes.
In his heyday in the early and mid-1960s, Spector produced dozens of hits, including The Ronette's "Be My Baby," The Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron" and The Righteous Brothers' classic, "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin.'" Spector also worked on the Beatles album "Let It Be" and John Lennon's album, "Imagine."
His "Wall of Sound" used orchestrations and sometimes dozens of microphones to produce a dense, echoing sound that influenced everyone from The Beach Boys to Bruce Springsteen.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6862384
ReplyDeleteIn case you were wondering what happened to Stern, he was sent to the prison in Woodbourne so at least he gets some good cholov Yisroel pizza in the summer months.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/06/13/2009-06-13_al_qaedas_american_traitor_adam_yahiye_gadahn_blasts_israel__and_own_jewish_rela.html
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON - Al Qaeda's American mouthpiece put out a new video Saturday to rant against President Obama, the Israeli prime minister - and even his own Jewish relatives.
Adam Yahiye Gadahn, the first American indicted for treason since 1952, echoed recent speeches by Al Qaeda leaders Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri by blaming Obama for Israel's winter incursion into the Gaza Strip.
In the video posted on jihadi Internet forums, Gadahn derided Obama's plea for peace between Jews and Muslims in his Jan. 20 inaugural address as "deceptive, false and sugarcoated talk."
But the California-raised traitor - who converted to Islam as a teen - saved his worst venom in the 35-minute Arabic screed for his Jewish family members.
"My grandfather was a Zionist ... and a prominent member of a number of Zionist hate organizations," explained Gadahn, who is believed to have written at least one of Bin Laden's speeches.
Gadahn's late paternal grandfather, Carl Pearlman, was an Anti-Defamation League board member in Santa Ana, Calif.
Gadahn, 31, said Pearlman encouraged him to visit Tel Aviv and gave him Bibi Netanyahu's book, "A Place Among the Nations."
But Gadahn said he rejected Judaism and Israeli citizenship because he had too much self-respect "to stand in the ranks of criminals and killers who have no morals, no mercy, no humanity and indeed no honor.
"Isn't it embarrassing and shameful enough for a person to carry the citizenship of America?" wondered the man who once tore up his U.S. passport on camera and has made threats against New York City.
"I didn't respond to my grandfather's call."
After converting to Islam, Gadahn moved to Pakistan and rose to become Al Qaeda's most prominent spokesman behind Bin Laden and Zawahiri.
ALBANY - Former Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who once called homosexuality an "abnormal lifestyle," says he now believes gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry.
ReplyDelete"As a Republican, I believe in personal freedom," Bruno told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I opposed same-sex marriage largely because the overwhelming majority of my caucus opposed it. As a relatively conservative Roman Catholic, I instinctively view marriage as the foundation of the family.
"However, that view really does conflict with the rights that are afforded all of us.
"This is America, and we have inalienable rights," he continued. "Life is short, and we should all be afforded the same opportunities and rights to enjoy it."
As a registered lobbyist, Bruno is barred from formally entreating his old colleagues to vote "yes" on any legislation. But gay marriage advocates hope his endorsement will sway some Republican fence-sitters.
Democrats are skeptical.
Noting Bruno is under indictment on federal corruption charges, Sen. Diane Savino (D-S.I.) said endorsements from Republicans like former Gov. George Pataki and ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani would have packed more political punch.
"He doesn't have the greatest credentials right now," Savino said of Bruno.
A top Republican aide said Bruno's position is unlikely to neutralize pressure on GOP lawmakers from the state Conservative Party and the Catholic Church and other same-sex marriage opponents to vote "no" or face political consequences.
The marriage bill needs 32 votes to pass. The Democrats lack up to six votes in their conference, and advocates have been focused on wooing moderate Republicans to make up the difference.
The bill has become a bargaining chip in the aftermath of last week's Senate coup, with apparent Senate President Pedro Espada Jr. (D-Bronx) promising to bring the bill up for a vote in hopes of luring more Dems.
The man Espada helped depose as president and majority leader, Sen. Malcolm Smith, refused to bring the bill to the floor until he was sure it had 32 votes.
They were probably owed money by Rubashkin and were just claiming what's their's.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=15060
The recently opened Bike Gemach, opened by Rabbi Yoske Strausberg, was literally attacked on Wednesday evening by three black teens. They threw glass bottles and stones at the Montgomery street home in an attempt to rob the bicycles. Shmira arrived at the scene and several units pursued the assailants, until they barred themselves inside their home on New York Avenue. NYPD units responding to the call immediately entered the home and arrested the three teens.
KIRYAS JOEL — A 19-year-old Brooklyn man has been charged with assaulting a police officer and other offenses for his role in an egg-and-bottle-throwing melee Monday that involved as many as 200 people, state police said.
ReplyDeleteTroopers say they chased Joel Farkas after seeing him throw eggs and struggled to subdue him, leaving one trooper with minor injuries. Farkas was arraigned in Monroe Town Court and released; the other charges were resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and disorderly conduct.
The fracas began around 2 p.m. Monday when Orange and Rockland Utilities workers started to remove decorative lights that had been strung between poles in preparation for the wedding that night of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum’s granddaughter.
By Sara Miller, Haaretz Correspondent
ReplyDeleteFive gay couples wed Friday in a ceremonial marriage on Tel Aviv beach, at the culmination of the city's 11th annual Gay Pride Parade, which saw more than 20,000 people take to the streets to promote gay rights.
The ceremony, held at sundown after a boisterous disco on the sand, began with a serenade by gay pop star Ivri Lider as the three female and two male same-sex couples walked up to the Chuppah, the Jewish wedding altar.
The ceremony was performed according to Jewish marriage rites, with each couple exchanging rings and Hebrew vows before breaking the traditional glass as the crowd erupted in applause.
Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz, the Knesset's first openly gay parliamentarian, attended the wedding, along with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.
"I hope that from this day weddings like this can happen in every place in Israel and not just in Tel Aviv," Horowitz told Haaretz. "Weddings for everyone - man and woman, man and man, and woman and woman, and this will be the end of the monopoly of the ultra-Orthodox over our lives in Israel."
Israeli director Eytan Fox, whose movies "Walk on Water" and "The Bubble" deal with gay issues in Israel, was also there to mark the occasion.
"It's a very important and historic day," he said. "It's very exciting and in the end the good guys won."
The parade was sponsored by Tel Aviv municipality as part of the city's cetennial celebrations. The floats with their dancers, scantily clad youths and blasting pop music started out from Meir Park before winding their way through the city's streets to the beachfront.
A small group of right-wing and religious protesters demonstrated against the parade, holding up banners reading: "God hates debauchery."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai had called on Huldai and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the parade. On June 25, Jerusalem will host its own pride parade
R' Yaakov Kaminetzky ztl has a shtickel Torah on the misonenim that centers on their two main problems. These two problems make the misonenim sound like the forerunners to Agudah fressers.
ReplyDeleteBoyche al haarayos and fressing on taanugim.
Published on The Root (http://www.theroot.com)
ReplyDeleteIs Jewish the New Black?
By: Cord Jefferson
Posted: June 10, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Alysa Stanton, The First Black Woman Rabbi -
From Alysa Stanton to, um, Charles Taylor, Judaism is winning ever more black converts. Maybe Sammy Davis Jr. had it right.
It's been a bit of a mixed bag for blacks and Judaism lately. In the heartland city of Cincinnati this month, 45-year-old Ohio native Alysa Stanton became the first African-American female rabbi [1]. Sadly, Charles Taylor, [2] the former Liberian dictator awaiting trial for war crimes, made news, too, as a convert to Judaism. Party crasher.
But crazy dictators aside, what’s going on? In our increasingly multicultural landscape, is Jewish the new black?
There are no precise statistics, but Diane Tobin, associate director of San Francisco's Institute for Jewish & Community Research, said in an interview with The Root, that she estimates that as many as 150,000 blacks practice Judaism in the U.S. today. Sure, that only constitutes about 3 percent of the country’s Jewish population, but that's more African-American Jews than ever before, and their ranks, she says, are continuing to grow. Sammy Davis Jr. would be kvelling [3].
Will Shmarya criticize this bit of Chabad shnorring even though he is a shnorrer himself?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/nonprofits_land_security_money.html
Chabad House,a place of worship for Jews in the Syracuse University area, is applying for a $61,876 Homeland Security grant for blast-resistant windows, security cameras and other improvements. Although the site has not been threatened, Rabbi Yaakov Rapoport said it should get the money because terrorists killed six people at a Chabad House in India in November.
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Uggboot-paedophile-fetishist-jailed.5366940.jp
ReplyDelete15 June 2009
By Mark Lavery
A paedophile with an Ugg boots fetish who stalked terrified Leeds schoolgirls in a on-line sex terror campaign has been jailed for four years.
Leeds Crown Court heard Mark Southeby, who infiltrated the girls social networking sites, now wants to be chemically castrated to curb his deviant sex obsessions.
Judge Jennifer Kershaw QC jailed Southeby for four years with an eight year extended licence meaning he will be monitored by the authorities after his release.
Judge Kershaw said: "The defendant is not only sexually deviant, he's devious; the offending is repeated and it was resourceful."
After the hearing, Det Sgt Ian Scott of West Yorkshire Police said parents should talk openly to children about the dangers of posting personal details, including mobile phone numbers and addresses, on social networking sites.
He advised youngsters: "Tell your parents or your school if you are suspicious about who you are speaking to."
Married dad Southeby, 38, subjected seven girls from one Leeds area school to six months of sexual harassment.
Southeby used Facebook, MSN and MySpace to infiltrate the group of friends social networks from his home in Buckinghamshire between last July and December.
Southeby used false names, adopted some of the girls' identities to chat to their friends and even cloned web pages on the girls' websites.
Southeby, who has twice bought sleep drug chloroform on-line, asked one 15-year-old girl for sex and to perform indecent acts on-line and said he loved her and wanted to meet her.
He bombarded the girls with dozens of mobile phone calls about Ugg boots and became obsessed with one 14-year-old after he had seen her wearing a pair on a website.
Filed at 12:31 p.m. ET
ReplyDeleteNEW YORK (AP)
While some economic indicators are pointing to better days ahead, data shows consumers continued to struggle to make loan payments in the first quarter.
The latest evidence showed in the rate of auto loan payments that were 60 days or more late. The rate skyrocketed nearly 28 percent in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2008.
The increase echoes TransUnion data released in recent weeks that showed sharp jumps in first-quarter delinquency for mortgages and credit cards.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090614/SMALLBIZ/306149964
ReplyDeleteJune 14, 2009 5:59 AM
Small businesses are getting fined to death
City plans to issue more violations to raise revenue, even as it promises to cut red tape.
By Daniel Massey
The city plans to take in $894 million in fines in fiscal 2010, up $112 million from the previous year, according to the mayor's executive budget. A spokesman for the mayor says most of the increase will be generated by additional cameras at traffic lights, tougher enforcement of “blocking the box” traffic rules, and a new data-mining system that will catch scofflaws that haven't paid city fines and fees.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090607/SMALLBIZ/306079974
ReplyDeleteThe Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, for example, says the number of people coming to its 40 food pantries has jumped by 30% this year, and executives there expect those numbers to keep on growing. Yet despite making every effort, the agency hasn't been able to raise enough outside money to offset government funding cuts of $1 million.
“I'm doing everything I can to raise more money,” says William Rapfogel, chief executive of the Met Council. “It's a good thing I'm a Sabbath observer, because otherwise I'd be working 24/7 instead of 24/6.”
there is a shul in syosset
ReplyDeletehttp://ifawebnews.com/2009/06/12/new-york-dentist-pleads-guilty-to-600000-insurance-scheme/
A Syosset, N.Y., dentist will serve a minimum of two years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to submitting bogus medical claims for Port Authority police officers, costing MetLife $600,000.
Barry Cohan, 51, will have to forfeit the money he received from MetLife as part of plea arrangement reached June 10 in a Brooklyn court, according to Newsday. A federal grand jury indicted the dentist in 2007.
Prosecutors say Cohan fraudulently billed the Port Authority dental plan for more than the actual cost of procedures and also billed for some procedures he never performed.
When the plan stopped making payments, the report said, Cohan began submitting charges under the name of another dentist.
Cohan’s attorney said prosecutors in the case let nearly 30 Port Authority officers escape charges who had their names used in the overbilling and never made a co-payment for their dental work, according to Newsday.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/15/us/AP-US-Florida-Overboard-Rescue.html
ReplyDeleteA man found clinging to a buoy after falling from a cruise ship in coastal Florida has been rescued.
The Coast Guard says 46-year-old Larry Miller told them he went overboard from the Carnival Inspiration early Monday morning while it was returning to the Port of Tampa. He was found a few hours later clinging to a buoy near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the St. Petersburg area.
He was brought to the hospital with minor injuries.
Carnival says the man told authorities he slipped after climbing on a railing to get within reach of the smorgasbord on another deck that was part of an Agudath Israel function. A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman told the Associated Press that Agudath Israel functions are notoriously dangerous with hundreds of gluttons pushing and shoving while trying to get to the food. The Coast Guard is undertaking additional search and rescue missions to see if anyone else fell in the water, standard operating procedure for Agudah smorgs on the high seas.
Kudos to Rabbi Chaim Schwartz of the Vaad of Queens for doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteLet EVERY rodef be forced to live in a cardboard box under a bridge. No one should have any rachmanus on a rodef.
The writings of PP (Pathetic Putz) Shafran and Marvin (Obtuse) Schick are probably required readings and the torture method of choice down in Gitmo.
ReplyDeleteBoog, you can add Menachem Lubinsky, David Mandel and Pinny Lipschitz to that list. Read Lubinsky's latest "sick" sense article about Streit's:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.koshertoday.com/sixthsense.asp#menachem
Barry Cohan is a greedy putz with dental offices on Ave M in Canarsie and in Long Beach. He was caught once before with illegalities in 1998 and was fined 5 grand and suspended for 3 years.
ReplyDeleteCall Mayor Bloomberg and demand:
ReplyDeleteDON'T SUBSIDIZE PRIORITY 7 UNTIL BENEFICIARY SCHOOL'S ARE IN FULL COMPLIANCE WITH SAFETY STANDARDS.
OUE CHILDREN ARE NOT PAWNS OF AGUDAH.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/crime/ny-liboot0912857562jun08,0,4486390.story
ReplyDeleteJune 8, 2009
Sixteen years after he was indicted on a charge of being a key figure in a $35-million gasoline bootlegging scheme, Joseph Reisch was finally arraigned on the charges Monday in federal court.
Reisch, who had owned the Inwood Oil Terminal in Inwood, pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson in Central Islip. He had fled to Israel, then to Germany, which recently to extradited him back to the U.S.
Reisch was one of 20 people charged in the bootlegging scheme in 1993, as part of a fraud, officials said, to evade the federal excise tax on gasoline in a joint effort by traditional organized crime and Russian and Israeli mobsters.
Nineteen of those have since been convicted, including soldiers of the Colombo mob and associates of the Luchese family, according to federal prosecutor Burton Ryan. If convicted on the conspiracy and tax-evasion charges, Reisch could face up to 24 years in prison.
In addition to his 1993 indictment in the gasoline bootlegging scheme, Reisch also was charged then with the 1989 murder of Martin Markowitz, the owner of the Oceanside Oil Terminal in Oceanside, Ryan said. Markowitz was shot to death in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, while sitting in his Rolls-Royce.
Markowitz was part of the bootlegging scheme, and was suspected of being an informant, according to officials.
But before authorities could arrest him, Reisch, an Israeli citizen, fled to Israel, which at the time refused to extradite its citizens. However, Israeli police arrested Reisch and he was tried there, by a prosecution team of Israeli, city prosecutors from Brooklyn and federal prosecutors from Long Island. But Reisch was acquitted on the murder charge and the Israeli government declined to try him on the bootlegging charge.
In 2007, Israeli officials agreed to help extradite its citizens for many crimes, officials said. In 2008, the Israeli government reported to Interpol and federal prosecutors that Reisch had recently crossed the border into Jordan and was apparently bound for Germany, officials said.
Acting on a request by federal prosecutors on Long Island, German police arrested Reisch, who fought extradition to Long Island until last week.
Reisch's attorney, James Druker, said Monday that his client was "absolutely not guilty" of the charges.
Druker said that case should be thrown out because the prosecution violated the federal court's speedy trial rules, which require a person to be tried within 70 days of indictment. He also said the 70 days should begin to be counted in 2007, when the Israelis changed their policy and agreed to help extradite its citizens.
Druker said Reisch had been living "openly" in Israel under his own name since the murder acquittal.
Tomlinson ordered Reisch held without bail as a risk of flight despite several of his family members offering to put up $2 million in bail.
Why didn't someone tell us UOJ is cracking down on corrupt nursing home operators?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.northcountrygazette.org/2009/06/15/nursing_home_fines/
(Federal) civil penalties lodged were as follows:
Beechtree Care Center, Ithaca, $6,100
Gold Crest Care Center, Bronx, $18,712.50
Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility-Cortland, $14,250
Oceanview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Far Rockaway, $4,875
Willoughby Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, Brooklyn, $44,687.50
State fines against 10 nursing homes are as follows:
Daughters of Sarah Nursing Center, Albany, $2,000
Evergreen Commons, East Greenbush, $8,000
Highfield Gardens Care Center of Great Neck, Great Neck, $6,000
Kateri Residence Manhattan, $4,000
Summit Park Nursing Care Center, Pomana, $12,000
Village Center for Care, Manhattan, $2,000
http://www.realestaterama.com/2009/06/10/hud-suspends-three-lenders-from-fha-ID05496.html
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mortgagee Review Board has suspended three lenders based on evidence of serious violations under HUD’s regulations. The three lenders are Golden First Mortgage Corp of Great Neck, NY; Great Country Mortgage Bankers, Inc. of Coral Gables, FL; and Beneficial Mortgage Corporation of San Juan, PR.
Lenders subject to suspension are prohibited from originating new FHA-insured mortgages pending completion of HUD’s investigation into their lending practices.
The Board found that Golden First Mortgage (GFM) failed to notify HUD/FHA of an investigation by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) into the business activities of the company’s president (David Movtady), including his involvement in a civil money penalty with OTS.
COLORADO SPRINGS, June 7 (UPI) -- The founder of a Colorado veterans group and advocate for homeless vets has been unmasked as an imposter who faked a war record, investigators said.
ReplyDeleteRick Strandlof -- who used the name Rick Duncan when he claimed to be a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who was wounded during his third tour in Iraq -- has not been charged with impersonation, The Denver Post reported Sunday. The FBI is investigating possible fraud while Strandlof is being held on a misdemeanor traffic charge in Colorado Springs.
-----------------------
BROOKLYN, NY, June 7 (UPI) -- The founder of a yeshiva on Ocean Parkway and advocate for Torah has been unmasked as an imposter who faked his record, investigators said.
Leopold Margulies -- who used the name Harav Hagaon Harosh yeshiva, R' Lipa, when he claimed to be a talmid chochom from Satmar and Torah Vodaas who knew gedolim in Europe -- has not yet been charged with impersonation, The NY Times reported Sunday. The FBI is investigating possible fraud while Margulies is being held on a misdemeanor tax evasion charge after Swiss Banks handed their files over to the IRS.
My honest belief is the pope deceives. He knew, pre-pope, well of the abuses and did nothing but to write a letter to the bishops in 2001 re-enforcing the secret be kept.
ReplyDeleteI was a victim from ages 8 to 10, once by four priests at one time. Today I am mentally ill because of my abuse.
The church promised senators a law was not needed, they would take care of victims. They lied. The now bishop who abused me denied therapy because his fears of more validations.
The RCC is a big lie. 80% of the clergy knew children were abused and did nothing. They are not all dead and the worst crime was by the existing hierarchy.
As a child they threatened me with harm to me and my family if I told anyone. The children had to keep the secret while they moved the priests around so the children could not identify them.
Yes, Rosenblum the former Conservative Jew tries so much to please his new masters. His writing in X-currents are sometime so vicious. His hatred toward non haredy Jews knows no borders.
ReplyDeleteI do remember him implying in Mishpacha that those who beat up were right but the problem is that it made people suing the haredi bus company not because it is wrong to assault grandmothers.
His need to be accepted by his haredi masters causes him to be anyplace the haredis wants someone articulate. Just two weeks ago he sold his mouth to beheima Leib Tropper talking in one of Tropper conferences.
The Ebstein case further illustrates how far we have come in our war against child molesters, and yet, how far we still need to go. The fact that the victim's family went to the police is certainly a positive. The Queens Vaad's action is also a positive. However, as in the Kolko case, the victim's refusal to testify allows the perp to walk with a mere slap on the wrist. We must offer the victims of abuse a support network that would encourage them to testify at a trial. The government needs to allow these kids to testify via closed circuit television rather than in person. Also, their anonymity needs to be guaranteed. Until this support system is in place, we are only taking baby steps.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yiddishtech.com/PhoneBook/Profile.aspx?ID=10989
ReplyDeleteמו"ה יחיאל ברוינער נ"י
YECHIL BRAUNER
1319 54TH ST.
BROOKLYN, New York 11219 United States
718-435-8310
Updated: 2/24/2001 12:00:00 AM
משפחה
בן - חתן
בן מו"ה זכרי` נ"י
חתן מו"ה שמואל דוד זינגער נ"י
בניו וחתניו
מו"ה רפאל זאב ברוינער נ"י
http://www.yiddishtech.com/PhoneBook/Profile.aspx?ID=8352
ZECHARYE BRAUNER (father and head of the clan)
1312 54TH ST.
BROOKLYN, New York 11219 United States
718-851-1077
Updated: 2/24/2001 12:00:00 AM
Change
משפחה
בניו וחתניו
מו"ה יוסף ניימאן נ"י
מו"ה שבתי יצחק ברוינער נ"י
מו"ה משה יצחק גאלדענבערג נ"י
מו"ה יושע גאלדבערגער נ"י
מו"ה משה חיים קרויס נ"י
מו"ה יחיאל ברוינער נ"י
מו"ה וואלף ברוינער נ"י
מו"ה נחום ברוינער נ"י
מו"ה שלום אליעזר ברוינער נ"י
מו"ה שמשון ראזענבערג נ"י
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16028/News/New_York.html
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/nyregion/16budget.html?hp
ReplyDeleteBut in a move that was praised by lawmakers and day-care advocates, administration officials said they would provide $8 million in special vouchers for after-school care, which have overwhelmingly benefited Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Borough Park and Williamsburg. Previously, the administration had proposed to cut off the money altogether.
“This recession has taken a very hard toll on New Yorkers with the least resources, and I am gratified that my colleagues and I successfully fought to restore cuts proposed by the administration that could have put even more strain on New Yorkers,” said Councilman Bill de Blasio of (Boro Park) Brooklyn, chairman of the General Welfare Committee.
Next year, however, might be different. The city drained its surplus funds to help the coming fiscal year’s budget, and is already facing a $5 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning in July 2010 — a prospect, Mr. Bloomberg said, that “really is troubling.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/us/16charity.html
ReplyDeleteThe fight against terrorism has dealt a harsh blow to Muslim charities and interfered with their donors’ religious freedom, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union concludes.
The report says statutes that it describes as overly broad and enforced in a discriminatory manner, coupled with a lack of due process, have starved Islamic charities of money and impeded Muslims’ ability to fulfill zakat, their religious requirement to make charitable donations.
The report is based on interviews with more than 100 Muslim community leaders. Though it gives no estimate of the decline in donations to Muslim groups, it says a total of nine Islamic charities have closed as a result of government action against them since the Sept. 11 attacks.
That action ranges, it says, from declaring a group to be under investigation to designating it a terrorist organization and freezing its assets.
“While there is a legitimate concern about the use of charitable funds to finance terrorism, it does not outweigh the rights of American Muslims to fulfill their religious obligations or override constitutional requirements for due process,” said the author, Jennifer Turner, the A.C.L.U.’s human rights researcher.
President Obama mentioned the issue in his speech in Cairo this month. “In the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation,” Mr. Obama said. “That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/nyregion/16nyc.html
ReplyDeleteWe overwhelmingly elected a governor, Eliot Spitzer, who turned out to be hooked on prostitutes. His replacement, David A. Paterson, was never thought of as governor material, somewhere in the subbasement. Albany under Governor Paterson is reminiscent of Afghanistan: nominally commanded by a weak leader, but with powerful warlords ascendant.
We elected a state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, who was forced out of office by scandal. Now, some of his closest associates have been indicted on charges of bribery and grand larceny. A reasonable person may infer that Mr. Hevesi either knew about these shenanigans or was out of touch to the point of dereliction.
To boot, we have an appointed United States senator, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who immediately upon taking office swiveled on so many major issues that you could have suffered whiplash trying to keep up.
Yes, we New York voters have a lot to account for in our choices. Nor is the reckoning limited to statewide officials. The roster of lower-level politicians who have sat in the back of police cars or worn orange jumpsuits has grown depressingly long. Please speak to "Uncle Milty" Balkany for more details.
The former State Senate majority leader, Joseph L. Bruno, has been indicted on federal corruption charges. Former State Senator Guy J. Velella of the Bronx went to jail because of his sticky fingers. Former Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. of Brooklyn is in prison for crimes that include extortion. Former Assemblywoman Diane M. Gordon of Brooklyn is also in prison, for bribe-taking. Ditto for former Assemblyman Brian M. McLaughlin of Queens, for racketeering.
But wait, as they say on late-night television, there’s more.
Assemblyman Anthony S. Seminerio of Queens is charged with bribery. Former State Senator Efraín González Jr. of the Bronx pleaded guilty to mail fraud, and former Assemblyman Roger L. Green of Brooklyn to larceny. Former Assemblywoman Gloria Davis of the Bronx did time for bribery.
An assortment of charges, including drunken driving and assault, have stained State Senator Kevin S. Parker of Brooklyn, Assemblymen Karim Camara of Brooklyn and Adam Clayton Powell IV of Manhattan, and former State Senators Ada L. Smith and John D. Sabini, both of Queens.
And as we said, to further make New Yorkers proud of their choices, we now have the much-investigated Mr. Espada and Mr. Monserrate, he of the night of the broken glass.
By the way, Mr. Monserrate is a Marine reservist. He has described himself as a Persian Gulf veteran, even though the only Gulf he may have seen was a gas station. He was on active duty during the Persian Gulf war, but his military records show that he never left the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/15/nyregion/06162009TEACHER_4.html
ReplyDeleteWas this the norm that they are wearing yarmulkas at the time in NYC public schools?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/nyregion/16teachers.html?pagewanted=print
Teacher interrogations also occurred in Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Buffalo, among other cities. In hearings of the security subcommittee, about 1,500 of the country’s one million teachers were said to be “card-carrying Communists,” with two-thirds of the accused residing in New York City.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Lisa Harbatkin, a freelance writer, applied in 2007 to see the files on her deceased parents, Sidney and Margaret Harbatkin, and other teachers summoned for questioning in the 1950s by the city’s powerful assistant corporation counsel, Saul Moskoff, assigned to the Board of Education as chief prosecutor.
As next of kin, she got access to files showing that informants had named her parents as Communists, and that her father had surrendered his license rather than be interrogated while her mother escaped retribution.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/EastVolusia/evlHEAD02060809.htm
ReplyDeleteMultiple scams
Jerome Feldman, 68, a former Ormond Beach psychiatrist, has been involved in more than one medical scam, according to the FBI, including one in which he brokered live organs internationally, in part, by using as many as nine aliases. Here are some of the details that led the investigation to Feldman.
FAKE ID's: "Alberto Gomez" opened both a UPS box and a bank account in Dewitt, N.Y., to conduct his organ transplant scheme. He produced a Mozambique international drivers permit, a photo identification, which investigators compared to a known photograph of Feldman. Another alias, "Michael Adams," whose British passport photo was also compared to Feldman's, used a credit card to make purchases in Manila, and a phone number linked to Feldman. Adams also had a joint bank safe deposit box with Feldman's late mother-in-law.
FAMILY PROBLEMS: E-mail messages between Feldman and his wife, Bonnie Feldman, show them bickering about money, with her complaining that he wasn't sending her enough. He said he didn't leave the United States because of her demands for him to make more money, but to avoid a "25-year vacation."
LEGAL TROUBLES: That "25-year vacation" is possible if Feldman is convicted on Florida charges that he filed 1,776 false claims to Medicare for partial hospitalization services, and 5,750 false claims to Medicaid for psychiatric services. He is also charged with the illegal purchase and resale of stolen pharmaceuticals that netted him nearly $2 million.
Bernie Madoff is one of Avi Shafran's favorite people.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/bernard-madoff/5547529/Madoff-victims-tell-sentencing-judge-how-the-fraud-has-ruined-their-lives.html
Burt Ross, the former mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, lost $5m with Madoff which he invested indirectly through the Ascot and Gabriel feeder funds run by Esra Merkin.
Mr Ross, who appeared on crutches at Mr Madoff’s last court appearance, tells Judge Chin in his latest correspondence that what Madoff did was to violate the trust of those who invested with him.
It is not known exactly where Madoff will spend his time in prison, as that is a decision typically taken by the US Bureau of Prisons after sentencing.
Prisoner 61727-054, who has been held at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correction Centre since mid-March when he formally confessed to his crimes, could literally end up anywhere in the prison system, but is likely to end up in either a low or medium security facility in a fair proximity to New York to allow family access.
On the list of possible new homes is Allenwood, Pennsylvania, which has three types of security rankings, but whose low-security inmates are able to play table tennis and get involved in gardening around the grounds.
A more distinct possibility is Otisville, in New York state near the town of Mount Hope, which has both minimum and medium security prisons. One of the main reasons the Bureau of Prisons may choose to locate Madoff there is because it offers facilities to cater for his Jewish faith, with a rabbi on staff, a kosher kitchen and weekly services.
I appeal to UOJ to remove the post at 7:52 am and it's hyperlink regarding "Jewish married sex".
ReplyDeleteThe blogger is basically saying, screw halacha. There should be no boundaries in the bedroom. He then points readers to 2 websites that facilitate adultery for Jewish men and especially Jewish married women.
The Gemarrah in Bava Metziah says that, “Even when all gates of heaven are closed, one gate always remains open. That gate is dedicated to those who were emotionally beaten down by other people’s words. This is because their pain is so great, and prayers from their hearts are so strong, Hashem is forced to listen. And, he exacts retribution from those who pained these people”.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t say, Hashem listens to victims of Ponzi schemes, pickpockets, or mortgage faud. It specifies those hurt by other people's words.
This is because the perpetrator of other crimes intended to enrich themselves in some way through the crime committed. Those who emotionally tear down others with words, SOLE purpose is to cause harm to the victim. Such people have indescribable pain, only Hashem can cure. Hence, they are given a direct connection to Hashem’s ears.
Last year, the victims of abuse who went off the ideal path of Torah joined together three times for days of prayer to protest the teatment of their rabbi. The leaders of our community thought nothing of it. In fact one of the roshei yeshiva voluntarily chose to read the kesuba under the chuppa. Yet, since that final day of prayer on Lag B’Omer night, Chicago’s chessed organizations have been doing booming business. Situations we thought only happened elswhere were happening right before our eyes.
Lev Nishbor V’Nidkeh, Hashem Lo Sivzeh. Broken and downtrodden hearts, Hashem doesn’t embarrass (he responds).
The outright emotionally and verbally abusive attacks made by the supposed leaders of Orthodox Judaism have created further anguish to these sensitive souls. When the one person connected to the establishment turned against those he was supposed to help caused tremendous damage. Besides for one rabbi who was also on the receiving end of much abuse by the establishment, they have NOBODY besides for Hashem.
The boys have arranged another day of prayer to take place within the next fourteen days. Their prayers work. Don’t let this day of broken-hearted prayer take place, the risks for Orthoox Judaism are too great.
In our current situation we truly see that, there is no laws of the Torah that are respected, and there are no judges to uphold the laws of the Torah. Please mak sure that the only true judge, Hashem is not forced by the broken-hearted victims to enforce the law.
It is indeed very important to know that our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisroel derive great koach from what happens in America.
ReplyDeleteEvery battle that we fight here, is m'chazek the parents of victims in Eretz Hakodesh.
The RBS community is suffering greatly, precisely because it is a relatively new community, and people do not know the histories, in many cases, of the newcomers.
Rosenblum never met with a victim or their families, never attended an asifa of parents, and has the chutzpah to take a position that piles on the hurt to the parents that are already devastated.
At some point, one has to question, whether all these enablers are truly descendants of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html
ReplyDeleteUS cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive
Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.
By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan
Published: 6:30PM BST 12 Jun 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/asia/17korea.html?hp
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON — The Obama administration will order the Navy to hail and request permission to inspect North Korean ships at sea suspected of carrying arms or nuclear technology, but will not board them by force, senior administration officials said Monday.
Rabbi Dovid Cohen has committed a huge Chillul HaShem and should no longer be consulted for any Psak by anyone.
ReplyDeleteQuoted from the Forward. (The Agudah still going backward)
ReplyDeleteBrooklyn, NY - The nation’s leading ultra-Orthodox umbrella organization is preparing to go to bat for a disgraced prison chaplain who is accused of giving favors to Jewish inmates.
Agudath Israel of America has drafted a letter to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressing support for Rabbi Leib Glanz, a rabbi affiliated with the Satmar Chasidic movement who is a chaplain in New York City jails. News reports over the last week have indicated that Glanz gave favors to Jewish prisoners and allowed a wealthy Jewish inmate to hold lavish catered parties in the prison for his son’s bar mitzvah and his daughter’s engagement.
A draft of the letter—which has not yet been sent—says that the groups signing onto it are concerned with “the tenor of media reports about Rabbi Leib Glanz.”
“The reports in the media pillory Rabbi Glanz, in the most cynical and derogatory fashion imaginable, for his role in accommodating Jewish prisoners’ religious requirements and helping them participate, personally or vicariously, in milestone family celebrations,” the draft letter says.
While Glanz’s action’s may have crossed lines, the draft letter states, “We also have no doubt that any such improprieties were nothing more than lapses of judgment; and that they emanated from a good place, a heart overflowing with empathy and concern.”
Advertisement:
Rabbi David Zwiebel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel, said that he drafted the letter, but he added that it was still being refined.
“It is not inconceivable at the end of the day that the letter won’t go,” Zwiebel said.
An email listing the organizations that have signed onto the letter included a number of ultra-Orthodox organizations based in Brooklyn. The list also included the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. Officials at both organizations said that they had not, in fact, signed onto the letter and did not plan to.
A top official of New York City’s Department of Corrections has resigned over the scandal. But thus far, Glanz has only been suspended from his job for two weeks.
Yipee! The idiots of Agudah have found where to place the one foot that has come unstuck from the mud they seem always to be in. Now they are going to bat for a womanizer who was told by Satmar to just not do IT with an Eishes Ish please. Aguda appears to have a sick fetish for kiddy-molesters and lowlife skirt-chasing prostitute-patronizing dreck!
Yipee! The idiots of Agudah have found where to place the one foot that has come unstuck from the mud they seem always to be in. Now they are going to bat for a womanizer who was told by Satmar to just not do IT with an Eishes Ish please. Aguda appears to have a sick fetish for kiddy-molesters and lowlife skirt-chasing prostitute-patronizing dreck!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/health/policy/16obama.html
ReplyDeleteObama's health "plan" doesn't work even according to his own cheshbonos. There is no money for it and tens of millions of people will still be without insurance.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/democrats-defend-health-care-plans-despite-cost-estimate/?hp
Another version of the story
Zweibel is meshugganer hund.
ReplyDeleteJust because he has a job for right now, gives him no right to jeapordize other people's parnassah. By defending Glanz, he is going to cause investigations into many other frum city employees.
It's no secret that many of us had protektzia to get into the government. By sticking his pointy rat nose into every time a Jew yells Anti-Semite he'll ruin it for many more people.
Does anyone have actual details on Glanz besides vague accusations that he likes women?
ReplyDeleteRabbi Leib Glanz, the city jail chaplain under investigation for organizing a bar mitzvah in the Tombs, resigned today because of the scandal.
ReplyDeleteGlanz's move came just a day after Department of Correction Chief Peter Curcio resigned for allowing the rabbi to set up the bar mitzvah in the lower Manhattan jail for an inmate's son.
"Rabbi Glanz tendered his resignation today, effective immediately," said DOC spokesman Stephen Morello
Making sure that child molester Ebstein does not return to the bakery, is a good start for the Queens Vaad, if they are takke serious about it, but they still have plenty of other issues to get in order.
ReplyDeleteEphraim Bryks is wanted for questioning by Canadian police for crimes against children as well after he fled that country. Why is he allowed to give shiurim in Queens Vaad affiliated shuls and to run around promoting himself as a sholom bayis counselor? And is he still in charge of some Vaad mikvaos? Yes, Bryks has protekzia because of his relatives Paysach Krohn and Moshe Faskowitz and seemingly also through Peretz Steinberg but this has to stop.
We have not seen the actual psak but it is rumored that Rav Elyashev ordered the Queens Vaad to stop allowing old cemeteries they administer to lie in disrepair. Has anything been done about this alleged bizayon hamesim?
The Queens Vaad has an incoherent policy on bedikas tolaim and enforcement thereof. They should get their act together.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/opinion/16tue1.html
ReplyDeleteJune 16, 2009
EDITORIAL
A Bad Call on Gay Rights
Some companies are not following CDC and OSHA guidelines on the swine flu. It boils down to the fact that they are shortsightedly greedy and do not want to provide extra sick days in the short term despite the fact that an outbreak will severely hamper their functionality and expose them to major liability.
ReplyDeleteOne example right now involves a company trying to cover up that an employee has multiple family members ill with confirmed H1N1. The employee herself is ill but as of yet unconfirmed. The company will not give her time off so she is reporting to work while warning everyone of her circumstance. When other employees questioned the ill-advised company policy they were threatened with termination for "violating Federal laws" that prohibit discussing another's confidential health condition.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/senator-ensign-admits-extramarital-affair/?hp
ReplyDeleteSenator Ensign Admits Extramarital Affair
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
2 minutes ago
Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, admitted that he had a relationship with a campaign staff member.
Mr. Ensign, 51, is married and has three children. During college at Colorado State University, he became a born-again Christian and he and his wife, Darlene, were active in the Promise Seekers, an evangelical group.
In a statement released by his office in Washington, Mr. Ensign said: “I take full responsibility for my actions. I know that I have deeply hurt and disappointed my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my staff and the people of Nevada who believed in me not just as a legislator but as a person. I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/rev-wright-tries-to-explain-away-remarks/
ReplyDeleteWe’re sure that President Obama and his Jewish advisers will be happy to know that Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., has “clarified” his remark to The Daily Press of Newport News this week — that he had not spoken to the president because “Them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me.” This seemed to be a reference to the likes of Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and David Axelrod, the senior presidential adviser.
But today, Mr. Wright said during an appearance on the Sirius/XM radio program “Make it Plain with Mark Thompson” that he “misspoke.” He said he was not talking about “all Jews.” Or, that he was only referring to “Zionists.’’ Or, that it all had to do with Israel’s history with the Palestinians. O.K., we give up. You can hear his answer for yourself.
In the original interview with the Daily Press, which caught up with him at a minister’s conference, Rev. Wright said “them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me” after he was asked whether he had spoken with his former church follower, Mr. Obama. The newspaper, which wrote about the statement yesterday, has posted the audio from that exchange here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/world/middleeast/17mideast.html
ReplyDeleteJune 17, 2009
Carter Urges Hamas to Meet Demands
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER
GAZA — Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that he urged Hamas leaders during a high-profile meeting here to take steps necessary to become accepted by the leading Western nations.
Mr. Carter is the most prominent American figure to have met with the Hamas government that took over Gaza two years ago, after the Palestinian Authority’s forces were routed in a brief but bloody factional war. Hamas welcomed Mr. Carter’s visit as a significant step in its quest for international legitimacy.
Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, and Mr. Carter held a joint news conference at which an American flag was displayed alongside a Palestinian national flag behind the speakers.
In a three-hour meeting with Hamas government officials and senior representatives of the group, Mr. Carter told them to find a mechanism that would allow Hamas to meet the conditions set by international players, according to Ahmed Yousef, the Hamas deputy foreign minister who attended the meeting.
Mr. Carter said that in order to break the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, “first of all Hamas has to be accepted by the international community as a legitimate player in the future, and that is what I am trying to do today.”
Mr. Carter also called for an end to the economic blockade of Gaza.
Earlier, touring the site of the American International School, a private institution in Gaza that was bombed by the Israelis during the war, Mr. Carter said, “I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wreaked against your people.” He added that he felt partly responsible because the school had been “deliberately destroyed by bombs from F-16s made in my country.”
Israel said that rockets had been launched from the school.
“Tragically, the international community largely ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of Gaza are treated more like animals than human beings,” he said.
----------------
June 17, 2009
Carter Urges Hamas to Meet Demands
By JOHN O'FUTZYUTZ and PINCHOS LIPSCHUTZ
555 Ocean Parkway — Agudah Dunce Avi Shafran said Tuesday that he urged YTT leaders during a high-profile meeting here to take steps necessary to become accepted by normal frum Jews.
Shafran is the most prominent Agudah figure to have met with YTT since UOJ turned the place upside down two years ago, routing them in a bloody confrontation. YTT welcomed Shafran’s visit as a significant step in its quest for heimishe legitimacy.
Lipa Margulies, the leader of YTT, and Shafran held a joint news conference at which Hungarian goulash was displayed alongside Poilishe ptcha behind the all kinds of other food to fress.
In a three-hour meeting with YTT officials, Shafran told them to find a mechanism that would allow YTT to meet conditions set by Rav Elyashev, according to Yankel Applegrad, the YTT deputy rasha who attended the meeting.
Shafran said that in order to break the YTT-Yiddishkeit stalemate, “first of all YTT has to be accepted by the yeshivish community as a legitimate player in the future, and that is what I am trying to do today.”
SHafran also called for an end to blogging against Kolko and Margo.
Earlier, touring the site of Ohel, a taxpayer-funded institution in Boro Park that was attacked by UOJ, Shafran said, “I have to hold back tears when I see the deliberate destruction that has been wreaked upon those who cover up molestation.” He added that he felt partly responsible because UOJ had attended a yeshiva led by the father of a Moetzes member.
UOJ said that multiple molesters have been active in Ohel.
“Tragically, the frum community largely ignores the David Mandel's cries for help, while molesters and enablers are treated more like animals than human beings,” he said.
Why should Zweibel give a rat's behind about the parnossa of stam mentchen? He knows who shmaltzes his challah and that very rich and powerful Agudah fressers need Glanz to help themselves or their relatives when in the slammer.
ReplyDeleteBoth Versions Of The Story Are Correct:
ReplyDeleteHatzola just left after administering much needed oxygen after I fell to the floor laughing non-stop!
Keep it up, I loved this one!
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/06/16/world/17carter_600.jpg
ReplyDeleteI was tzittering the whole time I was there with Hamas wondering if there would be some incoming missiles sent by UOJ or the Israeli Air Force.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ReplyDelete4 minutes ago
President Barack Obama plans to extend health care and other benefits to the gay and lesbian partners of federal employees.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/battle-for-control-of-childrens-place-heats-up/
ReplyDeleteA schoolyard skirmish that started nearly two years ago between The Children’s Place and its former chief executive, Ezra Dabah, is heating up ahead of a crucial shareholder vote next month over control of the clothing retailer.
In a letter to shareholders on Tuesday, The Children’s Place accuses Mr. Dabah of trying to “steal” the company without paying a premium to shareholders. The former chief executive, who resigned in 2007 over what the company said were violations of its code of conduct, began a proxy contest last month to place three of his chosen candidates on the company’s board.
Mr. Dabah is still a director of The Children’s Place, as is his father-in-law, Stanley Silverstein. If he persuades shareholders to vote for all three of his directors, he or his allies will hold five of the board’s nine seats, essentially giving him control of the company.
Charles K. Crovitz, who took over as interim chief executive after Mr. Dabah stepped down, highlighted the company’s performance in the letter. He noted that shares of The Children’s Place, which is based in Secaucus, N.J., have surged 17 percent since he was appointed, compared to a 30 percent drop in the S&P Retail Index over the same time period.
He also highlighted several problems the company faced before Mr. Dabah’s resignation, including an investigation by the board involving the alleged backdating of stock options by Mr. Dabah and others. An internal investigation found Mr. Dabah failed to tell board members, as internal rules required, that his wife had inherited shares of the company after a family trust dissolved.
Mr. Dabah also pledged his shares as collateral for a loan at a time when the company forbade such actions, the investigation found. In a response shortly after he stepped down, Mr. Dabah said his resignation “had nothing to do with the ‘issues’ surrounding the code of conduct” and blamed it on a “power play” by certain board members.
The proxy fight, which will culminate at the company’s annual meeting on July 31, could be an uphill battle for the retailer, because Mr. Dabah and Mr Silverstein already control about 30 percent of the company’s outstanding shares.
Shortly after his resignation, Mr. Dabah forced The Children’s Place to put itself up for sale and, with the backing of a private equity firm, placed an offer for the company at $24 a share. He ultimately determined not to make a formal offer for the company because of weak debt markets, according to the company’s letter. The sale process also concluded with no firm offers for the company.
“Mr. Dabah has now initiated a proxy contest that in our opinion is a calculated attempt to gain control of the company without paying a cent to stockholders,” Mr. Crovitz says in the letter. “Apparently, Mr. Dabah doesn’t like to pay retail.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/nyregion/17scheme.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteWord of the deal spread swiftly among Ecuadorean immigrants, along a robust grapevine from New York City out to Long Island and into Westchester County. In Peekskill, N.Y., a gas station worker named Henry León heard about it through a friend of his wife’s: The pastors of a storefront Pentecostal church in Corona, Queens, had the inside track on a special allotment of green cards the government had earmarked for church congregations.
Mr. León and his wife made the two-hour trip by train and subway to Corona to meet with one of the two pastors, Gregorio Gonzalez. He told them that all they had to do was to fill out a form and provide $8,000 each in cash and some personal identification documents, Mr. León recalled. The green cards would be ready in a month.
It seemed too good to be true. And it was, according to prosecutors in the Queens district attorney’s office.
Mr. León and his wife are among at least 120 illegal immigrants in the New York region, most of them Ecuadoreans, who the authorities say were defrauded out of a total of nearly $1 million by Mr. Gonzalez, 56, and two accomplices who were arrested in March and April. The authorities say it was one of the region’s largest cases of immigration fraud in recent years.
Mr. León, 26, a Roman Catholic, still finds it hard to believe that a man of the cloth would lie to them. “For someone who talks so much about God,” he said, “why did he play people like that?”
Immigration fraud has become widespread as hucksters, many of them newcomers themselves, take advantage of illegal immigrants desperate to legalize their status yet hesitant to seek help from law enforcement agencies for fear of deportation. Pastors accused of fleecing the faithful are nothing new, either: In April, a former minister of a church in Forest Hills, Queens, and four others were indicted on charges of swindling investors, many of them elderly or disabled church members, of more than $9 million.
But the story of the Corona scheme suggests how especially insidious immigration fraud may be when practiced by leaders of a church — the institution that many immigrants turn to for friendship and guidance in a foreign land.
The Rev. Brian Jordan, a Franciscan priest based in Manhattan who has worked with immigrants and refugees for 26 years, said the victims in such cases are caught in “double jeopardy.”
“The people are being scammed, and what makes it worse is they’re being scammed by someone they trust, these so-called pastors,” he said. Speaking of Mr. Gonzalez, he added, “This guy is no more a pastor than I am an astronaut.”
Immigrant advocates and law enforcement officials in New York and across the country say that immigration-fraud schemes operating out of religious institutions appear to be rare. But some may go unreported, given illegal immigrants’ suspicions of the government and the transience of many small, independent churches.
Prosecutors say Mr. Gonzalez and Gerardo Bello, 21, set up their church, La Iglesia Roca de la Salvación Eterna, in the cellar of a brick house in Corona early last year. The authorities said that it was unclear how large a congregation the men had built, but that neither was ordained.
Mr. Gonzalez, officials said, is an Ecuadorean immigrant, too — in the United States illegally and subject to deportation. He and Mr. Bello face charges of grand larceny, fraud and possession of stolen property.
Aileh Barechev:
ReplyDeleteAgudath Israel's Gestapo henchmen come with threats, intimidation, libelous attacks against those who question their unethical and immoral stances.
V'Aileh Basoosim:
Agudath Israel send out their talking heads to spread their drivel, their utter nonsensical anti-Torah beliefs. Shafran, Horowitz, Zweibel, Rosenblum, Perlow, every day another case of schvein flu. They think they can beat us psychologically.
V'ANACHNU B'SHAIM HASHEM NAZKIR:
We believe only in Hashem. Only Hashem can overturn all the evil traps these Sonei Hashem have put in the path of the successful return of countless children who went off the derech. Hashem, your wounded children are ready to return. Once you change the hearts of the Sonei Hashem, they will be back.
Hashem please do whatever it takes to help the victims, and cause a Kiddush Hashem!
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Sean Penn will not be one of the ''The Three Stooges'' or join ''Cartel.''
ReplyDeleteA spokeswoman for the Oscar winner said he is dropping out of the films. Penn spokeswoman Mara Buxbaum did not specify a reason.
Penn was slated to star as Larry in ''Three Stooges'' and as a man protecting his son in ''Cartel.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/politics/17gays.html?hp
ReplyDelete... the president “wants to see a legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.” Mr. Obama repeatedly backed repealing the act during his presidential campaign.
Some baalei teshuva and gerim who lived in FLatbush have been turned off of Yiddishkeit because even when they were very visibly 9 months pregnant, no one would get up to give them a seat on crowded buses and trains. Not Bais Yaakov girls, not grown frum women, not yeshivishe looking baal habatim. No one that is except for some polite tunkelach who know more about derech eretz than Yidden r'l.
ReplyDeletehttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/please-give-the-disabled-your-seat-or-else/?hp
This week, as it has done every couple of years, New York City Transit is starting an advertising campaign asking New Yorkers to remember to “please offer a seat” to disabled passengers on buses and subways.
There was a time — who knows if it really existed — when such civility was assumed. However, the new posters on subways and buses give riders an extra prod: “It’s not only polite, it’s the law.”
“It’s the first time we’ve really stressed this,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, vice president for corporate communications at New York City Transit, the largest arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Those who decline to give up a seat on request face up to a $50 fine, he said. (The new campaign also warns that “not all disabilities are visible.”)
As long as there has been public transportation, there has been grumbling about healthy young men taking a load off while the pregnant, the old and the infirm stand by.
Recently, some bloggers have chronicled their own troubles securing a seat while injured or pregnant.
“We’ve become less civil,” said Lawrence Carter-Long, executive director of the Disabilities Network of New York City, who has cerebral palsy and walks with a cane. “I don’t think it’s malice,” he said. “But in a city like New York, where you put your head down and just try to get from point A to point B, it’s even more of a problem.”
From the: Looks And Smells Like Dreck Dept.
ReplyDeleteAgudah defending Leibel (Shimush) Glantz.
Actually, Chubby Checker asked this question years ago:
"How low can you go"?
Apparently, Agudah has yet to reach the bottom.
Stay tuned.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/16/bomb-plot-carter-gaza-discovered/
ReplyDeleteCarter to Obama: Remove Hamas From Terror List
June 16, 2009
Former President Jimmy Carter will urge the Obama administration to remove Hamas from the terrorist list, FOX News has learned.
Carter, a chief defender of the U.S.-designated terror group, said he will meet with officials in the Obama administration to discuss his latest trip to the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources told FOX News that the group had discovered roadside bombs planted near a crossing between Israel and Gaza on a path Carter's convoy took - Hamas advisers, though, cast doubt on claims that extremists were trying to kill Carter.
Carter was granted special waivers by the U.S. Secret Service allowing him to enter Gaza. Employees of the U.S. executive branch are not allowed into the strip since a roadside bomb killed three U.S. security personnel in 2003.
Carter was visiting Hamas leaders to try to persuade them to accept the international community's conditions for ending its boycott of the Islamic militant group.
The international community has asked Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace deals for Palestinians to acquire their own country. Hamas has refused.
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and Europe and has been shunned by much of the world.
According to eyewitnesses, the bombs were intended to hit Carter's vehicle as he exited Gaza. There is suspicion that Hamas extremists linked to Al Qaeda may be behind the attempt.
But Hamas advisers, in interviews with WorldNetDaily, denied reports that extremists were behind such an alleged assassination attempt.
"Nobody in Gaza will touch this man," Hamas adviser Ahmed Yousef said. "He is on a noble mission. Everyone here respects him."
-----------
Zweibel to Elliot Pasik: Remove Agudah From Pro-Molester List
June 16, 2009
Agudah President Dovid Zweibel will urge the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children remove the Agudah from the Pro-Molester list, Yated Neeman has learned.
Zweibel, a chief defender of UOJ-designated molester groups, said he will meet with officials of JBAC to discuss Shafran's latest trip to YTT.
Meanwhile, Ohel sources told the Yated that the group had discovered roadside bombs planted near a crossing between Boro Park and Kensington on a path Shafran's convoy took to meet with YTT leaders - Margo's advisers, though, cast doubt on claims that pro-molester extremists were trying to kill Shafran.
Shafran was granted special waivers by the Moetzes allowing him to enter YTT. Employees of the Agudah are not allowed in since UOJ ambushed Kolko, Margo and Twersky, giving the Agudah a corrupt face to the public.
Shafran was visiting YTT leaders to try to persuade them to accept the non-Hungarian community's conditions for ending its boycott of the so-called yeshiva.
The international frum community has asked the Agudah to recognize UOJ, renounce molestation and accept previous demands for the Agudah to acquire a sense of morality. The Agudah has refused.
The Agudah is considered a pro-molester group by UOJ and JBAC and has been shunned by much of the world.
According to eyewitnesses, the bombs were intended to hit Shafran's vehicle as he exited Brooklyn. There is suspicion that extremists linked to Belsky may be behind the attempt since he is no longer allowed to speak at Agudah fresser events.
But YTT advisers, in interviews with Hamodia, denied reports that Belsky-connected extremists were behind such an alleged assassination attempt. Belsky spokesman, Dr. Bungalow Putz Neuhoff could not be reached for comment.
"Nobody in YTT will touch this man," Shea Fishman said. "He is on a noble mission. Everyone here respects him."
Somebody call Hatzola please!
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB124526168275024051.html
ReplyDeleteJUNE 17, 2009, 2:18 P.M. ET
Obama Directive to Bar Bias Based on Sexual Orientation
Sean Penn pulls out of 'Three Stooges' to focus on family life
ReplyDeleteLos Angeles Times
Men-only train cars sought in groping fears
ReplyDeleteTOKYO (Reuters) – Many women taking the crowded train in Tokyo opt for women-only carriages during the rush hour to avoid gropers.
Now, for fear of being accused of groping, some are asking for carriages reserved for men as well.
Ten shareholders of Seibu Holdings, which runs trains in the Tokyo area, have petitioned for carriages reserved for men.
"There have been many cases of groping, as well as false charges of groping, on Seibu Railway," the shareholders said in a notice seeking a vote at the company's annual meeting next Wednesday.
"While measures against groping, such as setting women-only carriages, have been effective to a certain extent, no measures have been taken against false charges of groping... In the spirit of gender-equality, a male-only carriage must be introduced."
False accusations of groping were highlighted when Japan's Supreme Court overturned in April the conviction of a professor for groping a girl on a Tokyo train.
Judges pointed out a need to be careful in such cases when the accuser was the only source of evidence, media said.
But the shareholder request for men's carriages may not be implemented, as Seibu's board of directors opposes the idea.
"The reality is that we have few requests from Seibu Railway users for setting up male-only carriages," the board said in its reply to the shareholder request.
In Tokyo, around 2,000 people were arrested for groping in 2007, data from the police showed. Many crowded train lines, including Seibu lines, designate a carriage just for women during the rush hour.
Cold case cracked: Two charged in 1986 killing
ReplyDeleteBY ANN GIVENS | ann.givens@newsday.com
1:33 PM EDT, June 17, 2009
Two men who prosecutors say robbed and murdered a Woodmere man as he pulled into his driveway in 1986 were arraigned Wednesday morning, more than 20 years after the crime occurred.
Lewis Slaughter, 60, and Roger Williams, 48, both refused to enter pleas and said they intend to represent themselves in the case. Nassau County Judge James McCormack entered not-guilty pleas on their behalfs and said he will consider their wishes to represent themselves at their next court appearance on June 30.
Prosecutors said Slaughter and Williams shot Samuel Quentzel, 54, as he pulled into his driveway after returning from work at the family plumbing business in Brooklyn in September 1986.
http://www.nytimes.com/
ReplyDelete29 minutes ago
Protesters said that tens of thousands had massed in central Tehran again on Wednesday as Iran tried to block any coverage of opposition activities.
Can we trust the Queens DA that the kid didn't want to testify? He was already in court confronting the menuvel. Richard Brown is friends with Charlie Hynes. Something doesn't seem kosher here.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/06/16/2009-06-16_teen_molested_as_a_child_by_queens_baker_confronts.html
A teenager who was molested by a Queens baker as a boy - and then turned to drugs to mask his secret pain - confronted his tormentor in court Tuesday.
"I've been wanting to do this since the day this happened," the 17-year-old told admitted pervert Issac Ebstein, 50, who hung his head in shame.
"The pain that I've been through, words can't describe it. You ruined my life. It's not fair. It's not right."
He listed the ways that Ebstein's abuse had destroyed his young life: "I lost my respect for religion, use of drugs, loss of self respect."
Ebstein used cookies to lure the victim - whose name is being withheld by the Daily News - into Queens Kosher Pita in Kew Gardens Hills seven years ago.
Ebstein admitted that on three occasions in 2002, he drove the boy around in his car and touched his genitals - then asked the boy to touch his.
"I'm sorry," the red-faced defendant told his victim.
In a plea deal with prosecutors, Ebstein is getting a sentence of a year's probation with no jail time in exchange for pleading guilty to attempted sexual abuse and attempted child endangerment.
Under the terms of a new sex offender program, he was released without bail and does not have to register as a sexual predator as long as he completes a year of counseling and comes to court for weekly updates.
"If you violate the terms of probation, if you are not law abiding...I will send you to state prison," Queens Supreme Court Justice Sheri Roman said.
Ebstein also must stay away from the teen - who pleaded with him to get help and to speak up about anyone else he may have abused.
"If you have done this to anybody else, tell someone. Let the kids get help," the teen said. Prosecutors said the deal spared the victim the hell of testifying about his ordeal in open court.
"For him to have to testify in a Supreme Court trial after a seven-year delay, it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible," said Marjory Fisher, chief of the special victims bureau.
"I believe that justice was done in this case."
Well worth watching
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuOH2YycFP8
June 18, 2009
ReplyDeleteFor Obama, Pressure to Strike Firmer Tone
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — As tens of thousands of Iranian protesters take to the streets in defiance of the government in Tehran, officials in Washington are debating whether President Obama’s response to Iran’s disputed election has been too muted.
Mr. Obama is coming under increased pressure from Republicans and other conservatives who say he should take a more visible stance in support of the protesters.
Even while supporting the president’s approach, senior members of the administration, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, would like to strike a stronger tone in support of the protesters, administration officials said.
Mr. Obama also drew criticism from politically neutral observers when he said in an interview on Tuesday with The New York Times and CNBC that from an American national security perspective, there was not much difference between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir Hussein Moussavi, his closest competitor in the election.
The remark struck critics as off key and dismissive toward Mr. Moussavi, when he has become a symbol of freedom and democracy in Iran. “Obama’s posture has been very equivocal, without a clear message,” said Representative Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican who is the House minority whip. “Now is the time for us to show our support with the Iranian people. I would like to see a strong statement from him that has moral clarity.”
“For Barack Obama, this was a serious misstep,” said Steven Clemons, director of the American strategy program at the New America Foundation.
Mr. Obama’s comments deflated Mr. Moussavi, who is rapidly becoming a political icon in Iran, even supporters of Mr. Obama’s Iran policy say.
“Up until now, the president had very thoughtfully calibrated his remarks on Iran, but this was an uncharacteristic and egregious error,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “People are risking their lives and being slaughtered in the streets because they want fundamental change in the way Iran is governed. Our message to them shouldn’t be that it doesn’t make much difference to the United States.”
OKLAHOMA CITY (June 16) -- A plea deal that sent an ex-convict accused of raping a 4-year-old girl to jail for only a year has prompted outrage across Oklahoma, where lawmakers are calling for the removal of the judge who approved the deal and the attorney general is investigating a new set of abuse allegations.
ReplyDeleteUnder the deal, David Harold Earls, 64, of the southeastern Oklahoma town of McAlester, pleaded no contest last month to first-degree rape and forcible sodomy. Normally, the rape charge carries a sentence of between five years to life in prison, but the deal he struck with prosecutors called for 19 years of his 20-year sentence to be suspended.
Such problems involving testimony from children in criminal cases aren't unusual, said Barbara Bonner, director of the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
"Obviously, the criminal justice system wasn't set up to pit a 4- or 5-year-old child against an adult," Bonner said. "Particularly in cases of young children, they have very high levels of anxiety associated with the abuse. They'll do anything to avoid talking about it."
Several state lawmakers want an investigation into the actions of Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld, who signed off on the plea deal. The Oklahoma Legislature doesn't have the power to remove a judge, but lawmakers have introduced a resolution asking that a legal process be started in which a judge can be removed by a special state court.
June 18, 2009
ReplyDeleteFor the Novominsker, Pressure to Strike Firmer Tone
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER
WASHINGTON — As tens of thousands of anti-pedophile protesters take to the streets in defiance of YTT, officials at the Agudah are debating whether Rabbi Perlow’s response to Margo’s disputed right to call himself a "rosh yeshiva" has been too muted.
Rabbi Perlow is coming under increased pressure from from what he calls "picketers" and other Yidden who say he should take a more visible stance in support of the protesters.
Even while supporting the Novominsker Rebbe’s approach, senior members of the Agudah, including Rabbi Yankel Horowitz, would like to strike a stronger tone in support of the protesters.
Rabbi Perlow also drew criticism from politically neutral observers when he said in an interview on Tuesday with The Yated and Jewish Press that from an Agudah bank account security perspective, there was not much difference between Lipa Margulies and any other enabler of pedophiles operating outside of Boro Park as identified by UOJ.
The remark struck critics as off key and dismissive toward Mr. (Unorthodox) Jew, when he has become a symbol of freedom and democracy for victims. “Perlow’s posture has been very equivocal, without a clear message,” said Vicky Polin, a Maryland Democrat. “Now is the time for us to show our support with the victims of sexual abuse. I would like to see a strong statement from him that has moral clarity.”
“For Jacob Perlow, this was a serious misstep,” said Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, director of the vigilante strategy program at the New UOJ-Agent Foundation, speaking over loud shouts of protest from Agudah trustee Town Car Putz Lefkowitz who tried to hijack the interview through a rolled-down car window.
Eli Greenwald, the only father to pull his children out of YTT said: “People are risking their lives and being slaughtered by Belsky and his goons because they want fundamental change in the way yeshivos are governed. Our message to them shouldn’t be that it doesn’t make much difference to the Agudah.”
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Continental Airlines flight carrying dead pilot lands safely at Newark airport.
ReplyDelete________________________
He should have crashed the plane into the Manhattan Correctional Center before he died, freeing my hero Bernie Madoff. What a putz.
Shafran, when are you and Zweibel going to get Leib Glanz reinstated at Corrections? It's almost shabbos and I'm worried if I'm going to be able to fress on Rubashkin brisket or not.
ReplyDeleteBY Sarah Armaghan
ReplyDeleteDAILY NEWS WRITER
Thursday, June 18th 2009, 4:00 AM
The NAACP has a lot of victories to celebrate next month for its 100-year anniversary - including witnessing the first black President in the White House.
But there's still a lot of work to do, said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the civil rights group.
"Too many Black dads are still out of work, too many Black moms aren't getting paid enough, too many Black children are going to schools that are an embarrassment to everything this country stands for," he said. "There are too many Black people in jail and too many Black people dying of AIDS.
"These are the crises that define the present need for the NAACP."
I usually keep away from posting this kind of stuff but this time I couldn't resist.
ReplyDeleteOver five thousand years ago,
> Moses said to the children of
> Israel "
>
> Pick up your shovel, mount
> your asses and camels, and
> I will lead you to The promised
> land".
>
>
>
>
> Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt
> said, " Lay down your
> shovels, sit on your asses, and
>
> Light up a camel, this is the
> promised land".
>
>
>
> Now Obama has stolen your
> shovel , taxed your asses,
> raised the price
>
> Of camels, and mortgaged the
> promised land.
>
.
ReplyDeleteTwo Japanese men are detained in Italy after allegedly
attempting to take $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds over the
border into Switzerland. Details are maddeningly sketchy, so
naturally the global rumor mill is kicking into high gear.
Are these would-be smugglers agents of Kim Jong Il stashing
North Korea's cash in a Swiss vault? Bagmen for Nigerian
Internet scammers? Was the money meant for terrorists looking to
buy nuclear warheads? Is Japan dumping its dollars secretly? Are
the bonds real or counterfeit?
The implications of the securities being legitimate would
be bigger than investors may realize. At a minimum, it would
suggest that the U.S. risks losing control over its monetary
supply on a massive scale.
The trillions of dollars of debt the U.S. will issue in the
next couple of years needs buyers. Attracting them will require
making sure that existing ones aren't losing faith in the U.S.'s
ability to control the dollar.
The dollar is, for better or worse, the core of our world
economy and it's best to keep it stable. News that's more
fitting for international spy novels than the financial pages
won't help that effort. It is incumbent upon the U.S. Treasury
to get to the bottom of this tale and keep markets informed.
Think about it: These two guys were carrying the gross
domestic product of New Zealand or enough for three Beijing
Olympics. If economies were for sale, the men could buy Slovakia
and Croatia and have plenty left over for Mongolia or Cambodia.
Yes, they could have built vacation homes amidst Genghis Khan's
Gobi Desert or the famed Temples of Angkor. Bernard Madoff who?
These men carrying bonds concealed in the bottom of their
luggage also would be the fourth-largest U.S. creditors. It
makes you wonder if some of the time Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner spends keeping the Chinese and Japanese invested in
dollars should be devoted to well-financed men crossing the
Italian-Swiss border.
This tale has gotten little attention in markets, perhaps
because of the absurdity of our times. The last year has been a
decidedly disorienting one for capitalists who once knew up from
down, red from black and risk from reward. It almost fits with
the surreal nature of today that a couple of travelers have more
U.S. debt than Brazil in a suitcase and, well, that's life.
Let's assume for a moment that these U.S. bonds are real.
That would make a mockery of Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru
Yosano's "absolutely unshakable" confidence in the credibility
of the U.S. dollar. Yosano would have some explaining to do
about Japan's $686 billion of U.S. debt if more of these
suitcase capers come to light.
Counterfeit $100 bills are one thing; two guys with
undeclared bonds including 249 certificates worth $500 million
and 10 "Kennedy bonds" of $1 billion each is quite another.
The bust could be a boon for Italy. If the securities are
found to be genuine, the smugglers could be fined 40 percent of
the total value for attempting to take them out of the country.
Not a bad payday for a government grappling with a widening
budget deficit and rebuilding the town of L'Aquila, which was
destroyed by an earthquake in April.
It would be terrible news for the White House. Other than
the U.S., China or Japan, no other nation could theoretically
move those amounts. In the absence of clear explanations coming
from the Treasury, conspiracy theories are filling the void.
On his blog, the Market Ticker, Karl Denninger wonders if
the Treasury "has been surreptitiously issuing bonds to, say,
Japan, as a means of financing deficits that someone didn't want
reported over the last, oh, say 10 or 20 years." Adds
Denninger: "Let's hope we get those answers, and this isn't one
of those 'funny things' that just disappears into the night."
My last post was heavily edited by myself to qualify for posting.It originally appeared in Bloomberg June 17 and was written by William Pesek
ReplyDeletehttp://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2009/06/yeshiva-bais-hatorah-on-strike.html
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
Nechemiah Gottleib is a child abuser who caused numerous children to leave the derech.
The cheder closing is probably for the better of the klal.
JWB says:
ReplyDeleteSAVE MOLLY AND HER SISTERS!!!
Can anyone shed light on the identity of the following pedophile?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1193808/Hey-parents-leave-kids-Home-education-better-school-says-CAROL-SARLER.html
...
Hey parents, leave those kids alone! Home education is not better than school, says CAROL SARLER
By Carol Sarler
Last updated at 8:57 AM on 18th June 2009
...
We don't know that he would. But we do know that he couldn't. Which brings me to another home-schooled child, whom we shall call Molly because that is her real name. Only she doesn't use it any more.
Molly and her sisters were home-schooled because her parents didn't think schools were religious enough (Orthodox Jewish, since you ask).
At 17, she was married off to an older Jewish man. A year later, he was convicted of possessing child pornography and sent to prison for three years.
He told her he was innocent; she - too unworldly to comprehend the charges, let alone his guilt - believed him.
He instructed her to wait for him; she, accustomed to taking instruction from within the family and knowing few outside it, did.
Now, with his time served, they have legged it to Israel with new names. They plan soon to have their own children - who will, naturally, be home-schooled. Worried? Someone should be.
Republicans are increasingly trying to raise doubts about Democratic proposals for a healthcare plan estimated to cost many billions of dollars (Reuters is downplaying that it's really trillions), pointing to the cost of the stimulus plan as an example of why skepticism is needed.
ReplyDeleteThe two-year stimulus plan has had little noticeable impact so far on improving the jobless picture.
"Once again, it's rush and spend, and rush and spend -- and a tidal wave of debt," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday.
Bill Austin, an executive in the Phoenix valley, said he was tired of hearing Obama complain that he had inherited the economic mess from his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Austin said he thought Obama's stimulus package has had little effect and would create more problems in the future by deepening the deficit.
(Additional reporting by Matthew Bigg in Atlanta, Tim Gaynor in Phoenix and Ed Stoddard in Dallas; editing by Philip Barbara)
(steve.a.holland@thomsonreuters.com)
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/06/18/2009-06-18_queens_mother_marie_lauradin_charged_in_voodoo_fire_ritual_that_leaves_6yearold_.html
ReplyDeleteSan Jose Mercury News - 41 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteLOS ANGELES - Los Angeles detectives are investigating the death of a man whose burned body was found in a wheelchair in South Los Angeles.
What you and your loved ones can expect if ObamaCare passes:
ReplyDeleteWAKE UP! AMERICA!
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/feb/20/business/chi-fri-uofc-emergency-feb20
THE BIM BAM IDENTITY.
The Associated Press - 1 hour ago
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (AP) - The House on Friday impeached a federal judge imprisoned for lying about sexual assaults of two women in the first such vote since impeaching former President Bill Clinton a decade ago.
How many more things is he going to hijack? Why doesn't he take over all the 7-11s and gas stations in the country while he's at it?
ReplyDeletehttp://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/06/68289269/1
Add another complicated legislative challenge to the long list President Obama is giving himself: As he works to overhaul the nation's health care system and economic regulatory system, the president is promising to rewrite the nation's immigration laws too.
WASHINGTON — The package of domestic partnership benefits that President Obama established for federal workers on Wednesday drew the loudest protests from some of those it was intended to help, gay men and lesbians who criticized the move as too timid.
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://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/modeling-interracial-love/?hp
ReplyDeleteShmarya no doubt disputes the findings of this study. It would be news to him that any white men would not be interested in black women!
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (June 20) - Connecticut officials were repeatedly warned about the dangers posed by a chimpanzee who later mauled and blinded a woman and were urged — more than three years before the attack — to take action, but failed to do so, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
ReplyDeleteThe 200-pound chimpanzee named Travis attacked Charla Nash of Stamford in February, ripping off her hands, nose, lips and eyelids. She has been hospitalized for months at the Cleveland Clinic, where her condition late last week was listed as stable.
The state's response could affect a high-stakes lawsuit the victim's family filed against the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold of Stamford, seeking $50 million in damages. Attorneys are weighing whether to sue others as well, but declined to comment further.
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection officials said the agency received general concerns about Travis, but not specific information that the chimpanzee was a public safety threat.
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Brooklyn, NY (June 20) - Agudah officials were repeatedly warned about the dangers posed by a Torah Temimah rebbe who later molested several more children and were urged — years before the attacks — to take action, but failed to do so, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
The 240-pound loudmouth named Yudi Kolko went on to reattack one of his child victims in his adulthood, grabbing his groin and squeezing it. The victim was almost hospitalized from the trauma and then insult to injury when Ohel offered to provide free "therapy" as a false pretense while trying to brainwash him that Kolko had not abused him according to the Torah.
The Agudah's response could affect a high-stakes lawsuit several victim's families filed against the rebbe's employer, Leopold Margulies of Ocean Pkwy, seeking $60 million in damages. Attorneys are weighing whether to sue others as well, but declined to comment further.
Agudah Department of Economic Protection officials said the agency received general concerns about Kolko, but not specific information that the rebbe was a public safety threat, a position echoed by climatologist Shea Fishman.
What's the point of davening for kids to stay on the derech if besides for the Skulener Rebbe, everyone else has blood on their hands?
ReplyDeleteEither you're for the kids or against them!