EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
Monday, October 05, 2009
Rabbi Salomon's Grandson Preparing To Give The Keynote Address At This Year's Agudah Convention Blasting Bloggers!
A telling post from Daas Hedyot sent in by Malach Hamovies!
It's Not Just Individuals - It's The Community! The UOJ Archives
Oftentimes in my life, when people discover that I used to be religious, they inquire as to why I chose to leave that lifestyle behind me. When I first encountered people asking me this, I would try to explain that the choice I made was a very personal one, based on what I concluded was right for me specifically, and that my decision wasn't intended to make a statement about the objective truth of Judaism in general. It's not that theological and ideological arguments didn't play a contributing part - they most definitely did, in that they significantly loosened the grip which my fundamentalist upbringing had held me in. And it's not that I was oblivious to all the scholarship (from science, history, biblical scholarship, and other fields) which challenged the veracity of Orthodox Judaism.
While I never did get too involved in those discussions, I was well aware of how powerfully they undermined many of the foundations of Orthodoxy. But more importantly, I knew myself, and I knew that what was really motivating me was the particular social and psychological needs which I was facing in my life. Orthodoxy was doing nothing for me (intellectually, spiritually, socially, emotionally, and in other ways) and even worse, I felt it was actively crippling me, by forcing me to subscribe to a lifestyle and value system which I didn't believe in at all.
So when someone would assume from my decision that it was an indictment of Orthodoxy as a whole, I would go out of my way to correct the mistaken impression. I would try to make it clear that while I was most definitely critical of aspects of that world, the community as a whole was not deserving of condemnation and that there were still many Orthodox people who I wholeheartedly respected (well, maybe "a few" is more accurate). But to presume that I was critical of Orthodoxy as a whole was an assumption that was not justified.
However, these days, when faced with this question of "Why am I not religious?" I find myself frequently questioning this approach I had previously settled upon. While it's obvious that the motivations for my choice couldn't have retroactively changed, the simple fact is that I am finding myself less and less able to look at the chareidi community that I came from and be able to describe it as anything other than a corrupt, dysfunctional, and totally unhealthy environment to be a part of.
The many recent indiscretions, dysfunctions, and outright misdeeds of individuals within the Orthodox community have been well documented in the media: Hundreds of sexual abuse cases being reported, including many by rabbis and principals (Kolko, Mondrowitz, Weingarten, Beis Yakov Principal, Satmar Principal in Williamsburg, West Bank Rabbi, Baltimore Rabbi), acid and bleach thrown at those not dressing modestly enough, beatings by modesty squads, attacking women who sit in the front of the bus, tax fraud by Hassidic Rebbes, infants killed by abusive fathers, indictments at glatt kosher slaughterhouses, eviction threats because of not being frum enough, etc., etc. I can keep on going, but I think the picture is clear. There's a lot of ugliness to be found within the chareidi community. A hell of a lot. This is way more than just a few isolated incidents.
However, despite the fact that these stories are appearing with ever increasing frequency, I don't think that these incidents are truly representative of the entire community. They are unfortunately more than just a few people, but I don't think that these sorts of extremely awful behaviors are actually widespread in the frum community. And I honestly don't think it's fair to tar the whole community with the transgressions of a small minority who make the rest of the community look bad.
The thing is though, that small minority of deviants aren't the reason that I think so negatively of the community as a whole. If it was only these incidents, I probably wouldn't be as critical as I am of the frum world. Rather, what fills me with such a repugnance is the behavior of the entire community itself, specifically in how it reacts to the many truly awful crimes happening in their midst.
For example, let's look at the child molestation issue: It's not just that there are child molesters in the community. Yes, that's awful, but as bad as it is, I'd concede that it's not more than a tiny percentage of the community, and I wouldn't judge the whole community based on just that. But what isn't a tiny percentage is the number of people who willfully and knowingly hamper efforts to bring these molesters to justice. What isn't a small number is the amount of people who would prefer to let these criminals remain free rather than risk sullying the reputation of their venerated institutions.
When a community as a whole allows such crimes to go unpunished and penalizes those who are trying to help innocent children, they can no longer hide behind the defense of "it's just a few lone individuals". At that point the community is also guilty. When the leadership (both rabbinic and lay) which the community looks up to is continuously silent on such a grave matter, it is a clear indication of where the community's priorities are.
When a community leader publicly admits that he has knowledge of hundreds of abuse cases, and yet his constituents prefer him to keep it all away from the police, the community has then become complicit in the crimes. When everyone cares more about what their neighbor is going to say about them, or their children's shidduch chances, or what yeshiva their kids will get into, or about being shunned by their friends (all commonly heard excuses for why no one wants to step up to the plate on any of these issues) - when they care more about all that than they do actually solving the problem, they're saying that they care more about maintaining the community's standards than doing what is right and just. That it's better to keep these things quiet.
This is why I can no longer look at the chareidi world with even a modicum of respect. The community as a whole has clearly expressed that they place the reputation of their society, and their place in that society, above the well being of their own children. How can anyone not be disgusted by such a society?
If the community truly cared, then it wouldn't ostracize people who try to bring the criminals to justice. If the community cared, a chassidish family wouldn't be afraid to tell the police who raped their 14 year old daughter. If the community cared it wouldn't stand behind and support a man convicted of killing his own baby (UTJ Knesset member Meir Porush called him a "good, quiet and disciplined" young man). If the community really cared, people wouldn't have to continuously be ashamed to report abuse to the police.
When last year, a chassidish man was found to be selling the Monsey community non-kosher chicken, the community showed how much they cared. The man and his family were run out of the community, in shame and in fear for his life. The community showed what they cared about then. And when the community allows accused child molesters to peaceably remain a part of their community, but those who try to help victims are harassed and attacked, they make it even clearer to the world what they care about. When a frum politician is able to back down on a promise to stop a molester from teaching kids, and no one demands that he keep his word, it shows where the community's concerns lie. When the rabbonim get more worked up about "illicit" music and "heretical" books than they do about yeshivas harboring molesters they reveal to us just what matters most to them.
This is why I have become so absolutely and utterly disgusted with the frum community as a whole. It is no longer just individuals committing these crimes. It is also the general public, and the leadership, which is responsible for allowing these horrible injustices to be perpetrated. It is the community and rabbis which turn a blind eye (or worse) towards these indiscretions. Their inaction, and relative silence (aside from a few vocal and brave activists), is a shocking admission of where their priorities truly lie. Their unwillingness to step up, and yes - risk condemnation and possible political fallout - is a clear indication of what the community values. If your community is going to condemn you for bringing a criminal to justice, isn't the community unambiguously saying that they prefer to protect criminals? Aren't they also then complicit in their crimes?
Admittedly, I know that there are many individuals in the community who are as horrified and sickened by all this as much as I am. Probably more so. But then why don't you speak up? I know the answer to that - because it's too costly for you. You will be shunned, ostracized, maybe even worse. I understand that. But how can you not be ashamed of yourself? With your silence, you are making a choice, a choice to be part of a society that prefers to let some of the very worst crimes of humanity - rape, violence, murder, abuse - go unpunished.
How can any self-respecting person - let alone one who considers themselves spiritual and religiously principled --- stand to be a part of this world?
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Even judges are catching on UOJ!
http://www.vosizneias.com/39371/2009/10/04/brooklyn-ny-ny-judge-orthodox-community-protects-abusers-not-victims/
October 5, 2009
WASHINGTON — The inspector general who oversees the government’s bailout of the banking system is criticizing the Treasury Department for some misleading public statements last fall and raising the possibility that it had unfairly disbursed money to the biggest banks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/business/economy/05simmons.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Things are really going to pot. First the shul I davened at in Wisconsin was taken over by Chabad and now the private equity / leveraged buyout chazerim have destroyed the company I founded, Simmons Beautyrest.
Where will Belsky stash his cash now?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bal-md.co.rabbi04oct04,0,3432299,full.story
Women tell of abuse by rabbi
Long silence broken with accounts of mistreatment by synagogue's founder
As long as Orthodox Jews are permitted to discriminate where their non-profit money goes, gays and Blacks will continue to suffer disproportionately.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/your-money/03money.html?hp
The Higher Lifetime Costs of Being a Gay Couple
You need to understand that the inability of the Ultraorthodox to effectively deal with the 'pedophile problem' is the price that must be paid to maintain an extreme insular society so as to be isolated from modernity. The Ultraorthodox has long realized that because they have no answer to modernity, they must voluntarily take on extreme insularity as a necessity for Jewish continuity. (It is necessary condition for Jewish continuity but not sufficient since sadly intolerant societies such as the Nazis and Communists can forcefully break that insularity). They will be point to high assimilation rates and shrinking numbers amongst other communities.
This insular society must built parallel social institutions to maintain its insularity. The Ultraorthodox have been particularly successful when it comes to building a parallel educational system however they are and never will be able to build a parallel criminal system because no modern Western nation can allow any parallel criminal system in its midst. This contrasts with premodern times when the Jewish community has a legally recognized corporate and political identity which allowed Kahal leaders some authority to impose criminal penalties. For a Jew to go to a civil court was an act of rejection of Jewish corporate identity and Kahal authority and a mark of the acceptance of the principles of enlightenment.
The Ultraorthodox are still faced with this issue today. On the one hand they need to maintain extreme insularity and avoid de jure recognition of civil law to maintain continuance but on the other hand this means they have no effective parallel system of criminal law. However bad pedophilia may be, it is not as bad as breaching insularity by recognizing outside authority because the former will destroy the lives of few while the later will endanger the entire community. There is no alternative but to sweep this problem under the carpet. Individually Jews have to learn to live without protection from Jewish criminals however vile.
A mailer has gone out to thousands of NY frum homes from Sephardic Federation lawyer David Greenfield who is representing the OU, Agudah and Satmar.
They are encouraging everyone in NY to register as Democrats, with the understanding that we will vote for whichever candidate they instruct us to. They specifically discourage anyone from being a registered Republican since the G.O.P. doesn't get very far in this Liberal state.
They also ask that we fill out a survey and mail it back.
While they completely ignore the issue of the Markey Bill, they send up a trial balloon about mandated background checks for sex offenders seeking employment at yeshivos to see if the heimishe public broadly supports it.
They are also attempting to gauge public opinion in other areas to see if they should lobby Albany:
$1000 tax credit per yeshiva child
Free busing for all yeshiva kids
Constant police protection for all yeshiva buildings
More resources for special needs children
The last item is nothing but a social welfare program ... Free after school programs for any yeshiva kid.
We should not be subsidizing free babysitting with our tax dollars.
Obama is trying to give the same thing to the shvartzas under the disguise of "American education needs longer hours to be competitive". But make no mistake about it, the Education Dept budget was doubled under George Bush with no results yielded. This is just Obama's latest wealth redistribution stunt so that shvartzas can get free babysitting before school starts, after school until night time hours and during the summer months.
Now our own heimishe fressers are looking to get some of this shvartza FREE LUNCH instead of spending more time with their kids.
The meforshim say pshat in pnei hakelev that the so called manhigei hador are always looking back at the people vee a hundt to see what they want. Well if the mutts from Agudah, Sephardic Federation and Satmar really care about public consensus, they'd better stop fighting the Markey Bill that is essential to protect children from predators. The OU is not fighting it but they haven't been very supportive either.
The problem of pedophiles acting with impunity is not a result of insularity but because corrupt community leaders have either refused to act or purposely derailed efforts.
Your statement that "no modern Western nation can allow any parallel criminal system in its midst" is incorrect. Fedex maintains it's own armed force in Tennessee that conducts investigations and makes arrests.
Fedex police do their job but the batei din do not because it boils down to whether or not you allow for any interference from such nefarious characters as Lipa Margulies, Sruly Belsky, Aron Schechter and Steve Mostofsky.
The Brooklyn DA's office is just as useless as the batei din for the same reasons.
Strange Bedfellows
Some of the commentary on the Roman Polanski case--in on which we weighed yesterday--made us momentarily uncomfortable, then heartened. It turns out that quite a few people we normally wouldn't be caught agreeing with, are essentially in agreement with us. Examples include The Nation's Katha Pollitt:
The widespread support for Polanski shows the liberal cultural elite at its preening, fatuous worst. They may make great movies, write great books, and design beautiful things, they may have lots of noble humanitarian ideas and care, in the abstract, about all the right principles: equality under the law, for example. But in this case, they're just the white culture-class counterpart of hip-hop fans who stood by R. Kelly and Chris Brown and of sports fans who automatically support their favorite athletes when they're accused of beating their wives and raping hotel workers.
No wonder Middle America hates them.
Here's Jamison Foser of MediaMutters.org:
[The Washington Post's Anne] Applebaum's argued that Polanski shouldn't be imprisoned because he has suffered enough--he's had to pay lawyers' fees, and was unable to pick up an Oscar he won for fear he'd be taken for jail. No, really--that was Applebaum's argument:
"He did commit a crime, but he has paid for the crime in many, many ways: In notoriety, in lawyers' fees, in professional stigma. He could not return to Los Angeles to receive his recent Oscar."
That's just dumb. People who commit crimes do not pay their debts to society when they write checks to their lawyers. And saying that someone has paid for the crime of child rape by being unable to receive an Oscar may be the single most clueless thing ever written by a Washington Post columnist.
Even the New York Times editorial page gets it right:
Where is the injustice in bringing to justice someone who pleads guilty to statutory rape and then goes on the lam, no matter how talented he may be? . . . This case has nothing to do with Mr. Polanski's work or his age. It is about an adult preying on a child. Mr. Polanski pleaded guilty to that crime and must account for it.
We're hard-pressed to think of anyone outside 42 Broadway, Hollywood and Europe who is defending the fugitive director. (The Washington Post's Anne Applebaum, wife of Poland's foreign minister, is European by marriage.)
We stopped watching David Letterman at least 20 years ago, but last night's episode sounds like quite a show. ABC News reports:
Letterman revealed to the studio audience that he received a package three weeks ago containing a threat to reveal those indiscretions "if Letterman did not pay the individual a large sum of money"--specified in a later communication as $2 million.
He said that the package contained a letter that said, " I know that you do some terrible terrible things and I can prove that you do these terrible things . . . and sure enough what was contained in the package was proof that I do terrible, terrible things." The audience, most likely waiting for the punchline that never came, laughed nervously along as he went on to describe how he called his attorney and then set up a meeting with his blackmailer. . . .
Letterman then acknowledged unspecified sexual relationships with female staff members to a silent audience.
"My response to that [allegation] is, 'Yes I have.' Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would," Letterman said.
You know what this means, don't you? Everyone who has ever been offended by a Letterman joke is going to have a field day with this. Would this man happen to be the same one that was calling Palin's kid a bad girl? and a statement from the Catholic League's Bill Donohue:
It certainly didn't hurt Letterman's career when he laughed at the Catholic Church for what happened in 2002. That summer a man and a woman had sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral around 4:00 p.m. on a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics. They did so in plain view of men, women and children and had their performance described on the radio as part of some sick contest. Most people were aghast, the radio hosts who rigged the caper were fired, and apologies were issued by the radio station. Letterman, however, found it so hysterical that he used the story to tell jokes about it for three nights. Wonder how many nights he will use his own sexploits as source material?
Actually, the more laughs he can get out of his own predicament, the better off he is. If he ever makes a joke at anyone else's expense again, his targets will never let him live his own actions down.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574446970300914330.html
Intelligence Averts Another Attack
Why do Democrats in Congress want to change key laws that have helped to discover terrorist plots?
By MICHAEL B. MUKASEY
I have been on the run lately. Shmarya has been chasing after quite often and every time he runs to catch me, I run as fast as I can away from him!
Shmarya, who occasionally gets up from his old clunker computer clad in nothing but underwear, has illusions of grandeur and keeps referring to himself as a "journalist" and "the press". He did it again today in his phonecall to Ilan Parente, the owner of Solomon's Meats.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scathing attacks against Israel and his repeated denials of the Nazi Holocaust could be motivated by a desire to conceal his own Jewish roots, an Iran expert told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.
The British newspaper examined the Iranian leader's identity card which he displayed in public during his country's elections in March 2008.
The ID card bears his family's original surname, Sabourjian, which is a Jewish name that means cloth weaver, according to The Daily Telegraph.
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The Sabourjians have historically been concentrated in the same region of Iran where Ahmadinejad was born, according to the report.
Ahmadinejad's identity papers indicate that his family changed its name and converted to Islam after he was born, the British newspaper said.
Iranian observers suggested that the president's constant verbal assault against Israel and Jews may be an attempt to prove his loyalty to Shia Islam while making every effort to hide his Jewish past.
"This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's background explains a lot about him," Iranian studies expert Ali Nourizadeh told The Telegraph. "Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith."
"By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections," Nourizadeh said. "He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/nyregion/06abuse.html?hp
The United States Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport to delay the court-ordered release of thousands of legal documents from lawsuits filed against priests accused of child sex abuse.
The decision leaves few options for the diocese after a seven-year tug-of-war with four newspapers, including The New York Times, over the release of more than 12,000 pages of depositions and church records.
Please let us know if Margo is charging money for the free flu vaccines provided to every school.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama plans to address the nation's largest gay rights group this weekend, a person familiar with his schedule said Monday, trying to mollify an uneasy Democratic constituency.
Obama plans to address Saturday's Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner gala, said the person, an individual familiar with the president's plans.
The dinner falls on the eve of the National Equality March, expected to draw thousands of gay and lesbian activists to the National Mall. Many have been critical of Obama's slow pace on redeeming campaign promises to end a ban on gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military and pushing tough nondiscrimination policies.
So ombudsman, how many pedophiles have Fedex arrested and where do Fedex courts sit?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?em=&pagewanted=print
Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen.
Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.
Those low-grade ingredients are cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with feces, which carries E. coli, industry research shows. Yet Cargill, like most meat companies, relies on its suppliers to check for the bacteria and does its own testing only after the ingredients are ground together. The United States Department of Agriculture, which allows grinders to devise their own safety plans, has encouraged them to test ingredients first as a way of increasing the chance of finding contamination.
Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.
“Ground beef is not a completely safe product,” said Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota who helped develop systems for tracing E. coli contamination.
As with other slaughterhouses, the potential for contamination is present every step of the way, according to workers and federal inspectors. The cattle often arrive with smears of feedlot feces that harbor the E. coli pathogen, and the hide must be removed carefully to keep it off the meat. This is especially critical for trimmings sliced from the outer surface of the carcass.
Federal inspectors based at the plant are supposed to monitor the hide removal, but much can go wrong. Workers slicing away the hide can inadvertently spread feces to the meat, and large clamps that hold the hide during processing sometimes slip and smear the meat with feces, the workers and inspectors say.
Greater Omaha vacuums and washes carcasses with hot water and lactic acid before sending them to the cutting floor. But these safeguards are not foolproof.
Cargill added bread crumbs and spices, fashioned it into patties, froze them and packed them 18 to a carton.
The listed ingredients revealed little of how the meat was made. There was just one meat product listed: “Beef.”
A recent industry test in which spiked samples of meat were sent to independent laboratories used by food companies found that some missed the E. coli in as many as 80 percent of the samples.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/04/us/20090917-meat.html
Annual audits by the U.S.D.A. found some sanitation flaws in Uruguay's meat operations including improper testing for E. coli
Fedex actually is involved in the apprehension of pedophiles since child pornography is delivered through their network.
Black, Latino Groups Press Dems on Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:42 p.m. ET
Honduras — A Jewish civil rights organization is expressing alarm over conspiracy theories claiming Jews and Israel aided the ouster of the Honduran president and attempts to dislodge him from his refuge in the Brazilian Embassy.
The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League cited statements made by ousted President Manuel Zelaya as well as the news director of a radio station that was closed by the interim government in Honduras and by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, among others.
Most of the comments repeat widely circulated rumors that Israeli soldiers – or in some versions, mercenaries – worked with the troops backing interim President Roberto Micheletti, allegedly supplying some form of tear gas used at the embassy and providing other assistance.
The interim government, which came to power after the military arrested Zelaya and flew him to exile in Costa Rico on June 28, has denied receiving any Israeli help or using any tear gas at the embassy. Journalists who have covered the political crisis say they have not seen any sign of Israeli involvement.
The Jewish group also criticized Chavez for claiming at the United Nations that Israel is the only country to recognize the coup-installed government, something Micheletti's administration has denied.
The ADL also cited an interview with The Miami Herald in which Zelaya said that "Israeli mercenaries are torturing him with high-frequency radiation."
"We know from history that at times of turmoil and unrest, Jews are a convenient scapegoat," ADL national director Abraham H. Foxman, said in a statement released Sunday. "And that is happening now in Honduras, a country that has only a small Jewish minority."
The group estimates the Central American country is home to less than 100 families in a population of about 8 million.
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Brooklyn — A Jewish organization is expressing alarm over conspiracy theories claiming UOJ unfairly smeared Kolko as a molester to dislodge him from his refuge in Torah Temimah
The Jewish Board of Advocates for Children cited comments made by Agudah Fresser Efraim Wachsman
as well as the director of a blog that was closed after author Bungalow Putz Neuhoff was outed and by YTV-OU official Israel Belsky, among others.
Most of the comments repeat widely circulated Hungarian rumors that UOJ agents or mercenaries worked with real estate developers eying new condos on Ocean Pkwy.
The Jewish group also criticized Belsky for claiming at the United Nations that UOJ is the only individual to claim Kolko is a molester.
The JBAC also cited an interview with The Yated in which Pinny Lipschitz said that "Yudel Shain mercenaries said to be sex abuse victims contracted by UOJ are torturing Sholom Rubashkin with high-frequency radiation."
"We know from history that at times of turmoil and unrest, sex abuse victims have been made into convenient scapegoats by Margulies," JBAC national director Ben Hirsch, said in a press conference outside the law offices of Marvin Schick. "And that is happening now in Boro Park, a neighborhood that Schick claims has hardly any Jewish sexual abuse victims."
Schick estimates that Boro Park is home to less than 1 abuse victim.
Both versions of the story are correct........
Great Work!
UOJ
Ombudsman, when Reichbach said that Batei Din are incapable and inappropriate for dealing with criminal matters he was politely stating that these are Potemkin courts not equipped or empowered for proper constitutional reasons to carry out criminal justice. The Batei Din are as much equipped to properly dispense criminal justice as the shomrim volunteers are equipped to turn back the Canadian Army should it come down the I-87. To find an internal Chareidi solution to communal criminality can never be possible and constitutionally must never be allowed as it contravenes the idea that equality before the law demands one system of justice for all.
There have been times in history when batei din were given autonomy and the right to mete out justice as they saw fit.
Theoretically, there could be such a thing as a beis din acting in the fashion as the Fedex police force. Hatzolah is given the resources that it needs and so could a beis din. But I shudder to think how those resources could go to waste in today's age when most courts are corrupt.
As far as the Canadian Army, I think that Shomrim or even Chaverim could repel them considering what a joke they are. That was the impotent "force" that was held at bay for 3 months while a ragtag band of Mohawk Indians hijacked the main highway into Montreal.
"Individually Jews have to learn to live without protection from Jewish criminals however vile." Anon 10:28 AM, October 05, 2009
And that's exactly why insularity will collapse under its own weight - because we have less rights and less civil protection than whores on the street do, and after a while people get very, very tired of being treated worse than whores.
Hi Mr. Unorthodox jew...interesting post....well not really interesting...I know that alot is messed up in the frum community- but that ain't going to stop me from being frum...I don't really have many connections in the Rabbi world- but that doesn't stop me from trying my hardest to connect to what is real...connect your heart to Hashem on your own if need be...you don't have to love the so called leaders
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20091004/SUB/910049995
Anyone paying for a Crain's NY subscription that can post this article about Sam Antar ratting out companies to the SEC?
Every is ok now that I went down there with Aron Twerski and told them to simply install a few more windows to see inside rooms.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- A Connecticut bishop says allegations of abuse by six Roman Catholic priests detailed in thousands of pages of court files are part of the church's past, and today's church has created a safe environment for children.
http://iowaindependent.com/20538/pro-rubashkin-newspaper-ad-hasnt-run-in-sioux-falls
Isn't it amazing what you can spend tax exempt money on?
You mean you will have to identify yourself as on Margo's payroll when attacking UOJ?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/business/media/06adco.html?hp
Soon, Bloggers Must Give Full Disclosure
http://www.businessinsider.com/will-most-sexual-harassment-claims-against-dave-time-barred-2009-10
As we roll into day three of the David Letterman extortion story, focus is shifting to the the trouble Dave and CBS might be in. And the first civil suit that comes to mind when you have a head honcho (and a rich one) having sexual relationships with younger female employees is, of course, sexual harassment.
Letterman's relationship with Stephanie Birkitt reportedly ended in 2003. The statute of limitations in New York for bringing a sexual harassment claim is three years, which basically means a suit must be filed within three years of the harassment. (There is some caselaw extending the statute of limitations where there is severe psychological trauma, but it's a rare exception.)
On Friday, the FBI arrested 48-year-old Michael David Barrett and charged him with secretly taping ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews in the nude and posting the videos on the Internet. Andrews' attorneys, Marshall B. Grossman and Daniel Alberstone of Bingham McCutchen, quickly issued a statement praising the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles for making the arrest -- and revealing that the Bingham attorneys and the private investigation firm Kroll Inc. played key roles in the investigation.
But Grossman was not so kind toward the hotel where the filming took place. He criticized management at the Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University for booking Barrett into the room adjacent to Andrews and questioned the hotel's attention to privacy and security. "One can't pass this off to simple ignorance," Grossman said.
Indeed, judging by the FBI's affidavit, the actions by the Marriott are inexcusable. The affidavit says that Barrett filmed all but one of the videos at the Marriott, with the other filmed at the Ramada Conference Center in Milwaukee. What is most shocking is how Barrett was able to secure his room in the Marriott next to Andrews: He simply asked. The hotel's reservations computer showed his request as, "GST RQST TO RM NXT TO [Andrews]." To make matters worse, both rooms were situated in an alcove off the main hallway. That made it easier for Barrett to hack the peephole in a manner that allowed him to film inside.
In Milwaukee, Barrett allegedly called 14 hotels to find out where Andrews would be staying. When he found out she would be at the Radisson, he booked a room and hacked the peephole of Andrews' room in the same way he had done at the Marriott.
All of this adds up to a potential lawsuit, suggests John A. Day at the blog Day on Torts. Start with the question of how Barrett was able to identify Andrews' room, when "most hotels will not give anyone, even an alleged spouse, the room number of a guest." Add in the questions of how Barrett was able to secure a room right next door to Andrews and how he was able to modify the peephole without anyone noticing, and "one would think alarms would have been sounding at Marriott," Day says.
Twin brother pediatricians are going on trial on charges that for years they used their practices in a middle-class Ohio community to recruit boys for sex and bribed them not to tell authorities.
Jury selection began Monday in the trial of 53-year-old Mark Blankenburg in a state court in Butler County, about 30 miles north of Cincinnati. Blankenburg's twin, Dr. Scott Blankenburg, faces a separate trial in April.
Details are few on the number of victims, their ages or where the alleged crimes occurred. The charges include multiple counts of corruption of a minor with at least two youths who were ages 13 to 15 at the time.
Mark Blankenburg also is accused of trafficking in prescription drugs that at least one victim became addicted to, and of bribing prospective witnesses and paying money for sex. Scott Blankenburg does not face any drug-related charges.
Lawyers for Mark Blankenburg say many of the charges are vague, and they have questioned the credibility of some of the accusers - some of whom have faced criminal charges themselves.
Blankenburg appeared relaxed and calm during the proceedings, occasionally smiling at those in the courtroom, including a news photographer.
The doctors have practiced for more than 20 years in Hamilton, a city of about 50,000 situated on gentle hills north of Cincinnati. Authorities said the abuses date to 1987.
The jury will decide 16 sex charges, with Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth ruling on about 25 remaining counts, including money laundering, bribery, corrupt activity and drug charges.
Spaeth last month separated pornography charges involving young boys from Mark Blankenburg's current charges. A second trial date on those charges has not been set.
Assistant Prosecutor Lance Salyers says the Blankenburgs used their medical practices to provide them with victims and with money to pay the youngsters for sex acts or bribes.
Authorities said they began looking at Mark Blankenburg in late 2007, but the charges became public only when he was indicted on 36 felony counts in December 2008. Additional indictments in March accused him of committing sex acts on minors, providing prescription drugs to minors, money laundering, and bribing his victims into silence.
NASSAU COUNTY—-A Roslyn attorney and founder of a non-profit organization that provides services to adoptive parents and children, has been arrested for stealing thousands of dollars from prospective parents by promising them babies that didn’t exist.
Kevin Cohen, 41, was arrested at his home Friday morning by investigators from the Nassau County district attorney’s office and charged with second degree grand larceny, first degree scheme to defraud and third degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Cohen faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
District Attorney Kathleen Rice said that from May 2007 until the time of his arrest, Cohen held himself out as a legal expert in adoption proceedings and was able to obtain large sums of money from couples to arrange adoptions. Couples gave Cohen the money believing it would be held in escrow to pay for the medical costs and other expenses of birth mothers who wished to have their children adopted.
The District Attorney’s Office began investigating Cohen in May 2008. He was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department’s Crimes Against Property Squad in December 2008 on attempted grand larceny, forgery, and identity theft charges in connection with his attempts to steal his own home. Cohen does not own the home, but it is held in a trust for him. That case is currently pending.
Cohen, however, continued to seek out new couples looking to adopt during the pendency of those charges. One couple paid Cohen $65,000 after he claimed that he had located two prospective out-of-state birth mothers who were looking to give up their babies for adoption. In reality, these birth mothers did not exist and were fabricated by Cohen.
Cohen went as far as to create forged medical records and information for the fake birth mothers which he gave to a number of other couples looking to adopt.
The investigation is ongoing and the District Attorney’s Office suspects that Cohen may have defrauded additional prospective adoptive parents.
Rice said that she believes some potential victims have been reluctant to come forward based on the emotional toll their prospective adoption has taken on their family, and the hope that Cohen will still arrange a legal adoption.
Anyone who believes that they may be the victim of Cohen’s deception or who has relevant information should contact ADA Andrew Garbarino or Deputy Chief Karen Bennett of the Public Corruption Bureau at the following number: 516-680-8624.
“Kevin Cohen has not only stolen money from these couples, but he has crushed their dream of becoming parents,” Rice said. “This is among the most morally disgusting thefts I have ever witnessed as a prosecutor. He preyed on the emotions and the hopes of couples at their most vulnerable time. I strongly encourage anyone who believes they are a victim of this man’s scheme to contact my office immediately.”
Cynicism makes for terrible kiruv and even worse geirut, so stay away from this bunch of connivers:
Not only is the Gateways organizations on Tropper's and EJF's "recommended" list of Kiruv Organizations "Eternal Jewish Family - External Links"
There is a planned joint seminar in the works between Tropper's EJF and GATEWAYS:
EJF Student Shabbaton with Gateways Stamford, CT
10/16/2009 - 10/18/2009
A Shabbaton in conjunction with Gateways focusing on intermarriage prevention. The event will include 100 students, and staff from both organizations.
Call on anyone you know to protest and boycott the GATEWAYS organizations to stop them from exposing their students to Tropper's fanaticism and EJF's entrapment scams now enabled by "Gateways" !
Call, EMail and Fax the GATEWAYS people to protest their joint venture with Tropper/EJF:
From GATEWAYS: CONTACT US:
GATEWAYS Main Office
11 Wallenberg Circle, Monsey, NY 10952
Email: office@gatewaysonline.com
Phones:
800-722-3191
845-352-0393
Fax 845-352-0394
GATEWAYS Director of Operations
Rabbi Avrumy Jordan
845-352-0393 x108
GATEWAYS Public Relations Liason
Dr. Robyn Fischer
845-352-0393 x107
GATEWAYS: Director of Russian Programming
Rabbi Mordechai Tokarski
718-332-1506
GATEWAYS: Director of Collegiate Programming
Rabbi Reuven Ibragimov
1-800-742-2228
Director of Special Projects
Rabbi Yisroel Cherns
845-352-0393 x115
GATEWAYS: Event Registration
Ms. Tammi Lit
845-352-0393 x127
GATEWAYS: Webmaster
Mr. Danny Glix
845-290-8726
Jack Nusan Porter is probably the brother of Baltimore kiruv director of Eitz Chaim Center's R Shlomo Porter on account that they look alike (fat, round faces), come from Milwaukee, and share the name "Porter" with a connection with Baltimore to boot.
Rabbi Shlomo Porter is known for his unyielding loyalty to NIRC and will do literally anything to destroy the lives of any person he deems to be his/its foes.
This is a good come-uppance for the supposed "kiruv leader" of Baltimore to have his brother in the news like this, and the question that now comes up:
What did R Shlomo Porter know about Jack Nusan Porter and why didn't he do more to protect the lives of innocents by outing his brother?
Here's a sort of kal vachomer for Shlomo: If the brother of the unabomber had the decency to out his brother for murder, how could you keep quiet for so many years and not out your brother for his alleged sexual crimes!? Shame on you and shut down your "eitz chaim center of shame and disgrace" NOW!
Tropper and the Three Orthodox Print Weeklies (Jewish Press, Yated, Modia).
The Orthodox English speaking communities in North America have been blessed with a growing plethora of weekly newspapers and magazine publications. The days of the slow moving now defunct Agudah mouthpiece are long gone of waiting for a monthly publication to arrive, analyze, agree with or get indigestion from it.
Now there is variety, and as everyone knows, the pick of the crop of newspaper print papers are the oldest and now withering The Jewish Press that is blacklisted by the Agudah Charedi crowd. Then there has been the YATED for the last 20 years speaking for the Litvish Yeshivish world, and then in the last couple of years the Gerrer sponsored HAMODIA has come along to punch the wind out of the YATED and even offer daily versions culled from mainstream news services. Then of course there are the glossy magazines MISHPACHA and BINA that many buy as well "lekovod Shabbos" or whatever.
Tropper and his EJF professional PR meisters have tried to infiltrate and run planted articles and commercials in all 3 Orthodox English papers, but they have really only had success in one, and the least expected, The Jewish Press, the very one that is not bought and is avoided by the ultra-Orthodox world that Tropper is connected to.
The reasons for that reveal yet another fold of Tropper's cynicism and Machiavellian skills, as will now be revealed.
Tropper in bed with The Jewish Press.
The owners and publishers of The Jewish Press have always been willing to espouse a more strident and zealous editorial and publishing policy. They were the ones to give the late Rav Meir Kahane a bully pulpit. They have always published the positions and statements of the Agudas Harrabanim and the views of the late Rav David Hollander. So they have no problem with espousing views that run counter to the more modern RCA, and Tropper's and EJF's attacks on the RCA and its approach to geirut is an obvious and easy target.
Now while Rav Meir Kahane and Rav David Hollander were noble warriors for the Jewish People never worrying about money and grandeur for themselves, Kahane went to jail willingly to defend his principles, can one see Tropper biting that bullet? on the other hand Tropper is a scheming opportunist which The Jewish Press owners and publishers are either to stupid to get or they too are in need of any advertising and PR work that comes their way that they will get into bed with a scoundrel like Tropper.
So they run ads and editorials like "An Emerging Gold Standard For Conversions The Jewish Press has also learned that the chief rabbis - in addition to addressing the immediate issue of RCA conversions - are working with a new organization, the Eternal Jewish Family, to develop and implement what would amount to a Gold Standard for conversions. EJF, funded by the Lillian Kaplan Foundation, is in the midst of a series of conferences around the world with the participation of the chief rabbis and other leading halachic and Torah personalities in an effort to establish standards that will lead to universally accepted conversions."
Never mind that it has now emerged that the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation was legally founded by none other than Guma Aguiar, a man whom Tropper would later denounce and hurl the filthiest invective at Jamie Aguiar and her conversion by Rabbi Herbert Bomzer by using his Internet trolling and flaming persona "Roni" on Rabbi Eidensohn's Daat Torah blog; that the Israeli Chief rabbinate does not accept EJF "universally accepted" conversions to this day; that Tropper and EJF were denounced from the get go by rabbis from the left, center, right and ultra-right; that now he has been revealed to be crook and a fraud by the founder of the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation, Guma Aguiar who now accuses Tropper of not accounting for $10 million that Guma Aguiar transferred to Tropper's pockets for the presumably purported work of the new foundation created to further the "gold standards" that the JP heralds; and that Tropper is one of the most combative, obnoxious and consistent baalei machlokes and crusher of people's lives.
What is this JP glorification of Tropper and EJF all about?
The Jewish Press-EJF cynical political nexus.
Dennis Rapps Esq. at The Jewish Press writes and edits almost all the serious editorials and articles at the EJF. Dennis Rapps Esq. is in the pocket of Tropper and EJF. It may be that it's because the JP and EJF both have invested heavily into LUBICOM run by Menachem Lubinsky. Lubinsky has credibility in the Agudah world, he worked for them for years, and EJF has hired LUBICOM to run its PR wars. Lubinsky is heavily involved with the JP, so it goes full circle.
But it goes deeper than that. Tropper hails from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His closest rabbi on a day to day basis is Rabbi REUVEN Feinstein who gives him cover, the older Rabbi Dovid Feinstein keeps a healthy public distance from Tropper and EJF, while Tropper's real behind the scenes brains, R Aron Shechter of the CB yeshiva has long withdrawn from publicly associating with EJF altho he loves Tropper like his own brother. While Dennis Rapps Esq. probably takes "orders" via hints that het gets from CB president Abe Fruchthandler since Dennis Rapps Esq. stands and prays near Fruchthandler every Shabbat and Rapps's sons are star students in the CB machine. Everyone loves each other in this unholy alliance of cynical power players. CB's officially hate the JP the most, but they are the closest with Dennis Rapps and his family, and Rapp's is the voice of the JP. Go figure. So it goes. Power corrupts absolutely.
While Tropper's other partner in the EJF mission, to destroy the RCA and Modern Orthodxy with Religious Zionism, R Nochum Eisenstein lives and works in Israel and basically hates America and can barely stomach Tropper.
Tropper spinning in the wheels of the wheeler dealers.
So while the Lower East Side boys take care of each other and they scratch each other's backs, Dennis Rapps Esq. also runs COLPA and Orthodox legal lobbying group, while R Reuven Feinstein is always hobnobbing with Sheldon Silver speaker of the NY Assembly in Albany, he even gives the opening prayers there, minus hat.
Bottom line, The Jewish Press, with Dennis Rapps esq. at the helm of its writing about Tropper and EJf and boosted by LUBICOM is still important to NY politicians who seek its endorsements, and with Rapps Esq. heading COLPA and writing the endorsements, and Reuven Feinstein getting to be a big gun through, for example, his connections with Silver, so knowing that no politician will deal with a poor and powerless rabbi, that when Tropper comes along and funnels $3 million through his naive disciple Guma Aguiar into Reuven Feinstein's pockets, that's like putting gunpowder into a gun that will allow it to fire with big bangs for your buck, meaning Guma Aguiar's bucks, acquired schemingly by Tropper for the Feinsteins and himself, and in turn Reuven Feinstein is enrolled to push and help Tropper in his Quixotic quest to convert gentiles through his EJF scheme.
If this sounds convoluted, it is, but then again, all old-style murky political wheeler dealing is and that's what some of the background is to EJF's and Tropper's alliance with The Jewish Press is all about.
Tropper has had some success in infiltrating the Modia lately. But not so with the YATED paper, his neighbors in Monsey publish that one, and maybe they know something that the world does not want to hear about, so they don't write anything about Tropper or EJF except a one liner here and there.
You should see these greedy pigs when they find a car with as little as $100 in overdue parking tickets. Even if the driver is in the car, they surround him with other vehicles and call the NYPD to remove him if he refuses to surrender the car.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/realestate/04deal2.html
WHEN times are tough, the tough get going: There are people to evict, judgments to collect, wages to garnish, property to seize and sell. So the worst of times can be the best of times for a group of independent contractors known as New York City marshals, who are authorized to keep a nickel of every dollar they collect.
The best, or worst, of the city marshals last year was Martin A. Bienstock, who earned $5.4 million, more than any other marshal, through a variety of fees and the 5 percent assessment known as poundage.
So partly as a result of the dire economy, Mr. Bienstock was able to step up in the world. Property records show that he paid $3.16 million for a three-bedroom apartment on the 17th floor of the Lucida, a new 21-story limestone and glass condominium at Lexington Avenue and 85th Street.
The Lucida offers its residents filtered fresh air, and a fitness and spa center with a “sky-lit” indoor pool, according to a building Web site.
Mr. Bienstock’s marshal’s office is in a squat two-story office building on Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens, far from his new LEED-certified nest on the Upper East Side. Mr. Bienstock and his lawyer did not return several telephone calls, and the Department of Investigation, which oversees the marshals, declined to confirm that he was the purchaser of the apartment.
But in closing documents, Mr. Bienstock, who is 62, gave his address as 300 East 85th Street, a 37--story co-op built in the 1980s at Second Avenue, and he used that same address in making campaign contributions to city, state and federal candidates or committees, listing his occupation as city marshal. That apartment on East 85th, records show, is owned by Gregg Bienstock, who is 29, and according to the Department of Investigation, is also a city marshal who shares the Bell Boulevard office with a Martin Bienstock.
Last year the younger Mr. Bienstock took home $1.66 million, according to city records.
Diane Struzzi, a spokeswoman for the Department of Investigations, declined to comment on the relationship between the two Bienstocks, but noted that city marshals are appointed by the mayor to five-year terms
(IsraelNN.com) According to experts on Iranian history and culture, the recent Daily Telegraph article purporting to show that Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Jewish is a fraud perpetrated by political opponents playing on anti-Semitic motivations.
Sabourjian, Ahmadinejad's previous surname, has "absolutely nothing to do with Jews."
According to Menashe Amir, a long-time director of Voice of Israel Radio's Persian-language broadcasts and a leading expert on Iran, the story of Ahmadinejad's former name indicating Jewish roots is nonsense. In print and on the radio in recent days, Amir has reiterated that Sabourjian, Ahmadinejad's previous surname, has "absolutely nothing to do with Jews."
Rumors of a Jewish back-story to the upstart former Tehran mayor are not new in Iran, circulating among his opponents, as well as among some Iranian Jews. However, the rumors remained the stuff of Persian conspiracy theory until it was picked up by the UK's Telegraph. After that mainstream publication printed the rumor, it has been printed and reprinted in online media as a near-certain fact.
Yet, the rumor regarding Ahmadinejad's supposed Jewish background was primarily motivated by anti-Semitism, in that it was seen by those who believed it that it was an effective insult to the Iranian leader that would challenge his legitimacy. In fact, Amir noted, the rumor was most recently revived intentionally by Mehdi Khazali, an opponent of Ahmadinejad who is also the son of a conservative Iranian cleric.
Concurring with Amir regarding the name Sabourjian, Professor David Yerushalmi of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University said that the "-jian" suffix is as Muslim as it is Jewish.
In an article in Monday's Guardian newspaper, also printed in the UK, Meir Javedanfar cites Robert Tait, a Guardian correspondent, and Kasra Naji, a biographer of Ahmadinejad, as saying that Sabourjian indicates an occupation as the person who colors threads used in carpet weaving. "Carpet weaving or colouring carpet threads are not professions associated with Jews in Iran," writes Javedanfar.
The Telegraph article also claimed that Sabourjian is on a list of names reserved for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior. The problem with this claim, according to Amir, is that no such registry exists.
Furthermore, Jews in Iran did not live in small villages such as the one Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hails from, Amir explained. According to Amir, with the exception of Jews in the Kurdish areas, Jews tended to congregate in the nation's major cities.
"I highly doubt if Ahmadinejad has any Jewish blood," commented veteran Iranian pro-democracy activist Amil Imani in a conversation with Israel National News. "For sure he does have the blood of Iranian people on his hands though. This is simply propaganda to deceive the world, yet again."
http://www.forward.com/articles/115596/
Enterprising tailor Mendy Sacho, 25, has built a successful couture business in Toronto over the past three years, catering to a mostly Orthodox clientele who like a bit of flair with their frum. Now, he’s expanding to serve American clients with a store in Brooklyn that he hopes to open by Hanukkah.
“I didn’t feel that there was enough choice for the Orthodox man,” Sacho said, explaining the inspiration for his work. “I love what I do. I enjoy each suit, kapota or shirt that I design.”
In addition to the long black coat, or kapota, worn by Haredi men, Sacho designs dress shirts, ties, sunglasses and cuff links. For his non-Jewish customers, who make up about 30% of his clientele, he makes tuxedos and suits. His creative take on the kapota, however, has garnered him the most notice. The New York Times Style Magazine recently featured Sacho under the headline “My Yiddishe Tailor.”
For a man who designs black coats for a living, Sacho takes color very seriously. “Colors have deep subliminal meanings that affect our thinking,” he said. “Color research and planning is a vital part of the design process.” His kapota might be lined with a festive paisley pattern or with bright colors; if the client wants, he can stitch the button holes with colorful thread. In addition to regular tailoring to size, he can adjust the hem length to the clients’ preference: The shorter kapota that he makes for his not-so-religious customers is nicknamed “the mini.” He encourages clients to let their imaginations run wild, and they often do.
“For example, I had a guy who loved Superman, so we made him a Superman-theme [kapota],” Sacho said. “Red inside, blue stitching around the edges. And of course, we made him a Superman label inside.”
http://www.lohud.com/article/20091006/NEWS03/910060327/-1/SPORTS/Monsey-woman--Ex-Ramapo-cop-examined-her-as-her-then-husband-watched
A Monsey woman testified Monday that a fired Ramapo police officer performed gynecological and rectal exams on her multiple times as her then-husband watched.
Sarah Sharon Silber told the judge that Andrew Dale made her dress in provocative outfits and wear high heels for the exams, as well as doing 25 jumping jacks between exams.
Her then-husband, millionaire businessman Zalman Silber, watched from a chair inside their master bedroom. He supposedly got pleasure from watching the exams.
Everytime poor Shmarya finds an Affirmative Action poster boy, things don't work out as planned.
Ex-Ala. judge accused of trading sex for leniency
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Herman Thomas had an enviable political record as a black Democrat elected and re-elected in a county overwhelmingly white and increasingly Republican. The respected circuit judge once was the Democratic Party’s choice to be the first black federal judge in south Alabama.
Then his career collapsed under allegations that he brought inmates to his office and spanked them with a paddle. Later, an indictment accused him of sexually abusing male inmates in exchange for leniency. The trial on charges of sodomy, kidnapping, sex abuse, extortion, assault and ethics violations is set to start today.
Thomas, who was known for wearing distinctive bow ties, stepped down from the bench in 2007 after the allegations of paddling surfaced and just ahead of a judicial ethics trial that could have forced him out of office. He was indicted on the more-serious charges this past spring by a Mobile County grand jury. If convicted of the most serious charges — sodomy and kidnapping — he faces from 20 years to life in prison.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/valley-center/article_8d5e5793-aa9c-52c9-873f-fb0845ebb246.html
Christians called the Twelve Tribes, the Commonwealth of Israel.
Former members of Twelve Tribes communities in other states have said child discipline can extend far beyond the light spankings officially endorsed by group leaders. One community on the East Coast has been fined for violating child labor laws, and a researcher who tracks fringe groups has called the Twelve Tribes a dangerous cult that exploits its members.
The Twelve Tribes began in Tennessee in the 1970s, and the first California group started in the 1990s when Kevin Carlin, known to fellow followers by his Hebrew name Soreph Gamaliel, started a community in Vista after moving from another group in Missouri.
"We came to California because we thought there were a lot of lost people here," he said.
The Vista community branched out in 2003 when the worldwide group helped fund the purchase of the 66-acre Morning Star Ranch, where more than 30 followers live today.
While the group follows Jesus, whom followers refer to by the Hebrew name Yahshua, they also recently observed the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashana.
In 2001, the New York tribe was fined $2,000 for violating child labor laws after its soap-manufacturing business, Common Sense, contracted with Estee Lauder to make one of its products. The company since has cut ties with Common Sense.
The group's belief in corporal punishment to discipline children also has attracted the attention of authorities. Responding to reports of suspected child abuse at a Twelve Tribes community in Island Pond, Vt., in 1984, 90 flak-jacketed state troopers and 50 social workers seized 112 children.
Asked about a UK newspaper that referred to members beating children with "resin-soaked rods," Derush's brow furrowed at the unusual description.
"We use a little rod about 3/16 of an inch in diameter," he said. "It's like a balloon stick. We discipline with love. We don't have any intention of hurting the children."
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/346/story/873164.html
Waves of new fund cuts imperil US nursing homes
http://www.bnd.com/279/story/951600.html
Does anyone know if Shmarya is looking for a roommate?
http://glosslip.com/2009/10/02/have-you-unknowingly-donated-money-to-scientology/
Perhaps the Sklars court case from 2002 will interest you. They wanted to know why Scientology is the only “religion” that is allowed this exclusive tax exemption and so they decided to take their question to court. The LA Jewish couple asked if they can deduct their five children’s religious school costs off their taxes, in the same manner Scientology members are allowed to do, but guess what? They were denied. HUH?
Curious isn’t it? And more curious still…Scientology’s founder said and I quote:
“Scientology…is not a religion.” – L. Ron Hubbard, CREATION OF HUMAN ABILITY, 1954, p. 251
The Sklars have recently appealed to the Supreme Court. The outcome of this case will be very interesting.
Glosslip is about to give you a small lesson in the many front groups of Scientology. If you are thinking that there is no way that you have have given cash to Scientology, think again. It happened to me, only I didn’t realize it until YEARS later. I will get to that later.
As you may or may not know, the cult of Scientology THRIVES on deception and secrecy. It has hundreds of front groups. Some of the better known front groups you may have heard about are, CCHR, Narconon, Criminon, Applied Scholastics, WISE, ABLE, FASE, and The Way To Happiness.
While all the proceeds from these groups end up going to the same place, which is Scientology of course, the names of these groups usually are attached to a business, an inmate betterment program, a drug treatment program, a dentist or chiropractor’s office (we will get to that) or a school which teaches L. Ron Hubbard tech, like Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s school, the New Village Academy.
But there are a whole slew of names that you may not be aware of that are in fact Scientology. Scientology’s deception runs so deep, that your own town officials may have some of these programs implemented and your tax dollars are ending up in Scientology’s pockets without you even knowing it. Yes, your tax dollars may be funding a Scientology drug rehabilitation program. Sad but true. It has happened in many states in the U.S. and just recently in New Mexico.
Ask Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez whose tax payers paid over $1.5 million dollars to run the now defunct Second Chance program which was run in their old Westside Jail. This program used Scientology’s teachings and the very dangerous Purification Rundown, which is also used by all Scientologists. This of course is the same program used in Narconon AND Criminon AND the NY Fire Fighter’s Detoxification program, just to name a few. ALL the same program, only with different names.
FYI…The Second Chance program left in the middle of the night and not only stole items, but left an outstanding bill. They owe more than $600,000 in tax liens, about $400,000 is due to the IRS, and more than $200,000 to the state. I would like to know why Joy Westrum, who ran that particular Second Chance, is not being brought in for questioning? Crazy, isn’t it?
The Stoliner menahel R' Yisroel Moishe Berman was niftar during aseres yemai teshuva at 91, so that's one less person who can testify if I was full of it when I ran around claiming I fought to stop Kolko molesting over there.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804521990&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
No wonder Shmarya hates Nefesh Benefesh. It helps foster normal relationships, something that he knows nothing about and is probably frightened of. It's the same reason why he is obsessed with the guy who tried kissing Vicky.
BERN, Switzerland (AP) Swiss Justice Ministry says it has denied Roman Polanski's request to be released from prison.
Can you explain why Eisenstein would need Tropper if he can't stomach him?
Belsky, Leib Pinter and the son of Rav Schmeltzer are also close to Tropper.
Lubinsky is still on the Agudah's board.
Yes, Shlomo is my brother.
Rabbi Shlomo Porter is the executive director of the Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning. He is a past president of AJOP (Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals), and also has served as an AJOP trustee since its founding in 1985. Rabbi Porter currently resides with his wife Shoshana (Ungar) Porter in Baltimore, Maryland.
Rabbi Porter is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was raised by his parents who began their life anew in America after spending World War II in the Jewish-Russian partisan movement.
Rabbi Porter's parents, together with his mentors, Rabbi Michel and Rebbetzin Feige Twerski, had a profound influence on his life and encouraged him to attend Beis Medrash L'Torah, a yeshiva high school in Skokie, Illinois. Afterwards, Rabbi Porter spent thirteen years at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, and then going on to Loyola College to receive his master's degree in counseling.
From 1974-1977 Rabbi Porter organized SEED (Summer Educational and Enrichment Development) programs in Milwaukee. The Porter family moved to Santa Clara, California, so that Rabbi Porter could teach and administer Yeshiva and Medrasha Kerem (a high school for young men and women that combined outreach and Torah learning). In 1981 Rabbi Porter moved back to Baltimore to expand and direct the Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Studies, a multi-level program of outreach and adult learning which has reached over 10,000 Jews of every affiliation. Over the years The Etz Chaim Center of Jewish Learning has grown and presently has a Russian division, a college outreach program, advanced women's program, two centers in Baltimore, and two branches in Washington and Philadelphia.
I got Porter's AJOP off the ground with millions of dollars in funding from my Avi Chai Foundation.
AJOP then briefly aligned with National Council of Young Israel before they had a falling out.
R' Shmuel Kaminetzky & the Novomisker are considered AJOP's poskim.
Alleged molester Yaakov Menken runs AJOP's internet division and Yitzchok "duncecap" Adlerstein is an AJOP founding trustee. The guy with the dusty duncecap, Avi Shafran, is always giving AJOP plugs through Am Echad.
Although AJOP is Charedi, it was started as the sister organization of left wing modern orthodox org. NJOP, run by Ephraim Buchwald.
Shlomo Porter was administrator at Kerem in Santa Clara, Calif.
That was my yeshiva where the police want me for molesting boys.
LONDON (AP) British Airways says it is shedding 1,000 pounds, will reduce size of Agudah cabin crew members at Heathrow.
What orthodox Rabbinical court in New York would have given this Jack Porter Rabbinic ordination? Sounds fishy to me....
Viagra cream vorking very good like da pills. Dey selling it in Munkatch after shachris.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb2990774.htm
ctober 5, 2009 -- According to a study conducted by a team of researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, in New York, the three FDA-approved impotence drugs; Viagra, Cialis and Levitra could soon be available in a topical form (rub-on cream).
The research, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, indicates that current clinical tests on rats have shown that Viagra (and other ED drugs) can be efficiently administered through the skin in tiny "nanoparticle capsules". These nanoparticles are too small to be noticed by the naked eye, and each of them encapsulates particles of the drug inside and passes it through the skin.
Using this technique of topical delivery of Viagra could considerably speed up its action and decrease the side effects of the drug. Lesser side effects are to be expected from this new form of Viagra since the effect of the drug would be mainly restricted to a topical area, namely the genitals in this case, instead of being circulated throughout the body
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/10/06/2009-10-06_child_porn.html
Child porn so pervasive that catching offenders now like 'shooting fish in a barrel'
shmeltzer in north miami beach is funding his kolel with money from tropper
its amazing that his brother the speaker rabbi shapiro is powerless to do anything about this as the kolel is in his shul but he doesnt like tropper but his brother needs the money to tsake is 105k a year salary to supervise 8 kolel guys
http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/1009/Scotus_rebuffs_Scientology_tax_case.html
The Supreme Court has turned aside a Jewish couple's attempt to claim a tax break that they contend the Internal Revenue Service set up solely for practitioners of Scientology.
The order, issued by the Justices without comment this morning, appears to put an end to Michael and Marla Sklar's 15-year quest to deduct a portion of their children's tuition at an Orthodox Jewish school in Los Angeles. The Sklars also claimed deductions for special religious classes in Jewish law, or Mishna.
The pair claimed the deductions after learning that the IRS cut a deal in 1993 with the Church of Scientology allowing its followers to claim deductions for religious "training" or "auditing," a practice in which Scientology adherents use an electronic device to purge themselves of negative thoughts.
The Sklars said it would violate the Constitution to allow Scientologists to claim such deductions while not giving them to Jews or members of other religious groups. Scientology officials have long contended that the IRS agreement gave Scientologists no special rights and only guaranteed treatment parallel to that given to those who belong to other religions.
The Sklars' legal battle, mounted pro bono by Washington attorney Jeffrey Zuckerman, never gained much traction, but it did produce this memorable language in a 2001 concurring opinion by Ninth Circuit Appeals Court Judge Barry Silverman:
"Why is Scientology training different from all other religious training? We should decline the invitation to answer that question. The sole issue before us is whether the Sklars' claimed deduction is valid, not whether members of the Church of Scientology have become the IRS's chosen people."
As I read the IRS-Scientology pact, which is still officially secret but was published by the Wall Street Journal in 1997, the deal regarding deductions for auditing and training ran out in 1999. Whether the IRS still adheres to that guidance is unclear.
The Sklar's petition to the Supreme Court is posted here. Some earlier stories on the saga here and here.
http://gawker.com/5374836/the-scientologists-have-gotten-to-scalia
Anyway—if you pay thousands of dollars to send your kid to a yeshiva, you have to pay taxes on that. If you pay thousands of dollars to have them hold metal cans attached to a battery and tell lies about their past lives on distant planets? Eh, the feds might cut you a break.
http://www.app.com/article/20091003/NEWS/910030327/1070/NEWS02/Lakewood+seeks+to+rebrand+itself++building+on+assets
Civic leaders point to absentee and negligent landlords, allowing gang members and drug dealers into quiet neighborhoods.
Rabbi Aaron Kotler, chief executive officer of the Beth Medrash Govoha yeshiva, cited careless landlords — some of whom are attracted to Lakewood because of ties to the Orthodox — as the negative product of a town's evolution that, with help from the Jewish influx, has otherwise reduced crime since the 1970s.
"Lakewood has seen incredibly beneficial changes and much revitalization as its population grew over the years. Yet, sadly, our quality of life is negatively impacted when people who have no vested interest in Lakewood's future act carelessly," he said in an e-mail.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/10/06/2009-10-06_rapists_ma_faces_charges_for_digging_up_dirt.html
The mother of an upstate rapist soon could be joining her son behind bars.
Victoria Munson was charged by state officials with using her position as a Fulton County social service worker to collect damaging information about her son's victim.
"It is utterly shocking," said state Inspector General Joseph Fisch.
Investigators believe Munson, 59, of Johnstown, performed dozens of illegal computer searches on the victim, using state social service and motor vehicle databases from 2007 to 2009.
The computer searches were part of a continuing pattern of harassment that prompted the woman to obtain an order of protection against Munson in late 2007, officials said.
Munson's son, 25-year-old Nicholas Munson, is serving a two-to-four-year sentence in state prison for the 2007 rape and a charge of criminal weapons possession.
Victoria Munson, who retired from her Fulton County job during Fisch's investigation, was charged with felony computer trespass and official misconduct, a misdemeanor. She was released on $500 bail.
The inspector general's office was alerted to Munson's activities by the state Department of Motor Vehicles following an audit of its computer services.
Raymond B. Harding, the former vice chairman of New York state’s Liberal Party, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony related to securities violations under the Martin Act, the latest development in Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s investigation of the state pension fund.
Mr. Harding had been accused of accepting more than $800,000 that prosecutors say was a reward for doing political favors for the former state comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.
Saul Meyer of Aldus Equity, a Dallas-based firm, also pleaded guilty on Friday to a Martin Act felony in the case. Mr. Meyer was a top consultant to pension funds around the country.
The accusations against Mr. Harding, included helping to clear an Assembly seat in a Queens district so that Mr. Hevesi’s son, Andrew, could run for it in 2005. Mr. Cuomo has said that Mr. Harding, once a close political ally of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and a power broker in state politics, was rewarded for providing “30 years’ worth” of political favors to the senior Mr. Hevesi.
Both men are now cooperating with the investigation.
“These guilty pleas vividly depict the depth and breadth of corruption involving the New York State pension fund,” Mr. Cuomo said. “In one case, we see New York’s state pension fund looted to reward a political boss with hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper payments. In the other, we see a pension fund adviser – the outside ‘gatekeeper’ who is supposed to safeguard the integrity of the pension fund process – recommending deals based on pressure from pension officials and politically connected people.”
“We are bringing this ugly corruption to light, and we must fix the system as well,” he added.
Mr. Harding and Mr. Meyer each face up to four years in prison if convicted.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) Ga. man sentenced to death for molesting and choking to death 6-year-old boy in mobile home .
David Letterman's mistress who did a cuckold on the extortionist, went to YU's law school.
Is Birkett a Jewish name?
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a16923/News/New_York.html
It figures that the OU shul I attend with my shiksa wife in Chicago and it's krumma rabbi who is matzdik chilul Yomtov in the name of Beis Brisk, is now involved with Avi Weiss's women rabbis.
Now that Steve Savitsky had enough courage to call me a "menuval" will he allow an OU member shul to be involved with this Liberal revolution?
From Shmarya:
Rabbis Strike At Agri-Star
Entire rabbinic workforce walks out, other workers sent home, plant idle, say Postville workers.
Details are still sketchy. The strike started yesterday. It is unclear if it continued today.
Rabbi Weissmandl, who heads kosher supervision for Agri-Star, never paid the rabbis (i.e., shochtim and mashgichim) all the money earmarked for them from the bankruptcy court.
I'm told Weissmandl argued that Agriprocessors in bankruptcy was in effect a new company and therefore he did not owe his rabbinic employees anything, despite the court's earmarking of funds to pay them.
Weissmandl paid them about half of what was earmarked and kept the rest for himself.
At the same time, he threatened to terminate the contract of anyone who complained or went public, and made it clear such actions could jeopardize future employment – perhaps at other kosher facilities, as well.
It is unclear whether this strike is an outgrowth of that incident.
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2009/09/24/brooklyn_graphic/news/brooklyn_graphic_newsoipxcvi09232009.txt
A synagogue’s refusal to leave a yeshiva’s building is all about money. So claims Michael Spiegel, executive director of Yeshiva Rambam, which has allowed Congregation Machzikei Torah to use part of its building for the last 35 years.
“The rabbi told me that they found a place and they are ready to move,” Spiegel said. “[He said] that if I give him money then he moves out, and if I don’t, he’s calling all the newspapers and trying to scare me. I asked him how much money he wants and he said he has to come back to us.”
Spiegel said there has been no further discussion about money since this conversation occurred two weeks ago.
Thanks "Jack Nusan Porter" for confiming that "Yes, Shlomo is my brother."
So how could you remain silent all these years when your own brother was commiting all these crimes you must have known about?
Don't you have any decency and no guilt that you acted like a hypocrite while you were faking it by "mekariving" all those naive BTs while at the same time your brother was sucking (wrong term?) out the sexual lives of innocents that you must have known about?
After all, you attended "Loyola College to receive his master's degree in counseling." So what gives? All that Catholic education from the Jesuits taught you how to protect abusive sexual predators, starting with your own brother, sure seems so.
Then again, thanks for reminding us that you sat at the knees of the sex scandal maestro himself, Matis Weinberg, who was kicked out of Kerem for an internal sex scandal at Kerem when you were there and that even the Aguda rabbis banned Matis from holding any new rosh yeshiva positions EVER for his known disgusting sex talk with boys and girls, that he still does to this day, and sex play with the boys under his "care" when you were in "Santa Clara, California, so that Rabbi Porter could teach and administer Yeshiva and Medrasha Kerem (a high school for young men and women that combined outreach and Torah learning)."
Seems that you learned some neat COVER-UP tricks then from Matis and his dad Jack Weinberg, yes that Jack Weinberg, the one who married poor ol' Rav Ruderman's daughter, and the three of you, Matis, Father Jack and you had a jolly good ol' fun time with the boys under your care, didn't you? You spent a long time and a lot of effort to help Jack cover it up, and it's why the Aguda rabbis never allowed Jack to attain the last honor he coveted, Rav Svei knew all the dirt and he thus refused Jack to sit with him on the august Aguda Moetzes. Too bad that Svei had Father Jack's number, isn't it. Well Svei is gone now, but God is still with us, so now it's your brother's and your turn for come-uppance.
Now it's all coming out about your brother. How about you owned up about your own sick past that you shamelessly covered up till now, like covering up for your brother, Matis and Father Jack, with all that faked "power play" when you took millions for all the different programs you ran that were just fronts for pumping money to your organizations, your NIRC buddies based on Jack Weinberg's choice picks and orders.
Shame on you and resign from your so-called "outreach" jobs for which you have lost any moral credibility!
Tropper fails to build his own Torah community on home ground in Monsey, New York, USA.
All Tropper has in Monsey after working day and night in outreach is a dinkey little place that often barely has a minyan and a handful or more of students.
After about 30 years of living, working and basing himself out of Monsey, NY, Tropper has gone nowhere.
People there basically don't like him. His original kol yaakov yeshiva never seems to grow beyond a handful of students. Perhaps it's because he "mainstreams" them well meaning brainwashes his new recruits so quickly and so efficiently that they then move on to be absorbed into other yeshiva communities in Israel and America, and Tropper does have a nice little group of his alumni meaning disciples living in Israel.
But it still does not account for the fact that in Monsey, NY which by now is itself a huge Charedi community with both yeshivish and Chasidish people by the tens of thousands moving in and living there, that after three decades Tropper has not been able to do a simple thing for him like building a core community that one would think should be the natural outgrowth of his thirty years of attracting people to himself and setting himself up as their supreme leader.
What is the matter here?
And to double the shame for Tropper is that his arch-rivals and former employers Ohr Somayach set themselves up in Monsey about the same time he did, and by now they have a huge campus overflowing with students who are referred to them from all across America and the world, while they have built up a very strong kehilla of their own that revolves around the Ohr Somyach campus in Monsey.
Why hasn't Tropper been able to replicate this same level of success?
The answers are not that hard to follow by now. One is that Tropper is by nature restless and on the go and since he is a control freak and insists on micromanaging every last detail of his yeshiva's and students' lives, he is in effect his own worst enemy because no student or couple will invest time in a rabbi who is flying around America and the world seeking his own kicks and thrills and they sense he doesn't give a darn about their more mundane and human needs on earth itself.
But of course, two is the real reason that Tropper is simply too obnoxious and self-centered for any group of people to put their long-term emotional and spiritual lives into the hands of someone as selfish, bombastic and cruel as the menacing Machiavellian Tropper macho machine.
Monsey to Tropper: Not in our back yard.
There is an unspoken common understanding in Monsey, NY, Tropper's is dangerous and a fraud and most of his students are weird and cultish. Yeah sure, he trains many of them to think super-yeshivish and even to learn a blatt well. But that only makes matters worse, because it's just replicating and reproducing Frankenstein-like monsters who can spout Tropper's sicko ideology of hating other rabbis that they are convinced is true "daas toireh" when it's just the cultish ramblings of brainwashed BTs practicing sinas chinam and machlokes at the feet of the master.
Bottom line, Monsey has not been kind to Tropper and the Jews of Monsey don't like him, his views or the type of fanatical students he puts out, when he puts them out. This is not because Monsey does not like kiruv or BTs. On the contrary, MOnsey is a very welcoming and tolernat community. A lot better than the tough Brooklynites and far better than the unfriendly Boro Parkers not to mention Willimsburgers, or the nutty Crown Heighters, the Monsey people are good people. That is why Ohr Somyach of Mosney has had so much success there as it's been welcomed and staffed by people from the Monsey community. Just that they don't like Tropper and his skwered approach at his forever hanging by a thread kol yaakov yeshiva.
Could it be that they were privy to the public breakup of his first marriage while he was living there? Or that they saw and heard about his private predilections and rumors of womanizing and taking advantage of females when on the road with his "horizons I am the greatest gift to mankind" lectures on campuses all over America? Or how he suddenly met and reeled in a pretty young thing model who wasn't even religious and after refusing to give wife number one a get for a long time, he suddenly saw the light and ran to dump her so that he could marry wife number two soon after a couple of months of number two's brainwashing at a girls seminray? These are things that matter and they cannot be kept from one's neighbors.
Gossip is a reality of life and when it is a supposedly prominent rabbi who is preaching high and mighty things and looks down at the world because "he knows better" that the gossip takes on more traction and becomes a window into the world of truth and reality that reveal a hypocritical monster at work, this causes your neighbors to stay far away from you.
These too must be at least some the reasons that R Pinny Lipshitz owner of the YATED and long time resident of Monsey stays as far away from Tropper as he can and tries to sanitize his paper by running as little news about EJF and Topper as he can and very obviously letting the world know, that as far as the Monsey based YATED is concerned, Tropper is held at arms length or better yet like a figurative putrid rat held by its tail while the rat catcher holds his own nose with his other hand as he tosses the rat as far out of the window as he humanly can waving it goodbye and good riddance as it scampers off to bother other papers and publishers like at the The Jewish Press and at the Hamodia attention-starved news rags that will post anything that comes their way, especially if it's backed up by the big money that pumps artificial life into EJF and keeps Tropper flying all over the world creating mayhem and machlokes in his trail.
Piny Lipshitz has letely welcomed a column based on weekly Torah thoughts from lectures by Rav Moshe Sternbuch the Raavad of the Eida Hachareidit's Beth Din who just so also happens to be the staunchest hakchic authority and Torah scholar opposing every shred of what EJF is trying to do and who frightens the heck out of a Tropper. Neat and very smart trick by Lipshitz to arm himself with choshuve Sternbuch against the low-life Tropper bullying aparat.
who wants to join me in a protest against Artscroll/Mesorah for their employing molestor enablers like Chaim Malinowitz?
What a shanda that this man who punishes the poor should be editor general of Artscroll.
Perhaps we should contact the Schottensteins as well.
I'm certain thet they don't want to associate with the likes of Malinowit.
Tropper tries to overcome isolation in Monsey.
(Look back: There are a few reasons why R Nochum Eisenstein of Israel would need Tropper. Tropper has access to big bucks. He could and did assemble the big rabbis and promote Eisenstein cause. But it backfired when Eisenstein used his time on the EJF stage to attack some of the RCA type rabbis there, causing them to cut all ties to Tropper and EJF that they may have contemplated. But the real crux of the issues between Tropper and Eisenstein stems from the schizophrenic aims of EJF itself. Tropper has an outreach type of agenda to convert as many gentiles that fall into EJF hands while he also preaches a doctrine of "universal standards" meaning the highest possible chumras in geirut. Tropper is able to flip back and forth and use both as arguments when one fails he uses the other. Whatever works. While on the other hand R Eisenstein does not give a crap about converting anyone. If he had his way he would pull the conversions of all converts except a handful he knows about. He proved this when he orchestrated with Rabbi Sherman in Israel the annulment of nearly 17,000 conversions that had been performed by Rabbi Druckman's Religious Zionist Batei Din of the Israeli governemnt's sanctioned Conversion Authority. So while Eisenstein's frame of refernce is the ongoing conversions machlokesen in Israel, Tropper's focus is about taking his personal philosophy outreach and self-grandeur to a new level by reaching out to gentiles who want to convert many from intermarriages. Eisenstein hates this and has tried to stamp it out but he cannot because it was a pet project of Guma Aguiar and Tom Kaplan who were funding EJF and Tropper to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and making the haredi bigs come and pay attention at the EJF conferences in the first place and now it's what Tom Kaplan alone is funding, so Tropper has no choice if he wants Kaplan's millions to keep on flowing into his EJF and other coffers, but Eisenstein couldn't give a darn about Kaplan or Tropper's "great leader with blind disciples converting the world like a fake messiah" befitting Shabtai Tzvi meshugasen.)
So to keep his own visions of grandeur rolling Tropper has tried to break out from isolation in Monsey, reaching out even to rivals and former enemies: Eternal Jewish Family - External Links. His greatest grand scheme to do that has been the EJF scam itself.
But on a smaller scale he has tried to weasel his way back to some outreach organization who are obviously cash strapped in some ways and he has dragged in the Gateways organization, that basically like Tropper only shares a Monsey address, but has no campus or following to speak of, just a glitzy PR driven lecturing machine with weekends at hotels (plenty of known hanky panky at Gateways events too) that cater to mostly spoiled frum people.
Tropper has tried to reach out to his old nemesis of Ohr Somyach in Jerusalem and they have taken the bait for their own cynical reasons, but they have still not let him set his foot into their own bais medrash, while they conduct programs with him in far off Ukraine, and a few others from Israel who need to break out of their isolation, so they think that Tropper will help him, but it's like a prisoner who imagines he is breaking out of his jail cell only to find himself having landed up in the jail cell next door. While it helps Tropper get over his isolation and virtual banning from Monsey, it helps the others who now hold hands with him nothing.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/10/06/2009-10-06_irate_tenants_blast_landlord_say_flatbush_apt_bldg_is_decaying.html
The hallway fell, and the kitchen fell," she said. "Everything fell."
Nearly a month after the ceilings collapsed, Gustav's Flatbush apartment is still strewn with rubble, and black mold covers the bathroom walls.
Landlord Kalman Zimmerman hasn't made repairs despite repeated requests, she said.
"I'm trying to get an apartment. I'm trying to get out of here," said Gustav, 53, a home health aide, who shares the one-bedroom apartment with her 18-year-old daughter.
"There's always trouble. It's no way to live."
Zimmerman has wracked up a whopping 259 housing code violations at the two adjacent buildings he owns on E. 22nd St. - allegedly failing to fix leaking and collapsing ceilings, broken locks, bedbug, cockroach, and rat infestations, among other problems.
He showed up for a meeting with tenants three weeks ago and promised to start repairs - but hasn't been heard from since, they charged. Squatters have taken up residence in the basement, climbing in through a gaping hole in the wall.
"They're doing drugs, smoking all night long," said Jackie Gardner, 32. "They have parties. There's girls. On a Friday or Saturday, it's loud."
"It's petrifying," said Gardner, who lives with her 9 and 12-year-old sons. "I'm a single parent. I don't have nobody to defend me.... I'm concerned for my safety. My kids don't even want to come home."
She and her children cover up with towels while in the bathroom to shield themselves from sewage leaking from the bathroom above.
There are holes in the ceiling from a cavein three months ago. The kitchen light hasn't worked in months. "I cook in the dark. I'm used to being in the dark now," Gardner said.
Agatha Jack, 44, brandished a bag full of bedbugs she said she captured in her apartment. "We couldn't sleep in the room.
We had to spread [sheets] on the floor, but they were in the carpet too," she said.
She's dreading the oncoming winter. "Every winter's a problem. We go weeks without heat and hot water," she said. "I'm very fearful because I have a husband who's very sick.
He had a kidney transplant. He can't be in the cold." Tenant association president Tammy Brake said Zimmerman has been ignoring complaints for at least two years.
Tenants charged he's trying to empty the buildings' 32 units of rent-stabilized tenants so he can jack up the rents.
Brake said the landlord even disconnected his office phone after repeated complaints. "We were bothering him too much, so he just disconnected the number," she said.
"You call, you call.... You can't get any response." Zimmerman did not return calls for comment.
The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development is suing Zimmerman to force repairs, a spokesman said, adding the landlord was also fined for failing to provide heat and hot water, but hasn't paid the fine.
The ultimate reason that Ner Yisroel was blacklisted by the Agudah was the machlokes they had with the Steipler. People at NIRC didn't like his criticism and badmouthed him like mechutzofim.
Leib Tropper has been headed down the same road lately as a 59 year old shnook who is badmouthing a much older R' Moishe Sternbuch after he criticized EJF.
After the Agudah told Ner Yisroel to take a hike, I became the Ner Yisroel tool to turn National Council of Young Israel into their launchpad.
By Mitch Morrison
“I’m not really a teenager. I never really had a childhood.”
Sixteen and fresh-faced, Sara speaks into a microphone for the first time. Raised in a yeshivish community in New Jersey, she is accompanied by friends in the audience and 4 fellow victims of sexual molestation.
She is the latest in a growing line of victims to speak out, sharing in drawn breaths about a young girl whose Shabbos table was one of inappropriate touch and, later, rape.
“You feel dirty. You don’t feel anyone will believe you.”
The anecdotes of child sexual molestation in some of the Orthodox communities have shifted in recent years from shock to awe, denial to resignation.
Yet, on this night – less than 24 hours before the calendar’s holiest day of Yom Kippur, there is something startling about the 2 hours of testimonials from four men and one woman ranging from teens to 40s.
Location.
Congregation Ahavas Israel is in Passaic, N.J., a predominantly yeshiva community with multiple kollels and yeshivot.
Yet, it is unlike many other Orthodox communities in New York and New Jersey. It is neither Modern Orthodox nor Chassidish nor Lakewood nor Brooklyn. It is, per capita, home to one of the largest populations of baalei teshuva and is among the fastest growing religious Jewish communities in the country.
Speaking before nearly 300 men and women in black hats, knitted yarmulkes, sheitels and tichels, Ahavas Israel Rabbi Ron Yitzchak Eisenman, a maverick rabbi whose shul has become the community’s largest in recent years with around-the-clock minyanim, sets the tone for this unusual evening.
He quotes Talmudic sources and Supreme Court rulings centered on intimacy and sexual humiliation. His oscillating voice couples a preacher’s fervor with talk-show populism. He is the first, he says to hefty applause, to courageously present the voice of the victims to a community that prefers Mayberry’s fictional quiet living over confrontation, that celebrates a growing homogeneity over religious nuances.
The speakers are known and unknown. Better known in the circle of child abuse victims are Joel Engleman, Mark Weiss and Asher Lipner. Different in style and background, they stand among the most recognized advocates for change and education.
Newer to the stage are Sara and Joseph, a 29-year-old Williamsburg native who shares that he was raped while attending the mikvah as a young boy. Joseph says he changed his name 10 years ago to a non-Jewish appellation. He sports a large tattoo on his left arm and a shock of dark hair reminiscent of a younger Alice Cooper. He is the lone man among the speakers who shuns a yarmulke. On this evening, before a very religious crowd, the omission catches little attention or concern.
“This is the first time I’m validated in the Orthodox community,” he prefaces. “It feels good to see all of you out here.
“I was a happy kid,” he then begins, sharing the story of a Chassidish kid who attended mikvah daily with his father until, he said, he was raped as he began his immersion.
Life was never the same. “That confident kid went to being the scare-diest [sic] kid.”
After the program, one of the event organizers, Brochie Neugarten, was talking to panelists and audience alike, still taken by the packed social hall. “I had gotten to know some survivors of molestation, felt their pain and feeling of being alone without any community support,” she says. “I have seen the lack of awareness in the Orthodox community and have been pushing for a community-wide educational meeting for awhile.
“Likewise, I owe a great deal of hakaras hatov (appreciation) to Rabbi Eisenman for showing the courage to speak out on behalf of survivors of molestation and standing up for truth even if it hurts.”
And that hurt was reflected in the victims’ stories that elicited winces, nervous shudders and even tears from the audience.
Weiss, Engleman and Lipner shared their cases of abuse. Lipner spoke of being 3,000 miles from his home in San Francisco, when he attended Ner Yisroel in Baltimore and says he was befriended by the yeshiva’s spiritual counselor. “The rabbi made me feel good. … He made me feel special,” Lipner says. “That was the way he began to win me over.
“…As molesters do, he groomed me.” Lipner, who today is a therapist and works with many victims of child molestation, described a year-long relationship that was primarily emotional with the physical centering on hugging and kissing on the cheek.
The emotional involved preferential treatment, but also playing Lipner off his friends and even his family. “He spoke lashon harah (gossip) of my father and he did, what we call divide and conquer, with my friends.”
As for the physical, Lipner said about a year into this relationship, the rabbi “crossed the line” when, Lipner says, “he touched me inappropriately on the behind. I was shocked and upset but was embarrassed to confront the rabbi directly.”
At that point, Lipner informed his mother, who then contacted the rabbi to keep his distance, The rabbi penned what Lipner described as a love letter. “He wrote, ‘there’s a fine line between love and hate.’ I’ll never forget that line.”
[Lipner remains one of the leading advocates in favor of the proposed Child Victims Act in New York, which would open the statute of limitations for one year and expand stringent restrictions currently in use in public schools to private schools such as finger printing and mandatory reporting of suspected cases of child molestation.] Optional Graph - mitch
When the survivors finished sharing their stories, Rabbi Eisenman returned to the microphone and paused.
The battle cannot be fought alone, he said. He called on the audience to take a proactive role to raise awareness, to help introduce standards in yeshivot and other institutions to help prevent future cases of child molestation. And most importantly, open your homes to the victims – don’t ignore them or dismiss their pain.
“They are part of our Jewish family,” he says in response to a question asking the panelists what could be done to bring Judaism back to their lives. “They never left us."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/us/07arizona.html?hpw
PHOENIX — The Maricopa County sheriff, who has drawn scorn and praise for a running crackdown on illegal immigrants in this city’s metropolitan area, said Tuesday that federal officials had taken away his deputies’ authority to make immigration arrests in the field.
That prompted an angry, rambling outburst from the sheriff Tuesday at a news conference at which he called Homeland Security officials “liars” and vowed to press on with his campaign, using state laws, against illegal immigrants. He said he would drive those caught on the streets to the border if federal officers refused to take them into custody.
Andrew Thomas, the county attorney, appeared with Mr. Arpaio to voice his support and condemn the “setback in the fight against illegal immigration.” Mr. Thomas said, “The fight goes on.”
He and Mr. Arpaio suggested that deputies could use the state anti-human smuggling law to make stops and refer suspected illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though it was not clear whether the agency would take them.
If not, the sheriff said, “I’ll take a little trip to the border and turn them over to the border.”
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/10/06/dining/07deli.2.ready.html
I'm trying to convince the Novominsker that something has to be done about all the shtupping and ensuing injuries at the Agudah Convention meat carving station.
I remember that post by DH. One classic post !!
Reuven Schmeltzer, in his "kill all the Jews who follow the Moreh and accept science" sefer (see http://www.zootorah.com/controversy/ChaimBEmunasam.pdf), has an acknowledgment to Tropper at the beginning of the sefer. He also thanks him for arranging a big contribution from Keren Menachem Yitzchok. What's that?
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