The Supreme Court judges just freed Avrohom Mondrowitz. The terms for his bail are being negotiated while the State's prosecutors decide whether to file an application for a second appeal. The judges did not read their decision but it should be published on the Internet later today***
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R' Shmuel Kaminetzky at podium - R' Reuvein Feinstein to his leftThe Smartest Domestic Animal in The World
Dec 16, 2008 - Chris McLaughlin
A roadblock humans have in deciphering intelligence in animals is that we can't help but assume the smartest ones must resemble us. Clearly, nobody told that to the pig.
How is intelligence measured? After all, even people can be intelligent or extraordinary in many ways. Some excel at math, and some are gifted linguists. Others fail in the academic arena entirely, and shine as masterful artists. One way to measure intelligence is based on the ability to solve problems.
The associations people have made with the word, ‘pig’, are less than glamorous. In fact, there are downright negative connotations attached to the word, which is why we use it to insult people. But, let’s put aside our preconceived ideas of what we think a pig is, let’s take a look at who they really are.
Pigs have been touted as the smartest, and the cleanest domestic animals in the world. The phrases, “sweat like a pig” or “smell like a pig”, may come to mind. But, consider that pigs don’t have sweat glands, and therefore, can’t sweat (except on the very ends of their snouts). The lack of sweat glands means lack of odor - affording no credibility to either statement.
To compensate for the lack of a natural way to bring their body temperature down, pigs seek out water or mud. Pigs rolling in mud may look uncouth, but they are actually being quite smart. The mud not only keeps them cool, but keeps biting pests at bay, and prevents sunburn.
As Smart as the Primates
Intelligence research was done with pigs in the 1990s. One of the experiments was to train the pigs to move the cursor on a video screen with their snouts. When the pigs used the cursors again, they were able to distinguish between the scribbles they already knew, and the scribbles they were seeing for the first time. The pigs learned this skill as fast as the chimpanzees.
EJF PRESS RELEASE [Read Agudath Israel - Kaminet$ky/Fein$tein]:
New York - Your interview with Rabbi Aba Dunner, the executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis (January 7, 2010), unfortunately twists the truth about Eternal Jewish Family International (EJF) and is, to say the least, insulting to leading Gedolei Yisroel. Any real search into the truth behind Rabbi Dunner’s charges will lead to discredited sources that are using the recent personal scandal of the founder of EJF as an excuse to disparage leading Torah scholars and the organization.
Rabbi Leib Tropper, the organization’s former director, has resigned and no longer has any role in the organization. EJF continues its worldwide activities under the leadership of the Gedolei Yisroel
Here are the facts about the scandalous charges Rabbi Dunner made:
Who approached whom and why did the arrangement sour?
Rabbi Dunner was the one who approached EJF for assistance in funding the Bais Din activities in Europe under the direction of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, the head of the European Bais Din. This was consistent with EJF’s mission to promote universally accepted conversions in intermarriage, as per the dictates of leading poskim, including Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l who ruled that in the case of a baal teshuva and a potential ger tzedek (convert who accepts Torah and Mitzvos as a way of life) hat such conversions are to be encouraged. In its four-year existence, EJF has affiliated with a network of 19 Botei Din in this country and provided support to the dayanim in the form of conferences and seminars.
EJF made a significant grant to the CER to expand the activities of the Botei Din in Europe. It soon grew suspicious of the questionable use of the funds by Rabbi Dunner who is employed by the CER and whose responsibilities included the activities of the Beis Din. EJF asked Rabbi Dunner to refund the balance of the money that had not yet been spent or at least to place the money in the trust of Dayan Ehrentreu. Rabbi Dunner refused and in fact continued to bill EJF for “Bais Din expenses” even after the money was spent. (We expect that Rabbi Dunner will surely donate this money to charity as he suggested to rabbonim who received reimbursement for their expenses to attend EJF conferences.)
While Rabbi Dunner mentions the 25-member Standing Committee of the CER as the basis for his recent support in opposing EJF seminars for intermarried couples, it turned out that he had never received that body’s approval to go forward with the original EJF –CER arrangement. He managed to circumvent the same body that he is now using to discredit the EJF.
What is the halachic basis for the seminars for mixed couples and who in Europe supports it?
The seminars are really kiruv seminars for couples where one spouse is well on the way towards becoming a baal teshuva (or may already be) and the other enroute to becoming a ger tzedek. It is consistent with the kind of chinuch that the Gedolim have ruled is fully permissible and even to be encouraged for a prospective convert and the baal teshuva spouse. In fact, this past week EJF sponsored a seminar for nearly 30 couples in Munich that was under the auspices of Dayan Ehrentreu, the leading halachic posek in Europe. The Dayan lectured on such subjects as taharas hamishpocho (family purity) and kashrus and met with each of the couples.
Rabbi Dunner’s opposition to EJF was based on the support by the CER Standing Committee (later joined by an unsigned statement by the London Bais Din of which Dayan Ehrentreu is a member). The Standing Committee issued a resolution against the seminars and in essence against their own Av Bais Din. For some unexplained reason, none of the senior rabbonim was in Moscow when the decision was taken by the CER Standing Committee to issue such a statement against the seminars and EJF’s role in Europe. When Dayan Ehrentreu did attempt to board a plane for Moscow to attend the session, he found that for the first time in his life his visa was mysteriously invalid.
Reacting to the derogatory remarks against Gedolei Hatorah, including Dayan Ehrentreu, sharp letters of rebuke against this bizoyon of kovod Hatorah (insult of the honor of Torah) have in recent days been issued by Harav Yosef Chaim Sitruk, president of the CER, Harav Moshe Lebel, the chairman of the Rabbinic Committee of CER, and Rabbi Yihya Teboul, the Chief Rabbi of Lyon, France. It should be noted that the seminars were endorsed by Rav Aaron Leib Shteinman, shlita, even as Rabbi Dunner claimed that Rav Shteinman was opposed to the seminars. The Rosh Yeshiva, in fact, told Dayan Ehrentreu and numerous other witnesses, including Rabbi Dunner’s own brother, that he was categorically in favor of these chinuch seminars. He reportedly told Rabbi Dunner: “What’s wrong with the seminars? They (EJF) don’t do the geyrus.” But Rabbi Dunner used his version to obtain the resolution from the Standing Committee.
Has the organization inappropriately exerted pressure on Botei Din to grant questionable conversions?
Even Rabbi Dunner was at a loss to cite specifics. EJF does not do geyrus. They are done by independent Botei Din who make their own decisions on the qualifications for geyrus. All the 19 Botei Din in North America, Dayan Ehrentreu’s Bais Din, and numerous Israeli Botei Din operate independently and after a careful evaluation of each case perform geyrus according to Halacha.
How is the organization reacting to the scandal of its former director?
The director of EJF involved in the regrettable personal scandal has resigned and has no role in the organization. EJF has added the highly regarded Rabbi Chaim Blum to its staff to assist it with expanding its rabbinic leadership and key personnel in its offices in the US, Europe and Israel. Its remarkable achievement in affiliating with a network of Botei Din and advancing order to the chaotic geyrus scene is to say the least a formidable accomplishment.
Five leading Gedolei Yisroel (Harav Yosef Sholem Eliyashiv, shlita, Harav Aaron Leib Shteinman, shlita, Harav Chaim Kanievski, shlita, Harav Yitzchok Scheiner, shlita, and Harav Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz, shlita) have recently written Mr. Tom Kaplan, the Chairman of EJF, urging the continuation of the work of the organization. The three heads of the Halachic Committees (Harav Reuven Feinstein shlita – USA, Dayan Ehrentreu – Europe, and Harav Shmuel Eliezer Stern –Av Bais Din of Harav Shmuel Wozner – Israel) have urged the Botei Din around the world to continue their work under the EJF.
The organization’s activities have not been limited to geyrus support programs. It has partnered with numerous well-known kiruv organizations (Gateways, Ohr Someach, Lev Leachim, Hidabroot, Arachim and Nefesh Yehudi) to encourage Jewish youth to marry Jews.
We are extremely disappointed that Rabbi Dunner has chosen to exploit the regrettable circumstances of the scandal to discredit Gedolei Yisroel and the Eternal Jewish Family. It is our hope that all Jews who seek the truth and who cherish kedushas yisroel (the sanctity of the Jewish nation) will appreciate our efforts to set the record straight.
Rav Dunner Responds to EJF Attack
No Punches Pulled
Published on Monday, January 11, 2010 -
By Rabbi Aba Dunner
GO TO THE WEBSITE BELOW TO READ THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GEDOLIM FROM EJF!
A small quote:
......."Tropper is a fraud. The organization he created is in his image
and is therefore a fraud too. The creators of that image are
fraudsters and hucksters who are trying desperately to keep the
line to Mr Kaplan's millions open. The chareidi world feels
diminished and tainted and wishes they would go away and the
chilul Hashem would stop"................... ♦
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5595
134 comments:
First to comment!
All Botei Din help each other. A response by one for or against another means nothing. However, Rabbi Dunner, acting himself, is more reliable. Bais Din abuse of power is the cancer of todays society. A respectable Av Bais Din in Lakewood, is also accused of the worst. Documented, and pictured. However, no Rabbi is prepared to "try" him. So he goes on with his immunity.
Can someone please give me a reason to remain frum? I have been searching but I come up with nothing.
Anon Above:
Make peace with yourself through the beauty of the Torah principles; these clowns will be dead soon, daven for ehrliche leadership!
A precedent-setting statement this week by the Chief Rabbinate, which said all conversions may be retroactively annulled at any time, is adding fuel to a legal battle over the status of state-sponsored conversions in Israel.
The document by Rabbi Shimon Yaakobi, the rabbinate's court adviser, was the rabbinate's reply to a High Court of Justice petition filed last May by the Center for Women's Justice.
In it, the center asked the court to reverse the 2008 retroactive nullification of thousands of conversions performed by the state-sponsored Conversion Authority headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman. The 122-page document comprises the first time that such a prominent figure within the Rabbinate's legal arm openly states that approved conversions can be "reversed" at the discretion of any rabbinical judge.
"This is a significant blow to converts," said Seth Farber, who heads the Jerusalem-based nonprofit ITIM. "We are slowly splintering into two peoples." An American-born rabbi, Farber is a key opponent of the controversial phenomenon.
Over the past two years this issue has become a main point of contention within the Orthodox community, with hardliners conditioning conversion on strict religious observance by converts, and pragmatists who say the conversion process should be irreversible.
Rabbinical court records show that from 2004 to 2008 the Chief Rabbinate approved the conversion of approximately 26,000 people. Of those, some 17,000 were of Ethiopian descent and 5,000 were of Russian-speaking origins.
Lubitch of the Center for Women's Justice says the latest statement could have far-reaching ramifications for potential converts among the approximately 300,000 non-Jewish, Russian-speaking citizens of Israel.
"Beyond the tremendous uncertainty this introduces into converts' lives... the government's efforts to convert [Russians] now face serious problems, because making conversions reversible will undoubtedly seriously diminish their motivation to even start the process."
."
The same adviser said last month that rabbis who nullified conversions would be called into explain their actions to Amar in December 2009, but Farber and other people involved in the field said this never happened.
On Tuesday, Shas MK Rabbi Haim Amsalem, formerly chief Sephardic rabbi in Geneva, spoke out against retroactive nullifications when he launched a book he had penned, detailing his research of the attitudes of great past Jewish sages to conversion.
His ITIM intends to file in a few weeks a second petition to the High Court of Justice on behalf of a number of Jews whose conversions were nullified by rabbinate representatives. "In an unprecedented manner, the rabbinate has opened a Halakhic Pandora's box with its latest legal statement,"
Farber yesterday told Anglo File. "This further exacerbated the predicament of thousands of converts around the world who are now living in a state of uncertainty," he said.
Thank you UOJ! It is easy to become discouraged by the current events.
I find it helps to study our history, especially pre-Expulsion from Spain. The Rabbinical politics (the anti Maimonideans) were similar to what is happening today.
Hashem needs to prune the rosebush every so often and so sends agents like Tropper, Sabbetai Sevi and Frank to help do this.
The rest of us just have to keep our eyes on the big picture; which is that our Torah is Eternal.
See Rambam Iggeret Teman, a
famous letter to the Jewish
community of Yemen. At that time, the Jews of Yemen were suffering from terrible religious persecution by the authorites, aided by a Jewish apostate. Added
to all this, was a false Messiah who took advantage of
the difficult times to gain a large
following. The Yemenite community
turned to the Rambam for advice
and he responded with the Iggeret.
In the letter, the Rambam encourages the Jews to remain steadfast in their
commitment to Judaism, with practical advice on how to deal with the situation. He
also demolishes the claims of the missionary and the false Moshiach. The letter had an enormous impact on the Yemenite community, inspiring hope throughout the land.
This response indicates the sort of org EJF is. Smug tit for tat and most importantly the type that thrives ON PLAYING DIRTY. They've also got pretty bad advisors as most would recommend to keep low while keeping up the work of the org and out of the headlines. These guys have such big egos that each item in the 15 minute life cycle of this media event needs to be responded to. Why do they feel it necesary to hit back and fight? Is this the way/advice of the gedolim? A kavodik and emesdik org would apologise many times over and not look to discredit every last tom dock and harry who has an opinion about them.
To quote Deep Throat in the Watergate scandal: "Follow the money". This will lead you to all of the "Gedolim" in the USA who have drunk from the Tropper well. That is why you have not heard a peep from Agudas Yisroel or from their rabbinic leaders. Don't stay up nights waiting for Moshiach, he ain't comin', not with these characters running around.
Thank you UOJ. It is just very difficult to keep faith when everyone is against you. If you try ignoring the rabbis, you're called nasty names, if you try criticizing, you're called nasty names.
Develop a one on one kesher with Hashem. Eliminate these bums from your vocabulary - they're destroyers of everything that is truly holy.
Daven home if you have to - to truly concentrate on your tefillot, learn Torah with a true yirei Hashem - but stay away from false gods and criminals that are bitter enemies of Hashem and His Torah.
NEW YORK – Mark McGwire finally came clean, admitting he used steroids when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998. McGwire said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday that he used steroids on and off for nearly a decade.
Which Lakewood Rabbi is a Av Beis Din?
UOJ, I am intrigued to see Eisenstein exposed for his involvement in all this, when will we see some juicy details?
This is better than the Ringling Bros. Circus -- at least the animals in the circus are well groomed and don't lie.
Tom Kaplan - these clowns despise you -- pull out your funding of this abominal criminal enterprise -- and you'll be attacked as the worst rasha on the planet.
Try it Tom, tell them you're suspending your funding for 90 days - and want to reconsider using your money for Jewish education -- watch what happens!
(AP) Walmart removes from stores children's jewelry imported from China cited in Associated Press inquiry on cadmium.
EJF is too big of a cash cow for these defender. They refuse to let it die. They will continue to milk it and Kaplan for as much and as long as they can. It is as if they are now performing one of those DA veterinary procedures to keep the milk flowing, even though the milk is treife (despite what Belsky says). Let the cow die a peaceful death already.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a17601/News/New_York.html
A kashrut supervisor who was fired from his post at a Montefiore Medical Center kitchen says he paid the price for exposing what he claims were kosher violations at the Bronx hospital.
Both Frank, 55, and his boss, Barry Kwiatkovsky, assistant director of food services at the hospital’s Weiler Building, came to Montefiore via the Orthodox Union, but were later hired by the hospital, Kwiatkovsky in 1992 and Frank in 2004.
Frank says he was constantly at odds with his superior at Weiler, which is kept kosher under an agreement with Yeshiva University because students in its Albert Einstein Medical School work there. The kitchen prepares food for a cafeteria as well as patient meals.
Frank claims the prevailing atmosphere at the kitchen was to avoid rocking the boat.
“I was powerless to do anything, but I could not remain silent,” he said. “And the OU doesn’t back you up as a mashgiach. They tell you to keep your mouth shut.”
He said Kashrut inspectors in the kitchen face a conflict because they “serve two masters” the OU and the hospital.
Frank said he had refused to sign a confidentiality agreement, and when he went over Kwiatkovsky’s head to the Orthodox Union, which had overall responsibility for kashrut, he was rebuffed.
Frank said he had brought his concerns directly to the OU on several occasions, but the OU’s executive rabbinic coordinator, Rabbi Yaakov Luban, who visited the hospital about a year ago, said he only learned of Frank’s concerns when he heard that the mashgiach was raising questions to cafeteria patrons about the kitchen’s kashrut.
“The bottom line is I wasn’t able to substantiate anything he said,” said Rabbi Luban. “There are four other mashgichim, and they all disagreed with his presentation. They all felt things were under control.”
Frank provided video clips to The Jewish Week that he said showed non-kosher food items in Kwiatkovsky’s office.
But Rabbi Luban said it was not uncommon for food distributors to erroneously send non-kosher items to kitchens as substitutes for unavailable items, and it is the responsibility of a mashgiach to intercept them.
“Ultimately your control point is not at the distributor; it’s at the point of delivery,” said Rabbi Luban.
Kwiatkovsky referred a call on Tuesday to the hospital’s spokesman, Steven Osborne, who declined to discuss personnel matters, but insisted the kashrut violations claims were unfounded.
His reports, which were printed on the blogs, included an incident in which a sink was rendered unkosher because of food from an employee party and an inspection that showed roach infestation.
Apparently as a result of violating hospital policy about making negative statements to the public, he was suspended on Dec. 4 and fired two weeks later.
After he was fired Frank sought more media coverage, characterizing himself as a whistleblower.
Part 2
In the most serious allegation, Frank says he once found empty packages from non-kosher Tyson chicken in a Dumpster outside the kitchen. “What was it doing there if it wasn’t cooked?” he asks.
The OU says it has no record of having received that complaint from Frank.
“The last [disciplinary notice] I received, a few days before I was terminated, stated that I told visitors that the place wasn’t kosher,” says Frank. “I didn’t say that, but said there were kosher problems and that you couldn’t eat there on Shabbos because food is cooked on Shabbos. Only sick people are allowed to eat food cooked on Shabbos.”
He also said that meat and dairy dishes and pots were washed in the same dishwasher, non-kosher food items were delivered to the kitchen and that he and other kosher supervisors were assigned to do kitchen work unrelated to kashrut, such as lining trays with placemats.
Rabbi Luban said it was “common” in the kashrut supervision business for supervisors to be paid by the food establishment. He acknowledged that this arrangement created a potential conflict of interest
Frank said Kwiatkovsky constantly discouraged him from talking to the OU about his concerns. He admits his job was not endangered, however, until he violated the hospital’s policy against releasing information to the public.
When he visited the Weiler kitchen, Rabbi Luban said, he found “a lot of tension there” between Frank and a supervisor whom he did not name but appears to be Kwiatkovsky.
“We were able to defuse the situation at the time,” said the rabbi. “Everything was on track until a few weeks ago when [Frank] appeared in an article on one of the blogs that said the hospital was serving unkosher food to the patients. I thought we had worked everything out. He said the hospital told him he was not allowed to talk to me, and I said, ‘Why did you go to the blogs, which is worse?’”
An account by both Frank and Rabbi Luban suggests that on his last day of work, Dec. 4, the OU and hospital were trying to accommodate both his disability and his desire to closely inspect food shipments. Rabbi Luban said he arranged for a hospital worker to help Frank dismantle a shrink-wrapped pallet of food that arrived early in the morning from the distributing company.
(Frank's disability is more than two years old. He's been fighting for accommodation all that time.
According to Frank, the OU's head mashgiach at the hospital, Frank's direct supervisor Barry Kwiatkovsky, who is the hospital's assistant director of food services, refused to do anything to accommodate him.
In other words, it was only after Frank came to Luke Ford that the hospital did anything to accommodate Frank's disability.
Frank also found empty packages of non-kosher cheese on a day the hospital made pizza)
Part 3
The OU gets YU to join in persecuting the mashgiach.
A blog was contacted on Motzaei Shabbos by a witness who saw Yeshiva University (YU) security officers attempt to evict former OU mashgiach Robert Frank and his wife Barbara from a synagogue located in a building owned by YU's Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Frank and his wife are synagogue members in good standing, and the synagogue is independent from Yeshiva University. YU gives the synagogue space so that YU's medical students and doctors will have a place to pray when they're on call over Shabbos.
Frank was recently fired by Montefiore Medical Center after Frank released hospital reports, a city inspection report, and videos he says documented unkosher conditions in Montefiore's Weiler Hospital. The center and the hospital are affiliated with but not owned by Yeshiva University. YU did not return several earlier phone calls or answer messages left about Frank's claims and has – until now – played no known role in the conflict.
The witness said YU security attempted to evict Frank and his wife from the building Friday night, telling them they are no longer allowed on the premises by the order of Yeshiva University.
Neither Frank or his wife were disruptive, and the synagogue did not request their eviction.
Frank and his wife were stopped at the synagogue door by YU security and told they could not enter and must leave the building. The synagogue's vice president was nearby and interceded, telling the guard that the synagogue wanted Frank and his wife to enter, and that they are members in good standing.
The guard allowed the Franks in.
Frank and his wife entered and began praying. About five minutes later the guard returned and tried to evict the Franks from the synagogue.
The synagogue's president interceded, demanding to speak with the officer's supervisor. He then negotiated a compromise with that supervisor that allowed Frank and his wife to pray in the synagogue Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon.
But Frank and his wife will be barred from entry in the future unless Yeshiva University relents.
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=887462
Rabbi takes responsibility for "inappropriate physical contact" with boys
Rabbi Yaakov Weiss also admits he tried to convince victim to lie
By ROBERT GAVIN • Albany Times Union
ALBANY -- A Colonie rabbi admitted in court today he had "inappropriate physical contact" with two naked boys and tried to convince one of the boys to keep silent.
Yaakov Weiss, founder of the Chabad of Colonie and the Chabad Hebrew School, pleaded guilty to child endangerment during an appearance in front of Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick.
He faces up to 60 days in jail and three years probation as part of a plea bargain reached with the district attorney's office. His sentencing his schedule for March 1.
Under questioning by the judge, Weiss admitted he had the inappropriate contact with the boy. He also told the court he told one of the boys to lie about the contact if asked by parents or police.
Weiss, 29, sent an e-mail to the Times Union in October 2008, after being charged, calling the charges "100 percent untrue."
"This has been generated by an individual who has been antagonistic toward Chabad of Colonie from its inception and continues to be envious of continued success," Weiss wrote at the time. "This is his way of getting rid of us."
Weiss moved to the Capital Region from Iowa in 2004. He adheres to a branch of Judaism known as Chabad-Lubavitch, which is known for its work to get Jews more involved in their religion.
Weiss was initially charged in City Court two years ago with sexually abusing the two 13-year-olds in 2007. When he was indicted and arraigned over the summer, Weiss was accused of those charges, as well as allegations he tried to convince one of the boys to lie.
"Just say nothing happened," Weiss told the child on June 30 on Sycamore Street in Albany, the indictment said.
The indictment alleged that sometime between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2007, Weiss repeatedly struck one of the boys on the back on New Scotland Avenue, "knocking him to the ground and then kicked him in the leg."
The court papers say Weiss sexually abused one of the boys in June 2007 and the other between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 of that year. The incidents allegedly took place in a facility at 340 Whitehall Road in Albany.
In both cases, the indictment alleged that Weiss had sexual contact "consisting of placing his penis in contact with said child's buttocks." The incidents allegedly took place inside a pool, called a mikveh, used by some Jews for ritual purification, according to his attorney.
The indictment said one of the boys sought advice from Weiss, his teacher and spiritual leader, on Sycamore Street on June 30 that year.
Weiss "instructed the child to be untruthful" and to "not tell his mother or the police about an incident where the defendant subjected the victim to sexual contact."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/nyregion/10routine.html
If I can't sit next to Tom Kaplan by Tropper simchos, I will go running to his apartment with earthworms like a shik yingle on Sunday mornings!
Part 4 as of 2 pm today:
Whistleblower mashgiach Robert Frank's wife Barbara was employed by the OU on a casual basis for the past four years, working two or three days each month as a mashgicha.
She last worked November 15, and hasn't been called to work since her husband went public with his complaints of OU malfeasance.
This morning, Barbara Frank called her supervisor at the OU, Rabbi Steinberg, to find out why she had not been called to work.
According to Barbara Frank, Steinberg answered, "You know why."
Barbara Frank asked Steinberg why the situation with her husband should stop her from getting work.
"You're married to him," Steinberg replied.
Steinberg confirmed to a blogger the above exchange took place, and confirmed that Barbara Frank is being denied work because of who she is married to.
The blogger asked Steinberg about the ethics of doing this. Citing "OU media policy", Steinberg declined comment.
UPDATE 4:30 PM – According to the Franks, the OU's Rabbi Steinberg called Barbara Frank a few minutes ago and told her there had been a misunderstanding. The OU will send her out on jobs, Steinberg said.
We'll have to wait and see if that happens, though – there was no job for Barbara Frank today.
Sounds like legal damage control that is too little, too late.
http://www.kolyaakovtorahcenter.org/video/index.htm
WHAT A RACHMANOS!
UOJ:
Zug mir der emes.
Do you think that a neutral party who was never touched or offerede Tropper money and has no interest in Tom Kaplan handouts reaching out to Tom Kaplan will help wake him up to stop funding the scam organization he is funding?
Besides for Daas Torah propaganda being unleashed against the neutral party affecting their bottom line, are the Tropper racketeurs dangerous?
Ron Coleman (the Attorney, not the bodybuilder) is on the video pimping for Tropper.
There is some ignoramus student (from Brandeis ?) who says that Kol Yaakov made him ish acher, not knowing who was acher and what it means.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/middleeast/13iran.html
A bomb attached to a motorcycle killed an Iranian professor of nuclear physics outside his home in northern Tehran on Tuesday, state media reported, blaming the United States and Israel.
(IsraelNN.com) Moshe Hirsch, a leader of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect who was close to Yasser Arafat, felt ill Sunday evening and was treated by an emergency medical team in Jerusalem. Afterwards Hirsch was taken to the Bikur Holim hospital.
Hirsch's family initially refused to call a mobile intensive care unit of Magen David Adom because it belongs to the State of Israel.
The OU instigating YU to kick the mashgiach out of the shul they don't even own comes straight out of the playbook of the OU's new Executive Vice President Rabbi Steven Weil.
Weil has a long shady history of kicking all kinds of people out of his shuls in Detroit and Beverly Hills. It is not clear what many of these people did besides pose a political threat to his power. But when it came to Kassirer, the moser in the Spinka money laundering who tape recorded fellow shul members on Shabbos, the hypocrite did not throw him out of the shul.
If you thought the OU were a bunch of gangsters under Rabbis Genack, Elefant and Belsky, just wait for Weil to consolidate his (abuse of) power.
http://www.vosizneias.com/46371/2010/01/06/new-york-ou-executive-newspaper-quoting-my-statement-on-spinka-rabbi-is-patently-false
Two years ago, the OU's Rabbi Steven Weil called the Spinka Rebbe a phony tzaddik in a Shabbos drasha.
Last week, he denied it in official OU press release to VIN even though over 800 witnesses heard him say it.
Here is the response from Rob Eshman, editor of the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles:
As to Amy Klein’s original piece, we stand by it. Her primary source was the shul’s president Marc Rohatiner, whom she quotes at least twice.
That article appeared two years ago and we never received a single complaint from the rabbi or Mr. Rohatiner. If you read it, you’ll see why: Amy actually says in the lead that the Rabbi is referring to all Jews who breach the law, not specifically the Spinka rabbi. Her last graf is, “Weil concluded by saying no one should point fingers at other religious Jews.”
If readers draw an inference that the rabbi was INCLUDING the Spinka rabbis in his condemnation, I can understand why. He chose to give that particular sermon at the height of the scandal in which one of his congregants was deeply implicated. That timing may have been coincidental, but even so, it’s easy to see why some, including perhaps Mr, Rohatiner, would assume he’s in part referring to a particular case.
Why the rabbi and others would now, two years later, accuse The Journal of printing a fraudulent account is beyond me.
Weil has a great love of "the high life", fine liquor, and Cuban cigars.
There is rumors about a guy in Lakewood that has major issues - i think he used to have some sort of a minyan in his house or something but he is not a rov and definitely not on the beis din.
If you know something else let us know. dont keep it under the rug like everyone else!
It's a federal offense to import Cohiba cigars into the United States.
Where exactly did Weil get his smokes that cost thousands of dollars on the black market?
Cuban cigars are commonly available in Detroit and across the border in Windsor, ON. They're about $30.00 a cigar.
http://mendelmargulies.blogspot.com/
MONSEY, NY (Jan. 12) -- Officials shut down a Monsey yeshiva and urged people to leave the area Tuesday after nine videos with highly explicit materials were distributed.
Kol Yaakov rosh yeshiva Leib Tropper told television station WABC the person behind it is Guma Aguiar, a powerful magnate. It's not clear what form HD / Bluray the video was in.
It's also known as "Japanese surveillance", the medium authorities say was behind audio tapes to bring down EJF during Chanukah. Japanese Surveillance is often used by the mysterious group Ezekiel 8 and found inside UOJ baseball caps. It is also the primary ingredient in proverbial detonating cords used for targeting fake phony frauds with explosions.
Authorities did not immediately say how big the videos were or how Tropper's 501c was damaged.
Police told people near the yeshiva to stay away from windows and doors. Officers were sent around Rockland County to knock on doors and relay alert and evacuation recommendations.
Kol Yaakov spokesman Yaakov Barros said people in the yeshiva were leaving for emergency refuge in Fallsburg, but he did not know how many.
The yeshiva is one of the weirdest on the East coast. Its Web site says its top import last year was billions of dollars and the top export was prostitution.
Locals said there was a sense of panic. Mr. Feldheim, who answered the phone at a publisher near the yeshiva, said he could see media spotlights.
"Everybody connected to Tropper has a vested interest," said Feldheim who does not remember a similar incident. "They get nervous. Being cut off from the large sums of cash was bound to happen. You can't freak out in times like this. If you freak out, you're going to go down with a bang."
Calls to billionaire Tom Kaplan were not returned.
------
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. (Jan. 12) -- Officials shut down a North Carolina port and urged people to leave the area Tuesday after nine containers with highly explosive materials were punctured.
Morehead City Fire Chief Wes Lail told television station WTVD the chemical involved is pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a powerful explosive. It's not clear what form the chemical was in.
It's also known as PETN, the substance authorities say was part of a device a Nigerian man tried to use to bring down a Detroit-bound Northwest flight on Christmas Day. PETN is often used in military explosives and found inside blasting caps. It is also the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions.
Authorities did not immediately say how big the containers were or how they were damaged.
Police told people near the port to stay away from windows and doors. Officers were sent downtown to knock on doors and relay alert and evacuation recommendations.
Morehead City police spokeswoman Amy H. Thompson said people close to the port were leaving, but she did not know how many.
The Morehead port is one of the deepest on the East coast. Its Web site says its top import last year was sulfur products and the top export was phosphate.
Locals said there was no sense of panic. Drew Hall, who answered the phone at Crystal Coast Jamboree, a concert hall near the port, said she could see police lights.
"Everybody is going about their business," said Hall, 27 who has lived in Morehead City her whole life and does not remember a similar incident. "Why get nervous? Things happen. You can't freak out in times like this. If you freak out, you're going to go down."
Calls to Mayor Jerry Jones were not returned.
Eddie from England who comments on Rav Eidensohn's website says this:
The entire Eisenstein-Sherman-Tropper scam (the axis of pashkEVIL) has now been smashed by the new (unspoken) alliance between the Dati Leumi, the Badatz, the RCA and the CER.
Can UOJ confirm that Rabbi Steven Weil in fact slapped Aaron Biston across the face at a packed Beth Jacob kiddush.
Biston says he filed a police report. If this is true, did they issue a summons?
No clue about Weil - I heard rumors -- I try to stay away from the MO rabbis and people, "THE" REAL danger to Judaism:-)
UOJ: Zug mir der emes.
*
I know the Kaplan type - they are under a spell - because of their inherent guilt complex that Tropper was successfuly able to hypnotize him with.
These guys are sold olam haba -- all they have to do is give these rabbis money -- and Kaplan can do whatever he wants with total absolution. He can eat treife, drive on Shabbos...as long as he parts with with his money.
Kaplan may be "unreachable" - just like the Scientologists and the Mormons.
RABBI DUNNER RAKES LUBINSKY AND EJF OVER THE COALS:
To keep this happening while diverting attention away from the real
activities and towards the chareidi image being projected, Lubicom PR
agency headed by Mr Menachem Lubinsky was running a big-time campaign to
keep the operation going. The seminars and the venues, the speakers and
the message were all coordinated by Lubicom - who apparently billed
around $500,000 last year for their efforts. When has a serious klal
organization had its image and message manufactured by a PR company?
Yiddishkeit isnt a detergent or automobile (or a "kosher" slaughterhouse) which needs hard sell and
message management and when something claiming to be yiddishkeit does,
it should be immediately a cause for suspicion. It must be noted however
that they do a great job as they have successfully managed to position
ejf as a mainstream and serious organization and create an image in the
mind of unsuspecting Gedolim and public. They have also done a wonderful
job post-tropper-fiasco of fighting a rearguard action with limited
weaponry and under very adverse conditions. They produced some
gloriously meaningless press releases designed to say nothing at all
while the damage assessment was underway. They were all over the blogs
with whole-hearted defenses of the defenseless which could not be
attributed to them. The Rabbi Wachtfogel press release was clearly not
cleared by him and his subsequent disavowal of it shows that they are
happy to cheerfully publish letters in other peoples names without
consent. They spread the usual quarter-truths and innuendos mixed in
with a good dosage of plain old-fashioned sheker - the prime example of
which is the mealy-mouthed puff-piece mentioned above that most frum
news outlets were paid kesef molei to run. (some were honest enough and
brave enough not to run it and were subjected to a barrage of abuse by
lubicom/ejf)
Rabbi Blum who apparently heads the organization after the tropper
scandal and Rabbi Wachtfogel refusal is a nice young man who until now
was an office manager on a regular secretary/PA salary. He has suddenly
been promoted to the top of the organization; apparently troppers
replacement, on the basis of this paltry experience. He is the man who
is now going to be the recognized scourge of bad geirus and mouthpiece
of the gedolim. He is however, nothing more than a straw man for
lubinsky, etc who wish to steer clear of the limelight. (interestingly
enough, in the weeks preceding the eruption of thescandal, Lubinsky and
Yisrael Freedman were attempting to ease tropper out of the driver's
seat into a more nominal role. Did they know something was wrong? Did
they just feel that tropper was losing credibility? In any event, the
publication of the offending material certain provided them with a
fast-track to remove him from the organization entirely. Another
interesting twist is that suddenly ejf purports to be a player in the
kiruv field - is this a way of buying themselves a new place at the
table now that giur seems to be turning toxic in the chareidi world? Do
they think that perhaps they can buy off some kiruv professionals and
become man de'omrim in the field of outreach which is much more
acceptable to the frum world?) Tropper is a fraud. The organization he
created is in his image and is therefore a fraud too. The creators of
that image are fraudsters and hucksters who are trying desperately to
keep the line to Mr Kaplan's millions open. The chareidi world feels
diminished and tainted and wishes they would go away and the chilul
Hashem would stop.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) A strong earthquake has hit the impoverished country of Haiti where a hospital has collapsed.
Cuban cigars are commonly available in Detroit and across the border in Windsor, ON. They're about $30.00 a cigar.
I used to get the regular Cohíba (Mareva) for $15 in Murray Hill (not too far from Stern College)...
Ron Coleman, Tropper's talmid, often lectures to the frum people on ethics.
He is so anal about ethics that he blasts people for not reporting scratch card winnings, or use of work cars for private use on their tax-returns.
Yet ask anyone who's had business dealings with him, and they will tell you he is far from ethical.
What do you expect, he's a Tropper protege. Lecture everyone else on ethics, but it's okay for you to violate them.
Having had personal dealings with him, I laugh every time I see an advertisement for one of his ethics lectures!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/fashion/10caveman.html?pagewanted=print
January 10, 2010
The New Age Cavemen and the City
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
LIKE many New York bachelors, John Durant tries to keep his apartment presentable — just in case he should ever bring home a future Mrs. Durant. He shares the fifth-floor walk-up with three of his buddies, but the place is tidy and he never forgets to water the plants.
The one thing that Mr. Durant worries might spook a female guest is his most recent purchase: a three-foot-tall refrigerated meat locker that sits in a corner of his living room. That is where he keeps his organ meat and deer ribs.
Mr. Durant, 26, who works in online advertising, is part of a small New York subculture whose members seek good health through a selective return to the habits of their Paleolithic ancestors.
Or as he and some of his friends describe themselves, they are cavemen.
The caveman lifestyle, in Mr. Durant’s interpretation, involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. Vegetables and fruit are fine, but he avoids foods like bread that were unavailable before the invention of agriculture. Mr. Durant believes the human body evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and his goal is to wean himself off what he sees as many millenniums of bad habits.
These urban cavemen also choose exercise routines focused on sprinting and jumping, to replicate how a prehistoric person might have fled from a mastodon.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on Tuesday expressed his outrage over what he considered to be a public humiliation of Turkey's ambassador by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.
"I don't like this step," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio from India, where he is conducting an official visit. "The respect for Israel is not judged by how you humiliate an ambassador; humiliation doesn't help, it only harms."
Ayalon had summoned Oguz Celikkol to the Knesset to express outrage over a new Turkish television show that depicts Mossad agents as baby-snatchers, and in a break from the diplomatic norm, invited the press for a photo-op, during which he was seen telling the cameramen to film him and his aide sitting on tall chairs, and the Turkish envoy on a lower chair, with the Israeli flag in the middle.
"We have enough problems with the Muslim world without picking a fight with a country that has 72 million Muslims," Ben-Eliezer continued, referring to Turkey.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142115.html
more information here on how avigdor lieberman was behind this
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/us/14beverly.html
People are asking if Rabbi Steven Weil convinced me to throw out these 470 kids from the school district.
As UOJ would say, tell the putz Ron Coleman to take a hike.
Rabbi Eidensohn had an entire section a week or two ago, since deleted, that excerpted from the NY courts website of umpteen cases where Tropper was sued after he stiffed utility companies, banks, private people, and so on.
Tropper was sued mostly either under his own name or Kol Yaakov's.
There was also an interesting entry there that showed Tropper's sister in law Susan Blond was still married to the goy Erickson while Tropper started giving the hilchos lashon harah shiruim in her corporate offices that was trumpeted by the NY Times.
The Moetzes had a meeting to discuss the Tropper Affair; their decision was to remain silent.
The meeting of the Chelmer Behaimesher Moetzes took place Tuesday December 29, 2009 -- of course they once again "never failed to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity"!
If I had to pick a group of idiots - unprecedented in Jewish history - to meet in one room - this would be the group of idiots - never before and never again can such a conglomerate of fools have buried the Jewish nation as these bumbling circus clowns!
LOS ANGELES (AP) U.S. consumer safety chief warns parents to take cheap metal jewelry made in China away from their children.
Obama agrees with me that the banks should be forced to provide more free money to the brothas. Who cares if it creates another toxic mortgage bubble?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/us/14justice.html
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is beginning a major campaign against banks and mortgage brokers suspected of discriminating against minority applicants in lending, opening a new front in the Obama administration’s response to the foreclosure crisis.
UOJ, Who's the mendel margulies that blog is about, & what's the beef with him?
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/23483/con-game/print/
According to Tropper’s wife, Laurel Blond, Aguiar made a phone call to the rabbi’s house in March in which he claimed he had “thousands of rabbis praying for Tom Kaplan’s death” and encouraged the rabbi to “switch sides.” In early April, Aguiar confronted Tropper in Jerusalem at the David Citadel Hotel and, according to court records, threatened to throw the rabbi off a ninth-floor balcony.
Then, in October, Aguiar sued Tropper in an Israeli court, claiming that the rabbi misappropriated donations. “He had gone to Rabbi Tropper for several years as his rabbi—he had confidential discussions with him, he was his spiritual advisor,” Aguiar’s lawyers told a federal judge in Florida last June. (Kaplan’s attorney, Harley Tropin, said in a statement that Kaplan would not comment on the Tropper scandal in light of ongoing litigation.)
It isn’t clear whether he remains in control of his yeshiva, Kol Yaakov; a person who answered the phone there Tuesday refused to comment. But in the weeks since Tropper’s downfall, no one in the ultra-Orthodox world has been willing to officially criticize or reprimand the rabbi for what appear to be his profound and sickening sins. At a December meeting, the Council of Torah Sages, the halachic body of Agudath Israel, an ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, discussed the scandal but decided against issuing a comment. Only the Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America has condemned Tropper’s behavior: “What we have heard, if true, violates the fundamental elements of all that Judaism holds sacred,” the council said in a statement, adding that the rabbis welcomed any of Tropper’s victims for counseling.
“It’s like Nixon,” said Tovia Singer, the rabbi who initially sparked Aguiar’s interest in Judaism. “The damage has obviously been done to the haredi community and the more that they’re in denial the more damage it’ll do.”
As someone who knows Tropper for over 25 years, I can tell you that as long as Tropper has enablers he will continue his reign of terror and abuse of those who are powerless to stand up for themselves.
The Hanholah the yeshiva he runs should be called, and some sense should be knocked into their heads. They are fine human beings and should not risk being painted with the same brush as tropper. Do they really want their long career in Rabbonus and helping geirim and baal tshuva’s to go up in a cloud of smoke? As long as they still stand by him, they still support him!
Rabbi Dovid Stefansky’s Number is
(845) 426-1389
Rabbi Dovid Wolpin the mashgiach’s number is (845) 352-4993
http://www.sbklaw.com/Bio/HowardKarasik.asp
Why all the speculation? You guys on the blogs seem to be convinced I am trying to hide my assets from Guma just because I hired top Harvard bankruptcy lawyer Howard Karasik.
You make it sound like 2+2=4 or something.
Howard Karasik
New York, New York
Of Counsel
phone 888-664-7562
Is Mendel Margulies the son of Margo who was building a grand palace to live in on Ave O but suddenly abandoned it when UOJ arrived on the scene?
http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/01/sefer-on-abuse-is-nearing-completion.html
The door that this scandal has opened for misanthrops who abuse their wives, justify phone sex, and generally abuse women has not even been addressed. Having a high profile rabbinic figure taped saying he fantasizes about rape provided a carteblanche for other sick minded individuals who act out their sexually violent fantasizes, abusing their wives and/or other women. Ditto for phone sex. Allowing innuendo of lesbian behavior to be expressed with no one addressing it at all as an issur opens the door not only to men who may want the voyeurism of viewing this behavior (sick), or of homosexually inclined women to abuse other women or girls, or to even have consensual homosexual relationships.
The real lack of leadership here happened when tropper issued a statement that he may have been inappropriate in his modesty (that is not a quote, but the gist of what he said). At that point someone needed to say that phone sex, lesbian sex, male viewing of lesbian sex and acting out sexual fantasies even if no actual halachic sexual intercourse took place is halachically ossur, not just inappropriate slip ups in modesty.
At the same time, the issur of pilegesh which tropper was trying to invoke, (that is why the contract was so important) also needed to be re-expressed. The silence puts us light years back in addressing the abuse of women in our society. Would someone please stand up and speak up.
As an aside, the only response that made any sense to troppers little statement was the fellow who said he made it sound like he went out to get the newspaper with his bathrobe on.
Rav Eidensohn pointed out al pi Chazal that it was no coincidence that Tropper and Tiger Woods were exposed during the same tekufah.
Well, Mrs. Leiba Tropper / Laurel Blond is not exactly innocent either and a big news headline this week is the President of Northern Ireland resigning because his 63 year old wife has been with a 19 year old teenager for the last 2 years.
http://www.cjnews.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18355&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=86
Montreal rabbis go on the counter-attack against Leib Tropper and his fellow fat fresser friend Saul Emmanuel of the Montreal Vaad.
http://www.lukeford.net/profiles/profiles/steven_weil.htm
Here is the story about the dust up with the OU's Steven Weil and Aaron Biston of Beverly Hills.
I am against exposing Mendel Margulies of any kind.
http://jhvonline.com/print_this_story.asp?smenu=96&sdetail=8193
Orand said that she is not the only victim, and that she is aware of another woman who soon will be stepping forward. Orand noted that she, herself, came forward to protect future potential victims, and because requests were being made of her to put words into actions.
Aron Shechter to Tropper/EJF's rescue. 1.
A lot of people have been wondering who in the heck are the real powers right now propping up Tropper from total doom?
The question is also being asked why Agudath Irael of America and its council of Torah sages is doing nothing while the news of Tropper's downfall scorches the earth and the cyberworld?
Then a new report emerges that of all places EJF is about to host its first post Tropper fiasco big shindig in Dallas: ejfseminars.org: Couples Seminar: 01/17/2010 - 01/19/2010 Dallas, TX of all places?
What is the common factor behind these puzzling questions?
It is none other than Aron Shechter, the head of Yehsiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, NY, a hardened and cynical infighter who has defied batei din for over thirty years, including those of Rav Moshe Feinstein and of Satmar's CRC in feud over the firing of his yeshiva's mashgiach ruchani over 30 years ahgo, who cares not if he's in cherem as lo tzayis dino.
Shechter has always loved Leib Tropper whom he thinks is the greatest thing since the invention of kesav ashuris. For more than 30 years Tropper has been submissively seeking out Shechter's keen strategic guidance. It's reputed that when Rav Hutner, Shechter's Rebbe, was captured by Arab terrorists in 1970 and Shechter went to speak with General Alexander Haig that Haig was convinced that Shechter had studieed at a "military academy" (heard from a rabbi who was there) -- and indeed all his life Shechter has proven his ability as a generalisimo, super spymaster, arch manipulator and power player worthy of the cosa nostra top honchos, so it's no wonder he and Tropper are birds of a feather.
It is none other than Shechter who instructed Fruchthandler to pump tens of thousands into Tropper's kol yakov set-up when Tropper was cash strapped (when isn't he in need of cash by the way?) Shechter loves the subservient guys that Tropper sends him from time to time. No minds of their own. No personalities. No ego. Just robots and zombies doing their masters' bidding. This is the model that Shechter thinks all baalei teshuva should become.
Shechter was at all the early EJF meetings and guided Tropper every setp of theway. In return Shechter got some kickbacks too. He tells everyone that Tropper and EJF are just great. He is love-struck and it's irrational. He thinks that Tropper has some sort of unique divinely great soul. When other's see Shabtai Tzvi and Jacob Frank in Tropper, Shechter sees, lehavdil elef havdolas, the "Baal Shem Tov" and "Eliyahu Hanovi" -- he has poor judgment when he can condemn his onw mashgiach ruchani to purgatory but save the neck of a sex predator scoundrel like Tropper. But those days of covering up for sex offenders like in the olden days in the yeshiva world have ended just Shechter is playing with and against time. he is now in his mid 80s and Leib Tropper is now an official dirtyy old man of 60. Amazing, Shechter used to hate Shlomo Carlebach the singer but he loves the pervert Tropper. Shechter also loves Micahel hersh and sent his son Isaac to Jamaica but that is another dark story.
So the sick love fest between Tropper and Shechter is beyond doubt and now more than ever that Tropper has been proven to be an fake and a fraud, Shechter shows his hand.
Aron Shechter to Tropper/EJF's rescue. 2.
Why doesn't the Agudath Israel of America condemn Tropper?
Answer: Because Aron Shechter of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, NY loves Tropper, supports EJF and will never do anything to hurt his bosom buddy and kindred "son" Leib Tropper, as Shechter thinks oy what a rachmonus, look what "they" are doing to my dear teire Leibel and Leba his veibel!
It so happens to be that Shechter, with the help the of the supine overweight bozo Abe Fruchthandler's financial pull (he's also president of the Chaim Berlin yeshiva, money talks everywhere), who controls the present Agudath Israel of America. They fired the poor dolt Shmuel Bloom who didn't know what hit him, poor son of a gun!
Shechter is also the loudest screaming and fascist-like voice, behind closed doors, on the moetzes gedolei haTorah and is behind every decision there. So that if the Agudath Israel and the moetzes have chosen NOT to say anything about the Tropper scandal and the fate of EJF, it is because Aron Shechter has decided it must be that way.
What does that say about the Agudah? Simple. That they are as rotten as EJF, cowards and must take blame for the cover up of the evils of Tropper and the fraud of EJF.
No matter that as of this writing Tropper and EJF have been roundly denounced from all sides of the Torah world's spectrum by rational rabbis, and counting: By the ultra Charedi Bais Din Tsedek of the Eidah HaChareidis in Jerusalem who long ago condemned Tropper and EJF. Following the news of the Tropper sex scandal revealed on tape, the RCA in America condemned Tropper and the EJF and offered to help any victims. Then recently the highly respectable London Beth Din came out swinging at Tropper and EJF and warning them to stay away from Europe and that they are blacklisted; a few days ago, RCA rabbis in Montreal came out with a declaration against an EJF allied group in Montreal.
And so it goes with logical ever increasing condemnation of Tropper and EJF from all sides by batei din representing hundreds of rabbonim from all spectrums of Yiddishkeit, Charedim, Modern Orthodox, Europeans, Canadians, all are saying "get thee gone" to EJF after what was revealed about sex maniac Tropper's downfall.
But no, who stands out like a stubborn sore thumb?
Agudath Israel of America.
WHY?
Simply because it is under the autocratic thumb of one monopolitistic dictatorial vengeful power player: Aron Shechter, the bully from Brooklyn, who has the final say on everything that the Agudah does or does not do, and because he is TOTALLY and irrationally in love with Tropper for over 30 years, it is poshut and simple that they will never say anything against Tropper, even if Troppper and Leba are filmed raping girls and doing ménage à trois on a stage at Times Square in broad daylight at high noon, and even if EJF is proven to be as crooked as any mob run outfit with movies to prove as explict as The Godfather I, II and III running for hours about the truth, because Shechter is the real Godfather of the Agudah world in America and no wonder he can admire and protect a devil like Tropper who brings home the bacon and does not question the boss's orders.
But Tropper's Shannon Orand-Valachi Papers have now started to unravel him forever and unfold to reveal the ugly monster Tropper truly is and with that comes the revelation of who Tropper's Capo di tutti capi is: the sagely smiling Aron Shechter who is the boss of bosses of Tropper/EJF/Agudath Israel of America.
Now I ask you a simple question: Is this the way Yiddishkeit should be run? This is not the Chofetz Chaim's world!
As Walter Cronkite used to say: And that's the way it is!
Aron Shechter to Tropper/EJF's rescue. 3.
So now comes the question why of all places is Dallas, Texas the venue of EJF's "coming out party" after the Tropper sex scandal disaster and resignation?
When the media, the Jewish blogosphere and all sane people are screaming to forget the name of Tropper and shut down EJF and let it become just a bad memory, along comes confirmed news on EJF's own website that "Upcoming Seminars: Couples Seminar: 01/17/2010 - 01/19/2010
Dallas, TX with the same usual garbage about
"Mission: EJF’s highly acclaimed couples’ seminars are geared to inter-married couples who are referred by their rabbis and are seriously pursuing a universally accepted conversion to Judaism. EJF’s internationally recognized seminar educates committed couples on the conversion process and provides the necessary guidance to ensure that they seek an authentic, halachic process and protects the sincere conversion candidate from a non-universally accepted conversion. The seminar is non-Jewish spouses sincerely pursuing conversion for the first time or wishing to rectify a previous conversion and for Jewish spouse interested in returning to their heritage by rejoining the Jewish Family."
And so it goes. They want to carry on with the repudiated acts of reaching out to goyim that has been condemned by all sectors of the Orthodox and Charedi world: The Bais Din of the Eidah Hachareidis; the RCA, the London Beth Din; Rabbis from Montreal, Chicago and Detroit who have openly repudiated Tropper's EJF program and told people to stay away, but no not some people in Dallas.
So who are those folks in Dallas who are willing to suffer abuse and be the experimental pigs for EJF's rotten agenda? A newsflash on Rabbi Eidensohn's Daas Torah blog had it right when it reported, January 14, 2010: "THIS TIP IS ANONYMOUS AND CAN BE SUBSTANTIATED ONLINE maybe contact FTJT.com or Daas torah blog...I just got off the phone with a Rov in Dallas...EJF IS RUNNING AN OUTREACH SEMINAR FOR INTERMARRIED COUPLES THIS WEEKEND IN DALLAS TX!!!!!SEE http://www.ejfseminars.org/ HEARD THEY OFFERED "HONORARIUMS" TO DALLAS RABBONIM TO PARTICIPATE MANY RABBONIM WERE INSTRUCTED BY THEIR POSKIM NOT TO ATTEND OR TAKE A NICKEL one rabbi who has no position has accepted "thousands to come for the weekend"...check things ut with the dallas rabbonim of DATA Kollel Ohr Hatorah dallas
Congregation Toras Chayim Data of Plano Data of far North dallas"
Aron Shechter to Tropper/EJF's rescue. 4.
The rabbis at the DATA Kollel and at Ohr HaTorah are completely under the thumb of Aron Shechter of Brooklyn. In fact it was mainly money invested by Abe Fruchthandler that built the Ohr haTorah building and its rabbi Feigenbaum is an Aron Shechter disciple. The head of the Dallas Kollel runs an EJF-affiliated bais din and has accepted Aron Shechter as his moreh derech since the passing of his own rabbi Yakov Weinberg. This is an open and shut case of a Shechter power play.
So it is no wonder that the boys on Dallas are the ones who jump into the breach and into the fire to "rescue" the burned to the ground EJF and the self-immolated Tropper.
No doubt about it, Tropper's life is now in Aron Shechter's hands. The fate of EJF is still being guided by Aron Shechter. Agudath Israel of America will never do anything unless Shechter allows it and he is not allowing that the Tropper scandal be addressed. Sha, shtil shveig! In other words, that old tactic of "see no evil, hear no evil, talk no evil" -- but it goes nowhere in the age of the Internet and instant communications.
World be warned, Tropper is on the prowl he is emboldened because he has a protector. EJF is on the rise, and one man stands behind it all, not the feeble-minded Reuven Feinstein, but rather the cut-throat Aron Shechter who will fight for his beloved Leibel Tropper and EJF scheme until his last breath.
Time for a last stand against evil at the Alamo, this time in Dallas Texas. Protest to your rabbis like the others have done, that EJF's time has come and gone. Confine Aron Shechter to his yeshiva cage in Brooklyn and let there be Shalom al Yisroel.
Can anyone confirm the rumor on Rav Eidensohn's blog that Tropper groupie Yaakov Barros has become super paranoid and now carries a gun with him?
http://jhvonline.com/print_this_story.asp?smenu=96&sdetail=8193
Orand said that she is not the only victim, and that she is aware of another woman who soon will be stepping forward. Orand noted that she, herself, came forward to protect future potential victims, and because requests were being made of her to put words into actions.
Tropper and the EJF have not responded to media requests over the current scandal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/business/13blame.html
As America recovers from the worst financial crisis since the Depression, some of the nation’s chief executives are offering that rarest of statements — an apology.
But often, their words are so carefully parsed, scrubbed by lawyers or picked over by public relations professionals that it is unclear just how much mea is in their culpa.
The former Time Warner chief, Gerald M. Levin, dropped jaws last week by taking the blame for “the worst deal of the century,” the decade-old merger of America Online and Time Warner. Yet few other chief executives, including the handful of Wall Street chieftains who acknowledge missteps, have embraced his plea to accept personal responsibility for decisions that have caused pain, loss and suffering for many ordinary Americans.
“American culture does not put a premium on apology,” said Michael Useem, professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “The level of anger in this public in general is extremely high against those who led Wall Street into the abyss, in part because they never stepped forward to apologize for the mess they made.”
The art of the nuanced regret — admitting mistakes without accepting blame — will be on display Wednesday at a hearing of the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington, where Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, John J. Mack of Morgan Stanley and Brian T. Moynihan of Bank of America are to testify about their roles in the financial crisis.
Mr. Blankfein, whose firm is on track to report blowout 2009 profits, uttered the word “apologize” in November although he is not expected to repeat it in his testimony Wednesday. His remarks came a week after he drew fire for saying the firm was doing “God’s work,” but it was never clear what the subject of his atonement was. “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret and apologize for,” he said, without elaborating on what “things” the firm did wrong.
Since then, Mr. Blankfein has continued to defend the millions in bonuses he is paying to keep Goldman’s bankers happy
As for Mr. Levin, while his abject apology was years after the fact, experts said it was nonetheless stunning in an environment that generally frowns upon apologies as a sign of weakness.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1263147887834&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Betar Jerusalem sponsor Guma Aguiar was forcibly admitted to the Abarbanel Psychiatric Hospital overnight Wednesday following a court order.
Aguiar apparently come out with a series of seemingly bizarre remarks, including a claim to having met Gilad Schalit in Gaza.
Israel Radio reported that the Brazilian-American energy tycoon had only arrived for the last 20 minutes of Saturday's soccer match at Teddy Stadium between Betar and Bnei Sakhnin, saying his late arrival was due to him having visited the captured IDF soldier.
Associates of the 32-year-old were quoted by the radio station as saying that they felt he was behaving in a particularly strange manner over the last couple of weeks.
Referring to the "meeting" with the captured solider in an interview with Jerusalem weekly Kol Ha'ir Aguiar reportedly said that "I told Schalit I hope to see him home already in the next few days. He said he wanted me to tell his family how much he loves them and Israel, and that he hopes it will all be over soon. I have saved thousands of people, not only Gilad Schalit, and I want to be able to save thousands of people every day, and not only Gilad Schalit."
Aguiar's family released a statement Thursday morning saying, "Guma Aguiar has been subjected for a prolonged period of time to intensive emotional pressures caused by malicious court cases in the United States concerning past business dealings with his uncle."
His family said that he was the "victim of a campaign of invasive surveillance and false accusations that generated what amounted to psychological terrorism."
Is Israel such a Banana Republic that Gerrorists and Agudah Fressers can "get to" the Supreme Court or is this just Liberal meshugass?
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3834382,00.html
Israeli Supreme Court refuses to extradite Abraham Mondrowitz, suspected of sexually abusing minors 25 years ago
JWB says:
Part 1
Church liability at issue in abuse suit
State Supreme Court considers responsibility for congregants’ actions
By Steve Kanigher
Las Vegas Sun
Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010
A national debate over the extent to which a religious group can be held liable for sexual misconduct by its clergy or its volunteers has made its way to the doorstep of the Nevada Supreme Court.
Because lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clerics have typically been settled before trials could take place, the state’s courts have not delved very far into the issue of religious groups’ liability for sexual abuse. That’s about to change as the high court considers a case involving a Las Vegas woman who claims she was sexually assaulted nine years ago by a man she described as a cantor at a synagogue.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Roman Catholic bishops of Las Vegas and Reno have lined up with the synagogue to argue that the First Amendment shields religions from lawsuits of this type.
But groups including the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children accuse the churches of attempting to “twist the First Amendment into a refuge for harmful behavior.”
Marci Hamilton, a professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York City who wrote the counterpoint for the advocacy groups in the Nevada case, says religious groups want to eliminate costly litigation and keep misconduct out of the public eye.
In most states, courts have ruled that the First Amendment can’t be used as a defense in these types of cases, Hamilton says.
In failed attempts to “hide behind the First Amendment,” churches have lost similar cases or paid cash settlements in just about every state except Utah, Wisconsin and Missouri, where courts have been more supportive of church positions, Hamilton says.
Victims advocacy groups have chipped away at the church positions in Wisconsin and Missouri — and could be helped even more by a victory in Nevada, Hamilton says.
At the center of the Nevada case is (name of survivor removed), who filed a lawsuit in District Court in Clark County in 2003 against Chabad of Southern Nevada, Chabad of Summerlin, two rabbis and other individuals she said were affiliated with the two Orthodox synagogues. She alleged that Michael Segelstein was a Chabad cantor when he assaulted her in 2001 in the parking lot of another synagogue.
(name of survivor removed), alleged that a Chabad rabbi refused to believe her when she told him what Segelstein had done and that the synagogue retaliated against her and her then-teenage son. She alleged that the synagogues, as well as Segelstein, were liable for the assault.
Segelstein pleaded guilty in 2002 to open or gross lewdness. His sentence of one year in jail was suspended under the condition that he successfully completed three years of probation.
(name of survivor removed), lost her lawsuit, however. District Judge Timothy Williams ruled there was no direct connection between Chabad and the assault. (name of survivor removed), also failed to prove that Segelstein was a Chabad employee, Williams found.
She filed an appeal in 2007 with the Supreme Court, where, during the past several months, the additional churches and the national victims advocacy groups joined the fray and made the case more significant.
JWB says:
***Please DELETE my previous comment and replace it with this one.***
Part 2
Las Vegas attorney David Frederick, who is representing Chabad and the other defendants, did not return the Sun’s calls seeking comment. In court filings, he argues that the First Amendment offers protections of religion that apply in this case. For one, (name of survivor removed)’s claims of retaliation and harassment by Chabad are outweighed by a religious entity’s right to decide church membership and discipline, Frederick writes in his court briefs. He contends that a religion’s rights extend to decisions regarding its spiritual personnel.
Expanding on arguments made by Frederick, the Mormon church, in a court brief filed in October — and later joined by the Roman Catholic bishops of Las Vegas and Reno — argued that churches’ liability for sexual assault claims and other disputes involving clergy misconduct is limited because of religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment.
The Mormon church is telling the Supreme Court that it needs to avoid a conclusion that would “burden the exercise of religion, excessively entangle civil courts in religious affairs.”
The Catholic Church added that its ability to provide social services through its charities could be impeded if it can be held liable for a volunteer’s misconduct. It argues that its charities “could fold if burdened with the expense of litigation and liability” due to the random acts of volunteers.
The Diocese of Las Vegas declined to comment for this story.
Kim Farah, a Salt Lake City-based spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the overall argument is not that churches should be completely immune from civil or criminal liability. But a contention in the Las Vegas case is that Segelstein was, at most, a congregant, and one of the Mormon church’s points is that churches should not be held liable when one congregant harms another.
“To apply such responsibility would infringe on First Amendment rights, impose almost limitless liability on churches, and turn religious institutions and their leadership into instruments of law enforcement,” she says.
Her church is arguing that religious groups should be held liable only in cases where they disregarded “a known risk of harm,” in cases where they were negligent in the supervision of a clergy member or volunteer — allowing a known pedophile to operate a youth program, for example.
As did Frederick on behalf of Chabad, the Mormon church cited a Nevada Supreme Court ruling from 2005 in which it was determined that a janitorial company was not liable for the sexual assault of a mentally disabled woman by one of its employees.
But (name of survivor removed)’s attorney, Michael Reitzell of Truckee, Calif., and the victims advocacy groups say that was a very different case from (name of survivor removed)’s. They say that limiting the civil liability of churches would have numerous negative repercussions for Nevadans.
Reitzell contends, for example, that a ruling in favor of the religious groups’ arguments could “deter the reporting of actual criminal conduct, particularly sexual conduct,” and that would be particularly ill-advised “in an era rife with reports of clergy molestation and similar abuses.”
Hamilton says religious organizations have shown themselves to be incapable of ending cycles of abuse by themselves, leaving civil and criminal laws as the only effective way to protect vulnerable individuals, she says.
When the state’s highest court will rule remains unknown, however, because both sides are continuing to file briefs, and the court has not yet scheduled oral arguments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/business/economy/15panel.html
Of the 2,800 mortgage fraud investigations under way at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, most — 1,842 — were classified as major cases, which meant they involved more than $1 million in losses. As of November, federal mortgage fraud-related charges were pending against 826 defendants.
When are the men in white coats going to come and take away Tropper?
Him and Guma could share a room, I would like to be a fly on that wall.
It is not well known, but Tropper spent an evening at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, NY. How do I know this? My niece was admitted there and to my shock I saw Tropper there in a hospital gown, he was sitting on the waiting room reading a newspaper. When he realized that I saw him, he claimed that he had a "reaction" to an "epileptic drug" he was on.
Look who is looking after this Sudanese Black guy who illegally snuck into Israel:
http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/25869/after-a-life-run-refugee-studying-israel
He crossed from Sinai in June 2006, among the first of what was to become a steady flow of Sudanese refugees. He was imprisoned for a year for “illegal infiltration” and then released on condition he worked at a hotel in Eilat. An expulsion order was issued against him that is still valid.
While working as a shepherd, he travelled to Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem twice a week to attend an ulpan, or intensive Hebrew studies.
It was then that Kuol’s luck took a decisive turn for the better.
He worked once a week as an assistant to Jerusalem gardener Aryeh Fannama, who introduced Kuol to one of his clients, Ellen Aguiar, mother of Betar Jerusalem owner Guma Aguiar.
Ms Aguiar encouraged him to study and offered to pay his fees. He easily passed the Hebrew University preparatory programme’s entrance exam.
Tel Aviv police complain that African gangs are becoming involved in drug trade and crime.
Ms Aguiar says that helping Kuol has enriched her.
Article is free but registration is required. Could someone get this and post it?
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d1f38d41-38b8-47d1-b410-957c2a636fe8
How private are personal emails – part III
Lexology (registration) - Jan 11, 2010
Paul McCawley, an attorney for Defendant Guma Aguiar, was deposed in connection with ongoing litigation between Mr. Aguiar and various ...
Menachem Lubinsky gets a plug from Gershon the shvindler Tannenbaum and the whores at the Jewish Press.
http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/42129/
The contemporary kosher food market is best seen through the eyes of Menachem Lubinsky who has served in the Jewish community in many different capacities. Though not officially appointed by President Barack Obama, he is nevertheless the universally recognized czar of kosher food production and marketing. He is president & CEO of Lubicom Marketing Consulting, full-service public relations, advertising, marketing, and special events management firm.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
Tropper / Kaplan gave $3.2 million in 2008 to American Friends of Beth El which is based at a Forest Hills, NY address belonging to Sherman Simanowitz.
http://openjurist.org/881/f2d/1155
Simanowitz was involved in a huge fraud with convicted felon Bernard Gelb, but got off the hook by testifying against Gelb for the government.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
$75,000 for Bircas HaTorah
http://www.bircas.org/index.php?page=faculty-staff
Rabbi Shimon Green is the Rosh Yeshiva of Bircas HaTorah.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
Tropper's rabbonishe backers tell you the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation is kodesh hakadoshim but here they are giving money to a Catholic school.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
Why would they give $50k to Tiferes Tzvi at 1337 East 8th St in Flatbush?
This address belongs to Barry Hertz, the billionaire owner of Track Data (or at least he was a billionaire until he got the biggest margin call in history)
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
This one is really shocking.
R' Shimon Alster, a Brisker, who is seemingly pure of any scandal, was seen at the Tropper chassuna. Although Leib Tropper was boasting that he drew him there, the speculation was that he probably came altz the chosson or Alpert.
R' Shimon Alster received $200,000 in 2008.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
Down the street from Rav Alster is the very suspicious address of 3054 Bedford Ave.
http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organizations/brooklyn_ny_11210.asp
Suspicious because there are literally dozens of registered charities at this address.
The one that got $180,000 is Darchei Horaah Lerabbanim which is affiliated with Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, Rishon Letzion.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
Guma obviously still had say here that Tovya Singer (Outreach Judaism Monsey) received $400,000.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
A Reform temple in Washington D.C. might seem out of place.
http://www.whctemple.org/our_clergy.htm
especially considering their 3 women rabbis.
But don't forget that Reform temples are swarming with intermarried couples.
http://www.riverdaleshteeble.org/about%20us.html
And a small amount for Rabbi Lissauer's Riverdale shteeble.
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
Here is a mystery
http://mhdinner.com/5.html
Yeshiva Meor Hatalmud got a whopping $3 million.
Who is this rosh yeshiva R' Moshe Weiss and what makes him so important that Tropper is funneling him as much money as R' Reuvein Feinstein?
http://mendelmargulies.blogspot.com/
Is UOJ privy to this big purported secret about to explode against Margo Jr.?
Sheesh! I think the rebbe Rav Paler ztl would be horrified that Rav Alster took money from Tropper. I hope he follows Rav Dunner's advice and gives it to tzedakah.
Is UOJ privy to this big purported secret about to explode against Margo Jr.?
*
Der chazer reart zich nit veit fun der shtall - The pig does not move far from the pen!
More from R' Abba Dunner. This is great!
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5632
We unmasked this organization and the chap who ran it. I would not call him rabbi. Before this scandal, we found him to be a control freak and a megalomaniac. We found him to be so disrespectful of rabbanim that there was a unanimous vote of the standing committee to make sure that he and his organization do not enter Europe.
Having a seminar of mixed intermarried couples to convert is so bizarre—this was all done in order to gain favor with their sponsor… We decided en masse that we wanted nothing to do with EJF... We are amazed that the gedolim have not come out against this. We do not understand this at all.
I will press and will continue to press very hard to continue to ensure that this organization ceases from its nefarious activities.
I heard the tapes, I know his voice. They are absolutely, totally, and completely genuine... The whole thing is sick. Never in my entire klal life did I ever experience anything like this. It is quite sick, I am 72 years old, and, unfortunately, I was exposed to these tapes. I had to hear things that never in my life I would have thought to hear. To think of the person and what he did. So unbelievable and so terrible!
Mendelssohn translated the Tanach into German. He was an apikores. I once asked my father (the head of Kedassiah). He said, “It is assur, this is an apikores. Any work that he has done has apikorsus in it…
The same goes for an organization that has been founded by this depraved individual... He has no right whatsoever to have a yeshiva... He is a man that should stay home and be happy that nobody stones him. The same goes for his organization…
Let Mr. Kaplan put his money into Jewish education. Schools are dying because of this economic situation. [Yeshivos are] the future of Klal Yisrael... He could do so much more with his money. The amount of money that has gone down through this black hole is sinful... Don’t pollute our Jewish world with this type of organization…
If someone got personal money as being part of the backers of EJF, they should immediately give it to tzedakah. Not back to the EJF. But chas veshalom they should put it in their pockets…
They should also write a letter to EJF and say, “We want nothing to do with the organization and the funds we received we are forwarding to the following tzedakah organization… The mosdos of chinuch.” If there is all that money, it should be given to a useful purpose...
I call upon every single rav in America to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, “Did I do the right thing [in taking EJF money]? For the sake of chillul Hashem we should show that when the truth comes out, we should say we made a mistake. We know the truth—a genuine mistake. We were wrong. We therefore say, “EJF goodbye! Close down. We don’t need you.” and say to Tom Kaplan, “Please use your money for education.” That is my call to them...
http://www.nmbkollel.org/NMBKollel/The_Kollel_Staff.html
Phew! Finally a 24 hour rest from bashing me and the North Miami Beach kollel.
http://www.nmbshiurim.com/NMBShiurim/Chumash.html
Notice how Chumash shiur in the kollel is based on the teachings of Avremel Schorr Habor.
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5623
On December 16th President Obama signed an executive order designating Interpol as an organization with special privileges, exemptions, and immunities - beyond those granted the FBI and the CIA.
No one really knows why he signed it, but the implications are that they are free from Freedom of Information Act requests when operating here in the United States.
Interpol had a history of being staffed by Nazis both before and after the second World War.
Chuck Norris writes, “Many in the conservative world have accused Obama of extending Interpol's legal exemptions for the purpose of empowering a global police force, but I believe there's a much closer goal and strategic reason he gave this presidential edict. And it dawned on me when I read seven words said by Interpol spokeswoman Rachel Billington, who explained to The New York Times the applicable location of the president's executive order: "It's only for the New York office."
"Only for the New York office"? Mm.
Is it possible the Obama administration specifically and soon plans to use Interpol's New York office for some covert purpose that would require Interpol's exemption from having its property or records subject to search and seizure?
Is it merely coincidental that Obama signed this executive order and that New York is the feds' city of choice in which to place 9/11 terrorists on trial in federal court?
Is it merely coincidental that Obama signed this executive order and that the feds now have the close proximity of Interpol archives that are exempt from American legal and investigative discovery and the Freedom of Information Act requests by the media and U.S. citizens?
Is it merely coincidental that Obama signed this executive order and that Interpol's U.S. central operations office is under the umbrella of and within our own Justice Department's offices? (Interpol -- which was started in 1923 and is made up of 188 country members, including the U.S. and Yemen -- has its bureau in the Department of Justice.)
part 2
Is it merely coincidental that Obama signed this executive order and that an Interpol spokeswoman explained that "it's only for the New York office," whose five staff members now have access to law enforcement information submitted by other countries that no U.S. authority, official, agency or citizen can view for any reason (without Interpol's waiver)?
Again, ThreatsWatch hit the nail on the head: Immunity from search and seizure "cannot be understated, because this immunity and protection -- and elevation above the US Constitution -- afforded INTERPOL is likely a precursor to the White House subjecting the United States under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). INTERPOL provides a significant enforcement function for the ICC, just as our FBI provides a significant function for our Department of Justice."
If international terrorists' criminal records are allowed to pass through or be housed temporarily in New York's Interpol storage bin, they will be as safe as the gold at Fort Knox. Al Capone's vault had nothing on Obama's new Interpol repository!
Of course, it's not too late for the White House to be transparent and confess exactly why Obama granted Interpol's exemption from search and seizure laws at this critical point in the war on terror. What we do know now, however, is why the wisdom of President Reagan limited Interpol's immunities and why Obama's deletions of Reagan's executive order should have stayed intact for this international law enforcement agency.”
We in New York have a right to know what the reason is.
How sad that the Rosenberg family is no longer taking any responsibility/interest in their kollel or their shul. Shaarei was a nice happy shul before things had to go their way or the highway. They split apart the community in order to have control and say so over every decision large or small. Now the Rosenbergs throw their hands up in surrender and allow bribery to rule in the city? When push comes to shove the Almighty Ben Franklin is more powerful in DATA and Rabbi Feigenbaum's eyes than the Almighty Hashem. Rosenberg Family, Rabbis Fried and Feigenbaum think about the chillul Hashem you will cause. Is it really worth the bribe given? Has Hashem truly foresaken the city of Dallas that you no longer believe? You owe it to yourselves, your families, your baalei teshuva, and to Hashem to abandon this temptation of quick money. We expect you to do the right thing and back out of the convention.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/Surgeon-sentenced-in-federal-fraud-case-81526587.html
Las Vegas spine surgeon Mark Kabins left federal court on Thursday with a felony conviction and no prison time.
Senior U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush accepted the surgeon’s plea agreement Thursday morning and sentenced him to five years of probation. Kabins also received six months of home confinement but will be allowed to go to work during that time.
Kabins, 49, pleaded guilty in November to “misprision of felony,” which Quackenbush defined as “a failure to report an alleged crime committed by others.”
The conviction is the first in a 2007 fraud case involving allegations that a network of Las Vegas doctors and lawyers cheated clients out of honest services by protecting doctors from malpractice lawsuits and sharing kickbacks from legal settlements. Kabins became a defendant in the case in March, when he was charged with conspiracy and fraud.
Rabbi Shea Harlig from Chabad of Southern Nevada attended the hearing to show his support for Kabins, whom he has known for two or three years.
“The Dr. Kabins that I know is different than the way he’s portrayed in the newspaper,” Harlig said after the hearing.
The rabbi said he hopes Kabins will be allowed to retain his medical license.
“He’s really a good surgeon and a good human being,” Harlig said.
Kabins’ plea agreement requires him to perform 250 hours of community service and to pay $3.5 million to a former patient, Melodie Simon, who became a paraplegic after he and another surgeon operated on her in 2000.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/13/church-liability-issue-abuse-suit/
A national debate over the extent to which a religious group can be held liable for sexual misconduct by its clergy or its volunteers has made its way to the doorstep of the Nevada Supreme Court.
Because lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clerics have typically been settled before trials could take place, the state’s courts have not delved very far into the issue of religious groups’ liability for sexual abuse. That’s about to change as the high court considers a case involving a Las Vegas woman who claims she was sexually assaulted nine years ago by a man she described as a cantor at a synagogue.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Roman Catholic bishops of Las Vegas and Reno have lined up with the synagogue to argue that the First Amendment shields religions from lawsuits of this type.
But groups including the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and the National Association to Prevent Sexual Abuse of Children accuse the churches of attempting to “twist the First Amendment into a refuge for harmful behavior.”
At the center of the Nevada case is Theressa Ramani, who filed a lawsuit in District Court in Clark County in 2003 against Chabad of Southern Nevada, Chabad of Summerlin, two rabbis and other individuals she said were affiliated with the two Orthodox synagogues. She alleged that Michael Segelstein was a Chabad cantor when he assaulted her in 2001 in the parking lot of another synagogue.
Ramani alleged that a Chabad rabbi refused to believe her when she told him what Segelstein had done and that the synagogue retaliated against her and her then-teenage son. She alleged that the synagogues, as well as Segelstein, were liable for the assault.
Segelstein pleaded guilty in 2002 to open or gross lewdness. His sentence of one year in jail was suspended under the condition that he successfully completed three years of probation.
Ramani lost her lawsuit, however. District Judge Timothy Williams ruled there was no direct connection between Chabad and the assault. Ramani also failed to prove that Segelstein was a Chabad employee, Williams found.
She filed an appeal in 2007 with the Supreme Court, where, during the past several months, the additional churches and the national victims advocacy groups joined the fray and made the case more significant.
Las Vegas attorney David Frederick, who is representing Chabad and the other defendants, did not return the Sun’s calls seeking comment. In court filings, he argues that the First Amendment offers protections of religion that apply in this case. For one, Ramani’s claims of retaliation and harassment by Chabad are outweighed by a religious entity’s right to decide church membership and discipline, Frederick writes in his court briefs. He contends that a religion’s rights extend to decisions regarding its spiritual personnel.
Expanding on arguments made by Frederick, the Mormon church, in a court brief filed in October — and later joined by the Roman Catholic bishops of Las Vegas and Reno — argued that churches’ liability for sexual assault claims and other disputes involving clergy misconduct is limited because of religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment.
The Mormon church is telling the Supreme Court that it needs to avoid a conclusion that would “burden the exercise of religion, excessively entangle civil courts in religious affairs.”
The Catholic Church added that its ability to provide social services through its charities could be impeded if it can be held liable for a volunteer’s misconduct. It argues that its charities “could fold if burdened with the expense of litigation and liability” due to the random acts of volunteers.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former CEO and chairman of online real estate listings company Homestore Inc. pleaded guilty Tuesday in a scheme to inflate the company’s revenue to win over Wall Street analysts.
Stuart Wolff faces three to five years in prison when he is sentenced April 19 for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The plea agreement closes a case that resulted in the convictions of 11 other defendants.
Homestore shareholders lost more than $100 million when the company’s stock price plummeted in 2001 on news of the federal investigation into irregular accounting practices.
The putz died this week in a prison hospital.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Child pornography was found on a computer belonging to the white supremacist charged with shooting and killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the FBI said in court documents.
Agents found the material on a desktop computer seized from the Annapolis, Md., apartment where 88-year-old James von Brunn lived with his son and son’s finacee, FBI Special Agent Ronald Farnsworth said in an affidavit filed Wednesday in support of a search warrant. Investigators searched the home last Thursday, taking more than 30 items, including ammunition, computers, thumb drives, CDs, memory cards, cell phones and videos.
Authorities will analyze who had access to the computer to determine whether the pornography was von Brunn’s, or if it could have belonged to someone else, prosecutors said. No decisions on charges have been made.
The documents didn’t say what form the pornography was in, or how much of it was there.
In separate documents filed on Wednesday, the FBI said it found 35 rounds of .22-caliber ammunition in a search last Thursday of von Brunn’s car, which was parked outside of the Washington, D.C., museum during the shooting a day earlier.
Investigators said they also found a notebook in the car with handwritten notes saying, “The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do. Jews captured America’s money. Jews control the mass media.”
Stupid Iranians who think they are too chashuv for Great Neck steal to afford mansion in Old Westbury.
http://www.longislandpress.com/2010/01/14/da-old-westbury-millionaires-committed-medicaid-fraud/
A millionaire Old Westbury couple was arrested Wednesday morning for allegedly receiving more than $33,000 in Medicaid benefits by underreporting their income and failing to disclose their assets over a five-year period, Nassau prosecutors said.
Daniel and Dalia Mairzadeh, both 45, were charged with grand larceny, welfare fraud and offering a false instrument for filing. They were arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Wednesday where a judge set bail for Daniel at $20,000 cash or $10,000 bond, but it was not clear if he was still being held at Nassau County jail.
Dalia was released on her own recognizance. Each face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Between April 1, 2004 and April 30, 2009, Daniel reported making between $405 and $633 per week as a contractor and gave phony rental receipts to the Nassau County Department of Social Services (DSS) so that the couple would qualify for taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits, prosecutors said.
In reality, Daniel owned the company he said he worked for, Fundstone Developers, and his wife worked as a real estate agent but never reported her income, prosecutors said. They also owned the home they allegedly claimed to be renting, purchased a second home in 2005 for $990,000, sold the home they were living in for $1.25 million in 2006 and bought a new home for more than $2 million—none of which was reported to DSS, prosecutors said.
During that time period, the couple took in $33,553 worth of Medicaid benefits for themselves and their three children, according to DSS investigators.
see
http://benatlas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/TomKaplanDonations.jpg
why is a nothing yeshiva like Meor Hatalmud getting 3 million dollars? What is Tropper's angle? He directed the money there. Please investigate.
Also, a commenter on Daat Torah reports that more Tropper tapes have been released. Is this true?
Yes, more Tropper tapes have publicly surfaced and they are actually published as of last night by a media organization.
They are too disgusting to even link to.
One recording is phone sex where Tropper simulates various acts of kedarka ushelo kedarka. The publication points out that Tropper is engaging in the cheit hasod during his licentious banter that has been theorized here earlier.
Another recording is a lengthy conversation between Mrs. Leiba Tropper and Orand after Mrs. Tropper receives incriminating video footage of herself and Leib. Leiba Tropper makes references to someone named Andy who she showed the footage to to get an idea who is behind it. Could this be the Andy who has been bickering with anti-Tropper blog posters and who told UOJ he knows Susan Blond?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6988614.ece
January 15, 2010
Goel Ratzon, Israeli ‘harem messiah’, arrested in Tel Aviv
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem
Residents of Tel Aviv’s quiet Hatikva neighbourhood were shocked yesterday to discover a self-styled Jewish sage living in their midst with a harem of 30 women kept as “slaves” in squalid apartments.
Goel Ratzon, 60, is accused of fathering 37 children since 1993 with his “wives” and daughters. Mr Ratzon, who was dubbed by the local media as “Israel’s Josef Fritzl”, is under arrest on suspicion of incest and sexual abuse.
“The evidence shows the suspect controlled his women with a firm hand, including their possessions and their money,” police said. Mr Ratzon even wrote a list of commandments to ensure that the women were kept in “conditions similar to slavery”, police said.
In addition to turning over all their wages, the women were forbidden from making telephone calls or talking to men other than Mr Ratzon. If they broke the rules they would pay a fine or receive physical punishment.
Mickey Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesman, said that Mr Ratzon convinced his victims that he had godlike status. “The women didn’t really understand what their situation was, they didn’t understand what freedom was,” Mr Rosenfeld said.
In one case, police raided a three-bedroom apartment where 10 women and 17 children were found living in “horrible conditions”.
The women wore conservative orthodox dresses covering their entire bodies and bore tattoos of their captor’s face — and name. He was married to 17 women but it was unclear how many others he had relations with, police said. All his offspring had names with a variation on his — Goel, which means redeemer in Hebrew.
Mr Ratzon’s family had been known to the Israeli public for some time. Last year he and several women appeared in a television documentary in which the women informed viewers that Mr Ratzon was the Messiah.
It showed the women brushing his hair and feeding him while they declared: “He is the Messiah everyone is talking about . . . The day he decides to reveal himself, the land will shake.”
Mr Ratzon made no claims of deity, but declared: “I’m perfect . . . I have all the qualities a woman wants.” When asked about the commandments, he said: “It’s like a state — I have to uphold my principles, order and laws.”
Neighbours gleaned some details about Mr Ratzon’s communes. One said that he had learnt hypnosis in India and used the technique to subjugate women. “We never heard them, they made no noise at all,” a neighbour told The Jerusalem Post. “The women made a living by cleaning homes, but they were not permitted to work for men.”
Another neighbour said: “Whenever I saw the kids, they were quiet. Sometimes I heard them crying.”
Part II
Police said that they delayed arresting Mr Ratzon despite evidence of abuse in the documentary, because they had reports that the women would attempt collective suicide.
Mr Ratzon made it clear in the documentary what the women should do if he was taken away. “When I die . . . you are to lead peaceful and constrained lives . . . but if the state harms me, go out and strike them as much as you can. Even at the cost of shedding your own blood,” he told one woman.
Police said that he preyed on young vulnerable women from broken families. If he was displeased they would harm themselves with razors or burn themselves. All the women were registered as single mothers, making it impossible to prosecute them under Israeli polygamy laws, but a law passed recently against human trafficking allowed prosecutors to press enslavement charges against Mr Ratzon.
Several women had complained of mistreatment. Two of Mr Ratzon’s “wives” were being questioned on suspicion that they facilitated his crimes. The other women and children were put in the care of social services.
Mr Ratzon will be defended by a woman lawyer. “As far as he is concerned, no sexual crimes have been committed. The women consented willingly to relations,” Shlomtzion Gabai, the lawyer, said.
The Channel 10 documentary showed Mr Ratzon’s nightly ritual. “Do you want to come with me?” he asked one woman in her mid-20s. “Yes,” she said, smiling and hugging him. The other women appeared devastated.
Ratzon’s rules
1 No women shall marry nor shall any woman attack another, either verbally or physically.
Fine: 2,000 shekels (£330) into the family kitty
2 No woman shall question another about her whereabouts.
Fine: 100 shekels
3 No conversation is permitted in rooms other than the living room. It is forbidden to talk nonsense.
Fine: 200 shekels
4 No woman shall sit idle when there are dishes to be washed, cleaning to be done, children to look after etc.
Fine: 2,000 shekels
5 Any two women caught fighting will be punished equally.
Fine: 2,000 shekels
6 It is absolutely forbidden to question Ratzon on his whereabouts or intention.
Fine: 400 shekels
7 It is permissible to ask to accompany him; but refusal is to be accepted without appeal.
Fine: 300 shekels
8 No woman shall interrupt Ratzon or intervene in matters not concerning her.
Fine: 500 shekels
9 All orders are to be obeyed immediately.
Fine: 300 shekels
10 No woman shall work while a man of over 12 years of age is in the house.
Fine 3,000 shekels
The article doesn't mention another species found at the kollel.
www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-super-snake15-2010jan15,0,444
0509.story
'Super snake' fears on the rise in Florida
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/23579/tale-of-the-tapes/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/jan/13/church-liability-issue-abuse-suit/
The new Tropper clips are so disgusting that the magazine was forced to not match the whole transcript with corresponding audio.
They only give you about 30 seconds of snippets which is enough to make you vomit when you hear Tropper moaning & groaning.
I suggest you don't listen to it but try to picture this. Here is Tropper who in the conversation with Shannon you heard before sounded like Daffy Duck on steroids, is now sounding 100 times worse while masturbating.
Kol Yaakov's number:
29 West Maple Avenue
Monsey, NY 10952
(845) 425-3863
I called to ask the secretary if she has any shame working for Tropper.
As soon as she heard the word "shame" she hung up like lightning before I could finish.
She wouldn't pick up when I called back and the recording on the machine warned that any message I leave will be "recorded for security purposes"
I don't know that Tropper is any position to level ominous sounding warnings to the public.
I'm looking forward to reading Rabbi Eidensohn's new book.
Chazak!
To: "Eternal Jewish Fraud Watch said... " aka Archie Bunker:
I am NOT the "Andy" referred to in the Tropper tapes.
Nor am i pro-EJF. I have no idea where you get these things (and most of the other things you write about) from. I am so outraged at the antics in the frum community -- especially Tropper.
I read UOJ not because i disagree with it, but rather because i support the good work he does. Likewise, while i have issues with much in Failed Messiah (as i am a shomer shabbos), i too recognize that Shmraya does good work.
And therefore, I (and so many others) get tired of your rantings and crying about what he is saying.
My point about Susan Blond is that she's Leba Tropper's sister. How far does your net go? Why should you be attacking her?
True, she was a part of Warhol's Factory scene in the 1960s -- so what? She has since become a baalas teshuva and is a fine person.
Jews are referred to as "rachmanim b'nei rachmanim". Your tone is consistantly negative and nasty.
I think we should question your yichus.
I am worthy of every penny of money I got. I also tried to help shmuel Borger by using the levayah of Motty to try to cozy up to Malli, Motty's widow to warn her away from talking about what she learned from Motty. So I have a well earned reputation as a menuval who helps in cover ups.
Cost for allying with Reuven Feinstein and covering up for molesters, Three Million buckaroos. Peace of Mind-- Priceless! But I don't take credit cards.
Is that the same as Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss who is Avi Shafran's rov at the Agudah of Staten Island?
Try asking Avi Shafran about this guy receiving $3 million from Tropper and see how testy he gets.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704586504574654602781512842.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
The Backlash Is Coming! The Backlash Is Coming!
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/26066/orthodox-blasphemous-youtube-outburst-shocks-community
Melbourne’s tightly-knit Orthodox community is reeling following the public ostracism of a group of dissident Lubavitchers accused of “a massive and reckless” act of blasphemy.
A video posted last week on YouTube shows the group celebrating a seudah, or religious feast, on the Fast of Tevet on December 27, when Orthodox Jews are supposed to mourn the day the First Temple was besieged.
The group, led by Alex Leonard and Asher Rozenfeld, appeared to include about 25 men, women and children singing, dancing, waving the yellow Chabad messianist flag and saying special prayers celebrating the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson — who died in 1994 — as the Messiah.According to Jewish tradition, fasts are replaced by feasts in the messianic era.
But their actions prompted a severe rebuke from Rabbi Zvi Telsner, chief rabbi of Melbourne’s Chabad community. Rabbi Telsner, a former rabbi at Finchley Central Synagogue, issued a scathing statement on Sunday against the “perpetrators of such misguided deeds”, saying that the fact they publicised their “transgression” on the web “constitutes a massive and reckless Chillul Hashem”, or desecration of God’s name.
In his ruling, plastered on the walls of the Yeshiva Centre, Lubavitch’s local headquarters, he said the dissidents cannot be counted as part of a minyan, are not allowed to answer “amen” in shul, cannot receive an aliyah to the Torah and no members of the community should speak to or have any business dealings with them until they seek forgiveness before a Jewish court.
But Mr Rozenfeld and Mr Leonard, who were reportedly expelled from the Yeshiva Centre several years ago, said they had not seen the edict.
“We are free to talk to anybody we choose and to carry on our business as usual,” Mr Rozenfeld said. Stating that he suspected the edict — which does not list names — constituted “character defamation”, he added: “I find it strange that a letter of such serious content would be issued publicly without me or anyone in the video receiving it first.”
Rabbi Telsner — who in 2004 himself signed a letter declaring the Rebbe is the Messiah — hosed down suggestions he had ordered an excommunication.
“It’s a statement about people who have transgressed. Their behaviour was in total disregard of Jewish law.”
While some Orthodox Jews in Melbourne are bemused, others believe it raises serious questions about Chabad, which split after the Rebbe’s death between those who believed he was the Messiah and those who did not.
Another Lubavitcher, Raphael Aron, said the furore “questions the ability of Chabad to continue without a Rebbe.
“It raises existential questions about the future of Chabad. Is the Rebbe Moshiach? Is there another Rebbe or are we waiting until Moshiach? It’s a discussion no one is prepared to have.”
An expert on cults, Mr Aron said the dissident group is “behaving in a cultish manner. It’s like they’re in some sort of trance.”
The maelstrom has spawned hundreds of comments on Jewish websites. “Every Lubavitcher needs to do some major introspection, and realise that they are at fault for this horrible Chillul Hashem,” wrote one contributor on theyeshivaworld.com. “It started out by believing in their hearts that the Rebbe was Moshiach, but denying it publicly. Then they crowned him Moshiach after his stroke. When he went into a coma they stated he could not die because he’s Moshiach. Finally when he died they started to come out with foolishness of a second coming. From there it’s just gone downhill.”
Welcome to 2010 where a White man cannot run in a local election without being smeared as an anti-Obama racist.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/17/us/politics/AP-US-Massachusetts-Senate-Menino.html
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has told a largely black congregation that if Democrat Martha Coakley loses the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, it will be a victory for people who want President Barack Obama to fail.
These women have evidently never heard of SHmarya.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/health/16skin.html?em=&pagewanted=print
January 16, 2010
Creams Offering Lighter Skin May Bring Risks
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
For years, Allison Ross rubbed in skin-lightening creams with names like Hyprogel and Fair & White. She said she wanted to even out and brighten the tone of her face, neck and hands. Mrs. Ross, 45, who lives in Brooklyn, also said that she used the lightening creams “to be more accepted in society.”
After months of twice-a-day applications, her skin was not only fairer, it had become so thin that a touch would bruise her face. Her capillaries became visible, and she developed stubborn acne. A doctor told her that all three were side effects of prescription-strength steroids in some of the creams, which she had bought over the counter in beauty supply stores.
“I never read the labels,” Mrs. Ross said. Instead, she took her cues from friends, many of them, like her, from the West Indies. “Once somebody told me Fair & White was the one they were using, I’d go to the Korean store and ask for it,” she said.
Dermatologists nationwide are seeing women of Hispanic and African descent, among others, with severe side effects like Mrs. Ross’s from the misuse of skin-lightening creams, many with prescription-strength ingredients, which are sold in beauty shops and bodegas and online.
Ethnic beauty supply stores, where clerks often shrug at selling prescription creams over the counter, report that sales are strong.
Dr. Erin Gilbert, a chief resident in dermatology at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, said that she or a colleague saw a case of severe side effects from skin-lightening creams at least once a week. Dr. Gilbert attributed the frequency, which she called surprising, to the fact that the hospital served an “amazingly international cross section of women of color.”
Users are not necessarily immigrants, said Dr. Eliot F. Battle Jr., who has a dermatology practice in Washington, where he treats side effects from lightening creams “not only containing corticosteroids, but mercury,” a poison that can damage the nervous system. The patients are “Ph.D.’s to women from corporate America, teachers to engineers — the entire broad spectrum of women of color,” Dr. Battle said.
Moreover, it is not as if dark-skinned women are imagining a bias, said Dr. Glenn, who is president of the American Sociological Association. “Sociological studies have shown among African-Americans and also Latinos, there’s a clear connection between skin color and socioeconomic status. It’s not some fantasy. There is prejudice against dark-skinned people, especially women in the so-called marriage market.”
There was an echo of the issue recently in comments by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, as reported in a new book, that he had urged Barack Obama to run for president because the country was ready to accept a “light skinned” African-American.
AndyBee,
Your preposterous & tiresomely repeated conspiracy theory just doesn't pan out. I suppose I am also every poster on blogs who abhor Shmarya AND think the women in Tropper's life are less than righteous? That would be some task as I would be impersonating at least 100s of people.
You are extremely arrogant in your dead-wrong thinking that people cannot possibly agree with me. Despite that you think you are the smartest person on Earth, and one who can control comments on private blogs of others, many people agree with me that Shmarya is malicious and evil and only has the worst of intentions while pretending to be Judaism's savior. To the contrary, he is trying to destroy Judaism and uses a mixture of exposes, exaggerations and outright lies to convince everyone to join him in his misery of leaving the fold. (As last week's pictures in the NY Times shows, he is also getting fat and pasty white while hunkered down 24/7 in his mother's rundown basement.)
I don't know about who is the Andy on the Tropper tapes but I do know that if Susan Blond uses her PR firm to protect Tropper, she is just as guilty. She has been accused of this on the blogs and we shall see if any evidence emerges. There is also a basis to suspect her for misbehavior to some extent according to halacha as per the Shulchan Aruch poskening that one promiscuous woman casts suspicion on the entire family. Tropper made these women into so called baalei teshuva himself with the notion that having threesomes and lesbian encounters is fine.
And it's funny where you get off calling me "nasty" when that's exactly what Rabbi Eidensohn called you 2 days ago. Despite your denial that you intended to be nasty, you're as transparent as Tropper captured on video.
http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/23723/prodigal-son/
“I demand that you resign as Chairman of EJF,” Aguiar allegedly said in a December 15 voicemail message, threatening to sexually violate Kaplan if he didn’t comply, according to court documents. “You can call me when the ****ing pain is bad enough,” he said in another message, filed in support of Kaplan’s motion to hold his nephew in contempt of court. (The presiding judge has not yet ruled on the request.) Additional filings contain more such messages: on December 20, the same day the New York Post published the seamy details of Tropper’s alleged sexcapades with Shannon Orand, the conversion candidate from Houston, Aguiar allegedly left the following message: “It’s the eighth night of Hanukkah and the flames are burning loud. I just sent over some candles for you guys and some pizza and some other items and gifts today so that you would have them as a token of our appreciation from our family to our family of just how much we love you ‘cause we love you so much that we decided to let you know that we’re praying for you in the event that you finally decide to commit suicide.” In court filings, Aguiar’s attorneys have not disputed their client left the voicemails, but argue that their content does not constitute harassment.
As president of the 92nd Steet Y, Kaplan, 47, regularly hobnobs with some of the most powerful Jewish philanthropists in New York. He and his wife, Daphna Recanati, a member of one of Israel’s wealthiest and best-known families, also support major scholarship programs for arts education at the Y and have given millions to other charitable causes in Israel and the United States. Separately, Kaplan—who wrote a 788-page Oxford dissertation on Malaysia’s geopolitical positioning during the Cold War before, in 1994, opening a firm that prospected silver mines with financial backing from George and Paul Soros—has established a nonprofit organization called Panthera, devoted to wildcat preservation and research, which has created vast reserves of land in Brazil for big cats to roam free. (A recent admiring profile of Kaplan in the New York Times revealed that he also harvests honey from his jaguar preserves.) A serial entrepreneur, Kaplan moved on from oil wells to gold mining, through a new company based in London, which has hired Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, as an adviser, according to British press reports.
Aguiar, 15 years Kaplan’s junior, is the son of the billionaire’s older sister, Ellen Kaplan, who left Judaism to become an evangelical Christian. He was born in Brazil, but grew up in Fort Lauderdale, where he was a tennis star for his Christian prep school, Westminster Academy. Even after “returning” to Judaism, Aguiar continued to support the school, which is also his wife’s alma mater, giving it a $50,000 grant in 2007. After graduating from Westminster, he attended Clemson University, in South Carolina, but dropped out and moved to New York, where he became a clerk on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In 2001, Kaplan offered to bring Aguiar into his new business venture: oil and gas exploration. In court documents, Aguiar recounts getting into a car and driving to Texas, where he and a geologist, John Amoruso, made one of the largest onshore natural-gas finds in the past decade; as gas prices skyrocketed in the middle part of the decade, Aguiar and Kaplan’s company, Leor, attracted Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch as investors before selling to oil giant EnCana in 2007.
Here is an organization promoting interfaith couples (without the need for gerus).
http://www.interfaithfamily.com/elgg/pg/organizationlist
On the page where they list temples and groups who welcome intermarrieds, the first one on the list is Tom Kaplan's 92nd St Y.
Has 5 Towns Jewish Times owner Larry Gordon lost his mind? He says Sholom Rubashkin has complete charatah and paid back all of his baalei chov, which is sheker vechazav.
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5631
Mr. Rubashkin now sits in a jail cell at the age of 50, having been convicted of serious financial crimes. Over the last few months, all you have seen and read about as the day draws nearer for sentencing is that he stands to receive—if the book is thrown at him (which so far it has been)—a sentence of 1,255 years in jail. Once those who report on these things come to grips with the absurd sensationalism involved in harping on the idea of such a sentence and the reporters come down to dealing with the situation in more realistic terms, we find that he still faces up to the next 27 years in prison.
Leading constitutional experts like Nathan Lewin and Alan Dershowitz have weighed in on and analyzed the subject and have written that it is within the judge’s discretion to exact a significantly smaller sentence. This, of course, takes into account Mr. Rubashkin’s solemn remorse, his admission of making serious errors in judgments and his family having already made full restitution to any party that may have suffered a financial loss due to his actions.
http://www.aish.com/jw/s/81454877.html
Which adam gadol told this whistleblower to call the FBI?
http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5671
In light of the recent ruling of the Israeli Supreme Court against the U.S. extradition request for Mondrowitz, Rav Moshe Shternbuch was asked what the proper Torah response should be. Rav Shternbuch’s response was that even years later, an offender should still be punished “Lemaan Yishmeu VeYirau" - a biblical term meaning "so that all should hear and fear.”
This statement indicates that there is an obligation on the community to ensure that such types of activity be taken very seriously and to publicly demonstrate that offenders will be punished.
The extradition request came a full quarter century after he arrived in Israel. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office had indicted him 24 years ago on suspicion of committing 13 crimes against five boys aged nine to 13.
Justice Ayala Procaccia wrote that Mondrovich's right to a proper judicial procedure would be harmed if the extradition was carried out. She explained that this was on account of the lengthy period of time that had elapsed. Justices Elyakim Rubinstein and Miriam Naor agreed with Justice Procaccia, making the decision unanimous, and unappealable. The Supreme Court had rejected a lower court ruling handed down on February 10, 2008, upholding the state's request to extradite the suspect.
In the past Rabbi Shternbuch has warned schools that they have to take quite seriously any allegation of abuse and misconduct along these lines and not ignore rumors but rather investigate them properly. His views were written in the latest edition of his responsa (Teshuvos VeHanhagos Volume Five.)
Shalom Klass's granddaughter
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1262339420916&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
The Jerusalem District Rabbinical Court on Thursday held a first hearing to discuss a request by the mother of the children that were allegedly assaulted by suspected child-abusing cult leader Elior Chen.
The children's mother has filed for a divorce, but Chen married her in a non-rabbinical wedding, and therefore, is not recognized by the state of Israel as the woman's spouse.
Yasher koach to the blogs for exposing the big avlah done to the Montefiore mashgiach.
YU decided that the bad public exposure was worse than the pressure the vengeful OU was putting on them and changed their minds about banning the mashgiach and his wife from the shul.
Rothstein is intermarried. Laws of mesira do not apply to an intermarried man. He is no different than a Gentile, k'halacha.
The real question is why does Chabad give kavod to intermarried men?
Rothstein is on his second Gentile wife, both of whom are named "Kimberly" (it is convenient to have a mistress with the same name as your wife because you are less likely to slip up in bed).
The first "Kimbo" stopped being "hot" enough to fulfill Scott's giant ego so he had to get a "hotter" one.
Alan Sakowitz is a yirat shamayin talmid chacham. When there is a shaila, he asks and holds by the Psak of a Gadol.
If you are wondering anything, you can ask Alan yourself and I am sure he will tell you.
OK.
Let's ask Alan if he thinks that Aish is trying to exploit his story in order to raise more funds for themselves.
Brad Greenberg of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles points out on his Get Religion blog that Shmarya has not had a major scoop for a long time now.
So can someone explain why Shmarya is still shnorring from the public for the Rubashkin trial when he never attended and does nothing but pass on stale dated articles he finds with Google?
http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/richard_posner/2010/01/im_back_blogging_about_the_economic_situation.php
Richard A. Posner
A Failure of Capitalism
Jan 17 2010
I am particularly concerned with the danger of social and political turmoil if high unemployment and related economic pathologies persist.
We are now in the third year of a depression. The economic crisis continues to occupy center stage despite all the other news assailing us.
Archibald - I have spoken up for you several times on FM, and even in a private email to Shmarya. While excluding you from his blog has detracted from the blog, I would still argue that Shmarya is relevant.
Pages 4 & 5 of the latest Queens Vaad magazine features an attack written by Queens Vaad President AND OU Group Leader Yoel Schonfeld on "the blogs that claim to be watchdogs for kashrus". In this unspecific reference to R' Yudel Shain, R' Doniel Eidensohn, R' Feivel Mendlowitz and others, who he describes as the minions of "Satan", Schonfeld accuses them of "lies, distortions and lashon hora of the worst order", which he says "boggles" his mind.
This vicious attack piece which is nothing but a smokescreen for those exposing his own shortcomings and cover ups is also full of am haaratzus as will be delineated. This rebuttal was run by ainer fun der choshuve mashgichei ruchni to make sure it is on target.
After fawning over the gadlus of the Queens Vaad and OU for 3+ paragraphs, Schonfeld raises the spectre of the ominous sounding "Dark Side" aka his critics. We also can't help but wonder if Schonfeld is borrowing from Avi Shafran's shtick of making references to popular movies to get his points across, the "Dark Side" made famous by the "Star Wars" saga.
Schonfeld hints that those complaining about bugs in Queens Vaad vegetables are even worse because of onoas devarim against him. This is completely absurd. The Queens Vaad presents themselves to the public as providing a level of supervision that in actuality falls far short. Even if it somehow was onoas devarim to expose this fraud, there is one or two issurei Torah for onoah as opposed to 5 lavin for every single insect on the cheshbon of the public who is duped into trusting them.
Schonfeld brengt a "raayah" that the Neviim in Tanach gave musser to Klal Yisroel for every single issue except kashrus. "Why?" fregt er, because it wasn't as important as other mitzvos he thinks. Is Schonfeld kidding? We see from Chazal and Rishonim-Achronim that Klal Yisroel used to be on a very high madreigah in shmiras kashrus (See the medrashim and Sefer Yalkut Hagershuni on Seder Shmos). This is why the Neviim had no need to give musser about kashrus. Kashrus used to be on individualized level. When it becomes commercialized there is room for abuse. The baal Haflaah, R' Pinchos Halevi Horowitz, was one of the gedolei hador hundreds of years ago when kosher restaurants starting emerging. He wrote that if someone wants to guard his neshomo, he should not eat outside of his house.
Schonfeld moves on to the Chazal on Yom Hadin Hagadol if you were koveya ittim Latorah and were osek with emunah. In another one of his "gothcha!" moments he seizes that kashrus is not one of the questions from the Beis Din shel Maalah. How ridiculous! First of all the din is on everything and the meforshim only ask why 3 specific questions come first. But ha gufah, the Queens Vaad & OU should look in the mirror about being osek with emunah.
Schonfeld comes back at the end to give another big round of shkoyech to the "magnificent" job being done by the Queens Vaad & OU. He claims that he & his chevrah are shining light on his dark critics. Nice try deflecting where the blame lurks. The last sentence quotes Rav Breuer zl that "glatt yosher" is an imperative which he veiter uses as a taynah against his critics. Ain hachi nami Rabbi Schonfeld. Kshot atzmecha techilah.
Another evidence(see above) that Jaime Aguiar is American, not Brazilian. So said her guest Governor Mike Huckabee.
I was a putz, even in
Yeshiva Ohr Yisroel run by Geltzahler in Forest Hills. I was a mousy kid that would fink on the other kids. I would brag that my father is an important rabbi.
Now look at me. I am half a somebody because I am in my 50's and my father is still important. I managed to screw a Chicago Soleveitchik by excluding his matzos before Passover. Timing is everything.
I will go right on reading the internet but I need to wage war on the exposes. So they are on the dark side. I got to admire them for respecting me enough to go after my dark secrets. I am smart enough not to use the internet or the phone for my misdeeds. Just old fashioned dirty tactics that anyone with half a brain can recognize. I will never be a capo di capo. But I am a made man.
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