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The Ferd Hypocrites at Agudah:
Purim Teireh from the Moetzes
By Tropper is Troubled (again)
Oh so true: Will the real "scandal" please stand up!
True up-to-date scenario: There has been a great scandal brewing for the last two years at least! A very suspicious Orthodox rabbi has been up to no good. Agudath Israel of America have been very wary of him, not quite sure how to deal with his charisma, independence, popularity and influence. He is changing the rules of the game in Orthodox Judaism by creating new standards. He heads a controversial yeshiva in the New York area. He is helping favored and favorite women by manipulating Halacha to meet his ends and needs. He was warned many times in the past to stop his suspicious activities but he has big financial backing and lots of chutzpa, so he just carried on as he saw fit. He was finally outed and revealed in public to help a woman in his congregation gain a milestone in her life by going against the norms of Orthodox Judaism. He granted her favors and gave her a job. She obliged by doing his bidding. She thinks he is a great rabbi and he thinks she can service his most important needs.
Who is this man? Hey, that’s easy, it’s Leib Tropper right? Nope! You mean it’s not that Tropper guy loved to bits by rabbis and women alike who wanted to create new vistas in Orthodox Judaism and then got caught literally with his pants down when he was recorded on audio and video having explicit hot ‘n heavy phone and hotel sex with a woman that worked for him in exchange for helping her get a coveted Orthodox conversion to join the Jewish people, it was him, right? Nope! Hey wait, isn’t it Tropper that the Agudath Israel of America rabbis is finally condemning as an outcast and danger to Orthodoxy, right? Nope! They’re finally seeing the red light of this Tropper red district rabbi who was condemned by half the world’s Orthodox rabbis already, was booted off his multi-million religious organizations and out of his communty, and we’re just waiting for the Agudath Israel of America rabbis to think deeper and come out with a unanimous public condemnation of the lowlife? Nope! So it has to be Leib Tropper that they are condemning because he’s brought only shame and disgrace and a vile global media watched chillul Hashem scandal upon the Orthodox world that has rocked the foundations of Orthodox conversions all over the world and faith in the wisdom of all the rabbis who supported him, and now, finally, the Agudath Israel of America are vomiting out and purging the sickening Tropper drek in their bowels to cleanse themselves and prove that they were men of justice, vision, morality and upholders of Torah values, right? Nope! Hey, so what’s going on???
Dream on silly!!!
Last week Agudath Israel of America released a statement from its vaunted “Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah” condemning, no not Tropper the menuval shebemenuvalim -- the vilest of the vile, but look at this, they’re attacking Modern Orthodox Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale because he had the audacity to “ordain” a woman in his congregation raising her from the self-designated neologisms of “Maharat” to “Rabbah” none of which is at all clear. Now Avi Weiss, together with his Modern Orthodox Young Turks colleagues Saul Berman (he’s been teaching women Talmud his entire life), Shlomo Riskin (who educates female “Toanot” in Israel) and Ephraim Buchwald (who cavorts with hundreds Reform and Conservative female rabbis and temples day in and day out as they co-sponsor his NJOP programs) who in various ways have launched a variety of plans to “save the Jews” from assimilation and oblivion by seeking out and implementing “equality” and “egalitarianism” of all sorts yet still sticking within Modern Orthodoxy wherever they can find it. No one says that these guys are tzadikim necessarily or that they represent the role models that Charedim in the Yeshivishe or Chasidisha world should follow.
Avi Weiss does his own thing at his Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT) and God bless him, he is a fine man trying to cope with some of the most serious challenges of modernity and the struggles that the Modern Orthodox face in THEIR world, of having to cope with life among Reform and Conservative Jews and that kind of competing left-wing religious ideology. Avi Weiss is competing not with the right wing Charedim but with left wingers to the left of him and he pushes the notion that women should be recognized as “leaders” in Modern Orthodox communities. Don’t go to a Modern Orthodox synagogue if you don’t agree with or like this. Just like you should not go to a Chabad shull if you feel that they are pushing “the Rebbe is Moshiach” line too much! Etc. To each his/her own. In America there is freedom of religion, so far!
After all, Stern College and all Modern Orthodox day schools teach Talmud, Meforshim, Halacha in depth to females. Rav J.B. Soloveitchik ZT”L endorsed this when he gave one of the first Talmud classes to girls at Stern College . He and his wife guided the flagship Maimonides Day School in Boston based on such Modern Orthodox enlightened educational notions and policies for girls as well. If you’re Satmar or from Lakewood , don’t apply. In case you didn’t know, the Modern Orthodox in America also have mixed dancing at their social events, they have low mechitzas, they don’t drink chalav yisrael only and are not makpid on yoshen, they have co-ed Jewish day schools all the way through high school, they all attend colleges when they graduate they become professionals like doctors, accountants, lawyers, IT professionals, investment bankers, etc, and most are Religious Zionists and if not they are very pro-Israel. They dress very modern, go to the movies, have TVs, computers, Internet and the whole nine yards of technology in their homes, most of the married women don’t cover their hair, girls wear pants, boys have longish hair, they wear knitted kippot, and they support both liberalism and Liberalism. What makes them Orthodox is that they keep Shabbat and Chagim including Yom Ha’atzmaut, kashrut, all the mitzvot as their rabbis teach it and study the Torah, Talmud and Shulchan Aruch etc. They have an ideology they call “Torah Umada” that is their cup of tea. They have their institutions like YU, YCT, in America Har Etzion, Kerem BeYavne, and Bar Ilan in Israel and many others. They ordain their own rabbis and have a vast communal and social network that does not need or rely on its Charedi counterparts for anything.
So why would ANY Agudah rabbi DREAM that ANYTHING he would say, even if he broadcast it on national radio 24/7 would make ANY difference to the world of Modern Orthodoxy of which Avi Weiss is a leading light at this time?
And even let’s assume that from the Agudah’s point of view that Avi Weiss is 101% wrong in deluding himself that he can “ordain” women to be called anything he will make up, but what CREDIBILITY do any Agudath Israel of America rabbis have when they have utterly and totally failed to put THEIR OWN HOUSE in order first and take care of their own internal problems and rot, starting with the most recent catastrophe in their midst the appalling Leib Tropper sex scandal that they have chosen to IGNORE in the good ol’ “tradition” of the proverbial ostrich head in the sand “sha shveig” – “see no evil, talk no evil, hear no evil” – even when that evil is eating up all their credibility capital and causing the plague of crap to fall all over their house of ill repute from the horrendous sex scandals released by the Tropper chillul Hashem radiation bomb!
Here is the full text of Agudah’s “condemnation” of, no NOT Tropper, but of Avi Weiss, by its full ruling council. Printed once in the HAMODIA (Community. Pg. C8 March 3, 2010) and YATED NE’EMAN (March 5, 2010. Pgs. 53, 58). Judge for yourself the absurdity of what’s going on and how it’s so easy for them to attack Avi Weiss and not utter a squeak to condemn Tropper the menuval shebemenuvalim:
“Statement of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America / Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah Rules on Rabbi Avi Weiss
The following statement was released this past week by the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudas Yisroel of America :
10 Adar 5770
Rabbi Avi Weiss has conferred “semikha” upon a woman, has made her an Assistant Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale where she carries out certain traditional rabbinical functions, and has now given her the title of “Rabbah” (formerly “Maharat”). He has stated that the change in title is designed to “make it clear that Sara Hurwitz is a full member of our rabbinic staff, a rabbi with the additional quality of a distinct woman’s voice.” These developments represent a radical and dangerous departure from Jewish tradition and mesoras Hatorah, and must be condemned in the strongest terms. Any congregation with a woman in a rabbinical position of any sort cannot be considered Orthodox.
[Signed:] Rabbis Ehrenfeld (chasidishe wimp, window dressing on this Judenrat), Feigelstock (stroke disabled, hence Schechter’s favorite), D. Feinstein (covers from bro Reuv), Feldman (Shechter’s lackey), Raful (Schechter’s puppet), Kamenetsky (currently broke), Kotler (bigamist; 1st wife won’t let him go, so he weds a 2nd one, with Schechter’s help), Levin (is this the best the Mid-West can do?), Perlow (Shechter’s shadow and yes man) (and last but not least) Aaron Schechter (chief orchestrator and manipulator of this massive distraction and many others like it to cover for his own and Tropper’s rotten tuches! Phe!)
So this is the biggest scandal of them all:
What a hypocritical and stupid bunch of pusillanimous so-called “leaders” the so-called "Agudists" are (they only bring shame upon the name of their illustrious forbearers) who don’t have the simple guts to deal with the rotten Tropper monster under their noses that they DO have control over and condemn and cast him out like the piece of hellish drek that he is, and instead they (meaning the sly foxy Schechter, distracting everyone from the real Tropper rot) pick on a distant target way off in the Modern Orthodox world that neither cares nor does what the phonies baloney big mouths at Agudah spout as hot air and blowing into the wind.
Shame on you Agudath Israel of America for being such public hypocrites. You do not deserve to be the “leaders” of Klal Yisroel! Resign! Let us hope and pray that Moshiach comes soon and dumps all of you into the garbage cans of history, the sooner the better!
This piece is way out of line.
ReplyDeleteWhile we can all agree to sock it to the Agudah, Avi Weiss is not within the confines of orthodoxy.
Mixed dancing mind you has not been acceptable in modern orthodox circles for decades now after their rabbis finally drew a line.
YCT is not orthodox. It is malei kefira and many if not most of them are kofrim. They have been completely blacklisted by the OU, RCA, YU & Young Israel for this reason.
Now get your facts straight. Rav Ehrenfeld is not chassidish as Mattersdorf are Chasam Soferniks. And it's unfair to bash R' Malkiel as a "bigamist". Grow up.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704479404575088134107485098.html
ReplyDeleteWas Rabbi Strulowitz the guy who replaced Tropper crony Yaakov Barros? He was even in TORCH Houston with Wender's associates.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bagel_lovers_tell_rabbis_don_pick_WMeEJTNKVCrC9XH2Jz0uHI
ReplyDeleteHow's this for a "UOJ putz in the street interview"?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954904575109671604585094.html?mod=WSJ_hp_editorsPicks
ReplyDeleteWhen Anger Is An Illness
'Intermittent Explosive Disorder,' Or Just a Temper Tantrum?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/nyregion/10police.html
ReplyDeleteThe acting superintendent of the New York State Police announced his retirement Tuesday, becoming the second senior agency official to leave office since it was revealed that the agency had intervened in a domestic abuse case involving a top aide to Gov. David A. Paterson.
Pedro J. Perez, who had assumed the top position after Superintendent Harry S. Corbitt retired last week, had authorized the commander of Mr. Paterson’s security detail to contact the woman who had accused the governor’s aide of assaulting her
WASHINGTON — Lifelock, the company that brazenly broadcast its chief executive’s Social Security number as part of its claim that it could protect anyone against identity theft, agreed on Tuesday to pay $12 million to settle charges that it misled consumers about the effectiveness of its service.
ReplyDeleteThe settlement, announced by the Federal Trade Commission and a group of 35 state attorneys general, requires Lifelock to refrain from making further deceptive claims and take more stringent measures to safeguard the personal information that it collects from customers.
Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the trade commission, said that “several hundred persons, at least,” who were Lifelock customers had become victims of identity fraud while using the company’s services. Customers typically paid $10 a month for the services, he said.
The commission also claimed that the “fraud alerts” Lifelock placed on individuals’ credit files protected only against certain types of identity theft, mainly the opening of new accounts, which is the cause of fewer than 1 in 5 cases of identity theft.
Lifelock’s customers were left vulnerable to having their current accounts misused, the most common form of the crime. About eight million Americans have their identity used illegally each year, the officials said.
“This was a fairly egregious case of deceptive advertising from our perspective,” Mr. Leibowitz said.
In an interview, Todd Davis, the Lifelock chief executive, said that the company had adopted a new advertising campaign that complied with the trade commission’s request.
Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general, who joined Mr. Leibowitz in announcing the action at a news conference in Chicago, said that while Lifelock did provide some legitimate services, “most of what they did, you can do on your own and you can do it free.”
The biggest problem with the company’s claims, she said, was its guarantee to prevent identity theft from ever happening. “There is nothing you can do or you can purchase that is a 100 percent guarantee against identity theft,” Ms. Madigan said.
Mr. Davis knows the truth of that. After he began broadcasting his Social Security number, dozens of attempts were made to secure credit or identification using the information. At least one attempt succeeded, when a man in Texas secured a $500 payday loan using Mr. Davis’s Social Security number
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/business/10toyota.html?hp
ReplyDeleteJust as Toyota was trying to reassure customers about the effectiveness of its recalls, two new reports of unintended acceleration emerged this week.
Two drivers of Toyota Priuses reported that their cars had sped out of control, one of them ending in a crash.
Toyota already has said it was recalling the popular hybrid car for the 2004 to 2009 model years, but only to fix a problem in which the carmaker says a floor mat could trap the accelerator pedal. In a separate recall, Toyota is modifying accelerator pedals it says could stick in 4.5 million vehicles.
But a man whose 2008 Prius raced along 30 miles of Interstate in California at up to 94 miles an hour before the police helped him stop it has insisted that the floor mat was not interfering.
Also, the police who responded to a crash Tuesday morning of a 2005 Prius into a stone wall in Harrison, N.Y., said the floor mat had been tied to the seat frame, presumably by a dealer.
“We can rule out the mats,” Harrison’s acting police chief, Anthony Marraccini, said. “She probably traveled, accelerating, for over 100 feet, maybe even more than that. The collision hurled a couple of large boulders at least 10 feet away from the scene.”
The driver in the New York crash, a 56-year-old woman whose name was not released, was hospitalized with injuries that the police said were not life-threatening.
The California man, James Sikes, was not injured.
Mr. Sikes, 61, a real estate agent, called 911 Monday after he was unable to slow his Prius while driving east of San Diego. He eventually stopped the car by applying the emergency brake and brake pedal simultaneously, then turning off the engine, after a state trooper pulled alongside the Prius and gave instructions by loudspeaker.
A spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that the agency would investigate both incidents.
Toyota is still developing a remedy for the Prius and several other models. It says drivers whose vehicles have not been repaired should remove the driver’s mat.
“We know pretty much what we’re going to do with the Prius, but we haven’t finalized every last detail of it,” a Toyota spokesman, John Hanson, said.
Mr. Hanson said the company was investigating reports of problems it receives and that not every crash should be assumed to be caused by sudden acceleration.
“We are at a point here where anytime a Toyota is involved in an accident, the specter of unintended acceleration comes up,” he said.
/////
Torah Umesorah is still developing a remedy for molestation after scratching their tuchesses for 40 years. It says parents who are concerned should not read blogs.
“We know pretty much what we’re going to do, but we haven’t finalized every last detail of it,” a TU spokesman, Shea Fishman, said.
Fishman said the organization was investigating reports of problems it receives and that not every outburst by UOJ and Pasik should be assumed to be caused by sudden perverted acts.
“We are at a point here where anytime a yeshiva is involved in an incident, the specter of molestation comes up,” he said.
http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/1149738/jewish/Another-Tefillin-Scare.htm
ReplyDeleteAnother Tefillin Scare Arouses Suspicions of Border Officials
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteYou are in fine form. The rant seems to have flowed off your pen in righteous indignation. This is up there with some of your finest posts. Yasher koach!
Now for the quibbles because we are Jews after all.
1. Mattesdorf is non-chassidic Oberlander. However, most of these chevrahman are going chassidish so quickly it can make your streimel spin.
2. Modern Orthodox Jews have stopped having mixed dancing events several decades ago. All that is left of that phenomenon are the jokes.
3. You write that the modern orthodox "have a vast communal and social network that does not need or rely on its Charedi counterparts for anything." I would add that they are major contributors to ultra orthodox institutions. There is a reason that every Rebbe and other schnorrer from Israel includes the Five Towns on their itinerary. That was the subject of one of my favorite posts "Controlling the Impulse to Throw Stones and Kugel" (http://wp.me/pFbfD-3a)
4. You left out Shechter, bacci's other distinction which you have documented in other posts; he is in contempt of beit din according to a ruling of R. Moshe Feinstein which still stands.
All of the above are quibbles. Your article is right. Agudah is a gang of pedophile protectors, fraudulent finaglers, histrionic halachic hypocrites, and vilde chayes without any horse sense.
A Monsey insider writes:
ReplyDeletetropper has told all of the mispallelim and donors to the yeshiva that he is still in charge, and will be reclaiming his seat as the rosh yeshiva very soon.
he told rabbi dovid stefansky that he will take the yeshiva down with him if he cannot regain his position, and is telling 'his' bucherim to leave the yeshiva and go to chaim berlin until he is reinstated.
he refuses to live up to any of the things in the documents that he's signed, including moving out of monsey, because he says that the fact that it was leaked on the internet makes them null and void.
he has seized moneys in various bank accounts for his own personal use, even though the money belonged to a non profit org., and the yeshiva now has literally nothing.
he is still having the bucherim come to his house for shabbos, and other times, although i dont know precisely what he's doing with them...there was testimony in the beis din that he had forced a former student of the yeshiva into sex on at least one occasion.
this is all being done with the help of rabbi schlesinger of monsey, who seems to be unquestioningly on troppers side.
Monsey Jew: well, it just so happens that I live in Monsey, and I know that many of these things are true. for example, rabbi honig and felix adler both were told this.
ReplyDeletei also know that a few bucherim have recently left the yeshiva to go to chaim berlin, which hasn't happened for many years.
i know that he blames the rabbunim on rabbi ribyat's beis din for the leaking of the documents on the internet, and did say he doesn't have to follow such people.
i know that r' moshe raice, who's a trustee and manahal is now suing tropper in court for the money.
Rockland Civil Supreme
ReplyDeleteIndex Number: 002357/2010
Case Name: KOL YAAKOV TORAH CENTER,INC. vs. TROPPER, LEIB
Case Type: Other ("Not One Of The Above")
Track: Expedited
RJI Filed: 03/05/2010
Justice Name: WILLIAM A. KELLY
Attorney/Firm For Plaintiff:
MARVIN L. SCHWARTZ Attorney
Type: Attorney Of Record Atty.
Status: Active
9 BALANCHINE COURT
MONSEY,NY 10952
845 425-1832
Relief Sought:
Temporary Restraining Order
Malkiel Kotler's first (and current) wife is, according to my understanding, an Agunah in Israel until this day because of the behaima AKA momma's by Malkial Kotler. She is the daughter of the tzadik and lamdun HaRav HaGoan Michel Feinestein zt"l. How Rav Dovid Feintein can sit on the Moetzes with the person who keeps his cousin an agunah is beyond me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-high-cost-of-jewish-living-15372?page=2
ReplyDeleteThe most dramatic and far-reaching decline has beset the North American network of federations of Jewish philanthropy, the umbrella bodies for local Jewish agencies in more than 150 North American communities. In 1973, at the time of the Yom Kippur War, federations claimed they had collectively received 1 million individual gifts. In 2007, the system collected gifts from under half a million donors. According to one report not even 300,000 contributions were received in 2009, and the overall charitable take declined by a staggering $100 million compared with the previous year. National membership organizations like Hadassah and B’nai B’rith have also seen significant declines in their donor bases. It has also not helped matters that so many of the remaining donors are well into their 70s and 80s and have not been replaced in equal numbers by baby boomers or even younger contributors
The fiscal consequences of these trends in institutional life are now apparent. Insufficient resources are available to meet the basic needs of the American Jewish community. In communities around the country, agency funding for all kinds of services has been slashed, leaving their clients wanting. Though the grim consequences are barely covered by the domestic Jewish press, the Jewish Chronicle, the official organ of British Jewry, had no difficulty capturing on film Hasidic Jews in New York City scavenging dumpsters for food and clothing or detailing the impact of cutbacks on kosher soup kitchens and food banks.
The impact is being felt by Jews abroad too. The two largest international Jewish aid organizations funded heavily with money channeled to them by federations of Jewish philanthropy have been forced to make deep cuts to their programs. One is the Jewish Agency for Israel, which offers support to needy Jews in Israel and educational programs to Jews in different parts of the world. The second is the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), whose mandate is to provide social services to impoverished Jews around the globe. American Jewish federations cut their allocation to the former by nearly a quarter between 2007 and 2009, and by nearly 15 percent to the latter. Due to these cuts, the JDC was forced to eliminate in the former Soviet Union 290 local social-service organizations whose clients were often survivors of the Holocaust and/or Soviet repression. Only half the number of children could be accommodated in Jewish-agency camps last summer as compared with two years earlier, and spaces for children in day schools have also declined. As the resources of the American Jewish community contract, aid to Jews in faraway lands is also diminished, with predictable consequences for the impoverished and tenuously connected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/asia/10pstan.html?hpw
ReplyDeleteA tour of the United States arranged by the State Department to improve ties to Pakistani legislators ended in a public relations fiasco when the members of the group refused to submit to extra airport screening in Washington, and they are now being hailed as heroes on their return home.
The American Embassy in Islamabad has been endowed with an extra $37 million by Congress to spend on exchange programs intended to show skeptical Pakistanis that the United States is a real ally, a country that wants to help, not hinder, Pakistan.
About 2,000 Pakistanis are expected to participate in the strengthened educational and cultural programs this year, he said. Indeed, a prime motivation of the protest against the screening procedures by the tribal area politicians appeared to be an effort to appeal to their home constituencies, many of whom regard the United States as an enemy.
The State Department paid each of the participants $200 a day for accommodations and food during their stay in the United States.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-high-cost-of-jewish-living-15372
ReplyDeleteBy far the greatest costs for many families are incurred from Jewish education. A considerable minority of families now enrolls its children in the three most expensive forms of Jewish education: day schools meeting five or even six days a week, usually for seven to 10 hours a day; residential summer camps, which run sessions lasting from three to seven or eight weeks; and extended programs in Israel for a summer, semester, or year. Schools with well-appointed facilities and an enriched educational program matched by a panoply of extracurricular activities can cost about as much as prep school—more than $30,000 a year per student. Schools housed in bare facilities with only a limited number of classes devoted to general studies—which cater primarily to the most insular Orthodox—may charge only a few thousand dollars a year. But most day schools charge somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 a year for each child. Residential summer camps can cost between $650 to more than $800 a week. And trips to Israel range from $7,000 to $9,000 for a summer, to $18,000 for 10 months at a religious school, and even more for programs in which students can earn college credit.
Adding things up, an actively engaged Jewish family that keeps kosher and sends its three school-age children to the most intensive Jewish educational institutions can expect to spend somewhere between $50,000 and $110,000 a year at minimum just to live a Jewish life.
Even within Orthodox communities, some parents feel compelled to pull their children out of day schools. Anecdotal reports suggest that some families interested in placing their children in Jewish educational settings decide not to proceed for fear of embarrassing encounters with scholarship committees. In a reversal of earlier patterns, when Jewish religious involvement was weighted toward the poor, increasingly in our own time only the well-to-do can afford to live fully as Jews, while many in the middle class are in danger of getting priced out.
Most federations of Jewish philanthropy have neither the resources nor the will to make affordability a priority, and other types of organizations don’t even pretend to pay attention. It is not as if they have not been warned about the severity of the problem: for the past 25 years, studies have periodically catalogued rising prices. Nearly two decades ago, in an address to the General Assembly of the federations, Jacob Ukeles urged vigilance:
Living Jewishly shouldn’t force people into poverty. If a . . . family is forced by the value it places on living full Jewish lives to use all its discretionary income and then some to buy Jewish education, synagogues, center membership, kosher food, etc., it is left with the effective income of a poor family to meet all its other basic needs.
The message fell on deaf ears. And there is little evidence that the problem is drawing more attention today.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-high-cost-of-jewish-living-15372
ReplyDeleteAccording to estimates of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, 350,000 of the 1.4 million Jews in the New York area live at or below subsistence levels; in Chicago, Jewish leaders believe that 20 percent of the local population is living close to the federal poverty line. Among the poorest are the elderly, Holocaust survivors, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and the most self-isolating pockets of Orthodox Jews, as well as individuals who earn a minimum wage or less because they are in some way disabled.
Over the past year, synagogues and agencies sponsored by federations of Jewish philanthropy have experienced a surge in demand for job fairs and family counseling. Not surprisingly, under such circumstances, Jewish communal life has also been hit. Membership organizations have been forced to accommodate long-time constituents with dues relief, and significant numbers of families have opted out of membership entirely.
The high cost of Jewish living is evident even from so mundane an item as the grocery bill. Families observing the dietary laws must expect to pay a premium for kosher food. Poultry slaughtered according to Jewish ritual law costs 50 to 100 percent more than its nonkosher equivalent, and when it comes to beef, prices rise by many multiples. Monitoring the spending of an observant family in Houston, a recent CNN report noted the high kosher price differential. Among the anecdotes: a brisket purchased at a kosher store was over seven times more expensive than the same cut of beef at the nearest nonkosher supermarket. Even canned and bottled items sold at many supermarkets can cost several-fold more if they bear a kosher certification on their label. Prices routinely surge around the Jewish holidays, with no time more costly than Passover, an eight-day holiday that can set observant Jews back by many hundreds if not thousands of dollars owing to the numerous dietary practices.
Then there are membership fees. Synagogue dues can range from a few hundred dollars to well over $3,000 for the purposes of supporting a staff of professionals and maintaining physical facilities. (Some synagogues set the “suggested dues” for families earning more than $250,000 at $6,000 a year.) In addition, they impose a range of payments to help defray expenses for special programs, school tuition, and building funds. When all was said and done, the Jewish family in Houston featured on CNN expended $3,600 a year at its synagogue, which happens to be Orthodox—the Jewish subgrouping that tends to charge the lowest congregational dues. To this we might add a hidden cost: more traditionally observant Jews must live in easy walking distance of a synagogue because they will not drive on the Sabbath and holidays, precisely the days they are most likely to attend religious services. In a Jewish variation of the first law of real estate—location, location, location—the values of homes near synagogues tend to be more expensive.
Jews often join a local Jewish Community Center where they can partake of cultural and educational programs, arts activities, recreational facilities, and create for themselves and their children a social bond with other Jews. Membership fees covering all these activities can run between $1,000 and $2,500 for a family.
Was it one of the molesters in Baltimore that liked to tickle people?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/nyregion/10massa.html
Former Representative Eric J. Massa of New York, who resigned from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct, vehemently denied any wrongdoing during a television appearance on Tuesday, even as he described having tickle fights with staff members in a house they shared.
AL JAZEERA STRIKES AGAIN! THE HYPOCRITES OF MATZAV, FRESH OFF THEIR LAMBASTING OF A DEAD RABBI BASED ON FALSEHOODS, ARE NOW BLASTING VIN FOR REPORTING THE TRUTH. THE ARTICLE THEY ARE REFERRING TO IS ABOUT A PERSIAN RABBI WHO BROKE UP A PARTY WHERE THERE WAS MIXED DANCING:
ReplyDeleteThe staff at Matzav.com hereby protests the bizayon haTorah propagated by the Vos Iz Neias website, which has once again demonstrated a complete lack of kavod for rabbonim. The aforementioned website last night shamefully posted a Jewish Week article that demeans and mocks a respected rov of Monsey, NY, and Great Neck, NY. We stand up for the honor of this choshuveh rov, and while we can expect no more from a left-leaning newspaper such as The Jewish Week, we would expect a so-called Orthodox website to refrain from posting a biased story that is mevazeh a talmid chochom and yorei Shomayim who stood up for kedushas Yisroel.
We ask all of you: How much longer will the frum community tolerate the continued assault by this website on our rabbonim, our bnei Torah, our mesorah, our poskim, and the ideals we hold dear?
Later this morning, Matzav.com will feature a report on the incident reported by The Jewish Week and the smear campaign against this rov by anti-chareidi elements. We will not stand by silently.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2010/03/10/demonstrators-square-off-at-the-waldorf-astoria/
ReplyDeleteDr. Marvin Belsky, the chairman of the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam
Thank you Troper is Troubled for the insightful piece, whatever rabbi Weiss is doing he is trying in his own way ti advance Judaism.
ReplyDeleteExchanging sex for conversion and having the conversion candidate having sex with you and your wife does not not advance Judaism.
The clowns of the Moezes judt do not get it, they are just political operator trying to gain points over the MO
Was Rabbi Strulowitz the guy who replaced Tropper crony Yaakov Barros? He was even in TORCH Houston with Wender's associates.
ReplyDeleteNot only that but as late as as last August Tropper sent his talmidim there for "oureach campaigns" or to get Tropper female conversion candidates to Tropper and hios wife can have sex with them.
Five Kol Yaakov bochurim travelled to San Francisco’s Adath Yisrael shul for eight days this August, as part of our annual summer outreach program. The five - Ovadia Visotski, Elazar Ben-loulou, Adam Brudzewsky, Reuven Levine, and Binyomin Greenberg, gave classes and learned one-on-one with shul members and local high school students.
The students came primarily from secular Russian homes, but attended the San Francisco Hebrew Academy, the local day school. They seemed inspired to see us - young men their age immersed in Torah study. We hope this inspiration will translate into real commitment in the future, whether at Kol Yaakov or at other Torah institutions.
http://www.kolyaakovtorahcenter.org/hakol/fall2009.htm
Maybe the Tzail Hagrass guy should stick to YU issues instead of sticking his nose into yeshivish affairs that he knows nothing about.
ReplyDeleteR' Malkiel's first wife refused to leave Israel when he became rosh yeshiva. She was taking the Brisker chumra too far when it was clearly mutter for them to move to Lakewood.
The woman was also not able to bear a child for over 10 years, yet she refused to accept a get.
R' Malkiel was willing to stay with her if she would only bend on moving to Lakewood.
LL Cool Jew is mistaken. Avi Weiss is also a huge threat to Judaism - not one who advances it.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100310/NEWS/3100335/-1/NEWS
ReplyDeleteKIRYAS JOEL — It took a few days, but the vandals finally got back at Isaac Srugo for marrying off his daughter last week in a ceremony that the Hasidic community's main congregation had not sanctioned.
Srugo woke Monday morning to find the latest handiwork of the self-appointed marriage police: a gallon of white paint poured down the windshield of his SUV.
Ever since dissident community members opened their first wedding hall just outside the village in January, young supporters of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum — the leader of Kiryas Joel's main congregation — have waged an occasional campaign of harassment and vandalism against dissident leaders and relatives of the three couples who have wed so far.
They cruised in trucks with mounted loudspeakers, made harassing phone calls and flipped over the car of a bride's brother, state police reported early in the conflict. Two 15-year-olds were charged with smashing a rabbi's window.
Later, vandals spray-painted denunciations of another rabbi inside a senior-citizen building on Forest Road where religious services are held. And after they failed to derail the second dissident wedding on Feb. 17, they poured sugar in the gas tank of the groom's brother's car.
The third wedding — officiated by Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, the brother and rival of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum — was certain to agitate opponents even more. Srugo said they flooded his phone with harassing phone calls and even harangued his 80-year-old father in Brooklyn.
As he waited Tuesday for the paint to be cleaned off his car and to hear the cost, Srugo said he had no regrets about the venue he chose for his fifth child's wedding.
"We're not going to do it in the other place," said Srugo, a father of 15 who has 10 more weddings to go.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletehttp://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/former-hevesi-aide-pleads-guilty-in-corruption-case/?hp
ReplyDeleteALBANY — David J. Loglisci, the former chief investment officer of the state pension fund, pleaded guilty to a felony violation of state securities law in state court Wednesday morning and is cooperating with Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s investigation into pension corruption, Mr. Cuomo’s office said.
The development was one of the most significant in the nearly three-year-old investigation. While it is the sixth guilty plea in the case, it is the first involving an official in the comptroller’s office.
Mr. Loglisci (pronounced luh-GLEE-see) has been a central figure in the investigation and his plea is probably bad news for his onetime boss, Alan G. Hevesi, the former comptroller whose tenure is the focus of the investigation. It is certainly bad news for Hank Morris, Mr. Hevesi’s former top political adviser, who has been accused of reaping millions of dollars in fees by steering pension business to firms that hired him.
According to a press release issued by Mr. Cuomo’s office, Mr. Loglisci “acknowledged abdicating his authority to Henry (Hank) Morris, the top political adviser to former New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, in order to help steer hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of investment deals to Morris and to politically favored firms.”
Mr. Hevesi, through his lawyer, has denied wrongdoing.
Who's this putz who over the years keeps taking the story about the Florida pedophile and replacing his name with Kestenbaum?
ReplyDeleteKestenbaum is a crook but don't make up stories.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/education/10baby.html
ReplyDeleteFor a few days last fall, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood celebrated a big victory: the tiny advocacy group had successfully pushed the Walt Disney Company to offer full refunds to everyone who had bought the company’s popular Baby Einstein videos from June 2004 to September 2009.
But it did not take long for trouble to follow. The group has been evicted from the Harvard-affiliated children’s mental-health center in Boston that had housed and sponsored it for more than a decade.
Campaign officials say they were forced out after Disney made contact with health center officials. Neither Disney nor officials of the center, the Judge Baker Children’s Center, would comment about the eviction.
Just days after the Disney refunds were described on the front page of The New York Times on Oct. 23, campaign officials said they were contacted by Judge Baker officials expressing unhappiness with the group’s activities.
“The Judge Baker staff informed us they didn’t want us to talk to the press, or to say anything about Baby Einstein,” Dr. Poussaint said. “They suggested to me that Disney was threatening to sue Judge Baker.”
After the campaign filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint, Disney dropped the word “educational” from its marketing. But that was not enough for campaign officials. They forwarded their research to lawyers who threatened a class-action suit, prompting Disney to offer refunds of $15.99 for up to four Baby Einstein DVDs per household.
Barely two weeks after the story of the refunds appeared, Dr. Poussaint said, he and Dr. Linn were called before the Baker center’s executive board.
http://www.filmthreat.com/reviews/20594/
ReplyDeleteMelville J. Herskovits (1895-1963), whose research into African culture and its connections to African-American society created the foundation for academia’s approach to black studies.
In 1948, Herskovits founded the African studies program at Northwestern University, the first of its kind. His books, most notably the 1941 “The Myth of the Negro Past,” challenged the then-popular racist notions of non-existent or painfully primitive cultural development among people of color. Herskovits’ work opened the debate on questions relating to racial identity – the Black Panthers would later cite his work as a foundation of their movement
Herskovits was once an aspiring rabbi, but he abandoned Judaism after World War I
Herskovits’ political affiliations, came back to haunt him in the early 1960s when he was denied security clearance for a Kennedy Administration post due to participation in red-tinged organizations.
The New York billionaire in that sordid affair with the teenage Florida girl is Jeffrey Epstein. This troll who has posted here and on Shmarya's blog about Kestenbaum needs to be stopped. He tried to link Kestenbaum last July to the FBI corruption sting by adding his name to the list of 44. I suggest deleting his posts.
ReplyDeleteIt was unfair for Matzav to attack VIN for merely linking to the biased piece in Jewish Week but Matzav posted a good critique of Jewish Week at 11 am this morning.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Rav Aderet did nothing different than Rav Herman would have done. The Iranians are also very superstitious and mekabel from rabbonim so barging in to yell at avaryanim will have an effect there as opposed to other places.
Gary Rosenblatt puts on a straight face while trying to portray the two losers in opposition to Rav Aderet when Young Israel and even the far left wing Great Neck Synagogue will not criticize what he did.
One loser is a YCT honcho who is with some small fringe shul. The other is Rabbi Ben Chaim who is really from Queens and has no business sticking his nose into the affair. His only shaychus to Great Neck is that he certifies restaurants that have been thrown out by multiple hashgochos and have no where else to turn.
The rabbi from the Mashadi shul who kind of half criticized Rav Aderet should clean up his own house first. The Mashadi community has a child rapist named Nick Nabavian davening by them. What have they done about that?
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/lloyd-harbor-horse-breeder-convicted-in-abuse-case-1.1803698
ReplyDeleteCATSKILL - Prominent Lloyd Harbor thoroughbred breeder and owner Ernie Paragallo was convicted Wednesday of mistreating dozens of malnourished horses on his Hudson Valley farm.
A judge convicted Paragallo on 33 of 34 misdemeanor animal-cruelty counts in a nonjury trial in Greene County.
Paragallo, 52, was charged after State Police and animal welfare investigators raided his farm
http://www.corestandards.org/Files/K12ELAStandards.pdf
ReplyDeleteJust to show you how dangerous Obama is becoming with his control freak attitude, he wants to impose that every elementary school student in the country be required to read specific books (list starts on page 28 of this PDF file). Schools will no longer be able to pick their own books that fit basic criteria.
Hamayvin yovin that books with improper material will be required reading for yeshiva kids if the megalomaniac gets his way.
r Strulowitz didn't replace Barros in SanFran. Strulowitz is a YU guy, a straight arrow...Barros presence and Strulowitz's position of the pulpit have nothing to do with one another
ReplyDeleteuoj takes Agudah to seriously. Most people do not take them seriously and realize its a few people blowing hot air.
ReplyDeleteThis post was childish and off base. Whether you like Agudah or not, they have every right to pronounce on anything related to the Orthodox world. While their silence on certain issues is deafening, and worthy of criticism, it does not make everything they do evil. And Avi Weiss is a legitimate target of anyone to the right of him. He is an agitator with little credibility.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that writing in this manner and supporting Weiss, even if only as opposition to anything that whiffs of Agudah, helps to reduce UOJ's credibility too. That would be a shame. This was not a worthy submission.
Obama is a man after my own heart. He personally takes charge of every little nekeedah.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how violently Agudas Yisroel reacted to Rabbi Avi Weiss giving the title of "rabba" (I'm not saying I agree with the practice - but he is a hero who rescued about 5 million Russian Jews) while they say NOTHING about Tropper's heinous behavior (one of their own) or the other rabbis within their midst who destroy the souls of children and women - and do nothing about this terrible problem in our community.
ReplyDeleteWhy does rabbi Strulowitz in Frisco let Tropper send talmidim to his synagogue to do Tropper’s "outreach work" ? Does he send conversion candidates to Tropper like the Chabbad rabbi over there ?
ReplyDeletedon't forget the agudah/moetzes pulled out all the stops for martin grossman, a cold-blooded killer (but he put on tefillin!!). that was only a week or two before the avi weiss issue.
ReplyDeleteobviously, the agudah has no problem making their voice heard and mobilizing their constituency when it comes to murderers and rabbis/shuls who are the farthest thing from them/their world. when it comes to trading conversions for sex, rebbes molesting little boys, ponzi schemes, money laundering, etc., etc., they don't make a peep.
when it comes to trading conversions for sex, rebbes molesting little boys, ponzi schemes, money laundering, etc., etc., they don't make a peep.
ReplyDeleteOr teenage boys literally drinking themselves to death on Purim. I posted a comment about the death of Michael Shemano last week. I still haven't heard or read any response from the roshei yeshivos or the leadership. Only Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky came out publicly against underage drinking on Purim. Shouldn't the death of a 15 year old bachur be a wake up call? I guess it's not as important as lady rabbis and murderers on death row.
Steve:
ReplyDeleteSam Kaminetzky suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder; do not take this guy seriously - especially anything he says before a camera or microphone.
UOJ,
ReplyDeleteI must give credit where credit is due. For me to say that NONE of the rabbis warned about underage drinking would be a lie. R' Kaminetzky and Rav Ovadya Yosef did speak out publicly and for that I commend them. Unfortunately, their words seemed to fall on deaf ears since none of the other rabbinical leaders gave them any backing. Had their been a forceful effort such as with the Grossman full court press, that 15 year old boy would still be alive now.
http://askville.amazon.com/Nick-Nabavian-arrested/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=57941014
ReplyDeleteSheesh! Even UOJ knows about me?
Why is the grubba ganav at Wasserman's supermarket who charges tax for decades on non-taxable items still selling Itzkowitz products for Pesach?
ReplyDeleteCan you believe this guy? He still has stock from 15 or 20 years ago when the manufacturer went out of business. The items are so old that the packaging is falling apart but the mechutzef is still putting it on the shelves to sell people.
I hope no one gets food poisoning.
Didn't Itzkowitz close because the putz went to jail for fraud or something?
ReplyDeleteNabavian is still on trial for 4 felonies for the attempted rape and kidnapping and one misdemeanor for not letting the girl call 911. He is very cheap and foolish to not hire a lawyer. He thinks he can represent himself.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Ben Chaim used to be in Queens but he moved to Great Neck recently. He will probably not do anything to Rav Aderet. I don't know if there is proof that Rabbi Ben Chaim's restaurants were thrown out from other hashgachot but I agree they are at least troublemakers who are always switching.
How do you like Shmarya today bashing YCT's Uri Letzedek because after everything they do, they don't make sure that Mexican restaurant busboys have free health insurance paid for by the employer too?
ReplyDeleteNext the idiot will demand that J II Pizza give him free health insurance even though he doesn't work for anyone.
Does anyone know the real reason Aron Schechter loves Tropper? I don't buy the theory from TropperisTroubled.
ReplyDeleteThe Itzkowitz brand name was bought a few years ago by HADDAR.
ReplyDeleteAfter the suspiciously timed last minute ambush last year by RYS on Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, Streit's was forced to take on a "national" hashgocho for 2010. But it seems this was not comprehensive. Some Streit's items this year are under CRC Chicago which is only a regional hashgocho and a considerable number of Streit's items are still only under Rabbi Soloveitchik as a stand alone certifier. Presumably this is because these items do not meet the kashrus standards of Chof K & CRC.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Queens Vaad vendors are selling all the Streits items including the ones declared last year to be no good.
What happened? Was RYS just tzefreeden to beat up on Rabbi Soloveitchik as a show of force and now there is no follow up to make sure the heiliger Queens Vaad shitah is being adhered to? Or is it a printing mistake that there is no Chof K on the labels?
It's true that the Itzkowitz name was bought but I heard it coincided with the old owner going to jail and not be able to run the company anymore from Otisville or wherever he was at.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was a heck of a lot longer than a few years ago.
I'm surprised that Haddar (incorporated as Erba Food) has been sued by 13 of their food suppliers, banks, etc for refusing to pay huge bills.
ReplyDeletehttp://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/FCAS_docs/2001JUN/2300419751998100SCIV.PDF
Here is one example where the NYC Marshall came down to seize their assets after they even ignored court rulings.
I thought they were nice people. Is anyone ehrenst in this business?
When you type Alle Processing (Meal Mart) into the NYS court database, all kinds of well known restaurants and caterers pop up that stiffed Alle out of payment and were taken to court.
ReplyDeleteRoyal Wine / Herzog were in Westchester Supreme court for the last 2 years until settling a couple weeks ago and finally paying the designer Bonnie Katzenstein who they stiffed. The Katzensteins are supporters of the Westchester yeshiva day school.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Meshichist garbage to me
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=17910
Rabbi Gershon Avtzon
(11.03.2010)
IF AN INDIVIDUAL DIES A NATURAL DEATH, DOES THAT DISQUALIFY SOMEONE AS MOSHIACH?
The answer in short is: NO!
I want to clarify: I am not saying that Moshiach needs to pass away before the Geulah. I am just explaining, that if you see an individual that has the Chezkas Moshiach, and is successful in his activities (see previous article) and then he passes away, it is not against Judaism to still believe that this individual can still be the eventual Moshiach.
I know that many people reading this may be coming alarmed. Does this not sound like Christianity? The "second coming"?
1) Just because something sounds like Christianity, does not mean that this is not a Jewish topic. If you understand that Christianity was started by Jewish people to recruit Jewish people, it only makes sense that many ideas sound similar.
2) The reason that we do not believe in " The Christian Messiah", is - not because he died, rather - because he destroyed Torah and Mitzvos. In the words of the Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 11,4) " The Chachamim have prophesied that Moshiach will strengthen Torah and Mitzvos and bring all Jewish people back to Eretz Yisrael. He - " The Christian Messiah " - has caused the destruction of Torah and the dispersion of Klal Yisroel". It has nothing to do with the fact that he was dead or alive.]
Where do we see this idea in Torah sources?
I will give you a few:
1) The Talmud in Sanhedrin (98,b). The Talmud says that Moshiach can either be from the living or the dead. The Gemara says " If Moshiach is from the living, it is an individual like Rabbeinu Hakodosh. If he is from the dead, he will be like Daniel." (see Rashi there).
2) The Abarbenel writes ( Yeshuos Meshicho 2,1): " It should not be hard for you to think that the Moshiach can be from the dead. This idea has already been discussed in the Gemara Sanhedrin, and clarified. See Sdei Chemed Ois Ayin.
3) The Lubavitcher Rebbe writes (Likkutei Sichos 2 page 518 - regarding statements he made regarding his father-in-law after his passing): I have been asked to explain my statements that I mentioned that my Father-in-law can still be Moshiach. Does it not say the resurrection of the dead, will be after the coming of Moshiach?
The answer is: The general resurrection will be after the arrival of Moshiach. There can be - and has been (see Avodah Zarah 10,2) - the resurrection of individuals throughout the ages."
4) The Rambam only disqualifies only an individual that has been killed (see previous article), not an individual that has been successful but passes away before building the Bais Hamikdash and Kibbutz Galiyos.
It takes more than merely being "successful in one's activities" to qualify for Moshiach. The 7th and final Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch did not succeed anywhere close to the point of being eligible for consideration for Moshiach.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the pay & benefits are like at Kedem compared to Rubashkin.
ReplyDeleteAnd does Kedem allow "salty" language while trucking for them?
see
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bhol.co.il/news_read.asp?id=15800&cat_id=1
the gedolim are now defending Elior Chen
Who is the second ferd from the left
ReplyDeleteUTTERLY DISGUSTING!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLITHUANIAN RABBIS IN DEFENSE OF A "KABBALIST" CHARLATAN, elior chen WHO VICIOUSLY BEAT YOUNG CHILDREN AND TUNRED AN INFANT INTO A VEGETABLE.
THIS IS IS THE LITHUANIAN JUDAISM OF THE CHAFETZ CHAIM AND THE NETZIV????????
THIS SHOULD BE A WAKEUP CALL TO THE YESHIVISHE LITHUANIAN COMMUNITY; YOUR LEADERSHIP IS A SHAM!
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3861625,00.html
Ombudsmen,
ReplyDeleteDo T'shuva.
I am planning on posting the true and complete story of the behaima and me'again, AKA Malkiel, momma's boy Kotler shortly after Zman Chairusainu.
I know the inside story from someone who was involved with the fraudulently obtained heter mai'ah rabanim. They gave Malkiel's first and still current wife a deadline to call by and then the bais din went on and took the phone off the hook until after deadline AND MRS. FEINSTEIN KOTLER KEPT CALLING BUT THE PHONE WAS TAKEN OFF THE HOOK.
That Chen letter IS A FORGERY! Read the article. They forged Rav Elyashiv and Rav Shteinman's names. How low will people go to protect such vicious criminals?
ReplyDeleteהרבנים אלישיב, שטיינמן וקנייבסקי חתמו על מסמך ופשקוויל בהם נקרא הציבור לסייע כלכלית לחן, הנאשם בהתעללות. על פי המכתב: "הרב אליאור חן עסק כל ימיו בהרבצת תורה. הוא נמק בבית האסירים ומשפחתו רעבה; אנחנו מחויבים להוכיח צדקתו"
ReplyDeleteקובי נחשוני פורסם: 12.03.10, 00:47
שתף
בכירי הרבנים החרדים חתמו על מכת תמיכה באליאור חן, בו הם קוראים לציבור לסייע לחן, הנאשם בהתעללות מתמשכת בשמונה ילדים ובכך לקיים את מצוות "פדיון שבויים". על המסמך, הצפוי להתפרסם בעיתונות החרדית ועל גבי מודעות רחוב (פשקווילים) והגיע לידי ynet, חתומים בין היתר הרב יוסף שלום אלישיב, הרב אהרן לייב שטיינמן והרב חיים קנייבסקי - ממנהיגי הציבור החרדי-ליטאי. עוד חתמו: הרבנים הליטאים הבכירים מיכל יהודה לפקוביץ' ושמואל אויערבך. מדובר בהתייחסות ראשונה ודרמטית של רבנים מדרג בכיר כל כך לעניינו של חן ולמענו.
יוזמי המהלך, עסקנים שנקשרו עם החשוד בתקופת שהייתו בברזיל, הקימו מטה פעולה להצלתו, ותחילה החתימו על המכתב כמה רבנים בעיר החרדית ביתר עילית שבה הוא מתגורר, הקוראים לסייע לו כלכלית. בהמשך פנו לרבנים בכירים יותר, ובקרוב יפתחו חשבון בנק שיקלוט את התרומות. ל-ynet נודע כי החתמת הרבנים הבכירים נעשתה שלא כמקובל מאחורי גבם של אלה הנחשבים ל"נאמני ביתם", זאת כדי שהאחרונים לא יטרפדו את המהלך הנתפס בציבור כתמוה. זו גם הסיבה לכך שהמכתב נוסח בזהירות כך שהוא אינו קובע כי אליאור חן חף מפשע.
המודעה עוצבה בצורה דרמטית במטרה לזעזע את הציבור ומופיעים עליה כתמי דם לצד פטיש מאיים של שופט, עם הכותרת הבולטת: "להושיע משופטי נפשו". ראשי המטה תיכננו לפרסמה כבר בסוף השבוע הזה בשבועונים החרדים, אך בינתיים הם דחו את הפרסום.
המסמך וחתימות הרבנים שהגיעו לידי ynet
וזה לשונו של המכתב: "קוראים אנו בזאת לכל מי שרוח טהרה בקרבו לרחם ולעורר רחמי שמים ולהטות שכם לעוסקים
במסירות בהקמת קרן לפדיון שבויים עבור האי גברא יקרא, הר"ר אליאור חן ני"ו, מתושבי עירנו, אשר כל ימיו עסק בתורה ויראה והרבצת תורה ואשר נימוק בבית האסורים כבר שנתיים ונתהפך עליו הגלגל בעינויים קשים ומרים. ולא עוד, שמשפחתו רעבים לפת לחם ממש".
"היות שאנחנו מכירים אותו כאיש ישר והגון, מחוייבים אנו להוכיח צדקתו. ואשר גדולי ישראל אשר שמעו את זעקת לבו הטהור נזעקו לעזור ולסייע בכל מילי אשר יועילו להוכיח צדקתו כדי לפדותו מצרת נפשו, אך כאשר הוצאות לזה, כגון השכרת עורך דין ועוד, עולים הון עתק ואין אנו יכולים לעמוד מנגד בשומעינו בהתחננם על נפשו ונפשות בני ביתו. פונים אנו אל אחינו בי ישראל שהם רחמנים בני רחמנים שייקחו חלק במצוות פדיון שבויים ביד רחבה וברוח נדיבה".
is there an organization who could find out if these is real so we have progress
ReplyDeletewith out introption to go after these naziz who have beards and peios RABOISAY i hope these is the beging of going after these chasdishe teachers
who beat there studunts
Yes that earlier comment about Shmarya and Rabbi Steve Pruzansky is true.
ReplyDeleteShmarya actually gave one bogus condition for me not to get kicked off his blog. Shmarya who otherwise extols the virtues of those who blog anonymously if they so choose as a means to expose corruption said that I must reveal my identity.
In Shmarya's Banana Blogrepublic you can do anything you want, as long as he likes your hashkafah.
בשיחה שקיים כתב 'בחדרי חרדים' עם נאמני ביתו של הגרי"ש אלישיב, אמרו הללו בתדהמה: "המכתב לא היה ולא נברא. השעה כעת היא מאוחרת, ואנחנו לא יכולים לבצע בדיקה יסודית, אך ככל הידוע לנו הגרי"ש מעולם לא חתם על מכתב מעין זה.
ReplyDelete"ישנן שתי אפשרויות", המשיך נאמן הבית, "או שזייפו את חתימתו, או שהוציאו את המכתב בדרכי מרמה, מבלי שהרב'ה הספיק לבדוק אל הנוגעים בדבר. עד מחר נדע בצורה ברורה, ונפרסם בצורה רשמית את עמדת הרב".
I don't know who was wrong in R' Malkiel's parsha. I do know that the haysseh Israeli Briskers want to strangle him while the American Briskers fawn to get into his chaburah.
ReplyDeleteAbout 20 years ago, R' Malkiel had a problem. R' Shneur's 10th yortzeit was coming up and if he didn't go to the kever before that date, R' Yehudah Hechosid says to never go. If he did go, he faced indefinite detainment if the Briskers put a tzavaat ikuv on him in court. He booked a flight through a Manhattan agent and flew KLM Royal Dutch from JFK to Amsterdam. Then he flew Lufthansa to Tel Aviv with a stop over in Stuttgart. There were unconfirmed rumors that he was even wearing a disguise. He stayed only long enough to go to the kever and to Rav Schach in the middle of the night (so that no one in Bnei Brak would see him).
Shortly after by the Purim chagiga in Rebbitzen Rishel's house, he got upset when some big mouth Brisker guys started mouthing off about the details of the trip. He was going crazy trying to find out who leaked it.
As long as Ohel or Niederman don't get their hands on the $950,000 that is earmarked for Jewish child sexual abuse victims, it is better left unspent for now. The money should go to the JBAC (Jewish Board of Advocates for Children). They will use the money properly by:
ReplyDelete1)Lobbying Albany for passage of legislation that would protect our chidren and help to compensate victims (the Child Victims Act and the Mandatory Fingerprinting/Background Check Bill).
2)Assisting victims within the statute of limitations to file police reports and to testify against their abusers.
3)Assisting all victims in getting their lives back together through the Jewish Survivors Network (http://www.jewishsurvivors.org/
joomla. This includes referrals to the top physicians and psychologists and general moral support. The JBAC will need to hire the top professional social workers and staff to deal with the victims.
4) Educating parents and children about sexual abuse through literature, visits to yeshivos and meetings with parents.
5)Working to insure that all yeshivos are equipped with sophisticated video monitoring in and around the premises.
6)All men's mikvaos will be monitored.
7)A website listing all known pedophiles in the Jewish community will be maintained and will be available for all to access. The names, addresses and photos of these pedophiles will be included on this website.
Why do forgeries surprise anyone anymore when Leib Tropper produced forged letters & signatures with regularity?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iimagazine.com/pensions_and_endowments/Articles/2442415/Trillion-Dollar-Pension-Crisis-Looms-Large-Over-America.html
ReplyDeleteTrillion-Dollar Pension Crisis Looms Large Over America
10 Mar 2010
Paul Ingrassia and Imogen Rose-Smith
The country’s pension system — both public and private plans — faces trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. This special report examines what General Motor’s historic bankruptcy has to teach about the looming pension crisis, while pointing to alarming parallels between GM and cash-strapped California, whose pension crisis may already have arrived.
Antonio, who cares?
ReplyDeleteStop your rude interruptions while I keep spending another trillion or two like there is no tomorrow.
Watchdog: GMAC bailout could cost taxpayers $6.3B
ReplyDeleteDaniel Wagner, Ap Business Writer – Thu Mar 11, 6:57
WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department sank billions into auto finance giant GMAC Inc. without an exit strategy or proof the company was viable — a decision that could cost taxpayers $6.3 billion, a new watchdog report says.
The government said the $17.2 billion bailout was a necessary step to save troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler. GMAC provides critical financing to auto dealers, who borrow to finance their fleets until the cars can be sold to consumers.
Yet GMAC faced far fewer conditions than the bailed-out automakers, the report says. When the automakers were rescued, they were forced into bankruptcy. Shareholders lost their investments, creditors took a hit and executives were forced to detail plans for making the companies viable.
GMAC was treated more like banks that received bailouts without having to explain what they were doing with the money, the report says.
The report was released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel overseeing the $700 billion financial bailout that Congress passed in October 2008.
"Treasury missed many opportunities to improve accountability and protect taxpayer money," panel chair Elizabeth Warren said in a conference call with reporters. She said Treasury didn't make GMAC show how it would return the taxpayer money, or how the investment would increase credit to consumers.
"These decisions mean that Treasury is now struggling to deal with a GMAC that is not financially rehabilitated, Treasury has no exit strategy and taxpayers are not fully protected," Warren said.
CBS – Former NBA All-Star Alvin Robertson is one of seven people facing charges involving sexual assault and sex trafficking of a 14 year old girl. He’s accused of forcing an underaged child to have sex with him.
ReplyDeleteA new law, called E-Alert, will allow any concerned New York state resident to sign up with the Division of Criminal Justice Service to receive automatic updates when a Level 2 or 3 registered sex offender moves into their neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThe law will take effect March 15.
A Level 2 offender is considered at moderate risk of committing another offense, while a Level 3 offender is at high risk and is considered a public safety concern.
Before the law was passed, concerned residents would have to check the sex offender registry for updates.
“I believe we don’t have a large concentration [of sex offenders] in our area. But I always think it’s important for people to have access to information, and this is what this law does,” said Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.
According to data compiled by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007, there were 670 registered sex offenders living two blocks or fewer from a New York City school.
The Assembly has passed a number of sex offender laws in recent years, including one that revokes licenses or certificates of teachers and other school workers who are found guilty of committing sex crimes.
For more information on E-Alert and the state sex offender registry, call Mr. Dinowitz’s office at 718-796-5345 or go to www.criminaljustice.state.ny.us.
It was just silly and self-serving when Executive VP Rabbi Steven Weil wrote a letter preaching to the public this month in the OU's Jewish Action magazine that "our kashrut standards are impeccable".
ReplyDeleteBut look how arrogant the OU is getting where even a former official out of there for years is belittling Rav Elyashev, Rav C. Kanievski & Rav D. Feinstein and where the bully Rabbi Elefant demands that no one discuss halacha on food without clearing it with him first:
http://www.lohud.com/print/article/20100310/NEWS03/3100351/Monsey-group-says-lox-study-misinterpreted-It-s-kosher
Mandy Ganchrow, a retired Monsey physician who formerly served as president of the Orthodox Union, the largest organization in the world that provides kosher certification, said ... there was a tendency of some groups to go too far when interpreting finer points of the thousands of years of Jewish law.
"Everyone wants to be more frum — more religious — than the next guy," he said.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant, chief operating officer of the kosher division of Orthodox Union, said ... he never heard of Chevra Mehadrin and had not seen the report.
"We welcome people asking questions, but if they have a question, they should come to us and ask it."
Toady Mordy Mehlman's 4th edition of his "Flatbush Jewish Journal" (FJJ) is still keeping up the fight against local Flatbush pizza stores. Here's the next doltish tippish "letter to the editor" on that topic he published written on a 5th grade level by a retarded "reader" (remember, this "journal" had "letters to the editor, against pizza stores in its first edition, before anyone knew this shmatte was even coming out of its hole in the wall Abe Fruchthandler-sponsored pro-Aaron Schechter production, since no one else has money to burn on such utter crap in today's economy):
ReplyDelete"Flatbush Jewish Journal
Thursday March 11, 2010
Letters to the Editor (still no indication who the "editor" really is though)
Email letters to
editor@flatbushjewishjournal.com
No to Pizza on Fridays
I am writing in response to "anonymous" who wrote about how their family is raised to help and prepare for Shabbos beautifully. Your words could not have been more more correct! You are a true example of a family with proper Torah values! Undoubtedly, you must have great kids with proper Hashkofos! Since reading your letter last week, my kids stooped eating in pizza stores on Fridays - and instead help and prepare for Shabbos with excitement! May all of Klal Yisroel follow in your footsteps!
Truly inspired in Flatbush"
And in case anyone doubts that toady Mordy Mehlman is not on the Schechter-Fruchthandler bandwagon big-time as a pure mercenary for pay PR meister following on the heels of image-damaged EJF propaganda meister Menachem Goebels Lubinsky of LUBICOM (like CITICOM, COMmunists all), the latest edition has a colorful full page ad for yeshiva Chaim Berlin's Chaim Day camp
Menachem Goebels Lubinsky
ReplyDeletehttp://lehmanreport.jenner.com/VOLUME%203.pdf
ReplyDeleteNY Fed Under Geithner Implicated in Lehman Accounting Fraud
chaim said...
ReplyDelete"uoj takes Agudah to seriously. Most people do not take them seriously and realize its a few people blowing hot air."
Chaim speaks the truth here.
UOJ: When are you going to stop giving credence to the Agudah? Average people haven't taken them seriously for the longest times already. Many years before you sounded your horns, the average laymen knew that Agudah was nothing but a big joke. Your rants only gives undo credence and in some backwards ways helps their popularity cause.
They were, are, and will continue to remain irrelevant as long as they stubbornly dig their hole deeper and deeper.
hamivin yovin
Btzel Hagras,
ReplyDeleteYou are clearly high on some good stuff.You know less than zero about the sad Kotler affair.A get has been waiting for her since the meah rabbonim, they had no children,no assets and there was no reason for Kotler not to give a get.He wanted to take his dads position,wanted to try and have kids.This is a very sad story for those who know and Kotler is not at fault at all
Dr. Mandel Ganchrow led the OU cover up of the crimes against children of Rabbi Baruch Lanner. If he wasn't timed to retire he would have been fired after the commission report.
ReplyDeleteThere was also an incident at a Pesach hotel where he was cornered by a rabbi who is very zealous, outspoken and kind of eccentric. The rabbi whose name escapes me at the moment says he is a musmach of the Kezmarker Rav. The rabbi yelled at him in public, asking what gives him the right to serve as president of the Orthodox Union when his wife doesn't cover her hair.
Yes he does sound like he's high from smoking grass, hence betzeil hagrass.
ReplyDeleteNEW YORK (AP) - The mother and son owners of the defunct strip club made infamous by the shooting of Sean Bell have been charged in a mortgage fraud case in Queens.
ReplyDeleteMartina Duran and Robert Arias were each ordered held on $250,000 bail Tuesday after being charged with larceny, identity theft and other crimes. The pair owned Club Kalua, where Bell's bachelor party ended in tragedy in 2006.
Undercover detectives investigating reports of prostitution at the club killed the unarmed Bell and wounded two friends in a 50-shot barrage after following them outside. Three officers who claimed they believed the men had a gun were later acquitted of manslaughter.
Prosecutors in the fraud case allege Duran and Arias were part of a $2 million scheme to use stolen identities to buy and sell three properties.
http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2010/03/09/appraisers-obama-plan-will-lead-to-fraud/28209/
ReplyDeleteAppraisers: Obama plan encourages fraud
March 9th, 2010
The get was posul.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you Lakewooders should worry about protecting an AGUNAH instead of some momma's boy who would probably be a standard mishulach if not for his last name.
http://www.chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=17595
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we commonly read about reports of Israel Agriculture Ministry agents confiscating and destroying PA (Palestinian Authority) produce with high levels of e-coli, the result of irrigation in sewage water; or eggs unfit for human consumption; or meat marked as kosher which is not; and other incidents in which the PA merchants seek to distribute these unwanted items in the Israeli marketplace without regard for basic standards of health and kashrus.
Nevertheless, Israel does not close the doors to PA goods, despite the recently announced and hailed anti-Israel boycott throughout PA autonomous areas. Israel continues with good-will gestures and concessions in the hope of renewing diplomatic talks with the PA.
To the YU marijuana puffer,
ReplyDeleteR' Malkiel knows how to learn you fool. The reason why he is not a major name is because he is already forced into a meshulach role of traveling to raise money for the yeshiva which doesn't give him too much time to learn.
So where are all the big lamdonim? Except for R' Hershel Schechter and the few guys in Kollel Elyon, they are NOT in YU.
You don't have to make a Seder at all but whoever doesn't buy this to use at the Seder is a lowlife who is playing cow-tow to racist Orthodox Jews.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=170816
Ethiopian Jewry gets its first Haggada
The Tosher Rebbe has been admitted to the ICU in a Florida Hospital.
ReplyDeleteHe was at the winter home in Ft. Lauderdale when he became ill.
His name is Meshulam Feish ben Tzirel.
There is now increased awareness of a growing presence of illegal madrassahs opening up in storefronts in the heart of the West Rogers Park frum community. The proper authorities at local, state, and Federal levels have been apprised of the situation. There is also an awareness of illegal behaviors taking place within our own frum community. Therefore, besides for the usual security presence of police in our community, increased patrols of both marked and unmarked vehicles will be occurring starting this Sunday through the Pesach season ending April 14. Please report any and all suspicious or concerning behaviors to the police. When in doubt, report what you have seen. There will be extreme vigilance and enforcement of all city, state and Federal laws.
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954904575110124037066854.html
ReplyDeleteDon't tell UOJ that I'm helping feed Obama's megalomania.
Altria owns Philip Morris Tobacco and part of Miller Beer. Maybe UOJ can convince them to fund JBAC instead of that two faced putz Charlie Hynes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/11/2010-03-11_1m_to_fight_hasidic_sex_abuse_sits_unused_since_2009.html
Kol Tzedek was created in April 2009 within the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office Sex Crimes Bureau.
A $40,000 grant from Altria Group Inc., a cigarette company, pays the salary of the program's sole orthodox Jewish social worker.
Nearly 100 people have called the hotline and more than 30 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men have been arrested, including 16 who have been charged with felony crimes.
This adds to the workload of the already overburdened team of 18 prosecutors in the Brooklyn Sex Crimes unit, said Bureau Chief Rhonnie Jaus.
There's no money for more staffers.
"We work from our own budget," said Jaus. "That is all the resources we have."
Does this mean Hikind no longer wants to give me the money to cover up?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/11/2010-03-11_1m_to_fight_hasidic_sex_abuse_sits_unused_since_2009.html
The state has earmarked $950,000 since April 2009 to fund Assemblyman Dov Hikind's plans to teach Hasidic Jews to speak up against child molestation.
But the money sits untouched as Hikind figures out the details of Shomrei Yeldainu - Hebrew for "Guardians of our Children" - the Daily News has learned.
"You have to develop something that is done correctly working with the rabbis and leaders," said Hikind (D-Brooklyn).
The $950,000 was included in the 2009 state budget for the Office of Family and Children's Services, said Matt Anderson, a budget spokesman for Gov. Paterson.
A schoolteacher found dead this week near a remote Alaska village was probably killed by wolves, Alaska State Troopers said on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteThe fatal attack could be the first on U.S. soil in more than 50 years.
Snowmobilers found her severely mauled body in a pool of blood and multiple wolf tracks in the snow, according to officials. The State Medical Examiner said the cause of death was "multiple injuries due to animal mauling."
State troopers said there were no records of deadly wolf maulings in Alaska. Bruce Woods, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said fatal attacks are extremely rare worldwide.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/50548/YWN+Exclusive:+Greenfield+Condemns+Negative+Attacks.html
ReplyDeleteYWN Exclusive: Greenfield Condemns Negative Attacks
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/garden/11bedbug.html?ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteMarch 10, 2010
A New Breed of Guard Dog Attacks Bedbugs
By PENELOPE GREEN
BACK in Borough Park, Cruiser had started to work. Mr. Rincon wiped his paws with a towel and began leading him around the house. The family’s boxed possessions, stacked in the basement, were quickly vetted. But a wooden crib in a child’s room gave Cruiser pause. The father turned it back to front and the dog began pawing the mattress, signaling an alert. (What Cruiser does is detect the scent of a bug or an egg; it’s up to an exterminator, said Mr. Ecker, to visually confirm the presence of bedbugs in the spots a dog has noted.)
The mother exhaled slowly. “That’s where my 2 ½-year-old sleeps,” she said.
What a chilul Hashem.
ReplyDeleteA woman named Ginger leaves this comment on the Daily News article about the child abuse grant:
I do not understand why people need to be taught how to protect their children, should that not come naturally. Has that automatic response not been embedded in the genetic blueprint ...
VOTE FOR JOE LAZAR MARCH 23!
ReplyDeleteOmbudsmen to the Devil,
ReplyDeletePerhaps this wan not entirely Malkiel's fault. Perhaps it was the fault of the bais din that made its decision befire it even met. Mrs. Feinstein Kotler had agreed to come to the din torah.
BTW, didn't Malkeil agree to stay in Israel when he got married.
Neuhoff,
ReplyDeleteBungalow Vantz would be a more appropriate title for you.
Who is responsible for this and who covered it up?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/gravestone_insult_at_st_george.html
It's nobody's idea of a proper resting place for anything.
But a handful of cemetery headstones -- one with a name and date visible, another decorated with a heart, others broken or chipped -- mysteriously ended up being dumped along with dirt and other construction debris at a dormant St. George construction site.
The funereal find follows on the heels of revelations about outrages at city morgues, including the Staten Island mortuary technician who this week was accused of posing for the camera holding a severed head, football-style.
But the disturbing debris had either been plowed under, covered over or removed by early yesterday morning, after the Advance began making phone calls about the matter.
D'Alessio suggested the slabs could have come from an out-of-business stone-cutting firm. Another source said the slabs could have had errors on them, making them unusable as grave markers.
But a person in the building industry told the Advance he'd never heard of headstones being used for fill at construction sites.
Records show the developer of the stalled construction project is Leib Puretz, who has defaulted on an estimated $86 million in loans for some of the biggest projects built or planned in the borough in recent years.
http://www.nytimes.com/
ReplyDeleteChurch Abuse Scandal in Germany Edges Closer to Pope
By NICHOLAS KULISH and RACHEL DONADIO
17 minutes ago
A senior church official acknowledged that a German archdiocese made “serious mistakes” in reassigning an abusive priest during the pope’s tenure as its archbishop in the 1980s.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/business/12seed.html?ref=business&src=me&pagewanted=print
ReplyDeleteThe feds are investigating this scam that causes corn, meat & milk prices to be so high.
Btzail haGras,
ReplyDeleteWhich beis Din was it? Who were the dayanim?
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/13/world/AP-LT-Drug-War-Mexico.html
ReplyDeleteFiled at 7:44 p.m. ET
ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) -- A series of shootings killed 24 people Saturday in a Pacific coast state plagued by drug gang violence. Nearly half died in one shootout between soldiers and armed men.
Two decapitated men were found on a scenic road packed with nightclubs in the resort city of Acapulco. Another man was found shot to death on the edge of the city.
Gunmen, meanwhile, killed five police officers on patrol in Tuncingo, a rural area outside Acapulco. In the same area, police found the bullet-ridden bodies of five other men, including two who had been beheaded.
How the Aguda of MIKE TRESS ZTL could fall so low is unbelievable
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stamfordkosher.com/images/learningmagnet.jpeg
ReplyDeleteWhich Belsky is this at R' Simcha Schustal's yeshiva in Stamford?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/world/europe/14pope.html?hp
ReplyDeleteMarch 13, 2010
Vatican Sees Campaign Against the Pope
By RACHEL DONADIO and NICHOLAS KULISH
ROME — As new details emerged on allegations of child sexual abuse by a priest in the Munich archdiocese then led by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican spoke out on Saturday against what it called an aggressive campaign against the pope in his native Germany.
At the same time, a high-ranking Vatican official overseeing internal investigations on Saturday acknowledged that 3,000 cases of suspected abuse of minors had come to its attention in the past decade, of which 20 percent had been brought to trial in Vatican courts.
In a note read on Vatican Radio on Saturday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said it was “evident that in recent days there are those who have tried, with a certain aggressive tenacity, in Regensburg and in Munich, to find elements to involve the Holy Father personally in issues of abuse.” He added, “It is clear that those efforts have failed.”
In Germany, a man whose case has raised questions about the actions of the Munich Archdiocese when Benedict was the archbishop there said Saturday that church officials had told him that the priest who abused him in 1979 would not be allowed to work with children again. Instead, the priest was allowed to resume full duties almost immediately, and went on to abuse more children.
The Vatican also sought to defend the pope against criticism that a Vatican rule requiring secrecy in abuse cases was tantamount to obstruction of justice in civil courts.
Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, the director of a tribunal inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s doctrinal arm, dismissed as “false and calumnious” accusations that Benedict covered up abuse cases when he oversaw investigations for four years as prefect of that congregation before becoming pope.
///
March 13, 2010
Agudah Sees Campaign Against the Novominsker
By RUCHEL KUCHLEFFEL and NAFTOLI KUGELFRESSER
42 BROADWAY — As new details emerged on allegations of child sexual abuse by a Rebbe in Torah Temimah then brought to the attention of Jacob Perlow, the Agudah spoke out on Shabbos against what it called an aggressive campaign against the Rebbe in his native Boro Park.
At the same time, a high-ranking Agudah official overseeing internal cover ups acknowledged that 3,000 cases of YTT abuse of minors had come to its attention in the past decade, of which 20 percent had been completely swept under the carpet in Agudah closed door meetings.
In a note read on Zev Brenner's show on motzaei Shabbos, Agudah spokesman, the dunce Avi Shafran, said it was “evident that there are those who have tried, with a certain aggressive tenacity, on UOJ's & Yudel's blogs, to find elements to involve the Holy Rebbe personally in issues of abuse.” He added, “It is clear that those efforts are tawdry tales.”
In Flatbush, a man whose case has raised questions about the actions of the Agudah when Perlow was pre-Nassi of the Moetzes said that Agudah officials had told him that the melamed who abused him in 1979 would not be allowed to work with children again. Instead, Kolko was allowed to resume full duties almost immediately, and went on to abuse more children.
The Agudah also sought to defend the Rebbe against criticism that an Agudah rule requiring secrecy in abuse cases was tantamount to obstruction of justice in civil courts.
Shea Fishman, the director of a tribunal inside Torah Umesorah, dismissed as “false and calumnious” accusations that Perlow covered up abuse cases for four years before becoming Nassi, although Fishman also claimed to not remember any details.
9:00PM EST: YWN has learned that two people were R”L killed just after Shabbos in Teaneck, NJ after a tree fell on them.
ReplyDeleteAccording to highly credible sources, the two victims were leaving the “Bnei Yeshurun Shul” after Shabbos, when the tree fell on them.
Teaneck Police Chaplain Rabbi Abe Friedman(who has been requested & responding to the scene) tells YWN that the two victims are still trapped underneath the trees, and rescue workers are working on the scene.
Misaskim is responding to the scene as well.
http://jewishclimatecampaign.org/directors.php
ReplyDeleteWho is this felafel fressing Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair who stole my idea?
Speaking of Leiby Puretz? What's this about him starting a new shechita operation in Nebraska?
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading the biography of Rabbi Sherer.I'm practically in tears over what these lowlifes have done to this once wonderful and holy organization.
ReplyDeletehttp://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/writedimango/
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of sentence for Lebovitz?
http://www.clal.org/cms/node/772
ReplyDeleteThe Conservative "rabbi" Irwin Kula who heads the left wing Clal group with Yitz Greenberg has joined the board of Desmond Tutu's organization.
Desmond Pupu is a vicious anti-Semite who attacked Israel during a visit to Yad Vashem.
http://www.hlfleisuretours.com/General-Information.asp
ReplyDeleteHow's this for a yeshivishe standard?
Pesach at the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay
Scholars in residence are the Agudah's R' Yankel Horowitz & YU's Norman Lamm (who has been calling for women to become rabbis)
The hotel under the hashgocho of the OU's Yitzchok Friedman (acting as a private hashgocho) is probably not shmura only because they are not advertising it and is definitely gebruchts (isn't Horowitz chassidish?).
They also have mixed swimming as per the caterer's website.
And in one unusual twist, they are encouraging guests to go fishing and to bring the catch to the kitchen to be cooked. Isn't that a problem on chol hamoed when there is so much food to fress there anyway?
The Jewish Press has a flashback this week to 44 years ago when they ran an article on the Telshe Chicago dinner.
ReplyDeleteThe honoree was Mondrowitz's father.
How did Chabad put Rothstein's name on the building when he is married to a shiksa?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2010/03/rothsteins_chabad_invokes_clergy_privilege.html
Ponzi schemer Scott W. Rothstein’s former chabad, the Chabad of Downtown Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, is invoking “clergy privilege” in bankruptcy investigations.
Chabad is a term for a Jewish center run by a strictly orthodox Jewish organization.
This particular chabad, run by Rabbi Schneur Kaplan, was once so connected to Rothstein that its new building on Broward Boulevard carried Rothstein’s name on the outside.
Attorneys for Rothstein’s former law firm, led by trustee Herbert Stettin, are trying to determine where the proceeds of Rothstein’s $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme went. One of the groups they want to investigate is the Chabad of Downtown.
Stettin’s investigators have asked the chabad and dozens of other groups and people to sit for depositions or exams in the bankruptcy. In their notices to the bankruptcy court, they include broadly worded requests for records of “any and all communications” between the target and Rothstein.
Stettin’s investigators even asked the chabad to produce a list of everyone who donated to it since 2007.
That was overly broad, the chabad’s attorney, Reggie David Sanger, wrote in a motion for a protective order against the probe.
“Certain communications requested … may also fall within the clergyman penitent privilege applicable under federal law,” Sanger wrote.
Here, I am left wondering: Did Rothstein confess to the rabbi that he was running a Ponzi scheme, or other incriminating evidence? And, why would that matter, because Rothstein has already pleaded guilty.
Regardless, Sanger seems to have a point that the trustee’s request is broad.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Raymond Ray has set a hearing on Sanger’s motion for April 7 at 1:30 p.m.
This was the Reform rabbi Bruce Lustig who is an advisor to DC Mayor Adrian Fenty
ReplyDeleteWhy are they covering up for Sean Penn? He happens to be Madonna's first ex-husband
http://mystateline.com/fulltext/?nxd_id=144594
(Washington, DC) -- Sean Penn's infamous surly side was on display last night during a gala hosted by the Washington Hebrew Congregation, and it was not an act.
The two-time Academy Award-winning actor was not pleased when asked by a reporter about comments he recently made about critics of his work in Haiti.
Penn's motivations for his efforts in the earthquake-ravaged country have been called into question.
He recently told CBS News he hopes his critics on that front, quote, "die screaming of rectal cancer."
According to the "Washington Examiner," Penn told a reporter from "Yeas & Nays", quote, "you should go your way" after she asked him if his critics had changed since his controversial remarks.
The publicity coordinator for the event ended the interview and chastised the reporter for her question.
A rabbi who was attending then attempted to take her recording device and delete the material.
http://chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=17956
ReplyDeleteTanya Printed in Bangladesh
In 1978, the Rebbe initiated a campaign that the Tanya should be printed in every country in the world.
Two more points here
ReplyDeleteThe center hosting this toyeva has multiple kitchens, one of which is under the Hartford Vaad Hakashrus. The Vaad knows that they there are always gay events there. And how do they control that there is no contamination from the other kitchens under Conservative or self certification?
Nehirim is affiliated with Drisha Institute that Jewish Week publisher Gary Rosenblatt tried to bring as "proof" last week that "orthodox" rabbis support women in the rabbonus.
http://nyblueprint.com/events/eventdetail.aspx?id=43963
The Second Annual Nehirim Women’s Retreat is a weekend of community and spirituality for self-identified lesbian, bisexual and trangendered Jewish women and their families. http://www.nehirim.org/women
Presenters include ... Professor Joy Ladin, Professor of English at Stern College for Women – and Yeshiva University’s first openly transgendered employee
http://www.thejc.com/node/29329
ReplyDeleteGetting Charedim to work
Jewish artist Spencer Tunick has submitted a request to shoot a mass nude portrait in Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea, to the anger of some Knesset members
ReplyDeletehttp://www.heebmagazine.com/blog/view/2824/1
ReplyDeleteAvi Weiss's woman "rabbi" Sara Hurwitz is out of her mind.
She tells Heeb Magazine that there have always been women rabbis.
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-kosher-beef-plant.html
ReplyDeletePuretz's new shechitah
The powers of the dark overlord are coalescing into a black cloud over the Kol Yaakov yeshiva even while I'm writing this.
ReplyDeleteOn Friday afternoon two men walked into the Kol Yaakov yeshiva in Monsey, posted a court order on the door and put padlocks on the office doors.
The court order dictates that Rabbi Nachman Kramer, a close personal friend of Leib Tropper who owns the Beis Yaakov of Ramapo girls school, is to run the Kol Yaakov yeshiva from here on out, and that Rabbi Moshe Raice is no longer to represent the yeshiva in any way, even though he is still a trustee of the yeshiva.
The Monsey Rabbis who served on the ad hoc Beis Din, set up in order to deal with the Tropper scandal, have filed a lawsuit in Rockland County Supreme Court to remove Leib Tropper from any of the yeshiva bank accounts pursuant to his written resignation in early February.
This past Friday, Tropper filed a counter lawsuit, and Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Schlesinger spoke to the Judge on behalf of Tropper saying that he (Schlesinger) is one of the senior Rabbis of the Monsey community, and has issued a dictum (p'sak) that the entire written agreement between Leib Tropper and the Rabbis of the Beis Din is not valid, as the Rabbis involved are "dishonest".
The Judge sent sheriffs to lock up the yeshiva offices, make known the desire of the Judge that, as per Tropper's request, Rabbi Nachman Kramer is to oversee the day to day functions of the Kol Yaakov yeshiva and to issue a restraining against Rabbi Moshe Raice until Leib Tropper is fully reinstated as the Dean of the yeshiva (Rosh Yeshiva), and trustee thereof.
One of the Rabbis told me that they are currently writing and "plan to issue a strong defamation letter against Tropper and plan to make a machoh (protest), first in writing, against Tropper's accomplice, Rabbi Schlesinger, sometime this week."
Rabbi Shlesinger has the richest shul in Monsey. Kashrus in Monsey or rather the lack of it can be attributed partially to Rabbi Shlesinger. He always seems to be protecting the guilty party.
There is much more to this Rabbi Shlesinger.
He is a gifted speaker, that's the problem.
The Rabbonim of Monsey should send him packing with his bags.
TO UOJ!! YOU MISPELLED R. SCHACHTER NAME. ITS SCHACHTER NOT SCHECHTER. YOU CAN GOOGLE HIS NAME.
ReplyDelete