MAZEL TOV! - REAL CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON!
April 27, 2010 -- Whereas we have become increasingly aware of incidents of the sexual and physical abuse of children in our community; and
Whereas, there have been a number of high profile cases in which Orthodox rabbis have been indicted or convicted for child abuse or child endangerment; and
Whereas the lives and futures of many of these victims and their families are harmed in significant ways: suicide, post traumatic stress syndrome, inability to form healthy relationships, inability to develop healthy intimate relationships, etc.; and
Whereas many victims of abuse in our community still remain silent and do not come forward to accuse perpetrators or seek help for fear of stigma, personal and familial consequences, or perceived halakhic concerns; and
Whereas the Rabbinical Council of America has resolved through past resolutions its condemnation of abuse and its censure of abusers, and has affirmed, under the guidance and direction of its poskim (Rabbinic decisors,) that the prohibitions of mesirah (reporting crimes to the civil authorities) and arka’ot (adjudication in civil courts) do not apply in cases of abuse and in fact, it is halakhically obligatory to make such reports; and
Whereas reiterating this long held position can serve to provide pastoral and halakhic leadership, support, direction and affirmation to abuse survivors and their families and advocates.
Therefore, the Rabbinical Council of America resolves that
• It reaffirms its unqualified condemnation of all forms of child abuse.
• It reaffirms its halakhic position that the prohibitions of mesirah and arka’ot do not apply in cases of abuse.
• It will regularly issue on its website and to the media appropriate statements of condemnation when public attention is drawn to a case in which Jews are either victims or perpetrators of abuse.
• It will regularly evaluate the competence of its members in understanding and responding to issues of child abuse and initiate training and continuing educational opportunities for all of its members in this area every year.
• The members of the RCA address the issues of child abuse in their communities in at least one sermon, lecture or article within the next twelve months, and that contact information for local abuse services be displayed in a public place in all synagogues, schools, and Jewish community institutions serviced by its members.
86 comments:
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/04/26/brooklyn/courier-yn_brooklyn_front_page-mm_marineparkyeshivaillegal_2010_4_22_bk.txt
It looks like a supermarket, but it really is a preschool — even if the city doesn’t see it that way.
Yeshiva Ketanah of Torah Vodaath’s preschool center has been operating on Quentin Road between East 31st and 32nd Streets since 2008 — despite the fact that the city has twice rejected its application to open.
“The certificate of occupancy doesn’t allow operation of a school,” said Department of Buildings spokeswoman Carly Sullivan. “There was an application filed in January 2009 to convert the first floor to a school. That application was disapproved. It was last reviewed in September 2009 and it still remains disapproved.”
But school leaders say they haven’t done anything wrong.
“The certificate of occupancy can sometimes take years until you get it,” said Rabbi Isaac Gottdiener, the yeshiva’s executive director. “So what do you do? You wait? There are many places and schools that operate as long as the safety requirements are met.”
The building is zoned for a store, and it still looks like one. The blue and red awning and large signage for the building’s previous tenant, Kolbo Kosher Marketplace, still hangs — while a vinyl sign proclaiming the school’s existence can’t come close to covering it up
The city says a school would be permitted at the site with the proper certificate of occupancy, but it can’t give one out until the school clears ip the 26 objections the has to the school’s application — including a failure to enclose the cellar stairs or provide details about the layout of the building’s interior, Sullivan said.
Gottdiener said that the yeshiva has addressed the objections, but the school couldn’t submit a new certificate of occupancy until it sorted out other paperwork, namely assuring that emergency exits are in place in both sections of the building.
Residents say the school should get it’s act together.
“If they don’t have a certificate of occupancy for a school, then I think somebody should call 311 or the Department of Buildings to have an inspector come down and verify this,” said Community Board 18 Chair Saul Needle.
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/files/ag-usatty-letter-to-judge-reade.pdf
Nat Lewin has been running around getting as many high profile signatures as he can to defend his client Sholom Rubashkin.
Among these groysa knackers who signed (*even though they admit they don't really know the facts in the case), is former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.
What Thompson doesn't say to identify himself is that he is currently the chief counsel at Pepsico. Pepsico sells "Near East" brand rice with real chicken flavor under OU. Both the OU and Pepsico refuse to tell consumers if the chicken is from Rubashkin, claiming it is a "trade secret".
Rubashkin was known to sell at a steep discount, undercutting the competition at prices only possible because he was cutting corners. Is this an attempt by Pepsico to protect their cheap supply of supposedly kosher chicken?
*The former DOJ officials said in their letter that they have read the government and defense sentencing memos but have not made an “independent effort to investigate the accuracy of the factual statements” in the court papers.
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/04/national-security-adviser-jones-jews.html
As the National Security Adviser, General James Jones is not known as a friend of the Jewish State. It was Jones who put together the team of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet with the President and advise him to impose a solution on Israel.
Earlier this week we may have gotten some insight into why Jones is not a fan of the Jewish Homeland. He was giving the key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy and started it out with a "Joke" that borders on anti-Semitic, teaching the crowd that Jews are just greedy merchants in the same vein as Shakespeare's Shylock
Was the Joke Anti-Semitic? Well, the White House must have thought so. The White House transcript sent to reporters after the event conveniently began a couple of minutes into the speech. The video of the event posted on the Washington Institute Web site started right after the Joke, you can even hear the end of the laughter.
At the very least it was an idiotic time and place to make the joke. Many of the attendees of The Washington Institute dinner were in fact Jewish. And the Jewish community is very nervous about the recent anti-Israel leanings of the Obama administration.
Its interesting that the same President that sees racism in the legitimate actions of the Cambridge Police and the State of Arizona, hides the anti-Semitic prose of his own National Security Adviser.
They have no recht to drag Rorschach into bashmutzing Maran Hagaon HaPope!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/europe/27vienna.html?hp
Future Pope’s Role in Abuse Case Was Complex
By KATRIN BENNHOLD
A case in the 1990s has become a kind of Rorschach test of the future Pope Benedict XVI’s treatment of sexual abuse
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/business/28goldman.html?hp
A vice president at Goldman Sachs who helped create and sell a mortgage investment that figures in a fraud suit by the Securities and Exchange Commission will deny in testimony on Tuesday that he failed to disclose crucial information to investors.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/55230/Op-Ed:+My+Concern+for+Outcome+Of+Rubashkin+Trial.html
Another chuchem who admits he knows nothing of the facts in the Rubashkin case while decrying the government's handling of it.
Is Yudi Sherer the son of Shimshy and grandson of the Agudah's Rabbi Sherer?
http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/04/13/brooklyn_heights_courier/news/courier-yn_brooklyn_heights-fl_hikindgreenfieldcenusus_2010_04_16_bk.txt
Hikind and Greenfield can't even fill out form at a Census photo-op!
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/17/all_noachdearpromoted_2010_04_23_bk.html?comm=1
A corrupt former City Councilman who managed to win a Civil Court seat two years after embarrassed Democratic party officials backed him so that he would stop running for public office, has actually been promoted.
Not only that, but Civil Court Judge Noach Dear even got a raise.
Court officials confirmed on Thursday that Dear was made an Acting Supreme Court Judge, a move that includes an $11,000 boost to the $125,600 he was already getting in civil court.
Dear was one of eight jurists elevated to the Supreme Court to help tackle the glut of foreclosure cases, spokesman David Bookstaver explained.
Supporters of Dear say that his promotion was earned because of his work on consumer debt on the civil court.
But if Dear did a good job on debt cases, there’s a reason: the Borough Park jurist was self taught.
Let’s look at Dear’s own case file:
• In the early 1980s, then-Attorney General Robert Abrams accused Dear of “breaking laws governing charities” after he allegedly used money from a private foundation to pay for his car phone and a plane ticket for his wife. Dear was never convicted of any wrongdoing.
• During a failed 1997 run for Congress, Dear was accused of accepting $564,000 in contributions — a number that far exceeded federal limits. He agreed to pay $300,000 back, but a follow-up audit showed that the refunds were never made. The case was ultimately closed in August, 2004, after his campaign refunded the donors and paid $45,000 in penalties, according to the Federal Elections Commission.
Dear was term-limited out of the Council in 2000. After four failed attempts for Congress and state Senate, he was elected to the bench in 2007, thanks mostly to the support of Brooklyn Democratic Boss Vito Lopez and Borough President Markowitz, who many believe wanted Dear out of the election game for awhile.
But, for Dear, even the usually quick and easy road to a Civil Court seat was cratered with controversy, the biggest being the Brooklyn Bar Association and the New York Bar Association who both said he was unqualified.
Calls to Dear’s chambers for comment were not returned. But that’s not a surprise. Over the years, Dear has done whatever he could to avoid the press. so much so that during his race for Civil Court, he was actually videotaped backing down a one-way street to avoid a Channel 2 reporter. All the public got to see was the candidate’s SUV — going in reverse.
Check it out here: http://wcbstv.com/video/?id=103408@wcbs.dayport.com
I know the UOJ believes Rubashkin has been treated unfairly. What do you think would be a fair sentence to be handed out. Dershowitz says a single digit sentence. Anywhere from 5-9 years seems fair to me.
ABC reports al-Qaeda releases video showing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of attempting to bomb Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day, in firing practice, shooting Jewish star, British flag
AFP newswire
New videos produced by al-Qaeda in Yemen show accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and others in firing practice taking aim at a Jewish star, a British flag and the letters UN, ABC television reported Monday.
The footage, aired on ABC's US evening news, "also includes an apparent martyrdom statement in Arabic from the 23-year-old Nigerian justifying his actions against 'the Jews and the Christians and their agents,'" the network said in a statement.
(Obama tried to downplay all this right when he was arrested, refusing to utter the word "terrorism" and calling this Arab al-Qaeda attack an "isolated incident". His lawyer is a pathetic Jew. Maybe she can pass along her client's underwear to Shmarya)
Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer, On Tuesday April 27, 2010, 11:55 am
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Tuesday Washington must urgently confront unpleasant truths about deficits, while the Federal Reserve chairman said failure to mop up red-ink spending would "ultimately do great damage" to the country.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
ROBERT FRANK AND BARBARA FRANK
Plaintiffs,
Vs.
UNION OF ORTHODOX JEWISH CONGREGATIONS OF AMERICA
Defendants,
File No.: ECF 10-3378 LMM
COMPLAINT
NATURE OF CLAIM
1. This action is for declaratory and injunctive relief and for damages to redress the deprivation of rights secured to the plaintiff by 21 U.S.C. §343(a) et seq, misbranded and/or mislabeled food.
6. Robert Frank was employed as a mashgiach at Montefiore.
7. His duties were to inspect food deliveries to prevent non kosher food from entering Montefiore's kitchen and cafeteria, then being cooked and served to hospital patients and cafeteria patrons.
8. His duties also included making periodic inspections through the food preparation areas to insure that all the kosher laws were being followed by the kitchen and cafeteria staff, since they received very little kosher food preparation training by Montefiore and/or the OU.
11. For several months there was one dishwashing machine to wash kosher products at Montefiore. Jewish law requires separation of dairy and meat food and utensils; therefore one dishwasher is required to wash milchik and another is required to wash fleishik food utensils.
12. Even though notification was made by the plaintiff concerning the dishwasher situation to Rabbi Barry Kwiatkovsky, head mashgiach, who was approved and appointed by OU to Montefiore, and Rabbi Dov Schreier, the OU rabbinic coordinator many times over a several month period resolution was not finalized for eleven months.
13. During this eleven month period, Jewish patients and family who kept Kosher as well as doctors and staff from Yeshiva Medical School were unknowingly subjected to consuming food that was not prepared in accordance with orthodox kosher dietary standards.
14. Frank was under orders by both the OU and Montefiore to violate his religious convictions (9th COMMANDMENT Exodus 20:16,"Thou salt not bear false witness) and lie to anyone who inquires of any kosher violations that Frank witnessed, and then tell them that everything was 100% kosher even if he had
personal knowledge that there were kosher violations.
15. On March 6, 2008 , Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president of the OU and Eliezer Edelman executive director of OU were formally notified of numerous kosher violations that existed at Montefiore, about which Frank had previously found fault and requested assistance of the OU to intervene with Montefiore and rectify the situation.
16. Frank had made numerous other attempts to report the kosher violations at Montefiore, first to Montefiore and then to OU, but to no avail.
19. Only after Frank went to the media, including the New York Post, and exposed the kosher problems did OU conduct any sort of investigation into the kosher violations that Mr. Frank had witnessed and documented by both audio and video tape.
20. After Frank went to the media, OU claimed that they had an independent investigator to
research the kosher conditions at Montefiore.
21. The alleged independent investigator was apparently on the OU staff at the time of the inspection.
continued
39. Preventing the kosher violations from becoming public knowledge would naturally cause the OU a great deal of bad publicity, especially if there were a cover-up concealing the violations of certified establishments actually not being strictly kosher.
40. Robert Frank attended a meeting with the OU on November 3, 2008.
41. At the meeting OU was represented by Rabbi Dov Schreier, the rabbinic coordinator in charge of kosher supervision at Montefiore; Rabbi Yaakov Luban, supervisor of Rabbi Schreier; and Rabbi Kwiatkovsky.
42. Rabbi Kwiatkovsky admitted to the OU representatives at that meeting that he allows Montefiore Medical Center employees to bring non kosher food into the kitchen for personal use.
43. After the meeting OU did not take any corrective actions to correct the aforementioned revelation.
44. OU did, in fact, continue to thwart Robert Frank's efforts to do his job as a mashgiach.
47. On January 11, 2010, Barbara Frank called her supervisor at the OU, Rabbi Steinberg, to find out why she had not been called to work since her last day of employment with OU was November 15, 2009.
48. Steinberg answered, "You know why."
49. Barbara Frank asked Steinberg why the situation with her husband should stop her from getting work."You're married to him," Steinberg replied.
53. Knowing that exposing OU could be financially devastating, the plaintiffs would not take the risk of losing their jobs and benefits and, therefore, seeking assistance like food stamps unless their religious convictions were more significant than fabricating the continuing kosher certification.
54. Plaintiffs are now placed in a position where the defendants have insured that they cannot receive employment as mashgiachs even though they have diligently sought similar positions at kosher operations.
continued
25. After Frank went to the OU with video documentation of kosher violations, OU required all mashgiachs at Montefiore to sign a letter of confidentiality which would have prohibited knowledge of kosher violations at Montefiore to be publicized and/or disseminated outside of Montefiore.
26. Frank did not sign the letter of confidentiality knowing from experience that OU would not fulfill their obligation and Frank would be silenced
27. On December 17, 2009, the plaintiff's employment was terminated by Montefiore after advising two internet blogs, which, in turn, informed the public of the poor kosher conditions that existed at Montefiore.
28. OU silenced Frank, the advocate for insuring that Jewish people who observe the rules of keeping Kosher.
29. The OU has allegedly used "strong arm tactics" to force mashgiachs to certify products that are not Kosher for fear of losing their livelihood as what happened to Frank.
32. Frank was formally reprimanded for not lying to an individual, two days prior to his suspension regarding the kosher condition of the cafeteria. Frank could not and would not violate the Ninth Commandment.
33. Because Frank refused to sign the aforementioned leleof letter letterofconfidentiality, OU, in retaliation, would not support plaintiff's efforts to perform his duties as a mashgiach, which was punishment for refusing to sign the letter of confidentiality.
34. Even though OU was aware and possibly conspired, the OU refused to interfere with the harsh and hostile working conditions that were imposed upon Mr. Frank by his supervisor Rabbi Kwiatkovsky
35. OU has a large financial interest in not giving up their kosher certification of Montefiore hospital due to the loss of revenue for the kosher certification fees.
36. It appears that OU places financial remuneration ahead of religious doctrine.
37. OU did not want to be exposed regarding internal kosher violations at Montefiore since other establishments could have the same situation.
38. OU attempted to cover up the kosher violations that existed at Montefiore hospital by requiring all mashgiachs to sign confidentiality agreements to insure their continued silence in exchange for being allowed to work as a mashgiach within OU's system
Shmarya doesn't keep kosher but became a vegetarian for eco-brown-nose reasons.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=173224
Psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong of Toronto University recently reported a startling discovery in the journal Psychological Science: those who purchased a “morally virtuous” product, like organic baby food, were less likely to be charitable and more likely to lie and steal than those who purchased conventional products.
Child molesters deserve the maximum punishment for the crimes they maliciously inflicted on their victims. However, Shalom Rubashkin is a non-violent criminal who was in a position he had no training for. Stupidity is not a reason to be put away for life.
Shalom Rubashkin is a VICTIM OF INJUSTICE.
Tonight, in almost every city there will be Tehillim gatherings. Many abuse victims do not feel comfortable attending such gatherings. However, WE MUST SHOW CONCERN FOR A FELLOW VICTIM OF INJUSTICE.
Please say three chapters of Tehillim for Shalom Mordechai Halevi ben Rivka.
Hashem should deal compassionately and with mercy to all VICTIMS and their advocates. Shalom Rubashkin is a VICTIM OF INJUSTICE.
http://www.kitv.com/politics/22338101/detail.html
A letter from a 95-year-old retired World War II sailor in Hawaii to President Barack Obama has stirred up attention on the Internet.
Retired ship's Boatswain Harold Estes wrote the letter and someone in Florida sent it to Congress.org. The letter then bounced around different sites and people questioned whether it was real.
KITV found the retired sailor at home near Pearl Harbor. Estes assured KITV that he wrote the letter.
In the letter, he chastises the president and first lady Michelle Obama.
"I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you," Estes wrote. "Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves." Read Estes' letter.
"I don't think his word is good enough for him to fly around the world apologizing for the United States," Estes told KITV.
Estes said he has received about 1,000 calls about the letter, overwhelmingly supportive.
"Most of them agree. Most of them say, 'Thank you for writing the letter. It's right on the money,'" the World War II veteran said.
Estes said he was unaware of the controversy he caused on the Internet.
"I've never looked at anything on the Internet. I don't follow this. I didn't write this to get publicity," Estes said.
The U.S. Navy gives a BMC Harold Estes Leadership Award to a chief petty officer who has demonstrated superior leadership while assigned to a Pearl Harbor-based surface Navy ship. The award is named after the letter's author.
"I’m not Jewish.
A bit of history.
When I was a seven year old, my family emigrated from England to Vancouver, Canada. My Mother then got a job in a fashion store in the local Kerrisdale Boulevard owned by a couple, the Marcus’s. Having never met a Jew before what to expect? I’ll tell you. They treated her like a queen, bought my brother and myself gifts at Christmas and birthdays and by those actions brought kindness and a welcome to our totally strange new home.
Next? Back in Britain by now, my first job as a gauche young man at a Jewish owned advertising agency. Again the full mile of help, encouragement and the against the odds chance of getting the job in the first place. It was a springboard to greater things and a wonderful career. Without them it would never have happened and for that I am eternally grateful.
Then in 1967 I watched television as a dashing Moshe Dayan conducted an amazingly brave defence of the still youthful state against an unprincipled and aggressive coalition of Arabs. Vastly outnumbered he and his Army won the day. I certainly knew whose side I was on.
That was the foundation. I have never forgotten. As a consequence I now post as many pieces of comment in defence of Israel, have read many books on Islam and it’s history and thus am acquainted with the stark division of rights and wrongs infecting the globe, post 9/11.
In the hearts of good men an offered goodness never leaves. The memory may sometimes be subliminal yet out it pops at the most unexpected of times.
Despite Obama and his new Middle Eastern buddies (he wishes!) Israel must carry on as a beacon. it was created after the most harrowing of circumstances and if Jews could survive that ultimate horror they can survive anything.
I hope that my little missive appears not too over sentimental, or heaven forbid, patronising. Israel has many friends amongst non Jews who watch and worry as events often collide with truth, honesty and most of all universal rightness which I believe does exist.
The State is entering troubled times and a pro Islam US President does not help.
Rise above it. Show the world the love shown to me all those years ago but do not be fooled by imposters.
Keep up the good work. We’re with you"
http://www.kitv.com/politics/22337870/detail.html
Dear President Obama,
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man. So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
I can't figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like: "We're no longer a Christian nation" "America is arrogant" Your wife even announced to the world, "America is mean- spirited." Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.
I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said, "America hasn’t lived up to her ideals."
Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.
You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
URGENT KINUS TEHILLEM
Hakhel in conjunction with Agudas Yisroel announce a major community-wide Kinus for Men and Women on behalf of Sholom Rubashkin on Tuesday Night April 27th, the evening before his sentencing. The Program is as follows: Maariv at 9:30 pm, followed by Messages from Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Shlita and Rabbi Moshe Tuvia Lieff, Shlita. Tehillim will be lead by Rabbi Shloime Mandel, Shlita, (the head of molestation rife Yeshiva of Brooklyn).
Location: 2913 Avenue L.
Acheinu Kol Bais Yisroel!
Check out my latest posting on Frum Follies, "Don't Follow the Pope!"
http://frumfollies.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/dont-follow-the-pope/
http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/downloads/literature/MortgageFraudReport-12thEdition.pdf
12th Annual Mortgage Fraud Case Report
In the first case, an agreement with Attorney General Cuomo’s Office calls for JM Hyundai in New Rochelle and Legacy Infiniti of Lynbrook (5 Towns) to refund 10 percent of the purchase price to 75 customers who unknowingly purchased cars that had previously been used as rental vehicles, which is a violation of New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. JM Hyundai paid $90,246.40 and Legacy Infiniti paid $19,254.30 in restitution. The checks were sent to customers April 23. Additionally, the two dealerships paid penalties and costs to the state ( JM Hyundai: $22,500; Legacy Infiniti: $5,000 ).
Cuomo’s office has also reached an agreement with Centereach’s now-defunct Middle Country Motors and its owner Keith Chaikin, after the dealership failed to refund thousands of dollars in deposits for vehicles that were never ultimately sold. An investigation found that the dealer required substantial deposits from customers who sought financing. In instances where the consumer’s financing was denied, the dealership illegally kept the deposits or failed to return the money in a timely manner. The dealership, formerly located at 1790 Middle Country Road in Centereach, closed in January 2010.
The agreement requires Middle Country and Chaikin to refund deposits that have not yet been returned and pay $12,000 in penalties and costs to the state. Consumers who believe they are owed a deposit from Middle Country Motors have until May 26, 2010 to file a complaint and may do so by contacting the Attorney General’s Suffolk Regional Office at 631-231-2424 or Nassau Regional Office at 516-248-3300.
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/03/08/100308ta_talk_toobin
According to a number of podiatry Web sites, Hippocrates invented the scalpel so that he could remove his patients’ corns and calluses. William Scholl, of Chicago, came up with an innovative “Foot-Eazer” arch support, and in 1906 the good doctor founded his eponymous company to sell it. But there is, it turns out, a darker side to the profession, and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are currently wrapping up an epic investigation of criminality in the podiatric field.
The case centers on a now defunct podiatric empire known as Citywide Foot Care, which had offices throughout the city in the nineteen-eighties and nineties. Citywide was founded in 1985 by the podiatrists Michael Brumer and Lawrence Klein, both of whom were later disciplined by the state licensing board for various misdeeds, including negligence and fraudulent billing.
As a later government brief in the case pointed out, Klein, when discussing his Medicare patients, “referred to a Yiddish word ‘alta cocka,’ which is an old person of frail mind, to describe the patients and that these people were easily swayed into having surgery.”
In all, the government wound up charging seventeen people, including thirteen podiatrists, in the Citywide scheme. In April, 2002, on the eve of their trial, Brumer and Klein pleaded guilty to all charges against them, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud and health-care fraud. Disputes over sentencing dragged on for the next two years, and then Brumer and Klein fired their lawyers and sued them for a return of their fees. Judge Kimba Wood allowed them to choose new lawyers, but denied the refund request. In 2005, the two podiatrists made a motion to withdraw their guilty pleas, which Wood denied. The following year, they made another motion to withdraw their pleas, which Wood again rejected. In 2007, Wood sentenced Brumer and Klein to sixty-three months in prison, and they finally surrendered in June, 2008. Dr. Kalajian got thirty-seven months. Two Citywide defendants remain to be sentenced—almost twelve years after the search of their offices.
In December, the podiatrist Steven Ginsberg pleaded guilty in an unrelated case to various frauds, including “falsely billing Medicare for services” that were never performed. Ginsberg also agreed to reimburse the government more than a million dollars.
The RCA are hippocrits as they promote MESIRA in regards to matters of divorce advising women to litigate in the civil courts, obtain false orders of protection and even jailing them as to extricate a GET without affording the man with halachic due process. How do I prove this? there are plenty of cases where the woman ran to civil court w/o permission from a bais din, yet the RCA nor any other bais din has admonished her. this is a "double standard in MESIRA"!!! you can read:
http://rabbiniccorruptionatrcc.blogspot.com/ also
http://mamzeralert.blogspot.com/
which verifies these facts!
East 21st St in Flatbush
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=35040
City law enforcement authorities came together Tuesday in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office to announce charges against more than two dozen welfare cheats.
One married couple, Ariel and Joyce Soudry, worked in real estate in Brooklyn and Long Branch, New Jersey. They had $2.2 million in their private accounts while allegedly robbing $60,000 in Medicaid benefits over five years.
“They will pay every dime back, plus interest,” D.A. Hynes declared.
http://www.brooklynda.org/press_releases/pr_apr_10.htm
Another defendant, Marlowe Gershenson, 35, is charged with collecting $63,000 in Medicaid benefits, over the course of six years, despite the fact that her husband, with whom she lives and owns property, owns a clothing wholesale manufacturing company – AV Denim – and a real estate business, MDK Leasing. At one point in 2007, her husband’s checking account had a balance of over $110,000, and on an automobile loan application – she owns a Bentley Coupe and a Land Rover SUV – she claimed annual earnings of $500,000, according to the indictment.
Ariel, 31, and Joyce Soudry, 28, are charged with stealing $59,000 in Medicaid benefits over five years, while their bank balance exceeded $2.2 million. The couple’s real estate companies own and manage rental properties and develop condominiums in Long Branch, NJ and in Brooklyn. They currently make payments on three luxury cars, including one Mercedes.
It took the so called DA forever to do something about criminal child molesters and only because the heat was on him, but for a legal but insensitive comment about his fellow Irishmen, he takes action immediately.
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Dennys-chief-says-sorry-for-famine-pancakes-promotion-90513279.html
Denny's chief says sorry for Irish Famine pancakes promotion
Nelson Marchioli, president & CEO, said he was urged by NY District Attorney Joe Hynes to go public. He spoke about the gaffe on the long-running Adrian Flannelly show Saturday, which prompted several callers to ring in.
In February, Denny's announced a Free Pancakes and Fries Promotion to mark the 150th anniversary of the Irish Famine.
After much negative press and a public backlash they pulled the ad from TV and issued the following so-called apology: "Denny's has a history of using humor in its television advertising. It is certainly not the intention of the company to offend anyone or any group, and we apologize if this spot has in any way. As a result of the feedback we have received from our customers the spot will no longer be on the air after Tuesday. We thank those who took the time to contact us."
The apology placated exactly nobody.
As many people commented on our pages; "they didn't apologize for what they did, they only responded to the reaction."
Another reader said "FYI, they are still running the "special" which should be pulled also!”
Another user was far more succinct in his opinion of the whole affair: “Denny's Sucks.”
The OU continued to certify the Alfred L. Wolff Inc. even after the criminal charges for life threatening food adulteration!
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/honey-laundering-bust-highlights-sticky-problem/19429121
Fan, also known to his U.S. clients as "Michael Fan," was arrested for allegedly conspiring to illegally import honey that was deliberately mislabeled to avoid U.S. anti-dumping duties, according to statements in the criminal charges filed by Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Chicago.
The charges against him allege his involvement in 96 shipments of Chinese honey falsely declared as originating in South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
In 2001 and 2002, Chinese bee colonies were hit by a tsunami of disease that quickly destroyed much of the country's honey production. The Chinese beekeepers turned to an animal antibiotic produced in India -- chloramphenicol -- to treat the illnesses ravaging their beehives. The antibiotic soon began showing up in honey shipped to the U.S. and Canada.
The Food and Drug Administration bans all animal medication from food products sold in this country and has issued alerts three times about the antibiotics found in Chinese honey. The last came in 2007, when Florida food detectives found two other antibiotics -- iprofloxacin and Enrofloxacin -- in honey and blended honey syrup from China.
Most people can eat the tainted honey without serious complications. However, a small percentage of the public with sensitivities to the drugs can become horribly ill. The illegal additive has continued to be found in honey arriving at U.S. ports this year.
While both the ICE and the FDA had ordered extra vigilance toward Chinese honey, many agents admit they have the resources to inspect only an insignificant percentage of the imported honey.
Some small U.S. honey packagers are left worrying about the safety of the plastic bears and jugs of honey that fill store shelves. Many pay for costly tests to detect the illegal antibiotics, but because of elaborate dodges, including ultrafiltration, used by some smugglers to mask the contaminants, the results of the costly analysis are often inconclusive.
Other suppliers, including some of the largest in the country, likely know the honey they buy comes from Chinese bees, even though the paperwork says it originated in Australia, New Zealand, India or another country presumed safe. As one federal investigator explained: When these companies are paying $1 less a pound than prevailing prices, it's difficult not to be aware that the honey's bogus.
The charges against Fan stem from an ongoing investigation of the honey importing practices of Alfred L. Wolff Inc., an enormous national food distributor, federal officials said. The inquiry into that Chicago-based company began with the May 2008 arrest of two Wolff employees on federal conspiracy charges stemming from the alleged importation of millions of dollars of falsely labeled Chinese honey.
UOJ,
What's with YTV ??
Nisht gedieget, a bissele gedult...
BTW....UOJ added some 26,000 views to the Rubashkin video in the last 15 hours. It's important that the focus remains on getting SMR a fair and just sentence, in proportion to the crimes he was found guilty of, not a day more!
And what length of sentence is deserved here?
I'll leave that to the Ribono Shel Olam to decide...I believe Alan Dershowitz got this one right however.
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/steal-this-napkin-feel-no-guilt-come-again/
Giving it away for free. What a smashing song title. What a lovely, destructive, seductive phrase: giving it away for free. That’s what diners think about items in a restaurant that are not tied down. And if they are tied down, someone will filch the fasteners. Giving it away for free. Napkins, glasses, menus, plates, pepper mills, hot sauce, silverware, ketchup, wine lists, anything that fits under a jacket, down your pants, up your dress, or into a bag. Not only the nuts in the bowl on the bar, but the bowl itself will be gone in short order. And maybe a bar stool too.
The Reuters headline last week was alarming: “Weakness rife in US small business loans.” The article reported on testimony at a hearing held by the House Small Business Committee. “The U.S. Small Business Administration’s inspector general found weakness in more than two-thirds of loans it examined in a program aimed at encouraging construction projects,” Reuters reported. “Some $255 million worth of these so-called 504 loans were made to borrowers who might not be eligible or might not be able to repay them.”
To put this in context, the Reuters article further noted that “the Obama administration has proposed raising the maximum size of these loans to $5 million from $2 million as part of its efforts to 'help' the economy.”
Margo told me to deny everything
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/business/28goldman.html?pagewanted=2&hpw
At one point Mr. Viniar prompted a collective gasp when Mr. Levin asked him how he felt when he learned that Goldman employees had used vulgar terms to describe the poor quality of certain Goldman deals. Mr. Viniar replied, “I think that’s very unfortunate to have on e-mail.”
Senator Levin then berated Mr. Viniar for not saying that he was appalled that Goldman employees even thought their deals were of poor quality, much less put it in e-mail.
Mr. Blankfein, Goldman’s chief, entered the chamber with an almost angry demeanor. In a brief prepared statement, he held tight to Goldman’s defenses.
Later, asked if he knew the housing market was doomed, Mr. Blankfein replied, “I think we’re not that smart.”
Mr. Blankfein was asked repeatedly whether Goldman sold securities that it also bet against, and whether Goldman treated those clients properly.
“You say betting against,” Mr. Blankfein said in a lengthy exchange. But he said the people who were coming to Goldman for risk in the housing market got just that: exposure to the housing market. “The unfortunate thing,” he said, “is that the housing market went south very quickly.”
Senator Levin pressed Mr. Blankfein again on whether the his customers should know what Goldman workers think of deals they are selling, and Mr. Blankfein reiterated his position that sophisticated investors should be allowed to buy what they want.
Mr. Blankfein was also pressed on the deal at the center of the S.E.C. case. He said the investment was not meant to fail, as the S.E.C. claims, and in fact, that the deal was a success, in that it conveyed “risk that people wanted to have, and in a market that’s not a failure.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/us/28lawyer.html
Jeffrey R. Anderson, the lawyer whose pursuit of the Roman Catholic Church has been perhaps the loudest, is the center of his own tornado. As employees race in and out of his ornate offices, Mr. Anderson is planning a news conference in Los Angeles about an abusive priest, answering calls from the family of a victim of another from Florida, and preparing a lawsuit in Milwaukee naming the Vatican and the pope as defendants. And this is only a Monday.
Mr. Anderson, 62, has been filing suits against priests and bishops since 1983 and, at least once before, against the Vatican itself. But a new wave of accusations reaching ever closer to Rome has emerged in recent weeks, helped along, in part, by Mr. Anderson’s discovery of previously undisclosed documents. Now he is receiving new calls and pressing new cases, with more court filings and news conferences, at an almost frenzied pace.
His critics call him a headline chaser and a self-promoter. And even some in the legal community refer to his role as co-counsel in so many abuse cases around the country as “the Jeff Anderson franchise system.”
Mr. Anderson is unapologetic: “Yes, I am driven. Yes, I am obsessed. Yes, I am. Maybe I’m even manic about it,” he said in an interview that filled the rare gaps between everything else whirling around him. “But it has little to do with their theology. It has everything to do with what they’re doing to kids.”
He turns loud, outraged, profane when he talks about individual cases. He cries a lot when he describes victims. He rarely stops to eat. He is extremely impatient, hyperfocused. In his own words, “A.D.D. untreated.”
David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called him “a ceaseless ball of energy.”
He has, by the way, sued over abuse in other faiths: Lutheran, Baptist, Mormon and so on.
As an alcoholic who quit drinking around his 50th birthday, Mr. Anderson says his experience helps him understand the pope’s comments in recent weeks about efforts to protect children. Denial, he says, is a powerful force.
And thus begins one of Mr. Anderson’s singular monologues, which his critics would call both disrespectful and inaccurate.
“Tell me one thing, Pontiff, you’ve done,” he began. “One act — not words — one act. Have you removed one bishop? Have you disciplined one cardinal? Have you disclosed one secret? Have you changed one protocol that requires secrecy?”
“He’s a dear man,” he continued. “He’s a wise theologian. But when it comes to this issue, he is as sick when it comes to understanding child abuse and his role in it as I was as a practicing alcoholic.”
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10491049
Rabbi Shmully Hecht, an adviser to Eliezer, a Jewish society at Yale University, said he was especially disturbed by the prosecution's argument at a January 2009 hearing that Rubashkin should remain in jail because he was "a de facto dual citizen" who would flee to Israel if released.
"The motivation (for the life sentence) may have been because of a very aggressive immigration policy of the Bush administration, the media that the case attracted, but one possibility may be anti-Semitic undertones," Hecht said. "I think the anti-Semitism comes, quite frankly, from the U.S. attorney's office. I think it has to be questioned what's driving the government to lock a man up with an unprecedented sentence for the rest of his life."
Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa, disputed those claims.
He said he's seen "a pattern of misinformation" in the thousands of e-mails sent to the U.S. attorney's office since Rubashkin's trial. "Factually, there has been a little truth that has lead to a big lie," he said.
Teig pointed to several elements of a campaign to reduce Rubashkin's proposed sentence, including whether Rubashkin profited from the fraud. Teig said the jury was never asked to decide whether Rubashkin personally profited from the fraud.
An organized effort has formed around Rubashkin's case, backed by a website and New York City public relations firm.
"We've got the truth," Teig said. But because of the campaign, "the truth has become a victim in this process."
Jonathan Edelstein, a lawyer and expert on U.S.-Israeli extradition law, said ever since the Enron case, when corporate leaders were found to have lied to investors, the government has come down hard on white-collar crime. Just weeks ago, he noted, Minnesota businessman Tom Petters was sentenced to 50 years for a Ponzi scheme that cost investors $3.7 billion.
But Edelstein still questions such a harsh sentence for Rubashkin.
"Not long ago it would have been considered absurd for a nonviolent criminal to serve a life sentence," he said.
Reade, the judge who ultimately determines the sentence, may consider factors other than Rubashkin's conviction, said William Mateja, a former assistant U.S. attorney and coordinator of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force under the Bush administration. That includes his involvement in employing hundreds of workers who were convicted of immigration violations and deported, crimes which do not need to be proven, only shown to be true by a preponderance of the evidence.
The Chicago FRUM COMMUNITY's Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky is now Nancy Pelosi's right hand person.
************************************
This week, Rep. Jan Schakowsky suggested that President Obama’s deficit panel ought to consider revoking tax credits for retirement savings, including Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) plans. She referred to the tax credits as “tax entitlements.”
Revoking tax credits on retirement savings could cost each taxpayer in our district up to $1,000 per year (or $2,000 if filing jointly). It is an absurd idea that will punish people for hard work and fiscal responsibility. Lower income earners would be particularly hurt by Rep. Schakowsky’s proposal, because they recover a higher percentage of their savings, according to the terms of the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit.
Our economy needs more saving, not less. Saving makes investment possible, and investment makes job creation possible, which in turn raises income and tax revenues. If we take away incentives to save, our economy will continue to struggle and our nation will continue to face enormous debt. Congress should not be allowed to raid our retirement savings simply because government has failed to live within its means.
Furthermore, tax credits for retirement savings are not “entitlements” that we receive from the government. They belong to us and are paid from our own money--the money we struggle to earn each month and which we carefully set aside for the future.
Rep. Schakowsky is targeting retirement savings in order to warn the deficit panel away from considering reform to actual entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security. Yet she was eager to cut half a trillion dollars from Medicare when she voted for Obamacare last month, despite evidence that the cuts would hurt seniors. She is not concerned with protecting these programs from their long-term financial problems.
In fact, though she was appointed by Nancy Pelosi to serve on the deficit panel, Rep. Schakowsky does not take the task of reducing the deficit seriously at all. At the opening session of the panel yesterday, she said that “balancing the budget or reducing in [sic] the debt are in my mind not goals in and of themselves.” She just wants to keep spending.
Rubashkin Justice?
SEE this particularly well-written one by Daas Hedyot.
I have a very close friend who is doing serious time in prison. Just before sentencing, many people in the community wrote letters or made personal appearances before the judge to try and reduce the time that he would surely have to serve. Although many folks dropped all contact with this individual as a result of his quite unsavory misdeeds, many others (include myself), acted as characters witnesses and spoke up on his behalf.
This is what family does.
BUT.
What we did not do was to lie to the judge. My friend never denied his serious mistake, nor did the letters that we wrote deny the seriousness of the crime. We did not produce slick videos that glossed over the facts of the case. We did not speak in public alleging anti-Semitic motivations for his arrest. We never once applied the label of pidyon shevuyim, the redemption of captives. We did not bring irrelevant comparisons to sentences meted out to other criminals in completely different circumstances, or in completely different legal venues. The plea was simple: the person contributed much to the community (as indeed he did, and I am not referring to monetary contributions) who had a lapse in judgment which he fully admits and is willing to take responsibility for. Please, judge, have some mercy in your decision.
No, one doesn't just wipe one's hands clean and ignore the plight of a family member, even if that member is guilty of a great chillul Hashem as Sholom Rubashkin certainly is. However, to use lies and deceit to accomplish one's goals is contemptible. And this is why I part company with the Lubavitch community and its many allies in the chareidi and - yes - even Modern Orthodox world.
See Article posted in the De Moines Register on April 25th below, by Rev. Michael Blevins, Decorah.
Rubashkin deserves 'serious' prison time
April 25, 2010
In response to the April 20 guest essay, "Life in Prison for Rubashkin Is Too Harsh," by defense attorney Harlan Protass:
I respond as someone who, along with so many others, has been involved for nearly two years now in dealing with the humanitarian disaster occasioned by Rubashkin.
This man's actions have devastated several hundred families, ripped the fabric of a community, hypocritically abused his religion, selfishly and cynically violated in manifold ways the basic human rights of vulnerable persons, and betrayed his fiduciary position as a religious and community leader.
He will not even be held to account for the most egregious alleged federal law violations - i.e. those not involving financial fraud (the feds pay attention
to those who pay attention to them - i.e. people and institutions with money).
Restorative justice demands reparations, confession and serious prison time.
- The Rev. Michael Blevins, Decorah
This is terrible Socialist wealth redistribution of our hard earned tax money.
Are we still mechuyev to pay taxes according to the Gemara Sanhedrin?
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=10490210
April 28, 2010 —
"Government handouts." That's what Anna Aquino, 31, a homeowner in Kissimmee, Fla., calls her state's latest plan to help residents pay off their mortgages.
Aquino, whose own home has lost $30,000 in value since she bought it during the boom, says Washington's $418 million mortgage assistance for distressed homeowners in Florida is spoiling Americans into constantly expecting help.
"It's not up to our government to bail out every hard-hit person," she says of Florida's proposal, which is currently under review by the U.S. Treasury and is expected to take effect later this summer. "Whatever happened to the American spirit of trying to pick ourselves up from our boot-straps?"
Florida is one of 10 states that will be receiving money as part of a $2.1 billion federal program to help distressed homeowners pay their mortgages.
The money comes from a special housing component within the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) known as the Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets -- HFA Hardest-Hit Fund for short.
The first five states to qualify -- Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada -- recently submitted their proposals to Treasury for approval and are expected to implement them this summer. Another five states -- Rhode Island, South Carolina, Oregon, North Carolina and Ohio -- are still waiting for federal guidelines.
States that have already submitted their plans have taken a variety of approaches. Under Florida's proposal, for example, the state would make nine months of mortgage payments on behalf of homeowners as long as lenders agree to forgive another nine months of payments.
In Arizona, the state would match a bank's forgiveness of principal with payments of up to $50,000.
Critics of the program have been pointing out what they say are its flaws since it was announced in February. The biggest complaint has been that it takes taxes paid by responsible Americans to bail out those who bought more home than they could afford.
I will not publish anything negative today on SMR; he's no tzaddik for sure, although his family is responsible for much chesed.
Reasonable people would hope his sentence is congruous to the crimes he was convicted for. I don't know anyone who believes he's innocent of all wrongdoing, or that he should get no prison time.
Be proud UOJ readers; WE viewed the Rubashkin video some 41,000 times so far (in the 36 hours since it was posted here) and has been viewed by the highest officials in government, and members of the Supreme Court of the United States!
The rest is up to the Big Guy!
It's a disgrace that someone with a berd and black hat is capturing national attention like this, just like Leib Pinter's 1970s scandal shook the highest echelons of government including the White House.
For that magnitude of chilul Hashem alone I don't know how to be sympathetic.
I think Shmarya will have to physically restrained if Rubashkin gets anything less than 50 years.
Newman's Own is OU certified
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/organic.labeling.cornucopia.2.1660070.html
Is it or isn't it? How do you know when organic packaged food really is organic?
A watchdog group filed several complaints Tuesday saying what you see is not necessarily what you get.
The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group, is checking things out and Tuesday filed a legal complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, saying three food companies -- Oskri Organics, Organic Bistro and Newman's Own Organics -- are deceiving consumers by misrepresenting the words "organic"
I trust that klapei Shomayim, SMR will not get a light sentence, but neither will the entire Agudath Israel Moetzes and their supporters!
http://www.kgan.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_2459.shtml
We can at least feel sympathy for the mishpocho but what does Leah Rubashkin mean that the "whole story" is not out there yet?
Were Sholom and his lawyers not allowed to speak in court to defend themselves?
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-mcwilliams/david-mcwilliams-lunacy-of-nama-bailout-will-tip-us-over-the-edge-2154960.html
I found myself in an old London institution, Bloom's Restaurant in Golders Green. The place is one of the few authentic kosher restaurants in London and well worth a visit -- if not for the food, just for the people watching.
Last night the place was hopping. As the only man without a yarmulke, I stood out a mile. The tables were full of old Jewish ladies, nattering about their daughters-in-law, elderly couples sharing desserts with two spoons, bearded men on mobiles and my own raucous table deep in heated debate.
My hosts were worried. We tucked into some Yiddish specialties all washed down with Maccabi beer. The conversation moved quickly with no one agreeing with anyone else. You could have been in an east European shtetl before the war -- all exaggerated hand gestures and dramatic sweeping statements with warnings of the impending disaster that awaits Britain if the Liberals and Labour do a deal. This Armageddon was only marginally more treacherous than the one that faces us if the Liberals and the Conservatives do a deal.
We spoke of the euro too, which they all agreed was going through the mill. Some of these guys had years of financial experience and they were in no doubt that Greece would blow, followed by Portugal and then on to Ireland. They explained to me something I had forgotten which was how profits, not ECB press statements, embolden market players.
So today the Greek bond yields are out at 16pc. This means that the markets who bet when Greek bond yields were at 5pc that there would be a crisis can now make a tidy profit. This money that they make in Greece will now be banked and deployed against the next country.
I left the restaurant more confused than when I had arrived
I live by Ave T & East 21st. The Gershensons are from Ave T & East 18th
http://www.vosizneias.com/54230/2010/04/28/new-york-brooklyn-couple-with-2m-in-bank-scams-59g-in-medicaid-benefits
Ariel Soudry, 31, and his wife, Joyce, 28, live in a million-dollar home and send their children to private school.
They have rental and condominium developments in Brooklyn and New Jersey, an Audi and a Mercedes - and a real bad attitude.
"Lowlifes - get a real job," Ariel sniped at photographers as he was taken into court to be arraigned on charges that include grand larceny and welfare fraud.
Joyce Soudry wore a gray Boss scarf when she appeared in court with her hubby, who had on a $200 Robert Graham shirt embroidered with the slogan, "Knowledge, wisdom, truth."
The Midwood couple faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Both were released without bail.
"We deny all charges," said their lawyer Solomon Anter. "We can't wait for the truth to come out."
There are Soudrys all over Flatbush. I am one of the shutfim of Olympic Pita under Kehilla Kashrus.
Like father, like son
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doi///downloads/pdf/pr53soudry06-19-2008.pdf
ROSE GILL HEARN, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), announced today the arrest of ABRAHAM SOUDRY who is charged with offering and paying cash bribes to a DOI undercover investigator posing as an Inspector for the New York City Department of Buildings (“DOB”) to avoid violations at a Brooklyn building. DOI’s investigation stemmed from a DOB Inspector report about a bribe offer.
SOUDRY, 65, of Brooklyn, has been indicted on two counts of Bribery in the Third Degree, a class D felony, and one count of Rewarding Official Misconduct in the Second Degree, a class E felony. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison on each bribery count and up to four years in prison on the Rewarding Official Misconduct charge. The indictment charges that on two dates in May 2008, SOUDRY offered and gave cash to the undercover investigator to influence his performance of his job and to reward him for violating his duty.
DOI began its investigation after a DOB Inspector reported to DOI that he had been offered money by an individual at 2848 Brighton 7th St., a 10-story apartment building under construction. At that address, on May 2, 2008, a DOI undercover investigator, posing as a DOB Inspector, spoke with SOUDRY who allegedly paid the undercover investigator cash bribes of $550 on May 2 and $1,000 on May 8, to avoid citations for violations against the building.
Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said, “Paying off a City Inspector is a crime and a foolish way of dealing with a code violation. The DOB Inspector who reported the offer of money, as others have done, is to be commended.”
"And this is why I part company with the Lubavitch community and its many allies in the chareidi and - yes - even Modern Orthodox world."
So the holy rollers or G-T's kozzakin (Yiddish) are still on the march.I am quite sure that the above named factions of Yiddishkeit are going to go into deep mourning over your "departure" from them.
Just one question.Are you also going to "depart" from the so called frum world,Litvish,Chassidish,Yeshivish, Charedish,Roshei hayishivos,rabeim,rabbonim,Agudah,Moetzes etc, because of their lying,conniving, on going cover up of child molestation which IMHO is a crime much greater in magnitude and a greater Chillul Hashem then the crime(s) of Rubashkin?
Nissim Soudry,
Which shutef are you again at Olympic?
The one that was arrested for dealing drugs and blowing millions gambling at Atlantic City, or another one?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30643525/Rubashkin-Summary-of-Sentencing-Exhibits
Who is this Mordechai Korf that put up $22 million to bail out Rubashkin's company (but was obstructed by a bank)? Someone with this name comes up owning companies in Ohio & Michigan and real estate in Florida.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30643525/Rubashkin-Summary-of-Sentencing-Exhibits
Eichler also tried to buy Rubashkin's company but had enough trouble with this family recently when the bank he owned beshutfus with Rubashkin's cousin Shaya Boymelgreen was seized by the FDIC.
The Time magazine article on the sidebar about anti-Semite General Jones is horrible and should be removed.
The writer shows at the end of the article that he agrees with Obama and that anyone who thinks he is anti-Israel is a nutcase.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/04/28/2394553/rabbi-arrested-at-protest
(JTA) – A rabbi and two Jewish officials were arrested in Chicago for their part in immigration reform protests.
Rabbi Joshua Salter of Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Congregation on Chicago's South Side was among 24 protesters arrested Tuesday morning outside of a federal detention center, along with Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Chicago-based Jewish Council of Urban Affairs, and Tom Walsh, the organization's director of advocacy.
The activists were cited for disorderly conduct after sitting on a street attempting to block a van carrying detainees from reaching the detention center.
“I'm not here to say 'shame on Arizona.' I'm here to say 'shame on America' for allowing Arizona to happen.”
http://www.bethshalombz.org/
Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation
http://www.bethshalombz.org/files/Rav_Yahoshua_s_Bio.pdf
Rabbi Joshua Salter is the latest graduate (June of 2005) of the Israelite Rabbinical Academy based in New York City. He is delighted to continue the unique legacy of highly esteemed African-American Rabbis ordained to serve humanity through this Academy.
I am currently Associate Rabbi to the highly esteemed Rabbi Capers Funnye (Michelle Obama's cousin)
http://bethshalombz.org/blog2/israelite-academy/history-of-the-israelite-academy/
List of Black Rabbis in America
April 28, 2010
(JTA) -- A car crashed into the front steps of a Pittsburgh-area synagogue.
No one was injured in Tuesday night's crash at Congregation Poale Zedeck Congregation in Squirrel Hill. The car reached the first landing of the stairs leading to the synagogue and did not hit the actual building, the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle reported. Police are investigating.
According to witnesses, two men exited the heavily damaged Nissan Altima and began running up Shady Avenue as the congregants inside for evening services came outside. About a dozen congregants chased the men, who were quickly caught and held until police arrived.
It is unclear whether the crash was intentional. Police had no comment.
Congregant Rocky Wice tackled the car’s driver after he had run a few blocks.
“We held him down and he was ranting about how God sent him, saying ‘God is my father and I love the Jews,’ ” Wice said. “He did not struggle. He was very incoherent.”
Wice added that the initial impact of the crash made “the whole building shudder.”
Meyer Eichler is a geshmake guy.
He sells my musser sefer "Don't Give Up" at his Eichler's Judaica store.
LOS ANGELES (JTA) – A 15-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl has become the youngest elected public representative in Los Angeles.
Rachel Lester, a sophomore at a Modern Orthodox high school, was elected last week to the South Robertson Neighbourhood Council. She defeated her opponent, a college-educated family man, by a vote of 144 to 13.
The 90-neighbourhood councils in Los Angeles are official municipal bodies that serve as advisory boards to the LA City Council and as liaison between residents and the municipal government. Neighbourhood councils generally hold two meetings per month.
Lester is a straight A student at Shalhevet High School and has skipped a grade. Her district is about 50 blocks in a heavily Jewish area with a strong Orthodox component that is well known for its kosher restaurants and markets.
http://www.obshina.com/
Why did Chabad tell me to wear a yarmulka for this video but not in the one where I go to bat for Rubashkin?
WINONA, Minn. (AP) - A Lewiston man has a pretty good excuse for why he crashed his car into a utility pole in Winona: his dog puked on him.
The Winona Daily News reports police found the car unattended last Thursday morning against an Xcel Energy pole. Witnesses told officers they saw a man leaving the area and walking a beagle.
Michael Allen Butler called police about four hours later to confess. The 18-year-old did not have insurance or a Minnesota driver's license.
Butler told police he was driving when his dog started "throwing up all over him." Deputy Police Chief Tom Williams says the story checked out - police found vomit in the car.
The pole had only minor damage. Butler was cited for driving without insurance or a license.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/nyregion/28about.html
I love it!
Not only is Irish Catholic Jim Dwyer of the NY Times arguing to defeat the Markey Bill, he pulled a stunt right out of my playbook that there is no evidence that priests molest kids more than anyone else!
And now joining the Vatican & Agudah in opposition are the public schools and County governments who don't want to pay out any victim damage awards.
We have to have a celebration & pop the champagne corks tonight. Me, Shafran, Vito Lopez & David Greenfield!
Scheinerman, you shtink!
“The city has taken no official position on the bills, but we have real concerns about their potential impact on the taxpayers,” said Francis Barry, a spokesman for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Assemblywoman Markey’s bill – and its companion in the Senate, sponsored by Ruth Hassell-Thompson — would provide a one-year window for filing lawsuits that go back 40 years.
Subject: Message from Marge Markey and Ruth Thompson
The Markey bill will be brought up in about two weeks on the floor. I was asked to relay this message to all victims of sexual abuse. Senator Ruth Thompson would like to hear from all of you that are comfortable sharing their story in a few paragraphs.
http://www.kgan.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.ia/229fc0be-www.kgan.com.shtml
Former Agriprocessors poultry manager Joseph Gourarie testified in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids Wednesday that Rubashkin wanted to fire about 200 illegal immigrants at the plant just months before a massive immigration raid in May 2008, but couldn't get permission from his father, former Agriprocessors owner Aaron Rubashkin.
Testimony from defense witnesses will resume Thursday morning.
Painful as it may be, it appears there is a significant chareidi involvement in the Holyland investigation. According to a Tuesday night Channel 10 News report, a check cashing store located on Rabbi Akiva Street in Bnei Brak is also involved, used to channel funds involved in the bribery fraud case, investigators believe. The operator of the check cashing store was brought in for questioning by police, and the owner confronted suspect Meir Rabin, who apparently maintained his silence, still uncooperative with police. The report stated that there is a video, compliments of a state witness, which incriminates Rabin here too.
Correspondent Avichai Ben-Chaim reported that the investigation led to papers from the state’s Non-Profit Registrar, which points to a suspected connection to an organization called HaKeren L’Hatzalat Chinuch Torani (The Fund to Save Torah Education). The paper trial points to three checks totaling NIS 150,000, checks that passed through the organization on May 23, 2001. The name appearing on the donation is the state witness, a secular gentleman, whose name may not be released at this time.
The report states the state witness claims the benefactor specifically wanted to make a donation to an organization connected to the family of Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita. He explains that he was assured the money would be used by one of the organization’s connect to HaRav Ovadia, and that was fine with him.
I thought this was a joke at first
http://timescolumns.typepad.com/gledhill/2010/04/pope-may-apologise-for-child-abuse-scandals-says-levada.html
Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has indicated that the Pope may apologise to victims of paedophile priests in June. Read the full transcript of his interview with Margaret Warner of PBS Newshour.
He also indicated that he believes the sexual revolution of the 1960s is partly to blame for the crisis: 'I think the causes we will see go back to changes in society that the church and priests were not prepared for, particularly changes involving how to be a celibate person in a time of the sexual revolution, that's one of the causes I'd say.'
He said the Pope is writing a 'beautiful' letter to the Catholic Church in Ireland, which has been particularly badly hit and where the Archbishop of Armagh is expected to resign soon. He said he found the Irish letter 'moving' and hinted that there may well be more episcopal resignations. He said the Pope was prepared to ask bishops to resign where they did not go voluntarily.
After the Wednesday audience in Rome today, the Pope met Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a former winner of The Times Preacher of the Year Award. Rabbi Shmuley urged him to restore family values to the heart of the church by making every Friday a special family day.
Rabbi Shmuley told me that he also met the Bishop of Sherborne Dr Graham Kings. I've put in a call to Dr Kings in Rome and will let you know what he says if he comes back to me!
http://www.freep.com/print/article/20100428/OPINION05/100427072/Defend-children-or-the-church
Defend children or the church?
BY MARCI A. HAMILTON
As revelations of childhood sexual abuse by clergy have become epidemic across the globe, the Vatican has instituted a number of measures to increase transparency and action in dealing with the crisis. The pope has now met with victims, accepted the resignation of a number of bishops, and issued a directive on how to properly report abuse to civil authorities.
These steps are welcome and necessary, but, with all due respect, they don't mean much to the countless victims of priest sex abuse who have yet to experience anything approaching justice. Survivors of these heinous crimes, including far too many in Michigan, have suffered for years in ignominy and silence.
They will continue to do so unless Michigan joins the growing movement of states across the country that are introducing and enacting laws to reform their statutes of limitation for childhood sexual abuse. Survivors typically need decades to come forward, and the legal system offers the only viable means of identifying child predators who are operating under the radar.
In fact, there are two statute-of-limitations reforms that must be passed in order to level the playing field for victims. First, civil and criminal statutes of limitations need to be liberally extended or totally eliminated, as Alaska, Maine and Delaware have done.
Second, the courthouse doors need to be opened for victims even if their statutes of limitations have expired. By creating a “window” – a set time period for victims to initiate legal proceedings against their perpetrators – states would also perform an essential public service by exposing the names and crucial information about these abusers. California and Delaware have embraced such reform, and others, including Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, New York and Wisconsin, are considering it. In California, the public learned the identities of 300 child predators.
To their tremendous credit, Michigan legislators are considering a bill, HB 5699, which would, at once, extend the statute of limitations to 30 years past the age of maturity (18) and create a two-year window starting on the date of enactment. Under current Michigan law, victims have only until age 19 to file civil claims against their perpetrators and those who fostered abuse.
If bishops in Michigan were actually interested in true transparency, they would back this bill rather than vehemently opposing it.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Police say a 24-year-old man is missing a chunk of his right ear that was bitten off by a woman who didn't like being called "fat." Police spokeswoman Katie Flood said officers were called to a Lincoln hospital around 3:25 a.m. Wednesday to talk to the injured man.
He told them that he'd been bitten at a party.
Flood said officers later learned that the injured man and two others had been arguing with other people at the birthday party. Flood says the man told 21-year-old Anna Godfrey that she was fat.
Officers said Godfrey then tackled the man and took a bite.
Flood said the ear chunk was not found.
Godfrey was arrested on suspicion of felony assault and remained in custody Wednesday.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_TOILET_PAPER_BANDIT?SITE=WBBMAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Police say man wrapped in toilet paper robs store
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- A man who concealed his face by wrapping his head with toilet paper robbed a Lincoln convenience store.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100428/NEWS/100428057/1001/Defense-Rubashkin-regrets-Postville-outcome
Rubashkin lawyers tayna the bank's hefsid was not so much in reality because they could have seized and sold the $11 million in frozen dreck meat that was between 2 and 10 years old.
Hey Shmarya, either get your fat behind out of your mother's basement and attend the trial or return the money you panhandled for this purpose.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/us/29postville.html
Mr. Rubashkin’s trial on state charges for labor abuses, including hiring child labor, starts Tuesday. Some 10 immigrant workers have received temporary visas as witnesses to testify in those cases.
This company was under the OU for many years and may have been kicked out as they were known for all kinds of kashrus violations, before being picked up by OK, or the OK may have underbid on the fee.
Rabbi Moishe Scheinerman once got up in shul on Shabbos and said that Kehillah Kashrus no longer allows Slavin fish because of a kashrus incident where the company personally threatened Rav Hillel David.
http://www.mslavin.com/productguide.pdf
Rabbinical supervision on site daily by OK.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/us-suit-says-fish-seller-harassed-black-male-workers/
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on Monday against a fish distributor, contending that its owners and managers had subjected black male employees to a torrent of sexual and racial harassment. Authorities said that the employees received not only slurs, taunts and verbal abuse, but that some had also been groped and even jabbed with fish hooks.
“The misconduct included groping their buttocks, putting fish hooks into their buttocks and unnecessarily rubbing their bodies into the employees when passing them by,” the commission said in a statement. “The owners and managers also made numerous crude, obscene, sexual and/or racist comments.”
In one case, the lawsuit contends, a supervisor asked one man, an African immigrant, if he had had sex with rhinoceroses and elephants. Other supervisors also asked the men to perform oral and anal sex on them.
“This is the kind of case that makes your stomach turn,” said Sunu P. Chandy, the lead federal lawyer on the case.
M. Slavin and Sons sells fish at several locations, including Hunts Point Market in the Bronx and markets in Rhode Island and Virginia, but the lawsuit concerns workers at a distribution center in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Among those charged are owners of the company, Barry and Jack Slavin.
http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/12-7-09.cfm
The owners and managers also made numerous crude, obscene sexual and/or racist comments. One owner used the term “n----r” and another manager made comments such as “African b-----d” and “Let me see you run like you are in Africa.”
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/28/business/AP-US-Kosher-Slaughterhouse-Sentencing.html
Former assistant U.S. Attorney William Mateja said U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade could factor the immigration charges into her sentencing decision under a legal phrase called ''other relevant conduct.'' Instead of trying and proving the charges against Rubashkin, Mateja said prosecutors need to meet a lower bar: a preponderance of evidence.
Some have expressed shock at the proposed life term, and six former U.S. attorneys general have complained that prosecutors are seeking an excessive sentence. But others said that in the last few years, the government has come down increasingly hard on white collar criminals.
''White collar crime is being prosecuted more aggressively, and the sentences have been going up and up and up,'' Mateja said. Other relevant conduct ''can encompass all sorts of things, from obstruction of justice, to whether you were an organizer or leader, to other crimes.''
R' Chatzkel Roth is Karlsburg Rov.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/nyregion/29scrolls.html
Five sacred Torah scrolls valued at more than $30,000 each were stolen from a Brooklyn synagogue early Wednesday morning, the police said, leaving congregants shocked and saddened.
The burglar entered through a first-floor window at the Karlsburg Synagogue in Borough Park that was either partly open or unlocked, the police said. Silver crowns and ornaments kept with the scrolls were also taken.
Members of the congregation who gathered at the synagogue, on 53rd Street between 15th and 16th Avenues, on Wednesday afternoon expressed dismay.
“It’s a very hard feeling to get over,” said Mordy Shain, 19, a rabbinical student. “That someone would walk into such a holy place and take such precious items, it shows no respect.”
Assemblyman Dov Hikind and City Councilman David G. Greenfield visited the synagogue, whose name in Hebrew is Khal Yirei Hashem, to announce a $10,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the thief. Both said they had been inundated with phone calls from residents expressing outrage and anguish.
The police had not made any arrests as of Wednesday evening. But men at the synagogue said a surveillance camera on an adjacent building captured the license plate on a car that was parked outside the synagogue for a short while just before the theft was discovered.
http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2010/04/28/the-day-the-rca-became-agudah/
The Day the RCA Became Agudah
By Yitzchok Adlerstein, on April 28th, 2010
Cross currents is the site that posts editorials (or whatever you can call them) by Yaakov Menken who has admitted to Reb Shmuel Kaminetsky that he has abused his title of rabbi to get sex with women. What is wrong with these people that they continue to associate with him???? Is there nothing sacred in klal yisroel anymore?
Does this for sure mean that Rubashkin perjured himself as the prosecution considers this?:
http://iowaindependent.com/33125/rubashkin-counsel-seeks-to-deflect-limit-liability-at-sentencing
Dr. Susan Fiester, a Maryland psychiatrist hired by Rubashkin’s legal team, who spoke at the sentencing hearing. She also confirmed, upon cross-examination, that the information provided to her during a February interview with Sholom was not consistent with statements he made to prosecutors. According to Fiester, Sholom Rubashkin admitted to “fraudulent behaviors” while working at Agriprocessors and knew about the undocumented workforce present at the plant.
A Senate subcommittee is taking testimony today on the collapse of Washington Mutual, once the largest savings and loan in the country and later the largest bank to fail in American history.
The subcommittee’s investigative report, available here, makes for maddening reading.
Such as:
“WaMu’s CEO (Kerry Killinger) received millions of dollars in pay, even when his high risk loan strategy began losing money, even when the bank began to falter, and even when he was asked to leave his post. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Killinger was paid between $11 million and $20 million each year in cash, stock, and stock options. That’s on top of four retirement plans, a deferred bonus plan, and a separate deferred compensation plan. In 2008, when he was asked to leave to leave the bank, Mr. Killinger was paid $25 million, including $15 million in severance pay. $25 million for overseeing shoddy lending practices that pumped billions of dollars of bad mortgages into the financial system. Another painful example of how executive pay at U.S. financial firms rewards failure.”
Here's another reason Shmarya will need to be restrained. Just wait until he finds out that he can longer give himself more importance than just the shmuck he is blogging in his underwear from his mother's basement.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100427/0121149190.shtml
Appeals Court upholds ruling that bloggers are not journalists
http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/04/29/BklynKid.pdf
If you want to be robbed of house & home, come down to my real estate office on Union Turnpike in Queens.
http://bigjournalism.com/dseidemann/2010/04/28/new-york-times-turns-a-blind-eye-to-research-fraud-by-a-liberal-ally/
New York Times Turns a Blind Eye To Research Fraud By a Liberal Ally
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