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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

There is a strong genetic predisposition in pedophilia. Pedophilia runs in families and is a variant of OCD


What is Pedophilia and why are child pedophiles such an epidemic?

We asked renowned psychiatrist and author, Dr. Herbert Wagemaker, this and you may be surprised by his answer:

Pedophilia involves sexual attraction/orientation towards children, and usually involves males. Pedophilia is very rare among females. It is characterized by recurrent intense sexual-arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children for at least a 6-month period of time. What this means is that the sexual attraction/orientation of the person (usually a male) is toward a child rather than an adult. It has been estimated that sex offenders are often involved with two or more children, and the problem is often a recurrent one.

Mental health professionals agree that child molesters should never be considered normal, but is a disease.

Four percent of the population suffers from sexual orientation toward children. In 1999, 93,000 kids were sexually abused. 50% of the abusers were parents of the children. 18% were relatives. This means that almost 70% of children were molested by family members, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers – males they trusted.

What causes pedophilia? No one decides, "I’m going to grow up and be a child pedophile."

We know that pedophilia runs in families. Boys who are molested often molest boys when they grow up. Do they molest because they were molested or because they have a genetic sexual orientation toward children?

I feel that there is a strong genetic predisposition in pedophilia. I believe that pedophilia runs in families and seems to be a variant of OCD, which has strong genetic predispositions. In other words, pedophilia seems to be an illness that is caused by abnormal brain chemistry with strong genetic connections.

One of the important questions we must ask is, "How safe are our children when registered sex offenders are living in our neighborhoods?" Most pedophiles are multiple offenders and are involved with a number of kids. The answer to this question revolves around the treatment of pedophilia. How effective is it?

Web MD web site http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/explaining-pedophilia states, "Sadly, there is no cure for pedophilia." This is true. There is no cure, but there is treatment.

It has been shown that the SSRI’s, Prozac®, Zoloft®, Celexa®, Luvox®, Paxil®, and Lexapro® , in high doses are also useful in treating this illness. Treatment of pedophilia is difficult at best. Many of these men remain untreated.

Because adults who sexually abuse children are repeat offenders, it makes sense not to allow them to be in close contact with children. According to a study by Abel in 1987, reported in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2(1), 3-25, offenders against female children had an average of 19 victims, while those against male children had an average of 50. These figures surprised me. Common sense tells us to keep these adults away from kids and out of our neighborhoods.

Pedophilia is an illness that must be treated. If it is not treated successfully, our kids are in danger. We must know where the sexual offenders are. They must be registered and followed closely. My heart goes out to the men and women who are sexually attracted to children. The ones I have talked to hate this. But, even more, my heart goes out to the children who are molested, or are vulnerable to molestation. They must be protected from child pedophiles. All of our children need to live in a safe environment, free of the threat of molestation.

Dr. Herbert Wagemaker
Board-certified psychiatrist and Renowned Author

http://www.registeredoffenderslist.org/what-is-pedophilia.htm

114 comments:

Dr. Joe said...

There are families that have all kinds of sexual deviants including pedophiles, uncontrollable promiscuity, sexual obsessivenes etc., that studies have shown are genetic.

Does anyone know the history of the Shisgal( mom is a Tendler sister) twins that posed for Penthouse, and the other three Tendlers that are (allegedly) both pedophiles and sexual deviants?

Lakewood said...

Yudi Kolko and his nephew Yossi Kolko.

Anonymous said...

I have been researching G6PD deficiency in Jewish families for the past 9 years.

G6Pd deficiency is extremely prevalent among Jewish families because it confers a resistance to malaria.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T99-477CGBB-26J&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1989&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1369481847&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=5ed179cdec9d30b7bea89acd2b939562

There are many other research articles out there.

In short, soy should be assur because of its effect as an inhibitor of G6PD enzyme which is already inhibited in many Jewish families (and yes, it is X linked (mother to sons)).

Out of control sexual deviants who attack little boys because they resemble women and are within arm's reach and crazy men who molest girls and women are a predictable outcome in a Jewish community that loves soy and other legume product meat and dairy analogs.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

One has to ponder the fact that just about ALL sexual deviants; rapists (a combination of power and sex), pedophiles and the like keep returning to the "environment" that enables them to commit these horrendous crimes over and over again.

Did anyone in ANY yeshiva/ girls school ever think about this?

Kolko moves to Lakewood and hangs around the kids in his shul while he's on parole. Brauner hangs out with kids in his shul while he's on parole. Tendlers gets thrown out of YU Los Angeles, one opens a yeshiva, and the other is vying for a return to chinuch/rabbonus in L.A.

When does the community BREAK the cycle?

Kim said...

There are two separated issue, sexual deviants and predators. Sexual deviants who like to practice their fetishes with other consenting adults are not an issue. Predators who pray on children and other vulnerable people are the issue.

steve said...

Why are there so many pedophile priests? Why are there so many pedophile rebbes/teachers/camp counselors? It has nothing to do with celibacy, religion, sexual mores, etc. It's quite obvious they chose these professions because that's where the "candy" is!

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Steve:

Thanks; I've been wanting to scream that out loud for years now!

Yudi Kolko said...

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=940633

The state Senate seems on the verge of passing a terrible bill that is inoffensively labeled the "Second Chance for Ex-Offenders Act." There's a companion bill in the Assembly.

The champion of this bill is Sen. John Sampson of Brooklyn, leader of the Democratic conference and thus the most powerful member of the Senate. Sampson's bill would allow court records of most misdemeanor convictions to be sealed -- that is, to effectively blot out the history of the law-breaking. In fact, the bill would allow the sealing of up to three convictions, so that a fourth conviction could be the first one visible to, say, a prospective employer.

When a court record is sealed, nobody in the public can find out what it was about. It's as though it didn't happen. You wouldn't know if your kid's schoolteacher or coach or your tax accountant or pastor had been convicted.

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't Kolko's former student sue him civilly?

http://www.silive.com/westshore/index.ssf/2010/06/after_testicles_are_squeezed_b.html

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former Arthur Kill Correctional Facility inmate, whose testicles were crunched by a guard in 2007, won a $300,000 settlement from the state yesterday, according to a published report.

Stephen Lewis, who served two years on drug charges, sued after a correction officer put him against the wall and squeezed him where it hurts, the New York Post reported. The Mount Vernon resident wanted $5 million in the sexual assault claim, but settled the suit before it could go to trial.

Kew Gardens Hills said...

http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/SilverlightPlayer/Default.aspx?peid=3bf950b23c3d4cd79150b998f17295be

Here is the last press / investor conference for the Spongetech scam.

At about 14 minutes you can see the putz thief Moskowitz from Arieli's shul wearing a corporate baseball cap and addressing the nignavim.

Moskowitz has been honored by all kinds of yeshivos for giving them the money he stole.

R' Henoch Morris said...

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- The indicted chief political adviser to ex-New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi pushed $5 billion in state pension-fund transactions to make $19 million in fees for himself, said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo made the statement in a court filing in reply to Henry “Hank” Morris’s bid to dismiss a 2009 indictment charging him with securities fraud and grand larceny in connection with corruption at the state pension fund.

Morris, a registered securities representative, faces as long as 25 years in prison if convicted.

UOJ gets results said...

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/f-b-i-readies-for-mortgage-fraud-clampdown/?src=busln

Mortgage fraudsters beware. The F.B.I. is gearing up for a nationwide clampdown in a new effort to slow the kind of lending practices that led to the housing crash of 2008, The Financial Times reported.

Hundreds of people are expected to be arrested in the sweep, which will start as early as next week, The FT said, citing two people with knowledge of the operation. An F.B.I. spokesman declined to comment to the newspaper.

Charges are expected to be leveled over offenses ranging from pushing borrowers to lie about their income on mortgage applications to providing homeowners with false information about foreclosure rescue programs, the newspaper said.

The F.B.I. has set up 23 local mortgage fraud task forces around the United States since October 2008 with the mandate to limit the illegal misstatement, misrepresentation or omission of material facts on mortgage applications.

The FT noted it was mortgage fraud that led to the expansion of the housing bubble and eventually accounted for its catastrophic burst, as loans were handed out to borrowers with unsubstantiated incomes and low credit ratings.

Asher Lipner, Ph.D. said...

Steve and UOJ,

John Derringer was asked why he robs banks. He replied, "Because that's where the money is!"

But being a clergy or respected teacher/coach/youth leader is not ONLY a great place to find "the money". It also gives great cover. You are respected. You love children. Peope assume this means you would never hurt children. Denail is great because people have a need to belive at lest their kids are safe with the rebbe. And then if you get caught? The yeshiva/camp/shul HAS to cover for you because they don't want the scandal.

Even if they threaten to expose you, you can say "yeah, right. Who are you trying to kid. You (Rabbi Margolis, Rabbi Neuberger, Rabbi Niederman, etc.) stand more to lose by exposing me, than I do."

In sum, places that should be easiest to protect as "abuse free zones" are in fact turned into safe havens for predators and nightmares for our children.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Dr. Asher:

Well said - Those days are over forever.

BTW you got the wrong bank robber - it was Willie Sutton's line:-)

huh? said...

UOJ/Steve/Asher

In the posted article by Dr. Herbert Wagemaker, he contends that, "50% of the abusers were parents of the children. 18% were relatives. This means that almost 70% of children were molested by family members, fathers, uncles, and grandfathers – males they trusted."

If, according to what you're saying, the "candy" is to be found in the "safe havens" of schools, churches, etc... then why don't his numbers reflect that?

I would tend to agree with the Dr., and would allege that most pedophiles are family members, and incest is, in fact, far more common than non incestuous predatory acts. Rabbi Horowitz has also made this point once before, where he commented, along the lines, that 99% of the problems, with regard to molestation issues, facing the Jewish community are incest by nature. Be that the case, sadly, we haven’t yet made even the slightest dent in the tip of the iceberg. Hashem Yirachaim.

Yankel Applegrad said...

I found this guy a spot at Regency.

http://www.bradenton.com/2010/06/15/2361655/convicted-coast-bank-exec-moves.html

Convicted Coast Bank exec moves to New York

Shmarya groupie said...

http://www.wben.com/NYC-Councilman-to-Challenge-Cuomo-for-Governor/7464363

A black New York City councilman says there's not enough diversity on the state's Democratic ticket and he'll run for governor to protest.

Charles Barron says he's angry over Democrat Andrew Cuomo's selection of a white, male running mate, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy. All the Democrats running statewide this year are white.

Barron said Monday he's tired of Democrats taking black voters for granted. He's going to try to create a new line on the ballot, called the New York Freedom Democratic Party, and run on that line to challenge Cuomo.

Barron would have to get 50,000 signatures to create the new line.

Mordechai Tendler said...

Secret FBI files claim Ted Kennedy may have taken part in wild "sex parties" with Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra at a swank New York hotel.

- A July 12, 1965, FBI memo said a woman named Jacqueline Hammond "has considerable information concerning sex parties" at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel.

Hammond claimed the sexcapades involved Monroe, Sinatra, the three Kennedy brothers, Kennedy brother-in-law and actor Peter Lawford and his wife - and Sammy Davis Jr.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/06/15/2010-06-15_kennedys_sex_romps__death_threats_in_fbis_files.html#ixzz0qvfiD121

Anonymous said...

Is this the Benjamin Levine who davens at Pruzansky's shul in Teaneck?

A former East Brunswick, N.J., doctor was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing more than $170,000 from insurers, practicing without a license and inappropriate behavior with his patients.

Benjamin Levine, 68, will have to repay the companies $176,078, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Levine was convicted last year after prosecutors said he practiced medicine without a license from July 2003 to December 2005, after losing his rights for failure to secure medical malpractice insurance.

Levine continued to receive payments from Medicare and other insurers, however, according to officials.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/east_brunswick_doctor_convicte.html

An East Brunswick doctor convicted of fondling patients in 1996, and later charged with practicing medicine without a license, is once again on trial in New Brunswick for sexually touching a patient.

Benjamin Levine, 68, today sat and listened as Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Gillet outlined his case against the doctor, who is charged with criminal sexual contact, a fourth-degree crime. The trial is before Superior Court Judge Lorraine Pullen.

Gillet said the patient began going to Levine as her primary care physician in 2001 and liked him so much she brought her daughter there.

At some point the patient believed Levine "was doing inappropriate things" to her during examinations, Gillet said. "He forced her to touch his (groin) through his clothes."

Levine was convicted on nine counts of sexual contact for fondling patients between 1986 and 1990. He served 178 days in the Middlesex County jail.

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100426/NEWS/100426065/East-Brunswick-doctor-gets-8-years-in-prison-for-theft-practicing-without-license

The state medical board suspended Levine's license for two years in 1991 in connection with the molestation incidents and reinstated his license on a probationary basis in 1993, requiring him to have a registered nurse present for all his physical examinations.

Anonymous said...

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/15/nys-royal-wine-merchants-accused-of-peddling-pricey-fakes/

So begins Slate wine columnist Mike Steinberger's long investigative piece into the latest scandal in the wine world. Oliveros and Sokolin run a Manhattan wine shop, Royal Wine Merchants, that sold the most coveted bottles -- Petrus '21, Cheval Blanc '49 -- for thousands of dollars. But it appears that in many cases, they were selling counterfeits.

That's what billionaire Bill Koch alleges in a lawsuit -- just one of many the energy tycoon has filed since he began collecting wine. The source of the suspect bottles was a German wine collector-seller named Hardy Rodenstock, whom Koch has clashed with before. In fact, Koch's lawsuit against Rodenstock, who sold him fraudulent bottles that he claimed belonged to Thomas Jefferson, was the source of a recent book, "The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine," by Benjamin Wallace.

That there's fraud in the wine business is no longer surprising. But increasingly, the revelations are sullying some of the wine world's most respected names. Michael Broadbent, who headed wine sales at Christie's auction house, vouched for the so-called Jefferson bottles. And Steinberger makes clear that the world's most famous wine critic, Robert Parker, was (at the very least) used by Oliveros and Sokolin, who would share their purported rarities with Parker, whose ratings could drive the price even higher. (Steinberger writes that it's unclear whether Parker himself was offered fakes; the two scammers could have given Parker the real thing, and the pawned off counterfeit wine on their customers.)

For whatever reason, Steinberger doesn't mention the recent case of Rudy Kurniawan, another high-flying counterfeiter who has disappeared from the wine world (and apparently from the United States) since Koch filed suit against him last year, though the fact that he had plenty of material to work with without mentioning him just shows how rampant wine fraud has become. What's most discomfiting is that it's taking a litigious outsider like Koch to expose the fraud, which many in the wine world would rather not came to light.

http://www.slate.com/id/2256775/pagenum/all/#p2

But it's an ongoing dispute between Koch and a Bay Area collector named Eric Greenberg that offers the clearest indication that Royal was selling fraudulent wines

Koch filed a lawsuit alleging that Greenberg knowingly sold him seven counterfeit wines at an auction in New York

Anonymous said...

Add to your file on intermarried "Rabbis" in Florida:

This is from a flyer promoting a shiur for singles:

>
>" Listen to our FANTASTIC reknown guest speaker Rabbi Hillel Abramson Ph.D."


Henry Abramson's wife, Ulana Zarowsky is a Ukrainian Catholic who told me herself that she is not Jewish. Here is the death notice for the mother of Mrs. Abramson:


ZAROWSKY, Anizia H.A.
Peacefully with her family by her side after a lengthy illness at St. Joseph' s Health Centre on Thursday September 22, 2005 at the age of 70. Beloved wife of Bohdan. Loving mother of Orest, Christina, Ulana ABRAMSON and her husband Henry, Roman and his wife Sheila, and Bohdan. Adored grandmother of 9 grandchildren. Lovingly remembered by Theodozia, Maria and their families and by her nieces, nephews and many Friends. Friends may call at the Turner and Porter Yorke Chapel, 2357 Bloor St. W., at Windermere, east of the Jane subway, on Sunday and Monday from 6-9 p.m. Panachyda Sunday and Monday at 7:30 p.m. Funeral mass will be held at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, 4 Bellwoods Ave. on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 at 11 a.m. Interment Park Lawn Cemetery. If desired, donations to the Ukrainian Canadian Social Service, 2445, Bloor St. W., Toronto Ontario., M6S 1P7 would be appreciated.

Archie Bunker said...

Although Shmarya typically lies or exaggerates to undermine Torah umitzvos, it does not mean he is wrong 100% of the time.

I wonder if there is anything to what he says about this frum lady from Minnesota arrested by request of Iowa.

He says that the Assistant DA had good reason to ask her if she knows Rubashkin because she davens in the shul where Rav Lieff used to be the rov.

There is an ongoing Justice Dept investigation into distributors who conspired with Rubashkin to fix kosher meat prices. Shmarya alleges that some of those people are prominent people in that Minnesota shul.

Rav Lieff is now rov of Agudah of Ave L where the massive Flatbush kinus tefillah for Rubashkin was held.

Rubashkin used to be Chabad shaliach in Minnesota and all these chevra know each other.

Yosef Shunim said...

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/court-sentences-man-convicted-of-sexual-abuse-to-14-years-in-jail-1.295882

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced a Beit Shemesh man to 14 years in prison on Sunday for multiple counts of rape and sexual abuse, concerning three underage girls.

Yosef Shunim was found guilty of sexually abusing three girls, aged 6, 10, and 12 at the time of the offences, who were daughters of couple with whom he had a friendly relationship.

In addition to the prison sentence, Shunim will also be made to pay NIS 30,000 in compensation, as well as a NIS 2,000 fine and one year of suspended sentence.

The three presiding judges said in their ruling that the offences "committed by the defendant are both sever and vile," saying Shunim "took advantage of the complete trust his good friends and the victims had in him so to harm their innocence, committing a series of sexual abuses for years."

"[Shunim] committed his abuses while playing games, driving, seduction, all for the sake of relieving his impulses," the judges continued, adding that the "severity of the crimes was in their nature, quantity and duration, and specifically in targeting young girls."

The defendant's attorney, Ariel Atari, said in response to the court's sentencing that the punishment was "severe and not in proportion to the alleged offences," saying that Shunim intended "to appeal both the conviction and the sentencing to the Supreme Court."

Shlomit Ben-Yitzhak, who represented the Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office, said that the court, in its sentencing, "gravitated toward the public's interest in handing stricter punishments to those who commit offences against minors."

"The sentence sends a message to defendant and others like him, that anyone who sexually abuses small children and hurts the trusting families of those children is to expect a lengthy jail term," Ben-Yitzhak added.

Kew Gardens Hills said...

http://www.thefinancialinvestigator.com/?p=3

To plum the depths of the SpongeTech fraud, it is useful to understand where a fellow named Norman Feinberg fits into this passion play. You might feel sorry for a few minutes when you ponder Feinberg—In a brutally cosmic irony, he and his wife Sondra were, apparently wiped out in the Madoff fraud— until you realize that for a while now, he has been an occasional, helpful ally for company chief operating officer Steven Moscowitz in his own multi-year quest to marry investor capital and his bank account.

The first documentation of the Feinberg –Moscowitz magic is seen in a State of New York Division of Tax Appeals filing from August 2006 resulting from a state claim that some pre- September 11 vintage business failure of Moscowitz’ named Romantic Moments didn’t pay sales tax. One of the witnesses claimed that Feinberg and another fellow forged signatures on tax documents and checks.

Thefinancialinvestigator.com has obtained some internal E-mails indicating that Feinberg went literally door-to-door at various retail stores—most likely Walgreen’s— buying up hundreds of boxes of sponges with company money to lend the appearance of consumer demand. He would then send them via UPS (paid for by SpongeTech) back to headquarters.

Kew Gardens Hills said...

Ezzie Goldish is the blogger behind the modern orthodox Serandez blog.

http://www.vanityeventsholding.com/vanityevents_news.aspx?id=158

On May 10, 2010, Mr. Steven Moskowitz, Chief Executive Officer, President, and Director of Vanity Events Holding, Inc. (the "Company") resigned from all officer and director positions of the Company and its subsidiaries. There was no disagreement or dispute between Mr. Moskowitz and the Company which led to his resignation.

On May 10, 2010, the Board of Directors elected Mr. Sam Wolf, currently the Chief Operating Officer and a Director of the Company, to also serve as Chief Executive Officer and President of the Company.

Prior to joining Vanity Events Holding, Inc., Mr. Wolf was employed as a sales associate and office manager at Fairmont Insurance Brokers Ltd. since July 1988. In July 2003, Mr. Wolf was promoted to Vice President of Sales & Marketing where he was actively involved in growing the Agency's premiums to $85,000,000 as well as building an extensive personal book of business. He was also in charge of recruitment and training of sales people for the company. Mr. Wolf has served as a Board Member in various charities and is presently a Board Member of a private High School in Long Island.

http://www.vanityeventsholding.com/vanityevents.aspx?id=88&linkidentifier=id&itemid=88

The Company's Board of Directors currently includes Sam Wolf, CEO; Eliezer Goldish, CFO; and external Director Ronald Cosman.Vanity Events Holding, Inc. has two primary subsidiaries: Vanity Events, Inc. and America's Cleaning Company.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Birthright and Hooking Up!

http://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/books/36283/breeding-zionism/?utm_source=Tablet+Magazine+List&utm_campaign=b883c4ca8e-6_15_2010&utm_medium=email

It's SOOOO difficult getting it right before everyone even begins to understand there is even a problem! :-)))

UOJ

Anonymous said...

Make that the first person besides Belsky

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/15/us/AP-US-ODD-Dog-Doo-Money.html?hp

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- This is why your mother says to wash your hands after handling money: A St. Louis worker found $58 -- packed in dog poop. Steve Wilson works for DoodyCalls Pet Waste Removal. On a recent call, he noticed money sticking out from doggie doo. Wilson wasn't sure what to do, but eventually pulled out the bills, sanitized them, placed them in a plastic zip-locked bag and returned them to the customer. It turned out to be $58.

The company said the money was torn, but the serial numbers were identifiable, which means the bills could be returned to a bank and replaced with new money.

The Association of Professional Animal Waste Specialists says Wilson is the first person in his profession to find and report money in dog poop.

Chevra Chazerim - Congressional division said...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/BABD1DV3H5.DTL&type=printable

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has more than quadrupled the rent on her San Francisco district office, making the $18,736-a-month cost of her new South of Market space the highest in the House, according to a new report.

The rent - part of Pelosi's budget, which is funded by taxpayers - is nearly double the next-highest rent in the House: Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., pays $10,600 a month for his Manhattan office, while representatives from Sacramento, Boston and Los Angeles pay nearly that much, the report said.

The financial data were compiled from public records by the nonprofit Sunlight Foundation and Roll Call, a political newspaper. Information from the database is not yet available online.

Anonymous said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2010/05/17/DI2010051702306.html

'Dear Prudence': Refusing to put down a sick pet, confronting one's molester, graduation announcements, more

Emily Yoffe
Slate Advice Columnist

Washington, D.C.: Please help, I don't have anyone to turn to. 20 years ago, when I was in 2nd grade, I was molested by my older brother (he was 15.) It only happened once, but until he went away to college I was terrified when left alone with him. I've never told anyone, even a doctor, despite years of counseling in high school/college. It's affected my life in many ways, especially my relationships with men.

Recently, at a family gathering, he commented that his executive level position allows him to 'destroy' the careers of people whom he dislikes. When he saw our horrified faces, he quickly added, "don't worry, they're all bad people, like sexual harassers." I've already wanted to find a way to confront him for some time now, and that comment only furthered my desire to do so.

I feel like I need to let him know how much his actions have destroyed certain aspects of MY life. We have a large and close-knit family, however, and I don't want to ruin other relationships. I'd talk to a psychiatrist about it, but I don't have health insurance, and I'm a broke grad student. I've finally recognized that I need to deal with this, I just don't know how. Please help, I'm upset, depressed and, frankly, furious at him for not having to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Emily Yoffe: So this is the background of one of those sociopathic bosses who bestride our workplaces. How is it that clear lunatics are allowed to move ever upward? I'm sorry that I don't have an easy answer for this horrible situation. First of all, since you're in graduate school, there should be counseling services you can avail yourself of. Also, there are many support groups for victims of molestation for you to contact. I don't think you should do anything until you've talked this out thoroughly with a professional and have a plan for how to bring this up with your family. You also need to have worked out various scenarios and how you might respond. Your brother is likely to deny everything, and it's possible you might get painted as the unstable one, so you need support going into this.

Readers, suggestions?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-to-Plan-For-a-DoubleDip-usnews-2055778412.html?x=0

Seattle said...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012016609_abuse03m.html

A children's-theater producer charged with groping a 14-year-old boy last summer is under investigation by the State Patrol after authorities say he recently posted an advertisement on Craigslist seeking a child to appear in a New York City play.

After his arrest nearly a year ago, Michael Gershowitz was not prevented from having contact with juveniles, according to the King County Prosecutor's Office. However, a King County judge earlier this week barred him from having contact with minors, with the exception of his sister if an adult is present.

State Patrol Sgt. Kristene O'Shannon said that information about Gershowitz associating with children in his role as a theater producer was recently brought to the prosecutor's office.

As part of the investigation into last year's case detectives are now looking into the man's activities in New York.

"We're following up on information brought to the prosecutor's office," O'Shannon said Wednesday. "We don't even know what we have yet."

Last week, prosecutors and the State Patrol learned that Gershowitz's company, Michael Gershowitz Productions, had posted an advertisement in Craigslist in New York in search of a little girl to play Dorothy in a production of "The Wizard of Oz." The audition was scheduled for May 28 in Manhattan.

Gershowitz, 30, was arrested July 31 while he was walking on the shoulder of Interstate 405 in Bellevue with a 14-year-old boy. The boy told troopers that the two had just met at a bus stop; Gershowitz bought the Seattle boy candy and gave him a back massage before trying to fondle him, prosecutors said

Gershowitz was booked into the King County Jail on Aug. 1 and was released Aug. 3. Gershowitz wasn't charged until May 18, with attempted third-degree child molestation in connection with that incident.

He was arraigned in King County Superior Court on Tuesday morning, said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for the King County Prosecutor's Office.

When Gershowitz was arrested he told troopers that he was from New York and wasn't familiar with Washington's laws regarding children, the charges allege. He said that he thought the boy was 16 or 17 and that he was just "comfortable" being around kids because he works around them, court charging paperwork said.

O'Shannon said the delay between the arrest and filing of charges was due to a backlog of cases in the agency's computer-crimes division, which was assigned to look through a laptop and other electronics in Gershowitz's possession when he was arrested.

Gershowitz's company has put on plays in Seattle.

Since last summer State Patrol detectives and the agency's Missing and Exploited Children Task Force have also been investigating Gershowitz after the troopers say they found "dozens" of pornographic images, including many with children, on his computer.

UOJ GETS RESULTS! said...

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/working_to_keep_molesters_at_b.html

Schumer is introducing legislation aimed at closing the loophole and further restricting sex offenders' access to children.
Schumer said current law allows convicted sex offenders to hold a host of jobs that bring them into close contact with children, including music and dance teachers; magicians and clowns; coaches and referees; arcade workers; carnival ride operators; sports, recreation and entertainment center workers; child-theme party store workers; private tutors, and children-museum employees.
"I think parents are not aware of this," Schumer said. "And they should be."
The hazards of the loophole hit close to home in 2008, when it was discovered that Islander William C. Ventro was officiating PSAL basketball games despite having been convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl in 1992. Ventro had worked more than 80 girls varsity and JV basketball games over six years.
More recently, a man who had been convicted of molesting an 11-year-old girl was found to be running a karate school in Queens.
"As we all know, there are predators among us," Schumer said. "We cannot let our guard down."
Schumer's legislation would amend current federal law to prevent convicted and registered sex offenders from accepting paid or volunteer employment positions which place them in direct and substantial contact with minors.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 leaves sex offender employment decisions up to the states. Schumer's legislation would require states to prevent sex offenders from accepting any of these child-serving positions.
"The fact that these sex offenders are able to coach our children's teams, operate rides at fairs and teach them dance and music is beyond scary and we must take immediate action to stop it," Schumer said.
For now, Schumer said that parents can protect their children by checking the state's sex offender registry if they have suspicions about anyone their child comes into contact with.
"But if you go to an amusement park or someplace like that, it's awfully hard," Schumer said. "The law's really what's necessary."

Talmidei Margo said...

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100612_Man_pleads_guilty_to_fraud_for_bus_services.html

Man pleads guilty to fraud for bus services

UOJ gets results said...

http://www.wktv.com/news/local/95922524.html

ALBANY, NY (WKTV) - The State Legislature may not be able to pass a budget on time, but the Assembly has passed new sex abuse legislation that toughens penalties.

MULTIMEDIA
WATCH THE VIDEO

Under the proposed legislation, anyone 21 or older having sexual contact with a child younger than 13 will be charged with a felony.
Under the current law, sexual contact with 11 and 12 year olds is only a misdemeanor. That means, a convicted pedophile faces a maximum sentence of only one-year in prison. But many times, judges would hand down lighter sentences, sometimes sentences involving no jail time whatsoever.

The proposed law would carry with it a penalty of 2-7 years in prison. And the sentence could be extended for a violent crime or aggravated circumstances.

Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, (D), 112th, authored the legislation. She's encouraging the State Senate to follow the Assembly's lead.

Asher Lipner, Ph.D. said...

Dear huh?,

If a bank robber had free money at home he might never leave the house. It is not a contradiction that most abuse occurs in the home and at the same time there are certain professions that seem to attract abusers. As for numbers, there are varying studies.

Keep in mind that someone who has a specific prediliction for incestuous abuse is usually only going to molest one or a few people, while those attracted to all children will often molest upwards of 100 children in their lifetime.

In the frum community, while there have not been conclusive studies, most of my colleagues report that female victims are most often molested by family members or neighbors, while male victims appear to be most likely molested by teachers, counselors and youth group directors.

While it is indeed much more dfficult to stop abuse that goes on in people's homes, it is beyond insane that our community is still doing almost nothing to at least stop it where we can, such as in schools, yeshivas, camps and shuls. There is almost no education about the subject. Nobody does background checks when hiring staff. There are no safety protocols published by schools (aside from T.A. in Baltimore), and the parents are often still intimidated against reporting abuse to the authorities. If these simple safety policies could be implemented, schools could be made "abuse free zones".

The best idea I have heard to help protect kids in their homes is to have standardized screening of children in schools that parents should consent to, in which children are asked general questions about mental health that include if anyone is touching them inappropriately. This is just one step up from training teachers to "look for signs."

I know many frum women survivors of sexual abuse (there is a group for them at www.allussheffelech.blogspot.com) who report that when they were being molested in their home as little girls, if anyone would have even just told them it was wrong, they would not have participated so willingly. One was told by her trusted molester when she was age 7 "it is a mitzvah, your mommie and tottie do it".

This is one more way in which the schools that parents are paying so much tuition to are failing our children in ways in which they could be saving lives.

Anyone have any ideas on how we can get the schools to take more responsibility for children's safety and not focus so much on the "bottom line"?

Debbie Fox has had some success in getting frum schools in Los Angeles to agree to staff and parent education on abuse. However, nobody in New York even believes it can be done here.

Furthermore, L.A. still has a long way to go, because the schools still do not report suspected abusers to the police. Even Aron Tendler has never been acknowledged to be a molester by the RCC, and many frum parents would still trust them with their daughters, R"L.

Flatbush SY said...

Everyone thought the FBI arrests in Brooklyn this morning were our boys based on the addresses:

Kristar, Inc., 2081 E. 8th St, Brooklyn

Promed Supply Co., Inc., 1330 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn

Dorsi Medical Supply Inc., 20 Avenue T, Brooklyn

DB Supply Inc./Avgur, 2113 W. 7th St, Brooklyn

http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo061510.htm

But the FBI is naming all of them now and they are all Russians.

Anonymous said...

There is a Steven Kimmel who is the President of Young Israel of Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale but the Young Israel one is an MD so it may not be him.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/06/real_life_boiler_room_investme.html

Ten men were arrested Wednesday in a $12 million scheme that cheated investors using a Manhattan boiler-room operation with mob links, authorities report. Some of the men involved included former Securities and Exchange Commission employees.

FBI agents raided the scheme’s office building on West 36th Street in New York. The suspects used the building to entice investors with misleading sales pitches by phone, authorities said.

Steven Kimmel, 63, was also charged. Kimmel is the founder of Realcast, a Florida company that was pivotal in the scheme.

Yudi Kolko said...

Maybe I can go here instead of Lake Compounce

http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo052610a.htm

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Woman with Million-Dollar “Water Park for Foster Kids” Fraud

Leo Kimmel said...

Don't look at me. My law firm only defends heimishe molesters in NY and al Qaeda terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo.

Where's the Putz Thief? said...

Anyone have news on Yossi Neiman from Perfect Locksmith?

Someone tells me that his cousin Oizer Neumann from Toiv's shul owes all kinds of people money from when he had his art gallery. He took art pieces from his vendors and never paid, just like cousin Yossi.

Oizer Neumann was last seen renting part of his 13th Ave optical store to a fraudulent "mekubal" as reported in the Forward and being paid to sing as the chazan at a Conservative temple on Yamim Noraim.

Gallardo Nero said...

From FM

Haredim in the states use the Non-profit status to generate income and save money , one of the more creative scams is a Lexus dealership in Brooklyn who gives cars to a synagogue and they claim it a donation. The “buyer” gives a donation to the synagogue, claims it as a donation and gets the car for “free” , the synagogue then takes 10% and returns the rest to the dealership.

Toiv's shul said...

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-sham-car-charity-organizations,0,7060098.story

Investigation Launched Into 16 NY-Based Car Charities

By STEPHANIE BARISH
wpix.com

4:19 PM EDT, June 15, 2010


As part of his wide-ranging probe, the Attorney General sent subpoenas to sixteen charities, fundraisers, and individuals involved in the charitable car donation industry. The subpoenas seek materials relating to the revenues that charities and for-profit fundraisers have collected through car donation programs and how those revenues were used by the charities.

The charities, fundraisers, and individuals that have received subpoenas are: Cars that Help, Inc.; Arthur Glass; Heritage for the Blind (Toiv's shul, East 24th St, Flatbush); J.O.Y. for our Youth, Inc. d/b/a Kars 4 Kids (Yahoo Mintz / Oorah); Lechaim to Life (is it still Chabad of South Dade in Coconut Grove, FL / Rabbi Yakov Fellig?); Tree of Life (Congregation Tzemach Duvid, 577 East 5th St);

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/22/business/spending-it-a-used-car-bonanza-for-charity.html

San Francisco-based Jewish Education Center -- in one of the three cases California is pursuing -- solicited car donations in New York and New Jersey and was raided in June by the Internal Revenue Service, the San Francisco District Attorney and the California Attorney General. The operator of the program, Rabbi Bentziyon Pil and his wife, Mattie, are facing a trial in November in a suit by the state Attorney General that accuses them of using the donations for personal expenses instead of running the Beth Aharon Day School.

''There was no misuse of funds here,'' said David H. Schwartz, a lawyer for the Pils. ''What there was, was a lot of money coming in and a problem not having enough sophisticated accounting systems to keep track of it.''

Religious groups do not pay taxes and are not required to disclose their finances to regulators. Charities do have to file tax forms, but a review of records showed that more than half get extensions from the I.R.S.

People who monitor charities recommend that donors not only ask how much money a group is receiving from its donations but also where the proceeds will go.

The L'Chaim Society, for example, regularly advertises on a New York City radio station for car donations to help the elderly and to support its educational and cultural programs. The society is run by Bais Chabad, a Lubavitch synagogue in Coconut Grove, Fla. The founder, Rabbi Yakov Fellig, said the program saw a net gain of about $112,000 in 1996 and expects that 1997's figure will be higher. He said most of the money is spent on educational, cultural and religious programs in Florida, with the rest going to the Chabad Center in Fairfield, Conn. Although that distribution is perfectly legal, no funds went to New York, where much of the money was raised.

Bentziyon Pil said...

http://articles.sfgate.com/1997-06-14/news/17751122_1_bank-accounts-district-attorney-terence-hallinan-state-attorney

The district attorney's office alleged that the center's advertising contained false and misleading statements.

Assistant District Attorney June Cravett said Rabbi Pil's group claimed in its radio advertising that 100 percent of contributions would go to charity and that donated cars would be given to needy immigrant families.

In fact, said Cravett, "only about 20 percent of the donations went to charity, and the great majority of the donated cars were sold at auction."

Rabbi Pil's operations have been under investigation since a four-alarm fire at Pier 48 on November 26 destroyed 300 donated cars.

Yesterday's complaint by the district attorney charged that a Jewish Educational Center employee doing illegal car repairs was responsible for the warehouse fire, which caused $1 million damage to Port of San Francisco property.

"Unfortunately, it's not a shock to me," said Associate Rabbi Evan Goodman of the Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo. Goodman, who has been critical of the center's handling of donations, said he has heard numerous complaints about the group from San Francisco's Jewish community.

"It makes me very sad that an organization that uses the name of the Jewish community and calls itself an educational organization would abuse the good faith of people who trust in the work we're all trying to do," Goodman said.

http://articles.sfgate.com/1999-12-17/news/17710265_1_cash-transactions-bank-accounts-federal-law

Rabbi Bentziyon Pil, the head of a defunct charitable organization that solicited used cars as a fund-raising technique, admitted in federal court in San Francisco yesterday that he had engaged in more than $1.7 million in cash transactions that violated currency reporting laws.

Pil, who is free on bond while awaiting sentencing on May 4, could receive a maximum of five years in prison under federal money- laundering statutes. However, federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend a more lenient sentence.

Under a plea agreement negotiated by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross Nadel, Pil, who is from San Francisco, admitted making 282 deposits of less than $10,000 each into various Bank of America accounts in order to evade the federal Currency Transaction Report required in larger cash transactions. Federal law requires financial institutions to report cash transactions of $10,000 or more to the U.S. Treasury Department.

Federal agents, who frequently examine bank accounts when investigating suspects, look askance at cash transactions that hover just below the $10,000 level. Such transactions are often used to conceal profit from criminal activity. This depository practice is known by insiders as "smurfing," after the cartoon characters that run around solving problems in myriad ways.

Pil deposited a total of $1,718,501 in the bank during 1995.

Pil admitted violating the law but told the judge that he had made the illegal deposits to avoid having to fill out currency paperwork, not to fool the federal government.

Pil was the head of the Jewish Educational Center.

The center came under investigation by city, state and federal law enforcement agencies in 1997 for allegedly diverting part of the money it raised for charitable purposes. The state Department of Justice obtained a court order freezing the center's bank accounts and assets, and the San Francisco district attorney filed a civil lawsuit charging Pil and his wife with false advertising and unfair business practices.

The litigation was later settled and the center was ordered to close its doors and liquidate its assets.

Yechee said...

http://assets.sfweekly.com/content/printVersion/306009

I appreciated the well-written, informative story about the Jewish Educational Center of the U.S.A. in the Jan. 22 issue. However, I take great offense at your incendiary headline -- "Would You Buy a Used Car From This Rabbi?" -- which impugns my character and has little to do with the story inside.

As you know, I have dedicated my life to helping Russian Jewish immigrants. The automobile donation program is our main source of funds for the more than one dozen programs we developed and maintain to assist this community. Your cover photo and headline, which assails my character, only add to our organization's hardships in these difficult times -- where even the slightest appearance of impropriety damages our organization's reputation and subsequently undermines our ability to continue programming for this traditionally underserved community.

Additionally, I would like to make two corrections to your story.
Your article stated that I joined the Lubavitch when I turned 18 years old. My family and I have actually been Lubavitch Hasidim for six generations, and I studied in a Lubavitch Yeshiva since I was 16 years old. Also, Rebbe Schneerson did not make a mistake, as your article stated, by not appointing an heir. Hasidic philosophy states there can only be seven rebbes because after the seventh the Messiah would come.

Schneerson was the seventh rebbe. However, he did appoint a group of rabbis: Rabbi Marlow, Rabbi Heller, and Rabbi Osdoda, who were also approved by Crown Heights.

Having set the record straight, I look forward to working with SF Weekly in the future.

Rabbi Bentziyon Pil
Jewish Educational Center

Anonymous said...

http://www.sfweekly.com/content/printVersion/306155

1-800 Rabbi Confusion

It's one thing for a competing charity to piggyback on another's good name. But to clog a competitor's phone lines with wrong numbers at a busy time of year is adding insult to injury.

That's precisely what's happening to the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth, N.J., according to its executive director, Eliyahu Teitz. As Passover nears, callers are dialing the switchboard at Teitz's Jewish Educational Center with cars to donate -- in the belief they are calling the Jewish Educational Center running radio ads asking for car donations. The ads air regularly.

Trouble is, the callers are dialing the wrong Jewish Educational Center. The JEC behind the radio ads is the one here in S.F. -- the upstart, $8.5 million-a-year Lubavitcher charity founded by Rabbi Bentziyon Pil and his wife, Mattie (see "Would You Buy a Used Car From This Rabbi?" Jan. 22). Lately, regulators have grown curious about its operations since so little of the money it raises seems to go to charitable causes.

The New York and New Jersey radio ads have nothing to do with the New Jersey Jewish Educational Center, which is no relation to the JEC in S.F. But despite requests from Teitz and his lawyer, the S.F. JEC still fails to clear up the confusion in its ads.

The New Jersey JEC, whose name dates back to 1948, 35 years before the S.F. JEC was established, isn't a small operation. It runs an Orthodox Jewish day school, kindergarten through high school, with an enrollment of 900. Its annual budget is $6 million. And it never solicits car donations. Student tuition supplies the bulk of its budget.

Pil's spokesman, Sam Singer, said, "I don't think there's mass complaints. The simple solution is to give the callers our phone number."

Teitz is peeved because he thinks Pil is knowingly trading on the JEC name. "It's not like he picked [the JEC] name out of the blue," he says.

Anonymous said...

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/jul/05/local/me-9920

The center said the money was to go toward seriously ill children, including Ukrainian children suffering from radiation sickness from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Charity founder Rabbi Bentziyon Pil and his wife, Matti Plotkin, are accused in the state's suit of using donated money to buy a $180,000 home and spent $40,000 on their son's bar mitzvah.

Bungalow Yenta said...

A lawyer from Toiv's shul who was Oizer Neumann's shutef in the art gallery has just gotten divorced.

Bim Bam identity said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/business/economy/16bonds.html

Build America Bonds, part of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, are also building something else: controversy.

States and cities have embraced these taxable bonds to borrow money at what they assume are favorable interest rates. The federal government pays 35 percent of the interest costs on the bonds, a huge potential saving.

But questions about this multibillion-dollar program are piling up.

For one, Wall Street banks are charging larger commissions for selling Build America Bonds than they do for normal municipal bonds, increasing the costs to the states and cities. For another, the new bonds may be priced too cheaply, enabling quick-footed investors to turn a fast profit as the prices climb, but raising interest costs for taxpayers.

Those imbalances have caught the eye of the Internal Revenue Service, which is asking municipalities whether the bonds are being priced and sold correctly. Alarmed by the uncertainty, Florida, which has sold more than $1.6 billion of Build America Bonds, has retreated from the market.

As if all this were not enough, Wall Street banks — which have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in fees from the program — are now releasing research reports warning that states’ financial woes may make the bonds less attractive. Some banks are even telling investors how to bet against Build America Bonds.

While most states have embraced the program, two, California and New York, account for a third of the money raised through it, said Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and a critic of Build America Bonds. “The program might be better named the Build California and New York Bonds Program,” Mr. Grassley said.

The Obama administration wants to make the program permanent

Shmuely Boteach said...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,115965,00.html

The list of con men and hustlers who've taken advantage of Michael Jackson continues to grow, especially where charity causes are concerned.

You will recall that Jackson was involved in something called Heal the Kids with Rabbi "Shmuley" Boteach. I've told you before that the most recent filing for Boteach's charity, L'Chaim Society, under which Heal the Kids fell, listed as one of its directors James Meiskin, a man currently in trouble with the Manhattan District Attorney's office for extortion.

But it now turns out that when you call the number for the L'Chaim Society, all you get is a recorded message that says the charity is gone and so is the rabbi.

You can always hear or see Boteach on TV or radio giving his opinion about something or other and plugging one of his books.

But one thing he doesn't seem able to opine is where all the money went from the short-lived charity. And one person who might be interested is Denise Rich, who wrote Boteach a check for $100,000 in the fall of 2000 for the L'Chaim Society right around the time Boteach and his then pal Michael Jackson came to two of her own fundraising events.

That $100,000 shows up in the L'Chaim Society's 2000 tax return. The same return shows no money whatsoever was spent on anything remotely charitable, just salaries and expenses.

Rich, who is the victim in this case, thought she was giving the money to one of Jackson's charities at the time. But a source of mine who was with Jackson at the time says Jackson never saw the money or the check. It went straight to Boteach and the L'Chaim Society.

Now, there is an even more interesting connection between all these people: Boteach's American benefactor is famous stock trader and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt. Steinhardt has been one of the staunchest supporters and business associates of Rich's ex-husband, Marc, a financier convicted of tax evasion and racketeering who was then pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001. Steinhardt lobbied hard for the pardon.

Like Michael Jackson, Steinhardt — whose father was the famous criminal "Red" Steinhardt with heavy ties to the mob and Meyer Lansky — has his own zoo, too. Steinhardt financed Boteach's mortgage for a $1.5 million home in New Jersey four years ago. Somehow, he managed to get him a cash loan from a local bank. Why did he do it? According to my sources, Boteach may have saved one of Steinhardt's sons from involvement in a cult, and Steinhardt was grateful. I mean, really grateful.

"He's an odd figure, Shmuley," Steinhardt said. "He has good and bad qualities. He's done things where his judgment is not so good, like being involved with Al Sharpton and Michael Jackson. But his intentions are good."

Steinhardt voiced surprise that Boteach had been running a L'Chaim Society here in New York for the last several years. And that was kind of interesting since he was one of the forces behind the Boteach/L'Chaim fundraiser in February 2001 at Carnegie Hall that featured a panel discussion on children starring Jackson, game show host Chuck Woolery, and others. The money made from ticket sales that evening has never been accounted for. The organization that hosted it — the Seminar Center — folded soon after.

Boteach — who is banned by the United Synagogues in Great Britian from having a pulpit — is best remembered for a quote he gave the London Independent in 1996. He said there is an 11th, unwritten Commandment: "Thou shalt do anything for publicity and recognition."

Mitch Julis said...

http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/shmuley_boteachs_18-hour_day_20100615/

It is 7 a.m. on a Friday, 12 hours before Shabbat, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has a dozen meetings ahead of him — an office Torah study, lunch with a network head, coffee with a potential employee, a new book to promote, a few TV shows to pitch and several family errands that will take him from Beverly Hills to Century City to Glendale to downtown Los Angeles and back again, plus a 40-minute walk from his hotel on Rodeo Drive to his brother’s house in Pico-Robertson — all before candlelighting.

In short, he’s in a rush. And it will be like this all day long.

But the rocketing nerves and rapid-fire movement are undetectable at his first stop, the 11th-floor boardroom of Canyon Partners in Century City, a $17.8 billion hedge fund helmed by Mitch Julis, an affluent and ardent supporter of Chabad who wears a yarmulke. Julis has invited his nearest and dearest finance brethren to a breakfast with Boteach, who sits at the head of the room, clad in a suit and an aqua-blue tie that accentuates a set of piercing indigo eyes. He sits with his jacket unbuttoned, elbows on the table, palms clenched into a fist, ready to gesticulate. He appears calm — almost serene — as he prepares to preach to a roomful of bankers about evil.

He delivers an impassioned, discursive lecture that covers everything from the history of Christianity to the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal, lambasting evildoers along the way—from Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for failing to recognize the Armenian genocide to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, for imprisoning political dissidents, and, as a little joke, President Obama, for sending the Dalai Lama out the White House service entrance.

Boteach has counseled a coterie of troubled celebs over the years, most of them not Jewish — including actress Lindsay Lohan, reality star Jon Gosselin and, most famously, Michael Jackson — branding himself, along the way, an expert on marriage, family and relationships, which crested with his 2008 appointment as Oprah’s in-house guru.

Boteach understands the tools of his trade ... and he isn’t above all kinds of self-promotion, name-dropping and — as some might call it — celebrity exploitation to achieve his end. In fact, he’s been ruthlessly criticized for it: The Web site Gawker once referred to him as a “ridiculous fameball crook.”

“On one of the ‘Shalom in the Home’ episodes, they had me doing yoga — oh, I hated it; it was hard. I couldn’t do it. I discovered how inflexible my body was.” (The Lubavitcher Rebbe assered yoga altz avak avoda zara)

As Boteach’s prominence grew, his relationship with Chabad-Lubavitch UK began to sour, however. Certain leaders felt his outreach to non-Jews was getting excessive — and might, therefore, encourage intermarriage. They were especially incensed at the election of an African American Baptist, Cory Booker (now the mayor of Newark, N.J.), as president of the L’Chaim Society. Boteach says he was ordered to annul the membership of some non-Jewish students; he refused, and a major falling-out ensued.

Al Gore said...

The question around the net today: Is Laurie David involved in an Al Gore affair?

The global warming activist once married to actor/producer/director/writer Larry David has been pointed at as a possible person of love interest for Al Gore by certain media types including Star Magazine.

Today, the tabloid said this his split with wife Tipper was a direct reaction to a two-year liaison with Laurie David, who filed for divorce from Larry David in 2007 putting the time frame ripe for an affair with the former vice president while the two were working on an Inconvenient Truth

A bissel sechel said...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/young-children-working-blueberry-fields-walmart-severs-ties/story?id=8951044

This is another dimension of the Rubashkin chilul Hashem which the Conservative movement is starting to use as a talking point against the frumma.

When blueberry growers were recently caught using children, retailers were falling all over each other to quickly sever ties and stop buying those blueberries.

It was proven that children were working at Agriprocessors under much more dangerous conditions and the company even pleaded guilty, it just could not be proven that Sholom Rubashkin (instead of his brother Heshy who wasn't on trial) actually knew about it. The defense paraded Heshy into the courtroom to show the jurors that the Rubashkin brothers look alike.

But you still have Pinny Lipschutz, rabbonim from Weissmandl to various Litvishe & Chassidishe Rebbes who revise history to say Rubashkin is 100% innocent. All kinds of people are calling a propaganda hotline called Kol Mevaser that brainwashes listeners that Rubashkin was targeted by an "alilas dam" and that the government will soon be arresting all kinds of Yidden on trumped up charges just like they did to Rubashkin.

Has Klal Yisroel lost all sense of sanity?

A bissel sechel said...

http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/06/rabbi-karp-defends-prohibition-against.html

Here is one of the most explosive items to make it to the blogs in a while.

When Belsky has the nerve to insinuate that the gedolei Eretz Yisroel are guilty of "apikorsis" for assering worms (due a change in metzius), Rav Karp really loses his cool and tells Belsky he is the apikores for being mattir everything that crosses his path.

You have got to hear this audio.

Baltimore, the City that breeds said...

R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztl was right! Star K kashrus loopholes lead to intermarriage!

http://www.explorebaltimorecounty.com/business/106984/kosher-makes-cut/

Plans call for the Seven Mile Market, in Pikesville, a kosher grocery, to double in size when it moves into a former Safeway. Owner Hershel Boehm pauses in the meat department.

Reisterstown resident Kathy Schmidt learned quite by accident that for her, all meat is not equal.

A few years ago, when her daughter was dating an Orthodox Jew, Schmidt, whose family is not Jewish, discovered kosher meat tasted better, she said. Kosher beef and chicken are now what she buys.

"It feels cleaner and fresher," Schmidt said. "I grew up Southern Baptist. You don't know the difference. Meat is meat."

Avrom Pollak, president of Star-K, an international kosher certification agency based in Baltimore, who is an ordained rabbi and has a doctorate degree in cellular and molecular biology, said however, that Star-K does not claim that its kosher food is more pure or better for you but that "there's a definite perception by the general public that kosher foods are better ... that it has enhanced value. But does it mean it's healthier, cleaner? I don't know."

Rubashkin fresser said...

http://www.waukonstandard.com/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=103&ArticleID=49171

It seems like Agri-Star lawyer Shalom Jacob is hinting that Hershey Friedman will shut down the company before he pays the $570,000 in taxes owed from Rubashkin's days.

Looks like Jacob was involved earlier in the Satmar-Allou fraud case, with Sholom Rubashkin himself, Shereshevky's WexTrust ponzi scheme and several other major frauds:

http://www.lockelord.com/sjacob/

Shalom Jacob
Partner
Three World Financial Center
New York, New York 10281-2101
Phone: (212) 415-8618
Fax: F: 212-303-2754
sjacob@lockelord.com

Mr. Jacob has over two decades of experience representing creditors and debtors, creditors’ committees, secured lenders, indenture trustees and bondholders, purchasers of assets, investment funds, landlords and tenants, directors, officers, employees and shareholders in large and complex bankruptcy cases. He also has extensive experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in complex bankruptcy and insolvency litigation and appeals.

Mr. Jacob also advises clients with respect to avoidance actions, intellectual property, derivatives and other sophisticated issues relating to bankruptcy and insolvency and has represented numerous clients in out-of-court restructurings and receiverships.

Education
J.D., Columbia Law School, 1986
B.A., summa cum laude, Brooklyn College, 1983
Bar Admissions
New York

Representative Experience
The major cases in which Mr. Jacob has been involved include:

Agriprocessors
Allou Holdings
Anderson News
ARM Financial
Baldwin-United
D. Blech & Company
Crystal Apparel
Coudert Brothers
Cruisephone
Decora Industries
Enron Corp.
Granite Funds
K Mart
Lehman Brothers
LTV Corporation
Madoff
Mid-American Waste
Northwest Airlines
NVR
O’Brien Energy
Revco
Texaco
Trace International
Triad Holdings
Virtual Vision
WB David
Western Union
Wextrust Holdings
World Access

Professional History
Partner, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP
Partner, Dechert LLP
Partner, Swidler Berlin, LLP
Partner, Shereff Friedman Hoffman & Goodman, LLP

Yahoo Mintz said...

http://timpersinko.com/?page_id=179

Oorah was caught doing a bait switch with worthless "vacations" promised to menadvim.

And poor Yudel Shain. He doesn't hold of us but his son Simcha is mixed up in our corrupt shenanigans.

UOJ gets results said...

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/gary_rosenblatt/decade_later_more_willingness_confront_rabbinic_abuse

The current head of NCSY, Rabbi Burg, says to go to the police about molesters instead of to rabbonim.

It's a shame though that Gary Rosenblatt only goes after select molesters, depending on how much collateral damage he can do to political enemies at related organizations.

Moetzes Resign! said...

http://www.nationaljewelernetwork.com/njn/content_display/independents/market-developments/e3ic9efda4c1138e1a14fc27012e9febcc7

A New York pastor who hosted a religious cable television show has pled guilty to charges that he bilked would-be investors out of $3 million through a phony jewelry business, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.

Samuel Solanky, 63, of Campbell Hall, N.Y., pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court in White Plains, N.Y., and agreed to forfeit $3 million.

Anonymous said...

Well, Farkas is a Hungarian name

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/executive-accused-of-trying-to-steal-tarp-money/

A federal grand jury has indicted the chief executive of what was once among the largest privately held mortgage lending companies, accusing him of scheming to steal more than half a billion dollars from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, The Associated Press reports.

The indictment in Virginia accuses the official, Lee Bentley Farkas, and co-conspirators of carrying out the scheme at their company, the Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Corporation of Ocala, Fla., where Mr. Farkas was chief executive. The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a civil complaint.

Dr. Bungalow Hundt said...

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/06/14/1081654/state-to-stop-issuing-dog-licenses.html

New York State has been taxing dogs since George Washington was president, but budget problems in Albany are changing that.

The state plans to stop issuing dog licenses next year to save money and is turning over the job to town and city clerks, a move that will create more work in the clerks’ offices and could end up costing dog owners more.

The change is to be included in the state budget, whenever it passes, and should save the state about $700,000 — a small fraction of the estimated $134 billion budget.

Each town and city clerk will have to mail annual notices for license renewals, and buy and issue tags — tasks that had been handled by the state, even if localities processed the transactions. That means municipalities’ costs will go up, but they will keep all licensing fees. They also can raise the price of the license.

Ave P said...

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4195249

A teacher at a Greek Orthodox elementary school in Midwood was charged with sexually assaulting a student in a classroom, police sources said yesterday.

Dimitrios Chantzis, 56, was arrested Monday for the alleged assault at the Three Hierarchs Parochial School.

Chantzis, a Borough Park resident, allegedly exposed himself to the 7-year-old girl, forced her to touch him and kissed her on the mouth.

The school, on Avenue P, has about 100 students.

Anonymous said...

A Bisssel Sechel,

Way to misrepresent! Rabbi Belsky says that the Rabbis in israel were mislead into saying fish is assur by kook extremists like bess from LA & that only the misleaders are the apikorsim. Rav Karp takes this very personally and loses it.

Anonymous said...

Hollywood Florida pedophile Amram Bendahan is working at his brother Albert's kosher meat market in Golders Green.

Bendahan is a fugitive from Atlanta GA for molesting his then 6 year old son.

Bendahan is a fugitive from felony charges in NY.

Bendahan was accused of molesting two teenaged boys in Toronto while he was the youth director of BAYT.

Bendahan was accused of molesting at least one child while he was the youth director at Bnai Sephardim in Hollywood FL.

The Miami Beis Din found Bnai Sephardim's charges against Bendahan to be credible and ruled that the synagogue was entitled to take action against Bendahan at which point he fled to his brother in Golders Green.

Please protect our precious children from molesters!!

Queens said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/06/09/2010-06-09_bigtime_skateboarding_tour_hits_flushing_as_chris_cole_soars_to_title.html

On Shabbos parshas Shelach was a national skateboarding tournament called the Maloof Cup at Flushing Meadows Park in Corona.

There was tremendous chilul Shabbos befarhesya that would be hard to escape the attention of many shul rabbonim in town. And where are the parents? And where are the mechanchim of the modern yeshivos?

http://www.maloofmoneycup.com/dev/

On erev Shabbos, all kinds of high school age boys learned that free tickets were being given out for the tournament the next day. They went down in droves and lined up to get them. On Shabbos, it safe to say they did not daven kevasikin minyan before walking for miles in groups of 10, 15 or more, to the event which opened at 10 am.

They carried the tickets, and probably drinks, into the park which is not in the eruv.

A bissel sechel said...

The only misrepresentation is from Belsky's defenders.

R' Moishe Feinstein ztl did not asser anisakis worms while he was alive because at that time the metzius was mutter.

Anisakis are forbidden today because fishermen are partially gutting the fish on board, something new, which disturbs & causes the worms to migrate from the gut into the flesh.

Rav Falk & Rav Chatzkel Roth are mattir anisakis for reasons that are unclear, but Belsky goes way beyond that & comes up with the wild and improbable logic that any kind of parasite is always permitted.

Rav Karp lost his cool because of the tremendous chutzpah displayed by Belsky in insinuating that the gedolei Eretz Yisroel don't know what they are talking about and because of Belsky's history of being mattir everything in sight, including married women.

British Agudah Fresser said...

I don't care if Albert Bendahan's molester brother is working there because he is the only kosher butcher to sell turkey with an incredible recipe for Mole Pavlamo (Chocolate chilli turkey).

http://uktv.co.uk/food/outlet/aid/623443

The Kosher Deli’s owner Albert BenDahan is from he family that opened the UK’s first Kosher butchers in the UK in 1933. Now, the Kosher Deli prides itself on offering the cheapest kosher food around. Most popular are its chickens, which are of a high quality but still cheaply price. They also sell home-cooked dishes like meatballs or chicken curry, all prepared in the required manner, and make sure no hydrogenated fats or unnecessary E numbers make it into the food.

Address:
13, The Promenade
Hale Lane
Edgware
Middlesex
HA8 7JZ

Tel: 0208 905 4423

Manchester said...

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/poultrynews/13291/why-chickens-are-getting-cheaper

Albert Bendahan owns 4 retail locations across England under hashgocho of the London Board for Shechita

Dayan Ehrentreu
Dayan Toledano
Dayan Lichtenstein

shechita@tiscali.co.uk

Bendahan is also a shutef in a poultry shlachthoyz here in Manchester.

Amram Bendahan said...

For media enquires please telephone the Shechita UK PR Office on:

Tel: +44 (0)20 7284 6969
Email: shechita@theproffice.com

For all other enquiries, please contact:

National Council of Shechita Boards

Elscot House
Arcadia Avenue
London N3 2JU

Freefone +44 (0)800 035 0466
FreeFax: +44 (0)800 035 0467
Email: ncsb@shechita.co.uk

The Board of Deputies of British Jews

6 Bloomsbury Square
London WC1A 2LP

Tel: +44 (0)20 7543 5400
Fax: +44 (0)20 7543 0010
Email: info@bod.org.uk

A bissel sechel said...

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/59924/Rabbi-Gershon-Bess-Makes-Machoah-for-Kovod-HaTorah-Regarding-Worms-In-Fish.html

R' Gershon Bess writes in this letter that there is an incorrect rumor going around that Belsky was prevented from speaking to Rav Elyashev by the gabboyim.

Rav Bess has verified that Rav Elyashev himself does not wish to speak to Belsky. It's well known that Rav Elyashev is upset by various things that Belsky has been behind.

Vos zogt UOJ? said...

The OU's Menachem Genack, who is a big chossid of Bernie Lander a'h, writes in a belated obituary this week that R' Yaakov Kaminetzky told Lander to start Touro College.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

"R' Yaakov Kaminetzky told Lander to start Touro College"

*

Not exactly - but R' Yaakov zt'l encouraged him to "get the best teachers possible" so that the Jewish community would have a viable alternative to the other schools.

He gave him a bracha that he would be matzliach beyond anyone's hasaga, if his schools were run within the confines of halacha.

The above was told to me personally, and have it noted almost verbatim in my well-kept diaries.

UOJ

Philly Willy said...

Wow! So how did R' Elya Svei manage to come out against Touro with fire & brimstone to shut it down?

Baruch Lanner said...

http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/06/10-years-since-lanner-expose-what-has.html

Baruch Lanner is regularly welcomed at the Boca Raton Synagogue where his son, Chaim is the Assistant Rabbi.

Rabbis Efrem Goldberg and Mordechai Smolarcik have received numerous protests from concerned parents, congregants and other Rabbis in the area about Lanner's presence in the shul.

Rabbi Goldberg repeatedly defends the right of Lanner, a convicted sex offender who unquestionably poses a threat to the children of the community to pray in the shul as he wishes.

A big part of ending the threat of sex offenders to our children lies in protesting the Rabbis who defend and harbor them.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Philly Willy:

The same reason R' Elya left Torah Vodaath in 1946 when RSFM hired R' Yaakov zt"l to take over R' Shlomo Hyman's shiur - and took off to the super kannai R' Aron's yeshiva. (Lakewood)

OU Crony Watch said...

In that same Lander obit, Genack tries to give a veneer of chashivus to lowlife crook Simcha Katz who sold treif veal as kosher before being brought in by Genack to be OU Chairman of the board.

He has a vignette of Katz & Lander shmoozing on the deck of a fresser kosher cruise ship.

Brisker said...

R' Elya almost couldn't get in to Lakewood because he once went to college himself for 6 months before dropping out.

BMG also blacklisted a rov from giving chosson shmuzen because he gives R' Yaakov's more x-rated version.

Israel Belsky SHLITA said...

My pal and accomplice from the bittul kiddushin, Peretz Steinberg from Queens, was honored by YTV this year with the R' Yaakov Kaminetzky award.

Jeremiah Betesh said...

we are a group of enlightned syrian jews in new jersey who are watching with deepening disgust the racism of the charedim against mizrahi jews. a group of us have decided to ban them all from collecting money in our town (apparently Sephardi money is good enough for them, they have been inundating our town recently).

we do not want to be affiliated with the haredi anymore. we feel more comfortable in the modern orthodox/religious zionist community.


our ire is equally directed against the spineless shas which has done absolutely nothing to address the issue. mark my words, they will lose alot of electoral power in the next elections.


p.s. we also think the "convert ban" is archaic and useless so don't even go there

Al Gore said...

Now the daughter. Al and Tipper Gore's oldest daughter, Karenna, is separating from her husband of 13 years, CNN reported Wednesday, citing sources close to the former vice president.

The report that Karenna Gore Schiff, 36, is parting ways with her husband, Dr. Andrew Schiff, came just a week after the disclosure of her parents' separation after 40 years of marriage. The Schiffs' have three children.

Another Gore daughter, Kristen, filed for divorce from her husband in 2009.

Archie Bunker said...

Jeremiah, get your facts straight and cut out the act you've got going over at Shmarya's.

What are you really upset about? That your cousin Eddie gives most of his money to Ashkenazim?

Almost 30% of the parents in Emmanuel being arrested are Sefardim because this is about religious standards, not "racism".

Archie Bunker said...

Speaking of Shmarya, he's going full steam ahead with more predictable baloney.

Of course the guy who eats treif will claim that stunning is more "humane" than shechita while ignoring all the evidence to the contrary.

And was he for real when he complained this week that women cannot vote in the Crown Hts election for Chabad netzigim?

It must have been a slow day for material to bash everyone else with to scratch the bottom of the barrel for that nonsense.

And the clueless moron keeps ignoring all the times he was told that the Roosevelt NJ yeshiva is not a division of Lakewood or Telz. He keeps insisting that it is both which cannot make sense under any circumstance.

Fresser real estate agent said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/business/economy/17slump.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print

Housing Market Slows as Buyers Get Picky

Anonymous said...

There is a dayan in Belz who is telling everyone that Belsky was acting kehalacha when he was mattir an eishis ish.

Has this guy lost his mind or what i$ the arrangement he'$ got?

Anonymous said...

"UOJ" - "The Un-Orthodox Jew" said...
Philly Willy:

The same reason R' Elya left Torah Vodaath in 1946 when RSFM hired R' Yaakov zt"l to take over R' Shlomo Hyman's shiur - and took off to the super kannai R' Aron's yeshiva. (Lakewood)



didn't R Reuven take over for R shlomo?

Observant Jew said...

Gary Rosenblatt is a lowlife. He's running a promotional article in the current Jewish Week issue of modern orthodox Rabbi David Gruber who went off the derech to become a secular Humanist.

The crux of the article is how he is mesader for beautiful interfaith marriages.

The Conservative Jewish readership being influenced by this crap are now on Gary's cheshbon.

Paul Mendlowitz said...

didn't R Reuven take over for R shlomo?

*

For a very brief period on a temporary basis.

R' Reuven spent most of his brief tenure in Monsey at BME and came back to YTV for one or two days a week... (Tuesday/Wednesday) for his pilpul shiurim that he delivered at BME.

R' Yaakov gave the highest daily daf shiur that was previously given By R' Shlomo - that's when R" Elya took off To Lakewood.

Chaim Lanner said...

The Shul by the Grove is a fast growing satellite community of the modern Orthodox Boca Raton Synagogue. Located at the Powerline road entrance to Boca Grove Country Club, the shul welcomes participants of all ages and all levels of observance.

Led by Rabbi Chaim Lanner, the Shul by the Grove offers a warm and inviting atmosphere in a laid-back environment. There are currently over 100 people attending the Shabbat services at Shul by the Grove, and the community is growing rapidly.

Margo's accountant said...

Thursday, June 17, 2010

By ELIANE ENGELER
The Associated Press

GENEVA - Swiss lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to a treaty with the United States that will hand Washington thousands of files on suspected tax cheats, agreeing to drop plans to allow a referendum on the issue.

Charlie Hynes = Useless Putz said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/06/18/2010-06-18_assistant_da_suspended_as_interns_claim_abuse.html

A tough-as-nails Brooklyn assistant district attorney who built her reputation prosecuting child abuse cases is being probed for abusing her interns, the Daily News has learned.

District Attorney Charles Hynes has suspended Assistant District Attorney Ama Dwimoh amid allegations she constantly screamed at the intern lawyers - and threatened to fire them for little or no reason, sources said.

Dwimoh, 46, who heads the elite crimes against children bureau, and prosecuted the notorious Nixzmary Brown murder case, was relieved of her duties for two weeks pending the internal investigation, the sources said.

A spokesman for Hynes confirmed that Dwimoh "is the subject of an internal investigation." He would not elaborate.

Kew Gardens Hills said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/nyregion/18sewer.html

A Queens man was charged on Thursday with fraudulently taking over a sewer-cleaning company from a widow while she was in Israel burying her husband and son.

The husband and son of the widow, Sarah Dahan, died last year when they were overcome by deadly fumes as they were cleaning a dry well at a recycling plant in Queens. A worker at the plant also died after he went into the well to try to rescue them. The June 2009 accident captured headlines, and cast a spotlight on the dangers of toxic-gas buildup in confined spaces.

Intent on burying her husband and son in Israel, Ms. Dahan left the company she and her husband had founded in the hands of a trusted employee.

Prosecutors say the employee, Ygal Lalush, 42, of Flushing, changed the locks, stole the company’s four trucks, wrote $30,000 in company checks for his personal benefit and basically started running the business out of his home under a different corporate name.

Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said Ms. Dahan discovered the problem right away upon her return from Israel, but tried to “handle it civilly.” When that failed, she went to the authorities, Mr. Ryan said.

Mr. Lalush, who had worked for the Dahans’ company for 10 years, was charged with fraud, grand larceny, forgery, possession of stolen property and falsifying business records. Judge Gene R. Lopez of Queens Criminal Court set bond at $25,000 and ordered Mr. Lalush, an Israeli citizen, to give up his passport while awaiting trial. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Mr. Lalush’s lawyer, David Chidekel, did not immediately return calls on Thursday.

Ms. Dahan’s husband, Shlomo Dahan, 49, and their son, Harel Dahan, 23, died of exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas after their company, S. Dahan Piping and Heating of South Ozone Park, Queens, was hired to vacuum an 18-foot-deep dry well at a recycling plant in Jamaica owned by the Regal Recycling Company.

The son went into the hole first, and when he did not return, his father went in after him. When neither man came back up, a Regal employee, Rene Francisco Rivas, 52, went down to help and was also overcome. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration later cited both companies for failure to follow safety protocols.

Investigators on Wednesday searched Mr. Lalush’s home and discovered Shlomo and Harel Dahan’s passports, their death certificates, titles to the company’s vehicles and business records that belonged to the company, prosecutors said.

Boston said...

http://wbztv.com/local/mortgage.fraud.indictment.2.726208.html

Eleven people have been indicted in a mortgage fraud scheme that netted at least $1.7 million in profits, federal authorities said Friday.

The suspects, including the manager of a real estate firm, loan brokers and attorneys, face various charges, including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft.

The following people were named in the indictment:

Eric L. Levine, 55, a suspended attorney living in Brookline

Anonymous said...

Only an Arab would be enough of a putz to get injured while burning down his business for insurance

http://www.pottstownmercury.com/articles/2010/06/17/news/doc4c1a5c132e656639863356.txt

The onetime owner of an Upper Providence furniture business is headed to jail after he admitted to reckless burning, and injuring himself in the process, in connection with a fire that destroyed the business.

Said Mahmoud Afifi, 51, who listed addresses on Old State Road in Upper Providence and in Bayonne, N.J., was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to six to 23 months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to charges of reckless burning or exploding and giving false reports to law enforcement authorities in connection with the August 2006 incident.

Defense lawyer Basil Beck III previously said Afifi is remorseful and that the incident ruined Afifi’s life. Afifi, who suffered burns to his arms and legs during the Aug. 19, 2006, fire has undergone skin grafting, according to Beck.

More serious arson-related charges and other charges of insurance fraud, recklessly endangering other persons and risking a catastrophe were dismissed against Afifi.

Afifi stacked furniture in the center of his business and set it on fire, officials said. Afifi set the fire because his business was doing poorly and his income was less than his bills, officials said.

Bobov part 2 said...

Obstfeld took his death plunge from No. 1916.

He had one last known phone conversation - an unremarkable business chat - at 6:15 p.m., sources said.

No one saw him fall from the terrace.

He landed on a second-floor rooftop - just outside the windows of his own luxurious office suite at the Hampshire House, which is next-door to the Essex House.

An employee at the Essex House's swanky South Gate Restaurant looked out a kitchen window and saw the body, a police source and hotel workers said. Obstfeld was pronounced dead at 11:44 p.m.

"He was a real nice guy. He lived here for years, but had a big family in Brooklyn. No one expected it," said a hotel worker.

"Everybody at his firm is saying that he had a heart attack, but he jumped."

His grieving family has not been able to accept his death was a suicide, which is forbidden under Jewish law, and told the community he died from a heart attack, sources said. An adult daughter declined to comment.

Obstfeld was buried in a Jewish cemetery in New Jersey.

NYPD investigators are leaning toward concluding Obstfeld killed himself, sources said.

Still, some associates have darker suspicions.

'Why kill yourself if you win?'

In the weeks before his death, Obstfeld had just come out ahead in the bruising battle over the Prospect Heights real estate project.

"Hardball cannot begin to describe the tactics used in Obstfeld's fight for those Brooklyn condos," said a real estate source familiar with the battle. "But Obstfeld won. Why kill yourself if you win?"

Obstfeld had tapped James Schlaff, Martin's brother, to help raise $30 million for a friend's condo project in Brooklyn, federal court records show.

Obstfeld then turned around and accused the friend, Eli Karp, of being a thief and ousted Karp with tactics Karp called "thuggery" in federal court papers.

Karp has said in court documents he is the victim, not a thief. He did not return a call for comment.

During the battle, James Schlaff's son, Nachum Schlaff, was put in charge of the condo project, and was listed as working at LH Financial, a 2009 public document shows.

As if that wasn't enough drama, friends said, Obstfeld had let Israeli powerhouse Rabbi Yishayahu Pinto lease at least one of his several vacant Essex House apartments for minimal rent.

Somehow the arraignment soured; and Pinto, described as spiritual adviser to real estate moguls from New York to Jerusalem, moved out amid an uproar.

Pinto did not answer calls for comment.

"The rabbi is not someone to be trifled with, but could that trigger someone taking their own life? You can't look in someone's heart, but I feel Obstfeld was tougher than that," the real estate source said.

Bobov said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/18/2010-06-18_untitled__jump18m.html

Shady, 'thuggish' mogul Solomon Obstfeld ran with powerful pals, no one's buying 'suicide' story

BY Alison Gendar and Kerry Burke
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, June 18th 2010

A wealthy Brooklyn investor plunged to his death from the 19th floor of the posh Jumeirah Essex House - leaving behind a tangle of mysteries, murky business deals and an international bribery scandal.

The medical examiner has ruled Solomon Obstfeld's June 9 death a suicide.

But some associates of the highly religious Bobover Hasidic Jew insist the millionaire father of five never would have killed himself - certainly not without leaving a will.

"There's a wall on the terrace. Kobe Bryant could not jump over that - what, a 9-foot wall? Shaquille O'Neal could not make it over. But Solomon did? With no chair, no witnesses, no note, no will left behind?" asked an incredulous family friend.

Obstfeld, 55, who traveled in powerful international circles and ran the Central Park South investment firm LH Financial, had a low profile - but a host of entanglements.

He made headlines in an ugly fight for control over a Brooklyn condo project.

He was feuding with a powerful rabbi in a rent dispute.

And his Austrian business partner landed in legal hot water just yesterday in a bribery scandal involving Israeli icon Ariel Sharon.

Shady business pals

Billionaire Martin Schlaff, a business tycoon from Vienna whose tentacles reach from Russia to Cyprus to the Middle East, was recommended for indictment by Israeli cops on charges of slipping Sharon, then prime minister, a $3 million bribe in 2002.

Schlaff wanted to open a floating casino near Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat. Sharon's sons were recommended for indictment, too, for acting as bagmen. Sharon would also have been sent for prosecution, cops said, but he's been in a coma for four years.

Obstfeld was not named in the bribery case, but he and Schlaff were partners in several projects, sources said.

Schlaff's brother James invested in the Hello Living condo project in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, which turned into a legal knock-down-dragout fight.

"Not everyone liked [Obstfeld]," another friend said. "To some, he was a generous man, but look at who he was in business with - they are troubling people."

Obstfeld's ties to Israeli pols apparently were quite strong.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently spent half a day at LH Financial's Central Park South offices, a source said.

At the time of his death, Obstfeld was trying to sell a lavish Essex House apartment he had owned for years - No. 1916, bundled with two adjacent apartments he also owned, for $6.5million.

His broker was advertising the five-bedroom, 3,330-square-foot result as "the largest home in the Essex House."

Mamash shtusim said...

Considering that meshugenna Michael Moore is always on the wrong side of every issue, it's interesting that he seems to be supporting Rubashkin.

http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-transom/michael-moore-producer-turns-brooklyn-meat-case

A documentary producer who has worked extensively with filmmaker Michael Moore is picking up the cause of a Brooklyn-based kosher meatpacking executive now on trial in Iowa.

Meghan O'Hara, nominated for an Oscar for her work with Mr. Moore on the health-care documentary Sicko, said she is sending a film crew to Iowa next week to interview locals and to attend the sentencing by Judge Linda Reade.

The executive, Sholom Rubashkin, faces up to 25 years—an unusually harsh sentence—following a federal raid against his kosher slaughterhouse, Agriprocessors. The F.B.I. raided Agriprocessors in May 2008 and arrested 389 workers who lacked proper documentation. Mr. Rubashkin later was charged with bank fraud. His case has prompted protests from rabbis across the country, who say he is being unfairly treated and faces a sentence that is disproportionate.

Ms. O'Hara, whose company Honest Engine is investigating the case, said while Mr. Rubashkin is "easy to vilify, it's the conflicted characters who are always the most interesting."

New Haven, CT said...

http://newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/fbi_dragnet_snares_rabbi_slumlord_ex-lawmaker/id_27067

Rav Hamachshir Rabbi David Avigdor arrested by the FBI in a sting along with many prominent people and slumlord Menachem Yosef Levitin who seems to be a Lubavitcher.

Rabbi David Avigdor is not the Rabbi (Mordechai) Avigdor of the Agudah as incorrectly reported on Shmarya's blog.

Anonymous said...

I heard another chilul Hashem story out of Lakewood yesterday. Goes
connived someone to unattach or unencumber land that was secured and sold it, lender notified the title company, the Lakewood ganovim found some fringe bais din in Lakewood to back them that is was misirah and said they have to go to bais din (I don't have the exact story but it's close enough).
Sinful. So it's assur to tell your insurance company when a yid hits you in a car accident?
I hear more and more stories of Lakewood guys playing games with dinei mominos.
Yash din vyash dayan.

Florida said...

A lot of Chabad houses are on the brink of bankruptcy. But why is this putz invoking General Motors?

By Alexandra Clough • Palm Beach Post

Unable to resolve a loan dispute with its lender, an Orthodox Jewish congregation west of Boynton Beach has taken the unusual step of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

In its June 10 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Chabad-Lubavitch of Boynton Beach and Congregation Chabad-Lubavitch of Greater Boynton Beach listed total assets of $9 million and total debts of $4.1 million.

"It is said, 'The way of GM is the way of America,' " Rabbi Sholom Ciment wrote in a recent e-mail to congregants explaining the move. Referencing General Motor's Chapter 11 filing, Ciment wrote that the Chabad "has unfortunately followed 'The American Way' and has filed for protection under the laws of Chapter 11."

Ciment assured congregants the Chabad is not shutting down.

Der Heiliger Spinka Rebbe said...

David Avigdor is the BROTHER of Morton Avigdor, General Counsel of AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA.

Get the Pidyon Shevuyim money's started.

Maybe Agudah will let him run thr business ethics trainings next year instead of me!

Bim Bam identity said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/business/20foreclose.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Cost of Seizing Fannie and Freddie Surges for Taxpayers

By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

Now two of the country’s biggest landlords, the mortgage finance companies may wind up costing more than the banking industry rescue.

Archie Bunker gets results said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/nyregion/19immig.html

Plea to Obama Led to an Immigrant’s Arrest

Chevra Chazerim said...

http://www.nypress.com/article-21342-the-making-of-manhattans-elite-welfare-farmers.html

The Making of Manhattan's Elite Welfare Farmers

Want fiscal reform? Let's start by targeting the fattest farm subsidy checks—which are mailed to the richest New York ZIP codes.

Nat Lewin said...

Oh man! I have to bother all the former Attorneys General again?

http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/news.do?feed=yellowbrix&storyid=146370188

Howard Lawrence, the attorney for Avigdor, called his client "a pillar of our community. He never violated any law; he is completely innocent of any charges. The government is overreaching."

Kew Gardens Hills said...

http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo061710.htm

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, in connection with a scheme to obtain more than $1.6 million in mortgage loans on three properties in Brooklyn and Queens

ORIT TUIL (Kew Gardens Hills - her husband Ezra is a senior executive at Liz Claiborne)

ANNETTE
SHERESHEVSKY

DARLENE RITTER (Brooklyn)

NIR ZEER (Staten Island)

30 years in prison; fine of $1,000,000 or twice the gross gain or loss; and restitution

St Louis said...

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/06/21/story1.html?b=1277092800^3523741

A case of UOJ gets results?

After UOJ runs a story on Marc Hermelin, the Feds are trying to push him out of his own company.

Bim Bam identity said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/gallon_gas_9GlF3o1xIcIBelOV3k0RsK

President Obama has a solution to the Gulf oil spill: $7-a-gallon gas.

That's a Harvard University study's estimate of the per-gallon price of the president's global-warming agenda. And Obama made clear this week that this agenda is a part of his plan for addressing the Gulf mess.

So what does global-warming legislation have to do with the oil spill?

Good question, because such measures wouldn't do a thing to clean up the oil or fix the problems that led to the leak.

The answer can be found in Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's now-famous words, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste -- and what I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

Queens said...

At Rav Shain's website, a critic named Spotlight on the Queens Vaad noticed Queens Vaad encouragement to attend an event by the Conservative.

I can report that this problem is a much deeper running scandal.

http://iccj2004.org/?page_id=15

The place called Israel Center of Conservative Judaism is pulling a Chabad and doing missionary work to attract orthodox Yidden.

They show up at the park in Hillcrest on Shabbos that is packed with frum children. A creepy guy with a yarmulka approaches the mothers, asking the children's names and tries to shmooze them up.

http://iccj2004.org/?page_id=15

They try to pull you in with their swimming pool that has a separate swimming hour which all kinds of frum people are already going to.

Then they try to lure you with their gym and paddleball facilities.

Finally, they ask which pre-school or cheder your children attend and are maysis umaydiach, asking you to consider switching to the school at the temple which is run by apikorsim from Solomon Schechter.

There are orthodox people who are lo aleinu sending their children to this school.

And there are Queens Vaad shuls who list the school in their directory of yeshivos!

Anonymous said...

Listen, I'm an active member of the Jewish community, and to be completely honest i am quite disgusted by how quick you are to judge. How dare you talk about Amram Bendahan when all you have to say are rumors that you have heard. Maybe you should take a minute to get to know him before you start spreading garbage all over the internet. This isn't what Judaism is about, in fact one specific "anonymous" comment is a disgrace to the Jewish nationality and religion. Remember: Eesh echad be lev echad.

Anonymous said...

to Anonymous 7/220 12:08

I am the mother from Hollywood who
witnessed Amram Bendahan molesting the 8 year old child. I was "hiding' out to discreetly breastfeed.

After I witnessed Bendahan molesting the little boy, I went first to the parents who were also concerned about some of the things that their son told them that Amram had asked him to do.

For example, this 8 year old boy told his mother that in Amram's youth group, a 16 year old volunteer had asked him if he ever licks his brother's balls.

The mother knew that no 8 year old came up with this by himself and she wanted to go to the Police.

But the Rabbi of the shul and also the Rabbi of the Young Israel defended Amram.

Then mother of the boy who was molested was threatened that her husband would be fired if they went to the police.

So I got a copy of an open arrest warrant for Bendahan from the State of GA. I also got copies of the psych reports and the court papers.

The expert witnesses in GA were convinced that Bendahan had sexually molested his then 6 year old son.

Based upon the expert witnesses, the arrest warrant for Bendahan was issued. He is still a wanted man in GA and will be arrested if he enters the state and the GA authorities know he is there.

But unfortunately, the parents in Hollywood were unable to convince the DA in GA to spend the money to extradite Bendahan.

I emailed the court papers to UOJ and he and two other Rabbis convinced the shul to fire Bendahan.

Bendahan took the shul to Rabbi Weberman's Beis Din in an attempt to enforce his employment contract, but the BD ruled that he is a danger to the children and that therefore the synagogue is not obligated to pay him his contract.

That is why his house is for sale and he has been working in Golders Green at his brother's deli.

I emailed the court papers and open arrest warrant to the Golders Green Police and they also do not want to issue a visa.

I also emailed the court papers and open arrest warrant to Magen and on this basis, Bendahan was denied aliyah to Israel.

The fact that Bendahan is a rodef of young children is not a rumor, it is a fact based upon the testimony of expert witnesses in the GA court system.

I suggest that you read the court papers as your mother has been urging you to do all along.

It is very important that you protect your own children from your molester father.

Your denial is so extreme that you will not even speak to any of the Rabbis involved, Rabbi Lunger, Rabbi Weberman, Rabbi Ron Weiss or Jacob Abecassis in Toronto where Bendahan also molested boys,

Anonymous said...

UOJ has a copy of the open GA arrest
warrant for Bendahan and also the expert witnesses' testimony that he molested.

Nothing is hearsay.

You can call Rabbi Yona Lunger of Chessed of FL in NMB
(305)300-YONA if you have questions.

Anonymous said...

just curious... what kind of mother watches a molestation happen and doesn't do something to stop it?

Monsey said...

http://www.adkanenough.com/27/post/2013/12/urgent-help-needed-to-stop-moshe-turner-from-molesting-more-children.html

vigilante said...

I just saw Mondrowitz on the street in the heart of Jerusalem. I couldnt resist giving him a beating, which I promptly dished out. I kicked him in the groin and stomach and his girls squeals of pain will forever give me delight. He ran across the street like a rodent as I made it clear to the passerby who this nazi was. I shouted 'anad yeladim', zevel', nazi and other such epithets. Nobody came to his aid which is a good sign. I hope I've bought some zechusim in the next world.