Editorial
The Pope’s Duty
Published: July 8, 2010
When rolling scandal forced the American Catholic bishops conference to take action against pedophile priests, the prelates issued a tough policy requiring accused child molesters be reported immediately to secular authorities. This mandate finally acknowledged that crimes against children should take priority over bureaucratic church policies that served to cloak rogue priests and bishops in a fog of ecclesiastical evasion.
Eight years after the American church’s overdue order, it is shocking that Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have not yet applied it to the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal has erupted in other nations, leaving parents concerned about a repetition of the harrowing experience in America, where more than 700 priests had to be dismissed across a three-year period. Yet the Vatican is reportedly working on new “guidelines” — not mandates. They are likely to fall short of zero-tolerance and other requirements in the American church that parishes and communities be alerted to abusers.
It is becoming clear that, as a Vatican administrator for two decades, the future pope handled the pedophilia scandal with no great distinction. Church policy under his aegis was too often a study in confusion and frustration for diocesan authorities looking for firm guidance from Rome, according to an investigative report by Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger in The Times. Alarmed bishops in English-speaking nations put unusual pressure on the Vatican to have a secret meeting in 2000 to consider stronger countermeasures.
Unfortunately, a dynamic policy has yet to emerge. As new reports arise of pedophile abuses and diocesan cover-ups in Europe, Chile and Brazil, Benedict has had to face the scandal and its victims more directly. He has put aside defensive Vatican complaints about anti-Catholic persecution and admitted the problem is “born from the sin in the church.”
In this spirit, Benedict has the obligation to shepherd not just guidelines but credible mandates that all priest-abusers and bishops who abetted their crimes face disclosure and punishment.
So 50 Roshei Yeshiva called this very urgent meeting last (Tuesday) night, where they discussed a very burning issue. The issue was concerning a very distressing trend, where good bachurim make very high demands of prospective shidduchim - hundreds of thousands of dollars, often, as well as an apartment in one of the big cities. The tattes that want these good bocherim often have no choice - I guess NEEDING to have the best bocher leaves you no choice... - and commit themselves to raising that money; mostly, or completely, by shnorr aktzyes. After all, who's little princess isn't worth getting a heart attack over... The end result is utter catastrophe, as you can all well imagine. You have old men shlepping to chutz La'Aretz several times a year to collect money for children who have eyniklach of their own because they had to promise astronomical sums to these bachurim'lach ages ago. If you have a large family - G-d help you, you'll never, ever get out of debt. Not in a million years. OK, so they decided that they need to bring an end to this. Very good, you say, right? The only problem is this:
ReplyDeleteThey're the ones who created this system!!!!
Part of the great solution to this problem has been a group called - get this - שהשמחה במעונו, where if you join this group you commit yourself to not spending more than 40K(!) per child when marrying them off ----------- These yungeleit, who happen to be from Kolel Ponovezh, decided that enough was enough, and that they're taking action, so as to save - literally - fathers from dying of heart attacks. Forty Thousand Dollars per child. Read that again. Now ask yourself: where does a kolel yungerman, or a successful American businessman for that matter, have forty thousand dollars to spend every year for several years?! He needs to marry off children one after another very often, he has that money sitting around somewhere? from his Kolel check? So why is Forty thousand OK to ask for, but seventy five not? The point is that the whole system is a death wish, starting from the not working to the expecting big money come wedding time. I can understand the learning MiToch HaDchak, but who came up with the one-two punch of not working and needing to spend money come Shidduchim?!
I haven't heard what these Roshei Yeshiva decided, but I imagine that no great resolutions were passed. Nothing revolutionary, that is. It wasn't decided that bachurim should go to the army and go to work, and rightfully so. It wasn't decided that young couples need to move out of town and only rent apartments, not have their parents buy them. Maybe they adopted a resolution similar to the Simcha B'Meono group, where they limit the amount that each side spends. Is that enough? Maybe there's something I'm missing here. Maybe there's an unlimited amount of money in Israel and I'm just not in on it. Maybe to raise/collect/borrow/shnorr forty thousand a year 7-810-12 times is no big deal for the people of Yerushalayim and Bene Beraq. Vos veis ich? I just didn't see the avlah in asking for 100 thousand. If you can't afford it don't commit to it, just like a house or a car.
May we hear only simchas ba yidden...
I don't know about you & your "standard of living" but I'm a kollel yungerman in lakewood who, with minimal support from my shver, has managed to save more than 40k in the last 2 years. Yes, I don't take vacations & my big expenses are still ahead of me, but a little financial know-how & some common sense goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteHaters, take it away...
Six months ago, after a report was published showing that the OU had stopped giving work to the wife of a whistleblowing mashgiach because of who she is married to, the OU told Barbara Frank it would reinstate her and give her work. Six months have passed, but the OU has not called her back to work.
ReplyDeleteReuvein Frank worked for several years as a mashgiach in the Montefiore Hospital kitchen in the Bronx. The hospital is affiliated with Yeshiva University and its food service is under OU kosher supervision.
Frank reported several serious kosher violations to his OU supervisor. In an arrangement with the OU, both Frank and the supervisor were employees of the hospital.
The supervisor did not fix the problems and the OU did not either.
An example: the kitchen had only one working dishwasher for the better part of a year. This meant that milk and meat dishes were frequently washed in the same dishwasher.
Frank reported the problem several times and then went over his OU supervisor's head after nothing changed.
That got a new dishwasher installed but it did not end Frank's troubles with Montefiore and with his OU supervisor.
For his efforts to protect kashrus – see reports on the blogs – Frank was fired by the hospital. The OU refused to give him another job. And eventually, Frank had to apply for food stamps.
Before Reuvein Frank was fired, Frank's wife Barbara worked several days a week at another company for the OU as a mashgiach.
After her husband went public with the problems at Montefiore, the OU stopped giving her work.
When she asked Rabbi Leonard Steinberg, her supervisor at the OU, why she wasn't getting any work, Steinberg told her, "you know why."
Barbara Frank asked Steinberg why the situation with her husband should stop her from getting work.
"You're married to him," Steinberg said.
Someone spoke to Rabbi Steinberg then and confirmed the exchange took place.
When asked about the legality and ethics of the OU behaving like this, Steinberg declined to comment, citing the OU's "media policy".
According to the Franks, later that afternoon, Rabbi Steinberg called them and said the exchange was a "misunderstanding," and he promised the OU would give her work.
Three and half months passed and the OU did not offer Barbara Frank any work. The Franks then filed a federal lawsuit against the OU.
The OU did not respond to the initial filing, and at the end of the 60 day period to respond, the OU asked for a 30 day extension, which Frank's attorney granted.
Six months have passed since the Franks say the OU promised Barbara Frank work. According to the Franks, the OU has still not given Barbara Frank any work.
Rabbi Steinberg was called erev Shabbos to find out why.
Rabbi Steinberg declined to comment.
Wake up Avi!
ReplyDeleteIf Agudah wants to benefit from public funds they have to follow government regulations. Agudah CHOSE to take questionable school bussing funds or food programs don't cry foul when you are bound to certain minimal standards. The frum oilam can always count on you to stick your foot in your mouth and create a disgusting Chillul Hashem.
If EVERYTHING IN THE YESHIVA WORLD is up and up, what are you so scared about being scrutinized by th government??
But Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for the Orthodox Jewish group Agudath Israel of America said, the legislation could set a precedent for more government regulation of private schools.
“We are certainly not enamored of corporal punishment,” Shafran said. “But we are concerned with the rights of religious schools.”
This woman needs her head examined for asking the NY Times this shayleh
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/magazine/11FOB-Ethicist-t.html?ref=magazine
I am a straight woman, and I was set up on a date with a man. We got along well initially, but I grew concerned about how evasive he was about his past. I did some sophisticated checking online — I do research professionally — and discovered that he is a female-to-male transgender ed individual. I then ended our relationship. He and I live in Orthodox Jewish communities. (I believe he converted shortly after he became a man.) I think he continues to date women within our group. Should I urge our rabbi to out this person? NAME WITHHELD, N.Y.
"I don't know about you & your "standard of living" but I'm a kollel yungerman in lakewood who, with minimal support from my shver, has managed to save more than 40k in the last 2 years."
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong but I think that Oilem is talking about the kolel situation in Eretz Yisroel.
Read that again. Now ask yourself: where does a kolel yungerman, or a successful American businessman
ReplyDeleteI believe he was refering to both...
" or a successful American businessman"
ReplyDeleteWho supports children in Israel.
Read the whole post again.
In any case you must be a financial wizard because even here in the good old USA the average kollel yungerman cannot do what you did.
I don't know about you & your "standard of living" but I'm a kollel yungerman in lakewood who, with minimal support from my shver, has managed to save more than 40k in the last 2 years.
ReplyDelete=============================================
Cool... would you mind to elaborate ?
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/hamilton/20100708.html
ReplyDeleteThe Vatican Adjusts Its Child-Sex-Abuse Policies Again: A Reminder of How Statutes of Limitations Play a Nefarious Role
By MARCI A. HAMILTON
Thursday, July 8, 2010
The name of the Swiss "Justice" Minister by the way is "Schlumpf".
ReplyDeleteBERN, Switzerland (AP) - The Swiss government declared renowned film director Roman Polanski a free man on Monday after rejecting a U.S. request to extradite him on a charge of having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
The Justice Ministry also said that "national interests" were taken into consideration in the decision, saying the issue was "not about deciding whether he is guilty or not guilty.".
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/nyregion/09westchester.html
ReplyDeleteMonitor Again Rejects Westchester Housing Plan
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: July 8, 2010
The court-appointed monitor, James E. Johnson, said that while the county “has made progress on a number of aspects” of the plan, “the revised submission still falls short of a true plan to comply with either the stipulation’s specific terms or its overarching goal of building a more integrated Westchester.” He told the county to try again.
The stipulation, agreed to last August, settled a federal lawsuit filed by the Anti-Discrimination Center, a litigation group based in New York City. Under the agreement, the county, one of the richest in the country, is required to spend $51.6 million over seven years to build or create 750 affordable homes and aggressively market them to nonwhites.
http://www.eizerbachurim.com/
ReplyDeleteAgav, the entire post by Oilem Goilam was lifted from. without giving credit to, the circus tent blog. But to say his intent is on american businessmen supporting kids in Israel is just stupid. And saving about 20k a year is not that hard when your wife has a good (read:real) job, and you don't spend money on ANY luxuries and save every extra dollar that you have.
ReplyDeletehttp://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0706/police-conn-priest-stole-1m-male-escorts/
ReplyDeleteA Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut has been arrested on charges he stole $1.3 million in church money over seven years to use for male escorts, expensive clothing, and luxury hotels and restaurants.
Waterbury police say the 64-year-old Rev. Kevin J. Gray was charged Tuesday with first-degree larceny. Gray is the former pastor at Sacred Heart/Sagrado Corazon Parish in Waterbury
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for most of New Jersey, meaning that the potential is high for forest fires.
ReplyDeleteState Forest Fire Service Warden Michael Drake said crews were fighting several small fires around the state today and helping with a bigger one on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
Base spokeswoman Angel Lopez says the fire is on a firing range on Fort Dix. She didn't have information on its size.
Drake says the biggest of the other fires was about eight acres in Lakewood. He said it's hard to put out because the weather is so dray that organic material in the soil is burning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/opinion/08kristof.html
ReplyDeleteYeah! It's about time that the newspaper of record started promoting pro-Palestinian rabbis!
Washington - Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) wants a federal law to further limit the jobs that sex offenders can hold, in both the public and private sectors.
ReplyDeleteState laws nationwide currently prohibit sex offenders from working as school teachers and coaches, but most laws don’t cover karate instructors, youth coaches, carnival workers, clowns, magicians, or dance instructors in the private sector.
Schumer, who wants to change that, is proposing a national measure that would apply to sex offenders in these and other jobs.
“Convicted sex offenders should not be able to hold any job or volunteer position where they have interaction with children in New York or across the country, period,” Schumer told The Associated Press. “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. My hope is that my new legislation closes this huge loophole so no children are put into harm’s way.”
Additional jobs that could come under the measure would be tutors, youth mentors, workers at recreation centers, video arcades, and children’s museums.
Schumer’s measure would cover both paid employees and volunteers.
“Dangerous loopholes exist in local and state laws which allow convicted sex offenders to work in positions of trust where they can have unlimited access to potential child victims,” said Laura A. Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan’s Law and the Crime Victims Center.
Wait till the Asbury Park Press smells the coffee and writes about Ralph Zucker's lawsuit vs. cleanerlakewood.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteOnce the D.A. gets ahold of this, Solomon Dwek will look like a day in the sandbox. All Lakewood's noted askanim featured weekly in the Yated will be rounded up.
http://www.universities.com/edu/Beth_Medrash_Govoha.html
ReplyDeleteBeth Medrash Govoha
Universities.com
For more information about this institution, visit Beth Medrash Govoha's web site
School Location
Beth Medrash Govoha
617 6th St
Lakewood, NJ 08701-2754 General information
(732) 367-1060
Type of institution: Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above
Federal Aid: Institution has a Program Participation Agreement with the US Department of Education for eligible students to receive Pell Grants and other federal aid.
Degrees offered: Bachelor degrees, Masters degrees, Certificates/Post-Master's Certificates
Carnegie classification: Special Focus Institutions--Theological seminaries, Bible colleges, and oth
Number of students: 5,639 (2008) 2,576 (undergraduate)
Mission
Beth Medrash Govoha is an institute for advanced Talmudic scholarship. Its primary objective is to produce Talmudic scholars.In the pursuit of this objective it also will provide a training ground for excellence in dedicated, highly educated, professional and lay community leadership. The growth and diversity of its student body provide Beth Medrash Govoha with the ability to offer the broadest Talmudic curriculum available in any such institute in the world, providing its students with the opportunity to study almost any area in the widest spectrum of Talmudic study. Beth Medrash Govoha is dedicated to helping its students achieve the highest level of scholarship along with intensive commitment to academic excellence in every area of Talmudic Studies. Beth Medrash Govoha carries out its objectives through its graduate and undergraduate divisions and through its community based programs. The Beth Medrash Govoha Undergraduate Division is a preparatory five-year college for the Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Learning. The undergraduate program is designed to provide the student with a thorough foundation in the basic areas of Talmudic knowledge according to the traditional model of Talmudic scholarship. The program also prepares the student to integrate this scholarly training into his personal and professional life. The Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Learning, the Graduate Division of Beth Medrash Govoha, aims to promote advanced Jewish scholarship and research in classical Talmudic and cognate studies. In addition, it is concerned with professional orientation by providing programs to prepare these scholars as teachers and administrators in secondary Torah schools and institutions of higher Talmudic studies, as practicing Rabbis and as experts in Rabbinical jurisprudence.
http://www.universities.com/edu/Beth_Medrash_Govoha.html
ReplyDeleteBeth Medrash Govoha
Universities.com
For more information about this institution, visit Beth Medrash Govoha's web site
School Location
Beth Medrash Govoha
617 6th St
Lakewood, NJ 08701-2754 General information
(732) 367-1060
Type of institution: Private not-for-profit, 4-year or above
Federal Aid: Institution has a Program Participation Agreement with the US Department of Education for eligible students to receive Pell Grants and other federal aid.
Degrees offered: Bachelor degrees, Masters degrees, Certificates/Post-Master's Certificates
Carnegie classification: Special Focus Institutions--Theological seminaries, Bible colleges, and oth
Number of students: 5,639 (2008) 2,576 (undergraduate)
Mission
Beth Medrash Govoha is an institute for advanced Talmudic scholarship. Its primary objective is to produce Talmudic scholars.In the pursuit of this objective it also will provide a training ground for excellence in dedicated, highly educated, professional and lay community leadership. The growth and diversity of its student body provide Beth Medrash Govoha with the ability to offer the broadest Talmudic curriculum available in any such institute in the world, providing its students with the opportunity to study almost any area in the widest spectrum of Talmudic study. Beth Medrash Govoha is dedicated to helping its students achieve the highest level of scholarship along with intensive commitment to academic excellence in every area of Talmudic Studies. Beth Medrash Govoha carries out its objectives through its graduate and undergraduate divisions and through its community based programs. The Beth Medrash Govoha Undergraduate Division is a preparatory five-year college for the Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Learning. The undergraduate program is designed to provide the student with a thorough foundation in the basic areas of Talmudic knowledge according to the traditional model of Talmudic scholarship. The program also prepares the student to integrate this scholarly training into his personal and professional life. The Rabbi Aaron Kotler Institute for Advanced Learning, the Graduate Division of Beth Medrash Govoha, aims to promote advanced Jewish scholarship and research in classical Talmudic and cognate studies. In addition, it is concerned with professional orientation by providing programs to prepare these scholars as teachers and administrators in secondary Torah schools and institutions of higher Talmudic studies, as practicing Rabbis and as experts in Rabbinical jurisprudence.
Extimated academic year prices for full-time, first-time undergraduate students
ReplyDeleteTuition and Fees 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007
In-State ---- ---- ---- ----
Out of State ---- ---- ---- ----
Books and Supplies ---- ---- ---- ----
On-Campus
Room and board ---- ---- ---- ----
Other Expenses ---- ---- ---- ----
Off Campus
Room and board ---- ---- ---- ----
Other Expenses ---- ---- ---- ----
Off Campus w/ family
Other Expenses ---- ---- ---- ----
Financial aid 2005-2006Financial aid to full-time, first-time undergraduate students
Type of Aid Percentage of students receiving aid Average amount of aid they received
Federal Grants (scholarship/fellowship) % ----
State/Local grants (scholarship/fellowship) % ----
Institutional grants (scholarship/fellowship) % ----
Loans to students % ----
End of file for Beth Medrash Govoha.
Degrees offered by Beth Medrash Govoha
Beth Medrash Govoha
Bachelor degree
Talmudic Studies
A program that prepares individuals for advanced Talmudic scholarship and research and for entry into a program leading to ordination as Rabbis; students are also qualified to enter conventional graduate and professional schools. Includes instruction in Jewish Law and Jurisprudence, Philosophy, and...
Beth Medrash Govoha
Certificates/Post-Master's Certificate
Theology + Theological Studies
A program that focuses on the beliefs and doctrine of a particular religious faith from the intramural point of view of that faith. Includes instruction in systematic theology, historical theology, moral theology, doctrinal studies, dogmatics, apologetics, and applications to specific questions of ecclesiastical...
Beth Medrash Govoha
Masters degree
Talmudic Studies
A program that prepares individuals for advanced Talmudic scholarship and research and for entry into a program leading to ordination as Rabbis; students are also qualified to enter conventional graduate and professional schools. Includes instruction in Jewish Law and Jurisprudence, Philosophy, and...
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ReplyDeleteThis is mamash the greatest thing since sliced bread! Now I can better organize my UOJ surveys!
Be careful mom and dad, those may not be Barney videos your kids are watching.
ReplyDeleteOne third of children age 10 and younger have access to online porn, and more than 8 in 10 teens regularly view hardcore pictures on their home computers, according to a British survey reported in the Daily Mail.
Yet three quarters of the children in the survey said their families don't discuss online sexual imagery with them. And experts warn that viewing porn may be linked to difficulties with romantic relationships as kids get older.
"There is compelling evidence that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities," sociologist Michael Flood, who spoke with hundreds of young people for the survey, told Psychologies magazine. "Porn shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. It doesn't mean every young person is gong out to rape somebody but it increases that likelihood."
All too often, parents are so far behind their computer-literate kids they can't keep tabs on what the kids see online and don't know how to install parental Internet controls.
Kids who access porn on their mobile phones or home computer aren't all that different from kids who sneaked a peek at magazines like Penthouse a generation ago, says Jonathan Alpert, a Manhattan psychotherapist and columnist. But it's the continuing exposure that can be a problem.
"Repeated exposure of intensely hard core sex scenes will impact kids and could warp their sense of what a healthy relationship and sex life is," Alpert says.
And today's porn tends to be more hardcore than in years past, says Tracy Dennis, associate professor of psychology at Hunter College. "The material is more violent and possibly misogynistic," she says. "Parents should be worrying about both the amount and the depth of inappropriate materials that kids can access. It's not just one Playboy magazine shoved under the mattress."
>>I don't know about you & your "standard of living" but I'm a kollel yungerman in lakewood who, with minimal support from my shver, has managed to save more than 40k in the last 2 years.<,
ReplyDeleteSomething stinks here and I'm sure it's not me. I'm a hard-working federal employee, who shleps 3 hours a day to and from work, and we're drowning in debt.
R' Joseph - I had the same thought, bro. He is in Kollel and he saves $20,000 a year?
ReplyDelete