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Monday, April 01, 2019

The (Pre) Easter Post!




A man and his ever-nagging wife went on vacation in Jerusalem . While they were there, the wife passed away. The undertaker told the husband, "You can have her buried here in the Holy Land for $150 or we can have her shipped back home for $5000.

The husband thought about it and told the undertaker he would have her shipped back home. The undertaker asked him, "why would you spend $5000 to have her shipped home when you could have a beautiful burial here, and it would only cost $150???"

The husband replied, "Long ago, a man died here, was buried here, and three days later, rose from the dead.

 I just can’t take that chance!"



82 comments:

Leib Shmukler said...

Not a single left-wing, anti-morality, anti-traditional values politician was avoided during Agudaa "leadership"(oy, vey!)mission to DC.
It is half-a-century old destruction of the morality and decency by every weiner and every mendenez, and, of course by the Boston Aguda-neighborhood representing Rabbi Barney Frank, that enables the sexual molestation and rape of children.

Spotlight on the Queens Vaad said...

VHQ's Chaim Schwartz is the former head of Agudah New England. Considering he may have the most narrow minded person in the entire Agudah organization, it's not hard to see why he runs VHQ like a Banana Republic.

Miami Beach said...

August 2, 2010

Miami Beach, Florida – The following is an email sent from Ahavas Torah of Miami Beach – Due to unexpected circumstances, all scheduled davening and learning of Ahavas Torah will take place at the Jewish Learning Center (upstairs) at 411 41st Street for the next couple of days. – Night Kollel, Daf Yomi, and Maariv tonight – 7:30 and 8:30 Shacharis tomorrow morning- Mincha at 6 PM tomorrow – Night Kollel, Daf Yomi, and Maariv tomorrow night will all take place at the Jewish Learning Center.

According to a VidYid source:
“WITHOUT ANY LEGAL EVICTION NOTICE, THE DAUGHTERS, REBBETZIN RABINOWITZ AND REBBETZIN HALBERSTAM UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE RUBSHITZER RAV, SON OF THE GREAT MUZHAIR REBBE (RABBI MENACHEM MENDEL RUBIN), HAVE CUT OFF ELECTRICITY AND SEWER TO A SHUL IN AN EFFORT TO FORCEFULLY EVICT THE YOUNG KEHILLA, “CONGREGATION AHAVAS TORAH”, THAT HAS BEEN RENTING THEIR LATE FATHER’S HOUSE IN MIAMI BEACH FOR THE PAST 4 YEARS. A DEAL WAS MADE WITH THE REBBE THEN, THAT THE BEIS MEDRASH IN MIAMI BEACH CAN BE OCCUPIED BY CONG. AHAVAS TORAH AS LONG AS IT STAYS A SHUL FOREVER. THE DAUGHTERS HAVE COLLECTED RENT FROM THE SHUL FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS UNDER THE NAME ‘HC HEROISM’, A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION. FROM THE DAY THE REBBE PASSED AWAY ONE YEAR AGO, THEY PUT THE PROPERTY UP FOR SALE TO HIGHEST BIDDER AGAINST THEIR FATHER’S WILL, CLAIMING THEY CAN BUILD A SKYSCRAPER ON THE PROPERTY AND MAKE A LOT MORE MONEY THAN THEY WERE GETTING FROM THE SHUL. CONGREGATION AHAVAS TORAH HAS BEEN IN MAJOR EFFORTS TO SECURE ANOTHER LOCATION AND HAS BEEN TRYING TO WORK OUT A COMPROMISE WITH THE REBBETZINS TO BE ABLE TO STAY IN THE CURRENT LOCATION UNTIL THE CONSTRUCTION IN THE NEW PLACE IS COMPLETE. HOWEVER, THE REBBETZINS DECIDED TO TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS, WITH NO LEGAL BACKING, AND FORCED OUT A YOUNG KEHILLAH OUT OF THEIR MAKOM TORAH AND TEFILLAH BY DOING THIS OUTRAGEOUS ACT.”

Anonymous said...

This is the link for the Bais Din Mayshorim of lakewood NJ, headed by Dov Kahan,also head of Bais Medrash of Arlington who stole a property under contract for the shul. He defied a Bais Din Order and relied on his own Ari Marburger to issue a Psak that he did nothing wrong. http://www.oceancountyclerk.com/wb_or1/details.asp?doc_id=5382594&file_num=2009137937&doc_status=V

Ever wonder if a Head of Bais Din could be corrupt??

YTT misnaged said...

Dovy Kahn is a YTT guy and I think he was on the committee for Margo's fresser party in Lakewood that was held before Pesach.

Yankel Applegrad said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/education/04education.html?hp

Undercover investigators posing as students interested in enrolling at 15 for-profit colleges found that recruiters at four of the colleges encouraged prospective students to lie on their financial aid applications — and all 15 misled potential students about their programs’ cost, quality and duration, or the average salary of graduates, according to a federal report.

Margo's dietitian said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/health/nutrition/04fat.html?hpw

Americans are continuing to get fatter and fatter, with obesity rates reaching 30 percent or more in nine states last year, as opposed to only three states in 2007, health officials reported on Tuesday.

The increases mean that 2.4 million more people became obese from 2007 to 2009, bringing the total to 72.5 million, or 26.7 percent of the population. The numbers are part of a continuing and ominous trend.

Congressman Anthony Weenie said...

http://www.vosizneias.com/61330/2010/08/02/washington-agudath-israel-delegation-interacts-with-state-department-and-white-house

When the Agudah Fressers came down to Washington this week, I was the only tuchess lecker who made a shpiel about Rubashkin being "persecuted" by the very government I represent.

Don't you love politicians that will say anything to get elected?!

Shea Fishman said...

What do they want from this guy? All he did was divulge secrets that put people's lives at risk.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7913758/Julian-Assange-Wikileaks-founder-fears-he-could-be-arrested.html

Julian Assange: Wikileaks founder fears he could be arrested

Free beer for Shmarya and his favorite people said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/08/03/2010-08-03_death_toll_spikes_to_8_plus_shooter_in_workplace_shooting_at_connecticut_beer_di.html

Connecticut truck driver Omar Thornton, who was being fired for stealing beer opened fire on dozens of co-workers Tuesday, killing eight, wounding two and terrorizing the rest for more than an hour before shooting himself.

Thornton, 34, who had complained of being racially harassed at work, paused mid-rampage to call his mom to say goodbye, friends and family said.

"He said, 'I killed the five racists that was there bothering me,'" his uncle, Will Holliday, told CBS' Hartford affiliate.

His mom begged him not to shoot himself, but Thornton said he had no choice.

Thornton, who worked at the family-owned beer and wine wholesaler in Manchester, Conn., for several years, was called in for a 7 a.m. meeting at which he was offered the choice to quit or be fired, police said.

Manchester Police Chief Mark Montminy said he didn't know which option Thornton chose but said he opened fire around 7:30 a.m. as he was being escorted out of the building.

Kevin Rennie, a well-connected former Connecticut state representative, reported that Thornton then went hunting for more victims.

"He ran along the loading platform, shooting some and sparing others," Rennie wrote on his blog, quoting an anonymous eyewitness.

Thornton's family, and Joanne Hannah, whose daughter Kristi dated Thornton for eight years, said he complained of being harrassed at work because he was black. He found a picture of a noose and a racial epithet in a bathroom, they said.

"Everybody's got a breaking point," Joanne Hannah told CBS.

But the Teamsters said Thornton never complained to his union reps or any government agency.

Jersey Shore said...

A chimney repairman is charged with lying to customers about what work needed to be done and in some cases
damaging chimneys so that he could then charge homeowners to repair them, police said.

Paul Katz, 46, of Red Bank, was arrested Friday at approximately 9:06 a.m. by Detective Ed Mitchko, who charged him with
theft by deception, fraud, forgery, and criminal mischief. Detective Mitchko determined that Katz was arriving at homes to
do chimney work and giving the homeowner false information on what needed to be repaired to their home, police said.

Katz would also cause damage to the chimney and show the homeowner a photo of the damage to falsely charge the homeowner
more money, police said.

Katz was transported to headquarters for processing and then taken to the Morris County Correctional Facility in lieu of
$20,000 bail pending a mandatory court appearance.

Katz, who was operating an older model green Dodge van with ladders on the roof, uses the name of Central Maintenance,
police said.

Aron Litigant Schechter vs. Ben Torah Carlebach said...

Aaron Schechter just does not care what people think. He has proven that over many decades. He refused to settle in any bais din after the firing of his own yeshiva's mashgiach ruchani, Rav Shlomo Carlebach (not the singer).

What was Rav Carlebach to do in the face of the Schechter-Fruchthandler stonewalling juggernaut? He did a lot for a one man willing to stand up to powerful tyrants.

The revered Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was determined to see justice done. He summoned all parties to a din Torah, yet Schechter and Fruchthandler scorned him and refused as they still do. So Rabbi Feinstein went a step further, as it's been published online for about three years now, he strengthened Rav Carlebach's hand in perpetuity, declaring him to be the one and only legal mashgiach of Chaim Berlin, that he was owed a salary unto this day, and the greatest act of support of all, granting Rav Carlebach special semicha (rabbinical ordination) attesting to his status and level as a rabbi.

In addition, Rav Carlebach wrote at least two official letters to voice his pain and protest against Schechter, a two paged letter, - 1 - - 2 - to Zwiebel at the Agudah and one to The Jewish Press.

It's instructive to read what Rav Carlebach said about Schechter over 30 years ago as a prelude to the various Schechter backed and orchestrated disasters that have befallen the Jewish people lately.

Sol Hersh testifies against his father Michael said...

SHLOMO ZALMAN HERSH, an infant above the age of fourteen affirms the following under the penalties of perjury:
[...]
6. I am one of eight siblings. My father has not allowed me any contact with them, except for my twin brother Yitzchok whom my parents have also abandoned and neglected. My twin brother and I never found a place in my father's view of religious life and as a result we have always been segregated from the family.

7. In 2002, when I was eleven years old, my parents moved our family to Israel. My parents told me that we were going on vacation and it was not until we got there that we discovered we were not going back. My parents never placed myself nor my brother in a stable school environment. My brother and I would stay in the neighborhood and have meals at neighbors homes. When we would question my parents authority, we would be severely punished by being locked in our rooms for 12 to 24 hours without any food. My father stated that we did not deserve beds and we had to sleep on the floor. When my father went away on business, he would leave us with neighbors even though my mother was at home.

8. During the time I was in Israel, several families started to see that my brother and I were being neglected and took pity on us and let us live with them. We stayed with Ruben and Rochen Rosengarten (9 Panim Meroth Jerusalem), as well as Eli and Malky Wolbe.

9. In 2004, when I was 13 years old, my father began forcing both my brother and myself to take sedatives for which we did not have a prescription. That fall my parents enrolled me in a boarding school and when I came home for the weekends, my father would sedate me so that I would not be a bother to him. The, school's therapist learned of this and in March 2005, he reported this to the child service authority in Israel.

10. As soon as my father found out what had happened he immediately bought me a ticket to fly me back to NY. The Israeli social services quickly realized his plans and banned me from leaving the country. My father sent my mother to the school to plea with me to drop the case. She cried to me that they were at risk of having their kids taken away, and she also informed me for the first time about her cancer. She told me that I should go to my father and he would tell me how to get them out of''this mess". If I did so, I could go home. I spoke to my father who said that if I wanted to be a part of the family I would have to testify in court that nothing ever happened.

11. A couple of days before the court date, my father secretly packed his bags and fled to America with the rest of my family. He gave me specific instructions on,what to say in court. I asked the court to dismiss the petition and they did.

12. Two weeks after returning to America, my father and I got into an argument where he became physical. I said that if he ever hit me I would call the police. The next day he took me to a psychiatrist saying I had mental problems. The psychiatrist spoke to me for less than an hour and sent me home. Three days later my twin brother and I got into a stupid fight. After the fight was over, my father said that he had enough of us and called the police and said that I was going to kill my brother. I was arrested and brought to the hospital. My father said that he wanted me in a mental hospital because I was dangerous. He admitted me to Holliswood Hospital. He left me there for two months. My father claimed that I had to remain there because he had no place for me.

[to be continued]

ROSA and ELLIOTT GREHER testify against Michael Hersh said...

TO: THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, COUNTY OF KINGS [November 2007]
The petition of ROSA DEBORAH GREHER and ELLIOTT ALVIN GREHER respectfully shows to this Court as follows:

1. The petition is made on behalf of ISAAC HERSH, born June 29, 1991,
who is detained by MICHAEL HERSH AND MIRIAM HERSH, parents of ISAAC HERSH, at Calbash Bay P.A., st. Elizabeth, in Jamaica. Petitioners are said child's maternal grandparents.

3. There is a custody proceeding before the Family Court of Kings County, Index number V-28271J2007, the respondents herein have abandoned their son, ISAAC HERSH and consented to a change in custody to the infants maternal aunt Elizabeth R. Cohen (see annexed as Exhibit "A" the signed stipulation).

4. On October 31, 2007. The Family Court issued an order, specifically, against the respondents to Produce ISAAC HERSH to the law guardian, at her office on November 6, 2007, at 4:00 P.M. To date said order has not been complied with.

5. The Family Court has presently set the matter on for a fact finding as to the best interest of the child. Said hearing is set for December 7. 2007, therefore, the status of ISAAC HERSH's custody remains undetermined.

6. The respondent's have abandoned ISAAC HERSH, they have a lengthy history of leaving this infant with strangers as his care takers, in lieu of his natural parents.

7. It is our fervent wish that ISAAC realize that not a/l of his family has abandoned him. We love him and wish to model for him what loving responsible grandparents can be like. We wish for him to know that we have not abandoned him.

8. We love all of our grandchildren, but respectfully recognize that as the status of ISAAC's custody remains uncertain, the Supreme Court is the proper venue to commence a visitation proceeding for ISAAC and not his siblings.

9. In 2006, The respondent's brought ISAAC HERSH to ZUCKER HILLSIDE
HOSPITAL, (hereinafter the ''facility'') a psychiatric hospital for a comprehensive evaluation. When the facility determined that there were no medical or psychiatric reasons for him to remain at said facility, the respondents refused to pick up. The respondent's alleged there was no proper place for him at home with them.

10. The facility notified the Department of Children'S Services because of the purported abandonment. The facility was finally able to place ISAAC with a loving, nurturing family in Houston Texas. The facility only came to learn about this placement through ISAAC himself. The facility made the appropriate background checks as to the viability of the placement and subsequently released our grandson once again to the care of strangers. Ultimately, this placement was short lived.

ROSA and ELLIOTT GREHER testify against Michael Hersh said...

11. The respondents have presently placed ISAAC in Tranquility Bay an unlicensed, unregulated boot camp, which prohibits any outside contact from family members, specifically, Tranquility Bay proscribes visits from family members and prohibits phone calls. (annexed hereto as exhibit "B" are 2 emails that ISAAC has been able to write, delineating the horrors of Tranquility Bay and warning his twin brother SOL HERSH to avoid their father, referred to in the emails as "Michael")

12. The Department of State has issued specific warnings against placing children in boot camps outside the borders of the United States. The warning exist because such placements are dangerous and unregulated.

13. Congressman George Miller of the 7th Judicial District in California, is the Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor has been conducting hearings in Washington on such placements, and has specifically, come out against Tranquility Bay. (annexed hereto collectively as exhibit "C" are a press release from Congressman George Miller on foreign boot camp and allegation of abuse and ongoing letters from Congressman George Miller and the GAO, Colin Powell, et al. requesting a formal investigation as to safety and regulation of foreign boot camps and the allegations of abuse towards children placed there.)

17. Your petitioner has been denied visitation with their grandson, ISAAC HERSH, since July 2004.

18. That prior to July of 2004. My husband and I, had regular, ongoing, continuous phone conversations and in person visits with the respondents' and their children, Even when the respondents' moved to Israel during the years of 2002-2005, we made trips to Israel to visit with our grandson, ISAAC HERSH and his siblings. Since returning from Israel, the respondents have refused any and all communications with us.

19. Previously, before July of 2004, We came to visit regularly with the respondents' but now they have refused to visit with us, to talk on the telephone with us or even answer the door when we come to New York. My son in law respondent MICHAEL HERSH, has even forbidden his son ISAAC HERSH, from having any communication with us.

20. ISAAC HERSH despite being prohibited by his parents from having any communication with us, had secretly called us on a regular basis.

21. We have not seen our grandson, as aforesaid, since July of 2004,We
have tried everything to effect visitation and all attempts have been met with an outright refusal on the part of the defendants.

22. The defendants are extremely unstable. They have used everything in their power to turn our grandson against us.

23. We are requesting visitation with our grandson, the appointment of a Law Guardian and forensic evaluations of the parties and our grandchild by an Order of this court. We are also requesting that a law guardian be appointed so that the best interests of our grandson can be properly determined.

Michael Litigant Hersh said...

Good ole Michael Litigant Hersh in his phoney-baloney law suit against real mentschen thinks the world is dumb and can't search the web. Hersh's lawyers are totally out of reality.

Hersh new full-well what the hell he was doing by sending his scrawny 16 year old kid to a hell-hole camp. There's plenty of information online he must have read, being the computer geek he claims to be.

Here's a horrifying tale from Forbes, that reads exactly like the story that would unfold with Hersh and his evil acts to his kids:

"Forbes.com:

Too-tough love?

AT 3:46 ON THE MORNING of Nov. 30, 1996, Stanley Goold III, a 16-year-old high schooler from Middletown, Calif., recalls being shaken awake. Over his bed stood three hulking strangers. One of them tossed him his clothes. "Get dressed," he ordered the boy.

Still groggy, Stanley was hustled into a waiting rental car -- but not before his mother, Jane Goold, handed him a small bag packed with a few articles of clothing. Stanley says that she never even told him where he was going -- to a "program" to help fight his alleged marijuana and alcohol habits. (Stanley always denied he had a problem and says he took two drug tests that were negative.) Two men sandwiched him into the backseat, and the car sped off.

The next evening, Stanley says, he arrived at Brightway Adolescent Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital in St. George, Utah, where he was told to take a shower and put on a hospital gown. He asked to call his dad -- who had divorced his mother years ago and knew nothing of her plans to send Stanley away for treatment -- and was turned down. Stanley spent the week being evaluated by a psychiatrist who diagnosed him as normal, with above-average intelligence, but "underresourced" -- a condition never explained to him, but apparently serious enough for him to be sent to a drying-out camp for a year.

A week later, he says, he was put on a plane to Western Samoa, site of the school called Paradise Cove, where he was forced to sleep on a small mat in a crowded room. "It was worse than being in prison, because we didn't know when we were going to leave," says Stanley, who claims he still suffers from nightmares. His father discovered Stanley's whereabouts only after his son failed to show up for a scheduled visit.

That prompted him to go to court. Nine months later he got physical custody of Stanley and took him out of Paradise Cove. Today he's an 18- year-old freshman at Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif., where he lives at home with his dad.

Stanley Goold was one of about 950 teenagers who have been enrolled at Paradise Cove or one of its six sister schools in the U.S., Jamaica, Mexico and Western Samoa -- loosely directed by a LaVerkin, Utah-based group known as the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP), which markets the schools under the name Teen Help. According to ads in Sunset magazine, as well as its Web site (www.vpp.com/teenhelp), Teen Help offers "schools, camps, other alternatives" -- intensive rehab programs -- to help 13-to-18-year-olds with psychological or substance abuse problems. Parents pay up to $54,000 a year for treatment and services. It is estimated that WWASP and affiliated companies pull in $30 million-plus in annual revenues."

Michael Litigant Hersh said...

Forbes.com: "Okay, lots of troubled teenagers aren't going to respond to gentle suggestion, especially from their parents. But some of WWASP's camps may push tough love too far. Last November its Morava Academy closed down after Czech police charged its U.S. managers with child torture; those criminal charges are pending. They were the same managers who were arrested, did time and fled Mexico when Sunrise Beach, a school for girls in Punta Sam, was shut down in May 1996 after employees complained to the media about prisonlike conditions inside the facility.

Karr Farnsworth, president of WWASP, defends the camps as highly structured boarding schools. The programs, he says, offer a mix of school, self-study and self-improvement seminars, along with therapy to change attitude problems.

Students usually live in dormlike rooms and stay for 12 to 18 months.

"These kids are not being sent to Rikers Island," Farnsworth insists.

"Students get their lives in order and go home as productive citizens."

He recently surveyed hundreds of parents and claims that all but a few said they'd made a good choice enrolling their kids in the program, and would recommend it to others.

FORBES talked to two sets of parents who were very happy with the program and said their children came back minus their drug habits and bad attitudes. Daniel Koller, Jane Goold's attorney, says he spent $60,000 on therapy for his son Daniel before sending him to Paradise Cove. "He was doing crystal meth; that was his drug of choice," says Koller. Now, he claims, "he's a fantastic new human being, a real loving guy," currently enrolled in the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo.

These days Stanley Goold doesn't feel rehabilitated. He has enlisted Thomas Burton, a Pleasanton, Calif. attorney, to sue the operators of Paradise Cove. Burton has filed two cases against WWASP schools in federal court and is preparing cases on behalf of eight additional clients. Burton compares Paradise Cove to "a private prison," and alleges it is a place where "adolescents are impounded, tortured, berated, brainwashed and otherwise abused."

WWASP officials -- the ones who returned phone calls -- steadfastly deny all this. But the evidence strongly suggests that teenagers in the program -- whose parents have signed away their rights -- live under the constant threat of physical punishment and receive little therapy.

Stanley Goold says he never received any counseling during his 11- month stay. But he vividly remembers the physical treatment. "I saw a few kids punched, kicked and thrown, but not nearly as many as I heard about," he recalls. For small infractions -- chewing food with an open mouth, talking back to the staff, failing a test -- Stanley himself landed in the "dungeon" a half-dozen times for a day or two. There he'd be forced to sit cross-legged on a cement floor for 12 hours a day, listening to tapes about the lives of Socrates, Beethoven and Genghis Khan. Students who tried to flee the dungeon, says Stanley, would be locked up in a tiny cell for weeks at a time. "Sometimes they'd put duct tape over the kid's mouth, hog-tie him or put on handcuffs," he says.

Farnsworth says, "We do not permit physical abuse." If some kids were to get out of control, he says, "they would be temporarily restrained by a member of our staff until they calm down and promise to cooperate."

Michael Litigant Hersh said...

Forbes.com: "It's difficult to establish a pattern of problems at the schools, partly because they operate independently of each other, as do the handful of other companies that provide services to WWASP. "The corporate structure is extremely complex and convoluted -- deliberately so," charges attorney Burton. That way, he says, the right hand can claim it has no idea what the left is doing.

In addition to the seven "residential facilities," WWASP does business with firms in or around nearby St. George, Utah. There's Teen Help, the marketing arm that directs parents to various camps and which, according to Farnsworth, also provides referrals to "escort services" of the type that whisked away Stanley Goold. Dixie Contract Services helps the schools hire firms, such as R&B Billing, to do back-office work.

Brightway Adolescent Hospital closed down in March 1998 for financial reasons, the company insists -- but not before the Utah Department of Health launched an investigation into its alleged practice of admitting children without the consent of both parents. Then there's Resource Realizations, which provides the camps with seminars and training materials.

Farnsworth insists all the companies are independent of each other.

If so, there are some strange coincidences. J. Ralph Atkin, the founder of SkyWest airlines and former codirector of business and economic development for the State of Utah, has been an attorney for Teen Help and a registered agent for R&B Billing and Dixie Contract. According to the Utah Department of Commerce, he is a trustee of WWASP. Atkin denies this, saying that state records aren't up to date. "I don't have anything in common with the business operation," he insists. He does concede that he co-owned Morava Academy, the WWASP school that was closed down last fall by Czech authorities.

Another figure who keeps popping up is Narvin Lichfield, whose brother Robert founded Cross Creek Manor in 1988, the oldest school in the WWASP network, established Paradise Cove and ran Teen Help before his retirement a few years ago. Narvin Lichfield owns Carolina Springs Academy, a WWASP school in Abbeville, S.C. He is the president and the director of St. George-based Adolescent Services Incorporated (ASI), which, like Teen Help, is a marketing company for the schools. He is on the board of At Risk Teen Foundation, which raises money to help parents defray the costs of WWASP schools offered through ASI, including Carolina Springs. The Internal Revenue Service is reviewing At Risk's application for status as a tax-exempt charity. Lichfield insists it's all perfectly kosher. "The foundation will be giving grants to the parents, not to the schools," he says.

Still, the suits are moving forward. Most legal action to date has been directed against parents. Last year a superior court judge in Oakland, Calif. dismissed a suit brought by the Alameda County deputy district attorney on behalf of then-16-year-old David Van Blarigan against his parents for sending him against his will to a WWASP school in Tranquility Bay in Jamaica.

And in January Children's Services in Ohio's Franklin County halted an investigation of a Columbus couple who had dispatched their 17-year- old son to Tranquility Bay. The boy was allegedly handled roughly on the trip to Jamaica. The parents agreed to settle out of court.

Parents of deeply troubled adolescents face a terrible dilemma. A mild response to the problem may get no results; an extreme one, like what WWASP seems to be offering, may turn out to be overkill."

OU Crony Watch said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Dov Kahan is hiding up in the bungalow until the Arlington Issues cool down.

"Uncle Milty" Balkany said...

Now that the shvogger Sholom Rubashkin is settling in with the Frankel's shul felons at Otisville, he'd better put this handbook next to his sefer Hatanya.

http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/otv/OTV_aohandbook.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS

FCI OTISVILLE

INMATE HANDBOOK

OU Eyepopper said...

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/weiss_moves_beyond_'rabba'

Avi Weiss pulled another typical stunt this past Shabbos by announcing at the last minute in an unsigned email that a woman will be shaliach tzibbur for Kabbolas Shabbos. He cited unnamed shitos that there is no kol isha by divrei kedusha.

An assistant rabbi from Avi Weiss's temple and some of his talmidim are of course OU shochtim under Seth Mandel.

Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, the head of the OU's RCA criticizes Avi Weiss here for ordaining a woman rabbi and for the stunt this past Shabbos.

But is Rabbi Goldin a hypocrite going against his own beliefs because he was forced to issue a statement on behalf of the RCA in today's newspaper?

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/jul/31/new-jews-craft-specialized-services/

It was just 5 days ago that Rabbi Goldin praised a woman davening for the amud at the left wing minyan in Cambridge, Mass.

Orthodox Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, first vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America, said he was “thrilled with the energy and the interest.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3926452,00.html

Rabbi Goldin has other unorthodox interests as well, like the pro-gay statement he signed last week.

West Virginians for Margo said...

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/the-fattest-states-of-america/?hp

West Virginia is the fattest state in America, according to new Gallup data on obesity rates.

Chometz for Pesach said...

Pesach Lerner's long tenure of running NCYI with an iron fist is facing stiff resistance.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/twenty-five_percent_of_young_israel_synagogues_propose_changes_to_national_/#When:22:43:00Z

In a letter sent Tuesday, Aug. 3, to the leadership of the National Council of Young Israel, 35 of the organization’s 140 North American branch synagogues formally proposed changes to the national body’s constitution. The amendments for the first time would allow branches to resign from the group voluntarily and would repeal the clause that allows NCYI to seize the assets of any branch synagogue that is dissolved or expelled. Together, the changes could significantly restrict the punitive actions NCYI can take against its branches.

The amendments are being proposed by synagogue leaders who say they do not wish to resign their shuls’ Young Israel memberships. “The shuls recognize that Young Israel is a valuable brand,” said Evan Anziska, a board member at Young Israel of Century City and a representative of the coalition of synagogues that sent the letter. Three additional Young Israel synagogues in Greater Los Angeles also joined the effort; their names were not disclosed. The list includes synagogues ranging in size from 50 members to as many as 1000.

“These 35 shuls represent a geographic cross-section of shuls across the country that have demonstrated by signing onto this effort that they’re concerned with the way the [NCYI] constitution is currently structured,” Anziska said.

The letter comes in response to a public dispute between NCYI and one of its former branches, the shul now known as Shaarei Torah Orthodox Congregation of Syracuse, N.Y. The synagogue was called Young Israel-Shaarei Torah of Syracuse until August 2008, when it attempted to resign from NCYI.

NCYI leaders reportedly “repeatedly refused” to discuss the matter. (Lerner and Mostofsky even shut down a conference call when people asked questions they didn't like)

Anonymous said...

Associated Press - August 4, 2010 7:24 PM ET

PHOENIX (AP) - A Scottsdale doctor has been sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison for health care fraud.

Federal prosecutors say 58-year-old Stewart C. Mann was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. He was also ordered to pay $480,000 in restitution.

Authorities say Mann had a private practice in Scottsdale and specialized in internal medicine and pathology. They say he billed Medicare between March 2005 and January 2009 for at least $480,000 worth of lesion excisions that were never performed on patients.

They also say that Mann falsely diagnosed the lesions on patients' backs as malignant to collect more money.

When audited by Medicare, authorities say Mann falsified patient records to make it appear that his billings were legitimate.

Satmar bungalow putz said...

http://www.bhol.co.il/news_read.asp?id=18793&cat_id=11

FBI agents show up at Satmar camp in Monticello

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/nyregion/05giuliani.html

Rudolph W. Giuliani’s 20-year-old daughter was arrested on Wednesday after workers in an Upper East Side cosmetics store caught her stuffing makeup worth more than $100 into her coat pocket, law enforcement officials said.

The woman, Caroline Giuliani, who the police say shoplifted five items, was taken into custody at about 2:30 p.m. at the Sephora store on 86th Street near Lexington Avenue, the officials said.

A salesperson and a store security worker at Sephora, a chain that sells beauty supplies and skin care products, called 911 and held Ms. Giuliani until officers arrived. Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said she was taken to the 19th Precinct and issued a desk appearance ticket for petit larceny, a low-level misdemeanor.

After her arrest, and when her identity became known, the store’s management informed the authorities they did not wish to press charges in the case, law enforcement officials said. As of Wednesday night, formal criminal charges had not been filed.

“Once we review the case, we will decide whether or not to file a criminal complaint,” said Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney.

The alleged shoplifting was also caught on videotape, the officials said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Giuliani said the former mayor “asks the media to respect the privacy of his daughter at this time.”

Pesach hotel fresser said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/nyregion/05tax.html

New Hotel Room Tax

A travel industry trade group predicted that the cost of the sales tax would be passed on to consumers in the form of higher rates and would prompt at least some visitors to reconsider coming to New York.

Andrew Weinstein, a spokesman for the group, the Interactive Travel Services Association, said the law would prove costly to consumers and the state, as companies will be forced to raise prices and will steer business toward New Jersey and Connecticut.

Mr. Weinstein said: “It is basically anyone making a profit on a room. Travel agencies, tour operators, convention planners, potentially even wedding planners.”

He said the added burden of compliance, including bookkeeping and possible audits, particularly on small firms, could be more costly than the taxes themselves and further increase prices for consumers.

Steve Mostofsky said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/us/03fbi.html

I like how the FBI is bullying encyclopedias who display an image of their seal. It's like when I tried bully UOJ for putting my picture on the blog.

now I wonder if UOJ instigated the revolt of 50 Young Israel synagogues against us at the National Council.

Judge Vaughn Walker imitates Shmarya said...

California's Proposition 8

Judge Walker wrote that government cannot enforce moral or religious beliefs without an accompanying secular purpose.

“Moral disapproval alone,” he wrote, “is an improper basis on which to deny 'rights' to gays.”

Hopefully the Supreme Court will put this putz in his place.

Bim Bam identity said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/541996/201007291833/Americas-New-Health-Care-Zookeeper.aspx

American seniors take note: There's a new bureaucrat in charge of your health care. Perhaps zookeeper is a more appropriate title, as the newly appointed but never-to-be confirmed head of Obama's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) likes to refer to the U.S. health care payment system as a zoo.

If you haven't heard of Dr. Donald Berwick, that's because President Obama and his Capitol Hill Democratic colleagues don't want you to have this information. After leaving the post vacant, Obama snuck him in on Independence Day weekend with a recess appointment. A Washington Post columnist admiringly called the move "positively dictatorial."

First among those who are shocked by the president's dictatorial move must be Berwick himself. "I wonder if I am less effective for having been radicalized," he said in 2004. "I can no longer take moderation."

"I don't care so much what doctors say," he said in a 2005 speech.

Dr. Bungalow Ferd Neuhoff said...

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/campers-injured-after-horse-spooked-1.923461

Campers injured after horse spooked

Jacob Perlow said...

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/photos.php?albumid=5501789386076459041&photoid=5501789423065601362

Here I am pondering UOJ's latest moves against the Agudah.

Dr. Bungalow Putz Neuhoff said...

This is UOJ's revenge against all us bungalow putzes.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=12916519

NYS scuttles $2.1 plan to study Rt. 17 widening

Andrew Gordon said...

http://www.washingtonjewishweek.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=53&ArticleID=13211

Andrew Gordon, the Orthodox Jewish contestant on Big Brother, made it to four episodes before being booted off the CBS reality show last week.

"I wanted to be the first Orthodox Jew on Big Brother who can play the game, as well as keep his religious beliefs," Gordon told DigitalSpy.

OK, he accomplished that goal; but, if his goal also was to present a positive image of observant Jews, it would have been better if "Captain Kosher," as he was dubbed, had not lied about such things as his profession -- he's a podiatrist, not an unemployed day trader -- and his age.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/keepingthefaith/item/jewish_doctor_on_big_brother_blows_his_chance_to_be_the_cool_jewish_guy_201/

He says he lied because he did not want people to label him as someone who didn’t need the money because he was a doctor.

Can you stay true to the life of a practicing Jew and blatantly lie? The Torah says: “Thou shall not steal, thou shall not deny falsely, and thou shall not lie one to another” (Leviticus 19: 11). Mr. Religious Jew talks about how he will not compromise his faith, but in a second is the lying Jew.

Anonymous said...

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019591/bio

Who is the "orthodox" rabbi who was megayer Steven Spielberg's wife Kate Capshaw? Spielberg is not shomer Torah umitzvos and this is the 2nd shiksa he has wedded.

See milestone 1993 at the bottom of this page.

According to Spielberg's Wiki bio he was ashamed to bring his goyish friends home when he was a child because they would see his zayde who was living with him, with a white beard and lange reckel. Spielberg's mother operates a cholov Yisroel restaurant in California. Spielberg may have had a bad hashpoah when he davened in the NJ shul of Rabbi Albert Lewis. Lewis was a YU musmach who later went off the derech and became Conservative. His son Shalom Lewis is a known sonei of frum Jews who sued to abolish the Georgia State kosher law.

YU - Torah Madua? said...

http://www.cardozojurist.com/2009/10/student-conflicts-with-kosher-policy/

"Cardozo does not require that this food be kosher; in fact, the student handbook explicitly states that “since Cardozo is a non-sectarian school, you may bring in any kind of food that you wish for your own consumption.”

This ability to bring non-kosher food onto the premises is unique to Cardozo amongst all the schools under the Yeshiva University (YU) umbrella. According to Bruce Jacobs, Director of Dining Services at YU, more flexibility is shown at Cardozo because the majority of students who attend school there are either not Jewish or not observant. Nevertheless, the cafeteria itself only sells pre-packaged kosher food and precautions are taken to ensure that the microwaves designated as kosher remain so. *** Although no one monitors the microwaves ***, Jacobs has not heard of any issues in his three years overseeing the facilities."

Jacobs is a joke. Even the microwaves at the main YU in Washington Heights were made treif all the time by students who don't keep kosher and don't care about anyone else.

The OU is seemingly in charge of the Cardozo cafeteria microwaves. How could they not be watching them with all the treif food floating around?

Sol Hersh testifies against his father Michael said...

13. Finally in January 2006, my father enrolled me in Yeshiva Gedola Ohr Hatorah, in Spring Valley, NY-a boarding school. Although, I did not wish to attend an orthodox school, my father threatened that if I did not obey, I would be committed to a psychiatric hospital. After a year of being in the school, I made good friends and confided with my friends regarding my family situation. I received a phone call from my father. He had heard that I had told people about our problems and he was extremely upset and started yelling at me that I am worthless and no one will believe me....If I keep this up, he will put me in another psychiatric ward. He cut off all contact with my family.

14. In October 2006, the school had a meeting with myself and my father (via telephone) wherein I requested a secular education. The school essentially stated that I am there to become a better Jew and that I have to sign a contract saying that I agree to become a better Jew. If I did not sign the contract I would be sent home. I refused to sign. The school told my father to come and get me. My father refused saying that I was not allowed to come home and I was on my own. At that point, I was literally homeless and slept at a bench in the synagogue. After a week, a friend of mine invited me to stay with her family-the Finer Family (183 Rockville Road, Spring Valley). I stayed with them for approximately one month. Afterwards I stayed with my grandparents in Connecticut for about a month. During this time, I attempted to contact my parents to see if they had a plan. My father stopped answering my phone calls. My father feared that I would call the cops and say I abandoned him so he called the police and said I ran away. The whole time I was with my grandparents.

15. My father finally made contact with me and said that I have to find a place to live apart from his parents. During the previous summer I had met Ariel Fishman. I remembered that he said if I ever needed anything to call him. I called and asked if I could live with him. He told me that he was living in Austin Texas and that he would love to have me. For the first time in my life someone actually accepted me as I am and was willing to take me into their own home. For them it was a huge sacrifice, which I can never be grateful enough. My father took me Texas, dropped me off at the Fishman's with sixty dollars in my pocket. I believe that is the last time I ever saw him.

Sol Hersh testifies against his father Michael said...

16. While I was in Texas with the Fishmans, my parents never called or came to see me. Although, I believe that my father spoke to Ariel Fishman, he refused to speak to me. On the occasions that I would call home, my mother would speak to me but very briefly. I believe she is afraid of him.

17. I stayed with the Fishman's until May 2008 when they left for Upstate New York for the summer. It is my understanding that from there they are moving to Israel. It is my understanding that Ariel Fishman has been trying to contact my father to either get permission for me to go with them to Israel or for my father to make arrangements for me. My father has not been responsive to them. [...]

22. My parents have made it very clear that they do not want me. I have not lived with them in a very long time and have not had any significant contact with them in a very long time.

23. My parents do not care about my mental, emotional or physical well being. I have not had a medical or dental checkup in the last two years. My glasses broke over a year ago and have never been replaced. When I first arrived at the Fishman's, I had access to my parent's health insurance but when my father changed health insurance plans, he never provided the Fishman's with the information.

24. Last summer my parents arranged for my dear twin brother to be whisked away in handcuffs in the middle of the night and taken to a "boot camp" in Jamaica. This all happened when my brother went to visit them over the summer. Everyone warned him not to go but he missed his brother and sisters. That was the last time he was seen in nearly a year. He also has suffered tremendously at the hand of my father. We are extremely close and knowing he was in another country with no government oversight, possibly being tortured and abused, was an insufferable pain for me. Yitzchok was rescued after nine months of being in that facility. I am afraid my parents will do the same to me if I do not find a place to live.

25. The petitioners [ELIZABETH REBEKAH COHEN and RAPHAEL COHEN] have stated that they are willing to take custody of me and have me live with them. I believe that they will provide a stable enviromnent where I can be with family and my twin brother Yitzchok.

26. For the reasons stated above, I support the petitioners petition for custody herein.

Arthur said...

part one
REAKING NEWS: New Evidence Shows Judge Reade Unlawfully Presided Over Rubashkin Trial, Participated In Raid Planning
(Thursday, August 5th, 2010)
12:28PM EST: New documents produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda Reade met frequently with the law-enforcement team that was actively engaged in the planning of the May 2008 raid on the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant and participated in preparations for the raid. On this account, Judge Reade should have been legally disqualified from presiding at the federal trial of Sholom Rubashkin.

Judge Reade was required to disclose these meetings and her participation to defense lawyers, but the judge did not make any such disclosures before presiding over the trial last year. The evidence shows Reade was not only provided with regular briefings on the raid preparations for more than six months before it occurred, but that she expressed her “support” for the raid, and directed that she be briefed on how it was to be carried out.

“The government’s own memoranda show that more than six months before the raid, Judge Linda Reade began a series of meetings in which she collaborated with the law-enforcement team that prosecuted the case against Sholom Rubashkin,” said Nathan Lewin, lead appellate counsel for Sholom Rubashkin. “Without disclosing to defense counsel her meetings with the U.S. attorney and the support she expressed for the raid, she presided at Mr. Rubashkin’s trial, and then immediately had him imprisoned, and sentenced him to two years more in prison than the prosecution requested.”

Advertise On YWN »
In light of the new revelations, attorneys for Sholom Rubashkin filed a motion for a new trial Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Rubashkin was sentenced in June 2010 to 27 years in prison for bank fraud and related charges. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison term.

“Under federal law, as authoritatively interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Reade was required to disqualify herself from serving as the judge in Mr. Rubashkin’s trial or, at least, to make a full disclosure to the defense lawyers so they could decide whether to file a motion for recusal,” Lewin said. “The jury’s verdict must, on this account, be vacated, as well as Judge Reade’s decision to deny release on bail to Mr. Rubashkin.”

Arthur said...

Part two

The government documents and e-mails were provided to Rubashkin’s counsel after the trial concluded, although their Freedom of Information Act request was filed in February 2009, more than eight months before his trial began. The government did not initially respond to repeated letters and calls from Rubashkin’s counsel seeking the FOIA documents, and Rubashkin’s attorneys eventually sued the Department of Homeland Security to procure the information.

The documents reveal that Reade began meeting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in October 2007, and advised law enforcement officials of her vacation schedule so that the raid would meet her “scheduling needs.” She also said in January 2008 she was “willing to support the operation in any way possible.” In March 2008, Reade participated in a meeting that discussed “an overview of charging strategies, numbers of anticipated arrests and prosecutions, logistics, the movement of detainees, and other issues related to the [Agriprocessors] investigation and operation.”

According to one e-mail, Reade made specific requests for a “final gameplan” to be submitted to her about one month before the raid took place. She also “requested a briefing on how the operation will be conducted.”

“What can be learned from the redacted memoranda about Judge Reade’s participation in the planning of the raid on Agriprocessors may be only the tip of the iceberg,” Lewin said. “But even this tip is sufficient for an objective observer to doubt the perception of impartiality.”

The documents also show Sholom Rubashkin was the primary focus of the investigation before the raid. In a PowerPoint presentation describing the planned raid – which may well have been displayed to Judge Reade during one of her “briefings” – ICE identified Mr. Rubashkin as the “Vice-President of the company,” and noted its belief “that one or more company officials may have knowledge of criminal conduct on the part of the company and may even be culpable themselves.” In a separate memorandum written in advance of the raid, ICE explained that on the day of the raid, it would “execute a criminal arrest warrant” against a “corporate official.” Mr. Rubashkin was not ultimately arrested on the day of the raid, but he is the only “corporate official” arrested, and therefore was probably the subject of that memorandum and discussions with Judge Reade. Under federal standards, those ex-parte conversations would be grounds for recusal of a judge.

Arthur said...

Part three


Rather than disclosing her attendance at, and active participation in, planning meetings, either to the defendant or his attorneys, Reade rejected a related defendant’s recusal request and claimed she had only been engaged in “logistical cooperation” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who planned the May 2008 raid on Agriprocessors.

“Judge Reade’s apparent attempts to minimize her participation in the raid raise new suspicions and bolster doubts about Judge Reade’s impartiality in circumstances that are particularly worrisome,” said Lewin. “Under federal law a judge is disqualified, whether or not actually biased, if the average person on the street, knowing all the facts, would question the judge’s impartiality.”

Representatives of the Department of Justice and ICE also concealed Judge Reade’s participation in the raid planning to members of Congress. In a hearing in July 2008 before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren asked law enforcement officials what information was provided to the federal court in Iowa and “what measures were taken to ensure that the court’s view of the cases would not be affected and that judicial neutrality would not be compromised?” Deborah J. Rhodes, a senior associate deputy attorney general, responded that Judge Reade was only given a “heads up” for “logistical reasons.” She did not acknowledge that Judge Reade was given briefings and “updates” on various substantive matters, as well as the fact that the raid was coordinated around Judge Reade’s “scheduling needs” and that Judge Reade had expressed her willingness “to support the operation in any way possible.”

As part of its motion for a new trial, Rubashkin’s attorneys have requested that Judge Reade transfer the motion to another judge for determination, “in order to preserve public confidence in the impartiality of the judicial system.”

Members of the Rubashkin legal team will participate in a media conference call this afternoon to discuss the new information. Details are forthcoming.

Anonymous said...

Dov Kahan is at the Chaim Berlin Bungalow colony. Probably writing a Heter for them to continue in court.

Arthur said...

Part four

This is clear proof that afilu cherev chado munachas al tzavoroi shel odom al yimna atzmo min horachamin

Meyer Orbach said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/nyregion/06distressed.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Sale of Troubled Buildings May Not Mean Rescue

But with scores of such buildings in foreclosure and many others in disrepair, city officials and housing advocates say a new wave of investors has already begun to swoop in. And the actions of some of the new buyers — one was recently jailed for contempt of court, another has already clashed with tenants — have raised fears that conditions in timeworn buildings could get even worse.

One landlord, Meyer Orbach, paid $70 million in June 2008 for 13 buildings with 250 apartments on West 49th Street; about half of the apartments were rent regulated. Last year, he bought 22 buildings with 384 apartments on West 109th Street.

The latter portfolio cost $45 million, or about 60 percent of what was owed by the previous owners, the Pinnacle and the Praedium Group, which had begun eviction proceedings against 5,000 of the 21,000 tenants it had in New York City. Mr. Orbach’s strategy, many tenants say, is no different. He has filed dozens of cases against tenants in housing court, and some tenants complain that private investigators posing as repairmen have been poking around their apartments.

Eli Tabak said...

I used to work at GFI before starting Bluestone with my shutfim Ari Bromberg and Motty Mendelsohn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/nyregion/06distressed.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Mr. Suzuki failed to correct violations, show up in court or reveal the names of the owners of the properties, and this summer he served three weeks in jail for civil contempt, a rare penalty in housing court.

A real estate investment company, the Bluestone Group, bought the debt on Mr. Suzuki’s buildings from Dime Savings Bank, making it, in effect, the third time the troubled housing stock changed hands.

Eli Tabak, a principal in the company, said the deal was in line with Bluestone’s business model, which he said involved “buying distressed debt at a discount, turning the asset around and turning it into a cash-flowing proposition.”

Leib Pinter said...

Shucks! I picked the wrong Administration to defraud the lunch program! I never imagined a Black president would come along who gives out so many free meals to his brothas and sistahs.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/senate-passes-child-nutrition-act/?hp

The Senate on Thursday approved a long-awaited child nutrition act that intends to feed more hungry kids and make school food more nutritious, and it provides for $4.5 billion over the next decade to make that happen.

The Vaad to expose the Queens Vaad said...

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/07/18/2740094/the-beauty-of-tahara

This is sick! Elchonon Zohn's underling Rabbi Mayer Waxman wrote this propaganda piece that was published by the gullible JTA to promote the money-making scheme called National Association of Chevra Kadisha. No mention of Zohn being a butcher of corpses of yesomim. JTA must like the fact that NACK is stacked with non-Orthodox groups who don't do taharos according to halacha.

Rabbi Waxman is a modern orthodox guy who used to work for the OU.

Rabbi Waxman may be from the chevreh who believes in using microphones in shuls on Shabbos. The hunch is due to the fact that he helped the Jerusalem Post's Rabbi Shlomo Brody compose an article for the RCA where he seems to be a big expert on every fringe Left wing opinion being mattir microphones which are a slap in the face to R' Moishe, Rav Henkin and all the other gedolim ztl.

Hand Made in USA said...

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/a-weak-report-with-glimmers/?permid=3#comment3

Unemployment keeps going up and Michelle Obama is in Europe shopping for Gucci? Barack Hussein Obama needs to open his mouth again, so I can give him a piece of my Big stimulus.

State of Disgust said...

http://www.csibriarcliff.org/uploads/3866Bulletin_200812.pdf

While I am no fan of Rubashkin, this hypocrisy is over the top.

A Conservative rabbi named Steven Kane in the Northern Westchester town of Briarcliff Manor, NY, is criticizing Rubashkin on the 2nd page here and blathering about animal and worker welfare.

Steven Kane was arrested for drug possession and his congregation agonized for a year if they should get rid of him. They ultimately didn't have the backbone to act.

Do you have any idea how many people are killed and abused by drug cartels by the time the drugs get to Steven Kane to snort or smoke?

itchiemayer said...

R' UOJ - I recently came into possession of some old issues of the Jewish Observer. Over Shabbos, I was reading an article from 1999 written by R' Sheftel Neuberger about his then recently deceased Rosh Hayeshiva, R' Weinberg.
In the article, three references are made to HaRav Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz, ZT"L. The first reference refers to the Rav as "Reb Shraga Feivel Mendelowitz, zt"l". The next two incredibly simply refer to him as "Mr. Mendelowitz".
What the heck was going on there?
In that same article he never referred to a "Mr. Weinberg" or a "Mr. Hutner". Each reference of them was "Rabbi". Even the "Reb" was disrespectful. I don't know if I have the subseqent issue which could have issued an apology?

Paul Mendlowitz said...

Sheftel Neuberger nebach is not well, it's time they put him away already.

Doubting Thomas said...

Gateway Pundit II said...
"We had (his son’s) bar mitzvah scheduled on the calendar, but I think they’ll be moving to D.C. But, we will definitely follow the family and their simchas — their joyous times — wherever they go".

This quote from Rabbi Lopatin regarding Rahm would imply that Amy Rule and children are Jewish al pi halacha. If so, why was Rabbi Lopatin so vague and non-committal when answering to this on Failed Messiah?

Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe testifies against Michael Hersh said...

AFFIRMATION OF ARYEH WOLBE

My name is Aryeh Wolbe, a listed defendant in this case, I live at
[...], in Houston Texas, where I am the dean of a rabbinical seminary, I was a foster parent for Isaac Hersh, who referred to me as "dad," and had a close relationship with Isaac's twin brother, Sol.

I first became acquainted with the Hersh family in 2001, after the
family secretly moved to Israel from Brooklyn. NY. I was approached by a local rabbi and asked to help Issac and Sol Hersh who had been roaming the streets of Jerusalem and out of school for the past nine months.

I began tutoring the boys on a daily basis when they were 12 years old and developed a close relationship with them. They soon began spending countless hours of the day at my house and interacting with my family, and became a part of my family. I quickly realized that these boys came from an abusive home.

I learned from the boys, Isaac and Sol, as well as from others, about
incidents of abuse and neglect. At one point, when the boys were merely twelve years old I received a call from them stating in a hushed tone that they had been locked in their room for the past 24 hours with no food and drink, and asked me to bring over some food. At another time, Isaac arrived at my house on a cold winters day without a coat or jacket. Issac explained that his father had not let him wear his coat as a punishment.

I also recall a disturbing conversation with the playground teacher, also a neighbor, of Mr. Hersh's pre-school daughter. The teacher said that one day Mr. Hersh asked her not to feed lunch to the child as a punishment for forgetting her lunch at home. (At the twins bar mitzvah, one of the neighbors commented to Isaac, that he "can't believe you're allowed at your party and not being punished.")

After tutoring Isaac and Sol Hersh for a while I realized that they were energetic, healthy, capable and sociable children with no developmental issues as their father claimed. The father, however, seemed incapable of
dealing with slight challenges to his authority or any departure from
religious practices regardless of its importance
.

At one point it became obvious that he was medicating the twins. They would show up at my house and collapse on my couch as if they were zombies, this was not the Isaac and Sol that I had gotten to know, rather it was due to the medications that they were being given. When I asked the boys what medications they had taken they stated that their father always ripped off the labels of their medication so that they did
not know what they were taking
.

Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe testifies against Michael Hersh said...

Many of the psychologists that treated Isaac and Sol over the two year period in Israel would call me asking for information about the Hershes.

These psychologists quickly realized that there was more to the story than Mr. Hersh had told them. As soon as one of these psychologists began to second-guess Mr. Hersh, he would switch them to another psychologist.

Later my family and I moved back to the United State and I was no longer tutoring the boys. However, I maintained a close relationship with them and talked on an almost regular basis. In 2006, I received a call from ACS requesting that I take Isaac into my home as his own parents were unwilling to care for him. Without hesitation, I accepted.

At ACS's request, I arranged for a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a
school for Isaac. When Mr. Hersh brought Isaac down to Texas, he was not interested in meeting with me nor was he remotely interested in seeing Isaac's room or discussing the situation. I asked Mr. Hersh for his phone number to contact him in case of an emergency, he refused to share that information with me and was unwilling to cover any of the
financial expenses
, such as tuition costs or doctors for Isaac.
I had to raise all monies needed for any expenses myself, without the assistance of Mr. Hersh who refused to take any sort of responsibility for his son. He blamed the paternal grandparents for the children's problems and that I should go to them for money.

In order to enroll Isaac in a school in Texas, he needed a psychological evaluation because his father had institutionalized him. But in order to obtain this evaluation I needed written permission from Mr. Hersh. which
he withheld from me for over a month and which then was loaded with pre-conditions and limitations.

While Isaac lived with us for over nine and a half months, his parents never called once to check in with him or with us about his progresses.

They did send him one package for Chanukah.

Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe testifies against Michael Hersh said...

Despite the difficulties he had endured, Isaac advanced and progressed extremely well in Texas, both academically and socially. In March of 2007, I notified the Hershes that I would not be able to care for Isaac
in the upcoming academic year due to personal family matters and offered take full responsibility for all the needed arrangements with his permission. Mr. Hersh refused to give me that permission and in mid June 2007, Isaac returned to New York.

After arriving at his father's house, Isaac called me to let me know that he had gone to Hershey Park with his mother and that he was now at a restaurant with her. I warned Isaac repeatedly that under no circumstances was he to sleep in his father's house, as it was not safe.

But Isaac stayed at his father's home. That night, in the middle of the night, Isaac was abducted and taken to Tranquility Bay, a boot camp in Jamaica.

Two months later I learned of Isaac's location through a phone call from a former Tranquility Bay inmate, and I pleaded for Isaac's return and tried my best to bring him home. At one point, I even offered to take Isaac in and to cover all financial costs, and even was willing to agree to Mr. Hersh's odd request that Isaac be kept out of New York until he
was 18.

When Mr. Hersh learned of my efforts, Mr. Hersh called the Houston Police Department and placed a complaint against me. The sheriff quickly dismissed the complaint, but this was another effort at intimidation which prevented many others from speaking out.

The foregoing is hereby affirmed, under penalty of perjury.

Aryeh Wolbe
Jerusalem, Israel

EIGHT MORE QUESTIONS FOR MICHAEL HERSH said...

1) Where did you learn about sending people to psychiatric wards/hospitals/facilities?

2) What do you know about psychiatry and psychology that you made use of psychotropic medications and even deployed a paid psychiatrist to impose your will on your two sons Isaac and Sol when they disagreed with you? (Kids are not robots programmed like computers!)

3) How does your usage of psychiatry for your own ends reconcile with your religious beliefs and with Orthodox Judaism's view of mental health treatments and how to deal with "problem children' or "kids at risk"?

4) Why did you try multiple times to commit your own children Isaac and Sol to psychiatric wards when they disagreed with you?

5) Can you name the doctors who support all of your moves to send your own sons multiple times to psychiatric facilities to be committed to long term care? Not to mention, who supported your decision to send Isaac to Tranquility Bay?

6) Besides Rabbi Aron Schechter (and his family) who is mystically and implacably biased in your favor, can you name any other major Orthodox or even non-Orthodox rabbis, scholars and Halachic authorities who supported your methods and could you cite the Halachic grounds for your actions, including the huge public commotion you are causing at the present time to "defend" yourself?

7) How is what you tried to do to your own sons, based on their sworn testimony, different from what the Soviet regime used to do to dissidents who refused the "approved party line" and would be banished to "psychiatric wards" that were really prisons to have their wills and bodies broken, often resulting in severe permanent mental breakdowns, physical injury, abuse of medications to create more mental problems, psychoses and even death? Is that what you wanted to do to your own flesh and blood sons and how can you reconcile that with the ethical, moral and religious teachings of Judaism?

8) Have you ever thought that your kids' conflicts are NOT their own, they are YOURS and that you have so many unreconciled issues within you that it is you who needs psychotherapy and medication that would serve you and Klal Yisroel a lot better than all your manipulative pow-wows with Rav Aron Schechter?!

Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica said...

Before Tranquility Bay was shut down in 2009, the year after Michale Hersh sent his son there in 2008, any fool Googling could have discovered the following references about what horrors would await his own son:

From P.U.R.E. (Parents Universal Resource Experts) Help Your Teens (January 2003):

"Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica

By Ryan Pink, El Paso TX

When I was fifteen years old I was expelled from Cy-Fair Independent School District in Houston, Texas, after two girls to whom I had sold LSD were hospitalized.

That was the fourth year in a row I had been expelled from school, the first time being in the sixth grade for possession of a controlled substance. The district had lost its patience with me.

I was ordered to attend a non-district school operated by the juvenile justice department. Only eighty kids from every district in the Houston metropolitan area – an area with a population over four million – attended the school. As I was introduced to the school, I was told by the police officer in charge "this is where we educate the future inmates of TDC."

The system had lost hope for me.

After several failed drug tests, and several charges of disorderly conduct, school officials informed my parents that I was going to be incarcerated by the state.

My parents had not lost hope for me.

Instead, they sought out a long-term rehabilitation facility where they could place me. Their choices were limited, but one organization seemed to be everywhere they looked. That organization was WASP.

I was enrolled in Carolina Springs Academy, a WWASP affiliate, in October of 1999. I was barely sixteen years old. I would not leave WWASP until two months before my eighteenth birthday. I spent six months at CSA. While I was there, any type of order on the boy's side of the facility was apparently non-existent.

I was able to get a hold of drugs and alcohol. I never went to school, and never cooperated with the program. Caroling Springs Academy was unable to control me. I was transferred to Tranquility Bay, another WWASP affiliate located in Jamaica, in April of 2000. My partying days were over. Tranquility Bay was a hard slap in the face. Tranquility Bay had none of the American comforts I had grown up with – warm water, air conditioning, adequate meals, washing machines, etc. Though I am going to attempt to, I could never accurately describe what it was like living at Tranquility Bay.

The following is a short story I won a citywide award for in El Paso. There were a few technical things I changed in the story – because leaving them in would have affected the flow of the paper. For example, the guards at Tranquility Bay were called "Family Fathers" and the units were referred to as "families." Each family had a positive name – like Respect or Honor. My family's name was Dignity.

(I wrote a poem once in which I described how ironic it was when I was standing silently in line, with my head forward, my face expressionless, my body covered in sores and liver spots - and "my father" was calling me dignity. You don't feel very dignified when you're hungry and tired and a man you barely know is screaming at you, "Dignity, line up!")

To save the pace of my story, I didn't clarify these things – I didn't use WWASP jargon. I used words outsiders could identify with. Words like "guard," "unit," and "inmates," but the conditions and events in the story are completely accurate. (Even those creepy audiotapes. I thought I was in some kind of sci-fi novel.)

Here it is:

Lessons in Obtaining Happiness and Inner Peace: A Typical Day in My Tropical Paradise (An audiotape)"

Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica said...

(By Ryan Pink, El Paso TX):

"By habit, I was already awake before the screaming began. As soon as the wake up call started, I quickly reminded myself that I had become a machine, and I wasn't really there. The silent commotion began immediately. Two hundred young men spilled out into the hallway and outside into the courtyard to line up for headcount.

There was no talking; we were not allowed to speak during the daily schedule. We lined up in our units, and the guards began to count us. The totals were shouted into the radios to the guard who was working sickbed, and he tallied the count. The guard working with my unit motioned for us to head to the shower area.

The shower area consisted of an eighteen stall wooden shower with a single pipe running down the middle, spilling water out of eighteen separate holes. The water was cold. The guard let us know time was running, and he turned on the pipe.

We had three minutes to shower. I washed my body quickly and mechanically. When I was through, I stepped out of the shower and got back in line. We then headed towards the clothesline. We broke line to hang up our towels. Before I returned to line, I used the pipe by the ditch to brush my teeth and rinse the mud from my feet.

We went back to the dorm to do our room jobs. I was in charge of the floor in room 208, and I was good at it. I had mopped and swept every morning for the past eleven months.

It was a small room, a few square feet, and I was done rather quickly. I had a few spare minutes before we had to leave, and so I picked up my tattered copy of The Grapes of Wrath and read what I could. Most of my reading was done this way - only in bursts. I finished one page before we were called back into line.

We went to the classroom to listen to the morning audiotape. It was about the secrets of living a productive life. The same one we listened to yesterday. I took notes as I always did; there would be a quiz tonight to make sure we paid attention. The tape lasted thirty minutes.

We lined up for breakfast and headed down to the cafeteria. The meals were laid out on the table, and we walked in order, grabbing our plates. Breakfast was boiled cabbage and fish. The food itself didn't depress me any longer. I was used to it. I just wished that there had been more. There was never enough, and I was always hungry.

The guard put in the breakfast audiotape, and we ate in silence, listening to the tape. I was not able to take notes in the cafeteria, taking a pen out of the classroom was dangerous. If caught with one, there would be trouble. So I did my best to memorize a few key points from the tape over the fifteen-minute meal. "Based on results you have exactly what you intended." When time ran out, we stood as a line and stacked our plates by the kitchen door.

After breakfast we headed back up to the dorm to have a unit meeting with our case manager. There would be a few moments, maybe a minute, when we could have a hushed conversation of sentence fragments before the case manager came into the room.

When the unit filled up the room, we all sat around against the walls. The guard sat outside the door, writing up his shift change report. The young man next to me asked, through motions and whispers, if I had heard Litho being restrained last night.

I nodded to let him know that I had heard the restraint. Another guy joined in the conversation of grunts and gestures saying that he had heard Litho's nose had been broken, and he was taken to the doctor in Kingston this morning. I hadn't heard that.

The conversation ended abruptly when the guard stood up to come into the room. He wanted to know who was talking. We were silent, waiting for him to leave. His eyes scanned the room, moving from face to face, searching for a hint of guilt. All of us suddenly became very interested with things on the floor, or the back of our hands - avoiding all eye contact."

Anonymous said...

"Handmade" wrote:
Unemployment keeps going up and Michelle Obama is in Europe shopping for Gucci? Barack Hussein Obama needs to open his mouth again, so I can give him a piece of my Big stimulus.

I reply:
And the Orthodox Jewish communities of Borough Park and Williamsburgh are going to the pig-slops at hotels on Sukkos and Pesach (I'm sorry to the porcine species for comparing them to these slobs)? And spending outrageous sums to act like hogs at bungalow colonies during the summer?

Most Chassidic males have already experienced the "piece of big stimulus" after having it done to them at their so-called "yeshivas".

Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica said...

By: Ryan Pink

"The guard stood in the center of the room until the case manager came in, carrying a plastic chair. She sat down, and for half an hour we were allowed to ask questions about our family and express medical concerns. We were not allowed to inquire about release dates. I told the case manager about my ringworm and the liver spots. A few more people complained about scabies and sprained muscles. She wrote everything down in her blue notebook and promised that it would all be taken care of. I knew she was lying.

When the meeting was over, we headed to room 204 for a bathroom run. This was the time to go if I needed to. I wouldn't get another opportunity until this evening. We stood in line outside the door and took turns going into the restroom. The guard gave us each eight squares of toilet paper before we entered the restroom. We had two minutes.

As soon as everyone was done using the restroom, we went back to the classroom for a period of school. There weren't enough teachers for every unit in the facility, and so we were expected to teach ourselves out of the textbook, a rather hopeless task when dealing with algebra.

If I was careful, I could sneak a chapter from The Grapes of Wrath, but if I were caught I would be placed in Staff Watch and on my face for a few days. Staff Watch was the disciplinary unit of the facility. The average stay was about one or two weeks. Inmates in Staff Watch spent the day lying on their faces, not allowed to move. If someone were to move repeatedly without permission, even to look up, he would be restrained.

His arms would be twisted behind his back, and his ankles ground into the linoleum floor. This was not a restraint by definition, but more of a cowardly beating which left no marks or bruises.

I hid my Steinbeck novel in between the pages of my algebra textbook and read what I could while the guard strolled around the classroom. I was careful not to become too involved in the book that I lost track of the guard's position. Yet I was also able to escape my reality as I read if only for a few moments.

I found my redemption in a word on a page in a book about repression. I was free.

We stayed in the classroom for two hours before heading outside for P.E. this was one of the upsides of the day. We could go outside the twenty-foot walls and play soccer in a large dirt field littered with rocks.

There were four guards placed around the field observing us. We had to chase several goats off of the field before play.

We played a particularly violent sort of soccer on this field. All the anger, frustration, and hatred stained energy inside of us found its way out of our bodies and onto the soccer field. We bit, kicked, pushed, tripped, spit, punched - we fought our way through soccer games as if we were fighting for our lives.

We were playing another unit and emotions were high. I was the goalie, and I was a good one. I attacked the ball like a rabid pit-bull, and if my head was kicked in the process, it was well worth it. Having a goal scored on me felt much worse than a swift kick in the teeth.

Our unit was a much better soccer team, and so the game went slowly for me. The ball stayed on the other side of the field most of the game. I talked a friend who was playing forward into trading positions for a few minutes. When I jumped into the middle of everything, I became an animal. I never learned how to properly kick a soccer ball, but I was an expert on running people over."

Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica said...

By: Ryan Pink

"A hotshot guy from the other unit who used to play soccer in high school broke free with the ball and started down the field. Someone from our defense met him mid-field and ran his foot into the other guy's knee. The guy from the other unit immediately fell to the ground and grabbed at his knee.

The defensive back passed me the ball, and I ungracefully began to make my way up the field. I didn't see anyone run up behind me; I only felt a hand grab a fistful of my hair as I was thrown to the ground. I fell forward onto the dirt and rocks below me. I slid on my face a few feet, and the stones on the ground sliced up my face.

A brown cloud of dirt rose into the air, and I was blinded as I picked myself up off the ground. I was trying to wipe my eyes out when I was hit again - this time from the side. I hit the ground, and my elbow jammed into my ribs, knocking out what little breath I had left. I couldn't get back up. I was bringing myself up to a kneeling position when the guards called for a line. I had to shake off the pain and make it to the line before I got into trouble for making the unit late. I wiped the blood from my lip, stood up, and limped across the field into the line.

It was lunchtime. We went to the cafeteria and grabbed our plates. The guard put the lunch audiotape on, and we sat down to eat. Lunch was a bun and cheese. We had some powdered milk as well. The bun and cheese was my favorite meal. I slowly nibbled on my bun, savoring every last bit of flavor.

The lunch audiotape was about the keys to effective problem solving. I had heard it before, and so I disregarded it.

When lunch was over, we went to the dorms to get our clothes for laundry, and then headed to the clothesline. We each grabbed a bucket and filled it up with water from the pipe by the ditch. The guard poured a handful of soap into each one of our buckets, and we swished the water around to make the soapsuds thick. I didn't have a brush to wash my clothes, so I scrubbed with opposite sides of the clothing. When I was through, I rinsed my clothes and hung them up on the clothesline.

The sewage pipe that ran out of the facility was broken, and sewage leaked out of the pump and under the clothesline. If a strong wind came, my clothes would fall into the sewage. It was a risky situation. When we were finished with our laundry, we headed back up to the classroom for another period of school. I was able to pull off a few more pages from the Grapes of Wrath, but the guard was looking at me suspiciously, so I put the novel away and stared at my algebra book.

Screams broke out from Staff Watch. Someone was being restrained. Other than one of the new guys, none of us looked up from our book This was a normal thing.

I stared at the pages in my book and listened to the screams. He was begging for them to stop. I could hear them laughing. I wanted to cry, but I knew there would be trouble if I did. I reminded myself that I was a machine and that I was not really there. I cleared my face of any emotion and waited for dinner."

Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica said...

By: Ryan Pink

"Dinner was pork and pork, was dangerous. The day after a pork meal always left me feeling as if I had swallowed a cup full of nails and glass. There was never any meat in the pork, only fat and bone, and I could see the hairs on the hide sticking up.

I ate all of it, and if I could have had more, I would have. I didn't care about tomorrow's pain; I was hungry now. I listened to the dinner audiotape - A Guide for Building Healthy Workplace Relationships - and memorized a few key points for the quiz tonight. "It is always fashionable to wear a smile on one's face." I could already feel the pork in my stomach begin to cause problems.

After dinner was music time. Music time was my time. For half an hour we were allowed to sing, one person at a time. I sang as much as I could. It was one of the few times I could allow myself that type pf freedom. I left that dirty room and all of the loneliness when I was singing. I was home when I was singing.

The guys in my unit liked it when I sang. My voice would fill the room with songs of freedom and redemption, songs about home, and songs about love, songs that could make us forget where we were - and just for that moment we were safe.

We were home.

Half an hour later, I found myself back in my tropical paradise, standing in line. It was in the evening, and that meant the day was almost over. We had one more audiotape and the quiz left. We went back to the classroom and listened to the audiotape: Lessons in Obtaining Serenity through Effective Problem Solving.

The evening tape was always the longest and hardest to listen to. It went on forever, pounding its lessons into my head. I was tired, and I just wanted to go to sleep.

When the tape was through, we wrote what we learned from each tape and turned the paper into the guard, who would give it to the case manager tomorrow morning. She would review my (copy/paste) and mark down in her book: "Student is making significant progress."

We lined up back in the courtyard for evening headcount. The guards counted us and yelled the totals into the radio to the guard-working sickbed. We went back upstairs to our rooms and into our beds. Someone in Staff Watch began to scream. I held back the tears and reminded myself that I had become a machine and I was not really there.

I hated to go to sleep because I always woke up again in the
morning.

By: Ryan Pink

Graduate of Tranquility Bay August 2001"

Trickery at Tranquility Bay, Jamaica said...

By: Ryan Pink

"Follow-Up from Ryan Pink:

Since graduating Tranquility Bay in August 2001, I have intentionally avoided all contact with the WWASP organization. My above factual story was so unbelievable, that the judges for the City Wide Literacy Competition mistook it for fiction.

I work for The El Paso Time writing for their sports section. I have been very successful and excited about my future. I am currently enrolled at El Paso Community College and have applied for transfers to larger Universities. I have the utmost confidence I will be accepted.

The reason I wanted to share how I've been doing is because I know that what I wrote could be easily dismissed as the ravings of a bitter, unsuccessful graduate lacking direction. That is far from true.

WWASP is a dishonest, immoral organization. Seems like a pretty hefty accusation considering that many have entrusted their children to this organization. "Hear no evil, speak no evil." I am alive and well and I was in the program for two years.

However, my results would have been the same if I spent those two years in a state facility where I was headed. The clever advertising and an arsenal of feel good self-help seminars (or elaborate infomercials) convinced my parents to place me at WWASP.

WWASP is capitalism at its absolute worst. The organization is not in the business of "healing families" they are in the business of making money. Preying on desperate parents and soaking their bank accounts dry.

When I stated I would have had the same results in a state facility, my parents, on the other hand, would not have. They would have a lot of extra money right now. You see, in a state facility, their taxes would pay for me.

Ironically, I would have most likely received a better education and definitely would have been fed. So, in the long run, a state facility probably would have been better than WWASP and certainly cost effective.

I understand many of you will discount my story since it is dated August 2001, but read the *sworn testimony of graduates in August 2002. Doesn't sound like anything has changed, including the sewage leak.

With Respect,

Ryan Pink

El Paso, TX

*To View the Sworn Transcripts visit "A Parents True Story" on our site."

Anonymous said...

Given Rabbi Lopatin's seemingly contradictory comments re: Rahmbo and family, I believe he should set the record straight. After all, what if Rahm comes into my shul...a man married to a non-Jew can only get an ark-opening honor at my Shul so can the Rahminator get an aliya? Can his son get an aliya? Can his son be counted in a minyan. These are not irrelevant questions whatsoever.
Regarding R' Lopatin's comments on the Chelsea Clinton marriage, I would say that Rabbi Lopatin has forgotten the dangers of assimilation. That marriage is no cause for celebration in any manner.

itchiemayer said...

Regarding Rabbi Aaron Shecker of Chaim Berlin - I don't have exact dates, but perhaps mida k'neged mida is working out perfectly here.

Here is my chiddush: I understand that R' Shecker is 85 years old more or less. 30 years ago, when he and his posse thumbed their noses at HaRav HaGaon R' Moshe Feinstein, R' Moshe would have been around 85 as I believe he was born in 1895.

So finally at age 85, and as a result of the Hirsch matter, Rabbi Shecker is going to be shamed and disgraced as punishment for what he did to R' Moshe and for what he did to Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, not the Singer.

What goes around comes around...perhaps?

Meet Aryeh Wolbe, one of our Kollel Members said...

In Aryeh's own words:

"Our father always taught us as children to be concerned for Klal Yisrael[the nation of Israel]- for the Klal and each individual in it. Starting from the small details of chesed, and even by small words of encouragement to people in need.

My father, being a businessman and a truly giving person always ran (and runs) an open house. In addition, my greatest inspiration was from a speech that my grandfather gave on a visit to America when I was 13 years old (note - Aryeh's grandfather HaRav Shlomo Wolbe of blessed memory, considered by many to be the greatest, and most important proponent of Mussar [Torah based self-improvement] of recent times).

In the speech, delivered at Ohr Sameach Monsey, my grandfather was highly emotional about the devastating situation of what he termed "the Spiritual Holocaust" that is threatening American Jewry. I was so affected, that I decided at that young age to focus my energies, in addition to my learning, towards helping, and being mekarev my fellow Jews.

For example, at the age of 17, I started working with youth at risk- drug and alcohol abuse, emotional problems, etc. In addition, the situation of worldwide Jewry also has been a major focus for me throughout the last few years- from the ages of 17 through 22, I traveled to the Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus 9 times, at first working in programs there, including running Seminars and translating and transliterating Siddurim, Machzorim, etc. into Russian, for their use.

Eventually, I started my own organization with the purpose of providing, for no charge, thousands of religious articles- tefillin, Mezuzot, etc.

I've also worked extensively in America- I taught in Memphis, Tennessee on Torah U'masorah's SEED program on 7 different occasions, was a mentor at the Moodus Kiruv Program, and worked on many other programs.

In light of the above, joining Rabbi Berkovits' Kollel was the obvious choice in which to spend my last few years of learning in Israel.

I not only received a strong methodology in Torah study, but also a new, positive, and productive world view. In addition, it's an incredible feeling to be in an institution with a group of future leaders who take their responsibilities to Klal Yisrael seriously.

My plans are to come to a community with little or no solid core of Judaism, and to make a major impact in returning it to its Jewish roots."

Before joining The Jerusalem Kollel, Aryeh learned in some of the finest institutions of higher Jewish learning, including the Beis Medrash Gevoha of Lakewood.

Aryeh's wife Zahava, was brought up in a home dedicated to Chesed and Kiruv. Her father, R. Eli Gewirtz, is the head of Torah U'Mesorah's Partner's in Torah, one of the leading Kiruv Programs in the United States. Zahava has worked extensively in Kiruv, teaching, and counseling.

Aryeh is now the Executive Director of TORCH (The Houston Kiruv Kollel and Resource Center).

Anonymous said...

It is a tremendous shame that the innocent people who stood up against the abuse suffered by these boys are being harassed and dragged into court for their courageous actions. May God give them the strength to withstand this evil. My tefillah of "la-malshin'im" will be said with kavanah and fervor while this travesty of justice against righteous Jews is going on.

itchiemayer said...

12:13 post re: R' Lopatin was mine, I didn't mean for it to be anonymous. Now I am waiting for Senor Jose Luis Oquendo Gonzales Rodriguez to come out of the woodwork.....

OU Crony Watch said...

UOJ will love this. Shaking a woman's hand in business is not ok according to Belsky but Yudi Kolko reaching into little boys trousers is ok.

http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol15/v15n046.shtml#03

From: Gil Student

I was incorrect in stating R. Yisroel Belsky's view on the subject.

This is what someone involved in kosher supervision, in a position to know R. Belsky's view, wrote to me: Rav Belsky holds that, generally, a mashgiach should NOT shake the hand of a female factory official. He holds that the Hetter should be used ONLY in isolated incidents--and when accompanied by personal protective acts to restore the level of pre-deviation zehirus and to maintain kedushah.

Chometz for Pesach Lerner said...

http://www.frumcommunity.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1527&forumid=5&postid=5993&view=topic

I received the following horrific information from Las Vegas.
I have verified it from several credible sources.

Thursday, 9/4/2008, Reb Moshe P. a man in his 70s, was invited to pray in the Young Israel of Las Vegas by a member of the family who's name is on the front and side of the building. This family member thought the rabbi would make peace when he saw Reb P.. While Reb P sat down to daven, Rabbi Wasser came over to him unprovoked and told him to get out. When he didn't, Rabbi W poured a container of water over Reb P, drenching him. Then a Dr. [deleted] pushed and shoved him in the chest in the parking lot when Reb P. fled outside. There are photos of Reb P's eye showing that a blood vessel burst in it as a result of the assault.

Among those who witnessed the assault on Reb P were members of the Las Vegas Kollel from Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva.

Reb P taught Torah and Talmud to Rabbi W. Reb P was baal koreh for Rav Avigdor Miller's shul for a quarter of a century. Is this the way a student treats his teacher?

Is this branch going to continue dragging down Young Israel? Is National Council going to continue covering up the atrocities?

Anonymous said...

This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan, Taliban Minister Mohammed Omar warned the United States that if military actions
against Iraq and Afghanistan continue, Taliban authorities intend to cut off America's supply of convenience store managers and possibly Motel 6 & Super 8 managers.

And, if this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell and AOL Customer Service Reps.

Finally, if all else fails, they have threatened to send us no more
candidates for President of the United States!

Gateway Pundit II said...

Wasser is a Chofetz Chaim family. Is the Rabbi Wasser involved a Chofetz Chaim musmach. I know a Wasser that is a musmach of Chofetz Chaim who is a total mensch.

Gateway Pundit II said...

Are you certain it was Rabbi Wasser's Shul? I don't believe he is the Rabbi of the YI of Las Vegas.

Chometz for Pesach Lerner said...

There are 2 Yaakov Wassers who are Young Israel rabbis.

The other one was the rabbi of Young Israel of East Brunswick NJ for over 30 years until his retirement 2 months ago.

Chometz for Pesach Lerner said...

Actually, I just made a huge error.

There is a rabbi in Las Vegas named Yaakov Wasser but he is not at the Young Israel. He is at Shaarei Tefilah.

Young Israel of Las Vegas is Rabbi Yitzchok Wynne.

I mistakenly confused the two Rabbi Ws when the original post only gave the initial.

Rabbi Wynne has been accused of this and other scandals and as far as I am concerned Rabbi Wasser must be a nice guy as I have not heard much about him.

Thank you for questioning the post so that an innocent man is not maligned.

Gateway Pundit II said...

Yes, it is the East Brunswick Rabbi Wasser's son (the mentsch) to whom I referred earlier. Nevertheless, I went to the website of a Vegas Shul, She'arei something or other and the other Rabbi Wasser is listed as the Rabbi of that shul and not the YI. I'm not sure how current it is.

Ponzi scheme said...

Zelinger is married to the daughter of OU Exec VP Emeritus Rabbi Weinreb.

Rabbi Weinreb has a long history of doing & saying nothing when child molesters were operating all around him in Baltimore.

I wonder how Zelinger is Barkany's uncle. FBI agents came to Gateways Pesach hotel last year to arrest Barkany.

I also wonder how the Boro Park gvir Alfred Schoenberger got mixed up with Barkany. He has hired super-lawyer David Boies who was lead counsel for Al Gore.

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=qFU7dg6VZ0RJj8Xkovdofg==&system=prod

This is the complaint

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/03/20/family-of-ponzi-schemer-gershon-barkany-hit-with-suit/

Family of Ponzi schemer Gershon Barkany hit with suit

(The asset recovery firm that acts sort of like a bankruptcy trustee for clawbacks is based on 47th St in the Diamond District and owned by a CPA named David Belsky)

Belsky Mania said...

Sholom Dovid Belsky, a certified fraud examiner, is 67 years old, lives in Monsey.

Any relation to "street corner crazy" Sruly Belsky?

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/files/barkany-asset-v-darchei-torah.pdf

If he is related it's very interesting that in clawing back millions of dollars, he is going after Sruly Belsky supporter Yankel Bender and Sruly Belsky opponents Yeshiva Shor Yoshuv.

OU Crony Watch said...

Steven Kwestel is President of Young Israel Lawrence-Cedarhurst.

http://commercialdivisionblog.com/2013/12/20/legal-malpractice-claim-survives-despite-no-allegation-of-attorney-client-relationship/

A State Supreme Court judge thinks that he may have been a willing participant in the ponzi scheme.

His brother Sidney Kwestel is Honorary President of the OU.

Belsky strikes again said...

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-romaine-results-are-in.html?showComment=1397357961932#c3957726809517328159

When Rav Steinmetz first went to check out the existing OU infrastructure at Solomon's shechita to see about certifying, he knew something was wrong. There were shubim who despite their Yerushalmi levush, were acting like gangsters. There was something fishy about the rosh hashochtim so Rav Steinmetz asked him who gave him kabbolah. Rav Steinmetz was given a kabbolah letter from a choshuva rov. One day the choshuva rov was asked about this rosh hashochtim to which he replied that he never gave kabbolah to that fraudster nor to anyone else. So how did the fraudster get the letter? The choshuva rov gave him a haskomoh in writing to go SHNORRING and the letter was altered!

Now guess who was still defending these imposter shochtim at the OU?

BELSKY!

When Rav Steinmetz refused to work with these frauds, the OU simply moved them to another shechita!

Anonymous said...

I have a judgment against this guy. Refuses to pay.