Isaiah 54-1-10 – 5th Haftorah of the 7 weeks of comfort
By Rabbi Simon Jacbson
Sing Barren One
Sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song, and cry aloud, you who have never been in labor; for the children of the abandoned are more numerous than the children of the married wife, says G-d.
Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded, for
you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For G-d called you as a wife abandoned and grieved in spirit. Can a
wife of youth be rejected? says your G-d.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but I will gather you with great
compassion. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid My face from you; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says G-d, your Redeemer.
This is like the waters of Noah to me: I swore that the waters of Noah
would never again submerge the earth; similarly, I swore that I would not be angry with you and would not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed; but My kindness will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be withdrawn, says G-d, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54-1-10 – 5th Haftorah of the 7 weeks of comfort
My heart is hurting. My soul is singing.
Life is so strange. And paradoxical.
It’s now five weeks since I have been writing about one of the most
painful of life’s tragedies – innocent children hurt by adults. I never intended to continue writing about child abuse. But I could not ignore the overwhelming emotional response evoked by my first article (The Destruction and Restoration of Dignity) about my wounded childhood friend Michael.
All my years of teaching and writing – communicating with people about personal and emotional issues – have taught me that we must listen, and listen closely to the anguished voices and the deep outcries of people in pain. We must always listen to the “kol yeled boche” – the cry of the child.
Of all man-made human atrocities, perhaps the most devastating and demoralizing is silence. Silence in the face of abuse is not neutral; it is complicity.
So when I began reading the anguished e-mails elicited by my article
describing the perpetual wounds of childhood trauma – one e-mail more heart wrenching than the other – there was no way that I was going to ignore these crying voices.
I realized and continue to realize the deep grief of so many tormented souls; children whose lives were forever altered because of a self-indulgent, sick adult.
And then, once I applied myself to the issue, which is so “comfortable” to ignore, I could not stop writing. As much as can be said about this unspeakable topic seems never enough. Initially, I thought that it was hard to find a place where child abuse is discussed in the Torah; now, after studying these seven weeks of comforting Haftorahs, I came to realize that once you pay attention it’s hard to find a place where this issue is not mentioned: Virtually every Haftorah speaks about the wounded children, the abandoned sons and daughters.
This week we read: Sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song, and cry aloud, you who have never been in labor; for the children of the abandoned are more numerous than the children of the married wife, says G-d.
Let us ponder this verse for a moment. Are we actually being told that the “barren one” has reason to sing more than the fertile one? And that the “the children of the abandoned” have an advantage over healthy children?
How sad: Abandoned children outnumber their healthy counterparts. Abuse is rampant, and yet we are told that this is reason for us to sing!
But that is exactly what the verse is telling us. Whether we understand it or (most likely) not, some mysterious metamorphosis occurs to the barren one and the children of the abandoned. And when we see it through, we celebrate.
Yet we cry and sing all at once. We cry for the loss. But we sing for the growth, and we sing for the fact that we ultimately are not abandoned; our abandonment is only for a brief moment, because the everlasting Divine kindness and compassion always remains with us.
Indeed, the barren and abandoned state revealed a deeper love and greater strengths. The fact that we remain standing after all that we have been through testifies to our invincibility.
It is an absolute miracle that a child is able to survive extreme abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to protect the child. And yet the child survives, and with work becomes someone far greater, far more refined than he or she may have been otherwise. Not that this is a consolation, but the harshest challenges in life bring out the deepest resources, ones we could never imagined to have existed. And yet… we cry; we cry for all the countless hours of loneliness and anguish. We cry for the sheer pain, regardless of the ultimate benefits. But as we cry, we also sing…
So, sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song,
and cry aloud.
Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded, for you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
Shame. Ahh the shame resulting from abuse. The shame that demoralizes and poisons our every move; the shame that breaks our spirit, as we lose our inner dignity and sense of self-worth.
Yet, even if we were shamed, you will forget the shame of your youth, as you discover that you have not been rejected.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but I will gather you with great compassion. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid My face from you; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.
While reading and writing about this healing process, let us not forget that we are in the month of Elul: A month of love an compassion, when we have the power to rebuild after loss, as we learn from Moses who spent these days of Elul on Sinai beseeching G-d for resolution.
And yet, the sadness strikes me again. Here we are preparing for the High Holidays – awesome days that have the power to change our lives forever. Yet, how many people are aware of this fact? How many are looking forward to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur as indispensable days, offering us the ability to realize our deepest aspirations and dreams?
Many today are disenchanted from the monotony of conventional Holiday services. Affiliated and traditional Jews often suffer from a mechanical, lip service, experience. Nevertheless, the paradox continues: Men and women regardless of background hunger for a meaningful High Holiday experience.
Much to cry about. But also much to sing about.
But then we read on and conclude this week’s reading:
For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed; but My kindness will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be withdrawn, says G-d, who has compassion on you.
Despite the winds of assimilation and the forces of apathy, notwithstanding the spiritual quandaries and the decline of traditional commitment – the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed – but My kindness will not depart from you, and this kindness and compassion will reach the depths of our souls and awaken us.
Thus, even our spiritual frustration and our skeptical attitude is essentially the voice of our souls searching – desperately yearning for something better. What greater tribute to human dignity?
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EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
60 comments:
Yasher koach R' Arthur!
A doctor I know with a special needs child says he was told by R' Moishe Feinstein that people are not mechuyev to donate money for special needs chinuch where the child is not a bar daas.
The full article shows Linzer from YCT pushing for participation in tefilla betzibur which is going too far without a leg to stand on in halacha.
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/36577/new-york-schools-shun-special-needs-kids
Manhattan offers the Jewish parent everything: gleaming community centres, world-class Jewish day schools, and a synagogue on just about every corner. But when it comes to raising children with special needs, New York's glitziest borough is, apparently, lacking.
... Gavin and Jodi Samuels, a South African couple whose daughter, Caily, aged two, has Down's Syndrome.
The Samuels - he a pharmaceutical executive - already have a son and a daughter who attend the $20,000-a-year Manhattan Day School, on the Upper West Side. But the school will not accept Caily.
The family claim that the school refused even to assess their daughter, arguing she would be better off elsewhere.
But the couple say that the closest Jewish special needs schools are in Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey, all at least one hour away by bus. Besides, the Samuels maintain that including special needs children in regular classes is better for their daughter, and is standard practice in state schools across the city.
"The only schools that turned us away were the Jewish schools," said Mrs Samuels.
Manhattan Day School principal, Rabbi Mordechai Besser, declined to comment.
The Samuels appealed against the school's decision. They even offered to pay the additional expenses that Caily's schooling might incur. But to no avail.
Instead, Mrs Samuels said, families associated with the school "told us they will squash us and we will never be able to show our faces in public. A group of families have pooled together to make sure our daughter never gets in."
Richard Bernstein, a disability rights lawyer, who is blind, said other faiths, particularly the Catholic Church, were way ahead on issues of special needs education. And Dr Jed Luchow, director of special needs at the Board of Jewish Education, said the reason schools refuse to take children with special needs was a fear of being seen as "the nebbuch school".
At no time ...
http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/08/19/roger-clemens-will-reportedly-be-indicted-for-federal-perjury/
Roger Clemens was indicted on multiple charges stemming from his testimony in front of a Congressional committee that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, federal authorities announced on Thursday.
The seven-time Cy Young Award winner faces one count of obstruction, three counts of making false statements and two counts of perjury stemming from the statements made in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and its investigators.
Clemens faces a combined maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine, although current sentencing guidelines would only put him in jail for 21 months
http://ahavtemeshager.blogspot.com/2010/08/what-kind-of-standards-does-queens-vaad.html
Whoa! this is major!
Is there any miktzoah in halacha where the Queens Vaad behaves?
Thank you dear blogger for raising critical questions about a Vaad we already know has serious issues in other areas!
Weinstein supporters, yes they actually exist, are kvetching that Rubashkin ate up all the capital of what kind of strings can be pulled with government figures, and there is none left for any other ganovim.
http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/37033/fbi-swoop-orthodox-fraudster
The US Attorney's Office says Weinstein gained victims' trust by using contacts within the tightly-knit Orthodox community - a method known as affinity fraud. He was often introduced or recommended by rabbis who vouched for his credibility.
Rumours persist in Lakewood that other Orthodox informants continue to wear wires in ongoing FBI investigations.
"If it's true, there could be a bunch more arrests to come," one source said.
Never underestimate the power of a grassroots populist demonstration that takes to the internet.
The disgraceful details that came to light of how Dokter Rabbiner Seth Mandel was running shechita operations with non-frum shochtim at the largest hashgocho in the world, seem to have been too embarrassing and difficult to cover up for even the OU.
Sources report that the OU has hired someone from Manchester UK to be OVER Seth Mandel's head.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100820/NEWS/8200377
BETHEL — A 30-year-old man from Brooklyn drowned on Thursday afternoon in the waters of White Lake after diving off a boat to take a swim, according to state police.
The body of Betzalel Levin was recovered by divers about 7 p.m.
Hasn't Rabbi Mandel been through enough heartache in his life without your jibes at him? Remember his sorrow before you publically humiliate him.
The NY Times really means that Bungalow Vantz Neuhoff paid me a visit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/nyregion/21bedbugs.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print
August 20, 2010
What Spreads Faster Than Bedbugs? Stigma
By EMILY B. HAGER
Businesses are fearing the stigma as well, as reports of infestations multiply. In recent weeks, bedbugs snuggled into the seats at AMC’s movie theater in Times Square, crept around a Victoria’s Secret store on Lexington Avenue and the offices of Elle Magazine and hitchhiked into the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.
“There were attorneys that didn’t want to come to our building,” said an assistant district attorney who would identify herself only as Caroline A. “I don’t blame them; I wouldn’t want to go somewhere where there is known to be bedbugs.”
"How is Rabbi Metzger allowed to bentch a goy by birchas hamazon which is befeirush assur?"
Get a life.All he did was shake his hand as he left prime grill so that he could tell his son, mendel, that he shook his hand.My source is impeccable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082005487.html
Doesn't George Allen know I've got the market cornered on tekias shofar?
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Upstart+rabbi+battled+city+Jewish+establishment/3426679/story.html
Aug. 1908
Rabbi Simon Glazer was not a man for compromise. That showed the moment he arrived in Montreal, in 1907. He was just 29.
Glazer had been hired by a group of Orthodox synagogues to be their chief rabbi.
Rabbi Hirsh Cohen, had spent years establishing his leadership among Montreal Jews. From 1905, he was recognized as the supervisor of kashrut.
This didn't impress Glazer. He instantly declared what was kosher & what was not, and would authorize Jewish divorces to boot. As Canadian Jewish Congress put it, "He came without respect for social authority, without readiness to cooperate with predecessors who won leadership by many years of service."
Nor were his enemies just among the Jewish elite. Not long after, 3 men burst into his home & beat him up.
They were angry because he refused to license Wolf Goldsman as ritual slaughterer to be employed by one of the assailants, merchant Abraham Neanton.
Glazer petitioned city council to recognize him as supervisor of kashrut. Two establishment rabbis, Herman Abramowitz & Meldola de Sola, testified Glazer was not the chief rabbi. The councillors, bewildered by their sudden immersion in Jewish law & rivalries, opted for status quo.
Glazer was not daunted. Within weeks he published a list of butchers he recognized as kosher. This prompted the excluded butchers to sue him for libel, alleging he damaged their business by besmirching what they sold.
The results of the case are now lost. But it was still churning when Glazer once again found himself on the receiving end of violence. "Rabbi Glazer himself has been attacked at the packing yards & obliged to run for refuge to the company's office, where he remained a prisoner for hours, while enraged meat dealers surrounded the place," The Gazette reported.
The butchers claimed the only authority needed to sell meat was the city's. Glazer said that was fine, so long as they ceased calling the meat kosher & charging an extra 2 cents a pound.
Yet there was more to Glazer. Unlike most of his fellow rabbis, he was fluent in English, allowing him to represent Jewish concerns to government & the public with ease.
Glazer journeyed to Halifax, at his own expense, to testify on behalf of a slaughterer charged with cruelty to animals. Glazer helped persuade the court that kosher slaughtering was more humane than other methods.
But the constant struggle against Montreal's establishment Jews was wearing him down. A bitter 1915 essay in Montreal Yiddish newspaper Der Veg expressed his scorn for the disdain they felt toward the newly-arrived & penniless: "Did you leaders go to seek out the lonely, the poor, the sick? Did you ever try to feed your children on the wages paid by synagogues?"
He left Montreal in 1918 for a series of pulpits in the United States. He died in 1938.
Mrs. Davis is an old almana whose home was set on fire to cover up her murder. She always came to town meetings as a watchdog for taxpayers.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/08/woman_killed_in_fatal_fire_in.html
TEANECK — The body of a woman found inside a burning northern New Jersey home this week has been identified as a well-known community activist.
Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli ... did not disclose further details on the investigation into her death, which has been ruled a homicide.
The 74-year-old Davis was known for attending government meetings in Teaneck, often criticizing officials for what she considered careless spending and insider deals.
Branch of Chofetz Chaim yeshiva.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/yeshiva_in_the_snoop_e73T9frjBlNik3mOfAX5iP
Tiferes Yisroel, a popular all-boys Jewish school on East 35th Street in Flatbush, has demanded parents buy 'Net-nanny software to monitor their households' online activity.
Parents then have to assign a chaver, or friend, to get detailed Web-browsing histories automatically e-mailed to them by a $5-per-month monitoring service called WebChaver.
Administrators at the 763-student Orthodox elementary and high school say the system is necessary to prevent online experiences that just are not kosher.
"We are following the dictates of our rabbis that as human beings, we cannot trust ourselves. This is proper education," said a letter from school officials mailed to parents this month.
Some parents scoffed at the Big Brother edict.
"Of course I'm not signing up. They really just want to monitor the parents," fumed one father, who noted that his two young children are not even allowed to use the home computer.
"I'm not paying $60 a year so they can monitor me. I don't go to that school -- my kids do."
While other Jewish schools have suggested parents use the spy system, Tiferes Yisroel is the first local one to actually demand that they do.
Only about 20 parents have agreed, a source said.
Rabbis at the school urged parents choose an eagle-eyed, and preferably female, chaver.
"It is our strong recommendation that our chaver should be outside the immediate family -- certainly not a male member of our immediate family," the letter said.
WebChaver, run by a New Jersey-based nonprofit, will give school officials a list of the parents who sign up and their chavers.
Administrators at the school did not return calls seeking comment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22crisis.html?ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=print
Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, on Capitol Hill after the bank was accused of fraud. The firm has taken an aggressive public relations stance against critics.
If there was panic and chaos inside Goldman Sachs, the company kept it hidden, maintaining a consistent communications posture throughout its brush with unwanted scrutiny: Yield little.
Yet in opting to mount an aggressive defense, the company appears to have intensified criticism. Goldman took a series of unsavory but not crippling disclosures about how it profited before, during and after a global financial crisis and — through a public relations strategy built on arrogance and insensitivity to the national mood — turned itself into a symbol of Wall Street shenanigans.
Mr. Anderson, at M.I.T., sees parallels to the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.
“The priests thought they should be protecting one another rather than the children in their care,” he says. “Goldman now has the same problem. It turns out it’s, ‘We make money for ourselves first, and our customers second,’ when it should be the other way around.
Goldman saw its troubles aggravated by ill-advised sarcasm from its C.E.O., Lloyd Blankfein, who told The Sunday Times of London that he considered banking as “God’s work.”
Goldman’s notoriety may matter little to the bank’s main constituents: shareholders and clients. Toyota and BP both sell products to ordinary consumers, making image maintenance a crucial concern. Goldman, on the other hand, generally confines its work to serving extremely wealthy people, companies and governments. Its success depends not on being liked, but on being respected for a pursuit that sometimes pulls in the opposite direction — racking up profits, even amid calamity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/business/22crisis.html?ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=print
Lipa Margulies of Torah Temimah, at the Agudah Fresser Convention after YTT was accused of fraud. The "yeshiva" has taken an aggressive public relations stance against critics.
If there was panic and chaos inside YTT, they kept it hidden, maintaining a consistent communications posture throughout its brush with unwanted scrutiny: Yield little.
Yet in opting to mount an aggressive defense, YTT appears to have intensified criticism. YTT took a series of unsavory but not crippling disclosures about how it profited before, during and after the Kolko molestation crisis and — through a public relations strategy built on arrogance and insensitivity to the Klal's mood — turned itself into a symbol of pedophile enabler shenanigans.
Elliot Pasik Esq., at JBAC, sees parallels to the sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.
“The priests thought they should be protecting one another rather than the children in their care,” he says. “YTT now has the same problem. It turns out it’s, ‘We make money for ourselves first, and our little students safety is a far second,’ when it should be the other way around.
YTT saw its troubles aggravated by ill-advised sarcasm from its C.E.O., Lipa Margulies, who told families of victims he threatened that he considered mafia silencing tactics as “doing it for Toyreh.”
YTT’s notoriety may matter little to the bank’s main constituents: Hungarians & other feinshmeckers. Agudah and Torah Umesorah both farkoyf themselves to ordinary Yidden, making image maintenance a crucial concern. YTT, on the other hand, generally confines its work to serving extremely wealthy shmucks and big knackers. Its success depends not on being liked, but on being respected for a pursuit that sometimes pulls in the opposite direction — racking up profits, even amid calamity.
http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19718&Itemid=86
Maj. Gen Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, former head of military research and development in the IDF and the Defence Ministry told JTA that the Iranians are trying to build a fission bomb that at around 20 kilotons would be about the size of the American bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
Foreign experts assert that Israel possesses fusion bombs that can be from 50 to 250 times more destructive than the 1945 atomic bomb.
In late 2007, Anthony Cordesman, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, published Iran, Israel and Nuclear War: An Illustrative Scenario Analysis, in which he tried to gauge the outcome of a nuclear showdown sometime in the next decade. His bottom line: Israel would be able to survive and rebuild, while Iran would not.
According to Ben Yisrael, the Iranians are very well aware of this disparity and therefore would be unlikely to start a nuclear war against Israel.
“Maybe the Iranian man in the street doesn’t know these facts, but the engineers working on the Iranian bomb certainly do. And so does [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad,” Ben Yisrael told JTA.
Nevertheless, Ben Yisrael, like most Israeli analysts, is adamantly opposed to Iran acquiring the bomb for two reasons: The Middle East almost certainly would go multinuclear in its wake, exponentially increasing the chances of someone mistakenly pressing a nuclear button. In addition, terrorists might get their hands on a nuclear device with no balance of fear possible.
Indeed, most Israeli analysts see compelling American reasons for action. They argue that the Obama administration would be loath to see a Middle East nuclear arms race undercutting the president’s vision of a nuclear-free world. It also is crucial for America to prevent Iran from using a nuclear umbrella to promote terror and extortion against the West, or terrorists from getting their hands on a dirty bomb, or Iran from using its nuclear posture to gain control of Middle East oil supplies in the Gulf.
In addition, the failure to stop Iran from going nuclear could lead to a loss of American prestige and influence in the region, with wavering Gulf states moving from the American to the Iranian orbit.
Netanyahu in his meeting with Obama in early July was heartened, according to aides, by what he heard from the president on Iran. Indeed, it appears that U.S. policy is to prevent Israel from going it alone, with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Adm. Mike Mullen urging Israel to bite the bullet, while Obama reassures Israeli leaders that he will not allow Iran to get the bomb.
But what if Israel and the United States differ in their estimates of the Iranian nuclear timetable? Or if the United States proves reluctant to attack when Israel feels that time is running out?
Will Israel, because of the threat posed by a nuclear Iran, then take the risk of acting alone? And, crucially, will the United States then give Israel a green light to attack?
For now, so many variables are in play that Netanyahu and Obama themselves are probably still unsure of the answers.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/jewish_life/sabbath_week/understanding_jewish_divorce_law_1
In recent years — via the Knesset’s system of wheeling and dealing — one of the leaders of the haredi world has effectively taken over the chief rabbinate and its courts. One of the latest decisions regarding divorce is based on a responsum by a noted scholar, Rabbi Shmuel de Medina (known as the Maharashdam, 1506-1589), a minority opinion, which maintains that the only time a religious court can obligate a husband to give a divorce is if the husband refuses, absolutely and categorically, to give one. If however, the husband says he will give a divorce, but only on condition that he receive a substantial payment or receives visiting rights (alone) to children he has abused, then the wife must acquiesce if she wants a divorce. Tragically, the policy of many of our chief rabbinical court judges today is to accept the view of the Maharashdam.
God is defined as a God of love and a God of compassion when He is asked by Moses to explain the way in which He wants His wishes to be expressed in this world (Exodus 34: 5-6). The Talmud expresses this truth by doing summersaults to free a woman from a difficult marital situation, even to the extent of accepting the single testimony of a woman or of a gentile in order to make her free. The use of a minority stringent opinion in order to keep a woman chained to an impossible marriage, or in order to wrest from her difficult conditions of payment or children visitations in return for a divorce, goes against the spirit as well as the letter of the Talmud and the way in which it was interpreted by generations of decisors (poskim).
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/09/nyregion/09lives.html
Interesting that Eli Weinstein would choose me as a lawyer when I usually defend cold-blooded rotzchim.
http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/how-fast-talkin-eddie-became-crazy-eddie-1.307850
Ed Mezvinsky is still on federal probation after serving jail time for fraud, and he owes people a lot of money. Not surprisingly, he doesn't appear in the publicized photos of his son Marc's recent wedding to former first daughter Chelsea Clinton
Today, nearly everyone who has a link to the Internet and an e-mail account knows about "Nigerian scams": Mezvinsky fell for the bait offered by con artists who used the same method to defraud him at least three times. To persuade friends and acquaintances to loan him the money he needed to fund his participation in these bogus schemes, Mezvinsky boasted about his connections with the Clintons and the friendship between his son and Chelsea.
So deeply was Mezvinsky drawn into the get-rich-quick scheme that he traveled to Nigeria on several occasions, where he was told he would be picking up millions of dollars in bills that were to be coated with black ink that could be removed with a special chemical once smuggled past customs officials.
Ultimately, Mezvinsky lost $3 million. Interviewed by ABC News in December 2006, federal prosecutor Bob Zauzmer noted that Mezvinsky had been a victim of "just about every different kind of African-based scam we've ever seen." Without any fixed income, Mezvinsky began stealing money from the clients he represented in his law practice, from friends, from friends of friends, even from his own mother-in-law.
"He was always looking for the home run," Zauzmer added, "He was always trying to find the business deal that would make him as wealthy as all the people in his social circle."
Mezvinsky was indicted on 69 counts of bank, mail and wire fraud. According to the prosecution, he was responsible for fraudulent activities that spanned a period of two decades with a total of $15 million recruited through 8,000 business deals.
http://www.delmartimes.net/news/273195-feds-indict-former-san-diego-jewish-academy-coach
John Milisitz, who last season helped engineer San Diego Jewish Academy's football team's seamless transition from eight-man football to the 11-man game and coached the Lions to their first playoff appearance, is facing criminal indictments for his alleged role engineering a scheme that federal prosecutors say bilked a Maryland-based hospital out of $380,000.
A federal grand jury in March returned an indictment on 18 counts of mail fraud and interstate transport of stolen property against Milisitz, 37, and his 58-year-old codefendant mother, Margie. The indictment was announced when both were arrested in San Diego on June 3.
The indictments allege that Margie Milisitz, a Baltimore Washington Medical Center (BWMC) employee funneled money into John Milisitz's San Diego-based Global 1 Telecommunications and U.S. Cellular companies for services never rendered over a nearly three-year period from 2005 to 2008.
Margie Milisitz, a BWMC's telecommunications manager who lives in Severna Park, Md., was responsible for purchasing telecommunication services and equipment. Invoices paid out upon her request were deposited into bank accounts under John Milisitz's control, prosecutors said.
The indictments call for combined maximum sentences of up to 200 years, meaning convictions on all or some counts could result in either or both defendants spending the rest of their lives in federal prison.
John Milisitz was released from custody on June 15 on $50,000 bail, and appeared in a Baltimore federal courtroom two days later for his arraignment, according to the U.S. Attorney spokeswoman Marcia Murphy.
John Milisitz has since relocated to the mid-Atlantic. His next court appearance hasn't yet been scheduled.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ill_heroes_must_shel_out_e1IBrP6PHVgTIRO7saJ3kM
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has spun the 9/11 lawsuits into gold.
Ground Zero workers are on the hook to pay steep interest on money their lawyers borrowed from a group of investors that include Silver and his law partners, The Post has learned.
Silver's partners at the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm are top board members of a business that quietly loaned money at 18 percent a year to the law firm representing some 9,800 Ground Zero workers with toxic-illness suits against the city.
Silver personally invested an undisclosed sum -- but at least $50,000
One first responder, told of Silver's connection to the high-interest loans, was disgusted.
"He's making a profit off the sick and the dead in the world's biggest tragedy," he said. "These guys are just capitalizing off the guys who really need help."
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/34/wb_vitoduran_2010_08_20_bk.html?comm=1
Assemblyman Vito Lopez abused his office when he called a city employee and asked him to provide documents that he wanted to use in a bid to kick a political opponent off the ballot this year.
Good government groups blasted Lopez (D-Williamsburg) for placing a call to Housing Authority Intergovernmental Affairs Director Brian Honan last week, reminding him to appear in court and bring information regarding the leases of his opponent’s campaign workers.
Lopez is head of the Assembly Housing Committee and is invaluable to Honan on a variety of state legislation. That relationship colored the whole interchange, said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause, a government watchdog.
“The head of the housing committee calling a city agency in an election case is an abuse of power,” said Lerner. “It looks like an attempt to intimidate the witness.”
Citizens Union Executive Director Dick Dadey agreed, saying that Lopez’s actions in the race were “outrageous” and “mind-boggling.”
The concerning incident began last week when Lopez, who is also the chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party, sued Esteban Duran, his primary challenger for a district leader position, alleging that Duran’s nominating petitions contained widespread fraud and should be invalidated.
Civil Court Judge Carolyn Demarest subpoenaed Honan, the housing authority staffer, to bring in copies of Duran volunteers’ leases in public housing buildings to verify that those petition collectors actually lived where they claimed to. Honan said the reminder call from Lopez troubled him.
In addition, Lopez’s assembly staff members volunteered for the legal challenge, rounding up witnesses to testify against Duran and spending several days in court to observe and assist the proceedings.
Last Friday, Judge Demarest dismissed Lopez’s motion, writing that Lopez was unable to prove that fraud occurred.
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/21385
In our 52nd Assembly District Lopez has launched an offensive against current district leaders JoAnne Simon and Alan Fleishman. Running against the incumbents are Lopez minion Councilmember Steve Levin’s staffer/ Juicebox Generation Millenial Hope Reichbach and Levin campaign worker Stephen Williamson.
But really, seriously could someone — a grownup like Mr. Lopez — really care that much about these unpaid, largely unnoticed positions? Youbetcha, say the current district leaders:
Brooklyn Paper: “Actually, he considers us ‘Public Enemy number 1,’ ” said Fleishman, a 27-year resident of the district who has held the post for eight years. “We didn’t support his candidates for Surrogate Court. We fought him when he tried to get an unqualified person on the Board of Elections. And we bucked him when he tried to put Noach Dear on the bench without a judicial screening panel.
“Bottom line? He’s gunning for us because we’re not willing to go along with everything he wants because he’s the county leader,” added Fleishman.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703824304575435383161436658.html
Mortgage Fraud Is Rising, With a Twist
The Mishna Brura writes that part of the Horachamons should be left out of bentching if non-MOTs are merely there like in a restaurant or even workers in a yeshiva dining room.
Vos zogt men in Nusach Hari?
The Manchester rabbi can do nothing to override Menachem Genack just like Rabbis Schechter and Belsky are powerless figureheads.
Genack likes the whole idea of artsy fartsy shechitos and the non-religious yoyos associated with them. This is truly sad as the driving forces behind these new operations are partial inspiration from Conservative "Magen Zedek" and the Avi Weiss crowd and partial inspiration from "eco-kashruth" of fringe radicals like Arthur Waskow and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. ZSS, a one time talmid muvhak of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was put in cherem in the 1950s for pushing illegal drugs as part of his "kiruv" scheme.
Does Gil Student send his kids to Tiferes Yisroel?
The Manchester rabbi can do nothing to override Menachem Genack just like Rabbis Schechter and Belsky are powerless figureheads.
Genack likes the whole idea of artsy fartsy shechitos and the non-religious yoyos associated with them. This is truly sad as the driving forces behind these new operations are partial inspiration from Conservative "Magen Zedek" and the Avi Weiss crowd and partial inspiration from "eco-kashruth" of fringe radicals like Arthur Waskow and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. ZSS, a one time talmid muvhak of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was put in cherem in the 1950s for pushing illegal drugs as part of his "kiruv" scheme.
Discount for anti-UOJ bloggers.
Coupon code is Bungalow Putz.
http://www.kosheroasiscart.com/
Located in Midtown Manhattan at the southwest corner of 47th Street and 6th Avenue, the Kosher Oasis Food Cart is renowned for its culinary excellence and internationally inspired dishes. We invite you to come and taste our superior Glatt Kosher custom made burgers and food and discover the Kosher Oasis experience.
Our cart is under the supervision of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky Shlita, Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.
"The Mishna Brura writes that part of the Horachamons should be left out of bentching if non-MOTs are merely there like in a restaurant or even workers in a yeshiva dining room.
Vos zogt men in Nusach Hari?"
Ah gevaldege shaileh.
I assume that your question is directed at me.Well lets set the record straight.Rabbi Metzger was actually telling the basket ball player, that to do repentance for his past iniquities,he must recite twenty hail Marys and flag-gate himself with fifty lashes and then maybe,maybe, his crimes will be forgiven.Avoideh Zora you say? No problem.Rabbi Metzger is a Lubavitcher, so he is an oivaid avodeh zoreh anyway..
In any case,Nusach Ari is just that. A nusach.It's not The Rambam,The Tur, The Shulchon
Aruch of the Mechaber,The Ravs Shulchan Aruch, Chayey Odom, Misnah Berura , Kittzur Shulchan Oruch,Oruch Hashulchon,Igrois Moshe,Tsofnas Paneiach,Paneach Tsofnas etc,etc,so I fail to understand your question.
Again I repeat what I have already answered in an above post.Even though the all knowing NY Post says that the good Rabbi bestowed a blessing on this individual,the fact of the matter is that no such thing occurred.He shook his hand as he left Prime Grill.Don't believe it? I gave you two answers.Now take your pick.
This is a better read than uncle Shmuely Boteach's Kosher Sex
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/us/24arms.html
Efraim Diveroli, the brash young Miami Beach arms dealer who landed a $300 million contract with the Pentagon to buy and ship munitions to Afghanistan only to have it unravel in a sprawling criminal case, was in custody again in Florida on Monday, facing new federal charges.
Mr. Diveroli, 24, was arrested Friday and charged with possession of firearms as a convicted felon and with possession of firearms while under indictment for a felony.
The two criminal counts appear to be initial charges intended to detain Mr. Diveroli pending an investigation into a more extensive criminal enterprise.
An 18-page affidavit filed last week by Kevin McCann, special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, described Mr. Diveroli as operating a front company, Advanced Munitions, to solicit business as an arms dealer. Mr. Diveroli has no federal license for arms brokering and is forbidden as a convicted felon from handling firearms.
According to the complaint, on July 14, Mr. Diveroli solicited business from an unnamed licensed dealer to trade in ammunition, magazines and machine guns, which he hoped the other dealer might provide him for “resale in the Miami area.” The dealer notified the authorities.
Mr. Diveroli was later recorded in conversations with undercover A.T.F. agents in which he said he was a consultant for a company that needed help “with the importation of 100-round ammunition drums” from South Korea.
Mr. Diveroli examined and handled firearms brought to the meeting by the agents, including a Glock 17 semiautomatic pistol and a 7.62-mm semiautomatic rifle.
Mr. Diveroli was so enthused by the weapons that he suggested to companions traveling with him they go to Wal-Mart and buy ammunition so they might go shooting.
At Wal-Mart, Mr. Diveroli and his friends bought several hundred rounds of ammunition and drove back to meet the undercover agents again and presumably go to a shooting range.
He was promptly arrested while sitting in a silver Audi convertible with the ammunition in the back seat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/world/europe/24wikileaks.html
Although Swedish prosecutors have yet to complete their review of sexual abuse accusations that two Stockholm women made last week against Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks Web site, those who say they have detailed knowledge of the case discount conspiracy theories linking it to efforts to discredit WikiLeaks.
Mr. Assange had suggested over the weekend that the tortured sequence of events at the Stockholm prosecutor’s office had been prompted by the Pentagon as part of what he called a program of “dirty tricks to ruin us.” The prosecutors had issued a warrant for Mr. Assange’s arrest on suspicion of rape on Friday night, which was followed within 24 hours by the cancellation of the warrant and a formal retraction of the implication that a rape had occurred.
But the conspiratorial view has found no backing from the prosecutor’s office, where the senior prosecutor in charge of the case, Eva Finne, said Monday that nothing she knew of the case suggested that there had been any outside involvement in the events that led the two women to make their accusations against Mr. Assange.
“I have no indication at all in that direction,” Ms. Finne said in a telephone interview in which she confirmed that a lesser charge mentioned in the original prosecutor’s statement — molestation of the two women — remained under investigation.
She said she hoped to decide by the end of the week whether to proceed with a molestation charge against Mr. Assange, which carries a maximum penalty under Swedish law of a year in prison.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100823/NEWS/100829939
Garbage dumping in Kiryas Joel stems from dispute over unauthorized weddings
Analyzing Hersh in his own words, 1
No matter what you may say, one thing that Michael Hersh is rich in, is chutzpah, and he has no problem running around the world proving it.
Take his so-called "Plaintiffs' First Amended Verified Complaint" all PDF 2.77 MB of it, it is one unholy writ of 35 pages of wild allegations, red-herrings, delusions, self-justifications, lies, distortions, fabrications, and the very so-called outright loshon horas (filed by the best lawyers that money can buy who have no clue about what's really going on) against so many good people that he accuses others of when he moonlights as a troll on blogs he hates every now and again.
Thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) the original filings of Hersh's case plus motions to quash the absurd subpoenas to Google and Yahoo are posted at Hersh v. Cohen.
And what a story it all tells!
Let's start looking at the 35 page paper mini-dragon line by line, starting with it's name "Plaintiffs' First Amended Verified Complaint" [35 pages, PDF, 2.77 MB].
Right off the bat, it's already been pointed out that the reason this is called an "Amended" complaint is that Hersh had originally filed a longer megilah that the court rightly and rationally rejected. But Hersh being the chutzpanyak he is did not get the message and just filed it again, as if "shorter" makes it "better" which as we see it does not in this case.
Anyone who has glanced over or heard about this case, should have two immediate reactions: Why does this case commence with the name of "Miriam Hersh" first when she would not hurt a flee?
This is all about Michael and what he did and does and has absolutely nothing to do with Miriam Greher Hersh who is just Michael's unfortunate victim. Her parents, Rosa and Elliot Greher of Silver Spring, Maryland have already testified to that. They have openly stated that Michael has taken hold and brainwashed their daughter Miriam and poisoned her against her own parents, her own sisters and their families just like Michael has fought against and villainized his own family.
Here is another doozy, this crazy case wants $410 MILLION in "damages" for Michael but ONLY $1 Million for Miriam.
So why does her name get to be the lead name for the case?
The case should rightly state that it is "Michael Hersh vs the universe" or if he wants to make his wife into his human shield it should say "Michael and Miriam Hersh vs the world" with Michael being the first name opening and the lead?
But of course given the high chutzpa level here, poor Miriam Greher Hersh gets kicked up as the first name before Michael's, even though he wants $410 Million for his lost genius and she asks for a paltry $1 Million bucks, with her name cited first as if to win brownie points with a fake broken wing act hoping to portray Miriam as a "victim" of Michael's enemies when she is in fact one of Michael's victim's herself.
Analyzing Hersh in his own words, 2
As provided by the EFF, looking into the "Plaintiffs' First Amended Verified Complaint" [35 pages, PDF, 2.77 MB]:
Here is Michael Hersh's version of how the ball got rolling in his hair-brained lawyers' "Preliminary Statement" alleging that Michael and Miriam Hersh are "the victims of a pernicious and malicious campaign of harassment and intimidation orchestrated and principally by Elizabeth Rebecca Cohen, acting in concert with and abetted by, the other defendants."
Now go and count all the "defendants" cited by name here, all FIFTEEN of them and add them to EIGHTEEN more "John Does still to be named" from the Internet (not counting hundreds more people that could be dredged up if Hersh's nutty subpoenas have their dream list filled), that makes for at least THIRTY THREE humans, who according to Michael Hersh have "ganged up" against him led by a busy housewife (his wife's sister Rebecca Greher Cohen), and by the way, BOTH of Miriam Greher Hersh's parents as well as both of Michael Hersh's parents plus his brother Joshua, plus of course both Sol and Isaac, Michael's two sons who are at the center of the case have submitted sworn statements to the court AGAINST Michael, so that by implication and extension Michael's case is against SEVEN more closest relatives who he imagines are all "out to get him" that makes for at least FORTY live ticking people, relatives, friends, rabbis, the best of the best that any normal person could hope for, who allegedly have all "ganged up" on poor little Michael Hersh in what he brazenly alleges is a "pernicious and malicious campaign" led by a Joan of Arc figure in the form of his wife's sister Rebeccca Greher Cohen (notice how he rubs in the Elizabeth part of her name too) to do him in.
Now how sick is that? Would forty people really give a cat's crap about Michael Hersh? Or even 24 or 14 or 4 ??? But in his mind, at least 40 people (maybe there are 411 and that's why he subpoenas Google and Yahoo and wants 411 million for each one who is spooking him?) who are all in cahoots against him. Just who does he think he is? Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse Tung or Richard Nixon? who were all famous paranoids.
But the chutzpa of Michael Hersh knows no boundaries, as he is shielded by his mentor Aron Litigant Shechter, and he refuses to see that the root of ALL his problems lies inside of himself and his history of his own dysfunctional personality that has never been treated or corrected that brought about his own problems with his own kids that he wants to blame on whomever and accuse the world and cover it up by suing in the good ol' spirit of "the best defense is offense."
Sorry Mike it ain't gonna work, not now, not ever!
Yeah!
http://www.vosizneias.com/62806/2010/08/24/lithuania-pigs-head-with-hasidic-hat-and-peyos-placed-at-synagogue/
Pig's Head With Hasidic Hat and Peyos Placed at Synagogue
http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/citibank-files-to-block-toy-building-eviction-at-1107-broadway
The dispute comes at a time when bankrupt Lehman is trying to foreclose on the 16-story building, which Tessler wanted to convert into a 165-unit condo. The investment firm filed suit in May seeking $136.8 million from Tessler, after he allegedly defaulted by not making payments when the loan came due in 2008. Tessler, president and chief executive of Tessler Development, is being held personally accountable for the default, as he signed guarantees linked to the mechanic's liens and other default items, according to Lehman's suit.
Aron Schechter as dealt with by Rav Carlebach, 1
After Rav Shlomo Carlebach (not the singer) was forced out as mashgiach ruchani of the Chaim Berlin yeshiva in Brooklyn over 30 years ago, he asked for a din Torah to settle his grievances. In this he received the backing of the Satmar CRC and Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l who asked that Aron Schechter and his lay leader Abe Fruchthandler show up for a din Torah, they both refused and were excoriated by Rav Feinstein for their brazen and chutzpadikke refusal to heed him, something he noted that even when the famous Rav Aron Kotler zt"l of the Lakewood yeshiva was asked to show up for a din Torah he submitted to it when called upon.
The matter has never been resolved and it is only in the last couple of years that original documents have been released evidently from Rav Carlebach's side that have summarized his tough predicament.
Two letters Rav Carlebach wrote at least two letters at the time, one to the Jewish Press and one to Agudath Israel of America, that have been posted online and they tell quite a story, especially as it relates to understanding just who is Aron Schechter, the supposed mastermind of both Leib Tropper, Michael Hersh and the Agudath Israel of America as well as of a number of close disciples who seek out his "daas toireh" or whatever they imagine his conniving and cunning words of this veritable paleface who speaks with forked tongue to be.
Given that no ArtScroll or Yated or Hamodiah article will tell the truth about Aron Schechter, it pays to take a close line by line look at what someone who knew and worked with him says and who was then backed by the majority of the great rabbis at the time has to say in circa 1993 in Rav Carlebach's 2 page letter to Agudath Israel of America.
First off, the letter is addressed to none other than the man who is currently the so-called "Executive Vice President" of Agudath Israel Chaim Dovid Zwieble (while Shmuel Bloom, the designated true heir of Moshe Sherer a"h was recently pushed out by Aron Schechter's minions to make way for the putzy and malleable new guy Zwiebel).
A line by line look reveals a lot and tells a horrendous and frightening tale!
To start, fascinatingly Rav Carlebach notes an article that was written in the now-defunct but once famous Agudist Jewish Observer magazine. It is ironic that the Jewish Observer suffered the same fate 30 years later as Rav Carlebach did: It was unceremoniously shut down and dumped and its famous long-time distinguished editor Rabbi Nisson Wolpin was let go because it represented a relatively independent voice within Agudah itself against the choking iron grip of Aron Schechter and his designated hit man and made man Abe the Knave Fruchthandler who rule Chaim Berlin yeshiva and now Agudath Israel of America and of course that poor orphan handed to them by their mafioso Shea Fishman @ Torah Umesorah.
This is the dark Mafia-like nether-world of intrigue, hatchet jobs, betrayals, denials, cover-ups, despicable rejection of Jewish and Torah and humane norms that the likes of Leib Tropper and Michael Hersh live in as they cozy up to and get the protection from the Aron Litigant Schechter godfather.
http://www.emunahmagazine.com/scaled-down-version-of-bernie-madoff-in-cherry-hill-1230/
Who would have thought that financial planner David Garfield, the president of Katz Jewish Community Center & M’Kor Shalom synagogue would be a con man? Who would have guessed that a seemingly innocent family man would rob friends & strangers, healthy & disabled, old & young, of millions of dollars? Yet, since 1993, Garfield had been leading a Ponzi scheme whose victims included a 90 year old woman & the autistic grandson of a dear friend. And although lawsuits had been filed & people started to catch on, the scheme was not uncovered until he turned up dead in his bathtub, leaving the people whose lives he ruined with nothing.
Garfield’s close friends, people who were also scammed out of large amounts of money, were in shock & disbelief that he would commit such a crime. “He was an admirable, honest & wise man. He turned out to be a con man, but I don’t think he started out that way,” remarked veterinarian Marc Rosenberg whose father had hired Garfield to manage his wife’s trust. Rosenberg’s mother had trusted Garfield, and so had he. But despite that, he has sued for the $200,000 Garfield was supposed to use to buy certificates of deposit - and didn’t. Additionally, he has filed another lawsuit for the $500,000 stolen from his mother’s estate.
Garfield was found dead just as he & his scheme were about to fall. He was hospitalized 7 times leading up to his Jan. 26 death. Suspicious timing that he died just when he was about to be held accountable for the loss of a million dollars that belonged to cardiologist Ian Molk. Nevertheless, his death was in fact natural, and Garfield left his wife Marjorie to pick up the pieces.
The whereabouts of the stolen money are still a mystery because despite Garfield’s modest lifestyle & meager use of illegal assets, he appears to have hidden the money extremely well. But his $1.8 million life insurance plan & $1 million liability insurance will begin to cover the damages by repaying some of the clients that fell victim. Meanwhile, his death has caused an interesting turn in the actions of the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, which remains unclear of how to handle the situation. “Was a crime committed? Yes. Who did it? David Garfield. Was anyone else involved? No. But we cant prosecute a dead guy,” said Prosecutor Mark Chase.
Garfield was the man you would least expect to pull off a crime like this. He was a loving father, a caring friend & a charitable Jew, who gave large donations to various worthy organizations, and even offered free financial assistance. But as Camden attorney David Sufrin said, “It’s a classic Ponzi scheme. This was a scaled down version of Bernie Madoff,” said Charles Radler, the first lawyer to file a suit against him. And so, a man who was named by Philadelphia Magazine as one of the region's top financial planners, scams family and friends & leaves turmoil that continues even after his death.
http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-robinson-funeral,0,2974626.story
Why is this Black ger, murdered in a robbery at kosher wine store in Flatbush, being taken to Jamaica for kevurah?
Unless there is an old Jewish cemetery there and a minyan to say kaddish, is there no place to bury someone in NY who has no money?
Where are the big askonim who found money to bury cop killer Martin Grossman?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704340504575448033463314628.html
Albany is out of control. Now there is a tax on bagels if the store slices it for you, even if you shmear it yourself at home.
http://chereefranco.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/more-ozone-park-snapshots-of-mokom-sholom/
In the Jewish community, Mokom Sholom and its sister cemetery Bayside have been embroiled in controversy for several years–what follows is my rough summary of the situation.
For decades Bayside has been poorly maintained and is now practically virginal forest, choked with weeds, vines and those particularly troublesome large roots that break apart grave markers. Additionally, the cemetery is a consistent target for vandals and in the past several years, has been an ongoing victim of graffiti and grave desecration–mausoleums broken into, caskets smashed, remains scattered–grisly business, right? Complicating the matter is the fact that exposed human remains pose health hazards–certain bacteria, including tetanus, anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis and smallpox–are hardy enough to remain harmful, even after spending a century underground.
Then there’s Mokom Sholom. 11,000 children’s headstones went missing. Cemetery reps (VHQ) say that the graves, originally paid for by United Hebrew Charities, were never there, although arial photos taken over a period of decades show this claim to be false. Mokom Sholom is full, but apparently the rabbis who oversee the cemetery want to dump fresh earth over the now unmarked graves and create new burial plots–a huge theological misstep where Judaism is concerned. These two cemeteries are linked because Rabbi Elchonon Zohn of the Queens vaad harabanim expects to inherit Bayside eventually, and (against Rav Elyashev's psak) he justifies the double-burying in the name of a “good cause”–to pay for Bayside’s repairs.
I had no knowledge of any of this when I climbed the low stone fence to check out the sprawling cemetery-cum-forest, teeming with undergrowth and crooked-teeth gravestones. Friday’s rain left Saturday’s cemetery damp and muddy, and the whole fence business made me uneasy. I never mean to trespass, it’s just necessary sometimes
So I snapped a few hurried photos, huddled behind tall markers whenever I heard a train go by and later, enlisted my trusty iBook to figure out where I’d been–which is how I discovered the woes of Bayside and Mokom Sholom.
Don't let the stores rip you off. Only bagels are taxable under the new law, not other types of breads.
http://www.google.com/images?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=%22elchonon+zohn%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1400&bih=929
This is what I look like.
Not only do most frum organizations ignore what I do to desecrate dead people even after Rav Elyashev found out and endorse secular burial societies who don't act kehalacha, but they have the gall to hire me as a special advisor on chevra kadisha.
Not just Chabad, Young Israel and various Vaadim, but even the Agudah itself, that ignores Rav Elyashev whenever they feel like it.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w3ipkL1Dd10/THQpRPx1EkI/AAAAAAAABfE/Gyfn1ztN7zQ/s1600/Isaac+Hersh+email+from+Jamaica-756062.jpg
Try to picture Aron Schlechter singing the heavy metal song "Highway to Hell"
When is Yankel Applegrad issuing a statement to defend Fedex?
Filed at 7:25 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- FedEx sued New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday to stop his fraud probe into the speedy package carrier, saying federal law trumps any state laws he may cite against it.
FedEx said in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, that the probe can't proceed because there's a federal prohibition against state laws regulating the prices, routes and services of air carriers.
The lawsuit said that letting the investigation proceed would be allowing overlapping and inconsistent regulation of air carriers by the federal government and the states.
FedEx, which is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., filed the lawsuit in response to a subpoena it received from Cuomo's office in June. It said it must answer the subpoena by the end of August.
The subpoena, attached to the lawsuit as an exhibit, sought documents related to the company's insurance liability limits. It also sought records of complaints by FedEx customers or lawsuits they brought about coverage of items exceeding $1,000 in value such as artworks, films, antiques, glassware, plasma screens, jewelry, furs, precious metals, stocks, bonds and musical instruments more than 20 years old.
FedEx said in the lawsuit that it denies it has engaged in ''repeated fraudulent or illegal acts'' or that it has demonstrated ''persistent fraud or illegality'' in its business.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/opinion/clean_up_claims_conference
The disclosure of the $7 million fraud at the Claims Conference has revived former concerns & exposed new problems.
Initially, Claims Conference officials trivialized the fraud by insisting “that nobody was responsible because there was no deviation from standard procedures” and denying that there was any failure in oversight. Incredibly, the treasurer subsequently revealed that $7 million was “only the tip of the iceberg,” prompting KPMG auditors to refuse to sign off on the accounts. That such a gigantic loss from funds destined for restitution is brushed aside in such a cavalier manner highlights a serious lack of accountability.
Three years ago, in the wake of the March of the Living scandal exposing a failure in oversight when a consultant was paid $700,000 without explanation, there were calls for an independent forensic audit. Had that call been heeded, this multimillion-dollar fraud may have been averted.
It is also inexplicable that after being defrauded of millions of dollars, the Claims Conference has the chutzpah to appoint “the biggest & best PR organization” in the U.S. to refurbish its image when it already employs a full-time public relations bureau.
However, the biggest scandal is the ongoing plight of the remaining elderly survivors living under wretched conditions. The Claims Conference has an investment portfolio of more than $1 billion. Instead of expanding the portfolio, surely more money could be allotted to ease the lives of the elderly ailing survivors living in poverty.
According to Claims Conference chairman Julius Berman, $70 billion has been distributed by the organization. I would challenge him to facilitate an independent authority to review & disclose the substantial funds directed to projects unrelated to the condition of Holocaust survivors. For example, Birthright is a worthy cause, but surely not justifying substantial subsidies from restitution funds simply because a visit to Yad Vashem is incorporated in the program.
The reality is that despite an external façade of governance, the Claims Conference operates like a private club or personal fiefdom.
Please lend your voices for support to Reb NUchem Rosenberg - the lone voice against the molesters WITHIN the established frum communities in Brooklyn et al.
http://nuchemisright.blogspot.com/
UOJ, please ride to his rescue. What the anti-Nuchem blogs are doing is sinfull. Not that they care.
Please vote for Vicki at this site. The amount of good she has done for the frum folks far outways an old indiscretion from years gone by.
http://www.jewishcommunityheroes.org/content/main/
P.S. Now how do we nominate UOJ?
UOJ, YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS.
http://nuchemisright.blogspot.com/2010/08/rabbi-is-overdoing-it.html
Those paranoid molesters and enablers think you have ventured out to get them. In reality it is just the voice of one of your deputized agents smugly at work.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100825/NEWS/100829876
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police and the Sullivan County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the discovery of "red bag" medical waste at a local Jewish cemetery in Sullivan County.
Three bags labeled as a bio hazard were discovered in the Chesed Shel Emes cemetery on Hysana Road in Liberty, deputies reported Wednesday.
The bags contained blood-soaked linens, cloth and bandages, and had been lying on the ground for several days. Animals had begun to tear them open and carry off the contents.
Police questioned the cemetery’s supervisor, Mayer T. Berger of Brooklyn, and he was issued a summons under the Environmental Conservation Law for unlawful disposal of regulated medical waste, deputies say.
The bags must now be removed and disposed of by a company certified to transport medical waste.
The investigation is continuing.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/new-law-takes-aim-at-wealthy-tax-cheats/
The tax man cometh — and now he has backup.
A little-noticed law signed by Gov. David Paterson this month could sharply expand investigations of wealthy tax cheats by empowering whistle-blowers to file lawsuits against them under the state’s False Claims Act.
The original act, passed in 2007, already allows such lawsuits, known as qui tam suits, to crack down on Medicaid fraud or contractors who overbill the state for goods and services.
But the new amendments would expand the bill to allow for the recovery of tax revenue.
Experts said the bill, sponsored by State Senator Eric Schneiderman and Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, would be the first of its kind in the nation.
Under the law, which takes effect Friday, suits can be filed only when the defendant makes more than a million dollars a year in net income and the damages to the state are $350,000 or more.
The law’s existing penalties pack a wallop: Those found to have defrauded the state through filing false statements or paperwork — like a fraudulent tax return — must pay triple damages. They also owe civil penalties of up to $12,000 for each false statement.
Wait for him to sing. Martin Kanefsky is a member of the Conservative Temple Israel next door to the Great Neck Synagogue.
Does anyone know if he is related to Yosef Kanefsky, the orthoprax heretic who was once Avi Weiss's deputy in Riverdale and now leads a weird shul in LA?
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/43376/20100813/municipal-bonds-fraud.htm
Martin Kanefsky, head of Kane Capital Strategies Inc., pleaded guilty in New York District Court in New York City to fraud conspiracies charges for participating in two separate schemes relating to contracts for the investment of municipal bond proceeds, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. According to the plea bargain, Kanefsky has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
http://www.law.com/jsp/law/article.jsp?id=1202470897205&ExAttorney_Charged_With_Embezzling__Million_From_Clients_Firm
When former attorney Jeffrey Abramowitz was indicted last week on charges of embezzling more than $1 million from his own clients, the news almost seemed to provide a sense of relief to his former law partner, Mitchell H. Klevan, who told The Legal Intelligencer that he has spent the past 20 months working to undo the damage of Abramowitz's alleged crimes.
Abramowitz, 47, is accused in the indictment of stealing money from clients by lying to them about the settlements of their cases. He allegedly spent some of the funds himself and diverted the rest to a "favored client" and her family.
According to Klevan, the alleged improprieties in Abramowitz's cases were exposed in late 2008 when some of the clients filed lawsuits against the two-lawyer firm and others filed complaints against Abramowitz with the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Klevan said that he changed the locks on the office doors at Klevan & Abramowitz in December 2008 when he first learned of his former partner's alleged thefts.
As he pored over the files, Klevan said that he was "shocked and dismayed" to find irregularities in numerous cases. Klevan said he quickly decided to turn the matter over to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and that he has been cooperating with both the federal and the disciplinary investigations ever since.
"I'm very sorry that Mr. Abramowitz has brought this on himself, but I hope that justice will now be served for all the victims he has harmed," Klevan said.
In February 2009, Abramowitz's license to practice was suspended for failure to comply with a Disciplinary Board subpoena. His New Jersey license was also suspended last year.
Hey, maybe I can get a consulting fee.
Ahem, there is no evidence that Buddhists have more sex abuse than the general population.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/us/21beliefs.html?src=mv&pagewanted=print
August 20, 2010
Sex Scandal Has U.S. Buddhists Looking Within
By MARK OPPENHEIMER
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/business/21bank.html
Kenneth D. Lewis, the former chief executive of Bank of America, responding on Friday to a lawsuit filed early this year by the attorney general of New York, denied allegations of fraud in connection with the bank’s merger with Merrill Lynch.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?template=zoom&Site=B3&Date=20100825&Category=SPECIAL20&ArtNo=100823075&Ref=V2
Yosef Kolko, a former Yeshiva teacher, leaves the Ocean County Courthouse in Toms River Aug. 17, 2010 after pleading not guilty to sexual assault charges.
http://www.webnewswire.com/node/570311
ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO SHUTS DOWN SEVEN COMPANIES FOR PROVIDING FRAUDULENT LEGAL SERVICES TO IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
Margo’s (sic) Immigration Services and Margarita Davidov a/k/a Margo Davidov, in Queens;
Arthur C. Hurwitz, in Manhattan;
“These companies took money from immigrants by promising to provide services that they could not deliver,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “The fraudulent practices of these companies caused innocent people to face problems with their immigration status, even deportation. My office will continue to go after companies and individuals that defraud and abuse New York’s immigrant communities.”
In a separate action, Cuomo filed two lawsuits against other organizations that are providing fraudulent legal services to immigrants.
Other actions include:
All Immigration Services and its owners Ruth A. Shalom and Isaac Shalom of Great Neck, Long Island - for providing unauthorized and fraudulent legal services to immigrant communities and required them to pay full restitution to all victims. The companies were required to pay more than $100,000 in penalties and were permanently prohibited from operating immigration services businesses.
Bonjour, je suis de la France. J'ai un commentaire ici mais pas sur ce poste, il est vraiment au sujet de la disposition de site Web. Je crois que vous devriez modifier chaque maintenant et puis de générer l'intersting aux gens.
vimax, what is vimax
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