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Monday, August 15, 2011

Can You Hear Me Now? - Part 2 - What I Would Say at The Agudah Convention!



THE UOJ ARCHIVES NOVEMBER 2010:

The first, last and only time I attended a convention sponsored by the Agudath Israel, is when it took place at the Pioneer Country Club in upstate New York; the brilliant accountants that are here tonight I'm certain can tell you how long ago that was without taking off their socks.

I was a bochur, just turning eighteen at the time, I looked forward to spending Shabbos in the presence of my rosh yeshiva, and a few classmates from yeshiva that were also Pirchei leaders. I did not know what to expect, and indeed it was a disappointing display by the "esteemed" baalei batim of their new cars, their wives' jewelry and designer clothes. Single girls of marriageable age were being hawked off to the would be shadchanim and parents of eligible boys. For the most part, bochurim of marriageable age were not invited. Food was being gulped down by the pound and by the cow, and the waiters were sweating bullets keeping up with the crowd. At breakfast on Friday, one behaimishe baal habayis tells his waiter, " I vant an omelette mit ah dozen - 12 eggs, fried on baider zeiten, and if it's 11 eggs, I'll know -- hahaha". Putz! We kids were sitting at the entrance to the kitchen as the waiter rushes in to tell his story. Ugly I tell you, stuff that stays with you for a lifetime.

I swore I'd never go back, and never did.

Rabbi Joshua Silbermintz a"h (aka Josh - a name that I would never call him by), asked me at the third Shabbos meal (shalosh seudas)...if I would please speak to the assembly about the importance of Pirchei; the second scheduled speaker took ill. He gave me 10 minutes to Shir Ha'maalot.

As Moshe Sherer taught, never begin your speech with " I'm not really prepared", so I stood up and blurted out what came to my mind, that's been on my mind since my very brief stint as a Pirchei leader.

".... Parents - what we must all learn from the Avos and Imahos - our patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and their rebbetzins --- is the sacrifices and love showed to their children. Avraham Avinu was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice with Yitzchak -- and the Torah goes out of its way to describe the love Yitzchak and Yaakov, Rivkah, Leah and Rachel had for their children. I quoted the relevant psukim and Rashi to a now attentive crowd. I continued... Many or most of you here tonight are survivors, you know the meaning of heartache. I went on now... raising the pitch of my voice (I was a quick learner); you have an obligation to teach your children that sleeping Shabbos afternoon is not more important than the walking of your children to Pirchei and Bnos...leaving them hefker in the streets (in what was then a very safe Crown Heights). [Many kids wandered off to Lefferts Av. Park and to other unsupervised places,]... your childrens' safety is paramount. I beseech you to please pay heed to your childrens' physical and emotional safety. Thank you".

Nothing changed; I resigned my high-paying job.

And in all these years, parents trusted their kids to people that used their kids as "objects" - either making money off of them in their schools, summer camps, seminaries etc., and as we now know, that in every yeshiva and girls school, many kids were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by staff members, principals, teachers --- and these crimes were covered up by criminal circus midgets with long beards, like the ones sitting at your dais here tonight.

I look around this room and I know many of you; I find it incredible to believe that you are here showing support for this criminal enterprise. In effect, you have created "a race to the bottom" of what was once a beautiful heritage and tradition. Have you no shame? What will your legacy be, if not leaving the world a much worse place than how you found it? Your kids are ashamed of you --- and are voting with their souls, hearts and feet " out of here!"

Don't take my word for it! Did you read Mishpacha magazine? Who do you think you're kidding? They see through you! They know that there's not a darn thing about your lifestyle that they want to have anything to do with!

Hashem had sent His messenger to America in September 1913 to set up shop with a model that would work for American Jewry. And a model that was mostly foolproof until the end of time. Children were to be cared for and loved by how you educated them. They were to be first and foremost bnei Torah in all its glory. Being a mensch was not optional! They needed to spend most of their school day with model rebbes/humans... not some garbage can with a lid that the sanitation department would refuse to pick up!

They needed to be educated as proud Americans, with full knowledge of most every subject taught in American secular schools (at the time). They needed to understand that they would one day need to go out in the world and either be a proud supporter of Torah institutions, or become a member or founder of a Torah institution. There was no gray area;... in order to support Torah, you had to appreciate what you learned as a child. And you had to love it, not loathe or fear it! In order to "stay in chinuch" you had to excel in your abilities, in your emunah, in your middos, and wisdom of the printed Torah and its spirit. And that required that you had to give up the so-called good-life, "without ever having to say you're sorry!" There had to be mesiras nefesh, knowing that your ben Torah neighbor that has gone to work, may have a nicer car than you.

Look at you! Look at what you have become! Either felons, or felons that have not been caught yet!

You trusted your kids to lowlifes, degenerates and perverts! They'd sell you down the river in a second, the second you stopped giving them money, or not as much as they wanted from you! And then your kid would be out on the street too, because he "did not measure up"! Which guy at the dais here has to be concerned about mundane issues like paying their mortgage, or tuition? Do they even have a mortgage? Or was it paid off with your money combined with whatever they could steal from Uncle Sam?

So why are you here?

There was a reason that Dr. Joseph Kaminetzky was appointed the head of Torah Umesorah. He graduated from Columbia University and had the wisdom needed in every area of education, and was rightfully in charge of the curriculum in each and every Torah Umesorah affiliated school.

It was no coincidence that Dr. David Stern was selected as menahel/principal of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath. He too was a graduate of Columbia University and a rabbi at one of the early Young Israel synagogues.

And when Rabbi Alexander Linchner z"l left his position at Mesifta Torah Vodaath to focus full time on the building of Boys Town Jerusalem, he hired Rabbi Moshe Lonner PhD, to be the high school secular studies principal; with the same intent, gusto and spirit that his father in-law had in appointing Drs. Kaminetzky and Stern to their respective positions.

So how did we get here? What group of ignoramuses led us down this path of "the more ignorant, the more uneducated, the more dumb" -- the better? "Where are the lomdim?" an ultra-orthodox rabbi recently bellowed! Where are the Torah scholars?

What have you done to your kids and their kids?

Go back to the original model set up by Hakodesh Baruch Hu Himself; pick the few select students to toil in Torah, to stay in chinuch, and to be a model for your grandchildren. Get rid of the gangsters running the American yeshiva system and its affiliated organizations -- they have already destroyed two complete generations.

Genug!

63 comments:

Yerachmiel Lopin said...

Yasher Koach.

Some more things that could be said:

--- There are single members of the present moetzes who have more possessions than the combined possessions of all of the first leaders of the moetzes.

--- Most of the first generation earned their leadership positions by their own merit; not so for this generation.

--- Most of the first generation earned every penny they had honestly. And those were harder times to come by a penny.

--- Of course some of the big givers then were grub but at least they were truly generous and could be excused because they were amaratzim. Now we have a whole class of so called bnai torah who are still grub, but are also fressers who give with one hand and take with the other.

Back then a gvir earned it on the free market and still supported a safety net because they were menschen. Now the fressers steal it from the programs for the poor and talk big about the free market, when they mean the frier market.

--- Back then the clothing was less frum and manners were more erlich.

--- Back then we had roshei yeshiva who had respected brothers who were carpenters, plumbers, etc. Nowadays we have people who think the prohibition on chitzyonis refers to learning how to make something useful that others will buy.

--- Back then technology was less complex but we had more rabbonim who understood it.

--- Back then the survivors of the churban were embraced because it was understood that their tormentors were the enemies of all Jews. Now we have survivors of a churban created by our own and they are ridiculed and told to be quiet.

--- Back then the erlich manner was modest. Now we have silly tznius campaigns while the biggest violators of tznius are given a free ride and their defenders are boastful.

--- Back then we had a future. Now we have nostalgia.

oldtimer said...

chaver uoj as a sixty something fan of yours i would love to hear your opinion on the late great agudist mike tress ive heard your zeide was a big fan of his.

Anonymous said...

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/710/866/2007-710866051-048cefaa-9.pdf

Rabbi Rafi Butler who was thrown out of the OU over the Lanner scandal, started the Afikim Foundation that uses space at National Council of Young Israel headquarters. It's interesting that he hired Sruly Singer after he was thrown out of World Jewish Congress and paid him $150,000 a year, for what I have no idea.

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2008/710/866/2008-710866051-0588b08d-9.pdf

The next year, Afikim adds Singer's brother in law George Kuhl as a director and pays almost $200,000 to a suspicious company in Atlantic Beach called Telzstone Productions to make a video. This company appears nowhere and the address belongs Basil "Pickled" Herring, a top executive at the OU's RCA.

Successful Messiah said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/nyregion/23bicycle.html?hp

Scotty was jumping all over Williamsburg chassidim as backwards intolerant in their dispute over NYC bike lanes.

Sorry Shmarya, you got your foot in your mouth again as disputes are breaking out in every goyishe neighborhood where the lanes have been expanded.

"Uncle Milty" Balkany said...

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/f-b-i-agents-raid-2-hedge-funds-offices/?hp

Why don't the Feds give me any credit for today's raid on 3 hedge funds connected to Steve Cohen?

Anonymous said...

for the meat carving at the Cambodian Agudah convention?

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/22/world/asia/AP-AS-Cambodia-Stampede.html?hp

Hundreds Die in Stampede at Festival in Cambodia

Anonymous said...

Agudath Israel is a disgrace to the Jewish religion.

Genug!

Monsey said...

Mordechai Tendler's suit against his old shul is still ongoing. They are due again in court tomorrow.

What a putz

Anonymous said...

http://theorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2010/11/why-rabbi-shafran-is-wrong-man-for-job.html

A post about Chaskel Bennett would be apropos now.

Ain't nutting like a Baal haboos who likes to get involved and help the tzibur, but let's it go to his head, and now is a full time spokesperson for agudah.

This is their problem.

Bennetts, George weinbergers, and that guy who harbored Mondrowitz the molester, mr werdeger, are the backbone of the agudah.

They represent no one.

Both versions of the story are correct said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/asia/23kabul.html

For months, the secret talks unfolding between Taliban & Afghan leaders to end the war appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain insurgent leader at one end of the table: Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, one of the most senior commanders in the Taliban.

But now it turns out, Mr. Mansour was apparently not Mr. Mansour at all. US & Afghan officials now say the Afghan man was an impostor & high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of NATO appear to have achieved little.

“It’s not him,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul intimately involved. “And we gave him a lot of money.”

American officials confirmed Monday that they had given up hope that the Afghan was Mr. Mansour, or even a member of Taliban leadership.

NATO & Afghan officials held 3 meetings with the man, who traveled from Pakistan, where Taliban leaders have taken refuge.

The fake Taliban leader even met with President Hamid Karzai, having been flown to Kabul on a NATO aircraft & ushered into the presidential palace.

///

For months, the secret talks unfolding between Agudah & YTT leaders to end Kolko's molestation appeared to be showing promise, if only because of the appearance of a certain rosh yeshiva at one end of the table: Lipa Margulies, one of the most senior kenackers in the Hungarian movement.

But now it turns out, the rosh yeshiva was apparently not a rosh yeshiva at all. Rabbonim now say the man was an impostor & high-level discussions conducted with the assistance of Agudah appear to have achieved little.

“He's a bus driver,” said a source close to UOJ. “And the dumb parents gave him a lot of tuition money.”

Officials confirmed Monday that they had given up hope that the "rosh yeshiva" was anyone who cares about kids, or even knows how to learn.

Chaim Dovid Zweibel & Avi L. Shafran held 3 secret meetings with the man, who traveled from Ocean Pkwy, where Hungarian leaders have taken refuge.

The fake rosh yeshiva even got the amud at the siyum Hashas, having been flown in on Eckstein's helicopter & ushered to the dais.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like something UOJ would say

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3988502,00.html

"We would like to remind Israelis that there is no such thing as a free lunch, with the possible exception of the meager breakfast served in a moldy detention cell somewhere."

Archie Bunker said...

Before Shmarya kicked me off Failed Messiah because he only allows arguments from frum people who use bad grammar and flawed logic and not those who are more articulate, he had screamed at me for criticizing the creepy Somalis in his neck of the woods. Shmarya gives a free pass to those with Black skin no matter what they are guilty of.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/us/24gang.html?hp

Sex-Trafficking Charges Stun Minneapolis Somalis

Members of Minneapolis’s Somali community left an Eid prayer at Masjid Dar Al-Hijrah on Tuesday ... criminal allegations have jolted the immigrant population.

... in apartments, motel rooms and shopping center bathrooms in Minnesota and Tennessee, the girl performed sexual acts for gang members and paying customers in succession, according to a federal indictment that charged 29 Somali immigrants with drawing many young girls into prostitution over the last decade, using abuse and threats to keep them in line.

Shalom Tendler said...

Valley high school teacher arrested for allegedly having sex with student

By Richard Winton

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 23, 2010|1:48 p.m.

Los Angeles police have arrested a 51-year-old Granada Hills high school teacher for allegedly having sex with an underage female student and are looking for other possible victims, officials said Tuesday.

Mark Stephen Hubbard, who has taught for eight years at Hillcrest Christian School in Granada Hills, was arrested Sunday and booked on suspicion of multiple sex crimes. He was released on $100,000 bail.

During a news conference Tuesday, detectives appealed for any other possible victims to come forward and help with the investigation.

Detectives allege Hubbard, who is described as a health teacher, athletic director and assistant boys basketball and baseball coach, had an "ongoing sexual relationship" with at least one female student since the beginning of this school year.

Los Angeles Times

Aguda Fresser said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/22/AR2010112204836.html?g=0

Anonymous said...

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_kin-of-slain-rabbi-to-move-court-for-chabad-house_1469255

Maybe Arthur knows some more details here. It seems that 770 is in court with Gavriel Holtzberg's parents over who owns the building that was ground zero of the Mumbai al Qaeda massacre.

Since 770 is Rabbi Kotlarsky, dehaynu Holtzberg's shver, this is a case of mechutonim battling each other for money.

Mamash sad.

OU Crony Watch said...

The OU stood by and did nothing except collect their check even though the filth & bugs in this factory were obvious.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The peanut industry executive whose filthy processing plants were blamed in a salmonella outbreak 2 years ago that killed 9 people & sickened 100s more is back in the business.

Stewart Parnell, former president of now-bankrupt Peanut Corp of America, is working as a consultant to peanut companies as the federal government's criminal investigation against him has languished for more than 18 months, The Associated Press has learned.

Parnell, who invoked the 5th Amendment to avoid testifying before Congress in 2009, once directed employees to "turn them loose" after samples of peanuts had tested positive for salmonella, according to e-mails uncovered by congressional investigators.

In an interview with the AP, Parnell expressed exasperation & said he wants the pending criminal investigation resolved — one way or another.

"They just say we're still investigating," Parnell said. "I'd like to get this behind me."

Parnell also said he has been directed by his lawyers not to discuss his case.

Family members of victims who died say they are eager to see Parnell behind bars.

Randy Napier's mother died in Ohio after eating peanut butter linked to Parnell's peanuts.

"He's still walking the streets 2 years later, whereas my mother is lying 6 feet under," Napier said. "It's just not fair. If the FDA doesn't go after Parnell, the message they're sending to the industry is don't worry about it, ship it. He shouldn't be anywhere near the food industry."

There is nothing illegal about Parnell's return to the food industry since the FDA's criminal investigation has yet to bring any charges against him. The FDA referred questions about the case to the Justice Department, which declined comment.

FDA inspectors found remarkably bad conditions inside Parnell's processing plant in Blakely, Ga., linked to the salmonella outbreak, including mold & roaches.

Agudah Fresser said...

http://www.jwire.com.au/wp-content/uploads/KK-2.jpg

This is how to tackle the Viennese table at the convention.

Michael Schick said...

I was going to speak to Zweibel about giving the leftovers from the convention to Kim Jong Il to calm him down until I remembered that the fressers eat all the food.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/world/asia/25food.html

As outsiders from Beijing to Washington struggle to see a pattern in the secretive dynamics of the North Korean leadership, one part of the tangled puzzle seems beyond dispute: the country’s 25 million people cannot feed themselves and face acute food shortages as they have done for many years.

But that has not prevented — and indeed may have encouraged — the regime in Pyongyang in actions such as Tuesday’s shelling of a populated South Korean island or a weekend disclosure concerning what seems a new and ambitious effort to reactivate North Korea’s nuclear enrichment program.

Just last month, South Korea resumed aid shipments of rice and instant noodles for the first time since early 2008 as part of an $8.5 million package that, though largely symbolic in relation to the crushing food shortages, was seen as the result of diplomatic overtures by the North in response to its economic plight.

“This incident seems to fit the pattern of a Mafia shakedown,” said Tim Peters, a longtime resident in Seoul and head of Helping Hands Korea, an nongovernmental organization that works with North Korean defectors. “It’s a Mafia extortion by the Kim regime. And it has worked for them before: It’s the feed-us-or-we’ll-shoot-you approach. And now with winter coming on, they’re trying to get more food aid.”

“The regime wants just enough food to keep the population from turning.”

Rahm-Bo Emmanuel said...

Lawyer: Emanuel Broke Chicago Mayor Residency Rule

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:54 p.m. EST

CHICAGO (AP) — The issue over whether Rahm Emanuel has a legal right to run for mayor of Chicago may be coming to a head.

An attorney says he'll file a challenge as early as Friday with the city's board of elections, arguing that Emanuel doesn't meet the legal requirement that candidates live in the city for a year before election day.

Burt Odelson says much of his challenge will focus on the fact that Emanuel rented his house before he joined the Obama administration and didn't return to Chicago to live until this fall.

itchiemayer said...

I wonder if Rabbi Lopatin has made a contribution to the Rahmbo campaign fund. I would be embarassed to be Rahmbo's Rabbi, the walking and talking chillul Hashem that is Rahmbo Emanuel. What a freaking joke.

Agudah Fresser said...

http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/41762/doughnut-eater-scores-facebook-hole-one

Elie Klein, a 30-year-old father-of-two from Beit Shemesh, has Facebook users from all over the world following his doughnut consumption, and pledging big money to charities for each fried 500-calorie snack he eats.

On Wednesday, after around a week of doughnut-eating and with six full days to go before the first Chanucah light, he had already eaten 30 doughnuts and was raising 322 shekels - more than £50 - for each.

By the end of Chanucah, when he finishes, the doughnut-count and reward for each one eaten will have risen "significantly" - but he would not talk numbers.

He said: "Last year I joked with my wife that I was eating so many doughnuts that someone should sponsor me.

Nebich said...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hoC8OfTzQpO9R_71rIcbo5KaOy3A?docId=fb141be214424e2fa3ff56ef84025d0b

More about the Chabad lawsuit in Mumbai

Anonymous said...

A Frankel's shul mizrach shvantz?

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101125/NEWS/101129873

MONTICELLO - The Cooks Fall man who stuffed his 98-year-old mother into a freezer chest and then cashed Social Security checks in her name totaling $18,000 returned to court Wednesday for a probation violation that could send him to prison.

Roland “Jack” Auslander was on probation as part of his sentence after pleading guilty in Sullivan County to grand larceny and defrauding Social Security.
Prosecutors say Auslander violated probation restrictions when he bought a six-pack of beer at a Sunoco station on Sept. 23.

Agudah Fresser said...

The Convention is al pi vos shteit in Rrrrambam

http://www.northjersey.com/news/110552724_Temple_goes_back_to_Medieval_times_for_peaceful_feast.html

"Moses Maimonides said that sharing a convivial meal was a way of conquering tension and anxiety," added Mendelsohn.

Queens said...

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/11/24/queens/doc4ced8735a1ec5333148286.txt

State Senator Elect Tony Avella and his wife are snakes & anti-Semites. He must have ambitions for higher office because he is now running around to Jewish institutions to act friendly.

He used to cause problems for shuls when he was City Councilman & threaten rabbis in his district that he would retaliate against them when he is elected to State Senate. Now he is calling them & pretending that he wants to make up.

Moetzes Resign! said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572404575635172426674854.html

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was convicted of money laundering in a state court here Wednesday, making it possible that the once-powerful political warrior could end his career behind bars.

Moetzes Resign! said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730304575633050712742496.html

The Food and Drug Administration's top criminal investigator is stepping down after a whistleblower made allegations about the alteration of internal agency reports and other misconduct.

Terry Vermillion set up the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations in 1992 after retiring as a Secret Service agent.

North Woodmere said...

http://rockvillecentre.patch.com/articles/da-man-returned-phony-goods-to-cvs-stores

This putz thief is Iranian. Not clear how frum he is.

Mishugoyim said...

Court Permits Two Services At Nariman House

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Court-permits-two-services-at-Nariman-House/articleshow/6991707.cms

Anonymous said...

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rabbi-holtzbergs-father-accuses-chabad-of-fraud/715140/0

Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, father of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg who was killed in the attack on Chabad House during 26/11, has accused the ultra-orthodox Jewish group his son worked for of “large scale manipulation & falsification of records to grab” the Nariman House property as well as “pocketing millions of dollars” raised to renovate the building in Mumbai.

In an affidavit filed last week in Bombay City Civil Court, Israeli national Eliran Russo, who is representing Holtzberg senior as his attorney, said that the New York-headquartered Chabad Lubavitch movement had raised scores of rupees to repair the building, made some payments, pocketed huge sums but was not ready to provide any accounts.

Nariman House, which became one of the symbols of the global span of the 26/11 attacks, has ended up as a bitter property dispute between warring factions of the Jewish group, days before the 2nd anniversary of the terrorist outrage. The group went to court last month opposing the renovation work that had been started by the Holtzbergs, saying the work was illegal. The suit named Russo as the main defendant.

Representatives of the Holtzbergs countered the Chabad claim with their own, causing the city court to place the 5-storey building in possession of a Receiver of the Bombay High Court. The dispute also resulted in authorities disconnecting power & water to the building.

At the heart of the dispute is the ‘Chabad of India Trust’ set up by Gavriel & his wife Rivka in 2005, which owns Nariman House. After 26/11, Chabad headquarters named Rabbi Yosef Kantor as its official for rebuilding & began raising funds around the world. Chabad also reconstituted the Trust & made Kantor a trustee.

But in his affidavit, Russo alleged that Kantor manipulated records to claim trusteeship.

Archie Bunker said...

http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/11/24/lawmakers-warn-1-2-billion-pigford-payout-to-black-farmers-rife-with-fraud/

Lawmakers Warn $1.2 Billion Pigford Payout to Black Farmers Rife With Fraud

Boruch said...

Let's return to the subject at hand, the mishandling of the education business. In 1913 when RSFM arrived he saw a Jewish world that was devoid of institutions that would enable future generations to know Hashem. He went about creating one and while he and his immediate successors were successful and copied it became readily apparent that this was a good business too. Such a good business that if you were to sit and determine the profit margin of a hanhallah from their schools it would be very good. No business intends to fail or to break even - every school business in the private sector is no different. What we've learned over the past years from the discourses in this blog is that business has overtaken and obliterated the perceived altruism that education supposedly engenders. This doesn't trickle down to the rebbeim and morahs who wonder where their next check is coming from or how they will put food on the table. I've noticed and I'm sure others have as well, that no hanhallah member has ever written about being unpaid. No Rosh has gone on for months without his check. We have business in the field of education. We have private entreprenurial entities without limitied or no accountability to their shareholders (parents). We have enslaved noble minded and idealistic individuals calling on them to perform the greatest sacrifices by telling them that their place in olam haboh will be embellished (How they know that, I'd like to know!). We have disengaged students who absorbed the ethical and moral lessons of their elders from kiddush clubs and snippets of Torah in between stock market, sports, and gossip sessions. We have created chameleons who know how to deliver the talk and to skirt the dividing line between kosher and kosher style. We blame this, shamelessly, on others. I overheard two women speaking tonight after looking at the play tefillin and tallis set - "I like it, but not the idea behind it". Morons, I shouted internally, you know the idea behind it anymore than you know why you can't wear red. Shameless. Our children have no geshmak from their part in the business. They are automated to go to school, participate to the extent that their parents and siblings shep nachas (from what?), get involved in chessed and run away from reality.
Years ago when I went to public school and the math curriculum changed to the new math. The first question everyone asked was what was wrong with the old math? What was wrong with multiplication tables? What was wrong with long division? The answer then and the answer now is that it didn't make good sense for business. Textbooks were being written and philosphies that were developed need a venue to be sold - hence a new curriculum, emphasis on new. Who benefits from change, the people who propose it? But change is not always detrimental. Changing our current private system of education to a more accountable one, to the future, to Hashem, will be a good change. We, the stakeholders, need to stop supporting these failing businesses, the dynastic and yerushadig businsesses. We need to speak to our leadership and engage them as they have become distant and disengage as we leave our most precious children in their hands without animosity, without finger-pointing, without blame. The ultimate responsibility that we, as parents, have to our children is to engage them and to give them a geshmak for what is important to us and what we want them to find important. Our parents can't contort themselves and pat themselves on the back, in total, nor may we.
Torah education needs restructuring and if they want business - then a General Motors restructuring is in order. From the ashes, a Torah true geshmak can arise.

Montreal said...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Financial+whiz+says+spent+self+family/3864502/story.html

By his own admission, Perry Newman spent $5 million of his clients’ money on himself & his family.

The Hampstead resident is the subject of an investigation that alleges Newman used affinity fraud to fleece mostly Orthodox Jewish customers who were referred to him as a financial whiz.

Instead of buying & selling foreign currency & bonds for investors, Newman dropped $41,010 at a jewellery store, paid $350 a week for a maid, $600 a week on food & $100 a week on flowers.

He gave $27,000 cash to the father of one daughter-in-law & $40,000 cash to another daughter-in-law’s father as a contribution to lavish weddings for two of his sons, Ari & Daniel.

In a 7-year period he wrote cheques to his wife, Sari Stern Newman, for $415,869 Canadian & $300,450 U.S. funds, above & beyond the $1,800 per week he gave her to run the household.

Between 2005 & 2010, he racked up credit card charges of $121,000, all paid out of his company account, Dover Investments, which contained his clients’ money.

Of the more than $8 million he was given by those who hoped to make money on the market, he claims $3.2 million was paid out. His family spent the remainder over 15 years.

Newman’s only education was at Talmudic College in England.

He freely admits manufacturing fictitious statements on letterhead he copied & pasted from FC Stone, a legitimate financial institution.

Newman travelled extensively, often with his wife, taking 6 vacations a year, to Mexico, California, Europe and more often to Miami & New York.

UOJ gets results said...

(AFP) – 1 day ago

NEW YORK — The trustee charged with recapturing assets for victims of Wall Street scammer Bernard Madoff said Wednesday he had filed suit against Swiss bank UBS, seeking two billion dollars for its part in the massive fraud.

"Madoff did not act alone in perpetrating the largest financial fraud in history," government-appointed trustee Irving Picard said in his filing in US bankruptcy court in New York.

Julie Berman resign! said...

After a former Claims Conference insider went public this past week to the press that there is STILL no system in place to stop theft, Julie Berman comes scurrying out to say ok, ok, we're working on it

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/fresh_scrutiny_claims_conference_allocations

Meanwhile, Claims Conference officials said they were still awaiting from the FBI the list of 4,957 persons whose Hardship Fund applications had been falsified. The fund provides a one-time payment of $3,600 to survivors who were forced to flee their homes to escape the Nazis.

The FBI discovered the fraud — which dates back 16 years — after comparing the Social Security numbers Hardship Fund applicants provided the Claims Conference with various government databases and finding that birthdates and family history were fabricated. That fraud alone totaled $18 million and the Claims Conference said it would seek repayment of that money from the recipients.

The other Claims Conference fund defrauded, the Article 2 Fund or German pension program for survivors, has to date uncovered 658 fraudulent applications. That fund provides eligible survivors whose income is less than $11,500 with a monthly pension of $411. In this fraud too, supporting documents such as immigration papers and passports were expertly altered to make applications fit eligibility requirements.

Last week the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors issued a statement calling on the Claims Conference to appoint “an ombudsman acceptable to the survivor community to advocate on behalf of and represent the interests of survivors.”

But Berman, the Claims Conference chairman, said that request, reported in this newspaper last week, has left him puzzled.
“What would an ombudsman do?” he asked

Asked about critics who are calling for him to resign or apologize for it taking 16 years to uncover the fraud, Berman bristled: “If there is a scandal in Washington that the president has no control over, the first thing he should do is submit his resignation? I’m more than happy for anyone to show how I should have known. I’m prepared to accept the theory that if a member of the board knew or should have known, he should rethink whether to stay on. But what happened is so far removed from what we do.”

Julie Berman resign! said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Michael Dowd imitates UOJ said...

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/kolko_allegedly_intimidating_boy_set_testify_abuse_case

“Any belief on the part of Kolko and his fellow conspirators that this scare tactic will work is 100 percent wrong,” said Michael Dowd, the attorney representing the boy’s family. “The audacity of these people only makes my client and his family stronger in their determination to bring these people to justice.”

Zweibel's buddy said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/feeding_vito_Ih900M1prvA1k5tLEb4bYI

Why is City Hall so determined to keep the cash flowing to the social-services agency founded & long sponsored by Brooklyn Democratic fixer Vito Lopez?

This, despite continuing investigations by the attorney general & 2 federal probes.

It’s anyone’s guess how the state case will evolve once Attorney General-elect Eric Schneiderman settles in. The feds, on the other hand, usually handle public-corruption cases on the straight & narrow.

They certainly have plenty to probe.

As first reported by The Post’s David Seifman, City Hall quietly restored $12.5 million in funding to Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council — frozen after a scathing report by the city Department of Investigations alleging fraud & cronyism.

Mayor Bloomberg himself claimed, “No other organization at the moment is capable of providing the services to the community.”

Ridgewood Bushwick was too corrupt to fail, in other words.

Yet at least one veteran agency with a long & proven track record in delivering such services, the Jewish Association for Services to the Aged, said it was prepared to step in.

Team Bloomberg, despite the city’s daunting fiscal problems, seems not to care about waste, fraud & abuse.

Vos zogt UOJ? said...

Julie Berman keeps pulling a Sgt. Schultz, "I know nutting, I see nutting" every time there is fraud swirling around the Claims Conference. First with his pal & neighbor Sruly Singer, then those con artists from Israel and New Rochelle and now Russian organized crime.

Actually you can make that former neighbor of Sruly Singer. Julie has moved away from Forest Hills and now davens in Rabbi Rafi Butler's shul.

David Greenfield said...

Hey, I'm supposed to have an arrangement with Vito. I hope he sends some of that moolah flowing my way.

Chometz for Pesach Lerner said...

http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/short_takes/natl_young_israel_rejects_petition

I'd like to be Emperor of Young Israel for life.

Try to stop me.

Charlie Hynes said...

I like their style in Toronto!

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101116/bently-worried-after-fraud-charges-101116/

The dropping of fraud charges against a Toronto man accused of bilking dozens of investors out of $27 million has Attorney General Chris Bentley concerned, and the opposition warning Ontario's courts are underfunded.

Police charged Tzvi Erez with fraud last year, alleging he was running a Ponzi scheme, using money from new investors to pay returns to his original investors. The victims were primarily members of Toronto's Jewish community.

It was learned this week that Crown prosecutors opted to drop the charges in September, blaming a lack of resources to go ahead with the complicated case.

Psssst! Yo queiro Taco Bell said...

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=195455

A Jerusalem resident was taken in for questioning on Sunday after the city police fraud-squad tracked down the Jewish man as the prime suspect in a case of forged pedigree certificates for Chihuahua puppies.

Julie Berman resign! said...

http://www.jwire.com.au/featured-articles/claims-conference-fraud-apologise/12973

The stolen amount was not $350,000 as indicated by the Claims Conference in February. Nor was it $7 million as the Claims Conference suggested in June after Jewish Week revealed the scandal was far more substantial than the Claims Conference inferred. It was a staggering $42.5 million & there's every probability it may substantially exceed this sum.

As late as last week, in an article I wrote in Israel Hayom, the Claims Conference refused to acknowledge the extent of the fraud in response to enquiries from Israel Hayom editors.

However, following the announcement of the US Attorney’s Office this week, the Claims Conference can no longer play down the extent of the fraud or the role played by employees of the Claims Conference. As stated by the US Attorney, “six corrupt insiders systematically defrauded the Article 2 Fund & Hardship programs for over a decade.”

It was the sacred duty of the Claims Conference to ensure payments were only made to survivors. Instead, due to a breakdown in controls, this fraud was perpetuated for over a decade from New York offices of the Claims Conference.

After the Jewish Week reported the fraud was not limited to $350,000, Claims Conference Chairman Julius Berman proclaimed “no survivor payments were affected.” He failed to acknowledge that pensions payable from the Hardship Fund to survivors were suspended for months or that the German government could hold the Claims Conference accountable for missing funds.

But even more bizarre is the attempt to downplay the breakdown in oversight & refusal to accept accountability for fraud perpetrated by Claims Conference insiders.

Will the Claims Conference finally accept responsibility?

Unfortunately, it appears that even after criminal indictments, they are disingenuously presenting themselves as the victim. They have employed “the biggest & best PR organization in the United States” to refurbish their image. It is outrageous to use Holocaust funds to engage a PR firm to promote positive spin for the leadership of the organization.

Friend of Sol A. Dann's Daughter said...

"Black Friday" retail sales will be decent, but not as good as the Democrats would like. Talking to a lot of small business owners, things have improved since '08-'09. They're not great, but they're not terrible.

You may have heard that businesses are sitting on about $2 trillion in cash. That's dwarfed by th $8 trillion that consumers are saving/hoarding. So people have some money to spend on gifts this year but I think they'll be very careful choosing what they buy. Discounted big ticket items should do well.

More Trouble for Tropper said...

As reported on Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn's blog from other sources: Video: Guma Aguiar Talks About his Breakdown

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Crown Heights.info: ("In an interview to Israels channel two news Guma Aguiar, the young Brazillionaire, opens up about the pressure that lead to his breakdown, and being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Guma Talks about Chabad, the Rebbe, and his return to the forefront.")

(ALSO at: Guma Agayar Talks About Chabad.)

2 comments:

Recipients and Publicity said...

This is a major development!

No doubt Tropper and Tom Kaplan hoped and assumed that Guma would be locked up forever but as this Israeli news clip shows, from Israeli news sources but posted on a Chabad news site, and makes abundantly clear that Guma Aguiar is back and in many ways he looks and sounds healthy, albeit a little nervous, yet more realistic.

In this interview Guma seems to indicate that he is glad to be back in Israel intimating that he he was recuperating in America presumably. He can afford the best help there is on this Earth.

In hindsight, Guma had great support from his wife and from his mother and his kids that must surely have helped him.

One wonders what has been the outcome of the legal battles between Guma and his uncle Tom Kaplan.

Amazingly it was right after Tropper was unfrocked with online public revelations of his sexcapades with Shannon Orand (now fully converted and evidently remarried) and forced to resign from his Kol Yaakov yeshiva and bringing down the multi-million EJF with him, that soon after almost simultaneously Guma suffered his own breakdown that was also posted online.

Now EJF is trying to make a comeback under a new alias again headed by Rav Reuven Feinstein and funded yet again by Tom Kaplan, Tropper is hanging tough and refuses to leave Monsey as he was supposed following the decree against him of the top Monsey rabbonim -- when who should reappear and make a comeback of his own -- none other than Guma Aguiar himself doing what he loves most, agitating for his pet causes and lauding Chabad and its Rebbe.

Who ever said that history never repeats itself?!

This should be fascinating to watch......again!

November 23, 2010 11:08 PM

Chief Penguin said...

It is encouraging to know that even after his encounter with Tropper he still keeps his emuna.

Unfortunately many people who encountered Tropper got completely turned off from Judaism.

In any case there is no doubt that he has a much greater zechus giving money to Beitar Jerusalem FC than his uncle Tom Kaplan giving money to Tropper the Shtooper/classic EJF/New EJF/Rabbi Reuven Feinstein

November 24, 2010 11:25 AM

Anonymous said...

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/24/32093.htm

Imposters are abusing the Guggenheim name - and claiming to be Guggenheims - to "defraud consumers out of billions of dollars," two real Guggenheim businesses claim.

David Birnbaum, of Brooklyn, uses the name David B. Guggenheim, and claims to be chairman of the Guggenheim Fund;

Eli Pichel, residence unknown, "falsely claims to be a licensed attorney working for plaintiffs or the Guggenheim family. Defendant Pichel also participates in the schemes described herein through an entity of unknown structure known as 'Pichel Consultancy;'"

Since this summer, the defendants have sent emails to "an unknown number of persons," soliciting investment opportunities in crude oil, 24k gold bars, bank guarantees and diamonds, on behalf of the Guggenheims, according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs say the defendants have repeatedly called the Coca-Cola Company, falsely claiming affiliation with the Guggenheim firms, "to discuss financial investments" with its senior leadership.

In October, the defendants tried to form "a business relationship with President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush," via email, offering up the "Guggenheim Funds" and "Guggenheim Bank" to "their disposal," according to the complaint.

The materials contained counterfeited Guggenheim marks, including "identical font, type style and distinctive purple color," the complaint states.

The philanthropical Guggenheim family are descendants of Meyer Guggenheim (1854-1922), who made his fortune in mining and smelting.

UOJ gets results said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28madoff.html?hp

Madoff Relatives Sued for $69 Million

Agudah Convention Fressers Alert! said...

Agudah Convention Fressers Alert!

The mother of a rich giv'air who is close with Jake Perlow died over shabos in Chicago and the funeral is tomorrow at 12:30 in Chicago so you can expect all of the humble people working on behalf of the k'lal to charter private jets to get to Chicago in the morning to PAY their respects and hope to get some donations.

Shea Fishman said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/science/earth/26norfolk.html?hp

Is UOJ trying to prove something here with rising Atlantic Ocean water flooding Norfolk, Virginia? Ok ok so two successive rabbis of the OU shul in town helped scam residents through Shereshevsky's ponzi and conveniently said in Shabbos droshos that it's lashon harah to tell anyone they lost their pants. And Steve Mostofsky's brother runs the local vaad hakashrus.

Is that any reason to flood a whole city?

Vitaly Borker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print

Margo contacted me after reading about me in the Times. He wants to put my services to use on behalf of YTT.

Will the "real" Queens Vaad please stand up said...

http://www.zehjournal.com/images/FRUMVOTERSGUIDE.2010.pdf

Chaim Schwartz has angrily & heatedly argued here that no one poskened against supporting pro-toyevah politicians as he cavorts around town with them and as his former employer the Agudah defiles themselves with every lowlife that $uits them.

Say what you want about Rav Belsky's heterim but here he is signing an issur against supporting pro-toyevah candidates with R' Noach Isaac Oelbaum (a NON-Vaad rov in Queens, as heimishe & yeshivishe rabbonim in Queens refuse to join the Vaad and in many cases refuse to eat from their farce kashrus as well) and one of the Mirrer roshei yeshiva.

It is claimed here that Rav Shteinman did not posken anything but according to reliable sources he did call R' Malkiel Kotler to be chozer on originally supporting pro-gay Jon Corzine.

Anonymous said...

please finish the margolis posts

A letter to my Yeshivish Rabbi brother said...

Shalom,

I used to believe that Torah observant Jews were the most moral, ethical, decent people, of any people in the world.

While I do believe our Torah provides us a map illuminating the absolute best way to forge a closeness with Hashem and therefore,
become the greatest of people, I believe we are falling woefully short.

I am constantly disappointed with the seemingly never ending plethora of scandals that we bring on ourselves. Rabbinic sexual abuse and subsequent coverups by the alleged gedolim, the criminal behavior of so many orthodox Jews and often these same individuals continue to get kavod.

Our “leaders” put out Kol Koreh after Kol Koreh that make them look like fools. You must be an apikorus for not snatching the microphone away from Lipa…..

The brainwashing going on in the Chasidic and ultra orthodox world, and the crazy left wing political correct nonsense from the new “open” orthodox Jews led by Avi Weiss. Ivanka Trump converts in a beis din headed by Rabbi Herschel Shachter even though she has no inclination to live as an orthodox Jew. $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Do you know what goes on?

Much of the orthodox world puts more value in style than substance. I used to think that wearing a black hat and covering your head with a tallis was a sign someone was on a high madreiga and from them I have always expected more. If anything, we get less. We value the externals over the internals. Let’s teach our kids
menschlichkeit. Without derech eretz there is no Torah.

I want you to know that so many demonize non-Jews. There are many wonderful non-Jews who are more
honest and ethical than some famous Rabbis….and there are some factions of Jews who think it’s ok to cheat a non-Jew. We use the word “goy” as if it’s necessarily a bad thing. We must remember that we are a “mamleches Kohanim v’GOY kodosh”.

There are plenty of “orthodox” Jews that take advantage of the system, get government stipends when they don’t need them. Besides, this Kollel thing has gotten out of hand. All of the great Rabbis of yesteryear
had real jobs. Kollel should be reserved for the best, and the rest need to go to work instead of living off of the government.

I am so frustrated by all of this. We are currently on a terribly low madreiga. The Arabs are surely not our worst enemy, we are! Hashem must bring the Moshiach soon to save us from ourselves.

Even if you didn’t know and didn’t want to know, you need to know.

Love,

XXXXXX

Simcha Scholar said...

I was hoping no one would notice that I honored convicted felon Charles Kushner at the 2011 Chai Lifeline dinner but some bloggers caught on 2 months after the fact. All I need now is some kanoyee like Lazer Ginzberg to find out because of the zoyna maysa. Then I'll never hear the end of it.

A letter to my Yeshivish Rabbi brother said...

My oldest brother, to whom I sent the email today, is a truly pious individual. Until today, I have chosen not to burden him with all of this meshugas because I assume he is a kool-aid drinker. I decided that as of today I won't let him be.

He is close with one of the major American Rabbis, a leading talmid of R' Aharon Kotler in every way.

Lipa performed at the wedding of one of his children which is the basis for the microphone comment.

I don't feel comfortable using my usual screen name.

Anonymous said...

According to a blogger named Sam:

If you will take a walk around New Square you will only see a handful of single-family houses, most of them owned by Twersky's sons & daughters like the house he bought for his youngest son for $750,000, after getting it on the cheap while the owner was driven out of town, having to deal with protests at 2 am for violating Twersky's rules. Lately he has been building a huge housing complex to accommodate all his grandkids, which he has like flocks of Canadian geese. Also he owns a few luxury cars, a $3 million mansion in Nyack, a summer house in the Catskills, a loft in New York City, and always surrounded by a number of paid butlers.

Anonymous said...

A blogger in Eretz Yisroel bavorns from the fact that the last place Leiby Kletzky zl was seen alive was in New Square (I would add that the killer's apartment where the murder took place is not far from the workplaces of Kolko and his protectors Margulies and Belsky)

די טייערע לייבעל ע''ה איז קיינמאל (לכאורה) נישט געווען אין ניי סקווער נאר די לעצטע טאג פון זיין לעבען מיט די מערדער..

די אבן עזרא זאגט ביי עגלה ערופה(דברים כ''א ח)

''ויתכן שהשם ציוה לעשות כן על העיר הקרובה כי לולי שעשו עבירה כדומה לה לא נזדמן שיהרג אדם קרוב מהם, ומחשבות ה' עמקו לאין קץ אצלנו.''

ומי שאמר לעולמו די יאמר לצרותינו די

Troppenstein's monster said...

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/266/575.html?hp=1&cat=402&loc=12

Did this shvantz ever have shaychus to the EJF scam?

Bungalow Yenta said...

What's the going rate in Skver for a goyta?

Rubashkin news said...

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110807/NEWS01/108070318/Immigrant-raid-halted-in-2000-on-election-fear-ex-agent-says?News

This Iowa newspaper has a story about how Senator Joe Lieberman may have had something to do with pushing off the raid on Rubashkin by 8 years. Even direct intervention on his part would not be so veit as Lieberman is very close to Levi Shemtov who is the Chabad shaliach to Congress. The Shemtov and Rubashkin families are very good friends.

Lieberman is in the news this week on another matter. It's hard to believe some frum newspapers are so ignorant as to run the JTA dispatch on the silly book Lieberman just published that encourages goyim to be shomer Shabbos. It is of course assur for them to do so. And it's not like Joe knows anything about the ruach of Shabbos. He makes it a point to switch off every week, one Shabbos morning he davens in his left wing modern orthodox shuls and every 2nd Shabbos morning in a Conservative temple.

Oh Hell said...

Ohel President Moishe Hellman had the nerve to say on the Zev Brenner Show that Ohel follows the law on reporting molesters. He also said there are obscure laws that prevent reporting in some cases. Is that a lie?

a bissel simcha said...

http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=27978&pgnum=38