In the spirit of the upcoming Passover holiday, I felt the need to write a new song with original UOJ lyrics. Now, I realize being the Roto Rooter Guy ( click above link - newcomers), this is not good for business! But, who cares? Everything seems broken, especially the spirit of humankind! So, I wrote the above lyrics as the title to my new holiday song; after searching the Psalms (Tehillim) and finding nothing there quite hit the nail on the head befitting the times we live in, as the above title.
As if we did not have enough with the Leib Tropper Conversion scandals, now comes information along to me that none other than Rabbi Shlomo Miller from Toronto, Canada was responsible for converting to Judaism, the notorious "alleged" con-man, Sandy Craig Hutchens/Moshe Alexander, who was a criminal since he was 15 years old, convicted of many different crimes, and who is now 51. Rabbi Shlomo Miller "converted" him in 2005. Hutchens converted to Orthodox Judaism, according to sources, strictly to prey on the non-suspecting Orthodox Jews and their money, who relied on Miller for his "wise man" status throughout the Orthodox Jewish community worldwide.
Instead of dealing with this issue boldly and head-on, Miller issues the following Kol-Koreh!
CLICK TO ENLARGE:
די סעספּול איז איבערגעבליבענע און עס קאַן ניט זייַן פאַרפעסטיקט Dayeinu!
"Tropper used his control over the unidentified woman’s conversion process as leverage to force her to engage in sexual activities"
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish Daily Forward:
"Advocate of Strict Conversions in Sexual Scandal
By Josh Nathan-Kazis Published December 23, 2009, issue of January 01, 2010.
A key proponent of the successful campaign for stricter conversions in Israel and around the world has resigned from a senior post, and has not denied rumors of a conversion scandal of his own.
Rabbi Leib Tropper, a founder of the hard-line conversion group Eternal Jewish Family (EJF), announced that he had stepped down as its leader when allegations surfaced in news outlets that he had engaged in sexual misconduct with a woman while guiding her conversion. Tropper was among those responsible for major policy changes by the Israeli rabbinate that sparked a worldwide tightening of conversion regulations.
In a statement issued December 23 to the Forward, Tropper’s representatives said he “wishes to express his regret for the turmoil caused by his departure… and for what has appeared to be conduct not within our significant laws of modesty.”
“He was a big player in trying to make the conversion standards more extreme,” said Mark Angel, the modern Orthodox rabbi who founded the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, which opposed Tropper’s reforms.
Now, in an ironic twist, the rabbi whose organization questioned the legitimacy of conversions performed by others has had his own conversions called into question. On December 21, the Rabbinical Council of America, the mostly Modern Orthodox rabbinic association, issued a statement in response to the scandal. “What we have heard, if true, violates the fundamental elements of all that Judaism holds sacred,” the statement read. EJF has been involved in conversions since its founding, in 2005.
The allegations of sexual misconduct against Tropper, reported first on the Web site FailedMessiah.com, cite leaked, unauthenticated audio and video recordings in which Tropper apparently discusses orchestrating sexual encounters between an unidentified woman undergoing a conversion and other men. These allegations were also reported in the New York Post.
The revelations may have undermined Tropper’s hard-line stance. “He was the ultimate de-legitimizer,” said Rabbi Seth Farber, who directs ITIM, an information and advocacy center for Jewish life in Israel. “He claimed he had all the solutions, he had all of the ultra-Orthodox leadership, and anything that wasn’t under his rule wasn’t legitimate at all.”
Tropper is known for particularly strict positions on who can perform and receive conversions. According to a blog post by Rabbi Gil Student, a Modern Orthodox rabbi, Tropper told him that he follows the authorities who believe that rabbis who think the world is more than 6000 years old should not be allowed to preside over conversions. And Jewcy.com reported that in 2006, Tropper reversed a conversion he had overseen after learning that the woman wore pants and not dresses, which is considered immodest in ultra-Orthodox circles.
Officials from EJF could not be reached for comment."
"Tropper used his control over the unidentified woman’s conversion process as leverage to force her to engage in sexual activities"
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish Daily Forward:
"Advocate of Strict Conversions in Sexual Scandal
Tropper has worked to extend his rigid outlook on conversions to rabbinical courts around the world. According to sources contacted by the Forward, he is among those responsible for a major shift in conversion policy that occurred in 2007, when moves by the Israeli rabbinate caused the RCA to introduce new, stricter conversion standards.
One source who is familiar with the matter and asked not to be identified called Tropper a “power broker.” According to Farber, Tropper’s charisma and funding allowed him to garner support from major figures in the ultra-Orthodox world. Farber said that Tropper and an Israeli ally, Rabbi Nachum Eisenstein, had the ear of Shlomo Amar, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, in 2005 and 2006, years in which Amar effected policy changes that overturned the status quo of Orthodox conversion in the United States.
“Amar was very impressed with the rabbis whom [Tropper and Eisenstein] surrounded themselves with,” Farber said. Amar attended conferences in the United States, organized by EJF. “He became very, very suspicious of the Modern Orthodox rabbinate in the United States. And that, from a historical perspective, was a disaster,” Farber said.
In 2006, Amar determined that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel would not consider conversions performed by the RCA to be legitimate. The potential implications of the decision were drastic, as the rabbinate in Israel controls such vital areas as marriage, divorce and eligibility for immigration. In response, the RCA restructured the process by which it approved conversions, limiting the ability of individual rabbis to convene religious courts in favor of a more centralized system. Conversions are now performed only by a small number of RCA rabbis.
Meanwhile, in the United States, EJF worked to coordinate and centralize the religious courts that adhered to its stricter standards.
“Until now, every single beis din [religious court] was, to a large extent, independent. There was no interfacing, there were no standards, there was no discussion,” said Yehoshua Wender, who sits on the Bais Din of Houston and is the rabbi of Young Israel of Houston. Through EJF, Wender said that his religious court has been brought into contact with other similarly observant religious courts via annual conferences. EJF lists 19 religious courts in the United States and around the world that it says adhere to its “universally accepted standards” of conversion.
FailedMessiah.com also reported that Tropper used his control over the unidentified woman’s conversion process as leverage to force her to engage in sexual activities. But Wender, who said that the woman was to have been converted at his beit din, said that Tropper would have had no say over whether the woman’s conversion would have been accepted."
CNN:
ReplyDelete"Magnitude 7.1-quake jolts Japan coast
By the CNN Wire Staff
April 11, 2011 5:22 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- A magnitude 7.1 earthquake rattled the northeastern coast of Japan Monday evening, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning, predicting a potential wave of two-meters in Miyagi, Fukushima and Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures.
The quake was centered about 164 kilometers (101 miles) northeast of Tokyo, according to the USGS. Residents in Tokyo felt the jolts.
Workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were asked to evacuate."
CNN:
ReplyDelete"Berlusconi appears in court on corruption charges
By the CNN Wire Staff April 11, 2011 5:30 a.m. EDT
Milan, Italy (CNN) -- Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrived in court in Milan, Italy, on Monday, to face financial corruption charges related to his media empire.
The case is not related to the headline-grabbing allegations that he paid for sex repeatedly with an underage prostitute and later tried to pull strings to get her out of jail when she was arrested for theft.
Monday's trial is related to alleged fraud in the sale of movie and television rights by Mediaset, Berlusconi's broadcasting company.
Berlusconi appeared confident as he appeared in court Monday, denying the charges.
The case has been in and out of court for years, with Judge Fabio Paparella ordering Berlusconi in 2006 to stand trial on charges of false accounting, embezzlement, and tax fraud.
Berlusconi later passed a law shielding top government officials from prosecution while they're in office, then saw it struck down by judges.
He appeared in court two weeks ago for a preliminary hearing related to the current case.
It's one of four cases he's fighting at the moment, including charges involving the alleged prostitute, Karima el Mahroug, nicknamed "Ruby the Heart-stealer."
He denies all charges."
First collapse reported in:
ReplyDeleteNew York Real Estate:
$300M Bush Terminal Loan Transferred to Special Servicer
Posted January 19, 2011
A $300 million loan on the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, NY has been transferred to a special servicer due to monetary default, according to Fitch.
According to the documents related to the loan, it is secured by a first mortgage encumbering Bush Terminal, which is located on various blocks between 32nd and 41st Streets and 1st through 3rd Avenues in Brooklyn. The Bush Terminal Property consists of 16 multi-story office, loft and industrial buildings containing a total of 6.15 million sf of gross building area. The buildings were constructed at various times starting in 1904 on approximately 35 acres of land. The Bush Terminal Property was 85 percent occupied by tenants such as the NYC DCAS HRA (2.9% of NRSF), Virginia Dare Extract Co. Inc. (2.6%) and NYC Department of Finance (2.5%) when the loan was secured.
The borrowers are 1-10 Industry Associates LLC and 19-20 Industry City Associates, LLC, each a single-purpose, single-asset entity. The sponsors of the borrowers are Rubin Schron and Abraham Fruchthandler. At the time the loan was distributed, Rubin Schron had approximately $1.5 billion of equity in more than 40 residential, retail, commercial and healthcare assets primarily located throughout the New York metropolitan area, including over 15 million sf of industrial space.
Abraham Fruchthandler is a principle of FBE Limited, a private investment partnership formed in the 1970s as an investment-holding vehicle for the Fruchthandler family. The FBE portfolio included industrial properties totaling approximately 20 million sf in addition to a residential portfolio of approximately 4,000 apartments and interests in 6 office buildings.
The loan was originated on September 20, 2007 by Goldman Sachs Commercial Mortgage Capital, L.P. and was subsequently purchased by Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company. The Bush Terminal Loan provided for interest-only payments for the duration of the loan term. The loan matures on September 6, 2017."
The second collapse reported in:
ReplyDeleteCommercial Real Estate news:
"$305Mln CMBS Loan on Long Island Industrial Portfolio Sours
Friday, 17 December 2010
Commercial Real Estate Direct
Staff Report
A $305 million mortgage on a portfolio of 36 industrial properties on Long Island, N.Y., with 3.5 million square feet has been moved to special servicing as a result of its delinquency.
The loan, securitized through Greenwich Capital Commercial Funding Corp., 2007-GG9, hasn't made its regular payment since October. As a result, a total of $2.9 million has been advanced against it by Wachovia Bank, the CMBS transaction's master servicer.
According to a Daily Special e-mail alert from Fitch Ratings, the loan, the third largest in the CMBS deal's collateral pool, was transferred to LNR Partners because of imminent default.
Last year, the collateral portfolio generated $16.7 million of net cash flow, just less than the $16.9 million needed to fully service the securitized debt, according to servicer data compiled by Realpoint. And through June, it was generating an annualized $12.4 million of cash flow. The debt was underwritten assuming the portfolio would generate $27.6 million of cash flow.
The portfolio is owned by a venture led by Ruben Schron and Abraham Fruchthandler. Schron had purchased the portfolio in 2000 from First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. and over the years improved individual properties, allowing his investor group to place increasingly larger mortgages against it. The portfolio was 90.3 percent occupied in 2006 when the securitized loan was originated. But occupancy had fallen to 82 percent as of last June. And, according to Realpoint, 26 percent of the portfolio's space matures next year."
Arutz Sheva-Israel National News:
ReplyDelete"Egyptian Blogger Jailed for Writing About Army Officers
by Chana Ya'ar 04/11/11
An Egyptian blogger has been jailed for reporting news of civil law violations by army officers during and after the country's recent revolution.
Maikel Nabil, 26, had been held for the past several weeks under house arrest. On Monday he was sentenced to three years in prison for “insulting” the country's military.
In his English-language biography on his blog, the self-proclaimed pacifist writes that he founded the “No for Compulsory Military Service Movement” in April 2009, and began a campaign to demand the right to be exempt from military service as a conscientous objector. The Cairo resident received his exemption on 20 November 2010, but “was arrested several times because of my political activity.” He is also a graduate of the Veterinary Medicine College, Assiut University.
Nabil, who also writes in Hebrew and Arabic on the blog, explained in an English-language article entitled In Which Side is Israel Standing? that the security agenda in the Jewish State "decides who the prime minister will be."
The blogger also observes that he himself has been turned down for a visa to visit Israel. “So, the lesson which Israel wants me to learn, that I have to be an enemy of Israel to be welcomed in Israel, just as the terrorists whom Israel speaks with in claimed peace talks, and yet there are people asking: Why those talks usually fail?”
Nabil contends in the article that “what's happening in Jerusalem decides what will happen in Egypt.”
“Egyptian justice failed in the case of Maikel Nabil,” commented the Democracy Review in a statement posted to its website on Monday.
“This [sentencing] was done behind closed doors and without lawyers present... it is a sad day for rule of law in Egypt. If Nabil could not be freed with so much support from Human Rights organizations, what hope is there for all the others who were arrested and face lonely fights for freedom?”
According to the report, Nabil and his lawyers were told Sunday that sentencing was postponed till Tuesday. He was then sentenced in absentia by the military court. Nabil was immediately taken to Tora prison, where he is currently being held. His lawyers were informed of the sentencing and incarceration Monday morning."
If you are in Canada and try clicking on either of the two YouTube clips featured in this post, the followng message is displayed: "This content is not available in your country due to a legal complaint."
ReplyDeleteCBS News:
ReplyDeleteGeithner: Debt default would hurt global economy
CBS News talks to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on the consequences of government not raising debt ceiling
By Anthony Mason April 14, 2011
(CBS News) And now comes the next big battle over money -- it involves raising the nation's debt ceiling. That's the amount of money the government is allowed to borrow. Think of it as the credit limit on your credit card. Right now, Uncle Sam's limit is $14.29 trillion. But he's already borrowed $14.26 trillion, meaning he's just $30 billion away from having his credit cut off.
The control room of the American debt machine is the U.S. Treasury's Auction Room, where it borrows billions every week from investors in the U.S. and around the world to keep the American government running. But if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling, the Treasury's credit card would hit its limit. The room would shut down. And the U.S. government could go into default, CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports.
"The consequences of that would be catastrophic to the United States," Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in testimony to Congress.
Geithner before Congress - and in an interview again Thursday - warned the consequences would be worse than the financial crisis we just went through.
If the U.S. hits the ceiling, "it would shake the basic foundation of the entire global financial system," Geithner told CBS.
Because America's debt is the gold standard of the world, the U.S. has always paid back with interest.
"And if you default on the debt, which has never happened in our history, we have a whole different world. If you can't trust U.S. Treasury securities, what can you trust?" asked Ric Mishkin, a former governor of the Federal Reserve.
"This is what they do in countries like Argentina," said Mishkin. "This is not what we do in this country."
Interest rates would soar; the stock market would plummet. Geithner estimates, at the current rate of spending, we will hit the debt ceiling, $14.29 trillion, about May 16.
"Starting at the end of May, we start to run on fumes. And that's not something you want to do for an economy that's coming out of this severe a crisis," Geithner said.
The Treasury can buy about eight weeks through accounting measures. But by early July, it will run out of options.
"Then we have to stop paying benefits to veterans, recipients of Social Security, Medicare," Geithner said.
Geithner hopes it won't get pushed to the brink.
"You know, there are some people up there who want to try to take it to the brink, but that would be deeply irresponsible," said Geithner. "You can't let it get to close to that because, again, if you take it too far, then people will start to wonder whether we're gonna make it."
How much does the debt ceiling need to be raised?
The Treasury secretary said that depends how soon Congress wants to come back and vote on it again.
It's been raised five times over the last three years, on average $900 billion each time."