From: Benjamin Aryeh Uchytil
1100 Howe Ave Apt 551
Sacramento, CA 95825
To: Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky
Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia
6063 Drexel Rd.
Philadelphia, PA 19131-1296
August 2, 2011
Dear Rabbi Kamenetsky,
As an adult survivor of severe and unrelenting childhood sexual abuse, I have followed your halachic decisions and media pronouncements regarding this issue with great concern.
I am a Litvak, yeshiva-trained, from Monsey, New York. For many years I taught at Monsey yeshivos, mostly at the mesivta level. Rabbi, from my long-term perspective within the yeshiva velt I confirm:
1. Orthodox Jewish pedophilia is alive and ‘well’ in our communities,
2. The rabbonim actively protect our perpetrators from prosecution, ensuring that even more children will be sexually abused,
3. The rabbonim censure and threaten victims and their families in order to force them to keep quiet about what has occurred,
4. Orthodox Jews are often provoked to violence against victims who report to the police due to the Torah proscription against ‘mesirah’.
Due to your misguided attempts to ‘save the nedon’, to prevent the prosecution of our perpetrators, these recalcitrant individuals are doomed to a high rate of recidivism: they offend repeatedly over the course of their lives. Indeed, a pedophile molests, on average, approximately 140 different children prior to his first arrest.
Rabbi, can you not see what is occurring under your very nose? Orthodox pedophiles are not only defiling but destroying our ‘pirkei kehuna’, our precious children. I cannot believe you consider your current course of action wise and profitable for our community. Saving perpetrators from prosecution: Is it good for the Jews? Most definitely not!
Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, hear my words: Your halachic interpretations, intended to moderate and mediate between Orthodox pedophiles and their victims, are failing as I write this very letter. While you are busily engaged protecting our perpetrators, Orthodox Jewish victims are fleeing Torah, fleeing Yiddishkeit. We are fleeing left and right. Many, such as myself, have gone frei. Many have chosen baptism and conversion. Others have committed suicide.
You are losing us. Thousands have left the fold. Truly: you seem to care so much about our perpetrators, do you not care for victims? It would seem not. Given this, we are on the move. We are writing, writing to the goyishe papers, the Yiddishe papers, and on the Internet - to whomever will hear us. Every time I meet a Jew - Orthodox or frei - I tell him or her the truth about Orthodox pedophilia and about your frightful course regarding this issue. I tell Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, Muslims....
Rabbi, here is the truth: Although many survivors write you politely, groveling at your feet in the hope that you will change tack, you need to know that we despise you. You have hurt Orthodox survivors so badly, many to most of us will never forgive you for your destructive stance. Personally, I sincerely pray every day that HaShem will convict your heart and serve you a resounding kick in the tukkis.
Very truly,
Benjamin Aryeh Uchytil
Financial Times:
ReplyDelete"October 16, 2011
Obama extends support for protesters
By Shannon Bond in New York
[Photo: Occupy Wall Street participants on their way to a demonstration on Times Square]
Barack Obama, US president, offered more support for protesters against the global financial system after a weekend of demonstrations in cities around the world, but called on them not to “demonise” those who worked on Wall Street.
On Sunday, Mr Obama honoured Martin Luther King at a dedication to a new memorial on National Mall in Washington. Referring to protests that have spread from Wall Street to London, Rome and elsewhere, Mr Obama said: “Dr King would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonising those who work there.” Mr Obama had previously said the protests “express the frustration” of ordinary Americans with the financial sector.
A top Republican in Washington dramatically altered his stance on protesters involved in Occupy Wall Street just one week after comparing the movement to “angry mobs”. Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, told Fox News on Sunday that Republicans agreed there was “too much” income disparity in the country. “More important than my use of the word [‘mobs’] is that there is a growing frustration out there across the country and it is warranted. Too many people are out of work,” he said.
Thousands took part in demonstrations this weekend around the world, many voicing their anger at the bail-out of banks and government austerity packages. “It is ridiculous the government is willing to pay out over a trillion pounds to bail out banks while at the same time cutting our pensions and benefits in the name of austerity,” offered Tai Wardallg, a protest organiser in London.
But some bankers and others in the protesters’ sights sought to spread the blame. Andreas Schmitz, head of the German banking federation and chief executive of HSBC Trinkaus, told the Financial Times on Sunday that protests against banks were “a diversion from the fundamental problem: that we can no longer finance our welfare states”.
In 2008 a banking crisis caused a budget crisis for governments, he said. Now “a state debt crisis [in the eurozone] is causing a banking crisis”. Politicians, he warned, should not try to make the banks the “fall guys” for their mistakes.
Protesters complained about banking excesses, but the demonstrations reflect more than simple anger at financial institutions, argued a banker in London. “It’s becoming apparent these are protests that aren’t just about banks, it’s all manner of things . . . They’re talking about the number of millionaires in the cabinet and all kinds of things – it doesn’t necessarily simply involve the banking sector.”
Demonstrators picked the wrong target when they chose to rally at stock exchanges in New York and London, executives of some of the world’s largest exchanges said. “We are the most visible symbols of the financial world so it makes exchanges an obvious destination. But I don’t think it’s the right target. We don’t represent the financial sector,” said Ron Arculli, chairman of the World Federation of Exchanges.
Others voiced sympathy for the demonstrators. Banks “just compete and stampede to make money at the expense of consumers,” said Atsushi Saito, Tokyo Stock Exchange chief executive. “To some extent, I can understand the mindset of those demonstrators against Wall Street.”
(Continued)
ReplyDeleteFinancial Times:
"October 16, 2011
Obama extends support for protesters
The rallies show Americans want a “financial system that works,” said David Axelrod, chief campaign strategist for Mr Obama, on Sunday. They support financial reforms which some Republican presidential candidates have threatened to roll back, he said.
In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, condemned the violence in Rome by a “large group” or rioters, although the initial violence came from just small numbers of “black bloc” anarchist and far-left militants. Paolo, a researcher in molecular biology who marched in Rome, said the police had let rioting get out of hand in order to “criminalise” and discredit protesters.
Protesters’ grievances remained disparate and wide-ranging, with signs in various cities condemning corporate greed, demanding an end to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and calling for student debt relief. A statement posted on an activist web site that helped organise the protests said: “United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future.”
It is unclear what the next step for protesters will be. In New York, where the month-long Occupy Wall Street movement has been a leading inspiration for protesters, dozens remained at their base in Zuccotti Park on Sunday. The group’s agenda listed only a committee meeting and the regular nightly assembly scheduled for the evening.
Supporters of Occupy Wall Street have donated nearly $300,000 in cash, as well as food, blankets, medical supplies and sleeping bags, spokesman Bill Dobbs told the Associated Press.
New York Police Department said at least 88 were arrested in New York on Saturday and overnight, including two dozen for trespassing at a Citibank branch and 45 in Times Square.
In London, hundreds of protesters occupying the steps of St Paul’s cathedral have begun to settle in, erecting tents and setting up a kitchen, a media centre and toilets. “We will occupy this space for as long as it takes for our voices to be heard,” said Adam Young, a student who was also at the Wall Street occupation. “The system is broken and it is up to us to fix it,” he said.
Others stressed they were part of a global movement for justice. “First came the Arab Spring and Spain’s indignados. Then came the Wall Street protests. In London, we are now part of this movement campaigning for a better world,” said Spyro Van Leemnen.
Additional reporting by Alice Ross and Michael Stothard in London, Quentin Peel in Berlin, Guy Dinmore in Rome and Jeremy Grant in Johannesburg"
UK Daily Mail:
ReplyDelete"Day of 'Global Revolution' comes to London as thousands of demonstrators take over the City
Occupy London follows occupation movements from across the world
Police ask Julian Assange 'to remove mask' he was wearing
Protesters had wanted to 'take' Paternoster Square - but it has been closed
Tents now being put up in the Square Mile
Protests contained within City area and currently not spreading
Two arrests made for 'assaults on police officers'
By Lee Moran
15th October 2011
Protesters inspired by the growing 'Occupy Wall Street' movement in the U.S have today taken over the City of London.
Thousands have descended on the area known as the Square Mile - under the banner 'Occupy the Stock Exchange' - for a 'peaceful protest' against the global financial system.
They had planned to take Paternoster Square, where the Stock Exchange is located, but police cordoned off the area prior to the protest.
A notice was put up stating the square is private property and access would be restricted. Police sources said a High Court injunction had been taken out to prevent members of the public from accessing the square.
[Photo: Unite! A woman holds a flag during a protest against the global financial system outside St Paul's Cathedral]
[Photo: Angry: Protesters hold placards as they stand on the steps of Saint Paul's Cathedral]
[Photo: There is a heavy police presence throughout central London to help deal with the protest]
[Photo: Pitched battle? Some of the demonstrators outside the London Stock Exchange appeared to treat the event more like a camping holiday]
[Photo: Marching on the City: Police look on as protesters walk around the perimeter of the London Stock Exchange]
The event kicked off at midday outside St Paul's Cathedral and initial reports on Twitter talked of an 'amiable' atmosphere.
Activists carried banners with slogans such as 'We are the 99%' and 'Bankers got a bailout, we got sold out'.
Among them was Lorena Fuentes, 27, a charity worker originally from Vancouver, Canada. She said: 'I'm here today because I can't see why you wouldn't be and I feel that this is one of the few moments in history where it's not a protest, it's an actual movement that's taken root.
'We're trying to challenge this myth that there are not enough resources to go around.'
The protest was contained within the vicinity of St Paul's Cathedral, and some demonstrators started to put up tents - hopeful that they will be able to remain in the area for the future.
At around 2pm, police reportedly 'kettled' protesters outside St Paul's Cathedral, where the demonstrators were forced to move because of the closure of Paternoster Square.
Scotland Yard said two arrests were made for assaults on police officers.
[Photo: Scuffle: Occupy London protesters alongside police at an entrance to Paternoster Square]
[Photo: Protest: Demonstrators hold placards as they stand on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral]
[Photo: Laid-back approach: A demonstrator reads a book near tents belonging to other demonstrators during the London protest]"
UK Daily Mail
ReplyDelete"Day of 'Global Revolution' comes to London as thousands of demonstrators take over the City
After protesters returned to St Paul's Churchyard, the square in front of the cathedral, police prevented more people trying to join the protest by cutting off access points.
Several hundred protesters congregated behind the police lines and heckled officers for not allowing anyone through.
Police at the scene denied that a "kettling" technique had been put in place to close protesters in and said they were free to leave the square.
A bride, who was scheduled to get married in the Cathedral this afternoon, was ushered in by staff through a side entrance as the crowd swelled.
An assembly of speakers then took place.
Wikileaks' Julian Assange, who turned up at the protest wearing a mask, was asked to take it off by police. Human rights lawyer Jen Robinson, who came to his aid, tweeted: '#assange not under arrest. Says we can't wear masks and be anonymous but swiss banks accounts can be #occupylsx.'
[Photo: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived at the protest wearing a mask, which he was promptly told to remove by police]
[Photo: Unmasked: After a talking to from police, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange removed his mask]
[Photo: Julian Assange then spoke to demonstrators from the steps of St Paul's Cathedral]
[Photo: Crowded: Protesters cheer as Julian Assange speaks outside St Paul's Cathedral]
He broke through the police kettle enclosing St Paul's Cathedral at 2.30pm. He then fought his way through protesters, turned half-way up the steps and addressed those gathered below.
The Guardian's Mark Townsend said: 'Assange began by lamenting the police tactics, noting hundreds more remained stranded outside the kettle.
'Then he began attacking a greedy and corrupt system that had united individuals from Cairo to London. People are being ordered to Guantanamo Bay to obey the rule of law, and money is being laundered through the Caymen Islands and London to obey the rule of law.
'This movement is not about the destruction of law, but the construction of law. With that he stopped, the crowd hollering as a list of other occupations throughout the world was read out.'
Political campaigner Peter Tatchell also spoke to the crowds and proposed a one-off 20 per cent emergency tax on the net wealth of the richest 10 per cent of the UK population.
He also wants the introduction of a 'Tobin Tax' on financial transactions.
He said: 'The richest 10 per cent of the UK population have a combined personal wealth of £4 million, million. A one-off 20 per cent tax on those people would raise £800 billion.
'Those people can afford it, they'd feel no pain, they're so fabulously wealthy. With that sum of money you could pay off the entire government deficit. No need for any public spending cuts.'
At the same time, he said a Tobin Tax would 'reduce speculation and be good for the economy, and raise at least £100 billion a year. Within two years this would enable us to clear the entire Government deficit.'
'Rich people who are not prepared to pay their way are traitors to this country, they're putting their own personal selfishness before the interests of the public,' he added."
UK Daily Mail:
ReplyDelete"Day of 'Global Revolution' comes to London as thousands of demonstrators take over the City
[Photo & Infobox: The 2006 film V For Vendetta popularised the Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol of rebellion.
The mask was worn by an anarchist named V in the film and has since become a revolutionary symbol for protesters.
V wears the Guy Fawkes mask for almost the entire film and used Fawkes' story as a role model in his quest to end the Norsefire rule – a fictional fascist political party ruling the UK in the original comic book series.
This was because V felt Guy Fawkes was right in trying to bring down what he felt was an oppressive government during his day.
In the film V briefly explains the mask’s significance, saying: ‘This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi [voice of the people], no vacant, vanished.’
Over 100,000 of the masks are now sold worldwide per year, according to the Guardian.]
[Photo: Call to arms: Political campaigner Peter Tatchell spoke to the crowds and proposed a one-off 20 per cent emergency tax on the net wealth of the richest 10 per cent of the UK population]
[Photo: Holy protest: A demonstrator dressed as Jesus Christ to take part in Occupy London. Sign reads: 'I THREW OUT THE MONEYLENDERS FOR A REASON']
[Photo: Long arm of the law: Police line up to confront protesters during the Occupy London demonstration]
The Occupy London Stock Exchange collective, which is supported by UK Uncut, said a Facebook page on the protest had attracted more than 13,000 followers, with more than 5,000 confirmed attendees.
Laura Taylor, a supporter of the so-called OccupyLSX, said: 'Why are we paying for a crisis the banks caused? More than a million people have lost their jobs and tens of thousands of homes have been repossessed, while small businesses are struggling to survive.
'Yet bankers continue to make billions in profit and pay themselves enormous bonuses, even after we bailed them out with £850 billion.'
Another supporter, Kai Wargalla, said: 'This is a people-powered movement protesting against the increasing social and economic injustice in the UK.
'We want to stand with the 99% - the overwhelming majority who value people over profit.
'We want to make our voices heard against greed, corruption and for a democratic, just society. We stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, protesters in Spain, Greece and the Middle East who started this movement.
[Photo: Prepared: Protesters wait for the demonstration to begin outside St Paul's Cathedral. Sign reads: 'CORPORATIONS GET RICH TAX PAYERS GET ROBBED']
[Photo: Protection: City of London Police guard an entrance to the London Stock Exchange during the Occupy London protest]
[Photo: Protesters inspired by the growing 'Occupy Wall Street' movement in the U.S are today demonstrating in the City of London]
'They have inspired people all over the world to step forward and make their voices heard.'
UK Uncut supporter Peter Hodgson added: 'The success of the square occupations across Spain in calling for democracy and an end to austerity, alongside the rapid growth of the Wall Street occupation, has shown that this is what is needed in London and the UK.
'The Government is ignoring its electorate as they impose these austerity measures.'"
UK Daily Mail:
ReplyDelete"Day of 'Global Revolution' comes to London as thousands of demonstrators take over the City
OccupyLSX previously issued a statement which said: 'The words corporate greed ring through the speeches and banners of protests across the globe.
'After huge bailouts and in the face of unemployment, privatisation and austerity, we still see profits for the rich on the increase. But we are the 99%, and on October 15 our voice unites across gender and race, across borders and continents, as we call for equality and justice for all.
[Photo & Facebook Screen Shot: Popular: More than 13,000 signed up to Occupy London's Facebook page]
[Photo & Twitter Screen Shot: Inspired: Occupy London has said it is taking its lead from the occupation movements across the world, including that in New York]
'In London, we will occupy the Stock Exchange. Reclaiming space in the face of the financial system and using it to voice ideas for how we can work towards a better future.
'A future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met.'
Occupy LSX was behind a protest that saw Westminster Bridge closed on Monday.
According to its website occupations are also being planned in other areas of the country, including Worcester, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bristol.
The London protests have been inspired by the U.S.'s Occupy Wall Street and Spain's Indignant movement.
Thousands have also taken to the streets in Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Rome, and Sydney.
The organisers, relying heavily on Facebook and Twitter, say demonstrations will also be held in 951 cities across 82 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
The 'indignant' protests first took hold in Spain, which has a jobless rate of 20.89 per cent rising to 46.1 per cent for 16-24 year olds.
Activists lived in a ramshackle camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol for a month. The movement then spread to the U.S. and Europe.
Day of 'Global Revolution' around the world:
[Photo: City on fire: A car burns during a demonstration of the 'Indignant' group in Rome, Italy]
[Photo: Ongoing: Occupy New York is still gathering momentum]
[Photo: Movement: Occupy Wall Street moves to Cape Town, South Africa]
[Photo: Angry: Thousands of protesters are taking to the streets of Frankfurt, Germany. Sign reads: 'CAPITALISM IS A RELIGION']
[Photo: Indignants: Protesters practice yoga at the Puerta del Sol square in Madrid before this afternoon's demonstrations]
[Photo: Anger has also spread to Hong Kong. Sign reads: 'BANKS ARE CANCERS']
[Photo: The capital of South Korea has also been taken over by protesters]
[Photo: Occupy Sydney holds signs in front of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Signs read: 'YOU CAN'T EAT MONEY' & 'WE ARE THE AUSTRALIAN 99%']
[YouTube videos:
Occupy London Stock Exchange [Chanting: 'We are the 99%'] (46 seconds)
Occupy London 15/10/11 [Chanting: 'We are the 99%'] (1 minute)
We are the 99%! (49 seconds)]"
New York Daily News:
ReplyDelete"Parishioners defend retired Brooklyn monsignor accused of 'criminal sex act' on minors
BY Matthew Lysiak and Tina Moore
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
October 16th 2011
Parishioners at a Catholic church in Brooklyn Saturday defended a retired monsignor accused of preying on minors.
Msgr. Thomas Brady, 78, was suspended Friday after he was charged with attempting a "criminal sex act" on two teenage boys on Thursday, according to court records. The alleged attacks happened on the same day but at different times.
"It can't be true. Not Father Brady. No way," said Dot Harris, 67, who has attended services at Brady's church, Good Shepherd, in Mill Basin for 12 years. "This is all nonsense."
"He's a good man," said Good Shepherd Church parishioner Jackie Hunter, 57. "I don't believe the accusations."
Hunter said Brady, who stepped down as the church's leader in 2009 after 20 years, presided over both of her parents' funerals.
"He's a trusted member of the community," she said. "Everyone is just devastated that someone would make these allegations."
A spokeswoman for the Diocese of Brooklyn said Brady suffered several strokes over the last few years and was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer.
A parishioner who didn't want to give his name said the allegations couldn't possibly be true.
"He's so sick," the man said. "I saw him yesterday morning. He can barely move."
Brady declined comment.
tmoore@nydailynews.com"
He just sounds like an old Agudist too tired to be "guilty"!
Someone with the author's name lived in Baltimore. Is he a victim of Eisemann?
ReplyDeleteSomehow, I doubt this letter will ever get to Kaminetzky.
ReplyDeleteR' Matt Salamon has a shita that he does not read any letter that was posted to him on the internet.
ReplyDelete"Lakewood said...R' Matt Salamon has a shita that he does not read any letter that was posted to him on the internet."
ReplyDeleteWith every utterance by Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, the mashgiach of the Lakewood Yeshiva, it becomes very clear that here is a chap so utterly out of touch and out of his depth that it's both very funny and not funny at all when one considers that this bloke's views sway many simple and gullible folk in the Torah world.
He is so English and Old Europe that one can only imagine that he surely has his food cooked only in a coal-heated oven and that he travels around in a horse coach on old cobbled streets. He is literally from a different era when polite women curtsied to higher ups, stayed home and sewed and cooked and had babies galore, and personally washed the laundry and darned their husbands' socks.
There is of course no technology or modern machinery no matter how standard in Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon's Charles Dickens world. No electricity. No telephones. No washing machines. No cars. No planes. People sail in rickety sail ships if they need to get to America or just cross the Channel to get from London to Berlin. Trains have not been invented yet in Rabbi Salomon's world, he travels only by horse and buggy and ox wagons.
When he learns, it is in musty rooms with no such thing as air conditioning, just lots of wax candles at night that wreak havoc with the eyes (and lungs). It gets cold at night with no gas or electric or oil heating when the log wood-powered stoves' ashes finally crumble by midnight inside the innards of those flimsy cast iron stoves, that cause the occasional burns to those who get too close (Hatzala has not been invented because they travel in cars on Shabbos with their sirens blaring and lights flashing).
Such is life in Rabbi Matisyahu's world. His house is a rickety wood structure because he hates modern synthetic materials and would never allow it to be wired for anything! His yeshiva building is likewise made of mud and thatch, just like the holy Chofetz Chaim used to live in good old Radin in der heim, with straw mattresses on earthen floors, because that's how yeshiva students slept for millennia and he hates the idea of modern foam or healthy orthopedic rubber mattresses.
This is the man who was imported from the quaint Gateshead Yeshiva located in the decayed backwaters of merry old England where his claim to fame was that he was also the mashgiach of that nice little yeshiva with an unclear enrollment of maybe 100 or so blokes at the best of times. Does anyone really know.....or care? Anyhow, on with our tail worthy of Dickens's Pickwick
They are not stupid those Kotlers of Lakewood they were not going to be upstaged but since they are all totally functionally illiterate in English (and proud of it too) and not one of them or their extended family can utter sentence or make a speech in normal English without reverting to yeshivish slang babble (but they know how to read modern bank statements that add of the numbers for you), they knew that if they wanted to improve on the last mashgiach that their granddaddy Aaron had hand-picked, Rabbi Nosson Wachtfogel zt"l who mumbled in Yiddish and was utterly unintelligible, that maybe went across when Lakewood started in the 1940s with 5 Yiddish speakers at least, but that kind of mashgiach would never fly with modern-day American-born English-speaking yeshiva-leit, so they hit on the brainwave to reach across the Atlantic to hire Rabbi Matsiyahu Solomon who could speak the queen's English but would never really pose a threat to them while he spoke a good game to defend the Lakewood yeshiva creed.
The Washington Post:
ReplyDelete"10/17/2011
Right Turn By Jennifer Rubin
Occupy Wall Street: Does anyone care about the anti-Semitism?
By Jennifer Rubin
[Infobox: About Jennifer Rubin: Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.]
In the millions of pixels devoted to the radical Occupy Wall Streeters, virtually nothing has been said about its anti-Semitic elements. The conservative Emergency Committee for Israel is out with an eye-popping ad:
[YouTube video: Hate at Occupy Wall Street (1 minute)]
Those vile scenes have been noticed in Israel as well. Israel Today observes:
A growing number of Israelis and foreign Jewish groups are expressing concern over the anti-Semitic flavor of some of the “Occupy Wall St.” economic protests in the US. . . .
In Los Angeles, California, protester Patricia McAllister, who identified herself as an employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District (we can only hope she is not an educator), had this to say:
“I think that the Zionist Jews, who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government… they need to be run out of this country.”
On the American Nazi Party website, leader Rocky Suhayda voiced support for “Occupy Wall St.” and asked, “Who hold the wealth and power in this country? The Judeo-Capitalists. Who is therefore the #1 enemy who makes this filth happen? The Judeo- Capitalists.”
One of [the] people reportedly responsible for organizing the “Occupy Wall St.” protests, Adbusters editor Kalle Lasn, has a history of perpetuating conspiracy theories that say the Jews control America’s foreign policies.
Back in New York, another protester insisted that “a small ethnic group constitutes almost all of the hedge fund managers and bankers on Wall St. They are all Jewish. There is a conspiracy in this country where Jews control the media, finances… They have pooled their money together in order to take control of America.”
This does not mean all or even most of the OWS protesters are anti-Semitic, but the prominent liberal leaders who have shown sympathy for their cause have failed to speak out, as have the other elements within the group. Israel Today reports: “More than the few Occupy Wall St. anti-Semites themselves, it is the lack of a clear and firm repudiation of their hateful rhetoric by the mainstream American media and political leaders that has a growing number of Israelis and Jews on edge.”
You will recall that reports of alleged anti-black comments (never verified) from Tea Party groups brought howls from Democrats and the media. But not this time, when Jews are the object of the vilification (documented on film) and it’s the left who is protesting and engaging in behavior that would have earned the Tea Partyers condemnation had they engaged in the same conduct.
The lefty mob is still trying to decide whether to make “demands,” so perhaps they are otherwise occupied. But for respectable politicians and media outlets, where is the outrage?
UPDATE (5:30 p.m.): The Anti-Defamation League has called on “organizers, participants and supporters of these rallies to condemn such bigoted statements clearly and forcefully.” "
Queens Vaad Executive Director Chaim Schwartz and his boss Joel Schonfeld are also board members of the Queens Jewish Community Council.
ReplyDeletehttp://qjcc.org/pdf/Yiddish%20Fest%2020110817.pdf
QJCC recently hosted a Yiddishist Fest by Workmen's Circle / Arbeter Ring which is a "Bundist" organization.
The Bund was a movement of freye Yidden started over 100 years in Russland that was Marxist and atheist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forward
The Arbeter chevrah started the Forward newspaper. I hope that doesn't replace the Yated as you know C.S.'s favorite newspaper.
That Pickwick Matis Salomon piece is absurd and full of lies.
ReplyDelete"There is of course no technology or modern machinery no matter how standard in Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon's Charles Dickens world. No electricity. No telephones. No washing machines. No cars."
He actually gave a shmuz once about the advent of the automobile. And said just like traffic rules were invented to make it safe, the same will be done for internet which he would not asser in gantzen.
"People sail in rickety sail ships if they need to get to America or just cross the Channel to get from London to Berlin. Trains have not been invented yet in Rabbi Salomon's world, he travels only by horse and buggy and ox wagons."
Are you nuts?
"When he learns, it is in musty rooms with no such thing as air conditioning"
The only one who assered a.c. is the alter Slabodker R' Yehuda Davis zl at his Mountain Dale yeshiva. Lakewood had a.c. in the early days by R' Aron Kotler zl.
"Hatzala has not been invented because they travel in cars on Shabbos with their sirens blaring and lights flashing."
One rabbi of an Agudah shul in NY was the only one who ever questioned Hatzola about excesses on Shabbos. He was taken to a din Torah by Abish Brodt's brother for publicly criticizing and chewed out by R' Zelig Epstein who told him not to open his loose canon mouth again.
"His house is a rickety wood structure because he hates modern synthetic materials and would never allow it to be wired for anything!"
Have you been there?
"His yeshiva building is likewise made of mud and thatch"
Have you ever been in BMG?
"Kotlers of Lakewood ... they are all totally functionally illiterate in English (and proud of it too) and not one of them or their extended family can utter sentence or make a speech in normal English without reverting to yeshivish slang babble"
Idiot! Yeshivish is a style that they choose.
"they knew that if they wanted to improve on the last mashgiach that their granddaddy Aaron had hand-picked, Rabbi Nosson Wachtfogel zt"l who mumbled in Yiddish and was utterly unintelligible"
Fool! Rav Nosson Wachtfogel started BMG in White Plains NY in 1943 and was joined a year later by R' Aron Kotler. "Improve" on him? No one can fill his shoes. He mumbled in his old age. It says a lot about you that you would mock an old sick man.
Being that R' Yehudah Davis was an American who owned a decent suit, he was asked to help get R' Elya Svei out of Lita. R' Yehudah took little 6 year old R' Elya by the hand to the US Consulate to get him a visa.
ReplyDelete