Monday, January 30, 2017

THIS IS A FRAUD! DO NOT PARTICIPATE! ANY JEWISH WEBSITE ACCEPTING ADVERTISING DOLLARS FOR THIS ABOMINABLE MONEY-GRUBBING AD, SHOULD BE ASHAMED!

The hilula (yahrtzeit) of the holy
BABA SALI, RAV YISRAEL ABUCHATZEIRA zt”l, is this coming Tuesday. (CLICK HERE)
YAD L’ACHIM HAS ARRANGED FOR TALMIDEI CHACHAMIM, INCLUDING GRANDSONS OF BABA SALI TO DAVEN AT BABA SALI’S KEVER ON THE DAY OF HIS YAHRTZEIT – TEFILLOS CAN BE FOR
SHIDDUCHIM, PARNASSAH, HEALTH, CHILDREN AND ALL PERSONAL REQUESTS
The Baba Sali zt”l was very close to Yad L’Achim and encouraged us in our work every step of the way. Shortly before his passing, he penned a letter of great inspiration and encouraging Klal Yisrael to support Yad L’Achim. He included a bracha (blessing) to all who support Yad L’Achim – from the letter -
הנה בא לפני גודל המעשים של ארגון יד לאחים. . וה’ הטוב יביא ברכת טוב על כל המחזיקים ידם
… and Hashem, who is kind will bring good blessings to all who support their hand”
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Sunday, January 29, 2017

Their only request in the courtroom was having a Bible at their side.

YISHAI SHLISSEL

ELIEZER BERLAND

NECHEMIAH WEBERMAN

 THE ABOVE JEWS HAVE DONE FAR WORSE THAN THE BELOW ANIMAL GENTILES!

 

Rapists Who Brought Bible to Court “As a Reference” Will Spend the Rest of Their Lives in Prison

 

53-year-old Timothy Ciboro and his son, 28-year-old Esten Ciboro, were found guilty yesterday on all counts of “rape, kidnapping, and endangering children” over a period of three years. Their victims include a “13-year-old who said she was shackled in the basement at various times.”

Their only request in the courtroom was having a Bible at their side.

Looks like that didn’t help them one bit since the judge gave them both the maximum allowable sentences.

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Timothy Ciboro, 53, will go to prison for life without parole, a sentence that contains an additional 71 years, while his son, Esten, 28, will go to prison for 68 years to life.

During sentencing, Judge Linda Jennings of Lucas County Common Pleas Court called the two ”the most depraved, demented, evil people that I have ever seen.”

“Everything they’re doing they’re claiming they’re doing it through God’s word,” Frank Spryszak, an assistant county prosecutor, said during closing arguments. “They stand there with their Bible. They cross-examine people using Scripture, and it’s all perverted.”

Timothy, who like his son acted as his own defense attorney, did not speak of the charges against him, but asked God for forgiveness, saying his “job in this trial was to glorify Him and not to put forth any dirty laundry or past sin that [the 13-year-old victim] had committed.
Because their victim was the real sinner…

I’m shocked that a book featuring rape, murder, and genocide as part of God’s Plan didn’t get them off the hook. But at least they’ll have plenty of time to read it behind bars. Good riddance.

Friday, January 27, 2017

I Know That Feeling.....

With So Many People Looking to Shut Up Rabbi Pruzansky, He Must Be Doing Something Right
 
 

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, who has served since 1994 as the spiritual leader of Teaneck NJ’s Congregation Bnai Yeshurun (which boasts close to 600 families) appears to be making waves in faraway Israel, in the city of Modi’in. Modi’in resident Josie Glausiusz on Wednesday sent a letter to the leaders of the city’s Hameginim synagogue, urging them to cancel a Monday, Feb. 13 event with Pruzansky, as reported Wednesday by Judy Maltz in Ha’aretz.

Maltz lifted from Wikipedia some of the “Controversies” section in Rabbi Pruzansky’s page, so we went to the same source and lifted all of them. Because a well-rounded education is the foundation of true liberalism:

1. In 1995, Abraham Foxman, then national director of the Anti-Defamation League, left Pruzansky’s congregation in protest of the rabbi’s calling then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin the “Rabin Judenrat.” Mind you, at the time, this “vitriol,” as Foxman called it, was mild stuff compared with other voices condemning Rabin’s selling out half of the land of Israel to Arab terrorists.

2. In 2012, Pruzansky wrote in his blog that President Obama had won by “”pandering to liberal women, Hispanics, blacks, unions, etc.” This was met with harsh criticism by mostly liberal women, because there aren’t so many Hispanics, blacks or union members in Pruzansky’s section of Teaneck.

3. In November 2014 Pruzansky compared The New York Jewish Week to Der Stürmer. The JW for their part titled their editorial attacking Pruzansky, “A Rabbi’s Low Blow.” It was over a blog post titled “Dealing with Savages,” where Pruzansky proposed using live ammunition on Arab stone-throwers and suggests that any village that is home to more than two terrorists should be razed and its inhabitants deported. Foxman and the rest of the usual suspects accused Pruzansky of racism and of being anti-Arab. Two years and a few months later, some of the good rabbi’s blog post’s recommendations have been adopted as policy by the Netanyahu government.

Incidentally, following that post that urged a radical response to Arab daily violence against Jews, Pruzansky’s synagogue announced in a letter to the congregation that Pruzansky agreed to have his future blogs reviewed by editors and that the board would periodically review the process. Pruzansky himself was forced to express to the congregation his regret for having written in a way that “many have deemed harsh.”

4. On March 31, 2016, Pruzansky published a blog post titled “A Novel Idea,” blaming the promiscuous culture for many rapes reported on US campuses, and proposing marriage as a solution to the overall problem. Pruzansky was accused of blaming the victims of rape, of not taking rape seriously, and of not acknowledging or understanding marital rape exists (On campus?).

5. Pruzansky continues to serve as the Orthodox lightening rod for the Jewish left. Following an April 13, 2016, blog post in which he reiterated his arguments and position, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) demanded that Pruzansky be removed from the speaking roster of a conference at Bnai Yeshurun synagogue in Manhattan. Pruzansky was removed as speaker. In April 2016, the Rabbinical Council of America wrote that “while Rabbi Pruzansky raises some important points regarding sexual behavior on college campuses, the RCA rejects the tone and much of the substance of his recent comments regarding rape.”

Incidentally, while by Rabbi Pruzansky’s current account his synagogue has close to 600 member families, earlier accounts suggest there used to by as many as 800, which could mean the vociferous rabbi was doing damage to the synagogue’s bottom line.

Author Josie Glausiusz (The American Scholar) is spearheading the effort to block Rabbi Pruzansky’s appearance in Modi’in next month. Glausiusz is a fervent leftwing feminist (we visited her Twitter account), often in the most predictable fashion. Her email to the Hameginim synagogue read, “Rabbi Pruzansky’s views are deeply insulting to women, to Arab citizens of Israel, to Holocaust survivors, and to the family of Yitzhak Rabin and all those who mourned his murder.”

In other words, she, too, has hit the good rabbi’s Wikipedia page…

Glausiusz continued, “He should not be offered a public platform in Modi’in to air his offensive views. I call upon you to rescind your invitation to Rabbi Pruzansky to speak at your synagogue.”

The event, incidentally, will be an interview of Rabbi Pruzansky by Hameginim’s congregational rabbi, Adi Sultanik. Glausiusz, who could have opted to come to the event and ask embarrassing questions during the Q&A, opted instead to agitate for killing the show. Glausiusz told Ha’aretz: “I’m so fed up with people like this being given a public platform. As a woman and an Israeli citizen, I feel it is important to speak out against someone with such offensive views.”

No, that’s not what she’s been doing. Speaking against Pruzansky, demonstrating, demanding equal time – those would have all been legitimate responses. Instead, passing on debate and discussion, Glausiusz is advocating a boycott.

Whether or not she succeeds doesn’t really matter.

JNi.Media
 
About the Author: JNi.Media provides editors and publishers with high quality Jewish-focused content for their publications.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!



Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you're a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.


  תפלה בעד הממשׁלה

 Bernie Leibowitz - Changed his name from Shmuly Yanklowitz to avoid anti-Semitism  תפלה בעד הממשׁלה

TEHILLIM
When praying for the sick, it is customary to recite Tehillim - Psalms, give Charity and pray for their speedy and complete recovery. An opportune time for a special prayer to be recited for the sick is during the Torah reading.
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1. For the conductor, a song of David. 2. May the Lord answer you on a day of distress; may the name of the God of Jacob fortify you. 3. May He send your aid from His sanctuary, and may He support you from Zion. 4. May He remember all your meal offerings and may He accept your fat burnt offerings forever. 5. May He give you as your heart [desires], and may He fulfill all your counsel. 6. Let us sing praises for your salvation, and let us assemble in the name of our God; may the Lord fulfill all your requests. 7. Now I know that the Lord saved His anointed; He answered him from His holy heavens; with the mighty acts of salvation from His right hand. 8. These trust in chariots and these in horses, but we-we mention the name of the Lord our God. 9. They kneel and fall, but we rise and gain strength. 10. O Lord, save [us]; may the King answer us on the day we call.

Prayer for the Sick
G‑d, G‑d, mighty, merciful and gracious, long - suffering, and abundant in love and truth, keeping truth for thousands of generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and Who erases.

Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the strength, the splendor, the victory and the glory; for everything in heaven and earth is Your Kingdom; God Who is exalted above every leader. And in Your hand is the soul of every living thing and the spirit of all mortal men. And in Your hand is the power to make great, to strengthen and to cure every person, even one who is crushed, crushed to the very depths of his soul.

Nothing is unknown to You, and in Your hand is the soul of every living thing. Therefore may it be Your will, O trustworthy God, Merciful Father, Healer of all illnesses of Your people Israel; the One Who dresses the wounds of beloved ones with healing balms, and Who redeems His devout ones, and Who delivers the souls of His servants—

You, O trustworthy Healer—please send healing, cure, and remedy, with abundant kindness, graciousness, and compassion to [person’s Jewish name] the son/daughter of [the person’s mother’s Jewish name]. 

Restore his/her spirit and soul. May You be filled with mercy for him/her to restore him/her to health, to cure, strengthen, and revitalize him/her as is the wish of all for his/her relatives and loved ones. May You send him/her a complete recovery, a spiritual recovery, and a physical recovery. 
Renew his/her youth like the eagles; send him/her, and all who are ill a lasting cure, a blessed cure, a gracious and compassionate cure, a merciful cure, with peace and life and lengthy days and years. May there be fulfilled for him/her and all who are ailing the verse recorded by Your servant Moses, the most faithful of Your House:

“And he [Moses] said:“any sickness that I have brought upon Egypt I will not bring upon you, for I am God, Your Healer.’”

“And He shall bless your bread and your water, and I shall remove sickness from among you.” 
“None shall miscarry nor be barren in your land; I will fill out the number of your days.”

“And God will remove from you all sickness....” 

Heal us, God—then we will be healed; save us—then we will be saved, for You are our praise. Bring complete recovery for all of the ailments of Your people, the family of Israel, and particularly to [state the person’s name] the son/daughter of [state the person’s mother’s name], a complete recovery to (for a male: his 248 organs and to his 365 sinews) (for a female: all her organs and her sinews).  Cure him/her like [You did] Hezekiah, King of Judah, from his sickness, and like Miriam, the prophetess, from her leprosy. Employ the sacred names that emanate from the verses containing Your thirteen attributes of Divine Mercy. Please, O God, heal [person’s Jewish name] the son/daughter of [person’s mother’s Jewish name] and raise him/her from his/her sickbed.

 Grant lengthy days and years to him/her so that he/she may serve You with love and fear. And grant him/her a life of mercy, a life of health, a life of peace, a life of blessing, as it is written: “For length of days and years of life and peace shall they add to you.”
AmenSelah.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

“In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man,” meaning “a mentsch.”

"Trump could betray Israel as easily as he betrayed Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie, who supported his campaign, only to be abandoned. Trump could “Romney” Netanyahu, courting him, encouraging expressions of fealty, then double- crossing him if Netanyahu ever disagrees with him."
 
Center Field: Sage advice- The Ethics of the Fathers vs. Donald Trump 
 
These aren’t predictions, but caveats for responsible leaders in a treacherous world, during unstable times, facing a boorish president. 
 
 Edited by me....
 
Donald Trump 
 
 
Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton could have delivered most of President Donald Trump’s inaugural address. Who disagrees that “the nation exists to serve its citizens?” Even the controversial “American carnage” line is in line with many presidents who offered “A New Deal.” Ultimately, the only thing wrong with Trump’s inaugural address was the address itself.

The speech lacked grace. Trump was who he is, the scrappy New Yorker with Twitterrhea.


The speech was supposed to transition, transform, elevating him – and us – from the political swamps to the peaks of American nationalism, history, destiny. Traditionally, inaugural addresses are like the new presidents, gussied up for the occasion in top hats and morning coats. But while you can dress Trump up, he still talks down. The new commander-in-chief remains the Twitterer- in-chief; he sits in Washington’s chair, but stews in the gutter.

Trump already needs an intervention – a kick in his Brioni pants to become a statesman.

Without grandeur, without moral authority, the president – and the nation – wither.

Reading this 1,900-year-old book ( Pirkei Avot), you’d think it was rushed into print after November 8.

The sages teach: “One who tries to inflate his reputation, loses his reputation.” A wise person “does not interrupt the words of his fellow, and does not rush to reply.... He concedes to the truth. With the boor, the reverse... is the case.” We learn that “one who is easily angered and is difficult to appease, is wicked.”

“If you are boorish and crude, you will not realize how roughly you are treating people.”

Wonder “who is strong?” The sages answer: “One who controls his impulses.” “Weak people bear down on others whom they perceive to be weaker than they are.”

The sages celebrate silence as “a fence for wisdom.” Silence “enables listening,” our rabbi notes, while “speaking less means that one is less likely to say foolish things.”

The sages advocate restraint, humility, respect, understanding that less can be more, leading through distance. Underlying this advice is the realization the Perek articulates when explaining why “keep away from a bad neighbor” that “people often unconsciously imitate the behavior of those with whom they associate” – and whom they follow.

America’s president sets the nation’s tone – his behavior is contagious, for better or worse.

Following the rabbis, Trump should have used his inaugural to mollify the millions who voted against him. He would have been secure enough to ignore Congressman John L. Lewis’s questioning of the election’s legitimacy.

And he would not have harmed his reputation by appearing so protective of it that he couldn’t “concede the truth” that more Americans attended Obama’s inauguration.

The sages’ wise if seemingly contradictory advice for Trump’s opponents suggests: “Be yielding to a leader... and receive every man with joy.”  “Be flexible and bending with a superior, who is more powerful than you.” Accepting everyone “cheerfully... is a form of respecting and honoring the other.”

Yet, “In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man,” meaning “a mentsch.”
 
“It is especially urgent to step up in a moral crisis situation when no one is standing up for what is right. Take responsibility.”

In short, opposition should be measured too. Rage backfires; handwringing paralyzes.

“Disputes are rarely a matter of black or white,”  “Any judge who is absolutely convinced that he is right beyond question in his rulings... is either a fool or a wicked person.”

Centuries before Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the sages understood that a social contact protects people from one another.

“Pray for the well-being of the government,” they preached; “for were it not for fear [of its power], every man would swallow his fellow alive.” All Americans must accept Trump as president – respecting authority.

This disciplined humility produces ideological fluidity, rejecting partisans’ polarizing, categorical claims. Such noble suppleness would have pro-Obama Democrats nevertheless critiquing his final, obsessive Israel-bashing.

Similarly, religious Jews weaned on these ethics would critique Trump’s boorishness, even if he supports Israel. Today’s rigid, unforgiving, haughty partisanship repudiates the sages’ modest, self-critical, mutually respectful vision.

Finally, some sage warnings for Trump’s allies – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Be very careful of the governing people,” the rabbis cautioned. “They befriend a person only for their own interests.

They appear to be loving friends when they are benefiting from a person, but they do not stand by a person when he is struggling.”

Trump could betray Israel as easily as he betrayed Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and Chris Christie, who supported his campaign, only to be abandoned. Trump could “Romney” Netanyahu, courting him, encouraging expressions of fealty, then double- crossing him if Netanyahu ever disagrees with him.

These aren’t predictions, but caveats for responsible leaders in a treacherous world, during unstable times, facing a boorish president.

Ultimately, this sage advice trusts humans as creatures blessed with free will, constantly evolving, changing, choosing and, becoming “even more responsible for bringing God’s love and care to all creatures.” Could a 70-year-old amateur president with gutter instincts transcend his flaws and grow into the grandeur of his new position? Let’s hope.

The author is professor of history at McGill University and the author of 11 books. Twitter @GilTroy.


http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Center-Field-Sage-advice-The-Ethics-of-the-Fathers-vs-Donald-Trump-479486

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

"All Talk No Action???" (Donald Trump at AIPAC conference in March 2016: Will veto anti-Israel moves at UN, move US embassy to Jerusalem)

מיין טאכטער ​​איז א אידענר

Trump turns noncommittal on Jerusalem embassy move  
    
Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and other Arab allies have warned the White House of severe repercussions should it proceed with the move. 




WASHINGTON -- Once committed to quickly moving America's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the Trump administration is now expressing caution, promising only to review the matter extensively and in consultation with "stakeholders" in the conflict.

That deliberative process tracks closely with the policy evolutions of two prior presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who also campaigned on a pledge to move the embassy. Both ultimately reversed course while in their first terms office.


"If it were already a decision, then we wouldn't be going through a process," Sean Spicer, the new White House press secretary, said in his first press briefing on Monday. He declined to commit the administration to moving the embassy by the end of Trump's term, four years from now. "His team is going to continue to consult with stakeholders as we get there."

Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and other Arab allies have warned the White House of severe repercussions should it proceed with the move, including a review of bilateral relations with both the US and Israel. Arab states have also warned of an upsurge in violence should the embassy be relocated.

Trump's campaign promise was unflinching: "We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem," Trump told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March. He repeated that commitment at several subsequent campaign events.

"The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable," he said.
(Donald Trump at AIPAC conference in March 2016: Will veto anti-Israel moves at UN, move US embassy to Jerusalem)


"But when the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States.
(CHEERS, APPLAUSE)
We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem.
(CHEERS, APPLAUSE)
And we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel.
(CHEERS, APPLAUSE)"

READ: http://time.com/4267058/donald-trump-aipac-speech-transcript/

In readouts from the prime minister's office and the White House on Sunday, neither said that a phone call between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made any mention of the embassy relocation.

By delaying the move, the White House buys itself time to weigh how such a move would adversely impact its coalition against Islamic extremists and its plans for a Middle East peace initiative, to be led by the president's adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. It also suggests the administration is mindful of the impact such a dramatic act would have on the politics of the world's most tumultuous region.

"We're at the very early stages of that decision-making process," Spicer said.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Trump-turns-noncommittal-on-Jerusalem-embassy-move-479389

Monday, January 23, 2017

The charges involve five main cases. In the first, Metzger allegedly took bribes from rich foreigners seeking to convert to Judaism or determine their religious status. The alleged go-between was Rabbi Gabriel Cohen, head of the Los Angeles rabbinic court. Cohen allegedly gave Metzger half of each bribe. In one case, from 2011, Metzger referred to Cohen a Russian businessman who had immigrated to Israel and wanted his two children converted. After the conversion, Metzger and Cohen allegedly split evenly between them the $360,000 the man paid



Reports: Ex-chief rabbi to be jailed for 3.5 years

 

Under plea bargain, Yona Metzger would confess to slew of corruption charges in exchange for reduced prison sentence


Former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger (l) seen at the Jerusalem District Court during his trial, where he is suspected of taking bribed, fraud, and involvement in criminal activities, on July 21, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger (l) seen at the Jerusalem District Court during his trial, where he is suspected of taking bribed, fraud, and involvement in criminal activities, on July 21, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Former chief rabbi Yona Metzger is reportedly to be jailed for three and a half years in a plea bargain about to be signed.

Metzger reached a plea agreement with state prosecutors over a slew of corruption and bribery charges involving some NIS 10 million ($2.6 million), Channel 2 reported Sunda 

Metzger will plead guilty to fraud, theft, conspiracy, breach of trust, money laundering, tax offenses and accepting bribes. In addition to serving jail time, the state will foreclose on an apartment in Metzger’s name in central Tel Aviv.

The plea deal was offered after months of negotiations between Metzger’s attorneys and senior officials in the State Attorney’s Office, the report said.

In March of last year, Metzger’s trial began at the Jerusalem District Court, with Metger facing charges of accepting some NIS 10 million in bribes through various nonprofit groups, and keeping about NIS 7 million ($1.8 million) for himself.

Metzger stepped down as chief rabbi on July 24, 2013 due to the pending fraud investigation, just before the end of his 10-year term in office.

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger (r) seen at the Jerusalem District Court at the opening of his trial, where he is suspected of taking bribed, fraud, and involvement in criminal activities, on March 10, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger (r) seen at the Jerusalem District Court at the opening of his trial, where he is suspected of taking bribed, fraud, and involvement in criminal activities, on March 10, 2016.

In 2014, the Israel Police’s National Fraud Unit, also known by its internal police moniker Lahav 433, opened a months-long investigation into alleged scams linked to Metzger involving millions of shekels of funds purportedly siphoned into his accounts. The case was then handed to the Jerusalem District Attorney’s office, which examined it before passing it on to then-attorney general Yehuda Weinstein, who brought the charges against Metzger.

Police said Metzger had stashed about $200,000 with his sister in Haifa, and a search of his home turned up NIS 40,000 (over $11,300 at the time) in cash hidden in various books. At the time, Metzger contended that the money in Haifa came from an inheritance, but the investigation found this claim to be untrue.

According to the indictment, various nonprofit organizations connected with the rabbi during his term in office received millions of shekels in donations, some of which Metzger allegedly took for his personal use.

In addition to profiting from donations to charitable causes, he was also accused of taking bribes meant to sway his opinion on matters he attended to as chief rabbi.


 Israel has two chief rabbis, one Ashkenazi, or of European Jewish heritage, and one Sephardi, hailing from Jewish communities of the Muslim world. Their responsibilities include running the rabbinical courts and regulating the kosher food supervision industry.Metzger was voted into the prestigious position in 2003 with the support of the senior ultra-Orthodox rabbinical authorities at the time.In 2005, he was questioned on suspicion of receiving benefits from a hotel in Jerusalem in return for favors, and police recommended he be tried for fraud and breach of trust.
But the attorney general at the time, fearing an unsuccessful prosecution, decided against indicting him. Instead, he wrote a scathing report about Metzger, accusing him of lying to police and recommending that he resign immediately.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/reports-ex-chief-rabbi-to-be-jailed-for-3-5-years/

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump In Church on Friday and Shabbos! Trump's Conversion Farce Must Be Repudiated, Rebuked & Delegitimized by Every Orthodox Rabbi! Kabbalat Shabbos With Jared & Ivanka! Israel & The Jewish People Have Every Reason To Be Concerned About Kushner's Total Rejection of Core Jewish Values (מומר להכעיס) , and In Essence, Contemptuous Conduct.

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump - 3rd Row


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4140342/First-Family-waiting-starts-Inauguration-Day-church.html

Friday Night Kabbalat Shabbos With Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump - The "Jews" First Dance at 3:25.....


Despite Sabbath, Ivanka Trump and Husband Celebrate Inauguration (NY TIMES NO LESS)






Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at the Liberty Ball on Friday evening. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times 
 

For Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, celebrating the presidential inauguration by attending the gatherings on Friday night posed an obstacle to their Orthodox Jewish observance of the Sabbath.

Ms. Trump, President Trump’s older daughter, and Mr. Kushner got special permission to break from strict religious laws that prohibit them from using technology or mechanized devices, such as cars, during the Sabbath, which begins on Friday evening.

A Jewish person who was briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly about it said on Friday night that they were given an exemption under the principle in Jewish law of pikuach nefesh, which suggests preserving the safety of a specific person over any religious consideration.
In the case of Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump, that would have meant being outside security escorts once the Sabbath had started.

Ms. Trump, who converted to Judaism, said in a Vogue magazine interview that she and her husband were “pretty observant,” keeping kosher and the Sabbath.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-sabbath.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170121&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y


Jared Kushner - Ivanka Trump and children at the National Cathedral on Shabbos Morning



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4143164/Donald-Trump-prays-presidency-service-n-D-C.html

 IVANKA TRUMP WAS CONVERTED TO JUDAISM UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE RCA AND HERSHEL SCHACHTER

HEAD OF RCA CONVERSION DEPARTMENT- HERSHEL SCHACHTER

Friday, January 20, 2017

The Black Stain on Hershel Shachter & the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) Forever - Passing Off Halachic Gentiles As Jews Until The End of Time!

Report: Ivanka Trump gets pass to travel on Shabbat for inauguration parties

The special permission was granted to protect the couple's safety. Life-saving measures, such as the work of surgeons or soldiers, are permitted on Shabbat. 


ivanka trump hanukka
Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner celebrate Hanukka with their three children.

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have received rabbinic permission to travel by car on Friday evening following the inauguration of her father, Donald Trump, as the next president of the United States, according to a Kol Barama radio interview with Mark Zell, the chair of the Republican party in Israel.

Traditionally, traveling in a car on Friday evening or Saturday is a violation of the Jewish Sabbath. Jared Kushner is Jewish, and Ivanka converted to Judaism. In a November Jerusalem Post piece, Shira Schmid noted that Ivanka "took on observance of Shabbat, holidays and kashrut, and adopted the Hebrew name Yael."


"We observe the Sabbath. From Friday to Saturday we don’t do anything but hang out with one another. We don’t make phone calls," Ivanka told Vogue in March 2015.

Ivanka praised the way that Shabbat provides a "blueprint for family connectivity," in that it protects time for her to spend with her family, including her eldest child, Arabella. “It’s an amazing thing when you’re so connected, to really sign off," said Ivanka. "And for Arabella to know that she has me, undivided, one day a week? We don’t do anything except play with each other, hang out with one another, go on walks together. Pure family!”

According to Zell, the special permission to travel by car was granted in order to protect the couple's safety. Life-saving measures, such as the work of surgeons or soldiers, are permitted on Shabbat under the rule of pikuach nefesh, or protection of life, which overrides other commandments in the Torah.*

PATHETIC!

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Report-Ivanka-Trump-gets-pass-to-travel-on-Shabbat-for-inauguration-478905

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Hundreds of Terrorists, Drug Pimps, Traitors --- Forgiven --- One White Collar Jew --- No!

 A Shvartz Yar To You Hussein Obama!

  Sholom Rubashkin is still in prison

Obama refused to grant despite pardoning a terrorist and a whistleblower, and hundreds of other chaleryas!



בית סוהר
Previous outgoing presidents have pardoned a number of people during their last days in office.

President Obama stoked controversy in his last week in office by commuting the sentence of Oscar López Rivera, an unrepentant terrorist who was not pardoned by former President Bill Clinton because he had refused to renounce violence, and by commuting the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the US soldier who gave tens of thousands of documents to Wikileaks, including classified information.

However, President Obama has still failed to respond to Sholom Rubashkin's request for clemency.

In the last hours of the President's term in office, the family is extremely hopeful and praying hard for miraculous news. They urge anyone with a relationship with the President to contact him about this important case.

 Sholom Rubashkin (age 57) headed Agriprocessors, a meat slaughtering plant in Iowa for many years. About seven years ago federal forces raided the factory and brought charges of hiring illegal immigrants and minors.

 Sholom Rubashkin was acquitted of violating underage labor laws, but found guilty of financial fraud. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison and fined $31 million.

According to a November 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal, prosecutors overstepped, interfered with the process of bankruptcy and then solicited false testimony.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/223484


READ:

 https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons

In his last major act as president, Barack Obama is cutting short the sentences of 330 federal inmates convicted of drug crimes. The move brings Obama's bid to correct what he's called a systematic injustice to a climactic close.

More on this story http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/19/in-final-act-as-president-obama-commutes-330-drug-sentences.html

Obama Should Pardon This Iowa Kosher-Food Executive

Prosecutors overstepped, interfered with the process of bankruptcy and then solicited false testimony.

 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-should-pardon-this-iowa-kosher-food-executive-1480278930

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

If God chose Trump, did God choose Obama? Mass Confusion about God's Choice For President!

Did God choose Trump? What it means to believe in divine intervention

 

US rabbi rewrites prayer - to avoid blessing Trump

 

Open Orthodox rabbi and founder of religious 'social justice' movement says he can't recite prayer for success of president after Trump win.




Members of the clergy lay hands and pray over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2016. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Members of the clergy lay hands and pray over Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, on Sept. 21, 2016. Photo courtesy of Reuters/Jonathan Ernst




(Editor’s note: Since Donald Trump’s victory in last year’s election, many Christians became convinced he was chosen by God to be president even though he hardly fits their mold of a virtuous leader. In our “Hand of God” series, we take a closer look at the widespread belief that God intervenes in our nation’s political process. We profile three people who think that’s the case. And we analyze why they believe what they do, and look at the potential implications for American democracy.)

WASHINGTON (RNS) Democracy may be based on the principle of “one person, one vote,” but some people who supported Donald Trump believe the Master of the Universe cast the master ballot.

“God raised up, I believe, Donald Trump,” said former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann after he won the GOP nomination. “God showed up,” the Rev. Franklin Graham said to cheers at a post-election rally. “God came to me in a dream last night and said that Trump is his chosen candidate,” said the televangelist Creflo Dollar.

For those who share this view, Trump’s victory was nothing short of miraculous, especially given that he beat out 16 other in the Republican primaries — some of them evangelical Christians with long political resumes.

“For me, that has to be providence. That has to be the hand of God,” said Paula White, an  evangelical pastor Trump has tapped to pray at his inauguration.

While it is unclear how many people accept this version of events, conservative Christians appear most likely to embrace it.

But taken to its logical conclusion, the belief that God is in control of earthly events leads to noxious moral positions and bad public policy, warns William Schweiker, an ordained Methodist minister and professor of theological ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

William Schweiker is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the former president of the Society of Christian Ethics and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. Photo courtesy of William Schweiker  
William Schweiker is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School, a former president of the Society of Christian Ethics and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. Photo courtesy of William Schweiker

“It means it’s OK with you and it’s God’s will that millions of people starve to death because of our actions,” he says.

“We don’t need to worry about the nations going under water because of climate change.”

For those who see Trump’s inauguration on Friday (Jan. 20) as disastrous, the idea that God endorsed him is easy to dismiss as wishful thinking on the part of conservative Christians who came out for the winner in such overwhelming numbers.

But theologians across faith traditions have taken the question of God’s role in human affairs quite seriously for millennia.

Among those who study religion and politics — even among those who don’t believe in God or reject the notion that he puts his thumbs on the electoral scales — the belief remains relevant if only because so many people hold it.

And while many scholars of divinity deem it theologically problematic, they still invite study of the issue. It’s an unsettled question in many minds, and complicated: Not everyone who believes God intercedes in human affairs believes so in the same way. Not everyone who believes God put Trump in office likes Trump.

The question of God and the election begs bigger questions — about the nature of God, and if and how God becomes involved in earthly affairs. It is also a question of comfort. For some believers a God who picks the president is a God close at hand.

“At bottom, it is connected to the belief that God cares about our lives, which is a great thing,” says Wheaton College theologian Vincent Bacote, who nevertheless subjects to close scrutiny any claim that God intercedes in American elections.

The divine ballot

Popular evangelical speaker Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, blogged about Trump during the campaign: “I doubt he truly understands what real Christianity is.”

Ken Ham, president of a creation science apologetics ministry, operates the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter. Photo courtesy of Creation Museum
Photo courtesy of Creation Museum
Ken Ham, president of a creation science apologetics ministry, operates the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter. Photo courtesy of Creation Museum

Yet Ham does not doubt that God gave Trump the presidency.

“God is in total control,” Ham says. “He makes that very clear in the Bible where he tells us that he raises up kings and destroys kingdoms. He even calls a pagan king, Cyrus, his anointed, or his servant to do the things that he wants him to do.”

It’s an idea that sits well with many evangelicals who voted for Trump. The bragging and often crass president-elect, like the Persian King Cyrus in the book of Isaiah, may not behave as a God-fearing man should. But isn’t that just like God to use a far-from-perfect person to fulfill God’s grand plan?
Still, belief in God’s sovereignty and the Bible’s flawed prophets does not make the case for God choosing Trump for many mainline Protestant and Catholic theologians.

It’s a problem of theodicy – the tension between an all-powerful God and the fact of evil in the world — says Schweiker, who teaches that theology subjects religious belief to debate and rational argument.

“If you say God’s in control of everything then you’ve got to say that God is a really God-damned bastard,” he says.

A God in total control is not a problem for Ham in light of any tragedy, from the Holocaust to a tsunami. “People single out particular events and say, ‘Where was your God?’” says Ham, who is not disclosing his choice in the presidential election.

“But we’ve got to stand back and looks at the big picture,” Ham continues. “That was their turn to die. You’re going to die. The important thing is to look at yourself and ask, ‘Am I ready to face death, am I reconciled with my savior so when I die I’ll spend eternity with him?’”

This perspective riles Schweiker, who did not vote for Trump and asks of Ham: “He thinks there is no moral difference between natural death and murder?”

If God chose Trump, did God choose Obama?

On the first day of this year’s spring semester at evangelical Wheaton College, Bacote asked his students about the role of God in the recent election. One said his relatives believe God works through imperfect individuals.

Vincent Bacote, professor of theology at Wheaton College. Photo courtesy of Vincent Bacote
Vincent Bacote, professor of theology at Wheaton College. Photo courtesy of Vincent Bacote

Assuming the student’s relatives had voted for Trump, Bacote asked him: “Did your relatives say that about Barack Obama?”

Bacote himself doesn’t rule out God’s involvement in politics.

But the professor questions how anyone could be so sure about God favoring any particular candidate, how anyone could be “so dialed into how providence operates.” He points to the Bible.

“If one is taking Scripture seriously you have to ask, ‘Where do you find the United States in the Bible?’ Well, you don’t.”

And, Bacote continues, if God had a hand in one contest, then did he have a hand in them all?

“Was God involved in gubernatorial races? Mayoral races?”

Ham, by contrast, believes Trump, even before he takes the oath of office, is already working in harmony with God.

Trump has appointed Christians to important positions in the new administration.

And around his Kentucky home this year, Ham says, more people said “Merry Christmas,” as opposed to the “Happy Holidays” they had offered in previous years.

Ham’s certitude might draw challenges from theologians like Bacote. But he might get points for consistency.
“If Hillary Clinton would have won,” Ham adds, “we would need to accept that God had put her there for whatever reasons.”

God’s to-do list

Talking about God and the 2016 election, the discussion often turns to parking.

Schweiker, the Methodist theologian, arguing against those who see God’s hand in even mundane human affairs, offers the example of the “little old man who prays for parking places and then gets a parking place and says it’s God’s act for him.”

But in attributing a prime parking spot or cash found on the sidewalk to God, people tend to point to their own specific experiences without considering the negative effects on others, Schweiker says.
“That little old man may have kept a very sick person from getting a parking place and getting to the hospital on time,” he says. “Since Christians are supposed to love their neighbors, that’s a bit of a problem.”

Carmen Fowler LaBerge, host of the Christian radio program “The Reconnect.” Photo courtesy of Carmen Fowler LaBerge
Carmen Fowler LaBerge, host of the Christian radio program “The Reconnect.” Photo courtesy of Carmen Fowler LaBerge

Carmen Fowler LaBerge, who hosts “The Reconnect,” a Christian radio show, also offers the parking space example — not necessarily to challenge claims that God intervenes in everyday human affairs, but to show the various ways Christians can approach the issue.

“The fun part about this conversation,” says LaBerge, “is that it ranges from ‘what is God’s will for all of known history, and then there’s like, ‘God’s will that I get a particular parking space.’

Many Christians believe God intercedes in mortal lives in grand terms: his plan that the human story have a particular ending, for example, as described in the New Testament.

LaBerge, a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals, says she knows God’s will because she has “read to the end of the book.”

When it comes down to the way a sovereign God works on a smaller scale, as she and all human beings go about their days, LaBerge sees it this way: “God made me a free person … in the way I live my life, the choices I make, the words I use.”

She applies this view to her thinking on God and whoever wins an election.

“If God’s hand is on the scales, what I can tell you is the way it is happening is through human agency. It’s the way the Holy Spirit is leading individuals to discern and then to act,” LaBerge says.
She says “if” God’s hand is on the scales. What about Christians who are sure about God choosing Trump?

Even those who share Schweiker’s objections to the idea of God steering humans to parking may understand this year’s election as a sharp turn in the course of history, with the stakes high enough to explain God’s direct intervention.

Fr. James Bretzke, SJ, STM faculty. Photo courtesy of Boston College/Lee Pellegrini
The Rev. James Bretzke. Photo courtesy of Boston College/Lee Pellegrini

The belief may be tempting, but the Rev. James Bretzke counsels against it. He does not imagine the Holy Spirit could have had anything to do with Trump’s election.

The Jesuit and Boston College professor of moral theology also invokes the concept of free will and agrees that God has chosen flawed people to work his will in the past … but not Trump in 2016.

Those God chose in the Bible were flawed because they were unassuming and unexpected, he says. Gideon was an ordinary shepherd. David was the last of his brothers. And David was a flawed leader. “But ultimately what sets him apart is when confronted with his sins he acknowledged them” and repented.

“I don’t think that’s the Donald J. Trump life story,” Bretzke says. “I don’t think that’s where I would put the smart biblical money.”

http://religionnews.com/2017/01/17/did-god-choose-trump-what-belief-in-divine-intervention-really-means/

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Religion touches on the deepest hopes and fears of the human condition. There is a yearning for such certainty.

ANOTHER MAJOR MILESTONE - 75 MILLION PLUS UNIQUE VIEWS!


"When religion can no longer be taken for granted, it is still possible to have faith, but that faith will also be accompanied by a penumbra of doubt. One may decide to have faith, but every decision is in principle reversible. Religious certainty becomes a scarce commodity. Religion touches on the deepest hopes and fears of the human condition. There is a yearning for such certainty.

Fundamentalism can be described as a project to renew a past certainty or to embrace a new one. Such a project may be religious or secular, but its psychology, I think, can be best explained by the sociology of religion. The basic aim must be to suppress or contain doubt. If the fundamentalist project is to be imposed on an entire society, it requires a totalitarian state that will effectively prevent any cognitive contamination from the outside. Modern information technology makes this very difficult, as do the communications requirements of a modern economy. Slightly less difficult is a tactic of giving up on the larger society and confining the fundamentalist project to a sectarian or subcultural community. It helps if the community can be located in a physically isolated space.

Brigham Young understood this very well as he led the Mormons across an entire continent until they got to Utah, where he could say, “This is the place!” If the location is urban, the physical isolation must be replaced by social and psychological isolation. A perfect comparison is between the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and in Jerusalem. Both have constructed quasi-Disneyland replications of a traditional east-European shtetl—rigorously segregated not only from the wider pluralistic society but from the wider Jewish community—separate schools, separate media, relations with the outside world limited as far as possible to economic ones. In both cases the residents know that they could leave—the police could not stop them—they would just have to leave behind every vestige of Hasidic garb, put on a baseball cap, and (as the case may be) take the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan, or a bus from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. I find it particularly instructive that in both cases there is even a linguistic barrier against the outside—Yiddish used as a vernacular, fending of the contamination that could come in through English or modern Israeli Hebrew! It is obviously difficult for an individual raised in this environment to “jump over the wall.” Difficult, but not impossible."..........

READ MUCH MORE:

http://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/01/11/a-jewish-take-on-pluralism/

Monday, January 16, 2017

It’s about nostalgia. The French and the rest of them can’t get over the good old days when Jews could be rounded up and TRANSPORTED to Auschwitz.

Opinion: France and another roundup of Jews

 Paris conference just another attempt by Europeans to solve the 'Jewish Question'.



NEVER FORGET - NEVER FORGIVE - NEVER AGAIN - PM (ADD-ON)

Honest, I thought they were kidding when I read that leaders from 70 countries were heading for Paris to once and for all solve “The Jewish Question.”

The meeting took place on Sunday and yes, it wasn’t put quite like that; they have it as a Paris Conference to solve the Israeli/Arab issue – as if they really have Israel’s best interests at heart. This is baloney. All they care about is some new trick to divide Israel out of existence. The paperwork has already been done.

First of all, 70 countries? How many bigots can you squeeze into one room? Apparently most of the world.

So that’s the story. They have nothing better to do than zoom in on six and a half million Jews at home in the Jewish State. That Obama is a part if this makes is doubly obnoxious.

Trump will have to fix this and pronto.

That these Jews live with nearly two million Arabs in the only democracy in the Middle East – never mind.

That the Arab/Israeli conflict is the least important issue facing the world at the moment – forget this too.

It’s about nostalgia. The French and the rest of them can’t get over the good old days when Jews could be rounded up and TRANSPORTED to Auschwitz.

The Wannsee Conference comes to mind and if you don’t know what happened there we’ll talk about it some other time.

Except that it was at Wannsee where Hitler’s top lieutenants got together to discuss how best to TRANSPORT Europe’s entire Jewish Population.

We know the result. No amount of diplomatic double-speak can hide the fact that this is the same Europe all over again.

Why am I bringing up Wannsee when more to the point, for me personally at least, I should be bringing up Vel’ d’Hiv. This was a French indoor bicycle stadium that was used by the French as a way station, a first stop toward transport to the death camps.

Jews brought there had no food, no water, no air, no pity, no hope. They had nothing but horror. (Drancy was another and actually the first transport stop.)

The history books have it as the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, or The Roundup of Paris, but my family needs no history book to know what happened.

Over a period of two days and nights, July 16/17, 1942, more than 13,000 Jews were rounded up for transport – among them 4,000 children and infants.

The Gestapo were delighted. They had asked for only about half that number. The French had never been so efficient.

Our home was Toulouse. This was the Free Zone according to Vichy. Free Zone?

“Not at all,” says Sarah. “The Gestapo were all over the place. They were directing traffic on my way to school – in German.”

Jews were being picked off along the streets. Everybody waited for the knock on the door. We were next…and all of it happened awfully fast.

One day you’re a proper citizen of France surrounded by hospitable Christian neighbors. Next day you’re a criminal.

Altogether more than 70,000 Jews living in France were handed over to the Gestapo throughout the war.

My sister covers it in her memoir “Sarah and Abraham.” I tell it in my memoir “Escape From Mount Moriah.”

The film “The Sorrow and the Pity” documents France’s shame. Alain Delon tells it well in the movie drama “Mr. Klein.”

So this is a big story and it is nothing new. It is simply happening again. Once again the nations are disturbed.

They are disturbed by the fact that the Jewish people can’t be rounded up for transport. It used to be so simple.

Now the Jews have a home – Israel. This is what irks them and here they come again to fix their “Jewish Problem.”

So I have a personal say in this and I say France’s shame will endure longer than a meeting on Sunday. This is a shame unforgivable and everlasting.

Ditto the rest of this heartless world.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com