A bipartisan group of more than 100 former high-ranking and distinguished Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, prosecutors, judges, and legal scholars have expressed concerns about the evidentiary proceedings in Mr. Rubashkin’s case and the severity of his sentence...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/

President Trump Commutes Sentence of Sholom Rubashkin

Law & Justice

Issued on: December 20, 2017

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Today, President Donald J. Trump commuted the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, an action encouraged by bipartisan leaders from across the political spectrum, from Nancy Pelosi to Orrin Hatch.

Mr. Rubashkin is a 57-year-old father of 10 children.  He previously ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the country’s largest kosher meat-processing company.  In 2009, he was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced thereafter to 27 years in prison. Mr. Rubashkin has now served more than 8 years of that sentence, which many have called excessive in light of its disparity with sentences imposed for similar crimes.

This action is not a Presidential pardon.  It does not vacate Mr. Rubashkin’s conviction, and it leaves in place a term of supervised release and a substantial restitution obligation, which were also part of Mr. Rubashkin’s sentence.

The President’s review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case and commutation decision were based on expressions of support from Members of Congress and a broad cross-section of the legal community.  A bipartisan group of more than 100 former high-ranking and distinguished Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, prosecutors, judges, and legal scholars have expressed concerns about the evidentiary proceedings in Mr. Rubashkin’s case and the severity of his sentence.  Additionally, more than 30 current Members of Congress have written letters expressing support for review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case.

Former High-Ranking DOJ Officials Who Have Expressed Support for Review of Mr. Rubashkin’s Case

Attorney General Bill Barr
Attorney General Edwin Meese III
Attorney General Michael Mukasey
Solicitor General Seth Waxman
FBI Director Louis Freeh

Current Members of Congress Who Have Expressed Support For Review of Mr. Rubashkin’s Case

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX)
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
Representative Mike Coffman (R-CO)
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY)
Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Representative Steve King (R-IA)
Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
Representative Richard Neal (D-MA)
Representative Tom McClintock (R-CA)
Representative Tom Marino (R-PA)
Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Representative Ted Poe (R-TX)
Representative Jared Polis (D-CO)
Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL)
Representative Tom Reed (R-NY)
Representative Tom Rooney (R-FL)
Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)
Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Representative Albio Sires (D-NJ)
Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ)
Representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)

Click here to read letters expressing support for review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case.

A Senseless Tragedy That Was Totally Avoidable! "And a God That Would Allow This To Happen.".....

'A special family of kindness'

Rabbis and family members eulogize Aliza Azan and her three children, who perished when their Flatbush home went up in flames. (For not extinguishing the menorah before they went to bed.)

הלווית בני משפחת אזן, בבית העלמין בחולון

The four victims of a Flatbush fire were laid to rest on Wednesday in Holon, Israel.

Aliza Azan and her three children, died in their Sheepshead Bay home when their Hanukkah menorah caught fire early Monday morning and their entire house was consumed by the flames. They were flown to Israel after a crowd of mourners proved too large and distraught for a pre-flight memorial ceremony to be held in Brooklyn, and the funeral was held Wednesday morning.

The father, Yosef Azan, is a well-known figure in his community. He was critically injured and is hospitalized in New York, unconscious and breathing with assistance. Azan's wife, Aliza, 39, as well as his 3-year-old daughter Henrietta and his sons Moshe and Yitzhak, aged 11 and 7, were killed in the fire. Two additional children, Shilat and Daniel, ages 16 and 15, are also hospitalized.

Aliza's father, Rabbi Avraham Hamra, served as Damascus' Chief Rabbi and was a well-known rabbi in Holon before he moved to Brooklyn this past year.

Thousands of people attended the funeral, and Holon Chief Rabbi Avraham Yosef said, "We cannot eulogize on Hanukkah; the eulogy will need to be said during the week of mourning. This was such a beloved family. The father, and his wife, have great merit, and raised all their descendants to live a life of Torah and follow G-d's commandments. They have great merit."

Halakha forbids eulogizing during Hanukkah.

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said, "Every one of us, all of us, should engage in soul-searching, to find out why G-d allowed this to happen. (Of course he employs the standard gobbly-gook of a God who would allow this to happen to innocents... Shtik Ferd of a Chief Rabbi - PM)

 The entire people of Israel should cry over this fire ( a biblical quote)... We are all hurting and crying, but we do not know G-d's plans. Those buried here are going to a world which has only good, but they leave us [behind]. The well deserve our loving kindness (burial is considered an act of true kindness in Judaism, as the dead person cannot reward or thank those who bury him, ed.) ."

One family member said "We have no questions, only reflections. We accept the Heavenly decree with love, and we wonder: The Holy Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. Aliza, who was full of love for each of G-d's creations, perhaps could not continue to live in this world."

You can watch the Hebrew video here:

00:00 | 04:12

"משפחה מיוחדת של תורה וחסד"

 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239573?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Monday was not the first time that Jewish worship has led to deadly fires. Two years ago, seven children were killed not far from the Azan home when a hot plate warming food for the Sabbath started a fire in a family home. That fire led to a surge in Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn buying smoke detectors before the next Sabbath.

After Fatal Fire in Brooklyn, a Somber and Cautious End to Hanukkah

Mourners gathered in Brooklyn Monday night as vehicles carried a mother and three children who died when a menorah started a fire in their home.  

 

Light is typically interpreted as the emblem of everything good and positive in Jewish tradition. That symbolism is all the more important this time of year, as Hanukkah — known as the Festival of Lights — celebrates the ancient miracle of an oil lamp that burned for eight straight days.

But on Monday morning, light took on a grislier significance among Orthodox Jewish neighbors in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

Around 2 a.m., as the Azan family slept in their three-story home on East 14th Street, flames leapt from their oil-burning menorah and started a fire that killed a mother and three of her children, the Fire Department said. The children’s father, Yosi Azan, and four other family members managed to escape, officials said.

The fatal fire rattled a deeply religious community that mourned the dead on Monday night in a procession of vehicles carrying the victims. On Tuesday, as neighbors grappled with the loss of life, they also focused on the safest way to celebrate the seventh and penultimate night of Hanukkah. Oil-burning menorahs, like the one officials said caused the fire, tend to burn longer than candle menorahs, and if they are left unattended can pose a risk.

“I feel like the community is going to be more cautious now with lighting the menorah,” Victor Levi, who described himself as a distant relative of the Azan family, said at the scene of the fire. “My mom makes sure she doesn’t go to sleep until it’s off.”

The Azan family

Mr. Levi, 27, said he believes that Jewish families in the neighborhood are attuned to the dangers posed by the lighting of the traditional Jewish lamp for Hanukkah and that steps are usually taken to prevent fires, like not letting menorahs burn for too long.

Related Coverage

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  Menorah Blamed for Brooklyn Fire That Killed Mother and 3 Children DEC. 18, 2017

On Tuesday morning, the streets surrounding the scorched home smelled of ash. Dangling from the roof was a fire-licked drainage pipe bent against the breeze.

Along the street, front windows were decorated with Lego menorahs, traditional candlestick menorahs, light bulb menorahs and oil menorahs. On a nearby outdoor porch, an oil menorah was perched on a stool and encased in a glass box with golden trim, set at a distance from the house.

The menorah that started the fire in a front room of the Azan family’s home was about two feet wide and burned oil held in small glass cups. One of the surviving Azan children and a teenage cousin told investigators that the oil menorah had been left burning after they went to sleep and that they saw the fire start nearby.

Although candle menorahs are more common, oil-burning menorahs have long been used by Orthodox Jews and are considered by many the most authentic way to commemorate the original small flask of oil that burned inside the Holy Temple.

Oil menorahs, which are mostly manufactured and imported from Israel, became increasingly popular in the United States about seven years ago, said Sam Heilman, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York.

A Fire Department official inside the home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where the fatal fire occurred 

“It’s now the thing,” said Mr. Heilman, an expert on Orthodox and Hasidic communities. “If you go into any Judaica shop, they sell these sort of pre-made ones that come with little oil capsules. You just pop off the top and light them. They’re less messy.”

Oil-burning menorahs can burn for up to an hour and a half, while the candle ones tend to burn for about half an hour, Mr. Heilman said. Jewish law dictates that the menorah be lit around nightfall, he said. The fire at the Azan house began at 2 a.m. and fire marshals suspect that the glass may have cracked under extended heat exposure, spilling oil and spreading flames.

“Jewish families are generally very cognizant of the danger of open flames, as candles or oil lamps are used to usher in the Sabbath each week as well as on holidays, particularly Hanukkah,” said Avi Shafran, the director of public affairs at Agudath Israel of America. “But, like any open flame, they should not be left unattended.”

Monday was not the first time that Jewish worship has led to deadly fires. Two years ago, seven children were killed not far from the Azan home when a hot plate warming food for the Sabbath started a fire in a family home. That fire led to a surge in Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn buying smoke detectors before the next Sabbath.

The Azans are Syrian Jews who came to the United States from Israel about 15 years ago, relatives said. A stretch of Brooklyn that runs to Avenue V from Avenue I and extends eastward to Nostrand Avenue from West 6th Street is considered one of the largest Syrian Jewish communities in the United States.

On Tuesday, the garden in front of the Azan home was laden with bouquets of pink and white flowers.

“It’s like a house that was never there,” said Shlomo Sousson, 48, who stood outside praying and holding a Bible. “A whole family perished in one night.”

He added, through tears: “Everything that God does is for good. It’s above our understanding.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/nyregion/brooklyn-menorah-fire-hanukkah.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171219&eml_thmb=1&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y&_r=0

The children’s father, Yosi Azan, ran through the second floor as flames clawed at him, trying to save his family, officials said. He helped a teenage son and teenage daughter out a window and onto the first-floor roof. They hesitated to jump, and so Mr. Azan apparently helped nudge them off the roof to safety, according to an account given to investigators....

Menorah Blamed for Brooklyn Fire That Killed Mother and 3 Children

Avner Siani, a friend of the family, passing by the home in Brooklyn where a woman and three of her children died in a fire early Monday.

It was the sixth night of Hanukkah, and in a front room of the Azan family’s three-story Brooklyn home was an oil-burning menorah. The family placed it where the Talmud says to: in the window, so a passer-by could see.

As the family slept around 2 a.m. on Monday, flames leapt from near the menorah, starting a fire that killed three Azan children and their mother and badly injured their father and other children, the Fire Department said.

The menorah, about two feet wide, burned oil held in small glass cups. Fire marshals suspect the glass may have cracked under extended heat exposure, spilling oil and spreading flames, a Fire Department official said.

From the first floor, the fire proceeded to rip through the Sheepshead Bay home, hurtling up two sets of staircases and trapping part of the family inside as others fled through a side door or jumped down from a second-floor landing.

After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the mother, Aliza Azan, 39, was found dead on the second floor. So too, the police said, were Moshe Azan, 11; Yitzah Azan, 7; and Henrietta Azan, 3. They had all been asleep there.

The children’s father, Yosi Azan, ran through the second floor as flames clawed at him, trying to save his family, officials said. He helped a teenage son and teenage daughter out a window and onto the first-floor roof. They hesitated to jump, and so Mr. Azan apparently helped nudge them off the roof to safety, according to an account given to investigators.

When Mr. Azan reached the ground himself, he told a fire chief there were four people left inside, but the fire and smoke were too thick for firefighters to push through right away, the fire official said.

Both teenagers broke bones, one of them a pelvis. Mr. Azan and the two teenagers were taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where they were in critical condition and “fighting for their lives,” Daniel A. Nigro, the New York City fire commissioner, said. The father was believed to have internal burns from inhaling smoke.

The Azan family. Credit via Facebook

Mr. Nigro said of the father, “I believe he acted very courageously and tried desperately, and hopefully it didn’t cost his life, too.”

Neighbors across the street called 911, and firefighters arrived two minutes and 40 seconds later. They confronted a home that was engulfed, Mr. Nigro said.

Two younger teenagers asleep in a back bedroom on the first floor, one of them a cousin of the Azan children, escaped out a side door with less serious injuries. They heard a smoke detector alarm and yelled to alert other members of their family, Mr. Nigro said. They were taken to Maimonides Medical Center.

The teenagers helped lead fire marshals to the cause when they told them that the menorah had been left burning after they went to sleep and that they saw the fire start nearby. Investigators recovered remnants of the broken menorah.

Investigators had not found other smoke alarms beyond the one that activated on the first floor. The Fire Department recommends that people install them on every floor of a home.

Five or six firefighters were injured, though none seriously, officials said.

“Over the last couple days, several other major fires have caused many injuries — some very serious — and displaced others from their homes,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “During the holiday season, we all need to be cautious with decorations, electric lights, candles, space heaters and other items.”

Two years ago, seven children were killed nearby when a hot plate warming food for the Sabbath started a fire in a family home. Mr. Azan had posted about it on Facebook.

“I know the family,” he wrote. “It’s something that is beyond comprehension. Three of the children study with my children. 7 children.”

Mourners along a funeral procession in Brooklyn on Monday night for the victims of the fire. Credit Johnny Milano for The New York Times 

 

In all, nine people were in the home at 1946 East 14th Street: a mother and father, their six children and a cousin.

The Azans are Syrian Jews who immigrated to the United States from Israel about 15 years ago, said Abby, 50, a relative of Ms. Azan who declined to give his last name.

Ms. Azan cooked scrumptious Mediterranean meals for her six children, laughed with her husband’s constant jokes and kept the home a welcoming place for a stream of visitors, Abby said. Mr. Azan is a manager at a nearby clothing store called Hat Box, which sells shirts and shoes, and is known for his friendly service and for always giving his customers deals, said Avi Navon, 59.

Ms. Azan’s father, Avraham Hamra, is considered the chief rabbi of Syrian Jewry and is said to have helped hundreds of Jews escape to Israel.

The four bodies arrived in a procession of police-escorted vehicles shortly after 7 p.m. Monday at Congregation Shevet Achim, a synagogue tucked between homes on a residential block of Sheepshead Bay crowded with mourners, police officers and members of the Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol, a Jewish neighborhood watch group.

But a planned service inside the synagogue did not happen, police officers and Shomrim volunteers said, because of the size of the crowd, as well as the timing: During Hanukkah, the types of mourning expressions allowed in certain Jewish traditions are limited.

Instead, the vehicles, including a hearse with its rear gate raised, paused for several minutes on the street outside. Mourners, many chanting prayers, surged around the vehicles and then fell in line behind the cortège as it rolled slowly toward Coney Island Avenue, where the crowd dispersed, en route to Kennedy Airport.

One mourner who would only identify himself as Sonny, 23, said that as a child in Brooklyn he had attended the same school as the victims. He now lives in New Jersey, but felt it important to be present.

“Any time there’s a tragedy in the community, every single person has to feel and be part of what happened,” Sonny said. “We can’t change the past, but the only thing we could do is try to fill a little of the pain and the hole that the family has, and that’s by coming out and escorting their precious ones.”

Official AZAN Family Fire Fund

Please note this is the Only Official Page Sanctioned by Community Rabbis including Rabbi David Ozeri.

All funds collected from this campaign will be deposited directly to Yad Yosef Fund and will be distributed  accordingly by Rabbi David Ozeri personally.

To verify the legitimacy of this campaign you can call Yad Yosef at 718-677-3707 Ext 0. Please advise that you are calling about the campaign name in the URL (web address) above.

On December 18, 2017, the 6th Night of Chanukah at about 2:30 AM a fast moving fire struck the Azan Family home. The Azan family lost their Mother Aliza 39, and 3 beautiful children 11-year-old Moshe; 7-year-old Yitzchak and 3-year-old Henriette. Their father, Yossi Azan, his 16-year-old Daughter Shilat and 15-year-old son Daniel remain in critical condition on life support in Staten Island University Hospital Burn Unit. One remaining son and his cousin escaped without injuries.

As many fellow community members are asking how can we help... the family is going to need assistance in obtaining a new home, medical care and many other anticipated expenses. Without any source of income for the foreseeable future, the goal of this campaign is to help ease their burden as much as possible.

****Please note that when making a donation you will see a “tip” drop down bar. This is OPTIONAL. The tip goes to GoFundMe. If you wish NOT to leave a tip click “other” and type “$0.00”.****

****All monies raised by the Jacob Massry GoFundMe campaign are in the process of being transfered to Yad Yosef. ****

PLEASE CLICK TO DONATE EVEN A SMALL AMOUNT:
https://www.gofundme.com/official-azan-family-fire-fund

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/18/nyregion/brooklyn-fire.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

But it is also true that there will be some in the Jewish world who, while eagerly consuming accounts of the various stories about celebrities who have been exposed as abusers, don’t want accounts of misconduct within their own community to be published...

Ending the silence on abuse

Posted by Jonathan S. Tobin/JNS.org and filed under Opinion, U.S. and tagged Opinion.

In the last two months, the avalanche of stories about sexual abuse and harassment has touched virtually every sector of American society. The revelations about deeply troubling behavior on the part of politicians, journalists and figures in the entertainment world have transfixed the country. As more victims come forward to tell their stories, the consequences have gone beyond the disgrace of some prominent individuals, the end of careers and, in Alabama, a surprising election result. What began with a shocking story about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has led to what may well be a crucial turning point in the way sexual misconduct is viewed. 

We are no longer in an era in which all forms of abuse—be it violent crime, abuse of minors as well as unwanted physical touching, abusive verbal comments and forms of pressure—that might have once been viewed as permissible if unpleasant behavior can be ignored or dismissed.

Under these circumstances, it is only to be expected that some of these stories would involve the Jewish community. This week’s JNS feature by Elizabeth Kratz concerning alleged abuse carried out by a since-retired United Synagogue Youth (USY) director follows the same pattern of the rest of the #metoo scandals. A powerful person used his position to carry out sexual abuse, in this case, against minors. The victims felt unable to step forward at the time, both because of the shame they were made to feel by the predator and also because they felt nobody in a position to do something about it would listen. Organizations that should have been on guard against abuse were, like the rest of society, not listening or indifferent about what was going on under their noses.

The Conservative movement responsible for the USY program in question was not alone in this respect as such scandals have, in one form or another, touched other Jewish denominations. To its credit, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism appears now to have taken appropriate action, not only to sever any ties with alleged abusers, but also to ensure, as much as it is possible, that similar misconduct doesn’t recur.

This story is so similar to numerous other sex scandals that many readers who have become so accustomed to such discussions may have lost their ability to be shocked by the topic. But it is also true that there will be some in the Jewish world who, while eagerly consuming accounts of the various stories about celebrities who have been exposed as abusers, don’t want accounts of misconduct within their own community to be published.

The impulse to regard journalism about bad behavior by Jews—especially those connected to vital Jewish organizations—that are published in the Jewish press as an unnecessary airing of dirty laundry is, in one sense, understandable. Such stories are seen as something that ought to be kept in the family and away from the view of outsiders who might use them to denigrate Jews or harm Jewish institutions. There will always be a tendency to regard any accounts that portray Jewish life in an unflattering context as betrayals of tribal loyalty if they come from Jewish sources.

But as it should have already become clear as society comes to grip with the pervasive nature of sexual harassment, keeping quiet does nobody any good. The mindset that regarded the reporting of such crimes and misbehavior as bad form or disreputable scandal mongering, or what Jewish tradition regards as “lashon hara,” is a big part of the problem that enabled the abusers to get away with their crimes for so long. When The New York Jewish Week reported on the abuse going on at the Orthodox movement’s NCSY in 2000, it was subjected to a storm of criticism from those who thought this wasn’t the sort of thing Jewish publications should publish. But it is exactly that kind of reporting that is a necessary precondition for action that will prevent future crimes of this nature.

While there may still be some Jewish readers who prefer to avert their eyes from coverage of these issues like this week’s JNS story or even to criticize us for publishing it, responsible Jewish journalists cannot be part of a conspiracy of silence about this or any other subject that directly affects the welfare of the community. It is the duty of JNS and every other reputable outlet of Jewish journalism to responsibly report the facts about sexual misconduct. That obligation is even more important when the safety of children is at stake.

The days when the predators could count on the silence of the Jewish world to protect them from the consequences of their crimes should be over. Let’s be sure never again to let a desire to avoid negative coverage of our own community lead us to keep quiet about criminal acts. Never again should such sentiments serve as an excuse for the sort of coverups that are part of the reason why it took so long for us to learn the awful truth about this subject.

http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2017/12/15/ending-the-silence-on-abuse#.WjQojVQ-fOQ=

A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other institutions....

TOGETHER WE WILL - BREAK THE BACKS OF EVERY RABBI, YESHIVA AND ORGANIZATION THAT COVERED UP CHILD SEX ABUSE FOR A GENERATION!

Australia Gripped by Decades of Sexual Abuse of Children, Panel Finds

SYDNEY, Australia — A royal commission investigating the sexual abuse of children in Australia found Friday that the nation was gripped by an epidemic dating back decades, with tens of thousands of children sexually abused in schools, religious organizations and other institutions.

The commission, the highest form of investigation in Australia, urged the government to consider and respond to its conclusions and 189 recommendations, among them the establishment of a new National Office for Child Safety and the adoption of laws to address the failure to protect children.

“Tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused in many Australian institutions,” the commission’s report said. “We will never know the true number. Whatever the number, it is a national tragedy, perpetrated over generations within many of our most trusted institutions.”

The commission’s chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, said that the panel heard from more than 1,000 witnesses over nearly 15 months in discovering the magnitude of the abuse.

“Across many decades many institutions failed our children,” Justice McClellan said at the commission’s final hearing, on Thursday. “Our child protection, criminal and civil justice systems let them down.”

Australia created the commission in 2012 to investigate decades of sexual abuse in religious institutions, schools and other establishments — the only country in the world so far to initiate such a sweeping government-led inquiry. More than 4,000 institutions have been implicated in abuse allegations, the commission found.

Australian government investigators found 4,444 victims of abuse and at least 1,880 suspected abusers from 1980 to 2015, most of them Catholic priests and religious brothers.

Francis Sullivan, the Roman Catholic Church’s point person in dealing with the crisis, acknowledged that the revelations had “shocked the nation” and “revealed a deep, deep, weeping wound.”

The inquiry, costing 500 million Australian dollars, or $383 million, was unmatched in its scope in examining a scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic hierarchy worldwide.

Advocates on Friday outside Government House in Canberra. Credit Lukas Coch/European Pressphoto Agency 

 

The most damaging revelations centered on scandals in towns like Ballarat, the hometown of Cardinal George Pell, who this year became the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate to be formally charged with sexual offenses.

In Ballarat, a police officer investigated a pedophile ring at local Catholic schools and said up to 30 victims had since committed suicide.

The charges brought in June against Cardinal Pell, one of Pope Francis’ top advisers, followed years of criticism that he had at best overlooked, and at worst covered up, the widespread abuse of children by clergymen in Australia.

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had called for the establishment of the royal commission, said that previous efforts to conduct such an inquiry were resisted, despite efforts by whistle-blowers to expose the abuses.

“Increasingly as more and more survivors came forward, the question became, how do we respond to this?” she said. “There were a number of factors to consider that troubled me quite deeply."

She said that in formulating the inquiry, she found that previous such efforts hadn’t given survivors the sense of healing or closure they sought.

“I knew that it would be difficult to get it right and I was very concerned that if we created an inquiry that didn’t work well, it would end up retraumatizing survivors,” Ms. Gillard said.

She decided that even in the face of many of the risks, giving survivors the respect and dignity that came with having a formal, wide-ranging inquiry in which they could report what had happened to them was more important.

Ultimately, Australians have been shocked and appalled by the range of the abuse that has been brought to light, and the systematic nature of the cover-ups.

“It has already changed the nation,” Ms. Gillard said. “Never again can we be naïve about the depth and breadth of this problem.”

In August, the royal commission recommended a sweep of legislative and policy changes, one of which would require priests who hear about sexual abuse in the confessional to report it to the authorities, alarming church officials since confidentiality is integral to the ritual.

Volume 16, Religious institutions Book 1 (PDF)

DownloadPDF 5 MB

Volume 16, Religious institutions Book 2 (PDF)

DownloadPDF 6 MB

Volume 16, Religious institutions Book 3 (PDF)

DownloadPDF 5 MB
 

Summary

This volume discusses what we learned during our five-year inquiry about institutional responses to child sexual abuse in religious institutions. It outlines the nature and extent of the abuse, its impacts, and survivors’ experiences of disclosing it. It examines common failures in institutional responses, and draws out factors that may have contributed to the occurrence of abuse and to inadequate responses. It makes recommendations to prevent child sexual abuse from occurring in religious institutions and, where it does occur, to ensure that responses are appropriate and effective.

Children and their wellbeing, safety and protection have been at the centre of our inquiry. Our Terms of Reference recognise that all children deserve a safe and happy childhood and that Australia has international obligations to protect children from sexual and other forms of abuse.

We have examined a broad range of institutions – from schools to Scouts, from the YMCA to sporting and dance clubs, from Defence training establishments to a range of out-of-home care services. We have considered institutions managed by federal, state and territory governments as well as non-government organisations. It is clear that child sexual abuse has occurred in a broad range of institutional contexts across Australia, and over many decades. However, we heard more allegations of child sexual abuse in relation to institutions managed by religious organisations than any other management type.

More than 4,000 survivors told us in private sessions that they were sexually abused as children in religious institutions.

 The abuse occurred in religious schools, orphanages and missions, churches, presbyteries and rectories, confessionals, and various other settings. In private sessions we heard about child sexual abuse occurring in 1,691 different religious institutions. The sexual abuse took many forms, including rape. It was often accompanied by physical or emotional abuse. Most victims were aged between 10 and 14 years when the abuse first started. We heard about perpetrators including priests, religious brothers and sisters, ministers, church elders, teachers in religious schools, workers in residential institutions, youth group leaders and others.

We conducted 30 case studies on religious institutions. They revealed that many religious leaders knew of allegations of child sexual abuse yet failed to take effective action. Some ignored allegations and did not respond at all. Some treated alleged perpetrators leniently and failed to address the obvious risks they posed to children. Some concealed abuse and shielded perpetrators from accountability. Institutional reputations and individual perpetrators were prioritised over the needs of victims and their families.

Religious leaders and institutions across Australia have acknowledged that children suffered sexual abuse while in their care. Many have also accepted that their responses to this abuse were inadequate. These failures are not confined to religious institutions. However, the failures of religious institutions are particularly troubling because these institutions have played, and continue to play, an integral and unique role in the lives of many children. They have also been key providers of education, health and social welfare services to children in Australia for many years. They have been among the most respected institutions in our society. The perpetrators of child sexual abuse in religious institutions were, in many cases, people that children and parents trusted the most and suspected the least.

Many people who experience child sexual abuse have the course of their lives altered forever. Many of the survivors we heard from continue to experience the ongoing impacts. For some, these impacts have been profound. They include a devastating loss of religious faith and loss of trust in the religious organisation that was once a fundamental part of their life. The impacts have rippled out to affect their parents, siblings, partners, children and, in some cases, entire communities. Some victims have not survived the abuse, having since taken their own lives.

It would be a mistake to regard this child sexual abuse as historical; as something we no longer need to be concerned about. While much of the abuse we heard about in religious institutions occurred before 1990, long delays in victims disclosing abuse mean that an accurate contemporary understanding of the problem is not possible. Some of the abuse we heard about was recent. More than 200 survivors told us they had experienced child sexual abuse in a religious institution since 1990. We have no way of knowing how many others may have had similar experiences.

However, it would also be wrong to say that nothing has changed. In some religious institutions there has been progress during the past two decades. Some of the religious institutions examined in our case studies told us about their child protection reforms. Others remained reluctant to accept the need for significant internal changes.

We have developed a comprehensive set of recommendations aimed at making religious institutions safer for children. Many of the recommendations apply to all religious institutions in Australia. Some are specific to particular religious institutions. In some cases, the recommendations are also relevant to the international leadership of religious organisations.

The recommendations focus on factors that we identified as contributing to the occurrence of child sexual abuse in religious institutions and to inadequate institutional responses. Some relate to governance, internal culture and underlying theological and scriptural beliefs and practices. We have examined these matters to the extent that they have affected – and may continue to affect – the vulnerability of children to abuse, and the likelihood of religious institutions responding poorly when abuse occurs. Religious leaders in Australia have recognised the importance of our role in providing recommendations on such matters.

While positive reforms are underway in some religious institutions, there is still much progress to be made before the community can be confident that all religious institutions in Australia are as safe as possible for children.

Background: Religious institutions and child sexual abuse

Extent of child sexual abuse in religious institutions

People we heard about in religious institutions

Common contexts where child sexual occurred abuse in religious institutions

Characteristics of child sexual abuse specific to religious institutions

Impacts of child sexual abuse in religious institutions

Disclosure of child sexual abuse in religious institutions

Common institutional responses to child sexual abuse across religious institutions

Common contributing factors across religious institutions

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/world/australia/australia-sexual-abuse-children.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171214&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y&_r=0

“For years we’ve had a system of believing men,” he said. “It’s worked very well. It’s done a great job.”

Trump Warns That Dumping Roy Moore Could Start a Dangerous Trend of Believing Women

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Breaking his silence on Alabama’s embattled Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that dumping Roy Moore could start a “dangerous trend” of believing women.

“I think we need to be very, very careful here,” Trump told reporters. “This is not just about Roy Moore. This is about our country deciding that we are going to start believing women, something that we have never done before.

“This is a very dangerous road we’re heading down,” he said.

Trump cautioned that, if instituted, a new practice of believing women would “totally destroy” the system that the country already has in place. “For years we’ve had a system of believing men,” he said. “It’s worked very well. It’s done a great job.”

He said that he was considering a number of measures to stem the tide of women’s credibility, including an executive order banning women from giving believable accounts to the press. “That’s something we’re looking into,” he indicated.

Trump painted a doomsday scenario of what might happen if the “very bad trend” of believing women gained traction in the country. “If people believe Roy Moore’s five accusers, what happens to a man who has, say, about twenty accusers?” he asked. “I don’t like where this is going.”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-warns-that-dumping-roy-moore-could-start-a-dangerous-trend-of-believing-women

When Humans Are Turned Into Gods...You Get Over The Top KRAZZZYYY....

Old men, youths, and members of the security forces are crying and jumping into the grave Of Rabbi Steinman (a segula for longevity)..

Old men, youths, and members of the security forces are crying and jumping into the grave Of Rabbi Steinman (a segula for longevity)..

Old men, youths, and members of the security forces are crying and jumping into the grave Of Rabbi Steinman (a segula for longevity)..

ONE VERY DEAD HUMAN RABBI!

רשעם ארורים - שמואל אויערבך והסיקריקים רוקדים וכותבים 'באבוד רשעים רינה'

Old men, youths, and members of the security forces are crying and jumping into the grave  of Rabbi Steinman (a segula for longevity)..

Sheinberg served as a rabbi and is the former Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the Orot HaAri Yeshiva (Torah academy). He was accused of sexual abuse by no less than thirteen women, and admitted his offenses to Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, as well as to his wife - but he has since then claimed over and over again that the allegations are "nonsense."

Family of convicted rabbi sues for compensation

 

Family of Tzfat rabbi convicted of rape, sodomy, considers suing women who complained for loss of home, lower standard of living.

Ezra Sheinberg, when his arrest was extended

The family of Ezra Sheinberg is considering suing three women for damages and slander after the women complained of rape and sodomy but their complaints were not included in the final indictment, Israel Hayom reported.

Sheinberg was indicted in July 2015 for rape, sodomy, sexual assault, disrupting legal proceedings and obtaining objects through fraud. However, a plea bargain reached later left out both rape and sodomy.

Sheinberg served as a rabbi and is the former Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the Orot HaAri Yeshiva (Torah academy). He was accused of sexual abuse by no less than thirteen women, and admitted his offenses to Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, as well as to his wife - but he has since then claimed over and over again that the allegations are "nonsense."

Those close to the Sheinberg family told Israel Hayom that just a few months after Sheinberg was arrested, three women filed civil suits against him, claiming he raped them and demanding millions of shekels in compensation.

"The ones who suffered most from this civil suit was the rabbi's family, who did nothing wrong," a relative told Israel Hayom. "Immediately after the suits were filed, a lien was issued against the family's home and every bank account which the rabbi was a signatory for, including the family's bank account. This caused the family to suffer severe financial distress."

"To this day, the family lives in a small rented apartment, and their standard of life has dropped considerably due to the liens on their bank account and home. Today, they manage to survive only thanks to the financial support of their extended family.

"They're not interested in revenge, but the financial damage caused to them is very significant, and they are seriously considering suing those who caused this damage and demanding compensation for the injustice caused them."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239156?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Why this obsession with education that has stayed with us from that day to this? Because to defend a country you need an army. But to defend a civilisation you need schools. You need education as the conversation between the generations....

The world our children will inherit tomorrow is born in the schools we build today

On Friday 8th December 2017, I spoke in a debate in the House of Lords on Education. The debate was initiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and focused on the role of education in building a flourishing and skilled society. I took the opportunity to talk about the contribution that faith schools have made, and continue to make, to the education system and to wider society, and especially about the values they give our children. Below is a video and transcript of my remarks.

My Lords. I am grateful to the most Rev Primate for initiating this debate on a subject vital to the future flourishing of our children and grandchildren.

My Lords, allow me to speak personally as a Jew. Something about our faith moves me greatly, and goes to the heart of this debate. At the dawn of our people’s history, Moses assembled the Israelites on the brink of the Exodus.

He didn’t talk about the long walk to freedom. He didn’t speak about the land flowing with milk and honey. Instead, repeatedly, he turned to the far horizon of the future and spoke about the duty of parents to educate their children. He did it again at the end of his life, commanding: “You shall teach these things repeatedly to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.

Why this obsession with education that has stayed with us from that day to this? Because to defend a country you need an army. But to defend a civilisation you need schools. You need education as the conversation between the generations.

Whatever the society, the culture or the faith, we need to teach our children, and they theirs, what we aspire to and the ideals we were bequeathed by those who came before us. We need to teach our children the story of which we and they are a part, and we need to trust them to go further than we did, when they come to write their own chapter.

We make a grave mistake if we think of education only in terms of knowledge and skills – what the American writer David Brooks calls the resume virtues as opposed to the eulogy virtues.

And this is not woolly idealism. It’s hard-headed pragmatism. Never has the world changed so fast, and it’s getting faster each year. We have no idea what patterns of employment will look like in 2, let alone 20 years from now, what skills will be valued, and which done instead by artificially intelligent, preternaturally polite robots.

We need to give our children an internalised moral Satellite Navigation System so that they can find their way across the undiscovered country called the future. We need to give them the strongest possible sense of collective responsibility for the common good, because we don’t know who will be the winners and losers in the lottery of the global economy and we need to ensure its blessings are shared. There is too much “I” and too little “We” in our culture and we need to teach our children to care for others, especially those not like us.

We work for all these things in our Jewish schools. We give our children confidence in who they are, so that they can handle change without fear and keep learning through a lifetime. We teach them not just to be proud Jews, but proud to be English, British, defenders of democratic freedom and active citizens helping those in need.

Schools are about more than what we know and what we can do. They are about who we are and what we must do to help others become what they might be. The world our children will inherit tomorrow is born in the schools we build today.