3 Blind Mice === Tzaddikim from Chelm! 2 Felons and a Katchka!

 

Why were haredi political factions against the WZO anniversary event?

 

Members of the Zionist executive from around the world gathered on stage in Basel singing Hatikvah, but where were the members of haredi political factions?

Shas leader Arye Deri (right) and UTJ leader Ya'acov Litzman (far left) attend a meeting in Jerusalem.

(photo credit: REUTERS)

Members of the Zionist executive from across the world stood on the stage at the Three Kings Hotel in Basel, during the celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, but there were a group of members who were missing: Executive members of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) from both of the haredi political factions, Eretz Hakodesh and Shas, weren’t among the many officials on stage, singing Hatikvah, while an Israeli singer led the singing Israel’s national anthem.

The Jerusalem Post approached the two parties in order to understand why they decided to ban the event. The only member was Yanki Deri, head of a WZO department as representative of the Sephardic haredi Shas party and son of former minister Aryeh Deri. He participated in the event and in the gala evening but didn’t join the members of the executive on stage during the singing of Hatikvah, presumably because of the fact that a woman led the singing.

Eretz Hakodesh wouldn’t comment directly and answer the Post’s questions regarding their absence from this historic event. Sources in Eretz Hakodesh gave a few reasons explaining why they officially decided to have their representatives stay away from the celebrations. The first reason is the Kashrut of the event: close to 2,000 of the participants received three meals a day during the 48 hours of the conference.

The meals were all made by a Kosher European catering company, yet it wasn’t Mehadrin, a stricter version of Kashrut. Sources in the haredi-American party have said that the level of Kashrut wasn’t suitable for them. In addition, the fact that a female singer performed on stage, they shared that they wouldn’t feel comfortable sitting in the audience, let alone singing on the stage. Another reason mentioned was the timing of the conference, during the last days of August when children and families are on summer vacation. Yet the same thing can be said for the rest of the men and women that participated, who had to leave their families during this time.

Another source within Eretz Hakodesh mentioned the fact that the event was “a waste of the organization’s money,” since it funded flights and hotels for most of the participants.

Sources in the WZO executive said that “the fact that the haredi members haven’t participated in the largest event our movement hosted in decades, emphasizes that the haredi parties don’t really believe in Zionism, but are just in it in order to receive funds and influence on agenda regarding Judaism.” 

Other senior officials said that “if the Kosher food was good enough for haredei participants from around the world such as Judge Ruthy Frier and rabbis from around the world, it should be Kosher enough for the haredi members.” An additional executive member stated that “if they really wanted to come, the organization would find solutions to all of their problems, yet they didn’t really want to come. Many of them were also asked by their leaders or constituents not to participate in this huge celebration of Zionism.”

The WZO declined to comment on the matter.

About 1,400 guests gathered in Basel, Switzerland, this week, to mark the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress in a three-day event, corresponding with the same dates in 1897. The conference was organized by the World Zionist Organization in cooperation with the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities and the Government of the Basel Canton. The highlight of the event was at the Stadtcasino Hall, where the First Zionist Congress took place. This is where the first 208 delegates discussed their vision for the establishment of the Jewish state.

 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-715975?_ga=2.85597081.1271308610.1661679146-1229034299.1617710680&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Training+suspended+after+IDF+soldier+killed+in+tank+accident&utm_campaign=August+31%2C+2022&vgo_ee=Jn367jKILnpErXAAhCpdDovy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky put it this way: “The average yeshiva is a ‘S'dom bed.’ Boys are cut and stretched to fit the mold of that particular yeshiva.” Torah Vodaath, he continued, was not like that. Each bochur maintained his individuality and, at the same time, became part of a group of bnei aliyah who wanted to grow together in every aspect of their avodas Hashem.

 

 Rav Shraga Feivel did not seek a particular type of Jew. Everyone
was welcome, everyone was made to feel comfortable, and
everyone was important.

 

 The Torah Vodaath Talmid

Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky put it this way: “The average yeshiva
is a ‘S'dom bed.’ Boys are cut and stretched to fit the mold of
that particular yeshiva.” Torah Vodaath, he continued, was not
like that. Each bochur maintained his individuality and, at the
same time, became part of a group of bnei aliyah who wanted
to grow together in every aspect of their avodas Hashem.

“Each yeshiva has its own unique approach,” says Rav Moshe
Wolfson, “and it is usually understood that those who are not
suited to that approach will not find their place in that yeshiva.
Rav Shraga Feivel, on the other hand, had a different approach
for each talmid. The number of talmidim equaled the number
of methods he employed. He fulfilled Rashi’s definition of ‘ish
asher ruach bo’ (‘a man in whom the spirit dwells’—Bamidbar
27:18), a leader who is able to relate to the spirit of each
individual.”

 READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE:

https://d1a8dioxuajlzs.cloudfront.net/accounts/7222/original/RavShragaFeivel.pdf?1628623851

Crackpot "Prominent" Doctor Removed -- Crackpot "Prominent" Rabbis Continue Harming Vulnerable People With Their Ignorance!

Prominent anti-vax doctor has license permanently revoked 

Dr. Aryeh Avni "poses a real danger to public safety," stated Jerusalem Court judge.

Former Dr. Aryeh Avni

Dr. Aryeh Avni, a prominent figure in what is commonly known as the "anti-vax" movement, has had his license to practice medicine permanently revoked, after the Jerusalem District Court rejected his appeal filed after the Health Ministry stripped him of his license a year ago.

"We must distinguish between having an opinion and incitement," stated Judge Nimrod Flax in his ruling, adding that Avni had "conducted a smear campaign against health authorities in an effort to persuade people not to abide by their directives. A doctor who decides to act in such a way, delegitimizing the medical authorities, places himself outside the health system."

Dr. Avni had argued that his aim was solely to benefit the general public and protect them from dangerous medications and vaccines. He has also made inflammatory comments in the past such as, "Anyone who administers a vaccine is like Mengele in my eyes." (Like the Polio vaccine is a hoax type of guy!) 

He remains a prominent figure in various circles, and disseminates his views via his website, "Harefuah Henechonah" (The Right Form of Healing).

One of the main criticisms of him centers around allegations that he offered people forged COVID vaccine certificates and also provided peole with exemptions from wearing masks. 

The sentiments he expresses led to the original ruling of 2021, in which Judge Amnon Strashnov stated that he Avni "poses a real danger to public safety and health," and that statements he has made constitute "a prescription for anarchy," due to his exhortations to disregard the directives of the Health Ministry.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/358874

 

http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-polio-vaccine-was-no-hoax-to-elvis.html

It should be noted that Reb Shraga Feivel was a great admirer of Rav Kook and an avid student of his writings, frequently quoting him in his Tanach shiurim. It was as if their souls were linked. Rav Shraga Feivel died on the third of Elul, the very day of Rav Kook’s yahrtzeit.

 

Reb Shraga Feivel: The Life and Times of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the Architect of Torah in America

 

"No individual played a greater role in Torah education in America than Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz ztvk"l"

 

A few days after the publication of The Life and Times of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, I found a very respected Torah scholar at my morning minyan, in tallit and tefillin, poring over the book. This proved to me that the book was a “sefer,” and was to be studied as such.

Though The Life and Times of Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz is a masterful portrayal of an extraordinary man, one gains only a partial view (efes katzehu tireh) of Reb Shraga Feivel. On the other hand, it is amazing how Yonoson Rosenblum, having never seen or heard Reb Shraga Feivel, was able to so vividly and accurately transmit this multifaceted, complicated and controversial figure.

Reb Shraga Feivel was raised in a rural Hungarian village of simple, pious, hard-working folk. He went on to learn in the great Hungarian yeshivot of Chust, Unsdorf and Pressburg. During his teenage years, he was already master-planning a chinuch system for America, one that was radically different from that which existed in Eastern Europe. Having been exposed to a wide range of Jewish thought and philosophy, including the Tanya, the Kuzari, Moreh Nevuchim and Nefesh HaChaim, as well as the teachings of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, Reb Shraga Feivel envisioned yeshivot that would incorporate these diverse views into their curriculums. He implemented this vision in Torah Vodaath, the yeshivah he founded in Williamsburg, New York, in 1926. Unfortunately, in time, the direction of the yeshivah changed, yet Reb Shraga Feivel’s original students imbibed a broad range of Jewish thought.

When Reb Shraga Feivel first established Mesivta Torah Vodaath, he had to overcome much opposition. There were those who believed that Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan–which is today Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary–sufficed for the fledgling American Orthodox community. Few felt that the community needed or could support another yeshivah. There were also some vocal Americanized rabbis who feared that creating another yeshivah would mark the beginning of the ghettoization of America. Yeshivot were appropriate for Lithuania and Poland, not New York. Despite the opposition, Reb Shraga Feivel succeeded in establishing Torah Vodaath, which he headed until his passing in 1948.

Reb Shraga Feivel also created Camp Mesivta, which was the first camp to combine Torah learning and camping. More significantly, he founded the Torah day school movement, Torah Umesorah, and paraphrasing Herbert Hoover’s “chicken in every pot,” aspired to create a day school in every Jewish community. To this end, he recruited Dr. Joseph Kaminetsky, the principal of both Manhattan Day School and the Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung Jewish Center Talmud Torah. Dr. Kaminetsky first met Reb Shraga Feivel at a wedding. The well-known educator with a doctorate in education from Columbia University came home from the wedding and told his incredulous wife, “I am going to work for Torah Umesorah. I am giving up my present positions in order to establish day schools through the United States.” Over the next 30 years, while serving as the national director of Torah Umesorah, Dr. Kaminetsky had to be away from home every other Shabbat. Ultimately, Reb Shraga Feivel and Dr. Kaminetsky were responsible for creating a vast network of Jewish day schools that continues to bring thousands of students closer to Yiddishkeit.

…paraphrasing Herbert Hoover’s “chicken in every pot,” he aspired to create a day school in every Jewish community.

Reb Shraga Feivel was an eclectic, in the best sense of the word, and sought to combine serious learning with the spirit of chassidut. Though of Hungarian extraction, he hired roshei yeshivah who espoused the Volozhin/Brisk method of learning; at the same time he sought to fuse the learning with the warmth and fire of chassidut. He maintained that the Jew of the future needed to combine, in addition to the above, Reb Yisrael Salanter’s musar, Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch’s Torah im Derech Eretz and the Chatam Sofer’s meticulousness in observing mitzvot. He even urged some of his students to learn German in order to be able to study Rav Hirsch in the original.

Today, it is not uncommon to find roshei yeshivah taking on the role of rebbe and advisor and Chassidic rebbeim establishing serious yeshivot that employ first-rate talmudic scholars; this is due to the influence of Reb Shraga Feivel.

Rosenblum’s characterization of Reb Shraga Feivel as “the architect of Torah in America,” is undoubtedly true; indeed, almost every yeshivah in America was inspired and directly or indirectly funded by him. Parenthetically, it should be noted that Bnei Brak would probably not exist were it not for Reb Shraga Feivel. Reb Yitzchak Gershenkorn, the first mayor of Bnei Brak, writes in his memoirs that after two years of traveling the world over to raise funds for the establishment of the city, he grew despondent at his lack of success. One erev Shabbat, someone recommended that he see Reb Shraga Feivel. That very same day, Reb Shraga Feivel raised enough money to begin building Bnei Brak. (Rav Shraga Feivel was laid to rest in Zichron Meier in Bnei Brak upon his request).

The late 1930s and early 1940s was a period in which parents urged their sons to pursue degrees in law, medicine and accounting. Some even encouraged their sons to become pulpit rabbis. As one of the “Mendlowitz boys,”  I, similar to my peers, would tell my parents that I was going to go into chinuch after hearing a talk by Reb Shraga Feivel; our parents thought we were crazy. In those days, chinuch was not regarded as a viable career.

But Reb Shraga Feivel’s impact on individuals and communities was profound: In 1944, he inspired two of his quiet, laid-back talmidim, Avraham Abba Friedman and Shalom Goldstein, to move to Detroit and establish a day school. The idea was not enthusiastically supported by the community’s leaders. But some 50 years later–as a result of these students’ efforts–Detroit is an ir v’eim b’Yisrael. This same pattern occurred in many other cities throughout the United States.

Reb Shraga Feivel did not only inspire mesivta students with his radical concept of a day school in every community, he motivated some of the wealthiest philanthropists including Joseph Shapiro, Harry Hershkowitz, Henry Hirsch, Joseph Rosenzweig, and Sam and Moe Feuerstein (162-4.)

Some minor omissions in the book ought to be mentioned. When speaking about the dignitaries who delivered shiurim at Torah Vodaath (218, 227), Rosenblum neglects to mention Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog. As I recall (I attended Torah Vodaath from 1940-51), when Rabbi Herzog came to Torah Vodaath, a red carpet was spread out, stretching from his limousine to the third-floor beit midrash. Rosenblum also mentions that Reb Shraga Feivel arranged for the singing of Rav Kook’s Shir Haemunah instead of the Hatikvah at the dedication celebration of the mesivta (227). It should be noted that Reb Shraga Feivel was a great admirer of Rav Kook and an avid student of his writings, frequently quoting him in his Tanach shiurim. It was as if their souls were linked. Rav Shraga Feivel died on the third of Elul, the very day of Rav Kook’s yahrtzeit.

Rosenblum’s carefully researched volume is a treasure of information. It is indispensable for anyone interested in Jewish education and history in America. It is more than 50 years since the passing of Reb Shraga Feivel. It is now universally recognized that a true Torah education is the single most important factor in Jewish continuity. No individual played a greater role in Torah education in America than Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz.

Mr. Greenwald was a disciple of Reb Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz from 1940 until the latter’s petirah in 1948. During his successful career in healthcare, he was active in establishing and serving as the president of over a score of yeshivot. He presently serves as chairman of the international board of Sanz Medical Center/Laniado Hospital in Netanya, Israel. He lives in Monsey, NY, with his family.

 https://jewishaction.com/books/reviews/reb-shraga-feivel-life-times-rabbi-shraga-feivel-mendlowitz-architect-torah-america/?fbclid=IwAR2I1GwWjlEDSSNxDfSnCP3raubqDLX7d52teHditdiHZrDkcogykUqRBr0

The plaintiff said he reported the sexual abuse to other staff members at the time and was punished by being locked in his room, having his belongings taken away, being given less food and was subjected to threats.

 

NY Jewish social services organization accused of papering over sexual assault suit

 

Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services has not properly investigated or disclosed allegations from 1980s against manager, and has kept him on staff, claim survivor advocates

 

Activists protest against alleged sexual assault at an Ohel facility in Brooklyn, New York, August 21, 2022. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

 

NEW YORK — A Jewish social services organization in New York City has been accused of hushing up a sexual assault lawsuit against one of its employees and keeping the person on staff, against best practice recommendations.

Sexual assault survivor advocates say Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services has not properly informed clients, or parents and guardians who use its services, of serious allegations against one of its veteran managers.

Ohel says three separate probes cleared the employee, but has not released detailed information about investigations into the case or made investigators available for comment.

The alleged sexual abuse case, which dates to the 1980s, is one of seven against the organization, and follows charges of misconduct at Ohel in the past.

On Sunday, Za’akah, an advocacy group for sexual assault survivors in the Orthodox Jewish community in New York, held a protest outside an Ohel office to demand action.

Around 20 demonstrators held signs outside an Ohel facility in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood, chanting, “Protect victims, not abusers,” “No excuse for child abuse,” and “Who are you protecting if you’re not protecting kids?”

Activists protest against alleged sexual assault at an Ohel facility in Brooklyn, New York, August 21, 2022. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

 

“The reason why we’re here and the reason why we care about victims of sexual abuse is because we know that sexual abuse destroys people,” Asher Lovy, Za’akah’s director, told the protesters.

“It’s not something people just get over. They suffer for the rest of their lives with depression, eating disorders, anxiety, suicide, difficulties in relationships. This is why we come out here,” he said.

Ohel said in a response to the charges that it was “cooperating fully and will work diligently to uncover any wrongdoing and to hold any potential individuals fully accountable.”

“We have zero tolerance for any kind of abuse, and we take any kind of allegations very seriously, as any such conduct is the antithesis to the incredible, lifesaving work our staff does day in and day out, providing support and care to the most vulnerable in our community,” an Ohel spokesperson said.

The statement said the individual named in the case from the 1980s had been investigated, put on leave, then returned to his position because the reviews found “no basis to conclude that this employee engaged in any inappropriate sexual conduct.”

Ohel is a large Brooklyn-based organization that offers services including mental health counseling, care for children, bereavement and trauma support programs, shelters for survivors of domestic abuse, older adult counseling and support for people with disabilities. It says it has served more than 23,000 people since its establishment in 1969, and employed close to 2,000 people as of 2019, tax filings showed. The organization serves all who seek help, but mainly caters to members of the Jewish community.

New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services gave Ohel a safety rating of 98 out of 100 in 2021.

The accusations focus on a civil lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court against Ohel in May 2021 that claims an Ohel program director severely abused a child in an Ohel foster care facility in the early 1980s. The plaintiff was 7 years old when the alleged abuse began. Ohel is named as the defendant in the case.

The employee named in the case supervised children at the time and regularly assaulted the plaintiff and other children who were living at the facility, the lawsuit alleges, claiming the plaintiff was regularly abused on Ohel grounds for about four years.

An Ohel facility in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. (screen capture: Google Street View)

The plaintiff said he reported the sexual abuse to other staff members at the time and was punished by being locked in his room, having his belongings taken away, being given less food and was subjected to threats. The plaintiff also alleged abuse by teenagers living at the facility and by a foster family, and reported the abuse to staff. He said he ran away from the foster care facility numerous times due to the abuse.

The lawsuit alleges Ohel staff knew about the abuse, but failed to protect the plaintiff, establish policies to protect residents, supervise dangerous individuals or investigate sexual abuse. The lawsuit demanded a jury trial and the case is still active.

Though the employee is named in court filings, The Times of Israel is withholding publishing identifying information due to the fact that litigation is ongoing.

The abuse allegation suit was filed in 2021 during a window of opportunity opened by New York State’s Child Victims Act. The 2019 law expanded the criminal statute of limitations for child abuse cases, meaning survivors could file charges against alleged abusers at a later age than was previously allowed, and opened a two-year “lookback window” during which expired cases could be brought to civil court. The window ended in November 2021.

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, center, stands with with survivors and advocates while speaking in favor of passing legislation authorizing the Child Victims Act during a news conference at the state Capitol in Albany, NY, on Monday, January 28, 2019. (AP/Hans Pennink)

 

There were more than 10,000 sexual assault allegations filed in New York State during that period, and over 5,000 in New York City, including against an array of social services organizations. There were seven Child Victims Act cases filed against Ohel alleging abuse in the 1980s and 1990s.

Ohel’s director, David Mandel, said in an internal staff email ahead of the Za’akah protest that the cases against Ohel were being fully investigated. The email, which was seen by The Times of Israel, said the “longtime employee” named in the case from the 1980s was put on leave during a review by Ohel, and a separate review by an “outside firm.”

The email also said the New York State Justice Center, a state agency dedicated to protecting people with special needs, had also investigated.

Ohel CEO David Mandel, seen in a video from 2018.

 

The three investigations indicated that “there was no basis to conclude that this employee engaged in any inappropriate sexual conduct with clients,” and he would be returned to his position “while the legal process unfolds,” the email said.

Ohel issued a similar response citing the three investigations to The Times of Israel, saying the reviews showed the “employee has no allegations of any misconduct during his more than 40-year career with Ohel.”

The Justice Center told The Times of Israel that it has no jurisdiction for cases before the center was established in 2013, however, and would therefore have no legal mechanism for investigating the allegations in the lawsuit.

It’s unclear if there have been additional allegations against the same individual since 2013. The Justice Center said privacy laws preclude it from discussing any individual cases, and it could not confirm or deny the existence of any other investigations.

Ohel did not respond to a request for more information about a Justice Center investigation, did not make the results of any of the investigations available and did not confirm if staff or parents had been informed of the investigations when they took place.

Activists protest against alleged sexual assault at an Ohel facility in Brooklyn, New York, August 21, 2022

 

Ohel has not informed the parents of children who use its services of the allegations, and has kept the accused manager in his position, according to Za’akah.

A 2015 tax filing showed the individual employed as a program director making $161,403 the previous year. Tax filings from more recent years do not list any employees at that salary range.

Rahel Bayar, a former sex crimes and child abuse prosecutor in New York, said she was not familiar with the details of the Ohel case, but in general, said external civilian investigators are limited because they do not have subpoena power.

An organization should be transparent about any investigations, reveal whatever findings it can, and at a minimum disclose the probe’s scope, the parameters involved and who conducted it, she said.

She said that it would be premature for an organization to rule on a case during ongoing civil or criminal proceedings, as discovery and other legal processes could bring new information to light.

“In general, when there are allegations that lead to either a criminal investigation or a [Child Victim’s Act] lawsuit, it would make sense for the subject of that lawsuit or that criminal investigation to be put on a form of leave during the pendency of that case or trial,” she said.

Bayar said that any organization should inform parents, clients and others about allegations of abuse by a staff member as soon as it becomes aware of that information, and disclose how it plans to handle the situation. Even if the organization cannot share much, clarity of communication is key, she said.

The former prosecutor stressed that she was not commenting on the Ohel case, or any other case, but speaking in general terms, and noted that best practices are recommendations, not law.

The charges against Ohel are not the first allegations against the group. The New York Jewish Week said in a 2011 report that Ohel had kept a case of a mother abusing her child quiet several years before, instead of reporting the case to authorities as the law requires. Ohel denied the report, calling it “inflammatory” and “driven by a misguided agenda.”

In 2009, the Awareness Center, an organization that fought sexual abuse in Jewish communities and has since closed, demanded the removal of Mandel, Ohel’s CEO.

The Awareness Center said it had received a number of complaints about Ohel, and shared a video in which Mandel urged an audience to keep suspected abuse quiet and inside the community, away from authorities, despite laws requiring mandated reporting of abuse.

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ny-jewish-social-services-organization-accused-of-papering-over-sexual-assault-suit/

One emerged as an especially crucial source: Leonard “Lenny” Pozner, a Jewish-American father whose son Noah Pozner was the youngest Sandy Hook shooting victim. Noah had celebrated his sixth birthday less than a month before his death.

 

Six year old Noah Pozner A"H

“People used the tenets and practices of his faith to question everything, from the nature of Noah’s funeral to his burial, to sort of question whether he was dead or not.

Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ trial shows how false narratives are fed and spread, warns author

 

In her new book, ‘Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,’ NYT journalist Elizabeth Williamson sounds the alarm on more pernicious conspiracy theories

In early August, a Texas jury ordered extremist talk show host Alex Jones to pay nearly $50 million in total damages to the parents of a first-grader killed during the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Conspiracy theorist Jones had falsely called the mass shooting a “hoax” coordinated by the United States government to spur a tightening of US gun laws.

While 26 people, most of them children, were killed in the 2012 mass shooting, the conspiracy theories of Infowars host Jones and others took root among some Americans. Believers in such disinformation harassed Sandy Hook family members, smearing them as liars and even issuing death threats against them.

In her new book, “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,” New York Times journalist Elizabeth Williamson sounds the alarm over the spread of this and similar disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories.

The August 5 judgment against Jones in a defamation case brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, parents of a 6-year-old killed in the attack, marks a high point in the Sandy Hook survivors’ legal battle against opportunists who profit off conspiracy theories. But the fact that the false claims were taken so seriously by so many is extremely troubling to Williamson.

“It’s really a foundational story about how false narratives and misinformation have grown,” Williamson told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. The journalist has been chronicling the Sandy Hook legal battle and conspiracy theories since 2018.

“I trace it in our society and our culture, going from Sandy Hook to the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, especially aided by social media. It has brought a lot of worry to us over the last decade,” said Williamson.

The book follows the flow of disinformation from Sandy Hook to Pizzagate, QAnon, COVID-19 and the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. Since the book’s publication in March, conspiracy theories echoing those about Sandy Hook continued to materialize — including after the May 21 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

 

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones attempts to answer questions about his emails asked by Mark Bankston, lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, during trial at the Travis County Courthouse in Austin, Texas, August 3, 2022.

“An increasing number of individuals, for reasons of ideology — or in Alex Jones’s case, for profit — are willing to deny established truth and accepted science more frequently,” Williamson said. “January 6 really showed us that people are more often willing to cross from the virtual to the real world and defend these false beliefs with confrontation and with violence.”

For the book, she sifted through around 10,000 pages of court documents and interviewed over 400 people. One emerged as an especially crucial source: Leonard “Lenny” Pozner, a Jewish-American father whose son Noah Pozner was the youngest Sandy Hook shooting victim. Noah had celebrated his sixth birthday less than a month before his death.

Noah Pozner, 6, was among the 20 child victims of the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that also claimed six adults. (Courtesy Pozner family, via Forward)

“This book would not exist without Lenny Pozner, and without his willingness and generosity in sharing his story,” Williamson said.

On December 14, 2012, Pozner and his then-wife Veronique had their three children — Sophia and twins Arielle and Noah — at Sandy Hook Elementary. When Veronique rushed to the scene after receiving an alert, she saw that Sophia and Arielle were with Lenny in the school parking lot. But inside one classroom, a police officer found the wrenching sight of 14 slain children — including Noah, who was wearing his Batman hoodie.

Readers have told Williamson that it’s a difficult book about a dark subject, with some unsure about even picking it up.

Veronique Pozner reacts with grief after learning that a gunman killed her son Noah at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

“If people are unwilling to engage with the book because of the horror of that day, I completely understand the human reaction,” she said. “But I would really encourage people to try to [read] it anyway… In the end, it’s really a story of Lenny and all the families who confronted this phenomenon of misinformation.”

Born in Latvia, Pozner left the Soviet Union with his parents, living in Israel and Italy before finally settling in the US. With a background in the tech industry, Pozner once believed in a few conspiracy theories himself — including about the moon landing.

“He was the person that helped me understand, early on, just what a significant threat the Sandy Hook conspiracy theories were, how they were this watershed in how information and disinformation travel,” Williamson said, adding that this included “how social media algorithms feed false information to people” and how social media helps isolated conspiracy theorists “find each other and gather online.”

Lenny Pozner with his son Noah.

Williamson credits Swiss-born Veronique — who, like Pozner, is also an immigrant to the US — for insights stemming from her career as a health care worker, including with regard to COVID-19 misinformation.

Williamson also interviewed Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse died in the shooting and who filed one of three separate lawsuits against Jones.

In covering many legal battles over the years, it was through one in particular — a family court hearing after Jones’s divorce from his ex-wife, Kelly — that Williamson introduced herself to Jones and got an interview with him. They met at his office in Austin, Texas, a location that he keeps private. The interview lasted for three hours. In the book, she recalls him sweating despite freezing indoor temperatures, pacing around the office and comparing himself to a leader of the Texans at the Alamo.

Following the publication of the interview in 2018, multiple Big Tech companies from Apple to Twitter booted Jones and Infowars off their platforms.

“Although he likes to say he was only spreading the theories of others, or he was just reporting what was already out there, in actuality I found he was one of the first people to embrace and concoct a false theory around the Sandy Hook shootings,” Williamson said. “Hours after the shooting, he began spreading it. He did it for years.”

Tens of millions tuned in to hear Jones’s show online or through hundreds of radio stations nationwide. When he wasn’t pitching conspiracy theories, he was hawking merchandise to address such fears as the end of days, civil war or a government takeover. Such merchandise brought $50 million in revenue each year, according to the author.

“Once he hit on a theme that seemed to resonate with his listeners, he did not let go,” Williamson said. “Sandy Hook was one of them. What he did in the aftermath of Sandy Hook was despicable even for him. He named specific victims, thereby exposing them to very personalized abuse, including Lenny Pozner.”

The harassment Pozner faced included antisemitism.

“I would say Lenny was one of the chief recipients of this,” Williamson said. “People used the tenets and practices of his faith to question everything, from the nature of Noah’s funeral to his burial, to sort of question whether he was dead or not.

‘Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,’ by Elizabeth Williamson.

“Part of it was the sort of conspiratorial bigotry — the idea that he and Veronique… did this for profit, somehow pushed by the government to fake their own child’s death. That is truly despicable. Some of the individuals who spread these false theories targeting Lenny and Veronique in particular were rank antisemites and Holocaust deniers.”

Lenny found ways to push back. He won a defamation case against James Fetzer, the co-author of a book titled “Nobody Died at Sandy Hook,” whom Williamson characterized as an antisemite. And he engaged in an effort to speak truth to conspiracists by participating in a group chat with the members of a Facebook group called “Sandy Hook Hoax.” Lenny aimed to transparently answer questions while providing documentary evidence — Noah’s birth certificate, school resources and, tragically, postmortem report. Initial sympathy turned to vitriol, with Lenny eventually getting kicked out of the group.

“I trace in the book how [the group] turned from expressing condolences and identifying themselves, asking great questions, to attacking him. He was such a threat to the group by being there and trying to confront them with the truth,” Williamson said.

Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones rallies pro-Trump supporters, November 5, 2020, in Phoenix, Arizona

 

Yet Pozner was also fielding respectful questions from other members of the group – mainly young mothers whose children were around the age of the Sandy Hook victims. These women could not accept that children had perished in the mass shooting and turned to conspiracy theories for an explanation. Pozner established a separate Facebook group where they could speak with him. These women became Pozner’s first volunteers for a nonprofit he founded called the HONR Network that fights online hate and harassment, from conspiracy theories to revenge porn.

“He’s made it his life’s work to push back against this kind of material, to support and defend vulnerable people who are targeted by it,” Williamson said.

In speaking with Sandy Hook families overall, she said, “I was incredibly privileged to hear their stories. I am incredibly grateful they trusted me with their stories. They did it because they want to help all of us. They’ve seen and experienced firsthand the human impact of the disinformation proliferating in our society. They want to issue a warning to all of us.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sandy-hook-hoax-trial-shows-how-false-narratives-are-fed-and-spread-warns-author/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2022-08-23&utm_medium=email

"Do you not know that a false pretender to prophecy is liable to capital punishment, for having arrogated to himself unwarranted distinction, just as the person who prophesies in the name of idols is put to death, as we read in Scripture "But the prophet that shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die." (Deuteronomy 18:20). What better evidence is there of his mendacity, than his very pretensions to be the Messiah."

 

"You mention that a certain man in one of the cities of Yemen pretends that he is the Messiah.¹⁷ As I live, I am not surprised at him or at his followers, for I have no doubt that he is mad and a sick person should not be rebuked or reproved for an illness brought on by no fault of his own. Neither am I surprised at his votaries, for they were persuaded by him because of their sorry plight, their ignorance of the importance and high rank of the Messiah, and their mistaken comparison of the Messiah with the son of the Mahdi [the belief in] whose rise they are witnessing. But I am astonished that you, a scholar who has studied carefully the doctrines of the rabbis, are inclined to repose faith in him. Do you not know, my brother, that the Messiah is a very eminent prophet, more illustrious than all the prophets after Moses? Do you not know that a false pretender to prophecy is liable to capital punishment, for having arrogated to himself unwarranted distinction, just as the person who prophesies in the name of idols is put to death, as we read in Scripture "But the prophet that shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die." (Deuteronomy 18:20). What better evidence is there of his mendacity, than his very pretensions to be the Messiah.

 Do these characteristics make him a Messiah? You were beguiled by him because you have not considered the pre-eminence of the Messiah, the manner and place of his appearance, and the marks whereby he is to be identified. The Messiah, indeed, ranks after Moses in eminence and distinction, and God has bestowed some gifts upon him which he did not bestow upon Moses, as may be gathered from the following verses: "His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:3). "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." (11:2). "And Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins." (11:5). Six appellations were divinely conferred upon him as the following passage indicates: "For a child is born unto us, and a son is given unto us, and the government is upon his shoulder, and he is called Pele, Yoetz, el, Gibbor, Abiad, Sar-Shalom." (Isaiah 9:5). And another verse alluding to theMessiah culminates in the following manner "Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." (Psalms 2:7). All these statements demonstrate the pre-eminence of the Messiah." 

 As to the place where the Messiah will make his first appearance, Scripture intimates that he will first present himself only in the Land of Israel, as we read, "He will suddenly appear in His Temple" (Malachi 3:1). As for the advent of the Messiah, nothing at all will be known about it before it occurs. The Messiah is not a person concerning whom it may be predicted that he will be the son of so and so, or of the family of so and so. On the contrary he will be unknown before his coming, but he will prove by means of miracles and wonders that he is the true Messiah. Scripture in allusion to his mysterious lineage says, "His name is the Shoot, and he will shoot up out of his place" (Zechariah 6:12). Similarly, Isaiah referring to the arrival of the Messiah implies that neither his father nor mother, nor his kith nor kin will be known, "For he will shoot up right forth as a sapling, and as a root out of the dry ground." (53:2). After his manifestation in Palestine, Israel will be gathered in Jerusalem and the other cities of Palestine. Then will the tidings spread to the East and the West until it will reach you in Yemen and those beyond you in India as we learn from Isaiah.

I beg you to send a copy of this missive to every community in the cities and hamlets, in order to strengthen the people in their faith and to put them on their feet. Read it at public gatherings and in private, and you will thus become a public benefactor. Take adequate precautions lest its contents be divulged to the Gentiles by an evil person and mishap overtake us (God spare us therefrom).²² When I began writing this letter I had some misgivings about it, but they were overruled by my conviction that the public welfare takes precedence over one's personal safety. Moreover, I am sending it to a personage such as you, "and the secret of the Lord may be entrusted to those who fear Him." Our sages, the successors of the prophets, assured us that persons engaged in a religious mission will meet with no disaster (Pesahim 8b). What more important religious mission is there than this. Peace be unto all Israel. Amen. 

*

THE EPISTLE TO YEMEN, probably a compilation of several shorter responsa, was written by Maimonides about 1172 in reply to an inquiry (or inquiries) by Jacob ben Netan'el al-Fayyūmi, the then head of the Jewish community in Yemen. The exchange of letters was occasioned by a crisis through which the Jews of that country were passing. A forced conversion to Islam, inaugurated about 1165 by 'Abd-al-Nabī ibn Mahdi, who had gained control over most of Yemen, threw the Jews into panic. The campaign conducted by a recent convert to win them to his new faith, coupled with a Messianic movement started by a native of the country who claimed he was the Messiah, increased the confusion within the Jewish community. Rabbi Jacob evidently sought guidance and encouragement, and Maimonides attempted to supply both.

In the course of his reply Maimonides deals at length with several subjects which were live issues in his time. In the Hebrew introduction these topics are analyzed in detail. Here only a brief summary will be presented.

 

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Epistle_to_Yemen/Complete

The Bomb of a Grandson!

 

Haredi Student Arrested for Operating Bomb Lab in Dorm Room

Photo Credit: Screenshot from Kan 11 News tweet.

The Haredi bomb maker.

 

On July 25, Kikar Hashabbat reported that large Shin Bet and Israel Police forces raided a dormitory room in a sleepaway Haredi Yeshiva in Israel, and discovered an explosives lab and explosive devices (השב”כ והמשטרה עצרו תלמיד ישיבה; החשד: מעבדת נפץ). The Haredi yeshiva boy suspected of running the lab was immediately arrested and taken for questioning, while his room and the lab were scrubbed. A severe gag order was imposed on the investigation and the existence of the gag order and the suspect’s detention was extended several times, as investigators tried to figure out the purpose of the operation. The gag had been lifted on July 24, and Kikar Hashabbat reported that the detainee is the grandson of one of Israel’s biggest Lithuanian rabbis.

On Sunday, night, Kan 11 News revealed (הנין של גדולי הרבנים שנעצר על ידי השב”כ מתוודה מול המצלמה) that the student was the great-grandson of two great Lithuanian leaders: the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (who passed away last March), and Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman (who passed away in December 2017). Their scion is likely going to be charged with conspiring to commit a nationalistic crime, creating illegal weapons, trading illegal weapons, possessing illegal weapons, and manufacturing homemade explosives.

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His goal was to “arm the hills with explosives” to carry out price tag operations against PA Arabs. Kan 11 will broadcast an exclusive report Monday night, during the evening news, with the young man’s confession in front of the cameras, detailing his preparation of the charges and the ideology behind the endeavor.

Despite the public channel’s attempt to present this as a “Haredi underground,” the story so far shows it was a one-man underground, albeit with grandiose aspirations to expand the franchise. The suspect, A., told the reporters: “The plan was to establish a Haredi underground. Not to puncture another tire in Sheikh Jarrah (a.k.a. Shimon HaTzadik, a majority-Arab neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem – DI). This is a systematic plan at the level of an underground.”

A. went on to say that “each load was made of gunpowder, a gas bottle, and an empty can of Pringles. Each load costs about NIS 40 ($13). The first charge I made exploded in my hands when I threw it out of the room.”

“The plan was to arm the hills, to put in each area some kind of weapon that would be easy to release if they wanted it. That’s why I didn’t involve any of the Hill Youths, they were all Haredim, because I knew that the Shin Bet had the least foothold in the Haredi yeshivas.”

Two things: 1. Turns out the Shin Bet has a foothold in the Haredi yeshivas, and, 2. It remains to be seen how many of A’s recruits were real or imagined.

Last Friday, according to Kan 11, A. was arrested once again on the suspicion that he had threatened a special police force investigator and threatened to install explosive charges inside his yeshiva building.

While we don’t yet know his motivations, it’s plausible to assume it is in response to the Bnei Brak and El Ad terror attacks as well the many ongoing assaults against Charieidim by Arabs, which are often made into viral TikTok videos.

 

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/haredi-student-arrested-for-operating-bomb-lab-in-dorm-room/2022/08/22/

Nisht Gut Far Der Yidden....נישט גוט פאר די יידן

 Goldiner, Dave (August 24, 2018). "Who Is Allen Weisselberg, The Third Key Jewish Associate To Flip On Trump". Jewish Daily Forward.

Allen Howard Weisselberg (born August 15, 1947) is an American businessman who was the chief financial officer (CFO) of the Trump Organization. Weisselberg served as a co-trustee of a trust set up in 2017 by Donald Trump before Trump's inauguration as president of the United States.

Weisselberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in the borough's Brownsville neighborhood.^[1] He is of Jewish descent.^[2] He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in nearby East New York, before receiving a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Pace University in 1970.^[3][4]

Trump CFO’s plea deal could make him a prosecution witness

1 of 2

FILE - Allen Weisselberg, right, stands behind then President-elect Donald Trump during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Jan. 11, 2017. Weisselberg, Trump's chief financial officer, is expected to plead guilty on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022 to tax violations in a deal that would require him to testify about business practices at the former president's company. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s chief financial officer is expected to plead guilty to tax violations Thursday in a deal that would require him to testify about illicit business practices at the former president’s company, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Allen Weisselberg is charged with taking more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation from the Trump Organization over several years, including untaxed perks like rent, car payments and school tuition.

The plea deal would require Weisselberg to speak in court Thursday about the company’s role in the alleged compensation arrangement and possibly serve as a witness when the Trump Organization goes on trial in October on related charges, the people said.

The two people were not authorized to speak publicly about the case and did so on condition of anonymity.

Weisselberg, 75, is likely to receive a sentence of five months in jail, to be served at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island complex, and he could be required to pay about $2 million in restitution, including taxes, penalties and interest, the people said. If that punishment holds, Weisselberg would be eligible for release after about 100 days.

Messages seeking comment were left with the Manhattan district attorney’s office and lawyers for Weisselberg and the Trump Organization.

Weisselberg is the only person to face criminal charges so far in the Manhattan district attorney’s long-running investigation of the company’s business practices.

Seen as one of Trump’s most loyal business associates, Weisselberg was arrested in July 2021. His lawyers have argued the Democrat-led district attorney’s office was punishing him because he wouldn’t offer information that would damage Trump.

The district attorney has also been investigating whether Trump or his company lied to banks or the government about the value of its properties to obtain loans or reduce tax bills.

Former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who started the investigation, last year directed his deputies to present evidence to a grand jury and seek an indictment of Trump, according to former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who previously led the probe.

But after Vance left office, his successor, Alvin Bragg, allowed the grand jury to disband without charges. Both prosecutors are Democrats. Bragg has said the investigation is continuing.

The Trump Organization is not involved in Weisselberg’s expected guilty plea Thursday and is scheduled to be tried in the alleged compensation scheme in October.

Prosecutors alleged that the company gave untaxed fringe benefits to senior executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.

Under state law, punishment for the most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand larceny, could carry a penalty as high as 15 years in prison. But the charge carries no mandatory minimum, and most first-time offenders in tax-related cases never end up behind bars.

The tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization are punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger.

Trump has not been charged in the criminal probe. The Republican has decried the New York investigations as a “political witch hunt,” has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the real estate business and in no way a crime.

Last week, Trump sat for a deposition in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ parallel civil investigation into allegations Trump’s company misled lenders and tax authorities about asset values. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination more than 400 times.

___

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak. Send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/.

Officials had previously warned that the Rockland County patient was most likely the “tip of the iceberg.” The County of "Chosen" Idiots!

 

Polio May Have Been Spreading in New York Since April

 

A new study from the C.D.C. provides more details about a polio case detected in New York last month, and suggests the virus has been spreading elsewhere for a year.

 

Polio vaccines at a pop-up clinic at the Rockland County Department of Health in Pomona (Monsey N.Y.)

Polio may have been circulating widely for a year, and was present in New York’s wastewater as early as April, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A wastewater sample collected in April in Orange County, N.Y., tested positive for the virus, pushing back the earliest known detection in the area. Officials had previously announced that the virus had been found in wastewater samples dating back to May in neighboring Rockland County.

Changes in the genome of the virus suggest that this version has been circulating, somewhere in the world, for up to a year. Genetically similar versions of the virus were detected in Israel in March and in Britain in June.

The new study provides more details from a continuing investigation into a polio case detected in New York last month, when officials announced that a young adult in Rockland County had become paralyzed from polio. It was the first report of polio in the United States since 2013.

The findings are not altogether surprising, especially given that polio, which is highly contagious, often spreads without causing serious symptoms, said Joseph Eisenberg, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Michigan. “It can be circulating pretty extensively, being under the radar, before you actually start seeing paralysis cases,” he said.

Officials had previously warned that the Rockland County patient was most likely the “tip of the iceberg.”

In at least one of the county’s ZIP codes, just 37 percent of children under 24 months old have received three doses of the polio vaccine, according to the new study.

The patient, who had not been vaccinated against polio, was hospitalized in June after developing symptoms including a fever, neck stiffness and lower-limb weakness, according to the study. Poliovirus, which spreads mainly through feces, was subsequently detected in the patient’s stool.

Genomic sequencing revealed that the patient was infected with a version of the virus derived from the oral polio vaccine, which contains a weakened version of the virus. The oral vaccine has not been used in the United States since 2000. (American children are routinely immunized with an injected vaccine.)

The oral vaccine is safe and effective, but people who receive it can shed the weakened virus in their stool for weeks, potentially infecting others. In communities with many unvaccinated people, the virus can keep circulating and eventually acquire enough mutations to again become dangerous.

The discovery of the Rockland case prompted health experts to begin testing wastewater samples collected in the region, including those that had previously been collected for coronavirus surveillance.

Officials had previously announced that they had found the virus in 20 wastewater samples collected in Rockland and Orange counties and that all had been genetically linked to the patient sample.

The new study revealed that a 21st sample, collected in Orange County in April, also tested positive for the virus. However, there was not enough genomic information available to conclusively link it to the other samples.

Two hundred and sixty wastewater samples from Rockland and Orange Counties had been tested as of Aug. 10, and polio was detected in 8 percent of them, according to the new study.

“This suggests that there is a lot of community spread under the radar,” John Dennehy, a virologist and wastewater surveillance expert at Queens College, said in an email.

The virus has also been found in six wastewater samples from New York City.

The Rockland County patient was most likely exposed to polio one to three weeks before developing symptoms, the report noted. The patient did not travel abroad during this time, but did attend “a large gathering,” according to the study.

Polio was detected in wastewater in Rockland County 25 days before the patient developed symptoms, suggesting that others had been previously infected.

“The fact that we see it in the sewage 25 days before means that he’s probably not even the second case,” Dr. Eisenberg said.

People who have received three doses of the inactivated polio vaccine are well protected against the virus, but the virus poses a potential danger to unvaccinated people, including children who are too young to be vaccinated.

Nationally, polio vaccination rates are relatively high. But there are pockets of the country, including in New York, where vaccination rates are much lower, and the pandemic has set back childhood vaccination campaigns.

As of July 2020, just 67 percent of Rockland County children younger than 24 months had received three doses of the polio vaccine, a figure that fell to 60 percent by this month, according to the study.

After the Rockland County case was detected, the local Health Department began a vaccination campaign, but the number of shots given “was not sufficient to meaningfully increase” vaccination rates, the researchers reported.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/health/polio-new-york.html