מי שברך לחיילי צה"ל - יונתן שטרן | The Prayer for the IDF Soldiers - Now is the time to speak out loudly and clearly to these members of the Haredi community, and to request their assistance. Our country is burning, and this existential threat requires us to play an integral role in the national effort. This is the moment of truth, and if we deny this reality, we may be instrumental in inflicting a real crisis on ourselves.

The more Haredi men enlist, the easier it is for others to join them 

 

If you're ultra-Orthodox, male, and not truly studying Torah all day long, it's time to think of the IDF 

 

However, when it comes to yeshiva students, many – and today I would even say a large proportion – are not really learning all day in the Beit Midrash. We need to admit this openly. 

Haredi men who decided to join the military amid the war between Israel and Hamas, at the IDF recruiting offices in Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv,

 

The Jewish nation is living through days of uncertainty, shock and pain that never seem to end. Every Jew in the world is watching daily events in Israel with nerves on edge. I lost many friends on October 7, and many of my friends lost loved ones. We are all traumatized by what happened, and we live in fear of what lies ahead.

The issues that divided us on October 6 dissolved overnight. All those arguments and hostile positions became meaningless when we confronted the monsters of Hamas. We all woke up facing a fight for our survival that no one wanted.

This war has united our nation, bringing our fragmented society closer together. We have encountered love and generosity at every level. Dormant organizations sprang into action to help and support the army. As part of my own IDF service, I encountered the best attributes of Israeli society, and I was moved to tears more than once by their generous spirit.

Learning Torah vs. national service

My brothers in the Haredi community, whom I love and appreciate, also feel the pressure on our nation, and they have turned out in droves to volunteer and play their part in the national effort. Some visit the injured in hospital, others pay shiva visits to the families of soldiers, or prepare food on IDF bases, and help families who have fled their homes. Their generosity comes from the heart, but to tell the truth, their generosity is also an attempt to compensate for their inability to help on the battlefield. It is an expression of their embarrassment.

I appreciate those who learn Torah and I support their institutions financially, because my faith is based on the living Torah. Last Friday, I sent flowers to a number of genuine talmidei chachamim (Torah sages) whom I admire, with notes saying: “You dedicate yourself to nurturing the soul of the Jewish people, and you deserve our thanks.” If the IDF is the body, then these sages are the soul of our nation. Both are critical to our existence.

However, when it comes to yeshiva students, many – and today I would even say a large proportion – are not really learning all day in the Beit Midrash. We need to admit this openly.

Now is the time to speak out loudly and clearly to these members of the Haredi community, and to request their assistance. Our country is burning, and this existential threat requires us to play an integral role in the national effort. This is the moment of truth, and if we deny this reality, we may be instrumental in inflicting a real crisis on ourselves.

We have to answer this question honestly, and not shy away from this crucial issue, as expressed by Moses when the tribes of Reuben and Gad asked to separate themselves from the nation and remain on the eastern side of the Jordan River: “Are your brothers going out to war while you sit here?”

Haredi army service

This week, Israel’s Supreme Court is discussing a petition from “Achim B’Neshek” (the “Brothers in Arms” organization) concerning IDF military service and Haredim pulling their weight. The government has put off dealing with this issue many times for various political reasons, leaving the status of the conscription law uncertain.

Since October 7, we have seen changes in attitudes in the Haredi community, with greater readiness to reconsider the issue of army service. Since October 9, I have been working with senior army representatives from their human resources department on the recruitment of 2,000 Haredi men to the IDF. Together, we have been working to find suitable jobs for Haredim in the army, and I am impressed by how invested they are in this project, despite the pressures of the war.

Over the past four months, 800 Haredi men have enlisted, mostly as what we call “Stage 2 Volunteers,” meaning that they are older than regular IDF recruits. Some people are calling for younger Haredim to sign up, but I think that this is the first stage – to normalize the idea of army service in the Haredi community. I believe that this will work better than making conscription compulsory, which will alienate the community.

The need of the hour

It’s time for the leaders of the IDF and the Haredi community to sit together and create new and suitable army frameworks that can contribute in real ways to the national defense forces, while upholding our uncompromising halachic standards. At the same time, we should be integrating Haredim into other national service units, such as ZAKA and the rescue organizations.

In recent days, I have witnessed the enthusiasm of many idealistic young Haredim who have approached me personally about enlisting in the IDF. I believe that we need to seize this opportunity, because there is a willingness among the younger generation to step up and share the burden of the nation’s defense. It’s time for the Haredi leadership to recognize the opportunity, to show their wisdom, and acknowledge the urgency to reach an agreement on this issue. Otherwise, I fear that the rest of Israeli society will never forgive us.

We have been invited to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our brothers, and it is crucial that we find a way to do so. If not, who will protect us from the coming crisis? 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/my-call-to-arms-to-haredim/

Nechemia Was Not A Bench Kvetcher! Nechemia suffered evere shrapnel injuries on one side of his body, one of four soldiers injured in the incident. His friend, just feet away from him, was dead.

 

For thousands of Israeli soldiers wounded in Gaza, a long journey to recovery of body and mind

RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — In December, Nechemia, a combat engineer, was serving in Gaza alongside his close friend when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to them. 

Nechemia suffered evere shrapnel injuries on one side of his body, one of four soldiers injured in the incident. His friend, just feet away from him, was dead. 

Now, Nechemia is recovering in Sheba Medical Center, a massive hospital complex in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, in a ward for seriously wounded soldiers. He appreciates the camaraderie of his fellow injured troops and feels grateful to have come out with life and limb. 

But the hardest part, he said, has been survivor’s guilt. He was unable to leave the hospital for his friend’s funeral, and the bereaved family came to visit him. 

“At some point when I was in the hospital, his family and his girlfriend came to meet me and it was tough for me,” said Nehemia, who did not give his last name per Israeli military policy. “My mentality after coming out alive, after getting hit by an RPG used against tanks, a meter from me, and not losing any limbs, and no mental damage, and just just being alive is absolutely a miracle.” 

He added, “And suddenly, my friend who died, his family came and it just all went down. And it was like, f—, like, they’d lost their son. And I was talking to them and explaining to them what happened, and it was very, very tough.” 

Nechemia’s challenges encapsulate those faced by the almost 6,000 Israeli security personnel who have been injured since the launch of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. Now, the Defense Ministry estimates that in addition to the hundreds of Israeli soldiers who have been killed in action, the number of wounded soldiers could rise to as many as 20,000 by the end of 2024. If that number bears out, it would be the highest number of Israeli soldiers wounded in any war in the country’s 75 years of existence — topping the 1948 War of Independence’s count of 15,000 wounded and 1973 Yom Kippur War total of 9,000. 

Israel’s Health and Defense Ministries say their system is equipped to tend to the needs of so many injured soldiers, and several of the wounded told JTA that they are confident in their recovery. But in the long term, the prognosis is unclear: How will Israel deal with the high number of injuries in the coming years? And how will the thousands of wounded soldiers cope with the physical and mental trauma they experienced?

“Rehabilitation will be the biggest national challenge in the State of Israel in the coming decades, and the journey of the injured and their families has only just begun,” said Amitai Ziv, who is director of the Sheba Integrated Rehabilitation Hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. 

Since Oct. 7, Ziv’s facility has provided both physical and psychological care for about 70% of the seriously wounded in-patient soldiers after they leave emergency care, including Nechemia. Many are amputees. During that time, the rehabilitation center has grown from 140 beds to 262. Ziv sees no end in sight to the increased capacity — especially as war threatens to erupt on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. 

“It was and still is a huge challenge, but we went through it and we continue to do it as we speak,” he said. With an air of calm, he added, “The healthcare system in Israel at large and the Sheba Medical Centre in particular is well prepared for any scenario from the north, including the extreme scenarios.”

More than 4,000 soldiers have already gained fast-track membership to the country’s official IDF Disabled Soldiers Organization, which has provided treatment and social opportunities for injured soldiers and their families since 1949. That number is more than 10 times the organization’s typical growth of about 300 wounded soldiers per year. 

About 20% of the newly wounded soldiers are being treated for mental injuries, but it is still too early for them to be formally diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, per the Defense Ministry’s guidelines. The ministry typically waits one year following the injury to make a PTSD diagnosis. 

But there are informal ways the soldiers are working to maintain their mental health. One of the benefits of treating so many wounded soldiers in just a few locations — with rooms containing as many as six beds — is the camaraderie that forms among wounded soldiers.

“I’m here with all the injured soldiers together,” said Nechemia. “We are all going through this together with other guys who went through similar stuff. We all have nerve damage, and we are all screwed up, so going through it together for sure makes the process a lot easier.”

A few doors down from Nechemia rests Aaron, an infantry reservist who was shot in both of his legs in Gaza and caught shrapnel on his right side and back. He sustained the injuries after unsuccessfully trying to extricate his commander, who was shot while in a school run by UNRWA, the aid agency for Palestinians.

“I thought that he was dying and if I could run over fast enough to save him, or to get to him and bring him into the house, I could save his life,” he said. “I went on a spiritual journey where I saw my life a bit blurred and there was definitely a higher presence there and of course the classic image of sky. I remember basically saying thank you for a beautiful life up until now that I lived.”

Aaron’s hospital room is frequently filled with visitors and adorned with a “wall of communal support and love” that includes many handwritten notes from schoolchildren. He says that his injury has caused him to reconsider his professional future as a tech worker. 

“I want to do something that has a greater direct impact on the people of Israel, not just on the high tech sector in Tel Aviv,” he said. “It’s made me think a lot about what I’ll do next and maybe I won’t leave tech, but I certainly will value my time differently and spend it helping the people of Israel and the country at large.”

Some of the soldiers are working toward recovery by aiming to reach a milestone they had achieved before their injury. Orr Sheizaf, a long-distance runner who was wounded by a booby-trapped tunnel in the central Gaza city of Khan Younis, will be the official ambassador of the Jerusalem Winner Marathon on March 9, which is sponsored by the footwear brand Saucony. 

Sheizaf completed his first marathon in Jerusalem in 2020 but knows even running several kilometers this year will be a struggle: He’s run in the pool at Soroka Medical Center, in Beersheva, but cannot yet run on the ground. Not long ago, he had several pieces of metal removed from his foot. 

Even as they face a long road ahead, however, Sheizaf says the vast majority of wounded soldiers he has met are feeling grateful. “I would say 90% of people are happy about being alive, feeling that they’re in a good place and going in a good direction,” he said. He added that he feels a sense of identification with the soldiers who were wounded in some of Israel’s past, mythologized wars, in 1967 and 1973.

“It’s going to take time, you need to be patient and you won’t be able to go back to what you used to do as soon as you want to,” he said. “But [you] might be able to go absolutely back, eventually.” 

https://www.jta.org/2024/02/27/israel/for-thousands-of-israeli-soldiers-wounded-in-gaza-a-long-journey-to-recovery-of-body-and-mind?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-68976-25499

Who Needs An Army When You Have Bench Kvetchers - Part Two

 

Ultra-Orthodox Jews block traffic, light rail in haredi draft protest

 

 

A Jerusalem Post intern at the scene reported witnessing one of the Haredim at the protest blocking a car. The orthodox Jewish man persisted in blocking the vehicle even as it drove forward.

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked traffic and the light rail in Jerusalem demonstrating against a Haredi draft into the IDF. February 26, 2024.

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked traffic and the light rail on Monday during a protest in Jerusalem demonstrating against a haredi draft into the IDF, according to police and eyewitness reports.

The protest took place at the intersection of Sarei Israel Boulevard and Nordau Street.

Police subsequently arrived at the scene and began efforts to restore order, the police noted, adding that traffic officers were directing vehicles in the area to alternate routes.

A Jerusalem Post intern at the scene reported witnessing one of the haredim at the protest blocking a car. The orthodox Jewish man persisted in blocking the vehicle even as it drove forward.

Altercation between police and Orthodox Jews

A police officer subsequently pulled the man out of the way, resulting in an altercation between the two.

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked traffic and the light rail in Jerusalem demonstrating against a Haredi draft into the IDF. February 26, 2024

 

According to the eyewitness testimony, the police officer began to drag the man away before other haredi men separated the two.

Protest signs at the scene read, "We say to the high court, to prison and not to the army.' 

https://www.jpost.com

One More Reason To Hate The Jews -- They Even Control The Medical Schools.....

 

$1 Billion Donation Will Provide Free Tuition at a Bronx Medical School

 

Dr. Ruth Gottesman, a longtime professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is making free tuition available to all students going forward

 

 

Dr. Ruth Gottesman’s donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough.

 

The 93-year-old widow of a Wall Street financier has donated $1 billion to a Bronx medical school, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, with instructions that the gift be used to cover tuition for all students going forward.

The donor, Dr. Ruth Gottesman, is a former professor at Einstein, where she studied learning disabilities, developed a screening test and ran literacy programs. It is one of the largest charitable donations to an educational institution in the United States and most likely the largest to a medical school.

The fortune came from her late husband, David Gottesman, known as Sandy, who was a protégé of Warren Buffett and had made an early investment in Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate Mr. Buffett built.

The donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough. The Bronx has a high rate of premature deaths and ranks as the unhealthiest county in New York. Over the past generation, a number of billionaires have given hundreds of millions of dollars to better-known medical schools and hospitals in Manhattan, the city’s wealthiest borough.

While her husband ran an investment firm, First Manhattan, Dr. Gottesman had a long career at Einstein, a well-regarded medical school, starting in 1968, when she took a job as director of psychoeducational services. She has long been on Einstein’s board of trustees and is currently the chair.

In recent years, she has become close friends with Dr. Philip Ozuah, the pediatrician who oversees the medical college and its affiliated hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, as the chief executive officer of the health system. That friendship and trust loomed large as she contemplated what to do with the money her husband had left her.

In an interview on Friday at the Einstein campus in the Morris Park neighborhood, Dr. Ozuah and Dr. Gottesman spoke about the donation, how it came together and what it would mean for Einstein medical students. 

 

Dr. Gottesman became close friends with Dr. Philip Ozuah, who oversees the medical college and its affiliated hospital, Montefiore Medical Center

In early 2020, the two sat next to each other on a 6 a.m. flight to West Palm Beach, Fla. It was the first time they had spent hours together.

They spoke about their childhoods — hers in Baltimore, his, some 30 years later, in Nigeria — and what they had in common. Both had doctorates in education and had spent their careers at the same institution in the Bronx, helping children and families in need.

Dr. Ozuah described moving to New York, not knowing a single person in the state, and spending years as a community doctor in the South Bronx before ascending to the top of the medical school.

Leaving the airport, Dr. Ozuah offered his arm to Dr. Gottesman, then not quite 90, as they approached the curb. She waved him off and told him to “watch your own step,” he recalled with a chuckle.

Within a few weeks, the coronavirus brought the world to a grinding halt. Dr. Gottesman’s husband, in his 90s, became ill with the new pathogen, and she had a mild case. Dr. Ozuah sent an ambulance to the Gottesman home in Rye, N.Y., to bring them to Montefiore, the Bronx’s largest hospital.

In the weeks that followed, Dr. Ozuah began making daily house calls — in full protective gear — to check in on the couple as Mr. Gottesman recovered. “That’s how the friendship evolved,” he said. “I spent probably every day for about three weeks, visiting them in Rye.”

About three years ago, Dr. Ozuah asked Dr. Gottesman to head the medical school’s board of trustees. She had done the job before, but given her age, she was surprised. The gesture reminded her of the fable about the lion and the mouse, she told Dr. Ozuah at the time, explaining that when the lion spares the mouse’s life, the mouse tells him, “Maybe someday I’ll be helpful to you.”

In the story, the lion laughs haughtily. “But Phil didn’t go ‘ha, ha, ha,’” she noted with a smile.

The Money

Dr. Gottesman’s husband died in 2022 at age 96. “He left me, unbeknownst to me, a whole portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock,” she recalled. The instructions were simple: “Do whatever you think is right with it,” she recalled.

It was overwhelming to think about, so at first she didn’t. But her children encouraged her not to wait too long.

When she focused on the bequest, she realized immediately what she wanted to do, she recalled. “I wanted to fund students at Einstein so that they would receive free tuition,” she said. There was enough money to do that in perpetuity, she said.

Over the years, she had interviewed dozens of prospective Einstein medical students. Tuition is more than $59,000 a year, and many graduated with crushing medical school debt, often more than $200,000.

Not only would future students be able to embark on their careers without the debt burden, but she hoped that her donation would also enable a wider pool of aspiring doctors to apply to medical school. “We have terrific medical students, but this will open it up for many other students whose economic status is such that they wouldn’t even think about going to medical school,” she said.

“That’s what makes me very happy about this gift,” she added. “I have the opportunity not just to help Phil, but to help Montefiore and Einstein in a transformative way — and I’m just so proud and so humbled — both — that I could do it.”

Dr. Gottesman went to see Dr. Ozuah in December to tell him that she would be making a major gift. She reminded him of the lion and mouse story. This, she explained, was the mouse’s moment.

“If someone said, ‘I’ll give you a transformative gift for the medical school,’ what would you do?” she asked.

There were probably three things, Dr. Ozuah said.

“One,” he began, “you could have education be free —”

“That’s what I want to do,” she said. He never mentioned the other ideas.

Dr. Gottesman sometimes wonders what her late husband would have thought of her decision.

“I hope he’s smiling and not frowning,” she said with a chuckle. “But he gave me the opportunity to do this, and I think he would be happy — I hope so.”

Einstein will not be the first medical school to eliminate tuition.

In 2018, New York University announced it would begin offering free tuition to medical students and saw a surge in applications.

The Name

Dr. Gottesman was reluctant to attach her name to her donation. “Nobody needs to know,” Dr. Ozuah recalled her saying at first. But Dr. Ozuah insisted that others might find her life inspiring. “Here’s somebody who is totally dedicated to the welfare of others and wants no accolades, no recognition,” Dr. Ozuah said.

Dr. Ozuah noted that the going price for getting your name on a medical school or hospital was perhaps a fifth of Dr. Gottesman’s donation. Cornell Medical College and New York Hospital now include the surname of Sanford Weill, the former head of Citigroup. New York University’s medical center was renamed for Ken Langone, a co-founder of Home Depot. Both men donated hundreds of millions of dollars.

But it is a condition of Dr. Gottesman’s gift that the Einstein College of Medicine not change its name. Albert Einstein, the physicist who developed the theory of relativity, agreed to confer his name on the medical school, which opened in 1955.

The name, she noted, could not be beat. “We’ve got the gosh darn name — we’ve got Albert Einstein.”

NYT.COM

Two of the victims claimed to have been anally raped, while another said the camp counselor offered him $100 to touch his genitals, according to the complaint which sought a $1.8 million payout.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Baltimore rabbi, 47, accused of sexually abusing three young boys at an Orthodox Jewish camp, bribing them with $100 to 'touch his genitals' and holding sleepovers with kids

 

• Rabbi Steven 'Shmuel' Krawatsky, 47, was found liable for battery and assault against two children
• The incident took place at Orthodox Jewish Camp Shoresh in 2014 and 2015 
• Married father Krawatsky was ordered to pay his victims $8,000 each in damages

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A Baltimore rabbi accused of sexually abusing three young boys at an Orthodox Jewish summer camp has been found liable for battery and assault.

Rabbi Steven 'Shmuel' Krawatsky, 47, was accused of abusing the boys who were then between seven and eight-years-old at Camp Shoresh in 2014 and 2015.

Two of the victims claimed to have been anally raped, while another said the camp counselor offered him $100 to touch his genitals, according to the complaint which sought a $1.8 million payout.

Last week, a jury ruled that he committed assault against one child and battery against another, claims against the third child were not upheld. Each victim has now been awarded $1 in compensatory and $8,000 in punitive damages.

Krawatsky, of Pikesville, previously denied the allegations and has not faced any criminal charges, despite being interviewed by police and Child Protection Services who initially found indications of abuse according to the civil lawsuit against him.

AN IDIOT TO BOOT!

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Maryland rabbi Steven 'Shmuel' Krawatsky has been accused of sexually abusing three young boys at an Orthodox Jewish summer camp

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The married father was found liable for battery and assault against two of the children. The names and images of the boys, who do not appear in this photo, are being withheld to protect their privacy

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The abuse was said to have taken place at Camp Shoresh (pictured) in 2014/15

The accusations first surfaced in a 2017 in a post by sexual abuse survivor Chaim Levin and were later reported in a 2018 New York Jewish Week article.

Krawatsky was accused of abusing three boys while working at the camp after they came home and began displaying strange behavioral issues.

Eventually, they disclosed to their parents that 'Rabbi K' had sexually abused them, a lawsuit brought by their parents states.

The explosive allegations saw Krawatsky fired from his role at the private Jewish Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School.

The institution issued a statement at the time insisting it had not received any safeguarding concerns directly.

The married rabbi then tried to sue Levin, the publication, its reporter and the parents over the accusations. The parents countersued for the abuse of their children and Krawatsky's claims were dismissed.

According to the lawsuit, Krawatsky would often host sleepovers with children at his house and would also dole out 'punishments' in the camp's pool changing room, without any other adults present.

The filings state that three boys were abused although claims against just two were upheld.

Allegations included that one boy was 'touched in an offensive and inappropriate manner' while at the camp and another was 'offered money to engage in sexual acts' per the lawsuit.

He was not found liable for the claims relating to a third boy which stated that he was also raped.

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A jury awarded each of the two victims $8,000 each in punitive damages. Charges against the third boy were not upheld (PATHETIC)

One of the victims claimed to have been anally raped, while another said the camp counselor offered him $100 to touch his genitals, according to the complaint. Pictured: Krawatsky with his wife Shira

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Krawatsky has not faced any criminal charges despite being interviewed by police and CPS in 2015, according to the lawsuit

In all cases, the lawsuit describes how Krawatsky would allegedly heap praise on the boys before isolating them to carry out the alleged attacks.

In his closing statement, the victims' attorney told the court that the one of the boys had described how Krawatsky 'peed on his arm'.

'You saw the terror in those kids’ eyes when they talked,' Jon Little said. 'They were afraid of Rabbi Krawatsky and they were afraid of the other evil, the rope running through this whole thing. The community that failed to protect its children.'

Krawatsky was interviewed by Frederick County Police and CPS, according to the lawsuit.

CPS initially found that abuse was 'indicated' against one victim, and 'unsubstantiated' against another, which means that they could neither prove nor disprove that it happened, the filings state.

Krawatsky was placed on leave from the Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, but was allowed to return after he appealed the 'indicated' finding and had it downgraded to unsubstantiated, according to the suit.

The case rocked the Orthodox community where it unfolded, with allegations of intimidation on the part of Krawatsky's supporters who rallied around him despite the accusations.

Little, who acted for the families pro bono, said that his practice had been bombarded with one star reviews in the wake of the case.

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The rabbi was working at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School when the allegations were made public but was later fired from the post

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The parents counter sued Krawatsky after he tried to pursue them for defamation when the allegations were made public. Pictured: Camp Shoresh

He slammed the meagre damages awarded to his clients and speculated it may have been because they could not point to any large medical expenses incurred.

'When we got the liability verdict I thought okay wow, but apparently the community do not consider raping a seven-year-old a serious and traumatic event. I do, that is something that will stay with you for life,' Little said.

'Firstly I am so dismayed at the way the Jewish community rallied to defend a man accused of raping children.

'But then also the people who saw what happened and refused to take care of these children. People think they do this for money, but this was a defensive suit.

'One of the moms said to me, "I want to find out what happened to my kid but at the same time I don't want it to be true". So we talk about vindication and I'm glad the jurors saw what I have known to be true for the past six or seven years, but really what have these parents gained?'

Little claimed that Krawatsky's supporters may have spent up to $7 million defending him and had attempted to bury him in legal fees by also unsuccessfully trying to sue him for defamation.

'After six years of hell that he put them through with the defamation suit — and the community did with its harassment of the victims — this verdict vindicates them,' said Asher Lovy, founder of Za'akah, which fights child sex abuse in the Orthodox community.

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The parents' lawsuit described how Krawatsky would allegedly host sleepover with kids and discipline them away from other adults

 'I hope it can bring them healing, and I hope it sends a message to enablers that they can try as hard as they want to but the truth is going to come out.' 

In his 2017 post, Levin called Krawatsky 'extremely dangerous' and said he is 'alleged to have inflicted severe harm on multiple children'.

He also accused higher ups of being aware of the concerns but protecting the rabbi anyway.

After sharing his initial post, Levin claims he was flooded with threatening messages.

'Throughout this lawsuit we have learned a lot about the cover up that allowed this to happen,' Levin said.

'Many of the details are disturbing and sad. They demonstrate that this community did not and does not care about the safety of children.

'I'm proud of these kids for standing up to this bully and their families for sticking by them.' 

The rabbi's lawyers said in a statement: 'Rabbi Krawatsky passed a polygraph test back in 2015. The matter was fully investigated by the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office and the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office. 

'Rabbi Krawatsky was never arrested and was never charged with any crime. Ever. The Frederick County Department of Social Services found the matter to be unsubstantiated, the records have been destroyed, and he is allowed to work with children.

'Krawatsky has never harmed a child in any way. Ever.

'The jury obviously did not believe the false accusations against him made by one of the three children because they found that he did not harm that child, in any way. And that child had made the most serious allegations. And the jury only awarded the other two children nominal damages of One Dollar.

'Unfortunately, Rabbi Krawatsky was not able to tell the full story at the trial so he intends to appeal the case in order to fully clear his name.'

CPS said in a statement: 'The department takes very seriously its duty to protect the health and well-being of children and ensure youth are safe. While confidentiality laws prevent us from providing specific details regarding your questions, Child Protective Services (CPS) has a duty to conduct either an investigation or a family assessment if someone reports that a child has allegedly been abused or neglected. 

'Before closing an investigation, we will determine the nature, extent, and cause of any child abuse or neglect and, if possible, the person responsible for the abuse or neglect, and share that investigative report with law enforcement.

'Maryland Department of Human Services employees care deeply about the safety and well-being of children, and we work relentlessly to ensure all families we serve are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. Reporting child abuse and neglect is everyone's responsibility, and we encourage everyone to Know the Signs and report child abuse and neglect concerns immediately.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13114183/Baltimore-rabbi-accused-child-sex-abuse.html

Why The Jews? The Truth About Antisemitism

What opened my eyes are the Left’s beliefs that men can become women and women can become men; men give birth; there are more than two genders/sexes

 

The Left and Chaos

 

Why the Left hates order.

 

 by Dennis Prager

It is impossible to understand what is happening to America — and to the rest of the West — without understanding the most dynamic ideology of the last hundred years: leftism.

We need to begin with the understanding that leftism (or “progressivism”) and liberalism are not only not the same ideologies, they are in fact opposed to each other on virtually every major issue.

Leftism and liberalism have only two things in common:

One is belief in big government, which, given that individual and societal liberty decline as the state grows, is a significant similarity.

The other Left-liberal commonality is antipathy to the Right. This is even more important than commitment to big government because it explains why liberals vote for the Left despite the fact that liberals differ with far more left-wing positions than with conservative positions.

Unlike the Left, most liberals love their country. Unlike the Left, most liberals do not believe that there are more than two sexes/genders; that prepubescent boys and girls who claim they are members of the other sex should be given hormone blockers; that girls under 21 should be allowed to have their breasts surgically removed; or that men who say they are women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports. So, too, liberals do not believe that capitalism is evil, that America is systemically racist, that all whites are racist, that Israel is the villain in the Middle East and Zionism is racist.

So, then, given that those leftist positions are as destructive as they are absurd, how are we to explain leftism?

This question has preoccupied me all my adult life. It is why I was one of fewer than 10 graduate students in all of Columbia University to major in what was called “Communist Affairs.” (I was a fellow at the Russian Institute at Columbia’s School of International Affairs.) In other words, I have studied the Left all my life.

Early on, I recognized that the Left opposes liberty — the clearest example being that wherever the Left gains power, whether at a university or in society as a whole, it suppresses free speech — and that it destroys everything it touches. But while I (and many others) have always understood that the Left (again, not liberalism) has always, everywhere, been a force for evil, I needed to understand why.

How can people believe that men give birth; that a country to which more than 4 million black people have emigrated and which twice elected a black president is systemically racist; that the freest country in the Middle East, one in which millions of Arabs live as equal citizens, is the villain, while its barbaric enemies are worthy of support?

Here are some answers:

Throughout their history, Americans have had three great providers of meaning: family, religion and patriotism. Leftists lack the latter two (indeed, they seek to get rid of them), and increasing numbers of them lack the first. Since human beings cannot live without meaning — it is as great a need as food, and even greater than sex — they seek meaning elsewhere. So they create new meanings through creating secular religions: socialism, communism, feminism, environmentalism, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), “anti-racism,” anti-Zionism, LGBTQIA+ pride, and trans activism, among others.

All these are united by one overarching aim: destroying the institutions of Western civilization (e.g., religion, art, music, the nuclear family, moral norms, schools and universities, free speech, capitalism, even medicine).

Those of us who appreciate Western civilization and wish to preserve it (while, of course, correcting its flaws) cannot understand why anyone would want to destroy it. That is a major reason it is so difficult for non-leftists to understand the Left.

After decades of mulling this over, I think I have discovered one answer that is not obvious even to all leftists.

What opened my eyes are the Left’s beliefs that men can become women and women can become men; men give birth; there are more than two genders/sexes; men who say they are women should be placed in women’s prisons, women’s colleges and women’s shelters; men who say they are women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports; and children should be taken to drag queen shows.

All these positions represent … chaos.

The Left’s trans-positions are the most obvious areas of Left-induced chaos, but there are many others. These include the Left’s contempt for the ideal of the nuclear family (i.e., a married mother and father and children); its support for defunding police; its raising the dollar value of stolen goods that qualifies as a felony, which can only incentivize theft; and its support for progressive district attorneys.

Fighting crime represents order; crime represents chaos.

And why does leftism seek chaos? Because the Left hates the opposite of chaos: order. And order ultimately represents a religious view of life. Order represents divine order. The proof is that no religious people say, “Men give birth.” Not all secular people believe men give birth, there are more than two sexes, men can compete in women’s sports, children should be exposed to drag queen shows, or children should be given hormone blockers if they claim to be a member of the other sex. But only secular people believe those things. Virtually no one who believes in the Bible and the God of the Bible believes them. We believe in a God-created social order.

Chaos is the normal state of the world. The second verse of the Bible states that the world was in a chaotic state. God then made order. Which is why the Left is undoing it.

 

mRNA Vaccines, Mask Mandates, and the COVID-19 Response --- Dr.Paul Offit Talks About What Science Now Knows!

The controversy concerned the safety of children. Moreover, it concerned broader policy questions about how Jewish institutions should best protect children upon learning of a sexual abuse allegation against one of its employees

 

THE RABBI CALLED HIMSELF - "SPECIAL K"

Hiring Reputation Management Co. Made Rabbi Limited Public Figure, Making It Harder for Him to Win Libel Case

Eugene Volokh |

From Krawatsky v. Avrunin, decided Friday by Judge Christopher Fogleman (Md. Cir. Ct.):

From 2010 to 2015, Plaintiff Steven Krawatsky ("Rabbi K") was a head counselor at Camp Shoresh, a summer camp for children in Adamstown, Frederick County, Maryland. The parents of three boys who had attended the summer camp during that time have alleged that Rabbi K had sexually assaulted the boys. In 2017, Defendant Hannah Dreyfus …, a reporter for The Jewish Week, Inc. …, began investigating the allegations. As a result of Ms. Dreyfus's investigation, on January 17, 2018, Jewish Week published an editorial drafted by its Editor and two articles authored by Ms. Dreyfus.

Rabbi K sued Dreyfus and Jewish Week for various defamation-related claims; the court held, in relevant part, that Rabbi K was a limited purpose public figure, because he had voluntarily injected himself into an existing public controversy:

The record is clear that the allegations against Rabbi K did not concern only the boys and their families. The outcome of this controversy would certainly affect the general public or some segment of it in an appreciable way. The controversy concerned the safety of children. Moreover, it concerned broader policy questions about how Jewish institutions should best protect children upon learning of a sexual abuse allegation against one of its employees. The Court concludes that there was a particular public controversy [preexisting the allegedly defamatory statements' publication] that gave rise to the alleged defamation…. The Krawatskys hired the public relations consultant in November 2017 "to help restore the damage to Rabbi K's online reputation caused by the controversy." The articles and editorial were published two months later, on January 17, 2018. The controversy continued unabated following the public relations consultant's November 2017 retention, through the articles' and editorial's January 17, 2018 publication.

Using the media to gain notoriety and establish a positive public image can confer limited public figure status. It is beyond dispute that the professional reputation management consultant's objective was to influence and counter the adverse impact of the unfavorable publicity that attended the Newspaper Defendants' two Articles and Editorial. Rabbi K's public relations campaign did not substantively respond to the allegations but rather was a more generalized effort to improve his image. Its objective was not to reply to the allegations, but rather to silence the negative information. By waging this public relations campaign, Rabbi K became a public figure in terms of First Amendment protection.

Because Rabbi K was a limited-purpose public figure, he had to show "clear and convincing evidence that the Newspaper Defendants acted with actual malice" (rather than just negligently), and he couldn't.

https://reason.com/volokh/2022/07/12/hiring-reputation-management-co-made-rabbi-limited-public-figure-making-it-harder-for-him-to-win-libel-case/

Today the jury in the first part of the Krawatsky Trial returned a unanimous verdict:

  

Shmuel Krawatsky Found Liable for Abuse of Two of Three Accusers

Today the jury in the first part of the Krawatsky Trial returned a unanimous verdict: On the first and second alleged victims they found that Krawatsky was liable for the abuse alleged (the actual charges were battery for the first and assault for the second), and for the third he was found not liable (battery).

Next Tuesday the case will resume with the damages phase to determine the damages he’s liable to those two families for. As of now his lawyers are still planning to pursue defamation against the third family and Chaim Levin.

https://hareiani.com/

Steven Krawatsky, 46, was a popular and well-traveled figure in the world of Jewish education, married with four children, he was known for hosting his students for sleepovers.

8 years after he was accused of sexual abuse, a once-beloved Orthodox rabbi will face a Maryland jury

 

Rabbi Steven Krawatsky

Six years after a bombshell report revealed sexual abuse accusations against a beloved Orthodox rabbi, a jury will decide whether the claims have merit — or whether the families who brought them are liable for defamation.

Rabbi Steven (Shmuel) Krawatsky worked in Jewish education, mostly in the Baltimore area, for two decades before the families of three boys accused him of abusing their sons in 2014 and 2015. They said he abused the boys when he worked at Camp Shoresh, an Orthodox summer camp in Western Maryland.

When New York Jewish Week reported the claims against Krawatsky in 2018, the rabbi sued the publication, the families and a former journalist who warned the public to stay away from him on Facebook. A judge dismissed Krawatsky’s claims against the Jewish Week in 2022, and last week threw out the families’ counterclaims against Camp Shoresh and its director, Rabbi David Finkelstein.

The civil trial that begins with opening arguments Tuesday will weigh both Krawatsky’s defamation suit against the families and the former journalist, Chaim Levin, and the families’ counterclaims of assault, battery and false imprisonment against Krawatsky. Child sex abuse watchdogs are describing it as a test of Baltimore’s Orthodox Jewish community, which has rallied around Krawatsky.

Asher Lovy, head of Za’akah, an organization that fights child sex abuse in the Orthodox world, said the families of the alleged victims had been subject to intimidation by the community, which continued even after one of the families moved out of town.

The outcome of the trial, Lovy said, “will demonstrate to survivors in Baltimore whether they should feel empowered to come forward.”

A lawyer representing Krawatsky did not respond to a request for comment, and a lawyer for the families declined to comment.

The accusations

Krawatsky, 46, was a popular and well-traveled figure in the world of Jewish education, teaching at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, an Orthodox school in Pikesville, Maryland, and leading youth programming at Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim, a large Baltimore-area synagogue. Married with four children, he was known for hosting his students for sleepovers.

According to court documents, accusations of abuse were first made against Krawatsky in August 2015, by a Camp Shoresh parent, Joel Avrunin, whose then-8-year-old child, identified only as B.A., said the rabbi had touched him inappropriately that summer. Further allegations were made later by two other campers, then 7 years old, one of whom said Krawatsky raped him, the other saying Krawatsky offered him $100 to touch his penis.

Maryland Child Protective Services investigators found that in two of the allegations, child abuse was “indicated” and in the third, abuse was “unsubstantiated” — a legal designation that means neither confirmed nor ruled out, but which adds the accused to a confidential database for five years. However, protective services later downgraded the two “indicated” determinations to “unsubstantiated” in exchange for Krawatsky dropping his appeal.

According to Krawatsky’s defamation suit, he voluntarily submitted to a polygraph examination by the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in September 2015, following the accusations from B.A., and the polygraph showed no deception. The Sheriff’s Office in December 2015 declined to press charges. The families of the victims say they have been unable to review the polygraph examination. 

The accusations did not come to light publicly until the 2018 Jewish Week article. It described not only the alleged abuses — which included oral and anal rape — but also accusations that camp leaders failed to respond as legally required, and that Maryland child protective services had botched the investigation. Following the article’s publication, Beth Tfiloh fired Krawatsky, and Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim announced his resignation.

But the backlash against the families has continued since then, including public death threats, Lovy said.

“Their lives have been turned upside down,” he said.

While Krawatsky first filed suit the same year, the case did not make it to trial until now in part because of court delays related to COVID-19.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/579915/steven-krawatsky-sex-abuse-trial/

As someone who has been accused of being smart, I’ve had to learn to self-censor in order to “fit in”, and not be ostracized as a “weirdo” by the general population.

+"As social animals, we tend not to be too fond of “weirdos” (Bloggers) who question the existing social order, and the way things have always been done, hence the existence of terms like “nerd” and “geek” for those whose manner of thought and speech is contrary to the norm."+

Stephen Hawking said, “The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.” Do smart people out there agree?

I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture given by the late Prof. Hawking on the campus of the University of Berkeley; I say “given”; Hawking rolled onto the stage, and the lecture he so painstakingly prepared was delivered by the machine he used to speak with. I never heard him repeat this quote, so I will have to take it on faith that this is something he actually said.

I’ll be PC here, and substitute “average” for dumb; average people are not necessarily “dumb”, but the difference between them and very intelligent people is that they are far less intellectually curious, and tend not to question their own beliefs, or look beneath the surface of phenomena they encounter every day. For the average, smart people are not necessarily “crazy”, but they do come across as weird. 

 If I were to tell the average dummy person that they like doughnuts because simple carbohydrates and fat were rare and valuable nutrients thousands of years ago, they would look at me like I was mad. They would say something like “I enjoy doughnuts because they taste good”; it wouldn’t occur to them to ask the fundamental question of why they taste good to us.

A graph showing the “bell curve” distribution of IQ.

As shown in the graph above, 68.2% of people are in the average range of IQ between 85–115 (using IQ as a proxy for general intelligence. The number of people with an IQ higher than 115 becomes increasingly rare with the increasing level of IQ, so those with 140+ are very rare indeed, so it should not surprising that those who are in this high range will often come across as “odd” to the average majority. There is a qualitative difference in the cognition of the highly gifted, compared to the cognitive style of the average; the more intelligent one is, the less “obvious” things seem to be.

In evolutionary terms, our “purpose” as humans is to survive and reproduce, functions for which the average level of intelligence is sufficient; humans evolved to be as intelligent as they needed to be in order to successfully carry out these biological functions, so it is not surprising that most of us are not smarter than we are. As social animals, we tend not to be too fond of “weirdos” who question the existing social order, and the way things have always been done, hence the existence of terms like “nerd” and “geek” for those whose manner of thought and speech is contrary to the norm. At the same time, it had to have been the prehistoric nerds and geeks who came up with technologies like the bow and arrow, and poison darts, which were beneficial for the survival of humans as a whole, by allowing us to hunt otherwise inaccessible game animals. One can just imagine the jeers of the normies when the first geek smeared some tree sap on a dart, and walked off with his blowpipe, saying “I’m going hunting by myself.”

As someone who has been accused of being smart, I’ve had to learn to self-censor in order to “fit in”, and not be ostracized as a “weirdo” by the general population. 

 “Be yourself” is incredibly stupid advice if one happens to be an intellectual outlier, since “yourself” is likely to be regarded as strange, and even threatening by the majority. Hawking was right, and I reserve my unfiltered self for a select few.

 

Rabbi Co-founder of a private equity firm explains why he acquired Pornhub - (But He Gives Tzedaka)

 

Rabbi Co-founder of a private equity firm explains why he acquired Pornhub

 

His private equity firm took over Mindgeek, the umbrella company of virtually every porn site.

https://x.com/arden_young_/status/1740069046651867436?s=20https://x.com/arden_young_/status/1740069046651867436?s=20

Solomon Friedman is one of the new owners of PornHub. He is an attorney and rabbi (some reports say he is a former rabbi). His private equity firm took over Mindgeek, the umbrella company of virtually every porn site.

He vowed to save PornHub from ruin and make it a better place. What he means by a better place might not be what most people think is “better.”

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In the clip below, Solomon coaches defense attorneys of pedophiles on how to get lesser sentences for their sex offender clients. When the prosecutor next to him argues that the 30-day sentences for pedophiles back in 2009 weren’t enough, Solomon jokes, “the good old days.” (No one laughs…)

https://twitter.com/arden_young_/status/1740074009822122423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1740074009822122423%7Ctwgr%5E005317cccdf7fbb239951212772b20c968957f57%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independentsentinel.com%2Frabbi-buys-mindgeek-that-owns-pornhub-other-porn-sites%2F

https://twitter.com/arden_young_/status/1740074009822122423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1740074009822122423%7Ctwgr%5E005317cccdf7fbb239951212772b20c968957f57%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independentsentinel.com%2Frabbi-buys-mindgeek-that-owns-pornhub-other-porn-sitNothing against rabbis since he’s rogue; we have rogue priests in my religion, but how do people reconcile this with religion? It’s not funny. It ruins children’s lives.

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According to Yahoo Finance, this is why he bought it:

“When a potential MindGeek acquisition became available, we took an open-minded, unbiased look at it,” says Friedman. “What we found absolutely blew our minds. We found a company that had created the best-in-class online trust and safety automation tools. … We’re of the belief that these tools must be shared with the larger internet.”

The tools, he says, are designed to verify the identity of the people in videos, as well as their age and consent to posting, using both human and automated checks. They also create digital fingerprints to flag pre-existing content to combat piracy and have a portal designed to help law enforcement officials collect necessary data.

“We see enormous value beyond the adult industry for those tools,” he says. “We see enormous value in the online trust and safety tool. I have no doubt that people are going to be hearing more about that and its applications well beyond adult. We feel we have a responsibility to develop those tools beyond their current uses.”

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He’s also looking at it going mainstream:

While ECP sees value in the technology behind Pornhub and other MindGeek properties, it’s not discounting the substantial revenues in the content itself. Friedman notes that just a few years ago, cannabis was a taboo subject in Canada and much of the U.S., but has since become one that is openly discussed. The private equity firm believes adult entertainment is on the cusp of that same sort of mainstreaming.

“We’re of the view that there’s real potential for adult audiences,” he says. “Adults need a place on the internet. And the opportunity for creating those spaces and ensuring those are safe and stigma-free has real potential.”

So, it’s for money, the tools, and mainstreaming porn? Didn’t Sodom and Gomorrah happen because this stuff went mainstream?

https://www.independentsentinel.com/rabbi-buys-mindgeek-that-owns-pornhub-other-porn-sites/

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/co-founder-canadian-private-equity-185506393.html