Lessons From Libya - A Tale Of 2 Hats!

"Kadafi's biggest mistake was that he built his whole regime on pure fear," said Omar Amer, a member of the Libyan Youth Movement, a protest group that spreads its message through Facebook. "He totally abandoned civilizing Libya. He neglected education and development projects. He left the majority of his people in the dark ages and built his might on fear through torturing and killing political dissidents in public.

"But the fear that Kadafi built his empire with is gone, and that was his last shelter," Amer added.

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-libya-kadafi-20110222,0,7334029.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews+%28L.A.+Times+-+Top+News%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

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Press Release - Meir Dascalowtiz
Statement from the Voice of Justice
In Defense of Abused Children

CONTACT: MARK M. APPEL (917) 804-3942 cell
FOR PUBLIC RELEASE Monday, February 21, 2011

On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, admitted serial child rapist, Meir Dascalowitz will appear in Kings County Supreme Court to plead to charges related to his many felony and misdemeanor sex crimes against children.

Dascalowitz’s charges include criminal sex acts with a child under 14, sexual misconduct with a minor, and sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, almost 100 felony sexual abuse charges in total. Dascalowitz’s attorney is likely to have his client plead insanity. In order for our community to be safe, we need to show the public and Judge Riviezzo that we will not tolerate these crimes against our children and that we believe perpetrators of these heinous sex crimes should be held accountable in a court of law.

At previous court appearances, Dascalowitz has managed to garner support from individuals who mock, intimate, and harrass Dascalowitz’s victims and witnesses outside the hearings. The Voice of Justice is calling upon the Jewish community to gather in the courtroom on Wednesday February 23, 2011 at 9:00 AM to show support to victims of this dangerous admitted criminal, and their families.

To show your support of Dascalowitz’s victims, to demand justice, and to send a message that criminals who abuse children in the Jewish community deserve to and will be punished, please attend the Dascalowitz plea hearing below:

Wednesday, February 23, 2011
9:00 AM
Kings County Supreme Court
320 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY
Judge Riviezzo

THE REAL PROBLEM IS NOT TALKING ABOUT “IT” TO OUR CHILDREN, AT HOME AND IN SCHOOL-PART TWO

THE UOJ ARCHIVES - JULY 13, 2006

What I write below will likely not be news to any of the intelligent people who read this blog and support UOJ but may be news to some people on the fringe.

The most upsetting part of the whitewash meeting held at YTT in June in which David Mandel and Aron Twerski spoke – besides Rabbi Twerski’s undeserved, premature, ill-timed and ill-advised “haskamah” of Margo as “a man of great honor” - is this part of the story as reported by Jennifer Friedlin in the Jewish Week:

“[W]hen an audience member asked whether sex education could help to strengthen children’s knowledge of inappropriate behavior and empower them to come forward if someone violated them, Mandel responded that sex education was ‘not something realistic’ in a community that stresses modesty.”

There is so much wrong with that sentence, that it sends shivers up my spine.

1. Sexual abuse has about as much to do with sex and sex education, as rape has to do with making love.

What we have learned over the past thirty years is that rape is not a sex act but an act of violence and violation, of dominance, control and power. Many rapists, although clearly not all, have difficulty finding voluntary sexual partners. While they do achieve their own sexual gratification during the rape, it is through fear, power, intimidation, (and not through the intimacy shared between lovers) that is the tool to their climax. It is sick, perverse, criminal and traumatizing.

Similarly, sexual abuse of minors is not an act of love. It is a sick, perverse act of seduction of the helpless, of taking advantage by wielding power, intimidation, humiliation and violence. It is no less traumatizing than rape – for in its essence, it is rape.

2. Although sex education should be taught in all yeshivas, one can teach about sexual abuse without even using the term “sex” – and without getting into the mechanics of sex and sexual education.

We have really great educators who have spent decades testing age appropriate sexual education from very young ages (e.g., 4-6-year-olds and up), and every study shows that it does not cause an increase in teenage sexual activity – despite our primitives beliefs in the Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox community to the contrary.

But lets say we’re right. Let’s say that Mandel is right – that sex education in a community that stresses modesty is not realistic. Teaching about abuse and about unwanted touching of a child’s private parts, and what is inappropriate behavior on the part of parents, teachers, Rabbis, and camp counselors, has nothing to do with sex! It can be taught without causing nightmares, without causing trauma, without talking about the mechanics of sex, etc.

There are well-trained, frum professionals: social workers, psychologists, doctors and nurses who are ready to come into our schools and inform our kids in a way that will make them feel less traumatized and less stigmatized about what has happened to them and about coming forward. It can be discussed by these professionals in a frum and tzne’usdikeh way.

But we refuse to do it. Why??? Because we are our own kids worst enemy! We are led by small-minded naysayers, by the “sha-shtill” crowd – the Margulies, the Twerskis, the Mandels, the Shafrans, the Schicks of our world - who believe that if we don’t talk about it, if we hush it up, it is a smaller problem that it really is, it will go away or it won’t even exist.

WE ARE SICK!

Not too long ago, I remember when the more modern yeshivas were faced with the following dilemma: They became fully aware of the fact that there are anorexics and bulimics in the girls’ schools. They knew there are drug experimenters among the boys and the girls. But if we teach them about the evils of these practices, aren’t we admitting to the world that THE KIDS IN OUR SCHOOL ARE BAD KIDS? Won’t the schools NOT tackling these problems point at those who do and say “They have that problem; not us.” And won’t that cause parents to enroll their kids elsewhere?

To an extent, the yeshivas were right. Small-minded people sometimes do think that way. But to their credit they came up with a solution. The modern day schools all banded together and decided to introduce those topics into their schools AT THE SAME TIME. They said, “We don’t know if it’s a problem here, but we do know it exists and we want to help our kids avoid it. So we’re not going to stick our heads in the sand ever again.” And besides the education they offered to their high school students, they made parents attend sessions at night on these topics. I attended them more than once. They had yeshiva kids who had been through drug rehab come and tell their first hand stories and talk about how wasted they were and how they almost lost their lives. Let me tell you, there is nothing more disturbing and nothing leaves a greater impression on you, than seeing a boy in a yarmulke or a girl in a long black skirt tell you about how they woke up after a three-day drug binge and didn’t know what day or time it was, where they were, or in whose bed they had slept – and what they had done there.

I thank God that those yeshivas had the courage to institute this education.

We need the same courage to introduce the subject of sexual abuse. And it cannot be limited to the modern yeshivos. It has to be across the board, in every one of them, including the chasidishe ones.

3. We have to teach all our children in school about inappropriate touching. We have to teach them about child abuse and the difference between a “potch” and a beating. We have to talk to our children about spousal abuse. And who to talk to if they witness it and how to report it.

And it can’t be reported to our existing ill-equipped rebbeim and principals. It has to be appropriately trained counselors, ombudsman and watchdogs.

And this education must take place in the schools for the following reasons:

(A) Most parents will not discuss it with their children at home.
(B) Most parents are not trained to discuss it properly.

We must have blanket education of all of our kids on this subject in a uniform manner in order for it to be most effective.

I’ve seen and reviewed the Torah Umesorah guidelines on child abuse. In and of themselves, they are not bad. The problem is: (1) They have not been uniformly and widely implemented, and are NOT mandatory (2) Without educating all our children about abuse, the guidelines are meaningless even if they were implemented and (3) There is no one in place who is appropriately trained for our children to report abuse to.

We can talk to our girls about taharas hamishpacha, we can discuss in graphic detail their menstrual flow, about why they should use sanitary napkins and not tampons, about why they should not hand a sefer directly to a rebbe – but we can’t talk (to our girls and our boys) about inappropriate touching!? I find that absurd.

I know that there are some stickers in frum homes with an abuse hotline number on it. But it is not in enough homes.

I guarantee you that for every call to Hatzalah, there is someone who should be calling or wants to call an abuse hotline, but doesn’t know whom to call. There should be an abuse hotline sticker under every Hatzalah sticker in every Jewish home.

And none of that matters if we don’t educate our kids in school about what abuse is and isn’t.

Watch 60 Minutes - Sunday - February 20, 2011

Sen. Scott Brown has revealed he was sexually abused by a camp counselor as a child.

Published February 16, 2011
FoxNews.com

The Massachusetts Republican, who rose to political stardom when he won the seat held by the late Ted Kennedy a year ago, is expected to discuss the childhood abuse in his book, "Against All Odds."

Saying he's never told anybody about the trauma, Brown opened during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" set to air Sunday. Though he also suffered physical abuse at the hands of his stepfathers, Brown revealed he was sexually abused, multiple times, by a camp counselor who threatened to "kill" him if he talked about it.

"Fortunately, nothing was ever fully consummated, so to speak, but it was certainly, back then, very traumatic," Brown said. "He said 'If you tell anybody, you know, I'll kill you. I will make sure that no one believes you.'"

Brown said not even his mother knew about the abuse, explaining he was "embarrassed" and "hurt" by what he went through.

"When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you," the senator said.

Brown issued a brief written statement Wednesday addressing the subject matter in his upcoming book.

"My book is about overcoming obstacles. The physical and sexual abuse is in my book," Brown said. "It's a part of my life, but it certainly isn't the only part of my life story which I tell. My book will be out on Monday and I hope people will read it and be inspired by its message."

A Brown aide noted that when he was a state legislator, Brown worked on a number of bills to toughen sex-offender laws and strengthen protections for victims. He also proposes eliminating the statute of limitations for sexual abuse.

According to CBS, Brown explained in the interview that writing about the incidents felt cathartic. In the interview, he recalled how he also at one point wished he could have bought the house where he used to live with one abusive stepfather when it came up for sale -- so he could destroy it.

"I said, 'Man, I wish I had the money. I'd just buy this thing and burn it down,'" Brown said.

He suggested his past has made him stronger as a politician.

"When I'm getting the crap beat out of me outside, in the political spectrum, I'm like, 'Psst. This is nothing. Bring it on. Let's go'."

"No, People Will Make Us Free!"

U.S. Policy to Address Internet Freedom
By MARK LANDLER - THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: February 14, 2011

WASHINGTON — Days after Facebook and Twitter added fuel to a revolt in Egypt, the Obama administration plans to announce a new policy on Internet freedom, designed to help people get around barriers in cyberspace while making it harder for autocratic governments to use the same technology to repress dissent.

The State Department’s policy, a year in the making, has been bogged down by fierce debates over which projects it should support, and even more basically, whether to view the Internet primarily as a weapon to topple repressive regimes or as a tool that autocrats can use to root out and crush dissent.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will lay out the policy in a speech on Tuesday, acknowledged the Internet’s dual role in an address a year ago, and administration officials said she would touch on that theme again, noting how social networks were used by both protesters and governments in the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries.

The State Department plans to finance programs like circumvention services, which enable users to evade Internet firewalls, and training for human rights workers on how to secure their e-mail from surveillance or wipe incriminating data from cellphones if they are detained by the police.

Though the policy has been on the drawing board for months, it has new urgency in light of the turmoil in the Arab world, because it will be part of a larger debate over how the United States weighs its alliances with entrenched leaders against the young people inspired by the events in Tunisia and Egypt.

Administration officials say that the emphasis on a broad array of projects — hotly disputed by some technology experts and human rights activists — reflects their view that technology can be a force that leads to democratic change, but is not a “magic bullet” that brings down repressive regimes.

“People are so enamored of the technology,” said Michael H. Posner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. “People have a view that technology will make us free. No, people will make us free.”

Click On Link To Read The Entire Article:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/world/15clinton.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=globaleua2

Belsky Hazmana to Greenwald

Coming to America!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/4633892/Adults-who-turn-a-blind-eye-to-kids-abuse-will-be-prosecuted


Failure to protect a child from abuse will finally become illegal this year, more than 12 months after Justice Minister Simon Power first announced it.

Mr Power said in December 2009 that the Government would make it a crime for adults to turn a blind eye to risk of death, serious injury or sexual assault of a child or vulnerable adult, such as the elderly, in their homes.

This followed Law Commission recommendations in the wake of the deaths of twins Chris and Cru Kahui in 2006.

Mr Power had said he would introduce a bill early last year as part of reform of the Crimes Act. However, this work had proved complex and the tougher child abuse laws would now be enshrined in separate legislation, the Crimes Act Amendment Bill, he said yesterday. He hoped to make an announcement before the end of next month.

"The legislation will ensure that it will no longer be an excuse to say you were not involved in abusing a child when you lived in the house and knew of the abuse taking place."

Prime Minister John Key, in a statement to Parliament yesterday, confirmed legislation would include tougher penalties for child abuse and measures to improve the treatment of children who appeared in court as witnesses and victims.

Further changes may stem from a ministerial inquiry into the case of a nine-year-old Auckland girl who was allegedly tortured by her parents, and the abuse concealed by several people.

"Despite decades of good intentions from government, we're still failing too many of our kids," Mr Key said.

The Law Commission recommended doubling to 10 years the maximum sentence for cruelty to children after the Kahui case, in which no-one was convicted and relatives were reluctant to co-operate with the police investigation.

All Too Familiar With All Corrupt Systems - Rich at the Top - Uneducated and Desperate at the Bottom!

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/hosni_richest_in_world_GREpxbXwb5jEUu0ygxikzM?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d519e06a76ae0d3%2C0

Mubarak Worth More Than $70 Billion - NEWSMAX.COM

Friday, 04 Feb 2011

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his family have amassed a fortune estimated at $70 billion according to analysis by Middle East experts poll by the London Guardian. And very little of that stash is kept in his own country, they say. Much of his wealth is in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast.

How does a dictator get so rich? Over 30 years as president, and before that a senior military officer, allowed Mubarak has access to the oligarchs who control much of the investment capital in Egypt’s very closed, highly bureaucratic system. Investment deals have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits for Mubarak. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in up-market homes and hotels.

According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.

His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.

Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, told the Guardian that the estimate of $40 billion to $70 billion was comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.

"The business ventures from his military and government service accumulated to his personal wealth," she told ABC news. "There was a lot of corruption in this regime and stifling of public resources for personal gain.

"This is the pattern of other Middle Eastern dictators so their wealth will not be taken during a transition. These leaders plan on this."



Poverty: Trapped by a poor education
By Heba Saleh

Published: December 15 2010 16:48 | Last updated: December 15 2010 16:48

The unpaved, rubbish-strewn alleys of Ezbet Gabra Zarifa, a Cairo slum, are in shadow because the shacks are huddled too close together to allow the sunlight to penetrate. The area is on the eastern edge of the city near the tanneries where its people find irregular low-paid work. It is one of many pockets of extreme poverty dotting Egypt and housing the poorest 20 per cent of the population.

But Ezbet Gabra Zarifa is also the scene of a two-year pilot project, sponsored by the government, which aims to break the transfer of poverty from parents to children. The Conditional Cash Transfers scheme gives mothers in 165 selected families a monthly stipend of $35 against obligations which include keeping children in school, attending meetings on health and hygiene and, crucially, receiving guidance and a monthly visit from a social worker.

“The cash transfer helps me to pay for lessons for my daughters,” says Reda Saad, an illiterate mother of four who lives with her entire family in one room. “My husband’s job is to unload trucks carrying skins to the tanneries. He might earn E£20 a day [less than $4], but it is irregular, so he doesn’t always bring money home.”

Hania Sholkamy, the anthropologist heading the programme, says work has already started to take it to 44,000 families in villages in the governorates of Assiut and Sohag in Upper Egypt. Rural areas in the south account for more than 40 per cent of the poverty in the country.

“This is the only programme that creates capacity to deal with poverty,” she says. “It provides a social protection floor which has to come before you can even give something like micro credit.”

Roughly 20 per cent of Egyptians live below the World Bank poverty line. Another 20 per cent, who hover above it, are considered near-poor. According to the government’s latest household expenditure survey in 2008, four-fifths of Egyptian families have less than $3,000 to spend each year.

Reducing poverty remains one of the government’s biggest challenges. So far, economic growth has had only a limited impact on those at the bottom of the scale. Before the global crisis hit, growth averaging 7 per cent between 2006 and 2008 produced a reduction in poverty from 23.4 per cent to 18.9 per cent. Since then, however, one of the highest rates of food price inflation in the world has wiped out much of the gain, with the poverty rate reaching 21.6 per cent.

Expensive food has added to the pressures on Egyptians, provoking a long string of localised protests and strikes by civil servants and workers. Protesters’ demands have been focused on the issues of pay and benefits and the government has usually tried to satisfy them, preventing their anger from acquiring a more political hue.

In addition, tough policing and the regime’s low tolerance for dissent ensure that opposition movements remain weak and unable to capitalise on public disgruntlement over prices.

To forestall any potential social explosion, Egypt has for decades subsidised some food and all fuel for its citizens. This year $11.5bn is allocated to fuel and $2.3bn to subsidising food, accounting for just over 20 per cent of all public spending and costing more than health and education combined.

Ministers say they recognise that the subsidies are a blunt and wasteful weapon for combating poverty, often benefiting the rich more than the poor and diverting valuable resources from crucial sectors such as infrastructure, health and education. There are plans to phase out some subsidies and better target others, but the implementation is expected to be gradual and hampered by fears of adding to both inflation and social disgruntlement. The start date is not likely to come before presidential elections next September.

“Egypt’s poor – generation after generation – have been marginalised and deprived of those rights which have been shown to break the cycle of poverty,” says this year’s Egypt Human Development Report. “Egypt is way behind other middle-income countries, let alone emerging economies, in raising basic standards of health, nutrition and education of the most vulnerable members of its population, namely children and youth.”

The report says that low educational attainment is the big factor in transmitting poverty across generations. It describes education as “the most obstinate divide that discriminates across society between the haves and the have-nots”. It recommends an overhaul of the country’s basic educational and vocational training systems.

Indeed, paying for private lessons for children who are already attending state schools is one of the heaviest burdens on poor families.

The World Bank says that spending by families on education is 2.5 times the amount spent by the government. Even the very poor find that they have to set aside hefty chunks of their small incomes to pay for lessons, sometimes from the same teachers responsible for their children at school.

Costly education, along with pressures that force the poor to send their children to work, mean that the drop-out rate is highest among the lowest strata of society. This in turn ensures that the children of the poor end up with low-paid work and fail to emerge from the poverty trap.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation Successfully gets Court to Throw out Subpoenas against UOJ & other Bloggers!

IMPORTANT - Zev Brenner's Radio Show Will Be About Israel Weingarten SATURDAY EVENING MIDNIGHT!

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This coming Saturday night, January 29, at midnight, , the Zev Brenner show will lead off with with a segment about Yisroel Moshe Weingarten. Weingarten is a Satmar hasid convicted of crimes relating to sexual abuse of his daughter. There will be important new information from Mr. Max Gold, an attorney from the United Kingdom. He represented Leah Weingarten against her father at the request of leading ultra orthodox rabbis in Gateshead. He will discuss the reasons these rabbis got involved and some of the evidence against Weingarten. Others on that segment include Rabbi Yosef Blau and Mr. Abe Kiss of Monsey.

The Zev Brenner Show airs in NYC on WMCA 570 AM, WSNR 620 AM, and in Miami on WKAT 1360 AM.

The show is also live streamed at http://www.talklinecommunications.com/

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On Friday, January 21, 2011, The court tossed out the subpoenas seeking the identities of UOJ's anonymous commenters in the Hersh v. Cohen matter. This means that Google and Yahoo will not be required to turn over the names in question pursuant to the subpoenas. The court noted during the hearing (and as we had argued), the Plaintiffs had not been able to satisfy their burden to demonstrate that any of the statements generally complained about were actionable or even relevant to the current litigation.

On behalf of myself and all Bloggers (Jewish or otherwise) nationwide, I am grateful to the EFF, Matt Zimmerman Esq. and his team, the Fordham Law Clinic and Ron Lazebnik Esq. for their tireless efforts on our behalf and on behalf of all Americans guaranteed under our Constitution to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression.

Thanks Matt. Thanks Ron.

UOJ

This Man (Rabbi Malinowitz) is a Danger and Must Be Stopped!

Dear UOJ,

I am a member of Bais Tfilla Yona Avraham, the shul of Rabbi Malinowitz in Ramat Bet Shemesh. As you know Rabbi Malinowitz has put a cherem on Lema'an Achai, the great chesed organization of our city.

His ban has to do with his strong opinion of not reporting child abuse to the authorities. David Morris, the founder of Lema'an Achai is an advocate for children safety and protection. This has put him at odds with Malinowitz.

Instead of making a personal issue with Morris, Malinowitz has chosen to punish David through a ban on Lema'an Achai. Although I continue to support tham I do know that most of our shul follows the ban and this has hurt Lema'an Achai in a serious way.

Well it looks like someone has finally had enough. I received this letter in the mail which addresses the issue and provides a letter of support for Lema'an Achai that Rabbi Malinowitz signed before david Morris became invloved with child abuse.

It is simple then that the ONLY reason Malinowitz has banned them is their founder's stance on child protection.

This man (Malinowitz) is a danger and must be stopped.

Sincerely,

********

בס''ד

Dear Fellow BTYA Member,

A terrible situation exists in our community and the time has come to address it. For way too long the exceptional organization, Lema'an Achai, has been banned from official fundraising inside BTYA. The time has come for us to open our hearts to this noble cause and the great work that they do in Ramat Bet Shemesh.

ולא שת לבו גם לזאת

Our Rav, a well known תלמיד חכם doesn't allow Lema'an Achai to actively fundraise in our shul. This is the case even though there are members of BTYA as well as scores of RBS families who receive assistance on a regular basis from them. The Rav is aware of this and yet….
ולא שת לבו גם לזאת



Why doesn't the Rav allow them to fundraise? Why does he encourage people to give elsewhere? Only because he has a personal issue with a board member of Lema'an Achai. And what is the issue? The policy of whether or not to report child abuse to the authorities. So rather than agree to disagree agreeably with this board member our Rav has decided to punish him through Lema'an Achai and the poor of our community.

ולא שת לבו גם לזאת

New members to our community who don't know the history mistakenly think that there is something inherently wrong with Lema'an Achai. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Rav has openly supported Lema'an Achai in the past as the attached letter proves. He now uses this campaign against Lema'an Achai simply as a tool of revenge.

ולא שת לבו גם לזאת

Lema'an Achai has nothing to do with this issue and yet the Rav continues to ban them from the shul. The Rav must know that we can hold him as our rav and posek and still disagree with his policy against a most worthy tzedaka and chesed organization. We can support the Rav and Lema'an Achai. Let us use this time of the שובבי''ם to fix the avla being carried out in our community. Lema'an Achai doesn't discriminate in who it helps because of the person's shul. We shouldn't discriminate against Lema'an Achai because of our shul!

Ask yourself…am I doing all that I can and should for Lema'an Achai?

Sincerely,

BTYA Members Who Love the Rav and Lema'an Achai

The Yated gears up for war on Jewish bloggers!

Guest post by poster "Tropper-Hersh-Kranczer"

The latest USA English Hamodia ALSO had the same ad as the Yated of January 14, 2011, denouncing the Internet by the Moetzes Council of Torah Sages of Agudath Israel of America:

On page C17 of January 12, 2011 HAMODIA, in Hebrew with English translation is the full page "Kol Koreh" ad against the Internet, signed by Rabbis Aron Shechter, Aron Feldman, Avroham Levin, Harari Raful, Dovid Feinstein, Aryeh Kotler, Shmuel Kaminetsky, Yaakov Perlow, Yitzchok Feigelstock, Simcha Ehrenfeld.

The ad was put in both the Yated and Hamodia to make sure that all sectors get the message, since Yated is geared for the "Litvish" crowd and the Hamodia is meant for the "Chasidish" crowd.

But here is the really BIG news, in case anyone has any remaining doubts that the new front, and it is a serious one, being opened up here is against the entire Internet, specifically the Jewish blogosphere, that does not take its orders from Agudah World Headquarters, go read the lead EDITORIAL in the same edition of the Yated that carries the anti-Internet ad from the Agudah rabbis, written by none other than the Yated's publisher and editor in chief Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz with the screaming headline on the USA English Yated Ne'eman, January 14, 2011, page 3, continued on page 48, that shouts out:

"Editor's View

IT'S TIME TO TAKE A STAND

by Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz"

Go out and buy or get a copy, it's still around, and read it for yourself! It is an outrageous and provocative DECLARATION OF WAR against the Jewish blogosphere by Rabbi Lipschutz in turn now acting as a puppet for his bosses, a move so blind and reckless, that it's obvious he has been ordered to do so and it is in sync with the unfolding WAR ON THE JEWISH BLOGS that really started in all seriousness with the Hersh case when he included them in his legal (?) defenses/attacks, then with the recent attacks against the VIN news blog, the attack on Jewish blogger Harry Maryles by Matzav.com a puppet site of Yated, and now the reposting and repetition of old "bans" against the Internet in general in the Yated and Hamodia, and now the Yated owner driving home the message, in case anyone was in any doubt what the aim is here, in Rabbi Lipschutz own words based on contorted logic:

"...Liberal bloggers and journalists have for days been blaming Rush Limbaugh [for the shooting by a deranged man of a congresswoman in Tucson, Arizona]...A similar campaign to disparage frum Yidden in the religious Jewish media has been underway for some time...by anonymous BLOGGERS, and certain publications...these people, by virtue of their access to the public through a so-called "religious" BLOG, have the ability to promote their agenda...the purveyors of daily doses of scandal and morbidity are able to draw in a wide circle of unsuspecting readers...On these BLOGS, religious leaders are consistently vilified...they are portrayed as corrupt, willing tools of strongmen. The people who write, post and comment on the insiduous BLOGS are upset about the way frum Yidden help each other...those who take aim at our leadership...will be EXPOSED and SHUNNED".

Thank you Rabbi Lipschutz for clarifying what is going on and who is in your gun-sights. It proves that the simultaneous "kol koreh" is NOT really aimed at the problem of online porn, but on a much "bigger" (for you) problem, the bloggers you hate so much because they feel free to exercise their democratic right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech, indicating freedom of thought.

Thank you Rabbi Lipschutz for also clarifying that you have now openly aligned yourself with Michael Hersh whose attacks on freedom of speech are being fought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) (retained by UOJ on behalf of all Jewish bloggers) posted at "Hersh v. Cohen" http://www.eff.org/cases/hersh-v-cohen. Child-abuser Hersh has the full backing of Rabbi Aron Shechter, who you are now trying to cover for at all costs by creating more side-shows who is nervous after posts on a truly "religious blog" run by a Haredi rabbi in Jerusalem revealed that Hersh lawsuit:Case dismissed with prejudice against most defendants, January 4, 2011, and that what may be next in line about Hersh appeals dismissal of case - next step might be a countersuit involving Yeshiva Chaim Berlin! January 7, 2011, and not backing off that Hersh case: Everything was done under Rav Aaron Schechter, shlita's supervision January 9, 2011, on such a "religious blog" run by Rabbi Dr. Daniel Eidensohn who in turn seeks his guidance from Rav Moshe Sternbuch whose weekly Torah teachings you approvingly publish each week in your paper.

So what are you going to do? Start a WAR ON THE JEWISH BLOGGERS that will backfire because it will:

1. Irrevocably drag you and your paper the Yated and your OWN Matzav.com blog into a morass of legal and ethical questions revolving around the hot button issues of freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the freedom loving USA. Remember, you are not in Czarist Russia now.

2. Irrevocably tie you in and drag you down with the drawn out unpopular (except with Aron Schechter) case of Michael Hersh that already has the Electronic Frontier Foundation fighting on behalf of the bloggers and Jewish media: "July 14th, 2010 - EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters Privacy and Anonymity at Risk in New York Conspiracy Suit, that first Hersh/Shechter wanted to destroy and now joined by you through the Yated and your Matzav.com news blog. Is this the road you want to go down? The EFF will be more than happy to take you on!!!

3. Your WAR ON THE JEWISH BLOGS will get the attention of the general media and will certainly get the attention of the worldwide blogosphere on the world-wide-web, and the kind of things you are threatening like destroying anonymity and fighting bloggers rather than dealing and writing and responding to the legitimate issues they raise.

4. It will make you look so tyrannical and old fashioned that you may lose what little readership you have. At most your paper that reaches tens of thousands of your already-converted flocks, who don't have time for papers because the serious ones are learning daf yomi, struggling with parnosah, or in kollel or raising and supporting large families, will lose out as millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions of Jewish and non-Jewish readers online will be disgusted with your tactics and goals and zeal to do the wrong thing by covering up corruption and shutting up people who are seeking the redress they don't normally get.

5. By launching an all out WAR ON JEWISH BLOGS you will be compounding the problems by adding fuel to the flames and you will not be able to get away alleging that you are merely protecting the innocent from online pornography or the good name of the Gedolim, but you, and the people behind you, meaning the very Moetzes Council of Torah Sages that you are trying to "shield" will be seen for what it is once questions will be asked what all the fuss is about, and then you will have to answer why you remain silent about the Tropper-Hersh-Kranczer and other scandals, yet you attack those who do want to talk about it and seek realistic solutions. This will reveal not just how out of touch you are about the realities of technology, the Internet, the Information Age and modern communications, and stifling debate in a free society, but YOU will be responsible for creating a truly global chillul Hashem.

Unfortunately the omens are not good for you. The three mega chillul Hashem's of the Tropper-Hersh-Kranczer fiascos under the tutelage of Rabbi Aron Shechter, have not resulted in him pausing in his mad quest to destroy and stifle all murmurings he hates, but now with this WAR ON THE JEWISH BLOGGERS being twinned by you to that same battle that Hersh/Shechter have been waging against the same Jewish bloggers, will make you, the Yated, Matzav.com, partners to an even bigger chillul Hashem, r"l.

Kindly also note that Aron Shechter is already in automatic cherem (because he is a lo tzayis dino and being a mesarev ledin) after he refused to answer a hazmona to a din Torah from Rav Moshe Feinstein z"l and after rejecting three hazmonas from the Satmar CRC Bais Din over 30 years ago, see CRC Summons 7392, CRC Summons 7572, CRC Summons 7573.

Think it over, is it worth it for you and your backers? Remember you will never be able to shut down the Internet and it is all-pervasive, as you well know. You can still pull back from the cliff.

RABBIS DECLARE CONVICTED DAUGHTER RAPIST - INNOCENT!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/11/2009-03-11_rabbi_israel_weingarten_found_guilty_of_.html

Rabbi Israel Weingarten found guilty of molesting daughter
BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, March 11th 2009, 9:21 PM

A Hasidic rabbi who defended himself against charges of molesting his daughter over a seven-year period was convicted on all counts Wednesday by a jury in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The victim, now 27, was escorted into the courtroom by U.S. marshals for the verdict, and sat in the front row opposite six siblings, ages 13 to 23, who support their father Israel Weingarten.

Showing no emotion after he was found guilty of transporting the victim to Belgium, Israel and New York to commit sex crimes against her, Weingarten complained to the judge that he did not have time to prepare for the trial.

Weingarten faces up to 50 years in prison when he's sentenced by Judge John Gleeson on April 3.

The victim dresses in modern clothes, wears makeup and has left the Satmar sect. She agreed to speak to reporters and was asked how she felt being cross-examined on the witness stand by her father.

"Like being molested again," she said. "He thought he still had power over me. I think it was cruel to do that to me."

"I wish he wasn't my father."

The victim was adamant about being in the courtroom for the verdict. "I've been waiting my whole life for this," she said. "I didn't think the day would come when there would be justice, and I had to see it with my own eyes."

The mother and a brother of the victim testified on her behalf, with the mother saying she caught the pair in bed once and the brother saying their father had brainwashed them. They were not in court Wednesday, but the other six of Weingarten's children lashed out at the victim, their mother and the government.

"My sister? I didn't look at her. She's not even human," said Yakev Weingarten, 18.

Another sibling, Chayeh, who testified that her mother molested the victim, said they will hire a lawyer to appeal the conviction.

Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell called the verdict "an important vindication for victims who have the courage not only to survive the ordeal of sexual abuse, but to come forward despite outside pressure."

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:

May God Bless You Mr. President!

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/obamas-arizona-speech-transcript-video/69467/

President Obama's Arizona Speech: Transcript
By Garance Franke-Ruta
Jan 12 2011, 8:55 PM ET
As Prepared for Delivery.

To the families of those we've lost; to all who called them friends; to the students of this university, the public servants gathered tonight, and the people of Tucson and Arizona: I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow.

There is nothing I can say that will fill the sudden hole torn in your hearts. But know this: the hopes of a nation are here tonight. We mourn with you for the fallen. We join you in your grief. And we add our faith to yours that Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the other living victims of this tragedy pull through.

As Scripture tells us:

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.

On Saturday morning, Gabby, her staff, and many of her constituents gathered outside a supermarket to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and free speech. They were fulfilling a central tenet of the democracy envisioned by our founders - representatives of the people answering to their constituents, so as to carry their concerns to our nation's capital. Gabby called it "Congress on Your Corner" - just an updated version of government of and by and for the people.

That is the quintessentially American scene that was shattered by a gunman's bullets. And the six people who lost their lives on Saturday - they too represented what is best in America.

Judge John Roll served our legal system for nearly 40 years. A graduate of this university and its law school, Judge Roll was recommended for the federal bench by John McCain twenty years ago, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, and rose to become Arizona's chief federal judge. His colleagues described him as the hardest-working judge within the Ninth Circuit. He was on his way back from attending Mass, as he did every day, when he decided to stop by and say hi to his Representative. John is survived by his loving wife, Maureen, his three sons, and his five grandchildren.

George and Dorothy Morris - "Dot" to her friends - were high school sweethearts who got married and had two daughters. They did everything together, traveling the open road in their RV, enjoying what their friends called a 50-year honeymoon. Saturday morning, they went by the Safeway to hear what their Congresswoman had to say. When gunfire rang out, George, a former Marine, instinctively tried to shield his wife. Both were shot. Dot passed away.

A New Jersey native, Phyllis Schneck retired to Tucson to beat the snow. But in the summer, she would return East, where her world revolved around her 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and 2 year-old great-granddaughter. A gifted quilter, she'd often work under her favorite tree, or sometimes sew aprons with the logos of the Jets and the Giants to give out at the church where she volunteered. A Republican, she took a liking to Gabby, and wanted to get to know her better.

Dorwan and Mavy Stoddard grew up in Tucson together - about seventy years ago. They moved apart and started their own respective families, but after both were widowed they found their way back here, to, as one of Mavy's daughters put it, "be boyfriend and girlfriend again." When they weren't out on the road in their motor home, you could find them just up the road, helping folks in need at the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ. A retired construction worker, Dorwan spent his spare time fixing up the church along with their dog, Tux. His final act of selflessness was to dive on top of his wife, sacrificing his life for hers.

Everything Gabe Zimmerman did, he did with passion - but his true passion was people. As Gabby's outreach director, he made the cares of thousands of her constituents his own, seeing to it that seniors got the Medicare benefits they had earned, that veterans got the medals and care they deserved, that government was working for ordinary folks. He died doing what he loved - talking with people and seeing how he could help. Gabe is survived by his parents, Ross and Emily, his brother, Ben, and his fiancée, Kelly, who he planned to marry next year.

And then there is nine year-old Christina Taylor Green. Christina was an A student, a dancer, a gymnast, and a swimmer. She often proclaimed that she wanted to be the first woman to play in the major leagues, and as the only girl on her Little League team, no one put it past her. She showed an appreciation for life uncommon for a girl her age, and would remind her mother, "We are so blessed. We have the best life." And she'd pay those blessings back by participating in a charity that helped children who were less fortunate.

Our hearts are broken by their sudden passing. Our hearts are broken - and yet, our hearts also have reason for fullness.

Our hearts are full of hope and thanks for the 13 Americans who survived the shooting, including the congresswoman many of them went to see on Saturday. I have just come from the University Medical Center, just a mile from here, where our friend Gabby courageously fights to recover even as we speak. And I can tell you this - she knows we're here and she knows we love her and she knows that we will be rooting for her throughout what will be a difficult journey.

And our hearts are full of gratitude for those who saved others. We are grateful for Daniel Hernandez, a volunteer in Gabby's office who ran through the chaos to minister to his boss, tending to her wounds to keep her alive. We are grateful for the men who tackled the gunman as he stopped to reload. We are grateful for a petite 61 year-old, Patricia Maisch, who wrestled away the killer's ammunition, undoubtedly saving some lives. And we are grateful for the doctors and nurses and emergency medics who worked wonders to heal those who'd been hurt.

These men and women remind us that heroism is found not only on the fields of battle. They remind us that heroism does not require special training or physical strength. Heroism is here, all around us, in the hearts of so many of our fellow citizens, just waiting to be summoned - as it was on Saturday morning.

Their actions, their selflessness, also pose a challenge to each of us. It raises the question of what, beyond the prayers and expressions of concern, is required of us going forward. How can we honor the fallen? How can we be true to their memory?

You see, when a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations - to try to impose some order on the chaos, and make sense out of that which seems senseless. Already we've seen a national conversation commence, not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health systems. Much of this process, of debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future, is an essential ingredient in our exercise of self-government.

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do - it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.

Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding. In the words of Job, "when I looked for light, then came darkness." Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath.

For the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man's mind.

So yes, we must examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future.

But what we can't do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.

After all, that's what most of us do when we lose someone in our family - especially if the loss is unexpected. We're shaken from our routines, and forced to look inward. We reflect on the past. Did we spend enough time with an aging parent, we wonder. Did we express our gratitude for all the sacrifices they made for us? Did we tell a spouse just how desperately we loved them, not just once in awhile but every single day?

So sudden loss causes us to look backward - but it also forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships with those who are still with us. We may ask ourselves if we've shown enough kindness and generosity and compassion to the people in our lives. Perhaps we question whether we are doing right by our children, or our community, and whether our priorities are in order. We recognize our own mortality, and are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth, what matters is not wealth, or status, or power, or fame - but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others.

That process of reflection, of making sure we align our values with our actions - that, I believe, is what a tragedy like this requires. For those who were harmed, those who were killed - they are part of our family, an American family 300 million strong. We may not have known them personally, but we surely see ourselves in them. In George and Dot, in Dorwan and Mavy, we sense the abiding love we have for our own husbands, our own wives, our own life partners. Phyllis - she's our mom or grandma; Gabe our brother or son. In Judge Roll, we recognize not only a man who prized his family and doing his job well, but also a man who embodied America's fidelity to the law. In Gabby, we see a reflection of our public spiritedness, that desire to participate in that sometimes frustrating, sometimes contentious, but always necessary and never-ending process to form a more perfect union.

And in Christina we see all of our children. So curious, so trusting, so energetic and full of magic.

So deserving of our love.

And so deserving of our good example. If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost. Let's make sure it's not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.

The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better in our private lives - to be better friends and neighbors, co-workers and parents. And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy, but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud. It should be because we want to live up to the example of public servants like John Roll and Gabby Giffords, who knew first and foremost that we are all Americans, and that we can question each other's ideas without questioning each other's love of country, and that our task, working together, is to constantly widen the circle of our concern so that we bequeath the American dream to future generations.

I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here - they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

That's what I believe, in part because that's what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation's future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations.

Christina was given to us on September 11th, 2001, one of 50 babies born that day to be pictured in a book called "Faces of Hope." On either side of her photo in that book were simple wishes for a child's life. "I hope you help those in need," read one. "I hope you know all of the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart. I hope you jump in rain puddles."

If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.

May God bless and keep those we've lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America.

Monday's Cholent!

Transcript of conversation that went on in scene pictured above: (The picture was in the NY Times)

Bishop Dolan: Hi, Reb Chaim Dovid. How is the molestation cover up going?

Rabbi Zweibel: Well, so far only one major lawsuit against Torah Temimah, Baruch Hashem. But people are starting to go to the police.

Dolan: Well, as long as we can make sure that the Markey Bill doesn't pass, the Statutes of Limitations should keep the molesters safe in New York. You know we have been paying a big price to protect the pedophile priests around the world. Over 3 billion dollars in settlements so far.

Zweibel: Why didn't you do something to stop this horrible scandalous situation?

Dolan: We tried. We sent the predators to therapy and switched them to new parishes.

Zweibel: You want to hear a good one? Some Jewish people are saying you should have actually gotten rid of the pedophiles!

Both of them share an intimate chuckle.

Dolan: Right, like we would ever admit that we have perverts in our church, and that we made mistakes. Don't they realize that our religion says the the Pope is infallible and therefore we can't really say we did anything wrong?

Zweibel: I know. I know. We have a doctrine called "Daas Torah". It is more recent, because traditionally Judaism gave respect to rabbis but never had a concept of Gedolim being perfect and knowing the answers to all issues. Around 1984, Reb Elya Svei and students of Rav Shach came up with this idea in order to consolidate political power. But you would not believe what we have to go through in order to maintain people believing in this hoax.

Dolan: I'm sure you have propaganda newspapers magazines and websites, no? What is it called, Yated Ne'eman?

Zweibel: Yes, and Hamodia, and Mishpacha magazine, and Yeshiva World News and Matzav.com, but now there are blogs like UOJ and Failed Messiah that expose all of our crimes and every attempt we make to convince the people that we actually give a damn about their children's safety.

Dolan: And Orthodox Jews read them?

Zweibel: Not so many, because the Moetzes Gedolim has enough respect that when they attacked the bloggers and the advocates for children's safety as presumptuous promoters of the idea that they know what's better for the Jewish people, most people fell for it. But there are many learned Orthodox Jews who are starting to publicize the true Torah perspective and show how we have hijacked the religion, which is making us look very bad. They now have this site called VIN that simply tells the stories of the child abuse.

Dolan: Sounds scandalous! What can you do?

Zweibel: We put a ban on the site, and that should show them who's boss. They have not discussed the issue of child abuse ONCE since the ban. It is holding strong.

Dolan: Wow you rabbis know what you are doing. If I were a molester (and I'm not saying I'm not) I wish I was an Orthodox rabbi so I would have you guys backing me and my religious right to molest. What about the legislation for safe schools?

Zweibel: Well, because of the JBAC, we had to go along with the idea of fingerprinting being mandatory, but we are not too worried about it actually happening. I mean if it did happen, that would be terrible. So many child abusers who are trained as teachers, would be out of a job, and their families out of a breadwinner. But as long as Shelly Silver is in power, the bill will never even come to a vote, yet alone actually pass. I mean, we were recently able to stop New Jersey from making Yeshivas safe from bullying. That would have been terrible.

Dolan: To tell you the truth, I wasn't quite sure why you were against the anti-bullying law.

Zweibel: No offense, but you have a "goyishe kup". Don't you see that if they can tell us not to bully then it could lead to forcing us to accept the homosexual lifestyle? I mean gay rabbis and teachers is one thing, but gay marriage??? Gay kock in yam!

Dolan: I hear you Dovidel. I never heard that "yam" thing before, some special yontiff food huh? Anyway... You know, the Pope actually had to make a couple of apologies. It was very precarious for a moment with the risk that people would see this as an admission that he acted immorally, because apologies usually mean that you did something wrong, and when that thing is allowing the rape and sodomy of innocent children it usually causes people to think you are a bad person. But Baruch Hashem, as you say, people are still falling for the pomp and circumstance of the Vatican, believing that the Pope is holy and that the Catholic Church is actually a spiritual enterprise.

Zweibel: By the way, wasn't the current Pope in the Hitler Youth Movement as a teenager? Is he an anti-Semite?

Dolan: True, and that did get in the way of one of our plans for defending ourselves. We tried to blame the whole sex abuse scandal on the liberal Jewish media, but people called that anti-Semitism, so we were back to the drawing board.

Zweibel: People can be so cruel. Look at what they are doing to unborn children with abortions.....and then the way society wants to treat innocent child molesters.....Its truly an outrage.

Dolan: All I'm saying is lets lower the rate of abortions. And lets lower the rate of attacks on child molesters. The Church has always taught to turn the other cheek. We want the victims of abuse to do that. To turn the other cheek to their molesters (or as Cardinal Bernard Law used to say to his priests, "turn to other cheeks") and allow them to continue to fulfill their God given appetite for young kids.

Zweibel: We don't have that particular doctrine, but I could not agree with you more. We believe in Mesirah, that forbids turning dangerous criminals over to the authorities who could throw them in jail and deprive their families of a breadwinner. We also have a similar concept of "Pidyon Shvuim" getting Jewish criminals out of jail. We will go all out for Jewish criminals. We bring all segments of Orthodox society, Chassidish, Yeshivish, Modern (they are not really Orthodox according to Rav Svei and Rav Gifter, but we need their financial backing so we pretend sometimes) in order to show the federal government what we have shown the Brooklyn D.A.. That you can't just make a power grab from the rabbis. That if you arrest one Jew, whether innocent or guilty, it is as if you arrested all of us. This way the Feds will think twice.

Dolan: Brilliant. What do you think would happen if you let up on this campaign?

Zweibel: Think about it. If the government thought they could prosecute us at will, they would have to put a fence around Williamsburg, Borough Park and Lakewood for all the tax evasion, money laundering, fraud and corruption. Then they would start with the Rabbinic sex offenders and Orthodox child abusers. Don't ask. We Agudah rabbis ourselves are covering up for Mondrowitz, Eiseman, Shapiro, Juravel, Storch, Weinberg, Kolko, various Tendlers, Michael Hirsch, Nussbaum, Reichman, Abrahamson, Gelbwachs, Eisgrau, Bryks, Templer, Brenner, Borger, Reich, Levitt, Kolko, Jr., Tropper, and on and on. We're even helping a recent fugitive from justice, Kranczer who ran to Israel. We have our connections there hiding him.

Dolan: Makes you long for the good old days when no law enforcement agency would dare start up with religious leaders who are the real arbiters of morality. The days when a cover-up was a cover-up! And when wearing a collar or a beard and payos meant never having to say you were sorry. We clergy were able to dupe people into trusting us with their money, their minds and their children.

Zweibel: Oy. We need Moshiach.

Dolan: Amen, brother, amen. He'll be back soon!....And Dovidel my liebling, if you're not busy after this meeting, come on over to my office, I want to show you a very little thing.

Remembering R' Kamyan a"h

Those of us from old Williamsburgh , Torah Vodaath of South Third St., Bais Medrash Elyon probably would remember Kamyan. To most he was a vagabond, a survivor of the Camps that found his way to Torah Vodaath, a person who lost his mind - nebach, who always needed a shower and whose last meal was always on his beard.

Not to me.

When my family moved from Williamsburgh to the new neighborhood, they thought it would be a great idea for me to spend many Shabbosim at the home of Rav Yitzchak Karp zt"l and Rav Alexander Linchner zt"l. They shared a Brownstone right around the corner from the Mesifta. Of course we davened in the yeshiva on South Third St.

Rabbi Linchner sat in the absolute rear-est chair in the bais medrash and Rav Karp a few rows before him. So when I came for Shabbos, sometimes I would sit next to Rav Linchner and sometimes next to Rav Karp. By kriat haTorah, I would stand in close proximity to the bimah, watching with fascination the process that would go into deciding who would get an aliyah.

If my memory serves me right, R' Shmuel Dishon was gabbai for at least part of the years of my visits to Williamsburgh, beginning when I was about 8 years old, up until my bar-mitzvah.

I was 8 or 9 years of age when this distinguished looking visiting rav was given shishi. Years later, I learned his name was Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth, who eventually became the Chief Rabbi of Belgium and a nephew of Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky ztvk"l, the Rosh Hayeshiva.

And the reason I even remember the incident, was because one hour before Mincha, he was going to address the bais medrash with his brilliance in Torah, "unsurpassed by anyone in America" with his ability to recite any blatt in the entire gemora with his photographic memory (Shas - or the entire Talmud Bavli) by the page number and within a few words of getting it right by the line.

The Rosh Yeshiva would almost always get the third aliyah, shlishi, and the sixth aliyah, shishi, for the most part, was reserved for visiting dignitaries.

Of course I went with my hosts to the highly anticipated drasha from this visiting "rare" talmud chochom, "one in the world"!

I used to stare at R' Kamyan when I visited, he would walk around the bais medrash mumbling to himself, totally disheveled, once I even remember he had no shoes. He would scour the trash cans for food, look underneath the tables for any signs of left over food, although the bais medrash was cleaned immaculately before Shabbos. Tears always welled up in my eyes, especially once I was told that RSFM ztvk"l, had obtained a student visa for him from Poland - after he literally saw his entire family shot to death in front of him as he was left for dead. Somehow he survived and lived in the YTV dormitory until he passed.

I was told he rarely had any lucid moments, but on that very rare occasion that he was lucid, he cited and recited Torah from all over Shas flawlessly.

So when the "distinguished" talmud chochom took the shtender from the omud to give his drasha, the bais medrash was - standing room only - you could hear a pin drop!

Now I was about 8 years old so please cut me some slack on the tiniest of details, but some 20 minutes into the drasha, Kamyan strolls into the bais medrash. He was mumbling to himself and looked like he was crying, but he was absolutely not disturbing anyone. This "distinguished" visitor looked over at him. Now Kamyan was never seen in public without a black hat and dark suit and a flowing beard, so it was not like some Puerto Rican walked in or something. Rabbi Kreiswirth seemed very agitated by this "intruder", but he continued as Kamyan walked the aisles.

Kamyan stops; he shouts "DAF YUD DALED AMUD ALEPH"! AGAIN AND AGAIN!

There was a commotion, people running over to Kamyan, trying to silence him as he keeps repeating himself! Now, I'm at the bimah, and this "distingushed" rav is now angry and shouts repeatedly "VER IS DER MISHUGENER?"

By now, Kamyan is silenced and escorted out of the bais medrash, and some minutes later Rabbi Kreiswirth continues until Mincha.

After we arrived home for Havdalah, the two rabbonim were explaining to their rebbetzins, my Shabbos hosts, the incident that had transpired at the yeshiva as I stood bewildered in the corner of the small kitchen.

R' Kamyan was right, Rabbi Kreiswirth was wrong when he had quoted a blatt by its page number in mesechta Zvachim.

SO I ASK?

VER IS DER MISHUGENER? UN VER IS DER BEHAIMA?

In my view: Banning bans

by Dr. Michael Salamon

Last week we were informed that we can no longer visit Vosizneias.com whose tag line is “The Voice of the Orthodox Jewish Community” and is a website devoted to bringing news, albeit in a somewhat sanitized version, to the ultra-Orthodox community. This widely advertised ban which was approved and signed by over 30 Rabbis was collective and directed at all of us. All good Jews were instructed to stop reading this news site. Some investigative news sources tied this specific ban directly to a news article which appeared on the site that linked members of the community to illegal activities that resulted in a criminal investigation. Therefore, because of legitimate news reports that certain individuals wish to keep buried the wide readership who get their news from this source are now being told that this news service is a non-kosher resource.

Then just a few days later we were notified that we may not listen to radio, even Haredi radio stations, by another group of Rabbis who endorsed this ban. This prohibition is a larger problem then the prior bans we have heard against selected musicians and music stations that may have played secular music or music played on guitars. This ban is against listening to the radio, any radio, at all. It seems to me that these latest two sanctions are, at least for me, a new way of viewing the philosophy of bans in their entirety. I do not mean because the prohibitions impact me directly, at best their impact is very secondary. I mean that many of the people who use Vosizneias and listen to appropriate Jewish radio programs are caught in a conflict between what they are led to believe is reasonable and fair and part of normative religious practice and what they are now told is illegitimate to do if they are to be a member of the tribe.

To read the entire "Banning Bans" click on the link below:

http://www.thejewishstar.com/stories/In-my-view-Banning-bans,2138?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=ban&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=&town_id=

Yu Know I Feel Allchrright!

VOLUME UP!

I Got Nothing!

The Mother of all Kol Korehs!

MUSIC TO BE PLAYED WHILE READING THE MOTHER OF ALL KOL KOREHS!

by Anonymous Torah WikiLeaker Letz:

CLICK ON MEZUYEF KOL KOREH IMAGES TO ENLARGE:


Nevala Na’asesah B’Yisroel! V’cheyn Lo Yaaseh!











An abomination has been done in Israel!

A tzadik and talmud chochom and ba’al chessed, Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, has been reported to the police for raping his daughters, and has run away to Israel to escape going to jail. First and foremost our hearts are broken for this great man, a close friend of the Gedolei Yisroel, Reb Ahron Shechter and Reb Laizer Ginsberg, Shli’ta. All Jews must stand together in support for this righteous man, who is also the principal of Yeshiva Tehilla L'Dovid for special needs students. Rabbi Kranczer, Shli’ta has done so much good, and so much chesed that he makes even other tzaddikim of our generation like hakodosh Martin Grossman and the Spinka Rebbe pale in comparison. All Jews must come to the aid of this holy individual, who is now being persecuted because he is a Jew.

We strongly and vociferously condemn the actions of the daughters in reporting private behaviors to the authorities:

1. Firstly, it is not tznius to talk about these things, and the girls described disgusting acts in more graphic details than a “Chosson Shmooze” from Rabbi Gissinger in Lakewood, which is an act of nivul peh. Bnos Yisroel should allow themselves to be raped rather than to discuss such not tznius events. Even when we discuss so called “child molestation” we never describe the exact actions that are being done to children. And although the Novominsker Rebbe, Shli’ta said it is now time to sweep the problem out from under you carpet, this is not what he meant - what he meant was its high time you bought a new carpet! We have made it abundantly clear that blogs and the media are not acceptable places to discuss these problems. And besides, Reb Matisyahu Salamon still says that it should be swept under the newest carpet for the purpose of the dignity of the molester. Reb Avraham Chaim Levine said publicly on tape that we NEVER publicize the names of molesters! Certainly the girls did not mean to have the story public, but they should have known that going to the police would make it so, R”L.

2. Secondly, the actions of these girls have placed a needless risk of financial burden on the holy mossad that their father was running. Did they not know that as the administrator, his being forced to leave would hurt the yeshiva? Did they not know that yeshivas are the lifeblood of our community? Have they not heard the Novominkser Rebbe, Shli’ta state publicly that while we “feel bad” for the victims of abuse, the foremost concern of all Yidden must be the mosdos that we, the gedolim own and use to give shtellas to our children and son-in-laws?

3. Furthermore, the actions of the daughters are against Halacha, because many gedolim have ruled that to report allegations of abuse to the police is mesirah. Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, Rabbi Malkiel Kotler and other gedolim have ruled against going to the police. Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, Shlit’a, has stated publicly that such behavior “would not be tolerated” in our community. These girls are to be punished and no school should accept them, the same way as in Lakewood the boy who reported his rape to the police was not allowed in any school. Keep in mind that some of the so-called crimes they accuse their father and brothers of are acts that did not even include penetration, and therefore are not technically abuse according to Moron Harav Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg, Shli’ta.



4. Finally, the worst aveira these girls did was, of course, acting without consulting daas Torah. They arrogantly presumed to know what was better for them to “protect” themselves from the abuse. Only we, the rosh yeshivas, can divine what is best in all situations. Girls, boys, young men and women and parents have no right whatsoever to try to protect themselves from being raped without consulting daas Torah to find out what we have divined. The Novominkser Rebbe, Shli’ta said that parents should warn their children about abusers, but not chas v’chalila to do anything to stop abuse. He said clearly at the Fressers Convention - "The anus (Litvish for onus) is to be placed completely on the child to protect himself or herself, and they should be taught that they must always act al pi daas Torah, like their molesters".

We must reiterate in every language of warning that all allegations of rape, sodomy and child molestation should be reported ONLY to rabbis and a beis din. As Rabbi Shlomo Gottesman said publicly at the recent Agudah convention, the first person to go to is the school principal. He said that today in 2010 there would not be any cover ups. In fact the Yeshiva that Rabbi Kranczer ran, found out months before the police and did not cover it up. They had him resign, and then the girls were surely safe.

What possible good could come out from going to the police?

We must continue to ignore that the principal may BE the molester, such as in the Gerrer Mesivta in Boro Park, where Rabbi Lazerovitz molested dozens of boys, and Satmar Yeshiva in Williamsburg where Rabbi Reichman was the principal for years and was also guilty of molesting many boys. We must ignore the fact that Reb Ahron Feldman, Shli’ta, Rosh Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, is currently continuing to cover up the sex crimes against bochurim of Moshe Eiseman, Shli’ta. Serial molester Rabbi Chaim Abrahamson in Monsey, has been dealt with by Yeshiva of Spring Valley, and Reb Shmuel Kaminetsky has agreed to allow it to be covered up just as all the rest of the cases he knows about. Rabbis Kotler and Salamon, correctly refuse to allow, chas v’shalom the parents of the little boys who allege that Rabbi Eli Gelbwachs physically assaulted their four year olds’ "JUNK" to go to the police, R”L, so that Gelbwachs is still free to work for Hatzala in Lakewood.

Despite the Novominsker’s speech, we must be more vigilant in stopping people from exposing these cover-ups, and making a chillul Hashem. The only way for us to be mekadesh shem Shamayim is for victims of abuse to keep quiet about it, and for anyone who knows about it to refrain from going to the police. In this zechus, may we all merit the Moshiach.

Donations to help the “pidyon shvuim” campaign for Rabbi Kranczer can be mailed to the Novominsker Rebbe (he takes all major credit and debit cards for your convenience) ((except the DiamondCard)) the Munkatcher Rebbe, Shli’ta or directly to attorney Ben Brafman, or attorney Nat Lewin who will I”YH be handling the appeal. The Yated Ne’eman and Hamodia will be reporting about Tehillim Asifas (gatherings) for this great tzadik.

Signing for the Kavod of Daas Torah:

Aharon Shechter, Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, Shmuel Kaminetsky, Yaakov Perlow, Aharon Feldman, Avraham Chaim Levine, Dovid Feinstein, Mattisyahu Salamon, Reuvain Feinstein, Lipa Margulies, Yisroel Belsky, Moshe Eisemann, Avraham Mondrowitz, Yudi Kolko, Chaim Abrahamson, Sholom Tendler, Lipa Brenner, Yisroel Weingarten, Mattis Weinberg, Leib Tropper, Shmuel Zev Juravel, Ben-Zion Sobel, Avraham Lazerovitz, Tzvi Wainhaus, Lipa Templer, Mordechai Tendler, Boruch Mordechai Lebovitz, Shmuel Borger, Aaron Tendler, Avraham Reichman, Yosef Aharon Kolko, Emanuel Yegutkin, Yosef Ratzinger...

To My Gentile Friends - No Wonder Your Guy Was So Ticked Off At Us! Happy Holiday!

Ban, Ban, TalisBan!

18 Av 5767 - August 2007..in the goyishe calender..feh... | Mordecai Plut - drektor-

Published Weakly Without Spellcheck

Shame Yisrael Toirah Nutworks

Z'NEWS BULLETIN

Psak Halochoh

ISSUED WITH MESIRAS NEFESH FROM UNDER OUR BEDS IN THE REB MEIER AL Z. HEIMERS MOSHAV ZEKANIM

BS"D, Av 5767

We were appalled and trembling to hear of the terrible breach in our camp in the form of concerts featuring singers and chazanim who sing before men and women in mixed company Rachmono litzlan and even with separate seating, mamash.

Previous gedolei Yisroel totally banned these events - even though there were none, but in their infinite wisdom they knew that there will be many - even where there is separate seating (they can't fool us - we know they sit together in the car). As such we hereby state our combined ignorant and idiot opinion, which is based on irrefutable daas Torah.

A. Attending these performances is totally prohibited, because we say so -- even though we forgot to take our pills for two years at least - could be more - we just don't remember.

B. The prohibition applies to the organizers and the audience, young and old, middle-aged, senile, people in wheelchairs, people who use cains and walkers, the hearing impaired, fagelech, men, women, children, shul candy-men and rebbeim-- regardless of their sexual preferences.


All the more so on the singers and chazanim, who are inducing the masses to sin, mamash - Rachmana litzlan.

C. Newspapers and advertising circulars should not help by advertising these forbidden events, the transgressors call performances. Even the Jewish Press should restrain itself, if at all possible.

D. The singers and chazanim who appear before a mixed audience may not be invited to sing at any wedding or divorce, chap-a-nosh at the smorgasboard, mooch a free meal, take home the flowers, switch to a newer Borsalino at the coat-check room, steal a bencher, or take home a stranger's wife; nor can any event at which they participate be advertised, including tefillos and so-called kosher events, unsupervised fress Pesach events; in order to avoid lending a hand to these transgressors who we consider to be rishaim gemurim, like nothing ever before in klal Yisroel, ever, ever, aver, erva.

May Hashem Yisborach, in His great mercy and kindness, bring them to do teshuvah before Him - and us - by supporting Kupat H'air, and may we merit the eternal Redemption (not the phony Chabad kind), immediately - before the Kolko trial - azuz yimolei sechok peanuts...., vayihee b'yemai Achasvarush....

Signing for the sake of the sanctity, holiness and purity of our people, with trembling hands, spittle dripping out of our mouths, and with soiled diapers....

Yehuda Kolko

Lipa Margulies

Ephraim Shapiro

Shea Fishman

Moshe Eisemann

Matis Weinberg

Shalom Tendler

Mordecai Tendler

Aron Tendler

Sheftel Neuberger

Grepsel Hamburger

Avrohom Mondrowitz

Ephraim Bryks

Aron Twerski

Avi Shafran

Marvin Shick

Avrohom Leizerowitz

Heshy Nussbaum

Shlomo Mandel

Yehuda Nussbaum

Simcha Kaufman

Shmuel Kaminetzky

Yaakov Perlow

Yosef Sholom Eliashiv

Gershon Tannenbaum

Moshe Heinemann

Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman

Yaakov Aryeh Alter Chaya

Yissochor Dov Petzel A. Kleiner

Pinchos Nisht-Arein Gegangen

Hertz Frankel

Yitzchak Kaduri

Shmuel Halevi Wosner

Yisroel Hazmana Belsky

Mendel Haganiv Epstein

Moshe Hachazir Finkel

Dovid Ha'truckdriver Cohen

Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz

Moshe Chaim Kurva Ben Gil Arayus

Leibish Flynt

Chaim H. Hefner

Lipa Geldwerth

David(Ben Shmuel)Berkowitz

Lipa Brenner

Baruch Lanner

Chaim Pinchos Sheinberg

Bernard(Berish)Law

C. Yonah Mahoney

Tuvyah Ted Bundy

Tzvi Elimelech Zona

Nissim Karelitz

Dovid Twersky

Shmuel Auerbach

Sholom Klass

Yitzchok Sheiner

Marvin Hier

Israel Singer

Philip Berg

Moshe Sherer

Shabbsai Tzvi

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