"Informed sources on the ground in Iraq and Syria say that Israeli Jewish settlers really killed Foley"...

Obama Fist Bumps On The Golf Course After Condemning The Probable Israeli Beheading Of James Foley

To be consistent here is how the NY Times, CNN, the Washington Post, MSNBC and the LA Times should report the death by beheading of the US journalist James Foley:

James Foley was a journalist and investigator into the poverty and underlying grievances behind Middle East terrorism. Foley appears to have died in mysterious circumstances, at the same time that a large number of ISIS activists were killed by American military intervention. The total number of victims of violence over the past week was 340. ISIS is a group of misunderstood militants that is motivated by frustration that its grievances are not being addressed and its reasonable demands met. ISIS emerged because of the inequalities in the world, the underprivileged situation of so many Muslims in the Middle East. Clearly all ISIS wants is its fair share of the pie, but selfish Westerners have refused to conduct good faith negotiations with the leaders of ISIS. Since these leaders had no other choice, they captured Foley and he then became a victim of the cycle of violence begun by the United States. Foley's death was clearly a protest against occupation of Iraqi and Afghan territory by the United States and against European colonial oppression. There is some confusion as to whether ISIS was in fact behind the death of Foley. Informed sources on the ground in Iraq and Syria say that Israeli Jewish settlers really killed Foley. In any case, it is clear that this sort of violence can only end when the American government conducts good faith negotiations with ISIS and meets its reasonable demands.

https://www.facebook.com/steven.plaut.9?fref=nf

"22 Years from Auschwitz to Sharm el-Sheikh" - Spivak is Eloquent but Fundamentally Wrong!

... "If we keep sweeping our problems under the rug we will eventually trip over them. The time has come for us to stand up for ourselves, our children and our communities"

Dave Gordon z"l in action with Givati Brigade

Secrets Don't Get Better With Age: Why I'm Choosing Leadership Over Secrecy

The boy closes his bright blue eyes as he climbs the stairs to the front door of his house. Silently, he enters the internal solitude where he cannot be harmed by his gruesome memories. He's been there before; blocking out his pain has become second nature. It's his only option, his only way to survive. 

He wishes he had the courage to stop them, to say no. He is trapped.

Unable to disclose his mortifying secret, the boy can only fantasize revenge on those vile men whose twisted lustful current raged through their veins. He couldn't escape their eager clutch or their intimidating remarks. The boy was told to be silent. He was always told to be silent. They told him it was immodest to speak up or draw attention to oneself. But what did they know about modesty?

The boy sits silently in seclusion, sweating as waves of fury and nausea wash over him. He feels paralyzed as the repulsive images of his molestation, rape and sexual manipulation replay over and over in his young mind bringing along fresh doses of shame and horror. He dreams of an escape from his Hell. Bright and creative, the boy naturally finds ways to achieve his goal. But the numbing effects of his chemically induced bliss are only short lived. The poison could never quite fully break the shackles of his trauma. As much as he tried, he could not ignore the scattered scars that sexual abuse left on his Soul.

Everybody who cares only hurts him more. When they ask him what is wrong it forces him to confront what he so eagerly tries to suppress. Not wanting to be further harmed, the boy isolates. He just wants the horrors to end and secretly wishes to be forgotten forever.

But the boy is not forgotten. The boy survives. The boy thrives.

The boy is ME. This is my story.

I kept my secret for eight years. For eight years I suffered in silence through the horrors of my own personal Hell. I endured close to a decade of rage, tears and ultimately self-destruction. The memories are nauseating, the shame unparalleled.

As a victim of recurrent sexual abuse by numerous perpetrators within Michigan's Jewish communities, those eight years of secrecy were horrific. Synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the Oak Park and Southfield areas of Detroit provided the secret hideout where I endured multiple forms of molestation, sexual manipulation, and rape from the ages of 8 to 11. But the trauma didn't stop when my abuse did.

Although, the fact that my painful secret was out proved greatly beneficial. It was like taking off a pair of really tight shoes. The pressure eased and although I was far from serenity the expression itself altered the course of my life. Forcing self-honesty and expression was like splitting an atom, but the more I told my secret, the farther it became removed from my psyche. I told trusted teachers, therapists, mentors and friends but, most frequently, I spilled my secret on paper. Writing became my unique and effective form of expression and it enabled me to have a bold voice without excessive public exposure.

If you are a victim of any type of abuse, wherever you are, I beg you for your own sake: Reach out! Secrets don't get better with age so don't keep them boiling inside any longer. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, said "Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways." Trust me, they do.

Years of group meetings and private therapy enabled me to face my reality and find the strength to survive. Did it work? It helped. It would be foolish to think that years of sexual abuse would be reversed in an instant. But along the road I realized that I was not "damaged goods" or another "case-study" or any of the other cliches that so many insensitively label victims. Past the pain, shame, flashbacks and emotional setbacks linked with my abuse, a spark of hope glowed and illuminated my venomous darkness. I wanted to be a positive influence on a global level. I wanted to lift up the downtrodden who shared my pains of abuse and lack of expression and voice. I wanted justice.

But after mustering up the courage to disclose the facts behind closed door meetings with rabbis, I -- like so many others -- was hurt by the lack of results. With a breath of authority -- and without any investigation -- one leader in Detroit's rabbinical court exclaimed that the accusations were "My word vs. The perpetrators' word" and that there was nothing that he was going to do about it. In a further attempt to muffle my cries, he took out a large volume of the Talmud and encouraged me to read the words in a pathetic attempt to comfort my pain and revitalize my Spirit. Simply studying the Bible and its commentaries did nothing to help me or the other victims in the community. I still feel betrayed by their lack of sympathy and action.

The insular Jewish communities of Detroit, Baltimore, New York, and countless other religious, academic and athletic circles throughout North America and beyond can no longer hide their secrets. Huge advances have been made in the pursuit of justice for victims of all types of abuse in areas traditionally shrouded in social stigma and secrecy. Change is coming and justice is thundering in. Lawsuits are being filed and an increasing number of perpetrators are being exposed. More and more victims are getting help, sharing their story and empowering others. More lives are being saved.

But justice is yet to be served. In fact, I doubt it ever will. Unfortunately for many, to date, the death penalty is not an option for convicted perpetrators and -- like a bandaid on a broken arm -- what the judicial system offers is a far cry from true justice. Surely victims cannot change the past and nothing will ever make up for what we have been through. But, at best, our abuse can be pacified with money used to pay off years of debt for therapy as well as temporary jail time to keep those perverted perpetrators' hands off other children.

Is it fair? No, it's not. But I know I can do something positive for humanity, especially for those who were robbed of their innocence by child abusers. I can offer hope, counsel and guidance to the still-suffering. I can be a leader with a voice.

But any good leader knows that they must sacrifice their own comfort as they confront core issues that those less capable choose to neglect. It's what makes a pioneer a pioneer. It's what separates the incompetent faux-leaders of Jewish, Catholic and countless other furtive communities from the true advocates and activists that are literally saving lives.

So I set out to make a difference. I actively pursued my perpetrators through the United States Judicial System and lawsuits are pending. I joined an Israeli-based NGO as a volunteer to support victims of abuse and their families, while also offering counsel and direction to friends and strangers who have been victimized, yet are still silently suffering. And now, I'm using my past and my proficiency to raise awareness about a social issue that's still surrounded by so much negative stigma that many choose to turn a blind eye and shy away from it altogether.

Sexual abuse is an ever-growing epidemic. Although all four of my perpetrators are Jewish, sexual abuse is not limited to religious communities. Before you jump to the conclusion that your social circles are immune from this frightening phenomenon, I advise you to read some of the unforeseen, high-profile cases covered in many media mediums. Furthermore, shocking statistics show that 1 in 4 females and 1 in 6 males will be sexually abused before the age of 18. Today, I personally know over a dozen other victims of abuse in Detroit's Jewish Communities and hundreds of others throughout the U.S. and internationally. It could be your son or daughter or co-worker or friend. Would you even know?

This must stop! If we keep sweeping our problems under the rug we will eventually trip over them. The time has come for us to stand up for ourselves, our children and our communities. It's time to sacrifice the comfort of not tackling serious issues that are awkward and embarrassing and focus on the dignity of human life. If I can have a voice you can too. Take a stand and be a real leader. Blush for a few moments so others don't have to bleed.

One reason why victims of abuse are also called survivors is because so many don't make it. So many are too ashamed to reach out and frequently fall into depression, violence, addiction and ultimately into death's arms. But we can be brave and stand up for what we know is right. Together our voices can be louder than ever. I know that I alone cannot change the world, but together we can make a difference.

If you are a victim of abuse or just want to help those who are still-suffering, please contact:

• National Child Sexual Abuse Helpline: 1-866-367-5444
• Confidential Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-m-gordon/secrets-dont-get-better-with-age-why-im-choosing-leadership-over-secrecy_b_3424110.html

**************************************************************

Dave Gordon went missing this week from the IDF and was found dead today, with his weapon at his side.

As soon as he made Aliya from Detroit, alone, at 21, Dave contacted Magen, the Child Protection Organization based in Beit Shemesh, Israel.

Dave introduced himself as a survivor of child abuse, who now wanted to help others who had suffered similar trauma, and to also raise awareness about the scourge of abuse, in order to prevent further children from being hurt.

Dave's path of coming to terms with his past, and channeling his personal creative talents towards child protection, culminated in a remarkable article he wrote in the Huffington Post, "Why I'm Choosing Leadership Over Privacy".

Dave describes the multiple acts of abuse he suffered as a child, particularly over a period of his life between 8-11. There were several perpetrators of whom four were from his Jewish community.Dave writes about how he divulged his secrets to local rabbis in Detroit, and his disappointment in their response.

Dave concluded his article:

This must stop! If we keep sweeping our problems under the rug we will eventually trip over them. The time has come for us to stand up for ourselves, our children and our communities. It's time to sacrifice the comfort of not tackling serious issues that are awkward and embarrassing and focus on the dignity of human life. If I can have a voice you can too. Take a stand and be a real leader. Blush for a few moments so others don't have to bleed.

One reason why victims of abuse are also called survivors is because so many don't make it. So many are too ashamed to reach out and frequently fall into depression, violence, addiction and ultimately into death's arms. But we can be brave and stand up for what we know is right. Together our voices can be louder than ever. I know that I alone cannot change the world, but together we can make a difference.

When Dave contacted Magen to volunteer, the organization saw Dave's talent for writing, social media - and his deep-set passion for justice and for child protection.

Dave set up a website for Magen, established & promoted media relations, and also helped with specific child protection cases. For example, as a result of Dave's intervention, a known perpetrator was blocked by Magen from continuing his work in an orthodox summer camp for hundreds of kids in the USA. 

When Dave was accepted in the IDF, he temporarily excused himself from taking on further projects with Magen: "Sorry I have been out of touch things - have been quite hectic in the army!"

For Dave, entering the IDF with the prestigious Givati Brigade, completing his grueling combat training, and doing active service in the Operation Protective Edge, was a culmination of Dave's recuperation and rejuvenation. In a last message on his Facebook page, Dave wrote: "unbelievably overwhelmed, not from this mission but from the support and messages of encouragement from family, friends and strangers. I am OK and I've never felt more loved. Thank you all!"

Dave was an embattled & courageous abuse survivor, an eloquent and passionate child protection advocate, and a heroic soldier in the IDF. 

Veyehi zichro baruch - his memory should be for a blessing. 

http://magenprotects.blogspot.co.il/2014/08/dave-gordon-zl.html

Of Batei Din, Girls Seminaries, Vulnerable People and the Internet, Part 2

Guest post by RaP

The war of words between formerly cooperative bloggers who worked against child abuse in the Orthodox world has reached a feverish level. There are accusations flying back and forth that it's becoming like a convoluted legal battle where people lose sight of who the original victims and villains really are.

The online cyber-battle via self-appointed "designated hitters" has devolved to accusations and counter-accusations primarily between two batei din and their online advocates. On the one hand is the original bais din in Chicago ("CBD") that heard and investigated the charges that there was sexual malfeasance at four Orthodox seminaries in Jerusalem by the owner Elimelech Meisels. The CBD issued an official advisory that it was not safe for girls to continue attending these seminaries because of questions about the seminaries ownership and management by people connected to Meisels. 

On the other hand, on the other side of the Atlantic is a group of American-born and educated rabbis constituting an Israeli bais din ("IBD") originally appointed by the CBD to deal with financial issues on the ground in Israel. Somewhere along the way an explosively volcanic rupture ripped the formerly cooperating CBD-IBD apart!

Why and how that is so remains unclear as various accusations, counter-claims, official letters and halachic rulings have come zooming out of each bais din at deafening speed. At one point the IBD,with the "agreement" of R Aron Feldman from Baltimore, (or some firmly believe instigated by Feldman for his own personal reasons, nothing to do with the truth or justice - Moshe Eisemann is still living on the Ner Israel campus), that they were fully handed and empowered to be the sole ones to deal with the case via a "shtar berurim" (a "clarification document" claiming that CBD handed the IBD "power of attorney" or even full "rights" to deal with the "entire" case) that has also become a bone of contention between the CBD and IBD as to how far and comprehensively it goes. While the CBD has consistently stuck to its advisory against attending the seminaries, however the IBD based on its own findings has declared them "safe"!

To make things even more complicated, and with the backing of the CBD, a group of parents of girls who had given deposits to the seminaries have launched a combined class action and RICO legal case in the USA against all four seminaries, their owners, partners and anyone with a hand in their past and new ownership. This has enraged the IBD, not to mention that one of its dayanim (judges) R Tzvi Gartner has been named as one of the co-defendants as well. 

All this has become the grist for the mill of a number of bloggers, namely fighting vociferously for the side of the IBD R Daniel Eidensohn (RDE) versus the blogs of David Morris, Harry Maryles, and mostly against the "Yerachmiel Lopin" blog who are on the side of the CBD. It is not pleasant to watch four blogs that are usually on the same side of sexual abuse issues and usually supporting the same type of victims all of a sudden get into a cannibalistic civil-war "World War Three" mode as RDE fights to the death to defend the point of view of the IBD to the tee, as if he were one of them or as if they could be ghost-writing their responses for him to post.

One question is why RDE is so much on the side of the IBD, to the point that he has abandoned virtually all of his former online blogging allies with put-downs that they are, simply, not up to the level of the IBD and the point of view that he and the IBD are maintaining. It goes further than that, because RDE and the IBD have directly attacked the CBD and its rabbis with the type of accusations one would use for the bitterest of enemies. 

While the CBD has mostly remained silent, issuing letters to affirm their ongoing warnings about not attending the four seminaries, and supporting the legal case against the seminaries and its ownership.

Lost in all this bitter squabbling and personal attacks is what this case is all about, the poor victims, and of course their monstrous tormentor, the disgraced head Elimelech Meisels. One way that the IBD side has been demoting and chipping away at the credibility of the victims, the teenage girls who were allegedly serially sexually molested by Meisels, that RDE has allowed these type of attacks to be posted on his blog, is that the victims were over eighteen years old and therefore "of the age of consent" and hence acted as "consenting adults" when succumbing to the sexually predatory behavior of Meisels.

 In fact, what is being said is that in Israel the "age of consent" is sixteen years of age, implying that the victimized girls have even less of a case were it to be held in Israel. This type of crooked "reasoning" based on legalistic loopholes is purely diabolical.

 In Halachic terms it would rightly be called "menuval birshus haTorah" -- someone who abuses the loopholes in Torah law for their own self-gain, in this case Meisels who not only groomed his vulnerable victims but also knew full well that he could always rely on "loopholes" such as that in the USA the "age of consent" is 18 while in Israel it is 16.

 How reptilian can one get, especially a head of not one but four seminaries for religious Jewish girls! And the IBD seems to be in the fighting corner of this "school of thought" as well, because in addition, in pure Jewish Law the testimony of women is not truly acceptable in a bais din and therefore by calling for the young teens' testimony to be sent to them, and given the IBD's ability to rely on the strictures demoting and pushing out the status of female testimony, it is a sorry state of affairs as the CBD does not want to forward such evidence as this case has become radioactive and to watch the IBD give its "hechsher" based its self-justifying assumption not shared by the CBD or by anyone else, besides the lone voice of RDE -- all this is a hair-raising lose-lose scenario for all concerned!

On another note, another aspect of this battle between the CBD and IBD is that it's about two groups of American Haredi/Orthodox Jews: Those in the USA and a growing contingent of American Haredi Jews in Israel. The rabbis of the IBD are American rabbis who have moved to Israel and set up their power bases over there. And of course at the center of all good fights is who has and controls the money because American seminary girls in Israel @$20,000 - $25,000 per year adds up to a lot of money. Thus, 100 girls per year at one seminary @ $20,000 equals $2,000,000, now that is a lot of money. Imagine four seminaries each with 100 girls in them, that $20,000 x 400 = $8,000,000 which is an awful lot of loot and no wonder it is something that the Israel-crowd is fighting for so vociferously.

 Bottom line, who controls these funds and who gets to benefit from them is now clearly on the table. Until now the Israeli émigrés were not questioned but now that Meisels who was one of their lead tycoons is banished in shame, there has to be accountability and responsibility. The CBD has authorized that the money spigot be cut off for these four seminaries and no wonder people in Israel are screaming and tantruming and deploying every last Halachic legalism because a lot is at stake!

A word about the rotten apple who started all this: Elimelech Meisels who has just disappeared from view when the attention of all should be on him and what he did. He was forced to resign not because he was a "hero" or a "victim" there are horrible allegations against him. But instead of focusing of what went wrong, how it was allowed to happen and who enabled it and covered up for him, according to the CBD it involves staff at the four seminaries, while IBD has not named anyone, the arguments now all function as huge red herrings and online tangents newly reframed as a battle between batei din and rabbis while the teenage girls victims and their tormentor are hardly mentioned.

====

...The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews. It was not Jews alone who suffered under Hitler and Stalin, nor is it Jews alone suffering from the ruthless pursuit of power that today masquerades as religion...

The hate that starts with Jews never ends there 

16 August 2014

MORALITY & ETHICSRELIGION & SPIRITUALITYSOCIETY & COMMUNITYTHE JEWISH PEOPLE & ISRAEL

The novelist Rebecca West once said that Jews, having suffered so much, had an “unsurprisable soul”, In 2000 our daughter, then a university student, attended an anti-globalisation rally in London that turned into a tirade against America, then Israel and finally Jews. “Dad, they hate us,” she said through her tears. Hearing those words in Britain in the 21st century showed me that I had a surprisable soul.

Jews in Europe have been shaken these past few weeks by the virulence of the demonstrations about the war in Gaza that also turned into something older and darker. More than a century after the Dreyfus trial the cry of “death to the Jews” has been heard again in the streets of Paris. Seventy years after the Holocaust, “gas the Jews” has been heard again in Germany. In Britain last month antisemitic incidents were at almost their highest level in 30 years. These are danger signals not just for Jews but for Europe.

After our daughter’s experience I saw events move rapidly. In August 2001 at the UN international conference against racism in Durban, Israel was accused by NGOs of the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide and crimes against humanity. A new blood libel was born. Days later came 9/11, and almost immediately an opinion poll found that 40 per cent of Pakistanis believed it was carried out by Mossad, Israel’s secret service.

The new antisemitism is different from the old. In the past Jews were hated for their religion, then for their race. Today they are hated for their nation state. But it was not long before I saw how seamlessly the old and new hatreds meshed.

In April 2002 our family was in Italy celebrating Passover, which usually falls close to Easter. In Israel a group of Palestinian terrorists had taken refuge in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Israeli army, not wishing to enter a house of worship, stationed soldiers outside to wait until the terrorists emerged. It took several weeks. One day we opened the Italian newspaper La Stampa and saw a cartoon of the infant Jesus in a crib with an Israeli tank pointing at the child. The caption read: “Surely they don’t want to kill me again?!”

Weeks later the Catholic Herald in Britain published an apology about its reporting of the event. Initially it had criticised the Israelis. However, once the terrorists had left, Christians returned to the church to discover they had torn up bibles, stolen all religious artefacts of value and hidden 40 bombs, some booby-trapped, to kill or injure those who had given them refuge. The paper admitted that it had misjudged the situation.

It has been this rush to judgment, the assumption that if people are killed it is Israel’s fault, that convinces many of us that something other than the normal passions of politics is at work. In the 12 years since, the situation has become steadily worse. Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism, but demonisation is.

This matters because antisemitism is not really about Jews. It is about how societies treat the Other, the one-not-like-us. For more than 1,000 years Jews were the most conspicuous non-Christian presence in Europe. Today they are the most prominent non-Muslim presence in the Middle East. Jews were hated because they were different. But it is our difference that constitutes our humanity. Because none of us is the same as another, each of us is irreplaceable. A nation that has no room for difference has no room for humanity.

The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews. It was not Jews alone who suffered under Hitler and Stalin, nor is it Jews alone suffering from the ruthless pursuit of power that today masquerades as religion. Christians are under assault in more than a hundred countries: put to flight in Syria, driven out of Mosul, removed from Afghanistan, butchered, beheaded and terrorised elsewhere. Hundreds of Muslims are dying daily, 90 per cent at the hands of fellow Muslims. Bahais, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs have all suffered their own tragedies. Yazidis are on the brink of the abyss. The world is awash with hate across religious divides.

The West misread the 21st century. This is not an age of secular ideologies. It is an era of desecularisation. Our greatest challenge is not political or economic or military. It is in the deepest sense spiritual. No one expected this and we have not been equal to it. What rescued Europe from its last age of religious wars, in the 17th century, was not weapons but ideas: those of Milton, Hobbes, Spinoza and Locke that laid the foundations for religious liberty and the free society. Thus far the 21st century has been marked by an unprecedented series of new technologies, but no new ideas.

That is the challenge of our time and it will take a generation. First, we must stand together in defence of religious liberty and the scandalously neglected Article 18 of the UN universal declaration of human rights. People have the right to practise their faith, or lack of it, without fear. But without determined action on the part of the West it will not happen.

Second, we need a commitment by leaders of all the great faiths to work to ensure the rights of religious minorities in every part of the world where they have an influence. None of us will win if we work alone: not Jews, not Christians, not Muslims. The victim cannot cure the crime.

There is serious spiritual work to be done. The 17th century curbed religious conflict by depriving faith of power. That does not work in an age where religious extremists are seizing power. Here we need theological courage. The historic danger in monotheism has been the willingness of believers to divide humanity into the redeemed against the infidel.

To guard against this, Genesis 1, common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, says that every human being, regardless of colour, class or creed, is in the image of God. Our shared humanity takes precedence over our religious differences. Until we are prepared to take this seriously, people will continue to kill in the name of the God of life and practise cruelty in the name of the God of compassion. And God himself will weep.

http://www.rabbisacks.org/hate-starts-jews-never-ends-published-times/

Seventy years ago, Jews were being gassed at Auschwitz and worked to death at Majdanek. Now, they put on the IDF uniform and proudly bear arms, fighting back against those who seek our destruction

 Sanctified through sacrifice: The holiness of the IDF uniform

It lay precariously on the arm of the chair, its copious wrinkles betraying the long, hard slog that its wearer had recently endured. If it could talk, if it could somehow describe what it had seen and heard over the past month in Gaza, my son’s drab olive-green uniform would surely have quite a tale to tell.

Looking at the hardy fabric, I picked it up and held it in my hand, assessing its texture like an expert jeweler scrutinizing a precious stone. But before I knew it, my thoughts had strayed, wandering from the material in my grasp to more cerebral matters of the mind. And a few poignant subjects of the heart.

This, I told myself, is what my son had worn during his foray into Hamastan, from where he and his unit had thankfully emerged unscathed.

This is the attire that he had slept and fought in, this is the garb that he was unable to change for weeks on end, as it absorbed his sweat along with his experiences.

His uniform, I suddenly realized, had an irrevocable bond with him – one that I could not, and will not, ever have.

This unassuming piece of clothing had been to war with him and back, while I, his father, could do little more than pray and worry from afar.

The simple fact that he was wearing this uniform, which identified him as an Israeli, was enough to prompt Palestinian gunmen and snipers to fire at him.

“What have I done?” I asked myself in an impulsive moment of guilt. My boy, the child whom I had brought to live in Israel when he was barely a year old, was performing military service and risking his life for cause and country, while young people his age back in America were partying their way through college.

This uniform, this collection of threads, more than anything else, symbolized the sacrifice he was making, giving three of the best years of his life to protect the Land of Israel and the People of Israel.

“Have I done the right thing?” I wondered, posing a question that parents down through the ages have used to torment themselves. I gripped the uniform ever more firmly, closing my hand in a fist, as if to punish it for my very own deeds.

But the Zionist within me would have none of it, swatting away the fleeting dose of self-imposed guilt, bringing me back firmly to a much better reality.

For God’s sake, it berated me, don’t you realize what you hold in your hands? It is a piece of Jewish history, an item that countless Jews for the past 2,000 years could only dream of: A Jewish uniform that belongs to a Jewish army tasked with defending Jews in their own land.

What could possibly be more holy? Seventy years ago, Jews were being gassed at Auschwitz and worked to death at Majdanek. Now, they put on the IDF uniform and proudly bear arms, fighting back against those who seek our destruction.

These garments, which represented the revolution in Jewish existence that had taken place when we regained our sovereignty in 1948, the ones that only a moment ago had caused me to question some of my major life decisions, began to take on a new importance.

The IDF uniform, such as the one I held in my hand, had restored our national pride and reinvigorated our collective sense of destiny. It symbolized the return of the Jewish people to the world stage, and the end of our dependence on the mercy of others, a tangible precursor to the Messianic era.

My grip began to loosen.

And then I remembered two very special stories about rabbinical giants from two very different worlds, both of which underline how essential it is to appreciate what a special generation we are privileged to live in.

Once, a student approached the late haredi leader Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach to seek permission to travel to the Galilee while yeshiva was in session, in order to pray at the graves of the righteous.

After listening to the query, he replied, “To pray at the graves of the righteous, you don’t need to go to the Galilee. You can go instead to Mount Herzl, to the graves of the soldiers who died in sanctification of God’s name.”

And then there is an incident involving the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, head of the RIETS rabbinical school at New York’s Yeshiva University. Known as “the Rav,” he was a pivotal figure in American Orthodoxy.

Once he was visited by a student who served in the IDF and whose job was cleaning and maintaining the tanks. Often his uniform would get dirty and he wanted to know if he needed to change his clothing before reciting the afternoon Minha prayer. The student explained that while it would be possible for him to do so, it would be difficult and very inconvenient.

Astonished, the Rav looked at the student and said, “Why would you need to change? You are wearing bigdei kodesh, holy clothes.”

Indeed, it may be hard for the modern mind to conceive of a piece of clothing as bearing holiness, particularly in our day and age, when the fashion industry has taught us to see the wardrobe as an enhancement of physical beauty.

But the IDF uniform is truly unique. It has been elevated to a special status by centuries of Jewish yearning, and sanctified through the sacrifice of countless young Israeli men and women who have fought to defend this country.

It is not merely a shirt and a pair of pants, but a badge of honor for all who wear it, one that provides our society with a sense of existential cohesion and purpose.

What parent would not be proud to see his child adorn this set of clothes? Normally, it is sons who look up to their fathers as larger than life, flesh-and-blood heroes.

But as I carefully laid the uniform back down on the chair, tenderly flattening its creases and crinkles, I realized that when your son comes home from a war in defense of the Jewish people, the opposite is no less true. 

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Fundamentally-Freund-Sanctified-through-sacrifice-The-holiness-of-the-IDF-uniform-371087

Of Batei Din, Girls Seminaries, Vulnerable People and the Internet...

Guest post by RaP

Something very radical has happened especially in the last five years! Vulnerable populations in the Charedi and Orthodox world have found their voices and are being heard.

The current dispute between a respectable Bais Din based in Chicago, USA ("CBD") and one in Jerusalem, Israel ("IBD") is the latest of an ongoing new phenomenon. Previously defenseless and voiceless people, often silenced or buried by legal tricks if one applies the strictest interpretations of Halachah, have found a way to make their cases openly and publicly with dramatic results -- namely the downfall of their tormentors.

What is now coming to the fore at the core of the dispute between the CBD and IBD is the credibility and reliability of the people at the center of the crisis, the alleged victims the seminary girls who evidently are being "protected" by the CBD while the IBD is indicating that without clear and direct reliable testimony ("eidus") from someone reliable the entire case stands on shaky grounds. But while this may be true from a narrow beit din perspective, in a broader context were the alleged victims of sexual abuse to launch a case in secular courts in the USA, as they now have, and go public (as they have to a degree indirectly via the CBD) the IBD could lose in the court of public opinion not to mention in dina demalchusa dina secular courts that have shown a predisposition to favor the rights of the victims of abuse over those of the accusers and their enablers and protectors in recent years as trends have shown.

Who are these vulnerable people and populations in the Charedi world? It is not hard to put together a very disturbing pattern that has merged with many commonalities and in the end predictable results.

The current vulnerable people are the American seminary girls, usually they are very immature and naive and spoiled, that go to "sem" in Israel for a year. They are a VERY vulnerable population primed unwittingly for the wiles of cunning predators of all kinds, not just rabbis. There are boys who are looking to pick up these girls.

 There are adults who wait for the girls like fishermen waiting for migrating sardines to catch them in their nets of seduction. It is very easy to take advantage of such a weak population of flighty females far from home, lonely and bursting with hormones and romantic imaginations. After all a lot of the talk and the shiurim are about dating, tznius, shomer negiah, and all sorts of "talks" that are really about the "yetzer hora le'arayos" meaning sexual drives and how to deal with this force of human energy. A topic than can and does easily go awry as we see in the current scandal when a so-called notable principal Elimelech Meisels was outed as molesting his students for at least a decade.

Probably the start of this problem as a public discussion goes back to the days of the Mondrowitz case in the USA decades ago. He tricked and groomed boys and girls into trusting him as a "therapist" and when word got out that he was allegedly molesting them he fled. But not before powerful rabbis in the USA accused him of his terrible misdeeds and he was forced to flee to Israel protected by the some in the Chasidic establishment. There have been other cases like this from the Chasidic world.

The real watershed case is the Kolko case where after decades of complaints and again battles between US-based rabbis versus Israel-based rabbis a tug of war ensued, and then real legal cases were launched that forced Kolko's resignation from his yeshiva. The victims were vulnerable young boys who were not believed for many years until too many added up and the cases went viral in secular courts of law per din demalchusa dina and also on the Internet. Kolko was forced to resign in shame.

Another serious case pitting groups of rabbis and batei din against each other was the Tropper and EJF fiasco. At the core of the accusations that finally brought Tropper and the EJF crashing down and in disgrace was the revelation that vulnerable prospective geirim (converts) and baalei teshuva had been coerced into immoral sexual behavior to either get their conversions or get the approval of their rabbi. In the end serious revelations on the Internet following much debate back and forth and always every side claiming it had the support of Gedolim on its side did not help because of the weight of the revelations that in the end were graphically recorded and posted on the Internet and no one could argue. Is this what the IBD wants? graphic videos to be posted on the Internet to prove the alleged victims' cases, it can easily be done with blacking out the faces of the victims to protect against invasion of privacy.

Other cases involved another type of vulnerable person, the "off the derech" (OTD) population. Such was the situation in a case where a father, Michael Hersh with the backing of his rabbi Aron Schechter, sent his young teen son to a far-off island to a "boot camp" to "set him right" to try to change the OTD behavior. It backfired because the case was taken up on the Internet and a huge battle erupted between Gedolei Yisroel about whether to rescue the boy or not eventually involving the US  State Department and civil rights lawyers. Is that what the IBD wants for the current case to reach such proportions? Teen girls have been sexually molested by a sexually-hungry beast in the guise of a "rabbi" and they and their parents are hurting and they seek justice, and they will get it in today's milieu. When kids are desperate they will find protectors and in today's world merely citing strict Halachic "guidelines" is not enough, one needs to have a broader understanding of the world.

 Besides Halacha does not require that victims be ignored. The Torah requires that the voice of a "ger, yasom, ve'almana" (convert, orphan, widow) NOT be ignored! Similarly in the case of a Chasidic "counselor" from Williamsburg where eventually an OTD teen was brave enough to press charges and tell her story to a jury regardless that all the gutte Yidden in Williamsburg did not like it. Because at a certain point vulnerable people get tired of the abuse, then they seek out and find protectors and the alleged perpetrators even land up behind bars for a very long time. Is that what the IBD wants by resisting the demands of the victim teenage girls who were allegedly groped and raped by Meisels as his cohorts covered up and protected him?

Another sad trend are the cases of incest where previously respectable rabbis in the Chasidic and the Litvish world sexually abused their own children for years. In one case after the daughter accused the father a huge court case erupted and the father was jailed even though Gedolim backed him. In another case a daughter revealed her torments to a friend who reported the situation and the father had to flee to Israel.

Israeli batei din and Yiddish-speaking Chasidish communities are better "enforcers" and have "bouncers" and even "hit men" imposing ""group think" and "group disciple" and deploying arguments to defend the more powerful rabbis who have been accused of alleged sexual and abusive behavior. While the English-speaking Charedi world especially in the USA has a relatively easier time going to the secular authorities, as one would call the police if a mugger or burglar or rapist attacked a victim, making their case in courts, and revealing and explaining themselves via advocates on the Internet. That is why so many of the rabbonim speak out against "blogs" what they are saying is we are stronger than you, just come to a bais din (ha ha) and we will prove that you are a "NOTHING" -- which is why the victims are frightened because they know they will be attacked and ripped to shreds.

Another scenario is vulnerable and lonely and needy women who go to rabbis for counseling and somehow find themselves ensnared in compromising situations. This has led to terrible disputes between various batei din and notable rabbis in the USA, UK and Israel. Many notable rabbis have been forced to resign in disgrace!

Yet another group of vulnerables are kids in summer camps and kids in orphanages who have little power to protect themselves against stronger campers and staff members who specialize in terrorizing and abusing campers and the weak. Such cases too have led to major scandals and an awareness of the dangers.

After all when you have, either vulnerable seminary girls, potential geirim, baalei teshuva, lonely women, young boys and children in families all at the mercy of powerful rabbinic authority figures and if that figure happens to be a charismatic rabbi who in turn is backed up by even more powerful rabbis and institutions what chance would the vulnerable people have in facing their accusers in front of a bais din? No wonder they sometimes go off the derech and give up on Yiddishkeit, some tragedies occur when they get deeply depressed and commit suicide out of sheer hopelessness, or turn to dina demalchusa dina in secular courts and are prepared to go to the media even and they win at the risk of being labeled "rodfim" and "mosrim", and of course make use of that great equalizer the Internet from which nothing can be hidden.

Any bais din or posek faced by such challenges and who wants to know how they can believe these kind of weak people ("shvache mentshen") when evidently they assume Halacha tells them to brush them aside, maybe Rav Eliashiv had it right that if there are "raglayim ledavar" essentially meaning "where there is smoke, there is fire" then the victims should be believed because that too is the Halacha and it is yashrus and the truth (emes)!