All the Wrong Policies - Blundering Crooks In Leadership Roles!

The notion that people in leadership positions know what they are doing and care about your welfare, must be exorcised out of your indoctrinated brain. This foolishness was imbibed to you through your mother's milk and is destroying your life. It's like melamine in the Chinese milk, it's killing you, some quicker than others.

The *D-A-A-S - T-O-R-A-H* myth, lie and distortion, is destroying the Orthodox Jewish community -- tearing its guts out and creating - group - mental illness.

These so-called, self-appointed, rabbis/leaders, know nothing about the affairs of the world or care about your welfare. -- At most -- they may be able to explain a difficult R' Chaim.

A father approached me a while back and asked if I could explain the following:

His son -- a disciple of Rabbi Shmuel Feivelson of Monsey, New York (Eliezer Eizgrau's mentor and godfather), was given guidelines by Feivelson -- for dating. One of the guidelines was --- never to open the door of the car for the female -- on a date. It lacked, he said , of appropriate behavior for a ben Torah and a Torah way of life. It was the female, that had to figuratively open the door for him -- because, he, not she -- symbolized Torah.

Further, he said, the young man had to be certain that his potential mate was put into place right from the get-go. Is there any wonder that there is a shidduch crisis - with clowns like this offering Torah-prescribed dating advice?

Soon after -- Feivelson invited himself to address the kollel that I spent my then available time at. I decided that I was going to verify this crass, demented ideology. In brief, Feivelson verified as true, what was told to me. All, except for two people of the chavrei kollel, for their own reasons, waited until he walked in to the beis midrash, started his address -- and en-mass walked out.

Now this hallucinating idiot is advising young men -- on the do's and dont's of frum dating. There are a hundred upon hundreds of these frauds masquerading as rabbis, rosh yeshivas, and school principals, offering advice on topics they are ignorant of. What's worse, that these "pearls" are disguised as "daas Torah"!

There are hundreds if not thousands of frauds masquerading as "treasury secretaries" and in other leadership positions. The Feivelsons and the Paulsons of the world -- should be locked up in a criminal insane asylum.

The stock market is down 22% since Paulson's "bailout" of his Wall St. buddies --- the greatest financial crime in American history, and hundreds of people have left traditional Orthodox Judaism since the greatest crime on American soil by Jews has been exposed --- the cover-up of rabbi sex-abuse in our schools and community!



All the Wrong Policies: Paulson Gets 'F-Minus' from Former Regulator Posted Nov 21, 2008 02:52pm EST by Aaron Task

As bad a year as the stock market is having, Treasury Secretary Paulson is having an even worse one, according to William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri.

The professor, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis and blew the whistle on the "Keating Five" in 1989, says Paulson deserves an "F-minus" for his role in the financial crisis.

"All of his policies made [the crisis] worse," says Black, citing Paulson's:

Pushing for more deregulation of the securities and mortgage businesses.
Failure to recognize the liquidity crisis in credit markets sooner.
Failure to act to stop foreclosures sooner.
Opposition to the government taking equity stakes in financial institutions, until very late in the crisis.
"And he gets the worst grade because as head of Treasury he's also in charge of banking and thrift regulation," Black continues, noting he "destroyed" rather than beefed up supervision. "I hope you like the consequences."

Black, author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One," says there's ample reasons why the financial markets have lost confidence in the Secretary.

He also notes Paulson steered Goldman Sachs into subprime and alt-A mortgage securities before becoming Treasury Secretary in 2006. Goldman began shorting those instruments shortly after Paulson's departure, he notes.

The current crisis is "not a hundred-year flood, that suggests it's an act of God caused by random forces," Black says. "This was one cause by bad policies, the same policies that have caused prior crises."

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Former Regulator: Clear Fraud in Financial Crisis -- Why Isn't Anyone in Jail?

Posted Nov 21, 2008 12:47pm EST by Aaron Task

In the aftermath of the corporate scandals earlier this decade, investor confidence was (partially) restored by a parade of "perp walks" of fallen chieftains like Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and Dennis Kozlowski.

But nearly two years into the bursting of booms in housing and mortgage securities, scant few related arrests have been made — and most of those have been focused on individual mortgage brokers vs. major industry leaders.

"There is no poster child [for the housing scandal] because you need to investigate, and you need to bring cases and we haven't done either against the major players," says William Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri — Kansas City and a former federal regulator.

Black, who was counsel to the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S&L Crisis and blew the whistle on the "Keating Five" in 1989, says investigations have shown fraud incidence of 50% at (once) major subprime lenders like IndyMac and Countrywide.

But even though the FBI warned of an "epidemic" of mortgage fraud in 2004, they subsequently made a "strategic alliance" with the Mortgage Bankers Association, which serves the major industry players.

In this case, the foxes truly were guarding the hen house.

Black notes it was only this year that the total number of FBI agents devoted to mortgage-fraud investigations rose to more than 200. By comparison, during the S&L and Enron investigations in the 1980s and '90s, respectively, multiple task forces totaling hundreds of agents were employed.

"The DOJ has refused to emulate its successes in the S&L debacle, and even dealing with Enron, by creating a large task force that would take on the major fraud participants," Black said. "In this context, that would mean creating a large task force to investigate major, nonprime lenders."

The Continuing Agriprocessors Fiasco...

I choose not to comment on the legal troubles of the Rubashkins - atleast for now. For the news, well...it's available everywhere. I feel like hiding in a mountain cabin somewhere --- I'm sickened by what they've wrought on themselves, and on the furthering of the image of the Jew as money-grubbing thieves.

Thank you - the OU kashruth organization for your complicit involvement in this scandal. Were you to get out when the KAJ did - we would perhaps have avoided the "blood libel" media frenzy. They would have been unable to sell their foodstuff as kosher - and perhaps would have been just another slaughterhouse, not an ultra-orthodox Jewish owned - rabbis endorsed - Torah sanctioned business.

But of course, the rabbis always do what's best for the Jewish community.

To Hersh Weinreb - The executive vice president of the OU, once again you've sold out the interests of the Jewish people for your personal benefit, as you did in Baltimore when you were a rabbi there.

You were aware that Moshe Eisemann was a very ill person that was a danger to children, and you did nothing! Your retirement from Jewish communal life can not come too soon. Good riddance to another Shea Fishman type despicable criminal bozo!
*
Here Comes Steve: (I think he wants my job.)

"The OU is in the licensing business, first and foremost. To them it has nothing to do with kashrus, ethics or the prevention of chillul hashem. It's all about making a buck and the marketing of the OU brand. With Rubashkin, it was a no-brainer for them. They were cashing in for years, based solely on the OU brand, rather than actual hashgocho. For hashgocho, they relied on others, first the KAJ and then Weissmandl.

How reliable was that hashgocho, especially when the owners were of questionable integrity to begin with and the fact that non-kosher meat was constantly in contact with kosher? It didn't matter to the executives at OU Licensing LLC. They were making money and the fact that their logo was on millions of tons of "glatt kosher chicken" and beef was something for them to be proud of. Their executive board headed by CEO Menachem Genack and Kashruth Committee Chairman, the (dis)Honorable Dr. Steven Katz was turning a huge profit with this low-risk, low overhead enterprise.

Their logo became the Versace of the kashrus industry. Or so they tell people. Never mind that they had no presence whatsoever at the Rubashkin plant (Seth Mandel's occasional visit to pick up his check doesn't count), never mind that they affix their logo on thousands of products where they have no presence at the respective factories, never mind that they affix their logo on products that absolutely do not need any hechsher, WHO CARES? They made money and that's all that counts. When they had to actually hire a mashgiach for a restaurant that was under their "supervision", they pulled a Weissmandl and muzzled him! An injunction!

They shut him up! How dare Isaac Bitton state that the chef at Le Marais violated kashrus rules? Isaac is our employee and he must toe the company line. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil! It would be hefseid merubah to lose an account like Le Marais, or chas veshalom, Rubashkin. Kashrus? Ethics? Chillul Hashem? Newspaper articles? They can handle all that. That was until the Rubashkin scandal reached epic proportions this past summer and Genack needed to save face by stating that they must hire a new CEO. No problem. In stepped Sholom's lawyer Bernie, the guy that helped get him out of the Allou money laundering case.

Problem solved!

Rubashkin is all kosher again. Meat for Yom Tov he claimed was the issue. Everybody go back to fressing on their salmonella and feces infested treife. Lawyer Bernie made everything all better, so now the OU can continue cashing in their licensing fees. Genack pulled off what he thought was a brilliant PR stunt.

I'm sure Katz helped him come up with it. After all, Dr. Simcha is no stranger to kashrus scandals. He himself was (is?) owner of Central Glatt Meats, partnered with Brach from L.I. In 1985, there was a small, minor problem, something about a truckload of treife meat, labeled as kosher, headed to NYC from Ohio that was luckily caught by government officials before it made its way onto our dinner plates. It's nice to know that the OU is always looking out for our best interests and making sure we only eat "strictly" kosher products. That's why they only hire the best in the business--that is the licensing business."

UOJ'S ROSH HASHANAH WISHES & FAREWELL!

UOJ ARCHIVES - SEPEMBER 17, 2006 - On the two year anniversary of my "retirement"!

A while back I "retired" from actively and publicly being involved in all the Jewish organizations I was affiliated with. I decided that I can do more for my brethren privately, without fanfare or publicity. I was right. I set up a free loan fund, (gemach) a Tomchei Shabbos type organization, and felt I was helpful to many that were in dire straits.

I did not buy the Jewish newspapers, kept my opinions most of the time to myself, and went merrily about my business. I thought that I would want to keep a personal diary of my experiences, so I started writing as " UOJ - The Un-Orthodox Jew"; simply stated, there was very little I did in my life that was "conventional" or within any particular framework, other than my own.

So I started writing on topics that were important to me and infuriating. The more I looked at the written word, the more upset I seemed to get...Wondering about the therapeutic value of what I was doing. People were contacting me and encouraging me to write on, and were commenting in a passionate manner, pro & con.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I love Judaism and can't stand to see what happened to it. The more I read about the goings on, the more I verified the despicable information coming across my desk, the more I realized the extent that "organized" Orthodox Judaism has been destroyed.

I choose to save whatever remnants of emunah (faith) that remain; any more time I spend looking into the corruption and utter destruction of authentic Judaism, I risk losing all of my emunah. So I say farewell; I do not want to read anymore Jewish newspapers, magazines or blogs, I do not want to hear more and more of the destruction we are wreaking on our children and ourselves, and do not want to verify what I already know; organized Orthodox Judaism is on the precipice of self-destruction.

This is my last post. I will leave comment moderation on until Rosh Hashanah, and will be available by e-mail: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com - until after Sukkot.

Wishing all Jewish people of good will a K'siva V'chasima Tova!

UOJ

The UOJ diaries can be found on three blogspots.

1-unorthodoxjew.blogspot.com
2-unorthodoxjews.blogspot.com
3-theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com

The Ethics of the Rabbis - The Forward - Gets It Exactly Right!

Where does one find "the emes and the law" in the Jewish community? Not in Dovid Zwiebel's mouth! Nor at the OU or in Hassidic communities ---- So where for God's sake does the lying, deceiving, cover-ups, feigned ignorance... get us - and where do we find Torah values? --- In a secular Jewish newspaper - the Forward!.... Moetzes resign, I'm pleading with you --- before you totally destroy whatever is left, not very much I might add, of Torah values in the U.S.A.!



The Ethics of the Rabbis - The Forward - Editorial

On the surface, the crisis besetting America’s largest kosher meatpacker looks a lot like the larger infection that is crippling the nation’s economy and undoing so many iconic brands, from Lehman Brothers to AIG to Circuit City. Like other firms, Agriprocessors fell victim to the arrogance of its owners and the dereliction of outside regulators. Like others, the crippling of Agriprocessors hits hard in thousands of households where daily life was dependent on the smooth operations of a trusted company.

Unlike the others, however, Agriprocessors’ downfall is not simply an economic crisis, but also a spiritual and moral one. Kosher food is not meant to be a mere foodstuff, but rather a vehicle for bringing sanctity into one of the most basic activities of daily life. Those who choose to live by that discipline rely on kosher certification to guarantee that the food they eat has been produced in a manner worthy of its spiritual mission. The behavior attributed to Agriprocessors and its owners — abusing employees, illegally hiring and endangering children, befouling the environment, overlooking sanitation rules — ought to disqualify the company’s products from receiving religious certification by any standard worthy of the name. That the products continue to be accepted as kosher, even as the company’s owners face massive fines and jail time on suspicion of misdeeds that have shocked a nation, is a scandal nearly as great as the owners’ actions themselves.

Ever since the Forward published its first reports two years ago on working conditions at the Agriprocessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, Orthodox rabbinic authorities have insisted that the violations attributed to the company are not directly related to the rules of kosher slaughter, and therefore are outside the certifying rabbis’ jurisdiction. Kosher certification, they have explained, follows time-honored biblical and talmudic principles that cannot be altered by modern rabbinic fiat. Many have derided and even ridiculed the Conservative rabbinate for seeking to develop a new form of certification, Hekhsher Tzedek, that would consider a company’s ethical behavior alongside its slaughtering techniques.

Besides, Orthodox rabbis told us, protecting workers and safeguarding the environment are the job of government, not the clergy. If the government with all its lawyers has not acted against the Postville plant, why should rabbis presume to?

The arguments were specious from the outset, as we have argued before. Kosher certification standards have been altered repeatedly over the years in response to behavior unrelated to the slaughter itself. A generation ago, kosher restaurants in New York were commonly open on Saturdays. Today the practice has all but disappeared, shut down by kosher certifiers. Kosher hotels in Israel used to offer New Year’s Eve parties, mixed dancing and even belly dancers. Nowadays such activities lead to loss of certification.

Rabbis routinely use their certification power to regulate activities that have nothing to do with knives. It’s one of the only enforcement powers they have in the modern world. Qualified rabbinic authorities could have used that power in response to growing evidence of Agriprocessors’ abuses. They did not. Instead, they crossed their fingers, hoped for the best and waited for the government to act.

Why did the kosher authorities not take action? Part of the reason was fear for the integrity of the community’s food supply. Agriprocessors had managed, by cutting costs and beating back the competition — in ways that deserve their own examination — to dominate the nationwide market for kosher beef. Rabbis feared that if the company were to stonewall in the face of a rabbinic threat of decertification they might be forced to ban much of the country’s kosher meat supply, leaving their public without a food staple.

In part, too, rabbis were deterred by mistrust of the labor, animal rights and other liberal groups that led the protests against the company. There was a widespread suspicion in the Orthodox community that the protesters were motivated by concerns other than simple ethics. Acknowledging the abuses, many thought, would have put traditional Judaism and the Jewish community in a bad light. In the choice between siding with critics and circling the wagons of their community, most Orthodox leaders chose the latter. Only a handful of mostly young activists chose to speak out against the abuse. Their protests were mostly ignored by the kosher consuming public.

In the end, events took their own course. Government authorities acted far more harshly than anyone had anticipated, with terrible results for both the kosher marketplace and the reputation of traditional Judaism. Agriprocessors was forced to shut down production amid a circus of theatrical law enforcement and front-page media coverage. News media across the country have responded gleefully to images of a company run by devout Jews, its primary mission to enable the observance of Jewish religious rules, acting in ways that violate the ethical and moral standards of everyone else. And the bottom fell out of the kosher meat supply.

For all that, it must not be forgotten that the real victims in this saga are the Agriprocessors’ employees whose mistreatment sparked the controversy in the first place. During the long months that Jewish community leaders debated the ethics of Agriprocessors and its certification, the mostly immigrant workers toiled on in largely unchanged conditions. The same long hours, short pay, dangerous conditions and on-the-job harassment that they had endured unseen for years continued in daylight while outsiders discussed whether and how to act.

And when the government finally did step in, as the rabbis had said it should, it did not act to protect workers’ legal rights and public safety standards — but rather to punish the workers for being on the job. In one of the largest workplace law-enforcement raids in American history, close to 400 Agriprocessors employees were arrested for immigration violations and taken without notice from their homes and families. In a move of astonishing callousness, authorities did not simply deport the detainees to their home countries, but first jailed them on charges of stealing identity documents — papers whose illegality the workers themselves had no way of knowing about.

Now, five months later, as our Nathaniel Popper reports, dozens of them are out of prison, their sentences completed, but they are not free. In a Kafkaesque turn of events, they are being held in Iowa so that they can testify against their former employers on charges of child labor and employing illegal immigrants. They cannot leave, they cannot see their families, they cannot yet work and the government will not provide them with the wherewithal to live while they wait. They live day to day on the charity of a Catholic church as they prepare to help the government prosecute their former abusers for the suffering that they continue to endure, now at the government’s hands.

The rules of kashruth are a legacy of the Jewish spiritual tradition, preserved by the courage of countless generations as a gift to the present. Dishonoring them and violating their spirit shames all Jews. Those who honor the laws must stand up to their abuse.

Dear Avi Shafran,

Hey...it's been a while since we communicated directly. It's sure nice to see you checking in on my blog - like 40 times each day.

Seriously now, remember when we hardly knew each other -- like two years ago, when I respectfully asked for an invitation to address the urgent issue of child sex-abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community --- at the Agudah Convention? Sheesh...those were the good old days Avi. You were the "big macher" --- I was the "lunatic blogger". My, oh my --- seemingly our nicknames have switched owners. Dats life --- one day you're a macher --- the next day you're a lunatic!

So bubele ---- let me try again. You seem to be headlining the Convention with the "Kashruth" theme. I understand you will be having cows in every room (not the ones from Borough Park - those are behaimas) - nice twist instead of the Agudah yarmulkes --- ya know with the embroidered picture of a Catholic priest in heat.

I know a few things about kashruth and behaimas myself. Not as much as say - Nat Lewin - but enough to fake it and be entertaining at the same time. Whaddya say Avi --- we bury the mohel's hatchet, kiss and make-up, naa bad idea -- just let's make-up, send me an invite to speak, and let by-gones be by-gones. You may even get to like me if you gave yourself a chance. I'll even lay off the pummelling of you for a week or so.

I'll give you back your title as "big macher"... in truth - you truly deserve that honor - because Gertzulin tells me you've been walking around with full pants since we "met"..... Give me enough notice so I can stop off at Bencraft for a new hat.

Hope to hear from you --- regards to the boyz!

UOJ

STEVE RAGES:

"Personally, I'm looking forward to the fressfest. I can't wait to see who they trot out there to defend the Rubashkins and cry out "ant-semitism, nazism, blood libel, etc." This line of defense and excuses would be so laughable if not for the tragic state that Orthodox Judaism is in. Between the kashrus scandals, the child sexual abuse plague, "frum" white-collar crime, OTD teens, lack of formal education in yeshivos, the abuse of the kollel system, the geirus industry, political in-fighting, modesty patrols and ridiculous bans, you would think that this self-appointed representative organization of Orthodox Jews would have more important things on their agenda than trying to resurrect a totally corrupt meat business. Not just any corrupt meat business, but a family business that was deceiving unwitting kosher consumers for over twenty years and showing a total disregard for both religious and secular law. WHY???

The answer is simple, just like it was two years ago when they dedicated their plenary session to UOJ: HEF$EID MERUBAH!!!! Too many chashuva families and companies were benefiting from the Rubashkins. From the rav hamachshil, to the meshichist shochtim, to the muzzled and blindfolded "mashgichim", to the licensing, er, kashrus agencies, to the PR firms, to the heilige lawyers, to the yeshivos who received "charity" in return for lucrative contracts, and last but not least, the Pesach hotel-type fressers who care more about their stomachs than the massive chillul hashem and their own timtum halev. To the Agudah, this is an emergency situation! MI YAACHILEINU BASSAR??? Or better yet, MI YAACHILEINU MAMON??? First amendment rights! Meat shortages! Vayishman Yeshurun Vayivaat Shamanta Avita Kasita! We need twenty more years of Rubashkin abuses, chillul hashem and treifos!

Two years ago, after UOJ exposed the child sexual abuse plague and coverup in our midst, instead of planning an emergency session to deal with this scourge, they decided to attack the messenger. WHY??? They need to protect the status quo!!! HEF$EID MERUBAH!!! Who will come to our next dinner if the truth is exposed? What if we get sued and have to pay a settlement? What if some yeshivos get sued? Oy vey! This is their only concern. Not the children, not the community, not kashrus, not Torah, not chillul hashem, not education, not peace and tranquility, not ahavas yisroel, NO!!! MONEY!! That's all that matters. Elokei Kessef Veelokei Zahav! That's what's on the agenda. Pass the pastrami."

Anonymous Adds!

The NY Times and The Jewish Week stories...Hikind subpoena...Yudi and Lipa, look at what you have wrought. Think back a couple of years to UOJ's offer...Yudi leaves YTT and everything goes away...sounds like a pretty good offer now, doesn't it? Stupidity and Gaiva...what a price to pay.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:

Unrepentant Idiots!

You know the type! You talk to them until you're blue in the face --- and nothing! That dumb look - glassy-eyed - deer in the headlights - the imbecilic non-response!

The Agudath Israel hoodlums had to be chained to the back of a Borough Park Lincoln Navigator and dragged through the muck - to get them to agree - to what any sane person should understand; mandatory fingerprinting and background checks on people who work around children - is not optional. Any lowly job in government --- any employer who deals in "precious jewels" - does background checks.

Yet, these unrepentant idiots had to be shamed into agreeing with this most logical, sensible, humane requirement.

Why?

It began with Moshe Sherer's brand of narcissism. Sherer understood too well - you did not need substance to succeed in the political arena. He was the prime example of that --- the Elvis --- the king of bling!

Surround yourself with respected rabbis initially - manipulate the heck out of these tired senior citizens - wear them down and overwhelm them with your linguistic chicanery - take their words and thoughts and twist them until they mean nothing. Throw parties and conventions - put these rabbis on display at the dais - and poof - they are viewed by the gullible masses as endorsing Moshe Sherer!

Moshe Sherer, the Obama-like master manipulator of people, had the gift of charisma - was a superb orator --- but was a man obsessed with himself; his welfare, his agenda, he was totally devoid of substance, and only promoted what was good for Moshe Sherer.

He was the consummate "community organizer" and the Agudath Israel was his ACORN! Lie, cheat, manipulate, create facts out of lies, raise all kinds of money from all kinds of people.... Surround yourself with yes-men - who, if had the ability to think on their own - you got rid of --- or never hired them in the first place.

It is no wonder that Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz ztvk"l threw him out of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and warned Rabbi Ruderman z"l of Ner Israel, that "Sherer needs to be carefully watched."

It is little wonder to me that Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky ztvk"l, said about Sherer --- "he has a "chezkas shakran."

For a period of about one year, I interacted with Moshe Sherer on a weekly basis. To describe him as an eloquent huckster is way too kind....And that was the legacy he left to Bloom, Zwiebel and Gertzulin. (I happen to like Gertzulin)

Therefore, it is no surprise to me that the Agudath Israel is - what it is - nothing!

Then you add some bargain basement 99 Cents Stores interior decorating; Shmuel Kaminetzky, Yaakov Perlow, Aron Schechter, Aron Feldman, A.C. Levin....and voila --- you got the Playboy Mansion, without the playboy!

But the hookers remained!

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ADDED NOVEMBER 11, 2008

ARE YOU A RESPONSIBLE ORTHODOX WOMAN LOOKING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE???

We are looking for dedicated responsible orthodox women to work on a helpline for survivors of sexual abuse and molestation. Training and helpline are both at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan.

For more information or to schedule an interview please call Carole Sher at 212-420-4516.

"THE JEWS ARE THE STUPIDEST PEOPLE!"

PLEASE GO OUT AND VOTE!



Jonathan Rosenblum's focus below is the Obama/Israel scenario, which I happen to agree with. I am duly concerned with Obama's "American agenda" for all Americans, that would turn this proud country into a nation of proud beggars - and totally be at the mercy of an all-powerful government that would punish the wealthy, and institute a really ugly version of "social justice".

Israel had sixty years to get their economic house in order --- instead they too are an economic basket-case, counting on the U.S.A. for their daily (military) bread. The leaders of Israel should understand now and forever that they have nobody to count on --- but themselves (maybe). They should have seen this coming - and just as they were able to construct industries based on foreign "investment" rather than hand-outs, they must realize that the Americans had enough of supporting foreign countries with grants and other financial aid, as this country slides into a very deep recession.

Regardless of who wins the election - and I pray that the Republicans do, the party is over, and should be over, for an Israeli populace who has lost their pride and turned themselves into a country of shnorrers! We never learn --- we are on our own --- sans a reprieve here and there.

Who Says Jews are Smart?
by Jonathan Rosenblum

YES, POGO, THE JEWS ARE THE STUPIDEST PEOPLE!

Arab-Americans overwhelmingly support Senator Barack Obama for president. So do Jewish-Americans. One of these two groups either does not care much about the Arab-Israeli conflict and/or is stupid. My money is on the Jews.

American Jews care less and less about Israel. Over 50% of non-Orthodox Jews under 35 say they would not view the destruction of the State of Israel as a personal tragedy. Israel is not a popular cause on college campuses. Many Jewish students struggle against being identified with Israel, lest it complicate their social lives. In the under 35 cohort, only 54% profess to be comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state.

Other Jews who still find it uncomfortable to disavow concern with Israel have convinced nevertheless themselves that it is in Israel’s best interests to be forced back to the 1949 armistice lines. A talkback to a recent Jerusalem Post piece of mine nicely captures the mindset.

Nathan Berkowicz writes: “What do you expect us Jews to do, hold the Palestinians hostage forever? Get your head out of the sand and wake up to the fact that we are going to have to hammer out a peace deal, a real peace deal, if for no other reason but to show ourselves that we are willing to humanely and fairly deal with a problem we created for ourselves.”

Berkowicz places the exclusive onus on Israel for the creation of the Palestinian problem – either by virtue of its creation or for having the effrontery to win in 1967. In addition, he blames Israel for the failure to achieve a “real peace deal.” The infamous “three No’s” of the Arab League in response to the Israeli offer to withdraw from the West Bank after the Six Day War played no role; ditto Arafat’s decision to return to open warfare and reject Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s offer of well over 90% of the West Bank at Camp David. Finally, Berkowicz wants the Jews of Israel to demonstrate their humanity. He never mentions ensuring their own survival as a desideratum. So goes the “pro-Israel” case for Obama.

THOSE WHO SEE ISRAEL’S SALVATION in its being pushed back to its 1967 borders have good reason to eagerly anticipate an Obama presidency. Obama has described the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a “sore, . . . infect[ing] all our foreign policy,” and placed return to the “peacemaking” of the Clinton years is at the top of his foreign policy agenda.

The express goal of that “peacemaking” will be an Israeli withdrawal to its 1967 “Auschwitz borders.” In a June interview with Jerusalem Post editor David Horowitz, Obama said he can understand Israel’s desire for “‘67 plus” in terms of security buffers, but Israel should consider whether it would be worth the cost in Palestinian antagonism.

The overwhelming majority of Israel’s Jews dread a return to the Oslo process, which claimed 1,471 Israeli lives in terrorist attacks, without bringing peace any closer. Oslo made a fetish of process over actual peace, as a pattern of concrete Israeli concessions in return for recycled Palestinian promises took shape. Obama offers more of the same: “Israel’s government must make difficult concessions for the peace process to restart,” he says.

On security grounds alone, the vast majority of Israelis oppose further territorial withdrawal from the West Bank at present. Earlier withdrawals from southern Lebanon and Gaza resulted in the creation of heavily armed Iranian proxies on Israel’s southern and northern borders. Israeli intelligence predicts that Hamas would quickly take over the West Bank as well in the event of an Israeli withdrawal. The near elimination of successful terror attacks from the West Bank since 2002 demonstrates that only Israeli troops and on the ground intelligence gathering capabilities can deter terrorism.

Oslo taught that peace cannot be imposed from the outside and has nothing to do with signed agreements. Only a bottom-up transformation of a Palestine society would make peace possible, argues Natan Sharansky, and that transformation has never seemed so far away after the Hamas takeover of Gaza.

Even the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas recently declared a festive celebration in honor of the leader of the Coastal Road Massacre in which 37 Israelis were murdered. Demonization of Israel and Jews continues unabated in the official Palestinian media. No wonder three-quarters of Palestinians say that reconciliation with Israel is impossible in this generation, even after the signing of a peace agreement and creation of a Palestinian state.

The greatest threat to Israel’s existence is a nuclear Iran. By calling for direct American-Iranian negotiations, without offering anything new to the Europeans’ approach over the last five years of unconditional negotiations, Obama only grants Ahmadinejad more time and increased internal legitimacy. And by linking any sanctions to Chinese and Russian cooperation, he dooms those efforts from the start. Bottom line: an Obama presidency guarantees a nuclear Iran.

And all this leaves aside dozens of troubling Obama associations. For twenty years, he sat complacently in the church of a pastor – “my spiritual mentor” – who spewed contempt for whites, America, and Israel.

Virtually his whole public career has been closely intertwined with the unrepentant former Weatherman William Ayers.

Another member of Ayers’ Hyde Park circle was former PLO official and the current Edward Said Professor at Columbia University, Rashid Khalidi, whom Obama credits with opening his eyes to the plight of Palestinians. He has been heavily funded by the virulently anti-Israel George Soros.

Obama has numerous ties to the Nation of Islam, in particular through Tony Rezko, the convicted, Syrian-born racketeer, who partly paid for Obama’s home.

Obama’s foreign policy advisors have included: Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor and thirty-year critic of Israel; Samantha Powers, who has called for an end to aid to Israel and the introduction of American forces to protect the Palestinians; and Robert Malley, who has made a career of advancing, together with a former Arafat advisor, a revisionist account in which Israel was responsible for the breakdown of Camp David.

Even the Republicans touted for an Obama cabinet – Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar – have been among the handful of senators, sometimes the only ones, to consistently oppose sanctions against Iran, Syria, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Hagel laments the intimidation on Capitol Hill by the “Jewish lobby.”

No doubt the “pro-Israel” Obama supporters have good explanations of why none of these relationships are of concern. After all, why did G-d make Jews so smart if not to prove the emperor is fully-clothed.

WHAT PART OF H-A-T-E DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?

THE UOJ HALL OF SHAME ADDS 25 RABBIS!

Rabbi Pesach Lerner - Tour Guide Putz! Several dozen Jewish community and rabbinic leaders representing major Orthodox Jewish organizations and large Jewish cities visited the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa - on July 31, 2008, and ruled out any criminal conduct by the owners - the Rubashkin family. The mission was led and coordinated by the National Council of Young Israel.

The list of crooks and liars that were in attendance:

1. Rabbi Dovid Shochet, Rosh Bais Din of Toronto Bais Din, Rosh-Senior Rabbi of the Rabbinical Council of Ontario/Vaad Rabbonie Lubavitch USA Canada:

2. Rabbi Chanoch Nelkin, Executive Director of the Vaad Hatzedakos-Jewish Charity Commission-Toronto

3. Rabbi Naftali Burnstein, Rabbi of the Young Israel of Greater Cleveland

4. Rabbi Edward Davis, Chairman, ORB Kashrut Committee, Young Israel of Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale

5. Mr. Yehuda Ceitlin, COL, Radio 10 (Flatbush), Bakehila (Israel) COL, Radio 10 (Flatbush), Bakehila (Israel)

6. Rabbi Shmuel Bloom, Executive Vice Presidents of Agudath Israel of America.

7. Rabbi Moshe Elefant, Executive Rabbinic Coordinator of the Orthodox Union

8. Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel

9. Mr. Menachem Lubinsky, President and CEO of Lubicom Marketing and Consulting

10. Rabbi Seth Mandel, Rabbinic Coordinator in charge of meat production at the Orthodox Union

11. Rabbi Peretz Steinberg, morah d’asra of Young Israel of Queens Valley, Kew Gardens Hills, NY

12. Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum, Spiritual Leader, B'nai Israel of Linden Heights and Director, Rabbinical Alliance of America

13. Nachman Aaron Troodler, Public Relations Coordinator for the National Council of Young Israel, Teaneck, NJ

14. Rabbi David Eliezrie, President of the Rabbinical Council of Orange County

15. Rabbi Chaim Goldberger, Rabbi of Congregation Knesseth Israel of Minneapolis, MN

16. Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, President of Chicago Rabbinical Council and Regional Director of Chabad Lubavitch of Illinois

17. Rabbi Yehiel Kalish, National Director of Government Affairs at Agudath Israel of America

18. Rabbi Sholey Klein, Director, Vaad Hakashrus of Dallas

19. Rabbi Gershon Gewirtz, Rabbi of the Young Israel of Brookline\

20. Rabbi Zvi Zuravin, Executive Director of the Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis/ Vaad Harabanim of St. Louis

21. Rabbi Yaakov Wasser, Young Israel of East Brunswick, First VP of RCA

22. Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz, Editor-in-Chief of Yated Ne’eman

23. Rabbi Shlomo Rybak, Member of Rabbinic Kashrus Commission (RKC) of the Orthodox Union and Rabbi of Congregation Adas Israel in Passaic NJ

24. Rabbi Yair Hoffman, Reporter at the Five Towns Jewish Times

25. Rabbi Yochonon Donn, Reporter at the Hamodia

“This mission was meant to provide Jewish leaders from across the United States with a factual perspective of the true situation at the Agriprocessors plant, untainted by the rumors and innuendos that have been circulating in many circles,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel, before leaving for Postville.

“As one of the major producers of kosher meat in the US, the success or failure of Agriprocessors is an issue that will directly impact Jewish communities that purchase kosher meat and poultry across the country. The situation warrants that we approach this with an open mind and obtain a first-hand account of the situation so that we can draw our own conclusion for the betterment of the American Jewish community.”

The group toured the Agriprocessors plant and facilities, where there were meetings with corporate officials and managers, including Jim Martin, a former US Attorney responsible for all compliance issues for Agriprocessors. The group also met with senior representatives of the kashruth organization - the OU - who certifies the plant.

The 25 whiskered cows gave the plant a complete clean bill of health - and assured the Jewish communities around the world, that there are absolutely no concerns about criminal activity at the plant or should anyone be concerned about the integrity of the OU kashruth endorsement! There was not one rabbi who had any concerns at all about the validity of the hundreds, if not thousands of criminal allegations, by the employees and the U.S. government.

If any of these lying bozos had a shred of self-respect, every single one of these 25 criminals, would resign their positions! If you are a member of their congregations, you should have them terminated like cockroaches in a kitchen of a Pesach hotel!

(lifted in part - from Matzav.com)

N.Y. Attorney General Cuomo's Letter To AIG! - A**Holes International Group

Newly Hired AIG Employees Going Home After Their First Day On The Job !

Cuomo's Letter to A.I.G. - Upload a Document to Scribd

She Could Have Been "Sarah The Cool Feminist"!

......But instead chose life for her child over having her doctor use a vacuum cleaner-like device to squish the baby's head and suck him up into the Liberal death machine aka Feminism!

She "could have been a contender" -- but instead chose morality and real "old-fashioned" bible values than outright murder a baby that could not defend himself from Dr. Liberal Death!

She could have been loved by the Hollywood "elite" - but instead chose to be the butt of the SNL Liberal Jewish sickos, who advocate murder machines for babies that don't quite fit their view of the "perfect" baby!

She could have been "Sarah the murderer of her baby", but instead she chose to love her baby forever and ever, regardless of the difficulties involved in raising a child with special needs.

She could have been "Sarah the ruthless plumber", and have chosen to turn this precious life into human waste --- but instead will have the privilege of passing the humanity test - taking care of this child that will depend on her, knowing full well that this "burden" is the ultimate test that will distinguish her from the selfish, pathetic excuse of "free women" who choose "choice" so they may live another day without the burden of bringing comfort to a child in need, so they may attend another party.

She could have claimed " it's my choice to be a politician, and it's my body", but instead she said I can still be a politician and have a career - and my body is a gift from God --- and just like I'm not permitted to commit suicide - I'm not permitted to commit infanticide!

The country can't permit two of the most radical liberal demagogues in the senate - Obama number one - Biden number three --- to influence negatively the direction of the greatest country ever - with all its imperfections!



If you're able to stomach the actual killing of a baby - click on the other video options at the end of this clip. Both Obama and Biden claim that this murder is totally the choice of the "mother" and her doctor --- and just as Obama would meet with the "leader" of Iran without preconditions, the mother of a defenseless child needs no particular reason to destroy this precious life, other than because she wants to --- to suit her personal agenda!

(I'm not referring to specific medical conditions that are life threatening to the mother - or other halachic humane exceptions)

Howard Stern sends Sal to Harlem:

The Bailout (Forced Bank Buy-In) - The Slippery Slope Towards Socialism - Why Jews Should Be Very Concerned!

The Godfather: Paulson Makes Offer Banks Can't Refuse

Posted Oct 15, 2008 by Aaron Task

The day after the news about a watershed change in American capitalism, the story behind the story of how Hank Paulson forced the nations top 9 banks to take capital is coming to light.

After a discussion of the state of the banking system and U.S. economy, the bankers were then unceremoniously handed a one-page term sheet outlining Paulson's plan. The bank CEOs "weren't allowed to negotiate," The WSJ reports. "Paulson requested that each of them sign. It was for their own good and the good of the country, he said, according to a person in the room."

In sum, Hank Paulson made the bank CEOs an offer they couldn't refuse -- like a present-day (and real) Don Corleone.

Some of the other anecdotes that emerged, according to both the WSJ and NY Times:

Wells Fargo CEO Richard Kovacevich was the most vocal in opposing the deal, but he too ultimately relented. (This morning, Wells Fargo shares were rallying after it reported better-than-expected third-quarter results, although its revenue fell shy of expectations.)

*

President Bush pledges to continue work to stabilize banking industry, US to buy bank shares

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Tuesday announced a $250 billion plan by the government to directly buy shares in the nation's leading banks, saying the drastic steps were "not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it."

Nine major banks will participate initially including all of the country's largest institutions.

Some of the big banks had to be pressured to participate in the program by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who wanted healthy institutions that did not necessarily need capital from the government to go first as a way of removing any stigma that might be associated with banks getting bailouts.

Bush, in brief remarks in the Rose Garden of the White House, said the government will initially buy stocks in nine major U.S. banks.

"These efforts are designed to directly benefit the American people by stabilizing the financial system and helping the economy recover," he said.

Paulson, at a news conference a short time later, said "today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence in our financial system."

"We regret having to take these actions," said Paulson. "Today's actions are not what we ever wanted to do -- but today's actions are what we must do to restore confidence to our financial system."

"The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it," Paulson said, meaning that they will use the money to bolster lending to each other and to their customers.

"Government owning a stake in any private U.S. company is objectionable to most Americans -- me included," Paulson added. "Yet the alternative of leaving businesses and consumers without access to financing is totally unacceptable."

*

By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer

Government moves into banking -- to the tune of $250 billion -- as the bailout becomes a buy-in

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big banks started falling in line Tuesday behind a rejiggered bailout plan that will have the government forking over as much as $250 billion in exchange for partial ownership -- putting the world's bastion of capitalism and free markets squarely in the banking business.

*

I'm a die-hard Capitalist - for some familiar reasons, and for some that are not necessarily traditional.

What sets apart America from the rest of the world under the Constitution, is all the freedoms we have taken for granted. One of those freedoms is - Freedom. Government was designed to insure us unfettered freedom to do what we please under the law. No government intervention in our private lives, no state religion, the right to bear arms for self-preservation, and the right for the talented and ambitious to achieve what in most of the world is unfathomable.....

We can - if we choose - to work hard, and with fierce determination to succeed, achieve great wealth; and voluntarily use that wealth to enrich ourselves with expensive toys, or to be able help others that are less fortunate (or both). Or we can choose a life of nothingness - where all our existence is spent on frivolity and personal creature comforts.

Public assistance is actually a concept that the world inherited from the Torah - designed for the people that truly can not manage on their own. The laws of tithing, shmitta, pruzbul, yovel, ir hanidachat, m'lava es hamet (gemillat chesed)...are all Torah concepts.

What we do know is that the human animal needs independence to thrive; to think freely, to dream, to learn truths, to make mistakes, to fail, to learn from those mistakes and become all the better for it.

Look around the globe! Socialism and Communism are abject failures. Look at Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Canada, Russia (of course)...There are no incentives for the plain-folk to achieve. Medical care is Third World voodoo medicine-man-like. The wealthy come to the U.S., in most cases, for major health care issues.

If history has taught us anything, it is that empires last no more than two hundred years. Of course - that could be different here in the U.S. - if we take steps to learn from history. What causes collapse? How can humans be taught to see the big picture? How do we teach people that life is a chess game - if you can't see five moves ahead - you lose to the person who can.

Although I've been a life-long Republican and voted for Bush (actually Cheney)...he will go down as probably the most inept president ever --- he beats Carter badly - and I thought nobody could beat Carter.

Now he's turning over the executive branch of government - in all likelihood - to a group of people that will "be fair with your money and spread the wealth around" to people who, in most cases chose victimhood, rather than freedom. Yes, there are plenty of people that need public assistance - but most do not!

When government gets to choose what group of people they raise taxes on - or what health care company you will have - or what schools your kids should go to --- how far away is - telling you what house of worship you should frequent --- or none at all!

The reason the U.S.A. flourished in the past two hundred years - more than the entire 5500 years of civilization prior, according to the Jewish calendar - because people were free to pick and choose within the law what was good for them in every sphere of humanity. The one basic reason the USA led the way in just about every field of science and medicine - is because of freedom of religion or non-religion. No scientist, writer, or thinker, had to be concerned they would be incarcerated for views that opposed the church of Religion or the temple of Socialism.

Hank Paulson is a fraud! The entire bailout of the financial institutions, was designed to protect the thieves that concocted this Ponzi scheme, Paulson as former CEO of Goldman Sachs included.

There are already heads of state that are grumbling about the Jews on Wall Street. There is no doubt that the manipulation and machinations of the financial markets over the last decade, included firms with Jewish sounding names.

Should the Jews be concerned?

In 2003 I was invited to debate Daniel Lapin, - right after his book "America's Real War" was published. The thrust of his book - "that a Holocaust-type event can never happen in America", grated on me and was historically flat wrong. We need not look back too far to understand that in times of massive economic downturns, a scapegoat is needed and always selected, and it is always the Jews.

With names like, Greenspan, Bernanke, Robert Rubin, Bloomberg, Goldman, Sachs, Soros, Lehman, Greenberg (AIG) bandied around daily about the globe as villains (some are, and there are others yet to be exposed) --- we must not be complacent about our future!

At this writing, the possibility of an Obama presidency is almost a given. I care not about the color of his skin. I'm worried sick about his radical affiliations, socialist past and ideology, and the team of Lefties that will certainly accompany him to the White House.

What to do?

For the time-being, I am left without answers! But please Jewish-American citizens around the globe, kindly cast your vote in person or by mail-in ballot!

The America we know and love will undoubtedly change for the worse - if the Democrat party were to occupy the White House come January 20, 2009!

UOJ

AMY NEUSTEIN’S T’SHUVAH: ACTIVIST ASKS DOV HIKIND FOR FORGIVENESS AND A NEW START

Dear Assemblyman Hikind:

I address this open letter to you, with penitence and with hope, because I am moved by your commitment to fighting the evil of child sexual abuse in our community. From this perspective, I believe you will understand the mistake I made, many years ago – and also my need to rejoin you and the community in this noble campaign.

I sought your forgiveness three years ago. At the time you would not relent. But that was before you had begun to hear the stories of survivors – before you shared the pain of Jewish abuse victims who either bore their agony in silence, or suffered the double victimization of being disbelieved and ridiculed for speaking out.

Now I feel sure you will understand.

This is the season when all Jews do t’shuvah, and when all Jews should stand ready to accept those who sincerely return. During the yamim noraim I realized that my own time has come to return. Now I want to stand together with the community I once wronged, for the sake of the daughter whose fate darkened my life over 20 years ago.

A Child of the Community

You know who I am. My father, Rabbi Abraham Neustein, was a true Talmudic scholar and brilliant orator whose eulogy (September 6, 2002) was prominently featured in The Jewish Press. As for me, Irene Klass described my wedding in the same newspaper (“A Very Special Wedding,” June 22, 1979). Three years earlier, after doing volunteer work at Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem (and fundraising for the hospital back in Brooklyn), I had been pictured atop the Sha’arei Tzedek float in the Israel Day Parade. My volunteer work included teaching ba’alei t’shuvah at Bais Chana in St. Paul, Minnesota. Like my parents, I was devoted to charity, to g’milus chasadim, and to the life of Torah.

The Earthquake

That life shattered in the fall of 1986. On the fourth day of Sukkos, my 6-year-old daughter was taken from me by family court officials who did not believe her report of having been sexually abused by my ex-husband. Our community turned against us both. Even confirmation from one of New York’s leading experts on child sexual abuse did not protect us. In those days – as you, Mr. Hikind, know all too well – reports of child sexual abuse were simply not tolerated among Orthodox Jews. My daughter was called a liar; for believing her, I was shunned.

Soon my daughter learned the harsh lesson of silence. But the reactions of her body were less easily controlled. Once in her father’s custody, she slipped into life-threatening anorexia. Several doctors later testified that she was virtually at death’s door when I took her for emergency-room treatment. But for that act of rescue – as you know – I was denied all contact with my daughter, then 8 years old.

My Desperation and My Offense

Desperate situations lead to desperate acts. In 1991, nearly three years since I had last seen my daughter – or even heard her voice – I learned that she was once again severely anorexic. When I sought the help of the city officials supposedly charged with my daughter’s welfare, even though my pleas were seconded by supporters like then-City Council President Andy Stein, the politicians refused to give her a medical examination. Instead, they referred her case to the Fatality Review Panel . . . as if she had already died! They would not even tell me that my beloved daughter was still living.

That was when I committed the act for which I now seek forgiveness. Misled by aides to Mayor David Dinkins, I came to believe that in exchange for public criticism of the Jewish community in the wake of the Crown Heights riot, Dinkins’ staff would see to it that the Child Welfare Administration would intervene to protect my daughter.

I did what I was told. I went on radio talk shows where cynical hosts were all too eager to present complaints against the Jewish community – from an Orthodox Jewish woman. Of course, I also reached out for help to anyone who seemed to care about my daughter’s life. Congressman Jerrold Nadler was so moved that he warned city officials at a press conference: “If this child dies, you will all be guilty of accessory to murder.” Yet in the end, Dinkins’ staff did nothing.

I had been manipulated by self-seeking bureaucrats. But in allowing myself to be used, I know that I offended you, and others like you, who have heard of my comments from those dark days and have held them against me ever since. Mr. Hikind, you heard my words – but you didn’t know my anguish. You didn’t know the desperation of watching your daughter’s very life threatened because, at 6 years old, she had spoken the unspeakable. You couldn’t know – because you had not yet listened to Orthodox abuse survivors telling you their stories of being silenced, ignored or threatened when they were children.

But now you know.

And that is why I believe you can finally accept my apology and my plea to rejoin you and the community, as we all work together to save the next generation of our children.

A Campaigner and a Mother

My daughter became an orphan of the family courts, and I became a “childless mother,” during Sukkos 22 years ago. Since then, I’ve organized press conferences dealing with the child abuse, put together legislative hearings in New York state and Congress on the issue, and helped draft legislation. I’m the co-author of From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the Family Courts – and What Can Be Done about It (Northeastern, 2005). In January 2006, I received the Woman of Valor: Lifetime Achievement Award at the Battered Mothers Custody Conference in Albany, New York. Early next year, Brandeis University Press will publish a book I edited on child sex abuse, containing important contributions by such prominent community figures as Rabbi Mark Dratch, Rabbi Martin Schloss, Dr. Erica Brown and Dr. Michelle Friedman, and Dr. Joy Silberg. What I couldn’t do for my own daughter, I’ve struggled for over twenty years to do for others.

But nothing can close the open wound where my daughter should be in my life. Nor have I been the only one injured. My mother, the rebbetzin, could never enter a sukkah without misty eyes and trembling hands, because she remembered all too well how her little granddaughter was taken from her, never to return, during that holiday. I do not think it was an accident that my mother’s own soul departed this life during Sukkos in 2001. You see, when rabbis refuse to hear a child say, “I was molested,” the damage spreads and spreads; many hearts are broken forever.

Mr. Hikind, you know all this. You have heard the wrenching stories of too many victims not to know it. And you know that this suffering must stop; that all caring Jews must unite to protect more victims from the torments of sexual abuse.

A new year has begun for all of us. I want to begin it right. Recently, you told the Forward, “If you’re a child molester, the best community to come to is Borough Park, Flatbush, Lakewood or Monroe . . . because people don’t press charges.” My daughter and I were casualties of that attitude. I need to help you change it – you and other brave Orthodox Jews who want to ensure that what happened to my daughter, and to so many others, will never happen again.

Please don’t bar the gates to my t’shuvah. Please forgive the errors of the past so that, together, we can prevent the tragedies of the future.

Sincerely,

Dr. Amy Neustein

The following people, having read this letter, wish to express their support:


Rabbi Aaron Reichel
Mo Therese Hannah, Ph.D.
Michael Lesher, Esq.
Joyanna Silberg, Ph.D.

*

UOJ RESPONDS TO CRITICS OF DR. AMY NEUSTEIN!

Seems you can't come forward with any story about child sex abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community without being pilloried as liar or a lunatic.

It's been years since the facts about the Neustein case (which began in 1986) were laid before the public. (Stories laying out the damning details have appeared in USA Today, the New York Post, The Village Voice and The Jewish Week, to name a few.) No one has published anything demonstrating a single factual inaccuracy in any of those articles. As a result, I think it can be confidently stated that, at the very least: 1) there was strong evidence of sexual abuse of Amy Neustein's 6-year-old daughter; 2) the case was egregiously mishandled by Brooklyn Family Court, Ohel, the Brooklyn Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and others; and 3) plenty of effort has been invested over the years into trying to suppress the story.

A few years ago, that effort culminated in a very belated and -- based on the information I have -- very inaccurate statement purportedly from the allegedly abused girl herself, then 24 years old. That statement has been copied onto this blog.

I've corresponded quite a bit with Amy Neustein and have come to know something of her record and character. I think it's a shame that her sincere and selfless efforts to support a critically important cause have earned her a run of public slander. Well, since it has come to that, let me take a few minutes to try setting the record straight.

I don't know who wrote the "Silent No Longer" piece supposedly authored by Sherry Orbach some three years ago. I have learned that its authenticity has been questioned (see below), and that it was written at a time when the judge who sent Sherry into her father's custody, against strong evidence of sex abuse by him, and his law clerk at the time -- Steve Mostofsky -- were under the impression that the Neustein/Lesher book From Madness to Mutiny, about the family courts, was primarily based on that case and were doing all they could to interfere with its publication. (Michael Lesher tells me that he got a call from David Pollock, a JCRC official motivated by Mostofsky, threatening legal action. Of course, nothing came of it.) When bluster didn't work, this column from "Sherry" suddenly appeared.

Michael Lesher -- who has done crucial work in cracking the Mondrowitz case -- was also one of the journalists who broke open the Neustein story, primarily in two articles published in 1996, one in The Village Voice and one in The Jewish Week. Those were strongly-worded articles that accused many people involved of having covered up substantial evidence of sex abuse. No one has ever pointed out any inaccuracies in those pieces.

Michael says the story was so horrific it inspired him to look into the issue of child sex abuse in Orthodox communities in general -- including the Mondrowitz case. He also ended up writing a book with Dr. Neustein about failures in the family court system. (The book has received many glowing reviews for its thoroughness and accuracy, among other things.)

Let me share with you some of the key problems Michael Lesher identifies in "Silent No Longer," which have convinced him that whoever wrote it simply did not know the facts of the case:

* The author says that Sherry lived with her grandmother "in upstate New York" and "rarely" saw her mother. That's false. The Neusteins did have a summer house in Ellenville. In fact, that is where her grandmother later testified she saw the girl being molested by her father. But the house was occupied infrequently, and Sherry never lived there over any extended period. Court records clearly show that she lived with her mother in Brooklyn.

* The author suggests that the sex abuse charge was Amy's invention. It wasn't. Court records make plain that Sherry herself reported having been sexually abused by her father to the BSPCC caseworkers and to Dr. Anne Meltzer, one of New York's leading experts on child sexual abuse. Dr. Meltzer stated in writing and on the record her "strong reason to believe" Sherry's father had indeed abused her. And Amy's mother gave eyewitness testimony to such an act. Not even Judge Deutsch, who awarded custody to the father, claimed that Amy had fabricated the abuse allegation.

* The author says specifically that the abuse allegation surfaced while she was in the "country house" (that is, in Ellenville), and when "my father had indicated he would be filing for custody." The actual chronology renders this impossible. According to all testimony, the incident witnessed by Amy's mother (not Amy, who was then out of town), occurred in Ellenville during a visit in the spring of 1986. Afterward, Amy's mother reported his conduct to the police. But Orbach (who had already been divorced for 3 years) did not seek custody until the late summer, AND SHERRY HAD BEEN IN BROOKLYN FOR MONTHS BY THAT TIME. In other words, she could not possibly remember discussions of her father's desire for custody while in "the country house." And since, when she WAS in Ellenville, there was no court action of any kind, nor even a threatened dispute over custody (Amy had had undisputed full custody for 3 years), how could Sherry remember being told what to say to to the judge in that setting? True, memories can be muddied over time, but this author says she remembers it "as if it were yesterday." Clearly, that's just not true.

* Court records belie the claim that Amy regularly "posed" Sherry for photographs, and in any event, pictures were not used in "the media" at least until Sherry was dangerously anorexic, and other people were publicly claiming she was not. Testimony indicates that Amy only tape recorded some of her conversations with Sherry after it was claimed that she was secretly maligning her ex-husband to Sherry. (That claim proved false.)

* The author claims that "research" shows that "false" allegations occur in as many as 60% of custody cases. That is simply untrue; there is no such research. Since Sherry Orbach is now a lawyer with a special interest in child welfare issues, it's hard to believe she would be ignorant of that fact.

* Michael says that no one he interviewed who knew the Neusteins had ever seen an antique silver hair brush in their house, and that they never used slipcovers. (He went to the house himself, interviewed guests, and reviewed court testimony of people who knew them well.) It's strange that the author should specifically stress sense memories that simply couldn't have been stimulated in the Neustein home.

* Plenty of journalists sought for years to get Sherry's comments, without success. Michael tried when she was 16, and despite being told by third parties (one of them a relative, one a friend of Dr. Orbach) about comments supposedly made by Sherry, he was rebuffed when he tried to talk to Sherry herself. The same thing happened to Susie Rosenbluth when she wrote about the story, when Sherry was nearly 25... certainly old enough to speak for herself. Yet Sherry kept silent, knowing full well what was being written about her case. The author of "Silent No Longer" rationalizes this silence by claiming, "My family [not all of it, obviously!] believed that my mother's publicity would fizzle out, and that it was best to avoid the media spotlight as much as possible." But that just isn't true.

Over the years, supporters of Dr. Orbach bombarded journalists who wrote about the story with violently worded comments -- all of which turned out to be false. The one thing they wouldn't do was to let any of the reporters talk to Sherry herself. This continued even when Sherry was clearly old enough to comment and when longer and more detailed stories about the case were appearing in the press. On the other hand, "Silent No Longer" appeared when Dr. Orbach's supporters believed that a forthcoming book would further expose what happened in the case, after remaining conspicuously silent as articles detailed the story in the press.

That's pretty much the story on "Silent No Longer." To quote Michael Lesher, it's a "sad hoax" that has been circulated to smear Amy Neustein, whose 20-year history of scholarship, advocacy and activism has earned her an impressive record of credibility. (The same can hardly be said of her detractors: one of them claimed in writing several years ago that Sherry had remained a member of the Orthodox community, only to be contradicted by an email purportedly from Sherry herself days later. Susie Rosenbluth pointed out this lie in print, and was never contradicted.)

And besides all this, there's actually plenty of evidence contained in public reports and records that Sherry, at the age of 6, was a victim of sexual abuse -- evidence that simply isn't mentioned in "Silent No Longer." As the articles and columns (except "Silent No Longer") show, in print and on the Internet, there's Sherry's own report to caseworkers of BSPCC. There's the written statement and testimony of Dr. Anne Meltzer and other psychologists who backed her up. There's the eyewitness testimony of Sherry's grandmother, who by all accounts had remained friendly with her ex-son in law until, as she testified, she saw him molesting the girl on the summer house floor.

There's Sherry's anorexia after being transferred to her father's custody (at such an early age, often a symptom of sexual abuse). And there's Sherry's ominous warning to her father after she was hospitalized for near starvation at Brookdale Hospital -- written down by a nurse there -- "You got me into this. If you don't get me out of here, I'm going to tell everything." Unless that nurse, too, was somehow controlled by Amy Neustein, it's hard to see how this can be seen as anything but independent and disturbing evidence.

And none of this has ever been explained away or refuted, though it's clear that Dr. Orbach's defenders have had plenty of opportunities. Even "Silent No Longer" ducks all the key points.

What gets my goat is that while these folks have never bothered trying to refute the detailed and careful work done by investigators into the case, and backed up by such people as Andy Stein, Jeremiah McKenna (former chief counsel to the New York State Senate's Committee on Crime), Congressman Major Owens and David Paterson -- yes, David Paterson has been quoted as calling the Neustein case “an intensely ferocious effort made by judges, social service and law guardian agencies, rabbis and elected officials to protect the father from an investigation . . . [so that] a heinous crime has been committed and is being covered up” (sound familiar?) -- these folks seem to have had plenty of time to circulate outrageously false claims about Amy Neustein.

What's even more suspicious, they intensified their efforts precisely when they thought they were in danger of exposure to a broad public. Just for instance, Steve Mostofsky (Judge Deutsch's former law clerk) took time out to threaten Susie Rosenbluth, Michael Lesher AND Amy with lawsuits about a story in which he himself was barely mentioned. And was it only coincidence that it was the lawyer for Young Israel (of which Mostofsky is president) who wrote threatening letters to Ms. Rosenbluth and to the publisher of Neustein and Lesher's book about the extent of family court dysfunction in abuse cases?

And while we're on the subject of child welfare, please note that David Pollock (an associate of Mostofsky and a subordinate of Judge Deutsch's wife Sylvia) told Michael Lesher that Sherry had been brought to meet with him in order to apply pressure on Michael in an attempt to interfere with the publication of the book. Why was this young woman being dragged into an effort to protect the reputations of Judge Deutsch and Steve Mostofsky? And why did "Silent No Longer" suddenly appear when it was clear that Neustein and Lesher would not buckle under threats?

What seems most likely to me is that Sherry was cynically manipulated by people whose interests are certainly not with her welfare. I mean, where were they when Sherry nearly starved to death in 1988-89 and again faced dangerous anorexia, three years after being deprived of all contact with her mother by Judge Deutsch's order (because she took her to a hospital for treatment), in 1991? At that time, it seems, they all supported silence. Now their modus operandi appears to be slander. Under the circumstances, both are reprehensible.

As for Sherry herself: I'm certainly not trying to be hard on anyone with her past. It is certainly possible that she no longer remembers the facts of her case. After all, she was banned from all contact with her mother when she was 8 years old, after being removed from her home two years earlier. Since then she's been surrounded by people who told her her mother was a liar, an anti-Semite and heaven knows what else. But what has any of that got to do with the demonstrable facts of the case? Hikind knows better. It's a shame that so many people who fight child sex abuse in our communities have to spend so much time defending themselves from slander. Hikind must know about that by now: look what happened to Benzion Twerski. So I don't see why he should be taken in by the slanderers this time around.

And we shouldn't be, either.

UOJ

*

Added Saturday evening - October 25, 2008 - by Susie Rosenbluth.

The situation regarding “Silent No Longer,” purportedly written by Sherry Orbach, is even worse than UOJ reports.

I was the first journalist to receive the piece, which came to me by email shortly after The Jewish Voice and Opinion published an article on Dr. Amy Neustein in March 2005.

When I received “Silent No Longer,” I told the author, who claimed to be Miss Orbach (Dr. Neustein’s estranged daughter), that, because she was a principal in the article I had written, I would gladly publish anything she had to say. However, I told her, because of the incendiary nature of her piece—and the, to be mild, wildly incomprehensible emails and phone calls I had received from people purporting to be her aunt and uncle (Martin and Frima Berger)—I wanted to make certain that “Silent No Longer,” was actually written by Sherry Orbach.

To do that, I told her, I would gladly meet her in any public place on the Columbia University campus (where she was a law student) so that she could hand me the piece in person. Possible venues I suggested were the cafeteria, library, dean’s office, or even the local police station, located just two blocks from the school’s main campus.

The person purporting to be Miss Orbach, then 24, flat out refused, even when I explained that, without my knowing from whom I was receiving the article, I could not possibly publish it.

When I related this story to Rabbi Moshe Faskowitz (whom I called because Mrs. Berger--Miss Orbach’s aunt--had told me he was her rabbinic adviser who had tried to help her reconcile with her estranged family), he told me that it was obvious the person who had sent me the article was not Sherry Orbach, with whom he was well acquainted.

A few weeks later, I spoke with Naomi Klass Mauer, associate publisher of the Brooklyn-based Jewish Press, who told me she, too, had received “Silent No Longer” by email. Mrs. Mauer informed me that she was inclined to publish it. I told her I did not blame her, because that is how I, too, felt when I first received it. However, I told Mrs. Mauer, once the author refused to give me the piece in person, I could not, in good conscience, print it.

Mrs. Mauer told me she agreed with me and that she, too, would insist on being given the piece in person by the person purporting to be the author before The Jewish Press would publish it.

One week later, “Silent No Longer” appeared in The Jewish Press. I called Mrs. Mauer to ask if she had met Miss Orbach. Mrs. Mauer told me she had not. Mrs. Mauer said she had spoken with someone on the phone who purported to be the author and who, in Mrs. Mauer’s words, “knew a great deal about Brooklyn.” Satisfied, Mrs. Mauer allowed the piece to be published.

When I expressed chagrin, Mrs. Mauer acknowledged that, in retrospect, she probably should have stuck to her guns and insisted on receiving the piece in person.

The point is, no one at The Jewish Press or anywhere else knows for certain who the author of “Silent No Longer” really is. Like Rabbi Faskowitz, attorney Michael Lesher, and UOJ, I have strong doubts that it was written by Miss Orbach, a young woman who, most assuredly, has been rendered a victim by everyone who is not encouraging her to reconcile with her mother.

Sherry, if you are reading this, it’s not too late. Your mother is waiting for your call, just as she has been ever since you were taken from her when you were eight years old. Please call her, sweetie. It’s a new year and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Susie Rosenbluth
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
Englewood, NJ
201-569-2845

*

Dear Sherry,

I want to plead with you to let me assist you, in any way I can, in the reconcilitiation process with your mom. She loves you more than you can ever know, and there is no greater reward for yourself to have a relationship with this wonderful person - you can call mommy!

PLEASE e-mail me at:a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com - we'll take it from there.

Very Sincerely,

UOJ

What Simchat Torah?

If the rabbis would rage against lies, rape, hatred, embezzlement, immorality, adultery, perjury, contempt, violence, swindling, false witness, depravity, pedophilia, undue risk of infanticide, drunkenness, perversion....

If the rabbis would do good, lead by example, excel in virtue, set an example, proving morality is on their side; if they would scrupulously respect the Commandments and obey the dictates of Halacha, and thus neither lie nor thieve, nor commit adultery with their congregants or with women of ill-repute, neither rob nor rape, neither bear false witness nor commit soul-murder, neither accept bribes nor "kosher" filthy money, nor commit incest or child rape, or cover up for pedophile rabbis.

The world would look at the Jews and the God of the Jews through their example of their shining conduct!

But instead...............

*

Chag Someach!

Our lives are not measured by the number of years we exist, but what we accomplish while we live, and by the good we may render to our fellow man.

Henry Wells -

Agudath Israel Calls For Ban On Selling Shorts Naked! Shafran Calls It Chillul Hashem - Blames The Modern Orthodox!

Short-selling ban leaves Jews at the SEC with little to show - says Avrohom Chaim Levin in the Chicago Tribune!


Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of selling a stock short, without first borrowing the shares or ensuring that the shares can be borrowed as is done in a conventional short sale. When the seller does not obtain the shares within the required time frame, the result is known as a "fail to deliver". However, the transaction generally remains open until the shares are acquired by the seller or the seller's broker, allowing a trade to occur when the order is filled.[1]

In the United States, naked short selling is covered by various SEC regulations which, as of September 2008, prohibit the practice.[2] In 2005, "Regulation SHO" was enacted to curb the practice, requiring that broker-dealers have grounds to believe that shares will be available for a given stock transaction, and requiring that delivery take place within a limited time period.[3][4] As part of its response to the crisis in the North American markets in 2008, the SEC issued a temporary order restricting fails to deliver in the shares of 19 financial firms deemed systemically important.[5] Effective September 18, 2008, amid claims that aggressive short selling had played a role in the failure of financial giant Lehman Brothers, the SEC made permanent and expanded the rules to remove exceptions and to cover all companies.[6][7]

Some commentators have contended that despite regulations, naked shorting is widespread and that the SEC regulations are poorly enforced, although the SEC has denied these claims. However, the SEC and others have also defended the practice in limited form as beneficial for market liquidity. Its critics have contended that the practice is susceptible to abuse, can be damaging to targeted companies struggling to raise capital, and has led to numerous bankruptcies.[6][2] Other commentators contend that naked shorting is more of a potential than a real problem, and have criticized the SEC for dealing with an issue that is tangential at best.

Mr. President! Suspend Trading On U.S. Stock Exchanges Until Further Notice!

Consider a moratorium, and or a cap on withdrawals from all American financial institutions!

Sincerely,

UOJ

The Case Of Rabbi Israel Weingarten

PKC:AG
F.#2007R01082
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
- against -
ISRAEL WEINGARTEN,
Defendant.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X
I N D I C T M E N T
(T. 18, U.S.C., §§
2423(a)(1997), 2423(b)
(1997) and 3551 et
seq.)
THE GRAND JURY CHARGES:
COUNT ONE
On or about and between July 30, 1997 and August 19,
1997, both dates being approximate and inclusive, within the
Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, the defendant ISRAEL
WEINGARTEN knowingly and intentionally transported Jane Doe, an
individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury and who had
not obtained the age of 18 years, in foreign commerce, to wit:
from Bet Shemesh, Israel to Brooklyn, New York, with the intent
that Jane Doe engage in sexual activity for which the defendant
could be charged with a criminal offense, to wit: Sexual Abuse in
the First Degree in violation of New York Penal Law Section
130.65(1) (1997); Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree in violation
of New York Penal Law Section 130.55 (1997); and Endangering the
-2-
Welfare of a Child in violation of New York Penal Law Section
260.10(1) (1997).
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2423(a) (1997)
and 3551 et seq.)
COUNT TWO
On or about and between August 19, 1997 and September
12, 1997, both dates being approximate and inclusive, within the
Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, the defendant ISRAEL
WEINGARTEN knowingly and intentionally transported Jane Doe, an
individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury and who had
not obtained the age of 18 years, in foreign commerce, to wit:
from Brooklyn, New York to Antwerp, Belgium, with the intent that
Jane Doe engage in sexual activity for which the defendant could
be charged with a criminal offense, to wit: Sodomy in the First
Degree in violation of New York Penal Law Section 130.50(1)
(1997); Sodomy in the Third Degree in violation of New York Penal
Law Section 130.40(2) (1997); Sexual Abuse in the First Degree in
violation of New York Penal Law Section 130.65(1) (1997); Sexual
Abuse in the Third Degree in violation of New York Penal Law
Section 130.55 (1997); Incest in violation of New York Penal Law
Section 255.25 (1997); Attempted Sexual Misconduct in violation
of New York Penal Law Sections 130.20(1)(1997) and 110.00 (1997);
Sexual Misconduct in violation of New York Penal Law Section
-3-
130.20(2)(1997); and Endangering the Welfare of a Child in
violation of New York Penal Law Section 260.10(1) (1997).
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2423(a) (1997)
and 3551 et seq.)
COUNT THREE
On or about and between April 14, 1997 and July 30,
1997, both dates being approximate and inclusive, the defendant
ISRAEL WEINGARTEN, being a United States citizen, knowingly and
intentionally traveled in foreign commerce, to wit: from Antwerp,
Belgium to Bet Shemesh, Israel, for the purpose of engaging in a
sexual act with Jane Doe, an individual whose identity is known
to the Grand Jury and who had not obtained the age of 18 years,
to wit: contact between the mouth of Jane Doe and the penis of
the defendant; penetration by the defendant of the anal and
genital openings of Jane Doe by hand and finger with an intent to
arouse and gratify the sexual desire of the defendant; the
intentional touching of the genitalia of Jane Doe with intent to
arouse and gratify the sexual desire of the defendant, which
sexual act would constitute a violation of Title 18, United
States Code, Sections 2241(a)(1) & (2) (1997), if the sexual act
occurred in the special maritime or territorial jurisdiction of
the United States, to wit: Aggravated Sexual Abuse.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2423(b) (1997)
and 3551 et seq.)
-4-
COUNT FOUR
On or about and between July 30, 1997 and August 19,
1997, both dates being approximate and inclusive, within the
Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, the defendant ISRAEL
WEINGARTEN, being a United States citizen, knowingly and
intentionally traveled in foreign commerce, to wit: from Bet
Shemesh, Israel to Brooklyn, New York, for the purpose of
engaging in a sexual act, for the purpose of engaging in a sexual
act with Jane Doe, an individual whose identity is known to the
Grand Jury and who had not obtained the age of 18 years, to wit:
contact between the mouth of Jane Doe and the penis of the
defendant; penetration by the defendant of the anal and genital
openings of Jane Doe by hand and finger with an intent to arouse
and gratify the sexual desire of the defendant; the intentional
touching of the genitalia of Jane Doe with intent to arouse and
gratify the sexual desire of the defendant, which sexual act
would constitute a violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Sections 2241(a)(1) & (2) (1997), if the sexual act occurred in
the special maritime or territorial jurisdiction of the United
States, to wit: Aggravated Sexual Abuse.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2423(b) (1997)
and 3551 et seq.)
-5-
COUNT FIVE
On or about and between August 19, 1997 and September
12, 1997, both dates being approximate and inclusive, within the
Eastern District of New York and elsewhere, the defendant ISRAEL
WEINGARTEN, being a United States citizen, knowingly and
intentionally traveled in foreign commerce, to wit: from
Brooklyn, New York to Antwerp, Belgium, for the purpose of
engaging in a sexual act, for the purpose of engaging in a sexual
act with Jane Doe, an individual whose identity is known to the
Grand Jury and who had not obtained the age of 18 years, to wit:
contact between the mouth of Jane Doe and the penis of the
defendant; penetration by the defendant of the anal and genital
openings of Jane Doe by hand and finger with an intent to arouse
and gratify the sexual desire of the defendant; the intentional
touching of the genitalia of Jane Doe with intent to arouse and
gratify the sexual desire of the defendant, which sexual act
would constitute a violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Sections 2241(a)(1) & (2) (1997), if the sexual act occurred in
-6-
the special maritime or territorial jurisdiction of the United
States, to wit: Aggravated Sexual Abuse.
(Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2423(b) (1997)
and 3551 et seq.)
A TRUE BILL
FOREPERSON
BENTON J. CAMPBELL
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK