In-House Agudah Memo About Containing the Scandal

A new kid on the block needs a break...

Frumfollies.com
By Yerachmiel Lopin

Editors Note- The following came to me from an unknown source and I cannot verify its authenticity.

MEMO

FROM: Mr. Allium

TO: MR Geltman

RE: Future direction of Finances

The unrelenting torrent of criticism of our failure to reformulate our approach is taking its toll. We are putting a brave face on it and we could probably continue in this way for a while. But if it persists long enough the damage will intensify and it may be too late to recover.

Accordingly I am writing this memo to you as a first step toward revising our approach before it is too late. Knowing how sensitive this issue is I used a typewriter and there are a limited number of copies in existence. Please burn yours after you finish reading it.

At the core of our problems is the Internet, especially the blogs such UOJ and FM as well as Polin’s Awareness Center. For a long time it was a “he said, he said” kind of situation. But now some of the old charges have been substantiated. As you and I know, more of those charges will be substantiated. Alas, Charles Hynes, Brookly DA, will be much less willing to take our word on dropping charges. Now some of the victimized girls are also talking. And some of them like little sheffele have stories that are so heartbreaking and yet so full of emunah. That sort of thing may be even more dangerous than UOJ which we try to discredit because of nivul peh.

Blogs (many anonymous) keep on opening. More of them are by individuals who are careful to make it appear like they are definitely frum. It is very hard to discredit them unless we have verifiable dirt on them. If we accuse them falsely they can choose to throw off their cloak of anonymity and then we are really up the creek. Moreover the anonymous one are less likely to be OTD. We know Shmarya is OTD but I suspect UOJ is not. Stripping UOJ of his anonymity it would be risky. Then he will be a real face and name, and that would be even worse for us because he clearly knows where many of the bodies are buried and I am afraid he has more dirt than he has dished out.

This is hurting us with contributors. Of course publicly, we are blaming the recession. Publicly I blame the drop in contributions on the economy. But serveral big givers have told me why they have stopped giving to us. I have confirmed that some of these people are giving the same or more to other groups. One fellow has dropped us and instead gives the money to SFJ.

Survivors for Justice is out there and it is hard to find any dirt on them. I am still looking. I wont give up, but I have to tell you I am pessimistic. Between you and me, we are just stuck with too many ehrliche yidn.

As if Rabbi Blau at YU was not bad enough now we are faced with Rabbi Eisenman at Ahavas Israel in Passaic. He got his smichah at YU but he is morphing into a hassid. If he has a specific Rebbe and we can identify him we might be able to pressure him. But he may be like Mr Mendlowitz, whose Rebbe was the Ribono shel olam. He clearly has a congregation which adores him and he commands great respect in his community.

Here are some of the dangerous ideas he is promoting”

Go to the Police

Listen to the victims even if they are OTD because they didn’t leave us, we left them by ignoring their pleas.

Listen to complaints even if you can’t prove the truthfulness because it may be the truth. Usually when someone complains there is some real problem.

That al chet for giluy arayos applies to the community’s response to the problem and that ubiartem es harah mikirbechah (you shall eradicate the evil among us) applies to this problem in our community.

That the biggest invokers of lashon hurah are the molesters themselves
That the Gerer rebbe “isn’t God” and he is protecting a molester (Mondrowitz) and congregants should refuse to support them. (He was saying this before the latest Litzman scandal.

Eisenman has just gotten started and a few others like him may emerge. It is true that most congregational rabbis are clueless or easily intimidated. However, the frum world is one big network and as congregants in other shuls speak to his congregants they will start pressuring their rabbis to do more. This will only lead to uncovering more and more cases and stoking congregational anger. We will lose more ground with our olam once they start hearing these stories from kids in their own community.

I think we can anticipate what happens next by looking at the Catholic Church. It is like Watergate, at some point the question became, who knew and who was involved in the cover-up. Unfortunately for the catholics there is a large written trail. Whereas in our community it will be more complicated and ambiguous and people will start blaming each other for either misrepresenting the facts presented to rabbonim, or blaming rabbonim for forbidding mesirah, even when it should have been allow because of the danger to the children. Of course we will keep using the business of not knowing all this data about recividism among pedophiles. But this excuse is double edged, even as it dilutes responsibility it also reduces our credibility as competent leaders.

My ultimate fear is that several Moetzes leaders will break ranks and go public with some very serious charges and facts. It is just bound to happen once the Moetzes realizes that there are no more intermediate scapegoats left. It is the old sinking ship problem. Unfortunately that will probably be the end our influence. Because it is hard to argue for the clear demands of Daas Torah when there are seventy faces to Daas Torah.

I don’t see a solution, but I do see a way to buy time by serving up a few scapegoats from within the Moetzes. Ideally we will actually find a pedophile and find a way to claim he was our point person and he misled us. I know of no one who fits the bill, but it is quite possible we will discover someone with all the victims coming forward.

Unless we get lucky in finding our scapegoat our next best strategy is finding out which members of the Moetzes are most likely to come forward and find a way to scapegoat them and thus discredit them. The problem if figuring out who is most likely to suffer from a troubled conscience and who has the most dirt. Unfortunately we have a culture of conformity that makes it hard to know who on the inside is disgusted enough to come forward.

I have only one practical solution for the short term. It is similar to Mao’s thousand flowers shtick. He was one smart goy. Here is how he worked it. After a period where everyone was cowed into conformity, he announced, let a thousand flowers bloom. He encouraged all sorts of public expressions and practices. Then he stopped a thousand flowers but he knew who the troublemakers were and he pushed them out of power or and in many cases, out of the window.

I would suggest something along those lines called elef prachim, or pirchei for short in all of our future communications. B It borrows from what we did with the Spinka Rebbe over tax fraud. It was truly impressive. We had him saying chatassi for causing a big chillul hashem, without ever saying “I lied” His reference to lawyers and accountants was ambiguous enough so at sentencing he could imply that he was advocating compliance while others could read it as use lawyers and accountants so you don’t get caught. Finally the Yekkes could think, true it isn’t enough but it shows us that the Agudah is moving in the right direction.

For the problem we are talking about, we could arrange a big public event. Find someone to say chatassi, only admitting he should have gone to even more meetings. He could point out that we now have frum therapists at Ohel, and make some strong statements of sympathy for those who have been hurt. He might even announce a plan for an accelerated learning program to culminate in a siyum with a special kavannah for those who suffered. The beauty of this program is that we can canvass broadly for all sorts of support for this effort and seek advice on what to raise and how far to go. Those inside who have been fooling us by not showing their disloyalty will come out of the woodwork. We will give them just enough hope that we can change even if they don’t come forward. Then we can go to work on a gradual campaign to discredit them. They will try to complain that rumors are spread about them because of their concerns about child abuse. But if they havent yet come out strongly on the issue, no one will believe that argument. Naturally, the rabbonim themselves will never explicitly know about the true pirchei project and agenda. But quite a few of them are very smart. If my past experience is any guide that will give me free hand and stay above it all. Like the goy detective said during the Watergate hearings. “I knew something wasn’t kosher.” Our rabbonim can see an aphid on a broccoli from 2000 ammos so of course they will suspect something. But if they were the kind of people who insisted on acting on their suspicions we wouldn’t be in this matzav.

I expect to be working on this project for a while. I will let you know how it progresses.

I think this approach may just buy us enough time to come up with something better for the long haul. But between us, I am hedging my bets and beginning to build a private lobbying and consulting practice.

Sincerely,

Mr. Allium

PS

1. The good news is that I don’t yet see any decline in our external political influence. I think your real estate project is good to go. But I would advise you to try and clinch the deal sooner rather than bargain for the last dollar.

2. I was hoping to include a review of the notes from the meetings at the NR’s house. I am guessing they are just misplaced. Dealing with them being leaked would just be one problem too many.

That Rabbis “aren’t necessarily God” and that we need to refuse funding to Ger until it stops blocking the extradition from Israel of osso ha-ish.

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BAIS DIN TZEDEK OF JERUSALEM BANS LEIB TROPPER'S FRAUD - ETERNAL JEWISH FAMILY FRAUD - AND FORBIDS ANY RABBI TO PARTAKE IN THIS VICIOUS SCAM!

Click on image to enlarge --- Please distribute these as flyers in your neighborhood shuls!

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Orthodox Jews Shielding Child Sex-Abusers!

Orthodox 'shielding sex abusers' By Paul Berger, October 15, 2009 [United Kingdom] WWW.THEJC.COM

Suspected abuser Avrohom Mondrowitz in an Israeli court in 2007. He is still fighting extradition back to the US

A New York State Supreme Court judge has criticised the Orthodox community for shielding perpetrators of sexual abuse while persecuting victims.

Judge Gustin Reichbach lamented the community’s “circle-the-wagons attitude” as he sentenced Yona Weinberg, a barmitzvah tutor and social worker from Brooklyn, to 13 months in jail for molesting two boys.

At the sentencing earlier this month, the courtroom was filled with Weinberg’s supporters. Almost 100 members of the Orthodox community wrote letters to the judge defending him.

Judge Reichbach lamented that no letters displayed “any concern or even any acknowledgement for these young victims which, frankly, I find shameful”. Rather, the community “seeks to blame, indeed punish, victims who seek justice from... civil society”.

Sexual abuse has become a highly contentious issue in the US Orthodox community following a string of cases involving well-known teachers and rabbis. Over the past year, 26 strictly Orthodox men have been arrested in Brooklyn in child sexual abuse cases; eight have been convicted and 18 await trial.

The strictly Orthodox are statistically no more likely to experience sexual abuse than any other group. But the problem is often exacerbated because there is pressure on victims not to go to the police, due to a suspicion of secular society and a fear of bringing shame on the community. In some cases, parents worry that revealing abuse might harm chances of a shidduch. Meanwhile, some community leaders prefer to act solely through a beth din.

However, the timing of Judge Reichbach’s comments may be ironic, as some see signs that the taboo against reporting sexual abuse is beginning to fade. NY state Assemblyman Dov Hikind became involved in the issue 15 months ago. He says many people in the community have overcome the stigma associated with abuse and are openly discussing it.

“There has been an improvement, no question about it,” says Mr Hikind. “The fact that people are acting is a huge accomplishment, but we have an even longer way to go.”

This year, more than 40 minors have agreed to testify about abuse in court.

David Zwiebel, executive vice president of the Charedi group Agudath Israel of America, told the New York Times this week that “A broad consensus has emerged that many of these issues are beyond the ability of the community to handle internally.”

In the past, victims who have spoken out have faced ostracism, as well as verbal and physical threats.

One victim, Shua Finkelstein, died of an overdose at the beginning of this year. His parents later discovered a letter he had written criticising the community for not confronting abuse, which they published online. Soon afterwards, their New Jersey home was damaged in a suspected arson attack.

Yona Weinberg joins a list of recent high-profile court cases involving Orthodox Jews. Last year, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a teacher at Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn, struck a plea deal with the Brooklyn district attorney. To campaigners’ dismay, Kolko pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment, ducking a jail sentence and avoiding registration as a sex offender.

Meanwhile, Rabbi Avrohom Reichman, a principal at the United Talmudic Academy in Williamsburg, is currently the subject of a civil lawsuit filed by Joel Engleman, who claims he was molested during the 1990s.

Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz, who fled to Israel from New York in 1984 to avoid prosecution for sexual abuse, continues to fight extradition.

Mark Weiss, who says he was abused by Mondrowitz in the late 1970s, blames community leaders for the support shown to Weinberg and others like him. Mr Weiss says that “otherwise good, warmhearted, caring people are suddenly reprogrammed to defy all logic”, when they are told that they must defend the community from a chilul hashem — disgracing god’s name — by standing up for the accused.

“It’s a disgrace that our community has to get chastised by someone like Judge Reichbach, but he’s 100 per cent right,” he added. “This is about the Orthodox leadership’s control over people.”

Child abuse: when family courts get it wrong!

By Kathleen Russel – Wed Oct 14, 2009 -- for the CSM

San Rafael, Calif – When a parent harms his or her own child, family courts are supposed to step in and safeguard the victim.

Can you imagine what a tragedy it would be if courts awarded custody to the wrong parent – the abuser?

Actually, according to one conservative estimate, more than 58,000 children per year are ordered by family courts into unsupervised contact with physically or sexually abusive parents following divorce in the United States.

The fact that this type of scandal is taking place in the American justice system defies the imagination. Not since the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal has the US seen this level of institutional harm inflicted on innocent children.

Consider the case of Jonea Rogers, a hairstylist from Marin County, Calif. During her costly divorce, she sought help from numerous law enforcement, child protection, and family court authorities to protect her daughter from what medical evidence and reports by the child and her baby sitter suggested could be ongoing neglect or sexual abuse or both by the girl's father or grandfather.

None of the authorities she approached would effectively intervene to protect her daughter. So in 2000, Ms. Rogers eventually felt that she had no choice but to flee with her child to protect her.

More than three years later, this protective mother was caught and jailed for five months, while her daughter was immediately handed over to her alleged abusers. Rogers faced criminal charges for violating a court order by fleeing with her child. After considering the evidence in her case, a jury of her peers completely exonerated her of all wrongdoing.

The very same evidence that exonerated her in the criminal court had been called "frivolous" by the family court judge and disregarded. Despite her acquittal, Rogers was never granted custody of her daughter, who lives with her alleged abusers to this day. She is now forced to pay a fee to visit with her daughter a few times a month in a supervised visitation facility.

As we see in many cases across the country, even when physical or sexual abuse of children is alleged during a divorce, American family courts routinely award custody to the parent with an established record of domestic violence restraining orders, child abuse, neglect, alcoholism, addiction, dangerous mental illness, or a combination.

Meanwhile, the child's other parent, commonly referred to as the "protective parent," is typically demonized by court professionals as an "alienator" for bringing evidence of child abuse to the court's attention.

This happens because the reigning paradigm in family courts across the country is an unscientific, discredited theory known as "Parental Alienation Syndrome," or PAS.

PAS and its many derivatives suggest that the parent who asks the court to protect his or her child by limiting the alleged abuser's access to that child is "alienating" the child from the other parent.

The theory suggests that a parent "coaches" a son or daughter to fabricate false abuse allegations, and the court's attention immediately shifts away from investigating an alleged crime and instead focuses on the "uncooperative parent" who refuses to share custody of the child with the alleged abuser or molester.

PAS is tricky for the courts because parents in heated custody battles often badmouth each other and sometimes exaggerate claims of neglect, and children overhear their parents complaints about each other. Though rare, false allegations of abuse do occur. Research on child sexual abuse indicates that close to 98 percent of children who claim sexual abuse in the context of a high conflict divorce are telling the truth, yet family courts routinely proceed as if the opposite were true.

Protective parents not only lose custody of the children they are trying to protect, but they lose their life savings, too. Many cannot even afford a lawyer to represent their interests, but are saddled with hefty supervised visitation fees and often threatened with a loss of custody if they object to paying the bevy of court-appointed experts that the judge assigns to their case.

Fees quickly add up to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Many such parents go bankrupt, making court appeals impossible. The family law "machine" operates as Big Business, and a sophisticated cottage industry has sprung up that appears to be preying on desperate parents and children who are trying to escape family violence.

Four factors conspire against protective parents:

1. Family law judges are granted broad discretion in their decisionmaking;

2. Juries are nonexistent in most family law courtrooms;

3. Costly appeals are out of reach for most litigants; and

4. Children are not afforded a voice in these important proceedings that determine their future. As a result, nothing short of a major overhaul of the family court system will suffice.

Here in California, home to some of the most egregious cases, the Center for Judicial Excellence and its partner organizations in the Safe Child Coalition recently worked with State Sen. Mark Leno (D) of San Francisco to unanimously pass an audit request through the California legislature to address this growing problem.

The request asks the state auditor to investigate the procedures used by family courts to appoint, train, evaluate, and discipline the plethora of professionals they use in cases in Marin and Sacramento counties.

The legislature should also pass two sensible bills in 2010. Assemblyman Jim Beall (D) of San Jose has proposed a bill that would outlaw PAS in state family courts, and a bill by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D) of San Francisco would allow children to have a voice in family court proceedings.

Other states must open their eyes to this problem. Family courts are being manipulated in ways that tragically undermine their mission.

We must ensure access to justice for all who find themselves in our nation's family courts. There are at least 58,000 reasons to get serious about reform today.

Kathleen Russell is a cofounder and staff consultant to the Center for Judicial Excellence in Marin County, Calif.

The Leib Tropper Fraud - EJF- Eternal Jewish Family Fraud - Must Be Stopped!

Leib Tropper, head charlatan of EJF [Eternal Jewish Family fraud], has now been summoned to both Jewish religious courts and to American courts accused of not being able to account for what he did with Guma Aguiar's millions of dollars of donations, that Tropper used to aggrandize himself as EJF's leader.

There is a planned joint seminar in the works between Tropper's EJF and GATEWAYS:

"EJF Student Shabbaton with Gateways Stamford, CT 10/16/2009 - 10/18/2009 - A Shabbaton in conjunction with Gateways focusing on intermarriage prevention. The event will include 100 students, and staff from both organizations."

Call on anyone you know to protest and boycott the GATEWAYS organization to stop them from exposing their students to Tropper's fanaticism and EJF's entrapment scams now enabled by "Gateways" !

Call, E-Mail and Fax the GATEWAYS people to protest their joint venture with Tropper/EJF:

GATEWAYS Main Office:

11 Wallenberg Circle, Monsey, NY 10952

Email: office@gatewaysonline.com

Phones:

800-722-3191

845-352-0393

Fax 845-352-0394

GATEWAYS Director of Operations
Rabbi Avrumy Jordan
845-352-0393 x108

GATEWAYS Public Relations Liason
Dr. Robyn Fischer
845-352-0393 x107

GATEWAYS: Director of Russian Programming
Rabbi Mordechai Tokarski
718-332-1506

GATEWAYS: Director of Collegiate Programming
Rabbi Reuven Ibragimov
1-800-742-2228

Director of Special Projects
Rabbi Yisroel Cherns
845-352-0393 x115

GATEWAYS: Event Registration
Ms. Tammi Lit
845-352-0393 x127

GATEWAYS: Webmaster
Mr. Danny Glix
845-290-8726

V'Samechta B'Chagecha!

As these hit songs proclaim and you shall confirm on Simchat Torah; let us stay strong and cling to our beliefs. Let us cast aside the alma deshikra that tempts us every day and strengthen our connection to the One Above and His Torah. In that merit, we will be zoche to greet Moshiach Tzidkeini, may he come speedily, in our day.

V'taher Lebanu L'avdecha B'emes,

UOJ

Leib Tropper Delusional Sociopath - Eternal Jewish Family Fraud - Part Two

By Tropper is Troubled

Tropper tries to overcome isolation in Monsey.

There are a few reasons why R Nochum Eisenstein of Israel would need Tropper. Tropper has access to big bucks. He could and did assemble the big rabbis and promote Eisenstein cause. But it backfired when Eisenstein used his time on the EJF stage to attack some of the RCA type rabbis there, causing them to cut all ties to Tropper and EJF that they may have contemplated. But the real crux of the issues between Tropper and Eisenstein stems from the schizophrenic aims of EJF itself. Tropper has an outreach type of agenda to convert as many gentiles that fall into EJF hands while he also preaches a doctrine of "universal standards" meaning the highest possible chumras in geirut. Tropper is able to flip back and forth and use both as arguments when one fails he uses the other. Whatever works. While on the other hand R Eisenstein does not give a crap about converting anyone. If he had his way he would pull the conversions of all converts except a handful he knows about.

He proved this when he orchestrated with Rabbi Sherman in Israel the annulment of nearly 17,000 conversions that had been performed by Rabbi Druckman's Religious Zionist Batei Din of the Israeli governemnt's sanctioned Conversion Authority. So while Eisenstein's frame of reference is the ongoing conversions machlokesen in Israel, Tropper's focus is about taking his personal philosophy outreach and self-grandeur to a new level by reaching out to gentiles who want to convert many from intermarriages. Eisenstein hates this and has tried to stamp it out but he cannot because it was a pet project of Guma Aguiar and Tom Kaplan who were funding EJF and Tropper to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and making the haredi bigs come and pay attention at the EJF conferences in the first place and now it's what Tom Kaplan alone is funding, so Tropper has no choice if he wants Kaplan's millions to keep on flowing into his EJF and other coffers, but Eisenstein couldn't give a darn about Kaplan or Tropper's "great leader with blind disciples converting the world like a fake messiah" befitting Shabtai Tzvi meshugasen.

So to keep his own visions of grandeur rolling Tropper has tried to break out from isolation in Monsey, reaching out even to rivals and former enemies: Eternal Jewish Family - External Links.

His greatest grand scheme to do that has been the EJF scam itself.

But on a smaller scale he has tried to weasel his way back to some outreach organization who are obviously cash strapped in some ways and he has dragged in the Gateways organization, that basically like Tropper only shares a Monsey address, but has no campus or following to speak of, just a glitzy PR driven lecturing machine with weekends at hotels (plenty of known hanky panky at Gateways events too) that cater to mostly spoiled frum people.

Tropper has tried to reach out to his old nemesis of Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem and they have taken the bait for their own cynical reasons, but they have still not let him set his foot into their own bais medrash, while they conduct programs with him in far off Ukraine, and a few others from Israel who need to break out of their isolation, so they think that Tropper will help him, but it's like a prisoner who imagines he is breaking out of his jail cell only to find himself having landed up in the jail cell next door. While it helps Tropper get over his isolation and virtual banning from Monsey, it helps the others who now hold hands with him nothing.

Monsey to Tropper: Not in our backyard.

There is an unspoken common understanding in Monsey, NY, Tropper's is dangerous and a fraud and most of his students are weird and cultish. Yeah sure, he trains many of them to think super-yeshivish and even to learn a blatt well. But that only makes matters worse, because it's just replicating and reproducing Frankenstein-like monsters who can spout Tropper's sicko ideology of hating other rabbis that they are convinced is true "daas toireh" when it's just the cultish ramblings of brainwashed BTs practicing sinas chinam and machlokes at the feet of the master.

Bottom line, Monsey has not been kind to Tropper and the Jews of Monsey don't like him, his views or the type of fanatical students he puts out, when he puts them out. This is not because Monsey does not like kiruv or BTs. On the contrary, Monsey is a very welcoming and tolerant community. A lot better than the tough Brooklynites and far better than the unfriendly Boro Parkers not to mention Willimsburgers, or the nutty Crown Heighters, the Monsey people are good people. That is why Ohr Somayach of Mosney has had so much success there as it's been welcomed and staffed by people from the Monsey community. Just that they don't like Tropper and his skwered approach at his forever hanging by a thread Kol Yaakov aka Yeshiva Yedei Esav.

Could it be that they were privy to the public breakup of his first marriage while he was living there? Or that they saw and heard about his private predilections and rumors of womanizing and taking advantage of females when on the road with his "horizons I am the greatest gift to mankind" lectures on campuses all over America? Or how he suddenly met and reeled in a pretty young thing model who wasn't even religious and after refusing to give wife number one a Get for a long time, he suddenly saw the light and ran to dump her so that he could marry wife number two soon after a couple of months of number two's brainwashing at a girls seminary? These are things that matter and they cannot be kept from one's neighbors.

Gossip is a reality of life and when it is a supposedly prominent rabbi who is preaching high and mighty things and looks down at the world because "he knows better" that the gossip takes on more traction and becomes a window into the world of truth and reality that reveal a hypocritical monster at work, this causes your neighbors to stay far away from you.

These too must be at least some the reasons that Pinny Lipshitz owner of the Yated Ne'eman and long time resident of Monsey stays as far away from Tropper as he can and tries to sanitize his paper by running as little news about EJF and Topper as he can and very obviously letting the world know, that as far as the Monsey based Yated is concerned, Tropper is held at arms length or better yet like a figurative putrid rat held by its tail while the rat catcher holds his own nose with his other hand as he tosses the rat as far out of the window as he humanly can waving it goodbye and good riddance as it scampers off to bother other papers and publishers like at the The Jewish Press and at the Hamodia attention-starved news rags that will post anything that comes their way, especially if it's backed up by the big money that pumps artificial life into EJF and keeps Tropper flying all over the world creating mayhem and machlokes in his trail.

Pinny Lipshitz (editor Yated Ne'eman) has letely welcomed a column based on weekly Torah thoughts from lectures by Rav Moshe Sternbuch the Raavad of the Eida Hachareidit's Beth Din who just so also happens to be the staunchest hakchic authority and Torah scholar opposing every shred of what EJF is trying to do and who frightens the heck out of a Tropper. Neat and very smart trick by Lipshitz to arm himself with choshuve Sternbuch against the low-life Tropper bullying aparat.

Tropper fails to build his own Torah community on home ground in Monsey, New York, USA.

All Tropper has in Monsey after working day and night in outreach is a dinky little place that often barely has a minyan and a handful or more of wacko students.

After about 30 years of living, working and basing himself out of Monsey, NY, Tropper has gone nowhere.

People there don't like him. His original Kol Yaakov yeshiva (Yedei Esav) never seems to grow beyond a handful of students. Perhaps it's because he "mainstreams" them well meaning brainwashes his new recruits so quickly and so efficiently that they then move on to be absorbed into other yeshiva communities in Israel and America, and Tropper does have a nice little group of his alumni meaning disciples living in Israel.

But it still does not account for the fact that in Monsey, NY -- which by now is itself a huge Charedi community with both yeshivish and Chasidish people by the tens of thousands moving in and living there, that after three decades Tropper has not been able to do a simple thing for him like building a core community that one would think should be the natural outgrowth of his thirty years of attracting people to himself and setting himself up as their supreme leader.

What is the matter here?

And to double the shame for Tropper is that his arch-rivals and former employers Ohr Somayach set themselves up in Monsey about the same time he did, and by now they have a huge campus overflowing with students who are referred to them from all across America and the world, while they have built up a very strong kehilla of their own that revolves around the Ohr Somyach campus in Monsey.

Why hasn't Tropper been able to replicate this same level of success?

The answers are not that hard to follow by now. One is that Tropper is by nature restless and on the go and since he is a control freak and insists on micro-managing every last detail of his yeshiva's and students' lives, he is in effect his own worst enemy because no student or couple will invest time in a rabbi who is flying around America and the world seeking his own kicks and thrills and they sense he doesn't give a darn about their more mundane and human needs on earth itself.

But of course, two is the real reason that Tropper is simply too obnoxious and self-centered for any group of people to put their long-term emotional and spiritual lives into the hands of someone as selfish, bombastic and cruel as the menacing Machiavellian Tropper macho machine.

Rabbi Salomon's Grandson Preparing To Give The Keynote Address At This Year's Agudah Convention Blasting Bloggers!

A telling post from Daas Hedyot sent in by Malach Hamovies!

It's Not Just Individuals - It's The Community! The UOJ Archives

Oftentimes in my life, when people discover that I used to be religious, they inquire as to why I chose to leave that lifestyle behind me. When I first encountered people asking me this, I would try to explain that the choice I made was a very personal one, based on what I concluded was right for me specifically, and that my decision wasn't intended to make a statement about the objective truth of Judaism in general. It's not that theological and ideological arguments didn't play a contributing part - they most definitely did, in that they significantly loosened the grip which my fundamentalist upbringing had held me in. And it's not that I was oblivious to all the scholarship (from science, history, biblical scholarship, and other fields) which challenged the veracity of Orthodox Judaism.

While I never did get too involved in those discussions, I was well aware of how powerfully they undermined many of the foundations of Orthodoxy. But more importantly, I knew myself, and I knew that what was really motivating me was the particular social and psychological needs which I was facing in my life. Orthodoxy was doing nothing for me (intellectually, spiritually, socially, emotionally, and in other ways) and even worse, I felt it was actively crippling me, by forcing me to subscribe to a lifestyle and value system which I didn't believe in at all.

So when someone would assume from my decision that it was an indictment of Orthodoxy as a whole, I would go out of my way to correct the mistaken impression. I would try to make it clear that while I was most definitely critical of aspects of that world, the community as a whole was not deserving of condemnation and that there were still many Orthodox people who I wholeheartedly respected (well, maybe "a few" is more accurate). But to presume that I was critical of Orthodoxy as a whole was an assumption that was not justified.

However, these days, when faced with this question of "Why am I not religious?" I find myself frequently questioning this approach I had previously settled upon. While it's obvious that the motivations for my choice couldn't have retroactively changed, the simple fact is that I am finding myself less and less able to look at the chareidi community that I came from and be able to describe it as anything other than a corrupt, dysfunctional, and totally unhealthy environment to be a part of.

The many recent indiscretions, dysfunctions, and outright misdeeds of individuals within the Orthodox community have been well documented in the media: Hundreds of sexual abuse cases being reported, including many by rabbis and principals (Kolko, Mondrowitz, Weingarten, Beis Yakov Principal, Satmar Principal in Williamsburg, West Bank Rabbi, Baltimore Rabbi), acid and bleach thrown at those not dressing modestly enough, beatings by modesty squads, attacking women who sit in the front of the bus, tax fraud by Hassidic Rebbes, infants killed by abusive fathers, indictments at glatt kosher slaughterhouses, eviction threats because of not being frum enough, etc., etc. I can keep on going, but I think the picture is clear. There's a lot of ugliness to be found within the chareidi community. A hell of a lot. This is way more than just a few isolated incidents.

However, despite the fact that these stories are appearing with ever increasing frequency, I don't think that these incidents are truly representative of the entire community. They are unfortunately more than just a few people, but I don't think that these sorts of extremely awful behaviors are actually widespread in the frum community. And I honestly don't think it's fair to tar the whole community with the transgressions of a small minority who make the rest of the community look bad.

The thing is though, that small minority of deviants aren't the reason that I think so negatively of the community as a whole. If it was only these incidents, I probably wouldn't be as critical as I am of the frum world. Rather, what fills me with such a repugnance is the behavior of the entire community itself, specifically in how it reacts to the many truly awful crimes happening in their midst.

For example, let's look at the child molestation issue: It's not just that there are child molesters in the community. Yes, that's awful, but as bad as it is, I'd concede that it's not more than a tiny percentage of the community, and I wouldn't judge the whole community based on just that. But what isn't a tiny percentage is the number of people who willfully and knowingly hamper efforts to bring these molesters to justice. What isn't a small number is the amount of people who would prefer to let these criminals remain free rather than risk sullying the reputation of their venerated institutions.

When a community as a whole allows such crimes to go unpunished and penalizes those who are trying to help innocent children, they can no longer hide behind the defense of "it's just a few lone individuals". At that point the community is also guilty. When the leadership (both rabbinic and lay) which the community looks up to is continuously silent on such a grave matter, it is a clear indication of where the community's priorities are.

When a community leader publicly admits that he has knowledge of hundreds of abuse cases, and yet his constituents prefer him to keep it all away from the police, the community has then become complicit in the crimes. When everyone cares more about what their neighbor is going to say about them, or their children's shidduch chances, or what yeshiva their kids will get into, or about being shunned by their friends (all commonly heard excuses for why no one wants to step up to the plate on any of these issues) - when they care more about all that than they do actually solving the problem, they're saying that they care more about maintaining the community's standards than doing what is right and just. That it's better to keep these things quiet.

This is why I can no longer look at the chareidi world with even a modicum of respect. The community as a whole has clearly expressed that they place the reputation of their society, and their place in that society, above the well being of their own children. How can anyone not be disgusted by such a society?

If the community truly cared, then it wouldn't ostracize people who try to bring the criminals to justice. If the community cared, a chassidish family wouldn't be afraid to tell the police who raped their 14 year old daughter. If the community cared it wouldn't stand behind and support a man convicted of killing his own baby (UTJ Knesset member Meir Porush called him a "good, quiet and disciplined" young man). If the community really cared, people wouldn't have to continuously be ashamed to report abuse to the police.

When last year, a chassidish man was found to be selling the Monsey community non-kosher chicken, the community showed how much they cared. The man and his family were run out of the community, in shame and in fear for his life. The community showed what they cared about then. And when the community allows accused child molesters to peaceably remain a part of their community, but those who try to help victims are harassed and attacked, they make it even clearer to the world what they care about. When a frum politician is able to back down on a promise to stop a molester from teaching kids, and no one demands that he keep his word, it shows where the community's concerns lie. When the rabbonim get more worked up about "illicit" music and "heretical" books than they do about yeshivas harboring molesters they reveal to us just what matters most to them.

This is why I have become so absolutely and utterly disgusted with the frum community as a whole. It is no longer just individuals committing these crimes. It is also the general public, and the leadership, which is responsible for allowing these horrible injustices to be perpetrated. It is the community and rabbis which turn a blind eye (or worse) towards these indiscretions. Their inaction, and relative silence (aside from a few vocal and brave activists), is a shocking admission of where their priorities truly lie. Their unwillingness to step up, and yes - risk condemnation and possible political fallout - is a clear indication of what the community values. If your community is going to condemn you for bringing a criminal to justice, isn't the community unambiguously saying that they prefer to protect criminals? Aren't they also then complicit in their crimes?

Admittedly, I know that there are many individuals in the community who are as horrified and sickened by all this as much as I am. Probably more so. But then why don't you speak up? I know the answer to that - because it's too costly for you. You will be shunned, ostracized, maybe even worse. I understand that. But how can you not be ashamed of yourself? With your silence, you are making a choice, a choice to be part of a society that prefers to let some of the very worst crimes of humanity - rape, violence, murder, abuse - go unpunished.

How can any self-respecting person - let alone one who considers themselves spiritual and religiously principled --- stand to be a part of this world?

300 People In Attendance At Cong. Ahavas Yisroel Erev Yom Kippur!

Here is a link to the audio of the event that took place the night before Yom Kippur at Ahavas Israel in Passaic with Rabbi Eisenman. There were over 300 people in attendance at this historic event.

It is well worth your time to listen to it in its entirety.

Best wishes for a wonderful New Year.

Mark (Mutty) Weiss -- Co-Founder Survivors For Justice

Link to file:
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/746504113/39f4325885816b4a26293d417260cae5

*

PSAK FROM THE UOJ BAIS DIN WITH SEAL OF THE KKK:

The first day of Sukkot is Shabbos; the mitzva min ha'Torah to "take a lulav and esrog" ( the 4 minim) is only the first day of the chag - which is muktzah this year because of Shabbos (for various reasons beyond the scope of this psak).

There is absolutely no reason to pay more than $20-$40 for a lulav and esrog this year -- walk out of the store and go to another one if your esrog dealer does not agree to accept your offer. The cost to them on average for the 4 minim is approximately $10.

Sincerely,

Dayan UOJ --- PPPPPPPosek/Paskunyak

Leib Tropper - Alleged Fraud Par Excellence!

Alleged Fraud Par Excellence - Leib Tropper - Center

By Tropper is Troubled

Leib Tropper has only himself to blame for the grim situation he is in facing Guma Aguiar's mighty billionare's wrath.

When Tropper and Guma met, presumably through the good graces of Guma's uncle Dr. Tom Kaplan who had become a dyed in the wool Tropper disciple, they all bonded together strongly and intimately. They were all going to fulfil each other's big visions and dreams. If this sounds grandiose, it was. Tropper was willing to overlook that at that time Guma was living with his then still not converted wife Jamie and even having kids with her. So what? Tropper had kept his own first wife an aguna for a long time, until one day he bumped into his next wife a pretty model who wasn't even religious, but that was solved after a couple of months of quick brainwashing at a seminary, besides she had excellent connections too, like a sister who was major PR executive in the "Mad Men" style and by now Tropper was swimming deep in the Upper East and West Sides jet set scenes and wanted to make it big time there too. If Steven Riskin could do it, so could he.

All he needed was mega-bucks from blind disciples wowed by his charisma and supposed Torah spouting status, and he was about to get it from Kaplan and Guma to launch his name up high in the Jewish world with constant fake articles in The Jewish Press and other Jewish and even secular media outlets.

By now Tropper has had someone fill out an egomanical "biography" of himself on Wikipedia. Read it carefully. Forget his titles and his half dozen claims of semichas. It clearly says that first and foremost he is the disciple of R' Pinchas Scheinberg who must have implanted in him more ideas of grandeur and "saving the Jews" than he needed.

At some point early in his life, while in Israel, Tropper latched on to the potential of the new Kiruv movement in the 1970s. He was hired by Ohr Somayach, even while Noach Weinberg was there. Weinberg soon worked to get rid of Tropper. Tropper never forgave them for tossing him out. He was going to outdo them and outsmart them, and he would recruit from the widening open pools of starry-eyed BTs that were all over the place to create his own brand of Tropper disciples. His method, regardless if he knew it or not, was that of a cult, exactly like Scientology, where the members must give up their personalities, ideas, and most importantly empty their bank accounts for "the cause".

Tropper's sixth and seventh senses are well honed. He has his ears close to the ground and can clearly sniff a trend years before anyone else can, especially in the "saving the Jews" business of which he is a supposed, self-declared, grand leader.

As the 21st century beckoned, most of the world's searching Jews were already from mixed interfaith marriages or living with gentiles. The old time BTs were now joined by people with only one Jewish parent, often not the mother, and even gentiles are looking like Madonna's Kabbalah Centre style, some who even wish to become "Jews by choice" and many are gladly willing to convert to snare a Jewish wealthy man, or for other thought-out personal agendas, nothing to do with sincerely accepting the yoke of the Torah and mitzvos.

So conversion to Judaism was now the hot button central problem for many of these "spiritual seeking" folks that Tropper set out to exploit, and he was going to do it under the guise of fighting for higher standards of conversion, what he cunningly called "universal standards" in conversion; the game plan was to sell the higher standards argument to the big rabbis, pay them off with free conventions and a few small grants here and there, and use the big money to launch Tropper's new role of seller and owner of conversions to the world.

Kaplan was a partner in all of this and Guma, and just as Kaplan trusted Guma in the business world, so too they were co-founders and co-chairmen of the EJF plot as they set about to finance to the hilt Tropper's and their "dreams" for "saving the intermarried Jews" like a kind of misbegotten step-child new "Reform movement", grabbing at straws when it legitimated patrilineal descent thirty years ago. Since Judaism historically forbids reaching out to gentiles to convert them in mass movements, in the guise of Tropper's seemingly very Haredi EJF movement to make everyone into a Tropper approved ger or disciple was going well beyond teaching a handful of BTs in Monsey, like Tropper used to do.

Tropper latched onto this new cohort very quickly and when Guma Aguiar and Tom Kaplan came along and met Tropper about ten years ago, falling into his by then well-tuned and finely honed entrapment skills, they were putty in his hands as he quickly spun his spider's web and got them hooked on his personality, which naturally they equated with "Torah-true Judaism", which it was certainly not.

What came out of the nexus and uniting of Tropper, Kaplan and Guma was their brainchild the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF), to be funded by a new philanthropy to be called the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation.

For a long time only Tom Kaplan's name was presented to the world and the haredi rabbonim as being the lay leader of EJF and the Kaplan Foundation. But it was not so. As it transpires, just as Guma Aguiar was an equal partner with his uncle Tom Kaplan in their main Leor Energy gas drilling business in Texas that they eventually sold off for over two billion dollars, likewise they were equal partners in setting up the Eternal Jewish Family and the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation. In fact as a Florida court recently found, Guma Aguiar and his mother Ellen Kaplan Aguiar had more legal authority in the case of the dispute concerning control of the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation and awarded full continiung control to them.

The same legal battle is now going on in US courts about who controls the more than two billion dollars that was paid for Leor Energy, and Tropper is running scared that if Kaplan loses the Leor Energy profits case like he lost the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation case, he is up the creek for good, and will be revealed as the manipulative haredi Rasputin that he is.

So it's no surprise that Tropper will create crazy claims. Break his own nominal principles, which he lacks in case like any sociopath, running to the anti-religious Israeli police in Jerusalem that's beating up Tropper's own haredi brothers, and press charages in secular Israeli courts against Guma, and then drag that into the case now ongoing in Florida that he needs a "protection order" from Guma. Weird. What does he think Guma is going to do to him? And even weirder, what is Tropper doing being involved in the case of the dispute between Tom Kaplan and Guma Aguiar in the two billion and more profits from Leor Energy?

The only answer has to be that this is like the Scientologists going to fight for what they view as "their" assets, meaning what belongs to their disciples they regard as "theirs" and so therefore in Tropper's eyes, Kaplan's stake in the two billion are not Kaplan's, they are his, the mighty Tropper, whom Guma Aguiar has now revealed to be a manipulative crook who cannot account for the ten million dollars he recived from Guma.

Allegedly, Shmuel Kaminetzky has received large sums of money from Leib Tropper and Reuvein Feinstein received $3 million dollars.

Kaminetzky at the podium at a EJF event, Feinstein seated to Kaminetzky's left.

About Denial - The Rosh HaYeshiva, Sex-Abuse & Ramat Bet Shemesh

http://tzedek-tzedek.blogspot.com/2009/09/article-about-denial-by-survivor-of.html

By A Guest Writer - A Survivor of Abuse

I was one of those “kids at risk” who went off the derech and no one could figure out why. I was from a chashuv family. I was a good kid, a quiet kid. I had everything going for me. My grandfather was a Rosh Yeshiva. No one knew, or wanted to know, that for years I was molested in the yeshiva by my grandfather the Rosh Yeshiva and also by some of his students. One of those students was my father. When I tried to talk about it no one believed me. They said I was crazy. They said I was lying. They said I was saying it to get attention. (I could think many better, less painful, ways that I could have gotten attention!) They said I had a memory problem. They said I had a “vendetta” against my father. They said everything they could think of to try to discredit me and to avoid the truth. They were in denial.

What's unusual about my story is not that I was molested by frum yeshiva bochurim and a Rosh Yeshiva. Child sexual abuse knows no social or religious boundaries. I believe it happens far more than we care to contemplate. What is unusual about me is that I came back to my roots and I am now living a fulfilling Jewish life. I know so many who went through similar experiences and never looked back. Their souls are lost to Judaism forever.

It took years of soul searching and healing to come back. Child sexual abuse is one of the hardest minhagim for families to change. It's pain and shame handed down from one generation to the next. Until someone swims against the tide of denial, stops the flow, builds a dam, and changes the minhag child sexual abuse doesn't go away on its own.

As I began to heal, It slowly became clear to me that I was not created in my abusers image of God, and that they did not own Torah. It became clear to me that the frum talmidai chachamim who abused me perhaps really were frum and really were talmid chacham...But they had a serious problem that they didn't have the tools or support to deal with. They suffered from an addiction they couldn't even admit to themselves that they struggled with. So they passed the molestation problem down to me, and to other children. For years I battled the current of denial, nearly drowned in it, lost my entire family because of it, and eventually thank God dealt with it, for me, for my children and grandchildren, for the future of klal yisroel.

Or so I thought.

A few years back I made Aliyah and moved to Ramat Bet Shemesh. I thought that I was in a safe place to raise my children. Then, last summer my sons first grade rebbe was accused of molesting some of his classmates. It was horrible, and retraumatizing for me. It brought back my own past. I was ready to leave again, this time for good.

Not because it happened. These things happen in every community. But because of the denial. Denial hurts worse then the actual acts of abuse. When I, or my child, is sexually abused our world is ripped apart. One of the saddest affects of abuse is the loss of trust. Trust in oneself, trust in people, trust in God and in the Torah community. It's hard enough believing that the unthinkable happened. That someone I trusted could molest a child. But when my reality is assaulted at every turn by the people I turn to for support it creates deeper and deeper wounds. Denial is our best defense against that which is too horrible to imagine. But it is insidious and hurtful. It takes a lot of courage to face denial and challenge our existing beliefs.

When I saw what the family of the victims went through because of denial I knew I had to speak up. I wish people would think twice about the possible affect that some of their thoughtless comments have on an already traumatized person or family.

We condemn and our horrified by holocaust deniers and yet we do the very same thing to victims of sexual abuse within our community. Survivors of child sexual abuse have gone through a personal holocaust. It would be unthinkable to question the memories of a holocaust survivor. We wouldn't grill them for details of their experiences. We would wait and see if they needed to talk. Neither would we deny them the need to speak of their experiences. Why do we do these hurtful things to people who have already been so hurt and traumatized by sexual abuse?

If you find out that someone, or someone's child has been a victim of abuse:Offer your empathy and support and ask how you can help.

Just listen.

Don't try to defend the alleged perpetrator because you know them or trust them and can't imagine them molesting.

Perpetrators of child sexual abuse are addicts not monsters.

My father and grandfather were not monsters. They did many good things in their lives. Molesting me was not one of them. Their actions caused a lot of pain.

Don't try to place the blame on someone else.

Don't try to figure out if the child is “lying.”

Frum children especially, don't know how to lie about this.

Believe that something bad happened.

Know that no person would willingly offer themselves to the frum community for the kind of stigma and punishment that families of individuals who have been abused go through when they dare to speak out.

The community reaction of denial and blaming the victim is far worse than the abuse.

Know that until your own child is a victim you really don't understand.

Don't put your child into a school where an alleged perpetrator is teaching.

You are supporting community denial when you do that. You are enabling perpetrators to continue molesting.

Let's end the denial and keep our children safe!

A grateful survivor.

The Battles That Brought Down Yeshiva Torah Vodaath - The Mother Of American Yeshivas. Part One

Introduction:

I am not a historian, but the information that I intend to share with you in this and future posts, reflect an unbiased and accurate picture of Torah Vodaath post the passing of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz ztvk"l. It is information that I gathered firsthand from people that were directly involved in the yeshiva. It is what a psychiatrist would call repressed memories, that come back to haunt you when certain triggers are set off.

There are no books to sell here, there will be no sensationalism for that end, or manufactured half-truths because of any particular agenda, or outright lies to distort the record. This is the correct historical record for the present and future generations, painting a picture of the distortion of the legacy of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz's vision for American Orthodox Judaism, fueled by corruption, greed, thievery, incompetence, by no less a figure than one he trusted and appointed menahel of the yeshiva.

There are many lessons to be learned.

First and foremost; the rewriting of history by booksellers must forever be depicted for what they are, booksellers for a profit. Sensationalism, the turning of humans into gods sells; agenda-driven rewriting the lives of rabbinic historical figures, must be exposed for the naked profiteering that has dominated the Orthodox Jewish world for at least the last twenty years. Much of the information will shock many because of the brutal honesty, but there will be no compromise of the facts for any one's benefit, nor am I concerned about creating additional enemies. I don't care now, nor did I really ever care.

This post is not about me, but as I present the facts, please do bear in mind, that ever since I could speak, I voiced my opinion on just about everything; and my life was shaped by the vast array of cumulative unique experiences, not the least being blessed to be born into my family.

Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz (RSFM) ztvk"l passed away in 1948, and entrusted Yeshivah Torah Vodaath to four people. Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky (RYK), Rav Reuvain Grozofsky (RRG) as roshei hayeshiva, Rav Alexander Linchner (RAL - the financial rosh yeshiva and secular studies principal - a talmid of the Chofetz Chaim), and Rav Gedalya Schorr (RGS) as menahel of the yeshiva, (Rav Nesannel Quinn was to be the day to day principal of the high school or mesifta.)

Their duties were clear; RYK and RRG were in charge of the Yeshiva and it's policies, whether it pertained to chinuch, curriculum, admittance, and all policies that affected the yeshiva, including Bais Medrash Elyon -- the post-graduate division and kollel in an (obscure) town called Monsey, N.Y., directly or indirectly. RAL and RGS were to take instruction from the two roshei hayeshiva. RRG was to be the rosh yeshiva heading Torah Umesorah and Bais Medrash Elyon. Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky was charged with leading Torah Vodaath, and assisting him was to be Rabbis Linchner and Schorr. All in all, there was no doubt as to whom the leadership of the yeshiva was left to, the two senior Rosh Yeshivas. That was the will Of Rav Mendlowitz.

RSFM's passing left a void in the yeshiva; one person in the hanhala told me it was like coming home to a house after the levaya, trying to avoid the left-over belongings of the deceased. The pain was deep, but the yeshiva had to function in the shadows left by perhaps the greatest visionary of Orthodox Jewry in the United States ever, particularly in the Yeshiva world.(I'm not factoring in the large number of chassidim and the greatness of too few of their Rebbes that immigrated after the War.)

RSFM's greatness of machshava is apparent now more than ever for the "blueprints" that he left, how an American yeshiva bochur should be educated.

The two roshei yeshiva, RYK and RRG were from the same school of Litvish thought and background, RAL was born in America, went to Europe to learn under the Chofetz Chaim, RGS was born in Poland to Gerrer Chassidim, came to America as a youngster and was a student of Torah Vodaath, but traveled to Europe to learn by Rav Aaron Kotler for a brief period in the 1930s and came back to America before the decade was up.

It did not take long for the personalities of three of the roshei yeshiva to begin showing signs of discontent with Gedalya Schorr, the designated menahel.

The first public flashpoint came in a meeting held circa 1956, regarding the deepening financial crisis facing the yeshiva. Rav Reuvain Grozovsky, zechuso yagen aleinu, had a stroke and was immobilized and unable to speak, but attended the meeting.

Benjamin Feldman had recently taken the helm of the board of directors; he was a financially successful rag merchant in lower Manhattan. But nobody ever accused him of being smart.

At that meeting, Feldman proposed selling the house that Rebbetzin Mendlowitz a"h lived in at the time, after he would be sub-dividing it from Bais Medrash Elyon in Monsey. All in the room were shocked at this proposal except Gedalya Schorr, who was aware in advance of Feldman's proposition, and assured Feldman that he would support him.

The room broke out into a war zone. Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzky stormed out, Rabbi Reuvain Grozofsky could not speak but tears flowed out of his eyes while his body trembled. Rabbi Alexander Linchner and Mr.Binyomin Wilhelm confronted Feldman, and Wilhelm to his everlasting credit, smashed Feldman over the head with a chair. Feldman was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

To be continued....

A Shul Close To My Heart Torn Apart By Strife!

This letter was sent to me a few different times, by what appears to be different people. I am not judging anyone, and I'm making a full disclaimer, I am biased on this issue. What really pains me is that this shul which began al ha'Torah v'al ha'Avoda, with no ulterior motives other than having a place to daven and learn seriously, with no political agenda whatsover, is internally collapsing from what I gather by what is being e-mailed to me.

I have no knowledge to the goings-on at all in this shul, and I have spoken to nobody about the machloket, but as Rav Pam zt"l used to say when he heard about such machloket " even if it's not true, the fact that such stories and strife appear among Yidden, that's bad enough".

So with a sad heart, I publish the very heavily edited letter.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE:

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Klal Yisroel Mourns The Petirah Of Moreinu Harav Zelig Epstein ztvk"l!

Circa 1982 -- L-R --- Rav Avrohom Pam, Rav Zelig Epstein, Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky, Rav Yitzchok Karpf - zechusot yagen aleinu!
CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE:

Trouble in the Catskills

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http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/trouble-in-the-catskills/

THE JEWISH STAR

Kolko kicked out of one colony but finds another
By Michael Orbach
Issue of July 31, 2009 / 10 Av 5769

In the Catskills this summer, worries about children’s safety are extending beyond the swimming pool.

Yehuda Kolko, the rebbe who pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment and who is suspected of abusing dozens of children in his teaching career, moved into a summer home at a development in South Fallsburg, N.Y., on June 12. Pines Estates, where he is renting, is a popular summer destination for Orthodox families and is also inhabited year-round by families connected to the well-known Yeshiva of South Fallsburg, nearby.

On Kolko’s first Friday night there, a summer resident aware of Kolko’s history confronted him in the shul during Maariv and told him to leave the neighborhood quietly, a witness said. When Kolko refused, the man interrupted the tefilah to announce from the bima that Kolko was a child molester and posed a danger to children. When congregants protested, the man at the bima, a student of Rav Dovid Feinstein, replied with multiple Halachic sources to support his action, one of which was Masechet Chullin 8a, which discusses the need to be strict when it comes to matters of danger.

The next day, Shabbat morning, at the Yeshiva of South Fallsburg nearby, the same witness said Kolko was welcomed and called to the Torah for an Aliyah.

Daniel Sosnowik, a resident of Pines Estates who has an eight-year-old son, was shocked. Sosnowik is a captain in the New York City Police Department.

“We have hundreds of kids here,” Sosnowik told the Jewish Star, “Kolko doesn’t belong here.”

When Sosnowik spoke to the gabbai of the yeshiva minyan he was told that Rabbi Tzvi Abba Gorelick, the dean and owner of Yeshiva of South Fallsburg, had declared Kolko to be “kosher.” That night, residents of Pines Estates visited Kolko and apologized for their neighbor’s actions the previous night. When Sosnowik met with Rabbi Gorelick to express his concerns Rabbi Gorelick maintained that the yeshiva must be “neutral” regarding Kolko, Sosnowik recalled. He quoted Rabbi Gorelick as saying that the issue was complicated by the “stigma” associated with child abuse.

One of Kolko’s sons attended Yeshiva of South Fallsburg, Sosnowik said he was told.

“Am I the only one crazy here?” Sosnowik asked, “How could parents do this? How could yeshiva leaders do this?”

Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel, the rosh yeshiva, vigorously denied that Kolko was welcomed.

“We just said we can’t throw him out; nobody knows him!” he exclaimed. “I don’t even know him! I met him for the first time!

People are making these assumptions [about the yeshiva's dealings with Kolko], they are making up things. I heard years ago about him [Kolko]. Some people say yes, people say no…”

Asked if he felt Kolko was a threat to children, Rabbi Wachtfogel replied, “I don’t know.”

“You can ask Binyamin Hirsch,” Rabbi Wachtfogel said, then hung up.

He was apparently referring to Ben Hirsch, president of Survivors for Justice, an organization that advocates for and assists victims of child and sexual abuse in the Orthodox community.

Chaim Bloom, who attends the Yeshiva of South Fallsburg Kollel and lives in Pines Estates said that he wasn’t comfortable with Kolko being around.

“I try to keep away from these things. To be honest, that’s why I live in South Fallsburg and not Lakewood,” he explained. “I didn’t welcome him. I’d never welcome a child molester.”

“I think people are paranoid or afraid of him because of the label he’s been given, which has never been proven in a court of law,” said Jeffrey Schwartz, the attorney who defended Kolko against three criminal charges. “That has nothing to do with any sex-related offense. He was not registered as a sex offender. He never did admit to any sexually inappropriate conduct to any child.”

Schwartz added that he believed that Kolko posed no danger and was “just a sick old man, and should be left alone.” He would let Kolko be with his own kids, he claimed.

Before moving to Pines Estates, Kolko lived in the summer-home community of Mesorah Woods in Woodridge, NY. On July 5, a community activist, Rabbi Levi Goldenberg, said he was asked by a concerned parent to help get Kolko out of the community. He described the parent as “very anxious.”

“They seemed afraid of the guy,” he said. “The women were very concerned, watching their kids and not allowing them out of their sight.”

Goldenberg said there were no legal means to force Kolko out of Mesorah Woods, since Kolko’s plea deal with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office did not require him to register under Megan’s Law, the registry of convicted predators.

“Maybe he did teshuva,” one resident told Goldenberg, “but let him do teshuva somewhere else.” Kolko was persuaded to leave Mesorah Woods and moved to the Pines Estates on July 12th.

Sosnowik, the NYPD captain, was disheartened by the entire episode.

“Kolko pleaded guilty to child abuse charges. He didn’t have to. He is guilty. If it’s good enough for the criminal justice system it should be good enough for us.”

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The Next Generation Kolko - YUDI KOLKO ALERT

Yudi Kolko's nephew from Lakewood, Yossi Kolko, a thirty three year old single man, that taught in a yeshiva and was a counselor in an Orthodox Jewish summer camp, was arrested last week for child sex-abuse. The difference this time, is that allegedly, one of his many victims, is a very close blood relative of a faculty member of the Lakewood Yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha, and they went to the police.

It was bound to become public knowledge, not that this is the first time a staff member of a yeshiva's family were victims of child sex-abuse by a rebbe or another adult member of the Jewish community. But...now it's slamming the door in Matisyahu Salomon's lying face for being the pompous putz that he is for claiming to be handling all these allegations (that don't exist) in a "dignified" manner for all involved. When push came to shove, and it was an "aigener kint", Rabbi so and so from the Lakewood Yeshiva told Salomon to let the door hit him in the tuchis, he'll take action that should be taken by every parent, going to the police.

And the attitude that is still prevalent today in these idiot circles of rabbis, is that they're immune from these horrific tragedies. Why do they believe that? Because somehow these hallucinating psychos, are so pathetic that they actually believe their own lies.

I want to be clear, any child that is victimized hurts my heart. But these insane parents who refuse to immunize their own children by having a "Faith Healer" tend to their children's urgent mental medical needs, will just have to learn the hard way.

When is enough, enough? When do you realize that if YOU don't do something about this pandemic of child sex-abuse, your own loved ones will suffer, that it's just a matter of time?

And to all the Matisyahu Salomons I say -- the damage you caused to innocent children and their families is unforgivable!

YUDI KOLKO ALERT!!!!!

A friend of UOJ writes..

Yudi Kolko has taken up residence -- "for the rest of the summer", according to his wife -- at 162 Laurel Park Road, Fallsburg, NY, which is within the PINES ESTATES complex. His presence there has caused a bit of a stir....there are at least one hundred children there, and a number of parents -- are understandably concerned. Unfortunately, there is ample evidence to believe that the roshei yeshiva at the Yeshiva of South Fallsburg initially told their minions that Kolko is Kosher V'Yashar. While they have quietly moved off that position, it seems that he's unwilling to undo the damage the yeshiva did, by now rightly declaring him a menace to children.

I'm at a loss as to what to do. I think a warning should be posted to anyone with children that's even contemplating renting a place in the PINES ESTATES, advising them to go elsewhere......Maybe, if the kool aid drinking yeshivaleit are effected where it really hurts -- in their pockets -- they might actually rise up against this cancer and throw him out too. I understand he initially rented a place in a Chassidishe colony in Woodburne, but when they got wind of him, they packed his bags for him and threw him out.

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David Hamilton - Please Contact UOJ: a_unorthodoxjew@yahoo.com

THIS IS NOT DAAS TORAH! THIS IS PURE CORRUPTION IN SUPPORT OF MORE CORRUPTION!

Another spot-on post by Steve:

"An open letter has been sent from Rabbi Perlow requesting pidyon shvuyim funds for Sholom Rubashkin. After "divining" from the Torah that he must "vigorously" oppose the Child Victims Act which would protect Jewish children from sexual molesters, he has now "divined" that it is important to further support and protect the criminal element amongst us. He has "divined" that we must support the supporters of Chillul Hashem. To borrow Boog's terminology, does it get sicker than this?

This coming Shabbos is called Shabbos Chazon, the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av. It is called that because we read the haftorah of "Chazon Yeshaya" the first chapter of that sefer, where the navi rebukes the leadership of the Jewish people. The navi exhorts the people to do justice and to strengthen the downtrodden. He tells the masses not to follow the corrupt ways of their leaders. For the leaders had become wayward companions of thieves, who love bribes and illegal payments while they refuse to do heed the cause of widows and orphans. The navi commands the people to "Asheru Chamotz", strengthen the victim. The gemara in Sanhedrin further explains "Asheru Chamotz V'Lo Chometz", strengthen the victim, not the perpetrator.(Rashi: Hanigzal V'lo Hagazlan). Rabbi Perlow and the Agudah have followed the example of the leaders at the time of Yeshaya. They have prioritized supporting the criminals while thwarting any type of legislation to help the victims. Do you think Avi Shafran's love letter to Bernie Madoff was just a minor case of brainlock? It had to be sanctioned by the same group of chavrei ganovim!

When you read these words of the haftorah this Shabbos, you will realize why we are still in mourning and why we still have Tisha B'Av. It's time to wake up and face the reality: SARAYICH SORERIM V'CHAVREI GANOVIM!

It's not too late to rise up and say,....

ENOUGH! THESE ARE NOT OUR LEADERS!

THIS IS NOT DAAS TORAH! THIS IS PURE CORRUPTION IN SUPPORT OF MORE CORRUPTION!

Let's rise up and support the victims of child sexual abuse by "vigorously" supporting the Markey bill.

Let's rise up and protect our children from these sexual predators by exposing them, one at a time.

Let's rise up and condemn all types of criminal behavior in our community.

Let's rise up and condemn the rioting and Chillul Hashem that is taking place in Yerushalayim, which is burning yet again.

Let's rise up and condemn the apologetics of Pinny Lipshitz of the Yated who is now heading Rubashkin's pidyon shvuyim fund. The navi Yeshaya is once again calling upon us to act.

Let us listen this time."

Camp counselor at private Lakewood school charged with sexually assaulting boy!

http://www.app.com/article/20090720/NEWS/90720060/1070/NEWS02

Camp counselor at private Lakewood school charged with sexually assaulting boy By Michelle Sahn • STAFF WRITER • July 20, 2009

LAKEWOOD — A camp counselor who worked at a program run at a Lakewood private school has been arrested on charges that he sexually assaulted a young boy.

Yosef A. Kolko, 33, of Gefen Drive, Lakewood, who worked as a camp counselor at Yachad, a summer camp based out of Bais Hatorah School on Swathmore Drive, was arrested Sunday, authorities said.

He was charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Authorities said the criminal activity occurred within the past year, and the victim was a boy under the age of 13.

Bail for Kolko was set at $125,000 and if he is released on bail, he is not allowed to have contact with the victim or anyone else under the age of 18, according to the complaint.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Ocean County Prosecutor's Office Senior Investigation Colleen Lynch in the special victims unit at 732-929-2027, Ext. 2905 or Lakewood Detective Thomas D'Elia at 732-363-0200.

But the greatest evil of Rosenblum's column lies less in what he says than in what he doesn’t say.

Jonathan Rosenblum’s recent attempt to wish away child sex abuse allegations in Ramat Beit Shemesh (“Think Again: Those Primitive Haredim – Yet Again,” Jerusalem Post, June 11, 2009) is so full of false assumptions and disingenuous gibes aimed at anyone audacious enough to challenge Orthodox rabbis on the issue (critics just don’t like the haredim, he suggests, even when the critics are themselves haredim) that no short response can do justice to them all.

But the greatest evil of his column lies less in what he says than in what he doesn’t say. For in Rosenblum’s head-in-the-sand world, when a fact reflects poorly on haredi rabbis, it doesn’t even get to see the light.

You’d never know, from Rosenblum’s writing, that anyone had made more than a few careless accusations about child sex abuse in Ramat Beit Shemesh. But of course they did: the complaints – all quoted in the Ha-aretz article Rosenblum responds to – were both specific and severe. A mother complained that when she reported her own child’s abuse (with “proof,” according to the article), the rabbis in Ramat Beit Shemesh “called me a liar and said that this kind of thing does not happen here.” Another parent, whose abuse allegation was supported by professional evaluators, spoke of “a combination of denial, protecting your good name and not involving the secular world” which, he said, characterizes his community’s rabbinic leadership. In fact, he told the reporter that “his family was threatened and pressured by community leaders not to pursue the matter with the police,” and even the abused child was “ostracized by most former classmates.”

How does Rosenblum deal with those charges? Simple: he doesn’t.

Nor does Rosenblum, who boasts of his acquaintance with Ramat Beit Shemesh’s “young, worldly and energetic” rabbis, ever tell the reader what those vigorous sages actually know about child sex abuse. One of them is quoted as prescribing “vigilance”; but all their energy and worldliness combined cannot give Rosenblum’s readers a single clue about what they look for in an alleged child sex abuse case, or how they look, or whom they consult, if anyone.

Rosenblum is even silent on what may be the most important question of all: whether these rabbis encourage their congregants to report to police without first seeking a rabbi’s specific approval. Rosenblum suggests vaguely that they must favor police reports on suspected offenders because a prominent haredi rabbi has authorized the practice. (He doesn’t name the rabbi, perhaps because – if Rabbi Elyashiv is the one he means – he misrepresents Elyashiv’s published view as more pro-reporting than it really is.) But if, in fact, the Ramat Beit Shemesh rabbis insist on being the ones who decide whether an allegation may move on to secular authorities, Rosenblum’s defense only means that the rabbis may support reporting a given case, assuming that they themselves are persuaded of the sufficiency of the evidence. How is that standard to be satisfied? Again, Rosenblum doesn’t say.

The disingenuousness of Rosenblum’s silence on these critical points is particularly offensive when juxtaposed with his sanctimonious outcry against the critics of Ramat Beit Shemesh’s rabbis. In attacking the parents, and David Morris, who has supported them, Rosenblum is uninhibitedly nasty: he accuses Morris, for instance, of making a “wild claim” and demanding that “a teacher should be automatically fired the first time any student complains of untoward behavior, and he and his family stigmatized for life.” Of course, Morris never demanded any such thing.

But more important, Rosenblum’s choice of targets – his selective invective – exposes the real point of his defense. It really doesn’t matter to Rosenblum, finally, whether the rabbis deny the reality of sex abuse charges, cover up for the guilty, and blame the victims. If they do all that, it’s simply proof to Rosenblum that blaming victims for telling the truth really can be better than taking action against those they accuse. The only thing certain is that one cannot criticize the rabbis.

Rosenblum even strengthens this bizarre implication with one of the strangest claims I have ever seen in print: that rabbis choose to stand between victims and law enforcement for the victims’ own good:

The rabbis’ preference for working behind the scenes derives . . . from a considered philosophy about what is best for victims, their families and the community. The knowledge that incidents will be publicized can keep victims or their parents from coming forward. In addition, publicity can lead to hysteria . . .

Well, there you have it, folks: the reporting of child sex abuse cases actually inhibits the reporting of child sex abuse cases. Even worse, it can cause “hysteria.” Wouldn’t want that, now, would we?

All in all, Rosenblum’s column – which claims to disprove the existence of child sex abuse cover-ups in Orthodox communities – is itself a kind of cover-up. Not only does Rosenblum refuse to discuss any of the key questions, he simply assumes they don’t exist.

As a contributor to the first book-length treatment of child sex abuse in Jewish communities (Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities & Child Sex Scandals, Brandeis University Press, 2009), I must add that Rosenblum’s denial is depressingly familiar. But if our communal spokesmen don’t start doing any better than this, we can only be headed for disaster in the long run. The political philosopher Leo Strauss once said of such empty theorizing that it amounted to “fiddling while Rome burns” – and he added these ominously relevant words: “It is excused by two facts: it does not know that it fiddles, and it does not know that Rome burns.”


Michael Lesher
22 Leitch Place
Passaic NJ 07055
(973) 470-0212
MichaelLesher@optonline.net
www.MichaelLesher.com

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