Why I Tore Up My Membership Card at The Agudath Israel of America Many Years Ago!

"It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are. I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer."

 Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs - By GREG SMITH

 TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.

But this was not always the case. For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates through our grueling interview process. I was selected as one of 10 people (out of a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every college campus we visit around the world. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in sales and trading in New York for the 80 college students who made the cut, out of the thousands who applied.

I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.

When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

Over the course of my career I have had the privilege of advising two of the largest hedge funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. My clients have a total asset base of more than a trillion dollars. I have always taken a lot of pride in advising my clients to do what I believe is right for them, even if it means less money for the firm. This view is becoming increasingly unpopular at Goldman Sachs. Another sign that it was time to leave.

How did we get here? The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence.

What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym...

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?_r=1&nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20120314

The New Tomorrow is Here Yesterday!

 CLICK:http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244-years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/?ref=global-home

 CLICK:http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/share-the-road/

"SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”

Church Puts Legal Pressure on Abuse Victims’ Group

Mr. Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group: “The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.”

Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have gone to court to compel the group to disclose more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.

The group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, is neither a plaintiff nor a defendant in the litigation. But the group has been subpoenaed five times in recent months in Kansas City and St. Louis, and its national director, David Clohessy, was questioned by a battery of lawyers for more than six hours this year. A judge in Kansas City ruled that the network must comply because it “almost certainly” had information relevant to the case.

The network and its allies say the legal action is part of a campaign by the church to cripple an organization that has been the most visible defender of victims, and a relentless adversary, for more than two decades. “If there is one group that the higher-ups, the bishops, would like to see silenced,” said Marci A. Hamilton, a law professor at Yeshiva University and an advocate for victims of clergy sex crimes, “it definitely would be SNAP. And that’s what they’re going after. They’re trying to find a way to silence SNAP.”

Lawyers for the church and priests say they cannot comment because of a judge’s order. But William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a church advocacy group in New York, said targeting the network was justified because “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”

Mr. Donohue said leading bishops he knew had resolved to fight back more aggressively against the group: “The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.”

He said bishops were also rethinking their approach of paying large settlements to groups of victims. “The church has been too quick to write a check, and I think they’ve realized it would be a lot less expensive in the long run if we fought them one by one,” Mr. Donohue said.

However, a spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said Mr. Donohue was incorrect.

“There is no national strategy,” she said, and there was no meeting where legal counsel for the bishops decided to get more aggressive.

Mr. Clohessy and others founded the survivors network as a loose collective of volunteers who had been victimized by Catholic priests. Their goal was to help others grapple with the emotional and psychological fallout. They make referrals to therapists and lawyers, and hold protests outside church offices.

The group has three paid staff members, two part-time administrators and volunteers who lead 55 chapters in the United States and about 8 overseas. Its total revenue for 2010 was $352,903, some of it donations by lawyers who have sued the church. The group says it has spent about $50,000 and hundreds of hours of staff time since the subpoenas began, and is now arranging for lawyers who will work pro bono.

When the scandal over clergy sexual abuse reached a peak in Boston in 2002, American bishops met at their conference in Dallas with network members who gave emotional testimony about the toll of the abuse. But relations have deteriorated since then, and SNAP members say bishops now refuse to meet with them.

The first indication that the network would be caught up in legal proceedings came from Kansas City, where Bishop Robert W. Finn last year became the first American bishop ever to be criminally indicted for failure to report suspected child abuse.

Mr. Clohessy received a subpoena in October at his St. Louis home, where he works, regarding the case John Doe B.P. v. the Rev. Michael Tierney and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Four plaintiffs are accusing Father Tierney of sexually abusing them years ago. The cases would be outside the statute of limitations in Missouri, but the plaintiffs contend they recovered their memories of abuse only recently.

The subpoena asked that Mr. Clohessy turn over all documents in the last 23 years that mention repressed memory, any current or former priest in Kansas City, the diocese, Father Tierney, John Doe or Rebecca Randles, the attorney for the plaintiffs.

The church’s lawyers say they need to see SNAP’s records to investigate whether Ms. Randles violated a gag order by giving the group information about one of the Tierney cases before it was filed, which the group then included in a news release.....

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/catholic-church-pressures-victims-network-with-subpoenas.html?pagewanted=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_ee_20120313

"U'shmartem es Nafshoseichem" - The Importance of Healthy Eating!

I have been a vegetarian on and off for 15 years. I'm now a full fledged vegetarian; and at my desired weight of 20 years ago, and have never been in better physical health thank God. My memory and mental acuity have always been outstanding, but is even sharper now. Everything is so perfectly clear. My yearly physicals drive my doctors crazy."Whatever you're doing, keep on doing it". "You're in better shape than most teenagers I see". While it may not be for everyone, cutting back on animal consumption is a great idea. You are what you eat! There are no guarantees about anything, but I challenge my readers to try it for 90 days. Let me know the results. (I'm not on commission)....and yes, I care.

Chazak!



READ ARTICLE:
 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/finally-fake-chicken-worth-eating.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB#commentsContainer

Holy Water-Gate!

 CLICK: http://www.holywater-gate.com/

 CLICK: http://media.philly.com/documents/clergyAbuse2-finalReport.pdf

DOWNLOAD THE GRAND JURY REPORT FROM THE ABOVE LINK - IMPOSSIBLE TO WRAP MY BRAIN AROUND THE EVIL PERPETRATED BY THESE NON-HUMAN MONSTERS - THE ALLIES OF THE AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA - AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD.

"...The Institutionalization of Child Rape & Torture in Every Country on Earth..."

Jewish babies exposed to herpes in New York, thousands of American children injured for life after the rape and torture they suffered at the hands of a compliant Catholic priesthood,… it's not just your mental health that is challenged by faith. Anyone who says that this evil deserves legal protection is exactly as guilty as the filthy old men who delight in inflicting it. What a pity!!!!


By Christopher Hitchens

I can never read the name "Michael Bloomberg" without an automatic free-association that flashes up in my mind. "Little putz," is what my internal prompter always cues to me. Obviously this and other intuitions must be prompted by whatever grand intelligence originally designed me, because here's what I read on page B5 of the New York Times on Friday, Aug. 26:

A circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews has alarmed city health officials, who say it may have led to three cases of herpes—one of them fatal—in infants. … The practice is known as oral suction, or in Hebrew, metzitzah b'peh: after removing the foreskin of the penis, the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the wound to clean it.

The continuing scandal of this practice, which most Jews abandoned many years ago, is newly illustrated by the death of one little boy from type-1 herpes, and the infection of two others, in Staten Island and Brooklyn, after they had been subjected to this ritual by the same mohel. Let's be clear what's involved here. The Times refers to an article published last year in the journal Pediatrics that argued that metzitzah b'peh carries a serious health risk and is, for that reason alone, a violation of Jewish law. ("We suspect … that this entity is underreported for cultural reasons and that the studies described here are only the "tip of the iceberg" of the true incidence of the disease," the authors note). None of this should be hard to comprehend: If it risks the life or health of an infant, then no religious allegiance is or should be required for its condemnation. Q.E.D., as you might say.

What's Bloomberg got to do with this, you may be impatient to know by now. Well, the mayor of the great city where these children were deliberately exposed to infection and death has had a meeting with the Orthodox authorities who like to see this happening to small putzes, and he has expressed himself thus, on his own radio show, again as per the Times:

We're going to do a study, and make sure that everyone is safe and at the same time, it is not the government's business to tell people how to practice their religion.

Study? What study? Can't the fool get through an article by a Jewish authority in Pediatrics? For the Times reporter to add that Mayor Bloomberg's comment appeared to be designed not to "upset a group that can be a formidable voting bloc" was, in the circumstances, worse than superfluous.

Where to start with this? I could wish that Bloomberg were always so careful about keeping out of other peoples' business: He has made it legally impossible to have a cigarette and a cocktail at the same time, anywhere in the city. But I'll trade him his stupid prohibitionist ban if he states clearly that it is the government's business to protect children from religious fanatics. Female genital mutilation, for example, is quite rightly banned under federal law, and no religious exemption is, or ever should be, permitted. The Mormons were obliged to give up polygamy and forcible marriage before they, or the state of Utah, could be part of the United States. A Christian Scientist who denies urgent medical treatment to his or her children may well be hauled up for reckless endangerment, as may those whose churches teach redemption through violent corporal punishment. The First Amendment does indeed forbid any infringement of religious freedom, but it is not, as was once said, part of a suicide pact, let alone a child-abuse one.

Let's by all means hear from Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who emerged from his meeting with Bloomberg to inform us that: "The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been practiced for over 5,000 years. We do not change. And we will not change." You can preach it, rabbi, but you have no more right to practice it than a Muslim imam who preaches the duty of holy war has the right to put his teachings into effect. And Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, the 57-year-old man who ministered to the three boys in question, is currently under a court order that forbids him from doing it again—pending an investigation by the health department. What "investigation?" If another man of that age were found to be slicing the foreskins of little boys and then sucking their penises and their blood, he would be in jail—one hopes—so fast that his feet wouldn't touch the ground. If he then told the court that God ordered him to do it, he would be offering precisely the defense that thousands of psychos have already made so familiar. Preach it rabbi. Preach it to the judge.

A few years ago I traveled to Calcutta with the brilliant photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has made the eradication of polio his signature cause. In 2001, there was a real chance that this childhood-wrecking and frequently lethal malady could go the way of smallpox. Only a few outposts, usually in very bad war zones like Afghanistan, had not been reported as "clear." (The two sides in the civil war in El Salvador observed a truce so that the vaccine could be safely distributed.) But some mullahs in Bengal spread the rumor that the vaccine led to impotence and diarrhea (a bad combo) and urged mothers to keep their children away from the nurses and physicians. Most Bengalis are too smart to listen to ravings like these, which exactly resemble the view of Dr. Timothy Dwight, one of America's founding divines, that vaccination against smallpox was an interference with the divine design. However, in northern Nigeria, where imams now hold state power in many provinces, the polio vaccine has been denounced as a plot "by the US and the UN [!]" to "sterilize Muslims." In consequence of this fatwa, the disease has returned to Nigeria this year and also spread back to several African countries that thought they had bidden farewell to it. Decades of patient and skillful work have been ruined, along with the lives of uncounted children.

Jewish babies exposed to herpes in New York, thousands of American children injured for life after the rape and torture they suffered at the hands of a compliant Catholic priesthood, prelates and mullahs outbidding each other in denial of AIDS … it's not just your mental health that is challenged by faith. Anyone who says that this evil deserves legal protection is exactly as guilty as the filthy old men who delight in inflicting it. What a pity!!!!

READ THE UOJ ARCHIVES BEFORE I KNEW HOW TO TYPE - AUGUST 2005:
http://unorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html

More Shepherds Leading their Flock...and Caring "For the Children"

An Open Letter to Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan - Archbishop of New York - from an Orthodox Jew called UOJ

Dear Cardinal Dolan,

Let's get some of the niceties out of the way, so I can tell you how I really feel about you and your fellow members of the clergy, yes the Jewish ones too.

You've been promoted to Archbishop of New York and now Cardinal - Mazel Tov! I guess you can now wear any color shmatte, not only black. Good for you, have fun!

 Now listen up!

I read your letter below Cardinal, while we can agree that Government should have a very limited role in peoples' lives, your professing to have childrens' interests as one of your claims to fame, is nothing short of nauseating.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57390125/?tag=currentVideoInfo;videoMetaInfo

Now read the comments from your flock:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8601-18560_162-57390125.html?assetTypeId=41&blogId=&tag=accordionB;commentWrapper

Why don't you watch the video CBS 60 Minutes had on the other night - or read the transcript above?

 Get Chaim Dovid Zweibel to sit on your lap and watch it with you - I'll buy the popcorn. The disturbing relationship you and C.D. have regarding the Markey Bill - screams about the values you share. 98% percent of Catholic women use birth control, so what's the charade here? Your churches are empty, nobody takes you guys seriously anymore other than the other guys in colorful getups. By the way, I have not seen your outrage expressed anywhere about the tens of thousands of kids' lives your "shepherds" destroyed globally.

So here's one Jew that wants to express to you that while you probably are a jovial type of guy, I don't buy one word of what you're selling. I believe 2012 is the year when the Markey Bill becomes law, learn Russian and consider trying your hand as a driver for a Brooklyn car service. The lawyers are coming.....

UOJ

Last Friday, a letter was sent by from Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. What follows are some excerpts. (You can read a pdf of the entire letter at the bottom of this post.)


My brother bishops,

. . . Thank you, brothers, for the opportunity to provide this update to you and the dioceses you serve. Many of you have expressed your thanks for what we have achieved together in so few weeks, especially the data provided and the leadership given by brother bishops, our conference staff and Catholic faithful. And you now ask the obvious question, “What’s next?” Please allow me to share with you now some thoughts about events and efforts to date and where we might go next.


Since January 20, when the final, restrictive HHS Rule was first announced, we have become certain of two things: religious freedom is under attack, and we will not cease our struggle to protect it. . . . As pastors and shepherds, each of us would prefer to spend our energy engaged in and promoting the works of mercy to which the Church is dedicated: healing the sick, teaching our youth, and helping the poor. Yet, precisely because we are pastors and shepherds, we recognize that each of the ministries entrusted to us by Jesus is now in jeopardy due to this bureaucratic intrusion into the internal life of the church. You and I both know well that we were doing those extensive and noble works rather well without these radical new constrictive and forbidding mandates. Our Church has a long tradition of effective partnership with government and the wider community in the service of the sick, our children, our elders, and the poor at home and abroad, and we sure hope to continue it.


Of course, we maintained from the start that this is not a “Catholic” fight alone. I like to quote as often as possible a nurse who emailed me, “I’m not so much mad about all this as a Catholic, but as an American.” And as we recall, a Baptist minister, Governor Mike Huckabee, observed, “In this matter, we’re all Catholics.” No doubt you have heard numerous statements just like these. We are grateful to know so many of our fellow Americans, especially our friends in the ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, stand together in this important moment in our country. They know that this is not just about sterilization, abortifacients, and chemical contraception. It’s about religious freedom, the sacred right of any Church to define its own teaching and ministry.


When the President announced on January 20th that the choking mandates from HHS would remain, not only we bishops and our Catholic faithful, but people of every faith, or none at all, rallied in protest. The worry that we had expressed — that such government control was contrary to our deepest political values — was eloquently articulated by constitutional scholars and leaders of every creed.


On February 10th, the President announced that the insurance providers would have to pay the bill, instead of the Church’s schools, hospitals, clinics, or vast network of charitable outreach having to do so. He considered this “concession” adequate. Did this help? We wondered if it would, and you will recall that the Conference announced at first that, while withholding final judgment, we would certainly give the President’s proposal close scrutiny.


Well, we did — and as you know, we are as worried as ever. For one, there was not even a nod to the deeper concerns about trespassing upon religious freedom, or of modifying the HHS’ attempt to define the how and who of our ministry. Two, since a big part of our ministries are “self-insured,” we still ask how this protects us. We’ll still have to pay and, in addition to that, we’ll still have to maintain in our policies practices which our Church has consistently taught are grave wrongs in which we cannot participate. And what about forcing individual believers to pay for what violates their religious freedom and conscience? We can’t abandon the hard working person of faith who has a right to religious freedom. And three, there was still no resolution about the handcuffs placed upon renowned Catholic charitable agencies, both national and international, and their exclusion from contracts just because they will not refer victims of human trafficking, immigrants and refugees, and the hungry of the world, for abortions, sterilization, or contraception. In many ways, the announcement of February 10 solved little and complicated a lot. We now have more questions than answers, more confusion than clarity.


Two, we will ardently continue to seek a rescinding of the suffocating mandates that require us to violate our moral convictions, or at least insist upon a much wider latitude to the exemptions so that churches can be free of the new, rigidly narrow definition of church, minister and ministry that would prevent us from helping those in need, educating children and healing the sick, no matter their religion.



READ ENTIRE LETTER FROM DOLAN :

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/Dolan-to-all-bishops-HHS.pdf

Standing Up to the Catholic Church from Within - Finally!

"...We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent..."



Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Aron Kotler, Rabbi Blau



....It was first in 1921 that Reb Elchonon returned to Poland, to Baranovitch, where he was asked to head the local yeshiva, Ohel Torah. He was to head the yeshiva till the war years when he, together with hundreds of his students sanctified the Almighty's name. Witnesses have recounted that dreadful day--eleventh day in Tamuz, 5701 when the murderers came in. He was in the midst of learning Tractate Nidoh. Reb Elchonon spoke quietly and calmly, as was his practice. Not even the sound of his voice was changed. On his face, his customary earnestness. His tone betrayed no feeling for self, and he did not attempt to say good-bye to his son, Reb Naftali. He spoke to everyone, to the whole House of Israel.


"In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to stone for the Jewish people. Therefore, we must repent now, immediately. There is not much time. We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent. In this way we will save the lives of our brethren overseas.  "Let no thought enter our minds, G-d forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mizvah. With fire she was destroyed and with fire she will be rebuilt. The very fire which consumes our bodies will one day rebuild the Jewish people."

In the summer of 1937 at the third convention of the rabbinical leaders of Agudath Israel held in Mariband, which included hundreds of rabbis, heads of yeshiva religious academies and grand rabbis of Chassidic communities from a number of countries, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman stood out from among all of them.

 Rabbi Shmuel Aharon Pardes of Chicago, the editor of the rabbinical journal Hapardes, who participated at this convention and who was present at meetings of the Council of Torah Sages that were held during the convention, describes Rabbi Wasserman as follows: “Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, who stood above all the other participants walked with his face towards the ground. His long beard has turned white, and his fear of G-d preceded his scholarly wisdom. He reigns supreme above all the other members of the Council of Torah Sages and the convention itself. He intersperses his speech with simple metaphors hidden with great wisdom that penetrates the hearts of each person according to his level. He is the major disciple of Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, the author of the halachic work, Mishna Brurah, and every word he utters is spiced with teachings and wise metaphors from his teacher. When Rabbi Wasserman enters the meeting of the Council, everyone stands in respect, and he asked to speak before anyone else.

On Sunday on the evening of 16th of the Hebrew month of Elul [August 23, 1937], the rabbinical leaders met to discuss the issue of a “Jewish State.” The meeting was stormy, and it dealt with the issue of the Three Oaths. A great dispute broke out in the session, and Rabbi Wasserman expressed pungent words that shocked his listeners. The following is what he said:

“We must emphasize and declare the position of our holy Torah in order to banish any confusion of ideas. Inasmuch as there are Jews who are Torah-observant who say that a Jewish State would be the “beginning of the Redemption,” we must inform them of the position of our Torah that this is nothing less than the beginning of a new Exile! What do I mean? After all, Jews have been living in Exile for some two thousand years, so how can this be a “beginning” of a new Exile? My intention is to expose the so-called Jewish Communists. An Exile such as this has never existed until today. None of us can even describe such an exile, an Exile under Jews! Only Jews from Russia have a slight sense of this situation, even though the regime there is not a “Jewish” one. One of the great rabbis of this generation recently told me that the term “beginning of the Redemption” in reference to the Zionist movement makes his hair stand on end!

In Hapardes (Year 11, Issue 7) Rabbi Pardes describes what he saw at the Convention:

“Rabbi Wasserman, Rabbi Kotler, Rabbi Rottenberg from Antwerp, rabbis from Czechoslovakia and Hungary were unanimous in rejecting any proposal for a “Jewish State” on either side of the Jordan River, even if it were established as a religious state because such a regime would be a form of heresy in our faith in the belief in the coming of the Messiah, and especially since this little “Jewish” state would be built on heresy and desecration of the Name of G-d.

Who Has Destroyed More, the Arabs or the Zionists? http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/rabbi_quotes/WhoHasDestroyedMore.pdf (This essay was written by Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman zt'l after the disturbances in Hebron in 1929 which left some 50-60 yeshiva students dead and is very apropos the most recent events on the West Bank. Ed.)

READ ENTIRE TRUE TORAH:

http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/rabbi_quotes/wasserman.cfm

I DO NOT VOUCH FOR THE ACCURACY OF THE ENTIRE ARTICLE OTHER THAN WHAT APPEARS ABOVE.

UOJ

Sexual abuse victims voice support for Assemblywoman Margaret Markey's Child Victims Act

In Opposition to this bill: The Agudath Israel of America & the Catholic Church!

Bill would extend statute of limitations by five years, until victims turn 28 years old




By Michael O'keefe / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

ALBANY — New York lawmakers will give sexual predators another one-year pass to abuse children if they fail to approve a bill that would extend the state’s statute of limitations in molestation cases, a Brooklyn abuse survivor said.

Bay Ridge filmmaker Chris Gavagan, who is working on a documentary about sexual abuse in sports and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his roller hockey coach, said on Tuesday that legislators’ failure to pass the Child Victims Act is like signing a “pardon for 1,000 child rapists.”

“I was here last year, and the fact that we are here again is a sign of catastrophic failure,” Gavagan said.

“Lawmakers, shame on you,” he added.

Gavagan and other sexual abuse victims spoke at a news conference organized by Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, the first of three events to promote her Child Victims Act, which has passed the Assembly four times but has yet to clear the State Senate.

The bill would extend the statute of limitations by five years, until victims turn 28 years old, in civil and criminal cases. The bill would also suspend the civil statute of limitations for a one-year period to give victims a window to file suit against abusers, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) his introduced similar legislation in the State Senate.

Markey, a Queens Democrat, said that one in five of the nation’s children suffer from sexual abuse, which she called “America’s dirty little secret.” She said the sex-abuse scandals at Penn State and Syracuse have generated fresh attention on the topic but little reform of antiquated laws.

“Those cases have attracted enormous attention, but there is not much new about the pattern behind the headlines,” Markey said. “Someone in a position of trust and influence over a child has violated that trust to molest or rape them. Respected organizations act like they are more concerned about their reputation than the victims of the crimes, and only many years after abused children become adults are they able to come to terms with what happened to them, and that means it takes place many years after our woefully short statute of limitations expire.”

The speakers at Tuesday’s event were men who say they were sexually abused by coaches when they were youngsters. Bobby Davis, a former Syracuse ball boy who says he was molested by ex-Orange assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, said the bill will prevent child predators from hiding behind the statute of limitations.

“Because of my personal experience, I feel that the current law does not protect the victim, but instead protects the abuser,” Davis said. “Children need to know we have their back.”

David Hiltbrand, a graduate of Poly Prep who says he was abused by the private Brooklyn school’s former longtime football coach, Phil Foglietta, said the statute of limitations puts an arbitrary deadline on suffering that can last a lifetime......

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/sexual-abuse-victims-voice-support-assembleywoman-margaret-markey-child-victims-act-article-1.1030288

And His Name Aint Moish! “It's unreal,” he said. “He's the last person you'd expect to do this.

Queens computer teacher busted for fondling two young students, authorities say

Wilbert Cortez is the third city school employee collared this year for sexually abusing students.

A pervy Queens computer teacher with a shady past was nabbed Thursday for fondling two young students, officials said.

Wilbert Cortez, 49, is accused of touching the genitals of two boys — now ages 8 and 9 — and rubbing their buttocks at Public School 174 in Rego Park last school year, the Queens District Attorney’s office said.

He’s the third city school employee collared this year for sexually abusing students.

Cortez — who has been teaching in city schools since 1986 — was charged with two counts each of second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child and endangering the welfare of a child, law enforcement officials said. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Cortez - who is being represented by attorney Donald Vogelman - was arraigned in Queens County Criminal Court Thursday night and released on $50,000 cash bail.

“He turned himself in to detectives,” Vogelman said after the court proceedings. “These are just allegations [and\] he intends to fight these charges.”

Cortez is due back in court on March 19.

According to a police source, at least seven other children have come forward with abuse allegations since the start of the investigation.

More than 600 children attend PS 184, the elementary school's website says.

In a letter from Principal Karin Kelly sent to parents on Thursday, authorities of the school were notified of the allegations in October 2011.

The NYPD and the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) were notified and Cortez was reassigned - away from children - in a central office on Oct. 27, the letter said.

Parents were also urged to notify the NYPD if they suspect their child was harmed or if they know anything about the incident.

"I am appalled by the allegations against Wilbert Cortez," said city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott. "No adult who inappropriately touches a student, in or out of school, belongs anywhere near the children we are responsible for protecting."

This wasn’t the first time Cortez was accused of acting inappropriately with children.

He was accused of slapping two students on the buttocks in three incidents during the 1999-2000 school year at PS 184 in Brownsville, according to the SCI report.

Cortez summoned a young boy to his classroom and was alone with him when he came up behind him, "wrapped his arms around the boy and, while rubbing [his\] chest, pulled the child toward him," according to the document.

The investigation revealed that the boy in that incident went to teacher John Evbomenya - on three separate occasions - about Cortez’s behavior, even once describing a “bad touch.”

Evbomenya “did not report the allegations to anyone because if they were not true, Cortez’s career would be ruined,” the report states.

It wasn’t until one of the victim’s fathers alerted Principal Jeanette Reed that an investigation started.

“Information from the students clearly established a pattern of inappropriate conduct by Cortez,” the report reads.

“Moreover,” the report continues, “he must be advised that future misconduct will result in termination of his employment.”

It was not clear if Evbomenya was reprimanded for failing to report the abuse. He could not be reached for comment.

Cortez received a disciplinary letter in his file in 2000, sources said, calling it a "slap on the wrist."

Parents at PS 174 were demanding answers Thursday as news of Cortez’s arrest spread.

"They moved him to our school? “I'm outraged, I'm appalled,” said Cortez’s neighbor Sherry Nicot, 42, whose 5-year-old son was one of his students. “This is a pedophile. My son is 5-year-old and he is my son's computer teacher. Are they saying it's OK for pedophiles to teach our kids?”

Nicot described Cortez as a man with a personality “where the kids gravitate to him.”


“Shocked” friend Wilson Torres, 34, has known Cortez for 17 years.

Torres said Cortez was a “fitness freak” who loved to ride his bike and never drank or smoked.

“It's unreal,” he said. “He's the last person you'd expect to do this.

Sonia McCarthy, 31, whose 8-year-old daughter is in second grade at the Queens school was sickened upon hearing of Cortez’s history of abusing children.

“They have to get him out,” she said. “Why did they cover this up? He shouldn’t have been teaching here in the first place.”

READ MORE:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens-computer-teacher-busted-fondling-young-students-authorities-article-1.1024318

SPECIAL REPORT: FBI officer transforms into teenager to catch predators

http://www.news10.com/category/172705/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6784744#.T02EnqtfCDo.facebook

CLICK ABOVE LINK!

The Father of All Con Kabbalists!

To Catch a Predator - Rabbi David Kaye - "Goy" to "Jew" - "What are you doing here as a man of God?"

No Different than any Yeshiva, Bais Yaakov, or any Hebrew School - Part Three!



Yeshiva University Los Angeles - Home to Sholom Tendler and Aron Tendler for Decades before being Removed. After the Shuttering of Yeshiva Kerem in San Jose under Matis Weinberg, these Sociopaths Plagued YULA for 20 years!



Sholom Tendler, now in another school in L.A and member of the RCC.



California: Teacher’s Aide Arrested in Los Angeles School District

A teacher’s aide at a Los Angeles high school has been arrested on suspicion of contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sexual offense, the F.B.I. said Tuesday. The aide, Alain Salas, 40, was taken into custody Monday at John C. Fremont Senior High School. Mr. Salas is accused of sending inappropriate messages over the Internet to a 15-year-old student. He is the fourth employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District to be arrested on charges related to sexual offenses in recent weeks, but the F.B.I. said there was no evidence that the cases were connected.

READ MORE:

Aron Tendler - Counseled Women and Teenage girls

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/us/california-teachers-aide-arrested-in-los-angeles-school-district.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y



Abuse Cases Put Los Angeles Schools Under Fire

.....Within days, other allegations surfaced at schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District: A high school music teacher was removed after being accused of showering with students; a third-grade teacher was being investigated for more than a dozen accusations of sexual abuse; an elementary school janitor was arrested and accused of lewd acts against a child. And on Wednesday, a high school softball coach and special education teacher was arrested on charges of sending inappropriate messages to children over the Internet.

Perhaps the primary issue, Mr. Deasy said, is what happens after a teacher is accused of wrongdoing. He said that in many cases the district did not appear to keep any central records of accusations of abuse, even if they were substantiated, as long as no formal charges were pressed.

“School officials said Mr. Berndt was investigated 18 years ago on suspicion of trying to molest a girl, but prosecutors said there had not been enough evidence to charge him. It is unclear whether details about that inquiry were kept in the district’s central files.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/education/abuse-cases-put-los-angeles-schools-under-fire.html?hpw

Child Abuse Leaves Mark on Brain!

LiveScience.com – Childhood abuse and maltreatment can shrink important parts of the brain, a new study of adults suggests.

Reduced brain volume in parts of the hippocampus could help to explain why childhood problems often lead to later psychiatric disorders, such as depression, drug addiction and other mental health problems, the researchers say. This link could help researchers find better ways to treat survivors of childhood abuse.

"These results may provide one explanation for why childhood abuse has been identified with an increased risk for drug abuse or psychosis," study researcher Martin Teicher, of Harvard University, told LiveScience. "Now that one can look at these sub-regions [in the brain], we can get a better idea of what treatments are helping."

Adult brains

The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 193 individuals between 18 and 25 years old, who had already undergone several rounds of testing to be qualified. They then analyzed the size of areas in the hippocampus and compared the results with the patient's history. They saw that those who had been abused, neglected or maltreated (based on well-established questionnaires) as children had reduced volume in certain areas of the hippocampus by about 6 percent, compared with kids who hadn't experienced child abuse.

They also had size reductions in a related brain area called the subiculum, which relays the signals from the hippocampus to other areas of the brain, including the dopamine system, also known as the brain's "reward center." Volume reduction in the subiculum has been associated with drug abuse and schizophrenia, as well.
In animal experiments (including non-human primates), this hippocampus can shrink because of high exposure to the stress hormone cortisol during two developmental periods: between ages 3 and 5 and between ages 11 and 13, the researchers said. These stress hormone levels stop the growth of neurons in the hippocampus, leading to smaller volume in the adult human brain.

Brain-based diseases

Changes in hippocampus volume have been linked to depression, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. High stress levels (from childhood abuse and maltreatment) during important brain development periods may be causing the decreased hippocampus volume that the researchers saw.

"This region has a lot of receptors for the stress hormone cortisol. It interacts with receptors in these neurons to effect the development and the branching of these neurons," Teicher said. "The neurons are responding by either shrinking or not going into neurogenesis [and making new neurons]."

These brain changes can cause mental illness, explaining why childhood abuse is highly correlated to diseases like depression and drug addiction. "By damaging it to some degree you may cause the dopamine system to be disregulated, and disregulation of the dopamine system has been linked to drug abuse and psychological illnesses," Teicher said.

The study was published  Feb. 13 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

READ MORE:
http://www.livescience.com/18453-child-abuse-brain.html

CARDINAL EGAN IS A MONSTER:

“I don’t think we did anything wrong,” Cardinal Egan declared. He accused the news media of exaggerating the scandal, despite the American church’s admission of culpability in having to dismiss 700 suspect priests across a three-year period. “The fact that sex abuse becomes overpowering in people’s eyes, that’s a part of life,” said the cardinal. He maintained there was no obligation to report abusive priests, although the American hierarchy promised to do so and Connecticut law has long required it.  Court records that the church fought to keep secret revealed cases in which then-Bishop Egan did not alert secular authorities in Bridgeport, failed to aggressively investigate allegations, moved offending priests to other parishes and authorized hush-money payments.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/opinion/his-eminence-in-denial.html?_r=1&src=recg

R’ Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz told his students in America, “I cannot understand how it is possible for an American yeshiva student to be Jewish without ‘The Nineteen Letters’”

 Excerpted From Rav Shraga Feivel  Mendlowitz's Memoriam by his grandson:

...."A person of deep complexity and contemplation, he pursued Jewish philosophy and mussar privately, and at a young age had completed the entire works of the Maharal, Kuzari, Mesilas Yeshorim, and works of chassidus. He avidly studied the works of Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch in the original German. He saw Rav Hirsch as his ideal because Hirsch had successfully devised a religious Jewish weltanschauung that could stand up to the challenges of modernity."

by Daniel Adler:

"The best way to reintroduce Torah im Derech Eretz is to restore R’ Hirsch’s ideals, both in theory and in practice, at the high school level. Specifically, this includes teaching R’ Hirsch’s classic sefer, “The Nineteen Letters,” which contains the core of R’ Hirsch’s views on the world and Torah. R’ Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz told his students in America, “I cannot understand how it is possible for an American yeshiva student to be Jewish without ‘The Nineteen Letters’” (Klugman, 1998). Study of this seminal work will form the basis for a strong Hashkafic underpinning for all yeshiva/Bais Yaakov students."

Read more:
http://www.cross-currents.com/archives/2012/02/13/return-to-basics-a-call-to-revitalize-r-hirschs-torah-im-derech-eretz/#ixzz1mHvXdael

RAV SHRAGA FEIVEL MENDLOWITZ IN MEMORIAM:
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2007/08/rav-shraga-feivel-mendlowitz-ztl-in.html

No Different than any Yeshiva, Bais Yaakov or any Hebrew School - Part Two!




 65 year old Pedophile / Felon Rabbi Yehuda Kolko's Playground for for 35 Years - Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn -  as the Rabbis and Parents Kept Him in the Classroom - Knowing Allegations about his Proclivities for Kids.

Vulnerable children, plied with attention and gifts and groomed to trust adult predators.

Aide at Upper West Side School Charged With Sexually Abusing Student

P.S. 87 on West 78th Street is one of the city’s most highly regarded public schools. A teacher’s aide at a highly regarded public elementary school in Manhattan was arrested on Friday after an accusation that he had sexually abused a student at the school, the authorities said.

The aide, Gregory Atkins, 56, had worked at Public School 87, on the Upper West Side, since November 2008, the Education Department said. A law enforcement official said a male student had accused Mr. Atkins of having him strip in the school’s bathroom and, at another point, offering money to fondle the boy. But many of the specifics of the case were not available.

It is not the first time Mr. Atkins has been accused of inappropriate behavior with a student. In 2006, when he was working at Middle School 322 in Upper Manhattan, it was recommended that he be disciplined after a student’s mother told investigators that Mr. Atkins gave her son gifts, including a jockstrap. She said he had offered to baby-sit for the boy, noting that he had an extra bedroom, a PlayStation and a computer for the boy to use.

Though the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for schools recommended that he be disciplined, no disciplinary charges were filed.

Efforts to reach Mr. Atkins, who the police said was charged on Friday with sexual abuse, attempted criminal sex act and endangering the welfare of a child, were unsuccessful; no one answered the door at his home. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.

After Mr. Atkins was arrested, he was suspended without pay, the Education Department said. He was the second elementary school aide to be arrested in a sex case involving students this week. An aide in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was arrested on Monday after investigators said they found videos of him engaging in sex acts with students.

Mr. Atkins’s arrest sent a wave of angst through the community.

“I’m shaking now,” said Larisa Conaty, who said her daughter had attended a class of Mr. Atkins’s. “I thought my baby was safe at school. Now I don’t know. They don’t know about the people working here.”

Another parent, Brian Benson, who has two children in the school, said: “It’s overwhelming. It sets off alarms.”

In the previous case, the mother said Mr. Atkins was constantly “lurking” at the boy’s sports games. The boy and Mr. Atkins told investigators there had been no sexual contact between them.

The Education Department said that because there was no finding that the relationship had been sexual, no disciplinary charges were filed. Mr. Atkins, who has fewer job protections than teachers do, would have been forced to file a grievance with the union if the principal sought to fire him.

The principal of M.S. 322 chose to discuss the allegations with Mr. Atkins and set forth detailed guidelines of appropriate job responsibilities. The principal did this orally rather than putting a letter in Mr. Atkins’s file, education officials said. The report does not indicate whether the police were notified.

Mr. Atkins has worked in the school system since 2001, mostly as a substitute at middle schools. He has worked at schools including P.S./I.S. 187, M.S. 246 and I.S. 218. His annual salary is $33,088.

P.S. 87, which serves prekindergarten through fifth grades on West 78th Street, has long been seen as one of the most desirable public schools in the city.

The principal, Monica Berry, sent a letter home with students on Friday about Mr. Atkins’s arrest, saying that the school learned of the allegation on Feb. 3 and notified the police and the special commissioner of investigations. Mr. Atkins was reassigned to a central office, away from students, at that time.

Noah E. Gotbaum, a member of Community Education Council 3, whose son and daughter graduated from P.S. 87, said Mr. Atkins was a teacher’s aide in his son’s class two years ago, when his son was in third grade.

“If he had been investigated previously, we had absolutely had no knowledge of anything of that sort,” Mr. Gotbaum said. “The gentleman was an aide in the class and all seemed copacetic; it was fine. The kids liked him. We liked him. But if the allegations are true, it is pretty scary and sad.”

READ MORE:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/aide-at-upper-west-side-school-accused-of-sexual-abuse/?nl=nyregion&emc=ura1

READ THE LATEST ON RABBI YEHUDA/JOEL KOLKO:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/threats_vs_rabbi_accuser_DGc2B4CYV8VtIUiTa2TbvN#.Tzf47Za1hUw.facebook
.

Somehow The Catholics, a Protestant and a Jew Find Their Voice on an Issue that Matters to Them!

What about a child's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - once they are born?"

DEAD SILENCE!

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence and considered by some as part of one of the most well crafted, influential sentences in the history of the English language. These three aspects are listed among the "unalienable rights" or sovereign rights of man. Also, Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person." (Wikipedia)

*

United We Stand for Religious Freedom

ObamaCare's contraception mandate stands the First Amendment on its head.

 By DONALD WUERL, CHARLES COLSON AND MEIR Y. SOLOVEICHIK

Stories involving a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew typically end with a punch line. We wish that were the case here, but what brings us together is no laughing matter: the threat now posed by government policy to that basic human freedom, religious liberty.

Last month the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Affordable Care Act requires employers to pay for insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraception. What made the announcement especially troubling is that HHS specifically declined to exempt religious institutions that serve those outside their own faiths, such as hospitals and schools.

Coverage of this story has almost invariably been framed as a conflict between the federal government and the Catholic bishops. Zeroing in on the word "contraception," many commentators have taken delight in pointing to surveys about the use of contraceptives among Catholics, the message being that any infringement of religious freedom involves an idiosyncratic position that doesn't affect that many people.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Catholic Church's teaching on contraception (not to mention abortion and surgical sterilization) has been clear, consistent and public. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's decision would force Catholic institutions either to violate the moral teachings of the Catholic Church or abandon the health-care, education and social services they provide the needy. This is intolerable.

And while most evangelicals take a more permissive view of contraception, they share with Catholics the moral conviction that the taking of human life in utero, whether surgically or by abortifacient drugs, violates the basic human right to life. Evangelical nonprofits such as Prison Fellowship would therefore also have to choose between violating their consciences or paying fines that would ultimately destroy their ability to help the people they are committed to helping.

Even worse than the financial impact is the breach of faith represented by Ms. Sebelius's decision. Her notion of an "appropriate balance" between religious freedom and "increasing access" to "important preventive services" stands the First Amendment on its head.

In 1790, George Washington exchanged letters with Moses Seixas, the warden of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I. Seixas praised the newly formed United States for "affording to All liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizenship." People who knew all too well what it meant to be deprived of the "invaluable rights of free Citizens" held religious liberty and freedom of conscience most dear.

In reply, Washington wrote that U.S. citizens had a "right to applaud themselves" for setting an example of "an enlarged and liberal policy" that enshrined freedom of conscience. He added that the ability of members of one faith to seek the benefit of all Americans is the foundation of America's civic strength.

We see evidence of that strength all around us: If a working mother's child needs to visit the emergency room, there's a good chance the hospital is a Catholic one. If an ex-offender needs help readjusting to life outside of prison, there's a good chance help will come from a Christian ministry like Prison Fellowship.

Yet instead of encouraging the different faith communities to continue their vital work for the good of all, the Obama administration is forcing them to make a choice: serving God and their neighbors according to the dictates of their respective faiths—or bending the knee to the dictates of the state.

For Jews, George Washington's letter has always been cherished. It embodies the promise extended by America not only to them, but to all citizens. That is why many in the Jewish community are alarmed to see the very religious freedom Washington praised centuries ago endangered by Washington's successor. "May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land," Washington wrote, "continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants."

At this critical moment, Americans of every faith, as guardians of their own freedom, must, in the words of the First Amendment, "petition the government for the redress of grievances." That's why over the past two years more than 500,000 people have signed the "Manhattan Declaration" in defense of religious liberty. They believe, as do we, that under no circumstances should people of faith violate their consciences and discard their most cherished religious beliefs in order to comply with a gravely unjust law.

That's something that this Catholic, this Protestant and this Jew are in perfect agreement about.

Cardinal Wuerl is the archbishop of Washington, D.C. Mr. Colson is the founder of Prison Fellowship and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Rabbi Soloveichik is director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan.

READ MORE:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204136404577211601075404714.html?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb_h

No Different than any Yeshiva, Bais Yaakov, or any Hebrew School!

Vulnerable children, plied with attention and gifts and groomed to trust adult predators.




LOS ANGELES – The charges are shocking, but the choice of victims comes as little surprise.

By Bob Riha Jr., USA TODAY

 The horrors alleged at Miramonte Elementary School echo previous cases of sexual abuse: vulnerable children, plied with attention and gifts and groomed to trust adult predators.

The abuses claimed here may be different — children blindfolded, gagged and fed a substance investigators say was semen. But the setting follows a pattern alleged at Penn State University, where former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is accused of using a charity he founded to target vulnerable boys from single-parent homes or troubled families, people unlikely to speak out.

At Miramonte, the victims could hardly have been more disadvantaged: The 1,400 students are virtually all from poor Latino homes, a majority from immigrant families where English isn't spoken at home, and some with parents lacking legal immigrant status. It's a voiceless community where fear is ingrained — fear of authority, fear of the police, fear of immigration enforcement, fear of retribution.

The hard-pressed barrio school is just the kind of place where an adult with bad intentions could take advantage of a child, knowing there was little chance a victimized family would report the acts. Or if they did, little chance they would be believed.

"You have lots of the very poor who don't even know what their rights are," says Martha Escutia, a former state senator who once represented the south Los Angeles neighborhood. "You have the undercurrent of immigration, undercurrent of poverty. Miramonte is not Malibu. It's not a sophisticated community.

"It's a perfect recipe for a predator."

It's a recipe that's been followed here before.

A former teacher's aide, Ricardo Guevara, is serving a 15-year sentence in state prison after being convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing three kindergarten girls at Miramonte. The Los Angeles school system was ordered to pay $1.6 million to his three victims' families.

"There are striking similarities," says Beverly Hills lawyer Keith Davidson, who represented those girls. "It's amazing that you'd have lightning strike twice and then three times in the same school."

Davidson now represents four children, three boys and one girl, ages 9 to 13, who were students of accused teacher Mark Berndt, the man at the center of the scandal.

Berndt, 61, who was removed from his third-grade class a year ago, was charged last month with 23 counts of committing lewd acts on children ages 6 to 10 from 2005 through 2010. Investigators say they have found 600 photographs Berndt took of the children, many performing what he told them was a game. In some, the children are eating cookies with a substance the district attorney's office alleges was Berndt's semen.

While investigating claims against Berndt, the Los Angeles sheriff's department brought charges against another Miramonte teacher. Martin Springer, 49, pleaded not guilty this week to charges he fondled a second-grade girl.

Springer taught at Miramonte for 26 years. Berndt taught there 32 years, a span that saw the neighborhood transform from a heavily African-American population to almost uniformly Latino.

Berndt had been the subject of complaints before. The sheriff's department investigated a September 1993 incident at the school, but prosecutors decided they didn't have enough evidence to charge him, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for District Attorney Steve Cooley....

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE: WAKE UP PARENTS -- YOUR KIDS NEED YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-02-09/miramonte-school-sex-abuse-case/53034154/1?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo

Where Are The Moetzes Gedolei Harlem When You Need Them?

Harlem Gedolim Pushing Their Way Into Their Annual "Goody" Convention Dining Room.



Rosh Gedolei Harlem - Happy With His New Pesach Hat - At a Recent Daf YoMama Celebration

A teacher’s aide at a public school in Brooklyn who was charged last month with possessing and distributing child pornography was arrested again on Monday night after federal agents discovered that some of the videos showed him engaging in sexual acts with students, possibly at the school, according to law enforcement officials.

The aide, Taleek Brooks, 40, made a video of himself touching a prepubescent child’s penis and another video in which he spanked a naked child, according to a complaint unsealed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

Law enforcement officials said the videos appeared to have been made inside Public School 243, in Crown Heights, where Mr. Brooks worked.  The gravity of the allegations was such that the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, visited the school shortly before dismissal on Tuesday.

“My personal reaction is one of disgust on the part of this individual,” Mr. Walcott said. “This case is a horrendous case, and it’s something that should not be tolerated.”

Still, Mr. Walcott said that a “screening system was in place” and that there had been no indications that Mr. Brooks had been abusing students. Then the chancellor went into the school to meet with faculty and staff members.

Mr. Brooks first came to the attention of federal agents in December, when an undercover F.B.I. agent signed into a file-sharing program and discovered a user with the username “T. S.” who had child pornography among his shared files, according to the complaint.

Agents later tracked the IP address of “T. S.” to Mr. Brooks’s home, according to the complaint. On Jan. 13, agents executed a search warrant there, seizing a computer and two external hard drives, among other items, and arrested Mr. Brooks.

Mr. Brooks told investigators that he had collected and saved over 1,000 files on his computers containing child pornography, according to the complaint.

Mr. Brooks was released on $100,000 bail on Jan. 27. A subsequent search of his computer files revealed the images and videos that led to the more serious charges.

Mr. Brooks appeared in court on Tuesday. When the prosecutor described the evidence against him, Mr. Brooks shook his head in objection. The presiding magistrate judge, Joan M. Azrack, who also presided over Mr. Brooks’s earlier bail hearing, revoked Mr. Brooks’s bail and ordered him detained.

“Had the evidence been before me a month ago showing he was a predator, there was no way I would have released him on any bail package,” Judge Azrack said.

Shortly before school was dismissed at P.S. 243 on Tuesday, several parents and grandparents of students said they had been shocked to hear the news of Mr. Brooks’s arrest.

“I know Mr. Brooks,” Michael Haskins, 31, said. “We never had any problems out of him. He was good with the kids, right?” he added, looking at a friend who was standing beside him.

He said that he had two children, a 10- and an 11-year-old, at the school, and that they had frequently gone on trips out of the classroom with Mr. Brooks for activities.

“Swimming, basketball tournaments,” Mr. Haskins said. “Every Saturday all summer and sometimes during school.”

Nicole Smith, 26, the mother of a first grader, said the allegations, which were included in a letter given to parents on Tuesday from the principal, Karen Hambright-Glover, left her in shock. “He’s a good person,” Ms. Smith said. “I don’t believe it.”

Tony Herbert, a community advocate, also stopped by P.S. 243 about an hour before dismissal on Tuesday to meet with some parents. He noted that Mr. Brooks had had unfettered access to children because of the after-school activities he took them to; he also noted that it seemed that Mr. Brooks often had a video camera in his hand.

“These kids would change in front of him,” Mr. Herbert said. “These kids were in love with this guy.”

If convicted of possession of child pornography, Mr. Brooks faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. If convicted of distribution, he faces a mandatory five-year sentence. If convicted of production, he faces a mandatory 15-year sentence.

READ MORE:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/nyregion/school-aide-accused-of-abusing-students-in-videos.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Sexual Abuse in Institutions of Education!

By Mordechai I. Twersky - February 6, 2012

“Of all the sins of omission committed by Penn State University in its alleged mishandling of sexual assaults, perhaps the most unforgivable was the failure to find the young boy who was seen being victimized in 2002. It seemed not to occur to anyone to try to identify this child or to consider that he might need treatment and protection. Apparently, shielding the university and its treasured football program came first, and so the boy’s alleged attacker was told simply to keep his activities off-campus. The abdication of legal and moral obligations at an institution that is supposed to develop young people is inexcusable."

Editorial, The Washington Post, November 9, 2011

“Like the Roman Catholic Church, Penn State is an arrogant institution hiding behind its mystique. And sports, as my former fellow sports columnist at The Washington Star, David Israel says, is ‘an insular world that protects its own, and operates outside of societal norms as long as victories and cash continue to flow bountifully."

New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd, November 9, 2011

One reads these powerful sentences and can only wonder. Perhaps there will come a time when those who knew what befell a group of students at a modern-Orthodox high school for boys in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in the 1970′s and 1980′s will have the courage to come forward. And there are those who knew that the school’s associate principal responsible for Judaic Studies – an ordained Rabbi and congregational leader – was summoning students into his office and inviting them to his apartment so that he could wrestle them to the ground against their will and pin his stimulated body over theirs.

Whether those who knew of his bizarre propensity – among them dormitory counselors who today serve as prominent congregational Rabbis and educators – told their superiors, is not certain.

One thing, however, is for sure: they couldn’t stop it from happening to me!

That both perpetrator and victim were fully-clothed, that there was no sexual penetration, does not make this violation, this searing betrayal, any less blasphemous.

Surely the Beacon, for all its courage in publishing this essay, is not the forum to delineate the particulars of this brazen act, in all its vulgarity. However, it might be the appropriate venue for an alumnus to pose a series of questions for the benefit of a new generation of students. Perhaps they can be spared from similar acts in the future.

What mechanisms are in place today for a high school or college student to report physical or verbal assaults of a sexual nature by a staff member, especially at the most senior academic, administrative or leadership level?

Are students confident that their institution – with a world to lose if word of the assault were to leak out to parents, donors and the press – can be counted upon to thoroughly investigate the accusations, to the point of enacting a suspension, protecting the accuser, or even notifying law enforcement? How are those determinations to be made, and by whom?

What is the institution’s policy for identifying victims and reaching out to them with a program of treatment, days, months, or years later?

What sort of diagnostics does their institution employ to ensure that abusive behavior is not sprouting in its ranks? Are there protocols and procedures governing one-on-one faculty meetings with students, both in institutional facilities and in private homes, as well as during class trips and excursions?

And finally, following the departure or termination of an abusive employee, does the institution have a moral or legal obligation to notify future employers of that individual’s pattern of abusive behavior?

Perhaps, one day, when the wall of silence will be broken – and it is beginning to crack — there can be a full accounting. Perhaps that Washington Heights institution will explain what it knew and when, and if it didn’t know, why, to scores of victims it counts as alumni.

It might even venture to guess how the man in question later secured a similar position in another state, possibly putting other young men at risk. Perhaps this man’s present employer – incredibly, one of Israel’s most prestigious congregations — might delineate its vetting process and allay any concerns that young men coming into contact with its executive director are not in harm’s way.

Several days ago, a most startling “LinkedIn” invitation appeared in my inbox. “Since you are a person I trust,” read the boiler-plate invitation, “I wanted to invite you to join my network on LinkedIn.” The invitation had been sent by none other than my high school associate principal – the man who came to my elementary school 36 years ago and asked me to place my trust in him and in the legendary Torah educational institution he represented. “Accept,” or “Ignore,” were my choices to this “personal” invitation, which was devoid of a single word of remorse, conscience or personal expression.

For now, some of us are left to wonder whether an institution of higher learning –one that invoked a higher standard — abdicated its responsibility or simply fell asleep at the wheel. Giving a full accounting and reaching out to its victims is an invitation it can finally accept or continue to ignore.

Mordechai I. Twersky, a graduate of Yeshiva University High School (1981) and Yeshiva College (1985), is a freelance writer living in Israel.

Responses to this piece are welcome as letters to the editor at editor@yubeacon.com, and may be published in the next issue.

Read More:
http://thebeaconmag.com/2012/02/opinions/sexual-abuse-in-institutions-of-education/