In traditional Jewish society, this imbalance is infinitely compounded by the insidious teaching that women should respect, not question, male authority, and submit to it. Boys abused in yeshivot suffer for the same reason. Rabbis who abuse tell their victims, female and male, that they are participating in something holy.

On sexual terrorizing of women, communication, and what I learned about this in Yeshiva High School

Shulamit S. Magnus 

 Shulamit S. Magnus is a professor of Jewish history and an award-winning author.

I went to Yeshiva University High School for Girls of Manhattan, then some blocks off Columbus Circle in Manhattan. I lived in the outer reaches of Queens; no subway line reached anywhere near my neighborhood. To get to a subway, I took a bus from its second stop to its last. From there, it was over an hour of subways during rush hour, going and returning. I was 13 when this started. I did it for four years.

When I began, older girls who did any version of this trip warned me about men’s behavior on the subways. They told me that some men would open their coats and expose themselves. That they would rub their fronts up against you, press their bodies against you — intentional behavior, not caused by the crowding, though enabled by it. There would be no mistaking this. Women did not do it. Men did. 

I was told: get hat pins. Long, sharp pins. Keep them handy and use them, if needed. Show them; make it known you had them. Push the jerks off, shove them away, saying loudly, “get off me!” Others needed to hear.

Embarrass them.

I was told.

And I did.

I remembered all this when reading about the Weinstein scandal, hearing people wonder why women did not report his abuse long ago; why so many were victimized and did not report; why “everyone knew, yet no one called it out. Sometimes, it seems like women live in an alternate universe. The oft-repeated phrase, “you just don’t get it!” hangs in the air, truly as if blowing in the wind. Hamevin, yavin, the rabbis say. She who understands, understands.

But, here’s a try. He was the immensely powerful boss, or hoped-for boss, who could make or break these women’s careers, and their lives. They were young wannabes; he was older, prominent, immensely powerful. They were set up, told, thrilled, that they were going to a professional meeting with him, and then ambushed in regular hotel, not meeting rooms, by outrageous behavior that they — unlike my 13-year-old self — could not begin to anticipate or defend against. Like any experienced criminal, he was a pro at this; for each of his victims, it was a shock. He had help, a lot of it. Enablers, facilitators. His victims were alone and set up. Confused, at a loss. And afraid. 

Rightfully afraid.

What made the difference for me on the subways was a universe of female discourse: older girls cluing newbies about what went on; teaching that it was not our lot to accept it, and how to resist.

The differences in the situations are vast. The experiences we girls had on the subways were not of one powerful person with a vast network, a man who held our hopes, livelihoods, and then us, in his hands. The abusing men we encountered were pathetic, individual jerks; cowards, losers, who invariably were horrified when we would indeed, say loudly, “get off me!” We had just exposed what they were doing and, at least until the next stop, they had nowhere to go but to take in the looks people gave them, even momentarily.

But here is what we did have and what women, Weinstein’s victims and so many others, yes, including boys abused, raped, by men (overwhelmingly by men though sometimes by women), did not and still don’t have. We were told that the phenomenon existed. That it was disgusting; that we should resist; and how.

Weinstein and so many others, including the now-president of the United States, could and can abuse because of a tremendous imbalance of power, gendered overwhelmingly male: power, whether literally, physical; or financial; or professional; or cultural and intellectual — or God knows, a combination of these — is an essential element of masculinity in every culture I know of, very much including Jewish. Women are set ups for abuse for this reason alone, given male dominance in areas of power. In traditional Jewish society, this imbalance is infinitely compounded by the insidious teaching that women should respect, not question, male authority, and submit to it. Boys abused in yeshivot suffer for the same reason. Rabbis who abuse tell their victims, female and male, that they are participating in something holy. They jam the victims own internal radio waves, which tell them that something terribly wrong is happening, and play the tape of values the victims have heard extolled all their lives.

What Weinstein did was well known in his circles; “everyone knew about it.” And yet, it was secret. That combination is what allowed his abuse to persist for decades.

The problem, and the solution, or at least, a basic element of the solution, is first, communication. I was saved from abuse by an adolescent, female culture — articulated, passed from one girl to the next. No adult told us to do this — I am not even sure the adults knew about all this. Somehow, we understood it was our responsibility as girls to one another.

There has to be basic education, from very early on and certainly in high schools, in college orientations, in professional schools, and in all work places, about sexual harassment and abuse. 

About abuse in situations of power imbalance altogether — which would include bullying of the wider variety. The phenomenon has to be identified, named, parsed. Parents need to discuss this with their children from the get go and not rely on schools and places of work to impart this education, even while demanding it. Darkness, physical and mental, is the abuser’s medium. We need to rip that cover off.

Girls and women have to be told first, that– this is a phenomenon. Unlike Weinstein’s and so many other victims, they need to understand that this is not about, much less because of, them. In fact, it has nothing to do with them. Predators feed on the atomization of their victims: their isolation, their unawareness that what they are experiencing is a social pathology and systemic, the very opposite of personal.

And girls and women need solidarity. Individual workers are exploited and abused; workers who join collectively can protect their interests, push back, create deterrence. We know this truth — the power of the collective vs. the vulnerability of the individual, or the minority — in so many other contexts.

This, in my small universe in New York, is what I had, and this is what protected me. This, in the large universe of women’s lives, is what Weinstein’s victims and so many others, lacked, and still lack.

To whom could Weinstein’s victims have turned — and been taken seriously, supported, and assisted in obtaining redress?

To whom can victims turn, even today? The next Weinstein is not next; he is already at work.

Women need a version of the Anti-Defamation League. A revived National Organization for Women. An institution with teeth (legal and political hat pins), outside of their places of employment or would-be employment, since these too often cover for the perpetrators.

It will not be enough to parse this scandal if we don’t come up with effective ways to prevent the next one.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/on-sexual-terrorizing-of-women-communication-and-what-i-learned-about-this-in-yeshiva-high-school-2/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=8ca7427a19-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-8ca7427a19-55186525

Breaking the bonds of trust between husbands and wives, porn has destroyed millions of American marriages. Porn use within a marriage leads to a long list of troubling issues. A recent study revealed that once porn enters a marriage, the chances of divorce double....Hugh Hefner was prince of the pimps. He was a destroyer of lives and cultures. The level of his destruction is so wide and deep that it will only be fully known in the light of eternity. If you are trapped in his world, turn and flee now. There is hope and healing, and there are those who can help.

Hugh Hefner's Real Legacy: Disease, Despair, and Death

 (Partially Edited)

By Trevor Thomas

A timely and stunning statistic befitting the recent death of America’s patriarch of pornography: a shocking 110 million Americans -- over one-third of our population -- are saddled with a sexually transmitted disease. According to the New York Times,

The incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis is increasing, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An estimated 110 million Americans now are infected with a sexually transmitted disease.

Chlamydia is the most common S.T.D., and the number of cases rose 4.7 percent from 2015 to 2016… Adolescents and young adult women have the highest rates of chlamydia: one survey found that 9.2 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 were infected… The rate of primary and secondary syphilis in 2016 is the highest it has been since 1993, and it increased among both men and women from 2015 to 2016. Men account for almost 90 percent of cases, and most are among men who have sex with men.
Rates of syphilis increased in every age group and all races, and they were highest among people in their twenties.

Additionally, more than one out of every six people aged 14 to 49 has genital herpes. (Thus the rise of all of the Valtrex commercials on TV.) Among many other tragic outcomes, the rampant rate of STDs in America is the real legacy of notorious sexual provocateur, Hugh Hefner. Thanks to the desire to make our own rules when it comes to sex, following the lead of Hefner and his like-minded moral deviants, we find ourselves with STD rates in the U.S. at an all-time high. According to the CDC, there are more than 20 million new cases of STDs in the United States every year. As CNN recently reported,

“STDs are out of control with enormous health implications for Americans,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. The coalition represents state, local and territorial health departments who focus on preventing STDs.

 “If not treated, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis can have serious consequences, such as infertility, neurological issues, and an increased risk for HIV,” said Harvey.

Also among the “serious consequences” of many of these STDs: cancer. In addition to cervical cancer, which is caused by certain types of the STD, Human Papilloma Virus, just days ago, the Los Angeles Times reported on (surprise!) the “anal cancer epidemic” that exists among homosexual and bisexual men. The article notes that men who engage in homosexual activity are 100 times more likely to contract anal cancer than HIV-negative men “who exclusively have sex with women.” The article also declares that, “Some in the medical community have identified anal cancer as the next big crisis among HIV-infected gay and bisexual men.” I have breaking news for the medical community: there will always be a “next big crisis” looming for men who treat the human septic canal as a vagina.

Nevertheless, and no-doubt taking their cues from perverts like Hefner, this past July, Teen Vogue -- a magazine whose target audience is teenage girls -- took it upon themselves to instruct their young readers on the finer points of sodomy. The article, entitled “Anal Sex: What You Need to Know” and subtitled, “How to do it the RIGHT way,” declares itself to be “anal 101, for teens, beginners, and all inquisitive folk.” The garbage piece ends with this shocking admission:

In a sick attempt to justify promoting evil and dangerous sexual activity, just as they have with killing children in the womb, the left has now stooped to “normalizing” (an STD is “pretty bad*ss; it’s like a sex wound”) and even celebrating (with a “#ShoutYourStatus”) STDs. The perverse gotta pervert, I suppose. As Matt Barber concluded, political correctness needs to be declared an STD.

Of course, one need not contract an STD to suffer as a result of the plague of pornography. A 2015 UK Telegraph article on porn use among British youth contains a shocking revelation from a general practitioner (Sue):

“I’m afraid things are much worse than people suspect.” In recent years, Sue had treated growing numbers of teenage girls with internal injuries caused by frequent anal sex; not, as Sue found out, because she wanted to, or because she enjoyed it -- on the contrary -- but because a boy expected her to. “I’ll spare you the gruesome details,” said Sue, “but these girls are very young and slight and their bodies are simply not designed for that.”

No one’s body is “designed for that.” The boys were “expecting” such from their young girlfriends because they had bought into one of the many lies of porn. Instead of worrying over the condition of their skin or what earrings went with their new outfit, many of the young girls Sue was treating found themselves battling incontinence. Imagine the shame of a youth -- because they bought a favorite and common lie of the left (sex without consequences), the muscles of their rectum are stretched out such that they must live in daily fear of soiling themselves.

Furthermore, the porn saturation of America, along with most of the rest of the Western world, has resulted in longtime and widespread devastation that extends far beyond the physical. If you think “saturation” too strong, consider:

People watched 4,392,486,580 hours of porn on PornHub in 2015. Just to put that in perspective, that means that in one year, people around the world spent 501,425 years watching pornography -- on one porn site. On PornHub, people watched 87,849,731,608 porn videos. As the porn site hastened to point out, that’s 12 porn videos viewed for every single person on the planet.

That, my friends, is the sad math of porn addiction. As a result, tens of millions of teens and adults worldwide have little to no idea what is a healthy sexual relationship, or, in many cases, how to have any type of a healthy relationship with those who share the gender of the objects of their sexual fantasies. Any notion of self-sacrifice and service to another is abandoned, and sex becomes an end unto itself. Regular porn consumers (especially men) literally lust after pornlike encounters in order to be sexually satisfied. In the minds of many men, porn has reduced women to a commodity to be consumed and an object to be abused (e.g., 50 Shades of Grey Dismay).

Breaking the bonds of trust between husbands and wives, porn has destroyed millions of American marriages. Porn use within a marriage leads to a long list of troubling issues. A recent study revealed that once porn enters a marriage, the chances of divorce double. Driven by lust that was born of porn consumption, millions of young adult Americans are shunning marriage in favor of the hook-up culture.

Thus, whether born out of wedlock, killed in the womb, or forced to witness the destruction of the most important human relationship in their lives, over the last six-plus decades, tens of millions of American children have suffered because of their parents’ selfish sexual desires. As I’ve noted before, if these children survive the womb, they face a wide array of difficulties.

Hugh Hefner was prince of the pimps. He was a destroyer of lives and cultures. The level of his destruction is so wide and deep that it will only be fully known in the light of eternity. If you are trapped in his world, turn and flee now. There is hope and healing, and there are those who can help.

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/10/hugh_hefners_real_legacy_disease_despair_and_death.html#ixzz4ujc4LTZS
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

But mostly there are enablers, both those who facilitated his predations and those who found it expedient to look the other way.

Weinstein and Our Culture of Enablers...(Rabbis, Grand Rabbis, Pastors, Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, Popes, Yeshiva School Owners, Jewish Advocacy Organizations (Except for Kids) Ad Infinitum....

Harvey Weinstein at a Time magazine party celebrating its publication of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World.”

Of all of the dismaying and disgusting details of the Harvey Weinstein saga, none is more depressing than this: It has so few heroes.

There is a storybook villain, Mr. Weinstein, whose repulsive face turns out to be the spitting image of his putrescent soul. There are victims, so many of them, typically up-and-comers in an industry where he had the power to make or wreck their careers, or bully or buy their silence, or, if some allegations are to be believed, rape them.

But mostly there are enablers, both those who facilitated his predations and those who found it expedient to look the other way.

The enablers were of all sorts. Corporate board members who declined to investigate allegations of his sexual behavior and now claim the news comes as “an utter surprise.” Assistants who acted as “honeypots,” joining meetings between Mr. Weinstein and his intended victims to give them a sense of security — and then leaving the predator to his prey. Reporters who paid him tribute with awards, did his bidding with fawning coverage, or went after his enemies with hit pieces.

 A lavishly paid Italian studio executive whose real job, according to former Times reporter Sharon Waxman, was “to take care of Weinstein’s women needs.” (A lawyer for the executive reportedly denies the allegation.)

And then there was the rest of Hollywood.

Mr. Weinstein’s depredations were an open film industry secret, the subject of an onstage joke by Seth MacFarlane at the 2013 Oscar nomination announcement. Everyone laughed because everyone got it. Some of his victims, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, became Hollywood powers in their own right but never publicly rang an alarm until this week. The actor Ben Affleck, who owes his start to Mr. Weinstein, is an overnight laughingstock because he acts surprised by the producer’s behavior. He won’t be the only celebrity doing his best Claude Rains “shocked, shocked” impression.

This latest episode after Clinton, Trump, Cosby et al. can only strengthen women who are taken advantage of by powerful men in the workplace...

Even some of the ostensibly good guys in this saga cannot be let off lightly. In The New Yorker, Ronan Farrow reports that Irwin Reiter, a top Weinstein Company executive, sought to console one of the office assistants harassed by Mr. Weinstein by saying the “mistreatment of women” was a longstanding company issue and that “if you were my daughter he would not have made out so well.”

But Reiter never went public.

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that an industry built around pretended characters and scenarios could have pretended for so long that nothing was amiss. Perhaps it should be no surprise, either, that its concept of ethics is every bit as ersatz and inconstant as most everything else in Tinseltown.

The outrage over Mr. Weinstein also has a whiff of opportunism. In recent years, notes New York magazine’s Rebecca Traister, Weinstein has “lost power in the movie industry” and is no longer “the indie mogul who could make or break an actor’s Oscar chances.” Lame horses get shot.

It’s in this context that one can mount a defense of sorts for Mr. Weinstein, who inhabited a moral universe that did nothing but cheer his golden touch and wink at (or look away from) his transgressions — right until the moment that it became politically inconvenient to do so. 

Conservatives are trying to make hay of the fact that Mr. Weinstein donated lavishly to Democratic politicians, backed progressive causes and distributed films such as “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about campus sexual assault.

But the important truth about Mr. Weinstein isn’t his moral hypocrisy: In movies as in politics, hypocrisy isn’t just an accepted fact of life but also an essential part of the job.

The important truth is that he was just another libidinous cad in a libertine culture that long ago dispensed with most notions of personal restraint and gentlemanly behavior. “I came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, when all the rules about behavior and workplaces were different,” Weinstein wrote in his mea culpa to The Times last week. “That was the culture then.”

That line was roundly mocked, but it contains its truth. Like those other libidinous cads — Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — Weinstein benefited from a culture that often celebrated, constantly depicted, sometimes enabled, seldom confronted, and all-too frequently forgave the behavior they so often indulged in.

Hyenas cannot help their own nature. But the work of a morally sentient society is to prevent them from taking over the savannah. Our society, by contrast, festooned Weinstein with honors, endowed him with riches, and enabled him to feast on his victims without serious consequence for the better part of 30 years. The old saw that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing was never truer than it was in Weinstein’s case.

It may be that Weinstein’s epic downfall will scare straight other sexual miscreants, or at least those who tolerate their behavior and are liable for its consequences. Don’t count on it. Our belated indictment of him now does too much to acquit his many accomplices, and too little to transform a culture that never gave him a reason to change.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/opinion/weinstein-sexual-harassment-enablers.html?emc=edit_tnt_20171011&nlid=32999454&tntemail0=y

Yeah Woody, The Next Thing You Know, They're Going To Go After Pig Jewish Pedophiles!

Woody Allen Warns of ‘Witch Hunt’ After Weinstein Allegations

Woody Allen - “You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere,” he said of the accusations against Harvey Weinstein.

In an interview with the BBC published early Sunday, the director Woody Allen addressed the wave of allegations against Harvey Weinstein, calling it “tragic for the poor women” but also warning against a “witch hunt atmosphere.”

Mr. Allen’s comments to the BBC were published on the heels of Mr. Weinstein’s expulsion from the Motion Picture Academy on Saturday. The director and producer worked together on several films in the 1990s, and Mr. Allen denied knowledge about any misconduct: “No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness,” he said. “And they wouldn’t, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.”

“The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved,” Mr. Allen said. “Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up.”

However, Mr. Allen also cautioned about rushing to judgment. “You also don’t want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. That’s not right either.”

Mr. Weinstein’s public stature has rapidly fallen since The New York Times published an investigative report on Oct. 5 detailing decades of sexual harassment allegations against him. Last week, Ronan Farrow, Mr. Allen’s estranged son, published an article in The New Yorker recounting the stories of 13 women who say Mr. Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them since the 1990s.

In 1993, Mr. Allen was accused of sexually abusing his 7-year-old daughter, Dylan Farrow. The fallout from the accusations, combined with a bitter custody battle with Mia Farrow, left Mr. Allen’s reputation badly damaged. However, Mr. Weinstein offered him a lifeline through his company Miramax Films, when he agreed to produce his 1994 film “Bullets Over Broadway.” “Shunned by Hollywood means nothing to Miramax,” Mr. Weinstein told the Los Angeles Times in a 1994 interview. “We’re talking about a comic genius.”

“Bullets Over Broadway” would go on to be nominated for seven Oscars, and Mr. Allen would make several more films for Miramax, including “Mighty Aphrodite” and “Everyone Says I Love You.” The actress Mira Sorvino, who won an Oscar for “Mighty Aphrodite,” told Mr. Farrow that Mr. Weinstein sexually harassed her while they were promoting that movie at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1995.

Mr. Allen’s children, Dylan and Ronan Farrow, have continued to speak out against him. In 2014, Ms. Farrow wrote an open letter in The New York Times further detailing her allegations of her father’s abusive behavior and condemning the film industry’s apathy: “That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye.” (Mr. Allen wrote a Times op-ed denying the accusations.) Mr. Farrow has been vocal about his support for his sister.

Neither Mr. Farrow nor a representative for Mr. Allen immediately responded to requests for comment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/movies/woody-allen-harvey-weinstein-witch-hunt.html?_r=0

SHOCKING! The Tendler Goy!

Christian High School Teacher Allegedly Used Religion to Lure Student Into Sex!

Abigail Weissenbach, who says she had a sexual relationship with her high school teacher when she was in the 11th grade, just filed a lawsuit against her former school district for failing to prevent the assault and for violating the separation of church and state.

 

The 21-year-old Weissenbach says Joe Bradley Petrey (above), who evaded criminal charges in February, repeatedly violated the Establishment Clause by using “God and Christianity to lure a student into a sexual relationship with him.” His “Christianity teachings, bible study, and school prayer” manipulated the young girl’s “trust and faithfulness to him so that she would not betray him or prosecute him.”

“This is exactly the reason why religion and state school do not mix and have been separated by law,” [attorney Kimberlyn Malone] said. “Religion in the hands of a sexual predator who is allowed to teach impressionable children at school is dangerously detrimental and should not be allowed.”

The victim says the whole ordeal was fueled by religion. It started when Petrey, her psychology and history teacher, pretended to speak on behalf of God.

In the Fall of 2013 Petrey told Plaintiff that he had a dream about her and that God told him to tell her that she was beautiful… Defendant Petrey was known at school for being a big Christian. He wore religious Tshirts to school. He often talked about Jesus and debated Christianity in his class. He also prayed in class. He and Ms. Lavoy (another teacher) would meet with Plaintiff to have Bible study in his classroom most mornings.

Weissenbach further says the school system “allowed a culture for Petrey’s religious beliefs,” which he then used to take advantage of the young girl.

Plaintiff avers that the Defendant Tuscaloosa County School System, it’s officials and administrators allowed Petrey to openly teach and preach Christianity to his classes, to wear Christian T-shirts to school, pray in class and hold bible study in his class; all of these activities occurring at a State publicly held school violated her constitutional right to a separation of church and state.

Weissenbach, who was 17 at the time of the sexual relationship, also accused the school district of “negligence and wantonness” in the employment of Petrey. They also failed to protect students from the “sexual predator,” according to the lawsuit.

Defendants negligently and wantonly acted to protect the Defendant Petrey by not terminating him or at least placing him on a leave of absence in order to separate the child victim from her teacher, Petrey. This failure allowed Petrey to continue to sexually abuse and manipulate Plaintiff. Plaintiff avers that the Defendants engaged in a cover up scheme and took no affirmative action to protect her from discrimination based upon her sex.

In the end, though, it all comes down to religion. That’s the way it all started in 2013 and, according to Weissenbach, that’s the reason she was “uncooperative” during the criminal prosecution. She was too indoctrinated — too brainwashed — to understand that she was a victim. Now that she understands what happened, she wants the school system to pay.

Nothing can make up for being brainwashed and sexually assaulted, but if the school really allowed that culture to exist, then they should be forced to change. Like the lawsuit says, “This is exactly the reason why religion and state school do not mix and have been separated by law.”
(Image via WBRC)

Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/10/07/christian-high-school-teacher-allegedly-used-religion-to-lure-student-into-sex/#xecUYGfXk7DZvkGm.99

The Woman Spearheading the Fight Against Sexual Assault in ultra-Orthodox Society In Israel

Rivka Schwartz

Rivka Schwartz belongs to a community which treats the very word ‘sex’ as taboo, but after finding out at 16 that her best friend had been sexually abused, she vowed to help victims of the phenomenon

Attorney Rivka Schwartz remembers vividly the first time she ever heard about sexual abuse within the family. She was 16 at the time, attending summer camp. She and one of her best friends – also a Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, girl from Bnei Brak – were having trouble falling asleep. They talked well into the night, and Schwartz’s friend revealed something that astounded her.

“She told me that a member of her family was forcing himself on her,” Schwartz recalls now, speaking with Haaretz at a café in Jerusalem. “I was stunned. I hardly knew anything about [sexual] relations then, and certainly I didn’t think anything like that – sexual abuse – existed. None of us had internet access, and it wasn’t something that people talked about. I was also shocked because I knew the man. I felt guilty for not having seen it sooner. I didn’t understand how I could have known her for so many years without having the least idea.”

Schwartz decided she had to help her friend. “I sat with my mother in the kitchen and told her the whole story. She said, ‘No way, it can’t be.’ ... She said that maybe my friend had dreamed it and that I should let it go.”

But Schwartz, who is today 36, did not let it go. “I thought I was being smart, and I persuaded my friend to tell her parents. Their reaction was to accuse her of being immodest. They said she had seduced the man. She was sent to a school abroad to keep her away from him. Finally, she left Israel [for good], and afterward also the religious way of life. She broke with her family – and with me, too, because from her perspective I was the one who had harmed her. I’d encouraged her to tell her parents, and the result was that she’d been punished and lost her family and her whole world.”

Schwartz was haunted by the realization that, instead of helping, she had only made matters worse. But the lesson was clear.

“I understood that there was no one to turn to in such cases,” she says. “I am not someone who accepts the idea that nothing can be done. I decided that one day I would do something about it, so other 16-year-old girls in similar situations would have someone to turn to.

“The second thing I understood was that talking and exposure exact a steep price, so you have to know how to go about it. You mustn’t remain silent, but you have to know how to not stay silent. I decided that in the future I’d find a way to help other girls.”

However, that future had to wait. As one of 11 siblings in a family affiliated with the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect, Schwartz was steered from childhood into attending a Haredi girls’ school and marrying.

She only departed from the path to the extent that she refused to marry someone within the Vizhnitz court. And even that was related to the assault she’d been told about as a teenager.

“I didn’t want to marry anyone from a community where such things happen,” she explains now, adding, “Until then, I had the naive notion that it didn’t happen in other communities.”

The matchmaker suggested Meni Gira Schwartz, then a 19-year-old yeshiva student from a different sect, a businessman and also editor of Behadrei Haredim – which bills itself as “the world’s biggest Haredi website.” The parents on both sides weren’t enthusiastic, but the couple insisted, and three weeks after their first meeting they became engaged.

Schwartz, who was 19 when she married, subsequently continued her studies to become a teacher, training at an ultra-Orthodox seminary. She had two daughters, and at age 26 chose to enroll in the law faculty at Ono Academic College, in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv. It was the only law school that would admit her without a high school matriculation certificate. She’s the only one of her siblings to receive an academic degree.

During her studies, Schwartz volunteered at the college’s legal clinic, the Noga Center for Victims of Crime. There, for the first time, she discovered that the scale of sexual abuse, in society in general, far exceeded what she had imagined, and was hardly confined exclusively to ultra-Orthodox sects.

“Not many Haredi women contacted the aid center,” she recalls. “But I realized that in the same way a woman would better understand another woman, a Haredi woman will understand another Haredi woman better. It was clear that a Haredi who was victimized should be treated with Haredi ‘tools.’”

Schwartz also volunteered at an Israel Bar Association clinic that offers pro bono legal assistance to indigent persons.

The clinic often received ultra-Orthodox who had experienced sexual assault, and referred them to the relevant organizations. That experience only reinforced Schwartz’s belief that a Haredi facility – with an understanding of that community’s special needs and language – was needed to help in such cases.

After completing her studies, Schwartz clerked in the criminal department at the State Prosecutor’s Office in Jerusalem, which marked the first time she encountered incidents of sexual assault – including in Haredi society – that were considered serious criminal offenses.

She also discovered that in some cases, ultra-Orthodox assailants were simply ignorant of the law. She cites the case of a man from the Haredi town of Modi’in Ilit, who wanted to appeal a 13-year prison term to which he had been sentenced after being convicted of having sexual relations with a boy of 12.

“The man had a business, where the boy worked as a messenger, and the close working ties between them led to forbidden relations,” Schwartz relates. “Years after those relations ended, when the boy was 21, the man tried to hug him when the two met by chance on the street. The victim re-experienced the trauma and filed a complaint. The assailant had no idea why he was being investigated. He told the interrogator, ‘The boy didn’t resist, it didn’t hurt him, he wanted me. He even came to me on his own.’”

The man was aware he had violated Jewish law, having had relations with another male, but wasn’t familiar with the concept of statutory rape, when a minor is involved – and a crime even if consensual.

“For him, it was like someone turning on a light on Shabbat,” explains Schwartz. “He said it was between him and God. He didn’t know there’s no such thing as consensual relations in such a case. The ignorance stemmed from a lack of awareness. We live in a closed community, but I see that not as [a means of] silencing but as protection. The community wants to protect its members.”

Hassidic men perform the Tashlich ceremony on Sidne Beach in Herzliya,

An ultra-Orthodox woman walks with a stroller

On the condition that it’s really protection and doesn’t expose others to danger.

“Right. In the past, the community prevented exposure and wider publicity of these cases. The Haredi media didn’t report them. The Haredi public didn’t hear about them. When offenders were put on trial, I [as a member of the community] didn’t know about them.

“When I started to work in the State Prosecutor’s Office, I was shocked by the scale of the phenomenon. I realized that people who had suddenly disappeared from the landscape, and were said to be abroad, were actually in jail. The public wasn’t aware they’d been punished, so there was no deterrent effect.”

While clerking six years ago, during a tour of a Social Affairs Ministry center in Jerusalem that treats sexually abused children, Schwartz learned that 75 percent of the youngsters treated there came from ultra-Orthodox families. Though this was due in part to the high proportion of Haredim in the city, the information staggered her.

Schwartz: “I wrote about this in a Haredi Facebook forum, noting the high percentage of Haredi victims and the fact that people were in prison and we didn’t know the first thing about it. In response, people accused me of defaming the community. They said I was making things up. The forum’s manager told me we don’t wash our dirty linen in public, and deleted the post. I felt helpless. I wanted to fight the ignorance, so that potential offenders would know what lies in store for them from the legal standpoint, and preclude such cases.”

In-depth care

In 2013, after starting her own law firm, Schwartz founded Min Hameitzar (“From the Depths”), an organization that provides support and legal assistance to Haredi victims of sexual abuse.

She manages the organization, which operates on a national basis, with the aid of three administrative assistants and a team of volunteer lawyers. When it comes to psychological assistance, Min Hameitzar cooperates with other groups, such as Bayit Cham (“Warm Home”), which works with both at-risk teens and adults in ultra-Orthodox communities.

“Min Hameitzar is an organization that’s about victims, not criminals,” Schwartz says. “That’s the motto. The aim is to assist victims as such, and not necessarily to hunt down the offenders. I want to do what’s good for the victim. If it’s necessary to file a [formal legal] complaint, we will do that. If not, we won’t. If what they need is assistance in submitting a request to the National Insurance Institute to determine the level of their disability, that’s what will happen.

“We provide a response for a range of needs of the Haredi victim,” she continues. “That means psychological support, helping during criminal proceedings, representation in damages suits, assistance in dealing with social welfare, National Insurance and other authorities. It’s all on a voluntary basis. Our work also involves enhancing awareness by writing educational programs about prevention and organizing conferences.”

How does your organization’s work differ from the treatment of similar cases among the secular population?

“Overall it’s the same, but at the practical level, the professionals are Haredim and the cultural language they use in the treatment is different. At the time we founded the organization, there was only one investigator dealing with cases involving Haredi children in the whole country. In time, it was understood that Haredi society could learn the professional tools – psychological and legal alike – from the outside and use them in treatment within the community.

“Many studies have shown that if the therapist is from the same community as the person he’s treating, the treatment is more effective. Statistically, when the therapists and the investigators belong to the same community as the victims in criminal cases, there are more convictions.”

Isn’t there concern that people from within the community will encourage a policy of silence?

Schwartz is incensed by the question. “I don’t for a minute doubt the ethics of the professional therapists. Rabbis, too, have clear rules about when it’s necessary to file a complaint with the police – for example, in cases where it’s clear the offender is likely to assault others.


“In contrast, my ethics have been ‘doubted’ in the past. Recently, I was at a hearing as the lawyer representing victims in the case of a Haredi advertising man who was accused of rape. The defense counsel asked me to leave the courtroom, claiming I was liable to obstruct justice. The judge had me removed, contrary to the victims’ rights law. But the next day, it was actually the defense counsel himself who leaked to the press all the evidence he’d presented in court, which he didn’t want me to know about.”


In recent years, the Israel Police have hired 16 investigators, both men and women, to work within the ultra-Orthodox community. Even so, professionals in the field maintain that police handling of cases of sexual assault in the Haredi community is inadequate.

To begin with, 16 officers out of a police force of some 35,000 is an extremely small fraction, especially in light of the fact that the ultra-Orthodox public constitutes 12 percent of the country’s population. In Jerusalem, for example, there are only two Haredi investigators. The result is that many assault cases go unreported.

In addition, according to informed sources, in many cases victims who are willing to file a complaint find that, when seeking help from the police, they encounter a lack of cooperation, unclear terminology and an inadequate explanation of the procedures and possible consequences.

“The interrogation of a victim of sexual assault is always a difficult experience,” a source in one aid organization says.

“For example, when a Haredi woman is asked about an orgasm – and these are questions the police ask – and it’s a word she’s never heard before, that’s a problematic situation. There isn’t enough social support for the complainants even among the secular public, still less in the Haredi community. A woman who files a rape complaint will be asked by people in her circle how she ever found herself in a situation in which she was alone with the perpetrator in a room. It’s a case of being victimized twice.”

Still, the presence of Haredi interrogators has substantially improved both the attitude of the police toward the community and communication with it.

Says Schwartz: “These investigators understand the Haredi nuances and cultural language. The Haredi interrogator is able to ask questions that only Haredim would understand. For example, a suspect said he did nothing bad, that the boy only sat on his lap during a religious lesson. The Haredi policewoman asked him how he could have touched the boy and not washed his hands afterward, before returning to sacred matters. That’s a question a secular interrogator would never think of asking. At that point the suspect found himself in trouble and the case took a major turn.”

She gives another example: “A Haredi child is incapable of uttering words that he perceives as immodest, like names of the body organs the assailant touched. He’s used to having his mouth slapped if he speaks those words. He will say ‘below.’ That’s not enough for an indictment. You have to say exactly where. A Haredi interrogator understands that the boy will try to avoid those words,” and will find a way to work around the problem.

The rabbis’ role

According to state prosecutor Lizu Wolfus, who is in charge of cases of sexual assault in the Jerusalem District, recent years have seen a highly significant change in Haredi society’s approach to this subject, and groups like Min Hameitzar are among the reasons for this.

“Rivka understands the criminal process and is able to simplify it into the victims’ language,” Wolfus says. “It’s also significant that she can convey to them the law pertaining to the rights of victims of abuse, which is complicated. And, of course, there’s significance in the fact that she’s a female attorney – the women in her community see her as a feminist model. She helps girls at the lowest point of their lives, and that naturally enhances the role model.”

Wolfus, like Schwartz, refutes the widespread notion that it’s the rabbis who prevent complaints from being submitted. “In the cases I have handled,” the prosecutor notes, “I don’t recall even one in which a rabbi blocked submission of a complaint to the police. I do know of cases in which important, well-known rabbis did a great deal for victims – referring them to helping organizations and the police, helping uncover [the perpetrator] and even testifying.”

For her part, Schwartz argues that “it’s all too easy to accuse the rabbis of silencing things. But I have yet to meet a rabbi who did not allow me to handle a case. Not every case is suitable for a complaint to the police, but there wasn’t a single rabbi who told me not to deal with a case or tried to ‘silence’ the matter. Sometimes matters have to be dealt with within Haredi frameworks, but the rabbis don’t prevent this.”

Are things done more discreetly within Haredi frameworks?

“Yes. An effort is made to avoid making the offender’s name public, in order not to hurt his family, but certainly no one says not to deal with it or to go to the authorities. For example, the offender’s name is never published on Behadrei Haredim until there’s a court conviction. That’s an approach I agree with. Even the director general of the Justice Ministry, Emi Palmor, recently concurred in the opinion that, for the benefit of all parties, the accused’s name should not be made public. The offender’s name is not important to the public. What’s important is for the public to know that the incident happened, so they will be careful.”

Occasionally, however, there are reports about specific ultra-Orthodox rabbis who are said to have tried to silence complainants. One such case, which surfaced two years ago, involved a pedophile who assaulted children in Modi’in Ilit. Rabbis prevented a formal complaint from being filed against him and made do with “exiling” him to Bnei Brak – where he attacked another girl.

“I can’t tell you about cases that I didn’t handle,” Schwartz says. “I can testify to what I am familiar with, namely that in regard to the obligation to report, which exists when the victims are minors, I have always obtained full cooperation from the rabbis.

“Recently there was a story of a grandfather who assaulted his granddaughters for years. The parents came to me and demanded that we go to a rabbi. He said that a formal complaint had to be filed. The grandfather was [convicted and] a few weeks ago was sent to prison.”

At the same time, Schwartz is adamant that in cases in which reporting an event is not mandatory – because no minors are involved – going to the police is not always the most appropriate solution.

“The police are only a means, they are not the goal,” she explains. “The primary goal is to help the victims. Here, too, I always see full cooperation from the rabbis. There were occasional cases when we wanted to file a complaint, and the rabbis of the victims’ communities asked whether I thought it was essential to get the police involved. I always found a way to conduct a dialogue and arrive at an arrangement that was mutually acceptable. It’s also very helpful to the victims when the rabbis support them, whether that involves going to the police or psychological treatment.”

How do you enter into a dialogue with the rabbis? (You Can't On This Topic and Many Others - Go Straight To The Police! Always!)

“We try to make them aware of the victims’ feelings, and not berate or offend them. Recently, I met a rabbi in a community in which a woman who was abused filed a complaint with us; what the rabbi would say was very important to her. He is a person of great stature, but extremely conservative. When we entered, he immediately asked whether I was going to record him. I told him, ‘I am not from the media, I am here to get support from the rabbi.’ In the end he told the woman she should give thanks every day that she found Min Hameitzar, and he encouraged her to go to the authorities. The rabbis don’t kick me out, because I come to them in the spirit of dialogue based on shared values. I don’t come to them with a knife.”

As an independent, feminist woman, doesn’t it infuriate you to have to go through bodies consisting of men who get to decide how to proceed and must authorize every move you make?

“Infuriating or not, that’s the situation. There’s no point railing against it. Among the ultra-Orthodox, when something happens, you don’t go to a professional. If someone in the secular population is very sick, for example, he finds the best doctor and goes to him. A Haredi goes to a functionary, and the functionary refers him to a doctor. If you were arrested on suspicion of having committed an offense, you would hire a lawyer; the Haredi goes to a functionary, who sends him to a lawyer. If a child is harmed, they don’t turn to the welfare authorities, but to the local rabbi or functionary. That’s what is called ‘Haredi nuances.’ The achievement is that, whereas in the past the functionaries and rabbis tried to handle matters in their ways, today, thanks to growing awareness, they know they should refer people to us or to the authorities.

“What’s important,” Schwartz continues, “is for the rabbis to cooperate and not try to deal with things themselves, as they did in the past.”

In general, she adds, “The bureaucracy is very tough. It’s very difficult to get a case to the indictment stage when it involves a minor, for example, because the case can very quickly be ‘contaminated.’

“In the case of a young child, it’s always possible to claim he has a highly developed imagination or that his mother ‘helped him to remember.’ A recent check of data in the Be’er Sheva branch of the Beit Lynn network – of centers for the protection of minors who have been sexually assaulted – found that only 15 percent of the complaints they receive about minors lead to indictments.”

Muting the ‘S’ word

One of the major changes that Min Hameitzar has spearheaded, says Schwartz, is the heightened awareness that exists among the Haredi public about the very existence of sexual abuse, and the possibility of their talking about it, even before seeking the pro bono aid she offers. Nonetheless, there is still much work to be done, and she remains – at age 36 and the mother of four children – true to her idealistic 16-year-old self, who wanted the world to hear about the horrors perpetrated behind closed doors.

Among her many pursuits, Schwartz co-manages the largest Haredi Facebook group on the web, which has 17,000 members.

The closed group, whose name translates as “Some girls, and what’s between them,” was established “with the aim of speaking and sharing socially,” Schwartz explains, “and became a social-economic initiative. You can share anonymously in the group. Many women have described sexual abuses from their childhood, violent husbands, abusive parents. They receive vast support and advice and a hug from the public. It’s part of the revolution. After sharing online, some women told their story openly and asked for help. That has led to the creation of more aid organizations.”

In Schwartz’s view, the increasing number of organizations seeking to help victims isn’t a completely positive phenomenon. There are unqualified therapists who sometimes cause the victims serious harm.

“Some groups don’t have proper training but purport to assist victims of sexual assault,” she points out. “Charlatanism is rampant in this field. We have dealt with many cases in which secondary damage was caused – such as a father who raped his daughters, who were then taken by the mother to a psychologist who wasn’t qualified. The therapist extorted money from them by threatening to tell everyone what happened, and also tried to dissuade the girls from lodging a complaint against the father. She [the therapist] is now on trial.”

There are assistance organizations that are, to her mind, too occupied with exposing incidents of assault and the names of the offenders even before they have been brought to trial, she adds. In some instances, they make public material that Schwartz says is “verging on pornography,” without considering the damage liable to be caused to the families or the victims themselves. “Undue exposure is also liable to frighten the public. Our goal is to bring about a meaningful change from the bottom up, from the public, not to create fear,” she notes.

The boundary between silencing and discretion can be elusive.

“There are groups that describe Haredi society as primitive for not giving children sex education, or educating them in self-defense. But that’s not so today. Haredim don’t silence people, but they aren’t always eager to make things public. There’s a sensitivity that has to be taken into account. A child who’s abused and has his name publicized is a marked person. A person who’s charged is marked, as is his whole family.

“Every case we deal with and that you hear about in the media went through a rabbi. The Torah demands that we deal with it. For example, after the rape of Dinah in Shechem [Genesis 34], her brothers came to avenge her [by killing all the men of Shechem]. The Torah says, ‘You will sweep out evil from your midst.’

“It’s not like other sensitive issues, such as agunot [women whose husbands refuse to grant them a divorce]. To bring about a change for agunot, you need to change the halakha [Jewish religious law]. But in the case of sexual abuse, the halakha is with us and the Torah is with us. The rabbi won’t say that the matter should not be dealt with, but he will say it must be treated in a way that avoids harm to the community.”

One of the most sensitive issues Schwartz has to deal with is the language used. The word “sex,” for example, is beyond the pale. “I don’t use the term ‘victim of sexual assault,’ but ‘assistance to victims of an offense,’ and everyone knows what is meant,” she says. “That also goes hand in hand with legal language. The law, for example, is called the Rights of Victims of Offenses Law. Sexual abuse is a societal ill. I want the treatment in Haredi society to be done in a language that’s appropriate for ‘subjects about which silence is golden,’ but at the same time not to silence things. If that means conducting an entire conversation with a child in which the word ‘sex’ is not used, then it won’t be used, but the child will understand what he needs to be wary of.”

Does Haredi society have an institution comparable to the Takana Forum in religious-Zionist society, which tries to cope with sexual abuse without involving law enforcement authorities?

“Takana Forum is a splendid idea. It exists in the Haredi community to a certain extent – there’s a committee of rabbis that works with the social welfare services. If reporting is not mandated by law, and if the welfare official decides that it might be possible to deal with it within the community, by means that do not necessarily involve other intervention – the social welfare people consult with the rabbis committee.”

What about the danger to public safety? After all, reporting to the police isn’t intended to help the victim but to prevent the offender from harming others.

“One consideration is whether the offender will go on doing harm. We apprise the victim of that consideration, both in conversations and during a treatment process. We have a case of a man who was abused when he was a minor. When he arrived, he wasn’t capable of submitting a complaint, and he started treatment. After a few months, he was ready to file a complaint with the police. There are some who will never be mentally ready. Our approach does not come from a place of wishing to conceal, but from a place of wishing to assist the victim.”



https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.815758

His success as a businessman showed the rotten side of capitalism — the side that exploits appetites for money, that feeds leech-like on our vices, that dissolves family and religion while promising that consumption will fill the void they leave behind. (The Most Vile Pervert of a Person of This Generation - The Man That Destroyed The Human Psyche Forever - IMO - The Worst of Humanity! PM)

In psychology, the psyche /ˈsaɪki/ is the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious. Psychology is the scientific or objective study of the psyche. The word has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and represents one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older texts.^[1]

Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner

Ross Douthat

THE VILE MONSTER THAT WAS HEFFNER

 

 

Hugh Hefner, gone to his reward at the age of 91, was a pornographer and chauvinist who got rich on mXXXXXX, consumerism and the exploitation of women, aged into a leering grotesque in a captain’s hat, and died a pack rat in a decaying manse where porn blared during his pathetic orgies.

Hef was the grinning pimp of the sexual revolution, with quaaludes for the ladies and Viagra for himself — a father of smut addictions and eating disorders, abortions and divorce and syphilis, a pretentious huckster who published Updike stories no one read while doing flesh procurement for celebrities, a revolutionary whose revolution chiefly benefited men much like himself.

The arc of his life vindicated his moral critics, conservative and feminist: What began with talk of jazz and Picasso and other signifiers of good taste ended in a sleazy decrepitude that would have been pitiable if it wasn’t still so exploitative.

Early Hef had a pipe and suit and a highbrow reference for every occasion; he even claimed to have a philosophy, that final refuge of the scoundrel. But late Hef was a lecherous, low-brow Peter Pan, playing at perpetual boyhood — ice cream for breakfast, pajamas all day — while bodyguards shooed male celebrities away from his paid harem and the skull grinned beneath his papery skin.

This late phase was prettied up by reality television’s “The Girls Next Door,” which kept the orgies offstage and relied on the girlfriends’ mix of desperation, boredom and charisma for its strange appeal. The behind-the-scenes accounts were rather grimmer: depression and drugs, “dirty hallway carpets and the curtains that smell like dog piss,” the chance to wait while Hef “picked the dog poo off the carpet — and then ask for our allowance.”

Needless to say the obituaries for Hefner, even if they acknowledge the seaminess, have been full of encomia for his great deeds: Hef the vanquisher of puritanism, Hef the political progressive, Hef the great businessman and all the rest. There are even conservative appreciations, arguing that for all his faults Hef was an entrepreneur who appreciated the finer things in life and celebrated la difference.

What a lot of garbage. Sure, Hefner supported some good causes and published some good writers. But his good deeds and aesthetic aspirations were ultimately incidental to his legacy — a gloss over his flesh-peddling, smeared like Vaseline on a pornographer’s lens. The things that were distinctively Hefnerian, that made him influential and important, were all rotten, and to the extent they were part of stories that people tend to celebrate, they showed the rot in larger things as well.

His success as a businessman showed the rotten side of capitalism — the side that exploits appetites for money, that feeds leech-like on our vices, that dissolves family and religion while promising that consumption will fill the void they leave behind.

The social liberalism he championed was the rotten and self-interested sort, a liberalism of male and upper-class privilege, in which the strong and beautiful and rich take their pleasure at the expense of the vulnerable and poor and not-yet-born.

The online future his career anticipated was the rotten side of the internet — the realms of onanism and custom-tailored erotica, where the male vanity and entitlement he indulged has curdled into resentment and misogyny.

And his appreciation of male-female difference was rotten, too — the leering predatory sort of appreciation, the Cosby-Clinton-Trump sort, the sort that nicknames quaaludes “thigh openers” and expects the girls to laugh, the sort that prefers breast implants to female intellect and rents the charms of youth to escape the realities of age.

No doubt what Hefner offered America somebody else would have offered in his place, and the changes he helped hasten would have come rushing in without him.

But in every way that mattered he made those changes worse, our culture coarser and crueler and more sterile than liberalism or feminism or freedom of speech required. And in every way that mattered his life story proved that we were wrong to listen to him, because at the end of the long slide lay only a degraded, priapic senility, or the desperate gaiety of Prince Prospero’s court with the Red Death at the door.

Now that death has taken him, we should examine our own sins. Liberals should ask why their crusade for freedom and equality found itself with such a captain, and what his legacy says about their cause. Conservatives should ask how their crusade for faith and family and community ended up so Hefnerian itself — with a conservative news network that seems to have been run on Playboy Mansion principles and a conservative party that just elected a playboy as our president.

You can find these questions being asked, but they are counterpoints and minor themes. That this should be the case, that only prudish Christians and spoilsport feminists are willing to say that the man was obviously wicked and destructive, is itself a reminder that the rot Hugh Hefner spread goes very, very deep.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/30/opinion/hugh-hefner.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-4&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article