Agudath Israel - “We have always explained that our concern was for the viability of yeshivas and shuls and summer camps,” He’s warbling a tune that we’re sick and tired of. Woe are them! Woe is us. “Child sexual abuse is so pervasive in this community that eliminating the SOL would financially bankrupt its religious institutions.

Zwiebel said that the organization still opposes a broad opening of the statute of limitations for civil cases. “We have always explained that our concern was for the viability of yeshivas and shuls and summer camps,” Zwiebel said. “We have said that to open up old claims in situations where it could even be that the administration has turned over five times since the incident has occurred… we’re opposed to that.”Read more: https://forward.com/news/362747/has-ultra-orthodox-group-agudath-israel-changed-its-tune-on-sex-abuse-lawsu/

Zwiebel said that the organization still opposes a broad opening of the statute of limitations for civil cases. “We have always explained that our concern was for the viability of yeshivas and shuls and summer camps,” Zwiebel said. “We have said that to open up old claims in situations where it could even be that the administration has turned over five times since the incident has occurred… we’re opposed to that.”Read more: https://forward.com/news/362747/has-ultra-orthodox-group-agudath-israel-changed-its-tune-on-sex-abuse-lawsu/

Zwiebel said that the organization still opposes a broad opening of the statute of limitations for civil cases. “We have always explained that our concern was for the viability of yeshivas and shuls and summer camps,” Zwiebel said. “We have said that to open up old claims in situations where it could even be that the administration has turned over five times since the incident has occurred… we’re opposed to that.”

According to its 2011 statement, Agudah’s ancillary concern is the financial trauma that schools and synagogues would suffer in the event of successful lawsuits brought against sexual predators and the institutions that tolerate them. As Rabbi Shafran wrote, “What Agudath Israel and Torah Umesorah [an Orthodox Jewish organization promoting Torah-based religious studies] must object to… is legislation that could literally destroy schools and houses of worship… Legislation that would do away with the statute of limitations completely, even if only for a one-year period, could subject schools and other vital institutions to ancient claims and capricious litigation, and place their existence in severe jeopardy.”

(Agudath Israel), Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, the Sultans of Self-Pity - Grifters gonna grift for their own self-preservation - Victims be damned!

 

• 

Former President Bill Clinton during an interview on Sunday

Move over, Alec Baldwin. Bill Clinton does a much better impersonation of Donald Trump.

The hair is wrong but the air is right — self-righteous, self-pitying and suffused with anger that anyone would peddle a version of events less heroic than the one that he prefers. We’re shaming him about ancient groping when we should be showering him with eternal gratitude. And what about his pain?

“I left the White House $16 million in debt,” Clinton said in an interview that NBC’s “Today” aired on Monday, batting back questions about whether he had demonstrated sufficient contrition for converting a 22-year-old’s romantic idolization of him into sexual favors and setting off a sequence of events that savaged her. I don’t know what legal bills have to do with a moral ledger. But I can see that his fixations on money and martyrdom are intact.

Before cries of “false equivalence” shatter windows and startle forest creatures, I should make clear that I’d take Clinton over Trump in any role on any day. Trump is the Everest of delusion and depravity; Clinton ascended only a bit beyond base camp.

But at an honor-starved moment when most of our politicians are quicker to shirk responsibility than to shoulder it, I cringe at his evasions, elisions and rationalizations. Is he taking a cue from Trump or showing us where Trump got some of his moves and inspiration?

Granted, Clinton is venturing in front of cameras this week to discuss a book he wrote, not the book on him. So he’s frustrated and flustered.

And at 71, he’s not the talker or the actor that he used to be. Those eyes don’t mist as wetly. That lower lip isn’t as ripe for penitential chewing.

But hasn’t he or anyone around him, in response to the #MeToo movement, thought to prepare a script in which he says something brave and healing about his own mistakes, the lessons he learned and how all of us can apply and benefit from them?

He’s correct that he has gone through the motions of saying that he’s sorry for the Monica Lewinsky scandal before. But that preceded the fall of Harvey Weinstein, the recognition of sexual misconduct’s pervasiveness and the damning circus of Trump, whose allergy to apology gives Clinton a chance to model a more generous, better way. He sure as hell isn’t seizing it.

He grows visibly annoyed when journalists are so petty as to bring up the past and the pesky fact that he’s one of only two American presidents ever impeached. He raged when Craig Melvin of NBC News breached this territory. And he promptly turned into Trump.

He pointed fingers elsewhere, excusing his own erotic exploits by insinuating that his Oval Office forebears were no less randy. “Do you think President Kennedy should have resigned?” he challenged Melvin. “Do you believe President Johnson should have resigned?” Give Clinton a break. He was merely playing follow the libido.

He cited polls, outsourcing discernment and judgment to the crowds. “Two-thirds of the American people sided with me,” he told Melvin. They thought that Republicans’ impeachment of him went too far. But that doesn’t mean that he’s innocent — or virtuous.

He accused Melvin of sloppy journalism, though there wasn’t a scintilla of sloppiness in the portion of the interview that “Today” shared. “You, typically, have ignored gaping facts,” he said. I myself gaped — at the Trumpian magnitude of Clinton’s ire.

Those ignored facts were the most ignoble part of his rant. He mentioned how many women he had put in top jobs, presenting the roll call as a counterweight to — or absolution for? — the infidelities, the accusations of sexual harassment and Juanita Broaddrick’s claim of rape. Does Madeleine Albright’s ascent redeem Monica Lewinsky’s evisceration? Was Janet Reno a get-out-of-jail-free card?

What a queasy-making calculus. And what foreshadowing. Decades before many of Trump’s enablers edited out huge chunks of his behavior to rally around his policies, many of Clinton’s fans made a similar if less egregious bargain.

The Venn diagram of the 42nd and 45th presidents overlaps not only where hormones rage but also where entitlement roars. And that entitlement is antithetical to a world in which women get the respect and equality that they deserve and Americans get the leadership that we sorely need.

Clinton’s new book, a thriller written with James Patterson, is called “The President Is Missing.” That could also be a title for his book tour — and for a real-time chronicle of the Trump administration. If the president is supposed to be someone more focused on his obligations than on his reputation, on his duty than on his due, then we lack one now, and Clinton isn’t filling the void.

He’s warbling a tune that we’re sick and tired of. Woe is him. Woe is Trump.

I’d tweak the lyrics. Woe is us.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/opinion/bill-clinton-trump-sexual-harassment.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Neighbors Face Off With A New Orthodox School In Kensington As Boro Park Bursts At The Seams...

 MONEY QUOTE: "I know the truth about Satmar politics and everything around, one thing you can see that that its a big Chilul Hashem and Zalman better pray to god to forgive him on everything he has done to his older brother Aron, especially not letting him in to visit his own father in his late years, and not letting him to attend  his grandchildren weddings."

SATMAR

The school also has no website, and no information about how many children attend it (a question that remained unanswered at the meeting). There is no calendar of events posted or available anywhere, and permits and licenses to operate events and have liquor were not available to be provided to the community. Many residents complained there were parties every night and parking was nonexistent because of so many people driving in for events.

No promises were made on when the permits will be made available, frustrating many neighbors.

Vehicles park on the sidewalks at all times of day, and a neighbor questioned if  using yellow school busses to make deliveries to the school was kosher.

KENSINGTON/BORO PARK – Last Thursday night about 40 residents finally gathered at a meeting with the Clara Street School that they had been asking for for 9 months, hoping to address issues of idling school buses, garbage, noisy generators, and constant evening events at the school.

The clash is the latest in an escalating series of battles between the booming Orthodox community and their neighbors over community institutions that have been springing up at the edges of Boro Park.

The school at the center of the latest fight is the United Talmudical Academy at 123 Clara Street – a religious school for orthodox Jewish boys. It has been in the works since 2002, when it secured a variance to build above 4 stories, but work did not began until 2013, due to funding difficulties, YIMBY reported at the time:

“The five-story structure will feature a synagogue on the first floor, a mix of offices and classrooms on the upper stories, and a play area and ‘multipurpose room’ on the top floor. There will also be a kitchen and dining room in the cellar and roof decks on the fourth and fifth floors. The main part of the building will have five stories, but a sixth, partially setback floor will add extra recreational and roof space.”

The school finally opened last fall, immediately bringing forth a number of issues, that even though they were brought to the attention of Community Board 12 monthly, were never addressed by the school or the board, including failing to meet with the residents for months....

 MUCH MORE:
http://bklyner.com/a-heated-meeting-with-united-talmudical-academy-of-boro-park-about-permits-garbage-busses-parking/?utm_source=BKLYNER+DAILY&utm_campaign=4e7aebfe6e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cefeb1bc9c-4e7aebfe6e-64227457

Please Excuse My Cyber-Pal Dov Fischer As He is Having a Cyber-Fit. Dov - Why is it That You Never Mention Once - קבלת עול מצות "Kabbalat Ol Mitzvas" as The Pre-Dominant Criteria For an Orthodox Conversion!? Not Even Once! WHY? (I SUGGEST YOU LOOK INWARDS AT THE FRAUDSTERS IN YOUR OWN GROUP OF BUDDIES RIGHT HERE IN THE USA & IN YOUR BACKYARD)

The never-ending saga of unrecognized American conversions...

 

Why blame the Israeli Rabbinate for not recognizing American “Conversions” that American Orthodox Rabbis also do not recognize? (Yes Dov, tell us!)

Contact Editor at www.rabbidov.com

Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer

There now seems to have arisen the latest recurring chapter in the never-ending saga of situations where radical-left rabbis in America expect and demand that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate recognize them and their “conversions” as valid Orthodox conversions. 

In the newest tweak, a letter has been produced by which the Rabbinate did not recognize a conversion authenticated by a Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld.  For some in the left-wing media, this is a new cause celebre: Wow!  The Israeli Chief Rabbinate will not recognize conversions by Akiva Herzfeld, who graduated from an “Open Orthodox” seminary!

But this is no news story worth the ink. This is no scandal.  Because few, if any, normative mainstream Orthodox rabbis in the United States would recognize any “conversion” conducted by that rabbi, nor would his written attestations make the slightest difference to us.  If a man walked into my Young Israel shul at a service where there are nine men at the prayers, one short of a minyan (quorun) for reciting Kaddish (a memorial prayer recited for a deceased loved one), and it were my Dad’s soul for whom Kaddish needed to be recited that day, I still would not recite that Kaddish prayer if that tenth man were to tell me that he had been “converted” to Judaism by that rabbi.  Because that still would leave me with nine Jewish men in the room, plus a very sweet guy who is not Jewish.

Time and again these columns have warned the Jewish public and particularly the universe of non-Jews contemplating conversion to Judaism  — in Israel, in America — that the normative mainstream American Orthodox rabbinate, no less than the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, does not recognize the validity of “conversions” conducted by people of certain theological distortions.  It does not matter that some rabbi says “But I am a rabbi!  I have ordination!  Here, look at my certificate!”

Just this past week, a handful of new Reform rabbis were ordained in California.  At their ordination, the keynote speaker not only attacked Jews in general and Israel in particular — and was known to the rabbinical institution for his long and nasty history of attacking Israel — but he even further attacked the Judaic theological primacy of endogamy: that a Jew must marry a Jew.  Instead, he advocated — at a rabbinical ordination program — intermarriage of Jews with non-Jews.


There are American rabbis who hate Judaic rituals like mikvah.  There are American rabbis who are world leaders in convincing non-Jews throughout Europe and on American campuses to boycott Israel, to persuade their universities and companies to divest shares of corporations who do business with Israel, even to sanction Israel.


So when a Reform rabbi comes to Israel and says “I am a rabbi,” that does not automatically mean that Israel should be rolling out the red carpet at the Kotel (Western Wall) and giving Judaism’s holiest site over to her or his theological misdirection. There are American rabbis who hate Judaic rituals like mikvah.  There are American rabbis who are world leaders in convincing non-Jews throughout Europe and on American campuses to boycott Israel, to persuade their universities and companies to divest shares of corporations who do business with Israel, even to sanction Israel. Israel rightly even has refused to allow some of the haters in. A rabbi who advocates for BDS against Israel indeed should be kept out of Israel — just as America, England, Canada, and other countries bar certain noxious public nuisances from entering within their borders.

Chovevei Torah began as a fascinating experiment.  Many thought it would become an Orthodox flagship seminary of “Modern Orthodoxy.”  Then again, a century earlier, many of the earliest founders of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) were Orthodox rabbinic leaders who mistakenly thought JTS would become the Orthodox flagship seminary of “Modern Orthodoxy.”  Somehow, JTS became the seminary of “Conservative Judaism,” and it now ordains people who are so far removed from the founders’ visions that leading faculty of JTS finally resigned.  Today Conservative Judaism is akin to Reform Judaism, and they both are quite of a similar mindset on virtually all the key hot-button theological issues of the day, with only the last vestiges of differences.  And the history of the past century evidences that Conservative Judaism will adopt any radicalization of Jewish theology within twenty-five years or so of Reform first breaking the standards of Judaism.

Likewise, early in its evolution Chovevei Torah’s founder and theological navigator decided to brand its theology as a new denomination: “Open Orthodoxy.”  It was not the Israeli Chief Rabbinate that called YCT “Open Orthodox.”  It was not the Orthodox Union nor the Rabbinical Council of America nor Agudah. It was they who stepped out of normative mainstream Orthodox Judaism and denominated themselves as a new theological breakaway: “Open Orthodoxy.”  And they now ordain rabbis.

Among their rabbis are rabbis who publish in Jewish publications advocacy for intermarriage with non-Jews.  Should the Israel Chief Rabbinate recognize them or their conversions?  I would not.  I do not.  None of us does.  Nor do I live in a vacuum.  I live embedded in American Orthodox rabbinics.  Such a rabbi’s “conversion attestations” have absolutely no meaning to us.

Others among these YCT-ordained “Open Orthodox” rabbis are married to wives who publicly tell newspaper interviewers that they do not believe in G-d.  Does your shul’s rebbetzin believe in G-d?  Would any normative mainstream Orthodox congregation hire a rabbi whose wife publicly parades that she is an atheist and does not believe there is a G-d Who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, Who took the Jews out of Egypt and gave us His Torah laws at Sinai?  How good must her chulent recipe be to get her husband hired at a congregation of such ilk?  Would you want her teaching Judaism to your children?

Chovevei Torah ordains rabbis who marry non-Orthodox cantors and rabbis, and some of them even then go off with them to their temples. Chovevei Torah ordains rabbis who publicly attack the kosher food industry in the pages of non-Jewish American publications, evoking noxious images and toxic language that conjure up the worst memories of the battles to save kosher ritual slaughter from anti-Jewish efforts to ban shechitah (kosher slaughter) in the 1950s.

All because a man or a woman is ordained with a piece of paper to be an “Orthodox rabbi” by an “Open Orthodox” ordination seminary — namely Yeshiva Maharat or Chovevei Torah — that does not mean that her or his “conversions” will mean anything theologically to the vast and overwhelming majority of American Orthodox rabbis.

Yeshiva Maharat is the seminary that ordains “Open Orthodox” women rabbis.  Those “Open Orthodox” rabbinical students take some of their classes together with the Chovevei Torah male rabbinical students.  The two “Open Orthodox” rabbi-ordination schools operate out of the same address. Their graduates join “International Rabbinic Fellowship,” the association of “Open Orthodox” male and female rabbis.

The Orthodox Union will not allow the Maharat graduates into any pulpits, notwithstanding their ordination.  The Rabbinical Council of America does not admit anyone whose defining credential is ordination from Chovevei Torah. The National Council of Young Israel does not recognize Chovevei Torah ordination as acceptably qualifying for a Young Israel pulpit. “Open Orthodoxy” is repugnant to actual Orthodoxy.

None of this has anything to do with the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.

In the case of Akiva Herzfeld, surely he is a nice fellow. So are many other people — Jewish and non-Jewish — and “nice” is not the same as “recognized Orthodox rabbi.” His theology speaks for itself, representative of the very reason that normative mainstream Orthodox rabbis in America do not regard “Open Orthodoxy” as a valid expression of Orthodox Judaism (even if they have arrogated the term “Orthodox” for their own purposes).

Here is an Akiva Herzfeld sample, equating two events: (i) the Maccabees’ fight to liberate the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) in Jerusalem from Greek occupation, and (ii) the political movement to recognize homosexual marriage in the state of Maine:

“While the Greeks looked much stronger, the Jews had a powerful weapon on their side: their hearts. . . . The Jews fought for their religious liberty, and this motivated them despite the odds against them. . . . We light Hanukkah candles each year to remember the ancient miracle. . . . This Hanukkah, I celebrate the past and the present. With my very own eyes, I have seen a great miracle this year right here in Maine. A small group of people, homosexuals and their supporters, stood up for their equal rights in marriage. . . . Vast numbers of people stood against them.

"A few years ago, the gay rights supporters were defeated at the polls in Maine, and the sacred ground of their pure hearts was crushed. They continued to fight because they knew that justice was on their side. This year they overcame the odds, and finally won. My conversations with friends in Maine helped convince me of the rightness of the same-sex marriage cause. I signed a letter in support of ‘Yes on 1’ together with other rabbis in the state, including Rabbi Jared Saks of Congregation Bet Ha'am, the Reform temple in South Portland, and Conservative Rabbi Rachel Isaacs of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville. The truth of their hearts helped me overcome my wall of religious textual evidence that helped justify arguments for the other side. . . .

"This Hanukkah as I light my menorah, I think of our modern battle that was won in Maine for equal rights. We have witnessed a miracle, as a small group of people of faith won victory over strongly entrenched, wrong beliefs. It is a miracle of love. Soon, some people consecrating their love in religious ceremonies of marriage will ask for God's blessing. Our society has already blessed them.”

Very nice. And no mainstream normative American Orthodox rabbi necessarily would recognize any “conversion” attested to by this fellow — and certainly not one in which he was one of the three rabbis on the conversion panel. I certainly would not.  Hundreds of my American Orthodox rabbinical colleagues would not.

So why blame the Israeli rabbinate for not recognizing American “conversions” that American Orthodox rabbis also do not recognize?

The writer is adjunct professor of law at two prominent Southern California law schools, Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Coalition for Jewish Values, congregational rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California, and has held prominent leadership roles in several national rabbinic and other Jewish organizations. He was Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review, clerked for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and served for most of the past decade on the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America. His writings have appeared in The Weekly Standard, National Review, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Jerusalem Post, American Thinker, Frontpage Magazine, and Israel National News.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/22240?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

 

Rabbi Glazerson searched the words “erev rav”, “left” and “Moshiach.” & came up --- ׳צא מ׳ברוקלן קרון ה׳׳טץ הרב הצד׳ק הקדוש ׳ו-א׳- דז׳

 ׳צא מ׳ברוקלן קרון ה׳׳טץ הרב הצד׳ק הקדוש ׳ו-א׳- דז׳

Torah Codes: The Dark Angel of the Left-Wing Battling Messiah

“A wise man’s mind tends toward the right hand, a fool’s toward the left.” Ecclesiastes 10:2 (The Israel Bible™)

Thousands of Israelis attended a march organized by the left-wing “Peace Now” movement in Tel Aviv

According to  Matityahu Glazerson, a Torah Codes buffoon, the political conflict between the left-wing and the right-wing is a mystical war that has Biblical roots.

  According to the rabbi, hidden clues in the Bible indicate that the Left-Wing will be defeated this year as a precursor to the Messiah. 

As in the US, the battle lines in politics are drawn according to religious observance. Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a leading Sephardic Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbi in Israel who is the spiritual head of the Yachad political party, gave a speech last week in his yeshiva (Torah Seminary)  of Kissei Rachamim (Seat of Mercy) in Bnei Brak. In the lesson, the rabbi described the imminent demise of the political left-wing and the corresponding rise of religion.

“Once, it was not considered ‘modern’ to speak about God,” Rabbi Mazuz said. “Now, a lot of water has flowed (a lot has changed), and people speak about God. The Left is going down and nothing of it will remain. Slowly, everyone will be speaking about God, and the crazy leftists will remain outside in their own camp. The tide of the times is to return to faith. People are returning to faith, even someone who does not say so explicitly – he has something in his heart.”

This demise of the left was also discussed by Rabbi Glazerson in a recent video. Rabbi Glazerson agreed with Rabbi Mazuz’s assessment of the future of the left-wing. The rabbi noted that the name of the political movement has mystical connotations.

“It is not by chance that the left-wing is named as they are,” Rabbi Glazerson said to Breaking Israel News. “In Kabbalistic (mystical) terms, the left signifies din (judgment), which is characterized by limitation, or contraction.”

Rabbi Glazerson explained this quality of contraction as it was exhibited by the erev rav (mixed multitude) in the Bible.

Moreover, a mixed multitude went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. Exodus 12:38

“The erev rav were responsible for the sin of the Golden Calf. Rather than worship the God of Israel who has no physical form but fills the world with spirit, they wanted a strictly material god, a smaller god that could be contained. This is din, the left wing in Kabbalah that is contraction and limiting. But with the Golden Calf, they were trying to limit God. This is precisely the materialist philosophy that has taken over the universities.”

ORIGINATED FROM THE BIBLE CODES

“The Zohar (the seminal source for Jewish mysticism) states that in the end of days, the erev rav will be the heads of Israel, ruling over the courts and learning institutions, even over Torah learning,” Rabbi Glazerson said. “Elohim, the name for God that represents judgment, also represents nature. They have taken God out of nature.”

Rabbi Glazerson found clues in the Bible that indicate the demise of the left-wing is imminent as a precursor to Moshiach (Messiah). Using a Torah program that searches for equidistant letter sequences in the Bible, Rabbi Glazerson searched for the words “erev rav”, “left” and “Moshiach.”

The rabbi also searched for “Amalek,” a Biblical nation that has become the archetypal enemy of Israel, since he found an implicit link between all these concepts. Amalek is the grandson of Esau. His descendants formed the nation of Amalek that attacked Israel as they left Egypt. The attack was particularly despicable in that it targeted the weaker members of the people, children and the elderly. 
He found all of the words concentrated in the 25th chapter of Exodus. 

Rabbi Glazerson found the words “ketz smole” (“end of the left”) and “ketz erev rav” (end of the mixed multitude) and “Amalek”. All these phrases were adjacent to the letters tav (ת), shin (ש), ayin (ע), chet (ח). The numeric equivalent of these letters is 5778, the current year according to the Hebrew calendar. 

“This is significant, showing that the left wing is connected to Amalek and the mixed multitude,” Rabbi Glazerson explained. “And this year will mark the beginning of the end of the left-wing as a first stage to Moshiach.”

“King David’s successful war against the Amalekites will be replayed in the end of days as a part of the Messiah from the house of David,” Rabbi Glazerson explained, emphasizing that the code indicated that the process leading to the end of the left-wing would begin this year.

The word smole (left) has a hidden connotation in Hebrew connecting it to ‘Samael’, the main archangel of death. The rabbi explained that in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), the letters sin (ש) and samech (ס) are interchangeable. This exchange of letters makes the word smole (שמאל) (‘left’) identical to the name Samael (סמאל). 

Rabbi Glazerson said that the left-wing combines the forces of Samael with Amalek.

“Samael is the angel of Amalek. The gematria (Hebrew numerology) of Samael, 131, plus the gematria of Amalek, 240, totals 371,” Rabbi Glazerson pointed out. “This precisely equals the gematria of smole (left). The left takes its strength from both Samael and from Amalek.”

“Anything that lessens life in the world is against Torah and against Moshiach as per the contractive nature of the left side of din,” Rabbi Glazerson said. “The left-wing promotes these things, like abortion, homosexuality, and euthanasia. They condemn the IDF in its battle against groups that openly call for death. The left claims they are doing it out of love and caring, but it is really because they draw their essence from the left side.”

“This attachment to lifelessness has to be overcome for the Moshiach to come,” Rabbi Glazerson said. “The Moshiach will bring t’chiyat ha’matim, (resurrection of the dead), a miraculous increase of life.”



https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/108565/rabbis-the-end-of-the-left-wing-signals-the-beginnings-of-messiah/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=64d8bfb44e-BIN_evening_5_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-64d8bfb44e-86887905&mc_cid=64d8bfb44e&mc_eid=5c746532a2

This is a a story that should never repeat itself - one brave girl's tale of how an older staff member in a (frum) religious Jewish summer camp, who was meant to be a role model, took advantage of a broken girl --- Parents, show this to your children before they go to camp!

ENABLE CC (SUBTITLES/CLOSED CAPTIONING) TO READ HER WORDS AS WELL --- BY CLICKING CC on YouTube.

EVIDENCE AS SUBMITTED TO BAIS DIN (JEWISH COURT)
https://drive.google.com/…/13v4SMxbxIgpZY9EK-LSp1BBQ5o…/view


 by Asher Lovy:

I'd recommend that everyone take a few minutes out of their day and watch this video. Even just listen to it if you don't have the time on a busy Friday to watch it through. Gittie Kohn Sheinkopf, currently of Lakewood, abused this young woman, and must be held accountable.

A few things are notable about this story.

In a recorded phone call Gittie seems to be under the impression that Oorah will have her back should the victim ever go public (which she did in this video). It is noteworthy that the abuser assumes that she'd have institutional support against her victim. It speaks to a certain prevalent mentality in our community in which abusers assume they can abuse with impunity because institutions tend to protect abusers, not children entrusted to their care.

Leah, the victim in this video, mentions that she went to beis din to file a claim against her abuser because the statute of limitations on her abuse had already passed. Leah is not an old woman.

 The abuse happened when she was 15 years old, according to the video, around ten years ago. Under current New York State law, victims only have until age 23 to report sexual abuse. After they turn 23, there is no legal recourse whatsoever for an victim against their abuser. There is no legal process by which to identify and expose your abuser, which is why Leah resorted to beis din.

Leah got a hazamana (halachic summons) issued to Gittie through the beis din, and Gittie failed to appear. The beis din issued a seruv against her.

According to the video, Gittie is a social worker (Unlicensed?). It's horrifying to think about the fact that she may be counseling vulnerable children, especially since that gives her a ready pool of victims to abuse.

Take a look at the accompanying evidence to this video:

https://drive.google.com/…/13v4SMxbxIgpZY9EK-LSp1BBQ5o…/view

What jumped out at me from this packet is the clear grooming process. Gittie starts off in the messages being cutesy and friendy, and progresses to sexual innuendo. This is textbook grooming. 

You normalize the presence of a sexual component in an inherently imbalanced relationship (camper, staff) so that when the abuser violently introduces sex into the relationship without consent, sexuality has already been normalized somewhat in the context of that relationship.

Parents need to keep an eye on what's happening with their children at summer camps. If you see this kind of correspondence, even if you think it's innocent, make sure it stops. Make sure contact with that staff member is cut off. Report it to the camp. If you suspect abuse, report it to the authorities. Don't wait, don't ask permission, report it immediately.

Camp staff, if you see this sort of grooming, stop it. If you suspect abuse (yes, even if you just suspect it but don't know for sure) report it first to the authorities. Your first phone call shouldn't be to anyone ONLY the police, or ACS.

https://www.facebook.com/zaakah/posts/1624719967635566

This mom lost custody of her 7 children after leaving her ultra-Orthodox community...

     

The Netflix documentary “One of Us” tells the story of Etty Ausch, who was raised in an ultra-Orthodox community in Brooklyn and guided into a loveless arranged marriage at age 18. She describes how she lost her children because she left the community and what has happened since.


Note from UOJ: I have no idea if she is otherwise competent to raise her children in a stable environment - Nor am I capable of rendering any opinion since I do not know the parties involved, nor the circumstances. Her opinion is that of a mom who loves her children. Obviously, in these circumstances, there are no winners.

...And in the beginning....בְּרֵאשִׁית

An Anonymous Flier (Pashkevil) In Brooklyn
By: Editorial Board  
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

It was doubtless inadvertent, but the author of the flier makes our point. Thus, the flier recites that "this mailing should not have been necessary," inasmuch as the target and his employer were warned in advance that if the individual either resigned or was fired, "th[e] mailing would be stopped." And on the Internet, the author has declared to one and all that he is about to "uncover" others if they do not accede to his demands. 

Plainly, this individual is engaged in an effort to fashion a weapon with which to impose his will on Klal Yisrael.

An anonymously written flier mailed recently to many Jewish homes in Brooklyn, containing lurid accusations of improper conduct against an individual in our community and railing against his employer for not firing him, should be taken as a serious warning of a cancer growing in our midst. The flier not only offers no substantiation of the charges themselves, but also reports uncorroborated – and, it turns out, vigorously denied – comments from the employer, which the flier’s unknown author offers as proof of a cover-up.

The mere circulation of the document has caused some, albeit limited, discussion as to the culpability of both the accused individual and the employer – this despite the lack of any evidence or the possibility of any follow-up with the accuser. But if even one person takes this sort of thing seriously, there is cause for concern. Compounding the problem is that the purveyor of this material seems fully at home with the Internet and has spread it anonymously on that medium as well, guaranteeing that it will be seen by all that many more people, both within and without the Jewish community.

Anonymous accusers effectively destroying their targets’ reputations, even before the truthfulness of the accusations are ascertained, cannot be the way of Klal Yisrael – and indeed has never been. Certainly it accords neither with halacha nor with common sense. It is precisely for this reason that for millennia we have invariably insisted that those making claims against another take the accused to a bet din in order to determine the facts and, if necessary, the halacha.

On another level, it is hardly engaging in hyperbole to suggest that if the notion takes root that an anonymous purveyor of unsubstantiated charges can get peoples’ tongues wagging, then none of us can count ourselves safe. It will enable anyone to exercise devastating power at any time and under any circumstances simply by choosing to do so, for whatever motive.

But it is not the excesses of one individual that are of primary concern. As a general proposition, before we even begin thinking about anyone’s having gone astray, we must have more to go on than mere innuendo and accusation flung about by nameless, faceless sources. It is incumbent upon each of us to resolve to give no credence to unproven charges and to urge their being discredited on a community-wide basis. That’s something that certainly should apply to this particular anonymous accuser.

We would also remind readers that President Bush recently signed into law a statute making it illegal for any person to use the Internet to post anonymous accusations designed to inflict pain and suffering on others. In this instance the anonymous accuser should be aware that if identified, he runs the risk of fine and imprisonment for violation of a federal statute.

Those who are kind to the cruel end up being cruel to the kind...

Israel Needs to Protect Its Borders. By Whatever Means Necessary.

By Shmuel Rosner

Israelis try to slow the progression of fire in a field near the Kibbutz of Mefallesim, caused by incendiaries tied to kites flown by Palestinian protesters from across the border, on Tuesday

 

TEL AVIV — It is customary to adopt an apologetic tone when scores of people have been killed, as they were this week in Gaza. But I will avoid this sanctimonious instinct and declare coldly: Israel had a clear objective when it was shooting, sometimes to kill, well-organized “demonstrators” near the border. Israel was determined to prevent these people — some of whom are believed to have been armed, most apparently encouraged by their radical government — from crossing the fence separating Israel from Gaza. That objective was achieved.

Of course, the death of humans is never a happy occasion. Still, I feel no need to engage in ingénue mourning. Guarding the border was more important than avoiding killing, and guarding the border is what Israel did successfully.

Why so many thousands of Gazans decided to approach that fence, even though they were warned that such acts would be lethal, is beyond comprehension. Excuses and explanations are many: The event was declared a “march of return,” supposedly an attempt by Palestinian refugees to return to their places of origin within Israel; it was tied in many news reports to the opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem; it was explained by referring to undesirable living conditions in Gaza and the lack of prospects for improvement; it was explained as related to intra-Palestinian political conflict and to the need of Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza, to divert the attention from its many failures. All of those things may have some degree of validity, but they don’t explain why people joined these demonstrations.

Obviously, the people of Gaza weren’t seriously thinking that Israel would give them a “right of return” if they only marched in numbers large enough. And they probably realized that United States would not rescind its decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, either. And they knew that for the economic situation to improve something more systematic must take place than protests.

So why did they march, and why were some of them killed?

They marched because they are desperate and frustrated. Because living in Gaza is not much better than living in hell. They marched against Israel because they dislike Israel, and because they cannot march against anyone else. Israel puts Gaza under siege, bombs it occasionally, and is still remembered as an occupying power and as the country whose establishment made many Palestinians consider themselves refugees to this day. They marched to Israel because the alternative to marching against Israel would be to march against Hamas, a regime whose actions and policies make Gaza suffer. But if people had dared do that, their government would no doubt have killed scores of them without much hesitation.

Israel has a soft belly. Unlike all the other regimes in the Middle East, it accepts basic Western values and thus tries to minimize casualties. It also has an impressive military power, so it’s easy to accuse it of “disproportional response.” And of course, it is the country that could lift the siege on Gaza.

Critics of Israel tend to mix two types of complaints about its actions in recent days. Why did Israel shoot, rather than use other means of preventing people from crossing the border? And why does Israel isolate Gaza, making its economic situation so dire and its population so desperate? These criticisms must be answered separately, as one — the shooting — is tactical, and the other, the isolation, is strategic.

First, let’s begin with undisputed facts: The marches were at least partly orchestrated by Hamas. And according to Hamas, most demonstrators killed by Israel were members of the group. This was not a peaceful act of protest. This was a provocation by an organization known to engage in acts of terrorism. Thus, Israel had no choice but to treat it as an attempt not just to violate its territorial integrity but also to attack it.

Israel had to take precautions against its soldiers and citizens being killed or kidnapped. It had to make sure that thousands of Palestinians did not force a total shutdown of southern Israel until all infiltrators were located and detained. Knowing Hamas and its tactics, Israel assumed — for good reason — that letting the marchers cross the fence and detaining them later would have had worse consequences: Hamas operatives masquerading as demonstrators would hurt Israelis.

Of course, the question of Israel’s larger policy toward Gaza remains. But the answer is hardly a secret: Israel pulled out of Gaza more than a decade ago. All it wants from Gaza is peace and quiet. But what it gets from Gaza is different: It is an attempt by Hamas to build a base for violence against Israel. To prevent this, Gaza must be isolated until its leaders are replaced or until they realize that their war against Israel hurts the population they rule more than it hurts Israel. And yes, this means that people in Gaza suffer more than they should — not because of Israel, because of Hamas.

It would be dishonest for me to pretend that the interests of Palestinians are at the top of the list of my priorities. I want what’s good for Israel and I expect my government to have similar priorities. Nevertheless, I believe Israel’s current policy toward Gaza ultimately benefits not only Israel but also the Palestinians.

Of course, it does not benefit the Palestinians who dream about “returning,” or in other words, about eliminating Israel. But it is the only way forward for those who have more realistic expectations. The people of Gaza are miserable. They deserve sympathy and pity. But looking for Israel to remedy their problems will only exacerbate their misery. Expecting Israel to solve their problem will only lead them to delay what they must do for themselves.

There are two reasons for that. First, denying Hamas any achievement is the only way to ultimately persuade the Palestinians to abandon the futile battle for things they cannot get (“return,” control of Jerusalem, the elimination of Israel) and toward policies that will benefit their people. If Hamas is rewarded for organizing violent events, if the pressure on it is reduced because of the demonstrations, the result will be more demonstrations — and therefore more bloodshed, mostly Palestinian. Second, only an Israel that has the ability to feel secure about its borders could engage in any serious talks with the Palestinians. As Ehud Barak, a former prime minister and a critic of Israel’s current government, put it, “Those who believe in having separation from the Palestinians, getting into a peace agreement, having borders — you have to make clear that borders are respected.”

The Jewish sages had a famous, if not necessarily pleasant, saying that went something like this: Those who are kind to the cruel end up being cruel to the kind. As harsh as this sounds amid the scenes from Gaza, as problematic as this seems to good-intentioned people whose instinct is to sympathize with the weaker side in every conflict, sometimes there is no better choice than being clear, than being firm, than drawing a line that cannot be crossed by those wanting to harm you. By fire, if necessary.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/opinion/israel-defend-gaza-border.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

To R' Yankel With Love - A UOJ Love Story :-) --- Secretary DeVos joined a class of high school bachurim for an enlightening, hands-on chemistry lesson in the Yeshiva’s state-of-the-art science laboratory --- The delegation then walked across the campus promenade, passing the Yeshiva’s spacious ballfields and magnificent playgrounds, for a brief visit to a room full of precocious children --- The visitors were also introduced to bachurim with physical disabilities who, in classic Darchei fashion, are integrated within the regular Yeshiva framework... !

U.S. Education Secretary Visits Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Making History

Secretary DeVos discussing poetry with fourth graders in the Willens Literacy Library at Yeshiva Darchei Torah. Standing, L-R: Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Rabbi Moshe Bender, Mr. Ronald Lowinger and Rabbi Yaakov Bender.

FAR ROCKAWAY, NY— Yeshiva Darchei Torah was privileged to welcome the Honorable Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education of the United States, for a tour of its campus on Wednesday morning. Ms. DeVos made history as the first-ever head of the federal Department of Education to visit a yeshiva since the cabinet-level post was established in 1980. Secretary DeVos, a lifelong champion of school choice, was led on a panoramic tour of Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s 9-acre campus that showcased several salient aspects of the Yeshiva’s world-renowned educational experience. Accompanying her were Rabbi Yaakov Bender, rosh hayeshiva; Mr. Ronald Lowinger, president; Rabbi Moshe Bender, associate dean; Rabbi Eli Biegeleisen, director of community engagement; and Rabbis Chaim Dovid Zwiebel and Abba Cohen of Agudath Israel of America. The first stop was a third-grade classroom, where the rebbi was in the midst of a lesson on the shivas haminim. Using props from plastic fruit to freshly baked cookies, the rebbi ensured that the lesson came to life—and Secretary DeVos clearly enjoyed following along. She was shown the room’s SMART Board, one of many throughout the building, as an example of the Yeshiva’s successful integration of technology in the classroom. Further down the hallway, Ms. DeVos entered the Yeshiva’s Willens Literacy Library, where she sat down and joined the fourth grade boys in learning about poetry. The Secretary’s next stop was to one of the crown jewels of Yeshiva Darchei Torah, the Rabenstein Learning Center, where she witnessed some of the 300 students with special-education needs who regularly receive tutoring, therapy and self-contained classroom instruction within the school setting. After stopping in on a sixth grade class that was studying Gemara, the tour moved across the campus to the Weiss Vocational Center, a trailblazing program where a select cadre of Mesivta students spend part of their afternoons learning trades such as carpentry, plumbing, electrical contracting and home wiring—in addition to a core curriculum that includes math, sciences and language arts. The Secretary was shown a fully-functioning bathroom built from top-to-bottom by the students and watched as a talmid soldered an iron pipe. Another talmid presented her with a gift: a skillfully hand-crafted wooden cutting board with an American flag motif.

Yehuda Reisman demonstrates his skills at the Weiss Vocational Center of Yeshiva Darchei Torah. Looking on, L-R: Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Mr. Ronald Lowinger, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Rabbi Eli Biegeleisen, Rabbi Moshe Lubart and Rabbi Yaakov Bender.

At Mesivta Chaim Shlomo, Secretary DeVos joined a class of high school bachurim for an enlightening, hands-on chemistry lesson in the Yeshiva’s state-of-the-art science laboratory. Arriving at the Yeshiva’s 5,000-square-foot bais hamedrash during first seder was visibly an eye-opener for the secretary, as the hall reverberated with the sounds of hundreds of bachurim and yungeleit learning together at wooden shtenders. She approached one pair, who happily explained to her the basics of studying Gemara with Rishonim and Acharonim and the efficacy of chavrusa learning. The visitors were also introduced to bachurim with physical disabilities who, in classic Darchei fashion, are integrated within the regular Yeshiva framework. The delegation then walked across the campus promenade, passing the Yeshiva’s spacious ballfields and magnificent playgrounds, for a brief visit to a room full of precocious children in the Harriet Keilson Early Childhood Center. The tour was followed by a luncheon meeting with a cross-section of Yeshiva Darchei Torah parents, teachers, alumni and board members, who shared their personal reflections with Secretary DeVos. Among the issues discussed were the success of the Darchei educational model, including the dual curriculum of limudei kodesh and limudei chol; the challenge of tuition affordability; and the need to ensure that programs for children with special needs receive their fair share of government funding. Secretary DeVos listened attentively and offered her own perspective on the need for continued advocacy on behalf of school choice, on both the federal and state levels. The Secretary of Education was visibly moved by her visit to Yeshiva Darchei Torah. As she made her way back to the waiting motorcade for her return flight to Washington, she commented that the children were amazing and that she had seen some unique things at Darchei Torah that she had not seen at any other school. * The visit was widely covered in the mainstream press, which tended to focus on the fact that Ms. DeVos visited only religious schools during this swing through New York. Her spokeswoman responded that in New York and across the country, “religious education plays an important role in the education landscape. Every child and family has unique education needs, and for some, that means not having to bifurcate religion from education.” The spokeswoman added that the two-day visit to New York yeshiva institutions “gave the secretary an opportunity to see firsthand how that’s working for Orthodox families.” ###