Let's Change The Subject!

THE UOJ ARCHIVES

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:




All my efforts were for naught. Margulies and Kolko were digging in...and nothing they were being told - meant anything! I had used every ounce of energy attempting to persuade his go-betweens, and there were many, that none of his tactics were going to work. He was either going to bais din immediately, or I was going to take him down! The "Torah" world was warned through an intermediary, nay, many intermediaries.

Torah Umesorah knew! The Agudath Israel knew! The entire Torah Temimah hanhala and the board of directors knew. Sruli Belsky knew! It was no secret, I made certain that they had every opportunity to do right for the many victims, the Torah prescribed dictates of treasuring human life, and for Klal Yisroel! It was time to stand up and admit to a fatally flawed policy by the "gedolim" - that destroyed generations. The whole world knew...but nobody cared!

It was time to beg forgiveness...way past the time - where elaborate yeshiva buildings took precedence to preserving the treasured neshamot entrusted to their care!

But....as I learned over my life...there's nobody home!

They don't give a darn! They laugh at the thought that the children really matter. Of course not, they're just inventory in their warehouses. A number in a bakery line...a meal ticket to riches and real estate holdings.

I agonized...I knew exactly where this was going to wind up. I was already in contact with the media. Jeff Herman was lined up! One last shot...issue the hazmana from a successful attorney that specializes in clergy sex-abuse cases. All - Kleinman, Applegrad and Weinberger, yes George, had to do - was google Jeff Herman. See what he's done and undone! Please be afraid - please!

They did not care...at that point neither did I. I retained TWO respected toenim to represent the victims in bais din on March 16...one week before the hazmana was sent and faxed, just in case I was wrong! I hoped I was wrong! The victims deserved the best representation money could buy. They deserved no less, finally! The Heavens finally broke down and cried with the victims! But not the gedolim...they were at dinners! They were busy....who cared what some crazy was doing on the Internet. We'll hold asifas and ban him!

I shot the first bullet....they went scrambling to various people but not to bais din. Belsky said NO! I sent more messages....nothing! I fired off the second hazmana from an attorney that specializes in clergy sex-abuse cases...not a dumb putz rabbi that they could get Belsky or Epstein to threaten! A real lawyer with experience in this area! Collected millions for victims! Please be afraid - please!

I fired the third hazmana....nothing, they gave Jeff Herman the finger.

I was ready...Jeff was ready...Robert Kolker (New York Magazine) was ready....Margulies had one more chance. Fire Kolko pending a full competent investigation and real din Torah! No dice...he was putting Kolko on temporary leave,.... maybe!

As they say, the rest is in the history books!

So the Agudath Israel and their pathetic group of bozos...all of them knew; but did they? Did they know that they would be dragged through the filth they created - forever and forever? Did they really know the damage that would last forever...and did they care? Of course not, the bloggers are nasty people! Horrors! Lashon hara! Mesirah! Let's change the subject - ban the Internet! We'll get "Tzvi Frankel" to bash the bloggers...all of them!

I will never let you change the subject - NEVER! Do you hear me now? Do you?

To all of you "gedolim" I say...I'm far from done with you criminals. I'm just getting warmed up!

Brooklyn, New York or Lakewood, New Jersey?

 

Janczewskis’ garage burns down

State Police rules fire as arson

OGEMAW COUNTY — A garage fire at John and Lori Janczewski’s house on Grandjean Road near Rose City destroyed the couple’s garage and melted the siding on their home early Saturday morning.
 

Lt. Melvin Matthews, post commander for the Michigan State Police Post in West Branch, said the fire is being ruled as arson. He said evidence gathered at the scene is being analyzed by the MSP crime lab, and new leads gathered since the incident occurred are being investigated.
 

The Janczewskis believe it was someone responding to their outspokenness against several West Branch-Rose City teachers and a board member, who they said publicly supported Neal Erickson, a former WB-RC teacher who recently pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct against the Janczewski’s son.
 

Related stories: Victim's parents speaking out against WB-RC teachers, board member, Erickson sentenced to 15-30 years in prison

John Janczewski told the Herald Saturday that he woke Saturday morning at around 1:30 a.m. to a loud bang
 

“I woke up to a loud, like M-80 or bomb going off,” he said. “I went to the window and saw a huge glow, brighter than the sun.”
 

The glow was their garage burning. He said he and his wife went outside to try and move their cars, and that’s when they noticed “YWP ITY” spray-painted on their house. John Janczewski said they’re not sure what the letters mean.
 

“We think it means ‘I told you,’ or something like that,” he said. “That’s really all we know.”

John Janczewski said he believes the fire was intentional.
 

“The police investigators are looking into it, but with the writing on my house, I would think so,” he said. “From what I can tell, but until the investigation is done, you don’t know. But it’s kind of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
 

According to the Michigan State Police, there is a reward of up to $5,000 being offered for information leading to an arrest in the fire. Anyone with information is asked to call Ogemaw County Central Dispatch at 989-345-9911, or the MSP West Branch Post at 989-345-0955.
 

John Janczewski said he doesn’t understand why someone would do something like this to his family.
 

“We don’t deserve this,” he said in tears. “We’re not a bad family. We’ve done nothing but stand up for our son, the victim. They could have killed my whole family. Whoever’s done this has no remorse. They have no soul.”
 

John Janczewski said he and his wife do not plan to stop. They are currently circulating petitions for the recall of WB-RC board member Mike Eagan.
 

“Whoever’s done this, we’re not going to quit,” he said. “We’re not giving up. We’re going to continue to fight, until the end.”
 

The Herald will continue to report on this story as more information becomes available.

 

http://ogemawherald.com/stories/Janczewskis-garage-burns-down,97553

 

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Falsus in Uno, Falsus in Omnibus - False in one, False in All.

CLICK ON ABOVE IMAGES TO ENLARGE:

You may consider this as my magnum opus indictment on Bais Din! All Batei Din! - (in the plural)

 Three is a chazaka, and according to the Talmud, one may make assumptions on a particular mazik or predator based on three separate independent incidents of intentional damage. We know the example the Talmud uses for the "ox that gores." He loses his status as a Tam, or accidental/happenstance predator, and becomes a shor ha'Muad on the third goring.  One must assume that an ox that gores three times is a danger to society, and the owner is put on notice that he is fully responsible for all the damages caused by his ox, not merely chatzi nezek, or partial damages.

So if I were to bring a suit against "Bais Din", on behalf of Klal Yisroel, I have my three undisputed cases of intentional harm inflicted on the Nation of Israel, by three independent incidents of intentional abuse of the bais din system, by three independent batei din - recognized  perhaps by many Jews as reputable batei din, but not by me. Truth be shared, I have scores of cases of bais din abuse in my files, accumulated over the years.

The first one is well known; the case of Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, acting on behalf of the bais din he heads, issuing a subpoena or a hazmana to Eli Greenwald, to appear before him and his tribunal; the charges alleged were "defamation of character" or motzei shem ra for attempting to call a parent meeting at Yeshiva Torah Temima regarding the then allegations leveled against Rabbi Yehuda Kolko for child molestation.

CLICK ON LINK:
http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2006/08/fraud-that-is-yisroel-belsky.html

One does not have to be a nuclear scientist to come to the conclusion, that Belsky was using bais din, the present day replacement of the Sanhedrin, as a personal tool to scare Greenwald off. Belsky had known for years that Kolko was a danger to children, he was called before the "Scheinberg" bais din decades earlier and heard testimony leveled at Kolko from none other than his good friend Rabbi Shmuel Dishon of Yeshiva Karlin Stolin, who tossed Kolko out of Stolin for these very allegations of child rape.

In addition, the Talmudic adage of "kolo d'lo pasuk", or the stories never cease,...applied to allegations against Kolko for pedophilia since he was a teenager in Camp Agudah, the camping arm of the Agudath Israel of America, that Belsky heads.

To add additional salt to our collective wound, Belsky came to "rescue" Kolko's nephew of Lakewood, who was accused of child rape, claiming loudly that no one could go to the police in Yossi Kolko's case lest they be excommunicated from the Jewish community. The child that was molested and came forward to file a police complaint, was a child of a rabbinic family who would have none of Belsky's supposed halacha, or rulings. The father lost his job at Beth Medrash Govoha, and the innocent victimized child was not permitted to attend any yeshiva in New Jersey. Literally, the rabbinic hangmen posse, rode these innocent souls out of Dodge.

It is clear now to the masses, finally, after pouring my heart out to anyone who would listen, that the plague of child rape, is not only a disease of society at large, but embedded deep into the inner school system of yeshivas and girls'schools, and the clergy leadership of the Jews. Belsky, to me, is the driver of Kolko's getaway car, after Kolko bombed a yeshiva to smithereens and killed hundreds of its innocent kids. What we are dealing here is with dinei n'fashot, one must sacrifice themselves rather than directly be involved, or be an accessory to murder.  Belsky, at the very least, is an accessory to murder of God knows how many innocent children!...And he is the head of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, with hundreds of vulnerable children under his spell.

The second case is just as glaring in its own right, throwing Yahadus to the dogs, up for bid for either personal sexual pleasure or other reasons that have nothing to do with the meritocracy of becoming a converted Jew; and aiding in the destruction where Leib Tropper left off, converting undeserving gentiles to Judaism for personal benefit.

 The rabbinic head of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Hershel Schechter,  under the auspices of the RCA, the Rabbinical Council of America, "converted" Ivanka Trump to "Orthodox Judaism", knowing full well that she was living with her boyfriend Jared Kushner during the two year Process, who observes NOTHING! Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's well known psak regarding these conversions, is posted on the UOJ sidebar as well for anyone that cares.

A Trump Family Christmas - December 2011

CLICK ON LINKS:

Mandatory reporting is essential to any meaningful response to the scandal, and it deserves legislative approval.

 

Lessons From the Sandusky Case

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

As the scandal unfolded that sent Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach, to prison last year for raping and molesting 10 boys, it became clear that Pennsylvania’s child abuse laws were among the weakest in the nation. The main law was too narrowly defined, requiring “severe pain,” disfigurement or “serious” impairment of a major bodily function for an act to be deemed child abuse. The loopholes this allowed were reflected in the state’s low ranking in substantiated cases of child abuse of all kinds — a rate of 1.2 per 1,000 children versus the national average of 9.1 in 2011, according to Protect Our Children Committee, a state advocacy group.

Children should be far better protected under a raft of reform bills that the State Legislature has begun enacting with Gov. Tom Corbett’s support, including a child abuse definition in line with other states. It defines abuse as bodily injury of any kind, including sexual assault, and lists assorted acts — kicking, biting, burning, forcefully shaking infants — often deemed beyond the law. Other changes broaden the definition of who can be held responsible in abuse cases and require greater coordination among government agencies in investigating complaints.       

As noteworthy as these reforms are for the general abuse problem, an important element in the Penn State scandal — the cover-up orchestrated by university administrators of early complaints about Mr. Sandusky’s predatory behavior — will not be fully addressed until the Legislature returns next year. The former university president and two administrators are currently on trial for allegedly lying to authorities to evade responsibility.       
 

A pending bill would mandate the prompt reporting of suspected abuse to government officials. The measure is meant to prevent the kind of in-house secrecy that compounded the Sandusky crimes. Mandatory reporting is essential to any meaningful response to the scandal, and it deserves legislative approval.

      

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/opinion/lessons-from-the-sandusky-case.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131219&tntemail0=y

Helbrans had founded a yeshiva in Monsey, New York, after serving a two-year prison term in the US for a 1994 kidnapping

 

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Child abuse allegations are lies, ‘Taliban-style’ Hasidic sect insists

In a Times of Israel interview, Nachman Helbrans sets out the philosophy of his extremist ultra-Orthodox group, which is under investigation in Canada

By Hannah Katsman and Times of Israel staff December 18, 2013, 6:12 pm 3

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• Lev Tahor
• cults
• child abuse

‘I can’t say that a parent has never hit a child on an arm or a leg, if a child got into a dangerous situation like playing with fire. But the accusations of abuse are complete lies,” Nachman Helbrans, son of Lev Tahor’s leader Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, told The Times of Israel in a telephone interview this week.

 

The Lev Tahor group sprang to global media attention in mid-November when it undertook a mass flight from Quebec to Ontario.

Currently under investigation by Quebec and Ontario child services, the group denies all charges of child abuse and insists the move from Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, in northern Quebec, to Chatham-Kent, Ontario, close to the US border, is due to differences in educational policies in the two province“We teach through love, not fear. Whereas other Haredi and Hasidic groups make new rulings and focus only on the minutiae of Jewish law, we take time to explain to our children the value of performing every mitzvah (commandment), what a privilege it is, how those who don’t observe commandments are to be pitied, how we are part of being the chosen nation. Of course we are also stricter than other Haredim about the minutiae of Jewish law.”

The founder of the sect, Israeli-born Shlomo Helbrans, was given refugee status in Canada in 2003 after claiming that as an anti-Zionist his life was in danger in Israel. Previously Helbrans had founded a yeshiva in Monsey, New York, after serving a two-year prison term in the US for a 1994 kidnapping. The sect moved to Quebec where the group swelled to some 45 families.

 

The group is accused by its opposition of numerous crimes, including child abuse, child marriage, and removing children from their families as punishment.

 

“The Quebec social services found very minor things, like a single dirty mattress. They did not find any evidence of abuse, none. They found a few minor issues and we are cooperating fully to fix them. The only reason we left was because of education,” Helbrans said.

 

The timing for the hasty flight, days before the child welfare hearing where a Quebec judge ordered the removal of 14 children to foster care, has generated speculation the sect was aware of the impending judgment. The group has since defied the foster care order and a hearing is set for December 23 to decide jurisdiction now that the children are in Ontario.

 

Two additional children, whose identities are protected by the Canadian Child and Welfare Services Act, were removed earlier this week, though quickly reunited with their families under terms that include mental health treatment for the parents, reports the Toronto Star.

 

“In Quebec, the social services can intervene to remove the children when they do not learn the required curriculum. But in Ontario, the social services have no jurisdiction over educational decisions,” said Helbrans. “We won’t teach evolution, which is against the Torah that states that God created the world. We are willing to increase the amount of secular education, and have ordered math books from Toronto to be translated into Yiddish.”

 

The sect is noted for its “Taliban-style” dress for its women and children. Helbrans said all of their religious practices, including their dress in which girls cover their hair and necks from a young age, are based on ancient Jewish tradition.

 

“Up until 250 years ago, Jewish communities dressed similarly around the world, including in Muslim countries,” said Helbrans.
 

In response to allegations of underage marriage, Helbrans said, “No children were married before the age of 16, in a private or public ceremony,” but in individual cases, parents from the group might have gone to Missouri, where marriage can be registered at age 15.

 

Against claims of malnourishment, Helbrans said the group is against genetically modified foods. “We don’t eat chicken or chicken eggs, as they are the result of genetic modification. We don’t consider it kosher, since the chicken’s genes could be mixed up with those of other animals. The rabbis didn’t discuss genetic modification in the Talmud.

 

“The children eat salad, beef, soup, some have beef every day.”

 

Helbrans insists that the case against Lev Tahor is pure anti-Semitism.

 

“The court attacked Jewish religious beliefs. It’s as bad as Communist Russia,” said Helbrans.

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/child-abuse-allegations-are-lies-taliban-style-hasidic-sect-insists/

               

Tragically, our schools have placed the avoidance of scandal and the "good name" of a teacher over the protection of children.

Gedolim at Work

                                                                                                                             

Sex abuse by teachers: Abusers, abettors deserve public wrath

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By Special to The Oregonian The Oregonian  

By KELLY CLARK and PAUL MONES

The Oregonian series on sexual abuse in the public schools is as important a piece of journalism as the landmark 2002 Boston Globe series on the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Those school districts, administrators, teachers and teacher union representatives --who The Oregonian exposed as turning a blind eye to the pain, suffering and exploitation of children and teens --are every bit deserved of the public's wrath as the bishops and priests who condoned and conspired to cover up the sexual abuse of children by priests.

 The power exercised by the teachers union in protecting its own is what dioceses have historically done with respect to predatory priests.

The response of our schools to sexual abuse sounds eerily familiar: confidential settlements, clandestine financial deals and abusive teachers moving from district to district. The actions of the schools are perhaps more egregious because state law requires that parents send their children to school and imposes on schools the legal obligation to protect the health, safety and welfare of children delivered into their care. That's why the law mandates that teachers and administrators report suspicions of child abuse to appropriate authorities. Tragically, our schools have placed the avoidance of scandal and the good name of a teacher over the protection of children.

Though individual teachers and principals who ignore the complaints and obvious signs of abuse are to blame for this sordid situation, real responsibility also lies with the state Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, which is operating under remarkably naive and myopic rules and regulations.

The commission that hears the complaints of abuse should not be in the business of giving second chances to teachers who admit to sex-related offenses with children. Teachers who engage in any sexually predatory behavior with children should not have contact with children. It is a no-brainer. The research is clear: Except in the most rare and unusual circumstances, adults who are attracted to, or sexually aroused by minors, do not typically change their behavior.

The commission can't even keep up with hearing the complaints. To give it the added responsibility of rehabilitating even so-called "good educators" is foolhardy. As attorneys who have spent our careers protecting children, we abhor the executive director's cavalier pronouncement that the commission makes discipline decisions based upon "gut feelings."

The message from our public educational establishment is clear: When it comes to the matter of sexual abuse, the first priority is not the children but the teachers.

We heartily support The Oregonian's recommendations for reforming this abysmal situation; however there are two efforts that can be undertaken right now. First, there must be stringent enforcement of the mandatory reporting laws, which require teachers and school officials to report suspicions of abuse. There is no doubt that fellow teachers, administrators and school districts that ignore such complaints or agree to silent deals to allow predatory teachers to go quietly away are endangering children. Those who do not report their suspicions of abuse to lawful civilian authorities should be prosecuted. The other method that has proven especially effective for the Catholic Church is civil litigation. If there is one thing cash-strapped school districts can ill-afford, it is paying money damages for grossly negligent and reckless behavior.

-- Kelly Clark is a Portland trial and appellate attorney who has represented plaintiffs in litigation against the Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, the Boy Scouts, public schools, and other "institutions of trust." He is a former Oregon legislator.

-- Paul Mones is an attorney specializing in the children's rights.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/12/sex_abuse_by_teachers_abusers.html

This Is What Its Come Down To!

PURIM FEVER - THE UOJ ARCHIVES



18 Av 5767 - August 2007..in the goyishe calender..feh... | Mordecai Plut - drektor-

Published Weakly Without Spellcheck

Shame Yisrael Toirah Nutworks

Z'NEWS BULLETIN

Psak Halochoh

ISSUED WITH MESIRAS NEFESH FROM UNDER OUR BEDS IN THE REB MEIER AL Z. HEIMERS MOSHAV ZEKANIM

BS"D, Av 5767

We were appalled and trembling to hear of the terrible breach in our camp in the form of concerts featuring singers and chazanim who sing before men and women in mixed company Rachmono litzlan and even with separate seating, mamash.

Previous gedolei Yisroel totally banned these events - even though there were none, but in their infinite wisdom they knew that there will be many - even where there is separate seating (they can't fool us - we know they sit together in the car). As such we hereby state our combined ignorant and idiot opinion, which is based on irrefutable daas Torah.

A. Attending these performances is totally prohibited, because we say so -- even though we forgot to take our pills for two years at least - could be more - we just don't remember.

B. The prohibition applies to the organizers and the audience, young and old, middle-aged, senile, people in wheelchairs, people who use cains and walkers, the hearing impaired, fagelech, men, women, children, shul candy-men and rebbeim-- regardless of their sexual preferences.


All the more so on the singers and chazanim, who are inducing the masses to sin, mamash - Rachmana litzlan.

C. Newspapers and advertising circulars should not help by advertising these forbidden events, the transgressors call performances. Even the Jewish Press should restrain itself, if at all possible.

D. The singers and chazanim who appear before a mixed audience may not be invited to sing at any wedding or divorce, chap-a-nosh at the smorgasboard, mooch a free meal, take home the flowers, switch to a newer Borsalino at the coat-check room, steal a bencher, or take home a stranger's wife; nor can any event at which they participate be advertised, including tefillos and so-called kosher events, unsupervised fress Pesach events; in order to avoid lending a hand to these transgressors who we consider to be rishaim gemurim, like nothing ever before in klal Yisroel, ever, ever, aver, erva.

May Hashem Yisborach, in His great mercy and kindness, bring them to do teshuvah before Him - and us - by supporting Kupat H'air, and may we merit the eternal Redemption (not the phony Chabad kind), immediately - before the Kolko trial - azuz yimolei sechok peanuts...., vayihee b'yemai Achasvarush....

Signing for the sake of the sanctity, holiness and purity of our people, with trembling hands, spittle dripping out of our mouths, and with soiled diapers....

Yehuda Kolko

Lipa Margulies

Ephraim Shapiro

Shea Fishman

Moshe Eisemann

Matis Weinberg

Shalom Tendler

Mordecai Tendler

Aron Tendler

Sheftel Neuberger

Grepsel Hamburger

Avrohom Mondrowitz

Ephraim Bryks

Aron Twerski

Avi Shafran

Marvin Shick

Avrohom Leizerowitz

Heshy Nussbaum

Shlomo Mandel

Yehuda Nussbaum

Simcha Kaufman

Shmuel Kaminetzky

Yaakov Perlow

Yosef Sholom Eliashiv

Gershon Tannenbaum

Moshe Heinemann

Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman

Yaakov Aryeh Alter Chaya

Yissochor Dov Petzel A. Kleiner

Pinchos Nisht-Arein Gegangen

Hertz Frankel

Yitzchak Kaduri

Shmuel Halevi Wosner

Yisroel Hazmana Belsky

Mendel Haganiv Epstein

Moshe Hachazir Finkel

Dovid Ha'truckdriver Cohen

Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz

Moshe Chaim Kurva Ben Gil Arayus

Leibish Flynt

Chaim H. Hefner

Lipa Geldwerth

David(Ben Shmuel)Berkowitz

Lipa Brenner

Baruch Lanner

Chaim Pinchos Sheinberg

Bernard(Berish)Law

C. Yonah Mahoney

Tuvyah Ted Bundy

Tzvi Elimelech Zona

Nissim Karelitz

Dovid Twersky

Shmuel Auerbach

Sholom Klass

Yitzchok Sheiner

Marvin Hier

Israel Singer

Philip Berg

Moshe Sherer

Shabbsai Tzvi

The Rabbis of Baltimore & Ner Israel Rabbinical College agree with above clowns


MEGILLAS SHTUYOT FROM MONSEY CRACKPOTS!


UOJ EXCLUSIVE - THE VIDEO THAT LEIB TROPPER SENT TO THE RABBIS OF MONSEY:

Not only were there no secular subjects taught, but all secular books were banned and confiscated if found!

The folly of fanatical religious education in Canada (and the U.S.A.)

Alex Holtzman, National Post | 11/12/13 11:34 AM ET
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I have been reading the recent articles about the Lev Tahor and Judaism in a few newspapers, and I can’t help but feel a little neglected by our reporters and politicians here is Ontario. The articles discuss child abuse and lack of a proper education for religious children, but never seem to mention that these problems have been going on for a long time. I am a classic example:

When my parents came from Russia, I was six years old. They met a rabbi who convinced them to send me to his Jewish school, where I learned Jewish and secular subjects. As I went through elementary, I was eventually sent to a school that taught only Jewish subjects, where secular subjects, like math, were optional and only lasted for two hours a day. I remember one year there were three students in the secular program from two classes combined.

For high school I planned to go to a Jewish high school that had many former students attending college and university, something my parents saw as extremely important. The rabbi at our synagogue told us that the Jews running that school weren’t from our sect and that it was a bad school for a Lubavitch boy (that’s the sect we belonged to), so I went to a different type of “Jewish high school”.

Related

• Jonathan Kay: Judaism’s fundamentalism problem
• Controversial sect dismisses child neglect allegations as ultra-orthodox Jews settle into new homes in Ontario

There, we studied only Jewish subjects from 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m. for five days a week for five years. We lived in houses that the school owned in the neighbourhood. Not only were there no secular subjects taught, but all secular books were banned and confiscated if found (I’ve always enjoyed reading so I would carefully hide my books). The lack of basic knowledge was so bad I clearly remember one of my 18-year-old classmates asking me how to spell the word “until”. I should also mention that the children whose parents were rabbis or had other religion-related jobs either didn’t pay tuition or paid very little. The families with “real jobs” paid the difference, which exceeded $80,000 for my parents over five years.

The reason my parents kept me at that school was because the administrator and our rabbi told us the school could give my high school credits for my application to post-secondary school. We believed them because we didn’t think a man of God would lie. We asked them every year and every year they said yes. When I graduated I was told that if I wanted to collect my credits, I could call  and ask for the papers. A couple of years later I wanted to try my luck at becoming a police officer, which requires a high school diploma or equivalent. I called  for my credits and was told there were never any government approved credits, just a paper signed by the rabbi. When I asked they’d claimed otherwise, they said, “You never asked for high school credits. You just said ‘credits’ and we call this paper ‘credits.’”

That incident actually kick started my transition out of religion and I am currently working part-time while attending a college culinary program.

The reason I am telling you all this is because we shouldn’t feel like we’re being “invaded” by child-abusing, anti-secular-education fanatics just because the Lev Tahor arrived. These types of fanatics have been here for decades, with few efforts made to halt them. This issue has to be dealt with, especially since many immigrants are being brainwashed into believing the same thing my parents were told, because they’re vulnerable and are just looking for a friend in a new place.

I am hoping that, in my lifetime, I will see the Canadian government start regulating education and making official standards for all children, regardless of race, religion, gender, or background.

 

 

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/12/11/alex-holtzman-the-folly-of-fanatical-religious-education-in-canada/

ATTN: GENIUS RABBIS - AT WHAT AGUDAH CONVENTION WILL YOU ADDRESS ISSUES OF RELEVANCE? NEVER - YOU ARE CLUELESS!

           

    

    

      

Observance

My Wig Was Beautiful and Expensive, and Everybody Loved It—Except Me

 

When I got married, my sheitel was a symbol of my vows and my Orthodoxy. Then it became a symbol of my discontent.

By Tova Ross|December 10, 2013 12:00 AM|Comments: 13

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(Shutterstock)

Searching for the Perfect Wig

Other Orthodox women cover their hair with beautiful sheitels. Why does mine make me look like Marge Simpson?

By Carol Ungar
       

My Fashion Choices—and My Husband’s—Reveal the Risks of Looking Hasidic

How people treat us in public often depends on what we’re wearing on our heads, whether it’s my wig or his yarmulke

By Chaya Rivka Zwolinski
        

Pants, Pants Revolution: How My First Pair of Jeans Redefined Modesty for Me

When I bought my first pair of jeans recently, I redefined what modesty means to me as an Orthodox woman

         

By Simi Lampert
        

The first time I went outside as a married woman without my hair covered was by accident.

I had just had a big fight with my new husband, and in a huff I stormed out of our apartment to the bewilderingly quiet street in the Westchester hamlet where we were living. I was halfway up the block before I realized that I had forgotten to put something on my head, and I paused as I debated whether I should go back for a hat. But I thought better of it: Lightning had not struck; I had not burst into flames for my transgression. In the grand scheme of things—my growing uncertainty about my religious observance, my misery in my isolation in Westchester County—making sure my hair was covered had suddenly become a concern that barely registered for me. I kept walking.

It was after that incident that I had to admit, after months of discomfort and growing antipathy to religiosity, that I truly didn’t believe it was an external accessory like a wig, or skirts instead of pants, that made someone a good Jew. Being a good person made someone a good Jew. Finding meaningful ways to live in the spirit of the central virtues of Judaism made someone a good Jew, and I genuinely believed that there are many different ways to put those virtues, of which modesty is one, into practice. Wearing a wig might work for another woman to embody that value, but, I finally realized, it wasn’t working for me.
***
I started covering my hair when I got married five years years ago, at age 22. Despite growing up Orthodox in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and spending eight years at a strict, Bais Yaakov-like yeshiva, I was resistant to the idea of donning a wig or other head covering after my wedding, as my mother had done with enthusiasm decades earlier. I felt restricted enough by Orthodox rules already without adding to the dogma. But covering my hair seemed really important to other people, including my parents—and my fiancé, a ba’al teshuva. Rather than risk disappointing them over what ultimately seemed like a superficial issue, I chose to just go along with it. It was easier not to think of any deeper meaning behind my doubts.

In a dank, Flatbush basement operation run by a busy and irreverently funny sheitel macher—think the snarky best friend from every romantic comedy of the last decade—I tried on wigs of varying shades and lengths, my mother in the corner beaming with pride and just itching to open her wallet. The final product was a custom-made, $1,200 masterpiece of long silky layers dyed a deep, rich chocolate color. As I stared at myself in the mirror, enamored by my sudden sophistication, I thought, “This isn’t so bad. I could totally do this.” It was an undeniably sexy wig, and it cried out for a sexy moniker.

I called her Esmeralda.

But no matter how expensive and beautiful Esmeralda was, I quickly found her wanting. Wearing a wig for longer than 10 minutes was uncomfortable. I constantly felt like it was incorrectly tethered to my scalp, which unnerved me and had me anxiously adjusting the combs every five minutes for fear that she had surreptitiously slipped halfway off my head. Esmeralda and I simply didn’t take to each other, and a few weeks later, I switched to fabric mitpachot and bandanas, only bringing her out for Shabbos and special occasions.

I soon grew to despise those other head coverings as well. I had always liked my own thick, straight hair that inspired envy in friends with frizzier mops, who’d run for cover at the first sign of rain or humidity while I moseyed along, knowing my own hair would stay unaffected. Now I resented covering it up each day. The bandanas made me feel frumpy, and it was annoying having to find something that vaguely matched my outfit each day.

I know, I know: first-world problems. But being miffed by the mundane often cloaks an antagonism that is more deep-rooted and is frequently the stuff on which our lives turn in both trivial and more significant ways. And as I continued wearily rifling through my growing collection of hair coverings each day, I grew to begrudge what I had been taught about the deeper reasoning behind the rule. Talmudically, hair is defined as ervah, or “sexually erotic,” but this seems almost laughably out-of-date and removed from modern norms, where pop stars regularly writhe around on stage in their underwear. I sincerely doubted that my hair, lovely as it is, would drive any man wild to the point of intoxication. Also, I had learned, wearing a wig would modestly communicate to other men that I was not available. This had chafed my feminist tendencies when I learned about it (why was it my job to advertise anything to these men?) but much more so when I was actually practicing it. Besides, couldn’t my married state be easily inferred from my wedding ring?

There were other reasons for my discontent. I had grown jaded watching the hordes of women in Flatbush in skin-tight skirts and $500 stilettos who told me they were capturing the essence of modesty as God prescribed it, because they also wore sheitels. I was weary of the Jews obsessed with one-upping their neighbors with chumras (prohibitions) like forbidding “treif” stuffed animals in their home or shunning sushi for its popularity in secular culture. Are those Jews really trying to live a meaningful Jewish life, I wondered, or are they just caught in a byzantine web of misguided chumras and loopholes that distort the original intent and meaning behind the laws?

I had looked forward to living in a largely non-Jewish town in Westchester, away from prying eyes and the keeping-up-with-the-Goldbergs rat race that existed in Brooklyn. I discovered, though, that despite the relaxed atmosphere at the small Chabad that I attended—it was the only Orthodox shul nearby, although ironically, it served mostly unaffiliated and non-observant Jews—my discomfort remained. I was one of only three observant women and the only one “frum from birth” aside from the rabbi’s wife, and this instantly made me a spectacle. Though they had no malicious intent, people stared at me when I wore the wig—so much for modesty—and when I prayed, standing and bowing by rote at the appropriate points in prayer. “Look,” they whispered, nudging their friends, “she really knows what she’s doing.”

Esmeralda served to make me a paragon of Orthodoxy to these less-observant people, and it was a status I had neither expected nor asked for. If my skirt rested even slightly above my knees, they would adopt mock outrage as they tsk-tsked and waved a finger at me. I was repeatedly approached to ask if I knew where to buy kosher food, or how to affix a mezuzah, or if their son-in-law’s Reform conversion meant he wasn’t really Jewish, after all. What I thought was my escape from preconceived expectations and whispering yentas turned out to be life under a different microscope, and it was just as suffocating....

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Tova Ross is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Huffington Post, and she is also a contributing blogger to Kveller.com. She lives in New Jersey with her family. Follow her on Twitter @tovamos