"After I read this I was blown away, married children suing their parents for support? What have we come to? What has the kollel system wrought?"

The Mishpacha magazine in Hebrew this past week ran an article about the hidden cause of Charedi poverty. The article detailed how parents are going into debt and collapsing in order to support their married children. Because I think this article is so important and powerful I am going to quote highlights from it. I will sprinkle in my commentary, but truthfully, the article really speaks for itself.

  הוא הבטיח לי סידור מלא, התובע גאה ונחוש עמד מול הרכב בית דין. אשתו לצידו כרעייה נאמנה מוכנה להעיד. אבא שלה הבטיח דירה בירושלים ובסוף נתן דירה בפרוייקט
...
כך היה המעשה: אב ירושלמי הוזמן להגיע לבית הדין כנתבע על יד חתנו ובתו. הזוג הצעיר דרש את כל מה שמגיע להם לדעתם תחת הכותרת סידור מלא
...
הסיפור הזה מפורסם ...אבל הדיינים בבית הדין מכירים סיפורים כאלו שזורמים אל שולחנם על בסיס קבוע. גם אליהם מגיעים להתדיין בנים נשואים שתבעו את הוריהם

He promised me a complete arrangement the plaintiff proud and determined stood in front of the Beit Din his wife at his side as a loyal wife ready to testify. Her father promised an apartment in Jerusalem and in the end bought them an apartment in the periphery. 
...
This is the story: A Yerushalmi father was taken to Beis Din as a defendant by his son in law and daughter. The young couple was demanding everything that was coming to to them under a "full arrangement". This story is famous ... but the judges of the Beis Din see stories like this that come to their desks on a regular basis. Also to them come the cases of married children suing their parents

After I read this I was blown away, married children suing their parents for support? What have we come to? What has the kollel system wrought?

Not everyone takes their parent to Beis Din, some simply come to their parents and take stuff.

להרבה זוגות נשואים יש שוק קטן ופרטי שמכיל הכל: המטבח של אבא ואמא. כמה פשוט קופצים לשבת או לערב, פותחים ארונות נזכרים ששכחו לקנות פסטה או שמן. לוקחים
...
לפעמים ההורים מזמינים משלוח של קפואים הרבה מגשי עופות והודו, שיספיקו עד ט"ו בשבט. ככה לפחות הם חשבו. אבל הילד שלהם, אבא לשלוש בעצמו רואה שיש להם בפרוזר המון עופות ולוקח כמה מגשי פולקוס. מי ירגיש שהיו כאן עשרה מגשים ועכשיו יש רק שבעה?
...
סיפרה על יהודי מכובד מאשדוד שבכל פעם לפני שנשואיו היקרים מגיעים, הוא עורם קופסאות שימורים ומעביר אותן לארון העליונה ... מסלקים הכל

Many young couples have they own private little store, their parents kitchen. How simple is it to just come over for a night or Shabbos open the cabinets and remember that you forgot to buy pasta or oil and simply take it. 
...
Sometime the parents order a large delivery of trays of chicken and turkey that will last until Tu Bishvat, at least that is what they thought. But their child, a father of 3 himself, sees the freezer full of chicken trays and takes a few. Who will notice if before there were 10 and now there are only 7?
...
Someone told about a respected Jew in Ashdod who, every time his married children come for a visit, moves all of the cans to a higher closet, they hide everything.

This is simply mind boggling. The article mentions as well that this practice in many cases is simply stealing al pi halacha. The question is where does this attitude come from? The article answers this as well:

להבחורי הישיבות של ימינו נותנים הכל מסביר למשפחה הרב צבי טברסקי, מחנך ותיק ומדריך חתנים. וזה טוב ונכון, כי הם לומדים תורה והם חוד החנית של העם היהודי. מפנקים אותם מכבדים אותם על בסיס קבוע: הם צעירים בני שמונה עשרה-תשע עשרה שמקבלים חינם מגורים וריהוט, חשמל ומים ושלש ארוחות ביום. כך צריך להיות ... אבל לפעמים במקביל לכל השפע הזה, קורה שהבחורים מתרגלים שהכל מגיע להם. מתרגלים לקבק. אולי לא מספיק חינכו אותם להכיר טובה אולי לא הבהירו להם שיש מי שעובד קשה כדי שהם ייהנו מכל הטוב הזה

The yeshiva students of today get everything explains Rav Tzvi Twersky, a veteran educator and marriage counsellor, to Mishpacha. This is good and correct because they are learning Torah and they are the tip of the spear of the Jewish people. We pamper them and give them honour regularly: They are 18-19 year olds who get for free a furnished place to live, electricity, water, and 3 meals a day. This is how it should be. ... However, sometimes, with all of this abundance, it happens that the boys get used to the fact that they should just get everything. Maybe we don't educate them enough to have gratitude, maybe no one explained to them that there is someone who works very hard so tha they can enjoy all of this abundance.

I would say not maybe but definitely. IMHO this is the root of the problem. The Yeshiva boys just get and get and get and really feel that everything is simply coming to them. Yonasan Rosenblum wrote a good column about this a few years ago:

The second major reason not to grant draft exemptions from Pesach cleaning is that it fosters a sense of entitlement that can work against true striving in Torah. Contrary to the common impression among yeshiva bochurim, limud Torah is not a general exemption from all responsibilities in life. As one who was zocheh to learn in kollel for nearly 15 years, I view the expansion of kollel learning as the glory of our generation. But nothing will ever come from one who views yeshivah or kollel as life with an E-Z Pass.
...
But acceptance of the yoke of Torah must come first. One does not demand that one be freed from responsibilities in order that one can learn. Nor does the yoke of Torah provide one with a right to demand from others that they take on one's responsibilities.
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More and more, especially in shidduchim, we hear the attitude expressed that a ben Torah is entitled to be spared all life's worries and to be able to live in comfort in order that he can learn in peace. Such an expectation is both unrealistic and dangerous. It is impossible to protect oneself from all worries: illness strikes, fathers-in-laws' businesses go bankrupt, wives who undertook the burden of parnassah find that they are no longer physically or emotionally capable of doing so six children later, or that the children are suffering from having a permanently drained and part-time mother.

The quest for comfort can be inimical to spiritual growth in general and to growth in Torah learning in particular. When the Mishnah in Avos (6:4) describes the way of Torah – "bread with salt shall you eat, water by measure shall you drink, on the earth shall you sleep" – it is hardly describing a life of comfort.
...
An acquaintance told me recently that her brother had been advised against a certain shidduch by his friends. They had pointed out that the girl's parents were already in late middle-age, and that she had only one sister, so she might end up having to take care of her parents one day. At least her brother was embarrassed when she pointed out: "Oh, so you expect your in-laws to support you for twenty years, but, chas v'Shalom, you should ever have to do anything for them." No doubt such bald-faced selfishness is rare, but the extreme examples often reveal more than we care to admit.

It seems that we are raising a generation of children who feel entitled to everything. It seems that today's Yeshiva Bachurs never heard of the famous idea of נהמא דכיסופא, that Hashem put us here on Earth so that we wouldn't feel shame getting a free ride in Heaven, that rather we should earn it. Today's children have no problem whatsoever with נהמא דכיסופא in fact not only aren't they embarrassed but they want it.

Why is this coming to a head now? Why now can't the parents afford this now? The answer is what I have been saying, there are 2 major reasons:
1. Generational money is gone
2. Large families

פעם היה לנו יותר אפשריות אומרים לי אבות ואמהות לנשואים. מדובר בכאלה שחתנו את בנם הבכור לפני עשור ושניים, והרגישו את עצמם עשירים גדולים: היו להם כך וכך מאות אלפי שקלים בתכנית חסכון, עשרים אלף דולר מהסבא ניצול השואה ודירה קטנה בעפולה להשקעאה.
את הזוג הראשון חתנו בלארגיות נתנו קנו תמכו. ... היום אם חתונת הילד השישי, הבסיס הכלכלי נשמט מתחת לרגליהם. מאות האלפים נמוגו עם החתונות, הסבה הקשיש נפטר, והדירה בעפולה ממושכנת ולא מכסה אפילו שליש. אבל הילדים הנשואים מסרבים להבין את המצב.

הבת החמישית רוצה לתינוק שלה אותה עגלג כמו שקבלה אחותה הגדולה.

Parents of married children told us that in the past they had more options. We are talking about people who married off their oldest child 10-20 years ago , at the time they felt rich. They had a few hundred thousand shekels saved up, twenty thousand dollars from their grandfather, a holocaust survivor, and a small apartment in Afula for investment purposes. The first child they married off in grand fashion. and they gave them everything and supported them. Today however, with the marriage of their sixth child, the rug has been pulled from under their financial feet. The savings are gone, spent on the weddings. The grandfather is dead, and the apartment in Afula is mortgaged and the rent does not even cover 1/3 of the mortgage. But the married children refuse to understand the situation. The fifth daughter wants the same (expensive) carriage as her older sister got.

This article paints a very bleak picture of the future of Charedi society in Israel. As I said in my previous posts, the money is simply running out and the second and third generation kollel parents have nothing to fall back to. There is simply no way that they can support the next generation in the kollel lifestyle when they can't even support themselves. What is the father of 3 who takes (steals) chickens from his parents going to do when his parents are dead and he needs to marry off his fifth child while supporting the first four? Where is the money going to come from? 

http://jewishworker.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-is-charedi-poverty-in-israel.html

http://www.rationalistjudaism.com/2015/01/mishpacha-magazine-on-collapse-of.html?spref=fb

"To be a pedophile, you don't have to act on your urges. Just thinking them is enough."

This 19-Year-Old Pedophile Has Never Gone Near A Child. And He Needs You To Hear His Story.

 Curator: Adam Mordecai

"This American Life" decided to take on a REALLY hard topic: pedophilia. As a parent of two young kids, just hearing the word triggers a rage in me that I didn't even know I had. This is a hard episode to listen to, but it's really important that you do. Listen to it at work when you are bored at lunch, in your car, wherever. Just please hit "Play."

The definition of pedophilia is "a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children, generally age 11 years or younger."

Note how I emphasized "attraction." To be a pedophile, you don't have to act on your urges. Just thinking them is enough. Which makes sense. The thing is, though, this attraction can start manifesting in kids as young as 12 or 13. And they have no way to talk about these urges or how to prevent them from taking control of their lives without being considered a threat. Talk to a shrink? You risk being reported to the authorities. The scientific community is so afraid of the stigma attached to even researching pedophilia that it's barely been studied it at all. Which seems like kind of a bad idea if we want to prevent the victimization of more young children.

So a 19-year-old kid, an admitted pedophile who has never acted on his impulses, started an online support group. His mom is helping him find solutions. He needs you to hear this, for the sake of your own kids.

Like This Post On Facebook

"This American Life" is the best podcast on the Interwebs. If I were you, I'd Like them on Facebook.

Reporter Luke Malone spent a year and a half speaking and meeting with members of the support group. You can ask him any questions you might have via Twitter, @bylukemalone, and use hashtag #TarredTAL.

More importantly, if you could tweet and share this so we can prove that audio stories about important and complicated issues can reach a wide audience, I'd owe you one. It's a really painful issue, but it needs to be addressed.

Most importantly, if you have children, the reality is that not all pedophiles are like this guy. So here's a really good article about how to talk to them about it.

--------------

UPDATE 8/18/2014: The reporter, Luke Malone, has just published a far more in depth piece, which includes others like Adam.

TRIGGER WARNING: The piece includes an EXTREMELY GRAPHIC description of a horrific act of abuse on a toddler in the first 4 paragraphs. Additionally, there's more detail in the 4th paragraph of the 3rd section (next to the illustration of a boys head and a house inside it.) I cried reading it and then felt extremely violently angry. But I kept reading. It's hard. But important. Click here to go to the piece.

Please consider this a warning, and I encourage you to keep reading everything after it, so we can do more to make sure things like that never happen again. Matter, the publication that the work appears in, has written a lengthy explanation about why they decided to run it.

http://www.upworthy.com/this-19-year-old-pedophile-has-never-gone-near-a-child-and-he-needs-you-to-hear-his-story

Dieting After The Agudath Israel Convention and Before Pesach in Cancun

Some (crackpot) Orthodox rabbis contend there's no medical proof that babies can became sick due to the circumcisions...

Religious circumcision ritual leaves another Jewish baby with herpes

City health officials believe the baby boy got sick as a result of a centuries-old ritual known as metzizah b'peh practiced by some ultra-Orthodox Jews.

BY REUVEN BLAU 

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Another newborn boy has contracted herpes after a controversial Jewish circumcision ritual — the fourth case this year and the 17th since 2000, city health officials said Wednesday.

The baby was rushed to the hospital 12 days after undergoing the ancient ritual, known as metzitzah b’peh, which involves cleaning the circumcision wound by oral suction.

The unidentified boy has recovered, but two of the other infected infants since 2000 died, and at least two suffered brain damage.

The oral suction ritual is practiced by a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that it is performed 3,600 times a year in New York city.

Some Orthodox rabbis contend there's no medical proof that babies can became sick due to the circumcisions.

In the latest case, however, the Health Department said the newborn’s symptoms, the timing of the herpes outbreak and laboratory confirmation of the herpes simplex type 1 virus “are consistent” with transmission as a result of the oral suction procedure.

The new case was first reported by Capital New York.

In 2012, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city enacted a regulation requiring that anyone who performs the ritual obtain a signed consent form from parents acknowledging the potential health risks.

NOAH BERGER/APBenjamin Abecassis closes his eyes during his Bris, a Jewish circumcision ceremony in San Francisco.

But the regulation is nearly impossible to enforce and it is often ignored.

In the latest case, it was not immediately clear whether the person who conducted the circumcision obtained a signed consent form.

As a candidate, Bill de Blasio voiced dissatisfaction with the 2012 regulation.

He vowed to “change the policy and find a way to protect all the children but also respect religious tradition ... and come in Day 1 to City Hall with a new policy that is fair.”

Some ultra-Orthodox Jews took de Blasio's remarks as a sign that he was sympathetic to their concerns the regulation was an unnecessary intrusion.

A year has passed since he took office, but de Blasio has not yet come up with a new policy. 

rblau@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/jewish-baby-contracted-herpes-bris-article-1.2055911

Did Rabbi Barry Freundel Treat Mikveh Like 'Car Wash' To Peep on Women? Lawsuits Blame RCA and Synagogue Over Scandal

Two new lawsuits aim to hold Modern Orthodoxy’s largest rabbinic organization responsible in the Rabbi Barry Freundel mikvah-peeping scandal.

Both lawsuits allege that the Rabbinical Council of America and Freundel’s own synagogue were aware of inappropriate conduct by Freundel prior to the discovery that he was using a hidden camera to view women as they bathed nude in a Washington, D.C. ritual bath. The lawsuits, which seek class action status, charge that the RCA and Congregation Kesher Israel should have taken measures to remove him from his positions of responsibility based on his earlier behavior.

One of the suits underlines odd behavior by Freundel relating to the mikvah, noting that he allowed non-Jews to attend rituals there and that he invented the notion of “practice dunks.” That suit also quotes an unnamed Kesher Israel staff member saying that Freundel “treated the mikvah like a car wash. Every Sunday, six students at a time.”

That suit charges that Freundel used his role in the RCA’s controversial centralized conversion system to put himself in a position of power over potential converts — a position he allegedly used for sexual exploitation.

The suits were filed on December 2 and December 18, respectively, in Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

“The real issue with [Freundel] is, he was just bragging about the amount of power he had,” said Steven J. Kelly, an attorney with the law firm Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin & White, who is representing the plaintiffs in the earlier of the two suits. “These women needed [his] stamp to get married in some cases… to do all sorts of things.”

Filed by three alleged victims of Freundel, the earlier suit brings charges against Freundel’s synagogue, his mikvah, the RCA and The Georgetown University, where Freundel taught. The second suit, brought by a sole alleged victim, names the synagogue, the mikvah, and the RCA as defendants, but not the university. Neither suit charges Freundel himself.

Both suits claim that the total number of Freundel victims could be large. The first suit claims that the number of members of a potential class of victims could be over 100; the second claims that Freundel may have recorded “thousands of women” in the mikvah with his hidden camera. The suits allege that Freundel opened the mikvah at his synagogue in 2005 with the explicit intention of using it to sexually exploit women.

Defendants have yet to respond to either of the suits with legal filings. Freundel’s criminal defense attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

In an emailed statement, Kesher Israel called the lawsuits “without merit.”

“Kesher Israel’s leadership is deeply concerned about the harm caused by Rabbi Freundel’s actions — of which we did not and could not have known — and for the personal welfare of all those individuals who may have been violated,” the congregation wrote. “The lawsuits that were recently filed are completely without merit. Our energies remain focused on working towards healing our community and building a vibrant future for Kesher Israel.”

The synagogue fired Freundel after Washington police arrested him on October 14.

In a formal statement, the RCA said it was reviewing the complaints.

“The RCA has conducted itself appropriately and is taking important steps to improve its conversion protocols,” the rabbinic group said. “We will defend ourselves vigorously in this matter.”

Freundel pleaded not guilty on October 15 to charges that he had illicitly videotaped at least six women who were showering in the mikvah next door to his synagogue. Since firing him, the synagogue has demanded](http://www.kesher.org/termination-statement) that Freundel leave his synagogue-owned residence by January 1. The National Capital Mikvah also released a statement condemning Freundel’s alleged actions.

The second lawsuit, filed by an anonymous plaintiff called Jane Doe 2 in the filing, offers a litany of events that the complaint alleges should have put the synagogue, the mivkah, and the RCA “on notice” to Freundel’s “illicit proclivities,” including the allegation that Freundel was forcing prospective female converts to perform clerical work for him in 2012. The lawsuit also claims that the RCA was told in 2013 that Freundel had shared a sleeping compartment on a train with a woman who was not his wife.

The plaintiffs in the earlier lawsuit allege that Freundel used his positions of authority, and particularly his role within the RCA’s new conversion system, to wield enormous power over potential converts. An RCA conversion committee that Freundel headed, known as the Geirus Policy and Standards committee, was responsible for implementing a new and controversial conversion process that centralized all conversion authority with a few selected rabbinical courts. Prior the GPS’s establishment in 2006, individual rabbis within the RCA were empowered to implement conversions on their own authority. The GPS system was the product of negotiations between the RCA and Israel’s chief rabbinate to ensure that the chief rabbinate would continue to recognize RCA conversions.

Freundel was not only the head of the RCA’s conversion committee, but also the head of a regional rabbinical court tasked by that committee with approving conversions in the Washington area. The lawsuit filed by Kelly’s plaintiffs alleges that Freundel used that combination to put himself in a unique position “to sexually and otherwise exploit converts, over whom he exercised great power and control.”

One of the plaintiffs in the suit filed by Kelly, Emma Shulevitz, claims in the complaint that while she met with Freundel about her desire to convert to Judaism, the rabbi “made repeated references to [her] ‘looks’ and did not seem interested in discussing her spiritual development.” The suit also alleges that Freundel “bragged about his prominence within the RCA and touted his relationship with the Chief Rabbi in Israel.”

Later, Freundel asked Shulevitz to engage in a “practice dunk” at his synagogue’s mikvah. While there, she claims Freundel warned her not to “disturb” a clock radio resting on the counter. Police allege that Freundel used a clock radio with a camera inside to record women showering at the mikvah.

When Shulevitz later said she planned to find a new rabbi to convert her, Freundel allegedly responded: “Fine, but it won’t be accepted in Israel.”

Rabbi Marc Angel, a longtime critic of the RCA’s new conversion system, told the Forward that the allegations, if true, reaffirm concerns about the centralization of conversion powers. “This is a bad example of the fears we have had all along,” Angel said. “If you concentrate too much power in few hands, then there is bound to be abuse, and this just confirms our deepest fears.”

The RCA created a committee to review its conversion system in the wake of Freundel’s arrest. The committee, which is chaired by a former RCA president, is split evenly between men and women. Mark Dracht, the RCA’s executive vice president, said that the committee was still working on its review. “It would be premature to say anything about it,” Dracht said.

The suits face a high legal bar to be approved as class action suits. “In order to have a class action certified, you have to have common questions of law and fact across the entire class,” said Marshall Breger, a law professor at the Catholic University of America in an email. “Those are not always so easy, certainly the commonality can be a question of great controversy, and usually is in lawsuits.”

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/211529/did-rabbi-barry-freundel-treat-mikveh-like-car-was/?p=all#ixzz3MsM6Uc7G

Ya'aseh Shalom!

"There never was a State of Palestine in the past and Israel did not invade such a state in June 1967. Israel crossed a temporary ceasefire line and took control of a disputed territory that had been under Jordanian rule (not sovereignty) between 1949 and 1967."

Palestinians in their tents circa 1930

Israel should join the ICC to give the Palestinians a taste of their own medicine

The International Court of Justice (ICC) announced this week the admission of Palestine as an observer state –a status that does not amount to membership. The representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in New York, Riyad Mansour, reacted to this symbolic move by declaring that the next step would be to become a member state. Mansour was thus contradicting his colleague Ibrahim Khraishi, the PLO representative at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. On July 9, 2014, Khraishi declared on Palestinian television that, were the “State of Palestine” to join the ICC, it would expose itself to war crime probes.

Referring to the war raging at the time between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Khraishi declared that “the missiles that are now being launched against Israel, each and every missile constitutes a crime against humanity, whether it hits or misses, because it is directed at civilian targets … Many of our people in Gaza appeared on TV and said that the Israelis warned them to evacuate their homes before the bombardment. In such a case, if someone is killed, the law considers it a mistake rather than an intentional killing because [the Israelis] followed the legal procedures … Therefore, people should know more before they talk emotionally about appealing to the ICC.” What Khraishi was explaining is that Hamas (which rules the Gaza Strip and which is part of the PA government) is guilty of war crimes and, therefore, that the “State of Palestine” would expose itself to war crime probes by formally joining the ICC.

Even the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has warned the Palestinians that joining the ICC could backfire because Hamas terrorists would be investigated for rocket fire and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. In fact, Palestinian terrorist activities can already be prosecuted. This is because many Palestinians engaged in terrorism hold Jordanian citizenship and Jordan is an ICC member. The list includes Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself (in November 2014, the Israeli NGO Shurat Hadin asked the ICC prosecutor to open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Abbas, based on his Jordanian citizenship).

Were the virtual State of Palestine to become an ICC member, Israel could (and should, in my opinion) join the ICC as well to give the Palestinians a taste of their own medicine. It is doubtful whether, in such a scenario, the ICC would want to be used as a propaganda tool by both sides. But if the ICC were to endorse the Palestinian claim that Israeli settlements constitute a war crime and that the Court should have retroactive jurisdiction to prosecute them, then Israel could embarrass countries that support the Palestinians by forcing an investigation of Turkish settlements in Cyprus or of Moroccan settlements in Western Sahara.

There are also legal precedents that would make it hard, if not impossible, for the Palestinians to involve the ICC in their “lawfare” (legal warfare) against Israel. In May 2013, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC rejected an attempt by former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to evoke the court’s jurisdiction over his country because, the OTP explained, Morsi had no “effective control” of Egypt. Factually, Abbas has no “effective control” over Gaza. Legally, he does not have “effective control” over the West Bank, either, since both he and the UN define Israel as an occupying power in the West Bank, and since effective control belongs to the occupying power.

There never was a State of Palestine in the past and Israel did not invade such a state in June 1967. Israel crossed a temporary ceasefire line and took control of a disputed territory that had been under Jordanian rule (not sovereignty) between 1949 and 1967. What the Palestinians are trying to do is to involve the ICC in a border dispute. But the ICC was established to determine the guilt of individuals, not the borders of nations (border disputes are to be referred to the International Court of Justice). The UN General Assembly decision from November 2012 to grant Palestine the status of non-member observer defined the question of borders as an “outstanding issue.” The UN itself does not define the former armistice line between Israel and Jordan as the border of the putative Palestinian state. Even William Schabas, the Canadian human rights expert who heads the UN investigation into Israel's role in the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, takes the Golan Heights, but not the West Bank, as an example of territory that would fall within ICC jurisdiction were Israel to ratify the ICC treaty. This is because, as opposed to the West Bank, the Golan Heights used to be part of a recognized sovereign country (Syria).

To quote Ibrahim Khraishi again: “People should know more before they talk emotionally about appealing to the ICC.” His government would be well advised to listen.

Emmanuel Navon chairs the Political Science and Communication Department at the Jerusalem Orthodox College and teaches International Relations at Tel-Aviv University and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. He is a Senior Fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum.

http://www.i24news.tv/en/opinion/54027-141210-israel-should-join-the-icc-to-give-the-palestinians-a-taste-of-their-own-medicine

Satmar Rebbe: Hands Stained With Blood Of Terror Victims Of Those Voting For Haredi Parties

Satmar Rebbe: Hands Stained With Blood Of Terror Victims Of Those Voting For Haredi Parties

During a speech to his followers at an annual gathering of psychos: bufoon pictured above said: 

“Since early elections were announced, the Haredi parties have already started preparing with great joy to join the next government, with sweet dreams about what they will achieve by being part of the government,” the Rebbe said with angst. “This will turn them into partners for the implementation of the core studies by the secular education system, and this will turn them into partners of drafting Torah students into the ‘impure’ military.”

The Rebbe went on the lambast the ‘Misnachlim’ (settlers), who enter the Temple Mount and continue building activity in settlements on Arab land and between the Arabs, thus igniting a fire and inspiring the “cruel murderers to kill and murder Jews, like the ones we recently saw in Jerusalem.”

“Jewish blood is flowing like water,” the Rebbe roared, “and Frum Misnachlim are unfortunately responsible for that.”

“We must speak out and declare: your hands are stained with Jewish blood,” the Rebbe continued. “It hurts to say, but whoever intends to participate in the elections and votes – even for an Ultra-Orthodox party – who will ultimately join a government that will instate the settlements – has a hand in anything that could possibly happen in the future, Hashem Yerachiem… And we have to cry out loud: today’s leaders, the Misnachlim and those who support them, are liable for all the tzures and murders.”

“We ask the leaders of the religious parties, how can you be partners with those who are abandoning Jewish lives, not only in ‘Eretz Yisroel’ but also worldwide?” the Rebbe asked.

“They will be responsible for this ‘Shefichas Dumim’ (spilled blood) to the full extent,” he declared.

http://jpupdates.com/2014/12/14/satmar-rebbe-hands-stained-blood-terror-victims-voting-haredi-parties/

"This identity fraud is not without consequences. It is at the center of one of the greatest intellectual and political manipulations of all times, which has notably led to the recent votes in Europe on the recognition of a "Palestinian State" which corresponds to nothing historically."

For which sons does Rachel weep?

This week, I visited the Tomb of Rachel, the matriarch of the Jewish people, located at the entrance to Bethlehem. Rachel, who was Jacob’s wife and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, was the heroine of the biblical chapters read in recent weeks in synagogues across the world.

The exterior of her mausoleum has nothing to do with the pastoral paintings that have adorned the walls of Jewish homes throughout the world for centuries. The Oslo Accords and the second intifada have turned this site of pilgrimage into a concrete fortress, allowing Jewish worshipers a sort of relative security. Inside, near the presumed location of the tomb, there is an ancient stone plaque, engraved with a passage from the prophet Jeremiah:

“Thus said the Eternal, and a voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Thus says the Lord: ‘Restrain your voice from weeping And your eyes from tears; For your work will be rewarded and they will return from the land of the enemy.’”

The Prophet Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem (in 586 BC) and refered to the Jews leaving the Holy Land for exile in Babylon. Long convoys passing by Rachel's Tomb inspired Jeremiah to pen these words, as inspiring as they are premonitious.

Not far from Rachel's Tomb is the Aida refugee camp, one of the many camps of misery in which Arab countries have left their "Palestinian brothers" after the wars of 1948 and 1967. At the entrance to the camp is a large gate topped with a huge bronze key. The key, which was donated by Germany, symbolizes the hope of return. But what is most interesting is the plate on the door which bears the following inscription: "Your sons will return to their borders," the phrase which has been taken word for word from Jeremiah, but decontextualized and misused.

This example is one among many in the methodical policy applied by the Palestinian Arabs to stick to the history and the ethos of the Jewish people. Regarding Rachel's Tomb, in 2001, textbooks in Palestinian Authority schools replaced the traditional name of "Dome of Rachel" with that of "Al Bilal Mosque," converting it into a Muslim holy site. It was then endorsed by UNESCO in 2010 as "part of Palestinian Heritage". This kind of reclamation of identity is part of the same process used in the first centuries by the Fathers of the Church, who developed the Theology of Replacement according to which the church has replaced the Jews as God’s children.

The appearance of a "Palestinian people driven from his home” reminds us of ancient Jewish history and the exile of the Jewish people driven out of Judea by the Romans. Hence was born the term "Jewish Diaspora", which coincidentally gave rise to the "Palestinian diaspora" in Palestinian Arabic lexicography.

 Examples abound: exodus, wandering, camps, the centrality of Jerusalem, the odious comparison between Gaza and Auschwitz, between the Dura child and the Warsaw Ghetto, are trying to superimpose the suffering of the Jews in the ghettos onto the Palestinian people. Even Jesus, who was born and died as a Jew, has suddenly become a "Palestinian who fought against the occupier." Certainly, but against the Roman occupiers and his Jewish brethren, not to mention all the biblical characters who converted to Islam.

This identity fraud is not without consequences. It is at the center of one of the greatest intellectual and political manipulations of all times, which has notably led to the recent votes in Europe on the recognition of a "Palestinian State" which corresponds to nothing historically.

Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas said a few days ago that there are "six million refugees waiting to return to their homes." Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid had the courage to denounce "the cynical use and operation of the status of 'refugee' by the Palestinian authorities, with the help of this UN institution. "

It is therefore not for the return of the Palestinian Arabs, a recent invention, that our matriarch Rachel is weeping, but for the Jewish exiles. And when the prophet Jeremiah announced the return of her sons to their borders, he was not referring to residents of the Aida refugee camp.

The Talmudic sages teach us that "the world is based on three things: Truth, Justice and Peace." Peace is not a means to achieve other goals. It is the result of Truth and Justice.

Shraga Blum is an independent journalist. He publishes a weekly press review in the "P'tit Hebdo" and political analysis on Israeli-French language sites.

http://www.i24news.tv/en/opinion/54119-141211-for-which-sons-does-rachel-weep

When faced with a Rabbi suffering from Alzheimer's, most of us respond with denial...

When faced with a Rabbi suffering from Alzheimer's, most of us respond with denial ("It won't happen to all Rabbis") or extreme efforts at prevention of letting the world know. But global health expert and TED Fellow Alanna Shaikh sees it differently. She's taking three concrete steps to prepare for the moment — should it arrive — when all of them get Alzheimer's disease.

"It was only when I began to experience the bad of the orthodox world, the cultural aspects that had nothing to do with G-d or Torah, that I realized there was much in my secular upbringing that would benefit the Jewish world if ..."

The Frum World

Here is something that is unfortunately not acknowledged enough, that is seen as almost shocking to believe, even heretical. But it shouldn’t be: the secular world has a lot to offer the orthodox world.

This took me a long time to realize because, often, the process of becoming a baal teshuva involves rejecting the world you came from, trying to see all the negative in it, so that you can make that clean break, so that you can truly work to change yourself from the inside out.  And, of course, the people who brought us in are often all too willing to encourage that feeling.

It was only when I began to experience the bad of the orthodox world, the cultural aspects that had nothing to do with G-d or Torah, that I realized there was much in my secular upbringing that would benefit the Jewish world if I was properly motivated by trying to bring Hashem’s truth into the world (rather than a simple desire to rebel).

A small but powerful example: art.  Whatever anyone says, the orthodox religious world has a long way to go.  Often, even the people drawn to art do not see it as an expression of their unique neshama, but rather as an expression of their culture.  Thus, we see a billion paintings of tzadikim that look exactly the same.  We see rehashed stories, written no differently than they are told.  We hear music that is no different than the kind they were brought up with.

A baal teshuva that accepts this reality, that tries to conform to it, simply because he believes the orthodox culture is the right one, the G-dly one, is sacrificing his neshama’s purpose in order to conform.  He is killing this aspect of himself, especially if he had access to the lively world of secular art (as profane as it often is).

When he does not meld the worlds he came from, when he does not see that the world he came from has value, something to teach the orthodox world, he is betraying himself and he is betraying Hashem’s mission for him.

Art is an easy example, but there are so many more.  From manners to business ethics to sexual abuse, the secular world, the world the baal teshuva came from, has something to offer.  Why else would Hashem have brought him into the orthodox world?  Why would he have made the baal teshuva go on this journey?  To be the same?!  To fit in?!  It makes no sense.  Hashem wants us to take the value of the secular world, transform it into G-dly energy, and meld it into the orthodox world.

Anyone who denies this denies the power of a baal teshuva.  And this is often the reason so many yeshivas, so many rabbis and leaders, often “cut [baalei teshuva] in half”, as Steinsaltz said.  They believe their job is to make us conform.  They are only half right.

And the implications of this betrayal of a person’s neshama are more far-reaching than improving the orthodox world.  As I said, this also applies to the world at large.....

READ ENTIRE ESSAY:

http://hevria.com/elad/baal-teshuva-world-wake/

A Rotten Frankfurter - Keep 'Em In The Dark!