When Rabbis Become Prostitutes - The Redefining of an Orthodox Jew - "Jared every year sends a $500 check before Passover to one of his former day school teachers “as a gesture of appreciation... "

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Any rabbi with any integrity at all would consider this scenario happening all throughout  the "Modern Orthodox" world. " Wow....I can date a shiksa for years, then find a rabbi to convert her if my parents want her to, eat non-kosher, violate the Shabbos repeatedly, still call myself Orthodox if my father has money, and not one rabbi stands up and says this is a fraud not to be emulated" Shameful!
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Menachem Genack, Under The Microscope

 

From The Jewish Week: The original link to the article is below.

Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Trump, may be the most famous, and most-scrutinized, Orthodox Jew in the United States today.

Since the president’s inauguration two weeks ago, Kushner — graduate of a prominent Modern Orthodox day school in New Jersey, grandson of Holocaust survivors, active supporter of the Chabad-Lubavitch chasidic movement, a senior adviser to Trump who may become involved in Middle East peace negotiations — has come under fire in some Orthodox circles.

 The charges: Kushner rode with his wife Ivanka in a car to Friday night post-inaugural events in Washington (with rabbinic dispensation LOL, it is said, because of security concerns) , attended an ecumenical prayer service in a D.C. church and apparently remained silent after the president issued a controversial statement last week about International Holocaust Remembrance Day that omitted any mention of Jews being the primary target of the Nazis. 

 

The statement “was written with the help of someone who is both Jewish and the descendent of Holocaust survivors,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said. Many assumed he was alluding to Kushner, though press reports say it was written by Boris Epshteyn, a Russian Jewish immigrant serving as special assistant in the administration after working on the Trump campaign.

Still, Kushner’s critics have indulged in a chorus of so-called “frum-shaming,” keeping a watchful eye on him, eager to call out any perceived violation of Jewish law. 

Kushner has emerged as one of his father-in-law’s closest confidantes and fiercest defenders, asserting that Trump is neither an anti-Semite nor a racist.

At 36, the publicity-shy scion of the wealthy Kushner real estate family is the subject of numerous media reports. 

A “quiet millionaire with Donald Trump’s ear,” reported BBC. “Something of a mollifying influence upon his mercurial boss,” wrote Vanity Fair. “Someone who ‘enjoys a Rasputin-like power’ with Trump,” according to Cosmopolitan. 

Now a (prominent?) Orthodox rabbi is coming to Kushner’s defense — ironically, one with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Rabbi Menachem Genack, administrator of the Orthodox Union’s kashrut division, calls Kushner “a genuine Modern Orthodox Jew … serious about his Judaism.”

KUSHNER IN CHURCH

 

KUSHNER AT KABBALAT SHABBAT PARTY

 

KUSHNER IN CHURCH ON SHABBAT

The rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Englewood, N.J. and author of the 2013 “Letters to President Clinton: Biblical Lessons of Faith and Leadership” (Sterling Ethos), was openly critical of Trump during the campaign, saying he lacked a “sense of morality.” But having known the Kushner family for three decades and worked “on many projects” with Charles Kushner, Jared’s father, the rabbi said Jared “listens, he absorbs information … he’s very even-tempered … the opposite of his father-in-law.” 

In a letter to The Jewish Week, the rabbi described how Jared every year sends a $500 check before Passover to one of his former day school teachers “as a gesture of appreciation for what [he] felt he gained,” Rabbi Genack said.

In a similar vein, a recent JTA article described Jared Kushner’s generosity and spirit of cooperation at Harvard Chabad during his student days at the Ivy League school and in his post-graduation life. 

“It was most apparent in the first impression what kind of mensch this young man was,” JTA quotes Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi as saying. “When he saw importance in a project, he committed himself to it.”

Rabbi Genack compared the criticism of Kushner on halachic grounds to the carping about Joseph Lieberman, also an Orthodox Jew, during the former senator’s race for vice president with Al Gore in 2000. Lieberman was accused of “hydrating” on a fast day during the campaign.

The rabbi said such criticism is “ridiculous,” and that it is unfair for people in the public eye to be held to unreasonable standards.

Kushner’s visibility as an Orthodox Jew “sends a good message to the Jewish community,” Rabbi Genack said. “I think we should just take pride.”
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KUSHNER CELEBRATING BIRTHDAY ON SHELLFISH: 

 READ: http://pagesix.com/2012/01/12/private-b-day/


 Genack ---- HOW DO YOU SPELL Z-O-N-A?
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OUy Vey! The Shiksa's Guide to Dating Jewish Men - THE OU PRESS

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jonathanajordan/18-things-a-shiksa-should-know-before-dating-a-jew-id6t?utm_term=.nqDAkQlgbD#.crE1n0DqL2

THE OU STATEMENT ON A DIFFERENT ISSUE (IN PART) - THE HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY:

"A movement that has voluntarily parted paths with normative Orthodoxy and Halakha in so many ways has no right to complain when the Orthodox establishment rejects its radical innovations. It is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. 
 
Halakha is predicated upon following the directives and guidance of the generation’s foremost rabbinic authorities. Vigilante Judaism – and that’s exactly what is being promoted by those attacking the OU’s ruling – is inconsistent with the deference to the generation’s most distinguished Torah experts that forms the basis of all stripes of authentic Orthodoxy.

The OU has followed traditional and halakhically required protocol when dealing with challenges and innovations to Torah practice, by consulting with a world-renowned team of halakhic authorities, and committing to following the decision that would be rendered.

This is what Torah Judaism is all about."
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As Rabbi Yaakov  Kaminetzky zt"l expressed to me when I asked him if the OU can be trusted on Kashruth; Without hesitation he responded: "Yes, on salt"!


http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/jared-kushner-under-the-microscope/?utm_source=JW+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d01d1f2c42-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c115aa4114-d01d1f2c42-21299163

Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump In Church on Friday and Shabbos! Trump's Conversion Farce Must Be Repudiated, Rebuked & Delegitimized by Every Orthodox Rabbi! Kabbalat Shabbos With Jared & Ivanka! Israel & The Jewish People Have Every Reason To Be Concerned About Kushner's Total Rejection of Core Jewish Values (מומר להכעיס) , and In Essence, Contemptuous Conduct.

 http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2017/01/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-in-church-on.html

This 31-year-old charedi man sodomized a 6-year-old, bit his penis and among other threats put a gun to his head and warned that he would kill him and his family if he told anyone what happened.

 

Moshe Friedman in Court

According to the signed and sworn police report which was the basis of his indictment: The People of the State of New York County of Kings v Moshe Friedman:

…Between September 01, 2013 … and June 06, 2014 … at … [a yeshiva in Boro Park], the defendant … on multiple incidents per month …

• Did strike the informant’s hand with defendant’s hand when informant’s hand was injured and treated with a cast
• Did place defendant’s hand on the informant’s exposed buttocks
• Did grab the informant’s penis,
• Did insert the defendant’s finger into the informant’s anus
• Did insert a banana into the informant’s anus
• Did put the defendant’s mouth on the informant’s buttocks
• Did place the informant’s penis inside the defendant’s mouth
• Did bite the informant’s penis with defendant’s mouth
• Did tie a string around the informant’s penis
• Did shove a rag into the informant’s mouth
• Did tie the informant’s lips shut with string
• Did display a gun to the informant and state to the informant in sum and substance, “you’d better not tell your parents, or I’ll kill you and your family.”

The … [boy was born in] 2007.

Getting Away With Abuse

By Michael J. Salamon 

Michael J. Salamon

Just last week a New York State licensed teacher, an admitted and convicted child molester, received what is being referred to as a sweetheart sentence for his crimes. This 31-year-old charedi man sodomized a 6-year-old, bit his penis and among other threats put a gun to his head and warned that he would kill him and his family if he told anyone what happened. Yet this perpetrator received a sentence of probation from the court. No jail time for him. And he did not even have to register as a sex offender, something that under other circumstances would have at a minimum occurred.

It is not unreasonable to suggest that the district attorney prosecuting this case was willing to make this deal, allowing a misdemeanor plea, despite the fact that the perpetrator was originally charged with first-degree felony sexual acts against a minor because there may have been no other option. It is reasonable to assume that either one of two scenarios played out prior to sentencing: either the parents of the 6-year-old molested boy did not want the child to testify, or the community put significant pressure on the family to not testify against the perpetrator. 

This is not mere conjecture; it is based upon the history of avoidance of reporting to the authorities within this particular segment of the Orthodox community. Many cases have not even made it to a courtroom for these reasons and the result is that sexual predators have been able avoid any prosecution. Despite a law requiring anyone who provides health care or teaches children to report any reasonable suspicion of abuse to the authorities, reporting in this community rarely happens.

This case was resolved the same week that the first Kol v’Oz conference was held. As reported in The Jewish Week (“This Is Something We Can’t Ignore,” Feb. 10), Kol v’Oz is an organization whose mandate is to bring together international professionals from across the Jewish world to prevent child sexual abuse in the worldwide Jewish community.

I was among the presenters and attendees at this important gathering and had the opportunity to ask some questions of religious leaders who presented their perspectives on the problem, suggested interventions and their rationale for the best way to react to protect children.

In virtually all cases we discussed it was clear that a state law exists that more or less indicates that those caring for children who suspect child abuse must report it. This is true in Israel, where everyone is considered a mandated reporter. In the State of New York, the State Department of Education issued a clear ruling that even in private schools, anyone who works with children must report suspected abuse. This ruling by the department has no room for delaying or discussing a suspicion with anyone but the properly trained authorities. This makes a great deal of sense as it is only those professionals who know how to conduct a proper investigation who should do so. Further, any delay allows a perpetrator time to continue to offend, threaten those who he or she has already abused and make excuses for previous offenses.

There are those in the Jewish world, perhaps now a minority view, who argue that prior to reporting to the authorities, a rabbi should be consulted. When asked at the Kol v’Oz conference about this view, one rabbi would not take a position against it. My follow-up question to him was about licensed professionals who by law are mandated to report their suspicions immediately. Were these professionals, I asked, also supposed to ask a rabbi first or were they required to follow the law and report immediately?

The response I received was disconcerting. The rabbi started out by saying that he would not answer the question. He went on to suggest that the law was open to interpretation and a case could be made that a report may not have to be made instantly. I had several follow-up questions that I could not ask and they bother me still: Who assumes the responsibility of protecting the child during the delay, and if the state chooses to prosecute the professional for not reporting as required, will the Jewish community pay the legal fees?

I am not an attorney so I have only a limited understanding and even less of a stomach for the implications of the phrase “open to interpretation.” What I do know is that there should be no variability for interpretation of the best interests of a child. As long as we find ways to obstruct or subvert reasonable legal tools that help to remove abusers and move to more aggressively protect children, perpetrators will be able to continue getting away with their abuses — and even when caught may not receive an appropriate sentence for their perverted crimes. 

Dr. Michael J. Salamon is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the author of numerous articles and books, most recently “Abuse in the Jewish Community” (Urim Publications).

http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/getting-away-with-abuse/

Shalom U'Bracha!

"I say again: Religion does not make for better people. It only makes you wait longer between meat and milk".

Yona Metzger - One of the 5 corruption charges is selling phony conversions to Judaism for $360,000

 We can be no less vigilant in the religious world, painful as it may be. And it certainly is painful.. Corruption must be weeded out – without exception. As embarrassing as it is for our nation when some of Israel’s political elite spend time in jail, it’s also an overt message for us, and the rest of the world: we have no favorites when it comes to transgressions; we show our "greatest" to their individual jail cells.

 So now Israel’s chief rabbi is joining an ex-president and an ex-prime minister and some assorted members of Knesset on the list of jailbirds with a history. But somehow a rabbi of distinction is even harder to stomach. I read your column with great interest and I was wondering whether this shakes your faith?

Shaken to the core
Ashkelon 

Pam Peled:
This is a no-brainer. We know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of course some prime ministers and rabbis will walk the primrose way to trouble. They shouldn’t; we’d like our moral guardians to be upright and good. But give a guy authority to say who is a Jew, and what restaurant is kosher; that’s heady power, involving lots of cash. Stories of kashrut police pocketing bribes are rampant; it’s naïve to believe the rot wouldn’t rise to the top.

None of this is new. Didn’t Nadab and Abihu, at Judaism’s dawn, bring “strange fire” to the Temple and get consumed by God? Rashi proposes that the boys were drunk; why were the high priest’s sons inebriated so soon after walking in the sacred space of Mount Sinai? Were they high on power, perhaps?

This phenomenon is by no means unique to the Jews. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is peopled with 14th-century summoners and pardoners who are lecherous, money- loving and lewd. They prey on widows and orphans and the weak; the Church fuels their corruption. Ron Hubbard (founder of the Church of Scientology) died very rich; Pope Clement VII’s reasons for kicking Henry VIII out of his church are cloudy.

Religion does great good: it provides community, rhythm and lasagnas that plop on doorsteps in troubled times. Shabbat is never lonely with community kiddushim; life-events are mapped out and embracing. But at the risk of becoming a cliché myself, I say again: Religion does not make for better people. It only makes you wait longer between meat and milk.

Tzippi Sha-ked:
I expected Pam to say: “People are people. The only difference between religious and secular Jews is that the former wait longer between meat and milk.”

Yes, people are people indeed, and – no surprise – religious figures are also affected by the culture in which they live. Torah is an antidote to disturbing societal norms; it should inspire good behavior, or at least mitigate bad. (Maybe this rabbi would have transgressed more without Torah?)

Life is a daily temptress pinching our free will, challenging our choices, and forcing us to write our own moral scripts. That some key players in the frum world succumb to all manner of temptation casts an ugly shadow on our community. Corruption must be weeded out – without exception. As embarrassing as it is for our nation when some of Israel’s political elite spend time in jail, it’s also an overt message for us, and the rest of the world: we have no favorites when it comes to transgressions; we show our greatest to their individual cells.

We can be no less vigilant in the religious world, painful as it may be. And it certainly is painful.

But it has no connection with my faith in God.

Danit Shemesh:
There’s an old parable. The “wise men” of Chelm decided that they had enough of worrying. So they appointed Shlomke to be the professional worrier; he was good at that. When they tried to sleep that night, they found that they were still worried. They came knocking on Shlomke’s door accusing him of neglecting his job. To this he responded, ‘Well? You set me up with money, housing, schooling – how can I worry?’

In the face of ongoing deep disappointment, the fact that we still appoint leaders is testament to our reliance on societal order and appropriate behavior. We lean into hierarchy by trusting our leaders to be worthy of the trust we place in them. But leaders can’t live our lives for us or be good for us. We can’t wait on the sidelines to see that a political rav is perfect before we activate our faith. In this era of darkness, each of us must work hard to discern between right and wrong. We’re all responsible for our own personhood. Faith is a major component of being righteous; it’s the supreme “checks and balances” against which we must measure ourselves.

Our faith is not fickle; it does not waver in the face of human frailty. We believe in Torah as the divine connecting agent to Hashem [God] – the ultimate, right way to live. That does not sway with sociopolitical winds or the aberration of others.

However, hillul hashem [desecration of God’s name] is the most serious of sins. It is the wayward leader’s problem, not ours.

Fire Shlomke.

Comments and questions: 3ladies3lattes@gmail.com www.facebook.com/3ladies3lattes/

http://www.jpost.com/Metro/Three-ladies-three-lattes-A-man-of-faith-481175?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The charges involve five main cases. In the first, Metzger allegedly took bribes from rich foreigners seeking to convert to Judaism or determine their religious status. The alleged go-between was Rabbi Gabriel Cohen, head of the Los Angeles rabbinic court. Cohen allegedly gave Metzger half of each bribe. In one case, from 2011, Metzger referred to Cohen a Russian businessman who had immigrated to Israel and wanted his two children converted. After the conversion, Metzger and Cohen allegedly split evenly between them the $360,000 the man paid.

Reports: Ex-chief rabbi to be jailed for 3.5 years

http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-charges-involve-five-main-cases-in.html

Settler Rabbi Moshe Patron, suspected of sex offenses and harassing female victims of Beit El

Israeli Judge Gags Report on Settler Rabbi, Accused Sex Offender

February 13, 2017 By Richard Silverstein

 

Settler Rabbi Moshe Patron, suspected of sex offenses and harassing female victims of Beit El

NRG article removed under judicial gag order

חשיפה: הרב משה פטרון מהתנחלות בית אל חשוד במעשים מגונים והטרדות מיניות

In yet another example of Israel as a state which abuses privacy in order to protect sex offenders, an Israeli judge gagged reporting on a case in which an Israeli settler rabbi allegedly traveled to a woman’s home in the Beit El settlement, stood outside and masturbated.  Afterward, he attempted to break into her home.

  The story was originally reported in Sheldon Adelson’s NRG (the same article has not yet been removed from this site).  The article mentioned that the rabbi had weeks earlier attempted twice to attack the same victim.  During that instance he arrived masked and wearing gloves.  After attempting to call her numerous times using a masked phone number, he attempted to break into the home.  After this failed, he left the premises.  It wasn’t clear whether this was the same victim or a different woman.

In the most recent attack, he again called her repeatedly and then arrived at her home masked.  After performing the sex act and attempting to break into the home, he was captured and handed over to police.  They suspect that he has engaged in similar behavior in the past (involving different victims).

A court ordered the report removed (i.e. censored) in order to protect the so-called privacy of the accused.  His name is Rabbi Moshe Patron.  He too lives in Beit El and is a father of six children.  He was one of the founders of the local yeshiva, Bnai Akiva Mateh Binyamin which has removed his name from its website (cached original webpage and current version).  Up until two years ago, he also taught in the women’s college at the Bar Ilan University.  The school’s website has wiped any trace of him off the site including his biography and photograph.

Some Beit El residents are publicly demanding that he leave the community.  Other women remain unconvinced of his guilt and stand by him as a member of a “good family.”  He has been released from police custody after his arrest on February 6th.

https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2017/02/13/israeli-judge-gags-report-settler-rabbi-accused-sex-offender/

Kushner & Trump Arrive In West Palm Peach Florida - Friday - 5:51 P.M. EST - Candle Lighting - 5:51 P.M. - Sunset 6:09 P.M.

  Any rabbi with any integrity at all would consider this scenario happening all through the Modern Orthodox world. " Wow....I can date a shiksa for years, then find a rabbi to convert her if my parents want her to, eat non-kosher, violate the Shabbos repeatedly, still call myself Orthodox if my father has money, and not one rabbi stands up and says this is a fraud not to be emulated" Shameful!

They deplane exactly at 5:51 P.M. EST (3:31 MST) 10:55 minutes into the video.

 Filmed by Fox Phoenix MST (2 hours behind EST). -VIDEO DISPLAYS MST TIME. (MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME)

Zmanim - Halachic Times

	Candle Lighting 5:51 PM Sunset (Shkiah) 6:09 PM

Friday, February 10, 2017

14 Shevat, 5777

http://www.chabad.org/calendar/zmanim.htm#locationId=575&locationType=1&save=1

From Palm Beach International Airport, 1000 James L Turnage Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33415

To Mar-a-Lago Club, 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480

21.6 mi. About 27 minutes

Rabbi Menachem Genack, administrator of the Orthodox Union’s kashrut division, calls Kushner “a genuine Modern Orthodox Jew … serious about his Judaism.”

RABBI HERSHEL SCHACHTER, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE RCA CONVERTED TRUMP TO JUDAISM

Palm Beach International Airport

To: Mar-a-Lago Club, 1100 S Ocean Blvd, Palm Beach, FL 33480

http://www.drivingdirectionsandmaps.com/route-planner/?from=palm+beach+intl.+airport&to=1100+s.+ocean+blvd.&how=drive#googlemap

Traveling on Erev Shabbos

 

Did Kushner/Trump Sleep At Palm Beach International Friday Night February 10, 2017? 

 

MAKING SHABBOS GREAT AGAIN

By Eliezer Wenger

Relevant Halachas to the newest Chabad Family in Washington D.C. 12. Even if  one does not need to be concerned about food when traveling on Erev Shabbos, one must make sure at the onset not to put himself in a situation where he will be arriving a short time before sunset. Such planning can often lead to the desecration of Shabbos through carrying, going out of techum Shabbos, and other violations. One should not be influenced with the arguments of the yeitzer hara that “the day is long and the roads are good12.”

13. One should be careful not to leave on a trip on Erev Shabbos after mid-day13.

A plane or ship arriving late on Friday

20. When an airplane arrives late on Friday, after Shabbos has started, and the airport is located outside of the techum Shabbos limitations of the city, the traveler is permitted to exit the airplane, but he must remain at the airport for the duration of Shabbos. He is permitted to walk around anywhere in the terminal.

If however the airport is located within the city limits, the traveler would be permitted to walk to his destination during Shabbos.

The above ruling also applies to a situation in which the traveler has boarded the airplane early enough to arrive at his destination before Shabbos, but due to unexpected delays the airplane does not take off until after Shabbos had started. Since the doors have been already closed (and the plane was on the runway awaiting takeoff clearance) the staff does not allow him to leave the airplane and he was forced to fly and land on Shabbos.

If he has valuable items with him which are not permitted to be handled on Shabbos (muktzah), but which cannot be left at the airport, he is permitted to keep them and walk around with them in the airport. However, he would not be permitted to keep them with him if he is going to leave the airport.

By Eliezer Wenger

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/289770/jewish/Traveling-on-Erev-Shabbos.htm

 

בגר שאין םהדי שלא קבל מצות אף שאמר בפיו שמקבל 
 ---  סימן קנז

 READ RABBI MOSHE FEINSTEIN'S TESHUVA:

אגרות משה - חלק ב - פיינשטיין, משה בן דוד, 1895-1986

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Prev הקודם>>

http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=917&pgnum=313

Modern Orthodoxy’s failings transcend Jared Kushner

In practice, it appears righteousness and accountability are not basic tenets of Orthodox or even Modern Orthodox culture. Whether or not the right-leaning OU — which also grievously enabled and elevated serial abuser Baruch Lanner as a dynamo for Jewish continuity — qualifies as part of the Modern Orthodox community, little has been done to avert subsequent or future abuses. As the executive who was supposed to reform that organization was being pushed out, one of the OU’s leaders unapologetically declared, “The post-Lanner era is over.” Or, as Kushner’s father-in-law would say, it was time “to move on.”

As an example of Modern Orthodoxy’s pervasive and permissive environment, it happens that Frisch itself had for years employed and touted Lanner as a teacher and administrator.

Given his unexceptional high school record, Kushner’s acceptance by Harvard highlights another iron-clad reality: the power of money, in Jewish as well as secular American life. With the understandable need to recruit and retain major donors to underwrite our economically unsustainable network of institutions, especially yeshivas and day schools, compromises are both inevitable and ubiquitous.....

MUCH MORE:

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/modern-orthodoxys-failings-transcend-jared-kushner/

President Trump should commute the rest of his sentence immediately and remove the stain on American justice

Free Sholom Now

by Jonathan Rosenblum
 
"You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," Richard Nixon said bitterly at his "last press conference" after losing his 1962 race for governor of California. Nixon proved a poor prophet; Six years later, he was elected president, and Watergate still lay in the future.

Barack Obama made no promises about going quietly into the night upon leaving office. He and his family intend to stay in Washington D.C., and he has served notice that he will not hesitate to speak out on the questions of the day.

Still, as an ex-president, his words will not require my attention, at least until Michelle decides to run for president. I have searched my heart and find no ambivalence about the loss of a frequent subject. My relief at no longer having to write the words "President Obama" is pure.

Before leaving office, however, President Obama provided plenty of last minute material by ordering his U.N. ambassador to abstain on U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, and by virtue of his exercise of his power to pardon and commute sentences.

He commuted the life sentences of 214 individuals, most convicted drug traffickers, and that of unrepentant Puerto Rican FALN terrorist Oscar Lopez-Rivera, who was responsible for dozens of bombings, at least one fatal. Most notably, Obama commuted the 35-year sentence of Bradley/Chelsea Manning, who turned over to 500,000 military reports and 250,000 State Department documents to Wikileaks, after seven years in prison.

Fox News quoted intelligence sources saying that the "Taliban went on a killing spree" of locals in Afghanistan who matched the descriptions of sources mentioned in the documents passed to Wikileaks. By letting Manning off from 80% of his sentence, writes Andrew McCarthy, the lead prosecutor of the first World Trade Center bombing, the United States has sent a message to all would be intelligence sources that the U.S. treats the reckless endangerment of their lives as a minor crime.
Edward Lucas, author of The Snowden Operation: Inside the West's Greatest Intelligence Disaster, describes how intelligence services go into panic mode whenever a breach is discovered and shut down any operation whose cover may have been blown. Multiple breaches increase the problem exponentially, as every piece of data must be assessed in terms of its utility with other data in enemy hands. Accordingly, the massive amount of data handed Wikileaks by Manning wrought havoc with U.S. intelligence.

The leniency shown to Manning immediately invites comparison to the treatment of Jonathan Pollard, who served thirty years for spying for Israel. When Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger submitted his secret impact statement at Pollard's sentencing hearing, he likely believed that documents provided by Pollard had resulted in the exposure of Soviet sources. It has been known for decades, however, that CIA official Aldrich Ames and FBI agent Robert Hanssen sold the names of the American agents to the Soviets, and deflected suspicion to Pollard. Ames was not arrested until 1994, eight years after Pollard's sentencing, and Hanssen until 2001.

Jonathan Pollard committed serious crimes and was punished far more severely than any operative ever convicted of transferring information to an American ally. Even today, after his release from jail, he remains subject to onerous conditions, including that he wear an electronic transmitter around his wrist and that any computer he uses be subject to continuous government monitoring (a condition that prevented him from securing employment.)

Jonathan Pollard has long since ceased to constitute a security risk, according to former CIA Director James Woolsey; unlike Manning, he did not act to harm the U.S. military; he did not cost the United States valuable human intelligence assets, as did Manning; and he paid a price over four times greater than Manning.

President Obama should have removed the onerous restrictions remaining on Jonathan Pollard, as he did for Manning. President Trump should do so today.

The commutations issued by Obama call to mind another federal prisoner as well: Sholom Mordechai Rubaskin. Obama believes that the statutes under which the convicted drug traffickers were sentenced – sentences legislated in large part at the insistence of the Black Congressional Caucus alarmed by the crack epidemic in black neighborhoods – were too onerous.

But the 27-year sentence handed down to Rubaskin for fraud on a bank loan application was almost entirely the result of prosecutorial abuse. Under federal sentencing guidelines the sentence was based on the financial damage to the bank in question.

Federal prosecutors told the trustee in bankruptcy that they would nix the sale of Agriprocessors to any entity with a connection to Rubaskin family members. As a consequence, one potential offer of $40 million for the bankrupt business, which would have been adequate to pay off the entirety of the bank losses, was withdrawn, and the business eventually sold for less than a quarter of that amount. Those same prosecutors then suborned false testimony from counsel for the trustee in bankruptcy to cover up what they had done.

Four former U.S. attorneys-general, two former FBI directors, and dozens of law professors and former justice department officials have written to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa calling upon him to remove the effect of the fraud perpetrated by prosecutors in his office. In the absence of that fraud, Rubashkin would have been sentenced to under four years: He has already served more than seven.

The drug traffickers were sentenced under the mandatory sentencing requirements in place at the time of their convictions. Sholom Rubaskin was sentenced so harshly solely because of prosecutorial fraud.

President Trump should commute the rest of his sentence immediately and remove the stain on American justice.

http://www.jewishmediaresources.com/1862/free-sholom-now-reflections-on-the-passing-of

The one and only Schwartzie z"l - Was Not Shy To Express Himself on Fraudulent Conversions!

 

"Altho yr surname is [Katz] & U spk Yiddish, thts still does not make yr mother's NON Orthodox 'conversion' kosher [valid]," he wrote to her. "Tht means tht if U ever met a Jewish man who's family Rabbi was Orthodox or, who wanted 2 get married in Israel, U could NOT! ... I appreciate tht U were 'brought up' as a Jew (even tho yr father 'married' out of the faith ), but U may not come 2 any more Chai Center events.... We consider INTERMARRAIGE a grt tragedy for the Jewish ppl, even if the non Jewish person in the equation thinks & feels Jewish.... In the eyes of Al-mighty G*d, it's important 4 U NOT 2 date Jewish men. The result of which could, G-d forbid, end in grt tragedy, 4 both of U."

Shocked and pained, Katz wrote back to Schwartzie, reiterating her commitment to Judaism. In the escalating exchange, Schwartzie castigated Katz's late father for choosing to marry a non-Jew, and about Katz's recently deceased mother, he wrote: "She might have been agrt mother, but as a 'Jewish' mother she was a miserable failure! In truth she really was not a FAILURE as a Jew; since, in the eyes of G-d (where it COUNTS) she wasn't!"

  MUCH MORE:  http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2008/02/former-chabad-r.html

by Lisa Mechanick

Jerusalem, Israel · 

Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz (Schwartzie), a Lubavitcher known for his colorful and unconventional approach to outreach in Los Angeles, passed away.

Rabbi Shlomo Schwartz, a veteran activist of Jewish outreach whose circle of influence expanded well beyond his California base, passed away on Wednesday, 12 Shvat 5777.

He was 71 and has battled multiple myeloma (Kahler's disease).

Schwartzie, as he was known, was born in Atlantic City, NJ, the son of a conservative cantor, who had fled Vienna in 1939. Despite being a onetime bongo-thumping Greenwich Village beatnik, he was drawn to Judaism's mystical aspects.

At 19, he abandoned New York's Yeshiva University for Chabad's Yeshiva at the Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, NJ, where he studied Chassidus and drew inspiration from the Rebbe's teachings.

"I figured I could always hang out in the Village," he told the Los Angeles Times. "Studying with a rabbi seemed more difficult, so I decided to try that first. I wanted to leave in the beginning a few times, but I ultimately saw a future there."

At 23, married and with a child, he decided his calling was outreach, and the place in most need was Los Angeles. California's Head Shliach Rabbi Shlomo Cunin placed Schwartzie at Chabad House at University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Westwood district, the first such center in the world.

Over the next 13 years, Schwartzie became a highly visible campus figure, setting up his stand on the main student thoroughfare, next to the Moonies and Christian missionaries and reaching out to Jewish students.

Never shy from using unconventional methods, he wore T-shirts that read, "I survived Hebrew school," ran prayer services in English, and organized mixers such as the "Coming Out Party for Closet Jewry" and annual Purim Party at the Comedy Store.

"Humor is the medium that dispels the misconception that Judaism is uptight and serious, retrospective and Holocaust-oriented," he said, adding that he "could identify nine out of 10 students as Jews just by their looks. The other one was either Armenian or Italian."

For many Sundays, he set up a folding table at Venice Beach boardwalk and affixed a prominent "Jewish Astrology!" placard, thereby meeting and changing the lives of thousands of Jewish people.
He later founded and directed the Chai Center, a nonprofit organization he ran with his wife, Olivia, and their 12 children from their Mar Vista home.

The rabbi's impact is not just recognized in the local observant Jewish communities, but also in the entertainment industry, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1997.

Schwartzie, as he was known, said his students have included actors Richard Dreyfuss and Elliott Gould, radio personality Dennis Prager, talent manager Joan Hyler and record producer Richard Perry.

A master storyteller and inspirational speaker, it was not uncommon for him to make "office calls" in Century City to lead lunchtime Torah classes for lawyers and Hollywood executives.

His supporters noted his unorthodox approach, based on the premise that if Jews, especially the younger generation, won't go to synagogues or join Jewish organizations, then he has to go where they normally gather, or provide a setting in which they feel comfortable.

"I've been called a Reform Chassid and God's court jester, but whatever the label, I do believe that to bring Jews back into the fold one must serve G-d with joy," he once said.

Rabbi Schwartzie has lectured at Chabad centers and Jewish communities throughout the United States as well as Canada and Israel.

He is survived by his wife Olivia and children Chana (LA), Shalom Yishaya (Crown Heights), Rivka Sara Chein (Crown Heights), Mayshe Schwartz (Brookline MA), Hindel Swerdlov (Jerusalem), Mendel Schwartz (LA), Nechama Dina Schallman (LA), Yosef Schwartz (Miami), Aura Rosenblatt (LA), Shmuel Asher Schwartz (LA), Berry Schwartz (LA), and Cobi Schwartz (LA).

Baruch Dayan Ha'emes.

In February 2015 Australia’s most senior rabbi resigned after testimony heard by the commission revealed he had sent a message calling the father of some victims “a lunatic.” A week earlier Yosef Feldman, director of the Yeshivah Center, resigned after admitting to the commission that he “didn’t have a clue” that it might be criminal for a member of staff to touch the genitals of a student and that he was unaware of the correct procedures for reporting incidents of sex abuse, The Guardian reported.

1 in 14 Catholic priests accused of child abuse in Australia

Inquiry commission hears how records were destroyed, religious figures reassigned when accusations surfaced

 

Yaakov Perlow, Novominsker - Covered Up For Yudi Kolko Since 1986

 Shmuel Kaminetzky - Covered Up For Moshe Eisemann for 50 Years

YISROEL BELSKY - NO ORTHODOX JEWISH CHILD MOLESTERS EVER!

Matisyahu Salomon - "ONE child molester slipped through his fingers!"

By AFP and Times of Israel staff

 

Cardinal George Pell walks onto the stage for the opening mass for World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, July 15, 2008.

SYDNEY Australia — Seven percent of Catholic priests were accused of abusing children in Australia between 1950 and 2010 but the allegations were never investigated, “shocking and indefensible” data showed Monday during an inquiry into pedophilia in the church.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that 4,444 alleged incidents of pedophilia were reported to church authorities and in some dioceses, more than 15 percent of priests were perpetrators. 

Australia ordered the Royal Commission in 2012 after a decade of growing pressure to investigate allegations of child abuse across the country, with the inquiry now in its final phase after four years of hearings.

“Between 1950 and 2010, overall seven percent of priests were alleged perpetrators,” said Gail Furness, the lawyer leading questioning at the inquiry in Sydney.

“The accounts were depressingly similar. Children were ignored or worse, punished. Allegations were not investigated. Priests and religious (figures) were moved,” she added.

“The parishes or communities to which they were moved knew nothing of their past. Documents were not kept or they were destroyed. Secrecy prevailed as did cover ups.”

The average age of the victims at the time was 10 for girls and 11 for boys.

Of the 1,880 alleged perpetrators, 90 percent were men.

The St John of God Brothers religious order was the worst, with just over 40 percent of members accused of abuse.

The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools.

The church in Australia set up the Truth, Justice and Healing Council to coordinate its response.

“These numbers are shocking, they are tragic, they are indefensible,” its chief executive Francis Sullivan told the commission.

“This data, along with all we have heard over the past four years, can only be interpreted for what it is: a massive failure on the part of the Catholic Church in Australia to protect children from abusers.

“As Catholics we hang our heads in shame.”

The inquiry has embroiled Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric George Pell, now the Vatican’s finance chief, who was questioned over his dealings with paedophile priests in Victoria state in the 1970s.

Pell was also accused of historic sex abuse claims when he was the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney in 2002, but was later cleared of any wrongdoing. He has denied all allegations.

Since being set up, the commission has made over 300 referrals to police but so far there have only been 27 prosecutions with 75 cases pending.

The commission began its investigation in 2013. It has investigated the Catholic Church, the Australian Scouts, a yoga ashram and other groups, and has made inquiries into several sexual-assault cases in the Jewish community in order to report how those institutions responded to sexual abuse against children and how they prevented it — or failed to.

In February 2015 Australia’s most senior rabbi resigned after testimony heard by the commission revealed he had sent a message calling the father of some victims “a lunatic.”

Meir Shlomo Kluwgant stepped down from his position as president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia as well as from the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, making him the third high-profile rabbi to resign amid the inquiries into sexual abuse at educational institutions.

A week earlier Yosef Feldman, director of the Yeshivah Center, resigned after admitting to the commission that he “didn’t have a clue” that it might be criminal for a member of staff to touch the genitals of a student and that he was unaware of the correct procedures for reporting incidents of sex abuse, The Guardian reported.

Rabbi Abraham Glick, who headed the yeshiva, also resigned at the time.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/1-in-14-catholic-priests-accused-of-child-abuse-in-australia/

What other country does this? What other country stops the presses to announce -- Hello World, We’re Building More Homes. But over the years some of us have noticed Israel’s habit of going public each time it hires an architect?

Build, but shut up about it, says Trump

 What other country stops the presses to announce that it is building more homes?

  by Jack Engelhard

Already a rift? No. Not exactly. But Israel needs to get some gambling smarts.

Israel’s leaders sometimes take their cue from the lovable fools of Chelm. No surprises. They tell the enemy every move ahead of time.
Trump is Trump and he already knows what he’ll do but keeps his cards folded. That’s the art of his deal.

For Trump the winning move is the element of surprise.

Israel’s leaders sometimes take their cue from the lovable fools of Chelm. No surprises. They tell the enemy every move ahead of time which is bad poker and bad politics, so wrong that it’s got Trump and his team rattled and irked. Now we hear that Trump is unhappy about more homes being built within “the settlements.”

Earlier the settlements were okay. Why the mixed signals?

Most likely, Trump is bothered that Israel keeps announcing each and every plan weeks in advance, which allows the entire world to gear up in protest.

Rather, Trump says, shut up and build. That sounds more like Trump who is asking Israel to play smart and to move only when the table is in your favor.

“Not helpful in promoting peace,” said his White House spokesman today – and where have we heard that before?

Never from Trump. So something’s gone wrong and I don’t think it’s entirely Trump’s fault, nor do I think here we go again. He’s Obama all over again.

That won’t happen. But over the years some of us have noticed Israel’s habit of going public each time it hires an architect. As for me, it’s been an astonishment how Israel telegraphs every move, particularly when it comes to housing in Judea and Samaria. Who asked? 

What other country does this? What other country stops the presses to announce -- Hello World, We’re Building More Homes.

Got a problem with that? – and in unison the world says yes.

That IS the wisdom of Chelm if you expect any other outcome, and that has to be the cause of Trump’s annoyance. Immediately Israel’s High Court gets into the act along with the “peace groups” and Haaretz and The New York Times and a day later France invites 70 countries for a Paris summit to denounce the Jewish State.

That leaves Trump boxed in and he says so himself, that it cramps his style and his space to maneuver.

How many times a day can he take on the entire world, as he’s been doing, and now must carry Israel on his back – as he has it figured.

All for no good reason except that Israeli leaders do not know when to keep quiet. Instead they keep rubbing it in and keep asking for trouble.

The trouble comes when they speak loudly and then expect the United States to carry the big stick…like stopping the UN from another 2334.

Have we forgotten that personally Trump owes us nothing? The overwhelming majority of American Jews voted against him. He knows this.

The same majority protests his partial travel restrictions, which means that while he wants to keep anti-Semites out, we want them in.

Even pockets of Israelis were shown on television protesting Trump’s immigration pause. That hurt and it sure wasn’t “helpful” in terms of friendship.

Now we hear that Trump favors a two-state solution and where did he get that if not from Benjamin Netanyahu who keeps promoting that dangerous nonsense.

We can’t ask Trump to be more Jewish than the Jews or more Israeli than the Israelis.

Our only claim on Trump is that we are family. The United States and Israel share the same values.
Only Israel can be counted on through thick or thin throughout the region and he needs Israel as much as Israel needs him.

Trump knows this. But he’s asking Israel to play by new rules, which is to shut up and deal only when the time is right.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” For books like his award-winning memoir “Escape from Mount Moriah,” he is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20129

“Studying to become a rabbi or heading down that path is really all about becoming very engrossed and very adept at interpretation of Jewish law, of the Talmud. And I had to learn to find my own truths, and little by little, as they say in Judaism, I ‘left the path.’”.... But perhaps he never left at all - LOVE YOUR CHILD!!

How covering Simon and Garfunkel brought a heavy metal rock star back to his Jewish roots (Perhaps He Never Really Did Leave --- LOVE YOUR CHILD)

David Draiman of the band Disturbed

(JTA) — Before David Draiman became famous as the singer of the heavy metal band Disturbed, he trained to be a cantor.

That didn’t go so well. Growing up in Chicago, he was expelled from three different yeshivas, and after a rowdy night of Purim drinking as a teenager, he blew up his high school rabbi’s van.

While that may have made him notorious among local kids back in the day, seven Disturbed albums and millions of record sales later, Draiman is now best known for his guttural vocal yells — not his Jewish school antics.

This year, Disturbed is nominated for a Grammy for a cover of  Simon and Garfunkel’s song “The Sound of Silence” — something that brought Draiman, 43, back a bit closer to his cantor-in-training days.

Instead of churning out a loud, heavy-metal version of the song, the group decided to keep their recording soft and acoustic. Draiman got to showcase his smoother, classically-trained voice — which reminded him of the days when he thought he might one day lead a Jewish congregation in song.

“I was so overwhelmed with emotion listening to the way my vocals sounded in that beautiful bed of music,” Draiman told NPR last month. “Not having heard my voice in that way for so long, it was really just very, very overwhelming.”

He also revealed to NPR that he seriously considered becoming a rabbi.

“My religious upbringing was always something that was difficult for me to swallow willingly, but the intellectual aspect of it, the academic aspect of it was very, very appealing to me,” he said.

“Studying to become a rabbi or heading down that path is really all about becoming very engrossed and very adept at interpretation of Jewish law, of the Talmud. And I had to learn to find my own truths, and little by little, as they say in Judaism, I ‘left the path.’”

Today Draiman is pretty secular, though he calls himself “intensely spiritual.” He is also a big fan of fellow Jewish musician Paul Simon.

“If we are blessed with winning the Grammy this time, I would have to dedicate it to the original songwriter himself, to Paul Simon,” he said. “No one can really take away the sheer utter brilliance of the composition of that song.”

http://www.jta.org/2017/02/02/arts-entertainment/how-covering-simon-and-garfunkel-brought-a-heavy-metal-rock-star-back-to-his-jewish-roots?utm_source=Newsletter+subscribers&utm_campaign=2f8875245b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dce5bc6f8-2f8875245b-27072289