The Union for Traditional Judaism (UTJ) is hosting a special “awareness” program featuring rabbis and children advocates who stand on the forefront of combating this Chilul HaShem. The program is Sunday, March 15, from 9:30a.m. - 1:00p.m. at UTJ Headquarters, 811 Palisade Ave., Teaneck, N.J. To register or for more information, call (201) 801-0707 ext. 200
Featured speakers are:
Rabbi Mark Dratch, Executive Director of JSafe, a nonprofit organization committed to combating child abuse and domestic violence in homes, schools, yeshivot and in the community
Rabbi Fred Hyman, congregational rabbi in Springfield, MA. Rabbi Hyman has become an advocate on behalf of victims of child molestation
Rabbi Dr. Michael Kaplowitz, psychiatrist in private practice who directs the pastoral counseling course for rabbinical students at the ITJ. He is also Director of Behavioral Health at the Blanche Kahn Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Michael Lesher Esq. writer, journalist and attorney who has fought on behalf of mothers and children navigating the dangerous terrain of the family court system.
Dr. Rachel Yehuda, Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at Mt. Sinai.
Elliot Pasik Esq. of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children will provide copies of a legislative proposal aimed at helping victims.
Webcast available for those outside the New York Area. Please call 201-801-0707 ext. 200 to inquire.
Program includes continental breakfast. (To encourage members of the Agudath Israel to attend - UOJ add-on, I could not resist)
Mitch Morrison
Group Editor
CSP Information Group
973-685-2882
mmorrison@cspnet.com
*
My name is Mikele Rauch.
I am a psychotherapist in Boston, and have been working with men and women who are survivors of clergy and rabbinical sex-abuse since 1990.
I am pleased to announce that my book, Healing the Soul after Religious Abuse: The Dark Heaven of Recovery -- will be in print at the end of March. (http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C34670.aspx )
It speaks about the impact of religious abuse not only on the psyche but the soul, and how to recover the deepest parts of the self, rediscover the sacred and create meaning again.
There are powerful interviews with persons from all five major religions, who were survivors of sexual, physical and ritual abuse, as well as homophobia, racism, sexism and misogyny in religious cultures. The book looks at shame and its place in individual development and religious community. Healing the Soul explores leadership and narcissism in religious clergy, especially the powerful and potential dangerous connection between spiritual guide and those he or she serves. There is also a special section about the unique nature of the guru disciple relationship and how abuses happen in the context of Buddhism and Hinduism and how that interfaces with Westerners and western culture. The book grapples with the paradox of "holiness" and spiritual stature, and how persons with such stature still are capable of doing harm.
Healing the Soul has both a personal story and a larger viewpoint, about hope and possibilities in the face of darkness and alienation.
Because the book has a small distribution, the price is $44.95. If you wish to read it but do not want to purchase the book, please contact your local library acquisitions and request the book.
Praeger Publishers
Book Code: C34670
ISBN: 0-313-34670-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-34670-5
DOI: 10.1336/0313346704
Purchases can be made through --- malesurvivor.org:
http://www.malesurvivor.org/bookstore.html.
All orders through malesurvivor.org will receive a 40% discount.
Thank you for your attention. Peace in all the important work you do for those who suffer.
*
I traveled to Albany on Wednesday as part of a SFJ sponsored trip to meet with our representatives and express support for a bill pending in the Assembly and Senate that, if passed, will open a one year window in the current statute of limitations and allow victims of sexual abuse to file civil suits and expose their abusers. The Catholic Church and certain Orthodox Jewish groups are aggressively opposing the bill and trying to intimidate our legislators into withdrawing their support for the bill. The Legislators we met with were very impressed with the presence of Orthodox and secular Jews pushing for the passage of the bills. Please combat the Church’s campaign by taking a minute to copy the message below, add the specific name of the representative you are addressing the letter to, and e-mailing it to as many members of the Assembly and Senators as you are able. I’ve included a link on the UOJ sidebar above, which will give you the e-mail and mailing information for your representatives. Please make our voice heard. Every letter and e-mail will make a difference. The Church sent 700 letters, I hope we can surpass that. Thank you for your help.
Joel Engelman
Hon. (name), Senator, State of New York
Dear Senator (name):
I am a member of the Jewish community. As a constituent, I strongly urge you to support, without amendment, the Child Victims Act of New York, recently introduced in the Senate as Bill #S2568 by Senator Thomas Duane.
There is a virulent but silent epidemic of child sexual abuse in our society. FBI studies show that one in five children will be sexually abused by the age of 18! Measures such as safety zones, offender registries, safe environments, and background checks help with known abusers, but we need to do much more to discover the unknown predators, those who are often shielded by New York's archaic and inadequate Statute of Limitations on Child Sexual Abuse. Since predators are known to abuse multiple victims—as many as 100—we can not continue to let New York's children be at risk!
Studies reveal that children who are victims of this heinous crime require many years into adulthood to gain the strength and courage to name their abuser. And only 10% of these crimes are ever reported! I hope you agree we must change this appalling situation.
The Child Victims Act would accomplish the following:
1. Extend the deadline for a victim to file a claim in court—from age 23 to age 28.
2. Suspend the Limitations for just one year, so those who have been denied justice in the past when little was known of this silent epidemic, and victims could be more readily intimated into silence, can now have their day in court.
When California enacted such a suspension, more than 300 previously undetected predators were discovered. We must do the same for the children of New York!
Please don't let NY state law be used against our children! I will call your office next week for your position on this bill, and to answer any questions.
Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter. Thanks, too, for all that you do for the people of New York.
Sincerely yours,
61 comments:
Shor of Lipa fame has done it again. Before a crowd of adoring listeners he invoked his own holiness at a meeting in Ihr Hakodesh Muncey and denounced those rabbis that have sided with Wiengarten's wife and children. Screaming that the rabbonim are "mosers" and that they will forever burn in hell he then gave out some outdated rubbish as proof of Wiengarten's innocence. The fool has made his mark.....again. Is his mother still alive to clean up after his poop?
A COMMENT REGARDING THE WINGARTEN VERDICT, by someone who hopes to see Mondrowitz sit it out a long time together with all pedophiles and sex molesters.
Put aside the fact that the Torah (clearly, most of those writing here are unfamiliar with the word, however, its a reference to the LAW authored by HASHEM and given to the Jewish people on Har Sinai) does not recognize testimony of a daughter and son against their father. The same goes for testimony by a wife against a husband.
Did the feds ever once, during all the years they prepared this case, interview his six children that remained under his custody? NO!
If the father was a perverted sex molester as his estranged oldest daughter alleged, surely the father would have been doing the same to his three other daughters that remained under his exclusive custody for nearly five years? Yet, those three daughters and his three sons under his custody all vehemently deny any such claim.
The prosecutor said yesterday that the other children were "brainwashed" by their father. Baloney! How could she know to say that without having ever spoken to them or having had them examined by a forensic psychologist. As already stated, even the feds during their investigation did not interview those six children. If the investigator was seeking the truth, and presumably concerned with their safety, why were those other children not questioned?
The same question applies at the Grand Jury; why were the other six children kept out of the Grand jury and never questioned?
This case is born out of a filthy custody battle. In the background is a very wicked estranged wife with a sexually unstable oldest daughter and very perverted oldest son. These three evils shamelessly banded together to destroy the lives of their religiously stable siblings and father. Is it difficult in this country to find anti-Semitic individuals willing to help with the libeling of religious Jews? And just which side of the family did they say was "brainwashed"? Oh yes, only the religious side. As to the oldest irreligious sexually unstable daughter and perverted son, surely its not a possibility that they were "brainwashed"? It's not a possibility that they were out only seeking to libel their religious father.
After the initial arrest, the judge ruled that Mr. Weingarten was a flight risk - give me a break. Mr. Weingarten was not allowed by the judge to be free on bail, even with an electronic ankle bracelet- even while his passport and the passports of his six children under his custody were held by the FBI. Accordingly, Weingarten was denied the right to properly prepare his defense. He could not personally raise money for proper legal counsel. He was not able to choose his own lawyers. Instead, he had to take the counsel that was shoved in his face. Those lawyers were never willing to hear his side of the story, or at minimum they did not get along well in an attorney-client relationship. Whether right or wrong, Weingarten did not trust them.
While those lawyers represented him, important evidence in the defense of Mr. Weingarten was not properly and timely presented to the court. Therefore it was not acceptable at trial because it was considered "late". There were tape recordings of the mother and daughter planning against the father with lies, discussing how to libel him, which were never admitted as evidence at trial. The list goes on and on. Is that a definition of “justice”?
When the other two daughters of Weingarten –the religious ones- got up to testify everything they said that showed the truth was objected to, and the judge stopped their testimony after a few sentences. You cannot even blame the jury for their verdict because they were kept in the dark as to all the true facts.
Consider the above, which is just a tip of the iceberg of the injustices that went on in this case, when you rule against a man that the Torah considers to be b'chezkas kashrus and without even a "rayach shel chshad”. Those who have written against an innocent man who was the victim of nothing more than a "legal lyching" have much Teshuva to do.
You mamash could not make this stuff up. Was it Shorr himself who wrote the previous comment?
The fact he "only" molested one daughter proves his innocence? O.J. Simpson only murdered one woman, so he must be innocent, right?
The forces of evil are out there all around us. People have told me that Shor, although he screwed up with Lipa, is really good when it comes to child abuse. Yeah, he's going to become the next president of Yedei Esav. Wonderful.
Is there no way to shut this man up? He is like the Al Sharpton of our community.
Could we get someone to say he's a roydef and give somebody like Yigal Amir ideas????
With the patience of a mother to a little child who beleives they are all grown up already I will try to be nice to poter #2 and show how his logic his just not logical (too put it mildly)
First, your first line does not endear you to the readers here. Quite the kosher CHAZER FEESEL if I may say....
The Torah bit including what you said in parentesis is sadly far from torah. Unless you chose to ignore it delibirately you have made a fatal error in exposing your ignorance of the torah you so painfully put out here. The rishonim and early achronim unequivocaly state that where it is impossible to have had kosher wintess to see the deed being done, both a child/minor or 1 woman has the ne'emonus of 2 KOSER adult male witnesses. Ask your local rabbi to show you these halachos in RAMBAM MaHaral etc. or see the lengthy Teshuvo written by Harav Wozner citing multiple sources.
You asked a question next if the feds bothered to question the younger siblings then emphaticaly answered "NO!" Well, I question as to whether it would make sense questioning the 6 younger siblings when most were not born yet when the abuse was perpetrated or were todlers at the time. Furthermore, the next daughter is so messed up and in trauma that her defense of her father is worthless. After all she went through I don't think she has any sanity left. THIS SECOND DAUGHTER TOO WAS REPEATEDLY LAID AND SODOMIZED BY HER FATHER. GIVE HER A FEW YEARS OUT OF HER FATHER'S HOME AND WATCH HER STORIES COME OUT!
Your next line should elicit hearty laughter. The fact a murderer has not killed again when given the chance does not mean he never killed anyone. Besides, molesters are very selctive of prey and single out one victim, isolate them and then the fun begins.
The feds have so much dirt on the defendant they decided to spare further traumatizing the young ones. The case is ironclad and what you will here during sentencing hearings will further strengthen an already rock solid case.
Weingarten was and is a flight risk. Lets see, Mondrowitz, Colmer, Leizerowitz, crazy eddie and tens more fugitives, of sexual and nonsexual crimes have evaded prosecution of the case by high tailing to Israel, Brazil and even London.
Weingarten had the unlimited resources and financial backing of Monsey's wealthiest satmar chassidim. His cause was warmly endorsed by the likes of Roshei Yeshiva Moshe Green and Simcha Schorr. His lawyers were chosen by those with unlimited funds to spend for his defense. If they were not fit to defend him, he has only his cronnies to blame. If what you say is true, that vital evidence was not admitted in court surely it will be grounds for a retrial. Don't bet on faring any better the second time around.
The transcript shows no instance where the defenses testimony was supressed.
Your cheskas kashrus and chshad bit is a classic bull shit blurb. His chazkas kashrus went out he window years ago with the establishment of the kol D'lo possuk.
BTW, you surely know that the perps sibling has stated that he too was molested by the rosho. Wait to hear his summation at sentencing. Curious to see you spin that one.
Sorry folks. You are confusing the Schoor thing. It is Yisroel Simcha Schoor, grand rabbi of Fartscroll and head honcho of Ohr Sameach that is defending the molester/rapist/sodomizer/incestuous pig. These brothers are on a suicide mission to outdo eachother in making an ass of themselves. I'd love to see how he gets himself out of this friggin mess while saving face.
Ger is mobilizing to defend the monster Weingarten even when the menuval is satmar. How low can you go?!
Anon;
You're missing the key point: Weingarten served as his own lawyer and had a fool for a client. Don't blame the Prosecutor.
"Right Hook" Shor is one of the Poster Boys for all that is wrong and corrupt with D-ASS Toiyrah.
The Chilul Hashem of the concurrent Weingarten/Boruhkov cases, "Ponzi" Made-Off, the severe tornado economic downturn, the Bim-Bam/Clinton increasing pressure on Israel, the virulent anti-Semitic attacks across Europe, the Worlds turning a blind eye to the Iranian development of a nuclear Bomb, are all pointing "scapegoat" in our direction ever closer.
Keep your Passports current, close, and at the Ready.
Ik'Veseh De'Moshicha.
Oh, and his defense in Bais Din was that he was checking her for Pinworms! Gevaldt!!!!!!!!!!!
Schoor said at his speach last nite that his cronnie Moishe Green commented that the recent death of a Monsey askan's 2 year old daughter and other senseless tragic events was perhaps because the askan davens with rav Wozner in Ger and failed to throw Rabbi Wozner out of the shul for supporting the victim. These Schoor terorists will stop at nothing to prove they have a serious genetic defect. Madmen in Black....
Whos is behind Bim (The Manchurian Candidate) Bam President?
___________________________________
* OPINION: WONDER LAND
* MARCH 12, 2009
The Obama Rosetta Stone
By DANIEL HENNINGER
Barack Obama has written two famous, widely read books of autobiography -- "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope." Let me introduce his third, a book that will touch everyone's life: "A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise. The President's Budget and Fiscal Preview" (Government Printing Office, 141 pages, $26; free on the Web). This is the U.S. budget for laymen, and it's a must read.
Turn immediately to page 11. There sits a chart called Figure 9. This is the Rosetta Stone to the presidential mind of Barack Obama. Memorize Figure 9, and you will never be confused. Not happy, perhaps, but not confused.
[The Obama Rosetta Stone]
One finds many charts in a federal budget, most attributed to such deep mines of data as the Census Bureau or the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The one on page 11 is attributed to "Piketty and Saez."
Either you know instantly what "Piketty and Saez" means, or you don't. If you do, you spent the past two years working to get Barack Obama into the White House. If you don't, their posse has a six-week head start on you.
Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, French economists, are rock stars of the intellectual left. Their specialty is "earnings inequality" and "wealth concentration."
Messrs. Piketty and Saez have produced the most politically potent squiggle along an axis since Arthur Laffer drew his famous curve on a napkin in the mid-1970s. Laffer's was an economic argument for lowering tax rates for everyone. Piketty-Saez is a moral argument for raising taxes on the rich.
Podcast
As described in Mr. Obama's budget, these two economists have shown that by the end of 2004, the top 1% of taxpayers "took home" more than 22% of total national income. This trend, Fig. 9 notes, began during the Reagan presidency, skyrocketed through the Clinton years, dipped after George Bush beat Al Gore, then marched upward. Widening its own definition of money-grubbers, the budget says the top 10% of households "held" 70% of total wealth.
Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute criticized the Piketty-Saez study on these pages in October 2007. Whatever its merits, their "Top 1%" chart has become a totemic obsession in progressive policy circles.
Turn to page five of Mr. Obama's federal budget, and one may read these commentaries on the top 1% datum:
"While middle-class families have been playing by the rules, living up to their responsibilities as neighbors and citizens, those at the commanding heights of our economy have not."
"Prudent investments in education, clean energy, health care and infrastructure were sacrificed for huge tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected."
"There's nothing wrong with making money, but there is something wrong when we allow the playing field to be tilted so far in the favor of so few. . . . It's a legacy of irresponsibility, and it is our duty to change it."
Wonder Land Columnist Daniel Henninger on the latest autobiographical work from Barack Obama.
Mr. Obama made clear in the campaign his intention to raise taxes on this income class by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. What is becoming clearer as his presidency unfolds is that something deeper is underway here than merely using higher taxes to fund his policy goals in health, education and energy.
The "top 1%" isn't just going to pay for these policies. Many of them would assent to that. The rancorous language used to describe these taxpayers makes it clear that as a matter of public policy they will be made to "pay for" the fact of their wealth -- no matter how many of them worked honestly and honorably to produce it. No Democratic president in 60 years has been this explicit.
Complaints have emerged recently, on the right and left, that the $787 billion stimulus bill will produce less growth and jobs than planned because too much of it goes to social programs and transfer payments, or "weak" Keynesian stimulus. The administration's Romer-Bernstein study on the stimulus estimated by the end of next year it would increase jobs by 3.6 million and GDP by 3.7%.
One of the first technical examinations of the Romer-Bernstein projections has been released by Hoover Institution economists John Cogan and John Taylor, and German economists Tobias Cwik and Volker Wieland. They conclude that the growth and jobs stimulus will be only one-sixth what the administration predicts. In part, this is because people anticipate that the spending burst will have to be financed by higher taxes and so will spend less than anticipated.
New York's Mike Bloomberg, mayor of an economically damaged city, has noted the pointlessness of raising taxes on the rich when their wealth is plummeting, or of eliminating the charitable deduction for people who have less to give anyway.
True but irrelevant. Mayor Bloomberg should read the Obama budget chapter, "Inheriting a Legacy of Misplaced Priorities." The economy as most people understand it was a second-order concern of the stimulus strategy. The primary goal is a massive re-flowing of "wealth" from the top toward the bottom, to stop the moral failure they see in the budget's "Top One Percent of Earners" chart.
The White House says its goal is simple "fairness." That may be, as they understand fairness. But Figure 9 makes it clear that for the top earners, there will be blood. This presidency is going to be an act of retribution. In the words of the third book from Mr. Obama, "it is our duty to change it."
Write to henninger@wsj.com
Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.
Tzakka HaNaara V'Ein Moshea Lo
Katsav accuser: 'He tried to take down my pants, there was a struggle'
By Tomer Zarchin
Tags: Israel News, Moshe Katsav
A., who worked for former president Moshe Katsav at the Tourism Ministry while he was the minister, was questioned by the police on in September 2006.
At that session she was asked if she had anything new to tell the police since her last testimony. A. pulled out a piece of paper:
"I wrote [things down] so I would not forget," and told of the rape in Katsav's Tourism Ministry office in Tel Aviv.
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Where did it happen? In the office in Tel Aviv? asked Superintendent Ronen Meir who conducted the questioning.
"Usually they opened the office for him, but no one was in the office. It was evening. We returned from some event ... It was, and then ... Only the two of us were in the office. And then I told you, we were sitting on a chair, two chairs... Then he started to touch .. and I was trying..." said A.
Where did he touch you, where? the investigator asked.
"On the chest, on .. the top part... He tried to take down my pants, and then I told you then, that suddenly in the middle I found myself on the floor with him. And then he tried, I said, I had pants with elastic, I remember that, and then suddenly there was sort of a struggle. He pulled the pants and .. I tried and .. in the end the pants were ... yes, then he simply pulled with force," she explained.
What did he pull, your underwear? Meir asked.
"Yes, he opened his pants. He didn't really pull them down, no he didn't really pull them down, no ...he didn't remain, that, yes, no... didn't remain without pants and without underwear. And then ... you know, already at some stage, like, I struggled with him.... At some stage, I didn't have strength any more, I told you that all the time ... even in such a situation how much .. all the time ... You know he's your boss, and you can't, like, give him a kick like that. And then there was what there was, what I told you," said A.
And he penetrated with his penis? the investigator asked.
"Yes."
Okay. How long did it last? the investigator asked.
It wasn't, it was a few seconds... Since all the time I pushed him away. Listen, a few seconds can be an eternity, it can also be a second and a half, I don't know if it was two seconds or ten seconds."
How do you know his penis penetrated? Did you feel it? I am sorry I'm asking you, said the police investigator.
"No, it was ... Yes. He wasn't ... I all the time pushed him off and ..."
Okay. And you say he penetrated, and then what? He climaxed? asked the investigator.
"No, I... It was sort of ... half a penetration sort of ... He inserted his penis, but not all the way since I pushed him off. Then it was over as far as I was concerned. That is why it was important to me now .. And all the time that I hear all his denials in the press it simply drives me crazy."
On February 18, 2007 A. told police of another rape incident in a Jerusalem hotel.
"Roman Catholic and Orthodox Jewish officials in New York are mounting an intense lobbying effort to block a bill before the State Legislature that would temporarily lift the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging the sexual abuse of children."
New York Times
I am THE Mashgiach of Whore Someach in Monsey. The same way Rav Solomon is THE Mashgiach in Lakewood.
With my brilliant chuchmas, is there a wonder why so many BT kids in Monsey are at-risk. Most of the BT"s ask me for aitzas.
COME HONOR ME This Sunday.
I am being honored by the VAAD L'HATZOLAS NIDCHEI YISROEL for all my ge'oinus. The same VAAD employing Eisenman. The VAAD is a project of Agudah.
Baruch Hashem molesters are still loved and cared for by the yeshivish crowd. What a kiddush Hashem.
This is a tragic comedy. Ger protects Leizerowitz and Mondrowitz turning a blind eye and a stone heart to all the countless victims. Now his mechutan sruli schor uses the ger shul to bully pulpit Rabbis Gold, Wozner and Rottenberg. A cursed subnation of singleminded zombies so busy channeling sex desires away from the spouses to the rape and sodomy of little children. Die animals!
who is moishe mendlowitz that mishpacha profiled? you bro UOJ?
I was molested by rabbi moishe eisemann. not only did he go away unpunished but this is what wikipedia has to say about him: Rabbi Moshe Eisenmann, prolific author of many books on Jewish topics, who served as its second mashgiach ruchani and is presently retired. shame that he is still at ner...
In a post above, someone states that a daughter of Weingarten was 'laid.' The correct term should be 'raped." Let's not use slang to sugarcoat what allegedly happened.
Which Orthodox Jewish officials are fighting against an attempt to remove a statute of limitations?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/2-charged-after-search-of-DC-apf-14621933.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A District of Columbia employee and a technology consultant were charged with corruption Thursday after a raid on the former office of a city official who now works for President Barack Obama.
The charges were formalized in a federal court hearing as the FBI finished searching the city's technology office, which was led until recently by Obama's new computer chief, Vivek Kundra.
Yusuf Acar, the acting chief security officer in the city's technology office, was ordered held without bond pending a hearing Tuesday. Prosecutors said $70,000 in cash was found during a search of Acar's Washington home and that he posed a serious flight risk.
Technology consultant Sushil Bansal of Dunn Loring, Va., was released but was ordered not to conduct overseas financial transactions or leave the Washington metropolitan area. Bansal is due back in court on April 21, and prosecutors said they were hopeful that a plea agreement could be reached in his case.
Acar worked under Kundra, Obama's pick to coordinate federal computer systems. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs would not say whether the White House knew the investigation was under way when it named Kundra last week, but called the case "a serious matter."
Acar, a 40-year-old native of Turkey, had a $127,468-a-year position purchasing the city's computer equipment and lining up contract workers for numerous city agencies, according to court documents.
Authorities say Acar and Bansal, along with others, defrauded the government through a variety of schemes, including billing the city for items that were never delivered and "ghost" contract employees who did not work. The scheme involved Acar approving falsified bills and splitting the money with vendors including Bansal, who submitted them, court documents alleged.
An FBI affidavit supporting the arrest warrants indicates that several other businesses and individuals were involved in the alleged schemes, but the other people are identified only by their initials.
The FBI worked with another employee in the city's technology office, who was in on the scheme and secretly recorded conversations with Acar and Bansal as part of the investigation.
In 2007, federal investigators uncovered a massive embezzlement scheme in the city's tax office.
Men and women dressed in suits and wearing latex gloves could be seen entering and leaving the glass-enclosed lobby of the Office of the Chief Technology Officer on Thursday afternoon.
Gibbs said the Justice Department notified lawyers of the search before hand. But another White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, later said the department didn't give the White House a heads-up.
Even as the raid was taking place, Kundra was giving a speech at FOSE, an annual government technology expo. Kundra said part of his focus is to change the way the government buys technologies from vendors.
"Les Aventures de Rabbi Weingarten"
Ahhh, UOJ parle Francais?
Obama Signs Presidential Determination Allowing Palestinians Loyal to Hamas to Resettle In US
President Barack Obama has signed an executive order presidential determination allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to resettle in the United States. Sure, what can go wrong when we allow hundreds of thousands of people who have been, as Mark Steyn memorably described, "marinated" in a "sick death cult," who voted for Hamas, and 55% of whom support suicide bombings live here and at the American taxpayers' expense:
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.
The "presidential determination" which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.
President Obama's decision, according to the Register, was necessitated by "the urgent refugee and migration needs" of the "victims."
Few on Capitol Hill took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.
Let's review some of Barack Obama's most recent actions since he was inaugurated a little more than two weeks ago:
* His first call to any head of state as president was to Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah party in the Palestinian territory.
* His first one on one interview with any news organization was with Al Arabia television.
* He ordered Guantanamo Bay closed and all military trials of detainees halted.
* He ordered all overseas CIA interrogation centers closed.
* He withdrew all charges against the masterminds behind the USS Cole and 9/11.
* Today we learn that he is allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to and live in the US at American taxpayer expense.
Anyone else seeing a pattern here?
Shmarya keeps attacking me from his cowardly perch in his mother's basement where he does not allow me to defend myself on his blog.
He has been completely blowing out of proportion his vague accusation of the "very bad thing" that I supposedly did. All I did was ask who the two dudes are that are officers of his registered charity. Their names are public information in IRS filings.
Shmarya says that I put these 2 dudes "in danger", presumably from the Lubabs who hate him and by extension anyone connected to him. That's rather odd since I learned about the IRS filings from some of these very same Lubabs.
Nice excuse to squelch my dissenting opinions.
And Shmarya calls others cowards.
Questions for Hikind at Rally for Victims
By Michael Orbach
http://forward.com/articles/103597/
It was at the very end of his solidarity rally for Orthodox victims of sexual abuse that the tensions beneath the surface of Assembly member Dov Hikind’s approach to the problem boiled up.
“When are you going to come out with the names of the murderers and molesters?” David Framowitz, an alleged victim of molestation by his yeshiva teacher, yelled at Hikind.
“Never,” Hikind replied before quickly leaving the room.
Since last spring, Hikind, the Brooklyn Democrat who represents the heavily Orthodox neighborhoods of Boro Park and Flatbush, has been highlighting the problem of rabbis who molest children in local yeshivas. It is an “epidemic,” he said, that his community must face.
But Hikind has accommodated himself to his community’s resistance to taking such cases to secular law enforcement authorities, and is instead fighting for rabbinic leaders to take steps to address the problem from within.
Framowitz, a thin man with graying hair, a wife and four children, who now lives in the West Bank and flew in for this event, was calling on Hikind to turn over to the authorities information on rabbinic molesters the lawmaker has gathered.
The assemblyman, who claims he has compiled dossiers on more than 1,000 cases of abuse, has refused, saying that this would imperil the anonymity he promised those who poured out their stories to him. He has fought a subpoena for the information served by lawyers in a civil suit against Yehuda Kolko, a teacher suspected of widespread abuse.
Calls to curb such abuse from within the ultra-Orthodox community are coming “40 years too late,” Framowitz told the Forward. And those confiding their cases to Hikind would do better to turn elsewhere, he said: “It’s called the sex division crime unit of the police.”
Still, even Framowitz admitted, after his encounter with Hikind, that the publicity the lawmaker has given the issue is helping to move things “in the right direction.”
Tailored in part for the media, Hikind’s March 1 rally, held in Brooklyn’s Boro Park Y, was emotional political theatre. The event drew some 250 people, demonstrating, at least, that Hikind has succeeded in promoting the awareness he sought.
At the same time, it showed in various ways just how far things have yet to go, even among this crowd, before the problem can be discussed candidly. Only one speaker, psychologist Asher Lipner, used the term “sexual abuse.” Others addressing the event referred euphemistically to “the problem,” “this evil” or “the abomination.”
One sexual abuse survivor, who said he was molested by his high school rabbi, said that “just seeing the audience” was enough.
“The message has to get out,” he explained to the Forward. “I think it will.” But he requested not to be named, for fear of stigmatization.
“The shiddach is the most important thing,” Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum explained to a victim of sexual abuse after addressing the crowd, meaning that disclosure of a victim’s abuse would ruin his prospects of marriage.
Still, Hikind insisted the number of people in attendance sent a message.
“It’s a sign that things are changing,” he told the Forward. Ten years ago, a gathering of similar size would have been unthinkable, he said.
Asked about a vow he had made in August 2008 to get rid of Avroham Reichman, a teacher at the United Talmudic Academy who is currently being sued in civil court for sexual abuse, Hikind spoke out against the Satmar Hasidic community, which sponsors the school.
“Satmar is ready to go through any type of loss but won’t get rid of Reichman. They’ve pretty much told me to go to hell,” Hikind said.
But Hikind also said that going to war with Satmar would ruin what he was attempting to achieve. “I know how to fight,” he insisted. “But I’m interested in accomplishing something.”
After Hikind left the room, Rabbi Ronald Greenwald, a longtime Jewish activist, defended him to Framowitz, stating that he was working within the parameters of the ultra-Orthodox population.
“The man is trying to do something, and you’re attacking him,” Greenwald said. “You’re angry as hell.”
“Not angry,” Framowitz, who is himself Orthodox, said quietly. “Hurt.”
"But Hikind has accommodated himself to his community’s resistance to taking such cases to secular law enforcement authorities, and is instead fighting for rabbinic leaders to take steps to address the problem from within."
*
If this is Hikind's strategy, working with the rabbis, he's taken the $500,000 in government funding for his "task force" and thrown it in the trash.
Satmar told him to go to hell as ALL of them will do!
Dovy - you can't be such a putz!
READ ABOUT THE CRIMINALS THAT HAVE ALIGNED THEMSELVES WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TO THWART THE LEGISLATION IN ALBANY TO EXTEND THE SOL. READ THE LAST LINE OF THE ARTICLE AND SEE THEIR TRANSPARENT HYPOCRISY. FROM WHAT I HEAR, GREENFIELD AND SUTTON DO NOT REPRESENT ANY PART OF THE SEPHARDIC COMMUNITY. THEY HAVE APPOINTED THEMSELVES AS THE VOICES OF THE COMMUNITY, MUCH LIKE THE AGUDAH.
http://www.imageusa.com/communityarticles/sephardicculturehistory/thesephardiccommunityfederationhelpsyes.html
The Sephardic Community Federation (SCF) played a critical role in successfully reaching an agreement with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOH) that would improve the health and safety of our children, and prevent the possible closure of yeshivot throughout New York City. The agreement came in the wake of newly proposed regulations by the DOH.
The significant financial investments necessary to comply with the new regulations and the drastic change in policy led many yeshivot throughout the city to become concerned that these new requirements would ultimately lead to their closure or would have forced them to increase tuition.
Pursuant to Article 47 of the New York City Health Code, a religious school is currently not required to have a permit to operate a day care service if it is part of an elementary school. The DOH recently announced plans to modify Article 47 and rescind the NPR (No Permit Required) exemption for religious schools throughout New York City. As part of its proposal, the DOH set forth a long list of requirements with which religious schools would have to comply. The proposed changes would require all child care services for children less than six years of age to hold a DOH permit.
SCF, the umbrella government relations and public policy organization of the Sephardic Jewish community, which has nearly 10,000 students in yeshivot, got involved and worked to ensure that the DOE recognized the myriad concerns and possible complications associated with its proposal.
SCF Executive Director David Greenfield sent a letter to DOH Commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden requesting that the public comment period on the proposed regulations be extended in order to provide schools ample time to respond on this critical issue.
“The safety of our children is of paramount importance to us and the responsibility of operating child care facilities is something that our community takes very seriously,” Greenfield wrote. “It is therefore impossible for an issue of this magnitude to be properly analyzed and addressed in such a short time period. We believe that additional time is required in order to thoroughly review the department's proposed modifications to Article 47 and to properly assess the inevitable impact that they would have if they are ultimately enacted.”
Greenfield had several conversations with the Commissioner regarding this issue, at which point his office agreed to extend the public comment period. By doing so, the Commissioner delayed the impending implementation of the new regulations and provided yeshivot with additional time to study the proposal and respond accordingly.
Among the proposed regulations is a certification requirement for teachers. For example, teachers of children between the ages of two and six would have to have a college degree and New York State certification. Currently, there are many yeshivot whose teachers do not meet this requirement.
Greenfield noted that the primary area of concern was that the DOH was attempting to regulate not just health and safety issues, but curriculum issues as well. Greenfield, together with several other prominent Jewish community leaders, met with Commissioner Frieden and explained to him that any reasonable regulation that pertains to improving the health of our children and keeping them safe is certainly welcome; however, the certification requirements and the teacher to child ratio were particularly troubling.
After much discussion, Commissioner Frieden agreed in principle to remove any of the proposed requirements that would affect how the yeshivot educate their students. The Commissioner agreed that the DOH would only seek to regulate areas which fall under the heading of health and safety.
“By listening and responding to our concerns, Commissioner Frieden demonstrated that he truly understands the unique needs of yeshivot. I thank the Commissioner for his willingness to work together with us to improve the health and safety of our children,” said Greenfield
“We are committed to protecting our children, just as I know Commissioner Frieden is committed to protecting our children,” said SCF President Sam Sutton, “There is nothing more important than the safety of our children, and we look forward to joining together with the DOH to achieve that objective.”
The Mishpacha article was very interesting and well written. What we as parents going through hell with our children learnt from the article was:
1] Loving a child UNCONDITIONALLY, despite whatever they are acting on from pain has the greatest success. The kid knows we as parents never abandon ed them.
2] People ENCOURAGING the child B'Asher Hu Sham in the sewer the kid is in are what keeps our kids from giving up on life altogether. Parenting lectures are nice BEFORE disaster hits. Retraining educators to be normal is wonderful to prevent the future students from dropping out. No training, lectures or parenting expos can help bring a child off-the-derech back. Only someone working in the trenches can do a thing like this.
3] Chessed begins at home. We have to make our homes open and inviting places for our kids to come back to. Inreach is much harder than outreach. Those who care enough to work with these kids are true gedolim and deserve community support for the effort.
4] Even if we still learn in kollel or are in chinuch etc., our love of Torah and Hashem might be a show. We can live for the name recognition, without truly being proud to be a frum Jew. Until we see Torah as beautiful, and stop believing that the laws sre there to prevent us from protecting our children, WE DON'T STAND A CHANCE to have frum children, and grandchildren. The Torah is a LEIBIDICKE TORAH where people are protected, and have rights of self defense. It is a Torah that advocates true judges, who dispense honest justice while accepting NO GOODS, SERVICES, OR HONORARIUM in return for a positive verdict.
Rabbi Grylak and Moishe hit a Home Run this week. With Achdus EVERYTHING can be overcome. We have to care about the community members, NOT JUST our own honor and agendas.
A couple of days late but still timely.
Time to Remove the Mask
Thursday, March 5, 2009
By Mendel Cohen
There were seven of us sitting around the table. The room was quiet, and Danny walked in. It got even quieter; you could almost cut through the silence with a knife. We were in the middle of an intervention; we were trying to save a life. His Dad and Mom, his sister and brother, his therapist and friends were all there to tell him how much they loved him and cared for him.
On the other side of the room (which is in fact our Chabad Community Center), hundreds of Purim baskets were waiting to be delivered. They were decorated and assembled earlier in the day by young children to be distributed to Holocaust survivors.
I was contemplating the irony. A 32-year old handsome attorney who came from an affluent home, who had all the pleasures of life that many could only dream of, paced up and down. He occasionally glanced at his own image in the reflection of the memorial plaques on the wall commemorating Holocaust survivors. He yelled: “Why are we having this conversation now? Who called for this?” And someone replied: "We can gather now, or at your funeral. It is either here or at your grave." Young Ahron Friedman and Rosa Zajac, whose names were on the memorial plaques never had the luxury of an intervention that could have saved them. We were giving Danny a chance at life, by offering him help to stop his abuse of drugs.
When I got home, I reached for one of my favorite books, Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." He shows us how in the darkest hour, when all else seems lost, one can find hope. A person can survive; he can reach out and find the hand of G-d. As usual, I opened at a random page and this is what I read:
In spite of all the enforced physical and mental primitiveness of the life in a concentration camp, it was possible for spiritual life to deepen. Sensitive people who were used to a rich intellectual life may have suffered much pain… but the damage to their inner selves was less. They were able to retreat from their terrible surroundings to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom. Only in this way can one explain the apparent paradox that some prisoners of a less hardy makeup often seemed to survive camp life better than did those of a robust nature.
…In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way — an honorable way — in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.
What more can I say? As Frankl suffered the greatest atrocities that ever befell a people, he found hope and salvation by remembering the people he loved.
Perhaps if we strip ourselves of all the materialism around us, unmask ourselves from the darkness that has amassed around our hearts, retreat to our inner self, look up to the sky and ask G-d for help when all seems lost, we may find answers. And believe me, G-d always answers you. More often than not, the answers come in the form of those who love you and care for you. When they reach out to you, just give them your hand back.
Now, this is quite a depressing thought for Purim -- but here lies the joy. On Purim there is a custom of getting dressed up. I remember as a kid the adults would say: "This is when their true colors come out; this is what they really want to be." So here is my challenge: This Purim let's uncover our inner selves and dress up like the real us for a day. Let's uncover that inner love that we all have to those that love us back -- those that wish to help and protect us. Let's seize the feeling, grasp the sensation. Something tells me that you will feel great in your new costume. Then try it again the day after Purim, and the day after that. Keep coming back.
As I was finishing this article, I received the sad news that my dear friend Shua, age 19, overdosed and passed away. Shua was a great kid, who loved us and was loved back; but for him, there will be no dressing up this year. He was helping to plan a sober Purim party, but he won't be showing up. Shua will be sadly missed by his friends. I am blessed to be one of them.
So, this year I will dress up for Shua. I will love for Shua. I will bring joy to more friends in recovery in the hope that they will reach back and use the love to keep them sober.
ENLIGHTENED PERSPECTIVE
Please Read all the way to the bottom: If you will take the time to read these. I promise you'll come away with an enlightened perspective. The subjects covered affect us all on a daily basis:
I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.
I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.
I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day.
I've learned... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.
I've learned..... That being kind is more important than being right.
I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.
I've learned .... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.
I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.
I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.
I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.
I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I 've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.
I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile..
I've learned... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I've learned ... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.
I've learned... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.
I've learned... That I wish I could have told my Dad that I love him one more time before he passed away.
I've learned .... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.
I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.
To all of you.... Make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence.
It's National Friendship Week. Show your friends how much you care. Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND, even if it means sending it back to the person who sent it to you. If it comes back to you, then you'll know you have a circle of friends. HAPPY FRIENDSHIP WEEK TO YOU!!!!!! YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I AM HONORED! Now send this to every friend you have!! And to your family. This was sent to me by a friend
Profound Statements
1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is
a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
-- John Adams
2. If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read
the newspaper you are misinformed.
-- Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of
Congress. But then I repeat myself.
-- Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is
like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself
up by the handle.
-- Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the
support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which
debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-- G. Gordon Liddy
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting
on what to have for dinner.
-- James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor
people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-- Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car
keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors
to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
11. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short
phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if
it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)
12. I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what
it costs when it's free!
-- P.J.. O'Rourke
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money
as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)
15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean
politics won't take an interest in you!
-- Pericles (430 B.C.)
16.. No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature
is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)
17. Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
-- Anonymous
18. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy
appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the
blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of
misery.
-- Winston Churchill
Madoff Trades $7M Town House for Jail Cell
ABC News - 2 hours ago
By DAN HARRIS
Bernard Madoff may be used to life in his luxurious, $7 million town house, but his new Manhattan home is a 7½-by-8 foot cinderblock cell
Obama "Highly Optimistic" About Economy
U.S. News & World Report - 1 hour ago
Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Shmuel Auerbach both said recently, "The only way for gvirim to hold on to their money, is by giving to people in their own community who need it. Tzedakkah comes from the heart and should not be given for the ulterior motives. Tzedakah is meant to increase achdus and Ahavas Yisroel. People who give money to further machloikes their money will vadai be lost from them.
Parnassah are all b'yedei Hashem. He knows our intentions, and He knows how to accept payment for those who use money for the wrong things."
http://www.tiferesmatzah.net/kashrus.html
Margo told me that I should start addressing myself with the proper title and demand that UOJ go along with it.
The Mandatory Fingerprint Bill for Nonpublic Schools has been introduced in the NYS Assembly.
Bill A06656 was introduced yesterday, March 11 (15 Adar, Shushan Purim).
The bill's primary sponsor is Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach). Mr. Weisenberg was also the original sponsor, in 2006 (together with Sen. Dean Skelos), of the successfully enacted optional fingerprint law for nonpublic schools.
Dov Hikind and 21 additional Assembly Members are co-sponsors.
Please spread the word, and also try to think where you can marshall popular support for this bill: unions, professional organizations (medical groups, bar associations, etc.), the nonprofit sector, public officials, media, etc.) If you believe you can build support for this
bill - please, do it.
Elliot Pasik, Esq.
President, Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, Inc.
China’s Leader Says He Is ‘Worried’ Over U.S. Treasuries
By MICHAEL WINES and KEITH BRADSHER
4 minutes ago
The Chinese premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern on Friday about China’s $1 trillion investment in U.S. government debt.
Shame on the NY Times for pointing out that Black people live this way.
That's racism!
And of course those despicable Orthodox Jews are even more racist because Tomchei Shabbos won't help poor souls like this!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/sports/football/12henry.html
March 12, 2009
With Nine Mouths to Feed, Travis Henry Says He’s Broke
By MIKE TIERNEY
ATLANTA — Travis Henry was rattling off his children’s ages, which range from 3 to 11. He paused and took a breath before finishing.
This was no simple task. Henry, 30, a former N.F.L. running back who played for three teams from 2001 to 2007, has nine children — each by a different mother, some born as closely as a few months apart.
Reports of Henry’s prolific procreating, generated by child-support disputes, have highlighted how futile the N.F.L.’s attempts can be at educating its players about making wise choices. The disputes have even eclipsed the attention he received after he was indicted on charges of cocaine trafficking.
“They’ve got my blood; I’ve got to deal with it,” Henry said of fiscal responsibilities to his children. He spoke by telephone from his Denver residence, where he was under house arrest until recently for the drug matter.
Henry had just returned from Atlanta, where a judge showed little sympathy for his predicament during a hearing and declined to lower monthly payments from $3,000 for a 4-year-old son.
Three days after the telephone interview, he was jailed for falling $16,600 behind on support for a youngster in Frostproof, Fla., his hometown.
“I love all my kids,” he said in the interview, but asserted he could not afford the designated amounts, estimated at $170,000 a year by Randy Kessler, his Atlanta lawyer. Kessler said Henry was virtually broke.
His eldest child was conceived while Henry was in high school, before he was named Mr. Florida Football and a Parade All-American. The child was unplanned as were all but one of his offspring, he said.
“I’m like, ‘Whoa, I’m going to be a dad,’ ” Henry recalled.
He was wed, at 19, to another of the nine mothers, who was six years older. Henry’s mother, who picked oranges for a living, disapproved.
“She was going crazy over it,” Henry said. He added that he filed for annulment within a year “for her.”
Henry maintained that he was involved long-term with many of the mothers. Some, he said, told him they were using birth control, and he professed surprise at discovering they became pregnant by him.
“I did use protection at first,” he said. “Then they’d be saying they’d be on the pill. I was an idiot to trust them. Second or third time with them, I didn’t use it. Then, boom!”
In four instances, he attested, “I was trapped.” If not for his football cachet and accompanying wealth, “I guarantee you that wouldn’t have happened.”
“My counselor asks me, ‘How can you do the same thing over and over?’ ” he said, unable to provide an answer.
Henry declined to discuss aspects of his drug case. He was arrested last fall in Colorado with another man and has pleaded not guilty to charges that could net him 10 years to life in prison if convicted. The arraignment is scheduled for next month.
At the latest child-support hearing in Atlanta, Henry testified vaguely that sizable cash withdrawals were connected to his criminal matter, not to any conspicuous consumption for himself.
In an interview, Robert Wellon, the lawyer who represents the mother in Atlanta, Jameshia Beacham, characterized Henry as spending “like there was no tomorrow,” thus depriving the children of money.
The Denver Broncos gave Henry a five-year, $25 million contract in 2007.
Piling on to the child-support issues, Henry failed an N.F.L. drug test. He successfully appealed, avoiding suspension, but faced another penalty from the league for what he said was missing subsequent test dates. Though Henry insisted his body has three more seasons in it, his quandary all but dooms any chance of his suiting up again.
Henry is seeking to modify child-support obligations. Some mothers and their lawyers will have none of that, saying he has squandered a small fortune on luxuries like cars and jewelry.
Henry argued that, within the context of richly paid athletes, he was not out of line. He contended that he owned no more than three vehicles at once and figured he had spent $250,000 on jewelry. “That ain’t a lot,” he said. Nevertheless, he was hoping to pawn some jewelry to pay off one of many debts and gain freedom.
March 13, 2009
The number of foreclosure proceedings shot up 44 percent in New York City last month, nearly double the statewide average, according to a study released yesterday.
Dear Sir,
If you or any other reader are indeed a victim of Rabbi Moshe Eiseman, please, please contact me through UOJ. There are several other survivors who are trying to confront the yeshivah for its coverup, and to expose the mess. Being that there is strength in numbers, the victims are looking for others to speak up. They have discovered many who were viciously abused are too scared to come forward in any public way. They feel that the Yeshiva and The Vaad Harrabanim of Baltimore have taken advantage of this fear and handled this matter neither with any sense of responsibility for people's safety, nor with any good faith in discussing it with those victims who were brave enough to confront them. The survivors who have contacted me will be very appreciative if you would agree to speak with them, EVEN anonymously.
Thank you, and I pray that Hashem, who is the Ultimate healer, helps you and all victims of sexual abuse find healing and yeshuos venechamos.
Asher Lipner, Ph.D.
BY Oren Yaniv
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 13th 2009, 1:26 AM
It was a joyous Purim surprise at a Brooklyn soup kitchen.
Two big-hearted benefactors stuffed the pockets of diners at the Masbia kosher soup kitchen in Borough Park with $100 bills Wednesday, providing a small stimulus to those who need it most.
"Purim is a day for love and friendship," Alexander Rapaport, 31, the charity's executive director, said Thursday. "It's a day of giving."
Joseph Steinberg, 61, the kosher supervisor at the small restaurant-like establishment, said two Hasidic men walked in about 6 p.m. and passed around the tables, leaving folded bills for the dozen or so people who were eating their free meal.
They also gave him one, Steinberg said, and only when he got home and unfolded the bill did he realize it was a C-note.
"It was a surprise," he said. "[The men] didn't even let anyone thank them."
Generous offerings are not uncommon in the tight-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, said Rapaport, especially at Purim, a holiday when one of the four main mitzvahs (good deeds) is giving to the poor.
"There are so many charitable organizations," he added. "But when you come here, you see the needy themselves."
As he spoke, the Masbia, at 4114 14th Ave., was filling with local men and women enjoying a hot supper, complete with a cup of soup and dessert.
About two weeks ago, a Bar Mitzvah boy volunteered by serving food before his ceremony and also gave out money to some patrons, like Samuel Weisz, 61, who cares for his ailing wife and received $100.
"I told him, 'Bless you for giving to people who need it,'" Weisz said.
But Wednesday's holiday philanthropy still stands out, said Steinberg. He acknowledged that the $100 was the largest tip he ever got, but not the most valuable one.
"Blessings are worth more than money," he said with a smile.
oyaniv@nydailynews.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/health/research/11pain.html
In what may be among the longest-running and widest-ranging cases of academic fraud, one of the most prolific researchers in anesthesiology has admitted that he fabricated much of the data underlying his research, said a spokeswoman for the hospital where he works.
The researcher, Dr. Scott S. Reuben, an anesthesiologist in Springfield, Mass., who practiced at Baystate Medical Center, never conducted the clinical trials that he wrote about in 21 journal articles dating from at least 1996, said Jane Albert, a spokeswoman for Baystate Health.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/us/politics/13benefits.html?em=&pagewanted=print
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON — Just seven weeks into office, President Obama is being forced to confront one of the most sensitive social and political issues of the day: whether the government must provide health insurance benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
In separate, strongly worded orders, two judges of the federal appeals court in California said that employees of their court were entitled to health benefits for their same-sex partners under the program that insures millions of federal workers.
But the federal Office of Personnel Management has instructed insurers not to provide the benefits ordered by the judges, citing a 1996 law, the Defense of Marriage Act.
As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama said he would “fight hard” for the rights of gay couples. As a senator, he sponsored legislation that would have provided health benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
Now, Mr. Obama is in a tough spot. If he supports the personnel office on denying benefits to the San Francisco court employees, he risks agitating liberal groups that helped him win election. If he supports the judges and challenges the marriage act, he risks alienating Republicans with whom he is seeking to work on economic, health care and numerous other matters.
Mr. Obama and his choice for director of the personnel office, M. John Berry, have endorsed the idea of providing health benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
The Office of Personnel Management estimates the cost at $670 million over 10 years.
Mr. Berry, who is gay, has been director of the National Zoological Park since 2005. As an Interior Department official in the Clinton administration, he developed procedures to deal with complaints of discrimination based on sexual orientation. They became a model for other agencies.
Congress may soon weigh in.
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Representative Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin, plan to introduce bills that would provide benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.
A man the authorities say is a Gambino assassin, Charles Carneglia, devoted three decades to killing for the mob and lining his pockets with cash from terrified victims, prosecutors said in closing arguments. His “value to the Gambino family is he’s a killer — he excelled at intimidation and violence, assaulting with acid, killing with knives, killing with guns,” an assistant United States attorney, Evan Norris, told jurors in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
New York City hospitals are the least reliable in the state at reporting preventable mistakes and adverse events for patients like heart attacks, blood clots, hospital infections and medication errors, according to a new report by the office of the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr.
Following accusations that vice officers were making dubious arrests of gay men at pornography shops, the Police Department has decided that similar investigations will now have to be approved by the department's higher-ups. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly called the head of the department's Organized Crime Control Bureau, which oversees the vice squad, and others to Police Headquarters after protests outside Mayor Bloomberg's home over the arrests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/us/politics/13waters.html?pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON — Top federal regulators say they were taken aback when they learned that a California congresswoman who helped set up a meeting with bankers last year had family financial ties to a bank whose chief executive asked them for up to $50 million in special bailout funds.
Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, requested the September meeting on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation’s largest black-owned banks. Ms. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank’s board until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 of its stock.
Ms. Waters, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, did not disclose her ties to OneUnited to Treasury officials, who said they learned of them only later.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation admonished the institution in October 2008 for, among other things, providing the bank's CEO Kevin Cohee with a Porsche S.U.V., a $6.4 million beachfront compound in Santa Monica, Calif., with views of the Pacific, and a pool and spa.
“The folks who really need help here is the community served by OneUnited — a community that is starving for credit,” said Kenneth H. Thomas, a Florida banking consultant who has filed complaints with federal regulators about OneUnited’s lending practices.
Mr. Cohee said of the regulators’ criticisms, “This is where the race issue comes in.”
Ms. Waters and Mr. Cohee have been outspoken advocates for fair treatment of African-Americans and other minorities by the nation’s banks — “silver rights,” Mr. Cohee called it during an interview in his Los Angeles office. Indeed, the bank has won some praise for helping lower-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles.
Their interests first intersected in 2002, when Mr. Cohee was involved in a bidding war for Family Savings, a small, black-owned bank in Ms. Waters’s South Los Angeles district.
As a white-owned Illinois bank initially emerged as the winner, Ms. Waters made clear through the local news media that she opposed any deal in which Family would fall out of African-American hands. She was credited when the bank abruptly changed course and gave Mr. Cohee another chance to submit a winning bid.
Less than two years later, Mr. Cohee named Mr. Williams, Ms. Waters’s husband, to the bank’s board. A former professional football player and ambassador to the Bahamas, Mr. Williams was a well-paid consultant, often working with Ms. Waters’s allies.
"dubious arrests of gay men at pornography shops"
Kolko,
It's takke an avlah that they're bothering these chevrah when they should be concentrating scarce police resources on the real bad guys like people who follow UOJ's pornographic blog!
Senator Lieberman is upset that he was exposed on UOJ today. He's afraid that Boog will chime in with some sharfe zog that tars him and Maxine Waters in one fell swoop.
What a farce. Yes the banks should be sued, but because they went along with the Clinton plan to give a mortgage to every schmo in Black neighborhoods who couldn't afford the loan even at zero interest rate.
NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - The NAACP sued mortgage and banking units of Wells Fargo & Co and HSBC Holdings Plc on Friday, accusing them of charging excessive rates to African-Americans who took out subprime mortgages.
According to complaints filed with the U.S. district court in Los Angeles, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said Wells Fargo and HSBC subjected African-American borrowers to "disparate adverse treatment" by imposing more onerous loan terms than on white borrowers.
Illinois Governor may seek 50 percent income tax hike
Forbes
Congregation Kesser Maariv is having a panel presentation this Sunday night.
The topic is:
Are Our Children Being Burnt By Matches Based On Labels?
4 Speakers will present at 7:30 about the pitfalls of assuming wealthy families translate into wealthy chidren. The risks associated with families with histories of abuse and estrangement. The misconception of yeshivish.
Be very vigilant with shidduchim.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html?hp
March 15, 2009
A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and PETER BAKER
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/business/14repo.html?em=&pagewanted=print
Has anyone seen Eckstein's helicopter lately?
It's a good thing I keep my money in the mattress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/business/14nocera.html?em=&pagewanted=print
March 14, 2009
Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims
By JOE NOCERA
Obama is taking 2nd look at tax on benefits
It would help pay for a health system overhaul. He had opposed a similar plan.
By JACKIE CALMES and ROBERT PEAR, New York Times
Last update: March 14, 2009 - 4:58 PM
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for an overhaul of the health care system.
The proposal is politically dicey for President Obama, however, since it is similar to one he denounced in the presidential campaign as "the largest middle-class tax increase in history." Most Americans with insurance get it from their employers, and taxing the benefit is strongly opposed by union leaders and some businesses.
In millions of dollars worth of television advertisements last fall, Obama criticized his Republican rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for proposing to tax employer-provided health benefits. The benefits have long been tax-free, regardless of how generous they are or how much an employee earns. The attacks did not note that McCain, in exchange, wanted to give all families a tax credit to subsidize the purchase of coverage.
At the time, even some Obama supporters said privately that he might come to regret his position if he won the election; in effect, they said, he was potentially giving up a meritorious and lucrative option to help finance his ambitious health care agenda to reduce medical costs and expand coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans. Now that Obama has begun the health debate, several advisers say that while he will not propose changing the tax-free status of employee health benefits, neither will he oppose it if Congress does so.
At a recent congressional hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., whose own health plan would make benefits taxable, asked Peter Orszag, Obama's budget director, about the issue. Orszag said that it "most firmly should remain on the table."
Orszag has written favorably of taxing some employer-provided health benefits and using the revenue savings for other health-related incentives. So has another Obama adviser, Jason Furman, the deputy director of the White House National Economic Council.
They and others cite evidence that not taxing benefits encourages inefficient, costly demands for health care, discriminates against those -- mostly low-income workers -- who do not have employer-provided coverage and reduces employers' ability to raise pay when they face ever-higher health costs.
Obama's idea for raising revenues for health care -- limiting the income tax deductions that the most affluent taxpayers claim -- has run into opposition from Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., head of the Finance Committee, and Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., who leads the Ways and Means Committee.
Obama's proposed 28 percent limit for deductions would raise an estimated $318 billion over 10 years, or half of his proposed "health care reserve fund," from taxpayers in the two highest brackets. That is a fraction of the revenues that could be raised from taxing employer-provided health benefits.
McCain estimated in the campaign that taxing all health benefits would raise $3.6 trillion over a decade -- "a multi-trillion-dollar tax hike," one Obama advertisement said.
The Congressional Budget Office says that including health benefits in taxable income could mean $246 billion in additional revenues for a single year.
Yudi is still an unrepentant piece of shit...
Spotted Yudi in Flatbush this morning-we need to install some kind of early warning system so that I know to watch the little ones more carefully-he acts like nothing ever happened and he is still this righteous and upstanding Jew. Yudi, do you ever worry about the day you will have to give a din v'cheshban in the Bais Din Shel Maalah? You realize there are no crooked Dayanim there...you are gonna get it big time.
Hey, all you jerks that meet him in the streets of Flatbush and greet him like a old buddy and hero...you are all pieces of shit too...you have to shun this guy or he will keep coming back. Question: would you still trust him with your kids or grand kids?
Reply to #274 Hide Quote
abisel sechel 15 rabonim in Monsey Says:Says:
“ Partial list of rabonim in Monsey that have clearly stated that this case against Y M is msirah.
R’ M gr”/ R’ A C bl”/ R’ C Y Hal”/ R’ R Sch”/R’ S F Shn”/R’ Y Y eisen”/ R’ Y S sch”/ R’ M M weism”/ R’ B I wet”/R’ Y hag”/ R’ M ros”/R’ Y tou”/R Y D schl”/ R’ Y lei”/ R’ D geld”.
The above list of 15 rabonium is from Monsey doesn’t include other rabonim that I have heard from people that they support Y M, however since I was not able to verify it was not included in the list. Hope to post an updated list.
In the mean time none of the mothers supporters have been able to post any names of the hundreds of rabonim besides R’ Y go” & R’ B wos” WHY????
Okay, follow me here while I blow a gaping hole in this alphabet soup of rabbis:
Moshe Green has zero experience in rendering halachic rulings. He never was a dayan or posek. A baal darshin and rosh yeshiva at most. When approached by Mrs. Weingarten's new prospective husband who is a well known Chassidishe rebbe in Monsey(they marry IY"H this month) Moshe Green confessed to never having heard the victim's side of the story. Furthermore, Moshe Green refused to meet with Mrs. Weingarten or her children, in clear violation of rendering a psak without hearing from both sides. And again, by no ones stretch of imagination is Moshe Green an authority on halacha l'meisa. With no smicha and never having been a rov it is amazing that his opinion in this matter is even mentioned.
Schorr brothers Inc. are likewise the furthest from having ever practiced as rabbonim or dayanim. One is a mashgiach in Ohr Someach the other a Ram in Vishnitz. With a multigenerational history of erratic and often dangerous behavior these yeshiva rebbes are irrelevant in regard to a halachic matter. Stick to harassing Lipa please.
A C Bl.... don't know who this refers to and no one by that initial has stated an official opinion on the matter.
The Satmar affiliated names mentioned (Hal... etc.) are stating party lines IF they are backing him. Just know that R' Aron Teitelbaum of KJ and his Satmar sect are totaly supportive of Mrs. Weingarten and her actions in saving her children from the murderous father.
Schneibalg has refrained from getting involved and is NOT supporting the menuval.
Geldtzaler is the biggest joke. Everyone knows what he pulled on the poor woman the first time around. The guy has the nerve to even get involved when he is clearly partial in this matter. He claims Mrs. Weingarten owes him 5000 dollars and is in this for revenge.
As for Schlesenger, let the record state that Harav Flohr has stated many times that Weingarten is as guilty as hell and a MITZVA to put away forever but that he cant work against his mechutan Schlesinger.
Keep in mind that had the rosh yeshivas and some corrupt dayanim done a competent job and treated this issue based on halacha and not cowardice, ignorance and politics we would never have seen this taken to the point it is now. The chillul hashem rests squarely on the dudes who sacrificed the lives of these poor children to defend an incesuous pig like Weingarten.
Especially since Weingarten used to work alongside Kolko at YTT, I will unequivocally state for the record that I am against incest of any kind.
http://www.farbrenginn.com/kashrus.html
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and PETER BAKER 5:38 PM ET
Obama administration officials and Republicans alike offered nearly universal condemnation of the $165 million in bonuses that A.I.G. is planning to dole out to top executives.
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