Litzman Is From The Gur Hassidic Sect - Before You Can Have Marital Relations With Your Wife - You Need an Approval From Their Monitor - Sexual Abuse of Children No Monitor Needed!

 "* Every couple is assigned a Kommandant to whom the man turns for advice and who exercises extreme control over the couple, essentially dictating how they interact with each other and when they can have relations. Some are more strict than others. The Kommandants rarely speak to the wives, who usually turn to their kallah (marriage preparation) teachers with questions. The Kommandant's word, however, is law. (Takanas - Takunnas)"

Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman to be indicted

 

Attorney General clears way for indictment of haredi lawmaker Yaakov Litzman in connection with Malka Leifer case, delicatessen case.

Yaakov Litzman

Israeli Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) will face charges in connection to two separate investigations, after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit approved the preliminary indictment.

Mandelblit notified Litzman that he has signed off on the charge sheet; a necessary step for indicting an incumbent minister. A hearing must be held for the final indictment to be formally filed.

The preliminary indictment includes charges of obstruction of justice and breach of trust, and stems from two separate cases.

The first case relates to the disgraced former Australian educator Malka Leifer, who was extradited from Israel to Australia in January to face multiple counts of child sex abuse.

Leifer fled Australia in 2008, moving to Israel, where she was eventually found mentally unfit for extradition, before the case was reopened following the work of a private investigator who found evidence Leifer had faked her mental illness to escape extradition.

Litzman, who served as Deputy Health Minister (serving de facto as Health Minister) and later as Health Minister at the time, is suspected of taking improper steps to help Leifer obtain recommendations from mental health officials that she be deemed unfit to stand trial.

The second case revolves around accusations that as Health Minister, Litzman tried to help a delicatessen owned by a friend avoid forced closure over poor sanitary standards. The matter came to police attention after a pregnant woman who ate at the deli suffered a miscarriage, apparently as a result of a listeria infection in 2015, one of a number of bacterial infections reported at the deli.

“There are two cases which involve Minister Litzman apparently taking advantage of his position and governmental power in order to advance the interests of private individuals,” Mandelblit wrote, “during which he used his government power to back outside interest and against the interests of those he was tasked with serving as Deputy Health Minister.”

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/307008

The Jewish Rag Gets a Facelift!

 

Elliot Resnick, Jewish Press editor who entered US Capitol on Jan. 6, to be replaced

Elliot Resnick, then editor-in-chief of The Jewish Press, was among the group that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

(JTA) — Elliot Resnick, the editor of a politically conservative Jewish newspaper who was identified among the crowd that breached the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, is out of the job.

Shlomo Greenwald, a grandson of the founders of The Jewish Press who has worked at the weekly paper since 2004, announced in a Facebook post Wednesday morning that he would be assuming the role of senior editor at the paper, replacing Resnick.

“I am both exhilarated and daunted by the work ahead in building on the great things The Jewish Press has always done while making improvements,” Greenwald said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, declining to comment on the paper’s decision to replace Resnick. “The Orthodox Jewish community in the US is broad, and I hope to make a newspaper that will speak to and enlighten the community. The core interests of the community remain: fighting for a secure Israel and advocating for religious freedom at home, areas that The Jewish Press has always championed, and that I will continue to embrace in this role.”

Greenwald did not respond immediately to questions about the future political direction The Jewish Press would take under his leadership. But he takes over at a time when the political identity of the newspaper — and its editor — has been the subject of widespread attention.

Resnick was identified in YouTube videos of the Capitol breach by a researcher and first reported on by Politico in April.

A video from Jan. 6 shows Resnick stumbling as he enters the Capitol building through a doorway while a Capitol police officer tries to keep out the intruders. His face is clearly visible when he reappears a few minutes later, standing nearby as another person shouts at a Capitol police officer.

At the time Naomi Mauer, the publisher of The Jewish Press, appeared to stand behind Resnick.

“As we understand the facts, we believe that Mr. Resnick acted within the law,” Mauer told Politico in an email, declining to respond to follow-up questions.

Mauer did not respond immediately to a JTA request for comment.

Resnick assumed the position of editor at The Jewish Press in 2018. He has long had a history of using incendiary language and has called the gay rights movement “evil.” Under Resnick’s editorship, The Jewish Press was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019 after publishing an op-ed titled “The Pride Parade: What Are They Proud Of” comparing gay marchers in the New York event to animals, adulterers and thieves.

“If blacks resent America’s [sic] so much, let them discard Christianity (which the ‘white man’ gave them) and re-embrace the primitive religions they practiced in Africa,” Resnick wrote in a tweet in 2019.

“Can someone give me a coherent reason why blackface is racist?” he wrote in another tweet that year.

Resnick was not the only editor in Jewish Press history to espouse racist views.

The paper was edited in the 1960s by Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Jewish nationalist who advocated violence against Arabs and was banned from the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Though the paper distanced itself from Kahane in 1969, it still lists him among the paper’s prominent past editors on its website.

In 2015, Resnick gave a glowing review to a Kahane biography written by Kahane’s wife and described his own experience of “near trance” while reading one of Kahane’s books in high school.

https://www.jta.org/2021/05/26/ny/elliot-resnick-jewish-press-editor-who-entered-us-capitol-on-jan-6-to-be-replaced?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-30558-462090

She was calling me because she was upset that only a few months later, the rabbi had been named executive vice president of Birthright Israel, a move that was starting to cause controversy because of his recent misconduct.

A rabbi’s accuser wanted me to tell her story. Here’s why it took 20 years.

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, seen in a video from Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, where he was senior rabbi from 1985 to 1996

 

 

By Gary Rosenblatt

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — In March 2005, I was on the verge of publishing an article that I knew would have a major impact. As the editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, I would be describing — for the first time — the true nature of the sexual misconduct that led one of the most prominent Reform rabbis in America to resign from his role as president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the movement’s seminary.

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman had resigned from HUC in 2000 and been suspended for two years from the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the movement’s rabbinic organization. The group had said only that Zimmerman had engaged in unspecified  ”personal relationships” that violated its ethical code, and many believed that he had a long-ago consensual affair with an adult woman in his congregation.

I found out that the allegations were far more significant. I had spoken to one of Zimmerman’s accusers, who told me that he had begun behaving inappropriately toward her when she was a teenage congregant. She told me that their intimate contact, which recent reports indicated included touching and kissing, began when she was 17 and was consummated when she was 20.

Some of those details were revealed recently in an investigation by Manhattan’s Central Synagogue — Zimmerman served there as senior rabbi from 1972 to 1985. On April 27, the synagogue revealed the damaging findings of an independent study it commissioned last fall, providing details of the behavior that the CCAR had described only vaguely.

Why didn’t I publish the story more than 15 years ago? I knew that I had important information — information that could protect others as Zimmerman regained influence in his movement. But I also did not have the full permission of my source, whom the CCAR had determined was trustworthy.

The following story explains why the facts remained a secret for all these years.

Credible allegations

Last month, Central Synagogue sent a letter to its community containing the results of an investigation into the events that led to Zimmerman’s suspension 20 years earlier. The investigation was prompted by a woman’s disclosure after last Rosh Hashanah that Zimmerman, now 79, “initiated an inappropriate relationship with her while she was a young religious schoolteacher and congregant at Central” in the 1970s.

The investigators found credible the allegations by this former teacher, as well as those of one women who came forward in 2000 and a third in 2020, of “sexually predatory behavior by Rabbi Zimmerman in the 1970s and 1980s.”

The current leadership of the congregation said it was never informed by the CCAR of the events that led to Zimmerman’s suspension in 2000. The leadership said it was “devastated” by the news and condemned Zimmerman for “a gross manipulation of his spiritual authority.”

My involvement and knowledge of these allegations began 20 years ago. I received a call in the spring of 2001 from a woman who identified herself at the time only as “Debbie.” She said she was the one who had approached the CCAR a year earlier with allegations about Zimmerman, dating back to her teenage years, that led to his resignation and suspension. She was calling me because she was upset that only a few months later, the rabbi had been named executive vice president of Birthright Israel, a move that was starting to cause controversy because of his recent misconduct.

She said she was torn between speaking out through a Jewish Week article or maintaining her public silence, but she clearly wanted to talk.

The woman asked if she could speak to me anonymously, and I agreed — an agreement that still holds today, though over time, and after extensive phone conversations, she revealed her true identity to me. Then as now, I also said I would not publish her story without her permission and would not reveal her identity.

The article I came close to publishing in 2005 would have included details of Zimmerman’s years-long relationship with Debbie, who first met him in the spring of 1970 when she was 15. As she described it to me, Zimmerman became her rabbi and teacher the following year when he was appointed assistant rabbi at Central Synagogue, and he soon began to relate to her in an inappropriate manner.

The article would have revealed that when she was 17 and studying privately with Zimmerman, who was 30 and married, he used Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” theology as a framework to explain or justify their intimate contact.

For the next decade, the nature of their relationship was a secret, given that their families were friendly and that she and her family viewed him as their rabbi, teacher and confidant.

The article also would have noted, for the first time and based on a copy of the committee’s never-released report obtained by The Jewish Week, that Zimmerman had an affair with at least one other woman, and that a CCAR investigative panel of its ethics and appeals committee found both women fully credible — and the rabbi far less so.

A ‘profound’ betrayal

I found Debbie thoughtful and articulate. She clearly had given much thought over the years to the unhealthy nature of the relationship that took place decades ago.

“What was so damaging is that this was the formative romantic relationship of my life,” she said at the time, adding that “the betrayal to me and my family was profound.” (Her parents were friends with Zimmerman and his wife.)

The story Debbie told me back then reflected her disappointment, frustration and anger with Zimmerman for being “manipulative — taking advantage of me and my being young and vulnerable — and for being untruthful.”

She also was upset with leadership in the organized Jewish community for focusing exclusively on the rabbi’s rehabilitation and reentry into Jewish public life without concern for the psychological and emotional damage done to her as a victim.

Debbie praised the CCAR investigating panel for its diligence in pursuing her allegations and, in effect, bringing down a major leader of the Reform movement. But she questioned why the gravity of Zimmerman’s violation of ethical and sexual boundaries did not seem to have been shared at least with other leaders within the Reform movement, which, it turned out, included HUC, Central Synagogue and the central body, now known as the Union for Reform Judaism, so others could be protected.

(In the wake of the 2021 Central Synagogue announcement, those other groups are launching their own investigations.)

Debbie first called me a few days after the announcement of the Birthright Israel appointment. She felt it was improper for the rabbi to be given a top position in an organization involving 18- to 26-year-olds. But she was wary of making her complaints public, concerned about “appearing vindictive” and fearful that her identity would become known.

Philanthropists Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman, the co-founders of Birthright Israel, played a key role in hiring Zimmerman to help lead the organization professionally. In a news release announcing the appointment on April 5, 2001, Bronfman praised the rabbi as a “dynamic educator and leader whose talents will be a great blessing for Birthright Israel.”

Several years later Marlene Post, a lay leader of Birthright Israel who was one of several people who interviewed Zimmerman for the position, told me that “at that time we were unaware of the specifics” of his relationship. Post said she believed that the rabbi would not have been hired had the details been known.

Birthright Israel, which takes young Jews on trips to Israel, hired Zimmerman

All of this transpired at a different time. There was no #MeToo movement, and investigators habitually sought to protect the privacy of the accused as well as victims, and behaviors like “grooming” — in which someone in a position of trust and authority manipulates a minor for sexual purposes — were not part of the public vocabulary.

That put the burden on accusers like Debbie to convince the public that abuse had taken place. They also had a reasonable expectation that their accounts and character would be questioned. Meanwhile, Zimmerman was not only a leader of the Reform movement but a beloved spiritual leader and educator of great charm and charisma with a large and loyal following.

“I was single, I was very involved in my work and it seemed too risky to challenge him [the rabbi] publicly,” Debbie told me.

In the end, after much deliberation, she decided not to go public, and so did I. I agreed with Debbie that even revealing the contents of the CCAR committee report would have compromised her privacy, so I did not.

Readmitted to the CCAR

Four years later, Zimmerman was back in the news. After a brief stint at Birthright Israel, he had stepped down and held several non-pulpit posts, including two years as vice president of what is now the Jewish Federations of North America.

In 2005, after four years of suspension from the CCAR (two more than the original two years), the rabbi was readmitted to the Reform rabbinic group he once served as president.

Rabbi Janet Marder, then president of the CCAR, announced that following a “rigorous process” of counseling and mentoring, Zimmerman met all the requirements outlined and was reinstated to full membership. She said the CCAR board made the decision based on the recommendation of the committee on ethics and appeals.

That decision prompted Debbie to be back in touch with me. She felt his reinstatement was unearned, and she blamed the CCAR for not living up to the rules of its own ethics and appeals committee. These include “the making of restitution” and offering “an acceptable expression of remorse” with specificity of wrongdoings to all of those harmed, according to the guidelines.

“He should have been expelled, not suspended” by the CCAR, Debbie told me at that time, asserting, as is clear from the committee’s private report, that the rabbi did not admit to the nature of their relationship or the fact that he had relations with another woman until he learned that the CCAR committee already knew the facts.

“What kind of teshuva [repentance] is it,” she asked, “when he has advanced his career by lying about what he did?”

Debbie said she received no compensation for the therapy she underwent — only airfare to attend a meeting with the ethics committee. Zimmerman wrote an apology to her that she said was impersonal and did not take full responsibility for his actions. She felt he should have apologized to her family and others who were hurt or misled, and should have initiated a personal meeting with her without being prompted.

“That’s what a wrongdoer has to do,” Debbie told me. “It’s easy to say ‘I made a mistake,’ but it’s hard to say that directly to the victim.”

She criticized the ethics committee for allowing the rabbi to make his apology in writing rather than face to face.

“The process of teshuva should be a dynamic between people,” she told me, “but it’s been between the CCAR and him.” Debbie said she resented being left out of the process.

In a response to my queries in 2005, Zimmerman emailed me to say that an expert who was counseling him as part of the reinstatement process warned him against having any personal contact with Debbie. He maintained that his letter was “an act of teshuva,” and went on to point out that he had more than fulfilled the CCAR requirements for readmission.

Accusing Debbie of seeking revenge, he stated: “My career has been seriously damaged. This is about destroying me and my family. I have met every teshuva requirement, both of the CCAR and the tradition itself. She has made none to my wife and family, and in fact quite the opposite.”

Zimmerman threatened to out Debbie without her consent, telling me, “She may leave us no recourse but to respond to her in public and by name, and to lift the veil that has protected her and her actions.”

(On May 11, I sent an email to Zimmerman telling him I was working on this follow-up to Central Synagogue’s investigation, and that I would like to speak with him or get a statement from him with his response to the investigation and its findings. He has not replied.)

Soon after contacting me again, Debbie again decided, reluctantly, not to go public, fearful of public exposure and a possible lawsuit.

So the matter remained until it boiled up again last month with the Central Synagogue letter to its congregants and a report in the Forward.

Returning to the story

Debbie texted me two days before the Central Synagogue letter was made public last month. She was under the impression that I was writing an article on the latest development, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, I was unaware of it until I spoke with her the next day and she brought me up to date. Now that the Zimmerman chapter had been reopened, she was committed to having her story known — under the same conditions we agreed to more than 20 years ago, that her identity remain private.

“I’ve wanted at least the basic fact of my youth and his predatory conduct to be known,” she told me. “But Zimmerman put a lid on it by threatening me with litigation and [with] revealing my identity.”

Central Synagogue and others are faulting the CCAR for not sharing the extent of its findings with colleagues, even within the movement, and the organization is undergoing its own reexamination of practices now. But the CCAR’s policies two decades ago on dealing with sexual impropriety among its clergy were praised at the time, and many saw its decision to take action against Zimmerman as courageous.

To me, the episode underscores the difficulty, if not impossibility, for any peer group to pass judgment on one of its own, and suggests why experts in the field recommend that outside investigators probe misconduct at this level.

It also underscores the ways in which Jewish concepts about repentance may figure into #MeToo episodes in our communities.

Zimmerman insisted that he fulfilled more than the requirements for teshuva, including therapy, apology and time for self-reflection. But Debbie told me earlier this week that “at the heart of the issue” for her, even now, is whether the rabbi “could actually see the person he has wronged and understand how he harmed me.” That did not happen, she said.

In preparing this piece, I went back and found my “Zimmerman file,” a thick collection of printed out emails, notes of conversations with Debbie going back 21 years and a number of others, including Zimmerman. It took me nearly two hours to read through it all.

On the page that contained the rabbi’s email to me, cited above, I had written a note to myself: “Am I obligated to hold the story if she gets cold feet?”

That was the question I grappled with in 2001 and again in 2005. It seemed to pit journalistic responsibility against compassion for a self-described “damaged” victim of an abusive relationship. In the end, I felt that to tell Debbie’s story without her permission would be one more violation of her personal freedom.

Now, 21 years after we first spoke, I reviewed the contents of this article with her before publication to ensure its accuracy.

Gary Rosenblatt was editor and publisher of The Jewish Week from 1993 to 2019. Follow him at garyrosenblatt.substack.com.

 

https://www.jta.org/2021/05/26/ny/a-rabbis-accuser-wanted-me-to-tell-her-story-heres-why-it-took-20-years?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-30513-462090

Rabbi Yudel Shain Asked Me To Post This! He has been on the forefront of "Honest & Reliable Kosher Certifications" for decades!

Long Island rabbis accused of ‘Mafia-like’ methods in kosher turf battle 

 

The Chimichurri Charcoal Chicken eatery has filed a lawsuit against local rabbis who the restaurant owner believes have harmed the business. Dennis A. Clark

Call them La Kosher Nostra.

A clique of rabbis on Long Island are being accused of Mafia-like tactics to maintain what amounts to a monopoly over the local kosher certification process — sparking a twisted turf war that has outraged local residents and businesses alike, The Post has learned.

A lawsuit filed last month by Chimichurri Charcoal Chicken — located on the busy Rockaway Turnpike across from a McDonald’s — claims the rabbis behind the Vaad Hakashrus of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway ordered observant residents to stop eating at the chicken joint last year after it started using a competing certification service.

The Vaad — led by Rabbi Yosef Eisen, who is also named in the suit filed in Nassau County — even killed Chimichurri’s lucrative catering work in a retaliatory move, court papers claim.

“The existing Vaad does not want competition, is afraid of the competition, and is trying to use its power to drive them — or attempt to drive them — out of business,” the lawsuit says.

The Vaad’s lawyer, Frank Snitow, told The Post the lawsuit “is entirely without merit,” adding that “Rabbis have an obligation and a right under the First Amendment to guide their communities with respect to religious issues and this does constitute a religious issue.”

The complaint offers a rare glimpse into a power struggle inside an Orthodox Jewish community that, until now, has been handled privately and by the rabbinical courts, sources said. But some residents are pleased to see it finally spilling into public view, claiming the Vaad has been abusing its authority to decide which establishments can claim to follow proper kosher dietary restrictions, including whether they correctly keep separate utensils for meat and dairy.

“Kosher supervising is a big business and for the rabbis it’s about power,” said one fed-up Five Towns resident. “This case is about injustice and bullying.”

Chimichurri claims its problems started last July after it dropped the Vaad — the dominant kosher certification operation in town — for a rival called Mehadrin of the Five Towns. Unwilling to accept the loss of business, the Vaad issued a “defamatory” statement blasting Chimichurri’s kosher food standards, the lawsuit claims.

The Vaad said it “must categorically and absolutely recommend to all of the members of our community that they avoid eating at the restaurants under that [new service],” court papers say. The Vaad specifically named Chimichurri as well as Keneret Fresh Market in Hewlett, NY, and a kosher steakhouse in Cedarhurst called Five Fifty Restaurant, according to the suit.

The Vaad’s actions carried weight in part because it won the support of 53 rabbis from Five Towns to support the move, sources said.

Many business owners refused to openly comment for this story, citing fear of retaliation. One exception was Arthur Ashirov, owner of Keneret Fresh Market, who said he’s seen revenues drop 10 percent since the Vaad’s letter denounced his small grocery in July.

“The Vaad doesn’t want to have competitors. That’s the bottom line,” said Ashirov, who says he’s unlikely to sue because it will cost too much. He said he’s sticking with the rival certification service because he thinks they are doing a good job and are less expensive.

“I have no issues with the Mehadrin,” Ashirov told The Post. “They are very attentive and they charge a flat fee while the Vaad charges extra for everything they do.”

Asked about the Vaad’s fees, its lawyer, Snitow, said, “I understand that people complain about the expense, but the Vaad would be hiring people with less qualifications” if it charged less.

Eisen did not return calls for comment. The Mehadrin also didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Vaad claimed in public statements last summer that it had a legitimate reason to ask observant Jews to stop patronizing certain businesses based on concerns about potential conflicts of interests, the complaint said.

Chimichurri, owned by businessman Zvi Ben-Yoseff, claims Vaad’s edict last summer had a chilling effect on business, with customers reaching out via text to say they were being pressured to stop eating there. Catering business in Westchester and Plainview also went away, it said.

In one instance, a customer who “previously organized an enormous volume of weekly deliveries” to Westchester “indicated via text message that he had to stop doing the deliveries due to pressure from his local rabbi,” the lawsuit claimed. A source told The Post the deliveries had been going to a Westchester school.

Chimichurri and Five Fifty Restaurant tried to settle the conflict last spring in rabbinical court, according to rabbinical court papers obtained by The Post. But the rabbis behind the Vaad, including Eisen, never showed up for the hearing.

Nearly a year later in April, the rabbinical court blasted the Vaad rabbis for having “brazenly abused their rabbinic pedigree by insisting that their actions and intentions are beyond mortal scrutiny,” rabbinical court papers show. Accordingly, the rabbinical court took the rare step of granting permission for the businesses to sue in secular court.

Chimichurri and its owner didn’t return requests for comment. The owner of Five Fifty Restaurant also declined to comment.

Tomer Tao, owner of Jerusalem Mini Market, a small corner shop in Cedarhurt that sells challah bread and Israeli-style salads, says he too believes he was retaliated against last year after he dropped the Vaad for a Brooklyn rabbi who was charging less.

“I got in a fight with one of their supervisors and it got nasty — I felt extorted,” Tao told The Post. The Vaad supervisor, he said, “would come in two or three times a day to check for bugs in the produce at $25 an hour. We couldn’t afford that.”

He claims the Vaad slandered him by telling people in the local synagogues not to shop at his store “because I’m ‘not kosher,’” he said.

“I defended myself and warned them that I would sue them for damaging my business. They don’t have a right to tell people not to shop with me.”

 

 LAWSUIT LINK ATTACHED: H/T Professor Kenneth Ryesky - Israel

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=F9Cq0nJNIJmd7Zld2QMcrw==&system=prod

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2021/05/5-town-53-rabbis.html

https://nypost.com/2021/05/23/long-island-rabbis-accused-of-mafia-like-methods-in-kosher-turf-battle/

There is one card the Palestinian jihadists know they can always play. That is the support and positive spin of their egregious behavior by the international left, including the media, the E.U., the U.N., the U.S. Democrat party, and many liberal-leftist American Jews and their various anti-Zionist organizations (J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, and many others).

 

There Is No Moral Equivalence between the Palestinians and Israel - No ceasefire in Jerusalem as violence continues - analysis

The leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas stated in the past few days that the ceasefire does not mean that the “battle for Jerusalem” has ended.

UPDATED:

https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/no-ceasefire-in-jerusalem-as-violence-continues-analysis-669013?_ga=2.188786216.2009842768.1620219903-1969581575.1579377799&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Two+Israelis%2C+including+soldier%2C+stabbed+in+Jerusalem%2C+terrorist+killed&utm_campaign=May+24%2C+2021+Night&vgo_ee=Jn367jKILnpErXAAhCpdDovy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D

 

On May 14, 2018, the 70th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel, a modern-day miracle, the U.S., under President Donald Trump, fulfilled a promise made by Congress in the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by a 95-3 vote in the Senate to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people.  That bill unfortunately came with a presidential waiver, and every president since, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama, promised to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem but failed to do so.  Only one, Donald Trump, a modern-day Cyrus and eternal friend of Israel and the Jewish people, kept his promise. 

Simultaneously, 45 miles away from the festivities in Jerusalem, at the Gaza border with Israel, the so-called "March of Return," an annual event inaugurated in 1998 by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, had been going on for weeks and culminated on May 14.  It commemorated what the Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe," their self-pitying reference to Israel's Independence Day.  Fifty thousand Palestinians, most of them Hamas terrorists, attempted to breach the border with Israel for the purpose of killing or kidnapping Jews in neighboring Israeli villages.  Women and children, the "human shields" Hamas is famous for, accompanied the marchers to maximize civilian casualties for the compliant press.

The peaceful marchers, as instructed, brought guns, knives, pipe bombs, and grenades and hid them under their clothing.  They also brought fire kites to inflict damage on Israeli fields and crops.  More than sixty of the invading Palestinian terrorists were killed at the border, dutifully reported with glaring split-screen images of the chaos in Gaza and the events in Jerusalem, designed to tarnish the embassy event, President Trump, and Israel. 

Israel abandoned Gaza in 2005.  Every Jew dead or alive, including those buried, were evacuated.  Israel left behind elaborate greenhouses and other infrastructure and synagogues, all which was destroyed in scenes reminiscent of Kristallnacht.  In 2006, Palestinians in Gaza voted in Hamas over the Palestinian Authority.  In June of 2007, Hamas launched its military takeover of Gaza, killing hundreds of its Muslim brothers in the Palestinian Authority by dragging them through the streets chained to cars, throwing them off roofs, and shooting them in the heads in front of their wives and children. 

Hamas is a terrorist organization, recognized as such by the U.S. and the European Union.  They call openly for the destruction of the state of Israel and do not recognize the right of Israel to exist within any borders.  They are the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and as such seek not the destruction of not only Israel, but all of Christendom and Western civilization including the U.S. and the establishment of a global caliphate.  Since taking over Gaza, they have done nothing to help their citizens build the institutions of a civil society, to promote normal democratic discourse, or to develop a free market economy, preferring instead welfare dependency based on international aid.  In the process, they have inflicted great suffering on their citizens, running what is in effect an open-air prison state for 2 million people.  There are high unemployment and poverty, poor sanitation, and inadequate health care.  Gaza, with its proximity to Israel’s high-tech economy, ports, trade, beaches, and tourism, and a willingness by the nations of the world, business interests, and aid organizations to help them develop their private sector, should have been Singapore on the Mediterranean.  Instead, it is Afghanistan.  Israel blockades Gaza because Hamas is an Iranian-backed terrorist organization that engages in acts of terror.  Hamas uses its assets and plentiful aid to build tunnels; fire missiles at Israeli civilians; and breach borders with armies of armed terrorists to kill, main, and kidnap.  Egypt blockades Gaza for the same reason.  

Israel is a first-world nation that provides for its citizens the highest standard of living in the Middle East, equivalent to that of Western Europe.  It is an open democracy governed consensually by the rule of law, with human rights, free speech, religious freedom, a free press, and a world-class free-market economy.  It boasts the best hospitals, universities, museums, and symphonies in the world and leads the planet in any number of cutting-edge technologies.  Its more than one million Israeli-Arab citizens are the freest Muslims in the Middle East.  None is interested in joining his Muslim brethren under the benighted Palestinian Authority or Hamas, preferring instead to keep his citizenship in the Jewish State — for good reason.  

Hamas, on the other hand, like its secular terrorist counterpart in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), the Palestinian Authority: corrupt, kleptocratic, genocidal extremists.  Of all the nationalist movements around the world, the Palestinians, Hamas or the P.A., are the least deserving of a state — and should not be given one.  The world scarcely needs another dysfunctional terrorist regime.  There is no difference between either of them and ISIS or al-Qaeda except that for "intersectional" and anti-Semitic purposes, they enjoy good press from a left-dominated media — as long as it is Jews engaging them.  

The Assad regime, for example, in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, has killed thousands of Palestinians in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Damascus, the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syria, transforming it into a "death camp," engaging in wanton acts of barbarity far worse than anything Israel has ever committed.  But you never hear about this because it involved Arabs killing Arabs — not Jews, and therefore of no interest to the left. 

There is one card the Palestinian jihadists know they can always play.  That is the support and positive spin of their egregious behavior by the international left, including the media, the E.U., the U.N., the U.S. Democrat party, and many liberal-leftist American Jews and their various anti-Zionist organizations (J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, and many others).  

They will discredit the Israelis, delegitimize them, hold them to an impossible standard, and continually advance the Hamas narrative of brutal IDF soldiers cutting down innocent, defenseless Palestinian Muslims — despite Israel having the most moral and honorable military in the world, one that goes well beyond any other fighting force to protect innocent life, often at huge costs to its own soldiers. 

The media and their political functionaries thus create and perpetuate the crisis.  By supporting the jihadist narrative, they encourage more of the same and avoid putting pressure on Palestinians to create a functioning, viable state.  The media and the rest of the anti-Israel cabal can be relied on to defend genocidal Islamic terrorists.

Hamas sees dead Palestinians as a photo op.  No media, no dead Palestinians.  Yes, our media and their leftist allies have blood on their hands, rivers of blood, most of it Palestinian.  It is they, not Israel, who prolong the agony, suffering, and death. 

Dr. Richard Moss is a board-certified head and neck cancer surgeon and was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018.  He graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine and has been in practice in Jasper and Washington, Ind. for over 20 years.  He is married with four children.  For more information visit richardmossmd.com.  Contact at richardmossmd.com.  Find Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/05/there_is_no_moral_equivalence_between_the_palestinians_and_israel.html

Im Hashem Lo Yivneh Bayis | מקהלת שירה מבצעת את ׳אם השם לא יבנה בית

 

The Nobel Putz Prize Goes To Moshe Gafni - For Permitting The State to Inquire How Dumb His People are....

 

Ultra-Orthodox party leader backs official state inquiry into Meron disaster - He asked Netanyahu to have the government begin advancing a proposal to establish a state commission that will investigate the disaster and “make recommendations that will allow for the regulation of the site in terms of halacha [Jewish law], engineering and safety.”

 

In reversal, Netanyahu ally Moshe Gafni tells PM the formation of a commission is the ‘correct way’ to proceed; Yesh Atid will seek to fast-track bill to establish committee

Victims of the April 30, 2021, Mount Meron disaster: Top row (L-R): Chen Doron, Haim Rock, Ariel Tzadik, Yossi Kohn, Yisrael Anakvah, Yishai Mualem, Yosef Mastorov, Elkana Shiloh and Moshe Levy; 2nd row (L-R): Shlomo Zalman Leibowitz, Shmuel Zvi Klagsbald, Mordechai Fakata, Dubi Steinmetz, Abraham Daniel Ambon, Eliezer Gafner, Yosef Greenbaum, Yehuda Leib Rubin and Yaakov Elchanan Starkovsky; 3rd row (L-R): Haim Seler, Yehoshua Englard, Moshe Natan Neta Englard, Yedidia Hayut, Moshe Ben Shalom, David Krauss, Eliezer Tzvi Joseph, Yosef Yehuda Levy and Yosef Amram Tauber; 4th row (L-R): Menachem Knoblowitz, Elazar Yitzchok Koltai, Yosef David Elhadad, Shraga Gestetner, Yonatan Hebroni, Shimon Matalon, Elazar Mordechai Goldberg, Moshe Bergman and Daniel Morris; 5th row (L-R): Ariel Achdut, Moshe Mordechai Elhadad, Hanoch Slod, Yedidya Fogel, Menahem Zakbah, Simcha Diskind, Moshe Tzarfati, Nahman Kirshbaum and Eliyahu Cohen.

 

The head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party on Wednesday threw his backing behind the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the deadly crush at a religious festival last month that killed 45 people, including many children.

No arrests have been made since the April 30 tragedy, the deadliest civilian disaster in Israel’s history, which is being investigated by the Israel Police.

UTJ MK Moshe Gafni chairs the Knesset Finance Committee, which held a session Tuesday on the disaster during Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron in northern Israel. In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said the parliamentary committee agreed the “correct way” to proceed is to form an official commission of inquiry, which would be led by a Supreme Court justice.

Gafni also said he would chair further committee meetings on the matter “so we can offer solutions for the future so a case like this will not happen again.”

“I also believe that this is the right way to obtain a legal solution regarding the sanctuaries and ownership at Meron, as well as comfort for the families of the dead,” he wrote in the letter.

He asked Netanyahu to have the government begin advancing a proposal to establish a state commission that will investigate the disaster and “make recommendations that will allow for the regulation of the site in terms of halacha [Jewish law], engineering and safety.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Public Security Minister Amir Ohana (R) visit the site of the fatal crush during Lag B’Omer celebrations at Mount Meron in northern Israel, April 30, 2021. (Ronen Zvulun/Pool/AFP)

 

It was unclear if Netanyahu would allow a proposal to form a commission come before the government for approval. While the premier has said he backs a thorough investigation, he has not taken up calls to back an official state commission of inquiry.

Wednesday’s letter appeared to mark a reversal for Gafni, whose party is part of Netanyahu’s right-wing religious bloc. Gafni suggested during Tuesday’s meeting that a committee led by the chief rabbi be formed to address the problems at Meron, drawing some ridicule.

Also Wednesday, the centrist Yesh Atid party — which is seeking to replace Netanyahu as prime minister following the March elections — said it would seek to fast-track a bill to form a state commission to investigate the disaster during a vote next week, suggesting possible cross-bloc support.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that a joint investigative team from the Israel Police and the Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department will lead a probe into the deadly incident.

Police and the PIID had already launched independent probes. State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman has also announced that he will investigate.

There have been increasing demands for a state commission of inquiry into the tragedy, with the focus directed at the organization of the annual Lag B’Omer events at Mount Meron.

Israeli rescue forces and police at the scene of the fatal crush during Lag B’Omer celebrations on Mt. Meron, in northern Israel on April 30, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)

 

The disaster, which began around 1 a.m. on April 30 near the gravesite of the second-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, took place when huge crowds of ultra-Orthodox pilgrims were making their way along a narrow walkway with a slippery metal flooring that ended in flights of stairs. People began to slip and fall, others fell upon them, and a calamitous crush ensued.

The site, the second-most visited religious site in Israel after the Western Wall, has become an extraterritorial zone of sorts, with separate ultra-Orthodox sects organizing their own events and their own access arrangements, with no overall supervision and with police routinely pressured by cabinet ministers and ultra-Orthodox politicians not to object.

Nobel Putz Awardee ----- MK Moshe Gafni at a conference in Jerusalem

Former police officials have said there had been fears for years that tragedy could strike as a result of the massive crowds and lack of supervision on Lag B’Omer.

Multiple reports in Hebrew media outlets indicated that there had been immense pressure by religious lawmakers ahead of the festivities to ensure that there would be no limits placed on the number of attendees due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 100,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox pilgrims ultimately attended the event. A framework drawn up by the Health Ministry, in consultation with other government officials, police and others, would have limited the event to 9,000 participants but was not implemented.

In another incident on Sunday, two people were killed and 167 injured, including five seriously, when a bleacher collapsed under celebrants in a Givat Ze’ev synagogue just before the start of the Shavuot festival on Sunday evening. 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ultra-orthodox-party-leader-backs-official-state-inquiry-into-meron-disaster/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-05-20&utm_medium=email

The Bleachers were put together with Zip Ties and 2x4s --- Strong enough to hold 100-200 pounds maximum ---- "OY - What Does Hashem Want From Us??" Act Like Human Beings Obeying "HIS" Laws of Physics!

 

2 killed, over 160 hurt as synagogue bleacher collapses near Jerusalem

 

Deadly incident in Givat Ze’ev occurs at celebrations just before start of Shavuot holiday; police say the unfinished building wasn’t approved for use

The site where a bleacher crowded with worshipers collapsed in a synagogue in Givat Zeev, near Jerusalem, at the start of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, May 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

 

Two people were killed and 167 injured, including five seriously, when a bleacher collapsed under celebrants in a Givat Ze’ev synagogue just before the start of the Shavuot festival on Sunday evening.

A video showed the ultra-Orthodox Karlin synagogue in the West Bank settlement, just north of Jerusalem, packed with male worshipers when the bleacher suddenly collapsed.

The wounded were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem. Medics and firefighters confirmed there were no people trapped beneath the bleacher after searching the area.

Magen David Adom said medics treated five people who were seriously injured, along with 10 people in moderate condition and 152 who suffered light injuries.

Some 60 Ultra-Orthodox Jews were injured when a synagogue bleacher collapsed in the Givat Zeev settlement north of Jerusalem on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, May 16, 2021. (Noam Revkin Fenton/FLASH90)

 

Medics later confirmed the deaths of a 40-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy. They were not immediately identified.

Some large ultra-Orthodox events feature bleachers, known as “tribunas” in Israel, which are packed with standing or dancing parishioners surrounding a central table where community leaders are seated.

The father of one of the injured told the Kan public broadcaster that just ten minutes before the collapse, attendees were told in a safety announcement to stop pushing one another.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said his heart went out to the victims. “IDF forces led by the Home Front Command and the Air Force are working to assist in the evacuation. I pray for the safety of the wounded,” he said.

Some 60 Ultra-Orthodox Jews were injured when a synagogue bleacher collapsed in the Givat Zeev settlement north of Jerusalem on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, May 16, 2021. (Noam Revkin Fenton/FLASH90)

 

The synagogue is located in an incomplete building and had not been approved for use, the police commander of the Jerusalem District told reporters.

A mass casualty event at a synagogue in Givat Ze’ev, near Jerusalem, May 16, 2021 (Channel 12 screenshot)

Documents published by the Kan public broadcaster showed the police and the Givat Ze’ev municipality trying to enforce an order banning Shavuot services at the unfinished Karlin synagogue.

In the documents, police warned the local council about the danger of allowing services at the building, which did not have an occupancy permit. However, when the local council asked police to step in to enforce the closure, police responded that it was the council’s job.

The site where a bleacher crowded with worshipers collapsed in a synagogue in Givat Zeev, near Jerusalem, at the start of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, May 16, 2021. (Noam Revkin Fenton/FLASH90

A spokesperson for the police told Channel 13 News that the force plans to investigate the deadly collapse.

The incident came 16 days after the Meron disaster, in which 45 people were crushed to death during a mass gathering of mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday at Mount Meron.

A man looks at personal belongings at the site of the Lag B’Omer disaster, in which 45 people were killed, at Mount Meron in northern Israel, Friday, April 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

 

The Meron tragedy — Israel’s deadliest civilian peacetime disaster — occurred as thousands streamed through a narrow walkway at the southern exit of the Toldot Aharon compound on the mountain. The walkway was covered with metal flooring and may have been wet, causing some people to fall underfoot during the rush for the exit. Some apparently fell on the walkway and down a flight of stairs at its end, toppling onto those below and precipitating a fatal crushing domino effect.

Since the disaster, several former police chiefs have characterized Meron — Israel’s second-most visited Jewish holy site after the Western Wall — as a kind of extraterritorial facility. It was administered by several ultra-Orthodox groups, while the National Center for the Protection of Holy Places, part of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, apparently had some responsibility over it as well, as did the local authority, and the police. But ultimately, no single state body had full responsibility. 

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-killed-over-130-hurt-as-synagogue-bleacher-collapses-near-jerusalem/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-05-17&utm_medium=email

There is no making peace with people who will not accept the right of Jews to live sovereign in the land of Israel. It is a hard pill to swallow, recognizing impossibly that there is no possible formula for making peace with such other than utter crushing.

 

The rockets to Gush Dan will change Israel for years to come

 

Events like these change a nation. The fall of the Twin Towers in Manhattan showed liberal New Yorkers that they, too, can be hit. 

 

   By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer

 

 

The fools who are to blame for the catastrophes now emerging from Hamas and Gaza mostly are dead. They are the Labor Party fools who had the power in June 1967 to grasp a moment of Divine miracle and launch Israel on a new destiny of fulfillment.

 

“The Temple Mount is in our hands!” we heard. But the cowards of Labor could not fathom the moment. It would take the 1973 Yom Kippur War to fully reveal that Moshe Dayan, whatever courage he may have manifested in battle, cowered in fear when not on the battlefield. He was terrified to take Jerusalem in 1967, and he had a nervous breakdown as Defense Minister in 1973.

 

Likewise, it took 1973 to see that Golda Meir may have been an astute and ruthless politician and qualified to be a bubbie cooking chicken soup but was no leader of a nation on the cusp of historic greatness that was simultaneously facing annihilation. Her refusal to act on intelligence she had before Anwar Sadat struck cost the lives of thousands of our boys, sacrificial lambs to her politics of fear.

Even the heroes of Labor like Yitzchak Rabin and Yigal Allon came to be exposed more over time. It had been years since Rabin had played his evil role during the perfidious criminal murdering of Irgun heroes on the Altalena, patriots who had risked their lives to bring weapons to take Jerusalem in 1948, but Rabin returned with perfidy to push through the Oslo disaster. The Oslo Accords laid the foundation for Arafat to control whole swaths of Judea and Samaria, to gain political autonomy and control over mass media, educating two new generations of Arab children to hate and murder Jews, and owning an internal security and police apparatus. Allon, meanwhile, had helped form the party that idealized Josef Stalin and later mourned the death of mass murderer Yosef Stalin, but later split from it to form the Achdut Haavoda party.

Ariel Sharon, too, now is dead but his legacy lives on in the thousand Hamas rockets fired indiscriminately at civilians throughout Israel. Sharon unilaterally took Israel out of Gaza without a plan for The Day After, expelled 8,600 pioneering brave Jews from their homes, handed over to the Arabs thriving industries and gorgeous shuls and yeshivot, and let them all burn as he turned his attention next “kadimah” — to the east, to wreak the same havoc for Judea and Samaria. Only a massive stroke, and then yet another, stopped The Bulldozer from bulldozing more Jews out of their homes. Was his termination the hand of G-d or a stroke of luck? You be the judge.

That is what aggregated to cause today’s catastrophe. That — plus a Netanyahu hesitancy - admittedly in the face of world condemnation and Iranian threats - to fight to a complete and outright victory.

Prof. Daniel Pipes has been advocating “Victory” these past several years, the idea that nothing short of an actual bruising crushing unequivocal victory over Hamas terror will achieve long-term results. By contrast, Netanyahu has followed a “lawn mowing” philosophy: every few years, as new Hamas weeds grow, Israel has to “mow the lawn.” Netanyahu is here, of course, bearing the brunt of daily decisions and Pipes is a theoretician.

However, the two competing perspectives each carries its respective pros and cons. A “Victory” campaign will entail the risk of more casualties up-front and even worse international condemnation. By contrast, “Mowing the Lawn” reduces deaths in battle for the short term and limits ICC “war crimes” investigations initially but so far assures more deaths and more world condemnations later, as future wars erupt. Know that these “Operations” — Operation Cast Lead, Operation Protective Edge, Operation Guardian of the Walls — are not “operations” but are full-blown, but short, wars.

Responding to one thousand rockets fired into civilian centers in Paris and Marseille, London and Manchester, Berlin and Hamburg, Rome and Milan, Shanghai and Beijing, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Los Angeles and New York — that is war, not an “operation.”

Amid such catastrophes, Israelis vote every so often — with emphasis these past two years on “often” — and, as happens in every democratic electorate, certain regions tend to vote in certain ways. For example, in America the Northeast tends towards the Democrats and the left while the Deep South goes Republican conservative. Similarly in Israel, those in Judea and Samaria, those in the northern border development towns, Jerusalemites and those near and amid the Gaza “envelope” vote for the military security of a Likud-right bloc, those in Jerusalem, Bnai Brak, Elad and Beit Shemesh also veer towards religious parties.

Those in the Gush Dan-Tel Aviv region where cafes serve seafood and worse while brazenly open on Shabbat, tend to vote for Labor and Meretz on the left. Thus, a leftist Ron Huldai can get elected and reelected mayor of Tel Aviv forever — at 23 consecutive years, already twice the tenure of the Netanyahu “too long” premiership — but when he tried to form a national political party to contend for the premiership over all of Israel’s voters he was handed his head in a hand basket unceremoniously

Meanwhile, for decades Israel’s third largest city a bit more north has been known as “red Haifa” for its more extreme leftist sympathies..

Perhaps Tel Aviv and Haifa voters felt they could vote gaily and merrily for the Left because it never was their necks on the line as rockets roared nightly from Gaza into Sderot, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. Haifa leftists, although on the receiving end of katyushas during the Lebanon Wars, did not share the concerns of residents based in Maalot and Kiryat Shmona who contend with Hezbollah on their border.all the time. The Arab riots in Haifa may serve as a rude awakening.

All things come to an end. Decades of Oslo-based governmental blunders driven by myopic leftist Labor governments, and by Sharon-Olmert Kadimah blindness, now have synergized to bring the catastrophe of a Hamas-dominated Gaza in the south whose Hamas terror rockets now do reach Tel Aviv, even as Hezbollah yet awaits demonstrating to Haifa’s Meretz leftists what lies in store there.

Moments like these change a nation. The fall of the Twin Towers in Manhattan showed liberal New Yorkers that they, too, can be hit. They ended up shocked into voting for another decade of Republican mayors, and the American country stuck with George W. Bush for the next eight years.

If Israel is forced to go to fifth elections in three or four months, it may well be expected that the present catastrophic awakening — that Hamas now can, will, and does hit Tel Aviv — and the Israeli Arab riots - will move some extra seats to the right. More than that, it will change a generation of Jewish thinking in Israel among the dwindling remnant of leftists who did not already wise-up after two intifadas.

There is no making peace with people who will not accept the right of Jews to live sovereign in the land of Israel. It is a hard pill to swallow, recognizing impossibly that there is no possible formula for making peace with such other than utter crushing. The reason that German Nazis under Hitler and Eichmann finally have stopped their effort to destroy us is that they are dead, crushed, annihilated, wiped out. Even their carcasses are gone. The reason that Japan, who destroyed Pearl Harbor, became friendly to and a great ally of America can be explained in eight syllables: Na-ga-sa-ki-Hi-ro-shi-ma.

As with Oslo and the intifadas, this catastrophe will impact another cohort of leftist Israelis for years to come. Tel Aviv and Haifa will be a bit less red, even less pink. And there may come a time when, beyond mowing the lawn, the weeds finally will be extirpated because they must be.

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

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306157

The first part of the verse in Michah 3:11 discusses the corruptness of the rulers, priests and prophets and the problem that they assume they can rely on God, smugly stating that whatever they do they will be fine because after all “God is in our midst.”

---

Was The Tragedy At Meron Preventable?

It is always easy to dismiss the warnings.  No one wants to think anything he or she does puts him or her in danger. In order to live in the world, we all need to turn a willfully blind eye to the many ways harm may possibly come to us.  We can’t know all the statistics about the ordinary things that may cause us harm like our chances of being hit by a car or a stray bullet, of having our homes and possessions destroyed in a hurricane, contracting a deadly virus that spreads easily in unventilated spaces or having a fatal coronary attack.  It would be too overwhelming.

But we also can’t ignore the warning signs.  

Like the verse in the book of Micah 3:11 which reads,”The LORD is in our midst; No calamity shall overtake us,” it is much easier to assume that if one is doing something appropriate and in an attempt to reach God and worship God, that nothing bad can happen.  Unfortunately, as we all know from the events on Lag B’Omer at Mount Meron in Israel, that is far from the case.  Bad things can overtake us in all kinds of places.

In fact, the portion of the verse I just quoted is only the latter part of it.  The first part discusses the corruptness of the rulers, priests and prophets and the problem that they assume they can rely on God, smugly stating that whatever they do they will be fine because after all “God is in our midst.”

I don’t know whether God was at Meron, and there is no virtue in the ability to see perfectly clearly in hindsight.  But on Meron,  the warnings were clear as reported here and here.  Tragically no one was able to decide who had the final oversight on the site of the celebration at Mount Meron, so the festive atmosphere became a mournful one.  Now, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau is calling for the state to have oversight, as reported here.

There are so many everyday dangers that are easier to ignore; no one wants to live in a state of constant anxiety over the potential for accidents and awful things to happen.  But as anyone who has parented a mobile baby or toddler knows, one has to anticipate as much as possible where danger lies so it can be averted.  Will the child run wherever he can, even into a street full of speeding traffic if a parent is not holding his hand tightly?  Will she eat the object of a size potential to choke her if it is left in the vicinity of her grasp?  Will she wander too close to the edge of a body of water if I don’t notice where she is going before she drowns?  There are sadly, many tragic childhood accidents, some preventable and some not, yet most children make it through those early years unscarred.  

         Likewise, someone in the state of Israel needs to take that position and have final responsibility for safety evaluations at holy sites and celebrations and as well as the authority to implement the recommendations.  

In Mecca, after a similarly tragic stampede, the authorities instituted a lottery system for pilgrims so that the amount of people participating each year would be within the limits of safety.  As reported here, the Saudi government sets quotas, allocated to those of different countries.  Perhaps at Meron, if 100,000 celebrants want to attend each year and the site only has space for 10,000, then attendance should be limited for each individual to once every 10 years.  It could certainly be done.  

         If we want to bring God into our midst, we can’t rely on the corrupt assumptions of our belief that evil won’t befall us.  It is a longstanding Jewish tradition that we are enjoined not to rely on miracles as a matter of course.  In an apt comparison to the case of Meron, the Talmud in Kiddushin 39b is speaking about a boy who goes up a ladder to shoo a mother bird away from her young before taking the chicks, as commanded in Deuteronomy 22:7.  The Torah says that the reward for this mitzvah, shooing the mother away is length of days:  if the boy is killed in the process of performing this command, how can our system of faith cope with it?  The Talmud asks, “But didn’t Rabbi Elazar say that those on the path to perform a mitzva are not susceptible to harm, neither when they are on their way to perform the mitzva nor when they are returning from performing the mitzva?”  The response given there is  that “it was a rickety ladder, and therefore the danger was established; and anywhere that the danger is established one may not rely on a miracle.”

            It should be clear that the danger of the site at Meron was established numerous times by safety monitors from various regional and police groups.  The site itself was a rickety ladder; no one had any business relying upon a miracle to celebrate there without such a catastrophe as finally occurred. I hope that going forward this teaching “anywhere that danger is established one may not rely on a miracle” becomes more elevated than the wrong one of “the Lord is in our midst, no evil will befall us.”  Each of us needs to be aware of danger so that it can be safely averted.  

http://thewisdomdaily.com/was-the-tragedy-at-meron-preventable/

As a result of their “innocence, there have been numerous reports of sexual abuse by rabbis and other male adults in ritual baths and yeshivot, even some cult groups in which “very observant religious leaders” assemble a harem of women who produce many children.

 

New Tel Aviv University study finds that Facebook and WhatsApp have significantly altered the attitude of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community toward sexual abuse

by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich | May 10, 2021 | Medical Miracles

But when she (Tamar) served them to him, he (Amnon) caught hold of her and said to her, “Come lie with me, sister.” But she said to him, “Don’t, brother. Don’t force me. Such things are not done in Yisrael! Don’t do such a vile thing! Samuel 13:11 (The Israel Bible^TM)

H/T - Professor Ryesky - Israel

The ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jewish community in Israel and abroad has largely avoided discussion of sex for many decades. Many even in their late teens or very-early 20s get married after being brought together by a professional matchmaker and a few short meetings, learning about sexual relations just a few weeks from a rabbi or female counsellor.

As a result of their “innocence, there have been numerous reports of sexual abuse by rabbis and other male adults in ritual baths and yeshivot, even some cult groups in which “very observant religious leaders” assemble a harem of women who produce many children. 

One of the most shocking stories recently was when the founder of the voluntary Israeli organization Zaka (the Disaster Victim Identification group) – who as a young man was anti-Zionist, organized violent demonstrations and then turned into a highly respected pro-Zionist activist who was nearly awarded the Israel Prize, was uncovered by the press as an alleged rapist and molester that the insular community refused to report to the authorities for decades. A month ago, he attempted suicide and has suffered severe brain damage. 

But the absolute silence is coming to an end.  A new study from Tel Aviv University (TAU) reveals a significant change over the past decade in the haredi community’s attitudes toward sexual abuse – after many years of silencing and concealment, covering up and repressing the issue. 

The study, conducted by Dr. Sara Zalcberg of TAU’s religious studies program in the Entin Faculty of Humanities, was presented at the “Haredi Society in Israel” conference of Shandong University (one of the oldest and prestigious universities in China, it was founded in 1901) and TAU’s Joint Institute for Israel and Judaism Studies. 

Zalcberg said that “deep processes occurring in this sector over the past few years as a result of exposure to the media and to higher education, point to a rise in awareness of the consequences of sexual abuse for its victims, as well as the need for therapeutic intervention and prevention of future abuse.” 

“The study’s findings indicate a trend of significant change in the haredi society’s attitude toward sexual abuse,” she continued. “About a decade ago, many of the victims in this sector were not even aware of the fact that they had been sexually abused; Many parents didn’t know that sexual abuse of children even existed. Haredi society as a whole was characterized by a three-way culture of silence – involving the victim, his/her family and the community and leadership. According to our study’s findings, this ‘conspiracy of silence’ has gradually weakened in recent years, with evidence for a significant rise in both awareness and discourse regarding sexual abuse and its consequences.”

The study was based on interviews with professionals working with the haredi population, including cases of sexual abuse, as well as activists involved in community safety, parents of children who had been sexually abused and a woman who had been sexually abused herself when she was a child. 

According to Zalcberg, the study has identified a gradual process, starting with the exposure of the haredi sector to the job market, education and the virtual world, alongside the emergence of grassroots activism from inside haredi society. These have engendered a growing openness in discourse about sexuality, the body and intimacy, as well as an increase in the numbers of therapeutic and welfare professionals coming from the community – ultimately generating the first cracks in the high walls of reluctance to admit and address sexual abuse in Haredi society.”

The team found that the changes are manifested in several ways. First, a growing and unprecedented use of the online arena, including WhatsApp and Facebook, for discussing and addressing sexual abuse. One interviewee in the study noted: “The haredi sector is exposed to the Internet, and once exposed to it they are exposed to everything. Information is more accessible.” 

A social worker in an ultra-Orthodox city added: “Haredi women in the therapeutic professions use the Internet to disseminate information about sexual abuse, safety and therapy, and so the haredi community learns about the issue.” 

The study also identifies change among families and parents of victims, reflected in the demand for prevention workshops that provide tools for recognizing and preventing sexual aggression. The supreme value of defending the community against any outside influence or criticism is being replaced by care for the welfare of families and children. This change has also led to a conceptual shift in a large portion of the haredi leadership, who now recognize the abuse and its victims and promote the connection with welfare authorities.

Zalcberg stresses that the change can be discerned even in the more insular and conservative groups within haredi society. As Chezi, a haredi social worker working with the ultra-Orthodox haredi population in one of the social services, commented: “We see more openness even in the conservative community. Hassidic communities that usually don’t turn to us to the social services now come when there’s a case of sexual abuse. They understand that this is a serious matter.”

At the same time, as the study points out, despite the significant processes taking place in haredi society, there are still considerable gaps in both awareness and addressing the phenomenon and its consequences. “Despite the change taking place in haredi society with regard to discussing and addressing sexual abuse, a great deal more still needs to be changed,” Zalcberg concluded. “Both discourse and awareness should be enhanced, preventive measures must be advanced, and the rates of reporting abuse and asking for professional intervention should be increased. There is urgent need for mapping families and communities who don’t have sufficient access to information and services, and for promoting specifically tailored responses.”

 

https://www.israel365news.com/190402/new-tel-aviv-university-study-finds-that-facebook-and-whatsapp-have-significantly-altered-the-attitude-of-the-ultra-orthodox-jewish-community-toward-sexual-abuse/