Chief Rabbit Lau " Ethiopian Women Don't Tempt Me" -- Rules - Kol Isha Is OK for Himself. Checks His Knees at 2:00 - COURTESY - THE JEWISH ONION

These Holy Men Used Their Influence To Have YouTube Take Down The Video

COURTESY - THE JEWISH ONION

Written by Rabbi Moishe Dovid Lebovits of KOF-K Kosher Supervision

There are many inyunim of tznius which people think are permitted when in fact they are not. Our main focus will be on Kol Isha and all the halachos that apply to it.
Chazal say one who is careful with hilchos tznius is kodesh.[1] Fortunate is the person who watches himself from being nichshal in these halachos,[2]  since the sins that one does in these inyunim distance a person from Torah.[3]
Kol Isha – The Voice of a Woman

The Gemorah in Berochos[4] says that the voice of a [married] woman is an ervah,[5] since it may bring a person to certain desires.[6]  According to many poskim this issur is d’rabanan in nature,[7]  and often applies to one’s wife as well.[8] One is not allowed to hear the voice of a woman while she is singing[9] even without specific intent to enjoy her voice. A woman’s non-singing voice is permitted to be heard[10] as long as one is not listening with specific intent to enjoy her voice.[11]

Single Girls

Many poskim say one is also forbidden to hear the singing voice of a single girl.[16] There is a discussion in the poskim as to what age this issur begins. Some poskim say the age starts from three,[17] others say it starts at six,[18] and others say the issur begins at nine years old.[19] Horav Moshe Feinstein zt”l[20] says in a pressing situation one can be lenient until the age of eleven.[21]


[1] Refer to Yam Shel Shlomo Kesubos 2:3, Pela Yoetz Kedusha pages 505-507 (new print), Nidchei Yisroel 23:pages 187-193 new print.

[2] Ben Ish Chai Vayichei 2:introduction, Vehatzneh Leches page 28.

[3] Refer to Mesechtas Yoma 39a. These sins also brings one to depression (K’rayna D’igrasa 1:11).

[4] 24a, Mesechtas Kiddushin 70a, see Rivevos Ephraim 5:67:page 45.

[5] Rambam Hilchos Issurei Biah 21:1, Shulchan Aruch 75:3. Refer to Avnei Yushfei 5:11 if one is allowed to listen to a voice if it sounds like a woman but it is not a woman.

[6] Rashi Mesechtas Berochos ibid: “kolech,” Meiri ibid. Refer to the Shir Hashirim 2:14.

[7] Nishmas Adom 4:1, Chelek Levi 37, Mishnah Berurah 17, Aruch Ha’shulchan 560:9, Kaf Ha’chaim 27, Be’er Sarim 1:29:1, Yabea Omer O.C. 1:6:10, see 1:6:8. Refer to Otzer Haposkim E.H. 21:20. See Be’er Sarim ibid who quotes some opinions that it is d’oraisa.

[8] Rama O.C. 75:3, Levush 3, Machtzis Ha’shekel. When one’s wife is impure he may not listen to her singing voice as this brings a closeness which is forbidden during the time that she is impure (Ben Ish Chai Tzav 2:25, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 153:10, Darchei Teshuva 195:35, Aruch Ha’shulchan Y.D. 195:23, Igros Moshe Y.D. 2:75, Divrei Chachumim page 253:footnote 38, Avnei Yushfei 2:5:4, Rivevos Ephraim 1:205, 4:202, Suga B’shoshanim page 205, Opinion of Horav Elyashiv Shlita quoted in Halichos Bas Yisroel 6:8:footnote 16, Badi Ha’shulchan 195:119,  Chut Shuni (Niddah) page 215, Shiurei Shevet Ha’Levi (Niddah) page 264). Refer to Teharas Habayis 2:pages 167-170 who is lenient.

 [9] Shulchan Aruch 75:3, E.H. 21:1, Chai Adom 4:6,  This issur applies even if one is used to hearing a womans voice (Yabea Omer O.C. 1:6:11:pages 21-22). This also applies to parts of davening that she may sing (Refer to Yufei Leleiv 1:75:3). `

[10]  Rashba Mesechtas Berochos 25a,  Bais Yosef O.C. 75, Rama, Levush 3, Elya Rabbah 75:5,  Shulchan Aruch Harav 3, Bais Shmuel E.H. 21:4, Chai Adom 4:6.

[11] Mishnah Berurah 18.
[16] Magen Avraham 75:6, Be’er Heitiv 9, Bais Shmuel E.H. 21:4, Mishnah Berurah 75:17, see Pri Megadim M.Z. 75:2 who is lenient.

[17] Refer to Shulchan Shlomo 75:3, Salmas Chaim 93, Rivevos Ephraim 7:page 246, Ishei Yisroel 55:footntoe 99. Refer to Ben Ish Chai Bo 1:13. The Chazon Ish O.C. 16:8 says there is no set age.

[18] Ben Ish Chai Bo 1:13, see Oz Vehador L’vusha page 47, Laws Of Daily Living 1:pages 84-85:footnote 52.

[19] Halichos Shlomo Tefilla 20:footnote 20, Halichos Bas Yisroel 6:footntoe 1.

[20] Igros Moshe O.C. 1:26, see Biur Halacha 75 “tefach.”

[21] Ohr L’tzyion 2:6:footnote 13. Refer to Mishnah Berurah 75:17 who says besulos who start reaching their time of period are ervahs. Some say this is 12 years old (Divrei Chachumim page 252:36 quoting the opinion of Horav Sheinberg Shlita, Toras Histaklus page 39).

These cameras were swiftly installed across Boro Park and Midwood, maintained by a private security company related to Agudath Israel, despite the relatively low crime rates in the area, in the aftermath of the horrific death of eight year old Leiby Kletzky in Kensington. His parents had reported him missing to Shomrim, who failed to call it in to the NYPD for more than three hours, until after the child’s family called 911.

Why you should care about the arrest of Shomrim leader Jacob Daskal

In blue: 66th Precinct Community Affairs Sgt. Michael Andreano (L)

 and detective Mike Milici with Shomrim NYPD liaison Jacob Daskal (far left)

 Both Adreano and Milici have since been stripped of their badges following a corruption probe.

 

BORO PARK – Last Thursday the NYPD arrested Jacob Daskal on charges of raping a 16 year old. Besides the obviously horrendous crime, this arrest is a big deal because Daskal is the president of Boro Park Shomrim (“Guards”) – the private, Orthodox Jewish, security force that patrols Borough Park. There are other Shomrim groups that patrol Flatbush, Crown Heights and Williamsburg.  They may easily be mistaken for the NYPD, and to many in the Orthodox Jewish enclaves in Brooklyn they effectively are.

Shomrim have a command centers that look like the NYPD’s, down to the slogan of Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect:

Their shield could easily be mistaken for NYPD at a distance:


Shomrim grew out of a neighborhood watch group known as the “Bakery Boys” in 1990s – young men who delivered bread at night and witnessed lots of car break-ins, but the group has always been controversial. Daskal was a founding member, and has been an intermediary between the NYPD’s 66th Precinct and his Boro Park community ever since.

“Since then, Daskal and the Shomrim have cultivated close ties to the local precinct. A former member of the Shomrim told the Forward in 2016 that Daskal was able to arrange for Orthodox Jews arrested on minor crimes in Boro Park to be released with a ticket ordering them to appear before a judge, rather than being booked through the central system. Daskal denied at the time that he played that role”, Forward wrote on Friday.

“In 2012, Daskal argued against giving police access publicly-funded security cameras installed throughout Boro Park, telling the Forward that it could lead to unwanted police involvement in domestic violence matters. “The camera is very good for the community, but if it’s a private thing,” Daskal told the Forward at the time. “If it’s a public thing it might hurt a person who doesn’t want to arrest her husband for domestic violence.”

These cameras were swiftly installed across Boro Park and Midwood, maintained by a private security company related to Agudath Israel, despite the relatively low crime rates in the area, in the aftermath of the horrific death of eight year old Leiby Kletzky in Kensington. His parents had reported him missing to Shomrim, who failed to call it in to the NYPD for more than three hours, until after the child’s family called 911.

“The Shomrim have helped the police maintain a community that’s mostly free of the shootings in the streets and crimes that usually end up in the media,” Ben Hirsch, a founder of Survivors for Justice, a group that advocates for victims of sexual violence within the Orthodox community told The Village Voice in 2011. “But you do still have some of the terrible social crimes that police would normally be responding to. Instead, within these communities, these crimes are usually reported to Shomrim, and the Shomrim coordinators working together with Orthodox Jewish “community liaisons” cover it up, and it never gets to the cops.”

Such crimes seem to mostly relate to child and domestic abuse. Daskal let it slip in a conversation with the Daily News the aftermath of the Kletzky case that Shomrim kept a list of suspected child molesters that had about 15 people on it that was not shared with the NYPD” because some rabbis oppose civilian police involvement”.

“It’s against Halacha [Jewish law] to go the police without speaking to the rabbis,” Rabbi Joseph Hershkowitz confirmed to the Daily News back in 2011. “We consider Shomrim and Hatzolah [the Jewish ambulance service] family. So you go to family first.”

It seems, however, that this approach results in crimes covered up, or dismissed when brought up for justice.

With crime rates as low as they are, maybe it is time for the NYPD be the only cops in town.

https://bklyner.com/why-you-should-care-about-the-arrest-of-shomrim-leader-jacob-daskal/

How many kids have to die, how many have to become addicted to drugs, how many have to live on the street, how many have to starve themselves, cut themselves, hang themselves, stab themselves, drown themselves, overdose themselves, until you actually help us do something about it?

 by Asher Lovy

NY1's coverage of yesterday's ZA'AKAH's press conference outside of Simcha Felder's district office. Thank you so much to everyone who came, and a special thank you to Rabbi Barry Kornblau for standing with us, and lending your voice to this critical issue. Below is a full text of my statement:

We're here outside Senator Simcha Felder's district office because he is the tiebreaking vote in the New York State senate right now. As evidenced by the recent budget negotiation in the senate, while John Flanagan might be the majority leader, it's Felder's word that for now is literally law. And I know how you feel about the Child Victims Act, Simcha, you told me how you feel about it in 2016. You will not support any bill with a lookback window.

As a former constituent of yours, let me tell you why that position is hurting your constituents, and community. I grew up on 15th avenue and 48th street, in Boro Park, 4 blocks away from your then city council office. I was abused by my mother for years just 4 blocks from your office. The idea, at the time, of reporting was so far out of the realm of possibility, the very thought of it was laughable. I can't count the number of times the police were called to my house, I can't count the number of times they handed me a complaint form and a pen and asked me if I had something to tell them.

What I do remember vividly is my grandmother pleading with me, begging me, not to report. "Think of what the neighbors will say. Think of what will happen when it's time for shidduchim. No one will want to marry you." So I stayed quiet. When I was finally ready to come forward and disclose, she again begged me, "think of your shidduchim." By then I'd given up on the possibility of finding a shidduch through a shadchan. "Ok, but think of your cousins. They're trying to get married now, think of how this would ruin their shidduch chances," she begged. And again, I kept quiet.

I begged my family to intervene. Even though they were literally witness to much of my abuse, they didn't care enough to do anything. They said I was making it up to justify my bad behaviour. I had dropped out of school and gone to work so I could earn enough money to be self-sufficient. I stayed there until three years ago, age 23 because I was worried about my grandmother who by that time was also a victim of my mother. I thought I could protect her.

I can no longer report what happened to me when I was a minor because New York's Statute of limitations won't allow it.

Simcha, you may think we don't remember, you may think that by the time we're 23 we've already gotten over it, but we haven't. Baruch Hashem I was able to run away at age 23, and with the help of some very generous people, build a life for myself. But when I'm alone at night, it comes back to me. All those years of locking myself in my room, terrified of what she'd do to me next, the threats, the horror she made my life, the invasion, the violation of who I was, the times she tried to kill me, the terror she instilled in me. Every time I hear a knock on the door of my new, safe home I jump, because my body remembers what a sudden noise might mean. My body remembers being in constant danger and can't forget.

When I worked at Our Place, on avenue M and east 18th, I met dozens of kids who hadn't been so lucky. Kids who had been abused and had been forced into silence. Kids who dropped out of school, were addicted to drugs, sleeping on the streets, self-harming, depressed, suicidal, kids who did anything and everything they could think of to numb the pain, to make it stop, to just go away, if only for a little while. We were able to save some of them. Some of them we couldn't. Some of them died. We put them on our ever-growing wall, a damning testament to the inaction of our community in the face of sexual predators violating children. 

You may not hear these stories, Simcha, but I do. Every single day from people in this community, people who themselves were abused, people whose children have been abused, people who are too terrified to speak up for fear of ruining their family's shidduchim, of losing their jobs, their homes, of being thrown out of their shuls, of their children being expelled from yeshivas for daring to report, for daring to go against Agudah's psak, and report sexual abuse to the police without first asking a rav for permission.

Sexual abuse is covered up every day in this community, Simcha, and it's made even easier by all the communal pressures we as frum Jews have. Shidduchim, not wanting to be a moiser, daas torah, emunas chachamim, fear of causing a chillul hashem, there are a dozen different leverage points used by the community to keep victims of child sexual abuse silent until they're 23 and it's too late for them to get justice. 

You know what that means, Simcha? It means that hundreds of sexual predators are loose in your district, in the frum community, protected by the law, because their victims who are under 23 are too terrified to report, and the survivors over 23 are barred from reporting by law. That's why we need the lookback window, Simcha. Those survivors deserve their day in court. They deserve the chance to confront their abuser in court and identify them so the community knows who they are and whom to stay away from. A survivor should never hear "I'm sorry, find me someone else who was sexually abused more recently" when they go to the police to report being sexually abused. 

We need to eliminate the civil and criminal statutes of limitation going forward so survivors know that if they're not safe enough to report right now, they'll still have the chance to get justice when they are. We need to open the lookback window so the predators who have thus far remained hidden behind New York State law in our community can be identified, and the institutions that enabled their abuse can be held accountable.

We need the Child Victims Act, Simcha Felder. Children are dying in your community because they were sexually abused and have no access to justice. Do you care enough, do you have the courage to do the right thing for District 17's children?

I know, people are worried about what might happen to yeshivos if this passes. I'm sorry, but I don’t understand what the hand wringing is about. If it we were dealing with an epidemic of murders in the community, committed by yeshiva faculty, and covered up by yeshiva administrations, we’d be up in arms, demanding justice. Somehow with sexual abuse it’s different.

And why? You know as well as I do, Simcha, that abuse is retzicha. You know as well as I do that children die every single year from suicide, eating disorders, and drug overdose, as a direct result of sexual abuse they’ve suffered. You know as well as I do that the effects of sexual abuse include PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, self-harm, addiction, among a host of other problems. Is the difference between sexual abuse and murder that sexual abuse kills them more slowly, or that it’s so darn common that we’ve become desensitized to it?

We talk a lot about crises in the frum community. How is this not something that instills in community members and leaders a sense of crisis? How many kids have to die, how many have to become addicted to drugs, how many have to live on the street, how many have to starve themselves, cut themselves, hang themselves, stab themselves, drown themselves, overdose themselves, until you actually help us do something about it?

If kids were dying every day in yeshivos, would you be so pareve about what should be done, or would you be out on the front lines demanding change and justice? Is it that these kids don’t die in yeshivos themselves, but on the street a few years later after they’ve lost everything and everyone, and kill themselves just to end the pain? Do you no longer recognize them as important at that point because they’re so far gone at that point from the yeshiva that covered up their abuse that you don’t care anymore?

I hope you care, Simcha, and I understand, you’re worried about hypothetical children not being able to get into hypothetically closed yeshovs. Simcha, we have real children, really dying, right now, and we need to change that.

We have a real bill really in front of us, and we’re in real need of real support. Don’t let hypothetical concerns about hypothetical problems blind you, or distract you from the very real, and very present problem of children being abused, and their abusers and enablers hiding behind New York State law to deny them justice. Don’t let yourself be blinded to the fact that more and more kids are dying every day while we sit here and quibble about the degrees to which we should pursue their roitzchim.

I’m sorry if I seem impatient. I don’t have the luxury to be patient. I’ve been fighting for this for 3 years. I was abused for 23 years. I’ve lost I don’t know how many friends to suicide, and I’m sick and tired of waiting.

Rally to pass Child Victims Act

Rally for Child Victims Act

ny1.com

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2018/05/11/community-rallies-to-urge-senator-to-pass-child-victims-act.html#

51 years ago...

My Yiddishe Mama....

The real traitor was always in the White House. And it’s time we called his foreign policy what it is. Treason.

Time to Call Obama and Kerry What They Are: Traitors

We have met the enemy and he is in the White House. 

 

  JULY 15, 2015 - UOJ ARCHIVES:

by Daniel Greenfield,

 The last time a feeble leader of a fading nation came bearing “Peace in our time,” a pugnacious controversial right-winger retorted, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” That right-winger went on to lead the United Kingdom against Hitler.

The latest worthless agreement with a murderous dictatorship is being brandished by John Kerry, a man who instinctively seeks out dishonor the way a pig roots for truffles.

John Kerry betrayed his uniform and his nation so many times that it became his career. He illegally met with the representatives of the North Vietnamese enemy in Paris and then next year headed to Washington, D.C. where he blasted the American soldiers being murdered by his new friends as rapists and murderers “reminiscent of Genghis Khan.”

Even before being elected, Kerry was already spewing Communist propaganda in the Senate.

Once in the Senate, Kerry flew to support the Sandinista Marxist killers in Nicaragua. Just as Iran’s leader calling for “Death to America” didn’t slow down Kerry, neither did the Sandinista cries of “Here or There, Yankees Will Die Everywhere.”

Kerry revolted even liberals with his gushing over Syria’s Assad. Now he’s playing the useful idiot for Assad’s bosses in Tehran.

For almost fifty years, John Kerry has been selling out American interests to the enemy. Iran is his biggest success. The dirty Iran nuke deal is the culmination of his life’s many treasons.

It turns America from an opponent of Iran’s expansionism, terrorism and nuclear weapons program into a key supporter. The international coalition built to stop Iran’s nukes will instead protect its program.
And none of this would have happened without Obama.

Obama began his rise by pandering to radical leftists on removing Saddam. He urged them to take on Egypt instead, and that’s what he did once in office, orchestrating the takeover of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and across the region. The Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, but Obama had preserved the Iranian regime when it was faced with the Green Revolution. Now Iran is his last best Islamist hope for stopping America in the Middle East.

Obama and Kerry had both voted against designating Iran’s IRGC terrorist ringleaders who were organizing the murder of American soldiers as a terrorist organization while in the Senate. Today they have turned our planes into the Air Force of the IRGC’s Shiite Islamist militias in Iraq.

Throughout the process they chanted, “No deal is better than a bad deal.” But their deal isn’t just bad. It’s treason.

Obama isn’t Chamberlain. He doesn’t mean well. Kerry isn’t making honest mistakes. They negotiated ineptly with Iran because they are throwing the game. They meant for America to lose all along.

When Obama negotiates with Republicans, he extracts maximum concessions for the barest minimum. Kerry did the same thing with Israel during the failed attempt at restarting peace negotiations with the PLO. That’s how they treat those they consider their enemies. This is how they treat their friends.

A bad deal wasn’t just better than no deal, it was better than a good deal.

 Obama did not go into this to stop Iran from going nuclear. He did it to turn Iran into the axis of the Middle East. After his failures in the rest of the region, this is his final act of spite. With the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood and the decline of Islamists in Turkey, supporting Iran is his way of blocking the power of his successors in the White House to pursue a more pro-American foreign policy.

Obama made this deal to cripple American power in the Middle East.

And Obama made sure the Iran deal was written to make the proof as hard to obtain as possible.

Iran get to keep its nuclear facilities, its reactors, including the hidden underground fortified Fordow facility which Obama had repeatedly stated was, “inconsistent with a peaceful program.”

The deal gives Iran a “peaceful” nuclear program with an equally peaceful ballistic missile program. It puts into place a complicated inspection regime that can be blocked by Iran and its backers. It turns Iran into the new North Korea and the new Saddam Hussein, lavishing money on it while running future administrations through a cat and mouse game of proving violations by the terrorist regime.

 

That hasn’t stopped Obama from lying and claiming that “Inspectors will have 24/7 access to Iran’s nuclear facilities.” Meanwhile France's Foreign Minister, somewhat more accurately put it, “The IAEA will be able to gain access to Iran's military sites, if necessary, under certain conditions.”

Iran will be able to stall for almost a month, offer alternatives, and then put the matter down to a vote. It will do this as many times as it can to wear down the nerves and attention of investigators. The practical process is routed through a separate roadmap which references separate arrangements and leaves the consequences unstated. It’s a bureaucratic rabbit hole with nothing at the other end.

Bureaucrats will pore over maps and argue over timetables for inspections schedules while Iran goes nuclear right under their noses.

The centrifuges will go on spinning and Iran will receive aid in developing its “peaceful” nuclear program. Obama’s $140 billion sanctions relief will flow into Iran’s weapons programs as Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered that “at least 5% of the public budget” go to the military with a special emphasis on “missile technology” for the terrorist state.

One of the first items on Iran’s shopping list will be Russia’s S300 missile system to keep Israel or a future American administration from taking out Iran’s nuclear program. But Iran is also pursuing ICBMs that can strike at Europe and America. Obama’s decision to phase out the ballistic missile sanctions on Iran will make it easier for Iran to build weapons that can destroy major American cities.

And Iran’s new cash will empower it to fund terrorism in Israel, America and around the world.

Obama claims to “have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons” by allowing Iran to keep enhancing its nuclear program and rewarding it with ballistic missiles for its “peaceful” intentions. He claims to have negotiated “from a position of strength and principle” when in fact he surrendered to the Iranians on position after position. Tehran negotiated from strength and principle.

 Obama sold out America.

As Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen put it, “This deal sets in place every key component of a nuclear program that Iran needs to develop a weapon.”

Obama has turned America into a state sponsor of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

 “When I was a platoon leader in Iraq, my soldiers and I faced deadly roadside bombs, made and supplied by Iran. I tried to reassure them, but I could only tell them to hope it wasn’t our day to die by Iran’s roadside bombs,” Senator Tom Cotton said. “If Iran obtains a nuclear weapon, I fear the United States will only be able to hope it isn’t our day to die by an Iranian nuclear bomb."

Obama and Kerry had opposed standing by American soldiers under fire from Iran’s terrorism. Now their treason has taken Iran from aiming roadside bombs to aiming nuclear bombs at Americans.

Instead of stopping Iran from going nuclear, Obama has become the Ayatollah’s economic errand boy, committed by the deal to pressure municipal funds in California and New York to reinvest in Iran.

When Senator Tom Cotton, a man who unlike Obama had served in the military, dared to warn Tehran that the United States was a democracy whose elected officials would get a vote on the Iran deal, the administration’s flunkies denounced him and fellow senators as the #47Traitors in a hashtag.

The real traitor was always in the White House. And it’s time we called his foreign policy what it is.

Treason.

Obama and Kerry have not made this deal as representatives of the United States, but as representatives of a toxic ideology that views America as the cause of all that is wrong in the world. 

This is not an agreement that strengthens us and keeps us safe, but an agreement that weakens us and endangers us negotiated by men who believe that a strong Iran is better than a strong America.

Their ideology is that of the screaming anti-war protester denouncing American forces and foreign policy anywhere and everywhere, whose worldview has changed little since crying, “Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh. NLF is going to win” in the streets. The only difference is that he now wears an expensive suit.

Their ideology is not America. It is not American. It is the same poisonous left-wing hatred which led Kerry to the Viet Cong, to the Sandinistas and to Assad. It is the same resentment of America that Obama carried to Cairo, Havana and Tehran. We have met the enemy and he is in the White House.

Yanky Jacob Daskal, 59, who runs the Shomrim's Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, a Hasidic neighborhood watch group, abused the girl between August and November of last year, police said...

Brooklyn safety official charged with raping 16-year-old girl

By Rocco Parascandola

| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |

May 10, 2018

 Yanky Daskal was charged with rape and criminal sex act, plus three misdemeanors — forcible touching, sex abuse and acting in a manner injurious to a child

An official with an influential neighborhood watch group in Brooklyn has been charged with raping a 16-year-old girl, police said Thursday.

Jacob Daskal, 59, who runs the Shomrim's Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, a Hasidic neighborhood watch group, abused the girl between August and November of last year, police said.

Daskal was charged with rape and criminal sex act, plus three misdemeanors — forcible touching, sex abuse and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

Shomrim's links to law enforcement have been a subplot in the ongoing federal probe involving two businessmen and a number of NYPD supervisors. In 2016, the FBI investigated what role the supervisors may have played in securing gun licenses for members of Shomrim. Daskal, who lives in Borough Park and has strong ties to the NYPD, was not charged in that case.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-safety-official-charged-raping-16-year-old-girl-article-1.3982706

Brooklyn Safety Patrol Leader Is Charged in Sex Abuse of Teen

Jakob Daskal, the head of the Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, leaves court in Brooklyn on Friday after he was arraigned on charges that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl.CreditStephanie Keith for The New York Times

 

By Al Baker

May 11, 2018

On Wednesday, sex crimes investigators for the New York Police Department received a troubling report: The influential leader of a Brooklyn safety patrol known as the shomrim had been sexually abusing a teenage girl, the police were told.

A day later, detectives arrested the man, Jacob Daskal, a leader of one faction of what has been, since the 1970s, a sort of auxiliary police force for the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn’s Borough Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush and Williamsburg neighborhoods.

Mr. Daskal, 59, was charged with statutory rape, sexual abuse and other crimes. The authorities believe the abuse took place at Mr. Daskal’s home between August and November of last year, when the girl, who is now 16, was a year younger. But the inquiry is continuing, to determine if the alleged abuse occurred over a longer period of time or if there were additional victims.

The revelations cast another shadow over a group that has long cultivated relationships with New York’s law enforcement and elected leaders — and that has secured government funding for vehicles, phones and other equipment integral to its brand of security for some of the city’s most insular populations. On several occasions, critics have questioned whether the shomrim’s proximity to authority has fostered vigilantism or corruption.

In May 2016, two men linked to the shomrim of Williamsburg admitted to taking part in the assault of a black man in their neighborhood. A month earlier, Alex Lichtenstein, a former member of Mr. Daskal’s Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, which covers Borough Park, was arrested on federal charges of trying to secure handgun permits by offering the police thousands of dollars in cash bribes.

In the case of Mr. Daskal, 59, he was arrested at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, within the 77th police precinct, the police said. He was then taken to the Brooklyn Special Victims squad, they said.

On Friday, the police said that Mr. Daskal had been charged with third-degree rape; third-degree criminal sex act; forcible touching; acting in a manner injurious to a child less than 17; and third-degree sexual abuse. He shuffled, handcuffed, into court for arraignment and pleaded not guilty before Judge Deborah Dowling, who issued an order of protection on behalf of his accuser.

Evan Lipton, a lawyer for Mr. Daskal, said his client was prepared to surrender his passport. 

Afterward, as Mr. Daskal was released on bail, some supporters surrounded him in a hallway as Mr. Lipton told him, “Your phones have been seized.”

It was not immediately clear what triggered Wednesday’s report to the police.

Around Borough Park, people seemed dazed by the news of the arrest.

“This is the last thing anybody would believe,” said one man, a neighbor, who stood outside Mr. Daskal’s house about noon, watching as a van from the Crime Scene Unit pulled to the curb. Throughout the morning, investigators, some wearing latex gloves, converged on the brick duplex set back from 46th Street as onlookers, including several children, gathered outside.

On those same streets, the shomrim are seen as quick-acting stand-ins for police officers. With their two-way radios and social media links, they have won praise for keeping a watchful eye on the community, chasing down burglars, controlling crowds and locating the missing.

Residents, many of whom are Yiddish-speaking and cling to a culture rooted in preindustrial Europe, trust the shomrim as liaisons to secular authorities, who can negotiate language barriers and complex social mores.

According to state campaign finance records, Mr. Daskal has been a consistent political contributor over the years.

Police officials, too, have embraced the shomrim. It is commonplace for shomrim leaders to attend promotion ceremonies at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

In 2015, a year before he became police commissioner, James P. O’Neill, then the chief of department, threw out the first pitch at an annual softball game between officers from the 66th Precinct and members of the Borough Park shomrim. Mr. Lichtenstein played in that game, the Greenfield Classic, named for David G. Greenfield, a city councilman who represents the district. In an interview in 2016, however, Mr. Daskal denied that Mr. Lichtenstein’s criminal case involving the gun permits had anything to do with the shomrim.

On Friday, as investigators streamed in and out of Mr. Daskal’s house, signs of their connections were evident. Parked in the street, near Mr. Daskal’s driveway, were a pair of shomrim vehicles outfitted like police patrol cars: emergency lights; a shield logo; the words “Courtesy Professionalism Respect” written on the side.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/nyregion/brooklyn-shomrim-leader-charged-sex-abuse.html

"Judaism demands that we protect the vulnerable," said Sari Steinberg, of Sacred Spaces, in her pitch. "We need to do abuse prevention and we needed to have done it yesterday. This work cannot wait."

Jewish Women’s Foundation crowd-raising event awards $50,000 to Sacred Spaces to prevent sexual abuse

Sacred Spaces, a group working to systemically address and prevent sexual abuse in Jewish institutions, was the proud recipient of a $50,000 grant at the Jewish Women's Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago's first-ever Frame the Future Pop-Up Giving Circle last week. The night featured live presentations by a select group of nonprofits pitching innovative grant proposals in keeping with JWF's mission of supporting Jewish women and girls, and gave attendees the opportunity to vote for which proposal would receive funding. Nearly 100 women attended the event, raising the $50,000 grant themselves through contributions of at least $500 each in order to participate.

The event was the culmination of a year of special celebrations in honor of the Jewish Women's Foundation's 20-year anniversary.

"This is part of a revolution," said Joelle Berman, a national giving circle expert who facilitated the event. "We are revolutionizing the way that philanthropy happens."

Sacred Spaces plans to use the award to launch their program in Chicago, uniting local institutions across the denominational spectrum in a guided process for preventing abuse in the community. The process will focus on comprehensive policy development and education for lay leaders, clergy, staff, and the community.

"Judaism demands that we protect the vulnerable," said Sari Steinberg, of Sacred Spaces, in her pitch. "We need to do abuse prevention and we needed to have done it yesterday. This work cannot wait." 

Runners-up included Sharsheret, an organization supporting Jewish women and families facing breast and ovarian cancer, and Orot: Center for New Jewish Learning, which empowers Jews of all backgrounds to discover new entry points into Judaism through mindfulness and immersive learning. Both organizations also received a $1,500 contribution to support their work.

The Jewish Women's Foundation is an independent project of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. For more information, visit www.juf.org/jwf/ .

ASAP's Abuse-Prevention Program is being used throughout the world of Jewish summer camps and youth programs to both ensure the safety of campers and counselors as well as reduce liability for camp administration.

The camp program, endorsed by leading Rabbis and professionals,  is free and available online - (https://asap.care/summer- camps/) and includes the following elements:

• Directors Guide (which includes safety protocol) - https://asap.care/wp-content/ uploads/2018/01/Guide-for- Directors-FINAL.pdf
• Animated training videos and certification exam for counselors and staff - https://asap.care/summer- camps/counselors/
• Video 1 - https://youtu.be/pjJ-YwQCfz8
• Video 2 - https://youtu.be/aOzTZJUVDL4
• Video 3- https://youtu.be/YkkOY_aLJnI
• Video 4 - https://youtu.be/B0fBVDBOTzU
• Guidelines for parents - https://asap.care/summer- camps/for-parents/
• Additional safety protocol to protect children who need more physical and intimate care as well as those with communication challenges (available upon request).

By having the counselors participate in the program and complete certification before camp, you will be filtering out potential abusers and sending a clear message to counselors, campers, and parents that you are educated, aware, and will not tolerate abuse.  Additionally, while safety guidelines are there to protect the best interests of the campers, they will also protect counselors from false accusations, something many have become fearful of.  

I am happy to set up a time to speak with you and discuss how the program can be adapted to the specific needs of your camp.

Sincerely, 

Gila Ashkenazy

Project Coordinator

ASAP: Association for Sexual Abuse Prevention and Treatment

www.asap.care 

http://www.aish.com/f/p/ Preventing-Abuse-at-Summer- Camp.html

http://jewishweek. timesofisrael.com/protecting- against-abuse-at-summer-camps/

https://asap.care/youtoo-time- to-stop-talking-about- molestation-and-start- preventing-it/

It is a mistake to think that abusers are easy to identify. They do not hide, nor do they dress in specific ways. They are often well-regarded individuals who take pride in giving the impression that they are engaged in charitable work and care deeply for children. Without proper screening and constant supervision, abusers will not be identified and will have open access to children...

Protecting Against Abuse At Summer Camps

By Michael J. Salamon 

 

With summer on the horizon and talk about camp plans at a feverish pitch, this time of year is one of excitement for many. But it can be stressful for those of us who work with sexual abuse survivors. 

Just a few years ago I wrote about a man that I was treating who had been sexually abused by a counselor in a sleepaway camp when he was in his early teens. I never mentioned his name nor the name of the camp. But after the piece was published, I was inundated with letters, e-mails and calls from other men — older and younger than he — telling me about their similar experiences.

In all, more than 100 people contacted me. About 30 of them had been to the same camp and were abused by the same counselor who had been promoted over the years to head counselor. It was an open secret that he would select campers to go skinny dipping with him late at night and would abuse them. Still, he was revered by many at the camp. 

That abusive man has since passed on.  But stories like that do not. There are many similar cases, and while there is a significant effort to prevent abuse through stricter policies and more robust vetting, it is a given that abuse will likely continue to occur.

Last summer I was informed of two situations at sleepaway camps where abuse occurred. Both of those took place at camps that have anti-harassment and abuse policies – an absolute must. What is most often missing, though, is the necessary supervision of camp employees, the need to believe a person who finally feels strong and comfortable enough to report that he or she was abused, and the proper education of children who go off to camp. While it would be a fool’s errand to believe that all abuse can be eradicated, it is these three areas — staff supervision, believing victims and educating children that can provide the most effective buffer against abusers.

It is a mistake to think that abusers are easy to identify. They do not hide, nor do they dress in specific ways. They are often well-regarded individuals who take pride in giving the impression that they are engaged in charitable work and care deeply for children. Without proper screening and constant supervision, abusers will not be identified and will have open access to children.

Unfortunately, far too often children who are abused are not believed. As documented in the recent book “A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America” abused children are often bullied into recanting their reports of the maltreatment they received. It took many years and dogged determination of some of the survivors of Dr. Larry Nassar to finally have their day in court in the Olympic gymnast scandal. The Nassar case provides evidence that abusers tend to harm as many victims as they possibly can. It used to be estimated that men who abuse can have between 10 and 50 victims. Nassar may have had over 250 victims. Still, many of those victims were not initially believed despite the evidence, simply because Nassar was held in high esteem.

Preparing children to protect themselves under any circumstance is no easy task. It is often uncomfortable for a parent to be able to have a direct talk with their own child. Still it must be done in an age appropriate manner, using the correct bodily terms and instructing a child to turn to someone trustworthy should the child feel threatened – not always easy in a sleepaway camp. For that reason, it is imperative for parents to take their time selecting the best camping program with directors and counselors who have been evaluated and have a track record of running a well supervised program.

I went to sleepaway camp for several years as a pre-teen and teenager. At one of the camps I attended the camp directors floated in and out of camp activities on a regular basis and checked bunks, bathrooms and the areas around the fields every night at random times. They were diligent in taking care of their campers. At a different camp, one with more porous supervision, I heard later that several campers had been sexually molested by staff for several years after I had been a camper there.

To create a consistent approach to protect the wellbeing of campers, ASAP, a non-profit organization that addresses issues of abuse in the Jewish community, has several free guides available online for directors and counselors (www.asap.care)  Parents should request that camps they choose for their children adhere to the training and certification the ASAP program has promulgated.

Abuse can take place anywhere, anytime. We can do our best to prevent it if we, as parents, camp administration and staff do our diligence, follow through to create a safe environment and educate our children.

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

http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/protecting-against-abuse-at-summer-camps/

“The causing of such extreme suffering to animals solely to satisfy our desire for fresh meat is not the way of Torah, and it is not human morality to permit such harsh cruelty to animals… in addition to which, the meat produced from them costs more than fresh meat that is imported to Israel chilled.”

Sixty senior rabbis call for end to ‘evil crime’ of live animal shipments

 

Chief rabbi of Beersheba says every rabbi should join protest; anyone buying such meat is complicit in activity that is against human and Torah morality

Screenshot from Australian TV's "60 Minutes" broadcast about live shipments, "Sheep, Ships and Videotape," shown April 8, 2018.

One of Israel’s most senior rabbis has ruled that anyone buying meat from animals shipped from overseas to Israel for slaughter in cruel conditions is a partner to a crime.

In a letter released Thursday by animal rights activists, Rabbi Yehuda Deri, chief rabbi of the southern city of Beersheba and a member of the Chief Rabbinate’s Council, called on every rabbi in Israel to protest the long-distance shipments of sheep and cattle for fattening and slaughter in Israel.
He said he planned to raise the issue at an upcoming meeting of the council.

“It is clear… that whoever buys this meat is a partner to and helps those committing an evil crime, ” he wrote. “Every rabbi in Israel must take part in this protest until the issue is resolved.”
The letter was released along with a petition against the shipments signed by 60 leading rabbis from across the religious spectrum.

Screenshot from Australian TV’s “60 Minutes” broadcast about live shipments, “Sheep, Ships and Videotape,” shown April 8, 2018.

 WATCH VIDEO:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/animal.org.il/videos/

It came in the wake of an exposé by Animals Australia, broadcast on Australian TV’s “60 Minutes,” into the appalling conditions in which sheep were shipped to the Middle East on five journeys.
The petition says it is “neither the way of the Torah nor of human morality to allow such cruelty to animals.”

The signatories include members of the Chief Rabbinate’s Council — Rabbi Deri, Rabbi Ratzon Arusi and Rabbi Shimon Elitov; as well as Israel Prize laureates Rabbi Prof. Daniel Sperber, Rabbi Avraham Steinberg and Rabbi Eli Sadan; and the late Rabbi Elyashiv Knohl, who died two weeks ago.

Among other names are Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall; Avigdor Nebenzahl, a former chief rabbi of Jerusalem, who serves on the faculty of the Yeshivat HaKotel and is rabbi of the Ramban Synagogue in the Old City; kashrut expert and veterinarian Dr. Israel Meir Levinger; Itamar Wahrhaftig, a Bar-Ilan University expert on Jewish law; Ronen Neubert, a co-founder of the Beit Hillel organization; and Shlomo Sheffer, Bar-Ilan University’s rabbi.

“We were shocked to discover the harsh facts about the great suffering of calves and sheep, God’s creatures, sent by ships from Australia and Europe to be slaughtered in Israel,” says the petition, which reflects the biggest rabbinical mobilization to date to stop the shipments, which, from Australia, can take three weeks or more.

“The causing of such extreme suffering to animals solely to satisfy our desire for fresh meat is not the way of Torah, and it is not human morality to permit such harsh cruelty to animals… in addition to which, the meat produced from them costs more than fresh meat that is imported to Israel chilled.”

The petition concludes by saying that the shipments must be stopped.

Disturbing footage from the documentary, shot by a whistleblower on the ship and subsequently broadcast on Israel’s Hadashot news, showed overcrowding on board, with animals packed so tightly that many could not reach food and water.

Unable to sit or lie down, most stood covered in their own excrement, gasping for air in scorching temperatures — a sign that they were about to die from heatstroke.

“They literally cook from the inside while alive during the journey,” veterinarian Yuval Samuel told Hadashot TV news.

On one of the journeys documented, 2,400 sheep perished and were thrown overboard.

The rabbinical protest is being led by two Bar Ilan University professors — British-born Sperber, president of the Higher Institute of Torah Studies and a vegetarian, and Yael Shemesh of the Bible department and the center for women’s research, a vegan — in conjunction with the animal rights organizations Anonymous for Animal Rights and Let Animals Live.

Sperber said, “I have no doubt that anyone who sees these pictures will find that this situation is completely forbidden by [Jewish law]. This is indescribable animal suffering…it is so horrific and certainly absolutely forbidden.”

Rabbi Deri said in his letter that “there is no doubt that this phenomenon completely contradicts the spirit of our Holy Torah and stands in complete contradiction to certain mitzvot of what is and is not allowed and the many [Jewish ritual] laws that followed in the Talmud.”

Deri went on to quote examples from Jewish law prohibiting cruelty to animals and ruling that while Jews are allowed to eat meat, they must do everything they can to minimize suffering.

Following the broadcast in Australia, the Australian Agriculture Ministry said it would open an inquiry into the standards of livestock shipping from Australia to the Middle East.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called for a complete halt, or at least a significant reduction, to what he termed the “cruel” shipments.

 

He told Hadashot that there was insufficient supervision of the conditions on the long-haul voyages, and that all effort should be made to reduce or preferably stop the shipments to Israel and the “serious abuse” of animals involved.

The prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, took to Facebook to register her “shock” after seeing the broadcast.

Last year, 499,265 live cattle and sheep were shipped to Israel for the meat industry from Australia and various European countries — a slight reduction from 2016, when 571,972 heads arrived at Israeli ports, but nearly double the number for 2015 — 292,274, according to Israel’s Agriculture Ministry.

Ships resembling multi-story parking lots carry from 1,000 to 20,000 cattle, or 100,000 sheep, or a combination.

Once in Israel, the animals are loaded onto trucks for journeys that can take hours to slaughterhouses or to pre-slaughter fattening facilities. They are treated with antibiotics against the infections that overcrowding causes.

While the Australian exposé did not directly relate to shipments to Israel, footage from a quarantine station at Kibbutz Eilot in the south of the country released at the same time by Anonymous for Animal Rights showed the same sort of abuse after ships’ arrivals to the country, with animals being whipped through a narrow passage.

A worker filmed beating a cow at a quarantine station at Kibbutz Eilot in Israel’s south after the unloading of cattle for slaughter at the Eilat port.(Anonymous/Hadashot News screenshot)

Lawmakers from the Knesset’s cross-party Lobby for Animal Rights said in a statement following the broadcast that despite “explicit promises” from the agriculture ministry that live shipments would be reduced and imports of chilled meat increased, “the investigation today shows that nothing has changed.”

At present, the government exempts totally or partially from tax the import of live animals for slaughter while imposing ceilings on tax exemptions for the import of chilled meat.
It has said in the past that it will gradually increase the amount of tax exempt chilled meat allowed into the country and phase out live shipments.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/sixty-senior-rabbis-call-for-end-to-evil-crime-of-live-animal-shipments/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=ff40095ae4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_05_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-ff40095ae4-55186525