http://www.sfjny.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=435:suffering-in-silence-a-news-12-special-report&catid=2:news&Itemid=57
Courtesy of Survivors For Justice
Ben Hirsch - President - Founder
World Briefing | Europe
Germany: New Guides for Reporting Clergy Sex Abuse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 31, 2010
New guidelines issued Tuesday by Germany’s Roman Catholic Church require prosecutors to be informed of any suspected cases of sexual abuse by members of the clergy. The guidelines are in response to hundreds of allegations of such abuse that earlier this year rocked the church in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI’s homeland. Earlier guidelines only “advised” priests to contact prosecutors in “proven cases” of abuse. Critics said the new guidelines do not go far enough, fail to clarify issues of financial compensation for victims and allow offending clergy members to continue to serve within the church.
*
Perhaps the German Church should have discussed these new guidelines with Rabbi Yisroel Belsky of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn, New York - before issuing them!
Trust Belsky for anything? I don't think so! An evil, corrupt and sick mind - the so-called head of a yeshiva and kosher decisor? We get the leaders and rabbis we deserve!
UOJ
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Jewish Felons: The Problem of Criminality in Observant Communities!
The UOJ Archives - August 2006
By Joel Cohen
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. — Justice Louis D. Brandeis
As a prosecutor and, more recently, a white-collar defense attorney in New York, I have witnessed a disturbing rise in crime among Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. When I broach the subject with Jewish friends, they say that writing about this subject will be “a disgrace to the name of God,” viewing the writing on the issue as the disgrace and ignoring the underlying conduct. They see Jews, particularly observant Jews, as a community that outsiders focus on in search of scandal and feel that exposing the problem will add fuel to the fires of anti-Semitism. I feel that this reasoning is wrongheaded: To ignore crime within our ranks does us a great disservice, both because it weakens us as a community and because tolerating it suggests to the outside world that Judaism does not promote a righteous moral compass.
A Growing Problem
There is no shortage of high-profile Jewish crime. Take the infamous New Square scandal, in which four Hassidim were convicted for defrauding the government of $11 million by setting up a fictitious yeshiva to receive federal student aid money. Or the case in Williamsburg, New York, in which the rabbi of a Jewish day school [Hertz Frankel of Satmar] stole 6 million dollars from the Board of Education over several years by falsely identifying more than eighty individuals as school employees.
The problem in the observant community, however, is not merely occasional, nor does it often make headlines. Daily, in metropolises around the country, yarmulka-wearing criminal defendants appear before the bar of justice. In the early 1970s, a particularly imaginative criminal defense lawyer in New York City successfully sued the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to provide kosher food for one or two of his incarcerated clients. The sad truth is that these days, kosher food has become as commonplace in many penal institutions as it is on airlines.
Today, every day in the minimum-security camp at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in Rockland County, New York, there are sizeable minyanim, three times daily. A full-time rabbi attends to the congregation’s spiritual and religious needs. Daily religious classes are offered. Shabbat and holiday meals are provided. There are so many observant inmates—inmates who were ostensibly observant at the time of their arrest, not those who “found God” after they broke the law, thereby increasing the numbers—that such provisions are now available at a number of other federal penal institutions. Anyone practicing in the justice system of a large urban metropolis with a significant Jewish population—New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, for example—has seen a similar trend.
These observant defendants are not typically charged with street crime or narcotics trafficking. The most common charge is fraud: against businessmen and run-of-the-mill citizens alike, most frequently involving victims outside of the Jewish community; against the government; against insurance carriers; against banking institutions; health care fraud; money laundering; and stock swindling.
Perhaps most disturbing is a new breed of fraud involving observant community leaders, sometimes rabbis themselves, and intended to benefit the community itself, such as fraud against government spending programs for education and health care. The perpetrators in these cases don’t typically profit personally, but the government and the intended recipients of these government programs are no less defrauded of funds designated for a particular use. And more often than not, the community, including its lay and religious leaders, stands up for the perpetrators by defending, or at least excusing, their behavior. For example, following the convictions of four Hassidim in the New Square scandal, Hassidic leaders defended President Clinton’s pardon of these individuals on the grounds that the stolen funds were funneled back into their community rather than into their own pockets.
The Key Question
Why is fraud so common in the Orthodox and Hasidic communities? Perhaps Judaism itself concentrates too heavily on technical observances designed to honor the Kingdom of God and not enough on a code of conduct honoring and respecting each other. Maybe the religion, as taught, isn’t sufficiently concerned with ethical precepts particularly with regard to faceless government bodies or individuals outside the fold. Even more disturbing, perhaps criminal, or merely unethical, behavior is simply not inconsistent with religious observance.
Whatever the reason, the ultimate question is simple: Do the religious obligations of Orthodox and Hasidic communities require their members to behave ethically in their everyday behavior, including in their dealings with everyone of every faith? Several responses to this key question will invariably invoke talmudic niceties, such as, “What do you mean by ethical behavior?” Responses of this nature highlight a root problem: talmudic exercises that can be used to rationalize misbehavior. Yet, these rationalizations find little support in the teachings of the Torah itself. Indeed, the Torah contains an explicit injunction against maintaining two weights, one large and one small—the biblical equivalent of two sets of books—declaring it an “abomination to God” to act with such weights corruptly (Deut. 25:13-16). How did we stray so far from such a clear anti-fraud philosophy of the Torah to the present-day efforts by some to defend fraudulent behavior with hyper-technical talmudic logic?
Consider this example: Money laundering did not violate American law until 20 years ago. Nor did it violate any specific biblical law, or post-biblical law, ever. But it now violates American law and is a very serious offense. Some, however, argue that even a serious violation of American law, such as money laundering, that is not also criminalized by the Torah does not require the observant community’s condemnation (e.g., “Our Higher Authority doesn’t itself forbid it”). Without question, a whole category of secular laws criminalizes conduct not proscribed by the Torah. And, in many instances, the proscribed conduct would not violate the morality of the Jewish religion or, for that matter, the state. Indeed, many are so-called victimless crimes.
It may even be that particular criminal statutes are discriminatory in their enforcement or affirmatively harm certain segments of society. This is not true, it is worth noting, of money laundering, insider trading, or criminal tax laws, which may be onerous in the extreme and sometimes unfair in their application, but not discriminatory, e.g., they were not enacted to “get” Jews.
There are certainly times when we are justified in disobeying the law. To invoke the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, there may be times when “if there is nothing worth dying for, there is nothing worth living for.” Some laws imposed by a secular government are so inappropriate—indeed, perhaps, although rarely, anti-Semitic—that the good citizen’s duty is to take the consequences and civilly disobey them in protest. Such laws are rare in post-World War II America. But engaging in civil disobedience to protest the repugnant law is not the same as simply breaking the law for monetary gain. If a law-abiding Jew disobeys a law to protest its unfairness, fully recognizing the consequences of his protest, one can argue that he remains an observant Jew.
Still, civil disobedience aside, if a statute exists on the books, there is a halachic consequence to violating it, however victimless or onerous it may be. This is true, however, even if the law is seen as designed to protect the financially entrenched against the outsider, and thus is itself immoral. Some observant communities have argued, for example, that the education finance regimes do not fairly address the financial needs of Jewish parochial schools, thus requiring extralegal machinations to level the playing field. “Extralegal,” here, though, really means illegal.
Jewish law, handed down through the generations through Maimonides, pronounces that “the law of the land is the law.” In other words, an act criminalized by a secular government is also prohibited by the Torah simply by virtue of existing under the secular law of the society in which we live. If we truly believe in that fundamental concept—for observant Jewry it should be as binding as a law appearing verbatim in written Scripture—it hardly matters that the particular law is not ethically based, does not violate a specific precept of the Torah, or may even be of questionable social value. If the Jewish or observant Jewish community believes that the law was enacted largely because that community does not have an adequate voice in government, it should get out the vote—not defy the law.
Finally, some may suggest that certain Jewish groups who emigrated from Eastern Europe were victimized there by anti-Semitic regimes, which makes their disrespect for secular rule of law understandable. This argument raises a bizarre affirmative action defense that seeks immunity from the laws of the United States for wrongs that the United States had nothing to do with. Regardless, the previously victimized community should take no solace in such an explanation, as there is simply no comparison between Poland in 1939 and America in 2004.
The Community’s Response
It is astonishing, sometimes, how the observant and Hasidic communities react to criminal charges by a superficially observant defendant. Often, those communities assume that anti-Semitism is the driving force behind an unfounded prosecution or that the defendant is being prosecuted (or persecuted) more severely because he is Jewish. Even after a guilty verdict or plea (which should remove any lingering doubt about guilt, as well as any claim of a frame-up), his community will frequently write supportive letters to a sentencing judge suggesting that this is simply aberrant behavior for “an otherwise observant Jew.” And that may be true—sometimes. For some, psychological or compelling financial reasons may induce one-time criminal episodes, contrary to how the individuals conduct otherwise exemplary lives.
But what about the habitual offender who leads an otherwise pious life? He is a regular attendant at minyan; he is meticulous in his kashrut observance; he joyfully sanctifies the Sabbath; he gives charity generously. He also, because it is simply the right thing to do, treats his employees well and is a dedicated and respected leader of the community. Nevertheless, he engages in fraudulent business practices, over and over—but he only cheats the government, non-observers, or non-Jews. Should the religious community that he comes from still stand behind this individual as an observant Jew or “an otherwise observant Jew”?
To be sure, this man deserves the emotional support of his family, friends, and even his community when he is in trouble with the law. We are a people proud of the traditions of forgiveness and repentance. Clearly, the members of his religious community, if they have something favorable to say to a judge about him, should come forward and not abandon him when he has fallen on hard times for his waywardness—especially if he demonstrates true acceptance of responsibility and contrition.
But his community also deserves something in these cases. It deserves the outspoken and unequivocal condemnation of the conduct as being contrary to religious observance. And for this condemnation to have any real impact on that community, it must come from lay and religious leaders within the community itself, who must acknowledge that religious observance is flatly incompatible with fraudulent behavior. Only with the open denouncement of wrongdoing from within the particular observant community can the community hope to demonstrate and protect the Torah’s commitment to honesty in one’s interpersonal dealings as being at least equal to, if not greater than, its commitment to technical observance of mitzvot. Indeed, frequently, the community and its rabbis stand behind the seemingly flexible rule that Jews may not testify against other Jews in a secular court, notwithstanding the seriousness of the offense—hardly a position calculated to encourage the denouncement of wrongdoing or scandal.
Thus, advocating leniency for an observant felon precisely because of his so-called piety as an “observant Jew” harms both the religion and the observant community by suggesting that religion allows for a divergence between piety and morality. Indeed, if this same yarmulka-wearing man were a completely honest businessman whose aberrant conduct was, instead, a weakness for shrimp, would the observant community refer to this man as an observant Jew or an otherwise observant Jew? Surely not! Is kashrut a more fundamental observance in Judaism than basic honesty?
Presiding over a case involving a Hasidic Jew who had pleaded guilty to burning down unoccupied buildings for insurance, Federal Judge I. Leo Glasser turned to the large number of Hasidim who had come to court in support of their fellow Hasid and said:
Some persons might characterize [your presence here] as being a chilul hashem [a disgrace to the name of God].… Sometimes one wonders whether … more emphasis is placed on form and not enough on substance….[T]he words that you recite three times a day and the code and the laws that you study should be thought of in terms of what those words mean and what they are intended to move us to do in terms of the kind of life we lead.
For a secular judge to have used the term chilul hashem in an American court suggests that he is speaking to the defendant as both judge and fellow Jew. His are words that we should all heed.
No matter how we try to justify it—whether as victimless crime, the result of past persecution, something that only affects “outsiders” while helping the Jewish community, a just response to unjust policy, or irrelevant missteps by the otherwise pious—criminal behavior simply cannot be condoned in observant Jewish communities. It undermines the foundations of what we believe, as well as damaging us in the eyes of the outside world. The disgrace of Jewish fraud is not only a disgrace against God, but also a disgrace to ourselves and each other. The Torah and Jewish teaching will give us guidance on how to live ethically, even in our complicated modern society, if we only listen to its truths. At day’s end, the burden lies with all of us. In the words of Edmund Burke, “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men [and women] to do nothing.”
Joel Cohen, a former prosecutor, practices white-collar criminal defense law at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in New York. He is the author of Moses: A Memoir.
By Joel Cohen
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. — Justice Louis D. Brandeis
As a prosecutor and, more recently, a white-collar defense attorney in New York, I have witnessed a disturbing rise in crime among Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. When I broach the subject with Jewish friends, they say that writing about this subject will be “a disgrace to the name of God,” viewing the writing on the issue as the disgrace and ignoring the underlying conduct. They see Jews, particularly observant Jews, as a community that outsiders focus on in search of scandal and feel that exposing the problem will add fuel to the fires of anti-Semitism. I feel that this reasoning is wrongheaded: To ignore crime within our ranks does us a great disservice, both because it weakens us as a community and because tolerating it suggests to the outside world that Judaism does not promote a righteous moral compass.
A Growing Problem
There is no shortage of high-profile Jewish crime. Take the infamous New Square scandal, in which four Hassidim were convicted for defrauding the government of $11 million by setting up a fictitious yeshiva to receive federal student aid money. Or the case in Williamsburg, New York, in which the rabbi of a Jewish day school [Hertz Frankel of Satmar] stole 6 million dollars from the Board of Education over several years by falsely identifying more than eighty individuals as school employees.
The problem in the observant community, however, is not merely occasional, nor does it often make headlines. Daily, in metropolises around the country, yarmulka-wearing criminal defendants appear before the bar of justice. In the early 1970s, a particularly imaginative criminal defense lawyer in New York City successfully sued the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to provide kosher food for one or two of his incarcerated clients. The sad truth is that these days, kosher food has become as commonplace in many penal institutions as it is on airlines.
Today, every day in the minimum-security camp at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in Rockland County, New York, there are sizeable minyanim, three times daily. A full-time rabbi attends to the congregation’s spiritual and religious needs. Daily religious classes are offered. Shabbat and holiday meals are provided. There are so many observant inmates—inmates who were ostensibly observant at the time of their arrest, not those who “found God” after they broke the law, thereby increasing the numbers—that such provisions are now available at a number of other federal penal institutions. Anyone practicing in the justice system of a large urban metropolis with a significant Jewish population—New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, for example—has seen a similar trend.
These observant defendants are not typically charged with street crime or narcotics trafficking. The most common charge is fraud: against businessmen and run-of-the-mill citizens alike, most frequently involving victims outside of the Jewish community; against the government; against insurance carriers; against banking institutions; health care fraud; money laundering; and stock swindling.
Perhaps most disturbing is a new breed of fraud involving observant community leaders, sometimes rabbis themselves, and intended to benefit the community itself, such as fraud against government spending programs for education and health care. The perpetrators in these cases don’t typically profit personally, but the government and the intended recipients of these government programs are no less defrauded of funds designated for a particular use. And more often than not, the community, including its lay and religious leaders, stands up for the perpetrators by defending, or at least excusing, their behavior. For example, following the convictions of four Hassidim in the New Square scandal, Hassidic leaders defended President Clinton’s pardon of these individuals on the grounds that the stolen funds were funneled back into their community rather than into their own pockets.
The Key Question
Why is fraud so common in the Orthodox and Hasidic communities? Perhaps Judaism itself concentrates too heavily on technical observances designed to honor the Kingdom of God and not enough on a code of conduct honoring and respecting each other. Maybe the religion, as taught, isn’t sufficiently concerned with ethical precepts particularly with regard to faceless government bodies or individuals outside the fold. Even more disturbing, perhaps criminal, or merely unethical, behavior is simply not inconsistent with religious observance.
Whatever the reason, the ultimate question is simple: Do the religious obligations of Orthodox and Hasidic communities require their members to behave ethically in their everyday behavior, including in their dealings with everyone of every faith? Several responses to this key question will invariably invoke talmudic niceties, such as, “What do you mean by ethical behavior?” Responses of this nature highlight a root problem: talmudic exercises that can be used to rationalize misbehavior. Yet, these rationalizations find little support in the teachings of the Torah itself. Indeed, the Torah contains an explicit injunction against maintaining two weights, one large and one small—the biblical equivalent of two sets of books—declaring it an “abomination to God” to act with such weights corruptly (Deut. 25:13-16). How did we stray so far from such a clear anti-fraud philosophy of the Torah to the present-day efforts by some to defend fraudulent behavior with hyper-technical talmudic logic?
Consider this example: Money laundering did not violate American law until 20 years ago. Nor did it violate any specific biblical law, or post-biblical law, ever. But it now violates American law and is a very serious offense. Some, however, argue that even a serious violation of American law, such as money laundering, that is not also criminalized by the Torah does not require the observant community’s condemnation (e.g., “Our Higher Authority doesn’t itself forbid it”). Without question, a whole category of secular laws criminalizes conduct not proscribed by the Torah. And, in many instances, the proscribed conduct would not violate the morality of the Jewish religion or, for that matter, the state. Indeed, many are so-called victimless crimes.
It may even be that particular criminal statutes are discriminatory in their enforcement or affirmatively harm certain segments of society. This is not true, it is worth noting, of money laundering, insider trading, or criminal tax laws, which may be onerous in the extreme and sometimes unfair in their application, but not discriminatory, e.g., they were not enacted to “get” Jews.
There are certainly times when we are justified in disobeying the law. To invoke the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, there may be times when “if there is nothing worth dying for, there is nothing worth living for.” Some laws imposed by a secular government are so inappropriate—indeed, perhaps, although rarely, anti-Semitic—that the good citizen’s duty is to take the consequences and civilly disobey them in protest. Such laws are rare in post-World War II America. But engaging in civil disobedience to protest the repugnant law is not the same as simply breaking the law for monetary gain. If a law-abiding Jew disobeys a law to protest its unfairness, fully recognizing the consequences of his protest, one can argue that he remains an observant Jew.
Still, civil disobedience aside, if a statute exists on the books, there is a halachic consequence to violating it, however victimless or onerous it may be. This is true, however, even if the law is seen as designed to protect the financially entrenched against the outsider, and thus is itself immoral. Some observant communities have argued, for example, that the education finance regimes do not fairly address the financial needs of Jewish parochial schools, thus requiring extralegal machinations to level the playing field. “Extralegal,” here, though, really means illegal.
Jewish law, handed down through the generations through Maimonides, pronounces that “the law of the land is the law.” In other words, an act criminalized by a secular government is also prohibited by the Torah simply by virtue of existing under the secular law of the society in which we live. If we truly believe in that fundamental concept—for observant Jewry it should be as binding as a law appearing verbatim in written Scripture—it hardly matters that the particular law is not ethically based, does not violate a specific precept of the Torah, or may even be of questionable social value. If the Jewish or observant Jewish community believes that the law was enacted largely because that community does not have an adequate voice in government, it should get out the vote—not defy the law.
Finally, some may suggest that certain Jewish groups who emigrated from Eastern Europe were victimized there by anti-Semitic regimes, which makes their disrespect for secular rule of law understandable. This argument raises a bizarre affirmative action defense that seeks immunity from the laws of the United States for wrongs that the United States had nothing to do with. Regardless, the previously victimized community should take no solace in such an explanation, as there is simply no comparison between Poland in 1939 and America in 2004.
The Community’s Response
It is astonishing, sometimes, how the observant and Hasidic communities react to criminal charges by a superficially observant defendant. Often, those communities assume that anti-Semitism is the driving force behind an unfounded prosecution or that the defendant is being prosecuted (or persecuted) more severely because he is Jewish. Even after a guilty verdict or plea (which should remove any lingering doubt about guilt, as well as any claim of a frame-up), his community will frequently write supportive letters to a sentencing judge suggesting that this is simply aberrant behavior for “an otherwise observant Jew.” And that may be true—sometimes. For some, psychological or compelling financial reasons may induce one-time criminal episodes, contrary to how the individuals conduct otherwise exemplary lives.
But what about the habitual offender who leads an otherwise pious life? He is a regular attendant at minyan; he is meticulous in his kashrut observance; he joyfully sanctifies the Sabbath; he gives charity generously. He also, because it is simply the right thing to do, treats his employees well and is a dedicated and respected leader of the community. Nevertheless, he engages in fraudulent business practices, over and over—but he only cheats the government, non-observers, or non-Jews. Should the religious community that he comes from still stand behind this individual as an observant Jew or “an otherwise observant Jew”?
To be sure, this man deserves the emotional support of his family, friends, and even his community when he is in trouble with the law. We are a people proud of the traditions of forgiveness and repentance. Clearly, the members of his religious community, if they have something favorable to say to a judge about him, should come forward and not abandon him when he has fallen on hard times for his waywardness—especially if he demonstrates true acceptance of responsibility and contrition.
But his community also deserves something in these cases. It deserves the outspoken and unequivocal condemnation of the conduct as being contrary to religious observance. And for this condemnation to have any real impact on that community, it must come from lay and religious leaders within the community itself, who must acknowledge that religious observance is flatly incompatible with fraudulent behavior. Only with the open denouncement of wrongdoing from within the particular observant community can the community hope to demonstrate and protect the Torah’s commitment to honesty in one’s interpersonal dealings as being at least equal to, if not greater than, its commitment to technical observance of mitzvot. Indeed, frequently, the community and its rabbis stand behind the seemingly flexible rule that Jews may not testify against other Jews in a secular court, notwithstanding the seriousness of the offense—hardly a position calculated to encourage the denouncement of wrongdoing or scandal.
Thus, advocating leniency for an observant felon precisely because of his so-called piety as an “observant Jew” harms both the religion and the observant community by suggesting that religion allows for a divergence between piety and morality. Indeed, if this same yarmulka-wearing man were a completely honest businessman whose aberrant conduct was, instead, a weakness for shrimp, would the observant community refer to this man as an observant Jew or an otherwise observant Jew? Surely not! Is kashrut a more fundamental observance in Judaism than basic honesty?
Presiding over a case involving a Hasidic Jew who had pleaded guilty to burning down unoccupied buildings for insurance, Federal Judge I. Leo Glasser turned to the large number of Hasidim who had come to court in support of their fellow Hasid and said:
Some persons might characterize [your presence here] as being a chilul hashem [a disgrace to the name of God].… Sometimes one wonders whether … more emphasis is placed on form and not enough on substance….[T]he words that you recite three times a day and the code and the laws that you study should be thought of in terms of what those words mean and what they are intended to move us to do in terms of the kind of life we lead.
For a secular judge to have used the term chilul hashem in an American court suggests that he is speaking to the defendant as both judge and fellow Jew. His are words that we should all heed.
No matter how we try to justify it—whether as victimless crime, the result of past persecution, something that only affects “outsiders” while helping the Jewish community, a just response to unjust policy, or irrelevant missteps by the otherwise pious—criminal behavior simply cannot be condoned in observant Jewish communities. It undermines the foundations of what we believe, as well as damaging us in the eyes of the outside world. The disgrace of Jewish fraud is not only a disgrace against God, but also a disgrace to ourselves and each other. The Torah and Jewish teaching will give us guidance on how to live ethically, even in our complicated modern society, if we only listen to its truths. At day’s end, the burden lies with all of us. In the words of Edmund Burke, “the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men [and women] to do nothing.”
Joel Cohen, a former prosecutor, practices white-collar criminal defense law at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in New York. He is the author of Moses: A Memoir.
The Top Ten Signs I Am Losing It!
Keeping it light post Hurricane Irene - The UOJ Archives December 8, 2007
1-I really thought about showing up at the Agudah convention!
2-It is becoming more apparent to me that Lipa Margulies had the childrens' interest at heart when he decided to make Kolko the assistant principal at Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn - New York!
3-Yaakov Applegrad convinced me that he knew nothing about Kolko being accused of raping little boys!
4-I ate matza shmura last night with the hashgocho of Yisroel Belsky!
5-I slept with a picture of Moshe Eisemann under my pillow!
6-I invited Avi Shafran to my pool for a Kool-Aid party!
7-I learned daf yomi with Rabbi Efraim Shapiro this morning!
8- I asked the mohel Yitzchak Fisher to infect me....because so far so good... as far as I can tell!
9-I invited Shalom, Mordecai and Aron Tendler to a sleepover at my house!
10-I believe Matisyahu Salomon - that only one pedophile in the Charedi community slipped through his fingers!
You may add your own list!
1-I really thought about showing up at the Agudah convention!
2-It is becoming more apparent to me that Lipa Margulies had the childrens' interest at heart when he decided to make Kolko the assistant principal at Yeshiva Torah Temimah in Brooklyn - New York!
3-Yaakov Applegrad convinced me that he knew nothing about Kolko being accused of raping little boys!
4-I ate matza shmura last night with the hashgocho of Yisroel Belsky!
5-I slept with a picture of Moshe Eisemann under my pillow!
6-I invited Avi Shafran to my pool for a Kool-Aid party!
7-I learned daf yomi with Rabbi Efraim Shapiro this morning!
8- I asked the mohel Yitzchak Fisher to infect me....because so far so good... as far as I can tell!
9-I invited Shalom, Mordecai and Aron Tendler to a sleepover at my house!
10-I believe Matisyahu Salomon - that only one pedophile in the Charedi community slipped through his fingers!
You may add your own list!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Just How Crazy Is Rabbi Yisroel Belsky - From Yeshiva Torah Vodaath!?
"Rabbi Yisroel Belsky said, "such behavior (as that of the victim's father) wouldn't be tolerated'' elsewhere. "When your child tells you something, you don't go straight to a prosecutor, you go to a Bais Din and let them examine the (evidence).'' Belsky, a rabbi at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn and a member of the Orthodox Union, a national Jewish lobby, said he has not seen the flier but claims "there's no evidence at all'' against Kolko".
One man's criminal accusation that a teacher molested his young son has widened the rift in the Orthodox Jewish community over where religious rights stop and the justice system begins.
Some inside the tight-knit enclave praised the child's father for bypassing religious protocols last year and reporting the alleged attack first to Ocean County prosecutors. Others believe he committed a sin because he failed to get permission from a rabbinic court before pressing charges against a fellow Jew.
"The first step is to go to rabbis,'' said Rabbi Shmuel Meir Katz, a senior Dayan, or decider of Jewish law. He teaches at Beth Medrash Govoha, a yeshiva in Lakewood that is one of the foremost Jewish universities in the world. "We have our own system. We have our own laws, and as long as the Bais Din (rabbinical tribunal) feels competent on taking care of something themselves, that's our surest recourse in our circles.'
At the center of the controversy are the criminal charges against Yosef Kolko, 36, a former camp counselor and local yeshiva teacher. At his arraignment Tuesday, Kolko pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated sexual assault and child endangerment. The child was between 11 and 12 years old when the more than yearlong alleged abuse began in Lakewood, according to the indictment. The Asbury Park Press is withholding the father's name to protect the child's identity.
The case is a stark example of what Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford described as a "wall of silence'' in the community that has made investigating crimes difficult.
The decision of the child's father to go immediately to authorities last year has sparked reprisals, according to prosecutors and witnesses. Attempts were made to pressure the father to drop the charges. Fliers about him were circulated. In June, a Lakewood resident was arrested and charged with witness-tampering.....
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE - CLICK ON LINK BELOW:
http://www.app.com/article/20100825/SPECIAL20/100823075/Lakewood-Orthodox-Jewish-leaders-want-abuse-accusations-addressed
Friday, August 20, 2010
We must always listen to the “kol yeled boche” – the cry of the child!
Isaiah 54-1-10 – 5th Haftorah of the 7 weeks of comfort
By Rabbi Simon Jacbson
Sing Barren One
Sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song, and cry aloud, you who have never been in labor; for the children of the abandoned are more numerous than the children of the married wife, says G-d.
Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded, for
you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For G-d called you as a wife abandoned and grieved in spirit. Can a
wife of youth be rejected? says your G-d.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but I will gather you with great
compassion. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid My face from you; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says G-d, your Redeemer.
This is like the waters of Noah to me: I swore that the waters of Noah
would never again submerge the earth; similarly, I swore that I would not be angry with you and would not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed; but My kindness will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be withdrawn, says G-d, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54-1-10 – 5th Haftorah of the 7 weeks of comfort
My heart is hurting. My soul is singing.
Life is so strange. And paradoxical.
It’s now five weeks since I have been writing about one of the most
painful of life’s tragedies – innocent children hurt by adults. I never intended to continue writing about child abuse. But I could not ignore the overwhelming emotional response evoked by my first article (The Destruction and Restoration of Dignity) about my wounded childhood friend Michael.
All my years of teaching and writing – communicating with people about personal and emotional issues – have taught me that we must listen, and listen closely to the anguished voices and the deep outcries of people in pain. We must always listen to the “kol yeled boche” – the cry of the child.
Of all man-made human atrocities, perhaps the most devastating and demoralizing is silence. Silence in the face of abuse is not neutral; it is complicity.
So when I began reading the anguished e-mails elicited by my article
describing the perpetual wounds of childhood trauma – one e-mail more heart wrenching than the other – there was no way that I was going to ignore these crying voices.
I realized and continue to realize the deep grief of so many tormented souls; children whose lives were forever altered because of a self-indulgent, sick adult.
And then, once I applied myself to the issue, which is so “comfortable” to ignore, I could not stop writing. As much as can be said about this unspeakable topic seems never enough. Initially, I thought that it was hard to find a place where child abuse is discussed in the Torah; now, after studying these seven weeks of comforting Haftorahs, I came to realize that once you pay attention it’s hard to find a place where this issue is not mentioned: Virtually every Haftorah speaks about the wounded children, the abandoned sons and daughters.
This week we read: Sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song, and cry aloud, you who have never been in labor; for the children of the abandoned are more numerous than the children of the married wife, says G-d.
Let us ponder this verse for a moment. Are we actually being told that the “barren one” has reason to sing more than the fertile one? And that the “the children of the abandoned” have an advantage over healthy children?
How sad: Abandoned children outnumber their healthy counterparts. Abuse is rampant, and yet we are told that this is reason for us to sing!
But that is exactly what the verse is telling us. Whether we understand it or (most likely) not, some mysterious metamorphosis occurs to the barren one and the children of the abandoned. And when we see it through, we celebrate.
Yet we cry and sing all at once. We cry for the loss. But we sing for the growth, and we sing for the fact that we ultimately are not abandoned; our abandonment is only for a brief moment, because the everlasting Divine kindness and compassion always remains with us.
Indeed, the barren and abandoned state revealed a deeper love and greater strengths. The fact that we remain standing after all that we have been through testifies to our invincibility.
It is an absolute miracle that a child is able to survive extreme abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to protect the child. And yet the child survives, and with work becomes someone far greater, far more refined than he or she may have been otherwise. Not that this is a consolation, but the harshest challenges in life bring out the deepest resources, ones we could never imagined to have existed. And yet… we cry; we cry for all the countless hours of loneliness and anguish. We cry for the sheer pain, regardless of the ultimate benefits. But as we cry, we also sing…
So, sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song,
and cry aloud.
Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded, for you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
Shame. Ahh the shame resulting from abuse. The shame that demoralizes and poisons our every move; the shame that breaks our spirit, as we lose our inner dignity and sense of self-worth.
Yet, even if we were shamed, you will forget the shame of your youth, as you discover that you have not been rejected.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but I will gather you with great compassion. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid My face from you; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.
While reading and writing about this healing process, let us not forget that we are in the month of Elul: A month of love an compassion, when we have the power to rebuild after loss, as we learn from Moses who spent these days of Elul on Sinai beseeching G-d for resolution.
And yet, the sadness strikes me again. Here we are preparing for the High Holidays – awesome days that have the power to change our lives forever. Yet, how many people are aware of this fact? How many are looking forward to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur as indispensable days, offering us the ability to realize our deepest aspirations and dreams?
Many today are disenchanted from the monotony of conventional Holiday services. Affiliated and traditional Jews often suffer from a mechanical, lip service, experience. Nevertheless, the paradox continues: Men and women regardless of background hunger for a meaningful High Holiday experience.
Much to cry about. But also much to sing about.
But then we read on and conclude this week’s reading:
For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed; but My kindness will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be withdrawn, says G-d, who has compassion on you.
Despite the winds of assimilation and the forces of apathy, notwithstanding the spiritual quandaries and the decline of traditional commitment – the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed – but My kindness will not depart from you, and this kindness and compassion will reach the depths of our souls and awaken us.
Thus, even our spiritual frustration and our skeptical attitude is essentially the voice of our souls searching – desperately yearning for something better. What greater tribute to human dignity?
By Rabbi Simon Jacbson
Sing Barren One
Sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song, and cry aloud, you who have never been in labor; for the children of the abandoned are more numerous than the children of the married wife, says G-d.
Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded, for
you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
For G-d called you as a wife abandoned and grieved in spirit. Can a
wife of youth be rejected? says your G-d.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but I will gather you with great
compassion. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid My face from you; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says G-d, your Redeemer.
This is like the waters of Noah to me: I swore that the waters of Noah
would never again submerge the earth; similarly, I swore that I would not be angry with you and would not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed; but My kindness will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be withdrawn, says G-d, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54-1-10 – 5th Haftorah of the 7 weeks of comfort
My heart is hurting. My soul is singing.
Life is so strange. And paradoxical.
It’s now five weeks since I have been writing about one of the most
painful of life’s tragedies – innocent children hurt by adults. I never intended to continue writing about child abuse. But I could not ignore the overwhelming emotional response evoked by my first article (The Destruction and Restoration of Dignity) about my wounded childhood friend Michael.
All my years of teaching and writing – communicating with people about personal and emotional issues – have taught me that we must listen, and listen closely to the anguished voices and the deep outcries of people in pain. We must always listen to the “kol yeled boche” – the cry of the child.
Of all man-made human atrocities, perhaps the most devastating and demoralizing is silence. Silence in the face of abuse is not neutral; it is complicity.
So when I began reading the anguished e-mails elicited by my article
describing the perpetual wounds of childhood trauma – one e-mail more heart wrenching than the other – there was no way that I was going to ignore these crying voices.
I realized and continue to realize the deep grief of so many tormented souls; children whose lives were forever altered because of a self-indulgent, sick adult.
And then, once I applied myself to the issue, which is so “comfortable” to ignore, I could not stop writing. As much as can be said about this unspeakable topic seems never enough. Initially, I thought that it was hard to find a place where child abuse is discussed in the Torah; now, after studying these seven weeks of comforting Haftorahs, I came to realize that once you pay attention it’s hard to find a place where this issue is not mentioned: Virtually every Haftorah speaks about the wounded children, the abandoned sons and daughters.
This week we read: Sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song, and cry aloud, you who have never been in labor; for the children of the abandoned are more numerous than the children of the married wife, says G-d.
Let us ponder this verse for a moment. Are we actually being told that the “barren one” has reason to sing more than the fertile one? And that the “the children of the abandoned” have an advantage over healthy children?
How sad: Abandoned children outnumber their healthy counterparts. Abuse is rampant, and yet we are told that this is reason for us to sing!
But that is exactly what the verse is telling us. Whether we understand it or (most likely) not, some mysterious metamorphosis occurs to the barren one and the children of the abandoned. And when we see it through, we celebrate.
Yet we cry and sing all at once. We cry for the loss. But we sing for the growth, and we sing for the fact that we ultimately are not abandoned; our abandonment is only for a brief moment, because the everlasting Divine kindness and compassion always remains with us.
Indeed, the barren and abandoned state revealed a deeper love and greater strengths. The fact that we remain standing after all that we have been through testifies to our invincibility.
It is an absolute miracle that a child is able to survive extreme abuse at the hands of people who were supposed to protect the child. And yet the child survives, and with work becomes someone far greater, far more refined than he or she may have been otherwise. Not that this is a consolation, but the harshest challenges in life bring out the deepest resources, ones we could never imagined to have existed. And yet… we cry; we cry for all the countless hours of loneliness and anguish. We cry for the sheer pain, regardless of the ultimate benefits. But as we cry, we also sing…
So, sing, barren one, you who have not given birth. Break into a song,
and cry aloud.
Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be confounded, for you will not be put to shame; you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.
Shame. Ahh the shame resulting from abuse. The shame that demoralizes and poisons our every move; the shame that breaks our spirit, as we lose our inner dignity and sense of self-worth.
Yet, even if we were shamed, you will forget the shame of your youth, as you discover that you have not been rejected.
For a brief moment I forsook you, but I will gather you with great compassion. In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid My face from you; but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.
While reading and writing about this healing process, let us not forget that we are in the month of Elul: A month of love an compassion, when we have the power to rebuild after loss, as we learn from Moses who spent these days of Elul on Sinai beseeching G-d for resolution.
And yet, the sadness strikes me again. Here we are preparing for the High Holidays – awesome days that have the power to change our lives forever. Yet, how many people are aware of this fact? How many are looking forward to Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur as indispensable days, offering us the ability to realize our deepest aspirations and dreams?
Many today are disenchanted from the monotony of conventional Holiday services. Affiliated and traditional Jews often suffer from a mechanical, lip service, experience. Nevertheless, the paradox continues: Men and women regardless of background hunger for a meaningful High Holiday experience.
Much to cry about. But also much to sing about.
But then we read on and conclude this week’s reading:
For the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed; but My kindness will not depart from you, nor will My covenant of peace be withdrawn, says G-d, who has compassion on you.
Despite the winds of assimilation and the forces of apathy, notwithstanding the spiritual quandaries and the decline of traditional commitment – the mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed – but My kindness will not depart from you, and this kindness and compassion will reach the depths of our souls and awaken us.
Thus, even our spiritual frustration and our skeptical attitude is essentially the voice of our souls searching – desperately yearning for something better. What greater tribute to human dignity?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
What About The Father's Right To Life, Liberty & The Pursuit Of Happiness?
http://thejewishstar.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/seidemann-the-kollel%C2%A0argument/
TO EVERY FUTZ, KLUTZ, NUTZ, PUTZ, RUTZ(er) & YUTZ SITTING IN A COFFEE ROOM SOMEWHERE TORTURING THEIR PARENTS!
The Kollel Argument
From the other side of the bench
by David Seidemann
Issue of August, 13, 2010/ 3 Elul, 5770 - The Jewish Star
Not once but twice, in recent weeks, I’ve encountered a situation where a father has claimed that he is financially unable to support his wife and children. No, he wasn’t in a dead-end job nor was he unemployed. In both instances, his excuse for not being able to support his soon-to-be ex-wife and their children was that he was learning in Kollel.
It is not my intention to debate the pros and cons of young married men learning the Talmud for a few years after they get married. Nor will I utilize this space to comment on whether these young men are actually spending their time learning. Perhaps Kollel should be reserved for those that demonstrate unyielding commitment to the demands of the program and for those that can financially afford to sit and learn without bankrupting present and future generations.
One has to wonder if the concept, as originally conceived, can continue for future generations. Who is going to support the children of the couple that is learning in Kollel when they decide they also want to learn in Kollel? The parents that are sitting and learning, unless they get a job, will not be in a position to support their children.
What really irked me this week was when a father wrote to the court that his wife, my client, was violating his religious freedom by forcing him to leave Kollel and seek employment in order to pay his child support obligations. There is something patently offensive about that.
In other cultures, the fathers simply deny being the father (ask comic George Lopez). In those instances the court simply orders DNA testing. But this new argument, what I call “The Kollel Argument,” defies logic and I can only hope is an anomaly that won’t be repeated.
Being reminded of our duties as fathers and husbands come at strange and unanticipated moments. When I first moved into this neighborhood approximately 10 years ago, one of my new neighbors approached me and asked, “What you do at 4:45 every morning?” I responded, “Like most people, I’m sleeping.” “Not anymore,” he said. For the next nine years, on an almost daily basis, I arose at 4:30 in the morning and joined a group of businessmen learning in what is called “The Morning Kollel” at Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway. Yes, I did miss a morning from time to time, but by and large I was a regular attendee learning Talmud under the direction of Rabbi Moshe Dov Stein. After Rabbi Stein’s unfortunate death, the daily learning continued under the direction of his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yaakov Stein, and Rabbi Binyamin Cherney.
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of learning with a few different study partners, most recently with a wonderful oncologist by the name of Dr. Michael Bashevkin. No matter how unproductive the rest of my day might be, the time I spend learning in the morning, while the rest of the world is sleeping, is exhilarating.
But something happened this past June, something I can’t put my finger on, that caused my attendance to lapse. I missed a day, then a week, then a month, then a month-and-a-half.
This past Shabbos while sitting at the table, I asked my 12-year-old daughter what type of man she wanted to marry. She told me that she wanted to marry a man with a job but who also went to yeshiva every morning to learn like I do. Those words pierced my heart. While I lay in bed the past month, sleeping at five o’clock in the morning, my daughter thought I was in yeshiva learning. I instantly felt the great divide that existed between who my daughter thought I was and who I actually am. I felt both ashamed and motivated.
This parenting thing is very complicated. We have a duty to raise our children and to guide them along the path that will ensure they be all that they can be. But we also have the same duty to make the most of ourselves: to be what our children believe us to be and act in accordance of their expectations.
So I got up in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, grabbed my Talmud that sat on the shelf for six weeks and made my way back to yeshiva. I am not naïve enough to believe that I will never miss another morning over the next few years. But now, I know how important it is for me to arise before the sun and how important it is for my children. We all need to be reminded how to be effective parents. Sometimes that lesson comes from our children.
David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein. He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds@lawofficesm.com
From The UOJ Classics - More relevant today than in 2007 when it was originally posted!
NAKED MAN DIES IN JUMP FROM BOROUGH PARK OFFICE BUILDING!
A naked man darted from a car into a Borough Park office building at lunchtime yesterday and then jumped to his death from the top floor, officials said.
The man double-parked in the 4800 block of 13th Av. about noon, bolted from his still-running gray 1980 Chevrolet, dashed past a crowd on the street and ran into the lobby of an office building, witnesses said.
Police were still trying to identify the man yesterday and to determine why he jumped. Witnesses also were trying to sort out what happened. The man had no apparent connection to the building, according to people who work there.
"He didn't even have shoes on," said Zalman Teitelbaum , who was working as a temporary security guard at the building until the Satmar mess gets straightened out. Sitting behind the security desk, Teitelbaum first saw the man from the waist up and thought maybe he was a rather strange jogger. But then I stood up and saw the rest of him, and realized he was very Jewish. "I was even able to recognize the mohel, (rabbi that performs the circumcision) by his unique cut", said Teitelbaum. "This man was definitely bent out of shape."
The man told Teitelbaum that he was "desperate and broke," asked him for 50 cents to make a phone call and then spoke incoherently, mumbling something about not being able to support his son in-law in kollel, Teitelbaum said.
Then the man ran to an elevator. Minutes later, he emerged from a stairwell on the top floor. The fire alarm had been set off, presumably by the man, and the office doors on that floor were open as people began to file out, witnesses said.
The man pushed his way into one of the offices, where he said "kollel, kollel, kollel," several times while charging toward a window, witnesses said. He smashed the glass and jumped through the window, falling onto a parapet between two buildings. Some local workers and shoppers saw him fall.
Borough Park firefighters and emergency medical service personnel arrived at the scene, and police quickly cordoned off the block. Women with baby carriages were visibly upset that they could not continue shopping. One woman with a hat on top of her wig lamented, "he could have waited until the stores closed."
Workers in the top floor office said they had not seen the man before and did not believe that he had ties to the offices there. They didn't hear anything he said other than "excuse me, I need money to support my son in-law in the Lakewood kollel" a witness said.
Before it became apparent what was taking place, the city's parking enforcers reacted to the abandoned car, which had badly torn seats, New Jersey plates and no sign of clothing inside other than a beat up Borsalino and a jacket with a shatnes label. They slapped a flyer on the windshield inviting people to attend a parlor meeting for the Lakewood Yeshiva.
The police met with all the various Bobover Rebbes and was told that the man had seven married daughters and was acting strange as of late. Recently the man was seen in shul naked except for a towel on his shoulder, screaming why they moved the mikve.
These acts of desperation have become rather common in the Orthodox Jewish community, since fathers with daughters are expected to support their sons in-law whether they have the ability or not.
Many social workers in the community have noticed a dangerous increase in mental disorders particularly by men over fifty.
We interviewed eight young men who were in the local pizza parlor, all of them noticably obese. We asked them about their reaction to the increase in mental and emotional disorders in men over fifty, particularly by the men with daughters.
We had similar reactions by all eight young men. One fellow said it was "not my fault that the poor putz doesn't know how to make enough money to support thirty people. Summer camps, expensive houses, cars, jewelry, Pesach in Cancun, and tuitions are a father in-law's obligation, even if he has to work three jobs, or steal from his employer." They're just a bunch of whining lazy bums."
Another young fellow said "I am sick and tired of hearing these BS stories from fathers in-law. If they produce the kids, they MUST support them, period, no excuses." This fellow who was not more than twenty years old, was wearing a gold Rolex. I complimented him on his watch; he turned angry and said "he told the shadchan that I would get two Rolexes, one for daily use and one for Yom-Tov, and the SOB finked out on me; what a piece of garbage father in-law I wound up with. If I would have known that, I never would have married his meeskite (extremely ugly) daughter." He said he had to leave, and drove off in a brand new Cadillac Escalade.
The reaction by the others were similar, ranging from anger to dismay about the lack of appreciation and gratefulness to God exhibited by their fathers in-law. They all felt that they could have married anyone in the world, and if their father in-law ever decided to stop giving them "serious" money they would return their daughters to them in a heartbeat, blackmail the family in order for him to give a Get, and get a father in-law who really understands what a catch they are.
Particularly interesting was how they all agreed that they never intended to ever get a job, regardless of how many fathers in-law jumped off buildings. They saw it as a dirty trick and didn't believe the guy was really dead." I find it very interesting that these shameless fathers in-law would go to any lengths to avoid their obligations to us", said the fellow who was the most obese, weighing about three hundred pounds and was not more than five foot three inches tall.
Calls to the rabbis of the Lakewood Kollel were answered by a taped recorded message.
"If you are attempting to join our prestigous institution, the only requirement is that you must be proficient in filling out lengthy government aid forms. These forms are available in all languages and can be filled out at any Lexus dealer in Borough Park or Flatbush; or available on the Internet by the shgatzim uremasim (low-lifes) who have Internet access."
TO EVERY FUTZ, KLUTZ, NUTZ, PUTZ, RUTZ(er) & YUTZ SITTING IN A COFFEE ROOM SOMEWHERE TORTURING THEIR PARENTS!
The Kollel Argument
From the other side of the bench
by David Seidemann
Issue of August, 13, 2010/ 3 Elul, 5770 - The Jewish Star
Not once but twice, in recent weeks, I’ve encountered a situation where a father has claimed that he is financially unable to support his wife and children. No, he wasn’t in a dead-end job nor was he unemployed. In both instances, his excuse for not being able to support his soon-to-be ex-wife and their children was that he was learning in Kollel.
It is not my intention to debate the pros and cons of young married men learning the Talmud for a few years after they get married. Nor will I utilize this space to comment on whether these young men are actually spending their time learning. Perhaps Kollel should be reserved for those that demonstrate unyielding commitment to the demands of the program and for those that can financially afford to sit and learn without bankrupting present and future generations.
One has to wonder if the concept, as originally conceived, can continue for future generations. Who is going to support the children of the couple that is learning in Kollel when they decide they also want to learn in Kollel? The parents that are sitting and learning, unless they get a job, will not be in a position to support their children.
What really irked me this week was when a father wrote to the court that his wife, my client, was violating his religious freedom by forcing him to leave Kollel and seek employment in order to pay his child support obligations. There is something patently offensive about that.
In other cultures, the fathers simply deny being the father (ask comic George Lopez). In those instances the court simply orders DNA testing. But this new argument, what I call “The Kollel Argument,” defies logic and I can only hope is an anomaly that won’t be repeated.
Being reminded of our duties as fathers and husbands come at strange and unanticipated moments. When I first moved into this neighborhood approximately 10 years ago, one of my new neighbors approached me and asked, “What you do at 4:45 every morning?” I responded, “Like most people, I’m sleeping.” “Not anymore,” he said. For the next nine years, on an almost daily basis, I arose at 4:30 in the morning and joined a group of businessmen learning in what is called “The Morning Kollel” at Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Far Rockaway. Yes, I did miss a morning from time to time, but by and large I was a regular attendee learning Talmud under the direction of Rabbi Moshe Dov Stein. After Rabbi Stein’s unfortunate death, the daily learning continued under the direction of his son, Rabbi Tzvi Yaakov Stein, and Rabbi Binyamin Cherney.
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of learning with a few different study partners, most recently with a wonderful oncologist by the name of Dr. Michael Bashevkin. No matter how unproductive the rest of my day might be, the time I spend learning in the morning, while the rest of the world is sleeping, is exhilarating.
But something happened this past June, something I can’t put my finger on, that caused my attendance to lapse. I missed a day, then a week, then a month, then a month-and-a-half.
This past Shabbos while sitting at the table, I asked my 12-year-old daughter what type of man she wanted to marry. She told me that she wanted to marry a man with a job but who also went to yeshiva every morning to learn like I do. Those words pierced my heart. While I lay in bed the past month, sleeping at five o’clock in the morning, my daughter thought I was in yeshiva learning. I instantly felt the great divide that existed between who my daughter thought I was and who I actually am. I felt both ashamed and motivated.
This parenting thing is very complicated. We have a duty to raise our children and to guide them along the path that will ensure they be all that they can be. But we also have the same duty to make the most of ourselves: to be what our children believe us to be and act in accordance of their expectations.
So I got up in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, grabbed my Talmud that sat on the shelf for six weeks and made my way back to yeshiva. I am not naïve enough to believe that I will never miss another morning over the next few years. But now, I know how important it is for me to arise before the sun and how important it is for my children. We all need to be reminded how to be effective parents. Sometimes that lesson comes from our children.
David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein. He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds@lawofficesm.com
From The UOJ Classics - More relevant today than in 2007 when it was originally posted!
NAKED MAN DIES IN JUMP FROM BOROUGH PARK OFFICE BUILDING!
A naked man darted from a car into a Borough Park office building at lunchtime yesterday and then jumped to his death from the top floor, officials said.
The man double-parked in the 4800 block of 13th Av. about noon, bolted from his still-running gray 1980 Chevrolet, dashed past a crowd on the street and ran into the lobby of an office building, witnesses said.
Police were still trying to identify the man yesterday and to determine why he jumped. Witnesses also were trying to sort out what happened. The man had no apparent connection to the building, according to people who work there.
"He didn't even have shoes on," said Zalman Teitelbaum , who was working as a temporary security guard at the building until the Satmar mess gets straightened out. Sitting behind the security desk, Teitelbaum first saw the man from the waist up and thought maybe he was a rather strange jogger. But then I stood up and saw the rest of him, and realized he was very Jewish. "I was even able to recognize the mohel, (rabbi that performs the circumcision) by his unique cut", said Teitelbaum. "This man was definitely bent out of shape."
The man told Teitelbaum that he was "desperate and broke," asked him for 50 cents to make a phone call and then spoke incoherently, mumbling something about not being able to support his son in-law in kollel, Teitelbaum said.
Then the man ran to an elevator. Minutes later, he emerged from a stairwell on the top floor. The fire alarm had been set off, presumably by the man, and the office doors on that floor were open as people began to file out, witnesses said.
The man pushed his way into one of the offices, where he said "kollel, kollel, kollel," several times while charging toward a window, witnesses said. He smashed the glass and jumped through the window, falling onto a parapet between two buildings. Some local workers and shoppers saw him fall.
Borough Park firefighters and emergency medical service personnel arrived at the scene, and police quickly cordoned off the block. Women with baby carriages were visibly upset that they could not continue shopping. One woman with a hat on top of her wig lamented, "he could have waited until the stores closed."
Workers in the top floor office said they had not seen the man before and did not believe that he had ties to the offices there. They didn't hear anything he said other than "excuse me, I need money to support my son in-law in the Lakewood kollel" a witness said.
Before it became apparent what was taking place, the city's parking enforcers reacted to the abandoned car, which had badly torn seats, New Jersey plates and no sign of clothing inside other than a beat up Borsalino and a jacket with a shatnes label. They slapped a flyer on the windshield inviting people to attend a parlor meeting for the Lakewood Yeshiva.
The police met with all the various Bobover Rebbes and was told that the man had seven married daughters and was acting strange as of late. Recently the man was seen in shul naked except for a towel on his shoulder, screaming why they moved the mikve.
These acts of desperation have become rather common in the Orthodox Jewish community, since fathers with daughters are expected to support their sons in-law whether they have the ability or not.
Many social workers in the community have noticed a dangerous increase in mental disorders particularly by men over fifty.
We interviewed eight young men who were in the local pizza parlor, all of them noticably obese. We asked them about their reaction to the increase in mental and emotional disorders in men over fifty, particularly by the men with daughters.
We had similar reactions by all eight young men. One fellow said it was "not my fault that the poor putz doesn't know how to make enough money to support thirty people. Summer camps, expensive houses, cars, jewelry, Pesach in Cancun, and tuitions are a father in-law's obligation, even if he has to work three jobs, or steal from his employer." They're just a bunch of whining lazy bums."
Another young fellow said "I am sick and tired of hearing these BS stories from fathers in-law. If they produce the kids, they MUST support them, period, no excuses." This fellow who was not more than twenty years old, was wearing a gold Rolex. I complimented him on his watch; he turned angry and said "he told the shadchan that I would get two Rolexes, one for daily use and one for Yom-Tov, and the SOB finked out on me; what a piece of garbage father in-law I wound up with. If I would have known that, I never would have married his meeskite (extremely ugly) daughter." He said he had to leave, and drove off in a brand new Cadillac Escalade.
The reaction by the others were similar, ranging from anger to dismay about the lack of appreciation and gratefulness to God exhibited by their fathers in-law. They all felt that they could have married anyone in the world, and if their father in-law ever decided to stop giving them "serious" money they would return their daughters to them in a heartbeat, blackmail the family in order for him to give a Get, and get a father in-law who really understands what a catch they are.
Particularly interesting was how they all agreed that they never intended to ever get a job, regardless of how many fathers in-law jumped off buildings. They saw it as a dirty trick and didn't believe the guy was really dead." I find it very interesting that these shameless fathers in-law would go to any lengths to avoid their obligations to us", said the fellow who was the most obese, weighing about three hundred pounds and was not more than five foot three inches tall.
Calls to the rabbis of the Lakewood Kollel were answered by a taped recorded message.
"If you are attempting to join our prestigous institution, the only requirement is that you must be proficient in filling out lengthy government aid forms. These forms are available in all languages and can be filled out at any Lexus dealer in Borough Park or Flatbush; or available on the Internet by the shgatzim uremasim (low-lifes) who have Internet access."
Monday, July 26, 2010
Isaac Yitzchok Barber is a strange man!
He has orthodox rabbinic ordination from a Melbourne, Australia yeshiva. He works in financial services in New York.
He is acting inappropriately.
He admits to watching computer and magazine pornography. There are other unusual behaviors. The New York City Police Department, and Administration for Child Services, have an open investigation. There is documentation. Hamayvin yavin. He who has understanding, will understand.
Isaac Barber resides at 669 Crown Street, Brooklyn, New York.
During the summer, he resides at the Mount Crest Bungalow Colony, 129 Murphy Road, Woodbourne, New York.
Families and children should exercise caution.
UOJ
He is acting inappropriately.
He admits to watching computer and magazine pornography. There are other unusual behaviors. The New York City Police Department, and Administration for Child Services, have an open investigation. There is documentation. Hamayvin yavin. He who has understanding, will understand.
Isaac Barber resides at 669 Crown Street, Brooklyn, New York.
During the summer, he resides at the Mount Crest Bungalow Colony, 129 Murphy Road, Woodbourne, New York.
Families and children should exercise caution.
UOJ
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A Reasonable Case for Reason!
Edited to conform to my belief system
"When I became convinced after a lifetime of soul-searching and truth-seeking, as to the accuracy of my beliefs, that most all the myths are in fact myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison came tumbling down -- and fell hard, the dungeon was flooded with bright light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust.
I was free -- free to think, to express my thoughts - free to live my own ideal within the framework of the Torah I loved - free to live for myself, for the benefit of humankind, and those I loved -- free to use all my faculties, and my senses -- free to spread imagination's wings -- free to investigate, to guess, to dream, to hope -- free to judge and determine for myself -- free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds from "religious" crackpots, all the "inspired" books that ignoramuses have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past -- free from corrupt and evil clergy and their delusions -- free from all the "called" and "set apart" -- free from the sanctified mistakes and holy lies ---free from the fear of contrived eternal pain -- free from the monsters in clergy garb who claim some divine power -- free from human devils and the like.
For the first time I was free.
There were no prohibited places in the realm of thought - no air - no space - where a delirious clergyman can penetrate -- no chains for my limbs -- no lashes for my back --no fires for my flesh -- no following another's misguided step - no need to bow -- to kiss hands -- to partake in holy frauds -- nor cringe nor crawl or utter lying words.
I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly and joyously faced all the worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain -- to all the wise, the good, the brave, of every time and land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of mankind.
And I vowed to grasp the torch (shraga) that they held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still."
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
UOJ (19..-20..)
"When I became convinced after a lifetime of soul-searching and truth-seeking, as to the accuracy of my beliefs, that most all the myths are in fact myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison came tumbling down -- and fell hard, the dungeon was flooded with bright light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust.
I was free -- free to think, to express my thoughts - free to live my own ideal within the framework of the Torah I loved - free to live for myself, for the benefit of humankind, and those I loved -- free to use all my faculties, and my senses -- free to spread imagination's wings -- free to investigate, to guess, to dream, to hope -- free to judge and determine for myself -- free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds from "religious" crackpots, all the "inspired" books that ignoramuses have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past -- free from corrupt and evil clergy and their delusions -- free from all the "called" and "set apart" -- free from the sanctified mistakes and holy lies ---free from the fear of contrived eternal pain -- free from the monsters in clergy garb who claim some divine power -- free from human devils and the like.
For the first time I was free.
There were no prohibited places in the realm of thought - no air - no space - where a delirious clergyman can penetrate -- no chains for my limbs -- no lashes for my back --no fires for my flesh -- no following another's misguided step - no need to bow -- to kiss hands -- to partake in holy frauds -- nor cringe nor crawl or utter lying words.
I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly and joyously faced all the worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain -- to all the wise, the good, the brave, of every time and land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of mankind.
And I vowed to grasp the torch (shraga) that they held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still."
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
UOJ (19..-20..)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Europeanization! Today's Churban
From Wikipedia: "Tisha B'Av (Hebrew: תשעה באב or ט׳ באב, "the Ninth of Av,") is an annual fast day in Judaism, named for the ninth day (Tisha) of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred about 656 years apart, but on the same Hebrew calendar date. Accordingly, the day has been called the "saddest day in Jewish history".
The parallels to the ongoing destruction of the America we once knew, are gut-wrenching! Our safe-haven --- free from persecution from whatever we believe in, whether they be religious, secular or anywhere in between, are being tampered with, where I'm concerned that the "new America" that is evolving will destroy us as a free people.
Nobody says it better than my dearest friend, Mr. Alvan Shane.
http://www.libertywept.org/
by Alvan I. Shane
A few months ago ObamaCare passed, in spite of a strident, opposed majority. Progressives claimed it would improve health services, making us more like the European democracies, but many felt America's healthcare was already the best,taking responsibility to afford it; others who don't can still get care from Medicare/ Medicaid, the VA, free clinics and nonprofit/religious orgs.
Given this, it was still their top priority. Jobs could wait. They had the power.This wasn't about desperately needed health care for millions, so much as a warning shot across the bow of our ship of state: new kid in town.
Recall FDR with his New Deal during the Depression. Many of those programs are still with us today, though experts argue a temporary fix could have sufficed. Then LBJ with his Great Society. Now Obama imposing this blatant fraud, which scholars believe is illegal & unconstitutional. It will also cost more and deliver less.
Seizing control of healthcare is another step in our metamorphosis from a democratic republic to a socialized democracy. Our government is growing by leaps and bounds while the real engine of freedom, the private sector, stagnates. Spending and debt sky-rocket and FDR/LBJ go broke, their programs unsustainable. Healthcare is no different.
These models don't work. We need only look to Europe, places like Greece or Spain,to see the proof. There's no American Dream in those places! They don't lead our lives, have our appetites or enjoy our opportunities! They can't understand our hopes and dreams or ever do for the world what we've done. Yet some here want to be like them. Give the free ride and forfeit America's unique exceptionalism.
I'm absolutely convinced we're trending left at our peril. It's a slippery slope getting steeper, careening us toward bigger government, less freedom and a soft but quickening tyranny. It's changing the essence of who we are. Continue down this path and we'll lose our identity into the murky geopolitical pool that is fast becoming the new reality. It's failing around the globe, and it will fail here, too.
Look back through history. Empires rose and fell. They bloated out, or leaders ignored the people's will, or diversity weakened unity, all causing them to lose the culture/tradition that had made them great. In every case a winning mix of power & freedom changed, history got ignored, and the glue of their success dissolved. Re-learn those lessons! We're no different! If we fundamentally change who we are, we are lost!
Fix healthcare without nationalizing it. Return to constitutional governance. Let federalism and state's rights return to their correct equilibrium. Take steps to insure/guarantee that government always reflects the will of an informed majority! Return the work ethic to America. Encourage the average Joe to look to himself, before looking to government.
Introspect on who we are, our beliefs, the things we call absolutes. What long ago fonts of inculcation and acculturation gave birth to these values? Are children of today being taught the same, to be hard working and industrious? Look around you for the answer!
We are our brother's keeper, not government. Forcing the latter misinterprets Americanism. Asking government to redistribute wealth by taking from the doers or counseling how this is good is not in/of the pedigree of this nation. This mindset is unrepresentative of traditional American values, and instead exemplifies socialist European values.
We aren't about those values or extremes. We're center-right/left but always near a middle where family, education, work & God are at the heart of our beliefs. Though idealized here, twenty generations of us thought these precepts were reasonable, and accepted them under the countenance and behest of a just but limited government.
If we now subscribe to the notion we're an unjust nation of haves & have nots, that we allow injustice to prevail, the weak to languish and poverty to perpetuate, we will be participating in the demise of the greatest nation on earth and in all of history. These are the stakes. A seismic shift is underway pounding at the underpinnings of our republic; side-stepping the constitution; discouraging entrepreneurship and self-accountability; deconstructing our basic institutions of family, school and religion; promulgating the invasion of our space and exploitation of our wealth.
We can't escape these truths and so must wonder, can we survive this onslaught to emerge better and stronger, or will we know the fate of all who've gone before?
Are we the progeny of our forefathers or some new breed of proto-Americans acting more like offshoots of European extraction? That system is collapsing financially, with political instability close behind. Will we risk our children's future, our entire way of life, betting we can do their socialism thing better than they can?
Government must reflect the will of the People! Small, limited government bows to our will.Large governments, like this one, bow to no one! We erred installing it, and will come to regret it. It is setting inappropriate goals as we speak, and our constitutional contract is disintegrating. The exquisite social experiment, the brilliant success that has been America, will end.
America is in peril! Remove the ideologues. Demand rescission of Obamacare. Secure the borders and govern/control all illegals. Reduce the size of government. Honor our fallen and revere the Constitution. Come November, vote toward the center! Toward Tradition! Against the status quo!
Vote to save America!
Stay their course and watch as we devolve into a typical bankrupt Europeanism. No more sovereignty. No national identity. No exceptionalism. No more American Dream.
The closest man-made thing to utopia, will be gone.
Alvan I. Shane
Author, The Day Liberty Wept
The parallels to the ongoing destruction of the America we once knew, are gut-wrenching! Our safe-haven --- free from persecution from whatever we believe in, whether they be religious, secular or anywhere in between, are being tampered with, where I'm concerned that the "new America" that is evolving will destroy us as a free people.
Nobody says it better than my dearest friend, Mr. Alvan Shane.
http://www.libertywept.org/
by Alvan I. Shane
A few months ago ObamaCare passed, in spite of a strident, opposed majority. Progressives claimed it would improve health services, making us more like the European democracies, but many felt America's healthcare was already the best,taking responsibility to afford it; others who don't can still get care from Medicare/ Medicaid, the VA, free clinics and nonprofit/religious orgs.
Given this, it was still their top priority. Jobs could wait. They had the power.This wasn't about desperately needed health care for millions, so much as a warning shot across the bow of our ship of state: new kid in town.
Recall FDR with his New Deal during the Depression. Many of those programs are still with us today, though experts argue a temporary fix could have sufficed. Then LBJ with his Great Society. Now Obama imposing this blatant fraud, which scholars believe is illegal & unconstitutional. It will also cost more and deliver less.
Seizing control of healthcare is another step in our metamorphosis from a democratic republic to a socialized democracy. Our government is growing by leaps and bounds while the real engine of freedom, the private sector, stagnates. Spending and debt sky-rocket and FDR/LBJ go broke, their programs unsustainable. Healthcare is no different.
These models don't work. We need only look to Europe, places like Greece or Spain,to see the proof. There's no American Dream in those places! They don't lead our lives, have our appetites or enjoy our opportunities! They can't understand our hopes and dreams or ever do for the world what we've done. Yet some here want to be like them. Give the free ride and forfeit America's unique exceptionalism.
I'm absolutely convinced we're trending left at our peril. It's a slippery slope getting steeper, careening us toward bigger government, less freedom and a soft but quickening tyranny. It's changing the essence of who we are. Continue down this path and we'll lose our identity into the murky geopolitical pool that is fast becoming the new reality. It's failing around the globe, and it will fail here, too.
Look back through history. Empires rose and fell. They bloated out, or leaders ignored the people's will, or diversity weakened unity, all causing them to lose the culture/tradition that had made them great. In every case a winning mix of power & freedom changed, history got ignored, and the glue of their success dissolved. Re-learn those lessons! We're no different! If we fundamentally change who we are, we are lost!
Fix healthcare without nationalizing it. Return to constitutional governance. Let federalism and state's rights return to their correct equilibrium. Take steps to insure/guarantee that government always reflects the will of an informed majority! Return the work ethic to America. Encourage the average Joe to look to himself, before looking to government.
Introspect on who we are, our beliefs, the things we call absolutes. What long ago fonts of inculcation and acculturation gave birth to these values? Are children of today being taught the same, to be hard working and industrious? Look around you for the answer!
We are our brother's keeper, not government. Forcing the latter misinterprets Americanism. Asking government to redistribute wealth by taking from the doers or counseling how this is good is not in/of the pedigree of this nation. This mindset is unrepresentative of traditional American values, and instead exemplifies socialist European values.
We aren't about those values or extremes. We're center-right/left but always near a middle where family, education, work & God are at the heart of our beliefs. Though idealized here, twenty generations of us thought these precepts were reasonable, and accepted them under the countenance and behest of a just but limited government.
If we now subscribe to the notion we're an unjust nation of haves & have nots, that we allow injustice to prevail, the weak to languish and poverty to perpetuate, we will be participating in the demise of the greatest nation on earth and in all of history. These are the stakes. A seismic shift is underway pounding at the underpinnings of our republic; side-stepping the constitution; discouraging entrepreneurship and self-accountability; deconstructing our basic institutions of family, school and religion; promulgating the invasion of our space and exploitation of our wealth.
We can't escape these truths and so must wonder, can we survive this onslaught to emerge better and stronger, or will we know the fate of all who've gone before?
Are we the progeny of our forefathers or some new breed of proto-Americans acting more like offshoots of European extraction? That system is collapsing financially, with political instability close behind. Will we risk our children's future, our entire way of life, betting we can do their socialism thing better than they can?
Government must reflect the will of the People! Small, limited government bows to our will.Large governments, like this one, bow to no one! We erred installing it, and will come to regret it. It is setting inappropriate goals as we speak, and our constitutional contract is disintegrating. The exquisite social experiment, the brilliant success that has been America, will end.
America is in peril! Remove the ideologues. Demand rescission of Obamacare. Secure the borders and govern/control all illegals. Reduce the size of government. Honor our fallen and revere the Constitution. Come November, vote toward the center! Toward Tradition! Against the status quo!
Vote to save America!
Stay their course and watch as we devolve into a typical bankrupt Europeanism. No more sovereignty. No national identity. No exceptionalism. No more American Dream.
The closest man-made thing to utopia, will be gone.
Alvan I. Shane
Author, The Day Liberty Wept
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters!
http://www.eff.org/cases/hersh-v-cohen
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/13
July 14th, 2010
New York - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) this week served a motion to quash dragnet subpoenas that put privacy and anonymity at risk for the operators of dozens of Internet blogs and potentially hundreds of commenters.
The subpoenas stem from a state lawsuit filed by New York residents Miriam and Michael Hersh alleging a conspiracy to interfere with their business interests. Issued to Google and Yahoo, the subpoenas demand the identities of users of ten email accounts, operators of 30 blogs and a website that had featured discussions of the plaintiffs among other matters, and the identities of everyone who had ever commented on those sites.
"The First Amendment protects individuals' right to speak anonymously and forces litigants to justify any attempts to unmask anonymous critics," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "Litigants cannot forcibly identify entire communities of online speakers -- which include many speakers who no one would claim did anything wrong -- simply because the litigants are curious."
In the motion served on Monday, EFF urged the Supreme Court for Kings County, New York, to quash the subpoenas for failing to satisfy the requirements imposed by the First Amendment, as well as the requirements imposed by New York state law and the federal Stored Communications Act.
"Overbroad subpoenas targeting anonymous speakers without cause naturally creates a chilling effect that may discourage others from exercising their constitutional rights to participate in conversations that take place online," said Zimmerman. "We are asking the court to enforce these reasonable safeguards so that the rights of innocent speakers do not become collateral damage in a dispute between others."
Ron Lazebnik and the Samuelson-Glushko Intellectual Property & Information Law Clinic at Fordham University School of Law assisted EFF in the serving of this motion.
For the full motion to quash:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pd...
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/13
July 14th, 2010
New York - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) this week served a motion to quash dragnet subpoenas that put privacy and anonymity at risk for the operators of dozens of Internet blogs and potentially hundreds of commenters.
The subpoenas stem from a state lawsuit filed by New York residents Miriam and Michael Hersh alleging a conspiracy to interfere with their business interests. Issued to Google and Yahoo, the subpoenas demand the identities of users of ten email accounts, operators of 30 blogs and a website that had featured discussions of the plaintiffs among other matters, and the identities of everyone who had ever commented on those sites.
"The First Amendment protects individuals' right to speak anonymously and forces litigants to justify any attempts to unmask anonymous critics," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "Litigants cannot forcibly identify entire communities of online speakers -- which include many speakers who no one would claim did anything wrong -- simply because the litigants are curious."
In the motion served on Monday, EFF urged the Supreme Court for Kings County, New York, to quash the subpoenas for failing to satisfy the requirements imposed by the First Amendment, as well as the requirements imposed by New York state law and the federal Stored Communications Act.
"Overbroad subpoenas targeting anonymous speakers without cause naturally creates a chilling effect that may discourage others from exercising their constitutional rights to participate in conversations that take place online," said Zimmerman. "We are asking the court to enforce these reasonable safeguards so that the rights of innocent speakers do not become collateral damage in a dispute between others."
Ron Lazebnik and the Samuelson-Glushko Intellectual Property & Information Law Clinic at Fordham University School of Law assisted EFF in the serving of this motion.
For the full motion to quash:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pd...
Monday, July 12, 2010
Kolko The Sequel!
To read the entire story - CLICK ABOVE TITLED LINK:
Abuse Took Years to Ignite Belgian Clergy Inquiry
By DOREEN CARVAJAL and STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: July 12, 2010
WESTVLETEREN, Belgium — Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests.
The first resignation of a European bishop for abusing a child relative came unexpectedly on April 23. At 73, the Bruges bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, Belgium’s longest-serving prelate, tersely announced his retirement and acknowledged molesting “a boy in my close entourage.”
The boy, not named, was his own nephew, now in his early 40s.
The nephew’s story, pieced together through documents and interviews with him and others, shows that the nephew, acting after years of torment and strong evidence of church inaction, finally forced the bishop’s hand when the friend sent e-mail messages to all of Belgium’s bishops threatening to expose Bishop Vangheluwe.
For nearly 25 years, the nephew said, he sought to alert others that he had been molested by his uncle. Abuse started when he was 10, according to a retired priest, the Rev. Rik Devillé, who said he had tried to warn Belgium’s cardinal, Godfried Danneels, about the Bruges prelate’s abuse 14 years ago, but was berated for doing so......
Abuse Took Years to Ignite Belgian Clergy Inquiry
By DOREEN CARVAJAL and STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: July 12, 2010
WESTVLETEREN, Belgium — Behind an aggressive investigation of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Belgium that drew condemnation from the pope himself lies a stark family tragedy: the molestation, for years, of a youth by his uncle, the bishop of Bruges; the prelate’s abrupt resignation when a friend of the nephew finally threatened to make the abuse public; and now the grass-roots fury of almost 500 people complaining of abuse by priests.
The first resignation of a European bishop for abusing a child relative came unexpectedly on April 23. At 73, the Bruges bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, Belgium’s longest-serving prelate, tersely announced his retirement and acknowledged molesting “a boy in my close entourage.”
The boy, not named, was his own nephew, now in his early 40s.
The nephew’s story, pieced together through documents and interviews with him and others, shows that the nephew, acting after years of torment and strong evidence of church inaction, finally forced the bishop’s hand when the friend sent e-mail messages to all of Belgium’s bishops threatening to expose Bishop Vangheluwe.
For nearly 25 years, the nephew said, he sought to alert others that he had been molested by his uncle. Abuse started when he was 10, according to a retired priest, the Rev. Rik Devillé, who said he had tried to warn Belgium’s cardinal, Godfried Danneels, about the Bruges prelate’s abuse 14 years ago, but was berated for doing so......
Friday, July 09, 2010
Catholics Acting Like Jews!
Editorial
The Pope’s Duty
Published: July 8, 2010
When rolling scandal forced the American Catholic bishops conference to take action against pedophile priests, the prelates issued a tough policy requiring accused child molesters be reported immediately to secular authorities. This mandate finally acknowledged that crimes against children should take priority over bureaucratic church policies that served to cloak rogue priests and bishops in a fog of ecclesiastical evasion.
Eight years after the American church’s overdue order, it is shocking that Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican have not yet applied it to the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. The pedophilia scandal has erupted in other nations, leaving parents concerned about a repetition of the harrowing experience in America, where more than 700 priests had to be dismissed across a three-year period. Yet the Vatican is reportedly working on new “guidelines” — not mandates. They are likely to fall short of zero-tolerance and other requirements in the American church that parishes and communities be alerted to abusers.
It is becoming clear that, as a Vatican administrator for two decades, the future pope handled the pedophilia scandal with no great distinction. Church policy under his aegis was too often a study in confusion and frustration for diocesan authorities looking for firm guidance from Rome, according to an investigative report by Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger in The Times. Alarmed bishops in English-speaking nations put unusual pressure on the Vatican to have a secret meeting in 2000 to consider stronger countermeasures.
Unfortunately, a dynamic policy has yet to emerge. As new reports arise of pedophile abuses and diocesan cover-ups in Europe, Chile and Brazil, Benedict has had to face the scandal and its victims more directly. He has put aside defensive Vatican complaints about anti-Catholic persecution and admitted the problem is “born from the sin in the church.”
In this spirit, Benedict has the obligation to shepherd not just guidelines but credible mandates that all priest-abusers and bishops who abetted their crimes face disclosure and punishment.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
"Mr. President, Whose Side Are You On?"
Obama: Israelis Suspicious Of Me Because My Middle Name Is Hussein!
Watch The Entire Clip!
Monday, July 05, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
"...Perhaps They Believe That Their Generosity Will Purchase Love, Respect Or Forgiveness"....
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:
Asst. D.A. Paul Turley never heard back from Mother Teresa (surprise), nor was the $1.25 Million Dollars ever returned to its rightful owners!
Asst. D.A. Paul Turley never heard back from Mother Teresa (surprise), nor was the $1.25 Million Dollars ever returned to its rightful owners!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Protect A Child - It Could Be Your Own!
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PINNED POST - NO COMMENTS! CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE - PRINT & PASS THEM OUT IN SHUL!
Parents in our community have been powerless until now to really keep their children safe from sexual abuse. Please keep in mind that if one parent feels empowered to call the police about their child's molestation, hundreds of other children can be saved. One child molester can, when left unconfronted, molest literally hundreds of children over the course of his or her lifetime. Those who work in the field know all too well of cases in which entire classes of children have been molested by a rebbe or a teacher. So even those of us who feel that we would do the right thing and call the police, are not protecting our kids unless we convince our neighbors to do so as well.
Therefore we are starting a public service announcement campaign to bring awareness about the issue of sex abuse, utilizing law enforcement, and creating safe schools and camps.
The top half of the above flyer is going to be put on billboards starting in the Catskill Mountains in time for the summer season. We are also having it professionally translated into Yiddish.
For this project we need funding; the JBAC is turning to you.
Each billboard can cost over one thousand dollars for a single month. Please do what you can. Every dollar is used to get the message out. This message WILL save lives of Jewish children.
Please make checks payable to Jewish Board of Advocates for Children Inc., It should be spelled out. It is tax deductible. We are a 501c3. Kindly send it to: Elliot Pasik Esq., 52 East Olive Street, Long Beach, NY 11561. For checks under $250.00, the cancelled check is a receipt. Checks over $250, we'll issue a receipt.
Thank you for all of your support.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Yes, We Need Achdus!
Guest Post By Steve - Long Time Friend Of UOJ
The navi Yeshaya gives us the answer in the very first perek with two words, "ASHERU CHAMOTZ"- STRENGTHEN THE VICTIMS! The gemara in Sanhedrin explains: "ASHERU CHAMOTZ VELO CHOMETZ"- STRENGTHEN THE VICTIM AND NOT THE CRIMINAL!
This is the type of achdus that was lacking at the time of the destruction of the two temples. The navi cried out, save yourselves by doing teshuva. Save yourselves by caring for the victims, the widows and orphans. Save yourselves by getting rid of your corrupt leaders who are the friends of thieves and love bribes . However, the people did not listen. They instead rallied around their false prophets, their corrupt leaders and the gangsters of that generation. It is said that every generation that the bais hamikdash is not built is as guilty as the generation when it was destroyed.
We have still not learned our lesson. Instead of unanimously rallying around the cause of victims of sexual abuse, we see rabbis and community leaders rallying around the child molesters. Read the latest Daily News article about Baruch Lebovits if you don't believe me. See how many people came to support him in court versus how many who came to support his brave victim. See how his victims have been villified and attacked while pidyon shvuyim funds are being collected for him and other child molesters. Have these people gone insane? No, we have been this insane since the time of Yeshaya. Nothing has changed. That is why we are still in galus. We still have our false prophets who tell us everything is fine and dandy, our corrupt leaders who are friends of thieves and love shochad and who refuse to even acknowledge those that have been victimized. What has changed?
Nothing!
As for Sholom Rubashkin, nebach, it is a human tragedy. Yes, the sentence was excessive. Anti-semitism? I don't think so. The man made one fatal mistake after another. For close to ten years, he refused to heed the call to change the way he operated his business. We begged him to do something about the reports of worker abuse, animal abuse, immigration law violations, identity fraud, health and safety violations, EPA violations, kashrus and labeling issues, etc.,etc. Yet, all we heard back were denials from him, his lawyers and his PR spinmeisters. After the raid and his indictment, instead of cooperating with the authorities, he stubbornly refused to change his ways. Instead of accepting a plea deal, he committed bank fraud, tampered with evidence, violated his bail terms and ultimately perjured himself on the witness stand. I don't put blame him alone for all his troubles.
His partners, coworkers, lawyers, PR team, the OU and Weissmandl all share in the blame and chillul hashem that took place at Agriprocessors. SMR is not an evil person. A stubborn, misguided and corrupt businessman maybe, but not evil. For the crimes he committed, a 27 year sentence is ridiculous. However,his arrogance and lack of contrition along with some bad advice all served to grease his skids. Pleading for leniency on behalf of such an individual is noble. I myself signed a petition calling for leniency. However, to make this into a cause celebre and playing the race card is not in our best interests. Further antagonizing the judge and the US justice system is also not wise and it severely backfired in this case. Try and help the man, yes, but please stop with the histrionics and this "achdus" business.
Yes, we need achdus.
Gilad Shalit needs our achdus. The victims of child sexual abuse need our achdus. The State of Israel needs our achdus. The countless poor people need our achdus. The orphans, widows and agunos need our achdus. Let's show achdus where it really counts and where it really means something. Asheru Chamotz Velo Chometz! I will keep repeating it until it starts to sink in.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
The Power of a Single Blogger!
Guest post by Tropper is Troubled.
Events have moved very quickly this past week and Jews/Israelis have been thrust into the media spotlight with intensity. The way Israel stopped the Gaza blockade busters after it was provoked into action unleashed a storm of, well not pro-Israel sentiment, but rather a torrent of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic venting in the world media and on the streets of many nations.
Once again, Israel was hated and demonized for taking preemptive action against its enemies, almost to the day 43 years since the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967.The anti-Israel mobs took to the streets aided and abetted by the self-hating Jews and Israel bashers of all stripes and shades. People in the media referred to Israelis in the worst stereotypes of Jews worthy of the Nazis.
While the world was huffing and puffing with all this hate, across the Atlantic at a little-noticed "Jewish heritage month celebration" at the White House (it's not clear what "heritage" was being celebrated there because lately the White House people seem to be surprised that most of the world's Jews do not adhere to the standard group-think so common to secular political Jewish groups), something significant happened!
What happened?
At the height of the ships trying to break the Gaza blockade and with Israel being excoriated, none other than Ms. Helen Thomas, the senior correspondent at the White House, both in age and status, put her foot in her mouth when innocently asked about the event at the White House she chose to throw her notorious verbal nuke at Israel and it's people to tell Israel, meaning its Jews, to "get the hell out of Palestine...and go back 'home' to Poland, Germany and America" that is till reverberating across the news media and when her videotaped live comments were posted online, she was forced to eat humble pie, was fired, condemned by the White House spokesperson and had to apologize.
What was she doing and what was she thinking?
She is not senile, but she was throwing a life-support to the beleaguered blockade-busters who were causing havoc for Israel and she was in effect joining in with all the world's anti-Semites and Israel bashers who were calling for Israel's scalp. While it turned out to be her personal Titanic, it hurt Israel but it taught an even deeper lesson.
What is missed is that Helen Thomas was brought down by a one, until now unknown, Jewish blogger !
The most distinguished voice in journalism at the White House for 50 years, allowed to hector, lecture and interrogate US presidents in public, and one of Israel's most strident and sly critics was cut off at the knees and exposed as a duplicitous anti-Semitic hate-monger and biased anti-Israel advocate and instantly defrocked of her status as a reputable journalist.
The power of one blogger brought down Helen Thomas and it should as a warning to all those who cling to power in the old-fashioned way and hope that their nefarious views and deeds will remain hidden. Tropper learned this the hard way, as have many others, most notably Nixon with the tapes of his White House conversations and the Linda Tripp tapes of Monica Lewinsky exposing Clinton's behavior.
The until-now unknown Jewish blogger is an online rabbi, someone who has tried to make a living from work in the media over the years, or so he claims, with credentials from the Conservative JTS. He is no different to tens of thousands of other Jewish bloggers many of them rabbis of all shades and denominations who hope to make splash and a difference with their blogs or websites.
On his site/blog, Rabbi David Nesenoff's main "credential" is that he is the "Founder, RabbiLIVE.com" and as he explains about himself at:
http://www.rabbilive.com/RabbiLIVE/About.html:
"No Need To Wait... It's LIVE !
Anne Frank, while hiding for two years during World War II's Holocaust, wrote in her diary: 'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.' Certainly in our new world of speed of light, sound bite, and mega byte there is no rhyme or reason to wait when it comes to helping our fellow man and woman. Slow motion, time delay, and reruns must be substituted with LIVE. RabbiLIVE.com is dedicated to preparing, repairing, caring, and sparing the world... and doing so now... in real time as captured on video at real LIVE events with real LIVE people concerning real LIVE issues reported by a real LIVE rabbi.
Israel, politics, family, religion, the arts, peace, war, controversy, celebrity, events, celebrations, rallies, sermons, and of course even, if not especially, comedy make up our lives. The rabbi must sometimes leave the pulpit and mingle with life’s fellows and foibles. The new literature, for good or bad, is video. RabbiLIVE presents LIVE literature that exposes and proposes...teaches and preaches. -Rabbi David F. Nesenoff."
He's earned his ten minutes of fame, that's for sure, but more importantly he has taught a very important lesson in this television+cyber-age with it's 24 hour news cycles and live blogospheres, that with the ability to use words and especially with a small recorder or video camera (it could be in a cell phone or pen) a tiny 25 second sound bite can expose a cancer, deliver a mortal blow to bring down falsehood and hate and equalizing an otherwise unequal battle between puffed up ego maniacal over-confident abusers of the Jewish people and the few who are bravely perpetually struggling against them.
Events have moved very quickly this past week and Jews/Israelis have been thrust into the media spotlight with intensity. The way Israel stopped the Gaza blockade busters after it was provoked into action unleashed a storm of, well not pro-Israel sentiment, but rather a torrent of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic venting in the world media and on the streets of many nations.
Once again, Israel was hated and demonized for taking preemptive action against its enemies, almost to the day 43 years since the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967.The anti-Israel mobs took to the streets aided and abetted by the self-hating Jews and Israel bashers of all stripes and shades. People in the media referred to Israelis in the worst stereotypes of Jews worthy of the Nazis.
While the world was huffing and puffing with all this hate, across the Atlantic at a little-noticed "Jewish heritage month celebration" at the White House (it's not clear what "heritage" was being celebrated there because lately the White House people seem to be surprised that most of the world's Jews do not adhere to the standard group-think so common to secular political Jewish groups), something significant happened!
What happened?
At the height of the ships trying to break the Gaza blockade and with Israel being excoriated, none other than Ms. Helen Thomas, the senior correspondent at the White House, both in age and status, put her foot in her mouth when innocently asked about the event at the White House she chose to throw her notorious verbal nuke at Israel and it's people to tell Israel, meaning its Jews, to "get the hell out of Palestine...and go back 'home' to Poland, Germany and America" that is till reverberating across the news media and when her videotaped live comments were posted online, she was forced to eat humble pie, was fired, condemned by the White House spokesperson and had to apologize.
What was she doing and what was she thinking?
She is not senile, but she was throwing a life-support to the beleaguered blockade-busters who were causing havoc for Israel and she was in effect joining in with all the world's anti-Semites and Israel bashers who were calling for Israel's scalp. While it turned out to be her personal Titanic, it hurt Israel but it taught an even deeper lesson.
What is missed is that Helen Thomas was brought down by a one, until now unknown, Jewish blogger !
The most distinguished voice in journalism at the White House for 50 years, allowed to hector, lecture and interrogate US presidents in public, and one of Israel's most strident and sly critics was cut off at the knees and exposed as a duplicitous anti-Semitic hate-monger and biased anti-Israel advocate and instantly defrocked of her status as a reputable journalist.
The power of one blogger brought down Helen Thomas and it should as a warning to all those who cling to power in the old-fashioned way and hope that their nefarious views and deeds will remain hidden. Tropper learned this the hard way, as have many others, most notably Nixon with the tapes of his White House conversations and the Linda Tripp tapes of Monica Lewinsky exposing Clinton's behavior.
The until-now unknown Jewish blogger is an online rabbi, someone who has tried to make a living from work in the media over the years, or so he claims, with credentials from the Conservative JTS. He is no different to tens of thousands of other Jewish bloggers many of them rabbis of all shades and denominations who hope to make splash and a difference with their blogs or websites.
On his site/blog, Rabbi David Nesenoff's main "credential" is that he is the "Founder, RabbiLIVE.com" and as he explains about himself at:
http://www.rabbilive.com/RabbiLIVE/About.html:
"No Need To Wait... It's LIVE !
Anne Frank, while hiding for two years during World War II's Holocaust, wrote in her diary: 'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.' Certainly in our new world of speed of light, sound bite, and mega byte there is no rhyme or reason to wait when it comes to helping our fellow man and woman. Slow motion, time delay, and reruns must be substituted with LIVE. RabbiLIVE.com is dedicated to preparing, repairing, caring, and sparing the world... and doing so now... in real time as captured on video at real LIVE events with real LIVE people concerning real LIVE issues reported by a real LIVE rabbi.
Israel, politics, family, religion, the arts, peace, war, controversy, celebrity, events, celebrations, rallies, sermons, and of course even, if not especially, comedy make up our lives. The rabbi must sometimes leave the pulpit and mingle with life’s fellows and foibles. The new literature, for good or bad, is video. RabbiLIVE presents LIVE literature that exposes and proposes...teaches and preaches. -Rabbi David F. Nesenoff."
He's earned his ten minutes of fame, that's for sure, but more importantly he has taught a very important lesson in this television+cyber-age with it's 24 hour news cycles and live blogospheres, that with the ability to use words and especially with a small recorder or video camera (it could be in a cell phone or pen) a tiny 25 second sound bite can expose a cancer, deliver a mortal blow to bring down falsehood and hate and equalizing an otherwise unequal battle between puffed up ego maniacal over-confident abusers of the Jewish people and the few who are bravely perpetually struggling against them.
New Hampshire cases of sexual assault of a minor, the statute of limitations starts 22 years after the victim turns 18
I THOUGHT I HEARD IT ALL!
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/teenager_forced_to_apologize_to_her_church_for_being_raped
In 1997, 15-year-old Tina Anderson became pregnant after being raped repeatedly by an older man she knew from church. Shockingly, when her pastor found out, he forced her to apologize in front of the entire congregation in Concord, New Hampshire, and then promptly helped whisk her away to live in Colorado.
According to Tina, the first time she was raped by Ernest Willis, it was in the backseat of his car after he'd given her a driving lesson. She didn't tell anyone because she was terrified that she'd be blamed. After being raped by Willis again, Tina became pregnant. Willis, ever the vile human-being, offered to drive her out-of-state for an abortion or to punch her in the stomach to cause a miscarriage. It was at this point that Tina confided in her mother, who in turn notified their pastor, Chuck Phelps.
It turns out, she was right was right to fear being blamed. In a disgusting turn of events, Phelps told Tina she would have to go before the entire congregation to apologize for her sins. Excuse me? It seems that Phelps explained to Tina that while Willis "may have been 99 percent responsible," she needs to confess to her "1 percent guilt in the situation."
After Tina acquiesced in this humiliating act of victim-blaming, the church and her family shipped her off to live in Colorado against her wishes, where she was instructed to give the baby up for adoption. While Phelps did contact the police about Willis — you know, since he was 99% guilty and all — it became nearly impossible for them to do anything about it since Tina was now hidden away in Colorado.
This appalling story is finally seeing the light of day because Tina Anderson decided to come forward this year. Sadly, it wasn't until this February that Tina truly realized that the assault on her was, in fact, zero percent her responsibility. That's when she decided it was time to share her experience with others and to seek justice for what had happened to her as a teenager.
You might have noticed that I am using her real name, something highly unusual in rape cases because victims' names are protected. This is because Tina wanted it this way. She wanted you to know exactly who she is and what was done to her, not only by Ernest Willis, but by those she entrusted to protect her.
Since Tina came forward, Willis has been arrested and released on bail. In New Hampshire, in cases of sexual assault of a minor, the statute of limitations does not run out until 22 years after the victim turns 18. Just as importantly, police are investigating exactly how much church leaders knew about the rape. Of course, if the adults in Concord — meaning Phelps, Tina's family, and every church congregant who heard Tina's "confession" and sat silent — had acted compassionately and responsibly back in 1997, they would have saved Tina over a decade of heartache and their community a lifetime of guilt.
Roxann MtJoy is a freelance writer and case manager at a domestic violence shelter. She is producing and directing a documentary on women's colleges in the United States.
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/teenager_forced_to_apologize_to_her_church_for_being_raped
In 1997, 15-year-old Tina Anderson became pregnant after being raped repeatedly by an older man she knew from church. Shockingly, when her pastor found out, he forced her to apologize in front of the entire congregation in Concord, New Hampshire, and then promptly helped whisk her away to live in Colorado.
According to Tina, the first time she was raped by Ernest Willis, it was in the backseat of his car after he'd given her a driving lesson. She didn't tell anyone because she was terrified that she'd be blamed. After being raped by Willis again, Tina became pregnant. Willis, ever the vile human-being, offered to drive her out-of-state for an abortion or to punch her in the stomach to cause a miscarriage. It was at this point that Tina confided in her mother, who in turn notified their pastor, Chuck Phelps.
It turns out, she was right was right to fear being blamed. In a disgusting turn of events, Phelps told Tina she would have to go before the entire congregation to apologize for her sins. Excuse me? It seems that Phelps explained to Tina that while Willis "may have been 99 percent responsible," she needs to confess to her "1 percent guilt in the situation."
After Tina acquiesced in this humiliating act of victim-blaming, the church and her family shipped her off to live in Colorado against her wishes, where she was instructed to give the baby up for adoption. While Phelps did contact the police about Willis — you know, since he was 99% guilty and all — it became nearly impossible for them to do anything about it since Tina was now hidden away in Colorado.
This appalling story is finally seeing the light of day because Tina Anderson decided to come forward this year. Sadly, it wasn't until this February that Tina truly realized that the assault on her was, in fact, zero percent her responsibility. That's when she decided it was time to share her experience with others and to seek justice for what had happened to her as a teenager.
You might have noticed that I am using her real name, something highly unusual in rape cases because victims' names are protected. This is because Tina wanted it this way. She wanted you to know exactly who she is and what was done to her, not only by Ernest Willis, but by those she entrusted to protect her.
Since Tina came forward, Willis has been arrested and released on bail. In New Hampshire, in cases of sexual assault of a minor, the statute of limitations does not run out until 22 years after the victim turns 18. Just as importantly, police are investigating exactly how much church leaders knew about the rape. Of course, if the adults in Concord — meaning Phelps, Tina's family, and every church congregant who heard Tina's "confession" and sat silent — had acted compassionately and responsibly back in 1997, they would have saved Tina over a decade of heartache and their community a lifetime of guilt.
Roxann MtJoy is a freelance writer and case manager at a domestic violence shelter. She is producing and directing a documentary on women's colleges in the United States.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Urgent! Seeking Information about a Boro Park Child Molestor.
The UOJ Archives - September 3, 2007
Dear UOJ,
After I wrote the article on August 2 about my experience with a predator (read here) I was contacted by someone with a horrifying story that demands immediate action. This reader identified the man in my story and he painstakingly relayed details of his own ghastly experiences with this monster over three decades ago. This child molester has been targeting innocent children (and young adults) in Boro Park for over thirty years and nothing has been done! I am seeking any information on BEREL GOLDMAN, such as where he lives and where he is employed. Action (within the parameters of the law) will be taken and I pity him (and his employer) if he is currently still in chinuch.
I shudder when I think of how many victims he must have ruined for so many years. UOJ, there is a fire raging in Boro Park and it must be extinguished! The attitude of cover-up in the chassidishe velt is fueled by a clannish attitutude that is worse than the shanda of the Kolko/Margulies/Scheinberg/Belsky fiasco.
Here is the tell-all email that was sent to me by someone who has never recovered from the pain he suffered as an innocent child.
UOJ & friends, this is not a sensational piece of yellow quasi-journalism. This is a serious matter that requires the help of your vast audience. I and this victim implore the community to provide further information on:
Berel Goldman
Age: mid-to-upper 50’s
Height: approx 5’6
Built: Stocky
Hair/Beard: black with streaks of gray
Skin color: olive
Eyes: blue (a little bloodshot)
This monster wears chassidishe garb and has been seen walking around Boro Park and Flatbush and often engages in seemingly harmless conversation with young men and children.
Email sent to me:
Hello,
It took me a few days to get the courage to write back to you since I am still haunted by this guy and it brings back to me very bad memories that will live with me for the rest of my life....
I would hope that this letter gets posted on the UOJ blog and gets to the appropriate channels so that we get rid of this pervert and molester once and for all...
I have kept this in me for many years and I want to get it out of my system at this time...
I am now in my lower forties now and this started around 35 years ago when I was in the fourth grade in the Bobover Yeshiva..
The guy who we are talking about was my rebbe that year and his name is Berel Goldman...
He was in his low twenties at that time, he was very strong and muscular and he used to take me and lift me up with his hands and seat me on his lap and flex his big muscles at me and ask me if i liked it and while on his lap he would touched me all over including my penis thru my pants.
One day in middle of the year after I got to sit on his lap again, he told me to come out of the classroom with him and he took me to the bathroom and he locked the door and he exposed his penis to me and told me to rub it with my hands, I get very scared and terrified but he grabbed my hand and forced me to rub him while he unzipped my pants and was fondling my penis until he masturbated, of course at that age I did not know what this was and I started to cry, he told me that I better not tell anybody or he would punish me...I was scared and did not .a week later he did it to another kid in the class..he happened to tell his mother about it, and she called my mother and told her that he did it to me also, my mother asked me about it and I told her what happened..My mother and the other lady went to the principal and told him, and the answer was that he can not do anything about it, since this rebbe is from a prominent family in the shul and he does not want to ruin their name, our parents were furious and I left the yeshiva for a different yeshiva for the rest of the year and returned only the following year..He continued being a rebbi for a few years until he was fired and the reason was because the principal's son was to enter his grade...
After he was fired, he went to the Viener Yeshiva and was fired from there too..
Since I know him from shul, I know that he did not stop and he continues to molest kids and teenagers in shuls and in yeshivas and in mikvas..
I wrote this email with my heart full of pain of what this guy did to me and to many others...
Thank You Very Much
Dear UOJ,
After I wrote the article on August 2 about my experience with a predator (read here) I was contacted by someone with a horrifying story that demands immediate action. This reader identified the man in my story and he painstakingly relayed details of his own ghastly experiences with this monster over three decades ago. This child molester has been targeting innocent children (and young adults) in Boro Park for over thirty years and nothing has been done! I am seeking any information on BEREL GOLDMAN, such as where he lives and where he is employed. Action (within the parameters of the law) will be taken and I pity him (and his employer) if he is currently still in chinuch.
I shudder when I think of how many victims he must have ruined for so many years. UOJ, there is a fire raging in Boro Park and it must be extinguished! The attitude of cover-up in the chassidishe velt is fueled by a clannish attitutude that is worse than the shanda of the Kolko/Margulies/Scheinberg/Belsky fiasco.
Here is the tell-all email that was sent to me by someone who has never recovered from the pain he suffered as an innocent child.
UOJ & friends, this is not a sensational piece of yellow quasi-journalism. This is a serious matter that requires the help of your vast audience. I and this victim implore the community to provide further information on:
Berel Goldman
Age: mid-to-upper 50’s
Height: approx 5’6
Built: Stocky
Hair/Beard: black with streaks of gray
Skin color: olive
Eyes: blue (a little bloodshot)
This monster wears chassidishe garb and has been seen walking around Boro Park and Flatbush and often engages in seemingly harmless conversation with young men and children.
Email sent to me:
Hello,
It took me a few days to get the courage to write back to you since I am still haunted by this guy and it brings back to me very bad memories that will live with me for the rest of my life....
I would hope that this letter gets posted on the UOJ blog and gets to the appropriate channels so that we get rid of this pervert and molester once and for all...
I have kept this in me for many years and I want to get it out of my system at this time...
I am now in my lower forties now and this started around 35 years ago when I was in the fourth grade in the Bobover Yeshiva..
The guy who we are talking about was my rebbe that year and his name is Berel Goldman...
He was in his low twenties at that time, he was very strong and muscular and he used to take me and lift me up with his hands and seat me on his lap and flex his big muscles at me and ask me if i liked it and while on his lap he would touched me all over including my penis thru my pants.
One day in middle of the year after I got to sit on his lap again, he told me to come out of the classroom with him and he took me to the bathroom and he locked the door and he exposed his penis to me and told me to rub it with my hands, I get very scared and terrified but he grabbed my hand and forced me to rub him while he unzipped my pants and was fondling my penis until he masturbated, of course at that age I did not know what this was and I started to cry, he told me that I better not tell anybody or he would punish me...I was scared and did not .a week later he did it to another kid in the class..he happened to tell his mother about it, and she called my mother and told her that he did it to me also, my mother asked me about it and I told her what happened..My mother and the other lady went to the principal and told him, and the answer was that he can not do anything about it, since this rebbe is from a prominent family in the shul and he does not want to ruin their name, our parents were furious and I left the yeshiva for a different yeshiva for the rest of the year and returned only the following year..He continued being a rebbi for a few years until he was fired and the reason was because the principal's son was to enter his grade...
After he was fired, he went to the Viener Yeshiva and was fired from there too..
Since I know him from shul, I know that he did not stop and he continues to molest kids and teenagers in shuls and in yeshivas and in mikvas..
I wrote this email with my heart full of pain of what this guy did to me and to many others...
Thank You Very Much
Thursday, June 03, 2010
For The 5th Year Child Sex-Abuse Bill Dies In Legislature!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/nyregion/03abuse.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
PINNED POST - NO COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD PLEASE!
http://www.nychildvictimsact.org/
PINNED POST - NO COMMENTS ON THIS THREAD PLEASE!
http://www.nychildvictimsact.org/
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
"They are the true heroes of the human race, but for whom we should still be living in caves......"
"Psychoanalysis has demonstrated the ambiguous nature of our thinking processes. Indeed, the power of rationalization, this counterfeit of reason, is one of the most puzzling human phenomena. If we were not accustomed to it, man's rationalizing effort would clearly appear to us as similar to a paranoid system. The paranoid person can be very intelligent, make excellent use of his reason in all areas of life except in that isolated part where his paranoid system is involved. The rationalizing person does exactly the same. We talk to an intelligent Stalinist who exhibits a great capacity to make use of his reason in many areas of thought. When we come to discuss Stalinism with him, however, we are suddenly confronted with a closed system of thought, the only function of which is to prove that his allegiance to Stalinism is in line with and not contradictory to reason.
He will deny certain obvious facts, distort others, or, inasmuch as he agrees to certain facts and statements, he will explain his attitude as logical and consistent.
He will at the same time declare that the fascist cult of the leader is one of the most obnoxious features of authoritarianism and claim that the Stalinist cult of the leader is something entirely different, that it is the genuine expression of the people's love for Stalin. When you tell him that is what the Nazis claimed too, he will smile tolerantly about your want of perception or accuse you of being the lackey of capitalism. He will find a thousand and one reasons why Russian nationalism is not nationalism, why authoritarianism is democracy, why slave labor is designed to educate and improve anti-social elements. The arguments which are used to defend or explain the deeds of the Inquisition or those used to explain racial or sex prejudices are illustrations of the same rationalizing capacity.
The degree to which man uses his thinking to rationalize irrational passions and to justify the actions of his group, shows how great the distance which man has still to travel in order to become Homo Sapiens. But we must go beyond such an awareness. We must try to understand the reasons for this phenomenon lest we fall into the error of believing that man's readiness for rationalization is a part of "human nature" which nothing can change.
Man by origin is a herd animal.
His actions are determined by an instinctive impulse to follow the leader and to have close contact with the other animals around him. Inasmuch as we are sheep, there is no greater threat to our existence than to lose this contact with the herd and to be isolated. Right and wrong, true and false are determined by the herd. But we are not only sheep. We are also human; we are endowed with awareness of ourselves, endowed with reason which by its very nature is independent of the herd. Our actions can be determined by the results of our thinking regardless of whether or not the truth is shared by others.
The split between our sheep nature and our human nature is the basis for two kinds of orientations: the orientation by proximity to the herd and the orientation by reason. Rationalization is a compromise between our sheep nature and our human capacity to think. The latter forces us to make believe that everything we do can stand the test of reason, and that is why we tend to make it appear that our irrational opinions and decisions are reasonable. But inasmuch as we are sheep, reason is not our real guide; we are guided by an entirely different principle, that of herd allegiance.
The ambiguity of thinking, the dichotomy between reason and a rationalizing intellect, is the expression of a basic dichotomy of man, the coextensive need for bondage and freedom. The unfolding and full emergence of reason is dependent on the attainment of full freedom and independence.
Until this is accomplished, man will tend to accept for truth that which the majority of the group wants to be true; his judgment is determined by the need for contact with the herd and by fear of being isolated from it.
A few individuals can stand this isolation and say the truth in spite of the danger of losing touch. They are the true heroes of the human race, but for whom we should still be living in caves......"
Psychoanalysis and Religion
1950, Erich Fromm
Chapter III, An Analysis of Some Types of Religious Experience
He will deny certain obvious facts, distort others, or, inasmuch as he agrees to certain facts and statements, he will explain his attitude as logical and consistent.
He will at the same time declare that the fascist cult of the leader is one of the most obnoxious features of authoritarianism and claim that the Stalinist cult of the leader is something entirely different, that it is the genuine expression of the people's love for Stalin. When you tell him that is what the Nazis claimed too, he will smile tolerantly about your want of perception or accuse you of being the lackey of capitalism. He will find a thousand and one reasons why Russian nationalism is not nationalism, why authoritarianism is democracy, why slave labor is designed to educate and improve anti-social elements. The arguments which are used to defend or explain the deeds of the Inquisition or those used to explain racial or sex prejudices are illustrations of the same rationalizing capacity.
The degree to which man uses his thinking to rationalize irrational passions and to justify the actions of his group, shows how great the distance which man has still to travel in order to become Homo Sapiens. But we must go beyond such an awareness. We must try to understand the reasons for this phenomenon lest we fall into the error of believing that man's readiness for rationalization is a part of "human nature" which nothing can change.
Man by origin is a herd animal.
His actions are determined by an instinctive impulse to follow the leader and to have close contact with the other animals around him. Inasmuch as we are sheep, there is no greater threat to our existence than to lose this contact with the herd and to be isolated. Right and wrong, true and false are determined by the herd. But we are not only sheep. We are also human; we are endowed with awareness of ourselves, endowed with reason which by its very nature is independent of the herd. Our actions can be determined by the results of our thinking regardless of whether or not the truth is shared by others.
The split between our sheep nature and our human nature is the basis for two kinds of orientations: the orientation by proximity to the herd and the orientation by reason. Rationalization is a compromise between our sheep nature and our human capacity to think. The latter forces us to make believe that everything we do can stand the test of reason, and that is why we tend to make it appear that our irrational opinions and decisions are reasonable. But inasmuch as we are sheep, reason is not our real guide; we are guided by an entirely different principle, that of herd allegiance.
The ambiguity of thinking, the dichotomy between reason and a rationalizing intellect, is the expression of a basic dichotomy of man, the coextensive need for bondage and freedom. The unfolding and full emergence of reason is dependent on the attainment of full freedom and independence.
Until this is accomplished, man will tend to accept for truth that which the majority of the group wants to be true; his judgment is determined by the need for contact with the herd and by fear of being isolated from it.
A few individuals can stand this isolation and say the truth in spite of the danger of losing touch. They are the true heroes of the human race, but for whom we should still be living in caves......"
Psychoanalysis and Religion
1950, Erich Fromm
Chapter III, An Analysis of Some Types of Religious Experience
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