Shalom U'Bracha!

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

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

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

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

Shaken to the core
Ashkelon 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But it has no connection with my faith in God.

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

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

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

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

Fire Shlomke.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israeli Judge Gags Report on Settler Rabbi, Accused Sex Offender

February 13, 2017 By Richard Silverstein

 

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

NRG article removed under judicial gag order

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zmanim - Halachic Times

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

Friday, February 10, 2017

14 Shevat, 5777

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

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

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

21.6 mi. About 27 minutes

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

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

Palm Beach International Airport

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

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

Traveling on Erev Shabbos

 

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

 

MAKING SHABBOS GREAT AGAIN

By Eliezer Wenger

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

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

A plane or ship arriving late on Friday

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

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

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

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

By Eliezer Wenger

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

 

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

 READ RABBI MOSHE FEINSTEIN'S TESHUVA:

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

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Prev הקודם>>

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

Modern Orthodoxy’s failings transcend Jared Kushner

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

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

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

MUCH MORE:

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

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

Free Sholom Now

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

by Lisa Mechanick

Jerusalem, Israel · 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Baruch Dayan Ha'emes.

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

1 in 14 Catholic priests accused of child abuse in Australia

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

 

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

 Shmuel Kaminetzky - Covered Up For Moshe Eisemann for 50 Years

YISROEL BELSKY - NO ORTHODOX JEWISH CHILD MOLESTERS EVER!

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

By AFP and Times of Israel staff

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“As Catholics we hang our heads in shame.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Build, but shut up about it, says Trump

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

  by Jack Engelhard

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

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

For Trump the winning move is the element of surprise.

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

Earlier the settlements were okay. Why the mixed signals?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Draiman of the band Disturbed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Day, Another Yarmulke Wearing Animal Gets To Plea Bargain!

General convicted of sexual offenses demoted under plea bargain

 

Ofek Buchris, accused of rape, also given 7-month suspended sentence after confessing to unspecified sexual offenses

By Stuart Winer February 2, 2017, 11:36 am 2

 

Ofek Buchris arrives at military court on February 2, 2017

 

An IDF military court demoted a senior IDF officer who was accused of rape and admitted unspecified sexual offenses as part of a plea bargain Thursday.

Ofek Buchris, formerly a brigadier general, had his rank lowered to colonel as part of the sentence. He was also given a suspended sentence of seven months. 

Buchris, a former head of the Golani infantry brigade, had been accused of rape and sexual assault by two female officers who served under him.

He denied the accusations at first, but later took public responsibility for unspecified sexual offenses and a prohibited sexual liaison in exchange for having the far more serious crimes of rape and sexual assault dropped. The prosecution also agreed not to seek jail time as part of the plea bargain.

Judges at the hearing said they agreed by a majority vote to demote Buchris by only one rank, although a minority opinion wanted to drop him two ranks.

“Acts like these damage the army and the public faith in it,” said Military Judge Col. Orly Markman in her summation. “As a soldier rises through the ranks — so he needs to set an example.”

“The lowering in rank reflects his failure. Lowering in rank is also symbolic and a statement. Unbecoming behavior is an expression of command failure and values. It is important for the defendant to take responsibility for his actions and to openly express regret.”

Under the plea deal, Buchris was convicted of prohibited sexual relations by consent instead of three counts of rape.

The allegations against Buchris surfaced last March, shocking the army brass, where he had been seen as a model officer. Buchris resigned from the IDF in July 2016, although he may return following his sentencing.

During a sentencing hearing on January 17, deputy IDF chief of staff designate Aviv Kochavi praised Buchris’s character, saying that “in his actions and general conduct he demonstrated moral behavior,” while adding that “in all of the tasks he carried out in the past he went above and beyond in fulfilling them and is considered an outstanding commander,” the Hebrew-language daily Haaretz reported.

The former head of the IDF’s Central Command, Avi Mizrahi, also lauded Buchris’s character at the hearing, saying that “he is a very realistic person, very brave and looks out for his people and those who are in his immediate circle,” according to Haaretz.

However, representatives of his accusers, whose names have remained under gag order, said the terse letter in which he took responsibility was lacking in empathy for his victims.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/general-convicted-of-sexual-offenses-demoted-under-plea-bargain

Moshe Friedman admitted in December to violating the little boy multiple times between September 2014 and June 2015 when he was supposed to be helping him with his homework

Former Brooklyn math tutor gets just three years’ probation in sexual assault of his 6-year-old pupil

Friedman, 31, was originally charged with first-degree felony sexual conduct against a child — but pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

BY Christina Carrega

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Wednesday, February 1, 2017, 4:26 PM

 

A former Brooklyn math tutor busted for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old student received a sweetheart sentencing Wednesday of just three years’ probation.

Moshe Friedman admitted in December to violating the little boy multiple times between September 2014 and June 2015 when he was supposed to be helping him with his homework.

Friedman, 31, was originally charged with first-degree felony sexual conduct against a child — but pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

“The children in Brooklyn, especially Jewish children, are suffering very bad,” Nathan Rosenberg, an advocate against child sex abuse, told the Daily News after hearing of the deal.

Rosenberg was attacked with Clorox bleach in 2012 after revealing information about sex offenders within the Orthodox Jewish community.

“The victim’s family were adamant about not allowing their child to testify and they approved of the plea,” according to a law enforcement source.

Friedman, who was represented by lawyer Arthur Aidala, has several conditions to the plea bargain — including not having to register as a sex offender.

“Not even being registered as a sex offender is a shame!” said Rosenberg.

Included in Friedman’s plea agreement, he must serve three years probation, surrender his Department of Education teaching license, never contact the victim or be around anyone under the age of 18, not speak to other sex offenders, not watch pornography, no calls to phone sex services and must not use the computer to view sexual material.

“Thank you, your honor,” Friedman told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik on Wednesday.

If Friedman violates the terms of his agreement, he faces up to a year in jail.

“I cannot forgive these people for what they’ve done to our children. This killed my day,” said Rosenberg.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-tutor-probation-child-sex-assault-article-1.2961771

“Are you people that stupid?"

Savage – Mumps Resurgence, Terrorism, Bigotry, Death – Thank The Stupid Left

Michael Savage starts his look at the impact of Obama’s open borders on America by noting that mumps has made a comeback, with 300 cases around Spokane and Seattle. He says, “Mumps has gone through a resurgence in America as a result of the borders being broken down. The politicized CDC was forced to report that mumps cases were confirmed in 46 states and the DC last year, totaling 5,311 infections.”

Savage continues, “Eight states reported more than 100 cases in 2016, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.” He asks, “Can any one of you progs try to use your brain, engage it for two seconds and tell me if you actually believe that mumps did not resurge in America as a result of ‘immigrants’ coming in with this infection?”

“Because I’ll tell you,  you’re wrong,” Savage says, “I’ll tell you point blank that Obama should be tried for crimes against America, for what he has done to this country. Flooding us not only with terrorists, go back and look at all the events going all the way back during his 8 years, his reign of terror. Don’t tell me there were no attacks by Muslims during his eight years. There were plenty. You probably forgot them all because of the brain washing.”

After noting that DHS didn’t do their job, due in large part to the Obamaite infestation, Michael Savage asks, “How could the gay people of America, in particular, not understand the danger they are in from unfettered immigration from Muslim nations?’ He asks, “Are you people that stupid? Do you have any idea how you’re looked upon amongst traditional, fanatical, throwback Islamists? Do you know what they think of you? Why do you march with them? What’s wrong with you?”

Savage gets a grip on himself, asking, what’s the point of my screaming, I could scream from a rooftop, you’re not going to hear me. Your mind is made up.” He notes that mumps was virtually wiped out and how it can sometimes be fatal.  He doesn’t mention another major concern of the disease which is male sterility.

He notes how our once great health care system was destroyed when “this fanatical idiot took over the country.” He points out the hypocrisy of Chuck Schumer, for one, in his tears over ‘the poor Muslims,’ a man who said nothing as people were being raped on an industrial level” and when Christian girls as well as Muslims were having their heads chopped off.

Savage asks, “Where is that liar, Hillary Clinton, the representative of all women on the earth, where was she when little girls were crying because they were being raped 24 hours a day by those vermin in ISIS who should be wiped off the planet?”

ENJOY THE SAVAGE RANT:
 

THIS IS A FRAUD! DO NOT PARTICIPATE! ANY JEWISH WEBSITE ACCEPTING ADVERTISING DOLLARS FOR THIS ABOMINABLE MONEY-GRUBBING AD, SHOULD BE ASHAMED!

The hilula (yahrtzeit) of the holy

BABA SALI, RAV YISRAEL ABUCHATZEIRA zt”l, is this coming Tuesday. (CLICK HERE)

YAD L’ACHIM HAS ARRANGED FOR TALMIDEI CHACHAMIM, INCLUDING GRANDSONS OF BABA SALI TO DAVEN AT BABA SALI’S KEVER ON THE DAY OF HIS YAHRTZEIT – TEFILLOS CAN BE FOR

SHIDDUCHIM, PARNASSAH, HEALTH, CHILDREN AND ALL PERSONAL REQUESTS

The Baba Sali zt”l was very close to Yad L’Achim and encouraged us in our work every step of the way. Shortly before his passing, he penned a letter of great inspiration and encouraging Klal Yisrael to support Yad L’Achim. He included a bracha (blessing) to all who support Yad L’Achim – from the letter -

הנה בא לפני גודל המעשים של ארגון יד לאחים. . וה’ הטוב יביא ברכת טוב על כל המחזיקים ידם”

… and Hashem, who is kind will bring good blessings to all who support their hand”

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Their only request in the courtroom was having a Bible at their side.

YISHAI SHLISSEL

ELIEZER BERLAND

NECHEMIAH WEBERMAN

 THE ABOVE JEWS HAVE DONE FAR WORSE THAN THE BELOW ANIMAL GENTILES!

 

Rapists Who Brought Bible to Court “As a Reference” Will Spend the Rest of Their Lives in Prison

 

January 28, 2017 by Hemant Mehta 81 Comments

53-year-old Timothy Ciboro and his son, 28-year-old Esten Ciboro, were found guilty yesterday on all counts of “rape, kidnapping, and endangering children” over a period of three years. Their victims include a “13-year-old who said she was shackled in the basement at various times.”

Their only request in the courtroom was having a Bible at their side.

Looks like that didn’t help them one bit since the judge gave them both the maximum allowable sentences.

Timothy Ciboro, 53, will go to prison for life without parole, a sentence that contains an additional 71 years, while his son, Esten, 28, will go to prison for 68 years to life.

During sentencing, Judge Linda Jennings of Lucas County Common Pleas Court called the two ”the most depraved, demented, evil people that I have ever seen.”
…
“Everything they’re doing they’re claiming they’re doing it through God’s word,” Frank Spryszak, an assistant county prosecutor, said during closing arguments. “They stand there with their Bible. They cross-examine people using Scripture, and it’s all perverted.”
…
Timothy, who like his son acted as his own defense attorney, did not speak of the charges against him, but asked God for forgiveness, saying his “job in this trial was to glorify Him and not to put forth any dirty laundry or past sin that [the 13-year-old victim] had committed.”

Because their victim was the real sinner…

I’m shocked that a book featuring rape, murder, and genocide as part of God’s Plan didn’t get them off the hook. But at least they’ll have plenty of time to read it behind bars. Good riddance.

I Know That Feeling.....

With So Many People Looking to Shut Up Rabbi Pruzansky, He Must Be Doing Something Right
 

By: JNi.Media

 

Published: January 26th, 2017

---

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, who has served since 1994 as the spiritual leader of Teaneck NJ’s Congregation Bnai Yeshurun (which boasts close to 600 families) appears to be making waves in faraway Israel, in the city of Modi’in. Modi’in resident Josie Glausiusz on Wednesday sent a letter to the leaders of the city’s Hameginim synagogue, urging them to cancel a Monday, Feb. 13 event with Pruzansky, as reported Wednesday by Judy Maltz in Ha’aretz.

Maltz lifted from Wikipedia some of the “Controversies” section in Rabbi Pruzansky’s page, so we went to the same source and lifted all of them. Because a well-rounded education is the foundation of true liberalism:

1. In 1995, Abraham Foxman, then national director of the Anti-Defamation League, left Pruzansky’s congregation in protest of the rabbi’s calling then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin the “Rabin Judenrat.” Mind you, at the time, this “vitriol,” as Foxman called it, was mild stuff compared with other voices condemning Rabin’s selling out half of the land of Israel to Arab terrorists.

2. In 2012, Pruzansky wrote in his blog that President Obama had won by “”pandering to liberal women, Hispanics, blacks, unions, etc.” This was met with harsh criticism by mostly liberal women, because there aren’t so many Hispanics, blacks or union members in Pruzansky’s section of Teaneck.

3. In November 2014 Pruzansky compared The New York Jewish Week to Der Stürmer. The JW for their part titled their editorial attacking Pruzansky, “A Rabbi’s Low Blow.” It was over a blog post titled “Dealing with Savages,” where Pruzansky proposed using live ammunition on Arab stone-throwers and suggests that any village that is home to more than two terrorists should be razed and its inhabitants deported. Foxman and the rest of the usual suspects accused Pruzansky of racism and of being anti-Arab. Two years and a few months later, some of the good rabbi’s blog post’s recommendations have been adopted as policy by the Netanyahu government.

Incidentally, following that post that urged a radical response to Arab daily violence against Jews, Pruzansky’s synagogue announced in a letter to the congregation that Pruzansky agreed to have his future blogs reviewed by editors and that the board would periodically review the process. Pruzansky himself was forced to express to the congregation his regret for having written in a way that “many have deemed harsh.”

4. On March 31, 2016, Pruzansky published a blog post titled “A Novel Idea,” blaming the promiscuous culture for many rapes reported on US campuses, and proposing marriage as a solution to the overall problem. Pruzansky was accused of blaming the victims of rape, of not taking rape seriously, and of not acknowledging or understanding marital rape exists (On campus?).

5. Pruzansky continues to serve as the Orthodox lightening rod for the Jewish left. Following an April 13, 2016, blog post in which he reiterated his arguments and position, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) demanded that Pruzansky be removed from the speaking roster of a conference at Bnai Yeshurun synagogue in Manhattan. Pruzansky was removed as speaker. In April 2016, the Rabbinical Council of America wrote that “while Rabbi Pruzansky raises some important points regarding sexual behavior on college campuses, the RCA rejects the tone and much of the substance of his recent comments regarding rape.”

Incidentally, while by Rabbi Pruzansky’s current account his synagogue has close to 600 member families, earlier accounts suggest there used to by as many as 800, which could mean the vociferous rabbi was doing damage to the synagogue’s bottom line.

Author Josie Glausiusz (The American Scholar) is spearheading the effort to block Rabbi Pruzansky’s appearance in Modi’in next month. Glausiusz is a fervent leftwing feminist (we visited her Twitter account), often in the most predictable fashion. Her email to the Hameginim synagogue read, “Rabbi Pruzansky’s views are deeply insulting to women, to Arab citizens of Israel, to Holocaust survivors, and to the family of Yitzhak Rabin and all those who mourned his murder.”

In other words, she, too, has hit the good rabbi’s Wikipedia page…

Glausiusz continued, “He should not be offered a public platform in Modi’in to air his offensive views. I call upon you to rescind your invitation to Rabbi Pruzansky to speak at your synagogue.”

The event, incidentally, will be an interview of Rabbi Pruzansky by Hameginim’s congregational rabbi, Adi Sultanik. Glausiusz, who could have opted to come to the event and ask embarrassing questions during the Q&A, opted instead to agitate for killing the show. Glausiusz told Ha’aretz: “I’m so fed up with people like this being given a public platform. As a woman and an Israeli citizen, I feel it is important to speak out against someone with such offensive views.”

No, that’s not what she’s been doing. Speaking against Pruzansky, demonstrating, demanding equal time – those would have all been legitimate responses. Instead, passing on debate and discussion, Glausiusz is advocating a boycott.

Whether or not she succeeds doesn’t really matter.

JNi.Media
 
About the Author: JNi.Media provides editors and publishers with high quality Jewish-focused content for their publications.